Gave myself a day to kinda just sit with the whole experience of my first playthrough. Xenogears is one of those games that kinda just existed within the culture in a way where I always heard people vaguely gesture at its greatness, but never actually got any full details about what exactly made it so great. So for years and years and years and years and years I kinda just kept putting it off, playing many other games before and after it, hearing about its complexities but never really the details as of what those complexities were. Finally experiencing it for myself I completely get it.
An experience that is some parts Neon Genesis Evangelion, some parts Gundam some parts sci-fi novels and films, Xenogears wears all of its inspirations firmly on its sleeve and proudly bears it all as it goes into its own psychological, religious explorations of the self.
The ways in which it talks about running away from your problems rather than dealing with them and how that inevitably comes to bite you in the ass, there's a quite good example with the martial arts tournament you enter that genuinely surprised me when it happened.
The ways it delves into how trauma can inform and explain behaviors, can cause people to drift one way or another instead of facing the real problems within themselves, be lead to more and differing kinds of abuses, or completely shut themselves down due to their inability to truly cope with the things that've happened to them. But it also firmly discusses how important it is to continue to live, to continue to fight and go on despite the struggles we face in life, how we have to take responsibility for ourselves and the things we do despite our traumas, that again our traumas can be an explanation for behaviors and actions you may take, but at the end of the day you have to be responsible for your own actions.
There are a few characters I do wish were able to get more from the story (Rico, Maria, Chu Chu) and the very clear rushing of things does absolutely fuck with what was clearly supposed to be this ambitious and sprawling experience, though I will say in spite of the clear rush job that Disc 2 ends up as, I genuinely still quite loved the way they handle the presentation and style. Some of the quick cuts are really sharp and effective, I dig the kinda play stage type beat they do for some of the cutscenes they didn't have time to fully make enviornments for, I like the way they frame each part from differing characters POV's. There's a lot of cool things that make that second disc really interesting, kinda reflecting episodes 25 and 26 of NGE in ways.
It's such a strange feeling in ways cause like I kinda despised the gameplay at times (ground combat relies a bit too heavily on deathblows and grinding them out where-as I feel like the Gear combat is a bit better balanced in terms of building up to your deathblows and having to strategically manage your fuel levels in interesting ways). But even though I wasn't huge on the combat or some of the dungeon design (fuck Babel Tower) the whole thing just really came together for me. Everything it was doing was absolutely fuckin aces, it honestly reminded me of watching NGE for the first time as a teenager AS WELL AS watching both Shiki-Jitsu and Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 with what exactly it was going for in its messaging and just how much it resonated with me. How much Fei's character arc resonated with me, how dense and packed of an experience it was overall.
I think I can safely say that I'm getting into the series cause I wanna see what else can come from anyone involved who was able to put this together.
An experience that is some parts Neon Genesis Evangelion, some parts Gundam some parts sci-fi novels and films, Xenogears wears all of its inspirations firmly on its sleeve and proudly bears it all as it goes into its own psychological, religious explorations of the self.
The ways in which it talks about running away from your problems rather than dealing with them and how that inevitably comes to bite you in the ass, there's a quite good example with the martial arts tournament you enter that genuinely surprised me when it happened.
The ways it delves into how trauma can inform and explain behaviors, can cause people to drift one way or another instead of facing the real problems within themselves, be lead to more and differing kinds of abuses, or completely shut themselves down due to their inability to truly cope with the things that've happened to them. But it also firmly discusses how important it is to continue to live, to continue to fight and go on despite the struggles we face in life, how we have to take responsibility for ourselves and the things we do despite our traumas, that again our traumas can be an explanation for behaviors and actions you may take, but at the end of the day you have to be responsible for your own actions.
There are a few characters I do wish were able to get more from the story (Rico, Maria, Chu Chu) and the very clear rushing of things does absolutely fuck with what was clearly supposed to be this ambitious and sprawling experience, though I will say in spite of the clear rush job that Disc 2 ends up as, I genuinely still quite loved the way they handle the presentation and style. Some of the quick cuts are really sharp and effective, I dig the kinda play stage type beat they do for some of the cutscenes they didn't have time to fully make enviornments for, I like the way they frame each part from differing characters POV's. There's a lot of cool things that make that second disc really interesting, kinda reflecting episodes 25 and 26 of NGE in ways.
It's such a strange feeling in ways cause like I kinda despised the gameplay at times (ground combat relies a bit too heavily on deathblows and grinding them out where-as I feel like the Gear combat is a bit better balanced in terms of building up to your deathblows and having to strategically manage your fuel levels in interesting ways). But even though I wasn't huge on the combat or some of the dungeon design (fuck Babel Tower) the whole thing just really came together for me. Everything it was doing was absolutely fuckin aces, it honestly reminded me of watching NGE for the first time as a teenager AS WELL AS watching both Shiki-Jitsu and Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 with what exactly it was going for in its messaging and just how much it resonated with me. How much Fei's character arc resonated with me, how dense and packed of an experience it was overall.
I think I can safely say that I'm getting into the series cause I wanna see what else can come from anyone involved who was able to put this together.
All games are products of their time, even ones which "bucked trends" or "were ahead of their time" are only so in comparison with their contemporaries. RE5 is interesting historically because it definitely screams 7th gen : the color grading pejoratively described as the "piss filter" of brown environments assaulted with bloom, the co-op multiplayer focus of the days where such things were starting to become mainstream in the console market, the mowing down of hundreds of racist caricatures by a buff white guy, the fact that Albert Wesker's tailor discovered normal maps and is really excited to absolutely plaster them on his jacket etc.
Its hard to avoid noticing the main two things which jump at you when playing re5, namely that its RE4 but not as good and more racist. Asset reuse is fine, honestly, even mechanics recycled from re4 arent unwelcome but its the rehashing of re4 set pieces whilst doing them worse that lets re5 down. Similarly, the ingenious inventory management mechanic of the RE4 attache case : equal parts survival horror resource management and tetris space allocation is replaced by a dull 3×3 grid whose ultimate depth involves exchanging shit to your ai partner to reload a weapon before exchanging it right back.
The multiplayer aspect makes re5 have kind of an absurd difficulty curve based on your luck in finding partners. Some sections with the Ai partner were a bit patience testing, given their passive nature and limited commands, but then Id get randomly paired up with a god on their fifth playthrough who'd hand me 300 bullets for the machine gun and absolutely tear mfers up with endgame weapons. Very funny to me as well, how certain doors and weights and stuff require the cooperation of chris and sheva because of course its too heavy for a guy whos built like a brick shithouse, he needs help from a small framed spinning instructor to move it.
That being said, its got its bright moments and thankfully the multiplayer aspect made the use of QTEs for custcenes impossible so it does have that over RE4. In all honesty, its not an AWFUL game gameplay wise. There are a few levels which are quite striking visually, namely the temple areas and the faster arcadey nature of it all makes it not better but different to the pace of RE4. The implementation of a cover system and gun wielding zombies is as stupid and unwelcome as you'd expect, and the smoking gun for me that the island in RE4 is not only the worst part of that game but an incredibly ill omen of things to come for the franchise.
I suppose I should mention the elephant in the room : the game is set in "Africa". Not very specific where in Africa except the locals speak French so theres about 20 countries that could apply to. The spectre of the war on terror looms large as the intro depicts an american leading a counter terrorism operation and soon we see Akihiko from Persona 3 doing an arab accent get executed by frenzied locals riled up by a preacher. And sure, like in re4 the reason for it all is a parasitic infestation but the visual language of the game borrows a lot from contemporary wars that its hard to miss. There are heroic black characters like Sheva and her captain buddy but they seem there more as a pre emptive defense at criticism.
Admittedly, considering the state of AAA games at the time, RE5 is not THAT much more racist that the other shooters about doing imperialism in thr global south; that is until you get to the chapter where the enemies are all black people wearing loincloths and chucking spears at you. And im sorry but zombie or no zombie, that sequence made me surprised to find out that Rudyard Kipling's ghost didnt have a writing credit in the game.
Smarter and more personally invested people than me have already talked about this aspect so I won't go much deeper into it except to say that its an odd obsession with studios who thrive on schlock and silliness to try to delve into more serious or thorny subjects that they are not equipped to handle.
Its hard to avoid noticing the main two things which jump at you when playing re5, namely that its RE4 but not as good and more racist. Asset reuse is fine, honestly, even mechanics recycled from re4 arent unwelcome but its the rehashing of re4 set pieces whilst doing them worse that lets re5 down. Similarly, the ingenious inventory management mechanic of the RE4 attache case : equal parts survival horror resource management and tetris space allocation is replaced by a dull 3×3 grid whose ultimate depth involves exchanging shit to your ai partner to reload a weapon before exchanging it right back.
The multiplayer aspect makes re5 have kind of an absurd difficulty curve based on your luck in finding partners. Some sections with the Ai partner were a bit patience testing, given their passive nature and limited commands, but then Id get randomly paired up with a god on their fifth playthrough who'd hand me 300 bullets for the machine gun and absolutely tear mfers up with endgame weapons. Very funny to me as well, how certain doors and weights and stuff require the cooperation of chris and sheva because of course its too heavy for a guy whos built like a brick shithouse, he needs help from a small framed spinning instructor to move it.
That being said, its got its bright moments and thankfully the multiplayer aspect made the use of QTEs for custcenes impossible so it does have that over RE4. In all honesty, its not an AWFUL game gameplay wise. There are a few levels which are quite striking visually, namely the temple areas and the faster arcadey nature of it all makes it not better but different to the pace of RE4. The implementation of a cover system and gun wielding zombies is as stupid and unwelcome as you'd expect, and the smoking gun for me that the island in RE4 is not only the worst part of that game but an incredibly ill omen of things to come for the franchise.
I suppose I should mention the elephant in the room : the game is set in "Africa". Not very specific where in Africa except the locals speak French so theres about 20 countries that could apply to. The spectre of the war on terror looms large as the intro depicts an american leading a counter terrorism operation and soon we see Akihiko from Persona 3 doing an arab accent get executed by frenzied locals riled up by a preacher. And sure, like in re4 the reason for it all is a parasitic infestation but the visual language of the game borrows a lot from contemporary wars that its hard to miss. There are heroic black characters like Sheva and her captain buddy but they seem there more as a pre emptive defense at criticism.
Admittedly, considering the state of AAA games at the time, RE5 is not THAT much more racist that the other shooters about doing imperialism in thr global south; that is until you get to the chapter where the enemies are all black people wearing loincloths and chucking spears at you. And im sorry but zombie or no zombie, that sequence made me surprised to find out that Rudyard Kipling's ghost didnt have a writing credit in the game.
Smarter and more personally invested people than me have already talked about this aspect so I won't go much deeper into it except to say that its an odd obsession with studios who thrive on schlock and silliness to try to delve into more serious or thorny subjects that they are not equipped to handle.
It's actually a common misconception that this is a video game because it's instead a list of bullet points on what your new personality is going to be.
When it comes to Final Fantasy VII, I think there tends to be a general fixation on Midgar as a centralized point of identity for the game. And while I do think it's one of the best opening segments in maybe any videogame, what makes it work so well in the grand scheme of things is just how introspective the rest of the game feels when juxtaposed to its explosive sense of grandiosity.
Final Fantasy VII's globe trotting adventure isn't primarily defined by it's sense for theatrics, but by it's mellow tone and somber sensibilities. The towns you come across are oftentimes humble and restrained, carefully crafted with precision point environmental design and delicate cinematography. There's a tender sense of balance to found throughout the whole affair, as it seeks to comfort you just as often as it alienates you. That push-and-pull dynamic it shares with the player is such a key focal point as to what make the worlds of VII and VIII feel so utterly compelling to me, and I can't help but feel that the unquestioned contrast between the science and fantasy elements plays a major factor in how sheerly effective that relationship it is.
Aerith's fate is something I'll never forget, not just because of the effective dramatization found within that one moment, but because of how silent and truly felt her absence is across the rest of the game. A lot of people give this game grief for putting the snowboarding segment not even like twenty minutes later, but the fact that the game just moves on afterwards without dwelling on itself too hard is exactly what I think makes it brilliant. Final Fantasy VII allows its punctual moments to breathe and sink skin deep, and it knows that no amount of self indulgent dialogue commemorating Aerith would ever hit as hard as opening the party screen just to see a missing slot there.
Cloud might not be the person he says he is, but what he becomes through learning to open his heart to other people and show compassion makes him more of a hero than any mere SOLDIER could ever hope to be. He never has any major transformation in regards to physicality and utility, he doesn't have to. Just as he doesn't need to be told by someone that he's finally enough, he always was.
For every magnificent setpiece Final Fantasy VII has, there's a slew of soft spoken moments of beauty that truly make this game what it is, even up to its final moments. It ends the same way it began, a friendly face amidst a writhing future of uncertainty. That faint shimmer of hope shining just as bright as it always has.
Final Fantasy VII's globe trotting adventure isn't primarily defined by it's sense for theatrics, but by it's mellow tone and somber sensibilities. The towns you come across are oftentimes humble and restrained, carefully crafted with precision point environmental design and delicate cinematography. There's a tender sense of balance to found throughout the whole affair, as it seeks to comfort you just as often as it alienates you. That push-and-pull dynamic it shares with the player is such a key focal point as to what make the worlds of VII and VIII feel so utterly compelling to me, and I can't help but feel that the unquestioned contrast between the science and fantasy elements plays a major factor in how sheerly effective that relationship it is.
Aerith's fate is something I'll never forget, not just because of the effective dramatization found within that one moment, but because of how silent and truly felt her absence is across the rest of the game. A lot of people give this game grief for putting the snowboarding segment not even like twenty minutes later, but the fact that the game just moves on afterwards without dwelling on itself too hard is exactly what I think makes it brilliant. Final Fantasy VII allows its punctual moments to breathe and sink skin deep, and it knows that no amount of self indulgent dialogue commemorating Aerith would ever hit as hard as opening the party screen just to see a missing slot there.
Cloud might not be the person he says he is, but what he becomes through learning to open his heart to other people and show compassion makes him more of a hero than any mere SOLDIER could ever hope to be. He never has any major transformation in regards to physicality and utility, he doesn't have to. Just as he doesn't need to be told by someone that he's finally enough, he always was.
For every magnificent setpiece Final Fantasy VII has, there's a slew of soft spoken moments of beauty that truly make this game what it is, even up to its final moments. It ends the same way it began, a friendly face amidst a writhing future of uncertainty. That faint shimmer of hope shining just as bright as it always has.
They sure did make one of these!
Filled with mixed feelings across the board. The narrative is, broadly speaking, really enjoyable. It's endearing to encounter these characters again in such a new format. Cloud is perfectly communicated as a tryhard, Barrett is a fanatic with the glasses on and a soulful man with the glasses off, Tifa and Aerith are cute. All the key dynamics are beautiful and they feel right. The things that exist in the original game are broadly done right.
Mechanically, it's sort of… muddled. I was surprised to find I actually really enjoyed the action rpg format. I’m a KH nerd, I’m still a sucker. But KH has the advantage of multiple worlds and environments to explore. There’s opportunities to engage with the mechanics and the enemies at your own leisure. By comparison, FF7R is… very linear. Your opportunities to level up or engage with its combat without main-line progression is limited to specific locations, all out of the way of each other. Shinra combat simulators, Collesseums, small enemy zones just outside of limited sidequest chapters. And the sidequest chapters often fall into things I thought we all know got tedious in these kinds of rpgs, chasing down rats and so on. I understand and even sympathize with needing to add time to the clock, to make the purchase worth it, but... man. I just want more character beats. On the other hand, your reward for finishing quests being more character moments is really charming as well. I guess my main issue is that I find exploring Midgar as the city so interesting and fulfilling, while the emptier monster sections feel so constrained and repetitive. Hated Train Graveyard, hated the freeways. I guess it really comes down to the map design. There's so many sections where I just end up staring at the minimap rather than actually looking at the game around me. When the level design is singing, I am in love with the combat and I'm thrilled in each enemy encounter. When the level design is failing, I was constantly begging for the chapter to end.
And then you get to the (I assume well known at this point) rebuild-esque shenanigans, where complicated characters kind of just start repeating the same sort of "I defy my fate" or "the future can be bright" voice lines that just bum me out in a way. While the weird dynamic of the anti-retcon ghosts helping or hindering the party initially makes some interesting narrative complications, the ultimate result is a narrative that just kind of loses my interest compared to the normal intimacy found in the original FF7.
Approaching FF7 decades after the original was a genuinely beautiful experience. I was consistently excited to talk about it, I was never bored or annoyed, all the overhype and preexisting fandom expectations melted away into experiencing Just One Of The Greatest Games Of All Time. FF7Remake looks gorgeous, feels great, and offers so many interesting character moments and divergences. But its broader narrative of trying to reconcile with that overwhelming fan response? Just ultimately kind of goes nowhere for me.
See you in three years when Rebirth gets on PC.
Filled with mixed feelings across the board. The narrative is, broadly speaking, really enjoyable. It's endearing to encounter these characters again in such a new format. Cloud is perfectly communicated as a tryhard, Barrett is a fanatic with the glasses on and a soulful man with the glasses off, Tifa and Aerith are cute. All the key dynamics are beautiful and they feel right. The things that exist in the original game are broadly done right.
Mechanically, it's sort of… muddled. I was surprised to find I actually really enjoyed the action rpg format. I’m a KH nerd, I’m still a sucker. But KH has the advantage of multiple worlds and environments to explore. There’s opportunities to engage with the mechanics and the enemies at your own leisure. By comparison, FF7R is… very linear. Your opportunities to level up or engage with its combat without main-line progression is limited to specific locations, all out of the way of each other. Shinra combat simulators, Collesseums, small enemy zones just outside of limited sidequest chapters. And the sidequest chapters often fall into things I thought we all know got tedious in these kinds of rpgs, chasing down rats and so on. I understand and even sympathize with needing to add time to the clock, to make the purchase worth it, but... man. I just want more character beats. On the other hand, your reward for finishing quests being more character moments is really charming as well. I guess my main issue is that I find exploring Midgar as the city so interesting and fulfilling, while the emptier monster sections feel so constrained and repetitive. Hated Train Graveyard, hated the freeways. I guess it really comes down to the map design. There's so many sections where I just end up staring at the minimap rather than actually looking at the game around me. When the level design is singing, I am in love with the combat and I'm thrilled in each enemy encounter. When the level design is failing, I was constantly begging for the chapter to end.
And then you get to the (I assume well known at this point) rebuild-esque shenanigans, where complicated characters kind of just start repeating the same sort of "I defy my fate" or "the future can be bright" voice lines that just bum me out in a way. While the weird dynamic of the anti-retcon ghosts helping or hindering the party initially makes some interesting narrative complications, the ultimate result is a narrative that just kind of loses my interest compared to the normal intimacy found in the original FF7.
Approaching FF7 decades after the original was a genuinely beautiful experience. I was consistently excited to talk about it, I was never bored or annoyed, all the overhype and preexisting fandom expectations melted away into experiencing Just One Of The Greatest Games Of All Time. FF7Remake looks gorgeous, feels great, and offers so many interesting character moments and divergences. But its broader narrative of trying to reconcile with that overwhelming fan response? Just ultimately kind of goes nowhere for me.
See you in three years when Rebirth gets on PC.
the woke left won't let me fap my boner.
Honestly about still as good as I remember?
I feel like there's more to appreciate coming back to it now in a,, endearing way. It's like a collective playable synthwave album, down to how the attacks are basically a rhythm, but just jumbled around by bursts of twin stick sections and walking moments where you let the music play while a stupid pastiche narrates at you. And all of that is still really really fun to me. I'm enjoying the push and pull like normal, even if it's all rudimentary now that I've already beaten Furier and still have the muscle memory.
Which really surprised me, because I think that's the kind of opaque bullshit I would come back and go "wow this meant genuinely nothing, what the fuck did they think they were cooking?", but with all the environments and how the music sways it comes off more in the stoner sense where they THOUGHT they were being so interesting and deep but their eyes are staring blank straight through you lol. That's like the best way I can explain why it's fun to experience on a return.
It congeals together in such a way that I find myself unable to resent its very standard and now blatantly generic "phase" design. It's like yeah, I can get into it ^.=.^ I'm still banging my head to You're Mine, after all. Hilariously it makes me feel like I'm too harsh on Sekiro that This is the rhythm like action game I'm eating up today.
I feel like there's more to appreciate coming back to it now in a,, endearing way. It's like a collective playable synthwave album, down to how the attacks are basically a rhythm, but just jumbled around by bursts of twin stick sections and walking moments where you let the music play while a stupid pastiche narrates at you. And all of that is still really really fun to me. I'm enjoying the push and pull like normal, even if it's all rudimentary now that I've already beaten Furier and still have the muscle memory.
Which really surprised me, because I think that's the kind of opaque bullshit I would come back and go "wow this meant genuinely nothing, what the fuck did they think they were cooking?", but with all the environments and how the music sways it comes off more in the stoner sense where they THOUGHT they were being so interesting and deep but their eyes are staring blank straight through you lol. That's like the best way I can explain why it's fun to experience on a return.
It congeals together in such a way that I find myself unable to resent its very standard and now blatantly generic "phase" design. It's like yeah, I can get into it ^.=.^ I'm still banging my head to You're Mine, after all. Hilariously it makes me feel like I'm too harsh on Sekiro that This is the rhythm like action game I'm eating up today.
I understand the vision
This 97 year old kindergarten still serves peak The old fashioned banban way
DestroyerOfMid is foaming at the mouth rn
pure fun. it's good in a completely different way than the south park rpgs, which i do prefer, but this is just really well done action gameplay. the first 2 chapters are a bit of a slog, but the rest is fantastic. i love it!
Sou um pouco suspeito em falar sobre jogos SoulsBorne pelo fato de ser um dos meus gêneros favoritos de jogos, mas Lies of P merece muitos elogios por ter feito algo tão espetacular e bem feito. Os desenvolverdes realmente fizeram boas escolhas na criação desse jogo, ele não foge muito da fórmula souls que já é bastante conhecida, mas ele consegue ser único tanto em seu combate tanto em sua história.
Lies of P na minha opinião é o melhor jogo SoulsBorne não feito pela FromSoftware. Seu combate é bem satisfatório quando você domina o Parry, diferentemente de Sekiro onde você poddia ficar apertando várias vezes o botão de parry, aqui você tem que acerta no momento certo, pois a janela para o próximo parry não é tão curta quanto é no Sekiro, a luta no todo não é tão rápida no Sekiro, mas é bastante satisfatória também.
A trilha sonora é muita boa, acho que as músicas de lutas contra os Bosses deveriam ter tido uma atenção maior, mas em compensação as musicas do Discos e as que tocam nas casas dos moradores de Krat são um espetáculo: Feel, Quixotic e Fascination são minhas favoritas.
A estética de Lies of P também é algo muito belo, se passa na França no século 19, combina demais com todo o jogo, as áreas são muito bem feitas, o Level Designer chama bastante atenção, as escolhas feitas pelos desenvolvedores foram boas, acho muito legal quanto os jogos tem uma ligação entre áreas muito bem projetadas e que tenha um logica por trás. O único ponto negativo são os atalhos até as Stargazer que eu achei um pouco óbvias demais, muito simples demais, acho que deveriam ter mais ideais do que apenas portas que só abrem do outro lado e elevadores.
Os Bosses são fodas, gostei de praticamente todos, todos tem bastante personalidade, a estética deles é boa e os combates são satisfatórios, só acho que eles erraram a mão na questão da segunda fase, depois de certo ponto do jogo todos eles tem uma segunda fase, e não é que eu não goste, mas acho que perde muito o brilho da luta por ser tão logico que vai ter mais uma fase e que ali não é o fim do inimigo, acho que deveriam ter dado uma alternada nesses bosses, mas é isto. Outro ponto que me pegou um pouco foi as lutas conta os humanos, achei sem graça e bem parecidas, todas.
A historia de Lies of P é incrível, e acho que é um dos pontos mais altos da obra, muito bem feita, não posso falar nada sobre ela porque senão seria um puta spolier, mas achei bem feita, nada é o que parece ser...
Enfim, gostei demais de Lies of P e estou esperando muito seu DLC e a continuação
Lies of P na minha opinião é o melhor jogo SoulsBorne não feito pela FromSoftware. Seu combate é bem satisfatório quando você domina o Parry, diferentemente de Sekiro onde você poddia ficar apertando várias vezes o botão de parry, aqui você tem que acerta no momento certo, pois a janela para o próximo parry não é tão curta quanto é no Sekiro, a luta no todo não é tão rápida no Sekiro, mas é bastante satisfatória também.
A trilha sonora é muita boa, acho que as músicas de lutas contra os Bosses deveriam ter tido uma atenção maior, mas em compensação as musicas do Discos e as que tocam nas casas dos moradores de Krat são um espetáculo: Feel, Quixotic e Fascination são minhas favoritas.
A estética de Lies of P também é algo muito belo, se passa na França no século 19, combina demais com todo o jogo, as áreas são muito bem feitas, o Level Designer chama bastante atenção, as escolhas feitas pelos desenvolvedores foram boas, acho muito legal quanto os jogos tem uma ligação entre áreas muito bem projetadas e que tenha um logica por trás. O único ponto negativo são os atalhos até as Stargazer que eu achei um pouco óbvias demais, muito simples demais, acho que deveriam ter mais ideais do que apenas portas que só abrem do outro lado e elevadores.
Os Bosses são fodas, gostei de praticamente todos, todos tem bastante personalidade, a estética deles é boa e os combates são satisfatórios, só acho que eles erraram a mão na questão da segunda fase, depois de certo ponto do jogo todos eles tem uma segunda fase, e não é que eu não goste, mas acho que perde muito o brilho da luta por ser tão logico que vai ter mais uma fase e que ali não é o fim do inimigo, acho que deveriam ter dado uma alternada nesses bosses, mas é isto. Outro ponto que me pegou um pouco foi as lutas conta os humanos, achei sem graça e bem parecidas, todas.
A historia de Lies of P é incrível, e acho que é um dos pontos mais altos da obra, muito bem feita, não posso falar nada sobre ela porque senão seria um puta spolier, mas achei bem feita, nada é o que parece ser...
Enfim, gostei demais de Lies of P e estou esperando muito seu DLC e a continuação
O jogo tem um puta potencial, muito bonito, parece que foi pintando a mão, muito lindo mesmo, e é bem gostoso de jogar, mas acho melhor esperar para ele ser lançado completo, o jogo está muito bugado e rodando bem mal.
Wild Guns-like that's mostly really excellent, I was surprised how even into the later sections of the game, the enemy patterns stay consistently fair, creative and interesting. Every screen is a densely-packed and panoramic canvas full of things to pummel away at. It gets monotonous due to low damage output though - many later sections force you into jumping to dodge, and you can't fire while jumping, so there's no good way to shoot back, and even if you can, you're doing like 3-5% of their healthbar at a time. By the end of the run I did find myself taking intentional deaths because it was more fun to spam my bomb button rapidfire than to try finding those microscopic opportunities to return fire.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
I remember reading parts of this poem when I first played Kentucky Route Zero. There was a section in the game simply called “Xanadu” where this poem was referenced and it was one of the most intriguing and weird levels in the already very weird game. A couple of years later, the very same poem was referenced again in season 4 of the Fargo TV show of all places. Though only the first line of the poem was read aloud here (and though it felt somewhat out of place), I immediately recognized the words.
And I remembered.
I remembered that, a couple of years prior I had played a game that had the word “Xanadu” in its title. I remembered that it was part of a series of games that were kind of a big deal in the JRPG genre. The Xanadu game series is a relatively small collection of RPGs that were conceived as a sub-series of “Dragon Slayer”, Nihon Falcom’s groundbreaking and genre-defining franchise. Before the Trails-series, there was Dragon Slayer, going back as far as the 1980s and thus, being one of the very first JRPGs in general. Xanadu spawned as a sequel to the main series in 1985 with “Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu” and became a beast of its own shortly after. Since then, there have been a number of releases in this spin-off series, the most popular of which is probably “Faxanadu” for the NES.
Let me preface this review by saying that I played none of these games. I’m familiar with various games developed by Falcom like Trails and Ys. However, as most Dragon Slayer and Xanadu games very released quite some time before I was born, I never managed to catch up on them so far. For some reason though, I did play Xanadu Next. I cannot explain how this game caught my attention. When you go to the game’s store pages on Steam or GOG, you will find a pretty generic trailer and some screenshots that look like they were taken from a mobile game with super blocky graphics, outdated and washed-out textures and clunky controls. And you wouldn’t be too far off from the truth with that assessment. You see, Xanadu Next has a strange history. Originally released for the Nokia N-Gage in 2005, the game was ported to PC the same year with some major adjustments. Yes, you read correctly, this game originally came out on the N-Gage, Nokia’s weird phone/handheld gaming device from the early 2000s which was probably one of the most bizarre pieces of gaming hardware that ever saw the light of day. The version I played was the 2016 re-release available on modern platforms. This review is a collection of thoughts I have on the game after playing it many years ago for the first time and replaying it just recently.
So, for whatever reason, I picked up Xanadu Next for a couple of bucks when it was on sale quite some time ago and just felt like giving it a shot. It was one of these games that I approached with low to zero expectations. I knew it was a dungeon crawler with Zelda-like puzzle design and exploration, featuring an ARPG combat system. So, on one of these lazy Saturday mornings, I started playing. Right after the intro I felt that the game was special in some way. The intro itself felt strangely subtle, melancholic and simply beautiful. It was mysterious and intriguing and made me want to know more about the characters and places shown in the cinematic. But it wasn’t only the intro video that hooked me. Right from the start, the story of Xanadu Next is presented in the form of a report written by one of the characters relevant to the events that happen in the course of the game. In a way, this approach reminded me of the beginning of Final Fantasy Tactics, one of my favorite games of all time in which Arazlam Durai depicts the events of the game that were recorded in the Durai papers. And the similarities to FFT don’t stop there. The setup of the story presents a similar conflict as in Square’s masterpiece. I’m not going to spoil anything here but there is a level of political intrigue and scheming that strongly reminded me of the more politically motivated plots of the Ivalice games. I really liked how the different aspects of the story of Xanadu Next were presented. You hear about the more high-level political stuff from the locals of the town that functions as the Hub-area of the game. You walk into stores, talk to people and every now and again, they will tell you what’s going on in the capital, and how these events may impact the local people and the area of Lyndale – the princedom in which this quaint little town is situated. I also really liked how the big-scale political events are mirrored in the personal story of the protagonist and the events that are depicted in the game. Again, I’m not going to give away too much here but I definitely had the feeling that the writers knew what they were doing in the story-department.
Once you leave the town, you’re directly thrown into the action. Xanadu Next plays like a traditional Action RPG that reminded me of the older Diablo titles in some ways. You have a top-down view with an angled, rotatable camera and hack-and-slash your way through hordes of enemies in the hopes of finding gold and loot. Controlling the main character can be done in two ways – via controller or mouse. I have to say that no matter which input device you choose, controls never feel great. If you play via mouse controls, you’ll be pretty slow in most situations. Sometimes, when enemies group up on you, you’ll have a hard time getting around and avoiding them. They’ll probably surround you and there’s nothing you can do. On top of that, you’ll be clicking a lot, and I mean a lot. For every attack, you click, same goes for special attacks, spells and so on. That can get old very fast. Using a controller for movement and combat generally feels better, more fluid and easier to control. However, there’s another aspect to consider which is menu navigation. You’ll spend some time in menus and doing so with a mouse works great but poorly with a controller. What worked best for me was using the mouse for movement and combat, using left click for attack, right click for special abilities/spells and the mouse wheel for rotating the camera. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. Overall, I would say that camera and controls are flawed but work fine for the most part. There are sections of the game where the camera is fixed and sometimes that is a real pain. Enemies hiding behind pillars attacking you while you can’t do anything about it because you can’t see anything is super frustrating. Thankfully, these situations are far and few between and don’t take away from the overall experience.
So, how does Xanadu Next keep you motivated to play besides rewarding you with loot and gold? Well, for me it was all about exploration. There’s always stuff to find like new equipment, special key items or so-called guardian cards that give special bonuses and which can be leveled up as well. The game has a Metroidvania-like approach to exploration. You will constantly find places where you cannot proceed unless you have the right item. So, you better start taking notes of things to check out later because the game won’t mark these places on your map. The map, that is displayed in the left corner of the screen, shows you a very basic outline of the current level which can guide you to new places you haven’t been before. However, it has no markings and becomes completely useless in multi-level dungeons (looking at you Castle Strangerock) since it only has a flat 2D design. Exploration is still very fun and rewarding but be aware that you will probably have to backtrack every now and again. There are maps online that can help you with that and especially in the later sections of the game, I was not ashamed to use them.
In addition to exploration, one of the core motivators for me was how the game handles skills and equipment. As in many JRPGs like Final Fantasy IX, Xanadu Next binds abilities to weapons, that you find and buy throughout the game. By using those for a time and raising your proficiency level, you learn the skill innately and can use it with any other weapon henceforth. I love this system. It pushed me to experiment with different weapons and skill. I’m usually one who sticks to one strategy or set of equipment if it works. Often times, that leads to me missing out on some good gear, that would make a game easier or more fun for me. In this game however, I was constantly swapping out weapons, checking new abilities and trying out different combinations. One little anecdote here: It took me about 8 hours to realize that “passive skills” had to be dragged into the skill bar on the top of the HUD just like active skills. Naively, I thought any passive skill learned would be applied automatically at all times. But, when I learned “One-handed”, a skill that lets you one-hand any two-handed weapon, my character kept using both hands. That’s when I knew I hadn’t used any of my passive skills at all up until this point :D Another thing that kind of bugged me was that, for using special items (e.g. rings that can poison the enemy), you have to drag them into the item bar which only has 4 slots. The thing is, there are some key items that you only need in special situations like activating a portal or breaking a wall. I found it somewhat annoying to always having to swap items as you need to use them quite often. So yeah, menu navigation and item selection aren’t the smoothest or self-explanatory at all or maybe I’m just a doofus :D
Since we’re talking about things that “bugged” me, let’s briefly address the issue of bugs. There were a few and although there wasn’t any major game-breaking stuff, I did have to restart the game every now and again to get rid of them. Basically, there were 3 distinct bugs that kept happening:
1. Text keeps hanging in the air – This happened only a few times when leaving the weapons shop for instance and the dialogue text would simply not go away.
2. Character spinning like crazy :D – This was funny as hell. Some kid in the town kept rotating like it was on drugs. Also, in one of the later dramatic cutscenes, one of the main characters did the same thing which had me burst out laughing :D
3. My favorite one – Sometimes the game would start displaying collision boxes as wireframes over certain objects. I even had that happen in a boss battle which let me predict some of their attacks.
So, I hope I could illustrate why I like Xanadu Next so much. It’s definitely a janky game which has its flaws like outdated and blocky graphics, janky camera and clunky controls, bugs, tedious menu navigation and a map that could use some additional features. On top of that, the game requires you to do some grinding every now and again which can become quite tiresome. But Xanadu Next just oozes charm. I just loved exploring this world and finding pieces of lore in the form of stone tablets and memoirs. I loved how the protagonist’s sister would then translate these tablets and reward you with little lunch packages she made for you. I loved the town’s people like the dancers in front of the shop or the guy in the weapons store commenting the events of the game. I loved the fact that I always felt like I was unravelling a mystery that lay dormant for hundreds of years. Some characters quite literally slept for centuries after being cast into stone and I loved how, one by one they were awakened and offered more bits of lore and backstory. All in all, this is one of the few, if not the only game, that kind of remind me of Vagrant Story. It just has a very similar vibe when it comes to story progression, exploration, skill progression and so on. It even has similar box puzzles and they are just as annoying as they were in Vagrant Story :D I haven’t talked much about the music but, as you can expect from a Falcolm game, it is absolutely stellar. If you’re looking for a special kind of dungeon crawler full of mystery, wonder and subtle storytelling and can keep up with the jankiness of it all, Xanadu Next is for you. It’s a hidden gem if I’ve ever seen one.
A stately pleasure-dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
I remember reading parts of this poem when I first played Kentucky Route Zero. There was a section in the game simply called “Xanadu” where this poem was referenced and it was one of the most intriguing and weird levels in the already very weird game. A couple of years later, the very same poem was referenced again in season 4 of the Fargo TV show of all places. Though only the first line of the poem was read aloud here (and though it felt somewhat out of place), I immediately recognized the words.
And I remembered.
I remembered that, a couple of years prior I had played a game that had the word “Xanadu” in its title. I remembered that it was part of a series of games that were kind of a big deal in the JRPG genre. The Xanadu game series is a relatively small collection of RPGs that were conceived as a sub-series of “Dragon Slayer”, Nihon Falcom’s groundbreaking and genre-defining franchise. Before the Trails-series, there was Dragon Slayer, going back as far as the 1980s and thus, being one of the very first JRPGs in general. Xanadu spawned as a sequel to the main series in 1985 with “Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu” and became a beast of its own shortly after. Since then, there have been a number of releases in this spin-off series, the most popular of which is probably “Faxanadu” for the NES.
Let me preface this review by saying that I played none of these games. I’m familiar with various games developed by Falcom like Trails and Ys. However, as most Dragon Slayer and Xanadu games very released quite some time before I was born, I never managed to catch up on them so far. For some reason though, I did play Xanadu Next. I cannot explain how this game caught my attention. When you go to the game’s store pages on Steam or GOG, you will find a pretty generic trailer and some screenshots that look like they were taken from a mobile game with super blocky graphics, outdated and washed-out textures and clunky controls. And you wouldn’t be too far off from the truth with that assessment. You see, Xanadu Next has a strange history. Originally released for the Nokia N-Gage in 2005, the game was ported to PC the same year with some major adjustments. Yes, you read correctly, this game originally came out on the N-Gage, Nokia’s weird phone/handheld gaming device from the early 2000s which was probably one of the most bizarre pieces of gaming hardware that ever saw the light of day. The version I played was the 2016 re-release available on modern platforms. This review is a collection of thoughts I have on the game after playing it many years ago for the first time and replaying it just recently.
So, for whatever reason, I picked up Xanadu Next for a couple of bucks when it was on sale quite some time ago and just felt like giving it a shot. It was one of these games that I approached with low to zero expectations. I knew it was a dungeon crawler with Zelda-like puzzle design and exploration, featuring an ARPG combat system. So, on one of these lazy Saturday mornings, I started playing. Right after the intro I felt that the game was special in some way. The intro itself felt strangely subtle, melancholic and simply beautiful. It was mysterious and intriguing and made me want to know more about the characters and places shown in the cinematic. But it wasn’t only the intro video that hooked me. Right from the start, the story of Xanadu Next is presented in the form of a report written by one of the characters relevant to the events that happen in the course of the game. In a way, this approach reminded me of the beginning of Final Fantasy Tactics, one of my favorite games of all time in which Arazlam Durai depicts the events of the game that were recorded in the Durai papers. And the similarities to FFT don’t stop there. The setup of the story presents a similar conflict as in Square’s masterpiece. I’m not going to spoil anything here but there is a level of political intrigue and scheming that strongly reminded me of the more politically motivated plots of the Ivalice games. I really liked how the different aspects of the story of Xanadu Next were presented. You hear about the more high-level political stuff from the locals of the town that functions as the Hub-area of the game. You walk into stores, talk to people and every now and again, they will tell you what’s going on in the capital, and how these events may impact the local people and the area of Lyndale – the princedom in which this quaint little town is situated. I also really liked how the big-scale political events are mirrored in the personal story of the protagonist and the events that are depicted in the game. Again, I’m not going to give away too much here but I definitely had the feeling that the writers knew what they were doing in the story-department.
Once you leave the town, you’re directly thrown into the action. Xanadu Next plays like a traditional Action RPG that reminded me of the older Diablo titles in some ways. You have a top-down view with an angled, rotatable camera and hack-and-slash your way through hordes of enemies in the hopes of finding gold and loot. Controlling the main character can be done in two ways – via controller or mouse. I have to say that no matter which input device you choose, controls never feel great. If you play via mouse controls, you’ll be pretty slow in most situations. Sometimes, when enemies group up on you, you’ll have a hard time getting around and avoiding them. They’ll probably surround you and there’s nothing you can do. On top of that, you’ll be clicking a lot, and I mean a lot. For every attack, you click, same goes for special attacks, spells and so on. That can get old very fast. Using a controller for movement and combat generally feels better, more fluid and easier to control. However, there’s another aspect to consider which is menu navigation. You’ll spend some time in menus and doing so with a mouse works great but poorly with a controller. What worked best for me was using the mouse for movement and combat, using left click for attack, right click for special abilities/spells and the mouse wheel for rotating the camera. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. Overall, I would say that camera and controls are flawed but work fine for the most part. There are sections of the game where the camera is fixed and sometimes that is a real pain. Enemies hiding behind pillars attacking you while you can’t do anything about it because you can’t see anything is super frustrating. Thankfully, these situations are far and few between and don’t take away from the overall experience.
So, how does Xanadu Next keep you motivated to play besides rewarding you with loot and gold? Well, for me it was all about exploration. There’s always stuff to find like new equipment, special key items or so-called guardian cards that give special bonuses and which can be leveled up as well. The game has a Metroidvania-like approach to exploration. You will constantly find places where you cannot proceed unless you have the right item. So, you better start taking notes of things to check out later because the game won’t mark these places on your map. The map, that is displayed in the left corner of the screen, shows you a very basic outline of the current level which can guide you to new places you haven’t been before. However, it has no markings and becomes completely useless in multi-level dungeons (looking at you Castle Strangerock) since it only has a flat 2D design. Exploration is still very fun and rewarding but be aware that you will probably have to backtrack every now and again. There are maps online that can help you with that and especially in the later sections of the game, I was not ashamed to use them.
In addition to exploration, one of the core motivators for me was how the game handles skills and equipment. As in many JRPGs like Final Fantasy IX, Xanadu Next binds abilities to weapons, that you find and buy throughout the game. By using those for a time and raising your proficiency level, you learn the skill innately and can use it with any other weapon henceforth. I love this system. It pushed me to experiment with different weapons and skill. I’m usually one who sticks to one strategy or set of equipment if it works. Often times, that leads to me missing out on some good gear, that would make a game easier or more fun for me. In this game however, I was constantly swapping out weapons, checking new abilities and trying out different combinations. One little anecdote here: It took me about 8 hours to realize that “passive skills” had to be dragged into the skill bar on the top of the HUD just like active skills. Naively, I thought any passive skill learned would be applied automatically at all times. But, when I learned “One-handed”, a skill that lets you one-hand any two-handed weapon, my character kept using both hands. That’s when I knew I hadn’t used any of my passive skills at all up until this point :D Another thing that kind of bugged me was that, for using special items (e.g. rings that can poison the enemy), you have to drag them into the item bar which only has 4 slots. The thing is, there are some key items that you only need in special situations like activating a portal or breaking a wall. I found it somewhat annoying to always having to swap items as you need to use them quite often. So yeah, menu navigation and item selection aren’t the smoothest or self-explanatory at all or maybe I’m just a doofus :D
Since we’re talking about things that “bugged” me, let’s briefly address the issue of bugs. There were a few and although there wasn’t any major game-breaking stuff, I did have to restart the game every now and again to get rid of them. Basically, there were 3 distinct bugs that kept happening:
1. Text keeps hanging in the air – This happened only a few times when leaving the weapons shop for instance and the dialogue text would simply not go away.
2. Character spinning like crazy :D – This was funny as hell. Some kid in the town kept rotating like it was on drugs. Also, in one of the later dramatic cutscenes, one of the main characters did the same thing which had me burst out laughing :D
3. My favorite one – Sometimes the game would start displaying collision boxes as wireframes over certain objects. I even had that happen in a boss battle which let me predict some of their attacks.
So, I hope I could illustrate why I like Xanadu Next so much. It’s definitely a janky game which has its flaws like outdated and blocky graphics, janky camera and clunky controls, bugs, tedious menu navigation and a map that could use some additional features. On top of that, the game requires you to do some grinding every now and again which can become quite tiresome. But Xanadu Next just oozes charm. I just loved exploring this world and finding pieces of lore in the form of stone tablets and memoirs. I loved how the protagonist’s sister would then translate these tablets and reward you with little lunch packages she made for you. I loved the town’s people like the dancers in front of the shop or the guy in the weapons store commenting the events of the game. I loved the fact that I always felt like I was unravelling a mystery that lay dormant for hundreds of years. Some characters quite literally slept for centuries after being cast into stone and I loved how, one by one they were awakened and offered more bits of lore and backstory. All in all, this is one of the few, if not the only game, that kind of remind me of Vagrant Story. It just has a very similar vibe when it comes to story progression, exploration, skill progression and so on. It even has similar box puzzles and they are just as annoying as they were in Vagrant Story :D I haven’t talked much about the music but, as you can expect from a Falcolm game, it is absolutely stellar. If you’re looking for a special kind of dungeon crawler full of mystery, wonder and subtle storytelling and can keep up with the jankiness of it all, Xanadu Next is for you. It’s a hidden gem if I’ve ever seen one.
List of mods I used available on my pastebin post here. I should also note that “Mastered” in my case means getting all the achievements, leaving out a handful of Thieves Den Awards that become active or otherwise easier to nab in NG+.
For an RPG I heavily played well over a month, hot off the heels of revisiting Persona 3 in its original and remade form, as well as the hot button topic it’s become over the years, you'd expect I'd have a lot to say about Persona 5 Royal. Well... I don't, really. All I can think about in my sleep deprived state is how my 200+ hour venture - and that's generously ignoring inflated idle times Steam's counter acclimates - is how woefully underwhelming the package was save for a few bright spots, and how dispassionately apathetic I became after finally finishing and scouring out for the light.
It’s funny I mentioned my time investment a bit off the heels of a discord within FF7 Rebirth’s activities and planning, cause it should be mentioned (and emphasized) that it’s actually pretty easy to focus and fine-tune your palette into whatever it is you desire. No one except yourself, and perhaps foolish pride, is forcing you to do all of those activities after all, unless they’re particularly easy to nab off the beaten path. That is, of course, neglecting the key component: the focal point where all points are stitched and huddled around, an area P5R constantly falters over. Already saw a flashback sequence? Fret not, you’re gonna be subjugated to it not 10 minutes after. Got a good grasp of the ongoings of the story, be it by themes or event details? Alright, but you’re gonna have to bear the condescending attitude as you watch the character(s) exposit these things anyway. Grew a form of investment over a beat and how it unfolds before and during the main show? Slow your roll there bucko, you haven’t heard about the overly unnecessary and outright damaging undercurrent that ruins it! Sure, it sounds like hyperbole, and as you go along many of these detriments are either quelled or nulled, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re present, nor does it alleviate their weight of bloat and the meekish presentation of what are honestly some pretty simple themes. The fact it took my entire first session of play to get to the initial true Free Time event on the 18th, whereas P3 - both versions, might I add - give me that freedom within just a few short hours and P4 just about half of this, is appalling.
The writing woes extend to the Phantom Thieves themselves, which I suppose isn’t a Hot Take or anything since there’s been a bit of a debate surrounding them over the years. To dispel some common points, I don’t believe the notion that they are “centered” around Joker - on the contrary, not only is this running along the recurring theme of “kinship through displacement”, there’s already a bit of an established line between Ann and Ryuji, Futaba and Sojiro, and, though faint and dubious, Makoto and Haru. As a group, there’s a rather believable sense of friendship and camaraderie developed and finalized throughout the course of the story amidst the hustle and bustle of urban civilization, which is a bit of a surprise since I was pessimistically expecting the opposite. What did come true, unfortunately, is the individualism and expression delivered from these people. The handling of Ann and Haru are criticized enough that I don’t think I can add anything to the former’s blobby mold of an archetype and hypocritical implementation of her supposed freedom of self-expression and the latter’s seed of growth taken away due to the already mentioned bloat plaguing the game, same with Ryuji and how his (great) Social Link about reliance on others and strength through teamwork is routinely undermined by him being treated as a joke within the main cutscenes. Futaba is ostensibly headcanoned as one under the Autism umbrella, and while the intent is competently delivered and well-handled, the amount of #GAMER allusions are poor and clumsily handled, leading to a bumpy state of her psyche. Yusuke, who’s SL arc revolves around the dichotomy of man and their drive of passion within the hobbyist and professional mindset, is often treated as The Quirky Oddball One of the group with superficial understanding as to what art is since they did this like, twice before I guess and believed third time is truly the charm, which is also why they made Morgana have the same arc as Teddie and Aigis but without any of the things that made those two compelling. Of the group, Makoto is the one with the fewest of weights holding her down; her arc is straightforward, explored to its fullest in her SL with little downplay within the narrative, and her importance in the group is always front and center. Her straight-edge nature can be too plain at times, granted, as are her connecting points of her resolution and resolve, but compared to everyone else? It’s way easier to swallow. To reiterate, however, my main issue isn’t with the characters themselves, honestly I only truly despise Morgana and his obnoxious (albeit small in intensity) demeanor - it’s just kind of hard to truly feel connected with the group when the game seems to treat them more so as dolls for amusement than actual people, something even P4 never fully delved into in its outing.
I kind of wish I had more to say, really, cause it’s not as if I totally hate P5R or anything. There’s some good bits in here, like the full exploration of escapism as a theme finally being done here thanks to the “Royal” part of the game desperately giving the endgame a sense of closure, some of the non-essential confidants like Hifumi, Mishima, Chihaya and Yoshida being great to explore despite the drawbacks, and the superbosses being a fair bit of fun to go over. But, like, I’m not really sure what more I can add unfortunately. I’d sort of just be repeating common talking points and, compounded by the fact I’m facing burnout from both writing and my aforementioned time allocation, it just feels fruitless to go over? Like I don’t want to be the umpteenth mouthpiece going over how ridiculously easy this game is even excluding Merciless’ baffling(ly hilarious) modifiers pertaining to player favor and the constricted dungeon design making it so that ambushes are a rare, if ever present, occurrence one can face, cause everyone already discussed that. Did you know that, even in the original team, there were some Etrian Odyssey battle planners? Really makes me wonder how the hell it ended up so milquetoast in engagement, dungeon layout, and the us v them nature of gameplay routing when EO1’s first two stratums already had more going on. It’s also why I’m hardpressed to mention my adoration with Third Semester, cause I can’t quite word it in a way that isn’t already brought up by the people, what with Maruki, Akechi, and Kasumi being the ethos, pathos, and logos of Joker’s - and by principle, Yuki and Narukami’s - Wild Card slot and the reflection they face should his life be altered ever so slightly.
I dunno man, it’s like… expansion aside, this is the RPG that got a lot of people into the genre now? The Atlus mega-hit? I’m a lot cooler on the problems than others seem to be, and I wouldn’t cynically berate others over this cause that’s stupid and rude, but it does leave me scratching my head and wondering what else I had missed in my long, long journey as an urbanite Fool.
For an RPG I heavily played well over a month, hot off the heels of revisiting Persona 3 in its original and remade form, as well as the hot button topic it’s become over the years, you'd expect I'd have a lot to say about Persona 5 Royal. Well... I don't, really. All I can think about in my sleep deprived state is how my 200+ hour venture - and that's generously ignoring inflated idle times Steam's counter acclimates - is how woefully underwhelming the package was save for a few bright spots, and how dispassionately apathetic I became after finally finishing and scouring out for the light.
It’s funny I mentioned my time investment a bit off the heels of a discord within FF7 Rebirth’s activities and planning, cause it should be mentioned (and emphasized) that it’s actually pretty easy to focus and fine-tune your palette into whatever it is you desire. No one except yourself, and perhaps foolish pride, is forcing you to do all of those activities after all, unless they’re particularly easy to nab off the beaten path. That is, of course, neglecting the key component: the focal point where all points are stitched and huddled around, an area P5R constantly falters over. Already saw a flashback sequence? Fret not, you’re gonna be subjugated to it not 10 minutes after. Got a good grasp of the ongoings of the story, be it by themes or event details? Alright, but you’re gonna have to bear the condescending attitude as you watch the character(s) exposit these things anyway. Grew a form of investment over a beat and how it unfolds before and during the main show? Slow your roll there bucko, you haven’t heard about the overly unnecessary and outright damaging undercurrent that ruins it! Sure, it sounds like hyperbole, and as you go along many of these detriments are either quelled or nulled, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re present, nor does it alleviate their weight of bloat and the meekish presentation of what are honestly some pretty simple themes. The fact it took my entire first session of play to get to the initial true Free Time event on the 18th, whereas P3 - both versions, might I add - give me that freedom within just a few short hours and P4 just about half of this, is appalling.
The writing woes extend to the Phantom Thieves themselves, which I suppose isn’t a Hot Take or anything since there’s been a bit of a debate surrounding them over the years. To dispel some common points, I don’t believe the notion that they are “centered” around Joker - on the contrary, not only is this running along the recurring theme of “kinship through displacement”, there’s already a bit of an established line between Ann and Ryuji, Futaba and Sojiro, and, though faint and dubious, Makoto and Haru. As a group, there’s a rather believable sense of friendship and camaraderie developed and finalized throughout the course of the story amidst the hustle and bustle of urban civilization, which is a bit of a surprise since I was pessimistically expecting the opposite. What did come true, unfortunately, is the individualism and expression delivered from these people. The handling of Ann and Haru are criticized enough that I don’t think I can add anything to the former’s blobby mold of an archetype and hypocritical implementation of her supposed freedom of self-expression and the latter’s seed of growth taken away due to the already mentioned bloat plaguing the game, same with Ryuji and how his (great) Social Link about reliance on others and strength through teamwork is routinely undermined by him being treated as a joke within the main cutscenes. Futaba is ostensibly headcanoned as one under the Autism umbrella, and while the intent is competently delivered and well-handled, the amount of #GAMER allusions are poor and clumsily handled, leading to a bumpy state of her psyche. Yusuke, who’s SL arc revolves around the dichotomy of man and their drive of passion within the hobbyist and professional mindset, is often treated as The Quirky Oddball One of the group with superficial understanding as to what art is since they did this like, twice before I guess and believed third time is truly the charm, which is also why they made Morgana have the same arc as Teddie and Aigis but without any of the things that made those two compelling. Of the group, Makoto is the one with the fewest of weights holding her down; her arc is straightforward, explored to its fullest in her SL with little downplay within the narrative, and her importance in the group is always front and center. Her straight-edge nature can be too plain at times, granted, as are her connecting points of her resolution and resolve, but compared to everyone else? It’s way easier to swallow. To reiterate, however, my main issue isn’t with the characters themselves, honestly I only truly despise Morgana and his obnoxious (albeit small in intensity) demeanor - it’s just kind of hard to truly feel connected with the group when the game seems to treat them more so as dolls for amusement than actual people, something even P4 never fully delved into in its outing.
I kind of wish I had more to say, really, cause it’s not as if I totally hate P5R or anything. There’s some good bits in here, like the full exploration of escapism as a theme finally being done here thanks to the “Royal” part of the game desperately giving the endgame a sense of closure, some of the non-essential confidants like Hifumi, Mishima, Chihaya and Yoshida being great to explore despite the drawbacks, and the superbosses being a fair bit of fun to go over. But, like, I’m not really sure what more I can add unfortunately. I’d sort of just be repeating common talking points and, compounded by the fact I’m facing burnout from both writing and my aforementioned time allocation, it just feels fruitless to go over? Like I don’t want to be the umpteenth mouthpiece going over how ridiculously easy this game is even excluding Merciless’ baffling(ly hilarious) modifiers pertaining to player favor and the constricted dungeon design making it so that ambushes are a rare, if ever present, occurrence one can face, cause everyone already discussed that. Did you know that, even in the original team, there were some Etrian Odyssey battle planners? Really makes me wonder how the hell it ended up so milquetoast in engagement, dungeon layout, and the us v them nature of gameplay routing when EO1’s first two stratums already had more going on. It’s also why I’m hardpressed to mention my adoration with Third Semester, cause I can’t quite word it in a way that isn’t already brought up by the people, what with Maruki, Akechi, and Kasumi being the ethos, pathos, and logos of Joker’s - and by principle, Yuki and Narukami’s - Wild Card slot and the reflection they face should his life be altered ever so slightly.
I dunno man, it’s like… expansion aside, this is the RPG that got a lot of people into the genre now? The Atlus mega-hit? I’m a lot cooler on the problems than others seem to be, and I wouldn’t cynically berate others over this cause that’s stupid and rude, but it does leave me scratching my head and wondering what else I had missed in my long, long journey as an urbanite Fool.
oh thats my weenie.
that my weenie becoming very big.
that my weenie becoming very big.
Nossa, que jogo bom. Eu realmente me surpreendi com esse jogo, tanto com a dificuldade, quanto com o quão bom é o jogo. No começo fiquei meio inseguro por joga-lo após o ''New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe'' porém fiquei maravilhado com ele, pois mesmo sendo antigo e mesmo com outros jogos superiores a ele, ele consegue passar uma diversão incrível e uma dificuldade inesperada. Com o tempo fui me acostumando e conclui com sucesso! Recomendo.
I've never been much of an FPS guy, and I've had no interaction with Xbox consoles. I always had either a Nintendo system or a PlayStation console.
And the reason why that is simply because I never was too interested in what Xbox had to offer. Just wasn't for me.
But in the last few years, I've begun to have an interest over playing the Halo series, especifically the Halo: The Master Chief Collection, to get an idea of what the games are like.
While my PC can barely run these games, I was able to get the collection on Steam, and I was able to play through the 1st game, using the old graphics. I should note that this review is only based around the Single-Player Campaign, as at the time of writing this review, I have not experienced the Multiplayer.
Halo: Combat Evolved revolves around Master Chief and Cortana's mission to stop the Convenant (an alien species) from causing havoc and investigating what this Halo is.
While the story isn't complex, it does have some twists here and there, which I won't spoil here. One thing that I did like was the dynamic between Chief and Cortana. While they don't always interact, the moments they do were nice to watch, and I hope to see more of their conversations in future titles.
For the presentation, I did play with the older graphics, but I was surprised that, for a 2001 game, this game doesn't look half-bad. Sometimes, it even looks pretty beautiful! Of course, there are definitely low-res. textures and models that haven't aged gracefully, but I think the game looks decent overall.
For the music, of course everyone knows of the main theme of the series. So much so, many guys have sung it in a school bathroom! But I was also surprised that the rest of the soundtrack holds up pretty well.
There's a part of it that is pretty atmospheric, but there's another that can be really catchy. It strikes a nice balance between being atmospheric, tense, blood-pumping, and epic!
Like, the moments where you hear the main theme got me hyped, not gonna lie.
Now, the biggest part of the game, the gameplay! It's a first-person shooter, and one of the most influential out there, alongside its older sibling, Doom. Since I was on PC, I decided to play it with mouse and keyboard, which felt pretty comfortable. I assume using a controller would also feel nice, but I am not the greatest at using a right analogue stick to aim.
This might be because I am noob when it comes to FPS's, but I was surprised that this game does not have a run button. And sometimes, I did really want to run in the game's missions.
Oh well, if this is the case for now, then I'll get used to it.
Besides that, you can crouch, switch weapons, use a flashlight, and jump. You know, the usual stuff.
I'm glad to say that Master Chief controls great!
The game also has some vehicles for you to control, and they were fine. The Warthog was a bit slippery at first, but I got used to it.
As for the level design... it's alright, but it definitely gets repetitive the further you go.
It's not all bad, because I did like revisting some locations later on in the game, but Mission 7 was one of the worst when it comes to that. It kept on going and going, and did not change its level design much, which annoyed me.
Other times, I feel like the game's world was a bit too big, and going on foot was simply too slow. Thankfully, most of the time they give you a vehicle, but the world could've been a bit more "used", if you catch my drift.
Thankfully, I don't think this is a game where you'll get lost much. It's pretty linear and objectives are easy to figure out.
Rule of thumb would be: If it feels like you are backtracking, but you're seeing new enemies spawning, then you're going the right way.
Overall, I came away from this game pleasantly surprised! While the game's level design could've been better, I had fun playing through Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign!
And the reason why that is simply because I never was too interested in what Xbox had to offer. Just wasn't for me.
But in the last few years, I've begun to have an interest over playing the Halo series, especifically the Halo: The Master Chief Collection, to get an idea of what the games are like.
While my PC can barely run these games, I was able to get the collection on Steam, and I was able to play through the 1st game, using the old graphics. I should note that this review is only based around the Single-Player Campaign, as at the time of writing this review, I have not experienced the Multiplayer.
Halo: Combat Evolved revolves around Master Chief and Cortana's mission to stop the Convenant (an alien species) from causing havoc and investigating what this Halo is.
While the story isn't complex, it does have some twists here and there, which I won't spoil here. One thing that I did like was the dynamic between Chief and Cortana. While they don't always interact, the moments they do were nice to watch, and I hope to see more of their conversations in future titles.
For the presentation, I did play with the older graphics, but I was surprised that, for a 2001 game, this game doesn't look half-bad. Sometimes, it even looks pretty beautiful! Of course, there are definitely low-res. textures and models that haven't aged gracefully, but I think the game looks decent overall.
For the music, of course everyone knows of the main theme of the series. So much so, many guys have sung it in a school bathroom! But I was also surprised that the rest of the soundtrack holds up pretty well.
There's a part of it that is pretty atmospheric, but there's another that can be really catchy. It strikes a nice balance between being atmospheric, tense, blood-pumping, and epic!
Like, the moments where you hear the main theme got me hyped, not gonna lie.
Now, the biggest part of the game, the gameplay! It's a first-person shooter, and one of the most influential out there, alongside its older sibling, Doom. Since I was on PC, I decided to play it with mouse and keyboard, which felt pretty comfortable. I assume using a controller would also feel nice, but I am not the greatest at using a right analogue stick to aim.
This might be because I am noob when it comes to FPS's, but I was surprised that this game does not have a run button. And sometimes, I did really want to run in the game's missions.
Oh well, if this is the case for now, then I'll get used to it.
Besides that, you can crouch, switch weapons, use a flashlight, and jump. You know, the usual stuff.
I'm glad to say that Master Chief controls great!
The game also has some vehicles for you to control, and they were fine. The Warthog was a bit slippery at first, but I got used to it.
As for the level design... it's alright, but it definitely gets repetitive the further you go.
It's not all bad, because I did like revisting some locations later on in the game, but Mission 7 was one of the worst when it comes to that. It kept on going and going, and did not change its level design much, which annoyed me.
Other times, I feel like the game's world was a bit too big, and going on foot was simply too slow. Thankfully, most of the time they give you a vehicle, but the world could've been a bit more "used", if you catch my drift.
Thankfully, I don't think this is a game where you'll get lost much. It's pretty linear and objectives are easy to figure out.
Rule of thumb would be: If it feels like you are backtracking, but you're seeing new enemies spawning, then you're going the right way.
Overall, I came away from this game pleasantly surprised! While the game's level design could've been better, I had fun playing through Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign!
You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.
This review contains spoilers
Definitivamente uma experiência! Esse é um jogo que eu joguei há muito tempo e não dei continuidade porque sinceramente... É dificinho. Pode não ser pra muita gente mas eu acabei me irritando bastante com esse jogo, talvez por eu ter o mesmo reflexo de uma marmota, ou talvez por esse não ser meu gênero de jogo favorito, ou o que eu sou melhor.
Mas essa estética neo-noir pra mim é a melhor coisa do jogo! Amo como os lugares são coloridos, amo as transições de capítulo com letreiros neon, toda a estética do anos 90 é muito bem feita aqui, muito satisfatório ver jogos que não tem medo de ser coloridos. As referências sutis de filmes como Drive e Kick-Ass são muito bem feitas, fora a trilha sonora que por si só é um absurdo de tão boa, são a melhor parte do jogo pra mim.
Não é o melhor jogo do mundo, mas é extremamente divertido e mesmo que eu tenha sofrido muito pra terminar algumas fases, sempre que terminava era muito satisfatório, então acho que a dificuldade dele não deixe ele ruim nem por um momento. Ok, talvez alguns momentos.
A história não é a mais concisa do mundo, ou a mais clara, mas acho que ela consegue entregar o que prometeu dentro de um jogo onde tudo que você tem que fazer é matar russos (e policiais) de uma forma brutal, mas tem profundidade, as paranoias do Jacket, o jeito sutil que ele sofre pela morte da namorada, o desenvolver da história é muito simples, mas isso não a deixa ruim. Pra um jogo feito por apenas 2 cabeças e em 2012, onde já haviam empresas multi-milionárias lançando jogos muito abaixo do nível de Hotline Miami, acho que a história que ele traz é muito mais bem feita, por mais que curta, do que qualquer AAA sem personalidade.
No geral, eu me diverti com esse jogo! Achei que não ia conseguir zerar porque sou muito ruim, e por algum motivo esse jogo maldito decidiu me dar um trabalho enorme pra resolver ele, mas no final valeu a pena por ter experienciado esse jogo.
E obrigada @jaqueta que me ajudou a passar de 3 fases. 🩷
Mas essa estética neo-noir pra mim é a melhor coisa do jogo! Amo como os lugares são coloridos, amo as transições de capítulo com letreiros neon, toda a estética do anos 90 é muito bem feita aqui, muito satisfatório ver jogos que não tem medo de ser coloridos. As referências sutis de filmes como Drive e Kick-Ass são muito bem feitas, fora a trilha sonora que por si só é um absurdo de tão boa, são a melhor parte do jogo pra mim.
Não é o melhor jogo do mundo, mas é extremamente divertido e mesmo que eu tenha sofrido muito pra terminar algumas fases, sempre que terminava era muito satisfatório, então acho que a dificuldade dele não deixe ele ruim nem por um momento. Ok, talvez alguns momentos.
A história não é a mais concisa do mundo, ou a mais clara, mas acho que ela consegue entregar o que prometeu dentro de um jogo onde tudo que você tem que fazer é matar russos (e policiais) de uma forma brutal, mas tem profundidade, as paranoias do Jacket, o jeito sutil que ele sofre pela morte da namorada, o desenvolver da história é muito simples, mas isso não a deixa ruim. Pra um jogo feito por apenas 2 cabeças e em 2012, onde já haviam empresas multi-milionárias lançando jogos muito abaixo do nível de Hotline Miami, acho que a história que ele traz é muito mais bem feita, por mais que curta, do que qualquer AAA sem personalidade.
No geral, eu me diverti com esse jogo! Achei que não ia conseguir zerar porque sou muito ruim, e por algum motivo esse jogo maldito decidiu me dar um trabalho enorme pra resolver ele, mas no final valeu a pena por ter experienciado esse jogo.
E obrigada @jaqueta que me ajudou a passar de 3 fases. 🩷
Lowering this by an extra point immediately after finishing MGS2 because doing that has made me realize just how much this is that game if it was completely dripless
Parry Nightmare is something of a bullet hell game, where instead of solely trying to dodge your main form of attack is parrying approaching enemies. You play as a soul, trapped in a lucid nightmare along with your demonic guardian Honnou, in which you must fight and reflect on major points of trauma and stress in your life.
I have a few points of contention with this game. I will start first by saying that aesthetically and atmospherically, it succeeds hard. Despite being short, it gives off a well polished and kind of eccentric vibe... when I first started playing, I thought it had a feeling like Paper Mario or Warioware though the gameplay didnt reflect that, of course.
The game is hard. It might be one of the most difficult games I have ever played. It is not like other bullet hells, where they slowly ease you into things, with your safety net of bombs or other clearing objects for when you get stuck. You stand in a circular room, enemies coming from all sides, your main point of interaction is hitting A when an enemy gets within a certain range of you to parry. Honnou will then shoot when they are down and you can collect a light fragment from them, 100 being needed to beat the level... though, one light drop from one enemy only seems to be .1 instead of a full figure, which isnt that big of a problem, but you also cant see at first and need to collect 70 of these light drops to have a full range of the room. You can not take many hits, and when youre down to your last health you become sluggish until you gain some more (which pretty much means youre going to die), your clearing bomb isnt on hand but instead its built up when you do well, so if you get hit once or parry early you can lose it and become overwhelmed. Bosses can also only be hit with this attack and take up a large portion of the arena. Even though traditional bullet hells are long, somehow dying in this feels worse. The levels are short, can be beaten in under 5 minutes, but somehow every time I died I felt like it wasnt my fault. Enemies move very, very fast and its incredibly easy to just have a boss sit its ass right down on you when youre sluggish and can barely move. It feels like I make one tiny mistake, parry early, my level goes down (as it does when you miss a parry), then Honnou isnt strong enough to fight off everyone and I get overwhelmed and die and now its dark again and uuuuugh. If there was one safety net (like a mid level checkpoint) I feel like it would be much more manageable, but as it is now it is insanely difficult.
Story-wise, I also had a sour taste in my mouth after finishing. Parry Nightmare takes place in Japan, and a lot of the protagonist girl's problems extend out of stresses common in the region (high workload, lack of personal time, shaky relationship with family), and though these issues are semi-universal, the problem presents itself in how the ending treats these traumas. Throughout the game, the girl makes it clear that she is deeply miserable on a base level to the point where she barely recognizes she has things she enjoys. She has little time to herself, her entire life commandeered and seen through what other people expect of her, down to the makeup brand she uses. Her mother makes her deeply unhappy and scared her as a child, her apartment is messy and fraught witn objects reminding her of stress. It is clear that if she continues living the way she is living, ignoring the messages from her body and mind, that she will get deeply sick, live a completely unsatisfying life, and probably die early. That's what I thought the game was leading up to- a wakeup call, time to make a change. Instead, the ending? "Your soul can overcome anything! Just keep pushing through!" And then it cuts to a cutscene where the girl is doing her work efficiently and talking to her mom on the phone, happily. So, what is it then? Was the moral of the story that everyone has things that stress them out, that the best thing we can ever hope to do is "push through them" instead of confronting why it is exactly that we dislike our parents, yet can't seem to admit it, why it is that we force ourselves to work so hard. Is the best we can ever hope to do is "push through" all of it? Is that healthy? There is a major contradiction in the game's messaging here. Though it seems like you're fighting off these traumas at first, it appears all you're capable of doing is subduing them until the next time they wring their ugly neck out in whatever form they take next. It felt icky, watching this person go back to a job they hate and a mother that has hurt them. I cant stand that ideology of "just deal with it" that has ruined many bodies and minds all at once.
So, it was interesting. Parry Nightmare feels good, solid. It's mostly the attitude it takes on the matter of stress that sours my opinion of it in general, as well as the difficulty. If you like short, challenging games then perhaps I would reccomend checking it out, just don't go taking life lessons from it.
I have a few points of contention with this game. I will start first by saying that aesthetically and atmospherically, it succeeds hard. Despite being short, it gives off a well polished and kind of eccentric vibe... when I first started playing, I thought it had a feeling like Paper Mario or Warioware though the gameplay didnt reflect that, of course.
The game is hard. It might be one of the most difficult games I have ever played. It is not like other bullet hells, where they slowly ease you into things, with your safety net of bombs or other clearing objects for when you get stuck. You stand in a circular room, enemies coming from all sides, your main point of interaction is hitting A when an enemy gets within a certain range of you to parry. Honnou will then shoot when they are down and you can collect a light fragment from them, 100 being needed to beat the level... though, one light drop from one enemy only seems to be .1 instead of a full figure, which isnt that big of a problem, but you also cant see at first and need to collect 70 of these light drops to have a full range of the room. You can not take many hits, and when youre down to your last health you become sluggish until you gain some more (which pretty much means youre going to die), your clearing bomb isnt on hand but instead its built up when you do well, so if you get hit once or parry early you can lose it and become overwhelmed. Bosses can also only be hit with this attack and take up a large portion of the arena. Even though traditional bullet hells are long, somehow dying in this feels worse. The levels are short, can be beaten in under 5 minutes, but somehow every time I died I felt like it wasnt my fault. Enemies move very, very fast and its incredibly easy to just have a boss sit its ass right down on you when youre sluggish and can barely move. It feels like I make one tiny mistake, parry early, my level goes down (as it does when you miss a parry), then Honnou isnt strong enough to fight off everyone and I get overwhelmed and die and now its dark again and uuuuugh. If there was one safety net (like a mid level checkpoint) I feel like it would be much more manageable, but as it is now it is insanely difficult.
Story-wise, I also had a sour taste in my mouth after finishing. Parry Nightmare takes place in Japan, and a lot of the protagonist girl's problems extend out of stresses common in the region (high workload, lack of personal time, shaky relationship with family), and though these issues are semi-universal, the problem presents itself in how the ending treats these traumas. Throughout the game, the girl makes it clear that she is deeply miserable on a base level to the point where she barely recognizes she has things she enjoys. She has little time to herself, her entire life commandeered and seen through what other people expect of her, down to the makeup brand she uses. Her mother makes her deeply unhappy and scared her as a child, her apartment is messy and fraught witn objects reminding her of stress. It is clear that if she continues living the way she is living, ignoring the messages from her body and mind, that she will get deeply sick, live a completely unsatisfying life, and probably die early. That's what I thought the game was leading up to- a wakeup call, time to make a change. Instead, the ending? "Your soul can overcome anything! Just keep pushing through!" And then it cuts to a cutscene where the girl is doing her work efficiently and talking to her mom on the phone, happily. So, what is it then? Was the moral of the story that everyone has things that stress them out, that the best thing we can ever hope to do is "push through them" instead of confronting why it is exactly that we dislike our parents, yet can't seem to admit it, why it is that we force ourselves to work so hard. Is the best we can ever hope to do is "push through" all of it? Is that healthy? There is a major contradiction in the game's messaging here. Though it seems like you're fighting off these traumas at first, it appears all you're capable of doing is subduing them until the next time they wring their ugly neck out in whatever form they take next. It felt icky, watching this person go back to a job they hate and a mother that has hurt them. I cant stand that ideology of "just deal with it" that has ruined many bodies and minds all at once.
So, it was interesting. Parry Nightmare feels good, solid. It's mostly the attitude it takes on the matter of stress that sours my opinion of it in general, as well as the difficulty. If you like short, challenging games then perhaps I would reccomend checking it out, just don't go taking life lessons from it.
Fuck
Its actually insane to see how Sega turned what may be the best beat-em-up oat into a miserable slog.
My only problem with the American SOR3 is with the difficulty, enemies can drain your HP within a few seconds, and they usually circle around you so fast you can hit them.
This game is what Streets of Rage 3 should've been.
There's no bullshit, the control is amazing (something you wouldn't notice in sor3 because you spent most of your time playing getting knocked down), and, hot take, I fucking LOVE the soundtrack. It fits the visual style and tone of this game perfectly.
In my opinion, this is the definitive Streets game. The ambition paid off.
My only problem with the American SOR3 is with the difficulty, enemies can drain your HP within a few seconds, and they usually circle around you so fast you can hit them.
This game is what Streets of Rage 3 should've been.
There's no bullshit, the control is amazing (something you wouldn't notice in sor3 because you spent most of your time playing getting knocked down), and, hot take, I fucking LOVE the soundtrack. It fits the visual style and tone of this game perfectly.
In my opinion, this is the definitive Streets game. The ambition paid off.
Please don't read what this actually is, just play it. It's short (20-30m?) and one of the coolest things I've ever seen come out of romhacking. Patch over at the author's profile on smwcentral.
CW: Low effort review.
The unassuming name wouldn't lead you to believe it won the Questionable Level Design Contest '23, but from the way things are phrased it, it's as if it were an easy pick! And it's not really hard to see why!
Spoilers below here.
How is this possible? LOL, absolutely genius concept, this is the kinda stuff I play video games for. How one came up with the idea of the entire game being just the map movement (with occasional bits of hybrid normal and map platforming) is beyond me; or at least I feel like it is. The individual texts for a lot of squares were humorous and some of the level design just a bit mean.
And yet, something about reaching the end of it, with the long walk and ever so faintly sarcastic text, still felt sincere. Like "yea, here's my thing." Awesome.
CW: Low effort review.
The unassuming name wouldn't lead you to believe it won the Questionable Level Design Contest '23, but from the way things are phrased it, it's as if it were an easy pick! And it's not really hard to see why!
Spoilers below here.
How is this possible? LOL, absolutely genius concept, this is the kinda stuff I play video games for. How one came up with the idea of the entire game being just the map movement (with occasional bits of hybrid normal and map platforming) is beyond me; or at least I feel like it is. The individual texts for a lot of squares were humorous and some of the level design just a bit mean.
And yet, something about reaching the end of it, with the long walk and ever so faintly sarcastic text, still felt sincere. Like "yea, here's my thing." Awesome.
a canalização lua - farol - lanterna paralelizando câmera - memórias - cristalização ou mesmo a yakamoz nada mais ser que uma ilha transitória como são todas as pessoas do mundo e todas as fotos analógicas. jogo de símbolos e signos e vultos e notas com sustos que aparecem mais pelo desconhecido que pelo hostil e a memória te fazer lembrar do que ama também exporta sua dor em qualquer registro. lindo de morrer. a luz da lua é azul como a alma.
this game so hard, i cant focus on fighting
so this was a showcase for the wiimote and assorted control options in the way CING's DS games were for the touchscreen and other features. it was nice but i probably would've enjoyed it a bit more if i wasn't having frequent control problems trying to play in Dolphin with mouse+keyboard on top of multiple freezes near the end.
was surprised by how slow paced and generally easy going this was for the most part. the original game was similar but it was only a mere fraction of the length. it mostly works out okay but i found myself enjoying myself more with the lowkey exploration around the lake versus some of the stuff when things fully unravel near the end.
good, not great but a sizable improvement over the original Another Code/Trace Memory either way. curious to see if the remakes end up shifting my feelings on either one.
feels truly bittersweet to have finished all of CING's material of this kind. i guess i could always work backwards and try Glass Rose but reception for that seems rough to say the least.
was surprised by how slow paced and generally easy going this was for the most part. the original game was similar but it was only a mere fraction of the length. it mostly works out okay but i found myself enjoying myself more with the lowkey exploration around the lake versus some of the stuff when things fully unravel near the end.
good, not great but a sizable improvement over the original Another Code/Trace Memory either way. curious to see if the remakes end up shifting my feelings on either one.
feels truly bittersweet to have finished all of CING's material of this kind. i guess i could always work backwards and try Glass Rose but reception for that seems rough to say the least.
Mesmo depois da maior atualização do jogo, ele ainda tem sérios problemas de desempenho. Alguns momentos o jogo parece que roda a 10/FPS. Isso sem falar nos bugs onde algumas vezes eu furei o mapa, outras um inimigo forte (inquisidor) ficava teleportando atrás de mim em qualquer lugar do mapa (o certo é ele fazer isso em uma área específica do jogo).
O combate é um lixo, sério, a experiência do jogo melhora 100% quando você desativa o combate e foca só em resolver os puzzles e explorar.
Como um metroidvânia de puzzles é um bom jogo, a história é bem interessante, o mapa é bem conectado e enorme e a direção de arte é impressionante! Diria até que é um jogo 7/10, mas isso anularia toda a experiência merda que tive com o combate e o polimento do jogo.
O combate é um lixo, sério, a experiência do jogo melhora 100% quando você desativa o combate e foca só em resolver os puzzles e explorar.
Como um metroidvânia de puzzles é um bom jogo, a história é bem interessante, o mapa é bem conectado e enorme e a direção de arte é impressionante! Diria até que é um jogo 7/10, mas isso anularia toda a experiência merda que tive com o combate e o polimento do jogo.