This game gets 3 stars from me if I can just hop in, do a little exploring, find upgrades, have a bit of fun, die, then put it down. This game gets 0 stars if you ever ask me to beat it.
Decently fun time-killer with a good amount of challenge (which means that I am terrible at it).
I've always been put off by dungeon crawlers, even though RPGs are my favorite genre. Light on story? Making your own characters? How can I get invested without a fleshed-out narrative? I ain't no writer! That's the games job!
So I'm happy to report that I've fully reneged on this dumbass mindset after actually playing one for myself. Etrian Odyssey 3 felt like a perfect introduction to the genre, accommodating and easy-to-grasp but still providing a thoroughly challenging and satisfying experience.
The combat is simple enough at first, with each character picking one main class to start with, but opens up tremendously as you progress, becoming about as layered as the labyrinth itself. Between the different types of physical damage and the bind system that correlates to separate body parts and their related abilities to getting to allocate subclasses around the halfway point, giving each of your characters a second skill tree to work with, you're granted a lot of freedom in terms of how to deal with the increasingly difficult beasts the game throws your way. The toughest fights can be taxingly strategic, but the responsive menu-scrolling and animations keep the action snappy and decisive, adding to the frantic intensity of being caught in a jam but letting you breeze through encounters where you already know what you're doing. It's a great balance that keeps encounters engaging while letting you get right back to the dungeon crawling when you're just looking to explore.
Speaking of, the dungeon crawling loop is a well-oiled machine, with each trek filling out more of your map and finding shortcuts to make each repeat trip go faster, cutting down on the tedium of going through the same floors over and over again. The main game consists of five stratums with four floors, each with their own aesthetic and traversal gimmick, keeping things varied and interesting throughout, though some are more well-executed than others (Third Stratum with the lava tiles isn't very fun, Fifth Stratum with the blackout maps and teleporting gates can eat a dick. Does have my favorite song in the game though). The puzzles keep your brain sharp, and I appreciate them all regardless.
The core aspect of my enjoyment with this game was actually coming up with the characters I'd be using. Not just their abilities or specializations on the skill tree, but thinking up their backstories and characteristics that led them down those paths to begin with. I decided from the beginning that it'd be most fun to name all my characters after friends from a Discord server I'm in and try to interpret them as close as possible into the game. This immediately turned into a playthrough/creative writing exercise where I expanded on my party's exploits after each session, creating what essentially became a short novel abstracting my experience into a fanfic retelling of the game. I've never engaged with a game on this level before, every aspect feeling equally designed as both a piece of a video game and an instrument in the creative toolkit that lets you make your journey entirely your own. Kazuya Niinou, who directed the first game, made the bold mission statement that "The game itself isn't that big of a thing; what you imagine for yourself is much more fun." It's a sentiment I've always admired but never thought would apply to myself, caring much more about what a game wants to impart to me rather than being an active force in its creative process. It almost feels like a one-man TTRPG campaign. I've never been able to stick through a D&D campaign without getting bored and dropping out partway through, but Etrian Odyssey 3 helped me understand the creatively fulfilling experience that gets people so hooked on those things. They tricked me into being a writer and I fell for it. Those bastards.
The one big criticism I have is how the game handles it's multiple endings. There are three total that branch off based on choices you make throughout the story, with two of them relegated as "bad" endings that encourage you to go back and try again. New Game Plus lets you go back in with the exact same party at the exact same level, letting you essentially steamroll your way back through each floor until you reach another ending. It's good in the sense that you don't have to completely start over, but it's really boring to mindlessly clobber all the early enemies along the way. Each repeat took me a few hours to do, and while they're not necessary to access the postgame, the level curve is reliant on the experience you get from doing it to be ready for the superboss. I suppose it's more involved than regular grinding but it still left me in a daze of monotony for a good ~7ish hours until the sixth stratum breathed some life back in. It felt great to explore new floors again, but all the redos weathered me to the point of just wanting to finish the game already. Not a fun stretch of time by any means.
Overall though I'm really happy with Etrian Odyssey 3. It opened my eyes to new feelings and ideas of what I even want from a game, which isn't something that happens very often, and I'm extremely grateful for it. I'm deeply excited to play the rest of these games (with breaks in-between, this one took me 80 hours) and come up with new scenarios and characters alongside each one. It actually is pretty cool to try new things sometimes.
So I'm happy to report that I've fully reneged on this dumbass mindset after actually playing one for myself. Etrian Odyssey 3 felt like a perfect introduction to the genre, accommodating and easy-to-grasp but still providing a thoroughly challenging and satisfying experience.
The combat is simple enough at first, with each character picking one main class to start with, but opens up tremendously as you progress, becoming about as layered as the labyrinth itself. Between the different types of physical damage and the bind system that correlates to separate body parts and their related abilities to getting to allocate subclasses around the halfway point, giving each of your characters a second skill tree to work with, you're granted a lot of freedom in terms of how to deal with the increasingly difficult beasts the game throws your way. The toughest fights can be taxingly strategic, but the responsive menu-scrolling and animations keep the action snappy and decisive, adding to the frantic intensity of being caught in a jam but letting you breeze through encounters where you already know what you're doing. It's a great balance that keeps encounters engaging while letting you get right back to the dungeon crawling when you're just looking to explore.
Speaking of, the dungeon crawling loop is a well-oiled machine, with each trek filling out more of your map and finding shortcuts to make each repeat trip go faster, cutting down on the tedium of going through the same floors over and over again. The main game consists of five stratums with four floors, each with their own aesthetic and traversal gimmick, keeping things varied and interesting throughout, though some are more well-executed than others (Third Stratum with the lava tiles isn't very fun, Fifth Stratum with the blackout maps and teleporting gates can eat a dick. Does have my favorite song in the game though). The puzzles keep your brain sharp, and I appreciate them all regardless.
The core aspect of my enjoyment with this game was actually coming up with the characters I'd be using. Not just their abilities or specializations on the skill tree, but thinking up their backstories and characteristics that led them down those paths to begin with. I decided from the beginning that it'd be most fun to name all my characters after friends from a Discord server I'm in and try to interpret them as close as possible into the game. This immediately turned into a playthrough/creative writing exercise where I expanded on my party's exploits after each session, creating what essentially became a short novel abstracting my experience into a fanfic retelling of the game. I've never engaged with a game on this level before, every aspect feeling equally designed as both a piece of a video game and an instrument in the creative toolkit that lets you make your journey entirely your own. Kazuya Niinou, who directed the first game, made the bold mission statement that "The game itself isn't that big of a thing; what you imagine for yourself is much more fun." It's a sentiment I've always admired but never thought would apply to myself, caring much more about what a game wants to impart to me rather than being an active force in its creative process. It almost feels like a one-man TTRPG campaign. I've never been able to stick through a D&D campaign without getting bored and dropping out partway through, but Etrian Odyssey 3 helped me understand the creatively fulfilling experience that gets people so hooked on those things. They tricked me into being a writer and I fell for it. Those bastards.
The one big criticism I have is how the game handles it's multiple endings. There are three total that branch off based on choices you make throughout the story, with two of them relegated as "bad" endings that encourage you to go back and try again. New Game Plus lets you go back in with the exact same party at the exact same level, letting you essentially steamroll your way back through each floor until you reach another ending. It's good in the sense that you don't have to completely start over, but it's really boring to mindlessly clobber all the early enemies along the way. Each repeat took me a few hours to do, and while they're not necessary to access the postgame, the level curve is reliant on the experience you get from doing it to be ready for the superboss. I suppose it's more involved than regular grinding but it still left me in a daze of monotony for a good ~7ish hours until the sixth stratum breathed some life back in. It felt great to explore new floors again, but all the redos weathered me to the point of just wanting to finish the game already. Not a fun stretch of time by any means.
Overall though I'm really happy with Etrian Odyssey 3. It opened my eyes to new feelings and ideas of what I even want from a game, which isn't something that happens very often, and I'm extremely grateful for it. I'm deeply excited to play the rest of these games (with breaks in-between, this one took me 80 hours) and come up with new scenarios and characters alongside each one. It actually is pretty cool to try new things sometimes.
♫ Whyyyyy are there so many/gaaaaames about cavemen/living in dinosaur tiiiiiimes? ♫
Ahem. Joe & Mac is a game I've known about for years and years through one of the retro gaming sites I used to follow, but never really had the ability nor inclination to play. Well, the upshot of Nintendo Switch Online is that I now have access to stuff like this and can take the plunge whenever. Seriously, I know it's cool and sexy to get all the major first-party stuff on Virtual Console-esque services, and Ninty's habit of rereleasing titles on a drip-feed can be annoying, but this is precisely the advantage of this weird slow subscription model - you have access to odds and ends you'd never really seek out otherwise, and the limitation makes you more likely to go for the weirdies. In 10 years, when Ninty's almost assuredly discontinued support for this model, we're gonna miss this part of it for sure.
Coming into this was interesting since I'm largely familiar with the arcade release, not the Super Nintendo release. Turns out they changed a decent amount of it with the simple addition of that map screen. Naturally, the arcade flows directly from level to level, though the game has the cool feature where certain levels boast branching paths. The SNES port generally splits all of these into their own levels (which explains, for example, why there are two consecutive stages with pterosaur bosses - you'd only take one of those on an arcade run). A couple of the more gimmicky ones are missing, which I'd attribute to difficulty converting arcade features onto home console. But overall, it's a decent way to handle it, and adding a largely-superfluous system of unlocking bonus levels with a finite amount of keys adds a bit of arcadey intrigue to proceedings that could really only work on a home console title like this.
Joe & Mac is mainly defined as a platformer by its subweapons. The titular cavedudes get four options on SNES - bones, boomerangs, wheels, and fireballs - on top of their melee clubs. During my first few attempts, I made the mistake of thinking that the system worked like Castlevania and began arranging tiers in my head - Wheels and Boomerangs are best, Bones are piddly but reliable, Fireballs are strong but more tricky than their worth. But don't be bamboozled! Hitting SELECT lets you swap between all subweapons you've collected (on this Continue). No need to avoid pickups if you don't wanna, or struggle through boss fights with unoptimal attacks. Once you get this, the rest of the game's cadence comes pretty quickly.
I have to comment on the final boss. I have to. In arcade, it was some weird caveman monster dinosaur blahthingie that lived in a T. rex. It's weird. Who even knows who that guy is. But this was changed on SNES... to a devil guy. Does this make more sense? Honestly, I couldn't say. Maybe? Was the devil pissing off the T. rex by stabbing its heart with its pitchfork, or something? Nobody can be sure. But what's weird is that it's a Satan, on Nintendo hardware, during a time when Nintendo of America was still not cool with Satans showing up on western shores. At a time when ActRaiser - a game clearly about the God of Abraham going about creating civilizations and smiting other gods and Lucifer, the Satan - had to pretend that you were playing as a neutral, nondescript divinity pwning some goat-horned guy named Tanzra. And right here, you had a little dude with the red tail and horns and everything. He was added to the Nintendo version. To say nothing about the inherent weirdness of mixing a devil with caveman stuff. Like... what even is the cosmology of Joe & Mac? Are these doofy neolithic hunks God's Anointed on Earth? Weird stuff.
Joe & Mac's a'ight. I suppose I'll want to play the arcade release someday so I can compare and contrast (also, some of Data East's other offerings; I'm given to understand Bad Dudes and Adventure Island have their similarities). But as its own thing, it's a cute li'l platformer. Not a ton of staying power, but a perfectly fine time with some fun animation and a decent mechanical core
Ahem. Joe & Mac is a game I've known about for years and years through one of the retro gaming sites I used to follow, but never really had the ability nor inclination to play. Well, the upshot of Nintendo Switch Online is that I now have access to stuff like this and can take the plunge whenever. Seriously, I know it's cool and sexy to get all the major first-party stuff on Virtual Console-esque services, and Ninty's habit of rereleasing titles on a drip-feed can be annoying, but this is precisely the advantage of this weird slow subscription model - you have access to odds and ends you'd never really seek out otherwise, and the limitation makes you more likely to go for the weirdies. In 10 years, when Ninty's almost assuredly discontinued support for this model, we're gonna miss this part of it for sure.
Coming into this was interesting since I'm largely familiar with the arcade release, not the Super Nintendo release. Turns out they changed a decent amount of it with the simple addition of that map screen. Naturally, the arcade flows directly from level to level, though the game has the cool feature where certain levels boast branching paths. The SNES port generally splits all of these into their own levels (which explains, for example, why there are two consecutive stages with pterosaur bosses - you'd only take one of those on an arcade run). A couple of the more gimmicky ones are missing, which I'd attribute to difficulty converting arcade features onto home console. But overall, it's a decent way to handle it, and adding a largely-superfluous system of unlocking bonus levels with a finite amount of keys adds a bit of arcadey intrigue to proceedings that could really only work on a home console title like this.
Joe & Mac is mainly defined as a platformer by its subweapons. The titular cavedudes get four options on SNES - bones, boomerangs, wheels, and fireballs - on top of their melee clubs. During my first few attempts, I made the mistake of thinking that the system worked like Castlevania and began arranging tiers in my head - Wheels and Boomerangs are best, Bones are piddly but reliable, Fireballs are strong but more tricky than their worth. But don't be bamboozled! Hitting SELECT lets you swap between all subweapons you've collected (on this Continue). No need to avoid pickups if you don't wanna, or struggle through boss fights with unoptimal attacks. Once you get this, the rest of the game's cadence comes pretty quickly.
I have to comment on the final boss. I have to. In arcade, it was some weird caveman monster dinosaur blahthingie that lived in a T. rex. It's weird. Who even knows who that guy is. But this was changed on SNES... to a devil guy. Does this make more sense? Honestly, I couldn't say. Maybe? Was the devil pissing off the T. rex by stabbing its heart with its pitchfork, or something? Nobody can be sure. But what's weird is that it's a Satan, on Nintendo hardware, during a time when Nintendo of America was still not cool with Satans showing up on western shores. At a time when ActRaiser - a game clearly about the God of Abraham going about creating civilizations and smiting other gods and Lucifer, the Satan - had to pretend that you were playing as a neutral, nondescript divinity pwning some goat-horned guy named Tanzra. And right here, you had a little dude with the red tail and horns and everything. He was added to the Nintendo version. To say nothing about the inherent weirdness of mixing a devil with caveman stuff. Like... what even is the cosmology of Joe & Mac? Are these doofy neolithic hunks God's Anointed on Earth? Weird stuff.
Joe & Mac's a'ight. I suppose I'll want to play the arcade release someday so I can compare and contrast (also, some of Data East's other offerings; I'm given to understand Bad Dudes and Adventure Island have their similarities). But as its own thing, it's a cute li'l platformer. Not a ton of staying power, but a perfectly fine time with some fun animation and a decent mechanical core
paradise killer redefines the detective genre. its sparkling perfect innovation is this: you can get it wrong. who cares? you're the detective. you're the authority. you're the law. if you can make the facts line up, you can convict someone. five minutes into the game, you can call the trial and pin it all on the obvious fall guy with the evidence you got given when you showed up. because paradise killer is about what being a detective is really about, about the relationship between power and facts and the truth, about the blunt reality of violence and the way that truths are made, not found. at that point the stunning soundtrack and colorfilled gonzo camp nightmare worldbuilding are just icing on the murder case.
My fictional bf got drunk and mad at me because my taxi was late
The original Link's Awakening was already one of the best 2D Zelda games, but the updated controls and great art direction really put it over the edge.
Where it Shines:
Innovation - 9/10
Trendsetting - 10/10
Instant Classic - 8/10
The Good:
I mean, it's Mario. This is THE game that people think of when they think of first home console video games, aside from maybe Pac-Man and Pong for arcade and atari.
The platforming is great, the level design is great, the sprite work and music is top notch. It set the standard for video games for years to come.
The Bad:
It's an old game. There are just better games than this now. That's not this games fault mind you, but it's a very average experience to play in a modern age.
Summary:
I gave this an exact 50% rating not because it's bad, because it just is what it is. Not good, not bad, but influential as heck. If I was rating it solely on it's influence, it's an easy 5 stars, but I'm not, I'm judging it on it's gameplay, and let's be frank, there are better games on the NES than this.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
Innovation - 9/10
Trendsetting - 10/10
Instant Classic - 8/10
The Good:
I mean, it's Mario. This is THE game that people think of when they think of first home console video games, aside from maybe Pac-Man and Pong for arcade and atari.
The platforming is great, the level design is great, the sprite work and music is top notch. It set the standard for video games for years to come.
The Bad:
It's an old game. There are just better games than this now. That's not this games fault mind you, but it's a very average experience to play in a modern age.
Summary:
I gave this an exact 50% rating not because it's bad, because it just is what it is. Not good, not bad, but influential as heck. If I was rating it solely on it's influence, it's an easy 5 stars, but I'm not, I'm judging it on it's gameplay, and let's be frank, there are better games on the NES than this.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
I've only completed the original Doom last year, and with the release of Dark Ages I've been working on blind spots in the series.
DOOM II is a very interesting game. It's an iteration of Doom more than an outright sequel in mechanics, featuring only one new weapon and a handful of new enemies, but the design philosophy is so different that the game does end up feeling unique.
When it comes to basic design, Doom II just wants to have more enemies. Levels feature hundreds of baddies to shoot, and it sometimes gets overwhelming as neither your arsenal, nor the variety really can come close to making it feel as great as the game wants, especially if you come across two giant crowds of enemies twice per level.
The level design, however, is leagues better than the original game. I'm very much an outlier in that I loved some of the weird gimmicky levels of Doom 1 that no one seems to like, so I'm not sure whether people would agree with me or not here. However, I found that DOOM II's levels overall are more interesting, diverse, and creative. I think the middle third of the game is my favorite. It's janky and uneven, but seeing this old game trying to do a city level is hella charming.
Featuring pretty much everything under the sun: arenas, mazes, trap levels, "realistic enviroments" (as best as they could do): levels feel much more unique as opposed to the original where some of the levels really started to run together. Also none of the levels try to blind you with constant blinking lights.
DOOM II is fairly easy to recommend even nowadays, it's a real fun time.
DOOM II is a very interesting game. It's an iteration of Doom more than an outright sequel in mechanics, featuring only one new weapon and a handful of new enemies, but the design philosophy is so different that the game does end up feeling unique.
When it comes to basic design, Doom II just wants to have more enemies. Levels feature hundreds of baddies to shoot, and it sometimes gets overwhelming as neither your arsenal, nor the variety really can come close to making it feel as great as the game wants, especially if you come across two giant crowds of enemies twice per level.
The level design, however, is leagues better than the original game. I'm very much an outlier in that I loved some of the weird gimmicky levels of Doom 1 that no one seems to like, so I'm not sure whether people would agree with me or not here. However, I found that DOOM II's levels overall are more interesting, diverse, and creative. I think the middle third of the game is my favorite. It's janky and uneven, but seeing this old game trying to do a city level is hella charming.
Featuring pretty much everything under the sun: arenas, mazes, trap levels, "realistic enviroments" (as best as they could do): levels feel much more unique as opposed to the original where some of the levels really started to run together. Also none of the levels try to blind you with constant blinking lights.
DOOM II is fairly easy to recommend even nowadays, it's a real fun time.
Giving orcs long lasting psychological damage never gets old.
As a game, I feel mostly positive about Shadow of the Erdtree as a game. However, it ironically makes me more worried than anything for the direction Fromsoftware seems to be taking with their games. More than anything, SOTE really highlights how badly Fromsoftware is in need of actual competition. Back in the days of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, they had to prove their place in the industry and didn't have infinite money to do so. While their games had rough parts, it felt like they had to innovate and improve on their game design if they wanted to stay afloat. Over a decade later, and they have reached so much mainstream appeal that even Kai Cenat fans who exclusively play 2K and Call of Duty are getting into Elden Ring. While this success isn't unwarranted, the problem is that they really don't have any reason to change up their formula anymore, and SOTE feels like the beginning of stagnation. I'm at least giving Fromsoft the benefit of the doubt considering this is just an expansion, but its worrying that they doubled down on some annoying design choices.
Bosses in the base game were annoying in how Fromsoftware went for a spectacle over mechanics approach. It felt like Fromsoftware was trying to stretch an overtly simple combat system thin, with hyper aggressive enemies that just felt like a clusterfuck visually and didn't gel with a game where your only defensive option is to roll. Here, its become even worse, as now combos are even longer, enemies wiggle around more often, and there's an even further emphasis on attacks where you only have one niche and specific way to avoid. I'd go as far as to say that many of the fights are just complete slop, because there's only so much spectacle you can hand out before it becomes so mind numbingly boring, but the thing is that Fromsoftware can't go back anymore. If they revert to a smaller, simpler game, people will complain that its not as EPIC and HYPE as Elden Ring, so they will only keep trying to top themselves every time to the point where they make a game that is such a bloated mess that I'm not even sure Elden Ring fans will be satisfied.
Its ironic too, because I feel what saved this game was the level and world design rather than combat. While this really suffers from a lack of replayability like the base game, the game is constantly piquing your interest with absolutely gorgeous landscapes. While its shameful that they still keep some garbage copy pasted Dragons and underwhelming dungeons, it felt like there was enough in the world to make up for that. The real big issue I have though is how underwhelming the ambience is in this game. Calm music in older Souls titles are probably the best tracks in the entire game, but here it just all blends into this boring, Hans Zimmer wannabe dogshit that plays 24/7.
I had fun with the Elden Ring DLC, but its a game that I never want to play again if I'm being sincere. All of the great open world elements will be completely lost and all that will remain is a bad boss rush and hours of riding a horse while reading a wiki to find Scadutree fragments. Even so, I think its hard not to find a lot of quality in this game.
Bosses in the base game were annoying in how Fromsoftware went for a spectacle over mechanics approach. It felt like Fromsoftware was trying to stretch an overtly simple combat system thin, with hyper aggressive enemies that just felt like a clusterfuck visually and didn't gel with a game where your only defensive option is to roll. Here, its become even worse, as now combos are even longer, enemies wiggle around more often, and there's an even further emphasis on attacks where you only have one niche and specific way to avoid. I'd go as far as to say that many of the fights are just complete slop, because there's only so much spectacle you can hand out before it becomes so mind numbingly boring, but the thing is that Fromsoftware can't go back anymore. If they revert to a smaller, simpler game, people will complain that its not as EPIC and HYPE as Elden Ring, so they will only keep trying to top themselves every time to the point where they make a game that is such a bloated mess that I'm not even sure Elden Ring fans will be satisfied.
Its ironic too, because I feel what saved this game was the level and world design rather than combat. While this really suffers from a lack of replayability like the base game, the game is constantly piquing your interest with absolutely gorgeous landscapes. While its shameful that they still keep some garbage copy pasted Dragons and underwhelming dungeons, it felt like there was enough in the world to make up for that. The real big issue I have though is how underwhelming the ambience is in this game. Calm music in older Souls titles are probably the best tracks in the entire game, but here it just all blends into this boring, Hans Zimmer wannabe dogshit that plays 24/7.
I had fun with the Elden Ring DLC, but its a game that I never want to play again if I'm being sincere. All of the great open world elements will be completely lost and all that will remain is a bad boss rush and hours of riding a horse while reading a wiki to find Scadutree fragments. Even so, I think its hard not to find a lot of quality in this game.
This review contains spoilers
An unsubtle allegory for life, and a meditation on how we'll keep walking even with death all around us. It's relaxing, but sadly I'm the asshole that finds it uninspiring. Maybe it's the visual style they chose, maybe it's the jingle-tinkle noises (Imagine if rather someone like Aphex Twin made the sounds for this) or perhaps it's the blandness that comes from procedural generation... Idk, but I'd prefer to go on a walk instead.
Though it is remarkable how ahead of its time it was, with it being more successful at evoking a kind of (vague) reflection on the player compared to other contemporary counterparts. I'll revisit this in the future to see if my views change.
(I was reading @minusforever's beautiful lengthy review that he was pouring his heart in, and right next to it I see another... "cool trees, man. 5/10" haha, this website.)
Though it is remarkable how ahead of its time it was, with it being more successful at evoking a kind of (vague) reflection on the player compared to other contemporary counterparts. I'll revisit this in the future to see if my views change.
(I was reading @minusforever's beautiful lengthy review that he was pouring his heart in, and right next to it I see another... "cool trees, man. 5/10" haha, this website.)
You know those shirts that say eat, sleep, (blank), repeat. Yeah this was the (blank) in that saying for me back in elementary school
The more I play Elden Ring the more I am arriving at the conclusion that Fromsoft is swiftly approaching the point of diminishing returns on the whole "tough but fair" boss fight. In the pursuit to provide a challenge to even the most seasoned Fromsoft fanboys they keep turning up the dial on difficulty and I believe, at least for me, that it has passed the point in which I find it to be worth the effort. Sure, the fights are still technically "fair" in the sense that once you learn the attack patterns and punish windows, you can reasonably defeat any boss given enough time an patience, but the developers seem to be trying their hardest to add complexity to this structure by obscuring boss attack patterns, increasing the frequency of attacks, reducing punish windows, having an unwieldy number of unique attacks to be able to read, and overloading the screen with as much... Stuff as possible to make it difficult to read and react to what is going on.
The first real boss fight most people will likely encounter in Shadow of the Erdtree, and one that displays my point perfectly, is the Divine Beast Dancing Lion - an odd looking, massive wiener-dog shaped monstrosity with a giant lion head who leaps into the air, has a series of spinning attacks, and imbues himself with random elements all of which further complicate his already hefty move set. To me, the main problem this boss has is that his attacks are almost impossible for me to follow and predict as they pretty much all look like chaotic flailing around. I can't tell the difference between his flailing around attack that hits four times before I get a half second to return fire and the flailing around attack that hits five times before giving me a half second to... Oh wait it's the six hit one, now half my health is gone, good luck healing when the boss rarely gives you more than a second or two to breath before attacking again. Even locked on the camera has a hard time tracking the boss, when he jumps in the air you see more of your characters feet and hindquarters than you do the present danger, and then when he imbues himself with an element there's even more flashing lights, loud noises, and spell effects to further obscure what's actually happening. Long gone are the days when an enemy would just lift up a big sword and swing it at you or jump back and charge up before shooting a fireball at you. This fight portrays the aforementioned "stuff" that the developers are trying to overwhelm you with very well - be it spell effects, big cinematic leaping strikes, a constant barrage of oddly timed attacks, or an absurdly long list of unique attack patterns for one fight (15 unique attacks according to Fextralife wiki).
I didn't beat this boss with skill or precision, I beat this boss with pure brute force. I just ran in and tried to get hits as quickly and as often as possible regardless of how many of the Dancing Lion's limbs were being thrown at my face, hoping that my trades would net me victory before I ran out of healing flasks. After bashing my head into a brick wall for a while and somewhere between 5-10 deaths I eventually got lucky and killed him. But this was not a rewarding experience. I usually enjoy learning and mastering a fight, but this boss, like Maliketh from the original game, killed any desire I would have to even try learning the fight within the first attempt. Something immediately clicks in my brain "Yup, this is going to be one of THOSE fights" I think. I believe this happens when I confront a boss that moves illogically fast for it's size, attacks way too frequently and relentlessly, and has too many unique attack patterns. I'm simply not willing to spend the time it would take to master a fight like that and instead revert to blitz and hope to get lucky mode. Later on, to my chagrin, I would learn that this DLC includes a handful of fights that at least somewhat fit into this mold.
If done right, fights like this could still be a fun and engaging to me. I always point to Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne as a perfect example of a fight that I've never taken the time to master i.e. learn every single attack pattern and how to counter it, but it is designed well enough that timing, range management, and quick reflexes are enough to get you by. Elden Ring seemingly doesn't want people to get by on reflexes alone as a staggering number of boss attacks are specifically designed to bait and punish reflexive dodging. Because of this you are left with a fight that, due to it's complexity, I have no desire learn and master, but a fight that is seriously difficult to get by on reflex and instinct alone. Bosses in Elden Ring don't feel like skill checks, they feel like patience checks, and I apparently don't have the patience... Well I do, because I still beat and platinumed the game, but a number of the boss fights were not fun or rewarding to me.
I want to be clear that this is specifically a critique of the boss fight mechanics. The world of Elden Ring including the new DLC is quite literally the state of the art, the pinnacle of video game world design. I'm not sure I can think of a video game world that would even come close to it to be honest, and this is what kept me pushing through the handful of boss fights that I found to be frustrating and unrewarding. I get that not every Fromsoft game has to play the same way, and usually they do a great job of adapting their boss mechanics for the player character's toolset. But in Elden Ring I feel that they have implemented a lot of the fast paced combat of Sekiro while totally ignoring the fact that Sekiro was equipped with a generous parry that allows for spamming and less than perfect timing whereas Elden Ring (Basically Dark Souls 3 mechanics) doesn't afford you that same benefit.
The first real boss fight most people will likely encounter in Shadow of the Erdtree, and one that displays my point perfectly, is the Divine Beast Dancing Lion - an odd looking, massive wiener-dog shaped monstrosity with a giant lion head who leaps into the air, has a series of spinning attacks, and imbues himself with random elements all of which further complicate his already hefty move set. To me, the main problem this boss has is that his attacks are almost impossible for me to follow and predict as they pretty much all look like chaotic flailing around. I can't tell the difference between his flailing around attack that hits four times before I get a half second to return fire and the flailing around attack that hits five times before giving me a half second to... Oh wait it's the six hit one, now half my health is gone, good luck healing when the boss rarely gives you more than a second or two to breath before attacking again. Even locked on the camera has a hard time tracking the boss, when he jumps in the air you see more of your characters feet and hindquarters than you do the present danger, and then when he imbues himself with an element there's even more flashing lights, loud noises, and spell effects to further obscure what's actually happening. Long gone are the days when an enemy would just lift up a big sword and swing it at you or jump back and charge up before shooting a fireball at you. This fight portrays the aforementioned "stuff" that the developers are trying to overwhelm you with very well - be it spell effects, big cinematic leaping strikes, a constant barrage of oddly timed attacks, or an absurdly long list of unique attack patterns for one fight (15 unique attacks according to Fextralife wiki).
I didn't beat this boss with skill or precision, I beat this boss with pure brute force. I just ran in and tried to get hits as quickly and as often as possible regardless of how many of the Dancing Lion's limbs were being thrown at my face, hoping that my trades would net me victory before I ran out of healing flasks. After bashing my head into a brick wall for a while and somewhere between 5-10 deaths I eventually got lucky and killed him. But this was not a rewarding experience. I usually enjoy learning and mastering a fight, but this boss, like Maliketh from the original game, killed any desire I would have to even try learning the fight within the first attempt. Something immediately clicks in my brain "Yup, this is going to be one of THOSE fights" I think. I believe this happens when I confront a boss that moves illogically fast for it's size, attacks way too frequently and relentlessly, and has too many unique attack patterns. I'm simply not willing to spend the time it would take to master a fight like that and instead revert to blitz and hope to get lucky mode. Later on, to my chagrin, I would learn that this DLC includes a handful of fights that at least somewhat fit into this mold.
If done right, fights like this could still be a fun and engaging to me. I always point to Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne as a perfect example of a fight that I've never taken the time to master i.e. learn every single attack pattern and how to counter it, but it is designed well enough that timing, range management, and quick reflexes are enough to get you by. Elden Ring seemingly doesn't want people to get by on reflexes alone as a staggering number of boss attacks are specifically designed to bait and punish reflexive dodging. Because of this you are left with a fight that, due to it's complexity, I have no desire learn and master, but a fight that is seriously difficult to get by on reflex and instinct alone. Bosses in Elden Ring don't feel like skill checks, they feel like patience checks, and I apparently don't have the patience... Well I do, because I still beat and platinumed the game, but a number of the boss fights were not fun or rewarding to me.
I want to be clear that this is specifically a critique of the boss fight mechanics. The world of Elden Ring including the new DLC is quite literally the state of the art, the pinnacle of video game world design. I'm not sure I can think of a video game world that would even come close to it to be honest, and this is what kept me pushing through the handful of boss fights that I found to be frustrating and unrewarding. I get that not every Fromsoft game has to play the same way, and usually they do a great job of adapting their boss mechanics for the player character's toolset. But in Elden Ring I feel that they have implemented a lot of the fast paced combat of Sekiro while totally ignoring the fact that Sekiro was equipped with a generous parry that allows for spamming and less than perfect timing whereas Elden Ring (Basically Dark Souls 3 mechanics) doesn't afford you that same benefit.
(I'm going to beat the final boss tomorrow after many attempts tonight, so I'm calling this completed preemptively.)
It was nice! A really enjoyable pick-up-and-play Kirby game. The art of the game itself is pretty cool, with the backgrounds being kind of abstract expressionist representations of the landscapes they are supposed to represent. The drawing mechanic is pretty neat, and the level design clever. It's cool to see this mechanic get picked up again with Rainbow Curse for the Wii U. The system has it's drawbacks of course, for example it can feel a little fidgety when you are navigating around spikes and enemies, so you feel like you are playing "hot potato" with the lines you draw. However, as a whole this game has a very fun sense of speed.
Now... now.... that final boss. Who at Nintendo decided to make Drawcia the most unnecessarily hard, piece of **** ball of chaos. I guess that's just me getting filtered but hey, overrall very fun. (WAIT, I GUESS I'M STUPID AND THAT YOU CAN DO DAMAGE TO DRAWCIA SIMPLY BY TAPPING ON HER).
Squeak Squad will always be my favorite Kirby game for the DS, Canvas Curse definitely feels like the early, less exorbitant processor to all the later DS Kirby's. Still, a very fun experiment, I wonder if it did the "draw the line to lead the character" thing before games like Ivy the Kiwi?
Favorite songs:
Silver Submarine
Space Spectacle
Level Menu theme
It was nice! A really enjoyable pick-up-and-play Kirby game. The art of the game itself is pretty cool, with the backgrounds being kind of abstract expressionist representations of the landscapes they are supposed to represent. The drawing mechanic is pretty neat, and the level design clever. It's cool to see this mechanic get picked up again with Rainbow Curse for the Wii U. The system has it's drawbacks of course, for example it can feel a little fidgety when you are navigating around spikes and enemies, so you feel like you are playing "hot potato" with the lines you draw. However, as a whole this game has a very fun sense of speed.
Now... now.... that final boss. Who at Nintendo decided to make Drawcia the most unnecessarily hard, piece of **** ball of chaos. I guess that's just me getting filtered but hey, overrall very fun. (WAIT, I GUESS I'M STUPID AND THAT YOU CAN DO DAMAGE TO DRAWCIA SIMPLY BY TAPPING ON HER).
Squeak Squad will always be my favorite Kirby game for the DS, Canvas Curse definitely feels like the early, less exorbitant processor to all the later DS Kirby's. Still, a very fun experiment, I wonder if it did the "draw the line to lead the character" thing before games like Ivy the Kiwi?
Favorite songs:
Silver Submarine
Space Spectacle
Level Menu theme
A pleasantly surprising and calm puzzle game. The goal is to get a boat (or multiple boats) from one lighthouse to another over the open seas. You can't steer them directly, but you can push them along by drawing directional lines - currents! - from one edge of the board to the other. Obstacles come in the form of rocks, whirlpools, pirate ships, and those other boats.
There's a surprisingly effective use of a typical three-star system for drawing a number of currents over, at, or below par. The simple encouragement to find the fewest lines that worked led me to some creative thinking about momentum. Nothing too complex, but just enough for there to be more than meets the eye at first.
There's a surprisingly effective use of a typical three-star system for drawing a number of currents over, at, or below par. The simple encouragement to find the fewest lines that worked led me to some creative thinking about momentum. Nothing too complex, but just enough for there to be more than meets the eye at first.
The fairest game I've ever played.
Don't get me wrong, I'm just a champion but i find it incredibly enjoyable to keep learning and improving my skills. In this game, if you lose, it's likely due to your own mistakes or those of your team, not because of glitches or unfair advantages often found in many multiplayer games.
Don't get me wrong, I'm just a champion but i find it incredibly enjoyable to keep learning and improving my skills. In this game, if you lose, it's likely due to your own mistakes or those of your team, not because of glitches or unfair advantages often found in many multiplayer games.
This review contains spoilers
What I will give to this game that I couldn’t give to Dual Destinies is that it’s compelling. I didn’t have much fun playing this game, and I never thought it was good, but I felt like I should keep playing it. There was absolutely nothing engaging and barely anything memorable about Dual Destinies, so at least it improved there — and in the actually good 3D models and animations! — even if nowhere else.
I’ll go through my replay thoughts case by case.
CASE 1: Whoever thought Ace Attorney needed its stakes raised this high really missed the point of the series. The specter hanging over this entry, the Defense Culpability Act, is absurdly intense for AA and not even in the series-celebrated fun way. It’s really, really hard to have a fun banter with the prosecution, judge and other court employees when they’re out to kill you and constantly remind you of it. From my experience with this game, it was even impossible. In the first four games, high stakes cases worked for good drama, but were surrounded by cases where they were relatively low. So this person you’ve never met before will get a guilty verdict if you lose; so what, honestly? It enabled cases to be silly and fun. Under the DC Act, there is No Fun Allowed, and that really sucks for an Ace Attorney game.
Other people have spoken about Khura’in in more detail, but I definitely agree with them that it has racist and orientalist vibes that are really hard to ignore and accept as a “fun fantasy country”. It borrows too heavily from existing aesthetics to be its own thing, and has weird implications by not being its own thing. Not a fun case.
CASE 2: Stakes are still really high because the defendant is Trucy, and although we aren’t subject to the DC Act if we lose, the prosecutor is still really cruel about it. Trucy and the Gramaryes both have been subject to both minor and major rewrites and sanitization from AA4 that are really unfortunate to watch, as a big AA4 fan. Not a fun case.
CASE 3: While compelling, this case is so long and we retread tired old AA setups by making Maya the defendant, again. The DC Act also applies, making the stakes even higher than the first case. It’s nice to see the first case ever that features the channeling of a victim as a witness, but at the same time is also kind of a retread of Misty Fey’s mistake in DL6 with the way that victim intentionally tries to sabotage the case. It does add a little depth as to how the DC Act affects the average non-lawyer citizen, but that still does not make it a fun case.
CASE 4: I’ll be real with you, I couldn’t care less about DD, so I couldn’t care less about Athena, but I recognize why people who did like her dislike this case. She’s a fully fledged lawyer but Blackquill constantly has to come to her rescue, and this is the only time in the game she gets any spotlight. It’s also weirdly placed in the case lineup, making it feel like poorly paced filler. They’re valid complaints.
This is the only case in this game that is mildly fun in traditional Ace Attorney style, though. We don’t know this defendant. We aren’t subject to the death penalty if we lose. The two prosecutors in the courtroom actually have good banter. There is a somewhat strange depiction of a character with DID, but that character is not the murderer. It’s allowed to be stupid and silly without slamming its head against the high stakes in literally every other case. For once in the game: a slightly fun case!
CASE 5: Also compelling, also so long, also retreading old AA setups by having Maya kidnapped (case 2-4) and used as a channeling plot device (case 3-5), opening with a surprise civil case and switching to the usual murder case (3-2), Phoenix only defending a garbage client under duress (case 2-4), and having the ultimate plot twist of the case be “they’re basically Misty and Morgan Fey, on a grander scale!!” Almost all of the plot twists are just using something from previous games, so nothing ever felt cool and new to figure out.
With the defendants being Apollo’s foster father and foster brother, the DC Act applicable, and the main prosecutor being the despot queen, the stakes are more suffocating than ever. Yikes.
And Ace Attorney likes its cleavage; that’s nothing new. It’s either forgivable or it isn’t depending on the player. It’s ignorable for me, but Ga’ran’s switch from completely covered to a very tight and revealing outfit that shows off her chest, which is literally used as evidence against her later to prove a photo is not her after we zoom in on her breasts, is sooooo stupid, oh my god.
Phoenix sucks as a support character on the bench; the circumstances don’t allow him to be silly at all, and he lost all the weird charisma he had as support in case 4-1. Nahyuta finally gets character development here, but it’s too late. He’s such a miserable figure to challenge throughout the game unless he’s trading ridiculous insults with Blackquill. He deserved better, like the gradual changes in Rayfa that have made her understandably well liked. This case and resolution to this game sucks.
As for the potential Ace Attorney 7, I’m in the same boat as others that think there’s nowhere good to go from here. Either there needs to be another cast switch under better writers, or the people that enjoyed DD and Spirit of Justice can have fun. More of this is a No Thanks from me.
I’ll go through my replay thoughts case by case.
CASE 1: Whoever thought Ace Attorney needed its stakes raised this high really missed the point of the series. The specter hanging over this entry, the Defense Culpability Act, is absurdly intense for AA and not even in the series-celebrated fun way. It’s really, really hard to have a fun banter with the prosecution, judge and other court employees when they’re out to kill you and constantly remind you of it. From my experience with this game, it was even impossible. In the first four games, high stakes cases worked for good drama, but were surrounded by cases where they were relatively low. So this person you’ve never met before will get a guilty verdict if you lose; so what, honestly? It enabled cases to be silly and fun. Under the DC Act, there is No Fun Allowed, and that really sucks for an Ace Attorney game.
Other people have spoken about Khura’in in more detail, but I definitely agree with them that it has racist and orientalist vibes that are really hard to ignore and accept as a “fun fantasy country”. It borrows too heavily from existing aesthetics to be its own thing, and has weird implications by not being its own thing. Not a fun case.
CASE 2: Stakes are still really high because the defendant is Trucy, and although we aren’t subject to the DC Act if we lose, the prosecutor is still really cruel about it. Trucy and the Gramaryes both have been subject to both minor and major rewrites and sanitization from AA4 that are really unfortunate to watch, as a big AA4 fan. Not a fun case.
CASE 3: While compelling, this case is so long and we retread tired old AA setups by making Maya the defendant, again. The DC Act also applies, making the stakes even higher than the first case. It’s nice to see the first case ever that features the channeling of a victim as a witness, but at the same time is also kind of a retread of Misty Fey’s mistake in DL6 with the way that victim intentionally tries to sabotage the case. It does add a little depth as to how the DC Act affects the average non-lawyer citizen, but that still does not make it a fun case.
CASE 4: I’ll be real with you, I couldn’t care less about DD, so I couldn’t care less about Athena, but I recognize why people who did like her dislike this case. She’s a fully fledged lawyer but Blackquill constantly has to come to her rescue, and this is the only time in the game she gets any spotlight. It’s also weirdly placed in the case lineup, making it feel like poorly paced filler. They’re valid complaints.
This is the only case in this game that is mildly fun in traditional Ace Attorney style, though. We don’t know this defendant. We aren’t subject to the death penalty if we lose. The two prosecutors in the courtroom actually have good banter. There is a somewhat strange depiction of a character with DID, but that character is not the murderer. It’s allowed to be stupid and silly without slamming its head against the high stakes in literally every other case. For once in the game: a slightly fun case!
CASE 5: Also compelling, also so long, also retreading old AA setups by having Maya kidnapped (case 2-4) and used as a channeling plot device (case 3-5), opening with a surprise civil case and switching to the usual murder case (3-2), Phoenix only defending a garbage client under duress (case 2-4), and having the ultimate plot twist of the case be “they’re basically Misty and Morgan Fey, on a grander scale!!” Almost all of the plot twists are just using something from previous games, so nothing ever felt cool and new to figure out.
With the defendants being Apollo’s foster father and foster brother, the DC Act applicable, and the main prosecutor being the despot queen, the stakes are more suffocating than ever. Yikes.
And Ace Attorney likes its cleavage; that’s nothing new. It’s either forgivable or it isn’t depending on the player. It’s ignorable for me, but Ga’ran’s switch from completely covered to a very tight and revealing outfit that shows off her chest, which is literally used as evidence against her later to prove a photo is not her after we zoom in on her breasts, is sooooo stupid, oh my god.
Phoenix sucks as a support character on the bench; the circumstances don’t allow him to be silly at all, and he lost all the weird charisma he had as support in case 4-1. Nahyuta finally gets character development here, but it’s too late. He’s such a miserable figure to challenge throughout the game unless he’s trading ridiculous insults with Blackquill. He deserved better, like the gradual changes in Rayfa that have made her understandably well liked. This case and resolution to this game sucks.
As for the potential Ace Attorney 7, I’m in the same boat as others that think there’s nowhere good to go from here. Either there needs to be another cast switch under better writers, or the people that enjoyed DD and Spirit of Justice can have fun. More of this is a No Thanks from me.
KEY NOTES
-Visual Novel with sidescrolling exploration
-Very limited Japanese voiceovers
-Chapter Selection available
-Multiple endings
Developed by Experience Inc. (EXP), Death Mark 2 (DM2) is the third game in the Spirit Hunter trilogy which consists of Death Mark (DM1) and NG. It's also a direct sequel to DM1. Unlike the previous two games, DM2 was a crowdfunded title in Japan, but quickly met its funded goal in just about a month. Aksys Games returned to localize the game for the west.
STORY
Taking place only a few months after the events in DM1, the main character Yashiki received a request from the headmaster of Konoehara Academy to investigate a supernatural phenomenon occurring at the school. A student had disappeared and just days prior to it, a mysterious note was posted on the bulletin board warning about a "Hanako" going to kill the student. The note was signed by The Departed. Now, a second note that was posted warning about another killing.
Acting as a temporary teacher at the school, Yashiki investigates the various supernatural events within the school and gets involved with a number of hostile spirits. The story is told through in a semi-episodic structure where each chapter covers a different Spirit and the people related to it. The story is tied together by the mysterious Departed spirit who continues to send warning notes about the other Spirits. This story structure is very similar to the first two games.
Also like the other games, the Spirits are mostly based on popular Japanese folklore such as the Hanako spirit that haunts the school bathrooms. While not as intriguing as the ones in the previous games, the quality of the Spirit stories are still interesting. I just wished there were more of them. The number of stories feel lacking compared to DM1 although comparable to NG. This is particularly noticeable when a few chapters in DM2 feels more like Intermissions than full chapters.
Overall, story has good pacing and never feels like it gets dragged out. The mystery aspect is done well that left me constantly guessing until the end. There are a lot of grimdark moments as par for the series. Although not quite as interesting as DM1's main story, I did enjoy it more than NG's main story.
CHARACTERS
Nearly all of the characters in DM1 makes a return in DM2. Some have recurring appearances, but many of them have minor roles and serve as optional companions for specific chapters. Yashiki and the other DM1 characters don't have any real additional character development here, but it's nice seeing the familiar faces.
The chapter specific characters are generally written well enough for their purpose, but some of them have pretty good developed backstories. There aren't many recurring new characters, but their depth and development are a mixed bag at times. Some have decent development while others feel incomplete.
Regardless of the degree of development, they mostly leave some sort of impression and fulfills that role in the story.
GRAPHICS AND ART DIRECTION
The graphics and art direction for the most part is the same as the other two games. An urban gritty style of anime that is also seen in EXP's Undernauts DRPG game. There are a lot of CGs despite being a very low budget title. They are drawn well with good detail and does a good job reflecting the dark tone of the game.
The killing and death CGs in particular can be quite gruesome while also mixed with some eroticism. This isn't anything new for the series, but it does appear out of place at times. Fortunately, it wasn't something that bothered me all too much.
The graphics for the exploration sidescrolling segments are quite different and new however. EXP opted to make these look more like standard anime when it comes to the design and textures of the environments and characters. The contrast between the two styles are quite strange even though the style used for these segments are fine by itself. Generic maybe, but otherwise fine. Character animation and movements lack variety though and appear very stiff when immobile making them look like statues in these moments.
ATMOSPHERE AND SETTING
One aspect that DM1 did really well was creating a really eerie, creepy and tension filled atmosphere. To a certain extent, DM2's tone and atmosphere still feels dark and eerie for a good chunk of the game, but doesn't really measure up to the first two games. There's a feeling of safeness that is felt pretty much throughout the game in large part due to the game actually taking place often during the daytime with other people present. The infirmary also serves as the constant safe haven that you can just teleport back to most of the time during the night segments. The new anime artstyle for the sidescrolling exploration parts don't feel as scary either.
There is a jump scare mechanic that gives the option to turn off. Even when on, they aren't really scary with the way its utilized. When moving to a new screen, there is a small chance that a spirit or ghastly words would fill the screen.
The game takes mostly on school grounds so there is also a lacking in variety of locations. The few locations outside of school are short and brief which is disappointing. The school isn't too small, but it does get old relatively quickly especially when you have to backtrack through areas multiple times.
Overall, the horror elements has disappointedly declined and feels lacking for the series, but still decent.
MUSIC
Naoaki Jimbo returns to composed DM2's OST. It doesn't have many songs overall and lot of them sound like they were just brought back from the previous games. The eerie music during the presence of the Spirits are still good and impactful. There are a few vocal songs added to the game which is something that wasn't too common in the series other than the one song in NG.
Outside of story events where there is notable activity, the game utilize a lot of silence for the BGM. Even conversations with other characters are mostly silent as well. Like the previous games, DM2 uses distinct sound effects to draw attention to certain words or objects that appear.
GAMEPLAY
The first two games in the series have mostly similar gameplay, but DM2 add some major changes. What remains the same are the heavy VN cutscenes during conversations and taking one selectable companion with when exploring. Instead of the first person view and using static backgrounds, DM2's exploration parts now consists of sidescrolling exploration. You have free control to move left and right across the screen. Rooms and pathways can be entered by pressing up or down on the D-PAD at specific locations.
Other than moving across the screen, you can interact with objects that are shown as a flashing ball of light. These lights only appear when approaching them. Most interactions just have simple dialogue, but a few of them allows further inspection and interaction including using items on them. For example, using a key to open a lock. You can also talk with people that you come in contact with as well.
Some moments will change the view into a first person one that's similar to the first two games. During these moments, you hover a flashlight to find flashing lights to interact.
The sidescrolling segments aren't offensive, but I don't think it necessary made the gameplay better for the series. It does noticeably make exploring areas less scary than before. That said, since the game takes place mostly within school grounds, there are lot of backtracking and going through the same areas multiple times. With such a setup, the sidescrolling movement probably is the better choice here because it can be hassle otherwise using the old movement system.
The frequent Live of Die moments in the first two games have mostly been replaced for the Suspensive Act moments. The game moves to a first person view and you have are given options to avoid death. You can either have Yashiki act himself, his partner or team up together to perform an action. Unlike before, each action has a listed percentage of whether the action will succeed. Each action also uses a fixed amount of spirit health from the characters. Failing the action doesn't automatically lead to a game over and allows you to reattempt the action or pick something else. Reattempt actions have increased success chance, but the game doesn't refund back the spirit health lost in the initial attempt.
When either character's health drops to 0, it's an instant Game Over. This can be annoying since the scenarios are heavily RNG based now. For the actual Spirit battles, the Suspensive Acts can have multiple phases so RNG is more troublesome here. It doesn't help that you take damage just by going through areas and experiencing story events. Success rates are determined by a combination of Yashiki and his partner's specific stats.
There's no way to increase the stats other than the maximum spirit health. These are increased after find a number of optional Lost Souls in the exploration segments which also serve as EXP for leveling up.
To alleviate the RNG issues, you can fully heal when returning to the infirmary and exchange Lost Souls for items that increase success chances or reduce the cost for each action during these moments.
Overall, I'm not a fan of this new system that leans towards a RPG system. I don't think it made the game better and it's just a hassle dealing with the RNG elements.
FINAL REMARKS
The Spirit Hunter series doesn't sell very well, but it does a good job appealing to horror fans and those that enjoy supernatural folklore stories. It's a worthy new entry in the series even though it's not as scary as the first two games. The story is entertaining and it's nice seeing the return of the characters from the first game.
The new sidescrolling gameplay isn't all that amazing, but it's serviceable. The new RNG system for the Suspensive Acts and Spirit boss fights are just annoying to deal with. Even selecting the correct options only can still lead to multiple Game Overs in a row.
Like the first two games, DM2 is on the short side and can be completed in about 12 hours.
While no prior knowledge of the series is needed to understand the main story in DM2, I do recommend playing at least DM1 first in large part due to the returning of Yashiki as MC and supporting characters. Spoilers are mostly kept at a minimum, but it does spoil Yashiki's background information in his profile page here which is a major plot point in the first game. The extra chapter scenario does spoil a major plot point as well. As for prior knowledge of NG, that's is not necessary, but those that have played that game will appreciate the appearance of a character here.
-Visual Novel with sidescrolling exploration
-Very limited Japanese voiceovers
-Chapter Selection available
-Multiple endings
Developed by Experience Inc. (EXP), Death Mark 2 (DM2) is the third game in the Spirit Hunter trilogy which consists of Death Mark (DM1) and NG. It's also a direct sequel to DM1. Unlike the previous two games, DM2 was a crowdfunded title in Japan, but quickly met its funded goal in just about a month. Aksys Games returned to localize the game for the west.
STORY
Taking place only a few months after the events in DM1, the main character Yashiki received a request from the headmaster of Konoehara Academy to investigate a supernatural phenomenon occurring at the school. A student had disappeared and just days prior to it, a mysterious note was posted on the bulletin board warning about a "Hanako" going to kill the student. The note was signed by The Departed. Now, a second note that was posted warning about another killing.
Acting as a temporary teacher at the school, Yashiki investigates the various supernatural events within the school and gets involved with a number of hostile spirits. The story is told through in a semi-episodic structure where each chapter covers a different Spirit and the people related to it. The story is tied together by the mysterious Departed spirit who continues to send warning notes about the other Spirits. This story structure is very similar to the first two games.
Also like the other games, the Spirits are mostly based on popular Japanese folklore such as the Hanako spirit that haunts the school bathrooms. While not as intriguing as the ones in the previous games, the quality of the Spirit stories are still interesting. I just wished there were more of them. The number of stories feel lacking compared to DM1 although comparable to NG. This is particularly noticeable when a few chapters in DM2 feels more like Intermissions than full chapters.
Overall, story has good pacing and never feels like it gets dragged out. The mystery aspect is done well that left me constantly guessing until the end. There are a lot of grimdark moments as par for the series. Although not quite as interesting as DM1's main story, I did enjoy it more than NG's main story.
CHARACTERS
Nearly all of the characters in DM1 makes a return in DM2. Some have recurring appearances, but many of them have minor roles and serve as optional companions for specific chapters. Yashiki and the other DM1 characters don't have any real additional character development here, but it's nice seeing the familiar faces.
The chapter specific characters are generally written well enough for their purpose, but some of them have pretty good developed backstories. There aren't many recurring new characters, but their depth and development are a mixed bag at times. Some have decent development while others feel incomplete.
Regardless of the degree of development, they mostly leave some sort of impression and fulfills that role in the story.
GRAPHICS AND ART DIRECTION
The graphics and art direction for the most part is the same as the other two games. An urban gritty style of anime that is also seen in EXP's Undernauts DRPG game. There are a lot of CGs despite being a very low budget title. They are drawn well with good detail and does a good job reflecting the dark tone of the game.
The killing and death CGs in particular can be quite gruesome while also mixed with some eroticism. This isn't anything new for the series, but it does appear out of place at times. Fortunately, it wasn't something that bothered me all too much.
The graphics for the exploration sidescrolling segments are quite different and new however. EXP opted to make these look more like standard anime when it comes to the design and textures of the environments and characters. The contrast between the two styles are quite strange even though the style used for these segments are fine by itself. Generic maybe, but otherwise fine. Character animation and movements lack variety though and appear very stiff when immobile making them look like statues in these moments.
ATMOSPHERE AND SETTING
One aspect that DM1 did really well was creating a really eerie, creepy and tension filled atmosphere. To a certain extent, DM2's tone and atmosphere still feels dark and eerie for a good chunk of the game, but doesn't really measure up to the first two games. There's a feeling of safeness that is felt pretty much throughout the game in large part due to the game actually taking place often during the daytime with other people present. The infirmary also serves as the constant safe haven that you can just teleport back to most of the time during the night segments. The new anime artstyle for the sidescrolling exploration parts don't feel as scary either.
There is a jump scare mechanic that gives the option to turn off. Even when on, they aren't really scary with the way its utilized. When moving to a new screen, there is a small chance that a spirit or ghastly words would fill the screen.
The game takes mostly on school grounds so there is also a lacking in variety of locations. The few locations outside of school are short and brief which is disappointing. The school isn't too small, but it does get old relatively quickly especially when you have to backtrack through areas multiple times.
Overall, the horror elements has disappointedly declined and feels lacking for the series, but still decent.
MUSIC
Naoaki Jimbo returns to composed DM2's OST. It doesn't have many songs overall and lot of them sound like they were just brought back from the previous games. The eerie music during the presence of the Spirits are still good and impactful. There are a few vocal songs added to the game which is something that wasn't too common in the series other than the one song in NG.
Outside of story events where there is notable activity, the game utilize a lot of silence for the BGM. Even conversations with other characters are mostly silent as well. Like the previous games, DM2 uses distinct sound effects to draw attention to certain words or objects that appear.
GAMEPLAY
The first two games in the series have mostly similar gameplay, but DM2 add some major changes. What remains the same are the heavy VN cutscenes during conversations and taking one selectable companion with when exploring. Instead of the first person view and using static backgrounds, DM2's exploration parts now consists of sidescrolling exploration. You have free control to move left and right across the screen. Rooms and pathways can be entered by pressing up or down on the D-PAD at specific locations.
Other than moving across the screen, you can interact with objects that are shown as a flashing ball of light. These lights only appear when approaching them. Most interactions just have simple dialogue, but a few of them allows further inspection and interaction including using items on them. For example, using a key to open a lock. You can also talk with people that you come in contact with as well.
Some moments will change the view into a first person one that's similar to the first two games. During these moments, you hover a flashlight to find flashing lights to interact.
The sidescrolling segments aren't offensive, but I don't think it necessary made the gameplay better for the series. It does noticeably make exploring areas less scary than before. That said, since the game takes place mostly within school grounds, there are lot of backtracking and going through the same areas multiple times. With such a setup, the sidescrolling movement probably is the better choice here because it can be hassle otherwise using the old movement system.
The frequent Live of Die moments in the first two games have mostly been replaced for the Suspensive Act moments. The game moves to a first person view and you have are given options to avoid death. You can either have Yashiki act himself, his partner or team up together to perform an action. Unlike before, each action has a listed percentage of whether the action will succeed. Each action also uses a fixed amount of spirit health from the characters. Failing the action doesn't automatically lead to a game over and allows you to reattempt the action or pick something else. Reattempt actions have increased success chance, but the game doesn't refund back the spirit health lost in the initial attempt.
When either character's health drops to 0, it's an instant Game Over. This can be annoying since the scenarios are heavily RNG based now. For the actual Spirit battles, the Suspensive Acts can have multiple phases so RNG is more troublesome here. It doesn't help that you take damage just by going through areas and experiencing story events. Success rates are determined by a combination of Yashiki and his partner's specific stats.
There's no way to increase the stats other than the maximum spirit health. These are increased after find a number of optional Lost Souls in the exploration segments which also serve as EXP for leveling up.
To alleviate the RNG issues, you can fully heal when returning to the infirmary and exchange Lost Souls for items that increase success chances or reduce the cost for each action during these moments.
Overall, I'm not a fan of this new system that leans towards a RPG system. I don't think it made the game better and it's just a hassle dealing with the RNG elements.
FINAL REMARKS
The Spirit Hunter series doesn't sell very well, but it does a good job appealing to horror fans and those that enjoy supernatural folklore stories. It's a worthy new entry in the series even though it's not as scary as the first two games. The story is entertaining and it's nice seeing the return of the characters from the first game.
The new sidescrolling gameplay isn't all that amazing, but it's serviceable. The new RNG system for the Suspensive Acts and Spirit boss fights are just annoying to deal with. Even selecting the correct options only can still lead to multiple Game Overs in a row.
Like the first two games, DM2 is on the short side and can be completed in about 12 hours.
While no prior knowledge of the series is needed to understand the main story in DM2, I do recommend playing at least DM1 first in large part due to the returning of Yashiki as MC and supporting characters. Spoilers are mostly kept at a minimum, but it does spoil Yashiki's background information in his profile page here which is a major plot point in the first game. The extra chapter scenario does spoil a major plot point as well. As for prior knowledge of NG, that's is not necessary, but those that have played that game will appreciate the appearance of a character here.
Am I overrating this? Most definitely, but its so much bloody, wicked fun. You won't find an another arena shooter with this much effort and soul being put into it from the fantastic level design ranging from grungy industrial hellscapes, to gothic horror houses, oriental castles and medieval dungeons all dripping with atmosphere, the fast paced combat with varied enemies, the insane weapons (A STAKEGUN, A SHOTGUN WITH A FREEZER, A SHIRUKEN GUN), the creative power system. And of course the incredible music that perfectly switches between haunting ambiance and some of the most fist pumping, monster slaying metal that came out before the Doom reboot. Prime "Dudes rock!" gaming.
This game is a Stockholm syndrome experiment mixed with ego stroking.
A very short, yet efficient game about being locked in tight spaces, the deep sea, and the unknown that lies below.... a sea of blood in the moon.
Iron Lung has been on my backlog since forever ago, I've seen the first 5 minutes of Markiplier playing it and I told myself I'd play it before watching someone else go through it.
The thing that makes Iron Lung so interesting to me is essentially, the fact that you're confined to one specific space for the duration of the game, just being barely able to see outside by using a camera that you can take low quality pictures of. And to be quite frank, I say "low quality" but this is mostly because the game uses the 32/64 bit-era console graphics to perfection here. the fact that it looks "ugly" makes your mind work into completing some of the images and aspects you see it here. And besides, I'm a sucker for this era of games too.
So the way you move through the sea of blood is by using coordinates and directing your submarine to the specific positions so you can take pictures of the things there. At the beginning, this gave me some obscene lack of situational awareness, to the point that I ended up crashing the submarine by accident. But as I progressed through the map, my grasp on how the submarine worked improved, and I was able to do things with a lot more confidence. Which is when spoiler spoiler spoiler happens and that confidence boost went to heck.
Sound-wise, this game is INSANELY GOOD. The noises that the submarine makes, the noises that the sea and whatever inhabits there make are unsettling enough and the ever occasional unusual noise did make me go into a more aware mode. Horror truly works the best not when big boo noises happen, but when those subtle noises that come and go whenever they feel like it are there.
I will not go into details for the plot here for spoiler purposes, but for such a short journey it did shock me! David seems to be a very skilled writer for such short games, and honestly? It's really worth the price. I'll definitely be on the lookout for other games such a Squirrel Stapler in the near future.
Iron Lung has been on my backlog since forever ago, I've seen the first 5 minutes of Markiplier playing it and I told myself I'd play it before watching someone else go through it.
The thing that makes Iron Lung so interesting to me is essentially, the fact that you're confined to one specific space for the duration of the game, just being barely able to see outside by using a camera that you can take low quality pictures of. And to be quite frank, I say "low quality" but this is mostly because the game uses the 32/64 bit-era console graphics to perfection here. the fact that it looks "ugly" makes your mind work into completing some of the images and aspects you see it here. And besides, I'm a sucker for this era of games too.
So the way you move through the sea of blood is by using coordinates and directing your submarine to the specific positions so you can take pictures of the things there. At the beginning, this gave me some obscene lack of situational awareness, to the point that I ended up crashing the submarine by accident. But as I progressed through the map, my grasp on how the submarine worked improved, and I was able to do things with a lot more confidence. Which is when spoiler spoiler spoiler happens and that confidence boost went to heck.
Sound-wise, this game is INSANELY GOOD. The noises that the submarine makes, the noises that the sea and whatever inhabits there make are unsettling enough and the ever occasional unusual noise did make me go into a more aware mode. Horror truly works the best not when big boo noises happen, but when those subtle noises that come and go whenever they feel like it are there.
I will not go into details for the plot here for spoiler purposes, but for such a short journey it did shock me! David seems to be a very skilled writer for such short games, and honestly? It's really worth the price. I'll definitely be on the lookout for other games such a Squirrel Stapler in the near future.
having done absolutely nothing but binge this game twice in the span of 10 days creation and vengeance route each i feel very confident in saying that this game is very solid very consistent and very much worth every moment i spent wandering in it
i think my love forever lies still with the CoC True Neutral ending as i found it encompassing of the game's ideas better than anything Vengeance provided but i dont think Vengeance's goal was to replace that, per se. it felt like forcing a rogue element constantly challenging the characters in interesting ways and expanding upon the solid foundation of the lore whhhileeee providing some VERY great moments for (almost) everyone. admittedly, the retreading Vengeance route does for Creation's content can be a tad frustrating at times especially when the new content is so so strong but that may be a byproduct of having experienced both so closely together and back to back... one thing Vengeance ought to be verily praised for is the fact that technically both routes are extremely valid answers to the "problem of the world" and both are handled quite satisfyingly with stellar fights in both. aahhh fuck i was thinking about smth but i forgot cuz this ramble is taking me out. whatever, game good. it falters in that its ideas and presentation aren't as strong as the mountain of prior mainline games but this is more than a worthy endeavor that cements itself as a titan among titans standing shoulder to hip with the greatest the industry has ever offered (get it? shoulder to hip cuz its not quite shoulder to shoulder w nocturne n co! yippeee!)
SHOUTOUT AOGAMI DAS MY ONIICHAN!!!!!!! COOLEST CHARACTER EVER!!!!!
i think my love forever lies still with the CoC True Neutral ending as i found it encompassing of the game's ideas better than anything Vengeance provided but i dont think Vengeance's goal was to replace that, per se. it felt like forcing a rogue element constantly challenging the characters in interesting ways and expanding upon the solid foundation of the lore whhhileeee providing some VERY great moments for (almost) everyone. admittedly, the retreading Vengeance route does for Creation's content can be a tad frustrating at times especially when the new content is so so strong but that may be a byproduct of having experienced both so closely together and back to back... one thing Vengeance ought to be verily praised for is the fact that technically both routes are extremely valid answers to the "problem of the world" and both are handled quite satisfyingly with stellar fights in both. aahhh fuck i was thinking about smth but i forgot cuz this ramble is taking me out. whatever, game good. it falters in that its ideas and presentation aren't as strong as the mountain of prior mainline games but this is more than a worthy endeavor that cements itself as a titan among titans standing shoulder to hip with the greatest the industry has ever offered (get it? shoulder to hip cuz its not quite shoulder to shoulder w nocturne n co! yippeee!)
SHOUTOUT AOGAMI DAS MY ONIICHAN!!!!!!! COOLEST CHARACTER EVER!!!!!
The weird hand in the toilet is still scary.
Short, sweet and always fun to come back to.
It's one of those games where if you don't jive with the humour then you're going to have a pretty miserable experience. I had a pretty miserable experience. As such, this is the only Deponia game I've ever played and ever will play.
On the upside, it is nice to see Germans try and be funny for once.
On the upside, it is nice to see Germans try and be funny for once.
Ok, so I'm in the last room with one heart, and its right before the last boss fight. This has been my first run-through and has been really easy so far. Before I fight the final boss I scavenge for more hearts. Soon I find a chest behind a stone wall, but its ontop of a stair case so throwing a grenade at it is not so straight forward. So I jumped and timed my grenade to hit the stone wall. However, IT DID NOT EXPLODE WHEN IT HIT THE WALL BUT BOUNCED BACK AND KILLED ME. so mad I uninstalled and decided to tend to my family and never play any more games ever again.
the rocky iv of mega man
Not since Fight Club have I seen such a “no really, you should do that, it would actually be a very good thing if you did that” dastardly plan in Krang’s plan to commandeer the Statue of Liberty into a mecha-statue of death and destroy Times Square with it. Oh no, not the Statue of Liberty, not Times Square, not the two places in the city I live in with the most slow-walking asshole French tourists by volume. Oh no, anything but that, please anything but that…
This game will forever be a reminder that I still get treated differently than other people in and out of the online space because of the race that I am, and I am deeply concerned by this thought.