sardines
Cuando Sam Lake subió al escenario de los Game Awards para anunciar que Alan Wake 2 sería el primer survival horror de Remedy no imaginé que lo decía de forma tan literal. Pero un par de años más tarde se queda uno con la boca abierta viendo como efectivamente AW2 es el bingo completo del género. Tienes munición escasa y enemigos fuertes, mapas que se consiguen al entrar en edificios y que revisarás a menudo para ver qué habitaciones has explorado, inventario limitado por casillas, backtracking con atajos, puzles de números y símbolos y acertijos de palabras, llaves que abren cajas que contienen fusibles que encienden generadores que abren puertas… y todo esto, por supuesto, aderezado con esa exploración lenta y deliberada, donde sientes el peso de tus pasos y las armas que llevas, donde absorbes cada localización con asombro y temor a partes iguales, mirando bien cada esquina antes de girarla. Nada que ver con esos pilla pilla que había en el juego original. Cada bala cuenta y sientes el impacto de cada disparo. Aunque no faltan momentos frenéticos, la acción es mucho más comedida e intencionada esta vez. Alan Wake 2 se toma su tiempo para hacerte pasarlo mal. Y se llega a pasar muy mal aquí.
Y se pasa mal además por partida doble. Porque en AW2 no solo hay un survival horror excelente, hay DOS. Las campañas de Saga y de Alan, que en otra decisión maestra del juego, pueden jugarse mayormente en el orden que queramos, tienen tonos y ritmos muy diferentes. La campaña de Saga es un procedural policiaco rural y áspero al más puro estilo True Detective, y la de Alan es una auténtica pesadilla psicodélica donde todo vale, y que explota al máximo el componente paranormal del juego. La forma en la que estas campañas coinciden y divergen es magistral. La estructura de los niveles bebe claramente de los últimos Resident Evil, pero la ejecución va mucho más allá, con rupturas de ritmo y de tono interesantísimas. AW2 va alternando de forma orgánica entre grandes niveles, zonas más lineales, setpieces y momentos pausados. Desde los créditos iniciales me han tenido completamente absorbido hasta el final, en ningún momento he sentido que un nivel se estuviese alargando de más, o he notado un descenso en calidad entre secciones. En las más de veinte horas que dura, Alan Wake 2 no da puntada sin hilo.
Y por supuesto que hay asperezas aquí y allá. Los coleccionables, por ejemplo, aún siendo fan de integrarlos en la narrativa y convertirlos en puzles, tienen a veces la tendencia de colocarse en sitios poco convenientes que rompen el ritmo de la acción. Algunos incluso dependen de otros, por lo que es inútil buscar ciertos coleccionables si no has encontrado otros antes. La historia, por otra parte, será probablemente otro de los elementos más discutidos. Sam Lake se ha marcado otro follón metanarrativo que, milagrosamente, consigue mantener en pie hasta el final, a pesar de no parar de hacer giros y filigranas, pero estoy seguro de que muchos jugadores pueden desconectar antes de llegar a los créditos.
Personalmente nunca he sido super fan de las marcianadas de Remedy, acabé bastante hastiado de Control por ejemplo, pero creo que aquí han conseguido un balance excelente entre desmelenarse y volver a anclarse cuando toca. Tras cada locura meta hay stakes humanas, tras cada giro loco de guion, hay reacciones dramáticas honestas en los personajes que lo asientan. Tras cada momento de humor absurdo disonante típico de serie B, hay una secuencia de terror psicológico que te pone los pelos de punta.
Alan Wake 2 no es solo el primer survival horror de Remedy. Parece también la combinación de todo lo que el estudio lleva tratando de hacer desde el principio. Todas las filias y las rarezas de Sam Lake están por fin justificadas en un juego excelente que las acompaña y las magnifica. Y en el que todo está medido al milímetro. Cada susto, cada nivel, cada puzle, cada escenario, cada decisión creativa, cada beat narrativo. 13 años más tarde me sumo al fandom de esta gente. Alan Wake 2 me parece una obra maestra.
I still have a lot of lingering affection for this one despite later entries playing way better and not vibing with the planetary defenders portion of the story. Laharl is my son
maid gaming
maid gaming
The definitely-not-Rambo game for the master system. You slowly walk up the screen past soldiers shooting and throwing grenades until you get to a wall and shoot enemies until it blows up. The graphics are pretty good for 86 and the music is alright, but boy is it slow and repetitive. Once I realized enemies could not turn around and shoot you in the back, it went pretty quick. Still, not the best of that era.
boom divorced
Why are we still here? Just to suffer? Every night, I can feel my leg… and my arm… even my fingers. The body I’ve lost… the comrades I’ve lost… won’t stop hurting… It’s like they’re all still there. You feel it, too, don’t you?
I quite enjoy this game even. The campaign has fun moments and the alien mode is great fun. I also enjoyed the multiplayer even though a lot of maps are way to big for 6v6
Do you like a game that controls as if you're constantly sliding across a frictionless surface?
If so, you'll love this game
Though I've been playing this game many years later and having watched the Castlevania TV show, I was able to recognise the majority of the characters showcased here. Apart from Grant though, but maybe he'll be in the new series?
Anyway, they don't have issues with translation in this one and go back to a more linear style, however, you still get to make choices in where you go which leads to ending up with a different companion and in the case of Sypha, she becomes your romantic character in it.
It was a lot of fun, but I don't particularly remember much different in regards to the mechanics of the game, however, to really get my interest.
SA > SA2
I am just not a fan of this. To me it feels like a lot was stripped from the first game and the dual mechanic was made even worse.
achei que o jogo ficou bem bonito e gosto do modo que se coloca na versão clássica dos gráficos, confesso que não me diverti tanto quanto queria, história simples e ok, um jogo pra se comprar na promoção e zerar em uma tarde de domingo.
El único FF que me he pasado 100% y tampoco ha estado tan mal
it's good
Gameplay a lot better, story sucks most the time tho
I don't think I can put into words how it felt to play this game. All I can say is that it was a one of a kind surreal experience. It's unlike anything I've ever played. A fascinating piece of art that I am baffled too me this long to finally get through. Probably my favorite rpg maker game
Just amazing
I was gonna write this whole manifesto talking about how much I adore the game's story, music, movement, combat etc etc etc but Henry Kissinger finally fucking died 🥳🥳🥳 so I had to take the day off to celebrate and now I have nothing to post, sorry :/
We're one in the same, you and I
I would rate this one a lot higher if the dante portion was better. It's a shame cause I think nero's playstyle is my favorite in the series!
You play this game for Vergil fights, but the cutscenes and dialogue are really fun too. I wish the non-vergil boss fights weren't annoying to fight
i forgot how to speak english writing this review
Aged but I kinda like it
This review contains spoilers
CW: transphobia, homophobia
The calendar system that Persona 3 introduced to the series is one of the biggest monkey’s paw curls I’ve seen in video games. What first seemed like an innovative way to tell a JRPG story eventually became a stale series staple. When I played Persona 3, I thought to myself, “Wow, why don’t more games do this?” I was a fool. The series has become hostage to an increasingly large fanbase with an insatiable appetite for social links, 100-hour games, and insufferable fuckboys (I’m looking at you, Maruki).
Everything in Persona 4 seems a little less ambitious than Persona 3. Party members are predictably acquired one by one at regular intervals by beating their associated dungeons. The game is much easier this time, with less interesting bosses. Persona 3’s moody edges have been sanded away in favor of a bright pop aesthetic. None of this is necessarily bad, but hindsight has left me bitter about the changes. This isn’t to say that Persona 3 is some kind of unassailable masterpiece, but it has a cool factor that’s missing from 4 and 5. All it takes is one look at the character redesigns in Reload to see the seeds that were planted in Persona 4. I wouldn’t exactly call Persona 4 bland, but that’s where the series ended up.
That being said, I don’t think I can bring myself to fully hate Persona 4. I loved it for a long time, and I can’t deny that I still like parts of it. I still like the soundtrack for the most part. I love those goofy trumpet synths. I will say though that when I played this as a refresher, my partner laughed every time the track “Who’s There” played. They just couldn’t take it seriously. Battles are snappy and the game feels like it wastes less of my time than Persona 5, but there are huge problems that I can’t ignore.
Persona 4 is queerphobic. It’s more than a little frustrating to see these games occupy so much discussion in online queer spaces. I don’t think Persona 4 is a well-intentioned game that stumbles in its execution, I think it's the product of reactionary brain rot.
The “Is Naoto transgender?” debate that I see so frequently often ends with “Naoto isn’t trans because she says she isn’t.” I think this is bullshit. A real person wrote all that garbage. Naoto’s shadow talks about a body alteration procedure, with the writers basically equating gender-affirming surgeries with mad science experiments. It’s implied that Naoto binds. I don’t care if Naoto is actually trans, but the character is coded as trans, and where the writers go with that is not good. More on this later.
Kanji’s shadow is a questionable-at-best gay caricature. Even after his section of the story is over, the gay panic jokes just never seem to stop at his expense. And if it was just some tasteless stereotypes and off-color jokes that would be one thing, whatever, but the overall message of Persona 4 is gross. It’s the worst kind of self-help book.
Persona 4 tells you that all you need is a change of attitude. The resolution to almost every arc is a character realizing that they don’t need to change anything about their external reality. The status quo is more important than your desires. Your innermost thoughts are deviant and need to be controlled. I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home and this was the same message I heard growing up in church. It’s the message of conversion therapy. And before someone hits me with “the characters have to accept their shadows,” think about what this means in the context of the game. Do these characters grow in any meaningful way? Do they incorporate aspects of their shadow into their waking selves? The answer is no. If any of the characters change, it’s only by accepting their lot in life and having a better attitude about it.
There’s a theme throughout the game of seeing past lies to some kind of truth, but that truth is essentialism. “Naoto wants to be a man, but cannot be a man, because she is a woman.” So there must be some other explanation. The game lands on the idea that Naoto wants to be a man so that they can be taken seriously as a detective, but that doesn’t make sense. I would imagine that most people wouldn’t go to such lengths for something so trivial. There’s no further interrogation though. It’s the same underlying assumption that drives TERF ideology. Naoto is an infantilized depiction of what a cis person thinks it means to be trans. There's an astounding lack of intellectual curiosity on display here. If you think I’m being uncharitable, consider the fact that, in 2023, trans women are being accused of transitioning so that they can do better in sports. If it seems like Naoto can’t possibly be trans because it doesn’t map onto most trans people’s experiences, look at what trans representation was like in 2008, and how it still is in many ways. We’re pathologized by people who don’t know the first thing about us.
When I first played Persona 4 as an older teen, I thought it meant something. The vaguely inspirational story made me feel like I could overcome the mounting problems in my life, but all it really did was help reinforce the status quo. “I don’t have to change,” so nothing else did. I’ve since had more than a decade to sour on the game. I can’t play it for very long before I have to turn it off. I’ll probably just stop trying.
The epilogue added to Persona 4 Golden is one of the saddest things I’ve seen in a game. All the characters come back and they’ve all grown up a little, or something. Naoto wears traditionally feminine clothes. Kanji doesn’t bleach his hair or dress like a punk anymore. It’s not uplifting, it’s depressing.
Not fun in the slightest. Everything feels off in this game.
this game was my trans awakening. thank u may guilty gear
really good game, im just not good at it. skill issue
I really like the game. The story falls a part a bit mid way through but the levels and gameplay are quite fun.