Agnol117
2022
To start with: Yes, the performance issues exist. Anything too far out from your character has incredibly choppy animation, and it's very noticeable. There's also a lot of slowdown in battle and obnoxiously long load times in the box screens.
That being said, I didn't really care about any of that. The game is, frankly, a lot of fun. It's exciting to be able to play in the same instance of the world as my wife. The new Pokémon are, generally speaking, well designed and fun. The game has an actual, honest to god story. Multiple stories, even! And for the most part, they're pretty good. There's a few missteps, but the writing is solid, and funny, and just in general fun. The only reason Legends is my favorite Pokémon game this year is because the gameplay was better, and even that's a close one. If the next mainline entry has Legends gameplay and this level of writing, it'll be fantastic.
That being said, I didn't really care about any of that. The game is, frankly, a lot of fun. It's exciting to be able to play in the same instance of the world as my wife. The new Pokémon are, generally speaking, well designed and fun. The game has an actual, honest to god story. Multiple stories, even! And for the most part, they're pretty good. There's a few missteps, but the writing is solid, and funny, and just in general fun. The only reason Legends is my favorite Pokémon game this year is because the gameplay was better, and even that's a close one. If the next mainline entry has Legends gameplay and this level of writing, it'll be fantastic.
2015
A neat little follow up to Bell Park. Takes a hard left turn into being weird fic, but that's okay. Still quite enjoyable, and still leaves me interested in the rest of this author's games.
This review contains spoilers
This'll stick with me for a while. Must say it's the first time I've ever been sexually assaulted by a video game.
This review contains spoilers
This improves over the first game in basically every way. Melee combat is better, there's flight, there are more machine types and they're much more varied, there are more varied side activities. The story gets a bit silly toward the end, but it's a great lead in to a third game.
1987
I don't want to call this bad, because it's not exactly accurate, but it's also very clearly a thirty-five year old game. I'm glad I played the part of it I did, but it's not something I expect I'll be revisiting.
The mech gameplay was kinda meh (Sentry Guns and Interceptors basically broke the game), but the storytelling was fantastic. Genuinely wish I could play this blind a second time.
This review contains spoilers
It's a fantastic game and a fantastic sequel, but it feels a bit too "safe" and doesn't ever really reach the heights the first game did.
Off the bat, this game does the same thing Miles Morales did in that it takes away some of your movement options, which is just incredibly not fun. There's no good reason for Peter and Miles to have to relearn how to point launch, and making me do so for the third game in a row is kind of a pain. Same with combat -- while Miles gets most of his venom powers back pretty quickly, you start with no gadgets, and that just feels shitty. In favor of the gadgets I will say that the reduced number of gadgets compared to the first game is a plus. I actually used all of them now, instead of just two or three as I did in the original. Side content is also a lot more hit and miss. There's fewer "challenge" type sidequests (which personally I think was an improvement, but that's a matter of taste), but also fewer engaging sidequests in general. There's some that really stand out, storywise, and a one type that I thought was a lot of fun and I wished there'd been more like that in the main game, but overall, they're pretty meh. Finally, and probably most egregiously, it takes a frustratingly long time before you get the Symbiote. Additionally, once you get it off, Venom's really only around for about three or four hours of gameplay, and that's assuming you do all the side content that unlocks at that point.
Despite all that, it's a genuinely good game. Particularly when it comes to the story: it was great, emotional, and above all, fun. And really, despite all the words I just wrote about the flaws, they're all comparatively minor. The game is a blast to play, and I highly recommend it.
Off the bat, this game does the same thing Miles Morales did in that it takes away some of your movement options, which is just incredibly not fun. There's no good reason for Peter and Miles to have to relearn how to point launch, and making me do so for the third game in a row is kind of a pain. Same with combat -- while Miles gets most of his venom powers back pretty quickly, you start with no gadgets, and that just feels shitty. In favor of the gadgets I will say that the reduced number of gadgets compared to the first game is a plus. I actually used all of them now, instead of just two or three as I did in the original. Side content is also a lot more hit and miss. There's fewer "challenge" type sidequests (which personally I think was an improvement, but that's a matter of taste), but also fewer engaging sidequests in general. There's some that really stand out, storywise, and a one type that I thought was a lot of fun and I wished there'd been more like that in the main game, but overall, they're pretty meh. Finally, and probably most egregiously, it takes a frustratingly long time before you get the Symbiote. Additionally, once you get it off, Venom's really only around for about three or four hours of gameplay, and that's assuming you do all the side content that unlocks at that point.
Despite all that, it's a genuinely good game. Particularly when it comes to the story: it was great, emotional, and above all, fun. And really, despite all the words I just wrote about the flaws, they're all comparatively minor. The game is a blast to play, and I highly recommend it.
2023
A fantastic update to the original. The game remixes a lot of sequences, so even familiar set pieces are fun and new. There were several times while playing that I got to a challenge and was like "oh, this is that room!", which was alwasy a blast. A few set pieces have been removed entirely, but honestly it works out for the best, given the pacing of the story.
2023
It's almost impressive how absolutely middle of the road this game is. It's art. This game is the platonic ideal of a 6.5/10.
Would've been a seven if I could walk through my own damn characters, tho.
Would've been a seven if I could walk through my own damn characters, tho.
2003
This review contains spoilers
Dropped after the second rape scene. I like horror, but that's not horror, that's just gross.
2019
Meh. Movement was unsatisfying and annoying, and that's enough to turn me off this kind of game. Art style was pretty, though.
A fantastic game. Got the first ending, and then it immediately consumed my life for the next four days as I proceeded to get the other five. I loved it, and I cannot wait to play the rest of the Zero Escape games.
2015
This review contains spoilers
Made it to Mergo's Wet Nurse before I realized how much fun I wasn't having.
I like the aesthetic. I like the general interconnectedness of the leve designs. Things I like start to fall off around then.
The main issue I have is that after a few attempts at getting to and beating a boss, it stops being "fun" and starts just being tedious. Like, I've proven that I can make it through this section repeatedly. But when I finally beat a boss, it doesn't feel like I've gotten better at the game. It feels like I just got lucky. Contrast with, say, Hollow Knight (which I loved), where it felt like I was genuinely improving when I beat a boss. This just feels empty.
I like the aesthetic. I like the general interconnectedness of the leve designs. Things I like start to fall off around then.
The main issue I have is that after a few attempts at getting to and beating a boss, it stops being "fun" and starts just being tedious. Like, I've proven that I can make it through this section repeatedly. But when I finally beat a boss, it doesn't feel like I've gotten better at the game. It feels like I just got lucky. Contrast with, say, Hollow Knight (which I loved), where it felt like I was genuinely improving when I beat a boss. This just feels empty.
2023
I picked this up on the hope that the internet was exaggerating and that it was at least entertainingly bad. It is not, it just sucks. In three hours of "playing," I think I actually played for closer to an hour. The incredibly slow opening keeps taking away control for cutscenes and tutorials, and it's awful. Every time I thought I was going to get a chance to actually play and maybe even enjoy it, control was taken away again. Just genuinely awful. Cannot recommend this, even for the meme of it.