played on switch, technically

might be the funniest game i've ever played line-for-line. the most operatic too. a new twist every hour. feels like this game is to the visual novel what a platinum game is to an action game; that is, pure insane and beautifully chaotic.

where this game really shines for me though are with its characters. i love them all. it's impressive for a game with no voice acting how well it manages to convey personality through a limited range of still animations and expertly crafted dialogue. by the end of the game i was in love with the whole crew and could feel the affection in the room emanating out of my switch. don't want to spend another day without these characters in my life.

can't wait to see where it goes from here but no matter where i'll always have phoenix cross-examining a bird to remember the pure blissful joy that was ace attorney.

The direction of this game is amazing. Taking every memorable moment from the original and recreating them in imaginative and yet familiar ways is so fun.

I though the open world stuff was fine. It's kinda weird to me how people instantly make the comparison to Ubisoft games because it has "towers" I dunno. I guess I just don't consider the concept of touching a button to make other important spot appear on the map to be inherently good or bad? The reason I dislike Ubisoft games is that they're incredibly boring to me, they rarely have compelling characters, the writing is generally dogshit and they pad the hell out of the map with a billion activity icons.

In FFVII Rebirth when you touch a "tower" it reveals a maximum of three icons, often less. The open world is not a giant map, it's 6 relatively small maps seperated by more cutscene heavy setpiece chapters. I think that structure helps with the pace a lot.

The combat system is genuinely the most fun I've had in an RPG in recent years. They greatly expanded the range of gameplay styles. The materia system is really fun to figure out and the character action aspect is top notch.

I loved all the minigames. I think it's fun that most quest aren't just "go at map location and interact with thing". A lot have creative interactions attached to them. They all make you hang out with a member of your party and learn more about them.

I dunno I just don't have anything bad to say about it. When I streamed the game I tried to express all the things that annoyed or disappointed me but in the end they're all just tiny nitpicks about specific moments. I've seen a lot of complaint about the ending being way too "kingdom hearts" like in part 1 and, I don't know how to tell you this but Final Fantasy has been doing this stuff since the NES. I think it might feel weird here because those moments weren't originally meant to be endings within a trilogy.

Maybe it's all nostalgia hitting me very hard. I don't really know what this game feels like for someone who's never played the original but at the end of the day I had fun the entire time and I never put the game down until I was 100% finished. I think the game as a whole is fantastic and I cannot wait for part 3.

Mild "spoilers" ahead.

There's a cruel lack of understanding of context and relations between mechanics here, mimicking the mechanics of some surface-level namedrop not only never reinforces any point it's trying to make, but also ends up creating completely disjointed gameplay, that's a pretty strong contradiction.

Game design is supposed to shape an experience based on how different mechanics answer each other, it's always been a matter of context and good use of its elements, the assertion that any kind of HUD or linear level design fundamentally conflicts with any sort of emotional implication is a seriously flawed argument.

If anything, the final claim about how "Shadow of the Colossus is the greatest game of all time" (objectivity in any art-related writing is pretty eliminatory) without ever mentioning the game beforehand, even as an example, shows that this essay/study comes from the place of someone having just discovered what subtractive design is and who holds it as some sort of golden standard, if it certainly encompasses interactive storytelling, I can only hope the impact it had on the writer's view of narration will lead them to realize how expandable it is instead of restrictive.

I like this as a game design 101 and I like that Sony is somehow supporting small educational games like this, but I don't agree with the conclusions.

I don't think SotC is that good for the same reasons the narrator complains about explicit systems: there's only a single solution available to the player in order to progress. The final boss (and SotC) don't allow much player expression: the only way to win is to stand in a certain spot, shoot specific spots in a specific order, jump at a specific time, and use the grapple in a specific place. I don't really care whether I hit the jump button or interact button to climb when there's only a single spot where it will actually succeed.

I think Dishonored, Hitman, or any other immersive sim are better examples of fully interactive systems. Those games are all about giving you a sizeable toolkit and then the player discovering and exploiting the reactions caused by your actions on the game and allow a large degree of player freedom in how you progress through the game.

I respect telling a story about Nazi Germany and the tragedy that befell the Jewish people because of it... But this is very much a story I could've made up in my head if someone asked me to make one about what happened to Jews during this time. If you know anything about this history, you'll know what to expect.

I wish the presentation were just a bit better. It's fine if it's cheaply made and only needs to tell a story, but I couldn't even finish reading text sometimes before the game skipped to the next scene. Some parts were a bit tedious too.

I appreciate the brief history lesson and free platinum trophy at least.

A simple mini game collection. The lore and story is kind of fucked up if you are not a baby and think about it. You are tasked with collecting parts because your friend is broken down. A tow truck is absolutely salivating at the chance to tow your friend to the junk yard to rot forever. They can't just bring him to a mechanic to fix him, everyone is kind of just resigned to let it happen besides the MC.

There is also a bit where a mechanic quit his job, so the owner of the place lets you (a child) to the equivalent of invasive surgery (a engine check up) just cause you said you would do it.

I do really like the cart designs though. The squishy tires and stuff is dope.