Armagon
I'm going to say it right now, Tropical Freeze is peak 2D platforming. Donkey Kong Country Returns was really good and Tropical Freeze took everything good about that game and made it even better (much like Super Mario Galaxy 2 took everything about Galaxy 1 and made it even better). Level design is top-notch with a decent challenge. A 2D platformer where the water and ice levels are actually good (the latter was definitly important in a game called Tropical Freeze). At first i thought the constant lives you get was gonna get in the way of that but i later learned that that was the game being fair. You will appreciate all those lives you amass. Soundtrack was absolutely fire.
The only really negative thing i can say is that some of the bosses drag. All of them take the same number of hits to beat but the times you can hit them is what's different. I also do wish the buddy Kongs were more balanced. Because Dixie is objectively better than Diddy in this game and Cranky gets very few oppertunities to shine. But that's more nitpicky, as any level can be beaten solo.
Anyways, Tropical Freeze gets welcomed with open arms into my prestigious 10/10 club as it's fourth member. It's that good of a game, i highly recommend (though perhaps wait on a sale, it shouldn't be $60 anymore but we all know how Nintendo is).
The only really negative thing i can say is that some of the bosses drag. All of them take the same number of hits to beat but the times you can hit them is what's different. I also do wish the buddy Kongs were more balanced. Because Dixie is objectively better than Diddy in this game and Cranky gets very few oppertunities to shine. But that's more nitpicky, as any level can be beaten solo.
Anyways, Tropical Freeze gets welcomed with open arms into my prestigious 10/10 club as it's fourth member. It's that good of a game, i highly recommend (though perhaps wait on a sale, it shouldn't be $60 anymore but we all know how Nintendo is).
XenoblaDE was my most anticipated game of the year (the fact that we are getting less games this year is irrelevant). I had played the original on the New 3DS a few years back but the glaring lack of QoL in that game made returning to it kind of unappealing. Which is why i was really pleased with XenoblaDE having big QoL updates, which i'll touch on later. But before i get into specifics, i do want to state something: XenoblaDE really is just Xenoblade 1 with a new coat of paint, for better and worse.
The good: it's Xenoblade lol. A lot of the good stuff about the original is kept here. The story and characters? Great. The exploration? Great. The music? Great. The remastered soundtrack was a welcome surprise and i think i honestly prefer it over the original soundtrack, for the most part. The shift in artstyle finally allowed the characters to emote and it made scenes a lot more impactful. In general, XenoblaDE probably has my favorite art direction out of the entire series. The QoL upgrades are so good man. Quest and item tracking is a Godsend and it makes doing quests not torture. Coesmetic gear is also a solid addition, i could finally play through the game without looking like a stupid clown. Expert Mode is an excellent addition to the game and it gives me hope that Xenoblade 2's bonus EXP system is here to stay.
The bad: It really is just Xenoblade 1 with a new coat of paint. While the QoL and artstyle shift did wonders, a lot of my gripes with the original are still here. Combat is decent but still feels weak compared to Xenoblade 2 and Torna and Chain Attacks being RNG-based is still one of the worst parts about it. Affinity takes 10,000 years to level up, effectively locking most Heart-to-Hearts behind endgame. Vision Reacts is a terrible song, why was it allowed to exist? And the worst one of all, level penalties are still a thing. Ironically, DE introduced some new problems, even if they are smaller in scale. Item tracking does not apply to Colony 6 reconstruction for some reason, making rebuilding Colony 6 just as tedious as it was in the original. Time Attack feels very lackluster compared to Xenoblade 2's Land of Challenge. And as a very minor nitpick, is it me, or are the Landmarks too spread out sometimes? The worst offender is in Makna Forest, where the Landmark closest to the final boss of that area is still quite a way away from it.
On Future Connected: I've talked about this before so i'll keep it short and simple: It's a good piece of extra content. It's essentially a mini-Xenoblade X in the sense that if you just do the story, you will be disapointed but doing the sidecontent (all the Quiet Moments at least) will improve your enjoyment of the overall story significantly.
The good: it's Xenoblade lol. A lot of the good stuff about the original is kept here. The story and characters? Great. The exploration? Great. The music? Great. The remastered soundtrack was a welcome surprise and i think i honestly prefer it over the original soundtrack, for the most part. The shift in artstyle finally allowed the characters to emote and it made scenes a lot more impactful. In general, XenoblaDE probably has my favorite art direction out of the entire series. The QoL upgrades are so good man. Quest and item tracking is a Godsend and it makes doing quests not torture. Coesmetic gear is also a solid addition, i could finally play through the game without looking like a stupid clown. Expert Mode is an excellent addition to the game and it gives me hope that Xenoblade 2's bonus EXP system is here to stay.
The bad: It really is just Xenoblade 1 with a new coat of paint. While the QoL and artstyle shift did wonders, a lot of my gripes with the original are still here. Combat is decent but still feels weak compared to Xenoblade 2 and Torna and Chain Attacks being RNG-based is still one of the worst parts about it. Affinity takes 10,000 years to level up, effectively locking most Heart-to-Hearts behind endgame. Vision Reacts is a terrible song, why was it allowed to exist? And the worst one of all, level penalties are still a thing. Ironically, DE introduced some new problems, even if they are smaller in scale. Item tracking does not apply to Colony 6 reconstruction for some reason, making rebuilding Colony 6 just as tedious as it was in the original. Time Attack feels very lackluster compared to Xenoblade 2's Land of Challenge. And as a very minor nitpick, is it me, or are the Landmarks too spread out sometimes? The worst offender is in Makna Forest, where the Landmark closest to the final boss of that area is still quite a way away from it.
On Future Connected: I've talked about this before so i'll keep it short and simple: It's a good piece of extra content. It's essentially a mini-Xenoblade X in the sense that if you just do the story, you will be disapointed but doing the sidecontent (all the Quiet Moments at least) will improve your enjoyment of the overall story significantly.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions was one the two Wii U games i wanted a Switch port of, the other obviously being Xenoblade Chronicles X. I didn't expect TMS to be the one getting the port before X but that was a welcome surprise. It definetly felt like an underrated gem that nobody gave credit to because "lol idols" and i'll admit, i'm not really a fan of idols. I purchased TMS Encore a few days after released and spent the next three months playing it.
I know it's not the Fire Emblem x SMT crossover that everyone expected but let me start off by saying that the character designs in this game are pretty dope. The "SMT'ified" versions of Fire Emblem characters are pretty cool (especially some of the promotions) but what i really liked the most was the Carnage Forms of each character. They manage to maintain that Fire Emblem look while at the same time managing to have a unique feel not found in any other Fire Emblem game. The characters themselves are good enough (not you Barry). I wouldn't call them amazing but they serve their purpose and i liked the cast overall. The side stories definitely help flesh out the characters more since the story kinda isn't good at doing that. In fact, i'd say that just like Xenoblade X, this is a game where the side stories are better than the main story. On the subject of the characters, Kiria is best girl, Touma is best boy. As for the actual Fire Emblem characters themselves, the Mirages that are allied with the party stay in character to their original counterparts but i have to give extra props to Tharja for actually not being a bad character. Crazy how Tharja is a better character in TMS than in Awakening.
The gameplay was actually pretty good. It's simple yet rewarding and those Session attacks can get addicting. I will say that it does feel like TMS gets easier as you progress. Once you start unlocking the Open Session passives for everyone, you'll have an overall easier time dealing with enemies than in the early game, where you could only do two Session attacks. I also appreicate the very generous amounts of EP the characters have, since you're almost never going to use the normal attack. Ad-lib and Duo attacks were pretty cool to see and this does tie back into the idol influence that i mentioned earlier. While i don't like the idol genre, the reason this game worked for me is because it actually did something unique with the idol genre, not to mention there were other elements of the entertainment industry. Most things in the idol genre are just reskins of Love Live. Also, i really like the theming of everything in this game. The party members were refered to as "cast members", locations were "scenes" and the characters were "artists". I also think it's pretty cool that the "magic circle" thing that shows up whenever a character uses magic is actually just their signature. It's pretty cool.
My main issues with the game is that there are times when the combat does feel a tad bit too repetitive. Dark and Light skills are also pretty useless since they can't Session into anything and Almighty is almost as useless except it has one use in breaking through Tetra/Makara skills. Some dungeons have puzzle elements but they weren't doing that well. The puzzles themselves weren't hard but a lot of the times, it was just impossible to see what it is you're actually trying to solve, so it results in undeeded trial and error. Also, the inability to swap out Itsuki from the party (i know you can in NG+) is a problem since it kinda limits you at times. In battle, characters can swap out at any time during their turn for no penalty (and it can be done as many times as needed) except Itsuki. He must always be there, even when it isn't beneficial at all.
The music is.....pretty forgettable actually, which is strange to say in a Modern FE world and in a game about music, because every Fire Emblem game since Awakening has had solid OSTs (before Awakening, most Fire Emblem games had like five memorable songs at most). The vocal songs themselves are pretty good but other than that, the soundtrack is just there. Good in the moment but nothing to really write home about.
Overall, the game isn't amazing but it's a solid addition to the Switch's library. It gets the Armagon seal of approval. I do recommend this game.
I know it's not the Fire Emblem x SMT crossover that everyone expected but let me start off by saying that the character designs in this game are pretty dope. The "SMT'ified" versions of Fire Emblem characters are pretty cool (especially some of the promotions) but what i really liked the most was the Carnage Forms of each character. They manage to maintain that Fire Emblem look while at the same time managing to have a unique feel not found in any other Fire Emblem game. The characters themselves are good enough (not you Barry). I wouldn't call them amazing but they serve their purpose and i liked the cast overall. The side stories definitely help flesh out the characters more since the story kinda isn't good at doing that. In fact, i'd say that just like Xenoblade X, this is a game where the side stories are better than the main story. On the subject of the characters, Kiria is best girl, Touma is best boy. As for the actual Fire Emblem characters themselves, the Mirages that are allied with the party stay in character to their original counterparts but i have to give extra props to Tharja for actually not being a bad character. Crazy how Tharja is a better character in TMS than in Awakening.
The gameplay was actually pretty good. It's simple yet rewarding and those Session attacks can get addicting. I will say that it does feel like TMS gets easier as you progress. Once you start unlocking the Open Session passives for everyone, you'll have an overall easier time dealing with enemies than in the early game, where you could only do two Session attacks. I also appreicate the very generous amounts of EP the characters have, since you're almost never going to use the normal attack. Ad-lib and Duo attacks were pretty cool to see and this does tie back into the idol influence that i mentioned earlier. While i don't like the idol genre, the reason this game worked for me is because it actually did something unique with the idol genre, not to mention there were other elements of the entertainment industry. Most things in the idol genre are just reskins of Love Live. Also, i really like the theming of everything in this game. The party members were refered to as "cast members", locations were "scenes" and the characters were "artists". I also think it's pretty cool that the "magic circle" thing that shows up whenever a character uses magic is actually just their signature. It's pretty cool.
My main issues with the game is that there are times when the combat does feel a tad bit too repetitive. Dark and Light skills are also pretty useless since they can't Session into anything and Almighty is almost as useless except it has one use in breaking through Tetra/Makara skills. Some dungeons have puzzle elements but they weren't doing that well. The puzzles themselves weren't hard but a lot of the times, it was just impossible to see what it is you're actually trying to solve, so it results in undeeded trial and error. Also, the inability to swap out Itsuki from the party (i know you can in NG+) is a problem since it kinda limits you at times. In battle, characters can swap out at any time during their turn for no penalty (and it can be done as many times as needed) except Itsuki. He must always be there, even when it isn't beneficial at all.
The music is.....pretty forgettable actually, which is strange to say in a Modern FE world and in a game about music, because every Fire Emblem game since Awakening has had solid OSTs (before Awakening, most Fire Emblem games had like five memorable songs at most). The vocal songs themselves are pretty good but other than that, the soundtrack is just there. Good in the moment but nothing to really write home about.
Overall, the game isn't amazing but it's a solid addition to the Switch's library. It gets the Armagon seal of approval. I do recommend this game.
2010
The perfect sequel. No really, this game took everything that made Galaxy 1 great and turned it up 11. Out of all the games that i've ever given a 10/10, this one's the only game to actually not have a single flaw. No really, i genuinely can't think of any. Only reason it doesn't rank higher on the list is because i just like the games in front of it more.
2009
Had this game on Shelved for a while but every time i want to return to it, i remember that the bosses take 10,000 years to kill and that has pretty much killed any motivation to return to this game and that's official now.
Ritual of the Night is a pretty cool game, even if i was playing the objectively inferior Switch version and had to wait for all the patches to come out what do you mean there's an iOS version?
This game is the first big Metroidvania game i've played. I've played two smaller Metroidvania games in the form of the Blaster Master Zero games but that's about itwell i did play Super Metroid once but i got soft-locked.
As far as the gameplay goes, it's pretty solid. Combat is nice and some abilities are fun to use although this game definitely has too many of them. Most of the Shards you get in this game pretty much exist to be sold off for money, there's like no reason to keep most of them. That's a good thing tho, considering how rare money seems to be in this game. I can't remember the last time i was constantly going broke in a game. Crafting is a thing that you can do for free but much like money, a lot of items just felt rare and most of the time, i could never have enough of them to craft.
I do think the game trips a bit towards the end since the devs decided that the last stretch of the game should all be narrow caverns and this ended up being a bit of frustration for me. Tight corridors meant not a lot of room to dodge attacks so in these areas, i would just skip fighting altogether until i got to the boss room.
........I don't have much to say about this game lol. It's fun, i like it. Might try out the other modes.
This game is the first big Metroidvania game i've played. I've played two smaller Metroidvania games in the form of the Blaster Master Zero games but that's about it
As far as the gameplay goes, it's pretty solid. Combat is nice and some abilities are fun to use although this game definitely has too many of them. Most of the Shards you get in this game pretty much exist to be sold off for money, there's like no reason to keep most of them. That's a good thing tho, considering how rare money seems to be in this game. I can't remember the last time i was constantly going broke in a game. Crafting is a thing that you can do for free but much like money, a lot of items just felt rare and most of the time, i could never have enough of them to craft.
I do think the game trips a bit towards the end since the devs decided that the last stretch of the game should all be narrow caverns and this ended up being a bit of frustration for me. Tight corridors meant not a lot of room to dodge attacks so in these areas, i would just skip fighting altogether until i got to the boss room.
........I don't have much to say about this game lol. It's fun, i like it. Might try out the other modes.
After a few years, i decided to reevaluate this game and while i had originally given it a 9/10, i have now determined that this game is worthy of the 10/10 medal.
What makes this game so good is the combat. Gunvolt still plays largely the same as in the first game, being a character of quick positioning to deal the most damage at any given time. The gameplay loop of shooting enemies to tag them, then blasting them with the Flashfield will never not get old. Then there's Copen, who's aerial mobility is unmatched. Like Gunvolt, his gameplay loop is extremely satisfying, as dashing from enemy to enemy, taking them out, while at the same time trying not to land in order to score the most points is just chef's kiss. The fact that he has the Mega Man ability of copying boss abilities adds an extra layer to his gameplay. Like it's really just perfect. All of this combined to the satisfying "numbers go up" system of Kudos, points you get for playing the game well. The addition of "Kudos difficulty", which set conditions for how you would lose those Kudos, was such a good idea that Inti Creates made the based decision of retroactively patching it in to Azure Striker Gunvolt 1.
The writing in this game is pretty neat. Mid-stage dialogue helps flesh out both the protagonists and the villains they end up facing. Bosses in this game aren't just an obstacle waiting to be defeated and while most of them are pretty tropey, the fact that the mid-stage dialogue allows them to interact beyond just the fights makes them more memorable than most bosses in this sort of genre. Inti Creates did this in the first Gunvolt game as well so it's not something specific to this game in particular.
While the regular music in this game is pretty forgettable, the vocal songs end up filling that hole, being very catchy and rewarding the player for scoring 1000 Kudos or more during a stage. The rest of the game's presentation is pretty good. The spritework is great, though the backgrounds are too samey due to the game's setting.
If there's any criticisms i can throw at this game, is that you still kinda have to grind a few levels to get all of Gunvolt's abilities. You will likely never see Grand Strizer on a normal playthrough, which is a shame because that's like my favorite special attack in the entire series. The achievements are also still kinda redundant like in the first game.
Inti Creates has proven time and time again that they are the masters of 2D action platforming and as of this review, i'd argue Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is their magnum opus.
What makes this game so good is the combat. Gunvolt still plays largely the same as in the first game, being a character of quick positioning to deal the most damage at any given time. The gameplay loop of shooting enemies to tag them, then blasting them with the Flashfield will never not get old. Then there's Copen, who's aerial mobility is unmatched. Like Gunvolt, his gameplay loop is extremely satisfying, as dashing from enemy to enemy, taking them out, while at the same time trying not to land in order to score the most points is just chef's kiss. The fact that he has the Mega Man ability of copying boss abilities adds an extra layer to his gameplay. Like it's really just perfect. All of this combined to the satisfying "numbers go up" system of Kudos, points you get for playing the game well. The addition of "Kudos difficulty", which set conditions for how you would lose those Kudos, was such a good idea that Inti Creates made the based decision of retroactively patching it in to Azure Striker Gunvolt 1.
The writing in this game is pretty neat. Mid-stage dialogue helps flesh out both the protagonists and the villains they end up facing. Bosses in this game aren't just an obstacle waiting to be defeated and while most of them are pretty tropey, the fact that the mid-stage dialogue allows them to interact beyond just the fights makes them more memorable than most bosses in this sort of genre. Inti Creates did this in the first Gunvolt game as well so it's not something specific to this game in particular.
While the regular music in this game is pretty forgettable, the vocal songs end up filling that hole, being very catchy and rewarding the player for scoring 1000 Kudos or more during a stage. The rest of the game's presentation is pretty good. The spritework is great, though the backgrounds are too samey due to the game's setting.
If there's any criticisms i can throw at this game, is that you still kinda have to grind a few levels to get all of Gunvolt's abilities. You will likely never see Grand Strizer on a normal playthrough, which is a shame because that's like my favorite special attack in the entire series. The achievements are also still kinda redundant like in the first game.
Inti Creates has proven time and time again that they are the masters of 2D action platforming and as of this review, i'd argue Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is their magnum opus.
2005
It's a cold day in hell when i'm dropping a Monolith Soft game but here we are. To be fair, there are good things about the game. The spritework is pretty nice and i liked seeing the characters interact, even if i only knew like half of them because the other half, specifically half of the Namco characters here, are from dead or literally who franchises even for the time and at the end of the day, this is a crossover game. It's not meant to be taken seriously. I also have to mention that i do like the OC protags in this game. Reiji and Xiaomu do make for a pretty likable duo.
However, the game has one problem and it's the gameplay. The gameplay on paper isn't bad but the more i played, the more i could see where it was going and it was definitely heading down the path of absolute tedium. This is a game where the playable roster keeps getting bigger and bigger and while there are times where the characters would split up, the tedium started to become apparent after 13 chapters (5 prologue chapters and eight main chapters is as far as i played). I really do think this game would be a lot smoother to play if they got rid of like half the cast and got rid of the grid because as it stands, it's just tedium. Better to stop things here than keep playing and wait for the tedium really kicks into unforgivable territory because the main story is 50 chapters long and i don't know how it justifies that.
However, the game has one problem and it's the gameplay. The gameplay on paper isn't bad but the more i played, the more i could see where it was going and it was definitely heading down the path of absolute tedium. This is a game where the playable roster keeps getting bigger and bigger and while there are times where the characters would split up, the tedium started to become apparent after 13 chapters (5 prologue chapters and eight main chapters is as far as i played). I really do think this game would be a lot smoother to play if they got rid of like half the cast and got rid of the grid because as it stands, it's just tedium. Better to stop things here than keep playing and wait for the tedium really kicks into unforgivable territory because the main story is 50 chapters long and i don't know how it justifies that.
This review contains spoilers
Man, it's been a ride. I first got into the Trails series during my senior year of highschool with Trails in the Sky all the way back in 2018. From there, i proceeded to pretty much binge the series all the way to Trails of Cold Steel 2 (with the exception of Trails of Azure, as a viable fan-translation wasn't out at the time). Then, last year, the PC version of Trails of Cold Steel 3 was finally released although due to my old PC having a broken screen and me having thought i lost my saves in the transferring (until i discovered them earlier this month) led me to put off completing that game for a while.
Now here we are, in May of 2021, and i have finally completed Trails of Cold Steel 4. This game can be considered the Avengers Endgame of the series, for better and for worse. Much like Avengers Endgame, it's kinda hard for me to view this as a normal game because it really feels more like an event. This is a game that knows it's the finale of a saga (but not the series) spanning over a decade so it ends up feeling like a spectacle, a spectacle that ends up bringing together every game up until this point. For example, the first characters you play as in this game are not the heroes of Cold Steel that you've been playing as for the past four games. No, this game's prologue opens up with you playing as the heroes of both Trails in the Sky and Trails to Zero/Azure. The Japanese version of this game has the subtitle "End of Saga" and the prologue essentially lets you know that immediately. And over the course of the game, a ton of characters from the previous arcs end up showing up, not all of them playable, granted, but they show up regardless. The end of the game's second and final acts are with this spectacle is especially noticeable and for the record, both segments happen to be my favorite moments in the entire series. Heck, the final boss fight is reminiscent of the final fight of Endgame, where a bunch of characters come through portals to join the fightalthough it's more accurate for it to be the other way around since this game does predate Avengers Endgame by a year.
Of course, like Avengers Endgame, being a spectacle doesn't excuse it from it's flaws. Trails of Cold Steel 4 does still suffer from problems that affected both the previous Cold Steel games and the series as a whole plus some brand new problems. The three biggest ones that come to mind are the fact that Cold Steel 4 has pretty much nullified the threat of death for our heroes for pretty much the rest of the series. Characters that died in the previous game actually "secretly survived" or were straight-up revived. Now, i'll admit, i can't be too hard on this part because of the reason why the Act 2's finale is so good in my eye's is because of a certain character's comeback but i do know that if a character is killed off in a future game, i won't believe it unless there's absolutely no way they're coming back. The other big flaw with this game's plot is that at this point, i think the main villain group Ouroboros is one of my least favorite villain groups ever. I'll admit, they have produced some good characters but the villain group's goals as a whole are still a mystery nine games in. Literally what the actual fuck do these guys want? Even when they're called out on how their organization doesn't actually make sense, they're still like "uhhh it's all part of the Grandmaster's plan". Like, i could compare this to Emperor Palpatine and how his plan to take over the galaxy made no sense but at least we knew what it was he wanted. Oh and speaking of villains, it is kinda lame that a sentient curse being behind it all is kinda lame. The game does make a point that the curse isn't solely to blame but i would've preferred if there were no curse.
I've been talking a lot about the writing because to be fair, that's kinda like the biggest deal for this game. Thankfully, the gameplay is just as solid as it's always been. I don't have much to say about it but i do question the way they nerfed Brave Orders. They nerfed the effects and made them more expensive to use and that was honestly kinda annoying. Then there's the fact that because this game has too many playable characters and it didn't feel like there were enough resources to properly outfit all of them with the latest gear and whatnot.
If you ask me, Trails of Cold Steel 4 was very much worth the wait and it makes me glad i got into the series a few years ago. Just like Avengers Endgame, it was a spectacle i enjoyed until the end (but unlike Endgame, i'm still invested in the series' future whereas i don't really care what the MCU does from now on)Now to wait two years until the next Trails game gets localized because Falcom hates the West.
Now here we are, in May of 2021, and i have finally completed Trails of Cold Steel 4. This game can be considered the Avengers Endgame of the series, for better and for worse. Much like Avengers Endgame, it's kinda hard for me to view this as a normal game because it really feels more like an event. This is a game that knows it's the finale of a saga (but not the series) spanning over a decade so it ends up feeling like a spectacle, a spectacle that ends up bringing together every game up until this point. For example, the first characters you play as in this game are not the heroes of Cold Steel that you've been playing as for the past four games. No, this game's prologue opens up with you playing as the heroes of both Trails in the Sky and Trails to Zero/Azure. The Japanese version of this game has the subtitle "End of Saga" and the prologue essentially lets you know that immediately. And over the course of the game, a ton of characters from the previous arcs end up showing up, not all of them playable, granted, but they show up regardless. The end of the game's second and final acts are with this spectacle is especially noticeable and for the record, both segments happen to be my favorite moments in the entire series. Heck, the final boss fight is reminiscent of the final fight of Endgame, where a bunch of characters come through portals to join the fight
Of course, like Avengers Endgame, being a spectacle doesn't excuse it from it's flaws. Trails of Cold Steel 4 does still suffer from problems that affected both the previous Cold Steel games and the series as a whole plus some brand new problems. The three biggest ones that come to mind are the fact that Cold Steel 4 has pretty much nullified the threat of death for our heroes for pretty much the rest of the series. Characters that died in the previous game actually "secretly survived" or were straight-up revived. Now, i'll admit, i can't be too hard on this part because of the reason why the Act 2's finale is so good in my eye's is because of a certain character's comeback but i do know that if a character is killed off in a future game, i won't believe it unless there's absolutely no way they're coming back. The other big flaw with this game's plot is that at this point, i think the main villain group Ouroboros is one of my least favorite villain groups ever. I'll admit, they have produced some good characters but the villain group's goals as a whole are still a mystery nine games in. Literally what the actual fuck do these guys want? Even when they're called out on how their organization doesn't actually make sense, they're still like "uhhh it's all part of the Grandmaster's plan". Like, i could compare this to Emperor Palpatine and how his plan to take over the galaxy made no sense but at least we knew what it was he wanted. Oh and speaking of villains, it is kinda lame that a sentient curse being behind it all is kinda lame. The game does make a point that the curse isn't solely to blame but i would've preferred if there were no curse.
I've been talking a lot about the writing because to be fair, that's kinda like the biggest deal for this game. Thankfully, the gameplay is just as solid as it's always been. I don't have much to say about it but i do question the way they nerfed Brave Orders. They nerfed the effects and made them more expensive to use and that was honestly kinda annoying. Then there's the fact that because this game has too many playable characters and it didn't feel like there were enough resources to properly outfit all of them with the latest gear and whatnot.
If you ask me, Trails of Cold Steel 4 was very much worth the wait and it makes me glad i got into the series a few years ago. Just like Avengers Endgame, it was a spectacle i enjoyed until the end (but unlike Endgame, i'm still invested in the series' future whereas i don't really care what the MCU does from now on)
2016
Ghost 1.0 is a Metroidvania where you get to control enemies and while that does sound like fun, i feel like the game didn't take full advantage of that. Most of the time, you'll be controlling enemies simply for puzzle solving. It was pretty fun controlling enemies and making them fall to their deaths but i gotta say, this was definitely the game's biggest missed potential.
The general gameplay itself is good enough though. It controls well and the combat being generally quick was nice. I prefer it when Metroidvanias are faster-paced. However, the game suffers when it comes to boss fights, as i don't think there's an actual good boss fight here. The final boss is the worst one, as it's less of an actual fight and more of a cargo protect mission that is simultaneously a bullet hell. The game also does this thing where you lose all money when you die and at least for me, this meant i couldn't upgrade and buy new things as much as i wanted to.
The worst part of the game however, is the writing. Early on, it's very cringe and filled with shoehorned pop-culture references. Later on, the game takes itself seriously but i couldn't really care as i had no reason to care about any of the characters. Ghost herself is very flat and while her fist bumping every time she beats a boss is cute, it's not enough. The two supporting characters aren't much better (they are the source of the cringe dialogue) and the villains just don't exist. I know Metroidvanias aren't known for their writing but all the other ones at least made me care about the characters in some way. Honestly, this game would've been a lot better if there was no dialogue.
I bought the game for $3 so i'm not actually mad at this. Like i said, the core gameplay is good enough but there's just a lot of missed potential here and i'd definitely call it the worst Metroidvania i've played so far.
The general gameplay itself is good enough though. It controls well and the combat being generally quick was nice. I prefer it when Metroidvanias are faster-paced. However, the game suffers when it comes to boss fights, as i don't think there's an actual good boss fight here. The final boss is the worst one, as it's less of an actual fight and more of a cargo protect mission that is simultaneously a bullet hell. The game also does this thing where you lose all money when you die and at least for me, this meant i couldn't upgrade and buy new things as much as i wanted to.
The worst part of the game however, is the writing. Early on, it's very cringe and filled with shoehorned pop-culture references. Later on, the game takes itself seriously but i couldn't really care as i had no reason to care about any of the characters. Ghost herself is very flat and while her fist bumping every time she beats a boss is cute, it's not enough. The two supporting characters aren't much better (they are the source of the cringe dialogue) and the villains just don't exist. I know Metroidvanias aren't known for their writing but all the other ones at least made me care about the characters in some way. Honestly, this game would've been a lot better if there was no dialogue.
I bought the game for $3 so i'm not actually mad at this. Like i said, the core gameplay is good enough but there's just a lot of missed potential here and i'd definitely call it the worst Metroidvania i've played so far.
(Technically played on Wii U but whatever, it's basically the same thing)
Metroid Prime was the series' rough transition to 3D. Metroid Prime 2 was somewhat an improvement but was not enough in the grand scheme of things. But Metroid Prime 3? Metroid Prime 3 fixed nearly every single one of my complaints from the previous two games. Corruption is the peak of Prime.
From the moment i started, i knew this game would be different. Yes, part of it had to do with the fact that that, being a Wii game in 2007 absolutely meant "we must use motion controls" but considering how good the motion controls were in the Wii versions of Prime 1 and 2, this wasn't really an issue at all. Instead, this game featured a few more things you could do with the motion controls but it was never really intrusive. No, the real reason this game is immediately different from any other Metroid game at the time was the narrative. Metroid stories are usually told visually. There'd be a little exposition dump at the start but that'd be it. Fusion was the first Metroid game to have a more active narrative and if Metroid Prime was just Super Metroid but in 3D, then Metroid Prime 3 is just Metroid Fusion but in 3D and given steroids. Having a full narrative in a Metroid game might sound weird but i really enjoyed it and the main reason was because it was the first Metroid game to truly start fleshing out the Metroid universe. By design, this franchise's universe is pretty barren which is why what Prime 3 adds to that becomes much more special. This is the first time in the series where we actually get to see how the Federation functions instead of them just being killed off at the start. This is the first Metroid game where we actually get to learn that Samus actually has a few friends here and there. There isn't really much to see of the Hunters before they get corrupted but what we do get to see is nice. And most importantly, we get to see more of the Metroid universe in general. This game honestly has my favorite areas in any Metroid game that i've played because of distinct they are.
Norion is you standard Federation based and it serves as a decent prologue. Bryyo immediately makes an impact the moment you land there, both in the music department and visually. The Pirate Homeworld was really nice as Samus finally takes the fight to their own front door. But by far my favorite location in not just the entire game but the entire series is Skytown, Elysia. It's very obviously based on Bespin from Star Wars but instead of one big floating city, it's several floating cities all spread out, making for a more visually pleasing sight. The cherry on top here is the music. I love the Skytown theme and it's a song you could put in a Xenoblade game and it would not feel out of place because that's the vibes i got from it. In fact, the music in general is very good in this game. Definitely tied with Zero Mission for best OST in the series.
But what about the actual gameplay? Well like i said earlier, the game does away with nearly every complaint i've had with the previous two Prime games. This game has a strong emphasis on combat and it happens early on. For the first time in the series, the Grapple Beam is weaponized, allowing for use both in and out of combat. Oh an enemy has a shield? Just rip that thing right off. And this isn't counting the additional grapple upgrades you get in the game, allowing for even more utility. Beams finally stack again and while i never had a problem with how beams worked in the previous two Prime games, i definitely prefer stacking over individual beams. Hypermode (not the difficulty of the same name) is fun to play around with, even if it's too broken. But most importantly, the thing that Retro Studios finally got right here, is the boss fights. Most of them are actually really fun. There are a few shitters (one of which is probably the worst boss in the entire series) but i didn't mind in the grand scheme of things because i was finally having fun with these fights.
As far as navigation goes, this essentially being Fusion in 3D on steroids meant that there wasn't really any lack of direction for the most part. There was occasional moments where i got stumped but nothing was quite at the level where it gets bad. And because Skytown is super based, the observatory room there allows you to download the location of nearly every upgrade location in the game, with the exception of those found in the Valhalla. And speaking of the Valhalla, this game has it's own endgame mcguffin fetch quest except it's not dogshit like the last two times. You actually come across them naturally, the game tells you which ones you have and which ones you don't and you don't need all of them unless you're going for 100% (although it is possible you'll end up needing them all anyway if you don't explore the main path in the Valhalla).
Despite how much i've praised this game, there are a few issues and missed opportunities here. For starters, the load times are kinda weird in this game. They are actually worse if you're playing it on the Wii from what i hear but on Wii U, it's not too bad. But still, there were plenty of times where i'd shoot to open a door....only to have to wait a bit. Being able to upgrade your ship is neat conceptually but the amount of Ship Missile Expansions you can get is baffling when you're never gonna use them. Outside of scripted events, at what point are you ever gonna use your ship to bomb enemies (you can do this apparently) when Hypermode exists? And speaking of the ship, there's all these buttons that you can press while inside and it made it seem like there'd be a shoot 'em up section or something but no, it's just there for decoration. The boss fights are a massive improvement yes, but some of the ones towards the end just kinda start dragging a bit too much. Some enemies in general are just too spongy. Hypermode makes short work of them but i think there could've been other ways to incentivize Hypermode. And of course, it wouldn't be a Metroid Prime game if the endgame wasn't ass. It's true, the mcguffin hunt isn't bad in this game but in exchange, the final area is. You're basically placed on a time-limit as you have to stave off Phazon corruption. If the yellow meter at the top fills up, it's game over and the final boss lasts a bit too long, so combined with that, it does cause some unnecessary stress. I can only imagine the pain in Hypermode difficulty.Oh and also the Samus entrance fanfare doesn't play when you start a play session so the game is dogshit actually. Jokes aside, hearing it every single time you step off your ship got annoying pretty quickly. I love the tune but the tune works so well because it signals the start of a new play session and not because you just moved to a new location.
The Prime trilogy, as a whole, is rough. Metroid Prime 1 and 2 aren't bad games but they leave a lot to be desired. Metroid Prime 3 is a genuine, drastic improvement that actually comes the closest to being as good as the 2D Metroid games. I myself will still prefer the 2D games but at least with Metroid Prime 3, i can understand where the debate of 2D vs 3D comes from.
See you next mission.
Metroid Prime was the series' rough transition to 3D. Metroid Prime 2 was somewhat an improvement but was not enough in the grand scheme of things. But Metroid Prime 3? Metroid Prime 3 fixed nearly every single one of my complaints from the previous two games. Corruption is the peak of Prime.
From the moment i started, i knew this game would be different. Yes, part of it had to do with the fact that that, being a Wii game in 2007 absolutely meant "we must use motion controls" but considering how good the motion controls were in the Wii versions of Prime 1 and 2, this wasn't really an issue at all. Instead, this game featured a few more things you could do with the motion controls but it was never really intrusive. No, the real reason this game is immediately different from any other Metroid game at the time was the narrative. Metroid stories are usually told visually. There'd be a little exposition dump at the start but that'd be it. Fusion was the first Metroid game to have a more active narrative and if Metroid Prime was just Super Metroid but in 3D, then Metroid Prime 3 is just Metroid Fusion but in 3D and given steroids. Having a full narrative in a Metroid game might sound weird but i really enjoyed it and the main reason was because it was the first Metroid game to truly start fleshing out the Metroid universe. By design, this franchise's universe is pretty barren which is why what Prime 3 adds to that becomes much more special. This is the first time in the series where we actually get to see how the Federation functions instead of them just being killed off at the start. This is the first Metroid game where we actually get to learn that Samus actually has a few friends here and there. There isn't really much to see of the Hunters before they get corrupted but what we do get to see is nice. And most importantly, we get to see more of the Metroid universe in general. This game honestly has my favorite areas in any Metroid game that i've played because of distinct they are.
Norion is you standard Federation based and it serves as a decent prologue. Bryyo immediately makes an impact the moment you land there, both in the music department and visually. The Pirate Homeworld was really nice as Samus finally takes the fight to their own front door. But by far my favorite location in not just the entire game but the entire series is Skytown, Elysia. It's very obviously based on Bespin from Star Wars but instead of one big floating city, it's several floating cities all spread out, making for a more visually pleasing sight. The cherry on top here is the music. I love the Skytown theme and it's a song you could put in a Xenoblade game and it would not feel out of place because that's the vibes i got from it. In fact, the music in general is very good in this game. Definitely tied with Zero Mission for best OST in the series.
But what about the actual gameplay? Well like i said earlier, the game does away with nearly every complaint i've had with the previous two Prime games. This game has a strong emphasis on combat and it happens early on. For the first time in the series, the Grapple Beam is weaponized, allowing for use both in and out of combat. Oh an enemy has a shield? Just rip that thing right off. And this isn't counting the additional grapple upgrades you get in the game, allowing for even more utility. Beams finally stack again and while i never had a problem with how beams worked in the previous two Prime games, i definitely prefer stacking over individual beams. Hypermode (not the difficulty of the same name) is fun to play around with, even if it's too broken. But most importantly, the thing that Retro Studios finally got right here, is the boss fights. Most of them are actually really fun. There are a few shitters (one of which is probably the worst boss in the entire series) but i didn't mind in the grand scheme of things because i was finally having fun with these fights.
As far as navigation goes, this essentially being Fusion in 3D on steroids meant that there wasn't really any lack of direction for the most part. There was occasional moments where i got stumped but nothing was quite at the level where it gets bad. And because Skytown is super based, the observatory room there allows you to download the location of nearly every upgrade location in the game, with the exception of those found in the Valhalla. And speaking of the Valhalla, this game has it's own endgame mcguffin fetch quest except it's not dogshit like the last two times. You actually come across them naturally, the game tells you which ones you have and which ones you don't and you don't need all of them unless you're going for 100% (although it is possible you'll end up needing them all anyway if you don't explore the main path in the Valhalla).
Despite how much i've praised this game, there are a few issues and missed opportunities here. For starters, the load times are kinda weird in this game. They are actually worse if you're playing it on the Wii from what i hear but on Wii U, it's not too bad. But still, there were plenty of times where i'd shoot to open a door....only to have to wait a bit. Being able to upgrade your ship is neat conceptually but the amount of Ship Missile Expansions you can get is baffling when you're never gonna use them. Outside of scripted events, at what point are you ever gonna use your ship to bomb enemies (you can do this apparently) when Hypermode exists? And speaking of the ship, there's all these buttons that you can press while inside and it made it seem like there'd be a shoot 'em up section or something but no, it's just there for decoration. The boss fights are a massive improvement yes, but some of the ones towards the end just kinda start dragging a bit too much. Some enemies in general are just too spongy. Hypermode makes short work of them but i think there could've been other ways to incentivize Hypermode. And of course, it wouldn't be a Metroid Prime game if the endgame wasn't ass. It's true, the mcguffin hunt isn't bad in this game but in exchange, the final area is. You're basically placed on a time-limit as you have to stave off Phazon corruption. If the yellow meter at the top fills up, it's game over and the final boss lasts a bit too long, so combined with that, it does cause some unnecessary stress. I can only imagine the pain in Hypermode difficulty.
The Prime trilogy, as a whole, is rough. Metroid Prime 1 and 2 aren't bad games but they leave a lot to be desired. Metroid Prime 3 is a genuine, drastic improvement that actually comes the closest to being as good as the 2D Metroid games. I myself will still prefer the 2D games but at least with Metroid Prime 3, i can understand where the debate of 2D vs 3D comes from.
See you next mission.
2015
This is probably the most forgettable game i've ever played. I have nothing to latch onto here but it's not in a way that makes me think "oh this game just isn't for me". Because even with games that i've dropped for not being my thing, i've at least felt something while playing them. But this game gave me a new feeling of just....boring nothingness that i can't say i've ever felt from a game before.
I don't know if i played enough of the game to properly score it but i will just for giving me this feeling of nothingness that i've never really felt before. It would've been better if this game was just straight-up bad.
At least the music that plays in the bars is pretty neat.
I don't know if i played enough of the game to properly score it but i will just for giving me this feeling of nothingness that i've never really felt before. It would've been better if this game was just straight-up bad.
At least the music that plays in the bars is pretty neat.
2017
Sonic Mania is very fun. I don't really have a whole lot to say here. Visually, it's great, musically, it's great (Metallic Madness 1 best song), it controls great. Only thing that's very cringe about the game is if you game over because doing so makes you redo the whole Zone instead of just the Act and i don't know why they thought that was ok for a game that came out in 2017.
But other than that, game's fantastic.
But other than that, game's fantastic.
2021
I don't have the best track record with the Tales series. I've attempted to get into the series multiple times but the gameplay of previous titles just never clicked with me at all, feeling very awkward. I was finally able to find a Tales game i enjoyed being Tales of Berseria, a game which shifted away from Tales' familiar LMBS system and into something more traditional-feeling of an ARPG. So when i saw Tales of Arise continuing this trend, i knew i'd probably enjoy it. But what i didn't expect was an improvement to this scale.
First, let's get the elephant out of the room: the visuals. Tales has never looked this good and i guess when there's a five-year gap between this installment and the last one, it makes sense that the presentation would receive a major buff. I really have to know why there isn't a photo mode yet (maybe it'll come in an update) because this game really needs it. It looks that good. The music has also received a major buff. Motoi Sakuraba is a good composer but i've always felt his potential was being held back by doing the same style of Tales music for over 20 years. So imagine my surprise when i hear Arise's battle theme and went "oh shit, this one's actually good" and it just went from there. The quality of Arise's soundtrack is comparable to that of Sakuraba's non-Tales works, particularly the Baten Kaitos games. I mean heck, the battle theme here is just The Valedictory Elegy 2.
I mentioned the gameplay at the start of this review and it's definitely my favorite combat system in the series. Of course, that isn't saying much when the only other game in the series i've been able to enjoy is Berseria but i enjoyed it so much that going back to Berseria will be really hard for me, much like how it's really hard for me to go back to Xenoblade 1 after playing Xenoblade X and 2/Torna. In fact, i can compare the streamline-ness of this game with Xenoblade 2 a bit, what with how you use normal attacks to build up your meter so you can use artes. It's not quite as rhythmic as Xenoblade 2's combat and it's obviously just a different system altogether but i got the vibes that contributed to further enjoyment of this game's combat system. That being said, there were some quirks in the battle system that prevented it from truly being great imo. Probably my least favorite mechanic of the battle system is CP. On paper, it basically serves as a universal MP gauge for your healing and support artes. Having a universal gauge for something as simple as that doesn't sound like a good idea but what really kills it is that there's no way to recover CP at all without using items or resting at campfires or inns. This becomes especially problematic since CP is required for certain progression and i had to leave some dungeons a few times because i ran out of CP. The final dungeon was particularly bad with this, given how long it is and that meant backtracking once i got back. Besides that, i felt that the bosses were kinda weird in this game. For some reason, i almost always seemed to be underleveled when i got to it. I fought enemies regularly so it's not like i was just skipping fights. But even with equipment upgrades bosses just never really felt fun to fight for me. And speaking of equipment upgrades, the entire economy in this game is super wack. Everything costs way too much and your income is practically nothing, even with sidequests. You can't buy weapons for some reason, you have to craft them instead and considering that item drops can be stingy at times, this wasn't always reliable.
As for the narrative side of this game, i must say, i do quite like Alphen and Shionne as protagonists. They bounce off each other quite well even if they're quarreling throughout the first half of the game. Compared to other Tales protagonists, i'd say these two are my favorite because of their chemistry and you can't really have one without the other. It also helps that they stand out among the series' rather samey line of protagonists. The other party members are pretty fun too and while throughout the first game of the game, i was feeling they weren't quite as good as Berseria's cast, by the game's second half, i grew to like them enough that i wasn't so sure now about which game has the better cast. I really do appreciate that this game didn't dump all the party members onto you within the first four hours like Berseria did, instead introducing each of them in pairs. This gave them time to be fleshed out and we learned more about them before the next set of party members joined. In that sense, i do like this game's cast over Berseria's but Berseria's cast did have more fun banter so who knows. Guess i'll just be flip-flopping on this.
Story-wise, it's still a Tales game so it's nothing too special. This series isn't known for it's amazing storylines and that's fine, the plot does what it needs to do. What isn't fine though are the villains. The villains in this game honestly set a new low, i haven't seen villains this bad in a long time. I'm familiar with some of the series' storylines to know that writing good villains is a damn near impossibility for this series but at least the other games tried something. Meanwhile, all but one of Arise's villains just show up to die an hour later and the one villain that's actually a recurring threat is just a crazy edgy lunatic. There's nothing inherently wrong with villains who are evil for the hell of it but Arise's single recurring villain Volhran is just the most pathetic excuse for a villain i've ever seen. Part of why the villains suck so much is that we know nothing about them. They're barely in the plot and the story has the audacity to make us feel for them a little bit long after the damage had already been done.
Despite it's flaws tho, Tales of Arise is a good game. I would in fact call it the best Tales game,even though that doesn't mean much coming from me because i only ever actually enjoyed one other Tales game.
First, let's get the elephant out of the room: the visuals. Tales has never looked this good and i guess when there's a five-year gap between this installment and the last one, it makes sense that the presentation would receive a major buff. I really have to know why there isn't a photo mode yet (maybe it'll come in an update) because this game really needs it. It looks that good. The music has also received a major buff. Motoi Sakuraba is a good composer but i've always felt his potential was being held back by doing the same style of Tales music for over 20 years. So imagine my surprise when i hear Arise's battle theme and went "oh shit, this one's actually good" and it just went from there. The quality of Arise's soundtrack is comparable to that of Sakuraba's non-Tales works, particularly the Baten Kaitos games. I mean heck, the battle theme here is just The Valedictory Elegy 2.
I mentioned the gameplay at the start of this review and it's definitely my favorite combat system in the series. Of course, that isn't saying much when the only other game in the series i've been able to enjoy is Berseria but i enjoyed it so much that going back to Berseria will be really hard for me, much like how it's really hard for me to go back to Xenoblade 1 after playing Xenoblade X and 2/Torna. In fact, i can compare the streamline-ness of this game with Xenoblade 2 a bit, what with how you use normal attacks to build up your meter so you can use artes. It's not quite as rhythmic as Xenoblade 2's combat and it's obviously just a different system altogether but i got the vibes that contributed to further enjoyment of this game's combat system. That being said, there were some quirks in the battle system that prevented it from truly being great imo. Probably my least favorite mechanic of the battle system is CP. On paper, it basically serves as a universal MP gauge for your healing and support artes. Having a universal gauge for something as simple as that doesn't sound like a good idea but what really kills it is that there's no way to recover CP at all without using items or resting at campfires or inns. This becomes especially problematic since CP is required for certain progression and i had to leave some dungeons a few times because i ran out of CP. The final dungeon was particularly bad with this, given how long it is and that meant backtracking once i got back. Besides that, i felt that the bosses were kinda weird in this game. For some reason, i almost always seemed to be underleveled when i got to it. I fought enemies regularly so it's not like i was just skipping fights. But even with equipment upgrades bosses just never really felt fun to fight for me. And speaking of equipment upgrades, the entire economy in this game is super wack. Everything costs way too much and your income is practically nothing, even with sidequests. You can't buy weapons for some reason, you have to craft them instead and considering that item drops can be stingy at times, this wasn't always reliable.
As for the narrative side of this game, i must say, i do quite like Alphen and Shionne as protagonists. They bounce off each other quite well even if they're quarreling throughout the first half of the game. Compared to other Tales protagonists, i'd say these two are my favorite because of their chemistry and you can't really have one without the other. It also helps that they stand out among the series' rather samey line of protagonists. The other party members are pretty fun too and while throughout the first game of the game, i was feeling they weren't quite as good as Berseria's cast, by the game's second half, i grew to like them enough that i wasn't so sure now about which game has the better cast. I really do appreciate that this game didn't dump all the party members onto you within the first four hours like Berseria did, instead introducing each of them in pairs. This gave them time to be fleshed out and we learned more about them before the next set of party members joined. In that sense, i do like this game's cast over Berseria's but Berseria's cast did have more fun banter so who knows. Guess i'll just be flip-flopping on this.
Story-wise, it's still a Tales game so it's nothing too special. This series isn't known for it's amazing storylines and that's fine, the plot does what it needs to do. What isn't fine though are the villains. The villains in this game honestly set a new low, i haven't seen villains this bad in a long time. I'm familiar with some of the series' storylines to know that writing good villains is a damn near impossibility for this series but at least the other games tried something. Meanwhile, all but one of Arise's villains just show up to die an hour later and the one villain that's actually a recurring threat is just a crazy edgy lunatic. There's nothing inherently wrong with villains who are evil for the hell of it but Arise's single recurring villain Volhran is just the most pathetic excuse for a villain i've ever seen. Part of why the villains suck so much is that we know nothing about them. They're barely in the plot and the story has the audacity to make us feel for them a little bit long after the damage had already been done.
Despite it's flaws tho, Tales of Arise is a good game. I would in fact call it the best Tales game,
The entire concept of Gravity Rush is pretty unique and given it's status as a cult classic (at least from what i've seen), it felt like it should've been a pretty fun time. Yeah, it should've...
Truth be told, there is a good game hidden in here. The gravity shifting can be pretty fun once you get the hang of it and while combat is barebones and the difficulty is non-existent, it does feel functional (unless it's air combat in which is actually ass). Kat's an alright character and the story started to get pretty interesting at around the mid-game and i found it interesting that all the voice acting (that exists anyway) is done with made up fantasy language. There's just one big, big problem with all of this: the mid-game is actually the late-game even though the game didn't feel anywhere close to done. Just when the story was getting interesting, just when i finally had a firm grasp on the gameplay.....the game starts closing the curtains. I'm well aware there's a sequel and all and perhaps that game improves on what's here but Gravity Rush ended so abruptly that it pretty much didn't give any of it's qualities enough time to shine. It doesn't help that as far as the story is concerned, it leaves so many unanswered questions to the point where the story genuinely feels unfinished. Actually the worst kind of sequel-baiting but at least that sequel's out now. Hopefully it's better.
Also the camera is ass a good chunk of the time (not dealbreaking bad) but i guess that kinda comes with the territory about a game where you can tell gravity to cease.
Truth be told, there is a good game hidden in here. The gravity shifting can be pretty fun once you get the hang of it and while combat is barebones and the difficulty is non-existent, it does feel functional (unless it's air combat in which is actually ass). Kat's an alright character and the story started to get pretty interesting at around the mid-game and i found it interesting that all the voice acting (that exists anyway) is done with made up fantasy language. There's just one big, big problem with all of this: the mid-game is actually the late-game even though the game didn't feel anywhere close to done. Just when the story was getting interesting, just when i finally had a firm grasp on the gameplay.....the game starts closing the curtains. I'm well aware there's a sequel and all and perhaps that game improves on what's here but Gravity Rush ended so abruptly that it pretty much didn't give any of it's qualities enough time to shine. It doesn't help that as far as the story is concerned, it leaves so many unanswered questions to the point where the story genuinely feels unfinished. Actually the worst kind of sequel-baiting but at least that sequel's out now. Hopefully it's better.
Also the camera is ass a good chunk of the time (not dealbreaking bad) but i guess that kinda comes with the territory about a game where you can tell gravity to cease.