Artema
2013
Absolutely unplayable. It's impossible to configure a ds4 controller even while using ds4windows. Unnaceptable for a company as big as Ubisoft.
2012
Awful game. I'm convinced anyone who praises it hasn't played it and just thinks the concept seems cool.
To start off: the controls. Really creative and i can see potential here but they end up being your greatest enemy. Having to aim and move the camera at the same time makes for unnecessarily hard combat. Movement also feels unresponsive since dodging, dashig and walking are all the samr input, the game expects you to be able to do all three correctly at the right times while fighting the camera and aiming at the same time, all of this results in dashing when you don't want to, doing a dodge attack with a lot of recovery when you don't want to, getting hit by an enemy behind you which you can't reasonably see in time since you are fighting an army in front of, and hitting proximity melee attacks with a lot of recovery and momentum. In summary, fights feel less like fighting enemies and more trying to make Pit do what you want him to do. Air sections don't have these problems of course but they are not flawless. The main problem here is the clutters of enemies sent your way which makes the shots harder to see and dodge, worse part being the fact that 90% of enemy shots are homing and multiple times enemies appear so close so suddenly as to make shots undodgeable. Also some weapons just don't work for aerial sections not because of lack of power but lack of range, which is an implicit stat, not something you can easily see before buying or fusing.
Speaking of weapons, the system sucks, it's nice that there's variety but at the end of the day close range sucks and the most valuable stat is a low charge, something which you cannot know until you spend resources to get the weapon, so if you get particularly unlucky you could use a great weapon that might not have strong stats for the next missions and then get a strong weapon with awful charge time.
Regarding difficulty, the way it works is interesting, having to bet money to play harder difficulties and get more rewards. But why does it have to lower each time you die? You end up always resetting so you can get the difficulty you actually want, it discourages making mistakes and learning from them and encourages just lowering the difficulty.
Awful, terribly designed game that had a lot of potential.
To start off: the controls. Really creative and i can see potential here but they end up being your greatest enemy. Having to aim and move the camera at the same time makes for unnecessarily hard combat. Movement also feels unresponsive since dodging, dashig and walking are all the samr input, the game expects you to be able to do all three correctly at the right times while fighting the camera and aiming at the same time, all of this results in dashing when you don't want to, doing a dodge attack with a lot of recovery when you don't want to, getting hit by an enemy behind you which you can't reasonably see in time since you are fighting an army in front of, and hitting proximity melee attacks with a lot of recovery and momentum. In summary, fights feel less like fighting enemies and more trying to make Pit do what you want him to do. Air sections don't have these problems of course but they are not flawless. The main problem here is the clutters of enemies sent your way which makes the shots harder to see and dodge, worse part being the fact that 90% of enemy shots are homing and multiple times enemies appear so close so suddenly as to make shots undodgeable. Also some weapons just don't work for aerial sections not because of lack of power but lack of range, which is an implicit stat, not something you can easily see before buying or fusing.
Speaking of weapons, the system sucks, it's nice that there's variety but at the end of the day close range sucks and the most valuable stat is a low charge, something which you cannot know until you spend resources to get the weapon, so if you get particularly unlucky you could use a great weapon that might not have strong stats for the next missions and then get a strong weapon with awful charge time.
Regarding difficulty, the way it works is interesting, having to bet money to play harder difficulties and get more rewards. But why does it have to lower each time you die? You end up always resetting so you can get the difficulty you actually want, it discourages making mistakes and learning from them and encourages just lowering the difficulty.
Awful, terribly designed game that had a lot of potential.
Dragon Quest V is an RPG about the bonds of family and the importance of teaching the next generations. This game's story, while extremely simple, manages to evoke emotions throughout the plot even if their simplicity and predictability lessen the impact.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
Dragon Quest V is an RPG about the bonds of family and the importance of teaching the next generations. This game's story, while extremely simple, manages to evoke emotions throughout the plot even if their simplicity and predictability lessen the impact.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
Dragon Quest V is an RPG about the bonds of family and the importance of teaching the next generations. This game's story, while extremely simple, manages to evoke emotions throughout the plot even if their simplicity and predictability lessen the impact.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
Having said all that, I can't recommend this game to people unless i know for a fact they'd like almost any turn-based RPG the same as i do. The mechanics are simple enough as expected of any Dragon Quest title but they aren't fun, in combat the best choice is always to just press the attack command because magic is rare, not always hits all enemies (only groups of them instead) and not cost effecient. This means all you do in the game is run around place to place pressing the A button all the time. To make this faster you'd need to get better equipment but the issue with this is that the stat difference between equipments is so small and the price is so high you end up skipping equipment for most of the game adding to the samey feeling. Regarding party members, they change during the course of the game with the only exception being the main character, this means you are almost forced into the newly added mechanic of monster taming in which monsters you defeat become party members. This would deal with the problems i mentioned earlier, the monsters could be adept at magic with decent amounts of MP, provide support, etc. In practice, since monster taming is random, you could end up with mediocre monsters and no supports or mages which would mean all those roles would have to be taken care of by the player character, your best DPS. Not to mention that using monsters instead of the party made by your family defeats the purpose of the game (And the most optimal party is made entirely of monsters and your character).
Speaking of your family, the titular character, your bride, could be any of 3 characters chosen by you, sadly, her role on the story is barely anything more than being the mother of your children and this is also reflected in-game, being the worst member of the family party regardless of your choice, she gets the worst equipment, the worst strenght and no support, she could be passable as a mage. The kids aren't that special, the boy is actually the chosen hero which is a cool spin to the formula but doesn't amount to much at least he is good as a party member but it's weird how the 2nd best damage character is the only non-monster that learns a multi heal spell (the worst one) so he spends more time healing than attacking, the little girl sadly has no story relevance and she is a mage, while a decent one at the end of the game a lot of enemies have annoying immunities to her.
In summary, my main problem with this game is that gameplay-wise it's nothing more than pressing A all the time and the characters aren't that interesting despite the premise. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone because it's just boring and plain.
2017
Sonic Mania is an extremely overrated game.
Behind the beautiful spritework and nice songs lies an uncontrollable mess. The game suffers with something every 2D Sonic game does, there's no way to react to obstacles when you are going so fast, that means the best way to approach stages is to just jump randomly in hopes you land in the best path possible.
Sonic controls like crap, takes way too long to accelerate so controlling him in the slow parts is a pain. The slightest momentum makes you unable to spin dash which is almost fixed by the new drop dash mechanic but this one is slower than a regular spin dash also there's the fact that you can only drop dash when you are the one jumping. Why limit the player's mobility like that? There's the same issue with the elemental shields.
Regarding the emeralds, they suck, to start off to get them you have to explore in a Sonic game, you gotta stop dead on your tracks to search every wall in hopes you get a special ring, but you just might find a powerup or a bunch of rings, not to mention that there's 2 in every stage where there's countless paths. Once you get into the bonus stage you find it's another uncontrollable mess, even more so than the regular stages.
Finally the bosses, they are shit, every single one, it's a matter of having 1 ring and damage boosting through them, nothing interesting comes out of them.
If you want a good Classic Sonic game play Sonic Generations.
Behind the beautiful spritework and nice songs lies an uncontrollable mess. The game suffers with something every 2D Sonic game does, there's no way to react to obstacles when you are going so fast, that means the best way to approach stages is to just jump randomly in hopes you land in the best path possible.
Sonic controls like crap, takes way too long to accelerate so controlling him in the slow parts is a pain. The slightest momentum makes you unable to spin dash which is almost fixed by the new drop dash mechanic but this one is slower than a regular spin dash also there's the fact that you can only drop dash when you are the one jumping. Why limit the player's mobility like that? There's the same issue with the elemental shields.
Regarding the emeralds, they suck, to start off to get them you have to explore in a Sonic game, you gotta stop dead on your tracks to search every wall in hopes you get a special ring, but you just might find a powerup or a bunch of rings, not to mention that there's 2 in every stage where there's countless paths. Once you get into the bonus stage you find it's another uncontrollable mess, even more so than the regular stages.
Finally the bosses, they are shit, every single one, it's a matter of having 1 ring and damage boosting through them, nothing interesting comes out of them.
If you want a good Classic Sonic game play Sonic Generations.
2019
A very fun and very short metroidvania, the levels movement and progression are all great, the secrets are a bit lackluster though, 99% of them are just you randomly throwing knives at the walls.
The bosses are very fun and the main appeal of the game, the only problem is that they are very easy unless you challenge yourself to beat them without using the main mechanics of the game. The bosses would be way better if instead of being damage sponges that force you to use broken spells, they used the time stop in creative ways, there's only 1 attack in the game that actually requires time stop to dodge, and only a handful of very easy to dodge attacks made to counter time stop.
The bosses are very fun and the main appeal of the game, the only problem is that they are very easy unless you challenge yourself to beat them without using the main mechanics of the game. The bosses would be way better if instead of being damage sponges that force you to use broken spells, they used the time stop in creative ways, there's only 1 attack in the game that actually requires time stop to dodge, and only a handful of very easy to dodge attacks made to counter time stop.
In summary, this game does nothing special but is still a solid game.
The levels are short and fun, they leave a lot of places out of reach so you come back to get the optional stuff when you get further into the game, an issue i have is that your transformations also have unlockable skills, so it's really annoying having the elephant but still not being able to break rocks below you.
The movement feels really limited when compared to pirate's curse, out of all the transformations only the monkey and the harpy (that you get at the end of the game) make for fast and fun ways to move, all the other might as well be colored keys for colored doors, you only use them for specific puzzles and most of them are just a check if you have it or not.
The game is very easy, you get a lot of health and healing items and you can even get all the shop upgrades after stage 2 if you do an easy exploit. Most of the bosses are beating by just hard tanking.
Regarding the dlc, i've played the risky one and friends to the end. Playing as risky is fun as you get most of pirate's curse moveset, sucks that there's no scimitar and the hat and cannon were nerfed behind skill upgrades, you get a bit less health but the strategy is still hard tanking, game is still very easy.
Friends to the end is terrible. Imagine playing the game with 3 health and slow and boring movement, supposedly this dlc is puzzle focused but that's only true for the (very fun and challenging) last level, the rest of the dlc is the base game, again, the dream squids are boring collectables that give you nothing. I stopped playing here because i really didn't want to play the same game again.
I've said a lot of bad things but i genuinely believe it's a fun game, just not the best and certainly worse than pirate's curse.
The levels are short and fun, they leave a lot of places out of reach so you come back to get the optional stuff when you get further into the game, an issue i have is that your transformations also have unlockable skills, so it's really annoying having the elephant but still not being able to break rocks below you.
The movement feels really limited when compared to pirate's curse, out of all the transformations only the monkey and the harpy (that you get at the end of the game) make for fast and fun ways to move, all the other might as well be colored keys for colored doors, you only use them for specific puzzles and most of them are just a check if you have it or not.
The game is very easy, you get a lot of health and healing items and you can even get all the shop upgrades after stage 2 if you do an easy exploit. Most of the bosses are beating by just hard tanking.
Regarding the dlc, i've played the risky one and friends to the end. Playing as risky is fun as you get most of pirate's curse moveset, sucks that there's no scimitar and the hat and cannon were nerfed behind skill upgrades, you get a bit less health but the strategy is still hard tanking, game is still very easy.
Friends to the end is terrible. Imagine playing the game with 3 health and slow and boring movement, supposedly this dlc is puzzle focused but that's only true for the (very fun and challenging) last level, the rest of the dlc is the base game, again, the dream squids are boring collectables that give you nothing. I stopped playing here because i really didn't want to play the same game again.
I've said a lot of bad things but i genuinely believe it's a fun game, just not the best and certainly worse than pirate's curse.