Devil May Cry 1'i 10 yılın ardından tekrar oynadım, 10 yıl önce oynadığıma göre daha çok beğendim. O vakit pek beğenmemiştim zaten ama şimdi biraz daha fazla beğenmemin sebebpleri şunlar; oyun bu sefer kanser etmedi beni. Sebepleri de şunlar;

İlk kez oynarken save sistemine ayar olmuştum baya çünkü direkt bölüm başına atıyordu, checkpoint yoktu. Bu da beni sinir etmişti ilk kez oynarken çünkü en baştan başlamak beni hep sıkan bir şeydi. Şimdi dert olmadı çünkü şunu fark ettim; bölümler süper kısa.

10 dakikanın altında bitiyor böümler. Kimi bölümler 1-2 dakikada hatta. Save gereksinimi yaşamadım o yüzden. Bir de can basma gibi destekleyici eşyalar da olunca üstelik. Yellow orb'lar da zaten checkpoint sistemini işliyor aslında, sadece sınırlı sayıda.

Yellow orb'lar saçma sapan yine de o ayrı. Çünkü öldüğünde sana sormadan aktif oluyor hemen. Aktif edildiğinde de checkpoint işlevi görüyor ama o ana kadar eşya kullandıysan onları yenilemiyor. Ve görev başında ölünce de kullanıyor, ki gerek yok çünkü zaten bir checkpoint yok.

Oyundaki tek saçma bulduğum sistem Yellow Orb'lar, onun dışında öldüğünüzde bölüm başından koymuyor bölümler kısa olduğu için. Ve açıkçası düşmanlar zor da gelmedi bana zaten, pek ölmedim öyle. Düşmanlar zorlu aslında ama oyun sana da cömert davranıyor gayet.

Devil bar'ı çok hızlı doluyor ve uzak menzilli silahlar aşırı dağıtıyor düşmanları, özellikle Grenade mahvediyor herkesi, boss'ları bile. Bir de kasılmak zor da değil oyunda. Bir de oyunda map sistemi var ve çok işe yarıyor, hiç kaybolmuyorsun oyunda.

Nereye gitmen gerektiğini de gösterince özellikle direkt çok hızlı bitirebiliyordum bölümleri. Bu ilginç çünkü ilk defa oynarken ben bu oyunda kaybolup duruyordum. Ya map'i hiç kullanmayı akıl edememiştim ya da fark etmemiştim bile bilmiyorum.

Oyunun combat'ı çok tatmin edici. Savurduğumuz hamlelerin ağırlığı ve düşmanların tepkileri o yıldan çok güzel ayarlanmış. Ses efektleri de aşırı iyi, ateş etmek çok güzel hissettiriyor bu oyunda. Bölümler de hiç fena dizayn edilmemiş, pek kompleks değil öyle ama yeterli.

Genel bölüm haritası her ne kadar bir bütün olsa da; gitmen gereken yerler çoğunlukla bariz olduğundan düz gidiyorsun yine ama bir bütünlük olması güzel. Yolunu kendin buluyorsun en azından map'e bakarak. 5.oyunu gibi "Düz koridorda yürü sadece" oyunu değil.

Bölümler çok güzel tasarlanmış. Atmosfer şahane. Gotik tasarımı çok yaratıcı ve temasını güzel donatmış oyun. Baştan aşağıya görsel dizayn olarak ustalık ve profesyonellik kokuyor. Tek sorunum combo ve yakın silah çeşitliliği konusunda biraz kıt olması. Tekrara biniyor oyun.

DMC replay maratonundayım ve ilk oyunu bu sefer sevebilmiş olmanın memnuniyetini yaşıyorum. Bayılmadım o ayrı ama gayet sevdim. Bu da yeterli benim için, fazlasında gözüm yok. Beni PS2 dönemine ışınladı bir de.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is another one of those games I mostly remember hearing about in magazines. It received a lot of praise at the time, but being as it was an Xbox exclusive, it was forever out of reach like other well-regarded classics of that generation, like Jet Set Radio Future and Blinx the Time Sweeper. You have no idea how much I longed to play Azurik: Rise of Perathia, there was a whole universe of games just beyond my grasp!

Unlike JSRF and its own predecessors, Orta is actually fairly accessible today thanks to the Xbox marketplace, and used copies are still reasonably priced. I've been thinking of grabbing one as recent delistings has inverted my prior (psychotic) belief that I need digital backups of all my physical games. Gotta cover all my bases, I need to be able to play this grungy-ass port of the PC version of Panzer Dragoon whenever I'd like, that's important.

In any case, it's nice that I finally got to check this game off my list after 20+ years of thinking "I really should play Panzer Dragoon Orta," and I'm happy that it lived up to years of continued hype. Orta feels like a culmination of Panzer Dragoon's narrative and mechanical ideas, borrowing from all three previous games in one way or another to create what I think is the most fully realized entry in the series.

Obviously, Orta models itself after the on-rails entries rather than continuing down the turn-based RPG path laid out by Saga. That's not to say it jettisons all of that game's identity, of course. Orta is similarly narrative heavy and makes good on Saga's world building and storyline by focusing on Azel and (presumably) Edge's daughter. Look, it's a little hard to say, Azel just downloaded some DNA and I'm not about to check the file properties on that. Orta also borrows from Saga's positional combat in a way that feels very naturalistic, so much so that I had to question if it was present in Zwei.

Speaking of Zwei, the dragon yet again has the ability to grow over time, but no longer does so based on end-of-level scores. Rather, it changes shape in real-time when enough power-ups are collected in a given form to advance it to the next stage of its evolution. This feels like a natural progression from Zwei, and though the effect might seem quaint today, that level of skeletal deformation and changes to texture mapping is one of Orta's most impressive features. Being able to swap between different attack types also adds a layer of depth, and the deeper into the game you progress, the more rapidly you'll find yourself flicking between forms in order to manage different enemy types. Though I found this a bit overwhelming initially, once you find the right flow and develop an eye for what enemy types you need to counter, it feels pretty good.

Unfortunately, I live in an imperfect, shitty, fucked up world where a sequel to Saga and the overall health of the franchise was solely dependent on how well Orta performed. Since then, we've gotten a remake of the first game that released 18 years after Sega put the series on ice, and people tore it apart for reasons I still can't quite wrap my head around. I think it's safe to say the book is closed on Panzer Dragoon, and that's a shame, but I do think Orta is a good note to go out on. There's no cliffhanger ending here to weigh down on me, though Orta's story is left open, and the gameplay is so tight and refined that I'm not left with a sense that they needed one more game to get things right.

Sometimes you just gotta be grateful for the Panzer Dragoons you got.

Dragons Dogma is at its absolute best when its behaving like a classic dungeon crawler, and Dark Arisen exhibits this in spades. Deep in the bowels of Bitterblack Isle, the game takes on a gritty, heavily D&D inspired, slightly Monster Hunter-esque dynamic where youre getting stomped by some of the most grueling creatures the game has to offer. Boldly oppressive, distilling Dragons Dogma to its strongest elements.

This wasnt exclusive to Dark Arisen of course, the original had things like the Everfall. But the addition of Bitterblack and the expansion of “The Endgame” really heightens this aspect of the game, tools and challenges to express some mastery of Dragons Dogmas systems - which could be very valuable considering how weird Dragons Dogma is as a fantasy ARPG. You might not get too many of these so you its good you can really dig in.

Lan ben buna inceleme yazmayı unutmuşum

Objektif bir gözle baktığımızda bu oyun 10 puanlık bir oyun mudur bilmiyorum. Açıkçası hiç umurumda da değil. Ben bu oyuna ilk çıktığında 1 saat bakıp kapatmıştım. Sonra ta 2023 sonunda dönüp bitirdim. Tatlı Cel-shaded görsellik de ortalama bir hack and slash oynayacağımı düşünürken oyun beni hiç tahmin etmediğim yerlerden vurup kendine bağladı adeta.

Öncelikle oyunun en iyi yaptığı şey açık ara görselliği. Oyunun harika bir görselliği var. Hem bu görsellik hem de karakterlerin kendileri artık 7. Nesil de kalmış olan o eğlenceli punk havasını ve karakterlerini çok güzel yansıtıyor. Bu tarz bir şeyden çok uzun süredir mahrumdum ve bu oyun bir anda bununla çıkıp gelince çok mutlu oldum.

Hikaye ve karakterler tam olması gerektiği gibi oyunun havasına çok uygunlar. Aralarında yeteri kadar etkileşim var ve oyunun sonuna geldiğinizde bir ekip olduklarını hissedebiliyorsunuz. Hiçbiri aşırı derin tipler falan değiller ama arkadaşlık konseptini içerisinde bulundukları evrende gayet güzel işlenmişler. Oyunun mizah anlayışına da genel olarak beğendim. Yer yer güldürmeyi başardı. Müzikler konusunda da oyun çok başarılı. Harika bir punk albümü yapmışlar. Tüm oyun yerinizde durmadan hoplaya zıplaya oynuyorsunuz.

Oynanış açısından da oyun gayet çeşitli ve eğlenceli. Sırf kendi combolarınız ve özel hareketleriniz bir yana ekiptekilerin de hem savaş içerisinde hem de platform ve bulmaca anlarında aktif olarak kullanılabilmeleri çok güzel bir çeşitlilik katıyor. Oyunun ritim özelliği düşmanlarda ve özellikle bosslar da çok iyi kullanılmış. Çeşitli ritim sekanslarının savaşlara dahil olması çok güzel olmuş. Hem çeşitlilik katmış hem de daha eğlenceli yapmış savaşları. Bossların kendilerini de hem zorluk hem dizayn olarak baya başarılılar. Oynanış anlamında bu oyun bir dmc kadar falan derin bir oynanış sunmuyor. Ama o kadar derin olmamasına rağmen acayip eğlenceli olabilmeyi başarıyor ki buna yetiyor.

Kısacası ben bu oyuna bayıldım. Karakterleri, görselliği, müzikleri ve o özlediğim o eğlenceli rockstar/punk havası ile acayip güzel bir oyun. Beni bu kadar çok eğlendirdiği için bastım 10 puanı.

I love the way exploration works here; the refusal to budge on fast travel save for diegetic ox carts, snatching back dark arisen's infinite ferrystone, and stretching the landmass both horizontally and (especially) vertically is wonderful. in many, many ways it's a bigger, slower, denser game, and they did it all while focusing on the most mundane environments devoid of giant theme park attractions bulging from every flat surface

likewise I love the idea of elaborating on the sense of traversal and moving toward a holistic spirit of adventure. deteriorating health ceilings aid attrition and help answer the inherent slime of menu heals, and having campfire rests operate as something of a risk/reward mechanism goes a long way toward giving each journey a greater heft and substance

even something as transparently gamey as designing the map as a network of funnels and chokepoints stippled with smaller threats and crosshatched with bigger ones was very clever; it's all just nouns crashing against nouns as they fire down chutes, but when coupled with the meaty physicality of the game's interactivity it goes a long way toward building up those Big Moments

but the consequence of trash mobs operating as speedbumps means moment-to-moment encounters operate more as filler than anything you could consider independently engaging scenarios. it also means that despite the map being several times larger than gransys it ends up feeling a lot more suffocating due to all the overlapping nouns slamming and interrupting each other without end

I just about luxuriated in the rare opportunities to enjoy brief spells of negative space; I savoured it like one of those FMV steaks. I'd kill for more moments like the arbor or the battleground where I was able to inhabit the world as a pilgrim or wanderer rather than serial wolf slaughterer or battahl sanitation expert, but they're very few and far between

there's no escaping the impenetrable walls of goblins, wolves, harpies, and saurians polluting every inch of the world. the already slender DD bestiary's been ported over nearly 1:1 with about as many additions as subtractions, and between the absurd density and massive landmass the variety ends up looking and feeling significantly worse than it did when it was first pilloried twelve years ago in a notoriously incomplete game

when the Big Moments do happen they're often spectacular, and it's easy to see why the chaotic intersection of AI, systems, and mechanics was prioritized so heavily and centered as the focal point of the entire experience. early on every bridge that breaks behind you, every ogre leaping from city walls, and every gryphon that crushes your ox cart feels huge and spellbinding; the game's at its best when all the moving parts align just right to achieve dynamic simulacrum, leveraging unpredictability to carry encounters well above their station

where that stuff loses me most is in the complete lack of friction. for a game with so many well considered means of drawing tension out of discovery it manages to render most of them meaningless when you're never being properly threatened enough to let them kick in. camping, eating, crafting, consumables, ambushes, and setpieces all take a significant blow from the chronic lack of bite, and it's frustrating to see so much potential go to waste when everything's already set up unbelievably well for success

even if you choose to go it alone, or do as I did and run with a party of two (ida + ozma: wily beastren + weakest creature), it only does so much when every corner of the map has CAPCOM Co., Ltd superpawns and npcs popping out of the ground to aid you unbidden and monsters are all mâché sculptures begging to be stunlocked. where's hard mode? why does it feel like everything DDDA did right got ignored? we just don't know

I'd have been happy if the game yanked a bit of control back with some kinda endgame/post-game dungeon, but there isn't one; there aren't really dungeons in general. in opting for quantity (50+!!) over quality we end up with none of them feeling particularly curated, and none of them having the scope or menace of the everfall, let alone bitterblack. no ur-dragon either, which is just baffling. the entire run from endgame to post-game is a gaping hole where something oughta be but certainly isn't

when I hit credits I felt almost confused, like I'd just been tricked into playing a remake or reboot of the original dragon's dogma that somehow had less material stretched even thinner. I enjoyed what I played for the most part, but the more thought I put into it the more it feels compromised and unfinished in all the exact ways itsuno promised over and over it wouldn't be this time around

there's a lot to love here: stuff like fucked up modular teeth, the sphinx, seeker coin platforming, pawn bullshitting, the dragonsplague, cyclops ragdolls, opaque sidequests, intentional tedium, and routinely bizarre interactions. much of what was good in the past remains good, and even bits that stumble backward generally land someplace close to decent regardless. some of the vocation/gear downgrades aren't to my liking, and there's an odd shallowness that hangs over the experience, but I think I liked it?

I just don't really get it

Feels more like a solid remake or a Dragons Dogma 1.5 than a sequel. It's more of the same which can be a good or bad thing depending on your expectations. For example, if you're expecting plenty of new enemy types, bosses or drastic changes to gameplay systems (like improved Pawn AI) compared to the first game that's really not here.
It's mostly the same game as Dragons Dogma 1 base game but bigger. The focus of the game is clearly on a general open world experience with fun to control player classes. There is very little on the side of tight combat focused dungeons like Bitterblack Isle (DD1 Dark Arisen expansion).

The combat and party management is still fun make no mistake, but it's definitely on the side of a power trip game where the player character grows powerful quickly (both statistically and mechanically) but enemies do not improve to match.
The variety of enemy encounters seems like one of the weakest points of the game. It's a sequel but 90% of the enemies you face are things you might already know from DD1. The bulk of enemies are trash mob level goblins, bandits and saurians which have 4-5 recolors based on how far you are in the game. But the way you fight them is exactly the same. It's not like they gain some threatening new attack or AI behavior, so going back to the first area to fight the same enemy class feels much the same.
I think this is a big loss since the core combat does feel good but the enemies really blur together and by the end of the game you might just be doing the same attack sequences and not care about what enemy you're fighting.

The difficulty level is low and XP gain from enemies scales very little; a mid-tier enemy like a Cyclops gives 1/3 the XP of an endgame boss. Exploring the map thoroughly will have you get overleveled for the main story quests quickly even if you don't intend to.

If you're looking for a challenging action RPG dungeon crawling experience like Bitterblack Isle or just lots of new enemies to face and new gameplay systems compared to DD1 that's not in DD2, at least on release.