BlazedIce
Bio
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YaO4dsg8YNrdeEZIQl4ng
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blazedice
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YaO4dsg8YNrdeEZIQl4ng
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blazedice
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1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
168
Total Games Played
001
Played in 2024
021
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This review contains spoilers
GAMEPLAY
The controls were rather simple and the game probably wouldn’t have worked better in a different way. It definitely let it feel more immersive, both in its entirety and smaller details. A lot of the puzzles felt that way, although some of them were a bit more complex than others (but that’s okay).
I found no major bugs but I noticed the character’s movements were at times unprecise and slippery.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the (good kind of) anxiety I used to get when I first watched someone play INSIDE, not even during chase sequences, but I was younger then. I also think it’s unfair to consider that its main trait, because I believe it really isn’t.
STORY
As I’ve just said, I wasn’t really scared when playing, but the dystopic tones and settings were rather felt: that’s probably my favourite thing about the game because it was quite disheartening to see the sameness of the people and buildings, while whatever/whoever was different was either fleeing, dead or experimented on.
I didn’t full understand the story, but I liked both endings. The main one was honestly depressing: playing as the blob was disturbing on its own but the very last scene where it just lays there on the ground, after finally escaping the facility, was very impactful. The secret one felt more relieving, in a way: I was a bit shocked to know the main character was just a body used by the blob, just like how the former controlled other ones in a few puzzles, but the “definitive” death of both of them just felt like the better outcome.
CONCLUSIONS
I have not much else to say regarding INSIDE, given it was a relatively short and simple experience, but I appreciated it even though not as much as I used to. Probably, because of nostalgia, I had high expectations the game just couldn’t meet.
The controls were rather simple and the game probably wouldn’t have worked better in a different way. It definitely let it feel more immersive, both in its entirety and smaller details. A lot of the puzzles felt that way, although some of them were a bit more complex than others (but that’s okay).
I found no major bugs but I noticed the character’s movements were at times unprecise and slippery.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the (good kind of) anxiety I used to get when I first watched someone play INSIDE, not even during chase sequences, but I was younger then. I also think it’s unfair to consider that its main trait, because I believe it really isn’t.
STORY
As I’ve just said, I wasn’t really scared when playing, but the dystopic tones and settings were rather felt: that’s probably my favourite thing about the game because it was quite disheartening to see the sameness of the people and buildings, while whatever/whoever was different was either fleeing, dead or experimented on.
I didn’t full understand the story, but I liked both endings. The main one was honestly depressing: playing as the blob was disturbing on its own but the very last scene where it just lays there on the ground, after finally escaping the facility, was very impactful. The secret one felt more relieving, in a way: I was a bit shocked to know the main character was just a body used by the blob, just like how the former controlled other ones in a few puzzles, but the “definitive” death of both of them just felt like the better outcome.
CONCLUSIONS
I have not much else to say regarding INSIDE, given it was a relatively short and simple experience, but I appreciated it even though not as much as I used to. Probably, because of nostalgia, I had high expectations the game just couldn’t meet.
This review contains spoilers
Prior to finally finishing the game in 2023, the last time I’d played Breath of the Wild was in the first half of 2019. I put it on hold for so long because of how I was confronting the game: I was mostly wasting time exploring everything and consequently getting nothing done.
I eventually decided to pick it back up last year and complete it because of Tears of the Kingdom’s (at the time) recent release.
GAMEPLAY
What troubled me the most in both 2019 and 2023 was the game’s open world structure. I’m really not a fan of extremely big maps: I love exploring, which is why the more there is to discover, the more time I lose doing nothing useful, as these worlds tend to be pretty empty. I can’t expect them to be completely full but finding the same enemies or empty places multiple times in a row makes the whole experience more like chores than fun to me. This is generally an open world problem, but I had to point it out regardless.
In Breath of the Wild my goal was to complete all 120 Shrines (and defeat the final boss). This, of course, at times made my experience even more tedious: the issue was finding the shrines themselves rather than solving the puzzles – which were pretty fun overall, even the motion ones.
The Divine Beasts being proper dungeons was a fun idea: the puzzles were cool because the technological parts (pretty much new to The Legend of Zelda) were well implemented but the Ganon bosses weren’t as enjoyable.
I liked the combat overall but it felt a bit unresponsive in terms of defense; it might have been a skill issue on my part, though. I also loved putting to use each of Link's abilities.
Many complained about weapon durability but I didn’t mind it at all: caution and strategy were rewarded and I was always full of weapons anyway…
Movement wise, fast travel was nice but climbing and running were rather slow and limited due to stamina, while horseriding controls felt awful to me.
STORY AND CHARACTERS
I honestly don’t have much to say about the story. The lore was cool and Link’s memories from 100 years before the game’s events were also awesome, but the plot itself was pretty boring…
The characters didn’t help. I liked Kass because of his travelling storyteller figure and I loved Urbosa because of her kind but joking attitude, but I mostly disliked the rest.
I don’t know why this Zelda was so hated, though: she wasn’t that interesting but she wasn’t as annoying as people made her seem. I did find particular how she didn’t have the powers she needed at first, something she really struggled with.
VIDEO AND AUDIO
The artstyle was great and managed to make most of Hyrule look beautiful: there were many spots where I could just look at wonderful landscapes.
I didn’t encounter many glitches, and those I found were ones I could enjoy they didn’t ruin the experience.
The Legend of Zelda's music generally isn’t to my taste, but Breath of the Wild's is definitely one of my favourites from the series: I can’t say I liked all of the tracks but there absolutely were many amazing ones.
CONCLUSIONS
My experience with the game was kind of nice, even if split into two years, but nothing that incredible. I still don't get all the hype this title got, but I can guess that by being similar to open world Sony games, while still feeling like a "real" Nintendo product, a wider than usual audience found it appealing. I might be completely wrong, though, since this is barely just a "theory" I have.
I eventually decided to pick it back up last year and complete it because of Tears of the Kingdom’s (at the time) recent release.
GAMEPLAY
What troubled me the most in both 2019 and 2023 was the game’s open world structure. I’m really not a fan of extremely big maps: I love exploring, which is why the more there is to discover, the more time I lose doing nothing useful, as these worlds tend to be pretty empty. I can’t expect them to be completely full but finding the same enemies or empty places multiple times in a row makes the whole experience more like chores than fun to me. This is generally an open world problem, but I had to point it out regardless.
In Breath of the Wild my goal was to complete all 120 Shrines (and defeat the final boss). This, of course, at times made my experience even more tedious: the issue was finding the shrines themselves rather than solving the puzzles – which were pretty fun overall, even the motion ones.
The Divine Beasts being proper dungeons was a fun idea: the puzzles were cool because the technological parts (pretty much new to The Legend of Zelda) were well implemented but the Ganon bosses weren’t as enjoyable.
I liked the combat overall but it felt a bit unresponsive in terms of defense; it might have been a skill issue on my part, though. I also loved putting to use each of Link's abilities.
Many complained about weapon durability but I didn’t mind it at all: caution and strategy were rewarded and I was always full of weapons anyway…
Movement wise, fast travel was nice but climbing and running were rather slow and limited due to stamina, while horseriding controls felt awful to me.
STORY AND CHARACTERS
I honestly don’t have much to say about the story. The lore was cool and Link’s memories from 100 years before the game’s events were also awesome, but the plot itself was pretty boring…
The characters didn’t help. I liked Kass because of his travelling storyteller figure and I loved Urbosa because of her kind but joking attitude, but I mostly disliked the rest.
I don’t know why this Zelda was so hated, though: she wasn’t that interesting but she wasn’t as annoying as people made her seem. I did find particular how she didn’t have the powers she needed at first, something she really struggled with.
VIDEO AND AUDIO
The artstyle was great and managed to make most of Hyrule look beautiful: there were many spots where I could just look at wonderful landscapes.
I didn’t encounter many glitches, and those I found were ones I could enjoy they didn’t ruin the experience.
The Legend of Zelda's music generally isn’t to my taste, but Breath of the Wild's is definitely one of my favourites from the series: I can’t say I liked all of the tracks but there absolutely were many amazing ones.
CONCLUSIONS
My experience with the game was kind of nice, even if split into two years, but nothing that incredible. I still don't get all the hype this title got, but I can guess that by being similar to open world Sony games, while still feeling like a "real" Nintendo product, a wider than usual audience found it appealing. I might be completely wrong, though, since this is barely just a "theory" I have.
GAMEPLAY
A different take on the mainline series (I’m glad it’s treated as part of it) I was pleasantly surprised with, especially compared to the BDSP remakes. It felt new but still Pokémon, and I believe we really needed that. We’re still getting “normal” games, but as we can see from Scarlet/Violet trailers, Legends: Arceus was impactful. It’s one step in the right direction.
Old, typical Pokémon is always fun but, as core points of the gameplay got renewed, my experience with it was even better, for the most part. I loved battle transitions, but basically getting drawn into the fight without them feels more “realistic”; and while the environment might look dull, it’s nice to be able to move around and escape by doing so. The difficulty was considerably higher than previous titles’ and I loved the boss battles because they required the player to avoid attacks themselves.
Catching Pokémon has never been this fun: there’s stealth and consequentially more strategy to it; to me, it never felt repetitive and I actually wanted to complete the Pokédex for once (but it’s also needed to do all the main stuff): very few research tasks were tedious. The same can be said for quests, besides the Path of Solitude (they’re so unfair). Crafting is a cool addition and it doesn’t get annoying thanks to the materials shop.
Exploring Hisui can be relaxing, especially soaring through the skies with Braviary. The ambience and OST are very fitting; the latter is generally good, with lovely references to the original DPP soundtrack. I loved I was able to know more about Sinnoh’s past, through its landscapes, creatures, people and story. Speaking of which, it might not be extremely complex but it was indeed nice, paired with the cast. I still think about some plot points for how awesome they were.
Graphics are the biggest flaw of the game. Pop-ups are jarring, the lighting and the basically non-existent textures feel off, a lot of places look dull and lifeless: in Jubilife village, NPCs feel frozen, barely alive. Although, I must say they did a great job with the moves’ animations; the UI also looks right for the style.
There aren’t too many pieces of clothing or different hairstyles so, while changing some things, I kept the awesome Team Galactic suit on.
TEAM
My team was: Hisuian Decidueye, Empoleon, Luxray, Hisuian Arcanine, Ursaluna and Hisuian Braviary.
I picked Rowlet because he was my favorite of the three starters; I prefer his final evolution to the others, although the Alola one is much better; Hisuian Arcanine looks so heavy and fluffy at the same time and as you may know I love cloud themed stuff; Ursaluna looks like a granny Pokémon and for some reason that’s why it’s my favorite evolution in the game; Hisuian Braviary may not be as good looking as its Unova counterpart, but the psychic “flames” look so cool.
Hisuian Zorua is so cute and Hisuian Snow (which was amazing) made me love it even more, so sad it evolves into… that.
CHARACTERS AND STORY
I hoped Kamado was gonna be likeable like his descendant, Rowan, but he treats the protagonist awfully by throwing them out of town, which makes for an awesome plot point but it’s angering after everything they did for Jubilife Village and Hisui as a whole. He then tries to redeem himself, but it didn’t work well on me.
Colza’s design is terrible which is sad knowing he’s Gardenia’s ancestor, who looks so much better.
Strangely enough, I don’t really have an opinion on Adaman: he’s just kinda there. Maybe my Pearl bias is too strong, but he didn’t leave a big impression on me.
The Miss Fortune Sisters is a fun trio I wish they explored more; of the three I like Coin the most because she seemed so persistent in the post-game battles: I kept finding her at every angle, and I found that so funny.
I unfortunately got spoiled about Volo so the character was a bit ruined for me; he’s still super interesting and I love that the hints were right there, but well hidden. The final twist was still good, regardless of what I knew.
Laventon is one of the best professors: he looks goofy because he is, and he actually looks like he loves doing research and being on the field, because he believes Pokémon and humans can coexist peacefully.
Cogita is an old wise woman who drinks tea, knows lots of stuff and slays that outfit. That’s it and I love it.
Cyllene looks cold but cares deeply about the player: she even lends a hand when she shouldn’t, risking her position.
Arezu seems to be a troublemaker but she always does her best, to the point of endangering herself. I absolutely love her look, just like Mars’s.
Ingo has the best design in the game (him being bald broke me) and his backstory is truly saddening; you know who he is but he doesn’t, and he disappeared from his world without a trace, leaving Emmet alone.
Irida falls under that type of character I can’t describe but I always end up loving: she’s my favorite as she proved to be gentle, understanding and courageous (without hiding her fear). Her relationship with Rei/Akari and Adaman developed extremely well.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, I had a great time and I hope for more content like Legends: Arceus (gameplay wise) in the future.
A different take on the mainline series (I’m glad it’s treated as part of it) I was pleasantly surprised with, especially compared to the BDSP remakes. It felt new but still Pokémon, and I believe we really needed that. We’re still getting “normal” games, but as we can see from Scarlet/Violet trailers, Legends: Arceus was impactful. It’s one step in the right direction.
Old, typical Pokémon is always fun but, as core points of the gameplay got renewed, my experience with it was even better, for the most part. I loved battle transitions, but basically getting drawn into the fight without them feels more “realistic”; and while the environment might look dull, it’s nice to be able to move around and escape by doing so. The difficulty was considerably higher than previous titles’ and I loved the boss battles because they required the player to avoid attacks themselves.
Catching Pokémon has never been this fun: there’s stealth and consequentially more strategy to it; to me, it never felt repetitive and I actually wanted to complete the Pokédex for once (but it’s also needed to do all the main stuff): very few research tasks were tedious. The same can be said for quests, besides the Path of Solitude (they’re so unfair). Crafting is a cool addition and it doesn’t get annoying thanks to the materials shop.
Exploring Hisui can be relaxing, especially soaring through the skies with Braviary. The ambience and OST are very fitting; the latter is generally good, with lovely references to the original DPP soundtrack. I loved I was able to know more about Sinnoh’s past, through its landscapes, creatures, people and story. Speaking of which, it might not be extremely complex but it was indeed nice, paired with the cast. I still think about some plot points for how awesome they were.
Graphics are the biggest flaw of the game. Pop-ups are jarring, the lighting and the basically non-existent textures feel off, a lot of places look dull and lifeless: in Jubilife village, NPCs feel frozen, barely alive. Although, I must say they did a great job with the moves’ animations; the UI also looks right for the style.
There aren’t too many pieces of clothing or different hairstyles so, while changing some things, I kept the awesome Team Galactic suit on.
TEAM
My team was: Hisuian Decidueye, Empoleon, Luxray, Hisuian Arcanine, Ursaluna and Hisuian Braviary.
I picked Rowlet because he was my favorite of the three starters; I prefer his final evolution to the others, although the Alola one is much better; Hisuian Arcanine looks so heavy and fluffy at the same time and as you may know I love cloud themed stuff; Ursaluna looks like a granny Pokémon and for some reason that’s why it’s my favorite evolution in the game; Hisuian Braviary may not be as good looking as its Unova counterpart, but the psychic “flames” look so cool.
Hisuian Zorua is so cute and Hisuian Snow (which was amazing) made me love it even more, so sad it evolves into… that.
CHARACTERS AND STORY
I hoped Kamado was gonna be likeable like his descendant, Rowan, but he treats the protagonist awfully by throwing them out of town, which makes for an awesome plot point but it’s angering after everything they did for Jubilife Village and Hisui as a whole. He then tries to redeem himself, but it didn’t work well on me.
Colza’s design is terrible which is sad knowing he’s Gardenia’s ancestor, who looks so much better.
Strangely enough, I don’t really have an opinion on Adaman: he’s just kinda there. Maybe my Pearl bias is too strong, but he didn’t leave a big impression on me.
The Miss Fortune Sisters is a fun trio I wish they explored more; of the three I like Coin the most because she seemed so persistent in the post-game battles: I kept finding her at every angle, and I found that so funny.
I unfortunately got spoiled about Volo so the character was a bit ruined for me; he’s still super interesting and I love that the hints were right there, but well hidden. The final twist was still good, regardless of what I knew.
Laventon is one of the best professors: he looks goofy because he is, and he actually looks like he loves doing research and being on the field, because he believes Pokémon and humans can coexist peacefully.
Cogita is an old wise woman who drinks tea, knows lots of stuff and slays that outfit. That’s it and I love it.
Cyllene looks cold but cares deeply about the player: she even lends a hand when she shouldn’t, risking her position.
Arezu seems to be a troublemaker but she always does her best, to the point of endangering herself. I absolutely love her look, just like Mars’s.
Ingo has the best design in the game (him being bald broke me) and his backstory is truly saddening; you know who he is but he doesn’t, and he disappeared from his world without a trace, leaving Emmet alone.
Irida falls under that type of character I can’t describe but I always end up loving: she’s my favorite as she proved to be gentle, understanding and courageous (without hiding her fear). Her relationship with Rei/Akari and Adaman developed extremely well.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, I had a great time and I hope for more content like Legends: Arceus (gameplay wise) in the future.