Layers upon layers, another piece built from those conniving Canadians!

For one reason or another, I put down Jade Empire twice before. I’m not really sure why, I thought what I played was interesting enough to finish as part of my journey in BioWare’s catalog, so I’m just gonna blame this on my poor attention span yet again. I digress, after replaying KOTOR1 and KOTOR2, I figured now was a good time to finish this since I knew it’d be relatively shorter than Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate, both of which I want to cover when I have full energy because as anyone who’s binged decently lengthed RPGs back-to-back under a busy schedule can tell you, shit’s soul draining! So now that I finished it for the first time, let’s talk about it… after going over the PC port. In terms of getting this to work on modern hardware, it’s quite a step-down of tinkering when compared to KOTOR1, not quite as reliant on patches and mods. Most of the configuration can be done with the game’s INI file, such as increasing anti-aliasing and anisotropic filters which can also be combined with the graphic card control panels, as well as allowing for a higher framerate (which, in terms of physics timing, only messes up cloths and clouds), but there’s two issues that need to be taken care of externally. Get this file dropped onto the game’s folder to avoid massive stutters or anything of that nature, and set the compatibility on the game’s EXE file - the literal game EXE, not the config or launcher EXE - to Windows XP2/3 in case it doesn’t start, and you’ll be set. As is generally the case of old titles, prioritize buying it on GOG, but if you’re like me and settled on a Steam copy, know that getting it to work there is, thankfully, pretty painless! The additions contained within SE aren’t much, so I’ll give a brief overview: touched up graphics, tweaked/new enemy AI to address complaints about the difficulty being easy - which in turn has a new unlockable setting for NG+ runs - which at the end of it all doesn’t really matter for reasons I’ll elaborate on later, one new character to choose as your main character, and some new form of attacks/weapons. An IGN interview back in late 2006 goes into more detail, but suffice to say, you’ll play a slightly different experience on the original Xbox release a la Backwards Compatibility or real hardware compared to this version that’s also available on Mac and Mobile platforms. This is also why I didn’t log that version on here to begin with plus this page is far more likely to get clicked on anyway.

So, what is Jade Empire anyway? In BioWare’s long-running career, it’s one of their more neglected titles, something I merely found murmurs and hushed whispers upon discovering it a few years ago. Well, remember when BioWare passed up the offer to make a sequel to KOTOR1 and recommended Obsidian? During this period, sects of the studio were working on two ideas and starting up another, all of which not being based on any existing property: Dragon Age, penned by David Gaider and starting up around 2002; Mass Effect, which was spearheaded by Casey Hudson and soon Drew Karpyshyn that would kick off in 2004; and this one, chiefly written by Mike Laidlaw and Luke Kristjanson, with Kevin Martens as lead designer, Mark Darrah being the leading programmer, and Jim Bishop serving as its director, containing co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk as producers while it was underway during 2001 - actually, these two in particular have been wanting to create JE for a while, with Zeschuk at the 2011 DICE Summit revealing info an old prototype called Five Fingers Of Death they showed to Interplay, whereupon the publisher “laughed them out of the building” after viewing. This time, however, would be different, thanks to a steady incline of the studio’s quality product releases, skillset within the people, as well as tech advancements necessary to make it a reality. This wasn’t the first original title BioWare released, and shit if you really wanna stretch that meaning it wasn’t even the second, but it does mark the biggest turning point of the three aforementioned endeavors, as well as serving as the missing link between the Canadian’s past philosophy of pulp-centric prose and meticulous RPG mechanics, with a new one more focused on streamlining several aspects so as to make its approach available for anyone and everyone along with that Narrative Trick I mocked before. They weren’t settling on dealing licensed deals anymore, they were looking to expand the scope and scale, and hopefully make an immensely alluring setting to explore on top of that. Of course we uh, now know what has happened to them after the fact, but let’s ignore the passage of time for a bit shall we?

It’s funny I mention the Trick, cause speaking as someone that’s seen this structure ad nauseam during this span of BioWare’s life, Jade Empire’s a bit of a fresh air by comparison. There is a set of McGuffins to pick up, but they’re not necessarily the main focus so much as a secondary effect of the main plot concerning the Emperor and their strong-armed, paramilitaristic force dubbed the Lotus Assassins, ones that have kidnapped your Master Li. This, in turn, means sprinklings of Ancient Civilization lores are dispersed during key points within the story, not every single time you hit a story check from a McGuffin pickup. Actually, the game as a whole favors linearity, having different hubs with subareas to explore and revisit but not quite to the same degree of open-ended exploration as KOTOR1, DA, and ME, plus even this stops being the structure once the third act hits where it very much is a straight shot to the end. Sure, some old tropes are still here, such as the your tutorial area being torn asunder, prompting your premade MC from a selection of six (seven in SE), a well-meaning yet uncertain Lawful Good companion, and a Checkered Past Soldier at your side to head off in search of your mentor, but to my surprise, so much I’ve come to learn and witness in ME and DA have their start HERE. Kang, a mad scientist whose ingenuity with technology is only matched by his off-kilter diction? That’s just what Mordin would end up becoming in ME2! Young Wild Flower, a child whose death had been intervened by the presence of spiritual beings, anchoring her life to the mortal world once more? Wynne, is that you? The back-and-forth spats the cunning yet detached Silk Fox and the aforementioned starting companion Dawn Star remind me so heavily of what Morrigan and Alistair would end up doing, though heavily lacking in quips. It’s not just the character archetypes that this applies to, Jack Wall is the composer here and, alongside the OST being pretty damn underrated in general befitting of the aesthetic and tone, numerous pieces feel like a starting point for what he’d later do for the company, especially a certain Suicide Mission… actually that section the music plays in as a whole reminds me of it. Now that I think about it, earlier than that there was a utilization of a moment akin to the ME3 PTSD montage. Makes sense, it’s a popular writing tool after all, and to give credit it's handled fairly better- aw fuck wait a section earlier than that did the Beam Run uhhhh shit ok let’s move on NOW-

Above all else, the intricacy placed onto the worldstate is immensely alluring. Now, my combings of non-Japanese East Asian media, especially those under the Wuxia genre or Classic Chinese Literature, is rather meek, merely pertaining to action movies starring Jackie Chan, region-raised directors such as King Hu and their films, or at the loosest of ties other arts also inspired by it like Avatar The Last Airbender. I know enough about common pieces and setups that are abound here such as the Journey Of The West vibes or some of the popular cliches in those mediums, and have learned key details like companion Black Whirlwind being based off of Outlaws Of The Marsh’s Li Kui, but I’m not fully confident about how deep the influences permeate, nor am I in a place to judge on how culturally appropriative the application of these aesthetics and feel have become with some exceptions (Henpecked Hou is the comedy relief bellying a whole lot of stereotypes, and of course you can expect a white-dominant voice cast), a topic that Mark Darrah has reminisced on in a video he made three months ago. With all that said, this mixture of cultures culminates in a world I’m utterly fascinated by, a feeling I haven’t felt in an RPG in quite a while. Seeing the type of direction Matt Goldman took regarding the fictionalized setdressings and world ethos on full display is utterly captivating, with all its steampunk elements intertwining with the spiritual/mythological elements from Eastern folklore, as well as all the different Ages, Dynasties, and country-specific iconographies and coloring. From the serene, humble starting area of Two Rivers, to the riverside touchstone that is Tien’s Landing, to perusing Imperial City’s many, many quadrants and gathering spots, plus all the interconnected locales that can be visited, special sects of Heaven and celestial beings that inhabit it, even seeing the effort placed into having a fictional language ruleset and structure thanks to the hiring of University of Alberta’s psycholinguistics student Wolf Wikeley, it’s all been a consistent treat to gawk over. Gotta give props to all the different menu backgrounds available at each story point as well! I even kept up with all the in-game supplementary material, though with numerous screencaps since this doesn’t have a Codex menu, it seems like that started in ME1.

And that narrative man, alongside all the sidequesting to be had and some quirky moments to enjoy, I always kept myself in check due to all I’ve heard about the story being pretty outstanding by the studio’s standards. While there’s still some tropes and ruses either from themselves or the genre influences it’s taking from, I was pretty invested as to where things were going despite the slow burn, and when I finally hit that obligatory twist… I was floored for the rest of it, and began to see what others had meant. I wish this site had a spoiler text insertion option instead of an all-or-nothing toggle, because there’s so much I want to detail in regards to the subject in question and how, as someone that’s gotten used to all of the studio alumni’s writing quirks, it was enthralling to see what might be not only their best villain from this era and beyond, but also their best twist purely from an implication and revelation standpoint. I love Saren, and Loghain’s a very cool antagonistic force, but even I have to bow to the mighty grandmaster that’s here, especially since they give you equal respect upon defying them over and over to the end. On the other side of the coin is the Water Dragon, a mystical being that guides the player through all the trepidations and obstacles that awaits them, always being an curious and enigmatic force that you aren’t quite sure as to what exactly their exact goal is leading up to, or if it’s even something you want to help with. The way both of these intermix within the plot is fantastic, and it really helps sell the scope as to what exactly is currently happening, and why you need to push onward to fix it all in your fashion. The thing is, for as great and near-masterful as the narrative and worldbuilding are, the rest of the material in this game is merely solid. Good, even! But it hurts seeing something so bursting and emboldened with potential, just not quite reach it, a feeling I haven’t been levied upon in quite some time.

Expanding more on the party depth, they’re a step above what KOTOR1’s crew are like, but still aren’t quite as intriguing as I’d like them to be. There’s Zin Bu, who’s really just the everpresent merchant that allows you to stock up on any new items, sort of like how it was done in ME1’s Normandy Requisition Officer and DAO’s Bodahn. The aforementioned comedic relief Henpecked Hou, a cook who used to partake in the Drunken Master style, having stories that revolve around his harmful relationship with his wife mixed with bad luck shenanigans, which is like… fine, but not really fulfilling. Black Whirlwhind’s the gung-ho axe warrior who’s expositions revolve around his oddjobs and how they end in gratuitous and violent outcomes. Again, this is fine, even got me to chuckle, but there’s not enough substance to last, and his arc that becomes available in the Imperial City’s Arena feels so haphazardly inserted, like there was supposed to be more but got harshly truncated. Sky, a devilish yet heartfelt rogue, is just a guy you pick up, has a backstory with his daughter and family but this doesn’t really go anywhere - in fact, numerous times I have stumbled upon wikis sourcing that Chris Priestly, part of the quality assurance team, detailed how Sky was supposed to more within his arc and development until it was all cut before release. I can’t exactly verify it since the forum has shut down and from hitting multiple dead ends on Wayback Machine, but it really wouldn’t surprise me since not only would this explain the rather bewildering cutscene interaction near the end, but his arc feels very much like a prototype that Zevran in Dragon Age would utilize. Wild Flower and Kang are probably the best executed when it comes to this simpler approach, these two have their own sets of interactions you have to delve into either in dialogue or concocting different formulas in Lord Lao’s Furnace, pertaining to Flower’s spirit demon dilemma of Chai Ka and Ya Zhen as well as Kang’s lost memories resurfacing with each success, and the completion of these arcs are wrapped up neatly and tightly. The only ones that have any amount of depth (excluding a few more due to spoilers) are Sagacious Zhu, the previously described Checkered Past Soldier, Dawn Star who’s your designated and also previously described Lawful Good companion, and Silk Fox, a self-assuring rebellious royal princess who hooks up to get to the bottom as to what’s happening as well. Thing is, they also don’t quite hit as well as they should because again, it feels like they’re suffering from a lack of development. Moments that should register as emotional climaxes, especially when it comes to Zhu’s musings and actions, don’t land enough of an impact due to this nagging feeling of an arc being fast-forwarded unto the conclusion - this is especially the case with Silk Fox, since you only recruit her to the team in Chapter 3, effectively the game’s mid-point. As for Dawn Star, well, she’s just utterly boring, nothing you haven’t really seen before especially in Bioware titles. The only real praise I can give is they at least feel like a unit, each of them have their own interjections they expound out loud, a step in the right direction after how hollow KOTOR1’s party interaction ended up, helping with the fact that you can direct SF, DS, and Sky onto the Closed Fist path as well - on that note, here’s what the general systems are like.

Since this is an action-RPG hybrid, Bioware’s usual streamline implementations make a lot more sense here, and eases up as to what the bare essentials are like for the stat side of the equation. You have three to manage, Body which relates to Health, Spirit ostensibly being Magic to harness Chi, and Mind ostensibly being Stamina to control Focus, with two combinations of them funneling into the three classic persuasion tactics, Charm, Intuition, and Intimidation. Both the persuasions and the stats can be increased or decreased with essence gems you plop onto your special Dragon Amulet, an important tool that also plays pretty heavily onto the plot, alongside other benefactors like evasion cost, XP additions, the (dis)frequent appearance of special orbs during combat, and other miscellaneous effects. As a result, build variety in this regard comes more into speccing two of the three stats, and slotting on gems that either enhance those, or boost other attributes, which you know what? Works super well for what it is. It’s nothing extravagant or managing as their other titles, but for the type of angle this is gearing towards, it works pretty damn well, and each time I thought that a particular scenario needed one of these stats to be higher, it was easy to answer as such. They also make for extremely easy money pooling considering you can trip over them in the world like it’s nothing. There’s also minigames you can participate in, most of them pertaining to a verti-shump heavily inspired by the likes of Legendary Wings, Xevious, and… Ikaruga?! Damn, I can’t believe Sheldon Carter was playing some kino shit before the design outlines. Anyway, these are alright, not at all challenging but serve their role as decent distractions fine enough, and a majority of them are completely optional meaning you can skip them to your heart’s content. A major detraction, however, is this game’s morality system. In layman’s terms, it’s the prelude to the original Mass Effect trilogy’s Paragon/Renegade binary, and if you’re not familiar with the trappings that entails, we’re presented with a misaligned and over-the-top Super Good vs. Extremely Evil choices instead of Idealized Unity vs. Pragmatic Survivalist. Sure, sometimes in the game you get choices that actually boxes them into these supposed categories, like Tien’s Landing’s fate either being about the central community of people or prospership from sailors and wayward souls, but in the forest above that town you’re subjugated into either helping a tricky yet well-meaning fox spirit, or actual, literal cannibal demons. So, ya know, not really thought out! I suppose a silver lining is that, some of these Closed Fist prompts are so outlandishly cruel and insane, that playing a route purely dedicated to this would make for one of the funniest experiences in a Bioware title. I’ve seen and dabbled some of these in action, it’s actually kind of a riot even if it’s unintentionally so.

Deo Perez and Aidan Scanlan go over the process about the kinematic inspirations and mechanics of combat, although, and this could be my upbringing of the Odyssey Engine titles clouding my sight, despite being a new engine this feels like an overhaul of those entries’ action-queue lineup to be more real-time and cutting down on the waiting. I played this whole thing on K+M controls though so maybe I’m just insane. I digress, this is likely one of their better combat systems solely cause it’s easy to break in half. With Chi being able to heal you upon held use and Focus being a slow-mo ability that trickles down (yes this is as useful as it sounds), you have seven style branches to choose from, Martial, Weapon, Magic, and Transformation are all damage-inducing techs, with Support being self-explanatory along with two unique ones that don’t fall into any of that. You upgrade each of a skill’s three attributes somewhat akin to a TTRPG spreadsheet, getting enough points on level ups to fulfill the required amount for augmentation. Despite the rather awkward motions and inputs, the actual moment-to-moment fighting isn’t all that bad, honestly, I’d even say when it all comes together it can be pretty invigorating. When participating as intended it can be pretty fun flipping, blocking, and changing into different techs for all sorts of actions. The problem is that, of the titles in this era of Bioware, this game is the easiest to break. See, you’re likely to end up sticking with the same 3-5 styles throughout the venture, only because you like their approaches or because they’re just outright broken (more on this in a bit). On the one hand, this is an understanding compromise, since wuxia and martial media are all about using the same pool of abilities at all times with little deviations and variations upon them. On the other hand, this thought process falls off hard because the hierarchy of combat prowess is incredibly lopsided, DPS with mid-long reaches and fast animation being favored over pure might with slow startups or stubby punches with weak range. Legendary Strike has cool kicks and motions, but I tossed it aside since Leaping Tiger is much faster and longer reach to close the gap on enemies. The staff is pretty good for foes that are either in front of or a bit away from you, but it gets obfuscated by twin axes in the midgame that do the same job yet better. Mirabelle, a unique GUN style obtained as an optional reward from a quest involving John Cleese’s character, is utterly broken cause it does great damage even starting out, and has an animation cancel that’s supremely easy to figure out and abuse, to the point of outright stunlocking an opponent with ease including the final boss! And that’s just with Martial and Weapons, don’t get me started on Magic, Support, and Transformations, including the Jade Golem and Storm Dragon styles! Even disregarding all of that, the enemy AI in general doesn't really put up much resistance. I played on Normal from start to finish, and despite a rough beginning, the skill curve plateaus since you can easily figure out then exploit enemy patterns and movements, block or flip to the side, then start to whale on them back - and like I said at the beginning, Special Edition supposedly rebalances the difficulty, but I didn’t really feel a difference or a desire to change up my tactics. Once again, I’ll point you all towards Mark Darrah’s comment.

It’s been a good week or so since finishing Jade Empire, and it’s been on my mind for all that time. It’s a weird title, feeling half-baked despite all the effort and love placed into it, with all its charm and ideas hitting just right, and the overall execution still tight enough to make for an entertaining and good time. In an old GamesIndustry article I once linked, Greg Zeschuk had lamented that, if they could’ve held it off for just a bit longer, perhaps they could’ve made it an Xbox 360 launch release, a unique opportunity for both the company as well as a better foothold for the game to plant itself in. Even with that, multiple of the old staffers have expressed in interest in revisiting the IP, and there’s been uncoverings of canceled plans for a successor, getting to the point that art director Matt Rhodes had shared concept arts both on his Instagram and ArtStation pages. Despite all of this… nothing has come about since, and with the way Bioware has been careening downward towards potential closing, I don’t think it ever will unfortunately. This is what’ll make recommending it somewhat difficult and tricky; do you want to play a game that, despite its untapped potential and unlikely chance of revival, is unique in most cases amongst its peers to make up for it? Are you a Bioware nut that just has to play all of their games no matter what? Have a weekend's break and want to spend it succinctly? Do you just want an excuse to nerd out over all the Chinese implementations and culture? Then go right ahead! At the end of it all, the worst you’ll feel is underwhelming disappointment, with the best being the enamourment of a captivating space.

If Legacy was the good, and Exiled Prince was the bad, this is right in the middle.

In an attempt to do more cross-media outings, the people at Bioware got together with Felicia Day to create the Dragon Age Redemption live series, as well as this add-on, both of which released on the same day and all centering on an Elf character she conceived known as Tallis. I never watched Redemption and don't care to, and my experience with things Felicia Day was in is small, so how does this celebrity-driven new character fair under my circumstances? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh she's alright. While I think her quip-style nature (in fact this also goes for certain other comedic elements in this campaign's story) can be rather bad, and there's a weird fixation on getting to be Nice™ to her with some unnecessarily amount of romance options, I can't quite say she's super egregious and intrusive regardless. The crux of her dilemma centering on the Qun's Ben-Hassrath philosophy helps flesh both her and the faction out just a bit, she's an adequate enough Rogue to pull some muscle in combat, and I'll admit there were a handful of times she got me to chuckle. I was weary about this, but I think anyone trying to posit this as a Writer's Pet scenario are rather exaggerating the ordeal.

As for the actual content within, it's.... well it's just standard Bioware fair. Walk around a slice of Orlais thanks to the backdrop of Chateau Haine for a bit, participate in numerous events organized by Duke Prosper de Montford alongside offbeaten sidequesting, do more walking around and infiltrating to hit your main goal, go all in on the dungeon combat once caught, I can't exactly say much since all I experienced here isn't all that different than their prior outings. Well, there is an optional stealth section you can partake in, and it sure is a stealth section added onto a game that isn't known for stealth! Don't take all of this as a bad thing though, since this is once again released well after the base game's launch all the tweaks and considerations applied onto Legacy were still done here as well, so again, no stupidly elongated combat sequences and everything goes down as quickly as they should be. This was marked as a 2-4 hour endeavor on HowLongToBeat, and it's sure as hell felt like I spent 2-4 hours doing all of it. The optional Sky Horror encounter and the final bout against the Duke didn't feel all that gruesome, but they're still very much things that can trip you up if you aren't keeping on your toes and doing some level of thinking, which again, felt nice considering what the base game was like.

Usually when Bioware does their final add-on for a game, there's a sense of finality to it, but this is the rare time where the ending is just... that. It closes off suddenly, and not much else reinforces the type of mini-theme that this was about, or even the main theme. Mike Laidlaw did talk about how the work being done on Frostbite, and ostensibly the work for Inquisition, caused them to pull the plug on a big expansion they were tinkering away on, and rework some of its transitory essence into full-on plot points for that title, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was to be the final farewell to this entry. Whatever the case, I suppose it's fitting that this - and hell, this trio of add-ons as a whole - have perfectly encapsulated the rocky, rocky foundation of Dragon Age 2 succinctly and effectively.

It took some fine-tuning, but I set up an Amiga emulator called FS-UAE after realizing quite a number of games I'm interested in have this as their origin point. Of course, instead of (cult) classics like Lemmings and Defender Of The Crown, or even ones people know about like Chuck Rock or James Pond, I went with a game that only one other person has played and has a Genesis version. Clearly, I have the best priorities in mind. On the note of familiarity, let's talk about the developer studio Raising Hell Software, cause a rabbit hole I fell into beforehand was what lead me here. Seemingly, due to some naming shenanigans, they had to rebrand themselves as Bizarre Creations, which later on would become more known as the studio behind Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, among other sleeper hits coming out way after like Metropolis Street Racer and Blur. I've yet to find a concrete source about that particular tidbit, but Martyn Chudley has been open about the transitional period, so at least the lineage is legit. Plus, after playing this I can parse the more quirky, rather off-kilter pastiches of presentation value they would later become known for, so ya know, silver linings!

In this 2D speed platformer, you play as either Wiz or Liz, tasked with collecting "wabbits" and whatever letters of a word they drop after a cauldron mishap has occurred across the same pool of 8, distinct locales in a set cycle depending on whether easy, normal, or hard was selected, with the Genesis port allowing a code to unlock a 'very hard' difficulty once inputted, each one affecting the time limit and how many cycles you have to complete. There's also a different selection as to whether you want the speed to be normalish, fast, or REALLY fast. After completing all of them, you're then finally pitted into a fight - read: dodge while a beam hones in on the target - against bosses such as a snake or a clock or a flower or other strange subjects. To its credit, the loop starts off pretty well, each section has a pretty and detail-ridden setting that don't particularly get in the way of visibility and gauging as to where the floating objects are gonna float over to. Each level also contains ingredients to put onto the cauldron and mix with another for different effects, such as poofing up minigames, a shop and a place to buy hints once nabbing enough stars to trade in, and gags such as a fake-out death. As for getting stuff such as new life and clocks to increase the timer, aside from the aforementioned shop, you're basically accumulating enough points to cross the threshold necessary to constitutes a new life or run around and pick up the clocks when doing the main game, both of which are also available in a filled-in bonus at the end of a level, meaning there's little pressure in scampering for either one.

Due to this, the satiation for the runtime and satisfaction from the loop dry up pretty quickly, and in their place the tedium steps in, what with there being absolutely no shake ups to the levels in each restart nor the speed factor having any more meat to it than "chain the wabbit and item pickups in a satisfying way". Potion mixing is similarly bare, I only got a level skip option once, two bonus minigames, a few different doors cropping up, with the other times being either points or jackshit. Definitely could've used some sprucing up in the gameplay department, there's a good potential within this type of speed-oriented mechanics, but the end product ends up feeling more like a proof of concept for a more expanded game than an outright full package. You could argue that part of the value is replaying this at the increase skill levels, but since the only thing that's changing are the speed of the base kit proportional or contrasting the increase/decrease of a timer, I don't find that really means well in the grand scheme. Consider this a recommend if you're someone that's very curious about the life of the Amiga and/or Bizarre Creation's pedigree. Still, there could've been worse games to kickstart the Amiga emulation train. I mean, no disrespect to the platform, but there seems to be some particularly noteworthy stinkers on offer here... two of which I already mentioned at the beginning. Aw well, those aren't coming for a decent while anyway.

Since every epic/dark fantasy setting needs cryptic and mischievous witches, David Gaider penned up Flemeth and Morrigan, two of the big players in the series’ overarching narrative. I kinda don’t want to spend too much time on Flemeth due to this, but she is important for Morrigan’s upbringing, what with the seclusionist mindset and unyielding manner for her to go out and explore much beyond their hut habitat, as well as that whole near-venomous nurture mentorship that he may have likely been influenced from the same sources as before (and maybe some Obsidian roots too, but that could just be me looking far too deep). From the maligned and typically callous background comes a spirited sorceress distanced from societal norms and the expectations that surround them - then, the Wardens come, battered from the failure of Ostagar’s stand, and she’s now transferred over to help them in their quest against the Blight, her arc’s trajectory branching onto different ends from there.

I like Morrigan, a lot, to the point she’s one of my absolute favorites to have come out of the RPG genre, let alone from Bioware’s environment. With the fronts of sarcastic retorts and impish intent lies someone that’s clearly impaired and damaged by not only her upbringing, but her estranged relationship with the one who raised her to begin with. Navigating dialog choices and seeing which ones to choose is an activity I never tire of, simply because it allows me to witness new angles and details about someone I already know so much about. There’s always an option to turn her away, but continue to persist and peel the barriers away, you start to see her open up in the form of a ring doubled as a tracking tool and a gift born from kindling intimacy. Continuously so disproving and malcontent about the feeling of love and kinship that unravels the closer the two develops and the Male Warden continues to perpetuate and express this notion, that the facade breaks off, her reservation and sorrowful mind laid bare and disclouded for the first time. It’s a common thought for one to spout about a character “feeling real”, which is sometimes coinciding with the other thought process of “they’re LITERALLY me fr!!!”, but I don’t want to hyperbolize my position to that degree, especially since to get The Most™ of it you’re nudged into doing the romance even if you’re not into that sort of thing (and considering how Bioware does it, who can blame those). A lot of it just comes from the mere back-and-forth of the dialog, exhausting them every single time yet never feeling worn from it, and also the from how her skillset as a mage is utterly bonkers, being able to dish out damage from the backline with ease. The final confrontation with her in this DLC, where you raise questions and receive vague answers, culminates in three choices: stepping into the ancient elven mirror Eluvian with her, letting her go, or stabbing her as she tumbles into it. While not a major choice that affects succeeding entries, it culminates the type of relationship the Warden and Morrigan have, and somewhat in a meta sense, the type of relationship the player has with her.

So, that’s all well and good, but she’s only a mere subject of the storyline here - the real plot’s about Gaider and Co. setting up a lot of shit for future games. The Eluvian mirrors, stuff about the Inquisition, Kirkwall, even referencing Mage and Dalish origin storylines to build upon the state of the world. This is like, fine? It’s kinda like what Bring Down The Sky and Arrival from Mass Effect did, plus this being the last DLC Origins will ever get meant that it has to be an epilogue and not a quasi-expansion like Lair Of The Shadow Broker was. Thing is, You can kinda tell everyone was antsy to start DA2 up, or maybe it was around then idk I forgot a chunk of the development mess for that game, so the skill and difficulty ceiling has been far, far lower than anything before it. There’s a gimmick about revitalized sentinels powered by Veil Tears that you have to manage by first defeating them and then whacking it away, but that’s it, the rest are some of the most benign and lackadaisical encounters in the entire package. Makes sense, at this point you’ve played Awakening and/or Golems Of Amgarrak (which was my case, don’t recommend it) and have obtained numerous stat growths and high-level gear and skills so there’s no reason to be put up with a challenge, but it, combined with the most amount of reused maps and assets, accentuates that feeling of “getting it over with”. Even the final boss, effectively the last test of strength you will ever face in this, is a joke that can be paralyzed with ease with most of its attacks being minor annoyances. My LV 35 Warden with a 121 Cunning growth was doing triple-digit crit damage the entire time though, so it at least gave me amusement.

Oh yea, on that note, remember what I said about the confrontation? Yea, the weight of that is massively shunted if you let your Ferelden Warden die at the final battle, so instead you’re transferring the Orlesian Warden from Awakening onto this which like… massively deflates the whole point and raises even more questions? I’m not sure why this branch would really care at this point, and it’s not like Morrigan made an effort to establish friendship between other party members before she dipped so that others would wonder what she’s up to, so I guess it’s just like, a menial task they gave to them because idk they really handled that Amaranthine business. It’s a strange thing, in order to get the most out of it you have to import a Dalish Male character, where you decided to romance her for the sentimentality, and finally partook in her ritual, thereby limiting and obfuscating the whole “roleplay” angle the base game was going for. Even the bits of lore, setups, and especially that choice on what to do with her don’t amount to much because the outline the team clearly had in mind at the time was severely affected by a multitude of reasons and factors, resulting in yet more stunted worldstates on their mad quest to Make Every Important Choice Matter. It’s an extremely confusing DLC, and something I suspect would be marginally better if the team decided to pool all effort and focus on expanding this to be more meaty instead of creating GoA prior.

I suppose a quick summary of my thoughts is that it’s the inverse of my feelings on the aforementioned Lair Of The Shadow Broker from ME2. Instead of a really nice storyline with numerous and unique opportunities chronicling a companion I don’t exactly care much about, I got a storyline centered around a companion I really like yet is propped up by the most half-hearted full circle story beats available. As a result, I’m not even sure if I want to replay this in the future; sure, it’s another short add-on that doesn’t require much time with heavy implications for the future, but it doesn’t have the sustenance to bother putting up with it. A damn, damn shame, and what a lackluster capstone to end my month-long endeavor on.

Place Of Abandonment: Late 2020/Early 2021, around the end of Bender's section, which is about halfway through the game

I never watched the Simpsons growing up. I dunno how, but despite having played Hit & Run and The Simpsons Game, plus enjoying its movie, I never got the chance to watch it on Fox on the TV, or even stream it through legal or 'legal' manners. Just sort of whizzed by me, really. I have been making slow progress in watching the series, but it's gonna take a while before I finish up its Golden Era (I plan on getting up to S11).

Futurama, meanwhile, is the complete inverse. This was formulaic to most of my senses, teaching me that not only can the bases of science can be cool, but also my humor. From the long payoff to the quick wordplay, from the esoteric weirdness to the gallows, I dare say it's one of the funniest things in existence. Sure, not everything about it hits the mark - Bend Her is one of the most painfully unfunny and uncomfortably bad episodes I've ever seen - but for a show that was conceived in 1999, lived up to 2003, revived once again in 2008 and finishing up in 2013, it's a pretty strong track record compared to everything I've heard about the Simpsons. I'm not a super fan that can quote every line or detail an exact scene from a specific episode, but I'll gladly share my favorite moments, be it fan favorites or personal.

Anyway this game sucks lol

You play as Fry, Bender, and Leela for this endeavor, with Zoidberg being used for one instance, and I'll give credit that it's nice they were able to get not only the voice cast for them, Farnsworth, and even Mom & Sons, but also one of the writers of the show, J. Stewart Burns. As a result, the writing's easily the best part of the package, not only in terms of line delivery and setup but also from utilizing a few throwbacks here and there, such as the loading screens being based on the type of adverts you'd see from the show, Nibbler being one of the main collectibles, or being able to activate the Suicide Booth and losing a life in the process. Not near the top of the series' best efforts, and the presentation is very rough in obtaining a 3DCG approach, but there's enough gags and game-specific humor to at least get a good chuckle here and there, especially with how the story is structured as this sort of time loop fiasco. It's the everything else that drags it down, unfortunately.

The controls are bizarre, definitely a "need to play it to feel it" instance. The jump is springy yet also stiff to position, the three trio turn kinda awkwardly, there's little sense of feedback when you get hit meaning you can get cut down without warning on occasion, and the camera is.. actually somewhat competent surprisingly, but it still has a habit of getting stuck on things or not visually letting you see what's ahead. While the core package is a 3D platformer, each of the characters have a distinct playstyle to set their levels apart: Fry has the action-adventure approach, utilizing guns to deal damage which doesn't mean much since a majority of them deal big enough hits to whittle down all of his foes; Bender is mainly centered on the platforming, even having a boulder chase sequence, but there's never a sense of progression, you sort of do things just because; I never got to Leela or Zoidberg's sections, but I've at least dug up what they do, and the former's combat focused while the latter's a vehicle minigame of getting to the end on time.

Honestly, even if you iron out the jank and controls, it wouldn't help much cause this game is ungodly boring. Despite the immense potential a game within the Futurama setting would have, it strangely doesn't capitalize on them, just strictly adhering to the base loop and some tinges of the show's style for the whole way through. It also doesn't help most of the minigames I played were either woefully long and boring, or haphazardly short and unpolished. I've heard this game is rather hard, and while most of it is again cause of how unpolished and rough the collision and strict jumps are, the core battles against enemies and jumping sequences - from what I've played, anyway - never really drove me up a wall, instead I just felt like I was wasting time on something that I clearly didn't like doing, and should've used it on something else instead. It's a supremely basic and barebones approach, and the amount of times I felt something was escalating can be counted on one hand.

Nowadays, I try to finish whatever I set out to do, even if I'm not at all liking it, since I want to see if there's anything to at least say and give out a finalized, earnest thought when it comes to discussions. However, this game is one of very few times I'm comfortable in leaving abandoned, for two reasons. Firstly, I've seen what the later levels are like, and little to none of them have any sort of appeal and opted to double down on the weakest aspects of the package, so I don't see any point in bothering. Secondly, remember when I said the writing was the best part? Well, so did the crew, because the cutscenes were edited and repackaged as a "special cinematic" for the home release of Beast With A Billion Backs, as Futurama: The Lost Adventure. Technically speaking, this makes it one of the few times the "just watch the cutscenes instead" mantra is actually a truth, you can just watch that, or preferably an ACTUAL cutscene compilation of the game to retain some of the more platform-specific jokes, and have a guilt-free experience!

For a long while, I considered Zaeed to be the worst of Bioware's companion DLCs, but after finally finishing Sebastian Vael's questlines, I'm now retracting that sentiment. At least Zaeed has a bit of a personality beyond his initial archetype unlike Sebastian who doesn't really feel like he's grown one way or another, and at least his one quest does everything necessary with an indicative moment of character growth for both you and him, compared to the three separate ones Sebastian hands you in each arc that doesn't necessary reach a concrete endstate.

Really, Exiled Prince is a microcosm of all the issues plaguing DA2. His quests revolve around basic dungeon crawling of (majorly) samey environments that (majorly) take too long to finish, his backstory - an evangelical Chantry follower due to the rather belligerent upstart he had as a Starkhaven royal - and the arc that's proposed from this doesn't come into full fruition, the lore and worldbuilding that he and the Chantry introduces never materialize into anything substantial within the context of the main narrative, and the Friendship-Rivalry points regarding these spokes are harder to nab due to complications arising if they happen to contradict with the personality and mindset you established upon Hawke (eg: my Hawke is mainly a mage advocate due to his upbringing and only rebuts if absolutely necessary, yet feels as if the Chantry is not the best place for Sebastian and wants to push him back to Starkhaven; his Act 3 quest is able to give a grand total of 45 extra Rivalry points, but only if I kept besmirching the Mages), and considering you can't even properly recruit him until the start of Act 2, that makes fully cementing him as a Friend or Rival that much harder. This is the second time I had to use console commands to increase the side I wanted, but at least in the other case that was just me being lazy and not wanting to redo hours of progress to gather a measly 5 points before the cutoff point, and doing so got me to better appreciate that companion's ordeal which made it worth the cheat; here I felt like I could've just left the bars as they were, and would've lost absolutely nothing. All of this would simply be a bitter pill to swallow if he was, at the very least, a decent combatant, but even in these terms he falls short. He's the ugly middle of Isabela's DPS hit-and-run approach as well as Varric's jack-of-trades strength/support archery - the same style Sebastian has, btw - meaning I never felt inclined to bring him along unless I absolutely had to.

I read on the DA Wiki that this was supposed to feature Nathaniel Howe, and that the narrative would've revolved around these two, but this had to be dropped due to contingencies regarding his potential passing in the Awakening expansion. I checked its sourced link, and while I've yet to find anything else to back this up, the fact this was released day-and-date with the base game (yea this means this is another awful case of that practice), knowing that ME2 and later ME3 would have similar change of plans, and Nathaniel's Act 3 cameo appearance feeling rather phoned in while occupying space with another, vaguely related Act 2 questline if he didn't make it after Awakening's conclusion, I can't exactly say I'm surprised something like this was theorized to begin with. Would this have helped him? Who knows, but at least it would've been nice to have a bit of chewing on if everything else was this unexciting, aside from the super brief cameo Leliana had at the tailend anyway. Nowadays, on PC, you're able to get every DLC of this game alongside every new purchase, so I can't say it's too frustrating of a deal, but at the same time the content within is so bare, you might as well just pretend it doesn't exist. In fact, here's something comedic: this and Black Emporium were the two D1DLCs for this game, yet the latter is (was too iirc) free with all new copies, it also had more beneficiary gains and inclusions that makes the overall ride a tad smoother to complete. Sebastian got beat out by a dog and an enigmatic old fuck of a Greek allegory. That's just, downright pathetic and hilarious.

I know I'm not really the first to say this, but while the remake does a great job streamlining some of the "quirks" of the original, such as the save system and general level progression in terms of gems, the overall look and feel of it severely hampers the experience. Even if you're like me and have yet to play the original game, the pill-shaped hitbox and weird tweaks to movement very noticeably makes some jumps and sections harder than they needed to be, such as the infamous bridge and - to a largely lesser degree - hog levels, some of the castle levels such as The Lab, and a couple of other instances I can barely muster the energy to remember since I have not touched this since its release in 2017.

Also, like, this remake just flat out looks ugly? I don't wanna go on a whole "aging game" mantra but it's wild to me how a remake on superior hardware has less charming and muddier visuals than a near-system launch title from 1996. The fur on Crash especially looks really off and rather distracting with how he looks like his pelt is just, thrown onto him, which ironically makes the Switch and PC the go-to releases due to the former omitting it and the latter being able to have it modded out. I get that the prospect of a new Crash game, that which is remaking three beloved titles, was exciting, as well as it being rather unfair to compare them to Crash 4 and even the CTR remake due to releasing later, but like... when those two still end up looking fairly well done, it's hard to brush aside the N Sane's rather muddled treatment. This is especially notable when Spyro's remake by Toys For Bobs not only has a lot more palettes and fidelity for the models, it also does a better job adhering to the original look (for the most part).

Still it's alright. There's remakes that do a worse job capturing the same level of attention on the same system, and later on the PS5 with Bluepoint Souls, and it still plays adequately all things considered. With that said though, if I ever decide to continue with the series, cause I must be honest and say I gave up when Crash 2 was largely the same but with an even more horrid case of backtracking for completion, I'm gonna stick with the PS1 versions, quirks be damned.

Not really much I can add to this that others haven't already said, but I'll try anyway. Really like how short yet tightly designed each stages are, plus messing around with the different weapons for each case right around when they're necessary keeps the kit fresh throughout, and also helps to really figure out their niches. For instance, there's a shield that pierces through to the enemy machinery that I initially wrote off due to how its range is pitiful, but a stage thoroughly utilizes this aspect to have you break through the walls in order to destroy the laser chargers that impede on your progression. It's good shit, and the game contextualizes the gravity shifts in numerous styles that I really wasn't expecting. I've been meaning to do a writeup of sorts about Irem and their history, and cases like this, Ninja Baseball Batman, the R-Type series, GunForce 1&2, and even way later in the console gens where they crafted PS2 cult hits Disaster Report 1&2 and Steambot Chronicles make it all the more tempting. By the way, the music here is exquisite, easily one of the best sounds on the system, and something I highly suggest you check out even if you decide to skip out on the game.

I'll still call this a bit of an overlooked gem on the system, but a few things hold it back from really achieving the same level as Mega Man 4 or Castlevania 3. Firstly, these backgrounds suck. They're not poorly made or anything like that, it's just that they're those types of NES/Famicom graphics where they majorly use one or two colors yet detailed in a way that, while fine stationary or staring at them via screencaps become irritating on the eyes when playing. I didn't get nauseous, but it was seriously annoying. Secondly, the bosses are weaksauce. They're either pitifully easy to figure out the pattern, or are super tight in dodges that you're likely to power through brute force instead of any level of skill. Makes me glad this game has infinite continues on top of my rewind, otherwise I'd be busting out save states like it was nothin. Although, I did use a translation hack for the Japanese version that not only has a few line of dialog, but is also supposedly a little bit harder. I never really felt there was a grand sense of difficulty, but some aspects did feel a little tighter than they should be.

Other than that, this did remind me I have way more Irem catalog to check out, I've actually only ever completed this and NBBM for the moment. I'll figure it out from there, especially since I'm not really in the mood to delve in long-form commitments in games for the time being.

Talking about this game is pretty frustrating. On the one hand, I felt this was another case where the general populace overexaggerate on the difficulty. Often times, I found that levels were as good, if not better, than the first game, utilizing enemy behavior and patterns in a way that felt rather invigorating to handle. I also find that walking instead of holding down the B button made some of this way easier, which was probably the intention since most of SMB1 could be dealt with by doing just that. The new wind element and more abundant use of springs also helped with this as well. Plus, I'm willing to say that a few death traps were honestly really funny, like the backward warp zones.

On the other hand, I also found myself agreeing with those same people. Half of this game can indeed be downright mean, whether from using obstacles you'd have no idea about until you move them onto the screen, dumb invisible block paths or the stupid maze-like loop shit from before, or jumps requiring pixel-perfect jumping. The slippery controls from before is also still felt here, and I don't like how inconsistent and fickle the spring's jump timing can be, despite again how it makes going through the levels more fulfilling and different. It can also be too hectic with its enemy spawns, making some jumps harder to pull off as a result.

I dunno, I was actually pretty hopeful when going through this, thinking I'd say this game gets too bad of a rep, but once I hit World 7 I was pretty exhausted, and this was with heavy use of the rewind state. So close, yet so far.

I don't have much to say about this since people have already said what I could possibly say about it, so I'll instead bring attention to something that happened just yesterday.

So when the game initially released back in August, two points of contentions were made: The first was that the OST was still the same compressed one used back from the original PS1 game, and the second, far more questionable instance, was that the original designers and makers weren't credited at all. Both of these moves were really odd on Bamco's part, but specifically the lack of credit for the OG team is what got to me since with a medium that has a lot of effort and creative decisions made, having a steady track of who did what and how is pretty vital to understand the creation of a game.

Well, the game got an update where, alongside adding in some new DLC supports, they enhanced the quality of the OST to be far better sounding, as well as finally giving credit to the original creators. The fact it took the team a couple months to do all of this is pretty eye-rolling, but eh, better late than never I suppose. I believe the update also tweaked some aspects of the gameplay, but I haven't really noticed it from the day I first played it, to finishing it now.

I imagine I'll have more to say about the core contents when I play the PS1 original at some point down the line, cause I am curious to see how it was.

This is one of the most disappointing games in my life

Though I don't like the weapon balancing (there is little reason to use any weapons besides than Jewel Satellite, Black Hole Bomb, and Laser Trident) I do find the roster itself to be decent regardless, more than I thought so originally at that, the music is great as always, and I really like the cinematics... but the difficulty is all over the place. The stages are annoyingly peppered with spikes or other insta-kill paths, while the bosses have painfully dull and predictable patterns that are able go down with ease even in buster-only scenarios. Sure, exceptions exist, but overall this is just how 9 is

But whatever, all that said the game was still decent... but then the Wily sections start and the good qualities it had immediately faded away for having the worst parts of the stages and difficulty be more prevalent than ever, especially with Wily's last phase doing more damage to YOU than you can do to HIM, even with the right strat and mindset.

After nearly completing everything since the release of the game, I can hereby say that yea this game's pretty dope.

It genuinely does feel like Sonic Team is making an honest to god effort to move the franchise forward from a writing standpoint, Ian Flynn being on board this time instead of the Happy Tree Friends people was already a good indicator but the way references and callbacks to aspects of the series (mainly) feel natural and as a way to bridge in the character development of the core people is great. Tails is an obvious one, but Knuckles actually lamenting how he's pretty much the last of his tribe and is reflecting on how important and alone he is cause of it caught me off guard big time, same with Amy having something to do and ponder over which hasn't been a thing since... Adventure 2, I wanna say? It's fun stuff. I'm also glad the stuff that gets nodded at outside of plot relevancy is cool too, they referenced something from Team Sonic Racing which I didn't expect. It isn't perfect, mind, sometimes it does get into "you remember thing, yes? Wasn't thing cool?" territory, but for the most part it feels sincere.

Even the story is like, actually cool and interesting this time, which hasn't been done since Black Knight, or perhaps Unleashed if we're strictly talking mainline entries. The Ancients and what they are, how Cyber Space works, the real threat, it's all pretty cool and gets just the right amount of buildup. My only problems with it, is that Sage really could've used more development. Since she does appear in a majority of the locations and gets an arc for her, it disappoints me her motivations and ties to Eggman are regulated to Secret Report ass memos you get as a purchasable item during the fishing trips. Pacing wise, this could've been fine-tuned as well, having cutscenes that can sometimes appear back-to-back, or just randomly lead into a minigame that range from neat to mundane. Still, at the end of the day, I'm at least glad we're getting something that feels like it gives a shit about both its characters, as well as its audience. Love me some Indomitable Human Spirit shit alongside obvious Evangelion parallels.

Gameplay wise, I like it but it definitely could've used from work, especially since it got a five-year cycle as well as a delay to work off of. The controls for Sonic are good enough for the open zone sections, letting you zip and jump by without that much hassle, but the upgrade process is odd. You can tell this was something made to give you another activity to do outside of Cyber Space and the side stories, since mini-bosses require a fair bit more effort and time into them early game, compared to mid stage where you can beat them with ease. Also doesn't help some of them just, suck ass, either by taking so long to beat regardless of the Power level, or the jank getting in the way. Speaking of, yea unfortunately the jank can be pretty obnoxious at times too. Broken camera when it shifts into the 2D planes, rail-grinding being finnicky at certain spots of the map, collision shit, which admittedly ended up being more fun than annoying, it disappoints me it gets rather noticeable as you go on cause again, it had a lengthy development period finally. Yet, despite all this, this is one of few open world games in recent memory I actually found enjoyment from than boredom. When it all works, it offers a great zen-like experience just trying to go and do everything needed, and it's not like you're spending too much time doing one or two things. Plus, I appreciate the approach with fishing here, it's pretty easy to max out on everything thanks to how the tokens work, but even then you can just appreciate and engage with it from a casual level and be fulfilled anyway.

I dunno if this is a hot take or not already, but I actually like Cyber Space. Granted, the physics and control issues get more noticeable here, but in terms of the core content they serve as great breaks and gaps for what you're doing. Now, I understand the point of the reuse of themes and stages is cause of memory fragments and whatnot, but I do feel like we should've at least had more level theming on offer instead of just Green Hill, Chemical Plant, the various City aesthetics, or Sky Sanctuary, since they tend to meld together in my mind on recollection. That being said, I don't really mind the obvious reuse of past levels funnily enough, mainly cause they were already good to begin with + it's easy to get into that speedrun aspect Sonic games tend to offer. I dunno if this is supposed to be the last we'll see of the Boost formula in action, but if it is, then it's a nice hurrah for (actually) good offerings during this period of 3D Sonic.

I uh, don't really have much else to say. As someone that's played and replayed most of the 3D Sonic outings before this released, I'm thankful this ended up on the good end of the spectrum. It hasn't beaten out the Adventure Duology, Generations, or even Black Knight, but hopefully whatever the team decides next will be able to.