A huge improvement over Spark 2, I still have my issues with the level design (mainly the last couple of stages are way too long), but it's still a whole lot better than in the previous games. Spark feels like he controls exactly right in this, nailing how I remember Sonic feeling in Sonic Adventure 2 while making meaningful improvements.

It has its issues but this is pretty much the ideal 3D Sonic game. Like, actually, not just in a "Mirror's Edge is a Sonic game if you think about it" way.

Also it has one of the most baffling endings I've seen in a video game. What the fuck.

sometimes i feel like i am pretty obviously the problem. i don't necessarily believe in the "vote with your wallet!" shit because that's been proven not to work as old as 2014 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/03/01/why-its-scary-when-0-15-mobile-gamers-bring-in-50-of-the-revenue/?sh=4ad6b8264065). but i think there is some level of blame to place at my feet for pre-ordering a game i didn't even particularly have high expectations for. hell, the only reason i pre-ordered this thing was because i knew, at some point, i'd want to play it for myself, so why not secure a new copy and be done with it? the pre-order bonus was incredibly insulting (oh joy, i get orpheus picaro and izanagi picaro for free) and it didn't even get me the day one DLC (very much love how this sort of thing doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore). so, i want you all to know, in spite of this, i still tried to have a good time with this game. and, truthfully, it's not that bad. it's just simultaneously not that good either. there isn't anything outstanding or noteworthy here if you aren't already a fan of P5's cast, and even then, i'm tired of these characters.

i think what really sucks my enthusiasm out of this game is how low-effort everything feels. my cynical pet theory is that this was a game that was originally going to be a mobile release in the vein of something like nier reincarnation, but atlus thought they could get away with releasing this at full price on current gen hardware. joke's on me, i did buy the game. still, i don't feel as though enough people have been critical of how little this game demands of its hardware. graphics are stylized to a degree that this could run on 3DS hardware with little issue, the mechanics lack complexity or depth such that every character functionally plays the same with a modest tweak here and there, and there's actually very little strategy required for a tactics game. the very few missions that actually require planning and thought are the side-quests that will ask you to clear the level in one turn by cleverly using its mechanics to their full extent. this is stuff that we should've been seeing in the maingame by the halfway point, not as optional side content. instead, basically every challenge the main missions throw at you can be easily brute-forced. this plays less like a game based around tactics and more one around trial-and-error. the addition of an "undo the previous turn if you make any egregious mistakes" function in the menu certainly doesn't help that accusation.

indeed, this game introduces nearly all of its mechanics pretty early and then never develops them or asks the player to utilize them in uncanny or unexpected ways. there are no surprises in tactica's gameplay, and very little competency is asked of the player. i don't even consider myself a particularly smart/great video game player, but i played on hard mode and only saw the game over screen once (and that was by accident due to misunderstanding an endgame sidequest's objective). nothing about tactica feels challenging and, by extension, interesting. there are a few novel gameplay features here, such as how all-out attacks are handled, but they're given very little cost and are almost trivial to execute. combine that with a persona system that is so simplified it makes raidou blush, and there's ultimately very little going on under the hood which, again, reinforces my belief that this could've run comfortably on my phone. i'm not asking for a new final fantasy tactics, but it is interesting how that game managed to have so much more intrigue in both narrative and gameplay despite also being a spinoff of a popular turn-based JRPG series 20 years ago. the tactics genre hasn't stagnated this much, i think atlus just really assumed the persona 5 fanbase lacks standards for this sort of thing. and, loathe as i am to say it, there is a convincing argument to be made in atlus' favor.

i sound exceptionally negative on this game and it's more because even though the majority of my playthrough was brainless skinner box dopamine collecting, i resent what this game represents more than i find any major flaw with it. not every game has to shoot for the stars, and a lack of ambition hasn't stopped me from enjoying other games. again, it's just the cynicism behind all of this. the story isn't particularly interesting and feels fairly predictable. the P5 cast has been sanded down now and have lost the 3-dimensionality that they had in their original game so now you have futaba saying "sus" and makoto's main thing is how she can be scary sometimes. everyone's going through the motions. i will obviously never know the full story of production here, but i feel such a lack of passion for this game from its own dev team. again, i went into this with dim prospects, and i still managed to walk away underwhelmed. in that sense, maybe 2.5/5.0 is too high.

among other things, i just don't feel like this is a game particularly worth your time. i did roughly 2 playthroughs (big ups to locking like 9 personas to NG+ so i had to do a NG+ playthrough just to get the platinum), and i couldn't overcome the feeling that this was a disposable Q4 release for atlus rather than something they cared about. i mean, sure, that's obvious to see, but i was at least a little hopeful that atlus' autopilot was a little better than this. i'm truly baffled that this game's release has been as positive as it is. disregard that one clickbait kotaku article about this game being lgbt positive or whatever; look at the average rating + the general consensus in the reviews here. it legitimately feels like everyone played a different game than the one i am talking about. most likely it's a self-selection bias situation where the people who would've disliked this game more than the current group already removed themselves from the sample. even with that in consideration, it's dire that this hasn't come under greater scrutiny. persona 5 fans really think this is a good spinoff?

i guess that's part of the problem when you're part of the problem: no one's going to join your bandwagon against self-flagellation when you bear the scars on your back.

on the one hand, i feel bad for spike chunsoft and kodaka because i predict that they will likely never be able to escape danganronpa (DR) comparisons for any work they publish for the rest of their careers. i know that this review is going to invoke several comparisons just by itself. on the other hand, this game practically begs for them. the presentation both in art style and music is identical, and some specific plot twists turn the screw against veterans of the DR series in a devious way. still, this game ultimately works best for an audience that hasn't played any of the DR games before, because mystery labyrinths feel like diet class trials and the murders are less characteristically zany or intricate with victims and murderers who you are less invested in as characters. in fact, the worst part is that this game's mysteries are a lot more guessable, to a detrimental point. still, i feel part of the blame is the baggage that master detective archives comes with for a lot of people, and, in that respect, i feel sympathy for this work receiving a lukewarm response critically, financially, and (most importantly) with fans.

let me clarify what i mean when i say "the mysteries are too guessable" because it's a very loaded statement. danganronpa mysteries tend to function with a certain amount of known and unknown variables. when you walk into a class trial for the first time, there's a high likelihood you'll know how some of the events transpired, but you'll lack critical information to really cement how all of it played out. sometimes this can be a certain character being cagey about their whereabouts during the murder, or it can be characters obfuscating evidence with their own motivations for doing so. this means the game will have to provide that information during the trial before you can get a plausible idea for what happened. good examples of this would be 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, and 3-2. it's not necessarily impossible for someone to be able to say "the killer for this case is x, the method they used is y, and their motive was z", but i would say there's basically no case where you can guess all three before the class trial begins.

so, knowing that, let me tell you now that with no exaggeration i was able to guess the murder and methodology for every murder case except the last one before even setting foot in the mystery labyrinth. (the motives were a lot more of a crapshoot. this game places a lot softer of an emphasis on motives for killing especially compared to DR's habit of having monokuma tempt the students with things like "if you don't kill someone i will reveal your darkest secret" or "kill someone and you won't have to deal with a class trial", etc. and instead you'll get more normal motives like killing for profit.) i am not saying this to brag or imply that i'm some super meta-genius when it comes to these things. if anything, i consider myself below average when it comes to solving murder mystery type stories, so you can see the problem i'm presenting here. these mysteries are too undercooked and too simple to really catch me off guard. maybe the DR poisoning has made me keenly aware of certain clues/killers, but i truly believe this is more a failing of the game not presenting enough variables and interesting situations. process of elimination will solve most of the "who is the culprit" guessing before the mystery labyrinths even begin. where's the tension there?

and, to be absolutely clear, there is nothing wrong with a murder mystery being solvable. in fact, some of the best mysteries are the ones where you have all the information and can solve on your own. the problem is pacing. the investigation segments of this game take a fiendishly long time, even by DR standards, and so much of the mystery labyrinths are dedicated to repeating back things the player likely already deduced. i would go so far as to say something like 10% of the game's script is just summarizing either already known plot points or explaining what the player just proved. i actually enjoyed some of these mysteries in spite of this repetition (with chapters 0 and 2 being the most enjoyable of the game imo), but it didn't help that it constantly felt like i was 2 steps ahead of the game all the time.

master detective archives takes a very hard veer away from DR formula as well by constantly introducing new characters as suspects for each case. the problem was that DR reusing characters for suspects was part of the brilliance of its premise: someone who you'd expect to never commit a murder in the first chapter could easily be the murderer by the third. it also invested you greatly in the cast because you didn't know who would make it to the end and who would take that dark left turn to murder. i feel a lot less investment in accusing a character in chapter 1 of this game, for instance, when literally none of the suspects have names. seriously, you're telling me i have to pick between priest, nun, servant, and worshipper instead of people with names? you also get scant precious time to actually know these characters, some of which you'll interact with potentially only once before having to accuse them. again, this is playing against a DR trope, so i get what they wanted to do, but it's sort of like saying "i'm known for writing stories with several endearing characters, so what if i break tradition and give you a bunch of NOTHING characters huh? would that fuck with you guys a bit?". and, well, it results in a lot of moments with deflated tension. that's probably why chapter 2 was my favorite case; you're given an uncharacteristically large amount of time to learn who the suspects are before the mystery labyrinth, and it invested me so much more in the story going on there.

this stringent economy of characters also works against itself with the recurring cast too. there's only about 6 characters that get any development throughout the entire game, and most of the time their presence ends up being mutually exclusive. so, that means you'll get to spend chapter 1 with a, 2 with b, 3 with c, and so on. i think the attempt at quality vs. quantity is a worthy goal, but it lacks for execution. desuhiko somehow ends up being worse than any of the sex pests in the DR games, fubuki's ditzyness borders on "if i leave this girl alone for two minutes i'm gonna walk in on her licking an electrical socket", and generally i'm just left underfed for a lot of these characters as a whole. all of them abruptly disappear in the final chapter as well, which makes their presence feel even more undercut. gumshoe gab does go a bit of a ways to helping characterize them more, but the majority of the time you're gonna be spent with yuma and shinigami, and their dynamic wears thin pretty quickly.

i certainly wouldn't say i hated master detective archives, but it started to lose me at the halfway mark and basically never recovered. i think the fourth and fifth chapters are especially bad because chapter 4 ends up cutting a lot of corners in its mystery as well as just having several parts that either make no sense or go unexplained. meanwhile, chapter 5 is largely just a lore dump in the investigation and then a regurgitation in the mystery labyrinth. most of the "big" twists of the endgame are things that i had already loosely predicted and just lacked the exact details to hours ago. again, these things being guessable isn't the problem, the problem is rooted in the game thinking these mysteries are big reveals that justify so much slowburn. mystery labyrinths in general just need a lot of retooling because reasoning death matches are a poor man's non-stop debate, shinigami puzzle is "what if we made hangman's gambit somehow shittier", and everything else is just either walking while characters talk, a QTE, or a multiple choice question. i don't think it's wrong to expect better gameplay than just aping what was provided in a PSP game from 2011. at the same time, this game is making me question if kodaka's ever going to want to make something that requires breaking out of the DR formula. sure, the DR series is over, but games like this could functionally be considered danganronpa 4 for as little identity and innovation that they bring to the table. everything good here DR did better, everything bad here is done in spite of DR.

this game was an interesting experience for me because i played it with my boyfriend; he didn't necessarily have a glowing opinion of it, but he did at least find more enjoyment with it than i did. i've told him that's partially because he doesn't know how much is being borrowed from DR (he has never played any of the games), but i think it also helps seeing this as a first from SC and kodaka. i'm going to repeat what i said in that this is a game that does the best with people who have minimal exposure to DR, because the lower gear shift here is felt harder with that experience. i would still consider this better than SDR2, but that stems more from virulently hating SDR2's refusal to deliver on several dangling carrots + incredibly horny for teenagers energy. this game ironically also suffers from that, just to a lesser degree. the one thing i could say in SDR2's defense is that it hits much higher highs than master detective archives: rain code ever comes close to. and while the lower lows aren't felt, i won't deny that i'm much more likely to forget the majority of this game in a month compared to the lasting memory i have of SDR2. i think that sentiment has been echoed in how little i heard about this game going into it. i remember seeing the trailer, thinking "i should play that if i get some free time", and expecting to witness at least a little clamor over it on launch but instead hearing nothing. hell, by the time it even came back to mind, it was several months past launch and no one in my circles had even mentioned it, DR fans included. i was hoping this would be a situation where it was an overlooked gem, but i think its relative unpopularity with both critics and fans alike speaks for itself.

"just play the game for yourself so you don't get spoiled" type reviews are probably the least fun to read, but it's so hard to not just make that my review of this game. this was a very pleasant surprise, even going into it with relatively high expectations by virtue of a friend's glowing review of it. this is surprisingly gory in the "gives you enough details so your imagination fills in the blanks" kind of way that honestly sucker punched me. the art style here is remarkable too; it does so much of the heavy lifting for making so many moments work. there's an intentional uncanniness to a lot of the facial expressions here that requires a deft touch. i think maybe the strongest thing about the game is that it consistently zigs when you think it's going to zag while still having very logical and solvable mysteries within its narrative structure.

i've never heard of xeen as a developer before this game, and looking through their catalogue, this game sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the mario sports titles and whatever the hell rhythm thief is. paranormasight is so effortlessly confident that it feels like it's a game that xeen's been waiting to make for years now. it's safe to say that the wait was most certainly worth it. this stands out as another visual novel gem with an art style that should be studied for future inspiration. think of a hotel dusk meets 999 while simultaneously surpassing both. if you like either of those games, you really owe it to yourself to look into this.

again, it bears repeating: this is a great game. please play it if you have even any mild interest in horror or visual novels. it is worth your time. it's put xeen on the map as a developer to keep an eye on, and i do look forward to what their next project may be.

>look for a new ace attorney game
>ask Capcom if their game is satire or shonen
>they don't understand
>pull up a diagram explaining what is satire and what is shonen
>they laugh and say "It's a good game sir"
>buy the game
>it's shonen

Fantastic Remake of Separate Ways that I would even say is the definitive edition of the scenario. Adding sequences, some inspired by the cut content of RE4 Remake. Having a mission line that connects to the main story moreso than the original Separate Ways and never overstaying it's welcome. The only complaint would be Ada's VA not comparing to the original, which needs to be said but overall doesn't detract overly so from the quality of the DLC. At only $10, it's a must play if you had any fun with RE4, replayable and 6-7 hours long.

A great dlc that makes Resident Evil 4 Remake even better. Nearly all of the things that were cut in the main game have been either remade or recreated in fun ways.

It took me about 6 hours on Hardcore, but it's probably a bit shorter on Standard. Regardless, it's the definition of quality over quantity. You revisit many of the same areas in the base game, but they all have a unique twist specific to Ada. It never felt like a retread. They easily could've sold this for $20. It's a steal at only $10.

My only complaint is still Ada's voice. It's slightly better in the new cutscenes, but still sounds robotic at times. It's nowhere near enough to bring this down from greatness though. The gameplay is just so good.