BoltGSR
i can't get over how the follow-up to apollo justice, a game entirely about showing the faults of the ace attorney world's legal systems and devoted to subverting or deconstructing the expectations players would have after playing through the original trilogy, spent its entire runtime yelling about "THE DARK AGE OF THE LAW" while manifesting that as the attorneys needing to talk about the power of friendship every episode
someone at level-5 keeps trying to make "small-scale layton with individual mysteries" happen and it's not going to happen. half the fun of a layton game is watching the plot get gradually more and more absurd as it goes on before you get to the end and everything is wrapped up in a ridiculous plot twist, and that's entirely missing here. also way too many puzzles are just "haha there's a trick answer =)".
most disappointing game of 2017 for me
most disappointing game of 2017 for me
when i was playing this game in middle school my brother came into my room to tell me he found the sonic fanfic i was writing on the computer. i panicked and told him i was just reading it for a friend(????) anyway there's 0% chance he believed that but he was a good sport and left. never finished the game
1997
there is no way to communicate what an experience this game was as a 6-year-old playing his first 3D game, but i will attempt to assign it the appropriate credit by rating it half a star higher than both The Last Of Us games
fantastic gameplay. i felt like a brain genius when i beat this thing on hard/classic without any deaths. but the story. holy shit lmao. "corrin here let me show you that your evil adopted dad is actually a blob demon. no i can't show anyone else. yeah i dunno the crystal broke or something. better go subjugate an innocent nation as per your evil dad's wishes so that you can eventually make him sit on a magic throne that will reveal he's a blob demon"
Still trying to get my thoughts together on this one, so I think I'll try and keep it simple and do some bullet pointing here.
- It's Danganronpa 4. Which I mean, everyone expected, but I was still pretty shocked at just how Danganronpa 4 it was. "But can you spell knife" and "next you get to make a comic book" are in full effect, for better and for worse.
- That said, I am glad Kodaka's willing to move away from the DR setting, even if "hope" and "despair" kind of get search-and-replaced with "truth" and "justice".
- I think the mysteries in this are pretty weak. Chapter 4 (case 5) is fun but the rest aren't much to write home about.
- The bit in chapter 1/case 2 where you had to walk through a room and recreate how the culprit created a locked room was really good, and got my hopes up for more stuff like that later on that would really challenge the player's use of visual space... but alas.
- I think the final case twist was a lot of fun, with one detail that had me clapping and cheering... but man, Kodaka still doesn't know how to make an interesting "mystery-solving" game out of his final chapter twists yet. I was hoping for something more like V3 where you'd be solving a murder and the big mystery simultaneously, but instead it was more like 2's "get a bunch of clues that lay out the plot for you, then repeat the plot 3 times in the gameplay portion."
- Honestly Kodaka just take off the power limiters and write a fully fantastical mystery game already. Don't save the big setting shakeups for the final chapter, use them in the murder plots.
- Characters were fine? I feel like the game expected me to be more invested in the agency detectives than I was. Maybe that's on me for not reading the Gumshoe Gab segments.
- I try not to be too much of a graphics/performance guy but wow this should not have been a Switch exclusive. Even putting aside the vaseline filter in handheld mode, the load times are atrocious.
- The most Danganronpa-ass moment of all time occurs in this game where, following a character's emotional end, you then must play a minigame to spell "email" and are rewarded with an ass shot
- It's Danganronpa 4. Which I mean, everyone expected, but I was still pretty shocked at just how Danganronpa 4 it was. "But can you spell knife" and "next you get to make a comic book" are in full effect, for better and for worse.
- That said, I am glad Kodaka's willing to move away from the DR setting, even if "hope" and "despair" kind of get search-and-replaced with "truth" and "justice".
- I think the mysteries in this are pretty weak. Chapter 4 (case 5) is fun but the rest aren't much to write home about.
- The bit in chapter 1/case 2 where you had to walk through a room and recreate how the culprit created a locked room was really good, and got my hopes up for more stuff like that later on that would really challenge the player's use of visual space... but alas.
- I think the final case twist was a lot of fun, with one detail that had me clapping and cheering... but man, Kodaka still doesn't know how to make an interesting "mystery-solving" game out of his final chapter twists yet. I was hoping for something more like V3 where you'd be solving a murder and the big mystery simultaneously, but instead it was more like 2's "get a bunch of clues that lay out the plot for you, then repeat the plot 3 times in the gameplay portion."
- Honestly Kodaka just take off the power limiters and write a fully fantastical mystery game already. Don't save the big setting shakeups for the final chapter, use them in the murder plots.
- Characters were fine? I feel like the game expected me to be more invested in the agency detectives than I was. Maybe that's on me for not reading the Gumshoe Gab segments.
- I try not to be too much of a graphics/performance guy but wow this should not have been a Switch exclusive. Even putting aside the vaseline filter in handheld mode, the load times are atrocious.
- The most Danganronpa-ass moment of all time occurs in this game where, following a character's emotional end, you then must play a minigame to spell "email" and are rewarded with an ass shot
man this series is dumb (this is a compliment)
2015
I've really been sinking time into this one recently, but I can feel I'm starting to fall off of it. Unless you really really get into city design for aesthetics's sake, there's just not a long tail to any given scenario, and every run starts feeling pretty much the same.
Also, the in-game Twitter is a nightmare. Some of it is just "I guess a flash mob joke was slightly more relevant in 2015", but there's no excusing the "Rastafarian accent" "jokes" you get if you legalize weed. You can turn it off, but then you lose a source of notifications that something's going wrong in the city.
Also, the in-game Twitter is a nightmare. Some of it is just "I guess a flash mob joke was slightly more relevant in 2015", but there's no excusing the "Rastafarian accent" "jokes" you get if you legalize weed. You can turn it off, but then you lose a source of notifications that something's going wrong in the city.
I always feel a little bad about comparing indie games to their influences, but this game is so aggressively "classic Paper Mario" that it's kind of impossible not to.
That said... it holds up pretty well against classic Paper Mario! There's just a lot to love here - the world is charming, the characters are charming, the art style is charming, it's just a good time all around. That's married with a surprisingly good amount of content (it took about 40 hours for me to clear, doing most sidequests along the way) and a battle system that lets you do some really fun builds once you get far enough in the game.
It's not perfect, though - the "once you get far enough in the game" is doing a ton of heavy lifting in that last sentence. Up until about the halfway point I was feeling pretty battered by the game's strict economy; even a regular battle can take a ton of time and resources, so healing is paramount, but free heals are few and far between, and items are costly enough and money scarce enough that I was always scrambling to stay afloat. Most of the game's interesting build options also don't show up until about halfway through, and then you're limited by how many points you've put into medal capacity. Eventually I found my feet and had a pretty good time with the battles, but I don't blame people who tap out before that.
I do wish the quest and level design was a bit stronger. A lot of sidequests in this game are about running all over the world, and while fast travel options eventually open up that still means a lot of time spent walking through the same few towns and dungeons. And speaking of dungeons, this game is big into environmental puzzles based on positioning and using your overworld abilities, a la Golden Sun... but when everything is paper-styled and there's limited indication of where you're actually facing, it can get real frustrating real quick. There's one puzzle room in the last dungeon that had me gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter, because it was clear the devs had wanted a puzzle that required all three characters' abilities but the result was a frustrating, slow mess where I was fighting the controls and collision detection all the way.
"Wow that's a lot of negatives" you might be saying about now and honestly yeah, but I still think this game is worth it. It's just a solid, fun indie RPG and while it's got its share of headaches, they were never damning for me. Ultimately the joy of this world and the strengths of the gameplay well outweighed the frustration. Strongly recommended.
That said... it holds up pretty well against classic Paper Mario! There's just a lot to love here - the world is charming, the characters are charming, the art style is charming, it's just a good time all around. That's married with a surprisingly good amount of content (it took about 40 hours for me to clear, doing most sidequests along the way) and a battle system that lets you do some really fun builds once you get far enough in the game.
It's not perfect, though - the "once you get far enough in the game" is doing a ton of heavy lifting in that last sentence. Up until about the halfway point I was feeling pretty battered by the game's strict economy; even a regular battle can take a ton of time and resources, so healing is paramount, but free heals are few and far between, and items are costly enough and money scarce enough that I was always scrambling to stay afloat. Most of the game's interesting build options also don't show up until about halfway through, and then you're limited by how many points you've put into medal capacity. Eventually I found my feet and had a pretty good time with the battles, but I don't blame people who tap out before that.
I do wish the quest and level design was a bit stronger. A lot of sidequests in this game are about running all over the world, and while fast travel options eventually open up that still means a lot of time spent walking through the same few towns and dungeons. And speaking of dungeons, this game is big into environmental puzzles based on positioning and using your overworld abilities, a la Golden Sun... but when everything is paper-styled and there's limited indication of where you're actually facing, it can get real frustrating real quick. There's one puzzle room in the last dungeon that had me gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter, because it was clear the devs had wanted a puzzle that required all three characters' abilities but the result was a frustrating, slow mess where I was fighting the controls and collision detection all the way.
"Wow that's a lot of negatives" you might be saying about now and honestly yeah, but I still think this game is worth it. It's just a solid, fun indie RPG and while it's got its share of headaches, they were never damning for me. Ultimately the joy of this world and the strengths of the gameplay well outweighed the frustration. Strongly recommended.
2020
It's rare I hit a point with a game where I'm like "there's so much potential here that I almost can't blame it for falling short", but here we are.
In terms of "pressure-cooker survival VN", I think Buried Stars has a fantastic setup - the top five contestants in an idol reality show, plus a floor director, trapped inside a collapsed building, waiting for rescue in six hours, and most crucially still having access to Twitter is just [chef's kiss]. Then it mixes in an "I Know What You Did Last Summer"-style murder threat and you've really got a stew cooking. It's helped by a pretty solid soundtrack and some great production values and art.
But goddamn if the remainder of the game isn't just it kneecapping itself over and over. The conversation system is basically extended trial-and-error; you have no idea what topics will increase your sanity, or decrease it, or increase/decrease your rapport with the other characters, or unlock a profile that you'll need to unlock a rapport event that you'll need to unlock the true ending... etc. etc. etc. Then the pacing takes a massive hit in the middle third of the game, and by the time it recovers you're almost at the end anyway.
When it comes to the story and characters, the game's got a great setup for a story about fame, fandom, social media, and the pressure to be someone you aren't, but except for a few good moments, it doesn't really do all that much interesting with it. I got more out of little flourishes like how the game will let you argue with people on Twitter for absolutely no benefit (and in fact it will damage your sanity meter) more than I got out of some of the main characters' arcs.
But more disappointing than any of that - and worsening all of it - is the localization. It's bad! I feel bad saying that because I know translation and localization is really damn hard, but this is bad in that it doesn't seem to have had any kind of editing pass done on it by a native speaker. There's plenty of sentences that were clearly translated out of context, and many many more that are just flat and awkward. At its worst, the game will throw a timed choice at you where both of the options are almost word salad. That's the exception, not the rule, but it's the kind of thing you only have to see a few times before it sours you on the whole experience. It also makes it harder to connect to the characters when their dialogue is a mess, because it creates a low-level stress of understanding what they're trying to say that makes it tough for any of it to land emotionally.
If you speak fluent Japanese or Korean, I'd recommend this game - I think the production values and strong concept outweigh the pacing issues. If you speak English, well, watch some YouTube videos of the start and decide if you can still enjoy the game as it is.
In terms of "pressure-cooker survival VN", I think Buried Stars has a fantastic setup - the top five contestants in an idol reality show, plus a floor director, trapped inside a collapsed building, waiting for rescue in six hours, and most crucially still having access to Twitter is just [chef's kiss]. Then it mixes in an "I Know What You Did Last Summer"-style murder threat and you've really got a stew cooking. It's helped by a pretty solid soundtrack and some great production values and art.
But goddamn if the remainder of the game isn't just it kneecapping itself over and over. The conversation system is basically extended trial-and-error; you have no idea what topics will increase your sanity, or decrease it, or increase/decrease your rapport with the other characters, or unlock a profile that you'll need to unlock a rapport event that you'll need to unlock the true ending... etc. etc. etc. Then the pacing takes a massive hit in the middle third of the game, and by the time it recovers you're almost at the end anyway.
When it comes to the story and characters, the game's got a great setup for a story about fame, fandom, social media, and the pressure to be someone you aren't, but except for a few good moments, it doesn't really do all that much interesting with it. I got more out of little flourishes like how the game will let you argue with people on Twitter for absolutely no benefit (and in fact it will damage your sanity meter) more than I got out of some of the main characters' arcs.
But more disappointing than any of that - and worsening all of it - is the localization. It's bad! I feel bad saying that because I know translation and localization is really damn hard, but this is bad in that it doesn't seem to have had any kind of editing pass done on it by a native speaker. There's plenty of sentences that were clearly translated out of context, and many many more that are just flat and awkward. At its worst, the game will throw a timed choice at you where both of the options are almost word salad. That's the exception, not the rule, but it's the kind of thing you only have to see a few times before it sours you on the whole experience. It also makes it harder to connect to the characters when their dialogue is a mess, because it creates a low-level stress of understanding what they're trying to say that makes it tough for any of it to land emotionally.
If you speak fluent Japanese or Korean, I'd recommend this game - I think the production values and strong concept outweigh the pacing issues. If you speak English, well, watch some YouTube videos of the start and decide if you can still enjoy the game as it is.
There's a lot in this game that I love love love love love. The final few days are the kind of JRPG climactic stuff I live for, and it's just so satisfying to revisit this world and its aesthetics.
My big issue with the game is that a lot of the main story drags - there just isn't a sense of forward momentum, and even the final week has a few days that are more about you running around taking care of what feels like busywork because obviously the plot stuff can't take place until the last day. The time travel days are also pretty dull, and Scramble Slam is just a nightmare of a time-waster.
My big issue with the game is that a lot of the main story drags - there just isn't a sense of forward momentum, and even the final week has a few days that are more about you running around taking care of what feels like busywork because obviously the plot stuff can't take place until the last day. The time travel days are also pretty dull, and Scramble Slam is just a nightmare of a time-waster.
2006
the first indie game that really made me realize indie games were something that went beyond 15-minute flash games. this game is good, simple fun: you are a ball, you bounce around through various levels connected by a hub world, sometimes you get new materials you can turn into and that changes how you bounce around. the vibes are incredible.
1993
i played and completed plok on stream in the year of our lord 2022. reader, do not make the same mistakes i did. it isn't too late. you can choose a better timeline
2019
This review contains spoilers
you ever hear a banjo in a forest grove and find yourself on the verge of tears
1999
I'm the most popular person in the city. A lot of people need jobs.