i dont know what the hell happened for this game to be released after the second but it's kino...

improves on everything that makes the first game great with the storyline that the series deserves. the central plot primarily focusing on arkham and lady really accentuates the familial rivalry between dante and vergil, and how they represent both sides of their bloodline, with dante finding his path against vergil through his opposition of arkham. this game turns dante into a genuinely great character while adding a ton of charm that the previous more stoic renditions didnt show. even if the story in this game sucked, the cutscenes of dante taunting every fucked up boss or side character that wants to kill him would make this game worth playing

the combat system dmc3 offers is impressively complex as well, being a huge improvement from the previous games while also maintaining what makes the hack and slash of dmc great. after the first playthrough, i feel like i've explored maybe 30% of the combat in this game, with the variation of skill sets and weapons with separate attack patterns, you could play though 10 times and still not explore everything the combat offers.

dmc2 tosses a random boss into every level that says no word, makes no sense, and can be completely kited and shot dead with dantes guns in a couple mintues. dmc3 has bosses every few missions that are actual personalities that make sense to the setting and have reason to contest dante, with completely different attack patterns and ways to be beaten. almost none of these bosses can be beaten on first try (maybe they can I might just be #ass), but the rinse and repeat of learning the fight pattern and getting to the point of beating them always felt warranted and incredibly deserving. the vergil fights are especially fantastic, as he initially feels the most "doable" for dante, as he's less physically demanding than most the bosses, but as you begin each round with him, you realize how hard he outclasses dante in comparison to every other boss. each of these fights feels like a genuine duel of brothers trying to one up each other, which makes the final encounter feel incredibly cathartic.... its peak

also few scenes go harder than dante and vergil swapping swords THROUGH arkham for a final barrage, just to finish the fight with both of them taking a final shot with ebony & ivory...

JACKPOT

I love the story and characters. The pacing and world building is near perfect. Voice delivery and timing can be off at times but overall the voice performances were charming and memorable. It's aged incredibly well. I was scared the gameplay was too basic at the beginning but it really opens up, the sphere upgrade system is genius. The end game encounters and bosses aggravated me a little but thanks to some cheesy tactics because of Rikku I got to the end with zero grinding required. The ending is something that will stick with me for a quite a while, it concluded beautifully. Recommended for any JRPG fan.

woaaahhhh

worse than the first in a lot of ways but stylistically so unique and thematically (prob) more ambitious with very ambiguous results. the new protagonists and cast members fit the series incredibly well, and all the returning characters continue to be just as fantastic as they were. This game could also be like twice it's length if it wanted to, but the individual story paths are purposefully very condensed to what the 25th ward is dealing to the characters, which comes together very nicely in the end. I cant really tell if the inclusion of the third route was a great choice, as even though every story in this game is unique and serves a purpose to the plot, I feel the more interesting sides of the story could have been further expanded, making the chapter to chapter experience more enjoyable. The final product is still fantastic, but doesn't quite feel as complete as TSC. the OST is also worse but in a very interesting and almost offensive way at points, which ends up being way more entertaining then it should be (most the OST is still great, only a handful of tracks feel too out there). This game also lacks the diverse multi-media approach of TSC (which I assume is either due to the fact that this remaster is of a mobile game which likely made certain outlets more difficult, or that they were aiming for a more consistent "polished" feeling that TSC, being very rough around the edges, lacked), which was a shame as they always came across super unique and charming, albeit very technically jank at times.

the silver case has very easily become one of my favorite game series that I've ever played through. the constant balance of out of place and strange humor paired with psychotic storytelling filled with different complexities and hard-hitting themes delivered in the most unconventional way possible constantly impressed me throughout the 3 games. this delivery paired with some of the best visual style and aesthetics I've ever seen make for a genuine fully unique experience that's still stylistically unmatched 20 years later. it's further amazed me that the actual gameplay in this series is really not very good (FSR...), but the complete experience that the games provide strongly override the obvious weaker points throughout the trilogy. This series immediately hooked me with TSC, and I imagine it will keep my attention for a long time to come... generational series...

Tokio Morishima is actually the goat as well

Correctness>Placebo>Matchmaker

kill the past

everything in this game outside of the actual gameplay is so great that I can almost forgive how painful the walking sim becomes at points. the dialogue, characters, comedy, soundtrack, story and overall vibes makes this game feel like such a unique experience that couldnt come from any other studio. the game takes its time to reveal it's connections to TSC, but once it does the story somehow feels like an appropriate continuation for the characters that fleshes out themes set in the first game, while also being it's own "paradise" that briefly exists for the cast and tells it's own story.

although the walking of the game actually plays well into the themes of the story, the time spent going back and forth from point A-B is egregious. its actually very funny how much the game fucks with you and makes you do nothing but walk for half the missions, but i really don't think it makes for a fun experience for the most part. The best part of the walking is knowing that you'll encounter some freak at the end of the road who will fuck with Sumio for however long the story allows (stephan charbonie....). the puzzles were also kind of annoying at times, but most of them were pretty simple, and the actual Catherine system is very cool

genuinely can't imagine I'll ever play a game like this again, will miss Losspass Island....

Final Steps: 20,901

kill the past

Something this singularly focused and confident in what it’s setting out to achieve goes beyond a breath of fresh air and into the realm of interactive mouthwash. Nearly everything about Penny’s game encourages you to stay on the move at all times – it’s present in how the secret areas’ entryways outright throw you in or out, its main enemy type’s mode of attack being chasing you, her bouncy bunny-like outfit and the combo system rewarding you for every trick you pull, and it knows what a joy it is to do so to the point that its main collectibles reward with you with progressively zanier layouts to test your mastery of it in.

It all hinges on building and maintaining momentum, so it’s just as well that her toolkit feeds into both so intuitively. Comparisons to different platformers in this respect are easy – I got enough mileage out of her drop dash equivalent that I occasionally forgot she also has a spin dash one – but viewing this game through the lens of others is selling it short when her yo-yo swing’s the type of thing which makes returning to them initially feel weird for the lack of it. It’s so malleable it’s unreal: an on-demand boost whose strength’s proportional to her speed going into it, contextualised into her design, which can mantle up ledges or grab special items or correct jumps, all dependent on the angle at which you let go and the nearby geometry. Rarely will any two attempts at the same section of a level pan out the same way because of it alone, and that’s without delving into how fluidly almost all of her other manoeuvres interweave with it and what a complementary fit they are for stages so littered with half-pipes and slopes. By no means am I a capital P Penny gamer as of yet, but hopefully this shows what I mean to some degree.

I say “almost” for the same reason as the “nearly” at the start, because although it’s a resounding success at funnelling you into a flow state the vast majority of the time, one or two common interactions stand out as uncharacteristically finicky. The window for maintaining a combo when transitioning from a yo-yo swing into spinning on top of screws feels excessively strict, slightly marring how much I’m predisposed to love any control scheme which even vaguely reminds me of Ape Escape, while obstacles which require Penny to come to a stop (like tree catapults or giant drawers) seem incongruent with how you otherwise pretty much always want to be moving. I’m hesitant to criticise these aspects too much because all manner of unconventional games, not just skill-intensive ones like Penny’s, suffer too often from players’ tendencies to blame them for their own lack of willingness to meet them on their own terms, and knowing that levels can be beat in a single combo makes me think the relative discomfort of these moments is my own fault. Occasional collision issues and/or clipping through terrain are more unambiguously annoying, but in any case, stuff like this is only so conspicuous because everything else about how it plays is so bang on.

That’s similarly true of its levels themselves. While it’s a bit of a pity that the amount of levels per area vary so steeply – Industria and Tideswell, my two favourites in part for the Dynamite-Headdy-if-he-real visuals and being yet further evidence for why Tee Lopes should be made to compose every game ever, only have two levels each – any pacing issues this could’ve potentially resulted in are offset by what a smooth difficulty curve they result in when taken wholistically. The progression from early hazards like water, which can be manipulated to the player’s advantage via the point bonuses it offers by riding on top of it with enough speed, to the absolutely no-touchy electrical discharges powered by breakable lightbulbs in later areas creates this lovely feeling of the game taking its gloves off just as you’ve become acclimatised enough with its systems to no longer need the help. I initially found it frustrating that hazards like the latter hurt Penny if her yo-yo collides with them, but after sitting on it, I can now see that it’s just another example of what a unique platformer this is – substantially extending her hurtbox whenever you perform a trick causes you to really consider when and where to do so in a way that many others don’t really demand of you.

It's evocative of a larger point, which is that Penny’s Big Breakaway is the type of game we could all do with more of. It’s one that’s not afraid to be so out-there in both mechanics and visual design to the point of potentially being offputting for some. It’s one which tangibly takes enough inspiration from the like of Sonic or Mario Odyssey to feel immediately familiar on some level, yet also puts equally as much of its own spin on areas in which it shares common ground with bigger names to the extent that you can’t treat it like them. It’s one that’s in general so unabashedly itself that you can’t not respect it regardless of whether or not it’s to your personal taste, but if you’re at all into the kind of game which gives out as much as you put in and only becomes better as you yourself do, there’s too much on offer here executed to too high of a standard for it not to be.

To extend to it the highest praise in a more succinct way: in art direction, ethos and gameplay philosophy, this is essentially a fully 3D Mega Drive game. Breakaway indeed.

unbelievably dense and actually schizophrenic. maybe the worst controls in any game I've ever played paired with some of the best style and dialogue. the back and forth between Transmission and Placebo is incredible as well, especially with how they intertwine later on. you can kind of tell the two paths are written by different people, but I actually think it benefits the game a lot, especially since Akira and Tokio's narratives are so different. very much so looking forward to the next games, beyond kino

edit 3/14
actually goated 5/5

KILL THE PAST