I cannot fathom what Dimps was thinking when they developed this game, especially since they created the, at least somewhat, well regarded Sonic Advance trilogy as well as the Sonic Rush duology.
They already know how 2D Sonic works, and while they've never been perfect at it, at least those earlier games felt good to play as far as I've heard.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Episode I is a physical attack on my senses. The visuals are ugly, the controls are inconsolably awful, and the soundtrack... the soundtrack.
I am genuinely disappointed with Jun Sunoue's work in this game, because all of the music is ear gratingly painful and makes me want to drill my brain out.
And on top of it all, this game can't decide whether it wants me to play it, or if it wants to play itself.
So many rings, so many lives, none of them feeling remotely earned in any capacity. Gimmicks and Level Design that just don't work because Sonic's physics just flat out do not function. Miserable Special Stages.
And they neutered the fucking roll. How the fuck do you do that for what is supposed to be a return to form for Classic Sonic design?!
The worst offender in this game by far is the inclusion of the Homing Attack, as it makes the game piss fucking easy and is always used for the same repetitive Bubble chains in every single stage.
I'll probably finish the game tomorrow morning, but I don't think my thoughts are going to change much. This game fucking blows.
Edit: Fuck this game, fuck the Special Stages, none of this is worth playing.
They already know how 2D Sonic works, and while they've never been perfect at it, at least those earlier games felt good to play as far as I've heard.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Episode I is a physical attack on my senses. The visuals are ugly, the controls are inconsolably awful, and the soundtrack... the soundtrack.
I am genuinely disappointed with Jun Sunoue's work in this game, because all of the music is ear gratingly painful and makes me want to drill my brain out.
And on top of it all, this game can't decide whether it wants me to play it, or if it wants to play itself.
So many rings, so many lives, none of them feeling remotely earned in any capacity. Gimmicks and Level Design that just don't work because Sonic's physics just flat out do not function. Miserable Special Stages.
And they neutered the fucking roll. How the fuck do you do that for what is supposed to be a return to form for Classic Sonic design?!
The worst offender in this game by far is the inclusion of the Homing Attack, as it makes the game piss fucking easy and is always used for the same repetitive Bubble chains in every single stage.
I'll probably finish the game tomorrow morning, but I don't think my thoughts are going to change much. This game fucking blows.
Edit: Fuck this game, fuck the Special Stages, none of this is worth playing.
Well, this is the first Castlevania I've ever beaten and I'll fully admit I played on Easy Difficulty for this one because I've never played a Castlevania before and the game is hard as is even on this setting.
I will say I like how this game has a variety of settings going throughout all of Europe during the tail end of World War 1, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to a Munitions Factory, the stages are all filled with a sense of variety and level themes that make sure they don't get old.
I do wish they kind of did more with it though given well, this game takes place during World War One and yet we only see soldier like enemies in that Munitions Factory I mentioned earlier. You would think we'd find more Soldier Zombies and Ghouls roaming the various locales but there aren't really any and it's a tad disappointing.
As for the gameplay it's a solid platformer, though some levels tend to drag way longer than they need to. Stage 4 in particular felt like it was going on for an eternity as the Stage count rose higher and higher to like fucking, Stage 4-13 or some shit.
I personally played as Eric Lecarde in my run because I just thought the Alucard Spear was a cool weapon and I was correct. His moveset being far more versatile than John Morris was also part of the reason. Eric has a high jump that can damage enemies, his spear can be aimed diagonally and twirled around for some extra style and defense, and he has a longer range.
Not to say I didn't try Morris, I did but I enjoyed playing Eric a lot more, and I like his design a lot as well.
Boss Fights in this game though are very hit or miss I find. You either get something really simplistic or an encounter that absolutely sucks balls.
I think the kicker really goes to the Gargoyle boss fight in Stage 3, as it being so high in the air makes hitting it a pain in the ass with your regular weapon, and the relatively small platform you fight it on doesn't give you much in the way to avoid its attacks.
And that's not bringing up the various stage gimmicks, the worst of which is in the final level. I fully expect the Final Level to be challenging, but I definitely think a reverse gravity section was a bit much just for how disorienting it was and the fact that a sizeable chunk of it is placed over a bottomless pit.
Despite that though the game is definitely a visual treat. The Genesis graphics and colors really make the game pop and the usage of red throughout gives the game an ominous creeping feeling as you make your way to challenge the Prince of Darkness.
All in all, Castlevania Bloodlines was alright. It didn't feel like a stellar experience but I could see myself going back to try the other difficulties given time.
I will say I like how this game has a variety of settings going throughout all of Europe during the tail end of World War 1, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to a Munitions Factory, the stages are all filled with a sense of variety and level themes that make sure they don't get old.
I do wish they kind of did more with it though given well, this game takes place during World War One and yet we only see soldier like enemies in that Munitions Factory I mentioned earlier. You would think we'd find more Soldier Zombies and Ghouls roaming the various locales but there aren't really any and it's a tad disappointing.
As for the gameplay it's a solid platformer, though some levels tend to drag way longer than they need to. Stage 4 in particular felt like it was going on for an eternity as the Stage count rose higher and higher to like fucking, Stage 4-13 or some shit.
I personally played as Eric Lecarde in my run because I just thought the Alucard Spear was a cool weapon and I was correct. His moveset being far more versatile than John Morris was also part of the reason. Eric has a high jump that can damage enemies, his spear can be aimed diagonally and twirled around for some extra style and defense, and he has a longer range.
Not to say I didn't try Morris, I did but I enjoyed playing Eric a lot more, and I like his design a lot as well.
Boss Fights in this game though are very hit or miss I find. You either get something really simplistic or an encounter that absolutely sucks balls.
I think the kicker really goes to the Gargoyle boss fight in Stage 3, as it being so high in the air makes hitting it a pain in the ass with your regular weapon, and the relatively small platform you fight it on doesn't give you much in the way to avoid its attacks.
And that's not bringing up the various stage gimmicks, the worst of which is in the final level. I fully expect the Final Level to be challenging, but I definitely think a reverse gravity section was a bit much just for how disorienting it was and the fact that a sizeable chunk of it is placed over a bottomless pit.
Despite that though the game is definitely a visual treat. The Genesis graphics and colors really make the game pop and the usage of red throughout gives the game an ominous creeping feeling as you make your way to challenge the Prince of Darkness.
All in all, Castlevania Bloodlines was alright. It didn't feel like a stellar experience but I could see myself going back to try the other difficulties given time.
I put a minecart ON ANOTHER MINECART to get across a rail gap and it WORKED!
Anyways it has better rail grinding than any Sonic game ever made let's fucking gooooooooooooo.
P.S. No video game is worth 70 dollars no matter how good, the money doesn't actually go to the people who work on the game. Piracy is the answer smile.
(Unfinished review will go more indepth whenever I finish.)
Anyways it has better rail grinding than any Sonic game ever made let's fucking gooooooooooooo.
P.S. No video game is worth 70 dollars no matter how good, the money doesn't actually go to the people who work on the game. Piracy is the answer smile.
(Unfinished review will go more indepth whenever I finish.)
1992
I don't have a lot of nostalgia for Sonic 2. I've played Sonic 1 and 3 & Knuckles multiple times at this point, and while I definitely think overall that this game is better than the first one, there is one particular thing that will keep me from returning to this game from this point forward: Special Stages.
As a long time fan of Sonic, I find Special Stages to be completely repulsive and antithetical to the concept of Sonic. They have always been slogs to go through and slogs to try and get, and they lock behind the coolest features in the game (or rather the best ending) behind it. I have never liked this, and Sonic 2 is the prime example with its Special Stage spawning the worst style of Special Stages throughout the franchise: The Half Pipe.
Lack of Depth Perception doesn't even begin to cover the numerous problems I have with these. If anything, that's the cherry on top because the worst aspect of this specific incarnation of the Half Pipe is Tails himself. He counts as an extra hitbox and he always moves about 2-3 seconds behind Sonic, so even if you dodge one of the many bombs on the course, there is a chance that Tails will get hit because he has a delay on his movements and you will lose rings anyway. I'm sorry but that is just terrible fucking design. You are punishing players for a character they don't have much control over and can fuck up an entire Special Stage run whenever they fumble. It's not enough that the special stages have increasingly ridiculous ring requirements, and it's not enough that the momentum for getting rings in the air feels funky and awkward, no they had to make it so that Tails will always fuck you over no matter how well you play and I hate that.
Level Design isn't as good as 3 or Mania, there are two Water Levels back to back which is just, ugh. Enemy placement is just plain dickish at points, with enemies being placed after bumpers which give you no way to defend yourself mid-air.
I am certain that this is a better Sonic game than 1, but I'm not going to fucking bother anymore. I hate the Special Stages, and the rest of the game just isn't as good as its sequels.
As a long time fan of Sonic, I find Special Stages to be completely repulsive and antithetical to the concept of Sonic. They have always been slogs to go through and slogs to try and get, and they lock behind the coolest features in the game (or rather the best ending) behind it. I have never liked this, and Sonic 2 is the prime example with its Special Stage spawning the worst style of Special Stages throughout the franchise: The Half Pipe.
Lack of Depth Perception doesn't even begin to cover the numerous problems I have with these. If anything, that's the cherry on top because the worst aspect of this specific incarnation of the Half Pipe is Tails himself. He counts as an extra hitbox and he always moves about 2-3 seconds behind Sonic, so even if you dodge one of the many bombs on the course, there is a chance that Tails will get hit because he has a delay on his movements and you will lose rings anyway. I'm sorry but that is just terrible fucking design. You are punishing players for a character they don't have much control over and can fuck up an entire Special Stage run whenever they fumble. It's not enough that the special stages have increasingly ridiculous ring requirements, and it's not enough that the momentum for getting rings in the air feels funky and awkward, no they had to make it so that Tails will always fuck you over no matter how well you play and I hate that.
Level Design isn't as good as 3 or Mania, there are two Water Levels back to back which is just, ugh. Enemy placement is just plain dickish at points, with enemies being placed after bumpers which give you no way to defend yourself mid-air.
I am certain that this is a better Sonic game than 1, but I'm not going to fucking bother anymore. I hate the Special Stages, and the rest of the game just isn't as good as its sequels.
Fool Reviews (and Logs) Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix
"Simple & Clean, more like Stupid & Full of Shit":
This review consists of a series of gameplay logs describing my miserable experience through Kingdom Hearts, a terrible game that has no value to this world. The story is written worse than some comics I made at the age of 12, the gameplay is sterile and repetitive, the acting ranges from incredible iconic performances by Disney actors to completely awful and ridiculous performances by Final Fantasy actors. This game is a loaded diaper of disappointment and bullshit. Play it at your own risk.
Bonus: Take a shot every time the word "Darkness" is mentioned, you will fucking die.
Everything below contains the logs, from 0 to 10. Enjoy, because I sure didn't.
Update 0:
I played maybe an hour of this game and it felt so pretentious that I dropped it. I'm planning on picking it up on April Fools because I hate myself. I also hate Tetsuya Nomura, because he is a terrible director.
Pre-Drink Update 1: So I have decided to pick this game up as I have turned 21 and can now legally consume the alcohol, which I am convinced is the only way I will ever be able to tolerate this franchise. The rating remains the same and I will provide a Post Drink Update when I'm done with today's session on 5/18/2021
Post-Drink Update 1: I have gotten to Traverse Town, and I still think this game fucking blows. First off, the platforming challenge with Riku sucks, regardless of how you go through it. A friend of mine told me to not go through the platforms and just run through the beach instead. It took three times for me to actually succeed using that method because you still have to platform to the star tree anyway. I named the ship "Garbage" by the way, I don't think I need to be subtle about why I gave it that name. The first boss fight was a cake walk considering I only grinded up to Level 7, which I thought was all I really needed (for context I saw a playthrough that had the player grind to Level 13 before the boss fight). I guess I won't complain since it was the first boss, but it was almost too easy. Just flacking the left hand for like a solid minute and not taking any damage and then suddenly it ended. Honestly the worst aspect of today's session was just, finding the fucking items that Kairi needed. The process was so dull, but hopefully the rest of the game isn't like that. Here's hoping things improve starting with Traverse Town, but I sincerely doubt it.
Pre-Play Update 2 (5/21/21): So, I realized that playing Kingdom Hearts while drunk actively made the game even worse to play than before, so I've decided to scrap the drunk playthrough idea. Today I will be continuing from Traverse Town. I guess the story will truly begin soon.
Post Play Update 2: I have now passed both Traverse Town and my first visit to Wonderland. Several things to note. This may just be a me thing, but I don't really care for the combat in this game so far. This stretches to both regular encounters as well as bosses. It's borderline mindless "Spam A to Win" battles where I feel like my input changes nothing. Now, for clarification I am playing on this game's Normal mode, since that's how I wanted to experience the game for the first time. It's just so... nothing so far. Maybe that's just an early game issue, but god so far all the boss fights amount to is hit the thing continuously until it dies, which can be done well, but I don't think Kingdom Hearts is hitting that vibe for me.
On another note, the Gummi Ship... I initially thought it was horrid due to the first level but upon building Garbage up to my personal preference of just, shoving as much shit on there to see what works, I found that the Gummi Levels aren't so much horrid but rather bland. Of course, the real issue is that I can't skip them, and that in itself is just a blight.
The Wonderland level was alright, I liked the music a fair bit. Wasn't very interesting but that's what happens when you're mostly just retelling a near hundred year old Disney film. Overall today's session was ok, nothing too terrible but also nothing good either.
Oh wait, I forgot, the cutscenes. Yeah, the cutscenes in Traverse Town when they're trying to explain to Sora, Donald & Goofy the overall narrative was fucking suffering. Terrible Dialogue, Terrible Acting, nearly fucking unbearable. It is sad that the worst part of this Action RPG is the Story aspect. That isn't even bringing up the villain talk. "Will he defeat the darkness, or will the darkness swallow him whole," please, please stop making characters talk like this, it's fucking unnatural and reads and sounds like dogshit. Anyways that's it for Session 2, might do more later today, likely won't.
Update 3 & 4: So I continued to play through the Tarzan World, and at the point of time I am updating this which is on 5/22/21, I have made it to Agrabah. I don't really have much to genuinely add. Combat hasn't really improved much despite gaining new spells and Heartless getting more variety, it's still very much "Spam A to Win". Finally got the Warp Upgrade for the Gummi Ship, thank god. I was kind of getting tired of having to take multiple paths just to get to a world I had been to previously. Storywise, meh. We had the encounter with Riku, which was followed by the stupid Maleficent BS speech that has literally no merit and makes me think that if Riku genuinely believes that the kid must be an idiot. I sealed the Keyholes of Tarzan's World and Traverse Town, so yeah. The Clayton Boss Fight was... nothing special honestly. Another Spam A Fest, seems to be this game's bread and butter honestly. At least I finally got Scan, now I can see enemy health, which is very useful. But yeah, not much to genuinely say. This game is pretty dull so far honestly, outside of the gratingly bad original story bits. Anyways I've got work in like, 3 hours so I'm done with this for today.
Update 5: I actually got so fucking bored in Agrabah that I jumped to a platform in the middle of a giant pit and just stood there in the middle of combat doing nothing and then I went and watched Smosh in 2021. This combat is so boring and repetitive.
Update 6: I beat Agrabah, Monstro, and the Pegasus Cup. Not much to really bring up of note, other than that 100 Acre Wood's plot is an existential nightmare. The main story shit is rife with stupidity, and Riku and Sora's voice acting in Monstro specifically is some of the worst I've come across in the game so far. The fight with Leon and Yuffie in the tournament was... something. I had difficulties at first, but then "Spam A to Win" came to my rescue and that's basically how I beat Leon.
Ah, I did forget to mention the High Jump. This jump, maybe not height wise, but like just in terms of regular jumping should have been the default. It takes away the floaty bullshit jump that I have been forced to use for platforming up to this point and gives me a better, smoother jump for platforming. I have no idea why they held this until near halfway through this fucking game.
Overall, a very uneventful session.
Update 7: I beat Atlantica. It was a pretty shitty experience, I will not argue with those who believe it is the worst level in the game. I actively felt sick while playing it because of how the camera uncomfortably functions with the swimming.
I beat both Ursala bosses on my first go, which I find funny because my friend Simon told me to fear them. The ironic part is that both fights amount to the same problem I have had with a majority of things in this game, that being "Spam A to Win". The first fight genuinely had an interesting concept of using magic on the cauldron to weaken Ursala to attack her... but after you do so it's just a bunch of non-stop flacking her with the keyblade. The second fight was even worse because outside of her having a way larger health bar, the entire fight just consists of running away from her attacks and then attacking the back of her head with "Spam A to Win".
I decided to look up how many worlds I had left after this, and I'm baffled to say there are only 4 worlds left. This game hasn't improved much, if at all, since Destiny Islands, and now I'm nearing Endgame. Combat is as boring as stale bread, better platforming wasn't unlocked until Monstro, which is about 12-14 hours in, and the story when not just flat out retelling something that was better as a film is excruciatingly moronic with writing that could make a 13 year old emo poet blush, this game fucking reeks.
Next update will be on Halloween Town and possibly Neverland. God rest my fucking soul.
Update 8: Like I said last time, I got through Halloween Town and Neverland, as well as finishing the Hercules Cup of the Coliseum and the storyline of 100 Acre Wood.
First off, a big issue I had with Halloween Town specifically was the darkness. I will admit that I love the aesthetic of the level, probably one of the more visually pleasing levels in the game. I love Nightmare Before Christmas so seeing the velvety textures of it on everything was great. The problem is I could barely see shit. I spent like 10 minutes just trying to locate where the graveyard was because I couldn't see where there was an entrance or an exit. Fighting wise, I will say things semi-improved but not by much and it was mostly by choice. You see, I had not used some of the "Action Moves" that are unlocked during the course of the game, such as Sonic Rush and Strike Raid. One of the reasons I hadn't used them is because they require both a lot of AP to have and a lot of MP to use, so I didn't bother equipping them for a majority of the game. They are more visually interesting than the standard 3 hit combo, but at the same time they are active button spammers themselves, just replace "A" with "Y". I don't use them that frequently even now because the game rarely requires you to, which I would say is a benefit but at the same time that just speaks to how plain a majority of the gameplay is here.
Onto my actual biggest problem with Halloween Town, all three of the boss fights suck. The fight with Shock, Lock and Barrel was genuinely boring with nothing but me spamming A the entire time and brute forcing the fuck out of it. Ironically, this wound up being the least upsetting fight because the two following it are probably what I'd consider the worst in the entire game. The first Oogie Boogie fight is an absolute drag. The fight takes too long and the Roulette Wheel setup, while interesting in theory, serves to just keep the fight going longer and longer. The actual process is very similar to the first fight with Ursala, funny because they're both respective opposing worlds on the map. You do a simple thing, pressing the button of the area Oogie is in to lock him in, and then you Spam A to knock his ass into next week. A very simple, very dull setup that is only worse than Ursala's first fight due to monotony. Then there's Oogie Boogie Round 2, and it fucking sucks. It's barely even a boss fight, I'd equate it to the Ancient Wyvern in Dark Souls 3. You're mostly dealing with mooks while trying to attack the little orbs on Giant Oogie's Tree Bod. It is a very annoying process and makes me wonder why this game's second half has an obsession with Giant Bosses. Climbing up Oogie is made worse by the general sucky platforming, so yeah it's just an all around unpleasant experience.
Neverland was alright. It wasn't a very long voyage despite the location being a ship. Flying around was somewhat entertaining though it makes the Hook fight an absolute fucking joke. The story beats with Riku were dogshit though, and every line coming out of that boy's mouth sounded awkward and forced, as if the VA himself was actively looking at the script and going "Does this idiot hear himself?" At least I unlocked the Glide Ability which, is legitimately a great ability and I love utilizing it. It makes me wish it came earlier, but at the same time I can actually understand why this is late game when compared to the High Jump.
The Hercules Cup was rather underwhelming in comparison to the Pegasus Cup. The fight with Cloud was honestly not as bad as the one with Leon and Yuffie, and the fight with Hercules is... pathetic. You fight him one on one and he just doesn't take the fight seriously, which is the point I should stress, doesn't make the fight any less dull though.
That leaves 100 Acre Wood, which is easily the one part of the game I genuinely enjoyed. The mini-games aren't especially groundbreaking but I just love being around Pooh and his friends, whom I grew up watching as a young kid. Despite the fact that I've seen all of the movies in the world listing for this game, Winnie the Pooh is the only part which had me feeling nostalgic. No battles, no stupid plot, just Sora hanging out with Pooh and it was "wholesome chungus" as the kids say.
Other than that, there are only 2 worlds left, and it's time for me to go to work. I imagine we only have 2 updates left and then a final conclusion review after this.
Update 9 & 10:
As I sit here, listening to the main theme of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, I realize something. As I have spent the past 11 hours or so finishing the game, my heart fucking sunk. As the credits rolled and "Simple & Clean" played over the CGI cutscenes, followed up by the cutscene trailer for KH2, I felt completely and utterly numb.
Let's start at the beginning of these two sessions, Hollow Bastion. A long, dramatic slog of a level which you have to go through twice. The level design wasn't particularly awful but it was just such a drag to get through. Having no Keyblade for a bit was interesting for all of about 5 seconds before I just grew tired of enemy encounters entirely. The neat thing was getting to have Beast from Beauty and the Beast with me, but that ultimately didn't mean that much overall. Eventually after a bunch of poor writing and acting I got the Keyblade back, and I noticed the biggest thing with the endgame for this game. I thought things were improving last time, but no, I was wrong. Things are still Spam A to win, to the very last minute, it's just that everything takes longer, making combat even more boring. I honestly was bored through most of the fights for the final two worlds of this game. Maleficent, regular and Dragon, the multiple fights with Riku, everything involving Ansem, all of it was long and boring. I even went through the Hades Cup just for the sake of upgrading my magic since a majority of the final tier spell unlocks are tied to it. It was all so very boring and time consuming.
The plot came back in full force which meant writing was absurdly painful to witness, I fucking winced whenever I heard the words "Darkness" or "Light", sometimes multiple times in a single fucking sentence. Everything about the final few hours of this game is just fucking annoying diatribes about the Heart and Light and Darkness and I fucking wanted the game to shut the absolute fuck up. It was almost as repetitive as the fucking gameplay, maybe that was the point.
I just... I do not understand the appeal of this game, at all. This shit is barely passable gameplay wise, and completely ridiculous story wise. How this started a franchise that is still ongoing actually confuses me. Simple & Clean? More like Stupid & Shitty. Besides the OST and Winnie the Pooh, there is nothing about this game that makes it worth playing. It is worthless. It is one of the worst video games I have ever had the misfortune to play. I still have the superbosses to do, but that won't be covered in the main review until after I beat them.
To cover everything I did:
I got all of the Dalmatians
Did all of the Trinity Marks
Beat all of the main tournaments
Beat the game
Fuck this game, and fuck Tetsuya Nomura for making it.
Edit: I brought the game's rating up to 1 Star because I'm currently playing Re:Chain of Memories and by god it is so much worse on an objective level.
"Simple & Clean, more like Stupid & Full of Shit":
This review consists of a series of gameplay logs describing my miserable experience through Kingdom Hearts, a terrible game that has no value to this world. The story is written worse than some comics I made at the age of 12, the gameplay is sterile and repetitive, the acting ranges from incredible iconic performances by Disney actors to completely awful and ridiculous performances by Final Fantasy actors. This game is a loaded diaper of disappointment and bullshit. Play it at your own risk.
Bonus: Take a shot every time the word "Darkness" is mentioned, you will fucking die.
Everything below contains the logs, from 0 to 10. Enjoy, because I sure didn't.
Update 0:
I played maybe an hour of this game and it felt so pretentious that I dropped it. I'm planning on picking it up on April Fools because I hate myself. I also hate Tetsuya Nomura, because he is a terrible director.
Pre-Drink Update 1: So I have decided to pick this game up as I have turned 21 and can now legally consume the alcohol, which I am convinced is the only way I will ever be able to tolerate this franchise. The rating remains the same and I will provide a Post Drink Update when I'm done with today's session on 5/18/2021
Post-Drink Update 1: I have gotten to Traverse Town, and I still think this game fucking blows. First off, the platforming challenge with Riku sucks, regardless of how you go through it. A friend of mine told me to not go through the platforms and just run through the beach instead. It took three times for me to actually succeed using that method because you still have to platform to the star tree anyway. I named the ship "Garbage" by the way, I don't think I need to be subtle about why I gave it that name. The first boss fight was a cake walk considering I only grinded up to Level 7, which I thought was all I really needed (for context I saw a playthrough that had the player grind to Level 13 before the boss fight). I guess I won't complain since it was the first boss, but it was almost too easy. Just flacking the left hand for like a solid minute and not taking any damage and then suddenly it ended. Honestly the worst aspect of today's session was just, finding the fucking items that Kairi needed. The process was so dull, but hopefully the rest of the game isn't like that. Here's hoping things improve starting with Traverse Town, but I sincerely doubt it.
Pre-Play Update 2 (5/21/21): So, I realized that playing Kingdom Hearts while drunk actively made the game even worse to play than before, so I've decided to scrap the drunk playthrough idea. Today I will be continuing from Traverse Town. I guess the story will truly begin soon.
Post Play Update 2: I have now passed both Traverse Town and my first visit to Wonderland. Several things to note. This may just be a me thing, but I don't really care for the combat in this game so far. This stretches to both regular encounters as well as bosses. It's borderline mindless "Spam A to Win" battles where I feel like my input changes nothing. Now, for clarification I am playing on this game's Normal mode, since that's how I wanted to experience the game for the first time. It's just so... nothing so far. Maybe that's just an early game issue, but god so far all the boss fights amount to is hit the thing continuously until it dies, which can be done well, but I don't think Kingdom Hearts is hitting that vibe for me.
On another note, the Gummi Ship... I initially thought it was horrid due to the first level but upon building Garbage up to my personal preference of just, shoving as much shit on there to see what works, I found that the Gummi Levels aren't so much horrid but rather bland. Of course, the real issue is that I can't skip them, and that in itself is just a blight.
The Wonderland level was alright, I liked the music a fair bit. Wasn't very interesting but that's what happens when you're mostly just retelling a near hundred year old Disney film. Overall today's session was ok, nothing too terrible but also nothing good either.
Oh wait, I forgot, the cutscenes. Yeah, the cutscenes in Traverse Town when they're trying to explain to Sora, Donald & Goofy the overall narrative was fucking suffering. Terrible Dialogue, Terrible Acting, nearly fucking unbearable. It is sad that the worst part of this Action RPG is the Story aspect. That isn't even bringing up the villain talk. "Will he defeat the darkness, or will the darkness swallow him whole," please, please stop making characters talk like this, it's fucking unnatural and reads and sounds like dogshit. Anyways that's it for Session 2, might do more later today, likely won't.
Update 3 & 4: So I continued to play through the Tarzan World, and at the point of time I am updating this which is on 5/22/21, I have made it to Agrabah. I don't really have much to genuinely add. Combat hasn't really improved much despite gaining new spells and Heartless getting more variety, it's still very much "Spam A to Win". Finally got the Warp Upgrade for the Gummi Ship, thank god. I was kind of getting tired of having to take multiple paths just to get to a world I had been to previously. Storywise, meh. We had the encounter with Riku, which was followed by the stupid Maleficent BS speech that has literally no merit and makes me think that if Riku genuinely believes that the kid must be an idiot. I sealed the Keyholes of Tarzan's World and Traverse Town, so yeah. The Clayton Boss Fight was... nothing special honestly. Another Spam A Fest, seems to be this game's bread and butter honestly. At least I finally got Scan, now I can see enemy health, which is very useful. But yeah, not much to genuinely say. This game is pretty dull so far honestly, outside of the gratingly bad original story bits. Anyways I've got work in like, 3 hours so I'm done with this for today.
Update 5: I actually got so fucking bored in Agrabah that I jumped to a platform in the middle of a giant pit and just stood there in the middle of combat doing nothing and then I went and watched Smosh in 2021. This combat is so boring and repetitive.
Update 6: I beat Agrabah, Monstro, and the Pegasus Cup. Not much to really bring up of note, other than that 100 Acre Wood's plot is an existential nightmare. The main story shit is rife with stupidity, and Riku and Sora's voice acting in Monstro specifically is some of the worst I've come across in the game so far. The fight with Leon and Yuffie in the tournament was... something. I had difficulties at first, but then "Spam A to Win" came to my rescue and that's basically how I beat Leon.
Ah, I did forget to mention the High Jump. This jump, maybe not height wise, but like just in terms of regular jumping should have been the default. It takes away the floaty bullshit jump that I have been forced to use for platforming up to this point and gives me a better, smoother jump for platforming. I have no idea why they held this until near halfway through this fucking game.
Overall, a very uneventful session.
Update 7: I beat Atlantica. It was a pretty shitty experience, I will not argue with those who believe it is the worst level in the game. I actively felt sick while playing it because of how the camera uncomfortably functions with the swimming.
I beat both Ursala bosses on my first go, which I find funny because my friend Simon told me to fear them. The ironic part is that both fights amount to the same problem I have had with a majority of things in this game, that being "Spam A to Win". The first fight genuinely had an interesting concept of using magic on the cauldron to weaken Ursala to attack her... but after you do so it's just a bunch of non-stop flacking her with the keyblade. The second fight was even worse because outside of her having a way larger health bar, the entire fight just consists of running away from her attacks and then attacking the back of her head with "Spam A to Win".
I decided to look up how many worlds I had left after this, and I'm baffled to say there are only 4 worlds left. This game hasn't improved much, if at all, since Destiny Islands, and now I'm nearing Endgame. Combat is as boring as stale bread, better platforming wasn't unlocked until Monstro, which is about 12-14 hours in, and the story when not just flat out retelling something that was better as a film is excruciatingly moronic with writing that could make a 13 year old emo poet blush, this game fucking reeks.
Next update will be on Halloween Town and possibly Neverland. God rest my fucking soul.
Update 8: Like I said last time, I got through Halloween Town and Neverland, as well as finishing the Hercules Cup of the Coliseum and the storyline of 100 Acre Wood.
First off, a big issue I had with Halloween Town specifically was the darkness. I will admit that I love the aesthetic of the level, probably one of the more visually pleasing levels in the game. I love Nightmare Before Christmas so seeing the velvety textures of it on everything was great. The problem is I could barely see shit. I spent like 10 minutes just trying to locate where the graveyard was because I couldn't see where there was an entrance or an exit. Fighting wise, I will say things semi-improved but not by much and it was mostly by choice. You see, I had not used some of the "Action Moves" that are unlocked during the course of the game, such as Sonic Rush and Strike Raid. One of the reasons I hadn't used them is because they require both a lot of AP to have and a lot of MP to use, so I didn't bother equipping them for a majority of the game. They are more visually interesting than the standard 3 hit combo, but at the same time they are active button spammers themselves, just replace "A" with "Y". I don't use them that frequently even now because the game rarely requires you to, which I would say is a benefit but at the same time that just speaks to how plain a majority of the gameplay is here.
Onto my actual biggest problem with Halloween Town, all three of the boss fights suck. The fight with Shock, Lock and Barrel was genuinely boring with nothing but me spamming A the entire time and brute forcing the fuck out of it. Ironically, this wound up being the least upsetting fight because the two following it are probably what I'd consider the worst in the entire game. The first Oogie Boogie fight is an absolute drag. The fight takes too long and the Roulette Wheel setup, while interesting in theory, serves to just keep the fight going longer and longer. The actual process is very similar to the first fight with Ursala, funny because they're both respective opposing worlds on the map. You do a simple thing, pressing the button of the area Oogie is in to lock him in, and then you Spam A to knock his ass into next week. A very simple, very dull setup that is only worse than Ursala's first fight due to monotony. Then there's Oogie Boogie Round 2, and it fucking sucks. It's barely even a boss fight, I'd equate it to the Ancient Wyvern in Dark Souls 3. You're mostly dealing with mooks while trying to attack the little orbs on Giant Oogie's Tree Bod. It is a very annoying process and makes me wonder why this game's second half has an obsession with Giant Bosses. Climbing up Oogie is made worse by the general sucky platforming, so yeah it's just an all around unpleasant experience.
Neverland was alright. It wasn't a very long voyage despite the location being a ship. Flying around was somewhat entertaining though it makes the Hook fight an absolute fucking joke. The story beats with Riku were dogshit though, and every line coming out of that boy's mouth sounded awkward and forced, as if the VA himself was actively looking at the script and going "Does this idiot hear himself?" At least I unlocked the Glide Ability which, is legitimately a great ability and I love utilizing it. It makes me wish it came earlier, but at the same time I can actually understand why this is late game when compared to the High Jump.
The Hercules Cup was rather underwhelming in comparison to the Pegasus Cup. The fight with Cloud was honestly not as bad as the one with Leon and Yuffie, and the fight with Hercules is... pathetic. You fight him one on one and he just doesn't take the fight seriously, which is the point I should stress, doesn't make the fight any less dull though.
That leaves 100 Acre Wood, which is easily the one part of the game I genuinely enjoyed. The mini-games aren't especially groundbreaking but I just love being around Pooh and his friends, whom I grew up watching as a young kid. Despite the fact that I've seen all of the movies in the world listing for this game, Winnie the Pooh is the only part which had me feeling nostalgic. No battles, no stupid plot, just Sora hanging out with Pooh and it was "wholesome chungus" as the kids say.
Other than that, there are only 2 worlds left, and it's time for me to go to work. I imagine we only have 2 updates left and then a final conclusion review after this.
Update 9 & 10:
As I sit here, listening to the main theme of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, I realize something. As I have spent the past 11 hours or so finishing the game, my heart fucking sunk. As the credits rolled and "Simple & Clean" played over the CGI cutscenes, followed up by the cutscene trailer for KH2, I felt completely and utterly numb.
Let's start at the beginning of these two sessions, Hollow Bastion. A long, dramatic slog of a level which you have to go through twice. The level design wasn't particularly awful but it was just such a drag to get through. Having no Keyblade for a bit was interesting for all of about 5 seconds before I just grew tired of enemy encounters entirely. The neat thing was getting to have Beast from Beauty and the Beast with me, but that ultimately didn't mean that much overall. Eventually after a bunch of poor writing and acting I got the Keyblade back, and I noticed the biggest thing with the endgame for this game. I thought things were improving last time, but no, I was wrong. Things are still Spam A to win, to the very last minute, it's just that everything takes longer, making combat even more boring. I honestly was bored through most of the fights for the final two worlds of this game. Maleficent, regular and Dragon, the multiple fights with Riku, everything involving Ansem, all of it was long and boring. I even went through the Hades Cup just for the sake of upgrading my magic since a majority of the final tier spell unlocks are tied to it. It was all so very boring and time consuming.
The plot came back in full force which meant writing was absurdly painful to witness, I fucking winced whenever I heard the words "Darkness" or "Light", sometimes multiple times in a single fucking sentence. Everything about the final few hours of this game is just fucking annoying diatribes about the Heart and Light and Darkness and I fucking wanted the game to shut the absolute fuck up. It was almost as repetitive as the fucking gameplay, maybe that was the point.
I just... I do not understand the appeal of this game, at all. This shit is barely passable gameplay wise, and completely ridiculous story wise. How this started a franchise that is still ongoing actually confuses me. Simple & Clean? More like Stupid & Shitty. Besides the OST and Winnie the Pooh, there is nothing about this game that makes it worth playing. It is worthless. It is one of the worst video games I have ever had the misfortune to play. I still have the superbosses to do, but that won't be covered in the main review until after I beat them.
To cover everything I did:
I got all of the Dalmatians
Did all of the Trinity Marks
Beat all of the main tournaments
Beat the game
Fuck this game, and fuck Tetsuya Nomura for making it.
Edit: I brought the game's rating up to 1 Star because I'm currently playing Re:Chain of Memories and by god it is so much worse on an objective level.
Fool Reviews Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Final Mix
"My Sanctuary":
Well, it finally happened. I played a Kingdom Hearts game and fully enjoyed it. There's a lot to say about this one, especially in regards to comparing it to the previous entries, so I'm going to separate things into sections.
Gameplay:
It cannot be understated how fucking spectacular the gameplay of KH2 is. Combat is unlike the first game, which was slow, repetitive, and visually boring, and it's not complete bullshit like Chain of Memories, so it isn't fully luck based either (at least most of the time).
I played in Critical Mode, which was recommended by both of my friends who got me into this marathon of KH to begin with. Critical Mode starts you off with a fuckton of skills and AP right off the bat, allowing you access to some incredibly devastating and visually appealing combos very early on. I do have a few gripes though, mostly involving how it effects the prologue. See, you start the game off as Roxas, who does not have access to all of Sora's abilities. Due to this, the opening three hours of the game are... well, beyond difficult. You have no access to those long reaching combos, and aerial combat is more or less non-existent. It was a bit annoying, especially losing to the first Axel fight (the one in the Sandlot area), mostly because losing to some bosses means going through an entire set of encounters again which can be rather exhausting at times.
After the prologue though, things seriously open up. Never before have I played an ARPG with such a grand focus on Aerial Combat. Compared to the first game, the amount of flippy shit you can pull off and the amount of damage you can deal is insane, and thanks to abilities like Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus, you can make those attacks even longer and more powerful as the game progresses. You don't even have to worry about lacking the AP for it, this game loads you up with AP Boosts at every given opportunity so you will always be able to push through with combos. Magic has been made more resourceful than the first game, but is still something I ultimately didn't find much of a use for. It's good that you can interchange magic and keyblade in the middle of a combo and that each spell has its own finisher, but I really didn't see much use for the spells beyond Thundaga and Reflega.
As for platforming, that is all but removed from this game. Platforming is no longer mandatory, and is overall smoother regardless. Sora has a way better jump, and with the addition of Growth Abilities, he has access to a variety of ways to get around areas. However...
Ok, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Drive Forms, while cool to use for both their utility and visual spectacle, are a fucking drag to grind. Each of them has a unique requirement for their own level up, and you need to level them up to get access to those Growth Abilities. Things like Glide, High Jump, and even the Dodge Roll are locked behind these level ups, and they are abilities you are basically required to have by endgame if you don't want to have your ass torn in two during boss fights. A friend of mine who played this game before me did not grind the Drive Forms, and it resulted in him having an absolutely ridiculous time getting through the game. He still did it, but he did not hesitate to tell me how brutal it was. In response to another friend who said that grinding Drive Forms happens naturally, I argue no, no it doesn't. A lot of these level ups become exponentially harder to pull off, especially with things like Wisdom and Final form which require a kill ratio of Heartless and Nobodies respectively, Nobodies being relatively rare outside of the final world and even then, not very common. I like the Drive Forms but the need to grind them for necessary abilities is pretty fucking absurd, even for RPG standards.
This game also introduces Limits, which are exactly what they sound like. Super Moves that you can pull off with your respective Disney (and even Final Fantasy) characters. Some are pretty damn good, like Simba's and Donald's, and others are... ok, like Jack Sparrow's and Tron's. They do a decent amount of damage and are key to blasting through enemy defenses.
Onto Gummi Ship missions, these have never been better. They fully went into the Shoot-Em-Up genre with these, and it is awesome. Just make sure you set the firing mode to Automatic in the Pause Menu though. I didn't until nearly the end of the first half of the game and it hurt my hands like a motherfucker.
Also there's Atlantica's... thing. It's a Rhythm Game... and also optional. I did it though, and it really wasn't as bad as I had been told, but definitely not something you must do to progress.
Boss fights in this game can be hit or miss for me, and that usually depends on the action commands required for them. You see, every so often in combat you'll get the chance to press the Y button to do a reaction command. It's essentially a quick time event, but way simpler, and also way faster. It usually allows you to unleash a super attack on your opponent based on one of their own skills, and it can be super cool. I mean, you cut through literal skyscrapers using it, so yeah you bet your ass it's cool. However, some of these feel super fucking intrusive such as the case with Xaldin. A boss the requires you to dodge and use the Learn reaction command at the same time in order to progress the fight. It required me to go into a completely different hand formation on my controller, which actively hurt my hands to do, just to pull it off. Most bosses aren't like this and the Reaction prompt is usually way less cumbersome, but the ones that do this are actively unfun to deal with. There's also Giant Bosses, which I think is one aspect this series just never seems to get right. They're either really boring like Jafar, or require you to play with a completely different fight scheme like the Nobody Dragon, which was probably the most irritating fight of the game for me.
The last thing I'll say is that my friends demanded I play Critical Mode because playing any difficulty lower would make the game boring to play. If your game has to be played on the hardest difficulty to be considered "fun", then there's definitely something wrong. I won't let that reflect on this review personally, but that is a thought I had.
Overall, I think the gameplay is fantastic. Better than the first game, a fuckton better than Chain of Memories, just an overall excellent experience.
Story:
To be quite honest, it really doesn't feel like there is one for like 75% of the game. The prologue starts you off with the stuff with Roxas, and it was interesting, but after you start as Sora and get your new duds, the plot takes a major backseat until the second half of the game, where only a few minor beats are mentioned.
You fight a few Organization members, have the Battle of a Thousand Heartless, and work with Tron to fix the Hollow Bastion defense network and turn the place back into Radiant Garden, but outside of that there's not much to talk about until the final revisit to Twilight Town where you go into The World That Never Was.
DiZ is revealed to be the actual Ansem, Riku gets his original form back, and Sora and Riku stop Xemnas from using Kingdom Hearts. It was... not really much. I don't know, maybe the past two games really shut my brain off, but I didn't care much about the story for this game.
It didn't have as preposterous writing as the last two games, except for when Mickey Mouse goes "They'll pay for this" and I laughed my ass off. For the most part the story is borderline non-existent. I don't mind though, since it allows each Disney world more spotlight.
I think these are done way better than the first game since a good number of them are allowed to have original stories, such as the Coliseum bringing Auron from Final Fantasy X to fight alongside you. Even as someone who dislikes FFX, that was a cool moment. There's also Halloween Town where you go to Christmas Town and help Santa Claus, which was pretty visually fun.
I've never watched Tron (well, the first one anyway, I've seen Legacy), but the Tron world was easily the most fun to go through except for the mandatory bike shit, that wasn't fun at all.
Story is definitely the weakest aspect of this game, but I'm fine with it honestly, the gameplay more than makes up for it.
Final Thoughts:
Well, I have the post game to do, and unlike KH1, I actually feel like doing it. I was really hoping this game would be good, I had a lot of fear after playing the last two games and not enjoying them in the slightest, so to see that KH2 is as good as I've heard is a relief. This is a game I see myself coming back to in the future, just for the combat alone. I don't know if I'd fully recommend it, but I know that overall I had a pretty good time.
It is my Sanctuary in this franchise, at least so far.
Next is Birth By Sleep, another game I've been curious about. I'll have to see how that unfolds then.
"My Sanctuary":
Well, it finally happened. I played a Kingdom Hearts game and fully enjoyed it. There's a lot to say about this one, especially in regards to comparing it to the previous entries, so I'm going to separate things into sections.
Gameplay:
It cannot be understated how fucking spectacular the gameplay of KH2 is. Combat is unlike the first game, which was slow, repetitive, and visually boring, and it's not complete bullshit like Chain of Memories, so it isn't fully luck based either (at least most of the time).
I played in Critical Mode, which was recommended by both of my friends who got me into this marathon of KH to begin with. Critical Mode starts you off with a fuckton of skills and AP right off the bat, allowing you access to some incredibly devastating and visually appealing combos very early on. I do have a few gripes though, mostly involving how it effects the prologue. See, you start the game off as Roxas, who does not have access to all of Sora's abilities. Due to this, the opening three hours of the game are... well, beyond difficult. You have no access to those long reaching combos, and aerial combat is more or less non-existent. It was a bit annoying, especially losing to the first Axel fight (the one in the Sandlot area), mostly because losing to some bosses means going through an entire set of encounters again which can be rather exhausting at times.
After the prologue though, things seriously open up. Never before have I played an ARPG with such a grand focus on Aerial Combat. Compared to the first game, the amount of flippy shit you can pull off and the amount of damage you can deal is insane, and thanks to abilities like Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus, you can make those attacks even longer and more powerful as the game progresses. You don't even have to worry about lacking the AP for it, this game loads you up with AP Boosts at every given opportunity so you will always be able to push through with combos. Magic has been made more resourceful than the first game, but is still something I ultimately didn't find much of a use for. It's good that you can interchange magic and keyblade in the middle of a combo and that each spell has its own finisher, but I really didn't see much use for the spells beyond Thundaga and Reflega.
As for platforming, that is all but removed from this game. Platforming is no longer mandatory, and is overall smoother regardless. Sora has a way better jump, and with the addition of Growth Abilities, he has access to a variety of ways to get around areas. However...
Ok, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Drive Forms, while cool to use for both their utility and visual spectacle, are a fucking drag to grind. Each of them has a unique requirement for their own level up, and you need to level them up to get access to those Growth Abilities. Things like Glide, High Jump, and even the Dodge Roll are locked behind these level ups, and they are abilities you are basically required to have by endgame if you don't want to have your ass torn in two during boss fights. A friend of mine who played this game before me did not grind the Drive Forms, and it resulted in him having an absolutely ridiculous time getting through the game. He still did it, but he did not hesitate to tell me how brutal it was. In response to another friend who said that grinding Drive Forms happens naturally, I argue no, no it doesn't. A lot of these level ups become exponentially harder to pull off, especially with things like Wisdom and Final form which require a kill ratio of Heartless and Nobodies respectively, Nobodies being relatively rare outside of the final world and even then, not very common. I like the Drive Forms but the need to grind them for necessary abilities is pretty fucking absurd, even for RPG standards.
This game also introduces Limits, which are exactly what they sound like. Super Moves that you can pull off with your respective Disney (and even Final Fantasy) characters. Some are pretty damn good, like Simba's and Donald's, and others are... ok, like Jack Sparrow's and Tron's. They do a decent amount of damage and are key to blasting through enemy defenses.
Onto Gummi Ship missions, these have never been better. They fully went into the Shoot-Em-Up genre with these, and it is awesome. Just make sure you set the firing mode to Automatic in the Pause Menu though. I didn't until nearly the end of the first half of the game and it hurt my hands like a motherfucker.
Also there's Atlantica's... thing. It's a Rhythm Game... and also optional. I did it though, and it really wasn't as bad as I had been told, but definitely not something you must do to progress.
Boss fights in this game can be hit or miss for me, and that usually depends on the action commands required for them. You see, every so often in combat you'll get the chance to press the Y button to do a reaction command. It's essentially a quick time event, but way simpler, and also way faster. It usually allows you to unleash a super attack on your opponent based on one of their own skills, and it can be super cool. I mean, you cut through literal skyscrapers using it, so yeah you bet your ass it's cool. However, some of these feel super fucking intrusive such as the case with Xaldin. A boss the requires you to dodge and use the Learn reaction command at the same time in order to progress the fight. It required me to go into a completely different hand formation on my controller, which actively hurt my hands to do, just to pull it off. Most bosses aren't like this and the Reaction prompt is usually way less cumbersome, but the ones that do this are actively unfun to deal with. There's also Giant Bosses, which I think is one aspect this series just never seems to get right. They're either really boring like Jafar, or require you to play with a completely different fight scheme like the Nobody Dragon, which was probably the most irritating fight of the game for me.
The last thing I'll say is that my friends demanded I play Critical Mode because playing any difficulty lower would make the game boring to play. If your game has to be played on the hardest difficulty to be considered "fun", then there's definitely something wrong. I won't let that reflect on this review personally, but that is a thought I had.
Overall, I think the gameplay is fantastic. Better than the first game, a fuckton better than Chain of Memories, just an overall excellent experience.
Story:
To be quite honest, it really doesn't feel like there is one for like 75% of the game. The prologue starts you off with the stuff with Roxas, and it was interesting, but after you start as Sora and get your new duds, the plot takes a major backseat until the second half of the game, where only a few minor beats are mentioned.
You fight a few Organization members, have the Battle of a Thousand Heartless, and work with Tron to fix the Hollow Bastion defense network and turn the place back into Radiant Garden, but outside of that there's not much to talk about until the final revisit to Twilight Town where you go into The World That Never Was.
DiZ is revealed to be the actual Ansem, Riku gets his original form back, and Sora and Riku stop Xemnas from using Kingdom Hearts. It was... not really much. I don't know, maybe the past two games really shut my brain off, but I didn't care much about the story for this game.
It didn't have as preposterous writing as the last two games, except for when Mickey Mouse goes "They'll pay for this" and I laughed my ass off. For the most part the story is borderline non-existent. I don't mind though, since it allows each Disney world more spotlight.
I think these are done way better than the first game since a good number of them are allowed to have original stories, such as the Coliseum bringing Auron from Final Fantasy X to fight alongside you. Even as someone who dislikes FFX, that was a cool moment. There's also Halloween Town where you go to Christmas Town and help Santa Claus, which was pretty visually fun.
I've never watched Tron (well, the first one anyway, I've seen Legacy), but the Tron world was easily the most fun to go through except for the mandatory bike shit, that wasn't fun at all.
Story is definitely the weakest aspect of this game, but I'm fine with it honestly, the gameplay more than makes up for it.
Final Thoughts:
Well, I have the post game to do, and unlike KH1, I actually feel like doing it. I was really hoping this game would be good, I had a lot of fear after playing the last two games and not enjoying them in the slightest, so to see that KH2 is as good as I've heard is a relief. This is a game I see myself coming back to in the future, just for the combat alone. I don't know if I'd fully recommend it, but I know that overall I had a pretty good time.
It is my Sanctuary in this franchise, at least so far.
Next is Birth By Sleep, another game I've been curious about. I'll have to see how that unfolds then.
2015
I don't want to write a long review so I'll sum up what I like and don't like.
Disclaimer: Despite being marked as a replay, this is actually my first completed playthrough.
I adore the aesthetic and world of Yharnam. It absolutely oozes with that Gothic Horror (and eventually Cosmic Horror) feel that makes it stand out against the other Souls games. The combat was something that eventually grew on me. I was initially not a fan of the speed, but the game gives you various ways to make up for your mistakes be it the long ranged parry or the ability to regain health after a hit by being super aggressive. It definitely increases the uniqueness of the game.
The Blood Vial system though, sucks ass. Having to grind, not even for blood echoes, but health items is extremely infuriating. Eventually by end game I was using almost all of my remaining souls after level up to just buy as many Vials as possible so my storage would be filled up. Just a genuinely dumb mechanic when Dark Souls had gotten it so perfectly before.
The Blood Echo retrieval system is also something I despise. I hate the extra padding that is having to kill an enemy (sometimes one you can't even find because they're not remotely as close to where you died as you would think) just to get my echoes back. It was already hard enough to go back to where you died in the other Souls games without this additional caveat, and its a feature I can see as nothing else but padding at its base form.
I also hate having to warp back to the Hunter's Dream just to go to a different location, makes the Blood Vial grinding that much more egregious and punishes the player for misclicking an area in the menu with two lengthy loading sequences. Again, something Dark Souls did right and I have no idea why they changed it here.
Level design isn't very interesting to me outside of the rooftop section in Cainhurst that reminded me a good bit of Anor Londo. Don't get me wrong, I love how these levels look, but their progression isn't that great. It's mostly just a straight line to the end while you find multiple short cuts to speed up your route to the boss. Also, fuck the particular section in the Upper Cathedral Ward where they put Brainsuckers in narrow hallways where they can use their fucking binding magic and spam grab you to death. That was just dickish design, no if ands or buts about it.
Also what is with this game and Flunky Bosses. There's the Witches of Hemwick, Rom the Vacuous Spider, The One Reborn, The Celestial Emissary, and Micolash. Almost all of these fights either suck because they're dull or suck because they're annoying, there's no inbetween. At least there's the poison knife exploit with Micolash, was funny watching him dodge in place for 3 minutes as his health bar slowly declined.
The best fight in this game easily belongs to Gehrman. Just such a phenomenal moment honestly, and I somehow beat him in three tries. Just goes to show that the combat is, at the end of the day, very learnable. Father Gascoigne is a very close second though.
I enjoy this game about as much as Dark Souls 2, which is to say I love the general vibe the game puts out, and I think overall its a spectacle, but at the end of the day it doesn't remotely hit the same level of quality as the first Dark Souls. I think people give Miyazaki a little too much praise in regards to both this game and Dark Souls 3. Sure, this game isn't god awful, but compared to the first Dark Souls this game never comes close to gripping me like that one did. Dark Souls is (until Elden Ring saves gaming) what I will always consider Miyazaki's magnum opus, and that after its release it has mostly been a decline for him. He has never been able to fully recapture the magic of the first Dark Souls, and I don't know if he ever will.
If nothing else, Bloodborne is its own beast, but if you asked me if I thought it was as good as the first Dark Souls, I would say no. Not even close.
Disclaimer: Despite being marked as a replay, this is actually my first completed playthrough.
I adore the aesthetic and world of Yharnam. It absolutely oozes with that Gothic Horror (and eventually Cosmic Horror) feel that makes it stand out against the other Souls games. The combat was something that eventually grew on me. I was initially not a fan of the speed, but the game gives you various ways to make up for your mistakes be it the long ranged parry or the ability to regain health after a hit by being super aggressive. It definitely increases the uniqueness of the game.
The Blood Vial system though, sucks ass. Having to grind, not even for blood echoes, but health items is extremely infuriating. Eventually by end game I was using almost all of my remaining souls after level up to just buy as many Vials as possible so my storage would be filled up. Just a genuinely dumb mechanic when Dark Souls had gotten it so perfectly before.
The Blood Echo retrieval system is also something I despise. I hate the extra padding that is having to kill an enemy (sometimes one you can't even find because they're not remotely as close to where you died as you would think) just to get my echoes back. It was already hard enough to go back to where you died in the other Souls games without this additional caveat, and its a feature I can see as nothing else but padding at its base form.
I also hate having to warp back to the Hunter's Dream just to go to a different location, makes the Blood Vial grinding that much more egregious and punishes the player for misclicking an area in the menu with two lengthy loading sequences. Again, something Dark Souls did right and I have no idea why they changed it here.
Level design isn't very interesting to me outside of the rooftop section in Cainhurst that reminded me a good bit of Anor Londo. Don't get me wrong, I love how these levels look, but their progression isn't that great. It's mostly just a straight line to the end while you find multiple short cuts to speed up your route to the boss. Also, fuck the particular section in the Upper Cathedral Ward where they put Brainsuckers in narrow hallways where they can use their fucking binding magic and spam grab you to death. That was just dickish design, no if ands or buts about it.
Also what is with this game and Flunky Bosses. There's the Witches of Hemwick, Rom the Vacuous Spider, The One Reborn, The Celestial Emissary, and Micolash. Almost all of these fights either suck because they're dull or suck because they're annoying, there's no inbetween. At least there's the poison knife exploit with Micolash, was funny watching him dodge in place for 3 minutes as his health bar slowly declined.
The best fight in this game easily belongs to Gehrman. Just such a phenomenal moment honestly, and I somehow beat him in three tries. Just goes to show that the combat is, at the end of the day, very learnable. Father Gascoigne is a very close second though.
I enjoy this game about as much as Dark Souls 2, which is to say I love the general vibe the game puts out, and I think overall its a spectacle, but at the end of the day it doesn't remotely hit the same level of quality as the first Dark Souls. I think people give Miyazaki a little too much praise in regards to both this game and Dark Souls 3. Sure, this game isn't god awful, but compared to the first Dark Souls this game never comes close to gripping me like that one did. Dark Souls is (until Elden Ring saves gaming) what I will always consider Miyazaki's magnum opus, and that after its release it has mostly been a decline for him. He has never been able to fully recapture the magic of the first Dark Souls, and I don't know if he ever will.
If nothing else, Bloodborne is its own beast, but if you asked me if I thought it was as good as the first Dark Souls, I would say no. Not even close.
This isn't really a review per say, but just an overall good collection though there are some graphical issues that exist only in these versions of the games, so it's up to you if you think that's an issue or not.
Only reason this isn't 5 stars is because of DMC2.
Only reason this isn't 5 stars is because of DMC2.
2011
Good god I finally did it.
I managed to stomach a full Robot Generator run of Sonic CD.
Did this remotely change my outlook on this game that I have fervently hated for the past year?
No.
Sonic CD is still a game where I do not get the inherent appeal of its setup. The search for the Robot Generators can either feel superficial or extremely tedious and it isn't so much based on your skill as it is which level you're in and the gimmicks surrounding it.
I had a way more miserable time in both Collision Chaos and Wacky Workbench than I did in any other area because their level gimmicks center around springs or bouncing mechanics and you wind up not really having much control over Sonic. The pinball physics here are nowhere near as good as Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone or Sonic 3K's Carnival Night Zone and it just makes the whole exploration aspect exhausting and genuinely unpleasant.
Y'know what else makes exploring unpleasant? The timer. Honestly for what they wanted to go for in this game they either needed to extend the amount of time you have per stage or just get rid of it all together because with how the Robot Generator shit works. I timed out twice in this game looking for Robot Generators specifically in the two zones I mentioned earlier because the constant bouncing would cause me to wind up losing a fuck ton of time while searching.
I simply don't understand why this game suddenly started getting praise in recent years, genuinely. It doesn't commit to either gameplay style it tries to go for. You either have one of the most boring "Go Right to Win" 2D Sonic games where there's barely any difficulty because enemies feel so spread out, or you have an exhaustive exploration game that can get outright miserable just from the sheer tedium of it all.
At least I know that I never have to go back to this game anymore, I did the one thing I hadn't done and I no longer care to experience Sonic CD any further. It has a good soundtrack, it looks very pretty but fuck if it isn't one of the most unpleasant Classic Sonic titles I've ever experienced.
Why is it that all the games featuring Metal Sonic as a direct antagonist suck the most in this series?
I managed to stomach a full Robot Generator run of Sonic CD.
Did this remotely change my outlook on this game that I have fervently hated for the past year?
No.
Sonic CD is still a game where I do not get the inherent appeal of its setup. The search for the Robot Generators can either feel superficial or extremely tedious and it isn't so much based on your skill as it is which level you're in and the gimmicks surrounding it.
I had a way more miserable time in both Collision Chaos and Wacky Workbench than I did in any other area because their level gimmicks center around springs or bouncing mechanics and you wind up not really having much control over Sonic. The pinball physics here are nowhere near as good as Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone or Sonic 3K's Carnival Night Zone and it just makes the whole exploration aspect exhausting and genuinely unpleasant.
Y'know what else makes exploring unpleasant? The timer. Honestly for what they wanted to go for in this game they either needed to extend the amount of time you have per stage or just get rid of it all together because with how the Robot Generator shit works. I timed out twice in this game looking for Robot Generators specifically in the two zones I mentioned earlier because the constant bouncing would cause me to wind up losing a fuck ton of time while searching.
I simply don't understand why this game suddenly started getting praise in recent years, genuinely. It doesn't commit to either gameplay style it tries to go for. You either have one of the most boring "Go Right to Win" 2D Sonic games where there's barely any difficulty because enemies feel so spread out, or you have an exhaustive exploration game that can get outright miserable just from the sheer tedium of it all.
At least I know that I never have to go back to this game anymore, I did the one thing I hadn't done and I no longer care to experience Sonic CD any further. It has a good soundtrack, it looks very pretty but fuck if it isn't one of the most unpleasant Classic Sonic titles I've ever experienced.
Why is it that all the games featuring Metal Sonic as a direct antagonist suck the most in this series?
1986
Yeah, I'll be blunt. I do not like this game. I 100% admit that in 1986, this was a very innovative entry in the Adventure genre... but nowadays this shit is insufferable to go through with or without a guide. Its design is archaic as fuck, and it just feels awkward to go through. I'd rather stick a banana up my ass than play this.
2021
Well, I was planning on having a grand return to my Obscure Games Recommendation List with this game here but... well.
Firstly I want to thank STRM for recommending me the game, and I also want to apologize because I didn't really feel like putting a lot of time into this one.
For the record, I'm not giving a rating simply because I haven't finished or played enough of the game to feel like I deserve to, but I'll sum up my thoughts like this.
While I think the premise of the game has merit, I think the way it goes about it is just not very interesting. Usually with games with time travel mechanics or plots you wind up visiting multiple different eras or different parts of time to uncover the grand mystery but I find that this game's more Groundhog Day style just didn't appeal to me.
I'll be completely upfront though, I have been struggling with an ongoing depressive episode since I finished Tsukihime and started taking new medication and I am 100% certain that that has impacted my ability to fully take in this game.
The voice acting is fine, though some characters sound boring at time, the dialogue trees remind me too much of the more mediocre Bethesda titles (this game isn't by Bethesda for the record, but the dialogue seems similar at points), and honestly the setting itself just wasn't interesting to me after the first timeloop.
I don't even like the timeloop mechanic because you have to actively run there every single time you end a specific timeline and it just feels like padding to me.
I'm sure this game has an audience, and I want to be in that audience but in my current headspace I don't think I can honestly bother to finish this so I'm shelving it for the time being.
Give it a shot yourself I'd say, you'll probably see something I do not.
Firstly I want to thank STRM for recommending me the game, and I also want to apologize because I didn't really feel like putting a lot of time into this one.
For the record, I'm not giving a rating simply because I haven't finished or played enough of the game to feel like I deserve to, but I'll sum up my thoughts like this.
While I think the premise of the game has merit, I think the way it goes about it is just not very interesting. Usually with games with time travel mechanics or plots you wind up visiting multiple different eras or different parts of time to uncover the grand mystery but I find that this game's more Groundhog Day style just didn't appeal to me.
I'll be completely upfront though, I have been struggling with an ongoing depressive episode since I finished Tsukihime and started taking new medication and I am 100% certain that that has impacted my ability to fully take in this game.
The voice acting is fine, though some characters sound boring at time, the dialogue trees remind me too much of the more mediocre Bethesda titles (this game isn't by Bethesda for the record, but the dialogue seems similar at points), and honestly the setting itself just wasn't interesting to me after the first timeloop.
I don't even like the timeloop mechanic because you have to actively run there every single time you end a specific timeline and it just feels like padding to me.
I'm sure this game has an audience, and I want to be in that audience but in my current headspace I don't think I can honestly bother to finish this so I'm shelving it for the time being.
Give it a shot yourself I'd say, you'll probably see something I do not.
2022
I got this for two reasons. 1. It was really fun watching clips of the Hololive girls play the game and 2. Because I wanted to compare it to the upcoming AEW game that should be out within the next few months.
I will say this, if you're looking for expressive gameplay where the wrestling is determined mostly by your skill and knowing the mechanics... you're better off looking elsewhere.
This game feels incredibly stiff, combat is super limited and while there isn't a Stamina Meter like in the SmackDown vs Raw games, a lot of the combat is really determined by mini-QTEs which I just don't think is done very well.
The character creator is fine, though I will say nothing can take the cake on Here Comes The Pain's character creator. It doesn't help that 2K22's isn't super straight forward in my opinion, so you have to go through multiple menus to get to the more direct settings.
Also all of the default faces just look incredibly uncanny, half of them just have this expression of needing to take a shit and it's incredibly weird.
Honestly the best reason to play this game is solely for the Showcase mode. Rey Mysterio is a genuinely interesting wrestler to me, and seeing him talk about some of his most engaging matches while playing through them really gets you engrossed into it. It's again, too bad combat isn't really satisfying here.
I have no doubts that AEW Fight Forever will 100% overshadow this game given it's going back to the roots of these games, and it'll probably overshadow the inevitable 2K23 game as well.
Honestly I just wanna go back to play HCTP at this point. At least I didn't blow full price on this.
I will say this, if you're looking for expressive gameplay where the wrestling is determined mostly by your skill and knowing the mechanics... you're better off looking elsewhere.
This game feels incredibly stiff, combat is super limited and while there isn't a Stamina Meter like in the SmackDown vs Raw games, a lot of the combat is really determined by mini-QTEs which I just don't think is done very well.
The character creator is fine, though I will say nothing can take the cake on Here Comes The Pain's character creator. It doesn't help that 2K22's isn't super straight forward in my opinion, so you have to go through multiple menus to get to the more direct settings.
Also all of the default faces just look incredibly uncanny, half of them just have this expression of needing to take a shit and it's incredibly weird.
Honestly the best reason to play this game is solely for the Showcase mode. Rey Mysterio is a genuinely interesting wrestler to me, and seeing him talk about some of his most engaging matches while playing through them really gets you engrossed into it. It's again, too bad combat isn't really satisfying here.
I have no doubts that AEW Fight Forever will 100% overshadow this game given it's going back to the roots of these games, and it'll probably overshadow the inevitable 2K23 game as well.
Honestly I just wanna go back to play HCTP at this point. At least I didn't blow full price on this.
Firstly, before I go into the review I want to give a big thanks to ZapRowsdower, known as "I, AKU" on the Backloggd server for giving me my copy of the game. I had a great time and I genuinely appreciate you giving me this experience.
Sid Meier's Civilization V I have heard is very friendly to newcomers, which I can see. Things aren't overly complex, and while I haven't played enough of this genre of game to really be fully informed on the topic, I don't think they needed to be.
The fun thing about entry level games is that they show you the appeal of the genre they represent, and if you like that you'll want to dig deeper into its more complex and nuanced games. I will say that Civ V has definitely garnered my interest for this style of game, and I definitely see myself playing more in the future.
I would describe my first actual playthrough to be catharsis incarnate. I started in Egypt on a peninsula with a very small set of villages.
Over time, as I garnered more resources, and moved up an era, I encountered new allies and eventual foes.
I tricked my ally Sweden into attacking the nearby Persian Empire very early into the game, while they took a one city, I took the capital, and we split the land in half. This action would have consequences for the remainder of the game.
I was denounced by the civilizations of England and Indonesia, and England who had always been a political thorn in my side, was the target of my next great war.
I made a new colony very close to them, and soon after took London before swiftly taking York, eradicating the English empire long before they could possibly prosper. Then I took the fight to one of England's allies, a City-State which I had fought before named Valetta.
Within a short amount of time, I had a whole new colony of cities ruling over the large stretch of land that once made up the southeastern part of the world.
Then Sweden turned on me and denounced my actions.
My former ally, one who had committed atrocities of their own, had turned their back on me. It also turned out that the colony I initially settled before the English War was something I gifted to them.
I wanted it back and the remaining spoils from the Persian War.
And so I waged the First Swedish War, now having rifles and artillery, I began a long assault on two fronts. I swiftly took back my colony and managed to batter Sweden down to the point that they gave me one of their cities to bring about peace. I had won my first genuinely major war.
As I advanced in technology I began making new colonies in smaller stretches of land in the search for oil supplies, creating planes and submarines.
I began sending my ships to survey the territory of my intended final target, Indonesia, and prepare for take over.
Then I developed the Nuclear Bomb.
As a test, I launched it at Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
Within a few short years, The Second Swedish War was nothing but a wimper as I razed their forces to the ground and took their territory for my own.
Using the leftover planes and nukes, I took the fight to Indonesia and in a long and drawn out fight, they were through.
I had won, the spread of my culture to the Byzantine Empire was enough to succeed... but as an epilogue I turned my eyes to their fleeting nation.
Eventually, I had conquered all of the major civilizations, my mission completed.
What had started a humble nation had birthed a mighty Egyptian Empire. It was nothing less than pure satisfaction.
I hope to one day play this game with people as I think that would be an incredible experience, but for now I'm happy to say that this has become a new favorite for me, and definitely something I'll probably keep playing for a while.
Sid Meier's Civilization V I have heard is very friendly to newcomers, which I can see. Things aren't overly complex, and while I haven't played enough of this genre of game to really be fully informed on the topic, I don't think they needed to be.
The fun thing about entry level games is that they show you the appeal of the genre they represent, and if you like that you'll want to dig deeper into its more complex and nuanced games. I will say that Civ V has definitely garnered my interest for this style of game, and I definitely see myself playing more in the future.
I would describe my first actual playthrough to be catharsis incarnate. I started in Egypt on a peninsula with a very small set of villages.
Over time, as I garnered more resources, and moved up an era, I encountered new allies and eventual foes.
I tricked my ally Sweden into attacking the nearby Persian Empire very early into the game, while they took a one city, I took the capital, and we split the land in half. This action would have consequences for the remainder of the game.
I was denounced by the civilizations of England and Indonesia, and England who had always been a political thorn in my side, was the target of my next great war.
I made a new colony very close to them, and soon after took London before swiftly taking York, eradicating the English empire long before they could possibly prosper. Then I took the fight to one of England's allies, a City-State which I had fought before named Valetta.
Within a short amount of time, I had a whole new colony of cities ruling over the large stretch of land that once made up the southeastern part of the world.
Then Sweden turned on me and denounced my actions.
My former ally, one who had committed atrocities of their own, had turned their back on me. It also turned out that the colony I initially settled before the English War was something I gifted to them.
I wanted it back and the remaining spoils from the Persian War.
And so I waged the First Swedish War, now having rifles and artillery, I began a long assault on two fronts. I swiftly took back my colony and managed to batter Sweden down to the point that they gave me one of their cities to bring about peace. I had won my first genuinely major war.
As I advanced in technology I began making new colonies in smaller stretches of land in the search for oil supplies, creating planes and submarines.
I began sending my ships to survey the territory of my intended final target, Indonesia, and prepare for take over.
Then I developed the Nuclear Bomb.
As a test, I launched it at Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
Within a few short years, The Second Swedish War was nothing but a wimper as I razed their forces to the ground and took their territory for my own.
Using the leftover planes and nukes, I took the fight to Indonesia and in a long and drawn out fight, they were through.
I had won, the spread of my culture to the Byzantine Empire was enough to succeed... but as an epilogue I turned my eyes to their fleeting nation.
Eventually, I had conquered all of the major civilizations, my mission completed.
What had started a humble nation had birthed a mighty Egyptian Empire. It was nothing less than pure satisfaction.
I hope to one day play this game with people as I think that would be an incredible experience, but for now I'm happy to say that this has become a new favorite for me, and definitely something I'll probably keep playing for a while.
I ain't gonna go too in depth on this.
I'm not super huge into wrestling, though I think it is a solid source of entertainment (and watching a few videos on the subject has piqued my interest) but I wouldn't say this game is perfect at it.
It is initially really confusing for how it works mechanically, and there are a lot of mechanics. After you figure it out it's pretty fun, but it's also incredibly imbalanced.
Basically, just play the Undertaker. You will literally never lose with him because he does so much damage and takes very little.
I tried the Season Mode and... god it's not pleasant. If you're playing as a created character you might as well not even bother, you're fighting a losing battle most of the time. Since you barely get EXP if you lose, your character will quite literally be scraping by and sometimes the game will flat out put you in scenarios where the chances of success are insanely slim on purpose.
Also it just gets tiring fighting the same two characters back to back when there's so many other characters to face.
Not a bad game by any stretch but I think I'd rather play NASCAR... or watch the Hololive girls play 2K22.
I'm not super huge into wrestling, though I think it is a solid source of entertainment (and watching a few videos on the subject has piqued my interest) but I wouldn't say this game is perfect at it.
It is initially really confusing for how it works mechanically, and there are a lot of mechanics. After you figure it out it's pretty fun, but it's also incredibly imbalanced.
Basically, just play the Undertaker. You will literally never lose with him because he does so much damage and takes very little.
I tried the Season Mode and... god it's not pleasant. If you're playing as a created character you might as well not even bother, you're fighting a losing battle most of the time. Since you barely get EXP if you lose, your character will quite literally be scraping by and sometimes the game will flat out put you in scenarios where the chances of success are insanely slim on purpose.
Also it just gets tiring fighting the same two characters back to back when there's so many other characters to face.
Not a bad game by any stretch but I think I'd rather play NASCAR... or watch the Hololive girls play 2K22.
Released on the ides of March, Phantom Breaker: Omnia was a game I was looking forward to simply because the trailer was so god damned funny to me that I felt that just hearing the announcer from that in game would make the experience worth it.
It also has Kurisu from Steins;Gate, of which I watched and loved the anime adaptation of and she apparently could summon a bunch of White Tigers and shit, which seemed hilarious.
Then I bought the game, and I'm already not a big fighting game fan. The control mapping was all wrong, RT was mapped to the Start Button, LT to Select, X to A, A to B, B to X, it felt fucking weird, and this was outside of just the fighting game part, this was just how the game played even in the menus.
The worst thing though is that the announcer from the trailer isn't in the game, and is instead replaced by a soft speaking voice. I don't mind the soft speaking voice, but where's the energy of "TWENTY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS!!!! ARE YOU OK?!!?!!??" and "BATTLE YOUR WAY THROUGH STORY MODE BECAUSE READING IS AN ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILL!!!!"
Where did the announcer go? I don't know and it makes me sad.
Also every button is an auto combo, I didn't personally mind but if games with auto combo aren't your thing you're probably not gonna enjoy this.
Oh well, I'll find my next cringekino in about three days once Strangers of Paradise releases, but I was honestly hoping this game would at least hit that measure first.
Anyways the soundtrack is pretty dope, can't diss that.
It also has Kurisu from Steins;Gate, of which I watched and loved the anime adaptation of and she apparently could summon a bunch of White Tigers and shit, which seemed hilarious.
Then I bought the game, and I'm already not a big fighting game fan. The control mapping was all wrong, RT was mapped to the Start Button, LT to Select, X to A, A to B, B to X, it felt fucking weird, and this was outside of just the fighting game part, this was just how the game played even in the menus.
The worst thing though is that the announcer from the trailer isn't in the game, and is instead replaced by a soft speaking voice. I don't mind the soft speaking voice, but where's the energy of "TWENTY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS!!!! ARE YOU OK?!!?!!??" and "BATTLE YOUR WAY THROUGH STORY MODE BECAUSE READING IS AN ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILL!!!!"
Where did the announcer go? I don't know and it makes me sad.
Also every button is an auto combo, I didn't personally mind but if games with auto combo aren't your thing you're probably not gonna enjoy this.
Oh well, I'll find my next cringekino in about three days once Strangers of Paradise releases, but I was honestly hoping this game would at least hit that measure first.
Anyways the soundtrack is pretty dope, can't diss that.