2003
Sometimes in life, we make what are called mistakes. These mistakes range from a variety of things, and DMC2 is one of them. However I did not genuinely think my fellow Backloggd members would be so evil, so cruel as to wish upon me the experience of playing Lucia's route in Devil May Cry 2.
First off, let me give some compliments.
It's nice that not every single level is just a repeat of the Dante playthrough, providing at least some visual variety, and I like her animations and design more than Dante in this game but that is where the compliments end.
Onto the problems.
The game is still DMC2, which means it basically plays itself and is barely an experience for the player. The levels are dismally boring, the enemy design is basically non-existent, and the music is just white noise.
However Lucia's route provides one feature that makes DMC2 become even more unbearable than it was: Underwater Levels.
These control, so awkwardly, and you are expected to fight a boss fight, an INVISIBLE FISH BOSS FIGHT, which only allows you to lock on sporadically.
Disgust is not harsh enough a word to describe it.
Sometimes I like to ponder the philosophical meaning behind games. What meaning they have to me and others, and the intention of the creators, and their vision.
Do all games have value?
Well, this sure doesn't.
Anyways, I think I really need to get a life, playing games like this are why I'm so out of shape and why I can't seem to be happy.
Next is DMC5 though, thank god.
P.S.
I hate Dante's design in this game, the grey part on the torso looks like a vest without being a vest and it looks so fucking weird and I don't like it god I fucking hate this game, I'm so glad I never have to play it ever again.
First off, let me give some compliments.
It's nice that not every single level is just a repeat of the Dante playthrough, providing at least some visual variety, and I like her animations and design more than Dante in this game but that is where the compliments end.
Onto the problems.
The game is still DMC2, which means it basically plays itself and is barely an experience for the player. The levels are dismally boring, the enemy design is basically non-existent, and the music is just white noise.
However Lucia's route provides one feature that makes DMC2 become even more unbearable than it was: Underwater Levels.
These control, so awkwardly, and you are expected to fight a boss fight, an INVISIBLE FISH BOSS FIGHT, which only allows you to lock on sporadically.
Disgust is not harsh enough a word to describe it.
Sometimes I like to ponder the philosophical meaning behind games. What meaning they have to me and others, and the intention of the creators, and their vision.
Do all games have value?
Well, this sure doesn't.
Anyways, I think I really need to get a life, playing games like this are why I'm so out of shape and why I can't seem to be happy.
Next is DMC5 though, thank god.
P.S.
I hate Dante's design in this game, the grey part on the torso looks like a vest without being a vest and it looks so fucking weird and I don't like it god I fucking hate this game, I'm so glad I never have to play it ever again.
After Devil May Cry 3 brought about the franchise's redemption arc with its incredibly solid gameplay, a tightly woven narrative, and catchy 2005 vibe music, the question must have arisen as to "where do we go from here?"
And while many would hope the answer would be up, Devil May Cry 4 would ultimately wind up being quite the disappointment as the follow up to my personal favorite of the series.
From the very start of the game there was this awkward emptiness I felt, and it was a feeling that only grew the more I played the game.
Starting with Nero. Nero is not a bad character by any means, in fact I quite enjoy his banter with the various antagonists the game throws his way and he generally exudes a youthful arrogance that reminds me a lot of Dante in DMC3. However it is his motivation that I find lacking, and not in that the motivation is inherently bad but rather, it's very standard and tied to the weakest character in the game.
His undying love for Kyrie, while wholesome and also providing great emotional scenes comes across as very plain for this franchise. It doesn't help that Kyrie herself receives very little characterization outside of "being a nice girl who loves Nero and her brother and is nice." Easily my least favorite (non-DMC2) female protagonist in the series so far, exuding none of the confidence that characters like Trish or Lady have in spades.
It just results in the story feeling rather weak, which given its inherent vibes reminding me a lot of Final Fantasy (but less interesting), resulted in me kind of shutting my brain off at most points.
The game starts with this interesting hook with Dante showing up out of nowhere and killing Sanctus, the leader of a Sparda worshipping cult, which causes Nero to fight him, but eventually it tappers off into an uninteresting conspiracy by the cult to bring life to this giant statue called The Savior.
Hell, by the time Dante becomes the central protagonist, the story kind of just takes a backseat so he can crack his funny pizza man jokes, and only really comes back into play at the very end.
Not that the plot is the most important aspect or even the biggest problem in this game, but rather a piece in a larger set of issues that pervades every corner of DMC4.
The gameplay is incredibly solid, Nero controls very well and I love his mechanics. His affinity for air combat allows him to easily juggle an enemy possibly even indefinitely if you know how to do jump cancelling. His revving of his motorcycle sword (which is fucking awesome in the exact same way as a Gunblade) allows for him to charge up a meter that allows for some useful moves, however it can take time to do so and leaves Nero defenseless... unless you know how to Instant Rev, which if you time after a hit just right, you can instantly fill up one bar of meter(eventually able to upgrade this to the entire meter). However, these moves are honestly limited in their actual usefulness I've found, and it's just more effective to just utilize your regular combos.
Dante is easily my favorite character to utilize in the game, finally having Style Switching which is a major improvement from DMC3. I loved utilizing Swordmaster and Gunslinger for those banging combos, even finding out that Swordmaster has a literal auto-combo that results in Dante swinging his sword like a baseball bat. However Dante's weapon selection is... not great unfortunately. I loved using Rebellion, but Gilgamesh wasn't as fun to utilize as Beowulf in DMC3, and while I liked Lucifer, I simply found that Rebellion was generally the more efficient of the bunch in regards to the sheer amount of combos it has. Same with the guns really, but honestly Ebony & Ivory have always been perfect to use so I have no complaints there.
The problem with the gameplay is honestly the levels themselves. They are very... standard. For comparison, in Devil May Cry 1, the Mallet Island Castle has this dark, creeping vibe that sticks to the player. It is very much drenched in its horror aesthetic as it feels like a genuine location that's been lived in, and serves to show the imposing and oppressive nature that the game and its narrative have.
DMC4 on the other hand is a Super Mario/Sonic game in regards to its levels. You've got your town level, you have your mineshaft level, you have your frozen castle level, you have your hidden factory level, your jungle level, and your holy castle level. These locations are already very uninspired by just being tropes that I could find on TV Tropes if I wanted, but what makes it worse is that you go through all of these locations twice only backwards with Dante.
Of course, this isn't news to anyone who has played the game and contributes to the one, very openly talked about aspect of DMC4:
It's fucking unfinished.
From the fucking stupid as fuck dice mini game (that you do twice for the record, and the second time is tied to the fucking boss rush), to The Savior boss fight just being an utter clusterfuck, the final boss being almost as bad as a DMC2 fight, the game starts strong but shits the bed so fucking hard by the end that when I realized Vergil was just going to go through the exact same campaign, I immediately dropped it to play him in Bloody Palace instead.
The boss fights themselves, minus the snake dragon lady, Credo and Agnus don't even feel designed around Nero's toolkit and fighting them with him just feels unpleasant, where once you fight them with Dante it feels incredibly satisfying by comparison. Maybe this was to show the experience gap between the two, but personally I don't think there's any narrative reason for it.
The music didn't vibe with me as much as DMC3's or even DMC1, which isn't to say I hated DMC4's soundtrack but rather that in comparison it just wasn't that memorable, which y'know, fits the entire game now that I think about it.
DMC4, outside of its combat, is not memorable.
The demons you fight as bosses are all inconsequential randos who have barely anything to do with the plot, the plot itself is very plain, the main antagonist is boring and generic Super Pope, it's all just very forgettable.
It's another one of those games I wish I could love but I just can't, and that is disappointing.
I doubt I'll ever play the story mode of this game ever again, but Bloody Palace will always be there and I will definitely come back to it just for the fun that that mode brings.
The time had come, but this game didn't.
And while many would hope the answer would be up, Devil May Cry 4 would ultimately wind up being quite the disappointment as the follow up to my personal favorite of the series.
From the very start of the game there was this awkward emptiness I felt, and it was a feeling that only grew the more I played the game.
Starting with Nero. Nero is not a bad character by any means, in fact I quite enjoy his banter with the various antagonists the game throws his way and he generally exudes a youthful arrogance that reminds me a lot of Dante in DMC3. However it is his motivation that I find lacking, and not in that the motivation is inherently bad but rather, it's very standard and tied to the weakest character in the game.
His undying love for Kyrie, while wholesome and also providing great emotional scenes comes across as very plain for this franchise. It doesn't help that Kyrie herself receives very little characterization outside of "being a nice girl who loves Nero and her brother and is nice." Easily my least favorite (non-DMC2) female protagonist in the series so far, exuding none of the confidence that characters like Trish or Lady have in spades.
It just results in the story feeling rather weak, which given its inherent vibes reminding me a lot of Final Fantasy (but less interesting), resulted in me kind of shutting my brain off at most points.
The game starts with this interesting hook with Dante showing up out of nowhere and killing Sanctus, the leader of a Sparda worshipping cult, which causes Nero to fight him, but eventually it tappers off into an uninteresting conspiracy by the cult to bring life to this giant statue called The Savior.
Hell, by the time Dante becomes the central protagonist, the story kind of just takes a backseat so he can crack his funny pizza man jokes, and only really comes back into play at the very end.
Not that the plot is the most important aspect or even the biggest problem in this game, but rather a piece in a larger set of issues that pervades every corner of DMC4.
The gameplay is incredibly solid, Nero controls very well and I love his mechanics. His affinity for air combat allows him to easily juggle an enemy possibly even indefinitely if you know how to do jump cancelling. His revving of his motorcycle sword (which is fucking awesome in the exact same way as a Gunblade) allows for him to charge up a meter that allows for some useful moves, however it can take time to do so and leaves Nero defenseless... unless you know how to Instant Rev, which if you time after a hit just right, you can instantly fill up one bar of meter(eventually able to upgrade this to the entire meter). However, these moves are honestly limited in their actual usefulness I've found, and it's just more effective to just utilize your regular combos.
Dante is easily my favorite character to utilize in the game, finally having Style Switching which is a major improvement from DMC3. I loved utilizing Swordmaster and Gunslinger for those banging combos, even finding out that Swordmaster has a literal auto-combo that results in Dante swinging his sword like a baseball bat. However Dante's weapon selection is... not great unfortunately. I loved using Rebellion, but Gilgamesh wasn't as fun to utilize as Beowulf in DMC3, and while I liked Lucifer, I simply found that Rebellion was generally the more efficient of the bunch in regards to the sheer amount of combos it has. Same with the guns really, but honestly Ebony & Ivory have always been perfect to use so I have no complaints there.
The problem with the gameplay is honestly the levels themselves. They are very... standard. For comparison, in Devil May Cry 1, the Mallet Island Castle has this dark, creeping vibe that sticks to the player. It is very much drenched in its horror aesthetic as it feels like a genuine location that's been lived in, and serves to show the imposing and oppressive nature that the game and its narrative have.
DMC4 on the other hand is a Super Mario/Sonic game in regards to its levels. You've got your town level, you have your mineshaft level, you have your frozen castle level, you have your hidden factory level, your jungle level, and your holy castle level. These locations are already very uninspired by just being tropes that I could find on TV Tropes if I wanted, but what makes it worse is that you go through all of these locations twice only backwards with Dante.
Of course, this isn't news to anyone who has played the game and contributes to the one, very openly talked about aspect of DMC4:
It's fucking unfinished.
From the fucking stupid as fuck dice mini game (that you do twice for the record, and the second time is tied to the fucking boss rush), to The Savior boss fight just being an utter clusterfuck, the final boss being almost as bad as a DMC2 fight, the game starts strong but shits the bed so fucking hard by the end that when I realized Vergil was just going to go through the exact same campaign, I immediately dropped it to play him in Bloody Palace instead.
The boss fights themselves, minus the snake dragon lady, Credo and Agnus don't even feel designed around Nero's toolkit and fighting them with him just feels unpleasant, where once you fight them with Dante it feels incredibly satisfying by comparison. Maybe this was to show the experience gap between the two, but personally I don't think there's any narrative reason for it.
The music didn't vibe with me as much as DMC3's or even DMC1, which isn't to say I hated DMC4's soundtrack but rather that in comparison it just wasn't that memorable, which y'know, fits the entire game now that I think about it.
DMC4, outside of its combat, is not memorable.
The demons you fight as bosses are all inconsequential randos who have barely anything to do with the plot, the plot itself is very plain, the main antagonist is boring and generic Super Pope, it's all just very forgettable.
It's another one of those games I wish I could love but I just can't, and that is disappointing.
I doubt I'll ever play the story mode of this game ever again, but Bloody Palace will always be there and I will definitely come back to it just for the fun that that mode brings.
The time had come, but this game didn't.
One of my personal beliefs when playing a video game franchise is that the third game should be the point where your series has fully realized itself. Where all the ideas of the previous two entries are refined upon and the flaws fixed or changed.
A few examples of this I can think of are games like Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Kingdom Hearts 2, Metal Gear Solid 3. All three are games that take follow this precedent in how they iterated on the works that came before them.
So, Director Hideaki Itsuno, rebounding with his team after working hard just to fix the mess of Devil May Cry 2 to the condition it is in after the previous Director left the project, decided that Devil May Cry 3 would bring justice back to this franchise...
And it did.
DMC3 is a game that is spectacle in both presentation and gameplay, with the combat feeling absolutely electrifying as you mix and match various combos while switching through your weapons on the spot to build up to that lauded SSS meter. I'm not even a big score guy but when I saw those big red letters and the word "SSStylish!!!", I felt incredible.
The weapons themselves are all very cool, from a triple ended nunchuck to an electric guitar that controls lighting bats. It's all fucking awesome.
But that's not all, with the various styles like Trickster and Swordmaster, you can add even more variety to your playstyle and how you handle the various combat encounters.
I stuck with Trickster for my run because I love the Trickster Dodge, as well as Air Trick, allowing you to teleport above an enemy for an attack, but Swordmaster was also pretty cool with how it adds additional moves in order to increase your combos.
This does lead into one small problem I have with the game, that being that you can only switch styles at the Statues or before a mission. It resulted in me sticking to Trickster not just because of Trickster's moveset but also because it's just a hassle to go all the way back to a Statue to switch my playstyle when I can just stick with one. I have heard the Switch version of the game does allow Style Switching on the fly, but having played the PC Version I had to experience it like this and it resulted in me not fully experimenting.
The story is great, a tale about family and the conflict that comes from that. Vergil in particular is such an amazing character, both with how the narrative handles him and in his boss fights. The way the game introduces him after Dante has fought the first boss (who is not a slouch for the record) is so phenomenally well done with showing what Vergil is all about that I believe it needs to be studied by writers for years to come.
Fighting Vergil is easily when the game is at its peak, though Vergil 2 is my personal favorite. I love Vergil 3 for the emotions it invokes but the arena does not work well around how the Vergil fights usually work and conflicts with the camera.
Each fight with Vergil truly feels like a duel between equals. In a game where you primarily charge at your opponents with lighting fury, Vergil puts you in the opposite position with you on the defensive. It's a really cool way to handle his dominance as the older brother, and only makes it more cathartic when you learn his pattern and punish him with a long chain of combos.
This game has taught me, alongside Ultrakill, that every game should have a Vergil. Characters like him truly test the player's skill and makes them master the mechanics of the game in order to come out on top.
Speaking of Vergil though, there's one other complaint I have specifically about the Special Edition which is his campaign.
I love playing as Vergil, he's cool, but the lack of variety for him with both him having only one style as well as only 3 weapons and not having the same amount of combos as Dante and going through the exact same levels as Dante with no additional cutscenes beyond the intro does make the experience feel hollow.
Also Red Vergil is a little lame compared to actually making a Dante boss fight for Vergil's campaign but in the end it is optional content and small potatoes.
This game's soundtrack is so fucking killer that even as I'm writing this I can't get the words "TO TAKE ME OUT, YOU MUST FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" "YOU'VE YET TO PROVE THAT YOU CAN!"
This game is just coolness personified and I'm glad it managed to save the franchise from the burning dumpster fire that was the last game. The voice acting is great, Reuben Langdon as Dante is incredibly iconic, when he goes up to Vergil and says "How about a kiss from this!" is just so awesome and fits the character so well. Dan Southworth as Vergil is also an amazing choice, his nasally voice fitting the more prideful and snide power-seeking older brother.
I just fucking love this game, its vibes are immaculate. It's challenging, it's engaging, it's Devil May Cry.
And I wouldn't want it any other way.
A few examples of this I can think of are games like Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Kingdom Hearts 2, Metal Gear Solid 3. All three are games that take follow this precedent in how they iterated on the works that came before them.
So, Director Hideaki Itsuno, rebounding with his team after working hard just to fix the mess of Devil May Cry 2 to the condition it is in after the previous Director left the project, decided that Devil May Cry 3 would bring justice back to this franchise...
And it did.
DMC3 is a game that is spectacle in both presentation and gameplay, with the combat feeling absolutely electrifying as you mix and match various combos while switching through your weapons on the spot to build up to that lauded SSS meter. I'm not even a big score guy but when I saw those big red letters and the word "SSStylish!!!", I felt incredible.
The weapons themselves are all very cool, from a triple ended nunchuck to an electric guitar that controls lighting bats. It's all fucking awesome.
But that's not all, with the various styles like Trickster and Swordmaster, you can add even more variety to your playstyle and how you handle the various combat encounters.
I stuck with Trickster for my run because I love the Trickster Dodge, as well as Air Trick, allowing you to teleport above an enemy for an attack, but Swordmaster was also pretty cool with how it adds additional moves in order to increase your combos.
This does lead into one small problem I have with the game, that being that you can only switch styles at the Statues or before a mission. It resulted in me sticking to Trickster not just because of Trickster's moveset but also because it's just a hassle to go all the way back to a Statue to switch my playstyle when I can just stick with one. I have heard the Switch version of the game does allow Style Switching on the fly, but having played the PC Version I had to experience it like this and it resulted in me not fully experimenting.
The story is great, a tale about family and the conflict that comes from that. Vergil in particular is such an amazing character, both with how the narrative handles him and in his boss fights. The way the game introduces him after Dante has fought the first boss (who is not a slouch for the record) is so phenomenally well done with showing what Vergil is all about that I believe it needs to be studied by writers for years to come.
Fighting Vergil is easily when the game is at its peak, though Vergil 2 is my personal favorite. I love Vergil 3 for the emotions it invokes but the arena does not work well around how the Vergil fights usually work and conflicts with the camera.
Each fight with Vergil truly feels like a duel between equals. In a game where you primarily charge at your opponents with lighting fury, Vergil puts you in the opposite position with you on the defensive. It's a really cool way to handle his dominance as the older brother, and only makes it more cathartic when you learn his pattern and punish him with a long chain of combos.
This game has taught me, alongside Ultrakill, that every game should have a Vergil. Characters like him truly test the player's skill and makes them master the mechanics of the game in order to come out on top.
Speaking of Vergil though, there's one other complaint I have specifically about the Special Edition which is his campaign.
I love playing as Vergil, he's cool, but the lack of variety for him with both him having only one style as well as only 3 weapons and not having the same amount of combos as Dante and going through the exact same levels as Dante with no additional cutscenes beyond the intro does make the experience feel hollow.
Also Red Vergil is a little lame compared to actually making a Dante boss fight for Vergil's campaign but in the end it is optional content and small potatoes.
This game's soundtrack is so fucking killer that even as I'm writing this I can't get the words "TO TAKE ME OUT, YOU MUST FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" "YOU'VE YET TO PROVE THAT YOU CAN!"
This game is just coolness personified and I'm glad it managed to save the franchise from the burning dumpster fire that was the last game. The voice acting is great, Reuben Langdon as Dante is incredibly iconic, when he goes up to Vergil and says "How about a kiss from this!" is just so awesome and fits the character so well. Dan Southworth as Vergil is also an amazing choice, his nasally voice fitting the more prideful and snide power-seeking older brother.
I just fucking love this game, its vibes are immaculate. It's challenging, it's engaging, it's Devil May Cry.
And I wouldn't want it any other way.
2003
Wow, 2003 Capcom sure was a crock of shit wasn't it? This game, Mega Man X7, Dino Crisis 3, etc. It's absolutely amazing the company didn't go under after such an awful display, but I guess that's thanks to Viewtiful Joe.
DMC2 isn't a video game, it isn't an experience for you to get yourself immersed in, or to be thrilled by.
DMC2 is a void that swallows up all enjoyment and entertainment value and puts you in a place where you cannot escape, where you cannot experience anything of value or providence.
I may not have understood how exactly combos worked in DMC1, but you know, at least the gameplay was inherently satisfying. I still felt like I had to avoid attacks, utilize the unique abilities for my Devil Trigger, etc. That game had a crunch to its sound effects too, and music that got you in the mood to kill the hordes of enemies ahead.
DMC2 has none of this. DMC2 plays the game for you. Hold down the X button and watch as you participate in the waiting game. This is how 95% of encounters in this game can be handled. Why bother with swordplay when shooting the enemy can stagger and juggle them in the air indefinitely. This even applies to boss fights.
I just knew, the moment I popped into this game for the second time since I own it on my PC that I was going to feel absolutely drained. By the second half of the game I had begun to abandon the guns to try and give any form of life to this fucking game, but it didn't work. There is no way to make this game any less soulless than it is.
I think for me, the premiere moment of the game's shittiness came to me during this one part where you ride in a train. There are enemies in the train and you are expected to beat them while the train moves to its destination. I managed to beat them very swiftly, but still had to wait a solid 30 seconds for the the train to reach the other side. And in that moment, that's when it came to me:
DMC2 wastes your time.
DMC2 isn't a video game, it isn't an experience for you to get yourself immersed in, or to be thrilled by.
DMC2 is a void that swallows up all enjoyment and entertainment value and puts you in a place where you cannot escape, where you cannot experience anything of value or providence.
I may not have understood how exactly combos worked in DMC1, but you know, at least the gameplay was inherently satisfying. I still felt like I had to avoid attacks, utilize the unique abilities for my Devil Trigger, etc. That game had a crunch to its sound effects too, and music that got you in the mood to kill the hordes of enemies ahead.
DMC2 has none of this. DMC2 plays the game for you. Hold down the X button and watch as you participate in the waiting game. This is how 95% of encounters in this game can be handled. Why bother with swordplay when shooting the enemy can stagger and juggle them in the air indefinitely. This even applies to boss fights.
I just knew, the moment I popped into this game for the second time since I own it on my PC that I was going to feel absolutely drained. By the second half of the game I had begun to abandon the guns to try and give any form of life to this fucking game, but it didn't work. There is no way to make this game any less soulless than it is.
I think for me, the premiere moment of the game's shittiness came to me during this one part where you ride in a train. There are enemies in the train and you are expected to beat them while the train moves to its destination. I managed to beat them very swiftly, but still had to wait a solid 30 seconds for the the train to reach the other side. And in that moment, that's when it came to me:
DMC2 wastes your time.
2009
I'm not going to make this write-up long or put it on a different document first so I can copy-paste it here, I'm just going to be completely frank.
I came into this game genuinely excited because my friends are very into it, and I was looking forward to a genuinely good and entertaining ride but now having finished it I'm just... tired.
I know that's going to get me a lot of flack and my complaints aren't so much that the game is hard, I didn't expect myself to be good at it but y'know it's made me reflect on things I just don't appreciate about the developer.
Platinum Games' self-mastubatory approach to scoring is just something I genuinely dislike as someone who enjoys playing games simply for the sake of having a good time and having a distraction from the real world. The constant reminder every 5 minutes or less about how well I did in each encounter is both annoying and demoralizing. It's not something I can so easily ignore either given that it takes up the entire screen while blurring it for about 5 seconds.
This constant repeated need to show the score to the player wouldn't be a bad thing if it was either A. Smaller, or B. Something I could turn off, but it isn't and because it happens so frequently it just grew to be more and more irritating as the game progressed.
I already know I suck at the game, I do not need to be constantly reminded that I suck at the game, I can already tell. Having a finger pointed at me and laughed at by the game is just fucking annoying.
Another issue is simply that the game fucking drags so fucking long at points, especially with certain levels which are just entire minigames. I do not think I need to go into excruciating detail into just how awful the After Burner tribute level is, and how it takes what is already unpleasant control change and stretches it to the point of utter absurdity and misery.
I did not buy this game to play fucking After Burner, and having to play it for what feels like 25 minutes is fucking exhausting, especially when the camera angles were giving me motion sickness and I felt like I was going to throw up.
Boss fights are also a fucking drag because Bayonetta's mechanics change to suit these large scale fights and it again, just drags. The only boss fights I genuinely enjoyed were the ones with Jeanne because those don't change the inherently good combat mechanics to compensate for size.
The introduction of new enemies is also cool, but what sucks is how most of the time they're introduced and are already attacking you in the cutscene, which makes the transition back to gameplay where you're expected to immediately dodge extremely fucking awkward and unfair to the player.
And then of course, there's the QTEs, which on the PC version, don't fucking function properly, making some QTEs flat out impossible to pull off.
Does this make Bayonetta a bad game? No, but it was a game that quickly exhausted me with these issues, and really left me wanting to replay DMC1 instead, a game in which I didn't even understand the fundamentals of its combat and yet still had a better time.
A lot of these problems aren't so much reflections of Bayonetta but reflections of Platinum Games' mentality of putting arcade like elements into their games without understanding the inherent satisfaction of that style.
Putting a motorcycle section in your game is cool, making it last 15 minutes is not.
Bayonetta does have style however, and that's something I can't take away from it, but honestly it feels like they put more emphasis on the style than on making the game enjoyable.
I think the reason people think so fondly of another Platinum title, Metal Gear Rising, is that despite that games absolutely abysmal gameplay, it is a far shorter game with less mini-game focus, and boss fights that genuinely feel cathartic and freeing. Bayonetta is the opposite of this, a game with gameplay that is genuinely engaging but is marred by an obsession with avoiding that playstyle for lengthy periods of time, while not having nearly as enjoyable boss design.
I didn't come into this game intending to dislike it, and in fact even now I don't fully dislike the game, but the problems it has, or rather the problems that Platinum themselves have are the reason I don't see myself coming back to this game, or playing Bayonetta 2, at least for some time.
I really, genuinely wish I had enjoyed my time with this, but if I'm playing a score centered video game from now on, it's going to be Ultrakill and not this.
I came into this game genuinely excited because my friends are very into it, and I was looking forward to a genuinely good and entertaining ride but now having finished it I'm just... tired.
I know that's going to get me a lot of flack and my complaints aren't so much that the game is hard, I didn't expect myself to be good at it but y'know it's made me reflect on things I just don't appreciate about the developer.
Platinum Games' self-mastubatory approach to scoring is just something I genuinely dislike as someone who enjoys playing games simply for the sake of having a good time and having a distraction from the real world. The constant reminder every 5 minutes or less about how well I did in each encounter is both annoying and demoralizing. It's not something I can so easily ignore either given that it takes up the entire screen while blurring it for about 5 seconds.
This constant repeated need to show the score to the player wouldn't be a bad thing if it was either A. Smaller, or B. Something I could turn off, but it isn't and because it happens so frequently it just grew to be more and more irritating as the game progressed.
I already know I suck at the game, I do not need to be constantly reminded that I suck at the game, I can already tell. Having a finger pointed at me and laughed at by the game is just fucking annoying.
Another issue is simply that the game fucking drags so fucking long at points, especially with certain levels which are just entire minigames. I do not think I need to go into excruciating detail into just how awful the After Burner tribute level is, and how it takes what is already unpleasant control change and stretches it to the point of utter absurdity and misery.
I did not buy this game to play fucking After Burner, and having to play it for what feels like 25 minutes is fucking exhausting, especially when the camera angles were giving me motion sickness and I felt like I was going to throw up.
Boss fights are also a fucking drag because Bayonetta's mechanics change to suit these large scale fights and it again, just drags. The only boss fights I genuinely enjoyed were the ones with Jeanne because those don't change the inherently good combat mechanics to compensate for size.
The introduction of new enemies is also cool, but what sucks is how most of the time they're introduced and are already attacking you in the cutscene, which makes the transition back to gameplay where you're expected to immediately dodge extremely fucking awkward and unfair to the player.
And then of course, there's the QTEs, which on the PC version, don't fucking function properly, making some QTEs flat out impossible to pull off.
Does this make Bayonetta a bad game? No, but it was a game that quickly exhausted me with these issues, and really left me wanting to replay DMC1 instead, a game in which I didn't even understand the fundamentals of its combat and yet still had a better time.
A lot of these problems aren't so much reflections of Bayonetta but reflections of Platinum Games' mentality of putting arcade like elements into their games without understanding the inherent satisfaction of that style.
Putting a motorcycle section in your game is cool, making it last 15 minutes is not.
Bayonetta does have style however, and that's something I can't take away from it, but honestly it feels like they put more emphasis on the style than on making the game enjoyable.
I think the reason people think so fondly of another Platinum title, Metal Gear Rising, is that despite that games absolutely abysmal gameplay, it is a far shorter game with less mini-game focus, and boss fights that genuinely feel cathartic and freeing. Bayonetta is the opposite of this, a game with gameplay that is genuinely engaging but is marred by an obsession with avoiding that playstyle for lengthy periods of time, while not having nearly as enjoyable boss design.
I didn't come into this game intending to dislike it, and in fact even now I don't fully dislike the game, but the problems it has, or rather the problems that Platinum themselves have are the reason I don't see myself coming back to this game, or playing Bayonetta 2, at least for some time.
I really, genuinely wish I had enjoyed my time with this, but if I'm playing a score centered video game from now on, it's going to be Ultrakill and not this.
2005
In light of the Remake set to release next year I decided that now would probably be a good time to finally fully play and experience the original Resident Evil 4. I had bought the game for my Wii U several years ago for a later point, but was then made to play it right away by my friend and I did the first part of the game before dropping it for a time.
I think part of that reason was that back then I thought “Oh, these controls are really stiff and awkward, this is really weird to control” and that despite using the Wii’s controls (often considered the best way to play the game), it still felt very uncomfortable for me.
How wrong 18 year old me was.
While initially the controls may seem stiff, the game is centered around this tank control scheme. No enemy moves so fast that you can’t land hits or avoid attacks. You have full 180 movement with the press of the A-button and Back, and options like Kicking after shooting an enemy in the head provides a great crowd control option if you’re running low on Shotgun ammo.
The game wants you to constantly be taking advantage of one enemy’s weakness in order to take down the horde of Ganados, and weaving your way around the various levels, using the environment to your advantage. Lure an enemy up a ladder only to throw the ladder to the ground and throw a grenade at them for good measure.
Supplies are not particularly scarce, but due to the new puzzle-like inventory system, you have to balance what you will take with you, which does raise the tension during some of the more intense encounters the game will throw at you.
The levels themselves lend a lot to various forms of horror and action, with my favorites being the Castle for its Classical Horror approach with enemies like the blind claw men who you have to slowly maneuver around in order to not alert them to your presence or the fucking terrifying bug-monster things (I am deathly terrified of insects and arachnids and these scared me in just the right way), and the Island which is when the game feels the most like Classic Resident Evil with monsters like the Regenerators while also having thrilling action setpieces like the Helicopter assist fight.
I was surprised with how genuinely terrifying the game can be at points given all I heard about it was how it was the beginning of the action game trend that its sequels would follow up on. When I first encountered those earlier insect people that I mentioned earlier in this dank, dark sewer, I felt such genuine fear I was afraid I’d piss myself. When I initially met the Regenerators and had no way of harming them genuinely, I ran for my life. Of course, the game doesn’t leave you helpless for long, and it makes getting back at these enemies all the more satisfying.
The story isn’t anything too deep, doesn’t need to be for what the game is going for. Leon works for the US Government and is sent to a rural part of Spain to rescue the President’s Daughter, Ashley Graham, from the mysterious cult known as the Los Illuminados.
What happens after that are basically multiple relatively self contained story arcs that feed into the overall narrative but have their own individual antagonists, with Saddler being the overarching villain.
I will say, I didn’t think much of Saddler as a villain. He doesn’t have much screen time until the end of the game, and while there’s plenty of reasons to hate the guy, he isn’t as enjoyable to watch as Salazar, and isn’t nearly as imposing visually as the village chief Mendez. Of course, I did enjoy his little jab at the “America saves the day” trope right before his boss fight.
Salazar is an absolute fucking gem of a villain though, an absolutely despicable manchild who constantly taunts Leon the whole way through the castle level, making it endlessly satisfying to shoot a bazooka directly into his face. Really, the Castle is such a high point just because of his campy presence.
The game is definitely at its funniest when him and Leon are bouncing off of each other.
Of course, I do have a few complaints.
Firstly, the QTEs. 80% of the time these aren’t really that big of a problem, as the game is pretty lenient with most of them, I just have to bring up the specific moment in The Castle level where you go through this relatively long Minecart set piece, and then suddenly have to mash the X button to climb at the very end or else instantly die. I died like 3 separate times to this event before having to strain my entire fucking hand slamming my pointer finger into the X button. The biggest problem is that the QTE shows no indication of approaching success until you’ve succeeded, making it impossible to determine whether you did it or not. It was really annoying, and it happens twice.
And finally, and this is not really a reflection of the gameplay but like… Dear lord, this game sexualizes Ashley to a kind of creepy degree. One of the achievements and a line in the game from Luis refers to Ashley’s boobs as ballistics being secured by Leon, her underwear is very visible in a lot of cutscenes, and the game even has her scold Leon for looking at her panties if you happen to be underneath her. I just have to ask, why? Like, it’s just kind of fucking creepy.
(For the record, I wrote the previous paragraph under the assumption that Ashley was a teenager, she’s apparently 20. That does not make any of this shit any less fucking weird though.)
Regardless though, this game is definitely a masterpiece of Action Horror and I can absolutely see how this caused a Third Person Shooter boom in the 2000s. If you’re looking for a satisfying romp where you mow down hordes of parasite infected Spaniards, this is the game for you.
I only have one thing to say about the Resident Evil 4 Remake:
No thanks, bro!
I think part of that reason was that back then I thought “Oh, these controls are really stiff and awkward, this is really weird to control” and that despite using the Wii’s controls (often considered the best way to play the game), it still felt very uncomfortable for me.
How wrong 18 year old me was.
While initially the controls may seem stiff, the game is centered around this tank control scheme. No enemy moves so fast that you can’t land hits or avoid attacks. You have full 180 movement with the press of the A-button and Back, and options like Kicking after shooting an enemy in the head provides a great crowd control option if you’re running low on Shotgun ammo.
The game wants you to constantly be taking advantage of one enemy’s weakness in order to take down the horde of Ganados, and weaving your way around the various levels, using the environment to your advantage. Lure an enemy up a ladder only to throw the ladder to the ground and throw a grenade at them for good measure.
Supplies are not particularly scarce, but due to the new puzzle-like inventory system, you have to balance what you will take with you, which does raise the tension during some of the more intense encounters the game will throw at you.
The levels themselves lend a lot to various forms of horror and action, with my favorites being the Castle for its Classical Horror approach with enemies like the blind claw men who you have to slowly maneuver around in order to not alert them to your presence or the fucking terrifying bug-monster things (I am deathly terrified of insects and arachnids and these scared me in just the right way), and the Island which is when the game feels the most like Classic Resident Evil with monsters like the Regenerators while also having thrilling action setpieces like the Helicopter assist fight.
I was surprised with how genuinely terrifying the game can be at points given all I heard about it was how it was the beginning of the action game trend that its sequels would follow up on. When I first encountered those earlier insect people that I mentioned earlier in this dank, dark sewer, I felt such genuine fear I was afraid I’d piss myself. When I initially met the Regenerators and had no way of harming them genuinely, I ran for my life. Of course, the game doesn’t leave you helpless for long, and it makes getting back at these enemies all the more satisfying.
The story isn’t anything too deep, doesn’t need to be for what the game is going for. Leon works for the US Government and is sent to a rural part of Spain to rescue the President’s Daughter, Ashley Graham, from the mysterious cult known as the Los Illuminados.
What happens after that are basically multiple relatively self contained story arcs that feed into the overall narrative but have their own individual antagonists, with Saddler being the overarching villain.
I will say, I didn’t think much of Saddler as a villain. He doesn’t have much screen time until the end of the game, and while there’s plenty of reasons to hate the guy, he isn’t as enjoyable to watch as Salazar, and isn’t nearly as imposing visually as the village chief Mendez. Of course, I did enjoy his little jab at the “America saves the day” trope right before his boss fight.
Salazar is an absolute fucking gem of a villain though, an absolutely despicable manchild who constantly taunts Leon the whole way through the castle level, making it endlessly satisfying to shoot a bazooka directly into his face. Really, the Castle is such a high point just because of his campy presence.
The game is definitely at its funniest when him and Leon are bouncing off of each other.
Of course, I do have a few complaints.
Firstly, the QTEs. 80% of the time these aren’t really that big of a problem, as the game is pretty lenient with most of them, I just have to bring up the specific moment in The Castle level where you go through this relatively long Minecart set piece, and then suddenly have to mash the X button to climb at the very end or else instantly die. I died like 3 separate times to this event before having to strain my entire fucking hand slamming my pointer finger into the X button. The biggest problem is that the QTE shows no indication of approaching success until you’ve succeeded, making it impossible to determine whether you did it or not. It was really annoying, and it happens twice.
And finally, and this is not really a reflection of the gameplay but like… Dear lord, this game sexualizes Ashley to a kind of creepy degree. One of the achievements and a line in the game from Luis refers to Ashley’s boobs as ballistics being secured by Leon, her underwear is very visible in a lot of cutscenes, and the game even has her scold Leon for looking at her panties if you happen to be underneath her. I just have to ask, why? Like, it’s just kind of fucking creepy.
(For the record, I wrote the previous paragraph under the assumption that Ashley was a teenager, she’s apparently 20. That does not make any of this shit any less fucking weird though.)
Regardless though, this game is definitely a masterpiece of Action Horror and I can absolutely see how this caused a Third Person Shooter boom in the 2000s. If you’re looking for a satisfying romp where you mow down hordes of parasite infected Spaniards, this is the game for you.
I only have one thing to say about the Resident Evil 4 Remake:
No thanks, bro!
2005
Easily clears Sonic Frontiers no cap.
Also have you seen this music video, this is peak fiction right here.
Being real, I just remembered this video was a thing and it's hilarious. J-Pop and Shadow the Hedgehog, truly, the optimal timeline here.
Also have you seen this music video, this is peak fiction right here.
Being real, I just remembered this video was a thing and it's hilarious. J-Pop and Shadow the Hedgehog, truly, the optimal timeline here.
Well, I finally played Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
This game has always been in my mind since its release in 2013, hell even before that. I distinctly remember my brother talking about it to me, specifically the original version that got cancelled, and he was incredibly hyped about the idea.
This game has only become more and more culturally relevant with time, from predicting the 2016 election to an analysis on the culture of memes, it's amazing how both this game and Metal Gear Solid 2 happened to remain this way for as long as they have, maybe that's just the Raiden Gift.
But that's enough stroking off the game's dick, let's get into the meat of this whole thing.
The gameplay is rather simplistic, which is personally fine with me. Its simplicity allows for a feeling of pure catharsis that keeps you gripped and wanting more. Blade Mode and Zandatsu in particular are nothing short of pure kino and I love utilizing them to chop my opponents into ground beef before stealing the Gatorade from their bodies.
However, there are several problems with this game. The lock-on function barely fucking works, like, it basically doesn't work at all. This would be fine if the camera wasn't so fucky most of the time, but the camera is usually very awkward with where it wants to be behind Raiden, resulting in a lot of me running in a circle to try and find where my enemies are.
The enemies in particular are not very fun to fight, and not due to difficulty but more in that they don't really do anything interesting. The Samurai ones force you to parry forever and wait for the most miniscule of openings, the Geckos and UGs are mostly the same deal just add unblockable attacks that you need to avoid into the mix, and eventually even those enemies get trivialized by Jack the Ripper mode.
Boss Fights though are absolute fucking cinema, intense and engaging and easily the best part about this entire experience. What actually got me interested in this game was the Final Boss, because the whole experience seemed so insane that I knew that one day, I'd have to play this.
Back to a complaint though, there are definitely points where the game just plays itself, specifically for the segments where you run up, down, or through buildings in the middle of a fight. It's visually stimulating to be sure, but definitely feels like I've been removed from the badassery and not able to engage with it myself, which is a bit of a net loss in my personal opinion.
Also the stealth is a joke, but being frank, this barely counts as a stealth game so outside of the one time they force you to utilize it, there is really no need.
Also the VR Missions suck ass, like, they just suck.
But y'know, despite all these flaws and complaints... I just cannot stay angry at this game for very long. It is just fundamentally impossible for me.
This game is just pure unfiltrated coolness, and I love the experience. If you're looking for a fun time just to fuck around, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the game for you.
This game has always been in my mind since its release in 2013, hell even before that. I distinctly remember my brother talking about it to me, specifically the original version that got cancelled, and he was incredibly hyped about the idea.
This game has only become more and more culturally relevant with time, from predicting the 2016 election to an analysis on the culture of memes, it's amazing how both this game and Metal Gear Solid 2 happened to remain this way for as long as they have, maybe that's just the Raiden Gift.
But that's enough stroking off the game's dick, let's get into the meat of this whole thing.
The gameplay is rather simplistic, which is personally fine with me. Its simplicity allows for a feeling of pure catharsis that keeps you gripped and wanting more. Blade Mode and Zandatsu in particular are nothing short of pure kino and I love utilizing them to chop my opponents into ground beef before stealing the Gatorade from their bodies.
However, there are several problems with this game. The lock-on function barely fucking works, like, it basically doesn't work at all. This would be fine if the camera wasn't so fucky most of the time, but the camera is usually very awkward with where it wants to be behind Raiden, resulting in a lot of me running in a circle to try and find where my enemies are.
The enemies in particular are not very fun to fight, and not due to difficulty but more in that they don't really do anything interesting. The Samurai ones force you to parry forever and wait for the most miniscule of openings, the Geckos and UGs are mostly the same deal just add unblockable attacks that you need to avoid into the mix, and eventually even those enemies get trivialized by Jack the Ripper mode.
Boss Fights though are absolute fucking cinema, intense and engaging and easily the best part about this entire experience. What actually got me interested in this game was the Final Boss, because the whole experience seemed so insane that I knew that one day, I'd have to play this.
Back to a complaint though, there are definitely points where the game just plays itself, specifically for the segments where you run up, down, or through buildings in the middle of a fight. It's visually stimulating to be sure, but definitely feels like I've been removed from the badassery and not able to engage with it myself, which is a bit of a net loss in my personal opinion.
Also the stealth is a joke, but being frank, this barely counts as a stealth game so outside of the one time they force you to utilize it, there is really no need.
Also the VR Missions suck ass, like, they just suck.
But y'know, despite all these flaws and complaints... I just cannot stay angry at this game for very long. It is just fundamentally impossible for me.
This game is just pure unfiltrated coolness, and I love the experience. If you're looking for a fun time just to fuck around, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the game for you.
Not gonna be a long review, but I think the story mode was cute. I haven't gotten beyond Part 4 personally but I liked all the little character interactions, and DIO will never not be hammy and fun to watch. The Jotaro power twist at the end is just as dumb as it is in Part 3 which I can see being stupid.
Combat wise it's an arena fighter, and is relatively simplistic in design. I don't dislike arena fighters personally, but more hardcore FG fans are not a fan of them so if you're into fighting games unlike me this probably won't be fun.
Looking forward to All Star Battle R though.
Anyways, Jojo Rankings from the ones I've watched:
1. Battle Tendency
2. Stardust Crusaders
3. Diamond is Unbreakable
4. Phantom Blood
Currently rewatching the series now, and made it back to Part 4 so my opinion may change, but Josuke just never interested me as much as Joseph and isn't nearly as cool to see succeed as Jotaro.
Combat wise it's an arena fighter, and is relatively simplistic in design. I don't dislike arena fighters personally, but more hardcore FG fans are not a fan of them so if you're into fighting games unlike me this probably won't be fun.
Looking forward to All Star Battle R though.
Anyways, Jojo Rankings from the ones I've watched:
1. Battle Tendency
2. Stardust Crusaders
3. Diamond is Unbreakable
4. Phantom Blood
Currently rewatching the series now, and made it back to Part 4 so my opinion may change, but Josuke just never interested me as much as Joseph and isn't nearly as cool to see succeed as Jotaro.
2020
Having now beaten Ultrakill and spending an extended time playing this... this fucking masterpiece of gaming, I am genuinely shocked this isn't a finished product... because it feels like it is.
When I first played Ultrakill, I thought the control scheme on Keyboard and Mouse was too strenuous for my hands, my hands being relatively large in size. This is the one and only complaint I carry over from that initial review.
The control scheme is rather cluttered on Keyboard and Mouse, with the slide being on the left control key, which means that only my pinky can touch it with relative ease while utilizing the WSAD keys, or the F key for parries or the G key for switching arm types, or the R key for using the grapple hook.
I am definitely going to change my control scheme in the future, but I do think the default needs to be a little more centered. Maybe put the slide on the Tab button or something.
Outside of that though, what I have found is one of the most deep and fulfilling gameplay experiences I've ever experienced. Considering this is a relatively small sized indie project in regards to its team, it is amazing how many cool and innovative gameplay approaches Hakita and their team have brought into this tightly designed package.
It all started with finding out about the Projectile Boost, which is a mechanic that allows you to Parry your own Shotgun blasts to release a more powerful and explosive attack at your enemies. It'll require a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, all sorts of options open up in both combat and platforming.
You wanna blow up a glass panel so that your enemies fall into a meatgrinder? Use the Projectile Boost to instantly shatter it and build up your style meter to ULTRAKILL. You're playing the Cyber Grind and trying to get a high score but you're falling off the platform and have no walljumps left? Use the Projectile Boost to explode your way back up.
Then there's shit like using the Marksman Pistol's coins to ricochet on your enemies. You think that's cool right? What if I fucking told you that you can ricochet the Railcannon's blasts off of those same coins? It's fucking metal as fuck.
Of course I don't wanna spoil all of the interesting mechanics and secrets you can and will find, like the various secret levels, and Hidden Bosses, and alternate weapons, but they're soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fucking good.
If that doesn't sell you on this, how about the fact that Gianni Matragrano voices one of the two Vergils this game has. THIS GAME HAS TWO FUCKING VERGIL'S PEOPLE!!!
The game is in early access now, you can check it out at DevilMayQuake.com, it's only 20 dollars, please I swear it will change your life.
This game is my atonement for being a Tsukihime fan ok, this game is so fucking good I can't even joke, please just fucking play it, I'm fucking begging you.
I have spent 20 hours just fucking around, and the main campaign is only a quarter of that on your first time, PLEASE buy this game, PLEASE!
When I first played Ultrakill, I thought the control scheme on Keyboard and Mouse was too strenuous for my hands, my hands being relatively large in size. This is the one and only complaint I carry over from that initial review.
The control scheme is rather cluttered on Keyboard and Mouse, with the slide being on the left control key, which means that only my pinky can touch it with relative ease while utilizing the WSAD keys, or the F key for parries or the G key for switching arm types, or the R key for using the grapple hook.
I am definitely going to change my control scheme in the future, but I do think the default needs to be a little more centered. Maybe put the slide on the Tab button or something.
Outside of that though, what I have found is one of the most deep and fulfilling gameplay experiences I've ever experienced. Considering this is a relatively small sized indie project in regards to its team, it is amazing how many cool and innovative gameplay approaches Hakita and their team have brought into this tightly designed package.
It all started with finding out about the Projectile Boost, which is a mechanic that allows you to Parry your own Shotgun blasts to release a more powerful and explosive attack at your enemies. It'll require a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, all sorts of options open up in both combat and platforming.
You wanna blow up a glass panel so that your enemies fall into a meatgrinder? Use the Projectile Boost to instantly shatter it and build up your style meter to ULTRAKILL. You're playing the Cyber Grind and trying to get a high score but you're falling off the platform and have no walljumps left? Use the Projectile Boost to explode your way back up.
Then there's shit like using the Marksman Pistol's coins to ricochet on your enemies. You think that's cool right? What if I fucking told you that you can ricochet the Railcannon's blasts off of those same coins? It's fucking metal as fuck.
Of course I don't wanna spoil all of the interesting mechanics and secrets you can and will find, like the various secret levels, and Hidden Bosses, and alternate weapons, but they're soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fucking good.
If that doesn't sell you on this, how about the fact that Gianni Matragrano voices one of the two Vergils this game has. THIS GAME HAS TWO FUCKING VERGIL'S PEOPLE!!!
The game is in early access now, you can check it out at DevilMayQuake.com, it's only 20 dollars, please I swear it will change your life.
This game is my atonement for being a Tsukihime fan ok, this game is so fucking good I can't even joke, please just fucking play it, I'm fucking begging you.
I have spent 20 hours just fucking around, and the main campaign is only a quarter of that on your first time, PLEASE buy this game, PLEASE!
2020
I just finished Act One today and I'm going to be brief: This game is metal as fuck, but playing it on Keyboard and Mouse is killing my fucking hands.
The game is far from easy and will ask a lot from the player (this is me speaking on Normal Difficulty, there are easier and harder difficulties available but I have not played them), and it expects you to maneuver very quickly and make as many shots as possible just to survive.
I will say, it's incredibly cathartic when you utilize all of the tools in your toolbox to cause a massive combo chain to get to that exalted Ultrakill rank, but the toll this stuff has taken on my knuckles and fingers is so much and I'm typing this while actively in pain from just fighting Gabriel.
If you have sensitive hands, maybe this isn't the game for you, but the vibes, the music, the violence, it's just one of those cathartic games that I think everyone should experience.
I am literally only giving it 4 stars because it hurts my hands so much.
Anyways, Play Ultrakill, Read Chainsaw Man, etc, etc.
PLAY IT!
The game is far from easy and will ask a lot from the player (this is me speaking on Normal Difficulty, there are easier and harder difficulties available but I have not played them), and it expects you to maneuver very quickly and make as many shots as possible just to survive.
I will say, it's incredibly cathartic when you utilize all of the tools in your toolbox to cause a massive combo chain to get to that exalted Ultrakill rank, but the toll this stuff has taken on my knuckles and fingers is so much and I'm typing this while actively in pain from just fighting Gabriel.
If you have sensitive hands, maybe this isn't the game for you, but the vibes, the music, the violence, it's just one of those cathartic games that I think everyone should experience.
I am literally only giving it 4 stars because it hurts my hands so much.
Anyways, Play Ultrakill, Read Chainsaw Man, etc, etc.
PLAY IT!
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.
I suck at fighting games, what can I say.
Kohaku and Wallachia are cool though.
I'm not going any more indepth on this, I suck that's all I got.
Kohaku and Wallachia are cool though.
I'm not going any more indepth on this, I suck that's all I got.
2000
This review will contain both minor and major spoilers for Tsukihime, I will do my best to not go too deep into major spoilers unless they absolutely need to be talked about.
Content Warning: I’m going to be discussing the following topics: Sex, Rape, Incest, Pornography, and other forms of violence.
I’ll be completely honest… I have no idea how to truthfully go about reviewing this game in its entirety.
It is something with ideas that are vastly engaging and filled with symbolic and philosophical value to me, but also has some of the worst writing decisions I’ve ever seen in a form of media that I’ve ever seen.
It’s a game where when it’s good, it’s excellent. It’s a game where when it’s bad, it’s fucking terrible.
I guess the first thing I’ll tackle is why I wanted to play this game. I’ll start off with the obvious reason. I saw the huge explosion in Neco Arc memes throughout last year and I found myself thoroughly entertained with the strange and zany situations “La Creatura” would find herself in. I had no idea where she came from, and initially I didn’t really care much.
I just thought that she was funny, from videos of her interacting with people on Omeagle to that one video of a Neco Arc nodding its head while the vine boom sound effect would blare loudly.
What got me curious however was my friend, Simon, going through the game. His reactions were so insane, and the dialogue he would share with me was so goofy that I couldn’t help but be interested. I also eventually joined the Discord server which introduced him to the game, Tokyo Millennium, and ultimately found myself beginning my warrior’s journey into the rabbit hole known as the Nasuverse.
I was surprised to find that Tsukihime was made by the same people who made Fate, a franchise I was at least familiar with, despite not having consumed any of the media related to it. It’s such a popular franchise that it was always on my peripheral. So I felt like I was finally getting my true introduction to the work of Type Moon.
Upon playing and finishing Tsukihime, I am left with a feeling of utter confusion and maybe a bit of insanity seeping in.
From here I’m going to separate the review into sections delving into the individual routes.
======================================================================
Arcueid:
This is definitely one of my two favorite routes in the game, simply because the writing for the growing relationship between the two is so well done. I genuinely felt like these two were meant to be together by the second half of the route given their natural chemistry, they feel like they’ve known each other forever despite having only known each other for like a week.
The lore for this route in particular, while a bit heavy on the exposition, still caught my interest due to how the game’s version of vampires function. Nrvnqsr Chaos in particular was a great antagonist in The Heavy regard. He was written to be such a hateable and disgusting force of violence and terror, and I love how utterly imposing he was. His ability was also incredibly intriguing to me, but going more into that would be veering way more into spoiler territory then I want to go.
I think the weakest aspect of Arcueid’s Route in particular is the actual primary antagonist, Michael Roa Valdamjong. While his lore is very significant, he is an antagonist that has very little presence. While I recognize he also isn’t the primary focus of the route, I still think that his minimal role as well as lack of screen time caused him to lose my interest, and comparing him to Chaos is like night and day. I think he functions better in another route, but we’ll get back to that.
However, the real issue I have with the Arc Route has to do with its portrayal of sexual assault. At a certain point later in the route, there is a moment where the protagonist Shiki attempts to rape Arcueid. This moment comes almost completely out of nowhere, has a visual CG showing Shiki committing the sexual assault (which in turn is an attempt to entice the reader), and gives the player the choice to actually rape her, which while that is the incorrect choice, should never have been an option in the first place.
The scene then ends with Arcueid blaming herself for the sexual assault. It is easily the most upsetting H-Scene in the entire game, and my reaction to it was to rant very angrily to my friends about how absolutely livid I was with that entire moment.
It doesn’t help that within only the span of another chapter, there is another H-scene where Arc and Shiki consensually have sex, which just feels so poorly paced because I cannot actually fathom someone wanting to having consensual sex with the person who tried to rape them the day before.
It’s definitely the most disgusting use of rape in this entire game, and it’s only the second H-scene you will witness period.
We’ll touch on my overall thoughts on the sex scenes at the very end however.
While still on the subject though, I would be remiss to not bring up a scene near the end of the game where Ciel tries to stop Shiki from going to fight Roa, and in his desperation he threatens to rape her. It’s like, so excessive in my mind and even for such a desperate moment, it still feels like they forced the line to be centered on rape when it could easily be that he could threaten to kill her instead and it wouldn’t lessen the impact of the scene.
I do still think that Arc’s Route has probably the best pacing throughout the entire game, and it was where I was the most engaged.
I think Arc’s True Ending is one of the best in the game and really hits on a poignant emotional level for me. I like the Good Ending as well, but mostly because it makes me happy.
Overall, Arc’s Route is mostly solid, but the negatives that permeate the entire game can be at their utter worse here.
I would rate the route itself as 4 stars.
======================================================================
Ciel:
Ciel’s Route is usually slept on from what I’ve been told, and I can sort of see the reason why. A good chunk of the route is mostly a repeat of Arcueid’s for the first half of it. There’s also a lot of focus on how much of a missed opportunity it is that Shiki and Arc aren’t together, which is a little further accentuated in that Ciel and Shiki don’t have nearly as good chemistry with each other as Shiki has with Arc.
However, I think the second half of Ciel’s route is excellent and actually makes Roa into more of a sincere threat, despite actually no longer having a physical presence. It was definitely the best usage of his character in the game, and it makes the stakes for Shiki himself incredibly high.
I think Ciel herself is a very interesting character, and the story surrounding who she is and her complicated feelings of what she truly desires in this route creates a unique conflict for the friendship between her and Shiki.
Ciel’s Route also has one of the most introspective True Endings in the entire game which had me on my toes from beginning to end, and genuinely caught me off guard. It was borderline like watching the final two episodes of Evangelion for me, and had me thinking a lot about the meaning of one's own consciousness and desires.
Of course, not all things come out unscathed. There is yet again another moment of sexual assault, fortunately it is not visualized through a CG, but there is a point where Shiki (who is currently in a state of losing his sanity) forces himself onto Kohaku. While the situation is handled far better in comparison to the Arcueid one, since there are genuine consequences for the action taken, and Shiki does not receive forgiveness for the act he committed, it still feels like an excessive use of sexual violence for the sake of shock value. The scene could have easily just had him try to kill her rather than ejaculating on her on top of that. It’s definitely one of the less upsetting examples, but it still feels forced despite it all.
There’s also the topic of the “Roa Boner” or the Broaner as I call it. Basically, in one of the game’s many excuses to have a sex scene, Shiki’s body (currently being possessed by Roa) needs to have a “release” in order to slow down the takeover. Cue the Ciel H-Scene. It’s just one of the really dumb moments that will make you laugh and question who thought it was a good idea to include. It also is part of what makes the Shiki/Ciel relationship feel a little hollow in comparison to Arc’s, in that they need a roundabout excuse to have sex in comparison to just… being in love with one another.
Ciel’s Route also has the worst Good Ending in the game, being almost a borderline parody of itself and it’s very dumb. If it makes you happy, more power to you, but honestly Sun reminds me of some of the stupidest shit I used to watch as a teenager. It’s like watching the like, scene in Evangelion where it’s a typical school day scenario, which in Eva is meant to be this subversive moment that’s self aware. It’s like that but without that self awareness.
I would rate the Ciel Route as 3 stars.
======================================================================
Akiha:
Ugh.
So, this is the route I honestly don’t want to talk about. Before I played Tsukihime I was told that this route is considered “the best” in the server that introduced me to the game. However, when I brought this up in the Backloggd server, everyone was taken aback questioning how such a viewpoint could exist.
I already had reservations about this route for one obvious reason: It’s the incest route.
Now in reality the characters are not actually related, but the perspective is that Shiki has believed Akiha to be his sister for the past 8 years of his life, and it just makes the whole thing very uncomfortable.
Shiki and Akiha have almost zero chemistry romantically, and while I understand Akiha’s reasoning, in that she knows that Shiki isn’t her actual brother, and that she’s been abused by her father and has to deal with the other SHIKI, she is merely trying to get comfort in the one person she truly cares about, I still can’t help but think that it just doesn’t justify it enough.
Something a friend of mine has said is that the characters of Tsukihime are meant to be subversive, which is true. For example Arcueid. She’s this affable genki girl who you think would get along with anyone, but in reality she’s only acting like that because she has flat out never had friends for her entire life and is still very innocent and naive because of her duty.
Akiha feels like the least subversive of the entire cast, fitting squarely in the tsundere incest sister trope that has been around in Japanese Media for a long time. While again there are reasons for why she acts the way she does, those reasons have also been used in the past in Japanese Media as well for this trope as well as other similar ones i.e. Shinmai Maō no Tesutamento.
The route is also host to both the longest H-scene in the game, and the worst non-sexual assault related one as well. It is such a cringe inducing and painful scene to witness… that you can’t skip the whole way through because there is plot relevant information within the scene. If there’s something I haven’t brought up, it is how amateur the artstyle is. For the most part it isn’t a problem, and I honestly think that it looks pretty good most of the time, but it is at its absolute worst with the H-Scenes and combined with the awkwardness of Akiha’s H-Scene in general just brings nothing but pain.
I’ll be completely honest, the Akiha H-Scene broke me completely for the rest of the game. After that scene I could not feel anything for the H-Scenes that came after because Akiha’s is so inherently awful in my eyes that nothing else could offend me more outside of the sexual assault scenes.
The thing is, the Akiha Route still has good ideas despite it all, and that’s honestly what makes the bad parts of it hit worse for me.
I love the early part of the route involving Shiki’s classmate Satsuki turning into a vampire and trying to turn Shiki as well, and how it leads to a long lasting guilt for him when he ultimately kills her. I like how that moment is mirrored in the endings of this route as well. But then there’s also the part in that moment where he decides to kill Satsuki not for his own sake or for realizing that she can’t be helped, but because ”who would Akiha have to protect her”, it just felt like such a forced and awkward moment for me (made especially more clear given how the next two routes handle this exact same moment) given how early in the route it occurs and how unrelated to the current situation it felt.
SHIKI is also a pretty good antagonist in this route, showing exactly how creepy it is to want to bone your sibling (in this case, his actual blood sibling), and is a very hateable and personal enemy. He does a better job than Roa personally in having presence and actually bringing stakes to the plot.
I also think the endings for this route are pretty good as well, as there isn’t a Good Ending but a Normal Ending. Both are tragic, but the True Ending at least has a light at the end of the tunnel that shows that things will be alright. I personally prefer the Normal Ending as it shows the ultimate consequences of the route and paints the incestual love as what it is: inherently toxic.
I also actually like when the route shows the sibling dynamic Akiha and Shiki have rather than the romantic aspect of their relationship, as they actually work well as siblings and they’re written as being understanding and caring of one another while also having that typical conflict.
It’s just a shame this game is an eroge from the year 2000.
This is the one route I hope gets some major changes to it in the remake because I really think that the incest is what ultimately harms this route the most (y’know, outside of the porn). Definitely the weakest route in the game for me.
I’d rate the Akiha Route as 1 star.
Also Akiha has a long ass neck.
======================================================================
Hisui:
This is the second of my two favorite routes. It essentially takes the best aspects of the Akiha Route, and removes the incestual plot, while also showing a well written and developing relationship between Shiki and Hisui. They are probably my second favorite relationship in the game behind Shiki and Arcueid as their growth feels incredibly natural and results in incredibly heart wrenching moments in the second half.
I really don’t want to spoil much of this route because I think those emotional gut punches need to be experienced blind for the true experience, but trust me, they hit hard.
There’s only two parts of this route I have a major problem with, that being the use of a CG to show one of the characters after they had been raped, which feels like an unnecessary visualization of something that would have been better off not visualized.
The bigger problem is like with Arcueid’s Route, there is a scene where Shiki has the option to sexually assault and rape Hisui. Regardless of what the guide says, I heavily recommend not going with the option to sexually assault, the scene is disgusting and is nothing but pure excess on the part of the writers. It’s incredibly unnecessary and only appeals to people with a very sickening mindset and is absolutely harmful.
There’s also the part where Shiki winds up having consensual sex with Hisui which is another one of those “we made up an excuse so the characters can have sex” moments the game is fond of. It’s a dumb moment but makes sense lore wise, but still feels really awkward.
The endings for Hisui though are spectacular and among the best in the game, in fact Hisui’s Good Ending is easily the best Good Ending in the entire game in my personal opinion.
Outside of that, I don’t want to go further in spoiling the Hisui Route, but just trust me that outside of those negatives I’ve listed, this route is truly an emotional ride from start to finish and absolutely worth it.
I’d rate the Hisui Route 4 stars.
======================================================================
Kohaku:
As the finale to this lengthy experience, the Kohaku route mostly focuses on tying up the loose ends of all the other routes. While it is a good overall experience, it definitely has a bit of a pacing issue, and Kohaku herself isn’t really much of a focus of it.
However, I still think that the overall relationship between Shiki and Kohaku and how he tries to help her is a very good emotional core, and I think that makes the second half of the route have one of the better payoffs in the whole game.
I do like Akiha as the primary antagonist as her brocon tendencies are accentuated as being unhealthy, and it shows how someone like her could become just as bad as SHIKI if they give in to their obsessions. I think it’s a natural extension of the character we were shown in her route, but fits better here due to being an antagonist.
I do think the ending is a little weak though, mostly in that it doesn’t feel like there are enough consequences for the acts of the characters within the route, but it’s still something that makes me happy overall and didn’t leave me completely unsatisfied.
I’d rate the Kohaku Route 3 stars.
======================================================================
Discussing the Sexual Content:
As you can probably gather so far, I found that the sexual content in this game was inherently harmful to the story that was trying to be told by Nasu.
A good chunk of it feels extremely indulgent in what I find are the worst aspects of the eroge genre, creating stupid excuses just so characters can fuck, giving the player the choice in scenarios involving sexual assault to appeal to people with a very unhealthy fetish, and ultimately feeling completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of the greater narrative.
This isn’t to say that I don’t want writers to be able to bring up and discuss subjects and themes like sex and the impacts of sexual assault and rape but more in that writers have to be careful when utilizing such concepts because even the smallest misuse can be extremely harmful in the conveyance of them.
I believe Nasu does a mostly poor job at how he conveys these themes, and because of that it results in an experience that will leave most readers extremely uncomfortable and drop the material.
The H-Scenes in general are written is such a blunt and comical way at points that the game literally feels like one of those bootleg porn parodies you would find on Pornhub, it’s so degrading and ultimately meaningless that it almost makes you laugh until it gets specifically awkward and uncomfortable.
This is the part I’m glad to see be gone from the remakes, and I genuinely hope Type-Moon never does sexual content like this ever again in the future, I simply don’t believe they are competent enough at it.
My recommendation for people who plan to play Tsukihime is to hold the Control button when you get to an H-Scene, it fast forwards through the whole thing and is ultimately better than sitting through them like I did. I sat through them so nobody else has to, so please do me a favor and skip the H-Scenes in this game, I’m fucking begging you. Do not let my efforts be in vain.
======================================================================
Conclusion & Final Thoughts:
I am Shiki Tohno fr fr, as I can see between the lines that fill this entire visual novel. If I were able to cut the bad (pornographic) parts out of this entire experience to make something that feels less over indulgent in its perversion, I would.
Because, underneath all the schlocky porn, the incest, the dialogue where Shiki talks about ejaculating, underneath all of that there is a story here about the meaning of life and how important our choices are and the consequences of our actions.
It is a narrative that speaks to the inherent humanity within me that aspires to be free from depressive and negative thoughts, and all I want is to be able to experience it in the way it was truly meant to be.
That is why I cannot easily recommend Tsukihime as it stands to you, because as it stands its excess involving sex and sexual depravity is just something I cannot wholeheartedly condone.
If you want to give Tsukihime a shot, here is a link to the English Translation website, run by none other than kohakudoori who I would like to thank for giving us all the chance to get the experience of Tsukihime.
I definitely see myself coming back to reread the Arc and Hisui routes in the future because they’re just so damn good, and I genuinely can’t wait until the remakes are fully translated to English, though how long that will be I do not know.
I would like to say thanks to Tokyo Millennium for giving me the brainworms required for this, and my buddy Simon for sharing his experience with me which inspired me to try the game out.
And last but not least, I want to thank you Backloggd, for keeping me sane during this duration of my life, I love you folks.
======================================================================
P.S:
Fun fact, but you can easily change the music in this game.
If you are going to commit the act of actually sitting through the H-Scenes (I do not recommend nor condone this for the record), I recommend changing Track 5 to any song you choose. Here’s the steps.
1.“Procure” a music track of your liking (I picked a variety, my last one was It Has To Be This Way for that epic final battle against sex.)
2. Change it to a .ogg file. You can do this here.
3. Download the file and rename it to “track05”.
4. Open the “CD” folder in your Tsukihime folder, and put the new “track05” in there.
5. Replace the file.
Then voila, it will play the respective track in place of Track 5. This should help anyone who thinks they have “the balls” to stand up to the terrible H-Scenes.
Anyways, I need to start working on my “How Close Is This Media To Tsukihime” Tier List, so until next time.
Burennya~~
Content Warning: I’m going to be discussing the following topics: Sex, Rape, Incest, Pornography, and other forms of violence.
I’ll be completely honest… I have no idea how to truthfully go about reviewing this game in its entirety.
It is something with ideas that are vastly engaging and filled with symbolic and philosophical value to me, but also has some of the worst writing decisions I’ve ever seen in a form of media that I’ve ever seen.
It’s a game where when it’s good, it’s excellent. It’s a game where when it’s bad, it’s fucking terrible.
I guess the first thing I’ll tackle is why I wanted to play this game. I’ll start off with the obvious reason. I saw the huge explosion in Neco Arc memes throughout last year and I found myself thoroughly entertained with the strange and zany situations “La Creatura” would find herself in. I had no idea where she came from, and initially I didn’t really care much.
I just thought that she was funny, from videos of her interacting with people on Omeagle to that one video of a Neco Arc nodding its head while the vine boom sound effect would blare loudly.
What got me curious however was my friend, Simon, going through the game. His reactions were so insane, and the dialogue he would share with me was so goofy that I couldn’t help but be interested. I also eventually joined the Discord server which introduced him to the game, Tokyo Millennium, and ultimately found myself beginning my warrior’s journey into the rabbit hole known as the Nasuverse.
I was surprised to find that Tsukihime was made by the same people who made Fate, a franchise I was at least familiar with, despite not having consumed any of the media related to it. It’s such a popular franchise that it was always on my peripheral. So I felt like I was finally getting my true introduction to the work of Type Moon.
Upon playing and finishing Tsukihime, I am left with a feeling of utter confusion and maybe a bit of insanity seeping in.
From here I’m going to separate the review into sections delving into the individual routes.
======================================================================
Arcueid:
This is definitely one of my two favorite routes in the game, simply because the writing for the growing relationship between the two is so well done. I genuinely felt like these two were meant to be together by the second half of the route given their natural chemistry, they feel like they’ve known each other forever despite having only known each other for like a week.
The lore for this route in particular, while a bit heavy on the exposition, still caught my interest due to how the game’s version of vampires function. Nrvnqsr Chaos in particular was a great antagonist in The Heavy regard. He was written to be such a hateable and disgusting force of violence and terror, and I love how utterly imposing he was. His ability was also incredibly intriguing to me, but going more into that would be veering way more into spoiler territory then I want to go.
I think the weakest aspect of Arcueid’s Route in particular is the actual primary antagonist, Michael Roa Valdamjong. While his lore is very significant, he is an antagonist that has very little presence. While I recognize he also isn’t the primary focus of the route, I still think that his minimal role as well as lack of screen time caused him to lose my interest, and comparing him to Chaos is like night and day. I think he functions better in another route, but we’ll get back to that.
However, the real issue I have with the Arc Route has to do with its portrayal of sexual assault. At a certain point later in the route, there is a moment where the protagonist Shiki attempts to rape Arcueid. This moment comes almost completely out of nowhere, has a visual CG showing Shiki committing the sexual assault (which in turn is an attempt to entice the reader), and gives the player the choice to actually rape her, which while that is the incorrect choice, should never have been an option in the first place.
The scene then ends with Arcueid blaming herself for the sexual assault. It is easily the most upsetting H-Scene in the entire game, and my reaction to it was to rant very angrily to my friends about how absolutely livid I was with that entire moment.
It doesn’t help that within only the span of another chapter, there is another H-scene where Arc and Shiki consensually have sex, which just feels so poorly paced because I cannot actually fathom someone wanting to having consensual sex with the person who tried to rape them the day before.
It’s definitely the most disgusting use of rape in this entire game, and it’s only the second H-scene you will witness period.
We’ll touch on my overall thoughts on the sex scenes at the very end however.
While still on the subject though, I would be remiss to not bring up a scene near the end of the game where Ciel tries to stop Shiki from going to fight Roa, and in his desperation he threatens to rape her. It’s like, so excessive in my mind and even for such a desperate moment, it still feels like they forced the line to be centered on rape when it could easily be that he could threaten to kill her instead and it wouldn’t lessen the impact of the scene.
I do still think that Arc’s Route has probably the best pacing throughout the entire game, and it was where I was the most engaged.
I think Arc’s True Ending is one of the best in the game and really hits on a poignant emotional level for me. I like the Good Ending as well, but mostly because it makes me happy.
Overall, Arc’s Route is mostly solid, but the negatives that permeate the entire game can be at their utter worse here.
I would rate the route itself as 4 stars.
======================================================================
Ciel:
Ciel’s Route is usually slept on from what I’ve been told, and I can sort of see the reason why. A good chunk of the route is mostly a repeat of Arcueid’s for the first half of it. There’s also a lot of focus on how much of a missed opportunity it is that Shiki and Arc aren’t together, which is a little further accentuated in that Ciel and Shiki don’t have nearly as good chemistry with each other as Shiki has with Arc.
However, I think the second half of Ciel’s route is excellent and actually makes Roa into more of a sincere threat, despite actually no longer having a physical presence. It was definitely the best usage of his character in the game, and it makes the stakes for Shiki himself incredibly high.
I think Ciel herself is a very interesting character, and the story surrounding who she is and her complicated feelings of what she truly desires in this route creates a unique conflict for the friendship between her and Shiki.
Ciel’s Route also has one of the most introspective True Endings in the entire game which had me on my toes from beginning to end, and genuinely caught me off guard. It was borderline like watching the final two episodes of Evangelion for me, and had me thinking a lot about the meaning of one's own consciousness and desires.
Of course, not all things come out unscathed. There is yet again another moment of sexual assault, fortunately it is not visualized through a CG, but there is a point where Shiki (who is currently in a state of losing his sanity) forces himself onto Kohaku. While the situation is handled far better in comparison to the Arcueid one, since there are genuine consequences for the action taken, and Shiki does not receive forgiveness for the act he committed, it still feels like an excessive use of sexual violence for the sake of shock value. The scene could have easily just had him try to kill her rather than ejaculating on her on top of that. It’s definitely one of the less upsetting examples, but it still feels forced despite it all.
There’s also the topic of the “Roa Boner” or the Broaner as I call it. Basically, in one of the game’s many excuses to have a sex scene, Shiki’s body (currently being possessed by Roa) needs to have a “release” in order to slow down the takeover. Cue the Ciel H-Scene. It’s just one of the really dumb moments that will make you laugh and question who thought it was a good idea to include. It also is part of what makes the Shiki/Ciel relationship feel a little hollow in comparison to Arc’s, in that they need a roundabout excuse to have sex in comparison to just… being in love with one another.
Ciel’s Route also has the worst Good Ending in the game, being almost a borderline parody of itself and it’s very dumb. If it makes you happy, more power to you, but honestly Sun reminds me of some of the stupidest shit I used to watch as a teenager. It’s like watching the like, scene in Evangelion where it’s a typical school day scenario, which in Eva is meant to be this subversive moment that’s self aware. It’s like that but without that self awareness.
I would rate the Ciel Route as 3 stars.
======================================================================
Akiha:
Ugh.
So, this is the route I honestly don’t want to talk about. Before I played Tsukihime I was told that this route is considered “the best” in the server that introduced me to the game. However, when I brought this up in the Backloggd server, everyone was taken aback questioning how such a viewpoint could exist.
I already had reservations about this route for one obvious reason: It’s the incest route.
Now in reality the characters are not actually related, but the perspective is that Shiki has believed Akiha to be his sister for the past 8 years of his life, and it just makes the whole thing very uncomfortable.
Shiki and Akiha have almost zero chemistry romantically, and while I understand Akiha’s reasoning, in that she knows that Shiki isn’t her actual brother, and that she’s been abused by her father and has to deal with the other SHIKI, she is merely trying to get comfort in the one person she truly cares about, I still can’t help but think that it just doesn’t justify it enough.
Something a friend of mine has said is that the characters of Tsukihime are meant to be subversive, which is true. For example Arcueid. She’s this affable genki girl who you think would get along with anyone, but in reality she’s only acting like that because she has flat out never had friends for her entire life and is still very innocent and naive because of her duty.
Akiha feels like the least subversive of the entire cast, fitting squarely in the tsundere incest sister trope that has been around in Japanese Media for a long time. While again there are reasons for why she acts the way she does, those reasons have also been used in the past in Japanese Media as well for this trope as well as other similar ones i.e. Shinmai Maō no Tesutamento.
The route is also host to both the longest H-scene in the game, and the worst non-sexual assault related one as well. It is such a cringe inducing and painful scene to witness… that you can’t skip the whole way through because there is plot relevant information within the scene. If there’s something I haven’t brought up, it is how amateur the artstyle is. For the most part it isn’t a problem, and I honestly think that it looks pretty good most of the time, but it is at its absolute worst with the H-Scenes and combined with the awkwardness of Akiha’s H-Scene in general just brings nothing but pain.
I’ll be completely honest, the Akiha H-Scene broke me completely for the rest of the game. After that scene I could not feel anything for the H-Scenes that came after because Akiha’s is so inherently awful in my eyes that nothing else could offend me more outside of the sexual assault scenes.
The thing is, the Akiha Route still has good ideas despite it all, and that’s honestly what makes the bad parts of it hit worse for me.
I love the early part of the route involving Shiki’s classmate Satsuki turning into a vampire and trying to turn Shiki as well, and how it leads to a long lasting guilt for him when he ultimately kills her. I like how that moment is mirrored in the endings of this route as well. But then there’s also the part in that moment where he decides to kill Satsuki not for his own sake or for realizing that she can’t be helped, but because ”who would Akiha have to protect her”, it just felt like such a forced and awkward moment for me (made especially more clear given how the next two routes handle this exact same moment) given how early in the route it occurs and how unrelated to the current situation it felt.
SHIKI is also a pretty good antagonist in this route, showing exactly how creepy it is to want to bone your sibling (in this case, his actual blood sibling), and is a very hateable and personal enemy. He does a better job than Roa personally in having presence and actually bringing stakes to the plot.
I also think the endings for this route are pretty good as well, as there isn’t a Good Ending but a Normal Ending. Both are tragic, but the True Ending at least has a light at the end of the tunnel that shows that things will be alright. I personally prefer the Normal Ending as it shows the ultimate consequences of the route and paints the incestual love as what it is: inherently toxic.
I also actually like when the route shows the sibling dynamic Akiha and Shiki have rather than the romantic aspect of their relationship, as they actually work well as siblings and they’re written as being understanding and caring of one another while also having that typical conflict.
It’s just a shame this game is an eroge from the year 2000.
This is the one route I hope gets some major changes to it in the remake because I really think that the incest is what ultimately harms this route the most (y’know, outside of the porn). Definitely the weakest route in the game for me.
I’d rate the Akiha Route as 1 star.
Also Akiha has a long ass neck.
======================================================================
Hisui:
This is the second of my two favorite routes. It essentially takes the best aspects of the Akiha Route, and removes the incestual plot, while also showing a well written and developing relationship between Shiki and Hisui. They are probably my second favorite relationship in the game behind Shiki and Arcueid as their growth feels incredibly natural and results in incredibly heart wrenching moments in the second half.
I really don’t want to spoil much of this route because I think those emotional gut punches need to be experienced blind for the true experience, but trust me, they hit hard.
There’s only two parts of this route I have a major problem with, that being the use of a CG to show one of the characters after they had been raped, which feels like an unnecessary visualization of something that would have been better off not visualized.
The bigger problem is like with Arcueid’s Route, there is a scene where Shiki has the option to sexually assault and rape Hisui. Regardless of what the guide says, I heavily recommend not going with the option to sexually assault, the scene is disgusting and is nothing but pure excess on the part of the writers. It’s incredibly unnecessary and only appeals to people with a very sickening mindset and is absolutely harmful.
There’s also the part where Shiki winds up having consensual sex with Hisui which is another one of those “we made up an excuse so the characters can have sex” moments the game is fond of. It’s a dumb moment but makes sense lore wise, but still feels really awkward.
The endings for Hisui though are spectacular and among the best in the game, in fact Hisui’s Good Ending is easily the best Good Ending in the entire game in my personal opinion.
Outside of that, I don’t want to go further in spoiling the Hisui Route, but just trust me that outside of those negatives I’ve listed, this route is truly an emotional ride from start to finish and absolutely worth it.
I’d rate the Hisui Route 4 stars.
======================================================================
Kohaku:
As the finale to this lengthy experience, the Kohaku route mostly focuses on tying up the loose ends of all the other routes. While it is a good overall experience, it definitely has a bit of a pacing issue, and Kohaku herself isn’t really much of a focus of it.
However, I still think that the overall relationship between Shiki and Kohaku and how he tries to help her is a very good emotional core, and I think that makes the second half of the route have one of the better payoffs in the whole game.
I do like Akiha as the primary antagonist as her brocon tendencies are accentuated as being unhealthy, and it shows how someone like her could become just as bad as SHIKI if they give in to their obsessions. I think it’s a natural extension of the character we were shown in her route, but fits better here due to being an antagonist.
I do think the ending is a little weak though, mostly in that it doesn’t feel like there are enough consequences for the acts of the characters within the route, but it’s still something that makes me happy overall and didn’t leave me completely unsatisfied.
I’d rate the Kohaku Route 3 stars.
======================================================================
Discussing the Sexual Content:
As you can probably gather so far, I found that the sexual content in this game was inherently harmful to the story that was trying to be told by Nasu.
A good chunk of it feels extremely indulgent in what I find are the worst aspects of the eroge genre, creating stupid excuses just so characters can fuck, giving the player the choice in scenarios involving sexual assault to appeal to people with a very unhealthy fetish, and ultimately feeling completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of the greater narrative.
This isn’t to say that I don’t want writers to be able to bring up and discuss subjects and themes like sex and the impacts of sexual assault and rape but more in that writers have to be careful when utilizing such concepts because even the smallest misuse can be extremely harmful in the conveyance of them.
I believe Nasu does a mostly poor job at how he conveys these themes, and because of that it results in an experience that will leave most readers extremely uncomfortable and drop the material.
The H-Scenes in general are written is such a blunt and comical way at points that the game literally feels like one of those bootleg porn parodies you would find on Pornhub, it’s so degrading and ultimately meaningless that it almost makes you laugh until it gets specifically awkward and uncomfortable.
This is the part I’m glad to see be gone from the remakes, and I genuinely hope Type-Moon never does sexual content like this ever again in the future, I simply don’t believe they are competent enough at it.
My recommendation for people who plan to play Tsukihime is to hold the Control button when you get to an H-Scene, it fast forwards through the whole thing and is ultimately better than sitting through them like I did. I sat through them so nobody else has to, so please do me a favor and skip the H-Scenes in this game, I’m fucking begging you. Do not let my efforts be in vain.
======================================================================
Conclusion & Final Thoughts:
I am Shiki Tohno fr fr, as I can see between the lines that fill this entire visual novel. If I were able to cut the bad (pornographic) parts out of this entire experience to make something that feels less over indulgent in its perversion, I would.
Because, underneath all the schlocky porn, the incest, the dialogue where Shiki talks about ejaculating, underneath all of that there is a story here about the meaning of life and how important our choices are and the consequences of our actions.
It is a narrative that speaks to the inherent humanity within me that aspires to be free from depressive and negative thoughts, and all I want is to be able to experience it in the way it was truly meant to be.
That is why I cannot easily recommend Tsukihime as it stands to you, because as it stands its excess involving sex and sexual depravity is just something I cannot wholeheartedly condone.
If you want to give Tsukihime a shot, here is a link to the English Translation website, run by none other than kohakudoori who I would like to thank for giving us all the chance to get the experience of Tsukihime.
I definitely see myself coming back to reread the Arc and Hisui routes in the future because they’re just so damn good, and I genuinely can’t wait until the remakes are fully translated to English, though how long that will be I do not know.
I would like to say thanks to Tokyo Millennium for giving me the brainworms required for this, and my buddy Simon for sharing his experience with me which inspired me to try the game out.
And last but not least, I want to thank you Backloggd, for keeping me sane during this duration of my life, I love you folks.
======================================================================
P.S:
Fun fact, but you can easily change the music in this game.
If you are going to commit the act of actually sitting through the H-Scenes (I do not recommend nor condone this for the record), I recommend changing Track 5 to any song you choose. Here’s the steps.
1.“Procure” a music track of your liking (I picked a variety, my last one was It Has To Be This Way for that epic final battle against sex.)
2. Change it to a .ogg file. You can do this here.
3. Download the file and rename it to “track05”.
4. Open the “CD” folder in your Tsukihime folder, and put the new “track05” in there.
5. Replace the file.
Then voila, it will play the respective track in place of Track 5. This should help anyone who thinks they have “the balls” to stand up to the terrible H-Scenes.
Anyways, I need to start working on my “How Close Is This Media To Tsukihime” Tier List, so until next time.
Burennya~~
2013
I got this from the Epic Games Store because it was free but like, this is probably one of the most mid games I've ever experienced to the point that it makes me want a refund for a free game.
The gameplay isn't really complex but because of the roguelike design there can just be points where the level design sucks and really in order to actually progress you need to hope you get lucky with drops so you can buy stats for your next run through.
I don't see the appeal in this game other than the physical/mental disorders that your characters can have which mostly doesn't do anything to actually make the experience inherently interesting in any shape or form.
I would argue it's harmless but it's not something I would honestly recommend, it's basically a halfassed Metroidvania with none of the depth of the best ones in the genre.
The gameplay isn't really complex but because of the roguelike design there can just be points where the level design sucks and really in order to actually progress you need to hope you get lucky with drops so you can buy stats for your next run through.
I don't see the appeal in this game other than the physical/mental disorders that your characters can have which mostly doesn't do anything to actually make the experience inherently interesting in any shape or form.
I would argue it's harmless but it's not something I would honestly recommend, it's basically a halfassed Metroidvania with none of the depth of the best ones in the genre.