2021
This review contains spoilers
Everyone and their mother has made the comment about how this is an Odyssey world mixed with 3D World, but as an Odyssey level it feels kinda messy. There's no real theme here (except "cats" I guess), it's just a bunch of islands, each with their own gimmick. It reminds me more of Galaxy in that sense. So I guess it's kinda like Odyssey's style of collection in Galaxy-esque stages, using 3D World's mechanics.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.
2013
While 3D Land started the concept, it played the levels mostly safe. This game tries a whole bunch of new innovations and level themes. It just has so many ideas, not just for level design but even in types of stages, like having challenge boxes that have you go through a gauntlet of quickfire mini challenges - the last of which being 35 of them in a row and is one of my favourite parts of the game.
Instead of the main themed power-up being an old one that has been reworked, this time it's a brand new idea that adds a new dimension to the platforming, both expanding your options and acting as a power up should - making the game easier. Except unlike the tanooki leaf it doesn't break the game.
There's also some pseudo-power ups that the game uses to great effects in specific levels - the cannon head, the light head and the double cherries.
5 different characters all with varying strengths and weaknesses.
I just found it to be an overall great time. It can be pretty easy and fast if you only want to complete the game, but collecting all the green stars and the stamps feels like actual meat on the game and not just filler for the sake of making the player spend extra time. What DOES feel like that though is that getting the last 5 stamps and star on your profile involves beating the level with EVERY character. It's clearly intended for co-op play, but it's such an insane pain in the ass that a single player has to essentially play through the game 5 times to 100% it. That's my only downside with the game and it's an optional task.
Instead of the main themed power-up being an old one that has been reworked, this time it's a brand new idea that adds a new dimension to the platforming, both expanding your options and acting as a power up should - making the game easier. Except unlike the tanooki leaf it doesn't break the game.
There's also some pseudo-power ups that the game uses to great effects in specific levels - the cannon head, the light head and the double cherries.
5 different characters all with varying strengths and weaknesses.
I just found it to be an overall great time. It can be pretty easy and fast if you only want to complete the game, but collecting all the green stars and the stamps feels like actual meat on the game and not just filler for the sake of making the player spend extra time. What DOES feel like that though is that getting the last 5 stamps and star on your profile involves beating the level with EVERY character. It's clearly intended for co-op play, but it's such an insane pain in the ass that a single player has to essentially play through the game 5 times to 100% it. That's my only downside with the game and it's an optional task.
2021
Eh, it's pretty good as a PS+ game. Something you can play for a few days, maybe a week and then get bored of. Maybe with constant updates it'll stay alive, but right now the gameplay is kinda shallow. Those days you are playing it's really fun though, the fast-paced actions and destructive crashes feel satisfying.
There's a colourful cast of characters to choose from, most of which have a very palpable unique personality, right down to their running animations. Having their own specific hero vehicles with their own super abilities is exactly what a game like this needs to give it just that little bit more variety every match.
At first I thought the out-of-vehicle parts were really pointless and just kinda filler to try and be unique, but they do have a bit of a strategic element to them. Do you spend time collecting shards to get your hero vehicle faster at the expense of not gaining points right away? And you might find a point multiplier too.
It's a pretty weird decision to only have 2 solo modes and 2 team modes, when they could have doubled that by making the solo modes playable in team and vis-versa. I mean mayhem is basically the main mode of the game and was what all the advertising seemed to show off, but it's only playable as a free-for-all.
I can't believe that when this isn't a PS+ game they're trying to sell it as a full priced game lmao. That doesn't affect my rating because it's not the games fault, but just as a company decision, Jesus.
Edit: It seems this was misinformation I found online. It isn't a full priced game.
It also locks the story mode behind damn microtransactions. Apparently they plan to put the premium currency as a reward in the game, but as of right now that's not an option. And it's a shame because each character's story helps flesh them out, even if it is basically just two cutscenes sandwiched between 7 special event matches. Those event matches are pretty neat though, types of gameplay style you can't find elsewhere in the game, including a Crazy Taxi inspired mission.
I'm hoping the game gets new updates fast, otherwise I don't know if I'll even be booting it up again.
March 12th 2021 edit: Replayed the game again and got bored super fast. Lowered my rating from 2.5 to 2 because it honestly feels even more shallow than I remembered. And they've now added legendary skins which cost 1,000 premium currency. The only way to get that currency? Real money, or get 150 from weekly challenges. 7 weeks of challenges for a SINGLE legendary skin.
There's a colourful cast of characters to choose from, most of which have a very palpable unique personality, right down to their running animations. Having their own specific hero vehicles with their own super abilities is exactly what a game like this needs to give it just that little bit more variety every match.
At first I thought the out-of-vehicle parts were really pointless and just kinda filler to try and be unique, but they do have a bit of a strategic element to them. Do you spend time collecting shards to get your hero vehicle faster at the expense of not gaining points right away? And you might find a point multiplier too.
It's a pretty weird decision to only have 2 solo modes and 2 team modes, when they could have doubled that by making the solo modes playable in team and vis-versa. I mean mayhem is basically the main mode of the game and was what all the advertising seemed to show off, but it's only playable as a free-for-all.
I can't believe that when this isn't a PS+ game they're trying to sell it as a full priced game lmao. That doesn't affect my rating because it's not the games fault, but just as a company decision, Jesus.
Edit: It seems this was misinformation I found online. It isn't a full priced game.
It also locks the story mode behind damn microtransactions. Apparently they plan to put the premium currency as a reward in the game, but as of right now that's not an option. And it's a shame because each character's story helps flesh them out, even if it is basically just two cutscenes sandwiched between 7 special event matches. Those event matches are pretty neat though, types of gameplay style you can't find elsewhere in the game, including a Crazy Taxi inspired mission.
I'm hoping the game gets new updates fast, otherwise I don't know if I'll even be booting it up again.
March 12th 2021 edit: Replayed the game again and got bored super fast. Lowered my rating from 2.5 to 2 because it honestly feels even more shallow than I remembered. And they've now added legendary skins which cost 1,000 premium currency. The only way to get that currency? Real money, or get 150 from weekly challenges. 7 weeks of challenges for a SINGLE legendary skin.
2020
I've only ever played Bloodborne before in the Soulsborne series, and after starting this my immediate reaction was just how little the developers have evolved these games, at least from 2009-2015. Obviously that's not this games fault since it was the first of the kind. To be fair though this game does make shields useful which was nice, even though they become a bit useless near the end (at least the shield I was using, I never got a chance to use a huge one because my equipment limit wouldn't allow it).
For the first 2 or 3 hours of this game I was frustrated to no end, the lack of ability to level up before beating the first boss was infuriating when you got stuck on a section because there was no way to actually improve, and with each run your healing items would keep decreasing making it harder and harder. It didn't help that I chose what is apparently the worst starting class without realising. But once I beat the boss and the game opened up, I started enjoying it. There were times I had fun, there were times I enjoyed the challenge, and there were times I was angry. But as I kept playing the flaws started seeping through and it felt like with every new obstacle I came to resent the game more and more.
Anyway Demon's Souls is at its best when you're fighting one on one, and, funnily enough, in the boss fights. The game is at its worst almost every other time. I think it'll just be easier to give a full list of things I didn't like about the game:
-Combat is absolutely not suited for fighting multiple enemies at once. While using your chance to attack one enemy (and it's a pretty rare chance in later enemies), the other 5 enemies around you will be on your ass before your first sword swing animation has hit. Plus there's an amount of time after performing a parry or backstab where your character is finishing their animation but you can still be attacked. So... even when you get rewarded for a perfect parry the game still punishes you. It's also possible to be stunlocked after getting hit once, as then the next enemy will hit you and stun you, and while he recovers from his animation another enemy will do it and so on. I'm sure there are builds that can tackle multiple enemies, but it feels like you'd need advance knowledge of the games mechanics, weapons and spells to plan for that.
-Many of the locations aren't suitable for fighting, particular on stairs and bridges where you have no room to roll. And god help you if you're somewhere with no barriers. I remember trying to get to one specific boss room, but it was up a huge flight of stairs with no barriers, and half way up was a magician that had this AOE blast spell that would just knock you off to your death every time. It killed me more than the boss ever could.
-The game is VERY unintuitive and doesn't explain anything. In many cases this can be as little as missing out on a ton of items and content because the thing you need to do is so obscure you'd never work it out without looking it up (swapping items with the crow, wearing a specific outfit to unlock some stairs). But in some cases the game progress is even blocked behind a specific thing you need to do that is never told to you, such as a boss that will infinitely respawn if you don't kill a specific NPC first. Even the world and character tendency, something the entire game is built around and has an entire tab for in the menu, goes unexplained in-game.
-The above also applies to the level design, it's not unusual for the game to introduce new enemy types, or stage hazards in a non-safe environment, leaving you no time to work out what they can do and how to counter it.
-Just like Bloodborne (and I assume Dark Souls), other players can come into your world and just kill you. It once happened to me right after beating a boss and before I could go to the nexus, so basically I lost some world tendency without being able to do anything about it. A mechanic that lets uninvited players come and grief you just sucks ass.
-Just like Bloodborne the visuals are dull. It's just dark grey colours everywhere. They do have some pretty cool location concepts, such as mines and a prison, but it all just looks so bland in practice. Level layouts themselves were a mixed bag. Sometimes they were pretty good and offered shortcuts to reward the player for getting through them, or otherwise were a straight line to the boss but offered side-routes for exploration. Other times they were just a labyrinth where everything looked the same and if you died there was no fast way to get back to where you were (such as the tunnels or Valley of Defilement). You just generally spend waaaaaay too much time retreading the same parts over and over.
-There's this very annoying thing where I'd try to hit an enemy with the usual attack button but he'd just nudge the enemy instead. I never managed to figure out what caused this, even after looking it up, and everytime it happened it just screwed me over.
-The non-linearity of levels creates an incredibly unbalanced difficulty curve. I did 1-1, 1-2, then 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3, then went back to 1-3. After beating 1-3, the first stage of each remaining world was incredibly easy to the point where I'd often just make it to the boss and beat it in a single try. But then the second stage of each world would be a mix of enemies I could easily tank and big enemies that could kill me in 2 shots (and then the boss in x-2 would always be super easy and would do less damage than the big mooks for some reason?). When you let the player do stages in any order you really aren't able to balance the game with their progression.
-The swamp stage exists. I think that's my least favourite stage from any video game ever.
-And then there's the last thing that pissed me off. I was debating whether to give the game a 2 or a 2.5 for a while, but then I fought the 1-4 boss and I saw the message "Soul level drained". There's a boss that can literally undo your progress - multiple hours of your life - and you don't even get the levels back if you die, meaning that the boss you just lost to will now be even harder because you've just lost some levels.
-Equipment weight limit means you realistically only have 50% of what it says you have if you want to have any kind of chance. Also the world tendency thing, if you wanna do it right, means playing the game with 50% health the whole way through.
Basically I just don't like this game because it's boring to look at and its difficulty comes from ignoring game design 101; creating battles that are massively against the players odds by making the enemies attack much faster and stronger than you ever could. Throwing a thousand newb death traps everywhere so that players will often have to spend their time trekking back to their old spot, with the huge risk of losing their souls if they die on the way. Putting battles on stages that go against your defense mechanics, like making rolling impossible, making enemies that can't be blocked by a shield (and getting hit will stun you and turn your stamina to 0).
Weirdly even though Bloodborne is the technically harder game (I can at least say I never needed a co-op partner to beat any of this games bosses), this one felt way more frustrating with its unfairness.
There are definitely times when the game hits the sweet spot of being hard without just punching the player in the face and pissing on their corpse, but damn are they overshadowed.
For the first 2 or 3 hours of this game I was frustrated to no end, the lack of ability to level up before beating the first boss was infuriating when you got stuck on a section because there was no way to actually improve, and with each run your healing items would keep decreasing making it harder and harder. It didn't help that I chose what is apparently the worst starting class without realising. But once I beat the boss and the game opened up, I started enjoying it. There were times I had fun, there were times I enjoyed the challenge, and there were times I was angry. But as I kept playing the flaws started seeping through and it felt like with every new obstacle I came to resent the game more and more.
Anyway Demon's Souls is at its best when you're fighting one on one, and, funnily enough, in the boss fights. The game is at its worst almost every other time. I think it'll just be easier to give a full list of things I didn't like about the game:
-Combat is absolutely not suited for fighting multiple enemies at once. While using your chance to attack one enemy (and it's a pretty rare chance in later enemies), the other 5 enemies around you will be on your ass before your first sword swing animation has hit. Plus there's an amount of time after performing a parry or backstab where your character is finishing their animation but you can still be attacked. So... even when you get rewarded for a perfect parry the game still punishes you. It's also possible to be stunlocked after getting hit once, as then the next enemy will hit you and stun you, and while he recovers from his animation another enemy will do it and so on. I'm sure there are builds that can tackle multiple enemies, but it feels like you'd need advance knowledge of the games mechanics, weapons and spells to plan for that.
-Many of the locations aren't suitable for fighting, particular on stairs and bridges where you have no room to roll. And god help you if you're somewhere with no barriers. I remember trying to get to one specific boss room, but it was up a huge flight of stairs with no barriers, and half way up was a magician that had this AOE blast spell that would just knock you off to your death every time. It killed me more than the boss ever could.
-The game is VERY unintuitive and doesn't explain anything. In many cases this can be as little as missing out on a ton of items and content because the thing you need to do is so obscure you'd never work it out without looking it up (swapping items with the crow, wearing a specific outfit to unlock some stairs). But in some cases the game progress is even blocked behind a specific thing you need to do that is never told to you, such as a boss that will infinitely respawn if you don't kill a specific NPC first. Even the world and character tendency, something the entire game is built around and has an entire tab for in the menu, goes unexplained in-game.
-The above also applies to the level design, it's not unusual for the game to introduce new enemy types, or stage hazards in a non-safe environment, leaving you no time to work out what they can do and how to counter it.
-Just like Bloodborne (and I assume Dark Souls), other players can come into your world and just kill you. It once happened to me right after beating a boss and before I could go to the nexus, so basically I lost some world tendency without being able to do anything about it. A mechanic that lets uninvited players come and grief you just sucks ass.
-Just like Bloodborne the visuals are dull. It's just dark grey colours everywhere. They do have some pretty cool location concepts, such as mines and a prison, but it all just looks so bland in practice. Level layouts themselves were a mixed bag. Sometimes they were pretty good and offered shortcuts to reward the player for getting through them, or otherwise were a straight line to the boss but offered side-routes for exploration. Other times they were just a labyrinth where everything looked the same and if you died there was no fast way to get back to where you were (such as the tunnels or Valley of Defilement). You just generally spend waaaaaay too much time retreading the same parts over and over.
-There's this very annoying thing where I'd try to hit an enemy with the usual attack button but he'd just nudge the enemy instead. I never managed to figure out what caused this, even after looking it up, and everytime it happened it just screwed me over.
-The non-linearity of levels creates an incredibly unbalanced difficulty curve. I did 1-1, 1-2, then 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3, then went back to 1-3. After beating 1-3, the first stage of each remaining world was incredibly easy to the point where I'd often just make it to the boss and beat it in a single try. But then the second stage of each world would be a mix of enemies I could easily tank and big enemies that could kill me in 2 shots (and then the boss in x-2 would always be super easy and would do less damage than the big mooks for some reason?). When you let the player do stages in any order you really aren't able to balance the game with their progression.
-The swamp stage exists. I think that's my least favourite stage from any video game ever.
-And then there's the last thing that pissed me off. I was debating whether to give the game a 2 or a 2.5 for a while, but then I fought the 1-4 boss and I saw the message "Soul level drained". There's a boss that can literally undo your progress - multiple hours of your life - and you don't even get the levels back if you die, meaning that the boss you just lost to will now be even harder because you've just lost some levels.
-Equipment weight limit means you realistically only have 50% of what it says you have if you want to have any kind of chance. Also the world tendency thing, if you wanna do it right, means playing the game with 50% health the whole way through.
Basically I just don't like this game because it's boring to look at and its difficulty comes from ignoring game design 101; creating battles that are massively against the players odds by making the enemies attack much faster and stronger than you ever could. Throwing a thousand newb death traps everywhere so that players will often have to spend their time trekking back to their old spot, with the huge risk of losing their souls if they die on the way. Putting battles on stages that go against your defense mechanics, like making rolling impossible, making enemies that can't be blocked by a shield (and getting hit will stun you and turn your stamina to 0).
Weirdly even though Bloodborne is the technically harder game (I can at least say I never needed a co-op partner to beat any of this games bosses), this one felt way more frustrating with its unfairness.
There are definitely times when the game hits the sweet spot of being hard without just punching the player in the face and pissing on their corpse, but damn are they overshadowed.
2011
This review contains spoilers
Doesn't stand out very well anymore since the whole concept of being a 3D Mario game that uses 2D Mario level structure has been done in the exact same way, but better, in 3D World. But it's still a Mario game and as such has the pure fun, polish and joy that comes with it.
It could benefit from a few more unique level themes though. Too many grass levels, snow levels, ghost houses etc. There's definitely a few that stand out, like the blocks that vanish in time with the music, the clock/cog level, and the buzzsaw level.
The bosses might be the weakest aspect of the game. There's a grand total of 3 that are reused for all 8 worlds (or 16 counting special worlds). Boom Boom and Pom Pom especially are pathetically easy. Bowser himself does actually do a pretty good job at transitioning his classic 2D battles on the bridge into a 3D design, but again, it's reused too much. The final Bowser fight on the other hand stood out a lot more, acting as a kind of platforming/boss hybird.
I also like that after beating the last boss you unlock an entire hard mode which can be either more enemies, a strict time limit, variations on the stage hazards, or a shadow Mario that follows your movements allowing you no rest. But what's kinda weird is that it doesn't just use the same levels once and make them harder, some stages get reused what feels like 3 times, which means others don't get a hard variant at all.
And the reward for 100%ing the game is a level to challenge even veteran Mario players, something that is standard for all Mario games now, but at the time was pretty new. For the most famous example of a casual series, Mario games can really throw some tough stuff at you if you unlock it.
Basically it's a 2D Mario in 3D. It's fun.
It could benefit from a few more unique level themes though. Too many grass levels, snow levels, ghost houses etc. There's definitely a few that stand out, like the blocks that vanish in time with the music, the clock/cog level, and the buzzsaw level.
The bosses might be the weakest aspect of the game. There's a grand total of 3 that are reused for all 8 worlds (or 16 counting special worlds). Boom Boom and Pom Pom especially are pathetically easy. Bowser himself does actually do a pretty good job at transitioning his classic 2D battles on the bridge into a 3D design, but again, it's reused too much. The final Bowser fight on the other hand stood out a lot more, acting as a kind of platforming/boss hybird.
I also like that after beating the last boss you unlock an entire hard mode which can be either more enemies, a strict time limit, variations on the stage hazards, or a shadow Mario that follows your movements allowing you no rest. But what's kinda weird is that it doesn't just use the same levels once and make them harder, some stages get reused what feels like 3 times, which means others don't get a hard variant at all.
And the reward for 100%ing the game is a level to challenge even veteran Mario players, something that is standard for all Mario games now, but at the time was pretty new. For the most famous example of a casual series, Mario games can really throw some tough stuff at you if you unlock it.
Basically it's a 2D Mario in 3D. It's fun.
2013
Neat idea, but just a bit of light fun for me. Probably a lot better if you're a geography fan and actually know how to tell places apart...
Also the whole monetization thing they got going on sucks. You can only play a single round for free per day.
Also the whole monetization thing they got going on sucks. You can only play a single round for free per day.
This review contains spoilers
Begins off a little disappointing as it takes you out of the wide open world you’ve been used to and throws you into a much smaller area, while also stripping you of all your resources, weapons and armour (you can still use them as skins, but not for their abilities). The only things you get to keep are your upgrades and your mounts. In fact the DLC removes potions entirely, along with any mastery you gained on your stats from upgrading past the cap in story mode.
I was confused why the game would even let me keep my abilities if it was going for a soft reset. It even tries to trick you into thinking it is giving you a tutorial, which is an odd choice for a DLC that warns you it has story spoilers making it end-game content by default, by telling you the controls and making the first vault a 1 star difficulty vault (something that hasn’t been seen since the prologue). But when you play the vault you realise there’s no way this is made for newcomers. The very first vault in the DLC is on par with a high 2 star, or low 3 star vault in the main game. The thing is though that even when the vaults get to 3 stars in this DLC, the difference is negligible relative to the difference between a 1 star and a 3 star in the story.
The Vaults are also much longer here, but they don't let you save either. Now while you couldn't always save in vaults, they did allow auto-saving in the longer vaults (the ones at the end of a God's questline). Many of these ones match those in length, if not surpass it, while also being harder. It's not unusual for a vault to last for 45 minutes or more, so if you have to turn the game off for whatever reason, the power goes out, the game crashes, or if you just get bored, you lose a ton of progress.
Anyway the reason I'm talking about vaults so much is that that's ALL there is in this DLC. It's basically a vault content pack thrown into a barebones story and a barebones area. There is still some fighting, but it's also delegated to small parts inside of a vault and is never the main focus.
What made the main game so great was the blend of puzzles, action and exploration, all done in a way so that you never spent too long doing one thing. This time it's 95% puzzles, 5% action and 0% exploration. If the vaults were your favourite part of the main game, or better yet the only part you liked, then you'll probably love this. Otherwise that lack of variety can lead to burnout on puzzles really fast.
They didn't even give that same sense of progression, as despite stripping you of ALL your weapons and armour, you can only find a total of one brand new thing for each equipable item (sword/axe/bow/armour/helmet), and each one can only be upgraded once. The majority of chests in this game contain a "relic" which by themselves do nothing, but when you collect 24 you unlock a secret....vault. Yeah, another vault. To be fair that secret vault is probably the highlight of the DLC, it's just a rapid fire of creative mini games, many of which take inspiration of arcade games like Frogger or Donkey Kong.
So basically my closing opinion on this is that while the vaults in this game are fun, and have a ton of mind-teasers, I feel like too many of them in a row is just overwhelming and misses out on a huge part of the game mechanics (the entire combat system). And starting you with an almost empty equipment list just seemed pointless.
I was confused why the game would even let me keep my abilities if it was going for a soft reset. It even tries to trick you into thinking it is giving you a tutorial, which is an odd choice for a DLC that warns you it has story spoilers making it end-game content by default, by telling you the controls and making the first vault a 1 star difficulty vault (something that hasn’t been seen since the prologue). But when you play the vault you realise there’s no way this is made for newcomers. The very first vault in the DLC is on par with a high 2 star, or low 3 star vault in the main game. The thing is though that even when the vaults get to 3 stars in this DLC, the difference is negligible relative to the difference between a 1 star and a 3 star in the story.
The Vaults are also much longer here, but they don't let you save either. Now while you couldn't always save in vaults, they did allow auto-saving in the longer vaults (the ones at the end of a God's questline). Many of these ones match those in length, if not surpass it, while also being harder. It's not unusual for a vault to last for 45 minutes or more, so if you have to turn the game off for whatever reason, the power goes out, the game crashes, or if you just get bored, you lose a ton of progress.
Anyway the reason I'm talking about vaults so much is that that's ALL there is in this DLC. It's basically a vault content pack thrown into a barebones story and a barebones area. There is still some fighting, but it's also delegated to small parts inside of a vault and is never the main focus.
What made the main game so great was the blend of puzzles, action and exploration, all done in a way so that you never spent too long doing one thing. This time it's 95% puzzles, 5% action and 0% exploration. If the vaults were your favourite part of the main game, or better yet the only part you liked, then you'll probably love this. Otherwise that lack of variety can lead to burnout on puzzles really fast.
They didn't even give that same sense of progression, as despite stripping you of ALL your weapons and armour, you can only find a total of one brand new thing for each equipable item (sword/axe/bow/armour/helmet), and each one can only be upgraded once. The majority of chests in this game contain a "relic" which by themselves do nothing, but when you collect 24 you unlock a secret....vault. Yeah, another vault. To be fair that secret vault is probably the highlight of the DLC, it's just a rapid fire of creative mini games, many of which take inspiration of arcade games like Frogger or Donkey Kong.
So basically my closing opinion on this is that while the vaults in this game are fun, and have a ton of mind-teasers, I feel like too many of them in a row is just overwhelming and misses out on a huge part of the game mechanics (the entire combat system). And starting you with an almost empty equipment list just seemed pointless.
1984
Game sucks. The whole physics based gameplay is so trash with the limited NES abilities. You might get a good feeling of mastering the easy tracks, but track 5 is everything wrong with this game and is near impossible to maintain any kind of speed due to what feels like incredibly inconsistent rules (seriously at times I just used the Switch's rewind to perform the exact same jump and sometimes I'd crash and other times I wouldn't).
Also there's only 5 "tracks", with two modes: one where you play solo and one with other assholes riding around trying to cause you to crash. It's not even a race, they just do the same time trial based system as solo mode except there's more obstacles. Sharing the 4 lanes between an infinite stream of AI (sometimes only 2 lanes due to hazards) is anti-fun.
There's a track editor mode which is pretty novel for its time, but I'd need to like the game to care about that.
Also there's only 5 "tracks", with two modes: one where you play solo and one with other assholes riding around trying to cause you to crash. It's not even a race, they just do the same time trial based system as solo mode except there's more obstacles. Sharing the 4 lanes between an infinite stream of AI (sometimes only 2 lanes due to hazards) is anti-fun.
There's a track editor mode which is pretty novel for its time, but I'd need to like the game to care about that.
This review contains spoilers
The 2nd game based on Greek God mythology released in 2020 that I gave a 10/10 to. Hmm.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
1989
It’s a fun puzzle game that due to its genre hasn’t aged nearly as badly as some other NES games. Unfortunately it’s just not my thing for anything more than light entertainment. I did enjoy the game, completed it fully, and found it very rewarding to finally figure out a tough puzzle, just not enough to grip me.
I have a couple of complaints about the game regardless though. The first is that the game uses a half-square based grid instead of a full square one. Admitedly this does lead to some outside the box thinking in later puzzles, but it also results in way too many slight missteps that result in having to reset an entire level because you pushed a block 1/2 a square too far, or you missed a turn while being chased (or you could just use the Switch's rewind feature but that would be cheating and I would never do that 👀).
Another compliant is that things don't always seem to work consistently. For example, you can turn enemies into eggs, push them into water and ride on them. But the amount of time they spend before sinking, even with enemies of the same species, differs massively. On one stage I pushed an enemy into the water and it sunk straight away. I get that it's to prevent sequence breaking and make sure you do the puzzles in the exact right way, but it's very counter-intuitive for the player.
But those didn't ruin the game for me, just led to some frustrating moments, and the former one even benefited the game in a couple of cases.
I have a couple of complaints about the game regardless though. The first is that the game uses a half-square based grid instead of a full square one. Admitedly this does lead to some outside the box thinking in later puzzles, but it also results in way too many slight missteps that result in having to reset an entire level because you pushed a block 1/2 a square too far, or you missed a turn while being chased (or you could just use the Switch's rewind feature but that would be cheating and I would never do that 👀).
Another compliant is that things don't always seem to work consistently. For example, you can turn enemies into eggs, push them into water and ride on them. But the amount of time they spend before sinking, even with enemies of the same species, differs massively. On one stage I pushed an enemy into the water and it sunk straight away. I get that it's to prevent sequence breaking and make sure you do the puzzles in the exact right way, but it's very counter-intuitive for the player.
But those didn't ruin the game for me, just led to some frustrating moments, and the former one even benefited the game in a couple of cases.
2020
Bugsnax without the snax
2020
Fantastic tech demo game. If this is foreshadowing for how the PS5's quality will be, it's gonna be a great console.
Admittedly I kinda disliked most of the gimmick stages. Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't make you do them twice per world.
Admittedly I kinda disliked most of the gimmick stages. Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't make you do them twice per world.
I was expecting just a literal continuation from the last game, with the only difference being new areas, but I was wrong. Not by a lot, but still. They added a couple of things like adding more unique abilities (such as Arthur being able to repair stuff) and some quality of life changes, the biggest and best by far for me was how the new polyjuice potion works.
Unfortunately most of the flaws of the original remain, like your team members getting in the way of the annoying targeting system. Bosses are still one of the worst parts, but now instead of all bosses being a simple "press square and toss item back" minigame they've added a new boss method, which is a dueling system that's pretty neat at first but ends up being way too slow and easy to do it as much as this game does. And to make it worse, boss fights will tend to use a combination of BOTH of these so boss fights are both incredibly easy and even more dragged out than before.
The first mission kinda misleads you into thinking this game will be more daring with new gameplay ideas, as the very first mission involves a flying segment unlike anything seen in the first game. It never shows up again even at places it could have (thestral flight to London?), and the amount of tweaks in gameplay remains way too small, with most stages still just being "click things until you are able to use wingardium leviosa for the way forward". Even some of the "new" things are just repeats of old ideas, like the new parsletongue system being a 1 to 1 copy of the rune book system, which is still in this game so why bother with both? While it's better than the first in terms of creativity in mechanics, it's still way too low for what it could be, especially when the scope has opened up so much due to all the new types of environments.
And speaking of new areas, this one definitely stands out more in that regard even if it was bound to just due to the nature of the books.
Once again, music pulled from the movies which for me is just an automatic great soundtrack.
The puzzles are still super easy in this game, albeit maybe a biiit harder. But the combat is actually a lot harder, at least when playing solo as it's clear many sections are made for co-op so trying to multitask killing enemies while completing tasks can be pretty tough. The thing is...there's literally no downside to death in this game except losing a bit of money; you just instantly respawn where you were. So even if you do die more than the first game, it only really sets you back mere seconds than it would by not dying.
Decent enough game for a HP fan. Probably best played co-op with a younger person who is less experienced with games though.
Unfortunately most of the flaws of the original remain, like your team members getting in the way of the annoying targeting system. Bosses are still one of the worst parts, but now instead of all bosses being a simple "press square and toss item back" minigame they've added a new boss method, which is a dueling system that's pretty neat at first but ends up being way too slow and easy to do it as much as this game does. And to make it worse, boss fights will tend to use a combination of BOTH of these so boss fights are both incredibly easy and even more dragged out than before.
The first mission kinda misleads you into thinking this game will be more daring with new gameplay ideas, as the very first mission involves a flying segment unlike anything seen in the first game. It never shows up again even at places it could have (thestral flight to London?), and the amount of tweaks in gameplay remains way too small, with most stages still just being "click things until you are able to use wingardium leviosa for the way forward". Even some of the "new" things are just repeats of old ideas, like the new parsletongue system being a 1 to 1 copy of the rune book system, which is still in this game so why bother with both? While it's better than the first in terms of creativity in mechanics, it's still way too low for what it could be, especially when the scope has opened up so much due to all the new types of environments.
And speaking of new areas, this one definitely stands out more in that regard even if it was bound to just due to the nature of the books.
Once again, music pulled from the movies which for me is just an automatic great soundtrack.
The puzzles are still super easy in this game, albeit maybe a biiit harder. But the combat is actually a lot harder, at least when playing solo as it's clear many sections are made for co-op so trying to multitask killing enemies while completing tasks can be pretty tough. The thing is...there's literally no downside to death in this game except losing a bit of money; you just instantly respawn where you were. So even if you do die more than the first game, it only really sets you back mere seconds than it would by not dying.
Decent enough game for a HP fan. Probably best played co-op with a younger person who is less experienced with games though.
This review contains spoilers
First Lego game I ever played so I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. Turns out it's kinda like a point and click game with more control. None of the combat, platforming or the puzzles provide any real challenge, so the game is basically entirely about the charm of seeing the world in lego, seeing the creativity they can pull off with it, and seeing the story mimed out in a comedic way. To that end I'd say it's a pretty fun experience, albeit one that I could only ever recommend to somebody who is a big fan of whatever franchise is being represented.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
This review contains spoilers
Better than the first part of the DLC, this time having an actual story to playthrough (however short). But this DLC's story still has it's own little developer time-saving twists that you'd expect from this game by now, such as skipping the first SSj Blue Goku vs Freeza fight, and removing the new Freeza Force characters entirely. But hey, there are a few really nice looking cutscenes now, like in the main game, whereas the Beerus "story" had still images for the God ritual itself.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.