Cold_Comfort
2018
Currently wanted by Wales Police for grievous bodily harm after shooting hot molten wax out the back of my scooter at the local skatepark.
(Seriously though why is this actually pretty neat)
(Seriously though why is this actually pretty neat)
2020
I am quite a big enjoyer of the genre of media that is "The wild will just fucking kill you". Especially when it comes to the cold stuff - there's a combination of comforting and creepy about tucking in bed with a cup of hot chocolate and something like Jack London's To Build A Fire.
And the Red Lantern is like halfway there. The story of the dumbest person of all time going out into the wilderness comically underprepared and succumbing to the elements and wildlife on the way to a cabin with her dogs. It is, on paper, a great framework for a little game like this as you live out the mistakes and choices that lead to your death.
Combined with minor roguelike elements with resource gathering, hunger meters and semi-random events, it kinda works. It's a very simple game system no doubt, and is mostly ancilliary to the vibes and doggie fun, but it holds up it's end of the bargain.
But the vibes themselves are a bit off. The Red Lantern is remarkably muddled when it comes to it's messaging and what it's trying to make a point out of. Many parts of it are cautionary, with our unamed protagonist getting injured, starving to death, having her dogs die, falling into ice, and all manner of other nasty things - but it's also clearly aspirational, having fun with her dogs, going to the cutest little cabin ever put to screen, and having a tone thats awfully light a lot of the time.
It really doesnt help that this might be, clearly unintentionally, one of the most annoying protagonists i've ever dealt with a game - legitimately Alex YIIK levels of frustrating without even YIIK's level of awareness and introspection. She's a clearly very privedged californian, who has been legitimately given everything she needs to live out in the Alaskan wilderness, who goes with her and her city dog, and 4 other poor dogs she adopts to go on a voyage that will most likely get them killed. She then murder a bunch of wildlife and basically tramples all over this beautiful bit of the pacific northwest. And despite never stopping talking, basically only one or two lines in the entire game will she admit she's a bit out of her depth - let alone that she's put 5 previously content dogs in mortal peril or killed like 5 moose today. And the game's tone never really addresses it.
I get the aspiration to live out in the wild. I dream of it sometimes. Looking out at woods i sometimes think of building myself a hut, living off the land, doing a bit of hunting and disconnecting from society. I imagine a lot of people do. And in many ways I wish i could do what this person could. But the callous disregard for nature and those she puts at risk in doing so makes her throuroughy unsympathetic when the game clearly isnt going for that and she's rewarded with a bunch of extremely cute puppies and the cutest shack, and her violent deaths are contextualised as nightmares.
It's a bit insidious, really. The Devs clearly see her as aspirational and relatable, but she's a horrible person who's in way over their head and worst of all, endangers others. And then gets rewarded for it at the end.
I feel sorry that Ashly Burch continually gets given the most annoying roles that seem to exist in gaming. Tiny Tina, Aloy and now this, fuck me.
There is plenty to like here, it's pretty, the dogs are cute and the minor roguelike/choose your own adventure stuff works well, but the framing is just so off. There's plenty of ways the devs could have put together a similar setup without making the whole thing so muddled. The protagonist being more forced into this situation rather than seeking it out alone would go a long way, or just having some introspection.
Because as it is this tonal weirdness not only ruins the game as the chracter is so integral, but also makes me questions the beliefs and values of the developer who made it. Which is a really bad conclusion for me to be coming out of a game that seems to mostly want me to think "wow, cute dogs".
And the Red Lantern is like halfway there. The story of the dumbest person of all time going out into the wilderness comically underprepared and succumbing to the elements and wildlife on the way to a cabin with her dogs. It is, on paper, a great framework for a little game like this as you live out the mistakes and choices that lead to your death.
Combined with minor roguelike elements with resource gathering, hunger meters and semi-random events, it kinda works. It's a very simple game system no doubt, and is mostly ancilliary to the vibes and doggie fun, but it holds up it's end of the bargain.
But the vibes themselves are a bit off. The Red Lantern is remarkably muddled when it comes to it's messaging and what it's trying to make a point out of. Many parts of it are cautionary, with our unamed protagonist getting injured, starving to death, having her dogs die, falling into ice, and all manner of other nasty things - but it's also clearly aspirational, having fun with her dogs, going to the cutest little cabin ever put to screen, and having a tone thats awfully light a lot of the time.
It really doesnt help that this might be, clearly unintentionally, one of the most annoying protagonists i've ever dealt with a game - legitimately Alex YIIK levels of frustrating without even YIIK's level of awareness and introspection. She's a clearly very privedged californian, who has been legitimately given everything she needs to live out in the Alaskan wilderness, who goes with her and her city dog, and 4 other poor dogs she adopts to go on a voyage that will most likely get them killed. She then murder a bunch of wildlife and basically tramples all over this beautiful bit of the pacific northwest. And despite never stopping talking, basically only one or two lines in the entire game will she admit she's a bit out of her depth - let alone that she's put 5 previously content dogs in mortal peril or killed like 5 moose today. And the game's tone never really addresses it.
I get the aspiration to live out in the wild. I dream of it sometimes. Looking out at woods i sometimes think of building myself a hut, living off the land, doing a bit of hunting and disconnecting from society. I imagine a lot of people do. And in many ways I wish i could do what this person could. But the callous disregard for nature and those she puts at risk in doing so makes her throuroughy unsympathetic when the game clearly isnt going for that and she's rewarded with a bunch of extremely cute puppies and the cutest shack, and her violent deaths are contextualised as nightmares.
It's a bit insidious, really. The Devs clearly see her as aspirational and relatable, but she's a horrible person who's in way over their head and worst of all, endangers others. And then gets rewarded for it at the end.
I feel sorry that Ashly Burch continually gets given the most annoying roles that seem to exist in gaming. Tiny Tina, Aloy and now this, fuck me.
There is plenty to like here, it's pretty, the dogs are cute and the minor roguelike/choose your own adventure stuff works well, but the framing is just so off. There's plenty of ways the devs could have put together a similar setup without making the whole thing so muddled. The protagonist being more forced into this situation rather than seeking it out alone would go a long way, or just having some introspection.
Because as it is this tonal weirdness not only ruins the game as the chracter is so integral, but also makes me questions the beliefs and values of the developer who made it. Which is a really bad conclusion for me to be coming out of a game that seems to mostly want me to think "wow, cute dogs".
2021
This review contains spoilers
When i was around 2 hours into NMH3, after the rank 9 fight and trudging around a chunk of the open world that makes Gravity Rush 1 look like Yakuza, I was getting the feeling of something. Something called... copium. I felt like maybe i was trying too hard, looking too closely at the little things in an attempt to find a nugget of a theme I could latch onto. Nothing actually substantial, but something to rationalise the kinda garbage stuff in NMH3. Why the world is so empty, why it's so discordant, why things weren't flowing right.
And this was my thesis, at the time. "NMH3 is literally a death drive game that travis has put himself in as a form of escapism or something." This would tie in with the mechanics of TSA's story to an extent, it would make sense!
Yeah, that's probably not my finest read. Grasshopper's games aren't really like that. I'm not playing MGS and expecting a twist like that to "redeem" something is always a fools errand in my experience. I still think it's a somewhat valid take on the game, but as I played through the game, that level of trying to rationalise the game into being good gave way into me actually getting it.
Of course this is a GHM game. And this is one of their more out-there ones. Whilst it's perhaps not as "make what you will of it for yourself" as Flower Sun and Rain, I'm not going to pretend my WEEK 2 take on this game that probably wont get a nuanced opinion base for a decade is anything definitive or special - but it makes sense for me.
Essentially, I see NMH3 as an exploration of artifiiality and what can be done without immersion. NMH3 is a game constantly reminding you of it's status of a game. From fourth wall breaks that would make the rest of the series blush, Anime openings and endings every hour or so, a world that is blatantly impossible and occasionally outright ludicrous (why is the border to Mexico in santa destroy now a tunnel over the ocean???), you can barely go a second in this game without it reminding you of it's artificiality. And that's what provides the context for each of the game's vignettes, and revelry in that acknowledgment of fiction and basically fucking about with it without a care - that is the punk in NMH3. In NMH1 travis realises he his a character in a game and stops pretending he isnt. In NMH3, the game itself is done with that. It's indulgent, irreverernt, and abandons any notion of the canon mattering at all, and also doesnt really care about internal logic.
In this framework, we get a couple of great vignettes. Ranks 7 through 5 of this game are the clear highlights, with both the most blatant incorporation of the kill the past theme sneaking its way into this madness, but also genuinely enteraining, somewhat thoughtful, and consistently funny little tales. Not all of them are - i probably legitimately couldn't tell you anything about what happens in Rank 4, the final enconter against Fu is pretty weak and dominated by an awful final "normal" boss, and it's clear that budget and COVID got in the way a few times - some scenes just aren't edited as snappily as they should be which diminishes the impact of certain scenes. Henry cooldown's extremely limited role feels like a bit of a waste even if he's mostly a joke character, and i think neither Bad Girl or Shinoubu really get the day in the sun TSA kinda promises for them.
I would say most of the silly little stories do work though. There's moments of massive catharsis and pathos alike, and some great gags - but even when it's not, there is always one thing going for it - style.
Frankly, regardless of everything else, NMH3 is a remarkable collaborative piece of audiovisual art. Dozens of artistis, musicians, animators, even rights holders, have clearly worked their asses off to make it work, and somehow it absolutely does. The soundtrack is fantastic, the usage of 2D animation both in and out of gameplay is remarkable, and the sheer passion of it all shines so brightly even in the game's weaker moments.
So there is plenty, plenty to criticise here, and ultimately I think I prefer Travis Strikes Again (which this is basically a direct sequel to) for it's more personal, low-key tale than the sheer madness of NMH3. But nontheless it's such a blast, and I havent even touched on how fantastic feeling the core combat is.
Time will reveal NMH3's true place more than any reactionary backloggd review. Maybe in 10 years we'll be looking at this madness in the same way we look at NMH2's stupid 5 hours now. Maybe I will have to kill my past by deleting this review and replacing it with "wow, that was stupid and indulgent and runs like shit" because it is and does, frankly.
But I doubt it. There's too much earnestness, too many good moments, too strong a style, too much heart in it for me to think i'm still on the copium.
And this was my thesis, at the time. "NMH3 is literally a death drive game that travis has put himself in as a form of escapism or something." This would tie in with the mechanics of TSA's story to an extent, it would make sense!
Yeah, that's probably not my finest read. Grasshopper's games aren't really like that. I'm not playing MGS and expecting a twist like that to "redeem" something is always a fools errand in my experience. I still think it's a somewhat valid take on the game, but as I played through the game, that level of trying to rationalise the game into being good gave way into me actually getting it.
Of course this is a GHM game. And this is one of their more out-there ones. Whilst it's perhaps not as "make what you will of it for yourself" as Flower Sun and Rain, I'm not going to pretend my WEEK 2 take on this game that probably wont get a nuanced opinion base for a decade is anything definitive or special - but it makes sense for me.
Essentially, I see NMH3 as an exploration of artifiiality and what can be done without immersion. NMH3 is a game constantly reminding you of it's status of a game. From fourth wall breaks that would make the rest of the series blush, Anime openings and endings every hour or so, a world that is blatantly impossible and occasionally outright ludicrous (why is the border to Mexico in santa destroy now a tunnel over the ocean???), you can barely go a second in this game without it reminding you of it's artificiality. And that's what provides the context for each of the game's vignettes, and revelry in that acknowledgment of fiction and basically fucking about with it without a care - that is the punk in NMH3. In NMH1 travis realises he his a character in a game and stops pretending he isnt. In NMH3, the game itself is done with that. It's indulgent, irreverernt, and abandons any notion of the canon mattering at all, and also doesnt really care about internal logic.
In this framework, we get a couple of great vignettes. Ranks 7 through 5 of this game are the clear highlights, with both the most blatant incorporation of the kill the past theme sneaking its way into this madness, but also genuinely enteraining, somewhat thoughtful, and consistently funny little tales. Not all of them are - i probably legitimately couldn't tell you anything about what happens in Rank 4, the final enconter against Fu is pretty weak and dominated by an awful final "normal" boss, and it's clear that budget and COVID got in the way a few times - some scenes just aren't edited as snappily as they should be which diminishes the impact of certain scenes. Henry cooldown's extremely limited role feels like a bit of a waste even if he's mostly a joke character, and i think neither Bad Girl or Shinoubu really get the day in the sun TSA kinda promises for them.
I would say most of the silly little stories do work though. There's moments of massive catharsis and pathos alike, and some great gags - but even when it's not, there is always one thing going for it - style.
Frankly, regardless of everything else, NMH3 is a remarkable collaborative piece of audiovisual art. Dozens of artistis, musicians, animators, even rights holders, have clearly worked their asses off to make it work, and somehow it absolutely does. The soundtrack is fantastic, the usage of 2D animation both in and out of gameplay is remarkable, and the sheer passion of it all shines so brightly even in the game's weaker moments.
So there is plenty, plenty to criticise here, and ultimately I think I prefer Travis Strikes Again (which this is basically a direct sequel to) for it's more personal, low-key tale than the sheer madness of NMH3. But nontheless it's such a blast, and I havent even touched on how fantastic feeling the core combat is.
Time will reveal NMH3's true place more than any reactionary backloggd review. Maybe in 10 years we'll be looking at this madness in the same way we look at NMH2's stupid 5 hours now. Maybe I will have to kill my past by deleting this review and replacing it with "wow, that was stupid and indulgent and runs like shit" because it is and does, frankly.
But I doubt it. There's too much earnestness, too many good moments, too strong a style, too much heart in it for me to think i'm still on the copium.
1991
Part 2 of a series reviewing Takatsuna Senba's games at Taito.
In Senba's retrospective on Metal Black and Dino Rex's development, he's especially cruel talking about Rex. He goes as far to call it Kusoge - which frankly, it kinda is. But whilst his tone surrounding it's twin game, Metal Black, is less harsh, it's still tinged with a strong sense of dissapointment, lamenting a troubled development and failing to live up to Gun Frontier.
And at first thought, it's kinda hard to get. Metal Black is probably the game of which he and the team is most known for and definetly it's most influential. And when you come from it from Dino Rex and the experience of getting beaten up by a fat purple sauropod's janky disjoints, the opening of metal black in particular is just such a drastic leap in quality it's kinda hard to see how it's creator couldn't be proud of it.
Metal Black's first stage, like many of Taito's games in the 90s, is an absolute treat. It's depiction of a dead earth, with the sun hanging low behind a dozen parralax layers, a giant hermit crab using an aircraft carrier as it's shell, and an eldritch abomination at the end of it - it's still beautiful. And all along Born to be free, one of ZUNTATA's best ever tracks, plays. It's a wonderful, somber start to the game that hints towards the surreal voyage that Metal Black takes off towards for the rest of it's runtime.
After taking off from the dead earth, you go on to face moons which are eggs for aliens, bizzare dream landscapes, some truly bonkers alien designs, kaleidoscopic backgrounds, and eventually images of human war and digitized cats in the background of the final boss. When you combine this with Senba's styling - thick outlines on sprites, use of digitized sprites, deep backgrounds with heavy use of pseudo 3d sprite scaling - Metal Black really resembles little else, and is often absolutely gorgeous to look at. Taito's own Darius series - of which Metal Black was originally intended to be an entry before being deemed "too dark" - is about as close as you're going to get, but it's really not very close. MB's aesthetic is way less refined than something like darius gaiden, and has a lot of rough edges like it's weird UI and a lot of asset reuse, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.
Special mention also has to go to the soundtrack by YasuhIsa Watanabe, also known as YACK. According to Senba, he told an unnamed member of Taito's sound team he didn't think they would be able to fullfill the vision he wanted whilst during development of Gun Frontier (which was done by a non-taito composer) - with the aim of "Lighting a fire under them" for Metal Black. It seemed to do the job.
Metal Black's soundtrack is absolutely incredible - it's probably YACK's best work and really hammers in the dark, somber edge to Metal Black. It also is fantastically timed to be in cue with events in stages and boss events, and despite the darker, slower nature of the music compared to say, Darius - still carries an intensity when it needs to.
So, this all sounds amazing. And MB sometimes is. Stages 1, 2 and 6 in particular are brilliant audiovisual feasts. But the problem is that MB is kinda not a good shmup, and to an extent fails to bring together all it's incredible visuals and effects into the great whole it could be.
MB's gameplay is just not great. The beam system it uses, where firing your super laser diminshes normal shot power, is actually pretty interesting and future games it inspired have done similar things well, but the game notably only has a forward directional attack in a game which has loads of enemies coming from behind. Without warning. Yeah.
The level design in general is just generally uninteresting and full of pretty cheap enemies and ways to die. There's also just too many of them. MB's about 40 minutes long, with 6 stages, which could have worked, but around stage 3-5 the game sort of levels out on how far it's surreal visuals and stuff goes until the finale turns it to 11, and the game lulls a lot in this period. Stage 5 could probably have been cut outright for my money, and none of them in this period offer anything particularly interesting gameplay wise. This section really hurts the feel of MB, where it really just feels like it's spinning it's wheels.
Also, the less said about the bonus stages the better. They kill the pacing and just kinda suck.
So I get why Senba isn't happy with this game somewhat. The gameplay sadly brings down the experience quite a bit and it plays a lot worse than Senba's earlier work, Gun Frontier. It's a messier experience and compared to Taito's other vibe-powered shmups - Gun Frontier, Darius Gaiden, Rayforce - stages dont flow into each other well, and it's hard to put a finger on what the story of the game even is.
Nontheless, I hope he becomes proud of it eventually. This fucking mess of a STG, made by 4-6 people over a 6 month period whilst juggling another game and Taito's management being dicks, remains rad as hell and a massive influence to STG developers 30 years later. Taito's darius series in particular took massive influence from it, and refined elements of it's bonkers imagery into more focused, polished experiences in Gaiden and G. Ex-Taito staff later formed G.Rev and did years of contract work to be able to fund a spiritual successor - Border Down.
I do think Gun Frontier is the better game of Senba's, and if the aim of Metal Black was to exceed it, I don't think it does. And whilst it's attract mode labels it as "Project Gun Frontier 2", it's really something very different - and something that's influence in the genre and beyond will always linger.
In Senba's retrospective on Metal Black and Dino Rex's development, he's especially cruel talking about Rex. He goes as far to call it Kusoge - which frankly, it kinda is. But whilst his tone surrounding it's twin game, Metal Black, is less harsh, it's still tinged with a strong sense of dissapointment, lamenting a troubled development and failing to live up to Gun Frontier.
And at first thought, it's kinda hard to get. Metal Black is probably the game of which he and the team is most known for and definetly it's most influential. And when you come from it from Dino Rex and the experience of getting beaten up by a fat purple sauropod's janky disjoints, the opening of metal black in particular is just such a drastic leap in quality it's kinda hard to see how it's creator couldn't be proud of it.
Metal Black's first stage, like many of Taito's games in the 90s, is an absolute treat. It's depiction of a dead earth, with the sun hanging low behind a dozen parralax layers, a giant hermit crab using an aircraft carrier as it's shell, and an eldritch abomination at the end of it - it's still beautiful. And all along Born to be free, one of ZUNTATA's best ever tracks, plays. It's a wonderful, somber start to the game that hints towards the surreal voyage that Metal Black takes off towards for the rest of it's runtime.
After taking off from the dead earth, you go on to face moons which are eggs for aliens, bizzare dream landscapes, some truly bonkers alien designs, kaleidoscopic backgrounds, and eventually images of human war and digitized cats in the background of the final boss. When you combine this with Senba's styling - thick outlines on sprites, use of digitized sprites, deep backgrounds with heavy use of pseudo 3d sprite scaling - Metal Black really resembles little else, and is often absolutely gorgeous to look at. Taito's own Darius series - of which Metal Black was originally intended to be an entry before being deemed "too dark" - is about as close as you're going to get, but it's really not very close. MB's aesthetic is way less refined than something like darius gaiden, and has a lot of rough edges like it's weird UI and a lot of asset reuse, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.
Special mention also has to go to the soundtrack by YasuhIsa Watanabe, also known as YACK. According to Senba, he told an unnamed member of Taito's sound team he didn't think they would be able to fullfill the vision he wanted whilst during development of Gun Frontier (which was done by a non-taito composer) - with the aim of "Lighting a fire under them" for Metal Black. It seemed to do the job.
Metal Black's soundtrack is absolutely incredible - it's probably YACK's best work and really hammers in the dark, somber edge to Metal Black. It also is fantastically timed to be in cue with events in stages and boss events, and despite the darker, slower nature of the music compared to say, Darius - still carries an intensity when it needs to.
So, this all sounds amazing. And MB sometimes is. Stages 1, 2 and 6 in particular are brilliant audiovisual feasts. But the problem is that MB is kinda not a good shmup, and to an extent fails to bring together all it's incredible visuals and effects into the great whole it could be.
MB's gameplay is just not great. The beam system it uses, where firing your super laser diminshes normal shot power, is actually pretty interesting and future games it inspired have done similar things well, but the game notably only has a forward directional attack in a game which has loads of enemies coming from behind. Without warning. Yeah.
The level design in general is just generally uninteresting and full of pretty cheap enemies and ways to die. There's also just too many of them. MB's about 40 minutes long, with 6 stages, which could have worked, but around stage 3-5 the game sort of levels out on how far it's surreal visuals and stuff goes until the finale turns it to 11, and the game lulls a lot in this period. Stage 5 could probably have been cut outright for my money, and none of them in this period offer anything particularly interesting gameplay wise. This section really hurts the feel of MB, where it really just feels like it's spinning it's wheels.
Also, the less said about the bonus stages the better. They kill the pacing and just kinda suck.
So I get why Senba isn't happy with this game somewhat. The gameplay sadly brings down the experience quite a bit and it plays a lot worse than Senba's earlier work, Gun Frontier. It's a messier experience and compared to Taito's other vibe-powered shmups - Gun Frontier, Darius Gaiden, Rayforce - stages dont flow into each other well, and it's hard to put a finger on what the story of the game even is.
Nontheless, I hope he becomes proud of it eventually. This fucking mess of a STG, made by 4-6 people over a 6 month period whilst juggling another game and Taito's management being dicks, remains rad as hell and a massive influence to STG developers 30 years later. Taito's darius series in particular took massive influence from it, and refined elements of it's bonkers imagery into more focused, polished experiences in Gaiden and G. Ex-Taito staff later formed G.Rev and did years of contract work to be able to fund a spiritual successor - Border Down.
I do think Gun Frontier is the better game of Senba's, and if the aim of Metal Black was to exceed it, I don't think it does. And whilst it's attract mode labels it as "Project Gun Frontier 2", it's really something very different - and something that's influence in the genre and beyond will always linger.
I first played this game in about 2013 on the PS3. I thought it was shit.
Hindsight and some growth on my part, as well as getting to the point where this game legitimately costs a buck has enabled me to see this game through the lens of being more along the lines of something like Busby Visits the James Turrell retrosective than Gears of War or Uncharted.
I have to say, I've come to really like the art style. Yes, it gave me multiple headaches, but it's unique, and I really like the way they've replicated compression artefacts. It works well with the "world is a fuck" nature of the game.
And the vile, ugly nature of the whole game i do get is the point. There's times with some games where people will say "oh, it's not meant to be fun" and I don't buy it, but Kane and Lynch 2 definetly is not meant to be fun. It's wholly unpleasant from start to finish.
Sadly I think it's biggest flaw sort of draws from this, because I think despite the game's remarkably short length, it can't keep it up. It absolutely peaks at the end of the second act where you start shooting up shanghai naked and bleeding from torture, and from then it basically becomes a blockbuster shooter and it frankly just gets a bit dull.
By hour 3 you end up in huge arenas full of identical enemies which do generic 7th Gen TPS potshotting from half height cover, whilst your weapon options are hilariously innacurate at range and you have only environmental hazards as an option for flusihng them out of cover. It sucks, and the gameplay, whilst never good, is by far at its strongest in the small environments of the first half of the game, where it feels more intimate and chaotic.
And that's my other main problem, honestly the most significant gripe i have with this thing as an art project - the portrayal of violence isn't "intimate" enough, and the scores of people being gunned down in the streets is a bit laughable, and I feel the approach of a game like the last of us, where there's more of a focus on intimate, cruel violence against individuals rather than just straight up massacres, would have worked better here. It gets a bit silly.
Speaking of silly, the story's shit. There's no real throughline, for most of it - things just happen to our protags and eventually they shoot the main villain ten seconds after he's first shown on screen. The game ends with them hijacking a plane and just... getting away with it?
I must also say, from an audio standpoint, it falls really hard. The audio mixing is terrible to the point where you can barely hear what the protagonists are saying, there's a score you can barely hear that also isn't good, gun sounds are bad and the voice acting isnt great. I probably wouldn't bring it up if the visual side of this thing wasn't as strong as it was though.
So yeah, Overall, odd, weird, disjointed mess of a game, and a pretty decent exhibit of unpleasantness. Definetly fits into the "unspeakable games" category on the EGS if it's there. As the art thing, it falls apart in the second half and it might be fair to say being outright headache inducing is a flaw, but eh, I at least appreciate the effort here.
So, despite being remarkably shit, I do prefer this over most of the smorgasboard of Gen 7 Third person shooters. Unlike the vast majority of them , you can't say it's not interesting.
Hindsight and some growth on my part, as well as getting to the point where this game legitimately costs a buck has enabled me to see this game through the lens of being more along the lines of something like Busby Visits the James Turrell retrosective than Gears of War or Uncharted.
I have to say, I've come to really like the art style. Yes, it gave me multiple headaches, but it's unique, and I really like the way they've replicated compression artefacts. It works well with the "world is a fuck" nature of the game.
And the vile, ugly nature of the whole game i do get is the point. There's times with some games where people will say "oh, it's not meant to be fun" and I don't buy it, but Kane and Lynch 2 definetly is not meant to be fun. It's wholly unpleasant from start to finish.
Sadly I think it's biggest flaw sort of draws from this, because I think despite the game's remarkably short length, it can't keep it up. It absolutely peaks at the end of the second act where you start shooting up shanghai naked and bleeding from torture, and from then it basically becomes a blockbuster shooter and it frankly just gets a bit dull.
By hour 3 you end up in huge arenas full of identical enemies which do generic 7th Gen TPS potshotting from half height cover, whilst your weapon options are hilariously innacurate at range and you have only environmental hazards as an option for flusihng them out of cover. It sucks, and the gameplay, whilst never good, is by far at its strongest in the small environments of the first half of the game, where it feels more intimate and chaotic.
And that's my other main problem, honestly the most significant gripe i have with this thing as an art project - the portrayal of violence isn't "intimate" enough, and the scores of people being gunned down in the streets is a bit laughable, and I feel the approach of a game like the last of us, where there's more of a focus on intimate, cruel violence against individuals rather than just straight up massacres, would have worked better here. It gets a bit silly.
Speaking of silly, the story's shit. There's no real throughline, for most of it - things just happen to our protags and eventually they shoot the main villain ten seconds after he's first shown on screen. The game ends with them hijacking a plane and just... getting away with it?
I must also say, from an audio standpoint, it falls really hard. The audio mixing is terrible to the point where you can barely hear what the protagonists are saying, there's a score you can barely hear that also isn't good, gun sounds are bad and the voice acting isnt great. I probably wouldn't bring it up if the visual side of this thing wasn't as strong as it was though.
So yeah, Overall, odd, weird, disjointed mess of a game, and a pretty decent exhibit of unpleasantness. Definetly fits into the "unspeakable games" category on the EGS if it's there. As the art thing, it falls apart in the second half and it might be fair to say being outright headache inducing is a flaw, but eh, I at least appreciate the effort here.
So, despite being remarkably shit, I do prefer this over most of the smorgasboard of Gen 7 Third person shooters. Unlike the vast majority of them , you can't say it's not interesting.
1987
One of the things I love most about racing games, espeically arcade ones, is the feeling of being on the absolute edge of control. Taking all the risks, braking just before the limit, brushing against the walls, and entering this zone in your mind where all you see is the next apex.
And yeah, a lot of the time you'll eat shit, landing in the nearest hedge. But thats well worth the thrill.
Super Hang-On is a game also dedicated to this exact feeling, and very little else. It's far from the only arcadey racing game to incite the feeling - see Ridge Racer Type 4, Wipeout 3 - but the sheer ease with which it's able to achieve this mindset, in me at least, is remarkable. It only takes a few corners of blasting through traffic for the mindset to take hold. Push every corner tighter, boost as early as I can, see if I can shoot for a vanishing gap.
An awful lot of it is just in pure gamefeel. It's a bit boring to say, but the bike just controls super well - way better than the cars of outrun (partially because the way super scaler games do turning is way more appropriate for a motorbike). The sense of speed is also utterly incredible, especially when you boost.
And that boost is such a great gameplay addition. It has unlimited use, but can only be used at top speed and is incredibly satisfying to use. Which means the game heavily encourages carrying as much speed as possible through corners, and also abusing the boost button as far as you can take it.
The game is also quite difficult - clearing anything other than the beginner course being quite a task itself even if you knock the dipswitches down a bit. This only feeds more into the desire to push even harder, because those split seconds absolutely count.
On top of that, you get the great looking super scaled landscapes to blast through and some of Sega's absolute best music to choose. And that's about it. But who needs anything else?
Super Hang On is simple bliss. The problems I have with it are so miniscule - basically just that I think it's a little too punishing sometimes - that I think it's up there with Ridge Racer Type 4 and Wipeout 3 Special Edition in the Arcade racing stakes. It's an absolute joy.
The fact the same man designed this as Shenmue 3 terrifies me.
And yeah, a lot of the time you'll eat shit, landing in the nearest hedge. But thats well worth the thrill.
Super Hang-On is a game also dedicated to this exact feeling, and very little else. It's far from the only arcadey racing game to incite the feeling - see Ridge Racer Type 4, Wipeout 3 - but the sheer ease with which it's able to achieve this mindset, in me at least, is remarkable. It only takes a few corners of blasting through traffic for the mindset to take hold. Push every corner tighter, boost as early as I can, see if I can shoot for a vanishing gap.
An awful lot of it is just in pure gamefeel. It's a bit boring to say, but the bike just controls super well - way better than the cars of outrun (partially because the way super scaler games do turning is way more appropriate for a motorbike). The sense of speed is also utterly incredible, especially when you boost.
And that boost is such a great gameplay addition. It has unlimited use, but can only be used at top speed and is incredibly satisfying to use. Which means the game heavily encourages carrying as much speed as possible through corners, and also abusing the boost button as far as you can take it.
The game is also quite difficult - clearing anything other than the beginner course being quite a task itself even if you knock the dipswitches down a bit. This only feeds more into the desire to push even harder, because those split seconds absolutely count.
On top of that, you get the great looking super scaled landscapes to blast through and some of Sega's absolute best music to choose. And that's about it. But who needs anything else?
Super Hang On is simple bliss. The problems I have with it are so miniscule - basically just that I think it's a little too punishing sometimes - that I think it's up there with Ridge Racer Type 4 and Wipeout 3 Special Edition in the Arcade racing stakes. It's an absolute joy.
The fact the same man designed this as Shenmue 3 terrifies me.
2022
Well, its better than Vampire Survivors. An art style that isnt just bad Castlevania and the remote sniff of actually having gameplay will do that. The character designs are good, there's some silly synergy stuff and a good general atmosphere which suits the horde gameplay.
So, it's best in class, and maybe the best oppurtunity for these games to show some worth. And all that makes me realise is that these games are terrible. Built around a constant drip feed of level ups, slowly gaining power through synergies and trying to cut through the hordes of enemies, which disguises the fact that you're not really doing anything, but oooh gotta follow those breadcrumbs of dopamine.
It's a brainworm. After i've finished a game like this I feel absolutely nothing, whilst the game itself is so effortless to play and dangles just enough carrots at the end of a stick to keep you playing for hours you will never get back.
And this is the best of them.
I'm worried its only a matter of time before this genre's predatory consumption of manhours turns into a predatory consumption of money too. I can see a deplorable company like Blizzard or Riot making a game like this with gacha or some shit and daily challenges and whatnot, and it makes me want to throw up.
I don't think 20 minutes was made maliciously, and there is worth in it's cool atmosphere and cool characters. But it's design is still built on exploiting human tendancies, not being engaging, or fun, or anything you will remember a minute after you finish. It and it's ilk are a blight.
So, it's best in class, and maybe the best oppurtunity for these games to show some worth. And all that makes me realise is that these games are terrible. Built around a constant drip feed of level ups, slowly gaining power through synergies and trying to cut through the hordes of enemies, which disguises the fact that you're not really doing anything, but oooh gotta follow those breadcrumbs of dopamine.
It's a brainworm. After i've finished a game like this I feel absolutely nothing, whilst the game itself is so effortless to play and dangles just enough carrots at the end of a stick to keep you playing for hours you will never get back.
And this is the best of them.
I'm worried its only a matter of time before this genre's predatory consumption of manhours turns into a predatory consumption of money too. I can see a deplorable company like Blizzard or Riot making a game like this with gacha or some shit and daily challenges and whatnot, and it makes me want to throw up.
I don't think 20 minutes was made maliciously, and there is worth in it's cool atmosphere and cool characters. But it's design is still built on exploiting human tendancies, not being engaging, or fun, or anything you will remember a minute after you finish. It and it's ilk are a blight.
2019
Whilst every Medium of Media can reasonably tell almost any story, I gotta say that Hypergryph have some goddamn balls going with Gacha as the basis for their cyberpunk fantasy AIDS allegory. Because yes, this game which is about the sociopolitical fallout of a Magical disease and the treatment of the infected is told through the medium of spending $2 on hoping your waifu or husbando pops out of a duffel bag shaped slot machine.
And you know what, I thnk it actually works.
It's bolstered by a core strength of an incredibly strong aesthetic. The presentation in AK is absolutely phenomenal. Whilst there's a few weird character designs, most of them sell the techno-fantasy streetwear look really well, whilst also having enough variation to keep things fresh and interesting.
And fortunately the story is also actually pretty good - at least once you get past the first few pretty dry and boring chapters - but after that, it picks up massively, with each chapter effectively forming a small self contained story about the struggle and dilemmas of the fucked-up world the game takes place in. It's unusually mature and prepared to go to dark places a lot of the time, and frankly maybe less than half of the tales in AK get a happy ending - but it works. And the AIDS allegory stuff is honestly handled very well, focusing on both systemic discrimination and personal prejudices and treating it all with some surprising nuance. Blaze and Greythroat's relatioship in Chapters 5 and 6 is a standout in this regard.
It also, frankly, works well with the Gacha format, which basically demands an absolutely metronomic stream of content, which typically consists of story events which come basically every 3 weeks. And they're mostly pretty great. They do a great job of expanding the world, providing shorter, more focused vignettes, and diversifying the tone - going from full doomer (Darknight's Memoir, which is focused on a recurring antagonist's life as a mercenary) all the way to outright comedic stuff (Ceobe's Fungimist, which is literally about a sctterbrained character hallucinating on mushrooms). It really helps diversify the game, and the long form content structure of AK also ties in well with the 'endless struggle' motif, and that the problems that the player faction faces are systemic and are in there for the long haul. Whilst I'm far from fond of the Gacha mechanics itself, they're easily some of the better ones of the genre, all story content can easily be cleared with freebies, and the game definetly benefits from being a live service - honestly one of the very few I can think of.
Oh I guess there's also gameplay. It's fun - a unit based tower defense game that is frankly way too easy an awful lot of the time - but Harder content, in the form of the contingency contracts and the recent roguelike mode (which was actually better than most modern roguelikes somehow), can be great fun to try and work out strategies for - the only real shame in this is that the super-hard content is usually time limited, and often can also be brute forced by a few incredibly broken characters (Silverash, Eyjafjalla) that would have been nerfed a year ago if this game was in a genre that could get away with that. Avoid using those two if you try out the game for sure.
The overall package really just works better than it has any right to. It's basically the only world in this sort of game that i've ever been able to take seriously, and the story is actually worth paying attention to - whilst AK is also able to serve as an idle, comfort food sort of game at the same time.
So whilst I realise that I cash in every piece of clout I have reccomending this, I actually do. Especially if you can stomach the first few mediocre chapters of gameplay. And obviously dont touch this with a barge pole if you have any tendancies towards gambling or addiction - but if you can weather the urge to dump 100 pulls on the thicc gundam snek or alternative waifu of your choice, I would give it a go.
And you know what, I thnk it actually works.
It's bolstered by a core strength of an incredibly strong aesthetic. The presentation in AK is absolutely phenomenal. Whilst there's a few weird character designs, most of them sell the techno-fantasy streetwear look really well, whilst also having enough variation to keep things fresh and interesting.
And fortunately the story is also actually pretty good - at least once you get past the first few pretty dry and boring chapters - but after that, it picks up massively, with each chapter effectively forming a small self contained story about the struggle and dilemmas of the fucked-up world the game takes place in. It's unusually mature and prepared to go to dark places a lot of the time, and frankly maybe less than half of the tales in AK get a happy ending - but it works. And the AIDS allegory stuff is honestly handled very well, focusing on both systemic discrimination and personal prejudices and treating it all with some surprising nuance. Blaze and Greythroat's relatioship in Chapters 5 and 6 is a standout in this regard.
It also, frankly, works well with the Gacha format, which basically demands an absolutely metronomic stream of content, which typically consists of story events which come basically every 3 weeks. And they're mostly pretty great. They do a great job of expanding the world, providing shorter, more focused vignettes, and diversifying the tone - going from full doomer (Darknight's Memoir, which is focused on a recurring antagonist's life as a mercenary) all the way to outright comedic stuff (Ceobe's Fungimist, which is literally about a sctterbrained character hallucinating on mushrooms). It really helps diversify the game, and the long form content structure of AK also ties in well with the 'endless struggle' motif, and that the problems that the player faction faces are systemic and are in there for the long haul. Whilst I'm far from fond of the Gacha mechanics itself, they're easily some of the better ones of the genre, all story content can easily be cleared with freebies, and the game definetly benefits from being a live service - honestly one of the very few I can think of.
Oh I guess there's also gameplay. It's fun - a unit based tower defense game that is frankly way too easy an awful lot of the time - but Harder content, in the form of the contingency contracts and the recent roguelike mode (which was actually better than most modern roguelikes somehow), can be great fun to try and work out strategies for - the only real shame in this is that the super-hard content is usually time limited, and often can also be brute forced by a few incredibly broken characters (Silverash, Eyjafjalla) that would have been nerfed a year ago if this game was in a genre that could get away with that. Avoid using those two if you try out the game for sure.
The overall package really just works better than it has any right to. It's basically the only world in this sort of game that i've ever been able to take seriously, and the story is actually worth paying attention to - whilst AK is also able to serve as an idle, comfort food sort of game at the same time.
So whilst I realise that I cash in every piece of clout I have reccomending this, I actually do. Especially if you can stomach the first few mediocre chapters of gameplay. And obviously dont touch this with a barge pole if you have any tendancies towards gambling or addiction - but if you can weather the urge to dump 100 pulls on the thicc gundam snek or alternative waifu of your choice, I would give it a go.
This review was written before the game released
(Review of the demo)
This game being the largest meme aside, the demo was pretty sick. It pretty much boils down to the combat system, which the snippets from the trailer made look very just "blargh swing beeg sword around and glory kill", when it's surprisingly intricate and cool. I'm not the expert on these sorts of things by any means, but the action/jrpg gameplay fusion is really sweet, and for me scratches a similar sort of itch to something like kingdom hearts. Switching Jobs being something you do as an animation cancel, cool useage of parries and blocking, even a pretty neat little blue mage ability stealing system, it's all pretty damn cool and when it comes together in the demo's one boss fight, which is really good, its a great time.
There's clearly a lot of influence from Nioh here, with it's job switching taking the place of stance switching, the level design, demons souls shortcuts and the bosses. And it actually works.
Of course there's the whole CHAOS thing to address, which is here in spades and is delightfully stupid. Fortunately, when you get some other clothes on your main dude (which you will do in literally 5 minutes) and play for a little bit, it seems a bit less absurd and the style meshes together a bit better. It is still delightfully cheesy and at least somewhat aware about it though, particulary with the bombastic fnal moments of the game's boss fight, where an EDM version of FF1 music is playing over it and it turns a bit into metal gear rising.
Honestly, my main problems with the demo are that your supporting party members feel absolutely worthless and are more of a nuisance in battle (and frankly, dont have much to say in story), and the progression/loot being extremely fast and demanding menuing after basically every battle. That second one has probably been amplified to get more done in the demo, granted, but I dont think i'll be fond of it's loot system regardless, it feels a bit overdone for very minor benefits.
Also, as someone who, frankly, is pretty damn shite at action games, I'm willing to bet one of the mechanics here is utterly busted - such as the ability that prevents you taking hitstun, the animation canclling magic block that gives you MP, etc - that I just can't extract myself. Clearly i think people better than me at this sort of things need to give it a look before any conclusions are made on that though.
Overall, it's a good start, frankly. The trailer might be hilarious, and the game is a bit too, but frankly it doesn't do it justice. If you have a PS5 absolutely check it out. Yes, it's a meme, but there's definetly something cool here, and frankly, the bizzare direction for a retelling of FF1 that's been taken is kinda something worth seeing for yourself, like it or not.
Also, yes, the lines "Chaos." >"No, I am become Chaos, who are you">"We're here to kill chaos" basically happen in that exact order within 30 seconds. Its fantastic.
This game being the largest meme aside, the demo was pretty sick. It pretty much boils down to the combat system, which the snippets from the trailer made look very just "blargh swing beeg sword around and glory kill", when it's surprisingly intricate and cool. I'm not the expert on these sorts of things by any means, but the action/jrpg gameplay fusion is really sweet, and for me scratches a similar sort of itch to something like kingdom hearts. Switching Jobs being something you do as an animation cancel, cool useage of parries and blocking, even a pretty neat little blue mage ability stealing system, it's all pretty damn cool and when it comes together in the demo's one boss fight, which is really good, its a great time.
There's clearly a lot of influence from Nioh here, with it's job switching taking the place of stance switching, the level design, demons souls shortcuts and the bosses. And it actually works.
Of course there's the whole CHAOS thing to address, which is here in spades and is delightfully stupid. Fortunately, when you get some other clothes on your main dude (which you will do in literally 5 minutes) and play for a little bit, it seems a bit less absurd and the style meshes together a bit better. It is still delightfully cheesy and at least somewhat aware about it though, particulary with the bombastic fnal moments of the game's boss fight, where an EDM version of FF1 music is playing over it and it turns a bit into metal gear rising.
Honestly, my main problems with the demo are that your supporting party members feel absolutely worthless and are more of a nuisance in battle (and frankly, dont have much to say in story), and the progression/loot being extremely fast and demanding menuing after basically every battle. That second one has probably been amplified to get more done in the demo, granted, but I dont think i'll be fond of it's loot system regardless, it feels a bit overdone for very minor benefits.
Also, as someone who, frankly, is pretty damn shite at action games, I'm willing to bet one of the mechanics here is utterly busted - such as the ability that prevents you taking hitstun, the animation canclling magic block that gives you MP, etc - that I just can't extract myself. Clearly i think people better than me at this sort of things need to give it a look before any conclusions are made on that though.
Overall, it's a good start, frankly. The trailer might be hilarious, and the game is a bit too, but frankly it doesn't do it justice. If you have a PS5 absolutely check it out. Yes, it's a meme, but there's definetly something cool here, and frankly, the bizzare direction for a retelling of FF1 that's been taken is kinda something worth seeing for yourself, like it or not.
Also, yes, the lines "Chaos." >"No, I am become Chaos, who are you">"We're here to kill chaos" basically happen in that exact order within 30 seconds. Its fantastic.
2022
This was very clearly not even written by a british person we don't have wonderbread here.
2022
Signalis has lived rent free in my head since the moment I started it. It is both a game I want to go on about endlessly, dissecting it's thousand details and it's lineage of inspiration - and a game that I think everyone should just straight up play for themselves. Brilliant in worldbuilding and aesthetics, strong puzzle-boxy game design ripped straight from Resi 1/2, Surrealism that both comes in spades and is perfectly balanced to keep you on your toes, and a story that slowly forces its way under your skin, unravelling in a manner that is currently living rent free in my head.
I would concede that Signalis appeals particularly to my sensibilities - theres a bit of the thing, bit of lynch, bit of alien, and a whole lot more. But it's reference and reverance is never out of line and never takes away from what's an insanely compelling experience. It is a game that uses the best of the past to set a baseline for a good horror game and set up the game language, only to twist the knife.
Its not flawless, but to even broach the flaws feels like doing a disservice. Like, there's little niggles with the difficulty, enemies, and one or two puzzles in retrospect. But Signalis is such a ridiculously compelling game that it never really matters, it was never something I was thinking about actually at the time. Only progressing onward, unpicking it's puzzle box levels and slowly unravelling it's story.
Easily game of the year, and one of the best horror games in a long, long time. This game made me buy a damn book, play it.
I would concede that Signalis appeals particularly to my sensibilities - theres a bit of the thing, bit of lynch, bit of alien, and a whole lot more. But it's reference and reverance is never out of line and never takes away from what's an insanely compelling experience. It is a game that uses the best of the past to set a baseline for a good horror game and set up the game language, only to twist the knife.
Its not flawless, but to even broach the flaws feels like doing a disservice. Like, there's little niggles with the difficulty, enemies, and one or two puzzles in retrospect. But Signalis is such a ridiculously compelling game that it never really matters, it was never something I was thinking about actually at the time. Only progressing onward, unpicking it's puzzle box levels and slowly unravelling it's story.
Easily game of the year, and one of the best horror games in a long, long time. This game made me buy a damn book, play it.
If my dad made cruelty squad.
Aside from a shit weapon selection, legitimatey the best kart racer out there.
A modding scene so powerful it could only be down to the sonic community is a lot of that - turns out blasting past your friends as Mido from zeroranger, blasting the "o-ok lets go" sample from Third Strike on a fucking Collums 3 inspired map is way more fun than anything mariokart has ever been able to manage.
But maybe the key to SRB2K is how just smooth it all is. A lot of games who's power relies on Mods are such an absolute pain in the arse. In SRB2k you just put the files anywhere in the folder, and if you dont have them it will download them like a TF2 map when entering a room. And those multiplayer rooms are so malleble and allow options like just straight up pausing the whole thing.
When i first heard about SRB2K i thought "damn this is going to be frustrating", but the user experience is just wonderful, really. And thats such a great thing for any "mod platform" game to have.
The only really contentious thing i'd say is the handling, which I like as it leans way more towards super mario kart than mario kart wii onwards, and makes it easier to appreciate the more technical track designs as even basic tracks are quite hard to drive. Compared to modern mario kart which is so easy to drive its a joy, and its nice to actually have to think whether to drift or not in a kart racer again.
Very, very few complaints. Remarkable fan project and probably the best sonic game.
A modding scene so powerful it could only be down to the sonic community is a lot of that - turns out blasting past your friends as Mido from zeroranger, blasting the "o-ok lets go" sample from Third Strike on a fucking Collums 3 inspired map is way more fun than anything mariokart has ever been able to manage.
But maybe the key to SRB2K is how just smooth it all is. A lot of games who's power relies on Mods are such an absolute pain in the arse. In SRB2k you just put the files anywhere in the folder, and if you dont have them it will download them like a TF2 map when entering a room. And those multiplayer rooms are so malleble and allow options like just straight up pausing the whole thing.
When i first heard about SRB2K i thought "damn this is going to be frustrating", but the user experience is just wonderful, really. And thats such a great thing for any "mod platform" game to have.
The only really contentious thing i'd say is the handling, which I like as it leans way more towards super mario kart than mario kart wii onwards, and makes it easier to appreciate the more technical track designs as even basic tracks are quite hard to drive. Compared to modern mario kart which is so easy to drive its a joy, and its nice to actually have to think whether to drift or not in a kart racer again.
Very, very few complaints. Remarkable fan project and probably the best sonic game.
2022
Gunvein is a lesson. Even in shmups, arguably the most gameplay driven, distilled form of the videogame there is, you need a bit of flavour. I can safely say Gunvein is a very competent, aggressive shmup. But I can also safely say it's dull and forgettable.
It uses a clever selection of influences as a skeleton for a strong core gameplay loop, decent stage design, and good (if derivative) bosses. The big influences here to me feel like Shinobu Yagawa's games at cave - Ibara, Muchi Muchi Pork and Pink Sweets - with a heavy emphasis on aggressive bombing, score extends and some element of deleberate deaths thanks to a limited life stock. Throw in a scoring system that encourages quick killing absolutely everything you can and it's easy to get into the swing of things the game wants you to.
I would say the gameplay isn't quite there yet though. Difficulty balance is very weak, with the hardest part of the game by far being the stage 3 boss, and stages in general being a bit too easy compared to the bosses. The game's hitboxes are also a bit wonky in that both the ship and bullet's are absolutely tiny - and i do think it should have picked one or the other because you can really just sweep through whole bullet curtains and just scramble dodge without thinking way too much. I get danmaku needs lenient hitboxes but this is a bit too far. Ship balance is also wonky, with the only fun ship - type C - having the good old technical character problem of technically being balanced, but has to really work for it, being more aggressive and effectively multitasking to get the same results Type A and B do with far safer, simpler gameplay - both in scoring and survival.
But it would be easy to overlook the issues if the game had any fucking sauce. Even if I pick some of the most bland shmups out there, lets say; Rolling Gunner, Strikers 1945, Tatsujin - it is absolutely blasted out of the water in terms of thematics, character, story, and just a general feel. Gunvein feels utterly anonymous. The 3 pngs of those characters in the cover there is literally all the character you get. The game doesnt have an ending or any story at all, there's no motivation behind anything, and the aesthetic is this really bland neon-sci fi stuff. It just feels very disconnected from anything. It's just five levels and bosses and the bosses dont even explode with majesty. That aforementioned 3rd boss is positioned as a rival fight (and is also takes a lot from battle garegga's black heart)- a shmup staple where you fight a ship similar to your own, and in a vacuum its a fun fight, but the lack of build up, payoff, pacing and just a reason for it at all makes it feel hollow when this is frankly a really easy trope to turn into something that, for lack of a better term "goes hard."
If the gameplay was absolutely top, top tier it could maybe get away with it. But whilst it's good, all but a few of the cave and raizing games it imitates have better gameplay and every last one of them has better themeing and flavour. Even Deathsmiles 2. In the realm of indie/doujin shmups it fares better but when Rolling Gunner eats your lunch for flavour, aesthetics and thematics, the likes of cambria sword, SF BELUGA, Ikusaaaaaaan, Zeroranger and Blue revolver make Gunvein look particularly souless.
Roguelike arrange is also a huge meme. Its bad and feels pretty desperate to get some more modern gamers on board.
The bright spot of Gunvein is it's tutorial, which legitimately teaches the danmaku concepts of streaming, cut backs and hitboxes very well. It's a shame I can't reccomend this to a new shmuper though, it's so fucking dull.
I wish I could just grab the artists from Drainus and the lead game designer from this and smash them together. Each game has like the opposite half of the games' issues! AAAA.
It uses a clever selection of influences as a skeleton for a strong core gameplay loop, decent stage design, and good (if derivative) bosses. The big influences here to me feel like Shinobu Yagawa's games at cave - Ibara, Muchi Muchi Pork and Pink Sweets - with a heavy emphasis on aggressive bombing, score extends and some element of deleberate deaths thanks to a limited life stock. Throw in a scoring system that encourages quick killing absolutely everything you can and it's easy to get into the swing of things the game wants you to.
I would say the gameplay isn't quite there yet though. Difficulty balance is very weak, with the hardest part of the game by far being the stage 3 boss, and stages in general being a bit too easy compared to the bosses. The game's hitboxes are also a bit wonky in that both the ship and bullet's are absolutely tiny - and i do think it should have picked one or the other because you can really just sweep through whole bullet curtains and just scramble dodge without thinking way too much. I get danmaku needs lenient hitboxes but this is a bit too far. Ship balance is also wonky, with the only fun ship - type C - having the good old technical character problem of technically being balanced, but has to really work for it, being more aggressive and effectively multitasking to get the same results Type A and B do with far safer, simpler gameplay - both in scoring and survival.
But it would be easy to overlook the issues if the game had any fucking sauce. Even if I pick some of the most bland shmups out there, lets say; Rolling Gunner, Strikers 1945, Tatsujin - it is absolutely blasted out of the water in terms of thematics, character, story, and just a general feel. Gunvein feels utterly anonymous. The 3 pngs of those characters in the cover there is literally all the character you get. The game doesnt have an ending or any story at all, there's no motivation behind anything, and the aesthetic is this really bland neon-sci fi stuff. It just feels very disconnected from anything. It's just five levels and bosses and the bosses dont even explode with majesty. That aforementioned 3rd boss is positioned as a rival fight (and is also takes a lot from battle garegga's black heart)- a shmup staple where you fight a ship similar to your own, and in a vacuum its a fun fight, but the lack of build up, payoff, pacing and just a reason for it at all makes it feel hollow when this is frankly a really easy trope to turn into something that, for lack of a better term "goes hard."
If the gameplay was absolutely top, top tier it could maybe get away with it. But whilst it's good, all but a few of the cave and raizing games it imitates have better gameplay and every last one of them has better themeing and flavour. Even Deathsmiles 2. In the realm of indie/doujin shmups it fares better but when Rolling Gunner eats your lunch for flavour, aesthetics and thematics, the likes of cambria sword, SF BELUGA, Ikusaaaaaaan, Zeroranger and Blue revolver make Gunvein look particularly souless.
Roguelike arrange is also a huge meme. Its bad and feels pretty desperate to get some more modern gamers on board.
The bright spot of Gunvein is it's tutorial, which legitimately teaches the danmaku concepts of streaming, cut backs and hitboxes very well. It's a shame I can't reccomend this to a new shmuper though, it's so fucking dull.
I wish I could just grab the artists from Drainus and the lead game designer from this and smash them together. Each game has like the opposite half of the games' issues! AAAA.
Boot up game. Have to agree to like 9 EULAs. Konami now owns my soul. Message of the day pops up on my screen. "Apology for online play issues". It details how some of the major mechanics of baseball are not working in the online mode.
There is no offline mode.
Also this game literally has a typo for buttons. It refers to ZL and ZR on the switch as SL and SR. I didn't even think nintendo would approve that for their store.
Edit: apparently SL and SR exist as the teeny buttons on joycons... but i was still playing in handheld mode... :Cirsnap:
There is no offline mode.
Also this game literally has a typo for buttons. It refers to ZL and ZR on the switch as SL and SR. I didn't even think nintendo would approve that for their store.
Edit: apparently SL and SR exist as the teeny buttons on joycons... but i was still playing in handheld mode... :Cirsnap: