Cold_Comfort
2021
Well, we've found it. It's taken scientists and game developers decades and thousands of games of toil, but here it is. The exact middle of the road.
Arise is the perfect game for namco to release in the landscape of 2021. Extremely conventional, easy to digest storytelling which is just trope after trope, put together with a level of polish that other games haven't been able to achieve(COUGH deathloop COUGH), and has enough good elements and good enough marketing to catfish the local RPG fan into thinking they're getting next final fantasy or at least the next xenobalde.
Ok maybe that's a little rude. It's a competent game. Most notably, the combat is pretty good. It's well animated, has a great flow, and making long combos with various arts and boost break moves is good fun, though its very easy to fall into the same combo patterns (Especially since launchers are so ridiculously good on the MC), and any enemies that arent bosses are particularly unchallenging. But particularly with the different party members on offer it's pretty good. It's about on the same level as the modern Ys games albeit with less in the way of challenge and variety.
It's also a very pretty game. Character models in particular are fantastic and so are effects, and adapt an anime style into very high fidelity quite well. There's particularly nice details on little things, notably character eyes and clothing that just looks really nice.
And right there, i've ran out of remarkable things to say about Tales of Arise. The story and setting are so... bland and have nothing to them, particularly in the early hours that I just glaze over. Your amnesiac protagonist works with your pink-haired tsundere waifu who has a fancy fire sword to kill some lads, each of which resides in these tiny lands with no character or theme beyond "fire world, ice world".
The only real curveball Arise throws towards being the most boring thing ever is its slavery and racism (?) angle, which could have been and maybe does turn into a complete trainwreck down the line but by the time i was tuning out mostly boiled down to mistrust and some very tame stuff so its mostly just uninteresting and conventional. Count the times someone doesn't trust someone because they're renan of dahnan or whatever and then never proceed to poke the concept any further than that.
This is excepting the one thing, which is that the slaves in the first chapter, who are ostensibly mining for materials, are actually getting legitimately harvested for their will/life essence/magic by being beaten down... or something. It's some pretty damn charged imagery I feel they go with and I'm not sure if the devs recognise this. You eventually go and kill the bad dude and the sucked up will turns into a dragon or something and tattacks both of you and then you stop the dragon made from the power of the will of the oppressed by sucking up the energy into your waifu's fire sword.
Now that could be really fucking wild (though not neccessarily good or nuanced), but the emphasis in the game is never on it and it doesnt even seem to make those connections. So when i say "you suck up the manifestation of the life energy of an opressed people into your waifu sword,", whilst that's legitimately just connecting plot points, the game seems thorougly disinterested in it and you're immedietly onto the next bad dude woo!
And that's Arise in a nutshell. Making suggestions at being something more interesting every now and then but far more interested in being palatable, tropey, and digestible. It has absolutely no rough edges, nothing actually interesting to hook onto. And hey, I get that comfy, conventional JRPG plots like this can be nice to chill out to, but this game makes Atelier Ryza look daring.
The combat is good and it is pretty and it's consistently competent. But that's kind of all it is.
Arise is the perfect game for namco to release in the landscape of 2021. Extremely conventional, easy to digest storytelling which is just trope after trope, put together with a level of polish that other games haven't been able to achieve(COUGH deathloop COUGH), and has enough good elements and good enough marketing to catfish the local RPG fan into thinking they're getting next final fantasy or at least the next xenobalde.
Ok maybe that's a little rude. It's a competent game. Most notably, the combat is pretty good. It's well animated, has a great flow, and making long combos with various arts and boost break moves is good fun, though its very easy to fall into the same combo patterns (Especially since launchers are so ridiculously good on the MC), and any enemies that arent bosses are particularly unchallenging. But particularly with the different party members on offer it's pretty good. It's about on the same level as the modern Ys games albeit with less in the way of challenge and variety.
It's also a very pretty game. Character models in particular are fantastic and so are effects, and adapt an anime style into very high fidelity quite well. There's particularly nice details on little things, notably character eyes and clothing that just looks really nice.
And right there, i've ran out of remarkable things to say about Tales of Arise. The story and setting are so... bland and have nothing to them, particularly in the early hours that I just glaze over. Your amnesiac protagonist works with your pink-haired tsundere waifu who has a fancy fire sword to kill some lads, each of which resides in these tiny lands with no character or theme beyond "fire world, ice world".
The only real curveball Arise throws towards being the most boring thing ever is its slavery and racism (?) angle, which could have been and maybe does turn into a complete trainwreck down the line but by the time i was tuning out mostly boiled down to mistrust and some very tame stuff so its mostly just uninteresting and conventional. Count the times someone doesn't trust someone because they're renan of dahnan or whatever and then never proceed to poke the concept any further than that.
This is excepting the one thing, which is that the slaves in the first chapter, who are ostensibly mining for materials, are actually getting legitimately harvested for their will/life essence/magic by being beaten down... or something. It's some pretty damn charged imagery I feel they go with and I'm not sure if the devs recognise this. You eventually go and kill the bad dude and the sucked up will turns into a dragon or something and tattacks both of you and then you stop the dragon made from the power of the will of the oppressed by sucking up the energy into your waifu's fire sword.
Now that could be really fucking wild (though not neccessarily good or nuanced), but the emphasis in the game is never on it and it doesnt even seem to make those connections. So when i say "you suck up the manifestation of the life energy of an opressed people into your waifu sword,", whilst that's legitimately just connecting plot points, the game seems thorougly disinterested in it and you're immedietly onto the next bad dude woo!
And that's Arise in a nutshell. Making suggestions at being something more interesting every now and then but far more interested in being palatable, tropey, and digestible. It has absolutely no rough edges, nothing actually interesting to hook onto. And hey, I get that comfy, conventional JRPG plots like this can be nice to chill out to, but this game makes Atelier Ryza look daring.
The combat is good and it is pretty and it's consistently competent. But that's kind of all it is.
This review contains spoilers
There's some neat stuff in TWC. There's legitimately lovely artwork, the surrealism of it all is quite lovely, it well establishes a weird world and some likeable characters very well in it's short runtime, and the story is, whilst kinda wishy-washy, engaging enough to carry it through it's 50-minutes or so of stuff to do.
But it's also hamstrung from some very weak structure and seeming to straight up borrow tropes of the RPGmaker adventure/thing genre without really putting much thought into it, and i sadly feel it fails as a result.
The main elephant in the room is the puzzles. They're blatantly terrible and add basically nothing to the game. Obviously in a game this short there's not many of them, but they just add nothing to the story and generally feel like a bit of a weak way of the characters making progression. There's a few story tidbits within them but I do feel it takes away from the story for the dumb puzzles to be the progression for the most part rather than some growth or progression within the characters.
The RPGmaker presentation also feels a bit underthought. For what's otherwise a very engrossing world the menus and text boxes in particular are great at pulling you right out of it, and I'm not convinced a top down perspective with Pixel-art characters was the best way of doing it. It clashes with the lovely art pieces quite hard and just kinda makes me wish the game was a point and click or something in that vein where I could really fall into it all. Because when the art is on screen, its legitimately very pretty and surreal in just the right way.
There's also the pointless inclusion of a secret ending by doing some random stuff that isnt really signposted because idk, it's a trope of the genre. The secret ending is pretty important and I feel the whole thing could have been better incorporated into one more satisfying concluison but whatever.
Even with all those issues, it would probably be pretty good. It's short, cute, kinda interesting and the two core characters are great. BUT THEN.
So at the end of the secret ending, the developer has a literal signpost which explains the plot and what the game was about. I hate it with every fiber of my being and I have no idea why it's there other than to maybe highlight that it's a personal tale, but that does nothing compared to how condescending it is and how much it shatters the suspsension of disbelieft the rest of the game has been pretty great at.
The game is pretty abstract but it's also definetly piece-able together without this shit. It's watching an artsty movie and then finding the movie theatre goes immedietly onto a watchmojo "ANNIHILATION ENDING EXPLAINED" youtube video. Fuck off. It's a terrible inclusion and feels like something that should have been entirely culled in playtesting.
It's still a neat little experience. The art in particular is lovely and there's a emotional core to it that is well captured. But it does leave a bitter taste in my mouth somewhat, especially as I despise it's final moments. Probably worth playing with being only about an hour long, but it could have been much more.
But it's also hamstrung from some very weak structure and seeming to straight up borrow tropes of the RPGmaker adventure/thing genre without really putting much thought into it, and i sadly feel it fails as a result.
The main elephant in the room is the puzzles. They're blatantly terrible and add basically nothing to the game. Obviously in a game this short there's not many of them, but they just add nothing to the story and generally feel like a bit of a weak way of the characters making progression. There's a few story tidbits within them but I do feel it takes away from the story for the dumb puzzles to be the progression for the most part rather than some growth or progression within the characters.
The RPGmaker presentation also feels a bit underthought. For what's otherwise a very engrossing world the menus and text boxes in particular are great at pulling you right out of it, and I'm not convinced a top down perspective with Pixel-art characters was the best way of doing it. It clashes with the lovely art pieces quite hard and just kinda makes me wish the game was a point and click or something in that vein where I could really fall into it all. Because when the art is on screen, its legitimately very pretty and surreal in just the right way.
There's also the pointless inclusion of a secret ending by doing some random stuff that isnt really signposted because idk, it's a trope of the genre. The secret ending is pretty important and I feel the whole thing could have been better incorporated into one more satisfying concluison but whatever.
Even with all those issues, it would probably be pretty good. It's short, cute, kinda interesting and the two core characters are great. BUT THEN.
So at the end of the secret ending, the developer has a literal signpost which explains the plot and what the game was about. I hate it with every fiber of my being and I have no idea why it's there other than to maybe highlight that it's a personal tale, but that does nothing compared to how condescending it is and how much it shatters the suspsension of disbelieft the rest of the game has been pretty great at.
The game is pretty abstract but it's also definetly piece-able together without this shit. It's watching an artsty movie and then finding the movie theatre goes immedietly onto a watchmojo "ANNIHILATION ENDING EXPLAINED" youtube video. Fuck off. It's a terrible inclusion and feels like something that should have been entirely culled in playtesting.
It's still a neat little experience. The art in particular is lovely and there's a emotional core to it that is well captured. But it does leave a bitter taste in my mouth somewhat, especially as I despise it's final moments. Probably worth playing with being only about an hour long, but it could have been much more.
2021
I've played about 3 hours of this game and I honestly don't feel like playing any more. I'd rather put time into voicing why this just doesn't work.
And the core of it is control. It's probably not the case but all of Arkane's games feel like they have some horrendous input lag, and the whole control experience is pretty stilited and lacks any flow. Aim Assist is rough, the control scheme on PS5 is laughable, the menus are a nightmare and blast you with paragraphs of text every 5 seconds. For what's basically a Dishonored Gaiden it feels an awful lot more complicated for no reason.
On top of that the structure of the game just feels really off. In the first few hours of this game it legitimately requests you go down the same path, stealthing or murdering the whole way, legitimately 4 times, like i'm playing Flower Sun and Rain again - Because despite this being an immersive sim where you're expected to go to and from the entrance all the time, Arkane have bafflingly made the levels long and thin. And the level structure itself is just bleh. Go to the great big spot on the map where it tells you to, kill, rinse repeat.
And maybe worst of all, the game just undercuts it's own core. Within minutes of starting the game you get a cheat death card that lets you die 2 times per location, practically 8 times per Day, with basically no consequence. It's like a studio mandate legitimately taped to the first door before you get into the game.
I was expecting I might not vibe with the game, I often don't with immersive sims, the only one I really, really like is Cruelty Squad, which you should probably just play instead.
And the core of it is control. It's probably not the case but all of Arkane's games feel like they have some horrendous input lag, and the whole control experience is pretty stilited and lacks any flow. Aim Assist is rough, the control scheme on PS5 is laughable, the menus are a nightmare and blast you with paragraphs of text every 5 seconds. For what's basically a Dishonored Gaiden it feels an awful lot more complicated for no reason.
On top of that the structure of the game just feels really off. In the first few hours of this game it legitimately requests you go down the same path, stealthing or murdering the whole way, legitimately 4 times, like i'm playing Flower Sun and Rain again - Because despite this being an immersive sim where you're expected to go to and from the entrance all the time, Arkane have bafflingly made the levels long and thin. And the level structure itself is just bleh. Go to the great big spot on the map where it tells you to, kill, rinse repeat.
And maybe worst of all, the game just undercuts it's own core. Within minutes of starting the game you get a cheat death card that lets you die 2 times per location, practically 8 times per Day, with basically no consequence. It's like a studio mandate legitimately taped to the first door before you get into the game.
I was expecting I might not vibe with the game, I often don't with immersive sims, the only one I really, really like is Cruelty Squad, which you should probably just play instead.
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.
1992
Truxton II's japanese title, Tatsujin Oh, literally translates as "Expert King", following the original game's mere "Expert/Master". It's a statement of intent and one that the game absolutely lives up to. T-oh is an unrelenting, brutal game that takes all the tropes of it's era of STG and turns them up to 11.
T-oh esssentially boils down to an endurance test of the hardest shit Toaplan has to offer. A 1-All (this game loops infinitely like a lot of Toaplan's catalogue) will likely take an hour, which is about 2-3 times the length of the average Cave game some of the very same staff would go on to make, and from the off it throws some pretty tough challenges at the player which only get more and more obscene as the game descends into some true masocore hell in it's latter half. Oh, and it's a checkpoint-based STG, so when you inevitably die you get kicked back 20 seconds of gameplay with your powerups stripped.
Fortunately, perhaps the one lenient bone in T-oh's body is that it has relatively fair checkpoint design, and the first weapon power up picked up is by far the most impactful anyway. And whilst I actually like a checkpoint STG from the approach of "you can't just resource dump your way through all this", it also worsens T-oh's biggest, and really only massive issue.
Because the pacing in this game is already terrible. Stages are absurdly long, and it really whows. Stage 1 is 8 minutes long for some reason and is the main culprit here, as large stretches of it are pretty easy only to be punctuated with a miniboss every 2 minutes. Toaplan's games usually have long stages, for sure, but stage 1 of T-oh is twice the length of stage 1 in Kyukyoku Tiger and it just drags.
And the thing is, whilst T-oh definetly has an issue of some pathetically easy waves and a there being a few too many seconds of dead air between encounters, it isn't that pervaisive, and whilst the game is still too long, there's still a really, really great 40-50 minute STG in the hour, which is fine on the whole. The issue is more in it's presentation, in that it's stages go on for so damn long and that they have nothing to punctuate them. Cutting the stages in half and having more of them, having the great music change occasionally instead of looping over and over, having a moment of catharsis and joy after beating a boss, something to give the game a bit more strucuture and flow than just the endless, slow scroll that it has.
And that's the thing that gets me about T-oh. If you take all the great STG content in this and simply serve it better, it'd probably be one of the best arcade games of it's era. Probably a bit too hard for my blood, but a proper challenge with some great formations and bosses, combined with a fantastic soundtrack.
As it is, it's good, but that pacing is a huge killer. And unless you're really hankering for it's extreme level of difficulty, there's just better options available from its era.
I will say, I can definetly see myself really enjoying this when i retire. It's a good podcast game and it has a very good reputation with among Gen X in Japan, so hey, what do I know.
T-oh esssentially boils down to an endurance test of the hardest shit Toaplan has to offer. A 1-All (this game loops infinitely like a lot of Toaplan's catalogue) will likely take an hour, which is about 2-3 times the length of the average Cave game some of the very same staff would go on to make, and from the off it throws some pretty tough challenges at the player which only get more and more obscene as the game descends into some true masocore hell in it's latter half. Oh, and it's a checkpoint-based STG, so when you inevitably die you get kicked back 20 seconds of gameplay with your powerups stripped.
Fortunately, perhaps the one lenient bone in T-oh's body is that it has relatively fair checkpoint design, and the first weapon power up picked up is by far the most impactful anyway. And whilst I actually like a checkpoint STG from the approach of "you can't just resource dump your way through all this", it also worsens T-oh's biggest, and really only massive issue.
Because the pacing in this game is already terrible. Stages are absurdly long, and it really whows. Stage 1 is 8 minutes long for some reason and is the main culprit here, as large stretches of it are pretty easy only to be punctuated with a miniboss every 2 minutes. Toaplan's games usually have long stages, for sure, but stage 1 of T-oh is twice the length of stage 1 in Kyukyoku Tiger and it just drags.
And the thing is, whilst T-oh definetly has an issue of some pathetically easy waves and a there being a few too many seconds of dead air between encounters, it isn't that pervaisive, and whilst the game is still too long, there's still a really, really great 40-50 minute STG in the hour, which is fine on the whole. The issue is more in it's presentation, in that it's stages go on for so damn long and that they have nothing to punctuate them. Cutting the stages in half and having more of them, having the great music change occasionally instead of looping over and over, having a moment of catharsis and joy after beating a boss, something to give the game a bit more strucuture and flow than just the endless, slow scroll that it has.
And that's the thing that gets me about T-oh. If you take all the great STG content in this and simply serve it better, it'd probably be one of the best arcade games of it's era. Probably a bit too hard for my blood, but a proper challenge with some great formations and bosses, combined with a fantastic soundtrack.
As it is, it's good, but that pacing is a huge killer. And unless you're really hankering for it's extreme level of difficulty, there's just better options available from its era.
I will say, I can definetly see myself really enjoying this when i retire. It's a good podcast game and it has a very good reputation with among Gen X in Japan, so hey, what do I know.
Very few games have put a smile on my face in quite the way the deductions -in the DGS duology have. Whilst maybe overly simple, they are emblematic of what makes DGS really, really work in my opinion. This Duology has some fantastic cases and a strong overall plotline, but throughout, it is also a game that frankly, would have been carried by it's characters and presentation anyways.
To elaborate, i'd just note the second game's second case. It's pretty fucking bad. A big speedbump in both the overarching plot, has some dumb logical leaps, and is effctively a footnote on the worst case from the first game to boot.
Even then, the game is good. It is the only case in the duology where the case quality dips enough where the appeal gets cut down to it's base. And what a base it has. DGS's core presentation and it's cast of characters are just utterly fantastic. From an adaptation of Sherlock holmes that i was fully prepared to hate but ended up absolutely loving, to the best Prosecutor in the series, to a protagonist that's engaging to see grow in confidence and resolve, all animated absolutely wonderfully and under the chorus of an impeccable soundtrack. The DGS games are games where the baseline of just sitting in a coutroom with Von Zieks opposed to Ryunosouke bouncing off each other is pretty damn high and carries it in it's worst moments. And when the cases rise up to meet that strength, and engage with those characters and the presentation, its an absolute joy. I have taken way too many screenshots on my switch of moments from the second game in particular where i was just so fucking hyped for the goings on. And maybe that, did somewhat come at the cost of DGS1 being so devoted to buildup and leaving the payoff to the second time around, but frankly, that game's still pretty great, and even if it was sacrificed wholesale - it would probably still have been worth it.
So yeah this is pretty great. I could probably go on for way longer about how it's a wonderful reflection on the original AA trilogy, how its more unique case setup keeps things more engaging, how it has a much more focused theme than the other AA games i've played, that Shu Takumi somehow wrangled one of the best adaptations of the sherlock holmes character in the middle of an ace attorney duology - but im honestly not versed enough in the series beyond the first three and these two to speak that authoritatively about them.
Regarldess, this is something really special. Compared to basically every other "law/trial/investigation" game, this absolutely blows everything out the water that i've tried. And I don't think i've had a smile on my face as big as in this one playing a game in a good long while.
To elaborate, i'd just note the second game's second case. It's pretty fucking bad. A big speedbump in both the overarching plot, has some dumb logical leaps, and is effctively a footnote on the worst case from the first game to boot.
Even then, the game is good. It is the only case in the duology where the case quality dips enough where the appeal gets cut down to it's base. And what a base it has. DGS's core presentation and it's cast of characters are just utterly fantastic. From an adaptation of Sherlock holmes that i was fully prepared to hate but ended up absolutely loving, to the best Prosecutor in the series, to a protagonist that's engaging to see grow in confidence and resolve, all animated absolutely wonderfully and under the chorus of an impeccable soundtrack. The DGS games are games where the baseline of just sitting in a coutroom with Von Zieks opposed to Ryunosouke bouncing off each other is pretty damn high and carries it in it's worst moments. And when the cases rise up to meet that strength, and engage with those characters and the presentation, its an absolute joy. I have taken way too many screenshots on my switch of moments from the second game in particular where i was just so fucking hyped for the goings on. And maybe that, did somewhat come at the cost of DGS1 being so devoted to buildup and leaving the payoff to the second time around, but frankly, that game's still pretty great, and even if it was sacrificed wholesale - it would probably still have been worth it.
So yeah this is pretty great. I could probably go on for way longer about how it's a wonderful reflection on the original AA trilogy, how its more unique case setup keeps things more engaging, how it has a much more focused theme than the other AA games i've played, that Shu Takumi somehow wrangled one of the best adaptations of the sherlock holmes character in the middle of an ace attorney duology - but im honestly not versed enough in the series beyond the first three and these two to speak that authoritatively about them.
Regarldess, this is something really special. Compared to basically every other "law/trial/investigation" game, this absolutely blows everything out the water that i've tried. And I don't think i've had a smile on my face as big as in this one playing a game in a good long while.
2018
Black Bird is an absurdly brief experience. Even by the standards of STGs, even getting down to the fastest things in the arcade and shitpost doujin shooters that scroll faster than the eye can see, Black Bird is extremely short. You get a whole 4 Levels of gameplay here, each of which probably not reasonably taking you more than 3-4 minutes. It's also a pretty easy game and whilst there is a "True Mode" which is harder and has secret endings and stuff, practically, if you've played an STG before, this is an experience that's over in 15 minutes. If you get this at full price and play it once, it's more than a dollar a minute!
So it's a good job Black Bird is a pretty wonderful experience. A Surreal Horror/Fantasy shooter which essentially lifts the template of Sega Classic fantasy zone to create a game where you, as the wrathful spirit of a dead girl reincarnated as an elrich black bird, wreak havoc through the world into it's far future.
And it really works. The levels are beautifully detailed and fun to tear apart, killing countless of Onion Games/Love de lic's cute little characters in the process. The visuals are fantastic, with great use of (what i think is) digitized sprites, heavy post processing and great animation - which combines with a fantastic, creepy ost to make for a very eerie experience.
Black bird is simultaneously cute, funny, and pretty creepy. It's a very open ended story that is more metaphor than anything concrete, as is illustrated in it's 8 endings, all of which basically consist of "different things this game could have meant".
It's particularly interesting to see a game come from some of the same staff as Moon to revel in death and destruction of a society that has wronged people, and almost make it comedic. I wouldn't call it outright misanthropic, more a cathartic fantasy n revenge and the power of grief. But idk maybe i'm talking out my ass.
Most weirdly of all, it's actually fairly good as a shmup, which is not something i expected. It's formula is basically fantasy zone - take out all the bases on a level and then a boss, but the fantastic level design, an interesting scoring system which the game encourages you to explore by locking the endings behind it. The game is still fairly easy even on true difficulty, and it's definetly not something that's intended to be mained as a shmup, but it is pretty engaging for those into scoring, and the way it uses music queues to spawn enemy locations wherever you are on the stage gives it a bit more in the way of interesting encounters than Fantasy Zone - fantasy zone itself being one of the finer STGs of the 80s, and i'd say this exceeds that at the very least.
So yeah, I think this is good. An amazing 15 minutes of surreal fantasy horror opera. Problem is, it's 15 minutes and when I, someone who will gladly import overpriced STGs from Japan all the time, think it's pushing it's pricepoint, it's definetly going to be too much for most people. As of time of writing it's on sale for £7.50, which for me is about right, but I know for many it is still pushing it.
Still, it's a 15 minutes worth experiencing, if you can.
So it's a good job Black Bird is a pretty wonderful experience. A Surreal Horror/Fantasy shooter which essentially lifts the template of Sega Classic fantasy zone to create a game where you, as the wrathful spirit of a dead girl reincarnated as an elrich black bird, wreak havoc through the world into it's far future.
And it really works. The levels are beautifully detailed and fun to tear apart, killing countless of Onion Games/Love de lic's cute little characters in the process. The visuals are fantastic, with great use of (what i think is) digitized sprites, heavy post processing and great animation - which combines with a fantastic, creepy ost to make for a very eerie experience.
Black bird is simultaneously cute, funny, and pretty creepy. It's a very open ended story that is more metaphor than anything concrete, as is illustrated in it's 8 endings, all of which basically consist of "different things this game could have meant".
It's particularly interesting to see a game come from some of the same staff as Moon to revel in death and destruction of a society that has wronged people, and almost make it comedic. I wouldn't call it outright misanthropic, more a cathartic fantasy n revenge and the power of grief. But idk maybe i'm talking out my ass.
Most weirdly of all, it's actually fairly good as a shmup, which is not something i expected. It's formula is basically fantasy zone - take out all the bases on a level and then a boss, but the fantastic level design, an interesting scoring system which the game encourages you to explore by locking the endings behind it. The game is still fairly easy even on true difficulty, and it's definetly not something that's intended to be mained as a shmup, but it is pretty engaging for those into scoring, and the way it uses music queues to spawn enemy locations wherever you are on the stage gives it a bit more in the way of interesting encounters than Fantasy Zone - fantasy zone itself being one of the finer STGs of the 80s, and i'd say this exceeds that at the very least.
So yeah, I think this is good. An amazing 15 minutes of surreal fantasy horror opera. Problem is, it's 15 minutes and when I, someone who will gladly import overpriced STGs from Japan all the time, think it's pushing it's pricepoint, it's definetly going to be too much for most people. As of time of writing it's on sale for £7.50, which for me is about right, but I know for many it is still pushing it.
Still, it's a 15 minutes worth experiencing, if you can.
A hilarious, poignant, silly, shitpost of a game. Flower Sun and Rain is a surreal sequel to the silver case that's somehow more bonkers, yet easier to follow and digest simultaneously whilst hitting harder for me. It's also a really pretty lame puzzle adventure game.
None of the enjoyment from FSR comes from the puzzles or to an extent, even the execution of the quests you go on. The solutions to every puzzle barring a scant few boils down to finding the right terms in handbook and connecting the dots, and somehow by plugging these numbers into things your magical computer does... stuff?
There's some fun to be had in the sheer absurdity of the bad puzzles, but really the appeal here is all in the adventure, the encounters and the sheer atmosphere. Which are all consistently top drawer, and unlike the Silver Case, usually fairly bite size. The only real issue i have with them, and its by far from ever-present, is the occasional awkwardness with hitting the right flags or getting lost in where exactly you need to go or talk to next. Its nice to wander about in FSR but it can get aggravating when you're stumped.
FSR is a short tale, but its one that gives you all the time to soak in the atmosphere you want. Other Suda games are driven by atmosphere and tone, but in FSR it is unquestionably the main draw. The island of lospass is arguably the main character of the game, the music - mostly consisting of wonderfully remixed classical music, gives this surreal, vibe, and there's multiple extended sections where FSR almost compels you to just take it all in. And even on the fucking awful resolution of my DSi XL where i can count the pixels of the trees in the distance of the beach, there's really something to it.
The more relaxed nature of the game is also a boon. The subject matter of stopping a terrorist attack is honestly about on par with The Silver Case's plot in terms of grimness, but the presentation and the weird, ephemeral/purgatorial nature of lospass really makes FSR extremely relaxing. Even when the game really boils down to a bunch of increasingly tedius Fetch Quests, it somehow melts into just being amusing, especially in the blatant piss-take that is Request 14.
FSR in general is just so pleasant. Aside from all it's thematic stuff, its just a lovelly little world to lose oneself in for a bit. I guess that's also what it is for Mondo as well.
Thematically, despite being literally a sequel to the Silver Case, I actually think the game's themes of finding your true path and paradise are actually way more in line with No More Heroes. I still think No More Heroes is probably the better game, with more polish, less bullshit and less outright antagonistic design probably ultimately being for the better. But this is special too.
This is probably the most awkward of SUDA's english pantheon to get into. It needs experience of the the silver case to really be fully appreciated, is even more offbeat and antagonistic to being a game than his other works, and unless you can read japanese you're laboured with a pretty mediocre DS port. But somehow, it's probably definetly one of my favourite suda works and one of the best experiences i've played recently in general. Other people in this review section have probably put a better finger on what quite makes this game tick than me, so i'd check them out, particularly drigo and mr pixelton.
Thanks to all you Suda heads for getting me to give this a go. I'll consider lending you all 50,000 yen.
None of the enjoyment from FSR comes from the puzzles or to an extent, even the execution of the quests you go on. The solutions to every puzzle barring a scant few boils down to finding the right terms in handbook and connecting the dots, and somehow by plugging these numbers into things your magical computer does... stuff?
There's some fun to be had in the sheer absurdity of the bad puzzles, but really the appeal here is all in the adventure, the encounters and the sheer atmosphere. Which are all consistently top drawer, and unlike the Silver Case, usually fairly bite size. The only real issue i have with them, and its by far from ever-present, is the occasional awkwardness with hitting the right flags or getting lost in where exactly you need to go or talk to next. Its nice to wander about in FSR but it can get aggravating when you're stumped.
FSR is a short tale, but its one that gives you all the time to soak in the atmosphere you want. Other Suda games are driven by atmosphere and tone, but in FSR it is unquestionably the main draw. The island of lospass is arguably the main character of the game, the music - mostly consisting of wonderfully remixed classical music, gives this surreal, vibe, and there's multiple extended sections where FSR almost compels you to just take it all in. And even on the fucking awful resolution of my DSi XL where i can count the pixels of the trees in the distance of the beach, there's really something to it.
The more relaxed nature of the game is also a boon. The subject matter of stopping a terrorist attack is honestly about on par with The Silver Case's plot in terms of grimness, but the presentation and the weird, ephemeral/purgatorial nature of lospass really makes FSR extremely relaxing. Even when the game really boils down to a bunch of increasingly tedius Fetch Quests, it somehow melts into just being amusing, especially in the blatant piss-take that is Request 14.
FSR in general is just so pleasant. Aside from all it's thematic stuff, its just a lovelly little world to lose oneself in for a bit. I guess that's also what it is for Mondo as well.
Thematically, despite being literally a sequel to the Silver Case, I actually think the game's themes of finding your true path and paradise are actually way more in line with No More Heroes. I still think No More Heroes is probably the better game, with more polish, less bullshit and less outright antagonistic design probably ultimately being for the better. But this is special too.
This is probably the most awkward of SUDA's english pantheon to get into. It needs experience of the the silver case to really be fully appreciated, is even more offbeat and antagonistic to being a game than his other works, and unless you can read japanese you're laboured with a pretty mediocre DS port. But somehow, it's probably definetly one of my favourite suda works and one of the best experiences i've played recently in general. Other people in this review section have probably put a better finger on what quite makes this game tick than me, so i'd check them out, particularly drigo and mr pixelton.
Thanks to all you Suda heads for getting me to give this a go. I'll consider lending you all 50,000 yen.
2016
So many components of the Silver Case are absolutely amazing. The dialogue and writing in general is good, the aesthetic and presentation is wonderfully executed, the characters are great and the Soundtrack is utterly fantastic. And when it comes together, especially for some of its better sequences, it's really something quite special, and the vibes throughout are wonderful. At it's best, the silver case is creepy and offbeat and covers a broad scope of topics with interesting ideas and "what ifs", and its incredibly compelling.
The thing that prevents it achieving greatness though, for my money, is the pacing and gameplay segments. The gameplay segments are just flat out shit. They control badly, and mostly consist of you being stopped every single step you take to hear something unneccessary. I get Suda is a dude that loves his downtime and slowing things to a crawl to allow time for reflection and shit, but in the silver case it just breeds frustration for me, in scenes that could be the game at it's best. Lifecut should be an amazing chapter full of revelations and things paying off, but instead it's lumbered with the worst gameplay sections in the entire game and in general, things just taking too long.
The Placebo chapters I also find pretty weak. Im almost Glad that I missed them entirely until case 3 of transmitter because Placebo 1 in particular is absolute misery. They do help clear the fog of the transmitter chapters but they're so unreasonably long and the gameplay sections are so ludicrously nothing that I found it hard not to lose attention attention at times.
All in all TSC is really not much longer than No More Heroes or even Travis Strikes Again, and whilst it does cram more in that time it fails to really be as impactful to me as either of those games whilst also feeling about twice as long as it really is.
But I do think it's a good game. The vibes carry it super hard, as do a couple of the characters and the superb presentation, and it's best chapters and moments are utterly exceptional. Its just, in a sense, a game that almost feels like less than the sum of it's parts at the end of the day for me, which is a real shame.
Also, brb gonna try telling people "i've killed my past" as an excuse for not giving them back the 50,000 yen I owe them.
The thing that prevents it achieving greatness though, for my money, is the pacing and gameplay segments. The gameplay segments are just flat out shit. They control badly, and mostly consist of you being stopped every single step you take to hear something unneccessary. I get Suda is a dude that loves his downtime and slowing things to a crawl to allow time for reflection and shit, but in the silver case it just breeds frustration for me, in scenes that could be the game at it's best. Lifecut should be an amazing chapter full of revelations and things paying off, but instead it's lumbered with the worst gameplay sections in the entire game and in general, things just taking too long.
The Placebo chapters I also find pretty weak. Im almost Glad that I missed them entirely until case 3 of transmitter because Placebo 1 in particular is absolute misery. They do help clear the fog of the transmitter chapters but they're so unreasonably long and the gameplay sections are so ludicrously nothing that I found it hard not to lose attention attention at times.
All in all TSC is really not much longer than No More Heroes or even Travis Strikes Again, and whilst it does cram more in that time it fails to really be as impactful to me as either of those games whilst also feeling about twice as long as it really is.
But I do think it's a good game. The vibes carry it super hard, as do a couple of the characters and the superb presentation, and it's best chapters and moments are utterly exceptional. Its just, in a sense, a game that almost feels like less than the sum of it's parts at the end of the day for me, which is a real shame.
Also, brb gonna try telling people "i've killed my past" as an excuse for not giving them back the 50,000 yen I owe them.
2021
What possesses a person to make this?
Regardless, it's good. A surprisingly intricate immersive sim tactical shooter... thing, as portrayed through some combination of team fortress 2 community servers, deep fried shitposts, quake, geocities websites and pure abject horror.
It must be said that it's really the tone that carries cruelty squad. From start to finish, it is intensely uncomfortable, in both its visual design, music, and what i was able to actually gleam of the context of the game's events. There's two missions in particular, one near the middle, and the other being the penultimate, which have just fantastic atmospheres and are probably where the game veers most into the horror side of it's absurdity.
The gameplay is pretty alright. The closest comparison I can think of it is probably dishonored of all things, and it frankly has similar issues. The level design is great, creating little sandboxes for you to tear shit up in, and you get some particularly interesting upgrades like your intestines becoming a grappling hook that can latch onto everything - but the balance isnt quite there and it has the classic mini-sandbox-murder-game problem of the route of least resistance - i.e, running up and shooting your target right in the face, or sniping them from a distance - has little to no downsides. There's some levels that mix this up a lot and later in the game the emphasis becomes far more in getting to to the target in the first place, which is nice, but it's still an issue. Also must be said that the AI is dumb as a bag of rocks, which feels mildly deliberate but also means they're not that engaging to mess about with and have nothing in the way of interesting interactions.
Aside from that, my only real issue is the escalation, or rather, for the most part, the lack of it. The two levels in mentioned earlier are fantastic and really kick it up, but aside from them most of the game retains this very constant level of bizzare intensity. The game arguably starts at 11, but it never quite getting to 12 means it's kinda easy to get used to the atmosphere by the time the game is wrapping up. If the main story maybe had a few levels less it would probably be better off. Also, the last level is absolutely awful. It might be making some sort of statement with it's awfulness but the one prior is immensely more cathartic and would have been a good way to go out.
Overall though, this is very neat. One of the more effective horror games I've played in a good while, and a decent immersive sim murder simulator thing to boot.
Special mention for the soundtrack, by the way, it's fantastic and the game would not be nearly as effective without it.
Regardless, it's good. A surprisingly intricate immersive sim tactical shooter... thing, as portrayed through some combination of team fortress 2 community servers, deep fried shitposts, quake, geocities websites and pure abject horror.
It must be said that it's really the tone that carries cruelty squad. From start to finish, it is intensely uncomfortable, in both its visual design, music, and what i was able to actually gleam of the context of the game's events. There's two missions in particular, one near the middle, and the other being the penultimate, which have just fantastic atmospheres and are probably where the game veers most into the horror side of it's absurdity.
The gameplay is pretty alright. The closest comparison I can think of it is probably dishonored of all things, and it frankly has similar issues. The level design is great, creating little sandboxes for you to tear shit up in, and you get some particularly interesting upgrades like your intestines becoming a grappling hook that can latch onto everything - but the balance isnt quite there and it has the classic mini-sandbox-murder-game problem of the route of least resistance - i.e, running up and shooting your target right in the face, or sniping them from a distance - has little to no downsides. There's some levels that mix this up a lot and later in the game the emphasis becomes far more in getting to to the target in the first place, which is nice, but it's still an issue. Also must be said that the AI is dumb as a bag of rocks, which feels mildly deliberate but also means they're not that engaging to mess about with and have nothing in the way of interesting interactions.
Aside from that, my only real issue is the escalation, or rather, for the most part, the lack of it. The two levels in mentioned earlier are fantastic and really kick it up, but aside from them most of the game retains this very constant level of bizzare intensity. The game arguably starts at 11, but it never quite getting to 12 means it's kinda easy to get used to the atmosphere by the time the game is wrapping up. If the main story maybe had a few levels less it would probably be better off. Also, the last level is absolutely awful. It might be making some sort of statement with it's awfulness but the one prior is immensely more cathartic and would have been a good way to go out.
Overall though, this is very neat. One of the more effective horror games I've played in a good while, and a decent immersive sim murder simulator thing to boot.
Special mention for the soundtrack, by the way, it's fantastic and the game would not be nearly as effective without it.
What the fuck happened here?
If no more heroes replaced its obscene amount of filler and bad ideas with the potential the things blatantly left on the cutting room floor had, It could be close to as good as the first game. Would probably still be a messy game that really didnt seem to get the original, but I think there's room in this world for such a gratuitous, cathartic game to exist.
A few individual components of NMH2 absolutely slap. The soundtrack is legitimately fantastic in a way that's different to the first game, and has some absolute belters, particularly "kill or be killed" and "philestine". The combat has been dramatically improved, and there's a handful of good boss fights. The new movesets are fun, The presentation is generally good and the budget has clearly massively increased this time round.
But boy is the connective tissue of this game terrible. The throughline of the plot alone relies on a severe stretching of a relationship from the first game and travis' personality, and it doesn't work. On top of that, the sequence of events is just all over the place, with things just happening one after the other. Travis has very little agency in a plot that is meant to be a personal revenge... thing.
NMH is really a shift. NMH1 is carried by theme and vibes, of which NMH2 has basically nothing. There's some gesturing towards... things but there's no time to dwell, most of the bosses barely say a word and the open world of santa destroy - a character in it's own that gives a grounding to the events of the game, is barely even a factor.
So the game's core strengths shifts to bombast and catharsis, in the improved combat and the bonkers set pieces. And about half of them are good. But again, they're completely all over the place, probably in the wrong order, and the pacing is bizzare.
For instance, late in the game, one of the best boss fights, with a great Vocal music track, and a good level before her - is proceeded by an outright bizzare 20-minute long fight against endless mooks in a car park without any music at all.
This car park fight is so remarkably, blatantly terrible and pointless that it almost makes me wonder if it's making a point, that the whole game is this deliberate kusoge mishmash about riding highs or something. I think that would be some serious Copium abuse though, frankly.
All said, NMH2 doesn't work. It's a very, very weak sequel to the original and is more interesting to disect than ponder. But for a short, wild ride, it's got enough bombast and absurdity to carry it for it's 5 hour runtime. And that's pretty much it.
If no more heroes replaced its obscene amount of filler and bad ideas with the potential the things blatantly left on the cutting room floor had, It could be close to as good as the first game. Would probably still be a messy game that really didnt seem to get the original, but I think there's room in this world for such a gratuitous, cathartic game to exist.
A few individual components of NMH2 absolutely slap. The soundtrack is legitimately fantastic in a way that's different to the first game, and has some absolute belters, particularly "kill or be killed" and "philestine". The combat has been dramatically improved, and there's a handful of good boss fights. The new movesets are fun, The presentation is generally good and the budget has clearly massively increased this time round.
But boy is the connective tissue of this game terrible. The throughline of the plot alone relies on a severe stretching of a relationship from the first game and travis' personality, and it doesn't work. On top of that, the sequence of events is just all over the place, with things just happening one after the other. Travis has very little agency in a plot that is meant to be a personal revenge... thing.
NMH is really a shift. NMH1 is carried by theme and vibes, of which NMH2 has basically nothing. There's some gesturing towards... things but there's no time to dwell, most of the bosses barely say a word and the open world of santa destroy - a character in it's own that gives a grounding to the events of the game, is barely even a factor.
So the game's core strengths shifts to bombast and catharsis, in the improved combat and the bonkers set pieces. And about half of them are good. But again, they're completely all over the place, probably in the wrong order, and the pacing is bizzare.
For instance, late in the game, one of the best boss fights, with a great Vocal music track, and a good level before her - is proceeded by an outright bizzare 20-minute long fight against endless mooks in a car park without any music at all.
This car park fight is so remarkably, blatantly terrible and pointless that it almost makes me wonder if it's making a point, that the whole game is this deliberate kusoge mishmash about riding highs or something. I think that would be some serious Copium abuse though, frankly.
All said, NMH2 doesn't work. It's a very, very weak sequel to the original and is more interesting to disect than ponder. But for a short, wild ride, it's got enough bombast and absurdity to carry it for it's 5 hour runtime. And that's pretty much it.
2007
This review contains spoilers
Ash has already done a very good review of this game which I won't try to live up to, read it, it's probably on top of the feed rn. So I won't go too deep into the game here, honestly.
But...
The #2 assasin in No More Heroes, Bad Girl, in her introduction, after murdering a bunch of gimps on a conveyer belt with a baseball bat, sits down, downs a beer, and despite being waaaaay too into the murder, remarks on it being the daily grind.
Whilst the more ridiculous, meta and upfront stuff comes in the following hour or so, this moment, which by no means is unsubtle, is what hit me most in NMH. Even this absolutely batshit lady who i want to step on me is stuck in the grind.
Because that's what NMH really is about for me. This absurd narcissistic fantasy story about travis where he's forced to rise and grind, GET THAT BREAD from working shitty jobs, doing deadlifts that demand way too many A presses, giving money to a grift, live like shit and only really finding solace in porn, getting way too into this one girl that pays attention to him and his delightfully low-poly kitten.
You ride around a shitty town on your piece of shit badly handling motorcyle, passing the same streets over and over going between a few locations just trying to eek out the living you want. Even if that living is heroic, or bullshit, the grind is all the same. Money is what makes things spin in this world. You can get caught up in your murderous fantasies and adventures all you want, but when it comes to us third-raters? Me, Travis, Bad Girl, we've got to pay rent all the same.
It's probably not the thing everyone takes from no more heroes. It's a game so heavily driven by vibes and themes that people are always going to latch onto different portions of it.
But for me, it's just that. We've all got to grind out paths. It won't be easy, whatever choices we make, whatever route we go down. So, we may as well take our true path.
But...
The #2 assasin in No More Heroes, Bad Girl, in her introduction, after murdering a bunch of gimps on a conveyer belt with a baseball bat, sits down, downs a beer, and despite being waaaaay too into the murder, remarks on it being the daily grind.
Whilst the more ridiculous, meta and upfront stuff comes in the following hour or so, this moment, which by no means is unsubtle, is what hit me most in NMH. Even this absolutely batshit lady who i want to step on me is stuck in the grind.
Because that's what NMH really is about for me. This absurd narcissistic fantasy story about travis where he's forced to rise and grind, GET THAT BREAD from working shitty jobs, doing deadlifts that demand way too many A presses, giving money to a grift, live like shit and only really finding solace in porn, getting way too into this one girl that pays attention to him and his delightfully low-poly kitten.
You ride around a shitty town on your piece of shit badly handling motorcyle, passing the same streets over and over going between a few locations just trying to eek out the living you want. Even if that living is heroic, or bullshit, the grind is all the same. Money is what makes things spin in this world. You can get caught up in your murderous fantasies and adventures all you want, but when it comes to us third-raters? Me, Travis, Bad Girl, we've got to pay rent all the same.
It's probably not the thing everyone takes from no more heroes. It's a game so heavily driven by vibes and themes that people are always going to latch onto different portions of it.
But for me, it's just that. We've all got to grind out paths. It won't be easy, whatever choices we make, whatever route we go down. So, we may as well take our true path.
A wonderfully maximilist, bonkers Shmup-Rhythm-Fighting-Action game... thing. Akachiverse is absolutely, wonderfully committed to the bit - that it's so ridiculosly intense and intricate that it's hard to tell what's going on at all.
The game's core conceit is that you're playing an overpowered character in a ridiculous world. Bullet patterns might be blatantly impossible for half the game, but you're also given a character who is given the ability to spam the shit out of fighting game moves that deal high damage, cancel projectiles, and do other shit. These bars charge really quickly and there's loads of options here, and thats only like, half the kit you have at your disposal. All the while you get Lunatic level touhou patterns sent your way at speeds rivalling dragon blaze. Oh, and occasionally there's dialogue sequences going over it which the game somewhat expects you to parse? Oh, and the bullets will often stop and start in beat to the music so i hope you've got your rhythm game hat on. Oh, also you have a super that turns you into a giant mecha boss with MORE special moves.
Even in a 30 minute STG, this could burn itself out or get stale fast. You'd think there's no way the game could keep it up, and it doesn't. It gets even more ridiculous, breaking its own rules, going full yume nikki and changing up the player character's own kit. It is utterly ludicrous, and feels like it shouldnt be playable at all, but it kinda is.
Kinda goes without saying at this point the game is bloody hard, even on the novice difficulty which gives you about 5x health. Even for STG veterans you're likely to struggle with it's smorgasboard of weird systems that the game expects you to remember and incorporate whilst bullets are flying at near-unreactable speeds towards you.
And to an extent, I feel there's only so good a game so committed to the bit like this can be. It's some Asura's Wrath levels of absurdity, and that's kinda it. It blows it's main influence, Hellsinker, out of the water and is really quite fun and absurd, but makes it also a little hard to take seriously beyond that, especially when the million moves the MC has dont exactly seem well balanced.
But this is a wild ride worth experiencing at least once. It's like £7 on steam and it's well worth that for how hard it goes. In a genre full of things that turn the intensity up to 11, Akashicverse breaks the dial.
Also, why is there Hotline Miami music in the tutorial? Did they get permission for that?
The game's core conceit is that you're playing an overpowered character in a ridiculous world. Bullet patterns might be blatantly impossible for half the game, but you're also given a character who is given the ability to spam the shit out of fighting game moves that deal high damage, cancel projectiles, and do other shit. These bars charge really quickly and there's loads of options here, and thats only like, half the kit you have at your disposal. All the while you get Lunatic level touhou patterns sent your way at speeds rivalling dragon blaze. Oh, and occasionally there's dialogue sequences going over it which the game somewhat expects you to parse? Oh, and the bullets will often stop and start in beat to the music so i hope you've got your rhythm game hat on. Oh, also you have a super that turns you into a giant mecha boss with MORE special moves.
Even in a 30 minute STG, this could burn itself out or get stale fast. You'd think there's no way the game could keep it up, and it doesn't. It gets even more ridiculous, breaking its own rules, going full yume nikki and changing up the player character's own kit. It is utterly ludicrous, and feels like it shouldnt be playable at all, but it kinda is.
Kinda goes without saying at this point the game is bloody hard, even on the novice difficulty which gives you about 5x health. Even for STG veterans you're likely to struggle with it's smorgasboard of weird systems that the game expects you to remember and incorporate whilst bullets are flying at near-unreactable speeds towards you.
And to an extent, I feel there's only so good a game so committed to the bit like this can be. It's some Asura's Wrath levels of absurdity, and that's kinda it. It blows it's main influence, Hellsinker, out of the water and is really quite fun and absurd, but makes it also a little hard to take seriously beyond that, especially when the million moves the MC has dont exactly seem well balanced.
But this is a wild ride worth experiencing at least once. It's like £7 on steam and it's well worth that for how hard it goes. In a genre full of things that turn the intensity up to 11, Akashicverse breaks the dial.
Also, why is there Hotline Miami music in the tutorial? Did they get permission for that?
All the jank, technical issues issues, and rubbish stages of a ZUN game without the overwhelming charm those games have. FDF2 is a fan remake of Perfect Cherry Blossom that is just a waste of time.
I will say there's some good stuff here. The character artwork is fairly nice, and it's quite interesting to see a game basically be extremely faithful to the ZUN formula, but with a bit of a twist in that it almost seems like a mirror world touhou where ZUN got away with tracing the art well past EOSD, or maybe had a bigger support team.
And if the game had the polish to go along with it's artwork, it would be fine. But it's not. Controller compatibility is an absolute mess, resolution only goes up to 720p for no apparent reason, you have to use an awkward setup every time you boot the game - the UX in this game is as bad as the early windows XP touhous, which is very bad for a game from 2019.
And frankly, the game would just be better off doing it's own thing. The team here clearly has some aptitude, the art's nice, the remixes are good, and there's definetly room in this world for a more polished fan approach to Touhou - see Luna Nights. This is just the worst of both worlds.
I will say there's some good stuff here. The character artwork is fairly nice, and it's quite interesting to see a game basically be extremely faithful to the ZUN formula, but with a bit of a twist in that it almost seems like a mirror world touhou where ZUN got away with tracing the art well past EOSD, or maybe had a bigger support team.
And if the game had the polish to go along with it's artwork, it would be fine. But it's not. Controller compatibility is an absolute mess, resolution only goes up to 720p for no apparent reason, you have to use an awkward setup every time you boot the game - the UX in this game is as bad as the early windows XP touhous, which is very bad for a game from 2019.
And frankly, the game would just be better off doing it's own thing. The team here clearly has some aptitude, the art's nice, the remixes are good, and there's definetly room in this world for a more polished fan approach to Touhou - see Luna Nights. This is just the worst of both worlds.
Touhou, by and large, is something im not a huge fan of. Its a series of wildly varying quality that suffers from sameyness, a terrible fanbase and some general gameplay issues that pervade from game to game.
Most notably of these, Touhou stages are shit. The games are always defined by their fantastic boss battles, but the other half of the game is always, always, forgettable and nothing special. And this is where UFO really shines.
UFO's key is in its eponymous system, where collecting
3 UFO items of the same colour or of all different items spawn a UFO, a docile enemy that sucks up drops, and when it's sucked up enough and killed, drops additional items such as life fragments, bombs, or a shittonne of score. More importantly than this, on death, they cancel all enemy bullets, which is absolutely massive. It is frankly, a Genius system, mostly because of how it interacts with the existing Touhou item drop formula, how it encourages both clever stage routing and on-the fly adaptation, and encourages the player to be far more active in movement as UFO items are so important to both scoring and survival, and therefore it rewards weaving through bullets and take risks to make the most out of it. It is exactly the sort of thing Touhou stages need, and it turns the worst part of the EOSD-onwards Touhous into the best part.
Well, maybe. I think it's fair to say UFO also has incredibly rock solid bosses. Touhou never really falters on the bosses, and whilst I can hardly call myself an authority on them, they're great here, particularly Stage 6's boss.
The music is also just lovely. ZUN spices this one up a bit more than the other Post-EOSD games i've played, with the latter stages including some more varied instrumentation and styling to his traditional faire, which really works well. Stage 4 and the Stage 6 boss track are clear standouts for me and just make the game that little bit more special.
It's still a Windows Touhou, so the art is bad, it looks very similar to other games from the time, and frankly you have to jump through some hoops to get it in english and you're stuck with awkward compatibility and resolutions going up to the mighty 1280x960. Fuck you if you want it fullscreen, by the way.
But yeah, ZUN did it. This is by far the best Touhou i've played and just a top-tier STG in general. A fantastic gimmick accompanied by a Touhou game of high quality in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, this is his Magnum Opus.
I hope the money I unneccessarily spent on the Steam version of this game gets ZUN a nice beer. I almost forgive him for Violet Detector.
Most notably of these, Touhou stages are shit. The games are always defined by their fantastic boss battles, but the other half of the game is always, always, forgettable and nothing special. And this is where UFO really shines.
UFO's key is in its eponymous system, where collecting
3 UFO items of the same colour or of all different items spawn a UFO, a docile enemy that sucks up drops, and when it's sucked up enough and killed, drops additional items such as life fragments, bombs, or a shittonne of score. More importantly than this, on death, they cancel all enemy bullets, which is absolutely massive. It is frankly, a Genius system, mostly because of how it interacts with the existing Touhou item drop formula, how it encourages both clever stage routing and on-the fly adaptation, and encourages the player to be far more active in movement as UFO items are so important to both scoring and survival, and therefore it rewards weaving through bullets and take risks to make the most out of it. It is exactly the sort of thing Touhou stages need, and it turns the worst part of the EOSD-onwards Touhous into the best part.
Well, maybe. I think it's fair to say UFO also has incredibly rock solid bosses. Touhou never really falters on the bosses, and whilst I can hardly call myself an authority on them, they're great here, particularly Stage 6's boss.
The music is also just lovely. ZUN spices this one up a bit more than the other Post-EOSD games i've played, with the latter stages including some more varied instrumentation and styling to his traditional faire, which really works well. Stage 4 and the Stage 6 boss track are clear standouts for me and just make the game that little bit more special.
It's still a Windows Touhou, so the art is bad, it looks very similar to other games from the time, and frankly you have to jump through some hoops to get it in english and you're stuck with awkward compatibility and resolutions going up to the mighty 1280x960. Fuck you if you want it fullscreen, by the way.
But yeah, ZUN did it. This is by far the best Touhou i've played and just a top-tier STG in general. A fantastic gimmick accompanied by a Touhou game of high quality in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, this is his Magnum Opus.
I hope the money I unneccessarily spent on the Steam version of this game gets ZUN a nice beer. I almost forgive him for Violet Detector.