I'm not very big into Star Wars nowadays, but after having a blast with Battlefront II and seeing how hype the trailers for Survivor have been I decided it was the perfect time to replay this as I've been meaning to get to it for a while. I also made sure to play it over a month before the sequel comes out to avoid burnout and as I'm sitting here writing this while watching the credits scroll I think that was definitely a smart decision.

That is not to insult this game as I did actually even enjoy it a little more this time around, but there are some pretty big issues I have with it that hold it back for me. For one, the gameplay isn't always the most satisfying. When I first played this game I had virtually no experience with Soulslikes but now I consider them a genre I really enjoy (even if I rarely find the time to play them) and I was able to pick up on more of the similarities this time around. But really its more of a Soulslite and I don't find the implementation of many staples the genre is known for to really compliment this game in meaningful ways. The lightsaber combat is pretty good - the lack of dismemberment disappointing but understandable - but it doesn't really feel as tight or as in depth as I'd expect other games like this to be. Also quite frankly while there is a good amount of enemy types, I found virtually every single one that wasnt a stormtrooper variation to be a huge pain in the ass to fight. Thats not to say that its not fun still and pushing enemies off cliffs will never not be fun, but by the time i reached the final boss I was just pretty over the system in general and ended up dropping it to story mode just to get done with it. Skill issue? perhaps but I know if FromSoft added an easy mode update to all of their games right this moment I would still never go for it. Basically the combat is good but the challenge feels more reliant on being annoying than actually honing skill.

My only other big issue with this is that the PS5 version at the very least is quite buggy. I don't remember if it was this noticeable for my first playthrough on ps4 but there were a whole lot of little things that just kinda got in the way. Once or twice Cal just randomly died for no reason during platforming sections, sometimes in fights where you get swarmed and stunlocked the camera fucked off and made it really hard to see and there were multiple cutscenes with out of sync audio that had to be fixed by closing the game. Another thing thats not really a glitch but a bit bothersome is the huge amount of clipping. The ponchos are stylish (but severely lacking in color options like cmon) and optional but its a pretty big distraction to see Cal's hands and legs phase through them in every cutscene and I wish they put a little more care into that. And this is the game that has multiple different lightsaber holstering animations that have a lot of personality so I really doubt its from a lack of love.

Story wise I think the game is pretty solid. I like the whole cast and it has some pretty good arcs and emotional moments. But it does really suffer from feeling like the first in a series. I am very curious to see where the story goes with Survivor but the story definitely feels a little underwhelming where Fallen Order ends off. Its kinda at a point where the main goal is complete but theres no real setup for how the story will continue and it just doesnt entirely work. Cal is a likeable protagonist and I am looking forward to see what they do with his character, I especially want to see more of Merrin as well. The gameplay loop mostly has you traveling back and forth between planets and there is maybe a bit too much backtracking but there are always new areas opened up so its not like you're replaying the same exact thing again and again. I also found the puzzles to be a lot more enjoyable on this playthrough where I remember them being kinda annoying to begin with. I don't generally like puzzles but the ones in this are pretty well thought out and done so I dont have any complaints about them. Overall despite having some technical issues and some complaints about the story and combat as a standalone this is a really great single player Star Wars game that I'm glad is as successful as it is.

Seeing as its been said that this story is planned as a trilogy I am more than okay with that. I definitely am a little unsure on what the story of Survivor will end up being. My biggest hopes after completing this was for a bigger cast and more of them beyond mostly just staying back at the Mantis but It seems like Survivor is going in a different direction. There is apparently a prequel graphic novel meant to explain what happens inbetween the two games but I ain't paying 15 dollars to read it and so I really just hope they have some good ideas and that they don't give the game an ending that super suffers from middle child syndrome. Beyond that I just hope its a little more polished and honestly it's looking like a big step up in a lot of ways. I'll get back to you in May for my review on that one as well :p

Thanks for reading y'all. Still working on a couple other reviews but can't say when they'll be out. I really appreciate you if you've made it this far. See you next time <3

Nancymeter - 81/100 (oh wow a 2 point increase!!)
Time Played: 14 hours for this playthrough
Trophy Completion - 100%
Game Completion #4 of March
Game Completion #54 of 2023

This game is fun as hell. Another great soul-like action RPG from Team Ninja. The story is forgettable but let's be real we aren't here for that. The gameplay is where it's at. Gameplay feels like a perfect mix of Nioh and Sekiro. The deflecting is challenging at first but once you master it feels fantastic. On top of all that, the multiplayer is solid. Played with some friends and it was a blast. Nioh 2 is still Team Ninja's magnum opus but this is still another great game from them. The only reason I can't rate this higher is that it lacks enemy variety. Wish it had more enemie types but I'm positive if they solve this issue and maybe make a more interesting story for the sequel it can be as good as Nioh 2.

Cold Steel 1, being the first Trails game I have played thus far, was a very good time and left me generally impressed.

Since i do not have other games in the series to draw comparison to, I can't really say how i feel about it as a member of this series. That being said, I quite enjoyed my time with this game. The combat's movement point based system is a fun twist on the turn-based gameplay that so many JRPGs have, although it does admittedly still have some of the same pitfalls when it comes to enemies and boss fights. it's generally solid- but it certainly starts to get tiresome towards that latter third of the game.

Gamplay aside, the story, characters, and world, are very much the meat of this game (as they are in many rpgs) and I personally feel like all of these things hold up pretty well in this game. I liked a majority of the main and sidecast- although admittedly i can't say i love any of them either. One thing that did greatly impress me about Cold Steel is its dedication to worldbuilding. The universe of this game is very detailed and filled with believable politics of a massive early modern world, as well as a great effort put into its in-world locations. It's rare to see the same level of worldbuilding in many JRPGs, most of which opt for a more straight forward approach. That said- one thing that does hurt the world building in this game is the visual design of enemies- there are lots of very odd and unusual creatures and ghosts which really feel out of place in the world, often reminding me of a the kind of enemy design seen in Dragon Quest but less comical and cartoony. I'm personally not a fan of this, but it obviously isn't a deal breaker.

The soundtrack of this game is also very good- with a pretty nostalgic assortment of synth and traditional instruments that resembles the early 2000s era of game music.

As for the story of this game itself, I definitely enjoyed it as well as the setup for conflict later on in the plot. That said, the story of cold steel greatly overstays its welcome- it makes you think you are finished like 3 different times only to keep on going. To make this worse, the story definitely spirals out of control in near the end. The last several hours of this game is a mess of tropes and twists and cliche dialogue, only to end on a cliffhanger anyway. It certainly dampened the experience, but i still enjoyed it for what it was.

Overall, I come out of this game happy that i played it and looking forward to the next one, but Its flaws hold it back from making it into my top games.

As a lover of Sekiro, this game scratched that itch in a way that not many games are able to. Wo Long has an awesome core combat loop, with some cool mechanics that help to enhance the game. Spirit affecting all actions in different ways starts out as a relatively simple mechanic, but is actually quite complex. After a few hours, I was weaving attacks, deflections, guards, and dodges while keeping an eye on that meter to see when I could unleash spells or special attacks. The elemental system is a little confusing given how many different interactions there are, and I was able to mostly ignore it aside from a few enemies that required exploiting their weaknesses. It's not quite Sekiro with its rhythm-like zen state, but it's still a solid combat experience. Outside of combat, I actually found myself enjoying the mission-based structure versus open world due to open world fatigue, and I found the morale/fortitude system to be a welcome addition which rewards exploration. It was fun trying to fully uncover the flags in each level to ensure myself a better shot at beating the mission's boss. Outside of gameplay, the game's story is pretty obtuse if you're not familiar with the characters they're using (and I'm not) and there were some graphical hitches and crashes, but neither of those aspects detracted from the core experience for me.

So far this year I've beaten things like Rogue Warrior, Life of Black Tiger, Orc Slayer, Duke Nukem Forever, Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back and much more of equally nonexistant quality. The Quiet Man? It's worse than all of those.

I will go so far to even say that it is my least favorite game I've ever played. I can't call it the worst game of all time as there are many games that are so broken that its impossible to even beat them. However I genuinely wish this was one of those because the 2.99 I spent on this would of had more use in the fucking blender. From story to gameplay to anything else you can think of that makes up a game The Quiet Man completely and utterly fails at.

So to start, the main concept of the game is that since the main character is deaf the vast majority of the game barring the first and last cutscene is nearly completely silent. Only via a second playthrough do you get the option of experiencing the audio, but more on that in a bit. I do think this is actually a really interesting concept but the abysmal execution makes the entire thing fall apart. Firstly there is no subtitles. This is understandable to a degree as you'd naturally assume the whole point of this "mechanic" is that you don't get to hear or understand anything the main character can't. But it doesn't actually work like that. There's maybe one or two instances in the game where anyone uses sign language. The main character very clearly is at the least able to read lips or something of the sort as in every single cutscene he is capable of having conversations and understanding everything being said to him. So why no subtitles? Why does the game open with a message explicitly emphasizing that there are no subtitles. The whole point of the game just completely falls apart because of this. What's worse is that these cutscenes are pointlessly long slog-fests. The game is thankfully only a couple of hours long but so much of it is just spent in these torturously long completely silent scenes of people just fucking talking. Not to mention extended completely silent scenes of a woman singing and playing piano. There are zero interesting visuals to accompany it either, and the framing and composition for the FMVs makes CW shows look like they were filmed by Roger Deakins in comparison. This is all to say that it is fucking boring as god damn motherfucking shit. This would be a great way to get your kids to go to sleep but honestly letting anyone play or watch this is probably highly unethical. And guess what? Knowing the dialogue and story actually makes this even worse. Im convinced that the whole no subtitles thing to make this as unnecessarily cryptic as possible is entirely to mask the fact that the actual story is fuckass. The new game plus audio thing wasnt even in the original game! It had to be patched in because people were rightfully complaining about how miserable this game is. If I'm being completely honest I did not and will not be fully playing this game again to experience the full story. From what i've heard and seen it is so terrible on a base factor (and so easily to tell so from what you're able to piece together of it in your first playthrough) and I highly doubt any new information could possibly save this game. There is some twists near the end and it takes a weird supernatural turn that's just... like I can't even begin to explain it man its just so stupid. In summary the cutscenes are too long, the story is terrible, and the dialogue only makes it worse. But hey, that's only one half of the game. Surely the actual gameplay is better?

The gameplay of The Quiet Man is arguably a dozen times worse than the stupid ass story. It is janky, unpolished and barebones to a laughable degree. There is basically zero explanation to anything, all you have to go off is a really awful menu that just shows symbols instead of just telling you what the buttons do so you're mostly left to button mashing your way through the whole game. And honestly thats really all you need to do for the most part. It's so poorly put together that you can just spam attack through nearly the entire thing. The enemies are the same couple ones with very minimal variance throughout most of the game. They clip through the environments and don't have transition animations so they often just teleport all over the place. The reused characters is so funny too especially when some are in the FMV cutscenes so its especially noticeable. Also not to insinuate anything but besides like some of the bosses, literally every enemy in this is a minority... so on top of everything else that's maybe not the best look. Despite how stupidly easy it is to just button mash through all of the encounters the game can be randomly hard at times. A big chunk of this is definitely because of how the controls aren't explained at all and you're expected to do certain actions for some enemies but more than this the camera is total garbage and there are multiple instances of cutscenes being flashed on screen during the combat making it hard to even see what's happening. Just as easily as you can stunlock enemies they can stunlock you and your character is very frail. Also like previously mentioned the characters just teleport around between animations so its just a huge clusterfuck of game vomit. Also they have the audacity to have a trophy for beating the game without getting hit, which is really funny.

Yeah, thats kinda all I have to say about this game. There's some other random shit like how bland it looks, like how the death loading screens being your mom/love interest looking at you lovingly. She has nice eyes and a good smile so thats basically the only part of the game I enjoyed more than I enjoy stubbing my toe. Also yeah, the same actress is used for both the main characters mom in flashbacks and as the main characters love interest. I'm not gonna comment further on it, I'm just as confused as you are. There's more I could complain about, endlessly even. But I'm tired of talking about this game lmao. In summary, this game is terrible and It's my least favorite game I've ever completed. It also gets the honor of being the very first game I ever give a 0/100 to, so congrats!

Thanks for reading y'all. Sorry this is only my third review three months in. Typing is just hard lol. I'm working on a Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection review at the moment so hopefully it won't be too long before you see me again. Take care, don't play this game.

Nancymeter - 0/100
Time Played - too damn much
Trophy Completion - who cares
Game Completion #1 of March
Game Completion #51 of 2023

I think it's one of the best games I've played, and it's a massive improvement from God of War 2018 in every way. The graphics are stunning and beautiful with a fantastic art direction to make the environments of the Nine Realms pop out as vividly and colorful as possible, from lust jungles to chilly snowscapes. Honestly, it's one of the most visually appealing games I've ever played and I think I would say the same even if I played it on PS4.

The combat and gameplay are almost the same from 2018 but it helps a lot it gets going much faster since you can use the blade of chaos almost immediately when you start the game and you obtain another weapon 2/3 into the game. You get pseudo-RPG elements like crafting weapons and armor, skill trees, different runic abilities, and amulets slots to increase stats.

My only personal grip is I wish Kratos could get stronger overtime without relying on overall equipment quality, such as a level system that isn't just gear level. It's honestly the one thing that is preventing me from calling Ragnarok a full-on RPG and I wish they commit to it but overall the game is fine with its equipment system is honestly more in-depth than the average action game.

The story is easily the biggest improvement from 2018 and the strongest part of the game. Unlike 2018 when Kratos and Atreus have a clear goal at the start and it's just all about the journey rather than the destination. Ragnarok has a more focused plot and it's unpredictable since the stakes are higher and the scope is grander. The story manages to achieve this well by setting how dire the situation around Kratos and Atreus is from the very start and it slowly builds up more and more.

It just had me hooked and wanting to play more and more until the end, especially with the plot twists near the end that not even I saw coming. The dual protagonist system between Kratos and Atreus being able to showcase different perspectives of the story serves well. And it especially highlights character themes such as trust in familial relationships, wanting to protect each other even if it means lying to them, dealing with grief and forgiveness across various characters around the father and son duo. It definitely has so much emotional payoff, I almost cried twice myself during the story.
Ragonrok just masterfully explores these character themes while still keeping the overall plot intact.

Not to mention there is just so much lore and world-building beyond the main story. Every side quest adds to either the Nine Realms' lore or fleshes out the characters to some degree and it's never just busy work or filter. That is something a lot of games struggle with these days. Even random objects such as poems or artifacts or even idle chat during travel shine on a small part of the characters' interests and pasts. Ragnarok engages the player with so much story and detail in almost every possible moment beyond cutscenes.

If I do have some minor quips, my only complaints besides the gear level system are the number of puzzles and how restricted movement is. I am aware God of War always had puzzles in between combat sections and story but it just felt so abundance and cryptic, I felt like I was dealing with puzzles every 5 minutes and it just hurts the flow of the combat-to-story loop of Ragnarok. That is to say, the quality of the puzzles is overall good and clever, I just wish they were fewer of them. Maybe that will also free up how restrictive it is to move around the game because revisiting areas to clean up the game feels a bit of a chore.

Besides a few gameplay designs I'm not much of a fan of, I have absolutely no complaints with the story at all and that is extremely rare for me to say in any piece of fiction, not just in video games. God of War Ragnarok took the dramatic storytelling with huge stakes and epic scopes of God of War 3 while combining it with the overall game design and philosophy of God of War 2018 to create the definitive and greatest God of War experience yet.

I was skeptical of the hype and how awarded it was at first but after experiencing Ragnarok for myself, this is one of the few pieces of art that lives up to its reputation extremely well and I fully understand every piece of praise it gets. This is truly one of the greatest games of all time, it's even peak fiction as far as I am concerned and that is something I don't say lightly at all. It does require some commitment as playing God of War 2018 is the bare minimum (the recap does not do any justice at all) but in the end, it's one of the best payoffs I've experienced in a story and I can easily recommend it anyone to do the same if they just want a raw, fantastic and amazing story.