DKMode
1997
Making a Mega Man Zelda-like is just a good idea and this executes it really well. I like how the dungeons are more like a dungeon crawler - mapping floors out, having limited resources and pushing as far as you can - than puzzle-solving. Perfect blue-sky-era Capcom vibes too; the low-poly characters are so expressive and the whole thing feels like a beautiful fun kids anime.
Thought I was gonna really like this because the idea of autobattlers has always been appealing to me but they're all PvP and I don't have time for that. Unfortunately, the strategy is not that interesting and the writing is all reheated nerd shit. Beat it once, do not need to play again.
This review contains spoilers
Off the top, this a very good open-world game. It's very much a Ubisoft-style icon-driven climb-the-towers kinda deal, but, buoyed by an already-great battle system with some slight added complexity and 7 party members each with their own unique mechanics, it evolves into something that plays wonderfully within the form. With all the bespoke side quests, wild variety of mini-games, and a whole-ass, really good card game, it's extremely easy to bounce around from task-to-task and wonder where your last 5 hours went. It feels like the dev team played a lot of Yakuza between Remake and Rebirth. The dungeons are way better than in Remake and the boss fights are excellent. Just like Remake, it is extremely good at endearing the characters to you with many small, funny interactions. The music is uniformly excellent. This is an 80 hour game but between all of this I only started to get tired of it right near the end. If I was younger I might've 100%-ed it, and had a good time doing so. As a videogame-ass videogame, Square-Enix nailed it.
But Rebirth has to answer a lot of open questions posed by Remake and I have to say it pretty much totally fumbles the bag. The end of Remake suggested a wide open plain, the characters no longer shackled by the past, a promise that nothing is sacred and everything you knew of the original FF7 could turn out differently. Rebirth throws this away. It rejiggers the order of things, there are some new ideas, there's lore that didn't used to be there, and oh boy the multiverse is here. But fundamentally this hits the same beats, big and small, as the original, even when it acts like it doesn't.
Aerith's fate is the obvious question at the heart of it, and what the game lands on is the worst of both worlds. Nomura cannot imagine Aerith as anything but defined by her death, but since the assumption is that the player is going in knowing how this plays out in the original - or maybe to create some sort of vagueness or mystery around what actually happened? The intention is unclear, though the events aren't really - it also skips over the emotional catharsis entirely. No "Shut up.", no laying Aerith to rest, no expressions of real grief. Aerith is still dead and still in the lifestream, praying to save the world. The only difference is that she can appear as a force ghost now.
The last few hours of this game has made me extremely cynical about the Remake project as a whole, with all of those little new details, all that loudness, amounting to various bits of icing on the same 30 year old cake. What once seemed like a well of possibility is instead revealed as slavishly devoted to the original, while simultaneously skipping over many of the dramatic moments that made it hit in the first place. It would've been better if they picked a lane - a weirdo remake/sequel for the OG fans or a straight re-telling for a new generation, with all the big moments intact and rendered in high definition. Instead you get a middleground that satisfies nobody.
It's frustrating to like something so much and have it almost entirely fall apart in its final hours. I'm too morbidly curious not to see how this whole thing wraps up, but mostly I wish this very talented team could be removed from the overwhelming weight of expectation and make something entirely new.
But Rebirth has to answer a lot of open questions posed by Remake and I have to say it pretty much totally fumbles the bag. The end of Remake suggested a wide open plain, the characters no longer shackled by the past, a promise that nothing is sacred and everything you knew of the original FF7 could turn out differently. Rebirth throws this away. It rejiggers the order of things, there are some new ideas, there's lore that didn't used to be there, and oh boy the multiverse is here. But fundamentally this hits the same beats, big and small, as the original, even when it acts like it doesn't.
Aerith's fate is the obvious question at the heart of it, and what the game lands on is the worst of both worlds. Nomura cannot imagine Aerith as anything but defined by her death, but since the assumption is that the player is going in knowing how this plays out in the original - or maybe to create some sort of vagueness or mystery around what actually happened? The intention is unclear, though the events aren't really - it also skips over the emotional catharsis entirely. No "Shut up.", no laying Aerith to rest, no expressions of real grief. Aerith is still dead and still in the lifestream, praying to save the world. The only difference is that she can appear as a force ghost now.
The last few hours of this game has made me extremely cynical about the Remake project as a whole, with all of those little new details, all that loudness, amounting to various bits of icing on the same 30 year old cake. What once seemed like a well of possibility is instead revealed as slavishly devoted to the original, while simultaneously skipping over many of the dramatic moments that made it hit in the first place. It would've been better if they picked a lane - a weirdo remake/sequel for the OG fans or a straight re-telling for a new generation, with all the big moments intact and rendered in high definition. Instead you get a middleground that satisfies nobody.
It's frustrating to like something so much and have it almost entirely fall apart in its final hours. I'm too morbidly curious not to see how this whole thing wraps up, but mostly I wish this very talented team could be removed from the overwhelming weight of expectation and make something entirely new.
2014
Kinda funny how this game is simultaneously more and less complete than Halo, like they ran out of money and time but in a totally different way.
Anyways this campaign is longer than the first one's, yet doesn't have as many memorable setpieces. Lots of just walking through cities/hallways and Playing Halo, which isn't bad but is missing some bigger moments to punctuate it. Weapon balance has always felt off in this one to me, melee-ing isn't satisfying anymore and all the weapons from the first game are noticeably worse than they used to be. Between dual-wielding, vehicle hijacking, and the whole wack of new weapons though (at least 2 or 3 of which are iconic) the game's mechanics feel much more "complete". And as much as the plot is kinda dumb and the game doesn't have an ending, it does have The Arbiter, so I can't complain too much.
Anyways this campaign is longer than the first one's, yet doesn't have as many memorable setpieces. Lots of just walking through cities/hallways and Playing Halo, which isn't bad but is missing some bigger moments to punctuate it. Weapon balance has always felt off in this one to me, melee-ing isn't satisfying anymore and all the weapons from the first game are noticeably worse than they used to be. Between dual-wielding, vehicle hijacking, and the whole wack of new weapons though (at least 2 or 3 of which are iconic) the game's mechanics feel much more "complete". And as much as the plot is kinda dumb and the game doesn't have an ending, it does have The Arbiter, so I can't complain too much.
2024
Not nearly done with this but marking it as Complete cuz i'm just gonna be playing it constantly here and there for like....a long time. No reason to have that tracked on my profile imo!
Balatro rules. I am always willing to check out a new roguelike deckbuilder but they never stick, usually I just go back to climbing ascensions in Slay the Spire. Largely this is because they boil down to "StS but with a twist", but the twist ends up just diluting the initial spark. Balatro feels actually new, it's not like it's completely separate from StS but the framing and mechanics are quite different and it feels really fresh and exciting. You can definitely get boned with RNG but it usually happens early in a run, and runs are short enough that it's not a huuuuuge issue.
Balatro rules. I am always willing to check out a new roguelike deckbuilder but they never stick, usually I just go back to climbing ascensions in Slay the Spire. Largely this is because they boil down to "StS but with a twist", but the twist ends up just diluting the initial spark. Balatro feels actually new, it's not like it's completely separate from StS but the framing and mechanics are quite different and it feels really fresh and exciting. You can definitely get boned with RNG but it usually happens early in a run, and runs are short enough that it's not a huuuuuge issue.
1995
Technically "better" than Dream Land but that one's more impressive since it's the first one in the series, and this one has to follow Adventure which is a tall order that it can't live up to. Lots of good tunes and it's really pushing the hardware visually which I can respect but the level design is meh and the animal buddies aren't central enough to make up for the small number of copy abilities. I usually 100% Kirby games because they make it worthwhile but Rainbow Drops are way too annoying for me to bother with. It's still Kirby so it's still solid enough but easily the weakest one I've played so far.
2006
A couple puzzles that I got frustrated with but I really like the small scale these games operate in and that theyre basically solvable without a walkthrough. This one doesn't have a wild twist the way the first one did but it's got a better intertwined set of mysteries and the way you can swap between the two protagonists is smart. Good stuff!
One day I'll replay this, thought it was great at the time but don't ask me to remember anything else about it!
2004
Remember thinking at the time that this was pretty cool and polished but also forgettable. I realize that this happened in Jak 2, a game I will never play, but it's still pretty funny that they gave Jak from Jak and Daxter a goatee and a gun.
Was more conflicted about this when it came out, in retrospect despite digging everything it's doing aesthetically I just don't think it works - the UI gets in the way of the combat being readable and the writing is on-the-nose in a way that was already dated in 2021 and probably comes off even worse in 2024. There's some decent character beats and I have a lot of empathy for what Love was trying to do here but I don't think she was particularly successful. Between this and Don't Take It Personally it may just be the case that Love is not great at overtly topical writing.
2016
Probably gonna get roasted for playing a porn game but but but I genuinely think this has some of the best conversation mechanics in games. Every conversation is a tight-rope walk where you have to juggle various interests (including potentially porn-y ones!) to get the result you want and this is maybe the only game I've ever played that has properly validated rude and catty dialogue options, never mind made them fun. Moment-to-moment this is Love's best, funniest, most well-observed writing (though admittedly I should probably replay Analogue, and I never played Hate Plus).
And in the interest of not making it seem like i'm reading playboy for the articles, the sex parts are also pretty good, i dunno what to tell ya.
And in the interest of not making it seem like i'm reading playboy for the articles, the sex parts are also pretty good, i dunno what to tell ya.
I don't remember much about the game but I remember the feeling of playing it late at night on my laptop while lying on my bedroom floor and being sad. Brother Android goated.
I like Christine Love's work quite a bit and I liked this one at the time too but it's been largely forgotten for a reason - the central setup/mechanics are solid but it leads to some pretty uncomfortable character dynamics and the conclusions it reaches vis a vis The Youths and privacy are just kinda thrown out there without much consideration or grounding in anything real.
This review contains spoilers
Everything great about Sonic Adventure 2 is represented here functionally (movement and jumping that feels good when the camera is behaving, big levels with various routes through them, the way that it follows a racing game-esque progression where later levels are more about picking the spots to not go full-speed on) and aesthetically (butt rock with on-the-nose lyrics at pivotal moments, a dope-ass super saiyan final boss fight). Doesn't really have the budget or manpower to get all the way there - and struggles to find a reason to keep the combat mechanics from the first game - but damn does it get close, especially considering it was largely made by one guy.
Everyone who said this is the best 2D Sonic is 100% correct. Wildly confident, clearly a team firing on all cylinders with all they learned throughout the console's lifespan, and it's got a pretty generous save system so you can just play it normally and have a good time. Blown away.