Deeznutsgottem
WOW this game was a trip. Ai the somnium files really scratched an itch for me, the slow drip feed of clues throughout the game really had my imagination running wild until all was revealed. I think that the way the mystery unfolds in this game is really well done, I myself predicted about half of the major things that unfolded, with the half I didn't predict still being hinted at by the game and being very well done reveals.
One of my biggest complaints about this game is the repetition of some plot points and the slow pace of some it's sections especially on the start of right side. Even with the poor pacing at times I'd say I loved almost every ending (and the only one I didn't love being Mizukis ending was still partly fantastic) and I really feel that the game stuck the landing overall.
The cast of characters is the other best thing about this game. Date and Aiba are a great main duo. Ota and his mum almost made me cry in their ending. Boss was also great and has a ton great moments with Date. Mizuki is such a well written kid character and Iris definitely grew on me over the course of the game. Moma was surprisingly great aswell, his appearance at the end of game genuinely made me scream. Also the English VAs did great overall honestly great performances all around.
The Somniums are the "puzzle" element of this game and overall they are a mixed bag. Some are really good, whether for being fun puzzles or driving the plot forward, but others don't push the plot forward or just aren't fun puzzles.
The humour in this game is the only thing I really disliked. The occasional reference got a laugh out of me but the constant mention of porno mags and Date's fetishes grew old really quick.
Overall, game slaps, fantastic characters and mystery but the slow sections and the humour hold it back a bit.
One of my biggest complaints about this game is the repetition of some plot points and the slow pace of some it's sections especially on the start of right side. Even with the poor pacing at times I'd say I loved almost every ending (and the only one I didn't love being Mizukis ending was still partly fantastic) and I really feel that the game stuck the landing overall.
The cast of characters is the other best thing about this game. Date and Aiba are a great main duo. Ota and his mum almost made me cry in their ending. Boss was also great and has a ton great moments with Date. Mizuki is such a well written kid character and Iris definitely grew on me over the course of the game. Moma was surprisingly great aswell, his appearance at the end of game genuinely made me scream. Also the English VAs did great overall honestly great performances all around.
The Somniums are the "puzzle" element of this game and overall they are a mixed bag. Some are really good, whether for being fun puzzles or driving the plot forward, but others don't push the plot forward or just aren't fun puzzles.
The humour in this game is the only thing I really disliked. The occasional reference got a laugh out of me but the constant mention of porno mags and Date's fetishes grew old really quick.
Overall, game slaps, fantastic characters and mystery but the slow sections and the humour hold it back a bit.
2003
Pokemon colosseum is an odd one when compared to the rest of the franchise. With it being a spinoff it has a different way of doing things, the most notable things being it's double battle system, it's darker tone and it's difficulty.
There are multiple reasons as to why this game is hard. The first reason being the very limited pokemon pool with it being more than eight times smaller than the modern games which have around 400 in their base games. This makes it so that you're options for team buliding are quite limited. Combine that with a lot of the good TMs being quite hard to obtain it names for a very very limited team building experience.
Now even with this said you can build good teams and when you have a good team built the late game is one of my favourites in the franchise with every late game team having great team comps and tricky strategies making the majority of these battles engaging and sometimes nail bitingly close, the final battle being extremely difficult with the types of strategies that have been seen in the competitive scene over the years.
The other thing that this game is known is it's tone. Being darker than most of the other games and stealing pokemon instead of catching them, although even when to compared to other pokemon games I'd say there other with mature storylines. The story itself isn't too dissimilar from the evil team plots of the mainline games but the twist that the player character used to be apart of one of the evil teams and defected by blowing a hole in their base and stealing their most prized possession is a really cool one.
Coloseum is a lot more streamlined than most other pokemon games in both its exploration aswell getting rid off routes in favour of small town sections to keep the attention on the battling.
Overall pokemon colosseum is a flawed in some of its executions of its ideas but the design of the battles in this entry still makes this a satisfying to play unique entry in the pokemon series.
There are multiple reasons as to why this game is hard. The first reason being the very limited pokemon pool with it being more than eight times smaller than the modern games which have around 400 in their base games. This makes it so that you're options for team buliding are quite limited. Combine that with a lot of the good TMs being quite hard to obtain it names for a very very limited team building experience.
Now even with this said you can build good teams and when you have a good team built the late game is one of my favourites in the franchise with every late game team having great team comps and tricky strategies making the majority of these battles engaging and sometimes nail bitingly close, the final battle being extremely difficult with the types of strategies that have been seen in the competitive scene over the years.
The other thing that this game is known is it's tone. Being darker than most of the other games and stealing pokemon instead of catching them, although even when to compared to other pokemon games I'd say there other with mature storylines. The story itself isn't too dissimilar from the evil team plots of the mainline games but the twist that the player character used to be apart of one of the evil teams and defected by blowing a hole in their base and stealing their most prized possession is a really cool one.
Coloseum is a lot more streamlined than most other pokemon games in both its exploration aswell getting rid off routes in favour of small town sections to keep the attention on the battling.
Overall pokemon colosseum is a flawed in some of its executions of its ideas but the design of the battles in this entry still makes this a satisfying to play unique entry in the pokemon series.
2024
I feel like I share the same opinion that most do about this game. I'm shocked at how good it was.
The sound design was impeccable, im not the type of person to get chills often but in the final section of the game it legit scared me. The choice to have a very minimal soundtrack for a lot of the game really worked overall as when it did kick in it worked tremendously. the vibes were the best kind of awful with the sound design (and also art direction) really making this games vibe stand out.
Traversing the game was really fun which was surprising given how you really only have one jump and the bubble wand, but I think the main reason why it was so fun to traverse was the puzzles. The puzzles were the star imo, the tools you get given are all quite simple in their usage but when the puzzles that use combinations of your items were great. I genuinely cant think of a single way I could use any of the tools in a way that I hadn't used them in this game.
Now while I enjoyed my time with this game it wasn't perfect. The pacing could have been perfect but the telephone placements were a bit odd at times. The boss sections were hit or miss with the chameleon being my least favourite part of the entire game with the combination of it being an instakill and the lack of checkpoints around the first time you encounter it really killing the otherwise great pacing imo.
But overall I think its postive far outweigh its negatives and this game will (hopefully) be remembered for more than being Dunkey's first published game.
The sound design was impeccable, im not the type of person to get chills often but in the final section of the game it legit scared me. The choice to have a very minimal soundtrack for a lot of the game really worked overall as when it did kick in it worked tremendously. the vibes were the best kind of awful with the sound design (and also art direction) really making this games vibe stand out.
Traversing the game was really fun which was surprising given how you really only have one jump and the bubble wand, but I think the main reason why it was so fun to traverse was the puzzles. The puzzles were the star imo, the tools you get given are all quite simple in their usage but when the puzzles that use combinations of your items were great. I genuinely cant think of a single way I could use any of the tools in a way that I hadn't used them in this game.
Now while I enjoyed my time with this game it wasn't perfect. The pacing could have been perfect but the telephone placements were a bit odd at times. The boss sections were hit or miss with the chameleon being my least favourite part of the entire game with the combination of it being an instakill and the lack of checkpoints around the first time you encounter it really killing the otherwise great pacing imo.
But overall I think its postive far outweigh its negatives and this game will (hopefully) be remembered for more than being Dunkey's first published game.