Dotizera
155 Reviews liked by Dotizera
Fate/Extra
2010
Amazing game. Gameplay is a bit repetitive, but it has enough variety in terms of skills and enemies to make it worth it. The setting and environment are amazing, love the ocean aesthetic and how you're rising to the surface throughout the game. Hakuno is an amazing MC and provides a fantastic master servant dynamic with their servants. Saber is a really great servant, she's very funny and interacts super well with Hakuno while also having some emotional/sad character writing that works really well. Some really amazing lines and character writing. Ending goes so hard. OST is really fun too. Only negative would be some masters/servants aren't the most interesting they can be. But I'd still say they're all good at the bare minimum. Julius, Alice, Gawain are all great. My boy Twice H. Pieceman is also a great villain with some really cool lines. Peak Fate, Peak gaming. Love you Fate/Extra.
this game is either a 5/10 or a 9/10 depending on how you look at it. genuinely unbearable experience
Sonic Colors
2010
"It's a million times better than the Wii version!" they say in regards to the most bland game of the entire Rush trilogy, even if it is mechanically the best one.
Try to get the Super Vegeta skill. Do it. I dare you.
Akinator
2007
The state of this game is proof that Danganronpa made the world a worse place
Fate/Stay Night
2004
Read Prisma Illya instead
Dragon Ball Z: Sagas
2005
People hate on this game because they had no one. Nobody in their life that cared enough about them to experience this game with them. No sibling, no parent, no child, no friend, no hoe. They were alone. And the despair that built up inside them due to this loneliness is what ultimately culminated in them not being able to enjoy a fun game. When playing co-op it's awesome. Android/Cell saga is peak DB series already. There were also funny Android enemies that when damaged would just walk around as legs. Also my brother and I as Goku and Gohan vs Cell was so fucking PEAK.
Yakuza 2
2006
THIS IS HOW IT HAS TO BE
Yakuza 2 was a game that I was eagerly anticipating checking out. I’ve heard from a lot of people that it was the peak of the franchise, and it was part of the reason I wanted to go through the mainline games this way. After playing it, I can safely say that I really enjoyed it. I’m impressed that a sequel this good came out such a short time away from the original. That said, I wish I was a bit more head-over-heels with it, I didn’t get as much of a “best to ever do it” feeling from the game aside from some highlights.
To start with talking about the environments, I’d like to point out that I was mistaken in my previous review since this game also uses the fixed camera angles of the original. Now that I know the context of the production of this game, I have no idea why I thought they’d shift completely to modern Yakuza’s camera after less than a year. Knowing about its short development time helped me understand a number of choices with the game. The reuse of several locations from the first game, the reappearance of Kamurocho shops in the brand-new Sotenbori, I was able to understand from a technical perspective how and why these choices were made given that it had to come out in under a year. But I think what makes it interesting is the way they help tie into the artistic vision surrounding these locations.
The reuse of already existing shops in Sotenbori can be seen as a symbol for how the city has fallen into a fever of consumerism, with recognizable brands expanding to it. An NPC by a larger establishment talks about how that area used to be a huge theater square in his days. I think this minor detail is also indicative of how much times have changed in the 10 years Kiryu has been locked up from the world in Yakuza 1. As for the re-use of locations from the first game, the way they’re handled has an impact of showing how the city has changed after Kiryu left Kamurocho last year, in some ways directly because of Kiryu’s actions. Even when changes are minor, you still get to see both Kiryu’s reflection on them, but also how newcomer Sayama reacts to learning about these locations. This is most notable when you revisit Purgatory, but I won’t really give away how since I know some people who might read this want to eventually play this game. The game’s generally really smart about having things be familiar, but different.
The cutscenes in this game especially stood out to me in this game. Not only because of the localized version actually having japanese voices this time around, but mainly for the cinematography. Yakuza 1 was no slouch when it came to cutscene direction either, but the way scenes are shot, the camera movement, it’s so dynamic that it almost feels on the level of a feature film. It’s more cinematic to me than most modern games that herald themselves as cinematic experiences. The cutscenes that take place early in chapter 12 are some of my favorites in this regard. It’s impressive that there was this much of a noticeable jump between games.
I just want to cut to the chase with this point, combat feels so, so much better in this game. Almost all of the clunkiness of the original was shaved away for this. The tracking on combos is much better, Kiryu rarely ever feels like he heads straight towards the wrong way when an enemy slightly moves, aside from explicit dodging. Attacks and combos feel better to pull off with a decrease in end lag. I blamed a number of my bad experiences in 1 on PCSX2’s input delay, and while that still was a factor here, it still feels a lot more smooth to pull off. Another thing that helps is that you get to your skillset from the original fairly quickly, so the upgrades can quickly move onto newer abilities like leg throws and expansions of the heat gauge. I like how it feels like there’s more variety to heat actions. Even attacks on similar environments and conditions don’t always have the same animations, so they stay fresh. The gauge itself drains more slowly, which I thought was a nice change. I can see how someone would argue that it takes away from the rush of needing to quickly use it, but it can still be lost just as easily through being hit, and it encourages you to more easily chain heat attacks on enemies, which is incredibly satisfying.
The bosses of the game also lean more towards the dynamic feeling of fights like the Majima and Nishiki fights. Each phase of the multi-phase fights feels like it wildly shifts the battle’s dynamic. Easily my favorite example of this is the fight with Shindo. Following him around the Tojo headquarters, fighting him in several different environments, getting to a full-on sword clash in the garden, it’s a constant stream of excitement that always keeps you on-edge.
The story is a pretty great expansion of what the original had to offer. We get more of a look into pretty much everyone’s characters and how they view each other. Sayama is a great new inclusion, and I really like how she ties into the general mysteries of the game. The plot in general expands on the original’s theme of how consequences of the past affect us, even more notably with Kiryu. The events of the last game massively shook up the Tojo Clan and the underground world of Tokyo in general, and Kiryu has a feeling of responsibility to make things right. While the original was more noticeably dynamic for Kiryu’s arc, this one does a lot for showing who he is as a person. Even with his stoic nature and compassion for others, he’s still human, but only feels like he can be himself around people he really trusts, like Haruka and Sayama. Even if his arc isn’t as much of the main focus in this one, I really like how Kiryu was handled here.
I like a lot of Yakuza 2’s plot, but I don’t think I was as invested as I was with 1’s story. Maybe that’s because 1 being dubbed, despite its poor quality, helped my comprehension, maybe it’s because I was burnt out from playing three games in the series in rapid succession. I definitely want to look into this game more from a literary perspective. Something I am sure of is that I’m a bit mixed on the ending. Not saying anything specific, but there’s a few twists at the end that made me go “This didn’t really feel necessary”. (Something I know later Yakuza entries are infamous for) Thankfully, those didn’t take away from the impact of the final battle, or from the presence of Ryuji Goda. Ryuji is a great antagonist, he has some really strong parallels with Kiryu as a character. His final battle is fantastic, the vibe I got from it is sort of how I felt during the final battle of Metal Gear Rising. I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that he’s the best villain, I prefer Nishiki in 1 and Aoki in LAD, but he was still really strong. Yakuza is really good with its villains so far.
Yakuza 2 is a really solid step up from the original game mechanically, and I’m glad I finally got around to experiencing it. Like I implied before, I do kind of regret not giving myself more distance from it to avoid being burnt out near the end, but it’s still a really great game. Now I’ll probably take that lesson and wait a while before continuing the series.
Yakuza 2 was a game that I was eagerly anticipating checking out. I’ve heard from a lot of people that it was the peak of the franchise, and it was part of the reason I wanted to go through the mainline games this way. After playing it, I can safely say that I really enjoyed it. I’m impressed that a sequel this good came out such a short time away from the original. That said, I wish I was a bit more head-over-heels with it, I didn’t get as much of a “best to ever do it” feeling from the game aside from some highlights.
To start with talking about the environments, I’d like to point out that I was mistaken in my previous review since this game also uses the fixed camera angles of the original. Now that I know the context of the production of this game, I have no idea why I thought they’d shift completely to modern Yakuza’s camera after less than a year. Knowing about its short development time helped me understand a number of choices with the game. The reuse of several locations from the first game, the reappearance of Kamurocho shops in the brand-new Sotenbori, I was able to understand from a technical perspective how and why these choices were made given that it had to come out in under a year. But I think what makes it interesting is the way they help tie into the artistic vision surrounding these locations.
The reuse of already existing shops in Sotenbori can be seen as a symbol for how the city has fallen into a fever of consumerism, with recognizable brands expanding to it. An NPC by a larger establishment talks about how that area used to be a huge theater square in his days. I think this minor detail is also indicative of how much times have changed in the 10 years Kiryu has been locked up from the world in Yakuza 1. As for the re-use of locations from the first game, the way they’re handled has an impact of showing how the city has changed after Kiryu left Kamurocho last year, in some ways directly because of Kiryu’s actions. Even when changes are minor, you still get to see both Kiryu’s reflection on them, but also how newcomer Sayama reacts to learning about these locations. This is most notable when you revisit Purgatory, but I won’t really give away how since I know some people who might read this want to eventually play this game. The game’s generally really smart about having things be familiar, but different.
The cutscenes in this game especially stood out to me in this game. Not only because of the localized version actually having japanese voices this time around, but mainly for the cinematography. Yakuza 1 was no slouch when it came to cutscene direction either, but the way scenes are shot, the camera movement, it’s so dynamic that it almost feels on the level of a feature film. It’s more cinematic to me than most modern games that herald themselves as cinematic experiences. The cutscenes that take place early in chapter 12 are some of my favorites in this regard. It’s impressive that there was this much of a noticeable jump between games.
I just want to cut to the chase with this point, combat feels so, so much better in this game. Almost all of the clunkiness of the original was shaved away for this. The tracking on combos is much better, Kiryu rarely ever feels like he heads straight towards the wrong way when an enemy slightly moves, aside from explicit dodging. Attacks and combos feel better to pull off with a decrease in end lag. I blamed a number of my bad experiences in 1 on PCSX2’s input delay, and while that still was a factor here, it still feels a lot more smooth to pull off. Another thing that helps is that you get to your skillset from the original fairly quickly, so the upgrades can quickly move onto newer abilities like leg throws and expansions of the heat gauge. I like how it feels like there’s more variety to heat actions. Even attacks on similar environments and conditions don’t always have the same animations, so they stay fresh. The gauge itself drains more slowly, which I thought was a nice change. I can see how someone would argue that it takes away from the rush of needing to quickly use it, but it can still be lost just as easily through being hit, and it encourages you to more easily chain heat attacks on enemies, which is incredibly satisfying.
The bosses of the game also lean more towards the dynamic feeling of fights like the Majima and Nishiki fights. Each phase of the multi-phase fights feels like it wildly shifts the battle’s dynamic. Easily my favorite example of this is the fight with Shindo. Following him around the Tojo headquarters, fighting him in several different environments, getting to a full-on sword clash in the garden, it’s a constant stream of excitement that always keeps you on-edge.
The story is a pretty great expansion of what the original had to offer. We get more of a look into pretty much everyone’s characters and how they view each other. Sayama is a great new inclusion, and I really like how she ties into the general mysteries of the game. The plot in general expands on the original’s theme of how consequences of the past affect us, even more notably with Kiryu. The events of the last game massively shook up the Tojo Clan and the underground world of Tokyo in general, and Kiryu has a feeling of responsibility to make things right. While the original was more noticeably dynamic for Kiryu’s arc, this one does a lot for showing who he is as a person. Even with his stoic nature and compassion for others, he’s still human, but only feels like he can be himself around people he really trusts, like Haruka and Sayama. Even if his arc isn’t as much of the main focus in this one, I really like how Kiryu was handled here.
I like a lot of Yakuza 2’s plot, but I don’t think I was as invested as I was with 1’s story. Maybe that’s because 1 being dubbed, despite its poor quality, helped my comprehension, maybe it’s because I was burnt out from playing three games in the series in rapid succession. I definitely want to look into this game more from a literary perspective. Something I am sure of is that I’m a bit mixed on the ending. Not saying anything specific, but there’s a few twists at the end that made me go “This didn’t really feel necessary”. (Something I know later Yakuza entries are infamous for) Thankfully, those didn’t take away from the impact of the final battle, or from the presence of Ryuji Goda. Ryuji is a great antagonist, he has some really strong parallels with Kiryu as a character. His final battle is fantastic, the vibe I got from it is sort of how I felt during the final battle of Metal Gear Rising. I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that he’s the best villain, I prefer Nishiki in 1 and Aoki in LAD, but he was still really strong. Yakuza is really good with its villains so far.
Yakuza 2 is a really solid step up from the original game mechanically, and I’m glad I finally got around to experiencing it. Like I implied before, I do kind of regret not giving myself more distance from it to avoid being burnt out near the end, but it’s still a really great game. Now I’ll probably take that lesson and wait a while before continuing the series.
Final Fantasy XV
2016
This review contains spoilers
I can't remember the last time I've felt this conflicted about a video game. There's a number of things that I grew really attached to, but there's so many other parts that utterly baffled me throughout. I can't really say for certain if I love or hate it, but I'm definitely not apathetic towards, it which was my biggest concern for a good amount of my time with the game.
To start off on a positive note, I love the main cast. Square Enix games in general are really good at character writing and dynamics, and the main party is absolutely no exception. Noctis is really compelling to see grow alongside his friends in the endgame made me incredibly happy consistently. The other party members aren't far behind, they're consistently entertaining and have a good amount going on in terms of growth. I do wish that they made their heart to hearts easier to come across, though. I randomly encountered one with Prompto, and he talked about his relationship with the gang and how he feels about his place in a way that sort of hit close to home. I wasn't able to encounter the ones for Ignis or Gladiolus, which was a shame since I wanted to see more about how they got to know Noctis or how they feel about themselves. I'm not trying to say that they're underdeveloped, but I just wanted more out of them.
Even outside of the main story or these heart to hearts, they're just a genuinely fun and believable friend group. I'm really fond of all the banter between them as we explore the land or drive around in the Regalia. I think the scope of the game makes it so that lines repeat a bit too much, but it never really went to the point where they got stuck in my head in a bad way. The strength of these characters alone is what gives me some motivation to check out the DLC.
However, I think problems arise when zooming out, since I didn't really get much out of the non-party characters. (Except for Ardyn, he's a funny guy) It puts way more emphasis on the main cast than anyone else to the point where it almost succeeds, but most of the wider cast were characters where the only sort of investment I got from them was how they tied into the party's development.
The two characters tied specifically to Noctis get this the worst by far. Lucius gets one conversation with Noctis before he heads out on his road trip(where he has "Fire Emblem dad" written all over him), before getting killed later in the first chapter. I guess he gets more in the movie that's all about what happened in the attack on the crown city, but I don't really feel like going on a tangent about how leaving the job of lore development mostly to outside material is bad storytelling. He's the more tolerable instance of this, since his legacy is what's the most important aspect on him and he's not lingered on too long.
For a significantly less tolerable case, Lunafreya might be one of the worst characters I've experienced in an RPG. She's the most nothing archetypical female love interest of all time, and exclusively exists as a carrot on the stick leading Noctis through the plot. The entirety of her character in the whole game is "She wants to see Noctis", "She's determined towards her job as Oracle" (In cutscenes that apparently weren't even IN the game at launch), "She gives a generic speech about hope beating despair or whatever", "She summons and tries to talk with the Leviathan(and fails)", and "She gets stabbed by the funny villain". She might be one of the blandest characters I've ever seen in a video game, and unlike the King, she IS lingered on super long as she's Noctis's main motivation throughout the game, and the chapters immediately after her death REALLY push how important and significant she was as a person.
Like I said, this leads me to a situation where I only care about these two in the ways that they have an impact on Noctis. Of course, our main protagonist should be the one to get the most out of, but most other RPGs I play, ESPECIALLY Square games do a pretty solid job of making memorable side characters with less importance than these two.
The pacing of the story in general is really strange. The plot doesn't really progress at all for a vast chunk of the game, and then immediately after the fight with Leviathan it starts moving way too fast with its plot beats, to the point where it introduces a 10 year timeskip at the very last chapter of the game. It's very inconsistent with parts of the world that get room to breathe and get very little room at all. It made for a really sharp contrast as I got increasingly tired of the pre-Altissia part of the game.
Speaking of which, I suppose it's about time to talk about the gameplay and exploration. The main hook of XV is its vast open world. (Before it's completely abandoned for a completely linear structure after Altissa, but that's beside the point) To get this out of the way, the environments in the game are absolutely gorgeous, it's one of the most technically beautiful games I've ever experienced. That being said, after running around it for extended periods of time, especially in segments outside of the Regalia, the environments don't really stick out to me all that much, especially due to the fact that the open areas rarely ever have overworld music. This increased my general feeling that the main way you're supposed to get the most out of the world is through having it as scenery when you're driving around in the Regalia.
When trying to compare it to other games in the genre, the one that immediately came to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles, and I think its feeling of exploration trounces XV's in every regard. Every environment in Xenoblade is so incredibly distinct that I'd only need to get exposed to a piece of it like some art or the area's theme to vividly picture the various areas throughout the game. XV's world doesn't really do that for me aside from a few towns and outposts. I plan on going over this in a certain review in the future, but artistic direction in environments is something I've come to deeply value and it's made me more critical of ones that have very little personality to them.
Speaking of having very little personality to it, let's move on to the combat. I think when it's at its best, it's a pretty average combat system. These are usually moments when you're up against a single strong enemy and are looking out for tells and moments to parry. The moment groups of enemies come into play, especially ones with projectiles, are where it becomes the absolute worst. You don't really have strong sources of crowd control, and there's generally poor feedback to when you're getting hit so it's easy to have your health bar melt and not notice. These type of encounters are fairly frequent too, especially in the overworld. Even when it all works out, I'd probably say to just go to a Kingdom Hearts title if you want an action-RPG experience that feels good to play.
I've done a lot of ranting on elements I really don't like about the game, and I wouldn't consider it that good as a game, but I feel like the core of its party is so strong that I can say I generally had a good experience in spite of it all. It's a pretty baffling game in a lot of ways, but I don't think it's one I'll forget anytime soon.
EDIT: Something I forgot to say is that I'm fully aware that playing it now is near-completely divorced from the mess that was its launch and tons of patches which included whole waves of cutscenes that just weren't in the game, definitely looking more into this in the future.
To start off on a positive note, I love the main cast. Square Enix games in general are really good at character writing and dynamics, and the main party is absolutely no exception. Noctis is really compelling to see grow alongside his friends in the endgame made me incredibly happy consistently. The other party members aren't far behind, they're consistently entertaining and have a good amount going on in terms of growth. I do wish that they made their heart to hearts easier to come across, though. I randomly encountered one with Prompto, and he talked about his relationship with the gang and how he feels about his place in a way that sort of hit close to home. I wasn't able to encounter the ones for Ignis or Gladiolus, which was a shame since I wanted to see more about how they got to know Noctis or how they feel about themselves. I'm not trying to say that they're underdeveloped, but I just wanted more out of them.
Even outside of the main story or these heart to hearts, they're just a genuinely fun and believable friend group. I'm really fond of all the banter between them as we explore the land or drive around in the Regalia. I think the scope of the game makes it so that lines repeat a bit too much, but it never really went to the point where they got stuck in my head in a bad way. The strength of these characters alone is what gives me some motivation to check out the DLC.
However, I think problems arise when zooming out, since I didn't really get much out of the non-party characters. (Except for Ardyn, he's a funny guy) It puts way more emphasis on the main cast than anyone else to the point where it almost succeeds, but most of the wider cast were characters where the only sort of investment I got from them was how they tied into the party's development.
The two characters tied specifically to Noctis get this the worst by far. Lucius gets one conversation with Noctis before he heads out on his road trip(where he has "Fire Emblem dad" written all over him), before getting killed later in the first chapter. I guess he gets more in the movie that's all about what happened in the attack on the crown city, but I don't really feel like going on a tangent about how leaving the job of lore development mostly to outside material is bad storytelling. He's the more tolerable instance of this, since his legacy is what's the most important aspect on him and he's not lingered on too long.
For a significantly less tolerable case, Lunafreya might be one of the worst characters I've experienced in an RPG. She's the most nothing archetypical female love interest of all time, and exclusively exists as a carrot on the stick leading Noctis through the plot. The entirety of her character in the whole game is "She wants to see Noctis", "She's determined towards her job as Oracle" (In cutscenes that apparently weren't even IN the game at launch), "She gives a generic speech about hope beating despair or whatever", "She summons and tries to talk with the Leviathan(and fails)", and "She gets stabbed by the funny villain". She might be one of the blandest characters I've ever seen in a video game, and unlike the King, she IS lingered on super long as she's Noctis's main motivation throughout the game, and the chapters immediately after her death REALLY push how important and significant she was as a person.
Like I said, this leads me to a situation where I only care about these two in the ways that they have an impact on Noctis. Of course, our main protagonist should be the one to get the most out of, but most other RPGs I play, ESPECIALLY Square games do a pretty solid job of making memorable side characters with less importance than these two.
The pacing of the story in general is really strange. The plot doesn't really progress at all for a vast chunk of the game, and then immediately after the fight with Leviathan it starts moving way too fast with its plot beats, to the point where it introduces a 10 year timeskip at the very last chapter of the game. It's very inconsistent with parts of the world that get room to breathe and get very little room at all. It made for a really sharp contrast as I got increasingly tired of the pre-Altissia part of the game.
Speaking of which, I suppose it's about time to talk about the gameplay and exploration. The main hook of XV is its vast open world. (Before it's completely abandoned for a completely linear structure after Altissa, but that's beside the point) To get this out of the way, the environments in the game are absolutely gorgeous, it's one of the most technically beautiful games I've ever experienced. That being said, after running around it for extended periods of time, especially in segments outside of the Regalia, the environments don't really stick out to me all that much, especially due to the fact that the open areas rarely ever have overworld music. This increased my general feeling that the main way you're supposed to get the most out of the world is through having it as scenery when you're driving around in the Regalia.
When trying to compare it to other games in the genre, the one that immediately came to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles, and I think its feeling of exploration trounces XV's in every regard. Every environment in Xenoblade is so incredibly distinct that I'd only need to get exposed to a piece of it like some art or the area's theme to vividly picture the various areas throughout the game. XV's world doesn't really do that for me aside from a few towns and outposts. I plan on going over this in a certain review in the future, but artistic direction in environments is something I've come to deeply value and it's made me more critical of ones that have very little personality to them.
Speaking of having very little personality to it, let's move on to the combat. I think when it's at its best, it's a pretty average combat system. These are usually moments when you're up against a single strong enemy and are looking out for tells and moments to parry. The moment groups of enemies come into play, especially ones with projectiles, are where it becomes the absolute worst. You don't really have strong sources of crowd control, and there's generally poor feedback to when you're getting hit so it's easy to have your health bar melt and not notice. These type of encounters are fairly frequent too, especially in the overworld. Even when it all works out, I'd probably say to just go to a Kingdom Hearts title if you want an action-RPG experience that feels good to play.
I've done a lot of ranting on elements I really don't like about the game, and I wouldn't consider it that good as a game, but I feel like the core of its party is so strong that I can say I generally had a good experience in spite of it all. It's a pretty baffling game in a lot of ways, but I don't think it's one I'll forget anytime soon.
EDIT: Something I forgot to say is that I'm fully aware that playing it now is near-completely divorced from the mess that was its launch and tons of patches which included whole waves of cutscenes that just weren't in the game, definitely looking more into this in the future.
This one's personal, brodie. I got my dad to buy the fucking DELUXE ULTIMATE MOST EXPENSIVE VERSION of this piece of shit. The story sucks dick, the characters are garbage, gameplay is stiff, bland, and extremely unsatisfying. It killed any interest I had in Assassin's Creed going further so lol. Good job Dunkey!
What's legitimately interesting to me is how the problem of remasters is unique to videogames. How these embiggening projects almost always bear fruit when it comes to album remasters or movies and tv using original film to improve what was previously strictly standard def. One of the best examples of this I can think of is the painstaking amount of work that went into bringing Star Trek TOS and TNG into high def. For me, there's the more personal example of the Twin Peaks blu-rays being impeccable, managing to keep that VCR warmth and fuzziness in its translation of film grain and colour bleed. There may often be cases where music rights were lost in transition, forcing awkward song changes, or the cack-handed handling of an aspect ratio, trimming important visual cues from a piece, awkward colourisation of b&w - but in a general sense, it's very rare for these remasters to be seen as anything but superior. The added visual fidelity, allowing fans to take in more detail like subtle facial acting or the intricacies of set design that were previously blurred, tends to be lauded.
But games are very different. In this tech-head driven industry engrossed in 4k 60FPS and the latest graphics card magic tricks like Raytracing and volumetric fog or whatever, the audience is utterly convinced that HD is the standard. There seems to be an added pressure on publishers to go the extra mile with their remasters of titles from the 6th console generation, as it’s no longer enough to simply do a faithful port of the title to 1080p. In its attempt to please the increasingly discerning crowd, the modern remaster's attempt to improve visual fidelity can drastically shift the base game's artstyle so as to almost be contrasting with what it used to represent. Something as simple as a general shift in colour scheming can be surprisingly effective at making a game feel a certain way, and this remaster noticeably lacks that sunbleached orange I found so characteristic of SA, among too many other minor things to list off. CJ may have a much greater level of visual detail on his character model, but the animations are the same, it's all playing into that uncanny valley thing where the lack of cohesion genuinely seems to make the bigger picture look worse. It’s definitely going to play into why people are feeling weirded out at his hand clipping through doors or contorting incorrectly etc.
Generally, issues with remasters tend to come as a result of these projects being handed to a separate team to the one that developed the original. I for real don't want to begrudge the people making these remasters, nor would I ever pretend to know how these sausages are made; I’m sure it's an enormous task to reverse engineer titles from a generation with infamously poor ethics regarding the backups of source code. It's just... wild to me how this keeps happening. How much more divided people tend to be between the og game and the remake than to film or whatever. Like them or not, it's curious to me to see just how much of a tonal shift is accomplished in remasters like the Shadow of the Colossus one, despite the game sharing what is essentially the same foundation. The way gaps in visual fidelity are filled in by people who weren’t present on the dev team, where the needle begins to slant and the remaster begins to feel more like Bluepoint’s vision than Team Ico’s. It tends to be soundtrack reorchestration that frustrates me the most, one of the most effective ways to belligerently throw a stick of dynamite in what the vibes used to represent. It’s almost expected to have some things lost in translation, and not even just by cultural differences, but through the team’s personal preferences on top of the mandated requirements to use each available teraflop of the microchip. It’s a game of telephone.
Granted, in the case of these GTA remasters, the recent example of XIII and the infamous Silent Hill ones, people seem to share a closer consensus. But what can the average consumer do? Rockstar pulled the original versions from PC storefronts essentially requiring prior ownership or piracy. Until emulation becomes elementary on all hardware, this is the “definitive edition” and you’ll have no say, because they have ambient occlusion now.
But games are very different. In this tech-head driven industry engrossed in 4k 60FPS and the latest graphics card magic tricks like Raytracing and volumetric fog or whatever, the audience is utterly convinced that HD is the standard. There seems to be an added pressure on publishers to go the extra mile with their remasters of titles from the 6th console generation, as it’s no longer enough to simply do a faithful port of the title to 1080p. In its attempt to please the increasingly discerning crowd, the modern remaster's attempt to improve visual fidelity can drastically shift the base game's artstyle so as to almost be contrasting with what it used to represent. Something as simple as a general shift in colour scheming can be surprisingly effective at making a game feel a certain way, and this remaster noticeably lacks that sunbleached orange I found so characteristic of SA, among too many other minor things to list off. CJ may have a much greater level of visual detail on his character model, but the animations are the same, it's all playing into that uncanny valley thing where the lack of cohesion genuinely seems to make the bigger picture look worse. It’s definitely going to play into why people are feeling weirded out at his hand clipping through doors or contorting incorrectly etc.
Generally, issues with remasters tend to come as a result of these projects being handed to a separate team to the one that developed the original. I for real don't want to begrudge the people making these remasters, nor would I ever pretend to know how these sausages are made; I’m sure it's an enormous task to reverse engineer titles from a generation with infamously poor ethics regarding the backups of source code. It's just... wild to me how this keeps happening. How much more divided people tend to be between the og game and the remake than to film or whatever. Like them or not, it's curious to me to see just how much of a tonal shift is accomplished in remasters like the Shadow of the Colossus one, despite the game sharing what is essentially the same foundation. The way gaps in visual fidelity are filled in by people who weren’t present on the dev team, where the needle begins to slant and the remaster begins to feel more like Bluepoint’s vision than Team Ico’s. It tends to be soundtrack reorchestration that frustrates me the most, one of the most effective ways to belligerently throw a stick of dynamite in what the vibes used to represent. It’s almost expected to have some things lost in translation, and not even just by cultural differences, but through the team’s personal preferences on top of the mandated requirements to use each available teraflop of the microchip. It’s a game of telephone.
Granted, in the case of these GTA remasters, the recent example of XIII and the infamous Silent Hill ones, people seem to share a closer consensus. But what can the average consumer do? Rockstar pulled the original versions from PC storefronts essentially requiring prior ownership or piracy. Until emulation becomes elementary on all hardware, this is the “definitive edition” and you’ll have no say, because they have ambient occlusion now.
Team Fortress 2
2007
My league of legends
This definitely isn't a game I could crack open and enjoy at any time I have to be in the mood for it
Fate/Extra
2010
Literally the best game EVER
i will curse persona 5 for the rest of my days for setting me down the path that led me to playing this game.