A fantastic follow up to an old favorite. The brains are genius and the writing delightful. I just wish I genuinely liked 3d platforms lol!

Full review later on...

Final Grade: A-

Scott Pilgrim
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 20th, 2023

Short review which I will edit later, hopefully:

Still a fantastic beat-em-up, this and Castle Crashers back in the day helped me fall in love with the genre. The moment-to-moment mechanics pale in comparison to some of the more modern BMUs but honestly the music, art style, levels and characters more than carry this game to greatness.

I wish the leveling system wasn't opaque (a complaint I share with River City Girls) but as a returning vet it didn't bother me. Also the story should definitely change a BIT more for each character you play as, rather than just the ending slide but... still, running around this world, beating up hipsters and ninjas and extras on a movie set still felt damn good.

Also its like 15 bucks just buy it man

Final Grade: A-

Signalis
#14
PC - Steam
Beaten December 10th, 2022



Signalis is a modern classic, a psychological horror game made up of a dozen influences in gaming, anime and movies over the past 25 years - but instead of feeling derivative, if blends each element together to create something wholly new... and frightening


Pros:
We'll start with presentation, as it's visual design is it's most striking feature and obviously in a class of its own. It has a late-PS1 style graphics albeit with more modern lighting techniques and easily readable textures, crossing Resident Evil, Silent Hill and anime like Bakemonogatari & Evangelion, it's got enough edge to it that you can tell what everything is, but looks blurry enough to be just a bit... off
The story is straightforward but also fragmented, like our protagonist's memory. You are Elster, a robot/cyborg/clone who is searching for their missing girlfriend on an old and decrepit mining colony - one that is currently undergoing a horrifying transformation as all its robot workers are being twisted into monsters, as organic matter is slowly stuffing up the mechnical parts of both the people and the facility itself. As you progress through the facility (with several odd gaps in how you get where and when) you learn more about your past and the woman you're after - and why are others after her as well...? There is a great deal that is referential and open to interpretation which I enjoy, if you get any of the endings other than the one I got (it's okay youtube helped me out) I do feel you get enough closure at least on the main character. It's very much a game more about feeling and presentation rather than plot.
While the static cam is mentioned in the "meh" section below, I must call attention to the several segments of 1st person exploration, each area you wander about in has a distinct vibe to it that adds a great deal of "present"-ness. I wish there were more!!
Lovecraft nods E'RYWHERE! Love it
Music is exceptional, obvious nods to Silent Hill with its somber pianos and contemporary jazz but also some VERY well-placed classical pieces. Like damn man.
Puzzle designs are a visual feast, and most of the puzzles are pretty good, not too tough but not just pushing a button on a pretty background either.

Meh:
Camera angles are a bit too "static" in terms of isometric views? I wish that some rooms changed up the direction a bit.
All characters (with one notable exception) are ladies who look very very similar.... The artist has a type that's for sure lol
Combat is a bit too... fine? Like everything not on the pro's list, it's not like Signalis has any real BAD parts, just things that don't live up to the superb music, visuals & story. The combat is basically just Resident Evil, however there's too much of it and it's not dangerous enough. It borrows the idea of Crimson Head mechanics (dead enemies can come back to life) but they just come back normal so there's no real reason to be too afraid of them, just burn the bodies that are in the main halls so you don't have to waste bullets when going up and down the busy roads solving puzzles and you're A-Okay. Basically the combat encounters need to be tighter - fewer in number, more deadly, more meaningful.
Puzzle FREQUENCY and inconsistency is a bit of an issue, there's too many "get X number of things to open this door" puzzles, and I get they're an homage to RE but ehhh I feel like RE had them paced better? Like there are 10-20 "find weird thing and put it in weird hole" moments in RE1, there are like 100 in Signalis. Puzzles are tough but with so many I felt like we needed more variety.

Cons:

Speaking of lack of variety, my one real issue with Signalis - the levels themselves. 3 of the 4 main areas are basically identical in layout - handful of hallways with handful of similar size rooms with a handful of floors. Find the right puzzle item in one room, head to another room with a very similar size and layout then drop off puzzle coupon and move on til' you're done with that area.. over and over. Of course RE and SH do similar things but their layouts feel very different, the RE levels especially. Wings of the mansion feel very different and unique to the other wings, the labs and outdoors feel very different from the mansion and each other... the majority of Signalis is pretty similar I'm afraid. There's one big exception to (the mines) this which is neat, but it's also by far the shortest. Boooooo!


Hmm:
Seriously why does everyone look so similar...

A couple times a year an indie title comes out and smashes all expectations, your Hades, your Hollow Knights, your Yuppie Psychos... Signalis is made by two people (+2 musicians) and is a colossal achievement. It's questions about identity, about pride, about conformity, about love, about how far you can and should go on behalf of your loved ones... it wants to confuse and intrigue you into following it's bread crumbs, and I gobbled them up all the way through and continue to think on it regularly months later. I look forward to going back again for the secret ending too, though I know it's quite small, knowing sort of what's going on may lead to some very interesting insights on the story I'm curious about!


Final Grade: A

Elden Ring
#5
PC - Steam
Beaten March 11th, 2022




Elden Ring is the latest from Miyazaki and his team at From Software, and this game inherits the DNA started with their PS3 title Demon's Souls (I really should've properly reviewed the remake when I finished it last year...) - hard difficulty, esoteric storytelling, epic vistas, character building RPG action! In one way, Elden Ring is very much just Those Games Again But Open World This Time - stats, weapons, leveling, checkpoints - these things are basically identical to what has come before. Bonfires/Lanterns/Archstones are now Sites of Grace, Souls/Echos are now Runes, yadda yadda. However, while Elden Ring is in many ways a mere step ahead of its predecessors, in others it embraces its open-world and freer nature to make something truly new and special. And honestly since Breath of the Wild stepped out into open world, that is sort of what I have expected and even demanded of that genre of game - make it worthwhile and special! And where Zelda is one of the few to get it truly right, Elden Ring now joins that illustrious company.

A key part of Elden Ring is exploration - of the world around you at large, and all the nooks and crannies you will come across as you explore. Each little section of the game has SOMETHING for you to find, a new weapon, spell, armor piece, item.. not all are useful but that first time through can feel quite exciting. You'll be wandering around on your horse (Torrent, a fine steed at your side almost always in the open world. He's magic so you don't need to worry about where he is or any nonsense like that, whistle and you're on him and off you go) and see an enemy camp or odd landscape formation - I should go check that out you say! And yeah if you go over, you will almost certainly find something of interest. Perhaps a dungeon if you're lucky, though probably just an item or a new weird, fucked up enemy to test yourself against. This element is key to the magic of this game, no matter how tough things get, you can always just turn yourself around and head in a completely new direction: there's always more to do and more to discover, and the more you do and discover the more likely it is you'll have another tool in your arsenal to bring down that nasty SOB that's giving you trouble.

Speaking of enemies, there are a LOT of them here, along with the trademarked FromSoftware Bosses and their designs. Telegraphed boss rooms (with customary fog, GOLD this time!) lead to some cinematic encounters with enemies I had to bash my head into many many times to bring down, though there was (with 1 exception...) progress to be had each time. I do think this might be the weaker lineup outside of the main bosses in this game - there were a few standouts I can recall but in comparison to the many optional bosses of the Soulsborne games I do think a lot of these feel bit meh. Not that there weren't 'meh' bosses in those games as well, they just feel like they're at a higher concentration here due to all the mini-dungeons that contain pretty much all 7/10 bosses which dilutes things a bit. And then the ending has QUITE the gauntlet of very tough boss encounters that can get pretty exhausting - I was genuinely relieved when the Big Boss went down. Phew, time to move on finally! While the open world does lead to lots of positives ("what's that over there? Let's go check it out!") I do think it loses something from From's earlier, more tightly packed experiences.

I do think there are some weaknesses here as well - PC technical issues notwithstanding. The way you interact with the world is almost entirely through combat, puzzles are infrequent and usually just involve slashing something. As much as Breath of the Wild lacked in satisfying combat and often meager tangible rewards for exploration, it at least had a solid systems-driven world to interact with that often lead to some very creative and satisfying puzzles - and I do think Elden Ring missed the chance for some more diverse play options to keep me engaged beyond "oh shit I'm going to die in 3 hits to this enemy". Also the rewards you do find in the game unfortunately due to build variety means a lot shit will pop up that you have no real use for - for instance I was using a faith build which meant I could not use weapon arts for 80% of the game until I got a special item that let me transfer proper scaling to my stats, I had to use the one I had been using since nearly the beginning of the game. So then every time a weapon art reward popped up I was like "well, I'm sure that's nice for someone out there!" same of course with weapons that had high reqs for equipping or int magic. 

Negatives aside, Elden Ring is a colossal game and an equally colossal achievement. The art direction is truly stunning, with multiple areas and zones in the game that caused me to legit stop and gasp out loud at what I was witnessing. The characters and stories you DO manage to find are compelling, and the exploration of this well-crafted world is almost always entertaining enough for its own sake rather than the oft useless (for your character, at least) rewards you find at the end. It's an experience that stands beautifully on its own, even if perhaps I will miss the perfect pace of previous efforts (Bloodborne you're perfect ilu)

Final Grade: A

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
#4 --- 2022
PC - Steam
Beaten February 4th, 2022

Man I don't even like Megaman but this game is great

Pros:

This is going to be a long list...
Graphics are beautiful and the animations are terrifically expressive for all the characters.
Music is 10/10. Seriously, Strike The Earth tho
The bosses are amazing - design, the fights, the story with them and Shovel Knight
Story in general is simple but DAMN good - legit teared up twice. Shovel dreaming of Shield perpetually falling, unable to catch her... Gets me man.
World design and the upgrades found there. Getting to see the levels you are going to and how they fit into where you've been + being rewarded for doing extra shit. Though it has plenty of backups for those of us who were not so hardcore back in the day to help fix mistakes or if you missed anything you can just go back!
Cons:

Level design drops off a bit in the second half of the game, and while the difficulty curve is nice it does feel a BIT too frustrating near the end. Dying is a pretty light punishment by that point though.
Spikes and deep pits being 1-Hit KOs. I don't think I actually DIED properly once in the whole campaign - just missing a jump or a few pixels here and there and getting bounced into oblivion. Let me jump back up dangit!!!
Meh:

Some wild balancing on the relics. One that heals you up to full HP... and another that bounces a coin around randomly??
Hmmm:

Perhaps a biiiit too long? Or short? Something about the pacing is off.
Final Grade: A-

Monster Hunter Rise
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 21st, 2022

A slow start to YEAR 3 (or 4...?) of the 52 game challenge - I was hoping to make a comeback last year after farting around a bit too much last year but NAY - there's a certain Hamburger on the way who will slow down my progress... MH Rise is the first completed game of the year, and only just. The 'main' story is complete and the credits have rolled but The Hunt has barely begun.. but I'm finished, myself.

Pros

The monsters are just awesome. Each has a distinct personality that you become quite familiar with as you play and fight them over and over and over again... You start to hate some and become very fond of others, but even the ones you hate are fun in their own way.
Art style here is off the charts. Rise has a distinct 'ancient Japan' vibe and it shines through in almost every element of the presentation. The graphics may not be as beautiful as World but the team presents a beautiful and colorful world here nonetheless.
Meh

As cool as fighting the monsters are, I just kinda get bored having to do it over and over, ya know?
Online fights are a CLUSTERFUCK - its neat to have an easier time with the monsters and to get to party up with others so easily but honestly it is disjointed at best. Maybe higher level play is more constructed?
Cons

Visual "noise" online is rough. 4 hunters and 4 pups makes things very messy to try and figure out what is going on, especially against small or medium sized monsters.
Hmm?

As cool as the armors are - can we please get some new ones??? 90% of what I've seen is also in World. I want my Fashion Hunter dammit!
MH Rise is a great game I sadly can't get THAT into, and it's really not the game's fault. Hunting down each monster, a boss fight unto itself, is engaging and the new movie intros for each is a lot of fun. Despite all that after a mere two hunts or so of each I just feel a bit... tired, ya know? Going back to the same maps, hitting the same gathering point, picking on small monsters just triggers something in my brain that makes me repelled. Fighting the monsters for cool gear is great but the layers and layers of ranks, gems, decos, alpha/beta sets, MR monsters - it's just a bunch of shit I don't want to deal with - I just want to fight some cool monsters, man!


Final Grade: A-

Carrion

#3

PC - Steam

Beaten January 27th, 2022

Carrion is a metroid-lite puzzler about a freakish monster attempting to escape an enclosed facility... but YOU'RE the monster this time! It's a very very cool premise that is unfortunately let down by some meager gameplay. There is combat but it is incredibly simplistic and wonky, there are puzzles but they're either straightforward or exasperating. So yeah, interesting game overall, held up mostly by its premise and 'feel'. While it is fun to rip through silly humans and be the bad guy, the actual GAME here of gaining new powers and moving between very samey hallways, military bases and water pipes gets old pretty fast. It took me 4 hours to finish Carrion and I was ready for it to end at about half the time.

Pros:

Awesome premise. Being a shapeshifting monster is super badass and watching yourself 'grow' and gain new powers as the game goes on is satisfying as HELL.
Sound design for the monsters and people. Ripping apart metal grates, roaring in bestial fury, the human crew screaming in terrror... it all sounds great.
Artstyle is pretty great for the monster at least. Bits of flesh glooping off, pounding through doors, nomnomoming scientists... good stuff. People and backgrounds are more "average", or at least don't stand out as strongly as the monster.
Cons:

Where to start....
The Puzzles are dumb 95% of the time. The solution is either right in your face and you progress (this generally has a nice momentum to it at least) or you realize what you have to do but now have to backtrack to either gain or lose some 'mass' to get different powers.
No map. Often not a problem as the game funnels you from one area to the next but it often returns you to old "hub" areas and you have no fucking idea where it means you to go. So then you just wander around looking for something unbroken/inactive that you now have powers to interact with and go from there.
Combat is bad. You basically auto-kill regular enemies but others have weird shields that have no counters and enemy AI is telepathic meaning setting traps is difficult at best, irksome at worst.
Meh

The Story. Again, great premise. The story as it is told however seems like its trying to tell something interesting (there's some 'flash sideways' to human characters you control) with this creature's escape and what humanity is up to but.... it goes nowhere and has no weight to it whatsoever.
Level design. There are a few cool levels (one that looks like you're in space!) but the others are just generic military bases. Not a lot of variety in where you're tearing through.
Metroidvania elements. You occasionally get new powers that let you traverse the map or fight differently but they are rarely used actively. They don't add much.
Hmmm

Different forms of your body have different powers. Neat differentiation but then it leads to several points where you're just hunting for dead bodies (need more mass) or looking for a spawn pool (need to drop some mass) so you can use the right power to progress. Sometimes this leads to interesting puzzle situations, sometimes not.
Final Grade: C

Another game in the Pixel Remaster series down! FF4 has been remade (again for the... fourth or fifth time?) to ape its original SNES look but with some modern touches and I am replaying it for the first time in over a decade since its previous remake for the Nintendo DS. I only got about halfway through the game in that last one since it was DAMN tough and I don't think I ever made much headway in the original (not owning a SNES) so this is my first real attempt at the game and I've no particular nostalgia for it. In fact I wasn't even going to GET this version of the game but got so hyped for FFV coming out soon that I just couldn't help myself and bought it!

Good

-The music, duh!

-Characters actually...

Bad

-Melodramatic at times

Meh

-Combat was fine?