FallenGrace
BACKER
2001
"Devil May Cry's a Rockin, don't come a knockin baby yeah!"
So for a long time this was my favourite game ever and was the start of my solidification into a hardcore Capcom fan which has continued to this day. When this came out I was around 18 and a friend had bought it. We played it together and seeing a leather clad biker girl smash through a bar, a gothic castle and uppercutting a marionette with a sword then juggling it with dual wielding pistols was, at the time, the coolest thing ever. I knew this game inside and out speed running it, learning every move, or collecting over a million red orbs because I could. One weekend when I had the house to myself that same friend came and stayed over playing all night by setting up two PlayStation 2's next to two TVs so we could both play Devil May Cry on our own saves hunting S ranks until we had every one on every difficulty level including Dante Must Die. I loved it.
The thing is I'd never played a game like this before. It's roots starting as Resident Evil 4 before changing into it's own series are pretty evident in aspects of it's design. The gothic horror atmosphere slightly underlining it's occasionally camp and over the top exterior gelled for an extremely unique experience. I've seen a lot of reviews on here being pretty negative about it and you know what? I get it, I do. The static camera angle and controls built around it for people who having not played it during that era wouldn't care for or have the patience to learn would feel dated. The thing is though, the game is built around it fundamentally when you learn how to use it on it's terms. Enemies even off screen give audio attack cues, the controls are built around directions and angles in relation to the camera but are also designed for angle changes when you know how. It's a clever game for it's time and the mixture of basic exploration, puzzles and scattered battle arenas was just a fun mix as the game understands the importance of downtime.
It's also an impressive looking and sounding game. Remember this came out only a year after the PS2 launch and has these large levels, detailed character and enemy models and insane boss fights in which each feels like a real event to behold. I love the enemy designs such as shadow cats that launch spikes, incorporeal grim reapers and giant lava spiders. Though the boss fights do repeat they are such big spectacles and some of the hardest challenges in the game with some insane music. Speaking of which whilst the later soundtracks went a lot more metal with vocal tracks the original game has this mixture of gothic haunting melodies that could easily be in a horror game to sort of electronic rock tracks and just stands out a lot more from it's later sequels due to it.
Coming back to this in 2012 for the remaster and all the trophies then playing it again now and I still love it. Yes it's terribly cheesy with laughable lip synching, yes it's fixed camera can make the action feel unwieldly and yes it's probably one of those games you had to be there for....
....but it's the best Devil May Cry game though.
+ Horror and action roots mixed.
+ Combat and boss battles are exciting.
+ Great music and visuals.
+ Sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally.
- Fixed camera angle can take getting used to.
So for a long time this was my favourite game ever and was the start of my solidification into a hardcore Capcom fan which has continued to this day. When this came out I was around 18 and a friend had bought it. We played it together and seeing a leather clad biker girl smash through a bar, a gothic castle and uppercutting a marionette with a sword then juggling it with dual wielding pistols was, at the time, the coolest thing ever. I knew this game inside and out speed running it, learning every move, or collecting over a million red orbs because I could. One weekend when I had the house to myself that same friend came and stayed over playing all night by setting up two PlayStation 2's next to two TVs so we could both play Devil May Cry on our own saves hunting S ranks until we had every one on every difficulty level including Dante Must Die. I loved it.
The thing is I'd never played a game like this before. It's roots starting as Resident Evil 4 before changing into it's own series are pretty evident in aspects of it's design. The gothic horror atmosphere slightly underlining it's occasionally camp and over the top exterior gelled for an extremely unique experience. I've seen a lot of reviews on here being pretty negative about it and you know what? I get it, I do. The static camera angle and controls built around it for people who having not played it during that era wouldn't care for or have the patience to learn would feel dated. The thing is though, the game is built around it fundamentally when you learn how to use it on it's terms. Enemies even off screen give audio attack cues, the controls are built around directions and angles in relation to the camera but are also designed for angle changes when you know how. It's a clever game for it's time and the mixture of basic exploration, puzzles and scattered battle arenas was just a fun mix as the game understands the importance of downtime.
It's also an impressive looking and sounding game. Remember this came out only a year after the PS2 launch and has these large levels, detailed character and enemy models and insane boss fights in which each feels like a real event to behold. I love the enemy designs such as shadow cats that launch spikes, incorporeal grim reapers and giant lava spiders. Though the boss fights do repeat they are such big spectacles and some of the hardest challenges in the game with some insane music. Speaking of which whilst the later soundtracks went a lot more metal with vocal tracks the original game has this mixture of gothic haunting melodies that could easily be in a horror game to sort of electronic rock tracks and just stands out a lot more from it's later sequels due to it.
Coming back to this in 2012 for the remaster and all the trophies then playing it again now and I still love it. Yes it's terribly cheesy with laughable lip synching, yes it's fixed camera can make the action feel unwieldly and yes it's probably one of those games you had to be there for....
....but it's the best Devil May Cry game though.
+ Horror and action roots mixed.
+ Combat and boss battles are exciting.
+ Great music and visuals.
+ Sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally.
- Fixed camera angle can take getting used to.
So this year I was going to make a conscious effort to work through my backlog. Buy less games, play more etc. That quickly fell apart in the first month however I've done decently at playing them so far and the Odin Sphere remaster Leifthrasir is one of the older PSN purchase I have yet to play . I decided it was a good title to finally finish on my 2024 games played list.
Odin Sphere is the third Vanillaware title I've played at the time of writing. The first was Dragon's Crown, a game I truly hated but perhaps approached wrong expecting a four player Guardian Heroes. The second was 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim which I utterly adored for it's keep you guessing sci-fi story. (First quick review I wrote on Backloggd actually) It's fitting then that Odin Sphere would sit somewhere in the middle between them as a game I like but with a lot of flaws preventing me loving it and hard to actually recommend.
So lets get the positive aspects out in the open first as this game does have a lot of good going for it. Firstly the artwork and animations are pretty stunning. Vanillaware is pretty famous for it's layered 2D art style and animations. The characters and enemies all stand out and the usage of colour and style makes it feel like a painting in motion. To carry on the presentation side of my positive compliments, the whimsical soundtrack is stunning. I especially like the theme song but it's all gorgeous wrapping up Odin Sphere into a great looking and sounding package.
I actually had to double check this was originally a PS2 game because even as a remaster it just doesn't feel like it. Equally it just doesn't play like it came from that console. The combat animations and battles are all so smooth chaining from moves to move. This isn't an insult to the PS2, it was an amazing system, just a compliment to Odin sphere's visuals and animations. When in combat the characters have a large amount of moves with more unlocking as the game progresses. It allows you to chain various moves and skills into large combos. Hitting a group of enemies into a huge combo with perfect blocks to keep the chain is initially really fun. I'm saying initially because this is where my praise of Odin sphere starts to breakdown a bit unfortunately. The game is based around five characters:
- Gwyndolin, a Valkyrie Princess.
- Cornelius, a prince cursed into a beast form.
- Mercedes, a fairy Princess.
- Oswald, an orphaned knight with a cursed sword.
- Velvet, a forest Witch.
Similar to Vanillaware's later title 13 Sentinels each character has their own story arc playing the game from different perspectives before a final chapter linking the full story together. In principal the idea is great. Vanillaware themselves proved this can work wonderfully as a concept. Here it is extremely flawed though. My biggest issue is there is no variety between each character play through. They have different moves, weapons and some unique skills on a couple of them but they are fundamentally the same. When you take that into account along with the fact that each one of them plays through the same 6 locations fighting the same 20 ish enemies and same bosses and no matter how gorgeous Odin Sphere is, and no matter how nicely it plays it just becomes tedious. You have to play all five scenarios to see the ending and by the 4th character I was just feeling burnt out of it all.
Perhaps because it's an action RPG there is a greater downtime between the story sections that could have kept the mystery going for me to want to push onwards but I feel the narrative behind the game overall just isn't strong enough to justify the multiple perspectives. There isn't a huge mystery that gets unveiled or a surprise twist. Each scenario explains a few things more but I didn't find any of it compelling. Everything around the multiple protagonist formula here undermines the story and the mechanics. Some of the story arcs on each character don't quite match with some odd reasons to make sure the character does visit the snow mountain or lava kingdom etc. Having a food resource cooking mini game for levelling is a neat little idea but gets boring having to save ingredients and feed each character as a core way to level them up every time. Exploring never has anything new on different characters, same levels, same equipment. This feels like a 6 hour game padded out to a 30 hour game and the fairy tale esq setting and lore aren't strong enough to carry that.
I hate typing this as I wanted to love Odin Sphere like I did 13 Sentinels. I am however grateful to it for being the game that put Vanillaware on the map, the game that is almost like a later prototype they built on. I'm glad I played it, it's well made, and looks and plays wonderfully it's just lacking meat on it's bones.
I wish you really could just grow sheep from trees.
+ Gorgeous art design.
+ Fun , fast and fluid combat system.
+ Pleasant whimsical soundtrack and great voice acting (I played it in Japanese).
- The game loop is extremely repetitive and the story cannot carry nearly the exact same content from a slightly different view point. Only one real negative but it's a big one.
Odin Sphere is the third Vanillaware title I've played at the time of writing. The first was Dragon's Crown, a game I truly hated but perhaps approached wrong expecting a four player Guardian Heroes. The second was 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim which I utterly adored for it's keep you guessing sci-fi story. (First quick review I wrote on Backloggd actually) It's fitting then that Odin Sphere would sit somewhere in the middle between them as a game I like but with a lot of flaws preventing me loving it and hard to actually recommend.
So lets get the positive aspects out in the open first as this game does have a lot of good going for it. Firstly the artwork and animations are pretty stunning. Vanillaware is pretty famous for it's layered 2D art style and animations. The characters and enemies all stand out and the usage of colour and style makes it feel like a painting in motion. To carry on the presentation side of my positive compliments, the whimsical soundtrack is stunning. I especially like the theme song but it's all gorgeous wrapping up Odin Sphere into a great looking and sounding package.
I actually had to double check this was originally a PS2 game because even as a remaster it just doesn't feel like it. Equally it just doesn't play like it came from that console. The combat animations and battles are all so smooth chaining from moves to move. This isn't an insult to the PS2, it was an amazing system, just a compliment to Odin sphere's visuals and animations. When in combat the characters have a large amount of moves with more unlocking as the game progresses. It allows you to chain various moves and skills into large combos. Hitting a group of enemies into a huge combo with perfect blocks to keep the chain is initially really fun. I'm saying initially because this is where my praise of Odin sphere starts to breakdown a bit unfortunately. The game is based around five characters:
- Gwyndolin, a Valkyrie Princess.
- Cornelius, a prince cursed into a beast form.
- Mercedes, a fairy Princess.
- Oswald, an orphaned knight with a cursed sword.
- Velvet, a forest Witch.
Similar to Vanillaware's later title 13 Sentinels each character has their own story arc playing the game from different perspectives before a final chapter linking the full story together. In principal the idea is great. Vanillaware themselves proved this can work wonderfully as a concept. Here it is extremely flawed though. My biggest issue is there is no variety between each character play through. They have different moves, weapons and some unique skills on a couple of them but they are fundamentally the same. When you take that into account along with the fact that each one of them plays through the same 6 locations fighting the same 20 ish enemies and same bosses and no matter how gorgeous Odin Sphere is, and no matter how nicely it plays it just becomes tedious. You have to play all five scenarios to see the ending and by the 4th character I was just feeling burnt out of it all.
Perhaps because it's an action RPG there is a greater downtime between the story sections that could have kept the mystery going for me to want to push onwards but I feel the narrative behind the game overall just isn't strong enough to justify the multiple perspectives. There isn't a huge mystery that gets unveiled or a surprise twist. Each scenario explains a few things more but I didn't find any of it compelling. Everything around the multiple protagonist formula here undermines the story and the mechanics. Some of the story arcs on each character don't quite match with some odd reasons to make sure the character does visit the snow mountain or lava kingdom etc. Having a food resource cooking mini game for levelling is a neat little idea but gets boring having to save ingredients and feed each character as a core way to level them up every time. Exploring never has anything new on different characters, same levels, same equipment. This feels like a 6 hour game padded out to a 30 hour game and the fairy tale esq setting and lore aren't strong enough to carry that.
I hate typing this as I wanted to love Odin Sphere like I did 13 Sentinels. I am however grateful to it for being the game that put Vanillaware on the map, the game that is almost like a later prototype they built on. I'm glad I played it, it's well made, and looks and plays wonderfully it's just lacking meat on it's bones.
I wish you really could just grow sheep from trees.
+ Gorgeous art design.
+ Fun , fast and fluid combat system.
+ Pleasant whimsical soundtrack and great voice acting (I played it in Japanese).
- The game loop is extremely repetitive and the story cannot carry nearly the exact same content from a slightly different view point. Only one real negative but it's a big one.
Not all heroes wear capes, some wear seriously outdated suits.
It's been a long road getting to this point for both myself and Yakuza's main star Kiryu Kazama. Like many people I got into this series with Yakuza 0 through word of mouth in 2017 and wondered what I had missed all that time. There simply isn't another game series like it. It's a Frankenstein's monster whose separate parts on paper don't feel like they should work but amalgamated together they create something magical. They are serious crime dramas, only they are off beat comedies. They are beat 'em ups yet also adventure games, RPGs and dating simulators. It's all of these things and yet none of them. Not all it's ideas work, when they throw so much at the wall some things don't always stick but without fail for me they are always emotional, hilarious and entertaining.
The series' big selling point to me though is actually it's world design. This series along with Deus Ex made me realise I don't dislike open worlds, I dislike vast areas for the sake of being vast with empty meaningless content, sometimes less is more. Yakuza games are open worlds done right, not gigantic bloated icon maps usually used for those descriptions but smaller denser hubs. Locations have meaning, they have personality, the cities feel like characters in the game as much as the cast. If the game tells me to go to a shop or street I normally know where it is without having to bring up a map. They are full of life, small compact and focused.
Yakuza 6's story follows this same thought, whether it was because this was the first game on the Dragon Engine at the time meaning they cut back I don't know but I appreciated the sharper focus on Kiryu rather than the overly large games before that were getting a bit too big for themselves. Kiryu was really the heart of this game, it's his personal story about his own values and dedication to family. Hard to discuss without spoilers but whilst the overall story wasn't quite my cup of tea generally resulting in some pacing issues it still has some fantastic characters, moments and voice acting. This is partially because Yakuza's cinematography for it's cutscenes are a step above most games to me. The camera angles, facial details and expressions have always been extremely impressive but I truly noticed it here.
Like every Yakuza game the side content is often as important as the linear main story. Yakuza 6 scales back on this too but there is still a wealth of content here I spent a lot of my 70 hours playing through on. Spear fishing in an underwater on rails shooter, building up a clan for street fights in a mini strategy game, helping a small baseball team beat their countryside rivals (I'm not into baseball but this is making me consider some other games for it) as well as the usual suspects like cabaret clubs, video chat dating, mahjong and arcade games. It even has the full arcade game of Virtua Fighter 5 as optional content which is pretty crazy as far as a throw away mini game is concerned.
Honestly except some story beats I just don't have anything negative to say about this game. The combat is a little simpler than some other titles though that doesn't concern me much as the moment to moment narrative beats and atmosphere are the core to the series to me. I started it because I needed to play it to play Gaiden as I skipped from 5 to 7 initially but then had a feeling of regret I hadn't played it sooner as the Yakuza magic took hold of me. I love the world, the characters, the side content, exploring and taking in the sights of the locations. Yakuza as I discussed is a lot of things but to someone who grew up as a Sega fan it really shows to me that they still have that spark that made me a fan of theirs in the first place and may it long continue.
+ Hiroshima is a great new location.
+ Cinematography and voice acting are superb.
+ Baseball, spear fishing and clan fighting are pretty fun side content.
+ It's Yakuza.
- Storyline is a little up and down.
It's been a long road getting to this point for both myself and Yakuza's main star Kiryu Kazama. Like many people I got into this series with Yakuza 0 through word of mouth in 2017 and wondered what I had missed all that time. There simply isn't another game series like it. It's a Frankenstein's monster whose separate parts on paper don't feel like they should work but amalgamated together they create something magical. They are serious crime dramas, only they are off beat comedies. They are beat 'em ups yet also adventure games, RPGs and dating simulators. It's all of these things and yet none of them. Not all it's ideas work, when they throw so much at the wall some things don't always stick but without fail for me they are always emotional, hilarious and entertaining.
The series' big selling point to me though is actually it's world design. This series along with Deus Ex made me realise I don't dislike open worlds, I dislike vast areas for the sake of being vast with empty meaningless content, sometimes less is more. Yakuza games are open worlds done right, not gigantic bloated icon maps usually used for those descriptions but smaller denser hubs. Locations have meaning, they have personality, the cities feel like characters in the game as much as the cast. If the game tells me to go to a shop or street I normally know where it is without having to bring up a map. They are full of life, small compact and focused.
Yakuza 6's story follows this same thought, whether it was because this was the first game on the Dragon Engine at the time meaning they cut back I don't know but I appreciated the sharper focus on Kiryu rather than the overly large games before that were getting a bit too big for themselves. Kiryu was really the heart of this game, it's his personal story about his own values and dedication to family. Hard to discuss without spoilers but whilst the overall story wasn't quite my cup of tea generally resulting in some pacing issues it still has some fantastic characters, moments and voice acting. This is partially because Yakuza's cinematography for it's cutscenes are a step above most games to me. The camera angles, facial details and expressions have always been extremely impressive but I truly noticed it here.
Like every Yakuza game the side content is often as important as the linear main story. Yakuza 6 scales back on this too but there is still a wealth of content here I spent a lot of my 70 hours playing through on. Spear fishing in an underwater on rails shooter, building up a clan for street fights in a mini strategy game, helping a small baseball team beat their countryside rivals (I'm not into baseball but this is making me consider some other games for it) as well as the usual suspects like cabaret clubs, video chat dating, mahjong and arcade games. It even has the full arcade game of Virtua Fighter 5 as optional content which is pretty crazy as far as a throw away mini game is concerned.
Honestly except some story beats I just don't have anything negative to say about this game. The combat is a little simpler than some other titles though that doesn't concern me much as the moment to moment narrative beats and atmosphere are the core to the series to me. I started it because I needed to play it to play Gaiden as I skipped from 5 to 7 initially but then had a feeling of regret I hadn't played it sooner as the Yakuza magic took hold of me. I love the world, the characters, the side content, exploring and taking in the sights of the locations. Yakuza as I discussed is a lot of things but to someone who grew up as a Sega fan it really shows to me that they still have that spark that made me a fan of theirs in the first place and may it long continue.
+ Hiroshima is a great new location.
+ Cinematography and voice acting are superb.
+ Baseball, spear fishing and clan fighting are pretty fun side content.
+ It's Yakuza.
- Storyline is a little up and down.
1989
The first Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System was a surprise to me. Maybe it's a feeling I had that because it was the oldest one in the series on an earlier console it would be bad? It's dated in many ways but bad? Not even close. Impressive art, music and technical feats on the system made it a really fun little game. The second Phantasy Star title is equally a surprise to me but literally in the polar opposite direction. I assumed because it was on the megadrive it and a sequel it would be an improvement on everything laid before it.
I was wrong.
I actually kind of actively hate this game and I just didn't expect that going in. The story starts with an interesting premise. Set 1000 years after Phantasy Star the Algol star system is ruled by a super computer called Mother Brain that has made every decision for it's residents. Controlling everything to make their lives easy but when something goes wrong they are not equipped to deal with it. As an agent of the governor you are chosen to find out the cause behind a new wave of monsters appearing due to Mother Brain not taking action. I like the idea a lot of people becoming too dependent to act on their own though the game never feels like that in the actual world.
The 80s/90s anime sci-fi visual design is still quite striking. Characters have mixture of, knives, boomerangs, magic, laser swords and plasma pistols in a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi. It's a great blend the game works well cohesively with the character designs of shoulder pads and big hair dos with obvious Star Wars influences. Whilst I like the art and atmosphere I did find it actually less impressive from a technical standpoint than it's predecessor. The dungeons losing their first person view into the more traditional top down exploration with that was disappointing though, but that's the least of the dungeons problems.
They. Are. Terrible.
Initially they aren't too bad but as the game progressed further and further my drive to continue lessened with my progress. Each dungeon is a giant sprawling maze filled with warp points zooming you from floor to floor. It's full of unrewarding dead ends and twists with no in game map to help you navigate the labyrinthine nightmares. It's no wonder on release the game came with a guide book with a walkthrough and maps, they knew. I followed an online walkthrough in the end because I couldn't see myself brute forcing through without one. At one point the guide describes a new dungeon you come to as: "The first floor has no less than 69 chutes leading up to the next floor (No, I'm not kidding. There really are 69 chutes. Stop laughing.)" and many later are even worse. In an interview in 1993 whilst promoting Phantasy Star IV the game designer Kotaro Hayashida discusses Phantasy Star II and when asked about the dungeons he is translated as stating:
"Another issue was related to the dungeons, which were created by a new employee. Because he was new, he put a ton of effort into the maps and kind of overdid it… the game became more about the complex dungeons than anything else. I think you really see that on the Dezolis dungeons. They were really well done, and when Chieko Aoki saw them she didn’t want all the new employee’s work to be for naught, so we ended up using those maps… albeit with some mixed feelings. They contributed to the latter half of the game being unbalanced"
I agree with this though think Phantasy Star II being generally unbalanced from the get go. Due to the huge twisting warping bland looking dungeons and encounters every two steps the amount of combat in the game is kind of staggering. The amount of experience you get from them though is pitiful to the point that grinding and battling over and over just to gain one level up that does little towards improving your overall strength made the experience of playing extremely tedious. (Fans have created a double money, double experience hack due to this) I was even using fast forward playing this on the Playstation 4 Megadrive collection so god only knows how it would have felt at the original speed. To compound matters the games combat feels slightly unwieldly but to it's credit also a little ahead of it's time in some ways. There is a button to fight where the party will just auto combat each turn. In between you can manually select orders to the team to make them use spells, items or defend but it means going through extra menu steps each time unnecessarily. The menus generally feel kind of poorly implemented and equipping items, giving them to each other or using healing spells outside of battle was irritating every time. Despite all of this I did continue on as I wanted to see all the game had to offer only to reach an ending that actually made me think all the effort flat wasn't worth it.
In the same interview mentioned above on shupcompilations they discuss the game originally being made on the Master System then changed and ported in an extremely short amount of time. It sounds like it was a miracle and hard work the game came out at all to which I respect them greatly. I'm glad I finally finished the first RPG released on the Sega Megadrive and such a pillar of gaming history I was missing. It doesn't change my opinion though that Phantasy Star II is actually pretty poorly designed and not actually very fun to play.
As a Sega fan, retro gaming fan and RPG fan, this hurt to write. Half a star for the art design though, especially the cover art. Hitoshi Yoneda's work is stunning.
+ I like the story premise.
+ The ingame art design and promotional artwork is wonderful with a blend of high fantast and tech heavy sci-fi.
- It has possible the worst dungeons of the nearly 150 JRPGs I have played. Extremely tedious. Every one made me want to quit.
- It's a huge grind but feels unrewarding with it.
- Story is generally unsatisfying.
I was wrong.
I actually kind of actively hate this game and I just didn't expect that going in. The story starts with an interesting premise. Set 1000 years after Phantasy Star the Algol star system is ruled by a super computer called Mother Brain that has made every decision for it's residents. Controlling everything to make their lives easy but when something goes wrong they are not equipped to deal with it. As an agent of the governor you are chosen to find out the cause behind a new wave of monsters appearing due to Mother Brain not taking action. I like the idea a lot of people becoming too dependent to act on their own though the game never feels like that in the actual world.
The 80s/90s anime sci-fi visual design is still quite striking. Characters have mixture of, knives, boomerangs, magic, laser swords and plasma pistols in a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi. It's a great blend the game works well cohesively with the character designs of shoulder pads and big hair dos with obvious Star Wars influences. Whilst I like the art and atmosphere I did find it actually less impressive from a technical standpoint than it's predecessor. The dungeons losing their first person view into the more traditional top down exploration with that was disappointing though, but that's the least of the dungeons problems.
They. Are. Terrible.
Initially they aren't too bad but as the game progressed further and further my drive to continue lessened with my progress. Each dungeon is a giant sprawling maze filled with warp points zooming you from floor to floor. It's full of unrewarding dead ends and twists with no in game map to help you navigate the labyrinthine nightmares. It's no wonder on release the game came with a guide book with a walkthrough and maps, they knew. I followed an online walkthrough in the end because I couldn't see myself brute forcing through without one. At one point the guide describes a new dungeon you come to as: "The first floor has no less than 69 chutes leading up to the next floor (No, I'm not kidding. There really are 69 chutes. Stop laughing.)" and many later are even worse. In an interview in 1993 whilst promoting Phantasy Star IV the game designer Kotaro Hayashida discusses Phantasy Star II and when asked about the dungeons he is translated as stating:
"Another issue was related to the dungeons, which were created by a new employee. Because he was new, he put a ton of effort into the maps and kind of overdid it… the game became more about the complex dungeons than anything else. I think you really see that on the Dezolis dungeons. They were really well done, and when Chieko Aoki saw them she didn’t want all the new employee’s work to be for naught, so we ended up using those maps… albeit with some mixed feelings. They contributed to the latter half of the game being unbalanced"
I agree with this though think Phantasy Star II being generally unbalanced from the get go. Due to the huge twisting warping bland looking dungeons and encounters every two steps the amount of combat in the game is kind of staggering. The amount of experience you get from them though is pitiful to the point that grinding and battling over and over just to gain one level up that does little towards improving your overall strength made the experience of playing extremely tedious. (Fans have created a double money, double experience hack due to this) I was even using fast forward playing this on the Playstation 4 Megadrive collection so god only knows how it would have felt at the original speed. To compound matters the games combat feels slightly unwieldly but to it's credit also a little ahead of it's time in some ways. There is a button to fight where the party will just auto combat each turn. In between you can manually select orders to the team to make them use spells, items or defend but it means going through extra menu steps each time unnecessarily. The menus generally feel kind of poorly implemented and equipping items, giving them to each other or using healing spells outside of battle was irritating every time. Despite all of this I did continue on as I wanted to see all the game had to offer only to reach an ending that actually made me think all the effort flat wasn't worth it.
In the same interview mentioned above on shupcompilations they discuss the game originally being made on the Master System then changed and ported in an extremely short amount of time. It sounds like it was a miracle and hard work the game came out at all to which I respect them greatly. I'm glad I finally finished the first RPG released on the Sega Megadrive and such a pillar of gaming history I was missing. It doesn't change my opinion though that Phantasy Star II is actually pretty poorly designed and not actually very fun to play.
As a Sega fan, retro gaming fan and RPG fan, this hurt to write. Half a star for the art design though, especially the cover art. Hitoshi Yoneda's work is stunning.
+ I like the story premise.
+ The ingame art design and promotional artwork is wonderful with a blend of high fantast and tech heavy sci-fi.
- It has possible the worst dungeons of the nearly 150 JRPGs I have played. Extremely tedious. Every one made me want to quit.
- It's a huge grind but feels unrewarding with it.
- Story is generally unsatisfying.
2004
There is a moment in Mushihimesama where I started to feel guilty. Not for the act of playing the game or anything but upon hearing Reco the game's protagonist death scream a bit too frequently as I weave her into yet another purple ball of bug plasma. This really struck home though when I paused the game and the music and sound effects stopped but her scream continued, echoing into the void reminding me of my failure.
In case it's not apparent I'm still pretty green to shoot 'em ups though I've been investing time playing them more and more since joining backloggd. I see people here discussing in their reviews completing a 'one CC' run and I laugh at the the very idea of the practice it would take me to do such a thing. You see I normally play a shoot 'em up once, see the credits, take time to think about what I played, what did I like? what didn't I? and then move on. There is something about Mushihimesama though that keeps drawing me to play it again and again. For the first time I feel I almost understand hardcore STG players, at least a little bit.
The immediate thing I need to talk about with the actual game though is the cover art here. It's the thing that made me aware of this games existence. A friend here started playing it before I started delving more into the genre a couple of years ago and my first thought was "what on earth is that?" You only make first impressions once and it's absolutely sublime. Taking a mixture of anime and art nouveau with the curved backdrop, colours and flowing hair. It's like if Alphonse Mucha had become an anime artist and I utterly adore it. The art is one of the stand out elements of this title for both aesthetics and design. Taking influence from studio Ghibli's animated classic Nausica Valley of the Wind, you play the afore mentioned Princess Reco. She is due to be sacrificed to stop the Miasma that threatens her village from the giant Koju insects. On her 15th birthday she takes flight on her Rhinoceros beetle to stop them. The game's theme is entirely about insects bugs and nature, even the game's title Mushihimesama translates roughly to bug princess.
It spans five stages and I love the visuals and details. Lush looking forests, petrified centipede husks with fauna growing out of them, lava stages, crane flies floating on water and not to mention the way the stages are so active in the backgrounds. On one stage you can see this ginormous beetle fortress traveling under the canopy whilst you fight smaller enemies above before appearing as the boss. Another level with a giant beetle attached to a chasm wall that flies up to engage you. It's just a really cool looking title for concept art and in game visuals. Where it's clever though is in it's usage of art and colour in this design. This game is extremely vibrant with hues of green, red, blue, yellow all over but they reserve purple very specifically for enemy fire. Bright purple. Such a small thing but mechanically makes it very easy to understand what it a threat to you and is also very visually striking at the same time. I've played games where I simply couldn't see what was coming at me due to colour blends between backgrounds and fire. This eliminates that issue entirely, just because something is clear though, doesn't mean it is easy to avoid, this is a bullet hell after all.
This is my first real one in fact and I understand a good one for that because it's actually incredibly simple in a lot of ways through how it's been designed as mentioned above. You get one character Reco, but have three firing modes to choose from in how her bullets fire. She gets some basic power ups for her main gun and satellites which can be used either in a spread pattern or more focused fire. Seed bombs can briefly clear the screen of bullets to save you when firing and everything else is positioning and prioritising targets. There isn't a lot to learn at the base level but there is a lot to master. Knowing where to be on a level, taking out a bigger Koju first to control the flow and watching the onscreen bullets fade out or dodging through an absolute torrent of fire and coming out the other side is an absolute rush when it happens. I actually prefer playing it on Manic over normal difficulty despite the increase in bullet density coming my way because the game just feels good to play moment to moment but I am still learning a lot every time I play.
Though I am reviewing the arcade game here I played through once I would recommend getting the Mushihimesama HD release on steam for it's crisper visuals and extras I'll review separately another time. Regardless of version though I'm really glad this actually lived up to both the word of mouth around it and my expectations based on the art, fun music and footage I've seen. This is actually my first Cave game having weirdly played some games that eventually led to their formation prior. It's probably not my favourite shoot 'em up but I must say it's an extremely good one and I look forward to playing more of Cave's works.
Reco's death scream however will continue to haunt me for some time but I am getting better to prevent her suffering.
+ Concept art is gorgeous.
+ In game visuals and art are also gorgeous.
+ Simple clear design but still a challenge.
In case it's not apparent I'm still pretty green to shoot 'em ups though I've been investing time playing them more and more since joining backloggd. I see people here discussing in their reviews completing a 'one CC' run and I laugh at the the very idea of the practice it would take me to do such a thing. You see I normally play a shoot 'em up once, see the credits, take time to think about what I played, what did I like? what didn't I? and then move on. There is something about Mushihimesama though that keeps drawing me to play it again and again. For the first time I feel I almost understand hardcore STG players, at least a little bit.
The immediate thing I need to talk about with the actual game though is the cover art here. It's the thing that made me aware of this games existence. A friend here started playing it before I started delving more into the genre a couple of years ago and my first thought was "what on earth is that?" You only make first impressions once and it's absolutely sublime. Taking a mixture of anime and art nouveau with the curved backdrop, colours and flowing hair. It's like if Alphonse Mucha had become an anime artist and I utterly adore it. The art is one of the stand out elements of this title for both aesthetics and design. Taking influence from studio Ghibli's animated classic Nausica Valley of the Wind, you play the afore mentioned Princess Reco. She is due to be sacrificed to stop the Miasma that threatens her village from the giant Koju insects. On her 15th birthday she takes flight on her Rhinoceros beetle to stop them. The game's theme is entirely about insects bugs and nature, even the game's title Mushihimesama translates roughly to bug princess.
It spans five stages and I love the visuals and details. Lush looking forests, petrified centipede husks with fauna growing out of them, lava stages, crane flies floating on water and not to mention the way the stages are so active in the backgrounds. On one stage you can see this ginormous beetle fortress traveling under the canopy whilst you fight smaller enemies above before appearing as the boss. Another level with a giant beetle attached to a chasm wall that flies up to engage you. It's just a really cool looking title for concept art and in game visuals. Where it's clever though is in it's usage of art and colour in this design. This game is extremely vibrant with hues of green, red, blue, yellow all over but they reserve purple very specifically for enemy fire. Bright purple. Such a small thing but mechanically makes it very easy to understand what it a threat to you and is also very visually striking at the same time. I've played games where I simply couldn't see what was coming at me due to colour blends between backgrounds and fire. This eliminates that issue entirely, just because something is clear though, doesn't mean it is easy to avoid, this is a bullet hell after all.
This is my first real one in fact and I understand a good one for that because it's actually incredibly simple in a lot of ways through how it's been designed as mentioned above. You get one character Reco, but have three firing modes to choose from in how her bullets fire. She gets some basic power ups for her main gun and satellites which can be used either in a spread pattern or more focused fire. Seed bombs can briefly clear the screen of bullets to save you when firing and everything else is positioning and prioritising targets. There isn't a lot to learn at the base level but there is a lot to master. Knowing where to be on a level, taking out a bigger Koju first to control the flow and watching the onscreen bullets fade out or dodging through an absolute torrent of fire and coming out the other side is an absolute rush when it happens. I actually prefer playing it on Manic over normal difficulty despite the increase in bullet density coming my way because the game just feels good to play moment to moment but I am still learning a lot every time I play.
Though I am reviewing the arcade game here I played through once I would recommend getting the Mushihimesama HD release on steam for it's crisper visuals and extras I'll review separately another time. Regardless of version though I'm really glad this actually lived up to both the word of mouth around it and my expectations based on the art, fun music and footage I've seen. This is actually my first Cave game having weirdly played some games that eventually led to their formation prior. It's probably not my favourite shoot 'em up but I must say it's an extremely good one and I look forward to playing more of Cave's works.
Reco's death scream however will continue to haunt me for some time but I am getting better to prevent her suffering.
+ Concept art is gorgeous.
+ In game visuals and art are also gorgeous.
+ Simple clear design but still a challenge.
When I was in my early 20's I had to go to London for an appointment. I had time to wait for a few hours so my mum said we should go to Westminster Abbey as it was nearby. I can't say this thought really interested me but that line of thinking soon changed when I actually entered the building. It's amazing how much you take your own country's landmarks and history for granted sometimes. Westminster Abbey is such a stunning cathedral full of history. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Laurence Olivier, Geffery Chaucer, Charles Dickins, Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling among others are buried there. This is nothing compared with the architecture, artifacts (the coronation chair is located here) and atmosphere of the building. I've had a real interest in church and gothic architecture ever since. It was an eye opening experience that sometimes you can miss what is right in front of you.
How is any of this relevant to The Pillars of the Earth? It brought back that same feeling. That impression that I take more interest in other culture's history and landmarks than my own, this especially hit when I had to look up to see if King Stephen in this story was a real monarch (He was). You see this game is a work of historical fiction based on the novel by Ken Follet which much to my chagrin I also haven't read. It's set in 12th century England about the building of a cathedral, the clergy and monks, lords, politics and ordinary people around it over several years. There is a surprising amount of content included here with the game split into three sections called books where the characters vary as the story gets told from different perspectives. The characters are all extremely well written and the dialogue and pacing of the story wrapping everything together works far better than I had anticipated it would though it's very slow and mundane at times. It's not super thrilling or action packed but feels like a very mature and often disheartening story as I would expect based on the original source.
What really brings the characters and world together though is the games superb cast. The voice acting for each character just feels like perfect casting and considering the bulk of the game is these conversations it was imperative they got that right and I couldn't find a single fault. The games entire presentation is stunning actually. The game is 2D art and almost every scene just felt like a stunning painting with carefully calculated backgrounds and prominent character art and colours. It's often bleak in setting but gorgeous in visuals and sound. I never got tired of looking at it and I don't think I can praise it's presentation enough.
Whilst not admiring the vistas or enjoying the conversations, Pillars of the Earth from a gameplay perspective is a point and click. It really doesn't get much deeper than that, you pick up key conversations or items that you can use on characters to progress various quests or unlock more information. The items have a wheel or you can quick select on the d-pad. I appreciate there isn't anything bonkers like the Discworld games. Everything here is fairly straight forward and logical for the most part. It's clearly more about pushing the flow of the narrative of the source material rather than in engaging or challenging puzzles. The overall story is set but small actions you make or don't can have impact on aspects of it even if they seem small initially. Each chapter will highlight these decisions for you at the end.
Whilst I've been positive overall I did have some technical issues like once when loading my game I couldn't move my character at all, completely frozen meaning I had to restart a couple of hours of content as well as a crash and some audio issues which brought my enjoyment of the game down slightly. Despite that though I would really recommend it. It's like no point and click I've played or seen. The visual and audio quality are sublime mixed with an interesting period of history I really should learn more about.
+ Stunning artwork.
+ Great voice acting and casting.
+ Engrossing story.
- A few technical issues.
- Can feel slow at times, especially playing a lot it one sitting.
How is any of this relevant to The Pillars of the Earth? It brought back that same feeling. That impression that I take more interest in other culture's history and landmarks than my own, this especially hit when I had to look up to see if King Stephen in this story was a real monarch (He was). You see this game is a work of historical fiction based on the novel by Ken Follet which much to my chagrin I also haven't read. It's set in 12th century England about the building of a cathedral, the clergy and monks, lords, politics and ordinary people around it over several years. There is a surprising amount of content included here with the game split into three sections called books where the characters vary as the story gets told from different perspectives. The characters are all extremely well written and the dialogue and pacing of the story wrapping everything together works far better than I had anticipated it would though it's very slow and mundane at times. It's not super thrilling or action packed but feels like a very mature and often disheartening story as I would expect based on the original source.
What really brings the characters and world together though is the games superb cast. The voice acting for each character just feels like perfect casting and considering the bulk of the game is these conversations it was imperative they got that right and I couldn't find a single fault. The games entire presentation is stunning actually. The game is 2D art and almost every scene just felt like a stunning painting with carefully calculated backgrounds and prominent character art and colours. It's often bleak in setting but gorgeous in visuals and sound. I never got tired of looking at it and I don't think I can praise it's presentation enough.
Whilst not admiring the vistas or enjoying the conversations, Pillars of the Earth from a gameplay perspective is a point and click. It really doesn't get much deeper than that, you pick up key conversations or items that you can use on characters to progress various quests or unlock more information. The items have a wheel or you can quick select on the d-pad. I appreciate there isn't anything bonkers like the Discworld games. Everything here is fairly straight forward and logical for the most part. It's clearly more about pushing the flow of the narrative of the source material rather than in engaging or challenging puzzles. The overall story is set but small actions you make or don't can have impact on aspects of it even if they seem small initially. Each chapter will highlight these decisions for you at the end.
Whilst I've been positive overall I did have some technical issues like once when loading my game I couldn't move my character at all, completely frozen meaning I had to restart a couple of hours of content as well as a crash and some audio issues which brought my enjoyment of the game down slightly. Despite that though I would really recommend it. It's like no point and click I've played or seen. The visual and audio quality are sublime mixed with an interesting period of history I really should learn more about.
+ Stunning artwork.
+ Great voice acting and casting.
+ Engrossing story.
- A few technical issues.
- Can feel slow at times, especially playing a lot it one sitting.
Reviewing Castlevania Symphony of the Night is an interesting one because there is just nothing new I could possibly say about it really as a game that other far better writers with more analytical tendency's haven't covered in greater depth. The thing is though this was my first Castlevania, my first Metroidvania, and it had quite an impact on me.
I was about 20 when I first played Symphony of the Night. I'd never actually played a Castlevania game before but found the limited edition copy of this with artbook and soundtrack in a second hand store. The first thing that grabbed my attention when walking by was the amazing cover artwork by Ayami Kojima. I've always enjoyed gothic architecture, historical buildings, clothing and legends (of which vampires certainly is one of interest). Seeing that cover of a vampiric figure holding his sword upright with the moon, Castle and massive collar mixed with the slightly muted colour palette was extremely striking compared with many other drab or blocky covers in the store. The gothic atmosphere imparted in that one image left such an impression on me I had to have the game.
The artwork in the book in the back of the double CD case complimented the cover and after flipping through I popped the game in and away I went. I'm not sure what I fully expected but the hybrid mix of exploration with action RPG mechanics was a delight. It's a fairly standard affair now days, not only for the Castlevanias that came afterwards but for the dozens of indie games that have taken influence from it. The fact is though that back then this game was so influential that the genre is often simply named 'Metroidvania' partially after it. I'd never played anything like it at the time, and going back to it again over 20 years later for this digital rerelease I'm extremely pleased it's held up remarkably well on almost all fronts.
"It's strange... this castle is different than I remember it."
For those unaware, Symphony of the Night brings back Alucard the son of Dracula, a character from Castelvania III as the main character. It's a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood and Dracula's Castle has once again risen only a few years after fading away when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula..... Having actually played Rondo of Blood now a few weeks ago it makes the start all the more impactful as well as Maria's presence in the game and is a really interesting start set up literally playing against the final boss from the game before just as a prologue.
The castle itself is easy to navigate with a good map and yet it's littered with secrets as are the spells and weapons. Alucard has a variety of equipment that he can find and equip from swords, shields, hammers, cloaks etc. Additionally he can find spells and abilities for turning into a bat, a wolf or mist which help him to unlock further areas of the castle and traverse in a more fluid way. The amount of items and little easter eggs and secrets to find is quite impressive. On this playthrough trophy hunting I learned there was a sword that summons skeletons to briefly fight for you. Literally every time I play this I find something new. Playing through again after beating the game as a second character of Richter isn't something I'd tried before either and his completely different move set and abilities as a more traditional Classicvania character just add that much more life to a game.
"What is a man?! A miserable little pile of secrets!"
Great art and gameplay mechanics aside would be nothing however without Symphony of the Night's stellar audio. This particular version is the remaster based on Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. This is the redubbed and rewritten version over the original 1997 release and to be honest I prefer it. The voice acting is just way better but I appreciate that is entirely subjective and you may prefer the more over the top iconic dialogue. Regardless of the version you play though, the soundtrack is an absolute striker. I could choose almost any song from the soundtrack and it would be not only a great piece but also a perfect accompaniment to build that atmosphere.
I went into this because Castlevania Nocturne is coming soon on Netflix and it's been in my backlog to replay for sometime but I'm really glad I did. It's been some years since I last played it and it's great to not only see that it still holds up to the test of time competing with almost any Metroidvania in the genre but also that it can still surprise me with content I never knew about. Replaying some games with memories through rose tinted glasses vcan sometimes be a let down and are better left in memories, but not Symphony of the Night. This is a game that influenced a lot but taken just at it's own merit it's still a fantastic experience.
I still hate the clocktower though.
+ Gorgeous 2D sprites mixed with 3D rendering.
+ Iconic soundtrack.
+ Insanely good artwork and atmosphere.
- Some small sound popping and map issues due to emulation over the original release.
On a side note, for anyone interested in retro games or Castlevania I recommend this video and channel The Making of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Dracula X by Strafefox.
I was about 20 when I first played Symphony of the Night. I'd never actually played a Castlevania game before but found the limited edition copy of this with artbook and soundtrack in a second hand store. The first thing that grabbed my attention when walking by was the amazing cover artwork by Ayami Kojima. I've always enjoyed gothic architecture, historical buildings, clothing and legends (of which vampires certainly is one of interest). Seeing that cover of a vampiric figure holding his sword upright with the moon, Castle and massive collar mixed with the slightly muted colour palette was extremely striking compared with many other drab or blocky covers in the store. The gothic atmosphere imparted in that one image left such an impression on me I had to have the game.
The artwork in the book in the back of the double CD case complimented the cover and after flipping through I popped the game in and away I went. I'm not sure what I fully expected but the hybrid mix of exploration with action RPG mechanics was a delight. It's a fairly standard affair now days, not only for the Castlevanias that came afterwards but for the dozens of indie games that have taken influence from it. The fact is though that back then this game was so influential that the genre is often simply named 'Metroidvania' partially after it. I'd never played anything like it at the time, and going back to it again over 20 years later for this digital rerelease I'm extremely pleased it's held up remarkably well on almost all fronts.
"It's strange... this castle is different than I remember it."
For those unaware, Symphony of the Night brings back Alucard the son of Dracula, a character from Castelvania III as the main character. It's a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood and Dracula's Castle has once again risen only a few years after fading away when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula..... Having actually played Rondo of Blood now a few weeks ago it makes the start all the more impactful as well as Maria's presence in the game and is a really interesting start set up literally playing against the final boss from the game before just as a prologue.
The castle itself is easy to navigate with a good map and yet it's littered with secrets as are the spells and weapons. Alucard has a variety of equipment that he can find and equip from swords, shields, hammers, cloaks etc. Additionally he can find spells and abilities for turning into a bat, a wolf or mist which help him to unlock further areas of the castle and traverse in a more fluid way. The amount of items and little easter eggs and secrets to find is quite impressive. On this playthrough trophy hunting I learned there was a sword that summons skeletons to briefly fight for you. Literally every time I play this I find something new. Playing through again after beating the game as a second character of Richter isn't something I'd tried before either and his completely different move set and abilities as a more traditional Classicvania character just add that much more life to a game.
"What is a man?! A miserable little pile of secrets!"
Great art and gameplay mechanics aside would be nothing however without Symphony of the Night's stellar audio. This particular version is the remaster based on Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. This is the redubbed and rewritten version over the original 1997 release and to be honest I prefer it. The voice acting is just way better but I appreciate that is entirely subjective and you may prefer the more over the top iconic dialogue. Regardless of the version you play though, the soundtrack is an absolute striker. I could choose almost any song from the soundtrack and it would be not only a great piece but also a perfect accompaniment to build that atmosphere.
I went into this because Castlevania Nocturne is coming soon on Netflix and it's been in my backlog to replay for sometime but I'm really glad I did. It's been some years since I last played it and it's great to not only see that it still holds up to the test of time competing with almost any Metroidvania in the genre but also that it can still surprise me with content I never knew about. Replaying some games with memories through rose tinted glasses vcan sometimes be a let down and are better left in memories, but not Symphony of the Night. This is a game that influenced a lot but taken just at it's own merit it's still a fantastic experience.
I still hate the clocktower though.
+ Gorgeous 2D sprites mixed with 3D rendering.
+ Iconic soundtrack.
+ Insanely good artwork and atmosphere.
- Some small sound popping and map issues due to emulation over the original release.
On a side note, for anyone interested in retro games or Castlevania I recommend this video and channel The Making of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Dracula X by Strafefox.
1987
Retro gaming is an interesting topic for a lot of reasons. Original hardware? Ports? Remasters? CRT? There are so many ways for people to play them and everyone has a different preference. In this instance I played this with a friend using the PS3 Sega Megadrive Collection as one of the extra games. What really matters to me though isn't how you choose to play, but how the game holds up. Considering this game came out in 1987 (and is nearly as old as I am) I was actually impressed by a lot of it but after discussing with the friend I played this with after beating it we decided your enjoyment of Phantasy Star is probably going to boil down to an entirely binary decision.
With, or without a walkthrough?
You see this game is very much a product of it's time, and I mean no insult by that. It plays akin to an adventure game as much as an RPG meaning you have to find a lot of strange items in dungeons from very cryptic clues from villagers you talk to. Going through the wrong dungeons in the wrong order without the right items or knowing how and when to use them can mean you hit frustrating dead ends. Magic spells and items don't have descriptions and the localisation feels almost machine translated it's so wooden and clunky. Wrong pronouns and spelling errors abound!
Unless you want the original experience of mapping out dungeons on graph paper and trying to work it out on your own, I'd advise using a guide personally to get the most enjoyment out of it. Playing with a friend was like rally car driving with one person in control whilst the other gave directions. The dungeons themselves were impressive in some ways regardless, despite their repetition. Phantasy Star has this cool effect where the traditional top down view of the world map changes to a first person dungeon crawler. The view change for a Master System we found really impressive with the dungeons wireframe programming and perspective being something feeling more like a Megadrive game, (I also love the catchy dungeon theme).
The game does some other really neat things too, the character and enemy designs are really neat. Having a female protagonist is still rare in JRPGs now never mind in 1987. though the story is incredibly threadbare of Alis avenging her murdered brother by going to kill the evil king, she doesn't come across as some weak damsel in the few animated cutscenes either, she just gets the job done. Other party members follow you on screen as you move around and I loved Myau the space cat's animation as he runs behind you. A lot of the enemy designs and sprites are really unique too with Phantasy Star's heavy Star Wars influence at the forefront with robots, sandworms and Jawa looking enemies. Some of these have surprisingly fancy and varied attack animations that kind of show what the Master System was really capable of for an 8 bit system.
Honestly I was surprised just how much I really liked this. Yes engaging with it as you would have in 1987 on it's own terms in 2024 is a somewhat painful experience, but playing it with a guide to experience this sci-fi and fantasy mix is kind of a delight. The music is surprisingly great, the art design is good and overall it still holds up well still. All that said I wouldn't play it again, at least this version. I do want to try the Sega Ages 2500 remake at some point, just to see an updated space cat if nothing else.
+ Great art design and enemy sprites.
+ The first person dungeon crawling is a neat effect.
+ Surprisingly catchy music (if limited on tracks)
- Dungeons do all look identical.
- Extremely difficult to know where to go or what to do without following a guide, a product of it's time.
With, or without a walkthrough?
You see this game is very much a product of it's time, and I mean no insult by that. It plays akin to an adventure game as much as an RPG meaning you have to find a lot of strange items in dungeons from very cryptic clues from villagers you talk to. Going through the wrong dungeons in the wrong order without the right items or knowing how and when to use them can mean you hit frustrating dead ends. Magic spells and items don't have descriptions and the localisation feels almost machine translated it's so wooden and clunky. Wrong pronouns and spelling errors abound!
Unless you want the original experience of mapping out dungeons on graph paper and trying to work it out on your own, I'd advise using a guide personally to get the most enjoyment out of it. Playing with a friend was like rally car driving with one person in control whilst the other gave directions. The dungeons themselves were impressive in some ways regardless, despite their repetition. Phantasy Star has this cool effect where the traditional top down view of the world map changes to a first person dungeon crawler. The view change for a Master System we found really impressive with the dungeons wireframe programming and perspective being something feeling more like a Megadrive game, (I also love the catchy dungeon theme).
The game does some other really neat things too, the character and enemy designs are really neat. Having a female protagonist is still rare in JRPGs now never mind in 1987. though the story is incredibly threadbare of Alis avenging her murdered brother by going to kill the evil king, she doesn't come across as some weak damsel in the few animated cutscenes either, she just gets the job done. Other party members follow you on screen as you move around and I loved Myau the space cat's animation as he runs behind you. A lot of the enemy designs and sprites are really unique too with Phantasy Star's heavy Star Wars influence at the forefront with robots, sandworms and Jawa looking enemies. Some of these have surprisingly fancy and varied attack animations that kind of show what the Master System was really capable of for an 8 bit system.
Honestly I was surprised just how much I really liked this. Yes engaging with it as you would have in 1987 on it's own terms in 2024 is a somewhat painful experience, but playing it with a guide to experience this sci-fi and fantasy mix is kind of a delight. The music is surprisingly great, the art design is good and overall it still holds up well still. All that said I wouldn't play it again, at least this version. I do want to try the Sega Ages 2500 remake at some point, just to see an updated space cat if nothing else.
+ Great art design and enemy sprites.
+ The first person dungeon crawling is a neat effect.
+ Surprisingly catchy music (if limited on tracks)
- Dungeons do all look identical.
- Extremely difficult to know where to go or what to do without following a guide, a product of it's time.
Initially I wasn't going to review this. About halfway through, maybe less I just thought "it's more Cyberpunk" which whilst absolutely spot on and how I view most DLC, I think that actually does Phantom Liberty a disservice. It has a new open world area, fixer quests and makes you hang around waiting for the next objective for no fathomable reason just like the main game but the story structure is just far tighter. Something I felt Cyberpunk 2077 lacked after a certain point.
Phantom Liberty unlocks an area of Night City called Dogtown. Cyberpunk's influences have always been pretty obvious to me with things like The Matrix, Akira, Blade Runner etc. but Phantom Liberty really reminds me of Kurt Russell's escape from New York. A walled off section of Night City with its own laws and ruler the police avoid.
Your character V arrives outside Dogtown from a mysterious message. You meet Songbird, an FIA netrunner agent. She needs your help and in turn promises to help you. The story takes an almost James Bond secret agent behind enemy lines theme to it with V partnering up with another FIA agent Sol Reed played by the fantastic Idris Elba. (Even the credits role like a bond theme). The missions are structured really well and they flow nicely from point to point. The open world aspect between missions actually gets in the way but it's still a nice improvement over the main game where some quests just felt like disconnected busy work. There are some really stand out set pieces that are quite varied. One part has you sniping as a look out, another mingling with guests at a party etc. The main story beats and characters around it are really well implemented and that, that is what makes this good. I prefer a tighter more directed experience, especially around story missions but then I just don't like open world games much.
There is a lot of content here. A decent amount of missions, new locations, characters and quests. CD Project Red obviously put effort into this and it shows. You get a new skill tree, new weapons and clothing but none of it adds much of note. I barely used or changed anything throughout from my end game character. I did like how some side quests or characters you met merged into Phantom Liberty, sometimes subtlety. Also expanding fully on Mr. Hands the fixer was interesting too. Dogtown as an area has quite a bit of personality as a run down dystopia that was obviously meant to be a grand entertainment area for the mega rich. Essentially it's a great expansion for those who enjoyed Cyberpunk and want more.
Anyone else feel it sounds more like A Metal Gear game though?
+ Story quests are much better executed in Phantom Liberty.
+ Smaller tighter location is more memorable to explore.
+ Songbird, Reed and Alex make good additional characters.
- Downtime between missions is still a drag.
- New skills, weapons, items etc feel pointless.
Phantom Liberty unlocks an area of Night City called Dogtown. Cyberpunk's influences have always been pretty obvious to me with things like The Matrix, Akira, Blade Runner etc. but Phantom Liberty really reminds me of Kurt Russell's escape from New York. A walled off section of Night City with its own laws and ruler the police avoid.
Your character V arrives outside Dogtown from a mysterious message. You meet Songbird, an FIA netrunner agent. She needs your help and in turn promises to help you. The story takes an almost James Bond secret agent behind enemy lines theme to it with V partnering up with another FIA agent Sol Reed played by the fantastic Idris Elba. (Even the credits role like a bond theme). The missions are structured really well and they flow nicely from point to point. The open world aspect between missions actually gets in the way but it's still a nice improvement over the main game where some quests just felt like disconnected busy work. There are some really stand out set pieces that are quite varied. One part has you sniping as a look out, another mingling with guests at a party etc. The main story beats and characters around it are really well implemented and that, that is what makes this good. I prefer a tighter more directed experience, especially around story missions but then I just don't like open world games much.
There is a lot of content here. A decent amount of missions, new locations, characters and quests. CD Project Red obviously put effort into this and it shows. You get a new skill tree, new weapons and clothing but none of it adds much of note. I barely used or changed anything throughout from my end game character. I did like how some side quests or characters you met merged into Phantom Liberty, sometimes subtlety. Also expanding fully on Mr. Hands the fixer was interesting too. Dogtown as an area has quite a bit of personality as a run down dystopia that was obviously meant to be a grand entertainment area for the mega rich. Essentially it's a great expansion for those who enjoyed Cyberpunk and want more.
Anyone else feel it sounds more like A Metal Gear game though?
+ Story quests are much better executed in Phantom Liberty.
+ Smaller tighter location is more memorable to explore.
+ Songbird, Reed and Alex make good additional characters.
- Downtime between missions is still a drag.
- New skills, weapons, items etc feel pointless.
This is my second attempt to play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I originally bought it when it launched in 2010 having been hyped by the launch trailer with Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlyle narrating. Its been 14 years since then and all I remember is not enjoying it much and eventually trading it in but nothing specific about it. A friend of mine bought it so we decided to play through it together as Castlevania fans, what could go wrong?
Everything about this game feels bad to play.
Let's start with the protagonist Gabriel Belmont, he has all the personality and emotional range of a slab of granite. Literally anything that happens gives him no reaction at all like the developers forgot to animate his face. A magic horse teleporting in next to him? No problem. Giant titan smashing out of the lake? Sure. Dead wife appearing in front of him? It's Tuesday. Not a flicker of acknowledgement of surprising events like an animated corpse. His voice actor Robert Carlyle is normally a great performer but it doesn't seem like he was given much direction here. Perhaps it's because voice acting is a very different skill? but it really sounds like he is just reading off a script. Perhaps I'm underselling him here and he is acting to the characters visually displayed emotions, which is absolutely nothing, so in fact an A+ performance.
I could overlook this if the game was fun to play and control Granite Belmont but that's actually the worst part, by a country mile. It's a 3D action game but has a fixed camera with a soft lock following the action. Because the game lacks personality as much as Mr. Granite it's essentially a God of War clone but it fails to understand the level design to make that enjoyable leaving large dead zones of the camera view constantly. The combat just feels terrible, It's slow but not deliberate. Attacks lack weight and impact yet everything is unresponsive at the same time. The controls are somewhat baffling in their design to compound this further. Roll is on L2 with the left analog stick, the right analog stick doesn't seem to be used at all as you can't control the camera. There is no manual lock on to attack enemies, just a soft lock that's easy to lose. It's feels so cumbersome, even after a few hours it still felt like we were learning the controls.
A second friend came by when we were playing and gave it a go and their only impression was "This doesn't feel good does it?"
You can buy more combos for your whip using experience gained through combat but none of them feel easy to pull off or actually useful in any way when you do. The whip completely lacks impact. Enemies will just interrupt you mid attack so most the time hit and run is the most effective strategy. It's Castlevania yet you get access to one sub weapon of a throwing knife and two magic spells of light and shadow. Light heals you, shadow increases your attack. It's...coloured auras in which you collect orbs from enemies with L3 or R3 depending which pool you want to refill. Getting access to this IP and only giving that as options feels so...derivative.
This complete lack of imagination extends to the level and enemy designs equally. Enemies are bland fantasy archetypes of werewolves, trolls, goblins, and spiders. We completed 14 levels in two chapters with several hours of play and barely saw anything else. This is a series known for animated armour, floating medusa heads, dancing ghosts, chimeras etc. How do you take the past games and boil them down to such uninteresting foes? The first main level after the tutorial fight was a swamp you slowly trudge through with some goblins. It's so painfully generic but it's not even done well or designed interestingly to make it fresh. It utterly lacks the panache and style of the series it's based on.
It feels like it's aged terribly going back to it, it has all the worst aspects of the PS3 era. Quick time events for finishing enemies or traversing with a circle going into another circle. Balancing to cross a beam and having to hold R2 if you are about to fall. The game also constantly takes control away from you like it's mansplaining everything feeling incredibly patronising. Constant tutorials, pop ups, camera sweeps. Just let me play the game! I know I can pick up items with R2, I've been playing for over 2 hours! It treats you like your memory is wiped every 15 minutes.
The game tries to be a large epic with high production values with epic music and voice acting yet there are large chunks of levels with no music at all but it's not atmospheric, just empty. What music there is is forgettable like a generic orchestral theme for a summer block buster but no punch or stand out beats. Like trailer music.
After several hours my friend and I just called it quits. Maybe it gets better further on? I am aware of the twist but after learning there were still 34 more levels we just didn't actually want to play anymore. We moved onto Space Marine after this as my friend hadn't played it and the quality difference on the same system was night and day. Full camera movement, easy fluid to use controls, and interestingly a better frame rate and clearer image quality. It really just emphasized all of this game's flaws.
The thing is, I'm sad about this. We wanted to like this, we wanted to beat it and play Lords of Shadow 2 to fill in some gaps in our Castlevania history and see Granite Belmont's story unfold. There isn't an original idea to be had here though and everything just feels so banal with it. Playing this feels like a PS3 game with all the negatives that sentence implies. It takes the worst aspects of gaming in that generation and merges them together but above all it's just forgettable.
Even Patrick Stewart can't save this.
+ I like Granite Slab's outfit.
- Awful camera, controls and combat.
- Bland level, skills and enemy designs.
- Gabriel has the personality of a plank of wood used in a button measuring contest.
- Everything feels so safe and by the numbers like designed by committee.
Everything about this game feels bad to play.
Let's start with the protagonist Gabriel Belmont, he has all the personality and emotional range of a slab of granite. Literally anything that happens gives him no reaction at all like the developers forgot to animate his face. A magic horse teleporting in next to him? No problem. Giant titan smashing out of the lake? Sure. Dead wife appearing in front of him? It's Tuesday. Not a flicker of acknowledgement of surprising events like an animated corpse. His voice actor Robert Carlyle is normally a great performer but it doesn't seem like he was given much direction here. Perhaps it's because voice acting is a very different skill? but it really sounds like he is just reading off a script. Perhaps I'm underselling him here and he is acting to the characters visually displayed emotions, which is absolutely nothing, so in fact an A+ performance.
I could overlook this if the game was fun to play and control Granite Belmont but that's actually the worst part, by a country mile. It's a 3D action game but has a fixed camera with a soft lock following the action. Because the game lacks personality as much as Mr. Granite it's essentially a God of War clone but it fails to understand the level design to make that enjoyable leaving large dead zones of the camera view constantly. The combat just feels terrible, It's slow but not deliberate. Attacks lack weight and impact yet everything is unresponsive at the same time. The controls are somewhat baffling in their design to compound this further. Roll is on L2 with the left analog stick, the right analog stick doesn't seem to be used at all as you can't control the camera. There is no manual lock on to attack enemies, just a soft lock that's easy to lose. It's feels so cumbersome, even after a few hours it still felt like we were learning the controls.
A second friend came by when we were playing and gave it a go and their only impression was "This doesn't feel good does it?"
You can buy more combos for your whip using experience gained through combat but none of them feel easy to pull off or actually useful in any way when you do. The whip completely lacks impact. Enemies will just interrupt you mid attack so most the time hit and run is the most effective strategy. It's Castlevania yet you get access to one sub weapon of a throwing knife and two magic spells of light and shadow. Light heals you, shadow increases your attack. It's...coloured auras in which you collect orbs from enemies with L3 or R3 depending which pool you want to refill. Getting access to this IP and only giving that as options feels so...derivative.
This complete lack of imagination extends to the level and enemy designs equally. Enemies are bland fantasy archetypes of werewolves, trolls, goblins, and spiders. We completed 14 levels in two chapters with several hours of play and barely saw anything else. This is a series known for animated armour, floating medusa heads, dancing ghosts, chimeras etc. How do you take the past games and boil them down to such uninteresting foes? The first main level after the tutorial fight was a swamp you slowly trudge through with some goblins. It's so painfully generic but it's not even done well or designed interestingly to make it fresh. It utterly lacks the panache and style of the series it's based on.
It feels like it's aged terribly going back to it, it has all the worst aspects of the PS3 era. Quick time events for finishing enemies or traversing with a circle going into another circle. Balancing to cross a beam and having to hold R2 if you are about to fall. The game also constantly takes control away from you like it's mansplaining everything feeling incredibly patronising. Constant tutorials, pop ups, camera sweeps. Just let me play the game! I know I can pick up items with R2, I've been playing for over 2 hours! It treats you like your memory is wiped every 15 minutes.
The game tries to be a large epic with high production values with epic music and voice acting yet there are large chunks of levels with no music at all but it's not atmospheric, just empty. What music there is is forgettable like a generic orchestral theme for a summer block buster but no punch or stand out beats. Like trailer music.
After several hours my friend and I just called it quits. Maybe it gets better further on? I am aware of the twist but after learning there were still 34 more levels we just didn't actually want to play anymore. We moved onto Space Marine after this as my friend hadn't played it and the quality difference on the same system was night and day. Full camera movement, easy fluid to use controls, and interestingly a better frame rate and clearer image quality. It really just emphasized all of this game's flaws.
The thing is, I'm sad about this. We wanted to like this, we wanted to beat it and play Lords of Shadow 2 to fill in some gaps in our Castlevania history and see Granite Belmont's story unfold. There isn't an original idea to be had here though and everything just feels so banal with it. Playing this feels like a PS3 game with all the negatives that sentence implies. It takes the worst aspects of gaming in that generation and merges them together but above all it's just forgettable.
Even Patrick Stewart can't save this.
+ I like Granite Slab's outfit.
- Awful camera, controls and combat.
- Bland level, skills and enemy designs.
- Gabriel has the personality of a plank of wood used in a button measuring contest.
- Everything feels so safe and by the numbers like designed by committee.
1991
For many years I actually thought that Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System was the same as the Mega Drive version only with 8-bit visuals. Not only is it a completely different game but it actually came out almost 6 months after the Mega Drive original.
There are some similarities, the opening stage is a version of Green Hill Zone (Complete with a nifty version of the level music) as are two others leaving 50% completely original locations. The general gameplay and structure of the game is also the same with several levels per each of the 6 zones followed by a fight with Robotnik and freeing the animals he captured as was the original game's premise.
The rest of the zones contained are different for both better and worse:
Zone 1 - Green hill - I like this zone, it's an easy going classic, there are reasons it or variations of it are normally starting zones
Zone 2 - Bridge - this is weirdly for a sonic game an auto scrolling zone. It kind of works though as this is a much slower paced platformer like it's Mega Drive counter part
Zone 3 - Jungle Zone - I have issues with this one listed below
Zone 4 - Labyrinth Zone - Another similar level from it's big brother, I like the underwater Sonic levels though I know I'm a minority there
Zone 5 - Scrap Brain Zone - So much better than it's big brothers version again, easier and less frustrating
Zone 6 - Sky Base Zone - I liked this level, had a great atmosphere
Of all the zones the only one I wasn't keen on was the Jungle zone. there is a section that's a bit tricky where you climb up a waterfall jumping on ledges and rocks. once the screen goes past a platform though it locks meaning if you try to jump back to it you instantly die even if it's a millimetre which is just kind of stupid. Other minor gameplay annoyances including how the rings work as the amount only matters for gaining extra lives. If sonic takes a hit he loses them all with one visible ring dropping you can't collect so essentially you only have the one hit to take regardless. The boss levels you don't have any rings at all though I kind of liked that as you had to learn the pattern and play skilfully. The bosses themselves aren't brutally hard though, especially to a seasoned Sonic player. Interestingly when you collect a bubble shield from a TV though it does transfer between levels so you can head into a boss with one as a possibility, I liked that.
There are Special Zones accessed through non boss stages when finishing with more than fifty rings as the only other use for them. This gives you the chance to get extra lives or continues by bouncing on springs to the end of the level in a time limit. There are no chaos emeralds here though, for a bit of a change they are actually hidden in the main levels requiring good jump control, using invincibility boxes to reach in spikes etc.
The game handles really well, the jumps and animations feel like a Sonic game should. The visuals and art design are the level of coloured and varied as I would expect, though the tiny enemy models are hilariously cute. The backgrounds are pretty static but Sonic's character model and animations are really well done. Interestingly this is actually the first game made by Ancient, the company formed by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It was initially created to make this game specifically and it's Game Gear counter part before going on to later fame making Streets of rage and Beyond Oasis.
Overall I had a good time with this and the thing is I didn't expect to. It looks really nice for an 8-bit game, has a banger OST and plays well with some neat little ideas. Not everything works but overall it's a good little game.
+ Nice visuals and music.
+ Zones are fun and varied.
+ No ring bosses and emeralds on stages are different.
- Jungle Zone instant death isn't very well designed.
- Losing rings all at once is kind of lame.
There are some similarities, the opening stage is a version of Green Hill Zone (Complete with a nifty version of the level music) as are two others leaving 50% completely original locations. The general gameplay and structure of the game is also the same with several levels per each of the 6 zones followed by a fight with Robotnik and freeing the animals he captured as was the original game's premise.
The rest of the zones contained are different for both better and worse:
Zone 1 - Green hill - I like this zone, it's an easy going classic, there are reasons it or variations of it are normally starting zones
Zone 2 - Bridge - this is weirdly for a sonic game an auto scrolling zone. It kind of works though as this is a much slower paced platformer like it's Mega Drive counter part
Zone 3 - Jungle Zone - I have issues with this one listed below
Zone 4 - Labyrinth Zone - Another similar level from it's big brother, I like the underwater Sonic levels though I know I'm a minority there
Zone 5 - Scrap Brain Zone - So much better than it's big brothers version again, easier and less frustrating
Zone 6 - Sky Base Zone - I liked this level, had a great atmosphere
Of all the zones the only one I wasn't keen on was the Jungle zone. there is a section that's a bit tricky where you climb up a waterfall jumping on ledges and rocks. once the screen goes past a platform though it locks meaning if you try to jump back to it you instantly die even if it's a millimetre which is just kind of stupid. Other minor gameplay annoyances including how the rings work as the amount only matters for gaining extra lives. If sonic takes a hit he loses them all with one visible ring dropping you can't collect so essentially you only have the one hit to take regardless. The boss levels you don't have any rings at all though I kind of liked that as you had to learn the pattern and play skilfully. The bosses themselves aren't brutally hard though, especially to a seasoned Sonic player. Interestingly when you collect a bubble shield from a TV though it does transfer between levels so you can head into a boss with one as a possibility, I liked that.
There are Special Zones accessed through non boss stages when finishing with more than fifty rings as the only other use for them. This gives you the chance to get extra lives or continues by bouncing on springs to the end of the level in a time limit. There are no chaos emeralds here though, for a bit of a change they are actually hidden in the main levels requiring good jump control, using invincibility boxes to reach in spikes etc.
The game handles really well, the jumps and animations feel like a Sonic game should. The visuals and art design are the level of coloured and varied as I would expect, though the tiny enemy models are hilariously cute. The backgrounds are pretty static but Sonic's character model and animations are really well done. Interestingly this is actually the first game made by Ancient, the company formed by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It was initially created to make this game specifically and it's Game Gear counter part before going on to later fame making Streets of rage and Beyond Oasis.
Overall I had a good time with this and the thing is I didn't expect to. It looks really nice for an 8-bit game, has a banger OST and plays well with some neat little ideas. Not everything works but overall it's a good little game.
+ Nice visuals and music.
+ Zones are fun and varied.
+ No ring bosses and emeralds on stages are different.
- Jungle Zone instant death isn't very well designed.
- Losing rings all at once is kind of lame.
2023
I think there is this general thought floating around that when a company does something so well for so long it must be easy to create. In this particular example I am thinking of one of my favourite series Monster Hunter. Several other companies have put their hands into the hunter genre to various success but none have come close to the original's appeal and quality. Wild Hearts however gives a pretty good try and brings some really neat ideas to the table with it.
The most unique thing about Wild Hearts is it's Karakuri system. This allows the player to quick build wooden structures for use in combat as well as other functions. You can equip up to 4 basic ones that can also be used in fusion combinations to make different results. For example you can use a torch which on it's own will give a flame effect on your weapon but combine it with a celestial anchor which helps zip you around the map and it creates an extremely powerful cannon. These abilities create all sorts of effects like fireworks for knocking enemies out of the sky, walls for defence and to knock enemies over, hammers, traps, springboards, healing mist machines etc. The loadout you bring will depend on the weapon you use and enemy you face but are easy enough to switch out as and when is needed.
It is a brilliant system to be honest, they are quick to fire out, mostly nearly always useful and different players with different load outs can work well together. For example there is an enemy called the Kingtusk which is essentially a wild boar the size of a building who likes to charge attack. My friend's load out has a very quick release wall with a spring that only lasts a couple of seconds but will knock the boar on it's back when timed right allowing me to set up my above mentioned celestial cannon which takes some time to make and fire. The usage of these aren't infinite as they use a resource called thread you have a stock of. Depending what Karakuri you summon will effect the amount depleted. You build it back up through armour skills, environmental objects, attacking or jumping on wounded enemies and sucking it out of their wounds in a climbing exercise like shadow of the Colossus. Knowing how much thread you need to make things, how much you have and where to get more are the key loops to beating your enemies.
The Karakuri aren't limited to just combat though as you have another type called Dragon Karakuri which allow you to build permanent structures on each map. These structures are limited by elemental resources for each location you can expand as you play through the game to constantly work on what is available and as you unlock more Karakuri through upgrades. You can build your own camps for fast traveling, zip lines, updraft wind tunnels, giant wheel bikes, armour forges, search towers etc etc. Each player builds their own maps differently so joining online and seeing how they have theirs set up is really interesting. I tend to just have zip lines everywhere from camps to key areas like the worlds coolest assault course. Using a line from a cliff face, dropping off it half way to create a glider mid air to fly to your target before dropping down to attack will always be fun.
Alongside Karakuri you have your own weapon in which there are 8 to choose from; Katana, Nodachi, bow, maul, bladed wagasa, canon, claw blade and karakuri staff. Each weapon handles very differently with some being more simple than others but each having unique abilities. For example the Katana changing into a whip sword, or grappling in the air like an acrobat with the claw blade etc. I really like the weapons selections and some of them do some really interesting things like the Canon and Karakuri staff feeling more technical with a lot of steps to unlock their full potential. Their design is really interesting but honestly I feel they would be better utilised in a different game.
The issue is that the monsters you fight in most cases are so constantly aggressive it makes the Tigrex in Monster hunter look pretty laid back in comparison. They attack, non stop to the point at times it's actually ridiculous. Building up timed combo weapon changes in different rhythm multiple times to unlock the big hit with the Karakuri staff is more than often a laughable prospect. Their art designs are all really gorgeous at least. They are based mostly on fantasy looking corrupt animals like rats with flowers growing out of them, ice wolves, moss crocodiles etc. However there also just isn't enough of them, the game really lacks enemy variety. It plays over 5 chapters and just has the same half a dozen or so enemies over and over but the armour and weapon upgrades just aren't varied or interesting enough to not stop it feeling monotonous before you are even half way through.
I think if the story and characters could hold their own like the developers last attempt in the genre Toukiden then I could forgive that repetition along with the excellent combat system but sadly despite such a surprisingly large focus on characters and story it feels so dry and uninteresting with a terribly vague ending of nothing. It feels like the game needed more time in the oven to fully sculpt it's ideas. There is a lack of armour, weapon skills and build depth, a lack of enemy variety and a pretty uninteresting plot to boot and it's a real shame because some of the mechanics are really fantastic and I loved how it plays with it's gorgeous art design and music wrapping it all together. (I mean check out just the main menu theme.
It's a really good game, but it could have been an amazing one.
+ Karakuri system is utterly brilliant mechanic in and out of combat.
+ Beautiful art design and music.
+ Some seriously cool weapons...
-...some of which aren't worth using because the enemy AI is based around "relentless assault".
- Extremely limited enemy variety.
- Story and characters are uninteresting.
- Playing online due to EA's servers was a nightmare. Wouldn't let us play at all without telling why. Had to sign in with EA account on a PC to register it for this. It took us two days to figure this out. Why are they so terrible at everything they do? why?
The most unique thing about Wild Hearts is it's Karakuri system. This allows the player to quick build wooden structures for use in combat as well as other functions. You can equip up to 4 basic ones that can also be used in fusion combinations to make different results. For example you can use a torch which on it's own will give a flame effect on your weapon but combine it with a celestial anchor which helps zip you around the map and it creates an extremely powerful cannon. These abilities create all sorts of effects like fireworks for knocking enemies out of the sky, walls for defence and to knock enemies over, hammers, traps, springboards, healing mist machines etc. The loadout you bring will depend on the weapon you use and enemy you face but are easy enough to switch out as and when is needed.
It is a brilliant system to be honest, they are quick to fire out, mostly nearly always useful and different players with different load outs can work well together. For example there is an enemy called the Kingtusk which is essentially a wild boar the size of a building who likes to charge attack. My friend's load out has a very quick release wall with a spring that only lasts a couple of seconds but will knock the boar on it's back when timed right allowing me to set up my above mentioned celestial cannon which takes some time to make and fire. The usage of these aren't infinite as they use a resource called thread you have a stock of. Depending what Karakuri you summon will effect the amount depleted. You build it back up through armour skills, environmental objects, attacking or jumping on wounded enemies and sucking it out of their wounds in a climbing exercise like shadow of the Colossus. Knowing how much thread you need to make things, how much you have and where to get more are the key loops to beating your enemies.
The Karakuri aren't limited to just combat though as you have another type called Dragon Karakuri which allow you to build permanent structures on each map. These structures are limited by elemental resources for each location you can expand as you play through the game to constantly work on what is available and as you unlock more Karakuri through upgrades. You can build your own camps for fast traveling, zip lines, updraft wind tunnels, giant wheel bikes, armour forges, search towers etc etc. Each player builds their own maps differently so joining online and seeing how they have theirs set up is really interesting. I tend to just have zip lines everywhere from camps to key areas like the worlds coolest assault course. Using a line from a cliff face, dropping off it half way to create a glider mid air to fly to your target before dropping down to attack will always be fun.
Alongside Karakuri you have your own weapon in which there are 8 to choose from; Katana, Nodachi, bow, maul, bladed wagasa, canon, claw blade and karakuri staff. Each weapon handles very differently with some being more simple than others but each having unique abilities. For example the Katana changing into a whip sword, or grappling in the air like an acrobat with the claw blade etc. I really like the weapons selections and some of them do some really interesting things like the Canon and Karakuri staff feeling more technical with a lot of steps to unlock their full potential. Their design is really interesting but honestly I feel they would be better utilised in a different game.
The issue is that the monsters you fight in most cases are so constantly aggressive it makes the Tigrex in Monster hunter look pretty laid back in comparison. They attack, non stop to the point at times it's actually ridiculous. Building up timed combo weapon changes in different rhythm multiple times to unlock the big hit with the Karakuri staff is more than often a laughable prospect. Their art designs are all really gorgeous at least. They are based mostly on fantasy looking corrupt animals like rats with flowers growing out of them, ice wolves, moss crocodiles etc. However there also just isn't enough of them, the game really lacks enemy variety. It plays over 5 chapters and just has the same half a dozen or so enemies over and over but the armour and weapon upgrades just aren't varied or interesting enough to not stop it feeling monotonous before you are even half way through.
I think if the story and characters could hold their own like the developers last attempt in the genre Toukiden then I could forgive that repetition along with the excellent combat system but sadly despite such a surprisingly large focus on characters and story it feels so dry and uninteresting with a terribly vague ending of nothing. It feels like the game needed more time in the oven to fully sculpt it's ideas. There is a lack of armour, weapon skills and build depth, a lack of enemy variety and a pretty uninteresting plot to boot and it's a real shame because some of the mechanics are really fantastic and I loved how it plays with it's gorgeous art design and music wrapping it all together. (I mean check out just the main menu theme.
It's a really good game, but it could have been an amazing one.
+ Karakuri system is utterly brilliant mechanic in and out of combat.
+ Beautiful art design and music.
+ Some seriously cool weapons...
-...some of which aren't worth using because the enemy AI is based around "relentless assault".
- Extremely limited enemy variety.
- Story and characters are uninteresting.
- Playing online due to EA's servers was a nightmare. Wouldn't let us play at all without telling why. Had to sign in with EA account on a PC to register it for this. It took us two days to figure this out. Why are they so terrible at everything they do? why?
2022
Cyberkitty Oedo 808.
Stray was one of the initial PS5 games Sony revealed before the system launch and I've been looking forward to it ever since. I love both cats, owning one, and cyberpunk as a genre so it's a perfect mix right? Surprisingly so. You play the role of a stray cat that on a perilous jump is separated from their family and finds themselves in a forgotten dystopian cyberpunk city and needs to find their way out meeting a host of odd characters and unraveling the story of its existence as you go.
Far greater writers than I will talk about this game I'm sure, but what I really want to highlight is how great the animations are. You really feel like a cat. The way you scratch objects, jump, crouch, slink is perfect. In one scene the cat stares at something that catches their attention before padding over to it, it's something I've seen my cat do and it's that attention to detail in the game that really brings it to life. That same level of detail is brought to the environments, characters and rest of the world too. Make no mistake this is a very good looking title. Brilliant use of colour, lighting crisp image quality and art design make it a gorgeous world to explore, especially impressive as an indie game on a lower budget.
The actual game plays like an adventure game where you explore, talk, collect items. Being a cat you have in certain places more vertical exploration being able to jump up buildings, shelves, air con units etc especially in the hubs. The jumping itself is more contextual when you are near an object you can jump up the X prompt will come up. While it does make the jumping animations look far smoother and makes all your jumps perfect, with the agility of lets say...a cat, it also can be a little finicky at times.
Overall I had a great time with this little game. I got the platinum in 11 hours in two play throughs but most importantly I can press circle to meow!
+ Fantastic animations.
+ Gorgeous visual design.
+ Interesting world to explore.
+ Meow!
- jumping isn't always the best.
Stray was one of the initial PS5 games Sony revealed before the system launch and I've been looking forward to it ever since. I love both cats, owning one, and cyberpunk as a genre so it's a perfect mix right? Surprisingly so. You play the role of a stray cat that on a perilous jump is separated from their family and finds themselves in a forgotten dystopian cyberpunk city and needs to find their way out meeting a host of odd characters and unraveling the story of its existence as you go.
Far greater writers than I will talk about this game I'm sure, but what I really want to highlight is how great the animations are. You really feel like a cat. The way you scratch objects, jump, crouch, slink is perfect. In one scene the cat stares at something that catches their attention before padding over to it, it's something I've seen my cat do and it's that attention to detail in the game that really brings it to life. That same level of detail is brought to the environments, characters and rest of the world too. Make no mistake this is a very good looking title. Brilliant use of colour, lighting crisp image quality and art design make it a gorgeous world to explore, especially impressive as an indie game on a lower budget.
The actual game plays like an adventure game where you explore, talk, collect items. Being a cat you have in certain places more vertical exploration being able to jump up buildings, shelves, air con units etc especially in the hubs. The jumping itself is more contextual when you are near an object you can jump up the X prompt will come up. While it does make the jumping animations look far smoother and makes all your jumps perfect, with the agility of lets say...a cat, it also can be a little finicky at times.
Overall I had a great time with this little game. I got the platinum in 11 hours in two play throughs but most importantly I can press circle to meow!
+ Fantastic animations.
+ Gorgeous visual design.
+ Interesting world to explore.
+ Meow!
- jumping isn't always the best.
Two men approach a ledge. They are underground in an incredibly hostile environment that neither could foresee arriving in when they woke up that morning. They are tired, mentally frayed and have an uneasy trust in each other based entirely on circumstances. The first man reaches the ledge, after an awkwardly long second staring he finally drops down the 3ft drop to continue along the dimly lit path. The second man approaches the ledge but rather than drop down he freezes, staring at it whilst his comrade looks at him perplexed. The man walks away from the ledge before coming back to it freezing again. He refused to jump down to continue their trek. Was it fear preventing him? Had the ordeal and horrors he'd witnessed finally pushed his mind to far?
No, it's just that playing House of Ashes in online co-op was a miserable buggy experience.
You see I played this with a friend, we play together nearly every evening and are always looking for a new Playstation co-op experience. We had enjoyed Man of Medan despite some issues and heard this game was supposedly all around the better of the two. We ran into constant technical problems though. Characters getting stuck, locking up for no reason. The game taking forever to actually perform an action, even picking up an item to look at was a complete chore of waiting 10 seconds to see if they would actually move. We had to quit out and restart half a dozen times to get past various sections and by the end we were frustrated by it all. The thing is it wasn't just the technical problems but a variety of issues built up leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. We beat the game, kind of hated it and moved onto Wild Hearts. The thing is, I decided to go back to it to see if the game was better playing it on my own and my second experience has left me softer towards it overall though certain flaws continue regardless of player occupancy.
For those unaware The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games by developer Supermassive Games that are more like quick time event interactive movies. Your inputs decide the outcome and the wrong move at the wrong time can see characters permanently die and adjust the story outcome slightly. Our first issue with this game is the button prompts for these events. They are based on the PS5 controller with white buttons with the Cross, Triangle, Square and Circle symbols overlayed in grey. They aren't clear without colour to tell them apart and when you only have a second to work it out...well the design is awful. I went into the accessibility options to change them all to cross because it was implemented so badly when playing on my own. I will at least give them credit for those features.
A lot of the rest of the game has it's ups and downs as well. I really liked the setting going with a Mesopotamian historical influence which isn't something seen in games all too much. The modern plot setting there of the 2003 invasion of Iraq looking for chemical weapons however certainly is...a choice. It did allow a good relationship build up between two characters of Jason a lieutenant in the US marines and Salim a sergeant in the Iraqi army. Their characters and relationship are the two best parts of the whole game with some well written dialog and voice acting that bring them to life as being both professional and empathetic. If only the rest of the writing was as good or even competent because most of the other characters are just unrelatable buffoons. I didn't care for the forced interpersonal drama between 3 of them and was quite happy for them to die. They are needlessly confrontational, rude and in a lot of cases completely inconsistent. In one scene as an example:
Character 1: "What's there to think about? We go and save him"
Character 2: thinks about it for a second
Character 1: "He isn't one of us lets leave him"
It's like they are different people from line to line at times completely breaking immersion when they 180, never mind in the same conversation. Frankly except Jason and Salim they are all extremely unlikeable. I understand the developers want to build a varied cast that will leave difficult decisions for the player with conflict but they went overboard leaving a negative experience in a lot of scenes because I just didn't care about what happened to any of them.
The story also kind of lacks suspense and scares which I was surprised by. It has an interesting setting and atmosphere but it never really uses them to build up any tension or fear of the unknown. Except for a few scenes early on the game is more just a military shooter than a horror title. The magic is gone when the monster is revealed and the curtain gets drawn back. In this case it just happens all too early.
I will say my second playthrough was far more enjoyable overall regardless of the issues above. The only bugs playing solo was a trophy not unlocking (I had to disconnect from the internet and restart my PS5 replaying the scene to unlock it as a work around found by the community). I really like the visuals and general ideas presented here, they just needed more polish and to iron out the cast to a better degree. Still I am glad I went back to it as it has convinced me to play the second game in the series Little Hope which I had initially written off after my first playthrough of House of ashes, I just won't play it online...
+ Jason and Salim are great characters with an excellent comradery.
+ Visuals are gorgeous.
+ Mesopotamian setting is a nice choice.
- The other characters could all rot for all I care.
- Playstation quick time buttons are unclear.
- Online is a constant buggy mess and a semi bugged trophy.
- Not scary, no tension or build up.
- War setting is...a choice.
No, it's just that playing House of Ashes in online co-op was a miserable buggy experience.
You see I played this with a friend, we play together nearly every evening and are always looking for a new Playstation co-op experience. We had enjoyed Man of Medan despite some issues and heard this game was supposedly all around the better of the two. We ran into constant technical problems though. Characters getting stuck, locking up for no reason. The game taking forever to actually perform an action, even picking up an item to look at was a complete chore of waiting 10 seconds to see if they would actually move. We had to quit out and restart half a dozen times to get past various sections and by the end we were frustrated by it all. The thing is it wasn't just the technical problems but a variety of issues built up leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. We beat the game, kind of hated it and moved onto Wild Hearts. The thing is, I decided to go back to it to see if the game was better playing it on my own and my second experience has left me softer towards it overall though certain flaws continue regardless of player occupancy.
For those unaware The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games by developer Supermassive Games that are more like quick time event interactive movies. Your inputs decide the outcome and the wrong move at the wrong time can see characters permanently die and adjust the story outcome slightly. Our first issue with this game is the button prompts for these events. They are based on the PS5 controller with white buttons with the Cross, Triangle, Square and Circle symbols overlayed in grey. They aren't clear without colour to tell them apart and when you only have a second to work it out...well the design is awful. I went into the accessibility options to change them all to cross because it was implemented so badly when playing on my own. I will at least give them credit for those features.
A lot of the rest of the game has it's ups and downs as well. I really liked the setting going with a Mesopotamian historical influence which isn't something seen in games all too much. The modern plot setting there of the 2003 invasion of Iraq looking for chemical weapons however certainly is...a choice. It did allow a good relationship build up between two characters of Jason a lieutenant in the US marines and Salim a sergeant in the Iraqi army. Their characters and relationship are the two best parts of the whole game with some well written dialog and voice acting that bring them to life as being both professional and empathetic. If only the rest of the writing was as good or even competent because most of the other characters are just unrelatable buffoons. I didn't care for the forced interpersonal drama between 3 of them and was quite happy for them to die. They are needlessly confrontational, rude and in a lot of cases completely inconsistent. In one scene as an example:
Character 1: "What's there to think about? We go and save him"
Character 2: thinks about it for a second
Character 1: "He isn't one of us lets leave him"
It's like they are different people from line to line at times completely breaking immersion when they 180, never mind in the same conversation. Frankly except Jason and Salim they are all extremely unlikeable. I understand the developers want to build a varied cast that will leave difficult decisions for the player with conflict but they went overboard leaving a negative experience in a lot of scenes because I just didn't care about what happened to any of them.
The story also kind of lacks suspense and scares which I was surprised by. It has an interesting setting and atmosphere but it never really uses them to build up any tension or fear of the unknown. Except for a few scenes early on the game is more just a military shooter than a horror title. The magic is gone when the monster is revealed and the curtain gets drawn back. In this case it just happens all too early.
I will say my second playthrough was far more enjoyable overall regardless of the issues above. The only bugs playing solo was a trophy not unlocking (I had to disconnect from the internet and restart my PS5 replaying the scene to unlock it as a work around found by the community). I really like the visuals and general ideas presented here, they just needed more polish and to iron out the cast to a better degree. Still I am glad I went back to it as it has convinced me to play the second game in the series Little Hope which I had initially written off after my first playthrough of House of ashes, I just won't play it online...
+ Jason and Salim are great characters with an excellent comradery.
+ Visuals are gorgeous.
+ Mesopotamian setting is a nice choice.
- The other characters could all rot for all I care.
- Playstation quick time buttons are unclear.
- Online is a constant buggy mess and a semi bugged trophy.
- Not scary, no tension or build up.
- War setting is...a choice.
2022
In 2017 Apple one of the world's biggest companies admitted to intentionally slowing down phone batteries. Referred to as "Batterygate" this action opened up a string of lawsuits that Apple were intentionally using 'planned obsolescence' to encourage people to upgrade their phones or fork out to apple for replacement batteries. Apple always denied this by all reports stating it was actioned to preserve the device.
Moving forward 5 years and we have Citizen Sleeper, an indie game made by a one person studio Jump Over the Edge. In this game you play as a Sleeper, an emulated copy of a person with no rights as part of a Essen-Arp Megacorporation contract. Through design without the right treatment your body will decay over time making you reliant on them in a form of indentured servitude. Planned Obsolescence of a copied person. You escape however ending up on the Eye, a self run Space station surviving after the collapse of the Megacorporation Solheim it and many companies were once part of. Somewhat lawless but welcoming, it's a perfect place for a Sleeper trying to survive.
The lore and world created here is a fascinating one. The way the game takes examples of situations like that of Apple as a form of consumer control but exaggerated into the extreme Cyberpunk Megacorp world really stands out. The characters you meet on this independent space station are broken, struggling, running and surviving but are a great cast to interact with as further world building about the outside universe is dribbled to you through these events.
The game actually plays akin to a visual novel mixed with a dice placement tabletop board game with a few light sprinklings of RPG stats on top. Each turn or cycle (as there is no day and night on a space station) you get several dice rolls based on your Sleeper's physical health condition. Each dice can be used towards actions, some immediate some building up charges to complete. Depending on the number result of the roll will depend on it's chance for success with a positive (5-6), neutral (3-4) or negative (1-2) outcome. These numbers can be bolstered with + values depending on the skill involved and you level in it such as 'engineering +1' to increase your chance. All along the station are different locations with different characters and events that can feed you, repair you or push along character quest lines.
How you choose to progress is entirely up to you after the opening couple of quests. It's a fairly open ended adventure with multiple different endings depending on who you interact with and when. This is both a positive and negative in my view having seen them all. Citizen Sleeper despite it's grand ideas for the outside lore of the world feels more like a slice of life story so each character questline is personal and don't interconnect with each other in anyway leaving everything feeling a little directionless. Additionally though your circumstances are in many ways quite dire it never feels that way in the writing which at times is a little too matter a fact. What writing there is though outside of that small caveat is excellent. The characters, their problems and events are all really interesting, I got rather absorbed into their lives and personal struggles which is why I went out of my way to see all the endings on offer.
My only real issue with the game is actually if you are wanting to see all events there is a lot of downtime mechanically. Initially every dice you use has to be really thought out in regards to survival / story progress balance but it soon becomes extremely obsolete meaning you are mostly just burning down clock cycles to get to the next story beat sometimes doing nothing. The thing is I am a board gamer and this reminds me a lot of a game called Alien Frontiers where you place dice for resources to build colonies. What I hope Citizen Sleeper learns from this is to use the full range of numbers for actions rather than high = good and low = bad. Have certain actions only available on a 1 or 2 etc. and smaller ways of knocking them up and down would have made the turn based element more strategic and interactive throughout.
When all is said and done though I had a really good time with this and the fact that it was made by mostly one person is pretty nuts. The wonderful character art, somber music and writing pushing this along make for a wonderful experience and I do look forward to the announced sequel.
+ Fantastic art, music and atmosphere.
+ Citizen Sleepers universe and lore.
+ Mostly excellent writing and characters.
- Dice mechanic could have been more interesting.
- Sleepers personal situation often felt detached from events writing wise.
Moving forward 5 years and we have Citizen Sleeper, an indie game made by a one person studio Jump Over the Edge. In this game you play as a Sleeper, an emulated copy of a person with no rights as part of a Essen-Arp Megacorporation contract. Through design without the right treatment your body will decay over time making you reliant on them in a form of indentured servitude. Planned Obsolescence of a copied person. You escape however ending up on the Eye, a self run Space station surviving after the collapse of the Megacorporation Solheim it and many companies were once part of. Somewhat lawless but welcoming, it's a perfect place for a Sleeper trying to survive.
The lore and world created here is a fascinating one. The way the game takes examples of situations like that of Apple as a form of consumer control but exaggerated into the extreme Cyberpunk Megacorp world really stands out. The characters you meet on this independent space station are broken, struggling, running and surviving but are a great cast to interact with as further world building about the outside universe is dribbled to you through these events.
The game actually plays akin to a visual novel mixed with a dice placement tabletop board game with a few light sprinklings of RPG stats on top. Each turn or cycle (as there is no day and night on a space station) you get several dice rolls based on your Sleeper's physical health condition. Each dice can be used towards actions, some immediate some building up charges to complete. Depending on the number result of the roll will depend on it's chance for success with a positive (5-6), neutral (3-4) or negative (1-2) outcome. These numbers can be bolstered with + values depending on the skill involved and you level in it such as 'engineering +1' to increase your chance. All along the station are different locations with different characters and events that can feed you, repair you or push along character quest lines.
How you choose to progress is entirely up to you after the opening couple of quests. It's a fairly open ended adventure with multiple different endings depending on who you interact with and when. This is both a positive and negative in my view having seen them all. Citizen Sleeper despite it's grand ideas for the outside lore of the world feels more like a slice of life story so each character questline is personal and don't interconnect with each other in anyway leaving everything feeling a little directionless. Additionally though your circumstances are in many ways quite dire it never feels that way in the writing which at times is a little too matter a fact. What writing there is though outside of that small caveat is excellent. The characters, their problems and events are all really interesting, I got rather absorbed into their lives and personal struggles which is why I went out of my way to see all the endings on offer.
My only real issue with the game is actually if you are wanting to see all events there is a lot of downtime mechanically. Initially every dice you use has to be really thought out in regards to survival / story progress balance but it soon becomes extremely obsolete meaning you are mostly just burning down clock cycles to get to the next story beat sometimes doing nothing. The thing is I am a board gamer and this reminds me a lot of a game called Alien Frontiers where you place dice for resources to build colonies. What I hope Citizen Sleeper learns from this is to use the full range of numbers for actions rather than high = good and low = bad. Have certain actions only available on a 1 or 2 etc. and smaller ways of knocking them up and down would have made the turn based element more strategic and interactive throughout.
When all is said and done though I had a really good time with this and the fact that it was made by mostly one person is pretty nuts. The wonderful character art, somber music and writing pushing this along make for a wonderful experience and I do look forward to the announced sequel.
+ Fantastic art, music and atmosphere.
+ Citizen Sleepers universe and lore.
+ Mostly excellent writing and characters.
- Dice mechanic could have been more interesting.
- Sleepers personal situation often felt detached from events writing wise.