FleeFleet
2017
A rather short experience, A Mortician's Tale focuses on a mortician, Charlie, as she does her job while also providing players a glimpse into the funeral industry.
Its a good experience! The visuals are cute and the music quite calm and pleasing, fitting the general vibe of the game. Game progression is typically reading your emails and then preparing a body for burial, and then attending said burial to pay your respects.
The gameplay is for the most part simplistic, with the game providing you instructions each step in regards to its main gameplay, that being preparing deceased people for their funerals. The main appeal of the game I personally found was its story and the information it provided about the funeral industry. Its rather interesting, what Charlie goes through as a mortician, the different types of burials, exploitation within the industry, how the people related to the deceased grieve and handle the situation.
My only major problem with the game really is that its quite the short experience; I believe I was about done in less than an hour. It was expected, but it does make me wish for more. It also makes part of a story segment feel a little too sudden than needed.
Overall, its a nice short experience I'd definitely recommend, especially if you're interested in the funeral industry and want to have a little glimpse into what its like. Even if the experience was short, I do think it was a memorable time.
Its a good experience! The visuals are cute and the music quite calm and pleasing, fitting the general vibe of the game. Game progression is typically reading your emails and then preparing a body for burial, and then attending said burial to pay your respects.
The gameplay is for the most part simplistic, with the game providing you instructions each step in regards to its main gameplay, that being preparing deceased people for their funerals. The main appeal of the game I personally found was its story and the information it provided about the funeral industry. Its rather interesting, what Charlie goes through as a mortician, the different types of burials, exploitation within the industry, how the people related to the deceased grieve and handle the situation.
My only major problem with the game really is that its quite the short experience; I believe I was about done in less than an hour. It was expected, but it does make me wish for more. It also makes part of a story segment feel a little too sudden than needed.
Overall, its a nice short experience I'd definitely recommend, especially if you're interested in the funeral industry and want to have a little glimpse into what its like. Even if the experience was short, I do think it was a memorable time.
2003
Zero 2 review:
This reivew will be based on a recently finished replay:
I’m not really sure why, but Zero 2 really hit me hard this time in the feels. My original sentiment of it being a considerable improvement to 1 still stays true for me, and I feel I come to appreciate its story and characters even more now:
Introduction stage:
Ok, first off, I have to mention the introduction stage, Sand Wilderness. It's probably one of the best starting levels I’ve ever seen in a megaman game, and I even want to say any platformer I’ve played really. Continuing from the ending of 1, we see a now weak Zero with his weapons at the point of breaking and his skills all but gone, amazingly represented through the now worn-out sunscreen from Zero 1; he needs to find the Resistance to have any chance to survive and to find a new purpose. The stage is good at allowing the player to become familiar with the platforming basics and to become accustomed to the Z-saber and Buster quick, with two mini-bosses and one final boss. After the stage, you’re now at the new resistance base, fixed up and with a new subscreen, allowing for a good transition from “old” to “new”.
The major appeal of this stage for me probably has to be the music: the stage theme, Departure, is absolutely beautiful, giving a sense of hope and letting you know that even in his current condition, Zero is still a badass. And I absolutely love the Crash remix they used for the scorpion boss of this stage; it's a bit funny, with how it sounds like it has a banjo incorporated into it now, but it's still a bop to listen to.
Honestly, I’m not sure what else to say about this level: it’s just one of the most incredible opening stages I’ve seen, especially for a sequel.
Gameplay:
Gameplay is solid as usual, similar to Zero 1. Fast paced with the mission requirements for A or S rank providing further incentive to improve. Some new features and changes were however introduced to further enhance the gameplay:
Firstly, the upgrade system of weapons was reworked a bit, with most of the upgrades being related to providing a charge attack and increasing the speed of it.. These aren’t too difficult to obtain depending on how frequently you use these weapons.
Forms were now introduced, each one improving aspects of Zero or providing new skills at the expense of something else being decreased. I find this feature to be great, as it can easily work into a playstyle you’re attempting to achieve or enhance the kind of weapons you typically use with Zero. The X-form for example improves the buster’s damage output while the Active Form increases Zero’s speed and gives him two Z-Saber skills. You do have to work to obtain these forms, usually some form of requirement that needs to be completed by the end of the stage to obtain it. With multiple forms you’re also able to switch between to better fit the situation you’re in during a level.
EX-skills were now also introduced. These are skills you obtain from bosses when you beat them at A or S rank, and can be activated from the sub screen. Another great addition, as it further provides motivation to improve your rank and adds more variety to the gameplay.
Cyber-Elves are the same as they were in Zero 1, with some new cyber elves and others being replaced. The biggest change is that the Energy Crystal requirement was significantly lowered for evolving cyber-elves, making it easier to utilize their help.
There’s better level design generally as well as better level gimmicks compared to Z1, making it really fun to go through them and get to the boss. Difficulty I feel also has increased but aside from a few specific cases the game provides a satisfactory challenge.
Mission structure and World:
Unlike Zero 1, Zero 2 opts for a mission structure more similar to the X and classic games. You’re provided a set of 4 missions to complete each time, with the boss icon, boss name, and area name being shown.
Further significant changes relate to the game world in general: in Zero 1, most areas were connected and so you could traverse them outside missions (with Trans Servers acting as fast travel). Here, you’re only able to explore the resistance base outside missions, with the Command Room allowing you to go through levels you’ve already done before by speaking to the operator to use the Trans Server. I prefer this new change, as I usually didn’t have much incentive to explore outside the resistance base in zero 1 anyways aside from crystal hunting. As such, the resistance base is the main area you can explore outside missions, allowing you to talk to old and new faces since the first game.
This removal of an interconnected world also means that each level acts as its own area with its own unique stage theme, which I personally prefer more. Some stages technically share the same area as a previous level, but you usually explore a completely separate part of that same area that the level still remains unique. The main exception are two forest levels that share the same stage theme, for whatever reason.
Overall, the new mission structure does give off more of a professional or organized feel now, relating to the new and improved resistance base.
Music and Visuals:
My complaint with Zero 1’s music was that in general most of its tracks were good but rather unmemorable. Zero 2 rectifies that issue, with most of its soundtrack being quite memorable and with the change in mission structure providing more focused pieces for specific areas. It hits hard and each track fits the situation they’re used in.
Visuals are mostly the same from Zero 1, sprites and backgrounds are all appealing to look at. A significant change they did do however was change the text box and decrease portrait size, which was for the better and allowed for easier reading.
Story and Characters:
The zero series continues to provide more of a focus on its story and characters, with Zero 2 providing an enjoyable, decent plot with compelling characters and villains. Zero’s a badass, Ciel’s sweet, the remaining Guardians are still interesting, the bosses are cool, the resistance members are all likeable; I especially love Elpizo, the initial resistance leader turned main antagonist. Suiting an awesome design, Elpizo is just a really fun character for me, a person who desires power and eventually becomes corrupted by his desire, realizing how truly pathetic he was. I love him aaaaa
The story also furthers the overall plot, and leaves at a cliffhanger that left me with the urgent desire to immediately start replaying Zero 3. It’s good stuff.
Complaints:
Again, I think the upgrade system could have been removed entirely, but it's less of a hassle in this game I find. The Chain Rod I unfortunately don’t think was a good enough replacement for the Triple Rod. It feels underutilized, and I can only really call using it for really specific situations. I really think they should have implemented it in a better way that allowed for more usage of it.
The forms system, as cool as it is, does feel unbalanced. Some of the requirements for them feel like you can only accomplish through only certain stages or to really commit to it at the possible expense of affecting your rank. Furthermore their usefulness compared to each other feels unbalanced, and made me feel less incentivized to try certain ones out e.g. Active Form felt better to use than say Erase or Power form; admittedly though this I think this also depends on your own playstyle and what weapons you typically use.
NPC dialogue doesn’t seem to advance as much as it did in Zero 1, so for several missions they’re usually stuck with the same dialogue. This is more of a nitpick though I suppose.
While I like the difficulty, there does seem to be some inconsistency with it between levels and bosses. Seriously why is Phoenix Magnion so ruthless lmao. Regardless, I feel it’s more of a nitpick on my part yet again.
Other Notes:
I absolutely love love LOVE Elpizo
Awakening Will as the credits theme was SUCH a good choice.
Conclusion:
Overall, Zero 2 is a considerable improvement over 1 and I think is where the series really started to get its fame of being absolutely great. It's a blast, and if you liked 1 then you’ll definitely love Zero 2.
This reivew will be based on a recently finished replay:
I’m not really sure why, but Zero 2 really hit me hard this time in the feels. My original sentiment of it being a considerable improvement to 1 still stays true for me, and I feel I come to appreciate its story and characters even more now:
Introduction stage:
Ok, first off, I have to mention the introduction stage, Sand Wilderness. It's probably one of the best starting levels I’ve ever seen in a megaman game, and I even want to say any platformer I’ve played really. Continuing from the ending of 1, we see a now weak Zero with his weapons at the point of breaking and his skills all but gone, amazingly represented through the now worn-out sunscreen from Zero 1; he needs to find the Resistance to have any chance to survive and to find a new purpose. The stage is good at allowing the player to become familiar with the platforming basics and to become accustomed to the Z-saber and Buster quick, with two mini-bosses and one final boss. After the stage, you’re now at the new resistance base, fixed up and with a new subscreen, allowing for a good transition from “old” to “new”.
The major appeal of this stage for me probably has to be the music: the stage theme, Departure, is absolutely beautiful, giving a sense of hope and letting you know that even in his current condition, Zero is still a badass. And I absolutely love the Crash remix they used for the scorpion boss of this stage; it's a bit funny, with how it sounds like it has a banjo incorporated into it now, but it's still a bop to listen to.
Honestly, I’m not sure what else to say about this level: it’s just one of the most incredible opening stages I’ve seen, especially for a sequel.
Gameplay:
Gameplay is solid as usual, similar to Zero 1. Fast paced with the mission requirements for A or S rank providing further incentive to improve. Some new features and changes were however introduced to further enhance the gameplay:
Firstly, the upgrade system of weapons was reworked a bit, with most of the upgrades being related to providing a charge attack and increasing the speed of it.. These aren’t too difficult to obtain depending on how frequently you use these weapons.
Forms were now introduced, each one improving aspects of Zero or providing new skills at the expense of something else being decreased. I find this feature to be great, as it can easily work into a playstyle you’re attempting to achieve or enhance the kind of weapons you typically use with Zero. The X-form for example improves the buster’s damage output while the Active Form increases Zero’s speed and gives him two Z-Saber skills. You do have to work to obtain these forms, usually some form of requirement that needs to be completed by the end of the stage to obtain it. With multiple forms you’re also able to switch between to better fit the situation you’re in during a level.
EX-skills were now also introduced. These are skills you obtain from bosses when you beat them at A or S rank, and can be activated from the sub screen. Another great addition, as it further provides motivation to improve your rank and adds more variety to the gameplay.
Cyber-Elves are the same as they were in Zero 1, with some new cyber elves and others being replaced. The biggest change is that the Energy Crystal requirement was significantly lowered for evolving cyber-elves, making it easier to utilize their help.
There’s better level design generally as well as better level gimmicks compared to Z1, making it really fun to go through them and get to the boss. Difficulty I feel also has increased but aside from a few specific cases the game provides a satisfactory challenge.
Mission structure and World:
Unlike Zero 1, Zero 2 opts for a mission structure more similar to the X and classic games. You’re provided a set of 4 missions to complete each time, with the boss icon, boss name, and area name being shown.
Further significant changes relate to the game world in general: in Zero 1, most areas were connected and so you could traverse them outside missions (with Trans Servers acting as fast travel). Here, you’re only able to explore the resistance base outside missions, with the Command Room allowing you to go through levels you’ve already done before by speaking to the operator to use the Trans Server. I prefer this new change, as I usually didn’t have much incentive to explore outside the resistance base in zero 1 anyways aside from crystal hunting. As such, the resistance base is the main area you can explore outside missions, allowing you to talk to old and new faces since the first game.
This removal of an interconnected world also means that each level acts as its own area with its own unique stage theme, which I personally prefer more. Some stages technically share the same area as a previous level, but you usually explore a completely separate part of that same area that the level still remains unique. The main exception are two forest levels that share the same stage theme, for whatever reason.
Overall, the new mission structure does give off more of a professional or organized feel now, relating to the new and improved resistance base.
Music and Visuals:
My complaint with Zero 1’s music was that in general most of its tracks were good but rather unmemorable. Zero 2 rectifies that issue, with most of its soundtrack being quite memorable and with the change in mission structure providing more focused pieces for specific areas. It hits hard and each track fits the situation they’re used in.
Visuals are mostly the same from Zero 1, sprites and backgrounds are all appealing to look at. A significant change they did do however was change the text box and decrease portrait size, which was for the better and allowed for easier reading.
Story and Characters:
The zero series continues to provide more of a focus on its story and characters, with Zero 2 providing an enjoyable, decent plot with compelling characters and villains. Zero’s a badass, Ciel’s sweet, the remaining Guardians are still interesting, the bosses are cool, the resistance members are all likeable; I especially love Elpizo, the initial resistance leader turned main antagonist. Suiting an awesome design, Elpizo is just a really fun character for me, a person who desires power and eventually becomes corrupted by his desire, realizing how truly pathetic he was. I love him aaaaa
The story also furthers the overall plot, and leaves at a cliffhanger that left me with the urgent desire to immediately start replaying Zero 3. It’s good stuff.
Complaints:
Again, I think the upgrade system could have been removed entirely, but it's less of a hassle in this game I find. The Chain Rod I unfortunately don’t think was a good enough replacement for the Triple Rod. It feels underutilized, and I can only really call using it for really specific situations. I really think they should have implemented it in a better way that allowed for more usage of it.
The forms system, as cool as it is, does feel unbalanced. Some of the requirements for them feel like you can only accomplish through only certain stages or to really commit to it at the possible expense of affecting your rank. Furthermore their usefulness compared to each other feels unbalanced, and made me feel less incentivized to try certain ones out e.g. Active Form felt better to use than say Erase or Power form; admittedly though this I think this also depends on your own playstyle and what weapons you typically use.
NPC dialogue doesn’t seem to advance as much as it did in Zero 1, so for several missions they’re usually stuck with the same dialogue. This is more of a nitpick though I suppose.
While I like the difficulty, there does seem to be some inconsistency with it between levels and bosses. Seriously why is Phoenix Magnion so ruthless lmao. Regardless, I feel it’s more of a nitpick on my part yet again.
Other Notes:
I absolutely love love LOVE Elpizo
Awakening Will as the credits theme was SUCH a good choice.
Conclusion:
Overall, Zero 2 is a considerable improvement over 1 and I think is where the series really started to get its fame of being absolutely great. It's a blast, and if you liked 1 then you’ll definitely love Zero 2.
It's been like two or three years since I finished Black, so i'll update this review if i ever replay it:
Black was my first poke game, and I'm glad it was because it has a rather engaging start compared to the other poke games I've played; it gripped me immediately, and for most of early game it tries to keep your attention. It very much attempts to teach you the basics of the game in a way that has as much player involvement as possible and to motivate you to learn what you can exploit, all the while making you familiar with the main characters and the premise of the game. That's probably one of the best things about this game: it keeps you engaged.
Gameplay is pretty standard turn based rpg gameplay. It's more on the fast side from what i can remember, or at the least it doesn't feel like it drags on too much in both overworld travelling and battling. There's some features here and there, blah blah blah, Tri Battles and the Battle bus subway thing are really cool, yadda yadda yadda. Seasons change which is pretty awesome but sucks a little its a monthly thing. Mostly easy but there's challenging battles here and there.
B/W is notable for its regional dex only including all new pokemon (and its a very large dex at that). While it didn't really matter to me too much as a newcomer at the time, I do quite like this approach to the dex since it encourages using and experimenting with the new mon rather than relying on prev. gen pokemon (though if you happen to not like much of the regional dex, well, too bad i guess lol).
Unova is also quite a diverse region, with most of the towns and routes differentiating themselves from each other by having something unique and distinct to them; it makes it all the more fun to check out what each route and town has present. It is somewhat undermined by the region feeling somewhat linear however, hurting the exploration aspect of the region.
Story is one of the most praised things about gen 5, and while it certainly isn't that amazing among jrpgs, it certainly stands out among pokemon games. While previous gens didn't lack a narrative, this feels like the first gen where they were able to expand on the story, the characters, and the themes that it presents way more than previous gens ever did. The rivals felt well written and represented the themes of the game as well, gym leaders were a lot more active with the ongoing events, so on and so forth. It definitely kept me interested in seeing how certain characters develop throughout the story and generally it felt like the game made sure I knew what the characters' are like and why I should like or be interested in them.
Team Plasma, the villain group, is decent. I'm not really that all into them but I think its clear that they weren't intended to be morally grey, they're very blatantly about spreading bullshit propaganda and cause discourse in the region because Ghetsis, the leader, is an extremely shitty person (one of the scummiest ones in this series honestly). No one in the game really takes their words seriously; the game only really treats N's take on the whole ideology as worth considering but even then its clear that he's very much brainwashed. The team's overall just a bit weird if you choose to interpret them as being heavily related to the themes of moral greyness in the game, but I think they were always intended to be shitty people lol.
anyways its decent fun, I like B2/W2 better but who doesn't.
if you're a newcomer looking for what game to start with I'd definitely recommend Black or White.
Black was my first poke game, and I'm glad it was because it has a rather engaging start compared to the other poke games I've played; it gripped me immediately, and for most of early game it tries to keep your attention. It very much attempts to teach you the basics of the game in a way that has as much player involvement as possible and to motivate you to learn what you can exploit, all the while making you familiar with the main characters and the premise of the game. That's probably one of the best things about this game: it keeps you engaged.
Gameplay is pretty standard turn based rpg gameplay. It's more on the fast side from what i can remember, or at the least it doesn't feel like it drags on too much in both overworld travelling and battling. There's some features here and there, blah blah blah, Tri Battles and the Battle bus subway thing are really cool, yadda yadda yadda. Seasons change which is pretty awesome but sucks a little its a monthly thing. Mostly easy but there's challenging battles here and there.
B/W is notable for its regional dex only including all new pokemon (and its a very large dex at that). While it didn't really matter to me too much as a newcomer at the time, I do quite like this approach to the dex since it encourages using and experimenting with the new mon rather than relying on prev. gen pokemon (though if you happen to not like much of the regional dex, well, too bad i guess lol).
Unova is also quite a diverse region, with most of the towns and routes differentiating themselves from each other by having something unique and distinct to them; it makes it all the more fun to check out what each route and town has present. It is somewhat undermined by the region feeling somewhat linear however, hurting the exploration aspect of the region.
Story is one of the most praised things about gen 5, and while it certainly isn't that amazing among jrpgs, it certainly stands out among pokemon games. While previous gens didn't lack a narrative, this feels like the first gen where they were able to expand on the story, the characters, and the themes that it presents way more than previous gens ever did. The rivals felt well written and represented the themes of the game as well, gym leaders were a lot more active with the ongoing events, so on and so forth. It definitely kept me interested in seeing how certain characters develop throughout the story and generally it felt like the game made sure I knew what the characters' are like and why I should like or be interested in them.
Team Plasma, the villain group, is decent. I'm not really that all into them but I think its clear that they weren't intended to be morally grey, they're very blatantly about spreading bullshit propaganda and cause discourse in the region because Ghetsis, the leader, is an extremely shitty person (one of the scummiest ones in this series honestly). No one in the game really takes their words seriously; the game only really treats N's take on the whole ideology as worth considering but even then its clear that he's very much brainwashed. The team's overall just a bit weird if you choose to interpret them as being heavily related to the themes of moral greyness in the game, but I think they were always intended to be shitty people lol.
anyways its decent fun, I like B2/W2 better but who doesn't.
if you're a newcomer looking for what game to start with I'd definitely recommend Black or White.
Emerald's an expanded take on the ruby and sapphire games. Fortunately for me, I never had to play Ruby and Sapphire, so i don't have to talk about them. Anyways:
Game's pretty fun, of the poke games i played so far at the time of writing this, Hoenn is the region I have the most fun exploring. That's probably the biggest positive of the game for me; it just feels quite free, is the best way I can describe it? It doesn't take too long to feel like you're not really being closed in by the terrain much so it makes the whole exploring aspect a lot more fun, including finding legendaries and such. It helps that the game looks visually nice and the music is pleasant to listen to.
Gameplay is typical poke gameplay; my biggest complaint with most of these games is that battles feel slow as molasses, and that's true for emerald too. Repels definitely become a must by late-game since the random encounter rate really gets annoying. The upside is that its fun to try out various pokemon and make an efficient team according to where you're at and what you desire, but that goes for most of the games really.
The pokemon introduced in this generation are pretty rad :) legendaries very fucking ugly tho
Story's nothing special which is to be expected, but there's a clear attempt to make the conflicts and characters have more depth to them. The pokenav (just a cellphone tbh lol) lets you call variety of characters including gym leaders and other plot important characters, which gives a biiit of an insight into what that character's personality is like (it also lets you know when you can battle them again, free exp!), and the villain teams this time have more to them than just being the pokeuniverse's mafia. The legend surrounding the legendary pokemon of this gen is also cool. All in all, they tried spicing things up, and its a good enough time.
rivals fucking suck tho lmao, what were they thinking with brendan and wally
Post-game is most notable for having the battle frontier, battle facilities where you participate in a variety of challenges involving combat. Think of it like going through gyms again, since you can gain silver and gold medals for each battle facility. It's pretty neat and puts up a good challenge for those who want to test their pokemon team and combat making skills; that said, the battle frontier is frustratingly tedious. The rng aspect to what opponents you get is pretty annoying especially since you're limited to only having three party members (god forbid your opponent has a shedinja). Worse is that the only way to get silver and gold medals is to beat the frontier brain of each facility, and the only way to reach them is by keeping a certain amount of win streaks depending on facility. I got pretty burnt out at the time of writing this, but i will admit its an engaging post-game at least.
Other nitpicks:
who the fuck make up the feebas catching method, are they insane
its hard to comment on event pokemon because that's just how that stuff worked at the time, but its still a bummer to not be able to get to do the event stuff by normal means.
separating bikes into two types and being only able to switch them in one city is stupid (nevermind the fact one gets a lot more use than the other, weird bias)
Game's pretty fun, of the poke games i played so far at the time of writing this, Hoenn is the region I have the most fun exploring. That's probably the biggest positive of the game for me; it just feels quite free, is the best way I can describe it? It doesn't take too long to feel like you're not really being closed in by the terrain much so it makes the whole exploring aspect a lot more fun, including finding legendaries and such. It helps that the game looks visually nice and the music is pleasant to listen to.
Gameplay is typical poke gameplay; my biggest complaint with most of these games is that battles feel slow as molasses, and that's true for emerald too. Repels definitely become a must by late-game since the random encounter rate really gets annoying. The upside is that its fun to try out various pokemon and make an efficient team according to where you're at and what you desire, but that goes for most of the games really.
The pokemon introduced in this generation are pretty rad :) legendaries very fucking ugly tho
Story's nothing special which is to be expected, but there's a clear attempt to make the conflicts and characters have more depth to them. The pokenav (just a cellphone tbh lol) lets you call variety of characters including gym leaders and other plot important characters, which gives a biiit of an insight into what that character's personality is like (it also lets you know when you can battle them again, free exp!), and the villain teams this time have more to them than just being the pokeuniverse's mafia. The legend surrounding the legendary pokemon of this gen is also cool. All in all, they tried spicing things up, and its a good enough time.
rivals fucking suck tho lmao, what were they thinking with brendan and wally
Post-game is most notable for having the battle frontier, battle facilities where you participate in a variety of challenges involving combat. Think of it like going through gyms again, since you can gain silver and gold medals for each battle facility. It's pretty neat and puts up a good challenge for those who want to test their pokemon team and combat making skills; that said, the battle frontier is frustratingly tedious. The rng aspect to what opponents you get is pretty annoying especially since you're limited to only having three party members (god forbid your opponent has a shedinja). Worse is that the only way to get silver and gold medals is to beat the frontier brain of each facility, and the only way to reach them is by keeping a certain amount of win streaks depending on facility. I got pretty burnt out at the time of writing this, but i will admit its an engaging post-game at least.
Other nitpicks:
who the fuck make up the feebas catching method, are they insane
its hard to comment on event pokemon because that's just how that stuff worked at the time, but its still a bummer to not be able to get to do the event stuff by normal means.
separating bikes into two types and being only able to switch them in one city is stupid (nevermind the fact one gets a lot more use than the other, weird bias)
LeafGreen (and Fire Red) are remakes of the gen 1 games, but i didn't play the gen 1 games so I don't have to comment on them, thank goodness.
Anyways, its like, fine. Kanto's kind of a boring region to explore, and the story and characters aren't really anything noteworthy.
I genuinely do not care for team rocket or giovanni (truth be told, masters ex trying to give heavier emphasis on him just makes me dislike him more, feels like an odd bias), though i'll give them credit for doing that one twist with giovanni (not that its hard to figure out, lol). I guess their simplicity compared to later villains can be appreciated but idk, I got more to feel about them than team rocket.
Blue's the most notable character story-wise, being your rival and all. Though he provides decent challenge, he's mostly just kind of a cocky bitch and someone I also don't really care for ultimately.
Gameplay's usual turn based, there's not really a lot to say on that. Visuals are nice, music is nice enough, and I'll give them credit for making the champion very satisfying for how its handled.
Post game has the Sevii Islands which are pretty cool, but otherwise not much else to say. That's really what this review boils down to lol, I just really don't have a lot to say on this game. It's a decent romp if you're willing to play it, but I'd rather play other poke games personally.
Anyways, its like, fine. Kanto's kind of a boring region to explore, and the story and characters aren't really anything noteworthy.
I genuinely do not care for team rocket or giovanni (truth be told, masters ex trying to give heavier emphasis on him just makes me dislike him more, feels like an odd bias), though i'll give them credit for doing that one twist with giovanni (not that its hard to figure out, lol). I guess their simplicity compared to later villains can be appreciated but idk, I got more to feel about them than team rocket.
Blue's the most notable character story-wise, being your rival and all. Though he provides decent challenge, he's mostly just kind of a cocky bitch and someone I also don't really care for ultimately.
Gameplay's usual turn based, there's not really a lot to say on that. Visuals are nice, music is nice enough, and I'll give them credit for making the champion very satisfying for how its handled.
Post game has the Sevii Islands which are pretty cool, but otherwise not much else to say. That's really what this review boils down to lol, I just really don't have a lot to say on this game. It's a decent romp if you're willing to play it, but I'd rather play other poke games personally.
1992
Quit during the first person mode 7 shooting stage near the end lol
The super star wars games in general are really tough and its most apparent with this one. The first two or so stages give an extremely bad impression with how frustratingly difficult they are; its made quickly apparent that enemies just keep respawning and spawning on and on and on, and the platforming takes a little while to get used to due to the jump timing (and there being technically two jumps, a regular jump and a high jump).
There are mode 7 stages that just kinda suck tbh lol, moreso than the regular stages.
The game isn't all terrible which makes me even more frustrated with it. It gets better later on and there's clear effort put into making this game fun. But they really fumbled with the difficulty and that awful, awful first stage.
The game also has some really bad framerate issues for like 90% of the game. If you can I'd suggest playing it overclocked or whatever.
I don't really have much to say otherwise. I'd comment on how it portrays the star wars franchise but at the time of writing this I have not watched any Star wars movie. Game looks nice and the music sounds good, and the three playable characters are distinct enough from each other.
The super star wars games in general are really tough and its most apparent with this one. The first two or so stages give an extremely bad impression with how frustratingly difficult they are; its made quickly apparent that enemies just keep respawning and spawning on and on and on, and the platforming takes a little while to get used to due to the jump timing (and there being technically two jumps, a regular jump and a high jump).
There are mode 7 stages that just kinda suck tbh lol, moreso than the regular stages.
The game isn't all terrible which makes me even more frustrated with it. It gets better later on and there's clear effort put into making this game fun. But they really fumbled with the difficulty and that awful, awful first stage.
The game also has some really bad framerate issues for like 90% of the game. If you can I'd suggest playing it overclocked or whatever.
I don't really have much to say otherwise. I'd comment on how it portrays the star wars franchise but at the time of writing this I have not watched any Star wars movie. Game looks nice and the music sounds good, and the three playable characters are distinct enough from each other.
1996
Not particularly fond of this entry, to be honest.
The plot this time revolves around saving time (i guess? there's time travelling, basically) instead of the planet or planets. The gameplay is back to beating all enemies to gain access to the next section of a zone, and there's a total of 5 zones this time. New features have been introduced: Louies are now replaced by certain enemies which, when defeated, can become partners, made distinct by being either mechanical or organic; there's a good variety, each with their own ability that is the same as certain power-ups. There are cages that can be destroyed to release allies, who will destroy soft blocks for you. The music's alright, the visuals are similar to 3's but a little touched up if that makes sense.
The main antagonists this time are the four bomber kings and the Great bomber, who you have individual fights with similar to ones with the five dastardly bombers in SB2. They're a bit easier but it's alright. Defeating each one leads to the big boss of the zone, which are honestly probably the most fun part of the game? They're fun challenging bosses with interesting gimmicks.
I'm not really sure why but the levels just feel kind of off with this game. I wasn't really fond of the time-themed zones and the new partner system just isn't as fun as Louies were. I'm also not that into the antagonists this time.
The multiplayer system does let you play as the bosses though which is neat. There's also apparently bonus zones you can go to but its only really possible with 2 player mode, so I can't really comment on those.
Overall its ummmm, its ok. It's alright, it does what it does.
The plot this time revolves around saving time (i guess? there's time travelling, basically) instead of the planet or planets. The gameplay is back to beating all enemies to gain access to the next section of a zone, and there's a total of 5 zones this time. New features have been introduced: Louies are now replaced by certain enemies which, when defeated, can become partners, made distinct by being either mechanical or organic; there's a good variety, each with their own ability that is the same as certain power-ups. There are cages that can be destroyed to release allies, who will destroy soft blocks for you. The music's alright, the visuals are similar to 3's but a little touched up if that makes sense.
The main antagonists this time are the four bomber kings and the Great bomber, who you have individual fights with similar to ones with the five dastardly bombers in SB2. They're a bit easier but it's alright. Defeating each one leads to the big boss of the zone, which are honestly probably the most fun part of the game? They're fun challenging bosses with interesting gimmicks.
I'm not really sure why but the levels just feel kind of off with this game. I wasn't really fond of the time-themed zones and the new partner system just isn't as fun as Louies were. I'm also not that into the antagonists this time.
The multiplayer system does let you play as the bosses though which is neat. There's also apparently bonus zones you can go to but its only really possible with 2 player mode, so I can't really comment on those.
Overall its ummmm, its ok. It's alright, it does what it does.
2006
I'M GONNA HIT YOU WITH SONIC SPEEEEED
My experience with racing games is rather limited, but Riders immediately caught my attention with just how. Gosh.DArn.FUCKING. FUN. it is. Fast as hell hoverboard racing ooo bby yeah sign me the fuck up.
Riders is an extremely engaging game: the fast-paced gameplay just demands you to learn all of the knick knacks and get more skilled, utilizing the different character types, gears, and stage layout; it's so satisfying when you successfully pull off tricks to get an X rank, or successfully grind on rails and speed ahead of the rest. It's definitely a game most fun when you aim to master its mechanics. The story is wackity ass fun, the characters are awesome (and very expressive i might add) and its just a good time; while not necessarily getting too deep into them, the new characters (the babylon rogues) are pretty cool (Wave <3) and the rivalry between them and the main cast is fun (to the point that I wish we got too see more of Tails vs Wave and Knux vs Storm moments). The Babylonian lore introduced is fairly interesting too. The visuals and music are mwah mwah smooch smooch - the vibes man, they're good. I wouldn't really say its too heavily emphasized but there's a nice futurey-techno style here.
The biggest complaint with this game really is that its hard to get into the gameplay: Riders literally just does not explain shit to you about how the gameplay works apart from a half assed tutorial you have to look through the bonus menu to find. As a result it can really sour the racing experience when you don't really know what to do (of course, you can just experiment, but that's gonna take long). I just watched a tutorial vid on youtube to understand the game mechanics and tested out what i learned through free races, that's what I found to be the best way to learn the game for me.
That....really is just my only complaint honestly lol. It's the biggest hurdle and once you get over it, this game just gets so hella awesome.
I would definitely recommend mods like DX or Tournament Edition for a competitive multiplayer experience, as they enhance the game and add some new content with that purpose in mind.
anyways play sonic riders lol
My experience with racing games is rather limited, but Riders immediately caught my attention with just how. Gosh.DArn.FUCKING. FUN. it is. Fast as hell hoverboard racing ooo bby yeah sign me the fuck up.
Riders is an extremely engaging game: the fast-paced gameplay just demands you to learn all of the knick knacks and get more skilled, utilizing the different character types, gears, and stage layout; it's so satisfying when you successfully pull off tricks to get an X rank, or successfully grind on rails and speed ahead of the rest. It's definitely a game most fun when you aim to master its mechanics. The story is wackity ass fun, the characters are awesome (and very expressive i might add) and its just a good time; while not necessarily getting too deep into them, the new characters (the babylon rogues) are pretty cool (Wave <3) and the rivalry between them and the main cast is fun (to the point that I wish we got too see more of Tails vs Wave and Knux vs Storm moments). The Babylonian lore introduced is fairly interesting too. The visuals and music are mwah mwah smooch smooch - the vibes man, they're good. I wouldn't really say its too heavily emphasized but there's a nice futurey-techno style here.
The biggest complaint with this game really is that its hard to get into the gameplay: Riders literally just does not explain shit to you about how the gameplay works apart from a half assed tutorial you have to look through the bonus menu to find. As a result it can really sour the racing experience when you don't really know what to do (of course, you can just experiment, but that's gonna take long). I just watched a tutorial vid on youtube to understand the game mechanics and tested out what i learned through free races, that's what I found to be the best way to learn the game for me.
That....really is just my only complaint honestly lol. It's the biggest hurdle and once you get over it, this game just gets so hella awesome.
I would definitely recommend mods like DX or Tournament Edition for a competitive multiplayer experience, as they enhance the game and add some new content with that purpose in mind.
anyways play sonic riders lol
2021
One of em 3 match puzzle games with a visual novel style story where your choices can affect the outcome of the story.
Going over the gameplay first cuz that's not really the main appealing thing about this game (though i'd be damned not to admit that its addicting): the 3 match puzzle game is pretty simple where you try to complete the objective of each level in a set number of turns; with various methods to make it easier (including microtransactions ofc lol) Other noteworthy gameplay things involve needing crystals (or w/e they are) to unlock story progression, and collecting shards to unlock side stories. While I slacked on the story for long periods of time the 3 match puzzles were one of the things I played sometimes a week, it makes for good fun if I'm short on time or not really in the mood for other bigger games.
While the gameplay can be addicting and good short time waster, its definitely designed with the idea in mind to scoop money out of you in some way or another. Which was expected really, I don't imagine how else they were gonna make as much money as they can out of this game. Still, its pretty frustrating: due to the randomness aspect of the levels you can expect to be stuck on them for unnecessarily long periods of time until you just get, lucky. All the while everything involving payment is shoved in your way to capitalize on that frustration, including refilling your lives. It ends up impacting the story as well due to needing crystals to advance which requires beating levels. In a way, I got lucky in that taking a break from the story while still regularly-ish playing the puzzles meant I ended up with a lot of crystals to continue the story without needing to be forcibly paused.
Now with all THAT aside, onto what's the real meat of the game:
The story and characters are the part of Switchcraft where you can feel most of the passion and effort went into. Spanning over 4 Books, its an interactive graphic novel styled mystery story where your relationships and choices can affect the outcomes.
Or, well, I say that, but its a bit hard to tell how much is affected until a replay is done. Major elements such as your relationships with others and even particular story outcomes definitely are highly dependent on what choice you make, but otherwise a lot of its on the minor side or has very short term effects. This isn't really an issue for me though, and could be proven wrong when I do replay of the story; most of the choices at least feel like they have meaning to them, so my input and by extension values don't feel like they go to waste.
I can't say I'm an expert on teen dramas, but the writing of Switchcraft definitely has those vibes. Drama between friends and lovers galore, tension with superiors, having to hide your magic from the normies (that is quite literally what non witches are called), all them cliffhangers. It can get frustrating sometimes, even cringy, but I don't think its a bad thing for the most part. Its an entertaining story that tries to get you invested in its protagonist, characters, the world, and the relationships between everyone. And yeah, I hella got invested. I felt real fuzzy, proud, and almost even teary-eyed when the story ended, with Bailey determined to continue moving forward in life. Despite all the ups and downs, all the weirdness and awkwardness at times, the journey was fun. It was fun to see how Bailey grew as a person, and what the choices I made said about me and if I too perhaps, grew from them. It was fun to see how magical society was integrated into the regular world. It was fun seeing some story beats that were honestly so awesome, lol.
Like, I'm probably sounding emotional right now, but cut me some slack lol. I technically finished this game in 3 years, I was gonna be sentimental in some way.
I'd go more into depth on each book, but its been quite a long time so I'll save that for when I do a replay, then maybe expect this review to be edited. Off the top of my head on what I felt about the major arcs though:
Book 1 and 2 primarily revolved around the mystery of Lydia's disappearance and pendleton's history of witches. It was a compelling mystery with genuine moments of fear the closer I got to the end, and eventually having a pretty bombastic conclusion where you end up saving the town and witch society from a new dark age. It also really made me appreciate the friendship between Bailey and Lydia, with what one was willing to do for the other despite all the dangers and risks. I'm generally kind of iffy on the friendships Bailey has with most of her age peers, but this was one of the ones I liked most and was glad they continued to show in the later two books.
Book 3 and 4 revolve around the murder of Bailey's mother. These are probably where I found myself to have the most frustrations with the story though the "teen drama" writing vibe was less notable as it was in the first two books. From what I most notably could remember having issue with, is that the protag felt a bit too isolated; perhaps that was the intention, but it didn't feel like you stuck with any sort of friends as much as it did feel like a lot of investigating with random partners at times or just completely be forced to do it alone. Idk, i have mixed feelings about that particular aspect. It had a pretty satisfying conclusion to the overall story at least, though I feel like a few things they could have had better resolved or take a slower approach with.
Ending this off with probably the strongest aspects of Switchcraft, the art and diversity. The art is just gorgeous, it's very vibrant and colourful with cool and expressive characters. One of the most exciting things about the game was coming across the various CGs and screenshotting them, mainly cuz I found them really pretty but they'd also be good reference for my own art, haha. And the cast is quite diverse, in terms of ethnicity and lgbtq+ representation. I appreciate it quite a lot, and kept things refreshing. Not everyday you come across a lot of rep in media, but its nice to see that it's becoming better over time, as can be seen with this game.
Overall, yeah, I'd recommend this game for a casual time and if you can handle some tedious gameplay. I really just wanted to write this review to get some of my feelings out (hence why its also quiiiite longer than normal, whoops)
Going over the gameplay first cuz that's not really the main appealing thing about this game (though i'd be damned not to admit that its addicting): the 3 match puzzle game is pretty simple where you try to complete the objective of each level in a set number of turns; with various methods to make it easier (including microtransactions ofc lol) Other noteworthy gameplay things involve needing crystals (or w/e they are) to unlock story progression, and collecting shards to unlock side stories. While I slacked on the story for long periods of time the 3 match puzzles were one of the things I played sometimes a week, it makes for good fun if I'm short on time or not really in the mood for other bigger games.
While the gameplay can be addicting and good short time waster, its definitely designed with the idea in mind to scoop money out of you in some way or another. Which was expected really, I don't imagine how else they were gonna make as much money as they can out of this game. Still, its pretty frustrating: due to the randomness aspect of the levels you can expect to be stuck on them for unnecessarily long periods of time until you just get, lucky. All the while everything involving payment is shoved in your way to capitalize on that frustration, including refilling your lives. It ends up impacting the story as well due to needing crystals to advance which requires beating levels. In a way, I got lucky in that taking a break from the story while still regularly-ish playing the puzzles meant I ended up with a lot of crystals to continue the story without needing to be forcibly paused.
Now with all THAT aside, onto what's the real meat of the game:
The story and characters are the part of Switchcraft where you can feel most of the passion and effort went into. Spanning over 4 Books, its an interactive graphic novel styled mystery story where your relationships and choices can affect the outcomes.
Or, well, I say that, but its a bit hard to tell how much is affected until a replay is done. Major elements such as your relationships with others and even particular story outcomes definitely are highly dependent on what choice you make, but otherwise a lot of its on the minor side or has very short term effects. This isn't really an issue for me though, and could be proven wrong when I do replay of the story; most of the choices at least feel like they have meaning to them, so my input and by extension values don't feel like they go to waste.
I can't say I'm an expert on teen dramas, but the writing of Switchcraft definitely has those vibes. Drama between friends and lovers galore, tension with superiors, having to hide your magic from the normies (that is quite literally what non witches are called), all them cliffhangers. It can get frustrating sometimes, even cringy, but I don't think its a bad thing for the most part. Its an entertaining story that tries to get you invested in its protagonist, characters, the world, and the relationships between everyone. And yeah, I hella got invested. I felt real fuzzy, proud, and almost even teary-eyed when the story ended, with Bailey determined to continue moving forward in life. Despite all the ups and downs, all the weirdness and awkwardness at times, the journey was fun. It was fun to see how Bailey grew as a person, and what the choices I made said about me and if I too perhaps, grew from them. It was fun to see how magical society was integrated into the regular world. It was fun seeing some story beats that were honestly so awesome, lol.
Like, I'm probably sounding emotional right now, but cut me some slack lol. I technically finished this game in 3 years, I was gonna be sentimental in some way.
I'd go more into depth on each book, but its been quite a long time so I'll save that for when I do a replay, then maybe expect this review to be edited. Off the top of my head on what I felt about the major arcs though:
Book 1 and 2 primarily revolved around the mystery of Lydia's disappearance and pendleton's history of witches. It was a compelling mystery with genuine moments of fear the closer I got to the end, and eventually having a pretty bombastic conclusion where you end up saving the town and witch society from a new dark age. It also really made me appreciate the friendship between Bailey and Lydia, with what one was willing to do for the other despite all the dangers and risks. I'm generally kind of iffy on the friendships Bailey has with most of her age peers, but this was one of the ones I liked most and was glad they continued to show in the later two books.
Book 3 and 4 revolve around the murder of Bailey's mother. These are probably where I found myself to have the most frustrations with the story though the "teen drama" writing vibe was less notable as it was in the first two books. From what I most notably could remember having issue with, is that the protag felt a bit too isolated; perhaps that was the intention, but it didn't feel like you stuck with any sort of friends as much as it did feel like a lot of investigating with random partners at times or just completely be forced to do it alone. Idk, i have mixed feelings about that particular aspect. It had a pretty satisfying conclusion to the overall story at least, though I feel like a few things they could have had better resolved or take a slower approach with.
Ending this off with probably the strongest aspects of Switchcraft, the art and diversity. The art is just gorgeous, it's very vibrant and colourful with cool and expressive characters. One of the most exciting things about the game was coming across the various CGs and screenshotting them, mainly cuz I found them really pretty but they'd also be good reference for my own art, haha. And the cast is quite diverse, in terms of ethnicity and lgbtq+ representation. I appreciate it quite a lot, and kept things refreshing. Not everyday you come across a lot of rep in media, but its nice to see that it's becoming better over time, as can be seen with this game.
Overall, yeah, I'd recommend this game for a casual time and if you can handle some tedious gameplay. I really just wanted to write this review to get some of my feelings out (hence why its also quiiiite longer than normal, whoops)
1997
I just did not vibe with this game at all.
While I haven't really looked into it, it seems the 5th entry in this series is commemorating the Super Bomberman series in general: of the total 5 worlds, 4 of these represent past games' world.
SB5 takes on a non linear approach to levels, where completing each (which is back to the regular beat-all-enemies-to-progress format) opens up 2-3 teleporters, each of which take you to different levels.
I couldn't be bothered to keep count for each zone but after some levels you fought a boss, which are in the style of individual bomber fights rather than big boss battles. They kinda suck, they're just kind of a drag tbh and it doesn't help that I'm not all that fond of the antagonists' designs (they really did reach peak with the five dastardly bombers huh). The final boss is the only big boss battle in its first two phases, while being an individual bomber fight in its third phase (that you only fight if you're confirmed for good ending, which i'll get into later). It's alright, I don't really have much to say. Most of these boss battles also take place in arenas where you can fall off, which get really annoying when you're trying to run away but freeze cuz you're about to fall and need to pull yourself back up.
The first 4 zones represent the first 4 games respectively, reusing assets and sprites from them. That makes it a bit difficult to discuss the visuals of the game: the new sprites are most notable, they're nice looking. The last zone is entirely new graphics and they're also decent looking, just a bit of a shame you get to see them by the end of the game. Either way, they're pretty simplified levels. The music's also ok. A lot of hit and miss honestly.
I really am not fond of how the non-linear aspect was approached in this game. Once you start a level, you can't really exit to the map again so the only way is to reset and continue your save file. This makes progressing from level to level a lot of guess work, the main indicator being a teleporter's color (yellow for new level, black for old level) which isn't really much. It's expected to complete a run from what I can tell, and then keep replaying to 100% your save file. It's kinda annoying, I much just prefer being able to go back to the world map and working from there but alas. This non-linearity also affects what bosses you will fight, whiiiich affects what ending you will get. Honestly I was too uninterested to look up which boss or boss order leads to what ending.
Best thing I liked about the game was the Louies returning, better than ever and each with a distinct design and sprite animations. It was really cool. I wish finding Louie eggs was a bit more common but its more of a nitpick on my side.
Overall, uh despite my unorganized complaining lol it's still an alright game. I'll probably replay it someday because playing it immediately after the previous 4 probably caused burn out. It's still an alright bomberman time, just didn't click with me.
While I haven't really looked into it, it seems the 5th entry in this series is commemorating the Super Bomberman series in general: of the total 5 worlds, 4 of these represent past games' world.
SB5 takes on a non linear approach to levels, where completing each (which is back to the regular beat-all-enemies-to-progress format) opens up 2-3 teleporters, each of which take you to different levels.
I couldn't be bothered to keep count for each zone but after some levels you fought a boss, which are in the style of individual bomber fights rather than big boss battles. They kinda suck, they're just kind of a drag tbh and it doesn't help that I'm not all that fond of the antagonists' designs (they really did reach peak with the five dastardly bombers huh). The final boss is the only big boss battle in its first two phases, while being an individual bomber fight in its third phase (that you only fight if you're confirmed for good ending, which i'll get into later). It's alright, I don't really have much to say. Most of these boss battles also take place in arenas where you can fall off, which get really annoying when you're trying to run away but freeze cuz you're about to fall and need to pull yourself back up.
The first 4 zones represent the first 4 games respectively, reusing assets and sprites from them. That makes it a bit difficult to discuss the visuals of the game: the new sprites are most notable, they're nice looking. The last zone is entirely new graphics and they're also decent looking, just a bit of a shame you get to see them by the end of the game. Either way, they're pretty simplified levels. The music's also ok. A lot of hit and miss honestly.
I really am not fond of how the non-linear aspect was approached in this game. Once you start a level, you can't really exit to the map again so the only way is to reset and continue your save file. This makes progressing from level to level a lot of guess work, the main indicator being a teleporter's color (yellow for new level, black for old level) which isn't really much. It's expected to complete a run from what I can tell, and then keep replaying to 100% your save file. It's kinda annoying, I much just prefer being able to go back to the world map and working from there but alas. This non-linearity also affects what bosses you will fight, whiiiich affects what ending you will get. Honestly I was too uninterested to look up which boss or boss order leads to what ending.
Best thing I liked about the game was the Louies returning, better than ever and each with a distinct design and sprite animations. It was really cool. I wish finding Louie eggs was a bit more common but its more of a nitpick on my side.
Overall, uh despite my unorganized complaining lol it's still an alright game. I'll probably replay it someday because playing it immediately after the previous 4 probably caused burn out. It's still an alright bomberman time, just didn't click with me.
1993
Fairly decent Bomberman game. Nothing really special, the objective for every zone is to defeat all enemies to gain access to the next part of the zone, and then eventually to the zone's boss.
Not too hard. Bosses are pretty easy for the most part as well, they're mostly a drag since they can take plenty of hits, but their hitboxes are big at least.
Music's nice, and the look of the game is also good.
Not too hard. Bosses are pretty easy for the most part as well, they're mostly a drag since they can take plenty of hits, but their hitboxes are big at least.
Music's nice, and the look of the game is also good.
1994
A decent sequel to SB1. Mostly the same gameplay although the levels look more interesting. Visually the game is also quite pretty, and the music is solid.
It gets a little cheap near the end (hi invisible minefields) but most level gimmicks aren't that frustrating to handle at least.
The villains this time, the Five Dastardly Bombers, are pretty cool, and I'm quite fond of their designs. I think they're neat :) For boss battles you find one of the dastards first, then the big robot they control. Fighting against the bombers is pretty fun and somewhat challenging, while the boss battles are similar to the previous game's where they're big, take a lot of hits, and can become a bit of a drag.
Overall, solid sequel. Honestly its the graphics that make me like it most, its just so pretty <3
It gets a little cheap near the end (hi invisible minefields) but most level gimmicks aren't that frustrating to handle at least.
The villains this time, the Five Dastardly Bombers, are pretty cool, and I'm quite fond of their designs. I think they're neat :) For boss battles you find one of the dastards first, then the big robot they control. Fighting against the bombers is pretty fun and somewhat challenging, while the boss battles are similar to the previous game's where they're big, take a lot of hits, and can become a bit of a drag.
Overall, solid sequel. Honestly its the graphics that make me like it most, its just so pretty <3
2021
This review is based off of 2 playthroughs I've done so far. I plan to do more so I may edit.
It's a pretty simple yet nostalgic feeling game covering your character's life from when they're a baby to when they graduate from high school.
The gameplay loop is simple yet addicting, as it doesn't take too long to figure out the best ways to efficiently use the systems to max out your skills and stats, while keeping your mental health and parent's satisfaction meters at decent levels. Inbetween all this you get to meet and interact with different characters, and depending on what you do you can finish their storylines.
The writing is pretty decent. It's generally pretty lighthearted but effectively transitions to more serious topics or moodier tones when needed. The career related characters mostly discuss the fields they're in with you and are generally likeable; the writing really shines with the characters of your age group however, as you grow up with said characters and find out about them and their lives, befriending them and possibly even romancing them (or in worst cases, breaking off your friendship with them). The situations these characters tend to be in I either found relateable or at least knew people in real life that went through similar issues during my school years. Couple that with all the activites and figuring out your career path, it's pretty nostalgic, but at the same time kind of terrifying or dreadful. Though I guess that depends on what your school life was like.
Biggest flaw is probably the parents. The way the game handles them just makes them feel too controlling and there's hardly much noteworthy conversations with them; constantly having to meet their expectations is frustrating. It's not really hard to fulfill said expectations, but being forced to meet high expectations for most of my actual school life just made me despite this mechanic of the game lol. It's a little more disappointing too knowing that every playthrough after your first one, your parents can be the protag and who they married in your previous playthrough. Kinda just sucks the character out of them for the most part.
Overall, its a fine game. I liked it, might do some more replays for 100% completion. I loved the music and art, very much fits with that aesthetic of nostalgia it goes for.
I'm not too hot on Plat (and I'm probably never gonna play D&P quite honestly) but I'll admit its one of the more cozier feeling pokemon games I've played.
Tbh I feel a lot of nothing for Sinnoh as a region, the stand-out places really being the snowy areas leading up to snowpoint city (its very annoying to go through though) and the rainy swamp area between pastoria and hearthome. I don't really care much about the cities either. The main exception would be the whole area where the battle frontier and resort area e.t.c. are located, they had a nice look to them and felt cool to explore. Shoutout to the Distortion World, its just cool and actually hyped me up for the climax of the main story lol.
Speaking of which, while it seems like they were generally trying to put more writing in from gens 1-3 it feels a lot more apparent with gen 4. You get a pretty good amount of lore regarding Sinnoh's history and its myths and legends, which includes information on the legendaries, the lake guardians, e.t.c. Similarly certain characters have consistently notable story roles which also often neatly ties in with the lore surrounding sinnoh (does lowkey kind of become an exposition dump by rowan and Cynthia in particular but its whatever), definitely more than what previous gens tried at least. Same goes for more minor like gym leaders, who typically have a little more to their roles to at least leave a memorable impact on the player.
Barry got pretty annoying though admittedly. He was pretty charming at first and immediately made himself distinct as a rival but I got very exhausted from his typical gimmick by the end of the game.
Up to this point in the series, Team Galactic is definitely the most interesting villain team. Cyrus is genuinely a very interesting character, who while doesn't waste no time to make the player hate him you get a pretty good idea of his mindset and later on bits of his backstory that led him to be like this. What he does ultimately sucks, but I can't say I don't feel pity for him, or even feel like I've had similar thoughts to him when I was in a worse situation before. The galactic commanders are less interesting, moreso because they lack enough screentime but I expected as much going off previous villain team commanders. Still, Jupiter and Mars in particular were kinda cool.
A big issue I have with the story is how surprisingly early it ends. Usually I'd expect it to end before the elite 4 but here it ends before the eight gym lol. It kinda just messed the pacing for me, and I mostly lost motivation to continue after it wrapped up. It just feels not right, like I get that they felt this was the right pacing for them but still its like, too soon? its weird, bleh, i don't like it
The new pokemon are cool, probably some the best starters in this series and I had a bit of trouble making a finalized team because I enjoyed a lot of the pokemon I used.
Additional note I guess is that I liked the contests and beat them all (yayyy) and I'm still in the process of beating the battle frontier but its a lot less frustrating than emerald's. I've also been a lot more invested in the post game than I typically am for these games, no real specific reason besides that the new areas that unlock are pretty fun to take a look through.
Fuck whoever thought making glameow, the skunk and misdreavus or whatever D&P exclusive lmao hate that hate that
Tbh I feel a lot of nothing for Sinnoh as a region, the stand-out places really being the snowy areas leading up to snowpoint city (its very annoying to go through though) and the rainy swamp area between pastoria and hearthome. I don't really care much about the cities either. The main exception would be the whole area where the battle frontier and resort area e.t.c. are located, they had a nice look to them and felt cool to explore. Shoutout to the Distortion World, its just cool and actually hyped me up for the climax of the main story lol.
Speaking of which, while it seems like they were generally trying to put more writing in from gens 1-3 it feels a lot more apparent with gen 4. You get a pretty good amount of lore regarding Sinnoh's history and its myths and legends, which includes information on the legendaries, the lake guardians, e.t.c. Similarly certain characters have consistently notable story roles which also often neatly ties in with the lore surrounding sinnoh (does lowkey kind of become an exposition dump by rowan and Cynthia in particular but its whatever), definitely more than what previous gens tried at least. Same goes for more minor like gym leaders, who typically have a little more to their roles to at least leave a memorable impact on the player.
Barry got pretty annoying though admittedly. He was pretty charming at first and immediately made himself distinct as a rival but I got very exhausted from his typical gimmick by the end of the game.
Up to this point in the series, Team Galactic is definitely the most interesting villain team. Cyrus is genuinely a very interesting character, who while doesn't waste no time to make the player hate him you get a pretty good idea of his mindset and later on bits of his backstory that led him to be like this. What he does ultimately sucks, but I can't say I don't feel pity for him, or even feel like I've had similar thoughts to him when I was in a worse situation before. The galactic commanders are less interesting, moreso because they lack enough screentime but I expected as much going off previous villain team commanders. Still, Jupiter and Mars in particular were kinda cool.
A big issue I have with the story is how surprisingly early it ends. Usually I'd expect it to end before the elite 4 but here it ends before the eight gym lol. It kinda just messed the pacing for me, and I mostly lost motivation to continue after it wrapped up. It just feels not right, like I get that they felt this was the right pacing for them but still its like, too soon? its weird, bleh, i don't like it
The new pokemon are cool, probably some the best starters in this series and I had a bit of trouble making a finalized team because I enjoyed a lot of the pokemon I used.
Additional note I guess is that I liked the contests and beat them all (yayyy) and I'm still in the process of beating the battle frontier but its a lot less frustrating than emerald's. I've also been a lot more invested in the post game than I typically am for these games, no real specific reason besides that the new areas that unlock are pretty fun to take a look through.
Fuck whoever thought making glameow, the skunk and misdreavus or whatever D&P exclusive lmao hate that hate that
2021
A lovely little game about a kid's first time doing shopping, and maybe even do a little explorin'.
Co-open is a very cozy and comforting game, with a generally warm atmosphere to it all, be it through the visuals, the music, or the characters. While the goal is to pick up whatever you want and take it to the counter for purchasing (this can be done at any time and is the only way to reach the ending), you're subtly encouraged to explore the rest of the store and whatever areas are available to you, while talking to and maybe even helping out different characters you meet. Most of the characters actually already know you in some way or another, so there's always a sense of familiarity with them, and they're also just generally pleasant people to talk to.
Further encouragement for interaction is given through collectibles: helping out characters gets you a collectible from them ( they're very neat and cute~) and you can also find different numbers scattered around in the store, even on items you have in your pockets or the collectibles; these are phone numbers, which after calling them get added to your phonebook. Doing all of these were really fun, a lot of them felt like little puzzles and encouraged you to observe and find any secrets you can in the store.
I don't really have any complaints honestly, so I'm going to just gush more about the things I really liked from the game
I'm fond of going to the mall every now and then, so looking through all the available things to purchase and their descriptions felt very familiar and comforting in a way lol. The cats were also really cute (but got kind of scarily big if you fed them too much).
It's hard to pick a favourite location, I really liked all of them, but I'd say the library park was my favourite. The cool autumn weather could really be felt here, it was generally a pleasantly structured place, it has my favourite characters out of them all, and it has my favourite track of the game for sure. I will say though, the most fun I had exploring were the vents, and the cold storage area (which was more like a mini snow park really).
On that note, the staircase, forbidden garden and vents do feel kind of creepy to be in. I think its more to do with the music, I like the vibe though, keeps it distinct.
Grandma is awesome and cool.
Overall, pretty short game, I'd definitely recommend if you wanna just have a cozy warm time.
Co-open is a very cozy and comforting game, with a generally warm atmosphere to it all, be it through the visuals, the music, or the characters. While the goal is to pick up whatever you want and take it to the counter for purchasing (this can be done at any time and is the only way to reach the ending), you're subtly encouraged to explore the rest of the store and whatever areas are available to you, while talking to and maybe even helping out different characters you meet. Most of the characters actually already know you in some way or another, so there's always a sense of familiarity with them, and they're also just generally pleasant people to talk to.
Further encouragement for interaction is given through collectibles: helping out characters gets you a collectible from them ( they're very neat and cute~) and you can also find different numbers scattered around in the store, even on items you have in your pockets or the collectibles; these are phone numbers, which after calling them get added to your phonebook. Doing all of these were really fun, a lot of them felt like little puzzles and encouraged you to observe and find any secrets you can in the store.
I don't really have any complaints honestly, so I'm going to just gush more about the things I really liked from the game
I'm fond of going to the mall every now and then, so looking through all the available things to purchase and their descriptions felt very familiar and comforting in a way lol. The cats were also really cute (but got kind of scarily big if you fed them too much).
It's hard to pick a favourite location, I really liked all of them, but I'd say the library park was my favourite. The cool autumn weather could really be felt here, it was generally a pleasantly structured place, it has my favourite characters out of them all, and it has my favourite track of the game for sure. I will say though, the most fun I had exploring were the vents, and the cold storage area (which was more like a mini snow park really).
On that note, the staircase, forbidden garden and vents do feel kind of creepy to be in. I think its more to do with the music, I like the vibe though, keeps it distinct.
Grandma is awesome and cool.
Overall, pretty short game, I'd definitely recommend if you wanna just have a cozy warm time.