Frossenkar
it gets everything right
the immediately apparent and very convinient improvements in the ui are a quality of life change that was sorely needed in Innocent Sin, this game can be played at a much faster pace if wanted and it feels so much better, it's also overall harder than the previous installment which is appreciated, and even if the amount of tools you get does eventually limit the ways in which the game can truly challenge you it still feels satisfying to master persona switching strategies, even more so than in Innocent Sin
the themes of the story are built on so well I'm still in awe after finishing it, the adult cast of the game not only allows it to go to darker places but also to feel more sincere in its hopeful messaging, Maya's motto "let's think positive!" is not a hollow encouragement to ignore your problems and indulge in ignorance that's coming from a shallow person, it's about finding a way to be optimistic in spite of tragedy and learning to be the master of your own life, while not succumbing to hatred, and the game plays on it excellently
and it definitely helps that the cast are all fantastic and that the game even finds ways to give more meaning to the journey of Innocent Sin, making both games feel like they matter
the immediately apparent and very convinient improvements in the ui are a quality of life change that was sorely needed in Innocent Sin, this game can be played at a much faster pace if wanted and it feels so much better, it's also overall harder than the previous installment which is appreciated, and even if the amount of tools you get does eventually limit the ways in which the game can truly challenge you it still feels satisfying to master persona switching strategies, even more so than in Innocent Sin
the themes of the story are built on so well I'm still in awe after finishing it, the adult cast of the game not only allows it to go to darker places but also to feel more sincere in its hopeful messaging, Maya's motto "let's think positive!" is not a hollow encouragement to ignore your problems and indulge in ignorance that's coming from a shallow person, it's about finding a way to be optimistic in spite of tragedy and learning to be the master of your own life, while not succumbing to hatred, and the game plays on it excellently
and it definitely helps that the cast are all fantastic and that the game even finds ways to give more meaning to the journey of Innocent Sin, making both games feel like they matter
2011
holy shit
this game was something else
it's obviously a wild departure from what the series is usually known for but damn it all if it wasn't fucking awesome
from the atmosphere and the spectacle to the memorable tunes of this weird apocalypse Dead Souls surprised me with genuinely decent gunplay and good characterisation of the series' beloved characters, which also features quite possibly the sickest lineup of protagonists in the series
this game broke me multiple times in ways that still keep me up at night and I hope other people will share my suffering when it hopefully gets its much deserved rerelease
this game was something else
it's obviously a wild departure from what the series is usually known for but damn it all if it wasn't fucking awesome
from the atmosphere and the spectacle to the memorable tunes of this weird apocalypse Dead Souls surprised me with genuinely decent gunplay and good characterisation of the series' beloved characters, which also features quite possibly the sickest lineup of protagonists in the series
this game broke me multiple times in ways that still keep me up at night and I hope other people will share my suffering when it hopefully gets its much deserved rerelease
This review contains spoilers
just to make it clear, this is a review for the whole game, not just endwalker
I was never an mmo person and going into this I had my doubts about many things, mainly how the gameplay and the story were going to interact and potentially clash in an mmo framework and just the gameplay itself really and if it's gonna be any fun
I was proven both right and wrong on many accounts
A REALM REBORN
since I have very little to say about the actual story and gameplay of arr considering almost all of it is just dreadfully boring I will instead touch on more general stuff
the character customisation is somewhat of a letdown, for a game that's been going this long you'd expect something better than just selecting from a select set of faces and haircuts and whatever but I guess not every mmo can be black desert in this regard, the actual glamour system is good and fun to play around with and does soften the issue quite a bit, classes feel incredibly samey and basic and boring at lower levels because none of their special sauce gets introduced until like, level 30, and even then it's a long way before dungeons and trials and etc become all that interesting and start actually demanding you to know how to play, the music in this game can be very good and I always enjoy videogame music with lyrics that relate to and enhance the story but at times it suffers from overusing its motifs in my opinion, it's neat to connect the dots yourself but when you hear the same melody over and over again throughout the whole expansion it can feel like all it has is just one song which can get a bit grating
arr good moments include: fighting Gaius and that whole dungeon/trial, and when it ends (bloody banquet)
HEAVENSWARD
this was unfortunately one of the few times in my life where I caught myself saying "this is good but I don't like it" more than I'd like, and for a lot of this expansion I have no idea why, I can recognise that Ysayle's arc is well written but during her scenes my face was blank almost the entire time, I couldn't bring myself to care all that much about Haurchefant even though his death scene was admittedly well done, and that just kind of extends all over this expansion
the bloody banquet scene at the end of arr is somewhat undremined by the rushed and unsatisfying conclusion to the whole Uldah business, honestly the fact that you can even visit that city during the start of Heavensward is just not great in general it really takes you out and is a prime example of the mmo framework getting in the way of the story, because well, you have to be able to visit one of the starting cities right?
I liked Estinien a lot and his whole journey of through this game of getting over his anger and finding his own place in the world makes him one of my favourite characters, Aymeric grew on me a lot and by the end I loved the fact that he actually succeeded in bringing major positive reforms to his country despite all the difficulties, it's unfortunate that the villains standing in the way were somewhat dull but at least they served as decent contrast to two of these characters
it definitely has been a while since I've done any of the dungeons or trials for this one and I barely remember any of them, but anything that had to do with Nidhogg was cool and Ascian Prime was a good final boss for the main expansion if I pretend like Thordan's fight didn't exist
it's definitely not a bad expansion but I wish I didn't feel as numb about most of it as I do
STORMBLOOD
I personally didn't feel like the Doma arc was all that much better than the Ala Mhigo one, like sure it gets more focus but it also gets its fair share of annoyances like ruby sea traversal being a huge pain in the ass and the steppe arc going on for super long
stormblood has some great characters like Fordola, Gosetsu, Hien and I even thought Zenos was a pretty entertaining villain with some great lines and cool solo instances but what stops it from being good is the fact that it lacks focus and tries to do too much, like it has to flesh out two big regions of the world and show you how big of a threat the empire is all while you're accompanied by goddamn...Lyse, a character who not only comes out of nowhere but also undermines her own arc somewhat by the end lol
the dungeons and trials were pretty forgettable for the most part, oh this is also where the motif problem was at its worst in my opinion
best part was the finale with Zenos and the patch quests where all the leaders talk to Varis and you see scions collapsing so the atmosphere leading up to shadowbringers was super tense
SHADOWBRINGERS
this is where the game finally properly clicks for me and it's for a multitude of reasons
a huge problem with ff14's story in general is the fact that the protagonist, the warrior of light, due to this being an mmo, is forced to be a boring self insert that has no discerning character traits whom everybody loves
I'm someone who really values a good protagonist-antagonist dynamic in almost any story, as simple as it sounds if you fuck up the very central conflict of the story it can be very hard to be invested in it, because such a cruicial piece of what I often really enjoy in storytelling is just gone or isn't working properly, and in an mmo like ff14 where the protagonist is just this featureless avatar, it falls on the villain to do all the heavy lifting (this was one of my concerns relating to how well could a story in an mmo even work)
shadowbringers is the only time in the whole game they actually manage to make a villain good enough to make this work which is why it's easily my favourite
Emet-Selch aka Solus zos Galvus aka Hades is an absolute miracle of a character who brings what felt like should have been the main focus of the whole game in the first place finally into focus, ascians versus the scions of the seventh dawn, and flips that entire conflict on its head, actually tries to work with us to see if we truly can't find any common ground, as well as being basically just justified in his actions and saves what was previously a very lame villain faction and makes them compelling, he is a huge reason of why this expansion is as good as it is
though he's not the only one, The First is an interesting area with interesting lore being basically a world of a failed hero, (who himself is a cool character as well) the angel-inspired sin eaters are great enemies and I love how defeating the scariest ones brings back the night to the corresponding region, it's a cool way to tell a story while not getting in the way of the mmo experience, and the game actually finds another way to do this with its role-play solo instances that force you into a situation with a limited toolkit and make you figure out the solution, basically the game finally figures out how to use the fact that it's an mmo to improve its story, not to hinder it
along with the ascians the scions get a bunch of focus as well, most of them getting finally fleshed out and feeling like actual characters, which again, as is the case with ascians. is what should have been the case here all along
the dungeons and the trials are actually really good and this is the first time I found myself just genuienly enjoying them and even replaying them (the final showdowns with Vauthry and Emet and Elidibus do not dissapoint), though I found some patch quest dungeon bosses to get a bit too gimmicky sometimes
oh and finally getting payoff for arr forcing you to do the fucking crystal tower raids was great since Graha is good as the exarch and also turns into one of the best scions
I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to mention that I also like but only gripes with this one were the sometimes slow pacing and unfortunately some annoying mmoisms still remained
I find myself humming the lyrics to the main theme all the time :)
ENDWALKER
big huge salad of things that you're gonna enjoy the entirety of if you already love the game, and only parts of it if you're more mixed on it
to start off, it was painfully obvious that they weren't going to top Emet even if had they tried but the villanous forces of this expansion still sadden me nonetheless, Fandaniel is cringe and Meteion just doesn't work for me at all, her motivation being even more shallow and basic than that of Fanny Danny, and although they try to make it more interesting it just feels very forced, though I will say having to face the final days ourselves much like the ancients had to in their day is pretty cool
there's a lot of areas in this expansion, finally going to sharlayan is neat though it feels like nothing happens there at first (Fourchenault finally accepting his kids at the end is good though), thavnair is my favourite since it has a cohesive arc and you actually get to see it go through the final days and survive it, which is neat, next is garlemald and this is where the "this is good but I don't like it" problem comes back because the fact that the people living here are such miserable stuck-up believably-written fascism lovers is what makes me hate the arc cuz I've definitely had enough of dealing with that irl, going to the moon was alright but I almost forget we even went there, the unsudered world I'm kind of mixed on I do enjoy character interactions with the ancients but I also feel like demystifying the ascians was maybe not the right move, and then ultima thule is just garbage lol a rushed area where almost everything that happens feels super cheap
the messyness of endwalker is not always a negative but a few times I caught myself barely understanding what was happening or what the stakes even were, I can't deny there were some great moments in there, to name a few finally fighting Zodiark and Hydaelyn was great, basically all of Thavnair, a bunch of neat solo instances in Garlemald and the final face-off against Zenos was amazing and makes me less mad about him being shafted for almost the entire thing (but I can't help but wonder if making him more involved would have made this feel more personal like the previous expansion did)
mostly great dungeons and trials in here, so gameplay-wise I have few issues with this one
I'd say overall I enjoyed my time with this more than I didn't even if getting to the good stuff took a fucking while (but to be fair I knew that going in), I didn't even mention some of the notable side content like Hildibrand or class quests and raids and what have you but this review is bloated enough already, I doubt I will give any other mmo a try for the foreseeable future but I won't mind playing this one now and again and I'll especially be glad to come back for the next expansion whenever that comes out, despite the bumpy road that lead to it
I was never an mmo person and going into this I had my doubts about many things, mainly how the gameplay and the story were going to interact and potentially clash in an mmo framework and just the gameplay itself really and if it's gonna be any fun
I was proven both right and wrong on many accounts
A REALM REBORN
since I have very little to say about the actual story and gameplay of arr considering almost all of it is just dreadfully boring I will instead touch on more general stuff
the character customisation is somewhat of a letdown, for a game that's been going this long you'd expect something better than just selecting from a select set of faces and haircuts and whatever but I guess not every mmo can be black desert in this regard, the actual glamour system is good and fun to play around with and does soften the issue quite a bit, classes feel incredibly samey and basic and boring at lower levels because none of their special sauce gets introduced until like, level 30, and even then it's a long way before dungeons and trials and etc become all that interesting and start actually demanding you to know how to play, the music in this game can be very good and I always enjoy videogame music with lyrics that relate to and enhance the story but at times it suffers from overusing its motifs in my opinion, it's neat to connect the dots yourself but when you hear the same melody over and over again throughout the whole expansion it can feel like all it has is just one song which can get a bit grating
arr good moments include: fighting Gaius and that whole dungeon/trial, and when it ends (bloody banquet)
HEAVENSWARD
this was unfortunately one of the few times in my life where I caught myself saying "this is good but I don't like it" more than I'd like, and for a lot of this expansion I have no idea why, I can recognise that Ysayle's arc is well written but during her scenes my face was blank almost the entire time, I couldn't bring myself to care all that much about Haurchefant even though his death scene was admittedly well done, and that just kind of extends all over this expansion
the bloody banquet scene at the end of arr is somewhat undremined by the rushed and unsatisfying conclusion to the whole Uldah business, honestly the fact that you can even visit that city during the start of Heavensward is just not great in general it really takes you out and is a prime example of the mmo framework getting in the way of the story, because well, you have to be able to visit one of the starting cities right?
I liked Estinien a lot and his whole journey of through this game of getting over his anger and finding his own place in the world makes him one of my favourite characters, Aymeric grew on me a lot and by the end I loved the fact that he actually succeeded in bringing major positive reforms to his country despite all the difficulties, it's unfortunate that the villains standing in the way were somewhat dull but at least they served as decent contrast to two of these characters
it definitely has been a while since I've done any of the dungeons or trials for this one and I barely remember any of them, but anything that had to do with Nidhogg was cool and Ascian Prime was a good final boss for the main expansion if I pretend like Thordan's fight didn't exist
it's definitely not a bad expansion but I wish I didn't feel as numb about most of it as I do
STORMBLOOD
I personally didn't feel like the Doma arc was all that much better than the Ala Mhigo one, like sure it gets more focus but it also gets its fair share of annoyances like ruby sea traversal being a huge pain in the ass and the steppe arc going on for super long
stormblood has some great characters like Fordola, Gosetsu, Hien and I even thought Zenos was a pretty entertaining villain with some great lines and cool solo instances but what stops it from being good is the fact that it lacks focus and tries to do too much, like it has to flesh out two big regions of the world and show you how big of a threat the empire is all while you're accompanied by goddamn...Lyse, a character who not only comes out of nowhere but also undermines her own arc somewhat by the end lol
the dungeons and trials were pretty forgettable for the most part, oh this is also where the motif problem was at its worst in my opinion
best part was the finale with Zenos and the patch quests where all the leaders talk to Varis and you see scions collapsing so the atmosphere leading up to shadowbringers was super tense
SHADOWBRINGERS
this is where the game finally properly clicks for me and it's for a multitude of reasons
a huge problem with ff14's story in general is the fact that the protagonist, the warrior of light, due to this being an mmo, is forced to be a boring self insert that has no discerning character traits whom everybody loves
I'm someone who really values a good protagonist-antagonist dynamic in almost any story, as simple as it sounds if you fuck up the very central conflict of the story it can be very hard to be invested in it, because such a cruicial piece of what I often really enjoy in storytelling is just gone or isn't working properly, and in an mmo like ff14 where the protagonist is just this featureless avatar, it falls on the villain to do all the heavy lifting (this was one of my concerns relating to how well could a story in an mmo even work)
shadowbringers is the only time in the whole game they actually manage to make a villain good enough to make this work which is why it's easily my favourite
Emet-Selch aka Solus zos Galvus aka Hades is an absolute miracle of a character who brings what felt like should have been the main focus of the whole game in the first place finally into focus, ascians versus the scions of the seventh dawn, and flips that entire conflict on its head, actually tries to work with us to see if we truly can't find any common ground, as well as being basically just justified in his actions and saves what was previously a very lame villain faction and makes them compelling, he is a huge reason of why this expansion is as good as it is
though he's not the only one, The First is an interesting area with interesting lore being basically a world of a failed hero, (who himself is a cool character as well) the angel-inspired sin eaters are great enemies and I love how defeating the scariest ones brings back the night to the corresponding region, it's a cool way to tell a story while not getting in the way of the mmo experience, and the game actually finds another way to do this with its role-play solo instances that force you into a situation with a limited toolkit and make you figure out the solution, basically the game finally figures out how to use the fact that it's an mmo to improve its story, not to hinder it
along with the ascians the scions get a bunch of focus as well, most of them getting finally fleshed out and feeling like actual characters, which again, as is the case with ascians. is what should have been the case here all along
the dungeons and the trials are actually really good and this is the first time I found myself just genuienly enjoying them and even replaying them (the final showdowns with Vauthry and Emet and Elidibus do not dissapoint), though I found some patch quest dungeon bosses to get a bit too gimmicky sometimes
oh and finally getting payoff for arr forcing you to do the fucking crystal tower raids was great since Graha is good as the exarch and also turns into one of the best scions
I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to mention that I also like but only gripes with this one were the sometimes slow pacing and unfortunately some annoying mmoisms still remained
I find myself humming the lyrics to the main theme all the time :)
ENDWALKER
big huge salad of things that you're gonna enjoy the entirety of if you already love the game, and only parts of it if you're more mixed on it
to start off, it was painfully obvious that they weren't going to top Emet even if had they tried but the villanous forces of this expansion still sadden me nonetheless, Fandaniel is cringe and Meteion just doesn't work for me at all, her motivation being even more shallow and basic than that of Fanny Danny, and although they try to make it more interesting it just feels very forced, though I will say having to face the final days ourselves much like the ancients had to in their day is pretty cool
there's a lot of areas in this expansion, finally going to sharlayan is neat though it feels like nothing happens there at first (Fourchenault finally accepting his kids at the end is good though), thavnair is my favourite since it has a cohesive arc and you actually get to see it go through the final days and survive it, which is neat, next is garlemald and this is where the "this is good but I don't like it" problem comes back because the fact that the people living here are such miserable stuck-up believably-written fascism lovers is what makes me hate the arc cuz I've definitely had enough of dealing with that irl, going to the moon was alright but I almost forget we even went there, the unsudered world I'm kind of mixed on I do enjoy character interactions with the ancients but I also feel like demystifying the ascians was maybe not the right move, and then ultima thule is just garbage lol a rushed area where almost everything that happens feels super cheap
the messyness of endwalker is not always a negative but a few times I caught myself barely understanding what was happening or what the stakes even were, I can't deny there were some great moments in there, to name a few finally fighting Zodiark and Hydaelyn was great, basically all of Thavnair, a bunch of neat solo instances in Garlemald and the final face-off against Zenos was amazing and makes me less mad about him being shafted for almost the entire thing (but I can't help but wonder if making him more involved would have made this feel more personal like the previous expansion did)
mostly great dungeons and trials in here, so gameplay-wise I have few issues with this one
I'd say overall I enjoyed my time with this more than I didn't even if getting to the good stuff took a fucking while (but to be fair I knew that going in), I didn't even mention some of the notable side content like Hildibrand or class quests and raids and what have you but this review is bloated enough already, I doubt I will give any other mmo a try for the foreseeable future but I won't mind playing this one now and again and I'll especially be glad to come back for the next expansion whenever that comes out, despite the bumpy road that lead to it
pretty fun experience overall, this game isn't as difficult as it might seem at first since many of the bullshit tools that the enemy has are also available to you if you can play your cards right, the (mostly) tight map design, more pleasant visuals and just a generally nicer game feel (the fan patch might have helped) make it clear that this game has learned a lot from its predecessor
I do however think that I prefer Genealogy's story (although this one is still nice in its own way)
a wild ride with a few missteps along the way but it's okay cuz we got a movement star to get to our destination anyways
I do however think that I prefer Genealogy's story (although this one is still nice in its own way)
a wild ride with a few missteps along the way but it's okay cuz we got a movement star to get to our destination anyways
lego badman 2 dc superheroes review:
this was a major step forward for titty games for this was their first ever videogame that adhered to the lego game formula to feature both voice acting AND an open world hub
it is with a heavy heart that I must say that both of those things were pretty underwhelming in my opinion, for the voice acting wasn't utilised to its full potential and the open world styled city of gotham, although brimming with unlockables, is pretty rough and not quite yet realised
this is not my biggest hurdle with the game however
my biggest complaint would absolutely have to be the story/character choices and the level design, which were, to my surprise, a fairly big step backwards from the original
for starters, the title of the game is kind of a lie
the vast majority of the game is spent with Batty and Roberto, with Soupman joining our duo halfway through the game
that's it, hardly enough characters to fill up the famous justice league, right?
well, they actually do show up in the story and ARE playable there, but it's literally just the last two levels, and the Splash along with Blunder Woman serve no mechanical purpose in the level they show up in, so half of those who DO show up at the end do pretty much nothing lol
speaking of dc supered heroes, remember Soupman, and how he joins the classic duo halfway through the game? well guess what, this guy is so fucking powerful, that he literally kills all tension by being playable in the story mode, I mean, he's literally invincible and has like half the powers that are available in the game, they realise how fucking broken he is towards the end by "weakening him with kryptonite" so he won't be able to fly but like, he's still unkillable lmao
(btw flying in the open world feels clunky af)
actually this game has a character problem in general, where, save for the first couple of levels, the only villains present in the story are the Joka and Lex Luthor, which, as fun as they are, become kinda tiring after a while (the first game had a good portion of Badman's rogues gallery being an active threat in the story mind you)
and finally there's the level design, which feels lackluster when compared to the expansive levels of the original, and where in the og game I would say that nearly every level is good, in this one it would be only a third at most, with a lot of them ending up feeling like an afterthought
lego dragman 2 was really ambitious and as many would argue a necessary step towards the right direction, however, it takes that one step while taking a couple back, and that is what makes it disappointing for me
this was a major step forward for titty games for this was their first ever videogame that adhered to the lego game formula to feature both voice acting AND an open world hub
it is with a heavy heart that I must say that both of those things were pretty underwhelming in my opinion, for the voice acting wasn't utilised to its full potential and the open world styled city of gotham, although brimming with unlockables, is pretty rough and not quite yet realised
this is not my biggest hurdle with the game however
my biggest complaint would absolutely have to be the story/character choices and the level design, which were, to my surprise, a fairly big step backwards from the original
for starters, the title of the game is kind of a lie
the vast majority of the game is spent with Batty and Roberto, with Soupman joining our duo halfway through the game
that's it, hardly enough characters to fill up the famous justice league, right?
well, they actually do show up in the story and ARE playable there, but it's literally just the last two levels, and the Splash along with Blunder Woman serve no mechanical purpose in the level they show up in, so half of those who DO show up at the end do pretty much nothing lol
speaking of dc supered heroes, remember Soupman, and how he joins the classic duo halfway through the game? well guess what, this guy is so fucking powerful, that he literally kills all tension by being playable in the story mode, I mean, he's literally invincible and has like half the powers that are available in the game, they realise how fucking broken he is towards the end by "weakening him with kryptonite" so he won't be able to fly but like, he's still unkillable lmao
(btw flying in the open world feels clunky af)
actually this game has a character problem in general, where, save for the first couple of levels, the only villains present in the story are the Joka and Lex Luthor, which, as fun as they are, become kinda tiring after a while (the first game had a good portion of Badman's rogues gallery being an active threat in the story mind you)
and finally there's the level design, which feels lackluster when compared to the expansive levels of the original, and where in the og game I would say that nearly every level is good, in this one it would be only a third at most, with a lot of them ending up feeling like an afterthought
lego dragman 2 was really ambitious and as many would argue a necessary step towards the right direction, however, it takes that one step while taking a couple back, and that is what makes it disappointing for me
favourite writing in the series so far with amazing world building, great characters and a lot of smaller variables to the story that depend on your performance and choices, it's a bit of a shame that the gameplay isn't as challenging as it maybe should be even on the highest available difficulty but it's a trade-off I'm okay with considering the overall quality of the experience
goofy ahh game
2023
it's like if a typical teenage boy's wet dream of a video game idea manifested itself into existence
2016
while at first this game isn't the most engaging thing in the universe, it picks up a lot during its second half and becomes a lot more compelling as it starts being apparent that this game is not going to have a happy ending
a certain someone's flashbacks were the best part of the game, illustrating their believable and chilling descent into madness, which means they turn out to be a pretty good villain as a result
considering the fact that this combat system is pretty much just recycled from 0, the gameplay happened to be somewhat tiring, Kiryu's combat was already not great in the prequel and here it's the entire goddamn game, the penultimate boss fight in particular was so bad that I was tempted to lower my rating
concerning the side content I have not done that much of it so I can't really say how good it is (shoutout to Shinohara tho, best boy) which means I might update my review in the future if I go back to do some
all and all this was a solid first attempt at this sort of crime drama, and although some kinda clumsy bits of writing hold this story back from reaching its true potential, this game is a worthwhile experience nonetheless
a certain someone's flashbacks were the best part of the game, illustrating their believable and chilling descent into madness, which means they turn out to be a pretty good villain as a result
considering the fact that this combat system is pretty much just recycled from 0, the gameplay happened to be somewhat tiring, Kiryu's combat was already not great in the prequel and here it's the entire goddamn game, the penultimate boss fight in particular was so bad that I was tempted to lower my rating
concerning the side content I have not done that much of it so I can't really say how good it is (shoutout to Shinohara tho, best boy) which means I might update my review in the future if I go back to do some
all and all this was a solid first attempt at this sort of crime drama, and although some kinda clumsy bits of writing hold this story back from reaching its true potential, this game is a worthwhile experience nonetheless
2023
not sure if I've ever done a harder turnaround on a game than this
when this game was first revealed, like many others I did not like the look of it one bit, it felt like fire emblem straying away from what really makes it fire emblem, chasing trends and whatnot in an attempt to become more relevant which granted wouldn't be the first time the series has done this, but after becoming a fan of these games over the course of last year it was all the more disheartening to see
as the release date was drawing closer and closer, a lot of the footage released for the game was starting to pique my interest, the new mechanics seemed fresh and interesting, the old ones were returning with a vengeance, the battle animations looked slick and refined, a lot of the music I heard was great and hey even the ensemble of these ridiculous-looking characters was starting to partially win me over
and then the game actually arrived, and all my initial worries were completely wiped out. this is a real-ass fire emblem game and a damn good one at that
yes the story is mostly whatever and the gameplay is great like many have expected but there's also so much more, yes the story is sort of bland but there's so much good gameplay-story integration in here that it was at the very least always (har har) engaging, yes a lot of the characters are gimmicky but there's a lot of great supports and by the end I had a quite strong band of favourites, yes the gameplay is great as I sort of expected it to be but also had a ton of surprises I was not expecting like really good anti-juggernaut mechanics that prevent mindless enemy phasing of all that moves at you and strong enemies that really take time and effort to take down, yes I often found myself spending a lot of time in the base but most of it was spent doing stuff I actually enjoyed like watching supports and building my characters and if you don't want to bother with extra stuff like workouts or wyvern riding and whatnot you really don't have to because this game really does respect your time
if I had to find negatives I'd say that yeah the story could have been more interesting I think, for example I think there was a great opportunity to make the protagonist become an arrogant spoiled brat after all the constant praise and adoration they receive with a perfect place in the story for them to get humbled and learn to be better but I suppose they just wanted to play it safe and make Alear more inoffensive, some of the music tracks I wasn't super fond of even though largely the soundtrack still stands tall, and several paralogues had me tearing my hair out and not for the good reasons like the main story map design did
I played this on hard and I certainly wouldn't mind coming back to this on maddening, I was going through a bit of a game burnout and Engage was a lovely way to break out of it
when this game was first revealed, like many others I did not like the look of it one bit, it felt like fire emblem straying away from what really makes it fire emblem, chasing trends and whatnot in an attempt to become more relevant which granted wouldn't be the first time the series has done this, but after becoming a fan of these games over the course of last year it was all the more disheartening to see
as the release date was drawing closer and closer, a lot of the footage released for the game was starting to pique my interest, the new mechanics seemed fresh and interesting, the old ones were returning with a vengeance, the battle animations looked slick and refined, a lot of the music I heard was great and hey even the ensemble of these ridiculous-looking characters was starting to partially win me over
and then the game actually arrived, and all my initial worries were completely wiped out. this is a real-ass fire emblem game and a damn good one at that
yes the story is mostly whatever and the gameplay is great like many have expected but there's also so much more, yes the story is sort of bland but there's so much good gameplay-story integration in here that it was at the very least always (har har) engaging, yes a lot of the characters are gimmicky but there's a lot of great supports and by the end I had a quite strong band of favourites, yes the gameplay is great as I sort of expected it to be but also had a ton of surprises I was not expecting like really good anti-juggernaut mechanics that prevent mindless enemy phasing of all that moves at you and strong enemies that really take time and effort to take down, yes I often found myself spending a lot of time in the base but most of it was spent doing stuff I actually enjoyed like watching supports and building my characters and if you don't want to bother with extra stuff like workouts or wyvern riding and whatnot you really don't have to because this game really does respect your time
if I had to find negatives I'd say that yeah the story could have been more interesting I think, for example I think there was a great opportunity to make the protagonist become an arrogant spoiled brat after all the constant praise and adoration they receive with a perfect place in the story for them to get humbled and learn to be better but I suppose they just wanted to play it safe and make Alear more inoffensive, some of the music tracks I wasn't super fond of even though largely the soundtrack still stands tall, and several paralogues had me tearing my hair out and not for the good reasons like the main story map design did
I played this on hard and I certainly wouldn't mind coming back to this on maddening, I was going through a bit of a game burnout and Engage was a lovely way to break out of it
review of Valhalla the Bart ender simulator
with a steam description that mentions waifus as a part of the game's appeal, you might expect, justifiably or not, less than stellar writing, but you would be pleasantly surprised
this game's writing is so incredibly mature, to the point where it makes the writing of most of the other games I have played seem shallow by comparison
it thrusts you into a believable dystopia without making it all feel too pointless and hopeless, gives you some stunningly real-feeling characters, each with their own struggles and memorable qualities, and there's some good use of second-hand worldbuilding to boot, all of that combined with the small-stakes story makes it all so easy to empathise with
the extremely unique choice system that presents itself in the form of drink-mixing does not at all overstay its welcome or even feel tacky in the slightest, I would argue it's actually much better than most choice systems in gaming because it never really tells you how important or meaningless your actions are, nor does it tell you if they are of short-term or long-term effect, there's no "character X will remember this" crap, the only way to know is to know the characters and how they would react in the first place, which can be hard but getting to know them so well is a pleasure in its own right if I dare say such a thing
the protagonist, Jill Stingray deserves a special mention, her character being an absolute delight to play as as her personality and character development throughout the game never ceased to be entertaining, a blank slate main character would have probably been a bad choice for this kind of game anyway, so I'm glad that they went above and beyond in making Jill brim with history and personality
the visuals in the game are fantastic, adding to the grim but not overly despair-filled atmosphere of Glitch city and (mostly) graceful and subtle characterisation of its denizens
and lastly, there's something to be said about a game that is so goddamn confident in its own soundtrack, that it literally lets you pick the assortment of songs from the jukebox, unafraid that it will break the atmosphere at any point in the game (and frankly it never did, which is kind of amazing for a game with so many tracks)
VA-11 Hall-A is a game that is brimming with confidence in just about every aspect of itself, and it is not for nought, for it is an amazing game more than worth being confident in
9.5/10 drinks mixed, lives changed, Barts ended
with a steam description that mentions waifus as a part of the game's appeal, you might expect, justifiably or not, less than stellar writing, but you would be pleasantly surprised
this game's writing is so incredibly mature, to the point where it makes the writing of most of the other games I have played seem shallow by comparison
it thrusts you into a believable dystopia without making it all feel too pointless and hopeless, gives you some stunningly real-feeling characters, each with their own struggles and memorable qualities, and there's some good use of second-hand worldbuilding to boot, all of that combined with the small-stakes story makes it all so easy to empathise with
the extremely unique choice system that presents itself in the form of drink-mixing does not at all overstay its welcome or even feel tacky in the slightest, I would argue it's actually much better than most choice systems in gaming because it never really tells you how important or meaningless your actions are, nor does it tell you if they are of short-term or long-term effect, there's no "character X will remember this" crap, the only way to know is to know the characters and how they would react in the first place, which can be hard but getting to know them so well is a pleasure in its own right if I dare say such a thing
the protagonist, Jill Stingray deserves a special mention, her character being an absolute delight to play as as her personality and character development throughout the game never ceased to be entertaining, a blank slate main character would have probably been a bad choice for this kind of game anyway, so I'm glad that they went above and beyond in making Jill brim with history and personality
the visuals in the game are fantastic, adding to the grim but not overly despair-filled atmosphere of Glitch city and (mostly) graceful and subtle characterisation of its denizens
and lastly, there's something to be said about a game that is so goddamn confident in its own soundtrack, that it literally lets you pick the assortment of songs from the jukebox, unafraid that it will break the atmosphere at any point in the game (and frankly it never did, which is kind of amazing for a game with so many tracks)
VA-11 Hall-A is a game that is brimming with confidence in just about every aspect of itself, and it is not for nought, for it is an amazing game more than worth being confident in
9.5/10 drinks mixed, lives changed, Barts ended
2018
okay so we got this kinda fun combat right
that encounter you just went thru was kinda cool wasn't it? getting into the flow of things got a good groove going right? lol lockpick this door first idiot, fuck pacing
oh what's that the story almost seems like it's picking up? do this tailing section. do this mandatory substory we put in here just to pad out the game as well while you're at it. fuck pacing
I should also mention that the killer's reveal was lame, how a lot of the seemingly more important fights were lame, and how hard it was to care or buy into the plot itself in general, and how little opportunity it gave most of the actually likeable characters any time to shine or develop at all
this game feels so unfinished and prototypical that the whole experience just seems more like testing grounds for Lost Judgment rather than something they actually had confidence in
that encounter you just went thru was kinda cool wasn't it? getting into the flow of things got a good groove going right? lol lockpick this door first idiot, fuck pacing
oh what's that the story almost seems like it's picking up? do this tailing section. do this mandatory substory we put in here just to pad out the game as well while you're at it. fuck pacing
I should also mention that the killer's reveal was lame, how a lot of the seemingly more important fights were lame, and how hard it was to care or buy into the plot itself in general, and how little opportunity it gave most of the actually likeable characters any time to shine or develop at all
this game feels so unfinished and prototypical that the whole experience just seems more like testing grounds for Lost Judgment rather than something they actually had confidence in
2001
an abundance of archaic design choices, tedious, pointless puzzle sections and a story without any real sense of direction made even the good parts of this game really hard to enjoy (and even then, those parts were okay at best)
you really have to play this game in the modern age without any nostalgia attached to it to truly understand how badly it aged
you really have to play this game in the modern age without any nostalgia attached to it to truly understand how badly it aged
a fun time for the most of it but held back by being shorter than it maybe should have been, the story definitely suffers because quite a few things feel underdeveloped, (for example the worldbuilding) and certain characters and story beats end up feeling neglected especially when you look at the route differences
the gameplay is alright, there's some really good maps and a handful of bad ones (like in any fe basically), the enemy quality (and the incentive to only use your strongest units as a result) felt a little too high towards the end of the game but it never got anywhere near as bad with it as something like Awakening
I enjoyed this for what it was but it's not the deepest fire emblem experience out there by any means
the gameplay is alright, there's some really good maps and a handful of bad ones (like in any fe basically), the enemy quality (and the incentive to only use your strongest units as a result) felt a little too high towards the end of the game but it never got anywhere near as bad with it as something like Awakening
I enjoyed this for what it was but it's not the deepest fire emblem experience out there by any means
2021
okay so we got the most compelling protagonist/antagonist dynamic in this developer's entire catalogue, a great mystery surrounding it and easily the best combat system they've ever put together, oh and don't forget the soundtrack being absolutely top-notch as well
I am genuinely struggling to think of many things this game didn't deliver on, I guess some of the cast get sidelined and the sneaking sections are so-so? but it's really whatever
it's so surreal to go from an utter snoozefest that was Judgment to a game that had me excited for every next fight and story development all throughout
I am genuinely struggling to think of many things this game didn't deliver on, I guess some of the cast get sidelined and the sneaking sections are so-so? but it's really whatever
it's so surreal to go from an utter snoozefest that was Judgment to a game that had me excited for every next fight and story development all throughout