Game_Liker
2023
slaps roof of car This bad boy can fit so many game mechanics in it
2023
This was my first gacha game and I feel spoiled because it is genuinely great in a lot of ways. It feels good to play, looks expensive, and performs very well on my phone. I didn't spend money on the game but got some lucky rolls and had some awesome 5-star heroes. I enjoyed the gameplay loop and it was a good distraction on my commute, but I have reached the end of my enjoyment. Very solid mobile game!
This review contains spoilers
The completionist in me wouldn't let this be my only unfinished Zelda game. All of my critiques from my first log hold true, but honestly the thing that bothered me the most about this game was the story.
Why complain about a Zelda story right? The story doesn't matter! Actually, I think Zelda games almost always have phenomenal stories. They're usually quite simple, sure, but they're impactful and usually pair your ultimate triumph with some kind of bittersweet loss.
BotW was the first time I thought a Zelda story was genuinely bad. And it's pretty easy to see why. You get one lore dump from the king after the tutorial and that's the whole story, everything you need to go defeat Ganon straight away. You get some additional detail about past events throughout the game, but the core story was dumped to you at the start.
TotK realizes this problem and you don't have much info to go on at the start other than "Find Zelda." That's cool! You do get the same exact lore dump cutscene after each temple - I can think of a few different ways this could be solved - but it doesn't reveal the whole story to you. You have to piece together various memory scenes and these are great. The most impactful of all is when you discover Zelda turned herself into a dragon to heal the master sword and deliver it to Link. This was my favorite emotional beat in ANY Zelda game. Realizing the dragon flying around is actually Zelda? The titular tears are from Zelda? The reason you need to find her is because she permanently transformed into a dragon and she can't communicate with you herself? Amazing stuff. Then the final boss battle with Ganondorf when he transforms himself into a dragon? And you and dragon Zelda fight dragon Ganondorf? So sick.
I was prepared to leave on a high note and maybe even love this game. But the deus ex machina moment that followed the final boss fight caused me physical pain. The reason Zelda's choice to turn into a dragon packs such an emotional punch is because it is irreversible. The game specifically states there is no going back. And it's heartbreaking! Seeing the ghosts of Rauru and Sonia show up and reverse the dragon transformation completely undermines the whole narrative. Nevermind that those ghosts showing up makes no sense in the first place - they should not have any power to affect the situation! I am in utter disbelief. I have never gone from loving to hating a game's story so quickly.
Why complain about a Zelda story right? The story doesn't matter! Actually, I think Zelda games almost always have phenomenal stories. They're usually quite simple, sure, but they're impactful and usually pair your ultimate triumph with some kind of bittersweet loss.
BotW was the first time I thought a Zelda story was genuinely bad. And it's pretty easy to see why. You get one lore dump from the king after the tutorial and that's the whole story, everything you need to go defeat Ganon straight away. You get some additional detail about past events throughout the game, but the core story was dumped to you at the start.
TotK realizes this problem and you don't have much info to go on at the start other than "Find Zelda." That's cool! You do get the same exact lore dump cutscene after each temple - I can think of a few different ways this could be solved - but it doesn't reveal the whole story to you. You have to piece together various memory scenes and these are great. The most impactful of all is when you discover Zelda turned herself into a dragon to heal the master sword and deliver it to Link. This was my favorite emotional beat in ANY Zelda game. Realizing the dragon flying around is actually Zelda? The titular tears are from Zelda? The reason you need to find her is because she permanently transformed into a dragon and she can't communicate with you herself? Amazing stuff. Then the final boss battle with Ganondorf when he transforms himself into a dragon? And you and dragon Zelda fight dragon Ganondorf? So sick.
I was prepared to leave on a high note and maybe even love this game. But the deus ex machina moment that followed the final boss fight caused me physical pain. The reason Zelda's choice to turn into a dragon packs such an emotional punch is because it is irreversible. The game specifically states there is no going back. And it's heartbreaking! Seeing the ghosts of Rauru and Sonia show up and reverse the dragon transformation completely undermines the whole narrative. Nevermind that those ghosts showing up makes no sense in the first place - they should not have any power to affect the situation! I am in utter disbelief. I have never gone from loving to hating a game's story so quickly.
2023
Story is really fun, but PvP is the juice of a modern fighting game and the online play sucks. Street Fighter 6 is still the GOAT.
Blasted through this one on game pass in anticipation of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I didn't do many side activities and focused on the main quest. This is one of the best stories I've seen in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series and I highly recommend it to any fans of the series, but it really only makes sense if you've played other titles esp. Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
I was blown away by Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Every element works in perfect harmony. The unique gameplay mechanics (two buttons, Ghost and Trick? Amazing.), Shu Takumi's clever writing, bold art direction, and banger soundtrack all support one another and build off each other's strengths. A perfect example of a video game that could only be a video game. Also, can't comment on this game without mentioning the all-time great video game dog, Missile. This has immediately entered my personal canon.
This is probably the "best" of these games so far but the formula is starting to feel a bit stale to me. The open world is still littered with boring activities and the combat is simplistic to the point where I'd kind of zone out during fights, until the endgame where they try to make it harder by ratcheting up enemy density and boss health bars. Those complaints aside this is still an awesome game. Traversal is better than ever and they really take advantage of PS5 tech to deliver a technical marvel. The narrative is miles better than the previous games as well, with some deep emotional currents and a focus on second chances.
2023
Extremely cool puzzle game. Highly recommend it as a Game Pass title since it is only a few hours long. The barebones structure of the puzzles is not new, but the way each puzzle is intertwined with the setting is amazing. I liked how a "success" musical cue would start playing just before you actually solve a puzzle. It felt like the game knew I had figured it out and was rewarding me as I executed the correct steps.
2020
Came back to this for the 2.0 update and DLC. It's fixed and it's incredible. Easily the most fun I've had with a game this year outside of Baldur's Gate.
I tried so many times but I cannot find the motivation to finish this. Believe me, I tried. Zelda is one of my favorite game series and I've played every single title to completion at least once, many of them several times. But I was lukewarm on BOTW, and TOTK straight up feels like DLC. It's a really big expansion pack that adds a bunch of shit to BOTW, but the new shit is only interesting in isolation and none of it adds up to a cohesive experience. The story sucks, gameplay is repetitive, the shrines are somewhat better than BOTW but they're braindead easy, the map is essentially the same except for some random floating rocks and an empty dark underground that I felt no incentive to explore, you've seen and done it all before in BOTW. The worst thing for me is the dungeons. The content leading up to each one is fantastic, but the dungeons themselves are somehow even worse than the barebones BOTW dungeons. I legit feel gaslit by the praise for this game, and I feel sad thinking about the future of the series.
2023
I have a lot of nostalgia for this type of game, and they avoid the drudgery of classic turn-based JRPG combat by introducing some fun mechanics that keep things fresh. The narrative didn't really hook me at all and I decided to set this aside to use my gaming time elsewhere, but I really enjoyed the hours I spent with this.
I'm a huge fan of the book series and this was fun as an Expanse nerd, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone coming in cold. It's easily the best looking Telltale game to date and I like Drummer a lot as a character, but the content is very thin for a $40 game.
2023
Baldur's Gate 3 makes other RPGs look like shit. It is the closest a video game has ever come to the freedom and fun of a tabletop game. I loved the cast of characters and I am already looking forward to another playthrough with a different character. The tangled web of choices and outcomes is mindblowing to me. I do have some criticisms but this is the easiest 5/5 I have given out in a long time. Highest recommendation.
2023
I have put countless hours into Bethesda games in my lifetime, so it brings me no joy at all to say this game blows. It flops right from the start. More games need to open with cool shit. This opens with you underground in a mine following the slowest walker and talker of all time. And it doesn't improve. The core loop is so boring that I turned this off to read a book instead. It also looks like shit. The engine is way out of date and it's time to move on. Worst of all? Exploration is essentially gone. You can't wander into something cool. You can fast travel from quest to quest or jump around on empty planets. I haven't been this disappointed by a game in a long time. It has the soundtrack of the year though, that's not nothing.
2023
Tough to rate this one. The gameplay loop gets boring pretty quickly and yet I played the shit out of this for a while. I can't resist the siren song of loot. I'll probably return to this in Season 2.