Completion Criteria: Credits Hit

The old meme "Earthound fan playing the game for the first time" really hits because the aesthetic of the game have still hold up very well. But mechanically this feels like its aged quite poorly mainly just due to the anti-quality of life.

Lets start with good. Aesthetically, I think still holds up as a retro game. It's easy to understand why people still copy it's style to this day. It's vibrant and clear. In terms of music, a lot of it is extremely unique and recognizable, just good stuff. In terms of the setting. I think this is something that may be a bit underrated honestly. The games atmostphere only works so well because it's not entirely modern, its pseudo-modern but alien enough to add aliens. The rolldown is great in concept and even though there are issues with it, it's way better then some alternatives like ATB. Instakill, and advantage/disadvantage systems are also good game systems so I can't complain about that

Ok, postive is done. So what are the issues? The game wastes a lot of time for the sake of form. Inventory management is always tedious and never really gets better. and is made worse by the multiple steps that need to be made to store and withdraw items. Whilst some key items disappear after use, some don't and this leads to more annoyances. You can't even save without money so you have to go to the atm to do even that. I can understand why you might think these things are minor especially in this day you can rewind and use save states but purely from an authentic point of view it's not good. In terms of combat, it feels pretty basic. as a lot of older JRPGs tend to. Use basic attack until the boss and then spam your best stuff until you win. I think by the end the rolldown health also feels against the grain. As if you have a KO incoming you will just attempt to mash through everything. If you get hit first, and you can't mash through it in time it makes you contemplate your luck. A simple fix for that would be being able to interrupt turns to immediately swap to defense.

I think dungeons are probably my biggest let down for the game. I think only three maybe stand out as enjoyable but most feel quite tedious or just bad. Monkey Cave stands out as a great example of what I'm talking about here. Personal preference but when you have bad dungeon designs, visible enemies also feel worse. They feel more frustrating when they get in the way of progress or if you think you get a backhit and it doesn't register, even worse when you lose advantage. Personally, I found some areas to feel like moonlogic, or just not fully fleshed out.

Also, if you have a map function, don't lock it behind an item especially when it comes down to such a limited inventory

Realistically. A lot of problems could easily be fixed by a remaster that fixed inventory and phone calls. It's the old "X will break your immersion in this game about aliens?"
Give them a more modern phone that can save and call escargo express. Give a card that can pay for things on the fly. Seperate Key Items from main inventory. Not necessary but let me sort the inventory, and swap items with others to avoid the rigmarole of dropping something just so I can swap in such a way to pass equipment or Jeff items.

I think there seems to be an overrating of the themes of the game also. It's very easy to suggest that this is a representation of puberty or manhood or enlightenment but I think I could fit that narrative into other games as accurately

I knew I wasn't gonna love this game because I had played it before and didn't enjoy it then. I think the game definitely picks up later on but unfortunately the most enjoyable areas may be early with the exception of some of the dungeons. Luckily this gives me another urge to jump back into Mother 3 which I do think precedes it's reputation and I can finally close the missing hole it my JRPG reputoire

A hidden gem among Humble originals that presents itself as a humble twist on the rock-papers-scissors formula but hides so much more.

Indeed, what at first comes off as some short plot with a laid back ifnromal character that works in an office while being undervalued and dealing with magical elements quickly shows its true potential. With thrills, mysteries and a game mechanic that comes right out of the plot and its quirky characters, it throws you for a loop and doesn't quite make the end goal that clear, not until a bit later.

Furthermore, I have to give credit were credit's due. Its puzzles can be quite intricate and make you solve battle in very unconventional ways but being unconventional really is the attractive of this game. Adding that to the simplistic yet conveying presentation, sound effects and messaging, you have a 4 hours or so experience that will make you question how did the clock move so fast.

I don't know why I expected a better game. Dragon Quest is known by many as the first jrpg. It is the standard that so many great games were built upon. And built is correct, for what is here is so barebones it is barely enjoyable.

You leave town, fight monsters, level up, get money, buy new equipment, move on. That's pretty much the whole game. And combat is mostly just hitting attack against the one monster on screen. There aren't enough options to have much in the way of strategy.

Play it for the history if you want, but there is nothing of substance here. This game could not be simpler and the formula has been greatly improved since.

What if Mario Party was an RPG instead of minigames and it hated you. I don't say that lightly, Dokapon Kingdom hates you, the player, and will take every chance it has to ruin your day. Too much money? one bad roll and you now have negative money. Too many towns? Given away to the other players. Got a really nice weapon? Broken immediately.

Sounds frustrating, right? But I gave it 4 stars anyway, because you have to embrace the madness. I played with a group of 3 others and watching the game ruin all of our lives collectively was a good time.

Has 3 quite good cases and 2 absolute slogs of cases that are hardly entertaining in the slightest. Case 3 and 5 are the ones I refer to. I never want to see the Blue Badger ever again, and the big final villain is such a damp squib that gets shown up by the reveal directly before him, it's quite sad. And of course, both of those cases are quite important to the game's more central ideas and overall plot. Attempting to prosecute someone above the law or using it for unjust means has grounds for a cool plot for a prosecutor, and it's kind of squandered. Ironically all 3 of the cases I enjoyed far more were ones where that theme was not quite as present. Kay and Lang are both quite weak characters, neither appear until the third case which is hardly a good introduction. You only use Little Thief three times in the entire game, which would be really cool! You get to point out discrepancies in statements with accompanying visuals, and then 1/3 times it's used, it's a cop out to get you into the haunted mansion that just got closed off, so it may as well only be twice. Logic is also kind of an undercooked mechanic, but it's also kind of funny that messing it up damages you still. Edgeworth just goes "ah I must look like an idiot for thinking the wrong things" and not even saying anything aloud. I wish there was some kind of mechanic that would allow Edgeworth to do something different during testimony to separate himself from the lawyers you play as in all the other games. I hear Investigations 2 is a better package than 1, so I'll try that out shortly.

There’s a boldness in trying to stand toe to toe alongside the giants; Portal Revolution caught my attention the very moment I saw its trailer last year, and since then I’ve had my eye on it till the day on its release, and I got it easy, think about the people that were there from the beginning! Revolution has been in development for 8 years, a crazy amount of time for any game, let alone one made by fans a s a way to celebrate the series, tho in this case it makes sense when you really think about its intentions.

The most known and popular Portal and Portal 2 mods are all test chamber centered, by that I mean they don’t really venture in the aspects of the series aside of expanding on the puzzles; this is nor a jab nor a complaint in the slightest, in fact some innovate with the original concept in genius ways, and plus, it’s completely expected for them to shy away from the narrative department except for maybe a nod or two, because creating a new story in your fun little mod would be inserting yourself within Portal’s narrative, something not many would even consider as a possibility to do, because, how could they even attempt it?

The thing about Portal Revolution is that it does, it does not want to limit itself to just be a succession of puzzles one after the other, it wants to go further beyond that, it was to surprise you with its presentation and sequences beyond normal gameplay, it wants to have its own voice, one that can fit right with other two. And, listen, I’m not trying to imply or make a statement about how both of the Portal games’ narratives are unparalleled or a master class is videogame narrative —even if few games can say they have the ‘’part where he kills you’’—, they really aren’t the most impactful narratives in all of gaming, but what they are is both well executed and managing to feel important, especially in the first one, where the story melds perfectly with the gameplay, rather than being at the service of it and just an excuse for why are you shooting portals and going though puzzles. Portal is not simply a great series, it’s an excellent duology whose story is pretty much told and its gameplay basically perfected, and trying to add onto that is a herculean task that I don’t blame Valve for not wanting to take.

But Revolution doesn’t even come from Valve, it’s from a group of fans that really love the series and wanted to face all of this dilemmas, which is an even more scary prospect at that, because ironically enough, those that unabashedly love a certain work are the most prompt to make mistakes that those that recognize its successes as well as the flaws, and it’s through that mixture of both undying love for the originals and fear at failing to be lesser than them… that you get Revolution’s story line.

Stop me if you heard this before: a story about a woman is woken up by an orb-shaped hysteric robot in a room part of a giant infrastructure that is decaying and falling down with the promise of getting out if you help him, only for halfway through the adventure getting thrown into depths of the oldest parts of the facility traversing through its older and abandoned test chambers seeking to reach the top and becoming allies with another robot whose conscience was once part of a human, and reaching the original facility that’s now at the risk of collapsing because of the true intentions of the first robot you met and you and your new companion have to stop him to save the entire building and yourselves… also one of them may or may not have a British accent. First of all, wow, I’m surprised you didn’t stopped me, you sure you have played the original series before? And secondly… yeah, the game practically follows beat by beat Portal 2’s narrative, specially half-way through. It’s a real shame that hits doubly hard because even when these similarities where present from the very start, at first they felt more like interesting and even warranted parallelisms than anything else; there were a set of key differences that kept thing pretty exciting and that made this felt like a worthwhile pre-quel, one that isn’t necessary to get the story at full, but one that makes sense withing this world and this narrative, but then you encounter your first ‘’broken bridge’’, and you realize that this games that follows its inspiration even more than it seemed. Listen, I really like Portal 2… but not as much as the original Portal, not by a long shot; and it isn’t because it has a more expansive narrative, but because, unlike I said about its predecessor, it doesn’t feel like the story and gameplay work together, but instead that the story is constantly trying to find weird ways to throw you into puzzles; either by GlaDOS putting you through them because reasons I guess, Wheatley doing the same because… reasons, I guess, and then there’s Old Aperture, or as I like to call it, ‘’J.K. Simmons’ nonsensical puzzle hell’’. These moments aren’t enough to poison me in the slightest, but they represent a intrinsically problem with Portal 2’s design and how it messes with its own pace… and then Portal Revolution looks at it and says ‘’Wouldn’t be cool if I also did it? Yeah, it’d be pretty cool…’’

Roadblocks that just sorta… happen, diversions that don’t make any sense (fun fact, a chapter is fact named around said diversion!), and we even get to return to old Aperture for a much more random and nonsensical reason than ever before! It’s a moment that just happens because I guess it was cool in Portal 2 and hey, we gotta make you meet this important character and have two extra chapters before the finale somehow! At some point it just starts going through the motions and never stops from there, and I have to say, it certainly managed to remind me of Portal 2, but I’m not sure if it was for the reasons the team wanted. No joke, at some point a character just throws you into a chamber and says ‘’Well, you have to do this puzzle, why you ask?... Idk LMAO’’ and at first was pretty cute, but that moment definitively soured when the game said the same thing like another 5 times.

The roots of this insecurity also reach the dialogue a bit; I want go on a tangent for a second and praise the amazing work both VA’s put into their role and the effort behind the screenplay, everyone on board clearly wanted to make this as close to a official Portal experience it could get, and the professionality of both voice actors on their roles fits what you would say in an official game to a tea, and dialogue for the most part feels genuine and got a few smiles out of me!... However, there are still some weird oddities here and there; things like names like Black Mesa or Borealis thrown around just for fans to catch the reference instead to doing a meaningful connection or joke like in the originals, but worst of all is what they did to poor Stirling. I really liked the guy at first! Loved his introduction as a kind of more upbeat amicable GLaDOS that serves the same purpose as Wheatley, and I really enjoyed his attempts at comedy and impressions, but after a while, all of his character is… gone, and by the end of the game we are left with what I could only described as a ‘’Poor-man’s Wheatley’’. Also it has certain lines like ‘’It’s time we bring her back, isn’t it?’’ that made me roll my eyes so hard they went numb, I don’t know how else to describe it except by saying that. The second character is actually super cool tho! Don’t want to get much into spoiler territory concerning them since it’s introduced late into the adventure, but it’s super unique personality wise with what we’ve come to expect in this series but it fits naturally into the series mythos like a glove, I don’t mean it as a joke when I say I wished they were official and got even more screen time.

There seems to be this idea of ‘’If you want to make it again, you have to make it grander’’ that Portal 2 subconsciously introduced and that Revolution just decides to go on with for despite its own detriment: it never reaches the genius simplicity of the original, but also never manages the same level of wonder and surprise of Portal 2 setting wise, it’s stuck in this middle-valley, sandwiched between a monument of a game and another monument of a game, seemingly having nothing to compete with neither or lacking anything new to offer…seemingly.

Stefan Heinz, main developer behind Portal: Revolution, has stated that Portal: Revolution’s puzzle difficulty starts where Portal 2 stops, something that can be read on the game’s own Steam page, and while there’s truth in those words, when reading it you may arrive to the conclusion that it picks up from where it let off and completely expects you to have played the previous games, and even tho of course the fact that you’d play the original duology is the more sensical thing, Revolution acts as if it were a completely independent entry, and it does it with a mastery that simply awed me, and it never stopped from there. It slowly teaches you the basics little by little, and from there its uses them to unimaginable potentials; I never thought so much could be done being able to only shoot one portal, but Revolution shatters that conception and goes completely wild with it. I had so much fun in this chambers, so much joy experimenting until finally finding the insane solution, thinking outside the box in ways I could only expect from the original series and going even beyond that, using the ‘’going out of bounds’’ idea and never looking back, taking everything that was established and reaching new heights, presenting old concepts in a new life, and even introducing its own ideas like with the laser cubes, but it never gets stale, every idea and set of puzzles is used until it can’t give anything more, at which point it jumps onto next. I find the words to describe how amazingly these are designed complicated, not all are bangers, but most are, and it’s not just because they tried to make harder puzzles, it’s because they made puzzle that feel novel and creative. Also resolving them while the original compositions sound in the background is incredible, I linked one before and I really mean it, the new songs are all amazing.

But Portal Revolution is not just a collection of test chambers, it tries to be more than that, capping things off with a final boss fight, once that forces to repeat segments, that doesn’t pose much of a spectacle, and that feels derivative story-wise… honestly it’s sad to see how it perfectly fits the rest of the game’s story…Revolution wanted to be a lot, and calling it a failure is both a lie and a disservice, the fact this is even real is worth of praise, and the moments where it shines and where it’s puzzles really hit, it achieves peaks that face the originals, and I’d say in some cases even surpasses them, and that alone makes it worth a recommendation! If only it was more consistent in that regard, instead, I leave wishing it wasn’t so scared, that it didn’t love Portal 2 so much, that it kept innovating, that it yearned to be even more unique, because at the end, that’s the true spirit of Portal.

Also, the finale is really weird, aside of the kind of jarring final boss, it doesn’t feel like there’s a proper ending it just sorta—