Gana
2016
Jonathan Blow walks into an art gallery saying he's got the biggest, deepest art you've ever seen, something only his incredibly intelligent mind could create. This will redefine the entire concept of art.
He unveils it and it's a video of a bunch of bright colors flashing wildly, immediately giving any epileptics in the room a seizure. He says that they are not interpreting his art correctly.
He unveils it and it's a video of a bunch of bright colors flashing wildly, immediately giving any epileptics in the room a seizure. He says that they are not interpreting his art correctly.
2021
Admittedly, I started this more because of the curiosity of playing the very first FF game than because I thought it'd actually be fun. Despite the game's age, I enjoyed it a fair amount. I know full well that this version of the game is different from the original NES version, which I would almost certainly hate, but it still felt like I was receiving the classic FF experience
This is my favorite action game combat, period
Literally everything you do in the combat is satisfying. They made magic FUN. I genuinely don't know how they pulled that off. Usually when I play action games I avoid blocking and parrying because I don't find it fun, but again, this game manages to do it right. The combat is fun and challenging for both normal fights and boss battles, which is harder to do than it sounds.
The plot is also very cool
Literally everything you do in the combat is satisfying. They made magic FUN. I genuinely don't know how they pulled that off. Usually when I play action games I avoid blocking and parrying because I don't find it fun, but again, this game manages to do it right. The combat is fun and challenging for both normal fights and boss battles, which is harder to do than it sounds.
The plot is also very cool
A love letter to the Dark Souls Franchise and a very solid game all around
I felt like with this game they never really ran out of good ideas, which is not something I can attribute to most other Souls games
I felt like with this game they never really ran out of good ideas, which is not something I can attribute to most other Souls games
2017
ROUNDABOUT + LOBBER SWEEP
this is the best episode
This review contains spoilers
every single problem in this game was caused by a cop being stupid
more like i feel bored as fuck
This is the 10th circle of hell. There are no refs. There are no fans. There is only Christopher Robin and his toys, you being one of them.
"Hey I'm glad you're having fun with the musou gameplay, but before you go back out there remember to manage your unit levels, class masteries, combat arts, tactics, supports, weapons, battalions, accessories, facilities, supplies, abilities, and inventory in order to be optimal"
This review contains spoilers
Obligatory start off my saying that XC1 is my favorite game ever
This game is pretty alright. Nothing really sticks with me that much, unlike other games in this series. I'll start with the negatives and work my way up.
I don't think the combat is that great. The class system is fun, but overall the fact that every character uses every class just makes things feel rather generic. None of the characters really feel all that different from each other, mechanically, which is a shame given how well they're all written outside of combat. The combat is both too simple for me to really be engaged when I'm playing one character and is too complicated for me to really enjoy switching between people mid combat. Even 120+ hours in, I still felt at least a little bit disoriented any time I tried to do a midcombat switch, but staying in place with just one character just feels like autopilot. There were literally multiple phases of the final boss itself where I just found myself just completely checked out, not even thinking about the game. Hard mode, which I was playing on, also tends to just make all of the fights take longer, which exacerbates the issue. Chain attacks in particular were my least favorite part. XC1's chain attacks were satisfying and fairly quick. X's overdrive was complex and fast. XC2's was about setting pins up throughout the combat and then knocking them all down, but even the longest XC2 chain attack was much quicker than anything XC3 does. XC3 chain attacks just feel like doing math with RNG thrown in, and since a good chain attack has like 5 rounds to it, there's a lot of menuing involved. Every round is ended with an unskippable cutscene with no QTEs that you've probably seen 50 times, so you're just awkwardly sitting there waiting until you can press buttons again. This process takes several minutes and is not very engaging, personally. Also, the chain attack music overrides almost all other music in the game, and is not very good. All this comes together and I find myself not even wanting to do chain attacks in this game, even though in other games they're arguably the most satisfying part of the combat.
The story in this game is kinda weird. The first half of the plot is basically just your party traveling to a location, with the only really good scenes before you get there being from the cast members talking to each other. Once you get there, it's a macguffin hunt, though admittedly there is the big scene at the end of chapter 5. I would have more issues, but I think overall the game's story does a good job representing the game's themes, especially with the support from the sidequests. I also do like how the game is very unafraid to challenge its own themes with characters like N and Shania.
XC3's villains are kinda shit. The ones that are good don't get enough screentime, and all the rest of them are just generic Moebius people that I couldn't list a single memorable trait of if I tried. Compared to other Xenoblade villains, XC3's was a pretty big letdown.
Some positive stuff: the game's cast is quite good. Unlike other Xenoblades, I don't really feel like anyone ever reaches a point where they've been used up. Everyone always feels pretty relevant, they all have their own roles in the dynamic, and the character dynamics in question flow well both for lighthearted conversation and heavier topics. I don't really think there's anyone in the cast that I'd elevate to favorite xenoblade character status, but overall they all fit together very well.
My favorite part of the game is the side content. Every quest feels handwritten. Hero quests and ascension quests were where I got most of my enjoyment, but even the regular side quests were entertaining and generally didn't contain that much busywork. I think in general the quests did a very good job of carrying the themes of this game; even after a huge upheaval to your life, there is much potential for good things to happen, something that very much supports the game's main theme in that even if change is scary, it isn't always bad. I still think I prefer X's side content overall, but it's still quite good.
soundtrack also raises it's score a bit i gotta say
This is my least favorite Xenoblade, other than Future Connected, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It does some cool things, and I absolutely intend to come back later and play more of the side content.
This game is pretty alright. Nothing really sticks with me that much, unlike other games in this series. I'll start with the negatives and work my way up.
I don't think the combat is that great. The class system is fun, but overall the fact that every character uses every class just makes things feel rather generic. None of the characters really feel all that different from each other, mechanically, which is a shame given how well they're all written outside of combat. The combat is both too simple for me to really be engaged when I'm playing one character and is too complicated for me to really enjoy switching between people mid combat. Even 120+ hours in, I still felt at least a little bit disoriented any time I tried to do a midcombat switch, but staying in place with just one character just feels like autopilot. There were literally multiple phases of the final boss itself where I just found myself just completely checked out, not even thinking about the game. Hard mode, which I was playing on, also tends to just make all of the fights take longer, which exacerbates the issue. Chain attacks in particular were my least favorite part. XC1's chain attacks were satisfying and fairly quick. X's overdrive was complex and fast. XC2's was about setting pins up throughout the combat and then knocking them all down, but even the longest XC2 chain attack was much quicker than anything XC3 does. XC3 chain attacks just feel like doing math with RNG thrown in, and since a good chain attack has like 5 rounds to it, there's a lot of menuing involved. Every round is ended with an unskippable cutscene with no QTEs that you've probably seen 50 times, so you're just awkwardly sitting there waiting until you can press buttons again. This process takes several minutes and is not very engaging, personally. Also, the chain attack music overrides almost all other music in the game, and is not very good. All this comes together and I find myself not even wanting to do chain attacks in this game, even though in other games they're arguably the most satisfying part of the combat.
The story in this game is kinda weird. The first half of the plot is basically just your party traveling to a location, with the only really good scenes before you get there being from the cast members talking to each other. Once you get there, it's a macguffin hunt, though admittedly there is the big scene at the end of chapter 5. I would have more issues, but I think overall the game's story does a good job representing the game's themes, especially with the support from the sidequests. I also do like how the game is very unafraid to challenge its own themes with characters like N and Shania.
XC3's villains are kinda shit. The ones that are good don't get enough screentime, and all the rest of them are just generic Moebius people that I couldn't list a single memorable trait of if I tried. Compared to other Xenoblade villains, XC3's was a pretty big letdown.
Some positive stuff: the game's cast is quite good. Unlike other Xenoblades, I don't really feel like anyone ever reaches a point where they've been used up. Everyone always feels pretty relevant, they all have their own roles in the dynamic, and the character dynamics in question flow well both for lighthearted conversation and heavier topics. I don't really think there's anyone in the cast that I'd elevate to favorite xenoblade character status, but overall they all fit together very well.
My favorite part of the game is the side content. Every quest feels handwritten. Hero quests and ascension quests were where I got most of my enjoyment, but even the regular side quests were entertaining and generally didn't contain that much busywork. I think in general the quests did a very good job of carrying the themes of this game; even after a huge upheaval to your life, there is much potential for good things to happen, something that very much supports the game's main theme in that even if change is scary, it isn't always bad. I still think I prefer X's side content overall, but it's still quite good.
soundtrack also raises it's score a bit i gotta say
This is my least favorite Xenoblade, other than Future Connected, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It does some cool things, and I absolutely intend to come back later and play more of the side content.
2018
Peak of the genre.
There are so many things I like about this game. I'll try my best to list them all succinctly, but it'll be a challenge.
The main gameplay loop is done super well. You typically start off in the house, and get a chance to talk with a bunch of lovable characters about various things, sometimes related to things you've done recently. You then prepare for and then do your next run, which greatly varies based on which weapon you pick, which boons you choose, etc, to keep things fresh. I had to actively limit how many runs of this I do per day, cause quite frankly the game is addictive.
I love how with every run, no matter how small, you always get SOMETHING. There's no way to have a pointless run outside of maybe dying in the first chamber, and even then, when you get back everyone will have new dialogue. Throughout all my runs, there was never a point where I was anywhere close to running out of dialogue, albeit I'm writing this as of finishing the main story, not 100%ing the game. There are also multiple sidequests that you can do involving the NPCs, which is just another fun thing to keep track of even if you aren't doing especially well with the whole main story thing.
The game's Dark Thirst mechanic is also quite good at encouraging variety in what weapons you use.
The core gameplay is excellent. No matter what weapon or build I end up using, I always feel like combat is exciting and fast-paced.
This game is nearly perfect and I cannot wait for Hades 2.
There are so many things I like about this game. I'll try my best to list them all succinctly, but it'll be a challenge.
The main gameplay loop is done super well. You typically start off in the house, and get a chance to talk with a bunch of lovable characters about various things, sometimes related to things you've done recently. You then prepare for and then do your next run, which greatly varies based on which weapon you pick, which boons you choose, etc, to keep things fresh. I had to actively limit how many runs of this I do per day, cause quite frankly the game is addictive.
I love how with every run, no matter how small, you always get SOMETHING. There's no way to have a pointless run outside of maybe dying in the first chamber, and even then, when you get back everyone will have new dialogue. Throughout all my runs, there was never a point where I was anywhere close to running out of dialogue, albeit I'm writing this as of finishing the main story, not 100%ing the game. There are also multiple sidequests that you can do involving the NPCs, which is just another fun thing to keep track of even if you aren't doing especially well with the whole main story thing.
The game's Dark Thirst mechanic is also quite good at encouraging variety in what weapons you use.
The core gameplay is excellent. No matter what weapon or build I end up using, I always feel like combat is exciting and fast-paced.
This game is nearly perfect and I cannot wait for Hades 2.
2008
better than golden tbh
2012
Persona 4 Golden is the best 6/10 I've ever played.
The story is okay, but it doesn't hold up too well if you actually try to look deeper into it than "it's about the truth", which isn't really a very interesting theme to begin with.
This game is kinda faux-progressive in that a lot of character arcs appear to be related to LGBT issues or about overcoming a society that forces its own expectations onto you, but almost all of them end in "actually I'm not LGBT and we're not gonna talk about how people would react if I actually was" or "actually society's plans for me are good and I will stick with the status quo". It's good enough when you're actually watching the scenes, but trying to analyze anything too much left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, social links as a whole are too heavily relied on for character development. Characters in this game get about one scene to themselves when they first join your party, then everything else for them gets shoved away into a social link. The optional, nonlinear nature of social links makes it so that the main story cannot effectively use any of the development that occurs within them, which makes any development that comes from social links feel kinda fake. As a result this game's entire main cast feels rather one dimensional, even if the scenes of them hanging out with each other can be entertaining.
The combat just feels like a step down from 3. Going to the Midnight Channel costs time that you could spend with social links, which heavily incentivizes doing all the dungeon stuff in one long stretch, side quests included, rather than being able to spread it out over several shorter sessions like with 3's dungeon crawling. I think this really hurts the pacing a lot, honestly. This would be less of an issue if I enjoyed the combat more, but I don't, so that's where we're at.
The atmosphere in the original P4, which I've actually played, is amazing. A masterful balance between catching a serial killer and enjoying small town life with your friends. I think Golden really tips that balance too much towards the latter half. You can't go more than a week or two without having some special Golden only scene of the friends doing something silly together. It's not that the scenes themselves are badly written, but I think their presence makes it too easy to forget the other half of this game's story.
The game's still okay, but compared to Persona 3 it feels like a huge step down.
The story is okay, but it doesn't hold up too well if you actually try to look deeper into it than "it's about the truth", which isn't really a very interesting theme to begin with.
This game is kinda faux-progressive in that a lot of character arcs appear to be related to LGBT issues or about overcoming a society that forces its own expectations onto you, but almost all of them end in "actually I'm not LGBT and we're not gonna talk about how people would react if I actually was" or "actually society's plans for me are good and I will stick with the status quo". It's good enough when you're actually watching the scenes, but trying to analyze anything too much left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, social links as a whole are too heavily relied on for character development. Characters in this game get about one scene to themselves when they first join your party, then everything else for them gets shoved away into a social link. The optional, nonlinear nature of social links makes it so that the main story cannot effectively use any of the development that occurs within them, which makes any development that comes from social links feel kinda fake. As a result this game's entire main cast feels rather one dimensional, even if the scenes of them hanging out with each other can be entertaining.
The combat just feels like a step down from 3. Going to the Midnight Channel costs time that you could spend with social links, which heavily incentivizes doing all the dungeon stuff in one long stretch, side quests included, rather than being able to spread it out over several shorter sessions like with 3's dungeon crawling. I think this really hurts the pacing a lot, honestly. This would be less of an issue if I enjoyed the combat more, but I don't, so that's where we're at.
The atmosphere in the original P4, which I've actually played, is amazing. A masterful balance between catching a serial killer and enjoying small town life with your friends. I think Golden really tips that balance too much towards the latter half. You can't go more than a week or two without having some special Golden only scene of the friends doing something silly together. It's not that the scenes themselves are badly written, but I think their presence makes it too easy to forget the other half of this game's story.
The game's still okay, but compared to Persona 3 it feels like a huge step down.
2022
hehe i can knock things off of tables