Gana
2010
if disney didn't get involved this would actually be the coolest game ever made
Disco Elysium is a game about failure. The protagonist is a barely functioning drunk that no one likes at the beginning, and that includes himself. Everything you do in this game is hard. Your average play session will be wandering around, failing at almost everything you do. Embarrassing yourself, hurting yourself in stupid accidents, fighting against the cold indifference of the world. The game laughs at you, and you'll probably laugh too. But then you keep going.
It's a game about trying again. It's a game about always getting up, never giving up, persistently coming back into the ring again and again as you slowly force reality to reconcile with your existence. Thematically, it is the Dark Souls of point and click RPGs, and I mean that in a very good way.
It's a game about trying again. It's a game about always getting up, never giving up, persistently coming back into the ring again and again as you slowly force reality to reconcile with your existence. Thematically, it is the Dark Souls of point and click RPGs, and I mean that in a very good way.
Has some charm but in terms of level design is fairly middle of the road
great story overall but i want to draw attention to the fact that this is like the best atmosphere i've seen in any work of ficiton period, it's really hard to describe other than just saying "Higurashi atmosphere" cause of how unique its blend of horror and small town life is. Ryukishi doing this with poorly drawn sprites that clash with their stock photo backgrounds makes it even more impressive. There are so many times where I'll be doing something and I'll just think "wow this reminds me of something in Higurashi" cause of just how wide this game spreads its net and how well it manages to preserve its unique atmosphere the entire time. It definitely has some dips and peaks here and there but the entire journey of Higurashi as a whole is a masterpiece.
This review contains spoilers
Takano backstory was mid and I really missed the usual Higurashi atmosphere with the town life combined with horror, that being said there are some good moments and it's not like reading it was a bad time or anything
2016
This review contains spoilers
FATAL ERROR: SAVIOR NOT FOUND. SHUTTING DOWN is a fucking gut punch of a quote
This review contains spoilers
The kiseki series is very unique in that all of its games have direct continuity. 8 games in, CS3 is the first game that really takes advantage of this in terms of regularly calling back on previous arcs.
I'd say all of CS3's best moments come directly from it taking advantage of the legwork of older games. Chapter 2's entire Crossbell segment comes to mind first as the peak of the game, as does Chapter 1's ending in Hamel, the appearances of several old party members such as Randy, Tita, Olivier, and so on. I could see some getting upset at the game's peaks all being built atop games that were written over a decade ago, but given the uniqueness of the series, I'm willing to let it slide.
CS3 also does plenty of its own work. It returns back to Zero's style of favoring smaller parties and only occasionally introducing guests, which does wonders for the characterization of New Class VII. I like every party member in NC7 more than most of CS1 and 2's main cast. Special mentions go to Juna for managing to be an incredibly likeable and interesting character in a series where the party members often have secret identities, tragic backstories, and/or preexisting connections with major NPCs.
One interesting thing is that CS3 doesn't really have much of a plot. In terms of accomplishing a goal or causing change, basically nothing happens before late Chapter 4. I will admit that the lack of agency bothers me sometimes, but overall they still manage to make the game interesting through worldbuilding, political intrigue, and the character interactions, which is impressive.
The game's combat is also probably my favorite in the series so far. Now, there's a big asterisk on that statement, because I played on Nightmare. If you go any easier than that the game collapses in on itself with how many different ways you can snap the combat in half. However, if you play on Nightmare, it feels like the combat was designed with that in mind. The broken strats are the only way to survive, and you will not achieve them quite as easily as you might hope. Even in the endgame where I have amazing equipment, quartz, and all party members, I'm still sometimes struggling to stay afloat in the boss fights. The combat is almost always engaging and fun, which is honestly a rarity in this series. I feel saddened that Steam's achievement stats told me that less than 10% of players got to experience this game's combat at its best.
My only real issue with this game is the fanservice. It is fucking ridiculous, especially at the start. The game rapidly alternates between having incredibly cool moments and having shit that makes me want to turn the game off. Most glaring examples are the actual rape scene between Shirley in Duvalie in chapter 1, and the entire existence of Musse. Personally if I were writing a game where the protagonist was a teacher and had multiple party members as his students, I'd have veered away from the romance aspects, but I suppose Falcom had other ideas and wanted to make sure everyone knew it. Everything else is great. The rampant fanservice is the only reason this isn't a 10.
I'd say all of CS3's best moments come directly from it taking advantage of the legwork of older games. Chapter 2's entire Crossbell segment comes to mind first as the peak of the game, as does Chapter 1's ending in Hamel, the appearances of several old party members such as Randy, Tita, Olivier, and so on. I could see some getting upset at the game's peaks all being built atop games that were written over a decade ago, but given the uniqueness of the series, I'm willing to let it slide.
CS3 also does plenty of its own work. It returns back to Zero's style of favoring smaller parties and only occasionally introducing guests, which does wonders for the characterization of New Class VII. I like every party member in NC7 more than most of CS1 and 2's main cast. Special mentions go to Juna for managing to be an incredibly likeable and interesting character in a series where the party members often have secret identities, tragic backstories, and/or preexisting connections with major NPCs.
One interesting thing is that CS3 doesn't really have much of a plot. In terms of accomplishing a goal or causing change, basically nothing happens before late Chapter 4. I will admit that the lack of agency bothers me sometimes, but overall they still manage to make the game interesting through worldbuilding, political intrigue, and the character interactions, which is impressive.
The game's combat is also probably my favorite in the series so far. Now, there's a big asterisk on that statement, because I played on Nightmare. If you go any easier than that the game collapses in on itself with how many different ways you can snap the combat in half. However, if you play on Nightmare, it feels like the combat was designed with that in mind. The broken strats are the only way to survive, and you will not achieve them quite as easily as you might hope. Even in the endgame where I have amazing equipment, quartz, and all party members, I'm still sometimes struggling to stay afloat in the boss fights. The combat is almost always engaging and fun, which is honestly a rarity in this series. I feel saddened that Steam's achievement stats told me that less than 10% of players got to experience this game's combat at its best.
My only real issue with this game is the fanservice. It is fucking ridiculous, especially at the start. The game rapidly alternates between having incredibly cool moments and having shit that makes me want to turn the game off. Most glaring examples are the actual rape scene between Shirley in Duvalie in chapter 1, and the entire existence of Musse. Personally if I were writing a game where the protagonist was a teacher and had multiple party members as his students, I'd have veered away from the romance aspects, but I suppose Falcom had other ideas and wanted to make sure everyone knew it. Everything else is great. The rampant fanservice is the only reason this isn't a 10.
It'd be good if it weren't for the baby mario stuff idk why they thought that was a good idea
2008
"hey dude what if we made a coloring book but it was a game"
It's a very good concept, however I think the game went just a little long. I'd say 2 or 3 stages less would've done it better, because after long enough the gameplay does get a bit stale. The only way they really change it up between levels is by making it more difficult, which isn't really the appeal of the game. Kind of similar to Sonic in that regard.
I have no real issues with the game aside from the ink mechanic. Getting ink'd instantly throws off your vibe and sets you into a fast search for water. If there's no water nearby (or the game's routing system has you on a fountain that's horizontally near you but vertically too high to reach) you're screwed. It's a really weird 1 hit kill mechanic
It's a very good concept, however I think the game went just a little long. I'd say 2 or 3 stages less would've done it better, because after long enough the gameplay does get a bit stale. The only way they really change it up between levels is by making it more difficult, which isn't really the appeal of the game. Kind of similar to Sonic in that regard.
I have no real issues with the game aside from the ink mechanic. Getting ink'd instantly throws off your vibe and sets you into a fast search for water. If there's no water nearby (or the game's routing system has you on a fountain that's horizontally near you but vertically too high to reach) you're screwed. It's a really weird 1 hit kill mechanic
1995
I like the plot and characters well enough but the fact that spells cause the combat to pause is so brutal for the experience. I could only stomach it for so long
If I had to summarize Future Connected in a word, it'd be "afterthought".
I'll open by saying XC1 is my favorite game of all time. While no game is perfect, none of it's flaws bother me in reality so it might as well be perfect to me. FC actually makes me appreciate it more, because it showed me a lot of things in it that I took for granted.
FC is a ~10 hour expansion made in an engine that was designed for a ~100 hour game. Monolith saw this issue and tried to fix it. I respect that, because as I'm about to explain, it is quite difficult. Skill Trees were taken out. This is understandable, as the skill trees were meant to be massive things that you spent the entire game working on. They don't fit in a short adventure. Gem crafting is also out. I get what they were thinking here, gem crafting is a time consuming process and if you replace the ore collection with just dumping raw gems into your lap, it seemingly streamlines things. This is not true in reality. XC1 has a lot of... situational gems. Resistance to specific debuffs, gems that only work for really specific playstyles, etc. Really, on average you mainly just want the raw stat boost gems. That's not a problem in XC1, because gem crafting let's you make exactly what you want to make. You have full control of your build. In this game, it feels more like arming yourself out of whatever you can find in a junk drawer rather than an armory, unless you want to grind, which goes against the "no fuss" design philosophy of this new gem system. Visions were removed. This is a very hard hit to the combat. XC1's combat is very well supported by the visions. Shulk's Monado arts and arts like Last Stand (aura that revives you if you die in the brief time it's active) are reliant on the visions to be especially useful. The game counts on you having visions in order for it to throw tough enemies at you without having to worry about blindsiding you. Removing the visions is like removing a load bearing wall, and FC introduces no new features to combat this. I will credit Monolith and admit that, with the plot they wrote 10 years ago, there was no real way of getting around this. Hence, the "afterthought" feeling. Chain Attacks were also removed. I can think of no reason why this would've happened, it actively makes the combat worse and more difficult. The replacement is not better than them in any way. XC1 combat is amazing, so even with all of this, this just brings it down to only being good. Still, it's noticeable.
The party members were weird in terms of both gameplay and story. Shulk and Melia both serve as DPS + Support in different ways, with Reyn and Sharla stand-ins joining to make the combat survivable. It is difficult to run a party without Nene. This is in contrast to XC1 where basically any party is good, or at least functional. I think this drop in functionality is caused by the losses of the previous features I mentioned earlier, which individually aren't too much, but collectively make your party considerably weaker than what a level 70 party would be in the original.
Let's segue into the writing. I'm against the choice of adding two new characters into the party, at least in the way they did. XC1's writing puts so much focus on Shulk that he's basically the only one with a full arc. If you ask me, if you wanted to do a small expansion onto the main story, we had plenty of old characters who could've used a few extra hours of screentime without inventing two new ones. If they were gonna make new characters, they could've at least given them an original moveset or two, or at least new arts. The character writing itself leaves more to be desired. Nene is fine, but she never stacks up to any of the OG characters, and contrary to his name, Kino is outright bad. It's possible to do good child characters, especially with how open they are to character development. However, in a short story, there isn't enough time to give Kino an arc, so he remains as a static character who's personality trait is being immature.
Shulk is handled perfectly. He's no longer in the protagonist's seat, he's just on this adventure to help Melia out. His dynamic with her in the Quiet Moments was one of my favorite parts of this, and he never feels like he's crowding her out of her story.
Melia was the protagonist of this, and felt very natural in that role given the focus on Alcamoth and the High Entia. Speaking of the main plot, while nothing special compared to XC1's, it still was good. The Fog King's entire deal is that it's mysterious and alien, so I'm not gonna complain about the lack of info or scenes for it. I think the real focus of the plot was on the people and their unity, and it did that very well while providing a direct conclusion to the High Entia plot.
Overall, I'd say I still enjoyed FC. I had fun running around the mythical Bionis Shoulder that was originally just known as mysterious cut content, and also spending a little more time with Shulk and Melia. It just has a lot of unfortunate problems that come from trying to fit a massive system into a short experience. Unlike with Torna, Monolith had no plans to make this game when they were developing the original, and it very much shows, but I still had fun.
I'll open by saying XC1 is my favorite game of all time. While no game is perfect, none of it's flaws bother me in reality so it might as well be perfect to me. FC actually makes me appreciate it more, because it showed me a lot of things in it that I took for granted.
FC is a ~10 hour expansion made in an engine that was designed for a ~100 hour game. Monolith saw this issue and tried to fix it. I respect that, because as I'm about to explain, it is quite difficult. Skill Trees were taken out. This is understandable, as the skill trees were meant to be massive things that you spent the entire game working on. They don't fit in a short adventure. Gem crafting is also out. I get what they were thinking here, gem crafting is a time consuming process and if you replace the ore collection with just dumping raw gems into your lap, it seemingly streamlines things. This is not true in reality. XC1 has a lot of... situational gems. Resistance to specific debuffs, gems that only work for really specific playstyles, etc. Really, on average you mainly just want the raw stat boost gems. That's not a problem in XC1, because gem crafting let's you make exactly what you want to make. You have full control of your build. In this game, it feels more like arming yourself out of whatever you can find in a junk drawer rather than an armory, unless you want to grind, which goes against the "no fuss" design philosophy of this new gem system. Visions were removed. This is a very hard hit to the combat. XC1's combat is very well supported by the visions. Shulk's Monado arts and arts like Last Stand (aura that revives you if you die in the brief time it's active) are reliant on the visions to be especially useful. The game counts on you having visions in order for it to throw tough enemies at you without having to worry about blindsiding you. Removing the visions is like removing a load bearing wall, and FC introduces no new features to combat this. I will credit Monolith and admit that, with the plot they wrote 10 years ago, there was no real way of getting around this. Hence, the "afterthought" feeling. Chain Attacks were also removed. I can think of no reason why this would've happened, it actively makes the combat worse and more difficult. The replacement is not better than them in any way. XC1 combat is amazing, so even with all of this, this just brings it down to only being good. Still, it's noticeable.
The party members were weird in terms of both gameplay and story. Shulk and Melia both serve as DPS + Support in different ways, with Reyn and Sharla stand-ins joining to make the combat survivable. It is difficult to run a party without Nene. This is in contrast to XC1 where basically any party is good, or at least functional. I think this drop in functionality is caused by the losses of the previous features I mentioned earlier, which individually aren't too much, but collectively make your party considerably weaker than what a level 70 party would be in the original.
Let's segue into the writing. I'm against the choice of adding two new characters into the party, at least in the way they did. XC1's writing puts so much focus on Shulk that he's basically the only one with a full arc. If you ask me, if you wanted to do a small expansion onto the main story, we had plenty of old characters who could've used a few extra hours of screentime without inventing two new ones. If they were gonna make new characters, they could've at least given them an original moveset or two, or at least new arts. The character writing itself leaves more to be desired. Nene is fine, but she never stacks up to any of the OG characters, and contrary to his name, Kino is outright bad. It's possible to do good child characters, especially with how open they are to character development. However, in a short story, there isn't enough time to give Kino an arc, so he remains as a static character who's personality trait is being immature.
Shulk is handled perfectly. He's no longer in the protagonist's seat, he's just on this adventure to help Melia out. His dynamic with her in the Quiet Moments was one of my favorite parts of this, and he never feels like he's crowding her out of her story.
Melia was the protagonist of this, and felt very natural in that role given the focus on Alcamoth and the High Entia. Speaking of the main plot, while nothing special compared to XC1's, it still was good. The Fog King's entire deal is that it's mysterious and alien, so I'm not gonna complain about the lack of info or scenes for it. I think the real focus of the plot was on the people and their unity, and it did that very well while providing a direct conclusion to the High Entia plot.
Overall, I'd say I still enjoyed FC. I had fun running around the mythical Bionis Shoulder that was originally just known as mysterious cut content, and also spending a little more time with Shulk and Melia. It just has a lot of unfortunate problems that come from trying to fit a massive system into a short experience. Unlike with Torna, Monolith had no plans to make this game when they were developing the original, and it very much shows, but I still had fun.
The mixing of copy abilities is very fun and I wish the series did it more often, but everything else, especially the level design and movement, leaves a lot to be desired.
2003
whoever was in charge of the character designs was having the time of their life
it's good
(for a licensed game)
(for a licensed game)
2004
wandering aimlessly while feeling mildly uncomfortable can only be good for so long