GrandMageVivi
Bio
i like old games and new games that look like shit and overly sentimental garbage
i like old games and new games that look like shit and overly sentimental garbage
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3 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years
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Played 100+ games
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Gained 10+ total review likes
Favorite Games
103
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
010
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The only fault I can really say (and it's a big one) are the graphics. While the Pokemon models and attack animations are admittedly very good, everyone's seen the N64 era ground textures and awful tree models. There's also a weird aliasing effect on the player and Pokemon models when in caves that quite frankly seems amateurish. Probably why those areas are few and far between.
Aside from that this is the best Pokemon game I've played in close to a decade. It actually has soul and I got the feeling that the creators really cared about the world they were making. I like Pokemon again.
Aside from that this is the best Pokemon game I've played in close to a decade. It actually has soul and I got the feeling that the creators really cared about the world they were making. I like Pokemon again.
I have a lot to say about Enderal, but I'm not sure how to organize my thoughts.
Maybe I'll come back and update this once I've had time to process everything. As of writing this I have just watched the credits through to the end, and normally that is more than enough time to fully digest what I've just experienced in any other game, but my head is still swimming.
I guess I'll start with this: if you own Skyrim on PC, you owe it to yourself to play this. It's free! And it's better than most triple-A games I've played in recent memory (though more and more that's becoming an easier feat to beat).
Maybe the progression system will throw you off, maybe the minor but consistent spelling mistakes will irk you, maybe you'll just feel overwhelmed once you hit Ark and the whole game opens up. But I implore you to stick with it. I promise you, you will find something worthwhile in the world of Enderal.
Maybe I'll come back and update this once I've had time to process everything. As of writing this I have just watched the credits through to the end, and normally that is more than enough time to fully digest what I've just experienced in any other game, but my head is still swimming.
I guess I'll start with this: if you own Skyrim on PC, you owe it to yourself to play this. It's free! And it's better than most triple-A games I've played in recent memory (though more and more that's becoming an easier feat to beat).
Maybe the progression system will throw you off, maybe the minor but consistent spelling mistakes will irk you, maybe you'll just feel overwhelmed once you hit Ark and the whole game opens up. But I implore you to stick with it. I promise you, you will find something worthwhile in the world of Enderal.
This review contains spoilers
I'm going to preface this review with this: if you like Digimon in any capacity, and you haven't played this then do it. Right now. I'll wait. And yes, you have to play both of them. I'm going forward considering this whole thing a package deal; if you beat Cyber Sleuth, I consider it mandatory to go ahead with Hacker's Memory.
Welcome back.
I played Cyber Sleuth when it originally came out on PS4, and I had basically no memory of it. I remember getting frustrated and kind of just blasting through the last half of the game without paying any attention to the story. At that time I had a lot going on and I just couldn't be bothered with a longer game like this.
What frustrated me so much? Well, I'm going to list what faults I believe these games have, because they're so few and really the only criticisms I can give.
1) The translation. It's really not good in many parts. (At several points and enemy type called an Eater is inexplicably referred to by many characters as a Bakemon, which is just a regular Digimon). Especially in the Digiline messaging thing that adds some flavor to the world - it's very apparent that the main messages you receive and the replies you send to them were translated separately, and thus often your reply seems wildly inappropriate, as whoever was translating had no context for the other side of the conversation. The translation errors are further compounded with the fact that most of the main cast of Cyber Sleuth are just kind of a bunch of oddballs, in a way that I don't think translates well to a western audience. So you'll often be left wondering after an exchange between two characters, thinking "Was that supposed to make no sense, or is the translation piss-poor?"
In Hacker's Memory, the translation is much better (save for the aforementioned Digiline issues), and the main cast is much more grounded, so everything flows much better. When the Hacker's Memory cast interacts with characters from Cyber Sleuth, you can really see that many of those characters really are just supposed to be off-the-wall weird.
If you can look past the translation issues, and really focus on what the text is trying to say rather than what's been translated, you'll find yourself slowly being immersed in a fun world with captivating characters and a worthwhile story.
2) The grinding. Grinding is necessary, especially if you want the cooler Digimon. The complete collection does away with the mission requirements for digivolving into some of the stronger monsters, so you're free to go straight for Gallantmon CM or Lucemon SM or whatever you'd like. You'll just need to grind for them due to the ABI system and stat requirements. If you can manage to get 3 PlatinumNumemons and a full suite of Tactician USBs the pain is lessened 100x, and grinding becomes a cakewalk, so it really didn't bother me. Keep in mind though that you can't transfer Digimon between games until after you've beaten each, so you will need to do some grinding in both.
3) Graphics. I'm not really sure why I'm mentioning this, but I know it bothers some people. These games originally came out in the PS Vita, and these are basically direct ports. So some of the models/textures don't look the best. Nothing beats having Beelzemon BM follow around behind you on a motorcycle though.
All in all, these are minor gripes, and it really is an absolute must play for Digimon fans, or even collectable monster games fans in general. The world is fun, the characters are memorable, the monsters are cool, and the story isn't bad, in fact it's pretty good! What more could you want? By the time you finish Hacker's Memory, you'll be reflecting fondly on your journey to that point, and hoping you'll be able to meet all those characters again someday.
Welcome back.
I played Cyber Sleuth when it originally came out on PS4, and I had basically no memory of it. I remember getting frustrated and kind of just blasting through the last half of the game without paying any attention to the story. At that time I had a lot going on and I just couldn't be bothered with a longer game like this.
What frustrated me so much? Well, I'm going to list what faults I believe these games have, because they're so few and really the only criticisms I can give.
1) The translation. It's really not good in many parts. (At several points and enemy type called an Eater is inexplicably referred to by many characters as a Bakemon, which is just a regular Digimon). Especially in the Digiline messaging thing that adds some flavor to the world - it's very apparent that the main messages you receive and the replies you send to them were translated separately, and thus often your reply seems wildly inappropriate, as whoever was translating had no context for the other side of the conversation. The translation errors are further compounded with the fact that most of the main cast of Cyber Sleuth are just kind of a bunch of oddballs, in a way that I don't think translates well to a western audience. So you'll often be left wondering after an exchange between two characters, thinking "Was that supposed to make no sense, or is the translation piss-poor?"
In Hacker's Memory, the translation is much better (save for the aforementioned Digiline issues), and the main cast is much more grounded, so everything flows much better. When the Hacker's Memory cast interacts with characters from Cyber Sleuth, you can really see that many of those characters really are just supposed to be off-the-wall weird.
If you can look past the translation issues, and really focus on what the text is trying to say rather than what's been translated, you'll find yourself slowly being immersed in a fun world with captivating characters and a worthwhile story.
2) The grinding. Grinding is necessary, especially if you want the cooler Digimon. The complete collection does away with the mission requirements for digivolving into some of the stronger monsters, so you're free to go straight for Gallantmon CM or Lucemon SM or whatever you'd like. You'll just need to grind for them due to the ABI system and stat requirements. If you can manage to get 3 PlatinumNumemons and a full suite of Tactician USBs the pain is lessened 100x, and grinding becomes a cakewalk, so it really didn't bother me. Keep in mind though that you can't transfer Digimon between games until after you've beaten each, so you will need to do some grinding in both.
3) Graphics. I'm not really sure why I'm mentioning this, but I know it bothers some people. These games originally came out in the PS Vita, and these are basically direct ports. So some of the models/textures don't look the best. Nothing beats having Beelzemon BM follow around behind you on a motorcycle though.
All in all, these are minor gripes, and it really is an absolute must play for Digimon fans, or even collectable monster games fans in general. The world is fun, the characters are memorable, the monsters are cool, and the story isn't bad, in fact it's pretty good! What more could you want? By the time you finish Hacker's Memory, you'll be reflecting fondly on your journey to that point, and hoping you'll be able to meet all those characters again someday.