HANBAGA
BACKER
2023
Had a good time with this one.
The rare single player story game where I wasn't completely sick of it by the conclusion. It's still probably twice as long as it needs to be but that's pretty good considering other modern video games.
The story itself is interesting. I would have enjoyed it if the world had even more cohesion. The game has some goofy horror-trope stuff that just seems to be there to scream that it's a "horror game" like all the blood on the walls, etc.
Gameplay-wise, shooting up the necromorphs was entertaining and the scarcity economy was consistent the whole game. There were only brief spells where I felt "loaded up" and then would quickly be rocking at half health with just a little bit of ammo.
The game play loop did get a little annoying and predictable, i.e. I knew as soon as I hit a switch I could expect to have to kill like 4 jerks before I could continue the story. Killing the jerks was mostly enjoyable but things did get a bit predictable and stale.
Overall I thought this was a great game. I'd never played the original but found the experience of wandering this derelict ship and killing space zombies to be a lot of fun. I'm not super-interested in replaying this one but I'd definitely be down for a remake of the sequel or another new entry.
The rare single player story game where I wasn't completely sick of it by the conclusion. It's still probably twice as long as it needs to be but that's pretty good considering other modern video games.
The story itself is interesting. I would have enjoyed it if the world had even more cohesion. The game has some goofy horror-trope stuff that just seems to be there to scream that it's a "horror game" like all the blood on the walls, etc.
Gameplay-wise, shooting up the necromorphs was entertaining and the scarcity economy was consistent the whole game. There were only brief spells where I felt "loaded up" and then would quickly be rocking at half health with just a little bit of ammo.
The game play loop did get a little annoying and predictable, i.e. I knew as soon as I hit a switch I could expect to have to kill like 4 jerks before I could continue the story. Killing the jerks was mostly enjoyable but things did get a bit predictable and stale.
Overall I thought this was a great game. I'd never played the original but found the experience of wandering this derelict ship and killing space zombies to be a lot of fun. I'm not super-interested in replaying this one but I'd definitely be down for a remake of the sequel or another new entry.
Big, fat sloppy feast for fans of rhythm games and/or Final Fantasy music.
This one is pretty basic: you press buttons, in time, to Final Fantasy music. Should be pretty clear if this game is for you or not. It is 1000% for me.
The 3DS controls have been excellently adapted to controller. The quest system provides a great reason to replay songs. Trading proficards is a fun way to get Summons with great abilities.
I saw credits after 25 hours but that doesn't really mean anything. I bought the premium deluxe edition and look forward to playing this for a few songs a day for the rest of my life.
This one is pretty basic: you press buttons, in time, to Final Fantasy music. Should be pretty clear if this game is for you or not. It is 1000% for me.
The 3DS controls have been excellently adapted to controller. The quest system provides a great reason to replay songs. Trading proficards is a fun way to get Summons with great abilities.
I saw credits after 25 hours but that doesn't really mean anything. I bought the premium deluxe edition and look forward to playing this for a few songs a day for the rest of my life.
1991
Lovely rogue like. I love the leveling system here. There are four different quests that all start at level 1 and progress up to level 10. Level 1 is absolute baby easy and Level 10 is ridiculously hard. I got to around level 7 and each run became challenging enough that they had to be perfect and I had to get lucky, gave it up after that.
I usually play Game Boy games on my PC these days but wow if this is not an absolute perfect game for the platform. I could imagine myself having a delightful time playing this on the bus. Not really sure why this one didn't get a U.S. release, it's very polished and fun and has little text to translate.
This shows why the Game Boy is often so interesting, it forces developers to simmer games down to their most basic elements, which in this case provides a straight forward dungeon questing adventure that is very enjoyable.
I usually play Game Boy games on my PC these days but wow if this is not an absolute perfect game for the platform. I could imagine myself having a delightful time playing this on the bus. Not really sure why this one didn't get a U.S. release, it's very polished and fun and has little text to translate.
This shows why the Game Boy is often so interesting, it forces developers to simmer games down to their most basic elements, which in this case provides a straight forward dungeon questing adventure that is very enjoyable.
2003
The action and movement are amazing. It's much faster than the X games, they genuinely feel sluggish to go back to.
However, this one just compounds the issues of the first game. They've re-used the same bad cyber-elf system which requires all these nonsense upgrades and have added the horrible EX-skills system... which rewards you with a skill if you manage to beat a level on A or S rank, which means beating levels that are harder than the X games without dying or taking much damage. Do the kinds of folks who have those capabilities really need extra skills?
The biggest issue here is the antagonistic level design. Spikes are put in places that, to put succinctly, just make me sad.
There's an ice level where you need to master inscrutable ice physics to miss spikes, a factory level in which you need to dash before spikes... there are very specific ways to interact with spikes that just take lots of practice not to get good but to learn the bizarre ways in which you are expected to bypass them. It makes me sad because Zero controls so well but unfortunately I was given levels that hated me with a passion to maneuver him around.
I got all the way through Zero 1 and mostly enjoyed it but think I've hit my block with the series here. I'll give the ZX game a go!
However, this one just compounds the issues of the first game. They've re-used the same bad cyber-elf system which requires all these nonsense upgrades and have added the horrible EX-skills system... which rewards you with a skill if you manage to beat a level on A or S rank, which means beating levels that are harder than the X games without dying or taking much damage. Do the kinds of folks who have those capabilities really need extra skills?
The biggest issue here is the antagonistic level design. Spikes are put in places that, to put succinctly, just make me sad.
There's an ice level where you need to master inscrutable ice physics to miss spikes, a factory level in which you need to dash before spikes... there are very specific ways to interact with spikes that just take lots of practice not to get good but to learn the bizarre ways in which you are expected to bypass them. It makes me sad because Zero controls so well but unfortunately I was given levels that hated me with a passion to maneuver him around.
I got all the way through Zero 1 and mostly enjoyed it but think I've hit my block with the series here. I'll give the ZX game a go!
2002
Went back and beat this one. Played the GBA original. This game is an enjoyable mess. The save/retry system is totally broken, but it had the consequence of forcing me to master each level/boss which I actually ended up appreciating.
There is a lot of unnecessary grinding in this game... I estimate for all the upgrades youd be grinding for crystals for like three hours.
The short level design is cool, the bosses are fun, and the game is pretty serious with its challenge. I ended up enjoying it a lot but the trash canny upgrade systems are unfortunate.
There is a lot of unnecessary grinding in this game... I estimate for all the upgrades youd be grinding for crystals for like three hours.
The short level design is cool, the bosses are fun, and the game is pretty serious with its challenge. I ended up enjoying it a lot but the trash canny upgrade systems are unfortunate.
2018
Best "faery haunting melancholic Victorian orphanage" simulator ever.
Really, I just loved the tone of this and the characters were engaging and precious enough to keep me compelled.
There wasn't too much to do gameplay-wise and the puzzles were all very simple, but the interesting way time is used and the serious commitment to the presentation and narrative had me genuinely enthralled. The gorgeous music helped.
Really, I just loved the tone of this and the characters were engaging and precious enough to keep me compelled.
There wasn't too much to do gameplay-wise and the puzzles were all very simple, but the interesting way time is used and the serious commitment to the presentation and narrative had me genuinely enthralled. The gorgeous music helped.
Got bored after seven hours.
Looks real good, runs incredibly smooth.
There are some really cool weapons but the combat is so easy and boring it's not compellkng to use them.
I hate the story and scenario. Just found everything about it abrasive and annoying.
This is a fine showcase for the PS5 but it felt empty, the same way the modern Disney live-action remakes are technically impressive but boring and unnecessary.
Looks real good, runs incredibly smooth.
There are some really cool weapons but the combat is so easy and boring it's not compellkng to use them.
I hate the story and scenario. Just found everything about it abrasive and annoying.
This is a fine showcase for the PS5 but it felt empty, the same way the modern Disney live-action remakes are technically impressive but boring and unnecessary.
2018
Moss was a lovely little fairy tale adventure to be immersed in.
The storybook presentation is very effective. The characters are all very cutely designed and the "foggy forest fantasy" theme is consistent and pleasing throughout.
Gameplay occurs through a bunch of virtual "dioramas" in which you navigate yourself (the reader) by moving the dualshock around and Quill (the mouse) by using the joystick and buttons.
Looking around the world never got old and even though some of the puzzles/combat were a bit trashy, the novelty of looking around the room to find clues and a "true 3d" level design kept things interesting enough.
This game really does a lot of interesting things with VR and makes me think of a lot of different intriguing ways that games could be made in VR.
Also I played this in January 2023 on PS VR1, I imagine it would be even more incredible on a higher resolution PS VR2.
The storybook presentation is very effective. The characters are all very cutely designed and the "foggy forest fantasy" theme is consistent and pleasing throughout.
Gameplay occurs through a bunch of virtual "dioramas" in which you navigate yourself (the reader) by moving the dualshock around and Quill (the mouse) by using the joystick and buttons.
Looking around the world never got old and even though some of the puzzles/combat were a bit trashy, the novelty of looking around the room to find clues and a "true 3d" level design kept things interesting enough.
This game really does a lot of interesting things with VR and makes me think of a lot of different intriguing ways that games could be made in VR.
Also I played this in January 2023 on PS VR1, I imagine it would be even more incredible on a higher resolution PS VR2.
2017
Majima is becoming one of my favorite fictional characters.
This really felt mostly like "more of the same" after Yakuza 0 and Kiwami.
Majima construction was a neat RTS mini game but I was a little disappointed that the hostess club from 0 is straight recycled here. I understand reusing things like side games (Mahjong, etc) but recycling a major side mini game felt like a nasty little invitation to waste my time that I didn't really appreciate.
Seeing folk hero Kiryu in action still compelled and the game, like its predecessors, contains a bounty of bizarre beauty. I'm just a little wary at some parts that really felt like hooks to waste my time.
This really felt mostly like "more of the same" after Yakuza 0 and Kiwami.
Majima construction was a neat RTS mini game but I was a little disappointed that the hostess club from 0 is straight recycled here. I understand reusing things like side games (Mahjong, etc) but recycling a major side mini game felt like a nasty little invitation to waste my time that I didn't really appreciate.
Seeing folk hero Kiryu in action still compelled and the game, like its predecessors, contains a bounty of bizarre beauty. I'm just a little wary at some parts that really felt like hooks to waste my time.
2017
This review contains spoilers
Played with the Aim controller, which is a delightful controller and I find it depressing that it only is supported by like 15 games. There is a world of potential there.
This game has two separate identities: a shooter and sci-fi adventure. I classify them as such as they feel very at odds with each other. One is a story of scientists struggling for survival, the other is our dude blasting space bugs. They certainly feel discordant.
The story mostly works and the shooting mostly works. Both can be tedious at times but for this VR baby the novelty and immersion of this play through was an experience unlike any I've had.
This game has two separate identities: a shooter and sci-fi adventure. I classify them as such as they feel very at odds with each other. One is a story of scientists struggling for survival, the other is our dude blasting space bugs. They certainly feel discordant.
The story mostly works and the shooting mostly works. Both can be tedious at times but for this VR baby the novelty and immersion of this play through was an experience unlike any I've had.
I did not expect to lap up everything that Crisis Core Reunion laid down. I figured I'd find some intriguing mid-2000's game design and a ret-conning story which would be half intriguing half infuriating.
Expectations subverted!
The biggest shocker to me was how much I enjoyed the writing/voice acting. I seriously think this is one of the funniest games I've ever played. I laughed out loud more than once at Zack's words, antics, and the goofiness of the Final Fantasy VII universe. The humor felt intentional, I felt like I was laughing with the game.
The story also builds upon FF7 in intriguing ways. Seeing Sephiroth pre-super evil villian was great and lends his character some much-appreciated context for the events of FF7. I thought Genesis and Angeal were also great characters. Genesis's endless quoting of Loveless (which is supposed to be some kind of Shakespearean drama) never got old and persisted the entire game.
The gameplay was excellent as well. I loved that you were able to absolutely break the game with proper materia fusing. There are a lot of opportunites to tweak stats and loadouts that can significantly effect combat.
The battle system itself really does reward precision action and strategy, except for a few lame fights where you need to hit certain stats to survive.
The side missions were dull but some of the rewards and side stories made it worth the 5 minutes or so.
I absolutely spent way too much time on missions so the story encounters became an absolute joke. This didn't really bother me but the missions themselves did feel time-wastey. My obsession brain kept wanting to play them but 300 is WAY too many.
I was surprised by how many cool environments there were to explore here. All the places from FF7 are recreated very well.
Really enjoyed this one and was genuinely impressed by the quality of writing. This game has me re-invigorated about all the prospects possible in the Final Fantasy VII universe.
There is too much garbage in the missions and there are some insanely bad JRPG mini-games, but overall this thing was a blast.
Expectations subverted!
The biggest shocker to me was how much I enjoyed the writing/voice acting. I seriously think this is one of the funniest games I've ever played. I laughed out loud more than once at Zack's words, antics, and the goofiness of the Final Fantasy VII universe. The humor felt intentional, I felt like I was laughing with the game.
The story also builds upon FF7 in intriguing ways. Seeing Sephiroth pre-super evil villian was great and lends his character some much-appreciated context for the events of FF7. I thought Genesis and Angeal were also great characters. Genesis's endless quoting of Loveless (which is supposed to be some kind of Shakespearean drama) never got old and persisted the entire game.
The gameplay was excellent as well. I loved that you were able to absolutely break the game with proper materia fusing. There are a lot of opportunites to tweak stats and loadouts that can significantly effect combat.
The battle system itself really does reward precision action and strategy, except for a few lame fights where you need to hit certain stats to survive.
The side missions were dull but some of the rewards and side stories made it worth the 5 minutes or so.
I absolutely spent way too much time on missions so the story encounters became an absolute joke. This didn't really bother me but the missions themselves did feel time-wastey. My obsession brain kept wanting to play them but 300 is WAY too many.
I was surprised by how many cool environments there were to explore here. All the places from FF7 are recreated very well.
Really enjoyed this one and was genuinely impressed by the quality of writing. This game has me re-invigorated about all the prospects possible in the Final Fantasy VII universe.
There is too much garbage in the missions and there are some insanely bad JRPG mini-games, but overall this thing was a blast.
2022
The game looks nice... but it feels a bit too... over-designed. Like the art assets seem to exist to be cool instead of telling a story. This isn't such a bad thing but the story itself, while starting out fun, isn't particularly interesting.
Hanging out as a cat is fun for a while but I wasnt even compelled to finish the five hour campaign. This is a pretty gameplay-light experience with simple puzzles and action sequences. The whole experience just feels a little too slight, there's really nothing to latch on to here.
Hanging out as a cat is fun for a while but I wasnt even compelled to finish the five hour campaign. This is a pretty gameplay-light experience with simple puzzles and action sequences. The whole experience just feels a little too slight, there's really nothing to latch on to here.
2022
Pretty good selection here!
I enjoy that your home base is a purgatorial room with no entrance/exit in which Pac-Man must just play his old games.
Genuinely boggles my mind there is some discourse about the "IP" and they re-named Pac-boy or something... ummm ok.
There are some awesome games and some trash, but it's all interesting enough to warrant dipping into. Little thoughts on each game:
Pac-Man : Good OG port. Missions gave me motivation to improve my skills a bit which is cool.
Super Pac-Man : Pretty wild. I feel like I've never seen this one in an arcade. I like the eating the locked up fruits mechanic and becoming the titular big Pac-Man.
Pac & Pal : Not as interesting or fun as Pac or Super but entertaining enough to play around with a bit.
Pac-Land : Love this game and still find it crazy it doesn't seem to own its historical clout as almost certainly majorly influencing Super Mario Bros. It's really fun but also would have benefited from some type of Save-State system.
Pac-Mania : It's isometric Pac-Man with a jump button. It's real cool... can be a little frustrating that the point-of-view is a little small so you aren't sure what the nasty ghosts are up to.
Pac-Attack : Went into this one very skeptical... actually ended up having a real unique puzzle mechanic that uses Pac-Man well. There are blocks, ghosts, and a Pac-Man. It's a combo of Tetris and landing your Pac-Man on the ghosts which I thought worked well.
Pac-In-Time : Love the lazy porting here or the weird licensing issues that caused there to be English subtitles under Japanese characters for a game that has an English translation!
The platforming and puzzling are intriguing but I found Pac-Man's floaty and floppy movement disgusting.
Pac-Man Arrangement : Both of these (there are two separate ports) just kind of feel like pretty and easy Pac-Man.
Pac-Man Championship Edition : It's cool this finally gets a port off of 360. The port is not amazing... it looks to be 720p to my eyes, but the game is incredible. The music, vibe, and pacing of the Championship Edition games make for one of the most satisfying and addicting game experiences I've enjoyed. It looks beautiful and gets your adrenaline going in a way that for me, it feels as if I want to become one with Pac-Man.
Pac-Motos : A re-skin of some other game... you knock things off a platform... I was unimpressed.
Pac 'n Roll Remix : A port of the Wii port of the DS original. It does not feel good to control and you can 100% tell it's a touch screen designed game. Seems like it might have been cool on the DS... it ain't cool here!
Pac-Man Battle Royale : If you've got some buddies, this thing brings the goods. Excellent party game tucked in here on this collection. Playing the CPU sucks.
Pac-Man 256 : First time this game gets a console release. It's a fun little Pac-Man mobile game where you are sort of endlessly collecting power pellets and escaping/eating ghosts. You can see where the micro-transaction piece would have been built in. It's actually a cool little score-attack game.
I enjoy that your home base is a purgatorial room with no entrance/exit in which Pac-Man must just play his old games.
Genuinely boggles my mind there is some discourse about the "IP" and they re-named Pac-boy or something... ummm ok.
There are some awesome games and some trash, but it's all interesting enough to warrant dipping into. Little thoughts on each game:
Pac-Man : Good OG port. Missions gave me motivation to improve my skills a bit which is cool.
Super Pac-Man : Pretty wild. I feel like I've never seen this one in an arcade. I like the eating the locked up fruits mechanic and becoming the titular big Pac-Man.
Pac & Pal : Not as interesting or fun as Pac or Super but entertaining enough to play around with a bit.
Pac-Land : Love this game and still find it crazy it doesn't seem to own its historical clout as almost certainly majorly influencing Super Mario Bros. It's really fun but also would have benefited from some type of Save-State system.
Pac-Mania : It's isometric Pac-Man with a jump button. It's real cool... can be a little frustrating that the point-of-view is a little small so you aren't sure what the nasty ghosts are up to.
Pac-Attack : Went into this one very skeptical... actually ended up having a real unique puzzle mechanic that uses Pac-Man well. There are blocks, ghosts, and a Pac-Man. It's a combo of Tetris and landing your Pac-Man on the ghosts which I thought worked well.
Pac-In-Time : Love the lazy porting here or the weird licensing issues that caused there to be English subtitles under Japanese characters for a game that has an English translation!
The platforming and puzzling are intriguing but I found Pac-Man's floaty and floppy movement disgusting.
Pac-Man Arrangement : Both of these (there are two separate ports) just kind of feel like pretty and easy Pac-Man.
Pac-Man Championship Edition : It's cool this finally gets a port off of 360. The port is not amazing... it looks to be 720p to my eyes, but the game is incredible. The music, vibe, and pacing of the Championship Edition games make for one of the most satisfying and addicting game experiences I've enjoyed. It looks beautiful and gets your adrenaline going in a way that for me, it feels as if I want to become one with Pac-Man.
Pac-Motos : A re-skin of some other game... you knock things off a platform... I was unimpressed.
Pac 'n Roll Remix : A port of the Wii port of the DS original. It does not feel good to control and you can 100% tell it's a touch screen designed game. Seems like it might have been cool on the DS... it ain't cool here!
Pac-Man Battle Royale : If you've got some buddies, this thing brings the goods. Excellent party game tucked in here on this collection. Playing the CPU sucks.
Pac-Man 256 : First time this game gets a console release. It's a fun little Pac-Man mobile game where you are sort of endlessly collecting power pellets and escaping/eating ghosts. You can see where the micro-transaction piece would have been built in. It's actually a cool little score-attack game.
Not really a "game" or even really a "game compilation". To my knowledge, this is probably the first true multimedia gaming museum product.
The history of Atari is presented in 5 separate timelines separated into things like arcade, pc, early console.
The artifacts presented here are head and shoulders above any gaming collection I've ever played. Every game has high-res box art and a scan of the original manual.
Newly produced videos with the original designers of the games are presented as necessary context to help enjoy your minutes (that's as long as I spent with any of the games) in game.
Digital Eclipse has even created "re-imaginings of some of the classic games. VCTR SCTR is a genuinely awesome mix of several old Atari shooting games. Haunted Houses is real bad... a fitting tribute to the original.
The collection contains relics of the time such as TV and magazine advertisements, design documentations, and stock footage.
I'm only marginally interested in Atari but the respect given here to game history and honestly to the audience who would consume this product is amazing. I can only hope that this is successful enough to generate more similarly curated museum products, as I would snap buy a curation like this for nearly any company/genre.
The history of Atari is presented in 5 separate timelines separated into things like arcade, pc, early console.
The artifacts presented here are head and shoulders above any gaming collection I've ever played. Every game has high-res box art and a scan of the original manual.
Newly produced videos with the original designers of the games are presented as necessary context to help enjoy your minutes (that's as long as I spent with any of the games) in game.
Digital Eclipse has even created "re-imaginings of some of the classic games. VCTR SCTR is a genuinely awesome mix of several old Atari shooting games. Haunted Houses is real bad... a fitting tribute to the original.
The collection contains relics of the time such as TV and magazine advertisements, design documentations, and stock footage.
I'm only marginally interested in Atari but the respect given here to game history and honestly to the audience who would consume this product is amazing. I can only hope that this is successful enough to generate more similarly curated museum products, as I would snap buy a curation like this for nearly any company/genre.
2020
It's neat but it never feels like you really have to think in order to solve the puzzles. Feels more like a jigsaw. Just wasn't much compelled after an hour or so.