Haru_sus
15 reviews liked by Haru_sus
this is probably the only perfect game ever made in the whole history of videogames and it's not even boring perfect it's tons of fun
it's also never gonna be between my top 10 favorite videogames ever
it's also never gonna be between my top 10 favorite videogames ever
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
2020
only time someone has told me to go kill myself
Persona 3 Reload
2024
My goldfish died while i was playing this game... Sorry bubbles.... Hope the sewers arent like tartarus.. I dont think they got social links down there...
Mario VS Donkey Kong is a just good remake of a just good game. It won't be the best game you play on any year, but it's just fun and competent enough at what it does.
While inferior to its 1994 predecessor, the game translates the Donkey Kong arcade mechanics with some appreciated new spins on the formula and an inventive, bite-sized level design, along with a couple of all-new worlds for this new remake.
Visuals are pretty, if safe, though a lovely amount of care and detail has been put into the animations of the toy enemies, but the biggest improvement is on the front of the soundtrack, replacing the crunchy midi tunes of the GBA title with fully orchestrated tunes that really do a lot of the legwork to make this release stand out more.
My only real complaint is that some of the charm was lost in translation with Mario's more rambly voice lines removed and maybe the new price may be a bit too steep for this kind of release. A legit good effort though, didn't regret playing through it!
While inferior to its 1994 predecessor, the game translates the Donkey Kong arcade mechanics with some appreciated new spins on the formula and an inventive, bite-sized level design, along with a couple of all-new worlds for this new remake.
Visuals are pretty, if safe, though a lovely amount of care and detail has been put into the animations of the toy enemies, but the biggest improvement is on the front of the soundtrack, replacing the crunchy midi tunes of the GBA title with fully orchestrated tunes that really do a lot of the legwork to make this release stand out more.
My only real complaint is that some of the charm was lost in translation with Mario's more rambly voice lines removed and maybe the new price may be a bit too steep for this kind of release. A legit good effort though, didn't regret playing through it!
no other incarnation of zelda and link does it like them sorry
This review contains spoilers
I think my biggest issue with TOTK is, despite great effort being placed on iteration of BOTWs sandbox style design, the game puts a quarter of said effort into designing content the player will be coming across.
You never encounter anything in TOTK once, content is repeated ad nauseum to the point where a player can predict almost anything on the map after only experiencing half of it. I remember dropping into a chasm and being greeted by an apparently invincible mini boss that I had to run away from, it was a surprising introduction that still lasts in my memory of this game. However, further exploration reveals that the boss is the only unique boss across the entire map, cheapening the memory in retrospect. Going into a well then dropping down into a cave system hiding a shrine is great until you see this idea executed again and again, with the shrine always containing a free Light of Blessing despite the cave not being a challenge to traverse. The Depths and Sky Islands are the worst perpetuators of this idea. It’s fun to create Zonai devices or use Link’s abilities to reach new islands or traverse haphazard topography but the actual goal of these areas seems more like looking for something of interest rather than the game presenting you with something cool.
TOTK leans more towards a sequel that iterates upon the design and principles that many people praised BOTW for, but it forgets that BOTW works due to the novelty of exploration. Even years after playing the game all the way through, there are still moments and areas that I have distinct memories of for being surprising and unique. The Lost Woods, the Forgotten Temple, Eventide Island, Thyphlo Ruins, all these areas are ones the player only experiences once. Despite being almost three times the size, TOTK spreads itself thin with its ideas. There’s so much missed potential here, there’s so many ideas for combining enemies and dungeon mechanics to create unique challenges for the player to find in the world but the game is so content in taking the easy way out.
It's frustrating because the game shows bits and pieces of embracing these ideas. Battle Taluses are the best example of the game combining enemy types to synthesize something cool and memorable. Imagine if enemies wielded weapons more unorthodox than simple rock hammers or bouncy sticks, imagine if you encountered enemies in caves and they wielded magic wands with gems infused to the weapons. The best moment in the game was when I stumbled onto the Construct Factory by simply braving the storm on Dragonhead Island. The game shows that it can surprise you with something genuinely worth your time, and the best part was that it happened once and never again.
This game is bloated, but I still found myself wanting more? I can imagine so many creative uses of shrines and enemies that would apply towards a more endgame heavy challenge. Wizzrobes are almost non-existent in these games, why not use them to supplement larger enemies or have them buff enemies or change the weather mid fight? Why don’t scaled up enemies get more complex in terms of their mechanics and move set? I love the simplicity of the mini-bosses and how they act as mini-puzzles, but why aren’t there more of them?
The mechanics and ideas this game presents are fascinating to me. The open-ended nature of combat and puzzle solving combined with the exploration of an open world are such obvious factors for why these games have mass appeal. It’s so annoying to me that the game suffers from such obvious and preventable flaws that even I can propose easy solutions. The developers have a genuine 11/10 on their hands but they’re too afraid to truly take it that far.
You never encounter anything in TOTK once, content is repeated ad nauseum to the point where a player can predict almost anything on the map after only experiencing half of it. I remember dropping into a chasm and being greeted by an apparently invincible mini boss that I had to run away from, it was a surprising introduction that still lasts in my memory of this game. However, further exploration reveals that the boss is the only unique boss across the entire map, cheapening the memory in retrospect. Going into a well then dropping down into a cave system hiding a shrine is great until you see this idea executed again and again, with the shrine always containing a free Light of Blessing despite the cave not being a challenge to traverse. The Depths and Sky Islands are the worst perpetuators of this idea. It’s fun to create Zonai devices or use Link’s abilities to reach new islands or traverse haphazard topography but the actual goal of these areas seems more like looking for something of interest rather than the game presenting you with something cool.
TOTK leans more towards a sequel that iterates upon the design and principles that many people praised BOTW for, but it forgets that BOTW works due to the novelty of exploration. Even years after playing the game all the way through, there are still moments and areas that I have distinct memories of for being surprising and unique. The Lost Woods, the Forgotten Temple, Eventide Island, Thyphlo Ruins, all these areas are ones the player only experiences once. Despite being almost three times the size, TOTK spreads itself thin with its ideas. There’s so much missed potential here, there’s so many ideas for combining enemies and dungeon mechanics to create unique challenges for the player to find in the world but the game is so content in taking the easy way out.
It's frustrating because the game shows bits and pieces of embracing these ideas. Battle Taluses are the best example of the game combining enemy types to synthesize something cool and memorable. Imagine if enemies wielded weapons more unorthodox than simple rock hammers or bouncy sticks, imagine if you encountered enemies in caves and they wielded magic wands with gems infused to the weapons. The best moment in the game was when I stumbled onto the Construct Factory by simply braving the storm on Dragonhead Island. The game shows that it can surprise you with something genuinely worth your time, and the best part was that it happened once and never again.
This game is bloated, but I still found myself wanting more? I can imagine so many creative uses of shrines and enemies that would apply towards a more endgame heavy challenge. Wizzrobes are almost non-existent in these games, why not use them to supplement larger enemies or have them buff enemies or change the weather mid fight? Why don’t scaled up enemies get more complex in terms of their mechanics and move set? I love the simplicity of the mini-bosses and how they act as mini-puzzles, but why aren’t there more of them?
The mechanics and ideas this game presents are fascinating to me. The open-ended nature of combat and puzzle solving combined with the exploration of an open world are such obvious factors for why these games have mass appeal. It’s so annoying to me that the game suffers from such obvious and preventable flaws that even I can propose easy solutions. The developers have a genuine 11/10 on their hands but they’re too afraid to truly take it that far.
Great game but a mixed bag of a sequel. The dungeons are a straight upgrade over the divine beasts and they even fleshed out the story aspect quite a bit. The boss fights aren't all great but I'm very glad that it's not just different flavors of blight ganons this time. While the dungeons are an improvement, I found the shrines to be a lot weaker this time around. The vast majority were incredibly simple and I can count on my hand the number of shrines that actually stumped me.
The building mechanic is interesting, but you're rarely forced to use it in creative ways. The crazy twitter videos are fun but as far as my experience goes that mechanic is mainly just used to stick fans and wheels on objects over and over again for the same handful of results. When it comes to using it for shrines, any solution beyond the basics is typically just shown to you and the challenge is fumbling with the controls to stick it together correctly. Fuse was also fairly underwhelming since it doesn't significantly change combat and usually just grants an attack buff or common status effect. Ironically Ascend ended up being my favorite ability due to how forgettable it was and it led to some fun moments where I got stuck wondering what to do, and suddenly remembered I can just shoot straight up through half a mile of rock.
The world certainly feels different enough, but the exploration largely lacked novelty since it's built on top of BOTW and you're still mostly doing the same things. Shooting up in the sky is pretty fun just due to the sheer verticality of the world design but there's really not much interesting going on up there. The depths are cool conceptually and at least contain some dungeons but the drab aesthetic and constant darkness get tiring if you're down there for a substantial amount of time.
The story isn't going to win any awards, but there are plenty of cool scenes this time around and they do a decent job of giving Zelda herself more significance as well as making some kino master sword and final boss sequences. I am very annoyed at whichever nintendo employee in the sound department keeps forgoing basic volume controls because I could barely hear anyone speaking over the music and sound effects.
Despite this just sounding like a laundry list of complaints, I really did have a good time and I'm just judging it in comparison to BOTW. It certainly ended up being better than I expected given how similar it looked to BOTW pre-release. I'll be very weary if they go for a 3rd game in this exact style though.
The building mechanic is interesting, but you're rarely forced to use it in creative ways. The crazy twitter videos are fun but as far as my experience goes that mechanic is mainly just used to stick fans and wheels on objects over and over again for the same handful of results. When it comes to using it for shrines, any solution beyond the basics is typically just shown to you and the challenge is fumbling with the controls to stick it together correctly. Fuse was also fairly underwhelming since it doesn't significantly change combat and usually just grants an attack buff or common status effect. Ironically Ascend ended up being my favorite ability due to how forgettable it was and it led to some fun moments where I got stuck wondering what to do, and suddenly remembered I can just shoot straight up through half a mile of rock.
The world certainly feels different enough, but the exploration largely lacked novelty since it's built on top of BOTW and you're still mostly doing the same things. Shooting up in the sky is pretty fun just due to the sheer verticality of the world design but there's really not much interesting going on up there. The depths are cool conceptually and at least contain some dungeons but the drab aesthetic and constant darkness get tiring if you're down there for a substantial amount of time.
The story isn't going to win any awards, but there are plenty of cool scenes this time around and they do a decent job of giving Zelda herself more significance as well as making some kino master sword and final boss sequences. I am very annoyed at whichever nintendo employee in the sound department keeps forgoing basic volume controls because I could barely hear anyone speaking over the music and sound effects.
Despite this just sounding like a laundry list of complaints, I really did have a good time and I'm just judging it in comparison to BOTW. It certainly ended up being better than I expected given how similar it looked to BOTW pre-release. I'll be very weary if they go for a 3rd game in this exact style though.
The Far Cry Elden Ring-ification of Breath of the Wild with a smattering of end-of-chapter Fortnite and New Funky Mode.
While BotW was content to let players roam free in a sprawling world, Tears of the Kingdom reins in this freedom considerably and hides the guardrails from the player with horse blinders. Link is still welcome to run around Hyrule at will, but the primary storyline holds the keys which allow actual exploratory liberation. My first dozen hours completely ignored Lookout Landing, leaving me without critical tools like the paraglider and towers. That was the most challenging TotK ever got, and the most it (unintentionally) forced me to think outside the box. I dragged gliders to the tops of hills labouriously, I used a horse and cart, I made elaborate vehicles simply to get around. I scrounged for rockets, fans, batteries, and air balloons to ascend to sky islands, making it to a few of the lower ones with great accomplishment. I committed to putting off the towers as long as I could, not realising they were an outright necessity. Seeing how this additional layer of the map functioned demystified it severely, rendering a challenge into a stepping stone for parcels of content.
The depths, like the skies above, are filled with potential. Many of its spaces are similarly wide open to encourage blind exploration with vehicles. Only there is nearly no purpose to any of it. Lightroots are a checkbox which dismantle the most compelling part of the depths -- their darkness. The depths are a place you visit to grab zonaite or amiibo armour and leave. As the Fire Temple is within the depths, and it being the first I tackled, I falsely believed there would be more dungeons strewn about below, simply a part of the world rather than instanced away from it. Sadly, it is the exception.
The other temples are obfuscated and inaccessible without their related storylines, which is itself fine (the temples are impossible to progress through without their associated power anyways) but this leaves the world feeling more boxed in, a selection of rooms in an overly-long hallway. A spare few rooms complement each other, most of them do not. The walls of the rooms must be thick. Whether it is shrines, side quests, or temples, the developers yet again seemingly have no way of knowing what abilities the player might have, what puzzles they have encountered, what skills they remember. All that they know is that in the Fire Temple, you have a Goron. In the Water Temple, you have Zora armour. The positive is, of course, that these things can thus be tackled in any order without a fear of missing out on anything. The downside is that there is never anything more to a shrine, a temple, or anything than what the player encounters the first go around. There is no impetus to return to a location when you have a better tool, or a wider knowledge of how the game's mechanics work. You show up, experience the room, and leave. With 300 map pins at your disposal, and similar issues arising in BotW, there's a sense that the developers chickened out near the end, too afraid to let the player (gasp) backtrack or (gasp) miss out.
Ironically enough, the lack of FOMO is what I miss most. When I was towerlessly exploring with a hodgepodge of trash scavenged from around the world, I felt free. I felt clever! When I discovered the intended mode of play, however, I felt I was putting a square peg in a square hole. There's a crystal that needs to be moved to a far away island? Before, I might have made a horror of Octoballoons and Korok Fronds with Fans and Springs to get it where it needed to go. When the Fruit of Knowledge was consumed, I saw the parts for the prebuilt Fanplane were right next to the Crystal. There's a breakable wall in a dungeon? Bomb Flowers or a hammer are right there. It is incredibly safe. It is a pair of horse blinders that you can decorate as you please. Go ahead and make your mech, you are still on the straight and narrow path.
TotK tries to bring back the linearity of Zeldas past within the BotW framework, but it ignores that the linearity was speckled with a weave of areas which expanded alongside your arsenal, rather than shrinking. Everything here is incongruous, a smörgåsbord of cool set pieces that simply don't go together. There is too much content (Elden Ring) that is too self-contained (end of chapter Fortnite) and too afraid that you will not experience it (New Funky Mode).
Did I have fun? Yes. But I had to make it myself.
While BotW was content to let players roam free in a sprawling world, Tears of the Kingdom reins in this freedom considerably and hides the guardrails from the player with horse blinders. Link is still welcome to run around Hyrule at will, but the primary storyline holds the keys which allow actual exploratory liberation. My first dozen hours completely ignored Lookout Landing, leaving me without critical tools like the paraglider and towers. That was the most challenging TotK ever got, and the most it (unintentionally) forced me to think outside the box. I dragged gliders to the tops of hills labouriously, I used a horse and cart, I made elaborate vehicles simply to get around. I scrounged for rockets, fans, batteries, and air balloons to ascend to sky islands, making it to a few of the lower ones with great accomplishment. I committed to putting off the towers as long as I could, not realising they were an outright necessity. Seeing how this additional layer of the map functioned demystified it severely, rendering a challenge into a stepping stone for parcels of content.
The depths, like the skies above, are filled with potential. Many of its spaces are similarly wide open to encourage blind exploration with vehicles. Only there is nearly no purpose to any of it. Lightroots are a checkbox which dismantle the most compelling part of the depths -- their darkness. The depths are a place you visit to grab zonaite or amiibo armour and leave. As the Fire Temple is within the depths, and it being the first I tackled, I falsely believed there would be more dungeons strewn about below, simply a part of the world rather than instanced away from it. Sadly, it is the exception.
The other temples are obfuscated and inaccessible without their related storylines, which is itself fine (the temples are impossible to progress through without their associated power anyways) but this leaves the world feeling more boxed in, a selection of rooms in an overly-long hallway. A spare few rooms complement each other, most of them do not. The walls of the rooms must be thick. Whether it is shrines, side quests, or temples, the developers yet again seemingly have no way of knowing what abilities the player might have, what puzzles they have encountered, what skills they remember. All that they know is that in the Fire Temple, you have a Goron. In the Water Temple, you have Zora armour. The positive is, of course, that these things can thus be tackled in any order without a fear of missing out on anything. The downside is that there is never anything more to a shrine, a temple, or anything than what the player encounters the first go around. There is no impetus to return to a location when you have a better tool, or a wider knowledge of how the game's mechanics work. You show up, experience the room, and leave. With 300 map pins at your disposal, and similar issues arising in BotW, there's a sense that the developers chickened out near the end, too afraid to let the player (gasp) backtrack or (gasp) miss out.
Ironically enough, the lack of FOMO is what I miss most. When I was towerlessly exploring with a hodgepodge of trash scavenged from around the world, I felt free. I felt clever! When I discovered the intended mode of play, however, I felt I was putting a square peg in a square hole. There's a crystal that needs to be moved to a far away island? Before, I might have made a horror of Octoballoons and Korok Fronds with Fans and Springs to get it where it needed to go. When the Fruit of Knowledge was consumed, I saw the parts for the prebuilt Fanplane were right next to the Crystal. There's a breakable wall in a dungeon? Bomb Flowers or a hammer are right there. It is incredibly safe. It is a pair of horse blinders that you can decorate as you please. Go ahead and make your mech, you are still on the straight and narrow path.
TotK tries to bring back the linearity of Zeldas past within the BotW framework, but it ignores that the linearity was speckled with a weave of areas which expanded alongside your arsenal, rather than shrinking. Everything here is incongruous, a smörgåsbord of cool set pieces that simply don't go together. There is too much content (Elden Ring) that is too self-contained (end of chapter Fortnite) and too afraid that you will not experience it (New Funky Mode).
Did I have fun? Yes. But I had to make it myself.
You guys spent $70 on Bad Piggies
Resident Evil 4
2023
Will Smith Voice
Ahhhhh that's hot!
I love Resident Evil, full stop. Everytime I play one of these games, even the bad ones, I'm fully bought in. The camp, the lore, the horror, the combat, the mapping, something about each title is so peak that its effectively a work of art. Even RE6 mastered something no other title in the survival horror sphere has: cringe. But I'm not talking about the other titles, this review is for the big dog, the head honcho, the CEO, the King of the Capcom 5 (even though I prefer Killer7;) Resident Evil 4 (Remake.)
I'd spent the last couple years starting and resolving the RE franchise as available on modern storefronts, beginning with RE1 through RE:Village. When I heard the Spanish Guitar in the first teaser for the remake, I marked out and started doing a silly jig. I knew based off the last few titles (and especially RE2R/RE3R) that Capcom was going to pull off some insane wizardry that would take one of gaming's most beloved titles and transform it into something even better. Lo and behold, thats exactly what they'd do.
The story beats from what I remember are done pretty much the same, I love traversing through the initial village crawl towards the Castle, stopping before fights and thinking "Oh I know what's about to happen" before I'd crack a slight grin. This is the Resident Evil 4 magic, getting ready for the unique boss encounter you're involved with, readying for the hordes of those affected by Los Plagas in certain areas, the puzzles you'll have to solve. Now these elements were generated in the 2005 release, however it's rewarding to see that Capcom didn't want to fix what was already identified as "good" gameplay in the remake. RE4(R) is a masterclass in pacing, as the RE series has managed to perfect as of late. No chapter or "level" feels like it overstays its welcome, and the player is pushed through rooms with puzzles or enemies into solutions into new rooms almost with a seemingly machine like precision.
Speaking of the rooms and levels, this game is jaw droppingly GORGEOUS. Capcom is on a SPREE with their recent titles, especially those since the RE2R/VII releases. Even from the first moments of the game, I ran around tweaking settings to make sure I had this looking as good as it could in 4K, and boy did it deliver. The sun shone BRIGHT, the flora almost believably real, everything delivered... but again the most impressive work by the engine was how great the characters look. From himbo-king Leon himself to Luis to the new and improved Ashley (more later on her,) I was slamming F12 to take screenshots so I could marvel at how good they looked. I don't know if I'll ever stop doing this, as I'm frequently reminded of my early gaming days looking at characters in UT99, but I love the work Capcom has done to push the medium forward. Players of the original RE4 know that this title throws you into some captivating setpieces, particularly in the castle. The job the RE team did to resuscitate these classic locations into a modern setting is downright heroic. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that this game's environments and characters are gorgeous.
Next up is the characters, and I'm happy to report that outside of Ada Wong's VA (this talking point is probably beaten to death by now,) that everyone is just as good if not better than in the base game. Leon is absolutely hilarious, that is no shock. I audibly snorted when he's taking on a mid game boss and exclaims "you talk too much" before immediately shooting the boss to kickstart the fight. Between that, his infamous "Bingo" line and the latter "nighty night knights," he's still just as funny as he was and the new visuals make it somehow more endearing to listen to. Games and media at large often misses out at humor to either sound too edgy (High on Life last year) or try to be too safe/relatable (Forspoken,) but Leon and RE4 hit it exactly on the money. He's corny, perfect for the RE camp and it delivers tenfold in RE4R. Ashley was completely improved from the original game, her design making her a more believable adult did wonders when coupled with making her actually act like one. This turned her from one of the more annoying characters I can remember in a longrunning series, to a very likeable heroine and running mate. In the original RE4 I dreaded most of my moments tagging along with Ashley or guarding her, in RE4R I genuinely looked forward to it as her relationship and comraderie with Leon was done very very well. Other characters who benefitted greatly include the Merchant (who was already great to be fair,) Ramon, Ada, and Mendez.
Now I've gone on a long spiel about why I enjoyed the many qualities this game has to offer, but I did have a few detractions that are mostly holdovers from the original so I'll keep them (fairly) short.
The first is THE ENEMY PLACEMENT THERE ARE SO MANY ENEMIES OH MY WHY ARE THERE SO MANY. This is a big jump from the first three (main) titles in the series and even after five/six, but I sorta get why as this was a transition away from survival horror and into action, but man. Encounters in this game can feel really long, and there's even more strafing and running than in the previous titles. Not as a result of strategizing ammo conservancy or backtracking for items/puzzles, but because you have so many foes to down in most of these areas that you'll be working your cardio for reals. If you're pulling a lever or opening a door, enemies will appear behind you. If you're in a brand new area and there's greater than thirty feet between each door, you'll have a plethora of enemies. If you are in a larger circular zone, you'll have two to three waves of enemies. Now, this isn't a particularly long game so it wasn't a world ender, but in a title where ammo has to be thought of somewhat importantly, I felt like I had to spend a lot more than I would have liked to. I'm fairly accurate as well and I was spending my entire ammo pool almost as soon as I'd craft it. Maybe its a skill issue, but uffda.
Sidenote, I've now added the Regenerators to my list of most hated world-enemies in gaming along with the Marauders from Doom: Eternal. They suck, they're not fun and I'm going to cross my arms and scoff instead of listening to dissenting opinions.
Secondly is the control on controllers was real rough even with some adjustment. I try to play most PC games on controller if possible and RE (minus 7/Village) is no exception, but the aiming in 4R was sluggish and awkward the entire way throughout. To begin, its slow and I adjusted it to be faster, but also the auto aim is just... random? I turned it on to assist with the poor speed/placement of the aiming mechanic, but I found it caused more harm than help as it would lock on for a half a second and then drift into the unknown. Pointing at enemies to shoot began to feel just bad after not that much time, running counterintuitively to the skill I thought I had in lining up good shots. This wasn't a game ender, as I was able to complete RE4R in under twelve hours, but it made the longer engagements a little bit of a headache.
This is a damn good game, though it may sometimes be annoying, it's a great entry into a now legendary run of games from Capcom. I could go on and on in praising the way it recreated a classic and write a longer form sequence on recommending it, but let's be honest if you're reading this review its probably because you're planning to play it. I strongly recommend playing RE4R if you're a fan of Resident Evil or not, it's a fantastic title.
Ahhhhh that's hot!
I love Resident Evil, full stop. Everytime I play one of these games, even the bad ones, I'm fully bought in. The camp, the lore, the horror, the combat, the mapping, something about each title is so peak that its effectively a work of art. Even RE6 mastered something no other title in the survival horror sphere has: cringe. But I'm not talking about the other titles, this review is for the big dog, the head honcho, the CEO, the King of the Capcom 5 (even though I prefer Killer7;) Resident Evil 4 (Remake.)
I'd spent the last couple years starting and resolving the RE franchise as available on modern storefronts, beginning with RE1 through RE:Village. When I heard the Spanish Guitar in the first teaser for the remake, I marked out and started doing a silly jig. I knew based off the last few titles (and especially RE2R/RE3R) that Capcom was going to pull off some insane wizardry that would take one of gaming's most beloved titles and transform it into something even better. Lo and behold, thats exactly what they'd do.
The story beats from what I remember are done pretty much the same, I love traversing through the initial village crawl towards the Castle, stopping before fights and thinking "Oh I know what's about to happen" before I'd crack a slight grin. This is the Resident Evil 4 magic, getting ready for the unique boss encounter you're involved with, readying for the hordes of those affected by Los Plagas in certain areas, the puzzles you'll have to solve. Now these elements were generated in the 2005 release, however it's rewarding to see that Capcom didn't want to fix what was already identified as "good" gameplay in the remake. RE4(R) is a masterclass in pacing, as the RE series has managed to perfect as of late. No chapter or "level" feels like it overstays its welcome, and the player is pushed through rooms with puzzles or enemies into solutions into new rooms almost with a seemingly machine like precision.
Speaking of the rooms and levels, this game is jaw droppingly GORGEOUS. Capcom is on a SPREE with their recent titles, especially those since the RE2R/VII releases. Even from the first moments of the game, I ran around tweaking settings to make sure I had this looking as good as it could in 4K, and boy did it deliver. The sun shone BRIGHT, the flora almost believably real, everything delivered... but again the most impressive work by the engine was how great the characters look. From himbo-king Leon himself to Luis to the new and improved Ashley (more later on her,) I was slamming F12 to take screenshots so I could marvel at how good they looked. I don't know if I'll ever stop doing this, as I'm frequently reminded of my early gaming days looking at characters in UT99, but I love the work Capcom has done to push the medium forward. Players of the original RE4 know that this title throws you into some captivating setpieces, particularly in the castle. The job the RE team did to resuscitate these classic locations into a modern setting is downright heroic. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that this game's environments and characters are gorgeous.
Next up is the characters, and I'm happy to report that outside of Ada Wong's VA (this talking point is probably beaten to death by now,) that everyone is just as good if not better than in the base game. Leon is absolutely hilarious, that is no shock. I audibly snorted when he's taking on a mid game boss and exclaims "you talk too much" before immediately shooting the boss to kickstart the fight. Between that, his infamous "Bingo" line and the latter "nighty night knights," he's still just as funny as he was and the new visuals make it somehow more endearing to listen to. Games and media at large often misses out at humor to either sound too edgy (High on Life last year) or try to be too safe/relatable (Forspoken,) but Leon and RE4 hit it exactly on the money. He's corny, perfect for the RE camp and it delivers tenfold in RE4R. Ashley was completely improved from the original game, her design making her a more believable adult did wonders when coupled with making her actually act like one. This turned her from one of the more annoying characters I can remember in a longrunning series, to a very likeable heroine and running mate. In the original RE4 I dreaded most of my moments tagging along with Ashley or guarding her, in RE4R I genuinely looked forward to it as her relationship and comraderie with Leon was done very very well. Other characters who benefitted greatly include the Merchant (who was already great to be fair,) Ramon, Ada, and Mendez.
Now I've gone on a long spiel about why I enjoyed the many qualities this game has to offer, but I did have a few detractions that are mostly holdovers from the original so I'll keep them (fairly) short.
The first is THE ENEMY PLACEMENT THERE ARE SO MANY ENEMIES OH MY WHY ARE THERE SO MANY. This is a big jump from the first three (main) titles in the series and even after five/six, but I sorta get why as this was a transition away from survival horror and into action, but man. Encounters in this game can feel really long, and there's even more strafing and running than in the previous titles. Not as a result of strategizing ammo conservancy or backtracking for items/puzzles, but because you have so many foes to down in most of these areas that you'll be working your cardio for reals. If you're pulling a lever or opening a door, enemies will appear behind you. If you're in a brand new area and there's greater than thirty feet between each door, you'll have a plethora of enemies. If you are in a larger circular zone, you'll have two to three waves of enemies. Now, this isn't a particularly long game so it wasn't a world ender, but in a title where ammo has to be thought of somewhat importantly, I felt like I had to spend a lot more than I would have liked to. I'm fairly accurate as well and I was spending my entire ammo pool almost as soon as I'd craft it. Maybe its a skill issue, but uffda.
Sidenote, I've now added the Regenerators to my list of most hated world-enemies in gaming along with the Marauders from Doom: Eternal. They suck, they're not fun and I'm going to cross my arms and scoff instead of listening to dissenting opinions.
Secondly is the control on controllers was real rough even with some adjustment. I try to play most PC games on controller if possible and RE (minus 7/Village) is no exception, but the aiming in 4R was sluggish and awkward the entire way throughout. To begin, its slow and I adjusted it to be faster, but also the auto aim is just... random? I turned it on to assist with the poor speed/placement of the aiming mechanic, but I found it caused more harm than help as it would lock on for a half a second and then drift into the unknown. Pointing at enemies to shoot began to feel just bad after not that much time, running counterintuitively to the skill I thought I had in lining up good shots. This wasn't a game ender, as I was able to complete RE4R in under twelve hours, but it made the longer engagements a little bit of a headache.
This is a damn good game, though it may sometimes be annoying, it's a great entry into a now legendary run of games from Capcom. I could go on and on in praising the way it recreated a classic and write a longer form sequence on recommending it, but let's be honest if you're reading this review its probably because you're planning to play it. I strongly recommend playing RE4R if you're a fan of Resident Evil or not, it's a fantastic title.
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