Hebi
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Just a silly little snake with game takes.
Just a silly little snake with game takes.
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RULE OF ROSE IS BOUND IN ROPES TO ITSELF
Fuck. This is going to be the first game I give the star rating to after I've finished typing this review. If you're in the know, Rule of Rose is widely considered a work of video game art that is hampered by abysmal gameplay. Specifically combat.
And yeah, that about sums it up.
Though one of the most common narratives surrounding the game is about its controversial release, it is something of a testament to itself that it has overcome this particular bondage and is now widely beloved and considered by fans of the genre to be one of the best pyschological horror games of the PS2. You know, the console that has the most abundant high quality horror library. So that's saying a lot.
The only weakness it will never shake is its dreadful gameplay. Look, unless your name is Resident Evil 4, it is pretty much par the course for survival and psychological horror games to have clunky, unintuitive combat. I still consider Silent Hills 2 and 3 to be some of the best video games out there and they play like your character has a blindfold and was just spun around sixteen times and expected to hit the pinata with a rusty pipe. But Rule of Rose is a particularly bad offender. Jennifer has terrible range with her various melee weapons. It takes her almost a full six seconds (I counted) to get up when she's knocked down. Which is constantly. And if the enemy is already winding up, get ready to wait another six seconds because Jennifer is about to go right back to kissing the floor. Not to mention the INSANELY morally reprehensible hitboxes. And with the sheer number of enemies they'll pack into a tight corridor, will make you want to tear your hairs out as you get stunlocked into eternity with literally nothing to do except accept your inevitable demise and reload after losing progress and having to do it all again.
The level design is also severely lacking. It's marred by tight corridors with "absolutely" too many doors to check and connecting hallways to get severely lost in. I'll be transparent--I nearly put the game down during the first level on the airship because the back and forth through the sizable length of the zeppelin and checking dozens of rooms for...what the hell I was supposed to be doing, was extremely grating. There's a similar level late game in the mansion where I wanted to sigh until my lungs fell out from boredom. At that point, I was at least highly invested in the story that I pushed through. But "Hey Hebi" you might say, "Don't the Silent Hill games also contain a litany of narrow, same-y looking hallways with TOO MANY DOORS? The answer is yes. But there is a cure in Silent Hill: A fucking map that clearly names rooms and shows you not only which ones have stuff in them, but also which ones cannot be accessed. In Rule of Rose, there is a map screen for both levels. But they are not only intimidating to look at due to the sheer number of rooms and hallways...they are also nearly illegible and contain no vividly colored markers to show you things like...doors you can't open.
BUT. Those two levels I mentioned above? Well, it's no coincidence that those are the only levels in which you lack you're super duper best friend, Brown the dog boy. And let me tell you honestly...I'm not a big dog person (bad history). But Brown is one of the best video game companions. He's integral to the gamplay experience as you give him clues to sniff, wherein that good pupper will just kind of take you to the place you need to get to. And god damnit it's so cute when he starts pawing at the door he wants you to go through. The inclusion of Brown is a godsend and is not only integral to the gameplay of navigating the map, but also to the story.
And now we arrive at the elements that make players laud the game for its artistry. To begin: the vibes. Rule of Rose has an exceptional score. One of my favorites in recent history. It serves as a perfect, reflective brush stroke on the canvas of navigation. I actually prolonged some sections of the game by letting Brown help me find hidden items just so that I could continue listening to the BGM. It's perfectly melancholic at times with complex chord voicings and meditative modal structures.
Its classical and jazz inspirations also lend themselves to the overall aesthetic design choices. The enemy design in the game may be lacking inspiration, but everything else oozes style that reflects both the psychological horror and 1930s modern Victorian English aesthetics.
As far as the story goes, I genuinely find the execution of the psychological text to be up there with the likes of Silent Hill 2. Seriously, this game pulls no punches in its themes of abusive relationships, power dynamics, rape, etc. It is completely unique in its willingness to engage with the cruel acts children can commit. And it does two things that I "extremely respect" that set it apart from most media that attempts to engage with these themes. And get ready for some ranting because I have very strong and correct opinions on some of these matters.
For one, it is incredibly considerate in the its presentation. I am often disgusted by media like 13 Reasons Why and this absolutely tasteless desire to "just kind of show" rape and suicide with grotesque realism. You may think portraying acts like this is "impactful" or "bold". You would be stupid. Visually presenting something like rape with high fidelity to make it as realistic as possible is actually the work of COWARDS. The artistically challenged. The cruel. The lazy. Let's call a spade a spade. Media, at the end of the day, is entertainment. It can be challenging and upsetting. Mulholland Drive comes to mind. Showing rape and suicide in excruciating detail isn't more effective than alluding to it in deft, subtextual, creative metaphorical ways. It's just fucking grotesque shock value shlock. Rule of Rose could tell me everything I needed to know with body language. A teenage girl unable to look Jennifer in the eyes as she calls herself "filthy" while located in a sick room bed next to a grown man. We later see said man escorting the girl out of said sick room as she trails weakly behind him, holding her abdomen in clear physical pain. It's just as brutal and upsetting without needing to both traumatize me, and retraumatize victims of this kind of horrific abuse. And it requires actual consideration and creative thinking. I mean, just imagine the difference between the kind of person who writes these implied moments in Rule of Rose. Now imagine the kind of person who sits down and types out a brutal scene of abuse and all of the horrific details. There is nary a single moment in Rule of Rose that shows any form of abuse in grave detail. It challenges the audience to put the pieces together. Sometimes it's a little on the nose. But it nonetheless asks us to confront these horrifying themes and contextualize them within the greater message of the story.
The second thing I adore, is its commitment to empathy. Every character in this game has done something terrible whether actively or passively. And yet, aside from one character (the pedophile and rapist), the game does not outwardly severely judge a single one of them. At one point or another, each and every character has a moment where they are shown to be a victim themselves. The game's story may be tragic. It may not even ask you to forgive the acts. But I find it beautiful that it examines the pain and circumstances that led to them. I can't bring myself to outright hate (minus the one absolutely irredeemable character) any of the girls, despite how horrific some of the actions they take are. And I find it extra bold to examine this through the lens of children. What's more, the text offers us a tragic but very true understanding that the cruelty of children is just another form of innocence to some degree. Especially when said children are living within the confined mansion-ed walls run by a predator.
Rule of Rose may have frustratingly unpolished combat. It may lack any semblance of challenging puzzles. It may not be very scary and be devoid of tension when it comes to the monsters. But it is clear the developers intended the narrative to be the dominant centerpiece. They've stated in interviews that they wanted it to be, essentially, an interactive film. And in that way, they knocked it out of the park. I was deeply affected by the story and its characters. I cried a lot at the end. I feel emotions just thinking about certain moments and scenes.
Video games may have still been in their childhood development stages in 2006. But I think games like Rule of Rose exist as true testaments that video games can contain the narrative complexity and thematic consideration of even some of the best novels and films.
Fuck. This is going to be the first game I give the star rating to after I've finished typing this review. If you're in the know, Rule of Rose is widely considered a work of video game art that is hampered by abysmal gameplay. Specifically combat.
And yeah, that about sums it up.
Though one of the most common narratives surrounding the game is about its controversial release, it is something of a testament to itself that it has overcome this particular bondage and is now widely beloved and considered by fans of the genre to be one of the best pyschological horror games of the PS2. You know, the console that has the most abundant high quality horror library. So that's saying a lot.
The only weakness it will never shake is its dreadful gameplay. Look, unless your name is Resident Evil 4, it is pretty much par the course for survival and psychological horror games to have clunky, unintuitive combat. I still consider Silent Hills 2 and 3 to be some of the best video games out there and they play like your character has a blindfold and was just spun around sixteen times and expected to hit the pinata with a rusty pipe. But Rule of Rose is a particularly bad offender. Jennifer has terrible range with her various melee weapons. It takes her almost a full six seconds (I counted) to get up when she's knocked down. Which is constantly. And if the enemy is already winding up, get ready to wait another six seconds because Jennifer is about to go right back to kissing the floor. Not to mention the INSANELY morally reprehensible hitboxes. And with the sheer number of enemies they'll pack into a tight corridor, will make you want to tear your hairs out as you get stunlocked into eternity with literally nothing to do except accept your inevitable demise and reload after losing progress and having to do it all again.
The level design is also severely lacking. It's marred by tight corridors with "absolutely" too many doors to check and connecting hallways to get severely lost in. I'll be transparent--I nearly put the game down during the first level on the airship because the back and forth through the sizable length of the zeppelin and checking dozens of rooms for...what the hell I was supposed to be doing, was extremely grating. There's a similar level late game in the mansion where I wanted to sigh until my lungs fell out from boredom. At that point, I was at least highly invested in the story that I pushed through. But "Hey Hebi" you might say, "Don't the Silent Hill games also contain a litany of narrow, same-y looking hallways with TOO MANY DOORS? The answer is yes. But there is a cure in Silent Hill: A fucking map that clearly names rooms and shows you not only which ones have stuff in them, but also which ones cannot be accessed. In Rule of Rose, there is a map screen for both levels. But they are not only intimidating to look at due to the sheer number of rooms and hallways...they are also nearly illegible and contain no vividly colored markers to show you things like...doors you can't open.
BUT. Those two levels I mentioned above? Well, it's no coincidence that those are the only levels in which you lack you're super duper best friend, Brown the dog boy. And let me tell you honestly...I'm not a big dog person (bad history). But Brown is one of the best video game companions. He's integral to the gamplay experience as you give him clues to sniff, wherein that good pupper will just kind of take you to the place you need to get to. And god damnit it's so cute when he starts pawing at the door he wants you to go through. The inclusion of Brown is a godsend and is not only integral to the gameplay of navigating the map, but also to the story.
And now we arrive at the elements that make players laud the game for its artistry. To begin: the vibes. Rule of Rose has an exceptional score. One of my favorites in recent history. It serves as a perfect, reflective brush stroke on the canvas of navigation. I actually prolonged some sections of the game by letting Brown help me find hidden items just so that I could continue listening to the BGM. It's perfectly melancholic at times with complex chord voicings and meditative modal structures.
Its classical and jazz inspirations also lend themselves to the overall aesthetic design choices. The enemy design in the game may be lacking inspiration, but everything else oozes style that reflects both the psychological horror and 1930s modern Victorian English aesthetics.
As far as the story goes, I genuinely find the execution of the psychological text to be up there with the likes of Silent Hill 2. Seriously, this game pulls no punches in its themes of abusive relationships, power dynamics, rape, etc. It is completely unique in its willingness to engage with the cruel acts children can commit. And it does two things that I "extremely respect" that set it apart from most media that attempts to engage with these themes. And get ready for some ranting because I have very strong and correct opinions on some of these matters.
For one, it is incredibly considerate in the its presentation. I am often disgusted by media like 13 Reasons Why and this absolutely tasteless desire to "just kind of show" rape and suicide with grotesque realism. You may think portraying acts like this is "impactful" or "bold". You would be stupid. Visually presenting something like rape with high fidelity to make it as realistic as possible is actually the work of COWARDS. The artistically challenged. The cruel. The lazy. Let's call a spade a spade. Media, at the end of the day, is entertainment. It can be challenging and upsetting. Mulholland Drive comes to mind. Showing rape and suicide in excruciating detail isn't more effective than alluding to it in deft, subtextual, creative metaphorical ways. It's just fucking grotesque shock value shlock. Rule of Rose could tell me everything I needed to know with body language. A teenage girl unable to look Jennifer in the eyes as she calls herself "filthy" while located in a sick room bed next to a grown man. We later see said man escorting the girl out of said sick room as she trails weakly behind him, holding her abdomen in clear physical pain. It's just as brutal and upsetting without needing to both traumatize me, and retraumatize victims of this kind of horrific abuse. And it requires actual consideration and creative thinking. I mean, just imagine the difference between the kind of person who writes these implied moments in Rule of Rose. Now imagine the kind of person who sits down and types out a brutal scene of abuse and all of the horrific details. There is nary a single moment in Rule of Rose that shows any form of abuse in grave detail. It challenges the audience to put the pieces together. Sometimes it's a little on the nose. But it nonetheless asks us to confront these horrifying themes and contextualize them within the greater message of the story.
The second thing I adore, is its commitment to empathy. Every character in this game has done something terrible whether actively or passively. And yet, aside from one character (the pedophile and rapist), the game does not outwardly severely judge a single one of them. At one point or another, each and every character has a moment where they are shown to be a victim themselves. The game's story may be tragic. It may not even ask you to forgive the acts. But I find it beautiful that it examines the pain and circumstances that led to them. I can't bring myself to outright hate (minus the one absolutely irredeemable character) any of the girls, despite how horrific some of the actions they take are. And I find it extra bold to examine this through the lens of children. What's more, the text offers us a tragic but very true understanding that the cruelty of children is just another form of innocence to some degree. Especially when said children are living within the confined mansion-ed walls run by a predator.
Rule of Rose may have frustratingly unpolished combat. It may lack any semblance of challenging puzzles. It may not be very scary and be devoid of tension when it comes to the monsters. But it is clear the developers intended the narrative to be the dominant centerpiece. They've stated in interviews that they wanted it to be, essentially, an interactive film. And in that way, they knocked it out of the park. I was deeply affected by the story and its characters. I cried a lot at the end. I feel emotions just thinking about certain moments and scenes.
Video games may have still been in their childhood development stages in 2006. But I think games like Rule of Rose exist as true testaments that video games can contain the narrative complexity and thematic consideration of even some of the best novels and films.
DRAGON'S DOGMA 2 IS A QUEEN AMONG PAWNS
Allow me to just get it out of the way. Dragon's Dogma 2 is extremely poorly optimized and borderline unplayable on max settings even on my beastly rig. But it runs amazing on Medium graphics settings so...there you have it.
Now, onto the good stuff (which is pretty much everything else).
Dragon's Dogma 2 is basically a reboot. Hell, even the main title upon starting up the game reads: "Dragon's Dogma". Oh, and before I proceed I just have to gush about how much the character creator FUCKS. Just like with Baldur's Gate 3, I have spent hours just making characters. It's an absolutely robust feature that is so generous they let you do it twice!
At it's core, Dragon's Dogma 2 is an open world action RPG with side quests, crafting, dungeons, loot, etc. In reality, the game exists in a liminal space where this is the first open world action RPG ever made. It actively goes out of its way to thwart the common banalities that have made the "genre" stale and a festering infection on games as a whole for the last decade or so. Fast travel is sparce. You spend preciously rare resources to do so. Some sidequests are timed and will give you a fail state if you are unable to complete them on time. You have only one save file and mostly cannot reload to "make the right decision". I fucking love it.
Speaking of side quests, they are a sumptuous feast of thoughtfully crafted splendor. They do not have "!" markers on your mini map. You actually have to take in your surroundings and talk to people to see if someone needs you to bonk some heads. It's honestly a lot more intuitive than it sounds. I'm pretty sure I engaged with all of the side quests without needing to consult a guide once. Not only that, but the quests are engaging and often times lead to "bigger" picture plots and intrigue. One particular quest was pretty simple: there was an elven dude who wanted me to buy him a bow. Buying a bow for this man lead to multiple map-spanning quests that climaxed with "literally save the elves". Now that's what I call quest design.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a "Pawnlike" RPG. The company you keep will be comprised of your own personal pawn as well as two others you borrow from other players. Entering the pawn-zone to find new members for your crew is like shopping for friends. And amidst the sea of same-faced women whose creators didn't even bother editing the default head and just wanted a lady in bikini armor, there are some real gems. In my playthrough, I romped around the world with Gandalf, Lae'zel, Nero from DMC, and GARFIELD. Without the technical fuckery, this alone would've earned the game a 5 star rating from me. And no matter how many times I heard the same lines of dialogue uttered from these devoted freaks, I never grew tired of it (because of the different personality types you can choose for them). It always got a chuckle from me hearing my calm, calculated pawn chiding one of the simpleton pawns that "You are going to kill yourself because you're constantly tripping over your own feet. Get it the fuck together, dude".
Just a quick shout out to whoever made Gina, the seven foot tall beastren archer who didn't take shit from anyone...and Arthas, my sweet golden retriever of a man who literally did not know what pain was when face-tanking dragonfire to protect me. I was with these guys most of my journey and I loved and cherished them dearly.
The Vocation system is real neat. Whenever you're in a city or town, you can change you and your pawn's class as you see fit. And all of them are really fun and play in completely unique ways (yes, even the trickster for the most part). In general, fighting gobloids and big monsters is a ton of fun and is absolutely rife with texture and potential comedy. Throwing a deer into an explosive barrel near your foe; sky-launching your pawn onto an ogre's back with your shield; making a cyclops fall near a broken bridge and then using his body to cross...oh what a thrill. And there are so many fun little touches I continued to discover all the way until the endgame. For example, about halfway through the game I was riding on a the back of a drake as it soared in the sky. After shaking me off, I was in freefall and thought "Welp, time to be dead". But no. Just as I was about to hit the ground, Nero caught me in his arms like a princess and saved me.
The game is made of these memorable moments. Not from predetermined quest designs. Not from calculated world events. You make them yourself with the tools they give you. I cannot tell you how awesome it was to slay a griffin, and then proceed to high five Gandalf.
Do I wish the main story was slightly more than just "whatever"? Sure. Do I wish there were just a feeeew more big monster types to fight? Yeah. Are there some side quests that end with "Wait, there's definitely still more to this, right?" while there is unfortunately no more to it? Mhmm. But those are just drops of water in a bucket compared to what makes this game just so damn unique and fun.
In the middle of my playthrough, I was pitching the game to a good friend of mine. I told them that, "It's like the Baldur's Gate 3 of action RPGs". And while that's definitely a bit of an overstatement, I stand by it. Dragon's Dogma 2 has so much depth and texture in the ways you can interact with the world, much like the original. Only more. It's just really such a shame it's so hampered with optimization issues on every platform. I guess the extremely good RE Engine finally showed its limitations by not exactly being ideal for such a sprawling open-world RPG (I'm reminded of EA's insistence on making BioWare use the Frostbyte engine...dear lord I remember the devs in the break room tearing their hairs out because making a simple inventory screen was apparently a nightmare).
There are still some things I would very much like to see added as well, and hopefully will in the inevitable DLC. Just like with Dark Arisen for the original.
But I mean...come on. Any game that let's me fist-pump with a great-sword wielding Peter Griffin after slaying a literal griffin as he tells me what a sick warrior I am is at least a little bit of a masterpiece.
Allow me to just get it out of the way. Dragon's Dogma 2 is extremely poorly optimized and borderline unplayable on max settings even on my beastly rig. But it runs amazing on Medium graphics settings so...there you have it.
Now, onto the good stuff (which is pretty much everything else).
Dragon's Dogma 2 is basically a reboot. Hell, even the main title upon starting up the game reads: "Dragon's Dogma". Oh, and before I proceed I just have to gush about how much the character creator FUCKS. Just like with Baldur's Gate 3, I have spent hours just making characters. It's an absolutely robust feature that is so generous they let you do it twice!
At it's core, Dragon's Dogma 2 is an open world action RPG with side quests, crafting, dungeons, loot, etc. In reality, the game exists in a liminal space where this is the first open world action RPG ever made. It actively goes out of its way to thwart the common banalities that have made the "genre" stale and a festering infection on games as a whole for the last decade or so. Fast travel is sparce. You spend preciously rare resources to do so. Some sidequests are timed and will give you a fail state if you are unable to complete them on time. You have only one save file and mostly cannot reload to "make the right decision". I fucking love it.
Speaking of side quests, they are a sumptuous feast of thoughtfully crafted splendor. They do not have "!" markers on your mini map. You actually have to take in your surroundings and talk to people to see if someone needs you to bonk some heads. It's honestly a lot more intuitive than it sounds. I'm pretty sure I engaged with all of the side quests without needing to consult a guide once. Not only that, but the quests are engaging and often times lead to "bigger" picture plots and intrigue. One particular quest was pretty simple: there was an elven dude who wanted me to buy him a bow. Buying a bow for this man lead to multiple map-spanning quests that climaxed with "literally save the elves". Now that's what I call quest design.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a "Pawnlike" RPG. The company you keep will be comprised of your own personal pawn as well as two others you borrow from other players. Entering the pawn-zone to find new members for your crew is like shopping for friends. And amidst the sea of same-faced women whose creators didn't even bother editing the default head and just wanted a lady in bikini armor, there are some real gems. In my playthrough, I romped around the world with Gandalf, Lae'zel, Nero from DMC, and GARFIELD. Without the technical fuckery, this alone would've earned the game a 5 star rating from me. And no matter how many times I heard the same lines of dialogue uttered from these devoted freaks, I never grew tired of it (because of the different personality types you can choose for them). It always got a chuckle from me hearing my calm, calculated pawn chiding one of the simpleton pawns that "You are going to kill yourself because you're constantly tripping over your own feet. Get it the fuck together, dude".
Just a quick shout out to whoever made Gina, the seven foot tall beastren archer who didn't take shit from anyone...and Arthas, my sweet golden retriever of a man who literally did not know what pain was when face-tanking dragonfire to protect me. I was with these guys most of my journey and I loved and cherished them dearly.
The Vocation system is real neat. Whenever you're in a city or town, you can change you and your pawn's class as you see fit. And all of them are really fun and play in completely unique ways (yes, even the trickster for the most part). In general, fighting gobloids and big monsters is a ton of fun and is absolutely rife with texture and potential comedy. Throwing a deer into an explosive barrel near your foe; sky-launching your pawn onto an ogre's back with your shield; making a cyclops fall near a broken bridge and then using his body to cross...oh what a thrill. And there are so many fun little touches I continued to discover all the way until the endgame. For example, about halfway through the game I was riding on a the back of a drake as it soared in the sky. After shaking me off, I was in freefall and thought "Welp, time to be dead". But no. Just as I was about to hit the ground, Nero caught me in his arms like a princess and saved me.
The game is made of these memorable moments. Not from predetermined quest designs. Not from calculated world events. You make them yourself with the tools they give you. I cannot tell you how awesome it was to slay a griffin, and then proceed to high five Gandalf.
Do I wish the main story was slightly more than just "whatever"? Sure. Do I wish there were just a feeeew more big monster types to fight? Yeah. Are there some side quests that end with "Wait, there's definitely still more to this, right?" while there is unfortunately no more to it? Mhmm. But those are just drops of water in a bucket compared to what makes this game just so damn unique and fun.
In the middle of my playthrough, I was pitching the game to a good friend of mine. I told them that, "It's like the Baldur's Gate 3 of action RPGs". And while that's definitely a bit of an overstatement, I stand by it. Dragon's Dogma 2 has so much depth and texture in the ways you can interact with the world, much like the original. Only more. It's just really such a shame it's so hampered with optimization issues on every platform. I guess the extremely good RE Engine finally showed its limitations by not exactly being ideal for such a sprawling open-world RPG (I'm reminded of EA's insistence on making BioWare use the Frostbyte engine...dear lord I remember the devs in the break room tearing their hairs out because making a simple inventory screen was apparently a nightmare).
There are still some things I would very much like to see added as well, and hopefully will in the inevitable DLC. Just like with Dark Arisen for the original.
But I mean...come on. Any game that let's me fist-pump with a great-sword wielding Peter Griffin after slaying a literal griffin as he tells me what a sick warrior I am is at least a little bit of a masterpiece.
GRANBLUE FANTASY: RELINK IS A SIDEQUEST
I remember when they first revealed this game back in like...what? 2018? I remember seeing a "cool knight lady" sauntering around a colorful, richly stylistic fantasy town built atop a sky island. My interest was piqued. Classic-style JRPGs had been in a downward death spiral. FFXV was a sloppy, albeit charming, unfinished game that was developed to be on better hardware. The Tales Series was...the Tales Series. Bravely Default was "fine". So when I ALSO learned that Nobuo Uematsu was coming out of retirement just to do the score for Granblue Fantasy: Relink, I thought to myself, "This is it. This is going to be the revival of the genre in a big way".
Well. It is and isn't. And I'd like to say that playing this game had the good fortune of coming after I shelved Tales of Arise (on account of feeling my IQ dropping to Mariana-trench depths while playing. More bland shonen-ery). However, Granblue Fantasy: Relink had the misfortune of being played before Dragon's Dogma 2. I guess what I mean to say is that sequence of games sort of represents my thoughts of Granblue Fantasy: Relink being stuck in some bizarre, middling purgatory realm.
I cannot deny that the art design is gorgeous. It told Bravely Default to hold its ale. The water color-esque textures, the character art in the menus, the visual effects of each character's combat abilities--divine. Although generic NPCs look like they're straight out of an early PS2 game. No joke, they might actually look and be more poorly animated than Final Fantasy X NPCs.
Combat is action oriented with a strong focus on differing mechanics between the large cast of heroes you can control. Think Kingdom Hearts meets Overwatch. I had a lot of fun mastering Narmaya's butterfly stances just as much as I did Zeta's Dragoon-like combo aerials. And the boss fights were very fun. In past reviews of modern shit JRPGs (Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Final Fantasy XVI), I had said on multiple occasions that I think the bosses would benefit greatly from attacks with movement tells, clear multiphase attack patterns, and puzzle gimmicks. More in-line with the likes of Final Fantasy XIV (the MMO). Granblue Fantasy: Relink devs must have DEFINITELY read my reviews and incorporated all of these elements and then some.
The story, however, is an element at war with itself. It's a fun sky swashbuckler featuring a rogue's gallery of (already well-acquainted) allies. But the protagonist super sucks. I couldn't wait to get them out of my party for the postgame. They were a perfect reflection of the biggest core question I had while engaging with the plot: who is this made for? Is this a kid's game? The story is awfully gaunt and goofy in a dumb way...not a fun way. It has a mascot character whose VA I have nothing by pity for because that putrid little lizard thing is probably my least favorite videogame character of all time. AND YOU CANNOT GET RID OF HIM. And yet...the 15 or so year old protagonist is surrounded by a bunch of adults who are, extremely obviously, much cooler than them. I understand they had to stick with the previous games/anime by having Gran/Djeeta leading the team. But golly jee whiz...Katalina is obviously the better main character. Hell, even Rackham. In a better world, Rosetta would have banished those kid fucks to the thorn dimension before becoming obsequious to their foolish whims. Get these goddamn super children outta here and make way for the hot and powerful adults. Their personalities and dialogue are better. They are more fun to play. And they don't have the literal worst video game character of all time spitting "jokes" at them and ruining every single moment of tension in the story.
That's the crux of the issue here. It suffers the same disease as the MCU films. It favors (very stupid) levity over drama. I actually screamed when the lizard fuck shouted "Giver her back, buttface!" at the very cool antagonist as she totally wrecked our shit.
A lot of this can be attributed to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a side story. They've been building these characters, this story, and the world for a very, very long time via mobile games and a brief anime. Because of that, it really does feel like a spinoff movie at best. The stakes just aren't really there. And more importantly, while unique, it is a dramatic hinderance that all of your crew has already had their respective arcs and have completely bonded with one another. They have no development outside of their little (very minimalist) comic book side stories. Which admittedly exist solely as exposition to tell you why they know each other.
But I do have some respect fo CyGames for turning what was an EXTREMELY lucrative mobile game franchise into a "proper" JRPG. It even retains the gacha elements for unlocking new characters without any real money transactions. It's all done with in-game currency that is drip-fed to you via the story and postgame (which, by the way, is when the actual game starts).
Look. The core elements are here. Fast-paced action with RPG elements. Fantastic art. Gorgeous music. A fun and semi-unique world. This franchise has a LOT of potential for future installments. But I'm afraid CyGames won't take the risks of doing what really needs to be done: get a new crew and a new protagonist. And commit to a story that isn't one made "definitely" specifically for children. One that can be appreciated by all age demographics. You know...like the Final Fantasy games of yore.
Thankfully, this painfully mid campaign clocked in at under 20 hours. And that alone is something to be praised as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 wasted 100+ hours of my goddamn life.
But I have to dock it severely for the fucking eldritch mascot horror. I hope one day it will be incinerated in a hellfire related "accident".
I remember when they first revealed this game back in like...what? 2018? I remember seeing a "cool knight lady" sauntering around a colorful, richly stylistic fantasy town built atop a sky island. My interest was piqued. Classic-style JRPGs had been in a downward death spiral. FFXV was a sloppy, albeit charming, unfinished game that was developed to be on better hardware. The Tales Series was...the Tales Series. Bravely Default was "fine". So when I ALSO learned that Nobuo Uematsu was coming out of retirement just to do the score for Granblue Fantasy: Relink, I thought to myself, "This is it. This is going to be the revival of the genre in a big way".
Well. It is and isn't. And I'd like to say that playing this game had the good fortune of coming after I shelved Tales of Arise (on account of feeling my IQ dropping to Mariana-trench depths while playing. More bland shonen-ery). However, Granblue Fantasy: Relink had the misfortune of being played before Dragon's Dogma 2. I guess what I mean to say is that sequence of games sort of represents my thoughts of Granblue Fantasy: Relink being stuck in some bizarre, middling purgatory realm.
I cannot deny that the art design is gorgeous. It told Bravely Default to hold its ale. The water color-esque textures, the character art in the menus, the visual effects of each character's combat abilities--divine. Although generic NPCs look like they're straight out of an early PS2 game. No joke, they might actually look and be more poorly animated than Final Fantasy X NPCs.
Combat is action oriented with a strong focus on differing mechanics between the large cast of heroes you can control. Think Kingdom Hearts meets Overwatch. I had a lot of fun mastering Narmaya's butterfly stances just as much as I did Zeta's Dragoon-like combo aerials. And the boss fights were very fun. In past reviews of modern shit JRPGs (Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Final Fantasy XVI), I had said on multiple occasions that I think the bosses would benefit greatly from attacks with movement tells, clear multiphase attack patterns, and puzzle gimmicks. More in-line with the likes of Final Fantasy XIV (the MMO). Granblue Fantasy: Relink devs must have DEFINITELY read my reviews and incorporated all of these elements and then some.
The story, however, is an element at war with itself. It's a fun sky swashbuckler featuring a rogue's gallery of (already well-acquainted) allies. But the protagonist super sucks. I couldn't wait to get them out of my party for the postgame. They were a perfect reflection of the biggest core question I had while engaging with the plot: who is this made for? Is this a kid's game? The story is awfully gaunt and goofy in a dumb way...not a fun way. It has a mascot character whose VA I have nothing by pity for because that putrid little lizard thing is probably my least favorite videogame character of all time. AND YOU CANNOT GET RID OF HIM. And yet...the 15 or so year old protagonist is surrounded by a bunch of adults who are, extremely obviously, much cooler than them. I understand they had to stick with the previous games/anime by having Gran/Djeeta leading the team. But golly jee whiz...Katalina is obviously the better main character. Hell, even Rackham. In a better world, Rosetta would have banished those kid fucks to the thorn dimension before becoming obsequious to their foolish whims. Get these goddamn super children outta here and make way for the hot and powerful adults. Their personalities and dialogue are better. They are more fun to play. And they don't have the literal worst video game character of all time spitting "jokes" at them and ruining every single moment of tension in the story.
That's the crux of the issue here. It suffers the same disease as the MCU films. It favors (very stupid) levity over drama. I actually screamed when the lizard fuck shouted "Giver her back, buttface!" at the very cool antagonist as she totally wrecked our shit.
A lot of this can be attributed to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a side story. They've been building these characters, this story, and the world for a very, very long time via mobile games and a brief anime. Because of that, it really does feel like a spinoff movie at best. The stakes just aren't really there. And more importantly, while unique, it is a dramatic hinderance that all of your crew has already had their respective arcs and have completely bonded with one another. They have no development outside of their little (very minimalist) comic book side stories. Which admittedly exist solely as exposition to tell you why they know each other.
But I do have some respect fo CyGames for turning what was an EXTREMELY lucrative mobile game franchise into a "proper" JRPG. It even retains the gacha elements for unlocking new characters without any real money transactions. It's all done with in-game currency that is drip-fed to you via the story and postgame (which, by the way, is when the actual game starts).
Look. The core elements are here. Fast-paced action with RPG elements. Fantastic art. Gorgeous music. A fun and semi-unique world. This franchise has a LOT of potential for future installments. But I'm afraid CyGames won't take the risks of doing what really needs to be done: get a new crew and a new protagonist. And commit to a story that isn't one made "definitely" specifically for children. One that can be appreciated by all age demographics. You know...like the Final Fantasy games of yore.
Thankfully, this painfully mid campaign clocked in at under 20 hours. And that alone is something to be praised as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 wasted 100+ hours of my goddamn life.
But I have to dock it severely for the fucking eldritch mascot horror. I hope one day it will be incinerated in a hellfire related "accident".