Hugechromepeach
The Zelda series translates into the open world format masterfully providing some of the most rewarding exploration the genre has to offer. Sadly some of the key staples of the Zelda franchise take a backseat to Breath of the Wild's new concepts. Temples offer very little design variety and the amount of enemy types is laughable. Nevertheless the foundation of what Breath of the Wild is works wonderfully and is ripe to be built upon.
A masterful reinterpretation of the beloved classic that revolutionized what a JRPG is. Remake doesn't go near achieving what its predecessor did for the genre as a whole but it has achieved near perfection in it's action rpg mechanics with one of the best battle systems ever devised. The attention to detail is astounding and the expansion of things trivial in the original are fleshed out and given so much love. So excited for the next installments and if the quality remains the same,(or improves), Remake will be one of the finest Final Fantasy experiences to date.
A simplistic yet delightful game with its shortcomings such as its brevity and lack of challenge addressed with its secondary chapters. A very charming and amusing little adventure.
The soul of the classic Donkey Kong Country translated spectacularly in contemporary form blending the age-old formula of the franchise with a natural evolution of its signature 3d backgrounds. Brimming with charm, precise controls, masterful fluidity and level design. Donkey Kong Country Tropical freeze resides amongst the greats of 2D platformers.
The tried and true formula of the timeless Mario World gameplay albeit lacking in innovation. When your series is this fun it really doesn't need to reinvent the wheel though. Extremely polished and fluid classic 2D mario fun. Nothing more, nothing less.
Final Fantasy 8 arguably has the worst battle mechanics in the entirety of the series and the Junction system is a mess. These two complaints bring the overall enjoyment of the experience down massively. Fortunately Most of the other elements of FF8 are masterclass, telling an unforgettable journey with characters easy to fall in love with. FF8 might contain some of the lowest lows for the series in the sense of pure gameplay but it contains many of the highest highs of the stellar franchise as well, most notably the fantastic score.
It's a shame that most of the discussion around Tokyo Mirage are superfans of the respective series this game is a crossover of complaining about what their expectations were and not giving any credit for the end product we actually received. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a very solid RPG, albeit very flawed as well.
The turn based combat is fantastic, allowing nuance in the customization of character skills and how they combo off each other's abilities and a slew of challenging boss battles. Another fantastic attribute to the title is the overall aesthetics. From the menu design to the pause screen, the bright and vibrant presentation has an overwhelming allure.
Unfortunately the monotony of the chapter based story structure wanes on you and the game becomes far too formulaic. A copy paste flow to each act makes the gameply loop far too predictable and the story is too lackluster to warrant the repetition.
The turn based combat is fantastic, allowing nuance in the customization of character skills and how they combo off each other's abilities and a slew of challenging boss battles. Another fantastic attribute to the title is the overall aesthetics. From the menu design to the pause screen, the bright and vibrant presentation has an overwhelming allure.
Unfortunately the monotony of the chapter based story structure wanes on you and the game becomes far too formulaic. A copy paste flow to each act makes the gameply loop far too predictable and the story is too lackluster to warrant the repetition.
Besides the hassle of backtracking Metroid Prime remains a masterpiece, taking the fundamentals of its 2D predecessors and translating it into a first person adventure with sheer precision. The ambience of the world in Prime is still magic with the updated graphical fidelity adding to the effect. One of the best FPS adventures ever remastered to make it even better. A must play for any Switch owner.
2006
My second attempt at finishing this game since it came out on the PS2 and the same issues that plagued my experience beforehand continue to resonate. The combat is too similar to that of an MMO, although not having random battle encounters is appreciated. The liscense system, whilst serviceable, is cumbersome and uninteresting. The structure of FF12 quickly gets old once you realize its essentially a dungeon crawler. Neither the story and its cast are strong enough to overcome these massive blemishes. A low for the stellar franchise
If you have ever played a Telltale game before you know the drill. The typical quick time event and dialogue choice gameplay besets this title with a bit less emphasis on choices and a higher frequency of QTE than usual. Making a narrative driven game would seem like a hard task for a gametype like Minecraft but Telltale did an admirable job given what they had to work with. The voice casting is top notch and adds quite a bit to the already engaging tale. Not the best of its class, but Minecraft: Story Mode stays true to its source in every facet.
[My 3rd playthrough.]
Besides the redundancy in its formula the Last of Us remains a masterpiece in its narrative driven gameplay and intensely immersive combat. The interactions with Ellie and Joel are second to none in the medium and really carry the story to a whole other level. The multi-player is also a wildly unique and engaging,(and often overlooked), affair that warrants your attention alone.
Besides the redundancy in its formula the Last of Us remains a masterpiece in its narrative driven gameplay and intensely immersive combat. The interactions with Ellie and Joel are second to none in the medium and really carry the story to a whole other level. The multi-player is also a wildly unique and engaging,(and often overlooked), affair that warrants your attention alone.
2017
Your standard Pokémon affair with some decent integration of the 3Ds' dual screens. The extremely easy gameplay gives a sense of, "baby's first RPG" intention. Nonetheless, catching and training Pokémon remains as fun as ever and the 3D rendition to environments and traversal is a huge improvement.
A stellar and wholly engaging adventure more akin to a cinematic masterpiece than a game more often than not. This sheer focus on telling a story within the main missions can lead to absurdly linear ways of completion where at times simply straying from the designated path for a moment can lead to failure. The gunplay is also quite contentious as it is not nearly on par with RD2's other elements. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the epitome of being more than the sum of its parts however, blending so many attributes into a spectacularly woven together period piece that to this day hasn't been surpassed in its scope or detail.
2007
An engaging story embezzled within a crossbreed of visual novelization and a point and click adventure. While its hampered by a few design flaws and derivitive gameplay, the impact of your dialogue choices meaning a gameover screen or the next piece of the noir induced puzzle being revealed is compelling.
A by-the-numbers golf simulator with a brightly colored coating of the Mario universe. Its gameplay is fun, (especially multi-player), yet lacks depth. Although shallow it can still be incredibly challenging. More game modes would have curbed its monotonous nature.