Hydian
This is definitely the best Monster Hunter in the franchise, its not my favorite, but undeniably the best.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has very few shortcomings, some of them are related to small quality of life things, most related to gathering, which was improved on Generations, and since these are things that exist on the franchise until that point, is not worth that much pointing out.
The story is well built, I didn’t find myself wanting to skip dialogue, and it ties in with the game’s progression extremely well, speaking of which…
MH4U’s progression is absolutely the best compared to every other MH title I played, all of them coming after this one. Starting with few tutorial quests to teach you not to die, a few small monsters, and all large monsters from there onwards, with the frenzied mechanic eventually introduced to keep the monster fights fresh. Hub quests not staying behind due to a good variety of Subspecies like Brute Tigrex and Stygian Zinogre, and topping on G Rank with even more cool Subspecies like Shrouded Nerscylla and Desert Seltas Queen, and progressively harder challenges even after the final Elder Dragon quest.
Monsters are incredibly aggressive, but have a reasonable amount of health to pair with the weapons overall high damage, making single player quests very short and forgiving, and Hub quests quite solo-friendly, a good challange for 2-3 players, and generally easy with a full party.
Endgame quests peaking due to incredibly high damage output from the monsters, but since their health is kept at a fixed amount independent of player count, solo damage is still high, just asking of you a lot of knowledge and preparation for the target, and on full party, though they will certainly deal sufficient damage faster, the game will ask the same knowledge from the hunters on a higher regard since failing the quest can be easier with multiple people carting.
This is something good that’s completely ignored in the New World with its adjustable difficulty based on player count, and counteracted in certain quests on Generations where monsters have massive health pools. Monster Hunter 4 manages to still have difficult quests on a full party without health scaling, preventing late game challenges from feeling like damage sponges, something that MHGU G Rank Hyper monsters and a lot of Iceborne content fails to achieve.
This constant variety and incresingly higher difficulty, with some possible walls but nothing that spikes the difficulty in an unreasonable manner, makes this game an absolute pleasure to play through, none of the subsequent Monster Hunter games reached this level of finesse with its progression.
Weapons are also handled exceptionally well, due to the added verticallity to maps, weapons have aerial attacks that build up to the mounting minigame that, although it may feel a bit overpowered at times, with the Insect Glaive being overwhelmingly good at that, it is a very short minigame, that does get difficult to perform on certain monsters, and gives a great reward for executing it successfully in the form of the monster being toppled, and some breathing time for your party members for them to disengage and recover before dishing out damage. Letting Gravios not play is always the correct option, and mounting makes it easier.
Equipment progression is very visible on weapons, since they will visually evolve after a couple upgrade stages, and even morph completely for some Subspecies, giving quite a tangible reward for repeatedly hunting the same monsters. The only setback in terms of equipment is having a Kinsect bound to a single Insect Glaive, making it a obscenely expensive weapon if you’re planning to have multiple Glaives, since you’ll have to level a Kinsect from scratch every single time.
Material gathering gets progressively easier because of the existence of item multiplication through the Wycoon and Maximeld, and the former’s points shop for certain items. The game will not require unreasonable amounts of materials from start to end… except for Earth Crystals for Worn and Rusted weapons, 100~120 for each is VERY unreasonable.
Expeditions are a miss feature for me, it isn’t bad, it is pretty well made, and is the tool to unlock certain monsters on G Rank, plus is useful for gathering certain materials, such as Kinsect upgrade items, but it wasn’t for me, much like MHW expeditions failed to catch me. The strongest gear in the game is locked on the highest level quests of this feature, but since I do not care for them, I simply ignored its existence for a long time, and the game does not enforce you to interact with it and lets you easily progress without it, which is great.
Aside from gathering problems and general lack of QoL features introduced in MHGU, the only major problem MH4U has is… the fact that it is abandoned on the 3DS. A rerelease on modern platforms with MHGU QoL changes would easily make this THE ULTIMATE MONSTER HUNTER game. Please Capcom, free MH4U from the 3DS.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate gets really close to be quite the perfect video game, it is almost unreal the job Capcom made with this one, and, as is already proven, reaching its highs is getting to be an extremely difficult task for the games released after. The team missed really hard with Worldborne despite its success, I pray for Wilds to deliver a modern experience that matches MH4U's greatness.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has very few shortcomings, some of them are related to small quality of life things, most related to gathering, which was improved on Generations, and since these are things that exist on the franchise until that point, is not worth that much pointing out.
The story is well built, I didn’t find myself wanting to skip dialogue, and it ties in with the game’s progression extremely well, speaking of which…
MH4U’s progression is absolutely the best compared to every other MH title I played, all of them coming after this one. Starting with few tutorial quests to teach you not to die, a few small monsters, and all large monsters from there onwards, with the frenzied mechanic eventually introduced to keep the monster fights fresh. Hub quests not staying behind due to a good variety of Subspecies like Brute Tigrex and Stygian Zinogre, and topping on G Rank with even more cool Subspecies like Shrouded Nerscylla and Desert Seltas Queen, and progressively harder challenges even after the final Elder Dragon quest.
Monsters are incredibly aggressive, but have a reasonable amount of health to pair with the weapons overall high damage, making single player quests very short and forgiving, and Hub quests quite solo-friendly, a good challange for 2-3 players, and generally easy with a full party.
Endgame quests peaking due to incredibly high damage output from the monsters, but since their health is kept at a fixed amount independent of player count, solo damage is still high, just asking of you a lot of knowledge and preparation for the target, and on full party, though they will certainly deal sufficient damage faster, the game will ask the same knowledge from the hunters on a higher regard since failing the quest can be easier with multiple people carting.
This is something good that’s completely ignored in the New World with its adjustable difficulty based on player count, and counteracted in certain quests on Generations where monsters have massive health pools. Monster Hunter 4 manages to still have difficult quests on a full party without health scaling, preventing late game challenges from feeling like damage sponges, something that MHGU G Rank Hyper monsters and a lot of Iceborne content fails to achieve.
This constant variety and incresingly higher difficulty, with some possible walls but nothing that spikes the difficulty in an unreasonable manner, makes this game an absolute pleasure to play through, none of the subsequent Monster Hunter games reached this level of finesse with its progression.
Weapons are also handled exceptionally well, due to the added verticallity to maps, weapons have aerial attacks that build up to the mounting minigame that, although it may feel a bit overpowered at times, with the Insect Glaive being overwhelmingly good at that, it is a very short minigame, that does get difficult to perform on certain monsters, and gives a great reward for executing it successfully in the form of the monster being toppled, and some breathing time for your party members for them to disengage and recover before dishing out damage. Letting Gravios not play is always the correct option, and mounting makes it easier.
Equipment progression is very visible on weapons, since they will visually evolve after a couple upgrade stages, and even morph completely for some Subspecies, giving quite a tangible reward for repeatedly hunting the same monsters. The only setback in terms of equipment is having a Kinsect bound to a single Insect Glaive, making it a obscenely expensive weapon if you’re planning to have multiple Glaives, since you’ll have to level a Kinsect from scratch every single time.
Material gathering gets progressively easier because of the existence of item multiplication through the Wycoon and Maximeld, and the former’s points shop for certain items. The game will not require unreasonable amounts of materials from start to end… except for Earth Crystals for Worn and Rusted weapons, 100~120 for each is VERY unreasonable.
Expeditions are a miss feature for me, it isn’t bad, it is pretty well made, and is the tool to unlock certain monsters on G Rank, plus is useful for gathering certain materials, such as Kinsect upgrade items, but it wasn’t for me, much like MHW expeditions failed to catch me. The strongest gear in the game is locked on the highest level quests of this feature, but since I do not care for them, I simply ignored its existence for a long time, and the game does not enforce you to interact with it and lets you easily progress without it, which is great.
Aside from gathering problems and general lack of QoL features introduced in MHGU, the only major problem MH4U has is… the fact that it is abandoned on the 3DS. A rerelease on modern platforms with MHGU QoL changes would easily make this THE ULTIMATE MONSTER HUNTER game. Please Capcom, free MH4U from the 3DS.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate gets really close to be quite the perfect video game, it is almost unreal the job Capcom made with this one, and, as is already proven, reaching its highs is getting to be an extremely difficult task for the games released after. The team missed really hard with Worldborne despite its success, I pray for Wilds to deliver a modern experience that matches MH4U's greatness.
2014
This game, despite all of its absurd flaws, is still my favorite on the franchise.
A visually solid game, very colorful, with great new designs for the main cast, and the new cast of enemies on the part of the Demons, and everything else stands at the same level of the previous game, a visually nice sequel.
The story is simple and has a nice main goal while expands some points presented in the first game, while the villain is quite forgettable, everything else makes up for it.
Unfortunately, the gameplay wasn't a simple direct upgrade. The movesets are expanded, giving more access to Wicked Weaves, which is great. The weapons behave in more unique ways, namely, Salamandra and Takemikazuchi.
But the magic meter's design got absolutely screwed, it is not a reward for performing well anymore, while it retains the previous games options for its usage, it also gives the horrendous Umbran Climax, that just gives you temporary access to a overpowered state mimicking the game's Climax Brace, it's just a worse carbon copy of DMC's Devil Trigger.
And the game's overuse of Witch Time for humanoid boss fights is annoying on Hard difficulty and absolutely frustrating on Infinite Climax, Balder somehow being the absolute exception in all cases, all Aesir/Loptr fights and Alraune's first phase are way beyond the tolerable level of frustration that comes from fighting them on Infinite Climax without the usage of items, since these bosses will just dodge and parry most of your attacks outside of Witch Time, Alraune even constantly dodging Wicked Weaves, making these fights extremely repetitive. And there are times the game can be just evil with its difficulty, Chapter 9 holding this crown.
Despite that, it is a game that made me want to get much better since I wasn't getting frustrated with silly QTEs that the first game heavily leaned upon, and this makes the main stages of Bayonetta 2 much more replayable for me, and, by consequence, my favorite game even with its questionable decisions.
It is a great game to be played once or twice on the difficulties below Infinite Climax, and the only game on the franchise that I replayed six times over the course of almost a decade.
A visually solid game, very colorful, with great new designs for the main cast, and the new cast of enemies on the part of the Demons, and everything else stands at the same level of the previous game, a visually nice sequel.
The story is simple and has a nice main goal while expands some points presented in the first game, while the villain is quite forgettable, everything else makes up for it.
Unfortunately, the gameplay wasn't a simple direct upgrade. The movesets are expanded, giving more access to Wicked Weaves, which is great. The weapons behave in more unique ways, namely, Salamandra and Takemikazuchi.
But the magic meter's design got absolutely screwed, it is not a reward for performing well anymore, while it retains the previous games options for its usage, it also gives the horrendous Umbran Climax, that just gives you temporary access to a overpowered state mimicking the game's Climax Brace, it's just a worse carbon copy of DMC's Devil Trigger.
And the game's overuse of Witch Time for humanoid boss fights is annoying on Hard difficulty and absolutely frustrating on Infinite Climax, Balder somehow being the absolute exception in all cases, all Aesir/Loptr fights and Alraune's first phase are way beyond the tolerable level of frustration that comes from fighting them on Infinite Climax without the usage of items, since these bosses will just dodge and parry most of your attacks outside of Witch Time, Alraune even constantly dodging Wicked Weaves, making these fights extremely repetitive. And there are times the game can be just evil with its difficulty, Chapter 9 holding this crown.
Despite that, it is a game that made me want to get much better since I wasn't getting frustrated with silly QTEs that the first game heavily leaned upon, and this makes the main stages of Bayonetta 2 much more replayable for me, and, by consequence, my favorite game even with its questionable decisions.
It is a great game to be played once or twice on the difficulties below Infinite Climax, and the only game on the franchise that I replayed six times over the course of almost a decade.
2022
This review contains spoilers
After a second playthrough, free from all the initial hype, and after replaying Bayonetta 2 once again, this game has some really underwhelming traits.
The weapons are great, but the dissolution of pairs into unique singular sets, while still good by design, that coupled with the changed progression method through splitting the currencies and aquired moves between weapons made Bayonetta just feel like Devil May Cry, which isn't a bad thing from a technical point of view, but it deters the uniqueness the franchise had build for itself with the previous systems, in which you had more freedom on how you play with the weapons, and more valuable resources that were very tied to your performance, since everything was centered on Halos.
-- Spoilers for the story begins here --
The Story is idiotic at best, Viola was rushed in and had no time to develop well, the villain manages to be worse than Aesir, and what in the actual hell did they do with Jeanne? Getting almost killed at the start of the game for the B2 throwback feels cheap. And getting actually killed by the end in the most unbelievably nonsensical way makes me believe the writers of this game absolutely hated Jeanne. Luka being promoted to a super powerful being felt unnecessary since Rodin already exists, and burned his role as a middle ground between a common person perspective Enzo provides, and the almighty point of view belonging to the other members of the cast. Calling past Bayonettas at the end, with their respective movesets and UI was a nice fanservice bit at the end of all things.
-- Spoilers for the story end here --
I'm nowhere near being an overly critical person with narrative, since I'm not the most perceptive individual for these things, but this game went below and beyond my lowest expectations.
The last negative points of this game is that the Homunculi aren't really as memorable as the Angels and Demons of previous games, I wish there were more verses with old enemies. The main story can be quite tedious to go through on a replay due to the many gimmicks the stages have, which I previously said to be short and tolerable, but are really a nuisance when you just want to engage with the core gameplay.
Putting the Lock-on on a obligatory trigger instead of the previous games hold really messes up with targeting and camera controls, having the option to choose either would be for the best, but that isn't the reality we live in.
On the bright side, this game is unbelievably well animated, seeing Bayonetta really dancing while holding the attack buttons instead of just keeping a almost static pose is really, really nice to watch, and elevates the power she provides to the player by literally dancing in front of the enemies without even straight up taunting.
The weapons are quite varied and fun to use, with the added bonus of having an extra attack button compared to previous games, with unique gunshots, movement and effectiveness to each of them.
The summons are a fun addition, they don't really bother with visibility since the camera readjusts to their presence, and do make nice additions to both offense and defense, a very nice substitute to the underwhelming Umbran Climax.
While I still prefer Bayonetta 2 due to the less gimmicky main story, Bayonetta 3 is a great game, a game with extreme positive and negative traits, but a pleasant experience overall.
The weapons are great, but the dissolution of pairs into unique singular sets, while still good by design, that coupled with the changed progression method through splitting the currencies and aquired moves between weapons made Bayonetta just feel like Devil May Cry, which isn't a bad thing from a technical point of view, but it deters the uniqueness the franchise had build for itself with the previous systems, in which you had more freedom on how you play with the weapons, and more valuable resources that were very tied to your performance, since everything was centered on Halos.
-- Spoilers for the story begins here --
The Story is idiotic at best, Viola was rushed in and had no time to develop well, the villain manages to be worse than Aesir, and what in the actual hell did they do with Jeanne? Getting almost killed at the start of the game for the B2 throwback feels cheap. And getting actually killed by the end in the most unbelievably nonsensical way makes me believe the writers of this game absolutely hated Jeanne. Luka being promoted to a super powerful being felt unnecessary since Rodin already exists, and burned his role as a middle ground between a common person perspective Enzo provides, and the almighty point of view belonging to the other members of the cast. Calling past Bayonettas at the end, with their respective movesets and UI was a nice fanservice bit at the end of all things.
-- Spoilers for the story end here --
I'm nowhere near being an overly critical person with narrative, since I'm not the most perceptive individual for these things, but this game went below and beyond my lowest expectations.
The last negative points of this game is that the Homunculi aren't really as memorable as the Angels and Demons of previous games, I wish there were more verses with old enemies. The main story can be quite tedious to go through on a replay due to the many gimmicks the stages have, which I previously said to be short and tolerable, but are really a nuisance when you just want to engage with the core gameplay.
Putting the Lock-on on a obligatory trigger instead of the previous games hold really messes up with targeting and camera controls, having the option to choose either would be for the best, but that isn't the reality we live in.
On the bright side, this game is unbelievably well animated, seeing Bayonetta really dancing while holding the attack buttons instead of just keeping a almost static pose is really, really nice to watch, and elevates the power she provides to the player by literally dancing in front of the enemies without even straight up taunting.
The weapons are quite varied and fun to use, with the added bonus of having an extra attack button compared to previous games, with unique gunshots, movement and effectiveness to each of them.
The summons are a fun addition, they don't really bother with visibility since the camera readjusts to their presence, and do make nice additions to both offense and defense, a very nice substitute to the underwhelming Umbran Climax.
While I still prefer Bayonetta 2 due to the less gimmicky main story, Bayonetta 3 is a great game, a game with extreme positive and negative traits, but a pleasant experience overall.
2022
This game is incredible, while still not on the same technical level of the first, this game does A LOT to compensate.
Long review, so tl;dr: This game is awesome, weapons and mechanics are crazy enough to make me question what the hell did I want to use, THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD OPTIONS. really fun on the first run, and made me feel like I was experiencing Doom Eternal's difficulty on NG+, which makes it even better on replay. The worst part of this game is the fact that it is a Switch exclusive.
I won't get too much into the story, it is bad, yes, but I was expecting a story that existed, not a good one. It tried to accomplish the same goal DMC5 achieved, but B3 went too fast and got things rushed. Still, Viola is a character that grew on me, I like her as much as I like the rest of the series' cast.
Now for gameplay, it feels very familiar to the previous games, but does some changes that, despite the questionable balance, are very welcome. The fundamentals are still there, offense, defense and movement work as it always did... while you're with Colour My World.
I thought Bayo 2 weapons were crazy, this game did not hold back on showing me what crazy is. Weapons don't work in pairs anymore, only full sets, what sets back flexibility, but does compensate a lot on the creative value of each weapon, and there are a lot of them, each one accompanied by a associated demon which Bayonetta can summon, give two commands while standing still, and get back to normal action, both weapon and demon have elaborate movesets, with motion inputs and little mechanics. On top of that, each weapon has its own movement maneuver and one even has an additional defensive mechanic.
While a lot of these are present in prior games, Bayonetta 3 exaggerates to a very fun result. On the other side, Demons are not very balanced, the reworked magic gauge feels a bit too generous for them, even more when max upgraded, and the camera for some of them can be a obstacle at times.
Contrary to B2's Umbran Climax, the demons, despite very strong, are not a "win button", they can be punished and destroyed with poor use. Each weapon also has a "super move", they do a lot of damage and get you invincible during its cutscene, but takes a long time to charge up.
For Viola, she's cool to play with, and has a very shifted way to play, but her fundamentals feel incomplete and seems a bit dissonant to the character itself.
She can charge up melee and ranged attacks with the sword, an throw darts with the shoot button, these are cool to pull off and have their value. She has a single summon that acts independently and has limited range, that being around the sword she throws on the ground. She cannot activate Witch Time by dodging, only parrying with the sword, which would be okay if she did not lose most of her defensive capabilities while having Cheshire summoned. Still, she's cool to play with, and some fights can get very Metal Gear Rising-ish, which is not a bad thing at all, but for a "in training" character, she feels very "specialist".
For difficulty, this game is the most forgiving of them all in terms of ranking, deaths and items don't subtract your score anymore, only the damage you take, which disappointed me at first sight, but, the game was so damn fun that I completely ignored this after some time and took as many retries as I needed, which, something that needs to be praised, is the speed that the game puts you back into action after you die, a 5 second game over back into the beginning of the verse, no confirmation or loading screen. THIS. IS. A. BLESSING, and plays big part on the next point. I wish a great life to the people who took this decision and made it happen.
I completed my first playthrough on Hard, and it was very fun, however, when I stepped into Infinite Climax, I felt like I was playing Doom Eternal on Nightmare once again. Everything felt so right.
The absolute majority of combats on Infinite Climax felt challenging enough to get me dying from 10 to 40 times and avoiding any form of frustration, with very few exceptions, like Chapter 10 Verse 4, this one is pure evil. The fast retries play a huge part on this due to the time saved between deaths, which got me right where I wanted to be as fast as possible, much like Doom Eternal.
A step up from B2 this game made is that, Demons and Supers do not feel necessary to complete combats on Infinite Climax with Bayonetta, with few exceptions that are the enemies that pushes Bayonetta away and has to be dealt with by a demon, fortunately, these are not very frequent.
The demons allow an absurd amount of damage, but the weapons output is enough for the fights to feel just right. All major fights on IC I did with Bayonetta alone and it was great!
Witch Time is still present on IC, a experience like the first game's IC will still be exclusive to that game. Though it can be partially mimicked with accessories, the blazing fast fights can be there, and are manageable with Bayonetta alone, but WT's reward cannot be ignored.
Most enemies and bosses feel good to fight, with the clear exceptions that are Virga and Murus, these two can be damned. Though not memorable like Angels and Demons, Homunculi serve their purpose.
The exploration took a big hit since you do not need to search for weapons anymore, but I still found myself searching for secrets even on replay. The Umbran Tears serve the bigger purpose of unlocking secret missions for upgrades and accessories, which is great.
Minigames are much more frequent, although much shorter, a good trade, as they now are fun the first time, and still are on replay, a nice step up.
Visually the game looks good despite the very monotone scenarios, character models their textures are better than ever, but it pains me to know that this game will be locked on the Switch for undetermined time, some other textures feel painful to look at and the framerate is not stable, though fps issues were quite meaningless during my time with the game.
Overall, this game is a much more fun experience than Bayonetta 2, and doesn't have the things that deeply annoy me on the first game, so it might be the candidate for new favorite. It was definitely worth the extremely long wait, and I will be playing it again in the near and far future. I just wish it was not a Switch exclusive, so performance could be better, and more people would have access to this game, the latter also applies to Bayonetta 2. An unbelievably fun and complete package.
Most importantly... WHO THE HELL HAD THE IDEA TO HAVE A GODDAMN TRAIN AS A WEAPON? THAT WAS BRILLIANT AND HAD ME EXTREMELY HAPPY.
Long review, so tl;dr: This game is awesome, weapons and mechanics are crazy enough to make me question what the hell did I want to use, THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD OPTIONS. really fun on the first run, and made me feel like I was experiencing Doom Eternal's difficulty on NG+, which makes it even better on replay. The worst part of this game is the fact that it is a Switch exclusive.
I won't get too much into the story, it is bad, yes, but I was expecting a story that existed, not a good one. It tried to accomplish the same goal DMC5 achieved, but B3 went too fast and got things rushed. Still, Viola is a character that grew on me, I like her as much as I like the rest of the series' cast.
Now for gameplay, it feels very familiar to the previous games, but does some changes that, despite the questionable balance, are very welcome. The fundamentals are still there, offense, defense and movement work as it always did... while you're with Colour My World.
I thought Bayo 2 weapons were crazy, this game did not hold back on showing me what crazy is. Weapons don't work in pairs anymore, only full sets, what sets back flexibility, but does compensate a lot on the creative value of each weapon, and there are a lot of them, each one accompanied by a associated demon which Bayonetta can summon, give two commands while standing still, and get back to normal action, both weapon and demon have elaborate movesets, with motion inputs and little mechanics. On top of that, each weapon has its own movement maneuver and one even has an additional defensive mechanic.
While a lot of these are present in prior games, Bayonetta 3 exaggerates to a very fun result. On the other side, Demons are not very balanced, the reworked magic gauge feels a bit too generous for them, even more when max upgraded, and the camera for some of them can be a obstacle at times.
Contrary to B2's Umbran Climax, the demons, despite very strong, are not a "win button", they can be punished and destroyed with poor use. Each weapon also has a "super move", they do a lot of damage and get you invincible during its cutscene, but takes a long time to charge up.
For Viola, she's cool to play with, and has a very shifted way to play, but her fundamentals feel incomplete and seems a bit dissonant to the character itself.
She can charge up melee and ranged attacks with the sword, an throw darts with the shoot button, these are cool to pull off and have their value. She has a single summon that acts independently and has limited range, that being around the sword she throws on the ground. She cannot activate Witch Time by dodging, only parrying with the sword, which would be okay if she did not lose most of her defensive capabilities while having Cheshire summoned. Still, she's cool to play with, and some fights can get very Metal Gear Rising-ish, which is not a bad thing at all, but for a "in training" character, she feels very "specialist".
For difficulty, this game is the most forgiving of them all in terms of ranking, deaths and items don't subtract your score anymore, only the damage you take, which disappointed me at first sight, but, the game was so damn fun that I completely ignored this after some time and took as many retries as I needed, which, something that needs to be praised, is the speed that the game puts you back into action after you die, a 5 second game over back into the beginning of the verse, no confirmation or loading screen. THIS. IS. A. BLESSING, and plays big part on the next point. I wish a great life to the people who took this decision and made it happen.
I completed my first playthrough on Hard, and it was very fun, however, when I stepped into Infinite Climax, I felt like I was playing Doom Eternal on Nightmare once again. Everything felt so right.
The absolute majority of combats on Infinite Climax felt challenging enough to get me dying from 10 to 40 times and avoiding any form of frustration, with very few exceptions, like Chapter 10 Verse 4, this one is pure evil. The fast retries play a huge part on this due to the time saved between deaths, which got me right where I wanted to be as fast as possible, much like Doom Eternal.
A step up from B2 this game made is that, Demons and Supers do not feel necessary to complete combats on Infinite Climax with Bayonetta, with few exceptions that are the enemies that pushes Bayonetta away and has to be dealt with by a demon, fortunately, these are not very frequent.
The demons allow an absurd amount of damage, but the weapons output is enough for the fights to feel just right. All major fights on IC I did with Bayonetta alone and it was great!
Witch Time is still present on IC, a experience like the first game's IC will still be exclusive to that game. Though it can be partially mimicked with accessories, the blazing fast fights can be there, and are manageable with Bayonetta alone, but WT's reward cannot be ignored.
Most enemies and bosses feel good to fight, with the clear exceptions that are Virga and Murus, these two can be damned. Though not memorable like Angels and Demons, Homunculi serve their purpose.
The exploration took a big hit since you do not need to search for weapons anymore, but I still found myself searching for secrets even on replay. The Umbran Tears serve the bigger purpose of unlocking secret missions for upgrades and accessories, which is great.
Minigames are much more frequent, although much shorter, a good trade, as they now are fun the first time, and still are on replay, a nice step up.
Visually the game looks good despite the very monotone scenarios, character models their textures are better than ever, but it pains me to know that this game will be locked on the Switch for undetermined time, some other textures feel painful to look at and the framerate is not stable, though fps issues were quite meaningless during my time with the game.
Overall, this game is a much more fun experience than Bayonetta 2, and doesn't have the things that deeply annoy me on the first game, so it might be the candidate for new favorite. It was definitely worth the extremely long wait, and I will be playing it again in the near and far future. I just wish it was not a Switch exclusive, so performance could be better, and more people would have access to this game, the latter also applies to Bayonetta 2. An unbelievably fun and complete package.
Most importantly... WHO THE HELL HAD THE IDEA TO HAVE A GODDAMN TRAIN AS A WEAPON? THAT WAS BRILLIANT AND HAD ME EXTREMELY HAPPY.
2010
Attention: Do not play this game.
It has good-looking characters and a somewhat solid and fun fundamental combat... that is royally f***ed up by everything else on the late game.
I like to think this game has a beginning, middle, and end; That being your journey on exploring what the characters can do, start little, find out some cool things and flashy skills, unlock more slots for skills, achieve the extremely grindy final class and immediately call it a day or try another character, because after that, you better build crit chance and damage, stock yourself with infinite MP and FAST cooldown times because you will just keep using your skills that give you invulnerability ad infinitum... either that, or you die on the first attack you receive.
Chose to build the only effective build for every character, well, good luck you will indeed need because of the ULTIMATE GRINDFEST that is rolling for good drops and stats.
The best part of having thrown 250h on this game, or rather, on the Steam release of this game, because I played on two other servers before that, is that I can properly trash this game. I do still have some attachment to its characters though.
It has good-looking characters and a somewhat solid and fun fundamental combat... that is royally f***ed up by everything else on the late game.
I like to think this game has a beginning, middle, and end; That being your journey on exploring what the characters can do, start little, find out some cool things and flashy skills, unlock more slots for skills, achieve the extremely grindy final class and immediately call it a day or try another character, because after that, you better build crit chance and damage, stock yourself with infinite MP and FAST cooldown times because you will just keep using your skills that give you invulnerability ad infinitum... either that, or you die on the first attack you receive.
Chose to build the only effective build for every character, well, good luck you will indeed need because of the ULTIMATE GRINDFEST that is rolling for good drops and stats.
The best part of having thrown 250h on this game, or rather, on the Steam release of this game, because I played on two other servers before that, is that I can properly trash this game. I do still have some attachment to its characters though.
Feels familiar to Guilty Gear, but does things its own way, still, it is just as incredible as its sister franchise.
Characters are even more unique due to them having a button that does something exclusive to them, and a universal mechanic that powers up the character specific trait, Guilty Gear characters tend to be very different from each other, but Blazblue takes it on another level, each character is pretty much its own game, which makes even harder learning multiple characters, but strangely refreshing.
Blazblue has amazingly detailed pixel art for the characters and certain background elements blending with the 3D stages, and since Central Fiction is the final part of the series, has a lot of stages, some even come with variations.
The game may also have my favorite OST in Fighting Games, character and rivalry themes are on par with Guilty Gear XX themes, and some other themes are out of this world, Hakaishin is an incredible song that you'll never hear in full on a match due to its 7 minutes and 20 seconds of pure awesomeness. People credit Daisuke Ishiwatari for Guilty Gear Overture as his best work as a composer, but Blazblue takes this spot for me.
Just like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, this game is a full package, has a functional online, has some single player content, and plenty to explore due to the bizarrely unique characters.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
Characters are even more unique due to them having a button that does something exclusive to them, and a universal mechanic that powers up the character specific trait, Guilty Gear characters tend to be very different from each other, but Blazblue takes it on another level, each character is pretty much its own game, which makes even harder learning multiple characters, but strangely refreshing.
Blazblue has amazingly detailed pixel art for the characters and certain background elements blending with the 3D stages, and since Central Fiction is the final part of the series, has a lot of stages, some even come with variations.
The game may also have my favorite OST in Fighting Games, character and rivalry themes are on par with Guilty Gear XX themes, and some other themes are out of this world, Hakaishin is an incredible song that you'll never hear in full on a match due to its 7 minutes and 20 seconds of pure awesomeness. People credit Daisuke Ishiwatari for Guilty Gear Overture as his best work as a composer, but Blazblue takes this spot for me.
Just like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, this game is a full package, has a functional online, has some single player content, and plenty to explore due to the bizarrely unique characters.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
Amazing game that is only personally held back by old game issues.
The game has great pixel art, animations and possibly the best stages in the franchise, +R stages definitely pull the heavy metal aesthetic more than any other Guilty Gear.
It has my favorite OST of the franchise, Holy Orders II, Meet Again and The Midnight Carnival are amazing as well as every other character and rivalry theme. (Holy Orders? may be included.)
On top of traditional Guilty Gear aggressive mechanics, Force Roman Cancels exists to deepen the already extremely deep and absurdly strong characters by adding a cheaper Cancel option on specific moves for every character. Had fun playing against every character, even some extreme ones like Zappa, Testament and Justice.
My only problem with this game is how strict it feels on timing inputs, since it doesn't have the input buffer from modern games and I never got used to its absence. But that's about it.
Really fun game, definitely play it. Characters are on their peak, and the PC port got amazing functionalities, it even has more single-player content than any of its sequels.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
The game has great pixel art, animations and possibly the best stages in the franchise, +R stages definitely pull the heavy metal aesthetic more than any other Guilty Gear.
It has my favorite OST of the franchise, Holy Orders II, Meet Again and The Midnight Carnival are amazing as well as every other character and rivalry theme. (Holy Orders? may be included.)
On top of traditional Guilty Gear aggressive mechanics, Force Roman Cancels exists to deepen the already extremely deep and absurdly strong characters by adding a cheaper Cancel option on specific moves for every character. Had fun playing against every character, even some extreme ones like Zappa, Testament and Justice.
My only problem with this game is how strict it feels on timing inputs, since it doesn't have the input buffer from modern games and I never got used to its absence. But that's about it.
Really fun game, definitely play it. Characters are on their peak, and the PC port got amazing functionalities, it even has more single-player content than any of its sequels.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
The first traditional (as traditional airdashers can be) fighting game I tried to learn, and my favorite even after trying pretty much every single other popular franchise under the sun.
Straight up, the only moderately bad thing this game has is the random Danger Time mechanic in which characters get hitstunned for ages and take so much damage I don't even have an adjective to describe it, and I emphasize the "moderately" because danger time can be mostly funny.
Visually the game is great, really sells the "2D but actually no" style the developer came up with. Animations have lots of impact and good effects which look cool and keeps things understandable, despite preferring the art style from Guilty Gear Strive, this game does have a rivaling end result.
OST is great, character and rivalry themes didn't stick to me as much as the Guilty Gear XX ones, but are still great, and the extra songs are simply incredible, Storyteller, Dice and Big Blast Sonic got me looping them.
Playing the game is extremely satisfying, fast and hard hitting, with extremely varied characters and great offensive and defensive mechanics that reward extreme aggression, with a resource meter that resets after a round, so you're encouraged to always use it. Roman Cancels can immediately stop any attack you use and return your character to a neutral state, so you can keep on going or choose another option at the cost of some meter; Bursts get you out of combos, or can be used offensively to give yourself full meter or higher damage on supers; Blitz can negate an opponent's attack into a huge recovery animation, or make them lose a bit of their Burst... This game has a lot of mechanics in place that can be intimidating at first, but are really satisfying once you learn them.
Since this game is getting its online fixed, it is a game that definitely should be played. It is not on Strive levels of simplicity, nor Accent Core Plus R levels of complexity and execution, Xrd is on a strange sweetspot that I learned to like a lot.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
Straight up, the only moderately bad thing this game has is the random Danger Time mechanic in which characters get hitstunned for ages and take so much damage I don't even have an adjective to describe it, and I emphasize the "moderately" because danger time can be mostly funny.
Visually the game is great, really sells the "2D but actually no" style the developer came up with. Animations have lots of impact and good effects which look cool and keeps things understandable, despite preferring the art style from Guilty Gear Strive, this game does have a rivaling end result.
OST is great, character and rivalry themes didn't stick to me as much as the Guilty Gear XX ones, but are still great, and the extra songs are simply incredible, Storyteller, Dice and Big Blast Sonic got me looping them.
Playing the game is extremely satisfying, fast and hard hitting, with extremely varied characters and great offensive and defensive mechanics that reward extreme aggression, with a resource meter that resets after a round, so you're encouraged to always use it. Roman Cancels can immediately stop any attack you use and return your character to a neutral state, so you can keep on going or choose another option at the cost of some meter; Bursts get you out of combos, or can be used offensively to give yourself full meter or higher damage on supers; Blitz can negate an opponent's attack into a huge recovery animation, or make them lose a bit of their Burst... This game has a lot of mechanics in place that can be intimidating at first, but are really satisfying once you learn them.
Since this game is getting its online fixed, it is a game that definitely should be played. It is not on Strive levels of simplicity, nor Accent Core Plus R levels of complexity and execution, Xrd is on a strange sweetspot that I learned to like a lot.
Also, obligatory praise to the Dustloop Wiki editors for the best in-depth wiki on the FG space.
2014
Bayonetta 2 is great despite being a little step down from the previous due to balancing issues.
All the weapons, are really fun to use, have better feel, and are overall more varied on how they play, Takemikazuchi truly feels like a unique power weapon in contrast to Kilgore, even if handling 4 rocket launchers is cool in its own way, it felt very same-y to other firearms from the first game, where as the beeg hammer does its own thing; Rakshasa and Shuraba are also good examples, being both swords, but playing completely different. The initial weapons also have new combo routes which is really nice but also makes it weird to return to the previous game and not have certain wicked weaves finishers.
The maps look much more colorful, brighter and clearer, exploring them is always great. Some big quality of life changes were added and annoying things were removed. Being able to change characters without needing to create a separate save for each is absolutely great, the infuriating instant kill quick time events are pretty much gone, and mashing QTEs are lighter on the controller.
Unfortunately, the game is not only good things, Umbran Climax is cool, but not good, and the game on Infinite Climax is balanced around it, plus Witch Time, making both abilities required due to your normal attacks dealing insignificant amounts of damage. Your magic gauge also does not deplete after getting hit, which makes Climax even stronger.
The first game's Infinite Climax straight up disabled your Witch Time, and it still was fun from start to finish, so its not like they didn't do it correctly before...
Your final score is not damaged by using items anymore, which is kind of a compensation for the overuse of Umbran Climax and Witch Time, but it didn't stick to me, I'd much rather have the Infinite Climax without witch time and with items costing your score.
It has a lot of improvements over the first game, however, the mistakes can really hurt the experience.
All the weapons, are really fun to use, have better feel, and are overall more varied on how they play, Takemikazuchi truly feels like a unique power weapon in contrast to Kilgore, even if handling 4 rocket launchers is cool in its own way, it felt very same-y to other firearms from the first game, where as the beeg hammer does its own thing; Rakshasa and Shuraba are also good examples, being both swords, but playing completely different. The initial weapons also have new combo routes which is really nice but also makes it weird to return to the previous game and not have certain wicked weaves finishers.
The maps look much more colorful, brighter and clearer, exploring them is always great. Some big quality of life changes were added and annoying things were removed. Being able to change characters without needing to create a separate save for each is absolutely great, the infuriating instant kill quick time events are pretty much gone, and mashing QTEs are lighter on the controller.
Unfortunately, the game is not only good things, Umbran Climax is cool, but not good, and the game on Infinite Climax is balanced around it, plus Witch Time, making both abilities required due to your normal attacks dealing insignificant amounts of damage. Your magic gauge also does not deplete after getting hit, which makes Climax even stronger.
The first game's Infinite Climax straight up disabled your Witch Time, and it still was fun from start to finish, so its not like they didn't do it correctly before...
Your final score is not damaged by using items anymore, which is kind of a compensation for the overuse of Umbran Climax and Witch Time, but it didn't stick to me, I'd much rather have the Infinite Climax without witch time and with items costing your score.
It has a lot of improvements over the first game, however, the mistakes can really hurt the experience.
2020
Blind-running this game on Nightmare was one of the hardest yet fun things I did on my life, dying over and over again to the point that each battle took about half an hour, and each stage at least 2 hours, but never feeling unfair or exhaustive because learning the core game loop of managing resources and getting to know that every single weapon and modification has its uses and synergy with other guns/mods, all seamlessly making me a better player while never making any future fights any easier than the last.
Truly a masterful action game, sadly, it also made every single other sub-genre of FPS feel boring.
Truly a masterful action game, sadly, it also made every single other sub-genre of FPS feel boring.
2012
While I think Persona 3 has a better paced story, and even a soundtrack which I prefer, this game feels better to play, the overall lighter tone helps, the characters and situations are still fun to go through even after a 5th playthrough. Gameplay-wise, It's solid, a fun turn-based JRPG that can draw the attention even of someone who does not like games of the genre, such as myself.
It's a special game with good messages and some of my favorite characters until today.
It's a special game with good messages and some of my favorite characters until today.