Jetpackraptor
2023
A retro inspired 3D platformer/metroidvania with all the shortcomings of the N64 era. A great idea ruined by making it complicated instead of embracing simplicity.
I will start by saying, I played this AFTER the map update. So don't tell me there is a map. This game was really disappointing tbh. I saw so many people express how tight the controls were and how fun it was. I did not have that experience. I found it to be an intensely frustrating game.
First off. The character is cool looking. Here animations are nice. The music is really good. Full of bangers. Areas are varied and have good theming. The story is a nothing burger. But that's fine. You can also unlock different costumes which is cool.
Let's get to the crux of the problem though. The controls. This game is intensely frustrating because it simply does not do it's main objective of platforming well. There are a few moves that are super unreliable. They are not consistent. They are jank. And anyone who says, "they just take time to get used to," is not being truthful. You can like the game, but you can also call it out for being jank.
Each move, has its intricacies. For example, you slide jump gets you more height on walls. There is a turn flip that the game never tells you about as far as I know. Each move you get not only increases your basic movement, but also increases your advanced movement sets. That's all and good until the game decides you need to be a master platformer. Then you get to fight with the controls.
The biggest offender of this the wall jump. Not only does your angle matter, but also your distance from the wall. It is extremely jank and frustrating. You will constantly fight it. You will fail to grab edges because of it. It's infuriating.
The second worst offender is the wall run. It simply sometimes activates late or not at all. Although, I will say, you can break the game with. In corners you can spam the wall kicks and then spam wall run to gain crazy height. But only in corners. Now, why is the wall run so jank? It's because instead of you simply, holding the button and wall running, you also have to hold a direction. I know that doesn't sound that bad, but in a game like Prince of Persia 2008, you literally just hold the button and it knows to automatically wall run the direction you are facing.
The intricacies are great but at the same time get in the way of the basic platforming. It causes what should be an easy move to then be frustrating to grasp.
Level design ranges from fun to frustrating to nonsensical. Sometimes it feels like the rooms are just randomly cobbled together. Sometimes in ways to simply annoy. Like, let's put a large block on a smaller block. So when you jump up you hit your head. But it's a very simple jump. You just got to step back a bit. There is no need for that kinda thing.
Then there are rooms where you simply have no idea there is anything there unless you look at the mostly useless map. Like another door is hidden or officiated in infuriating ways.
Color palettes can make things extremely hard to see. Like I understand you are going for N64/PS1 textures. But I feel like they are better than what this game has to offer. Sometimes you legit cannot see your next jump because everything looks the same. Sometimes you next jump is high enough that the only way for you to know is exploratory jump and hope. The camera does not help. This would be solved by making the top texture having an outline. Ledges should be clear to see. But in this game they are not.
Darkness can be a very cool tool when used properly. Or it can make traversal extremely tedious and annoying. This game does the latter. With the color palette problem and the darkness, it is legit impossible to see things. There needs to either be more lighting in those darker areas or a different color palette. Not everything needs to be the same texture. But what adds insult to injury is your weapon glows. If you throw it, it glows more. Eventually you get an ability that makes it passively glow more, but it barely makes a difference. Also there is no brightness slider in the game. It's is beyond me why you would not add such a basic feature.
Now, let's talk about the map. This game has one of the single worst maps in a metroidvania game I have played. First off it was only put in the game, AFTER people complained enough about being lost. I do not understand why the launched a metroidvania without a map. Two, it lacks verticality. It's not a huge deal, but can make finding doors hard. Thirdly, there are no symbols on the map. It's insane to not put the player's position on the map. The entire room you are in glows green but you have no idea where you are in the room. It's the single worst design in this game. Adding a map was great, but it's not helpful without knowing where you are in the room. You just get lost so easily.
Combat is an afterthought. It's pretty basic and does what it needs to do. I do not understand why your range attack can also drain your magic. The same thing you use for healing. Especially when you can still do it without magic. I just find that to be a dumb choice. Like I get it is for a stronger attack. But it just is unnecessary.
Your vertical movement is very limited. Especially with no corners to exploit. As I talked about earlier, the wall jump is super unreliable and inconsistent. You can use it to gain height but it's incredibly jank. There is one reliable way to get vertical movement. This game was in need for a double jump or a Mario 64 consecutive jump mechanic. As I said earlier, there are many intricacies/advanced movement options. Yes they make help with height gain but yet again, are not easy to pull off.
The camera is a contant annoyance. Especially with wall running. I understand you wanted to make this authentic to the time, but you can leave some stuff in the past where they belong.
The game does not signpost itself well at all. It took me like 7 hours until I found my main objective. I was just exploring aimlessly exploring looking for powerups until then. It gives no direction. Thus cause you to be lost. You get a small hint once you find your main objective as to where to go next. Like I understand exploring and being lost is part of a metroidvania, but this is going too far. Like this felt as if you are playing the original Metroid. A game that understandably has no map due to the hardware at the time. But I would still say it has more signposting and a sense of direction than this game did.
The final boss is fun. It's very easy. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad the dev realized that combat is not the game's strong suit and just made it a fun fight. You can tank through it.
I kind of enjoyed this game. It really did disappoint me though. I wish the dev just made a normal wall jump. A normal wall run. There was no reason to make things as complicated as they are. I know a lot of people may say, "I got the hang of the advanced movement just fine." That's great. But it really hurts the experience. It takes simplicity and makes it way too complicated. It falls into the same traps the games from the actual era have that it is inspired by. It does not do enough to mitigate those problems. It's fine to be inspired but this is inspired to a fault.
I know I'm being hard on a game made by what I believe is a singular person. A passion project and game jam. I'm doing this to hopefully help them craft a better game next time. If you ever read this, I hope you understand that I'm not trying to be mean. I just feel like criticism is a good thing. You should be proud of what you made. Especially if it is your first game. It's not a bad game, just a flawed one.
This is a game I really wanted to like more than I did. But I ended up being more frustrated and annoyed than having fun.
I will start by saying, I played this AFTER the map update. So don't tell me there is a map. This game was really disappointing tbh. I saw so many people express how tight the controls were and how fun it was. I did not have that experience. I found it to be an intensely frustrating game.
First off. The character is cool looking. Here animations are nice. The music is really good. Full of bangers. Areas are varied and have good theming. The story is a nothing burger. But that's fine. You can also unlock different costumes which is cool.
Let's get to the crux of the problem though. The controls. This game is intensely frustrating because it simply does not do it's main objective of platforming well. There are a few moves that are super unreliable. They are not consistent. They are jank. And anyone who says, "they just take time to get used to," is not being truthful. You can like the game, but you can also call it out for being jank.
Each move, has its intricacies. For example, you slide jump gets you more height on walls. There is a turn flip that the game never tells you about as far as I know. Each move you get not only increases your basic movement, but also increases your advanced movement sets. That's all and good until the game decides you need to be a master platformer. Then you get to fight with the controls.
The biggest offender of this the wall jump. Not only does your angle matter, but also your distance from the wall. It is extremely jank and frustrating. You will constantly fight it. You will fail to grab edges because of it. It's infuriating.
The second worst offender is the wall run. It simply sometimes activates late or not at all. Although, I will say, you can break the game with. In corners you can spam the wall kicks and then spam wall run to gain crazy height. But only in corners. Now, why is the wall run so jank? It's because instead of you simply, holding the button and wall running, you also have to hold a direction. I know that doesn't sound that bad, but in a game like Prince of Persia 2008, you literally just hold the button and it knows to automatically wall run the direction you are facing.
The intricacies are great but at the same time get in the way of the basic platforming. It causes what should be an easy move to then be frustrating to grasp.
Level design ranges from fun to frustrating to nonsensical. Sometimes it feels like the rooms are just randomly cobbled together. Sometimes in ways to simply annoy. Like, let's put a large block on a smaller block. So when you jump up you hit your head. But it's a very simple jump. You just got to step back a bit. There is no need for that kinda thing.
Then there are rooms where you simply have no idea there is anything there unless you look at the mostly useless map. Like another door is hidden or officiated in infuriating ways.
Color palettes can make things extremely hard to see. Like I understand you are going for N64/PS1 textures. But I feel like they are better than what this game has to offer. Sometimes you legit cannot see your next jump because everything looks the same. Sometimes you next jump is high enough that the only way for you to know is exploratory jump and hope. The camera does not help. This would be solved by making the top texture having an outline. Ledges should be clear to see. But in this game they are not.
Darkness can be a very cool tool when used properly. Or it can make traversal extremely tedious and annoying. This game does the latter. With the color palette problem and the darkness, it is legit impossible to see things. There needs to either be more lighting in those darker areas or a different color palette. Not everything needs to be the same texture. But what adds insult to injury is your weapon glows. If you throw it, it glows more. Eventually you get an ability that makes it passively glow more, but it barely makes a difference. Also there is no brightness slider in the game. It's is beyond me why you would not add such a basic feature.
Now, let's talk about the map. This game has one of the single worst maps in a metroidvania game I have played. First off it was only put in the game, AFTER people complained enough about being lost. I do not understand why the launched a metroidvania without a map. Two, it lacks verticality. It's not a huge deal, but can make finding doors hard. Thirdly, there are no symbols on the map. It's insane to not put the player's position on the map. The entire room you are in glows green but you have no idea where you are in the room. It's the single worst design in this game. Adding a map was great, but it's not helpful without knowing where you are in the room. You just get lost so easily.
Combat is an afterthought. It's pretty basic and does what it needs to do. I do not understand why your range attack can also drain your magic. The same thing you use for healing. Especially when you can still do it without magic. I just find that to be a dumb choice. Like I get it is for a stronger attack. But it just is unnecessary.
Your vertical movement is very limited. Especially with no corners to exploit. As I talked about earlier, the wall jump is super unreliable and inconsistent. You can use it to gain height but it's incredibly jank. There is one reliable way to get vertical movement. This game was in need for a double jump or a Mario 64 consecutive jump mechanic. As I said earlier, there are many intricacies/advanced movement options. Yes they make help with height gain but yet again, are not easy to pull off.
The camera is a contant annoyance. Especially with wall running. I understand you wanted to make this authentic to the time, but you can leave some stuff in the past where they belong.
The game does not signpost itself well at all. It took me like 7 hours until I found my main objective. I was just exploring aimlessly exploring looking for powerups until then. It gives no direction. Thus cause you to be lost. You get a small hint once you find your main objective as to where to go next. Like I understand exploring and being lost is part of a metroidvania, but this is going too far. Like this felt as if you are playing the original Metroid. A game that understandably has no map due to the hardware at the time. But I would still say it has more signposting and a sense of direction than this game did.
The final boss is fun. It's very easy. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad the dev realized that combat is not the game's strong suit and just made it a fun fight. You can tank through it.
I kind of enjoyed this game. It really did disappoint me though. I wish the dev just made a normal wall jump. A normal wall run. There was no reason to make things as complicated as they are. I know a lot of people may say, "I got the hang of the advanced movement just fine." That's great. But it really hurts the experience. It takes simplicity and makes it way too complicated. It falls into the same traps the games from the actual era have that it is inspired by. It does not do enough to mitigate those problems. It's fine to be inspired but this is inspired to a fault.
I know I'm being hard on a game made by what I believe is a singular person. A passion project and game jam. I'm doing this to hopefully help them craft a better game next time. If you ever read this, I hope you understand that I'm not trying to be mean. I just feel like criticism is a good thing. You should be proud of what you made. Especially if it is your first game. It's not a bad game, just a flawed one.
This is a game I really wanted to like more than I did. But I ended up being more frustrated and annoyed than having fun.
The best 2D Zelda imo. A charming Zelda game metrodivania vibes. A game where you explore and backtrack a lot.
First off, as usually, the game looks nice. The music is great. The story is...fine/mid. It's basic. Nothing special. It does not ware out it's welcome. Honestly the length.
Let's get into the meat of this review though. The Kinstone system is a lot of fun, if you like backtracking. This is where the metroidvania feels come from. It wants you to backtrack a lot. Most of it is optional though. You connect a kinstone with a NPC and the world changes in some way. It's a neat little gimmick.
The kinstone system does have it's flaws though. You have no idea when a npc has a kinstone quest ready. So you spend a lot of time checking npcs over and over.
The other annoying thing is that they kinstone quests can be missed. Thus you miss out on certain things without ever knowing. Hiding massively important/beneficial items behind it is imo, not fair. Considering things can be missed with no knowledge. The game does not say, "Hey there is a quest here!" So you gotta check the same npcs 10x times and hopefully you catch them when they have a quest. But also hope you have the correct piece to connect with them.
The dungeons are mostly well designed. They are fun. The items are mostly neat. The bosses however...
This game doesn't have well designed bosses. The first and third are fun. The rest are very annoying. They are either terribly signposted as in boss 4. Or they seem to require you to take damage like boss 2 or have an infuriating time doing to the intended way. Boss 5 has too much going on so you are constantly getting hit. We will talk about the final separate though.
My biggest complaint is that the game has jank hit boxes. Like very jank. Enemies and bosses have unbalanced hitboxes while you lack any invincibility frames. This game is not above stun locking you into sevaral hearts worth of damage. Contact damage is devastating due to bad hitboxes and you having zero i-frames.
The final dungeon is fun but is lazy. You fight the same mini boss a total of at least 12 times. It's just lazy. The dungeon before it although not my favorite, felt much longer and well planned out. Had many neat puzzles. The final dungeon is mostly you fighting Darknuts over and over with the occasional puzzle/new mechanic.
The game is a bit jank. Enemies can turn on a dime but once you use an item you are locked in the direction. The copy ability is neat but also very finicky. It's almost inconsistent in terms of damage. If you copies get hit physically they disappear. No damage. If they get hit by fire, the fire affect will transfer to you. Which does not make any sense. But you don't take damage, you just run around on fire. If they get hit by electricity though you get damaged and stunned as if you got hit directly. IT'S JUST STUPID DESIGN. Makes no sense.
Prior to the boss you have to run through 3 rooms meant to just take your health away. The final room being 3 Darknuts. Darknuts suck. They are not hard. The are just hard to get consistent because they are so jank and can turn on a dime to block you. You gotta do these 3 rooms and a 3 phase boss with no way to replenish things in your bottles. It's brutal.
The final boss is badly signposted and infuriating. Only 1/3 phases I feel like was well designed and fun. The first phase is infuriating as it's just meant to damage you a lot. The second phase makes a lot of sense and is generally fair. The final phase makes no sense so you gotta trial and error it. It yet again has infinite ways to damage you. It can literally just block you in ways that force you to take damage. You can even fall of the side, as if we needed another way to take damage. It almost is not very intuitive. And it can give you terrible patterns. I'm glad I used save states because I doubt I could do it without them tbh.
I know I bashed this game a lot. But exploring this world is generally fun. Becoming tiny is neat. It has a lot of charm. It's a forgiving game mostly. It drops a lot hearts. Pots are consistient in terms of what they drop. So if it drops a heart, it'll always drop a heart. So you can farm hearts and consumables if you need.
You will like this if you enjoy exploring and backtracking. It's a fantastic game with some jank and bad design.
First off, as usually, the game looks nice. The music is great. The story is...fine/mid. It's basic. Nothing special. It does not ware out it's welcome. Honestly the length.
Let's get into the meat of this review though. The Kinstone system is a lot of fun, if you like backtracking. This is where the metroidvania feels come from. It wants you to backtrack a lot. Most of it is optional though. You connect a kinstone with a NPC and the world changes in some way. It's a neat little gimmick.
The kinstone system does have it's flaws though. You have no idea when a npc has a kinstone quest ready. So you spend a lot of time checking npcs over and over.
The other annoying thing is that they kinstone quests can be missed. Thus you miss out on certain things without ever knowing. Hiding massively important/beneficial items behind it is imo, not fair. Considering things can be missed with no knowledge. The game does not say, "Hey there is a quest here!" So you gotta check the same npcs 10x times and hopefully you catch them when they have a quest. But also hope you have the correct piece to connect with them.
The dungeons are mostly well designed. They are fun. The items are mostly neat. The bosses however...
This game doesn't have well designed bosses. The first and third are fun. The rest are very annoying. They are either terribly signposted as in boss 4. Or they seem to require you to take damage like boss 2 or have an infuriating time doing to the intended way. Boss 5 has too much going on so you are constantly getting hit. We will talk about the final separate though.
My biggest complaint is that the game has jank hit boxes. Like very jank. Enemies and bosses have unbalanced hitboxes while you lack any invincibility frames. This game is not above stun locking you into sevaral hearts worth of damage. Contact damage is devastating due to bad hitboxes and you having zero i-frames.
The final dungeon is fun but is lazy. You fight the same mini boss a total of at least 12 times. It's just lazy. The dungeon before it although not my favorite, felt much longer and well planned out. Had many neat puzzles. The final dungeon is mostly you fighting Darknuts over and over with the occasional puzzle/new mechanic.
The game is a bit jank. Enemies can turn on a dime but once you use an item you are locked in the direction. The copy ability is neat but also very finicky. It's almost inconsistent in terms of damage. If you copies get hit physically they disappear. No damage. If they get hit by fire, the fire affect will transfer to you. Which does not make any sense. But you don't take damage, you just run around on fire. If they get hit by electricity though you get damaged and stunned as if you got hit directly. IT'S JUST STUPID DESIGN. Makes no sense.
Prior to the boss you have to run through 3 rooms meant to just take your health away. The final room being 3 Darknuts. Darknuts suck. They are not hard. The are just hard to get consistent because they are so jank and can turn on a dime to block you. You gotta do these 3 rooms and a 3 phase boss with no way to replenish things in your bottles. It's brutal.
The final boss is badly signposted and infuriating. Only 1/3 phases I feel like was well designed and fun. The first phase is infuriating as it's just meant to damage you a lot. The second phase makes a lot of sense and is generally fair. The final phase makes no sense so you gotta trial and error it. It yet again has infinite ways to damage you. It can literally just block you in ways that force you to take damage. You can even fall of the side, as if we needed another way to take damage. It almost is not very intuitive. And it can give you terrible patterns. I'm glad I used save states because I doubt I could do it without them tbh.
I know I bashed this game a lot. But exploring this world is generally fun. Becoming tiny is neat. It has a lot of charm. It's a forgiving game mostly. It drops a lot hearts. Pots are consistient in terms of what they drop. So if it drops a heart, it'll always drop a heart. So you can farm hearts and consumables if you need.
You will like this if you enjoy exploring and backtracking. It's a fantastic game with some jank and bad design.
2015
A walking sim that tries to accurately portray blindness and fails. I'm legally blind. I appreciate their effort but it's not a fun game.
First off, this game is pretty.The watercolor graphics are nice. It controls fine. It does have a few good ideas. The whole noise system is neat. She hears something but doesn't know what it is. Only figures it out when she is close. Cute idea. Kind of accurate to real life.
So as I said, this is a walking sim. It's pretty much only walking. Painfully slow walking. I get it, she can't see and thus walks slow. But it's not fun.
Okay here is where I get real critical. The story. It's cute, but there are some major issues in terms of accuracy. I want to remind you, I'm legally blind.
First, this is like an 8 year old girl. Where are her parents? And why would any adult leave her unsupervised knowing she is blind. That's bad parenting.
Secondly, where is her cane? She should know how to use a cane as this point. She is 10 and as far as we know, she was born blind. As someone who uses a cane for their sight, it is beyond me, why she doesn't have one. If she would one, have more confidence walking around and two, not fall, trip and struggle so much.
Like I appreciate the devs tried to make a game about someone who is blind. I appreciate they tried to convey a blind person's experiences of the world. However, I don't feel like they spoke to anyone in the visually impaired community.
The game is soooo tedious with such an obvious story. A for effort but fails in most ways.
First off, this game is pretty.The watercolor graphics are nice. It controls fine. It does have a few good ideas. The whole noise system is neat. She hears something but doesn't know what it is. Only figures it out when she is close. Cute idea. Kind of accurate to real life.
So as I said, this is a walking sim. It's pretty much only walking. Painfully slow walking. I get it, she can't see and thus walks slow. But it's not fun.
Okay here is where I get real critical. The story. It's cute, but there are some major issues in terms of accuracy. I want to remind you, I'm legally blind.
First, this is like an 8 year old girl. Where are her parents? And why would any adult leave her unsupervised knowing she is blind. That's bad parenting.
Secondly, where is her cane? She should know how to use a cane as this point. She is 10 and as far as we know, she was born blind. As someone who uses a cane for their sight, it is beyond me, why she doesn't have one. If she would one, have more confidence walking around and two, not fall, trip and struggle so much.
Like I appreciate the devs tried to make a game about someone who is blind. I appreciate they tried to convey a blind person's experiences of the world. However, I don't feel like they spoke to anyone in the visually impaired community.
The game is soooo tedious with such an obvious story. A for effort but fails in most ways.
TBD
A free Metroid clone passion project with a lot of love and care. Totally worth playing, especially since it is free.
I was not expecting much from this. It's a free game. It really surprised me though. It's not perfect of course. But it's one of the better metroidvania games I've played.
First and foremost, the music is full of bangers or they set the mood of the area well. Like some of them are Axiom Verge level good. The game also knows how to set the tone with silence and or spooky vibes.
The controls are mostly good. The game is very much a Metroid clone. It plays like Metroid. Some of the controls are jank. The double jump specifically either has weird timing or eats your input. The other kind of jank mechanic is charging up missiles. It just doesn't feel good. It takes too long and sometimes just refuses to do it. Other little things like directional aiming and have a crouch lock button can be annoying.
My biggest complaint are the bosses are not well balanced. They are tanky. They don't give enough ways to replenish health/missiles. Or the ways you can replenish stuff is slow. They do too much damage and have obnoxious hitboxes that extend too far or infuriating moves the stay on screen way too long. The 2nd to last boss is just annoying and doesn't make a lot of sense. As far as I can tell it had no way to replenish things. The final boss was actually fun though. My one issue was that it didn't signpost damage like everything else in the game. It just made a noise without any flash.
The map is small but fun to get around. All of the major items are visible on the map. However the single missile packs are not. Which is a bit annoying/disappointing. You just have to happen upon them or see a very hard to see glint. I wish they were also on the map. I would have collected them.
The areas are well varied. The enemies are good. It's yet again a Metroid clone so expect to take damage just trying to speed through rooms. Sometimes it's not worth the time to not get damaged. The art in general is pretty good.
The story is sure something. I didn't pay too much attention to it. It's pretty dark from what I gleamed from it. They do give you an option to play the game without the "triggering" data logs. That is a nice touch. And yeah, some of the data logs are a bit much and can be triggering. So good on the dev for that.
You can save at anytime. IDK what it really did though. As you always start from the recovery/checkpoint areas. The game does seem to save everything you do as soon as you do it. Good thing too. Because I did get stuck in walls twice. I restarted and it saved the items I just collected and the map progress. So the only real harm was having to walk back. Although it does feel you can def death warp to exploit the game for speedruns.
All in all, this free game was very good. I had a lot of fun with it. Axiom Verge is still better but it reminded me a lot of it. I'm very happy I gave it a chance. If you love Metroid or metroidvanias, don't skip out on this game. IT'S FREE!
I was not expecting much from this. It's a free game. It really surprised me though. It's not perfect of course. But it's one of the better metroidvania games I've played.
First and foremost, the music is full of bangers or they set the mood of the area well. Like some of them are Axiom Verge level good. The game also knows how to set the tone with silence and or spooky vibes.
The controls are mostly good. The game is very much a Metroid clone. It plays like Metroid. Some of the controls are jank. The double jump specifically either has weird timing or eats your input. The other kind of jank mechanic is charging up missiles. It just doesn't feel good. It takes too long and sometimes just refuses to do it. Other little things like directional aiming and have a crouch lock button can be annoying.
My biggest complaint are the bosses are not well balanced. They are tanky. They don't give enough ways to replenish health/missiles. Or the ways you can replenish stuff is slow. They do too much damage and have obnoxious hitboxes that extend too far or infuriating moves the stay on screen way too long. The 2nd to last boss is just annoying and doesn't make a lot of sense. As far as I can tell it had no way to replenish things. The final boss was actually fun though. My one issue was that it didn't signpost damage like everything else in the game. It just made a noise without any flash.
The map is small but fun to get around. All of the major items are visible on the map. However the single missile packs are not. Which is a bit annoying/disappointing. You just have to happen upon them or see a very hard to see glint. I wish they were also on the map. I would have collected them.
The areas are well varied. The enemies are good. It's yet again a Metroid clone so expect to take damage just trying to speed through rooms. Sometimes it's not worth the time to not get damaged. The art in general is pretty good.
The story is sure something. I didn't pay too much attention to it. It's pretty dark from what I gleamed from it. They do give you an option to play the game without the "triggering" data logs. That is a nice touch. And yeah, some of the data logs are a bit much and can be triggering. So good on the dev for that.
You can save at anytime. IDK what it really did though. As you always start from the recovery/checkpoint areas. The game does seem to save everything you do as soon as you do it. Good thing too. Because I did get stuck in walls twice. I restarted and it saved the items I just collected and the map progress. So the only real harm was having to walk back. Although it does feel you can def death warp to exploit the game for speedruns.
All in all, this free game was very good. I had a lot of fun with it. Axiom Verge is still better but it reminded me a lot of it. I'm very happy I gave it a chance. If you love Metroid or metroidvanias, don't skip out on this game. IT'S FREE!
2016
A cute metroidvania plagued by amateur design mistakes.
I like this game. But I must warn you, it is jank. It is amateurish. It is just an odd mess of a game. But still fun enough and not broken. Just basic. The achievements are very easy as well.
It's story is cute. The cutscenes are like these hand drawn slides. It's very endearing and charming. A simple story but still a nice one. There are some really cool set pieces.
The game itself is pretty. The problem is that you cannot tell what in part of the foreground or background at times. It can be too busy. It can hide things in ways that are frustrating.
Combat is very basic. And you do it a lot. Play this on the easiest difficulty for your sanity. The game just enemy spams you. It's not hard, just tedious. And they will follow you forever.
The floaty and water physics are okay. The dash/speed up mode is stamina based. It's annoying and not super useful. You momentum carries and it can be very annoying. Certain other mechanics require your momentum to do. It can be unreliable.
Do you like collecting things? There's a lot to collect. And after a certain point, it's no longer worth your time because you are fully upgraded. The treasures can be fun or too obscure. Upgrades are sometimes useful. You will easily be able to get all the upgrades.
Traversing the map is mostly fine. It's not a huge game. It is big enough to be annoying to travel across constantly though. There are simply not enough warp points. a lot of the time you either gotta choose between going a long way to warp or going a long way without warping. Sometimes it is not worth going to the warp.
There are only 2 real bosses. The first is a bit annoying as it's hard to see what to grab. The hitboxes suck too. But it's still pretty simple. Play this game on the easiest difficulty due to the terrible hitboxes.
The final boss is simple enemy spam and grabbing so things. It was a welcomed easy boss. It was fun. Prior to that there is a section of one hit kill enemies that have terrible hitboxes on their moves and can grab you from across the planet. That kinda ruin the experience a bit.
One last complaint is just how jank the game is. Near the end there is a mechanic that doesn't work well at all. It's infuriating. Like one of the worst mechanics I've seen in awhile. But, it doesn't last long.
Anyways this is a good game. It's fine. Middle of the road. Good to waste a bit of your time.
I like this game. But I must warn you, it is jank. It is amateurish. It is just an odd mess of a game. But still fun enough and not broken. Just basic. The achievements are very easy as well.
It's story is cute. The cutscenes are like these hand drawn slides. It's very endearing and charming. A simple story but still a nice one. There are some really cool set pieces.
The game itself is pretty. The problem is that you cannot tell what in part of the foreground or background at times. It can be too busy. It can hide things in ways that are frustrating.
Combat is very basic. And you do it a lot. Play this on the easiest difficulty for your sanity. The game just enemy spams you. It's not hard, just tedious. And they will follow you forever.
The floaty and water physics are okay. The dash/speed up mode is stamina based. It's annoying and not super useful. You momentum carries and it can be very annoying. Certain other mechanics require your momentum to do. It can be unreliable.
Do you like collecting things? There's a lot to collect. And after a certain point, it's no longer worth your time because you are fully upgraded. The treasures can be fun or too obscure. Upgrades are sometimes useful. You will easily be able to get all the upgrades.
Traversing the map is mostly fine. It's not a huge game. It is big enough to be annoying to travel across constantly though. There are simply not enough warp points. a lot of the time you either gotta choose between going a long way to warp or going a long way without warping. Sometimes it is not worth going to the warp.
There are only 2 real bosses. The first is a bit annoying as it's hard to see what to grab. The hitboxes suck too. But it's still pretty simple. Play this game on the easiest difficulty due to the terrible hitboxes.
The final boss is simple enemy spam and grabbing so things. It was a welcomed easy boss. It was fun. Prior to that there is a section of one hit kill enemies that have terrible hitboxes on their moves and can grab you from across the planet. That kinda ruin the experience a bit.
One last complaint is just how jank the game is. Near the end there is a mechanic that doesn't work well at all. It's infuriating. Like one of the worst mechanics I've seen in awhile. But, it doesn't last long.
Anyways this is a good game. It's fine. Middle of the road. Good to waste a bit of your time.
A game that starts out strong but very quickly you see through the matrix and the gameplay loop.
I miss when horror games were not just about stalking/chasing you. I'll elaborate more on this later. When I say stalked I mean the boss is walking around looking for you and run after you if spotted. When I say chased it means a high pressure moment where something is following you. It's more scripted and you cannot escape.
This game has some really good moments and some very mediocre ones. The game is set up in 4 different main areas/bosses, a hub world and a intro/finale sections. The hub world is decently fun to explore. It has a little bit of a metroidvania feel to it. As in you can't explore it all without getting access to something that allows you to progress.
The first main area is the best. It feels the most like old Resident Evil. We are in a mansion. The bosses in here are really fun. And they are constantly stalking/chasing you. A total of 4 of them. Just a really fun section. I got spooked a few times. I was very on edge throughout it. The boss fights were fun too.
You then end up going to a modern horror section. Which is actually decently fun. It's like, find the puppet multiple times within a time limit or die kind of thing. Cool and a first time RE has done something like that. But then, you get chased once again for no reason by something incredibly stupid.
Section 3 is the worst. Just not a fun area. Not a fun theme. The boss is dumb. His fight is dumb. He is not even scary. And guess what...HE CHASES YOU! His chases are a bit more scripted though.
Section 4 is fun. The only problem is the you guessed it, you are being chased constantly. I will say the boss is very fun and unique. Despite being chased for the 5-6 time by a boss.(I left a few of the other chases out.)
A lot of other things happen after that I won't talk about due to spoilers. The final boss is fine but also real annoying.
The story is fine. It's RE. Some plot twists. Ties some stuff together. It's serviceable for a horror game story.
Gameplay wise, it's also nothing special. It's a horror FPS. Do not expect it to be anything more than that.
Now let's talk about my biggest complaint and what I told you I would elaborate on at the start of this review. You constantly being stalked/chased. Each of the 4 sections you get chased. You get chased in the intro. I'm sure there are other times I'm forgetting. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO HAVE A CHASE SCENE! You don't always need an invincible thing stalking you at all times. At a certain point, you knew the game was going to have a chase scene. It no longer was fun or scary. Just annoying.
The entire first large area is you being stalked by 4 different bosses. The next area is really cool. Then for some reason you have to run away from something to escape. Followed by another chase section. Killing that boss. To then be stalked and chased again. Mind you, most if not all can one shot you if they catch you.
This is not a bad game. It's just respective. Being stalked and chased can be fun, but not if it's the entire game. There are other ways to create suspense and spooky vibes. I just wish this game did more of that.
I miss when horror games were not just about stalking/chasing you. I'll elaborate more on this later. When I say stalked I mean the boss is walking around looking for you and run after you if spotted. When I say chased it means a high pressure moment where something is following you. It's more scripted and you cannot escape.
This game has some really good moments and some very mediocre ones. The game is set up in 4 different main areas/bosses, a hub world and a intro/finale sections. The hub world is decently fun to explore. It has a little bit of a metroidvania feel to it. As in you can't explore it all without getting access to something that allows you to progress.
The first main area is the best. It feels the most like old Resident Evil. We are in a mansion. The bosses in here are really fun. And they are constantly stalking/chasing you. A total of 4 of them. Just a really fun section. I got spooked a few times. I was very on edge throughout it. The boss fights were fun too.
You then end up going to a modern horror section. Which is actually decently fun. It's like, find the puppet multiple times within a time limit or die kind of thing. Cool and a first time RE has done something like that. But then, you get chased once again for no reason by something incredibly stupid.
Section 3 is the worst. Just not a fun area. Not a fun theme. The boss is dumb. His fight is dumb. He is not even scary. And guess what...HE CHASES YOU! His chases are a bit more scripted though.
Section 4 is fun. The only problem is the you guessed it, you are being chased constantly. I will say the boss is very fun and unique. Despite being chased for the 5-6 time by a boss.(I left a few of the other chases out.)
A lot of other things happen after that I won't talk about due to spoilers. The final boss is fine but also real annoying.
The story is fine. It's RE. Some plot twists. Ties some stuff together. It's serviceable for a horror game story.
Gameplay wise, it's also nothing special. It's a horror FPS. Do not expect it to be anything more than that.
Now let's talk about my biggest complaint and what I told you I would elaborate on at the start of this review. You constantly being stalked/chased. Each of the 4 sections you get chased. You get chased in the intro. I'm sure there are other times I'm forgetting. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO HAVE A CHASE SCENE! You don't always need an invincible thing stalking you at all times. At a certain point, you knew the game was going to have a chase scene. It no longer was fun or scary. Just annoying.
The entire first large area is you being stalked by 4 different bosses. The next area is really cool. Then for some reason you have to run away from something to escape. Followed by another chase section. Killing that boss. To then be stalked and chased again. Mind you, most if not all can one shot you if they catch you.
This is not a bad game. It's just respective. Being stalked and chased can be fun, but not if it's the entire game. There are other ways to create suspense and spooky vibes. I just wish this game did more of that.
2011
A classic from the Xbox Live Arcade era.
The music and narration are the stars of this game. The narration is infamous. It gives the game so much charm. And omg, the music. I was so surprised by how good it was. It took a decent experience and elevated it.
There is far more story than I ever expected. This game was always described as "the game with the amazing narrator". But it is far more than that. I cannot believe the plot was never spoiled for me. Great story accompanied by some well timed songs.
Gameplay is fun. I played on the easiest mode. I feel like the game is super punishing. Building the bastion up is neat. The weapons are neat but once you find one you like, there is no need to change. There is a great variety in gameplay.
Combat is good but also basic. It's also a bit button mashy. Sometimes enemies are too tanky or too elusive.
The game looks great. Has a great art direction. Destructible environments are neat. Sometimes it's a bit too busy. But you do get a lot of variety. The camera angle can make stuff misleading at times but it's not that big of an issue.
The coolest thing about this game is that you can really see the influence on Hades. It really feels and looks like Hades. Just a much more basic Hades. If you like Hades, this is a great way to see it's humble beginnings.
The music and narration are the stars of this game. The narration is infamous. It gives the game so much charm. And omg, the music. I was so surprised by how good it was. It took a decent experience and elevated it.
There is far more story than I ever expected. This game was always described as "the game with the amazing narrator". But it is far more than that. I cannot believe the plot was never spoiled for me. Great story accompanied by some well timed songs.
Gameplay is fun. I played on the easiest mode. I feel like the game is super punishing. Building the bastion up is neat. The weapons are neat but once you find one you like, there is no need to change. There is a great variety in gameplay.
Combat is good but also basic. It's also a bit button mashy. Sometimes enemies are too tanky or too elusive.
The game looks great. Has a great art direction. Destructible environments are neat. Sometimes it's a bit too busy. But you do get a lot of variety. The camera angle can make stuff misleading at times but it's not that big of an issue.
The coolest thing about this game is that you can really see the influence on Hades. It really feels and looks like Hades. Just a much more basic Hades. If you like Hades, this is a great way to see it's humble beginnings.
2020
Cute puzzle/escape room game that suffers from nonsense puzzles.
This game looks pretty. The music is fine.
It has some great puzzles, some challenging yet rewarding puzzles and then a few nonsense puzzles. Like there were times where I felt like, "HOW WAS I EVER GOING TO KNOW THAT?"
It's a cute game. It's free. I liked it mostly. It controls well. But most games like this can be ruined by a few too many nonsense puzzles. Good game for free.
I lack a lot to say about this game. It didn't leave much of an impression on me. By the end I wanted it to be over. But I still had more to go.
It's fine.
This game looks pretty. The music is fine.
It has some great puzzles, some challenging yet rewarding puzzles and then a few nonsense puzzles. Like there were times where I felt like, "HOW WAS I EVER GOING TO KNOW THAT?"
It's a cute game. It's free. I liked it mostly. It controls well. But most games like this can be ruined by a few too many nonsense puzzles. Good game for free.
I lack a lot to say about this game. It didn't leave much of an impression on me. By the end I wanted it to be over. But I still had more to go.
It's fine.
2019
A perspective puzzler that lasts a bit too long.
This is a decent puzzle game. At first the puzzles are a lot of fun. But the gimmick sure does get old. At a certain point you are just doing the same thing over and over.
The story is fine. I don't remember it being especially great. It was fine for what the game is.
The puzzles are not too bad bad. Most of them are pretty clear. A few are too cryptic though.
The controls are...serviceable. It can get kind of annoying trying to make items larger or smaller. Trying to get the exact size you need can cause tedium. And that is the major problem. The tedium leads to the gimmick lasting too long. Too repetitive. Makes you want the game to end about an hour before it actually does.
Still a good game. Great to play once.
This is a decent puzzle game. At first the puzzles are a lot of fun. But the gimmick sure does get old. At a certain point you are just doing the same thing over and over.
The story is fine. I don't remember it being especially great. It was fine for what the game is.
The puzzles are not too bad bad. Most of them are pretty clear. A few are too cryptic though.
The controls are...serviceable. It can get kind of annoying trying to make items larger or smaller. Trying to get the exact size you need can cause tedium. And that is the major problem. The tedium leads to the gimmick lasting too long. Too repetitive. Makes you want the game to end about an hour before it actually does.
Still a good game. Great to play once.
2019
A purposely clunky yet cute game.
This is a cute game with a cute story. I enjoyed it enough. I had fun with it. But I'm not in love with it like everyone else was at the time.
The controls are purposely annoying. But in a good way. Most of the time it's funny. Although a few times it can be kind of annoying. Sometimes the NPCs are frustratingly unpredictable. They can at times only zero in your main objectives despite you setting up multiple distractions. It may last slightly too long too.
All in all, a cute one time play through. It's goofy. It's cute. True to life to how a goose would act. It made for a good clip or two.
This is a cute game with a cute story. I enjoyed it enough. I had fun with it. But I'm not in love with it like everyone else was at the time.
The controls are purposely annoying. But in a good way. Most of the time it's funny. Although a few times it can be kind of annoying. Sometimes the NPCs are frustratingly unpredictable. They can at times only zero in your main objectives despite you setting up multiple distractions. It may last slightly too long too.
All in all, a cute one time play through. It's goofy. It's cute. True to life to how a goose would act. It made for a good clip or two.
2022
A parody game that is vastly superior to what it is parodying.
I loved this game. It's pretty humorous. It does a great job of understanding the good parts of The Witness and poking fun at what is terrible about it. The dev sure knew exactly what to do. They must have loved The Witness.
There are just so many jokes in this game. A lot of them can be funny without knowledge of The Witness. But of course, there is a whole layer can only be understood if you know The Witness.
The gimmicks do not ware out their welcome. They do a great job at making things more difficult but still fair/fun. There were only a few that were truly a bit much.
The second to last puzzle is def hard. It was the only one that felt like a true challenge. The final puzzle is the best though. That's all I'll say about that.
As someone who has major issues with The Witness this game solved pretty much all of them. It's a fair game. A game that is not up it's own ass. And most importantly, not made by Jonathon Blow. A man who refused to make his puzzle game accessible because it was against his artist vision or w/e his worthless excuse was. All you had to do is add numbers to the color puzzles Jon. So people who struggle with color blindness can complete your puzzles. Sorry, ablest behavior makes me bitter/angry.
I loved this game. It's pretty humorous. It does a great job of understanding the good parts of The Witness and poking fun at what is terrible about it. The dev sure knew exactly what to do. They must have loved The Witness.
There are just so many jokes in this game. A lot of them can be funny without knowledge of The Witness. But of course, there is a whole layer can only be understood if you know The Witness.
The gimmicks do not ware out their welcome. They do a great job at making things more difficult but still fair/fun. There were only a few that were truly a bit much.
The second to last puzzle is def hard. It was the only one that felt like a true challenge. The final puzzle is the best though. That's all I'll say about that.
As someone who has major issues with The Witness this game solved pretty much all of them. It's a fair game. A game that is not up it's own ass. And most importantly, not made by Jonathon Blow. A man who refused to make his puzzle game accessible because it was against his artist vision or w/e his worthless excuse was. All you had to do is add numbers to the color puzzles Jon. So people who struggle with color blindness can complete your puzzles. Sorry, ablest behavior makes me bitter/angry.
2006
Mindless Action JRPG Fun.
I only completed Yunica's Story. I heard the other campaigns are the same with very slight difference. Just a different playstyle for the characters.
This was such a fun game. I do have a few minor complaints but it was a joy to play. The best part is combat. It's super mindless but satisfying. It's easy to understand and you feel super powerful. It's mostly just spamming attack and spells. It just works.
Story is a huge nothing burger. Like, it barely matters. Very forgettable. But this game is all about the gameplay.
My biggest complaint is sometimes the game just kinda expects you to magically know something. Like put on this ring and go to this room and kill these enemies to progress. Like very oddly specific things. I had to look stuff up on occasion.
Although very fun, it may also last a little too long. The dungeon itself is pretty bland looking. There is not much variety.
I still really enjoyed this due to the combat alone. The bosses are fun. If you get crushed by a boss, just take 10 minutes to grind a few levels. Gaining levels is super helpful and you are constantly getting more powerful. The lower level become a joke after awhile as you are so much stronger than you were before. It gives you a nice sense of progression.
The platforming kinda sucks. But for the most part, you will get the hang of it. It is just hard to judge jumps.
I also enjoyed the very light metroidvania aspects. I mean, very light. This is not a metroidvania.
I know this review is kinda all of the place, but this game was fantastic. A great one time play. The combat is what sells the game.
I only completed Yunica's Story. I heard the other campaigns are the same with very slight difference. Just a different playstyle for the characters.
This was such a fun game. I do have a few minor complaints but it was a joy to play. The best part is combat. It's super mindless but satisfying. It's easy to understand and you feel super powerful. It's mostly just spamming attack and spells. It just works.
Story is a huge nothing burger. Like, it barely matters. Very forgettable. But this game is all about the gameplay.
My biggest complaint is sometimes the game just kinda expects you to magically know something. Like put on this ring and go to this room and kill these enemies to progress. Like very oddly specific things. I had to look stuff up on occasion.
Although very fun, it may also last a little too long. The dungeon itself is pretty bland looking. There is not much variety.
I still really enjoyed this due to the combat alone. The bosses are fun. If you get crushed by a boss, just take 10 minutes to grind a few levels. Gaining levels is super helpful and you are constantly getting more powerful. The lower level become a joke after awhile as you are so much stronger than you were before. It gives you a nice sense of progression.
The platforming kinda sucks. But for the most part, you will get the hang of it. It is just hard to judge jumps.
I also enjoyed the very light metroidvania aspects. I mean, very light. This is not a metroidvania.
I know this review is kinda all of the place, but this game was fantastic. A great one time play. The combat is what sells the game.
A mixed bag of a sequel that improves on some things yet falters on others. A game that tries to force variety but makes it a chore instead. (I'm going to be adding more to this in the coming days as I remember more talking points.)
Let me start out by saying, I played 150hrs of this game. I still liked it. I just am not going to let it get away with all the terrible design just because I liked it. This game is no where near perfect. Still a fun game though.
I will be doing a rare thing and speaking about story in detail, but not until the very end and I will tell you before I spoil anything. I will give a brief spoiler free story opinion too.
First off, the combat has been drastically improved. Dodging actually does something. Although not well explained, the new synergy abilities and attacks are neat. The pressure system is a great addition as it help you stugger things quicker.
The story is mostly good. Although it drags on. It's pacing is constantly interrupted. It forces story into areas that never used to have story. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. It's not as streamlined as remake. A lot of side quest do end up tying into something relevant with either the world, a specific character's story, or the story as a whole. This is neat. Although some are completely there for filler and have no relation to anything. It's more faithful to a fault I feel. Feels like you do things because 7 OG did it, not because it was necessary. Like you visit every time almost but they force story in those towns that lacked any story before. I won't say anything about the end here, but I have thoughts. All I'll say is that it is confusing, in a bad way. It will be in the spoiler section.
Now let's get down to the meat of this review, what is wrong with the game? There is going to be a lot here. But bare with me. No one else seems to be saying it and someone needs to.
The open world is simply tedious, not needed, and serves no real purpose but padding out an already padded game. It destroys the pacing of the story. And yes, although optional, you need the exp, the resources, and the relationship points. So it doesn't feel optional. Not only that but Chadley is literally interrupting you at all times making what is already a slow process, even worse.
Running around the world is jank. The animations get very tedious.
You can swim across anything most of the game, until all the sudden, you can't swim across a 5ft body of water in the open world because they don't want you to. It's really dumb and simply an excuse to give a purpose to something existing in the game. And no, I'm not talking about a swamp.
Upgrading is now delegated to specific machine/vendors which is a complete downgrade from Remake where you can do it anywhere anytime.
Let's talk about mini games. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE A FUCKING MINI GAME FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH! Let me repeat that, not everything needs to be be a fucking mini game. Like OMFG, I try my best not to cuss in reviews, but holy shit. I cannot express how infuriating it is to have shitty mini game every five steps. And no, I'm not talking about the amazing Queen's Blood. I'm talking about every quest turning into an annoying, terrible controlling, bad designed mini game. Sometimes they are optional. Other times they are not. Like they saw other mini games in other games and said, "Let's make that!, But Worse!" It kills the pacing of the game. It makes certain quests a chore. It makes one specific chapter unbearably slow. And no, I'm not talking about the Gold Saucer. Which surprisingly, had mostly good mini games.
Let's talk about the lighting in the game. It's shit. I'm sorry, but the game starts at 0 or 1 brightness by defeat and it's still too damn bright. Every time you exit into a bright area, you can't see. Everytime you enter a dark area, you can't see. THAT ISN'T HOW LIGHT ACTUALLY WORKS SQUARE! Yes on occasion, if you are out in the bright sun, it might be hard to see in a dark doorway. On occasion if you are in a dark area, it might be hard to see outside for a second. But not every time! But what makes this worse is that in cutscenes, characters look bleached in the sun. It looks terrible. I tried to adjust setting on my TV nothing helped.
Another complaint is the map. It's terrible. Not useful. It doesn't help guide you. It actively confuses you at times. Misleads you. There is a moment early in the game, where it tells you to climb up. You do that, then the Quest Icon on my map moves into the void and is no longer helpful. You don't realize there is another place to climb up because the map doesn't tell you. It's very easily missed due to the lighting. And due to the fact that you just shot a bunch of debris that never goes away.
Let's about about debris and item physics. So they decided your characters can collided with boxes, rocks, metal boxes, etc on the ground. The metal boxes make this loud noise when moved as if you threw them off a fucking cliff. Let's ignore the noises for a second. It just looks terrible. It feels amateurish. The moment I spoke about in the previous paragraphy. Not only is it hard to see because of the lighting, but it hard to see because there soo much debris. Like you blow up 4-5 boulders and at least 4 crystals. So you are walking around in this small area, wading through an ocean of crap that no longer needs to be there because you broke it. Any other game would have despawned the debris. But not this game. It looks terrible. It's amateurish and Square should know better. I expect better from them.
One last thing. Why is the music drastically louder than the voices. I had to lower it and it still honestly was not enough. Like at times, it feelts like you cannot hear the dialogue due to the music. Like yes, easy to fix, but yet again, I expect better from Square. It just adds to the amateurish feel of the game.
Oh and, they should be ashamed of themselves for the complete and utter lack of accessibility features in the game. Get with the times Square. Makes your games accessible. It's not hard.
Here's the thing. I know I'm talking badly about this game. All these things isolated, not that big of an issue. But after awhile it all adds up. Especially in a game that took me 150hrs! The game is just plagued with terrible annoying design.
Here are some more good things. Characters are well fleshed out. Relationships between them are great. Besides the lighting, it looks great. Music is fantastic, as long as it is not blasting over dialogue. The chocobos are cute. The moogles are cursed.
Queen's Blood, the card game, is the best. It's so satisfying. It's really fun. It has a lot going on that I cannot go into due to spoilers. Seriously one of the best card games out there. I want a game based on Queen's Blood alone. Give it to us Square.
This is where I will end my no spoiler review. All in all I still loved this game. I just refuse to let it get away with all this terrible stuff without saying anything. Most other people are not saying these things. And they need to be said. Below this will be spoilers. You have been warned.
YET AGAIN
SPOILERS STARTING
BELOW THIS POINT!
Okay, let's talk about the new playable characters. Red is a lot of fun. Although his Vegence mode is hard to grasp. I let the CPU build up his bar for me. Then used it. I couldn't seem to get a hang of the blocking needed for his gimmick. But the CPU is good at doing it for you. And also, Stardust Ray is OP.
I'm not gonna talk about Yuffie much. She is mainly the say from intergrade. I don't like her as a character nor playing as her tbh.
Cait Sith is super fun. It took me some time to understand him though. He plays very well. And his moogle is also very fun.
The Queen's Blood Story is very cool.
Now, story spoilers. AGAIN, I'M SPOILING STORY. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS.
The Zack story is confusing and mostly amounts to nothing until the end. Like you get minutes with him. Then you go 20hrs with nothing. I don't feel like it paid off most of the time. Except for the end, but yet again, I have words about the end. I'll leave it for last though.
So this game follows 7 OG to a fault. It forces story into areas that lacked them before in a bad way. The most notable is Costal de Sol. They present it as a break for the party. Look at this beach town. Go have fun. The problem with this is, go have fun means. You must play all these mini games that suck and you must get the lowest rank on each. It's terrible. Not fun. There are some cute moments and a fun mini game or two, but mostly it's not great. Especially when you realize the next huge location is leading towards the Gold Saucer. There is 1 chapter in between Costa de Sol vacation and Gold Saucer break. Not only that but before you reach Costa de Sol, you have a break playing in a card tourney on a boat. So yet again, it's just poorly paced. We go from high action in Upper Junon to boat vacay to some action on the boat, back to beach vacay, followed by beach boss, 1 chapter of Barret's story, to Gold Saucer vacay.
They focus a lot on Tifa's and Aerith's friendship. It works so well. It pays off. It's super cute. They do this so well with all the characters. In OG Tifa and Aerith feel like rivals for Cloud's attention. This is much better.
Cait Sith is so cute! I love him. His Moogle is so fluffy. They even do a better job at explaining why he betrays them. They also don't make his sacrifice feel like he is dying. It's dramatic but explained well enough that you know he will return in a minute or two. He also doesn't ruin a serious moment when he return by making a joke.
Added the Gi storyline about the black materia is really neat. I feel like it fleshes out Red's story a bit more. It also is just more world building. It's nice. The one other thing about Red. His voice changes when go to Cosmo Canyon. You find out he is young and he stops trying to act old. I kinda hate the youthful voice. I got used to it, but I like grumpy Red better.
Cid is likeable in this. Dare I say charming. In OG he is not. That is all I gotta say on that. Vincent is cool as always. You fight him. It's a hard but fun fight. Good stuff all around.
Finally learning Wedge's fate was heartbreaking. It does suck. But not surprising. They do a great job of sending the 7th Heaven crew off.
The theme song is very good. And the Gold Saucer date was very good. The whole hour long CH12 Loveless sequence is just amazing. Like one of the best things I've seen Final Fantasy do.
The final boss is really cool except for having no control over your party. That is infuriating. Especially during a moment where my only range character is Yuffie. I needed Barret. The party is randomized. I've watched another streamer and they had a completely different party.
Finally, let's talk about the end. It's super confusing. It starts showing many timelines and you don't realize that the mascot dog is you clue that it's a different timeline. It does this thing where fate still manages to catch up to everyone. Biggs still dies?, Zack gets tracked down by a group of solders in 2 universes and dies? One Zack manages to jump between universes and meet up with our Cloud for the final boss to then give you a fake out death and be placed back in his unverse again. It's a mess.
But even worse is the pivotal moment of Aerith's death. Does she die or not? It's so confusing and fakes you out many times. And you have no time to process it. You enter a 20 minute multi boss multi phase fight not understanding what is going on.
Your Aerith ends up dying. It's not clear though forever. One, it looks like Cloud deflects the blow. He doesn't? It takes like 23 seconds before she reacts to being stabbed. You never see her get stabbed though. It makes no sense that Cloud deflects the blow yet she still gets stabbed mortally. Then she collapses with no blood or any sign of injury. The rest of the characters gasp and then they all rage at a boss for 20 minutes. Followed by the final part of the boss where Aerith fights with Cloud. Your Aerith. Not another universe Aerith. Then she fades into the life stream after the fight. Confirmed dead? BUT WAIT! Then they show a scene with where Cloud tells her to wake up, and she does! So either that is the spirit of Aerith he tells to wake up or it is a new universe where he actually saves her? Anyways, your aerith is a force ghost only Cloud can see. Now add all the Zack stuff in that sequence too. It's so confusing.
It ruins a pivotal moment. It fails Aerith and her journey. You shouldn't have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end. Like I understood, our Aerith died and is a force ghost only Cloud can see. But why fake us out so many times? There was no reason to make it such a mystery. You took one of the most powerful moments in gaming and made it super confusing. Added with the Zack stuff, it's even more confusing.
Tifa being sad about Aerith pays off this time. They were good friends. The whole party is sad. But they don't get to grieve like they do in OG. They don't bury her in the lake like in OG. They barely talk about. They focus so much on Cloud being about to see her force ghost and talking to her.
Great game. Needlessly confusing ending. There is a bit more to it than that. Like all the multiverse Aerith's seem to be making a plan. But still it leaves you so confused unlike Remake. Also one last thing. Remake's ending made it feel like major changes to the story were to come. To be honest, it didn't turn out that way. There are some big changes but a lot of adding more details but not changing much. The multiverse stuff is the biggest change.
Like I just feel as Remake promised major story changes but what we got was more detail but not much actually changes. Biggs dead. Wedge dead. Aerith dead. Like idk. The biggest thing being the multiverse Zach stuff. Which is cool. But it was not a huge part of the game until the end.
Also the whole mascot dog being your indicator of a different universe is not a good enough clue.
Yet again, I should not have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end of you story. It's bad storytelling if I have to do that. I should not be left confused.
Let me start out by saying, I played 150hrs of this game. I still liked it. I just am not going to let it get away with all the terrible design just because I liked it. This game is no where near perfect. Still a fun game though.
I will be doing a rare thing and speaking about story in detail, but not until the very end and I will tell you before I spoil anything. I will give a brief spoiler free story opinion too.
First off, the combat has been drastically improved. Dodging actually does something. Although not well explained, the new synergy abilities and attacks are neat. The pressure system is a great addition as it help you stugger things quicker.
The story is mostly good. Although it drags on. It's pacing is constantly interrupted. It forces story into areas that never used to have story. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. It's not as streamlined as remake. A lot of side quest do end up tying into something relevant with either the world, a specific character's story, or the story as a whole. This is neat. Although some are completely there for filler and have no relation to anything. It's more faithful to a fault I feel. Feels like you do things because 7 OG did it, not because it was necessary. Like you visit every time almost but they force story in those towns that lacked any story before. I won't say anything about the end here, but I have thoughts. All I'll say is that it is confusing, in a bad way. It will be in the spoiler section.
Now let's get down to the meat of this review, what is wrong with the game? There is going to be a lot here. But bare with me. No one else seems to be saying it and someone needs to.
The open world is simply tedious, not needed, and serves no real purpose but padding out an already padded game. It destroys the pacing of the story. And yes, although optional, you need the exp, the resources, and the relationship points. So it doesn't feel optional. Not only that but Chadley is literally interrupting you at all times making what is already a slow process, even worse.
Running around the world is jank. The animations get very tedious.
You can swim across anything most of the game, until all the sudden, you can't swim across a 5ft body of water in the open world because they don't want you to. It's really dumb and simply an excuse to give a purpose to something existing in the game. And no, I'm not talking about a swamp.
Upgrading is now delegated to specific machine/vendors which is a complete downgrade from Remake where you can do it anywhere anytime.
Let's talk about mini games. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE A FUCKING MINI GAME FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH! Let me repeat that, not everything needs to be be a fucking mini game. Like OMFG, I try my best not to cuss in reviews, but holy shit. I cannot express how infuriating it is to have shitty mini game every five steps. And no, I'm not talking about the amazing Queen's Blood. I'm talking about every quest turning into an annoying, terrible controlling, bad designed mini game. Sometimes they are optional. Other times they are not. Like they saw other mini games in other games and said, "Let's make that!, But Worse!" It kills the pacing of the game. It makes certain quests a chore. It makes one specific chapter unbearably slow. And no, I'm not talking about the Gold Saucer. Which surprisingly, had mostly good mini games.
Let's talk about the lighting in the game. It's shit. I'm sorry, but the game starts at 0 or 1 brightness by defeat and it's still too damn bright. Every time you exit into a bright area, you can't see. Everytime you enter a dark area, you can't see. THAT ISN'T HOW LIGHT ACTUALLY WORKS SQUARE! Yes on occasion, if you are out in the bright sun, it might be hard to see in a dark doorway. On occasion if you are in a dark area, it might be hard to see outside for a second. But not every time! But what makes this worse is that in cutscenes, characters look bleached in the sun. It looks terrible. I tried to adjust setting on my TV nothing helped.
Another complaint is the map. It's terrible. Not useful. It doesn't help guide you. It actively confuses you at times. Misleads you. There is a moment early in the game, where it tells you to climb up. You do that, then the Quest Icon on my map moves into the void and is no longer helpful. You don't realize there is another place to climb up because the map doesn't tell you. It's very easily missed due to the lighting. And due to the fact that you just shot a bunch of debris that never goes away.
Let's about about debris and item physics. So they decided your characters can collided with boxes, rocks, metal boxes, etc on the ground. The metal boxes make this loud noise when moved as if you threw them off a fucking cliff. Let's ignore the noises for a second. It just looks terrible. It feels amateurish. The moment I spoke about in the previous paragraphy. Not only is it hard to see because of the lighting, but it hard to see because there soo much debris. Like you blow up 4-5 boulders and at least 4 crystals. So you are walking around in this small area, wading through an ocean of crap that no longer needs to be there because you broke it. Any other game would have despawned the debris. But not this game. It looks terrible. It's amateurish and Square should know better. I expect better from them.
One last thing. Why is the music drastically louder than the voices. I had to lower it and it still honestly was not enough. Like at times, it feelts like you cannot hear the dialogue due to the music. Like yes, easy to fix, but yet again, I expect better from Square. It just adds to the amateurish feel of the game.
Oh and, they should be ashamed of themselves for the complete and utter lack of accessibility features in the game. Get with the times Square. Makes your games accessible. It's not hard.
Here's the thing. I know I'm talking badly about this game. All these things isolated, not that big of an issue. But after awhile it all adds up. Especially in a game that took me 150hrs! The game is just plagued with terrible annoying design.
Here are some more good things. Characters are well fleshed out. Relationships between them are great. Besides the lighting, it looks great. Music is fantastic, as long as it is not blasting over dialogue. The chocobos are cute. The moogles are cursed.
Queen's Blood, the card game, is the best. It's so satisfying. It's really fun. It has a lot going on that I cannot go into due to spoilers. Seriously one of the best card games out there. I want a game based on Queen's Blood alone. Give it to us Square.
This is where I will end my no spoiler review. All in all I still loved this game. I just refuse to let it get away with all this terrible stuff without saying anything. Most other people are not saying these things. And they need to be said. Below this will be spoilers. You have been warned.
YET AGAIN
SPOILERS STARTING
BELOW THIS POINT!
Okay, let's talk about the new playable characters. Red is a lot of fun. Although his Vegence mode is hard to grasp. I let the CPU build up his bar for me. Then used it. I couldn't seem to get a hang of the blocking needed for his gimmick. But the CPU is good at doing it for you. And also, Stardust Ray is OP.
I'm not gonna talk about Yuffie much. She is mainly the say from intergrade. I don't like her as a character nor playing as her tbh.
Cait Sith is super fun. It took me some time to understand him though. He plays very well. And his moogle is also very fun.
The Queen's Blood Story is very cool.
Now, story spoilers. AGAIN, I'M SPOILING STORY. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS.
The Zack story is confusing and mostly amounts to nothing until the end. Like you get minutes with him. Then you go 20hrs with nothing. I don't feel like it paid off most of the time. Except for the end, but yet again, I have words about the end. I'll leave it for last though.
So this game follows 7 OG to a fault. It forces story into areas that lacked them before in a bad way. The most notable is Costal de Sol. They present it as a break for the party. Look at this beach town. Go have fun. The problem with this is, go have fun means. You must play all these mini games that suck and you must get the lowest rank on each. It's terrible. Not fun. There are some cute moments and a fun mini game or two, but mostly it's not great. Especially when you realize the next huge location is leading towards the Gold Saucer. There is 1 chapter in between Costa de Sol vacation and Gold Saucer break. Not only that but before you reach Costa de Sol, you have a break playing in a card tourney on a boat. So yet again, it's just poorly paced. We go from high action in Upper Junon to boat vacay to some action on the boat, back to beach vacay, followed by beach boss, 1 chapter of Barret's story, to Gold Saucer vacay.
They focus a lot on Tifa's and Aerith's friendship. It works so well. It pays off. It's super cute. They do this so well with all the characters. In OG Tifa and Aerith feel like rivals for Cloud's attention. This is much better.
Cait Sith is so cute! I love him. His Moogle is so fluffy. They even do a better job at explaining why he betrays them. They also don't make his sacrifice feel like he is dying. It's dramatic but explained well enough that you know he will return in a minute or two. He also doesn't ruin a serious moment when he return by making a joke.
Added the Gi storyline about the black materia is really neat. I feel like it fleshes out Red's story a bit more. It also is just more world building. It's nice. The one other thing about Red. His voice changes when go to Cosmo Canyon. You find out he is young and he stops trying to act old. I kinda hate the youthful voice. I got used to it, but I like grumpy Red better.
Cid is likeable in this. Dare I say charming. In OG he is not. That is all I gotta say on that. Vincent is cool as always. You fight him. It's a hard but fun fight. Good stuff all around.
Finally learning Wedge's fate was heartbreaking. It does suck. But not surprising. They do a great job of sending the 7th Heaven crew off.
The theme song is very good. And the Gold Saucer date was very good. The whole hour long CH12 Loveless sequence is just amazing. Like one of the best things I've seen Final Fantasy do.
The final boss is really cool except for having no control over your party. That is infuriating. Especially during a moment where my only range character is Yuffie. I needed Barret. The party is randomized. I've watched another streamer and they had a completely different party.
Finally, let's talk about the end. It's super confusing. It starts showing many timelines and you don't realize that the mascot dog is you clue that it's a different timeline. It does this thing where fate still manages to catch up to everyone. Biggs still dies?, Zack gets tracked down by a group of solders in 2 universes and dies? One Zack manages to jump between universes and meet up with our Cloud for the final boss to then give you a fake out death and be placed back in his unverse again. It's a mess.
But even worse is the pivotal moment of Aerith's death. Does she die or not? It's so confusing and fakes you out many times. And you have no time to process it. You enter a 20 minute multi boss multi phase fight not understanding what is going on.
Your Aerith ends up dying. It's not clear though forever. One, it looks like Cloud deflects the blow. He doesn't? It takes like 23 seconds before she reacts to being stabbed. You never see her get stabbed though. It makes no sense that Cloud deflects the blow yet she still gets stabbed mortally. Then she collapses with no blood or any sign of injury. The rest of the characters gasp and then they all rage at a boss for 20 minutes. Followed by the final part of the boss where Aerith fights with Cloud. Your Aerith. Not another universe Aerith. Then she fades into the life stream after the fight. Confirmed dead? BUT WAIT! Then they show a scene with where Cloud tells her to wake up, and she does! So either that is the spirit of Aerith he tells to wake up or it is a new universe where he actually saves her? Anyways, your aerith is a force ghost only Cloud can see. Now add all the Zack stuff in that sequence too. It's so confusing.
It ruins a pivotal moment. It fails Aerith and her journey. You shouldn't have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end. Like I understood, our Aerith died and is a force ghost only Cloud can see. But why fake us out so many times? There was no reason to make it such a mystery. You took one of the most powerful moments in gaming and made it super confusing. Added with the Zack stuff, it's even more confusing.
Tifa being sad about Aerith pays off this time. They were good friends. The whole party is sad. But they don't get to grieve like they do in OG. They don't bury her in the lake like in OG. They barely talk about. They focus so much on Cloud being about to see her force ghost and talking to her.
Great game. Needlessly confusing ending. There is a bit more to it than that. Like all the multiverse Aerith's seem to be making a plan. But still it leaves you so confused unlike Remake. Also one last thing. Remake's ending made it feel like major changes to the story were to come. To be honest, it didn't turn out that way. There are some big changes but a lot of adding more details but not changing much. The multiverse stuff is the biggest change.
Like I just feel as Remake promised major story changes but what we got was more detail but not much actually changes. Biggs dead. Wedge dead. Aerith dead. Like idk. The biggest thing being the multiverse Zach stuff. Which is cool. But it was not a huge part of the game until the end.
Also the whole mascot dog being your indicator of a different universe is not a good enough clue.
Yet again, I should not have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end of you story. It's bad storytelling if I have to do that. I should not be left confused.
This is going to be a brief review. I don't have much to say here. This is fine. It's not great but also not bad.
This did not need to exist. It could have been in Rebirth. As I said in my PS4 review of Remake, this DLC was pretty anti consumer. There was no reason why it could not have also been on the PS4.
Nothing that happens in this DLC is taken from the original FFVII. It feels very important for what is to come, but also was clearly made to ship copies of an enhanced PS5 version of Remake. It felt very scummy to me.
The story was fine. I like Yuffie. The Nostalgia factor beyond, oh that's Yuffie, is really the only driving force. It didn't hit me like Remake did because it's all new material only relying on Yuffie and one other OG character's appearance.
Also, as I said in my Remake review, it's great that each character plays differently, but also bad when you don't like how one plays and you are forced to play with them. I didn't like Yuffie's playstyle. It was a bit too chaotic and a lot of micromanagement for me.
Is it cool to see what she is doing before she meets the rest of the gang? Yes. Was it needed? No. Could it have just been in Rebirth? Yes. Maybe it would not have felt so hastily done. So scummy.
It's fine. But I suggest just watching it on Youtube. No need to buy Intergrade just for the DLC. It's not long enough to justify it either. I will assume you will need to know it for Rebirth though.
This did not need to exist. It could have been in Rebirth. As I said in my PS4 review of Remake, this DLC was pretty anti consumer. There was no reason why it could not have also been on the PS4.
Nothing that happens in this DLC is taken from the original FFVII. It feels very important for what is to come, but also was clearly made to ship copies of an enhanced PS5 version of Remake. It felt very scummy to me.
The story was fine. I like Yuffie. The Nostalgia factor beyond, oh that's Yuffie, is really the only driving force. It didn't hit me like Remake did because it's all new material only relying on Yuffie and one other OG character's appearance.
Also, as I said in my Remake review, it's great that each character plays differently, but also bad when you don't like how one plays and you are forced to play with them. I didn't like Yuffie's playstyle. It was a bit too chaotic and a lot of micromanagement for me.
Is it cool to see what she is doing before she meets the rest of the gang? Yes. Was it needed? No. Could it have just been in Rebirth? Yes. Maybe it would not have felt so hastily done. So scummy.
It's fine. But I suggest just watching it on Youtube. No need to buy Intergrade just for the DLC. It's not long enough to justify it either. I will assume you will need to know it for Rebirth though.
A Fantastic Remake of a Classic JRPG. (Sweet Review #69).
I know, I rated this higher than OG FFVII. Is it actually a better game? Probably not? But it made me feel things about a game that I have not felt in a very long time. I'm giving this a 5 star because of how it made me feel when playing it. Realistically it deserves a 4.
What do I mean by that? This gave me nostalgia for a game and characters, I never had before. Before this game, I was in the camp of "FFVII is Overrated." This game made me love these characters in a way I never did before andhelp me find a new love for the original.
Seeing these characters, this world, and the music brought to life in a way that was not possible on original release brought tears to my eyes. I struggled so hard with this game emotionally. Credit to the voice acting and the music. It broke me in a way that gave me nostalgia for a game I never had nostaligic feelings for before.
This game makes me feel the same way I feel when I think back on first playing Banjo-Kazooie. Being my favorite game ever, that's a big deal that another game can somehow create that level of nostalgic feeling in me. The only other thing to do that is playing FFIX with Moguri Mod and hearing the orchestrated Town of Dali music. Legit broke me and I cried.
Let's talk about Remake outside of my mind breaking feelings. The action rpg combat is fine. Is it my favorite? No. Things can be tanky, especially bosses. I do love how each characters plays different. But that also leads to you not wanting to play as certain characters. Is it still super fun? Yes. Thinking more and more about it, I think the change was necessary. The OG turn based system is pretty simplistic. And VII as a whole is a very easy game. I think having Remake be its own experience is a good thing.
Now, do I feel like there is some unneeded fluff? Absolutely! Sometimes certain areas drag on, when they were like 2 screens in OG. I don't want to being hitting a boss for 10-15 minutes just to die and have to start again. Especially not on easy. Also the forced walking sections are not needed. Don't slow the players movement. It's just annoying. The PS4 version is pretty in some ways and ugly in others. One last complaint, don't hide stuff behind difficulty levels. Not cool. Also not putting the DLC on PS4 is simply anti consumer. It seems like it'll be important. Yet again, not cool.
I'm sure you all know by, now how I feel about the story, characters and music. They gave me the feels. The only other time I cared about Cloud was in Crisis Core. Remake is the only time I cared about Aerith. When I went back to OG, this game made me care so much more about them. The star of the show is Jessie, but I sure do love Aerith now. All I can say is I love what they are doing with the story. I don't want to spoil anything. The last thing I'm going to say is that this game, mostly because of the fantastic voice acting, music and story, made me care about something I didn't think I cared about. It completely changed how I felt about a classic JRPG. And that's kinda, magical.
I know, I rated this higher than OG FFVII. Is it actually a better game? Probably not? But it made me feel things about a game that I have not felt in a very long time. I'm giving this a 5 star because of how it made me feel when playing it. Realistically it deserves a 4.
What do I mean by that? This gave me nostalgia for a game and characters, I never had before. Before this game, I was in the camp of "FFVII is Overrated." This game made me love these characters in a way I never did before andhelp me find a new love for the original.
Seeing these characters, this world, and the music brought to life in a way that was not possible on original release brought tears to my eyes. I struggled so hard with this game emotionally. Credit to the voice acting and the music. It broke me in a way that gave me nostalgia for a game I never had nostaligic feelings for before.
This game makes me feel the same way I feel when I think back on first playing Banjo-Kazooie. Being my favorite game ever, that's a big deal that another game can somehow create that level of nostalgic feeling in me. The only other thing to do that is playing FFIX with Moguri Mod and hearing the orchestrated Town of Dali music. Legit broke me and I cried.
Let's talk about Remake outside of my mind breaking feelings. The action rpg combat is fine. Is it my favorite? No. Things can be tanky, especially bosses. I do love how each characters plays different. But that also leads to you not wanting to play as certain characters. Is it still super fun? Yes. Thinking more and more about it, I think the change was necessary. The OG turn based system is pretty simplistic. And VII as a whole is a very easy game. I think having Remake be its own experience is a good thing.
Now, do I feel like there is some unneeded fluff? Absolutely! Sometimes certain areas drag on, when they were like 2 screens in OG. I don't want to being hitting a boss for 10-15 minutes just to die and have to start again. Especially not on easy. Also the forced walking sections are not needed. Don't slow the players movement. It's just annoying. The PS4 version is pretty in some ways and ugly in others. One last complaint, don't hide stuff behind difficulty levels. Not cool. Also not putting the DLC on PS4 is simply anti consumer. It seems like it'll be important. Yet again, not cool.
I'm sure you all know by, now how I feel about the story, characters and music. They gave me the feels. The only other time I cared about Cloud was in Crisis Core. Remake is the only time I cared about Aerith. When I went back to OG, this game made me care so much more about them. The star of the show is Jessie, but I sure do love Aerith now. All I can say is I love what they are doing with the story. I don't want to spoil anything. The last thing I'm going to say is that this game, mostly because of the fantastic voice acting, music and story, made me care about something I didn't think I cared about. It completely changed how I felt about a classic JRPG. And that's kinda, magical.