so obviously this game is literally impossible to play in its entirety in its original form nowadays so i just wanted to write a little smth on this one based on videos and other shit ive researched.
its interesting how much effort was put into this story and its essentially the precursor to crisis core and remake on the basis of the innerworkings of shinra. i think the best part of the compilation is how they handled this, invoking the feelings and thoughts of people who work in shinra aka the turks (this game) and SOLDIER (crisis core). they even somehow connected dirge to this shit seeing how azul was originally captured and whatever. you can see the obvious anti-governmental overtones of "SHINRA BAD" continued from the first game but they delve deeper into how the employees pay this no mind. yeah we got our hoe SHOTGUN and our bro ZACK GONGAGA to reflect on what they're really doing as shinra but most of everyone else just does whatever they're told. turks just want the moners and soldiers just wanna fuck up some bad dudes. im getting a bit off track here which i'll save for my crisis core review but you get my point.
anyways BEFORE CRISIS: FFVII is like twewy but not really with the art having the bombastic and sharp thickass nomura mid 2000s style. the combat and sprites and shit look kind twewyish but idk how it actually plays cuz youtube lol. the art is really fuckin good INCLUDING the soundtrack done by the THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU composer. legendary TAKEHARU ISHIMOTO does some really fuckin amazing guitar and drumbeats here that you can defo tell are the precursor to twewy. the vocalist on one of the songs is the same lol. hell one of the songs flat out sounds like it could be in twewy.
to put things into perspective you're basically the turkish turkey turk bitches and you go on an adventure doing shinra mission shit. its p stylized and intriguing as ive said with seeing INSIDE SHIN-RA. turks gonna be turks. you got some cool writting from what i've seen with natural character interactions (TWEWY lol.). you go through junon and kalm and shit and its like wow i remember those places now they are on my panasonic foldable 6000 flip phone phone or something idk. this game is real cool for being a simple flip phone game and i hope we can get an actual rom of it someday (the remake is very cool from what i've seen tho so getting a rom of the og probably isnt that important nowadays). okay what the fuck is with the turk names the man with a knife is literally called KNIFE what is this shit. nomura gave up on these turkey ocs i swear. also yes this "review" is very ramble-y and somewhat incoherent im aware, just wanted to share my thoughts on this game since no one else really has on the site.

THE BOUNCER

so like the gameplay is probably a 5 or 6/10 but the style and presentation have this immaculate amount of charm and style that outclasses even other squaresoft games at the time (minus racing lagoon). i love the over-the-top action and the goddamn loading screens with their gradients and insane lore dumps viewable in at most 10 seconds. there’s a lot more depth here as shown by the fuckin entire ass art and lore book they made for the game. still waiting for that to get translated. even then this stuff isn’t what carries the whole game for me, the gameplay is pretty solid. yeah it’s bs when your teammate steals you kill and shit but i just have a good time with its ragdoll-juggling pressure-sensitive-button-pressing action. this is like THE squaresoft game for me with how it conveys its ideas through its artstyle, 2000s nomura ass characters, and bangin eguchi tunes. this is a squaresoft game to the end.

I’m laughing. I watch the ending CGI video play as the name “TETSUYA NOMURA” flashes onto the screen. I’m laughing hysterically. What the hell did I just play.

Dirge of Cerberus is not a Final Fantasy VII game. The story features returning characters and locations, but aside from that there’s really nothing really tying this back to Final Fantasy VII. To think the most popular and beloved rpg of all time led to…whatever this is.
To give credit where credit is due, there were some aspects of the story and gameplay that I enjoyed. The overall presentation and atmosphere is absolutely stellar in fact, but it’s definitely not enough to carry a game such as this one. Well, without prolonging this introduction any longer, here is the third part of my Final Fantasy VII series retrospective.

Unfortunately what’s ultimately holding back the gameplay isn’t how Vincent controls, but rather everything else in these damned stages. Vincent controls swiftly and smoothly and there is a flow to his movements, but levels are just too obtuse for their own good. There is some minimal exploration but it is extremely forced and usually just makes levels way more tedious than needed. You typically need to hunt down a cardkey to allow access to the next area which isn’t a bad idea on its own, but they’re always in a small offshoot room with a bunch of enemies that don’t enhance the level’s structure at all. Getting the cardkey is just delaying the inevitable level progression with annoying enemies and design. The developers must’ve just given up by the end of the game because you’re consistently thrown into these large areas where you have barely any time to react to oncoming bullets and no places to gain legitimate cover. It doesn’t help that these levels already feel needlessly long due to the terrible pacing. Sometimes in the middle of a level you’ll get a random lore dump for Vincent’s backstory for no reason. What is the point of this? Story developments are usually a reward for completing stages but here they just show up whenever the hell they want.
My one positive point here is the weapon customization. It’s actually handled pretty well; you have three main weapon types: machine gun, handgun, and rifle. You can easily switch between these three with the press of a button which is handy and you can individually customize each weapon slot with whatever you want.
The story is a classic Tetsuya Nomura mid 2000s weirdass story. Overall it’s pretty lackluster with a lot of things just seeming very pointless in the end. The main villains, the Tsviets, are cool at first because you’re curious about their backstories and motivations, but when they’re actually revealed it’s extremely boring and leaves no impact. They don’t even have backstories; they’re just experiments working for their leader because they have no other option. Okay? A lot of this is honestly similar to Kingdom Hearts in that regard but to a much worse extent. Characters with badass designs who look cool end up being underwhelming compositionally. The bad lip syncing similar to Advent Children doesn’t help this at all. Shelke’s character arc was probably the best part of the whole story since it was actually interesting. Vincent’s backstory is laid out in such a confusing Kingdom Hearts-style way where you end up not caring that much by the end. Most of the voice acting was pretty good though, especially Steve Blum doing his classic shtick as Vincent.
I wrote goddamn NOTES for this shit while I was playing. That’s how insane this game drove me; I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Now that I’ve finished the game I’m left with this conflicted impression of a game that was ultimately conflicted about what it even wanted to accomplish.

“Those who can’t come by themselves will absolutely come by my hand.
Original post @GACKT #GACKT #workout #dailyworkout”

strangely i’ve been playing the game for years but only beat it on the day of this review and in a single sitting lol. i’ve always loved this game ever since i played it way back in 2015 for the first time and since then ive always been striving to beat it at least once. now i can officially say i completed ristar.

game’s got some p cool ideas and mechanics. i like how fundamentally it’s comparative to sonic but in practice it’s vastly different. you have a somewhat limited toolbox but what makes the game fun and interesting is the levels’ usage of said tools. it’s an ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ mentality. shit controls and feels really good especially when you know what you’re doing.
artistically this game’s got style tenfold. love the different locales and their atmosphere only complimented by their music. the lush green world is accompanied by an upbeat track, the ancient water world is accompanied by a mellow soft beat. shit like this is all over and contextualizes things p nicely.
this was a joy to play all the way through, but maybe i’m biased cuz i’ve been playing this one for so long idk. one of my fav platformers. special thanks to radicalraisin for gifting an original copy to me.

Making a sequel to The World Ends with You proves difficult when put into perspective. Conceptually you can really do anything based off of the foundation of the first game which can either be considered good or bad depending on your viewpoint. With the reveal of this game back in 2020 I don’t think really anyone was worried that this was going to turn out a “bad” game seeing as how the trailer had the same TWEWY style we all know and love and the developers were the same people behind the first game. I was a bit skeptical though about the gameplay because of how intricate and unique the original game’s mechanics were; how well would the pin system translate in the jump to fully 3D?
Well the obvious answer here is that it turned out spectacular. Seeing the return of similar style pins is so awesome with them looking almost the same but more pronounced in their 3D environment. They also function in a unique way that yet again defines action rpg combat. Having each pin be a different button may seem a bit weird at first but in practice it’s genius. You can focus on doing certain face button actions first and foremost while your fingers on the shoulder buttons are ready to back you up, which leads to my next point: Dropping the Beat. Another genius mechanic introduced that greatly impacts the flow of combat. It’s so satisfying to successfully land a Beat Drop and hearing that chiming sound while building up the Groove gauge.
Loosely segwaying this into the next key aspect of this series; music. The music ties into the gameplay in a subtle way that makes it connected but still disconnected in a video gamey sort of way. Shit’s bumpin and jumpin especially with the surfing mechanic. Timing your button presses to the drumbeat of songs just inherently feels good. It oozes with style and its incorporation into the gameplay providing a small Groove boost at the beginning of a battle ties together a bit of seamlessness between the overworld and playing field.
‘Style.’ That’s a word that I think sums up this game pretty nicely. Everything has this immense urban Y2K street style taken even further than the first game. The paint and graffiti splatters for the backgrounds of cutscenes, how the character portraits are inside hastily drawn squares, how the cel shaded graphics are a perfect representation of the artwork; I can’t find any more ways to describe it, it’s just so raw. Absolutely love how moving throughout the city makes the far away buildings move to accommodate for the specific artstyle. This is where a fixed camera angle absolutely complements the game tenfold similar to early Resident Evil.
The last thing i wanna talk about are the characters. Stunning work here. Great voice acting and interactions. You really feel like these are just a bunch of friends talking together. Hell I’ve even had similar style conversations with my own friends which is why the story succeeds so well. Its protagonists are relatable to an extent. Rindo is the introverted thinker, Fret is the hot headed one with underlying issues, Nagi is the observant and understanding nerd, and Shoka is the lovable yet confused loner. You’ll find at least one character you’ll relate to here. I also really like the new twist with teams and such, and believe me there are a lot more twists and surprises throughout the whole game. The mystery here isn’t as good as the first game personally but I still really really enjoy it.
NEO: The World Ends with You encapsulated me for over a week. I didn’t play anything but this game for that time similar to the first game and if that doesn’t say something I don’t know what does. I love this game and if you’ve played the original TWEWY this will not disappoint. Hell of a sequel here.

og game is still better tho lol (as long as you play the ds version)

This was the game where Metal Slug clicked for me. The fast-paced bullet blasting bloody hellscape within this world seeped itself into my mind and it was exhilarating. The rush of fighting massive killer mechs and slime-spewing aliens was in my grasp. This is the game that represents these things the best out of the whole series.

What starts out as a simple military operation becomes a planet-threatening nightmare. Shooting soldiers, to slicing zombies, to blasting the ever living hell out of aliens. The natural progression should speak for itself.
Levels are laid out in a fashion where you’ll never be burnt out or bored. There’s a perfect balance between navigating the level route and blasting enemies, not to mention the enemy patterns that keep you on your toes. The extremely detailed cartoony semi-realistic graphics create an immersive experience all the way through. Every enemy you kill feels so satisfying because of their wonderfully animated deaths. That’s the thing that I believe sets this game apart from other side scrolling military shmups; the presentation. Everything has such vibrance and character that the whole world feels alive. You can interact with the terrain in unique ways that always put a smile on my face. Putting this together with the killer soundtrack makes these contextualized areas pop. Mellow atmospheric tunes, heavy metal slaps, dramatic edge-of-your-seat beats; it’s all here in full force and I can’t get enough.
One of the main gimmicks that sets this game above the rest in the series is the level structure. As you go through levels eventually you’ll come to a fork in the road, leading to multiple different paths each with their own charm and uniqueness. Replayability is heavily encouraged due to this and it is definitely worth it to see all the areas. You can go from a scorching desert straight to a murky underground hidden cave filled with hostile natives. Or if you choose, you can continue through the desert and eventually scale a huge pyramid filled with enemies and traps. It creates a whole interconnected world that’s intricacies are beyond me. I especially LOVE the final mission in this regard. Going from the skies to forest to riding missiles up into space leading up to the obtuse pathways of the Alien base. Finally concluding with an epic showdown with the mother of all aliens falling down from space at mach speed.
Everything in this game fits so well together and I just love it. Maybe I’m biased but dammit this game rules. Play it!

Never fully reviewed this as a part of my MMZ retrospective, so let's get this underway.
If you don't find much enjoyment out of this, I completely get it; the skill ceiling is pretty high and the level up system is a bit of a pain along with some frustrating levels. But regardless, this game managed to find its way into my heart and solidified itself and its sequels as my favorite games of all time.
The game opens up with a fantastic spectacle of confusing yet familiar tones. Some blonde-haired chick and the resistance are frantically trying to escape the indestructible golems that are obliterating their forces. Blondie reluctantly lets her Cyber Elf friend sacrifice herself to bring the resistance their only hope: Zero. What’s a Cyber Elf? Why is there a resistance? What’s a Cyber Elf? These questions don’t matter right now; you’re blasting through all the enemy troops as a blonde-haired badass destroying anything in your path. You eventually get your hands on your original Z-saber, conveniently given to you by some unknown computer force. Who was that? You slash your way through the massive golem hoping to uncover the answers as you proceed. And that’s it; that’s the gritty yet badass sequence that sets up the mood and groundwork for the rest of the series’ events, and it’s all revealed just in the opening.
The gameplay ties into the story very well, Ciel sends you on missions as if you were a soldier carrying out orders...which is exactly what you’re doing. By the end you bring the entire resistance up from rock bottom. Zero is such a blast to control, taking what the X games laid out and making it feel so much smoother. Dashing and jumping across platforms to scaling walls just feels so good. Slashing your saber at the right moment to satisfyingly destroy your opponent. The levels have a sense of cohesion that just feels right. There’s some moments where I feel the enemy placement kinda sucks. The Factory being a main example of this with not being able to see enemies in time on the moving platforms. Other levels are great though; jumping through the hazy desert sands, slashing birds and worms as fast as possible while keeping your guard up. Shit’s just a blast to play and I love it.
The level up system isn’t as bad as people say, but on a first playthrough it definitely gets annoying. Nowadays I can run through the whole game without having to grind at all which I think was definitely intentional. The design philosophy encourages you to keep replaying and playing until you’re able to fully master the bosses, levels, to a point where minor grievances like the level up system become obsolete. But the keyword there being “replaying.” If you don’t catch on to this philosophy I don’t blame you. Some levels can be tough as nails on a first try and can be very discouraging. For a first time, the level up system definitely blows since you'll be needing charge slashes to kill bosses due to unhoned skill. That’s the real flaw that I feel is why so many get kinda filtered by this game.
Bosses have unique and fun to learn patterns. Every death you may take from them is usually just based on skill. Keep trying and eventually you’ll get it. Learning the patterns leads to creating some awesome combos being made using the different weapons that would only further improve in the next games. Speaking of which, the Triple Rod and Shield Boomerang: these are great weapons but I could never really find much use for them personally in a lot of situations. I’ve seen some fantastic Triple Rod/Saber combos pulled off so I don’t think it’s useless out of the question, just beyond my skill level. The shield boomerang is kinda cool because you can use it for some insane damage stacking on mini bosses and the like. There’s definitely a ton of crazy combo potential with both of these weapons.
You’re near the end; you’ve just refought all the Guardians and expect the finale to be a climactic battle between you and Copy X. You arrive and Copy X states his motives. You understand his feelings and conflictions, but you know they’re wrong. He must be stopped. The real X would never have wanted this. Copy X transforms into a beast never thought would have been possible until that moment. You unleash the final slash upon his helmet. He falls to the floor, defeated. He ponders upon how this could have all happened and where he went wrong. You reply with, “He was not as naive as you are. That’s what made him a hero.” The room self-destructs and you land outside in the desert, surrounded by a horde of enemies. “I’ll leave this world to you…” And with that, Zero slashes his way through one last enemy. The End of an Era....

The more I replay this the more I keep refalling in love. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the music, I just can’t get enough and no other game in the series compares. The melodramatic overtones mixed with the contextualized and detailed areas just resonates with me so well. The inherently fun exploration that gets even grander as you unlock more and more abilities, the addicting platforming mixed with tight action controls; it’s all here in full force to make you want to keep playing and playing. I can’t help but explore every area every time I play.They’re begging to have their every detail examined and every enemy obliterated into a bloody explosion. The inverted castle is a bit of a bother to explore but it’s still mechanically fun because of how well Alucard controls and feels to handle. Beautifully orchestrated tracks fit every scenario perfectly and bring out their ideas into a melody of which expands their ideology. I know I may be exaggerating here, but that’s just how I feel. I love this game to death in all its glory.

Society's opinion on music:
you a stupid hoe you a you a stupid hoe (Amazing)

sonic heroes sonic heroes bind you confine you defying your reign (Stupid, emo, gay)

Wtf has this world come to.....

Just some thoughts I have on this game that I want to share/preserve before it comes out.

When I first saw the reveal for this, I was pretty hyped. I think Colors is a pretty damn good game and was excited to see it finally get off the Wii. Now that we have more footage, I'm a bit confused.
The main thing everyone is talking about; the lighting. I'm sorry but you cannot tell me this looks good. It's all out of wack. The saturation and quote-on-quote 'bloom' is too much and makes everything look washed out. To make matters worse, Sonic and other objects in the levels are basically massive glowsticks. The top of Sonic's head is ALWAYS shining, that is not normal under any circumstance. Even when there's light coming from below him, the top of his head still shines. EVEN if he is in an outside area, NO normal living thing should shine that much out in the sun. Why is this even a thing??
Now, you probably angry reader at this point, might be saying 'B-b-b-but the build is outdated!! It'll look good in the final!" Will it look good in the final? No one can answer that truthfully. Secondly, you're only further proving that this game is a mess. Why are they showing outdated footage in the first place?? At this point in time the game is bit less than a month away and we're still seeing so-called outdated footage. Some gameplay shown at the same points in time have differences. WHY?? If you want people to buy your game, wouldn't you want to showcase it at its best version? Terrible marketing strategy.

It seems they're not called Blind Squirrel for nothing. Only a blind person could think this looks great.