Jrogas
BACKER
LIKE A DRAGON GAIDEN: THE MAN WHO THUGGED IT OUT.
Is the game predicated on a plot misstep and everyone in it standing firmly on buffoon business of the Clark Kent variety? Yes. Is it pure bait for suckers like me who eat up nonsense mixed in their GAR plate like peas? Absolutely. But god damn it's ACES from top to bottom. All of what I love about the series is here in spades. K-...Joryu cranks the stoic cool factor all the way up, serving up that satisfying woop-ass straight out the can like its first day out all over again, helping every endearing goofball he can find along the way. Striking character Drama, piercing moments juxtaposed against way over the top set pieces, wacky distractions on every street, and goons at every turn itching to get smacked up by the goa-... sorry, a nameless agent forced to just thug it all the way out in the WORST way for reasons... you know what we don't have time, games too short to worry about all that. Click, bye bye brain I've got pure ludo to bask in. Because that's how we're built. Then we barrel headbutt-first into a knockout ending, might have the best final cinematic yet for the series. Like a cigarette in the clarity of that afterglow I'm winding back down into a 4, but man was it close to 4.5
Is the game predicated on a plot misstep and everyone in it standing firmly on buffoon business of the Clark Kent variety? Yes. Is it pure bait for suckers like me who eat up nonsense mixed in their GAR plate like peas? Absolutely. But god damn it's ACES from top to bottom. All of what I love about the series is here in spades. K-...Joryu cranks the stoic cool factor all the way up, serving up that satisfying woop-ass straight out the can like its first day out all over again, helping every endearing goofball he can find along the way. Striking character Drama, piercing moments juxtaposed against way over the top set pieces, wacky distractions on every street, and goons at every turn itching to get smacked up by the goa-... sorry, a nameless agent forced to just thug it all the way out in the WORST way for reasons... you know what we don't have time, games too short to worry about all that. Click, bye bye brain I've got pure ludo to bask in. Because that's how we're built. Then we barrel headbutt-first into a knockout ending, might have the best final cinematic yet for the series. Like a cigarette in the clarity of that afterglow I'm winding back down into a 4, but man was it close to 4.5
2024
A respectable effort from Team Ninja to broach the open world genre with another period piece. The familiarly tight and engaging combat elements have demonstrated to become par the course for TN. Regrettably I think they should focus more on shorter, tighter games, as this one started to grate toward the end in a way the Niohs never did. The elements that usually make open-world games fully engrossing have never really been their strong suit (Worldbuilding, game-long character dialogue, deep exploration, etc). So their first foray into putting more thought into those elements didn't rob from the great combat, but also didn't really serve to enhance the experience enough to make the open world choice a knock-out. Still a worthwhile Slashfest through the end of the samurai era.
Some pieces landed more than others; cautious optimism for the JRPG Style gameplay switch payed off a bit more often than it fell short. I appreciated what little of the pleasant volume of side content I managed to get to, but wasn't entirely enthralled enough to consider more time with it right after the first clear. Still, It neatly embodied lot of what I love about Yakuza games and spun in a different, very admirable way. Ichiban and his refreshingly emotive demeanor turned out to be one of my favorite elements.
Massive blunder for the campaign. Definitely not enough interesting happening in MP or Zombies to make up for it either. Thank god I was able to refund it.
2023
Question: How do you screw up "Fallout in space"? Answer: You put Fallout in space. This game was fighting an uphill battle from the onset of its birth. It honestly never had a chance at having enough interesting POIs, packed densely enough to not make the experience sputter into a bore. It's all of what isn't good about Bethesda games with none of the redeemable traits like environmental storytelling in a handcrafted world, or even at least somewhat meaningful character variance on the RPG side.
2023
Gameplay being more of the same is not really a big problem here, but worth noting the result being it feeling more like a DLC than its own title. I'm confident that will sort itself out over time though. The bigger problem is this game being yet another prime example COUGHdiablo4COUGH that while Crossplay is certainly a noble goal, it's absolutely not worth the myriad downsides of pigeonholing into online-only model for a type of game that otherwise would absolutely not need to be. The onus of Crossplay really shouldn't be on developers as opposed to platforms, and releases like this really exemplify why, but hey, it is what it is I suppose. I think they had good intentions at least, rather than a structured excuse to crank up microtransactions "cus servers cost money DUuUur" (For a game that never needed servers). No doubt it'll improve over time with more content and variety like its predecessors did, but it's pretty much DOA for now. Worse, it'll be dead forever when they inevitably shut the servers down unlike Payday 1 or 2 if they don't ever take the hint from their playerbase and implement an offline mode. Sure hope it was worth the trouble getting their company bank account Heisted (heh) with chargebacks from the poor suckers who shelled out for it instead of trying it on gamepass!
Phenomenal mech game, cleanly befitting its pedigree. An admirable return from obscurity, and fully worthy entry into the series that hopefully breaths new life into the genre. Fromsoft managed a great return to form with this entry. Would be a 5 if not for a handful of middling boss deigns, regrettably bogging down some mission bookends with just a few too many tired, long worn tropes from Fromsofts sister series. Thankfully these were few and far between, and demonstrate a welcome willingness of Formsoft to commit to the spirit of their beloved and long running franchises, even if they're in a position where they can't entirely shed the decisions that birthed the Souls cult fanaticism. (Except for Tenchu, Rest in Peace. Thankfully this game isn't a Sekiro situation, despite having its same director.)
2018
Unique "Ecosystem" simulator that really always boils down to an "Economics" simulator instead, but when you get a good server its a very involved community effort and unlike anything else. Its systems really needed better balancing (Ironically gatekeeping as well, too many of any one role was a real problem that never sorted itself out the way seemed to intend for it to) and could do with some more fleshing out. out. The nature of it being so community-oriented making the time commitments land on a coinflip was a worthy tradeoff when it lands correctly and you feel a part of something bigger than yourself in a special, unique way, but an very egregious and morose waste of time when it doesn't.
Sky pirates are sick as fuck. Kitase needs to write Matsuno a blank check to get him back on at SE.
2023
This review contains spoilers
A triumphant victory of the torchbearers of the modern Final Fantasy to claim their evolution of the franchise in a gloriously well-done manner. Playing this game is like what I envisioned in pleasant daydreams as a child pondering what a "live-action" final fantasy might look like were it to shed its traditional turn-based modus, and even then so much more. There's been several missteps from SE in walking that road (XIII, XV, Maybe even XII), but the pitfalls and trips have lead us to a hard-fought land of wonder, informed as much by its predecessors as its contemporaries. The story and its development, while not a flawlessly cut specimen of crystal, are fearlessly adept and potent. The sidequests are emergently meaningful and enriching, with worthwhile payoffs more often than not. The combat is, unsurprisingly, Masterfully tuned by the dream team they assembled. And The Boss fights? Unforgettably intense. A new high-bar for the industry to learn from, and miles ahead of anything else in recent memory.
There stands only two true marks against this title that began to erode how enraptured I was with it, and claim a pittance off the score I've settled on for it in the afterglow: Firstly was a distinct lack of enemy and mini-boss variety. Secondly was the world feeling smaller than it should for lack of meaningful "expanses" to fill the gaps in very rationally tiny ones left in my head when one makes sense of how the local map fits in the continent map. Though I imagine both of these quibbles are resultant of developmental limitations, and not a lack of spirit or vision on the part of the developers; there's only so much time to spend in the hours and days and years that make a game. If these are the greatest of this games sins then I'd say the folks at SE CBU3 and their many collaborators could stand against the gods they dream to fight and come out on top.
Would have been a 9.5/10 (4.75/5) with nothing of note to hold against it for my own tastes (Outside of some grating Bri-ish accents) if not for the ending. While perfectly fitting to usher in their new world on their terms, I have a poor palette for bittersweet endings, this one smacking fiercely more on the bitter side. My spirit doesn't sit well with its outlook; balking against the noble sacrifice of the brothers of flame resulting in a post-mortem excision of the "Fantasy", in a Final Fantasy. They dared in asking me to "Hope" for a normal world, where I could better spend it in a number of resulting worlds. Though its unique at least to the titles I've played so far that the Finale is a "Final" note to a "Fantasy.", and per Cids wishes, it was their fantasy to finish how they choose from the onset.
There stands only two true marks against this title that began to erode how enraptured I was with it, and claim a pittance off the score I've settled on for it in the afterglow: Firstly was a distinct lack of enemy and mini-boss variety. Secondly was the world feeling smaller than it should for lack of meaningful "expanses" to fill the gaps in very rationally tiny ones left in my head when one makes sense of how the local map fits in the continent map. Though I imagine both of these quibbles are resultant of developmental limitations, and not a lack of spirit or vision on the part of the developers; there's only so much time to spend in the hours and days and years that make a game. If these are the greatest of this games sins then I'd say the folks at SE CBU3 and their many collaborators could stand against the gods they dream to fight and come out on top.
Would have been a 9.5/10 (4.75/5) with nothing of note to hold against it for my own tastes (Outside of some grating Bri-ish accents) if not for the ending. While perfectly fitting to usher in their new world on their terms, I have a poor palette for bittersweet endings, this one smacking fiercely more on the bitter side. My spirit doesn't sit well with its outlook; balking against the noble sacrifice of the brothers of flame resulting in a post-mortem excision of the "Fantasy", in a Final Fantasy. They dared in asking me to "Hope" for a normal world, where I could better spend it in a number of resulting worlds. Though its unique at least to the titles I've played so far that the Finale is a "Final" note to a "Fantasy.", and per Cids wishes, it was their fantasy to finish how they choose from the onset.
Not as good in comparison to its predecessors but still a good game on the whole. It capitalized on a really cool element of the previous games with the Arena being more involved in the main pace of the game which I'd call a pretty positive endeavor for the novelty and amping up that feeling of getting new parts, more money to float on using and buying more of those new parts, and another system to send you back to the garage on a regular basis to switch up your tactics. It suffers just a bit from sequelitis though, because If you have all your stuff from the previous games you can make pretty short work of most AC you come across in the Arena in what has to be the shortest in a run of 3 already very short games. That said the replayability is a bit more filled in here when including the additional discs of Arena fights, and I think this title is a servicable capstone to the first "trilogy".
Side note: The final boss is beyond insane. The Brutality of these older games final segments are a sight to behold in themselves. Having started playing these older titles with my only experience in them difficulty-wise being the worst AC:4A could throw at me, I feel like that boss was on an entirely different level, but wont be able to know for sure until I circle back to AC:4A.
Side note: The final boss is beyond insane. The Brutality of these older games final segments are a sight to behold in themselves. Having started playing these older titles with my only experience in them difficulty-wise being the worst AC:4A could throw at me, I feel like that boss was on an entirely different level, but wont be able to know for sure until I circle back to AC:4A.
2022
Quaint little game about a small cat that ends up doing big things. The atmospheres overall somber nature has its ebbs and flows from cozy to depressing, but its pays off well enough at the end to round out the experience.
2021
Charming little game that's easy on the eyes with a sharp atmosphere thanks to some excellent art direction. Comes up a bit short for me past the first few hours though as the novelty wears off and the woefully repetitive one-trick soundtrack starts to grate on. The art direction alone could have almost carried this one for me but a game so adept at a very cozy medieval cottage atmosphere really shouldn't have me as anxious as it does about maximizing of every ingredient I use. The garden simply doesn't provide as much of the bare necessities, and the vendors and their prices are too seldom and random to be as meaningful as they probably should be. Run-of-the-mill simple potions frequently eat up basic ingredients and tumble the balancing act against exploring the map and hunting down new ones for the more demanding patrons. A solid improvement would be to include a static vendor that might sacrifice a day of patrons without a status or moral penalty, but lets you buy out a fixed amount of basic ingredients you'd like to have on hand, or better yet a methodology around upgrading the magic garden to increase the amount of those basic ones.
2023
Solid sequel building on the good points of the first game in the series. Virtually all mechanics saw improvement while the story remained just as serviceable as the last one and creepy enough to keep tension long enough to feel a real progression from terrified unprepared guy into god of the woods.
Great second chapter improving on a lot of things the first did well, but still carried the same blemishes that this era of adventure games was wrought with. Uniquely enjoyable for the modularity on offer in the battle systems even wealthier Djinni system, but in equal light uniquely frustrating at times with management of the practical non-combative synergies and a feeble inventory system. That aside though, the game itself was a joy and I'm glad I took the time to go back and experience it.