Perhaps all too suitable for the series, the expectations set up by perhaps the worst (in my opinion) Ace Attorney game, that being The Great Ace Attorney 1: Adventures, is completely turned on its head by being followed up with one of the series' best. The mysteries are more complex and interesting to solve, the moment to moment writing is fantastic (kudos to the localization team), the characters all really grow on you, the overall story is dense and meticulously put together (it's often goofy and almost always melodramatic, but, come on, if you play these games for something dry and sobering you are barking up the wrong tree). More than anything, the twists and turns you will be brought on by the story's climax will give you whiplash.

It's genuinely insane how the development team had some pretty good ideas going forward, but then completely went backwards on it. I get that the game is free and all that, but it reminds me of the Injustice mobile games a lot, especially the menus. The menus are a mess to navigate through, especially with all the in-game currencies there are all of a sudden. I feel like the beta had a way better idea on how to be a game than this did, which is a shame. This is far from the worst free game I've played, I've become a sort of expert in that department so I'm able to tell, but we'll have to wait and see with updates if it can and will improve on this full launch. Unless the Samurai Jack leaks are true, in which case the game is actually a 10/10 and this review is mute.

It's still kind of fun. Like in beta, stringing combos together and figuring out how to play each character is satisfying. It feels good to create custom combos in this game. BUT, there are some awful changes on release:

Characters are floatier than before and feel worse to control, character currency is WAY too hard to get, requiring a friend to play a world of light type PvE for 100% completion is bogus, THIRTY FRAMES OF INPUT BUFFER, server issues are still up in the air, the new menu UI is awful compared to the last one, and most of all they REMOVED THE FEATURE THAT ALLOWED YOU TO TRY CHARACTERS OFFLINE/IN TRAINING. Now you have to pay 20 bucks or grind for 40 hours if you want to try the new joker character lol. Whoever at WB decided this change I hope you have to spend all your extra money on hospital bills. I wish physical and mental harm on you. NAME ONE CHANGE THAT WAS POSITIVE BESIDES NEW CHARACTERS, YOU CAN'T.

There's an alright platformer fighter underneath all this shit, but with how things are looking so far it's not looking very good for the community. I have been praying for a good fighting platformer ever since the dogshit game nintendo put out, but this is not it. The game is NOT worth spending hours of grinding to be good at. Will be a fun commodity for about a year at most I would say, like NASB. I guess I wait for Rivals 2.

Increíble
De las mejores experiencias que tuve jugando un jueguito
Gameplay divertidísimo, lore interesantísimo, ambiente zarpadísimo y personajes piolísimas
Este juego lo tiene todo OBRA MAESTRA 10/10

Desde It Takes Two que no me siento TAN satisfecho con un juego que no sea un Resident Evil

Cuando terminé el primer 'Blasphemous' tuve la sensación de estar ante un título que no tenía muy claro lo que quería ser: ¿un Metroidvania 2D? ¿Una réplica de 'Dark Souls' en 2D con idénticas mecánicas de castigo horribles? ¿Un juego de acción con identidad propia capaz de abarcar distintos estilos? En ninguna de estas pretensiones destacaba sobremanera. Aunado con la plétora de problemas técnicos y bugs que acompañaron la salida del juego, un diseño estructural poco cohesionado de zonas con una estructura bastante lineal y de compleja travesía, y un final agridulce con unos requisitos absurdos para obtener "el final bueno" del juego, 'Blasphemous' hizo de su penitencia el salmo del jugador impetuoso y conseguía romper el buen rollo que transmitía a cambio de frustración absoluta. Pero el potencial estaba ahí, y no era imposible imaginar una secuela que puliera estos aspectos y fuesen en comunión con la soberbia presentación visual e imaginería barroca/teocrática del costumbrismo español.

Pues bien, ’Blasphemous II’ es precisamente la evolución que necesitaba sacar adelante The Game Kitchen para elevar su obra hacia la excelencia. Evidentemente hay una familiaridad entre el pixel-art y el manejo del penitente que te lleva a pensar que esto ya has jugado antes, pero la evolución viene más en aquellas cosas que no se perciben a primera vista: la mesura y el equilibrio en el que vienen estructuradas las ideas del juego. El nuevo triángulo de armas por ejemplo, funciona realmente bien y ofrece una gran flexibilidad para moldear el estilo de juego a nuestros gustos, por sus distintas técnicas especiales y afinidades elementales. Al poder cambiar de arma al vuelo, el juego también se permite ser más agresivo en la travesía y propone gymkanas de obstáculos rápidas y exigentes, pero también bastante divertidas de completar y utilizadas para esconder secretos por todas partes. A eso ayuda que el mapeado de ’Blasphemous II’ sea mucho más compacto e interconectado entre distintas áreas, sin abusar de caminos lineales para llegar al siguiente punto de control, con mayores facilidades para transportarse a cualquier punto que falte por explorar de la cuadrícula. Es curioso que la ruta crítica del juego también se vea afectada por algunas decisiones que tomes: según qué armas escojas al principio podrás avanzar por lugares que con otras no podrías, lo cual es un gran incentivo para la rejugabilidad (y potencial para un randomizer, lo dejo caer por si les apetece explorar el mundillo). En líneas generales se sabe más vasto pero conciso, tiene claro qué utilidad darle a cada sala, las transiciones entre zonas, los momentos de intensidad con los espacios más desenfrenados, se apoya en la multidisciplina del nuevo penitente para resultar más accesible y aprovecha su flexibilidad para que ninguna mecánica que introduce condicione sobremanera la partida. Y aunque sigue habiendo algunos bugs e inconveniencias un tanto sorprendentes (esa cámara en la Ciudad del Santo Nombre), el juego se nota mucho más pulido que su predecesor.

La búsqueda de identidad de ’Blasphemous II’ le ha aproximado, en mi opinión, mucho más a la orilla de los popularmente conocidos “Igavanias”. Hay un sistema de niveles escondido con la obtención de Marcas de Martirio (conseguidas tras derrotar enemigos y a través del mapa), que aumenta el ataque y defensa con el tiempo y hacen el backtracking mucho más sencillo. Las dos habilidades mágicas se ejecutan de manera parecida que en la saga de Konami. Los sistemas de rosarios y retales están bien pensados para construir el ataque y defensa del penitente, experimentar según las situaciones que encuentres, y construir una sensación de progreso con las mejoras que vas adquiriendo por el camino. A diferencia del primer juego, hay un mayor enfoque en puertas lógicas que sólo pueden traspasarse con una nueva habilidad, de modo que la progresión surge de manera natural a la que recuerdas qué rincones eran inaccesibles anteriormente. El horrible sistema Souls de penalizar al usuario por palmar sigue presente (bastardos), pero esta vez afecta únicamente a la barra de fervor (magia), que en primera instancia desincentiva cualquier uso de habilidades especiales, pero a la larga se sabe mucho menos restrictivo gracias a las continuas mejoras por el camino. Si bien ’Blasphemous II’ sigue siendo un juego inquietante, el núcleo de jugabilidad es mucho más placentero y hace que la aventura progrese más por los ’good vibes’ que por la sugerencia visual, la hostilidad del mundo y las criaturas que moran en él.

¿Eso le hace perder su propia identidad? Yo no diría eso, simplemente creo que el equipo detrás de The Game Kitchen ha hecho un ejercicio de introspección envidiable y ha encontrado soluciones más lógicas y razonables al estilo de juego que aspiraban con el primer ’Blasphemous’. De su indefinición han sabido aprovechar los aspectos más brillantes del proceso creativo, preservando su representación del folclore andalusí y las quintas del sordo, y los han imbuido de funcionalidad para que no quedasen como meras carcasas o pretensiones. Y con muchas caras feas, eso siempre está bien, nos gustan las caras feas, tiene que haber más caras feas en el mundo.

’Blasphemous II’ es un gran logro para el desarrollo de videojuegos español, y no veo el momento de descubrir lo que vendrá a continuación por parte de gente tan talentosa como la que lo ha hecho posible.

knew this was leaving game pass so i had intended to spread it out over the remaining days of the month with plenty of time to spare. ended up playing this over two days in bigger binge sessions instead. i really enjoyed myself.

didn't know a ton about this going in other than the charming artwork. i had assumed this was going to be an RPG (a turned based one at that) with more focus on combat and the other elements that come with it than the puzzle adventure game with light combat that this turned out to be. what i ended up with is more to my tastes most of the time so it worked out for the better.

cannot stress enough how taken i was with this for its duration. loved the universe with the characters within, visuals/colors, music, and even the combat was better than i had expected when it showed. i could see where this might be a bit repetitive but it also probably didn't help that i played through this the way i did.

i've been drifting away from going for 100% in most games but i'm really glad i did here. some of the stuff could be taken or left (the litter?) but pretty much everything else felt essential. the mystery side diversion with the cameo from Frog Detective and general Ace Attorney elements was so wonderful.

i would've gotten to this eventually but i want to give thanks to @Wollom for suggesting this in my you choose, i play list. the mixture of that and it leaving game pass brought me to it earlier than i would've otherwise.

looking forward to my eventual replay.

the more you play, the more special it gets.

it was a really special feeling as I finished the second ending of this game. I was just impressed at the sheer ambition of this game. its like living in a pot all your life and then at the end realizing there's a whole new world outside the pot. a massive new layer that's even more complicated and sparks even more curiosity. things you have experienced now need another examining through this new lens you have acquired. with every answer comes two new questions. if this game can require you to print out origami, how far is it willing to go and hide stuff.

Castlevania Dracula X is the infamous reversion of Rondo of Blood that the rest of the world outside of Japan got instead of Rondo of Blood itself. Here the meme of “mom, can we have Rondo of Blood? -Mom: we already have Rondo of Blood at home” totally applies.

It's actually a different game, though it's also definitely a big downgrade from the quality of the original game, but I still think it's not too bad all things considered... or maybe I'm just being masochistic.

The plot is the same, it's a retelling of Richter's story, with minor variations like Maria and Anette being sisters, or that the other damsels don't exist (no cutscenes either). The level design is also totally different, and it is also the case for the stage graphics, in this aspect I can say that Konami did a really great job, because everything looks spectacular, it is one of the best looking Castlevania games of the 16-bit era and in my opinion surpasses the original Rondo of Blood. As for the characters and enemies, here the sprites are reused from Rondo of Blood, so they look equally good, although there are also a couple of new bosses. The music is also reused, and the sound team did a great job converting the music, because despite not being CD quality, it is impressive how well it was translated.

So, let's get to the heart of the matter; the gameplay. I have to say that this game plays pretty well, the gameplay from Rondo of Blood is almost 100% translated, although the control doesn't feel quite as good, as it's a little bit clunkier (try doing the backflip or crouching too many times in a row), but it's almost identical to the original installment, and as such, it plays better than most classic Castlevanias for that fact alone (or at least it will if you have mastered the Rondo of Blood gameplay). However, the real problem with this game stems from the balancing that was given to the difficulty. Because the field of view is smaller compared to the PC-Engine game, the development team made some adjustments, like everything moves at a slower speed, they reduced the knockback that enemies generate when they hit you, and they also decreased the invincibility time they give you after being hit, so in other words, with these small changes they foolishly increased the difficulty of the game, so now it's more punishing. For example, if a medusa head hits you, it may not hit you once, but twice in a row, and this may cause you to fall into a bottomless pit and die, a cheap defeat.

Another thing is that the level design is more similar to the NES installments, so in that sense it's a step backwards. It contrasts a lot with Rondo of Blood, because that game had a perfectly balanced difficulty and level design, instead this one is a bit more challenging and punishing, so if you are not very skilled playing this kind of games you are going to have a very bad time and I don't recommend you even try it.

Things I like is how not saving Annette makes her become a boss, a concept that would be brought back for the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood. And I must say the infamous Dracula battle as well. Everyone knows that the original installment has an overly easy battle, but this time around they made it quite a bit harder, although it's not that hard if you know what you're doing. If you're equipped with the axe as sub-weapon and stay in a certain position, the first phase is like taking candy from a child, and the second phase isn't that hard, but if you're not careful you can get insta-killed.

Conclusion
Yes, the game is not that bad, except that it has a little cruel difficulty. Obviously with respect to the original Rondo of Blood it pales, because while that game felt like a premium quality Castlevania game, this one feels like an attempt to mimic that greatness, but falls short in many ways, and the fact that it wants to be a more challenging version plays against it because some parameters are not as well adjusted as they should be, making the result not so great.

However, if you are someone who enjoys the gameplay of Rondo of Blood and you are looking forward to a bigger challenge, trying this game might be a good idea, but if you are not such a fan of the classic formula, don't even dare to play this game or you will totally regret it.

vanillaware somehow making the most beautiful 2d game of all time once again. Gameplay has so much depth it's unbelievable (to the point where it may be a little too intimidating). Good story with great characters. Ended up doing every possible map because I was enjoying it so much.

And once again to reiterate
visually phenomenal on every possible level, like just the designs and every little aspect of visuals down to the hud menus (which you will be spending 40% of your time in) has so much thought and love packed into it.

un spin off bastante piolita pero no es nada mas que eso, un spin off

lo que me parece increíble es lo mucho que mejoraron con el gameplay en este juego en comparación con el 1
entré completamente dispuesto a pasarla mal y sufrir como en el 1 pero la pasé re bien en todo sentido

no le doy mas estrellas pq es nada mas y nada menos que un especial

I feel so sorry for all non-Spanish speakers who will never understand just how funny the name ‘’Señor Chirridos’’ is; like… is not a bad translation of Mr. Scratch by any means, but it’s so fucking funny and it surprises me even more they just didn’t keep the original name… but I’m so glad they didn’t.

If Alan Wake is the main TV series, then American Nightmare feels like a Halloween special, which seems to be exactly what they were going for. Despite the original game having such an open finale and this going directly after it, it doesn’t really build upon the pre-established narrative beyond Alan’s character and his conflict with his doppelgänger, and that’s fine! I’m totally up for a shorter, more fast-paced story in this world, and American Nightmare does have a super interesting premise.

I actually liked how the combat worked in the first game, so expanding on that with more weapons and enemies while using the backdrop of a Night Springs episode and introducing a time-loop is the kind of craziness I can get behind, and AM does succeed at creating more interesting combat encounters than the original game ever did… but doesn’t try to go for more than that despite its many opportunities.

It does show a promising start; the three main areas of Arizona are interesting and fun to go through and a perfect excuse to battle the Taken, getting more manuscript pages, see more of Mr. Scratch and the little interactions with each of the characters, while not as natural as any of the conversations with the fellas of Bright Falls, are pretty neat. With the addition of a couple of weapons and enemies, this feels like the kind of combat sections they wanted to make the first time around; they even took out the driving section! We are freed from this accursed blight!

And we even get to hear how Barry and the Old Gods of Asgard are doing, glad to know they are still putting out pure fire!

It’s a pretty good time, a simple one, but it has some cool moments, I really liked the battles, and overall is just an entertaining time!... and then the second loop begins.

I absolutely love the idea of time-loops as a gameplay system, getting to learn more of the world and levels and using that knowledge to do tasks way faster and m is the best, however, poorly implemented time-loops can turn into doing the exact same thing x amount of times only with a different objective or two and with some new enemies… guess what American Nightmare decides to do. Each time loop is shorter than the last one, but not because you actively take decisions that make things speed up, but because either what were multiple objectives is only one now or because a NPC did the thing way before you. It doesn’t help that the major set-pieces don’t change at all; watching the petrol extractor is a cool sequence, but not one I would have liked to go through three times, and no, putting rock songs, as good as hey sound, doesn’t make it different or better.

Going through the motions the first time was fine, but having to walk through the same rope two other times is a chore, even if gets shorter every time. Worst part is that they really could have given you more openness if they really wanted; the NPCs you encounter also remember the time loops and no matter what, you can only truly win at the end of the last one, so diving you more lenience on how you deal with things wouldn’t have really affected thing at all, and we have here is just an excuse to turn 3 levels into 9.

As the loops go on, more enemies get introduced, and… listen, I really do like the combat way more on here, and some of the new enemies are pretty interesting; the Taken that throws projectiles and explosives and the one that divides each time you shine light on him are super cool ideas from a gameplay-wise and as ideas on their own but the rest of them… in many ways they feel like a waste. The enemies that replace the birds from the original game are faster to deal with but just as annoying, the giants are bullet sponges with no interest move-sets on their own, and the spiders are cool story wise, since they apparently are not part of the Taken perse and instead are part of the Dark Place fauna, but they being just big spiders feels like a wasted opportunity to create something way more cool and alien, and alsoWHY THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE TO BE SPIDERS OH MY GOD-

American Nightmare doesn’t create challenges by throwing enemies with interesting sets of moves, it just throws at you guys that really know how to take damage or a ton of them at the same time, best exemplified on the Arcade mode. I do know and understand that this is a more gameplay-focused entry, but when in the main story you go through the same beats over and over with some minor alterations, and the arcade mode —which by the way, has some unique level themes that I would have preferred to see much more in the main story instead of going through the Observatory three times — is just Wake against waves of enemies and see what score you can get… at a certain point the game loses me, and it doesn’t pull from the creativeness that I know it has and can have to keep me glued to it.

The Taken stay completely silent, and the creepy charm that was found on hearing their grunts and lines amongst the trees is completely gone; the manuscript pages are way less interesting this time around, and the opportunity of this being based around and taking place in a Night Springs episode Alan wrote isn’t taken advantage of at any point, making for a way less interesting story, and use of the reality- bending pages.

In the end, the thing that really kept me more intrigued and wanting to see the game to the finale was, who else, Mr. Scratch himself. I enjoyed most of the villains in the original Alan Wake, but NONE feel like Mr. Scratch; the sound distorting every time Wake says his name, the way he taunts Alan and how he ENJOYS being the worst of him, a true monster all the way through, it’s a disturbing delight every time he’s on screen (literally) and the uneasiness he carries is one I didn’t expected to be done so well. I wished he and Alan had more opportunities to bounce each other, ‘cause every time they did it was a delight, and luckily it seems that American Nightmare isn’t that important to the overall Alan Wake narrative, so hopefully he didn’t kick the bucket, I’d love to see more of him…

There’s still that Alan Wake attention to detail and story in here, but it didn’t go as deep as it could have, and we have is a story that, while fun at times and with some cool extras and secrets, it still is what is: a Halloween special that doesn’t want to be a real successor or groundbreaking, but it also doesn’t take advantage of the potential it itself sets, and it can drag on at times… Still fun and funny at times, tho!

We’ll meet again, Champion of Light

I’ll see you soon, Herald of Darkness