KiryuEnjoyer
1999
Did two playthroughs. One blind on normal where I got the bad ending and a next fear where I got the good+ ending. This is one of the best horror games ever made. Unsettling environments with no jumpscares. Just some good horror and an intriguing story. The controls are a bit janky but if you're used to the old resident evil's it's not such a big deal. I can't wait to see how SH2 will top this.
2021
Oh boy. this game is hard to rate as it has many ups and downs. I wouldn't say that this game is better than 4 or even 3 but it's a unique experience i still consider worth playing. Many of the games problems stem from its gameplay rather than its story. This game took me over 10 more hours to finish than the other ff games and not for a good reason either. The game has a multi hour long segment in the end that feels like padding. You have to collect the 4 mcguffin tablets to unlock the 12 sacredly awesome weapons. I can't help but feel that this is a step back from ff3 where the awesome weapons were in an optional dungeon you could choose to skip. Its not even like theres a lot of story going on during the mcguffin collection its just filler. The games difficulty curve is all over the place. you will destroy enemies in previous areas only to go to the next one and suddenly get destroyed for no apparent reason. The biggest issue with the gameplay I feel is the ability points system. It's cool in theory and in practice but the thing that makes it a slog is just how slowly you get given the stuff. I mean for the majority of the game battles will give you at max 4 and often times 1 and when the games enjoyment hinges on getting cool abilities it can be a massive slog. The big problem as well is that later on in the game you start fighting enemies with extremely specific ways to kill them. If you didnt invest in the right class before these moments you have to GRIND to get the right ability to kill that enemy easier. This problem could've been solved by 1. making ABP easier to obtain overall and 2. Designing the enemies so they have many equally valid ways to defeat them without brute forcing them via grinding. overall i think this game is exactly middle of the road in my rating of these games so far. It's better than ff1 and especially ff2 but it has at times severe gameplay issues that hold it back which I believe makes it worse than ff3 and ff4.
2021
This review contains spoilers
HOLYYYYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT. This game is somehow even better than FF3! Ok lets start with this games many positives. Level ups are even quicker in this game than in previous games while still making a quite large difference in the power of your character between levels. The story is insane just for it being the first FF game with a REAL story. The previous games all attempted stories but this is the first one with an ACTUAL story. Characters, Motivations, Betrayal it's all here and makes for an insanely entertaining and gripping story especially in comparison to FF1,2 and 3. This game was also the introduction of the active time battle system which ditches the more traditional turn based system for a system that combines turn based actions with real time elements such as when the enemy attacks. I feel that this system works incredibly well in this game. Even though i initially thought it was too chaotic at the start of the game, I grew to enjoy the system and especially the improvements made in other areas. The world is even bigger than in previous games while still being more densely packed with content. In FF1 you would often have several minutes of walking between locations especially with random encounters included. This game opts often to shorten the distance required to get from location to location which is refreshing. Another massive thing that I love about this game is how non-existent grinding is. As long as you fight every random encounter you will be very ready for the final boss. This game's pacing overall is immaculate there is practically never a dull moment in the game and its also a bit shorter than other FF games. My completion time for this game was 3 hours shorter than FF3 but It felt like there was even more things going on than in that game. With all of that said I have to unfortunately talk about the one bad point in this game... the final boss. Not only is it way too easy (I literally beat it while forgetting phoenix downs and having 3/5ths of my party dead near the start) the character who ends up being the final boss gets very little setup. He basically shows up in the last hour of the game and is like "Yo guys im here now" and It really reduces the impact of the final boss. Personally no matter how cliche it would've been i really feel like Golbez would've been better as a final boss. He is set up the entire game as this formidable unbeatable foe yet you never get to fight him proper. Every "fight" with him is a cutscene where you all get your ass beat. It would've been immensely gratifying to kick his ass in a final boss battle. In conclusion, if the story of the NES era games really doesn't do it for you than i can actually recommend this game as a starting point. It's an absolutely unforgettable experience and an insane improvement over the previous games.
1990
Played the pixel remaster version of the game. This game is a fun and silly adventure that makes several improvements over ff1 and 2. Seriously the difference in quality is staggering. To the point that even though i played the game for 5 hours longer than ff2 i wasn't wishing it to be over 2 dungeons earlier than it actually ended like that game. The job system introduced in this game allows for extreme creativity when it comes to problem solving in battles. I had several moments in my playthrough where i simply skipped grinding by using the right equipment and job combination for a certain boss. The game allows you to freely switch between jobs with basically no penalty for doing so and I really appreciate this as it doesn't give you the anxiety of "oh no i'm making a permanent choice. What if I pick the wrong thing and lock myself out of having fun!" The game attempts a story and while i'm not sure it succeeds the game must still be commended for having actual characters with personalities rather than the cardboard cutouts of previous games. Overall this game makes the previous 2 games look like dogshit in comparison and i can highly recommmend the pixel remaster version.
2021
It starts off so promising. It's extremely fun to break this games leveling system and just create what amounts to a team of 4 Ultra Instinct gokus, and then the last quarter of the game happens. The difficulty spike in this game is less a spike more a 90 degree angle. You start encountering enemies that will straight up kill you with status effects. sometimes you'll get ambushed and get to do nothing but watch as your entire party gets confused and starts punching each other. You get a ribbon in the final dungeon but by that point the damage is already done. How can you make a game where the regular dungeon enemies are 200 times more difficult than the boss fights? Seriously as scary as the final boss seemed at points, he still wasnt close to wiping my party compared to the random malboro's. I also think the game is way too long. I was wishing it would be over 2 dungeons before it actually concluded. In Conclusion, the game starts off promising but has severe difficulty issues that keep it from being an enjoyable experience. Thank god for quicksaving.
1987
Played the Pixel Remaster version on PC which contains significant difficulty reductions compared to the NES original so keep that in mind during this review. I don't have much to say about this game. It is certainly the start of a very long and iterative series that would make several improvements over the course of its games. As for this first entry however its a pretty bog standard JRPG that doesn't really do anything that wrong but also doesn't really stand out in any particular area aside from its incredible music of course. I mean the battle theme is basically THE JRPG battle theme and the added final boss music in the pixel remaster is also an incredible piece. The story is also nothing to write home about, It's your standard "find the 4 magical mcguffins and kill god" story that many JRPG's have done in the past although FF1 is unique in that it was actually one of the first games to do this setup which popularized the trope in the first place. One of my big gripes with this game however is how easy it is to wander around without some sort of purpose. Areas are not marked on the map until they are visited so it can sometimes be hard to tell which direction you need to go which contributes to you fighting more annoying random encounters. The game can actually be beaten in a relatively reasonable amount of random encounters if you know where to go, but for people who don't have a guide open in another tab the entire time they are playing. Unnecessary random encounters will be everywhere and cause significant frustration.
2023
A game that really scratches that dmc itch for us character action game fans. An overall solid game with great music, art and boss fights. The game has an extremely loose scaling system so combos get really long especially with assists added. But they're still simple overall only being made up of differently timed strings that have different purposes in the overall combo structure. The game also contains super moves that do big damage and can be comboed into with relative ease. I want to specifically mention the super "high pitch punch" as it was integral to my playthrough and might be one of the strongest character action game moves i've ever used. Its short range is offset by the fact that:
1. Its starts combos
2. It instantly fills the dizzy meter and
3. IT ONLY COSTS 1 BAR! which means its very easily spammable as certain bosses drop a lot of the energy required for using supers in between phases. I had one boss fight that basically sounded something like this. HIGH PITCH PUNCH, long combo, HIGH PITCH PUNCH, long combo, and so on and so forth. normally this would reduce the fun factor but there is still a ton of execution involved in the combo after landing the super that i think makes it a satisfying move to use overall. 8/10 GOOD ASS GAME go play it.
1. Its starts combos
2. It instantly fills the dizzy meter and
3. IT ONLY COSTS 1 BAR! which means its very easily spammable as certain bosses drop a lot of the energy required for using supers in between phases. I had one boss fight that basically sounded something like this. HIGH PITCH PUNCH, long combo, HIGH PITCH PUNCH, long combo, and so on and so forth. normally this would reduce the fun factor but there is still a ton of execution involved in the combo after landing the super that i think makes it a satisfying move to use overall. 8/10 GOOD ASS GAME go play it.
One of the best RTS games of all time. The unit variety and story keep it entertaining till the very end. It does not take itself very seriously which makes it a very fun experience to watch unfold.
2007
I played this game for 20 hours I wish i can get those hours back. All i have to say is Tartarus. Just Tartarus. It sucks. A big fucking tower with the same floors for a 100 stories. Not only is it extremely boring its suckiness is exemplified by how often you need to go there. I found myself hoping and praying for the story events to occur on any given day so that the game can get interesting again. It has very poor pacing in that regard and it made it hard to stomach such a mediocre game for another 50 or so hours. I'll see if the remake fixes my gripes in these areas but for now P3FES stands alone as possibly the worst jrpg i have played by a large margin.
1994
One of my top 10. I have yet to play the remake but this game is incredible. I was surprised at just how navigable a lot of the levels were. They don't turn into mazes all that often. SHODAN might be one of the greatest villians in a videogame. She's an absolute bastard with schemes on top of schemes. Every time you think you've beaten her she just pulls out some other plan. The gameplay is also very fun once you get used to it. The fact that the patches are stackable might be one of the funniest things in a videogame. At one point I used a speed patch, time slow patch and berserk patch at the same time and flew through the level half clipping through walls and destroying some of the games hardest to beat bots in a single swing of the legally distinct lightsaber.
2016
An absolutely incredible and sometimes brutal strategy game. Nothing compares to the feeling of completing a campaign for the first time. It's difficulty may cause some people to bounce off it but i'm always coming back for more nail biting shots. The game becomes hilarious with mods installed. For me XCOM was comprised entirely of video game characters such as JC Denton, Kiryu Kazuma and Gordon Freeman. The game sort of became this weird showcase of all my interests after a while and I love it for that.
an interesting little game and the first of a long running series. I enjoyed it quite a lot as it demonstrated some exemplary game design practices for such an early release in the medium. Its very much a game that was designed to be finished which can sometimes be a rare thing on the NES/FC. My only real gripe aside from the inventory system and slow combat animations is that this game is actually too easy at points. I would've liked a higher difficulty for fans of strategy games like myself.
It's GOOD. The game only has 5 chapters which is extraordinarily short for a yakuza game. The story is incredible and the boss fights are too. They manage to pack a lot into its short run time.
Possibly the best game in the series. Takes the extraordinary silliness from previous installments and ramps it up to 11 while still maintaining a serious crime drama story. It's switch to a JRPG format is controversial however I think it works well in combination with our main protagonists characterization.
This review contains spoilers
Finally we return to an understandable story. Meant as a finale to the main character this game solely focuses on Kiryu as our only protagonist and honestly THANK GOD. The multiple perspectives in earlier games became very confusing from a story perspective. As our first game on the dragon engine this game actually suffers from a bit of a regression on the gameplay front in comparison to 5. It makes up for this with its story however. The second Someya boss fight is one of my favorite moments in the whole series. The music perfectly compliments that moment in the story