Ledgehend
3 reviews liked by Ledgehend
Persona 4 Golden
2012
Holds up much better than p5 from a writing standpoint. The characters don't fall off even close to as hard as p5 after their spotlight arc and the smaller town vibe gives a more intimate depth to everything. This game makes me so unreasonably happy. It's about 20 hours too long, and the part where they make fun of the fat girl was objectively just bad. Other than that, I love this game and it is successful and heartfelt in everything it does
Marvel's Spider-Man
2018
A shockingly heartfelt and emotional story with absolutely transcendent movement mechanics. This is probably the closest thing we will get to a Gravity Rush 3. The presentation when things get trippy are fantastic and the ending has some of the most emotional acting I've seen in a videogame. Loved it way more than I was anticipating given this is a super hero game.
Why not a 5 star imo:
my only real complaint is that literally 20 seconds after one crime gets solved, another one is already popping up. Like, I get that in the third act it should feel like chaos and like the city is falling apart, but going from one copied event to another so quickly just feels crowded and not necessarily deep.
Also I didn't love the MJ/Miles stealth sections. I don't mind playing as other characters with different mechanics, and I get that they were probably trying to remind players that Spiderman is a super hero by making you play as a normal human in a world lead by super villains, but they still felt kinda clunky and padded compared to how polished everything spiderman was.
Why not a 5 star imo:
my only real complaint is that literally 20 seconds after one crime gets solved, another one is already popping up. Like, I get that in the third act it should feel like chaos and like the city is falling apart, but going from one copied event to another so quickly just feels crowded and not necessarily deep.
Also I didn't love the MJ/Miles stealth sections. I don't mind playing as other characters with different mechanics, and I get that they were probably trying to remind players that Spiderman is a super hero by making you play as a normal human in a world lead by super villains, but they still felt kinda clunky and padded compared to how polished everything spiderman was.
Resident Evil 2
2019
Played Leon, saving Clair for a later replay. Incredible game overall. I hate horror games, but I loved this one as it rewards methodical map memorization. Leon is my spirit animal. He says the immediate first thing that comes to my brain when playing this game. RE2 blends camp and cheese with horror and serious tones with such effortlessness that never seems to devalue either.
human deformed monster jumps out "What happened to you?!"
zombie shambling towards you "What the hell? Shit! Goddamnit!"
mysterious person appears "Who are you?!"
I love how it progressively increases the testing of map mastery/memory. You go into a new area and have to figure it out while clearing enemies, then new elements are introduced that test your execution in navigating the map in progressively more challenging ways.
My favorite thing is that there are (to my knowledge) no magically spawning enemies. Once you see a zombie, if you kill it (like completely) it will always stay dead. Blow off its leg and remember what room you left it in and it will always be there. The only exception to this is if more zombies crawl through a window you leave open and wander around. (or if other enemies crawl in through holes in the ceiling/walls that you can't patch, trying to not spoil anything). I really felt like I was in a real space that I had learned to navigate and it was very rewarding. I was surprised how much of this game felt like a zelda item trading quest with the environment, but I really enjoyed figuring out how everything fit together. Has a really solid story overall and the controls are just iconic and so effective. Loved this game way more than I was expecting to when I decided to force myself to play a horror game to completion.
Highly recommend sticking with it even if you are scared of horror games. 80% of the time jump scares are on you because you didn't board up a window, forgot you left a zombie alive, or you were just sprinting through an unknown space.
human deformed monster jumps out "What happened to you?!"
zombie shambling towards you "What the hell? Shit! Goddamnit!"
mysterious person appears "Who are you?!"
I love how it progressively increases the testing of map mastery/memory. You go into a new area and have to figure it out while clearing enemies, then new elements are introduced that test your execution in navigating the map in progressively more challenging ways.
My favorite thing is that there are (to my knowledge) no magically spawning enemies. Once you see a zombie, if you kill it (like completely) it will always stay dead. Blow off its leg and remember what room you left it in and it will always be there. The only exception to this is if more zombies crawl through a window you leave open and wander around. (or if other enemies crawl in through holes in the ceiling/walls that you can't patch, trying to not spoil anything). I really felt like I was in a real space that I had learned to navigate and it was very rewarding. I was surprised how much of this game felt like a zelda item trading quest with the environment, but I really enjoyed figuring out how everything fit together. Has a really solid story overall and the controls are just iconic and so effective. Loved this game way more than I was expecting to when I decided to force myself to play a horror game to completion.
Highly recommend sticking with it even if you are scared of horror games. 80% of the time jump scares are on you because you didn't board up a window, forgot you left a zombie alive, or you were just sprinting through an unknown space.