Lemonstrade
Yakuza/Like a Dragon has been my favorite gaming series since a few years now and naturally I've been very hyped for Infinite Wealth. So much that I didn't watch any trailer past the first 10-minute reveal of the game and muted Yakuza related keywords on social media. I usually never do this for a game, but the urge to see Kiryu's fate by myself was strong, since that's a key selling point for this entry.
The new characters are great and became some of my favorites in the series, but it was also nice to see how Infinite Wealth expanded on the previously established characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon in meaningful ways. This is especially noticeable with Ichiban himself, since he really gets to shine in many different aspects here - whether he is serious about the things that matter the most to him or if he is just goofing around with his friends, he just feels like a great guy to be around overall. There's something about him that just feels so human and real.
I always felt like the combat in Yakuza 7 was a bit janky, but I excused it since it was RGG's first attempt at creating a turn-based game. Fortunately, Infinite Wealth follows up on the foundation that's already there and adds some tactical elements like moving during turns, guaranteed crits when attacking from behind and combo attacks with party members. It really makes a big difference and makes the combat flow a whole lot better. Balancing is also just right for the most part and the DLC classes have good basegame integration this time around. No more solo-ing bosses with the comically overpowered Head Trauma move in the previous mainline game.
Story is enjoyable for the most part. There are some plotholes and other minor nitpicks that bother me, even so it's still an enjoyable ride overall with some good supporting characters and villains along the way. Pacing is a bit wonky in a way that there are some instances where you have to follow a very linear route across half the map to get to your destination while avoiding random encounters left and right. This makes sense with the narrative context in those situations, but it's rather dull from a gameplay perspective, considering you just have to beeline from A to B without being able to do anything else for that time (without prior warning). It's not a major flaw, since it only occurs a few time in the game, but what's really bugging me is that the narrative unfortunately has a lot of wasted potential, keeping it from being one of the best ones in the series. Some seemingly "major" characters are especially undercooked, which is a shame given their assigned roles in the story.
Now for some positivity again, one of the biggest highlights in Infinite Wealth for me is Kiryu's involvement. Having to come to terms with his own mortality, he decides to seek out friends and locations from the past one more time. It's really cool to see so many returning characters from the Kiryu games and what they're up to now; the little flashbacks to past Yakuza games you can see at various points scattered across the cities are also neat fanservice. While this aspect falls pretty flat for those who got into the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it feels like a nice reward for all long-term fans and might even motivate some of the newer fans to go back to the Kiryu saga!
Overall, Infinite Wealth feels like a big step up from Like a Dragon into the right direction and is worth your time. It's not just a good game for Yakuza fans, but for JRPG fans in general with the amount of effort put into this game. Now onto Persona 3 Reload, another game I've been looking forward to a long time!
Thanks for reading.
The new characters are great and became some of my favorites in the series, but it was also nice to see how Infinite Wealth expanded on the previously established characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon in meaningful ways. This is especially noticeable with Ichiban himself, since he really gets to shine in many different aspects here - whether he is serious about the things that matter the most to him or if he is just goofing around with his friends, he just feels like a great guy to be around overall. There's something about him that just feels so human and real.
I always felt like the combat in Yakuza 7 was a bit janky, but I excused it since it was RGG's first attempt at creating a turn-based game. Fortunately, Infinite Wealth follows up on the foundation that's already there and adds some tactical elements like moving during turns, guaranteed crits when attacking from behind and combo attacks with party members. It really makes a big difference and makes the combat flow a whole lot better. Balancing is also just right for the most part and the DLC classes have good basegame integration this time around. No more solo-ing bosses with the comically overpowered Head Trauma move in the previous mainline game.
Story is enjoyable for the most part. There are some plotholes and other minor nitpicks that bother me, even so it's still an enjoyable ride overall with some good supporting characters and villains along the way. Pacing is a bit wonky in a way that there are some instances where you have to follow a very linear route across half the map to get to your destination while avoiding random encounters left and right. This makes sense with the narrative context in those situations, but it's rather dull from a gameplay perspective, considering you just have to beeline from A to B without being able to do anything else for that time (without prior warning). It's not a major flaw, since it only occurs a few time in the game, but what's really bugging me is that the narrative unfortunately has a lot of wasted potential, keeping it from being one of the best ones in the series. Some seemingly "major" characters are especially undercooked, which is a shame given their assigned roles in the story.
Now for some positivity again, one of the biggest highlights in Infinite Wealth for me is Kiryu's involvement. Having to come to terms with his own mortality, he decides to seek out friends and locations from the past one more time. It's really cool to see so many returning characters from the Kiryu games and what they're up to now; the little flashbacks to past Yakuza games you can see at various points scattered across the cities are also neat fanservice. While this aspect falls pretty flat for those who got into the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it feels like a nice reward for all long-term fans and might even motivate some of the newer fans to go back to the Kiryu saga!
Overall, Infinite Wealth feels like a big step up from Like a Dragon into the right direction and is worth your time. It's not just a good game for Yakuza fans, but for JRPG fans in general with the amount of effort put into this game. Now onto Persona 3 Reload, another game I've been looking forward to a long time!
Thanks for reading.
2017
A great display of video games as an artform.
NieR: Automata is a game that goes above and beyond with its unique way of storytelling, taking full advantage of making the experience one that can't be substituted through a book or a movie - not just in terms of visual design, but also through the use of dynamic music and having its story told from the point of view of multiple protagonists.
Note that I have played NieR Replicant (the first game) right before this entry, so comparing the two games was inevitable for me. On one hand I still feel like I was doing Automata a disservice by doing so, but at the same time it was nice hearing remixes of familiar songs when they were still fresh in my memory. Either way, in my opinion something very important to anyone interested in this game, is to play Replicant first if you want the full experience. Not only because you would miss many cool references, but also because Automata doesn't hold back with spoiling the first game through the documents you can find in it and personally I'd be pretty upset if I read those before playing Replicant. Those documents are cool for returning players because you get more context for the events of the previous entry, but also spoil some of the biggest twists. Play this first at your own risk.
In contrast to Replicant, Automata's story has a lot more spectacle to it than Replicant's more grounded and personal narrative. This time you're not taking control of the teenage boy who wants to cure his sister, but instead slip into the role of android warrior 2B, who is fighting in an all-out war against machines to reclaim the planet. Considering the scale of the story, you're just one of many androids - Automata is less about the characters' personal struggles and more about the main conflict at hand. And while the overarching narrative is solid, the real highlight is how the story is told and the messages behind it. This game has multiple routes and endings and they're used particularly well here, compared to Replicant, where the routes were the same in terms of gameplay, but with new scenes. Even if Automata's Route A and B are the same string of events told through a different perspective (which turned a surprising amount of people off from doing multiple routes), the unique gameplay of 9S and some scenes from his perspective alone are worth warranting the second playthrough. Route C however is where the story really picks up in pace, while also being a fresh experience at the same time. New enemies, new plot, new soundtrack. (The enemy variety in Automata in general is way better than Replicant, there are so many machines and bosses with cool ideas!) Also, the finale of Route C completely blew me away with the "art direction" of it and the final battle at the end was the cherry on top. For those concerned about missables, after beating this route, you'll unlock Chapter Select and can freely return to any point in the story before, so there's no reason for FOMO, feel free to tackle the game at your own pace. In regards to achievements, what I found particularly interesting was the integration of a trophy shop. It's just like the name would suggest, a hidden in-game shop where you can buy the remaining achievements in exchange for virtual currency. Pretty cool if you locked yourself out of a trophy, but also really made me think about the actual point of trophies in general...
Combat and movement in Automata are definitely an upgrade to Replicant's combat... for the most part. Coming right from the first game, I was a bit surprised how slippery the controls felt, like they didn't have much weight to them. The most glaring difference was the missing vibration on hit though, it really gave the attacks more impact for me. Turns out the controls are actually quite good and responsive after spending a while with them, it just took me a bit to adjust. Now, the combat in Automata literally consists of hack-and-slash. As 2B, your main approach to offense will be slashing through the enemies (while looking really stylish) by dual-wielding a set of two weapons of choice, reaching from her signature katanas to the Beastbane from Replicant, you're free to mix and match towards whatever matches your own personal playstyle. Meanwhile the other protagonist, 9S, puts the emphasis on the "hack" in hack-and-slash. He does not have the luxury of using two weapons at once, as his model is not designed for combat, but rather for gathering intel - in gameplay terms this means you can hack into your enemies to deal large amounts of damage, destroying most normal enemies instantly. Hacking consists of a Space Invaders-like bullet hell minigame, where you need to shoot down hostile ships or towers which are shooting projectiles at you. If you get hit three times, you're getting kicked and need to hack the enemy again to get another shot at the minigame. In order to successfully complete a hack, normally all enemies need to be destroyed before being able to shoot the otherwise guarded core, but there are some exceptions, like bosses and special hacks have unique screens with other conditions attached to them. Hacking and slashing aside, there's actually a third type of combat (even if it's rarely used), the aerial combat. There are a few parts where you're mounting a flying mech and need to shoot down enemies in a rail shooter-like fashion. These segments are either 2D or top-down, your possible movements are defined by the camera angle.
Following up to the "possible movements", I'd like to talk about the possible movements in the overworld and the level design in general, because I'm really sold on both of those aspects. Moving around feels great, has a very parkour-ish feel to it and hopping or gliding onto certain structures is awesome. This also comes from the level design being a lot of fun to traverse and explore, a big step up from Replicant. All areas have an unique theme they're designed after and they're like semi-open worlds. No loading screens (aside from the ones disguised as elevators) are a huge plus and make for a really seamless experience. Not to mention those individual levels are gorgeous and still filled with so many small details, my favorites are the Forest Kingdom and Amusement Park. Shoutout to the Flooded City, although I wish that area was a bit larger. After reflecting on those areas, I'm not really sure if I prefer the medieval design of Replicant's world or the post-apocalyptic world of Automata. But one thing is for certain: traversing Automata's world didn't break my controller's right trigger spring. (Yeah, that happened in Replicant. Not even because I threw the controller or anything, it was just because I dashed a lot...)
The soundtrack is excellent. As I already stated in my opener, NieR Automata greatly makes use of the dynamic soundtracks - this means the songs shift between multiple variants, based on what is currently happening. Like when you hack an enemy as 9S, the current song slowly transitions into an 8-Bit version, depending on how much the hacking meter is filled, eventually the the hacking sequence starts and the full 8-Bit rendition plays until the minigame is completed, where it fades back to the normal version. But not only does the combat have changing music, the songs in individual areas also change based on location or story progress. An example fairly early on is the desert theme, Memories of Dust. As you walk into the desert for the first time, you will hear an instrumental version of this song, but as you get closer to the apartment ruins, the vocals fade in. It also works in reverse, because if you walk away from that location, the lyrics will fade out again. The most impactful use of the dynamic soundtrack for me was at the very end, and I won't specify this further, since you'll know what I mean when you get there.
Something very important for the PC players: Please do yourself a favor and set the anti-aliasing to SMAA, because MSAA looks really horrible in this port and also chugs performance for some reason; you won't even get consistent 60 frames, because there's some built-in limiter. Meanwhile the FidelityFX CAS option makes the colors look off, so I'd recommend turning that off too. These two things unironically took me three hours to figure out and I don't want you to go through the same pain.
In the end, I absolutely adored NieR Automata as an experience. While it didn't emotionally impact me nearly as much as Replicant, I prefer the direction and creative approach in this one, like using the route system for something a lot more meaningful than playing through the exact same events three times (and the final area four times!). It's definitely a game I will be thinking about for quite some time, as it really opened my eyes on games as an artform. Thanks for reading and glory to mankind!
NieR: Automata is a game that goes above and beyond with its unique way of storytelling, taking full advantage of making the experience one that can't be substituted through a book or a movie - not just in terms of visual design, but also through the use of dynamic music and having its story told from the point of view of multiple protagonists.
Note that I have played NieR Replicant (the first game) right before this entry, so comparing the two games was inevitable for me. On one hand I still feel like I was doing Automata a disservice by doing so, but at the same time it was nice hearing remixes of familiar songs when they were still fresh in my memory. Either way, in my opinion something very important to anyone interested in this game, is to play Replicant first if you want the full experience. Not only because you would miss many cool references, but also because Automata doesn't hold back with spoiling the first game through the documents you can find in it and personally I'd be pretty upset if I read those before playing Replicant. Those documents are cool for returning players because you get more context for the events of the previous entry, but also spoil some of the biggest twists. Play this first at your own risk.
In contrast to Replicant, Automata's story has a lot more spectacle to it than Replicant's more grounded and personal narrative. This time you're not taking control of the teenage boy who wants to cure his sister, but instead slip into the role of android warrior 2B, who is fighting in an all-out war against machines to reclaim the planet. Considering the scale of the story, you're just one of many androids - Automata is less about the characters' personal struggles and more about the main conflict at hand. And while the overarching narrative is solid, the real highlight is how the story is told and the messages behind it. This game has multiple routes and endings and they're used particularly well here, compared to Replicant, where the routes were the same in terms of gameplay, but with new scenes. Even if Automata's Route A and B are the same string of events told through a different perspective (which turned a surprising amount of people off from doing multiple routes), the unique gameplay of 9S and some scenes from his perspective alone are worth warranting the second playthrough. Route C however is where the story really picks up in pace, while also being a fresh experience at the same time. New enemies, new plot, new soundtrack. (The enemy variety in Automata in general is way better than Replicant, there are so many machines and bosses with cool ideas!) Also, the finale of Route C completely blew me away with the "art direction" of it and the final battle at the end was the cherry on top. For those concerned about missables, after beating this route, you'll unlock Chapter Select and can freely return to any point in the story before, so there's no reason for FOMO, feel free to tackle the game at your own pace. In regards to achievements, what I found particularly interesting was the integration of a trophy shop. It's just like the name would suggest, a hidden in-game shop where you can buy the remaining achievements in exchange for virtual currency. Pretty cool if you locked yourself out of a trophy, but also really made me think about the actual point of trophies in general...
Combat and movement in Automata are definitely an upgrade to Replicant's combat... for the most part. Coming right from the first game, I was a bit surprised how slippery the controls felt, like they didn't have much weight to them. The most glaring difference was the missing vibration on hit though, it really gave the attacks more impact for me. Turns out the controls are actually quite good and responsive after spending a while with them, it just took me a bit to adjust. Now, the combat in Automata literally consists of hack-and-slash. As 2B, your main approach to offense will be slashing through the enemies (while looking really stylish) by dual-wielding a set of two weapons of choice, reaching from her signature katanas to the Beastbane from Replicant, you're free to mix and match towards whatever matches your own personal playstyle. Meanwhile the other protagonist, 9S, puts the emphasis on the "hack" in hack-and-slash. He does not have the luxury of using two weapons at once, as his model is not designed for combat, but rather for gathering intel - in gameplay terms this means you can hack into your enemies to deal large amounts of damage, destroying most normal enemies instantly. Hacking consists of a Space Invaders-like bullet hell minigame, where you need to shoot down hostile ships or towers which are shooting projectiles at you. If you get hit three times, you're getting kicked and need to hack the enemy again to get another shot at the minigame. In order to successfully complete a hack, normally all enemies need to be destroyed before being able to shoot the otherwise guarded core, but there are some exceptions, like bosses and special hacks have unique screens with other conditions attached to them. Hacking and slashing aside, there's actually a third type of combat (even if it's rarely used), the aerial combat. There are a few parts where you're mounting a flying mech and need to shoot down enemies in a rail shooter-like fashion. These segments are either 2D or top-down, your possible movements are defined by the camera angle.
Following up to the "possible movements", I'd like to talk about the possible movements in the overworld and the level design in general, because I'm really sold on both of those aspects. Moving around feels great, has a very parkour-ish feel to it and hopping or gliding onto certain structures is awesome. This also comes from the level design being a lot of fun to traverse and explore, a big step up from Replicant. All areas have an unique theme they're designed after and they're like semi-open worlds. No loading screens (aside from the ones disguised as elevators) are a huge plus and make for a really seamless experience. Not to mention those individual levels are gorgeous and still filled with so many small details, my favorites are the Forest Kingdom and Amusement Park. Shoutout to the Flooded City, although I wish that area was a bit larger. After reflecting on those areas, I'm not really sure if I prefer the medieval design of Replicant's world or the post-apocalyptic world of Automata. But one thing is for certain: traversing Automata's world didn't break my controller's right trigger spring. (Yeah, that happened in Replicant. Not even because I threw the controller or anything, it was just because I dashed a lot...)
The soundtrack is excellent. As I already stated in my opener, NieR Automata greatly makes use of the dynamic soundtracks - this means the songs shift between multiple variants, based on what is currently happening. Like when you hack an enemy as 9S, the current song slowly transitions into an 8-Bit version, depending on how much the hacking meter is filled, eventually the the hacking sequence starts and the full 8-Bit rendition plays until the minigame is completed, where it fades back to the normal version. But not only does the combat have changing music, the songs in individual areas also change based on location or story progress. An example fairly early on is the desert theme, Memories of Dust. As you walk into the desert for the first time, you will hear an instrumental version of this song, but as you get closer to the apartment ruins, the vocals fade in. It also works in reverse, because if you walk away from that location, the lyrics will fade out again. The most impactful use of the dynamic soundtrack for me was at the very end, and I won't specify this further, since you'll know what I mean when you get there.
Something very important for the PC players: Please do yourself a favor and set the anti-aliasing to SMAA, because MSAA looks really horrible in this port and also chugs performance for some reason; you won't even get consistent 60 frames, because there's some built-in limiter. Meanwhile the FidelityFX CAS option makes the colors look off, so I'd recommend turning that off too. These two things unironically took me three hours to figure out and I don't want you to go through the same pain.
In the end, I absolutely adored NieR Automata as an experience. While it didn't emotionally impact me nearly as much as Replicant, I prefer the direction and creative approach in this one, like using the route system for something a lot more meaningful than playing through the exact same events three times (and the final area four times!). It's definitely a game I will be thinking about for quite some time, as it really opened my eyes on games as an artform. Thanks for reading and glory to mankind!
What a ride.
In my eyes, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute masterpiece - and I hardly ever use that word! It has everything I could possibly ask for in a game: an unique and memorable cast of characters, catchy soundtrack, enjoyable gameplay and my favorite story in a video game.
There's many great things to be said about this game, so I'm starting with the immersive world, the scenery and sheer amount of detail put into just about everything. I expected the open world to be as generic as a Far Cry open world outside of the cities, but was pleasantly surprised. Not just in the sense of how it looks in terms of graphics, but also in terms of structure and pathing. It's just a joy to explore and you can always find something new on a trip. Whether it be a random encounter or change in weather, the game will keep you entertained while riding from A to B. Speaking of the weather, I absolutely love the many different weathers in the game. Ranging from a thick fog to a heavy sandstorm, there is a lot of variation in the weathers and not just the "standard" sunny/cloudy/rainy/stormy weathers present in most games. You know your game looks good when photo mode doesn't do it justice and seeing the scenery in-game is just a better experience overall.
As I mentioned before, I believe Red Dead Redemption 2 has one of the best written narratives in gaming and is my favorite story in a game as of right now. The characters act natural and the relationships between gang members also come off as pretty realistic to me. I like that unlike in other games not everyone got along with each other, just because they're part of the same crew. In terms of best written characters in the game, I'd say Arthur and Dutch easily take the top spots. I've also really enjoyed the characters of John, Sadie and even Micah. Arthur is just an amazing protagonist in general and Roger Clark really delivers his lines and the emotions within them. Then again, I believe all voice actors did a really good job for this game; I don't remember even one voice sounding off for a character. And they certainly had a lot of fun recording the lines, you can feel that.
Now onto some other positive tidbits about the game. The customization is great and you've got many different outfit parts to mix and match. Honor as a mechanic is also well done, because you indirectly influence some parts of the game depending on your good and bad deeds. Having high honor will allow you to get discounts in shops and new outfits, while low honor will make NPCs dislike you and you'll get worse loot from enemies. Also here I'd like to add that (in my opinion) there's hardly any real filler content in the game and everything has atleast some meaning to it.
But what about the gameplay itself? Hunting and tracking down animals, fishing and playing cards is a fun way to spend your time, but what's important in a game like this, is how the gunplay feels - and I believe it feels really good! Thankfully the revolvers have a certain power to them already, but rifles are also great to use with their extended zoom.
If I were to mention flaws about RDR2, there really wasn't anything major things that bothered me, just two little things that got annoying at times. The worst offender by far was "Mash A to run/boost horse", which just exists to give you thumb pain for no reason. Second point is the game forcing two weapons on you before any big fight, spoiling the surprise already. I also believe having two large guns on your back looks silly, but as I addressed earlier, this can't really be called an "issue", since it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the game overall.
Personally, I believe I have made my point clear - I like this game! A lot actually. And that's because it is a good game and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a world to just get immersed in. Now excuse me while I go think about Arthur Morgan again.
In my eyes, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute masterpiece - and I hardly ever use that word! It has everything I could possibly ask for in a game: an unique and memorable cast of characters, catchy soundtrack, enjoyable gameplay and my favorite story in a video game.
There's many great things to be said about this game, so I'm starting with the immersive world, the scenery and sheer amount of detail put into just about everything. I expected the open world to be as generic as a Far Cry open world outside of the cities, but was pleasantly surprised. Not just in the sense of how it looks in terms of graphics, but also in terms of structure and pathing. It's just a joy to explore and you can always find something new on a trip. Whether it be a random encounter or change in weather, the game will keep you entertained while riding from A to B. Speaking of the weather, I absolutely love the many different weathers in the game. Ranging from a thick fog to a heavy sandstorm, there is a lot of variation in the weathers and not just the "standard" sunny/cloudy/rainy/stormy weathers present in most games. You know your game looks good when photo mode doesn't do it justice and seeing the scenery in-game is just a better experience overall.
As I mentioned before, I believe Red Dead Redemption 2 has one of the best written narratives in gaming and is my favorite story in a game as of right now. The characters act natural and the relationships between gang members also come off as pretty realistic to me. I like that unlike in other games not everyone got along with each other, just because they're part of the same crew. In terms of best written characters in the game, I'd say Arthur and Dutch easily take the top spots. I've also really enjoyed the characters of John, Sadie and even Micah. Arthur is just an amazing protagonist in general and Roger Clark really delivers his lines and the emotions within them. Then again, I believe all voice actors did a really good job for this game; I don't remember even one voice sounding off for a character. And they certainly had a lot of fun recording the lines, you can feel that.
Now onto some other positive tidbits about the game. The customization is great and you've got many different outfit parts to mix and match. Honor as a mechanic is also well done, because you indirectly influence some parts of the game depending on your good and bad deeds. Having high honor will allow you to get discounts in shops and new outfits, while low honor will make NPCs dislike you and you'll get worse loot from enemies. Also here I'd like to add that (in my opinion) there's hardly any real filler content in the game and everything has atleast some meaning to it.
But what about the gameplay itself? Hunting and tracking down animals, fishing and playing cards is a fun way to spend your time, but what's important in a game like this, is how the gunplay feels - and I believe it feels really good! Thankfully the revolvers have a certain power to them already, but rifles are also great to use with their extended zoom.
If I were to mention flaws about RDR2, there really wasn't anything major things that bothered me, just two little things that got annoying at times. The worst offender by far was "Mash A to run/boost horse", which just exists to give you thumb pain for no reason. Second point is the game forcing two weapons on you before any big fight, spoiling the surprise already. I also believe having two large guns on your back looks silly, but as I addressed earlier, this can't really be called an "issue", since it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the game overall.
Personally, I believe I have made my point clear - I like this game! A lot actually. And that's because it is a good game and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a world to just get immersed in. Now excuse me while I go think about Arthur Morgan again.
2024
Ever been interested in the Persona series? Start with this one!
As a big fan of Persona 3, Reload was the game I was looking forward to the most in 2024 alongside Infinite Wealth, so I did the same as with IW and held off on watching trailers past the announcement one entirely to experience the changes for myself. When the release date came closer, I began to see more and more doomposting for Reload and even considered holding off on buying it because of how negatively this game was treated by others. I'm glad that didn't get to me in the end and I could form my own opinion of the remake of one of my favorite games.
First off, the presentation in Reload is amazing right off the bat, ranging from the upgraded artstyle to the dynamic menus and improved character models, it's just so very pleasant to look at. This also includes animations - the Ultimate moves of the characters look super cool. As someone who only ever really played Portable before, the upgrade in presentation was a huge point for me. Sure, the updated environmental design of the overworld is great, but the cherry on top are the revamped Tartarus blocks. The floors are no longer mere reskins with the same layout, now every block has a detailed new look and a different pattern. Tartarus changes don't stop here though, like the previous top-down camera has been turned into a proper third-person one, which I believe adds to the immersion a lot, despite being so seemingly insignificant at first. Furthermore, exploration is incentivized with mini-bosses being accessible in ordinary floors now alongside the addition of lucrative floor-specific events like locked or special chests. Can't forget the revamped Golden Hands in Reload either, as they provide a large amount of XP now (like in Persona 4) instead of dropping items. A great change for everyone who hated grinding and the new Great Clock random event can boost two of your teammates' levels on a whim, so no one has to fall behind! I believe the new Tartarus has something in store for everyone, so even if you were turned off by the gameplay in the original, giving it a second look might be worth it...
Voice acting in Reload is top notch. I don't share the somewhat popular sentiment of Yukari and Aigis sounding worse than their original counterparts at all, they're probably even my favorite new castings. That being said, personally I wouldn't say there's a single bad casting within the new voice actors, I enjoyed all of their performances. Emotional scenes got me tearing up several times, I got shivers during others. Not to disregard some of the original actors, but Reload really elevated some characters for me, just with their new performances (Yuko, Chidori and Fuuka are great examples). Also love how every social link is completely voiced now, it's a huge boost in immersion. As for social links in general, I'm glad the new Link Episodes exist, they're basically mini social links for the male party members and give you some insight into their life. A great way to add some interaction with them to the game without replacing the already existing social links! The SEES hangouts during nighttime also fulfill a similar role in giving your teammates more screentime without taking up meaningful time (considering the abundance of free time at night in P3), this also includes new events like several study sessions with the team. Those activities aren't just for fun though, you gain new passive abilities for the other members or gain extra knowledge points while studying with the others, the integration is seamless.
The new soundtrack is... good! Not much to say here, I like the remixes of the original songs and the new songs are bangers. Color Your Night is one of the very best vocal tracks in the series and It's Going Down Now still stays hype after listening to it over and over. Shoutout to the new remix of Changing Seasons.
There's a whole lot more to unpack about this game, but for the time being I have said everything that was on my mind. My thoughts are still pretty hazy, despite completing Reload hours ago, but I hope you could get something useful out of my review either way. As always, thanks for reading!
As a big fan of Persona 3, Reload was the game I was looking forward to the most in 2024 alongside Infinite Wealth, so I did the same as with IW and held off on watching trailers past the announcement one entirely to experience the changes for myself. When the release date came closer, I began to see more and more doomposting for Reload and even considered holding off on buying it because of how negatively this game was treated by others. I'm glad that didn't get to me in the end and I could form my own opinion of the remake of one of my favorite games.
First off, the presentation in Reload is amazing right off the bat, ranging from the upgraded artstyle to the dynamic menus and improved character models, it's just so very pleasant to look at. This also includes animations - the Ultimate moves of the characters look super cool. As someone who only ever really played Portable before, the upgrade in presentation was a huge point for me. Sure, the updated environmental design of the overworld is great, but the cherry on top are the revamped Tartarus blocks. The floors are no longer mere reskins with the same layout, now every block has a detailed new look and a different pattern. Tartarus changes don't stop here though, like the previous top-down camera has been turned into a proper third-person one, which I believe adds to the immersion a lot, despite being so seemingly insignificant at first. Furthermore, exploration is incentivized with mini-bosses being accessible in ordinary floors now alongside the addition of lucrative floor-specific events like locked or special chests. Can't forget the revamped Golden Hands in Reload either, as they provide a large amount of XP now (like in Persona 4) instead of dropping items. A great change for everyone who hated grinding and the new Great Clock random event can boost two of your teammates' levels on a whim, so no one has to fall behind! I believe the new Tartarus has something in store for everyone, so even if you were turned off by the gameplay in the original, giving it a second look might be worth it...
Voice acting in Reload is top notch. I don't share the somewhat popular sentiment of Yukari and Aigis sounding worse than their original counterparts at all, they're probably even my favorite new castings. That being said, personally I wouldn't say there's a single bad casting within the new voice actors, I enjoyed all of their performances. Emotional scenes got me tearing up several times, I got shivers during others. Not to disregard some of the original actors, but Reload really elevated some characters for me, just with their new performances (Yuko, Chidori and Fuuka are great examples). Also love how every social link is completely voiced now, it's a huge boost in immersion. As for social links in general, I'm glad the new Link Episodes exist, they're basically mini social links for the male party members and give you some insight into their life. A great way to add some interaction with them to the game without replacing the already existing social links! The SEES hangouts during nighttime also fulfill a similar role in giving your teammates more screentime without taking up meaningful time (considering the abundance of free time at night in P3), this also includes new events like several study sessions with the team. Those activities aren't just for fun though, you gain new passive abilities for the other members or gain extra knowledge points while studying with the others, the integration is seamless.
The new soundtrack is... good! Not much to say here, I like the remixes of the original songs and the new songs are bangers. Color Your Night is one of the very best vocal tracks in the series and It's Going Down Now still stays hype after listening to it over and over. Shoutout to the new remix of Changing Seasons.
There's a whole lot more to unpack about this game, but for the time being I have said everything that was on my mind. My thoughts are still pretty hazy, despite completing Reload hours ago, but I hope you could get something useful out of my review either way. As always, thanks for reading!
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a breath of fresh air in more than one way for 2D Mario games and has easily become one of my favorite platformers out there.
The artstyle is great, the controls are responsive and precise and the animations are just smooth. You can really feel the amount of dedication the developers put into the game, every level has an unique Wonder Flower gimmick and the talking flowers were a personal highlight for me. It's really just a blast to play!
There are still some nitpicks I have with it. First of all, why can't different players in multiplayer equip different badges? I don't think this can be blamed on hardware limitations. Second thing, there should've been a way to play traditional online co-op and not just the "ghost mode". Oh well, maybe Nintendo thought it wouldn't work after the amounts of lag in Mario Maker 2's versus mode. Who knows! Then there's the thing with the Yoshis and Nabbit (you've probably heard it a thousand times now). They really shouldn't be locked behind a whole difficulty and the other way around, cause if you're a legit fan of these characters you can't play them without having a whole different experience. Last but not least, something feels off about the structure of levels in general. While they all feel unique in a way, they're... too simple at times. I'm not talking about the difficulty, I'm talking about the placement of things. Can't quite put my finger on what it is.
Overall Wonder was a fantastic experience though and I'll surely be going for 100% completion. Despite the small flaws I've mentioned, it's one of the most fun games this year and I really appreciate the hard work of the developers, hope they got a fat paycheck for working on this :p
The artstyle is great, the controls are responsive and precise and the animations are just smooth. You can really feel the amount of dedication the developers put into the game, every level has an unique Wonder Flower gimmick and the talking flowers were a personal highlight for me. It's really just a blast to play!
There are still some nitpicks I have with it. First of all, why can't different players in multiplayer equip different badges? I don't think this can be blamed on hardware limitations. Second thing, there should've been a way to play traditional online co-op and not just the "ghost mode". Oh well, maybe Nintendo thought it wouldn't work after the amounts of lag in Mario Maker 2's versus mode. Who knows! Then there's the thing with the Yoshis and Nabbit (you've probably heard it a thousand times now). They really shouldn't be locked behind a whole difficulty and the other way around, cause if you're a legit fan of these characters you can't play them without having a whole different experience. Last but not least, something feels off about the structure of levels in general. While they all feel unique in a way, they're... too simple at times. I'm not talking about the difficulty, I'm talking about the placement of things. Can't quite put my finger on what it is.
Overall Wonder was a fantastic experience though and I'll surely be going for 100% completion. Despite the small flaws I've mentioned, it's one of the most fun games this year and I really appreciate the hard work of the developers, hope they got a fat paycheck for working on this :p
No matter how hard you try to break us, the future is ours to shape! Always!
The premise of Xenoblade Chronicles is simple, yet effective. Atop the colossal Bionis, the three childhood friends Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are living their best lives, until one day a particularly evil robot shows up to disturb the local peace. With the help of the legendary sword Monado, Shulk embarks on a journey across the Bionis to track down the unknown assailant and get his revenge. Not only is the Monado arguably one of the coolest weapons in fiction, it's also especially useful in combat against the machines and allows the wielder to see into the future. The theme of fate is ever-present, as Shulk has to deal with visions involving the people close to him dying several times, and only he can change the future to prevent these events from playing out, while also pursuing his own goals. I'll not take away any more from the story, since I found it to be pretty intriguing and well written until the end, despite having quite a few tropes here and there and also some predictability to it. Even with the sheer amount of downright meme-worthy lines or shonen shenanigans, the core narrative is still surprisingly solid and doesn't fall flat in terms of twists either. Yes, Dunban being "over there" is actually important to the plot. The setting of the two titans is incredibly unique and memorable, but also just straight up cool at the same time, the area progression is really satisfying here. As for the main cast, they all have their reasons to join Shulk in his fight against the Mechons and their voice acting is superb. It's a shame Adam Howden never got any major roles besides Shulk, since he especially nailed those screams and emotional moments. But honestly, the rest of the cast is just as good and I like how many unknown voice actors are featured here (and their British accents).
While the main storyline is not as long as I expected it to be, Xenoblade is still jam-packed with side content, rocketing up the overall possible playtime by a significant amount. Most of the side quests are just fetch quests or "kill x amounts of these monsters", but there are also several skill trees or other cool rewards locked behind others. It never crossed my thoughts until I beat the story, how much Xenoblade rewards interacting with the world on the side, as there's even a whole chart accessible through the main menu where you can see the relations between every single named NPC and the locale they belong to. There's an entire trading mechanic I didn't even pay attention to in my playthrough, but it's cool to know it's there, I think little things like this or the info you can read up on the named NPCs on the chart improve the already impressive worldbuilding by a lot again. Now, one of my biggest regrets is not interacting with the Colony 6 side-story at all, there were many side quests related to it and I couldn't complete any of them because I somehow didn't do the initial one. Honestly, it's a shame it took me so long to properly appreciate those aspects, so I'll definitely focus on them on my eventual New Game+ playthrough.
Amidst the fierce battle cries of "Now it's Reyn Time!", "Electric Gutbuster!" and "Star-searing flames of ABSOLUTION!", I actually ended up liking the combat very much and was surprised by how unique it was. By the end it devolved into chain attack spam for me, but before that point, I think the MMO-style approach is really fitting and fun overall, while the cheesy battle lines of the cast add a whole layer of entertainment as well. Here, good preparation is half the battle already, as you will need to decide which skills your AI-controlled party members should use and how to efficiently combine those with the tactics of the rest of the team for optimal results. I said the combat is "MMO-style", because skills are locked behind cooldowns and your active character is using auto-attacks in the downtime to fill the special bar, like in the case of Shulk it's used for the Monado Arts. His signature sword not only specializes in slicing through machinery, but can also buff him or his party in various other ways, like shielding them or granting everyone the ability to hit the Mechons. Each of those abilities uses different amounts of the special gauge, so it's up to you to decide what's the best approach for certain combat situations. It would be pretty unwise to keep throwing out Arts which use your full gauge, as enemies and especially bosses can counter those by attacking with so-called Vision Attacks. Those come in three forms, Red, White and Purple. By casting the Impulse Art on a party member, they can dodge a red attack, which is pretty straightforward. Things get interesting for the white attacks, as they require you to have a properly leveled Shield Art to even block the move - so if an enemy uses "Attack VII", you need the skill level of your Shield Art atleast at 7, anything below will not block. The use of haptic feedback is also really underappreciated from what I've seen, every time you hit with a chance attack you get vibration on hit and everytime you break an enemy's vision attack the controller emulates this "breaking" effect with a stronger rumble. There's also a pulse while seeing the animations for vision attacks playing out, resembling a heartbeat, and that's pretty cool if you ask me.
Teambuilding is a central mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles, and also one that is handled in an interesting way. First of all, you get access to most of the cast fairly early into the story already, so you can experiment with different teams through many different areas and see who has your favorite playstyle, who you want to main and who you don't actually like at all. This availability of being able to build around your team without even getting to the meat of the main story yet is such a nice change of pace, since I know so many games where you get party members so late, that they're basically unusable, as you have probably already have a good team composition at that point. Looking at you, Fire Emblem. But Xenoblade doesn't have this issue and it's just really nice, so I hope the other two games in the trilogy adapt this approach as well. As for their actual involvement in gameplay, each teammate has an unique role and playstyle, so you can basically play any possible combination of party members together and it will work somehow. Another neat feature is the ability to choose any character besides Shulk as the leader, allowing you to control them in the overworld and battle, it's very handy for certain encounters (or if you're just a big fan of the character). Like personally I played Melia on Mount Valka so I could have an easier time reaching the airborne enemies and it ended up being a really pleasant change of pace! There is also a whole layer of customization here besides the current party setup, since you can tweak individual characters to your liking by equipping them with gems, certain armor pieces or adjusting the skill trees. I really like how skill trees are handled here, like you still can normally unlock character-specific skills of individual branches through EXP, but you're also able to make use of the skills of other characters if you raise the friendship between them accordingly. This is not a metaphorical statement, raising the affinity between two teammates comes with a nice amount of extras - you unlock new heart-to-heart events across the world, the possibility of extending chain attacks is higher and as mentioned before, you gain access to a bunch of the opposite character's skills. Very nice!
As for the soundtrack, the Definitive Edition features an (almost) entirely revamped OST with new arranged tracks. I've only heard a few of the original tracks in Smash before, so I won't compare the new arrangements to the original compositions. With that out of the way, I'm a big fan of the musical score for DE and especially the more emotional songs here really hit me at times. Hearing Engage the Enemy for the very first time in-game with the corresponding cutscene is an ethereal feeling and gave me shivers in combination with Adam Howden's performance there. Gaur Plain is also one of my favorites, even if that one's a basic pick - maybe because it's just a memorable, good song. My final nomination goes out to Mechanical Rhythm for just being a pretty sick standard battle theme, which could easily pass as a boss theme elsewhere.
Considering I'm planning to do a NG+ one day to catch up on the content I missed, it's needless to say that Xenoblade Chronicles left quite the impression on me, even after finishing the game. Now onto Future Connected and I'm looking forward to playing Xenoblade 2 in a while too. Here's hoping that the rest of the trilogy will be just as fun!
The premise of Xenoblade Chronicles is simple, yet effective. Atop the colossal Bionis, the three childhood friends Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are living their best lives, until one day a particularly evil robot shows up to disturb the local peace. With the help of the legendary sword Monado, Shulk embarks on a journey across the Bionis to track down the unknown assailant and get his revenge. Not only is the Monado arguably one of the coolest weapons in fiction, it's also especially useful in combat against the machines and allows the wielder to see into the future. The theme of fate is ever-present, as Shulk has to deal with visions involving the people close to him dying several times, and only he can change the future to prevent these events from playing out, while also pursuing his own goals. I'll not take away any more from the story, since I found it to be pretty intriguing and well written until the end, despite having quite a few tropes here and there and also some predictability to it. Even with the sheer amount of downright meme-worthy lines or shonen shenanigans, the core narrative is still surprisingly solid and doesn't fall flat in terms of twists either. Yes, Dunban being "over there" is actually important to the plot. The setting of the two titans is incredibly unique and memorable, but also just straight up cool at the same time, the area progression is really satisfying here. As for the main cast, they all have their reasons to join Shulk in his fight against the Mechons and their voice acting is superb. It's a shame Adam Howden never got any major roles besides Shulk, since he especially nailed those screams and emotional moments. But honestly, the rest of the cast is just as good and I like how many unknown voice actors are featured here (and their British accents).
While the main storyline is not as long as I expected it to be, Xenoblade is still jam-packed with side content, rocketing up the overall possible playtime by a significant amount. Most of the side quests are just fetch quests or "kill x amounts of these monsters", but there are also several skill trees or other cool rewards locked behind others. It never crossed my thoughts until I beat the story, how much Xenoblade rewards interacting with the world on the side, as there's even a whole chart accessible through the main menu where you can see the relations between every single named NPC and the locale they belong to. There's an entire trading mechanic I didn't even pay attention to in my playthrough, but it's cool to know it's there, I think little things like this or the info you can read up on the named NPCs on the chart improve the already impressive worldbuilding by a lot again. Now, one of my biggest regrets is not interacting with the Colony 6 side-story at all, there were many side quests related to it and I couldn't complete any of them because I somehow didn't do the initial one. Honestly, it's a shame it took me so long to properly appreciate those aspects, so I'll definitely focus on them on my eventual New Game+ playthrough.
Amidst the fierce battle cries of "Now it's Reyn Time!", "Electric Gutbuster!" and "Star-searing flames of ABSOLUTION!", I actually ended up liking the combat very much and was surprised by how unique it was. By the end it devolved into chain attack spam for me, but before that point, I think the MMO-style approach is really fitting and fun overall, while the cheesy battle lines of the cast add a whole layer of entertainment as well. Here, good preparation is half the battle already, as you will need to decide which skills your AI-controlled party members should use and how to efficiently combine those with the tactics of the rest of the team for optimal results. I said the combat is "MMO-style", because skills are locked behind cooldowns and your active character is using auto-attacks in the downtime to fill the special bar, like in the case of Shulk it's used for the Monado Arts. His signature sword not only specializes in slicing through machinery, but can also buff him or his party in various other ways, like shielding them or granting everyone the ability to hit the Mechons. Each of those abilities uses different amounts of the special gauge, so it's up to you to decide what's the best approach for certain combat situations. It would be pretty unwise to keep throwing out Arts which use your full gauge, as enemies and especially bosses can counter those by attacking with so-called Vision Attacks. Those come in three forms, Red, White and Purple. By casting the Impulse Art on a party member, they can dodge a red attack, which is pretty straightforward. Things get interesting for the white attacks, as they require you to have a properly leveled Shield Art to even block the move - so if an enemy uses "Attack VII", you need the skill level of your Shield Art atleast at 7, anything below will not block. The use of haptic feedback is also really underappreciated from what I've seen, every time you hit with a chance attack you get vibration on hit and everytime you break an enemy's vision attack the controller emulates this "breaking" effect with a stronger rumble. There's also a pulse while seeing the animations for vision attacks playing out, resembling a heartbeat, and that's pretty cool if you ask me.
Teambuilding is a central mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles, and also one that is handled in an interesting way. First of all, you get access to most of the cast fairly early into the story already, so you can experiment with different teams through many different areas and see who has your favorite playstyle, who you want to main and who you don't actually like at all. This availability of being able to build around your team without even getting to the meat of the main story yet is such a nice change of pace, since I know so many games where you get party members so late, that they're basically unusable, as you have probably already have a good team composition at that point. Looking at you, Fire Emblem. But Xenoblade doesn't have this issue and it's just really nice, so I hope the other two games in the trilogy adapt this approach as well. As for their actual involvement in gameplay, each teammate has an unique role and playstyle, so you can basically play any possible combination of party members together and it will work somehow. Another neat feature is the ability to choose any character besides Shulk as the leader, allowing you to control them in the overworld and battle, it's very handy for certain encounters (or if you're just a big fan of the character). Like personally I played Melia on Mount Valka so I could have an easier time reaching the airborne enemies and it ended up being a really pleasant change of pace! There is also a whole layer of customization here besides the current party setup, since you can tweak individual characters to your liking by equipping them with gems, certain armor pieces or adjusting the skill trees. I really like how skill trees are handled here, like you still can normally unlock character-specific skills of individual branches through EXP, but you're also able to make use of the skills of other characters if you raise the friendship between them accordingly. This is not a metaphorical statement, raising the affinity between two teammates comes with a nice amount of extras - you unlock new heart-to-heart events across the world, the possibility of extending chain attacks is higher and as mentioned before, you gain access to a bunch of the opposite character's skills. Very nice!
As for the soundtrack, the Definitive Edition features an (almost) entirely revamped OST with new arranged tracks. I've only heard a few of the original tracks in Smash before, so I won't compare the new arrangements to the original compositions. With that out of the way, I'm a big fan of the musical score for DE and especially the more emotional songs here really hit me at times. Hearing Engage the Enemy for the very first time in-game with the corresponding cutscene is an ethereal feeling and gave me shivers in combination with Adam Howden's performance there. Gaur Plain is also one of my favorites, even if that one's a basic pick - maybe because it's just a memorable, good song. My final nomination goes out to Mechanical Rhythm for just being a pretty sick standard battle theme, which could easily pass as a boss theme elsewhere.
Considering I'm planning to do a NG+ one day to catch up on the content I missed, it's needless to say that Xenoblade Chronicles left quite the impression on me, even after finishing the game. Now onto Future Connected and I'm looking forward to playing Xenoblade 2 in a while too. Here's hoping that the rest of the trilogy will be just as fun!
2023
Buckshot Roulette really respects your time - once you load into it and kick down two doors, you're already introduced to the unnamed dealer, who's gonna be your enemy in a game of life and death. The core mechanics are simple, you just have to shoot the dealer with live rounds or shoot yourself with blanks in order to get extra turns, so you can deplete the opposing health bar and win a round. After the first round, random items are introduced, which can give you advantages, like being able to see the current bullet or deal double damage for a turn, but the dealer is also able to use his items against you! After you beat the third and final round, you're already done with Buckshot Roulette, no strings attached.
I really appreciate how simple this game is kept and that there is no "hidden lore" or anything at all, it's just a cool concept packaged into a 3€ game and is all about the gameplay. You also unlock an endless mode after beating a normal run, where you can just play more for the sake of it, or try your luck for a bunch of achievements - in my opinion it's a good inclusion, so you get some more bang for your buck(shot).
In conclusion, if you're interested in this game, go for it! It might not be long, but the experience is definitely an unique one.
I really appreciate how simple this game is kept and that there is no "hidden lore" or anything at all, it's just a cool concept packaged into a 3€ game and is all about the gameplay. You also unlock an endless mode after beating a normal run, where you can just play more for the sake of it, or try your luck for a bunch of achievements - in my opinion it's a good inclusion, so you get some more bang for your buck(shot).
In conclusion, if you're interested in this game, go for it! It might not be long, but the experience is definitely an unique one.
2012
Oh, Sonic Adventure 2...
At first, the shift from hub worlds to linear storytelling was a change I had to get used to - the pace of doing levels back to back feels way different from walking around Station Squareaimlessly to get to the next stage and I didn't like how it felt here. However, my stance changed about halfway through the HERO story (which I played first), and I began to appreciate the storytelling of the sequel over SA1, because you get the story (on your side atleast) told in chronological order without having to puzzle it together and you constantly switch characters, so it doesn't get boring. So on the HERO side you're already getting a full story about Sonic and his friends alone, but the villains are contextualized in the DARK story. Personally, I preferred the DARK story, it just felt like the more complete package overall and the cast is more interesting.
As for the gameplay, Adventure 2 brought some noticeable changes to the Treasure Hunt stages, put an extended focus on mech levels (which play similar to Gamma from SA1) and also changes the physics and controls a bit from the first game - nothing worse than no longer being able to overly rely on Sonic's spindash, as it's not overpowered anymore. You get used to it fast, but that was a death sentence in the first hours of playing! Concerning the Treasure Hunt stages... I'm not a fan of what they did to the radar, the beeping noise is even more obnoxious (and louder) than before and only having the shards show up in a set order is frustrating. However, sometime during Knuckles' final level it came to me that I've developed stockholm syndrome towards the Treasure Hunt gameplay and after reflecting and replaying the Knuckles stages again, I had a lot more fun with them than before. They're an acquired taste, a guilty pleasure.
You know what else is guilty of being TOO LOUD? The mech levels - just hold down the lock-on button and you'll get a free trial of tinnitus, all while you've got a full Michael Bay movie with thirteen different kinds of explosions going down in the background. Weapons Bed might actually be one of the loudest levels I have ever played in ANY game. It's not like the audio mixing was good to begin with, the volume of sound effects during regular gameplay is so comically overtuned and you might as well believe the conversations in cutscenes were recorded during a rave by how often the voices get drowned out by the music. But generally, the soundtrack of Adventure 2 really delivers. Favorite songs are Escape from the City, Live & Learn and E.G.G.M.A.N.
Not much more to say, except that I missed out on the Chao Garden in this playthrough entirely, just because I had no clue how to hatch the eggs. A shame, cause that's apparently a big aspect of the game - so I'll be sure to check it out sometime. What else, Shadow and Rogue are awesome and this game is a blast to play despite the issues. I'm considering bumping it up to five stars if the Chao part of the game turns out to be good. It's just chaotic and fun.
In which other game can you experience Tails using his special move of crashing the game twice after telling Eggman how powerful he is? I can't think of one.
At first, the shift from hub worlds to linear storytelling was a change I had to get used to - the pace of doing levels back to back feels way different from walking around Station Square
As for the gameplay, Adventure 2 brought some noticeable changes to the Treasure Hunt stages, put an extended focus on mech levels (which play similar to Gamma from SA1) and also changes the physics and controls a bit from the first game - nothing worse than no longer being able to overly rely on Sonic's spindash, as it's not overpowered anymore. You get used to it fast, but that was a death sentence in the first hours of playing! Concerning the Treasure Hunt stages... I'm not a fan of what they did to the radar, the beeping noise is even more obnoxious (and louder) than before and only having the shards show up in a set order is frustrating. However, sometime during Knuckles' final level it came to me that I've developed stockholm syndrome towards the Treasure Hunt gameplay and after reflecting and replaying the Knuckles stages again, I had a lot more fun with them than before. They're an acquired taste, a guilty pleasure.
You know what else is guilty of being TOO LOUD? The mech levels - just hold down the lock-on button and you'll get a free trial of tinnitus, all while you've got a full Michael Bay movie with thirteen different kinds of explosions going down in the background. Weapons Bed might actually be one of the loudest levels I have ever played in ANY game. It's not like the audio mixing was good to begin with, the volume of sound effects during regular gameplay is so comically overtuned and you might as well believe the conversations in cutscenes were recorded during a rave by how often the voices get drowned out by the music. But generally, the soundtrack of Adventure 2 really delivers. Favorite songs are Escape from the City, Live & Learn and E.G.G.M.A.N.
Not much more to say, except that I missed out on the Chao Garden in this playthrough entirely, just because I had no clue how to hatch the eggs. A shame, cause that's apparently a big aspect of the game - so I'll be sure to check it out sometime. What else, Shadow and Rogue are awesome and this game is a blast to play despite the issues. I'm considering bumping it up to five stars if the Chao part of the game turns out to be good. It's just chaotic and fun.
In which other game can you experience Tails using his special move of crashing the game twice after telling Eggman how powerful he is? I can't think of one.
Never has a game made me cry this much before.
It's snowing. A boy and his younger sister are starving and freezing, so they seek shelter in an abandoned supermarket to find rations and warmth. No one else is in sight, the streets and supermarket are empty - until mysterious shadows break into the store and threaten the siblings. With his remaining strength, the boy heads out to the parking lot and decides to take on the monsters with just an iron pipe and dark magic spells from a mysterious book, as he needs to protect his beloved sister at all costs. It's a hopeless battle, but the brother has no other choice.
NieR Replicant ver1.22 tells the tale of the young Nier and his quest to find a cure to heal his bedridden sister Yonah. Their parents are dead, so Nier is doing his best as a big brother and takes on various requests in his village to earn some pocket money to buy food, but at the same time he hates seeing his sister alone and wants to spend more time by her side. Life isn't easy for the two of them and it would be a shame if it got any worse.
Alright, I'm not giving an entire rundown of the plot here. My point is: The game is sad! Really sad. As you've read in the opening sentence, never has a game made me tear up and shiver as much as Replicant before and I'm a sucker for stories with emotional impact. It's really one of the best narratives I've ever seen. The moment I stepped foot into Aerie Village I knew I was in for a ride, but to be fair, the game does start rather slow and doesn't really gain momentum until an hour or so in, but that's because Replicant starts by showing Nier's daily life in the village and his routine (comparable to Twilight Princess' intro segment, but only half as long). The payoff is worth it though, as experiencing the plot unravel firsthand from an average shonen story to pure Yoko Taro madness is truly an one-of-a-kind experience and you'll never see this adventure the same way again after some reveals. Through episodic storytelling in the form of multiple routes, the player needs to replay a part of the game each time, but in each subsequent playthrough, new scenes that give context to certain events are added, which totally enhanced the experience for me, especially since you'll always know after your first playthrough what's going to happen next. Not gonna elaborate on that further, since it's a very spoilery topic by nature, so you should just experience it for yourself. However, I can understand how people are upset with the repetition, especially since the third playthrough is nearly identical to Route B. But trust me, pushing through is worth it and by the time you reach Ending E most of your questions should be answered, which is a great reward. The only thing I'm a bit torn on is the requirement to have all weapons in your inventory to access Routes C, D and E, since some of them are missable. A bunch of missed weapons can be bought at the blacksmith in Aerie Village after a certain point in the story, but some also require you to do three certain side quests. My recommendation: Since you can't get all the weapons on Route A normally anyways (3 are locked behind the World of Recycled Vessel content, which only unlocks after beating the game once), I suggest you just play through that one normally and pick up every weapon you find along the way (remember to break the crates!!) and if you are still missing some, you might look up where to get them on Route B. This requirement really shows the age of the original game, but shouldn't distract you from the overall outstanding narrative.
Okay, so the story is good, but what about the gameplay? I think it's great personally! (Except for the part where I broke the spring in my controller's right trigger... by dashing too much.) The controls are simple and the combat feels satisfying, there are great animations and the attacks feel like they have weight to them. Being able to utilize weapons and magic at the same time is really cool, you can pull off some interesting maneuvers by combining certain spells with standard attacks; there's even an in-game tutorial for it, if I remember correctly. But the combat is not the only aspect of the game, a lot of time is spent... backtracking (and fishing). There's really a lot of running around, especially if you're looking to complete as many side quests as possible. As someone who wanted to get the most out of Replicant, I finished the game with 97% sidequest completion and only left out two specific ones deliberately because I really didn't like the idea of spending several real-time days on the gardening part of the game with only a chance to get the flower seeds you need. That quest aside, surprisingly I really enjoyed my time with most of the sidequests! A whole lot of them were just fetch quests, yet you get some nice (voiced) dialogue out of them and I got to spend more time in this cozy world, so it didn't really matter to me - the extra banter alone made it worth to me. There's also some particularly good quests, like ones where you can make decisions that actually impact your rewards and the people around you. As an example, in one quest you can decide whether to help a criminal out or not and you have to live with that decision. Same goes for several occasions throughout the game where Nier can decide to either tell the truth or lie to people - there is no "right" choice and it's up to the player to decide what they think is for the best. Very cool.
The cast of this game is awesome, and I'm not just talking about the main party. Characters like the twins, Fyra or the postman really add to the liveliness in this overall rather bleak world and everyone has their own unique story behind them. I mean there's even a backstory for the fisherman who gives you all those fishing quests! Fishermen and postmen aside, Nier's actual companions deserve the spotlight just as much. Weiss, Emil and Kainé are some of the most unusual JRPG companions I have ever seen (and I love them for it), since they basically go against most of the common tropes you'd expect out of a sidekick. Personally I found the banter of the party to be really interesting at times, since their distinctive personalities are just destined to have a weird dispute every now and then.
The rearranged soundtrack is just beautiful. While NieR Gestalt focused more on the bass of the songs and sounds "rougher", Replicant ver1.22 centers the instruments more and has a "softer" tone, which fits the melancholic vibe incredibly well in my opinion. If you'd ask me to pickthree four favorite songs, I'm going with Snow in Summer, Temple of Drifting Sands, Song of the Ancients (Devola) and Fleeting Words (Outsider). I'm not linking them this time, because it's quite hard to find an upload of the individual ver1.22 arrangements on YouTube and its even harder to find spoiler-free ones (very important for a story-heavy game like this).
To wrap this up, I firmly believe Nier Replicant is a must-play for anyone who loves JRPGs with great narrative, characters and soundtrack (but can also handle a little repetition). While the game can be a little slow at times, the experience of slowly piercing this story and context together for yourself is unbeatable and I hopeit makes you just as sad you can find just as much enjoyment in it as I did!
It's snowing. A boy and his younger sister are starving and freezing, so they seek shelter in an abandoned supermarket to find rations and warmth. No one else is in sight, the streets and supermarket are empty - until mysterious shadows break into the store and threaten the siblings. With his remaining strength, the boy heads out to the parking lot and decides to take on the monsters with just an iron pipe and dark magic spells from a mysterious book, as he needs to protect his beloved sister at all costs. It's a hopeless battle, but the brother has no other choice.
NieR Replicant ver1.22 tells the tale of the young Nier and his quest to find a cure to heal his bedridden sister Yonah. Their parents are dead, so Nier is doing his best as a big brother and takes on various requests in his village to earn some pocket money to buy food, but at the same time he hates seeing his sister alone and wants to spend more time by her side. Life isn't easy for the two of them and it would be a shame if it got any worse.
Alright, I'm not giving an entire rundown of the plot here. My point is: The game is sad! Really sad. As you've read in the opening sentence, never has a game made me tear up and shiver as much as Replicant before and I'm a sucker for stories with emotional impact. It's really one of the best narratives I've ever seen. The moment I stepped foot into Aerie Village I knew I was in for a ride, but to be fair, the game does start rather slow and doesn't really gain momentum until an hour or so in, but that's because Replicant starts by showing Nier's daily life in the village and his routine (comparable to Twilight Princess' intro segment, but only half as long). The payoff is worth it though, as experiencing the plot unravel firsthand from an average shonen story to pure Yoko Taro madness is truly an one-of-a-kind experience and you'll never see this adventure the same way again after some reveals. Through episodic storytelling in the form of multiple routes, the player needs to replay a part of the game each time, but in each subsequent playthrough, new scenes that give context to certain events are added, which totally enhanced the experience for me, especially since you'll always know after your first playthrough what's going to happen next. Not gonna elaborate on that further, since it's a very spoilery topic by nature, so you should just experience it for yourself. However, I can understand how people are upset with the repetition, especially since the third playthrough is nearly identical to Route B. But trust me, pushing through is worth it and by the time you reach Ending E most of your questions should be answered, which is a great reward. The only thing I'm a bit torn on is the requirement to have all weapons in your inventory to access Routes C, D and E, since some of them are missable. A bunch of missed weapons can be bought at the blacksmith in Aerie Village after a certain point in the story, but some also require you to do three certain side quests. My recommendation: Since you can't get all the weapons on Route A normally anyways (3 are locked behind the World of Recycled Vessel content, which only unlocks after beating the game once), I suggest you just play through that one normally and pick up every weapon you find along the way (remember to break the crates!!) and if you are still missing some, you might look up where to get them on Route B. This requirement really shows the age of the original game, but shouldn't distract you from the overall outstanding narrative.
Okay, so the story is good, but what about the gameplay? I think it's great personally! (Except for the part where I broke the spring in my controller's right trigger... by dashing too much.) The controls are simple and the combat feels satisfying, there are great animations and the attacks feel like they have weight to them. Being able to utilize weapons and magic at the same time is really cool, you can pull off some interesting maneuvers by combining certain spells with standard attacks; there's even an in-game tutorial for it, if I remember correctly. But the combat is not the only aspect of the game, a lot of time is spent... backtracking (and fishing). There's really a lot of running around, especially if you're looking to complete as many side quests as possible. As someone who wanted to get the most out of Replicant, I finished the game with 97% sidequest completion and only left out two specific ones deliberately because I really didn't like the idea of spending several real-time days on the gardening part of the game with only a chance to get the flower seeds you need. That quest aside, surprisingly I really enjoyed my time with most of the sidequests! A whole lot of them were just fetch quests, yet you get some nice (voiced) dialogue out of them and I got to spend more time in this cozy world, so it didn't really matter to me - the extra banter alone made it worth to me. There's also some particularly good quests, like ones where you can make decisions that actually impact your rewards and the people around you. As an example, in one quest you can decide whether to help a criminal out or not and you have to live with that decision. Same goes for several occasions throughout the game where Nier can decide to either tell the truth or lie to people - there is no "right" choice and it's up to the player to decide what they think is for the best. Very cool.
The cast of this game is awesome, and I'm not just talking about the main party. Characters like the twins, Fyra or the postman really add to the liveliness in this overall rather bleak world and everyone has their own unique story behind them. I mean there's even a backstory for the fisherman who gives you all those fishing quests! Fishermen and postmen aside, Nier's actual companions deserve the spotlight just as much. Weiss, Emil and Kainé are some of the most unusual JRPG companions I have ever seen (and I love them for it), since they basically go against most of the common tropes you'd expect out of a sidekick. Personally I found the banter of the party to be really interesting at times, since their distinctive personalities are just destined to have a weird dispute every now and then.
The rearranged soundtrack is just beautiful. While NieR Gestalt focused more on the bass of the songs and sounds "rougher", Replicant ver1.22 centers the instruments more and has a "softer" tone, which fits the melancholic vibe incredibly well in my opinion. If you'd ask me to pick
To wrap this up, I firmly believe Nier Replicant is a must-play for anyone who loves JRPGs with great narrative, characters and soundtrack (but can also handle a little repetition). While the game can be a little slow at times, the experience of slowly piercing this story and context together for yourself is unbeatable and I hope
1998
The NieR of Sonic games...? What?
I never played a Sonic game before, but after reading Phantasm's review and having heard Wheatie advocate for this game for quite some while now, I decided to finally check out the series with Sonic Adventure - and I'm glad I did!
To make sense of the weird opening one-liner, Sonic Adventure is a game told through the eyes of six different characters - which means you need to play through the story six different times to fully understand what's going on. Each character comes with an unique gimmick and win condition, ranging from collecting Emerald Shards as Knuckles to catching a pet frog as Big the Cat. The narrative itself is nothing groundbreaking, it's fairly standard fare with Eggman trying to use an ancient evil named Chaos to destroy the local Station Square and rebuild it under his management. Chaos is an interesting villain though, since he functions basically the same as Resident Evil's Nemesis and you fight him several times with different characters in different power levels, as he grows in power each time he consumes a Chaos Emerald (you see, the name is as straightforward as it gets). As for the individual character stories themselves, you're free to approach them in any order you'd like, as long as you met the character in Sonic's story and the game will notify you when a new story is available. Only after completing all six story modes, you'll gain access to an epilogue and be able to fight the true final boss.
The levels themselves have some interesting mechanics, and they especially get to shine in Sonic's levels (as he's not a gimmicky character), I'll take the Lost World level as an example. While Knuckles can just crawl up the walls here with his moveset, Sonic has to rely on switches that allow him to walk on certain anti-gravity tiles on the wall or use mirrors to shine light on mirrors to illuminate a dark path. But it doesn't always have to be so complex, sometimes snowboarding down a giant mountain with an avalanche in the background is all you need. Even if I had a fun time with most of the levels, one of my biggest complaints is still the rebellious auto camera, which especially hates Sonic zooming through the zones at lightning speed and then jumps to some nonsensical angles, causing you to have no clue what's going on and miss your inputs. I'm not particularly mad at those camera shenanigans (would be lying if I told you it wasn't funny), but there are times where the jank goes from charming to annoying territory. Another thing I'd like to address is the strange progression sometimes outside of levels in the hub worlds. Thankfully there are red hint orbs in the game telling you where to go when you're feeling lost, but even then, sometimes the hints are so vague that I still found myself resorting to GameFAQs guides in order to locate where to head next. This would hardly be an issue on replays, but I couldn't find the raft for the life of me the first time I had to use it.
Sonic Adventure is a very ambitious game for the time it released and it's not only reflected in the level design, but also in the soundtrack, which covers a variety of musical genres and also uses higher quality instruments as opposed to a MIDI soundfont, which was possible thanks to the Dreamcast's advanced audio hardware. My favorite song is Amy's theme, My Sweet Passion, but I'm also particularly fond of Tikal's Theme and Mechanical Resonance. The Egg Carrier Theme needs a shoutout for itself, just for how catchy it is.
In the end, Sonic Adventure was a nice little departure from all the JRPGs I've played recently and I'm now eager to try the acclaimed Adventure 2 and other Sonic games in general - this includes the Steam version of Sonic Adventure DX, where I'm hoping to go for 100% when I get to it :D
I never played a Sonic game before, but after reading Phantasm's review and having heard Wheatie advocate for this game for quite some while now, I decided to finally check out the series with Sonic Adventure - and I'm glad I did!
To make sense of the weird opening one-liner, Sonic Adventure is a game told through the eyes of six different characters - which means you need to play through the story six different times to fully understand what's going on. Each character comes with an unique gimmick and win condition, ranging from collecting Emerald Shards as Knuckles to catching a pet frog as Big the Cat. The narrative itself is nothing groundbreaking, it's fairly standard fare with Eggman trying to use an ancient evil named Chaos to destroy the local Station Square and rebuild it under his management. Chaos is an interesting villain though, since he functions basically the same as Resident Evil's Nemesis and you fight him several times with different characters in different power levels, as he grows in power each time he consumes a Chaos Emerald (you see, the name is as straightforward as it gets). As for the individual character stories themselves, you're free to approach them in any order you'd like, as long as you met the character in Sonic's story and the game will notify you when a new story is available. Only after completing all six story modes, you'll gain access to an epilogue and be able to fight the true final boss.
The levels themselves have some interesting mechanics, and they especially get to shine in Sonic's levels (as he's not a gimmicky character), I'll take the Lost World level as an example. While Knuckles can just crawl up the walls here with his moveset, Sonic has to rely on switches that allow him to walk on certain anti-gravity tiles on the wall or use mirrors to shine light on mirrors to illuminate a dark path. But it doesn't always have to be so complex, sometimes snowboarding down a giant mountain with an avalanche in the background is all you need. Even if I had a fun time with most of the levels, one of my biggest complaints is still the rebellious auto camera, which especially hates Sonic zooming through the zones at lightning speed and then jumps to some nonsensical angles, causing you to have no clue what's going on and miss your inputs. I'm not particularly mad at those camera shenanigans (would be lying if I told you it wasn't funny), but there are times where the jank goes from charming to annoying territory. Another thing I'd like to address is the strange progression sometimes outside of levels in the hub worlds. Thankfully there are red hint orbs in the game telling you where to go when you're feeling lost, but even then, sometimes the hints are so vague that I still found myself resorting to GameFAQs guides in order to locate where to head next. This would hardly be an issue on replays, but I couldn't find the raft for the life of me the first time I had to use it.
Sonic Adventure is a very ambitious game for the time it released and it's not only reflected in the level design, but also in the soundtrack, which covers a variety of musical genres and also uses higher quality instruments as opposed to a MIDI soundfont, which was possible thanks to the Dreamcast's advanced audio hardware. My favorite song is Amy's theme, My Sweet Passion, but I'm also particularly fond of Tikal's Theme and Mechanical Resonance. The Egg Carrier Theme needs a shoutout for itself, just for how catchy it is.
In the end, Sonic Adventure was a nice little departure from all the JRPGs I've played recently and I'm now eager to try the acclaimed Adventure 2 and other Sonic games in general - this includes the Steam version of Sonic Adventure DX, where I'm hoping to go for 100% when I get to it :D
2024
This is the one.
Back in December 2023, I decided that my gaming New Year's resolution for 2024 would be to get good enough at a fighting game to play at an advanced level. While I wouldn't say I meet those conditions just yet, I believe I'm steadily making progress towards this goal. As of writing the review, I have completed the story, the Arcade Quest mode and reached the orange ranks in Ranked.
Originally, I didn't even intend on playing Tekken 8 at all. My schedule from late January into February was reserved for the new Yakuza game and Persona 3 Reload. January eventually came and I had a great time with Infinite Wealth, but Tekken 8 launched at the same time, so naturally I saw many people on social media hyping it up and how great it is. This was the catalyst for me actually researching stuff about the game by myself and was looking at reviews, character trailers and all the cool customizations others made for their characters. This went on until early February, where I just decided to pause Reload for the time being and try out Tekken 8, since this could be the one fighting game to help me fulfill my gaming New Year's resolution. As you could read from my opening sentence, it is exactly that.
Tekken 8 has all the things to keep you hooked, including visually impressive graphics and stages, adrenaline-inducing soundtrack, fantastic animations and a huge roster in the base game. Out of the 32 available characters, I'm sure anyone can find atleast two or three characters to their liking. It's also a very newcomer friendly game, the replay system shows you how to improve your gameplay in certain situations and the Special Style control layout lets you perform special moves with simplified inputs (similar to the modern controls in Street Fighter 6). I wouldn't recommend using this control scheme in the long run, but it's a great way to test new characters or to get a hang of the fundamentals at the early stages.
The game feels polished, the UI is clean and the menus aren't cluttered at all. You can set shortcuts to your favorite modes in the main menu or change the soundtrack of a stage or literally every major song in the game to pretty much any song from any past Tekken game. So even if the new soundtrack doesn't land for you, just make a new one yourself from your favorites! Customization in general is a big part of the Tekken series, it's really fun to cosplay as many different game or anime characters. Options are a bit limited as of right now, especially in terms of eye colors and hairstyles. Many iconic legacy outfits are also still missing, but it's pretty cool how you can just use the Tekken 7 outfits as presets.
The main story is pretty enjoyable for a fighting game, definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than the singleplayer mode in SF6. Arcade Quest is a nice tutorial mode and actually really helpful for beginners. I would urge every newcomer to check it out in order to get a hang of the mechanics overall, since it's not particularly long and it's definitely more interactive than just watching a youtube video on the mechanics. However if you like learning with videos, I would recommend checking out this beginner guide from PhiDX, it covers most of the basics you should know and should be easy to follow.
Tekken 8 sure was a pleasant surprise and I'll gladly spend many more hours with it to reach higher ranks with a bunch of my favorite characters. It's not going to happen overnight, but learning new things in a fighting game and incorporating them into your playstyle is arguably one of the most satisfying things you can do in a video game. Despite all this, I didn't forget about Persona 3 Reload. I'll finish it soon, but as of now - thanks for reading.
Back in December 2023, I decided that my gaming New Year's resolution for 2024 would be to get good enough at a fighting game to play at an advanced level. While I wouldn't say I meet those conditions just yet, I believe I'm steadily making progress towards this goal. As of writing the review, I have completed the story, the Arcade Quest mode and reached the orange ranks in Ranked.
Originally, I didn't even intend on playing Tekken 8 at all. My schedule from late January into February was reserved for the new Yakuza game and Persona 3 Reload. January eventually came and I had a great time with Infinite Wealth, but Tekken 8 launched at the same time, so naturally I saw many people on social media hyping it up and how great it is. This was the catalyst for me actually researching stuff about the game by myself and was looking at reviews, character trailers and all the cool customizations others made for their characters. This went on until early February, where I just decided to pause Reload for the time being and try out Tekken 8, since this could be the one fighting game to help me fulfill my gaming New Year's resolution. As you could read from my opening sentence, it is exactly that.
Tekken 8 has all the things to keep you hooked, including visually impressive graphics and stages, adrenaline-inducing soundtrack, fantastic animations and a huge roster in the base game. Out of the 32 available characters, I'm sure anyone can find atleast two or three characters to their liking. It's also a very newcomer friendly game, the replay system shows you how to improve your gameplay in certain situations and the Special Style control layout lets you perform special moves with simplified inputs (similar to the modern controls in Street Fighter 6). I wouldn't recommend using this control scheme in the long run, but it's a great way to test new characters or to get a hang of the fundamentals at the early stages.
The game feels polished, the UI is clean and the menus aren't cluttered at all. You can set shortcuts to your favorite modes in the main menu or change the soundtrack of a stage or literally every major song in the game to pretty much any song from any past Tekken game. So even if the new soundtrack doesn't land for you, just make a new one yourself from your favorites! Customization in general is a big part of the Tekken series, it's really fun to cosplay as many different game or anime characters. Options are a bit limited as of right now, especially in terms of eye colors and hairstyles. Many iconic legacy outfits are also still missing, but it's pretty cool how you can just use the Tekken 7 outfits as presets.
The main story is pretty enjoyable for a fighting game, definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than the singleplayer mode in SF6. Arcade Quest is a nice tutorial mode and actually really helpful for beginners. I would urge every newcomer to check it out in order to get a hang of the mechanics overall, since it's not particularly long and it's definitely more interactive than just watching a youtube video on the mechanics. However if you like learning with videos, I would recommend checking out this beginner guide from PhiDX, it covers most of the basics you should know and should be easy to follow.
Tekken 8 sure was a pleasant surprise and I'll gladly spend many more hours with it to reach higher ranks with a bunch of my favorite characters. It's not going to happen overnight, but learning new things in a fighting game and incorporating them into your playstyle is arguably one of the most satisfying things you can do in a video game. Despite all this, I didn't forget about Persona 3 Reload. I'll finish it soon, but as of now - thanks for reading.
2011
Portal 2 feels like the fully realized version of the original Portal. At it's core it feels the same, but the sequel just has so much more going for it, more personality.
In this game, Chell is no longer bound to the test chambers of Aperture Science like in the first Portal. After an incident in the story, she decides to take a little stroll through an abandoned salt mine and the backstage parts within the facility while she's at it. All of this while she is accompanied by three unique companions throughout the game. Speaking of the companions, the dialogue in Portal 2 is a big improvement over the one in Portal. In the first game, GLaDOS' comments happened every now and then, but here you pretty much have a narrator by your side all the time. This alone makes for quite the tonal shift in atmosphere to Portal, which had a pretty isolated and empty feeling to it - I can see how people prefer that, but personally I really enjoyed the extra dialogue and characters, since GLaDOS' remarks in the first game were one of the best parts for me. Back to the atmosphere in general, I think Valve did a really good job with setting an unique vibe for each individual area. My personal favorite is the salt mine, the vintage setting really landed for me!
As for gameplay, Portal 2 introduces a variety of mechanics to make the puzzles more enjoyable than the first game. Energy balls are completely gone this time and are replaced with light bridges, gravity beams, new cube variants and three different sorts of paint. Sounds like overkill at first, but those mechanics don't really overstay their welcome and they are really fun to play around with.
The narrative weaves those puzzles together in a logical way, while also delving into the background story of Chell and Aperture Science; there's some really good worldbuilding in there. The companions aren't one-note personalities and each one adds to the story with a different purpose, which makes them distinctive and memorable in their own ways.
Overall it's an amazing puzzle game, absolutely deserves the praise it's been getting. Had a good time with the main story, but the community maps are a nice treat if you're still in the mood for some more Portal action.
In this game, Chell is no longer bound to the test chambers of Aperture Science like in the first Portal. After an incident in the story, she decides to take a little stroll through an abandoned salt mine and the backstage parts within the facility while she's at it. All of this while she is accompanied by three unique companions throughout the game. Speaking of the companions, the dialogue in Portal 2 is a big improvement over the one in Portal. In the first game, GLaDOS' comments happened every now and then, but here you pretty much have a narrator by your side all the time. This alone makes for quite the tonal shift in atmosphere to Portal, which had a pretty isolated and empty feeling to it - I can see how people prefer that, but personally I really enjoyed the extra dialogue and characters, since GLaDOS' remarks in the first game were one of the best parts for me. Back to the atmosphere in general, I think Valve did a really good job with setting an unique vibe for each individual area. My personal favorite is the salt mine, the vintage setting really landed for me!
As for gameplay, Portal 2 introduces a variety of mechanics to make the puzzles more enjoyable than the first game. Energy balls are completely gone this time and are replaced with light bridges, gravity beams, new cube variants and three different sorts of paint. Sounds like overkill at first, but those mechanics don't really overstay their welcome and they are really fun to play around with.
The narrative weaves those puzzles together in a logical way, while also delving into the background story of Chell and Aperture Science; there's some really good worldbuilding in there. The companions aren't one-note personalities and each one adds to the story with a different purpose, which makes them distinctive and memorable in their own ways.
Overall it's an amazing puzzle game, absolutely deserves the praise it's been getting. Had a good time with the main story, but the community maps are a nice treat if you're still in the mood for some more Portal action.
2015
Bloodborne is an excellent game in many ways - especially combat and atmosphere.
No other Souls game forces you to be so aggressive and it's honestly a very refreshing take on the already established formula. The various levels are amazing in structure and nail the gothic aesthetic, also I love how they used the connected level design instead of linear progression, really makes unlocking shortcuts feel satisfying. The weapons have some really unique gimmicks and definitely offer a playstyle for each individual player.
Something I really liked about Bloodborne is how I actually could piece together the story after just one playthrough - I was never able to do this in a Souls game before! And the background lore is actually great, Fromsoft did a fantastic job with the worldbuilding here.
Now, my only flaws with this game would be the vial system and some bosses. While the latter point is somewhat subjective, vial farming can be an absolute chore (without using chalice dungeons) if you're stuck on a part and definitely puts the pacing to a halt. Also it's very easy to just outheal bosses if you just spam some of the twenty vials you're given - not the most optimal solution, but it somehow works most of the time anyways.
My final verdict? This is a definitive must-play if you just so happen to own a Playstation. Hoping for everyone it will be freed from the PSN shackles one day. Until then, fear the old blood.
No other Souls game forces you to be so aggressive and it's honestly a very refreshing take on the already established formula. The various levels are amazing in structure and nail the gothic aesthetic, also I love how they used the connected level design instead of linear progression, really makes unlocking shortcuts feel satisfying. The weapons have some really unique gimmicks and definitely offer a playstyle for each individual player.
Something I really liked about Bloodborne is how I actually could piece together the story after just one playthrough - I was never able to do this in a Souls game before! And the background lore is actually great, Fromsoft did a fantastic job with the worldbuilding here.
Now, my only flaws with this game would be the vial system and some bosses. While the latter point is somewhat subjective, vial farming can be an absolute chore (without using chalice dungeons) if you're stuck on a part and definitely puts the pacing to a halt. Also it's very easy to just outheal bosses if you just spam some of the twenty vials you're given - not the most optimal solution, but it somehow works most of the time anyways.
My final verdict? This is a definitive must-play if you just so happen to own a Playstation. Hoping for everyone it will be freed from the PSN shackles one day. Until then, fear the old blood.
Time to mix drinks and change lives.
VA-11 Hall-A was the final game I beat in 2023 and what a great sendoff it was. Huge thanks to @wheatie again for providing me with a copy of this game as a christmas gift - please consider showing her some support!
As a visual novel, VA-11 was quite different from the ones I played before, since I never got around to actually playing a normal slice-of-life VN. Considering I've (nearly) only played murder mysteries in this format, it was a nice change of pace to read a visual novel with a welcoming and cozy atmosphere for once. The cyberpunk aesthetic and soundtrack are a perfect match for the direction of VA-11 and quickly help to immerse you in the setting. I might just talk about the soundtrack a little more while I'm at it. The game allows you to pick 12 different songs from a diverse collection so you can set your own soundtrack. There's an integrated music player so you can listen to your favorite songs on shuffle and repeat or even skip some if you're not feeling them at the moment. Thankfully you can always switch out the jukebox songs each in-game day, so if you happen to really dislike a song, you can just swap it out for something else. So yeah, there's that. However, a good visual novel shouldn't need to rely on the soundtrack alone to be enjoyable, it also needs unique and entertaining characters. VA-11 has quite the quirky cast; seeing the talking Shiba with sunglasses for the first time certainly got a good chuckle out of me. His name being Rad Shiba didn't help.
The actual gameplay itself is really simple and nothing noteworthy. You click some ingredients on the right side of the screen and drag them together to mix a drink. While this mixing mechanic is just a plot device most of the time, sometimes you'd also get different dialogue from the customers, depending on the amount of alcohol they had. Somehow I only realized this when I already was nearing the end of the game, but I don't think it makes a huge difference, just a different topic every now and then.
That wraps pretty much everything up I wanted to say about this game already. It's a solid experience and I'd strongly advise anyone who likes cyberpunk settings or a good visual novel to try VA-11 out. Just please listen to my advice from earlier and don't rush it - take breaks if you're feeling bored. Grab a snack and just enjoy what lies ahead.
Thanks for reading. See you in 2024!
VA-11 Hall-A was the final game I beat in 2023 and what a great sendoff it was. Huge thanks to @wheatie again for providing me with a copy of this game as a christmas gift - please consider showing her some support!
As a visual novel, VA-11 was quite different from the ones I played before, since I never got around to actually playing a normal slice-of-life VN. Considering I've (nearly) only played murder mysteries in this format, it was a nice change of pace to read a visual novel with a welcoming and cozy atmosphere for once. The cyberpunk aesthetic and soundtrack are a perfect match for the direction of VA-11 and quickly help to immerse you in the setting. I might just talk about the soundtrack a little more while I'm at it. The game allows you to pick 12 different songs from a diverse collection so you can set your own soundtrack. There's an integrated music player so you can listen to your favorite songs on shuffle and repeat or even skip some if you're not feeling them at the moment. Thankfully you can always switch out the jukebox songs each in-game day, so if you happen to really dislike a song, you can just swap it out for something else. So yeah, there's that. However, a good visual novel shouldn't need to rely on the soundtrack alone to be enjoyable, it also needs unique and entertaining characters. VA-11 has quite the quirky cast; seeing the talking Shiba with sunglasses for the first time certainly got a good chuckle out of me. His name being Rad Shiba didn't help.
The actual gameplay itself is really simple and nothing noteworthy. You click some ingredients on the right side of the screen and drag them together to mix a drink. While this mixing mechanic is just a plot device most of the time, sometimes you'd also get different dialogue from the customers, depending on the amount of alcohol they had. Somehow I only realized this when I already was nearing the end of the game, but I don't think it makes a huge difference, just a different topic every now and then.
That wraps pretty much everything up I wanted to say about this game already. It's a solid experience and I'd strongly advise anyone who likes cyberpunk settings or a good visual novel to try VA-11 out. Just please listen to my advice from earlier and don't rush it - take breaks if you're feeling bored. Grab a snack and just enjoy what lies ahead.
Thanks for reading. See you in 2024!
A great little collectathon you can beat in one sitting. The launch of Celeste 64 caught me entirely by surprise and the fact that this game was made in just a week is astonishing. Not much to say about it except that it's a lot of fun (despite the janky camera) and translates the gameplay elements of Celeste into 3D fairly well. Wish it was a bit longer, but I'm not really complaining since it was made in such a short time - maybe this concept will be fully realized one day if the reception is positive? Only time will tell.
Final stats (taken from the results screen):
🍓x25
💀x089
⏱47:55:455
Final stats (taken from the results screen):
🍓x25
💀x089
⏱47:55:455