LiefKatano
43 Reviews liked by LiefKatano
Dungeon Encounters
2021
Layer 1: Dungeon Encounters looks like the devs said "good enough" and called it a day.
Layer 2: There's a surprising level of polish here. Nice little character bios, cool rock guitar battle music, and the battle system has more depth than it lets on.
Layer 3: Once again I find myself starting all the way back at the first floor with my weakest characters, tediously trying to save my main party who were all KOed and/or turned to stone by a surprise overleveled enemy party. They're stuck on floor 20, which took me forever to get to, but I know there's 99 floors total and I've barely scratched the surface of what this game expects me to do. What started as a lean distillation of my favorite aspects of JRPGs has turned into the grindy tedium that I originally feared it would be.
I spoiled the ending for myself by looking it up online. I won't ruin it for you; I will simply say that if I spent the hundreds of hours necessary to get there, and that's all that happened, I would be pretty upset.
Dungeon Encounters does a lot of things right, and it could have been fine-tuned to be a much more enjoyable and stimulating journey than it is. I like the idea of an Into The Breach-style approach to the JRPG format; simplified aesthetic + deep strategy. But clearly, the devs said "good enough" and called it a day.
Layer 2: There's a surprising level of polish here. Nice little character bios, cool rock guitar battle music, and the battle system has more depth than it lets on.
Layer 3: Once again I find myself starting all the way back at the first floor with my weakest characters, tediously trying to save my main party who were all KOed and/or turned to stone by a surprise overleveled enemy party. They're stuck on floor 20, which took me forever to get to, but I know there's 99 floors total and I've barely scratched the surface of what this game expects me to do. What started as a lean distillation of my favorite aspects of JRPGs has turned into the grindy tedium that I originally feared it would be.
I spoiled the ending for myself by looking it up online. I won't ruin it for you; I will simply say that if I spent the hundreds of hours necessary to get there, and that's all that happened, I would be pretty upset.
Dungeon Encounters does a lot of things right, and it could have been fine-tuned to be a much more enjoyable and stimulating journey than it is. I like the idea of an Into The Breach-style approach to the JRPG format; simplified aesthetic + deep strategy. But clearly, the devs said "good enough" and called it a day.
Dome Keeper
2022
A nice arcade experience, with great art and sound direction. good for just popping on and playing a round while you watch some youtube! Roguelikes tend to fall into the trap of early game being too hard until you learn its mechanics, so I really appreciated how Doom Keeper eases you into its gameplay before you're digging around a huge map.
I really appreciate the amount of of options they give you to tweak your rounds. Having options for alternate play styles like drillbert mode or auto defense only is a lot of fun!
And prestige mode is a nice twist on your basic gameplay loop, but endless mode is so dangerous to me. I WILL just mine hours upon hours with no higher thinking going on in my brain.
I really appreciate the amount of of options they give you to tweak your rounds. Having options for alternate play styles like drillbert mode or auto defense only is a lot of fun!
And prestige mode is a nice twist on your basic gameplay loop, but endless mode is so dangerous to me. I WILL just mine hours upon hours with no higher thinking going on in my brain.
Super Mario RPG
2023
As someone who only played about ten minutes of the original, I can really only give my thoughts on this game from the angle of JUST playing this remake.
Holy hell, what a game this was. A fulfilling bite-size chunk of RPG - completed the main story and all the bonus postgame bosses in just under 20 hours - but despite the short length, it is stuffed to the GILLS with charm and fun character moments. It's vibrant, snappy, smooth as butter, and I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. Very pleased I took a chance with this game.
Holy hell, what a game this was. A fulfilling bite-size chunk of RPG - completed the main story and all the bonus postgame bosses in just under 20 hours - but despite the short length, it is stuffed to the GILLS with charm and fun character moments. It's vibrant, snappy, smooth as butter, and I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. Very pleased I took a chance with this game.
I am so, SO glad I took a chance and played this game.
The story, and the way it connects the player with the delightful cast of characters, goes places I have never seen another game go before. My jaw was on the floor with certain a certain plot twist, and it's pulled off amazingly.
The pre-rendered (pre-painted, I believe?) backgrounds give this game a timeless look... Outside of some awkward character animations. The creativity on display is on another level.
The luck-based element of the deckbuilding combat can be frustrating if you get a crap hand at a critical moment, and there's some frustrating bosses towards the end - the remaster's framerate is insanely spotty too - but those issues are waylaid but just how amazing the game looks, the writing, and the satisfaction of kicking you enemy to the curb with the combat system.
Please, PLEASE give this game a chance if you're even remotely curious or enjoy RPGs - you may just find a new favourite, like I did.
The story, and the way it connects the player with the delightful cast of characters, goes places I have never seen another game go before. My jaw was on the floor with certain a certain plot twist, and it's pulled off amazingly.
The pre-rendered (pre-painted, I believe?) backgrounds give this game a timeless look... Outside of some awkward character animations. The creativity on display is on another level.
The luck-based element of the deckbuilding combat can be frustrating if you get a crap hand at a critical moment, and there's some frustrating bosses towards the end - the remaster's framerate is insanely spotty too - but those issues are waylaid but just how amazing the game looks, the writing, and the satisfaction of kicking you enemy to the curb with the combat system.
Please, PLEASE give this game a chance if you're even remotely curious or enjoy RPGs - you may just find a new favourite, like I did.
A breath of fresh air that Mazza SORELY needed.
The amount of creativity packed into the game's (a little disappointingly) short runtime is nothing short of delightful. You'll never quite know what's coming next, and the presentation factor with the vibrant graphics and fantastic sound design make it a treat for the senses. The uniqueness in course aesthetics and overworld theming compared to the previous games (even if they're based on old trends, like 'grassland' and 'lava') remains fresh.
The only real major disappointment is the bosses, which are both far too sparse, and are also unable to catch up with the game's own wellspring of ideas, leaving them feeling far too tame for the game, and boring in design. The design of the final boss made me roll my eyes, and if you've played other Nintendo games, you'll know exactly why.
Overall, though, this is an absolute diamond of a game, and proof that, even after all this time, when Nintendo know what they want to do with an IP, they know HOW to do it.
The amount of creativity packed into the game's (a little disappointingly) short runtime is nothing short of delightful. You'll never quite know what's coming next, and the presentation factor with the vibrant graphics and fantastic sound design make it a treat for the senses. The uniqueness in course aesthetics and overworld theming compared to the previous games (even if they're based on old trends, like 'grassland' and 'lava') remains fresh.
The only real major disappointment is the bosses, which are both far too sparse, and are also unable to catch up with the game's own wellspring of ideas, leaving them feeling far too tame for the game, and boring in design. The design of the final boss made me roll my eyes, and if you've played other Nintendo games, you'll know exactly why.
Overall, though, this is an absolute diamond of a game, and proof that, even after all this time, when Nintendo know what they want to do with an IP, they know HOW to do it.
Mario Kart DS
2005
Stone cold classic, horrifying low-poly caricatures and all. Purely nostalgia bias, but many a good afternoon was had when I was younger, burning rubber and sniping my family with Blue Shells. Ahhhhh...
Pokémon Rumble World
2015
Back in my day, Pokémon Rumble was a darling little Wiiware game, inoffensive but great fun for a wee lad only VERY rarely allowed to buy any Wii Shop points.
How the mighty have fallen. This series ended not with a bang, with one third of a whimper, as you had to pay to buy gems to roll for the chance to unlock the rest.
How the mighty have fallen. This series ended not with a bang, with one third of a whimper, as you had to pay to buy gems to roll for the chance to unlock the rest.
A fantastic idea, with great presentation, but rough around the edges and doesn't QUITE hit the mark. Thankfully, the sequel -despite suffering from development issues due to covid - exists, which addresses most of these problems. Phew!
Kirby Triple Deluxe
2014
Kirby! In 3D! And just as routinely enjoyable as all the other Kirby games.
...Apparently. Only played this one, so I wouldn't know, to be honest. But I certainly enjoyed myself!
...Apparently. Only played this one, so I wouldn't know, to be honest. But I certainly enjoyed myself!
A lovely way to play a classic (with some neat bonus features, and a whole extra game!), even if the tiny screen real estate can make things a little tricky.
The lack of map and monochromatic, same-y room layouts made this an absolute nightmare. However, it was still enjoyable enough to eek out secrets, and see it through to the end. Very impressive for the console!
Final Fantasy III
2006
Classic RPG issue of needing to constantly grind to face the constant difficulty spikes. Wouldn't be AS much of a problem, if you didn't need to grind jobs as WELL as levels, so it ultimately felt like too much of a slog before it got interesting.
Rush Duels, as a card game, seem from this game to be pretty fun! Unfortunately this actual game is fairly short, absurdly grindy - Konami forgot how to make games you actually pay for - and the English version isn't getting the content updates the Japanese version does. Would not buy.
Banjo-Kazooie
1998
I greatly enjoyed my time with this game. However, I would not have enjoyed it without save states. It was much more flawed than I was expecting, even for an early 3D game; the fact that music note progress resets upon leaving a level or dying is the worst part.
However, the game was clearly experimental for its time, and there's many great ideas here. The game is especially adept at hiding its collectibles. I'd usually collect about 60-70 notes in a world and half the jiggies, and then spend another hour or two scrounging around for the rest. I especially enjoyed how clever they were with hiding sub-areas throughout each map to give it more depth.
Having played Mario Odyssey just before this, I feel like Odyssey refines this level design concept really well: Big, open playgrounds with loads of collectibles, where you kinda just do whatever's in front of you rather than a specific mission. Only thing I think it could use is more collectibles that provide varied rewards, just like Banjo does with things like feathers, eggs, and jinjos.
Grunty's Lair is the best hub world I've ever seen in a video game. I think the fact that level entrances and level unlocks are separate places really helps the design in this regard; it lets them provide meaningful rewards for exploration throughout the entire lair. There's not a single room that feels like a waste of time.
I enjoy that laying eggs is accompanied by a fart sound effect.
However, the game was clearly experimental for its time, and there's many great ideas here. The game is especially adept at hiding its collectibles. I'd usually collect about 60-70 notes in a world and half the jiggies, and then spend another hour or two scrounging around for the rest. I especially enjoyed how clever they were with hiding sub-areas throughout each map to give it more depth.
Having played Mario Odyssey just before this, I feel like Odyssey refines this level design concept really well: Big, open playgrounds with loads of collectibles, where you kinda just do whatever's in front of you rather than a specific mission. Only thing I think it could use is more collectibles that provide varied rewards, just like Banjo does with things like feathers, eggs, and jinjos.
Grunty's Lair is the best hub world I've ever seen in a video game. I think the fact that level entrances and level unlocks are separate places really helps the design in this regard; it lets them provide meaningful rewards for exploration throughout the entire lair. There's not a single room that feels like a waste of time.
I enjoy that laying eggs is accompanied by a fart sound effect.
This review contains spoilers
Going into Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, I had never played the original game back on PSP, and was unsure exactly what to expect. I knew the story of the original, and I knew certain changes that were made in Final Fantasy VII Remake that did give me certain expectations past that story. Regardless of whether they met them or not, going into this game, I was still excited to play it, and experience a story that many revere.
What I got was a decent, but heavily flawed experience that simultaneously shows its age, despite having some improvements over the original.
First, the positives. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and feels like a step forward from FF7R in places. Accessing Materia and using special moves is so much easier and less-immersion breaking than navigating through menus mid-battle. The music is absolutely fantastic. And, of course, the story is very well done. The themes are well executed, and some of the characters are standouts - mainly Cloud, Angeal, Cissnei, and Aerith.
However, the writing makes the impacts of the story fall flat for me. Many of the storybeats occur with little motivation and overall things are very confusing as to why they occur or why the player should care. This leads into the interactions between the characters, and is exasparated even further by poor voice acting overall, most notably with Zack. The animations look like they haven't been upgraded since the original, and though the environments look as good as they do in VII Remake, they are very, very repetitive within the missions. And the missions themselves I didn't find too obnoxious, knowing that the game was originally developed for handhelds.
Overall, I didn't regret my time with Crisis Core Reunion, but although I do think I let expectations get the better of me for this one, I do wish they had updated some of the writing to make the story feel much more modern, similar to VII Remake.
What I got was a decent, but heavily flawed experience that simultaneously shows its age, despite having some improvements over the original.
First, the positives. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and feels like a step forward from FF7R in places. Accessing Materia and using special moves is so much easier and less-immersion breaking than navigating through menus mid-battle. The music is absolutely fantastic. And, of course, the story is very well done. The themes are well executed, and some of the characters are standouts - mainly Cloud, Angeal, Cissnei, and Aerith.
However, the writing makes the impacts of the story fall flat for me. Many of the storybeats occur with little motivation and overall things are very confusing as to why they occur or why the player should care. This leads into the interactions between the characters, and is exasparated even further by poor voice acting overall, most notably with Zack. The animations look like they haven't been upgraded since the original, and though the environments look as good as they do in VII Remake, they are very, very repetitive within the missions. And the missions themselves I didn't find too obnoxious, knowing that the game was originally developed for handhelds.
Overall, I didn't regret my time with Crisis Core Reunion, but although I do think I let expectations get the better of me for this one, I do wish they had updated some of the writing to make the story feel much more modern, similar to VII Remake.