LiefKatano
43 Reviews liked by LiefKatano
Undertale
2015
When Toby Fox first put out a Kickstarter back in 2013 for a small RPG project inspired by EarthBound, there's no way he could have forseen the praise, reverence, and infamy that Undertale rose to throughout the latter half of the 2010s. After its release in 2015, however, Undertale became an instant indie classic, building upon and exceeding the popularity of previous titles in the same vein, such as Cave Story and Shovel Knight. Undertale has become a true rags-to-riches story in the years since, spawning a spinoff series, thousands and thousands of fanart pieces, music covers, lore theories, and even getting character representation in Smash Bros. Six years later, I finally managed to finish the game for the first time - and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.
Undertale begins by recounting the violent history of a war between two species that populate its world - humans, and monsters. The humans won the war, and sealed the monsters underneath Mount Ebott, where a magical barrier prevented any monster from interacting with the humans back on the surface. Many years have passed since then, and it is here where the player character begins their journey - having climbed the mountain for an unknown reason, they, a human, trip and fall hundreds and hundreds of feet down into an endless pit, saved at the bottom by a patch of yellow flowers. They are found by Toriel, a female goat monster, who leads them through the Ruins - the place the monsters first set up camp at, after the humans drove them from the surface. After a short tutorial, the player is free to navigate the ruins on their own, to Toriel's disappointment, and thus the adventure begins to escape the Underground and return Home to the surface.
The first thing you will notice as soon as your adventure begins is that Undertale is full of witty, one-liner humor. Almost everything in the world is interact-able, and each interaction provides you with jokes, descriptions, and insight about the monsters' world and the larger narrative, in addition to items and gold that the player can use. Undertale encourages the player to explore each nook and cranny on every screen, despite the game's generally linear framework. Backtracking is also encouraged, as returning to prior locations may introduce new characters, events, and story elements. Fox's world design thus naturally helps give extra context to the world and the greater narratives that play throughout the story, without the player being forced to make any of those decisions.
The other feature of Undertale that the player will immediately notice is the ways in which the player's choices directly effect the narrative of the game. This provides accessibility for the player to truly play the game the way they want to - but more on that later. Different choices introduce different dialogue, story, interactions, and lore throughout the adventure, and even the smallest change in choices at the beginning of the game can affect the ending. Speaking of endings, it is no spoiler to most that Undertale has three primary endings: the Neutral route (accessed by playing the game normally), the True Pacifist route (accessed by sparing every enemy, amongst other conditions), and the Genocide route (accessed by killing each enemy). Each of these endings provide different experiences and different pieces of lore, but largely relate to the same overall theme that the game is going for (not going to spoil anything here!). Not only does this add extensive replay value, but it also introduces the player to much larger - and darker - connections throughout the world of Undertale.
The different ways that you can trigger each ending leads nicely into the gameplay and combat of Undertale. As said before, Undertale is largely inspired by the cult classic Earthbound, and is at its heart an RPG. The player character has classic RPG attributes - stats, EXP, LV, money, items, and a more intent focus on character interaction and development. Overworld navigation is done through small puzzles, which are quite barebones. However, the combat of the game blends multiple different elements from multiple different genres into a system that is simultaneously unique without feeling like it offers anything revolutionary. Undertale's enemy encounters offer the player with two different options to deal with the enemy: you can choose to FIGHT the enemy, which, after reduces the enemy's HP to 0, will net you EXP akin to a traditional RPG battle system, or, you can choose to ACT on the enemy, which gives the player a number of different prompts to choose from to interact with the enemy without fighting. Each enemy can be defeated using either strategy - thus, each enemy can be defeated without FIGHTing it at all. Once a certain amount of ACTions have been used, in a certain order, the player can choose to SPARE the enemy, indicated by the enemy name turning yellow.
The game encourages you to choose the latter option; however, this will not net the player any EXP or LV. This blend of puzzle solving and traditional RPG combat is clever, but not necessarily unique, and can feel lacking at times. Enemy attacks are essentially mini bullethell levels, with the player controlling a small heart (representing their SOUL) to avoid enemy attacks. Different bosses also introduce different variations of this combat based off other genres, such as rhythm, platforming, and shoot-em-up. Overall, the combat in Undertale is relatively basic at its core, but complex and interesting enough to keep the player engaged, paired with a nice difficulty curve that gradually increases throughout the run, but never feels impossible.
Undertale's visuals are relatively basic at their core as well, but boast beautiful SNES-era spritework, with incredibly unique character design. Few characters move in the world, which can lead to it feeling lifeless in areas, though this may be by design. The game boasts a neon-esque color pallate, with the bright colors of the monsters purposely giving contrast to the generally dark nature of the backgrounds and overworld. The world's character is greatly helped by the dialogue and overarching story narratives, which makes up for the static nature of the world. This is also assisted through the ways the game deals with backtracking. Unlike its visuals, however, the music creates a fantastic atmosphere - I loved the ways the music would build off common motifs the more and more the player explores a certain area (Hotland comes to mind, specifically). Undertale's artistic direction isn't anything super special, but it doesn't need to be - and, this simplicity also puts a greater emphasis on the narrative and story, which is where Fox's talents shine the most.
Overall, Undertale is an incredibly charming game, which, although it isn't revolutionary by any means, is definitely worth at least one playthrough. Fans of SNES-era titles and traditional RPGs should enjoy this one, whereas others might find enjoyment in the clever ways in which the game interacts with the player themselves, the humor, the music, or the characters. Although I think that the game as a whole is incredibly overhyped by its incessant fanbase, I firmly believe Undertale is a game that every gamer should experience in its entirety at least once. If you give it attention, explore past and including what the game leads you towards, and most importantly GO IN BLIND, I promise you're gonna have a good time.
8/10
Undertale begins by recounting the violent history of a war between two species that populate its world - humans, and monsters. The humans won the war, and sealed the monsters underneath Mount Ebott, where a magical barrier prevented any monster from interacting with the humans back on the surface. Many years have passed since then, and it is here where the player character begins their journey - having climbed the mountain for an unknown reason, they, a human, trip and fall hundreds and hundreds of feet down into an endless pit, saved at the bottom by a patch of yellow flowers. They are found by Toriel, a female goat monster, who leads them through the Ruins - the place the monsters first set up camp at, after the humans drove them from the surface. After a short tutorial, the player is free to navigate the ruins on their own, to Toriel's disappointment, and thus the adventure begins to escape the Underground and return Home to the surface.
The first thing you will notice as soon as your adventure begins is that Undertale is full of witty, one-liner humor. Almost everything in the world is interact-able, and each interaction provides you with jokes, descriptions, and insight about the monsters' world and the larger narrative, in addition to items and gold that the player can use. Undertale encourages the player to explore each nook and cranny on every screen, despite the game's generally linear framework. Backtracking is also encouraged, as returning to prior locations may introduce new characters, events, and story elements. Fox's world design thus naturally helps give extra context to the world and the greater narratives that play throughout the story, without the player being forced to make any of those decisions.
The other feature of Undertale that the player will immediately notice is the ways in which the player's choices directly effect the narrative of the game. This provides accessibility for the player to truly play the game the way they want to - but more on that later. Different choices introduce different dialogue, story, interactions, and lore throughout the adventure, and even the smallest change in choices at the beginning of the game can affect the ending. Speaking of endings, it is no spoiler to most that Undertale has three primary endings: the Neutral route (accessed by playing the game normally), the True Pacifist route (accessed by sparing every enemy, amongst other conditions), and the Genocide route (accessed by killing each enemy). Each of these endings provide different experiences and different pieces of lore, but largely relate to the same overall theme that the game is going for (not going to spoil anything here!). Not only does this add extensive replay value, but it also introduces the player to much larger - and darker - connections throughout the world of Undertale.
The different ways that you can trigger each ending leads nicely into the gameplay and combat of Undertale. As said before, Undertale is largely inspired by the cult classic Earthbound, and is at its heart an RPG. The player character has classic RPG attributes - stats, EXP, LV, money, items, and a more intent focus on character interaction and development. Overworld navigation is done through small puzzles, which are quite barebones. However, the combat of the game blends multiple different elements from multiple different genres into a system that is simultaneously unique without feeling like it offers anything revolutionary. Undertale's enemy encounters offer the player with two different options to deal with the enemy: you can choose to FIGHT the enemy, which, after reduces the enemy's HP to 0, will net you EXP akin to a traditional RPG battle system, or, you can choose to ACT on the enemy, which gives the player a number of different prompts to choose from to interact with the enemy without fighting. Each enemy can be defeated using either strategy - thus, each enemy can be defeated without FIGHTing it at all. Once a certain amount of ACTions have been used, in a certain order, the player can choose to SPARE the enemy, indicated by the enemy name turning yellow.
The game encourages you to choose the latter option; however, this will not net the player any EXP or LV. This blend of puzzle solving and traditional RPG combat is clever, but not necessarily unique, and can feel lacking at times. Enemy attacks are essentially mini bullethell levels, with the player controlling a small heart (representing their SOUL) to avoid enemy attacks. Different bosses also introduce different variations of this combat based off other genres, such as rhythm, platforming, and shoot-em-up. Overall, the combat in Undertale is relatively basic at its core, but complex and interesting enough to keep the player engaged, paired with a nice difficulty curve that gradually increases throughout the run, but never feels impossible.
Undertale's visuals are relatively basic at their core as well, but boast beautiful SNES-era spritework, with incredibly unique character design. Few characters move in the world, which can lead to it feeling lifeless in areas, though this may be by design. The game boasts a neon-esque color pallate, with the bright colors of the monsters purposely giving contrast to the generally dark nature of the backgrounds and overworld. The world's character is greatly helped by the dialogue and overarching story narratives, which makes up for the static nature of the world. This is also assisted through the ways the game deals with backtracking. Unlike its visuals, however, the music creates a fantastic atmosphere - I loved the ways the music would build off common motifs the more and more the player explores a certain area (Hotland comes to mind, specifically). Undertale's artistic direction isn't anything super special, but it doesn't need to be - and, this simplicity also puts a greater emphasis on the narrative and story, which is where Fox's talents shine the most.
Overall, Undertale is an incredibly charming game, which, although it isn't revolutionary by any means, is definitely worth at least one playthrough. Fans of SNES-era titles and traditional RPGs should enjoy this one, whereas others might find enjoyment in the clever ways in which the game interacts with the player themselves, the humor, the music, or the characters. Although I think that the game as a whole is incredibly overhyped by its incessant fanbase, I firmly believe Undertale is a game that every gamer should experience in its entirety at least once. If you give it attention, explore past and including what the game leads you towards, and most importantly GO IN BLIND, I promise you're gonna have a good time.
8/10
Final Fantasy III
2021
Pros:
- A classic game with great influence on the series as a whole
- Lovingly recreated in the Pixel Remaster versions with great soundtrack and visuals (except for the font and weird screen tearing)
- A map and autosave function that will eliminate most of the frustration
- Shorter, more interesting dungeons and a managable encounter rate
- A new job system that is unique and implemented best here out of all the versions of FFIII
- Secret summons and side quests that make the world feel alive and reward players' curiosity
- An actual open world with many distinct ways of traversal
Cons:
- A convoluted, forgettable story with bland characters and easy solutions (which is a step back compared to the dramatic quality of FFII)
- Opague damage rolls and an apparently random turn order render strategic battles impossible
- An unbalanced job system that is rarely relevant to the game at large
- An incredibly high difficulty throughout the game, in particular towards the final dungeons. Be prepared to grind!
Magic Moment: When you realize how large the world map actually is. Oh, and the Fat Chocobo theme.
Verdict: The job system and manifold secrets make this one worth playing, even though this is probably the toughest and longest FF from the 8-Bit generation. Fans should take a look at this one, but one playthrough is enough.
- A classic game with great influence on the series as a whole
- Lovingly recreated in the Pixel Remaster versions with great soundtrack and visuals (except for the font and weird screen tearing)
- A map and autosave function that will eliminate most of the frustration
- Shorter, more interesting dungeons and a managable encounter rate
- A new job system that is unique and implemented best here out of all the versions of FFIII
- Secret summons and side quests that make the world feel alive and reward players' curiosity
- An actual open world with many distinct ways of traversal
Cons:
- A convoluted, forgettable story with bland characters and easy solutions (which is a step back compared to the dramatic quality of FFII)
- Opague damage rolls and an apparently random turn order render strategic battles impossible
- An unbalanced job system that is rarely relevant to the game at large
- An incredibly high difficulty throughout the game, in particular towards the final dungeons. Be prepared to grind!
Magic Moment: When you realize how large the world map actually is. Oh, and the Fat Chocobo theme.
Verdict: The job system and manifold secrets make this one worth playing, even though this is probably the toughest and longest FF from the 8-Bit generation. Fans should take a look at this one, but one playthrough is enough.
Bravely Default II
2021
my opinion on this game would be a lot better if this was my first experience with bravely default. for some reason this game removes a lot of quality of life features, the random battles aren't hard but they do feel unnecessarily time consuming in comparison to bravely default and bravely second. not being able to turn the encounter rate up (or down) felt very strange.
the boss fights were fun, but they made me feel like there was a specific winning strategy the developers had in mind while making it, which doesnt have to be a bad thing but it left me feeling like i couldnt play the job or pick the abilities purely based on what i thought was fun and interesting like i could in the last games. the emphasis on how every team comp was theoretically viable in every fight was a big reason of why bravely default and bravely second are some of my favourite games, so just that was enough for bravely default ii to lose a lot of points with me.
continuing the topic of boss battles, the countering system was something i was a bit excited about at first but i felt that as it went on, the game relied on it too much to make the boss more challenging. the further into the game i got, the more it felt like artificial difficulty inflation, which was especially disappointing because bravely default ii easily had the most thematic and engaging bosses of the series. their fights, both visually and mechanically, were very creative and unique as they drew upon the characters story.
as always, the art, character design, and music were all gorgeous. the aesthetic of the towns you visit made them all have such a great feeling to them, and there was great use of camera angles and zooming in and out which made them feel bigger than they were. the design of each area was pretty, though the bigger feeling they had did make them feel more empty despite the visible enemy encounters.
as for the characters and storyline, i didnt finish this game (for context, i stopped halfway through chapter 4) so i don't feel like i can really speak on them, but from what i played:
the main characters didn't feel as interesting to me as the cast from either bravely default or bravely second, in general their personalities felt much less passionate and it felt like the plot was happening to them rather than the main characters driving the plot. because of this the characters felt more realistic, while they didnt have much depth they also didnt feel as trope-y as the previous main characters. there was a feeling of the whole group having their own relationships with each other that were missing for me in the other casts too, but i also felt less engaged in their personal stories and motivations. there wasnt a single main party member i didnt like, they all brought something to the table and had very friendly chemistry as a group.
for antagonists, despite having an early introduction the main villain felt very distant and removed from the game. in general each chapter feels self-contained, which they individually benefit from since the story of each chapter was very well written and interesting (apart from the first two or so), but did make the overarching story feel less important and the main villain less threatening.
the antagonists of each chapter were usually interesting in some way but none of them seemed to have the depth that was present in boss characters from the earlier games.
most of the problems i have with the story and characters could also be said about bravely default or bravely second, which have always had characters that are pretty basic or one note and a hammy story, but the presentation of this game made it feel very different. bravely default was a game that wasn't afraid to take itself seriously, no matter how ridiculous it was, or poke fun of itself. bravely second took poking fun at itself to the next level and let itself be all over the place. bravely default ii feels more grounded and realistic, which to me just doesnt work with the story and character writing being so unadventurous. it makes you realize how bland it all is without that extra flair.
it felt like there were a lot more side quests in this game and that so many of them were completely pointless, but the few that triggered character interactions were, while simple, very charming.
overall, if you like the previous bravely games or just bravely default then you will probably like this one, but you might be disappointed.
the boss fights were fun, but they made me feel like there was a specific winning strategy the developers had in mind while making it, which doesnt have to be a bad thing but it left me feeling like i couldnt play the job or pick the abilities purely based on what i thought was fun and interesting like i could in the last games. the emphasis on how every team comp was theoretically viable in every fight was a big reason of why bravely default and bravely second are some of my favourite games, so just that was enough for bravely default ii to lose a lot of points with me.
continuing the topic of boss battles, the countering system was something i was a bit excited about at first but i felt that as it went on, the game relied on it too much to make the boss more challenging. the further into the game i got, the more it felt like artificial difficulty inflation, which was especially disappointing because bravely default ii easily had the most thematic and engaging bosses of the series. their fights, both visually and mechanically, were very creative and unique as they drew upon the characters story.
as always, the art, character design, and music were all gorgeous. the aesthetic of the towns you visit made them all have such a great feeling to them, and there was great use of camera angles and zooming in and out which made them feel bigger than they were. the design of each area was pretty, though the bigger feeling they had did make them feel more empty despite the visible enemy encounters.
as for the characters and storyline, i didnt finish this game (for context, i stopped halfway through chapter 4) so i don't feel like i can really speak on them, but from what i played:
the main characters didn't feel as interesting to me as the cast from either bravely default or bravely second, in general their personalities felt much less passionate and it felt like the plot was happening to them rather than the main characters driving the plot. because of this the characters felt more realistic, while they didnt have much depth they also didnt feel as trope-y as the previous main characters. there was a feeling of the whole group having their own relationships with each other that were missing for me in the other casts too, but i also felt less engaged in their personal stories and motivations. there wasnt a single main party member i didnt like, they all brought something to the table and had very friendly chemistry as a group.
for antagonists, despite having an early introduction the main villain felt very distant and removed from the game. in general each chapter feels self-contained, which they individually benefit from since the story of each chapter was very well written and interesting (apart from the first two or so), but did make the overarching story feel less important and the main villain less threatening.
the antagonists of each chapter were usually interesting in some way but none of them seemed to have the depth that was present in boss characters from the earlier games.
most of the problems i have with the story and characters could also be said about bravely default or bravely second, which have always had characters that are pretty basic or one note and a hammy story, but the presentation of this game made it feel very different. bravely default was a game that wasn't afraid to take itself seriously, no matter how ridiculous it was, or poke fun of itself. bravely second took poking fun at itself to the next level and let itself be all over the place. bravely default ii feels more grounded and realistic, which to me just doesnt work with the story and character writing being so unadventurous. it makes you realize how bland it all is without that extra flair.
it felt like there were a lot more side quests in this game and that so many of them were completely pointless, but the few that triggered character interactions were, while simple, very charming.
overall, if you like the previous bravely games or just bravely default then you will probably like this one, but you might be disappointed.
This review contains spoilers
BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea continues the trend set by it’s main game- Surpassing all expectations and managing to be worse than its predecessor.
This $15 DLC doesn’t have enough content to be worth that price (especially when coupled with having to pay another $15 for the rest of the story- but part 2 will have to be its own review for the absolute dumpster fire it is). I mean for goodness’ sake this DLC’s first scene has Elizabeth, who’s boobs manage to get bigger with every outfit, borderline flirting with the man who she knows to be an alternate version of her dad. Like what a LOW bar to start off with and it only goes down hill as every moment and plot point is forced and contrived or built around fan service.
They try to score brownie points with the player by being like “hey here’s rapture PRE-fall isn’t that COOL” but the city feels like plastic, especially as they tie in some of the scale to fit Infinite’s style better so the city feels WAY taller than it did before combined with adding in the “need to know stations”, sky hook and their respective metal rails, big daddy’s having detachable drills and if you compare architecture in this DLC’s Rapture actually uses a later version of Art Deco instead of the same period as the first game. It very much feels like “not the Rapture from the first game.”- with the added value of that it’s the eve of 1959? Right before the initial riots that kick off the civil war? Rapture was in shambles after all the shoot outs between Ryan and Fontaine and the poor upkeep over the years. There were leaks everywhere and the city was failing. Sure there would’ve been some nice places left for the elite in Rapture but that’s a minority in the city, plus like Booker is still a drunk gambler here so I don’t know how he’s managing to afford to live in a clean part of the city instead of the poorer parts of town.
None of the NPCs even have anything interesting to say they’re all just very on the nose about Rapture’s ideals and going “wow have you heard about all that drama with Fontaine?” the only good bit of world building was the restaurant with Houdini Splicers as waiters warping around, that felt like a true moment to the city as they showed how Plasmids worked in the society outside of war times.
The story beats don’t even make any sense- Why would you go to Cohen to get information on Little Sisters and get into a sunken prison? Yeah, he’s connected to Ryan, but wouldn’t it make more sense to find people in the city who had experience with smuggling? Like Peach Wilkins? Realistically, its because Cohen is a big-name character, so more FANSERVICE if the player gets to do a drive by with Cohen instead of something that made more sense.
Having Cohen be Elizabeth’s contact also leads into the Elizabeth favoritism that is CLEAR through both parts of this forsaken DLC. Cohen let Elizabeth be one of his disciples, which is ridiculously stupid because Cohen is our Word of God Token Gay man, and his disciples is his boys club of people he wants to bone- but Elizabeth is just SO special and talented he’ll let her into his harem because she’s SUCH a good singer. (also side note: implicating the only gay character in human trafficking little girls to pedophiles is. Cool.) The hard on Ken Levine has for his fictional character hits harder in part two, but having like a full minute of Elizabeth resting her hand on her giant boobs and moan over music gives you a pretty good idea of the tone and treatment of her in this DLC. They don’t even bring back preexisting female characters to balance this out- Tenenbaum won’t appear at all and is almost exclusively referred in derogatory terms when talked about.
Once you actually get to the department store (and like?? When did Fontaine have a department store big enough to be its own building? The scale is TOO large for BS1 Rapture, and it would also compete with his smuggling business?? PLUS LIKE??? BS2 tells us about the prison Sinclair ran, Persephone, so why would Ryan need to sink a whole department store to lock up the left over splicers and Atlas’ supporters when he could’ve had then linked up for plasmid testing and the protector program? [I KNOW the answer is because Ken Levine hates BS2 but that doesn’t make it less stupid]) the gameplay just devolves back to the bland Infinite formula. It’s a bit harder because there’s less ammo but its by no means a challenge, the hardest part is suffering through Elizabeth talking and rambling to herself about constants and variables.
And like OKAY- I get they didn’t want to make new models for Plasmids- but couldn’t they have at least changed the names from Columbia Vigors to match the previous abilities? Like yeah I’m still like “Drinkables? In my Rapture?” but I could handwave it- but I CANNOT handwave them keeping “shock jockey” instead of swapping back to “electroblot” Having a cowboy ability in 1950s new deco atlantis is stupid, and lazy on the devs part.
Then you get the hamfisted plot twist that completely defeats the entire ending to BioShock Infinite- that you WEREN’T playing as Booker for this DLC but as a COMSTOCK that felt guilty and was starting over (and doing poorly but hey, points for trying) in Rapture. But like…. If he survived the ending of Infinite what stopping other Comstock’s from not having their existences deleted? How did THIS one avoid getting removed from existence? Sure he wasn’t in a Columbia dimension, but the end of Infinite wasn’t about deleting Columbia, it was about killing Comstock- so I don’t know how this guy survived.
So, Elizabeth went on this whole revenge quest to kill him so then all the Comstocks would be truly dead, which is kind of redundant because there was no way he was going to survive the civil war- he’d already stated splicing, so it was only a matter of time before he went mad. BUT- having Elizabeth’s means of going on this revenge being psychologically torturing Bookerstock and using an innocence little girl as bait and burning said girl alive in a vent and then getting mad at Bookerstock for trying to pull her out completely destroys whatever shreds of sympathy I could have for the character. Like girl I get you’ve had a hard life, but this is too much- Having Elizabeth’s gut reaction upon learning about Sally and her fate being “oh yeah, I can use this to my advantage” instead of having any concern for a child who was taken and tortured means she isn’t getting any of my sympathy. If part two had focused down on this flaw and actually explored what she did and held her as accountable as it did Daisy for pretending to kill a child that would be one thing- but that’s not what happens.
In the end it’s a contrived story, riddled with flawed logic and incest undertones, with the same old boring gameplay you’d expect from Infinite- and it’s only like 2 hours because its just a “taste” of what’s to come. And that’s an accurate statement because it only goes downhill from here.
This $15 DLC doesn’t have enough content to be worth that price (especially when coupled with having to pay another $15 for the rest of the story- but part 2 will have to be its own review for the absolute dumpster fire it is). I mean for goodness’ sake this DLC’s first scene has Elizabeth, who’s boobs manage to get bigger with every outfit, borderline flirting with the man who she knows to be an alternate version of her dad. Like what a LOW bar to start off with and it only goes down hill as every moment and plot point is forced and contrived or built around fan service.
They try to score brownie points with the player by being like “hey here’s rapture PRE-fall isn’t that COOL” but the city feels like plastic, especially as they tie in some of the scale to fit Infinite’s style better so the city feels WAY taller than it did before combined with adding in the “need to know stations”, sky hook and their respective metal rails, big daddy’s having detachable drills and if you compare architecture in this DLC’s Rapture actually uses a later version of Art Deco instead of the same period as the first game. It very much feels like “not the Rapture from the first game.”- with the added value of that it’s the eve of 1959? Right before the initial riots that kick off the civil war? Rapture was in shambles after all the shoot outs between Ryan and Fontaine and the poor upkeep over the years. There were leaks everywhere and the city was failing. Sure there would’ve been some nice places left for the elite in Rapture but that’s a minority in the city, plus like Booker is still a drunk gambler here so I don’t know how he’s managing to afford to live in a clean part of the city instead of the poorer parts of town.
None of the NPCs even have anything interesting to say they’re all just very on the nose about Rapture’s ideals and going “wow have you heard about all that drama with Fontaine?” the only good bit of world building was the restaurant with Houdini Splicers as waiters warping around, that felt like a true moment to the city as they showed how Plasmids worked in the society outside of war times.
The story beats don’t even make any sense- Why would you go to Cohen to get information on Little Sisters and get into a sunken prison? Yeah, he’s connected to Ryan, but wouldn’t it make more sense to find people in the city who had experience with smuggling? Like Peach Wilkins? Realistically, its because Cohen is a big-name character, so more FANSERVICE if the player gets to do a drive by with Cohen instead of something that made more sense.
Having Cohen be Elizabeth’s contact also leads into the Elizabeth favoritism that is CLEAR through both parts of this forsaken DLC. Cohen let Elizabeth be one of his disciples, which is ridiculously stupid because Cohen is our Word of God Token Gay man, and his disciples is his boys club of people he wants to bone- but Elizabeth is just SO special and talented he’ll let her into his harem because she’s SUCH a good singer. (also side note: implicating the only gay character in human trafficking little girls to pedophiles is. Cool.) The hard on Ken Levine has for his fictional character hits harder in part two, but having like a full minute of Elizabeth resting her hand on her giant boobs and moan over music gives you a pretty good idea of the tone and treatment of her in this DLC. They don’t even bring back preexisting female characters to balance this out- Tenenbaum won’t appear at all and is almost exclusively referred in derogatory terms when talked about.
Once you actually get to the department store (and like?? When did Fontaine have a department store big enough to be its own building? The scale is TOO large for BS1 Rapture, and it would also compete with his smuggling business?? PLUS LIKE??? BS2 tells us about the prison Sinclair ran, Persephone, so why would Ryan need to sink a whole department store to lock up the left over splicers and Atlas’ supporters when he could’ve had then linked up for plasmid testing and the protector program? [I KNOW the answer is because Ken Levine hates BS2 but that doesn’t make it less stupid]) the gameplay just devolves back to the bland Infinite formula. It’s a bit harder because there’s less ammo but its by no means a challenge, the hardest part is suffering through Elizabeth talking and rambling to herself about constants and variables.
And like OKAY- I get they didn’t want to make new models for Plasmids- but couldn’t they have at least changed the names from Columbia Vigors to match the previous abilities? Like yeah I’m still like “Drinkables? In my Rapture?” but I could handwave it- but I CANNOT handwave them keeping “shock jockey” instead of swapping back to “electroblot” Having a cowboy ability in 1950s new deco atlantis is stupid, and lazy on the devs part.
Then you get the hamfisted plot twist that completely defeats the entire ending to BioShock Infinite- that you WEREN’T playing as Booker for this DLC but as a COMSTOCK that felt guilty and was starting over (and doing poorly but hey, points for trying) in Rapture. But like…. If he survived the ending of Infinite what stopping other Comstock’s from not having their existences deleted? How did THIS one avoid getting removed from existence? Sure he wasn’t in a Columbia dimension, but the end of Infinite wasn’t about deleting Columbia, it was about killing Comstock- so I don’t know how this guy survived.
So, Elizabeth went on this whole revenge quest to kill him so then all the Comstocks would be truly dead, which is kind of redundant because there was no way he was going to survive the civil war- he’d already stated splicing, so it was only a matter of time before he went mad. BUT- having Elizabeth’s means of going on this revenge being psychologically torturing Bookerstock and using an innocence little girl as bait and burning said girl alive in a vent and then getting mad at Bookerstock for trying to pull her out completely destroys whatever shreds of sympathy I could have for the character. Like girl I get you’ve had a hard life, but this is too much- Having Elizabeth’s gut reaction upon learning about Sally and her fate being “oh yeah, I can use this to my advantage” instead of having any concern for a child who was taken and tortured means she isn’t getting any of my sympathy. If part two had focused down on this flaw and actually explored what she did and held her as accountable as it did Daisy for pretending to kill a child that would be one thing- but that’s not what happens.
In the end it’s a contrived story, riddled with flawed logic and incest undertones, with the same old boring gameplay you’d expect from Infinite- and it’s only like 2 hours because its just a “taste” of what’s to come. And that’s an accurate statement because it only goes downhill from here.
When you pick up Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, you get two entirely different packages. The first is a relatively short, ~20 hour story that will make you bawl your eyes out. The second is an absolutely mammoth 60-to-80 hour postgame that serves as a relaxing backdrop to that thing you're binge watching this month.
Rescue Team DX sets itself apart from other PMD games with a thoughtfully constructed ecosystem of quality-of-life updates. It would have been simple to update Rescue Team's mechanics to the newest game's standards and call it a day; instead, they took the opportunity to rethink some of the series' oldest mechanics, and even introduce entire systems of features that completely change the way you approach gameplay.
This entry was designed from the ground-up to be accessible to newcomers. That said, the series can still be a little intimidating for people used to normal Pokémon mechanics. This is no fault of the game itself; it's more about the preconceptions people have from the main series, and once you just get playing, it all clicks.
Here's the main piece of advice I'd give to newcomers: focus less on type variety, and more on move utility. Multi-hit moves and ranged moves are really good; the game itself provides great info blocks to tell you the range and mechanics of each move. Moves that can hit from 4 tiles away, moves that hit nearby Pokémon, and moves that hit every enemy in a room are really strong. Type matchups don't matter too much, and can be mitigated even further by rare qualities.
Rare qualities are an excellent system. When you get a really synergistic quality on a main team member, it's genuinely exciting! It makes me go out of my way for high-reward dungeons so I can find all the DX Gummis I can. And it helps make individual playthroughs feel distinct & personal, which is a quality I absolutely love in a gameplay mechanic.
There is a very small mechanic that I think perfectly captures what I love about this game & series. Whenever there is a piece of hand-drawn art on screen, you can press + to view it in full. They didn't have to do it, but the art is all gorgeous—I particularly love the world map! It feels like it could be the setting for a custom D&D campaign.
When I see a mechanic like that in a game, it makes me think the developers know the emotional impact their game can have on the player. Not everyone is going to notice the little text at the bottom of the screen that says you can do this. But those who do notice get to appreciate that hard work just a little more! There's a lot of love in DX's art, and visual art is an important medium games use to carry their emotional ideas to the player.
The storybook art style can be slightly off-putting at first—the environments in the first cutscene don't do a good job of selling it—but almost immediately upon leaving the tutorial, I fell in love with it. And by the main story's final sequence, the game absolutely nails the presentation. Every cutscene surrounding the final dungeon is gorgeous & communicates the gravity of the situation in an absolutely awe-inspiring manner.
Rescue Team DX has many interesting ideas to communicate to its player—about death, about trust, and about our duties to each other. Under the cutesy surface, the game imparts genuine moral wisdom. A cynic could certainly parse through every story beat and tell you how it's all silly & childish—but an optimist willing to listen will find genuinely beautiful things. It makes me want to be more gentle & understanding with others, to help my friends find identity & purpose in their surroundings. That's an emotion I feel every piece of art should strive for.
This is a series that has a very dear place in my heart. It's definitely an acquired taste, but it's a taste I am deeply glad I acquired. The thoughtful design of DX makes me optimistic about future entries. I really hope they do an Explorers of Sky DX someday—but I want a new entry before then! I think with the elements they introduced in Rescue Team DX, they could forge something even more special next time.
Rescue Team DX sets itself apart from other PMD games with a thoughtfully constructed ecosystem of quality-of-life updates. It would have been simple to update Rescue Team's mechanics to the newest game's standards and call it a day; instead, they took the opportunity to rethink some of the series' oldest mechanics, and even introduce entire systems of features that completely change the way you approach gameplay.
This entry was designed from the ground-up to be accessible to newcomers. That said, the series can still be a little intimidating for people used to normal Pokémon mechanics. This is no fault of the game itself; it's more about the preconceptions people have from the main series, and once you just get playing, it all clicks.
Here's the main piece of advice I'd give to newcomers: focus less on type variety, and more on move utility. Multi-hit moves and ranged moves are really good; the game itself provides great info blocks to tell you the range and mechanics of each move. Moves that can hit from 4 tiles away, moves that hit nearby Pokémon, and moves that hit every enemy in a room are really strong. Type matchups don't matter too much, and can be mitigated even further by rare qualities.
Rare qualities are an excellent system. When you get a really synergistic quality on a main team member, it's genuinely exciting! It makes me go out of my way for high-reward dungeons so I can find all the DX Gummis I can. And it helps make individual playthroughs feel distinct & personal, which is a quality I absolutely love in a gameplay mechanic.
There is a very small mechanic that I think perfectly captures what I love about this game & series. Whenever there is a piece of hand-drawn art on screen, you can press + to view it in full. They didn't have to do it, but the art is all gorgeous—I particularly love the world map! It feels like it could be the setting for a custom D&D campaign.
When I see a mechanic like that in a game, it makes me think the developers know the emotional impact their game can have on the player. Not everyone is going to notice the little text at the bottom of the screen that says you can do this. But those who do notice get to appreciate that hard work just a little more! There's a lot of love in DX's art, and visual art is an important medium games use to carry their emotional ideas to the player.
The storybook art style can be slightly off-putting at first—the environments in the first cutscene don't do a good job of selling it—but almost immediately upon leaving the tutorial, I fell in love with it. And by the main story's final sequence, the game absolutely nails the presentation. Every cutscene surrounding the final dungeon is gorgeous & communicates the gravity of the situation in an absolutely awe-inspiring manner.
Rescue Team DX has many interesting ideas to communicate to its player—about death, about trust, and about our duties to each other. Under the cutesy surface, the game imparts genuine moral wisdom. A cynic could certainly parse through every story beat and tell you how it's all silly & childish—but an optimist willing to listen will find genuinely beautiful things. It makes me want to be more gentle & understanding with others, to help my friends find identity & purpose in their surroundings. That's an emotion I feel every piece of art should strive for.
This is a series that has a very dear place in my heart. It's definitely an acquired taste, but it's a taste I am deeply glad I acquired. The thoughtful design of DX makes me optimistic about future entries. I really hope they do an Explorers of Sky DX someday—but I want a new entry before then! I think with the elements they introduced in Rescue Team DX, they could forge something even more special next time.
Super Mario World
1990
When I was a kid, we went down to my grandma's house every summer. It was the event of the summer; it was a long drive, so we'd often spend upwards of a month there to make it worth it. While there, we'd sometimes borrow my great aunt's SNES and play Super Mario World.
It never really occurred to us to keep using the same save file so we could make progress. We'd just start over when we felt like it. Some visits we would get really far—like Butter Bridge, or even the Forest of Illusion. When we were on a real hot streak we'd get to Chocolate Island, and that would be the highlight of our visit.
Most of the time, though, we'd just get to the end of Donut Plains, maybe explore Vanilla Dome a bit, then call it a day. As a result, the starting levels felt really familiar to us. We knew them in-and-out. They felt like home. But as we ventured into the later levels, it felt like we were reaching out into the wilderness, braving uncharted territory.
Every once in awhile we'd find a cool secret. A level in the lake. A path to the top of the plateau. A secret passage out of the forest that led to Star Road. These secrets became part of our repertoire for future playthroughs. But every time we came back for the summer, we'd only have a vague memory of it, so we'd have to discover it all over again. Sometimes we'd think we saw a secret somewhere where there really wasn't one, and we'd play a level through many times trying to find it. That usually ended with us giving up & starting the game all over again.
We had ways to play Super Mario World at home. We had emulators, we had it on GBA, we had it on Wii virtual console—but we never really dug into it unless we were at our grandma's house. It was part of the summer, and it didn't feel the same otherwise. I don't even remember if we ever truly beat the game. But we poured hours into it every summer, in between trips to see far-flung family members, going to parks, having ice cream, and seeing the sights around the countryside.
These days, if I don't finish a game, I feel bad. I spent money on that. I put precious time into it. It feels like a really little weight dragging at my ankle. And no matter how much fun I had until I dropped it, thinking about the game makes me cringe. I can't bring myself to start a new playthrough, or even to continue the old one. It's like there's a mental block built with a mix of small-time guilt and laziness.
When I play Super Mario World now, I can breeze through it in a single sitting. I emulate it, I play it on Wii U, I play it on Nintendo Switch Online. I think my great aunt gave the SNES away to her kids, which is fine. I really want the 100% experience, so I look up all the secrets. Then when I'm done, I put it away for a long while. Even if I get the itch to play it again, I feel a little guilty. I've been here already. I know it too well.
I think we could learn some things from kids.
It never really occurred to us to keep using the same save file so we could make progress. We'd just start over when we felt like it. Some visits we would get really far—like Butter Bridge, or even the Forest of Illusion. When we were on a real hot streak we'd get to Chocolate Island, and that would be the highlight of our visit.
Most of the time, though, we'd just get to the end of Donut Plains, maybe explore Vanilla Dome a bit, then call it a day. As a result, the starting levels felt really familiar to us. We knew them in-and-out. They felt like home. But as we ventured into the later levels, it felt like we were reaching out into the wilderness, braving uncharted territory.
Every once in awhile we'd find a cool secret. A level in the lake. A path to the top of the plateau. A secret passage out of the forest that led to Star Road. These secrets became part of our repertoire for future playthroughs. But every time we came back for the summer, we'd only have a vague memory of it, so we'd have to discover it all over again. Sometimes we'd think we saw a secret somewhere where there really wasn't one, and we'd play a level through many times trying to find it. That usually ended with us giving up & starting the game all over again.
We had ways to play Super Mario World at home. We had emulators, we had it on GBA, we had it on Wii virtual console—but we never really dug into it unless we were at our grandma's house. It was part of the summer, and it didn't feel the same otherwise. I don't even remember if we ever truly beat the game. But we poured hours into it every summer, in between trips to see far-flung family members, going to parks, having ice cream, and seeing the sights around the countryside.
These days, if I don't finish a game, I feel bad. I spent money on that. I put precious time into it. It feels like a really little weight dragging at my ankle. And no matter how much fun I had until I dropped it, thinking about the game makes me cringe. I can't bring myself to start a new playthrough, or even to continue the old one. It's like there's a mental block built with a mix of small-time guilt and laziness.
When I play Super Mario World now, I can breeze through it in a single sitting. I emulate it, I play it on Wii U, I play it on Nintendo Switch Online. I think my great aunt gave the SNES away to her kids, which is fine. I really want the 100% experience, so I look up all the secrets. Then when I'm done, I put it away for a long while. Even if I get the itch to play it again, I feel a little guilty. I've been here already. I know it too well.
I think we could learn some things from kids.
Super Mario Galaxy
2007
With its sweeping camera angles and glorious music, Galaxy does an excellent job at convincing you this is Mario's most ambitious adventure to date. The sheer breadth of emotions the game can elicit is impressive—from the gallant swell of Gusty Garden Galaxy's full orchestra, to the playful panic of barreling through Rolling Green Galaxy on a giant golf ball, to the quiet contemplation of Space Junk Galaxy's lone piano. Galaxy at once feels more grand & more intimate than its predecessors, a balancing act that it pulls off with sublime grace. A touching side-story in the form of Rosalina's storybook binds the game's dual themes together.
There are some things that other 3D Mario games do better, yes. For example, Super Mario Sunshine's levels felt like true locations; not just an obstacle course for the player, but villages, harbors, and beaches where little cartoon people with trees on their heads or shells on their backs lived their day-to-day lives. Mario Galaxy, by comparison, sometimes just drops you in the middle of a ring of water in the sky, with some penguins you saw a few minutes ago several light years away, and tells you to beat them in a race. That's fine. It's a video game, it can do that. I do want a Mario game someday to recapture the Sunshine feel in that regard—but at the time of release, Galaxy was exactly what the series needed.
It doesn't have quite the tight control of Odyssey; nor the carefully calibrated level design of its own successor, Galaxy 2. What Galaxy has in spades is atmosphere. No other game in the series gives you this feeling of soaring through an unbound wilderness of planetoids and asteroids—the drama of discovery—the elation of a first space flight. Yet no other game in the series can deliver the somberness of loss, the loneliness of empty space, or the longing grasp towards companionship & belonging as you gaze down at your own planet from above.
The game has its flaws—the camera is limiting. The gravity mechanic can occasionally make controlling Mario a pain, particularly on small planets. The comets are very repetitive when going for 100%. The acrobatics feel rather slow and weighty compared to other Mario games. And while I'm not usually one to criticize motion controls, spinning can genuinely make my fingers hurt, even during short play sessions. It's good that 3D All-Stars rectified this by mapping spins to a button press, but given that Nintendo shackled the collection to a limited run for some reason, the Wii version of the game will be the one that endures.
These flaws are nothing compared to the magic of the experience. When you're a kid, video games aren't a mountain to be conquered; they're playgrounds. And in 2007, there was no greater playground than Galaxy.
Starting the game up just to run around; hopping your way from one dome to the next, not really knowing what you're looking for; playing whatever galaxy fits your aesthetic needs for the moment; uncovering that level you've been curious about for ages; finding a comet in orbit & spending the next several hours trying to beat Cosmic Mario in a race—that's what video games were made for. Sitting in front of an old, magnet-stained CRT in my living room, it genuinely felt like being transported to new worlds, with strange creatures, and even stranger horizons.
It was a brilliant introduction to the Wii, a system that over time would accrue many more fond memories for me. I'm glad a new generation of kids can experience that wonder on the Switch, too.
Also, collecting Star Bits is fucking delightful.
There are some things that other 3D Mario games do better, yes. For example, Super Mario Sunshine's levels felt like true locations; not just an obstacle course for the player, but villages, harbors, and beaches where little cartoon people with trees on their heads or shells on their backs lived their day-to-day lives. Mario Galaxy, by comparison, sometimes just drops you in the middle of a ring of water in the sky, with some penguins you saw a few minutes ago several light years away, and tells you to beat them in a race. That's fine. It's a video game, it can do that. I do want a Mario game someday to recapture the Sunshine feel in that regard—but at the time of release, Galaxy was exactly what the series needed.
It doesn't have quite the tight control of Odyssey; nor the carefully calibrated level design of its own successor, Galaxy 2. What Galaxy has in spades is atmosphere. No other game in the series gives you this feeling of soaring through an unbound wilderness of planetoids and asteroids—the drama of discovery—the elation of a first space flight. Yet no other game in the series can deliver the somberness of loss, the loneliness of empty space, or the longing grasp towards companionship & belonging as you gaze down at your own planet from above.
The game has its flaws—the camera is limiting. The gravity mechanic can occasionally make controlling Mario a pain, particularly on small planets. The comets are very repetitive when going for 100%. The acrobatics feel rather slow and weighty compared to other Mario games. And while I'm not usually one to criticize motion controls, spinning can genuinely make my fingers hurt, even during short play sessions. It's good that 3D All-Stars rectified this by mapping spins to a button press, but given that Nintendo shackled the collection to a limited run for some reason, the Wii version of the game will be the one that endures.
These flaws are nothing compared to the magic of the experience. When you're a kid, video games aren't a mountain to be conquered; they're playgrounds. And in 2007, there was no greater playground than Galaxy.
Starting the game up just to run around; hopping your way from one dome to the next, not really knowing what you're looking for; playing whatever galaxy fits your aesthetic needs for the moment; uncovering that level you've been curious about for ages; finding a comet in orbit & spending the next several hours trying to beat Cosmic Mario in a race—that's what video games were made for. Sitting in front of an old, magnet-stained CRT in my living room, it genuinely felt like being transported to new worlds, with strange creatures, and even stranger horizons.
It was a brilliant introduction to the Wii, a system that over time would accrue many more fond memories for me. I'm glad a new generation of kids can experience that wonder on the Switch, too.
Also, collecting Star Bits is fucking delightful.
This game really is something special, at the start I honestly hated it. Was not very fun but, after putting some more time in it the gameplay grew to be more fun and interesting than the start and that music was bopping. But nothing really comes close to the story and cast of this game, Neku really grows and turned into my favorite video game character of all time and the other partners are all extremely interesting especially Joshua. Overall this package is something really magical that I think most people can enjoy.
This review contains spoilers
it's a "humans are the REAL monsters" plot but not the way you'd think
Kinda feels like you're looking at the game through a layer of old soup. But the boss designs are epic, the story is actually really touching, and the dungeons are the best in the series so it's worth it
New Horizons is weird. Objectively, it made massive improvements on previous games.
Terraforming completely changed the way I play Animal Crossing. The moving-in and moving-out systems for villagers strike the perfect balance between go-with-the-flow players and people who like to plan their towns out meticulously. Replacing public works projects with outdoor furniture streamlined the system beautifully and allowed for much more variety in exterior design.
The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, in a way that Animal Crossing has never really been. And as nostalgic as the New Leaf soundtrack makes me, the soundtrack to New Horizons is equally good (once you get past the tutorial, that is).
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However, over a year out, this still lacks so much content from New Leaf, and I miss it every time I boot New Horizons up.
There are some things I'm sure they'll add in an update sooner or later, like Brewster. But there is so much furniture missing from New Leaf, and I don't think they'll add it back in. Interior design was my #1 favorite thing about playing New Leaf, and it feels like that just got entirely shafted for this game.
I miss all the furniture sets. They added so much variety to rooms, and ensured that there were plenty of aesthetic choices between different types of furniture. For example, at launch, New Horizons had so few tables that my house inventory was filling up with small items I wanted to display, but had nowhere to display them. In New Leaf, there were a plethora of tables to choose from, because each furniture set was guaranteed to have a table in it somewhere.
I don't understand why they shrunk the side rooms. Sure, we get bigger second floors and basements, but they didn't have to shrink the sides to give us those. Building a kitchen was already tough enough with New Leaf's room size, but in New Horizons my kitchen is so cramped.
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The multiplayer options are very limited. I love visiting my friends' beautifully designed towns, but the amount of effort required to entirely decorate your town is so immense that it can only sustain the multiplayer for so long. I wish there were deeper activities you could do with friends, like the island tours in New Leaf.
I wish the villagers felt more alive. You need to talk to them like five times before they'll say anything interesting. (It actually took me several months to realize they had anything interesting to say at all - it's all hidden behind like four layers of lead-in dialogue.)
They hardly ask me to do favors or play games anymore, which was like 60% of your day in New Leaf. And an Animal Crossing game with regular updates would have been the perfect opportunity to refresh the dialogue once in awhile to cut down on repetition, which was a huge issue I had with New Leaf.
I miss a lot of the old NPCs too. The island feels much more barren than the towns of New Leaf, partly because there are fewer buildings for NPCs to reside in. I've gotten bored of the current cadre of visiting NPCs, like Flick and Label. I think the person I miss the most is Phineas. He was my favorite random visitor, every time I saw him walking around I got real excited. Now he's basically been replaced by a phone, which is more convenient but less personal.
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TL;DR
Overall, New Horizons makes me excited for the future of Animal Crossing, but the game itself was kind of a letdown. In the lead-up to release, I was so pumped for what seemed like an entirely different approach to the series. But once the shine of the new features wore off, the game felt hollow. Sure, I can always go back to New Leaf - but I like the new features in New Horizons. I wish the rest of the game held up.
At least I can call myself a Rowdy Egg.
Terraforming completely changed the way I play Animal Crossing. The moving-in and moving-out systems for villagers strike the perfect balance between go-with-the-flow players and people who like to plan their towns out meticulously. Replacing public works projects with outdoor furniture streamlined the system beautifully and allowed for much more variety in exterior design.
The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, in a way that Animal Crossing has never really been. And as nostalgic as the New Leaf soundtrack makes me, the soundtrack to New Horizons is equally good (once you get past the tutorial, that is).
--------------------
However, over a year out, this still lacks so much content from New Leaf, and I miss it every time I boot New Horizons up.
There are some things I'm sure they'll add in an update sooner or later, like Brewster. But there is so much furniture missing from New Leaf, and I don't think they'll add it back in. Interior design was my #1 favorite thing about playing New Leaf, and it feels like that just got entirely shafted for this game.
I miss all the furniture sets. They added so much variety to rooms, and ensured that there were plenty of aesthetic choices between different types of furniture. For example, at launch, New Horizons had so few tables that my house inventory was filling up with small items I wanted to display, but had nowhere to display them. In New Leaf, there were a plethora of tables to choose from, because each furniture set was guaranteed to have a table in it somewhere.
I don't understand why they shrunk the side rooms. Sure, we get bigger second floors and basements, but they didn't have to shrink the sides to give us those. Building a kitchen was already tough enough with New Leaf's room size, but in New Horizons my kitchen is so cramped.
--------------------
The multiplayer options are very limited. I love visiting my friends' beautifully designed towns, but the amount of effort required to entirely decorate your town is so immense that it can only sustain the multiplayer for so long. I wish there were deeper activities you could do with friends, like the island tours in New Leaf.
I wish the villagers felt more alive. You need to talk to them like five times before they'll say anything interesting. (It actually took me several months to realize they had anything interesting to say at all - it's all hidden behind like four layers of lead-in dialogue.)
They hardly ask me to do favors or play games anymore, which was like 60% of your day in New Leaf. And an Animal Crossing game with regular updates would have been the perfect opportunity to refresh the dialogue once in awhile to cut down on repetition, which was a huge issue I had with New Leaf.
I miss a lot of the old NPCs too. The island feels much more barren than the towns of New Leaf, partly because there are fewer buildings for NPCs to reside in. I've gotten bored of the current cadre of visiting NPCs, like Flick and Label. I think the person I miss the most is Phineas. He was my favorite random visitor, every time I saw him walking around I got real excited. Now he's basically been replaced by a phone, which is more convenient but less personal.
--------------------
TL;DR
Overall, New Horizons makes me excited for the future of Animal Crossing, but the game itself was kind of a letdown. In the lead-up to release, I was so pumped for what seemed like an entirely different approach to the series. But once the shine of the new features wore off, the game felt hollow. Sure, I can always go back to New Leaf - but I like the new features in New Horizons. I wish the rest of the game held up.
At least I can call myself a Rowdy Egg.
Mother 3
2006
I played this game back when I was too young to interpret foreshadowing and the ending shook my core.
I know everyone says this game is depressing, but it left me with a feeling of hope. That even when the world is ending there will still be love, and that everything will be alright.
I know everyone says this game is depressing, but it left me with a feeling of hope. That even when the world is ending there will still be love, and that everything will be alright.
BioShock
2007
This game is over a decade old, and I’ve seen so many people get wrapped up in the meta and politics of the game to the point where that is the dominating discussion point when speaking on this video game- and I feel, more often than not, people focus too much on these things that they put blinders on to the rest of the game.
BioShock, like most games, is a flawed experience. Its shooting is only passable and most of the abilities you get in the game are outclassed by any electric element ones you get your hands on- Playing the first borderlands game is a vast improvement over any installment in the BioShock franchise.
What really matters to me in this game is the characters- I know when people talk about BioShock it’s always about the world of the game, about the atmosphere, and while I do love the city of Rapture and the underwater aesthetic, what’s better is following the story of the characters by following their logs throughout the game. You could argue that is part of the city, but BioShock Infinite showed us it's possible to have a beautiful city that lacks any depth because of the lack of a supporting cast.
Whenever I replay this game there are always audio diaries I have to go out of my way to get. Getting to hear updates from people you know are dead as you follow the timeline to their grave gives so much dramatic irony which is something that I love so much. It creates this strange relationship with the player and these ghosts as you listen to their woes and ideas just to find their corpse and know exactly what caused their death.
Then when shifting to the present and the characters that are alive and acting currently in the story- they all just play off each other so well. The parallels and foils just make each character feel like they’re working together for a cohesive narrative. I’m not going into details because then I would literally be talking about this game forever, but the overlap and contrasting of the main cast means so much to me and their relationships are going to stick with me.
You can debate whether or not this game is intelligent, and honestly, I wouldn’t really defend it in that context- Considering almost everything is an accident because Ken Levine really had no idea what he was doing with this game- admitting he was only drawing from “The Fountain Head” for BioShock and never read “Atlas Shrugged” along with saying he didn’t know Ayn Rand was politically relevant.
And while I would be more than willing to fistfight Ken Levine in a parking lot, that doesn’t change how this game affected me. I’ve found my own meaning in it and it’s going to be a part of me forever.
BioShock, like most games, is a flawed experience. Its shooting is only passable and most of the abilities you get in the game are outclassed by any electric element ones you get your hands on- Playing the first borderlands game is a vast improvement over any installment in the BioShock franchise.
What really matters to me in this game is the characters- I know when people talk about BioShock it’s always about the world of the game, about the atmosphere, and while I do love the city of Rapture and the underwater aesthetic, what’s better is following the story of the characters by following their logs throughout the game. You could argue that is part of the city, but BioShock Infinite showed us it's possible to have a beautiful city that lacks any depth because of the lack of a supporting cast.
Whenever I replay this game there are always audio diaries I have to go out of my way to get. Getting to hear updates from people you know are dead as you follow the timeline to their grave gives so much dramatic irony which is something that I love so much. It creates this strange relationship with the player and these ghosts as you listen to their woes and ideas just to find their corpse and know exactly what caused their death.
Then when shifting to the present and the characters that are alive and acting currently in the story- they all just play off each other so well. The parallels and foils just make each character feel like they’re working together for a cohesive narrative. I’m not going into details because then I would literally be talking about this game forever, but the overlap and contrasting of the main cast means so much to me and their relationships are going to stick with me.
You can debate whether or not this game is intelligent, and honestly, I wouldn’t really defend it in that context- Considering almost everything is an accident because Ken Levine really had no idea what he was doing with this game- admitting he was only drawing from “The Fountain Head” for BioShock and never read “Atlas Shrugged” along with saying he didn’t know Ayn Rand was politically relevant.
And while I would be more than willing to fistfight Ken Levine in a parking lot, that doesn’t change how this game affected me. I’ve found my own meaning in it and it’s going to be a part of me forever.