I'm going to use this opportunity to give my whole thoughts on Drakengard 3's DLC.

The long and short of it is, fuck off. Seriously! Over 75% of the content in these packs are directly recycled from the main game, almost no new mechanics or enemies are introduced, and they all usually are done in under an hour. At 7 bucks per, this is absolutely unacceptable, and I would not recommend anyone buy these, even real Drakengard and Nier freaks. The only redeeming quality of these packs is the fact that Yoko finally learned what an arc is instead of just having bad things happen all the time and characters just going :0 before resuming their discussions of whatever topic the game devotes far too much time towards (sex, this time around). While none of the information revealed here is in any way essential, every DLC's story except 4 and 5's are generally of good quality. Not great, though, we still have a long ways to go before I consider any of these games to have 'great writing'.

Honestly, the coolest parts of Second Sight are the little touches and completely missable details occasionally sprinkled throughout the game, such the interactable NPCs or the weirdly detailed variety of usable computers often needed to be interacted with to complete levels. Outside of these neat extras however, Second Sight doesn't really offer a fun gameplay loop or the promised thrilling psychological narrative, which makes the entire experience not much more than a bland romp punctuated by weirdly expressive cutscenes.

If I could sum up my thoughts on my Drakengard/Nier playthrough so far, I could honestly summarize every game in the series with the sentence "Kinda shitty and unfocused game that's frustrating to play but eventually brings it all together at the last minute". Graphics look awful, the characters are all annoying (we get it, you fuck and you kill people, please talk about literally any other subject now thanks), and gameplay is really only marginally better than previous entries. I was fully ready to give this game below 2 stars before the ending, but the execution really does come together better the further you play on. Unfortunately we all have a limited amount of time on this Earth, and if I'm going to recommend a game to anyone, I'm going to suggest titles that are fun to play the ENTIRE way through.

Also I'm going to have to pay like $36 dollars to get the story DLC for this game which is.......definitely a mark against it, considering I'll have to also navigate the headache that is loading money onto the PS3 store.

Graffiti isn't often something taken at face value by the general public, with the art form more likely to be seen as trashy or immature rather than an actual expression of creativity. This phenomena is what makes Getting Up's existence a little baffling. A high-budget, fully featured adventure game focusing around a street artist's rise from obscurity wasn't exactly tapping into any existing markets that video games often find themselves falling into. Either way, there's been almost nothing like GU, before or since, but uniqueness does not always equal quality.

The first thing any player's going to notice about the game is the sheer beauty of Getting Up. While the game is still visibly a 6th generation title, the console is pushed to it's absolute limits with remarkably detailed environments and impressive animation work. Every wall is plastered with others' street art, lighting effects such as cop car lightbars look exquisite, and the game truly 'enjoys' urban decay in a way that few games do. While most other titles would have levels set in abandoned buildings and grimy subway stations to simply avoid having to put too much personal detail on one level, Getting Up revels in the little things, finding beauty in the ugliness of long-forgotten school buildings and back-alley shortcuts. This is all complimented by a solid voice cast and an excellent soundtrack that blends rap with RnB and alternative rock seamlessly.

Unfortunately, Getting Up is a game too, and it's not a very well-playing one at that. The gameplay is split into three parts; parkour, stealth, and combat. Of all 3 aspects, parkour is the least offensive, being passable if stiff. Stealth feels incredibly underbaked, with vague indications of your undetected status and a stealth attack that seems to roll a die to determine if you actually commit your intended one-hit kill takedown or instead just standing up to commit a regular attack. It cannot be overstated how bad of an idea a two-button prompt for context-sensitive stealth kill is. Combat too, is stiff and underbaked, but also frustrating to boot. Enemies will often instantly interrupt attacks, knock you to the ground and continue to get in free hits while your character refuses to get up, and take a noticeably long to incapacitate. Add in a camera that often refuses to cooperate alongside inconsistent checkpointing, and I would honestly not blame anyone for turning on cheats.

It really is a shame that Getting Up has so many flaws, because nearly every aspect sans gameplay is both stylish and high quality. It's a further disappointment that the cultural time capsule of this game has passed, because a game like this is begging for a second-pass remake from a more competent developer.