This review contains spoilers
This is the most thought provoking mid game for me. At face value there's really not a lot to take away from Azran Legacy, the puzzles are solid, but the story is the weakest in the series and certainly the most unfocused. Completely separating the chapters from one another in a non-linear fashion prevents this game from having a cohesive developing narrative unlike its predecessors. By the end of the plot nothing has had any time to develop and the conflict is wrapped up way too quickly, which would normally lead to a totally unsatisfying ending. However, while I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that way, despite it all I was completely satisfied for reasons which I can't tell were intended by the developers or not.
This is one of the most depressing and somber video games I've ever played. That may make me sound insane, but I derive most of this game's meaning from areas outside of the main story because where else are you supposed to get that from lmao. This game just has a sense of "I don't want it to be over" in the tone and music from start to finish if that makes any sense. I think the nature of this game, at the time anyway, being the last entry in the series gives it weight that it wouldn't otherwise have. I can feel the devs desire to make one last grand outing before the series must be put to rest, and gives the seemingly weak story and execution much more significance to me.
I obviously expect a lot of people to not really understand what I'm talking about, and that's fine, we all interpret different things from art. I just think that regardless of how this game turned out, even if it's the weakest of the original six games, the emotional weight is more prevalent than ever. To me, Azran Legacy is a story about things ending, life changing, but moving forward. And regardless of its quality, I think that's still a perfectly satisfactory way to end the series. I know that even though I find this finale underwhelming, I still cried harder than I ever have at any piece of media before in my life. I still cared despite my many issues with the game, gaming is an interesting medium huh?
I just hope that New World of Steam doesn't miss the point they may or may not have been trying to make here, as excited for it as I may be.
Not all empires can last forever, what matters is the legacy they leave behind
This is one of the most depressing and somber video games I've ever played. That may make me sound insane, but I derive most of this game's meaning from areas outside of the main story because where else are you supposed to get that from lmao. This game just has a sense of "I don't want it to be over" in the tone and music from start to finish if that makes any sense. I think the nature of this game, at the time anyway, being the last entry in the series gives it weight that it wouldn't otherwise have. I can feel the devs desire to make one last grand outing before the series must be put to rest, and gives the seemingly weak story and execution much more significance to me.
I obviously expect a lot of people to not really understand what I'm talking about, and that's fine, we all interpret different things from art. I just think that regardless of how this game turned out, even if it's the weakest of the original six games, the emotional weight is more prevalent than ever. To me, Azran Legacy is a story about things ending, life changing, but moving forward. And regardless of its quality, I think that's still a perfectly satisfactory way to end the series. I know that even though I find this finale underwhelming, I still cried harder than I ever have at any piece of media before in my life. I still cared despite my many issues with the game, gaming is an interesting medium huh?
I just hope that New World of Steam doesn't miss the point they may or may not have been trying to make here, as excited for it as I may be.
Not all empires can last forever, what matters is the legacy they leave behind
2006
The level where Spike and Whitey chase you gave me an irrational lifelong fear of things slowly chasing you from far away
1993
Unbelievable
You don't save Mort when leaving the tower so what's the fucking point
2024
Persona 3 Reload is a weird case because even though I find it more enjoyable gameplay wise than the original game, ultimately my experience was far less memorable. You can deride the original for its slower pace and inconsistent AI, but I can't deny that it had a style and vibe completely unique to itself. Yes, the AI controlled party members could be annoying, and if given the option I would always choose to control them myself, but it's really like no other game I've played (except Miitopia lmao). When one of my party members did an action I didn't consider or got a crit it felt like they did it completely on their own without my influence, it's like they were their own people and I sorta grew attached to them on that alone.
Reload's combat is certainly more enjoyable, I really enjoyed the tartarus bosses and monad door challenges in particular, but I can't help but feel like the charm of the original game's battle system was lost. Not to mention, even though I enjoyed exploring tartarus more this time around, I don't like the exclusion of letting the protagonist wield different weapon types, and splitting up your party to explore the floor. I barely took advantage of the latter, sure, however I know that there are a lot of fans of the original who would miss that option.
Also I can't stand how the script is almost completely unchanged from the original, warts and all. I know I'm gonna catch shit for this, but even though I enjoyed aspects of the original game's story I really didn't think it was that well written, and the pacing was all over the place. The social links were really hit and miss too, the Temperance, Hierophant, Chariot, and Sun links are great, while Magician, Hermit, and especially Moon are total nothingness, and their problems remain in Reload. I get wanting to remain faithful, but this is to a fault. I think part of a remake's responsibility is to improve upon the faults of the original, yet here that doesn't apply to the story at all. Also by the way, I don't think including more cutscenes with Tayaka makes him a better character. Screentime doesn't necessarily equal character development. The linked episodes with the party members were good though and actually address one of my many criticisms with the original game.
Reload is ultimately a better gameplay experience for me personally, but I can't help but acknowledge its many missteps, and the lack of improvements to the main story frustrates and baffles me. I don't like how numerous people online are writing off the original game as old and outdated compared to Reload, because I think there are several things that it simply does better, and to write it off because this game has more QOL stuff is stupid (This is coming from someone who likes Reload more btw). I think both are worth playing, but it's really tricky trying to tell someone who hasn't played either which one to play first. If you think you can stomach some annoying design choices, play the original first.
I enjoyed my time with Reload more, but I think I have more fondness for FES. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if I hadn't played it before playing Reload, but for a 70 hour RPG, this kinda went in one ear and out the other in comparison to the original. That doesn't sound like a good thing to be saying about a game that has a message about cherishing the life you've been given. I'm afraid my opinion on this might drop in the future.
My star rating doesn't make any sense, I know
Reload's combat is certainly more enjoyable, I really enjoyed the tartarus bosses and monad door challenges in particular, but I can't help but feel like the charm of the original game's battle system was lost. Not to mention, even though I enjoyed exploring tartarus more this time around, I don't like the exclusion of letting the protagonist wield different weapon types, and splitting up your party to explore the floor. I barely took advantage of the latter, sure, however I know that there are a lot of fans of the original who would miss that option.
Also I can't stand how the script is almost completely unchanged from the original, warts and all. I know I'm gonna catch shit for this, but even though I enjoyed aspects of the original game's story I really didn't think it was that well written, and the pacing was all over the place. The social links were really hit and miss too, the Temperance, Hierophant, Chariot, and Sun links are great, while Magician, Hermit, and especially Moon are total nothingness, and their problems remain in Reload. I get wanting to remain faithful, but this is to a fault. I think part of a remake's responsibility is to improve upon the faults of the original, yet here that doesn't apply to the story at all. Also by the way, I don't think including more cutscenes with Tayaka makes him a better character. Screentime doesn't necessarily equal character development. The linked episodes with the party members were good though and actually address one of my many criticisms with the original game.
Reload is ultimately a better gameplay experience for me personally, but I can't help but acknowledge its many missteps, and the lack of improvements to the main story frustrates and baffles me. I don't like how numerous people online are writing off the original game as old and outdated compared to Reload, because I think there are several things that it simply does better, and to write it off because this game has more QOL stuff is stupid (This is coming from someone who likes Reload more btw). I think both are worth playing, but it's really tricky trying to tell someone who hasn't played either which one to play first. If you think you can stomach some annoying design choices, play the original first.
I enjoyed my time with Reload more, but I think I have more fondness for FES. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if I hadn't played it before playing Reload, but for a 70 hour RPG, this kinda went in one ear and out the other in comparison to the original. That doesn't sound like a good thing to be saying about a game that has a message about cherishing the life you've been given. I'm afraid my opinion on this might drop in the future.
My star rating doesn't make any sense, I know
2011
I have not played this I just wanted to say this is the best title and box art combo ever made
2008
Incredibly disappointing. I've been looking for a cool DS horror game for a long time now, but this fails in almost every regard. The story is incredibly simplistic, like something you'd find in a boring horror film or creepypasta, almost nothing cool is ever done with the TS system. The scares are lackluster, the enemies are incredibly easy to avoid and stop being scary due to the lack of variety. The exploration is terrible, you hold the system sideways in a way that favors right handed people only, but still offers little visual info and is cumbersome to control regardless of your dominant hand. There aren't any puzzles, you just walk around and hope to find out the right path to go.
I could've lived with all of those problems if the story was any good or if something neat was done with the TS gimmick, but even after you get past all of that you're still left with nothing special. It tries to have a message about how games are art forms that can be used to spread love in the most cookie cutter way possible in a total snooze fest of a video game, so the message has no weight to it. I'm sorry, but if the scariest thing about your horror game is the way it controls, then you've missed your mark. I know it's cruel to say this about a game with such a cool idea, but there's really nothing on offer here that you couldn't get from a better horror game. The last thing I thought I'd say about this game was "skip it" but here we are.
I could've lived with all of those problems if the story was any good or if something neat was done with the TS gimmick, but even after you get past all of that you're still left with nothing special. It tries to have a message about how games are art forms that can be used to spread love in the most cookie cutter way possible in a total snooze fest of a video game, so the message has no weight to it. I'm sorry, but if the scariest thing about your horror game is the way it controls, then you've missed your mark. I know it's cruel to say this about a game with such a cool idea, but there's really nothing on offer here that you couldn't get from a better horror game. The last thing I thought I'd say about this game was "skip it" but here we are.
Nagi is the first video game character I've ever been able to smell
Negative reactions to the ending are not only proof that the writers were on to something, but also the reason why video game stories nowadays have to bash their meaning into your head with the subtlety of a lead pipe. Otherwise you risk upsetting illiterate people lmao.
This game is fire when you're not fighting Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Dark Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Peach, Daisy, Bowser, Ice Climbers, Shiek, Zelda, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Falco, Marth, Lucina, Young Link, Ganondorf, Mewtwo, Roy, Chrom, Mr. Game & Watch, Meta Knight, Pit, Dark Pit, Zero Suit Samus, Wario, Snake, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, Diddy Kong, Lucas, Sonic, King Dedede, Olimar, Lucario, Rob, Toon Link, Wolf, Villager, Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer, Rosalina & Luma, Little Mac, Greninja, Palutena, Pac Man, Robin, Shulk, Bowser Jr, Duck Hunt, Ryu, Ken, Cloud, Corrin, Bayonetta, Inkling, Ridley, Simon, Richter, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Incineroar, Piranha Plant, Joker, Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry, Byleth, Min Min, Steve, Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra, Kazuya, Sora, Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter, or Mii Gunner. Aside from that the game is fun.
2015
I've been never huge on the idea of "walking sim" horror games. Sure, they're a valid take on the genre, but during the mid 2010s they became so dime a dozen that I couldn't help but turn a blind eye to the trend for the longest time. However, I felt it was overly judgemental to brush these types of games aside, so I figured it was only fair to give one of these games a try myself. I've known about Amnesia for years, but Soma only caught my attention about a year ago, and I was far more interested in it.
The atmosphere is immaculate, giving me a high tech facility to explore is like jangling keys in front of my face. The sound design is particularly well done, with the opening hour making me feel totally unsafe, congratulations horror game, atmosphere good!
However, on the topic of horror, while Soma does a great job setting up scares, execution is a different story. This game really drops the ball whenever it comes to scares due to the monsters not being scary, being too easy to control, or both. There's one that you're not supposed to look at, another that's blind and makes that very obvious, another that only becomes hostile whenever you move too much while nearby, and a few others, but you have so much control over all of them that they become minor hazards more than actual threats. And when I begin to view them as obstacles rather than monsters then I'm no longer scared or immersed. The best parts of the game were moments where there weren't any monsters and I got to soak in the environment and anticipate when another threat would show up. There was one section in particular where I arrived in another abandoned part of the facility that had long creepy hallways, I felt as if I was being watched around the corner. I was totally uncomfortable while reading notes scattered across the area, like something could pop out of nowhere at any second. Whenever I made my way into a basement area, I caught something moving in between some objects, and soon I found myself cornered as the monster I was anticipating slowly shuffled into view and revealed itself. It was the aforementioned blind monster and it looked like actual dog shit. I think I would've been less disappointed if there was nothing there the whole time and my mind was my real worst enemy.
I'm surprised no part of the game actually tries that now that I think about it. The story asks about our existence and the human consciousness. There are interesting questions asked throughout the game and a couple of thought provoking moral dilemmas, but it never gets anywhere past being topics I ask myself at 2AM when I can't sleep. Questions are brought up, but I personally don't think anything profound was said regarding them, it felt very surface level, but that might just be me. By the end I got kinda sick of "PERSON IS PRACTICALLY DEAD AND HAS NO REASON TO BE ALIVE AND WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH SHOULD WE PUT PERSON OUT OF THEIR MISERY?!!?!?". Of course I said yes whenever I could, because it was always framed as the right thing to do, though I suppose it doesn't matter at the end of the day.
Without spoiling anything, I think the last two cutscenes should've swapped places. Maybe the devs thought it would be better for the game to end on a positive note, but I think it's kinda hard to feel good about the situation considering what you see a few minutes before that point. I think ending the game on a hopeless scene would've been more tonally appropriate considering the subject matter.
I don't regret my time with this game, I think it's important to broaden your horizons and try to understand the appeal of every kind of game. Soma could work better the way it is if it had better enemy design and the story was more impactful. I feel like if this was a well made standard survival horror game this would be awesome and I'd be more willing to replay it to appreciate the finer details more, but now I'm beginning to sound like a survival horror boomer, and the reason I played this game was so I wouldn't become that lmao.
The atmosphere is immaculate, giving me a high tech facility to explore is like jangling keys in front of my face. The sound design is particularly well done, with the opening hour making me feel totally unsafe, congratulations horror game, atmosphere good!
However, on the topic of horror, while Soma does a great job setting up scares, execution is a different story. This game really drops the ball whenever it comes to scares due to the monsters not being scary, being too easy to control, or both. There's one that you're not supposed to look at, another that's blind and makes that very obvious, another that only becomes hostile whenever you move too much while nearby, and a few others, but you have so much control over all of them that they become minor hazards more than actual threats. And when I begin to view them as obstacles rather than monsters then I'm no longer scared or immersed. The best parts of the game were moments where there weren't any monsters and I got to soak in the environment and anticipate when another threat would show up. There was one section in particular where I arrived in another abandoned part of the facility that had long creepy hallways, I felt as if I was being watched around the corner. I was totally uncomfortable while reading notes scattered across the area, like something could pop out of nowhere at any second. Whenever I made my way into a basement area, I caught something moving in between some objects, and soon I found myself cornered as the monster I was anticipating slowly shuffled into view and revealed itself. It was the aforementioned blind monster and it looked like actual dog shit. I think I would've been less disappointed if there was nothing there the whole time and my mind was my real worst enemy.
I'm surprised no part of the game actually tries that now that I think about it. The story asks about our existence and the human consciousness. There are interesting questions asked throughout the game and a couple of thought provoking moral dilemmas, but it never gets anywhere past being topics I ask myself at 2AM when I can't sleep. Questions are brought up, but I personally don't think anything profound was said regarding them, it felt very surface level, but that might just be me. By the end I got kinda sick of "PERSON IS PRACTICALLY DEAD AND HAS NO REASON TO BE ALIVE AND WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH SHOULD WE PUT PERSON OUT OF THEIR MISERY?!!?!?". Of course I said yes whenever I could, because it was always framed as the right thing to do, though I suppose it doesn't matter at the end of the day.
Without spoiling anything, I think the last two cutscenes should've swapped places. Maybe the devs thought it would be better for the game to end on a positive note, but I think it's kinda hard to feel good about the situation considering what you see a few minutes before that point. I think ending the game on a hopeless scene would've been more tonally appropriate considering the subject matter.
I don't regret my time with this game, I think it's important to broaden your horizons and try to understand the appeal of every kind of game. Soma could work better the way it is if it had better enemy design and the story was more impactful. I feel like if this was a well made standard survival horror game this would be awesome and I'd be more willing to replay it to appreciate the finer details more, but now I'm beginning to sound like a survival horror boomer, and the reason I played this game was so I wouldn't become that lmao.
They were so badass for this one
2004
Award for most incorrect average backloggd rating
2023
This review contains spoilers
It feels like most of the decisions made with Pikmin 4 were made because it's what the fans would want and not because they were actually good ideas. Were you disappointed purples and whites weren't in Pikmin 3's main game? I know I was when I was a kid, so let's have EVERY pikmin type in the sequel! Sounds like a great idea until you consider that doing so requires the game to be designed around 9 different pikmin who are all supposed to have their own unique traits to make them helpful. The problem is that several pikmin feel shoehorned in just to please fans. Winged Pikmin have barely any puzzles designed around them and therefore are less useful, and both whites and purples can't do anything that Oatchi can't already accomplish with a few upgrades, not only making them redundant, but even if you could somehow justify using them, you're still greatly hindering yourself by having any on the field due to the 3 type limit. Why use any of these pikmin types that have functions that are done better by others or Oatchi when you could use far less situational ones (Blues, Ice, Rocks debatably , etc.). On the topic of Oatchi, the way he was implemented was very hit and miss. When it comes to exploration and multitasking he's a good addition, there are things he can do that the player cannot and vice versa, he's a far better fighter and can accomplish tasks that are normally reserved for specific pikmin, while also not having access to certain areas the player can go to. This expands upon the strategic planning the series is known for. On the other hand however, with the help of the new ice pikmin, he completely trivializes combat. After a few upgrades his rush attack shreds through any enemy encounter that would prove to be even remotely challenging, and the ice pikmin acting as an infinite stone spray from Pikmin 2 makes combat and boss fights a comedy act. Enemies do shatter if they're defeated while frozen, preventing you from carrying back their corpses to make more pikmin, but not only can you get more than enough from pellets and caves, but while you're in caves you can't repopulate pikmin to begin with, which completely nulls the one punishment you get for spamming ice pikmin.
While on the topic of the caves, I don't have much to say about most of them, but I would like to take a moment to talk about the Engulfed Castle. It's a blatant copy paste of the famous Submerged Castle from Pikmin 2. What made that dungeon work in Pikmin 2 was it applied time management and efficiency to a game that lacked any sense of urgency. There was no reason to play efficientely in Pikmin 2 because there wasn't any time limit, it pretty much missed the point of the first game. Then comes in this cave where if you play too slowly you now have to deal with an unstoppable terrifying monster while carefully moving treasures around and escaping when he gets too close to you. No doubt the best part of the entire game. Anyway, Pikmin 4 copy pastes this dungeon verbatim without understanding what made it good to begin with. Time passes in Pikmin 4's dungeons, so there's already a reason to play quickly while in them, so bringing back the Water Wraith is not only redundant, but even if it wasn't he's totally neutered. His AI is terrible, he would constantly ignore me when I was standing right next to him, and even then he's never a threat because Oatchi not only rounds up all of your Pikmin which makes them harder for the Water Wraith to kill, but you also outspeed him by a wide margin. And it's not even like the cave puts a twist on this gimmick, I was hoping for the wraith to get replaced with a bigger threat, or have two of them chase me, anything really, but no, it's nostalgia bait plain and simple. Same goes for the Smoky Progg reappearing in the final dungeon. He's just kinda there, the game makes a bunch of fanfare out of him returning, but I killed him in 10 seconds with Ice Pikmin because this game was made for journalists. Look at how Pikmin 3 handled the wraith concept, the Plasm Wraith may not be as threatening as the Water Wraith, however the level he was put in was designed with the Go Here function in mind and was a test of your multitasking abilities in a slow paced, tense section. Pikmin 4 has no part or no monster really that makes it stand out. I know it might sound ridiculous to dedicate a whole segment of a review to one dungeon in a game, but it's emblematic of all of this game's issues. When it's doing new things to expand on the multitasking and strategy the series is known for it's good, I greatly enjoyed the leafling caves and dandori battles. At the same time though, it's too stuck in the past trying to appeal to fans with things they want without thinking about whether or not those are good inclusions to begin with, and having callbacks to old games without understanding why they worked.
I can't believe I had to spend a portion of this review comparing 4 and 2 in 2's favor lmao
While on the topic of the caves, I don't have much to say about most of them, but I would like to take a moment to talk about the Engulfed Castle. It's a blatant copy paste of the famous Submerged Castle from Pikmin 2. What made that dungeon work in Pikmin 2 was it applied time management and efficiency to a game that lacked any sense of urgency. There was no reason to play efficientely in Pikmin 2 because there wasn't any time limit, it pretty much missed the point of the first game. Then comes in this cave where if you play too slowly you now have to deal with an unstoppable terrifying monster while carefully moving treasures around and escaping when he gets too close to you. No doubt the best part of the entire game. Anyway, Pikmin 4 copy pastes this dungeon verbatim without understanding what made it good to begin with. Time passes in Pikmin 4's dungeons, so there's already a reason to play quickly while in them, so bringing back the Water Wraith is not only redundant, but even if it wasn't he's totally neutered. His AI is terrible, he would constantly ignore me when I was standing right next to him, and even then he's never a threat because Oatchi not only rounds up all of your Pikmin which makes them harder for the Water Wraith to kill, but you also outspeed him by a wide margin. And it's not even like the cave puts a twist on this gimmick, I was hoping for the wraith to get replaced with a bigger threat, or have two of them chase me, anything really, but no, it's nostalgia bait plain and simple. Same goes for the Smoky Progg reappearing in the final dungeon. He's just kinda there, the game makes a bunch of fanfare out of him returning, but I killed him in 10 seconds with Ice Pikmin because this game was made for journalists. Look at how Pikmin 3 handled the wraith concept, the Plasm Wraith may not be as threatening as the Water Wraith, however the level he was put in was designed with the Go Here function in mind and was a test of your multitasking abilities in a slow paced, tense section. Pikmin 4 has no part or no monster really that makes it stand out. I know it might sound ridiculous to dedicate a whole segment of a review to one dungeon in a game, but it's emblematic of all of this game's issues. When it's doing new things to expand on the multitasking and strategy the series is known for it's good, I greatly enjoyed the leafling caves and dandori battles. At the same time though, it's too stuck in the past trying to appeal to fans with things they want without thinking about whether or not those are good inclusions to begin with, and having callbacks to old games without understanding why they worked.
I can't believe I had to spend a portion of this review comparing 4 and 2 in 2's favor lmao
2017
If it wasn't for the title I would barely be able to tell this is a sequel to The Evil Within. It could be a new ip altogether as far as I'm concerned. The worlds are far more generic in comparison to the wide variety of areas you got to visit in the first game, and the open world nature of it wears off once you reach the second area. Not only does the game focus more on this open nature, but even the linear parts aren't that good, the level design is worse than the original and leaves far less room for experimentation. Messing around with traps and turning the tables on your enemies was one of the most fun parts about the combat of the original game, but because enough journalists complained about the traps in the first game being annoying (they weren't paying attention to their surroundings and instead of admitting that they're bad at the game they called it cheap design instead) the amount of traps to utilize has been toned down significantly, leading to less experimentation when it comes to combat. You'd think the skill tree would open the door to unique approaches in combat and would help the player adopt specific playstyles based off their preferences, but no, stealth is overpowered and there's no reason not to use it. It saves resources, and makes you far less likely to get hurt. Not to mention the AI in this game is so bad that if you somehow get caught you can literally turn a corner and the enemies will lose track of you. I don't mind stealth being a viable strategy, it's a genuinely fun approach at times, but when it outclasses every other playstyle by such a large margin then that's where I take issue. The game also freaks the fuck out whenever you get spotted by an enemy, with an obnoxiously loud music cue, it's like the game is screaming at you OH MY GOD WHY AREN'T YOU BEING STEALTHY IN THIS GAME WHERE YOU HAVE LIKE MORE THAN 5 DIFFERENT FIREARMS?!?! Also I don't know if I'm insane or something, but Seb controls like hot ass in comparison to the first game. His walking speed is this awkward jog, and whenever he's dashing it feels like he's constantly trying to snap to a grid, it's hard to describe but I just really hated the controls felt.
Last thing to mention is that the story sucks. The story in the first game wasn't amazing or anything, but it had interesting presentationand symbolism in the monster and area design, which gave me something to think about long after I had beaten the game. The Evil Within 2 is far more straightforward, but it attempts to give Sebastian an actual character, which I feel mixed on. On one hand, he didn't really have one in the first game, but on the other hand he feels like a completely different person in this game, maybe that has something to the voice recast I don't know. His new arc has some decent moments, but it's nothing all that special. The one major plus I can give this game is that the finale is pretty solid, much more so than the original game's which was underwhelming. The final overworld is threatening which makes exploration far more dangerous yet rewarding, the last 3 chapters have interesting enemy encounters, and the last bosses were great, I appreciate actually having a final boss this time around.
But yeah, while this game has a lot of great ideas, most of them fall flat in execution. There's something good underneath it all, I still find it fun at points, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for Tango Gameworks, but this just isn't the sequel I was hoping for. I'm glad a lot of other people like it, for me however I was pretty disappointed. Regardless of my opinion on this game there really should've been a third one, maybe involving Joseph and Ruvik?
Last thing to mention is that the story sucks. The story in the first game wasn't amazing or anything, but it had interesting presentationand symbolism in the monster and area design, which gave me something to think about long after I had beaten the game. The Evil Within 2 is far more straightforward, but it attempts to give Sebastian an actual character, which I feel mixed on. On one hand, he didn't really have one in the first game, but on the other hand he feels like a completely different person in this game, maybe that has something to the voice recast I don't know. His new arc has some decent moments, but it's nothing all that special. The one major plus I can give this game is that the finale is pretty solid, much more so than the original game's which was underwhelming. The final overworld is threatening which makes exploration far more dangerous yet rewarding, the last 3 chapters have interesting enemy encounters, and the last bosses were great, I appreciate actually having a final boss this time around.
But yeah, while this game has a lot of great ideas, most of them fall flat in execution. There's something good underneath it all, I still find it fun at points, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for Tango Gameworks, but this just isn't the sequel I was hoping for. I'm glad a lot of other people like it, for me however I was pretty disappointed. Regardless of my opinion on this game there really should've been a third one, maybe involving Joseph and Ruvik?