NightDuck
I liked Guitar Hero 3 until I played the Rock Band games and then I never wanted to play Guitar Hero again. I don't play guitar, but the Guitar Hero charts feel like they're trying to trip me up, while the Rock Band charts feel like they're trying to make it feel like I'm playing the song. I'm sure people will tell me that the Guitar Hero charts are more realistic, but I think they're way less fun.
2008
Absolutely phenomenal, no notes. I got a guitar controller for my Wii U and this game is still as good as I remember.
2023
This is an incredibly compelling and gorgeous documentary.
This is peak video games. I love shooting ninjas on wakeboards and every cutscene is either incredibly hype or makes me laugh.
2020
This review contains spoilers
Giving this the lowest score I can because the combat tutorial is you killing your dog.
2010
I recently burned out on Destiny 2 (again) and wasn't sure why, so I decided to go back and play an actual Halo game. I think the reason that Halo was so popular is that it's an incredibly simple game? You don't use all of the buttons on the controller, the auto aim is very generous, the guns are very straightforward, and checkpoints are pretty frequent, so it's a great first console game for someone. However, you also have to frequently swap weapons because of the limited ammo and depending on what you're fighting, which means that you're constantly making small decisions, keeping you engaged in what's going on. It rules, I love it, everyone was right to be obsessed with this game.
Destiny 2 doesn't do any of that. It's complex, obtuse, doesn't require any moment-to-moment decisions, and requires you to spend a lot of time in menus and guides in order to figure out what mission will give you the most meta-progress. Gross, bad, I hate it, I want to jump around and shoot guys, please just let me play the game.
About Reach specifically, my main thought is that I agree that all of the things people complain about in later Halo/Destiny games are at least somewhat present here. The lines aren't as memorable as previous games, the story is not very good or clear, and this game added live service elements. However, it still rips because it's still Halo.
Destiny 2 doesn't do any of that. It's complex, obtuse, doesn't require any moment-to-moment decisions, and requires you to spend a lot of time in menus and guides in order to figure out what mission will give you the most meta-progress. Gross, bad, I hate it, I want to jump around and shoot guys, please just let me play the game.
About Reach specifically, my main thought is that I agree that all of the things people complain about in later Halo/Destiny games are at least somewhat present here. The lines aren't as memorable as previous games, the story is not very good or clear, and this game added live service elements. However, it still rips because it's still Halo.
2006
The music is fantastic, the control scheme is neat, and the visual design is spectacular. The only problem is that playing even one song absolutely destroys my hands.
Absolutely gorgeous artwork, satisfactory prose.
2006
Very good, but too damn long! There is a lot of heavy, gross subject matter that I don't necessarily want to say is good, but it's not handled as poorly as it could have been.
I played this game without having played any of the previous ones and that was a wild experience that I would recommend to anyone who isn't already set on reading the whole series. This one does a good job of catching you up on the previous games and there's a lot of very interesting stuff that is introduced in this game.
I played this game without having played any of the previous ones and that was a wild experience that I would recommend to anyone who isn't already set on reading the whole series. This one does a good job of catching you up on the previous games and there's a lot of very interesting stuff that is introduced in this game.
2023
Lmao
This review contains spoilers
What I want out of a Final Fantasy game is "Hot boys and cool fights", so this game is a 10/10.
I think this is a really good example of the strengths of what's referred to as "Nomura's Bullshit" (even though it's also Kazushige Nojima, etc): distinctive and compelling characters, striking imagery, and clear touchstones for the themes are all more effective because the plot itself doesn't quite cohere. Because it's so hard to follow the literal plot, you instead focus on what kind of people Zack, Yuffie, etc are and what drives them; the imagery of fallen/corrupted angels (Angeal and Genesis); the themes of honor/virtue being chosen vs an innate sinful nature; the tragedy of Zack's impossible dream within a corrupt institution; so on and so forth.
I can go on and on about memorable scenes ("Me? Gongaga"), funny side missions, great character moments, but despite having played this game twice in 2 years, I cannot tell you the basic plot. Apparently Genesis and Angeal were childhood friends, who were both science experiments by Angeal's mom, who was the secret head of Shinra's science division, but didn't live or work in Midgar and was very poor, and they both independently decided to join SOLDIER for unrelated reasons? And didn't meet Sephiroth until then, even though he's also a similar science experiment? And this is all unrelated to the normal SOLDIER bioenhancements that Zack has that makes SOLDIER functionally identical to monsters, but somehow not in the same way Angeal is identical to monsters?
"Got it Memorized?" A Kingdom Hearts recap podcast frequently used the phrase "It doesn't make sense, but the emotional beats land" and that also applies here. I don't understand what exactly Angeal's backstory is, but that doesn't matter because I understand the line "Angel's dream to become human" and his transformation from a virtuous man to a violent monster. You don't need to understand what's happening to understand what you are supposed to understand.
I think this is a really good example of the strengths of what's referred to as "Nomura's Bullshit" (even though it's also Kazushige Nojima, etc): distinctive and compelling characters, striking imagery, and clear touchstones for the themes are all more effective because the plot itself doesn't quite cohere. Because it's so hard to follow the literal plot, you instead focus on what kind of people Zack, Yuffie, etc are and what drives them; the imagery of fallen/corrupted angels (Angeal and Genesis); the themes of honor/virtue being chosen vs an innate sinful nature; the tragedy of Zack's impossible dream within a corrupt institution; so on and so forth.
I can go on and on about memorable scenes ("Me? Gongaga"), funny side missions, great character moments, but despite having played this game twice in 2 years, I cannot tell you the basic plot. Apparently Genesis and Angeal were childhood friends, who were both science experiments by Angeal's mom, who was the secret head of Shinra's science division, but didn't live or work in Midgar and was very poor, and they both independently decided to join SOLDIER for unrelated reasons? And didn't meet Sephiroth until then, even though he's also a similar science experiment? And this is all unrelated to the normal SOLDIER bioenhancements that Zack has that makes SOLDIER functionally identical to monsters, but somehow not in the same way Angeal is identical to monsters?
"Got it Memorized?" A Kingdom Hearts recap podcast frequently used the phrase "It doesn't make sense, but the emotional beats land" and that also applies here. I don't understand what exactly Angeal's backstory is, but that doesn't matter because I understand the line "Angel's dream to become human" and his transformation from a virtuous man to a violent monster. You don't need to understand what's happening to understand what you are supposed to understand.
The best Final Fantasy game.
2023
What if Star Ocean was good.
2017
If it were me, I would simply not have a mid-life crisis. I really enjoyed the author's notes at the end and they made me feel much better about the twist.
I think a free VN introducing you to the setting is a great way to promote Ghostwire Tokyo and let people figure out if they will be interested in the main game. I didn't finish the whole thing because the first 5-10 minutes were enough for me to know I wanted to just play the whole game. The writing is a bit rough though.