Nognaught
game b̴̢̃r̷͚͐0̷͚̕k̸͕͝è̵̲ on final boss
kind of staggering how little style there is here; there's barely any interesting variety between areas (with one exception); no standout setpieces (again, with one exception); the entire cast is boring as hell and the voice acting is ass (appreciate the inclusion of Persian though); the cutscenes are completely flavourless and even the glossy impact frames are lame at best and entirely inscrutable at worst; and all of this is paired with some of the most milquetoast powers to hit the genre - oh wow, you got a dash AND a double jump, now THIS IS GAMING - and truly heinous boss fight design.
that being said, the combat's slick and i appreciate that there are 5 useful amulets that let me kill everything in a couple hits. umm, also i suppose it's a metroid-vania, so i guess it gets a positive review for that alone.
Ubisoft saw Nintendo release a gorgeous, incredibly tight, largely linear, and highly polished Metroid game and decided to rip it off, but avoided any lawsuits by making it look bland, have exploration be meaningless for the first 5 hours and then do what feels like clean up for the next 10, and holding it all together with string (final boss and final power separately got softlocked so, i guess that's it)
kind of staggering how little style there is here; there's barely any interesting variety between areas (with one exception); no standout setpieces (again, with one exception); the entire cast is boring as hell and the voice acting is ass (appreciate the inclusion of Persian though); the cutscenes are completely flavourless and even the glossy impact frames are lame at best and entirely inscrutable at worst; and all of this is paired with some of the most milquetoast powers to hit the genre - oh wow, you got a dash AND a double jump, now THIS IS GAMING - and truly heinous boss fight design.
that being said, the combat's slick and i appreciate that there are 5 useful amulets that let me kill everything in a couple hits. umm, also i suppose it's a metroid-vania, so i guess it gets a positive review for that alone.
Ubisoft saw Nintendo release a gorgeous, incredibly tight, largely linear, and highly polished Metroid game and decided to rip it off, but avoided any lawsuits by making it look bland, have exploration be meaningless for the first 5 hours and then do what feels like clean up for the next 10, and holding it all together with string (final boss and final power separately got softlocked so, i guess that's it)
2019
I don’t know how else to talk about Yakuza 5 other than saying it might just be the biggest game ever made.
2024
One of these
2023
Really wish I could have loved this whole game, but it keeps using its mechanics to keep you at arms length from its languages.
The Obra-Dinn style confirmation mechanism is way too aggressive and immediately de-abstracts these complex glyphs into the same handful of English words. The only challenge that remains is to remember whether the plural augmenter goes before or after its object.
The mechanics hit a stride with the Sanskrit-style writing of the Bards, and their Object-led sentence structure, but even this becomes puddle deep when it’s automatically translated into digestible English.
Following this up with the Alchemist language - that closely maps onto English - is such a staggering misfire. What could have been a language built out of equations and science is instead just English again but with an (admittedly) very cool numbering system.
Whilst the final language should be the most exciting, with its layered runes to provide additive meaning, this is revealed at the exact same time that it’s not needed anymore - because it’s all been conveniently scrawled into the notebook.
It’s a real shame that all of these cultures are so paper-thin, with their different languages coming out of convenience & mechanics as opposed to any reflection of the people themselves.
Why aren’t they able to communicate with each other? Why are they divided across the tower? Why is language all they need to break down these barriers?
Game is beautiful though, and the puzzles are all tight enough to keep you from being bounced off or really hit any friction by the time you’ve 100%ed the whole thing.
The Obra-Dinn style confirmation mechanism is way too aggressive and immediately de-abstracts these complex glyphs into the same handful of English words. The only challenge that remains is to remember whether the plural augmenter goes before or after its object.
The mechanics hit a stride with the Sanskrit-style writing of the Bards, and their Object-led sentence structure, but even this becomes puddle deep when it’s automatically translated into digestible English.
Following this up with the Alchemist language - that closely maps onto English - is such a staggering misfire. What could have been a language built out of equations and science is instead just English again but with an (admittedly) very cool numbering system.
Whilst the final language should be the most exciting, with its layered runes to provide additive meaning, this is revealed at the exact same time that it’s not needed anymore - because it’s all been conveniently scrawled into the notebook.
It’s a real shame that all of these cultures are so paper-thin, with their different languages coming out of convenience & mechanics as opposed to any reflection of the people themselves.
Why aren’t they able to communicate with each other? Why are they divided across the tower? Why is language all they need to break down these barriers?
Game is beautiful though, and the puzzles are all tight enough to keep you from being bounced off or really hit any friction by the time you’ve 100%ed the whole thing.