Nolan21
6 reviews liked by Nolan21
wish there was more sephiroth. preferably shirtless but whatever
Silent Hill 2
2001
While I still like Silent hill 1 more, this game is genuinely fantastic. The combat is a bit outdated, but the atmosphere, the sound design, the story, and artistic direction are all well done. Can't wait to see how Bloober team ruins it.
the only kingdom hearts game i care about because i can just skip all of the cut-scenes and just pretend i'm playing devil may cry but with disney characters
EarthBound
1994
Elden Ring
2022
Joseph Anderson made an excellent video on this game, so for the sake of brevity I'll just refer you to it, while adding some short comments of my own below. Video here
The first 20-30 hours really are magical, and the force of that experience can't be denied. Seeing fantastic new areas and enemies, taking in the massive scope of the world, getting lost somewhere unfamiliar, spotting some distant location on the horizon and realizing you can actually go there, if you can figure out a path. It evokes Dark Souls 1's best moments, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone for loving the game from this alone.
The legacy dungeon design is characteristically impressive but still feels like a regression in some aspects. The sheer size and complexity of many dungeons is breathtaking, the ambition really shines through here. Jumping lets you traverse the environment in lots of creative and organic ways, and interacts well with the aforementioned complexity. Unfortunately however, nothing here really comes close to DS1 classics like Sen's Fortress in terms of considered design. The Stake of Marika is a fantastic addition, but its potential is largely wasted, as instead of leaning into it to make bonfires more scarce and important, bonfires appear at the same or higher frequency than previous games. For some reason fast travel is allowed within legacy dungeons, which kills a lot of the tension of exploration and the risk of losing souls. Shortcuts feel less important and traps feel less deadly.
It's also far too easy to run past everything in the open world with the horse, with only a few exceptions. A hostile landscape with enemies and hazards at every turn should not feel like a walk in the park to traverse. It was only after making a second character that I realized how badly this murders the replayability. Fast travel serves as yet another bandaid fix here, reprising its usual modern FromSoft role.
For all the game's virtues, the feeling I'm left with at the end is bitterness, which is probably why this is still on my mind. I'm bitter that I can sense an awareness of the typical open world pitfalls but somehow the game still falls into them. I'm bitter that I can't trust FromSoft to learn from its mistakes here, especially in the combat. I'm bitter that the enjoyable level design almost feels squandered by the other elements. I'm bitter that the daring spirit of Demon's Souls, the willingness to wildly experiment and defy expectations, has floated away like a soul leaving a corpse. But most of all I'm bitter that the game really does reach the lofty heights of Dark Souls 1 at times. It climbs the mountain, ascending higher than even the old mentor, until, with a confidence bordering on absentmindedness, it loses its grip and plummets down, down, down into the abyss.
"…But even so, one day the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain. And even a legend such as thineself can do nothing to stop that." - Hawkeye Gough
The first 20-30 hours really are magical, and the force of that experience can't be denied. Seeing fantastic new areas and enemies, taking in the massive scope of the world, getting lost somewhere unfamiliar, spotting some distant location on the horizon and realizing you can actually go there, if you can figure out a path. It evokes Dark Souls 1's best moments, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone for loving the game from this alone.
The legacy dungeon design is characteristically impressive but still feels like a regression in some aspects. The sheer size and complexity of many dungeons is breathtaking, the ambition really shines through here. Jumping lets you traverse the environment in lots of creative and organic ways, and interacts well with the aforementioned complexity. Unfortunately however, nothing here really comes close to DS1 classics like Sen's Fortress in terms of considered design. The Stake of Marika is a fantastic addition, but its potential is largely wasted, as instead of leaning into it to make bonfires more scarce and important, bonfires appear at the same or higher frequency than previous games. For some reason fast travel is allowed within legacy dungeons, which kills a lot of the tension of exploration and the risk of losing souls. Shortcuts feel less important and traps feel less deadly.
It's also far too easy to run past everything in the open world with the horse, with only a few exceptions. A hostile landscape with enemies and hazards at every turn should not feel like a walk in the park to traverse. It was only after making a second character that I realized how badly this murders the replayability. Fast travel serves as yet another bandaid fix here, reprising its usual modern FromSoft role.
For all the game's virtues, the feeling I'm left with at the end is bitterness, which is probably why this is still on my mind. I'm bitter that I can sense an awareness of the typical open world pitfalls but somehow the game still falls into them. I'm bitter that I can't trust FromSoft to learn from its mistakes here, especially in the combat. I'm bitter that the enjoyable level design almost feels squandered by the other elements. I'm bitter that the daring spirit of Demon's Souls, the willingness to wildly experiment and defy expectations, has floated away like a soul leaving a corpse. But most of all I'm bitter that the game really does reach the lofty heights of Dark Souls 1 at times. It climbs the mountain, ascending higher than even the old mentor, until, with a confidence bordering on absentmindedness, it loses its grip and plummets down, down, down into the abyss.
"…But even so, one day the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain. And even a legend such as thineself can do nothing to stop that." - Hawkeye Gough
Elden Ring
2022
A series that was once at the cutting edge of game design has officially ran out of tricks, although this was pretty much already the case with DS3 6 years ago.
Very frontloaded main quest, exploring Limgrave, Liurnia and accidentally stumbling into Caelid was very impressive and gave the game a sense of adventure.
There is also a staggering amount of freedom given to the player. You can access Liurnia, Volcano Manor and Atlus Plateau and many other areas from the beginning without killing anything.
Unfortunately there is a very evident nose dive after Leyndell, Mountaintop of the giants is practically empty in comparison to the 3 earlier mentioned areas. Farum Azula is practically a straight line with possibly the worst boss in the entire series.
This nosedive extends to the side content as well, the level of recycled content in the dungeons/caves/mines is beyond embarrassing. If this was any other dev aside from the current hivemind darling then forums would be rammed with your typical internet gamer rage.
Overall i'm glad I played it, but it's just clear to me that Souls is tired, the game conforms heavily to the tropes that earlier games established to the point of it being mundane. I was rolling my eyes when the mid boss anime power up cutscene played on the ~10th different fight. Sure it was cool when Ludwig did it but that was back in 2015. Time to get some new tricks Fromsoft.
Very frontloaded main quest, exploring Limgrave, Liurnia and accidentally stumbling into Caelid was very impressive and gave the game a sense of adventure.
There is also a staggering amount of freedom given to the player. You can access Liurnia, Volcano Manor and Atlus Plateau and many other areas from the beginning without killing anything.
Unfortunately there is a very evident nose dive after Leyndell, Mountaintop of the giants is practically empty in comparison to the 3 earlier mentioned areas. Farum Azula is practically a straight line with possibly the worst boss in the entire series.
This nosedive extends to the side content as well, the level of recycled content in the dungeons/caves/mines is beyond embarrassing. If this was any other dev aside from the current hivemind darling then forums would be rammed with your typical internet gamer rage.
Overall i'm glad I played it, but it's just clear to me that Souls is tired, the game conforms heavily to the tropes that earlier games established to the point of it being mundane. I was rolling my eyes when the mid boss anime power up cutscene played on the ~10th different fight. Sure it was cool when Ludwig did it but that was back in 2015. Time to get some new tricks Fromsoft.