Optimistic_Matt
2022
If you are tired of the modern pokemon games and want a classic pokemon-like experience, this is the game for you!
Beautiful spritework, great monster designs, really nice soundtrack, a different combat system based on stamina that is similar but different enough from pokemon to be pretty interesting, lots of quality of life additions that makes it clear that this was made by romhack fans and lets you dial the experience to be exactly what youd want......the story is the only downside, sadly, it is lighthearted but pretty basic.
Really hope the sequel they tease at the end does get made, if all the systems stayed the same but the story was more engaging, coromon "2" could be a 10/10.
Beautiful spritework, great monster designs, really nice soundtrack, a different combat system based on stamina that is similar but different enough from pokemon to be pretty interesting, lots of quality of life additions that makes it clear that this was made by romhack fans and lets you dial the experience to be exactly what youd want......the story is the only downside, sadly, it is lighthearted but pretty basic.
Really hope the sequel they tease at the end does get made, if all the systems stayed the same but the story was more engaging, coromon "2" could be a 10/10.
![NieR Re[in]carnation: The People and the World](https://images.igdb.com/igdb/image/upload/t_cover_big/co7zfb.jpg)
Pretty great send off
Its weird to me that this game doesnt do much new to standout from the previous igavania games. It makes sense for the first game in a good while to be a little by the numbers, but hey, it still was a very good game. Loved dressing miriam in funny outfits and colors, loved learning the special attacks for each weapon, loved the weapon variety even tho the katana is quite easily the best one, boss fights were all pretty fun.
The game has a few issues that makes me not give is as much praise as i think the game couldve gotten out of me.
the problems i had were:
1- Item/Shard grinding being a necessity to accomplish most things was certainly a bad choice
2- Surprisingly, the soundtrack is quite forgettable. Its not anything bad, but it lacks iconic melodies.
3- For a pretty straight forward story, it sure had a lot of dialogue that didnt do anything except add to the final playtime.
4- Performance on switch is pretty bad, with unacceptable frame rate and quite a few crashes, get it on any platform but the switch for the love of miriam.
Overall tho, good game! It does hang out with the previous igavanias, and anyone that liked any of those games should play this too.
The game has a few issues that makes me not give is as much praise as i think the game couldve gotten out of me.
the problems i had were:
1- Item/Shard grinding being a necessity to accomplish most things was certainly a bad choice
2- Surprisingly, the soundtrack is quite forgettable. Its not anything bad, but it lacks iconic melodies.
3- For a pretty straight forward story, it sure had a lot of dialogue that didnt do anything except add to the final playtime.
4- Performance on switch is pretty bad, with unacceptable frame rate and quite a few crashes, get it on any platform but the switch for the love of miriam.
Overall tho, good game! It does hang out with the previous igavanias, and anyone that liked any of those games should play this too.
![NieR Re[in]carnation: The Sun and the Moon](https://images.igdb.com/igdb/image/upload/t_cover_big/co6vhs.jpg)
Well this was certainly an improvement......
combat is still the worst element tho, just a time waster.
combat is still the worst element tho, just a time waster.
This review contains spoilers
As a follow up to BotW, TotK adds and changes quite a bit but also not enough in some areas. Lets go by parts:
The reuse of the main overworld was smart, but also was peculiar. the amount of changes made the game feel like a master quest of itself. Not quite the same but still very familiar.
The addition of the Depths was great and it was quite nice to venture, meanwhile the sky islands left me wishing for more.
The great sky island is much worse than the great plateau in the sense that it doesnt incentivize you to experiment nearly as much. things that the great plateau left for you to find out by playing the game, totk feeds the player the same info via the constructs...alongside the general design being much more linear.
The biggest change i noticed at first and it stayed with me with the whole game is that weapons break much faster than in botw. It seems to me that they took people's complaints about weapon durability and overcorrected to show people why the system is in the games at all. Its a welcomed change from me but i realize some people will hate this even more.
The main story is very engaging, even more than BotW's imo, but it has one major flaw: the memories. The flashback story, as it exists in game, was clearly written to be experienced in a linear way. Events come and go very naturally...the problem is that you dont get those memories in linear order, youre always at the risk of your next memory making no sense because youre missing context from a previous one youre yet to get. The game does let you replay all the cutscenes and it displays the proper order, but thats adding an unnecessary extra step to storytelling.
The 4 new runes are...honestly they wowed me at first but as the game went on the magic wears off, first, recall is very situational, but so was stasis, so its okay. Ascend feels like a nerfed version of revali's gale that still manages to break the game in very particular ways so its kinda worse since you get it so early in the game. fuse makes so weak weapons and items you wouldve hoarded in botw actually have an use. and lastly ultrahand.....sometimes using ultrahand feels magical but quite a few other times it just feels like its there so you can put the square in the square hole, so to speak. the puzzles that use it are neat but its just a tool to reach a goal in that sense, not too dissimilar to magnesis but in a bigger scale since you have the big variety of zonai devices to use, alongside some regular items.
the new shrines were generally a big improvement over botw, but i want to bring special mention to the combat challenges: quite a lot of them are mini evertide islands, stripping you from all your equipment and making the puzzle a lot more about resourcefulness instead of just bullying the same 3 guardians was a major upgrade.
Now the big one: the temples! They show that the open world zelda formula is perfectly capable of having compelling dungeons and we dont need to go back to the 10+ games formula from before. At the same time, they still need work to reach their full potential in this formula. The water temple was borderline a divine beast; Wind temple was a little too short but it was a step up in quality; the real stars were the Fire and Lightning temples tho. The fire temple was the second biggest highlight of the game, in fact. The plot of goron city, fighting Yunobo, climbing up death mountain to then go down to the chasm to then enter the temple- Man!!! Such a cool sequence rivaling a lot of previous games' dungeons.
No comment on the 5th temple. It wasnt a temple, it was just a boss arena, the build up to the temple was nice tho.
On that subject, each of the regional stories were really nice and expanded the story of each city about how i expected. My one complaint is that it feels weird that Teba wasnt the wind sage. I like Tulin but i wanted more time with Teba.
The biggest highlight of this game for me is quite easily the end game. Hyrule Castle's chasm was really fun to explore, The first 3 phases of the final boss easily made for the best ganon fight in the franchise, while the 4th phase was a really nice set piece.
Overall i think totk has more shortcomings than botw, but it makes up for it with a lot of improvements for the open world zelda formula, making me very curious to where the series will go from here.
The reuse of the main overworld was smart, but also was peculiar. the amount of changes made the game feel like a master quest of itself. Not quite the same but still very familiar.
The addition of the Depths was great and it was quite nice to venture, meanwhile the sky islands left me wishing for more.
The great sky island is much worse than the great plateau in the sense that it doesnt incentivize you to experiment nearly as much. things that the great plateau left for you to find out by playing the game, totk feeds the player the same info via the constructs...alongside the general design being much more linear.
The biggest change i noticed at first and it stayed with me with the whole game is that weapons break much faster than in botw. It seems to me that they took people's complaints about weapon durability and overcorrected to show people why the system is in the games at all. Its a welcomed change from me but i realize some people will hate this even more.
The main story is very engaging, even more than BotW's imo, but it has one major flaw: the memories. The flashback story, as it exists in game, was clearly written to be experienced in a linear way. Events come and go very naturally...the problem is that you dont get those memories in linear order, youre always at the risk of your next memory making no sense because youre missing context from a previous one youre yet to get. The game does let you replay all the cutscenes and it displays the proper order, but thats adding an unnecessary extra step to storytelling.
The 4 new runes are...honestly they wowed me at first but as the game went on the magic wears off, first, recall is very situational, but so was stasis, so its okay. Ascend feels like a nerfed version of revali's gale that still manages to break the game in very particular ways so its kinda worse since you get it so early in the game. fuse makes so weak weapons and items you wouldve hoarded in botw actually have an use. and lastly ultrahand.....sometimes using ultrahand feels magical but quite a few other times it just feels like its there so you can put the square in the square hole, so to speak. the puzzles that use it are neat but its just a tool to reach a goal in that sense, not too dissimilar to magnesis but in a bigger scale since you have the big variety of zonai devices to use, alongside some regular items.
the new shrines were generally a big improvement over botw, but i want to bring special mention to the combat challenges: quite a lot of them are mini evertide islands, stripping you from all your equipment and making the puzzle a lot more about resourcefulness instead of just bullying the same 3 guardians was a major upgrade.
Now the big one: the temples! They show that the open world zelda formula is perfectly capable of having compelling dungeons and we dont need to go back to the 10+ games formula from before. At the same time, they still need work to reach their full potential in this formula. The water temple was borderline a divine beast; Wind temple was a little too short but it was a step up in quality; the real stars were the Fire and Lightning temples tho. The fire temple was the second biggest highlight of the game, in fact. The plot of goron city, fighting Yunobo, climbing up death mountain to then go down to the chasm to then enter the temple- Man!!! Such a cool sequence rivaling a lot of previous games' dungeons.
No comment on the 5th temple. It wasnt a temple, it was just a boss arena, the build up to the temple was nice tho.
On that subject, each of the regional stories were really nice and expanded the story of each city about how i expected. My one complaint is that it feels weird that Teba wasnt the wind sage. I like Tulin but i wanted more time with Teba.
The biggest highlight of this game for me is quite easily the end game. Hyrule Castle's chasm was really fun to explore, The first 3 phases of the final boss easily made for the best ganon fight in the franchise, while the 4th phase was a really nice set piece.
Overall i think totk has more shortcomings than botw, but it makes up for it with a lot of improvements for the open world zelda formula, making me very curious to where the series will go from here.
2021
![NieR Re[in]carnation](https://images.igdb.com/igdb/image/upload/t_cover_big/co7bm4.jpg)
Playing this after beating Automata before it goes EoS later in April
just beat the first arc, "The Girl and the Monster"
Im quite interested on where the story goes from here. The story and presentation are pretty nice and the questions left by this arc are enough reason to get me playing beyond the "it will become completely unavailable to play soon".........
The combat is shit tho, no getting around that. Wish i could give it a higher score but the combat really brings it down.
just beat the first arc, "The Girl and the Monster"
Im quite interested on where the story goes from here. The story and presentation are pretty nice and the questions left by this arc are enough reason to get me playing beyond the "it will become completely unavailable to play soon".........
The combat is shit tho, no getting around that. Wish i could give it a higher score but the combat really brings it down.
2019
Its Okay.
Post Game done.
Honestly i dont think the happy ending was worth the extra hours of grinding and refighting the chicken bros but it was still DQ4 so i was still having fun.
Honestly i dont think the happy ending was worth the extra hours of grinding and refighting the chicken bros but it was still DQ4 so i was still having fun.
Dragon Quest 4 is a beautifully paced rpg, with a charming story, earworm ost and simplistic combat that offers enough challenge to be entertaining but not too much challenge for you to keep banging your head against the same wall over and over. Overworld exploration and dungeons are a big improvement over 3.
the biggest problem with this game is that, like dragon quest 8, you can just auto every encounter without being punished for it. including bosses. every battle encounter is a glorified cutscene.
its the only thing bringing this game back, besides combat, its everything i want from an rpg.
Edit: Just beat act 3.
Only both last trials posed an enough threat to be hard fights. The final boss was also painfully easy, tho granted when i tried autoing it, it destroyed me.
Still, dragon quest 11 is a very positive and cozy experience. 9 is better.
its the only thing bringing this game back, besides combat, its everything i want from an rpg.
Edit: Just beat act 3.
Only both last trials posed an enough threat to be hard fights. The final boss was also painfully easy, tho granted when i tried autoing it, it destroyed me.
Still, dragon quest 11 is a very positive and cozy experience. 9 is better.
Update: they fixed Amy, Knux and Tails :>
This is some of the most challenging gameplay this franchise has to offer. Tho, this time, its not held back by imprecise control schemes, bullshit camera or bad enemy placement. It is frustrating at times but its overall a welcome challenge from a series that often doesnt do it well.
The new 3 playable characters all play very fun too and have very fun challenges around the island.....but Knuckles was done kinda dirty here, he is the least interesting one, sadly.
Overall, this is a very solid end cap to Frontiers, all its setbacks are a consequence of frontiers itself, and probably not having the highest of budgets since its a free product.
This is some of the most challenging gameplay this franchise has to offer. Tho, this time, its not held back by imprecise control schemes, bullshit camera or bad enemy placement. It is frustrating at times but its overall a welcome challenge from a series that often doesnt do it well.
The new 3 playable characters all play very fun too and have very fun challenges around the island.....but Knuckles was done kinda dirty here, he is the least interesting one, sadly.
Overall, this is a very solid end cap to Frontiers, all its setbacks are a consequence of frontiers itself, and probably not having the highest of budgets since its a free product.
Super Meat Boy Forever (or for simplicity SMB2) keeps everything that made the first SMB an indie classic, but with the added auto runner aspect they needed to change things up to keep the spirit of meat boy, and they did that perfectly.
2019
Played at a friends house for around 6 hours.
The game is The Last of Us Open World-ified, for the better and for the worse.
The story is interesting enough, most of the gunplay is pretty simple since most of the geometry isnt, and cant, be super complex outside of some of the bigger missions. Im not a fan of the RPG elements.
But then the open world itself is pretty condensed, the gameplay loop is pretty satisfying, the story missions are cool, the dialogue is neato too if you ignore Dick telling Bozo to go to sleep for the 100th time.
I did like playing the game quite a ton but not enough to get me to buy a PS4.
The game is The Last of Us Open World-ified, for the better and for the worse.
The story is interesting enough, most of the gunplay is pretty simple since most of the geometry isnt, and cant, be super complex outside of some of the bigger missions. Im not a fan of the RPG elements.
But then the open world itself is pretty condensed, the gameplay loop is pretty satisfying, the story missions are cool, the dialogue is neato too if you ignore Dick telling Bozo to go to sleep for the 100th time.
I did like playing the game quite a ton but not enough to get me to buy a PS4.
2022
Beyond the charming visuals and bopping soundtrack lies a not so very good platformer, with a lot of bad design decisions and slippery physics that does not fit said bad design decisions.
For the price i guess you could do worse but id recommend you either spend more on a better game or spend less on Toree.
For the price i guess you could do worse but id recommend you either spend more on a better game or spend less on Toree.
2016
I needed to let this game sit a little, for me to gather my thoughts.
In many ways, its an inferior game to limbo. puzzles arent as interesting, story isnt clear (even after going back and reflecting on what the hell it was trying to say), presentation captures the scale of the environments really well but i think the game shouldve either gone harder on the gray scale or used more color, how the final product is its just......drab? Lets go with drab.
But even then, beyond the comparisons to the developers' previous game, the experience comes together in a way that limbo just doesnt.
In many ways, its an inferior game to limbo. puzzles arent as interesting, story isnt clear (even after going back and reflecting on what the hell it was trying to say), presentation captures the scale of the environments really well but i think the game shouldve either gone harder on the gray scale or used more color, how the final product is its just......drab? Lets go with drab.
But even then, beyond the comparisons to the developers' previous game, the experience comes together in a way that limbo just doesnt.