PeterJBachman
BACKER
2018
Goodness I love any of these games that take inspiration from Papers Please.
Really interesting ideas here! Loved trying to figure out where the asteroids were that I needed to blast. I think some of the events have really interesting challenges, and would love to have seen more of those challenges.
Really interesting ideas here! Loved trying to figure out where the asteroids were that I needed to blast. I think some of the events have really interesting challenges, and would love to have seen more of those challenges.
Quirky lil game! Has a lot of charm, a fun story, and an interesting set of game mechanics. Def has some major Dark Souls “screw you” energy in some areas that is really funny.
Got a little obtuse in the puzzles at times but a neat lil experience.
Got a little obtuse in the puzzles at times but a neat lil experience.
What beautiful animation. Goodness I love the style of this so much.
Some of the puzzles are a little too esoteric though.
Some of the puzzles are a little too esoteric though.
2018
I think this is a great boomer shooter! I don't have a ton of experience with these kinds of games, mostly Doom Eternal a few years back. But wowzers does this game go places.
The settings are a personal highlight. I loved the second and third episodes for the wild settings they bring to the game.
The settings are a personal highlight. I loved the second and third episodes for the wild settings they bring to the game.
This review contains spoilers
There's a lot to unpack but I enjoyed this game despite not gelling with a few mechanical and stylistic choices of the game. The setting of the game is a highlight, with the "calendar" system reminding me of Persona 5 in the best ways. The choices of exploring the academy or getting into battles helped the game pacing for me a lot.
The "anime-style" writing does not appeal to me, but the characters are well-written! I enjoyed learning about how everyone has daddy-issues. The interactions between characters was a personal highlight despite the support scenes almost dragging at times. More context of the lore/setting would have helped me better situate the contexts for these characters and the stakes of personal and overarching conflicts. If I have the only character from Duscur, give me everything about the Tragedy of Duscur. Put colors on the map to indicate who controls what parts of the continent PLEASE.
Mechanically the game was great as an introduction (or reintroduction) to tactics style games. The tactics side of Three Houses was at its best when it gave me interesting scenarios or maps with interesting terrain features. But those scenarios were few. An explanation of the classes or stats would have helped me out a lot. I realized too late in the game that I should have focused on more than one or two skills if I wanted my characters to all be one of the Master classes. Gave me the classic XCOM "oh no I messed up 20 turns ago" feeling, which I don't like when it comes to teaching the students.
I did like the interpersonal conflicts focused on in the Blue Lions campaign. Seeing how class interacted with each other given they'd grown up with each other was a fun. The complexity of their relationships is impressive, kudos to the writers. I do wish I had more context within the lore of the world, because it was hard for me to feel the weight of the personal conflicts the characters dealt with. Dimitri and Edelgard's relationship is interesting and complex, but it's hard to situate that conflict within the world-setting given how little world lore they gave me.
It's a delight of a game, and there are emotional highs that'll stick with me for along time. Kudos to the devs for making a delightful game I stumbled through.
The "anime-style" writing does not appeal to me, but the characters are well-written! I enjoyed learning about how everyone has daddy-issues. The interactions between characters was a personal highlight despite the support scenes almost dragging at times. More context of the lore/setting would have helped me better situate the contexts for these characters and the stakes of personal and overarching conflicts. If I have the only character from Duscur, give me everything about the Tragedy of Duscur. Put colors on the map to indicate who controls what parts of the continent PLEASE.
Mechanically the game was great as an introduction (or reintroduction) to tactics style games. The tactics side of Three Houses was at its best when it gave me interesting scenarios or maps with interesting terrain features. But those scenarios were few. An explanation of the classes or stats would have helped me out a lot. I realized too late in the game that I should have focused on more than one or two skills if I wanted my characters to all be one of the Master classes. Gave me the classic XCOM "oh no I messed up 20 turns ago" feeling, which I don't like when it comes to teaching the students.
I did like the interpersonal conflicts focused on in the Blue Lions campaign. Seeing how class interacted with each other given they'd grown up with each other was a fun. The complexity of their relationships is impressive, kudos to the writers. I do wish I had more context within the lore of the world, because it was hard for me to feel the weight of the personal conflicts the characters dealt with. Dimitri and Edelgard's relationship is interesting and complex, but it's hard to situate that conflict within the world-setting given how little world lore they gave me.
It's a delight of a game, and there are emotional highs that'll stick with me for along time. Kudos to the devs for making a delightful game I stumbled through.
This review contains spoilers
This will touch on spoilery things, and will touch on events and plot as they happened in the the 1997 Final Fantasy 7. Be warned.
When this game hits, it hit hard and well. But it is clunky in so many places that left me a little confused.
What I liked:
- The combat is incredible. I think ATB is at its best in this game. Everything feels just right.
- The set-pieces. The big moments from the original game are very well done here and feel well-crafted. My personal favorites are everything in Upper Junon, the Golden Saucer, and a scene that was pulled way out of order.
- The "fall" of Cloud. It is so terrifying to see non-chibi Cloud slowly get possessed/manipulated by Sephiroth. The subtle ways Cloud's demeanor changes when he's no himself are terrifying to see.
- The humor. This game is very funny and except for maybe the very ending well-timed jokes help break up the tension of game. Cait Sith has an incredible line in the Temple of the Ancients that is my personal favorite.
- The music. Goodness the music of this game rips so hard. Love how they remix the overworld theme based on the area you are in.
- Queen's Blood. This is a fun card game. Just play it.
What I didn't like:
- Side content. The checklisty nature of a lot of these things made me decide to drop the difficulty of the game and focus on the main story. The pacing of this game is not good, and the open-world stuff does not help that at all. Some of that stuff is straight up not fun in my opinion.
What I wanted more of:
- Character-specific missions where you play as that character: Just wanted more of these because when they do show up they are interesting! Aerith's is fantastic, but I wish it showed up in more than one chapter. The gimmick when playing as Aerith is really interesting but explored in an unsatisfying way.
Okay I do want to talk about the moment. Honestly the moment in this game leaves me confused, and frankly I liked this part in the original game more. They kind of fumble it here in a major way.
I think this part of the game is hard to do well given the more open nature of it. I really hope the last part focuses hard on characters and scraps the open-world implementation they currently have.
When this game hits, it hit hard and well. But it is clunky in so many places that left me a little confused.
What I liked:
- The combat is incredible. I think ATB is at its best in this game. Everything feels just right.
- The set-pieces. The big moments from the original game are very well done here and feel well-crafted. My personal favorites are everything in Upper Junon, the Golden Saucer, and a scene that was pulled way out of order.
- The "fall" of Cloud. It is so terrifying to see non-chibi Cloud slowly get possessed/manipulated by Sephiroth. The subtle ways Cloud's demeanor changes when he's no himself are terrifying to see.
- The humor. This game is very funny and except for maybe the very ending well-timed jokes help break up the tension of game. Cait Sith has an incredible line in the Temple of the Ancients that is my personal favorite.
- The music. Goodness the music of this game rips so hard. Love how they remix the overworld theme based on the area you are in.
- Queen's Blood. This is a fun card game. Just play it.
What I didn't like:
- Side content. The checklisty nature of a lot of these things made me decide to drop the difficulty of the game and focus on the main story. The pacing of this game is not good, and the open-world stuff does not help that at all. Some of that stuff is straight up not fun in my opinion.
What I wanted more of:
- Character-specific missions where you play as that character: Just wanted more of these because when they do show up they are interesting! Aerith's is fantastic, but I wish it showed up in more than one chapter. The gimmick when playing as Aerith is really interesting but explored in an unsatisfying way.
Okay I do want to talk about the moment. Honestly the moment in this game leaves me confused, and frankly I liked this part in the original game more. They kind of fumble it here in a major way.
I think this part of the game is hard to do well given the more open nature of it. I really hope the last part focuses hard on characters and scraps the open-world implementation they currently have.
2019
Truly a VoyeurPunk game. This games has me peering in from the outside in two ways.
Hypnospace Outlaw creates an environment where you are always looking in on other people’s lives, but only the artifacts they decide to post online. I love how this game fleshes out characters you never say a word to through status updates, the styling of their public pages and the contents of their private files (if you can locate them). By doing this Hypnospace Outlaw allows deep secrets of the characters to feel just that secret and personal.
I also get to peer into a time on the internet I never experienced, but love to see. The chaos of those early internet days feels hypnotic in a way I wish I could experience.
To say nothing of the interesting messages this game has to say about online communities and the grey zones of moderation, both of which are rarely explored in video games.
I could go on and on about this game. I have such a love for this game and could get lost in it’s webpages forever
Hypnospace Outlaw creates an environment where you are always looking in on other people’s lives, but only the artifacts they decide to post online. I love how this game fleshes out characters you never say a word to through status updates, the styling of their public pages and the contents of their private files (if you can locate them). By doing this Hypnospace Outlaw allows deep secrets of the characters to feel just that secret and personal.
I also get to peer into a time on the internet I never experienced, but love to see. The chaos of those early internet days feels hypnotic in a way I wish I could experience.
To say nothing of the interesting messages this game has to say about online communities and the grey zones of moderation, both of which are rarely explored in video games.
I could go on and on about this game. I have such a love for this game and could get lost in it’s webpages forever
1997
This review contains spoilers
I’m probably going to pick at this review over the next few days as some thoughts crystallize in my head.
This has been kind of a white whale for me. I never had a PlayStation growing up so I missed out on a lot of the PlayStation classics. This game always loomed large though.
To see how much happens outside of Midgar is incredible.
I am both confused and interested to see where the Remake Trilogy will end.
This has been kind of a white whale for me. I never had a PlayStation growing up so I missed out on a lot of the PlayStation classics. This game always loomed large though.
To see how much happens outside of Midgar is incredible.
I am both confused and interested to see where the Remake Trilogy will end.
2024
I think the story stuff was interesting! At least what I saw it seems to really nail the Aperture Science humor.
But I struggled with the puzzles. It felt like a lot of them had this “Tower of Hanoi” kind of looping where it felt like I was going through the same areas over and over with a minor change. It was a little much for me so that’s why I put it down.
But I struggled with the puzzles. It felt like a lot of them had this “Tower of Hanoi” kind of looping where it felt like I was going through the same areas over and over with a minor change. It was a little much for me so that’s why I put it down.
2012
I haven't "finished" finished the game, but wow does this game do some interesting things along the way. I could see how some games (Tunic comes to mind) would pull inspiration from this title.
2017
January Roguelite/like
This one is fun! I think it has a lot of character and does a lot to differentiate itself from similar games (notably Binding of Isaac in my headspace). The best parts of the game are when it leans into the Shmup, particularly with the bosses.
Although I feel the progression is a bit slow. While the money you spend can add new weapons or characteristics to the dungeon, it takes far too long to earn enough money for a single one. I wish there was something a bit more incremental like Hades or Risk of Rain.
This one is fun! I think it has a lot of character and does a lot to differentiate itself from similar games (notably Binding of Isaac in my headspace). The best parts of the game are when it leans into the Shmup, particularly with the bosses.
Although I feel the progression is a bit slow. While the money you spend can add new weapons or characteristics to the dungeon, it takes far too long to earn enough money for a single one. I wish there was something a bit more incremental like Hades or Risk of Rain.
Incredible little puzzle game! Loved the simplicity in the design, but the puzzles are complex!
I’ve run credits and while there’s a lot more to the game post-credits, I’ll probably take my time with this part of the game.
The monster-hunter style of fighting medieval creatures is fantastic. The fast travel nuance is… interesting (I appreciate the commitment to the bit). BUT THE PAWNS. It makes me excited for Dragon’s Dogma 2 at release since there should be an explosion of pawns.
The monster-hunter style of fighting medieval creatures is fantastic. The fast travel nuance is… interesting (I appreciate the commitment to the bit). BUT THE PAWNS. It makes me excited for Dragon’s Dogma 2 at release since there should be an explosion of pawns.
2023
This game oozes character in an incredible way. I think the difficulty of the game gets in the way of the story though. Love the humor here.
2023
There’s just some moments that work so well in this one that I don’t want to spoil but wow. The art style works wonders here.