Psientologist
2022
Closing in on finishing my third battle pass and seeing the direction this game seems to be going with everything from feedback to pricing and more I finally feel confident I can add some words and a score to this.
Marvel Snap is as everyone knows a Marvel themed digital card game created in-part by some ex-Hearthstone devs.
Mechanically you get an energy each turn which you use as a resource to pay for cards from your hand to enter the battlefield, so-far-so-Hearthstone.
Marvel Snaps two main USPs are that rather than the cards simply attacking each other or a player you are aiming to control three locations.
Turns are taken simultaneously and games (typically) last 6 rounds. Your objective is to have the most power in the most locations and in the case of a draw having the most power total.
This interesting back and forth, tug of war for control has many of the elements of good table top games.
Strategy, potential for bluffs and more.
A further wrinkle and an element of luck (or variance as TCG players like to say) is that each of the three locations also give abilities, these are revealed over the first three turns one after the other and this can make your strategies and tactics completely change.
Some locations you really want, some you want to stay clear of.
A location may be very strong for your strategy or actually mess up your entire game plan.
This added variance is for the most part good. Sure it can mean that some deck matchups that should be 50:50 suddenly turn into and 80:20 but it also means that a 60:40 matchup may spin around to the other sides favour.
Also if this wasn't obvious it gives each game a much bigger amount of variety, especially great in the early days of game with a smaller card pool.
The second USP (I'm getting there) is the awful name: Snap.
Yes, this is a card game but no this isn't about matching cards instead the developers (or whoever) decided that Thanos famous click should be the name of represents a minor gambling mechanic.
Don't worry it's not taking money through your phone via apple pay or whatever it's in game currency that is simply for levelling up your rank.
Without getting into the exact numbers (it's 1 to 8 fwiw) you can "Snap" when to get a higher chance of a bigger pay out, if both players do this then you're both all in.
Much like a game of Poker this can be used to intimidate, hedge your bets or even completely bluff when you have nothing it's a wonderful mechanic that actually encourages "escaping" Marvel Snap's version of folding and that in itself adds to a great strength this game has.
It's, pardon the pun: Snappy.
Games are typically six turns, each turn has a timer and escaping is encouraged meaning they will not always go that long.
So much is squeezed into such a short amount of time, a TCG distilled in a way and this makes it perfect for playing while waiting for the bus, sitting on the toilet, waiting for the kettle to boil or the opposite, just grinding tons of games out to see where your strategies take you and if those new cards you added are any good.
If you're even somewhat into card games or even tcg curious there are still two things that may put you off this game.
The first is a simple one: the IP.
Maybe you hate Marvel, this is much more comics than MCU as it digs surprisingly deep for the roster of characters it shows although at the same time it doesn't require you to have any knowledge.
Personally I am a Marvel fan, I'm not an MCU obsessive but I've been into the universes of Marvel for a long time and the use of this franchise is both a plus and a minor negative for me.
Seeing lots of cool and different characters I am mostly used to is great, the lack of synergies in a more obvious TCG way though is sadly off putting.
Do not get me wrong - there's lot of synergies, a good dozen archetypes already and many of them include characters that tend to have relations Moon Girl goes with Devil Dinosaur, Cloak goes with Dagger and Morbius, Blade and other Vampire things all share a theme.
However not all do and maybe this is a personal thing but characters such as the X-men don't seem to really share synergy. Now maybe that's because there is so many characters who have been in so many teams over time but sometimes I see two cards together and it leaves me wanting.
The second and main thing I can see putting people off giving Marvel Snap a go is simply because it's a free-to-play mobile game and what exactly it's version of "free" really is.
I can for the most part relieve you of any worries about that.
There's a shop and in-game transactions but you are either buying cosmetics (many, many different card styles) or upgrading your cards (purely cosmetic again) to unlock further options for your the collection.
Collection level is what the games match making is based on though so don't worry, you won't come in with nothing and play someone with all the cards.
All real money can do except making cards look different is push your collection level up higher but people doing that will end up playing others who've done the same or managed to grind their way.
The general loop of the game and it's in game currency is you have dailies and a battle pass challenges (half of which unlocks for free) - by doing these and going up ranks via winning games you unlock "Energy" this is used to upgrade cards cosmetically, starting with art breaking out of frames leading to animated 3D cards with shiny logos.
As you do this your collection level rises and you unlock new cards.
You then continue, maybe upgrading those new cards to unlock even more and so on and so forth.
You can easily spend zero real money on this game and be fully involved.
My only issues currently are that battle passes, which are themed, lock a single card behind a pay wall. These are added into general rotation a few months down the line so it's not all that bad (yet).
You want Black Panther now? Cough up £9.
Now £9 for a Battle Pass feels pretty standard but the issue for me is frequency, these aren't seasonal but practically monthly and whilst you don't need to spend money on them if you want it all that would mean almost £100 in a year.
My other issue is the randomness of the cards you unlock via collection level, hitting a certain level opens up a pool of cards so you do have the fun of pulling a surprise for your collection but if you start to enjoy a certain deck, see it's missing something currently there is no way to get that specific card you yearn for.
Collection caches aren't also even guaranteed to be cards and that is a very feel bad moment...
...thankfully it is "currently" and recently they have said that those caches will be adding a currency that can only be used to buy cards. I hope this is good and it's serving what the people want, it also should mean that anyone potentially spending lots of money to make more pulls will not have to rely on luck and therefor hopefully hold back more addictive qualities.
In summary I really have been enjoying this game, it took me a little while to get stuck in but now I play it every day.
Some of the randomness is a bit much but games are fast so you can't be annoyed for too long.
The money they want for cosmetics and battle passes is too high, but I don't have to spend anything to play the game.
A few tweaks to these things and some more cards leading to new archetypes and a bigger variation of match ups will mean I can easily see this 4 star review actually being too low.
Marvel Snap is as everyone knows a Marvel themed digital card game created in-part by some ex-Hearthstone devs.
Mechanically you get an energy each turn which you use as a resource to pay for cards from your hand to enter the battlefield, so-far-so-Hearthstone.
Marvel Snaps two main USPs are that rather than the cards simply attacking each other or a player you are aiming to control three locations.
Turns are taken simultaneously and games (typically) last 6 rounds. Your objective is to have the most power in the most locations and in the case of a draw having the most power total.
This interesting back and forth, tug of war for control has many of the elements of good table top games.
Strategy, potential for bluffs and more.
A further wrinkle and an element of luck (or variance as TCG players like to say) is that each of the three locations also give abilities, these are revealed over the first three turns one after the other and this can make your strategies and tactics completely change.
Some locations you really want, some you want to stay clear of.
A location may be very strong for your strategy or actually mess up your entire game plan.
This added variance is for the most part good. Sure it can mean that some deck matchups that should be 50:50 suddenly turn into and 80:20 but it also means that a 60:40 matchup may spin around to the other sides favour.
Also if this wasn't obvious it gives each game a much bigger amount of variety, especially great in the early days of game with a smaller card pool.
The second USP (I'm getting there) is the awful name: Snap.
Yes, this is a card game but no this isn't about matching cards instead the developers (or whoever) decided that Thanos famous click should be the name of represents a minor gambling mechanic.
Don't worry it's not taking money through your phone via apple pay or whatever it's in game currency that is simply for levelling up your rank.
Without getting into the exact numbers (it's 1 to 8 fwiw) you can "Snap" when to get a higher chance of a bigger pay out, if both players do this then you're both all in.
Much like a game of Poker this can be used to intimidate, hedge your bets or even completely bluff when you have nothing it's a wonderful mechanic that actually encourages "escaping" Marvel Snap's version of folding and that in itself adds to a great strength this game has.
It's, pardon the pun: Snappy.
Games are typically six turns, each turn has a timer and escaping is encouraged meaning they will not always go that long.
So much is squeezed into such a short amount of time, a TCG distilled in a way and this makes it perfect for playing while waiting for the bus, sitting on the toilet, waiting for the kettle to boil or the opposite, just grinding tons of games out to see where your strategies take you and if those new cards you added are any good.
If you're even somewhat into card games or even tcg curious there are still two things that may put you off this game.
The first is a simple one: the IP.
Maybe you hate Marvel, this is much more comics than MCU as it digs surprisingly deep for the roster of characters it shows although at the same time it doesn't require you to have any knowledge.
Personally I am a Marvel fan, I'm not an MCU obsessive but I've been into the universes of Marvel for a long time and the use of this franchise is both a plus and a minor negative for me.
Seeing lots of cool and different characters I am mostly used to is great, the lack of synergies in a more obvious TCG way though is sadly off putting.
Do not get me wrong - there's lot of synergies, a good dozen archetypes already and many of them include characters that tend to have relations Moon Girl goes with Devil Dinosaur, Cloak goes with Dagger and Morbius, Blade and other Vampire things all share a theme.
However not all do and maybe this is a personal thing but characters such as the X-men don't seem to really share synergy. Now maybe that's because there is so many characters who have been in so many teams over time but sometimes I see two cards together and it leaves me wanting.
The second and main thing I can see putting people off giving Marvel Snap a go is simply because it's a free-to-play mobile game and what exactly it's version of "free" really is.
I can for the most part relieve you of any worries about that.
There's a shop and in-game transactions but you are either buying cosmetics (many, many different card styles) or upgrading your cards (purely cosmetic again) to unlock further options for your the collection.
Collection level is what the games match making is based on though so don't worry, you won't come in with nothing and play someone with all the cards.
All real money can do except making cards look different is push your collection level up higher but people doing that will end up playing others who've done the same or managed to grind their way.
The general loop of the game and it's in game currency is you have dailies and a battle pass challenges (half of which unlocks for free) - by doing these and going up ranks via winning games you unlock "Energy" this is used to upgrade cards cosmetically, starting with art breaking out of frames leading to animated 3D cards with shiny logos.
As you do this your collection level rises and you unlock new cards.
You then continue, maybe upgrading those new cards to unlock even more and so on and so forth.
You can easily spend zero real money on this game and be fully involved.
My only issues currently are that battle passes, which are themed, lock a single card behind a pay wall. These are added into general rotation a few months down the line so it's not all that bad (yet).
You want Black Panther now? Cough up £9.
Now £9 for a Battle Pass feels pretty standard but the issue for me is frequency, these aren't seasonal but practically monthly and whilst you don't need to spend money on them if you want it all that would mean almost £100 in a year.
My other issue is the randomness of the cards you unlock via collection level, hitting a certain level opens up a pool of cards so you do have the fun of pulling a surprise for your collection but if you start to enjoy a certain deck, see it's missing something currently there is no way to get that specific card you yearn for.
Collection caches aren't also even guaranteed to be cards and that is a very feel bad moment...
...thankfully it is "currently" and recently they have said that those caches will be adding a currency that can only be used to buy cards. I hope this is good and it's serving what the people want, it also should mean that anyone potentially spending lots of money to make more pulls will not have to rely on luck and therefor hopefully hold back more addictive qualities.
In summary I really have been enjoying this game, it took me a little while to get stuck in but now I play it every day.
Some of the randomness is a bit much but games are fast so you can't be annoyed for too long.
The money they want for cosmetics and battle passes is too high, but I don't have to spend anything to play the game.
A few tweaks to these things and some more cards leading to new archetypes and a bigger variation of match ups will mean I can easily see this 4 star review actually being too low.
2022
If you told me at the beginning of this year I'd be giving an Obsidian game a 4.5 star review, I wouldn't call you a liar but I would be surprised.
It is by far not the only type of game Obsidian do or have done but it's very easy to look at them as Bethesda like game makers, something I am not particularly a fan of - yet Pentiment does have some of that DNA and it pains me to say that I love it.
Another thing a past version of me would be surprised to be told is that I'll love a RPG light point and click that throws out Dragons and Knights, and even Robots, space, the works and in it's place it's theme, characters, story, aesthetic will all be based on 16th century Europe, religion and other real world old and not very nice things.
Would I fuck believe you after playing the excellent Final Cut of Disco Elysium with it's beautiful voice acting think that "actually" no voice acting is cool and good and "actually" old fonts, scratching ink and wooden prints are just as engaging.
Pentiment goes as hard on it's theme as it can, it pulls it off and every corner and makes every ounce of it engaging and interesting.
By the time I was done I felt like I had truly lived in Tassing, that I actually knew not only it's geography but it's history and it's people.
The game educated me, it made me think about big things in life. Not just religion but relationships, family, history, so much and I loved it.
Get this game played, it's on Game Pass but even without it's worth the £15 asking price and (common thread with my reviews) can run on quite crap tech without any issue.
I haven't got into the story here and maybe that's what you want to know, there's murder and mystery in a highly religious old European setting and honestly that's all you need to know.
Since finishing I've considered starting it again; how would Andreas' (the protag) back history, decided by me, really affect what happens? Who else could I point fingers at? What else could have happened to these people?
What I'd love more than to find out first hand would be to see and hear from others who also have played this and hit me up.
It is by far not the only type of game Obsidian do or have done but it's very easy to look at them as Bethesda like game makers, something I am not particularly a fan of - yet Pentiment does have some of that DNA and it pains me to say that I love it.
Another thing a past version of me would be surprised to be told is that I'll love a RPG light point and click that throws out Dragons and Knights, and even Robots, space, the works and in it's place it's theme, characters, story, aesthetic will all be based on 16th century Europe, religion and other real world old and not very nice things.
Would I fuck believe you after playing the excellent Final Cut of Disco Elysium with it's beautiful voice acting think that "actually" no voice acting is cool and good and "actually" old fonts, scratching ink and wooden prints are just as engaging.
Pentiment goes as hard on it's theme as it can, it pulls it off and every corner and makes every ounce of it engaging and interesting.
By the time I was done I felt like I had truly lived in Tassing, that I actually knew not only it's geography but it's history and it's people.
The game educated me, it made me think about big things in life. Not just religion but relationships, family, history, so much and I loved it.
Get this game played, it's on Game Pass but even without it's worth the £15 asking price and (common thread with my reviews) can run on quite crap tech without any issue.
I haven't got into the story here and maybe that's what you want to know, there's murder and mystery in a highly religious old European setting and honestly that's all you need to know.
Since finishing I've considered starting it again; how would Andreas' (the protag) back history, decided by me, really affect what happens? Who else could I point fingers at? What else could have happened to these people?
What I'd love more than to find out first hand would be to see and hear from others who also have played this and hit me up.
2022
This game is simultaneously the best and worst Pokémon game ever.
That may be an exaggeration both ways but Scarlet (and Violet but I'll be saying Scarlet as that's the version I played) is brilliant but also a complete mess.
If you are the sort of person reading this on Backloggd then you have already heard how badly this game runs, probably seen glitches and the like on Twitter. It's bad.
This has given some people (idiots) another reason to dunk on the Switch for being out-of-date hardware and whilst it is behind on power, as it was on release, that is not why this game runs like crap.
Last year's Sword and Shield people said had issues, this year's Legends: Arceus also suffered similar problems but Scarlet is a cut above. At every turn this game feels like it's struggling to live, frames, overlapping menus, bad online connections and more.
"It's because it's fully open unlike Arceus" nah, BOTW (a Wii U game) has a more diverse and open world but they did not have it run this shit.
Xenoblade 3 came out this year too and suffers virtually no issues. This is GameFreak's problem.
I would state that I'd move on from it's technical issues to talk about the game but they go hand-in-hand with some problems I have that I'm sure I'll come back to.
Why if this game is a broken mess can I claim that it's also the best? Design choices and, however strange it is to say considering the issues, this game feels like a good foot forward.
The open world nature as seen to a degree in Arceus works really well for Pokémon. In Scarlet there is much more of a feeling of freedom as whilst the areas in Arceus were open it was biomes you went through in an order with a hub world to return to, in Scarlet you head off to school, do some typical Pokémon tutorialising on the way as well as being introduced to some key characters and once that's done you can go almost anywhere you like.
The game gives you three main objectives:
"Victory Road" is your standard defeat 8 gym leaders, get to the Elite 4, beat them, the champ and claim the title yourself.
A classic enjoyable routine these games have used and "if it ain't broke".
"Path of Legends" feels a bit more akin to Arceus in that you're going to areas to find extra big Pokémon, stop them rampaging and discover what is causing this phenomenon.
Thirdly is "Starfall Street" where you are taking down Team Star (this games Rocket equivalent) that includes five bases which you bring down in a unique way using the new "let's go" feature of letting you 'mon out and auto battle and topping it off with unique bosses.
All three of these you can tackle whichever way you like and whatever order of bosses/monsters you want between them.
The only restriction is that Koraidon, the cover Pokémon and your mount in this game will learn more abilities for traversal from the Path of Legends which means getting to some areas may be difficult without.
Between hitting the big point of the three main missions the minute to minute gameplay is what you'd expect from Pokémon but for me the loop of it just got that much more addictive.
As a series it's always done the "just one more thing" really well - level up, evolve, new catch, new gym, new area, all those in any order and you're always feeling like you're a step away from another milestone.
The three types of mission encourage this further as does even more mechanics.
Item collecting is a thing and crafting, a thing I wish wasn't in all games, is here and quite smart. TM's (Technical machines, items that teach monsters moves) are now one use but are craftable and these items are found lying about the world or picked up when you defeat things in the wild.
You'd be picking up this stuff at a fast rate if it were just that simple but the previously mentioned "Let's Go" mechanic where you send out your lead pal for a walk also allows them to auto-battle wildlife and they happen extremely fast.
Not only is this mechanically good as it means that grinding levels isn't so time consuming and boring it also makes the world feel more realistic as certain Pokémon are likely in groups sometimes lead by a larger evolved version like a pack leader.
If wondering the world, finding items, fighting wild 'mon in hordes or one on one to catch wasn't enough of a distraction between towns and landmarks "Raids" from Sword/Shield are back in a slightly different form too.
Tera raids, which Tera-Pokémon is a whole other new thing that's introduced that adds an interesting wrinkle to battles, team composition and more but I realise now that this "review" is becoming much more of a guide.
Not every game needs to be open world (or have crafting) but it works for Pokémon, they dipped a toe in with Sword and Shield, more of their leg with Arceus and now are waist deep.
The variety of missions as well as the whole school lessons and characters add some genuinely good story telling and lovely moments, possibly the best the series has had.
The characters are worth a second mention as, whilst I think the player character and the choices you get for looks are a step back from Arceus the NPCs are also top tier stuff.
The cast is a lot more diverse, I'd say the most diverse in this series. Some absolute stunning designs from cool, class and funny.
The new Pokémon designs are mostly great, the big story twist with some of them is cool too and the Pokédex (which I have finished 2 in 1 year, I can't believe it!) is completely doable in a reasonable amount of time - reliant on trading which Arceus wasn't but with some interesting new ways to get it all ticked off.
Finally and a minor but important factor that makes this possible the best Pokémon is that there is a lot less hidden rules and busy work and what there is streamlined.
EV's , IV's, Breeding, Items all the stuff to make a "competitive" team still exists in this game but there are items to collect that sort these and most are available in shops not often in one place and also for reasonable money considering the rate you end up picking up Nuggets and the like.
The freedom is there, not just in where you want to go and how you want to tackle your quests but also in how you'd like to mould your team.
Something which thanks to a bigger focus back on battles I started to feel a connection to which was lost to me in Arceus for the most part.
I feel this is going on and on but I want to finish up with two final things.
Arceus comparisons and why I'm struggling on not just giving this a full 4 stars.
At the risk of sounding like a narcissist I will quote my own tweet "Somewhere between Arceus and Sc/Vi with a lot more effort and time is a masterpiece of a Pokémon title." even since then with some more Scarlet played and a little time passed I feel the same.
I believe this game edges out Arceus as the best but I do miss elements of what that did.
The "Let's Go" mechanic makes general running about more fun but I do miss catching wild Pokémon by surprise and being able to nab them without fighting them.
This feeling is admittedly stronger because Scarlet struggles so much that the time to get in and out of the simplest fight and catch is longer than it should.
Also on the other hand the game does have a refocus on battles which had definitely taken a step back in Arceus.
For me there is a middle ground that I'd much prefer.
The freedom that Scarlet's open world gives over Arceus biomes is better but Arceus bringing you back to town did give that place more importance, a feeling the people who lived there mattered.
Scarlet has a school full of staff, rooms with different themes and lessons to take but I never went back until my quests were done because it never asked me to - just gave me a little heads up when a new lesson was available that skipped by faster than I'd notice half the time.
Here again I lean towards Scarlet's way in doing things but think there is somewhere between the two that would work better.
Pokémon loves some customisation. Let the player have a room or places to stay throughout the world that can be customised, that'd be nice.
Last comparison is questlines or more specifically the tracking.
Remembering what NPCs you needed to hand stuff into in Arceus was a pain and whilst that isn't the case in Scarlet I do miss the additional jobs to do in catching and trying new things.
This one is less simple for me to say "somewhere between" because Arceus Pokédex tasks would be too much with a roster the size of Scarlet's but I did appreciate the smaller requests and wonder if something akin to how Xenoblade does sidequests would work?
With all the comparisons above my 3.5 star Arceus score has been bettered but why not all the way to the 4?
Well simply as I said right at the start, this game is a mess.
I can happily deal with low res textures, low frame rates and even the occasional funny glitch but Scarlet struggles and the hard time it is seemingly have to stay alive equates to a harder time to enjoy the things it offers.
Things take longer than they should, stuff that should look nice doesn't and fun functions like online Raids are incomprehensible lag fests that make me personally not want to engage with them.
At time of writing I believe there are 7 Star Charizard Raids happening. For context that's the highest difficulty for a classic iconic monster who currently was not in the game.
I have no interest in putting the cart back into my Switch even for this.
I'd be killing two birds with one stone because I'd get the better items to help make myself a team to battle online, but again I have no interest. This isn't because it's not my sort of thing, it's because they are such horrible experiences that I am done.
There is a lot of stuff you can get used to and it no longer bothers you but my Scarlet experience was bookended with feelings of disappointment.
At the start I took a day or two off the game before I'd even got to the school because catching just felt so slow and clunky, I didn't want to wait the time the game made me to just throw a basic ball at a level 2 piece of garbage but I also knew that I kind of had to.
Without a mount at this point the world was not fun to explore, the run speed was slow and your character has virtually no movement tricks of their own.
I get to the school, do the opening, enter the world, get into the loop and 50 hours later I'm almost done
The finale of the game sees you enter an area, with a collection of friends you've made along your journey and all of this, which is cool, exciting and quite unique for this series is ruined by technical drawbacks and archaic design.
The area looks low res and framey, the characters speak without voice actors which typically isn't an issue but text going along the bottom of the screen whilst you're trying to navigate and also keep getting into fights means that it's hard to take in what was being said and too easy to miss bits - which is doubly a shame because the stories are some of the most heartfelt this series has had.
Technical issues aside would be the three words I'd start a TLDR for this with, but the way in which the technical issues affect every aspect of the game I just can't bring myself to even half-defend it.
It's been known for a good while now that GameFreak and TPC are taking the piss, their stuff feels out-of-date but will still outsell everything because of the franchise and they'll keep doing it because people, even me, will keep buying it.
TLDR; Game is one of the worst running things on Switch and is embarrassing from a billion dollar franchise but it also has almost everything you'd ever want in a Pokémon title and stuff you didn't think of. Also Larry.
That may be an exaggeration both ways but Scarlet (and Violet but I'll be saying Scarlet as that's the version I played) is brilliant but also a complete mess.
If you are the sort of person reading this on Backloggd then you have already heard how badly this game runs, probably seen glitches and the like on Twitter. It's bad.
This has given some people (idiots) another reason to dunk on the Switch for being out-of-date hardware and whilst it is behind on power, as it was on release, that is not why this game runs like crap.
Last year's Sword and Shield people said had issues, this year's Legends: Arceus also suffered similar problems but Scarlet is a cut above. At every turn this game feels like it's struggling to live, frames, overlapping menus, bad online connections and more.
"It's because it's fully open unlike Arceus" nah, BOTW (a Wii U game) has a more diverse and open world but they did not have it run this shit.
Xenoblade 3 came out this year too and suffers virtually no issues. This is GameFreak's problem.
I would state that I'd move on from it's technical issues to talk about the game but they go hand-in-hand with some problems I have that I'm sure I'll come back to.
Why if this game is a broken mess can I claim that it's also the best? Design choices and, however strange it is to say considering the issues, this game feels like a good foot forward.
The open world nature as seen to a degree in Arceus works really well for Pokémon. In Scarlet there is much more of a feeling of freedom as whilst the areas in Arceus were open it was biomes you went through in an order with a hub world to return to, in Scarlet you head off to school, do some typical Pokémon tutorialising on the way as well as being introduced to some key characters and once that's done you can go almost anywhere you like.
The game gives you three main objectives:
"Victory Road" is your standard defeat 8 gym leaders, get to the Elite 4, beat them, the champ and claim the title yourself.
A classic enjoyable routine these games have used and "if it ain't broke".
"Path of Legends" feels a bit more akin to Arceus in that you're going to areas to find extra big Pokémon, stop them rampaging and discover what is causing this phenomenon.
Thirdly is "Starfall Street" where you are taking down Team Star (this games Rocket equivalent) that includes five bases which you bring down in a unique way using the new "let's go" feature of letting you 'mon out and auto battle and topping it off with unique bosses.
All three of these you can tackle whichever way you like and whatever order of bosses/monsters you want between them.
The only restriction is that Koraidon, the cover Pokémon and your mount in this game will learn more abilities for traversal from the Path of Legends which means getting to some areas may be difficult without.
Between hitting the big point of the three main missions the minute to minute gameplay is what you'd expect from Pokémon but for me the loop of it just got that much more addictive.
As a series it's always done the "just one more thing" really well - level up, evolve, new catch, new gym, new area, all those in any order and you're always feeling like you're a step away from another milestone.
The three types of mission encourage this further as does even more mechanics.
Item collecting is a thing and crafting, a thing I wish wasn't in all games, is here and quite smart. TM's (Technical machines, items that teach monsters moves) are now one use but are craftable and these items are found lying about the world or picked up when you defeat things in the wild.
You'd be picking up this stuff at a fast rate if it were just that simple but the previously mentioned "Let's Go" mechanic where you send out your lead pal for a walk also allows them to auto-battle wildlife and they happen extremely fast.
Not only is this mechanically good as it means that grinding levels isn't so time consuming and boring it also makes the world feel more realistic as certain Pokémon are likely in groups sometimes lead by a larger evolved version like a pack leader.
If wondering the world, finding items, fighting wild 'mon in hordes or one on one to catch wasn't enough of a distraction between towns and landmarks "Raids" from Sword/Shield are back in a slightly different form too.
Tera raids, which Tera-Pokémon is a whole other new thing that's introduced that adds an interesting wrinkle to battles, team composition and more but I realise now that this "review" is becoming much more of a guide.
Not every game needs to be open world (or have crafting) but it works for Pokémon, they dipped a toe in with Sword and Shield, more of their leg with Arceus and now are waist deep.
The variety of missions as well as the whole school lessons and characters add some genuinely good story telling and lovely moments, possibly the best the series has had.
The characters are worth a second mention as, whilst I think the player character and the choices you get for looks are a step back from Arceus the NPCs are also top tier stuff.
The cast is a lot more diverse, I'd say the most diverse in this series. Some absolute stunning designs from cool, class and funny.
The new Pokémon designs are mostly great, the big story twist with some of them is cool too and the Pokédex (which I have finished 2 in 1 year, I can't believe it!) is completely doable in a reasonable amount of time - reliant on trading which Arceus wasn't but with some interesting new ways to get it all ticked off.
Finally and a minor but important factor that makes this possible the best Pokémon is that there is a lot less hidden rules and busy work and what there is streamlined.
EV's , IV's, Breeding, Items all the stuff to make a "competitive" team still exists in this game but there are items to collect that sort these and most are available in shops not often in one place and also for reasonable money considering the rate you end up picking up Nuggets and the like.
The freedom is there, not just in where you want to go and how you want to tackle your quests but also in how you'd like to mould your team.
Something which thanks to a bigger focus back on battles I started to feel a connection to which was lost to me in Arceus for the most part.
I feel this is going on and on but I want to finish up with two final things.
Arceus comparisons and why I'm struggling on not just giving this a full 4 stars.
At the risk of sounding like a narcissist I will quote my own tweet "Somewhere between Arceus and Sc/Vi with a lot more effort and time is a masterpiece of a Pokémon title." even since then with some more Scarlet played and a little time passed I feel the same.
I believe this game edges out Arceus as the best but I do miss elements of what that did.
The "Let's Go" mechanic makes general running about more fun but I do miss catching wild Pokémon by surprise and being able to nab them without fighting them.
This feeling is admittedly stronger because Scarlet struggles so much that the time to get in and out of the simplest fight and catch is longer than it should.
Also on the other hand the game does have a refocus on battles which had definitely taken a step back in Arceus.
For me there is a middle ground that I'd much prefer.
The freedom that Scarlet's open world gives over Arceus biomes is better but Arceus bringing you back to town did give that place more importance, a feeling the people who lived there mattered.
Scarlet has a school full of staff, rooms with different themes and lessons to take but I never went back until my quests were done because it never asked me to - just gave me a little heads up when a new lesson was available that skipped by faster than I'd notice half the time.
Here again I lean towards Scarlet's way in doing things but think there is somewhere between the two that would work better.
Pokémon loves some customisation. Let the player have a room or places to stay throughout the world that can be customised, that'd be nice.
Last comparison is questlines or more specifically the tracking.
Remembering what NPCs you needed to hand stuff into in Arceus was a pain and whilst that isn't the case in Scarlet I do miss the additional jobs to do in catching and trying new things.
This one is less simple for me to say "somewhere between" because Arceus Pokédex tasks would be too much with a roster the size of Scarlet's but I did appreciate the smaller requests and wonder if something akin to how Xenoblade does sidequests would work?
With all the comparisons above my 3.5 star Arceus score has been bettered but why not all the way to the 4?
Well simply as I said right at the start, this game is a mess.
I can happily deal with low res textures, low frame rates and even the occasional funny glitch but Scarlet struggles and the hard time it is seemingly have to stay alive equates to a harder time to enjoy the things it offers.
Things take longer than they should, stuff that should look nice doesn't and fun functions like online Raids are incomprehensible lag fests that make me personally not want to engage with them.
At time of writing I believe there are 7 Star Charizard Raids happening. For context that's the highest difficulty for a classic iconic monster who currently was not in the game.
I have no interest in putting the cart back into my Switch even for this.
I'd be killing two birds with one stone because I'd get the better items to help make myself a team to battle online, but again I have no interest. This isn't because it's not my sort of thing, it's because they are such horrible experiences that I am done.
There is a lot of stuff you can get used to and it no longer bothers you but my Scarlet experience was bookended with feelings of disappointment.
At the start I took a day or two off the game before I'd even got to the school because catching just felt so slow and clunky, I didn't want to wait the time the game made me to just throw a basic ball at a level 2 piece of garbage but I also knew that I kind of had to.
Without a mount at this point the world was not fun to explore, the run speed was slow and your character has virtually no movement tricks of their own.
I get to the school, do the opening, enter the world, get into the loop and 50 hours later I'm almost done
The finale of the game sees you enter an area, with a collection of friends you've made along your journey and all of this, which is cool, exciting and quite unique for this series is ruined by technical drawbacks and archaic design.
The area looks low res and framey, the characters speak without voice actors which typically isn't an issue but text going along the bottom of the screen whilst you're trying to navigate and also keep getting into fights means that it's hard to take in what was being said and too easy to miss bits - which is doubly a shame because the stories are some of the most heartfelt this series has had.
Technical issues aside would be the three words I'd start a TLDR for this with, but the way in which the technical issues affect every aspect of the game I just can't bring myself to even half-defend it.
It's been known for a good while now that GameFreak and TPC are taking the piss, their stuff feels out-of-date but will still outsell everything because of the franchise and they'll keep doing it because people, even me, will keep buying it.
TLDR; Game is one of the worst running things on Switch and is embarrassing from a billion dollar franchise but it also has almost everything you'd ever want in a Pokémon title and stuff you didn't think of. Also Larry.
1995
Perfect little puzzler that can go from super chill, turn your brain off and have a good time to screaming obscenities at little fairy girls as you get pains in your hands from trying to keep up with top speeds.
I know Tetris Attack exists but there's a charm this game has over it, maybe it's the just the novelty but it's definitely worth a blast if you've got Nintendo Switch Online.
I know Tetris Attack exists but there's a charm this game has over it, maybe it's the just the novelty but it's definitely worth a blast if you've got Nintendo Switch Online.
2022
Signalis is a wonderful love-letter to PSX Survival horror, this doesn't come without it flaws but overall shows why the best of those games hold up decades later.
If I were to limited to a single word for this review, it would be "atmosphere" whilst the game isn't the most terrifying piece of media you'll play the feel of dread between the sounds, music, graphics, filters, enemy designs and cut scenes are all on point and come together to create a very beautiful yet creepy painting.
Graphics wise this game does what many good retro homages do where it tricks you into thinking "this looks like that" whilst being more a version of how you remember things looking. Better than they actually were.
Controls wise, the game doesn't opt for tank controls and in a sense I was disappointed but understand as the loud majority let's call them, really don't remember that method fondly. In place though an aiming system which is as stressful and arguably clunky does give a similar feel to combat whilst making going back and forth (and you will do this a lot) much more modern feeling and smoother.
Story wise I enjoyed what there was and this is one of those games where I immediately am waiting for some class YouTube deep dives. A lot of it is what you'd expect from a spooky game with androids but in my eyes it does it all well, it wears it's inspirations on it's sleeves and I can appreciate that when done well.
I enjoyed my time with Signalis a lot, I was satisfied with how it went and where it ended (I got M) but it was not perfect.
A simple complaint from me was the amount of back tracking.
I don't mind limited inventory, especially considering the games it's trying to be like but Signalis for me suffered due to this as the more time you spend running through the same corridors and rooms just to pick up and drop things off the less scary or even interesting they become.
Overall I enjoyed the puzzles but felt some either were too many parts, exaggerated by the above point or were "too classic" and were things we've all done ten times before.
Good game though, definitely worth playing on Game Pass if you have it - another "retro look runs well on crap hardware" for me.
Also I learnt a little German, that's nice.
If I were to limited to a single word for this review, it would be "atmosphere" whilst the game isn't the most terrifying piece of media you'll play the feel of dread between the sounds, music, graphics, filters, enemy designs and cut scenes are all on point and come together to create a very beautiful yet creepy painting.
Graphics wise this game does what many good retro homages do where it tricks you into thinking "this looks like that" whilst being more a version of how you remember things looking. Better than they actually were.
Controls wise, the game doesn't opt for tank controls and in a sense I was disappointed but understand as the loud majority let's call them, really don't remember that method fondly. In place though an aiming system which is as stressful and arguably clunky does give a similar feel to combat whilst making going back and forth (and you will do this a lot) much more modern feeling and smoother.
Story wise I enjoyed what there was and this is one of those games where I immediately am waiting for some class YouTube deep dives. A lot of it is what you'd expect from a spooky game with androids but in my eyes it does it all well, it wears it's inspirations on it's sleeves and I can appreciate that when done well.
I enjoyed my time with Signalis a lot, I was satisfied with how it went and where it ended (I got M) but it was not perfect.
A simple complaint from me was the amount of back tracking.
I don't mind limited inventory, especially considering the games it's trying to be like but Signalis for me suffered due to this as the more time you spend running through the same corridors and rooms just to pick up and drop things off the less scary or even interesting they become.
Overall I enjoyed the puzzles but felt some either were too many parts, exaggerated by the above point or were "too classic" and were things we've all done ten times before.
Good game though, definitely worth playing on Game Pass if you have it - another "retro look runs well on crap hardware" for me.
Also I learnt a little German, that's nice.
2022
What do you get when you combine Pikmin with Super Mario?
A game that's not quite as good as either, but is far from a disaster.
Tikykin is a 3D platformer with large open spaces to explore, you play Milo a teeny-tiny human-like person stranded away from home where you are tasked to find parts from a blueprint of a ship you hope to get you home.
Where you are stranded is simply in a house, living here are a whole civilization of bug folk who have turned each of the rooms into their own unique biomes.
Finally it's not just you and the bug folk but also these strange creatures, the titular Tinykin who follow Milo about and can do tasks from carrying things, blowing things up and more dependant on their colour.
So again, the short explanation is it's Pikmin but rather than strategy it's an exploratory 3D platformer and rather than outside you're living your best Micro-man life.
This does come together well, the exploration is fun and the areas are inventive.
Tinykin abilities being more based helping your own traversal than their own (as Pikmin do) means that there are some great ideas. My favourite being the green ones which can stack to form a ladder - which in a game that does have a lot of verticality comes in very handy.
If I had to describe the game in a single word it would be; Pleasant.
Death really isn't an issue, if you fall to far you reappear where you started, there's no combat and the platforming rarely involves any challenge it's just more about exploring and doing tasks for your bug pals in the world.
Sadly though pleasant alone means the game can at points feel lacking, the main challenges end up being collecting things and while entering a new biome the gameplay loop is perfectly addictive when you're finished with the game you're just searching nooks and crannies for "pollen" and not much else.
Personally I also found the game didn't feel quite right, the way Milo controls doesn't feel terrible but sometimes would glide too much and the bubble float mechanic having to tap jump again whilst in the air felt really unnatural to me.
We've had gliding and flutter jumps in these games for years and yet Tinykin felt new but not nice.
There's also a strange mechanical decision with the Pink Tinykin who do the simple act of carrying, either small items individually or as a group much like Pikmin, in that once a group are carrying something they will not let go until they get to their destination.
This is a minor gripe but for a game that feels very free and easy I found this mechanic actually had me worry I'd locked the game.
Even more minor, if you are going to use the mechanic also borrow the idea that using more Tinykin than you need could increase the speed as several times I ended up just waiting on them.
Overall Tinykin is a lovely little game with a nice world to explore and check some lists off. It doesn't really break any new ground but does a good job of making a new cocktail of previous ideas without making it taste disgusting.
If you can get this for "free" via Game Pass and the like it's definitely worth your time - I completed it over a weekend.
If you want it for the Switch I'd possibly wait for a sale, although at time of writing it's basically Christmas so why not use a voucher if you got one as a present?
A game that's not quite as good as either, but is far from a disaster.
Tikykin is a 3D platformer with large open spaces to explore, you play Milo a teeny-tiny human-like person stranded away from home where you are tasked to find parts from a blueprint of a ship you hope to get you home.
Where you are stranded is simply in a house, living here are a whole civilization of bug folk who have turned each of the rooms into their own unique biomes.
Finally it's not just you and the bug folk but also these strange creatures, the titular Tinykin who follow Milo about and can do tasks from carrying things, blowing things up and more dependant on their colour.
So again, the short explanation is it's Pikmin but rather than strategy it's an exploratory 3D platformer and rather than outside you're living your best Micro-man life.
This does come together well, the exploration is fun and the areas are inventive.
Tinykin abilities being more based helping your own traversal than their own (as Pikmin do) means that there are some great ideas. My favourite being the green ones which can stack to form a ladder - which in a game that does have a lot of verticality comes in very handy.
If I had to describe the game in a single word it would be; Pleasant.
Death really isn't an issue, if you fall to far you reappear where you started, there's no combat and the platforming rarely involves any challenge it's just more about exploring and doing tasks for your bug pals in the world.
Sadly though pleasant alone means the game can at points feel lacking, the main challenges end up being collecting things and while entering a new biome the gameplay loop is perfectly addictive when you're finished with the game you're just searching nooks and crannies for "pollen" and not much else.
Personally I also found the game didn't feel quite right, the way Milo controls doesn't feel terrible but sometimes would glide too much and the bubble float mechanic having to tap jump again whilst in the air felt really unnatural to me.
We've had gliding and flutter jumps in these games for years and yet Tinykin felt new but not nice.
There's also a strange mechanical decision with the Pink Tinykin who do the simple act of carrying, either small items individually or as a group much like Pikmin, in that once a group are carrying something they will not let go until they get to their destination.
This is a minor gripe but for a game that feels very free and easy I found this mechanic actually had me worry I'd locked the game.
Even more minor, if you are going to use the mechanic also borrow the idea that using more Tinykin than you need could increase the speed as several times I ended up just waiting on them.
Overall Tinykin is a lovely little game with a nice world to explore and check some lists off. It doesn't really break any new ground but does a good job of making a new cocktail of previous ideas without making it taste disgusting.
If you can get this for "free" via Game Pass and the like it's definitely worth your time - I completed it over a weekend.
If you want it for the Switch I'd possibly wait for a sale, although at time of writing it's basically Christmas so why not use a voucher if you got one as a present?
2021
Move around, have insanity take place, watch numbers go up, find things to help find more things, watch numbers go up more.
I understand it's addictive, I've spent far too much time on it, I don't get people calling this GOTY or the like.
Maybe people want what this game does well more than I do, I don't feel I need games boiled down to such a simple level to have the enjoyable addiction this can bring.
Maybe I will never understand.
It's good, it's fine, I'll probably play more. It's free or something like £3 on PC, time melts away, but it doesn't do enough for me. It's not trying to, or at least what it does do I think people claim to be a bigger deal than it is (secret levels, characters and the like).
Is this game a one-stick shooter, a clicker, a puzzle?
It's an anomaly that's for sure and I respect it.
I understand it's addictive, I've spent far too much time on it, I don't get people calling this GOTY or the like.
Maybe people want what this game does well more than I do, I don't feel I need games boiled down to such a simple level to have the enjoyable addiction this can bring.
Maybe I will never understand.
It's good, it's fine, I'll probably play more. It's free or something like £3 on PC, time melts away, but it doesn't do enough for me. It's not trying to, or at least what it does do I think people claim to be a bigger deal than it is (secret levels, characters and the like).
Is this game a one-stick shooter, a clicker, a puzzle?
It's an anomaly that's for sure and I respect it.
2022
Once I got to the end of Norco I really didn't feel anything, prior to that the game had definitely got a mixture of emotions out of me but this game, one with fantastic world building, great dialogue and beautiful pixel art - this game, one I thought I would love I just felt... nothing really.
Like a cliché break-up maybe it's me and not you (Norco) but the game didn't click how I expected it to and maybe it just wasn't our time.
I sit here trying to figure why I didn't care for Norco as much as others, as much as I expected to myself.
I look to see if different endings would make me care more, they don't.
Maybe it's because some of it's comedy didn't hit? But that's not it, it made me laugh more than once and game writing is not always the best for that.
The only negatives I can really say and there are three that come to mind are all either minor or arguably not true.
Games are subjective after all I guess?
The first is the "combat" there's a few bits of combat in the game and they're basically QTE's with a JRPG-like display and really they were easy, pointless and added nothing.
I'd have much preferred the "combat" taken place in the writing, especially when we've seen how effective that can be with the likes of Disco Elysium.
The other two negative points go hand-in-hand.
The world building is good, there's a lot of detail but I felt a lot of it was front loaded or at least I struggled to make a picture of this world as easily as I should have because I was battered with it from the start before I'd even got to move a cursor.
This ties into Blake, the brother. He felt like a completely blank slate and the dialogue choices at the start which where there to help paint a picture didn't feel at all like interesting or powerful decisions.
For me, the entire game long quest to search him felt off, he felt more like a McGuffin than a character.
Considering this game is "free" and not particularly long, I may reappraise it in the future. Right now I can still recommend it but who knows, maybe my hollow feeling will actually temper expectations of anyone playing it after and they will enjoy it more.
Possibly the world's stupidest review because honestly, I think it does everything right but also it definitely doesn't but I can't figure out what.
It's me Norco.
Like a cliché break-up maybe it's me and not you (Norco) but the game didn't click how I expected it to and maybe it just wasn't our time.
I sit here trying to figure why I didn't care for Norco as much as others, as much as I expected to myself.
I look to see if different endings would make me care more, they don't.
Maybe it's because some of it's comedy didn't hit? But that's not it, it made me laugh more than once and game writing is not always the best for that.
The only negatives I can really say and there are three that come to mind are all either minor or arguably not true.
Games are subjective after all I guess?
The first is the "combat" there's a few bits of combat in the game and they're basically QTE's with a JRPG-like display and really they were easy, pointless and added nothing.
I'd have much preferred the "combat" taken place in the writing, especially when we've seen how effective that can be with the likes of Disco Elysium.
The other two negative points go hand-in-hand.
The world building is good, there's a lot of detail but I felt a lot of it was front loaded or at least I struggled to make a picture of this world as easily as I should have because I was battered with it from the start before I'd even got to move a cursor.
This ties into Blake, the brother. He felt like a completely blank slate and the dialogue choices at the start which where there to help paint a picture didn't feel at all like interesting or powerful decisions.
For me, the entire game long quest to search him felt off, he felt more like a McGuffin than a character.
Considering this game is "free" and not particularly long, I may reappraise it in the future. Right now I can still recommend it but who knows, maybe my hollow feeling will actually temper expectations of anyone playing it after and they will enjoy it more.
Possibly the world's stupidest review because honestly, I think it does everything right but also it definitely doesn't but I can't figure out what.
It's me Norco.
2021
Being a fan of Image and Form thanks to the wonderful SteamWorld games this was one of the few things that were coming exclusively to Xbox I was sad to be missing out on.
Many, many months later thanks to the wonders of cloud gaming I've finally played it and honestly, it's fine.
I enjoy the aesthetic, the flowing gunk, the tabletop miniature looking characters, the scrappy look of the tech.
I think the voice acting was solid, the two main VA's doing a great job with getting the strain in their character's relationship across.
Along with a decent soundtrack this game has it's presentation down.
Gameplay wise however nothing really changes past the first hour or so, mildly more complex puzzles and additional enemies just make a relaxed game irritating when it didn't need to be.
The combat especially is lacklustre and this game is another one that decides you need to farm for resources and upgrade. Which, justified by the plot a little does nothing to add to the game that couldn't be done in a smoother frictionless way and you'd lose nothing.
The Gunk is nice, it's short and only a couple of times did it fully annoy me.
If you have access and want a little game to go through maybe this is the one for you but if you pass on it I don't think you're missing out.
Shame. Now give me SteamWorld Heist 2 I&F!
Many, many months later thanks to the wonders of cloud gaming I've finally played it and honestly, it's fine.
I enjoy the aesthetic, the flowing gunk, the tabletop miniature looking characters, the scrappy look of the tech.
I think the voice acting was solid, the two main VA's doing a great job with getting the strain in their character's relationship across.
Along with a decent soundtrack this game has it's presentation down.
Gameplay wise however nothing really changes past the first hour or so, mildly more complex puzzles and additional enemies just make a relaxed game irritating when it didn't need to be.
The combat especially is lacklustre and this game is another one that decides you need to farm for resources and upgrade. Which, justified by the plot a little does nothing to add to the game that couldn't be done in a smoother frictionless way and you'd lose nothing.
The Gunk is nice, it's short and only a couple of times did it fully annoy me.
If you have access and want a little game to go through maybe this is the one for you but if you pass on it I don't think you're missing out.
Shame. Now give me SteamWorld Heist 2 I&F!
2018
What if Katamari wasn't a big ball but a big hole?
Answer, it's not quite as good but still pleasant all the same.
Completed in one sitting, less than 2 hours.
The dialogue was fine, but I ended up skipping it.
Do wish the puzzles were more difficult at times but also I appreciate it's just a nice chill time.
Play it, why not?
Answer, it's not quite as good but still pleasant all the same.
Completed in one sitting, less than 2 hours.
The dialogue was fine, but I ended up skipping it.
Do wish the puzzles were more difficult at times but also I appreciate it's just a nice chill time.
Play it, why not?
Much like the game and it's mix of hope and despair my mind is filled with a combination of feelings both contradictory but that are also completely symbiotic.
A lot of this conflict within myself about thoughts on this game have had me boil them down to "this game isn't made precisely for my desires".
I appreciate everything it does but am somehow annoyed by a lot of the things I actually think are really clever.
Plot wise at points I feel it goes too far for my personal tastes but also is "just mad enough".
Monokuma - the mascot bear is both a character I love and hate. Each time they had a voice line or broke the flow of the story I disliked. I expected them to grow on me and really they didn't but some how I still was happy to see them.
Mechanically, I love the ways this game breaks down - breaking down arguments. I also found it tedious.
"Truth bullets" is a fun mechanic on paper but in play feels like it can sometimes drag and makes me yearn for a simple conversation wheel.
Although as soon as those thoughts enter my brain, before I've even typed out the words another part goes "but then the game would just be a plain VN" which although I appreciate I think I need more "game" than just that.
If I was explaining this game in a school trial and why I think you should play it "no you're wrong" would be shouted at me a million times because everything I want to say I also feel I want to contradict.
Overall it is good. The set up, the places the story goes, they can be exciting, they can be clever, but sometimes they can be obvious and cliché.
The characters are the same, I can respect the level of "tropieness" they hit because of the 'Ultimate Students' set up but sadly it can create characters that'll make you groan and click through faster each time they're on screen.
The investigations are good, on occasion you will most likely see the answer much further ahead than you can reveal it in game and this will add to the tedium.
At it's higher points you'll think you've seen something and if you have or haven't doesn't matter because a new plot point will unfold that changes your thoughts and at best pleasantly surprises you.
Going in I hoped that Danganronpa being the series in this genre I've heard the most about would be as high on my list of personal favourites as any of the Zero Escape games and sadly it isn't.
Returning to the start of this, I guess Zero Escape is made more for my desires.
Maybe I'll never find a VN series that I love as much as those games but maybe after a trilogy of these I'll change my mind.
A lot of this conflict within myself about thoughts on this game have had me boil them down to "this game isn't made precisely for my desires".
I appreciate everything it does but am somehow annoyed by a lot of the things I actually think are really clever.
Plot wise at points I feel it goes too far for my personal tastes but also is "just mad enough".
Monokuma - the mascot bear is both a character I love and hate. Each time they had a voice line or broke the flow of the story I disliked. I expected them to grow on me and really they didn't but some how I still was happy to see them.
Mechanically, I love the ways this game breaks down - breaking down arguments. I also found it tedious.
"Truth bullets" is a fun mechanic on paper but in play feels like it can sometimes drag and makes me yearn for a simple conversation wheel.
Although as soon as those thoughts enter my brain, before I've even typed out the words another part goes "but then the game would just be a plain VN" which although I appreciate I think I need more "game" than just that.
If I was explaining this game in a school trial and why I think you should play it "no you're wrong" would be shouted at me a million times because everything I want to say I also feel I want to contradict.
Overall it is good. The set up, the places the story goes, they can be exciting, they can be clever, but sometimes they can be obvious and cliché.
The characters are the same, I can respect the level of "tropieness" they hit because of the 'Ultimate Students' set up but sadly it can create characters that'll make you groan and click through faster each time they're on screen.
The investigations are good, on occasion you will most likely see the answer much further ahead than you can reveal it in game and this will add to the tedium.
At it's higher points you'll think you've seen something and if you have or haven't doesn't matter because a new plot point will unfold that changes your thoughts and at best pleasantly surprises you.
Going in I hoped that Danganronpa being the series in this genre I've heard the most about would be as high on my list of personal favourites as any of the Zero Escape games and sadly it isn't.
Returning to the start of this, I guess Zero Escape is made more for my desires.
Maybe I'll never find a VN series that I love as much as those games but maybe after a trilogy of these I'll change my mind.
2016
If my Backloggd activity wasn't a clear enough indication, I'm a big fan of Pokémon. So as you would expect I speak to and am influenced by my friends when the games come in conversations.
A few friends of mine plus another dozen or so streamers are currently in their own collective of Perma-death runs.
Each of them has tackled a different game and although most of them are using lighter variants on typical Nuzlocke rules the drama of it, combined with my experience doing a Nuzlocke in Brilliant Diamond last year gave me the yearning to go again.
I lead with this because, first off this replay, reassessment re-review of Pokémon Sun is after me finishing a run through the game using my own Nuzlocke rules.
Briefly those are: limited catches (one and first per area), Pokémon must be named, Pokémon who faint are released, no bonus Pokémon outside of catching, no Z moves and a level cap based on the upcoming boss.
Much like last time, if you are interested in how the run went I’m on Twitter, it’s all in one thread.
I also lead with it because I go into writing about this game and giving it a score hearing a lot of conversations of folk reevaluating games, playing specific titles for the first time, everyone saying what they love and hate about new and old Pokémon and as always what they think is the best and worst Generation.
Sun and Moon are quite often people’s least favourite titles in the series and I don’t think that’s completely fair.
There are lots of reasons Sun (and Moon) get a slagging, things I also disliked and I do still think are not great.
One of the most divisive things about the game is the removal of the classic eight gyms before the end game.
Instead, Sun’s location Alola (Pokémon-Hawaii) is based on four main islands each with its own leader and leading to them are captains with their own trials instead of the puzzles, mazes and other things the gyms have had before.
This isn’t a huge departure and more just a reformat but the trials don’t tend to be the most fun in the series and having the trials end with “Totem Pokémon” is not as fun or as exciting as battling a themed trainer in battle.
Totem Pokémon themselves are just powered up forms that can also call in assistance.
Instead of facing a squad of monsters your six battle ready beasts must fight in one vs two scenarios and it has little drama and more annoyances.
As you can imagine, this was exaggerated more in this replay because two Pokémon using offensive moves can easily feint one and it caused a lot of death during the run.
Mechanically this change was one for the worse but without delving into “deep lore” it also just isn’t as exciting or engaging on the character front.
“Favourite gym leader” is a conversation I’ve heard come up and I don’t think even if you were to count them that anyone would bring up the captains.
While on the conversation of story, it does seem like a lot of folk don’t like Sun’s and I actually think it’s one of the more interesting, just one of the more oddly paced.
You, the protagonist, are going around doing these trials, filling out your Pokédex, winning battles and genuinely being a good citizen but during all this you are helping the character Lillie.
To not spoil but to also make this review become a novella; Lillie has ties to other characters in the world, is carrying around a rare(legendary) Pokémon and also links in with a new thing to this generation - Ultra Beasts.
There are two groups that revolve around these Ultra Beasts - Pokémon from another dimension called Ultra Space, Team Skull your classic Team Rocket-like grunt antagonist group and the Aether Foundation who are studying these phenomena as well as Pokémon themselves.
Team Skull is quite one note, but they’re fun and actually look wise one of my favourite antagonist groups in the game. They’re just a street gang, they give me some Jet Set Radio vibes and I love that.
The Aether Foundation, well it is a spoiler to say there’s a twist but this is Pokémon the story telling isn’t typically that subtle.
Much like this part of the review, the main bulk of the story that cares about these two groups, Ultra Beasts and Lillie, slaps itself in the middle, not including post Elite 4 content.
It breaks up the main flow in such an odd way and barely sets much going for the game until you’re finished with the classic routine that it almost feels like it’s not meant to be there.
The ideas are good, but the placing and how it is executed within the game is not. You can almost ignore it when speaking of the game but you cannot ignore it when you’re playing.
Including unskippable cutscenes which leads me on to one of the other poor things Sun has.
Z Moves - throughout the game you gain Z crystals which can be given to Pokémon to allow them to do a one-shot super move of that crystals type.
It’s completely fine but utterly basic. For a while now Pokémon has always wanted to add just one more thing to the combat arsenal to change up the game play and this is maybe the most boring of them all in theme and mechanically.
Pokémon X & Y the mainline games prior to this one had Mega-Evolutions, where similarly you had a limitation on when and how it was used but rather than just a move it was one stage further on certain Pokémon and we got to see dramatic new forms.
Mechanically this may not have been better, Z-moves give more Pokémon more variation because GameFreak didn’t have to come up with lots more designs but thematically, visually this was a huge step down.
Also, they’re too bloody long.
I said that rating this the worst in the series wasn’t fair and have just given you a lot of reasons why maybe it is well let me tell you a few reasons why it definitely isn’t.
Presentation wise Sun nails so much- on a purely base level the graphics are honestly some of the best the series has ever had. Sure, it’s a statement that is more a question of how the new games can look so bad but outside of resolution the world, the models, they all look as good here in 2016’s Pokémon Sun as they do in 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet.
Whilst I hated the discourse surrounding “Dexit” coming up to 2019’s Sword and Shield, it is also hard not to laugh at how most of the models are certainly from this game.
There’s a lot of these little monsters though and this is a corner I understand cutting.
Presentation goes further than just GRAFIX, the theme is seen throughout in the mechanical changes but also the islands and for the first time in the series Regional forms.
Much like animals of the real world, Pokémon from different climates evolved differently and because this game is most definitely not in Poké-Japan they came up with lots of cool takes on classics.
This idea has been further explored in each game since and is a very fun and smart way of having some new designs but still holding onto nostalgia.
Not having new names to learn but having new match-ups to figure out.
People have their brains melt when you explain that now 27 years in there are over one thousand Pokémon but actually if regional variants didn’t exist that number would be even harder to take in.
Another thing Sun introduced is a lot of quality of life changes, even in comparison to the previous generation things like the move screen telling you if things are effective or not (once you’ve discovered it) to help failing memories are a godsend.
Gone are the Hidden Machines, the moves that allow you to take new routes like a metroidvania but sadly limit your team in combat or force you to take types you may not want and in this game instead you gain access to a rental system that for all intensive purposes lets you “Fly, Surf, Strength” but doesn’t mess with what you want to play with and collect.
Sun and Moon I think were some very good steps in the right direction, they wanted to make things more unique, more cinematic, more memorable.
They wanted to be rid of some of the more archaic design sensibilities and for the most part they succeeded in my eyes.
A couple of things felt like a step back, the story as I said was paced poorly if more cinematic.
The exploration, limited by more than just a sleeping Snorlax, made the game have less freedom than even Pokémon Red.
A thing that also stuck out for me especially on this replay was the amount of backloading.
Post-game content is great, it keeps people sticking around outside of just box ticking and PvP but so many things you would be used to having are just not there until the Champion is defeated and a lot of these things would have felt much more exciting and fulfilling if you were able to go off the beaten path and collect them earlier.
Overall this is one of the lower tier Pokémon games but it definitely isn’t without merit and is not the worst, it wasn’t at the time and it still isn’t now.
Playing on the new 3DS is still an absolute joy and I would recommend any fan of these games to give this one a go or retry, especially as if you want your own copy this isn’t one of the titles that the second hand market is completely taking the mick with (yet).
Oh, also Guzma rules!
A few friends of mine plus another dozen or so streamers are currently in their own collective of Perma-death runs.
Each of them has tackled a different game and although most of them are using lighter variants on typical Nuzlocke rules the drama of it, combined with my experience doing a Nuzlocke in Brilliant Diamond last year gave me the yearning to go again.
I lead with this because, first off this replay, reassessment re-review of Pokémon Sun is after me finishing a run through the game using my own Nuzlocke rules.
Briefly those are: limited catches (one and first per area), Pokémon must be named, Pokémon who faint are released, no bonus Pokémon outside of catching, no Z moves and a level cap based on the upcoming boss.
Much like last time, if you are interested in how the run went I’m on Twitter, it’s all in one thread.
I also lead with it because I go into writing about this game and giving it a score hearing a lot of conversations of folk reevaluating games, playing specific titles for the first time, everyone saying what they love and hate about new and old Pokémon and as always what they think is the best and worst Generation.
Sun and Moon are quite often people’s least favourite titles in the series and I don’t think that’s completely fair.
There are lots of reasons Sun (and Moon) get a slagging, things I also disliked and I do still think are not great.
One of the most divisive things about the game is the removal of the classic eight gyms before the end game.
Instead, Sun’s location Alola (Pokémon-Hawaii) is based on four main islands each with its own leader and leading to them are captains with their own trials instead of the puzzles, mazes and other things the gyms have had before.
This isn’t a huge departure and more just a reformat but the trials don’t tend to be the most fun in the series and having the trials end with “Totem Pokémon” is not as fun or as exciting as battling a themed trainer in battle.
Totem Pokémon themselves are just powered up forms that can also call in assistance.
Instead of facing a squad of monsters your six battle ready beasts must fight in one vs two scenarios and it has little drama and more annoyances.
As you can imagine, this was exaggerated more in this replay because two Pokémon using offensive moves can easily feint one and it caused a lot of death during the run.
Mechanically this change was one for the worse but without delving into “deep lore” it also just isn’t as exciting or engaging on the character front.
“Favourite gym leader” is a conversation I’ve heard come up and I don’t think even if you were to count them that anyone would bring up the captains.
While on the conversation of story, it does seem like a lot of folk don’t like Sun’s and I actually think it’s one of the more interesting, just one of the more oddly paced.
You, the protagonist, are going around doing these trials, filling out your Pokédex, winning battles and genuinely being a good citizen but during all this you are helping the character Lillie.
To not spoil but to also make this review become a novella; Lillie has ties to other characters in the world, is carrying around a rare(legendary) Pokémon and also links in with a new thing to this generation - Ultra Beasts.
There are two groups that revolve around these Ultra Beasts - Pokémon from another dimension called Ultra Space, Team Skull your classic Team Rocket-like grunt antagonist group and the Aether Foundation who are studying these phenomena as well as Pokémon themselves.
Team Skull is quite one note, but they’re fun and actually look wise one of my favourite antagonist groups in the game. They’re just a street gang, they give me some Jet Set Radio vibes and I love that.
The Aether Foundation, well it is a spoiler to say there’s a twist but this is Pokémon the story telling isn’t typically that subtle.
Much like this part of the review, the main bulk of the story that cares about these two groups, Ultra Beasts and Lillie, slaps itself in the middle, not including post Elite 4 content.
It breaks up the main flow in such an odd way and barely sets much going for the game until you’re finished with the classic routine that it almost feels like it’s not meant to be there.
The ideas are good, but the placing and how it is executed within the game is not. You can almost ignore it when speaking of the game but you cannot ignore it when you’re playing.
Including unskippable cutscenes which leads me on to one of the other poor things Sun has.
Z Moves - throughout the game you gain Z crystals which can be given to Pokémon to allow them to do a one-shot super move of that crystals type.
It’s completely fine but utterly basic. For a while now Pokémon has always wanted to add just one more thing to the combat arsenal to change up the game play and this is maybe the most boring of them all in theme and mechanically.
Pokémon X & Y the mainline games prior to this one had Mega-Evolutions, where similarly you had a limitation on when and how it was used but rather than just a move it was one stage further on certain Pokémon and we got to see dramatic new forms.
Mechanically this may not have been better, Z-moves give more Pokémon more variation because GameFreak didn’t have to come up with lots more designs but thematically, visually this was a huge step down.
Also, they’re too bloody long.
I said that rating this the worst in the series wasn’t fair and have just given you a lot of reasons why maybe it is well let me tell you a few reasons why it definitely isn’t.
Presentation wise Sun nails so much- on a purely base level the graphics are honestly some of the best the series has ever had. Sure, it’s a statement that is more a question of how the new games can look so bad but outside of resolution the world, the models, they all look as good here in 2016’s Pokémon Sun as they do in 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet.
Whilst I hated the discourse surrounding “Dexit” coming up to 2019’s Sword and Shield, it is also hard not to laugh at how most of the models are certainly from this game.
There’s a lot of these little monsters though and this is a corner I understand cutting.
Presentation goes further than just GRAFIX, the theme is seen throughout in the mechanical changes but also the islands and for the first time in the series Regional forms.
Much like animals of the real world, Pokémon from different climates evolved differently and because this game is most definitely not in Poké-Japan they came up with lots of cool takes on classics.
This idea has been further explored in each game since and is a very fun and smart way of having some new designs but still holding onto nostalgia.
Not having new names to learn but having new match-ups to figure out.
People have their brains melt when you explain that now 27 years in there are over one thousand Pokémon but actually if regional variants didn’t exist that number would be even harder to take in.
Another thing Sun introduced is a lot of quality of life changes, even in comparison to the previous generation things like the move screen telling you if things are effective or not (once you’ve discovered it) to help failing memories are a godsend.
Gone are the Hidden Machines, the moves that allow you to take new routes like a metroidvania but sadly limit your team in combat or force you to take types you may not want and in this game instead you gain access to a rental system that for all intensive purposes lets you “Fly, Surf, Strength” but doesn’t mess with what you want to play with and collect.
Sun and Moon I think were some very good steps in the right direction, they wanted to make things more unique, more cinematic, more memorable.
They wanted to be rid of some of the more archaic design sensibilities and for the most part they succeeded in my eyes.
A couple of things felt like a step back, the story as I said was paced poorly if more cinematic.
The exploration, limited by more than just a sleeping Snorlax, made the game have less freedom than even Pokémon Red.
A thing that also stuck out for me especially on this replay was the amount of backloading.
Post-game content is great, it keeps people sticking around outside of just box ticking and PvP but so many things you would be used to having are just not there until the Champion is defeated and a lot of these things would have felt much more exciting and fulfilling if you were able to go off the beaten path and collect them earlier.
Overall this is one of the lower tier Pokémon games but it definitely isn’t without merit and is not the worst, it wasn’t at the time and it still isn’t now.
Playing on the new 3DS is still an absolute joy and I would recommend any fan of these games to give this one a go or retry, especially as if you want your own copy this isn’t one of the titles that the second hand market is completely taking the mick with (yet).
Oh, also Guzma rules!
2023
It turns out that surprises can sometimes not only just be good, they can be great.
Going into the Xbox Developer Direct I wasn’t expecting much, my thoughts were more surface level on whether the showcase would be fun or really dragging, if Xbox had finally started to crack these videos.
I never suspected that during the middle section not only would a game be revealed that, whilst having a minorly annoying trailer, piqued my interest but it would be out the very same day.
HiFi Rush being a secret to me seemed wild at the time and after finishing it seems even more so.
The game feels so marketable. Possibly a strange word to describe it but one that I use in a completely positive way.
HiFi Rush is No More Heroes for a PG audience, it’s a Saturday Morning cartoon brought to life, it’s an interactive music video that doesn’t require the player to be a rhythm game master and I love all of these elements.
HiFi Rush is fun, the characters are on just the right side of clichés, the protagonist Chai for example very much feels like a teenage MCU Starlord - a dummy who loves their music but has a heart of gold, says a lot of what I would consider cringe teen comedy which in isolation (like the trailer) puts me off but within the world which constantly shows he is stupid to be light-hearted fun.
The art style reminds me of (one of my loves) Jet Set Radio or probably more appropriately Viewtiful Joe, pulled back to be slightly more palatable for some and aesthetically something I just want more of in games - bright, loud, fun -, the transitions between, in-game cutscenes, cinematics and playing are all smooth and very characterful all of which more than once gave me thought that “I’d definitely watch a cartoon of this”.
Combat is fantastic, the game teaches and layers on combos, specials, counters, dodges and all the usual things you’d expect from your character action games.
The rhythm element purely adds to this and is extra brilliant because unlike some rhythm games it never takes away by making you feel crap at the game.
Chai, the enemies, the entire world all goes to the beat. Following that beat will give you a bonus and at most points in the game missing it simply just gives you a lower score but keeps the music pumping and the game progressing.
Admittedly a person like me with no musical background, poor timing and also playing this via the cloud (more on that later) did mean that certain aspects, did feel frustrating at points but the game always just let you have another go, I could always turn the difficulty down and also if needed the game has a generous amount of accessibility options to help.
The story is potentially a weak point, with the style and the demographic that would usually be aimed at - I was never expecting something that would burrow deep and plague my thoughts for weeks.
Protag gets caught in an accident, gets powers, receives help and tries to bring down an evil megacorp. alongside some pals who have their own links and a couple of (fairly obvious) twists along the way. It’s nice, it’s a fun ride more than a deep journey and whilst you can barely call it a huge plus point for the game it certainly is not a negative in my eyes.
There are some negatives though.
One thing I haven’t mentioned outside of the rhythm is the actual music. The licensed tracks add some incredible moments of fun and excitement but for me at least a third of the original soundtrack just isn’t that good.
There are points where I was much more up on it, “Track 8” got me bopping and tapping a long a bit more but earlier stages I felt that weirdly whilst the animation of the characters and the world itself added to the flow, the beat you want to keep to, the music did not feel exaggerated enough.
This becomes more of a thing during the platforming sections where the movement of everything is smart but I feel that actually it’s been done better. Of course this is in Mario.
Maybe the game could have been made with more licensed music. I mentioned JSR earlier and I was really hoping that this game would join the pantheon of good soundtracks that happen to be in games like that.
The platforming sections are not bad, Chai’s jumping never feels quite right but the game gives you the tools and the checkpointing is extremely generous if you have a point at which you’re struggling. My issue with these segments was more the time they took up.
Average platforming keeping you away from excellent combat means that those segments can become ones that you start to resent.
The balance wasn’t quite there for me and the world isn’t diverse enough for the platforming segments to become much more interesting as the game goes on.
Maybe it’s just a case of eating your veg before you get dessert.
A couple things to finish with.
Post credits this game has more to offer and it’s very generous, I won’t list it all but you’ll want to replay levels not just for higher scores but also secrets.
The other thing is how I played this.
It seems over the past year or so I’ve been using Game Pass more and more, this brand new fantastic game is included so is “free” and also a thing that helps me - the poor lad with no modern Xbox or gaming PC - is that it’s playable via cloud gaming.
I appreciate this isn’t a solution for everyone but my older laptop can’t run this natively but my internet is good enough to stream it.
I worried that input lag and the like would cause this rhythm based game to be unplayable and as I write this after finishing the game and doing extra bits you probably realise that thankfully that is not the case.
Oddly I got stuck in a tutorial right at the start, I couldn’t do the beat hit and my work around was install it, play that bit running like crap and melting my laptop then go back to cloud.
In hindsight, it definitely worked but not sure if it was needed. I’ve since done a million of those beat hits, I’ve even done the tutorial again all via the cloud.
Was this a dip in the Internet? Was this the unreliability of having to run a program to trick Xcloud into thinking my ds4 is an Xbox pad? Is it the fact I just have no rhythm?
Honestly, it’s probably a combination of all three to varying degrees.
If there was lag throughout the game I would say it was consistent which meant that I could get used to the rhythm eventually.
The only downside I had was when you occasionally see a screen refresh, but for me they were not very often, very short and other than the mild surprise from it visually it never affected my playing of the game.
With many comparisons to make I will finish by saying that I think this game is more enjoyable than Bayonetta 2.
That doesn’t mean I think it’s better, but it’s a much smoother ride, not just in terms of difficulty but it’s presentation and how it does that.
I will happily take a sequel to this down the line and as I’ve said earlier, I’d for sure watch a show based on this game.
Going into the Xbox Developer Direct I wasn’t expecting much, my thoughts were more surface level on whether the showcase would be fun or really dragging, if Xbox had finally started to crack these videos.
I never suspected that during the middle section not only would a game be revealed that, whilst having a minorly annoying trailer, piqued my interest but it would be out the very same day.
HiFi Rush being a secret to me seemed wild at the time and after finishing it seems even more so.
The game feels so marketable. Possibly a strange word to describe it but one that I use in a completely positive way.
HiFi Rush is No More Heroes for a PG audience, it’s a Saturday Morning cartoon brought to life, it’s an interactive music video that doesn’t require the player to be a rhythm game master and I love all of these elements.
HiFi Rush is fun, the characters are on just the right side of clichés, the protagonist Chai for example very much feels like a teenage MCU Starlord - a dummy who loves their music but has a heart of gold, says a lot of what I would consider cringe teen comedy which in isolation (like the trailer) puts me off but within the world which constantly shows he is stupid to be light-hearted fun.
The art style reminds me of (one of my loves) Jet Set Radio or probably more appropriately Viewtiful Joe, pulled back to be slightly more palatable for some and aesthetically something I just want more of in games - bright, loud, fun -, the transitions between, in-game cutscenes, cinematics and playing are all smooth and very characterful all of which more than once gave me thought that “I’d definitely watch a cartoon of this”.
Combat is fantastic, the game teaches and layers on combos, specials, counters, dodges and all the usual things you’d expect from your character action games.
The rhythm element purely adds to this and is extra brilliant because unlike some rhythm games it never takes away by making you feel crap at the game.
Chai, the enemies, the entire world all goes to the beat. Following that beat will give you a bonus and at most points in the game missing it simply just gives you a lower score but keeps the music pumping and the game progressing.
Admittedly a person like me with no musical background, poor timing and also playing this via the cloud (more on that later) did mean that certain aspects, did feel frustrating at points but the game always just let you have another go, I could always turn the difficulty down and also if needed the game has a generous amount of accessibility options to help.
The story is potentially a weak point, with the style and the demographic that would usually be aimed at - I was never expecting something that would burrow deep and plague my thoughts for weeks.
Protag gets caught in an accident, gets powers, receives help and tries to bring down an evil megacorp. alongside some pals who have their own links and a couple of (fairly obvious) twists along the way. It’s nice, it’s a fun ride more than a deep journey and whilst you can barely call it a huge plus point for the game it certainly is not a negative in my eyes.
There are some negatives though.
One thing I haven’t mentioned outside of the rhythm is the actual music. The licensed tracks add some incredible moments of fun and excitement but for me at least a third of the original soundtrack just isn’t that good.
There are points where I was much more up on it, “Track 8” got me bopping and tapping a long a bit more but earlier stages I felt that weirdly whilst the animation of the characters and the world itself added to the flow, the beat you want to keep to, the music did not feel exaggerated enough.
This becomes more of a thing during the platforming sections where the movement of everything is smart but I feel that actually it’s been done better. Of course this is in Mario.
Maybe the game could have been made with more licensed music. I mentioned JSR earlier and I was really hoping that this game would join the pantheon of good soundtracks that happen to be in games like that.
The platforming sections are not bad, Chai’s jumping never feels quite right but the game gives you the tools and the checkpointing is extremely generous if you have a point at which you’re struggling. My issue with these segments was more the time they took up.
Average platforming keeping you away from excellent combat means that those segments can become ones that you start to resent.
The balance wasn’t quite there for me and the world isn’t diverse enough for the platforming segments to become much more interesting as the game goes on.
Maybe it’s just a case of eating your veg before you get dessert.
A couple things to finish with.
Post credits this game has more to offer and it’s very generous, I won’t list it all but you’ll want to replay levels not just for higher scores but also secrets.
The other thing is how I played this.
It seems over the past year or so I’ve been using Game Pass more and more, this brand new fantastic game is included so is “free” and also a thing that helps me - the poor lad with no modern Xbox or gaming PC - is that it’s playable via cloud gaming.
I appreciate this isn’t a solution for everyone but my older laptop can’t run this natively but my internet is good enough to stream it.
I worried that input lag and the like would cause this rhythm based game to be unplayable and as I write this after finishing the game and doing extra bits you probably realise that thankfully that is not the case.
Oddly I got stuck in a tutorial right at the start, I couldn’t do the beat hit and my work around was install it, play that bit running like crap and melting my laptop then go back to cloud.
In hindsight, it definitely worked but not sure if it was needed. I’ve since done a million of those beat hits, I’ve even done the tutorial again all via the cloud.
Was this a dip in the Internet? Was this the unreliability of having to run a program to trick Xcloud into thinking my ds4 is an Xbox pad? Is it the fact I just have no rhythm?
Honestly, it’s probably a combination of all three to varying degrees.
If there was lag throughout the game I would say it was consistent which meant that I could get used to the rhythm eventually.
The only downside I had was when you occasionally see a screen refresh, but for me they were not very often, very short and other than the mild surprise from it visually it never affected my playing of the game.
With many comparisons to make I will finish by saying that I think this game is more enjoyable than Bayonetta 2.
That doesn’t mean I think it’s better, but it’s a much smoother ride, not just in terms of difficulty but it’s presentation and how it does that.
I will happily take a sequel to this down the line and as I’ve said earlier, I’d for sure watch a show based on this game.
Until about two weeks ago I didn't even know this game existed.
I played a lot of the first game on my Game Boy Pocket and after my recent Nuzlocke run I fancied something else Pokémon that I knew wasn't as long or intense.
One google rabbit hole later and I discover that actually Japan got a sequel but it never made it outside of there, I think to myself "I might be able to play it untranslated, I'll give it a go" and thank my lucky stars I didn't have to.
It's a real shame this never did make it out of Japan officially because overall it's really quite good and a much better package than the first.
You have a much vaster pool of cards, the AI and/or the opponents decks seem much more competitive and there's twice as many locations and more than twice as many opponents to face.
What starts as a smart sequel reusing many many assets ends up becoming so much more.
The addition opponents who require you to fulfil certain deck requirements also means you're much more likely to experiment and this along with some additional rules with other opponents means there is a lot more variation.
The card game itself is unfortunately not the best, whilst I won't review the current state of that TCG I will say that it has all the problems from today plus a ton more from being a game in it's first years.
Things like coin flips, which there are a lot of, make games feel too based in variance and can cause frustration when the inevitable is being delayed.
A tip I would give is save often, because unlike a real game of cards you cannot scoop if you can see the writing on the wall (and nor will the opponent) and this can turn a fun session into a tiresome chore.
If like me though, you like Pokémon and you like card games - together or separately I'd encourage you to give it a shot.
It's got some great to terrible art but it's all so joyous.
It just makes me hope that maybe one day a third game will appear on the Switch for us all to enjoy.
I played a lot of the first game on my Game Boy Pocket and after my recent Nuzlocke run I fancied something else Pokémon that I knew wasn't as long or intense.
One google rabbit hole later and I discover that actually Japan got a sequel but it never made it outside of there, I think to myself "I might be able to play it untranslated, I'll give it a go" and thank my lucky stars I didn't have to.
It's a real shame this never did make it out of Japan officially because overall it's really quite good and a much better package than the first.
You have a much vaster pool of cards, the AI and/or the opponents decks seem much more competitive and there's twice as many locations and more than twice as many opponents to face.
What starts as a smart sequel reusing many many assets ends up becoming so much more.
The addition opponents who require you to fulfil certain deck requirements also means you're much more likely to experiment and this along with some additional rules with other opponents means there is a lot more variation.
The card game itself is unfortunately not the best, whilst I won't review the current state of that TCG I will say that it has all the problems from today plus a ton more from being a game in it's first years.
Things like coin flips, which there are a lot of, make games feel too based in variance and can cause frustration when the inevitable is being delayed.
A tip I would give is save often, because unlike a real game of cards you cannot scoop if you can see the writing on the wall (and nor will the opponent) and this can turn a fun session into a tiresome chore.
If like me though, you like Pokémon and you like card games - together or separately I'd encourage you to give it a shot.
It's got some great to terrible art but it's all so joyous.
It just makes me hope that maybe one day a third game will appear on the Switch for us all to enjoy.
2023
Trying to rate a game jam game made in 48 hours on the same scale as all others feels a little bit of a pointless task.
Some people will believe that no way can a game which can be finished in 15 minutes be rated this highly, but I tell those people leave.
If you're still here, why have I rated it so highly?
I'm officially Daniel Mullins-pilled after Inscryption but this game in the short amount of time you play it does much more interesting, thought-provoking and funny than full "AAA games" do in 30 hours.
It's also sort of "just a clicker", but then so is Vampire Survivors and lots of folk were saying that was a GOTY.
Play it, it's free, it's short and asks very little of you.
I guarantee you'll at the very least give a positive and inquisitive "hmm!" if not some "oh god" and/or laughs.
Some people will believe that no way can a game which can be finished in 15 minutes be rated this highly, but I tell those people leave.
If you're still here, why have I rated it so highly?
I'm officially Daniel Mullins-pilled after Inscryption but this game in the short amount of time you play it does much more interesting, thought-provoking and funny than full "AAA games" do in 30 hours.
It's also sort of "just a clicker", but then so is Vampire Survivors and lots of folk were saying that was a GOTY.
Play it, it's free, it's short and asks very little of you.
I guarantee you'll at the very least give a positive and inquisitive "hmm!" if not some "oh god" and/or laughs.