This would be the ultimate playground game back in the day. Everything in the game feels like something you stumble into after looking around for days on end. As a single player experience in 2024, however, the experience can get very vague. It hasn't aged as terribly as some other NES RPGs (see: Mother 1), but it's not as much a "game" nowadays as much as it is looking back at history.

FF1, even to this day, feels very singular and charming. All the NPCs have something very human or funny to say; all the dungeon locations feel unique and astonishingly non-generic; and the variety of enemies from DnD staples, dinosaurs, and a war machine that literally nukes you makes FF1 feel childlike. I could see a kid coming up with most of this game since it's such a hodgepodge of ideas, although it can be generic. Garland coming back for the end is deservedly iconic even with his sum 10 minutes of game time, and I can see how the game's barebones plot and minimal writing still made a large impact.

The game is fun enough but it's also mind-numbingly simple. I wouldn't say it's the most basic RPG I've played in terms of mechanics (that'd probably be OFF), but it gets close which makes battles feel tedious and boring all throughout the game. It's numbers versus numbers with no regard for strategy aside from a select few fights.

I'd say it's more good than bad but I'm also approaching it from a place of explicit respect. If you do not have the patience for old RPGs, just get the idea of what FF1 did for the genre and the franchise after.

(Also, either play the Pixel Remaster or an emulator because I'd have gone insane without a fast forward option.)

I don't think a game has done a better job at making me feel upset down to my very soul as effectively as this game. Which is nuts since this game treats itself like a joke more than half the time.

I really don't know what to say about this game but that it's very singular. I haven't played games like Hypnospace because they don't exist. It makes it way too hard for me to articulate the strengths of this game.

I will complain about the puzzles sometimes being way too obtuse though. Because the "web" is so big, it can be VERY easy to keep going around in circles if you don't check a guide for some things. The Sanwich file thing was something I'd never have figured out on my own.

Overall great game! I hope I can bring myself to finish it because wow it makes me feel so sad.

The more I think about Corn Kidz 64, the more I think I kinda hate it. Corn Kidz 64 annoys me more than any game I've played in recent memory, and I cannot tell if I dislike it from personal biases acting against it or if the game's just bad.

Let's get my compliments out of the way: I love the aesthetic of this game. It's super quirky and cartoonish in a good way, and the two goat kids have very cute and fun character designs. If I was an artist, I'd love doodling these two goobers. I like the OST too--reminds me a lot of Tonic Trouble which has an OST I think is good. I wouldn't go out of my way to hear it again, but it's nice.

The controls are...mixed. The control scheme doesn't feel very intuitive, but it can feel good to chain moves together. I think every part of this game's moveset is done much better in Pseudoregalia, but Corn Kidz 64 is serviceable. Specific moves feel weird and inconsistent, though. The headbutt (the move that the game is built upon) can be really finicky at times and outright unresponsive at others. Jumping out of it feels bad and like it's luck if I make the ledge grab or not. Similarly, the wall jump and wall climb moves also feel wildly inconsistent. I never feel like I am in control using these moves, and I can and will get bodied half the time I'm using the move. The reason I get bodied is because the worst mechanic in the game:

Fall damage. I would be hard pressed to say fall damage has ever been "good" in a 3D platformer, but I understand why it exists. The player gets penalized for a missed jump in two ways: The loss of progress and the loss of health. If you mess up enough times, your health goes away and you're back from square one. Nintendo 64 platformers tended to allow the player some kind of way to mitigate fall damage through skill-based means. For example, Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong 64 allow the player to attack mid-air to slow their momentum which can prevent fall damage, and Banjo-Kazooie lets the player crouch off a ledge to negate fall damage entirely. These methods can be strict in timing, but they can only make you deal with one punishment (the loss of progress) rather than both punishments.
Corn Kidz 64 makes you deal with both punishments as harshly as possible. The loss of progress feels meaner than most N64-era platformers because the level design bluntly sucks. The control scheme favors horizontally minded courses and feels good in those, but most of the game is aggressively vertical. Climb up a tower, climb up a church, climb up a spire, climb climb climb climb CLIMB. Even the horizontal sections usually put you above some kind of pit. Either way, when you fall, you fall for a long time and have to climb up even longer to get back to where you were. Because of the problems of the controls (not even getting into how some obstacles you interact with the headbutt can screw with you on their own), you are going to fall a lot. Falling leads to loss in progress, but you are also going to take damage. You get put in a falling animation quicker than any game from the era Corn Kidz 64 is inspired by except maybe Bubsy 3D. You cannot do anything to slow your descent. You do not have any move aside from headbutt to fix your mistake which usually can't recover. You cannot do anything but watch as you fall and fall until you crash into the floor and see most of your health depleted. You go through the tedious process of recovering your health, you trudge through the backtracking to go back where you were because shortcuts are few and far between in this game, and you go back to the same jump you failed the first time and might fail again. It's not fun. Because Corn Kidz 64 has linear objectives, you can't even go and do something else if you think the current objective is too much like most collectathons. You're going to make all these stupid jumps in a row and you're going to LIKE it. Combined with the sheer lack of clarity on where objectives are and the complete absence of anything resembling level design pointing you in the right way or even a hint system, exploring felt like a complete and utter chore and the platforming I was "rewarded" with felt worse.

The writing sucks too. Some jokes hit and got a chuckle out of me, but most of it feels way too juvenile and honestly witless for its own good. "Ha ha isn't it funny how the townspeople are all stupid pushovers? Ha ha isn't it funny that the church is full of owls who keep saying nonsense and pooping? Ha ha isn't it funny how the main character walks in on a woman bathing in mud?" The writing hits the same vibe as a bad episode of Invader Zim: Dull, meaningless le quirky gross-out humor written either by people who don't know how people talk or jaded adults trying and failing to understand why something they found funny as a kid isn't funny to an older brain and emulating that brainlessly. I'd say the game could have been written by a child if the dialogue wasn't so chronically online and, for a lack of a better definition, "zoomers writing Conker." (I originally wrote millennials in my original review, realizing too late that Conker was probably written by millennials.) People my age can and have written funny games, but this is not one of them. Any person laughing at the game probably laughs at fart with reverb or reposted Tumblr screenshots with an iFunny watermark at the bottom. Even if a game has a simple or no plot, I still need to care if the game has dialogue of any kind. Mario, Banjo, and Donkey Kong all have charming characters and worlds that feel vivid and real even if they're a cartoon. Corn Kidz's world feels like a joke, and the joke isn't even funny. A few setpieces are neat like the weird house and the spider grave, but everything else is either empty or undermined by the game trying to be le quirky. I don't want to keep exploring because I want to; I keep exploring because I have to find where the next impossible-to-find trigger for progression is.

Also, why even bother with a health system and death system if dying doesn't matter? Just respawn the player at a checkpoint if they fall in an obstacle course section. This alone would solve a lot of problems with the game, but the janky controls and obnoxious writing would still stay around.

I could probably think of more critiques, but the more I think about this game, the more I start to genuinely get a headache. I don't see what other people see in this game. Why would I want to play this game when I could play better feeling games with better level design? I'd rather play the games this game is inspired from rather than the half-baked inspiration.

Possibly the most charming RPG I've ever played. Live a Live has a bunch of heart and never lacks soul for even a second of its total, relatively small runtime. I clocked in at 25 hours and enjoyed most of it. My complaints mainly lie in the weird, archaic game design decisions that weren't ironed out in the remake, a few hit-and-miss chapters, and the cryptic facets of some stuff like accessing the Superbosses and pretty much all of the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter requiring an open guide to play optimally. Still, those complaints are relatively minor and I let myself be carried by the unique, singular charm of Live a Live and its many homages.

This is a perfect remake of the original in terms of the creators' original vision. I wish the creators' vision was less rough around the edges, but I love the game lumps and all anyway. I would gladly recommend this game to anyone looking for an RPG.

This is a game where a bunch of talented developers were stuck in the same room for two years who were never told "no." Instead, they told each other "sure, bro."

Want to make a bunch of new mechanics that are both overcentralizing and near-irrelevant? Sure, bro.

Want to make a 30-60 minute long tutorial you can only skip by winning a race you only can win if you already know how to play the game somehow? Sure, bro.
(Don't even get me started on how the tutorial was before the first patch, the requirements to skip the tutorial were hidden AND you had to clear a max-level race. Actually evil.)

Want to generally nerf items while cranking the knockback to unfathomable degrees which creates scenarios where you can get knocked out of a top position and no item is reasonably strong enough to get you back where you were? Sure, bro.

Want to make items actively feel bad to get because the Ring system is so encouraged while also not letting you use Rings with an item in hand? Sure, bro.

Want to make like 200 tracks but they all have narrow tracks and very tight turns? Sure, bro. Also want to make any uphill slope kill your speed and make you have to STOP IN PLACE to Spin Dash upward VERY SLOWLY? Sure, bro.

Want to make a single player mode where the rubberbanding is overtuned (even after a near launch day nerf, mind you), the AIs will target you even when you're near dead-last, and the Rival explicitly cheats and will steal victories from you? Sure, bro.

Want to make an unlock system like Kirby Air Ride but make a bunch of requirements hard, cryptic, and/or straight up unrealistic to achieve unless you dedicate literal months of game time? Suuuuure, bro.

Despite its many, MANY problems, the game is still fun and I can see a version of this game where the new additions compliment base SRB2K rather than detract. The Rings being the omnipresent, overbearing problem is an issue I don't see being fixed, though. The devs seem really proud of their Ring system even if it kills the Kart aspect by making items less used/encouraged. I can always hope, though.

tl;dr Imagine if Mario Kart was mixed with F-Zero but all the worst parts of F-Zero were mixed in with a dash of unique jank and bad decisions. Enjoyable for kart-racer tryhards, completionists, and masochists, and nobody else.

"Peter, what are you playing?"

"Crack."

"Peter, what the fu-"

Simultaneously peak and mid.

Peak mid, if you will.

The writing is extremely cute and charming, yet it is obviously juvenile in a way the console games aren't. Guntz's arc is solid and more mature than the rest of the game, but the game doesn't go any deeper than a Power Rangers show. Still, the writing is very funny and very earnest. I found myself smiling a lot at the dialogue and there were moments that I found genuinely moving, though the intended audience is squarely for children rather than the all-ages mature writing of DtP and LV.
The fan translations insistence on making the dialogue swear-heavy is very stupid, though, and single-handedly justifies localization as a concept if fans shove in four letter swears into a very Rated E game.

The music is either really dinky and simple or inexplicably very good tracks (ignoring the tracks from other games) with highlights being the vocal theme and the moon area's theme.

I enjoy the gameplay...kind of. The weapon diversity is really fun to play around with, and I like how each character has their own gimmick. The color gimmick is actively detrimental, though, and more often than not puts the player in unfair situations in cases of enemy groups with mixed colors. Since you're forced to have each attack button locked to a specific color, this locks move variety for every character that isn't Klonoa and even then he would appreciate a lot more move diversity in some of his weapons.
There's a lot of other decisions that are baffling like the OBNOXIOUS level curve, mashing being the enforced way to optimize combat, the existence of the healing enemy in a lot of room layouts including as a summonable mook for the final boss that can fully heal the guy if you're unlucky and don't have a special move prepared, and the lack of i-frames giving some enemies like the Shield Moos the ability to kill you VERY quickly.
If you play this, just level Klonoa and Guntz. This way the level curve is anywhere near tolerable without 10 hours of overall grinding. While Pango is enjoyable, his usefulness unfortunately falls off hard and all his weapons do the same thing.

Overall, Klonoa Heroes was an experience I enjoyed but the game also got on my nerves so badly I had to put this down for four months before picking it up again. I really do think an ARPG game would work very well for Klonoa. Mature the writing and make it more in line with the console games; get rid of all the jank that makes the game more limiting and unfair than it needs to be; and don't make every single boss have 3000 HP and have so much defense the fights last for 10 minutes with minimal variation. Do this and there's very solid potential for a stellar entry into the series.
As-is, only play this if you have extreme patience for grinding and GBA jank. You don't lose a lot of the experience watching an LP instead.

Never have I played a game that does such a good job at respecting the player's ability to perform. Pseudoregalia gives you moves one at a time to play around with, gives you some tips in the pause menu if you need them, and lets you play around with them in a wide open world. It's so satisfying cracking how every move works and how you can use it to expand your movement in all new ways. Heck, the game even lets you work with LESS moves to sequence break however much you feel like you're able to. I've got into so many places I shouldn't have been and I felt rewarded every single time for doing so. Of course, you're gonna need everything to beat the game (I think?), but it feels so satisfying to do so no matter how limited or wide your tookit feels.

The atmosphere is also top notch. I loooove dream-like environments to death and this game does an excellent job of making the entire experience feel like a surreal dream. The art style, the music, and even the few bits of writing all tie together to make an excellent experience to jump and slide through like I'm Richter Belmont plopped into Klonoa and told to schmoove.

The one singular miiinor gripe I have is how easy it is to get lost. The game is small in scope so you're never lost for too long, but you can run around like a headless chicken for a while. I don't think a map would help very much, if anything it would defeat some of the point since the game is so small. Instead, I would add LANDMARKS. Things to make every room feel distinct in a way that isn't how the level design is arranged or something like that. This way you can have no map but still have a way to get your bearings in even the darkest of places.

Overall, I think I want to marry this game and have kids that look exactly like Pseudoregalia. Meaning I want more of this since this game is basically perfect aside from some quirks that prevent me from immediately putting it at a 10 or one of my favorites. I do think this game is probably my GOTY for 2023 even though it's such a short and sweet experience.

Go play it. It's cheap and short.

What does it mean to be an artist? Is it to create for yourself? For others? Is it even about having talent whatsoever? And how can you still love art if it becomes your work?

These questions and more are what Chicory proposes through both its gameplay and narrative. It's a very quirky game by nature, putting you in the shoes of a total goober coloring a now colorless world while interacting with the, well, colorful world and the characters who inhabit it. I have next to zero competence when it comes to drawing, yet this game was extremely accessible to someone like me. The world is your coloring book and it is shockingly enjoyable to sit down on a random screen of the game and either doodle to my heart's desire to make things as pretty as possible, throw color everywhere haphazardly, or screw around and draw Amoguses everywhere. Even for people who aren't very creatively oriented, there's still a very enjoyable and engaging puzzle adventure to explore and piece together bit by bit. It's not hard at all but Chicory as a game does a very good job of mixing together it elements into a canvas anybody can have fun painting onto.

The narrative reminds me a lot of Kiki's Delivery Service in the sense that the primary themes revolve around a passion and losing that passion to work, perfectionism, or simple artist's exhaustion. Doing anything over and over again is exhausting, let alone something that you love now with heaps and loads of pressure on your back. That's not to say the game ever says having work you're passionate about is a BAD thing, but it does explore the woes of the career artist as well as the hobbyist. As someone who wants to work as a creative myself someday, this story hit me like a freight train. Chicory's writing does a great job of telling you things straight but having the characters have very complex motivations to the point where they could and do reasonably make different decisions in very similar situations. The protagonist (default named Pizza, but I called them Pumpkn Pie) and Chicory (the character) both exemplify this perfectly as both grow and cope with the hand they've been given in very different ways while serving as great foil to one another. Pizza has no innate talent but carries artistic drive, while Chicory violently burned out even though she's definitively the best artist in the whole game. The relationship that forms between these two characters is very believable in both how they interact with one another and how they influence each other for the better, thankfully so since this is the backbone of the entire narrative. (Between this game and Wandersong, I've learned this team is VERY good at making strong protag-deuterag relationships that really explore the themes of the game.) It certainly helps that the cast of side characters are all very charming as well and suitably goofy to break up how honest and raw the main story beats can be.

The other parts of this game are also great, from the art direction managing to hit very good even in monochrome to the absolutely stellar soundtrack by Lena Raine that I'm confident I'll listen to a lot outside the game. There's not a lot to say here since the art style generally speaks for itself, and if I wanted to gush about the soundtrack I'd probably lean a bit into spoiler territory so I'll hold off.

The only real gripe I have with this game is that it's kind of a hassle to go find every little collectible for 100%, but I've learned that games should be enjoyed however much you want to. It's okay if I do most things while leaving a little to rest or go back to later. They're more or less all extras anyway. I feel like I got everything I wanted from this game. Progression can feel a bit boring and repetitive but these levels are so short I barely care, if I really feel bored I can just go do something else since there's lots TO do in Chicory.

I heavily recommend this game. It's very cute, charming, and surprisingly intelligent. Though the game might be a bit trickier without a mouse to really make things precise for those who love to draw all detailed.

A wonderful combination of heartfelt warmth and rolling tension amid a dark mystery, this game manages to constantly one-up itself with every move. My only complaints are that the bad endings are mostly bland and the trial-and-error nature of the game makes things way more tedious than they probably need to be. This is a game I can't really talk about much to those who don't know about it since so much of the fun is discovering the mystery, so just go play this already.

Side Note: The bonus anime preview included after the game ends made me die laughing because the TYPE-MOON art style clashes with the photorealism of literally everything else so hard. If only it were, y'know, actually good to circumvent that problem.