Redmage77
2023
This is a perfect blend of faithful remake and QoL improvement. Combat remains great, the remixed music is beautiful, and the new art style is absolutely stunning at times. My only nit-pick with it is that even on normal mode, enemies are getting steamrolled, it'd be nice if there was either a hard mode or at least a way to turn off the no-damage guard.
First GBA era Fire Emblem that I've completed, I can see how this was one of the onboard ramps for the series, it's incredibly fun even 20 years later
video game real good
2023
This review contains spoilers
Nothing I say here is going to be a hot take:
The gameplay in Engage is the best a Fire Emblem has ever felt: the weapon triangle is back (praise the gods!), the map design is nearly always exquisite, and once you figure out how the break mechanic works it's a wonderful addition.
The graphics and models (discarding any personal feelings about the Genshin Impact-ass designs) are actually really great, the polish and detail that went into this makes it one of the best looking games on the Switch in my opinion. Playing this hot off the heels of Pokemon Violet was like putting on glasses again. The detail work put into the combat animations was also quite exceptional.
The main story is just fine, I deeply miss Three Houses here but it's not worse than Fates. The part where this game really fails is it's supports, they're incredibly hit and miss with a skew towards miss.
Three Houses, Echoes, Awakening, and even Fates had care and detail put into their supports. Here, there's mostly the following:
Working Out/Muscles
DIVINE DRAGON I AM NOT WORTHY
One actual support split into three
"Nice day we're having." "Yeah, that grass sure is green"
And a handful of good ones, usually involving the Brodian and/or Elusian nobles/retainers.
And don't even get me started on the absolute nothing burgers that almost all of the Bond conversations are, they almost would've been better off not including them
Overall, it may not be the best Fire Emblem game, but it's certainly still a great one, and a pretty good "anniversary/multiverse" entry for the series.
The gameplay in Engage is the best a Fire Emblem has ever felt: the weapon triangle is back (praise the gods!), the map design is nearly always exquisite, and once you figure out how the break mechanic works it's a wonderful addition.
The graphics and models (discarding any personal feelings about the Genshin Impact-ass designs) are actually really great, the polish and detail that went into this makes it one of the best looking games on the Switch in my opinion. Playing this hot off the heels of Pokemon Violet was like putting on glasses again. The detail work put into the combat animations was also quite exceptional.
The main story is just fine, I deeply miss Three Houses here but it's not worse than Fates. The part where this game really fails is it's supports, they're incredibly hit and miss with a skew towards miss.
Three Houses, Echoes, Awakening, and even Fates had care and detail put into their supports. Here, there's mostly the following:
Working Out/Muscles
DIVINE DRAGON I AM NOT WORTHY
One actual support split into three
"Nice day we're having." "Yeah, that grass sure is green"
And a handful of good ones, usually involving the Brodian and/or Elusian nobles/retainers.
And don't even get me started on the absolute nothing burgers that almost all of the Bond conversations are, they almost would've been better off not including them
Overall, it may not be the best Fire Emblem game, but it's certainly still a great one, and a pretty good "anniversary/multiverse" entry for the series.
2022
Okay, once you just sort of... immunize yourself to the fidelity issues by playing for an extended period (and I mean this both genuinely and also with a bit of deserved spite) this game does in fact kick ass. it really does attempt to take the best assets from SwSh and Arceus and put them in one game to a mixed success.
The new Pokemon and character designs are the same as they were in SwSh (which is to say about 90% great) and I like how they're branching out with the music (the new gym theme is literally my favorite in the entire franchise, mainline and fangames all included). The new Pokemon textures make them the best they've looked in the entire franchise though some... choices were made with literally every other tetxure.
The open world is great, it's between Arceus and SwSh in quality for me. It's obviously better than the Wild Area (which I never thought was 100% BAD, just incredibly rough) but it doesn't feel as well designed as Arceus.
I like the rivals/story leads; Nemona's fine, though her whole character seems to boil down to "Hop, but he's experienced this time and also wanted to marry you," Arval's story legit made me cry, and I haven't done Team Star enough to form an opinion about Penny.
It's clear Game Freak had a lot of kick-ass ideas, and I wish they had been given the time to fully implement them and to make sure this game didn't dethrone Age of Calamity as the worst fidelity game on the Switch. Maybe TPC/Nintendo will give them time/funding to send out patches but I'm not holding my breath.
The new Pokemon and character designs are the same as they were in SwSh (which is to say about 90% great) and I like how they're branching out with the music (the new gym theme is literally my favorite in the entire franchise, mainline and fangames all included). The new Pokemon textures make them the best they've looked in the entire franchise though some... choices were made with literally every other tetxure.
The open world is great, it's between Arceus and SwSh in quality for me. It's obviously better than the Wild Area (which I never thought was 100% BAD, just incredibly rough) but it doesn't feel as well designed as Arceus.
I like the rivals/story leads; Nemona's fine, though her whole character seems to boil down to "Hop, but he's experienced this time and also wanted to marry you," Arval's story legit made me cry, and I haven't done Team Star enough to form an opinion about Penny.
It's clear Game Freak had a lot of kick-ass ideas, and I wish they had been given the time to fully implement them and to make sure this game didn't dethrone Age of Calamity as the worst fidelity game on the Switch. Maybe TPC/Nintendo will give them time/funding to send out patches but I'm not holding my breath.
2019
I truly do not understand the hate boner that this game receives.
2022
Y'all owe Sword and Shield a fucking apology
2015
If game bad, why have over 150 hours played?
No but seriously, this is a diluted, crappier but better looking version of the other fallout games and it still beats ass (mods help, same as every other Bethesda game)
No but seriously, this is a diluted, crappier but better looking version of the other fallout games and it still beats ass (mods help, same as every other Bethesda game)
They really just want to do less with every remake, huh?
Child me absolutely ate this game up, I had a blast. Adult me realizes that child me definitely had rose-colored glasses on. This game is an absolute mess, but I'd still play it.
The solid gameplay of Bioshock 2 combined with intense atmosphere and what's arguably the best narrative in the entire series.
2010
The gameplay in this one is literally the best in the entire series and the story is just as good if not better than the first one.
This review contains spoilers
Solid gameplay, the stealth aspects and Elizabeth's new powers bring a breath of fresh air to this third round of Infinite gameplay. However, I absolutely refuse to acknowledge the dick-sucking of Bioshock 1 that this ending is.
The concept is great, there's good quality of life stuff, and it made me get so much better at the Paper Mario gameplay.
The problem is the difficulty curve isn't quite gradual enough. In my specific example, I got through up to General Guy, who I then just could not get past. I thought, "okay, it's probably a skill thing and I'm not super optimized," so I dropped the game and then tried again with Master Quest Jr. a few months later. Not only is Jr. not that much easier, I'm still getting completely bodied by General Guy, same exact spot. Hopefully things improve with 2.0.
The problem is the difficulty curve isn't quite gradual enough. In my specific example, I got through up to General Guy, who I then just could not get past. I thought, "okay, it's probably a skill thing and I'm not super optimized," so I dropped the game and then tried again with Master Quest Jr. a few months later. Not only is Jr. not that much easier, I'm still getting completely bodied by General Guy, same exact spot. Hopefully things improve with 2.0.
This review contains spoilers
In my opinion this is the best that a Musou crossover has ever felt. It has a lot of the strengths of P5S and HW:AoC, but without the grind of Persona's combat (subjective on my end admittedly) and the lack of visual fidelity the second Hyrule Warriors brought. The combat arts and unique abilities that each character has bring a lot of variety for each of the move-sets, only a few characters will play the exact same (looking at you Raphael, Dedue, and Caspar).
I personally loved the story, though I'm also already a big fan of 3H. This game's reliance on your knowledge of that game's lore means much of the story and supports assumes you already have the background knowledge necessary to fully understand it, which is a plus for fans who don't want to rehash and a negative for literally everybody else. A huge part of this game is fanservice and improving where 3H faltered, from it's new characters, to improvements in the UI and cutscene engine, to alternate character interpretations for Edelgard and Dimitri, who never have to go to the incredibly dark places they did in 3H. The opposite is true for Claude, rather than the player just being told he's a sneaky manipulative boy who in reality come off squeaky clean next to the other lords and Rhea, we actually get to see him demonstrate shades of moral gray. The writing definitely has flaws, especially Azure Gleam, but you can tell that this isn't just some cash grab game, it really fells like an extension of the 3H with a new playstyle.
Also, for everyone saying "who cares, this is a what-if," the original game had four irreparably conflicting storylines, there is absolutely no such thing as a canon storyline in this game world and these three are just as valid.
I personally loved the story, though I'm also already a big fan of 3H. This game's reliance on your knowledge of that game's lore means much of the story and supports assumes you already have the background knowledge necessary to fully understand it, which is a plus for fans who don't want to rehash and a negative for literally everybody else. A huge part of this game is fanservice and improving where 3H faltered, from it's new characters, to improvements in the UI and cutscene engine, to alternate character interpretations for Edelgard and Dimitri, who never have to go to the incredibly dark places they did in 3H. The opposite is true for Claude, rather than the player just being told he's a sneaky manipulative boy who in reality come off squeaky clean next to the other lords and Rhea, we actually get to see him demonstrate shades of moral gray. The writing definitely has flaws, especially Azure Gleam, but you can tell that this isn't just some cash grab game, it really fells like an extension of the 3H with a new playstyle.
Also, for everyone saying "who cares, this is a what-if," the original game had four irreparably conflicting storylines, there is absolutely no such thing as a canon storyline in this game world and these three are just as valid.