RequiemXternam
2021
This review contains spoilers
So I have to say I really am more lukewarm on this one than it seems most people are. Let me clarify that I loved Chapter 1 when it came out, and still think it's great. The problem I find with 2, comparatively, is that it cuts out a lot of the genuine heart and pathos from the first game to squeeze in more jokeyjokes.
Noelle's 'arc', such as it is, is the largest casualty. It seems like her biggest character flaw is SUPPOSED to be that she's some flavour of coward or nervous scaredy cat? It's the one, blunt piece of characterization she gets in the first chapter, with her father outright spelling this out to you. It seems like she's supposed to be portrayed as someone who doesn't like doing things that are scary or harmful, but all the challenges she's faced with are things that would be completely reasonable to fear. Her fear of mice feels like it's supposed to be synecdoche for her generalized fear of the unknown but it is, at worst, a mild phobia? She also just ends up being kind of a woobie for comedy jokes for 95% of the game until she's supposed to suddenly have pathos? but when that happens the game's almost over and it's spent so much time treating everything as humorous I'm not sure exactly when I'm supposed to care. Her home troubles are, at most, vaguely alluded to, and they're all just the most maudlin thing imaginable (sick dad, dead sister, overbearing mother) it's very hard to connect to it emotionally at all.
I also don't know what the fuck is going on with Berdly? It feels like he's just a pathetic comedy nerd guy until they suddenly give him backstory pathos. Except...It doesn't matter at all? He doesn't change or grow or anything, he's still a jackass.
Most of the game's emotional core seems to be resting on the utterly inane love quadrangle between the main characters. It was SUPREMELY strange to me when I, as a 27 year old, was suddenly accosted by every major character in the game and given the opportunity to allude to some kind of romantic interest in any or all of these teenagers. Toby seems to be attempting to create a delineation between Kris, the character, and the player, and asking you to roleplay these decisions, but unfortunately Kris is still so much of a blank slate that I can't engage in that degree of separation. Even this, though, is so often treated as a punchline that I really can't tell how seriously I'm supposed to take it.
I also don't really know why we're suddenly walking back on some of the metatheming of the first chapter; the illusion of choice was such a big Thing in the first one but now all of a sudden sparing people actually does change story content, and you can do a whole different route based on your choices? I sincerely hope this isn't Toby capitulating on his own thematic choices just because people complained. Speaking of capitulation based on public complaints; I realize it's a small thing, but holy shit is Alphys's dialogue about how Undyne being a cop is actually super okay and totally fine and not Unwoke is so embarrassing, he really might as well have not even tried to justify it and just left it unspoken.
I don't think Chapter 2 is a BAD game, but I'm supremely disappointed by how poorly it works as a standalone project. It truly feels like this is a six~ hour prologue for whatever the rest of the story is, which is a shame when Chapter 1 felt like such a tidy, self-contained narrative. The complete emotional arc of Susie within the first chapter is far more substatiative than anything in this one, and if the quality for every single one of these chapters fluctuates this wildly I really don't know if I can justify waiting several years and having to spend real, actual money just to roll the dice on whether I'm going to get something great, or something merely okay.
It truly is a nice gesture of Toby to release this one for free out of the goodness of his heart (I assume), but honestly I'd be a little peeved if I ended up having to spend money for this.
Noelle's 'arc', such as it is, is the largest casualty. It seems like her biggest character flaw is SUPPOSED to be that she's some flavour of coward or nervous scaredy cat? It's the one, blunt piece of characterization she gets in the first chapter, with her father outright spelling this out to you. It seems like she's supposed to be portrayed as someone who doesn't like doing things that are scary or harmful, but all the challenges she's faced with are things that would be completely reasonable to fear. Her fear of mice feels like it's supposed to be synecdoche for her generalized fear of the unknown but it is, at worst, a mild phobia? She also just ends up being kind of a woobie for comedy jokes for 95% of the game until she's supposed to suddenly have pathos? but when that happens the game's almost over and it's spent so much time treating everything as humorous I'm not sure exactly when I'm supposed to care. Her home troubles are, at most, vaguely alluded to, and they're all just the most maudlin thing imaginable (sick dad, dead sister, overbearing mother) it's very hard to connect to it emotionally at all.
I also don't know what the fuck is going on with Berdly? It feels like he's just a pathetic comedy nerd guy until they suddenly give him backstory pathos. Except...It doesn't matter at all? He doesn't change or grow or anything, he's still a jackass.
Most of the game's emotional core seems to be resting on the utterly inane love quadrangle between the main characters. It was SUPREMELY strange to me when I, as a 27 year old, was suddenly accosted by every major character in the game and given the opportunity to allude to some kind of romantic interest in any or all of these teenagers. Toby seems to be attempting to create a delineation between Kris, the character, and the player, and asking you to roleplay these decisions, but unfortunately Kris is still so much of a blank slate that I can't engage in that degree of separation. Even this, though, is so often treated as a punchline that I really can't tell how seriously I'm supposed to take it.
I also don't really know why we're suddenly walking back on some of the metatheming of the first chapter; the illusion of choice was such a big Thing in the first one but now all of a sudden sparing people actually does change story content, and you can do a whole different route based on your choices? I sincerely hope this isn't Toby capitulating on his own thematic choices just because people complained. Speaking of capitulation based on public complaints; I realize it's a small thing, but holy shit is Alphys's dialogue about how Undyne being a cop is actually super okay and totally fine and not Unwoke is so embarrassing, he really might as well have not even tried to justify it and just left it unspoken.
I don't think Chapter 2 is a BAD game, but I'm supremely disappointed by how poorly it works as a standalone project. It truly feels like this is a six~ hour prologue for whatever the rest of the story is, which is a shame when Chapter 1 felt like such a tidy, self-contained narrative. The complete emotional arc of Susie within the first chapter is far more substatiative than anything in this one, and if the quality for every single one of these chapters fluctuates this wildly I really don't know if I can justify waiting several years and having to spend real, actual money just to roll the dice on whether I'm going to get something great, or something merely okay.
It truly is a nice gesture of Toby to release this one for free out of the goodness of his heart (I assume), but honestly I'd be a little peeved if I ended up having to spend money for this.
2015
Honestly, the more I think about Undertale the less enthused I am about it. The comedy is great, don't get me wrong, but I really have to question how useful a narrative "you should be nicer to fictional characters" is. Not to mention that the game's conception of pacifism is so underbaked and immature that even the game's own creator refutes it in the sequel.
2021
This shit is so fun, dog! This is the best fighter I've played since Killer Instinct's release in 2013 and one of the best games in general I've played in years.
A lot more cohesive than re7 that's for sure! Also benefits a lot from each of the four sub-antagonists being big goofy personalities who you get to see a lot (compared to 7, which overdeveloped Jack to the point where the game kind of feels over when he dies).
Was kind of disappointed that the game wasn't more nonlinear tbh, it's a little weird to deliberately split your game into four chunks plus one final confrontation so obviously and then have the player go through it in a set order anyway. Especially disappointing is the brevity of the spooky haunted house doll chapter, that is so incredibly My Shit.
Like 7 I think the weakest part is where it tries to mold itself into the greater series canon, I really think they need to ditch the idea of these games having any coherent timeline.
Overall, a cool and fun experience! Looking forward to replaying it a bunch for unlockables.
Was kind of disappointed that the game wasn't more nonlinear tbh, it's a little weird to deliberately split your game into four chunks plus one final confrontation so obviously and then have the player go through it in a set order anyway. Especially disappointing is the brevity of the spooky haunted house doll chapter, that is so incredibly My Shit.
Like 7 I think the weakest part is where it tries to mold itself into the greater series canon, I really think they need to ditch the idea of these games having any coherent timeline.
Overall, a cool and fun experience! Looking forward to replaying it a bunch for unlockables.
Resident Evil 7 feels like someone had a really strong core concept that ended up being difficult to turn into an eight hour game with shooter mechanics. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre but Resident Evil" is only about two thirds of the game, the rest being a vain attempt to tie everything into the series' mythology.
People malign "walking simulators" but if they had toned down the shooty bits and leaned more on the haunted house aspects RE7 would have worked a lot better for me (the pre-release demo being proof positive that it would've worked just fine).
Ultimately I find it hard to malign a game that can be beaten on a single weekend day too much, I just know that on replay I'll probably get up to the final Jack bossfight and pretend it ends there.
People malign "walking simulators" but if they had toned down the shooty bits and leaned more on the haunted house aspects RE7 would have worked a lot better for me (the pre-release demo being proof positive that it would've worked just fine).
Ultimately I find it hard to malign a game that can be beaten on a single weekend day too much, I just know that on replay I'll probably get up to the final Jack bossfight and pretend it ends there.
now THIS is videogameing, baby! Practically every problem with the first game's presentation is fixed here; the characters are more expressive, there's more than five music tracks, and there's something resembling competent cinematography on display. It's really amazing what three years (and a corporate merger) can do.
Every element of KH2 has the confidence of a sequel, it's easy for me to forget that there was a time that the difference between a first effort and a second could be THIS stark. It's still not quite perfect, it really starts to drag in the middle third once you have to revisit all the Disney worlds and be subjected to just the worst boss fights on planet Earth (many of them subject you to very long "sit around and do nothing until the boss is vulnerable again" segments) but once you hit The Castle That Never was it picks right back up.
I almost dropped a star for that god awful forced Roxas fight that they added for Final Mix though, holy shit what an over-tuned piece of shit. All the Final Mix content is WAY too difficult, even on Standard, but it's mostly excused by being optional, and, therefore, usually post-game content. The only bosses I died to even once were the Roxas fight and the final Xemnas phase, and the Roxas fight alone took 7-8 tries.
Every element of KH2 has the confidence of a sequel, it's easy for me to forget that there was a time that the difference between a first effort and a second could be THIS stark. It's still not quite perfect, it really starts to drag in the middle third once you have to revisit all the Disney worlds and be subjected to just the worst boss fights on planet Earth (many of them subject you to very long "sit around and do nothing until the boss is vulnerable again" segments) but once you hit The Castle That Never was it picks right back up.
I almost dropped a star for that god awful forced Roxas fight that they added for Final Mix though, holy shit what an over-tuned piece of shit. All the Final Mix content is WAY too difficult, even on Standard, but it's mostly excused by being optional, and, therefore, usually post-game content. The only bosses I died to even once were the Roxas fight and the final Xemnas phase, and the Roxas fight alone took 7-8 tries.
Absolutely no shade towards people who like this one but you're all insane. This is the nadir of RPGs; involving hours of mindless grinding just to win a two minute fight. Reverse/Rebirth is even worse, completely removing any semblance of strategy in exchange for mindless button mashing.
That's not to say there's nothing of worth here; the new narrative content introduced is shockingly good. The issue is that the new stuff makes up only about 10% of the game, the other 90% is just a mindless slog through rehashes of rehashes. Introducing Organization XIII is the best idea this franchise has, Nomura is often derided for his fashion choices, but he is SO GOOD at just writing a room full of bitchy gays to snipe at each other.
More so than 358/2 days, this is the game that should've been turned into a cutscene compilation, I got nothing out of wasting 28 hours on it that I wouldn't have just by watching it on YouTube.
That's not to say there's nothing of worth here; the new narrative content introduced is shockingly good. The issue is that the new stuff makes up only about 10% of the game, the other 90% is just a mindless slog through rehashes of rehashes. Introducing Organization XIII is the best idea this franchise has, Nomura is often derided for his fashion choices, but he is SO GOOD at just writing a room full of bitchy gays to snipe at each other.
More so than 358/2 days, this is the game that should've been turned into a cutscene compilation, I got nothing out of wasting 28 hours on it that I wouldn't have just by watching it on YouTube.
2021
TIRED OF YOUR SHIT LIFE?
NO HOPE NO MONEY?
SUFFER NO MORE
MAKE YOUR OWN RULES
NO HOPE NO MONEY?
SUFFER NO MORE
MAKE YOUR OWN RULES
2002
Kingdom Hearts The First is hardly a good game by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still a uniquely weird game. It's a fascinating look into a company on the verge of financial ruin, the difference in overall polish between this and Final Fantasy X is stark. Hardly required playing, even if you're interested in the series, but I ended up enjoying my time with it regardless.
2016
Honestly FNAF world deserves more love than it gets; the gameplay is boilerplate to the point of near insult but everything it's trying to say about creativity, popularity, and the strain its author was under is brilliant.
2020
I wanted to like this game, I really did. The problem is that it suffers from far too much narrative ambition; trying to do too much with what little time it has. It constantly jumps all over the place tonally and attempts to balance three or four different emotional beats at the same time, but with only a few hours to work with it just doesn't give any of them room to breathe. I THINK it's supposed to be a story about moving on or letting go but it spends so much time dawdling in plot cul-de-sacs that it isn't obvious until the game is just about over. The regional humour is just obnoxious as well, I have no idea what you're supposed to get out of it if you don't live in Australia and I think pandering to a country with a population smaller than California is nonsensical.
A staple of my childhood and way better than the action game, don't @ me.
2007
Iconic badgame with a stunning legacy; the only marks against it being placed in the halls of the greats are its tedious runtime, lack of support for modern hardware, and availability.
1997
A fantasic adventure title for kids; Nightmare Ned oozes with atmosphere and artistic sensibilities, one of my favourite titles from my adolescence. The fact that this game has to remain as obscure as it is due to a lack of any support for modern platforms or digital distribution is a crime.
Yeah this is basically peak storytelling, delivering a fantastically crafted narrative while also having you play a created character you have history with is a GOATed decision honestly.