Shenobi
1988
The first time I got to Area 6 as a kid, I knew I could not stop until I finished this game because the soundtrack was too good to not be fully appreciated.
2016
My favorite Tales game over both Xillia and Vesperia. That's all I've got to say.
The best fighting game ever, for me. It's not even close. I have so many hours and so many stories with this game. So much love.
It's definitely a beginner RPG, but it was pretty fun for its time. Also, teaching first-timers about weaknesses by making the final boss weak to a quick-kill is a great idea...if you're a beginner RPG.
2014
Cut this game in half and I'm here for it until the end of time. The alien AI is largely excellent, but I'm just not invested in droids or randos -- it's just different enemies and the same need for stealth while tackling them.
When the alien is on-screen, tension is extreme and it's easy to get panicky and on-edge. But I'd take periods of tension alleviated by periods of moving between semi-safe areas over Fetch Quest #37 because every single person on Sevastopol is incompetent or lazy. Haven't tried the DLCs, but I'll probably give them a go at some point.
The game is 100% worth a look just for some solid AI design in the alien, if nothing else.
When the alien is on-screen, tension is extreme and it's easy to get panicky and on-edge. But I'd take periods of tension alleviated by periods of moving between semi-safe areas over Fetch Quest #37 because every single person on Sevastopol is incompetent or lazy. Haven't tried the DLCs, but I'll probably give them a go at some point.
The game is 100% worth a look just for some solid AI design in the alien, if nothing else.
2010
So...how forgettable is this game? So forgettable that somehow I platinumed this game without remembering a thing about it. I know I owned it, I know I traded it in eventually, but somewhere in between, I apparently 100%'ed it and I can't remember a single thing about it.
I was convinced my roommate had played it but he swears he never touched the game. Maybe a poltergeist played it in my stead. Thanks for platinuming this, random poltergeist duder.
I was convinced my roommate had played it but he swears he never touched the game. Maybe a poltergeist played it in my stead. Thanks for platinuming this, random poltergeist duder.
2009
The story doesn't really do anything for me in this game, but damn if combat doesn't feel like buttery goodness.
1991
Probably some of the scariest spiders in any game ever.
1989
I beat a giant foot. I feel accomplished.
2000
Although I completed this, I never saw the ending because the game melted my video card within about two seconds after I beat the final boss. Great game, probably not worth the video card loss, though.
2013
Not exactly a lengthy or amazing game, but before you get the full scope of what's going on, it's quite cool for the atmosphere it creates.
It's...fine?
Exploration is sometimes fun because there's a lot of secrets to discover, especially if you're willing to just pay attention and also in respect to powers you acquire later for when you start backtracking in the world.
Platforming is fine sometimes, and other times it's a chore because some terrain blends in with the background or some areas are just a pain to go back through. You get to the end of a path, acquire something, and assuming you don't want to come back and get it again, you've got to get back to a save point and that can mean a lot of precision platforming that might be harder on the way back than it was getting there. Not terrible, but not exactly fun times.
Bosses are extremely underwhelming, despite being these huge things that should be really fun. In most cases, they're 1, 2, or 3-trick ponies and as soon as you understand what those tricks are, you can sleepwalk your way through the fights.
As an example, there's a boss that will spit out these root-like things that will embed themselves in the ground and come up, hoping to contact you to do damage. They always show up at the same places and there's never more than three. The only other attack it has is to dash toward you and attempt to "eat you" (overlap and cause damage), and it will only do that if you're too close. You can quite literally stand next to one of the roots, charge up a spell, and leap up (so you don't hit a root) and shoot it over and over without ever having to break a sweat. And even if you hit a root, it'll simply spit another one back out to replace it!
A lot of bosses have that feel I mentioned above -- just take your time and be methodical and the fight will easily go your way.
Fast travel is limited and roughly evenly spread out throughout the game (once you've unlocked it), but if you're interested in checking out the optional areas of the game, there's going to be a substantial amount of extra footwork involved because there's only five warp points in total.
The soundtrack is fine -- my favorite track out of the whole game is the Sunken Temple, which is a completely optional area you can skip/miss out on, which is a shame...that track needed more love.
Equipment is a mixed bag that basically amounts to the same amount of functionality as your platforming abilities from the controls -- clunky, occasionally fun and useful, and largely uninspiring.
The game definitely wears its 8-bit homage on its sleeve, since there's obvious references to the NES era -- the SMB-like curtain drop for some story scenes, the House of Ruth and Summon Falcon spell that reference "8 Eyes" (the falcon's name is Citrus, even!), a relic that lets you jump on goomba-like things, some obvious LoZ references, and even a terrible TMNT-like swim section with electric seaweed.
From a nostalgia standpoint, it's a good time. Outside of nostalgia, though, it's just a game that's got so many features that have been handled better by other games that have come before and after it. Good effort, but it's not going to be getting any Christmas cards from me this year (or ever).
Exploration is sometimes fun because there's a lot of secrets to discover, especially if you're willing to just pay attention and also in respect to powers you acquire later for when you start backtracking in the world.
Platforming is fine sometimes, and other times it's a chore because some terrain blends in with the background or some areas are just a pain to go back through. You get to the end of a path, acquire something, and assuming you don't want to come back and get it again, you've got to get back to a save point and that can mean a lot of precision platforming that might be harder on the way back than it was getting there. Not terrible, but not exactly fun times.
Bosses are extremely underwhelming, despite being these huge things that should be really fun. In most cases, they're 1, 2, or 3-trick ponies and as soon as you understand what those tricks are, you can sleepwalk your way through the fights.
As an example, there's a boss that will spit out these root-like things that will embed themselves in the ground and come up, hoping to contact you to do damage. They always show up at the same places and there's never more than three. The only other attack it has is to dash toward you and attempt to "eat you" (overlap and cause damage), and it will only do that if you're too close. You can quite literally stand next to one of the roots, charge up a spell, and leap up (so you don't hit a root) and shoot it over and over without ever having to break a sweat. And even if you hit a root, it'll simply spit another one back out to replace it!
A lot of bosses have that feel I mentioned above -- just take your time and be methodical and the fight will easily go your way.
Fast travel is limited and roughly evenly spread out throughout the game (once you've unlocked it), but if you're interested in checking out the optional areas of the game, there's going to be a substantial amount of extra footwork involved because there's only five warp points in total.
The soundtrack is fine -- my favorite track out of the whole game is the Sunken Temple, which is a completely optional area you can skip/miss out on, which is a shame...that track needed more love.
Equipment is a mixed bag that basically amounts to the same amount of functionality as your platforming abilities from the controls -- clunky, occasionally fun and useful, and largely uninspiring.
The game definitely wears its 8-bit homage on its sleeve, since there's obvious references to the NES era -- the SMB-like curtain drop for some story scenes, the House of Ruth and Summon Falcon spell that reference "8 Eyes" (the falcon's name is Citrus, even!), a relic that lets you jump on goomba-like things, some obvious LoZ references, and even a terrible TMNT-like swim section with electric seaweed.
From a nostalgia standpoint, it's a good time. Outside of nostalgia, though, it's just a game that's got so many features that have been handled better by other games that have come before and after it. Good effort, but it's not going to be getting any Christmas cards from me this year (or ever).
2020
This game has some excellent moments, but also coupled with some really wacky bugs and some unintuitive design choices.
First, the bad.
Controller bindings are awkward because Shot/Accept are mapped to the same button and Jump/Cancel are mapped to the same button. This might be awkward for keyboard players too, but I didn't play with a keyboard so that wasn't a thing for me.
After a while, I started having the game bug out in very strange ways. At one point, I went into a room in Area 4 and I think there was supposed to be a cutscene, but the door closed before I finished walking in and the screen just went black before depositing me in Area 5. While it was black, I got a message that didn't completely finish. After I was able to gain control again in Area 5, that same message repeated. After that, any items I picked up no longer contained text info, nor did any new logs I found.
In addition, the boost ability from the rocket sometimes spazzes out hard. This is horrible when you're going over scores of hazards at once and when combined with the very sparse set of checkpoints in some areas, this can be a nightmare.
Wait, but the checkpoints heal you, right? Nope. You can save your progress with AS LITTLE HEALTH AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY HAVE. Which means if you make a single save file and aren't paying attention and save with a sliver of health left, you better hope you get some energy farmed from some enemies in a nearby room, assuming you're not stuck between two hazard areas.
But let's talk about the good. The bosses are pretty fun, actually. Nothing spectacular, but they manage to require you to do some fancy footwork and use your booster in a lot of cases to avoid damage.
The weapon variety is okay, but I found myself mostly just sticking with two of the weapons I found because one was extremely accurate and one was extremely powerful -- in both cases, this was for bosses exclusively.
Why? Because of the one GREAT thing in this game. The drill weapon/power-up/gating ability. It's SO STRONG and most enemies don't damage you on contact. As a result, you can just hold the shoot button and run/boost right into enemies to annihilate them en masse. And sometimes there will be boatloads of enemies on the screen, so it's a spectacular feeling when they're trying to get distance between you and them so they can fire and you just boost right through them like the ultimate lancer machine. And since the game allows for eight-way aiming with your weapons, you can drill through the air while jumping and aim down and just glide right into enemies like the monster you always wanted to be. For all the grief I got from the rest of the game, smashing through hordes was wonderful and for that reason alone, this game deserves three stars.
Get it on sale and make sure to use that drill like a champ. It's god-tier fun.
First, the bad.
Controller bindings are awkward because Shot/Accept are mapped to the same button and Jump/Cancel are mapped to the same button. This might be awkward for keyboard players too, but I didn't play with a keyboard so that wasn't a thing for me.
After a while, I started having the game bug out in very strange ways. At one point, I went into a room in Area 4 and I think there was supposed to be a cutscene, but the door closed before I finished walking in and the screen just went black before depositing me in Area 5. While it was black, I got a message that didn't completely finish. After I was able to gain control again in Area 5, that same message repeated. After that, any items I picked up no longer contained text info, nor did any new logs I found.
In addition, the boost ability from the rocket sometimes spazzes out hard. This is horrible when you're going over scores of hazards at once and when combined with the very sparse set of checkpoints in some areas, this can be a nightmare.
Wait, but the checkpoints heal you, right? Nope. You can save your progress with AS LITTLE HEALTH AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY HAVE. Which means if you make a single save file and aren't paying attention and save with a sliver of health left, you better hope you get some energy farmed from some enemies in a nearby room, assuming you're not stuck between two hazard areas.
But let's talk about the good. The bosses are pretty fun, actually. Nothing spectacular, but they manage to require you to do some fancy footwork and use your booster in a lot of cases to avoid damage.
The weapon variety is okay, but I found myself mostly just sticking with two of the weapons I found because one was extremely accurate and one was extremely powerful -- in both cases, this was for bosses exclusively.
Why? Because of the one GREAT thing in this game. The drill weapon/power-up/gating ability. It's SO STRONG and most enemies don't damage you on contact. As a result, you can just hold the shoot button and run/boost right into enemies to annihilate them en masse. And sometimes there will be boatloads of enemies on the screen, so it's a spectacular feeling when they're trying to get distance between you and them so they can fire and you just boost right through them like the ultimate lancer machine. And since the game allows for eight-way aiming with your weapons, you can drill through the air while jumping and aim down and just glide right into enemies like the monster you always wanted to be. For all the grief I got from the rest of the game, smashing through hordes was wonderful and for that reason alone, this game deserves three stars.
Get it on sale and make sure to use that drill like a champ. It's god-tier fun.
2021
Although I appreciate the different approach this game took to almost everything (from exploration to acquisition of items to lack of mandatory bosses until the end for the most part), this game just didn't gel with me like the first one did.
I really liked the first one a lot and I think the overall direction this took just wasn't quite what I'm looking for in a Metroidvania. It's...fine? I'd elaborate more on design choice thoughts, but I just don't want to spend more time on a game that left me feeling underwhelmed. It does its job, there's enough content to warrant its price point, and that's about all I'm going to say.
If you're on the fence about it, get it on sale. You could do worse, you could do better.
I really liked the first one a lot and I think the overall direction this took just wasn't quite what I'm looking for in a Metroidvania. It's...fine? I'd elaborate more on design choice thoughts, but I just don't want to spend more time on a game that left me feeling underwhelmed. It does its job, there's enough content to warrant its price point, and that's about all I'm going to say.
If you're on the fence about it, get it on sale. You could do worse, you could do better.
1998
An ugly, uninspired mess that missed the design train by a long shot. Don't torture yourself with this. If you're reading this, you deserve better than Quest 64.