My first experience with a Castlevania game was Portrait of Ruin. I enjoyed it fine enough, but it didn't really stick with me all that much. Next, I played a couple levels of Castlevania IV but never came back to it. The little I played was fun but never totally hooked me. Then, at the end of the summer of 2019, I played Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. I had a blast playing it, so much so I ended up Platinuming it. This got me excited to play Symphony of the Night (which I conveniently bought at a convention a month prior to playing Bloodstained). Fast forward to March 2020 apparently (I literally thought it was October 2020, guess that year really was a blur) and I decided to finally play SOTN. I had such a great time, but thought it was more comparable to Bloodstained. A really fun time but nothing amazing. Well I'm happy to say this replay has changed my mind on this game for the most part.

The first thing you'll notice about this game, and it's one of its best aspects, is the presentation. At least from what games I played, it's the best looking PS1 game or one of the best at least. That's the power of sprites, they consistently stay appealing unlike some early PS1 titles. Plus, the really cool part is the game mixes both spritework and 3d models and it gives it this really unique look that I love. When you see those book enemies in the library or the coffin after saving, they stand out so much amidst all the 2d spritework...and they look good too!

The other best aspect of this game is undoubtedly the soundtrack. I remembered Dracula's Castle and Lost painting quite fondly but the entire soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. It ranges from jazz to classical to metal, it has it all. The colosseum theme became another favorite of mine among the aforementioned two. God is it so catchy, I love it. A great soundtrack can really win a game over for me and this one does not disappoint.

As for the actual gameplay, it's fun! The movement is very fluid in this game which is nice. Alucard has this backwards dash thing that's very helpful in getting around. Instead of using one whip and upgrading it a couple times like in Classicvania, Alucard has a large assortment of weapons to choose from. He still has a whip, but now he can use all different types of swords, daggers, rods etc. They have different ranges and different stab rates which just makes the combat more varied and fun. You also have these spells that require you to put in a button combo to use them. I personally never got the hang of these too much but it's really cool how you can activate from the start of the game if you know the combos. There's also a familar system which let's you assign a little fella that goes alongside you, levels up and grows stronger. I thought that was pretty neat but was more of an afterthought when I was playing.

This game gives you a lot more options as you can see, and that's because unlike past Castlevania games...this game is nonlinear. Instead of playing through levels, you go through a large interconnected castle....collecting different abilities that let you progress through even more of the castle. Thus, the vania part of Metroidvania was born. For such a groundbreaking title, how is the item progression handled in this game? I Honestly thought it was much less of a focus than the combat. There's not many progression abilities in this game, just never felt like the focus was on the exploration while using new abilities...it was moreso let's explore this part of the castle and level up and shit. Maybe that's just me but for item based exploration, I much prefer Metroid. The backtracking was not as fun as it was in something like Metroid either, there's warps which is nice but I had to constantly trek back and forth between certain areas, some more secret shortcuts or something would've been nice. Either way, the castle is a lot of fun to explore...but I guess there's actually two of them huh.

So the inverted castle overall is actually kinda cool. The game get's really easy in the mid-game cuz you become so overpowered by that point and doesn't get hard again until the inverted castle. Hoo boy tho, some parts of the inverted castle can kick your ass. The harder difficulty and the new enemies/bosses I did really enjoy when going through the castle essentially a second time. Cuz yeah, it's pretty much padding...but like it's changed enough where I didn't mind really. The OST also gets changed to the same 4 or so songs which is kinda meh but at least Lost Painting is one of them.

I forgot to mention the bosses. Most of them are just alright. A lot of them are pretty easy but nothing bad. A couple of them kinda stink, especially Beezlebub. I think that boss is the only down right bad part of the game. He's either dummy easy with certain sub weapons, or annoying as shit. I remember him giving me trouble when I initially played the game and yeah, he was no different this time around.

Hmm what else...oh yeah I actually thought the story was pretty cool for what it was. I really enjoyed the whole dynamic with Alucard, Dracula and Lisa. Those scenes were super interesting. The voice acting is obviously pretty cheesy but I think it fits incredibly well with a game like this, idk I liked it a lot. I was also trying to get 200.6% but missed a couple tiles so I got 198 something %. Pretty sure I got the best ending tho so that's good.

A couple more miscellaneous things, I really like how many secrets/little details this game has. I feel like every playthrough you'd be discovering something new. Also, the official artwork for this game absolutely fucks man, it's amazing. Alucard is so hot.

Alright I should probably end this here, it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm just here writing what might be my longest review lol. Idk man, there was a lot to say, hope I didn't ramble on for too long. It's not perfect imo but this game overall is pretty fantastic. I still prefer Super Metroid tho personally. Next is Bloodborne my beloved and hopefully I can beat that before Mario Wonder on the 20th.

I literally just found out about this 10 minutes ago and got 9/9 on my first game. I've realized now the real goal of this game is to pick Pokémon that apply to each category but to pick ones you think the least amount of people playing have picked. The lower the percentages your picks are, the lower your uniqueness rank is by the end (it's like golf) and I think that aspect can be really fun. At the same time, people might have the same idea and a seemingly forgettable Pokémon might be picked by a lot of people. Either way, this is very fun and I can see myself playing it everyday for a while.

Edit: Honestly only played this for a week and forgot about it, still a fun time tho

Wanted to play a nice short game after Metroid Prime 2 so I decided to dive into the Klonoa series finally! While I did have a good time with this game, I wish I liked it more because it has a 4.1 average and a lot of my followers love it so I kinda feel bad only giving it a 7 lol.

I think after beating the game, the absolute best aspect are the bosses tbh. I did not expect them to go so hard but most of them are really damn good tbh. In fact I'd go as far to say they're better than most of the levels. Something I really liked about them was how they all made good use of the foreground and background, thought that was sweet. Also the health bar they had looked really cool with that whole 3D effect.

The levels themselves are decent for the most part. They start off really simple but get more complex as you go on. I honestly didn't think they were getting really good until the last couple stages but overall they're fine.

Another one the best aspects of this game is the visuals. The mix of sprites and 3D models is always cool and its done well in this game. From the little I've seen of the remake, it's a total downgrade which is a shame so I'd recommend the original just on visuals alone.

Klonoa's moveset is kinda weird overall. The grab is very fun, especially when you can get an extra jump from an enemy. The flutter is alright but a lot of the time just doesn't cut it in getting you over large gaps unless you plan well. I just never thought it felt good to use tbh. Also Klonoa himself has a slipperiness to him when you build momentum up and that can trip up the player especially in later stages.

I didn't really find the game that hard until the last couple stages. I got every collectable so I was able to do the extra stage and man was that one tough. It was fun but definitely put your grabbing and hovering skills to the test.

The music overall was just alright. There was a track or two I kinda liked but most of them were forgettable I felt. There was also a track or two that kinda bugged me because it reminded me of the intro song to Amazing Animals. Please tell me I'm not crazy, I just kept thinking about that whenever one of the beginning stages songs was playing.

The game also had a surprisingly abundant amount of cutscenes. I thought the story overall was pretty cute, the very solid voice acting certainly helped that I feel. Like damn, I loved Huepow's voice it was adorable. And while I didn't cry or anything, the ending was pretty sad and was a unique way to end the game.

While I didn't love this game like others do, it was pretty good! I can certainly see how others would love this game cuz it just has that 90's PS1 charm. I did hear the sequel is even better so I'm looking forward to that!

Dishonored é uma maravilha de se jogar!

Ter todas aquelas opções de abordagem dos objetivos foi aos poucos mudando muito a forma como eu olho para video games, Dishonored te obriga a ter um olhar criativo para chegar no seu objetivo.

O level design de Dishonored está muito acima dos padrões da indústria, são muitas opções, e muitos segredos e muito difícil de quebrar.

Porém, apesar de impressionante nesses aspectos, o jogo falha em contar sua história. Dishonored tem uma ambientação pobre, por exemplo, casas vazias, assets repetidos o tempo todo, nada no ambiente colabora para contar a história do jogo. Em Bioshock, por outro lado, vemos isso sendo feito de maneira exímia, ao entrar em um quarto é possível entender o que as pessoas que estavam ali viveram, o que pensavam, ou como morreram.

Suas DLCs são excelentes, algumas das melhores que já joguei na minha vida. Por curiosidade, acho a história das DLCs mais interessante do que do jogo base.

Ainda assim, Dishonored é um jogo que beira a perfeição, e uma das melhores experiências que tive com jogos em um bom tempo.

Jogo incrível!!!

Trilha sonora maravilhosa 100% do tempo. Gameplay gostosa e simples, puzzles gostosos de fazer, uma historia simples, bonita e muito bem contada.

Chorei com o final!

A verdadeira escalada são os amigos que fazemos no caminho.

Tão cômico quanto essa frase seria a possibilidade de um jogo baseado principalmente em alpinismo ter o seu lugar de destaque em um ano tão repleto de estouros, e realmente seria cômico se não fosse a realidade.

Jusant a princípio havia me chamado a atenção justamente por conta dessa temática, escalada em videogames não é algo novo, mas um jogo de escalada? Ok, temos algo aqui.

A verdade, pasmem, é que por mais que o jogo se venda dessa forma, a escalada é apenas um artifício do que realmente é o foco, uma jornada através de descobertas, com uma construção de mundo convincente, que pavimenta seu caminho através do mesmo.

Foram necessários poucos minutos para eu me encontrar completamente imerso dentro desse universo, e vindo da Dont'Nod, isso não é surpresa, entregar experiências repletas de sentimentos, com trilhas sonoras de engajamento inigualáveis são características que fazem dela uma das minhas favoritas.

Jusant é uma síntese extremamente agradável de mecânica, visuais e uma narrativa envolvente que não precisa de uma linha de diálogo sequer para funcionar.

Aos que pensam em se aventurar, lembrem-se de manter o foco no topo, nunca olhar para baixo, e claro, uma boa escalada!

Uma historia bem ok, porém com personagens secundários totalmente dispensáveis. A parte gráfica e sonora são magnificas (nem parece um jogo crossgen), mas só isso não faz um bom jogo.

O combate (que pra mim seria a parte principal) peca e muito! É chato, entediante e decepcionante. A "arvore de habilidades" é totalmente dispensável. A exploração por Gotham também é péssima, indo desde a batmoto que é uma porcaria totalmente dispensável, o grappling hook é horroroso, e planar/teleportar tambem é horrível em TODOS os sentidos.

O game infelizmente se salva por ser bonito e muito bem otimizado, e só. Serve pra passar um tempo com uma historia em que você não precisa pensar muito.