SlasherMcGirk
Subspace is still leagues better than world of light. Character additions were awesome but some of the gameplay needs to be tweaked a bit to reach that 10/10 score.
2015
Unlike most I actually think I might like SG0 better than the first. Really though I think of them as one complete experiance. I loved the way the game goes into Okabe's depression and madness. I think the game did an excellent job at that. I was continuley impressed with the story and direction and even though I knew how it was going to end just based on the fact on when it takes place. I think they nailed it. I think the series highest highs come from this game. It has a different feel compared to the first but that's intentional. I was fully into it. Loved the more context it gave to the first game. I went in thinking that SG doesn't need a followup it's already complete to thinking that this game is mandatory to the experiance. So well done devs.
Platinum #57
Platinum #57
2023
I like to consider myself a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. I have great memories of playing all the single player games throughout the years. I like the idea that every entry is a fresh take with a new story and set of characters and for the most part I have enjoyed the vast majority of them. I think as the years go by the last few entries FF12-15 I have had rather sour experiances with but with each new entry I like to keep an open mind. However after so many mainline duds it was hard to get excited for FF16 and I told myself that this time I was going to wait and not buy into the hype and play this day 1. I had watched a few trailers the last couple of years and they really didn't do anything for me in any way. Neither a negative or positive reaction. I couldn't even tell much of what it was even about or how it would play. But like I said I've been burnt the last few years on the past entries that i decided to wait. After about a month after the release. I had an open slot to play something new and with a bunch of free time coming up. It has been awhile since playing a big RPG and despite me saying I wasn't gunna be suckered into playing this at full price, I ended up just doing that. I still have love for this franchise and I want this to be good. I know next to nothing about it but all the major outlets have been singing it's praises for the recently released demo and reviews.
Starting FF16 the setting depicts a classic FF midevel esque locale with a focus on struggling kingdoms in a magic filled world that is ruled and governed by magic giving crystals that fuel the kingdoms prosperity and ways of life. This also coupled with more realisticly designed characters (well for FF) compared to the last entries did inspire some confidence that I would like this direction. However I feared it was very similar to FF12, and I would get lost in all the names, subkingdoms and detailed lore that was so heavy with politacal intrigue. I can say FF16 was not like that and even though it wares it clear game of thrones inspirations well, it is a simple story and very easy to keep track of it's huge world and lore. One of the many things I despise about FF13 is how much story and lore is thrown in the datalogs baried in the menu. When I learned that FF16 had a active time lore feature, I feared it was going to be just like that game. Burying crucial plot details and information critical for understand whats going on and figuring out the world into packed away long text info dumps. I hated that so much. Missing context of scenes and details because I didn't pause the game to read a 15min info dump. So hearing that FF16 has a active time lore feature, I instantly groan. To my surprise however it's implementation is very well done. At anytime during a cutscene, you can pause the game and open up the active time lore and it will tell you at that moment who each character is, what faction they belong to, their relationship to you and everything that has happened to them at the current point in the story. Not only characters but locations, words and factions are displayed in detail. It's a very nice feature if you haven't played in awhile to catch you up on whats going one or who this is or if you forgoten what that word means. It doesn't lock away critical info you can only find there or explains things that happen offscreen. Catches you up in the moment. There is also a really well done family tree for all the characters and a world history map feature about how the world is reacting to the current point in the story. I think this is a fantastic implementation of a lore feature for a massive RPG such as this and worth highlighting.
As for the story and characters FF16 drew me in from the get go. I think the opening act of the phoenix gate is really well done and a great introduction to the characters and world. It's a good start for learning Clive and what his place in the world is and right away we know where his ideals and goals lie. I think for the most part I like all the characters in this game. I think there isn't a single design that I felt was awful or felt out of place. Everyone looks stylish but at the same time something a person of this world would wear. As far as personalities go almost all the characters have character and a connection to you and what's going one with the story. Which isn't always the case for these kinda games. This random ninja guy joins your party cause he's cool ect ect. My problem with FF16 is that I think the games nose dives hard after the opening chapters. Nearly every character in this game while I find to be likable to varing degrees never have any kind of arc, growth or anything interesting happen to them. The characters of FF16 are the definition of what you see is what you get. Which is a shame because I think there is a foundation here but everything is so one dimentional. I think the voice acting is good, except for CId I can not stand the preformance from that character. I know what they were going for and nothing against the actor but I can't understand so much of what he says because a lot of his dialog is mumbled and hard to hear or make out what he is saying. It's just the way he talks. I wanted subtitles on just for that character. Rant over. Like I was saying there isn't much to work with when it comes to the characters. I feel like Clive is the same person he was at the start of the game as he is at the end of the game. It's frustrating too because with so much inner connected drama that could and should happen everything fizzles out and I get nothing. Then when something does happen it's so over the top melodramtic that it's hard to take seriously, but more on that later.
The story is simple to follow and there is hardly any twists and turns. It's a simple we are doing this mission and the whole game is just that. SImple good kingdoms vs bad kingdoms controlled by evil. Look that's fine if that's what you wanna do. I'm totally cool with it but do some interesting things from point A to point B. Have some drama with the characters. Every main character is like connected but they treat each other just like their combat buddies. Everything feels so bland and one dimentional.
After the opening chapters when you meet up with Cid at the Hideway for the first time is when the game takes a real nose dive in quality. This is the point where FF16's problems become aparent to me. At this point there are long stretches of cutscenes and cutscenes of just characters talking back and forth back and forth. Some times to move the plot along but a lot of the times it's just Clive talking to every god damn person about mundane stuff and what they are doing ad nauseum. This would be fine if it was meaningful or interesting but it drags so hard. It feel it's longer and more drawn out than Metal Gear Solid 4 or some other heavy story game. Then after all that they finally introduce side missions. Yes finally, let me stab something with my sword now. Nope, they just consist of walking all the way over here and talking to this guy to go all the way over here to pick up some wooden planks and bring them back to the first guy. Okay that is some real time wasting shit mission design but fine whatever it's the first one CLEARLY they won't all be like this. HA HA nope 95% of sub missions is exactly this or go to this spot in the world map, kill this one jobber enemy group and come back. In the year of 2023 this is not acceptable mission design. Hearing 20 min of a sub mission set up for it only to devolve into that and most of the time not even be important or revelevant at all is madening . But the shit cherry on top of these terrible missions is that the reward for completing them is paltry crumbs that even a peasant wouldn't want.
So what makes them so bad? You are ever only rewarded in gold and crafting materials and a small amount of exp and ability points. Now I know what you must be thinking well that doesn't sound bad, heck that sounds quite good, well sorry to inform you but it's not. Gold for starters is so plentiful it's meaningless. What can you even buy with gold? You can restock up on potions and bottles and buy weapons and armor. What's wrong with that you say, well all the weapons and armor you can buy are always underpowered and weaker than what you can forge at the smithy so there is no reason to buy them. Well you can buy materials? Sure you can but battles earn you more materials that you can ever possibly need. There is no need to farm them or stockpile them. They are so plentiful it is counter intuitive to why they are even in the game to start with. So you can buy potions and bottles everytime you need to refill your limited inventory space. Great 4 hours into the game you probually have enough gold to buy them the rest of the game. The only other thing to buy with gold is super over priced juke box tracks you can play at your hideout. Great okay gold is meaningless. After my two playthroughs I had someting like 100,000,000
gold and nothing to spend it on. So materials and gold are useless. So doing sub missions has no point. Oh wait you do get exp and ability points for completing them. Outside big story fights the exp and ability points you get from doing sub missions is super small and is about the same as just doing a couple of battles in the wild. So again there is no point to taking on these long fetch quest missions that waste your time and pad out the story sections with "gameplay" missions. If there was some character or story to these missions like in the Yakuza games they would be worth it for that but the vast majority of them are piles of nothing. A lot of decent ones open up at the end of the game but that is no excuse for the majority being this way. Terrible.
Let's talk about the gameplay now. This is where a lot of people live or die by this game. Let me say this first. I am not a fan of the action direction the series has taken in the last few main line entries. However, I look at Final Fantasy games as individual experiances as fresh and open takes so I am not opposed to different directions. I do not have a problem if this game wants to be an action game and not a RPG. I don't want it to or prefer it to go that way but I don't hold it against it. I do however will hold it against having shallow boring meaningless action gameplay. The game play in FF16 is so bad it makes my head hurt. It's bad as an RPG it's bad as the action game it wants to be. It's like the goal was to create a combat system that literally any player at any level could complete and feel like they are doing relevant stuff and seeing it on the screen. This isn't a bad philosophy and I welcome the idea of inclusion for types of players but this is NOT the way to do it. FF16 feels like a combat engine that has all the accessiblity features of an action game turned on at the same time. So how does combat work, lets break it down. You have four buttons that each do a different action. Square is your meele attack button, Triangle is you long range magic attack button and Circle is a movement ability (we will call it that) and the X button is a jump. R1 is also a dodge button. That's your basics. So meele is a simple five or so hit combo and what you will be doing the majority of the time. Magic attacks are so weak and redundant there is reason to spam the rapid fire button presses to hurl weak element attacks. It's main function is if you hold the attack it is a bit more powerful and it launces the enemy up in the air so If you want you can jump up and strike with your sword and do a little air combo.
At several points throughout the game you get what are called eikon abilities which are essentially summon moves that do a special attack. You can equip two eikon abilities at one time and by the end of the game you can equip 3 different eikons at once giving you 6 special attacks. These can range from lightning bolts, magic missiles and fire attacks and so forth. These attacks do more damage than regualr attacks for sure but their main utility is they cause much more stagger damage.
So every enemy in the game has a stagger bar. This is a feature that has been in the last few FF games and I am not a fan of it at all. Essentially you do regular attacks and special to weaken an enemies stagger bar and when it's completly depleted they are stunned and in a down position and slowly recover their stagger before the bar fills back up. While they are in this state all attacks do 1.5x damage. And that is the basics of combat. That's it. Simplistic as it gets. Now im not daft to realize that past FF games and turn paced RPG's in general are simple as well. So why do I not like the combat in this game?
The one word that describes my entire feelings about FF16, it drags. Combat is so slow and slimplistic that it becomes a complete chore and I want it to be over the second it starts. What I like about the old FF games despite being slow and simple is that I feel like my actions having meaning and purpose a real strategy to them. Here every encounter operates the exact same way. Immeaditly use your eikon abilites in a rotating fasion and simply mash square until the enemy becomes staggered. Then use those whatever eikon abilities you have left and then just mash square until they get back up. Here's the thing i didn't mention earlier about the eikons abilities, they are all on a cool down timer. These aren't combat enhancing abilities or mechanics to give you extra strategy or change your approach. The majority of them are one hitting move that does more damage than your regular attack and then go on cooldown before you can use again. The cool down timer is obviously longer the stronger the attack so by the later half everything has long timers. It feels so restrictive and rudementry. Combat is the same everytime. Doesn't matter what the boss or enemy is the strat is the same. Use abilites and mash attack, use abilities and mash attack > stagger > repeat. It's so dull and unsatisfying it's maddening. Even i wanted to do something cool like do a ground combo, pop up a magic attack to launch the enemy and jump up to do an air attack and come crashing down to finish with a fire burst. Thats sounds so cool huh. Well guess what that is counter intutive to how the game wants you to play it. It says it's an action game but it's more of a masher that wants to you spam the same chained attacks to get the best levels of dagame per second so you can get the stagger faster and end the fight faster. Why would I wanna do that? Well beause fighters last forever in this game. There are two types of enemies in this game. Lights and heavies. Light enemies can be launched in the air and generally how lower amount of health. If every enemy in the game was like this than maybe combat wouldn't feel like such a slog but no. If there are light enemies on the field to counter act thier lightness the games throws dozens of enemies at one time at you. That's not the worst of it though.
Heavy enemies and bosses suck the big one. Heavy enemies are any non human or small creature. They don't react to your hit strikes and have a ton of health. I mean a ton of health. This is why this game feels like such a chore to play. They don't react to hardly anything and you are just constantly mashing attack, useing a cool down ability and mashing away again. It feels brainless. No thought. My finger cramp from mashing so much in such repition and I have to do it because I want this long fight to end faster. Evertime I see a group of enemies and two heavy enemies I just audibly groan becuase I know, know this is going to be a test of will power.
So offensive gameplay sucks. What about that dodge button? Is it useful. Well yes actually. The dodge is very good. It's quick and has a huge invinciblity window. It feels an eqaual amount of skill and precsion balanced with a healthy amount of leanency. Plus if you dodge and strike at the same time you get this cool animation of a precision strike. It feels good. Okay a positive to the combat. Where can we mess it up here. Well for one that cool dodge strike, yea well it does slightly more damage than a regular strike. Like if a regular attack does 100 damage then this does 130 damage. It's so small in the grand scheme of the fight it might as well not exist. Another problem i have in combat is that your walk speed is so slow. So imagine this scenario an attack sends me flying back and I wanna run up to the enemy to continue my assult. It's taking too long you know whats faster. Dodging. Let's spam dodge towards the boss to get up there quicker before he jumps away or teleports to the other side of the arena. Opps a projectile hit me because I dodged right into it. Well thats my fault. Guess I'll just walk to him. Meh screw this is way too slow. Continue to spam dodge as a movement.
There is also a limit burst mechanic as well. So in past Final Fantasy games a limit burst would normally be a characters special move or ultimate attack that is special and unique to them. Well FF16 only has one playable character. So the limit burst here is more like a devil trigger or power up state. Taking damage or dealing damage will fill the gauge up over time. Pretty standard stuff. Then at anytime when it's full you can activate it and cancel out of any animation to go into a powered up state. From what I can tell you don't get a significant defense boost and the damage boost is minimal at best. It does make your attacks faster and your attacks aren't interupted and your health slowly regens at a very small rate but that is essentially all there is to it. I think Clive looks cool during it but mechaniclly i don't see the point of this at all. It never made a significant difference in a fight. It's like they just wanted a frenzy attack mode to look cool but didn't give it anything to make you wanna use it. Strange.
The last thing I wanna say about the combat is dedicated to one eikon in piticular, the last one you get Odin. Odin is massively broken and overpowered system that it has to be talked about. The last 3/4 of the game is when you get this eikon but it's such a game changer it needs to be mentioned. It's mechanic is this, you replace your sword with another sword that does little to no damage but instead builds up a seperate meter called zanzetusken (FF thing) when this meter is maxed out you can unleash a screen filling single attack that will instantly kill all normal enemies and heavily damage big enemies. At this point this completly changes the way the game is played to an extenet because this is such a powerful tool that there is no reason NOT to use it. So then the game starts unloading 20+ enemies at a time because it knows you have this tool now. My problem with this is that this mechanic forces your play to be even more restrictive than what it already was before and it was very restritive to start with. Now it's all about landing this odin eikon ability named dancing sword. This slow starting attack when landed does a huge attack that lasts for 30 seconds that fills the meter up big time. Then you wail with your weak sword to fiill up the rest and repeat. So get used to seeing this long overly winded attack animation because you will start to see it every battle as it's the easies and quickest way to dispatch the massive fodder enemies the game now puts on you. But don't worry if you thought you thumb would get a break it doesn't cauase heavies and bosses can't be insta killed like this and most times it does like 10% damgage to them. So back to the mashing. I think this makes the last fourth a even bigger slog as the dungeons and boss guantlents are get more and more elaborate as the games go on. The pacing is down right terrible here.
Let's move on and talk about the highlight of the game as most would say. The story boss fights. The whole marketing of this game since the start was always highlighting the epic battles and struggles of those who can summon or turn into huge epic eikon monsters and the massive battles. Anyone who plays FF16 will tell you these are the best part of the game. These battles are built like giant godzilla vs king kong epics. Where the fight constantly shifts from Clive and turning into the beast Ifrit and taking on massive foes in epic fashion. To say the set pieces don't have any effort or thought put into them would be flat out wrong. Clearly a large amount of the budget went towards these multi-stage fights, with several pieces of music and over the top effects and graphic fidelty to show a very momumental moment in the game and leave a lasting impression. This is obvious. This is what fans of FF16 love. I get it. If you like it it's fine. I, however hated these segments so much.
Let me explain why these segments did nothing for me. Overall it's just way way too over the top. I get that why some like it but it's too much for me. Yes even in a Final Fantasy game some magic bullshit is just too much. It's such a drastic difference from the regualar battles and world the game has built up and then we take it to Dragon Ball Z levels of super beams and space schenangins. You can't have a game of thrones style epic and design and then throw in fast and furious feats then go back to being grounded again. It doesn't work for me at all. There has to be a level or wall were I can see or understand what the limit is. These set peices go on for so long and are already at a super high power level and nonsense on the first one. Each one gets longer and more dramatic as well. The best way to describe it is if a child had two monster toys and it's hand and he just constantly bashed them togather to make explosions. That's what it feels like to me. Constant stuff happening. Just particle effects everywhere. It looks stunning and you can tell they had fun making it but to me it's a visual throw up of stuff. There's just no end to it. Start as clive fight the boss > he morphs into a big monster > you morph in to a monster > you fight > he kicks your ass dramaticly > fight again as clive > slowly turn back into monster and get the edge > fight some more > Kill boss in epic fashion. The eikon fights play very simialr to how combat is as a human just with different visuals so same issues apply here . The big difference is that a lot of these fights are heavily scripted. So while the boss may have a huge health bar and visiably is taking damgage. It's scripted to the points to when the fights shifts to the next part. I feel like the small damage im doing doesn't even matter becuase im just waiting for the scripted part to end so I can do the real fight part. The complete over the top nature and contrast to the rest of the game just doesn't work for me. I love over the top stuff I do but It has to be grounded and I have to know how the rules work and where the ceiling is. One part Ifrit gets his arm cut off and so I would think oh man this is the dramatic part where he might lose here and this will effect the rest of the fight but 30 seconds later he just magically regrows it. There's no rules here. So when the fights finally do finish and you get that epic FF victory cheer I feel like it's unwaranted as I didn't feel like "I" did anything and just thinking oh I guess it's over now, kinda hard to tell until I here that jingle.
So what about the rest of the game? I can't go over everything and boy I could talk about my experiance more but I'll try to wrap it up a bit. Inbetween the eikon fights, the long dungeon crawls of repat enemies and tedious sub missions. We simply just skip from new town to new town on our quest to destroy the crystals. Oh that's right I didn't even get into the main quest. So in this world there are several mother crystals that grant a kingdom a eikon to defend it and magic bearers to spread magic to the kingdom. Thos who are born as a eikon to summon the big monsters are treated like royalty and those who are born with the innate ability of magic are called bearers. Everything in this world is sustained through magic. Drinking water, fire for light and cooking, wind for turnbines and aire ect ect. Its a fantasy world and magic is what makes their day to day life go round. However the people who can cast magic are not super powerful wizards or anything but can summon simple elements for use. This causes regular people to relay upon them and they treat them as slaves. As they think they are put on this earth to serves and make their lives easier. As god and the people intended. This is how it is in the story but I feel like it's kinda backwards like i get there are more regular people in this world and magics bearers are more limited. Why not rise up against your masters kinda thing you have magic and they don't. I dunno. Well so our heroes decided that if they destroy all the crystals and erase magic from the wolrd everybody would be free and the world more pure and less chaos fighting over things and so forth. That's the main crutch the the story. We just go from land to land doing just that and at the end we fight the big bad. Like I said at the start simple story. Just remember though this is spread through like an 80 hour campaign so I would have liked a lot more depth than what we got. The Dion character was built up so well but I feel like it ultimately lead to know where and a very unsatisfying end. Jill was mishandeled the entire game, giving nothing to do and be a complete poor romantic partner for Clive. She had so many oppurtunities for some cool moments and nada. Clive and Joshua are the highlights but I would have loved to see some more drama or disagreements from them and how they would react to each other but everything deloves into "he's my brother" "I"m his sheild" "we can do anything" "power of family" type stuff. That's what's frustrating to me there is such good foundation to these characters and designs but nothing meaningful happens to them. They are all one note. They don't grow or have memorable scenes outside the epic fights. It's not enough. That couple with the terrible combat. I just cant'. I fell asleep more times than I can count on this game. In the middle of fights even. Look I know I'm getting older and long working days and take a toll on you but games stimulate me and keep me engaged. This game did not. Not in combat, not in the long walk for fetch quests or the visual barf of the eikon battles. Even after completing the game and seeing I had just a few trophies left I even contemplated if I should play it again. And well....I did. I'm such a trophy whore.
On playthrough 2 I was just gonna play on the hard difficulty. Which isn't really harder it's just that enemies have more health. Great like they needed any more. The level cap is increased and new gear can be unlocked as the game goes on. You can upgrade your old great and items as well. Thats actually a really cool idea for a new game plus so I do give the game some regard there. I just wish I wanted to play it again. I reluctantly moved on. I was thinking if I skip all the cutscenes and just play the main story path surely it won't be too long of a play and then I feel I will get my completionist mental check and feel like I got my 70 bucks worth out of the game. Skipping cutscense really shows you just how much there are in this game. Just five min of pausing game, skipping scene, pausing game skipping scene ect. So for this play through I decided I was gonna use the cheat rings. Cheat rings you say? Well yes another feature of this game is that you start with a few cheat items to help players who can't play action games well. Like an auto dodge ring or a auto heal or auto combo ect. So your telling me that this dumbed down combat system was created not for accesibility but for regular players. Oh my god. Why the hell couldn't we have more freedom or depth in the combat from the start if we had these items for accessiblity or as an easy mode from the start. The game is already brain dead easy on the first play and not we can make it easier. I don't care anymore I put on the auto dodge ring. I just fights to end faster. Im speed running this playthrough and that was the mentality I had for my second run. The second go around just reinforce everything I felt about my first playthrough. How tedious the combat is and how much of a drag it was to play. Why am I even playing this again. Is this even worth it. Well im not playing anything else and I only have a few days before the next game I want comes out. Can't start a new game this soon so I was determined to finish. Watching that trophy title Final, Fantasy pop up was so releaving. Finally Fantasty 16 is done.
FF16 has a lot of problems so scoring it was a little hard because technically there is a lot of effort on show here especially the eikon fights. In the end though the drag of the submissions and terrible combat really kept my enjoyment down. I did like aspects of it though. I do like the characters and parts of the story. The big bad was hella stupid though. There was a strong foundation in the world. So thinking about it would I rather play this over the average action game? RPG? Or any other game? and the answer is no. So that's why I feel like a 4/10 is waranted. Still like this one more than FF13 and maybe more than FF15 though but those are low bars as well.
Platinum #184
Starting FF16 the setting depicts a classic FF midevel esque locale with a focus on struggling kingdoms in a magic filled world that is ruled and governed by magic giving crystals that fuel the kingdoms prosperity and ways of life. This also coupled with more realisticly designed characters (well for FF) compared to the last entries did inspire some confidence that I would like this direction. However I feared it was very similar to FF12, and I would get lost in all the names, subkingdoms and detailed lore that was so heavy with politacal intrigue. I can say FF16 was not like that and even though it wares it clear game of thrones inspirations well, it is a simple story and very easy to keep track of it's huge world and lore. One of the many things I despise about FF13 is how much story and lore is thrown in the datalogs baried in the menu. When I learned that FF16 had a active time lore feature, I feared it was going to be just like that game. Burying crucial plot details and information critical for understand whats going on and figuring out the world into packed away long text info dumps. I hated that so much. Missing context of scenes and details because I didn't pause the game to read a 15min info dump. So hearing that FF16 has a active time lore feature, I instantly groan. To my surprise however it's implementation is very well done. At anytime during a cutscene, you can pause the game and open up the active time lore and it will tell you at that moment who each character is, what faction they belong to, their relationship to you and everything that has happened to them at the current point in the story. Not only characters but locations, words and factions are displayed in detail. It's a very nice feature if you haven't played in awhile to catch you up on whats going one or who this is or if you forgoten what that word means. It doesn't lock away critical info you can only find there or explains things that happen offscreen. Catches you up in the moment. There is also a really well done family tree for all the characters and a world history map feature about how the world is reacting to the current point in the story. I think this is a fantastic implementation of a lore feature for a massive RPG such as this and worth highlighting.
As for the story and characters FF16 drew me in from the get go. I think the opening act of the phoenix gate is really well done and a great introduction to the characters and world. It's a good start for learning Clive and what his place in the world is and right away we know where his ideals and goals lie. I think for the most part I like all the characters in this game. I think there isn't a single design that I felt was awful or felt out of place. Everyone looks stylish but at the same time something a person of this world would wear. As far as personalities go almost all the characters have character and a connection to you and what's going one with the story. Which isn't always the case for these kinda games. This random ninja guy joins your party cause he's cool ect ect. My problem with FF16 is that I think the games nose dives hard after the opening chapters. Nearly every character in this game while I find to be likable to varing degrees never have any kind of arc, growth or anything interesting happen to them. The characters of FF16 are the definition of what you see is what you get. Which is a shame because I think there is a foundation here but everything is so one dimentional. I think the voice acting is good, except for CId I can not stand the preformance from that character. I know what they were going for and nothing against the actor but I can't understand so much of what he says because a lot of his dialog is mumbled and hard to hear or make out what he is saying. It's just the way he talks. I wanted subtitles on just for that character. Rant over. Like I was saying there isn't much to work with when it comes to the characters. I feel like Clive is the same person he was at the start of the game as he is at the end of the game. It's frustrating too because with so much inner connected drama that could and should happen everything fizzles out and I get nothing. Then when something does happen it's so over the top melodramtic that it's hard to take seriously, but more on that later.
The story is simple to follow and there is hardly any twists and turns. It's a simple we are doing this mission and the whole game is just that. SImple good kingdoms vs bad kingdoms controlled by evil. Look that's fine if that's what you wanna do. I'm totally cool with it but do some interesting things from point A to point B. Have some drama with the characters. Every main character is like connected but they treat each other just like their combat buddies. Everything feels so bland and one dimentional.
After the opening chapters when you meet up with Cid at the Hideway for the first time is when the game takes a real nose dive in quality. This is the point where FF16's problems become aparent to me. At this point there are long stretches of cutscenes and cutscenes of just characters talking back and forth back and forth. Some times to move the plot along but a lot of the times it's just Clive talking to every god damn person about mundane stuff and what they are doing ad nauseum. This would be fine if it was meaningful or interesting but it drags so hard. It feel it's longer and more drawn out than Metal Gear Solid 4 or some other heavy story game. Then after all that they finally introduce side missions. Yes finally, let me stab something with my sword now. Nope, they just consist of walking all the way over here and talking to this guy to go all the way over here to pick up some wooden planks and bring them back to the first guy. Okay that is some real time wasting shit mission design but fine whatever it's the first one CLEARLY they won't all be like this. HA HA nope 95% of sub missions is exactly this or go to this spot in the world map, kill this one jobber enemy group and come back. In the year of 2023 this is not acceptable mission design. Hearing 20 min of a sub mission set up for it only to devolve into that and most of the time not even be important or revelevant at all is madening . But the shit cherry on top of these terrible missions is that the reward for completing them is paltry crumbs that even a peasant wouldn't want.
So what makes them so bad? You are ever only rewarded in gold and crafting materials and a small amount of exp and ability points. Now I know what you must be thinking well that doesn't sound bad, heck that sounds quite good, well sorry to inform you but it's not. Gold for starters is so plentiful it's meaningless. What can you even buy with gold? You can restock up on potions and bottles and buy weapons and armor. What's wrong with that you say, well all the weapons and armor you can buy are always underpowered and weaker than what you can forge at the smithy so there is no reason to buy them. Well you can buy materials? Sure you can but battles earn you more materials that you can ever possibly need. There is no need to farm them or stockpile them. They are so plentiful it is counter intuitive to why they are even in the game to start with. So you can buy potions and bottles everytime you need to refill your limited inventory space. Great 4 hours into the game you probually have enough gold to buy them the rest of the game. The only other thing to buy with gold is super over priced juke box tracks you can play at your hideout. Great okay gold is meaningless. After my two playthroughs I had someting like 100,000,000
gold and nothing to spend it on. So materials and gold are useless. So doing sub missions has no point. Oh wait you do get exp and ability points for completing them. Outside big story fights the exp and ability points you get from doing sub missions is super small and is about the same as just doing a couple of battles in the wild. So again there is no point to taking on these long fetch quest missions that waste your time and pad out the story sections with "gameplay" missions. If there was some character or story to these missions like in the Yakuza games they would be worth it for that but the vast majority of them are piles of nothing. A lot of decent ones open up at the end of the game but that is no excuse for the majority being this way. Terrible.
Let's talk about the gameplay now. This is where a lot of people live or die by this game. Let me say this first. I am not a fan of the action direction the series has taken in the last few main line entries. However, I look at Final Fantasy games as individual experiances as fresh and open takes so I am not opposed to different directions. I do not have a problem if this game wants to be an action game and not a RPG. I don't want it to or prefer it to go that way but I don't hold it against it. I do however will hold it against having shallow boring meaningless action gameplay. The game play in FF16 is so bad it makes my head hurt. It's bad as an RPG it's bad as the action game it wants to be. It's like the goal was to create a combat system that literally any player at any level could complete and feel like they are doing relevant stuff and seeing it on the screen. This isn't a bad philosophy and I welcome the idea of inclusion for types of players but this is NOT the way to do it. FF16 feels like a combat engine that has all the accessiblity features of an action game turned on at the same time. So how does combat work, lets break it down. You have four buttons that each do a different action. Square is your meele attack button, Triangle is you long range magic attack button and Circle is a movement ability (we will call it that) and the X button is a jump. R1 is also a dodge button. That's your basics. So meele is a simple five or so hit combo and what you will be doing the majority of the time. Magic attacks are so weak and redundant there is reason to spam the rapid fire button presses to hurl weak element attacks. It's main function is if you hold the attack it is a bit more powerful and it launces the enemy up in the air so If you want you can jump up and strike with your sword and do a little air combo.
At several points throughout the game you get what are called eikon abilities which are essentially summon moves that do a special attack. You can equip two eikon abilities at one time and by the end of the game you can equip 3 different eikons at once giving you 6 special attacks. These can range from lightning bolts, magic missiles and fire attacks and so forth. These attacks do more damage than regualr attacks for sure but their main utility is they cause much more stagger damage.
So every enemy in the game has a stagger bar. This is a feature that has been in the last few FF games and I am not a fan of it at all. Essentially you do regular attacks and special to weaken an enemies stagger bar and when it's completly depleted they are stunned and in a down position and slowly recover their stagger before the bar fills back up. While they are in this state all attacks do 1.5x damage. And that is the basics of combat. That's it. Simplistic as it gets. Now im not daft to realize that past FF games and turn paced RPG's in general are simple as well. So why do I not like the combat in this game?
The one word that describes my entire feelings about FF16, it drags. Combat is so slow and slimplistic that it becomes a complete chore and I want it to be over the second it starts. What I like about the old FF games despite being slow and simple is that I feel like my actions having meaning and purpose a real strategy to them. Here every encounter operates the exact same way. Immeaditly use your eikon abilites in a rotating fasion and simply mash square until the enemy becomes staggered. Then use those whatever eikon abilities you have left and then just mash square until they get back up. Here's the thing i didn't mention earlier about the eikons abilities, they are all on a cool down timer. These aren't combat enhancing abilities or mechanics to give you extra strategy or change your approach. The majority of them are one hitting move that does more damage than your regular attack and then go on cooldown before you can use again. The cool down timer is obviously longer the stronger the attack so by the later half everything has long timers. It feels so restrictive and rudementry. Combat is the same everytime. Doesn't matter what the boss or enemy is the strat is the same. Use abilites and mash attack, use abilities and mash attack > stagger > repeat. It's so dull and unsatisfying it's maddening. Even i wanted to do something cool like do a ground combo, pop up a magic attack to launch the enemy and jump up to do an air attack and come crashing down to finish with a fire burst. Thats sounds so cool huh. Well guess what that is counter intutive to how the game wants you to play it. It says it's an action game but it's more of a masher that wants to you spam the same chained attacks to get the best levels of dagame per second so you can get the stagger faster and end the fight faster. Why would I wanna do that? Well beause fighters last forever in this game. There are two types of enemies in this game. Lights and heavies. Light enemies can be launched in the air and generally how lower amount of health. If every enemy in the game was like this than maybe combat wouldn't feel like such a slog but no. If there are light enemies on the field to counter act thier lightness the games throws dozens of enemies at one time at you. That's not the worst of it though.
Heavy enemies and bosses suck the big one. Heavy enemies are any non human or small creature. They don't react to your hit strikes and have a ton of health. I mean a ton of health. This is why this game feels like such a chore to play. They don't react to hardly anything and you are just constantly mashing attack, useing a cool down ability and mashing away again. It feels brainless. No thought. My finger cramp from mashing so much in such repition and I have to do it because I want this long fight to end faster. Evertime I see a group of enemies and two heavy enemies I just audibly groan becuase I know, know this is going to be a test of will power.
So offensive gameplay sucks. What about that dodge button? Is it useful. Well yes actually. The dodge is very good. It's quick and has a huge invinciblity window. It feels an eqaual amount of skill and precsion balanced with a healthy amount of leanency. Plus if you dodge and strike at the same time you get this cool animation of a precision strike. It feels good. Okay a positive to the combat. Where can we mess it up here. Well for one that cool dodge strike, yea well it does slightly more damage than a regular strike. Like if a regular attack does 100 damage then this does 130 damage. It's so small in the grand scheme of the fight it might as well not exist. Another problem i have in combat is that your walk speed is so slow. So imagine this scenario an attack sends me flying back and I wanna run up to the enemy to continue my assult. It's taking too long you know whats faster. Dodging. Let's spam dodge towards the boss to get up there quicker before he jumps away or teleports to the other side of the arena. Opps a projectile hit me because I dodged right into it. Well thats my fault. Guess I'll just walk to him. Meh screw this is way too slow. Continue to spam dodge as a movement.
There is also a limit burst mechanic as well. So in past Final Fantasy games a limit burst would normally be a characters special move or ultimate attack that is special and unique to them. Well FF16 only has one playable character. So the limit burst here is more like a devil trigger or power up state. Taking damage or dealing damage will fill the gauge up over time. Pretty standard stuff. Then at anytime when it's full you can activate it and cancel out of any animation to go into a powered up state. From what I can tell you don't get a significant defense boost and the damage boost is minimal at best. It does make your attacks faster and your attacks aren't interupted and your health slowly regens at a very small rate but that is essentially all there is to it. I think Clive looks cool during it but mechaniclly i don't see the point of this at all. It never made a significant difference in a fight. It's like they just wanted a frenzy attack mode to look cool but didn't give it anything to make you wanna use it. Strange.
The last thing I wanna say about the combat is dedicated to one eikon in piticular, the last one you get Odin. Odin is massively broken and overpowered system that it has to be talked about. The last 3/4 of the game is when you get this eikon but it's such a game changer it needs to be mentioned. It's mechanic is this, you replace your sword with another sword that does little to no damage but instead builds up a seperate meter called zanzetusken (FF thing) when this meter is maxed out you can unleash a screen filling single attack that will instantly kill all normal enemies and heavily damage big enemies. At this point this completly changes the way the game is played to an extenet because this is such a powerful tool that there is no reason NOT to use it. So then the game starts unloading 20+ enemies at a time because it knows you have this tool now. My problem with this is that this mechanic forces your play to be even more restrictive than what it already was before and it was very restritive to start with. Now it's all about landing this odin eikon ability named dancing sword. This slow starting attack when landed does a huge attack that lasts for 30 seconds that fills the meter up big time. Then you wail with your weak sword to fiill up the rest and repeat. So get used to seeing this long overly winded attack animation because you will start to see it every battle as it's the easies and quickest way to dispatch the massive fodder enemies the game now puts on you. But don't worry if you thought you thumb would get a break it doesn't cauase heavies and bosses can't be insta killed like this and most times it does like 10% damgage to them. So back to the mashing. I think this makes the last fourth a even bigger slog as the dungeons and boss guantlents are get more and more elaborate as the games go on. The pacing is down right terrible here.
Let's move on and talk about the highlight of the game as most would say. The story boss fights. The whole marketing of this game since the start was always highlighting the epic battles and struggles of those who can summon or turn into huge epic eikon monsters and the massive battles. Anyone who plays FF16 will tell you these are the best part of the game. These battles are built like giant godzilla vs king kong epics. Where the fight constantly shifts from Clive and turning into the beast Ifrit and taking on massive foes in epic fashion. To say the set pieces don't have any effort or thought put into them would be flat out wrong. Clearly a large amount of the budget went towards these multi-stage fights, with several pieces of music and over the top effects and graphic fidelty to show a very momumental moment in the game and leave a lasting impression. This is obvious. This is what fans of FF16 love. I get it. If you like it it's fine. I, however hated these segments so much.
Let me explain why these segments did nothing for me. Overall it's just way way too over the top. I get that why some like it but it's too much for me. Yes even in a Final Fantasy game some magic bullshit is just too much. It's such a drastic difference from the regualar battles and world the game has built up and then we take it to Dragon Ball Z levels of super beams and space schenangins. You can't have a game of thrones style epic and design and then throw in fast and furious feats then go back to being grounded again. It doesn't work for me at all. There has to be a level or wall were I can see or understand what the limit is. These set peices go on for so long and are already at a super high power level and nonsense on the first one. Each one gets longer and more dramatic as well. The best way to describe it is if a child had two monster toys and it's hand and he just constantly bashed them togather to make explosions. That's what it feels like to me. Constant stuff happening. Just particle effects everywhere. It looks stunning and you can tell they had fun making it but to me it's a visual throw up of stuff. There's just no end to it. Start as clive fight the boss > he morphs into a big monster > you morph in to a monster > you fight > he kicks your ass dramaticly > fight again as clive > slowly turn back into monster and get the edge > fight some more > Kill boss in epic fashion. The eikon fights play very simialr to how combat is as a human just with different visuals so same issues apply here . The big difference is that a lot of these fights are heavily scripted. So while the boss may have a huge health bar and visiably is taking damgage. It's scripted to the points to when the fights shifts to the next part. I feel like the small damage im doing doesn't even matter becuase im just waiting for the scripted part to end so I can do the real fight part. The complete over the top nature and contrast to the rest of the game just doesn't work for me. I love over the top stuff I do but It has to be grounded and I have to know how the rules work and where the ceiling is. One part Ifrit gets his arm cut off and so I would think oh man this is the dramatic part where he might lose here and this will effect the rest of the fight but 30 seconds later he just magically regrows it. There's no rules here. So when the fights finally do finish and you get that epic FF victory cheer I feel like it's unwaranted as I didn't feel like "I" did anything and just thinking oh I guess it's over now, kinda hard to tell until I here that jingle.
So what about the rest of the game? I can't go over everything and boy I could talk about my experiance more but I'll try to wrap it up a bit. Inbetween the eikon fights, the long dungeon crawls of repat enemies and tedious sub missions. We simply just skip from new town to new town on our quest to destroy the crystals. Oh that's right I didn't even get into the main quest. So in this world there are several mother crystals that grant a kingdom a eikon to defend it and magic bearers to spread magic to the kingdom. Thos who are born as a eikon to summon the big monsters are treated like royalty and those who are born with the innate ability of magic are called bearers. Everything in this world is sustained through magic. Drinking water, fire for light and cooking, wind for turnbines and aire ect ect. Its a fantasy world and magic is what makes their day to day life go round. However the people who can cast magic are not super powerful wizards or anything but can summon simple elements for use. This causes regular people to relay upon them and they treat them as slaves. As they think they are put on this earth to serves and make their lives easier. As god and the people intended. This is how it is in the story but I feel like it's kinda backwards like i get there are more regular people in this world and magics bearers are more limited. Why not rise up against your masters kinda thing you have magic and they don't. I dunno. Well so our heroes decided that if they destroy all the crystals and erase magic from the wolrd everybody would be free and the world more pure and less chaos fighting over things and so forth. That's the main crutch the the story. We just go from land to land doing just that and at the end we fight the big bad. Like I said at the start simple story. Just remember though this is spread through like an 80 hour campaign so I would have liked a lot more depth than what we got. The Dion character was built up so well but I feel like it ultimately lead to know where and a very unsatisfying end. Jill was mishandeled the entire game, giving nothing to do and be a complete poor romantic partner for Clive. She had so many oppurtunities for some cool moments and nada. Clive and Joshua are the highlights but I would have loved to see some more drama or disagreements from them and how they would react to each other but everything deloves into "he's my brother" "I"m his sheild" "we can do anything" "power of family" type stuff. That's what's frustrating to me there is such good foundation to these characters and designs but nothing meaningful happens to them. They are all one note. They don't grow or have memorable scenes outside the epic fights. It's not enough. That couple with the terrible combat. I just cant'. I fell asleep more times than I can count on this game. In the middle of fights even. Look I know I'm getting older and long working days and take a toll on you but games stimulate me and keep me engaged. This game did not. Not in combat, not in the long walk for fetch quests or the visual barf of the eikon battles. Even after completing the game and seeing I had just a few trophies left I even contemplated if I should play it again. And well....I did. I'm such a trophy whore.
On playthrough 2 I was just gonna play on the hard difficulty. Which isn't really harder it's just that enemies have more health. Great like they needed any more. The level cap is increased and new gear can be unlocked as the game goes on. You can upgrade your old great and items as well. Thats actually a really cool idea for a new game plus so I do give the game some regard there. I just wish I wanted to play it again. I reluctantly moved on. I was thinking if I skip all the cutscenes and just play the main story path surely it won't be too long of a play and then I feel I will get my completionist mental check and feel like I got my 70 bucks worth out of the game. Skipping cutscense really shows you just how much there are in this game. Just five min of pausing game, skipping scene, pausing game skipping scene ect. So for this play through I decided I was gonna use the cheat rings. Cheat rings you say? Well yes another feature of this game is that you start with a few cheat items to help players who can't play action games well. Like an auto dodge ring or a auto heal or auto combo ect. So your telling me that this dumbed down combat system was created not for accesibility but for regular players. Oh my god. Why the hell couldn't we have more freedom or depth in the combat from the start if we had these items for accessiblity or as an easy mode from the start. The game is already brain dead easy on the first play and not we can make it easier. I don't care anymore I put on the auto dodge ring. I just fights to end faster. Im speed running this playthrough and that was the mentality I had for my second run. The second go around just reinforce everything I felt about my first playthrough. How tedious the combat is and how much of a drag it was to play. Why am I even playing this again. Is this even worth it. Well im not playing anything else and I only have a few days before the next game I want comes out. Can't start a new game this soon so I was determined to finish. Watching that trophy title Final, Fantasy pop up was so releaving. Finally Fantasty 16 is done.
FF16 has a lot of problems so scoring it was a little hard because technically there is a lot of effort on show here especially the eikon fights. In the end though the drag of the submissions and terrible combat really kept my enjoyment down. I did like aspects of it though. I do like the characters and parts of the story. The big bad was hella stupid though. There was a strong foundation in the world. So thinking about it would I rather play this over the average action game? RPG? Or any other game? and the answer is no. So that's why I feel like a 4/10 is waranted. Still like this one more than FF13 and maybe more than FF15 though but those are low bars as well.
Platinum #184
How good this game turned out is a miracle and testemtent to the fans of the series and bomber games. One glance at this game and a common person might just think that this is a quick port copy and pasting the visuals togather to make this game but this is far far from the truth. All the graphics, animation and AI were all created from scratch to look and imitate the oringal games. The amount of detail and work done is quite impressive and it's no wonder this game took like ten years to get to where it is today.
Essentially this game is 4 games in one. Streets of Rage 1-3 and one new games worth of content. The game has multiple paths and sections that interconnect all the games togather and make it one huge experiance leading to so many different outcomes one run could lead into. Through the games 7-8 stages where you end up and what ending you get is determined on the path you take. So many different endings and things too see.
So how do you mash up so many different games and have a cohesive gameplay experiance? This is were the game shines. The game sort of uses Streets of Rage 3 as a base and you can customize dozens upon dozens of details to make the game play how you want or how you remember it. The sheer amount of options is staggering but to be able play the ultimate SoR experiance how you want it is amazing. Do you want updated visuals effects like advanced lighting or shadows? Turn it on or off. Or how about only what the genesis could produce? Turn it on or off. Do you want slain enemies to scream like SoR1 or SoR2? Turn it on or off. Do you want your combo on whiff to keep repeating the first jab or do you want it to go through the whole thing? Do you want the timer on or off? Do you want Streets 2 specials or Streets 3 style of specials? Blood or guns added in? Frinedly fire? The amount of stuff goes on forever. It's so cool.
Gameplay has been perfected. The game is super balanced and has been updated and tweaked for like 5 straight years since it's original release. To say that this is the best version is an understatement. To me it's so good it has made the original versions obsolete. Thirteen year old me would drop have dead knowing I said that. The game has so many characters to choose from. You wanna play as Blaze sure. Do you wanna play as the Streets 1 version, Streets 2 version or the Streets 3 version. Or how about the beta version of Streets 2. You can play them all, with original look and movesets. Heck and when appropriate new moves where they didn't have any before. All the characters from the all 3 original games have added with all versions of them plus a new version of Adam to be in line with 2 and 3, plus 3 new characters.
Lastly I wanna talk about the replay value and extras. This game went well above and beyond the call here. Not only does the game have, branching paths and multiple endings but it has a ton of extra modes and options. There is standard Co Op and there is even Co Op with a customizable AI buddy, which is really cool if you play single player a lot and want simulate another player. SoRR comes with a shop feature where all the money you have earned in the game can be spent here to unlock new characters, cheats and options and new modes. Tons of unlockable options like all weapons are lightsabers or infinate ammo, health and lives, stage select, double enemies, enemies explode when killed, dead bodies stay on the screen when killed and so many more. Then you can also unlock a boss survival, endless attack mode, even mission mode and even a volleyball game. Then there is the grand daddy of unlockables. The Streets of Rage Maker. You can unlock a mode where you can create your own Streets of Rage game using the tools that made this very game. Not only that but you can upload them online and share and play with other peoples created campaigns. That is so fucking cool. I was never good at getting my PC to work with it and learning it but I have played dozens of others user created games. You can customize everything here music and backgrounds and be created and played straight from the game and using your option profile. So cool. Not only do you get the maker but also you get the SoRR editor. In the editor you can change all the names of the enemies, create several different alternate color options for all the playable characters and even tweak the enemy AI if you want.
This game is the ultimate package and it's FREE! FREE! It was created by the fans for the fans. The amount of content here is inspiring. Personally this is most likely my most played video game of all time and there is no reason I ever see that changing. There's always the itch to play the classic campaing, or play a new user created one or try to beat my high score or just survive as long as I can. SoRR is an all time great and it's gameplay is proven to be timeless.
Essentially this game is 4 games in one. Streets of Rage 1-3 and one new games worth of content. The game has multiple paths and sections that interconnect all the games togather and make it one huge experiance leading to so many different outcomes one run could lead into. Through the games 7-8 stages where you end up and what ending you get is determined on the path you take. So many different endings and things too see.
So how do you mash up so many different games and have a cohesive gameplay experiance? This is were the game shines. The game sort of uses Streets of Rage 3 as a base and you can customize dozens upon dozens of details to make the game play how you want or how you remember it. The sheer amount of options is staggering but to be able play the ultimate SoR experiance how you want it is amazing. Do you want updated visuals effects like advanced lighting or shadows? Turn it on or off. Or how about only what the genesis could produce? Turn it on or off. Do you want slain enemies to scream like SoR1 or SoR2? Turn it on or off. Do you want your combo on whiff to keep repeating the first jab or do you want it to go through the whole thing? Do you want the timer on or off? Do you want Streets 2 specials or Streets 3 style of specials? Blood or guns added in? Frinedly fire? The amount of stuff goes on forever. It's so cool.
Gameplay has been perfected. The game is super balanced and has been updated and tweaked for like 5 straight years since it's original release. To say that this is the best version is an understatement. To me it's so good it has made the original versions obsolete. Thirteen year old me would drop have dead knowing I said that. The game has so many characters to choose from. You wanna play as Blaze sure. Do you wanna play as the Streets 1 version, Streets 2 version or the Streets 3 version. Or how about the beta version of Streets 2. You can play them all, with original look and movesets. Heck and when appropriate new moves where they didn't have any before. All the characters from the all 3 original games have added with all versions of them plus a new version of Adam to be in line with 2 and 3, plus 3 new characters.
Lastly I wanna talk about the replay value and extras. This game went well above and beyond the call here. Not only does the game have, branching paths and multiple endings but it has a ton of extra modes and options. There is standard Co Op and there is even Co Op with a customizable AI buddy, which is really cool if you play single player a lot and want simulate another player. SoRR comes with a shop feature where all the money you have earned in the game can be spent here to unlock new characters, cheats and options and new modes. Tons of unlockable options like all weapons are lightsabers or infinate ammo, health and lives, stage select, double enemies, enemies explode when killed, dead bodies stay on the screen when killed and so many more. Then you can also unlock a boss survival, endless attack mode, even mission mode and even a volleyball game. Then there is the grand daddy of unlockables. The Streets of Rage Maker. You can unlock a mode where you can create your own Streets of Rage game using the tools that made this very game. Not only that but you can upload them online and share and play with other peoples created campaigns. That is so fucking cool. I was never good at getting my PC to work with it and learning it but I have played dozens of others user created games. You can customize everything here music and backgrounds and be created and played straight from the game and using your option profile. So cool. Not only do you get the maker but also you get the SoRR editor. In the editor you can change all the names of the enemies, create several different alternate color options for all the playable characters and even tweak the enemy AI if you want.
This game is the ultimate package and it's FREE! FREE! It was created by the fans for the fans. The amount of content here is inspiring. Personally this is most likely my most played video game of all time and there is no reason I ever see that changing. There's always the itch to play the classic campaing, or play a new user created one or try to beat my high score or just survive as long as I can. SoRR is an all time great and it's gameplay is proven to be timeless.
2014
I'm going to echo what everyone is saying, it's a master piece. The gold standard of a remake. It also doesn't even invalidate the original IMO too. I play them for different reasons.
REmake takes the original and amplifies the atmosphere by 100. The spencer mansion has never looked better. The prerendered graphics look amazing in their detail even 20 years later. Seriously I've always been a fan of prerendered backgrounds. The detail in every background is just oozing with life. It really looks lived in. Subtle animations like wind blowing, clock ticking, rain and lightning, curtains waving coupled with the amazingly well done remastered soundtrack really set the tone. Character models looks so good with all the extra processing power being put into them.
The game is a remake in all aspects except and that's the core gameplay. With all the changes the game received I'm super glad that the basics are the same. Limited ammo, lots of items with minimal inventory and the pacing of gameplay is even the same. The cinematic camera angles and tank controls still work like a charm. The new modern controls added in the remaster version totally break the game, but if that brings new players while keeping the core controls intact so be it.
So many new things where added to the game but at the same don't feel like bloat. They feel like they were always there. Like the grave yard, the Lisa Trevor parts and the added rooms inside the mansion. The game even tricks players that are too familiar with the original game by changing up some of the puzzles and playing with expectations on where your supposed to go. You still take the same basic path in the right order but how you get there and with what maybe different.
If I had to list one negative thing that I don't really like in this perfect recreation is the new voice work. Look I get the original voice overs where over the top and cheesy and that is never going work in a serious remake. The problem is I find the new work to be so dull and lifeless. There's no emotion in anything and everything sounds flat. It feels like they were afraid to have any range outside basic line reads. I think REmake 2 and REmake 3 do much better in that regard. At the end though it's nitpicking and doesn't hurt the experience at all, just thought I throw it out there.
In summary it's a perfect remake, that honors the original while improving upon it without changing it's identity.
Platinum # 30
REmake takes the original and amplifies the atmosphere by 100. The spencer mansion has never looked better. The prerendered graphics look amazing in their detail even 20 years later. Seriously I've always been a fan of prerendered backgrounds. The detail in every background is just oozing with life. It really looks lived in. Subtle animations like wind blowing, clock ticking, rain and lightning, curtains waving coupled with the amazingly well done remastered soundtrack really set the tone. Character models looks so good with all the extra processing power being put into them.
The game is a remake in all aspects except and that's the core gameplay. With all the changes the game received I'm super glad that the basics are the same. Limited ammo, lots of items with minimal inventory and the pacing of gameplay is even the same. The cinematic camera angles and tank controls still work like a charm. The new modern controls added in the remaster version totally break the game, but if that brings new players while keeping the core controls intact so be it.
So many new things where added to the game but at the same don't feel like bloat. They feel like they were always there. Like the grave yard, the Lisa Trevor parts and the added rooms inside the mansion. The game even tricks players that are too familiar with the original game by changing up some of the puzzles and playing with expectations on where your supposed to go. You still take the same basic path in the right order but how you get there and with what maybe different.
If I had to list one negative thing that I don't really like in this perfect recreation is the new voice work. Look I get the original voice overs where over the top and cheesy and that is never going work in a serious remake. The problem is I find the new work to be so dull and lifeless. There's no emotion in anything and everything sounds flat. It feels like they were afraid to have any range outside basic line reads. I think REmake 2 and REmake 3 do much better in that regard. At the end though it's nitpicking and doesn't hurt the experience at all, just thought I throw it out there.
In summary it's a perfect remake, that honors the original while improving upon it without changing it's identity.
Platinum # 30
For all of Deadly Premonitions reputation about it's jank and hilarious moments there is actually a really deep game here. Not gonna lie and say it's perfect cause it's not. Gameplay around combat is horrendous. The gameplay in general is not great. So why do I like it and rate it so high? Cause DP is an amazing experience. Taking it all in for what it is and what it actually accomplishes despite it's budget is a remarkable achievement. There is a lot to do and see in here and a lot of different mechanics at play. Exploring the town and getting to know the characters and all their quirks and history is really enjoyable. The game has a solid mystery that can keep you guessing. You never know where it's going to go next or what crazy thing York will say or do next. I legitimately think the story is great and has a great mystery to it. As strange and goofy this game can be it was also moving to me. Loved the character of York and Zach and equally amazed at how much I loved it despite thinking this was gonna be the room of video games. In ways yes it was but at it's core there is some legit craft here. Love playing it every couple of years.
Platinum # 14
Platinum # 14
Resident Evil Outbreak 1 and 2 were so ahead of it's time that it actually it's downfall. The games were so creative. A fully functional online co op horror game in the year of 2003. Simply crazy. I never got to play them online and even with just the single player portion with bots I loved the ever loving shit out of this game.
All the playable characters are the regular joe's of Raccoon City. Everyone one of the main cast had great design and thought put into them. They all had their own personality and quirks. Their own relationships. They had their own special abilities and starting weapons. No two characters played the same, so when playing as a team it was essential to use everybody to their maximum potential.
The games had cool what if scenarios like what if you were at a bar of the time of the outbreak, or trapped in the labs, a hospital, or even the zoo. Every stage had it's own story and means of escape. Raccoon City became so fleshed out at this point that you can follow a real map and see where all the locations of the city are. It's nuts. Every level dripping with atmosphere and dread.
Gameplay was a shoot shoot kill everything affair. This was a classic style RE. Recourses are very very limited. Not everybody gets a gun. Make use with what you have. You have a bad player wasted all the ammo? Too bad. I guess you gotta melee it out. Player die with the key items? Go find his body and pick him up. Team work is critical for survival, especially on the harder difficulties. Team mates can fuck up your run. And that's okay. The game is about being a good team player and working together. Even in single player bots won't screw you over like a real person could but it's essential to try and work with them. There are times where you need to split up and solve puzzles or look for clues. It's a classic RE through and through. It's amazing how well it worked.
In fact it's grand design doesn't get the recognition it deserves. The lack of voice chat and replacing with in game character speech was an inspired choice to say the least. They still cared about creating the atmosphere that they willingly skipped the option so you don't hear the typical nonsense you normally would with random players. Communication may suffer but the atmosphere is intact. Communication is all done by simple commands and situational prompts where your character will speak based on whats happening or what they have done.
A online game like this feels like prime DLC canadine. Hell File 2 is practically a season pass of dlc and updates. Not to mention the games have an incredible amount of unlockable and and side content. There's also like 30 plus unlockable side characters to play as, multiple costumes to find and collect and new modes like boss survival and showdowns. Every stage has multiple endings and paths dependent on character and choices. There are several difficulty options. The ability to play solo without team mates. There are hundreds of hours of content here if you wanna see everything. I can't really praise these games enough.
The only thing that hinders the experience a bit is the long loading times. Even me as much as I love the games admits in the year of 2021 it's hard to stomach it. The games were too stressful on the PS2 clearly. Loading times can be shorted a bit if you have a PS2 HDD but honestly not many did. Having an online adapter and a HDD in 2003 is a lot to ask for in 2003.
I would kill for a remaster but sadly I don't think it's possible with the way the game was created as it would be too much work to restore it. Which is sad because what we got here is a true diamond in the rough.
All the playable characters are the regular joe's of Raccoon City. Everyone one of the main cast had great design and thought put into them. They all had their own personality and quirks. Their own relationships. They had their own special abilities and starting weapons. No two characters played the same, so when playing as a team it was essential to use everybody to their maximum potential.
The games had cool what if scenarios like what if you were at a bar of the time of the outbreak, or trapped in the labs, a hospital, or even the zoo. Every stage had it's own story and means of escape. Raccoon City became so fleshed out at this point that you can follow a real map and see where all the locations of the city are. It's nuts. Every level dripping with atmosphere and dread.
Gameplay was a shoot shoot kill everything affair. This was a classic style RE. Recourses are very very limited. Not everybody gets a gun. Make use with what you have. You have a bad player wasted all the ammo? Too bad. I guess you gotta melee it out. Player die with the key items? Go find his body and pick him up. Team work is critical for survival, especially on the harder difficulties. Team mates can fuck up your run. And that's okay. The game is about being a good team player and working together. Even in single player bots won't screw you over like a real person could but it's essential to try and work with them. There are times where you need to split up and solve puzzles or look for clues. It's a classic RE through and through. It's amazing how well it worked.
In fact it's grand design doesn't get the recognition it deserves. The lack of voice chat and replacing with in game character speech was an inspired choice to say the least. They still cared about creating the atmosphere that they willingly skipped the option so you don't hear the typical nonsense you normally would with random players. Communication may suffer but the atmosphere is intact. Communication is all done by simple commands and situational prompts where your character will speak based on whats happening or what they have done.
A online game like this feels like prime DLC canadine. Hell File 2 is practically a season pass of dlc and updates. Not to mention the games have an incredible amount of unlockable and and side content. There's also like 30 plus unlockable side characters to play as, multiple costumes to find and collect and new modes like boss survival and showdowns. Every stage has multiple endings and paths dependent on character and choices. There are several difficulty options. The ability to play solo without team mates. There are hundreds of hours of content here if you wanna see everything. I can't really praise these games enough.
The only thing that hinders the experience a bit is the long loading times. Even me as much as I love the games admits in the year of 2021 it's hard to stomach it. The games were too stressful on the PS2 clearly. Loading times can be shorted a bit if you have a PS2 HDD but honestly not many did. Having an online adapter and a HDD in 2003 is a lot to ask for in 2003.
I would kill for a remaster but sadly I don't think it's possible with the way the game was created as it would be too much work to restore it. Which is sad because what we got here is a true diamond in the rough.
RE6 may have some issues but at the end of the day it's a really fun game. It's not the best RE game. It's long and overbloated. It's story is weaker than most and is way over the top in the most bombastic and cheesy ways. There is a lot to make you roll your eyes.
However when taking the game for what it is, it's a solid action game. A pretty unique third person shooter. It has a lot of focus on shooting, running, diving, doing back flips, meeleing and precise countering. The sheer amount that you can do is really cool. I know it's a little too hard on the action side than what most people want from an RE game. Still I can't ignore it's still one of the best co op games out there next to RE5. So many returning characters and different scenario's to play. It's a blast. Feels like something platinum games would have made. The more I play this game over the years the more I appreciate it and all of it's flaws. The things I don't like honestly don't nearly matter as much anymore to me. I can see why action RE fans like this title a lot.
PS I also loved this versions Sherry. What a cool way to reintroduce her. That and I really liked Chris's campaign.
Platinum #46
However when taking the game for what it is, it's a solid action game. A pretty unique third person shooter. It has a lot of focus on shooting, running, diving, doing back flips, meeleing and precise countering. The sheer amount that you can do is really cool. I know it's a little too hard on the action side than what most people want from an RE game. Still I can't ignore it's still one of the best co op games out there next to RE5. So many returning characters and different scenario's to play. It's a blast. Feels like something platinum games would have made. The more I play this game over the years the more I appreciate it and all of it's flaws. The things I don't like honestly don't nearly matter as much anymore to me. I can see why action RE fans like this title a lot.
PS I also loved this versions Sherry. What a cool way to reintroduce her. That and I really liked Chris's campaign.
Platinum #46
2017
Bought this game on a whim on PSN, it was only 99 cents. I thought I try something different. It's kind of a time resource management game. The basic premise is that your just a regular joe cop who protrols the same street everyday and your task with completing basic assignments everyday. Each day your required to write out parking tickets based on things like broken lights, worn tires and parking violations. Every day there is some kinda mini narrative that the police force wants you to do that day. From solving a domestic disupute to even bomb disposal.
The game is setup so there are three competing factions all buying for you attention. There's the normal police work, a mafia boss and a street gang. You can decided if you wanna be a straight shooter or blur the lines of what's right and wrong and side with a gang here or there. Everytime you do one positive thing for one faction it negitivly effects another one. Get too low on the mafia or street gangs side and they will put a hit out for you making it an instant game over. On the flip side with one gang too long and you will get fired from the police force. It's all a balancing act and choice as time passes freely. Maybe you don't have time to do everything this day or maybe youd like to focus on this one thing. Gameplay feels fresh for the first time through but on follow up plays it does degrade quite a bit into repititvness with it being so script heavy.
There is a little story narritive about you being set up and trying to solve who framed you which is nice from keeping the game moving in one direction and not feel completly episodic. The game leans super heavy on the comedic side and has really outlandish things happen which does make it more entertaining than it really is. Lots of movie refrences and call outs to 80's/90's pop culture. It can get pretty raunchy despite it's low graphics depiction in the story. It's kinda the best part about it.
Overall it was a definite steal for a buck and if you wanna try something a bit different I'd say give Beat Cop a try. It's a great weekend game.
Platinum #151
The game is setup so there are three competing factions all buying for you attention. There's the normal police work, a mafia boss and a street gang. You can decided if you wanna be a straight shooter or blur the lines of what's right and wrong and side with a gang here or there. Everytime you do one positive thing for one faction it negitivly effects another one. Get too low on the mafia or street gangs side and they will put a hit out for you making it an instant game over. On the flip side with one gang too long and you will get fired from the police force. It's all a balancing act and choice as time passes freely. Maybe you don't have time to do everything this day or maybe youd like to focus on this one thing. Gameplay feels fresh for the first time through but on follow up plays it does degrade quite a bit into repititvness with it being so script heavy.
There is a little story narritive about you being set up and trying to solve who framed you which is nice from keeping the game moving in one direction and not feel completly episodic. The game leans super heavy on the comedic side and has really outlandish things happen which does make it more entertaining than it really is. Lots of movie refrences and call outs to 80's/90's pop culture. It can get pretty raunchy despite it's low graphics depiction in the story. It's kinda the best part about it.
Overall it was a definite steal for a buck and if you wanna try something a bit different I'd say give Beat Cop a try. It's a great weekend game.
Platinum #151
A fantastic remake of all 3 games. The mechanics are not exactly one to one but they do an excellent job at keeping them how they felt with the speed and the jumps. It's a really great deal for all three games. It's pretty much a visual and musical upgrade and that's all it really needed if it was to be remade. You'll get no complaints from me.
2011
A very good follow up from DS1. Not a fan of giving Isaac a voice now but it doesn't hamper the experience. Reminds me of a sequel like Aliens or Terminator 2. You can argue with which is better the original or the sequel but at the end of the day both are supreme horror games. I liked a lot of the set pieces and I really am a sucker for going back to previous games areas to see how they turn out overtime. I'm referring to going back to the Ishamura ship.
Platinum # 5
Platinum # 5
Real fucking garbage is what this is. A complete waste of the "4" useage. Physics were terrible and looked and sounded cheap. You can tell that iOS was the lead platform. Plus episodic lol. Best left forgotten.
2002
Classic FPS. I have a really soft spot for this entry. The campaign is great and the amount of modes and characters is crazy. Plus a map maker where you can create your own campaigns. Where is this franchise now man! I had notebooks full of map designs and ideas. Such a complete package this game is.
2000
Best FPS on the N64. It's Goldenye but better. Better campaign, weapons, multiplayer options ect. Just comes down to what theme you like better. I really like so many of the games weapons. The laptop gun was cool and the Farsight was beyond broken stupid fun.
1992
This honestly feels like 50 dollar character DLC in the year 1992. Is guy worth an entire game purchase lol?