Sleepychimp
8 reviews liked by Sleepychimp
Mega Man X6
2001
everytime i replay X6 i go through the painful process of going "hey x6 isnt that bad i should replay it" and then when i replay it i remember why i dont like x6. rinse and repeat.
Ōkami
2006
Playing this has been... fascinating. As most people will tell you, it's worth checking out for the art direction alone, and overall I had a good time with it, but wow is there ever room for improvement. In so many ways Okami is the inverse of Twilight Princess. You control a wolf for the entire game, whereas Wolf Link felt like an afterthought. Dungeons which are the highlight of Twilight Princess feel as though they barely exist here. Conversely the overworld, which is probably the worst part of Twilight Princess is done much better in Okami.
The choice of source material makes for a unique experience and the characters are full of personality which is a plus, but it's a shame that most of the dialogue in the game goes to its worst character. Issun is nearly as bad as Fi in Skyward Sword when it comes to incessant pace-breaking chatter, and the text speed in any scene that doesn't let you skip dialogue absolutely does not help. The game has a horrible habit of injecting tiny and unnecessary cutscenes with outrageous frequency, and most of it is accompanied with some inane comment from Issun. His personality also does him no favors. Issun's constant lechery toward nearly every female NPC in the game doesn't just get old, it was born old. I have no doubt that some of my distaste for the character's single "joke" comes from playing the game as an American in 2020 where such bullshit stopped being endearing many years ago. Other recurring characters are solid, with a few surprisingly effective emotional scenes created with them here and there despite very little screen time.
Combat is serviceable, but nothing noteworthy. The fact that it is always confined to a special arena is somewhat disappointing, as is the difficulty. Exploration rewards the player with piles and piles of consumable items to restore health, do more damage, etc, but they feel completely unnecessary. It's unfortunate when the rewards that any game gives you don't actually feel rewarding. For the vast majority of the game I had bountiful piles of money and nothing worthwhile to spend it on since my stores of consumables were already overflowing and I didn't see myself using them any time soon.
I enjoyed my visit well enough, but I don't expect to be back.
The choice of source material makes for a unique experience and the characters are full of personality which is a plus, but it's a shame that most of the dialogue in the game goes to its worst character. Issun is nearly as bad as Fi in Skyward Sword when it comes to incessant pace-breaking chatter, and the text speed in any scene that doesn't let you skip dialogue absolutely does not help. The game has a horrible habit of injecting tiny and unnecessary cutscenes with outrageous frequency, and most of it is accompanied with some inane comment from Issun. His personality also does him no favors. Issun's constant lechery toward nearly every female NPC in the game doesn't just get old, it was born old. I have no doubt that some of my distaste for the character's single "joke" comes from playing the game as an American in 2020 where such bullshit stopped being endearing many years ago. Other recurring characters are solid, with a few surprisingly effective emotional scenes created with them here and there despite very little screen time.
Combat is serviceable, but nothing noteworthy. The fact that it is always confined to a special arena is somewhat disappointing, as is the difficulty. Exploration rewards the player with piles and piles of consumable items to restore health, do more damage, etc, but they feel completely unnecessary. It's unfortunate when the rewards that any game gives you don't actually feel rewarding. For the vast majority of the game I had bountiful piles of money and nothing worthwhile to spend it on since my stores of consumables were already overflowing and I didn't see myself using them any time soon.
I enjoyed my visit well enough, but I don't expect to be back.
Owlboy
2016
I really hope we haven't seen the last of D-Pad Studio, because this game has some of the best sprite work and pixel animation I have ever seen. Maybe THE best. Every single frame of this game is complete eye candy, and it never stops being impressive; it was a decade long-project well spent, and if this is their most notable work, the future looks incredibly bright for them.
It's just a shame that the game itself is mediocre at best. I don't even think I know exactly what genre this game is. Sometimes it's a platformer, sometimes it's a zelda-like, sometimes it's metroidvania-esque, sometimes it's a stealth game, sometimes it's a puzzle game, sometimes it's a bullet-hell. If I had to describe it succinctly, you basically go from one linear "dungeon" to the next, each with its own gimmick, and explore a very open and empty overworld in-between them, all without a map.
Its ideas are so scattershot and unfocused, and none of them are executed well. I don't think I had fun with any part of this game, I was mainly just frustrated at how many half-baked ideas it has as well as the subpar controls.
And this is a game that I really wish I liked more than I did. It's very Mystery Dungeon-esque in its charm and writing, and it has a great score. And I feel bad that a passion project that took this long to make didn't end up being a game I enjoyed very much.
But despite how obnoxiously unfocused it is, its highs peak so high that I can easily recommend this game. I'm a solid fan of this studio now, and I'm glad this game ended up being so successful. I hope that you support this game as well, and that you enjoy it more than I did.
It's just a shame that the game itself is mediocre at best. I don't even think I know exactly what genre this game is. Sometimes it's a platformer, sometimes it's a zelda-like, sometimes it's metroidvania-esque, sometimes it's a stealth game, sometimes it's a puzzle game, sometimes it's a bullet-hell. If I had to describe it succinctly, you basically go from one linear "dungeon" to the next, each with its own gimmick, and explore a very open and empty overworld in-between them, all without a map.
Its ideas are so scattershot and unfocused, and none of them are executed well. I don't think I had fun with any part of this game, I was mainly just frustrated at how many half-baked ideas it has as well as the subpar controls.
And this is a game that I really wish I liked more than I did. It's very Mystery Dungeon-esque in its charm and writing, and it has a great score. And I feel bad that a passion project that took this long to make didn't end up being a game I enjoyed very much.
But despite how obnoxiously unfocused it is, its highs peak so high that I can easily recommend this game. I'm a solid fan of this studio now, and I'm glad this game ended up being so successful. I hope that you support this game as well, and that you enjoy it more than I did.
Mega Man X5
2000
Very mediocre game, which set the stage for the next two X games. Boring level design, boring bosses, Alia interrupting your gameplay to tell you how to jump, asinine upgrade system (parts and armor), and a ton of embarassing X1 nostalgia wanking to try and hide their half-assed game.
Mega Man X5
2000
this is the megaman x3 of megaman x4
Mega Man X5
2000
if you had told me that this was someone's shit mega man x4 romhack i would have believed you
Extremely good idea of what Pokémon can and should be. Solving issues from Diamond and Pearl, like lack of Pokémon variety and slow gameplay speeds, Platinum also offers a sweet spot of difficulty for a Pokémon game.
Sinnoh offers a great region to roam around, filled with all kinds of different areas and terrain. All kinds of things to find and unlock. It also has a really good soundtrack.
My main issue with the game is the sheer amount of HMs. You need about 5 of them just to get through Victory Road and Mount Coronet alone. I found myself having to carry a HM slave with me far too often, or giving crappy moves like Rock Smash to a main team member.
There's also a lot of backtracking involved every time you get a HM. The game gets credit for having so much to explore, but if you play like I do, then everytime new things open up you have to check them out, meaning for each new HM I tended to spend a lot of time putting the story on hold to revisit old areas.
Sinnoh offers a great region to roam around, filled with all kinds of different areas and terrain. All kinds of things to find and unlock. It also has a really good soundtrack.
My main issue with the game is the sheer amount of HMs. You need about 5 of them just to get through Victory Road and Mount Coronet alone. I found myself having to carry a HM slave with me far too often, or giving crappy moves like Rock Smash to a main team member.
There's also a lot of backtracking involved every time you get a HM. The game gets credit for having so much to explore, but if you play like I do, then everytime new things open up you have to check them out, meaning for each new HM I tended to spend a lot of time putting the story on hold to revisit old areas.
This is a PSA:
Do NOT play the PSP rerelease of this game.
Play the fan-translated PS1 version of the game instead.
The original version has:
-A fun and experimental semi-automatic battle system that only requires player input to set-up commands, and pause to edit them. This allows for fast action, natural discovery of teamwork fusion attacks, and player experimentation with the card/negotiation system.
-actual challenge that ramps up as you play and makes the player think about their compositions and actions.
-loading screens only during loading saves and loading up the game
-a far superior UI aesthetic and generally more unified vision with regard to visuals, music, and battle voice lines
-is amazing
The PSP version has:
-a butchered version of the combat system that forces the player to repeatedly input the same commands at the start of every turn for no reason whatsoever
-absolutely no challenge, even on hard mode.
-loading before every fight
-slowed down battle animations
-script censorship
-if you see reviews calling this game a slog to play, it's cause they played this one
-----------------------------
I personally played the psp version twice, not knowing at all about these differences. I played the ps1 version once and it was like a whole new game. I don't know how they fucked up the psp version so bad with the combat and balancing, but I've heard the psp version of the sequel is much better (although the fan translation is yet to come out).
The one downside of playing the ps1 version of this game is that the fan translation has a little bit of that old 2000's era language in it in places and can feel like a bit of a relic (uses the word "gay" as a kind of insult for the sake of a translated pun(?) in a few places, among other stuff, but overall wasn't the worst and otherwise felt well-done and accurately localized, the translator is a bit of a legend in the realm of fan-made localizations).
Do NOT play the PSP rerelease of this game.
Play the fan-translated PS1 version of the game instead.
The original version has:
-A fun and experimental semi-automatic battle system that only requires player input to set-up commands, and pause to edit them. This allows for fast action, natural discovery of teamwork fusion attacks, and player experimentation with the card/negotiation system.
-actual challenge that ramps up as you play and makes the player think about their compositions and actions.
-loading screens only during loading saves and loading up the game
-a far superior UI aesthetic and generally more unified vision with regard to visuals, music, and battle voice lines
-is amazing
The PSP version has:
-a butchered version of the combat system that forces the player to repeatedly input the same commands at the start of every turn for no reason whatsoever
-absolutely no challenge, even on hard mode.
-loading before every fight
-slowed down battle animations
-script censorship
-if you see reviews calling this game a slog to play, it's cause they played this one
-----------------------------
I personally played the psp version twice, not knowing at all about these differences. I played the ps1 version once and it was like a whole new game. I don't know how they fucked up the psp version so bad with the combat and balancing, but I've heard the psp version of the sequel is much better (although the fan translation is yet to come out).
The one downside of playing the ps1 version of this game is that the fan translation has a little bit of that old 2000's era language in it in places and can feel like a bit of a relic (uses the word "gay" as a kind of insult for the sake of a translated pun(?) in a few places, among other stuff, but overall wasn't the worst and otherwise felt well-done and accurately localized, the translator is a bit of a legend in the realm of fan-made localizations).