Stephen_Hilger
23 reviews liked by Stephen_Hilger
What an absolutely delightful experience.
I played during a Friday commute into the city. I thoroughly enjoyed the bright and colorful aesthetic, charming characters, and silly story.
I wish the game was a bit longer but absolutely worth a spin
I played during a Friday commute into the city. I thoroughly enjoyed the bright and colorful aesthetic, charming characters, and silly story.
I wish the game was a bit longer but absolutely worth a spin
Hades 2
2001
NO WAY THIS HAS BEEN OUT FOR 23 YEARS???????? WHY AM I JUST SEEING TRAILERS FOR IT NOW??????
League of Legends
2009
BLECH
not a perfect game by any standard but i yearn to live in a world where neversoft made current gen tony hawk underground games and this is the closest we’ve ever gotten so it was a joy for me until the difficult and mechanics became almost impossible
Lies of P
2023
This review contains spoilers
Let me preface this with the fact that I played Lords of the Fallen (2023) immediately preceding Lies of P, so I can't help but compare them in many ways. I went into Lies of P expecting a much better game (vs. LotF) and was surprisingly unimpressed by the end, especially considering the high reception LoP seemed to get and the lack of accolades LotF got. In my book, they're comparable. Lies of P may arguably be the better made game in certain aspects (many things worked, like the focus mechanic, the leveling and customization was well done, I really appreciated how linear and easy to follow it was) but after hearing people compare it to Bloodborne and Sekiro, I expected clean, tight, fast-paced, twitchy combat... and got something that felt wildly clunky and slow compared to LotF. I much prefer dashing and zippy movement and LotF delivered on that part so I expected LoP to be even quicker by how folks described it. But I felt so slow in comparison to most of the bosses which was very frustrating. I found myself urging P on like, "dude MOVE you gotta move faster than that!" and then when I tried the parry approach that felt uninteresting and like I was standing there deflecting/tanking hits until it was my turn to get hits in... not fun in my book. (side note: I did a dex/technique run) And half the time it felt like the buttons I was pushing were unresponsive (found myself going "ummmm hello? I was DEFINITELY holding down/pressing R1 to deflect and NOTHING happened???" a lot. My legion arm also felt near unresponsive at times.) This all culminated in the last fight, the Nameless Puppet. Awful fight, didn't feel like skill mattered, even when I had good "runs" at him I'd find myself being held back by weapon near breaking or unavoidable attacks taking me out. Overall I had high expectations from how everyone spoke about this game and came out wondering why more people didn't try Lords of the Fallen. They're both very decent soulslikes with somewhat disappointing endings but are worth playing if you like the genre.
Octopath Traveler II
2023
Truthfully I’m not completely sure why this isn’t a 5 star and just short. But then it hit me, as amazing as this game already is (combat, pacing, challenge, discovery) it somehow still has room to grow. And that’s exciting.
P.N.03
2003
Truly a bizarre game from the folks who brought you Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and Devil May Cry.
The gist of the game is that you play as Vanessa Z. Schneider, a sort of space mercenary, who dance-fights her way through levels. By and large the game is a series of rooms that you'll do battle in by blasting some robots and dancing around. For that, I love it.
However, that's about the extent of it. The game is high on style and starts poking at some nearly Nier Automata-like plot beats towards the end of the story, but can't quite follow through on any of those fronts.
PN03 walked (danced) so that Bayonetta, Sayonara Wild Hearts and Nier Automata could run (also danced, but did it well).
The gist of the game is that you play as Vanessa Z. Schneider, a sort of space mercenary, who dance-fights her way through levels. By and large the game is a series of rooms that you'll do battle in by blasting some robots and dancing around. For that, I love it.
However, that's about the extent of it. The game is high on style and starts poking at some nearly Nier Automata-like plot beats towards the end of the story, but can't quite follow through on any of those fronts.
PN03 walked (danced) so that Bayonetta, Sayonara Wild Hearts and Nier Automata could run (also danced, but did it well).
Persona 5 Royal
2019
Great experience. Little to no exposure to the Persona and umbrella SMT franchises and this was such an explosive introduction. I could go on and on about how amazing it is but, like anything new, it takes the experience itself to communicate why it is so special.
Narratively rich, stylistically expressive, and sonically impressive, I'm gonna remember this first time for a very long time.
Narratively rich, stylistically expressive, and sonically impressive, I'm gonna remember this first time for a very long time.
Baldur's Gate 3
2020
A game that shocks you with how many hours you've logged usually befits the hypnosis it induces. Anything that allows me to progantize an orc of my creation wins favor instantaneously.
Soul Hackers 2
2022
I've finished this game twice, once on the PS5 version and once on PC. Obtained true ending on both.
For context, Megaten has been my favorite video game franchise since 2015, and Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is one of my favorite games in the entire franchise. When Soul Hackers 2 was announced in early 2022, I felt a combination of optimism and skepticism going into this game. On one hand, I was so happy that ATLUS was making a new Megaten game that wasn't Mainline SMT or Persona, which still gives me hope that there will be future games for other Megaten spinoffs (devil survivor 3 PLEASE)
On the other... this game looked like a very big departure from the first game. It took awhile to somewhat get over that hurdle for me, but once I did (and after going through the game twice), I can say that - while flawed from a dungeon crawling perspective, I enjoyed my time with Soul Hackers 2.
In my opinion, I think that the best part of this game is the story, which might just be the best Megaten story since SMT IV. The main party of this game are some of the most charming characters I've seen from ATLUS, and Ringo might just be my favorite protagonist in all of Megaten. She's wonderful. The plot is simple, but works very well throughout most of the game due to solid writing and great voice acting. Furthermore, I appreciate the emphasis of Detective Work throughout the game, which is seen throughout all of Devil Summoner. While this doesn't feel like a Soul Hackers sequel in my opinion, I think this game works great as a Devil Summoner title (should've called it Devil Summoner: Aion)
The combat system called "Sabbath" is similar to the demon coop system in Strange Journey, and while it starts of slow, it really does open up greatly the more you progress through the game. While I don't think it's the best combat in Megaten, I find it to be very solid on its own and remains fun through the rest of the game.
The same cannot be said for the Dungeon Crawling. As a whole, these might be some of the worst dungeons in all of Megaten. The Soul Matrix (the game's optional dungeon which provides very powerful upgrades and additional story for the party) is the biggest offender to this. Boring designs, repetitive music and visual design, large amounts of dead/open space, etc. The main story dungeons also suffer from these issues, although as the game progresses, there is slightly more variety in both music and visual design. After the November Patch, dungeon crawling is less annoying with the addition of a sprint button, but this only mitigates the bad dungeon crawling. Coming directly after SMT V (where the open areas of Da'at had really incredible level design), it's crazy how much of a stepback this game was.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game. Soul Hackers 2 goes on sale often, so if you're a fan of ATLUS or are just looking for a solid JRPG, I do recommend buying it! Although reception and sales were middling for this game, I do hope for future titles in Megaten that aren't Mainline SMT and Persona. Personally, I think it's likely with how well SMT V and the P5R ports sold, so I'm looking forward to what's next from ATLUS.
7/10
For context, Megaten has been my favorite video game franchise since 2015, and Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is one of my favorite games in the entire franchise. When Soul Hackers 2 was announced in early 2022, I felt a combination of optimism and skepticism going into this game. On one hand, I was so happy that ATLUS was making a new Megaten game that wasn't Mainline SMT or Persona, which still gives me hope that there will be future games for other Megaten spinoffs (devil survivor 3 PLEASE)
On the other... this game looked like a very big departure from the first game. It took awhile to somewhat get over that hurdle for me, but once I did (and after going through the game twice), I can say that - while flawed from a dungeon crawling perspective, I enjoyed my time with Soul Hackers 2.
In my opinion, I think that the best part of this game is the story, which might just be the best Megaten story since SMT IV. The main party of this game are some of the most charming characters I've seen from ATLUS, and Ringo might just be my favorite protagonist in all of Megaten. She's wonderful. The plot is simple, but works very well throughout most of the game due to solid writing and great voice acting. Furthermore, I appreciate the emphasis of Detective Work throughout the game, which is seen throughout all of Devil Summoner. While this doesn't feel like a Soul Hackers sequel in my opinion, I think this game works great as a Devil Summoner title (should've called it Devil Summoner: Aion)
The combat system called "Sabbath" is similar to the demon coop system in Strange Journey, and while it starts of slow, it really does open up greatly the more you progress through the game. While I don't think it's the best combat in Megaten, I find it to be very solid on its own and remains fun through the rest of the game.
The same cannot be said for the Dungeon Crawling. As a whole, these might be some of the worst dungeons in all of Megaten. The Soul Matrix (the game's optional dungeon which provides very powerful upgrades and additional story for the party) is the biggest offender to this. Boring designs, repetitive music and visual design, large amounts of dead/open space, etc. The main story dungeons also suffer from these issues, although as the game progresses, there is slightly more variety in both music and visual design. After the November Patch, dungeon crawling is less annoying with the addition of a sprint button, but this only mitigates the bad dungeon crawling. Coming directly after SMT V (where the open areas of Da'at had really incredible level design), it's crazy how much of a stepback this game was.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game. Soul Hackers 2 goes on sale often, so if you're a fan of ATLUS or are just looking for a solid JRPG, I do recommend buying it! Although reception and sales were middling for this game, I do hope for future titles in Megaten that aren't Mainline SMT and Persona. Personally, I think it's likely with how well SMT V and the P5R ports sold, so I'm looking forward to what's next from ATLUS.
7/10
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