Teej
For the money spent on this and the other bracelet DLC it is not worth the price tag of $30. Just not enough content to warrant the price tag. The Fell Xenologue story is hit and miss at times. It's story is better than Engage's base story but not by a huge amount.
Pros:
1. Story is better than Engage's story, but it is not a great story or anything. It's fast paced and very short. It does not overstay its welcome, and it's more of a side story showing how a different world played out.
2. You get to have more characters to use in the base game after you are finished with this DLC story.
3. The last two maps are interesting with how you have to play them.
4. It's cool to not have to worry about killing every unit in this story because of no levelling up mechanic, and the preset weapons and items make less thinking involved when it comes to just starting the battle and stuff. Gives a different feel than Engage's main story where you have so many options to tinker around with and customization.
Cons:
1. Costs too much for what you get for just this story, and counting the bracelets.
2. This is not a separate game mode at the title screen like in Three Houses. You have to play through it every time you make a new save in Engage if you want to use any characters from the DLC story. If you finish this story too soon in the main story it can screw you over when it comes to the DLC bracelet maps when it comes to levels, because two of the characters will come at level 20 and make the challenge maps up its levels, making it harder to complete or make you complete it when you get to the end of the base game instead.
3. Besides the final two maps of Fell Xenologue, the map design felt lazy. It was just big open areas of a bunch of enemies to fight. At least the final two maps had something interesting going on.
4. Nil is too much of a liability in the story, it's dumb. Especially after you finish the story Nil being so squishy and useless while playing it makes less sense with how the story unfolds. You will know what I mean if you have finished it. Nil should not have been a playable unit in the battles, or if he went to 0 hp in the story a different story branch should open up. Ah well.
5. This story is very low budget. Felt like Nintendo barely gave any money or time to the team that was developing it. It feels way too short, it has pictures to tell the story of it a lot of the time, the maps up until the last two are pretty much just open areas where it's just KO the leader unit. The recurring villains in the base game's story pop up here as good guy units with color swapped clothes. It's eh.
6. The game does not feel play tested properly, as normal is too easy, hard seems to be too hard, and maddening even harder. It is not in line with the difficulty of the base game's difficulty at all, so that's just weird. You would think with having each battle having preset weapons, items, and levels that it would be easy to balance it.
7. Not sure why for the forced deployed units in this story you cannot edit their inventory before starting the map. You can edit the other units' inventory no problem. Either let me edit everyone's inventories or none at all.
Overall I would have wished they not even make this story and just spent the rest of their resources including more bracelets for you to do challenge maps to acquire to have more fun in the game with. That, and challenge maps that do not involve acquiring bracelets or rings. It is what it is though. I at least got this DLC for free as a gift, so yay haha.
Pros:
1. Story is better than Engage's story, but it is not a great story or anything. It's fast paced and very short. It does not overstay its welcome, and it's more of a side story showing how a different world played out.
2. You get to have more characters to use in the base game after you are finished with this DLC story.
3. The last two maps are interesting with how you have to play them.
4. It's cool to not have to worry about killing every unit in this story because of no levelling up mechanic, and the preset weapons and items make less thinking involved when it comes to just starting the battle and stuff. Gives a different feel than Engage's main story where you have so many options to tinker around with and customization.
Cons:
1. Costs too much for what you get for just this story, and counting the bracelets.
2. This is not a separate game mode at the title screen like in Three Houses. You have to play through it every time you make a new save in Engage if you want to use any characters from the DLC story. If you finish this story too soon in the main story it can screw you over when it comes to the DLC bracelet maps when it comes to levels, because two of the characters will come at level 20 and make the challenge maps up its levels, making it harder to complete or make you complete it when you get to the end of the base game instead.
3. Besides the final two maps of Fell Xenologue, the map design felt lazy. It was just big open areas of a bunch of enemies to fight. At least the final two maps had something interesting going on.
4. Nil is too much of a liability in the story, it's dumb. Especially after you finish the story Nil being so squishy and useless while playing it makes less sense with how the story unfolds. You will know what I mean if you have finished it. Nil should not have been a playable unit in the battles, or if he went to 0 hp in the story a different story branch should open up. Ah well.
5. This story is very low budget. Felt like Nintendo barely gave any money or time to the team that was developing it. It feels way too short, it has pictures to tell the story of it a lot of the time, the maps up until the last two are pretty much just open areas where it's just KO the leader unit. The recurring villains in the base game's story pop up here as good guy units with color swapped clothes. It's eh.
6. The game does not feel play tested properly, as normal is too easy, hard seems to be too hard, and maddening even harder. It is not in line with the difficulty of the base game's difficulty at all, so that's just weird. You would think with having each battle having preset weapons, items, and levels that it would be easy to balance it.
7. Not sure why for the forced deployed units in this story you cannot edit their inventory before starting the map. You can edit the other units' inventory no problem. Either let me edit everyone's inventories or none at all.
Overall I would have wished they not even make this story and just spent the rest of their resources including more bracelets for you to do challenge maps to acquire to have more fun in the game with. That, and challenge maps that do not involve acquiring bracelets or rings. It is what it is though. I at least got this DLC for free as a gift, so yay haha.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Very faithful remake of the original. Original was already easy, and they made it more easy with this remake. Overall this game is made by fans of the original for fans of the original. That's definitely the audience this game is marketed towards.
Pros:
1. The post game content is short but fun. It made me wish there was more. Culex 3D was hype. It's corny, but I thought it was so cool that he came back in 3D form for a rematch saying he's stronger.
2. It's nice for those who do not have the SNES copy of the game to be able to buy this instead of paying anywhere from 50-100 dollars for a copy from some collector online. Sure you can also pirate the original game for free, but at the same time that could be said of this Switch remake too.
3. The triple team moves are a nice addition, but not needed. It's just something extra you can do in the game to have more fun.
4. Being able to easily teleport to other parts of the map with a few buttons presses is a great quality of life change.
5. I view it as a pro, but others can view it as a con as it makes the game easier, but seeing an ! mark of when you can press a button to do well-timed attacks and blocks is a great quality of life change, as it lets the player know what they are messing up on if they do not get the timing down.
Cons:
1. This game is short, but that's no surprise to anyone who played the original. At the same time the game being short is also a nice thing, as many games nowadays overstay their welcome and become a chore to finish.
N/A
1. On this remake I feel like there should have been voice acted lines, as this remake just feels empty during its many cutscenes of text running across the screen. I understand it's a faithful remake and so they did not want to ruin it with bad voice acting, but there could be an option to turn it off if you don't like it.
2. Comparing this game to other games of 2023 it's definitely not as complex, which is a good or a bad thing depending on who you are.
Pros:
1. The post game content is short but fun. It made me wish there was more. Culex 3D was hype. It's corny, but I thought it was so cool that he came back in 3D form for a rematch saying he's stronger.
2. It's nice for those who do not have the SNES copy of the game to be able to buy this instead of paying anywhere from 50-100 dollars for a copy from some collector online. Sure you can also pirate the original game for free, but at the same time that could be said of this Switch remake too.
3. The triple team moves are a nice addition, but not needed. It's just something extra you can do in the game to have more fun.
4. Being able to easily teleport to other parts of the map with a few buttons presses is a great quality of life change.
5. I view it as a pro, but others can view it as a con as it makes the game easier, but seeing an ! mark of when you can press a button to do well-timed attacks and blocks is a great quality of life change, as it lets the player know what they are messing up on if they do not get the timing down.
Cons:
1. This game is short, but that's no surprise to anyone who played the original. At the same time the game being short is also a nice thing, as many games nowadays overstay their welcome and become a chore to finish.
N/A
1. On this remake I feel like there should have been voice acted lines, as this remake just feels empty during its many cutscenes of text running across the screen. I understand it's a faithful remake and so they did not want to ruin it with bad voice acting, but there could be an option to turn it off if you don't like it.
2. Comparing this game to other games of 2023 it's definitely not as complex, which is a good or a bad thing depending on who you are.
2022
Bit half and half on this game overall. Parts I enjoyed, parts I did not enjoy. I do not think I enjoy the type of strategy this game provides. I do not care to use the items a whole lot in strategy games I play, and they really make a huge difference. I also do not like grinding battles to get better gear, characters, skill levels and the such. This game prevents you from grinding levels, which I am fine with, but expects you to grind Palace of the Dead and the Phorampa Wood place to get better items and gear and characters to make the story battles easier or trivialize them. Feels contradictory. May as well take the level cap off the game then. Now, I beat the story of this game by doing about no optional stuff at all because the game bored me and I just wanted to see the story. No Palace of the Dead, Phorampa Woods, other side battles to recruit characters, nothing like that. Just the main story. I did chaos route on this blind playthrough, so I am not sure if that is the easiest route or hardest, i'unno. The Oz and Ozma battle I saw people complain about online was not really hard like people said it was, and the final boss of the base game was not really hard either. I just kept hitting the final boss and did not have any issues. When you have 12 people against 1 person, you just end up out-actioning the person and beat them, even if they 1 or 2 shot every person on your team. I'm surprised people said you should do Palace of the Dead before beating the final boss or else it would be too hard or something. I did not feel that. Now, yes the final boss does have a difficulty spike, but if you wail on him you can pretty much brute force through him in both his phases. I read online about ways to cheese him and no I did not use those ways. I did not lob shots, use dragons, solo him with Denam with lord phalanx and first aid, and spam debuffs on him. All I did was hit him with everyone and healed or revived people up when needed. When I stunned him with the two white knights it just happened to happen, and even then I was not lucky with him stumbling a lot. He only stumbled like 2 times the whole fight and kept hitting people.
Pros:
1. This game has a lot of game in it, so if you end up enjoying it you really get your money's worth. A lot of replay ability.
2. When you end up doing an attack that does a butt ton of damage man does it feel good in this game. That, or you end up knocking an enemy off an edge and one shot them as a result.
3. The story in this game for at least the chaos route is good. I do think the story is better than most Fire Emblem games I have played. I do not know exactly why I found myself not to be immersed or caring a whole lot about it except if I saw someone die somehow. I guess the long boring battles took me out of the game.
4. Being able to time travel after you beat the game is really cool to see different events, although I'm sure I will not revisit this game, unless how my brain operates becomes different later down the road.
5. Velocity shift and boost of swiftness is a godsend in this game and I love those two abilities. It made the battles faster for me and made me able to stomach it more.
Cons:
1. The gameplay in battles is too freaking slow, even with the fast-forward option on. I cannot imagine playing the older versions of this game, I would lose my mind. There's too much darn waiting involved.
2. Passive abilities are too strong in this game and may not proc. It's dumb. Passives for everyone should always proc, or they should have been re-balanced to not be as powerful. For the player and the enemy if either procs their passives it makes a huge difference in the tide of the battle. Feels like I'm gambling at a casino rather than playing a strategy game.
3. The blue cards are cool but again are so random on what spawns and how frequently and where. I do not think they should exist. Basically more rng and only strategy is using them if they spawn and are not out of your way to go get in a battle.
4. The level cap is dumb because you reach it so fast with just doing the story battles that it makes the experience you gain useless. This is nothing about wanting to grind exp to make the game easy, I beat the game no problem with some frustrations how it was with no optional stuff. This game is not crazy hard.
5. The volume for at least the English voices were all over the place with earbuds or with a surround sound system. Some people you could hear fine, others were whispering like they were in their Mom's basement trying not to wake anyone in their house up. Combine that with the loud volume of the battles and you will end up having to adjust the volume of this game a lot.
6. The end story dungeons having edges you can be knocked off from out of nowhere and instantly killing your party is dumb as hell. It just causes a reset if it happens. The only counterplay is to not be on the edge of the map or have a character that can equip an ability that can prevent them from being knocked back, which not everyone has.
7. Some dialog choices that impact the story in this game are a bit weird. It says Denam will say something and you choose it to see him say something different that has people reacting differently than what they would have reacted if he just said what the game told you he would say.
8. It's fine to have the story bosses be strong and even 1 or 2 shot your allies, but it's weird that the vast majority of the battles have it where if you kill just the boss you can ignore the fodder enemies and beat the battle faster. Feels like you are ignoring part of the game when doing that, but with how tanky enemies get at varying parts of the story I found myself just killing the boss and being done with it. I feel like you should have had to kill at least majority of the enemies on top of the boss. Feels like you're cheesing the game when you do that.
The game mentions the Ogre Battle a few times that happened in the past, and it makes me want to play the game that had it, because it sounded epic, but apparently that game does not exist because it just has not been made, and probably never will. Weird how the timeline of this series is with there being like 4 episodes or stories that have not been made into games yet, but are referenced in the games from episode 5 onward as games.
Pros:
1. This game has a lot of game in it, so if you end up enjoying it you really get your money's worth. A lot of replay ability.
2. When you end up doing an attack that does a butt ton of damage man does it feel good in this game. That, or you end up knocking an enemy off an edge and one shot them as a result.
3. The story in this game for at least the chaos route is good. I do think the story is better than most Fire Emblem games I have played. I do not know exactly why I found myself not to be immersed or caring a whole lot about it except if I saw someone die somehow. I guess the long boring battles took me out of the game.
4. Being able to time travel after you beat the game is really cool to see different events, although I'm sure I will not revisit this game, unless how my brain operates becomes different later down the road.
5. Velocity shift and boost of swiftness is a godsend in this game and I love those two abilities. It made the battles faster for me and made me able to stomach it more.
Cons:
1. The gameplay in battles is too freaking slow, even with the fast-forward option on. I cannot imagine playing the older versions of this game, I would lose my mind. There's too much darn waiting involved.
2. Passive abilities are too strong in this game and may not proc. It's dumb. Passives for everyone should always proc, or they should have been re-balanced to not be as powerful. For the player and the enemy if either procs their passives it makes a huge difference in the tide of the battle. Feels like I'm gambling at a casino rather than playing a strategy game.
3. The blue cards are cool but again are so random on what spawns and how frequently and where. I do not think they should exist. Basically more rng and only strategy is using them if they spawn and are not out of your way to go get in a battle.
4. The level cap is dumb because you reach it so fast with just doing the story battles that it makes the experience you gain useless. This is nothing about wanting to grind exp to make the game easy, I beat the game no problem with some frustrations how it was with no optional stuff. This game is not crazy hard.
5. The volume for at least the English voices were all over the place with earbuds or with a surround sound system. Some people you could hear fine, others were whispering like they were in their Mom's basement trying not to wake anyone in their house up. Combine that with the loud volume of the battles and you will end up having to adjust the volume of this game a lot.
6. The end story dungeons having edges you can be knocked off from out of nowhere and instantly killing your party is dumb as hell. It just causes a reset if it happens. The only counterplay is to not be on the edge of the map or have a character that can equip an ability that can prevent them from being knocked back, which not everyone has.
7. Some dialog choices that impact the story in this game are a bit weird. It says Denam will say something and you choose it to see him say something different that has people reacting differently than what they would have reacted if he just said what the game told you he would say.
8. It's fine to have the story bosses be strong and even 1 or 2 shot your allies, but it's weird that the vast majority of the battles have it where if you kill just the boss you can ignore the fodder enemies and beat the battle faster. Feels like you are ignoring part of the game when doing that, but with how tanky enemies get at varying parts of the story I found myself just killing the boss and being done with it. I feel like you should have had to kill at least majority of the enemies on top of the boss. Feels like you're cheesing the game when you do that.
The game mentions the Ogre Battle a few times that happened in the past, and it makes me want to play the game that had it, because it sounded epic, but apparently that game does not exist because it just has not been made, and probably never will. Weird how the timeline of this series is with there being like 4 episodes or stories that have not been made into games yet, but are referenced in the games from episode 5 onward as games.
2023
This game must have went through development hell similar to FF15 or something because it's rough around the edges. Square Enix just doesn't do it like they used to and it's sad.
Pros:
1. Graphics are great. At times I feel like GOW Ragnarok looks a smidge better, but its very close.
2. The music is good, but not the best in the series.
3. The abilities you can use are really fun to just use in general. Very flashy and feel good.
4. The story, although very slow, if you keep with it does get really good. With every Final Fantasy game it falls off at the very end with abstract fighting God stuff.
5. The voice acting is great.
6. Sound design is great. With surround sound it is a bit weird that background sounds from explosions or characters talking behind you get crazy loud.
Cons:
1. The story is way too slow and too long. So much standing around nothing happening. I must have ADHD or something but man it was hard to sit through all those cutscenes. At times the game showed too much of the little stuff like it wanted to be an MMORPG at one point.
2. The combat feels as simple as Dynasty Warriors, and when you later in the game get a bunch of abilities it feels like about all you are doing is spamming abilities instead of auto attacking because that's just the better thing to do. You just press square four times then triangle for a fire blast when auto attacking and dodge when you are about to get hit. I'm fine with the combat being simple, but when the enemies are as much of sponges as they are it makes for long and boring fights.
3. The side quests are typical filler content you find in MMOs. I did them at first until they bored me and I never looked back. I never regretted it too because the main story has filler main quests you have to do that feel like were there to pad the game out more than it needed.
4. Why in the crap can I not run with a button at any time? This also made the game very slow. Only time you can run is when you get to an open area and are jogging for a few seconds. I see reasons why they did it this way, but it sucks overall for the speed of the game. I think this is another game that was either not optimized well enough for the PS5, or it pushes the system too far. I believe if you could just run at any time that even with performance mode on the frames would drop due to you moving too fast and the game not being able to keep up generating things. I believe it's also done to let everyone in the story say the lines they are scripted to say, so you do not move too fast and get into a cutscene that stops them in the middle of their sentence (I did not do the side quest to unlock a chocobo and just found out you could get one by doing a certain side quest, so I am not sure if that would have fixed this issue of mine. This quest should have been part of the main story but ah well).
Before I got to the middle of the game I was contemplating giving this a 3 out of 5, but the story made me rethink things. It ain't the best ever I've experienced, but it's serviceable with some good stuff in it.
Pros:
1. Graphics are great. At times I feel like GOW Ragnarok looks a smidge better, but its very close.
2. The music is good, but not the best in the series.
3. The abilities you can use are really fun to just use in general. Very flashy and feel good.
4. The story, although very slow, if you keep with it does get really good. With every Final Fantasy game it falls off at the very end with abstract fighting God stuff.
5. The voice acting is great.
6. Sound design is great. With surround sound it is a bit weird that background sounds from explosions or characters talking behind you get crazy loud.
Cons:
1. The story is way too slow and too long. So much standing around nothing happening. I must have ADHD or something but man it was hard to sit through all those cutscenes. At times the game showed too much of the little stuff like it wanted to be an MMORPG at one point.
2. The combat feels as simple as Dynasty Warriors, and when you later in the game get a bunch of abilities it feels like about all you are doing is spamming abilities instead of auto attacking because that's just the better thing to do. You just press square four times then triangle for a fire blast when auto attacking and dodge when you are about to get hit. I'm fine with the combat being simple, but when the enemies are as much of sponges as they are it makes for long and boring fights.
3. The side quests are typical filler content you find in MMOs. I did them at first until they bored me and I never looked back. I never regretted it too because the main story has filler main quests you have to do that feel like were there to pad the game out more than it needed.
4. Why in the crap can I not run with a button at any time? This also made the game very slow. Only time you can run is when you get to an open area and are jogging for a few seconds. I see reasons why they did it this way, but it sucks overall for the speed of the game. I think this is another game that was either not optimized well enough for the PS5, or it pushes the system too far. I believe if you could just run at any time that even with performance mode on the frames would drop due to you moving too fast and the game not being able to keep up generating things. I believe it's also done to let everyone in the story say the lines they are scripted to say, so you do not move too fast and get into a cutscene that stops them in the middle of their sentence (I did not do the side quest to unlock a chocobo and just found out you could get one by doing a certain side quest, so I am not sure if that would have fixed this issue of mine. This quest should have been part of the main story but ah well).
Before I got to the middle of the game I was contemplating giving this a 3 out of 5, but the story made me rethink things. It ain't the best ever I've experienced, but it's serviceable with some good stuff in it.
More of the same from Spider Man 1 on PS4. If you didn't like it then, you won't like it now. It improves on the previous game and Miles Morales side story as expected of a sequel. The stakes feel higher than the previous two games, and there are many twists to the story that will have you going 'Wow!'.
Pros:
1. Really engaging story. There are some hiccups at certain parts like with any story, but I think it hit the landing pretty well and kept me engaged throughout. There are some moments where Peter acts certain ways that are not believable, but all I can say is it is what it is and I just moved on.
2. The combat can be as simple as you want or as deep as you want, which is how it was with the previous two games.
3. Both Spidermen characters feel different enough with their different abilities and animations.
4. The side story content is pretty good. I found myself completing all of it any chance I could get. I am generally not a fan of side content in games due to the side content just feeling not fun and more busy work.
Cons:
1. I cannot remember if this was how it was for some bosses in the previous two games for combat, but at least in this game some enemies have attacks that you cannot dodge, but must parry. It is indicated by a much bigger squiggly line that is at first yellow, then turns red. The thing is that I was so conditioned by this game to dodge everything that I would end up keep getting hit by these types of hits repeatedly. It's not even a hard thing to do to parry these attacks, it was just so annoying to me. It's more of a nitpick than a big concern. Makes no sense to me why Spiderman could not just also dodge an attack that he has to parry because of it generally being a slashing sword strike or baseball bat or pipe. He physically has dodged punches, what makes dodging certain weapons impossible?
2. Super armor is a little bit of an issue for me in this game. I don't think they got it exactly right still, but it felt like it was used better than in the previous two games. Brutes and bosses and enemies doing certain attacks have super armor, and it feels well telegraphed most of the time when they have it, but there are some times where it just caught me off-guard. There were some moments with some bosses where it felt like some of their attacks just negated my special abilities that had super armor, and the only way for me to find out was to just have it happen to me and try not to do it again really.
3. I hate to say it, but I have to call it like I see it. I feel like Miles was done dirty compared to Peter in this game. Miles felt more like an advertisement for various things, whereas Peter felt safe and just dealt with the general story and his family and friends. Miles had stuff with his family and friends too, but the majority of his story stuff that did not have to do with the main story with Peter felt like an advertisement by the developers to make groups of people feel included and acknowledged in the world. Some of the time it felt well done, but it also felt wrong to make Miles be a token character for that when Peter was not done that way at all. I felt as though Peter should have had instances in his side stories and main story events to make people feel included as well, so him and Miles both would bring attention to groups of people that are not currently well-represented in games currently, OR have Miles story events not be so deeply-fixated on that aspect. Again, some diversity events with Miles felt well-done, but not all of them, and it was off-putting to have just him be the diversity character while not having Peter have diversity events too.
4. I hated having to play as MJ in this game, but I knew it was coming because of having to play as her in the first game. Just so slow-paced and not why I got the game in the first place. Ah well.
5. Despite me just now playing through the game I encountered game-breaking bugs where the game crashed on me like 3 or 4 times. Most of the time it happened when it tried to load a cutscene after a fight. I figured they would have fixed bugs like that by now. Other ones were just of enemies getting stuck in places sometimes.
Pros:
1. Really engaging story. There are some hiccups at certain parts like with any story, but I think it hit the landing pretty well and kept me engaged throughout. There are some moments where Peter acts certain ways that are not believable, but all I can say is it is what it is and I just moved on.
2. The combat can be as simple as you want or as deep as you want, which is how it was with the previous two games.
3. Both Spidermen characters feel different enough with their different abilities and animations.
4. The side story content is pretty good. I found myself completing all of it any chance I could get. I am generally not a fan of side content in games due to the side content just feeling not fun and more busy work.
Cons:
1. I cannot remember if this was how it was for some bosses in the previous two games for combat, but at least in this game some enemies have attacks that you cannot dodge, but must parry. It is indicated by a much bigger squiggly line that is at first yellow, then turns red. The thing is that I was so conditioned by this game to dodge everything that I would end up keep getting hit by these types of hits repeatedly. It's not even a hard thing to do to parry these attacks, it was just so annoying to me. It's more of a nitpick than a big concern. Makes no sense to me why Spiderman could not just also dodge an attack that he has to parry because of it generally being a slashing sword strike or baseball bat or pipe. He physically has dodged punches, what makes dodging certain weapons impossible?
2. Super armor is a little bit of an issue for me in this game. I don't think they got it exactly right still, but it felt like it was used better than in the previous two games. Brutes and bosses and enemies doing certain attacks have super armor, and it feels well telegraphed most of the time when they have it, but there are some times where it just caught me off-guard. There were some moments with some bosses where it felt like some of their attacks just negated my special abilities that had super armor, and the only way for me to find out was to just have it happen to me and try not to do it again really.
3. I hate to say it, but I have to call it like I see it. I feel like Miles was done dirty compared to Peter in this game. Miles felt more like an advertisement for various things, whereas Peter felt safe and just dealt with the general story and his family and friends. Miles had stuff with his family and friends too, but the majority of his story stuff that did not have to do with the main story with Peter felt like an advertisement by the developers to make groups of people feel included and acknowledged in the world. Some of the time it felt well done, but it also felt wrong to make Miles be a token character for that when Peter was not done that way at all. I felt as though Peter should have had instances in his side stories and main story events to make people feel included as well, so him and Miles both would bring attention to groups of people that are not currently well-represented in games currently, OR have Miles story events not be so deeply-fixated on that aspect. Again, some diversity events with Miles felt well-done, but not all of them, and it was off-putting to have just him be the diversity character while not having Peter have diversity events too.
4. I hated having to play as MJ in this game, but I knew it was coming because of having to play as her in the first game. Just so slow-paced and not why I got the game in the first place. Ah well.
5. Despite me just now playing through the game I encountered game-breaking bugs where the game crashed on me like 3 or 4 times. Most of the time it happened when it tried to load a cutscene after a fight. I figured they would have fixed bugs like that by now. Other ones were just of enemies getting stuck in places sometimes.
I abandoned the game after I lost the battle with Kenji after almost beating him and accidentally choosing to revive with macca and backing out twice to try to use play coins to revive instead, just to go back to the title screen and discover I forgot to save the entire time I was in savage Tokyo.
Turns out I was at the very end of the game, and I just don't care to spend 2 hours getting back to where I was.
Game is fun, story is better than smt3 and smt5 (I'm guessing it's a thing to intentionally not worry about making a good/great story in SMT games). Enemies spawn too much, so its hard to walk around anywhere. After the beginning the game is a cake walk (Yet I died to Kenji still. I just had to pick the remote up thinking the battle was over and he gave up and mess my revive up). I was going towards the chaos ending, but it looks like the Neutral one is the true ending from what I can tell.
This is worth picking up and playing. It sucks that after having 3D models from SMT3 they went back to png pictures for SMT4, so after playing 3 and 5 and then going to 4 it felt like I was going backwards. The voice acting is really good, and they hired a bunch of popular ones I recognize from other games.
Turns out I was at the very end of the game, and I just don't care to spend 2 hours getting back to where I was.
Game is fun, story is better than smt3 and smt5 (I'm guessing it's a thing to intentionally not worry about making a good/great story in SMT games). Enemies spawn too much, so its hard to walk around anywhere. After the beginning the game is a cake walk (Yet I died to Kenji still. I just had to pick the remote up thinking the battle was over and he gave up and mess my revive up). I was going towards the chaos ending, but it looks like the Neutral one is the true ending from what I can tell.
This is worth picking up and playing. It sucks that after having 3D models from SMT3 they went back to png pictures for SMT4, so after playing 3 and 5 and then going to 4 it felt like I was going backwards. The voice acting is really good, and they hired a bunch of popular ones I recognize from other games.
This review contains spoilers
I feel like a broken record, but another Fire Emblem, another good game. I don't think there is a single bad Fire Emblem game.
This one is of course very similar to Shadow Dragon for obvious reasons, for good or worse at times.
Some general thoughts below:
1. It feels to me that defense and resistance matters less in this one, and HP matters the most. About every enemy does a lot of damage. That's a general feeling I got from this game gameplay-wise.
2. Every chapter, especially the side-chapters, are incredibly short and not long. The main chapters feel very balanced and fun, but the side-chapters feel shoehorned in and not of the same quality.
3. The Kris Katarina Eremiya side story should not even be a thing. I think it detracts from the game's main story at times.
4. I am glad I can choose not to use Kris in most chapters, but it sucks that Marth talks to him like Kris is his older, wiser brother and second guesses himself at every turn.
5. Sucks they decided to take playable ballisticians out of this game while still including the previous game playable ballisticians as different classes. There is even a weapon that counters player ballisticians in one chapter I noticed that is pointless to even exist because of me not being able to use any.
6. This game is definitely made to iron man because you get way too many characters in the story. I felt bad having to sideline like 90% of the cast because of the ones I had in the early game just out-levelling the ones that join later.
7. The whole binding shield stuff with the spheres is really cool. I wish the binding shield was stronger ability-wise. When it fuses with the 5 spheres it only retains the +2 to all points part of one sphere, and the other 4 sphere abilities are lost. Makes me wonder why Marth does not use this shield in Smash Bros in his move set or in his final smash. Bit weird.
8. The story I feel is actually pretty good, especially for a Fire Emblem game where the emphasis will always be on gameplay and story second. I suppose it's not as good as FE4 or the Tellius games, but I think it has the potential if rewritten to be up there.
9. The graphics are ugly, same as Shadow Dragon. You just get used to it eventually after looking at it for long enough.
This one is of course very similar to Shadow Dragon for obvious reasons, for good or worse at times.
Some general thoughts below:
1. It feels to me that defense and resistance matters less in this one, and HP matters the most. About every enemy does a lot of damage. That's a general feeling I got from this game gameplay-wise.
2. Every chapter, especially the side-chapters, are incredibly short and not long. The main chapters feel very balanced and fun, but the side-chapters feel shoehorned in and not of the same quality.
3. The Kris Katarina Eremiya side story should not even be a thing. I think it detracts from the game's main story at times.
4. I am glad I can choose not to use Kris in most chapters, but it sucks that Marth talks to him like Kris is his older, wiser brother and second guesses himself at every turn.
5. Sucks they decided to take playable ballisticians out of this game while still including the previous game playable ballisticians as different classes. There is even a weapon that counters player ballisticians in one chapter I noticed that is pointless to even exist because of me not being able to use any.
6. This game is definitely made to iron man because you get way too many characters in the story. I felt bad having to sideline like 90% of the cast because of the ones I had in the early game just out-levelling the ones that join later.
7. The whole binding shield stuff with the spheres is really cool. I wish the binding shield was stronger ability-wise. When it fuses with the 5 spheres it only retains the +2 to all points part of one sphere, and the other 4 sphere abilities are lost. Makes me wonder why Marth does not use this shield in Smash Bros in his move set or in his final smash. Bit weird.
8. The story I feel is actually pretty good, especially for a Fire Emblem game where the emphasis will always be on gameplay and story second. I suppose it's not as good as FE4 or the Tellius games, but I think it has the potential if rewritten to be up there.
9. The graphics are ugly, same as Shadow Dragon. You just get used to it eventually after looking at it for long enough.
This review contains spoilers
This is one of the few Fire Emblem games where I feel like I was being treated as an adult instead of a kid. I got this same feeling from FE4, more so with this game. I really did not think I was going to like this game upon what I heard from fans with how it is known as being newcomer unfriendly, and just a bunch of bs happening all the time. After playing through it myself I can say that this game's difficulty is greatly exaggerated, unless this would be your first game in the series. That is not to say this game is easy, because it is not. Sure, if you know this game like the back of your hand it is easy because you have played it a lot and have studied it, but for a first time playthrough or for the first couple of playthroughs it's one of the harder games in the series (Of course not counting the hardest difficulties in the other games like Conquest, Awakening, Path of Radiance and Shadow Dragon. Their hardest difficulties are not fair to compare to a game like Thracia that only has one difficulty due to it being so old and there not being harder difficulties in the series until FE6 I believe). I do recommend reading a beginner guide on Reddit or a YouTube video or something if you are interested in playing this game blind due to its new mechanics (Some of which are exclusive just to this game), as the game will not explain them to you. That's probably because you were meant to read the instruction manual when it came out on the SNES or watch the VHS tape from the special edition. This pretty much applies to any old game you do not have an instruction manual for though thinking about it.
Pros:
1. This game gives you so many broken and powerful items and characters that are fun to use against the enemy to counteract just about any bs the game throws your way that the vast, vast majority of the time any time something goes wrong it is your fault for not using your tools correctly. I of course won't list every single busted item in this game, but to name a few that you get early on in this game- Light Brand, Flame Sword, Brave Lance, Brave Axe and the Vouge. You are given all these busted items, as well as 2 pre-promoted units (One of which cannot die due to story reasons, but can be captured), and one over-levelled unit (Finn) that stays good the entire game that to me it just made this game feel like a fun playground.
2. The map design in this game is really on point besides a few maps. Most of them feel like they have so much going on that it made me feel as though I was being treated to a full course meal about every chapter.
3. The Crusader Scrolls were so unique and were different from any item I have ever messed around with in the FE series. I loved being able to manipulate my growth rates for each unit, as well as nullifying the potential of critical attacks (Except for the Wrath skill, which is dumb).
4. The story I found to be surprisingly interesting. It's more of a personal story compared to FE4, and it does a really good job of making me feel Leif's struggle and what he had to go through before joining Seliph. There are the few retcons to FE4's story, as far as changing when Leif, Nanna, Ced, and Finn join Seliph's army, but that does not change the main story of FE4 in the grand scheme of things. It is a bit weird that other characters in FE5 just decided not to join Seliph's army after FE5 ends, but again, that's a small retcon that only changes a unit's FE4 join time or if they join at all. Maybe there are other retcons I did not notice, but that's the only thing that stuck out to me.
5. Capturing units I hated in this game at first, but it really grew on me. I find myself missing it in other Fire Emblem games I play. I really like being able to steal an enemy's items and use them as my own. This mechanic really works well for this game to show how much of a struggle Leif's army has that they have to resort to stealing enemy items to make it through the story. There are some grievances I have with the capture mechanic, and think it could be improved upon in a remake or a future game, but I do love using it in this game overall.
6. Unit Level Up Stats. I surprisingly found myself loving the stat caps in this game where everything caps at 20. Cannot really explain why, but I guess it felt like less work compared to other games in the series to make someone good enough to use or for them to catch up if they were not used for a few chapters. I also loved being able to level up Movement. It was always so hype when one of my characters got Movement level ups, especially if they got a bad level up in their other stats. The Movement level up if it happens pops up after the other stats level up screen goes away, so it feels like a nice surprise all the time to me.
7. The gaiden chapter requirements are pretty hard to miss in this game, and make the game so much easier if you play them. The only one really miss-able is if you do not allow one unit to be captured by the enemy or escape without them. I did spoil myself on gaiden requirements due to just wanting to experience everything the game had to offer at the time, but I do think I would have gotten all of them except for the prison one on a completely blind playthrough.
8. Staves having infinite range I was not sure if I would like or not upon starting this game, as I was spoiled of that way before starting it. I fell in love with it, but infinite range staves are definitely not for every FE game in the series of course. It somehow, just works for this game. I guess because they designed most of the maps for infinite range staves in mind. It's nice to not have to bother counting range for the staves compared to other games for once. Just was less thinking for me lol. It's extremely fun to cheese the enemy with them, but of course it feels just as cheesy or bad if you let the enemy use their infinite range staves against you.
9. I love that if you miss with staves in this game you get the full experience still and the durability does not go down for the staff. I did not try to save state miss abuse or anything, but you can do that if it helps you have more fun with the game. Completely up to you.
10. I actually believe Leif is one of the most balanced main character Lords in the entire series. He is not broken, but not useless. He has his uses and he gets stronger as the game goes on. It also depends on what level ups you get of course, but his Light Brand and his other late game sword he gets, the Bragi Sword, are both very nice.
11. I love Movement Stars in this game. It's a really nice feeling I get whenever I get lucky and can use a unit 2 times in one turn without using a dancer. It doesn't need to be in the game, but it adds some extra flair to the game to help it further stand out. It does suck when enemies activate movement stars, but not many of them have it, and you have plenty of time to kill them before they even get a single turn.
12. Trading in Thracia works really well. Being able to trade between multiple units with one unit all at the same time is great. Makes swapping items around really nice and easy. Honestly I wish trading was like this in every Fire Emblem game.
Cons:
1. The hit rate for staves being dependent on your skill per each character is not a crazy big deal. You can miss until you get to at least 10 skill, but that is a small issue due to just levelling your units up or using a skill ring you get early on Nanna or Safy. I cannot recall any time the game told me that you can miss with staves and it being based on your skill, so I believe the game should have told you about that.
2. Xavier's recruitment is bs unless you know what to do, and even when you know what to do if you do not have a Sleep Edge or the right placement you are going to have a bad time recruiting him, let alone getting the Member Card. If you do not know what I am talking about, it would be best to Google it and see how in-depth his recruitment is compared to any other character in the whole Fire Emblem series.
3. Wrath skill being able to crit you, despite your character holding a Crusader Scroll is some stupid bs you cannot prepare for, or just not know about unless you were told about or experienced it yourself. That's inconsistent game design, and it should nullify Wrath crits.
4. The teleport tiles in 16B and 24x are some bs. It's not as much of a problem in 16B because of how unlikely it is for you to be in danger, since the mages will waste a turn rewarping to you, and the forest limiting everyone's movement except for fliers. It's more of a nuisance, since it's an escape map and you will have to wait a much longer time for them to escape due to the limited movement. 24x the warp tiles are an actual danger for any unit on your team due to being teleported to a dungeon with no escape with also being able to get hit with an enemy that can put them to sleep, others that can poison them, and others that can put them to 1HP with one hit. At this point in the game you should have plenty of staves that can get your ally out of the dungeon, but you may end up running out of staves to use due to just not knowing where the tiles are at and being unlucky where you move your units to. I think the tile issue could have been resolved by letting thieves see the tiles that are nearby, or permanently revealing a tile to the player if it was activated once.
5. Chapter 22 Across the River. The only issue I have with this map is Saias himself. He gives 10 authority stars to the enemy, letting them reach a maximum of 19. That really screws you over hit rate-wise. Again, this is only an issue for a first playthrough, as any future playthroughs you will know exactly what to do to make the chapter just another good chapter to play through. You are either expected to use the Warp staff to get to Saias (Who through abilities cannot be captured, killed, or status inflicted, so he's untouchable essentially) and wait a turn for him to go away due to story reasons that are very subtly hinted at for the beginning of the chapter, or wait until turn 40 if I remember correctly from reading online. I think he should leave much sooner to resolve the 19 authority star issue. I played through the chapter without using the Warp staff for a while, and the ballistaes pretty much had a 99% hit rate on all my units. I had to have my units sit there and be ballistae sponges for 10 hits each before I could move forward.
6. This is more nitpicky due to this just being a product of its time, but not being able to re-arrange your unit placement on the Map sucks. You have to un-deploy everyone and deploy them one at a time to see where they go one by one. This matters a good bit in this game due to maps where your army will be split up in 2 or more groups.
7. The arena section in Chapter 5 feels random to me whether or not the enemies will run away and escape or chase Nanna down after Eyvel is turned to stone. That's the only real thing I struggled with on this map. I thought that was dumb.
8. Same Turn Reinforcements. They suck in any Fire Emblem game they are in, unless the game tells you that will happen before you start the game up, and the story lets you know reinforcements are coming and the general area they are coming from. This game does neither some of the time. Some chapters it will let you know reinforcements are coming and where they are coming from.
9. This is a weird con, as this never affected me due to being told before I started it, but escaping first with Leif makes your other units you deployed in the map get auto-captured. With the fan-translation I played it did make it clear that Leif should escape last, but I think that everyone should have to escape for the chapter to end, not just Leif. There is a potential issue where you get soft locked if a unit of yours gets stuck and can't get to the escape area, but I'm sure that could be resolved with an easy enough solution.
N/A:
1. Not sure whether or not to list fatigue as a pro or con. It is fun but also a hindrance. On a blind playthrough you may end up missing out on a gaiden chapter, character recruitments, or special items if the character has too much fatigue from being used in the previous chapter. For a returning player this isn't an issue due to them just knowing what is coming next. It does make you use your other units instead of relying on the same tried and true ones the entire game, but at the same time in one chapter you can buy as many stamina drinks as you want if you have the money, and you get a crap ton of them for free from a gaiden chapter that it makes it feel like the fatigue mechanic does not exist beyond just making your units have one less item slot due to having to carry a stamina drink.
2. I completely understand why Wrath and Vantage not being able to stack works how it is, and essentially just gives you only Vantage, but I am confused still on why the Beo Sword gives you both when you can only use Vantage. Ah well.
3. Only other thing I can think of mechanic-wise is fog of war. I won't list it as a pro or con, but I think it's exaggerated in this game, as you get Torch staves and Torches to use to see, and you should have your tankier units with crusader scrolls if you have them move first into the darkness so you will not have issues like with any Fire Emblem game. I did not find it to be a problem really, I enjoyed it, and tend to enjoy it in any Fire Emblem game.
This game feels like the Majora's Mask of the Fire Emblem series. It's so weird and quirky, and the more I learn about it the more I fall in love with it. I am not one to really care about replaying games, but this is one of the few games I actually have an urge to replay even after just beating it. Feels like a new comfort game to me.
Pros:
1. This game gives you so many broken and powerful items and characters that are fun to use against the enemy to counteract just about any bs the game throws your way that the vast, vast majority of the time any time something goes wrong it is your fault for not using your tools correctly. I of course won't list every single busted item in this game, but to name a few that you get early on in this game- Light Brand, Flame Sword, Brave Lance, Brave Axe and the Vouge. You are given all these busted items, as well as 2 pre-promoted units (One of which cannot die due to story reasons, but can be captured), and one over-levelled unit (Finn) that stays good the entire game that to me it just made this game feel like a fun playground.
2. The map design in this game is really on point besides a few maps. Most of them feel like they have so much going on that it made me feel as though I was being treated to a full course meal about every chapter.
3. The Crusader Scrolls were so unique and were different from any item I have ever messed around with in the FE series. I loved being able to manipulate my growth rates for each unit, as well as nullifying the potential of critical attacks (Except for the Wrath skill, which is dumb).
4. The story I found to be surprisingly interesting. It's more of a personal story compared to FE4, and it does a really good job of making me feel Leif's struggle and what he had to go through before joining Seliph. There are the few retcons to FE4's story, as far as changing when Leif, Nanna, Ced, and Finn join Seliph's army, but that does not change the main story of FE4 in the grand scheme of things. It is a bit weird that other characters in FE5 just decided not to join Seliph's army after FE5 ends, but again, that's a small retcon that only changes a unit's FE4 join time or if they join at all. Maybe there are other retcons I did not notice, but that's the only thing that stuck out to me.
5. Capturing units I hated in this game at first, but it really grew on me. I find myself missing it in other Fire Emblem games I play. I really like being able to steal an enemy's items and use them as my own. This mechanic really works well for this game to show how much of a struggle Leif's army has that they have to resort to stealing enemy items to make it through the story. There are some grievances I have with the capture mechanic, and think it could be improved upon in a remake or a future game, but I do love using it in this game overall.
6. Unit Level Up Stats. I surprisingly found myself loving the stat caps in this game where everything caps at 20. Cannot really explain why, but I guess it felt like less work compared to other games in the series to make someone good enough to use or for them to catch up if they were not used for a few chapters. I also loved being able to level up Movement. It was always so hype when one of my characters got Movement level ups, especially if they got a bad level up in their other stats. The Movement level up if it happens pops up after the other stats level up screen goes away, so it feels like a nice surprise all the time to me.
7. The gaiden chapter requirements are pretty hard to miss in this game, and make the game so much easier if you play them. The only one really miss-able is if you do not allow one unit to be captured by the enemy or escape without them. I did spoil myself on gaiden requirements due to just wanting to experience everything the game had to offer at the time, but I do think I would have gotten all of them except for the prison one on a completely blind playthrough.
8. Staves having infinite range I was not sure if I would like or not upon starting this game, as I was spoiled of that way before starting it. I fell in love with it, but infinite range staves are definitely not for every FE game in the series of course. It somehow, just works for this game. I guess because they designed most of the maps for infinite range staves in mind. It's nice to not have to bother counting range for the staves compared to other games for once. Just was less thinking for me lol. It's extremely fun to cheese the enemy with them, but of course it feels just as cheesy or bad if you let the enemy use their infinite range staves against you.
9. I love that if you miss with staves in this game you get the full experience still and the durability does not go down for the staff. I did not try to save state miss abuse or anything, but you can do that if it helps you have more fun with the game. Completely up to you.
10. I actually believe Leif is one of the most balanced main character Lords in the entire series. He is not broken, but not useless. He has his uses and he gets stronger as the game goes on. It also depends on what level ups you get of course, but his Light Brand and his other late game sword he gets, the Bragi Sword, are both very nice.
11. I love Movement Stars in this game. It's a really nice feeling I get whenever I get lucky and can use a unit 2 times in one turn without using a dancer. It doesn't need to be in the game, but it adds some extra flair to the game to help it further stand out. It does suck when enemies activate movement stars, but not many of them have it, and you have plenty of time to kill them before they even get a single turn.
12. Trading in Thracia works really well. Being able to trade between multiple units with one unit all at the same time is great. Makes swapping items around really nice and easy. Honestly I wish trading was like this in every Fire Emblem game.
Cons:
1. The hit rate for staves being dependent on your skill per each character is not a crazy big deal. You can miss until you get to at least 10 skill, but that is a small issue due to just levelling your units up or using a skill ring you get early on Nanna or Safy. I cannot recall any time the game told me that you can miss with staves and it being based on your skill, so I believe the game should have told you about that.
2. Xavier's recruitment is bs unless you know what to do, and even when you know what to do if you do not have a Sleep Edge or the right placement you are going to have a bad time recruiting him, let alone getting the Member Card. If you do not know what I am talking about, it would be best to Google it and see how in-depth his recruitment is compared to any other character in the whole Fire Emblem series.
3. Wrath skill being able to crit you, despite your character holding a Crusader Scroll is some stupid bs you cannot prepare for, or just not know about unless you were told about or experienced it yourself. That's inconsistent game design, and it should nullify Wrath crits.
4. The teleport tiles in 16B and 24x are some bs. It's not as much of a problem in 16B because of how unlikely it is for you to be in danger, since the mages will waste a turn rewarping to you, and the forest limiting everyone's movement except for fliers. It's more of a nuisance, since it's an escape map and you will have to wait a much longer time for them to escape due to the limited movement. 24x the warp tiles are an actual danger for any unit on your team due to being teleported to a dungeon with no escape with also being able to get hit with an enemy that can put them to sleep, others that can poison them, and others that can put them to 1HP with one hit. At this point in the game you should have plenty of staves that can get your ally out of the dungeon, but you may end up running out of staves to use due to just not knowing where the tiles are at and being unlucky where you move your units to. I think the tile issue could have been resolved by letting thieves see the tiles that are nearby, or permanently revealing a tile to the player if it was activated once.
5. Chapter 22 Across the River. The only issue I have with this map is Saias himself. He gives 10 authority stars to the enemy, letting them reach a maximum of 19. That really screws you over hit rate-wise. Again, this is only an issue for a first playthrough, as any future playthroughs you will know exactly what to do to make the chapter just another good chapter to play through. You are either expected to use the Warp staff to get to Saias (Who through abilities cannot be captured, killed, or status inflicted, so he's untouchable essentially) and wait a turn for him to go away due to story reasons that are very subtly hinted at for the beginning of the chapter, or wait until turn 40 if I remember correctly from reading online. I think he should leave much sooner to resolve the 19 authority star issue. I played through the chapter without using the Warp staff for a while, and the ballistaes pretty much had a 99% hit rate on all my units. I had to have my units sit there and be ballistae sponges for 10 hits each before I could move forward.
6. This is more nitpicky due to this just being a product of its time, but not being able to re-arrange your unit placement on the Map sucks. You have to un-deploy everyone and deploy them one at a time to see where they go one by one. This matters a good bit in this game due to maps where your army will be split up in 2 or more groups.
7. The arena section in Chapter 5 feels random to me whether or not the enemies will run away and escape or chase Nanna down after Eyvel is turned to stone. That's the only real thing I struggled with on this map. I thought that was dumb.
8. Same Turn Reinforcements. They suck in any Fire Emblem game they are in, unless the game tells you that will happen before you start the game up, and the story lets you know reinforcements are coming and the general area they are coming from. This game does neither some of the time. Some chapters it will let you know reinforcements are coming and where they are coming from.
9. This is a weird con, as this never affected me due to being told before I started it, but escaping first with Leif makes your other units you deployed in the map get auto-captured. With the fan-translation I played it did make it clear that Leif should escape last, but I think that everyone should have to escape for the chapter to end, not just Leif. There is a potential issue where you get soft locked if a unit of yours gets stuck and can't get to the escape area, but I'm sure that could be resolved with an easy enough solution.
N/A:
1. Not sure whether or not to list fatigue as a pro or con. It is fun but also a hindrance. On a blind playthrough you may end up missing out on a gaiden chapter, character recruitments, or special items if the character has too much fatigue from being used in the previous chapter. For a returning player this isn't an issue due to them just knowing what is coming next. It does make you use your other units instead of relying on the same tried and true ones the entire game, but at the same time in one chapter you can buy as many stamina drinks as you want if you have the money, and you get a crap ton of them for free from a gaiden chapter that it makes it feel like the fatigue mechanic does not exist beyond just making your units have one less item slot due to having to carry a stamina drink.
2. I completely understand why Wrath and Vantage not being able to stack works how it is, and essentially just gives you only Vantage, but I am confused still on why the Beo Sword gives you both when you can only use Vantage. Ah well.
3. Only other thing I can think of mechanic-wise is fog of war. I won't list it as a pro or con, but I think it's exaggerated in this game, as you get Torch staves and Torches to use to see, and you should have your tankier units with crusader scrolls if you have them move first into the darkness so you will not have issues like with any Fire Emblem game. I did not find it to be a problem really, I enjoyed it, and tend to enjoy it in any Fire Emblem game.
This game feels like the Majora's Mask of the Fire Emblem series. It's so weird and quirky, and the more I learn about it the more I fall in love with it. I am not one to really care about replaying games, but this is one of the few games I actually have an urge to replay even after just beating it. Feels like a new comfort game to me.
Just now got around to playing this game after being curious of it for so long due to Roy being in Smash Bros since Melee and not knowing much about him. Same with Fire Emblem Geneology of the Holy War, the fans will do what Nintendon't. That being allowing people who live outside of Japan to being able to play the game in languages that are not Japanese.
Anyways, the game is pretty good. It's another solid game in the series. I have some general thoughts below.
With this being the first game without Kaga, I definitely felt that while playing it. The story felt like a re-imagining of FE1 with Marth for a good bit until the story later on adds some neat twists. I am guessing they did not know what to do story-wise when Kaga left, and so looked at the past games to get a general understanding of what worked and went with it. Not just story-wise I felt it, but definitely gameplay-wise too. The game to me felt like it was not play-tested enough with its low growth rates and hit rates, but that's just my headcanon as far as what went on in development. All I know is that the growth rates being low was oof, and the hit rates being low I definitely felt it even on Normal mode. Not sure if I will ever try Hard mode. Maybe one day.
To summarize some thoughts in a list below:
1. The low growth rates sucked, as well as the hit rates.
2. Sucks to see another game where axes suck.
3. The story feels heavily borrowed from Marth's first game until later on where they decide to change it up.
4. Roy is definitely the weakest lord I have played in a Fire Emblem game, but he is not as weak as people play him up to be. Maybe it was cause I did not play on hard mode and beefed him up with every stat booster I found (Not counting any secret shops), but he wasn't terrible in Normal. I do think I started getting lucky level ups with him.
5. I did find myself to be more invested in the story of this game after already having played the prequel that came out after this game. It really sucked to see how dirty the FE7 cast got done but ah well. Does make me wonder where Lyn even was during Binding Blade because she got killed off screen by someone or a virus. There is no way she would not help in Roy's cause against Bern. I understand she did not exist in FE6, and only did loosely once she was made in FE7, but still, makes me scratch my head.
6. Even in Normal mode I am surprised at the amount of bleh/bad units in this game. It feels to me like you are just supposed to abuse Marcus, Rutger, or Dieck to get through the game for the most part. I personally found myself only abusing Rutger and sidelined Marcus and Dieck.
7. If it was not for Rutger I feel as though I would have struggled with the bosses of each chapter with those massive throne bonuses.
8. I really do hate that the legendary weapons have such low durability. Sucks even more that if they break you lock yourself out of the true ending if they break before you get to the true ending chapters.
9. Some of the ambush spawns were truly ambushes. They caused me to reset the whole chapter because they came out of nowhere and killed my squishy healer that was with my team. No forts or stairs were nearby at all, they just popped up in a few chapters just to troll me.
10. Most of the difficulty I faced in this game was me not knowing which units were bad and which were good upon a blind playthrough and struggling hard to make weak units work. As far as I know, some units I believe to be good are Marcus, Rutger, Melady (If she gets good level ups), Percival, Alan, sorta Lance, Lugh, sorta Dieck, Astolfo, sorta Sue, sorta Niime (if you want a user that can quickly get S rank for Apocalypse), Yoder, Karel, sorta Fae, and sorta Cecilia.
11. I am glad I decided to look up a recruitment guide for this game, because not being able to throw Roy at everyone to recruit them had me scratching my head sometimes. It's fine to not having the main lord recruit everyone, I just think some recruitments should be more heavily hinted at, such as why Lilina has to be the one to recruit Gonzalez instead of just anyone being nice to him and telling him to stop.
12. I do not think getting the true ending is hard in itself once you know what to do. It's easy to get to for most of the requirements, except for the part where you have to not kill Douglas. On a completely blind playthrough where you look absolutely nothing up, you gonna kill Douglas and then wonder why you didn't get the True Ending. The other thing I can see someone messing up on their first playthrough is not knowing that you have to not break any of the legendary weapons you get.
Again, I had my fun and this is another solid game. Has some issues I think happened because Kaga left Nintendo and so other employees had to step in more to figure out what Fire Emblem was and where to take it. It's rough around the edges, but worth a play in my book.
Anyways, the game is pretty good. It's another solid game in the series. I have some general thoughts below.
With this being the first game without Kaga, I definitely felt that while playing it. The story felt like a re-imagining of FE1 with Marth for a good bit until the story later on adds some neat twists. I am guessing they did not know what to do story-wise when Kaga left, and so looked at the past games to get a general understanding of what worked and went with it. Not just story-wise I felt it, but definitely gameplay-wise too. The game to me felt like it was not play-tested enough with its low growth rates and hit rates, but that's just my headcanon as far as what went on in development. All I know is that the growth rates being low was oof, and the hit rates being low I definitely felt it even on Normal mode. Not sure if I will ever try Hard mode. Maybe one day.
To summarize some thoughts in a list below:
1. The low growth rates sucked, as well as the hit rates.
2. Sucks to see another game where axes suck.
3. The story feels heavily borrowed from Marth's first game until later on where they decide to change it up.
4. Roy is definitely the weakest lord I have played in a Fire Emblem game, but he is not as weak as people play him up to be. Maybe it was cause I did not play on hard mode and beefed him up with every stat booster I found (Not counting any secret shops), but he wasn't terrible in Normal. I do think I started getting lucky level ups with him.
5. I did find myself to be more invested in the story of this game after already having played the prequel that came out after this game. It really sucked to see how dirty the FE7 cast got done but ah well. Does make me wonder where Lyn even was during Binding Blade because she got killed off screen by someone or a virus. There is no way she would not help in Roy's cause against Bern. I understand she did not exist in FE6, and only did loosely once she was made in FE7, but still, makes me scratch my head.
6. Even in Normal mode I am surprised at the amount of bleh/bad units in this game. It feels to me like you are just supposed to abuse Marcus, Rutger, or Dieck to get through the game for the most part. I personally found myself only abusing Rutger and sidelined Marcus and Dieck.
7. If it was not for Rutger I feel as though I would have struggled with the bosses of each chapter with those massive throne bonuses.
8. I really do hate that the legendary weapons have such low durability. Sucks even more that if they break you lock yourself out of the true ending if they break before you get to the true ending chapters.
9. Some of the ambush spawns were truly ambushes. They caused me to reset the whole chapter because they came out of nowhere and killed my squishy healer that was with my team. No forts or stairs were nearby at all, they just popped up in a few chapters just to troll me.
10. Most of the difficulty I faced in this game was me not knowing which units were bad and which were good upon a blind playthrough and struggling hard to make weak units work. As far as I know, some units I believe to be good are Marcus, Rutger, Melady (If she gets good level ups), Percival, Alan, sorta Lance, Lugh, sorta Dieck, Astolfo, sorta Sue, sorta Niime (if you want a user that can quickly get S rank for Apocalypse), Yoder, Karel, sorta Fae, and sorta Cecilia.
11. I am glad I decided to look up a recruitment guide for this game, because not being able to throw Roy at everyone to recruit them had me scratching my head sometimes. It's fine to not having the main lord recruit everyone, I just think some recruitments should be more heavily hinted at, such as why Lilina has to be the one to recruit Gonzalez instead of just anyone being nice to him and telling him to stop.
12. I do not think getting the true ending is hard in itself once you know what to do. It's easy to get to for most of the requirements, except for the part where you have to not kill Douglas. On a completely blind playthrough where you look absolutely nothing up, you gonna kill Douglas and then wonder why you didn't get the True Ending. The other thing I can see someone messing up on their first playthrough is not knowing that you have to not break any of the legendary weapons you get.
Again, I had my fun and this is another solid game. Has some issues I think happened because Kaga left Nintendo and so other employees had to step in more to figure out what Fire Emblem was and where to take it. It's rough around the edges, but worth a play in my book.
If I played this game back when it first came out it would have been a 5 out of 5 experience for me, but that's just not how it all panned out for my experience. It's an old game, so of course things in it have not aged well, and I could technically say the same for a game like Super Metroid if I were to play it and judge it without my nostalgia glasses on just to be fair.
Instead of doing a pros and cons list like I generally do, I will just talk about the good and bad about each thing I think is important for the game below:
1. Maps- The maps are big, and are the biggest of any Fire Emblem game I have played, so it definitely has that to set itself apart from the other entries. There are multiple objectives and castles to seize, and you could say that seizing each castle is its own chapter in itself. It does a good job of making each map feel like a war with how long and drawn out they are. I won't get into specifics about each map, but of course some are better or worse than others in the game and you can tell the creators tried their best to have different things happen in each chapter. The only thing that makes having maps this big bearable or fine is it being coupled with a save feature, so you do not have to worry about spending way over an hour or even multiple hours to beat a chapter in one sitting or leave the game running. Typically you cannot save in the middle of a chapter in a FE game, but the maps in this one are so big I see why they let you do it. Some maps can be boring, and some can be awesome, but most feel like a slog unfortunately. The maps feel too big at times, even for cavalry units. Foot units are so bad in this game because of their lack of movement, so unless the unit is really good you are not going to want to bother waiting for them to catch up. There were a good bit of times for me where I just spent turns moving units trying to get to the next objective. It is what it is, the map size is a preference thing overall, but it could be improved with a remake.
2. Hidden Items- Let me preface by saying you do not need any of the hidden items to beat this game, as overall it is not a hard game (Mostly because of the built-in save feature, although this game's difficulty is harder than most of the newer FE games), but this game suffers from the old cryptic game syndrome where it has hidden items, conversations, and other secrets that the game does not tell you about at all or does not do a good job of telling you about. The only ways you are going to encounter these secret items and conversations are by getting lucky and stumbling across them, using a walkthrough or official Nintendo guide if there was one. Some hidden items are fine to stay hidden as they make the game too easy, but I am of the mind that the holy weapons should not be hidden with how important to the story they are. I know they are not as well-hidden as other stuff after looking at a guide after beating the game, but I missed them myself and it just feels crazy you can miss them, like Forseti and Yewfelle.
3. Unit Balance- I ain't saying FE has generally good unit balance in most of its games, but I think it's worse or more obvious in this one. Cavalry units are about the only ones worth using, unless the foot units are broken in someway like Shannan. Some cavalry units are still not good in both generations where you struggle to make them work to where you feel like you would have an easier time just having your busted units run through the game instead of trying to use your other weaker units.
4. Story- I see why people say the story in this one is the best of the series or at least up there. I think it's either the best story in the series for its time that it came out (Meaning the story got worse as it aged due to advancements in storytelling and what you can do in video games now), or still among the best in the series. There are some things in this game that should have been better explained or not left vague, and some plot holes or what not, but what happens in chapter 5 is one of those wow moments if you have not been spoiled on this game's story yet. I unfortunately was to a certain degree before I played the game, so it is what it is.
5. Arena- This is a fun mechanic, but later on it drags and gets boring with how many units you have to use it for and how you can't skip the animations for each round.
6. Trading- Sucks that you gotta sell items to a pawnshop to then buy it for double the value with another unit in order to trade. Gold is easy to get in this game cause of the arena for units that can complete it, but it's definitely a product of its time. If this game were made today I believe you would be able to freely trade without using this as a mechanic.
7. The bandits pillaging the villages are on it in this game. You gotta be on your toes to get every village safe from them, as they do not play around and wait for you to turtle or take your time.
8. Generations- My first time playing this game I did not bother stressing about any love matches for kid stats and all that, I just played the game and what happened, happened. I found Generation 1 to not be as fun as Generation 2. Generation 1 is more for the story and to gawk at how cool Sigurd is I feel. Generation 2 I feel has better designed maps and more fun units to use than in Generation 1.
9. Combat speed- Even with combat speed set to fast and animations off each turn takes a while to get through. It has the same issue that most older FE games have, and that is turn speed. I literally went to go take a dump during one of the enemy phases, and when I came back the enemy phase was still going on.
10. Sleep staff- Bro, just bro. The sleep staff is busted for the enemies. They have infinite uses, and its range is yuuuge, and has a 100% success rate?! This really slows the pace of the game down on the last few chapters where enemies abuse it. I'm glad I had a restore staff, but still when you got 6 or 8 ppl lullabying you to sleep every enemy phase, just oof man, oof. I got through it, but that was not fun. It was definitely an experience.
Overall good game that is still good despite its age. Hoping for a remake eventually, as I think one would really give this game a time to shine overseas, since it never was officially localized.
Instead of doing a pros and cons list like I generally do, I will just talk about the good and bad about each thing I think is important for the game below:
1. Maps- The maps are big, and are the biggest of any Fire Emblem game I have played, so it definitely has that to set itself apart from the other entries. There are multiple objectives and castles to seize, and you could say that seizing each castle is its own chapter in itself. It does a good job of making each map feel like a war with how long and drawn out they are. I won't get into specifics about each map, but of course some are better or worse than others in the game and you can tell the creators tried their best to have different things happen in each chapter. The only thing that makes having maps this big bearable or fine is it being coupled with a save feature, so you do not have to worry about spending way over an hour or even multiple hours to beat a chapter in one sitting or leave the game running. Typically you cannot save in the middle of a chapter in a FE game, but the maps in this one are so big I see why they let you do it. Some maps can be boring, and some can be awesome, but most feel like a slog unfortunately. The maps feel too big at times, even for cavalry units. Foot units are so bad in this game because of their lack of movement, so unless the unit is really good you are not going to want to bother waiting for them to catch up. There were a good bit of times for me where I just spent turns moving units trying to get to the next objective. It is what it is, the map size is a preference thing overall, but it could be improved with a remake.
2. Hidden Items- Let me preface by saying you do not need any of the hidden items to beat this game, as overall it is not a hard game (Mostly because of the built-in save feature, although this game's difficulty is harder than most of the newer FE games), but this game suffers from the old cryptic game syndrome where it has hidden items, conversations, and other secrets that the game does not tell you about at all or does not do a good job of telling you about. The only ways you are going to encounter these secret items and conversations are by getting lucky and stumbling across them, using a walkthrough or official Nintendo guide if there was one. Some hidden items are fine to stay hidden as they make the game too easy, but I am of the mind that the holy weapons should not be hidden with how important to the story they are. I know they are not as well-hidden as other stuff after looking at a guide after beating the game, but I missed them myself and it just feels crazy you can miss them, like Forseti and Yewfelle.
3. Unit Balance- I ain't saying FE has generally good unit balance in most of its games, but I think it's worse or more obvious in this one. Cavalry units are about the only ones worth using, unless the foot units are broken in someway like Shannan. Some cavalry units are still not good in both generations where you struggle to make them work to where you feel like you would have an easier time just having your busted units run through the game instead of trying to use your other weaker units.
4. Story- I see why people say the story in this one is the best of the series or at least up there. I think it's either the best story in the series for its time that it came out (Meaning the story got worse as it aged due to advancements in storytelling and what you can do in video games now), or still among the best in the series. There are some things in this game that should have been better explained or not left vague, and some plot holes or what not, but what happens in chapter 5 is one of those wow moments if you have not been spoiled on this game's story yet. I unfortunately was to a certain degree before I played the game, so it is what it is.
5. Arena- This is a fun mechanic, but later on it drags and gets boring with how many units you have to use it for and how you can't skip the animations for each round.
6. Trading- Sucks that you gotta sell items to a pawnshop to then buy it for double the value with another unit in order to trade. Gold is easy to get in this game cause of the arena for units that can complete it, but it's definitely a product of its time. If this game were made today I believe you would be able to freely trade without using this as a mechanic.
7. The bandits pillaging the villages are on it in this game. You gotta be on your toes to get every village safe from them, as they do not play around and wait for you to turtle or take your time.
8. Generations- My first time playing this game I did not bother stressing about any love matches for kid stats and all that, I just played the game and what happened, happened. I found Generation 1 to not be as fun as Generation 2. Generation 1 is more for the story and to gawk at how cool Sigurd is I feel. Generation 2 I feel has better designed maps and more fun units to use than in Generation 1.
9. Combat speed- Even with combat speed set to fast and animations off each turn takes a while to get through. It has the same issue that most older FE games have, and that is turn speed. I literally went to go take a dump during one of the enemy phases, and when I came back the enemy phase was still going on.
10. Sleep staff- Bro, just bro. The sleep staff is busted for the enemies. They have infinite uses, and its range is yuuuge, and has a 100% success rate?! This really slows the pace of the game down on the last few chapters where enemies abuse it. I'm glad I had a restore staff, but still when you got 6 or 8 ppl lullabying you to sleep every enemy phase, just oof man, oof. I got through it, but that was not fun. It was definitely an experience.
Overall good game that is still good despite its age. Hoping for a remake eventually, as I think one would really give this game a time to shine overseas, since it never was officially localized.
I had nostalgia for this game as a kid where it scared me too much to get past the beginning. I decided as an adult to give the game another shot since I have always had it. I got to chapter 11 and put the game down. I hate not finishing games, but I decided I had enough and watched the last two chapters online, as well as the hidden ending after beating the game three different ways. For me, the game was just a struggle to keep playing after the beginning. It got so repetitive and boring. I am also not the biggest fan of history, so most of the game taking place in the past and the main character having to read up on it all wore on me.
Below are some other thoughts I had of the game:
1. The sanity effects were cool, but I have the opinion that you should not be able to use magic to heal it, as it removes much of the point of playing the game with removing the sanity effects.
2. Using magic was fun, but you start to feel invincible very quickly and I feel defeats the whole horror aspect of the game. The whole thing of having to set up the same spells for higher tier power you find I think was dumb to be honest.
3. The story to me became less interesting the longer it went on.
Below are some other thoughts I had of the game:
1. The sanity effects were cool, but I have the opinion that you should not be able to use magic to heal it, as it removes much of the point of playing the game with removing the sanity effects.
2. Using magic was fun, but you start to feel invincible very quickly and I feel defeats the whole horror aspect of the game. The whole thing of having to set up the same spells for higher tier power you find I think was dumb to be honest.
3. The story to me became less interesting the longer it went on.
2020
Never played it on the PS3, so first time here after playing the Dark Souls games. It's honestly a pretty good start to a great franchise of games from From Software.
Bosses are definitely the easiest of the series I have played, and the tendency system unique to this game can make this game really easy or really hard. I accidentally did the black tendency, thus making this game the hardest it could be on a first playthrough. The lack of check points/save spots like in Dark Souls sucked when I died for the amount of running I had to do, but ah well. Game is definitely shorter than Dark Souls 1-3, so I'd say get this one on a sale and you'll have a blast and potential frustration with all From Software games. Unless you know you'll play it multiple times it is not worth it at $70.
Bosses are definitely the easiest of the series I have played, and the tendency system unique to this game can make this game really easy or really hard. I accidentally did the black tendency, thus making this game the hardest it could be on a first playthrough. The lack of check points/save spots like in Dark Souls sucked when I died for the amount of running I had to do, but ah well. Game is definitely shorter than Dark Souls 1-3, so I'd say get this one on a sale and you'll have a blast and potential frustration with all From Software games. Unless you know you'll play it multiple times it is not worth it at $70.
2022
Honestly one of the best 3D Sonic games ever made, which isn't a high bar. I've wanted for a long time to be able to go Sonic speed in open areas, and I finally got just that.
The story is a confusing mess until the end, and it felt like they were trying to tell a dark one but were censored midway through development, so it just felt unfinished.
I think having to get enough spheres for different characters to progress the story was bogus and padding and should not have been there.
The final boss was very underwhelming.
The game is janky at times, but that's what you're getting yourself into with a 3D Sonic game, they've always been janky.
Not worth full price, but definitely worth trying out. It's like playing Dynasty Warriors, you'll love it at first and then get bored after 30 minutes to 2 hours and want to put it down.
The story is a confusing mess until the end, and it felt like they were trying to tell a dark one but were censored midway through development, so it just felt unfinished.
I think having to get enough spheres for different characters to progress the story was bogus and padding and should not have been there.
The final boss was very underwhelming.
The game is janky at times, but that's what you're getting yourself into with a 3D Sonic game, they've always been janky.
Not worth full price, but definitely worth trying out. It's like playing Dynasty Warriors, you'll love it at first and then get bored after 30 minutes to 2 hours and want to put it down.
This review contains spoilers
As the YouTuber PlayerEssence has said in his videos, this game makes Breath of the Wild feel like a tech demo. What once started as additional DLC for BOTW they decided to spend 6ish years on making a direct sequel.
Many of the complaints from fans and myself have been addressed from BOTW to this game.
1. Weapons breaking too easily or at all - Now you have a Fuse ability that can extend their durability, but unfortunately they still break.
2. The world was too empty in BOTW - Now there are plenty of NPCs to talk to, side quests with meaningful rewards and side quests with not so great rewards, the blood moon happens more frequently respawning monsters, more things to discover on the ground, now areas in the sky and depths to explore, among other things I cannot think of off the top of my head to do or explore.
3. The story was just about non-existent in BOTW or was ass - Tears of the Kingdom attempts to fix this by including more story than BOTW through more cutscenes and main quests than BOTW.
4. It sucks to climb while it is raining - They introduced anti-slipping potions you can drink (If they did not exist in BOTW I cannot remember), as well as an anti-slipping suit you can wear after you unlock it.
Overall for me this game was much better than BOTW and felt like what BOTW should have been from the get go. Don't get me wrong BOTW is a great game and I believe it is a 5 out of 5 experience too for someone like me who has not experienced many open-world/sandbox games, but after 40 hours in I finally realized how empty BOTW was and how little there was to do.
Pros:
1. The Master sword does not seem to break during major boss battles, or at least during the final fight with Ganondorf. I still wish it did not break at all, but I understand that would break the game balance for how they want you to play it.
2. Being able to explore the sky and depths on top of the massive ground is crazy to me. If I get bored of exploring one of the three I can just switch to one of the other two. Each offer their own distinct experience. The depths feels more like how BOTW was except everything is dark and you have to light the way with how barren it is except with finding monsters, the ground has so many side quests, NPCs to talk to, main quests and other things to do it feels never ending and can get to be a bit too much at times, so it feels nice to be able to switch to the depths or the sky for quieter experiences. Speaking of the sky, it is probably the smallest part you can explore compared to the three areas, but reaching the sky islands through towers, rewinding boulders that fall through the sky is it's own experience that feels different from the other two areas. It at times feels empty like the depths, but I am guessing it was meant to be that way.
3. Being able to glide and fall through the sky feels so intuitive I feel as though I would miss it too much if I went back to BOTW. It is so much easier to see where to go, and so fun to do too. I like being able to more easily see what shrines I have not done yet when I fall from the sky compared to BOTW and just running everywhere on foot randomly encountering them or having to run up a mountain first to glide down.
4. Having Ganondorf be in the game is a plus to me, as he's my favorite Zelda character.
5. The new abilities are a mixed bag for me because of how I am as a person. I find myself missing the BOTW abilities in this game. I really like the Ascend ability, it is a god send to be able to climb heights so fast. I am not the biggest fan of the Ultrahand ability because of how uncreative I am. I find myself just doing the minimum amount needed with it, although as a Bob the Builder mechanic it is really well done I will give them that. The Rewind ability I honestly find myself forgetting it exists most of the time, but whenever I do use it, it's mostly just to travel somewhere fast, whether that be going back up to the sky, or getting somewhere I fell from. The Fuse ability is quite fun to use and the game basically forces you to use it with the weapons all being decayed because of the villain. It works the same way as Ultrahand and I argue it should have been just an additional thing Ultrahand can do instead of being it's separate ability. I suppose I can understand it may have been a bit confusing on how to implement the Fuse weapon and shield part onto Link while using Ultrahand to build stuff. Like, when do you determine you want to build, or just make stronger shields and weapons sort of thing. I'm sure there was a way to get by that but it is what it is. Having both abilities just feel redundant to me, when they are practically the same concept or thing. The hidden ability Autobuild is a godsend for recreating things you have made in the past. Letting you create your older things again and faster than you can build it is great, as well as being able to build it when there are no parts nearby. I found myself enjoying Autobuild more than Ultrahand haha.
6. The spirits of the 5 different people you get from the 5 temples following you around was something I did not expect and was really cool. It was like a small army following me around at all times covering my blind spots, so I could afford to play more recklessly. Their abilities are each useful in their own ways, but I guarantee you will use the bird's ability more than any of the others'.
Cons:
1. Even though the story is better than BOTW, it still feels lacking. You can tell it is not where the main meat of the game is. It's still more about exploration like BOTW and using the new abilities you have just like BOTW or really any Zelda game really. Story is a lacking thing in about every Zelda game.
2. How they used Ganondorf to me felt weak. He barely had any presence in the game. He just sat in one spot the whole time building up strength like Calamity Ganon. I wanted him to be more active and chasing me around, but I guess I will never get that. I did have the Gloom hands and Phantom Ganon which was cool and made me feel like he was aware of what I was doing and trying to kill me, but I wanted more than that. Also when I found out Phantom Ganon and Gloom Hands spawn in the same locations it removed a lot of the mystery and fun for me. Felt more like it could have been traps set up to doodoo on anyone in the game, not really Link. While I am on the topic of Ganondorf, the final battle with him is cool, but I was left feeling underwhelmed with how strong he was supposed to be. It was really just two sword fights like Twilight Princess style Ganondorf, and then a big dragon sorta fight that you can't mess up. I wanted to see him use more magic and do all sorts of things like a warlock would do, but ah well.
3. For how heavily they showed off voice acting in the trailers, they barely used it in the game. Not sure if that is really a con or not, but it feels weird to me. I guess marketing strategy? Felt like about all the lines in the game was shown off in the trailers. Also about voice acting, in the year of 2023 it feels the most off-putting to have Link not have voice acted lines still. Every important character will have lines talking to Link and he just sits there and stares at them saying nothing and they are fine with that.
4. The combat was not made to be more in-depth to my dismay from BOTW. All Zelda games have simple combat, but I had too high of hopes for this game. It's just BOTW's combat copy-pasted. It's fine, just same Zelda combat.
5. The game has dipped a bit to me in frame rate just like BOTW, but it does not seem to drop as bad as BOTW did when it first came out. There are times where if you fast dive in the sky to the ground or depths the game has like 5 or so times paused the game for several seconds to load because I moved too fast.
6. The same story event cutscene you get after the first 4 dungeons frustrated me after the first time because they repeat for 4 times how they got beat up by Ganondorf. Link just proceeds to sit there being quiet instead of saying he's heard this before, or telling the person what happened before they talk to the spirit of their ancestor.
7. The 5 dungeons in the game are ass. Barely dungeons and I see it was not a main focus of the game, but at least we got dungeons that are better than the BOTW ones we got on the divine beasts.
Good luck to anyone incredibly interested in the Zelda timeline, because just like with BOTW this game makes you scratch your head on where to put it exactly, as well with the potential retcons.
Of course great game, and contender for game of the year. It's a bit weird that my cons list is bigger than my pros list but I have this as a 5 out of 5. All I can say is my cons are mostly nitpicks and my pros are big pros. No game is without its faults, but this is a great game. It's definitely worth playing for the exploration and Minecraft level building alone.
Many of the complaints from fans and myself have been addressed from BOTW to this game.
1. Weapons breaking too easily or at all - Now you have a Fuse ability that can extend their durability, but unfortunately they still break.
2. The world was too empty in BOTW - Now there are plenty of NPCs to talk to, side quests with meaningful rewards and side quests with not so great rewards, the blood moon happens more frequently respawning monsters, more things to discover on the ground, now areas in the sky and depths to explore, among other things I cannot think of off the top of my head to do or explore.
3. The story was just about non-existent in BOTW or was ass - Tears of the Kingdom attempts to fix this by including more story than BOTW through more cutscenes and main quests than BOTW.
4. It sucks to climb while it is raining - They introduced anti-slipping potions you can drink (If they did not exist in BOTW I cannot remember), as well as an anti-slipping suit you can wear after you unlock it.
Overall for me this game was much better than BOTW and felt like what BOTW should have been from the get go. Don't get me wrong BOTW is a great game and I believe it is a 5 out of 5 experience too for someone like me who has not experienced many open-world/sandbox games, but after 40 hours in I finally realized how empty BOTW was and how little there was to do.
Pros:
1. The Master sword does not seem to break during major boss battles, or at least during the final fight with Ganondorf. I still wish it did not break at all, but I understand that would break the game balance for how they want you to play it.
2. Being able to explore the sky and depths on top of the massive ground is crazy to me. If I get bored of exploring one of the three I can just switch to one of the other two. Each offer their own distinct experience. The depths feels more like how BOTW was except everything is dark and you have to light the way with how barren it is except with finding monsters, the ground has so many side quests, NPCs to talk to, main quests and other things to do it feels never ending and can get to be a bit too much at times, so it feels nice to be able to switch to the depths or the sky for quieter experiences. Speaking of the sky, it is probably the smallest part you can explore compared to the three areas, but reaching the sky islands through towers, rewinding boulders that fall through the sky is it's own experience that feels different from the other two areas. It at times feels empty like the depths, but I am guessing it was meant to be that way.
3. Being able to glide and fall through the sky feels so intuitive I feel as though I would miss it too much if I went back to BOTW. It is so much easier to see where to go, and so fun to do too. I like being able to more easily see what shrines I have not done yet when I fall from the sky compared to BOTW and just running everywhere on foot randomly encountering them or having to run up a mountain first to glide down.
4. Having Ganondorf be in the game is a plus to me, as he's my favorite Zelda character.
5. The new abilities are a mixed bag for me because of how I am as a person. I find myself missing the BOTW abilities in this game. I really like the Ascend ability, it is a god send to be able to climb heights so fast. I am not the biggest fan of the Ultrahand ability because of how uncreative I am. I find myself just doing the minimum amount needed with it, although as a Bob the Builder mechanic it is really well done I will give them that. The Rewind ability I honestly find myself forgetting it exists most of the time, but whenever I do use it, it's mostly just to travel somewhere fast, whether that be going back up to the sky, or getting somewhere I fell from. The Fuse ability is quite fun to use and the game basically forces you to use it with the weapons all being decayed because of the villain. It works the same way as Ultrahand and I argue it should have been just an additional thing Ultrahand can do instead of being it's separate ability. I suppose I can understand it may have been a bit confusing on how to implement the Fuse weapon and shield part onto Link while using Ultrahand to build stuff. Like, when do you determine you want to build, or just make stronger shields and weapons sort of thing. I'm sure there was a way to get by that but it is what it is. Having both abilities just feel redundant to me, when they are practically the same concept or thing. The hidden ability Autobuild is a godsend for recreating things you have made in the past. Letting you create your older things again and faster than you can build it is great, as well as being able to build it when there are no parts nearby. I found myself enjoying Autobuild more than Ultrahand haha.
6. The spirits of the 5 different people you get from the 5 temples following you around was something I did not expect and was really cool. It was like a small army following me around at all times covering my blind spots, so I could afford to play more recklessly. Their abilities are each useful in their own ways, but I guarantee you will use the bird's ability more than any of the others'.
Cons:
1. Even though the story is better than BOTW, it still feels lacking. You can tell it is not where the main meat of the game is. It's still more about exploration like BOTW and using the new abilities you have just like BOTW or really any Zelda game really. Story is a lacking thing in about every Zelda game.
2. How they used Ganondorf to me felt weak. He barely had any presence in the game. He just sat in one spot the whole time building up strength like Calamity Ganon. I wanted him to be more active and chasing me around, but I guess I will never get that. I did have the Gloom hands and Phantom Ganon which was cool and made me feel like he was aware of what I was doing and trying to kill me, but I wanted more than that. Also when I found out Phantom Ganon and Gloom Hands spawn in the same locations it removed a lot of the mystery and fun for me. Felt more like it could have been traps set up to doodoo on anyone in the game, not really Link. While I am on the topic of Ganondorf, the final battle with him is cool, but I was left feeling underwhelmed with how strong he was supposed to be. It was really just two sword fights like Twilight Princess style Ganondorf, and then a big dragon sorta fight that you can't mess up. I wanted to see him use more magic and do all sorts of things like a warlock would do, but ah well.
3. For how heavily they showed off voice acting in the trailers, they barely used it in the game. Not sure if that is really a con or not, but it feels weird to me. I guess marketing strategy? Felt like about all the lines in the game was shown off in the trailers. Also about voice acting, in the year of 2023 it feels the most off-putting to have Link not have voice acted lines still. Every important character will have lines talking to Link and he just sits there and stares at them saying nothing and they are fine with that.
4. The combat was not made to be more in-depth to my dismay from BOTW. All Zelda games have simple combat, but I had too high of hopes for this game. It's just BOTW's combat copy-pasted. It's fine, just same Zelda combat.
5. The game has dipped a bit to me in frame rate just like BOTW, but it does not seem to drop as bad as BOTW did when it first came out. There are times where if you fast dive in the sky to the ground or depths the game has like 5 or so times paused the game for several seconds to load because I moved too fast.
6. The same story event cutscene you get after the first 4 dungeons frustrated me after the first time because they repeat for 4 times how they got beat up by Ganondorf. Link just proceeds to sit there being quiet instead of saying he's heard this before, or telling the person what happened before they talk to the spirit of their ancestor.
7. The 5 dungeons in the game are ass. Barely dungeons and I see it was not a main focus of the game, but at least we got dungeons that are better than the BOTW ones we got on the divine beasts.
Good luck to anyone incredibly interested in the Zelda timeline, because just like with BOTW this game makes you scratch your head on where to put it exactly, as well with the potential retcons.
Of course great game, and contender for game of the year. It's a bit weird that my cons list is bigger than my pros list but I have this as a 5 out of 5. All I can say is my cons are mostly nitpicks and my pros are big pros. No game is without its faults, but this is a great game. It's definitely worth playing for the exploration and Minecraft level building alone.
This review contains spoilers
As a DLC story it had some good length. It took me roughly 15 hours to complete. It's pretty good, it fixed some nitpicks exploration-wise I had, as well as changing the gameplay up a little bit, so it would not be the exact same as the main game.
It was really cool to have callback to characters from Xenoblade 1 and 2, and it explains why they were not present in 3's story. There are still some loose ends or unexplained things from the 3rd main game that go unanswered in this story, so I guess that means the creators deemed them not important enough to answer.
It honestly feels like at the end it sets up for a 4th game, but what they do in all honesty I have no idea.
Since I really enjoyed the main story of the 3rd game, it makes sense I would enjoy this DLC story. I wish the main story went on for longer, but I am glad it was not padded out with filler like Naruto or Dragonball anime.
It was really cool to have callback to characters from Xenoblade 1 and 2, and it explains why they were not present in 3's story. There are still some loose ends or unexplained things from the 3rd main game that go unanswered in this story, so I guess that means the creators deemed them not important enough to answer.
It honestly feels like at the end it sets up for a 4th game, but what they do in all honesty I have no idea.
Since I really enjoyed the main story of the 3rd game, it makes sense I would enjoy this DLC story. I wish the main story went on for longer, but I am glad it was not padded out with filler like Naruto or Dragonball anime.