Teej
This review contains spoilers
Okay, I am doing this review off of memory alone. It is entirely possible for me to go back one day and play the story again, as I want to give it another chance after beating Xenoblade 3, and perhaps my taste in games have changed. When I originally played Xenoblade 2, I first started it, and got so bored of it or did not like it so much I dropped it for what felt like a year and a half before picking it back up after feeling bad of not getting the main story over with to just see it through to the end. I am not saying this game is bad, I just do not think it was meant for me personally (I enjoyed Xenoblade 1 and 3 very much so).
Pros:
1. Pyra and Mythra were honestly the two most interesting characters in the game, and everyone else felt passable or sub-par. These two women weren't the best thing ever in story telling either, but their backstory felt like it was what really had me pushing through to see more of.
2. With every Xenoblade game the areas you traverse are beautiful. This one has more of a cartoony art-style to it than the others, but it is what it is.
3. One of the best parts of the story of this game is when I found out at the end that this game is related to the first one and takes place at the same time. I thought that was really cool. You even hear Shulk yelling too.
4. I have to give this game credit. The team building part with the different elemental attacks and chaining them different ways for combos was really fun.
Cons:
1. The gacha mechanic is god-awful. I do not know why they decided to put it in this game when I paid $60 for it. It would have been fine if this was a free-to-play game.
2. Rex as a whole was unbearable for me. I hate his design, his English voice, how young he is compared to about everyone else in the entire game who either looks like an adult or at least a teenager, his outfit, my god. His personality and his choices in the game are fine, it's typical main character who is nice to everyone and tries their best to make sure everything will be alright. At least his master driver outfit looks better than his submarine outfit, but still I'unno what made them think having me see his inner thigh in both outfits was a good thing. Maybe if I was a woman or gay I would look at it different, but at the same time he is a darn kid I did not think I would want to look at his inner thigh regardless. I am exaggerating how bad he is I know. That's still how I feel. Spoiler alert for the 3rd game, at least he finally grew up and looks like an adult then.
3. The whole British accent for so many characters I hated. I guess back then I just hated those accents for video games. It's not that they're bad, it just feels off-putting to me. I do not feel as strongly about it now as I did back in 2017 and 2018, but hoo-boy the English dub definitely something. It's funny that Pyra and Mythra are one of the few characters in the English dub that do not have a british accent to them.
4. The combat bored me quite quickly, although it was definitely a much better improvement from Xenoblade X. At least I did not find myself waiting a crazy long time for my abilities to recharge.
5. I did not care for the story beyond the beginning and the end. The middle was so bleh to me. It also did not help that the story much of the time did not feel as serious and was more goofy and jokey. The jokes did not land for me in this game, and I feel as though the character writing was not the best.
6. The side quests did not grab me like it did for the 3rd entry. Found myself just skipping them when I could.
N/A
1. Really big spoiler, so don't read if you want to play this game. Even though I hate many things about Rex, I thought it was hilarious that he got two girlfriends at the end of the game and lived with them. They are basically the same person but split apart, but still dang man. He living the Morman life. He got his harem ending. Also, with what I saw at the end of Xenoblade 3 my god he got with Nia also. He went balls deep and gave all three of them babies and they were all okay with it lmao. I gotta say, Rex was putting it down real good gosh darn it. Credit where it's due, he pulled three women and impregnated them all. He makes so many dudes jealous. I'm honestly surprised he only gave them each one child and not more. I can't emphasize enough he got it going on lol. Not saying I think it was good story telling or bad, just that him getting with three women in a Nintendo game was crazy to me, and that lifestyle is definitely not for me, but hey if he can handle it then more power to him. Busting nuts for a long time, trying all the ice cream in the world playing the field my god. Such a chad he is haha.
Pros:
1. Pyra and Mythra were honestly the two most interesting characters in the game, and everyone else felt passable or sub-par. These two women weren't the best thing ever in story telling either, but their backstory felt like it was what really had me pushing through to see more of.
2. With every Xenoblade game the areas you traverse are beautiful. This one has more of a cartoony art-style to it than the others, but it is what it is.
3. One of the best parts of the story of this game is when I found out at the end that this game is related to the first one and takes place at the same time. I thought that was really cool. You even hear Shulk yelling too.
4. I have to give this game credit. The team building part with the different elemental attacks and chaining them different ways for combos was really fun.
Cons:
1. The gacha mechanic is god-awful. I do not know why they decided to put it in this game when I paid $60 for it. It would have been fine if this was a free-to-play game.
2. Rex as a whole was unbearable for me. I hate his design, his English voice, how young he is compared to about everyone else in the entire game who either looks like an adult or at least a teenager, his outfit, my god. His personality and his choices in the game are fine, it's typical main character who is nice to everyone and tries their best to make sure everything will be alright. At least his master driver outfit looks better than his submarine outfit, but still I'unno what made them think having me see his inner thigh in both outfits was a good thing. Maybe if I was a woman or gay I would look at it different, but at the same time he is a darn kid I did not think I would want to look at his inner thigh regardless. I am exaggerating how bad he is I know. That's still how I feel. Spoiler alert for the 3rd game, at least he finally grew up and looks like an adult then.
3. The whole British accent for so many characters I hated. I guess back then I just hated those accents for video games. It's not that they're bad, it just feels off-putting to me. I do not feel as strongly about it now as I did back in 2017 and 2018, but hoo-boy the English dub definitely something. It's funny that Pyra and Mythra are one of the few characters in the English dub that do not have a british accent to them.
4. The combat bored me quite quickly, although it was definitely a much better improvement from Xenoblade X. At least I did not find myself waiting a crazy long time for my abilities to recharge.
5. I did not care for the story beyond the beginning and the end. The middle was so bleh to me. It also did not help that the story much of the time did not feel as serious and was more goofy and jokey. The jokes did not land for me in this game, and I feel as though the character writing was not the best.
6. The side quests did not grab me like it did for the 3rd entry. Found myself just skipping them when I could.
N/A
1. Really big spoiler, so don't read if you want to play this game. Even though I hate many things about Rex, I thought it was hilarious that he got two girlfriends at the end of the game and lived with them. They are basically the same person but split apart, but still dang man. He living the Morman life. He got his harem ending. Also, with what I saw at the end of Xenoblade 3 my god he got with Nia also. He went balls deep and gave all three of them babies and they were all okay with it lmao. I gotta say, Rex was putting it down real good gosh darn it. Credit where it's due, he pulled three women and impregnated them all. He makes so many dudes jealous. I'm honestly surprised he only gave them each one child and not more. I can't emphasize enough he got it going on lol. Not saying I think it was good story telling or bad, just that him getting with three women in a Nintendo game was crazy to me, and that lifestyle is definitely not for me, but hey if he can handle it then more power to him. Busting nuts for a long time, trying all the ice cream in the world playing the field my god. Such a chad he is haha.
A really good game that I was scared to start playing due to how long I just knew it was going to be like the past two. Once I got a good couple of hours in I got hooked and had problems putting it down. I enjoyed this entry more than Xenoblade 2, and I want to say more than the first one.
Pros:
1. The graphics are about the same as the first two on the Switch (I do know Xenoblade 1 came out on the Wii, and was later ported to the 3DS and Switch at different times), but perhaps a bit better looking. The game would have looked much better if it did not have the Switch holding it back, but the same can be said for so many other Switch games. The art style, backgrounds, the world I traversed all looked beautiful. There are a couple of times where in cutscenes the game zooms in too much and I see how bad the game looks if you look too closely at the textures, but again same could be said about the other two games, three if I include Xenoblade X.
2. The combat felt more refined from the other three games I have played on Wii U and Switch as far as always having something to do ability-wise and not just sitting there waiting a long time for abilities to recharge. I did also play the whole game on Easy mode because from my previous experience with Xenoblade 1, 2, and X all of the games are quite grindy, enemies tend to be HP sponges. I wish Easy wasn't so easy, or at least the enemies had more HP than what they do, because when I switched to Normal a few times the battles just felt like they went on for too long without me having to play any differently.
3. The story gripped me after a few hours in. Sure there are a lot of side quests to do that are a part of the main story you have to do that could have been paced better or not been part of the main story, as there are times I was wondering what was going on in the main story or what the point of going to certain colonies was for the main over-arching story, but it was not a huge deal to me. All I am trying to say is that there are parts in the main story quests where they tell you a lot of what is going on at once to just have you do what feels like side quests in the main story with no further explanation of the current main story until you get later in the story to where they throw a bunch more story at you. The ending just wowed me and I did not see what happened coming in all honesty without giving any spoilers.
4. The side quest content is quite fun to do, and I am not one that typically likes side quest content in games and generally avoid them. For the most part they all grabbed my attention and made me want to do them and the felt fulfilling. It is crazy how many side quests there are honestly. It did get to a certain point where I did start getting burnt out of them and decided to come back to them at a later date and just continue on with the main story as I was much more interested in the main story at the time.
5. The different classes in the game do make playing the game fresh, since many of them play different and while they are all simple, at least make it hard to get bored of the game when you have so many to switch to.
6. The character writing is top-notch. I really grew attached to many of the characters in the game.
7. With all of the husks, containers, supply drops, side quests, monsters, different ways to travel, and different looking areas/biomes the game stayed fresh to travel around for me. There felt like there was so much to do that I enjoyed personally, that after some time away from it I can see myself coming back to this game to finish doing stuff I left on the table for the moment, and I am not one to typically enjoy side content or coming back to games I have completed the main story for unless I really enjoyed them.
8. Despite how big this game is, I am surprised there were not many times I had frame drops I noticed. One time the game froze on me for like 1 second to load an area, and maybe some of the end of story battles had the frames drop a tiny bit I noticed, but it ran really well.
9. It has been quite some time since I have played Xenoblade 1 & 2, so I did not notice a whole lot of similarities to those two games when playing this 3rd one, but the times I did notice the similarities it was cool nostalgia-wise.
10. Overall I think the music was solid. There are a few bangers in it.
Cons:
1. I really wish there was a sprinting option in the game, as just the standard jogging made me feel like I was going too slow. I know you can run faster by doing a lot of side quests, but still it just does not feel enough for me.
2. As with many or all rpgs the combat gets repetitive and you just go through the motions. That started happening to me I want to say at the ending of the game, so it's good it held my interest for that long.
3. There are a couple of side quests that are fetch quests and they do not tell you where to get the materials from beyond a general giant area. That was a big issue for me in Xenoblade X and sorta 2. I hate fetch quests that have you looking in too big of an area to find materials to turn in. I just do not think the goosehunt is fun in games.
4. The main villain of the game, even though explained at various times of the story I feel as though could have been better explained. Left me scratching my head a bit.
N/A:
1. Not a Pro or Con, but the typical anime big boob women with their jiggle physics had me laughing. Some times the clothes were too tight, or they just jiggle unrealistically that my girlfriend and I could not stop smirking at it. Also, the whole butt sway with about all the females in the game when they walked had me laughing too. I've seen it in a lot of media of course, it is not new with this game. Just something I noticed that I wanted to mention.
2. The story is convoluted, but honestly the story of the whole Xenoblade series is convoluted. It's really a whole preference thing of how you like stories to be. There are more convoluted series in existence of course.
Pros:
1. The graphics are about the same as the first two on the Switch (I do know Xenoblade 1 came out on the Wii, and was later ported to the 3DS and Switch at different times), but perhaps a bit better looking. The game would have looked much better if it did not have the Switch holding it back, but the same can be said for so many other Switch games. The art style, backgrounds, the world I traversed all looked beautiful. There are a couple of times where in cutscenes the game zooms in too much and I see how bad the game looks if you look too closely at the textures, but again same could be said about the other two games, three if I include Xenoblade X.
2. The combat felt more refined from the other three games I have played on Wii U and Switch as far as always having something to do ability-wise and not just sitting there waiting a long time for abilities to recharge. I did also play the whole game on Easy mode because from my previous experience with Xenoblade 1, 2, and X all of the games are quite grindy, enemies tend to be HP sponges. I wish Easy wasn't so easy, or at least the enemies had more HP than what they do, because when I switched to Normal a few times the battles just felt like they went on for too long without me having to play any differently.
3. The story gripped me after a few hours in. Sure there are a lot of side quests to do that are a part of the main story you have to do that could have been paced better or not been part of the main story, as there are times I was wondering what was going on in the main story or what the point of going to certain colonies was for the main over-arching story, but it was not a huge deal to me. All I am trying to say is that there are parts in the main story quests where they tell you a lot of what is going on at once to just have you do what feels like side quests in the main story with no further explanation of the current main story until you get later in the story to where they throw a bunch more story at you. The ending just wowed me and I did not see what happened coming in all honesty without giving any spoilers.
4. The side quest content is quite fun to do, and I am not one that typically likes side quest content in games and generally avoid them. For the most part they all grabbed my attention and made me want to do them and the felt fulfilling. It is crazy how many side quests there are honestly. It did get to a certain point where I did start getting burnt out of them and decided to come back to them at a later date and just continue on with the main story as I was much more interested in the main story at the time.
5. The different classes in the game do make playing the game fresh, since many of them play different and while they are all simple, at least make it hard to get bored of the game when you have so many to switch to.
6. The character writing is top-notch. I really grew attached to many of the characters in the game.
7. With all of the husks, containers, supply drops, side quests, monsters, different ways to travel, and different looking areas/biomes the game stayed fresh to travel around for me. There felt like there was so much to do that I enjoyed personally, that after some time away from it I can see myself coming back to this game to finish doing stuff I left on the table for the moment, and I am not one to typically enjoy side content or coming back to games I have completed the main story for unless I really enjoyed them.
8. Despite how big this game is, I am surprised there were not many times I had frame drops I noticed. One time the game froze on me for like 1 second to load an area, and maybe some of the end of story battles had the frames drop a tiny bit I noticed, but it ran really well.
9. It has been quite some time since I have played Xenoblade 1 & 2, so I did not notice a whole lot of similarities to those two games when playing this 3rd one, but the times I did notice the similarities it was cool nostalgia-wise.
10. Overall I think the music was solid. There are a few bangers in it.
Cons:
1. I really wish there was a sprinting option in the game, as just the standard jogging made me feel like I was going too slow. I know you can run faster by doing a lot of side quests, but still it just does not feel enough for me.
2. As with many or all rpgs the combat gets repetitive and you just go through the motions. That started happening to me I want to say at the ending of the game, so it's good it held my interest for that long.
3. There are a couple of side quests that are fetch quests and they do not tell you where to get the materials from beyond a general giant area. That was a big issue for me in Xenoblade X and sorta 2. I hate fetch quests that have you looking in too big of an area to find materials to turn in. I just do not think the goosehunt is fun in games.
4. The main villain of the game, even though explained at various times of the story I feel as though could have been better explained. Left me scratching my head a bit.
N/A:
1. Not a Pro or Con, but the typical anime big boob women with their jiggle physics had me laughing. Some times the clothes were too tight, or they just jiggle unrealistically that my girlfriend and I could not stop smirking at it. Also, the whole butt sway with about all the females in the game when they walked had me laughing too. I've seen it in a lot of media of course, it is not new with this game. Just something I noticed that I wanted to mention.
2. The story is convoluted, but honestly the story of the whole Xenoblade series is convoluted. It's really a whole preference thing of how you like stories to be. There are more convoluted series in existence of course.
This review contains spoilers
This is a great game. If you do not care about Dragon Quest at all I believe you would still have a good time playing this one and none of the others. Despite this being the 11th mainline entry in the series the people behind the series treat Dragon Quest very similarly to that of Final Fantasy. You do not have to play any of the other games to really pick up and play any of the games in the series. There are nods to the other games in each DQ game you play, but besides DQ 1 2 3 being connected story-wise, and sorta DQ 4 5 6 debatedly being connected story-wise in their own timeline all the rest of the games are pretty much one-offs like Final Fantasy, so there is no worry about being lost. Heck, even the 6 games above that have their own timelines are so far removed from one another you really are not missing out on much story-wise if you play one of them and not the other. This game, DQ11, is debatedly connected to DQ 1 2 3 depending on how you interpret the ending of the post game story. I believe this game happens before DQ3, but there is an argument that it is just a stand-alone game that only pays nods to DQ 1 and 3 and nothing more, since no directors of the series or characters in DQ11 straight up come out right and say DQ11 takes place before DQ3.
Pros:
1. Best looking Dragon Quest game I have ever played of the mainline series. Unfortunately the graphics have not aged the best at times, and I also played it on the Switch. Still looks better than the other 9 I have played (Haven't played DQ10 yet due to it being a Japan exclusive).
2. Gameplay is as solid as ever. Every DQ game has solid gameplay and they keep it pretty safe keeping it the same while fine-tuning it in later entries. It's further fine-tuned in this game, and has new mechanics such as Pep that are similar to other mechanics from previous DQ games.
3. The skill tree system is really fun and an improvement from DQ8's skill system. It does also let you customize your characters to make them use different weapons or have different playstyles, although I really just stuck to one playstyle for each character. You can respec your points at any time, so if you get bored of playing one of the characters one way you can switch them up.
4. The story is really engaging with twists and turns. If I have to rank its story among all of the other ones I have played I would say DQ5 has a better story still, but not by a huge amount. DQ11 is not far behind DQ5's story. Typically DQ as a series has the same story and does not really care to tell some deep and crazy story. It typically is just light and darkness and chosen one beating up the dark one over and over.
5. This DQ game is not grindy like how many of the previous ones are. There was only one time I felt I needed to grind like 4 levels for a boss, but the game has stuff balanced to where you can just not bother fighting most of the mobs and be fine going through the story. The post game content and story as with every DQ game has a big jump in enemy levels, so you will have to grind a butt ton to fight any post game bosses. With every DQ game they are easy and really fun to play, so not much strategy is required to plow your way through them. If you are having trouble with an enemy or boss then you probably are just underlevelled.
6. This game is chock full of content post game and base game, so if you try to do everything you will definitely spend a little bit over 100 hours doing it all. If you aim to just do the base game and the post game story content with a little bit of the optional stuff like I did (I skipped the post game final boss as I got tired of grinding levels and watched it online), then you are looking at around 55 to 60 hours of pure story content.
7. The Tockington/Tickington area is a nice nostalgia trip back to the previous games of the mainline series. Think of it as playing the story of Dragonball Xenoverse 1 or 2 as far as the previous games's events being messed with by someone. I played 1 or 2 of the books and called it quits as the main story interested me much more and I did not want to be overlevelled for the main story content. I'm sure I will come back to it at a later time.
8. The crafting system in this game is so darn fun. Definitely an improvement from the previous DQ games with crafting systems. I didn't really get tired of crafting stuff until I was in the post game content.
Cons:
1. A good bit of the optional quests are just random fetch quests that I skipped. At least it's optional.
2. I miss how easy it was to encounter metal slime enemies from DQ7, 8, and 9. I guess they did not like how easy it was to break the game by running around until a metal slime appeared to get experience, so now the slimes do not appear on the map ever and just have a low chance to appear among regular enemies. It makes grinding for the post game really daunting or tedious, as to beat the post game final boss people say you should be around level 70, and you start the post game at around level 50 to 55. From what I have Googled, the best way to farm end game is to abuse Pep powers for Hallelujah and another ability to increase exp earned and have a chance to change monsters into metal slimes or metal hands. I did it myself and the battle went on for what feels like 20ish minutes, so I decided to just be done with the game and watch the final boss post game be beat and the end story on YouTube as I did not want to invest that much time in levelling my characters up.
3. I do believe the post game story is not as good as the base game story, but it is still very enjoyable, but gets confusing due to time travel and especially the ending of the game having you go wtf if you have played the first three DQ games. It sucks to have to see some of the same events again due to going back to the past and leaving your present companions behind, but that is what happens with time travel. The game does do its best to speed up some of the same events you have already seen or tell them in a different way to save time due to them being resolved earlier or events happening differently due to time travel and stuff.
4. I already know that Dragon Quest mainline entries have some pretty dark stuff in their story, so I am not new to that, but how they treated Jade in the story had me wowed. I am not really a fan of the character, but how she gets captured and some stuff debatedly happens or does not happen to her off-screen had me going 'wtf yo wow they doodoo'd on her hard that's crazy.' All other characters get fleshed out much better than her sadly to say, but hey there's going to be weak parts of any story. You can tell dark stories and even have rape or stuff of that in it and it be fine, but I feel as though how it was told for Jade was told in a bad way, or should not have been there at all. When Jade is introduced she is a no-nonsense serious good fighter character, but when she joins your team she comes with a ability in which she hits an enemy with her butt and moans as she does it, which I admit is pretty funny but does not fit with her character. The move is also her most damaging move at the time she can use it. They should have had Veronica or Serena have that move instead as it would have fit them more, but it feels the game went out of their way to sexualize and make fun of Jade more than anyone else story-wise, outfit-wise, and move-wise. It felt to me like someone that worked on the game had a huge boner for her and made it their mission to make her sexual, despite her personality and introduction to the story not suggesting so. Not meaning to sound like a SJW snowflake whatever other insults people throw around, but I just gotta call it like I see it.
5. This is an issue with the majority of the mainline DQ games. Music. They play the same songs and be lazy with making new songs for future games. They may have remixed the same battle music, boss music, and overworld themes a bit in this game like they have done for some of the other DQ games, but the whole series is lazy as crap with their music. As I made it my mission in the past to play all of the mainline DQ games, some of the earlier ones felt like I was playing the exact same game but re-balanced with different character designs.
Overall, again a great game and anyone who is remotely interested in JRPGs should give this one a shot. I know a lot of games out nowadays make you feel like you have been scammed with how short they are, but this one you definitely get your moneys worth, even if you somehow pay $60 dollars for it now. Don't let the cartoon-ish design fool you, DQ always has dark things happen in it.
Pros:
1. Best looking Dragon Quest game I have ever played of the mainline series. Unfortunately the graphics have not aged the best at times, and I also played it on the Switch. Still looks better than the other 9 I have played (Haven't played DQ10 yet due to it being a Japan exclusive).
2. Gameplay is as solid as ever. Every DQ game has solid gameplay and they keep it pretty safe keeping it the same while fine-tuning it in later entries. It's further fine-tuned in this game, and has new mechanics such as Pep that are similar to other mechanics from previous DQ games.
3. The skill tree system is really fun and an improvement from DQ8's skill system. It does also let you customize your characters to make them use different weapons or have different playstyles, although I really just stuck to one playstyle for each character. You can respec your points at any time, so if you get bored of playing one of the characters one way you can switch them up.
4. The story is really engaging with twists and turns. If I have to rank its story among all of the other ones I have played I would say DQ5 has a better story still, but not by a huge amount. DQ11 is not far behind DQ5's story. Typically DQ as a series has the same story and does not really care to tell some deep and crazy story. It typically is just light and darkness and chosen one beating up the dark one over and over.
5. This DQ game is not grindy like how many of the previous ones are. There was only one time I felt I needed to grind like 4 levels for a boss, but the game has stuff balanced to where you can just not bother fighting most of the mobs and be fine going through the story. The post game content and story as with every DQ game has a big jump in enemy levels, so you will have to grind a butt ton to fight any post game bosses. With every DQ game they are easy and really fun to play, so not much strategy is required to plow your way through them. If you are having trouble with an enemy or boss then you probably are just underlevelled.
6. This game is chock full of content post game and base game, so if you try to do everything you will definitely spend a little bit over 100 hours doing it all. If you aim to just do the base game and the post game story content with a little bit of the optional stuff like I did (I skipped the post game final boss as I got tired of grinding levels and watched it online), then you are looking at around 55 to 60 hours of pure story content.
7. The Tockington/Tickington area is a nice nostalgia trip back to the previous games of the mainline series. Think of it as playing the story of Dragonball Xenoverse 1 or 2 as far as the previous games's events being messed with by someone. I played 1 or 2 of the books and called it quits as the main story interested me much more and I did not want to be overlevelled for the main story content. I'm sure I will come back to it at a later time.
8. The crafting system in this game is so darn fun. Definitely an improvement from the previous DQ games with crafting systems. I didn't really get tired of crafting stuff until I was in the post game content.
Cons:
1. A good bit of the optional quests are just random fetch quests that I skipped. At least it's optional.
2. I miss how easy it was to encounter metal slime enemies from DQ7, 8, and 9. I guess they did not like how easy it was to break the game by running around until a metal slime appeared to get experience, so now the slimes do not appear on the map ever and just have a low chance to appear among regular enemies. It makes grinding for the post game really daunting or tedious, as to beat the post game final boss people say you should be around level 70, and you start the post game at around level 50 to 55. From what I have Googled, the best way to farm end game is to abuse Pep powers for Hallelujah and another ability to increase exp earned and have a chance to change monsters into metal slimes or metal hands. I did it myself and the battle went on for what feels like 20ish minutes, so I decided to just be done with the game and watch the final boss post game be beat and the end story on YouTube as I did not want to invest that much time in levelling my characters up.
3. I do believe the post game story is not as good as the base game story, but it is still very enjoyable, but gets confusing due to time travel and especially the ending of the game having you go wtf if you have played the first three DQ games. It sucks to have to see some of the same events again due to going back to the past and leaving your present companions behind, but that is what happens with time travel. The game does do its best to speed up some of the same events you have already seen or tell them in a different way to save time due to them being resolved earlier or events happening differently due to time travel and stuff.
4. I already know that Dragon Quest mainline entries have some pretty dark stuff in their story, so I am not new to that, but how they treated Jade in the story had me wowed. I am not really a fan of the character, but how she gets captured and some stuff debatedly happens or does not happen to her off-screen had me going 'wtf yo wow they doodoo'd on her hard that's crazy.' All other characters get fleshed out much better than her sadly to say, but hey there's going to be weak parts of any story. You can tell dark stories and even have rape or stuff of that in it and it be fine, but I feel as though how it was told for Jade was told in a bad way, or should not have been there at all. When Jade is introduced she is a no-nonsense serious good fighter character, but when she joins your team she comes with a ability in which she hits an enemy with her butt and moans as she does it, which I admit is pretty funny but does not fit with her character. The move is also her most damaging move at the time she can use it. They should have had Veronica or Serena have that move instead as it would have fit them more, but it feels the game went out of their way to sexualize and make fun of Jade more than anyone else story-wise, outfit-wise, and move-wise. It felt to me like someone that worked on the game had a huge boner for her and made it their mission to make her sexual, despite her personality and introduction to the story not suggesting so. Not meaning to sound like a SJW snowflake whatever other insults people throw around, but I just gotta call it like I see it.
5. This is an issue with the majority of the mainline DQ games. Music. They play the same songs and be lazy with making new songs for future games. They may have remixed the same battle music, boss music, and overworld themes a bit in this game like they have done for some of the other DQ games, but the whole series is lazy as crap with their music. As I made it my mission in the past to play all of the mainline DQ games, some of the earlier ones felt like I was playing the exact same game but re-balanced with different character designs.
Overall, again a great game and anyone who is remotely interested in JRPGs should give this one a shot. I know a lot of games out nowadays make you feel like you have been scammed with how short they are, but this one you definitely get your moneys worth, even if you somehow pay $60 dollars for it now. Don't let the cartoon-ish design fool you, DQ always has dark things happen in it.
2009
This game had me by the balls for so many years it would be stupid of me to give it anything less than a 5 out of 5. I don't play it anymore, so I cannot speak on the current state of the game and its newest characters, but I definitely played the game from like Season 2 all the way to like Season 9 or 10? I eventually lost count of the seasons, but was most active from Season 2-6 then every now and then played it.
Pros:
1. There are so many champions to choose from if you do not find at least 10 you like to play as that's a you problem. The vast majority of the champions are really fun to use, despite only a little bit of them being the cream of the crop for competitive play at any time.
2. The game is very addicting. It's just a good actual game in terms of gameplay and character design.
3. For a free to play game the game is very fair when it comes to gaining IP to buy new champions and actually be able to compete with others. There really is not pay to win stuff in this game unlike other free to play games, unless you somehow want to count people illegally selling their high ranking accounts, win-botting and stuff like that. Even then that doesn't really count.
Cons:
1. The balancing is always just eh to ass. You gotta accept it and adapt.
2. With how popular the game is, the toxicity is up there in many ways. It's what you'd expect with a PvP game that is debatedly more popular than Call of Duty. Riot also does not do the best job of curbing the toxicity, but it'll always be there. You just leave the game because someone made you upset or adapt to the toxicity and try your best to ignore it.
3. The prices of the skins are very stupid. Sure it's cosmetic only, but when you spend time away from this game and see cosmetic item dlc in other games you truly realize how overpriced the skins are in this game. They still sell well though, so the fans are addicted and/or think the prices are fair. I don't think so anymore.
4. I have heard they are catering more and more to the competitive scene and less to the casual fans, so that is either a pro or con depending on how you look at it.
5. I used to be a lore fan of this game back when they had the League Journal news article stuff, but they eventually retconned that and did a different way of storytelling that I believe was worse. They are always so half-assed on their worldbuilding and storytelling for this game I think they should just give up and stop even trying because they of course do not care about it.
6. The tutorial system in this game has been ass, and currently is ass. The company does not care enough to teach its players how to properly play the game and get better, instead leaving it up to other players to teach others via any means. This means you better bring your thinking cap and learn and adapt as best you can, watch top players stream the game to learn more of what's good and not, battle tactics etc., as well as watching YouTube videos and reading articles of tips and tricks and how to play the game and certain champions you care about while trying to avoid to the best of your ability all the ass takes on stuff and get to the actual useful information.
Pros:
1. There are so many champions to choose from if you do not find at least 10 you like to play as that's a you problem. The vast majority of the champions are really fun to use, despite only a little bit of them being the cream of the crop for competitive play at any time.
2. The game is very addicting. It's just a good actual game in terms of gameplay and character design.
3. For a free to play game the game is very fair when it comes to gaining IP to buy new champions and actually be able to compete with others. There really is not pay to win stuff in this game unlike other free to play games, unless you somehow want to count people illegally selling their high ranking accounts, win-botting and stuff like that. Even then that doesn't really count.
Cons:
1. The balancing is always just eh to ass. You gotta accept it and adapt.
2. With how popular the game is, the toxicity is up there in many ways. It's what you'd expect with a PvP game that is debatedly more popular than Call of Duty. Riot also does not do the best job of curbing the toxicity, but it'll always be there. You just leave the game because someone made you upset or adapt to the toxicity and try your best to ignore it.
3. The prices of the skins are very stupid. Sure it's cosmetic only, but when you spend time away from this game and see cosmetic item dlc in other games you truly realize how overpriced the skins are in this game. They still sell well though, so the fans are addicted and/or think the prices are fair. I don't think so anymore.
4. I have heard they are catering more and more to the competitive scene and less to the casual fans, so that is either a pro or con depending on how you look at it.
5. I used to be a lore fan of this game back when they had the League Journal news article stuff, but they eventually retconned that and did a different way of storytelling that I believe was worse. They are always so half-assed on their worldbuilding and storytelling for this game I think they should just give up and stop even trying because they of course do not care about it.
6. The tutorial system in this game has been ass, and currently is ass. The company does not care enough to teach its players how to properly play the game and get better, instead leaving it up to other players to teach others via any means. This means you better bring your thinking cap and learn and adapt as best you can, watch top players stream the game to learn more of what's good and not, battle tactics etc., as well as watching YouTube videos and reading articles of tips and tricks and how to play the game and certain champions you care about while trying to avoid to the best of your ability all the ass takes on stuff and get to the actual useful information.
This review contains spoilers
Another Zelda game that has its strengths and weaknesses. This one did not blow my socks off like some of the other ones in the series have. Enjoyable game, but quite tedious at times.
I hated having to revisit the same areas so darn much, as well as fighting the Imprisoned so many times. Felt to me as though they were cutting corners with making this game and decided to get it out faster.
It was nice travelling through the sky, the motion controls to me worked just fine with the Wii Motion Plus, it gave some nice lore to the Zelda series for those really into the whole timeline. I used to be into that super hard (Cool to see the Master Sword be made, Demise's curse apparently leading to other villains popping up, or at least mostly Ganondorf, God lore, seeing the triforce actually do something as that does not happen a lot, where the green tunic came from. That sorta stuff).
Something that really disappointed me was when Link gathered the three pieces of the triforce he did not get any stronger or try to use them. I was expecting to get some cool powers and be able to do unique thing I could not before. Missed opportunity I say.
I replayed the game on Hard mode thinking there was going to be something different haha, but no. I'unno what I was thinking when I was younger playing it. After playing it those two times almost back to back I still feel burned out from the game so many years later and do not want to re-visit it.
I hated having to revisit the same areas so darn much, as well as fighting the Imprisoned so many times. Felt to me as though they were cutting corners with making this game and decided to get it out faster.
It was nice travelling through the sky, the motion controls to me worked just fine with the Wii Motion Plus, it gave some nice lore to the Zelda series for those really into the whole timeline. I used to be into that super hard (Cool to see the Master Sword be made, Demise's curse apparently leading to other villains popping up, or at least mostly Ganondorf, God lore, seeing the triforce actually do something as that does not happen a lot, where the green tunic came from. That sorta stuff).
Something that really disappointed me was when Link gathered the three pieces of the triforce he did not get any stronger or try to use them. I was expecting to get some cool powers and be able to do unique thing I could not before. Missed opportunity I say.
I replayed the game on Hard mode thinking there was going to be something different haha, but no. I'unno what I was thinking when I was younger playing it. After playing it those two times almost back to back I still feel burned out from the game so many years later and do not want to re-visit it.
This is a great remake of a classic game. I really wish they kept it going and did this remake treatment with the other X games, but I am assuming this one did not sell well enough or was just some kind of anniversary project?
So far this is my favorite Fire Emblem game to date. It's unfortunate it costs so much for the western copy nowadays.
Pros:
1. Ike for me, is the most likable main character in the FE series (Have not played FE12, FE4, FE5, and FE6 yet because they have not been localized or remade). He is not royalty and has about no filter, saying what is on his mind and what everyone else is thinking. You see him go from an unexperienced runt to a worthy commander of the Greil mercenaries. He's also a busted unit in the game that you have to baby for a little bit.
2. I feel like a broken record saying it has good gameplay when I have said this for about every single FE game I have played. Same goes for the maps I believe. I also am not overly critical of map designs in the series.
3. The story is kind of samey FE stuff, but the lore I feel is deeper than most FE games and has many likable characters that are explored further in its sequel Radiant Dawn. There's also the whole racism stuff the story touches on and continues with its sequel.
Cons:
1. My god the voice acting is not good for the English version.
2. The cinematic cutscenes may have looked decent to good for when it came out, but have not aged well now.
3. The battle animations are really long and I suggest you turn them off if you play this game.
4. Radiant Dawn's enemy phases are longer than this game, but this game's enemy phases are still quite long.
I wish this game and Radiant Dawn would be remade or at least ported with quality of life changes that would fix most of these issues I have. There are parts of this game and Radiant Dawn during enemy phases where I could go take a dump it lasts so long.
Pros:
1. Ike for me, is the most likable main character in the FE series (Have not played FE12, FE4, FE5, and FE6 yet because they have not been localized or remade). He is not royalty and has about no filter, saying what is on his mind and what everyone else is thinking. You see him go from an unexperienced runt to a worthy commander of the Greil mercenaries. He's also a busted unit in the game that you have to baby for a little bit.
2. I feel like a broken record saying it has good gameplay when I have said this for about every single FE game I have played. Same goes for the maps I believe. I also am not overly critical of map designs in the series.
3. The story is kind of samey FE stuff, but the lore I feel is deeper than most FE games and has many likable characters that are explored further in its sequel Radiant Dawn. There's also the whole racism stuff the story touches on and continues with its sequel.
Cons:
1. My god the voice acting is not good for the English version.
2. The cinematic cutscenes may have looked decent to good for when it came out, but have not aged well now.
3. The battle animations are really long and I suggest you turn them off if you play this game.
4. Radiant Dawn's enemy phases are longer than this game, but this game's enemy phases are still quite long.
I wish this game and Radiant Dawn would be remade or at least ported with quality of life changes that would fix most of these issues I have. There are parts of this game and Radiant Dawn during enemy phases where I could go take a dump it lasts so long.
This review contains spoilers
I like Path of Radiance more, but Radiant Dawn has its moments. I liked Ike so much that every chapter I played I was wondering when he was going to pop in, so it felt more like a Metal Gear Solid 2 situation to me where I wanted to play as Solid Snake and not as Raiden. I have been getting an itch to replay this and Path of Radiance, so maybe I will have a better feeling of this game playing it again knowing the full story and not being disappointed I don't get to see Ike until like Part 3 of the game.
The story has a pretty nice climax to what was established in PoR and I feel it sticks the landing overall despite some rocky ground here and there. I have not played FE4 and 5 yet and have heard FE4 has a better story than PoR and RD so I will take that for what it is and until I play those two FE games say PoR and RD as a story overall have the best story in a Fire Emblem to this date in 2023. The whole blood pact stuff, how some story stuff is hidden beyond additional playthroughs, how Ike shoves Micaiah out of the way to be the main character instead and deal the final blow to the villain at the end, how long the story seems to drag on for are some of the nitpicks I can think of off the top of my head.
The gameplay is of course solid. I can't think of a single FE game where the gameplay is complete utter crap. I believe Nintendo has the gameplay down pat. The map designs can be a different story at times. I think the map designs were good in this game. It was interesting jumping to different armies and perspectives to understand the story better and question who really was the enemy at times when you start fighting units you played as not too long ago. It does suck playing as many units that are really crappy in the beginning of the game, as well as the long enemy phases and animations in this game.
The story has a pretty nice climax to what was established in PoR and I feel it sticks the landing overall despite some rocky ground here and there. I have not played FE4 and 5 yet and have heard FE4 has a better story than PoR and RD so I will take that for what it is and until I play those two FE games say PoR and RD as a story overall have the best story in a Fire Emblem to this date in 2023. The whole blood pact stuff, how some story stuff is hidden beyond additional playthroughs, how Ike shoves Micaiah out of the way to be the main character instead and deal the final blow to the villain at the end, how long the story seems to drag on for are some of the nitpicks I can think of off the top of my head.
The gameplay is of course solid. I can't think of a single FE game where the gameplay is complete utter crap. I believe Nintendo has the gameplay down pat. The map designs can be a different story at times. I think the map designs were good in this game. It was interesting jumping to different armies and perspectives to understand the story better and question who really was the enemy at times when you start fighting units you played as not too long ago. It does suck playing as many units that are really crappy in the beginning of the game, as well as the long enemy phases and animations in this game.
This review contains spoilers
I am doing this review on memory alone, as it has been 3ish years since I have last played it. Yet another good Fire Emblem game.
I was one of those FE Fates babies that ended up playing Three Houses and enjoying TH so much that I went back to play every localized FE game in existence to give some background.
Hector is a very likeable character and my favorite of the game, and Eliwood and Lyn are okay. They don't do anything that really has me getting attached to them more so than Hector. Lyn's chapters are a pretty good tutorial mode. What happens to Ninian and Eliwood's reaction was pretty good to me at least and had me feeling sad.
I see why so many people have the attachment to this game that they do, and besides yet again saying it's a solid game that didn't blow my socks off I do not what else to say.
I was one of those FE Fates babies that ended up playing Three Houses and enjoying TH so much that I went back to play every localized FE game in existence to give some background.
Hector is a very likeable character and my favorite of the game, and Eliwood and Lyn are okay. They don't do anything that really has me getting attached to them more so than Hector. Lyn's chapters are a pretty good tutorial mode. What happens to Ninian and Eliwood's reaction was pretty good to me at least and had me feeling sad.
I see why so many people have the attachment to this game that they do, and besides yet again saying it's a solid game that didn't blow my socks off I do not what else to say.
This review contains spoilers
Pretty good game, didn't play the original. A bit boring story-wise at the beginning. So much so that I dropped the game and months later forced myself to pick it back up just to finish it. Once I got through the beginning the story picked up and intrigued me. The combat is solid, as well as the maps from what I can remember. There were some obtuse things every now and then enemy/map-wise where it felt like I needed to cheese the game to get further, but I could be remembering wrong.
Berkut was a weird character. Heard he was not in the original, and I cannot see exactly why he was added in the remake, but ah well.
I do like how Alm and Celica don't see eye to eye mid-way through the game and go their separate ways to save their continent.
I did not care for the 3D exploration/dungeon segments of the game. Wish it was not in it to begin with.
Berkut was a weird character. Heard he was not in the original, and I cannot see exactly why he was added in the remake, but ah well.
I do like how Alm and Celica don't see eye to eye mid-way through the game and go their separate ways to save their continent.
I did not care for the 3D exploration/dungeon segments of the game. Wish it was not in it to begin with.
2002
Another solid Metroid game. More of the same, exploration, upgrades, a loose story that connects to some of the previous games. As an adult the game does not scare me, but as a kid it definitely scared me on multiple occasions.
Only things I could really say that irked me about the game is I left the game wishing there was more exploration, it's a good bit short, sometimes the story gets in the way of the gameplay too much (Or at least the computer talking to you too much), game being on the easy side, and me wishing there would be more SA-X chase sequences scripted and non-scripted.
Only things I could really say that irked me about the game is I left the game wishing there was more exploration, it's a good bit short, sometimes the story gets in the way of the gameplay too much (Or at least the computer talking to you too much), game being on the easy side, and me wishing there would be more SA-X chase sequences scripted and non-scripted.
2017
This game is a great fan service free gacha game for Fire Emblem fans who wish to see their favorite characters from the previous games in this one. Just about every Fire Emblem character is in this game by this point, with a few stragglers missing. They even have multiple outfits for the same characters and treat those different outfits as completely different units balance-wise. The game gets boring after a while, so you either stay to play for a few minutes to a few hours a day depending on how addicted you are to it with the stamina system and how much money you want to put into it. When the game first came out there really was not much to do. There is a lot more to do now in 2023. I eventually stopped my subscription for it and stopped playing it because it just eventually bored me .
Pros:
1. Great fan-service game for Fire Emblem fans, having about all characters from the whole series, as well as new FEHeroes exclusive story characters.
2. Combat from FE is still there, but simplified with a much smaller map design (except for a few special events), less abilities than the mainline FE entries (That's how it was for a good bit until power creep kept rising up and they continued to make more and more powerful and complicated to use units for more combat depth. Now you have to read almost a book for each unit that is worth playing in the current meta).
3. It's completely free to play, but it will tempt you to spend money as with all free to play games like with its stamina system, RNG rolls as two examples.
4. It has a story that is told in Book format and it is continually added about every month or so, so you can take a step back and wait for it to be added and jump back in for that.
5. This game makes Nintendo so much money that it is very unlikely that it will be discontinued anytime soon. I know that is a fear for free to play games that people end up dumping money into.
6. This game gives you a lot of free resources, so you really do not need to spend money on it unless you are trying to be a completionist or become addicted to it.
7. There is some depth to be had in customizing the characters you choose to play, but you probably will not have the resources to customize them too far if you have not played the game for a long time.
Cons:
1. Weird to say this as making things RNG/grind-heavy is something most free to play games need to do in order to make money or keep their players coming back, but it is I believe quite crazy in this game. There are games that do it worse, but still I feel it's worth mentioning.
2. The story for all the books I have played except for maybe the most recent two are just eh. It feels more of an excuse to introduce new Fire Emblem characters from past games and new ones just for Heroes. There are a few deep and interesting things here and there in some of the story books if you really look for it, but there are Fire Emblem games with much better stories.
3. They lock a lot of quality of life improvements behind a paywall called FEH pass. I think it's called that still. Auto battling being a big thing I believe should be free as the only example that comes to my mind right now.
4. I hate seeing series doing this, but this game has embraced the waifu tax. At first when it came out it did not do that, but eventually the developers saw that busty women or women in revealing or exotic clothes increased sales, and so they doubled down on it. There are far worse games that implement the waifu tax, but it does not change the fact that it is in this game still. This can be a pro or con depending on where you stand on the subject and your mood during the day. I can't deny that if it looks good, then it looks good... but still it sucks to see Fire Emblem to have embraced something so degenerate. I guess it's a small price to pay for keeping the series afloat, as this game has made Nintendo more money than any Fire Emblem game to-date.
This game had me addicted for a while and I do not regret giving Nintendo some of my money to support this series I love, but eventually I had to step away when I realized it was just wasting time I had that was better spent elsewhere (At least for the moment until I come back to it. Never say never).
Pros:
1. Great fan-service game for Fire Emblem fans, having about all characters from the whole series, as well as new FEHeroes exclusive story characters.
2. Combat from FE is still there, but simplified with a much smaller map design (except for a few special events), less abilities than the mainline FE entries (That's how it was for a good bit until power creep kept rising up and they continued to make more and more powerful and complicated to use units for more combat depth. Now you have to read almost a book for each unit that is worth playing in the current meta).
3. It's completely free to play, but it will tempt you to spend money as with all free to play games like with its stamina system, RNG rolls as two examples.
4. It has a story that is told in Book format and it is continually added about every month or so, so you can take a step back and wait for it to be added and jump back in for that.
5. This game makes Nintendo so much money that it is very unlikely that it will be discontinued anytime soon. I know that is a fear for free to play games that people end up dumping money into.
6. This game gives you a lot of free resources, so you really do not need to spend money on it unless you are trying to be a completionist or become addicted to it.
7. There is some depth to be had in customizing the characters you choose to play, but you probably will not have the resources to customize them too far if you have not played the game for a long time.
Cons:
1. Weird to say this as making things RNG/grind-heavy is something most free to play games need to do in order to make money or keep their players coming back, but it is I believe quite crazy in this game. There are games that do it worse, but still I feel it's worth mentioning.
2. The story for all the books I have played except for maybe the most recent two are just eh. It feels more of an excuse to introduce new Fire Emblem characters from past games and new ones just for Heroes. There are a few deep and interesting things here and there in some of the story books if you really look for it, but there are Fire Emblem games with much better stories.
3. They lock a lot of quality of life improvements behind a paywall called FEH pass. I think it's called that still. Auto battling being a big thing I believe should be free as the only example that comes to my mind right now.
4. I hate seeing series doing this, but this game has embraced the waifu tax. At first when it came out it did not do that, but eventually the developers saw that busty women or women in revealing or exotic clothes increased sales, and so they doubled down on it. There are far worse games that implement the waifu tax, but it does not change the fact that it is in this game still. This can be a pro or con depending on where you stand on the subject and your mood during the day. I can't deny that if it looks good, then it looks good... but still it sucks to see Fire Emblem to have embraced something so degenerate. I guess it's a small price to pay for keeping the series afloat, as this game has made Nintendo more money than any Fire Emblem game to-date.
This game had me addicted for a while and I do not regret giving Nintendo some of my money to support this series I love, but eventually I had to step away when I realized it was just wasting time I had that was better spent elsewhere (At least for the moment until I come back to it. Never say never).
2022
Never really played the story of a GTA game before. I've only messed around as a kid in Vice City and the 3rd one fighting the cops with cheat codes.
I have not played GTA Online here, only played the story. The story is really good and has really likable characters in it. I chose the deathwish option at the end.
Not much else to say. The story was good, graphics are big step up from Vice City, I played the game really really late compared to most other people. You can do more side content wise than the PS2 games I played of course.
For such an old game at this point, I am surprised that it crashed as many times during the story as it did. Not sure if it was an issue with the PS5 port or not, but it was around 3 or 4 times it crashed on me and I had to restart the game. There's also a bug where when trying to do on FIB mission at beach area the game bugs out cancelling the mission, and the only solution is to take a taxi ride there according to the developers when I googled it. Unless this is a PS5 only bug, I am surprised they have not fixed it yet. I am assuming it will never be fixed at this point. Maybe I should give this game a 5 out of 5 because of myself watching GTA Online roleplays in the past and laughing a lot, but beyond the crashes, the weird mission bug, and even though the story was crazy interesting, there were some times that had me yawning having to take a break when stuff calmed down or just got kind of same ol' same ol' at certain points.
I have not played GTA Online here, only played the story. The story is really good and has really likable characters in it. I chose the deathwish option at the end.
Not much else to say. The story was good, graphics are big step up from Vice City, I played the game really really late compared to most other people. You can do more side content wise than the PS2 games I played of course.
For such an old game at this point, I am surprised that it crashed as many times during the story as it did. Not sure if it was an issue with the PS5 port or not, but it was around 3 or 4 times it crashed on me and I had to restart the game. There's also a bug where when trying to do on FIB mission at beach area the game bugs out cancelling the mission, and the only solution is to take a taxi ride there according to the developers when I googled it. Unless this is a PS5 only bug, I am surprised they have not fixed it yet. I am assuming it will never be fixed at this point. Maybe I should give this game a 5 out of 5 because of myself watching GTA Online roleplays in the past and laughing a lot, but beyond the crashes, the weird mission bug, and even though the story was crazy interesting, there were some times that had me yawning having to take a break when stuff calmed down or just got kind of same ol' same ol' at certain points.
This review contains spoilers
The same great game, but with even better graphics and almost no load times.
I was not sure if the level design would hold up to today's standards, but it definitely does.
Since I have not written a review for the Gamecube version, I will do my typical Pros and Cons below:
Pros:
1. Fantastic graphics for the time it came out, and even better graphics today. The graphics for this remaster put a lot of remasters to shame and even the graphics of many Wii U and Switch games to shame.
2. Great level design. The backtracking in this game is fun to do, like with many Metroid games and it's even better with there being about no load times now.
3. Great platforming, especially for a first-person shooter.
4. Its bosses and mini-bosses are fun and well designed. They feel a bit on the easy side for me, but that may be because the last time I played this game was when I was a kid, and me being familiar with the game by now.
5. Fantastic music that is definitely the best of its trilogy.
6. The load times for this remaster are crazy short. No longer like on the Gamecube version would I hit a door and have to wait there for seconds for it to open. Now it's just about instant every time. Really keeps me immersed more feeling like I am actually there.
7. The lighting is better in this remaster, making it easier to see where I'm going in areas that are supposed to be easy to traverse that you do not need any of the visors for.
8. Just about all of the upgrades are fantastic, meaningful, and are a real joy to use. They did a great job of making me feel stronger every time I got a new power-up. The only power-ups that felt eh were the missile upgrades for the beam upgrades. By the time you get them there isn't really anyone to use them on besides Ridley and Metroid Prime, and they don't do much to them. The Super Missile Ice Beam upgrade seems to be the best one, but you're better off just using regular Super Missiles with your Power Beam.
9. You have multiple ways to play in this game. I heard about them bringing the Gamecube playstyle back, but I had no idea you can also play the game just like its Wii port back in the day. There are 3 playstyles: New one, Gamecube, and Wii. Only other better thing they could have done beyond this would be to let you map your controls to whatever buttons you wanted them on, which sadly they did not do. The new dual-stick playstick feels very well done and to me feels like the best way to play the game. I love the novelty of being able to switch back to the Gamecube and Wii playstyles as they are still both great ways to play. I also heard you can connect your Gamecube controller to play this game too if that floats your boat, which is another awesome callback they really did not need to do! If this is how Metroid Prime 4 will play, then I am definitely here for it!
Cons:
1. Artifacts. The biggest con of this game and its sequel. I wrote about this in my review of the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes mentioning this game. It sucks to have a goose hunt for many keys to unlock the final area of the game having you run all across the game for them. I can at least say collecting them in this game is not as bad as in the sequel. Despite there being more to collect in this one, you can start collecting them much earlier in the game unlike the sequel where you can't really collect them until you last few upgrades. The hints while still being vague are not as vague as the sequel. Again, sucks to have something like this to pad the game out when it does not need this. If I want to explore the world further I will do it for fun. I should not have to for keys that give me no extra power.
2. There are not a lot of bosses in this game. The sequel makes up for that, but that's a small gripe.
3. Even though the platforming is great for a first-person shooter, there a few hiccups here and there just to be transparent.
4. This is a very small gripe, as this is an optional thing to do, but the room in the Chozo Ruins with the long and drawn out Spider ball track is oof. Using the half-circle to boost my way up to the track was unreliable. The other part of the narrow walk way as a ball was fine, it was just the half-circle part that frustrated me.
If you play this game and say it's ass or mid I would be speechless.
I was not sure if the level design would hold up to today's standards, but it definitely does.
Since I have not written a review for the Gamecube version, I will do my typical Pros and Cons below:
Pros:
1. Fantastic graphics for the time it came out, and even better graphics today. The graphics for this remaster put a lot of remasters to shame and even the graphics of many Wii U and Switch games to shame.
2. Great level design. The backtracking in this game is fun to do, like with many Metroid games and it's even better with there being about no load times now.
3. Great platforming, especially for a first-person shooter.
4. Its bosses and mini-bosses are fun and well designed. They feel a bit on the easy side for me, but that may be because the last time I played this game was when I was a kid, and me being familiar with the game by now.
5. Fantastic music that is definitely the best of its trilogy.
6. The load times for this remaster are crazy short. No longer like on the Gamecube version would I hit a door and have to wait there for seconds for it to open. Now it's just about instant every time. Really keeps me immersed more feeling like I am actually there.
7. The lighting is better in this remaster, making it easier to see where I'm going in areas that are supposed to be easy to traverse that you do not need any of the visors for.
8. Just about all of the upgrades are fantastic, meaningful, and are a real joy to use. They did a great job of making me feel stronger every time I got a new power-up. The only power-ups that felt eh were the missile upgrades for the beam upgrades. By the time you get them there isn't really anyone to use them on besides Ridley and Metroid Prime, and they don't do much to them. The Super Missile Ice Beam upgrade seems to be the best one, but you're better off just using regular Super Missiles with your Power Beam.
9. You have multiple ways to play in this game. I heard about them bringing the Gamecube playstyle back, but I had no idea you can also play the game just like its Wii port back in the day. There are 3 playstyles: New one, Gamecube, and Wii. Only other better thing they could have done beyond this would be to let you map your controls to whatever buttons you wanted them on, which sadly they did not do. The new dual-stick playstick feels very well done and to me feels like the best way to play the game. I love the novelty of being able to switch back to the Gamecube and Wii playstyles as they are still both great ways to play. I also heard you can connect your Gamecube controller to play this game too if that floats your boat, which is another awesome callback they really did not need to do! If this is how Metroid Prime 4 will play, then I am definitely here for it!
Cons:
1. Artifacts. The biggest con of this game and its sequel. I wrote about this in my review of the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes mentioning this game. It sucks to have a goose hunt for many keys to unlock the final area of the game having you run all across the game for them. I can at least say collecting them in this game is not as bad as in the sequel. Despite there being more to collect in this one, you can start collecting them much earlier in the game unlike the sequel where you can't really collect them until you last few upgrades. The hints while still being vague are not as vague as the sequel. Again, sucks to have something like this to pad the game out when it does not need this. If I want to explore the world further I will do it for fun. I should not have to for keys that give me no extra power.
2. There are not a lot of bosses in this game. The sequel makes up for that, but that's a small gripe.
3. Even though the platforming is great for a first-person shooter, there a few hiccups here and there just to be transparent.
4. This is a very small gripe, as this is an optional thing to do, but the room in the Chozo Ruins with the long and drawn out Spider ball track is oof. Using the half-circle to boost my way up to the track was unreliable. The other part of the narrow walk way as a ball was fine, it was just the half-circle part that frustrated me.
If you play this game and say it's ass or mid I would be speechless.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Overall another good Fire Emblem game.
Pros:
1. The combat is as good as ever with new mechanics not in previous entries (Emblems, bond rings as two examples).
2. The game gets more fun the more Emblem rings you get, but it can get overwhelming at first when you end up getting a lot of them until you get used to everything.
3. The story has some nice twists and turns that made me care about what was happening.
4. The nostalgia from the emblem rings makes this a really good anniversary game. I loved seeing the main characters of the previous games, especially Ike.
Cons:
1. Despite the twists and turns being good most of the time, the game's story is very slow paced and stuff does not start happening really until Chapter 10. The story is a bit generic at times, so you most likely have already experienced this story from a different game or show for the most part. Sombron's motivation is really stupid, but at least he is not evil for the sake of being evil (Although I think I would have preferred that to his motivation). I'm sure I could point out more things I didn't care for or didn't like, but I'll stop there.
2. The support conversations are so cringe in this game. The way most people talk in this game ruins my immersion. Regular people do not talk the way these people do. Most people want to have sex with the main character, so it feels like FE Fates all over again with Corrin but worse. There are some supports in this game I enjoyed, but I think the quality of these are a step down from Three Houses (Now I am not saying Three Houses supports did not have cringe too, but Engage brings it to a whole new level).
3. Many of the things to do in the Somniel are very shallow. There is a butt ton to do after every mission, but to me they become a slog to get through very early on in the game. These side activities are a step down from Three Houses.
A. There should have been more you could do with Sommie
B. The exercises are eh. Takes too long to do push ups, squats are sorta fine feeling like a Dance Dance Revolution game, the sit ups arw the most brain dead with spamming one button (But I enjoyed it the most).
C. The fortune telling stuff is eh. I do not think anyone needs help finding ways to increase support levels with the ways you can increase it in this game.
D. The wyvern riding is basically watered down Star Fox.
E. The cooking is fine. Not sure if the stat boosts really are noticable. I did not notice it. It's another way to increase support levels.
F. The polishing rings part is definitely the weirdest thing you can do activity-wise and later you realize how pointless it is for building bond levels.
G. The arena part is actually good for levelling people up who are close to their next level and increasing bond levels for emblems if you have the fragments for it.
H. The cattle pet area is very shallow as there is not much you can do with animals you adopt besides use them to get more resources after every battle.
I. The free dlc 3 activities to boost support levels are fine for what they are but not needed.
I may be missing one or two activities. I did not try out the Trials as I did not want to overlevel my units and make the game really easy. Same goes for Skirmishes on the World Map.
4. I hate the self insert main character trope with amnesia. I wish they would stop calling Alear the Divine Dragon and call him/her their name and not give me an option to name the character.
5. The final battle in this game was quite underwhelming to me.
6. Weird that Alear and his sister can't turn into dragons, but Lumera and Sombron can. I was waiting for Alear all game tk turn into one for combat, but sadly no.
7. Unfortunate that besides Marth and to a lesser extent Sigurd, all the other emblems are pretty inconsequential to the story and don't talk much in the story unless you go out of your way to talk to them via bind conversations or on the Somniel. I wish the others contributed to the story more.
Overall pretty good game that has a lot of game in it that makes me satisfied and not really wanting more battle-wise after finishing it immediately. There are some questions I hope they answer with the DLC story, I hope the emblems contribute more with said DLC story too. The game made me satisfied, disappointed, and sad all at once. Satisfied with the battles in the game for the most part, disappointed with the Somniel's activities and the underutilization of all the Emblems in the story besides Marth and Sigurd. Sad because of being done with the game and of certain twists in the story where they make some of the villains look less evil.
Pros:
1. The combat is as good as ever with new mechanics not in previous entries (Emblems, bond rings as two examples).
2. The game gets more fun the more Emblem rings you get, but it can get overwhelming at first when you end up getting a lot of them until you get used to everything.
3. The story has some nice twists and turns that made me care about what was happening.
4. The nostalgia from the emblem rings makes this a really good anniversary game. I loved seeing the main characters of the previous games, especially Ike.
Cons:
1. Despite the twists and turns being good most of the time, the game's story is very slow paced and stuff does not start happening really until Chapter 10. The story is a bit generic at times, so you most likely have already experienced this story from a different game or show for the most part. Sombron's motivation is really stupid, but at least he is not evil for the sake of being evil (Although I think I would have preferred that to his motivation). I'm sure I could point out more things I didn't care for or didn't like, but I'll stop there.
2. The support conversations are so cringe in this game. The way most people talk in this game ruins my immersion. Regular people do not talk the way these people do. Most people want to have sex with the main character, so it feels like FE Fates all over again with Corrin but worse. There are some supports in this game I enjoyed, but I think the quality of these are a step down from Three Houses (Now I am not saying Three Houses supports did not have cringe too, but Engage brings it to a whole new level).
3. Many of the things to do in the Somniel are very shallow. There is a butt ton to do after every mission, but to me they become a slog to get through very early on in the game. These side activities are a step down from Three Houses.
A. There should have been more you could do with Sommie
B. The exercises are eh. Takes too long to do push ups, squats are sorta fine feeling like a Dance Dance Revolution game, the sit ups arw the most brain dead with spamming one button (But I enjoyed it the most).
C. The fortune telling stuff is eh. I do not think anyone needs help finding ways to increase support levels with the ways you can increase it in this game.
D. The wyvern riding is basically watered down Star Fox.
E. The cooking is fine. Not sure if the stat boosts really are noticable. I did not notice it. It's another way to increase support levels.
F. The polishing rings part is definitely the weirdest thing you can do activity-wise and later you realize how pointless it is for building bond levels.
G. The arena part is actually good for levelling people up who are close to their next level and increasing bond levels for emblems if you have the fragments for it.
H. The cattle pet area is very shallow as there is not much you can do with animals you adopt besides use them to get more resources after every battle.
I. The free dlc 3 activities to boost support levels are fine for what they are but not needed.
I may be missing one or two activities. I did not try out the Trials as I did not want to overlevel my units and make the game really easy. Same goes for Skirmishes on the World Map.
4. I hate the self insert main character trope with amnesia. I wish they would stop calling Alear the Divine Dragon and call him/her their name and not give me an option to name the character.
5. The final battle in this game was quite underwhelming to me.
6. Weird that Alear and his sister can't turn into dragons, but Lumera and Sombron can. I was waiting for Alear all game tk turn into one for combat, but sadly no.
7. Unfortunate that besides Marth and to a lesser extent Sigurd, all the other emblems are pretty inconsequential to the story and don't talk much in the story unless you go out of your way to talk to them via bind conversations or on the Somniel. I wish the others contributed to the story more.
Overall pretty good game that has a lot of game in it that makes me satisfied and not really wanting more battle-wise after finishing it immediately. There are some questions I hope they answer with the DLC story, I hope the emblems contribute more with said DLC story too. The game made me satisfied, disappointed, and sad all at once. Satisfied with the battles in the game for the most part, disappointed with the Somniel's activities and the underutilization of all the Emblems in the story besides Marth and Sigurd. Sad because of being done with the game and of certain twists in the story where they make some of the villains look less evil.