TheOTrain
Completed a full 3 runs. Excellent game. The best mech game to just control perhaps ever. The best characterization work From have done. My primary complaints are poor weapon balance and the ability to make builds too well rounded. There is little motivation to completely change build once you find the couple that work well for you. As well, the music is underwhelming for an AC game, the tracks are good, but they are mixed too low and generally too hazy to make out well. I would have preferred the techno of the earlier titles or the poppy electronica of the later titles. This game leans toward the latter, but does not go far enough.
2019
Beat on Devil Hunter, then again with Vergil. The first DMC game i've finished, although I played a little bit of 3. Video game ass video game.
TL;DR: Play the Project Nemo fan translation instead of the official overseas release. The international version of this game is a different, much worse game than the original.
Pretty good flight combat sim with cool visuals and a couple interesting ideas, but held back by some frustrating levels and a quite plainly told story. As my first game in this series/genre, it was a decent introduction. That is what I thought after finishing the official US version of this game.
I then searched Youtube for a plot summary (just to confirm I had everything straight), and became very confused when I heard references to branching story paths, saw visuals of comms chatter and anime cutscenes I had never seen, and read plot details with only a vague relationship to the game I just played.
A couple google searches later, I found out the following: The international release of this game was gutted. Like, slasher movie gutted. Due to poor sales in Japan, the plans for a complete localization were scrapped in favor of cutting any elements of the game that would be expensive to localize. This includes removing comms chatter, voice acting, branching story paths, interstitial dialogue, and almost half of the missions, as well as heavily simplifying the overall plot. It makes every wonky ps1/2 era Japanese RPG dub looks like a passion project.
Needless to say, I plan to play Project Nemo, the complete fan translation of the game, very soon.
PS: I HIGHLY recommend using the crt-royale shader when emulating PS1 games. I think this console's 3D library benefits greatly from the rose tinted haze of a CRT, and for my money crt-royale goes the farthest of any other shader in replicating that effect. My specific setup was using a ported version via Reshade on Duckstation for PC, but it's meant for Retroarch so you should be able to use it on basically anything that can handle the non-zero performance penalty. Feel free to tweak it to your liking. I personally prefer subtle scanlines and strong phosphor glow/bloom.
Pretty good flight combat sim with cool visuals and a couple interesting ideas, but held back by some frustrating levels and a quite plainly told story. As my first game in this series/genre, it was a decent introduction. That is what I thought after finishing the official US version of this game.
I then searched Youtube for a plot summary (just to confirm I had everything straight), and became very confused when I heard references to branching story paths, saw visuals of comms chatter and anime cutscenes I had never seen, and read plot details with only a vague relationship to the game I just played.
A couple google searches later, I found out the following: The international release of this game was gutted. Like, slasher movie gutted. Due to poor sales in Japan, the plans for a complete localization were scrapped in favor of cutting any elements of the game that would be expensive to localize. This includes removing comms chatter, voice acting, branching story paths, interstitial dialogue, and almost half of the missions, as well as heavily simplifying the overall plot. It makes every wonky ps1/2 era Japanese RPG dub looks like a passion project.
Needless to say, I plan to play Project Nemo, the complete fan translation of the game, very soon.
PS: I HIGHLY recommend using the crt-royale shader when emulating PS1 games. I think this console's 3D library benefits greatly from the rose tinted haze of a CRT, and for my money crt-royale goes the farthest of any other shader in replicating that effect. My specific setup was using a ported version via Reshade on Duckstation for PC, but it's meant for Retroarch so you should be able to use it on basically anything that can handle the non-zero performance penalty. Feel free to tweak it to your liking. I personally prefer subtle scanlines and strong phosphor glow/bloom.
Beautiful game. It does a lot better than ICO, but I think ICO was more consistent. Most of the puzzles are relatively easy to wrap your head around, but the controls can get in the way, on top of general ambiguity on when/where to grab some of the colossi. My main two sticking points are trying to grab the tail of the 7th colossus, and the hand of the 15th. That being said, it is an incredible experience, and you can feel it's DNA in many games since.
2001
Quietly beautiful, masterful in it's restraint.
2022
GOATed. The other Soulsborne games do certain things better, but the absolute breadth and generosity of engaging content in this game is of a scale rarely seen. Shout out to the MVP, the +10 Mimic Tear.
This game kind of sucks, but I cannot help but love it. It's combat is a direct downgrade from the first game. Combat and movement in general feels stiff. The hitboxes of many enemy attacks are inconsistent to their models. Dark souls one is deliberate in it's combat, it's slow pace serves it well. This game's combat is simply sluggish. Traversal is generally less interesting than the first game, etc, etc, I could go on.
But, despite all of that, this game holds a special place in my heart. While traversal is less interesting than ds1, the actual environmental design is incredible. The game tells a much more defined story, which is quite compelling, even if I prefer the more inference based storytelling of ds1. Most importantly of all, this game's tone is impeccable. The atmosphere of oppression and hopelessness drips from every facet of this game's world. In the end, I much prefer the experimentation of this game, even if it falls short in many places, to if From had simply released a game trying to be exactly like it's predecessor.
But, despite all of that, this game holds a special place in my heart. While traversal is less interesting than ds1, the actual environmental design is incredible. The game tells a much more defined story, which is quite compelling, even if I prefer the more inference based storytelling of ds1. Most importantly of all, this game's tone is impeccable. The atmosphere of oppression and hopelessness drips from every facet of this game's world. In the end, I much prefer the experimentation of this game, even if it falls short in many places, to if From had simply released a game trying to be exactly like it's predecessor.
The dates listed are of my first play through of this game, I have played it through at least 3 times since. (as of 1/19/2022) But I do not care to log them individually.
This game is an unassailable masterpiece. Graceful in it's subtle world building and beautifully desolate environments. It's use of difficulty to enforce the harshness of it's world and to heighten your eventual triumphs is sublime, and the deep sadness of it's story, world, and characters are incredible. This game is not perfect, the online infrastructure isn't great, and the second half of the game certainly drops in quality, but It would be disingenuous of me to not call it the best game I have ever played, and a pinnacle of games as an art form.
This game is an unassailable masterpiece. Graceful in it's subtle world building and beautifully desolate environments. It's use of difficulty to enforce the harshness of it's world and to heighten your eventual triumphs is sublime, and the deep sadness of it's story, world, and characters are incredible. This game is not perfect, the online infrastructure isn't great, and the second half of the game certainly drops in quality, but It would be disingenuous of me to not call it the best game I have ever played, and a pinnacle of games as an art form.