ThisIsLeesy
The most overhated game in the entire series. This game is my favourite smash game idc the story was elite and fun and the soundtrack and intro was elite. Played this game the most out of the smash games and I fucked up my friends in this game.
2014
This review contains spoilers
Its pretty good. I think a lot of people like to argue that this game is a significantly better experience that scolar, and while i would say its better for new comers, its not that much. Iron keep is definitely a LOT better, but dragon's shrine's addition in scholar for the dragon phantom in the second half , and generally just a lot better placement of enemies makes the run up to ancient dragon (if you do choose to kill it) a lot less painful.
100%ing this game is a lot more painful than scholar, as since scholar added in the falconeers at the royal army campsite bonfire, getting sunlight medals is a pain in the ass in this game. I think its also bugged too, as I had to use a bonfire aestetic even though i was in the covenant of champions, because im 99% sure that the loot pools for sunlight medals ran out, which doesnt happen in scholar if you are apart of the cov.
I would recommend this game slightly more than scholar for new comers, as i think through that lens scholar can be seen as something light legendary dark knight mode in dmc. but as a whole I would rate the games around the same margin, although I do again slightly prefer this to scholar, even though i'd rather go through some areas in scholar and some in vanilla ds2.
100%ing this game is a lot more painful than scholar, as since scholar added in the falconeers at the royal army campsite bonfire, getting sunlight medals is a pain in the ass in this game. I think its also bugged too, as I had to use a bonfire aestetic even though i was in the covenant of champions, because im 99% sure that the loot pools for sunlight medals ran out, which doesnt happen in scholar if you are apart of the cov.
I would recommend this game slightly more than scholar for new comers, as i think through that lens scholar can be seen as something light legendary dark knight mode in dmc. but as a whole I would rate the games around the same margin, although I do again slightly prefer this to scholar, even though i'd rather go through some areas in scholar and some in vanilla ds2.
2011
I mean what else can you really say about this game. There's so much to do not only in single player but multiplayer as well. This has always been a game that I will fall back onto to play by myself or with friends every once in a while, and will probably forever be one of my favorite games of all time
2009
This review contains spoilers
I've seen a lot of takes that the ps5 remake has "ruined" the atmosphere of this gem, but while i do believe it goes for a different approach, where it significantly improves over the original is the actual gameplay. This isn't in the sense that they fixed the ai of broken bosses (maneaters are still ass) or that the combat has been changed to fit the more modern approach, but in the sense that actually playing this game in its original state, let alone achieving 100% completion, is one of the most miserable experiences i've ever had in gaming.
The original ps3 version's trophy list was something that i can only define as pure evil, whether that be killing stupidly annoying or boring enemies such as the blue dragon (not the red one, the blue one) in boletaria and Old King Doran, or through mindlessly grinding away and balancing out world and character tendencies to fulfill specific character questlines. While after playing and completing the remake the origial had me meet 1-4 at around 13 hours of playtime, i decided that then and there would be the point that i would grind out every trophy i reasonably could, This ranged from beforehand killing myself in the nexus continuously to make sure every world was in PWWT, to then experience all of the world tendency events, due to some of the rewarded items or areas needing to be done to fulfil achievements, to then painstakingly killing myself in each world, farming stones of ephemeral eyes from the black phantom outside the dirty collosus bossroom in 5-2, which i needed to do to increase all of the droprates of the rare materials i needed. pure bladestone took me 5-6 hours alone, not helped by me accidently levelling my luck stat to 20. Then, after all the material grinding, i had to kill all primeval demons and black phantoms to get my CT into pure white and obtain the friend ring from the monumental, and also obtain colourless demon souls to buy a miracle and level up my weapon of choice, the DBS. long story short, i didn't reach NG+ until 44 hours, and had to then experience the most poorly balanced NG+ ive ever seen in a video game. I finally clocked in with the plat trophy at 55 hours on the dot, and would personally put it just behind DS3 as the worst game to 100% in the fromsoftware souls like franchise.
While i will say that the atmosphere was nice, the amount of prep work and factors that go into 100%ing this game, and also just having a reasonably good experience with said game, leads me to rank the original and the ps5 remake around the same ballpark, with myself probably going back to the ps5 more often.
The original ps3 version's trophy list was something that i can only define as pure evil, whether that be killing stupidly annoying or boring enemies such as the blue dragon (not the red one, the blue one) in boletaria and Old King Doran, or through mindlessly grinding away and balancing out world and character tendencies to fulfill specific character questlines. While after playing and completing the remake the origial had me meet 1-4 at around 13 hours of playtime, i decided that then and there would be the point that i would grind out every trophy i reasonably could, This ranged from beforehand killing myself in the nexus continuously to make sure every world was in PWWT, to then experience all of the world tendency events, due to some of the rewarded items or areas needing to be done to fulfil achievements, to then painstakingly killing myself in each world, farming stones of ephemeral eyes from the black phantom outside the dirty collosus bossroom in 5-2, which i needed to do to increase all of the droprates of the rare materials i needed. pure bladestone took me 5-6 hours alone, not helped by me accidently levelling my luck stat to 20. Then, after all the material grinding, i had to kill all primeval demons and black phantoms to get my CT into pure white and obtain the friend ring from the monumental, and also obtain colourless demon souls to buy a miracle and level up my weapon of choice, the DBS. long story short, i didn't reach NG+ until 44 hours, and had to then experience the most poorly balanced NG+ ive ever seen in a video game. I finally clocked in with the plat trophy at 55 hours on the dot, and would personally put it just behind DS3 as the worst game to 100% in the fromsoftware souls like franchise.
While i will say that the atmosphere was nice, the amount of prep work and factors that go into 100%ing this game, and also just having a reasonably good experience with said game, leads me to rank the original and the ps5 remake around the same ballpark, with myself probably going back to the ps5 more often.
While there was one puzzle at the end of the game that's solution was kind of annoying, the rest of Blue Shift is one of the most consistently good parts of any of the gold source HL games. This might have been recency bias since this was the last gold source HL game I played, but I liked pretty much every aspect touched in Blue Shift more than I did in opposing force. The new additions and features in the game that made it stand out from the original, while having far fewer than OF, utilized it's new features a lot more than OF as the more grounded nature of Calhoun made me really think I was an actual security guard escaping the madness of the black mesa incident, more than Shepard in OF which just seemed like a less powerful Gordan Freeman. I also liked the atmosphere a lot more, as playing through the earlier stages and seeing more of Black Mesa, and then having to run around for the first few minutes after the incident played a lot into the horror aspects of the game which I really appreciated. Overall while both OF and BS are good games to play after beating HL1, I would strongly recommend BS over OF, as I simply just liked it more as an experience.
Easily the best game on the switch (with mario odyssey as a close second). This game is one of the most fun and exciting games ive ever played. Easily the best open-world game I've ever played (although this may change when I get around to finishing elden ring). Every space on the map has essentially be packed with content. This is a dream game where litterally anywhere you go is the right way to go, and It encourages you to explore the world of the game in a way that doesn't use any bullshit rewards that do nothing. This is a system seller and people who own a switch and don't own this game have a lack of brain cells
Amazing hack and slash. The final 2 bosses are some of the best I've ever fought in any game period. The combat is also some of the most engaging and fun I've seen in a game for a while. The game took a while to click with me (around 4-5 missions) but once it does it is extremely entertaining and enjoyable to play. Definitely one of the best hack and slashes I've ever played
Fun to play with friends, otherwise dont bother
2019
This review contains spoilers
(NOTE: played the game on Hard Remix (beat most levels on my own but did look up the solutions for a good few), got the Rin True Ending)
I have conflicting feelings on this game. I really think that the gameplay is massively improved, even though Classic's was by no means bad in any way shape or form. The formula is just really perfected and well made, as the new remix mode made replaying the game really fun with new layouts and changes, and the overhaul of some of the core features I felt made the gameplay all the better. For a true gameplay experience, Catherine Full Body is the definitive experience of experiencing this game.
However with that said, the story of this game goes off the rails at the end, and I believe to this game's detriment. Rin is a really interesting character, and aims to tackles the aspect of sexuality which was something (for the most part) unexplored in Classic. However the alien shit just made this game really fucking weird and confusing at the end. I think the last few levels of the game were some of the most fun I've had in my 35 or so hours playing Catherine, but afterwards the story just becomes goofy for no real good reason and ruins the more grounded and real aspects of the story. Classic's narrative was by no means completely grounded, but it at least walked a line between being batshit insane and still able to tackle mostly unexplored themes in games (especially for it's time) in a realistic and mature way. FB just says fuck it and takes a nose dive into the absurd, which my only real reaction from was just laughter at the weird turn this game took, but I just don't think was needed from this game.
Another thing I didn't really like about this game was admittedly a minor nitpick but still I believe substancial and important to the discussion of Atlus's games as a whole. The jukebox added in a lot of new songs, including some from 2 of my favorite games of all time, P4G and P5R. However, Atlus chose to only include songs from Persona 3, 4 and 5. I think this choice furthers a narrative that I've seen from Atlus and the persona community as a whole, which is that Atlus as the years goes on is slowly ignoring Persona 1 and the 2 duology. While the recent leaks by Midori of a Persona 2 remake has definitely disproved this common thought I've seen in the persona community, I feel like for the time this game released, this decision by Atlus really set in stone this belief that people in the Persona community hold that the first 3 persona games don't really matter that much to experience.
Overall while I feel like the gameplay in Full Body is essential to experience, especially to fans of Classic, I feel like the story decisions with the Rin Route and the minor point I have with the jukebox really harms this game for me, and I feel like as a full experience Classic is just better in my eyes. I will definitely be coming back to this game and Classic to explore more of the possible routes you can take, and also to maybe attempt Babel, but for me at least, Catherine Full Body is one step forward, two steps back from the original
I have conflicting feelings on this game. I really think that the gameplay is massively improved, even though Classic's was by no means bad in any way shape or form. The formula is just really perfected and well made, as the new remix mode made replaying the game really fun with new layouts and changes, and the overhaul of some of the core features I felt made the gameplay all the better. For a true gameplay experience, Catherine Full Body is the definitive experience of experiencing this game.
However with that said, the story of this game goes off the rails at the end, and I believe to this game's detriment. Rin is a really interesting character, and aims to tackles the aspect of sexuality which was something (for the most part) unexplored in Classic. However the alien shit just made this game really fucking weird and confusing at the end. I think the last few levels of the game were some of the most fun I've had in my 35 or so hours playing Catherine, but afterwards the story just becomes goofy for no real good reason and ruins the more grounded and real aspects of the story. Classic's narrative was by no means completely grounded, but it at least walked a line between being batshit insane and still able to tackle mostly unexplored themes in games (especially for it's time) in a realistic and mature way. FB just says fuck it and takes a nose dive into the absurd, which my only real reaction from was just laughter at the weird turn this game took, but I just don't think was needed from this game.
Another thing I didn't really like about this game was admittedly a minor nitpick but still I believe substancial and important to the discussion of Atlus's games as a whole. The jukebox added in a lot of new songs, including some from 2 of my favorite games of all time, P4G and P5R. However, Atlus chose to only include songs from Persona 3, 4 and 5. I think this choice furthers a narrative that I've seen from Atlus and the persona community as a whole, which is that Atlus as the years goes on is slowly ignoring Persona 1 and the 2 duology. While the recent leaks by Midori of a Persona 2 remake has definitely disproved this common thought I've seen in the persona community, I feel like for the time this game released, this decision by Atlus really set in stone this belief that people in the Persona community hold that the first 3 persona games don't really matter that much to experience.
Overall while I feel like the gameplay in Full Body is essential to experience, especially to fans of Classic, I feel like the story decisions with the Rin Route and the minor point I have with the jukebox really harms this game for me, and I feel like as a full experience Classic is just better in my eyes. I will definitely be coming back to this game and Classic to explore more of the possible routes you can take, and also to maybe attempt Babel, but for me at least, Catherine Full Body is one step forward, two steps back from the original
TL;DR: play the base game and sam dlc instead, unless you want to find out the backstory of an ok character in the story.
This dlc is definitely the weakest part of MGRR, which is a shame as it was the last piece of content added to the game, and will most likely be people's last first experiences with it. This pack leaves a really sour taste in this otherwise amazing product as blade wolf is just not fun to play as. He dies in 4 hits and does no fucking damage, and most of the combat in this game boils down to stealthily avoiding enemies or delivering one shot killing blows which over the span of an hour becomes boring pretty fast. This goes horribly with the final boss in the game who you are required to parry quite often and have limited heals to actually kill. I sucked ass at parrying as blade wolf and while I will admit some of it was on me having a skill issue with the game, I never felt that the timing or hitboxes were consistent or fair, and it turned this otherwise ok boss into a nightmare that took me around 2 hours to beat, as I just ended up spamming air attacks and dodging at a safe distance which still ended up in me coming to a close win due to the aforementioned poorly designed hitboxes. That boss alone is enough for me to not recommend playing this pack, and to just stick with the base game and the sam dlc, as I genuinely believe it is up there with the Bed of Chaos from DS1 and the big fish from lucia's disk in DMC2 as one of the worst designed boss fights ever. But the rest of the dlc and blade wolfs mechanics results in the only redeeming quality of the pack as finding out the backstory to an ok character in the story of MGRR.
This dlc is definitely the weakest part of MGRR, which is a shame as it was the last piece of content added to the game, and will most likely be people's last first experiences with it. This pack leaves a really sour taste in this otherwise amazing product as blade wolf is just not fun to play as. He dies in 4 hits and does no fucking damage, and most of the combat in this game boils down to stealthily avoiding enemies or delivering one shot killing blows which over the span of an hour becomes boring pretty fast. This goes horribly with the final boss in the game who you are required to parry quite often and have limited heals to actually kill. I sucked ass at parrying as blade wolf and while I will admit some of it was on me having a skill issue with the game, I never felt that the timing or hitboxes were consistent or fair, and it turned this otherwise ok boss into a nightmare that took me around 2 hours to beat, as I just ended up spamming air attacks and dodging at a safe distance which still ended up in me coming to a close win due to the aforementioned poorly designed hitboxes. That boss alone is enough for me to not recommend playing this pack, and to just stick with the base game and the sam dlc, as I genuinely believe it is up there with the Bed of Chaos from DS1 and the big fish from lucia's disk in DMC2 as one of the worst designed boss fights ever. But the rest of the dlc and blade wolfs mechanics results in the only redeeming quality of the pack as finding out the backstory to an ok character in the story of MGRR.
2019
How the fuck did they make this even better than the original
2019
arguably the best indie game oat
This is definitely the weakest of the 3 DLC packs made for DS2, and to an extent the weakest from has ever made, but it is still worth doing as Sinh is a great final area boss and the area is kinda fun with a cool gimmic. Is definitely losing points for the coop DLC even then of the 3 it is probably the shortest and easiest to run past. Too bad the coop boss is ass tho
One of the best trilogies in gaming, right up there with the dark souls trilogy. DMC 1 is a fantastic action game, and while DMC 2 does drop the ball a bit, DMC 3 more than makes up from it and playing every game in order (including the lucia disk on dmc2 after beating the game as dante) makes beating DMC 3 one of the best experiences ive had in gaming. The HD cutscenes make the games still hold up well to this day, and even the live action cgi cutscenes in DMC 1 and 2 are basically so bad its good. I love everything about this trilogy and DMC 3 alone is enough to buying this trilogy at full price.
2023
After loving the 100+ hour experience that was red dead 2 I decided to come back to this game as i a) wanted to see john marston's story in the original and b) saw that it had recently been re-released for the ps4 and switch and could easily access this great game without having to go out and look for a physical ps3 or 360 copy of the game.
Almost 14 years later and this game still holds up exceptionally well. From the 3D open world rockstar games I have rolled credits on (everything except gta 4, red dead revolver and bully), I think this game might have perfected the cover system that has been in these games since from what I remember SA. I find the cover system in rockstar games in general to be pretty clunky, with SA barely protecting the player and V and RDR2 struggling to put the player behind any object whatsoever as in those games half the time I pressed the cover button my character would have a 50/50 chance to hide behind a shitty crate or hug the wall. However I never felt that problem in RDR1 as John pretty much went exactly where I wanted him to be, and the cover itself did very good protection allowing me to enjoy finding my opportunities to kill specific enemies in a tough encounter.
I didn't have high expectations of New Austin in this game, as I found it to being laughably underutilized and boring in red dead 2, but this game somehow managed to make traversing an almost completely baron wasteland actually enjoyable, as the stranger missions, gang hideouts and wide range of animals made exploring it extremely rewarding.
I also didn't know what to expect with the story, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it still holds up to today. It made me like RDR2 even more as the mysterious characters like Bill and Dutch in this game were given an opportunity to be developed further in RDR2 and in a way that made going from 2 to 1 feel extremely natural and enjoyable.
I was however spoiled on a couple major events in the story which admittedly did take a hit on my desire to see this game's storyline to the end, but I'm glad I did as it's narrative and characters are very strong and compelling. Aside from John, Bonnie MacFarlane has risen as one of my favourite characters in this universe, Nigel West Dickens and his antics always made me laugh, and the entire mexico saga I believe is one of the strongest chapters I've seen in a rockstar game.
Overall, this game still holds up incredibly well today, and it's re-release on modern systems allows accessing it's great story easy and accessible to all. This is definitely a must play, especially if you enjoyed RDR2, and is certainly in the upper echelon of Rockstar's phenomenal games.
Almost 14 years later and this game still holds up exceptionally well. From the 3D open world rockstar games I have rolled credits on (everything except gta 4, red dead revolver and bully), I think this game might have perfected the cover system that has been in these games since from what I remember SA. I find the cover system in rockstar games in general to be pretty clunky, with SA barely protecting the player and V and RDR2 struggling to put the player behind any object whatsoever as in those games half the time I pressed the cover button my character would have a 50/50 chance to hide behind a shitty crate or hug the wall. However I never felt that problem in RDR1 as John pretty much went exactly where I wanted him to be, and the cover itself did very good protection allowing me to enjoy finding my opportunities to kill specific enemies in a tough encounter.
I didn't have high expectations of New Austin in this game, as I found it to being laughably underutilized and boring in red dead 2, but this game somehow managed to make traversing an almost completely baron wasteland actually enjoyable, as the stranger missions, gang hideouts and wide range of animals made exploring it extremely rewarding.
I also didn't know what to expect with the story, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it still holds up to today. It made me like RDR2 even more as the mysterious characters like Bill and Dutch in this game were given an opportunity to be developed further in RDR2 and in a way that made going from 2 to 1 feel extremely natural and enjoyable.
I was however spoiled on a couple major events in the story which admittedly did take a hit on my desire to see this game's storyline to the end, but I'm glad I did as it's narrative and characters are very strong and compelling. Aside from John, Bonnie MacFarlane has risen as one of my favourite characters in this universe, Nigel West Dickens and his antics always made me laugh, and the entire mexico saga I believe is one of the strongest chapters I've seen in a rockstar game.
Overall, this game still holds up incredibly well today, and it's re-release on modern systems allows accessing it's great story easy and accessible to all. This is definitely a must play, especially if you enjoyed RDR2, and is certainly in the upper echelon of Rockstar's phenomenal games.