Tr0llF13nd
2022
This review contains spoilers
This fucking game man...the sense of relief I felt when first getting stuck in and realising this was not a Ubisoft-esque mess of quest markers and checklists was so refreshing. The feeling when first exploring this game, and having its scope zoom out further and further to reveal a truly immense landmass, I feel will not be recreated quite like this again. And that's not even mentioning the marvel of jumping on a random, unassuming elevator in the middle of a forest to then reassess your life and reckon with an entire underground map!
This game is SO CLOSE to a flawless masterpiece, with a select few glaring issues holding it back; the highs are dizzying, but the lows truly are subterranean. Ulcerated tree spirits suck all of the joy out of the room, and there are multiple bosses that have been copy-pasted that kind of rob them of their uniqueness and sense of spectacle (I'm looking at you Godefroy and Astel, Stars of Darkness). When discovering Astel during Ranni's questline, my eyes immediately bounced off as I was forced to sort my shit out, git gud, and bear witness to such a glorious lovecraftian monstrosity. To then stumble across homeboy in a random mine up North kind of felt like Elden Ring was tripping me up and stealing my lunch money.
That being said, however, one could argue that these doubled up bosses were a welcome "rematch" given the absence of a "bonfire ascetic" item (peep the dark souls 2 fans sitting in a dark corner weeping softly at the lack of this item for the last 10 years). But by Marika's tits, the reuse of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit really is egregious.
That fact that I still consider this game a solid 10/10 speaks volumes to the positives. The exploration, build variety, difficulty level and tools to adjust it, are unparalleled. It's refreshing for a video game to respect your time and intelligence in a world where open world gaming holds your hand, tugs your dick and spells everything out to you like a goddam toddler.
Grow up, pick up a giant lump of wood and run around in your underwear already; this game stomps so much ass.
This game is SO CLOSE to a flawless masterpiece, with a select few glaring issues holding it back; the highs are dizzying, but the lows truly are subterranean. Ulcerated tree spirits suck all of the joy out of the room, and there are multiple bosses that have been copy-pasted that kind of rob them of their uniqueness and sense of spectacle (I'm looking at you Godefroy and Astel, Stars of Darkness). When discovering Astel during Ranni's questline, my eyes immediately bounced off as I was forced to sort my shit out, git gud, and bear witness to such a glorious lovecraftian monstrosity. To then stumble across homeboy in a random mine up North kind of felt like Elden Ring was tripping me up and stealing my lunch money.
That being said, however, one could argue that these doubled up bosses were a welcome "rematch" given the absence of a "bonfire ascetic" item (peep the dark souls 2 fans sitting in a dark corner weeping softly at the lack of this item for the last 10 years). But by Marika's tits, the reuse of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit really is egregious.
That fact that I still consider this game a solid 10/10 speaks volumes to the positives. The exploration, build variety, difficulty level and tools to adjust it, are unparalleled. It's refreshing for a video game to respect your time and intelligence in a world where open world gaming holds your hand, tugs your dick and spells everything out to you like a goddam toddler.
Grow up, pick up a giant lump of wood and run around in your underwear already; this game stomps so much ass.
Such a banger of a puzzle game. It's genuinely kind of gutting how little fanfare it seems to garner. My brother and I got absolutely hooked on this at the end of the DS' life cycle, and the remaster has been a joy on switch.
2017
Man...I'm some would refer to as "sports-retarded". I'm one of those insufferable pricks that calls football "sports ball", but by god this hooked me more than it should've.
Just to be clear; sports games are not my thing at all, and I haven't touched a Mario golf/tennis/soccer/whatever, so the RPG aspect of this game kind of took me by surprise. The story is engaging, pretty funny, and the golfing is satisfying. It's opened my eyes to trying more sports orientated games.
Just to be clear; sports games are not my thing at all, and I haven't touched a Mario golf/tennis/soccer/whatever, so the RPG aspect of this game kind of took me by surprise. The story is engaging, pretty funny, and the golfing is satisfying. It's opened my eyes to trying more sports orientated games.
2000
Decent 3D mascot platformer. Played it a lot when it first came out, but always fell off at the abysmal boxing match.
2021
A fine enough game, but utilised tired JRPG tropes, and had no staying power for me whatsoever. Much like the original, this fell into tedium and I just couldn't bring myself to push through.
This was the only game on our TV for like 6 months when it first came out. My god I ravenously consumed this bad boy and loved it through and through. But it has aged poorly, and the ending still sits as one of the dumbest things I've ever come across in video games. Why do Bethesda utterly shit the bed with their main quest lines in these games?
2000
Another game that I perhaps look upon with robustly thick nostalgia-tinted glasses. I adored the first Diablo game and this felt like an improvement in every way. Back when Blizzard could do no wrong, this got repeated play-throughs with every character, multiple times.
2018
Absolutely gorgeous game. Short enough to knock out in an evening, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Have almost finished both the Black Eagles and Blue Lions routes, but ultimately haven't finished either. Still, though, I've found this to be my favourite Fire Emblem game thus far, and will come back to polish off the Golden Deer storyline.
A fun enough tactics challenge. Found it a considerably more enjoyable game than Birthright. The triple-release story was an interesting experiment that ultimately led to the vastly superior Three Houses.
It was fine...an aggresively average tactics affair with a pretty nonsense story. The castle-building/developing aspect also felt like wasted potential. Conquest was definitely the better of the two.
Solid tactics game and match-maker simulator. I never finished it, but there's a wealth of content to play through, and I'd recommend it to anyone with a 3DS.
2018
With very limited boards and considerable luck-based gameplay, it felt like Nintendo were just sort of "thumbing it in" with this one. I went from loving every session of this with friends and family to QUICKLY becoming frustrated and bored. Wasted potential.
This was my intro to Dragonquest, and what a stellar intro it was!! Loveable characters, familiar and comforting combat systems, and a colourful world all make for a wonderful adventure. My only gripe is it's probably a weeeeeee bit too long.
2022
Loved playing through this with friends...but I have a feeling the experience would be VERY different solo. Also tweeked some of the settings to make the grind less egregious.