I played this for a project I'm working on with some friends and wooooow this is noooot for me lmao.

Analog Horror type beats have never particularly been my thing but I can vibe with a kinda "x but it's off and kinda creepy" type experience especially if it eases you into that experience after instilling a false sense of security with you.

The problem here is that it kinda just goes down the list of the most obvious creepypasta tropes that you could possibly go for from the word go, like you would think that maybe it would hold off on some of its more creepypasta ass shit for at least a little bit but nah, I feel like it's designed that way to keep a youtube/twitch audience engaged (and I mean it has a streamer mode so I definitely think that's what's up).

It especially feels bizarre when the 3rd act of the game actually feels like it does something far creepier and far more interesting with its concept and the kinda connection and trust we allow programs to have on our computers without fully really thinking much about it sometimes.

It just all feels squandered in the way its all wrapped up and presented. Like if this leaned far more into stuff like the complete access/building you something from that, I really think this could've been something way more interesting than it was but I feel the ARG/Youtuber/Streamer/Game Theorist bait it lays out constantly just had me rolling my eyes the entire time.

Defo for a certain audience and hey more power to them but like I need a little more from something like this. I will say, the visual design and audio design though is perfectly done and I do really think that this person has a lot of potential to make something really special.

Also Kinito asked me what my favorite game was, I said Koudelka and he pulled up Control so frankly he's a fraud.

Just released a video about this game too if you'd like to support my YouTube efforts!

Mega Man Legends 2 is a fascinating game. The moves it makes going from the first make sense, going bigger, more cinematic for the time, pushing the animation and graphical power of the PS1 pretty far quite honestly and impressively!

However the problem for me lies in how quite unsatisfying the entire experience is. Like yeah, it plays better, but the pure gameplay wasn't why I came to Legends in the first place. It was for the sense of place, the thought put into Kattleox as a location, the ways it gets you attached to it so specifically, the way it makes you feel apart of its world.

I could care less about the world of 2. Each location doesn't get much to it, the side quests that are there aren't really always the most engaging, the NPC's aren't as interesting or memorable as a lot of even the smaller minor NPC's from the first game. It feels like a game that scales up but doesn't expand the depth of its world to reflect that change of scale accordingly.

The story also takes quite a hit in this as well because of similar issues. What starts with quite honestly one of my favorite game openings ever with how it sets both the stage and its tone in such a razor sharp and crystal clear manor falls into quite a lot of meandering, empty plot threads and wasted time by the time all is said and done.

The few scenes that do pay anything off feel like an oasis in the neverending desert of constant setup that seems to only exist for another game to pay off which......

I'm bummed I feel so harsh on this game. Legends has become such a special kind of experience to me, so seeing that this is how 2 turned out is quite honestly a massive bummer. Like maybe 3 would've retroactively justified it in ways depending on how that went, but something about the world and this setting and all the cool mystery setup in Legends just feels like completely wasted potential.

It's not like the worst thing ever, but while I can accept The Misadventures of Tron Bonne being fine, this one honestly hurts more because of both what it could have been and where it could have continued to go given the chance.

They couldn't even get him off the moon in spirit man.

Saw the trailer for this on PlayStation's YouTube channel and gave it a fair shake since it was free!

I dig using games themselves as a kind of meaningful essay format to display and exemplify your points about design and really show the player a better idea of what is being discussed. I especially like this as a more intimate way to try to connect with someone via direct interfacing with mechanics and ideas.

I dug how this played with examples from different games and the creator wasn't afraid to just like call out very explicit specific examples from games though I kinda felt the whole point fell apart in the end by just kinda being like "this is all just to say that Shadow of the Colossus is the best" and it's like yeah but I felt like it kinda deflated a lot of the work and buildup that it was working with beforehand and all to take constant little jabs at fairly interesting games. I also feel like claiming that "that's where the industry peaked" is an insanely reductive statement but opinions!

I heavily disagreed with the entire FF16 point and felt like it could be a bit reductive with how it was engaging with and critiquing some of the games it was but that could also be some of my own implicit biases speaking.

I will say enemies within this are so hard to see given the visual style. I dig the aesthetics but at points it genuinely hurt my eyes to play through it was so difficult to look at at points and the options left a bit to be desired.

An interesting study/experiment even if I feel like it falls a little flat. Interested to see more things like this cause it's really an interesting way to do something like this!