Tyraynor
It should be stated that Interaction Isn’t Explicit isn’t a video game first and foremost, but rather an attempt at being an interactive educational art piece about game design.
It is very impressive visually, but since almost everything is in black and white it can difficult to understand what you’re even looking at sometimes. The sound design is great, and is accompanied by a beautiful synthwave style soundtrack.
The game goes into detail about various game design mechanics and philosophies, even citing games that supposedly do these the best. But at the same time it usually fails to uphold these same philosophies, having clunky controls, messy combat and often confusing level design.
The developer’s biases towards which games are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’ become more pronounced as you progress. In a project like this, having such obvious biases are unnecessary and does more harm than if you were to take a neutral stance.
The developer claims that Shadow of the Colossus is the greatest game ever made that nothing released since even compares to it. That is not true at all and is merely a subjective opinion.
If you are interested in learning about basic game design philosophies being applied in a more practical (yet clunky and somewhat pretentious) context rather than reading about it in a book, definitely consider playing this.
It is very impressive visually, but since almost everything is in black and white it can difficult to understand what you’re even looking at sometimes. The sound design is great, and is accompanied by a beautiful synthwave style soundtrack.
The game goes into detail about various game design mechanics and philosophies, even citing games that supposedly do these the best. But at the same time it usually fails to uphold these same philosophies, having clunky controls, messy combat and often confusing level design.
The developer’s biases towards which games are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’ become more pronounced as you progress. In a project like this, having such obvious biases are unnecessary and does more harm than if you were to take a neutral stance.
The developer claims that Shadow of the Colossus is the greatest game ever made that nothing released since even compares to it. That is not true at all and is merely a subjective opinion.
If you are interested in learning about basic game design philosophies being applied in a more practical (yet clunky and somewhat pretentious) context rather than reading about it in a book, definitely consider playing this.
2020
Cyberpunk 2077 was a mess when it was first released, but as of 2024 almost everything has fixed with only minor bugs and glitches remaining.
The game looks great graphically and for the most part aesthetically as well. My only problem is that outside of a few fancy buildings, the environments are all very… dirty. Nobody in Cyberpunk knows how to clean or take out the garbage apparently, and there’s abandoned cars and landfills galore. It feels less like a futuristic cyberpunk city and more like a post apocalyptic wasteland with an infinite population trying to act like everything is normal.
Combat isn’t particularly hard, but is very fun with a variety of playstyles. With the right build you can cheese through just about anything.
The music is fantastic. And the radio has a great variety of genres to listen too. My only issue is that it’s hard to enjoy the radio, as combat constantly interrupts it, even when you’re just driving around minding your own business.
Minor NPCs all have the same personalities, they’re either rude, aggressive, psychotic killers, or all of the above. Major named NPCs aren’t much better. Most of them will be friendly or try to be friendly with you… until you just one small thing that they didn’t like, after which they’ll usually hate your guts for the rest of the game. I liked most of them, but I didn’t find myself too attached to them.
Then there’s Johnny Silverhand. As a player, it makes sense why people like him. He’s a mostly lovable asshole, and often offers his perspective on different quests whether you want it or not. But as the player character, the friendship between the two is really forced, as V has zero reason to want to be friends with him.
As for V, the player character, although you can customize them in any way you want, they still have a mostly set personality. You’re not playing as yourself inserted into this world, you’re playing an already built character with their own personality, you just decide how they look and their reactions to some dialogues. V also has four or five love interests, but these are restricted depending on V appearance. Which I think is a shame, since one of biggest draws of Cyberpunk is it’s progressiveness towards topics like self-expression, gender identity and sexuality, yet the romance options are severely limited…
The story is fine, after the opening sequences everything is just planning out the big mission at the end, you just need to decide on the who, what and how.
If you were put off by Cyberpunk’s original reception, or you were one of those people who abandoned after launch and never went back, I’d recommend giving Cyberpunk 2077 a second chance.
The game looks great graphically and for the most part aesthetically as well. My only problem is that outside of a few fancy buildings, the environments are all very… dirty. Nobody in Cyberpunk knows how to clean or take out the garbage apparently, and there’s abandoned cars and landfills galore. It feels less like a futuristic cyberpunk city and more like a post apocalyptic wasteland with an infinite population trying to act like everything is normal.
Combat isn’t particularly hard, but is very fun with a variety of playstyles. With the right build you can cheese through just about anything.
The music is fantastic. And the radio has a great variety of genres to listen too. My only issue is that it’s hard to enjoy the radio, as combat constantly interrupts it, even when you’re just driving around minding your own business.
Minor NPCs all have the same personalities, they’re either rude, aggressive, psychotic killers, or all of the above. Major named NPCs aren’t much better. Most of them will be friendly or try to be friendly with you… until you just one small thing that they didn’t like, after which they’ll usually hate your guts for the rest of the game. I liked most of them, but I didn’t find myself too attached to them.
Then there’s Johnny Silverhand. As a player, it makes sense why people like him. He’s a mostly lovable asshole, and often offers his perspective on different quests whether you want it or not. But as the player character, the friendship between the two is really forced, as V has zero reason to want to be friends with him.
As for V, the player character, although you can customize them in any way you want, they still have a mostly set personality. You’re not playing as yourself inserted into this world, you’re playing an already built character with their own personality, you just decide how they look and their reactions to some dialogues. V also has four or five love interests, but these are restricted depending on V appearance. Which I think is a shame, since one of biggest draws of Cyberpunk is it’s progressiveness towards topics like self-expression, gender identity and sexuality, yet the romance options are severely limited…
The story is fine, after the opening sequences everything is just planning out the big mission at the end, you just need to decide on the who, what and how.
If you were put off by Cyberpunk’s original reception, or you were one of those people who abandoned after launch and never went back, I’d recommend giving Cyberpunk 2077 a second chance.
Callisto Protocol is a Dead Space knockoff from the original creators of Dead Space. The idea behind making a spiritual successor to a fan favorite series makes sense, but the developers seemed to have forgotten what it is that made Dead Space so good in the first place.
The plot is kinda everywhere, and nothing ties together until the last hour or two. A lot of the dialogue exists only as buildup for a cheap jumpscare.
I found the concept of the combat to be somewhat interesting. It revolves around dodging attacks, melee when you get an opportunity, and shooting once their defenses are down. But honestly you can just stealth kill or melee all of the enemies except the one boss and the 4-ish mini bosses.
The ‘horror’ aspect relies a little too much on cheap jumpscares (a common problem of modern horror), and the actually impressive amount of gory death scenes.
Not the worst game I’ve ever played, but I think it would be a really solid game if they leaned in more on the survival horror side instead of action, focusing on stealth and melee combat (with only one gun instead of the five unnecessary ones you can unlock).
If you’ve never played Dead Space are interested in it, at least give it a shot. Otherwise just play Dead Space.
The plot is kinda everywhere, and nothing ties together until the last hour or two. A lot of the dialogue exists only as buildup for a cheap jumpscare.
I found the concept of the combat to be somewhat interesting. It revolves around dodging attacks, melee when you get an opportunity, and shooting once their defenses are down. But honestly you can just stealth kill or melee all of the enemies except the one boss and the 4-ish mini bosses.
The ‘horror’ aspect relies a little too much on cheap jumpscares (a common problem of modern horror), and the actually impressive amount of gory death scenes.
Not the worst game I’ve ever played, but I think it would be a really solid game if they leaned in more on the survival horror side instead of action, focusing on stealth and melee combat (with only one gun instead of the five unnecessary ones you can unlock).
If you’ve never played Dead Space are interested in it, at least give it a shot. Otherwise just play Dead Space.
2021
Alan Wake is a very creative game in a genre where creativity was sparse at the time of its release.
The combat revolves around making enemies vulnerable with a light source, primarily your flashlight, and then taking them with the gun of choice. However combat can get rough when packs of enemies are swarming you all at once, especially if you don’t have a flare on you.
Character models look fine, except for the facial movement, which can be off putting.
There’s lots of characters in the plot, but none of them do much nor does anyone really get any growth or development.
The level design is fine and the environments themselves look great, when you can actually see them. Levels can get very dark, and even with the flashlight it can be frustrating trying to figure out where you are and where to go.
The plot doesn’t make sense most of the time, but it makes sense that it doesn’t make sense? No spoilers, just trust me.
While not a perfect game, if the concepts behind Alan Wake interest you, I’d definitely recommend a playthrough.
The combat revolves around making enemies vulnerable with a light source, primarily your flashlight, and then taking them with the gun of choice. However combat can get rough when packs of enemies are swarming you all at once, especially if you don’t have a flare on you.
Character models look fine, except for the facial movement, which can be off putting.
There’s lots of characters in the plot, but none of them do much nor does anyone really get any growth or development.
The level design is fine and the environments themselves look great, when you can actually see them. Levels can get very dark, and even with the flashlight it can be frustrating trying to figure out where you are and where to go.
The plot doesn’t make sense most of the time, but it makes sense that it doesn’t make sense? No spoilers, just trust me.
While not a perfect game, if the concepts behind Alan Wake interest you, I’d definitely recommend a playthrough.
2020
Bugsnax a very cute and… unique monster catching game. Instead of using these creatures for battle, you feed them to islanders.
The islanders are a group of dog/frog people called “Grumps”. They all have unique personalities and most of them (not Cromdo) are very likable. You help them with their problems and catch Bugsnax for them, and sometimes feed them those Bugsnax, which will change a part of their body.
The story is character driven, with the cast getting lots of development, but the main plot left me with more questions than answers. But in a good way.
The Bunsnax themselves are all adorable, with clever designs, and I will kill and die for Bunger. There are, in my opinion, a few too many reskins/recolors of some Bugsnax.
My only complaint is that there really isn’t a ‘final boss’ at the end, but it’s not that big of deal.
All in all, Bugsnax is a very chill and cute game, and I hope it gets a sequel soon!
The islanders are a group of dog/frog people called “Grumps”. They all have unique personalities and most of them (not Cromdo) are very likable. You help them with their problems and catch Bugsnax for them, and sometimes feed them those Bugsnax, which will change a part of their body.
The story is character driven, with the cast getting lots of development, but the main plot left me with more questions than answers. But in a good way.
The Bunsnax themselves are all adorable, with clever designs, and I will kill and die for Bunger. There are, in my opinion, a few too many reskins/recolors of some Bugsnax.
My only complaint is that there really isn’t a ‘final boss’ at the end, but it’s not that big of deal.
All in all, Bugsnax is a very chill and cute game, and I hope it gets a sequel soon!
A great mini-sequel of sorts to Sony’s Spider-Man.
Miles, while still being new to Marvel as a whole, is well written and has good chemistry with most of the characters he interacts with.
While I’m not too familiar with Mile’s Rouge’s Gallery other than The Prowler, I didn’t really find the main antagonists all that interesting. The story is more or less the same as the first game, just with different characters. It kinda makes sense though, as it further pushes the similarities and differences between Peter and Miles.
The gameplay hasn’t changed much, not that it really needed to. Miles does have a few extra mechanics to freshen things up a bit.
The only big problem I have with the game is that it’s too short for the price. It’s about 10-15 hours too to 100% it. Which is fine for a $20-30 game, but not a $40-70 game. Honestly I think it would’ve been better as $20 DLC for the original game.
Still a great game, but I would getting it when it is on sale.
Miles, while still being new to Marvel as a whole, is well written and has good chemistry with most of the characters he interacts with.
While I’m not too familiar with Mile’s Rouge’s Gallery other than The Prowler, I didn’t really find the main antagonists all that interesting. The story is more or less the same as the first game, just with different characters. It kinda makes sense though, as it further pushes the similarities and differences between Peter and Miles.
The gameplay hasn’t changed much, not that it really needed to. Miles does have a few extra mechanics to freshen things up a bit.
The only big problem I have with the game is that it’s too short for the price. It’s about 10-15 hours too to 100% it. Which is fine for a $20-30 game, but not a $40-70 game. Honestly I think it would’ve been better as $20 DLC for the original game.
Still a great game, but I would getting it when it is on sale.
2019
I’ve been a Persona fan since almost the beginning, and while I wouldn’t say any of them are bad, the games get better with every new main game, and Persona 5/5R is no exception.
The story is mostly well written, but I never want to hear the words/phrases “cognition”, “cognitive psience”, “social reform”, “rehabilitation”, or “shitty adults” ever again.
The party members are all unique and likeable, and are well balanced in combat, with most of them having different possible playstyles. The only problems is that two of them constantly argue, which starts a major subplot that has no resolution, and two others only exist to serve as an excuse to do their related dungeons. There’s also wasted potential conflict between three of the party members that is never brought up again.
While P5/P5R aren’t exactly hard games, they do get easier with once you a handle of all of combat mechanics. I personally only had somewhat of a hard time with 2 or 3 of the bosses, but that was only because they designed to take forever to beat.
The game also suffers from ending fatigue real badly. After beating the final boss, there’s still about 3 hours of epilogue to play through.
All that being said though, Persona 5/5R is a fantastic game with tons to do that deserves all the love and praise it receives.
The story is mostly well written, but I never want to hear the words/phrases “cognition”, “cognitive psience”, “social reform”, “rehabilitation”, or “shitty adults” ever again.
The party members are all unique and likeable, and are well balanced in combat, with most of them having different possible playstyles. The only problems is that two of them constantly argue, which starts a major subplot that has no resolution, and two others only exist to serve as an excuse to do their related dungeons. There’s also wasted potential conflict between three of the party members that is never brought up again.
While P5/P5R aren’t exactly hard games, they do get easier with once you a handle of all of combat mechanics. I personally only had somewhat of a hard time with 2 or 3 of the bosses, but that was only because they designed to take forever to beat.
The game also suffers from ending fatigue real badly. After beating the final boss, there’s still about 3 hours of epilogue to play through.
All that being said though, Persona 5/5R is a fantastic game with tons to do that deserves all the love and praise it receives.
2015
A cute tokusatsu simulator tactics game about a group of stuntmen who try to create their own Power Rangers knockoff.
You can make your team with a variety of different actors and colors, but the characters are all one dimensional and have almost no personality.
The plot is fine enough to represent this genre of film, but almost every line is either a pop culture reference (sometimes taking entire scenes word for word) or a fourth wall break, which gets old fast with how often they do this.
The English translation is also riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and the characters themselves acknowledge this and claim that it’s intentional.
Missions have certain objectives you can do to get more points, but these are bugged in New Game+ and New Game++. Starting with NG+ objectives for each mission are randomized, but there are times where you can automatically fail some of these objectives. For example, there’s a mission where all but one of your party has 0 HP, and one of my objectives was “Keep All Party Members Above 50% HP”. Literally impossible. There’s all times where I completed the objectives, but on the results screen was a completely different set of objectives that I just so happened to fail to do. It’s really frustrating.
All that aside, if you’re a Tokusatsu fan like me, I’d recommend doing a playthrough or two.
You can make your team with a variety of different actors and colors, but the characters are all one dimensional and have almost no personality.
The plot is fine enough to represent this genre of film, but almost every line is either a pop culture reference (sometimes taking entire scenes word for word) or a fourth wall break, which gets old fast with how often they do this.
The English translation is also riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and the characters themselves acknowledge this and claim that it’s intentional.
Missions have certain objectives you can do to get more points, but these are bugged in New Game+ and New Game++. Starting with NG+ objectives for each mission are randomized, but there are times where you can automatically fail some of these objectives. For example, there’s a mission where all but one of your party has 0 HP, and one of my objectives was “Keep All Party Members Above 50% HP”. Literally impossible. There’s all times where I completed the objectives, but on the results screen was a completely different set of objectives that I just so happened to fail to do. It’s really frustrating.
All that aside, if you’re a Tokusatsu fan like me, I’d recommend doing a playthrough or two.
2016
A very unique puzzle game that tests the limits of your thinking skills.
The puzzles are mazes with a huge variety of mechanics. Although, since the game doesn’t tell you what the mechanics, instead letting you figure them out on your own, some of them can be hard to understand. There’s a series of sound based puzzles that I never would’ve figured out without a guide.
The puzzles can ramp up in difficulty real quick. I would suggest having a spoiler free guide nearby, especially in the endgame. At this point, puzzles use multiple different mechanics at the same time, and it can be hard to keep track of all of them at once.
While it can come across as a little pretentious sometimes with some of the audio logs you can find, it does a good job at making you look at everything from different perspectives to find the right solution.
The puzzles are mazes with a huge variety of mechanics. Although, since the game doesn’t tell you what the mechanics, instead letting you figure them out on your own, some of them can be hard to understand. There’s a series of sound based puzzles that I never would’ve figured out without a guide.
The puzzles can ramp up in difficulty real quick. I would suggest having a spoiler free guide nearby, especially in the endgame. At this point, puzzles use multiple different mechanics at the same time, and it can be hard to keep track of all of them at once.
While it can come across as a little pretentious sometimes with some of the audio logs you can find, it does a good job at making you look at everything from different perspectives to find the right solution.
One of the best JRPGs of the modern era. An almost perfect mix of modern and ‘retro’ elements, even gives you the choice between 2d and 3d graphics.
Every character has a unique personality and playstyle, and most have a variety of customization options to match.
Most character and monster designs are charming, and have a nostalgic feel to them. Though I’m probably just biased towards Akira Toriyama’s older art style.
The story is more simple and logical than most JRPGs. The only real problem I have is that the ‘post-game’ story is just you replaying a different version of the third act, and going through the plot twists while the game acts like you’ve never seen these twists before.
The post game bosses can be insanely difficult, depending on your playstyle and difficulty settings, but it feels really good when you finally beat them.
One of the most satisfying JRPGs I’ve Platinumed. Recommended for JRPG lovers.
Every character has a unique personality and playstyle, and most have a variety of customization options to match.
Most character and monster designs are charming, and have a nostalgic feel to them. Though I’m probably just biased towards Akira Toriyama’s older art style.
The story is more simple and logical than most JRPGs. The only real problem I have is that the ‘post-game’ story is just you replaying a different version of the third act, and going through the plot twists while the game acts like you’ve never seen these twists before.
The post game bosses can be insanely difficult, depending on your playstyle and difficulty settings, but it feels really good when you finally beat them.
One of the most satisfying JRPGs I’ve Platinumed. Recommended for JRPG lovers.
.hack//G.U. Last Recode is a very… unique game. It’s actually a remastered collection of 3 early PS2 games based on .hack//G.U. with some additional content, including a 3 hour epilogue.
The story is mostly standalone, but it is a sequel to the anime it’s based on, so some characters and plot points show up and the game assumes you are intimately familiar with these elements.
Characters are somewhat well written and voice acted, but a good chunk of the dialogue is weird, with characters often talking in a way that normal humans would never do.
Combat is pretty simple, but gradually adds more and more mechanics throughout the games. But it’s so easy to over level without even trying that you don’t even need to use most of them.
My favorite thing though, is all the meta stuff you can do. You see, you’re not playing a game, you’re playing as someone else playing an online game. You can log out of the online game to send emails to your friends, play an auto-battle card game, read news articles, browse the forums, and look at fan art. There’s a lot of cool character and world building in this side content, some of it not even being really relevant to the main story.
If you like not so distant future sci-fi or video game based stories, it’s definitely worth a playthrough.
The story is mostly standalone, but it is a sequel to the anime it’s based on, so some characters and plot points show up and the game assumes you are intimately familiar with these elements.
Characters are somewhat well written and voice acted, but a good chunk of the dialogue is weird, with characters often talking in a way that normal humans would never do.
Combat is pretty simple, but gradually adds more and more mechanics throughout the games. But it’s so easy to over level without even trying that you don’t even need to use most of them.
My favorite thing though, is all the meta stuff you can do. You see, you’re not playing a game, you’re playing as someone else playing an online game. You can log out of the online game to send emails to your friends, play an auto-battle card game, read news articles, browse the forums, and look at fan art. There’s a lot of cool character and world building in this side content, some of it not even being really relevant to the main story.
If you like not so distant future sci-fi or video game based stories, it’s definitely worth a playthrough.
Pirate Warriors 4 is a musou game, where you just mash buttons and kill hundreds of enemies. A classic genre that somehow doesn’t get old despite the seemingly simple and repetitive combat.
The only problems I have with PW4 is that:
1. The story is an extremely watered down version of One Piece’s story, with entire arcs being glossed over with barely a sentence casually mentioning them.
2. Without DLC, there are 43 playable characters. While that might seem like a lot for a video game, for a series like One Piece it doesn’t feel that way. There are hundreds of One Piece characters, all with unique abilities and powers that could be really fun to play as.
3. Another character based problem, PW4 cut out a good chunk of playable characters from the previous games, but some of them are still in the game as enemy units only. There’s a similar issue with pre-timeskip Nami, Chopper, Robin, and Franky, they only appear in pre-timeskip story missions. This doesn’t make sense to me.
Regardless if you want a One Piece flavored musou game, Pirate Warriors 4 is a good time killer.
The only problems I have with PW4 is that:
1. The story is an extremely watered down version of One Piece’s story, with entire arcs being glossed over with barely a sentence casually mentioning them.
2. Without DLC, there are 43 playable characters. While that might seem like a lot for a video game, for a series like One Piece it doesn’t feel that way. There are hundreds of One Piece characters, all with unique abilities and powers that could be really fun to play as.
3. Another character based problem, PW4 cut out a good chunk of playable characters from the previous games, but some of them are still in the game as enemy units only. There’s a similar issue with pre-timeskip Nami, Chopper, Robin, and Franky, they only appear in pre-timeskip story missions. This doesn’t make sense to me.
Regardless if you want a One Piece flavored musou game, Pirate Warriors 4 is a good time killer.
2019
I’ve never played a Sakura Wars game before, so I didn’t know what to expect besides mech fighting.
Turns out, despite being a mech game, the mechs aren’t really a focus? It’s more of a Slice of Life/Harem Visual Novel with simple hack-and-slash mech combat thrown in.
That’s not to say it’s completely bad, it’s just different than what it was advertised as.
The story starts pretty decent, but around the midpoint it kinda forgets it has a main plot for a little bit and just focuses on character driven plot lines. This wouldn’t be a problem in a longer game, but Sakura Wars is about 15-20 hours long, and this part just makes the main plot lose momentum.
Characters are for the most part well written, but after a certain point almost every interaction with your party members is ‘comedic misunderstanding’, where the protag is accused of being a horny pervert over the most random things.
Combat is super simple and doesn’t evolve or change in any way, except for one party member getting an upgrade. All the characters play differently though, but you can’t choose your party for most of the few combat sections this game has. Combat is also paired with awkward platforming.
If you need a quick mech fix, I’d recommend playing this for at least one playthrough.
Turns out, despite being a mech game, the mechs aren’t really a focus? It’s more of a Slice of Life/Harem Visual Novel with simple hack-and-slash mech combat thrown in.
That’s not to say it’s completely bad, it’s just different than what it was advertised as.
The story starts pretty decent, but around the midpoint it kinda forgets it has a main plot for a little bit and just focuses on character driven plot lines. This wouldn’t be a problem in a longer game, but Sakura Wars is about 15-20 hours long, and this part just makes the main plot lose momentum.
Characters are for the most part well written, but after a certain point almost every interaction with your party members is ‘comedic misunderstanding’, where the protag is accused of being a horny pervert over the most random things.
Combat is super simple and doesn’t evolve or change in any way, except for one party member getting an upgrade. All the characters play differently though, but you can’t choose your party for most of the few combat sections this game has. Combat is also paired with awkward platforming.
If you need a quick mech fix, I’d recommend playing this for at least one playthrough.
A typical not very good mainstream anime game.
The story barely exists. Characters and plot elements are constantly being reintroduced and acted like it’s the time you’re seeing them. Characters that have no reason to be here, are here only for fan service, which is fine. The two game original characters are boring and have next to no personality.
The controls are absolute garbage. You are in control of the camera 100% of the time which will make traversal and combat disorienting at times. Even if you ‘lock on’ to enemies, Luffy is mostly just hitting the air in a different direction, and even if you do make contact with enemies, a good chunk of the time they will be protected by random invincibility frames.
Traversing the world tries to hard be like Sony’s Spider-Man, but the controls are awful. Also when traveling certain locations, going places can be near impossible because snipers constantly shoot you down when you try to move.
The graphics look mostly fine, the colors are nice, but the particle effects can look really bad.
There are quite a few weird translation errors/choices and typos. The biggest one being the Marines with ‘MARINES’ plastered on their clothes and buildings, but are always referred to as ‘sailors’.
Unless you’re a hardcore One Piece fan who needs some form of One Piece content to keep yourself sane, don’t bother with this one.
The story barely exists. Characters and plot elements are constantly being reintroduced and acted like it’s the time you’re seeing them. Characters that have no reason to be here, are here only for fan service, which is fine. The two game original characters are boring and have next to no personality.
The controls are absolute garbage. You are in control of the camera 100% of the time which will make traversal and combat disorienting at times. Even if you ‘lock on’ to enemies, Luffy is mostly just hitting the air in a different direction, and even if you do make contact with enemies, a good chunk of the time they will be protected by random invincibility frames.
Traversing the world tries to hard be like Sony’s Spider-Man, but the controls are awful. Also when traveling certain locations, going places can be near impossible because snipers constantly shoot you down when you try to move.
The graphics look mostly fine, the colors are nice, but the particle effects can look really bad.
There are quite a few weird translation errors/choices and typos. The biggest one being the Marines with ‘MARINES’ plastered on their clothes and buildings, but are always referred to as ‘sailors’.
Unless you’re a hardcore One Piece fan who needs some form of One Piece content to keep yourself sane, don’t bother with this one.
2020
I never got into the Minecraft craze when it first came out. Not that I have anything against it, it just wasn’t my type of game.
Minecraft Dungeons was my first official foray into the series, and it’s… not bad. I was expecting a crappy cash grab Diablo ripoff, but it’s actually pretty fun.
The ‘story’, if you want to call it that, only serves as an excuse for this game to exist, which is fine, a deep story was never really needed for a game like this.
The combat is simple, with a surprising amount of depth to it. With all the different kinds of equipment, artifact, and enchantment combinations, there’s almost limitless playstyles to choose from. The only problem is that since all the drops are random, it can be frustrating to find the ‘perfect’ gear that you want. And if you do find gear that you want to keep using, you’ll have to wait until near the end of the game to even unlock the ability to upgrade it.
The game is not that long, with only about 15 levels (not including DLC), but at the same time these levels can feel like they never end.
Children, especially those that like Minecraft, would definitely enjoy this game. Also a good choice for trying to get a child into playing RPGs.
Minecraft Dungeons was my first official foray into the series, and it’s… not bad. I was expecting a crappy cash grab Diablo ripoff, but it’s actually pretty fun.
The ‘story’, if you want to call it that, only serves as an excuse for this game to exist, which is fine, a deep story was never really needed for a game like this.
The combat is simple, with a surprising amount of depth to it. With all the different kinds of equipment, artifact, and enchantment combinations, there’s almost limitless playstyles to choose from. The only problem is that since all the drops are random, it can be frustrating to find the ‘perfect’ gear that you want. And if you do find gear that you want to keep using, you’ll have to wait until near the end of the game to even unlock the ability to upgrade it.
The game is not that long, with only about 15 levels (not including DLC), but at the same time these levels can feel like they never end.
Children, especially those that like Minecraft, would definitely enjoy this game. Also a good choice for trying to get a child into playing RPGs.