Woodpug
3 reviews liked by Woodpug
This game has a very unique style of movement and, on top of that, is a Metroidvania! All set up to be something I adored, and yet something was... wrong.
It's all so well put together, great looking pixel art and an ASTONISHING soundtrack. The movement is incredibly fluid and never got in the way of things I wanted to do. Still, there was a nagging feeling that something just wasn't clicking. I was never hooked, even if I was having fun throughout. It's hard to point out too many concrete issues with it, though there is one thing that bothered me immensely; the map is pretty terrible.
After playing Teslagrad 2, I feel as if a lot of Metroidvanias are going to struggle to match its brilliant map design, but I'd argue Dandara's was outright bad at times. I was getting lost frequently, following paths for ages that eventually reached dead ends that I lacked the abilities to clear, meaning there was tons of backtracking. This is usually alleviated in other games by good shortcuts or providing SOME sort of reward for going out of your way early, but oftentimes I was lead along for far too long just to feel like an idiot when I was stopped abruptly. It was so frustrating and not an issue I generally have within the genre.
Ability-wise, I didn't think anything was all too interesting. The game's general "feel" as well as the occasional fantastic area and boss were able to bring up my opinion on this greatly, it's just a shame then that it could have been outstanding.
It's all so well put together, great looking pixel art and an ASTONISHING soundtrack. The movement is incredibly fluid and never got in the way of things I wanted to do. Still, there was a nagging feeling that something just wasn't clicking. I was never hooked, even if I was having fun throughout. It's hard to point out too many concrete issues with it, though there is one thing that bothered me immensely; the map is pretty terrible.
After playing Teslagrad 2, I feel as if a lot of Metroidvanias are going to struggle to match its brilliant map design, but I'd argue Dandara's was outright bad at times. I was getting lost frequently, following paths for ages that eventually reached dead ends that I lacked the abilities to clear, meaning there was tons of backtracking. This is usually alleviated in other games by good shortcuts or providing SOME sort of reward for going out of your way early, but oftentimes I was lead along for far too long just to feel like an idiot when I was stopped abruptly. It was so frustrating and not an issue I generally have within the genre.
Ability-wise, I didn't think anything was all too interesting. The game's general "feel" as well as the occasional fantastic area and boss were able to bring up my opinion on this greatly, it's just a shame then that it could have been outstanding.
The Sims 2
2005
a fever dream of a unique game, somehow addicting to add art to the exhibits and manage the worlds weirdest hotel and its frickin hidden batcave and alien shenanigans. I used to just go out in the desert and try to get as lost as possible. I'm still not convinced this game is even real, what would gordon ramsay say about this
Persona 5 Royal
2019
This review contains spoilers
(SPOILERS FOR P3, P4 AND P5)
Jotted down a few things while playing the game, here are some observations:
Good:
-Starts with a bang. The FF7 style opener works surprisingly well for P5. You're already in the first dungeon by Day 3. On top of that the real gameplay (i.e palace/social links) starts 4 or 5 days into the game. Massive improvement on P3/P4.
-Music/Graphic Design/Style is all perfect
-Ambient whispering and dialogue boxes helps make the city feel massive.
-I'd go as far as to say this game has the best "First Act" out of any game I've played, the entire Kamoshida arc was perfect and makes you really hate him.
-Overall Dungeons are so much better than previous games, big emphasis on making it feel like "infiltrating a base"
-lot more interactive with enemies, talking/negotiating etc.
-3 collectable Will Seeds in each dungeon encourages exploration nicely
-lot of references back to the palace owners desires builds character, really helped with Kaneshiero.
-It really feels like you're "infiltrating" bases, pulling off Heists.
-Ryuji is a way better "best friend" character than Yosuke/Junpei.
-Similar to how Devil May Cry is basically Jojo, the clear inspirations of Death Note are interesting with the L/Light Joker/Akechi parallels.
-Incorporating Request function into Confidants makes them more compelling while slightly predictable
-Cast is very charming, in particular Yusuke adds a funny awkward Peep Show-esque dynamic that really adds a lot to the dialogue.
-BIG fan of the Mishima confidant twist. I'd maybe go as far as to say it's the best Confidant in the game alongside Akechi's
-Better use of Nostalgia, toned down out of place references to older games, while having old battles themes play depending on Jokers costumes is a really nice touch.
-No need for grinding in this game is a good addition
-Kaneshiero's Palace is excellent
-Sae's Palace might be the most fun I've ever had in a Persona dungeon
Bad:
-Morgana. I really don't understand why they had to have an entire dedicated to not just pure Exposition/Explaining the rules of the metaverse, but a character that is a constant nag to the player. Did playtesters really have little to no clue what was happening?
-Character motivations for going after Madarame are a bit weak. They offset this slightly in future targets such as Futaba having a personal interest to cooperate with Phantom Thieves outside of "lets get random Big Bad"
-Futaba's Palace: Ho boy this was not good was it. Very tedious repetitive palace theme, as well as extremely boring puzzles. The metaverse rules we're very ambiguous compared to previous palaces. Changing the rules for the sake of plot
-Party feels more like a main-protag harem than previous games, P4 felt like a group of friends while P3 they we're awkward dorks who grew to like each other
-Please develop characters without having dead parents. Its fine for one or two characters but its literally everyone in this game. (The new "my mother collapsed")
-P4s trip to Persona 3 setting was way more charming than Hawaii.
-Morganas Post Hawaii meltdown
Alright, first off the gang had EVERY reason to be doubtful over using the number 1 voted Okumura as a target. Everything was based on sketchy rumours and press. The fact Morgana spit the dummy here is incredibly dumb.
-Okumura twist was obvious, why doesnt the phantom thieves just put out a big press statement on their big website saying they didn't do it? (More dead parents fucking hell) Also Haru doesn't react like a normal human to her father dying.
-While this game does have some good villains (Kamoshida, Akechi, Shido, Maruki) I don't think they really hold a torch to Adachi.
-What was the researcher/shady cia guy thing about with Sae?
-A lot of the combat sequences in boss fights are a bit messy. They just sort of throw random sequences together instead of exploring the games mechanics. They push in random extra mechanics or gimmicks to draw out fights or make them different. In P3/P4 while having simpler combat it felt like it was using its mechanics better.
-Madarame/Okumura's boss fights could have been done way better
-Unspecified Deadlines on Confidants is big Zzzz
-P3s/p4s "last semester" themes are way better than p5s.
-End game pacing is weaker than P3/P4
-Fast Travel: this is a weird one, but while convenient, does it make the game feel less immersive? Like instead of wandering around Tokyo you spend most of the game looking at your phone. Lack of worth in exploring the overworld really.
-The rumour mill compared between p4 and p5. It works better in a small town like Inaba. Whereas a massive city like Tokyo its a bit more far-fetched.
-Yaldabaoth: The "God" cop out doesn't work as well as P4. In p4, Izanami is pulling the strings from the very beginning with the Gas Attendant. Whereas P5 he just kinda appears.
-How did Maruki know Morgana didn't want to be a cat?
What I'd do differently:
-More incentives to explore Persona overworlds
-Some more Personas based on notorious criminals and vigilantes would be nice (seriously where tf was Jack Ripper?)
-Futaba Arc: They could have EASILY had some sort of hacker villain instead and have Futaba come in from the outside to support you, this hacker group could have been responsible for leaking her mothers research to the government and getting her killed.
-Shido's Palace is very cool. Though everything being cognitive is a little wack, would have been more creepy to see the real corrupt VIPs making use of the metaverse, ESPECIALLY after they did it with the police force in the Casino
-The whole mementos depths thing comes a little too quickly after shido, no time to celebrate, I would have gave the player the satisfactory shido moment but then crept in societies ambivalence in the new year to overlooking shady shit again.
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics/Art: 10/10
Music:10/10
Style:10/10
Story:9/10
Characters:8/10
Dungeon Design:8/10
Bosses:8/10
Overall: 9.5/10 (rounded up to 5 stars for Backlogged)
Persona 6 and beyond:
-Now the interesting thing is, I really don't know where Atlas goes from here. They will have a new Director for P6 who has said that there will be no Calendar system. On top of that long term Composer Shoji Meguro will no longer be making music for Atlas. So Persona 6 on paper is going have a completely different vibe and feel. But with the nature of the Persona formula they theoretically have an infinite number of plots they can work with.
Jotted down a few things while playing the game, here are some observations:
Good:
-Starts with a bang. The FF7 style opener works surprisingly well for P5. You're already in the first dungeon by Day 3. On top of that the real gameplay (i.e palace/social links) starts 4 or 5 days into the game. Massive improvement on P3/P4.
-Music/Graphic Design/Style is all perfect
-Ambient whispering and dialogue boxes helps make the city feel massive.
-I'd go as far as to say this game has the best "First Act" out of any game I've played, the entire Kamoshida arc was perfect and makes you really hate him.
-Overall Dungeons are so much better than previous games, big emphasis on making it feel like "infiltrating a base"
-lot more interactive with enemies, talking/negotiating etc.
-3 collectable Will Seeds in each dungeon encourages exploration nicely
-lot of references back to the palace owners desires builds character, really helped with Kaneshiero.
-It really feels like you're "infiltrating" bases, pulling off Heists.
-Ryuji is a way better "best friend" character than Yosuke/Junpei.
-Similar to how Devil May Cry is basically Jojo, the clear inspirations of Death Note are interesting with the L/Light Joker/Akechi parallels.
-Incorporating Request function into Confidants makes them more compelling while slightly predictable
-Cast is very charming, in particular Yusuke adds a funny awkward Peep Show-esque dynamic that really adds a lot to the dialogue.
-BIG fan of the Mishima confidant twist. I'd maybe go as far as to say it's the best Confidant in the game alongside Akechi's
-Better use of Nostalgia, toned down out of place references to older games, while having old battles themes play depending on Jokers costumes is a really nice touch.
-No need for grinding in this game is a good addition
-Kaneshiero's Palace is excellent
-Sae's Palace might be the most fun I've ever had in a Persona dungeon
Bad:
-Morgana. I really don't understand why they had to have an entire dedicated to not just pure Exposition/Explaining the rules of the metaverse, but a character that is a constant nag to the player. Did playtesters really have little to no clue what was happening?
-Character motivations for going after Madarame are a bit weak. They offset this slightly in future targets such as Futaba having a personal interest to cooperate with Phantom Thieves outside of "lets get random Big Bad"
-Futaba's Palace: Ho boy this was not good was it. Very tedious repetitive palace theme, as well as extremely boring puzzles. The metaverse rules we're very ambiguous compared to previous palaces. Changing the rules for the sake of plot
-Party feels more like a main-protag harem than previous games, P4 felt like a group of friends while P3 they we're awkward dorks who grew to like each other
-Please develop characters without having dead parents. Its fine for one or two characters but its literally everyone in this game. (The new "my mother collapsed")
-P4s trip to Persona 3 setting was way more charming than Hawaii.
-Morganas Post Hawaii meltdown
Alright, first off the gang had EVERY reason to be doubtful over using the number 1 voted Okumura as a target. Everything was based on sketchy rumours and press. The fact Morgana spit the dummy here is incredibly dumb.
-Okumura twist was obvious, why doesnt the phantom thieves just put out a big press statement on their big website saying they didn't do it? (More dead parents fucking hell) Also Haru doesn't react like a normal human to her father dying.
-While this game does have some good villains (Kamoshida, Akechi, Shido, Maruki) I don't think they really hold a torch to Adachi.
-What was the researcher/shady cia guy thing about with Sae?
-A lot of the combat sequences in boss fights are a bit messy. They just sort of throw random sequences together instead of exploring the games mechanics. They push in random extra mechanics or gimmicks to draw out fights or make them different. In P3/P4 while having simpler combat it felt like it was using its mechanics better.
-Madarame/Okumura's boss fights could have been done way better
-Unspecified Deadlines on Confidants is big Zzzz
-P3s/p4s "last semester" themes are way better than p5s.
-End game pacing is weaker than P3/P4
-Fast Travel: this is a weird one, but while convenient, does it make the game feel less immersive? Like instead of wandering around Tokyo you spend most of the game looking at your phone. Lack of worth in exploring the overworld really.
-The rumour mill compared between p4 and p5. It works better in a small town like Inaba. Whereas a massive city like Tokyo its a bit more far-fetched.
-Yaldabaoth: The "God" cop out doesn't work as well as P4. In p4, Izanami is pulling the strings from the very beginning with the Gas Attendant. Whereas P5 he just kinda appears.
-How did Maruki know Morgana didn't want to be a cat?
What I'd do differently:
-More incentives to explore Persona overworlds
-Some more Personas based on notorious criminals and vigilantes would be nice (seriously where tf was Jack Ripper?)
-Futaba Arc: They could have EASILY had some sort of hacker villain instead and have Futaba come in from the outside to support you, this hacker group could have been responsible for leaking her mothers research to the government and getting her killed.
-Shido's Palace is very cool. Though everything being cognitive is a little wack, would have been more creepy to see the real corrupt VIPs making use of the metaverse, ESPECIALLY after they did it with the police force in the Casino
-The whole mementos depths thing comes a little too quickly after shido, no time to celebrate, I would have gave the player the satisfactory shido moment but then crept in societies ambivalence in the new year to overlooking shady shit again.
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics/Art: 10/10
Music:10/10
Style:10/10
Story:9/10
Characters:8/10
Dungeon Design:8/10
Bosses:8/10
Overall: 9.5/10 (rounded up to 5 stars for Backlogged)
Persona 6 and beyond:
-Now the interesting thing is, I really don't know where Atlas goes from here. They will have a new Director for P6 who has said that there will be no Calendar system. On top of that long term Composer Shoji Meguro will no longer be making music for Atlas. So Persona 6 on paper is going have a completely different vibe and feel. But with the nature of the Persona formula they theoretically have an infinite number of plots they can work with.