Chill Season 2022 Review

This Game has promised at least 2 years of developement with a 3 months cycle for each update. Let's see how they've started .... well that's not a great start uh ?

OK now if we speak about the quantity of content availeable it's actaully good. 3 new Weapons to play around , 10 new Weapon Kits to experiment with , 2 new stages , a new Salmon run stage , X Battles and a whole bunch of new gear. the problem i had with this season is the quality of the content.

Let's start with the 3 New Weapons. Each of theese 3 focus more on support play , having really good paint capabilities , low damage output , good range and kits that doesn't scream : PUSH THE FUCK OUT OF EVERYONE AND SHRED !!!
Splattershot Nova is such a weak weapon that can't fight at all and it's literally forced to spam Sensors and Killerwails all the match to be of some use.
Big Swig Roller sufer the same fate of Nova , but it's in a worse situation considering the class it's part of struggle a lot cause of the open maps wthout flanks. Not to mention the awful kit.
Snipewriter 5H is a really interesting take on chargers with the loong range muli-shot , but it's bad balance whise and the kit is just a tacticooler spam.
As for weapins Kits i will say that they are decent if only 4 of theme were fucking shooters. I'm not one of thoose guys that complain about kits because they're not competitively viable (cause i'm not a competitor) , but i feel like half of them are doomed cause of balance and map design. For example Inkbrush Nuveau is awesome in maps with flanks ... if there was one ...

What about the stage ?
Brinewater Hot Springs has an interesting layout that turned out to be mincemeat 2.0 with a mid area that's just a warzone for E-Liters and Hydras. The 2 flank routes are extremely predictable and the only alternate route to escape spawn camping is a trap ... for you. This stage is ass and it's not even fun to play on it.
Flounder Heights is probably the best Splatoon 3 stage and , compared to the original , it's a downgrade. Load of uninkable wall , the size of the map has been reduced and an entire flank has been removed. It's still a good map , but it got butchered a bit.
Marooner's Bay is a returning Salmon run Stage from Splatoon 2 and , like Spawning Grounds , it confirmed my theory. Splat 2 stages on Next Wave are hell to play with randoms. The stage is really hard , cramped and on low eggsecutive levels it's almost unplayable. I like hard maps like this , but at this point it's not a good thing having a map in the rotation that you want to skip so bad everytime.

Big Run was a really fun event where you compete for high scores in normal multiplayer stages. This time was the turn of Wahoo World and it was actually good. Not the most groundbreaking thing ever , but it's nice that now Salmon Run is treated with more care. OH and the best part of this update was the Grizzco Splatana. That thing is sooooo busted as hell.

Overall the update was bad for me. Loads of content that just was mediocre at best and a lot of problems that you can actually resolve with little changes. Hope they'll done better in the future because the content is there.

We need more games like this. Remakes of old and less accessible titles. I was really happy when they've announced this game and , after finishing it i can clearly say that ... every other Mario RPG after this is far better.

Now i still stand by the point i made above. WE NEED games like this. Before , excluding emulation , RPG was only availeable on the Wii U Eshop wich , in case you don't know , has been shutted down.
I want to make clear that this is NOT a bad game , far from it. In fact it's one of the most accessible RPGs for the majority of people due to it's short duration (around 11 hours) and pretty simple mechanics. We live in a period where RPGs have a lenght of 50/80 hours per game and that's not approacheable for a lot of folks if Games aren't their hobby.

Super Mario RPG is quite simple ... everywhere , but in a short amount of time it manages to offer a great variety of content. Plot is simple but extremely goofy and characters don't behave like they are used to. For example Mario is the perfect good guy , virtuos and kind to everyone. in this game he comes to a point where he wants to beat up a child's ass. It's that kind of Square Enix old touch that you can see in a lot of their classics.
Enemies , bosses , locations , minigames ... there are a lot of them with unique designs and writnig and all of this in a 10 hours adventure. Seems cool but then ...

Well i personally find this game too simple for my taste to just say " ok the writing and variety saves it ". Having a lot of characters , enemies and ecc. doesn't mean that the game is really good. Sure it's original but the execution isn't the best for me. Battles are too simple. Ok all comands have timed inputs that determinates how much damage you can deal. You can also parry enemies attacks wit this system. Outside of this there isn't much more other than elemental and status weakneses. Strat. is nonexistent and the only thing that offers a sort of stimulating challenge are some of the extra bosses. As for exploration it's good for a classic RPG. Platforming is actually well incorporated for a game like this. I really liked Bowser castle with all of it's mini challenges.

Super Mario RPG is a perfect entry to the genre and a fun adventure for everyone that don't want to tackle a tough and lenghty adventure. It's also a really faithful and well crafted remake except for some frame drop issues.
It's a fun and delightful adventure , but nothing that really stands out to me.

[ 7.0 / 10 ]

Am i still in time to play this ? No ? Fine ...

Jokes aside this is a really important title in gaming history , how could i play this at the 23rd year of my life ? Well i procrastinate a lot when it comes to old RPGs. I like them but they also need a fair amount of patience given the time they require , the constant random battles and overall slow speed of theese games. Final Fantasy VII surprised me because , even with the ass game design of that era , it still managed to surprise and angage. Wasn't expecting much but here i am !

The setting is BEAUTIFUL , lot more interesting than what modern Final Fantasy tried to do. It feels you're there to just see what the world has to offer. Midgar is such a brilliant idea with all the plates and the Slums quarters. Exploration in rewarded really well with objects that comes in hand in a lot of various situations. Dialogues are short but impactful for the most. Characters manage to be more likeable than other Flat or stereotyped characters that submerges you with walls of text. The game is filled with so many secret and it's all up to you on discover them. There is a lot of missable content in this game due to story progression and usually i despise this , but hey it wasn't that bad here.In a few words exploration is satisfyng , rewarding and talking to other characters isn't an hassle.

Writing also surprised me , it's one of theese stories that seems complex but are actualy simple on their roots , making good use of story telling and plot twists. I can't deny that not always you can get the game seriously since with all the mini poligonal models and the huge amount of goofy moments the game throws at you it's hard to imagine a dark moment when needed.
Also Square was really obsessed with mini games. , even useless ones. This is a plus since the game feels a lot varied and constantly stimulate the player with other activities other than battles AND ...

... speaking of battles the combat system is good. It tries to be a little dynamic and action oriented. Battles themselves aren't that complex but GOD if there is so much to explore. The materia system is a good way of fit each character into a role that you like. there are a lot of combinations to experiment and to test o enemies. It's that type of combat system that you can pass by simply mashing A and farming for the most , but that heavily rewards you if you explore it enough alongside enemy drops. The thing i like more in this game is that almost everything you find has a purpose. A lot of modern RPGs fail in this so badly (looking at you XV and XVI).

If there is a thing i don't like is how poorly the endgame content is treated. Ok the superbosses were really cool , but only 2 of them tests the limit of the game. Ruby weapon is a great example since it requires a good exploration of the entire game and combat system. I really like how you have to further explore the world in order to unlock the final Limits for each characters instead of grinding battles to death ... but after that ?
The endgame dungeon is where you'll spend most of the time grinding like an animal for maxing the party and ... it doesn't feel satisfyng at some point. I know it's a really old game that pushed the PS to the limit , but hey at least reduce the quantity of exp required for leveling both Materia and characters.

The soundtrack was another surprise for me. I never was a big fan of FF VII music , but hearing in game is a whole other story. Cosmo canyon and the main battle theme were the 2 i enjoyed the most.

Final Fantasy VII is strange to me. There are a lot of things i don't like when it comes to game design , but it's so much fun to explore and the game has depth , more than what you can imagine. Had a really good time despite the age. At least i do understand why this game is considered a masterpiece , and i can't deny that.

[ 8.4 / 10 ]