Yono
2023
well I think after playing for 5 hours and after my last log I have to drop this one. I think this has been a great example of why stylistic choices are so important in games for me, the gameplay itself is great but every other choice in this game feels like it was designed specifically to aggravate me. I think one of the villains said something so cringy that I paused during combat just to take in what I just heard, died, alt F4ed the game and decide I'm done with it.
I'm the kind of person who likes to replay levels for high scores in these kind of games and I'm going through on the hardest difficulty my first try so that means lots of retrying, which means lots of having to hear the same god awful dialog over and over again. Even skipping the cutscenes I just can't ignore it, there is no way I want to hear any of what the characters are saying even once let alone many times, which means I know I'm never going to replay these levels, especially since a lot of them have very long lulls inbetween the combat just to have more time for the characters to say "uh... guys?" at me.
I know action games aren't known for having great story but there's a difference between a mediocre story or an overly campy one which is at least somewhat entertaining, and then an actively aggravating one like this.
Finally for a rhythm game the soundtrack was really disappointing, most of the game is a similar sounding guitar riff and then there's a few Dadrock licensed tracks for the bosses.
If you put this gameplay in a different stylistic package this could have been a 5/5 game for me but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.
I'm the kind of person who likes to replay levels for high scores in these kind of games and I'm going through on the hardest difficulty my first try so that means lots of retrying, which means lots of having to hear the same god awful dialog over and over again. Even skipping the cutscenes I just can't ignore it, there is no way I want to hear any of what the characters are saying even once let alone many times, which means I know I'm never going to replay these levels, especially since a lot of them have very long lulls inbetween the combat just to have more time for the characters to say "uh... guys?" at me.
I know action games aren't known for having great story but there's a difference between a mediocre story or an overly campy one which is at least somewhat entertaining, and then an actively aggravating one like this.
Finally for a rhythm game the soundtrack was really disappointing, most of the game is a similar sounding guitar riff and then there's a few Dadrock licensed tracks for the bosses.
If you put this gameplay in a different stylistic package this could have been a 5/5 game for me but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.
2022
this has to be the single most insulting release of all time. It's not a sequel it's a justification to replace Overwatch's existing monetization with far more predatory monetization.
This is the best argument against the "games as a service" model that exists. The original Overwatch is dead and lost to time, the people who spent $40 on it can go get fucked according to Blizzard. What had potential to be a beloved casual and fun game beloved by many like Team Fortress 2 was milked dry of any potential it had by corporate greed. Forced eSports and enough in-your-face monetization that the game's UI may as well be an advertisement.
This is the best argument against the "games as a service" model that exists. The original Overwatch is dead and lost to time, the people who spent $40 on it can go get fucked according to Blizzard. What had potential to be a beloved casual and fun game beloved by many like Team Fortress 2 was milked dry of any potential it had by corporate greed. Forced eSports and enough in-your-face monetization that the game's UI may as well be an advertisement.
2023
I just wanted to write a first impression on this, I'm absolutely loving the gameplay but this game has maybe the absolute worst case of millenial writing I've ever seen. It somehow hits every note at once. Obnoxious main character, really over the top voice acting with characters hitting awful quips constantly to the tune of "so... that just happened" and "don't stand under the crushers... obviously...." and "You better pay me extra for this! - But I'm not paying you at all..."
To top it all off the story is an extremely on the nose and shallow critique of capitalism that boils down to constant jokes about how hard the villains overwork their labor force. It's crazy that this was all done unironically and not as some parody of terrible Marvel Cinematic Universe style writing.
If I could ignore it it wouldn't be a big deal but this is one of those games where the characters constantly talk during gameplay, additionally the game bombards you with unskippable tutorials constantly that treat the player like they are 5 years old and don't know how to navigate a UI to buy shop upgrades, and all of these tutorials also are bombarding you with the terrible terrible dialog.
It's a shame because I'm really picky about action games and there's very few that I feel set themselves apart enough from Devil May Cry to the point where I enjoy them, this has been one of the few due to the rhythm game aspect but everything except the gameplay has left such a sour note so far. I'm hoping to trudge through it and see if it'll get better.
To top it all off the story is an extremely on the nose and shallow critique of capitalism that boils down to constant jokes about how hard the villains overwork their labor force. It's crazy that this was all done unironically and not as some parody of terrible Marvel Cinematic Universe style writing.
If I could ignore it it wouldn't be a big deal but this is one of those games where the characters constantly talk during gameplay, additionally the game bombards you with unskippable tutorials constantly that treat the player like they are 5 years old and don't know how to navigate a UI to buy shop upgrades, and all of these tutorials also are bombarding you with the terrible terrible dialog.
It's a shame because I'm really picky about action games and there's very few that I feel set themselves apart enough from Devil May Cry to the point where I enjoy them, this has been one of the few due to the rhythm game aspect but everything except the gameplay has left such a sour note so far. I'm hoping to trudge through it and see if it'll get better.
2023
there is a very singular focus on the movement which is very fun and feels very good and this might be someone's favorite game because of it, however this clearly came at the expense of most other aspects in the game. The level design is really weak and you're often hitting dead ends at the end of a linear and difficult platforming section just to backtrack for some powerup you missed, its really easy to accidentally sequence break only to get yourself stuck later (some of the sequence breaks feel easier than the intended platforming path) and the combat is kind of a mess for the short time it's happening.
Also worth noting that one of the most important movement mechanics in the game (being able to backflip by jumping out of the startup of Strikebreak) is never explained to the player for some reason, there's some other mechanics that aren't but those aren't super necessary unless you're intentionally trying to sequence break, the backflip on the other hand makes most platforming challenges in the game much cleaner so it feels odd that its not taught to you.
The way the character controls is really fun and offers some interesting platforming, and the music and atmosphere is good. That is going to be enough for a lot of people to love this game but its not without flaws.
Also worth noting that one of the most important movement mechanics in the game (being able to backflip by jumping out of the startup of Strikebreak) is never explained to the player for some reason, there's some other mechanics that aren't but those aren't super necessary unless you're intentionally trying to sequence break, the backflip on the other hand makes most platforming challenges in the game much cleaner so it feels odd that its not taught to you.
The way the character controls is really fun and offers some interesting platforming, and the music and atmosphere is good. That is going to be enough for a lot of people to love this game but its not without flaws.
2024
have to log a second time just to say this is one of the best remakes of all time, maybe the best. It improves nearly everything about the original while still staying true to a lot of what made it unique.
2020
fuck you Idea Factory
2022
hey what if we took zelda botw and then made the korok sidequests the main objective of the game? then put sonic the hedgehog in it but make all the slopes work like running your horse up a cliff in skyrim.
That sounds peak, fucking ship it.
That sounds peak, fucking ship it.
2020
When this game came out I thought "this is it, this will be what changes VR games forever"
Well its 4 years later now and this did not in fact change VR games and the VR software market is super dead. Which is very disappointing because this game is amazing, I just think the market for VR games is not there and won't ever be. But hey if you made the poor financial decision of buying a headset you can at least play this and experience how good VR could have been. This is the only VR game that feels like a fully fleshed out AAA release that takes advantage of what makes VR special.
Well its 4 years later now and this did not in fact change VR games and the VR software market is super dead. Which is very disappointing because this game is amazing, I just think the market for VR games is not there and won't ever be. But hey if you made the poor financial decision of buying a headset you can at least play this and experience how good VR could have been. This is the only VR game that feels like a fully fleshed out AAA release that takes advantage of what makes VR special.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Played it through to the VOIDED ending and I'm really mixed on this one.
I got absolutely addicted to this and spent an entire Saturday playing it for 9+ hours .The depth of this game is really amazing and something special, this is a labrynth full of secrets and I know there's so much more in the game I haven't seen. If a puzzle room seems suspisciously easy its probably because there's something hidden there, if there's an out of place looking object it probably has some sort of purpose. It was really cool to see objects I noticed looking suspiscious getting mentioned in hints on how to get secrets later on and going "oh, so that's what that is there for". You also unlock more story as you find secrets and progress so the entire experience just feels immensely rewarding.
I normally don't have an interest in puzzle games but ZeroRanger is one of my all time favorite games and this is the only other game by that dev, so I wanted to pick this up. The one thing that makes ZR hard to recommend to people is that there is an ending that just deletes your save when you fail - I will defend that part of ZR because the game is very short and getting to the end after you've already done it once takes less than an hour. Well, Void Stranger feels like it was entirely built on that idea. Unlike ZR this is not a short game either, this game is a whopping gauntlet of 255 floors, some of them are easy but some could take you ages depending on how good you are at puzzles. There is no "undo" button on puzzles, you either have to reset the game or die on purpose anytime you make a mistake, which will happen a LOT. You also can't go up one level to previous floors and there's no level select feature - you can find shortcuts and skip through floors though. But if you miss something in a floor, you are SoL unless you restart the game or can find a secret path back to that floor.
So while the concept and design is awesome I question whether it was the best decision to apply the ideas they used to a sokoban game. The lack of undo button and level select is necessary for the game to work for reasons that would require me to spoil the entire progression of the game to explain, but when the thing gating my progression is this endless gauntlet of often difficult puzzles it got frustrating very quickly, and having to redo the same puzzles so many times made me feel like the game did not respect my time.
I got absolutely addicted to this and spent an entire Saturday playing it for 9+ hours .The depth of this game is really amazing and something special, this is a labrynth full of secrets and I know there's so much more in the game I haven't seen. If a puzzle room seems suspisciously easy its probably because there's something hidden there, if there's an out of place looking object it probably has some sort of purpose. It was really cool to see objects I noticed looking suspiscious getting mentioned in hints on how to get secrets later on and going "oh, so that's what that is there for". You also unlock more story as you find secrets and progress so the entire experience just feels immensely rewarding.
I normally don't have an interest in puzzle games but ZeroRanger is one of my all time favorite games and this is the only other game by that dev, so I wanted to pick this up. The one thing that makes ZR hard to recommend to people is that there is an ending that just deletes your save when you fail - I will defend that part of ZR because the game is very short and getting to the end after you've already done it once takes less than an hour. Well, Void Stranger feels like it was entirely built on that idea. Unlike ZR this is not a short game either, this game is a whopping gauntlet of 255 floors, some of them are easy but some could take you ages depending on how good you are at puzzles. There is no "undo" button on puzzles, you either have to reset the game or die on purpose anytime you make a mistake, which will happen a LOT. You also can't go up one level to previous floors and there's no level select feature - you can find shortcuts and skip through floors though. But if you miss something in a floor, you are SoL unless you restart the game or can find a secret path back to that floor.
So while the concept and design is awesome I question whether it was the best decision to apply the ideas they used to a sokoban game. The lack of undo button and level select is necessary for the game to work for reasons that would require me to spoil the entire progression of the game to explain, but when the thing gating my progression is this endless gauntlet of often difficult puzzles it got frustrating very quickly, and having to redo the same puzzles so many times made me feel like the game did not respect my time.
once again EA releases an overpriced game in a nonfunctional state and people still buy it anyways. "b-but it's ok they'll totally fix it later!" even though half the time they just abandon their games. Please stop buying EA games at launch or honestly at all really. You are like Charlie Brown when Lucy takes the football.
2024
tartarus blows less in this one
2020
this is the closest I have ever seen any game get to playing DnD at a table. This game unravels in whichever way the person playing it wants it to and the fantastic character writing and story makes engaging with it worthwhile. It feels like it came from an alternate reality universe where BioWare never got bought out by EA and just kept doing their thing.
2023
i played with the peppina ramen mod because i hate italians
This review contains spoilers
I'm sad for this to have been bad as this feels like something that had a team of passionate people working on it rather than a product of corporate cynicism, but it just turned out bad anyways. There is almost no gameplay in this, this is an interactive movie where you walk down a cool looking hallway. The art design is amazing but is ruined by the complete lack of tension in the scripted game design and the juvenile story that it surrounds. This game also seems extremely uncomfortable with its own subject matter: there is a scene of a character jumping off a building that happens 4 times and each time there is a disclaimer message telling you to call the suicide hotline.
There was a feel-good ending that is not befitting of a horror game that felt almost shoelined in at the last minute and was still followed up by the same disclaimer. Why make a game about suicide if the subject matter makes you so uncomfortable? It is pretty agreed on by fans of Silent Hill 2 that the best ending of the game is the one where James drowns himself. Just because we live in a different year doesn't mean you need to ruin your atmosphere with trigger warnings and disclaimers constantly popping up: having one at the beginning of the game is good enough, people know what they're getting into.
It really pains me to see this because I think I will be thinking about this game a lot, I think it has a lot going for it and the concept of the story and the environment/monster designs could have made a fantastic Silent Hill game. The execution is just fumbled very very badly.
There was a feel-good ending that is not befitting of a horror game that felt almost shoelined in at the last minute and was still followed up by the same disclaimer. Why make a game about suicide if the subject matter makes you so uncomfortable? It is pretty agreed on by fans of Silent Hill 2 that the best ending of the game is the one where James drowns himself. Just because we live in a different year doesn't mean you need to ruin your atmosphere with trigger warnings and disclaimers constantly popping up: having one at the beginning of the game is good enough, people know what they're getting into.
It really pains me to see this because I think I will be thinking about this game a lot, I think it has a lot going for it and the concept of the story and the environment/monster designs could have made a fantastic Silent Hill game. The execution is just fumbled very very badly.
anyone who says they like this game is lying to sound smart