Ztech35
7 reviews liked by Ztech35
Dark Souls
2011
I tried to make my second run through Dark Souls a contrast with my first. I always go for dextrous katana builds in my first run through these games, so coming back I wanted to do a strength-oriented build instead with heavy armor and heavier weaponry. I knew the game by this point, so I allowed myself to skip bosses and areas I wasn't interested in refighting (so long, Lost Izalith; another time, Kalameet).
But the most impactful change was streaming my run to friends over Discord, including particularly my friend @zandravandra. Zandra knows this game back to front, and she gave me some context on it that really opened my eyes to what's special about this Souls. The way the game hides its meta progression asks the player not just to engage with the game on its own terms, but to understand it so thoroughly that they're able to use the grammar of the game to subvert the destinies that seem at first unavoidable. To save Solaire, you must not only follow his route, but understand how to subvert it. To find the secret ending, you must see the ways the game prevents you from moving forward, then probe the holes in those defenses.
This demonstrates a tremendous amount of faith in the player's willingness to engage with the game over and over in order to truly divine its secrets. The willingness to allow each player to experience a different subset of the game clearly still persists in the later games (Elden Ring in particular is a master class in this), but even there as long as you touch everything once you'll see all there is to see. Dark Souls takes one bold step further by making so much at the heart of the game's text so readily missable, thereby demanding that players not only engage thoroughly but thoughtfully as well.
Even if you wanted to do that today, I'm not sure it would matter. We live in an age of endless wikis and discords which instantaneously disseminate information to players. That's not necessarily a bad thing—to catalog a thing so painstakingly is another way to love it—but it does mean that vanishingly few players will play a game five times through without ever looking up its secrets on the internet. But still, Dark Souls remains, a brilliant monument to that moment when it was possible to make a game just like this.
But the most impactful change was streaming my run to friends over Discord, including particularly my friend @zandravandra. Zandra knows this game back to front, and she gave me some context on it that really opened my eyes to what's special about this Souls. The way the game hides its meta progression asks the player not just to engage with the game on its own terms, but to understand it so thoroughly that they're able to use the grammar of the game to subvert the destinies that seem at first unavoidable. To save Solaire, you must not only follow his route, but understand how to subvert it. To find the secret ending, you must see the ways the game prevents you from moving forward, then probe the holes in those defenses.
This demonstrates a tremendous amount of faith in the player's willingness to engage with the game over and over in order to truly divine its secrets. The willingness to allow each player to experience a different subset of the game clearly still persists in the later games (Elden Ring in particular is a master class in this), but even there as long as you touch everything once you'll see all there is to see. Dark Souls takes one bold step further by making so much at the heart of the game's text so readily missable, thereby demanding that players not only engage thoroughly but thoughtfully as well.
Even if you wanted to do that today, I'm not sure it would matter. We live in an age of endless wikis and discords which instantaneously disseminate information to players. That's not necessarily a bad thing—to catalog a thing so painstakingly is another way to love it—but it does mean that vanishingly few players will play a game five times through without ever looking up its secrets on the internet. But still, Dark Souls remains, a brilliant monument to that moment when it was possible to make a game just like this.
This review contains spoilers
No More Heroes 2 is completely and utterly confusing to me. It's a lavish upgrade to the first visually and suitably bases itself around indulging the player, promising an abundance of boss fights and less of the rougher edges from Travis' debut. Not a very Goichi Suda move (this was in fact not directed by Suda) but honestly fair as far as sequels go.
Instead of the (lovably) shitty odd jobs and overworld, you're given a menu and 8 bit minigames. I might be in the minority here for not thinking any of them are particularly good and outright preferring shit like the mowing minigame in the first one but that's fine. The steak minigame is hilarious though. The real problem with this streamlining lies with the omission of the overworld. Budget concession or not, cutting out an explorable Santa Destroy really does take away from the game as one of No More Heroes' more interesting themes was the bleeding out, gasping corpse of Americana that you're left to inhabit. A successor tracking the rapid urban growth of the city, transforming Home into something noisier would've been amazing. AND it would've tied nicely into the theming of The Silver Case as well. Losing that hands-on experience with the city this go around is just such a shame. I guess it does respond in kind to one of the more popular complaints of the original game from back when it first released, though. So I guess we asked for this.
NMH2 boasts more boss battles than the first and it does deliver (somewhat), but there's something missing. Outside of a couple bosses at the very end, No one in NMH2 even holds a candle to the cast of the first game. It's honestly kind of incredible. The combat feels spruced up, but also less tangible. In this playthrough I found much less use for wrestling moves and I don't think I darkstepped even once, opting for a simple hack and slash approach... Don't really like that. All in service of that indulgence though.
But wait, the game is also built around denying you satisfaction. The game's setup places Travis back into the rat race, at rank 51. You're led to go "50 boss fights? wow!" but then you only fight a fraction of that. Instead, you'll get fights where the ensuing battle actually counts for 20+ ranks, or moments where you're doing something else and suddenly a handful of ranks have been dealt with. In all honesty, this aspect of the game is one of my favorite parts. I kind of love it and I found every moment where you're faced with this situation hilarious. Travis even scores with Silvia, but it rings sort of hollow to the player because of the incredibly tense cutscene at the end of Rank 2 that just preceded it. Kind of an amazing moment! It clashes and makes me think about stuff, kinda like that first No More Heroes lol.
In one of the more interesting sequences of the game, where some of these boss skips happen, you get to play as Travis' now-apprentice Shinobu and then his twin brother Henry. If there's anything this game does right, it's in keeping these two around and expanding the cast to having mainstays. Shinobu may have a bad jump (it seriously deals psychic damage to me, as someone as terminally mario-pilled as myself) but her levels are fun enough and her encounter with Destroyman rules, and what this game does with Henry... I love it. I just really love it. I like a decent amount of the third act too. The Margaret, Vlad and Alice fights are fantastic but come too little too late and while I think Jasper Batt Jr is hilarious, the ending that plays afterward is pretty limp. There's good stuff when you look at the game as a reluctant sequel, but that read just flies right in the face of all the indulgent stuff, doesn't it?
The meat of the game is just not what a sequel to the first NMH needed to be, and contributes to a certain line of thought that I think has given people a seriously wrong impression of the series for a long time. I think NMH2 made people think these were character action games. Like sure, in the technical sense I suppose they are but there's a huge separation in design and intent from No More Heroes and Devil May Cry 3. Travis may be able to chill with Dante, but Dante wouldn't be able to understand Travis. That first game was just not going for the same stuff that your Platinums and Capcoms were going for. I believe this sort of thing is why people have seemed so confused in the leadup to Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes III. I think this sequel caused them to look at the original, and the whole series, through a funhouse mirror.
Instead of the (lovably) shitty odd jobs and overworld, you're given a menu and 8 bit minigames. I might be in the minority here for not thinking any of them are particularly good and outright preferring shit like the mowing minigame in the first one but that's fine. The steak minigame is hilarious though. The real problem with this streamlining lies with the omission of the overworld. Budget concession or not, cutting out an explorable Santa Destroy really does take away from the game as one of No More Heroes' more interesting themes was the bleeding out, gasping corpse of Americana that you're left to inhabit. A successor tracking the rapid urban growth of the city, transforming Home into something noisier would've been amazing. AND it would've tied nicely into the theming of The Silver Case as well. Losing that hands-on experience with the city this go around is just such a shame. I guess it does respond in kind to one of the more popular complaints of the original game from back when it first released, though. So I guess we asked for this.
NMH2 boasts more boss battles than the first and it does deliver (somewhat), but there's something missing. Outside of a couple bosses at the very end, No one in NMH2 even holds a candle to the cast of the first game. It's honestly kind of incredible. The combat feels spruced up, but also less tangible. In this playthrough I found much less use for wrestling moves and I don't think I darkstepped even once, opting for a simple hack and slash approach... Don't really like that. All in service of that indulgence though.
But wait, the game is also built around denying you satisfaction. The game's setup places Travis back into the rat race, at rank 51. You're led to go "50 boss fights? wow!" but then you only fight a fraction of that. Instead, you'll get fights where the ensuing battle actually counts for 20+ ranks, or moments where you're doing something else and suddenly a handful of ranks have been dealt with. In all honesty, this aspect of the game is one of my favorite parts. I kind of love it and I found every moment where you're faced with this situation hilarious. Travis even scores with Silvia, but it rings sort of hollow to the player because of the incredibly tense cutscene at the end of Rank 2 that just preceded it. Kind of an amazing moment! It clashes and makes me think about stuff, kinda like that first No More Heroes lol.
In one of the more interesting sequences of the game, where some of these boss skips happen, you get to play as Travis' now-apprentice Shinobu and then his twin brother Henry. If there's anything this game does right, it's in keeping these two around and expanding the cast to having mainstays. Shinobu may have a bad jump (it seriously deals psychic damage to me, as someone as terminally mario-pilled as myself) but her levels are fun enough and her encounter with Destroyman rules, and what this game does with Henry... I love it. I just really love it. I like a decent amount of the third act too. The Margaret, Vlad and Alice fights are fantastic but come too little too late and while I think Jasper Batt Jr is hilarious, the ending that plays afterward is pretty limp. There's good stuff when you look at the game as a reluctant sequel, but that read just flies right in the face of all the indulgent stuff, doesn't it?
The meat of the game is just not what a sequel to the first NMH needed to be, and contributes to a certain line of thought that I think has given people a seriously wrong impression of the series for a long time. I think NMH2 made people think these were character action games. Like sure, in the technical sense I suppose they are but there's a huge separation in design and intent from No More Heroes and Devil May Cry 3. Travis may be able to chill with Dante, but Dante wouldn't be able to understand Travis. That first game was just not going for the same stuff that your Platinums and Capcoms were going for. I believe this sort of thing is why people have seemed so confused in the leadup to Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes III. I think this sequel caused them to look at the original, and the whole series, through a funhouse mirror.
i must restate my last review: I Would Play 100 Of These
Frogun
2022
I honestly don’t agree with the hate this game is getting. The controls are a bit tricky to get the hang of at first, but it didn’t take me long. I will say this is a really difficult game to complete. This game has one of my fav styles of aesthetic. Just chefs kiss
I'm not usually a big Kirby fan but this was surprisingly solid. While the main game still mostly feels like coasting through a series of frictionless set pieces even on Wild Mode, each level's secrets and achievements ("reunite the ducklings with their mother!" "look at the view from the top of the rocket!" "don't get lost in the mall!") add a layer of appeal and interest that's been lacking in other Kirbies I've played.
The fact that the achievements are initially hidden is particularly clever, incentivizing the player to engage with the level not just as a series of challenges but as a site of play. I don't know if using the sleep ability on this pool chair will get me anything, but rewarding that is within the game's vocabulary so I'll act out this cute little tableau just in case.
The boss design is also shockingly appealing, something I'm not sure I can say about any other Nintendo game I've ever played. I repeatedly went back to fight bosses just for the joy of trying to hone my skills, and the variety of different abilities and their evolution throughout the game ensured that I could try different approaches each time. They aren't FromSoft-level depth, but that's not a fair expectation--clearly there were at least some design notes taken there.
The fact that the achievements are initially hidden is particularly clever, incentivizing the player to engage with the level not just as a series of challenges but as a site of play. I don't know if using the sleep ability on this pool chair will get me anything, but rewarding that is within the game's vocabulary so I'll act out this cute little tableau just in case.
The boss design is also shockingly appealing, something I'm not sure I can say about any other Nintendo game I've ever played. I repeatedly went back to fight bosses just for the joy of trying to hone my skills, and the variety of different abilities and their evolution throughout the game ensured that I could try different approaches each time. They aren't FromSoft-level depth, but that's not a fair expectation--clearly there were at least some design notes taken there.
I was real excited for this game and real disappointed in the result. It's a collection of undeniably compelling parts that entirely fail to come together into an engaging whole. The combat is impressively tactile and the different weapons each play totally differently, but the randomization of them each run means players can't really specialize in the one that feels best. The Dead-Cells-esque run structure is a proven winner, but it's hampered by gating meta-progress behind frustrating and unpleasant bosses. The art is incredible, but it frequently makes combat illegible.
This tries hard to be a hip update that reframes a classic game in modern terms, but it doesn't understand what makes those modern games successful well enough to replicate it successfully.
This tries hard to be a hip update that reframes a classic game in modern terms, but it doesn't understand what makes those modern games successful well enough to replicate it successfully.
Metroid Dread
2021
Lack of consequence is the real killer here. While the EMMI encounters are pretty enjoyable to navigate, the fact that you're given an automatic checkpoint before and after you enter each one of their areas negates the majority of their potential. When getting caught by one barely inconveniences you, there's no tension or fear, let alone any dread. The worst part is that the standard Metroid save system would've worked perfectly for these sections, which makes it one of the most frustrating changes to an existing formula I've come across recently. Just imagine how thrilling landing an escape parry would've been if the threat of losing progress loomed over your every move. Beyond that it's your standard Metroid game, but with all the ups and downs that come with modernization. I guess it was foolish of me to hope that the storytelling through gameplay that the series has historically excelled at would continue into the modern age, since Dread's story is told entirely through cutscenes and text boxes. As chatty as Fusion is, wordlessly stumbling across Ridley's frozen body is one of my favorite moments in the entire series- Dread never attempts anything similar. The game also has the tendency to "let you out" right in front of where you're supposed to go next whenever you get an upgrade or fight a boss, meaning it's only possible to get really lost if you purposefully get yourself lost, which I can see rubbing some people the wrong way. Ultimately, this one gets a "worth playing" from me due to some changes that make the world pretty fun to traverse, like the new mobility options and improved elevator system, but more importantly the presentation. The backgrounds are especially well done- they're so detailed and they really do great work to make the areas feel distinct and alive in a way that the older games in the series couldn't capture. But there were also some small decisions that really caught my eye. Samus being the only source of light in a save room before she saves. The loading screens being silent, wordless cinemagraphs. The map being divided into much smaller squares than usual, making it impossible to reach most tiles until you get some upgrades, which mimics the entire Metroid concept. That's what I want to see more of.