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aquova is now playing Sonic Rush Adventure

1 hr ago



aquova is now playing Hogwarts Legacy

13 hrs ago


aquova finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
This game was one of my most anticipated of the year, and I ended up with a lot of mixed feelings about it. On paper, every aspect of this game is really well done. I think that Final Fantasy VII has one of the best stories and characters in the series, and this game really utilizes them well, something some of the other previous spin-offs struggled with. The combat is similar to the previous Remake entry, which I enjoyed when it was released. The graphics, some initial blurry issues aside, are top notch. All that being said, there are some games that I think are better than the sum of their parts, but my big takeaway from this title is that I found it weaker than the sum of its parts. A lot of this is due to the pacing of the game. The first half of the game has a lot of minigames, many of them adapted from the original FF7. This isn't a bad thing on their own, but I honestly think in the first 10 hours of the game, you'll be playing more mandatory minigames than core gameplay. It really highlights the fact that this isn't a complete story, but the middle section of Final Fantasy VII, expanded so that it has its own beginning, middle, and end. This expansion goes better than one would expect, but does lead to some unique issues. The game sets up some mysteries, and it's a little frustrating to know they won't be resolved until a third game years in the future (and even worse for some things established in Remake). I think the second half of the game is a lot tighter focused, as it leaves the distractions and campiness behind. The new aspects to Rebirth, as opposed to Remake, are the large open world areas, and some changes to the gameplay. The open world is.. fine. It feels like a bog standard modern open world, complete with towers to visit to reveal new points of interest. They're easy enough to avoid if you don't find them interesting, and I found them mainly to be a checklist to complete. I do want to highlight the changes they're making to the story across this new trilogy. There are some players who seem opposed to the idea of any changes at all. I personally view that remaking a game gives the chance to tweak not just the visuals and gameplay, but potentially the story as well. The impression I got from Remake was that this was potentially a secret sequel to Final Fantasy VII, and that could be an interesting change. With two thirds of the new story behind us, I'm afraid to say I'm not crazy about the approach they're taking. I don't want to reveal too much, but despite Zack Fair being on the cover, he served very little purpose. His inclusion I could overlook (so long as they don't add any of the awful Crisis Core villains), but I think the changes they made to the ending segments are pretty awful. Not only does it take away from the impact of Sephiroth as the overall villain -- the same mistake they made in Remake, in my opinion -- but it also somewhat muddies what is this game's most famous legacy. There is a vision here, and a desire to keep audiences in suspense, but in the end I was just left with confusion. This review might sound a bit negative, but I do want to express that I did enjoy myself. It's rare these days that I find myself playing through a game for hours on end, but often when I went to save I would be surprised that an hour had gone by. It's because I had such high hopes for this game -- and the high reviews from others -- that I found it a bit lackluster. If I'm being honest, I didn't like it as much as Remake, I didn't like it as much as the original FF7, and what I'm sure is going to be somewhat controversial, I didn't like it as much as Final Fantasy XVI.

15 hrs ago


2 days ago


aquova finished Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Unlike most of the modern Prince of Persia games, which are 3D affairs, The Lost Crown is a metroidvania. It confusingly doesn't star the Prince of Persia, but one of his elite soldiers, Sargon, as he faces a conspiracy within his own ranks to rescue the Prince. Despite not starring the Prince, a character associated with time powers, Sargon too gains reality bending abilities as he travels throughout a mysterious mountain temple. The highlight of this game is its movement system. Sargon is incredibly nimble to control, and actions such as wall jumping or combo attacks are fun to learn but nuanced to master. As far as metroidvanias go, it probably has some of the best controls of any I've played. The game does a good job balancing combat encounters with environmental platform challenges, and I never felt the game was being unfair, but it also actually expected you to utilize your movement to its fullest potential. Any negatives I have towards the game are honestly minor nitpicks. The environments, while varied, aren't necessarily all that interesting, although there are some standout examples. I also never really got the hang of using the parry system, but I think that's becoming a trend with me in multiple games. This game goes a lot harder than it needed to, but I think it resulted in one of the best games this year.

6 days ago


aquova finished Omaze
Omaze is a Playdate maze game heavily centered around circles. You are a circle and by turning the crank you move around the perimeter of larger circles, in an attempt to navigate across to the final circle. Each circle along your path features one or more clever obstacles, such as auto-rotation, enemies that chase you, or walls that disappear when the crank is docked, among others. It's a short but really clever puzzle game. I will admit that it can be a bit finicky to control, as some of the levels require using the crank and hitting the A and B buttons in quick succession, which makes getting a comfortable grip on the device difficult. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I think it's the best Playdate game I've tried so far by a wide margin.

7 days ago


aquova finished Flipper Lifter
Another short and sweet Playdate game utilizing only the crank, Flipper Lifter puts you in control of an elevator system utilized by a colony of penguins. The elevator moves up or down by turning the crank, and you need to get the penguins to their desired floor before they get frustrated and storm off. There's no progression to this game, it's an arcade-style system where you try to move as many penguins as possible before time elapses. The difficulty comes as the number of possible floors increases over time. It's a pretty elegant system, and reminds me a lot of Mini Metro. It does lack the strategy of these sorts of games though, as there's not much else to it besides trying to group like-minded penguins together. However, it's a fun time and has good visuals and music, along with some clever touches, such as elevators being harder to move upwards the more full they are. Of the Playdate Season 1 games, this is probably my favorite thus far.

8 days ago


aquova is now playing Omaze

8 days ago


aquova is now playing Demon Quest '85

8 days ago


aquova is now playing Echoic Memory

8 days ago


8 days ago


aquova is now playing Melvor Idle

8 days ago


aquova finished Lost Your Marbles
The first Playdate season has done a good job of giving out a wide variety of different genres, with this week's title being a visual novel -- Lost Your Mables. It's a short story about a girl traveling around an eccentric town looking for her dog. Dialogue choices are made by playing a pseudo-pinball minigame, which uses the crank to tilt a stage, allowing the player to direct a ball into one of three dialogue options. It has some clever writing and some cute characters, but I'll admit I didn't care much for this game. The plot is goofy to the point of not mattering, and the dialogue minigame, while cute, is difficult to control and none of the dialogue choices feel all that impactful. This game does claim to have 10 different endings though, so if you really enjoy it, you can subjugate yourself to trying to hit the needed targets. However, this was one of the weaker Playdate titles for me.

16 days ago



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