BORN TO DIE
WONDERWORLD IS A FUCK
中裕司 Insider Trade 'Em All 2023
I am balan man
171,000,000¥ IN FINES

I can't remember the last time I fell asleep while playing a game. I'm not even trying to be funny, it happened. One second I was climbing the webs on World 3, the next second I woke up to a "The UE4-Happiness game has crashed - Fatal Error!" message on my screen, probably thanks to my face resting on top of the keyboard and screwing something up from so many inputs. (Gotta say, "Happiness Game" is a REALLY funny code name)

So, I decided to check this out as a little intermission in my Sonic marathon before moving on to Sonic Frontiers. I played NiGHTS for the marathon as well, so, y'know, I figured that Balan would have some of its DNA considering the pedigree behind it.
This game has so many things going for it. I ADORE the art direction, and the CG quality is absurd. Legit, it has one of the prettiest intro cutscenes I've ever seen, that hair tech is INSANE. The soundtrack is very bouncy and fun, exactly what I expect out of a collectathon platformer, shoutouts to Corn for Days, and the story is very interesting in concept. An adventure where you go through the mind palaces of people who are disillusioned or down on their luck and beat the shit out of their inner demons to help them get through it? It's a cool idea, and it's represented very well through its visuals. The scenery bends and twists in unexpected ways, objects and platforms float and move about, it's all very dreamlike.

But god damn, this was a BORE to play through. Yes, the art direction is very strong and the setup was intriguing, but that's where it ends bro. There is NOTHING here, 5 worlds in and I had to pass. Any other platformer can do what this game does, and much better at that.
For starters: One button for every action in the game. One fucking button. Why is this a thing? Why would you come up with a system that limits your ability to jump depending on the costume you're using, in a 3D PLATFORMING game? And it's not like it makes for any interesting decisions, there are no scenarios where the limitation is justified. You can just swap to a different costume that is able to jump whenever the situation calls for it, so why bother? Why not make it a 2-button game if you're going for simplicity? One button for jumping, a mechanic that should be universal for a game like this, and another button for costume-specific actions. That's it, job done.
But even then, why the fuck would you go for such a limited control scheme? Some of the coolest things about collectathon platformers(at least from an outside perspective, given that I haven't played many of them) are the ways you go about collecting things, the movement options you have to get to your objectives, the kind of obstacle courses the game throws at you and the freedom you have to ignore said obstacles with the aforementioned movement options. There's a reason why Super Mario 64 is still played extensively to this day especially in speedruns: That game feels amazing to control, and it gives you a ton of different ways of interacting with your environment. Mario has like, 5 different kinds of jumps depending on when and how you jump.
Balan has some differences in the way you jump, but they're not universal. Each mechanic is locked to a specific costume, and you can only carry 3 of them with you. Get hit once and you lose your costume, btw.
Going back to Mario, imagine if you could only long jump when using a specific cap. And even then, once you pick that cap up, you can ONLY long jump, nothing else.

I was going to give the game some credit for the levels, seeing as how you can jump on nearly everything and explore that way. Very few invisible walls, which made me think there would be a TON of secrets hidden around the place. There aren't.
There's this part where you're jumping towards a clock tower, and you can just barely see that the side of the tower has a spot you can stand on. Once you're there, the game teases you again by showing that you can keep going around the tower.
In ANY OTHER platformer, hell, in Sonic Unleashed, the back of that tower would have SOMETHING. ANYTHING. A 1-up, a coin, a nut. Balan gave me nothing.

And that about sums it up tbh. Great production values and a promising premise, but it gave me nothing to play.

Going from playing this game on the PS3 to the Series X is, well...forgive me for using the most obvious joke, but

The difference is night and day.

It took over a decade to get technology that caught up to Sonic Unleashed, which is silly to think about, but I'm not going to complain. I'm going to play this game at peak performance, nothing in the way of my judgement. Almost no load times. A perfect 60 FPS. Will this embellish my opinion on the game? Almost definitely.

The daytime stages are considered "Peak Boost Sonic" by many for a justified reason: They are actually that good. The camera work is top-notch, and the gameplay, while fairly linear, is reactionary in the most satisfying way possible. The levels are stylized after real world locations, but they don't hesitate to stretch the laws of reality to make entertaining 3D Sonic setpieces. There's an inherent charm to running down (not) The Great Wall of China or blasting through the local farmers market, but then you're swirling through corkscrew walkways or jumping across ruins with constantly moving platforms. How do normal humans commute on these paths? Who cares, it looks cool as hell! Don't take my word for it though, Sonic loves these stages so much, he can't stop running his mouth! Phrases like "WOO! Feelin' good!" are ingrained into my memory, but his enthusiasm is infectious. It's one of those little things that bring the experience together, I would sorely miss it if it were absent.

Approaching the Werehog on its own merits has brought the cataclysmic side effect of me actually enjoying it. He's a big fluffy boy with funny stretchy arms, a trait that assists him in both combat and platforming. In fact, I'd argue it leans a bit more on the latter. There's a lot of funny moves and combos to unlock, including mechanics such as guard-canceling, and you can get surprisingly creative if you don't just settle on mindlessly mashing out your basic combos. The Werehog is at its best when it's giving you jungle gym-esque obstacle courses to monkey around on. You can find some pretty nifty shortcuts if you're paying attention, too. There's a LOT of stuff to collect if you go looking for it, and you should! Exploring these stages gives you a chance to listen to the phenomenal night stage music, and soak in the moody atmosphere. The night stages are inherently longer and slower-paced, and they serve as a good supplement to the breakneck daytime stages.

Even if the locations in Unleashed are fictional, they're based off of very real locations and cultures. It honestly makes me want to travel abroad. Big Sonic Unleashed fan excited to learn that Apotos is very real. This is the one time in the series where I actually like the presence of humans. They contribute to giving each area their own little slice of culture, and their Pixar-adjacent designs mesh well with Sonic and company. Also, hats off the the entirety of Sega Sound Team. I couldn't possibly name any one person as a figurehead for a soundtrack this diverse in genres, instrumentation, and composition. "Endless Possibility" is definitely a top 3 vocal track on my personal list. Probably even top 1, if I'm being honest!

Out of all the areas though, I feel like the real showstopper is Eggmanland, and I think that's because it's not loosely based on any real world location. It's just the artists flaunting their raw talent. After hours of running through locales filled with nature and society, you're greeted by the one stage that's cold and manufactured. Aside from a menacing piano, the music primarily opts for frantic artificial synths. The stage itself is constantly straddling the line between "comically hard" and "reasonably difficult", a marathon that serves as a test of all your skills. It all culminates in what I think is one of my favorite final levels in any game, ever.

My complicated stance on Sonic Unleashed can be concisely summed up with the antithesis of Sonic: Taking it slow. I like combing the Werehog stages for all their secrets. Hell, I like doing that in the Hedgehog stages too, to an exent. I love chilling in the hub areas, chatting up the locals and watching many of them go on their own little World Adventures over the course of the story. I also never have any real issues meeting the sun/moon medal requirements. I'm thorough in the Werehog stages, and I play the extra acts that show up and nab the medals from those too. Granted, I've played through this game multiple times, so I know to collect medals in anticipation of the thresholds, and I don't hit that roadblock. With the interest of being fair about mentioning the games flaws, here's a wall of general gripes:

-Sonic's drift flat-out doesn't fucking work. Not a fun mechanic.
-Spending time doing requests for the locals is only fun if you're a freak like me and don't expect meaningful rewards. The least they could've done was give you 100-500 EXP for finishing each one.
-The Were:Hedge ratio is (naturally) leaning pretty damn far to the Werehog's side. I get that most people probably aren't going into a Sonic game expecting a 3D beat-em-up, which is where most of the ire comes from. Just because I like it doesn't mean everyone will.
-Yeah, the Werehog battle theme is absurdly overused. The most irritating part about it is the first few seconds of the theme, something you'll hear A LOT as you start and end encounters. What else can I say, aside from "I got used to it."
-The constant quick time events can be a bit much. The doorbell sound effect for succeeding at one probably drove an entire generation of canines up the wall.
-The level order is just bizarre. I think it's like that so you naturally revisit villages as the game's story progresses (and you get a chance to see how the locals react), but it's more confusing to constantly hop around areas like this.
-Hot Dog Missions are terrible. Just unashamed, unoriginal padding. God forbid you want all the cheevos in this game.

I feel like one of the rules of being a Sonic fan is that you have one game in the whole series that you can't get enough of. Well, at long last, I can say without a doubt that Sonic Unleashed is that game for me. This is the last game in the entire Sonic franchise where it feels like they actually had the time and resources to make something with scope. This series never seems to stick to one idea, but every game seems to have its fans all the same. So I'll keep dreaming of a PC port so more people will give this game a second look. After all, the possibilities are never-ending.

My gaming equivalent to The Force Awakens. My hype leading up to the release of this game was honestly a little over the top, and when it actually released, that excitement shot me well past the point of any measured critical thought. This game was a masterpiece, 10/10, anyone who said otherwise was just a nitpicking, biased contrarian. Of course, with time I gradually started to notice the cracks, and by the time Fallout 76 came out, I realized there was probably a lot that I was okay with that I probably shouldn’t have been.

Levelling and perks are streamlined right down. Fun and creative builds are still possible, but role playing is limited by a constrictive story where your choices are practically inconsequential, not to mention the writing itself just being nowhere close to the level of New Vegas’. It’s full of bugs, A.I. issues, broken questlines, and it crashes semi-frequently. Plus, I’ve always been bothered by the number of dead ends in this game. Stories, characters, questlines that feel like they still have ground to tread but just don’t, like why don’t the Minutemen ever try to take back Quincy after you build them back up? Why does the stuff with Danse just end after that one quest, why doesn’t he develop, why can’t you recruit him to any of the other factions? I’ve been looking up a lot of the cut and unfinished content for this game recently, and I’m convinced that if this game was given another year or even just a few more months of development time it would’ve been a completely different game.

There’s a lot wrong with the game, but that’s not to say it didn’t do a lot of good too. The world is colourful and atmospheric, with lots of landmarks to check out, with that moody soundtrack as the cherry on top. The companion characters are imo best in the series, I swear they funnelled all of their writing talent into the character of Nick Valentine. Gunplay and VATS are vastly improved, VATS isn’t quite the crutch it was in the older games. Customization is great across the board, weapons, outfits, power armor. The thing that probably ate up the most of my time though was the settlement building. I loved building and fortifying strongholds, repairing the Castle, building towns at Starlight Drive-in and Spectacle Island, I remember I was watching The Walking Dead at the time, so I used the rug glitch to build a junk wall around Sanctuary, modelled it after Alexandria. I got really into roleplaying them as this “take what we can get” type militia, so for every assault rifle or laser I handed out, I’d give someone else a hunting rifle or lever action, for every combat armor, a leather strap and so on.

In short, I like it still, it has a ton of content and does things that keep me coming back to it now and again, but it’s flaws are pretty hard to ignore and as an adult I have to say that New Vegas is definitely still better.

Broadly speaking, challenge design in video games tends to revolve around one of two concepts, let's call them "newness" and "oldness." We can represent these two schools with opposite ends of the spectrum: an entirely contextual puzzler like Myst, where your ability to progress is synonymous with your ability to synthesize unfamiliar information, and a single-screen arcade game like Tetris, in which every possible mechanical outcome is immediately apparent and instead it's on the player to react to a rapidly changing state. Though these are extreme examples, as a general rule newness-focused games are less enjoyable when they become old, and oldness-focused games are less enjoyable while they're still new. Unless you manage to wipe your memory, there's not much to get out of Myst on a second run, and, conversely, the foremost tenant of traditional game design is to limit newness as much as possible- Tetris's extraordinary staying power is thanks to it accomplishing this more effectively than any of its peers. Resident Evil is unique in that it's disjointedly designed to harness both newness and oldness: your first playthrough centers around figuring out your goal, hunting for supplies, and traversing the unknown, and everything that follows sees you using your preexisting knowledge of Spencer Mansion's layout to route through it as efficiently as possible. Functionally, that's why there's two protagonists with slightly diverging paths, so a higher percentage of players will complete the game more than once and thus experience both sides of the medallion. It's also why the remake's addition of crimson heads is downright transformative. At first, they're another layer of obstacles that takes you by surprise, even if you've played the original game, and, on revisit, the sense of paranoia that they induce becomes a major wrinkle in how you approach the game's opening hours. Crimson heads are spooky when you don't know they're coming, and they're still spooky when you know they're coming, which best sums up the game's two-way design philosophy. What makes Resident Evil special even among other games that attempt something similar (Super Metroid and Dark Souls come to mind) is that, outside of getting used to its tank controls, there's pretty much no motor skill required. Cover to cover, it's entirely a brain game, and, at its best, it can feel like a constantly shifting set of puzzles and solutions.

I've never much cared for the original Resident Evil 2, mostly because of how it upsets the balance between newness and oldness. My theory is that Kamiya & co. didn't think they could pull off both without feeling derivative of the first game, and instead decided to focus primarily on the new. The RPD HQ is gorgeous but its long, looping hallways make it so there's usually a "correct" path to take at all times, and it's still by far the most well designed of the three locations you visit. Weapon upgrades, puzzle boss fights, and that one window shutter mechanism are all neat but don't feel like they add much to the experience on a deeper level, and the addition of a dedicated "B" campaign means that the newness continues into a replay- let's not forget that Tyrant originally doesn’t show up until your second run. With twenty years of available technological improvements, I fully expected 2's remake to pile on the newness even further, and ink ribbons not being present in the intended difficulty (which is kind of absurd in its own right) was an early sign that I might’ve been correct. But, surprisingly, I enjoyed my second run much more than my first. Part of this is because the added newness often misses- some cool puzzle elements are overshadowed by too many predictably cinematic moments, and everything that happens while transitioning between locations is pretty awful. The boring Ada & Sherry sections, that bizarre crocodile chase that feels straight out of RE4 (in a bad way), having to dodge G’s claws for like five minutes before getting to fight him in the sewers, and that melodramatic “my daughter’s a zombie” cutscene that feels straight out of The Last of Us- getting reminded that people care about, like, the overarching story of Resident Evil always gives me a bit of whiplash. Despite the sewers being significantly streamlined from the original, this stuff breaks up the flow even more egregiously because of how smoothly things were going directly beforehand. But, for me, the game’s lowest point came when I was killed by a licker for the first time and was immediately greeted with a loading screen tip that told me to walk slowly, which canceled out any potential newness that lickers might’ve offered and ensured that I was virtually never bothered by one ever again. That is, until I ran into a licker while I was being chased by Tyrant- forcing you into a situation where you have to modulate your movement speed is a good example of how the game eventually starts to shine. While I prefer the precise, robotic nature of the earlier games’ tank controls, RE2’s remake embraces the scramble. Planning and strategizing, here, are less fun than going in gung-ho, kneecapping zombies on reflex, and picking up items out of desperation rather than out of foresight. It feels like a full realization of the original game’s more action-focused dreams that weren’t attenable in ‘98: being able to damage individual body parts, enemies that are free to move into adjacent rooms, and having to listen for groans and footsteps while running for your life all make for an intense, fast-paced siege and help to alleviate the more linear level design even if they don’t totally make up for it. Does it come close to either version of RE1 for me? No. But it’s a damn good entry in the series. And, most importantly, it transformed a game I never clicked with into one that I ended up enjoying. If that doesn’t qualify it as a great remake, then nothing ever could.

After a 7 year wait, the sequel to Ninja Theory's cinematic dark fantasy look at psychosis has finally arrived. Xbox has positioned this game as a very high-profile exclusive, as they've proudly showcased it with much fanfare at both their own events as well as at The Game Awards. Unfortunately, Senua's second outing came up a little short for me thanks to its lack of compelling gameplay and inconsistent narrative.

Becoming a big budget Xbox title is an interesting trajectory for this franchise, since the first game was an effort to make a Triple A-esque cinematic experience outside of the studio system. Ninja Theory was tired of trying to meet publisher demands and were just going to do their own thing or die trying. As a result, they got scooped up by Microsoft and Hellblade II is coming at us from a very different angle than last time.

Senua's Saga first and foremost feels like a technical showpiece, with groundbreaking motion and facial capture that really is impressive and photorealistic. The faces looked so good at times that I was caught wondering if the game had switched to live action (a trick Ninja Theory has pulled in the past), but nope, all of this is in-engine. The work that has gone into the performances, as well as the Icelandic landscapes where the game is set can be at times stunning to hold. Of course, the audio design is still fantastic as well and plays as important a role as ever in the story.

Where the first game had Senua coming to grips with her psychosis while also learning to move on from her deceased lover, Hellblade II finds her in an arguably steadier place mentally as she has learned to live with the voices in her head. Hellblade I felt basically felt like a panic attack at all times, but here Senua feels more capable and confident. Resultingly, this game is more focused on Senua meeting some companions and slowly learning to become a leader, while also fearing that she is becoming a ruthless and violent killer. I enjoyed seeing her interact with some new friends and foes through the journey, which makes it all feel less isolated than the first game and a bit more ambitious in scope. That being said, Hellblade II's storyline feels sort of directionless for a good chunk and when it finally starts to coalesce, the game is nearly over.

Gameplay-wise, Hellblade II feels like a step in the wrong direction from its predecessor. You'll still see some of the perspective navigation puzzles as well as the rune matching parts from the previous game, but these are all made easier from the already pretty simple brain teasers you'd find in Hellblade I. I've found the rune puzzles to be tedious in both games but this one will basically just snap you to the solution as long as you're kind of looking in the general area of the right spot. I just think of something like the Plague Tale games where the environmental context of the puzzles are always so compelling and unique- whereas in Hellblade it feels like a forced layer of interactivity so the whole game isn't just a walking sim.

Speaking of which, this game does get closer to walking sim vibes than the first with lengthy sequences where you aren't doing anything other than holding forward or climbing up or down small ledges. There's some walk-and-talk with the companion characters at times but it makes the whole game feel a bit dull at times. It doesn't help that the environments, while pretty, blend together after a while and feel narrow in scope. The visual fidelity of course comes with plenty of tight caves, perfect for the typical wall squeeze animations to hide load times.

Like the perspective puzzles, Hellblade II also simplifies the combat from the first game. You still have your light and heavy attack, parry, and focus meter/special attack, but the rhythm of combat feels a lot different this time. Instead of facing some three, four, or five guys at once, in this game you'll only be going up against one enemy at a time. This choice is definitely to focus in on the excellent motion capture and fight choreography, but the challenge of keeping track of where all of your enemies are to make sure you're not getting jumped from behind has been removed. I read that the main inspiration for the combat was the Jon Snow tracking sequence in the Battle of the Bastards fight in Game of Thrones. There are some really cool moments in this game where you're cinematically clashing with various foes with your companions, though the game craftily makes sure you only need to focus on one guy at once in the context of the fight.

Outside of a few deaths to the annoying fire-throwing enemy type, the combat in this game is extremely easy. The parry window seems shortened or less consistent than in the previous game, but I still had no trouble blocking and dodging throughout. Any boss encounters are against normal human-sized foes, don't expect to go up any great beasts like in the previous game. Overall the combat can be entertaining in moments, but there isn't a lot of variety to it and the game would benefit a lot from adding some more depth here.

Hellblade II feels like the sort of tech demo-ish title that would come out right at a console launch, which is odd for a follow-up for a game about mental health. The game took me less than 7 hours to get through as well, so at a $50 asking price, I can't imagine many people who aren't already GamePass subscribers jumping into this one. This is an odd title to position as a can't-miss Xbox showpiece, and feels like a somewhat emptier and less inspired follow-up to the cult hit of the first game.

Rise of the Ronin is the result of a long, long build-up by Team Ninja. Everything they learned since making Nioh have been all thrown together into this one big attempt to make a meaty open world action game. Standing on the shoulders of greats such as Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Ghost of Tsushima, Ronin is a massive game indeed. I don't usually do this, but I feel like I had to separate my review in a few parts just to make it a bit more digestible. Anyways, let's start. This will be a fun one.

-----

COMBAT (on Normal difficulty)

I enjoyed the two Nioh games, particularly because of the combat system. It tastefully fits Team Ninja's hack and slash origins into a Soulslike's deliberate, lock-on dependent tendencies. Both you and the enemies would just aggressively hammer on each other, constantly looking for chances to fully decimate the other first. I'm very happy to say this school of combat is at its absolute top form here. With 9 weapon types to choose (not including the ranged sub-weapons), each with their own selection of unlockable combat styles, you have a lot of freedom to structure your modes of attack. Then you have the various combo-enabling mechanics, such as abilities that can be done after canceling attacks, being able to restore Ki (stamina) after attacking, attacks that can only be done when you switch combat styles or weapons, and so on. When you find the weapon that suits you the most, and are able to fully take advantage of it, you can end even boss fights with just 2 or 3 openings, and it's an utterly exhilarating feeling to successfully nail a planned attack.

Also, shoutout to the team for making a childhood dream of mine come true; being able to use a bayonet rifle like the Gunblade that it was meant to be. It's hard to beat the Katana just because it's easily the most flexible weapon, but it's a very close 2nd best weapon type for me.

Since the enemies are also powered by the same aggresive mechanics, you would still need to properly execute defensive moves, and boy the parries are satisfying in this game. The flashy visual effect and the clashing sound creates a strong, exhilarating feel. There's also a system where some enemy types' attacks would be best parried by certain combat styles, which allows you stagger enemies much faster with the right style. On Normal it's not necessary to strictly follow this, but I'm sure on harder difficulties it would be a much more helpful tool.

A massive thing that I have to appreciate is how many enemy movesets there are, especially the bosses. There is a LOT of characters in this game, and everybody wants to spar with you, friend or foe. Even rematch bosses would have new attacks and patterns that make it feel like you have never fought them before. And there's a dojo where you can fight against the characters you have met so far, I gotta say it's quite addicting to just start one of these fights and keep grinding until you get a better score.

When all is said and done, what you get is basically an fast-paced "anime" action game with a grounded historical theme in realistic clothing. Just sit on that for a second, imagine all those embellished folktales of swordsmen of yore, with such skill that allows them to strike faster than light, deliver multiple stabs within a second, and so on. Ronin is bringing that to life.

-----

STORY ELEMENTS

The way Team Ninja approaches the story continues the maximalist approach that they have been happily leaning on. The game wants to have as many story arcs and scenes as possible, and it becomes this dramatized history action show that definitely feels cramped and too fast paced in some places, because it doesn't necessarily show these story arcs in detail. You'll often feel like relationships are progressing a bit too quickly. This isn't such a huge flaw to me because ultimately the game still delivers solid emotional moments, but it's definitely something to keep a note of.

What I like the most about the story is the romantic portrayal of its historical characters. Even when people from opposing sides meet, if they each have the chance to show their strength, then no matter how it ends, they will usually gain respect for one another. It's a oddly wholesome thing to have in the midst of this bloody struggle for Japan's future. It's not to say that pure animosity and degeneracy doesn't exist, but through this romantic lens, you get this strong feeling that all the characters want a better future in their own ways, and because of that, everyone's stories are worth paying attention to. There's also a handful of lighthearted story moments, and the game never feels like it takes itself too seriously. I can't speak at all to how it compares to actual historical facts, but I do want to read up on some history right after this, and surely it means that the game is doing something right.

Like I said before, there's a lot of characters to meet, even when you're in the final hours of the game already. It is definitely too many characters to fully keep track of, but I'll say that the game does a good job with the characters that takes the most prominent roles. A lot of them have more elaborate personal side missions (called bond missions) that makes them stand out as well, and they're usually quite worthwhile from the story standpoint. You can also get closer to some characters and initiate romances if you gift them enough nice stuff or do enough missions for them. I got locked in with three lovely people; they didn't seem to mind the polygamy, and the intimate scenes are pretty sweet and wholesome, so no complaints from me.

I think the most disappointing thing about the story is the endings being basically the same, despite having to make some choices that feels like they would matter more. It would be way more fun if they have more actual endings, mostly because the story really allows for a lot of potentially satisfying places for it all to end up on.

-----

OPEN WORLD

The open world areas are pretty standard for the most part, structure-wise. It's very Ubisoft-inspired, you can see the entire map of the region you're currently in from the start, you just have to unlock fast travel points by lighting bonfires. Other than the main/side missions, there's some stand out activities like collecting cute cats, and the shooting gallery & gliding challenges, which I wish they had more of.

In exploration, you have a glider that you can use anytime and anywhere provided enough height, and I have to admit that it was kinda underwhelming until I got the upgrade that allows you to glide faster. You can also drop firebombs from above later on, which is quite situational but still fun. Then you have a grappling hook that you can use to grapple onto certain spots of the environment. There's not a lot of grapple spots, which is disappointing. You can use it to hook onto enemies, which is the most fun usage of the hook, since you can use it either aggressive or defensively in an active combat scenario. Overall, I think they could have done more to make these traversal mechanics more useful. The open world design doesn't lean on these mechanics enough, IMO. I'm not necessarily expecting something like Insomniac's Spider-Man where you would just swing and zip and glide all over the place like a madman, but I wish the exploration has the same level of flashy pizzazz that the combat has.

I do love the quality of life stuff that they figured out, like being able to find out locations of collectibles by doing enough activities in a local sub-area. Basically you can earn XP to progress a "Bond level" for a sub-area, and when you level up 2-3 times, the collectibles locations are revealed. It makes the side activities more rewarding because you're essentially being led straight into more rewards right after.

I also love the overall setting of the open world, this specific era of Japan is just so interesting to me. It's so cool to see how the previously closed world of Japan is being interwoven with effects from the outside world, it's like a place stuck between two different periods of time. I don't think this era of Japan is well-explored in pop culture, so Team Ninja really did well to strike gold.

A particular quality that I noticed about the overall open world design is that it feels like they made a handful of Nioh-style linear, smaller levels, and made in-between areas to connect them. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyways, it's an approach that I have noticed more lately. Horizon Forbidden West had a similar feel, where I would stumble upon certain areas of the map that feels more deliberate and detailed in its design, and then I find out that a specific quest would take place in said area. It's probably a good way for a open world newbie like Team Ninja to start with, it's not like they did a bad job overall here. Finding a little nook in the map that feels intimately designed, taking a guess whether or not a quest will used that place as its backdrop, and finding out that you're right is a neat little meta-game.

There's also the neat detail of having other players' characters in the game. Every once in a while you'll stumble upon an NPC with an user name above them, and these are other people's MCs. You can see them just walking around the map, being held hostage in spots overrun by thugs, or even serving the antagonist's side as a hired ronin. It's a fun little touch that makes the game feel grander than it is.

-----

There's a lot more that I can talk about, but I want to end on how fashionable this game is. There's a lot of cool looking outfits/armors and weapons to collect. I probably spent maybe 5-6 hours total just trying to mix and match all the clothes and weapons I have. And it's all because you can just transmog your equipment so easily, so you don't have to worry about the stats. A lot of the coolest outfits/weapons are in the late game bond missions too, so you're getting rewarded for caring about the story of the characters. This whole fashion aspect of the game easily compensates for the horribly bloated loot system that Team Ninja carries from the Nioh games.

Now, that'll be enough. I had a lot of fun with Ronin. Although the open world aspects are far from perfect, it's clear to me that this is the way forward for Team Ninja. The claustrophobic and limited feel of their previous games always felt like the main obstacles for me to fully enjoy them. The open world approach fits Team Ninja because it always feels like they just want to do a lot of things at once, and in Ronin we finally get to see that desire unshackled. It's definitely my favorite Team Ninja game so far (although I'm not too familiar with their games before Nioh). They has successfully expanded their expertise, and that's good news for all of us.

john romero pulls up to this shit like a maestro. john romero pulls up to this shit like doom's his dimepiece and it's club night. john romero pulls up to this shit like he's been touched by the hand of God. anybody - and i mean anybody - who says that sigil isn't the best episode of doom is lying through their filthy fucking teeth. the level of complete ownage on display is rivaled only by the gnarliest of total conversions. the fact that it's sitting .3 below the base game (as of this review) and not being lauded over is nothing short of dumbfounding, dawg. i want anyone who disagrees with me to show me a smarter doom level than abaddon's void*.

the audacity of this romero, to map his enemy encounters and ammo stashes (and light sources!) like a survival horror title. either you grind out those secrets or you play sigil like it's resident evil with no inventory. enemy prioritization here is more important in half these levels than perfect hatred on ultraviolence. even with the secrets (which i found about half of) i was forced to run away from many enemies, rather than spill their guts. those baron of hell placements are perfect hatred pure evil. glorious, glorious Evil.

speaking of glorious, the music. Lord have mercy on my soul, these are the most killerest of tunes! i'm of course talking about the james paddock soundtrack that comes with the freeware version as filtered through my lovely timbres of heaven 3.4 soundfont. the buckethead soundtrack is... fine. i will take james' absolute mastery of midi rock over it any day. there is no truer joy than knowing that sigil's soundtrack sounds good through opl3 emulation. doom's soundtrack has always sounded like dogwater in opl3, but james... he gets it. he really gets it. if you won't play the wad, at least do yourself the favor of listening to its soundtrack.

it only took 25 years, but the truly ultimate doom episode that thy flesh consumed was promised to be is here. my hat is off and my knees are bruised. john romero has made me his bitch.

* = (i maybe prefer slough of despair, though i don't respect it nearly as much. )

(Demo abandoned)

What the fuck are we doing? How the hell did Dark Souls 3 become the template for action games?

"Oh, it's the potential for good levels!" But what would good level design even look like in this context? Dark Souls 1 has a simple combat system that doesn't rely on large open spaces without obstacles. This way the player can be trusted to defend themselves in most terrain, which in turn enables designs like Blighttown, Sen's Fortress, New Londo Ruins, etc. where enemies can meaningfully interact with the level geometry. One can argue how consistently applied or successful this was in practice, but there is a solid design goal there that's still visible even up to Elden Ring (as scattershot as that game is).

As you make combat systems and enemy AI more complex though, generally you'll have to start making the simplifying assumptions of plenty of open space and no blocking terrain, which in turn restricts your level design capabilities. This is fine if you build the game accordingly, i.e. most of the classic linear action games. But Dark Souls 3 likes do not actually seem to be aware of this and so have dragged along huge amounts of bloat sections (Stellar Blade: swimming, keypads, climbing) so they can continue to pretend that the spaces between fights have any relation to the actual mechanics.

Similarly constructed arguments can also be made for the following Souls systems, which I will leave as an exercise to the reader: items, camera, pacing, leveling.

So I guess the whole point of these games is to grit your teeth so that you can experience the combat system? But is the combat really all that interesting? The camera limits how many aggressive enemies you can reasonably handle at once, and not being able to hitstun enemies with normal attacks pushes you into hit and run defensive play, which in turn pushes you to abuse the simplistic, timing-based parrying and iframe systems that all these games are cursed with. Why bother when you can just play Nioh 2, which commits all the soulslike sins above but at least has actually interesting resource management, accessible hitstun, deep weapon movesets, and so on. Why play any of these games at all when you can play Monster Hunter where the defensive, commitment driven style that soulslikes are known for is a hundred times better executed?

This whole subgenre is a complete dead-end design wise and doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon. What a mess.

Absolutely perfect game from start to finish. After playing Returns I can clearly see that it walked so that Dread could run. Dread takes all of the best aspects in the previous games along with refining all the issues of the previous games and combined them to create this masterpiece. Every area is super memorable and fun to explore; the gameplay flow is just seamless and that makes returning to previous areas feel natural and not like a chore. The abundant number of boss fights is incredible and they're all super fun to fight against. They also added so much enemy and boss variety which was a problem that I had with Returns. The EMMIs are leagues above the SA-X in Fusion when it comes to gameplay due to their unscripted nature and forcing you to be skillful in avoiding them until you have the means to destroy them.

Lastly I wanna talk about the story and Samus' character in this game. While this game is much more focused on the gameplay (as the previous games mostly were as well), there isn't an insane amount of story content, which is fine. Instead we get major story reveals throughout the game which unveil a ton of cool lore and story that ties the previous stories together. Overall, this made Samus' character the most interesting she has been in the 2D series, and she didn't need to utter a single word for me to feel that way about her.

Dread is easily the best 2D Metroid, and probably the best 2D platformer I've played so far. It expands on everything the previous games had set up for it, and refines all the issues to create the most smooth gameplay experience in the series.