in the end none of the following will actually matter when my real review is "miracles do happen. cing is back. holy shit"

have to disclose that i'm significantly more familiar with the ds game, as sadly a few hours into playing R, my wii died and i never really had the chance to go back to it

the best way i can describe this as a remake, and i apologize in advance for the pretentiousness, is as a really good movie adaptation of a favorite book. everything is gorgeously realized, with taisuke kanasaki's art in particular stealing the show. but on the other hand, there's an element of intimacy lost in the process. personally speaking, that intimacy is a huge part of the appeal of cing's catalog, and having the characters fully emoting and speaking on screen, as amazing as it is, does take something away from it

of course, the original DS game is quite slim, and as personally meaningful as it is to me, i would hesitate to call it an all-timer in its genre. R definitely goes more interesting places with its story, but it can also certainly feel a bit meandering, even in the remake version, and intermingling with a cast of characters and teen drama might not necessarily be a welcome replacement to the more introspective and exploratory tone of the first game for everyone

so in essence, these are great, but personally speaking not definitive, remakes of pretty good, but personally very meaningful, games. even getting a taste of a future where cing continued on is a truly priceless thing for me, though. and i hope that through a similar miracle that brought about this remake in the first place, we can get more stories for ashley in the future (and kyle hyde (sorry i know everyone says this but i can't help it))

i feel like i really lucked out in picking up on what kind of game this was from the trailers lol. got my disappointment out of the way much earlier!

for what it is, it's good at what it does. dressup is fun and the outfits are cute. when it comes down to it, that's what i want and i'm happy with that

still, even within that scope, there are some bizarre oversights. sorting clothes is an absolute nightmare, and i have no idea why they wouldn't have multiple items of the same type stack in the menu. and as far as i can tell, there's no way to save outfits as favorites?

when it comes down to it, i wanted a new synsophia game, and they still have their spark. it's just obvious that this is nowhere near the budget or scope of a style savvy, and they did their best with what they have. i hope next time, they're able to make something at full capacity again

i can't believe i never checked this out until now, this is so good lmao

basically everything you want from a sunset riders follow-up -- better mechanics, crazier setpieces, amazing music, more cool storytelling moments. it really feels like they just went all out with it. it's hard to say that this isn't just flat-out better than sunset riders

....... that being said, i don't really think i can just say it's better than sunset riders lmao. it's hard not to feel like the ninjas and robots aesthetic is a bit trite compared to the devotion to the western theming and goofy vibes of sunset riders. i honestly can't say which one i like better, so i'll just be thankful we have two excellent games in the same spirit

its good!! there are some kinda arbitrary-feeling callbacks to goemon like the robot battles, but in the end this really isn't much like it at all. go into it expecting a new flagship kids IP by goodfeel rather than a true goemon successor

there are definitely pluses and minuses to this, one of the main pluses being the sheer scope of the game. i can promise it's at least 50% longer than you expect it to be lol. on the other hand, as a kids game targeted squarely at the corocoro audience, the gameplay is pretty simple and doesnt get much more complex throughout, and the writing is pretty juvenile. definitely not nearly as funny as any given goemon game, sadly

it's a pretty rare breed of 3d platformer nowadays, so i hope people check it out on those merits. if you want something that's not 100% a linear obstacle course, and not 100% a collectathon sandbox, this probably fits the bill! there are times when this design is a bit at odds with itself, like there being enough points-of-no-return in levels that require you to restart the whole thing to get missed collectibles that it starts to become irritating, but generally it works well and makes me long for the era of 3d platformers with open spaces to explore that aren't just about picking up trinkets

the art direction is generally pretty great, with the biggest caveat being that i kinda don't like any of the character designs at all? they're not bad necessarily, it just, once again, feels like a game like ninjala in the degree to which it targets the corocoro audience

probably the biggest mark against it of all is that goodfeel banked so hard on it and it backfired so spectacularly. i would've taken a game a quarter of this one's size if it meant there was any hope for this to lead to improved sequels. but at the very least, we got this weirdly expansive, pretty good 3D platformer that feels out of its time