brockf15
42 reviews liked by brockf15
Final Fantasy VII ''Rebirth'' Continues on with the fallacy that retelling the same story in a lengthier, more convoluted way, will somehow—someday— mean that more equals better.
The second coming of madness proves the faults of a ''quantity over quality'' philosophy; FF7's remake pushes through on presenting a thirty wordcount story in what feels like a thousand lines.
That which was once focused and intentional is lost in the sea of side content add-ons, there for the sake of justifying yet another 70-dollar purchase.
Because good things can't die, and if they can, then we'll just make them again— except completely different.
So long as nostalgic attachment can fuel another one.
And then some.
The second coming of madness proves the faults of a ''quantity over quality'' philosophy; FF7's remake pushes through on presenting a thirty wordcount story in what feels like a thousand lines.
That which was once focused and intentional is lost in the sea of side content add-ons, there for the sake of justifying yet another 70-dollar purchase.
Because good things can't die, and if they can, then we'll just make them again— except completely different.
So long as nostalgic attachment can fuel another one.
And then some.
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
This is an incredible experience. I phrase it that way because while I think there are a select few legitimate complaints to make about the game, these are only really relevant on a second playthrough. If you want a phenomenal and often jaw dropping 45-50 hour experience, this WILL deliver.
The combat just feels so good to play, like a character-action dark souls. The story was surprisingly compelling and I was genuinely immersed and even occasionally moved by the events and performances. Clive might have gruff protagonist voice but he's not written that way, he's shockingly compelling and so are most of the supporting cast. There's a ton of charm on display here, and some of the most jaw dropping boss fights I've ever played. I think this game begs to be completed fully on your first playthrough (ie most of the side content is borderline essential to the story and you'll want to do it).
For those criticisms I mentioned, the only one I think is valid is that there is a lack of build variety. You can craft better swords and armor but you just pick the one with the highest numbers, and your build is just which combo of six (nine, technically) abilities do you like best. BUT given how fun this game is to play and how you are getting new abilities to try out and integrate right up until the end, I feel like this can only be a knock against the game on a replay (after you've already got those 40-50 great hours out of it).
TLDR: a fantastic game to play once, but that once will be a very solid length of time.
The combat just feels so good to play, like a character-action dark souls. The story was surprisingly compelling and I was genuinely immersed and even occasionally moved by the events and performances. Clive might have gruff protagonist voice but he's not written that way, he's shockingly compelling and so are most of the supporting cast. There's a ton of charm on display here, and some of the most jaw dropping boss fights I've ever played. I think this game begs to be completed fully on your first playthrough (ie most of the side content is borderline essential to the story and you'll want to do it).
For those criticisms I mentioned, the only one I think is valid is that there is a lack of build variety. You can craft better swords and armor but you just pick the one with the highest numbers, and your build is just which combo of six (nine, technically) abilities do you like best. BUT given how fun this game is to play and how you are getting new abilities to try out and integrate right up until the end, I feel like this can only be a knock against the game on a replay (after you've already got those 40-50 great hours out of it).
TLDR: a fantastic game to play once, but that once will be a very solid length of time.
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
It is almost overwhelming to attempt and collect my thoughts on this game, much less summarize them into an actual sort of score. Above all else, this game feels like it accomplished everything it set out to. Final Fantasy XVI is just as exhilarating, emotional, and fantastical as you’d expect any entry in the series to be. It is filled with phenomenal characters and voice acting, a story both equally political and philosophical that is strongly focused on the human will at the macro and the power of the many interpersonal relationships at the micro, and an excellent combat system that deserves high praise.
At times even more important than any of these, however, was that Final Fantasy XVI is an excellent showpiece of the power of video games as a medium, and if anyone needs it, a reminder of just how fun a video game can be. The masterpieces that are the eikon battles, particularly the full Bahamut fight—perhaps one of my favorite sequences in video game history (including the story arc surrounding it) and one of the most impressive boss battles of all time—are some of the most fun I’ve had in a game. They left me in complete disbelief, brought me to tears, and I believe are the kind of experiences that everyone deserves to have in a piece of media. That is not to say that the rest of the game’s combat is not equally as fun. While I can’t say for certain, FFXVI may have my overall favorite action combat system of all time, one that made me unable to resist the temptation of NG+’s Final Fantasy Mode, and I almost never replay games, particularly right after beating them, even my favorites. The system of eikonic abilities and feats is fun, customizable, and probably my favorite implementation of the various iterations of ‘summons’ across the Final Fantasy series, as you get to take advantage of these awesome, godly beings more directly than ever before, each with their own set of gorgeous animations.
There’s also much to be said of FFXVI’s side quests, which are not nearly as bad as some have made them out to be. If anything, they are right in line with what you would expect from any given JRPG’s side quests, if not generally better. Every single one is fully voiced, making even the most straightforward tasks at least feel a part of your journey in some way, as Clive comments on his comings and goings throughout the various steps. The latter half of the game, and particularly right near the end, features a number of side quests that are in fact so important to world building and/or character development that I almost feel as though they could, and maybe should have been main quests. In my first play through I did nearly every single of the game’s side quests, partially because of the desire for completionism but also because I felt as though I might miss something important by skipping out on them. Many of the side quests open up areas that are otherwise inaccessible, consequentially unlocking more content, usually with another hunt that would be found in that same area. The item rewards for the non “+” special side quests aren’t always great, but doing a large number of them gives you Renown that does become quite rewarding, becoming a great source for ability points, for example. I wouldn’t normally spend so much time talking about a game’s side quests but it was one thing that I found many people to be wrong about. The vast majority of them are worth doing, the only reason I wanted to not at times is simply because I was anxious to find out what happened next in the main story. The ‘final’ conclusive side quests that I mentioned you get at the end of the game complete the story arcs of nearly every important side character and village, leaving almost no knot untied.
The discourse surrounding this game has been pretty exhausting, but once it dies down a bit as time goes on I think that FFXVI will absolutely be remembered as a hallmark entry in the Final Fantasy series and an excellent game in its own right. It is certainly a new direction for the series, most immediately evident in the M rating, which it does not abuse to be unnecessarily edgy. Instead, it tells a mature story that does not hold back in its brutality at times, but also with deeply emotional moments that support much of the excellent character development seen in nearly everyone, even Torgal. I grew to really love the world of Valisthea. Although the areas are a bit smaller than what we might come to expect in some more recent AAA games, the linearity was somewhat appreciated as a departure from the at-times exhausting need to explore every crevice of the massive open worlds that we get so often these days. While most of the environments aren’t the most colorful or diverse, the dark fantasy setting is still beautiful in its own right, and fits perfectly with the tone of the game. The many cities and towns make the world feel alive, something that I find to be very important in the success of game settings.
Final Fantasy XVI is a special game that I feel we will not see anything like until perhaps the next major Final Fantasy game. It takes so many of the franchise’s established concepts, creatures, and tropes and puts them in a scope unlike anything before, setting a new precedent for what we should come to expect in the series. The incredible cutscene direction, boss battles, and story reminiscent of many themes from the series’ past make FFXVI a more-than-worthy entry in the legendary franchise, one that in many ways I see as a culmination of some of the best aspects of it fully realized in a way that was never possible before. As almost no game is, it’s not perfect, but any major issues I had are few and far between and I don’t believe are anything worth considering a drastic fault. As so many people do, I love this franchise, and believe FFXVI turned out to be everything I was hoping it could be.
edit: Think I'm settling on a strong 9.5/10
At times even more important than any of these, however, was that Final Fantasy XVI is an excellent showpiece of the power of video games as a medium, and if anyone needs it, a reminder of just how fun a video game can be. The masterpieces that are the eikon battles, particularly the full Bahamut fight—perhaps one of my favorite sequences in video game history (including the story arc surrounding it) and one of the most impressive boss battles of all time—are some of the most fun I’ve had in a game. They left me in complete disbelief, brought me to tears, and I believe are the kind of experiences that everyone deserves to have in a piece of media. That is not to say that the rest of the game’s combat is not equally as fun. While I can’t say for certain, FFXVI may have my overall favorite action combat system of all time, one that made me unable to resist the temptation of NG+’s Final Fantasy Mode, and I almost never replay games, particularly right after beating them, even my favorites. The system of eikonic abilities and feats is fun, customizable, and probably my favorite implementation of the various iterations of ‘summons’ across the Final Fantasy series, as you get to take advantage of these awesome, godly beings more directly than ever before, each with their own set of gorgeous animations.
There’s also much to be said of FFXVI’s side quests, which are not nearly as bad as some have made them out to be. If anything, they are right in line with what you would expect from any given JRPG’s side quests, if not generally better. Every single one is fully voiced, making even the most straightforward tasks at least feel a part of your journey in some way, as Clive comments on his comings and goings throughout the various steps. The latter half of the game, and particularly right near the end, features a number of side quests that are in fact so important to world building and/or character development that I almost feel as though they could, and maybe should have been main quests. In my first play through I did nearly every single of the game’s side quests, partially because of the desire for completionism but also because I felt as though I might miss something important by skipping out on them. Many of the side quests open up areas that are otherwise inaccessible, consequentially unlocking more content, usually with another hunt that would be found in that same area. The item rewards for the non “+” special side quests aren’t always great, but doing a large number of them gives you Renown that does become quite rewarding, becoming a great source for ability points, for example. I wouldn’t normally spend so much time talking about a game’s side quests but it was one thing that I found many people to be wrong about. The vast majority of them are worth doing, the only reason I wanted to not at times is simply because I was anxious to find out what happened next in the main story. The ‘final’ conclusive side quests that I mentioned you get at the end of the game complete the story arcs of nearly every important side character and village, leaving almost no knot untied.
The discourse surrounding this game has been pretty exhausting, but once it dies down a bit as time goes on I think that FFXVI will absolutely be remembered as a hallmark entry in the Final Fantasy series and an excellent game in its own right. It is certainly a new direction for the series, most immediately evident in the M rating, which it does not abuse to be unnecessarily edgy. Instead, it tells a mature story that does not hold back in its brutality at times, but also with deeply emotional moments that support much of the excellent character development seen in nearly everyone, even Torgal. I grew to really love the world of Valisthea. Although the areas are a bit smaller than what we might come to expect in some more recent AAA games, the linearity was somewhat appreciated as a departure from the at-times exhausting need to explore every crevice of the massive open worlds that we get so often these days. While most of the environments aren’t the most colorful or diverse, the dark fantasy setting is still beautiful in its own right, and fits perfectly with the tone of the game. The many cities and towns make the world feel alive, something that I find to be very important in the success of game settings.
Final Fantasy XVI is a special game that I feel we will not see anything like until perhaps the next major Final Fantasy game. It takes so many of the franchise’s established concepts, creatures, and tropes and puts them in a scope unlike anything before, setting a new precedent for what we should come to expect in the series. The incredible cutscene direction, boss battles, and story reminiscent of many themes from the series’ past make FFXVI a more-than-worthy entry in the legendary franchise, one that in many ways I see as a culmination of some of the best aspects of it fully realized in a way that was never possible before. As almost no game is, it’s not perfect, but any major issues I had are few and far between and I don’t believe are anything worth considering a drastic fault. As so many people do, I love this franchise, and believe FFXVI turned out to be everything I was hoping it could be.
edit: Think I'm settling on a strong 9.5/10
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
"fuck it, finally a fantasy"
~fred durst (2021)
consistently fun but bogged down by way-too-frequent mmo-esque fetch quests, a dogshit main antagonist and jill's comical lack of characterization
when it hits though, it really fucking hits. clive is a terrific lead, (kupka is also a fantastic rival) every major set piece manages to one up the last and the combat, whilea bit easy for an action game absolutely braindead, is really fucking fun
only ps4/5 game thus far to feel like a truly "next gen" experience and a crystal clear reminder of the heights this series can reach when it's not rife with developmental problems
edit: that last line is still mostly correct but not in the way i'd like. it's certainly next-gen in terms of scope and scale with regards to spectacle, but the actual writing is piss poor. this was very much a honeymoon game and ng+ made it clear. xvi feels like a first draft
~fred durst (2021)
consistently fun but bogged down by way-too-frequent mmo-esque fetch quests, a dogshit main antagonist and jill's comical lack of characterization
when it hits though, it really fucking hits. clive is a terrific lead, (kupka is also a fantastic rival) every major set piece manages to one up the last and the combat, while
only ps4/5 game thus far to feel like a truly "next gen" experience and a crystal clear reminder of the heights this series can reach when it's not rife with developmental problems
edit: that last line is still mostly correct but not in the way i'd like. it's certainly next-gen in terms of scope and scale with regards to spectacle, but the actual writing is piss poor. this was very much a honeymoon game and ng+ made it clear. xvi feels like a first draft
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
i hope whoever invented hold to select instead of just a confirmation screen rots
This is a classic case of "The first one would be better if this one didn't play so much better". Every addition made to the formula here is good, I especially loved the blaster. The world is fun to explore, the combat engaging, the story intriguing. But honestly I'd rather have had a more linear game with a more expansive and bombastic story. This isn't dark souls with wallrunning, it's a star wars game. It's at its best when you're having engaging sword duels, digging into the plot, traversing the galaxy. I had fun exploring the world, I really did, but I just would've rather seen it go another way.
Bottom line, I had fun. I got all the collectibles I cared to and customized everything in a way I liked, defeated most of the bosses (including the spawn of Oggdo, oof), and then finished the story for a nice sense of completion. For that, it was a good experience.
I wish I could've done the bounty hunting missions but my game bugged out and never unlocked those (vendor won't speak to me, bounty tab in journal just says "undiscovered". So beware, the game is still rather buggy.
Bottom line, I had fun. I got all the collectibles I cared to and customized everything in a way I liked, defeated most of the bosses (including the spawn of Oggdo, oof), and then finished the story for a nice sense of completion. For that, it was a good experience.
I wish I could've done the bounty hunting missions but my game bugged out and never unlocked those (vendor won't speak to me, bounty tab in journal just says "undiscovered". So beware, the game is still rather buggy.
This review contains spoilers
This turn-based RPG for my favourite franchise has always interested me, but somehow I never played it until now.
The story timing of the game was confusing. How do you make an RPG out of a saga that consists of one battle, a training period, and then another couple of battles? Well the answer is of course to fill that training period with a lot of filler. But first, the game actually starts at...the beginning of the 23rd Budokai arc? You actually start BEFORE the 3 year time skip too, during which you get to spend some time with Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan on some game-exclusive training missions, both together and alone.
Once into the canon part of the martial arts tournament the game sets a weirdly misleading idea of how the pacing will go. Most of this arc is skipped. Plot points are only briefly brought up in dialogue (my favourite part is when they talk about how Piccolo "ate" Kami after he sealed him, only for Kami to appear in a later cutscene with no explanation), and every fight except Goku vs Piccolo is skipped entirely, shown only as static images.
So after we get 1 fight for this entire ass tournament, we move on to the main event, right? Well actually no, first we get the wedding dress filler arc! Which gets way more attention and time than the actual canon fighting arc. I guess it is more adventure-focused, so whatever.
By the time we get to Z and finally get Gohan as a character, he starts at level 1, while everyone else has the benefits of their training in previous chapters. Accurate to the story? Kinda (not accounting for Gohan's hidden powers). Balanced for gameplay? I mean... also kinda, they don't put Gohan in high level areas. But it's annoying to have done all that training just to start fresh with a new character.
Anywho from here canon plot points are given major focus, unlike the 23rd Budokai. Cutscenes go on for a very long time, pretty much explaining everything in detail. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just...weird. Why start the game with this kind of rushed storytelling, as if you're acknowledging players should be familiar with the story, then afterwards make sure the player understands every story beat to the letter?
From here we kind of alternate between canon, anime filler and game-exclusive. The biggest chapter of the game, and the one that really tells you "we're a video game, we need more content that our separated cast can't bring!" being when you have to find the dragon balls, at which point Piccolo, with Gohan in tow, teams up with the Earthlings to look for them. Oh and Goku gets brought back by Baba to help them look! Can you imagine how insane that'd be in the real story? Goku being brought back mid-way through their training, to team up with still-evil Piccolo and the good guys? It's funny. And to get a lot of locations for this DB hunt, the game goes back to the original. You visit places like Muscle Tower, the pirate cave and Pilaf Castle.
So that's how you make an RPG about a very simple, small-scoped saga. You essentially shoehorn in everywhere from the series that doesn't appear in this era. And that's not even getting in to the game-exclusive areas.
I do like some of the little stories they added to the game. Plus there's one moment in said chapter where everyone teams up to search for the dragon balls, at the end of it they of course need to go their separate ways so they're in position to be in their canon spots when we get back to that part, well since Gohan is supposed to be kidnapped, but has been hanging out with everyone just fine, the game addresses this by actually having Piccolo offer Gohan to stay behind with the heroes, only for Gohan to say he wants to keep training. A surprisingly great character development moment.
This all gets even weirder when you realise that in Japan this was branded as a "Kai" game (it came out around the same time Kai started airing). But that just raises so many more questions! OK, it does help explain why they picked this specific period since that's where Kai starts, but why would it then add 23rd Budokai stuff that doesn't exist in Kai? Why does it add filler that only exists in Dragon Ball Z, that Kai specifically removed to make a more accurate retelling of the manga? If you were a kid who just started watching Kai, and then picked this game up, you'd be so confused, but even more confused when you learned many parts of this game aren't actually made up for the game, but came from the old anime. Why brand it a damn Kai game when it's clearly based on Z?!
So in summary the way this game handles story is an absolute mess. Oh and I figured the reason they didn't do a sequel is because the Namek saga would be awful for this type of game. You'd only really be able to play as Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta for most of it, and there's hardly any interesting landmarks on Namek to visit. And yet, the game STILL teases that a sequel was being worked on! It ends with them talking about the DB's on Namek (as in the manga) and then says "to be continued" before ending with a post credits screen of a silhouetted Freeza. What the heck was going on with this game? Let's not even get in to what the game would do if it ever got to the Boo arc, now that it used up Baba's 24-hour revival magic here.
I've already typed this much and I haven't even gotten to the gameplay yet. The story is easily the least important part of this whole thing, and yet the way it was done just fascinates the hell out of me.
Gameplay is fine. It's a pretty basic turn-based RPG honestly. There's a few things that stand out, like I don't know how many games have a dedicated "recovery" attribute where you auto-gain a bit of HP every turn. You've got a few special moves per character, but since Dragon Ball isn't known as being a very strategic RPG, you're mostly relying on brute strength with these. There's a few buff or healing movies, but I think only Tenshinhan's solar flare can cause a status effect. For the rest, you rely on items.
I don't think it's a bad battle system. It's simple, but it's flashy and fast enough. Basic attacks are a multi-hit combo rather than just a standard sword slash or something, and you even have the chance to get a lucky combo extender for extra damage. You've got a "sparking" meter which essentially acts as a limit bar. When full you can fire off a super move, or if multiple characters have a full one you can chain specific moves together to form an S-Combo. What is an S-Combo? Well it seems to just be literally watching the characters perform the moves as they would have anyway with zero difference, but now it has a unique name! I guess it might do more damage than using the moves alone? I basically never used these, just preferring to fire off the ultimate attacks.
There's a lack of polish in the translation that can be best seen by how the stats call one stat "Tc" which you'd assume stands for "Technique", especially since it's the stat that buffs your Ki moves. So what does every item that interacts with this stat call it? "Skill". Use an item that raises a characters "skill" stat and watch their "Tc" raise. Weird.
The speed stat also felt horribly broken. It's pretty simple how it's supposed to work - order in battle goes by biggest speed number to smallest. The first turn almost always goes like that, but why then does every turn after seem to shit the bed? Why is my Krillin going first on turn 1, but then 2nd on turn 2? There were no stat changes or status moves between. Why is the enemy attacking before or after me seemingly RNG? Why does the enemy sometimes straight up miss a turn? It's like the speed stat in this game is more a suggestion than hard numbers.
The game doesn't take much advantage of being an RPG by adding side quests. There's only 2 in the whole game, and both are long grindy ones rather than small self-contained stories. The first one has you give one NPC 1000 carrots. To get a carrot you need to equip a specific field item and defeat enemies, turning them into carrots. When using this item you do not get money or any regular item drops. So essentially you need to defeat 1000 enemies while forgoing the ability to gain cash or items, and you need to waste an item slot on it. Not very fun.
The other side-quest is pretty great though. Use Tenshinhan's mafuba to capture all non-boss enemies in the game. Whether the move will work isn't guaranteed, but you can raise the chances by lowering enemy health and giving them status effects, or getting new field-items (each is just an upgraded rice cooker). Sounds familiar right? Catching things by weakening them, into containers that have various tiers? To drive this point home even more, there are exactly 150 enemies in the game to capture. It's a very creative side quest. Albeit a grindy one, and the game lacks any info in-battle to say if you've already successfully used the technique on that specific enemy.
The games movement speed was a bit low, but it annoys me more because it has 2 different levels of unlockable speeds. Both are field items, meaning you have to use your slot on them if you wanna go faster than a snails pace. The first is gotten mid-way through the game (in a missable, albeit not easily, chest) and the second is the final reward for that capturing every enemy in the game mission. So yeah you'll likely have almost finished the game by the time you can get it.
Being slow is one thing, but I hate when a game offers what should be a run button as a damn unlockable.
The game has a secret boss, and it's no secret anymore that it's Broly. I guess fitting for the title, but surely Turles would fit both the title AND era? I'm not surprised at all they went with the more popular of the two though.
One other thing I wanna talk about is how in a couple of the chapters where Goku is in otherworld, Kaio sends him on a quest to a game-specific location (I think so anyway, maybe it was from a filler ep). For some reason in these 2 visits to this location, Goku is joined by a fully AI controlled Bubbles and Gregory. This assist party member thing NEVER happens outside of these chapters! Why are freaking Bubbles and Gregory implemented in this way but actual fighters like Chaozu and Yajirobe never get to see the battle screen? Lmao. It's not like it's a case of wanting to make sure Goku wasn't alone in his fights, because many chapters have characters fighting solo, including other chapters with Goku in Other World (like the Princess Snake segment). They're not even that helpful. They're mildly decent the first time, more as damage sponges than anything. But the second time they don't get any stronger despite the fact the enemies do, so their best use is to take a hit or two before they "run away" for that battle. I'd rather have just played Goku alone than have to sit through their animations every turn.
I feel like I've mostly complained about this game despite giving it 4 stars! But that's because it's only really the more minor complaints that are easy to hone in on. I can only really say that I loved playing the game in so many ways. I loved going through all these Dragon Ball locales with gorgeously designed backgrounds. The graphics truly can't be faulted. I liked the additional story stuff, I liked the music and little easter eggs. It's fun to fight well-known characters in a different way than the usual methods for Dragon Ball (fighting games or beat-em-ups).
It's an RPG for Dragon Ball fans, and the love of the franchise kinda just makes the game work in a way it would probably fail as a unique IP.
The story timing of the game was confusing. How do you make an RPG out of a saga that consists of one battle, a training period, and then another couple of battles? Well the answer is of course to fill that training period with a lot of filler. But first, the game actually starts at...the beginning of the 23rd Budokai arc? You actually start BEFORE the 3 year time skip too, during which you get to spend some time with Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan on some game-exclusive training missions, both together and alone.
Once into the canon part of the martial arts tournament the game sets a weirdly misleading idea of how the pacing will go. Most of this arc is skipped. Plot points are only briefly brought up in dialogue (my favourite part is when they talk about how Piccolo "ate" Kami after he sealed him, only for Kami to appear in a later cutscene with no explanation), and every fight except Goku vs Piccolo is skipped entirely, shown only as static images.
So after we get 1 fight for this entire ass tournament, we move on to the main event, right? Well actually no, first we get the wedding dress filler arc! Which gets way more attention and time than the actual canon fighting arc. I guess it is more adventure-focused, so whatever.
By the time we get to Z and finally get Gohan as a character, he starts at level 1, while everyone else has the benefits of their training in previous chapters. Accurate to the story? Kinda (not accounting for Gohan's hidden powers). Balanced for gameplay? I mean... also kinda, they don't put Gohan in high level areas. But it's annoying to have done all that training just to start fresh with a new character.
Anywho from here canon plot points are given major focus, unlike the 23rd Budokai. Cutscenes go on for a very long time, pretty much explaining everything in detail. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just...weird. Why start the game with this kind of rushed storytelling, as if you're acknowledging players should be familiar with the story, then afterwards make sure the player understands every story beat to the letter?
From here we kind of alternate between canon, anime filler and game-exclusive. The biggest chapter of the game, and the one that really tells you "we're a video game, we need more content that our separated cast can't bring!" being when you have to find the dragon balls, at which point Piccolo, with Gohan in tow, teams up with the Earthlings to look for them. Oh and Goku gets brought back by Baba to help them look! Can you imagine how insane that'd be in the real story? Goku being brought back mid-way through their training, to team up with still-evil Piccolo and the good guys? It's funny. And to get a lot of locations for this DB hunt, the game goes back to the original. You visit places like Muscle Tower, the pirate cave and Pilaf Castle.
So that's how you make an RPG about a very simple, small-scoped saga. You essentially shoehorn in everywhere from the series that doesn't appear in this era. And that's not even getting in to the game-exclusive areas.
I do like some of the little stories they added to the game. Plus there's one moment in said chapter where everyone teams up to search for the dragon balls, at the end of it they of course need to go their separate ways so they're in position to be in their canon spots when we get back to that part, well since Gohan is supposed to be kidnapped, but has been hanging out with everyone just fine, the game addresses this by actually having Piccolo offer Gohan to stay behind with the heroes, only for Gohan to say he wants to keep training. A surprisingly great character development moment.
This all gets even weirder when you realise that in Japan this was branded as a "Kai" game (it came out around the same time Kai started airing). But that just raises so many more questions! OK, it does help explain why they picked this specific period since that's where Kai starts, but why would it then add 23rd Budokai stuff that doesn't exist in Kai? Why does it add filler that only exists in Dragon Ball Z, that Kai specifically removed to make a more accurate retelling of the manga? If you were a kid who just started watching Kai, and then picked this game up, you'd be so confused, but even more confused when you learned many parts of this game aren't actually made up for the game, but came from the old anime. Why brand it a damn Kai game when it's clearly based on Z?!
So in summary the way this game handles story is an absolute mess. Oh and I figured the reason they didn't do a sequel is because the Namek saga would be awful for this type of game. You'd only really be able to play as Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta for most of it, and there's hardly any interesting landmarks on Namek to visit. And yet, the game STILL teases that a sequel was being worked on! It ends with them talking about the DB's on Namek (as in the manga) and then says "to be continued" before ending with a post credits screen of a silhouetted Freeza. What the heck was going on with this game? Let's not even get in to what the game would do if it ever got to the Boo arc, now that it used up Baba's 24-hour revival magic here.
I've already typed this much and I haven't even gotten to the gameplay yet. The story is easily the least important part of this whole thing, and yet the way it was done just fascinates the hell out of me.
Gameplay is fine. It's a pretty basic turn-based RPG honestly. There's a few things that stand out, like I don't know how many games have a dedicated "recovery" attribute where you auto-gain a bit of HP every turn. You've got a few special moves per character, but since Dragon Ball isn't known as being a very strategic RPG, you're mostly relying on brute strength with these. There's a few buff or healing movies, but I think only Tenshinhan's solar flare can cause a status effect. For the rest, you rely on items.
I don't think it's a bad battle system. It's simple, but it's flashy and fast enough. Basic attacks are a multi-hit combo rather than just a standard sword slash or something, and you even have the chance to get a lucky combo extender for extra damage. You've got a "sparking" meter which essentially acts as a limit bar. When full you can fire off a super move, or if multiple characters have a full one you can chain specific moves together to form an S-Combo. What is an S-Combo? Well it seems to just be literally watching the characters perform the moves as they would have anyway with zero difference, but now it has a unique name! I guess it might do more damage than using the moves alone? I basically never used these, just preferring to fire off the ultimate attacks.
There's a lack of polish in the translation that can be best seen by how the stats call one stat "Tc" which you'd assume stands for "Technique", especially since it's the stat that buffs your Ki moves. So what does every item that interacts with this stat call it? "Skill". Use an item that raises a characters "skill" stat and watch their "Tc" raise. Weird.
The speed stat also felt horribly broken. It's pretty simple how it's supposed to work - order in battle goes by biggest speed number to smallest. The first turn almost always goes like that, but why then does every turn after seem to shit the bed? Why is my Krillin going first on turn 1, but then 2nd on turn 2? There were no stat changes or status moves between. Why is the enemy attacking before or after me seemingly RNG? Why does the enemy sometimes straight up miss a turn? It's like the speed stat in this game is more a suggestion than hard numbers.
The game doesn't take much advantage of being an RPG by adding side quests. There's only 2 in the whole game, and both are long grindy ones rather than small self-contained stories. The first one has you give one NPC 1000 carrots. To get a carrot you need to equip a specific field item and defeat enemies, turning them into carrots. When using this item you do not get money or any regular item drops. So essentially you need to defeat 1000 enemies while forgoing the ability to gain cash or items, and you need to waste an item slot on it. Not very fun.
The other side-quest is pretty great though. Use Tenshinhan's mafuba to capture all non-boss enemies in the game. Whether the move will work isn't guaranteed, but you can raise the chances by lowering enemy health and giving them status effects, or getting new field-items (each is just an upgraded rice cooker). Sounds familiar right? Catching things by weakening them, into containers that have various tiers? To drive this point home even more, there are exactly 150 enemies in the game to capture. It's a very creative side quest. Albeit a grindy one, and the game lacks any info in-battle to say if you've already successfully used the technique on that specific enemy.
The games movement speed was a bit low, but it annoys me more because it has 2 different levels of unlockable speeds. Both are field items, meaning you have to use your slot on them if you wanna go faster than a snails pace. The first is gotten mid-way through the game (in a missable, albeit not easily, chest) and the second is the final reward for that capturing every enemy in the game mission. So yeah you'll likely have almost finished the game by the time you can get it.
Being slow is one thing, but I hate when a game offers what should be a run button as a damn unlockable.
The game has a secret boss, and it's no secret anymore that it's Broly. I guess fitting for the title, but surely Turles would fit both the title AND era? I'm not surprised at all they went with the more popular of the two though.
One other thing I wanna talk about is how in a couple of the chapters where Goku is in otherworld, Kaio sends him on a quest to a game-specific location (I think so anyway, maybe it was from a filler ep). For some reason in these 2 visits to this location, Goku is joined by a fully AI controlled Bubbles and Gregory. This assist party member thing NEVER happens outside of these chapters! Why are freaking Bubbles and Gregory implemented in this way but actual fighters like Chaozu and Yajirobe never get to see the battle screen? Lmao. It's not like it's a case of wanting to make sure Goku wasn't alone in his fights, because many chapters have characters fighting solo, including other chapters with Goku in Other World (like the Princess Snake segment). They're not even that helpful. They're mildly decent the first time, more as damage sponges than anything. But the second time they don't get any stronger despite the fact the enemies do, so their best use is to take a hit or two before they "run away" for that battle. I'd rather have just played Goku alone than have to sit through their animations every turn.
I feel like I've mostly complained about this game despite giving it 4 stars! But that's because it's only really the more minor complaints that are easy to hone in on. I can only really say that I loved playing the game in so many ways. I loved going through all these Dragon Ball locales with gorgeously designed backgrounds. The graphics truly can't be faulted. I liked the additional story stuff, I liked the music and little easter eggs. It's fun to fight well-known characters in a different way than the usual methods for Dragon Ball (fighting games or beat-em-ups).
It's an RPG for Dragon Ball fans, and the love of the franchise kinda just makes the game work in a way it would probably fail as a unique IP.
Forspoken
2023
Marvel this, marvel that, how about you marvel at these burgers im grillin, come get some
Forspoken
2023
MCU was a mistake
Forspoken
2023
Forspoken is genuinely a decent game and I'm really struggling to see what people as a whole are disliking about it.
At no point did I find the dialogue nor story 'cringe' as everyone else seems to, infact, it's just the same as most open-world RPG's - which is baffling to me.
I actually quite enjoyed the story, and my major criticism for the game is that it was a little bit too short.
Graphically, yes, it's been downgraded from the initial teasers and announcement - which, as a title built for the PS5 is disappointing, but it's still not the worst looking game I've ever played.
The open-world is pretty much the same as most modern open-world games, littered with locations to explore and 'complete' - and hundreds of chests to collect.
There's a surprising lack of side quests though, which is annoying given the story's length.
The combat, however, is the main draw for this game. It's something different and is incredibly engaging, once you've gotten the hang of how the spells work and using them combined with Forspoken's parkour system becomes just delightful to experience.
I will absolutely be spending the next 30 hours collecting everything in this game - and would not be mad at a sequel.
At no point did I find the dialogue nor story 'cringe' as everyone else seems to, infact, it's just the same as most open-world RPG's - which is baffling to me.
I actually quite enjoyed the story, and my major criticism for the game is that it was a little bit too short.
Graphically, yes, it's been downgraded from the initial teasers and announcement - which, as a title built for the PS5 is disappointing, but it's still not the worst looking game I've ever played.
The open-world is pretty much the same as most modern open-world games, littered with locations to explore and 'complete' - and hundreds of chests to collect.
There's a surprising lack of side quests though, which is annoying given the story's length.
The combat, however, is the main draw for this game. It's something different and is incredibly engaging, once you've gotten the hang of how the spells work and using them combined with Forspoken's parkour system becomes just delightful to experience.
I will absolutely be spending the next 30 hours collecting everything in this game - and would not be mad at a sequel.
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