danieladultman
1998
I'm not going to review this game because you all should know by now how great it is. It's my third favorite game of all time. That being said, I think that at least some quality of life improvements could have been added to the Master Collection, even little things like skipping the end credits would've been appreciated. Nevertheless, I'm just happy it's playable on modern consoles and with trophy support.
Speaking of trophies, I'm abandoning my platinum journey for the time being. I beat it four times, the last one being my Fox/Big Boss run and I was left utterly confused when it told me that I hit all the qualifications except I killed 37 people, and you need to kill less than 25. This left me a bit baffled, as I feel I only killed who I had to to advance the game. Anyways, I'd rather play other things than play through this a fifth time for an arbitrary platinum trophy. As much as I love them, I'm not the trophy hunter I once was.
Speaking of trophies, I'm abandoning my platinum journey for the time being. I beat it four times, the last one being my Fox/Big Boss run and I was left utterly confused when it told me that I hit all the qualifications except I killed 37 people, and you need to kill less than 25. This left me a bit baffled, as I feel I only killed who I had to to advance the game. Anyways, I'd rather play other things than play through this a fifth time for an arbitrary platinum trophy. As much as I love them, I'm not the trophy hunter I once was.
2021
I'm not going to go on and on about why Final Fantasy IV is one of my favorite games of all time (2nd to be exact, see my note on my Top 100 Favorites Games List). This game means so much to me, and pixel remaster is a wonderful way for you to jump in. My recommendations for you, fix the font to classic (this should be done for all the titles) and set the soundtrack to original instead of arrangement (I'd recommend arrangement for 1-3 but please please experience this GOAT soundtrack in its original form). From there, just get lost in the story and the characters and the world and everything that comes with it. This game lived endlessly in my imagination when I was a kid. This showed me what video games can be.
Platinum trophy #132
Platinum #8 of 2023
Platinum trophy #132
Platinum #8 of 2023
I played most of this last year and got distracted, but today I finally finished it.
Honestly, this game is excellent. Nearly every moment, boss and level is completely fun. Mechanically it's as simple as every other Kirby game is, but it feels the best to play in the entire series. I'd argue that this formula (which I'll call the Mario Odyssey formula) works even better here than it did in Super Mario Odyssey. 3D Mario games are great, don't get my wrong. But I love my 2D Mario. And I love this 3D Kirby.
The length is appropriate for what it is, and there's a good amount of extra content should you want to see it through 100%, gather all the collectibles and blueprints. I personally didn't do everything, rather I just beat the main story path while doing most of the optional side worlds.
Overall I loved this. Such a fun, easygoing time that I can see myself revisiting in the future.
Honestly, this game is excellent. Nearly every moment, boss and level is completely fun. Mechanically it's as simple as every other Kirby game is, but it feels the best to play in the entire series. I'd argue that this formula (which I'll call the Mario Odyssey formula) works even better here than it did in Super Mario Odyssey. 3D Mario games are great, don't get my wrong. But I love my 2D Mario. And I love this 3D Kirby.
The length is appropriate for what it is, and there's a good amount of extra content should you want to see it through 100%, gather all the collectibles and blueprints. I personally didn't do everything, rather I just beat the main story path while doing most of the optional side worlds.
Overall I loved this. Such a fun, easygoing time that I can see myself revisiting in the future.
Played via Game Boy on Nintendo Switch (THANK YOU NINTENDO)
So it's no surprise to me whatsoever that this game is a fun time. It's classic Mario gameplay on the go that I'm sure I would've loved as a kid. What sticks out to me here is the level design and how much fun the developers had with it. There's a space level, a graveyard level with little Jason Voorhees-inspired enemies, and of course it introduces Wario. For that alone, it's an important game.
I think the primary reason why I didn't completely love this is the gameplay isn't as tight as a lot of other Mario games. Mario is floatier with his jumps and slower when he runs and I'm sure that has to do with the hardware limitations of the original GameBoy. As cool as this game is, it definitely is not the best way to experience pure Mario gameplay, in my opinion.
Still, it's totally worth playing and I had a good time with it. (It's also very easy)
So it's no surprise to me whatsoever that this game is a fun time. It's classic Mario gameplay on the go that I'm sure I would've loved as a kid. What sticks out to me here is the level design and how much fun the developers had with it. There's a space level, a graveyard level with little Jason Voorhees-inspired enemies, and of course it introduces Wario. For that alone, it's an important game.
I think the primary reason why I didn't completely love this is the gameplay isn't as tight as a lot of other Mario games. Mario is floatier with his jumps and slower when he runs and I'm sure that has to do with the hardware limitations of the original GameBoy. As cool as this game is, it definitely is not the best way to experience pure Mario gameplay, in my opinion.
Still, it's totally worth playing and I had a good time with it. (It's also very easy)
2024
Alright, I downloaded it, played a couple sessions, popped a couple of trophies, and I'm out.
Look, I don't think it's necessarily bad, I just don't think I'm the target audience at all. Certain elements about it seem pretty polished. The gameplay ranges from alright to kinda frustrating depending on which character you play with.
But yeah, not for me. Moving on.
Look, I don't think it's necessarily bad, I just don't think I'm the target audience at all. Certain elements about it seem pretty polished. The gameplay ranges from alright to kinda frustrating depending on which character you play with.
But yeah, not for me. Moving on.
After the incredible drop that was this and Wild Arms 2 on Playstation Plus Premium with trophy support it was a tough call which one to go with first, but ultimately I went with The Legend of Dragoon and I was not disappointed. This was my first time playing it and I really enjoyed it.
This had its hooks in me pretty much from the beginning, though I must admit the dialog took a little bit to get used to. The English translation here is not highly regarded and I understand why. Nearly every line ends with two exclamation points (!!) and some of the lines are a bit ridiculous. But part of this game's charm is it is unrelentingly a JRPG. I know that term has been a hot topic as of late, but I mean it in the most endearing way possible. This checks all the boxes of JRPG greats and does it with love.
As far as the narrative goes, for the most part I was into it, but towards the end I did kind of start to trail off. Overall I did still enjoy it though. It was cliche in the right ways. I enjoyed the characters, and the journey they went on. My only knock is that Shana is a pretty terrible character. Her emotional arc is paper thin, and she's hardly a person outside of her connection with Dart. However it's a complaint I can set aside when it comes to my enjoyment of the game.
The combat system is a lot of fun. I will say that I'm glad I had a rewind feature for this because I missed a lot of the button prompts that come with attacking, so it was great to go back and do it until I got it right. I like the dragoon mechanic but I do wish there was a way to switch back and forth from it so long as you had enough SP, because once you turn into a dragoon you're locked into it until you run out of SP, and you can't use items while you're in it. Aside from that frustration I still had a great time with the combat system. I'm glad that in today's day and age, turn based RPGs still do well. I know some people aren't a fan of it but when a game like this does it well, it's just so much fun.
Another frustration of mine was I felt that the amount of items you could carry was too low. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I was constantly having to manage my inventory and sell off or discard items just so I could have a comfortable amount of healing and reviving items. I made it work, though.
Overall if you like JRPGs this one is absolutely worth playing. It has a banging soundtrack, cool and interesting environments, fun characters, a good story and combat system. You can't go wrong!
Platinum Trophy #126
Platinum #2 of 2023
This had its hooks in me pretty much from the beginning, though I must admit the dialog took a little bit to get used to. The English translation here is not highly regarded and I understand why. Nearly every line ends with two exclamation points (!!) and some of the lines are a bit ridiculous. But part of this game's charm is it is unrelentingly a JRPG. I know that term has been a hot topic as of late, but I mean it in the most endearing way possible. This checks all the boxes of JRPG greats and does it with love.
As far as the narrative goes, for the most part I was into it, but towards the end I did kind of start to trail off. Overall I did still enjoy it though. It was cliche in the right ways. I enjoyed the characters, and the journey they went on. My only knock is that Shana is a pretty terrible character. Her emotional arc is paper thin, and she's hardly a person outside of her connection with Dart. However it's a complaint I can set aside when it comes to my enjoyment of the game.
The combat system is a lot of fun. I will say that I'm glad I had a rewind feature for this because I missed a lot of the button prompts that come with attacking, so it was great to go back and do it until I got it right. I like the dragoon mechanic but I do wish there was a way to switch back and forth from it so long as you had enough SP, because once you turn into a dragoon you're locked into it until you run out of SP, and you can't use items while you're in it. Aside from that frustration I still had a great time with the combat system. I'm glad that in today's day and age, turn based RPGs still do well. I know some people aren't a fan of it but when a game like this does it well, it's just so much fun.
Another frustration of mine was I felt that the amount of items you could carry was too low. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I was constantly having to manage my inventory and sell off or discard items just so I could have a comfortable amount of healing and reviving items. I made it work, though.
Overall if you like JRPGs this one is absolutely worth playing. It has a banging soundtrack, cool and interesting environments, fun characters, a good story and combat system. You can't go wrong!
Platinum Trophy #126
Platinum #2 of 2023