danieladultman
2023
Final Fantasy XVI recognizes Final Fantasy IV as the GOAT, as everyone should.
Alright, it took me a while to get through this game, and throughout it I had so many thoughts, impressions and the like that changed a bit over time. At the end of the day, I don't believe this is top-tier Final Fantasy, though it is filled with some top-tier moments. The game unfortunately does not balance the high highs of this game very well and the result is a game I really enjoyed, but do not completely love.
First and foremost, I'm of two minds with the combat. I believe there are moments where it's really fun to play and moments where it's a bit of a slog. I actually credit the trophy list with really getting me to explore many variations of the combat, thus opening it up to me an interesting way. But I can't pretend that I don't feel like I permanently damaged some controllers with how often I mashed the square button throughout this game (I'm exaggerating, but it was a lot). In particular, this game largely has wonderful boss fights, but some annoying in-betweens. Fighting a badass boss with a huge health gauge? Alright, sure. Fighting big dudes with stagger gauges amongst random hordes of enemies for the sake of prolonging the gameplay? Not so much.
As far as the narrative goes...unfortunately, I just wasn't that invested. I think the voice acting is really well done, I think the active time lore and ways to dig into the story are really cool features, but I got kind of bored with it. I think conversations with NPCs are largely too long, and that goes for main quest, side quests, and pretty much everything else. I think a lot of the side quests are very basic in their design, and frustrating in other ways. How many times was an objective 'go talk to this person' then 'go talk to that person' then 'go back and talk to that person'. It was a little too much.
That being said, the pure spectacle of the big moments in this game are admirable and take the game up a notch, along with the boss fights. I just wish the rest of the game held up as well for me. I debated giving this 3.5 stars or 4, and ultimately I went with 4 because I did enjoy a lot of my time with it, but I'm happy to be done with the main game. I'll play the DLC next but I won't go for the platinum, at least not right now. Playing through the game a second time and reaching an additional 30-40 levels sounds like a slog.
Alright, it took me a while to get through this game, and throughout it I had so many thoughts, impressions and the like that changed a bit over time. At the end of the day, I don't believe this is top-tier Final Fantasy, though it is filled with some top-tier moments. The game unfortunately does not balance the high highs of this game very well and the result is a game I really enjoyed, but do not completely love.
First and foremost, I'm of two minds with the combat. I believe there are moments where it's really fun to play and moments where it's a bit of a slog. I actually credit the trophy list with really getting me to explore many variations of the combat, thus opening it up to me an interesting way. But I can't pretend that I don't feel like I permanently damaged some controllers with how often I mashed the square button throughout this game (I'm exaggerating, but it was a lot). In particular, this game largely has wonderful boss fights, but some annoying in-betweens. Fighting a badass boss with a huge health gauge? Alright, sure. Fighting big dudes with stagger gauges amongst random hordes of enemies for the sake of prolonging the gameplay? Not so much.
As far as the narrative goes...unfortunately, I just wasn't that invested. I think the voice acting is really well done, I think the active time lore and ways to dig into the story are really cool features, but I got kind of bored with it. I think conversations with NPCs are largely too long, and that goes for main quest, side quests, and pretty much everything else. I think a lot of the side quests are very basic in their design, and frustrating in other ways. How many times was an objective 'go talk to this person' then 'go talk to that person' then 'go back and talk to that person'. It was a little too much.
That being said, the pure spectacle of the big moments in this game are admirable and take the game up a notch, along with the boss fights. I just wish the rest of the game held up as well for me. I debated giving this 3.5 stars or 4, and ultimately I went with 4 because I did enjoy a lot of my time with it, but I'm happy to be done with the main game. I'll play the DLC next but I won't go for the platinum, at least not right now. Playing through the game a second time and reaching an additional 30-40 levels sounds like a slog.
I've put a few hours into this, and I think the environments are really pretty, gameplay is alright, but for some reason this isn't grabbing me at all. I'll give it one more play session for it to hook me before I put it down.
I enjoyed just walking around in a fucked up environment and interacting with it, but the actual content of the story and the way its portrayed is pretty amateur if I'm being honest. Some of these ideas are good but are presented in a pretty cheesy way.
This only reinforces how I feel about Konami re-entering the video game space. I'm not convinced they know what they're doing. Metal Gear Survive, Contra: Rogue Corps, taking on a bunch of Silent Hill projects, remaking Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3...I just don't think they can pull it all off and I'd love to be proven wrong, but this didn't give me the most confidence.
This only reinforces how I feel about Konami re-entering the video game space. I'm not convinced they know what they're doing. Metal Gear Survive, Contra: Rogue Corps, taking on a bunch of Silent Hill projects, remaking Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3...I just don't think they can pull it all off and I'd love to be proven wrong, but this didn't give me the most confidence.
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.
1986
(via Castlevania Anniversary Collection on PS4)
I've never played through the original NES trilogy of these games so I figure why not get started. It's a great game, but when dealing with games as old as this one, I try my best to view it through the lens of what it must have been like to play this on your home console back in the day, as well as a modern sense. It plays very similarly to the other pre-Symphony of the Night entries that I've played, which was very welcome. It's not quite like Mega Man where the first entry is forgettable and the second entry is where it becomes great. This series was great from the very beginning.
But holy hell is it fucking hard. I'll be straight up, if I didn't play this via the Anniversary Collection with saves I would not have beat it in just a day. Stage five was brutal. The final boss fight took a good few tries too. I got it, but I definitely felt the anger and sheer determination necessary to make it through. (I watched some videos of no damage runs and I'm just like...I'll never be that good at video games).
Anyways, great game! Love all the names in the credits.
I've never played through the original NES trilogy of these games so I figure why not get started. It's a great game, but when dealing with games as old as this one, I try my best to view it through the lens of what it must have been like to play this on your home console back in the day, as well as a modern sense. It plays very similarly to the other pre-Symphony of the Night entries that I've played, which was very welcome. It's not quite like Mega Man where the first entry is forgettable and the second entry is where it becomes great. This series was great from the very beginning.
But holy hell is it fucking hard. I'll be straight up, if I didn't play this via the Anniversary Collection with saves I would not have beat it in just a day. Stage five was brutal. The final boss fight took a good few tries too. I got it, but I definitely felt the anger and sheer determination necessary to make it through. (I watched some videos of no damage runs and I'm just like...I'll never be that good at video games).
Anyways, great game! Love all the names in the credits.