dudfrbr
114 Reviews liked by dudfrbr
Mega Man Legends
1997
Full analysis of the game on my YT if you'd like to support my efforts there!
Mega Man Legends is a game that managed to surprise me in what it was going for. For years I'd heard comparisons to other 3D games of its time (even those it technically predates) and hearing pretty unfavorable comparisons while people would praise the charm the game absolutely exudes from just looking at it. Playing it for myself after all these years has left me in total awe. This whole package clicks together a lot of things that I just fuck with and appreciate in games in general.
Like that art direction man, the fuckin Ghibli/Nadia Secret of the Blue Water ass aesthetic, that Tatsuro Yamashita For You album cover art summertime aesthetic, the vibes, THE VIBES, they're all there man. This game, these character models, everything about the visuals is peak 90's PS1 aestheticism to me. I never even played this game as a child yet looking at it just fills me with a kind of warm nostalgia that's just really nice to sit in.
Gliding around this island, exploring its depths and mysteries hidden within it, learning more about both Mega Man and Kattleox as a place, meshing with the people of the island and getting closer to them as ya help em out with their day to day problems. By the end of the game I came to adore Kattleox, slowly becoming one of my favorite locations in a game due to how much focus and attention every inch of it gets. It ends up feeling alive in ways that feel so great to just be in, characters running around doing their thang while you're doing your own thang, climbing buildings, going on dates, hanging out, running the news station, working on their own artistic masterpieces. None of them are waiting for you to come back to them, they're all just living their lives.
The characters too, oh my GOD the characters. Data, that little dancing friend, just such a wonderful little companion/save point for ya. The Bonnes and their Team Rocket-esque goofiness that Mega Man has to reign in every now and then, Mega Man's dumb goofy energy, Roll and Gramps laid back and inquisitive yet caring demeanors. The whole cast just hits the neurons really well for me here, especially the Bonnes who were a treat every single time they appeared.
The only rough spot I majorly had with this game was just the gameplay is a little rough, part of that from age but I honestly think the encounter design in this game just isn't the best. The lock on can be a total mess in any fight with more than 2 enemies, jumping and shooting doesn't feel the best. Thankfully though if something ever bumps ya on the head a bit harder than ya'd like ya can just go and upgrade your shit which is at least nice as a kind of trade off but I really do hope Tron Bonne and Legends 2 fix that a bit.
Such a beautiful experience that I cherished quite deeply by the end, honestly reminds me of when I first finished Trails in the Sky FC, I was just in total awe there as well. I'm gonna miss Kattleox and I really hope to go back someday soon.
Why didn't they just roll with calling him Rock in the US release of this one! Mega Man doesn't make no damn sense as a name you'd call someone on the regular! I'm sorry is that Mega Man heresy? Oh no they're beating down my do-
Mega Man Legends is a game that managed to surprise me in what it was going for. For years I'd heard comparisons to other 3D games of its time (even those it technically predates) and hearing pretty unfavorable comparisons while people would praise the charm the game absolutely exudes from just looking at it. Playing it for myself after all these years has left me in total awe. This whole package clicks together a lot of things that I just fuck with and appreciate in games in general.
Like that art direction man, the fuckin Ghibli/Nadia Secret of the Blue Water ass aesthetic, that Tatsuro Yamashita For You album cover art summertime aesthetic, the vibes, THE VIBES, they're all there man. This game, these character models, everything about the visuals is peak 90's PS1 aestheticism to me. I never even played this game as a child yet looking at it just fills me with a kind of warm nostalgia that's just really nice to sit in.
Gliding around this island, exploring its depths and mysteries hidden within it, learning more about both Mega Man and Kattleox as a place, meshing with the people of the island and getting closer to them as ya help em out with their day to day problems. By the end of the game I came to adore Kattleox, slowly becoming one of my favorite locations in a game due to how much focus and attention every inch of it gets. It ends up feeling alive in ways that feel so great to just be in, characters running around doing their thang while you're doing your own thang, climbing buildings, going on dates, hanging out, running the news station, working on their own artistic masterpieces. None of them are waiting for you to come back to them, they're all just living their lives.
The characters too, oh my GOD the characters. Data, that little dancing friend, just such a wonderful little companion/save point for ya. The Bonnes and their Team Rocket-esque goofiness that Mega Man has to reign in every now and then, Mega Man's dumb goofy energy, Roll and Gramps laid back and inquisitive yet caring demeanors. The whole cast just hits the neurons really well for me here, especially the Bonnes who were a treat every single time they appeared.
The only rough spot I majorly had with this game was just the gameplay is a little rough, part of that from age but I honestly think the encounter design in this game just isn't the best. The lock on can be a total mess in any fight with more than 2 enemies, jumping and shooting doesn't feel the best. Thankfully though if something ever bumps ya on the head a bit harder than ya'd like ya can just go and upgrade your shit which is at least nice as a kind of trade off but I really do hope Tron Bonne and Legends 2 fix that a bit.
Such a beautiful experience that I cherished quite deeply by the end, honestly reminds me of when I first finished Trails in the Sky FC, I was just in total awe there as well. I'm gonna miss Kattleox and I really hope to go back someday soon.
Why didn't they just roll with calling him Rock in the US release of this one! Mega Man doesn't make no damn sense as a name you'd call someone on the regular! I'm sorry is that Mega Man heresy? Oh no they're beating down my do-
Mega Man Legends
1997
DeAndre Cortez Way’s 2009 critique of Braid is well known for how it pioneered games analysis on Youtube, but it’s even more famous for its assertion that the game lacked central purpose. While entertainment is generally associated with some degree of pointlessness, there’s also expected to be some degree of enrichment, whether that be through the merit of competition, mastering challenge, or constructive escapism. If the audience is left without a lasting impression, the experience may as well have never happened, so it’s important for games to construct purposefulness, regardless of how artificial it is.
I started reevaluating this concept when Roll called me up as I exited a dungeon, mentioning that I must be getting hungry, and that I could have a slice of the apricot pie she baked as soon as I got back to the ship. The line is completely pointless. The subject never comes up again, it doesn’t build into any new characterization, and the game would be functionally identical without it, but even so, they went to the trouble of writing and recording a voice line for it. Similarly, while Roll is established as your mechanic, she’s not the person who saves your game and heals you, it’s a small robotic monkey that constantly does The Monkey like Johnny Bravo, and I can’t fathom why. That is to say, I can’t fathom why it’s constantly dancing and I also can’t fathom why it was included in the game at all, but there it is. The more I looked for it, the more I noticed how Legends is completely saturated with pointlessness, including its plot. The stakes are incredibly low, you’re simply trying to find a treasure before the Bonne Family Pirates do, but they’re such a loving family of good-natured criminals that you wouldn’t mind them winning. In multiple cutscenes, MegaMan seems like he wants to communicate to the Bonnes that there’s no real reason to fight, but they keep doing it because they love it. Details like these give the game a totally unique atmosphere of joyous pointlessness, like the developers themselves were building the game in ways that made them laugh, regardless of how much sense their design actually made. The game feels like a celebration of doing things entirely for their own sake, and not getting too caught up in finding a grand purpose. I wouldn’t exactly call it The Myth of Sisyphus for kids or anything, but at the very least it’s a perfect example of how pleasant it can be that there ain’t no point to the game.
I started reevaluating this concept when Roll called me up as I exited a dungeon, mentioning that I must be getting hungry, and that I could have a slice of the apricot pie she baked as soon as I got back to the ship. The line is completely pointless. The subject never comes up again, it doesn’t build into any new characterization, and the game would be functionally identical without it, but even so, they went to the trouble of writing and recording a voice line for it. Similarly, while Roll is established as your mechanic, she’s not the person who saves your game and heals you, it’s a small robotic monkey that constantly does The Monkey like Johnny Bravo, and I can’t fathom why. That is to say, I can’t fathom why it’s constantly dancing and I also can’t fathom why it was included in the game at all, but there it is. The more I looked for it, the more I noticed how Legends is completely saturated with pointlessness, including its plot. The stakes are incredibly low, you’re simply trying to find a treasure before the Bonne Family Pirates do, but they’re such a loving family of good-natured criminals that you wouldn’t mind them winning. In multiple cutscenes, MegaMan seems like he wants to communicate to the Bonnes that there’s no real reason to fight, but they keep doing it because they love it. Details like these give the game a totally unique atmosphere of joyous pointlessness, like the developers themselves were building the game in ways that made them laugh, regardless of how much sense their design actually made. The game feels like a celebration of doing things entirely for their own sake, and not getting too caught up in finding a grand purpose. I wouldn’t exactly call it The Myth of Sisyphus for kids or anything, but at the very least it’s a perfect example of how pleasant it can be that there ain’t no point to the game.
Quadrilateral Cowboy
2016
Blendo Games have this unique style that, in my opinion, shines brightest in this game. The environments are both small yet huge, quaint yet breathtaking. The gameplay itself is freeing, making you feel like you can go anywhere and do anything, while still being challenging. There are so so SO many little design decisions that make it so that learning the semi-complicated systems in this game become second nature.
Quadrilateral Cowboy
2016
need to come back to this every now and then. up there with portal as a game that is close to 100% tutorial, but is so good at selling the tactility and verisimilitude of interacting with/existing in its world that thats the strongest impression left. its even more so in both categories, if anything. a sequel with a better and more meaty mechanical sprawl and progression would probably change my life, but the fact that ive come back to this so often, and have fun optomizing it a tiny bit more every time, is testament to its near-constant stream of striking powerful flourishes. pitch -10 pitch 4 pitch -1 pitch -.5 turn 3 turn -1.5 fire
I am not interested in talking about the game play of this arcade zombie mode of CoD, but rather about ideology.
As we all now, the Call of Duty franchise is know for its pro militarist, pro US imperialist views, the banalisation and commercialisation of US atrocities and war crimes, and also of working as fuel for the industrial military complex propaganda machine. It can, therefore, be considered one of the ruling class' gears in the capitalist superstructure.
In this series of maps, the characters are Edward Richtofen (soldier for Nazi Germany), "Tank" Dempsey (US marine), Nikolai Belinski (member of the Red Army) and Takeo Masaki (captain for the Imperial Japanese Army). So we have a soviet, who is a communist; an American, who is a social democrat; a German who is a fascist; and a Japanese, who is a monarchist.
The scenarios, relationships and characters are caricatures of real life, one dimensional representations of the type of human each of these would be on each side of the political spectrum. Of course I wasn't looking for some deep narrative or profound exploration of characters from a CoD video game, but this concentrated essence of burlesque ridicule is in our favour to understand the ideological meaning it tries to purvey.
It is the bourgeoisie rationale of a possible co-existence among classes. The idea that the proletariat, the feudal lord and the fascist can all live along and find a cure for its differences. This idea populated among the social democrats and reformists, that the State is an entity in charge of facilitating the détente between oppressors and oppressed, and which vindicates the necessity of a group of people rightfully guiding the other.
This reflection is two folded. On one side, it is the diluted hallucination it tries to engrave in the working class' skull, of this possible amicability amid exploiter and exploited, an unfathomable synthesis. On the other, it lifts the veil and turns on the light over the disfigured and true face of the bourgeoisie: they will collaborate with the fascist and the remaining and decaying feudal forces in order to entomb any advance coming from the revolutionary movement.
There is no such thing as absolute class conciliation, by definition, "the State is an organ of the rule of a definite class which cannot be reconciled with its antipode (the class opposite to it)", there is an opportunity for temporary truces, but this only works with the objective in mind of either defeating and enemy or securing the existence of the proletariat movement in a determined time. This idea, this bourgeois make-believe of a infinite expanse of never ending historical conciliation is a farce and a trap.
Real emancipation and freedom can only be achieved when the flow of history untangles from this crossroad it is at right now. Alas, just when the destruction of the bourgeois State, the internationalisation of the proletariat cause occurs and class society is abolished will the human being be able to enjoy true comradeship among its kin. Till then, don't fall for tales of cordial treatment with the enemy, and remember "fascism is capitalism in decay".
As we all now, the Call of Duty franchise is know for its pro militarist, pro US imperialist views, the banalisation and commercialisation of US atrocities and war crimes, and also of working as fuel for the industrial military complex propaganda machine. It can, therefore, be considered one of the ruling class' gears in the capitalist superstructure.
In this series of maps, the characters are Edward Richtofen (soldier for Nazi Germany), "Tank" Dempsey (US marine), Nikolai Belinski (member of the Red Army) and Takeo Masaki (captain for the Imperial Japanese Army). So we have a soviet, who is a communist; an American, who is a social democrat; a German who is a fascist; and a Japanese, who is a monarchist.
The scenarios, relationships and characters are caricatures of real life, one dimensional representations of the type of human each of these would be on each side of the political spectrum. Of course I wasn't looking for some deep narrative or profound exploration of characters from a CoD video game, but this concentrated essence of burlesque ridicule is in our favour to understand the ideological meaning it tries to purvey.
It is the bourgeoisie rationale of a possible co-existence among classes. The idea that the proletariat, the feudal lord and the fascist can all live along and find a cure for its differences. This idea populated among the social democrats and reformists, that the State is an entity in charge of facilitating the détente between oppressors and oppressed, and which vindicates the necessity of a group of people rightfully guiding the other.
This reflection is two folded. On one side, it is the diluted hallucination it tries to engrave in the working class' skull, of this possible amicability amid exploiter and exploited, an unfathomable synthesis. On the other, it lifts the veil and turns on the light over the disfigured and true face of the bourgeoisie: they will collaborate with the fascist and the remaining and decaying feudal forces in order to entomb any advance coming from the revolutionary movement.
There is no such thing as absolute class conciliation, by definition, "the State is an organ of the rule of a definite class which cannot be reconciled with its antipode (the class opposite to it)", there is an opportunity for temporary truces, but this only works with the objective in mind of either defeating and enemy or securing the existence of the proletariat movement in a determined time. This idea, this bourgeois make-believe of a infinite expanse of never ending historical conciliation is a farce and a trap.
Real emancipation and freedom can only be achieved when the flow of history untangles from this crossroad it is at right now. Alas, just when the destruction of the bourgeois State, the internationalisation of the proletariat cause occurs and class society is abolished will the human being be able to enjoy true comradeship among its kin. Till then, don't fall for tales of cordial treatment with the enemy, and remember "fascism is capitalism in decay".
A minimalist abstraction of how a riot, maybe a revolution takes place, everything is blocky, faceless, and textureless. The gameplay involves kicking, the ability to throw blunt objects, throwing molotov cocktails with which you can destroy private property, this serving as some sort of “point” system which helps to make the story progress.
I understand that they were working with some limitations when it comes to the representation. Maybe the idea behind it was to create an experience that deals with a specific situation in a class struggle scenario. Nevertheless, what I get from it, is the praxis of an uneducated person when it comes to revolutionary theory.
If I had to say I learnt something from it, is that the destruction of private property is the main accelerating force in a revolutionary process, while it couldn’t be further from the truth, and all this permeates a very Western communist outlook. Educating the masses, political organization, the formation of a people’s vanguard party, etc, would have been much better plot points as a way to develop to the final riot sequence. Instead we begin with very brief walking simulator exploration of our apartment where we see how we’re getting fired, bills accumulate, food runs low, and so on. This leads our character, after the arrival of a messianic alien force to decide they must partake in the event. A very individualistic cause and effect, it’s as if the player wouldn’t care about the rest of the proletariat but instead decided to join by some revelation, and the same happened with everyone else. Indeed, the idea of an “insurrection”, where everyone relates to the feelings of class struggle, regardless of the superstructure, the material reality, and everything that could be against it, is very present, which shows a lack of understanding of past revolutionary processes.
I mention that the game is trying to isolate a very specific SCENARIO because I’ve also played A Bewitching Revolution and in that game you do interact with other people, since the game focuses on direct action, but I still don’t think that excuses it of the poor job it did in the process of ludification of the current game. The end result is, that this work is targeted to a very specific audience in the spectre of moderate left within first world countries, and it shows. It contains all of the checklists in anarchist delusional attempts at praxis, and reinforces certain ideas that are, if not considered thoughtfully, detrimental to revolutionary movements. It’s not that the gameplay loop was boring or that the story was poorly written, it does a good job with what they had, but the ideas behind it are mostly idealist in characteristic. We end up with a mediocre gameplay and storytelling that does it trick, and a political message that’s confusing and poor at best, and negative and harmful at worst.
I understand that they were working with some limitations when it comes to the representation. Maybe the idea behind it was to create an experience that deals with a specific situation in a class struggle scenario. Nevertheless, what I get from it, is the praxis of an uneducated person when it comes to revolutionary theory.
If I had to say I learnt something from it, is that the destruction of private property is the main accelerating force in a revolutionary process, while it couldn’t be further from the truth, and all this permeates a very Western communist outlook. Educating the masses, political organization, the formation of a people’s vanguard party, etc, would have been much better plot points as a way to develop to the final riot sequence. Instead we begin with very brief walking simulator exploration of our apartment where we see how we’re getting fired, bills accumulate, food runs low, and so on. This leads our character, after the arrival of a messianic alien force to decide they must partake in the event. A very individualistic cause and effect, it’s as if the player wouldn’t care about the rest of the proletariat but instead decided to join by some revelation, and the same happened with everyone else. Indeed, the idea of an “insurrection”, where everyone relates to the feelings of class struggle, regardless of the superstructure, the material reality, and everything that could be against it, is very present, which shows a lack of understanding of past revolutionary processes.
I mention that the game is trying to isolate a very specific SCENARIO because I’ve also played A Bewitching Revolution and in that game you do interact with other people, since the game focuses on direct action, but I still don’t think that excuses it of the poor job it did in the process of ludification of the current game. The end result is, that this work is targeted to a very specific audience in the spectre of moderate left within first world countries, and it shows. It contains all of the checklists in anarchist delusional attempts at praxis, and reinforces certain ideas that are, if not considered thoughtfully, detrimental to revolutionary movements. It’s not that the gameplay loop was boring or that the story was poorly written, it does a good job with what they had, but the ideas behind it are mostly idealist in characteristic. We end up with a mediocre gameplay and storytelling that does it trick, and a political message that’s confusing and poor at best, and negative and harmful at worst.
This thing is good, but it is also the epitome of this increasingly predominant logic that Nintendo has with its present and its past, a toymaker one, and not a craftsman who cares with affection for his games and ideas put into his creations, rather like that of a luxury company that offers disposable and immediate products with a careful presentation.
Here is the new one of the toy known as "SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD WOHHOHHUHOOO", with improvements that will make you not want to go back to the original Wii U, in fact, they do not want you to, nor will they want you to go back to this version of switch when remaster it again on their next generation of hardware.
This logic extends to the entire game itself because its approach to action, while satisfying on the spot, also reveals how little real thought went into the designers working on such a solid and simple foundation as Super Mario. 3d Land- That game was in good health, but it was addictive like pringles-.
Why is there a multitasking button [Run], [Use Powerup],[Pick Up Player]
[Throw Things/Player] on a controller with so many buttons?
Probably no one thought of it, but in 3DLand it worked, so here too, right?
Yeah, no, the truth is that it doesn't work that well. With so many different power ups that alter the way the game space is operated, objects to throw, enemies that need to be dealt with in different ways, and, most importantly, a multiplayer in which all this is multiplied and also adds the possibility picking and throwing other players to win levels in the (seemingly) funniest and most creative way... One can't rely on a multitasking button, it's just impossible. Because obviously it's not just about the actions you can perform with your character, but how those actions relate to and impact the environment, or in this case -action platforms- what the environment demands of you as a player.
And precisely that, the environment, the levels, the world, Why is this game called 3D WORLD?
Not even the world map, probably the freest interplay of all the level-structured Super Marios, offers a sense of the world. It's a minor detail, and I don't have much problem with this, I think that the sensation of the digital world is achieved through more resources than simple physical literalness, but I also think it illustrates another point that was dealt with on autopilot.
The levels capture very well the texture of super mario in my opinion: color, fluffiness, sound... Joy as a whole.
But also full of ideas that, while creative and enjoyable, are also disposable almost the moment they are presented, more articulated around the mobility/attack variations provided by the Powerups than the jump itself, and that's a problem, because if you don't get the necessary powerup in advance the level design turns out to be a little soft, and that coupled with the problems of the multitasking button leaves some absurdly frustrating moments for a game that, if it had a better interactive layout, would be even easier than 3D LAND. Apart from the moments where the game tries to create a directed action sequence in which we have to fight a boss or stay on a platform on rails while the camera beats us - you go out of frame, you're dead - they make me sick, There is no redemption there, neither here nor in almost any platform game, it is an absurd way of killing pacing.
In the end, I liked the game, and I give it 4/5 because of Bowsers Fury and also because from time to time I actively look for a Toylogic game, that is just plain fun. I will probably come back to this game with friends.
--------------------------------------
I haven't been a Nintendo believer for a decade, but this way of supercharging its sequels with mechanics that born and die in the moment which a level takes place is a super evil company move
"duh, Nintendo is a company"
Yes, but even so I would dare to say that Nintendo has not had its own ideas or approaches since the 80s. Rather, it has offered quite innovative pieces of hardware (Nintendo DS?) to share -or even take advantage of- the ideas of others producing works of studies external or minor that would enrich their own corporate image as well as their catalogs
"well, sure, but Nintendo was always like that deep down"
Here is the new one of the toy known as "SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD WOHHOHHUHOOO", with improvements that will make you not want to go back to the original Wii U, in fact, they do not want you to, nor will they want you to go back to this version of switch when remaster it again on their next generation of hardware.
This logic extends to the entire game itself because its approach to action, while satisfying on the spot, also reveals how little real thought went into the designers working on such a solid and simple foundation as Super Mario. 3d Land- That game was in good health, but it was addictive like pringles-.
Why is there a multitasking button [Run], [Use Powerup],[Pick Up Player]
[Throw Things/Player] on a controller with so many buttons?
Probably no one thought of it, but in 3DLand it worked, so here too, right?
Yeah, no, the truth is that it doesn't work that well. With so many different power ups that alter the way the game space is operated, objects to throw, enemies that need to be dealt with in different ways, and, most importantly, a multiplayer in which all this is multiplied and also adds the possibility picking and throwing other players to win levels in the (seemingly) funniest and most creative way... One can't rely on a multitasking button, it's just impossible. Because obviously it's not just about the actions you can perform with your character, but how those actions relate to and impact the environment, or in this case -action platforms- what the environment demands of you as a player.
And precisely that, the environment, the levels, the world, Why is this game called 3D WORLD?
Not even the world map, probably the freest interplay of all the level-structured Super Marios, offers a sense of the world. It's a minor detail, and I don't have much problem with this, I think that the sensation of the digital world is achieved through more resources than simple physical literalness, but I also think it illustrates another point that was dealt with on autopilot.
The levels capture very well the texture of super mario in my opinion: color, fluffiness, sound... Joy as a whole.
But also full of ideas that, while creative and enjoyable, are also disposable almost the moment they are presented, more articulated around the mobility/attack variations provided by the Powerups than the jump itself, and that's a problem, because if you don't get the necessary powerup in advance the level design turns out to be a little soft, and that coupled with the problems of the multitasking button leaves some absurdly frustrating moments for a game that, if it had a better interactive layout, would be even easier than 3D LAND. Apart from the moments where the game tries to create a directed action sequence in which we have to fight a boss or stay on a platform on rails while the camera beats us - you go out of frame, you're dead - they make me sick, There is no redemption there, neither here nor in almost any platform game, it is an absurd way of killing pacing.
In the end, I liked the game, and I give it 4/5 because of Bowsers Fury and also because from time to time I actively look for a Toylogic game, that is just plain fun. I will probably come back to this game with friends.
--------------------------------------
I haven't been a Nintendo believer for a decade, but this way of supercharging its sequels with mechanics that born and die in the moment which a level takes place is a super evil company move
"duh, Nintendo is a company"
Yes, but even so I would dare to say that Nintendo has not had its own ideas or approaches since the 80s. Rather, it has offered quite innovative pieces of hardware (Nintendo DS?) to share -or even take advantage of- the ideas of others producing works of studies external or minor that would enrich their own corporate image as well as their catalogs
"well, sure, but Nintendo was always like that deep down"
Perfect Dark
2000
Goldeneye 007 was a bridge to a new philosophy of design and direction. but I had always understood that game more as a proto hitman(?)
-Seeing the state of the later fps that based their structures designed on the scripts to lock the player in a "moment to moment" of constant cinematographic linear stimulation, or in a constant return to emulate or restore the boomer shooter again .. I find this game very admirable.
seems to be more dedicated to its gelatinous and exploitative -almost parody- internal logic about how a spy should proceed in a video game, taking into account the most bombastic pop aesthetics and packaging it in a shooter.
-For me it works because it seems to reject to a certain extent the idea of levels as simple arenas or mazes where you can get lost to kill and score points and decides to focus on making the environments seem like places of certain spatial and functional logic within limited possibilities. Environments where gadgets play a tremendous role btw
but at the same time, as I said, the game knows that it wants to be a shooter and
It puts a lot of emphasis so that corners, stairs and doors are always hot spots for firefights in close quarters.
And I think that's the point, the diegetic excuse of the spies takes you away from hellscapes and battlefields to get into laboratories and rooms that replace the labyrinths and arenas of the most past shooters.
-Here I enjoy every shootout that more often than not seems like an archaic Gun-Fu confrontation in which I am vastly superior to my opponents - especially in the xbox360 version-
There's something very well built about Perfect Dark's gunplay that stands out in corner play. Taking cover for yourself, pulling the trigger a couple of times to shoot in a controlled manner at enemies that Joanna Dark targets almost automatically within the frame, reloading with that animation... It all adds up to articulating a fantasy of tactical action that if Holds a moment to moment with room to breathe
-Seeing the state of the later fps that based their structures designed on the scripts to lock the player in a "moment to moment" of constant cinematographic linear stimulation, or in a constant return to emulate or restore the boomer shooter again .. I find this game very admirable.
seems to be more dedicated to its gelatinous and exploitative -almost parody- internal logic about how a spy should proceed in a video game, taking into account the most bombastic pop aesthetics and packaging it in a shooter.
-For me it works because it seems to reject to a certain extent the idea of levels as simple arenas or mazes where you can get lost to kill and score points and decides to focus on making the environments seem like places of certain spatial and functional logic within limited possibilities. Environments where gadgets play a tremendous role btw
but at the same time, as I said, the game knows that it wants to be a shooter and
It puts a lot of emphasis so that corners, stairs and doors are always hot spots for firefights in close quarters.
And I think that's the point, the diegetic excuse of the spies takes you away from hellscapes and battlefields to get into laboratories and rooms that replace the labyrinths and arenas of the most past shooters.
-Here I enjoy every shootout that more often than not seems like an archaic Gun-Fu confrontation in which I am vastly superior to my opponents - especially in the xbox360 version-
There's something very well built about Perfect Dark's gunplay that stands out in corner play. Taking cover for yourself, pulling the trigger a couple of times to shoot in a controlled manner at enemies that Joanna Dark targets almost automatically within the frame, reloading with that animation... It all adds up to articulating a fantasy of tactical action that if Holds a moment to moment with room to breathe
A big step up with improved playability and presentation, a branching-paths system, and a super meter that's very fun to use. Its Moebius-esque ambiance allows for some moments of poetic storytelling.
I'm not normally one for JRPGs - this is the first Final Fantasy game I've seriously played that didn't charge me a subscription fee - so it was surprising to see how far I took this one, stopping just short of the final two optional superbosses. One of the first things that caught my attention was the realisation that unlike a lot of video games, I wasn't playing the story of a single protagonist, but rather, a much broader story of a moment in Ivalician history, presented through the trials and agencies of the six characters that make up the party. The game opens with a lengthy montage of military invasion, multiple royal deaths, betrayal and schemes. It's a lot, and there's a certain passion one needs to have for excessive fantasy worldbuilding to immediately get much out of it (I loved it, obviously)
With all of that swirling around, we sensibly draw back to Vaan and Penelo, passionate and principled, but powerless in the face of an imperial occupation of their home. From there, we have a stable grounding from which we can expand back out, capturing pirates and princesses, floating fortresses and resistances, until we're out of the footnotes and into the annals of history. An excellent balance is struck between the immensity of Ivalice's inter-imperial politics and the individual, personal story that acts as the immediate, played narrative. It all connects and coheres, without needing to hold back on introducing characters and locations. Even if it does, at times, feel like the events that are happening on screen are filling space between things that are actually important, and two of the three women in the party have very little to do or say about anything important, it's a remarkable progression that suits the game well
That progression, as with most RPGs, is at the heart of the game, but not in the way I expected. Here, the typically time-consuming and dull number scaling of experience points happens without input - you don't need input, because all of the interesting decisions are on the license boards, where you specialise your characters and find that satisfying synergy that makes building characters so entertaining. Since you (mostly) can't miss any license board upgrades, you're always building your characters up from a sensible baseline, and simple completion of the story has plenty of room for building inefficiently. It takes off a lot of the pressure that normally comes with such decision-making, and creates a wonderful, intrinsic incentive to pursue side content and see how well you do. Not only that, but the gear that you get from pursuing that side content, delving deeper into each of the story's dungeons, is often the best and most interesting in the game.
Which is where we come to my first big issue with this game, and a broader issue I find I have with the genre. As I've discovered in wiki-diving, there's a lot of gear that you'll simply never get, because it only has a slim chance to be obtained from an enemy you only have one chance to fight, or it has a slim chance of appearing in a room you have no reason to walk into more than once. I couldn't tell you what rare items I obtained, because I couldn't tell you if they were rare or not. From my perspective, I just opened a box. Any perceived rarity has nothing to do with what I actually experienced. I earned the gear, certainly, but who's to say what I never even knew I missed out on?
The same philosophy applies to the game's approach to much of its optional content, however. I did my best to take the game as it was, but if your curiosity is peaked by the promise of a new fight or area, there's a good chance you'll have to look up what you're supposed to do to actually get it. For example; there's an optional boss fight in a locked room hidden behind a puzzle, which you can open by getting a key by trading an item (that you got from an unrelated sidequest) to an NPC you've never heard of, who you can't see, in a corner an area that is nowhere near the locked door and you have no reason to revisit, much less thoroughly examine every corner.
I think the intent is that players learn about these things through methods other than just, like, playing the game. Maybe there was a time when hearing about a legendary sword at the peak of the Great Crystal was something significant, and being fortunate enough to find it was a story worth telling. Unfortunately, whether or not it's a fair criticism to put on the game, what that looks like now is just skimming any one of a number of guides available online. There's simply no other way to engage with, frankly, sizeable chunks of the game, even if you do want to take it at its terms. It's a frequent occurrence, and unsatisfying every time.
This method of obfuscation seems to me a very deeply held part of the genre. The nature of Final Fantasy XII is that it's always throwing you at new enemies, new problems to solve with your party of heroes, all without telling you exactly what you're in for. It's something of a double-edged sword; the downside is that every new problem is met with a brief period of experimentation, where you find out what exactly it is you're not allowed to do. So much of the challenge in the game centers on this; the more you delve into the game's Espers and Hunts, the more you encounter enemies who refuse to be Slowed, or Sheared, or affected by most any of the tools at your disposals. Some bosses enter lengthy phases of invulnerability, where you're left more or less standing around and waiting for them to finish. Of course, they have no trouble including enemies who cast spells that simply kills your entire active party as soon as you start the fight. It's often exasperating, and I can't help but wonder if there isn't - in a completely different game, mind - a better approach they could have considered.
The developers do need to do something to force players to change their strategies, though, otherwise we'd just find something that works and stick to that the entire game, which would be a tremendous waste. Developing a strategy in this game is an exercise in flexibility and improvisation, aided by the wonderful specialization of license boards and the frankly brilliant Gambit system. They're so pitch-perfect for this style of gameplay that I'm surprised to not have seen them elsewhere. All of the non-decisions of picking targets to attack, juggling obvious elemental advantages and healing are taken care of, leaving you to focus on the edge cases and complexity that actually make combat interesting. Between that and the generous, welcoming progression systems, it really does feel like developing a party of competent heroes, who have a place in a story of such scale.
There's other things to talk about, like how it's easily one of the most gorgeous games of that entire console generation, or the refreshing and inspired Ivalician aesthetic, or the wonderful blocking in the cutscenes, or how they really didn't have to make all the men in the game as hot as they did, or how fucking ICONIC Fran is, etc. I really wasn't expecting to find so much to love. It's mired in an often frustrating philosophy of obscurity that permeates every minute of actually playing the game, but without the pointless busywork of random battles and grinding, the worst moments are over quickly, and the moments of triumph feel like a direct result of careful planning, quick thinking and versatility.
With all of that swirling around, we sensibly draw back to Vaan and Penelo, passionate and principled, but powerless in the face of an imperial occupation of their home. From there, we have a stable grounding from which we can expand back out, capturing pirates and princesses, floating fortresses and resistances, until we're out of the footnotes and into the annals of history. An excellent balance is struck between the immensity of Ivalice's inter-imperial politics and the individual, personal story that acts as the immediate, played narrative. It all connects and coheres, without needing to hold back on introducing characters and locations. Even if it does, at times, feel like the events that are happening on screen are filling space between things that are actually important, and two of the three women in the party have very little to do or say about anything important, it's a remarkable progression that suits the game well
That progression, as with most RPGs, is at the heart of the game, but not in the way I expected. Here, the typically time-consuming and dull number scaling of experience points happens without input - you don't need input, because all of the interesting decisions are on the license boards, where you specialise your characters and find that satisfying synergy that makes building characters so entertaining. Since you (mostly) can't miss any license board upgrades, you're always building your characters up from a sensible baseline, and simple completion of the story has plenty of room for building inefficiently. It takes off a lot of the pressure that normally comes with such decision-making, and creates a wonderful, intrinsic incentive to pursue side content and see how well you do. Not only that, but the gear that you get from pursuing that side content, delving deeper into each of the story's dungeons, is often the best and most interesting in the game.
Which is where we come to my first big issue with this game, and a broader issue I find I have with the genre. As I've discovered in wiki-diving, there's a lot of gear that you'll simply never get, because it only has a slim chance to be obtained from an enemy you only have one chance to fight, or it has a slim chance of appearing in a room you have no reason to walk into more than once. I couldn't tell you what rare items I obtained, because I couldn't tell you if they were rare or not. From my perspective, I just opened a box. Any perceived rarity has nothing to do with what I actually experienced. I earned the gear, certainly, but who's to say what I never even knew I missed out on?
The same philosophy applies to the game's approach to much of its optional content, however. I did my best to take the game as it was, but if your curiosity is peaked by the promise of a new fight or area, there's a good chance you'll have to look up what you're supposed to do to actually get it. For example; there's an optional boss fight in a locked room hidden behind a puzzle, which you can open by getting a key by trading an item (that you got from an unrelated sidequest) to an NPC you've never heard of, who you can't see, in a corner an area that is nowhere near the locked door and you have no reason to revisit, much less thoroughly examine every corner.
I think the intent is that players learn about these things through methods other than just, like, playing the game. Maybe there was a time when hearing about a legendary sword at the peak of the Great Crystal was something significant, and being fortunate enough to find it was a story worth telling. Unfortunately, whether or not it's a fair criticism to put on the game, what that looks like now is just skimming any one of a number of guides available online. There's simply no other way to engage with, frankly, sizeable chunks of the game, even if you do want to take it at its terms. It's a frequent occurrence, and unsatisfying every time.
This method of obfuscation seems to me a very deeply held part of the genre. The nature of Final Fantasy XII is that it's always throwing you at new enemies, new problems to solve with your party of heroes, all without telling you exactly what you're in for. It's something of a double-edged sword; the downside is that every new problem is met with a brief period of experimentation, where you find out what exactly it is you're not allowed to do. So much of the challenge in the game centers on this; the more you delve into the game's Espers and Hunts, the more you encounter enemies who refuse to be Slowed, or Sheared, or affected by most any of the tools at your disposals. Some bosses enter lengthy phases of invulnerability, where you're left more or less standing around and waiting for them to finish. Of course, they have no trouble including enemies who cast spells that simply kills your entire active party as soon as you start the fight. It's often exasperating, and I can't help but wonder if there isn't - in a completely different game, mind - a better approach they could have considered.
The developers do need to do something to force players to change their strategies, though, otherwise we'd just find something that works and stick to that the entire game, which would be a tremendous waste. Developing a strategy in this game is an exercise in flexibility and improvisation, aided by the wonderful specialization of license boards and the frankly brilliant Gambit system. They're so pitch-perfect for this style of gameplay that I'm surprised to not have seen them elsewhere. All of the non-decisions of picking targets to attack, juggling obvious elemental advantages and healing are taken care of, leaving you to focus on the edge cases and complexity that actually make combat interesting. Between that and the generous, welcoming progression systems, it really does feel like developing a party of competent heroes, who have a place in a story of such scale.
There's other things to talk about, like how it's easily one of the most gorgeous games of that entire console generation, or the refreshing and inspired Ivalician aesthetic, or the wonderful blocking in the cutscenes, or how they really didn't have to make all the men in the game as hot as they did, or how fucking ICONIC Fran is, etc. I really wasn't expecting to find so much to love. It's mired in an often frustrating philosophy of obscurity that permeates every minute of actually playing the game, but without the pointless busywork of random battles and grinding, the worst moments are over quickly, and the moments of triumph feel like a direct result of careful planning, quick thinking and versatility.
One of the best Resident Evil games ever made, made possible by abandoning the boring-as-fuck worthless protagonists (except Leon) that have infested this series for years, the dumbass espionage stories and shitty villains for what makes this series really click: Some Guy's Scary House.
There is a primal urge in all of us to root around someone else's stuff, and thank god Re7 has created such a detailed and lavish location for us to go through the stuff of. The Baker Estate is brought to life in such incredible detail, the filth encrusting everything, the way light peers in through cracks in the windows, bugs scurrying all over the trash, it's one of the best horror environments ever made since...well, Resident Evil 1!
But a horror location is only as good as the character we have to explore it, as going through this beautiful decay as karate kicking Leon Kennedy would be fucking silly, RE7 breaks out the big guns to give us Protagonist Perfection.
Even though I love the Resident Evil series, I do not understand the love for characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield whose defining characteristics might be their void of charisma. Enter Ethan Winters. Fuck, I love Ethan Winters. He is a swearing pair of hands who is scared, confused, and as the game progresses, pissed off at how annoying this all is. When people talk about him as the worst Resident Evil protagonist I have to wonder what the hell games they've been playing in this series, as Leon is the only other character with this much dumb guy energy that gives him the ability to fight monsters.
And what monsters have we given this ding dong to fight, as the Baker family and the molded are just wonderful, getting up close and personal, distorting in horribly monstrous ways, and refusing to die, shrugging off firepower and showing no regards to any bodily harm. I also love the molded, I don't get the disregard for them, as the first time one just slunk around the corner and got in my face I sure as hell let it be known, the way they move in such a way that they look like they are being puppeted with marionette strings. The way they maneuver towards you, seeming to get faster and more pissed off the more bullets you pepper into them, is VERY effective at making me piss myself.
This is easily the scariest game in the entire franchise, because of how small and vulnerable Ethan feels just carefully creeping through the Baker house, barely feeling like you have any room at all to run and fight, it is the most effective dis empowerment the series has ever played with, as Ethan truly feels over matched at every turn. It actually took me until 2020 to even be able to get past the section after the dinner scene where you have to avoid Jack, as it was so intense that I would reflexively alt-f4 the fuck out of the game the second he looked at me.
The first-person perspective gives the game a much more personal horror than ever before, and the sound work on display is bar none the best they've ever put in Resident Evil. the way you can hear bullets bounce around inside the shotgun as you run, the echo of the main hall, the clicks of locks and the menu, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games to the ears ever, which sounds insane, but you gotta believe me and play with headphones.
My only big complaint that prevents this from joining the 5-star pantheon is the pivot to "scary little girl horror" the game takes near the end. Which...look the game stays fun all the way through, but the Bakers were so much more engaging that it's a total head scratcher why Capcom stopped digging for oil and broke out one of the most tired cliches of all time.
Also what the fuck is up with them an tanker levels? Is there a guy on staff who was doing a hunger strike until they put a tanker in every fucking game? It's absurd. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but definitely enough to disappoint me that this is the pivot it took.
I also hate how Capcom seems like it can't resist their bad habits and in the DLCs do everything they can to erase the mystery and tragedy of the story by explaining shit away with TOO much detail. The tragedy of the Baker family was one of the saddest details in the game, of how a quiet but pleasant family slowly transformed into unkillable murderers, the idea that the molded slowly transformed while people were aware of the transformation, whatever the FUCK is going on in End of Zoe. Do yourself a favor and only play the DLC with Clancy as those are actually pretty decent, avoid Daughters, End of Zoe, and Not A Hero if you respect this story and want to continue doing so.
There is a primal urge in all of us to root around someone else's stuff, and thank god Re7 has created such a detailed and lavish location for us to go through the stuff of. The Baker Estate is brought to life in such incredible detail, the filth encrusting everything, the way light peers in through cracks in the windows, bugs scurrying all over the trash, it's one of the best horror environments ever made since...well, Resident Evil 1!
But a horror location is only as good as the character we have to explore it, as going through this beautiful decay as karate kicking Leon Kennedy would be fucking silly, RE7 breaks out the big guns to give us Protagonist Perfection.
Even though I love the Resident Evil series, I do not understand the love for characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield whose defining characteristics might be their void of charisma. Enter Ethan Winters. Fuck, I love Ethan Winters. He is a swearing pair of hands who is scared, confused, and as the game progresses, pissed off at how annoying this all is. When people talk about him as the worst Resident Evil protagonist I have to wonder what the hell games they've been playing in this series, as Leon is the only other character with this much dumb guy energy that gives him the ability to fight monsters.
And what monsters have we given this ding dong to fight, as the Baker family and the molded are just wonderful, getting up close and personal, distorting in horribly monstrous ways, and refusing to die, shrugging off firepower and showing no regards to any bodily harm. I also love the molded, I don't get the disregard for them, as the first time one just slunk around the corner and got in my face I sure as hell let it be known, the way they move in such a way that they look like they are being puppeted with marionette strings. The way they maneuver towards you, seeming to get faster and more pissed off the more bullets you pepper into them, is VERY effective at making me piss myself.
This is easily the scariest game in the entire franchise, because of how small and vulnerable Ethan feels just carefully creeping through the Baker house, barely feeling like you have any room at all to run and fight, it is the most effective dis empowerment the series has ever played with, as Ethan truly feels over matched at every turn. It actually took me until 2020 to even be able to get past the section after the dinner scene where you have to avoid Jack, as it was so intense that I would reflexively alt-f4 the fuck out of the game the second he looked at me.
The first-person perspective gives the game a much more personal horror than ever before, and the sound work on display is bar none the best they've ever put in Resident Evil. the way you can hear bullets bounce around inside the shotgun as you run, the echo of the main hall, the clicks of locks and the menu, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games to the ears ever, which sounds insane, but you gotta believe me and play with headphones.
My only big complaint that prevents this from joining the 5-star pantheon is the pivot to "scary little girl horror" the game takes near the end. Which...look the game stays fun all the way through, but the Bakers were so much more engaging that it's a total head scratcher why Capcom stopped digging for oil and broke out one of the most tired cliches of all time.
Also what the fuck is up with them an tanker levels? Is there a guy on staff who was doing a hunger strike until they put a tanker in every fucking game? It's absurd. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but definitely enough to disappoint me that this is the pivot it took.
I also hate how Capcom seems like it can't resist their bad habits and in the DLCs do everything they can to erase the mystery and tragedy of the story by explaining shit away with TOO much detail. The tragedy of the Baker family was one of the saddest details in the game, of how a quiet but pleasant family slowly transformed into unkillable murderers, the idea that the molded slowly transformed while people were aware of the transformation, whatever the FUCK is going on in End of Zoe. Do yourself a favor and only play the DLC with Clancy as those are actually pretty decent, avoid Daughters, End of Zoe, and Not A Hero if you respect this story and want to continue doing so.
Aquales
1991
Cybernator/Valken, Metal Warriors, Front Mission Gun Hazard, etc all fill in this really weird niche subgenre of 16-bit mecha games, but to my surprise there was yet another one of these games for a 16-bit Japanese PC, and it predates even Valken by a solid year. I hereby present Aquales, by Exact in their second X68000 game.
I am absolutely blown away by this game. It really feels like the type of game that would have needed a $5000 PC to run at the time, using a solid half dozen or so layers of parallax scrolling to convey a sense of screen depth. The Sharp X68000 primarily had games that were ports from other system, so the fact I can finally see a game that showcases the full potential of the system is nothing short of breathtaking. It even has hands down one of if not the most beautiful waterfalls in gaming; screenshots alone can't do this game justice https://youtu.be/-PxIxJUMOjc?t=1306
There are so many details in the game's world. Even shit that would be inconsequential to draw is there to help with the game's approach to storytelling. For example, seeing the sunken ship really cements a sense of danger in the aquatic world https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427275136635502594/1192860742693691402/image.png
The music really helps sell the game's tone as well. Everything is consistently threading a needle between calming and intense, and every single boss has a unique battle theme to my surprise. This was basically unheard of for 1991! For sure though, this is my favourite track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgX6uyCF_Y
But of course, the most compelling thing about the game is seeing the roots of a strange subgenre of games. In terms of similarities to Valken and in particular Gun Hazard, there's a lot. There is similar mech with a walking speed relative to those games, emphasis on vertical traversal albeit with a grappling hook, boss fights like the computer cores, the Gundam-inspired anime aesthetic used in the cutscenes, the level up system, hidden weapons, etc etc etc. Hell, the napalm shots even bounce around the screen! Of course, games like Thexder, Metal Storm, Zeta Gundam Hot Scramble, and Leynos predate all of these games as far as mecha sidescrolling action goes, but I would argue Aquales' use of things like RPG elements puts it closer to games like Valken and Gun Hazard.
The game is shockingly approachable. In between levels, the player can adjust their lives to be at up to 7 per level, and the player can continue off of any level desire in case they missed a hidden weapon or want to level grind to make later levels easier, although honestly it's almost impossible to miss any hidden weapons in this game. I was dreading playing this game due to there being 7 weapons to discover, but to my surprise I found all of them without a walkthrough and without focusing on exploration. It's shockingly simple.
The amount of strategy one can use with the sheer loadout is magnificent. Using the grappling hook to cling to ceilings and shoot 1000 homing missiles at helpless enemies, using the super lightsaber to quickly kill the vertical boss gauntlet, hell even taking the bouncing bullet gun and sticking it directly inside of some bosses to kill them insanely quickly (this was the only way I could beat the final boss lol) is rad.
Not to mention, the sheer sense of polish is ever present. This is one of the only games where there are no ambidextrous sprites; the sprites actually change depending on whether the player is facing left or right, so the mech is always carrying a gun with its right hand!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260640941391932/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260641327271987/image.png
One thing I will say is that the game is almost too approachable. I didn't really level grind in the game, but even when I reached max level some enemies were kinda damage spongey lol. There are often ways to approach enemies that feel like the "correct" safe ways but take a while to execute since enemies have so much health. Perhaps this could have been helped if the level cap was level 8 or so instead of 10. It still only took roughly 100 minutes to finish the game blind, although perhaps beating the game over a couple sessions instead of 1 is the kind of pace the devs intended. The bosses can be kinda hit or miss as well, with the boring ones just eating shit to a 360 degree chain swing spam while the cool ones make more use out of verticality such as the core boss. IDK, the enemy design just feels secondary to the level design and player controls in general, but it's still pretty fun for at least a couple playthroughs.
Also really neat how the game ends with a rocketship setpiece level instead of a level where one fights any enemies at all. Love the willingness to break the mold.
Great game for mecha fans, I can't rec enough.
I am absolutely blown away by this game. It really feels like the type of game that would have needed a $5000 PC to run at the time, using a solid half dozen or so layers of parallax scrolling to convey a sense of screen depth. The Sharp X68000 primarily had games that were ports from other system, so the fact I can finally see a game that showcases the full potential of the system is nothing short of breathtaking. It even has hands down one of if not the most beautiful waterfalls in gaming; screenshots alone can't do this game justice https://youtu.be/-PxIxJUMOjc?t=1306
There are so many details in the game's world. Even shit that would be inconsequential to draw is there to help with the game's approach to storytelling. For example, seeing the sunken ship really cements a sense of danger in the aquatic world https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427275136635502594/1192860742693691402/image.png
The music really helps sell the game's tone as well. Everything is consistently threading a needle between calming and intense, and every single boss has a unique battle theme to my surprise. This was basically unheard of for 1991! For sure though, this is my favourite track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgX6uyCF_Y
But of course, the most compelling thing about the game is seeing the roots of a strange subgenre of games. In terms of similarities to Valken and in particular Gun Hazard, there's a lot. There is similar mech with a walking speed relative to those games, emphasis on vertical traversal albeit with a grappling hook, boss fights like the computer cores, the Gundam-inspired anime aesthetic used in the cutscenes, the level up system, hidden weapons, etc etc etc. Hell, the napalm shots even bounce around the screen! Of course, games like Thexder, Metal Storm, Zeta Gundam Hot Scramble, and Leynos predate all of these games as far as mecha sidescrolling action goes, but I would argue Aquales' use of things like RPG elements puts it closer to games like Valken and Gun Hazard.
The game is shockingly approachable. In between levels, the player can adjust their lives to be at up to 7 per level, and the player can continue off of any level desire in case they missed a hidden weapon or want to level grind to make later levels easier, although honestly it's almost impossible to miss any hidden weapons in this game. I was dreading playing this game due to there being 7 weapons to discover, but to my surprise I found all of them without a walkthrough and without focusing on exploration. It's shockingly simple.
The amount of strategy one can use with the sheer loadout is magnificent. Using the grappling hook to cling to ceilings and shoot 1000 homing missiles at helpless enemies, using the super lightsaber to quickly kill the vertical boss gauntlet, hell even taking the bouncing bullet gun and sticking it directly inside of some bosses to kill them insanely quickly (this was the only way I could beat the final boss lol) is rad.
Not to mention, the sheer sense of polish is ever present. This is one of the only games where there are no ambidextrous sprites; the sprites actually change depending on whether the player is facing left or right, so the mech is always carrying a gun with its right hand!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260640941391932/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260641327271987/image.png
One thing I will say is that the game is almost too approachable. I didn't really level grind in the game, but even when I reached max level some enemies were kinda damage spongey lol. There are often ways to approach enemies that feel like the "correct" safe ways but take a while to execute since enemies have so much health. Perhaps this could have been helped if the level cap was level 8 or so instead of 10. It still only took roughly 100 minutes to finish the game blind, although perhaps beating the game over a couple sessions instead of 1 is the kind of pace the devs intended. The bosses can be kinda hit or miss as well, with the boring ones just eating shit to a 360 degree chain swing spam while the cool ones make more use out of verticality such as the core boss. IDK, the enemy design just feels secondary to the level design and player controls in general, but it's still pretty fun for at least a couple playthroughs.
Also really neat how the game ends with a rocketship setpiece level instead of a level where one fights any enemies at all. Love the willingness to break the mold.
Great game for mecha fans, I can't rec enough.
PowerWash Simulator
2022
Made my dopamine receptors so tuned to dings I'm considering buying a hotel reception bell as a sexual aid.
This review contains spoilers
Spoilers for both Dragon Quest XI S and Final Fantasy VI below.
I don’t think I’m breaking new ground when I say that Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a fantastic game. It had already earned its spot as an all time great in the JRPG genre as soon as it was released, after all. I don’t really have much new to add to the conversation in that regard, but I’m willing to join the choir of voices that sing this game’s praise.
The systems of Dragon Quest XI have been filed down to near perfection with a laser beam. It is, of course, standing on the shoulders of giants; Being the result of over thirty years of iteration. I think what’s so great about this though is unlike Dragon Quest’s sister series Final Fantasy, the chassis of the original entry can still be found clear as day in the series’ eleventh. If Square-Enix treats every new Final Fantasy like a recent sports car purchase, then Armor Project is the guy prodding away in his garage, tuning up the hot rod he’s owned since 1986. Not to imply one process is worse as a means of propping up another, of course, it’s just nice to play a modern, AAA JRPG that’s like a greatest hits of every single thing that’s fantastic about the genre.
That’s all well and good, but if Dragon Quest XI S simply had good gameplay, I wouldn’t be doing this. What spurned me to clack away on my keyboard is the story, which is another example of Yuji Horii and his team showing how masterful they are at their craft, by delivering a story as standard as you could possibly imagine, while bending and twisting the tropes in minute, yet exciting ways that kept me thoroughly engaged. One would need to look no further than the opening hour of the game: Which introduces us to our player character, a mute boy from a small town, coming of age and discovering he is the chosen one, AKA the Luminary. I know this story, you know this story, and most importantly of all, Yuji Horii knows we know this story. Which is why the events directly afterwards are so effective. Those events being a wrongful imprisonment from a nearby kingdom, and our hero’s home being razed to the ground for even associating with us. Many of the game’s tropier plot points pan out in a similar format. The player asks “Is this [insert classic JRPG plot here]”? And the game responds with, “Yes, but,” It’s fantastic. The game’s greatest example of this is the rug pull at the World Tree, with the retrieval of the Sword of Light. What should be our heroes shining moment is stolen from them as the villain Mordegon, who up to this point had only been spoken of, reveals himself and snatches the blade from the Luminary’s hands, and in the process destroys the World Tree and sends the world into a malaise of darkness. In mere moments, Mordegon turned the tables and effectively won. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the events of Final Fantasy VI, which is very high praise.
The most interesting narrative elements are found afterwards, in “part two” of the game as fans refer to it as. This section of the game focuses on regrouping and picking up the pieces of the world after the Luminary and his friends failed in the fight against Mordegon. Instead of regurgitating the plot, I’ll simply say everyone’s story in this section is extremely effective. My personal favorites have to be Hendrik’s and Serena’s. The former suffering from a major crisis of faith after realizing he was effectively being lied to for his entire life. And the latter who is trying to find the strength to march on after losing her sister, Veronica. Another one of our party members, who gave her life so that the rest of the group would stand a chance of living to fight another day. This twist especially caught me off guard, and was done extremely well. The rematch with Mordegon as a result is incredibly cathartic. Once the credits had rolled I was satisfied with calling this one of the greatest JRPGs I had ever played.
And then the game continued.
Yes, once again I know I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that I am incredibly conflicted by the decision to include a “part three” to the story. This third part of the game involves the Luminary using time travel to undo all of the damage Mordegon caused at the pivotal moment at the end of part one. The Luminary and the Luminary alone travels back in time to rewrite history, to effectively give everyone a happy ending. Admittedly, it’s pretty satisfying to see the villains on the backfoot and squirm because their plans aren’t working, but that feeling quickly waned for me as the ramifications of this story decision began to sink in. All of those fantastic arcs the characters went through in part two are completely gone in this new, definitive timeline, because they never happened. Of course this means that Veronica is saved, but so are many other characters too, like the Queen of Nautica, Rab’s teacher, and even the mermaid for some reason is inexplicably alive in the timeline, despite her arc having a bittersweet conclusion in my playthrough far before the events where the time travel sends the Luminary back to. All of these characters get their happy endings, but it comes at a significant cost to the narrative feeling much more cheap as a result. The biggest examples being Hendrik and Serena. I loved their arcs in part two, but now they haven’t happened. If I may evoke its name one more time, it’s like if after you beat Final Fantasy VI, there was a lengthy section of the game where Celes could travel back in time and stop Kefka from plunging the world into chaos.
It wouldn’t have been satisfying from a narrative standpoint if all of the characters could’ve gone back and saved Veronica, so maybe that’s why only the Luminary gets to time travel. I suppose that’s meant to be the “cost.” But the cost comes in a meta sense, and feels mostly at my expense as I had found myself getting really attached to these characters. So to effectively see their stories’ satisfying conclusions be erased was really disappointing. I found myself doing the bare minimum in part three because of this. Power leveling when appropriate and defeating the true final boss with few issues. I think what sucks most about this aspect of the game is that it’s not really something that can be ignored or treated as a “what if” scenario. There’s too many loose ends in the main story that get addressed in part three. If I may offer this section of the game some praise: I do find Serenica’s happy ending satisfying, even if I don’t exactly understand the mechanics of the Luminary copying his powers to her form, but I don’t want to get lost in the weeds anymore than I already have. The finale credits roll was effective in earning some, but most definitely not all, of the goodwill towards the story part three had erased from existence, to borrow a concept.
Despite all of this negativity, I need to reiterate that I still think this is a fantastic game, and I’m looking forward to playing more Dragon Quest because of it. Even if I find part three disappointing in many ways, I still don’t regret any of my time spent in Dragon Quest XI S. It’s a game I care about a lot. And maybe if I worked on the game like Armor Project did, I’d have been just as tempted as they were to give these characters the happy ending I felt they deserved, at any cost. It seems to me that the biggest flaw Horii and his team exhibited when crafting this game, or rather, its story, was that they cared too much. I just hope that next time they’ll be able to let the dead stay dead.
I don’t think I’m breaking new ground when I say that Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a fantastic game. It had already earned its spot as an all time great in the JRPG genre as soon as it was released, after all. I don’t really have much new to add to the conversation in that regard, but I’m willing to join the choir of voices that sing this game’s praise.
The systems of Dragon Quest XI have been filed down to near perfection with a laser beam. It is, of course, standing on the shoulders of giants; Being the result of over thirty years of iteration. I think what’s so great about this though is unlike Dragon Quest’s sister series Final Fantasy, the chassis of the original entry can still be found clear as day in the series’ eleventh. If Square-Enix treats every new Final Fantasy like a recent sports car purchase, then Armor Project is the guy prodding away in his garage, tuning up the hot rod he’s owned since 1986. Not to imply one process is worse as a means of propping up another, of course, it’s just nice to play a modern, AAA JRPG that’s like a greatest hits of every single thing that’s fantastic about the genre.
That’s all well and good, but if Dragon Quest XI S simply had good gameplay, I wouldn’t be doing this. What spurned me to clack away on my keyboard is the story, which is another example of Yuji Horii and his team showing how masterful they are at their craft, by delivering a story as standard as you could possibly imagine, while bending and twisting the tropes in minute, yet exciting ways that kept me thoroughly engaged. One would need to look no further than the opening hour of the game: Which introduces us to our player character, a mute boy from a small town, coming of age and discovering he is the chosen one, AKA the Luminary. I know this story, you know this story, and most importantly of all, Yuji Horii knows we know this story. Which is why the events directly afterwards are so effective. Those events being a wrongful imprisonment from a nearby kingdom, and our hero’s home being razed to the ground for even associating with us. Many of the game’s tropier plot points pan out in a similar format. The player asks “Is this [insert classic JRPG plot here]”? And the game responds with, “Yes, but,” It’s fantastic. The game’s greatest example of this is the rug pull at the World Tree, with the retrieval of the Sword of Light. What should be our heroes shining moment is stolen from them as the villain Mordegon, who up to this point had only been spoken of, reveals himself and snatches the blade from the Luminary’s hands, and in the process destroys the World Tree and sends the world into a malaise of darkness. In mere moments, Mordegon turned the tables and effectively won. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the events of Final Fantasy VI, which is very high praise.
The most interesting narrative elements are found afterwards, in “part two” of the game as fans refer to it as. This section of the game focuses on regrouping and picking up the pieces of the world after the Luminary and his friends failed in the fight against Mordegon. Instead of regurgitating the plot, I’ll simply say everyone’s story in this section is extremely effective. My personal favorites have to be Hendrik’s and Serena’s. The former suffering from a major crisis of faith after realizing he was effectively being lied to for his entire life. And the latter who is trying to find the strength to march on after losing her sister, Veronica. Another one of our party members, who gave her life so that the rest of the group would stand a chance of living to fight another day. This twist especially caught me off guard, and was done extremely well. The rematch with Mordegon as a result is incredibly cathartic. Once the credits had rolled I was satisfied with calling this one of the greatest JRPGs I had ever played.
And then the game continued.
Yes, once again I know I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that I am incredibly conflicted by the decision to include a “part three” to the story. This third part of the game involves the Luminary using time travel to undo all of the damage Mordegon caused at the pivotal moment at the end of part one. The Luminary and the Luminary alone travels back in time to rewrite history, to effectively give everyone a happy ending. Admittedly, it’s pretty satisfying to see the villains on the backfoot and squirm because their plans aren’t working, but that feeling quickly waned for me as the ramifications of this story decision began to sink in. All of those fantastic arcs the characters went through in part two are completely gone in this new, definitive timeline, because they never happened. Of course this means that Veronica is saved, but so are many other characters too, like the Queen of Nautica, Rab’s teacher, and even the mermaid for some reason is inexplicably alive in the timeline, despite her arc having a bittersweet conclusion in my playthrough far before the events where the time travel sends the Luminary back to. All of these characters get their happy endings, but it comes at a significant cost to the narrative feeling much more cheap as a result. The biggest examples being Hendrik and Serena. I loved their arcs in part two, but now they haven’t happened. If I may evoke its name one more time, it’s like if after you beat Final Fantasy VI, there was a lengthy section of the game where Celes could travel back in time and stop Kefka from plunging the world into chaos.
It wouldn’t have been satisfying from a narrative standpoint if all of the characters could’ve gone back and saved Veronica, so maybe that’s why only the Luminary gets to time travel. I suppose that’s meant to be the “cost.” But the cost comes in a meta sense, and feels mostly at my expense as I had found myself getting really attached to these characters. So to effectively see their stories’ satisfying conclusions be erased was really disappointing. I found myself doing the bare minimum in part three because of this. Power leveling when appropriate and defeating the true final boss with few issues. I think what sucks most about this aspect of the game is that it’s not really something that can be ignored or treated as a “what if” scenario. There’s too many loose ends in the main story that get addressed in part three. If I may offer this section of the game some praise: I do find Serenica’s happy ending satisfying, even if I don’t exactly understand the mechanics of the Luminary copying his powers to her form, but I don’t want to get lost in the weeds anymore than I already have. The finale credits roll was effective in earning some, but most definitely not all, of the goodwill towards the story part three had erased from existence, to borrow a concept.
Despite all of this negativity, I need to reiterate that I still think this is a fantastic game, and I’m looking forward to playing more Dragon Quest because of it. Even if I find part three disappointing in many ways, I still don’t regret any of my time spent in Dragon Quest XI S. It’s a game I care about a lot. And maybe if I worked on the game like Armor Project did, I’d have been just as tempted as they were to give these characters the happy ending I felt they deserved, at any cost. It seems to me that the biggest flaw Horii and his team exhibited when crafting this game, or rather, its story, was that they cared too much. I just hope that next time they’ll be able to let the dead stay dead.
Super Metroid
1994
Finished playing super metroid.
Another amazing game finished in 2024. Super metroid along with Castlevania symphony of the night are the most influential games for the metroidvania genre. So far this is my favourite metroid game and it definitely lives up to the hype.You play as Samus and you explore the planet zebes to find the stolen metroid creature. The progression and world design are without a doubt excellent, as you explore zebes you will find various power ups such as the gravity suit and the morph ball which will give you access to areas that weren't accessible before. The combat is simple but still very enjoyable and the graphics and soundtrack are awesome. Not knowing where to go and the backtracking are usually expected in a metroidvania but an issue i had with the game is that all boss fights are kinda meh, their not the worst boss fights ever but their really nothing special, they are ok at best. By the way am i the only person who had 0 issues with the controls? Anyways i would give super metroid a strong 9/10
Another amazing game finished in 2024. Super metroid along with Castlevania symphony of the night are the most influential games for the metroidvania genre. So far this is my favourite metroid game and it definitely lives up to the hype.You play as Samus and you explore the planet zebes to find the stolen metroid creature. The progression and world design are without a doubt excellent, as you explore zebes you will find various power ups such as the gravity suit and the morph ball which will give you access to areas that weren't accessible before. The combat is simple but still very enjoyable and the graphics and soundtrack are awesome. Not knowing where to go and the backtracking are usually expected in a metroidvania but an issue i had with the game is that all boss fights are kinda meh, their not the worst boss fights ever but their really nothing special, they are ok at best. By the way am i the only person who had 0 issues with the controls? Anyways i would give super metroid a strong 9/10