A charming visual novel-puzzle game with surprisingly deep writing that unfortunately suffers from the worse illness of them all; anime pacing.

Imagine you drink a glass of water, right now, how would you write this action? Well, you could say “I went to the kitchen, grab a glass of water and then drank it”. And that’s it. Ace Attorney Adventures on the other hand, would take TEN FUCKIN MINUTES TO DO THE SAME.

— “Damn I’m a bit thirsty I guess… Probably could go to the kitchen… Yeah, that would seem to be the correct path to follow.”

— “Although… I come from Japan, so… I’m not sure these english gentlemen keep their water on the same place within their homes as us… I guess I should investigate this matter more thoroughly.”

— (ANOTHER PERSON ENTERS THE SCENE) “You could do it man! You need this water to survive! It’s your chance now to grab it! Seize the opportunity!”

(DRAMATIC PAUSE WHERE YOU CAN SEE EVERY CHARACTER REACTING TO WHETHER YOU’RE GONNA GRAB THE GLASS OF WATER OR NOT)

— “This is it! I can already taste the water… I’m almost there… C’mon! I can do this!”

— (ANOTHER CHARACTER APPEARS IN THE SCREEN TO EXPLAIN WHY WATER IS IMPORTANT TO THE HUMAN BODY… THIS TAKES FOUR MINUTES)

…

Not only is this time consuming, it is excruciatingly painful. You feel mocked for liking the good bits of this fucking game. Add investigations phases that are almost entirely consistent in pixel hunting (with occasionally funny dialogue) and this game HURTS YOU.

This could’ve been a really great 8-10 hours neat little adventure masterpiece, full of quirky characters and fun trial based puzzles that haven’t been really replicated by other games, but it is THREE TIMES AS LONG, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Anime was a mistake.

The real genius in this project is clearly Akira Toriyama and/or his team. The talent, vision and vigor he demonstrated with these designs leave me utterly flabbergasted. I’m particularly fond of Robo and Frog, both in the little vignettes they appear in and in the impressive sprite work. The uniqueness in their making despite their apparent simplicity strikes me as timeless, which I guess is kinda the fucking point. I don’t swear often, but man! And you could say the same of a lot of his work here, from the other characters, to the enemies you fight and, of course, the bosses. Interestingly enough, I think Crono might be the dullest, he’s red haired Goku, although that may be because I’m as familiar with that design as to become inoculated to his charm.

I have similar praise for the music in here, Yasunori Mitsuda did an otherworldly job in this game and he’s justly celebrated because of it. I don’t only think it is amazing, but it’s iconic enough to be, again, timeless. Funny, I know. I believe it is the definitive SNES soundtrack, and not only does evoque the themes and vibe of the game but of the mid nineties videogame epoch that’s seen nowadays as a golden era, at least for this genre. I would need more time and expertise to discuss it, but if you’ve heard these tracks you probably know what I’m referring here. From the music alone you could guess a pretty decent chunk about what this game deal is, and, if you do the opposite exercise and strip the soundtrack from the game, you would immediately loose a lot of its charm. Would you restart a save after being killed if it weren’t for the music practically crying about the world ending?

And finally, while not as brilliant as the last two, whoever write this (word on the street is that it was mainly written by Yuji Horii) did a fantastic work with the main scenario, and adapted a somewhat juvenile idea perfectly into this videogame shaped action anime masterpiece. Every mangaka could learn a lot by playing Chrono Trigger. A lot of them probably did. Hell, if Marvel’s writers had played this they wouldn’t be making the garbage they come up every year or so (and they would be even richer). For a light PG story that aims to keep everybody interested it’s as good as it gets. It’s just a really tight, self contained, expertly paced and carefully structured tale that never stops evolving and advancing through its central gimmick and its very likeable set of characters. While not nearly as thematically resonant nor aesthetically ambitious as, let’s say, Earthbound, it is still great. It’s perfect. Too perfect, perhaps, as to feel a bit artificial and even… academic? Its vertiginous rhythm too generous to experiment with itself, to dare to be bolder and to risk being worse. Like, Chrono Trigger never truly gets weird, it never aims for the stars. I don’t know if I make sense.

My issue here is that I think this game is less than the sum of its parts. While it looks and sounds pretty much better than anything else on the platform, and even if it is very competently written and designed, it still feels like its indulging in its genre specific trends and vices. Nothing wrong with that for most people, but I took issue because I think it could’ve been even better if it wasn’t for those constrains. A its core, it is still an acceptable JRPG that’s too content with constantly using combat as the default way to interact with the world, too eager to ry to heighten its drama by making the player fight monsters that you can beat by pressing one button every couple of steps, too prepared to let you know shit just got real by having a bigger tankier monster that deals more damage and it does it fast (I didn’t like the combat all that much, I don’t like to be rushed, and i believe these mechanics are a compromise between an action game and an actually enjoyable turn based one). I just can’t help to feel underwhelmed by this.

I guess if this would’ve had less combat it would have been a 4 stars game. If it also had BETTER combat it would’ve been a 5 stars game.

Fun, whimsical and uniquely beautiful. While is on the easier and shorter side, there is a decent enough system to master, with several weapons with their special attacks and evolutions. Although, perhaps the key element is the balance between them, and constantly changing is the winning strategy. Just a fun genre-setting pairing, every enemy and set piece is cute and inviting. I also loved how it takes place in one day, and by the end of it you’re fighting in the night in this phosphorescent spectacle. A perfect way to spend a breezy afternoon.

Four stars for the engaging gameplay loop that asks you to delay instant gratification and plan several moves ahead and forces you to enact patience and constrain by tricking you with little false chances to have a perfect level even when not having those perfect levels it’s more often than not the easier path to victory. It’s almost mathematically balanced, yet you keep swinging for the home run despite your best interests. One of the few games were the player makes it more punishing by its completitionist tendencies while the game itself is rather forgiving. It’s pretty genius.

One star deducted for at least partially contributing to the persistence of the idiotic I.Q. as a measurement of intelligence myth. I don’t make the rules.

Really atmospheric for like the first hour, then it becomes a rather tedious game about constantly backtracking to discover a new room every ten minutes or so, with a somewhat generic j-horror twist, only instead of an old gothic-esque japanese haunted house this time we’re in space. It’s cool enough! Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, and I liked the experimental nature of the game and how exploring the capabilities of the medium’s storytelling potential was arguably the focus of the project, even if the story itself isn’t that great nor exciting. You can see they’re having fun and trying shit they normally wouldn’t, even if you can also see the budget constrains at every step of the way. I’m not quite sure why this gets such a bad rep in here of all places. Like, I see why IGN game reviewers could despise a 3-hour-not-so-scary horror game with tank controls, mediocre level design and a deliberately obscure progression in 2013, but in backloggd? It boggles my mind to be honest. Perhaps one day people will see this as what it is; a pretty ok and weird game. Give it a try!

An absolute beauty of a game that the developers decided to ruin by making it stupidly (not a random choice of words here) hard. If game makers had arrived to the realization that your marvelous platformer with a masterpiece of a soundtrack could be easy, Donkey Kong Country would’ve been even better remembered, which is saying a lot. But the insistence in making games hard and punishing even if it doesn’t feel good mechanically nor makes sense with the vibe you’re going for has ruined many games, and will doubtless ruin many more.

Anyway the level design is Rare fucking with you in a way that makes the fun go away. I could call it “what if design” because they seemingly went “what if the player runs up with a new enemy throwing barrels at them that they can’t see if they are going slightly fast”, or “what if we put this enemy in the EXACT POSITION the player would end up in regular circumstances in this section ha ha!”, etc. Or I could call it shit design. Because is shit.

It’s never a good signal when a short game, and I’m talking like FOUR HOURS short, feels overly long. Kirby 3 is a fun and often clever game, particularly when it’s showing you new abilities or new ways to use them with your animal pals, but just never differentiates from the rest of the series in a way that feels exciting, and if you’ve played these games recently it really starts to feel redundant. It is the best looking game in the series up until this point, and it is in my mind better than the almost unplayably slowness of the 64 Kirby, but just doesn’t cut it.

Much more tense that I had anticipated, but a great experience nonetheless. Ico explores its themes of bonding and persistence through the lense of a child trapped in this decaying castle, searching a way out amidst the ruins of a world that's seemingly hostile to that which he cares the most. To me the serene beauty of the enviroment is arguably the star of the show, but is permanently muddled by the constant threat of danger; you cannot leave Ico's companion Yorda alone for more than a couple of minutes without feeling worried, and calculating the distance between them in terms of seconds becomes a neccessity. The player is never quite free in their mind to meander around the castle and fully appreciate the artistry of its design. This is deliberate, of course, and its purpose gives your actions a weight that they would've otherwise lacked, perhaps. But here's my thing with Ico; I always had conceived it as a rather different experience, one more contemplative and calmer, one which just left you be in this magnificent place for the most part, one when you weren't rushed to solve anything by the ever present enemies lurking at every corner, and that's not the case. Sure, there's some momments here and there, but that's not the main thing the game's looking for, in my opinion, and this contrast became problematic to the mind of a person that had been wanting to play it for a good fifteen years.

Ultimately, even if I would've loved the game Ico was in my mind a lot more, it's hard to deny the merits the actual game has. It's almost like a horror game, the player's always on their toes, and while the combat is bad, intrusive and unceasing, it does gave a deeper meaning to the relationship between these two characters, makes the bond more solid. Anyway, the game's great and the sound design and the score are top notch, that alone makes it an obligatory play for everybody.

I fail to see the charm in this. The music is excellent and some elements of its visuals are at least good, but that’s pretty much all there is. It is extremely combat focused and while it isn’t nearly as reliant on tedious grinding as other big RPG’s of its time, it is mostly uninspired and flat. Mastering the timing of the basic attack is always the winning strategy, that and healing, and it never asks much more of you, and I just never felt enamored with the gimmick to compensate for the lack of a more engaging system.

I love that it’s short and simple and ideal for novices but I would’ve loved more a better though out combat.