ezelf
2022
Solid little platformer you can beat in one sitting. I HATE THE BLOWTORCH ENEMIES!!!!!
I absolutely love the monster recruitment mechanic and the story was so good! Two major complaints with this game, though. First, it has the badass monster recruitment mechanic and then gives you like 4 canon party members so you have to choose between using all of the cool monsters or the canon party. Second, The whole final dungeon absolutely BLOWS and the final boss was an insane difficulty spike, the whole game was a leisurely breeze and I ended up having to grind up to level 42 and stock up on elfen elixr to even stand a chance at beating the final guy, and even then he using disruptive wave to nullify my insulation, and then breathing fire all over me. He wiped me so often and theres no save point or shortcut to get back to him so you have to go through the whole dungeon to get back to him. This sucks because the game is really good in every other aspect. On to DQVI!
Gooreat game
alena is the GOAT
This review contains spoilers
After trying this game on release 4 years ago and being intimidated by just how HUGE this game felt I finally decided to give it another shot after watching my friend play for a bit and I don't regret it in the slightest. I had this preconceived notion that the game was going to be evil and tedious, as I am a huge fan of Metal Gear Solid and I've heard the rumors of Kojima trying to make "The End" bossfight in MGS3 2 real life weeks long, I assumed that since sony gave Kojima free reigns with his new studio that this was going to be the most unhinged Kojima product I have ever played. Coupled with the fact that my first playthrough was like 3 hours long and I hadn't even left the tutorial place I didn't think this game was for me. Upon my revisit of the game, on the director's cut version for PC, mind you, I found myself enjoying it far more than I did the first time. Once the gameplay loop clicks in your head it makes so much sense, and once the game starts making sense they love to completely flip the script on you. The gameplay is so varied, initially I found myself meticulously planning out the smallest of routes and trying to find the perfect footpath to proceed, to forging literal highways that united every single spot on the map, to going back to making on foot deliveries in the snowy mountains, making a system of ziplines for speedy deliveries, all the way to just completely conquering the floaty jumpy movement system and flying everywhere with my "Stabilizer" which doubles as a makeshift JETPACK and jump ramps that let you bust out a silly move while throwing yourself several hundred meters forwards. This game is often described as a "walking simulator" but I found myself playing 20 different simulator games as I progressed through the game. The story is amazing, too. I found myself loving every single character, even the random ones you never speak with again after finishing all of their deliveries. Throughout the game, you are rewarded with emails from all of the people you have delivered too, and it really does a good job in making you feel like you are uniting the world. Once you finally add the occasional social recluse to the UCA and they start getting delivery requests from random ass dudes you met 20 hours ago it really starts to feel like you are reconnecting people. I also really like how everyone is referred to as their occupation, or as what type of value they bring to the world. It shows you that every order is just as important as any other. While you may see the value in connecting someone like a doctor or scientist for the information and medicine knowledge alone, you also start to see the value in stuff like the cosplayer, or the video game collector, who provide the people of this broken world with freshly sewn underwear and cosmetics or act as an impromptu historian, telling the history of how humans used to act before the stranding through the mediums of video games and music and art. I also wanted to mention that I played this game at the same time as my friend and finding structures that they had built and random shit that they had left on the ground always made me smile, I can only imagine how it must have felt playing this game at launch and seeing everyone's evidence of tomfoolery and experimentation. My biggest complaints are the fact that if you want to 100% this game you have to do a racing minigame using the terrible vehicles that you have the option of using in the game, and once you conquer your fear of BTs they become more of an annoying hindrance than an exciting encounter.
I really enjoyed the combat in this game, and the story was pretty decent, too. They even have a baby bitch mode for people like me (story mode). The only thing I don't really enjoy about this game is the human AI, they will just stand there and do nothing unless they are one of the few randomly spawning npc's that request something from you.
2005
I really enjoyed this one, I went into this game expecting a quirky platformer and ended up fixing a broken marriage and meeting a whole cast of characters that I fell in love with. You can't really put a genre on this game, most unique thing I have ever played. My only complaints is that it gets a bit tedious in the last 3 hours and the spaceship minigame is evil and terrible, but both of these complaints take place in the optional part of the game after the credits so it doesnt matter.
2007
This is the most 50/50 I have ever felt about anything in my entire life
There IS a good game here! The combat is smooth and rewarding, I actually feel like I am getting better at the game by playing it, not only through actual skills developed, but literally in the terms of the gameplay, they will spawn more and more of an enemy that you struggled with in the past to the point where you are mowing them down like they are insignificant.
The game has a ton of superb boss fights too!! I won't go to much into detail for lack of revealing spoilers but I believe that the boss fights were the best part about the game.
I really like how the map of the game changes as the events of the story unfold into your world, opening up new paths.
The few positive things I have to say about the game vastly outweigh the negative things I have to say...
First off, you and the enemies you encounter are both able to use projectiles, which stunlock you once you are hit. It adds a degree of difficulty, and I won't deny that it adds an interesting layer to the combat system but holy shit, there is no limit to the amount of projectiles an enemy can lob at you at any given moment. There were times in my playthrough where I would be at full health and get a projectile stuck in my back, only to be stunned onto the ground to be surrounded and die. It is usually manageable but most of the time it leads to you losing health and having to use up your valuable supply of health potions.
Speaking of which, you are able to effectively soft-lock yourself if you do not manage your health potions correctly, as there are a limited amount of them in chests and the only other method of receiving them is to purchase them from, the very few and far between, shops. The currency that you use in these shops are yellow orbs that are dropped by the enemy. At a point near the end of my playthrough, near a point where you fight multiple bosses at the same time, I had managed to barely scrape by in the boss fight and make it out with a sliver of health, with no potions or money available. I was forced to take on the final boss of the portion flawlessly. Admittedly, I was able to do so and felt pretty badass conquering it, but it took me a very long time and there should have been a way to gather more currency or health in some way.
They address this issue later in the game, making the enemies drop the blue health orbs more often and giving you SPOILER: a weapon that drains the health of enemies if a correct combo is input, which honestly became more hassle than what it was worth. Near the end of the game, you are swarmed with these annoying ass enemies that are a really good source of currency, and it feels kind of cheap grinding those out to go into the final few fights with maxxed out health potions and gear. I presume that is why the enemies are put there but it left a nasty taste in my mouth, grinding money off cheap kills.
There are a myriad of other small nitpicks I could get into, such as the lack of information surrounding the games "trial rooms", where you have to kill upwards of 60 enemies to progress, or the fact that you have to be completely still to interact with anything, because the interact button is the same as the projectile button and failure to do so will result in Ryu shooting instead of doing the command, the fact that you and the enemies are both able to block, and whilst they can break your block you do not have any attacks that can overcome a block, or even the fact that the continue screen will CHANGE RANDOMLY so you can’t just press “A” to continue, you have to read what they are asking you before continuing or you will end up going back to the main menu instead of continuing. Instead, I want to talk about the story/characters.
The story isn't much to write home about, which is fine, I doubt anyone is playing this for the story. Ryu was the highlight, as the protagonist he did not have much to say but the few lines he does say are super corny and awesome in the best way possible. My biggest gripe comes from the female character designs. All the women have jiggle physics and even when standing completely stationary they will continue to move in other ways, and their outfits are designed to project that. I guess some people enjoy that but it felt really out of place in a ninja hack n' slash game.
I am curious if the next games in the franchise fix the issues with the gameplay that I had and will probably give them a shot in the future. Not anytime soon though, this game was way too frustrating.
There IS a good game here! The combat is smooth and rewarding, I actually feel like I am getting better at the game by playing it, not only through actual skills developed, but literally in the terms of the gameplay, they will spawn more and more of an enemy that you struggled with in the past to the point where you are mowing them down like they are insignificant.
The game has a ton of superb boss fights too!! I won't go to much into detail for lack of revealing spoilers but I believe that the boss fights were the best part about the game.
I really like how the map of the game changes as the events of the story unfold into your world, opening up new paths.
The few positive things I have to say about the game vastly outweigh the negative things I have to say...
First off, you and the enemies you encounter are both able to use projectiles, which stunlock you once you are hit. It adds a degree of difficulty, and I won't deny that it adds an interesting layer to the combat system but holy shit, there is no limit to the amount of projectiles an enemy can lob at you at any given moment. There were times in my playthrough where I would be at full health and get a projectile stuck in my back, only to be stunned onto the ground to be surrounded and die. It is usually manageable but most of the time it leads to you losing health and having to use up your valuable supply of health potions.
Speaking of which, you are able to effectively soft-lock yourself if you do not manage your health potions correctly, as there are a limited amount of them in chests and the only other method of receiving them is to purchase them from, the very few and far between, shops. The currency that you use in these shops are yellow orbs that are dropped by the enemy. At a point near the end of my playthrough, near a point where you fight multiple bosses at the same time, I had managed to barely scrape by in the boss fight and make it out with a sliver of health, with no potions or money available. I was forced to take on the final boss of the portion flawlessly. Admittedly, I was able to do so and felt pretty badass conquering it, but it took me a very long time and there should have been a way to gather more currency or health in some way.
They address this issue later in the game, making the enemies drop the blue health orbs more often and giving you SPOILER: a weapon that drains the health of enemies if a correct combo is input, which honestly became more hassle than what it was worth. Near the end of the game, you are swarmed with these annoying ass enemies that are a really good source of currency, and it feels kind of cheap grinding those out to go into the final few fights with maxxed out health potions and gear. I presume that is why the enemies are put there but it left a nasty taste in my mouth, grinding money off cheap kills.
There are a myriad of other small nitpicks I could get into, such as the lack of information surrounding the games "trial rooms", where you have to kill upwards of 60 enemies to progress, or the fact that you have to be completely still to interact with anything, because the interact button is the same as the projectile button and failure to do so will result in Ryu shooting instead of doing the command, the fact that you and the enemies are both able to block, and whilst they can break your block you do not have any attacks that can overcome a block, or even the fact that the continue screen will CHANGE RANDOMLY so you can’t just press “A” to continue, you have to read what they are asking you before continuing or you will end up going back to the main menu instead of continuing. Instead, I want to talk about the story/characters.
The story isn't much to write home about, which is fine, I doubt anyone is playing this for the story. Ryu was the highlight, as the protagonist he did not have much to say but the few lines he does say are super corny and awesome in the best way possible. My biggest gripe comes from the female character designs. All the women have jiggle physics and even when standing completely stationary they will continue to move in other ways, and their outfits are designed to project that. I guess some people enjoy that but it felt really out of place in a ninja hack n' slash game.
I am curious if the next games in the franchise fix the issues with the gameplay that I had and will probably give them a shot in the future. Not anytime soon though, this game was way too frustrating.
Having played all three of the ports I thought it was only appropriate to put all of my thoughts on the final episode.
The team behind this project somehow made these games feel native to VR. Driving the airboat and shooting with the gun simultaneously was something I was dreading replaying but I was pleasantly surprised with how great it felt to control. There was also a ton of accessability options, you are able to play the whole game while seated and you are given the option to enable a laser sight for all of the guns that you receive, both of which I utilized to the fullest extent. My only complaint is that while picking up objects with your hand is an option, it is kind of finnecky and unreliable. The short amount of time in the beginning of HL2 where you do not have the gravity gun is a bit of a hastle but once you receive the gun it is no longer a problem. Very minor complaints for a product that is given to you for FREE!!!
If you have a VR system this is a game you cannot miss.
Support the creators! https://ko-fi.com/sourcevrmodteam
The team behind this project somehow made these games feel native to VR. Driving the airboat and shooting with the gun simultaneously was something I was dreading replaying but I was pleasantly surprised with how great it felt to control. There was also a ton of accessability options, you are able to play the whole game while seated and you are given the option to enable a laser sight for all of the guns that you receive, both of which I utilized to the fullest extent. My only complaint is that while picking up objects with your hand is an option, it is kind of finnecky and unreliable. The short amount of time in the beginning of HL2 where you do not have the gravity gun is a bit of a hastle but once you receive the gun it is no longer a problem. Very minor complaints for a product that is given to you for FREE!!!
If you have a VR system this is a game you cannot miss.
Support the creators! https://ko-fi.com/sourcevrmodteam
You can tell that a bunch of love went into this game. Playing through each of the different story paths was a blast, the art was amazing and the mini games were very fun. You should definitely pick this game up if you have a chance.