falcorito
2020
alan wake is definitely not my favorite experience in the videogame department and i sure did not need an entire expansion for some lore implications of a game i already dont understand a lot about but oh well what can we do
after playing the foundation dlc i had high hopes for this one to actually add some more substantial elements to an already pretty incredible experience but it sure wasnt what i was expecting seeing that most of this is just an alan wake 2 teaser and while it tries so hard to connect the 2 games together it falls flat on his ass with the “theyre connected because we say so not because theres actually any kind of story element to tie the different lores or anything” like most of the time redhead will just be like oh damn this poet thing is stuck in a dark place poor him ok whatever do we care no
i can see how this could actually make alan wake fans lose their minds but me not being a fan of that game to begin with and a certified nihilist i dont find any kind of joy in seeing the protagonist of one the most monotonous games ive played this year show his face to me again to reenact all that juicy PTSD so yeah sorry to the fans (authors notice: i liked some of the stuff in alan wake i hope fans wont voodoo doll my ass into the grave now)
as for the gameplay theres not a lot here the investigations department of the bureau is just another carbon copy of the stuff youve seen for the entire game so theres nothing worth of note here the alan wake darkness mechanics of shining light to black cum to make it disappear is tucked on control just for some side quests that i had no interest to actually do and most of the time youre gonna fight with a monster from the alan wake lore which is actually scared of darkness or something and can be fucked up by shining some pole lights onto him for like 5 different encounters until he dies and theres that as i said this is as bare bones as it can get as additional content it just acts as a way to wet alan wake simps pants and i gotta say the finale makes a nice teaser for whats to come i will give them that
so yeah im done with control funnily enough i played these games to play alan wake 2 but i actually think i will wait a sec to play that one because i got so much stuff in my backlog im probably gonna burst until that moment stan jesse faden aka courtney hope for the funniest lines ive ever heard and a simile realistic experience
after playing the foundation dlc i had high hopes for this one to actually add some more substantial elements to an already pretty incredible experience but it sure wasnt what i was expecting seeing that most of this is just an alan wake 2 teaser and while it tries so hard to connect the 2 games together it falls flat on his ass with the “theyre connected because we say so not because theres actually any kind of story element to tie the different lores or anything” like most of the time redhead will just be like oh damn this poet thing is stuck in a dark place poor him ok whatever do we care no
i can see how this could actually make alan wake fans lose their minds but me not being a fan of that game to begin with and a certified nihilist i dont find any kind of joy in seeing the protagonist of one the most monotonous games ive played this year show his face to me again to reenact all that juicy PTSD so yeah sorry to the fans (authors notice: i liked some of the stuff in alan wake i hope fans wont voodoo doll my ass into the grave now)
as for the gameplay theres not a lot here the investigations department of the bureau is just another carbon copy of the stuff youve seen for the entire game so theres nothing worth of note here the alan wake darkness mechanics of shining light to black cum to make it disappear is tucked on control just for some side quests that i had no interest to actually do and most of the time youre gonna fight with a monster from the alan wake lore which is actually scared of darkness or something and can be fucked up by shining some pole lights onto him for like 5 different encounters until he dies and theres that as i said this is as bare bones as it can get as additional content it just acts as a way to wet alan wake simps pants and i gotta say the finale makes a nice teaser for whats to come i will give them that
so yeah im done with control funnily enough i played these games to play alan wake 2 but i actually think i will wait a sec to play that one because i got so much stuff in my backlog im probably gonna burst until that moment stan jesse faden aka courtney hope for the funniest lines ive ever heard and a simile realistic experience
already profusely talked about the fact that i enjoy control just as much as dick in the ass and thats the best compliment i could give this piece of media and since this is just MORE control of course it was gonna be at least some degree of cool
and it was
the foundation takes you in the underground parts of the oldest house and while the scenery is way different than the offices you used to see for the entire game these red sand caves do have such a distinct and good atmosphere to them that i honestly didnt mind a change of pace it was definitely getting a little tiring to just go back and forth from the same 3 kinds of layouts so going deeper into my claustrophobic nightmare fueled grotto was p good
now im glad the story keeps the same attitude of the main game which means i didnt get absolutely fucking nothing and thats what i like about this game it could be about xenocomunism and i would have no fucking clue <3 that being said youre gonna follow the shadow of a character of the main game and theres that nothing too groundbreaking happens here apart from exploring a new place
you get some new powers which are p fun but just work in this setting and the focus on platforming got me anxious until i realised that this games movement is also perfect for some jumping around in the void something that alan wake 1 had no right whatsoever to dabble into
sooooooo ughhhhhhh i mean what do you want me to say its still control its still peak i enjoyed this one way more than the alan wake dlc because i hate alan wake im so sorry this is gonna come off as rude and i hope it does because im trying to be rude
redhead still fucks ass the fights are still cool the boss fight maybe a little less but its still so fucking fun to throw containers against people that i honestly dont mind cant believe im doing this kind of marathon just to play alan wake 2 and i fell in love so hard with this one to the point that i will praise a dlc/expansion like this wowzers i love being an esper and serving ass
and it was
the foundation takes you in the underground parts of the oldest house and while the scenery is way different than the offices you used to see for the entire game these red sand caves do have such a distinct and good atmosphere to them that i honestly didnt mind a change of pace it was definitely getting a little tiring to just go back and forth from the same 3 kinds of layouts so going deeper into my claustrophobic nightmare fueled grotto was p good
now im glad the story keeps the same attitude of the main game which means i didnt get absolutely fucking nothing and thats what i like about this game it could be about xenocomunism and i would have no fucking clue <3 that being said youre gonna follow the shadow of a character of the main game and theres that nothing too groundbreaking happens here apart from exploring a new place
you get some new powers which are p fun but just work in this setting and the focus on platforming got me anxious until i realised that this games movement is also perfect for some jumping around in the void something that alan wake 1 had no right whatsoever to dabble into
sooooooo ughhhhhhh i mean what do you want me to say its still control its still peak i enjoyed this one way more than the alan wake dlc because i hate alan wake im so sorry this is gonna come off as rude and i hope it does because im trying to be rude
redhead still fucks ass the fights are still cool the boss fight maybe a little less but its still so fucking fun to throw containers against people that i honestly dont mind cant believe im doing this kind of marathon just to play alan wake 2 and i fell in love so hard with this one to the point that i will praise a dlc/expansion like this wowzers i love being an esper and serving ass
2013
as a person who knows absolutely fucking nothing about ys as a whole series i ended up doing what i do for a lot of series around which is just starting with the first game and while lacrimosa of dana is looking at me as the most appetizing entry in the series i just really wanted to play this one in order since it wouldve been the best way to do it in my eyes
did i regret it ? not really i genuinely do think this game has a lot to offer mainly due to the fact that its a remaster/remake/port of something i still have no idea actually i didnt do any study on this series i just went with the flow and played this one whatever
it sure as hell got the skeleton of an old rpg but i dont know what they did to me but the bump system was such a fucking blast ??? it wears thin after a while but during the first hours of the game when i actually realised how this worked i swear it was so fucking funny just to be running around and bumping into enemies and seeing them EXPLODE in front of my eyes literally most fun ive had with an old snes ish title secret of mana can only learn from this like forreal i wasnt a huge fan of this combat system in the beginning but it definitely grew on me pretty fast and i was left with some of the best fast paced action rpgs ive ever played im not joking here the bump system stole my heart sure i still have no idea how it actually works since theres a lot of nuance here in the “hit them diagonally pal” and most of the time i was actually confused as to WHAT this off centered attack actually was which led me to die in many many different situations during the beginning of the game it gets progressively easier after leveling up and getting some new equipment but the weird nature of this system shows its seams after a while
what surrounds this gameplay loop actually gets tiring after a while due to the fact that most of the other elements of the game arent supporting it the enemies are pretty samey after you get the best equipment you got rings with different uses that can be switched for each situation and you can use some objects that give some nuance to the gameplay but apart from this theres not a lot here the exploration is pretty bare bones theres like 2 towns a couple dungeons and some hidden chests with actual good stuff but apart from this nothing truly groundbreaking and it was pretty weird that the game stopped my leveling right at 10 (and completely annihilated any interest to actually kill enemies I encountered) which is the max just so that i wouldnt be overleveled for bosses that would fuck my ass up like why would you NOT make me overleveled for these insidious bosses whatever im not a game designer i wont ever learn the answer to this i guess its an rpg i should be free to overshoot my characters levels so that i would breeze through the game (not you fire emblem) and also fuck that final boss im not gonna honestly spend more time honing my abilities just so that I could beat an unfair shmup final boss
as for the story in it of itself it doesnt get too convoluted but it sure has some interesting story beats and plot twists here and there that i wasnt expecting but the general skeleton is poor adol gets stranded on a continent and here he tries to find out what happened to the ancient land of ys and why the two goddesses vanished STOP this is the stuff the game is working around and most of the time youre just gonna go from town quest to town quest so there's not really a lot of implications in the lore department but I gotta say I'm in love with feena she's my sweet little baby I love amnesiac girls and I'm pretty sure this game as a whole just acts as a prologue to ys II since the story just ends abruptly not giving any real insight to the story implications but I will be tuning in for the next installment since I really want to know what the fuck happens since it should be a direct sequel
art style is cool and looks like some 80s anime and the in game sprites remind me of those rpg maker horrors so there's that not really the most groundbreaking art direction ive ever seen in my life but it brings the whole idea home and also for some reason this has such a fucking banger soundtrack ??? like it's so out of place and awesome that it honestly shocked me a little for how good it is like the “battle” themes are honestly legendary and this one absolutely stole my heart the drums hit a little too hard and the electric guitar fucks everyone up in here I was eargasming the entire time
so ughhh all in all that was a nice good 10 hours of my life maybe with the prior knowledge of the later installments I wouldve liked this more bit still pretty excited to explore the rest of the series from here feena wait for me
WAIT WAIT WAIT THIS SONG TOO ???? OH LOOOOORD MASTERPIECE
did i regret it ? not really i genuinely do think this game has a lot to offer mainly due to the fact that its a remaster/remake/port of something i still have no idea actually i didnt do any study on this series i just went with the flow and played this one whatever
it sure as hell got the skeleton of an old rpg but i dont know what they did to me but the bump system was such a fucking blast ??? it wears thin after a while but during the first hours of the game when i actually realised how this worked i swear it was so fucking funny just to be running around and bumping into enemies and seeing them EXPLODE in front of my eyes literally most fun ive had with an old snes ish title secret of mana can only learn from this like forreal i wasnt a huge fan of this combat system in the beginning but it definitely grew on me pretty fast and i was left with some of the best fast paced action rpgs ive ever played im not joking here the bump system stole my heart sure i still have no idea how it actually works since theres a lot of nuance here in the “hit them diagonally pal” and most of the time i was actually confused as to WHAT this off centered attack actually was which led me to die in many many different situations during the beginning of the game it gets progressively easier after leveling up and getting some new equipment but the weird nature of this system shows its seams after a while
what surrounds this gameplay loop actually gets tiring after a while due to the fact that most of the other elements of the game arent supporting it the enemies are pretty samey after you get the best equipment you got rings with different uses that can be switched for each situation and you can use some objects that give some nuance to the gameplay but apart from this theres not a lot here the exploration is pretty bare bones theres like 2 towns a couple dungeons and some hidden chests with actual good stuff but apart from this nothing truly groundbreaking and it was pretty weird that the game stopped my leveling right at 10 (and completely annihilated any interest to actually kill enemies I encountered) which is the max just so that i wouldnt be overleveled for bosses that would fuck my ass up like why would you NOT make me overleveled for these insidious bosses whatever im not a game designer i wont ever learn the answer to this i guess its an rpg i should be free to overshoot my characters levels so that i would breeze through the game (not you fire emblem) and also fuck that final boss im not gonna honestly spend more time honing my abilities just so that I could beat an unfair shmup final boss
as for the story in it of itself it doesnt get too convoluted but it sure has some interesting story beats and plot twists here and there that i wasnt expecting but the general skeleton is poor adol gets stranded on a continent and here he tries to find out what happened to the ancient land of ys and why the two goddesses vanished STOP this is the stuff the game is working around and most of the time youre just gonna go from town quest to town quest so there's not really a lot of implications in the lore department but I gotta say I'm in love with feena she's my sweet little baby I love amnesiac girls and I'm pretty sure this game as a whole just acts as a prologue to ys II since the story just ends abruptly not giving any real insight to the story implications but I will be tuning in for the next installment since I really want to know what the fuck happens since it should be a direct sequel
art style is cool and looks like some 80s anime and the in game sprites remind me of those rpg maker horrors so there's that not really the most groundbreaking art direction ive ever seen in my life but it brings the whole idea home and also for some reason this has such a fucking banger soundtrack ??? like it's so out of place and awesome that it honestly shocked me a little for how good it is like the “battle” themes are honestly legendary and this one absolutely stole my heart the drums hit a little too hard and the electric guitar fucks everyone up in here I was eargasming the entire time
so ughhh all in all that was a nice good 10 hours of my life maybe with the prior knowledge of the later installments I wouldve liked this more bit still pretty excited to explore the rest of the series from here feena wait for me
WAIT WAIT WAIT THIS SONG TOO ???? OH LOOOOORD MASTERPIECE
its that time of the year when i remember fire emblem exists and i play a new installment so im gonna be real with you binding blade left me with a sour taste in my mouth and i ended up dropping the series marathon for the time being that could actually give you a clue to what i generally think about fe6 without reading my review
since i actually am a madman and actually wanted to explore some more of the gba titles i ended up booting blazing blade and while it could be argued that this is by no means a masterpiece in the series (ive only played a few games so i cant really say much about this) its pretty interesting to see that they managed to fix some of the issues i had with binding blade
in the great scope of things this is a prequel to fe6 it takes place in the same land and stars most of the parents youre gonna see during your time in elibe and a new entry in the whole franchise and also ready to become the favorite girl of a lot of guys in the entire series lyn
i definitely enjoyed the characters in this one way more than the other game since they actually feel more fleshed out with some more understandable motives diving the game setting into 2 completely different campaigns where in the first one youre gonna play as fan favorite lyndis trying to save his grandfather which is actually a general tutorial to the entire game and fire emblem as a whole and the second part of the campaign stars eliwood whos the father of the other fan favorite roy from fe6 and hector whos the father of MY FAVORITE SWEET LITTLE CHILD lilina
this rooster of character is probably one of the strongest ive seen in the entire franchise till now lyn is as determined as she is brave but her story shines the light on a scarred and emotional woman who found in her independence a way to work through life
while i definitely think lyns story is the weakest one of the 2 this doesnt mean it didnt touch some high highs here and even though it just acts as a tutorial for the entire game that doesnt mean its gonna be devoid of any challenge or fun to play through and the idea of dividing the actual game into different parts made both of the stories more digestible since i usually just play one chapter of fire emblem then get stuck and replay it after like 3 months this is the usual praxis
so all in all lyns side of the story is pretty great if you ask me but the real meat of the game is eliwoods part of the story (i have no idea if hector hard mode is actually just the same story beats or an entire new storyline maybe with hectors POV because i havents played it since “hard mode” made me shit my pants as soon as i read it) and this is actually where the game stops handholding you and gets into unknown territory and a real trial to see if you actually learnt some shit from the tutorial
eliwoods tale sees him going in a search for his father but as youre gonna guess in fire emblems usual flair the plotline is gonna escalate into the whole dragon lore and shit like that but im not gonna say anything here because im not the most competent guy to actually talk about fire emblems story and in general the best stuff always comes at the end so youre advised what im gonna say though is that compared to fe6 both lyns side and this one actually have some tighter pacing and characters are usually more fleshed out than its sequels counterparts and eliwood and hector make for an intoxicatingly good pair and also as incredible lords for the entire party eliwood is more on the usual “shonen ish protagonist with a lot of empathy love for his land and people and a pacifist and charismatic leader” or some shit like that but its pretty evident that they gave him a lot more nuance compared to his son maybe also for his age and for how hot he is sorry uwu what REALLY makes it worth is though are his interactions with hector which not so different from him but definitely on the more aggressive and belligerent side of things (hot) hes more of an act first think later type of guy (hot) with some beefy arms and an axe bigger than a tree (hot) and the friendly rivalry they create (or better the homoerotic tension they create) actually steals the spotlight for any other character to actually shine i love these two with all my essence and being while i do agree that eliwood is the bestes boy hector is in the archetype of my fictional boyfriend type so im always gonna take his side and take his mmmmm i cant say this here moving on
this game continues the tradition of the other gba title to actually throw at you countless and countless playable characters so of course some of them are gonna shine above the others and it is no surprise that i fell in love at first sight with ninian and shes definitely one of the highlight of the games beside being an incredibly effective plot point throughout she has a design beaten for the gods and while she doesnt end up fucking XXX i can definitely be his husband i cook i clean i pay the taxes and watch the kids and before you say it no unfortunately i dont like nils i prefer his hot sister teehee sooooooorry yall
if you know me you know i had no other choice but love jaffar and what i was definitely not expecting is the fact that i would end up loving him not only because hes hot but also due to the fact that he has some of the thickest character development in the entire game compared to the other guys in the circus and also his relationship with nino made me absolutely tear my hair off i love those two like my own babies but unfortunately i wanted jaffar all by myself so i need nino to step right off right about NOW
you can also see that the quality of the character design actually made a huge jump because the usual green and red knight actually have some nuance to them in particular im in love with sain who acts as the usual womanizer type of guy and somehow always manage to get zero pussy in the process which makes kent even more endearing because being an asexual virgin completes the duo and makes for a great chemistry (read: theyre gay and have a lot of sex)
some other highlight are florina my sweet little baby with fear of men (shes right to do so) matthew is a conniving bitch and im gonna bet my life he makes for an endearing power bottom marcus is still a bull even in this game rebecca is ,,, CUTE ! i like her i think and raven is a damn good hunk of a man older brother type of character with a lot of meat in his part and i love those overprotective bro figure because i always wanted one im so sorry yall fiora and isadora are my lesbian mothers and i want them to walk me with a leash hawkeye has big tits heath has big hair harken has a big fucking cock no half words i can feel his might through the screen love that guy im free on saturday
so theres that also honorable mention lloyd is probably one of the hottest guy in all fire emblem i was DROOLING dont get me started
as i was saying in general this is probably the tightest narrative in the gba trilogy (havent played sacred stones i dont know if i actually want to rn because im growing tired of these games) and i can see a lot more care being put in the story and character side of things that i unfortunately didnt see when playing fe6 not that its a bad game but i can say that blazing blade pisses in his mouth ong
cant really add anything more in the art direction and music department because its basically the same as fe6 and i already praised it at that time but TLDR the sprite works and animations are probably my favorite in the entire franchise the pixelated artworks and oversaturated art style really add a lot to the general sense of style and makes for an unforgettable view the music is pretty much usual fire emblem fanfares or world themes which are by no means bad but definitely dont reach the highs or tracks found in awakening or echoes (and they dont even have to because this is neither awakening nor echoes)
if i gotta be nitpicking i also think the character portraits have something more compared to the ones in fe6 but i cant go on and hate on binding blade or else fans of the saga will come here and bust my ass open one time and for all
so what else to say if it wasnt clear enough this is my favorite one of the gba bunch till now and probably one of the favorite of some people out there maybe im playing this series wrong because after awakening and echoes everything here sucks because OF COURSE it would but im still pretty curious to see what else this series have to offer at this point i got so many different games to branch off now i dont have a clue what im gonna play next stay tuned so that you can listen to me complaining about fe6 some more and saying how much i want to fuck the characters in this series byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee have fun segues a message just for lloyd hi babe im douching my ass come over at 9 pm i will be waiting xoxo
since i actually am a madman and actually wanted to explore some more of the gba titles i ended up booting blazing blade and while it could be argued that this is by no means a masterpiece in the series (ive only played a few games so i cant really say much about this) its pretty interesting to see that they managed to fix some of the issues i had with binding blade
in the great scope of things this is a prequel to fe6 it takes place in the same land and stars most of the parents youre gonna see during your time in elibe and a new entry in the whole franchise and also ready to become the favorite girl of a lot of guys in the entire series lyn
i definitely enjoyed the characters in this one way more than the other game since they actually feel more fleshed out with some more understandable motives diving the game setting into 2 completely different campaigns where in the first one youre gonna play as fan favorite lyndis trying to save his grandfather which is actually a general tutorial to the entire game and fire emblem as a whole and the second part of the campaign stars eliwood whos the father of the other fan favorite roy from fe6 and hector whos the father of MY FAVORITE SWEET LITTLE CHILD lilina
this rooster of character is probably one of the strongest ive seen in the entire franchise till now lyn is as determined as she is brave but her story shines the light on a scarred and emotional woman who found in her independence a way to work through life
while i definitely think lyns story is the weakest one of the 2 this doesnt mean it didnt touch some high highs here and even though it just acts as a tutorial for the entire game that doesnt mean its gonna be devoid of any challenge or fun to play through and the idea of dividing the actual game into different parts made both of the stories more digestible since i usually just play one chapter of fire emblem then get stuck and replay it after like 3 months this is the usual praxis
so all in all lyns side of the story is pretty great if you ask me but the real meat of the game is eliwoods part of the story (i have no idea if hector hard mode is actually just the same story beats or an entire new storyline maybe with hectors POV because i havents played it since “hard mode” made me shit my pants as soon as i read it) and this is actually where the game stops handholding you and gets into unknown territory and a real trial to see if you actually learnt some shit from the tutorial
eliwoods tale sees him going in a search for his father but as youre gonna guess in fire emblems usual flair the plotline is gonna escalate into the whole dragon lore and shit like that but im not gonna say anything here because im not the most competent guy to actually talk about fire emblems story and in general the best stuff always comes at the end so youre advised what im gonna say though is that compared to fe6 both lyns side and this one actually have some tighter pacing and characters are usually more fleshed out than its sequels counterparts and eliwood and hector make for an intoxicatingly good pair and also as incredible lords for the entire party eliwood is more on the usual “shonen ish protagonist with a lot of empathy love for his land and people and a pacifist and charismatic leader” or some shit like that but its pretty evident that they gave him a lot more nuance compared to his son maybe also for his age and for how hot he is sorry uwu what REALLY makes it worth is though are his interactions with hector which not so different from him but definitely on the more aggressive and belligerent side of things (hot) hes more of an act first think later type of guy (hot) with some beefy arms and an axe bigger than a tree (hot) and the friendly rivalry they create (or better the homoerotic tension they create) actually steals the spotlight for any other character to actually shine i love these two with all my essence and being while i do agree that eliwood is the bestes boy hector is in the archetype of my fictional boyfriend type so im always gonna take his side and take his mmmmm i cant say this here moving on
this game continues the tradition of the other gba title to actually throw at you countless and countless playable characters so of course some of them are gonna shine above the others and it is no surprise that i fell in love at first sight with ninian and shes definitely one of the highlight of the games beside being an incredibly effective plot point throughout she has a design beaten for the gods and while she doesnt end up fucking XXX i can definitely be his husband i cook i clean i pay the taxes and watch the kids and before you say it no unfortunately i dont like nils i prefer his hot sister teehee sooooooorry yall
if you know me you know i had no other choice but love jaffar and what i was definitely not expecting is the fact that i would end up loving him not only because hes hot but also due to the fact that he has some of the thickest character development in the entire game compared to the other guys in the circus and also his relationship with nino made me absolutely tear my hair off i love those two like my own babies but unfortunately i wanted jaffar all by myself so i need nino to step right off right about NOW
you can also see that the quality of the character design actually made a huge jump because the usual green and red knight actually have some nuance to them in particular im in love with sain who acts as the usual womanizer type of guy and somehow always manage to get zero pussy in the process which makes kent even more endearing because being an asexual virgin completes the duo and makes for a great chemistry (read: theyre gay and have a lot of sex)
some other highlight are florina my sweet little baby with fear of men (shes right to do so) matthew is a conniving bitch and im gonna bet my life he makes for an endearing power bottom marcus is still a bull even in this game rebecca is ,,, CUTE ! i like her i think and raven is a damn good hunk of a man older brother type of character with a lot of meat in his part and i love those overprotective bro figure because i always wanted one im so sorry yall fiora and isadora are my lesbian mothers and i want them to walk me with a leash hawkeye has big tits heath has big hair harken has a big fucking cock no half words i can feel his might through the screen love that guy im free on saturday
so theres that also honorable mention lloyd is probably one of the hottest guy in all fire emblem i was DROOLING dont get me started
as i was saying in general this is probably the tightest narrative in the gba trilogy (havent played sacred stones i dont know if i actually want to rn because im growing tired of these games) and i can see a lot more care being put in the story and character side of things that i unfortunately didnt see when playing fe6 not that its a bad game but i can say that blazing blade pisses in his mouth ong
cant really add anything more in the art direction and music department because its basically the same as fe6 and i already praised it at that time but TLDR the sprite works and animations are probably my favorite in the entire franchise the pixelated artworks and oversaturated art style really add a lot to the general sense of style and makes for an unforgettable view the music is pretty much usual fire emblem fanfares or world themes which are by no means bad but definitely dont reach the highs or tracks found in awakening or echoes (and they dont even have to because this is neither awakening nor echoes)
if i gotta be nitpicking i also think the character portraits have something more compared to the ones in fe6 but i cant go on and hate on binding blade or else fans of the saga will come here and bust my ass open one time and for all
so what else to say if it wasnt clear enough this is my favorite one of the gba bunch till now and probably one of the favorite of some people out there maybe im playing this series wrong because after awakening and echoes everything here sucks because OF COURSE it would but im still pretty curious to see what else this series have to offer at this point i got so many different games to branch off now i dont have a clue what im gonna play next stay tuned so that you can listen to me complaining about fe6 some more and saying how much i want to fuck the characters in this series byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee have fun segues a message just for lloyd hi babe im douching my ass come over at 9 pm i will be waiting xoxo
2022
its that time of the year where im gonna talk about gay porn games once again so im gonna put the usual disclaimer
ALERT THIS IS A GAY PORN GAME ! which means I will be talking about my private time experiences with the material and the licentious content of this game that might hurt your over religious conservative puritan homophobic beliefs or maybe you just dont want to read about what turns me on and I don't fucking care you've been advised
so now youre probably gonna wonder why this fucking game got a 4 stars when it is basically just glorified porn CGs made into a game but when i tell you this is some of the best fapping material ive ever found till today
usually i rate games considering staff like general quality art direction how much i enjoyed it and lemme tell you i did fucking enjoy this one to hell and back
lets address the story at first because this is genuinely the most stupid trope ive ever seen in a while but still the most erotic one too so im not gonna complain about it basically the main character is a (virgin) high schooler who is trying to get to college but he sucks so bad at studying that his parents decide to hire a personal tutor to help him prepare for the exams so at one point this tutor comes home and hes a hunk horny beefy muscular guy with the sex drive of a bull and a lot of innuendos in his arsenal
i guess the general idea is that ryota should study some months trying to study for these entrance exams but it happens that for a series of events atsushi ends up sucking ryotas dick and from that points onward these two will be spending a lot of time doing sex sex sex sex sex sex
while i definitely dont think this is the most incredible story in a porn game its also to be said that i didnt expect to find a new shakespeare in the making i was literally here to beat my junk whenever i felt like it so honestly the overall storybeats were just a good excuse that segues into a sex scene so whatever truth be told this trope of the big beefy coach fucking you is kind of a dream of mine so lets get it the thing is that the coach actually takes it up his ass so thats what happens sometimes in real life
during the backdrop of this incredible incipit theres gonna be a lot of weird fucking in here like doing some outdoor illegal trivelling doing it in the forests of the beach from the top from the bottom side to side literally this guys would fuck in any position and any place whatsoever
the ending is also commendable to make the character arcs come to an end and actually make a sense of everything that happened so far
gotta say that the characters are actually pretty stellar ok actually ryota is just a timid guy that sometimes actually gets into an aggressive domtop that fucks atsushi until his mind goes blank and honestly i wish i was in his place i gotta say BUT atsushi is honestly so fucking charming hes super funny makes a damn good partner to the virginal protagonist and since hes the only voiced character of the 2 it actually brings the hunk even more to life with all its charm and personality
that segues to one of the reason why this game is rated so high the voice acting in this game is honestly the BEST ive ever listened to in all the VAed porn games ive played not only during the porn scenes which was honestly also a reason why this game actually made me cum in like 1 minute and a half but as i said it adds a lot to the character as a whole and i genuinely ended up enjoying atsushi a lot here sure i could not get enough of him gasping for air moaning in my ears and begging for dick but thats another story
its a shame that ryota isnt voice acted because it wouldve actually the interactions and sex scenes 100% better but just the inclusion of atsushi in here made it pretty clear this was gonna be such an incredible experience what the actual fuck
while i definitely think this is honestly the big part of the game and the sexual situations are super hot im still a bit sad that the actual localization is honestly shit it looks like some AI made translations that actually doesnt know how figures of speech works and somehow create some of the funniest scripts ive ever seen in a while honestly i beg of you to actually play this game just for the translation if youre not interested in gay sex its a fucking blast so whatever even though its super unprofessional and clearly didnt have any proof tester its just a weird feeling to be horny and reading these funny ass exchanges like do you want me to masturbate or laugh my ass off be real
all this actually culminates in the finest part of the game which is the art direction i swear to fucking god these CGs are so high quality at some point i was actually wondering how do people even manage to draw something like this like (as someone who draws this is pretty frustrating dont @ me) but as much as i love this art style maybe they couldve actually made those dicks a little smaller like i do understand the charm of big dicks in porn media but that thing is a tree log what the actual fuck UGHHHHH i dont ,,, unhhhhhhh wow
no actually i was rethinking my statement from before theres some honestly some incredibly funny pieces of dialogue please never make a professional script ever i love it like this
so all in all for a game that actually plays like a visual novel (and rightfully so because you actually will need to play this with only one end mind you oh also the UI is pretty janky to what does a man need to actually have an orgams this is so sad) i enjoyed it too damn much and when i say this i mean that my dick really enjoyed this all throughout theres some goofy stuff theres some sexy stuff theres a lot and a lot and a lot of sex and this actually makes for a damn good game maybe this is not the most rightful 4 stars ive ever given to a game but it sure as hell was religiously consumed by me just because of my creampie kink and humiliation kink and a lot more kinks more on that on my BDSM test
i genuinely never came so much for a game i literally would boot the same scenes over and over again until i actually had to make an effort to get to the next scene because THATS how fucking good these scenes are and if youre the target demographic of the game (gay sad and alone) this is definitely a must read and can actually give you a lot of play time if you know what i mean just skip the parts where atsushi stars infodumping a lot of sociocultural stuff nobody needs to see the culture we only need the dirty sex
yet again making a fool of myself on this site as always
ALERT THIS IS A GAY PORN GAME ! which means I will be talking about my private time experiences with the material and the licentious content of this game that might hurt your over religious conservative puritan homophobic beliefs or maybe you just dont want to read about what turns me on and I don't fucking care you've been advised
so now youre probably gonna wonder why this fucking game got a 4 stars when it is basically just glorified porn CGs made into a game but when i tell you this is some of the best fapping material ive ever found till today
usually i rate games considering staff like general quality art direction how much i enjoyed it and lemme tell you i did fucking enjoy this one to hell and back
lets address the story at first because this is genuinely the most stupid trope ive ever seen in a while but still the most erotic one too so im not gonna complain about it basically the main character is a (virgin) high schooler who is trying to get to college but he sucks so bad at studying that his parents decide to hire a personal tutor to help him prepare for the exams so at one point this tutor comes home and hes a hunk horny beefy muscular guy with the sex drive of a bull and a lot of innuendos in his arsenal
i guess the general idea is that ryota should study some months trying to study for these entrance exams but it happens that for a series of events atsushi ends up sucking ryotas dick and from that points onward these two will be spending a lot of time doing sex sex sex sex sex sex
while i definitely dont think this is the most incredible story in a porn game its also to be said that i didnt expect to find a new shakespeare in the making i was literally here to beat my junk whenever i felt like it so honestly the overall storybeats were just a good excuse that segues into a sex scene so whatever truth be told this trope of the big beefy coach fucking you is kind of a dream of mine so lets get it the thing is that the coach actually takes it up his ass so thats what happens sometimes in real life
during the backdrop of this incredible incipit theres gonna be a lot of weird fucking in here like doing some outdoor illegal trivelling doing it in the forests of the beach from the top from the bottom side to side literally this guys would fuck in any position and any place whatsoever
the ending is also commendable to make the character arcs come to an end and actually make a sense of everything that happened so far
gotta say that the characters are actually pretty stellar ok actually ryota is just a timid guy that sometimes actually gets into an aggressive domtop that fucks atsushi until his mind goes blank and honestly i wish i was in his place i gotta say BUT atsushi is honestly so fucking charming hes super funny makes a damn good partner to the virginal protagonist and since hes the only voiced character of the 2 it actually brings the hunk even more to life with all its charm and personality
that segues to one of the reason why this game is rated so high the voice acting in this game is honestly the BEST ive ever listened to in all the VAed porn games ive played not only during the porn scenes which was honestly also a reason why this game actually made me cum in like 1 minute and a half but as i said it adds a lot to the character as a whole and i genuinely ended up enjoying atsushi a lot here sure i could not get enough of him gasping for air moaning in my ears and begging for dick but thats another story
its a shame that ryota isnt voice acted because it wouldve actually the interactions and sex scenes 100% better but just the inclusion of atsushi in here made it pretty clear this was gonna be such an incredible experience what the actual fuck
while i definitely think this is honestly the big part of the game and the sexual situations are super hot im still a bit sad that the actual localization is honestly shit it looks like some AI made translations that actually doesnt know how figures of speech works and somehow create some of the funniest scripts ive ever seen in a while honestly i beg of you to actually play this game just for the translation if youre not interested in gay sex its a fucking blast so whatever even though its super unprofessional and clearly didnt have any proof tester its just a weird feeling to be horny and reading these funny ass exchanges like do you want me to masturbate or laugh my ass off be real
all this actually culminates in the finest part of the game which is the art direction i swear to fucking god these CGs are so high quality at some point i was actually wondering how do people even manage to draw something like this like (as someone who draws this is pretty frustrating dont @ me) but as much as i love this art style maybe they couldve actually made those dicks a little smaller like i do understand the charm of big dicks in porn media but that thing is a tree log what the actual fuck UGHHHHH i dont ,,, unhhhhhhh wow
no actually i was rethinking my statement from before theres some honestly some incredibly funny pieces of dialogue please never make a professional script ever i love it like this
so all in all for a game that actually plays like a visual novel (and rightfully so because you actually will need to play this with only one end mind you oh also the UI is pretty janky to what does a man need to actually have an orgams this is so sad) i enjoyed it too damn much and when i say this i mean that my dick really enjoyed this all throughout theres some goofy stuff theres some sexy stuff theres a lot and a lot and a lot of sex and this actually makes for a damn good game maybe this is not the most rightful 4 stars ive ever given to a game but it sure as hell was religiously consumed by me just because of my creampie kink and humiliation kink and a lot more kinks more on that on my BDSM test
i genuinely never came so much for a game i literally would boot the same scenes over and over again until i actually had to make an effort to get to the next scene because THATS how fucking good these scenes are and if youre the target demographic of the game (gay sad and alone) this is definitely a must read and can actually give you a lot of play time if you know what i mean just skip the parts where atsushi stars infodumping a lot of sociocultural stuff nobody needs to see the culture we only need the dirty sex
yet again making a fool of myself on this site as always
2007
please change the fucking cover art im gonna go crazy
sometimes in the past i had played persona 3 fes and it was definitely the highlight of my life till that moment if i gotta be honest and im really happy to see that nothing really changed from that time i still love every single part of this game i love every single character and i cant really say anything bad for this experience that is as tight and incredible as everybody says and i genuinely cannot believe how breathtaking it can be after so many years from the original release of the game
its been a while since i actually explored this entry in the persona franchise and even though this is definitely a step down from p4 and p5 this can still sit rightfully at the top of the trilogy to this day this is still my favorite entry in the spin off series and while i also love p1 and p2 for what they have to offer i definitely still have a sweet spot for this game above the others in the series
im pretty sure everybody knows what this game is about as of nowadays but i just gonna talk about it anyway like people actually asked me to elaborate on my love for this game so i will definitely do that
persona 3 stars a guy transferring to a new school and for some different reasons he ends up in a squad of different people trying to fight off enemies called shadows in a structure called tartarus during an hidden hour after midnight called the dark hour (theres a lot of different terminology alright) where people get some into some weird ??? coffins ??? and actually escalates into something called the apathy syndrome where people become weirdly lobotomised or something of the like and to do that they have to use the power of personas
now personas are basically demons from shin megami tensei recontextualised to actually be used in this series as “another you” and usually just take the form of mythological creatures or deities or shit like that now you know im a big fan of shin megami tensei and its general sense of design so of course i was gonna love this iteration
thats the general incipit of the whole game and while this is definitely the main story theres a lot lying below the surface that needs to be explored
persona 3 fes is famously divided like every other game in the franchise (apart from 1 and 2 skull face) in 2 different sections where you either have some slice of life story high school events and turns into a jrpg in the night segments where you have to fight off the different shadows and ascend tartarus in the hope of a better tomorrow
basically what happens is that you gotta finish the game in a single year (omg atelier ???) and what happens is that during the day you can do social links with different characters that are basically segments where you hang out with people and this is gonna make the arcana social link go up and each single level will actually make the personae of the same arcana way more powerful when you fuse them so theres basically a lot of nuance to this but more on this later
persona still borrows a lot from shin megami tensei and this is actually seen in the fact that the main mechanic of the game is recruiting and fusing demons which is a fucking blast every time even though you cant choose the skills the demon is going to inherit and that makes me actually suicidal ngl like you want me to create the best persona ever and make me inherit marin karin are you actually out of your mind what the fuck honestly this is something that makes me go buck wild in older smt games like why would you make me redo and redo the same persona combinations until i can get some good inherited skills do you just want to purposefully make me angry cmon atlus dont fuck with me rn
while i definitely have some gripes with the gameplay elements i still have a lot of love for it the jrpg elements are super tight fusing personas is fun as hell the combat that still has the basic smt principle of exploiting weaknesses actually makes the game even juicier with the 1 more mechanic + the all out attack its just so fucking good its incredible and since youre gonna do this for like 80+ hours at least this needs to be some degree of fun its just a simple and quick way to finish battles off and this still have some of the classic smt flair in the fact that if youre pretty unlucky and the rng wants to fuck you up you can get demons actually doing mahamaon and killing every single party member or like crit and crit and crit until you bite the dust funnily enough
lets address the elephant in the room though while i still think p3fes is actually the safest choice i have a huge fucking problem with it: you cant control party members which fucking sucks because im adhd and need to use my controller at all times or else i get fidgety and THATS WHY i ended up using the controllable characters patch (and also the undub patch dont @ me i hate english VA i dont know in how many more reviews i got to say this) and while i definitely think this is the way to go i had a lot of game breaking bugs during battles because of course it was gonna get buggy because you know they basically recoded shit or something i have no idea how this works so yeah i mean i had to do a lot of save states and even when i actually made some save states i was dumb enough to actually save in critical moments so i had to wipe like 3 hours of progress sometimes that to say that TO ME it was actually a god sent addition but it is to be said that these are the conditions of the patch i dont really think the original AI party is actually that bad but i cannot deal with not controlling every and each character in a turn based combat game so theres that
i do also recommend the undub which is done really well they also added some subtitles to the cutscenes they put work in that so yeah just try it out maybe it is for you
anyhow the other elephant in the room is tartarus now we need to make a detour for a moment i do think tartarus is actually the oddest dungeon out of the 3 different personas the ones in persona 4 are actually pretty interesting because theyre character specific and (for what ive seen) persona 5 also has some character specific dungeons that look absolutely fucking gorgeous but as much as ive seen mementos or whatever its name is works the same as tartarus
now do i think tartarus is bad ? no . i probably had less fun in it than in p4 and p5 dungeons but that doesnt mean its bad the first blocks arent that interesting but the more you actually ascend into it the more the floors start getting interesting like the psychedelic one is such an highlight i had so much fun in it it makes absolutely no sense and the final block is real thematically consistent to the rest of the game
while i definitely do understand where the most of the people here are coming from i also believe that theres definitely a huge chance that they are people who only played persona 5 because yknow its the most popular game in the smt franchise ever and of course tartarus was gonna get this kind of treatment since yeah its rudimentary its monotonous and its tedious BUT i still love it to hell and back slowly ascending the entire tower is such a joy that i cannot honestly think about this game without actually thinking about tartarus farming over and over and over again
now still talking about gameplay as a whole this is still the first persona to actually include the SoL/RPG elements which means its yes very simple but not because of that less effective doing the social links honing your 3 skills exploring the town buying stuff discovering new events doing side quests and shit actually makes for a really interesting gameplay loop that feels rewarding in the long run im not gonna lie that this still feels like stone age persona loop but again they had to start somewhere for the love of christ
in general i think the gameplay is such a blast and people who dont agree are dipshits and dont deserve shinjiros huge fat fucking cock thats honestly such a shame for as much as i want to criticise these decisions i actually have 100 contrasting reasons to actually say the opposite which means that every single hater of this game can suck my balls kissessssssssssss
a real shocker here will be the fact that yes persona 3 also has some super slick art direction now we all know and love the art direction in p5 even though at this point it feels like thats the only game that has an art direction but i digress (it is some of the best art direction ive ever seen though,,,,,,,, ngl) and i definitely can see a lot of care being put into this one the artworks of the characters are some of my favorites in the entire scope of videogames the models of the city are great every single persona is detailed as shit and the vibes of the entire game are absolutely unmatched and when you also add a bomb UI and art style you have the winning formula of the century and to not even talk about the entire ost department which is honestly as thick as it can get now im not gonna put 100 songs in the hyperlink because im trying to be more humble and lose less time in my life time is precious everybody
that to say that im gonna put just one song and my favorite in the entire playlist is changing seasons(https://youtu.be/ONsRqzQUeoo?si=6uDeTBnNrZiLwlkS) its such a sick track what the hell but as youll already know theres not really a single tracks that goes off the mark every single song is infused with a lot of hip hop vibes and enhance the entire experience to another level entirely
while i definitely feel that these are absolute strong points for the game i still do think that a lot of the best elements sit right into the story department and in particular the characters and interactions
the story definitely takes a real slowdown real soon in the game but as soon as like half a year passes youre gonna get plot twist after plot twist after plot twist boom boom boom one after the other im not gonna lie and this would probably fall flat if it werent for the gorgeous cast of characters
theres some that i like more and some that i like less i genuinely think shinjiro and akihiko are my lifelong companions im literally so in love with them i feel like im gonna pass out in particular shinjiro every time i think about him something in my pants swells i dont know guys im 10 and inexperienced should i take the gay test on trustworthy gay test sites online what do we think
so that to say that shinji and aki are my husbands i love how they both interact with each other and i love their archetypes so im definitely biased in the fact that i love boys i love boxer boys who can fuck my face up and fuck my ass up and i also like gloomy boys who dont want none to do with the outside world and social interactions shinjiro this game is literally based on social interactions stop being afuckinng cunt
i love them dearly
mind you even though those 2 are the loml i definitely have a lot of affection for my sweet little troubled yukari who feigns confidence through sass and a lot of ass mitsuru is literally the dominatrix of my dreams her persona has a whip and if that isnt a real indicator of her sexual tendencies idk what is junpei is my sweet little sunshine and while he can be a dickhead sometimes theres definitely a lot to his character than it meets the eye aigis is my baby i gave birth to her and im not gonna let anybody get near her ever in my entire life i love koromaru with the deepest parts of my heart and theres nothing that will change the fact that hes the bestest boy ever and ken is a good kid !!! i think and fuuka is still such a mystery to me but i definitely love her a damn lot maybe i dont know as much about her as i want to since i forgot to complete her social link teehee dont @ me mitsuru had the priority yall
as much as i love all of them im still pretty sad that in the original game you can only do social links with the girls in the party like who THE FUCK thought that was a good idea can i PLEASE suck shinjiros dick or do i need to pay a nsfw cosplayer on twitter to do that im not joking im gonna do that so thats sort of a let down and anyway the social links that are present here cant really compensate the absence of the main party to the whole meal like the school mates are fun like theres the gerontophile into milfs, walmart ryuji with a broken leg + his team manager whose social link i didnt finish so i have no pun, an immigrant that really feels kind of japanesephobic somehow, a timid girl whos scared of boys but also cant wait to suck dick, a son of a doctor who wants to be an artist but actually changes idea after a sitcom type of chain of events, a girl whose parents really need a fucking divorce, an athlete (thats his whole personality), a guy that i really hate so i fucking ignored aka the emperor, an online friend who actually is the most random character of the entire game and also a good excuse to put some persona 2 cameos, a guy with bulimia im not actually making fun of this one its actually pretty serious /gen, a monk who decided to follow buddha instead of pussy but then changes directions again because yknow pussy juice, a conniving businessman who wants to actually make you his apprentice, a couple with a a ,,,,, a d ea d umh a dead son umh wait i thought social links were supposed to be fun wait wait what and UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH WE DONT TALK ABOUT THE SUN ARCANA PLEASE
so as i was saying social links are some of the most inspired parts of the entire game and its such a shame that most of the time you wont see each and every one of them because yknow time management and shit but thats also the cool thing about persona you can do whatever the fuck you want and actually pursuit the stuff you actually want to see finished like i made my life work around the mitsuru social link and i studied my fucking ass off just to have a glimpse of her ginormous puthey thats what humans actually do so why the fuck not
so i guess im gonna get into spoiler territory now so SPOILER ALERT DONT READ ETC ETC
i genuinely love the fact that this game is surrounded by death everywhere its themes are some of the thickest and more real arguments to ever talk about and every single character conveys this kind of story to hell and back everyone in SEES actually had to face the pain of losing a beloved one mitsuru and yukari have to deal with the loss of a father ken misses his mother everyday akihiko is still grieving for the death of his little sister junpei is still traumatised by losing his loved one in a second and all of them are still trying to make sense of the departure of shinjiro DONT GET ME STARTED ON SHINJIRO DYING BECAUSE UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LORD
death is a thing that permeates all life and it takes BALLS to actually make a game that is surrounded by death everywhere story beats remind you that the world is dying every character is actually trying to make sense to the world around them and even the social links have a lot to say about life as a whole
theres some other games that tackle these themes im not gonna pretend persona 3 is the only game which has memento mori as its main theme but i cannot overstate enough how beautifully composed every single story line and emotional breakdown to actually drive home this series of events that have a lot to say about our world and how we live in it
the final stretch of the game with the near apocalypse is probably my favorite part due to the fact that every single character is using their grief as a mean to move on theyre trying to use all their suffering as a way to become powerful against a common threat that threatens life itself and while i think the nyx boss fight can be a bit of a pain to go through it has to be said that is so thematically rich that i cannot hate it for any reason in the world ever
and to this day the ending makes me bawl my eyes OUT you know what this game has not the most heartbreaking ending in the world in a shocking sense the slow and steady demise of the main character can be seen even from a few days before but when its all done youre left with you yourself aigis crying for you your friends grieving and all the memories you made together till now seeping through the cracks of you consciousness
while i do agree this is the most 2000s emo tumblr storyline ive ever witnessed it is told so beautifully that it honestly touched my heart theres not really a lot that i can say about this game apart from please play it and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make it through the ending of the sun arcana you will be left with no regrets and a lots of tears youre advised listen to me it is definitely such an emotional social link and possibly the best social link of the entire franchise im not gonna lie here wow
the ending of the game is as heart wrenching as it can get and really encapsulates the entire experience in a like 3 days theres a lot of weird things that i can say about this game maybe the fact that there arent controllable characters is weird or the fact that it is as melodramatic as it can get the gameflow is pretty slow you can go an entire month without any story beat whatsoever and i wish shinjiro was still in the party but thats something that i will experience when i will play p3p
as much as this is not a perfect game i can attest to the fact that this is a perfect game in my eyes every single element of it comes together to create such an unforgettable experience that i didnt find anywhere else in the media p4 and p5 still have the flair and drama of this one but its definitely toned down for some other elements of psychological matter but to this day the way the theme of death is treated in this one
please please please please please check this one out and if possible play the original FES release not that portable isnt good but i think this is the way this game should be experienced (for the first time at least) and with all its gripes i still think this is as good as it gets
cant fucking wait for the FUCKING REMAKE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD
i still have to play the answer tho
sometimes in the past i had played persona 3 fes and it was definitely the highlight of my life till that moment if i gotta be honest and im really happy to see that nothing really changed from that time i still love every single part of this game i love every single character and i cant really say anything bad for this experience that is as tight and incredible as everybody says and i genuinely cannot believe how breathtaking it can be after so many years from the original release of the game
its been a while since i actually explored this entry in the persona franchise and even though this is definitely a step down from p4 and p5 this can still sit rightfully at the top of the trilogy to this day this is still my favorite entry in the spin off series and while i also love p1 and p2 for what they have to offer i definitely still have a sweet spot for this game above the others in the series
im pretty sure everybody knows what this game is about as of nowadays but i just gonna talk about it anyway like people actually asked me to elaborate on my love for this game so i will definitely do that
persona 3 stars a guy transferring to a new school and for some different reasons he ends up in a squad of different people trying to fight off enemies called shadows in a structure called tartarus during an hidden hour after midnight called the dark hour (theres a lot of different terminology alright) where people get some into some weird ??? coffins ??? and actually escalates into something called the apathy syndrome where people become weirdly lobotomised or something of the like and to do that they have to use the power of personas
now personas are basically demons from shin megami tensei recontextualised to actually be used in this series as “another you” and usually just take the form of mythological creatures or deities or shit like that now you know im a big fan of shin megami tensei and its general sense of design so of course i was gonna love this iteration
thats the general incipit of the whole game and while this is definitely the main story theres a lot lying below the surface that needs to be explored
persona 3 fes is famously divided like every other game in the franchise (apart from 1 and 2 skull face) in 2 different sections where you either have some slice of life story high school events and turns into a jrpg in the night segments where you have to fight off the different shadows and ascend tartarus in the hope of a better tomorrow
basically what happens is that you gotta finish the game in a single year (omg atelier ???) and what happens is that during the day you can do social links with different characters that are basically segments where you hang out with people and this is gonna make the arcana social link go up and each single level will actually make the personae of the same arcana way more powerful when you fuse them so theres basically a lot of nuance to this but more on this later
persona still borrows a lot from shin megami tensei and this is actually seen in the fact that the main mechanic of the game is recruiting and fusing demons which is a fucking blast every time even though you cant choose the skills the demon is going to inherit and that makes me actually suicidal ngl like you want me to create the best persona ever and make me inherit marin karin are you actually out of your mind what the fuck honestly this is something that makes me go buck wild in older smt games like why would you make me redo and redo the same persona combinations until i can get some good inherited skills do you just want to purposefully make me angry cmon atlus dont fuck with me rn
while i definitely have some gripes with the gameplay elements i still have a lot of love for it the jrpg elements are super tight fusing personas is fun as hell the combat that still has the basic smt principle of exploiting weaknesses actually makes the game even juicier with the 1 more mechanic + the all out attack its just so fucking good its incredible and since youre gonna do this for like 80+ hours at least this needs to be some degree of fun its just a simple and quick way to finish battles off and this still have some of the classic smt flair in the fact that if youre pretty unlucky and the rng wants to fuck you up you can get demons actually doing mahamaon and killing every single party member or like crit and crit and crit until you bite the dust funnily enough
lets address the elephant in the room though while i still think p3fes is actually the safest choice i have a huge fucking problem with it: you cant control party members which fucking sucks because im adhd and need to use my controller at all times or else i get fidgety and THATS WHY i ended up using the controllable characters patch (and also the undub patch dont @ me i hate english VA i dont know in how many more reviews i got to say this) and while i definitely think this is the way to go i had a lot of game breaking bugs during battles because of course it was gonna get buggy because you know they basically recoded shit or something i have no idea how this works so yeah i mean i had to do a lot of save states and even when i actually made some save states i was dumb enough to actually save in critical moments so i had to wipe like 3 hours of progress sometimes that to say that TO ME it was actually a god sent addition but it is to be said that these are the conditions of the patch i dont really think the original AI party is actually that bad but i cannot deal with not controlling every and each character in a turn based combat game so theres that
i do also recommend the undub which is done really well they also added some subtitles to the cutscenes they put work in that so yeah just try it out maybe it is for you
anyhow the other elephant in the room is tartarus now we need to make a detour for a moment i do think tartarus is actually the oddest dungeon out of the 3 different personas the ones in persona 4 are actually pretty interesting because theyre character specific and (for what ive seen) persona 5 also has some character specific dungeons that look absolutely fucking gorgeous but as much as ive seen mementos or whatever its name is works the same as tartarus
now do i think tartarus is bad ? no . i probably had less fun in it than in p4 and p5 dungeons but that doesnt mean its bad the first blocks arent that interesting but the more you actually ascend into it the more the floors start getting interesting like the psychedelic one is such an highlight i had so much fun in it it makes absolutely no sense and the final block is real thematically consistent to the rest of the game
while i definitely do understand where the most of the people here are coming from i also believe that theres definitely a huge chance that they are people who only played persona 5 because yknow its the most popular game in the smt franchise ever and of course tartarus was gonna get this kind of treatment since yeah its rudimentary its monotonous and its tedious BUT i still love it to hell and back slowly ascending the entire tower is such a joy that i cannot honestly think about this game without actually thinking about tartarus farming over and over and over again
now still talking about gameplay as a whole this is still the first persona to actually include the SoL/RPG elements which means its yes very simple but not because of that less effective doing the social links honing your 3 skills exploring the town buying stuff discovering new events doing side quests and shit actually makes for a really interesting gameplay loop that feels rewarding in the long run im not gonna lie that this still feels like stone age persona loop but again they had to start somewhere for the love of christ
in general i think the gameplay is such a blast and people who dont agree are dipshits and dont deserve shinjiros huge fat fucking cock thats honestly such a shame for as much as i want to criticise these decisions i actually have 100 contrasting reasons to actually say the opposite which means that every single hater of this game can suck my balls kissessssssssssss
a real shocker here will be the fact that yes persona 3 also has some super slick art direction now we all know and love the art direction in p5 even though at this point it feels like thats the only game that has an art direction but i digress (it is some of the best art direction ive ever seen though,,,,,,,, ngl) and i definitely can see a lot of care being put into this one the artworks of the characters are some of my favorites in the entire scope of videogames the models of the city are great every single persona is detailed as shit and the vibes of the entire game are absolutely unmatched and when you also add a bomb UI and art style you have the winning formula of the century and to not even talk about the entire ost department which is honestly as thick as it can get now im not gonna put 100 songs in the hyperlink because im trying to be more humble and lose less time in my life time is precious everybody
that to say that im gonna put just one song and my favorite in the entire playlist is changing seasons(https://youtu.be/ONsRqzQUeoo?si=6uDeTBnNrZiLwlkS) its such a sick track what the hell but as youll already know theres not really a single tracks that goes off the mark every single song is infused with a lot of hip hop vibes and enhance the entire experience to another level entirely
while i definitely feel that these are absolute strong points for the game i still do think that a lot of the best elements sit right into the story department and in particular the characters and interactions
the story definitely takes a real slowdown real soon in the game but as soon as like half a year passes youre gonna get plot twist after plot twist after plot twist boom boom boom one after the other im not gonna lie and this would probably fall flat if it werent for the gorgeous cast of characters
theres some that i like more and some that i like less i genuinely think shinjiro and akihiko are my lifelong companions im literally so in love with them i feel like im gonna pass out in particular shinjiro every time i think about him something in my pants swells i dont know guys im 10 and inexperienced should i take the gay test on trustworthy gay test sites online what do we think
so that to say that shinji and aki are my husbands i love how they both interact with each other and i love their archetypes so im definitely biased in the fact that i love boys i love boxer boys who can fuck my face up and fuck my ass up and i also like gloomy boys who dont want none to do with the outside world and social interactions shinjiro this game is literally based on social interactions stop being afuckinng cunt
i love them dearly
mind you even though those 2 are the loml i definitely have a lot of affection for my sweet little troubled yukari who feigns confidence through sass and a lot of ass mitsuru is literally the dominatrix of my dreams her persona has a whip and if that isnt a real indicator of her sexual tendencies idk what is junpei is my sweet little sunshine and while he can be a dickhead sometimes theres definitely a lot to his character than it meets the eye aigis is my baby i gave birth to her and im not gonna let anybody get near her ever in my entire life i love koromaru with the deepest parts of my heart and theres nothing that will change the fact that hes the bestest boy ever and ken is a good kid !!! i think and fuuka is still such a mystery to me but i definitely love her a damn lot maybe i dont know as much about her as i want to since i forgot to complete her social link teehee dont @ me mitsuru had the priority yall
as much as i love all of them im still pretty sad that in the original game you can only do social links with the girls in the party like who THE FUCK thought that was a good idea can i PLEASE suck shinjiros dick or do i need to pay a nsfw cosplayer on twitter to do that im not joking im gonna do that so thats sort of a let down and anyway the social links that are present here cant really compensate the absence of the main party to the whole meal like the school mates are fun like theres the gerontophile into milfs, walmart ryuji with a broken leg + his team manager whose social link i didnt finish so i have no pun, an immigrant that really feels kind of japanesephobic somehow, a timid girl whos scared of boys but also cant wait to suck dick, a son of a doctor who wants to be an artist but actually changes idea after a sitcom type of chain of events, a girl whose parents really need a fucking divorce, an athlete (thats his whole personality), a guy that i really hate so i fucking ignored aka the emperor, an online friend who actually is the most random character of the entire game and also a good excuse to put some persona 2 cameos, a guy with bulimia im not actually making fun of this one its actually pretty serious /gen, a monk who decided to follow buddha instead of pussy but then changes directions again because yknow pussy juice, a conniving businessman who wants to actually make you his apprentice, a couple with a a ,,,,, a d ea d umh a dead son umh wait i thought social links were supposed to be fun wait wait what and UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH WE DONT TALK ABOUT THE SUN ARCANA PLEASE
so as i was saying social links are some of the most inspired parts of the entire game and its such a shame that most of the time you wont see each and every one of them because yknow time management and shit but thats also the cool thing about persona you can do whatever the fuck you want and actually pursuit the stuff you actually want to see finished like i made my life work around the mitsuru social link and i studied my fucking ass off just to have a glimpse of her ginormous puthey thats what humans actually do so why the fuck not
so i guess im gonna get into spoiler territory now so SPOILER ALERT DONT READ ETC ETC
i genuinely love the fact that this game is surrounded by death everywhere its themes are some of the thickest and more real arguments to ever talk about and every single character conveys this kind of story to hell and back everyone in SEES actually had to face the pain of losing a beloved one mitsuru and yukari have to deal with the loss of a father ken misses his mother everyday akihiko is still grieving for the death of his little sister junpei is still traumatised by losing his loved one in a second and all of them are still trying to make sense of the departure of shinjiro DONT GET ME STARTED ON SHINJIRO DYING BECAUSE UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LORD
death is a thing that permeates all life and it takes BALLS to actually make a game that is surrounded by death everywhere story beats remind you that the world is dying every character is actually trying to make sense to the world around them and even the social links have a lot to say about life as a whole
theres some other games that tackle these themes im not gonna pretend persona 3 is the only game which has memento mori as its main theme but i cannot overstate enough how beautifully composed every single story line and emotional breakdown to actually drive home this series of events that have a lot to say about our world and how we live in it
the final stretch of the game with the near apocalypse is probably my favorite part due to the fact that every single character is using their grief as a mean to move on theyre trying to use all their suffering as a way to become powerful against a common threat that threatens life itself and while i think the nyx boss fight can be a bit of a pain to go through it has to be said that is so thematically rich that i cannot hate it for any reason in the world ever
and to this day the ending makes me bawl my eyes OUT you know what this game has not the most heartbreaking ending in the world in a shocking sense the slow and steady demise of the main character can be seen even from a few days before but when its all done youre left with you yourself aigis crying for you your friends grieving and all the memories you made together till now seeping through the cracks of you consciousness
while i do agree this is the most 2000s emo tumblr storyline ive ever witnessed it is told so beautifully that it honestly touched my heart theres not really a lot that i can say about this game apart from please play it and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make it through the ending of the sun arcana you will be left with no regrets and a lots of tears youre advised listen to me it is definitely such an emotional social link and possibly the best social link of the entire franchise im not gonna lie here wow
the ending of the game is as heart wrenching as it can get and really encapsulates the entire experience in a like 3 days theres a lot of weird things that i can say about this game maybe the fact that there arent controllable characters is weird or the fact that it is as melodramatic as it can get the gameflow is pretty slow you can go an entire month without any story beat whatsoever and i wish shinjiro was still in the party but thats something that i will experience when i will play p3p
as much as this is not a perfect game i can attest to the fact that this is a perfect game in my eyes every single element of it comes together to create such an unforgettable experience that i didnt find anywhere else in the media p4 and p5 still have the flair and drama of this one but its definitely toned down for some other elements of psychological matter but to this day the way the theme of death is treated in this one
please please please please please check this one out and if possible play the original FES release not that portable isnt good but i think this is the way this game should be experienced (for the first time at least) and with all its gripes i still think this is as good as it gets
cant fucking wait for the FUCKING REMAKE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD
i still have to play the answer tho
atelier marie remake was good like really good and an especially great lesson in lesbianism and since this version of OG atelier marie was included into the game I was like ok why not just play that too it's not gonna be that bad
it wasn't that bad !
I was pretty surprised at how faithful the remake ended up being most of the games elements from the story to the events to the combat system to the entire alchemy system were translated into the modern era and I'm pretty glad they did it like this because now this version is completely obsolete and can be left to die /j
the loop is still the same marie sucks at alchemy so she gets an atelier for 5 years to do something good so go around town gather items talk to people and do side quests theres that
while most of the elements were toned down to just a click of a button which is a shame since going around the gathering spots is actually one of my fav parts in atelier I gotta say the gameplay was already strong as shit with this one it's so intoxicatingly good I think I finished it in 2 sittings and I didnt think it was this short anyway
the art style was definitely a product of its age but its soooooo charming I don't get it it has that 80s anime flair I really like it's so so good
something that I found weird was the fact that this game is actually way more difficult than the remake like I was getting my ass beaten again and again and again in the first 1 or 2 years ingame but then it smoothes out quite well I gotta say
so yeah not that intricate of a game and definitely not as good as the remake but it was cool revisiting the roots of the franchise now I'm more excited to explore the other stuff
I got the normal ending I was SOOOO bad at this version don't talk to me
it wasn't that bad !
I was pretty surprised at how faithful the remake ended up being most of the games elements from the story to the events to the combat system to the entire alchemy system were translated into the modern era and I'm pretty glad they did it like this because now this version is completely obsolete and can be left to die /j
the loop is still the same marie sucks at alchemy so she gets an atelier for 5 years to do something good so go around town gather items talk to people and do side quests theres that
while most of the elements were toned down to just a click of a button which is a shame since going around the gathering spots is actually one of my fav parts in atelier I gotta say the gameplay was already strong as shit with this one it's so intoxicatingly good I think I finished it in 2 sittings and I didnt think it was this short anyway
the art style was definitely a product of its age but its soooooo charming I don't get it it has that 80s anime flair I really like it's so so good
something that I found weird was the fact that this game is actually way more difficult than the remake like I was getting my ass beaten again and again and again in the first 1 or 2 years ingame but then it smoothes out quite well I gotta say
so yeah not that intricate of a game and definitely not as good as the remake but it was cool revisiting the roots of the franchise now I'm more excited to explore the other stuff
I got the normal ending I was SOOOO bad at this version don't talk to me
no thicc thighs but the comfy vibes are thicker anyway
since im already knee deep into the atelier series after playing ryza i decided to hold the sequel off for a second while i take my time exploring the beginning of the series with the remake of atelier marie the very first game in the franchise and a damn good one at that i thought there were gonna be a lot lesbians in this one too and i was pretty happy to see that theres a lot of sapphic play going on we won people
since i only played one (1) i still have no idea what this franchise comprises and when booting this game my expectations were definitely high up there due to me being blown away by ryza and it definitely delivered in that department if i gotta be honest
as a remake i cant really attest for a lot of stuff since again ive never played the original (i saw i can toggle the atelier marie plus version in-game so i think im gonna give that a try to see how the original is faring whether its cock and balls torture or not) but i definitely can see a lot of love poured into this project even though the skeleton of the source material is still mostly intact as much as im concerned
atelier marie plays it safe in every single part of the game starting by the story itself: marie is an alchemist in an academy institute who is also well known to be an absolute failure in everything she does so the principal gives her the possibility to use an atelier for 5 years for the purpose of honing her ability and creating an high quality object as a testament of her improvement in the art
and thats basically it youre gonna play through these 5 years which actually sound like a lot of work but realistically everything you do in this game will move the day forward traveling harvesting fighting doing alchemy i swear 5 years went by faster than i initially planned and this game is probably gonna take you something like 10 hours its definitely way way way shorter than i expected it to be but i think the original is even shorter so they made a huge amount of work actually adding some flare to the whole thing
coming from ryza most of the elements of the series are simpler and way toned down here the exploration is pretty bare bones you have like 10 places to visit which yeah theyre pretty fun and range in biomes and gathering in them makes it pretty clear that theres definitely not as much variety in the items even things like alchemy make a huge step back with only something between 50 and 100 items im not actually sure im just giving out numbers for the stuff ive seen in there but do i care about all this drivel ? absolutely fucking NOT the core element of a relaxed jrpg are still there and wow the formula was already a winning one in the very first game thats absurd
so as i was saying the gameplay is (as far as i know) typical atelier loop you explore and gather items you make some alchemy and do some fetch requests in the tavern and if the stars align youre gonna get a huge event or something
while i was definitely familiar with the gameplay loop the time management aspect of it all was something that i found weird being completely absent in ryza and it was kind of a delight to explore (even tho i chose to do the unlimited time mode because im very easily stressed but i still managed to have the requirements for a couple good endings so apparently its more lenient than i thought it would be)
as i said time passes while doing literally anything whatsoever so theres that but i definitely enjoyed how this all entwined to the different events in specific moments of the year or side quests for specific character is a really fun mechanic that drives home the limited time and schedule youre gonna have to deal with
a highlight is getting to know the different aspects of the town and listening to different gossips around the plaza and IN PARTICULAR the side plot lines are so interesting now as i said the main story isnt really so thick its basically “you need to make item X in 5 years” and thats it but the fact that you actually dont have a set party and you can actually hire/befriend/help a plethora of different characters in town which makes it really fun to actually get to know each one of them if youre interested just get them in your party fight a bit with them and increase the friendship to get new heart to heart events
top of the top are schea my sweet little baby she definitely has some scissoring going on with marie but you will be the judge of that also side note why are all atelier girls excited by barrels and have weird names like what kinda name is marlone honestly whatever so i was saying the bandit boss is so hot im sorry yall i HAD to say that as soon as i saw him i was like damn do i want a piece of that and hes actually a pretty deep character to boot likeeeeeeeeeee ruven is also pretty hot i love me some extraverted confident mercenary for my party and for my hole and then idk the others are also cool the kings knight is handsome the redhead woman can kick my balls yknow the usual
talking side characters the new way the combat system work is pretty simple but i really enjoyed it its definitely not that deep you only get a couple of tactics going on and most of the time is just skill skill skill until everyones dead but the fact that you can bring different people in battle actually make for a really cool variety in the party composition and overall its way on the easy side youre gonna level up pretty smoothly and kill everyone in your way without any real problem
the art direction is stellar this chibi style really ate and left no crumbs it has that sweet little ps1 charme (the entire game also feels like a early console game if im being honest like it has those kind of simple and charming vibes) and while it is pretty simple most of the locations are actually pretty beautiful if you ask me and the little CGs during events are SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD and also did you look at those portraits theyre so beautiful my jaw dropped so hard after looking at them not gonna lie oh and the music is also booming ngl
got the “going to the adventure ending” but i actually watched the remaining events and endings on youtube and obviously the lesbian schea route is the canon one im not even gonna argue with yall on this
all in all another confirmation that i gotta dig into this series a lot more and i cant wait to play some more stuff my expectations are HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH
since im already knee deep into the atelier series after playing ryza i decided to hold the sequel off for a second while i take my time exploring the beginning of the series with the remake of atelier marie the very first game in the franchise and a damn good one at that i thought there were gonna be a lot lesbians in this one too and i was pretty happy to see that theres a lot of sapphic play going on we won people
since i only played one (1) i still have no idea what this franchise comprises and when booting this game my expectations were definitely high up there due to me being blown away by ryza and it definitely delivered in that department if i gotta be honest
as a remake i cant really attest for a lot of stuff since again ive never played the original (i saw i can toggle the atelier marie plus version in-game so i think im gonna give that a try to see how the original is faring whether its cock and balls torture or not) but i definitely can see a lot of love poured into this project even though the skeleton of the source material is still mostly intact as much as im concerned
atelier marie plays it safe in every single part of the game starting by the story itself: marie is an alchemist in an academy institute who is also well known to be an absolute failure in everything she does so the principal gives her the possibility to use an atelier for 5 years for the purpose of honing her ability and creating an high quality object as a testament of her improvement in the art
and thats basically it youre gonna play through these 5 years which actually sound like a lot of work but realistically everything you do in this game will move the day forward traveling harvesting fighting doing alchemy i swear 5 years went by faster than i initially planned and this game is probably gonna take you something like 10 hours its definitely way way way shorter than i expected it to be but i think the original is even shorter so they made a huge amount of work actually adding some flare to the whole thing
coming from ryza most of the elements of the series are simpler and way toned down here the exploration is pretty bare bones you have like 10 places to visit which yeah theyre pretty fun and range in biomes and gathering in them makes it pretty clear that theres definitely not as much variety in the items even things like alchemy make a huge step back with only something between 50 and 100 items im not actually sure im just giving out numbers for the stuff ive seen in there but do i care about all this drivel ? absolutely fucking NOT the core element of a relaxed jrpg are still there and wow the formula was already a winning one in the very first game thats absurd
so as i was saying the gameplay is (as far as i know) typical atelier loop you explore and gather items you make some alchemy and do some fetch requests in the tavern and if the stars align youre gonna get a huge event or something
while i was definitely familiar with the gameplay loop the time management aspect of it all was something that i found weird being completely absent in ryza and it was kind of a delight to explore (even tho i chose to do the unlimited time mode because im very easily stressed but i still managed to have the requirements for a couple good endings so apparently its more lenient than i thought it would be)
as i said time passes while doing literally anything whatsoever so theres that but i definitely enjoyed how this all entwined to the different events in specific moments of the year or side quests for specific character is a really fun mechanic that drives home the limited time and schedule youre gonna have to deal with
a highlight is getting to know the different aspects of the town and listening to different gossips around the plaza and IN PARTICULAR the side plot lines are so interesting now as i said the main story isnt really so thick its basically “you need to make item X in 5 years” and thats it but the fact that you actually dont have a set party and you can actually hire/befriend/help a plethora of different characters in town which makes it really fun to actually get to know each one of them if youre interested just get them in your party fight a bit with them and increase the friendship to get new heart to heart events
top of the top are schea my sweet little baby she definitely has some scissoring going on with marie but you will be the judge of that also side note why are all atelier girls excited by barrels and have weird names like what kinda name is marlone honestly whatever so i was saying the bandit boss is so hot im sorry yall i HAD to say that as soon as i saw him i was like damn do i want a piece of that and hes actually a pretty deep character to boot likeeeeeeeeeee ruven is also pretty hot i love me some extraverted confident mercenary for my party and for my hole and then idk the others are also cool the kings knight is handsome the redhead woman can kick my balls yknow the usual
talking side characters the new way the combat system work is pretty simple but i really enjoyed it its definitely not that deep you only get a couple of tactics going on and most of the time is just skill skill skill until everyones dead but the fact that you can bring different people in battle actually make for a really cool variety in the party composition and overall its way on the easy side youre gonna level up pretty smoothly and kill everyone in your way without any real problem
the art direction is stellar this chibi style really ate and left no crumbs it has that sweet little ps1 charme (the entire game also feels like a early console game if im being honest like it has those kind of simple and charming vibes) and while it is pretty simple most of the locations are actually pretty beautiful if you ask me and the little CGs during events are SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD and also did you look at those portraits theyre so beautiful my jaw dropped so hard after looking at them not gonna lie oh and the music is also booming ngl
got the “going to the adventure ending” but i actually watched the remaining events and endings on youtube and obviously the lesbian schea route is the canon one im not even gonna argue with yall on this
all in all another confirmation that i gotta dig into this series a lot more and i cant wait to play some more stuff my expectations are HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH
1990
not a lot to say here it's basically the megaman-ification of the castlevania franchise with the cutest protagonist in the entire series
plays smoothly for the most part apart from shit stages platforming and bosses moments that really hindered my experience at times (save states still required it is castlevania after all lmao) that being said nothing more to say the music is chiptune ish with some happy themes while throwing fireballs at chibified versions of the series monsters and bosses for some good times the different abilities are actually pretty fun even tho I used like 2 for the entire games (apart from stage dependent abilities) and all in all I sure had some fun with this weird iteration in the franchise nothing more nothing less than a cute side game to tackle since you bought the castlevania collection and might as well play this lmao
good shit play if you a big fan
side note I asked chat gpt to make a review for this game and its so humorously bad I need to post it here please have fun
Title: "Kid Dracula: A Fang-tastic Pixel Expedition with Tunes that Don't Suck!"
Hey Falco, let's sink our fangs into Kid Dracula – a game that's as nocturnal as it is pixelated. Grab your cape, because we're diving into this undead-on review!
🧛♂️ Gameplay (3/5): Kid Dracula's gameplay is like a moonlit promenade through classic platforming, but beware! The difficulty spikes later on hit you like a bat out of pixelated hell. It's familiar and charming, but it becomes a nocturnal challenge, making it perfect for those who crave a bite-sized adventure with a side of thrills.
⚰️ Difficulty Curve (3/5): Brace yourself for a roller-coaster ride that gets more intense as the night deepens! The difficulty spikes in Kid Dracula become as unpredictable as a vampire's sneeze. It's not a smooth ride, but if you're a nocturnal thrill-seeker, this one's worth sinking your teeth into.
🎨 Art Design (3/5): The art direction in Kid Dracula is like moonlit graffiti – cool, captivating, and veering away from the usual Castlevania style. It's a pleasant stroll down the retro aesthetic lane, but with a twist. The pixelated perfection adds a layer of charm to the nocturnal adventure, adopting a more chibi and stylized approach.
🎶 Soundtrack (3/5): The music, my nocturnal friend, is like a vampire's upbeat chiptune playlist – not groundbreaking but perfect for a good time. It's not just a background melody; it's a nocturnal jam session. The beats in Kid Dracula are bopping enough to keep your undead toes tapping. It's a sonic companion that doesn't suck the life out of the game but adds a decent dose of nocturnal ambiance.
🩸 Replay Value (3/5): Without the distraction of side quests, Kid Dracula's replay value is like a vampire without his cape – straightforward yet alluring. The core gameplay might not scream "play me again," but the aesthetic allure and infectious tunes might draw you back for a nocturnal encore, especially if you're a big fan of challenging platformers.
In the realm of pixelated darkness, Kid Dracula is a bite-sized adventure with a coffin-load of charm. The visuals provide a cool retro vibe with a twist, and the music adds that extra oomph to the undead journey. Just be ready for the sporadic difficulty spikes as you navigate through the pixelated night.
🌑🦇 Overall Score: 3/5 – Kid Dracula brings the pixelated bite, cool visuals with a twist, and a tune that won't make you scream "bloody boring." It's a midnight snack, not a full banquet. #VampireReviewVibes
plays smoothly for the most part apart from shit stages platforming and bosses moments that really hindered my experience at times (save states still required it is castlevania after all lmao) that being said nothing more to say the music is chiptune ish with some happy themes while throwing fireballs at chibified versions of the series monsters and bosses for some good times the different abilities are actually pretty fun even tho I used like 2 for the entire games (apart from stage dependent abilities) and all in all I sure had some fun with this weird iteration in the franchise nothing more nothing less than a cute side game to tackle since you bought the castlevania collection and might as well play this lmao
good shit play if you a big fan
side note I asked chat gpt to make a review for this game and its so humorously bad I need to post it here please have fun
Title: "Kid Dracula: A Fang-tastic Pixel Expedition with Tunes that Don't Suck!"
Hey Falco, let's sink our fangs into Kid Dracula – a game that's as nocturnal as it is pixelated. Grab your cape, because we're diving into this undead-on review!
🧛♂️ Gameplay (3/5): Kid Dracula's gameplay is like a moonlit promenade through classic platforming, but beware! The difficulty spikes later on hit you like a bat out of pixelated hell. It's familiar and charming, but it becomes a nocturnal challenge, making it perfect for those who crave a bite-sized adventure with a side of thrills.
⚰️ Difficulty Curve (3/5): Brace yourself for a roller-coaster ride that gets more intense as the night deepens! The difficulty spikes in Kid Dracula become as unpredictable as a vampire's sneeze. It's not a smooth ride, but if you're a nocturnal thrill-seeker, this one's worth sinking your teeth into.
🎨 Art Design (3/5): The art direction in Kid Dracula is like moonlit graffiti – cool, captivating, and veering away from the usual Castlevania style. It's a pleasant stroll down the retro aesthetic lane, but with a twist. The pixelated perfection adds a layer of charm to the nocturnal adventure, adopting a more chibi and stylized approach.
🎶 Soundtrack (3/5): The music, my nocturnal friend, is like a vampire's upbeat chiptune playlist – not groundbreaking but perfect for a good time. It's not just a background melody; it's a nocturnal jam session. The beats in Kid Dracula are bopping enough to keep your undead toes tapping. It's a sonic companion that doesn't suck the life out of the game but adds a decent dose of nocturnal ambiance.
🩸 Replay Value (3/5): Without the distraction of side quests, Kid Dracula's replay value is like a vampire without his cape – straightforward yet alluring. The core gameplay might not scream "play me again," but the aesthetic allure and infectious tunes might draw you back for a nocturnal encore, especially if you're a big fan of challenging platformers.
In the realm of pixelated darkness, Kid Dracula is a bite-sized adventure with a coffin-load of charm. The visuals provide a cool retro vibe with a twist, and the music adds that extra oomph to the undead journey. Just be ready for the sporadic difficulty spikes as you navigate through the pixelated night.
🌑🦇 Overall Score: 3/5 – Kid Dracula brings the pixelated bite, cool visuals with a twist, and a tune that won't make you scream "bloody boring." It's a midnight snack, not a full banquet. #VampireReviewVibes
2019
the way my jaw dropped all throughout this game at least 100 times because of how beautiful everything is in here damn
coming from the alan wake playthrough which honestly let me down I saw discussions around that were like “play control before AW2 or kill yourself” and I was like oh ! rude but let's get it and I'm SO glad I did this is a masterpiece dont get me started
I genuinely knew nothing about this game I think I saw it around on here maybe they even gave it a prize or something I have NO idea the only thing I knew is that it was gonna be another chore before AW2 but I ended up loving it so dearly
this game is a weird object of power to this moment i have no idea what the fuck am i supposed to think about the story theres a lot of segments words intricacies thrown around but at the end of the day if you ask me what happened in this game I cannot even begin to explain it to you but the whole gist is
jesse gets thrown into an enormous facility of super technological and scientific matrix which actually do a lot of weird things even tho its those “deeper you get the more laboratory ish it gets” resident evil 1 style in search for her lost brother and while doing that she realizes that a being called hiss is taking CONTROL hahahahahahahha OH LORD I SAID CONTROL HAHAHAHAHA SO FUNNY ok anyway taking control of people in this structure and jesse has to take care of them because she's somehow special and can do a lot of paranormal stuff and all the people talk about her like she's the director of the game and she's kinda schizo she talks with a voice in her head
lets be real theres probably a lot of different lore elements story beats explanations that will give sense to the whole experience but I'm usually pretty stupid and if you don't say things to my face I don't get what's happening but the thing is this is a vibes first story second and there's nothing else to say about it
the vibes are UNMATCHED the oldest house is such an intricate maze like oppressive and dangerous and yet soothing setting that I found myself just exploring every nook and crannies to see what was lying below the surface and when I tell you this place has a LOT of variety in its nature every room and department is characterised by some things stuff that can range from day to day objects or something absolutely paranormal and that makes for an experience that is dreamlike in nature for yourself and for jesse too (she's still schizophrenic why the fuck is everyone schizophrenic in remedy like alan wake is schizo jesse is schizo what are you cooking)
while I definitely enjoyed its story beats even though I understood absolutely fucking nothing there's a part of me that wanted more of a coherent or at least explanatory story . don't attack me wait a sec . I love mind fucky stuff but the lack of real directions actually undermined jesse as a character and the side characters of the entire story like even when you find her brother nothing really happened in me I was like oh cool ! gyatt
so yeah I mean a more down to earth approach wouldve made it better in that department BUT I GOTTA SAY I loved not getting what the fuck was happening literally this game is so esoteric that not even the story proceeds in a linear manner stuff happens and all you can do is watch the events unfold with your brain functions shut off that's how I played it like call me stupid
I ended up liking jesse as a protagonist tho I saw some people shit on her in here and while yeah she's not like the most enjoyable approach ever it has to be said that her energy is also dependant to her surroundings (+ she's traumatised) and although this is the premise I genuinely enjoyed staying in her head she's so fun and quirky sometimes has somehow a sharp tongue and a twisted sense of humor and all in all I loved her not understanding what the fuck is happening because it was basically me during the entire playthrough
can I say I like pope I really like her she's so interesting and witty I would love to listen to her talking about data or some shit
so after all this i can confidently say that yes the vibes of this game are totally awesome running around the oldest house is claustrophobic and yet so grand in nature at the same time most of the spaces are liminal corridors or offices which are sometimes invaded by the casual hiss monsters most of the characters have this kind of uncanny nature to them because of course they would in a facility like this theres a lot to explore you can get lost at how huge this whole place is and I honestly would do it again a hundred times
all this gets into the next point
I dont play a lot of realistic art style games im more of a anime cartoon style man or some degree of illustration ish comic artist esque visual but when I tell you……. when I tell you that this game has probably the greatest visual presentation I've EVER seen on every video game ever would you trust me
some people in remedy really have some degrees in cinematography graphic design and art direction because damn this game is absolutely beautiful its BEAUTIFUL some cutscenes play in nonconvensional ways like using a lot of cinematography tricks here and there with lighting work and camera work most of the game is permeated with color schemes and use to the point that I cannot think of this game without thinking of the color red thats just how GOOD they made me neuronally connect this game to the color and thats what good art direction is all about
I would talk for ages about how beautiful and grand this game is but as a whole this is such an incredible step up from alan wake in every way shape or form the thing that I wanted from alan wake (a good sense of artistic direction and an identity in its design) I got it here and you won't believe how GOOD it is even outside of cutscenes and scripted event the oldest house plays a lot of visual wonders also because of its fucked up nature theres gonna be a lot of jawdropping shots and scenes just by walking around the facility and it's beautiful to get caught up in moments like this staring at awe at an inverted pyramid or the infinite void or a twisting room or a blinding amount of red I cant really get into words how special this all feels
most of the focus of the game is exorcising paranormal objects of power which is such a stupid premise like you will be against fucking fridges cmon but in that kind of absurdity the developers can play a LOT with unconventional elements of art design and im so glad this cake out as well as it did because every single part of this place as some degree of wondrous landscape to look at and remember this game plays entirely INDOORS and it has more variety and interesting aspects than alan wake that plays entirely OUTDOORD that's a damn huge improvement in this aspect at least
I could talk about the art direction of this game for ages so better stop now I cannot give you more details because I'm not competent enough to put the visual masterpiece that this is
somehow I gotta say that the gameplay also won me over . saw some people complaining about the whole battle system and shit but they're honestly WRONG this plays as a third person shooter but with superpowers wow and this then escalates into can sprint can throw objects telepathically can create shields can levitate literally youre gonna get an arsenal so big youre gonna feel like a god and you know what they also have ???
SKILL TREES THATS RIGHT i love skill trees and of course this game was gonna have a skill tree but I do think it's implemented accordingly you get materials from enemies and use them to get some upgrades on your weapons or on yourself
combat as a whole is tight as shit the enemy variety is hauntingly good theres a lot of different types of hiss enemies and you slowly learn to deal with them some way or another while doing all this paranormal godlike shit you can say everything about this battle system but it feels GOOD it feels so damn good to just annihilate everyone in a single room and coming out of the other way victorious I don't usually enjoy shooters that much so this is definitely the greatest compliment I could give this game it's just so so so damn good
there's some more puzzle esque elements but they're very scattered so that I wouldn't feel irritated and every single object of power interaction always culminates in some otherworldly things to do and I guess there's some kind of platforming but the real cake is always gonna be the exploration and the combat like these 2 elements could make or break an experience and I just think control manages to use its entire arsenal and throwing it at you
that to say people who hate the gameplay are cowards
there's a lot of stuff I want to say about control but I would go on and on and on about it forever and I wouldn't encapsulate the real wonder of what this game has to offer so you just need to play it for you to see you won't regret it
side note side quests are actually pretty fucking fun to do they always have some interesting shit to do like remedy is NOT messing around and I'm slowly working through them until I'm ready to play the DLC expansions
that fake ending got me I gotta say and the real ending is so anticlimactic i thought they were gonna fake end trip me again
coming from the alan wake playthrough which honestly let me down I saw discussions around that were like “play control before AW2 or kill yourself” and I was like oh ! rude but let's get it and I'm SO glad I did this is a masterpiece dont get me started
I genuinely knew nothing about this game I think I saw it around on here maybe they even gave it a prize or something I have NO idea the only thing I knew is that it was gonna be another chore before AW2 but I ended up loving it so dearly
this game is a weird object of power to this moment i have no idea what the fuck am i supposed to think about the story theres a lot of segments words intricacies thrown around but at the end of the day if you ask me what happened in this game I cannot even begin to explain it to you but the whole gist is
jesse gets thrown into an enormous facility of super technological and scientific matrix which actually do a lot of weird things even tho its those “deeper you get the more laboratory ish it gets” resident evil 1 style in search for her lost brother and while doing that she realizes that a being called hiss is taking CONTROL hahahahahahahha OH LORD I SAID CONTROL HAHAHAHAHA SO FUNNY ok anyway taking control of people in this structure and jesse has to take care of them because she's somehow special and can do a lot of paranormal stuff and all the people talk about her like she's the director of the game and she's kinda schizo she talks with a voice in her head
lets be real theres probably a lot of different lore elements story beats explanations that will give sense to the whole experience but I'm usually pretty stupid and if you don't say things to my face I don't get what's happening but the thing is this is a vibes first story second and there's nothing else to say about it
the vibes are UNMATCHED the oldest house is such an intricate maze like oppressive and dangerous and yet soothing setting that I found myself just exploring every nook and crannies to see what was lying below the surface and when I tell you this place has a LOT of variety in its nature every room and department is characterised by some things stuff that can range from day to day objects or something absolutely paranormal and that makes for an experience that is dreamlike in nature for yourself and for jesse too (she's still schizophrenic why the fuck is everyone schizophrenic in remedy like alan wake is schizo jesse is schizo what are you cooking)
while I definitely enjoyed its story beats even though I understood absolutely fucking nothing there's a part of me that wanted more of a coherent or at least explanatory story . don't attack me wait a sec . I love mind fucky stuff but the lack of real directions actually undermined jesse as a character and the side characters of the entire story like even when you find her brother nothing really happened in me I was like oh cool ! gyatt
so yeah I mean a more down to earth approach wouldve made it better in that department BUT I GOTTA SAY I loved not getting what the fuck was happening literally this game is so esoteric that not even the story proceeds in a linear manner stuff happens and all you can do is watch the events unfold with your brain functions shut off that's how I played it like call me stupid
I ended up liking jesse as a protagonist tho I saw some people shit on her in here and while yeah she's not like the most enjoyable approach ever it has to be said that her energy is also dependant to her surroundings (+ she's traumatised) and although this is the premise I genuinely enjoyed staying in her head she's so fun and quirky sometimes has somehow a sharp tongue and a twisted sense of humor and all in all I loved her not understanding what the fuck is happening because it was basically me during the entire playthrough
can I say I like pope I really like her she's so interesting and witty I would love to listen to her talking about data or some shit
so after all this i can confidently say that yes the vibes of this game are totally awesome running around the oldest house is claustrophobic and yet so grand in nature at the same time most of the spaces are liminal corridors or offices which are sometimes invaded by the casual hiss monsters most of the characters have this kind of uncanny nature to them because of course they would in a facility like this theres a lot to explore you can get lost at how huge this whole place is and I honestly would do it again a hundred times
all this gets into the next point
I dont play a lot of realistic art style games im more of a anime cartoon style man or some degree of illustration ish comic artist esque visual but when I tell you……. when I tell you that this game has probably the greatest visual presentation I've EVER seen on every video game ever would you trust me
some people in remedy really have some degrees in cinematography graphic design and art direction because damn this game is absolutely beautiful its BEAUTIFUL some cutscenes play in nonconvensional ways like using a lot of cinematography tricks here and there with lighting work and camera work most of the game is permeated with color schemes and use to the point that I cannot think of this game without thinking of the color red thats just how GOOD they made me neuronally connect this game to the color and thats what good art direction is all about
I would talk for ages about how beautiful and grand this game is but as a whole this is such an incredible step up from alan wake in every way shape or form the thing that I wanted from alan wake (a good sense of artistic direction and an identity in its design) I got it here and you won't believe how GOOD it is even outside of cutscenes and scripted event the oldest house plays a lot of visual wonders also because of its fucked up nature theres gonna be a lot of jawdropping shots and scenes just by walking around the facility and it's beautiful to get caught up in moments like this staring at awe at an inverted pyramid or the infinite void or a twisting room or a blinding amount of red I cant really get into words how special this all feels
most of the focus of the game is exorcising paranormal objects of power which is such a stupid premise like you will be against fucking fridges cmon but in that kind of absurdity the developers can play a LOT with unconventional elements of art design and im so glad this cake out as well as it did because every single part of this place as some degree of wondrous landscape to look at and remember this game plays entirely INDOORS and it has more variety and interesting aspects than alan wake that plays entirely OUTDOORD that's a damn huge improvement in this aspect at least
I could talk about the art direction of this game for ages so better stop now I cannot give you more details because I'm not competent enough to put the visual masterpiece that this is
somehow I gotta say that the gameplay also won me over . saw some people complaining about the whole battle system and shit but they're honestly WRONG this plays as a third person shooter but with superpowers wow and this then escalates into can sprint can throw objects telepathically can create shields can levitate literally youre gonna get an arsenal so big youre gonna feel like a god and you know what they also have ???
SKILL TREES THATS RIGHT i love skill trees and of course this game was gonna have a skill tree but I do think it's implemented accordingly you get materials from enemies and use them to get some upgrades on your weapons or on yourself
combat as a whole is tight as shit the enemy variety is hauntingly good theres a lot of different types of hiss enemies and you slowly learn to deal with them some way or another while doing all this paranormal godlike shit you can say everything about this battle system but it feels GOOD it feels so damn good to just annihilate everyone in a single room and coming out of the other way victorious I don't usually enjoy shooters that much so this is definitely the greatest compliment I could give this game it's just so so so damn good
there's some more puzzle esque elements but they're very scattered so that I wouldn't feel irritated and every single object of power interaction always culminates in some otherworldly things to do and I guess there's some kind of platforming but the real cake is always gonna be the exploration and the combat like these 2 elements could make or break an experience and I just think control manages to use its entire arsenal and throwing it at you
that to say people who hate the gameplay are cowards
there's a lot of stuff I want to say about control but I would go on and on and on about it forever and I wouldn't encapsulate the real wonder of what this game has to offer so you just need to play it for you to see you won't regret it
side note side quests are actually pretty fucking fun to do they always have some interesting shit to do like remedy is NOT messing around and I'm slowly working through them until I'm ready to play the DLC expansions
that fake ending got me I gotta say and the real ending is so anticlimactic i thought they were gonna fake end trip me again
conclusive act for the alan wake 1 experience or at least thats what I think should I play American nightmare? ionno
anyho
wasn't a fan of the first dlc and am not a fan of this dlc it picks up where the first one left off and still plays on those chords: asset reuse same gameplay same enemies same story beats and somehow they also decided it was a good idea to implement platforming ??? youre joking
so again I probably said everything I wanted to say in the other dlc part because this is basically just a continuation of that one soooo yeah it's still mid I sure didn't want to play more Alan wake but I guess I'm just trying to cover all the bases before AW2
the story conclusion is still pretty confusing I thought these additional contents were gonna give some kind of explanation but to this moment I have no idea how the dark place and the normal world connect if Alan is actually mentally ill or its just about external influences where the fuck is the wife of this man and are the flashbacks he experience real events or just schizophrenia induced
I'm confused but I guess this is a vibes first game or at least that's what I felt
ughhhhhh so anyway can finally conclude the first games exploration its still not as good as I wanted it to be but I'm glad I played it before getting my hands on the second game
sassy barry slays
anyho
wasn't a fan of the first dlc and am not a fan of this dlc it picks up where the first one left off and still plays on those chords: asset reuse same gameplay same enemies same story beats and somehow they also decided it was a good idea to implement platforming ??? youre joking
so again I probably said everything I wanted to say in the other dlc part because this is basically just a continuation of that one soooo yeah it's still mid I sure didn't want to play more Alan wake but I guess I'm just trying to cover all the bases before AW2
the story conclusion is still pretty confusing I thought these additional contents were gonna give some kind of explanation but to this moment I have no idea how the dark place and the normal world connect if Alan is actually mentally ill or its just about external influences where the fuck is the wife of this man and are the flashbacks he experience real events or just schizophrenia induced
I'm confused but I guess this is a vibes first game or at least that's what I felt
ughhhhhh so anyway can finally conclude the first games exploration its still not as good as I wanted it to be but I'm glad I played it before getting my hands on the second game
sassy barry slays
if I had a remnant of doubt whether or not I would enjoy the atelier series this game smacked my face and made me come back to reality as soon as it was necessary
can't believe I bawled at the ending
atelier ryza is my first iteration with the entire series and while I have never played ANY atelier game in my entire life after being advised by trustworthy gaming sites (gamefaq lmao don't @ me) this game elevated the bar so high already i'm surrounded by stars and planets and I cannot drop down anymore
as my first dive into this franchise I was expecting a lot of things and its so weird that they managed to crush them eat them and spit them in my mouth in a runtime of something like 30 hours what the fuck how did they even do that
talking meat of the game the gameplay is probably the most intoxicatingly addictive loop I've ever experienced since the binding of Isaac i started the game by chance one day when I just wanted a quick look into this and ended up play for like 10 hours in a row it was MAGICAL SHIT don't get me started
while I have zero means to cross examine this title what I saw here can be already peak of the series for what it's worth the exploration of the different and unique places gathering and foraging for items is so fucking fun I swear to god if you had told me picking flowers up and breaking stones and cutting grass would be so entertaining I wouldve not believed you (no actually I wouldve I've played stardew valley yknow) and thats probably the whole meat of the game just going around getting as much material as possible to just throw it in the cauldron and wait for something to happen
and this may be boring at first sight but it has such a lit of nuance there's genuinely infinite amount of items to get a lot of variety to not make it as redundant as it would probably get and when you think it could not be better the game shoves different gathering items that can be used to get DIFFERENT LOOT from places you already visited before this is insane the depth of this mechanic is so deep I can't see the bottom
while it could probably not impress other people as much as it did to me it's probably unfair to say that this is not a great mechanic like just going around living your life getting some ingredients for a couple of potions likeeeeeee I wish that were ME OK??????
this is probably the main reason why filled the container in like a single day (real life day) and I was like umhhhhh… so what now
sure getting items is the main focus but I gotta say the whole sense of exploration here feels so fucking tight every single part of the world is filled with so much wonder to look at points of interest to note on your diary and stuff to get apart from being fucking gorgeous but that's something for later
this all culminates in the alchemy system which is just so fun as a whole you get a lot of items into the thing and new stuff comes out wow greatest premise ever . gotta say at first this system confused me a lot it's really intricate when you have like items quality traits effects materials elemental balls to fill (sounded better in my mind) to think about and at first it's just so fucking intimidating you're like “ok lemme make a cute little potion teehee” and university level maths diagrams come out worst jumpscare of my life genuinely what the hell
that being said when you get in the flow you realise how actually all this is tied together and its actually not that hard but since the tutorial is less comprehensive than I thought it would be (maybe it is but I'm adhd) I ended up walking in the dark maybe because I've also never played an atelier game that could be also the reason and I kid you not theres insurmountable amount of stuff to make that range from flower potions to fucking lintels to construct the hideout im not joking what the fuck is ryza cooking in there and for most of the stuff you will get a recipe at some point but if you fuck around enough you can get new recipes from the ones you already have and that shit is cool as fuck don't touch me
there's some more nuance to this like the item worlds or the duplicator or the forge but they're just some more addendum to the already intrinsically deep alchemy system so that's a plus
something that really confused me was the battle system . i read everywhere that the fighting is the weaker part of the entire game and while I think that is definitely not the focus of the game how dare you say its terrible when I had so much fucking fun with it you deserve nothing in your life but drakengard 1 type of gameplay
sure it's simple sure it's not as bad as people say and I gotta tell you they worked with what they had and made a super engaging way of slaying enemies and I will not disrespect this kind of effort theres nothing more fun than upgrading your tactics and seeing your main combos and skill go from 1 hit slashes to a full 100 attacks assault in a couple of levels
the shit is simple . turn based combat . some kind of final fantasy ATB . normal attacks and skills and items . special moves and tactics and when you want you can actually switch to the other party members to issue commands
as I said simple ! but effective the action is super fast and the battles go super smoothly for the most part as soon as you realise how this combat system works youre gonna be enthralled just trust me
only gripe: items are a pain in the ass somehow they have a super low counter of like 10 points for use and when you have no more points you either have to temporarily sacrifice an item for the sake of more points or go all the way back to the hideout to replenish it . not the greatest item system I've ever seen but its serviceable for the type of combat you're gonna engage in
so all this to say
atelier ryza as a character story and an overall narrative absolutely struck me im not joking here
ryzas story is simple yet effective an adhd tomboyish girl with fat ass cheeks and thicc thighs is tired of her ordinary life in a island in nowhere and with her friends the hung cavalier lent with a huge sword and a huge heart and also another sword that he carries all the time if you know you know and tao a … knowledgeable blonde twink ? I'm not sounding very professional here so I was saying
girls tired so as soon as she meets new visiting alchemists from overseas she decides to mix drugs and help the townspeople and theres that
the plot thickens a lot during the last ⅓ part of the game there's a lot of political intrigue and invasion war typa talk I was not expecting and the lore of the entire island really is the center of this entire plotpoint which is definitely a cool highlight it's good to have a “lives are at stake” trope for the tension but while I think this is also great what really bewitched me of atelier ryza are characters their little interactions and their little development arcs
ryza goes from a bratty child with family farm duty to a powerful alchemist genuinely interested to townspeople and the towns entire wellbeing lent gets more and more courageous and hunk ish as time goes on tao umh… likes books !!! I think !!! and klaudia is my sweet little sweetheart with daddy issues and lesbian energy to boot
I love all my children dearly I have nothing bad to say about this apart from the fact that maybe having klaudia and ryza scissor for 2 and a half hours in a 3d rendered lesbian cutscene was a bit too much
really tho the sexual tension between those too… women
empel and lila are also nice characters with good backstories and arcs but the main 4some is what I really liked of this entire affair they're just ughhhhh I love them so much I can see them caring for each other and shit they're sweethearts
bos is a pretty nifty addition and it's definitely a huge part of the game dealing with him and his superiority complex but his character arc pays out and I can't wait for him to actually be a cool lad in the sequels
last but not least the art direction is incredibly tight the little character portraits for each one of the crewmembers is super charming and even the 3d models have a lot of character to them sure you're gonna have ryzas fat ass in your face for the entire game but is that a bad thing
I can really respect the fact that they indeed put horny designs like lila has an H cup and all her coochie out ryza has pants that hold her entire butt with the help of the Holy spirit klaudia isn't inherently a horny design but she's my favorite one and the girl I want as my wife for the rest of the years to come so it's horny design FOR ME and lent is also horny design FOR ME because you put a knight with his man tits out and pretend I won't thirst cmon but what I was saying is that even though they put these designs they never used them in an oversexualised way belittling the characters and their arcs so there's that
the environments are lushly constructed and super diverse from one another the hometown is cozy the mountains are as dangerous as ever and the pixie forest is dreamlike and soothing and the ruins are haunting and shit like theres a lot of variety in the places this game is gonna opt for and I genuinely had so much fun exploring the nooks and crannies of each one of them
unfortunately the monster design falls flat not because of the monster designs in themselves (they're gorgeous) but the fact that they're really heavy on recolors something that i sure don't like in dragon quest and here the monsters aren't as numerous or as iconic to actually have a reason to be reused for the entire game but I digress they're still pretty good looking….. if you know what I mean I like the scissor hands
last point of note the side quests and the character quests are pretty straightforward but very fun to do I don't know I usually don't care for side quests and here they aren't even as deep as some other side quests I saw in other games but they're so fun wtf
OH and the music is great but I put some restrictions on the amount of stuff I'm gonna link but in the meantime I can say that every single ost hits whether it be a soundtrack for a certain place in the game or a recurrent theme during your stay in the secret hideout or even battle themes for some reason atelier games have the sickest battle themes like just listen to this one why did they have to snap this hard I don't get it I don't get it what the hell anyway the entire ost is a gem just listen to it honestly
I said everything I wanted to say and last but not least I cant wait to play the next games in the ryza trilogy and in the series as a whole the finale of the game left me no tears in my eyes it's not even that sad but I care for each and every one of my sweet children so when I say it hit it HIT
I wasn't expecting atelier ryza to be the game for me or even actually have this much on an impact on my current videogame backlog situation and shit but now I know why it has such an affectionate cult following there's nothing else that felt like this till now
ryza can't wait to play your second game and for you to actually have a french kiss with klaudia im literally aching here please please please
I'm trying to convince a friend to actually get this game but it's 59.99 lmao OK whatever
can't believe I bawled at the ending
atelier ryza is my first iteration with the entire series and while I have never played ANY atelier game in my entire life after being advised by trustworthy gaming sites (gamefaq lmao don't @ me) this game elevated the bar so high already i'm surrounded by stars and planets and I cannot drop down anymore
as my first dive into this franchise I was expecting a lot of things and its so weird that they managed to crush them eat them and spit them in my mouth in a runtime of something like 30 hours what the fuck how did they even do that
talking meat of the game the gameplay is probably the most intoxicatingly addictive loop I've ever experienced since the binding of Isaac i started the game by chance one day when I just wanted a quick look into this and ended up play for like 10 hours in a row it was MAGICAL SHIT don't get me started
while I have zero means to cross examine this title what I saw here can be already peak of the series for what it's worth the exploration of the different and unique places gathering and foraging for items is so fucking fun I swear to god if you had told me picking flowers up and breaking stones and cutting grass would be so entertaining I wouldve not believed you (no actually I wouldve I've played stardew valley yknow) and thats probably the whole meat of the game just going around getting as much material as possible to just throw it in the cauldron and wait for something to happen
and this may be boring at first sight but it has such a lit of nuance there's genuinely infinite amount of items to get a lot of variety to not make it as redundant as it would probably get and when you think it could not be better the game shoves different gathering items that can be used to get DIFFERENT LOOT from places you already visited before this is insane the depth of this mechanic is so deep I can't see the bottom
while it could probably not impress other people as much as it did to me it's probably unfair to say that this is not a great mechanic like just going around living your life getting some ingredients for a couple of potions likeeeeeee I wish that were ME OK??????
this is probably the main reason why filled the container in like a single day (real life day) and I was like umhhhhh… so what now
sure getting items is the main focus but I gotta say the whole sense of exploration here feels so fucking tight every single part of the world is filled with so much wonder to look at points of interest to note on your diary and stuff to get apart from being fucking gorgeous but that's something for later
this all culminates in the alchemy system which is just so fun as a whole you get a lot of items into the thing and new stuff comes out wow greatest premise ever . gotta say at first this system confused me a lot it's really intricate when you have like items quality traits effects materials elemental balls to fill (sounded better in my mind) to think about and at first it's just so fucking intimidating you're like “ok lemme make a cute little potion teehee” and university level maths diagrams come out worst jumpscare of my life genuinely what the hell
that being said when you get in the flow you realise how actually all this is tied together and its actually not that hard but since the tutorial is less comprehensive than I thought it would be (maybe it is but I'm adhd) I ended up walking in the dark maybe because I've also never played an atelier game that could be also the reason and I kid you not theres insurmountable amount of stuff to make that range from flower potions to fucking lintels to construct the hideout im not joking what the fuck is ryza cooking in there and for most of the stuff you will get a recipe at some point but if you fuck around enough you can get new recipes from the ones you already have and that shit is cool as fuck don't touch me
there's some more nuance to this like the item worlds or the duplicator or the forge but they're just some more addendum to the already intrinsically deep alchemy system so that's a plus
something that really confused me was the battle system . i read everywhere that the fighting is the weaker part of the entire game and while I think that is definitely not the focus of the game how dare you say its terrible when I had so much fucking fun with it you deserve nothing in your life but drakengard 1 type of gameplay
sure it's simple sure it's not as bad as people say and I gotta tell you they worked with what they had and made a super engaging way of slaying enemies and I will not disrespect this kind of effort theres nothing more fun than upgrading your tactics and seeing your main combos and skill go from 1 hit slashes to a full 100 attacks assault in a couple of levels
the shit is simple . turn based combat . some kind of final fantasy ATB . normal attacks and skills and items . special moves and tactics and when you want you can actually switch to the other party members to issue commands
as I said simple ! but effective the action is super fast and the battles go super smoothly for the most part as soon as you realise how this combat system works youre gonna be enthralled just trust me
only gripe: items are a pain in the ass somehow they have a super low counter of like 10 points for use and when you have no more points you either have to temporarily sacrifice an item for the sake of more points or go all the way back to the hideout to replenish it . not the greatest item system I've ever seen but its serviceable for the type of combat you're gonna engage in
so all this to say
atelier ryza as a character story and an overall narrative absolutely struck me im not joking here
ryzas story is simple yet effective an adhd tomboyish girl with fat ass cheeks and thicc thighs is tired of her ordinary life in a island in nowhere and with her friends the hung cavalier lent with a huge sword and a huge heart and also another sword that he carries all the time if you know you know and tao a … knowledgeable blonde twink ? I'm not sounding very professional here so I was saying
girls tired so as soon as she meets new visiting alchemists from overseas she decides to mix drugs and help the townspeople and theres that
the plot thickens a lot during the last ⅓ part of the game there's a lot of political intrigue and invasion war typa talk I was not expecting and the lore of the entire island really is the center of this entire plotpoint which is definitely a cool highlight it's good to have a “lives are at stake” trope for the tension but while I think this is also great what really bewitched me of atelier ryza are characters their little interactions and their little development arcs
ryza goes from a bratty child with family farm duty to a powerful alchemist genuinely interested to townspeople and the towns entire wellbeing lent gets more and more courageous and hunk ish as time goes on tao umh… likes books !!! I think !!! and klaudia is my sweet little sweetheart with daddy issues and lesbian energy to boot
I love all my children dearly I have nothing bad to say about this apart from the fact that maybe having klaudia and ryza scissor for 2 and a half hours in a 3d rendered lesbian cutscene was a bit too much
really tho the sexual tension between those too… women
empel and lila are also nice characters with good backstories and arcs but the main 4some is what I really liked of this entire affair they're just ughhhhh I love them so much I can see them caring for each other and shit they're sweethearts
bos is a pretty nifty addition and it's definitely a huge part of the game dealing with him and his superiority complex but his character arc pays out and I can't wait for him to actually be a cool lad in the sequels
last but not least the art direction is incredibly tight the little character portraits for each one of the crewmembers is super charming and even the 3d models have a lot of character to them sure you're gonna have ryzas fat ass in your face for the entire game but is that a bad thing
I can really respect the fact that they indeed put horny designs like lila has an H cup and all her coochie out ryza has pants that hold her entire butt with the help of the Holy spirit klaudia isn't inherently a horny design but she's my favorite one and the girl I want as my wife for the rest of the years to come so it's horny design FOR ME and lent is also horny design FOR ME because you put a knight with his man tits out and pretend I won't thirst cmon but what I was saying is that even though they put these designs they never used them in an oversexualised way belittling the characters and their arcs so there's that
the environments are lushly constructed and super diverse from one another the hometown is cozy the mountains are as dangerous as ever and the pixie forest is dreamlike and soothing and the ruins are haunting and shit like theres a lot of variety in the places this game is gonna opt for and I genuinely had so much fun exploring the nooks and crannies of each one of them
unfortunately the monster design falls flat not because of the monster designs in themselves (they're gorgeous) but the fact that they're really heavy on recolors something that i sure don't like in dragon quest and here the monsters aren't as numerous or as iconic to actually have a reason to be reused for the entire game but I digress they're still pretty good looking….. if you know what I mean I like the scissor hands
last point of note the side quests and the character quests are pretty straightforward but very fun to do I don't know I usually don't care for side quests and here they aren't even as deep as some other side quests I saw in other games but they're so fun wtf
OH and the music is great but I put some restrictions on the amount of stuff I'm gonna link but in the meantime I can say that every single ost hits whether it be a soundtrack for a certain place in the game or a recurrent theme during your stay in the secret hideout or even battle themes for some reason atelier games have the sickest battle themes like just listen to this one why did they have to snap this hard I don't get it I don't get it what the hell anyway the entire ost is a gem just listen to it honestly
I said everything I wanted to say and last but not least I cant wait to play the next games in the ryza trilogy and in the series as a whole the finale of the game left me no tears in my eyes it's not even that sad but I care for each and every one of my sweet children so when I say it hit it HIT
I wasn't expecting atelier ryza to be the game for me or even actually have this much on an impact on my current videogame backlog situation and shit but now I know why it has such an affectionate cult following there's nothing else that felt like this till now
ryza can't wait to play your second game and for you to actually have a french kiss with klaudia im literally aching here please please please
I'm trying to convince a friend to actually get this game but it's 59.99 lmao OK whatever
so theres a part of me that still wanted to enjoy alan wake as a whole experience more than i actually did but this is definitely not it
for as much as i enjoyed the original game somehow i was definitely not well versed to the idea of MORE od what i already played lets be real this is a DLC for people who do really loved alan wake and wanted some more to the story of the base game
as an addendum this didnt do much for me the gameplay is untouched apart from adding some nice words mechanics here and there that are thematically entwined with the whole “its all a manuscript” but since the basic gameflow was already pretty weak i sure wasnt a big fan of doing it all over again for the sake of some more insight to the story
and if you somehow wonder if this is gonna add anything to the original story i kid you not you will have some momentary explanations but shits gonna get more convoluted than it really is because wow they sure love going over and over again on the same concepts until they start making no sense anymore
focus of the DLC is following a signal and going through levels that feel cut out segments that didnt make it to the original also am i the only one or this felt way more difficult i dont know guys
anywho after some tedious fights and flashbacks and shit like that you find the signal and nothing of note really happens . the end ?
guess the other DLC will expand on this but wow this is probably one of the weakest additional contents ive ever played in years somehow the best part was barry acting like a cunt which was definitely entertaining
doing all of this just to play AW2 can you believe that
for as much as i enjoyed the original game somehow i was definitely not well versed to the idea of MORE od what i already played lets be real this is a DLC for people who do really loved alan wake and wanted some more to the story of the base game
as an addendum this didnt do much for me the gameplay is untouched apart from adding some nice words mechanics here and there that are thematically entwined with the whole “its all a manuscript” but since the basic gameflow was already pretty weak i sure wasnt a big fan of doing it all over again for the sake of some more insight to the story
and if you somehow wonder if this is gonna add anything to the original story i kid you not you will have some momentary explanations but shits gonna get more convoluted than it really is because wow they sure love going over and over again on the same concepts until they start making no sense anymore
focus of the DLC is following a signal and going through levels that feel cut out segments that didnt make it to the original also am i the only one or this felt way more difficult i dont know guys
anywho after some tedious fights and flashbacks and shit like that you find the signal and nothing of note really happens . the end ?
guess the other DLC will expand on this but wow this is probably one of the weakest additional contents ive ever played in years somehow the best part was barry acting like a cunt which was definitely entertaining
doing all of this just to play AW2 can you believe that
i ughhhhhhhhh iiiiiii uuuu umhhhhhhh well
this sure exists in our world and timeline alright and I dont really know how to feel about it
this is supposedly kind of an apology game for the people who were DYING to play security breach so definitely not me lmao that to say that this was a small game for the sake of being a fucking meme and they actually delivered in that department . werk
this is a beat em up and its pretty bland at that you got 1 combo per character a aerial attack and a special move the end thats the entire roster you can't even like grapple enemies or shit like that this is it
now this is already pretty uneventful but then you get hordes of fellas trying to eat your ass and they spawn so many at times youre gonna just die because you don't have space to actually make moves so that's funny !!! useless to say this is a subpar beat em up in every way shape or form
BUT I gotta say I love the designs of the animatronics in this they all look incredibly hot freddy can tagteam me with monty i want to suck both of them while theyre railing and destroying my innards roxy can whip me and walk me with a leash and chica can definitely take a mean dick . and then people say fnaf isn't targeted for furries
this sure exists in our world and timeline alright and I dont really know how to feel about it
this is supposedly kind of an apology game for the people who were DYING to play security breach so definitely not me lmao that to say that this was a small game for the sake of being a fucking meme and they actually delivered in that department . werk
this is a beat em up and its pretty bland at that you got 1 combo per character a aerial attack and a special move the end thats the entire roster you can't even like grapple enemies or shit like that this is it
now this is already pretty uneventful but then you get hordes of fellas trying to eat your ass and they spawn so many at times youre gonna just die because you don't have space to actually make moves so that's funny !!! useless to say this is a subpar beat em up in every way shape or form
BUT I gotta say I love the designs of the animatronics in this they all look incredibly hot freddy can tagteam me with monty i want to suck both of them while theyre railing and destroying my innards roxy can whip me and walk me with a leash and chica can definitely take a mean dick . and then people say fnaf isn't targeted for furries
2021
man what a disappointment
alan wake was definitely something that I looked forward revisiting after the release of the second game but the more I went on with the game the more its seams started to break apart
this is a remaster of the OG game and as a remaster its pretty chill you have that new texture work 60 fps shiny graphics definitely the most interesting part of the game if I gotta be honest and also kudos to remedy for making a remaster that works wonders on the pc because after playing those shitty ports for ff7r and ff15 I really needed this to play accordingly and it did
in its premise this game has such a great introduction alan is a writer that slowly descends into schizophrenic madness after the disappearance of his wife during a holiday trip in idk where probably twin peaks (I've never watched twin peaks I have no idea what yall are talking about)
bomb subject matter that may or may not be enhanced by the fact that apparently a ghost manuscript somewhere allegedly written by alan is influencing the course of the story and making every single part of the game a nightmare
now there's a lot of different points and ropes to untie here and there but it never really get more interesting than that the many side characters are only a way for alan to keep being delulu or a way to contrast his schizophrenic frenzy and there's that his trustworthy pal is a dipshit the cop is atrociously underdeveloped there's an old woman somehow and the psychiatric doctor is probably the most based character because he goes to alan and tells him “gurl you delulu” and gets punched in the face rip
the main plot is basically what I said alan searches for his wife the end theres some degree of backstory and explanation to what is happening but the game really loves remaining confused to the fucking end to the point that you can't excuse its pretentiousness anymore I really LOVE the story here but there's not enough tension or insight for you to actually make a cliffhanger open ending
and adding to all this there's a kingdom hearts typa script with stuff like “his heart is full of darkness… only the light can stop the darkness” youre tripping this is so surface level it makes me want to tear my hair which is a shame because the fact that the game is segmented in different chapters and subsequent recaps makes it feel like you're watching a TV series alright
that being said the art department is pretty alright they're really going for a realistic based type of experiment because wow thr environments are so boring for a guy experiencing schizophrenia like theres a lot of woods and woods and woods sometimes there's some points of interest like structures here and there or natural formations like falls or cliffs but it's really sedimented into the reality aspect of things and honestly that was really a disappointment particularly for a game which has a lot of focus on “light and darkness” and the answer to that is literally streetlights in the forest ok whatever
last but not least the gameplay is pretty fun . for 5 minutes before you realise all you're gonna do is get from point A to point B doing this sequence of actions: shine light on enemies -> shoot at them and OPTIONALLY try to not get killed by phantom pieces of trains or construction machines or lintels rinse and repeat sometimes the game is gonna introduct new stuff like weapons or new ways of shining lights like a bigger flashlight or unmovable spotlights but apart from that this is what you're gonna do the entire game and all that while you run through woods until a cutscene or a mob of enemies tries to kill you while saying shit like “I love McDonald's burgers but they're not healthy” literally I'm not joking here
when the gameplay and art direction are not hitting and not even the narrative gets as gripping as you want it to youre left with a mid experience and I'm pretty sad because I remembered seeing this game around on youtube when I was younger and thinking it was absolutely groundbreaking but experiencing it again after all this years maybe I set my bar too high and was left empty ended
still !!! didn't hate it please fans don't kill me also the interlude songs are definitive bops
alan wake was definitely something that I looked forward revisiting after the release of the second game but the more I went on with the game the more its seams started to break apart
this is a remaster of the OG game and as a remaster its pretty chill you have that new texture work 60 fps shiny graphics definitely the most interesting part of the game if I gotta be honest and also kudos to remedy for making a remaster that works wonders on the pc because after playing those shitty ports for ff7r and ff15 I really needed this to play accordingly and it did
in its premise this game has such a great introduction alan is a writer that slowly descends into schizophrenic madness after the disappearance of his wife during a holiday trip in idk where probably twin peaks (I've never watched twin peaks I have no idea what yall are talking about)
bomb subject matter that may or may not be enhanced by the fact that apparently a ghost manuscript somewhere allegedly written by alan is influencing the course of the story and making every single part of the game a nightmare
now there's a lot of different points and ropes to untie here and there but it never really get more interesting than that the many side characters are only a way for alan to keep being delulu or a way to contrast his schizophrenic frenzy and there's that his trustworthy pal is a dipshit the cop is atrociously underdeveloped there's an old woman somehow and the psychiatric doctor is probably the most based character because he goes to alan and tells him “gurl you delulu” and gets punched in the face rip
the main plot is basically what I said alan searches for his wife the end theres some degree of backstory and explanation to what is happening but the game really loves remaining confused to the fucking end to the point that you can't excuse its pretentiousness anymore I really LOVE the story here but there's not enough tension or insight for you to actually make a cliffhanger open ending
and adding to all this there's a kingdom hearts typa script with stuff like “his heart is full of darkness… only the light can stop the darkness” youre tripping this is so surface level it makes me want to tear my hair which is a shame because the fact that the game is segmented in different chapters and subsequent recaps makes it feel like you're watching a TV series alright
that being said the art department is pretty alright they're really going for a realistic based type of experiment because wow thr environments are so boring for a guy experiencing schizophrenia like theres a lot of woods and woods and woods sometimes there's some points of interest like structures here and there or natural formations like falls or cliffs but it's really sedimented into the reality aspect of things and honestly that was really a disappointment particularly for a game which has a lot of focus on “light and darkness” and the answer to that is literally streetlights in the forest ok whatever
last but not least the gameplay is pretty fun . for 5 minutes before you realise all you're gonna do is get from point A to point B doing this sequence of actions: shine light on enemies -> shoot at them and OPTIONALLY try to not get killed by phantom pieces of trains or construction machines or lintels rinse and repeat sometimes the game is gonna introduct new stuff like weapons or new ways of shining lights like a bigger flashlight or unmovable spotlights but apart from that this is what you're gonna do the entire game and all that while you run through woods until a cutscene or a mob of enemies tries to kill you while saying shit like “I love McDonald's burgers but they're not healthy” literally I'm not joking here
when the gameplay and art direction are not hitting and not even the narrative gets as gripping as you want it to youre left with a mid experience and I'm pretty sad because I remembered seeing this game around on youtube when I was younger and thinking it was absolutely groundbreaking but experiencing it again after all this years maybe I set my bar too high and was left empty ended
still !!! didn't hate it please fans don't kill me also the interlude songs are definitive bops