This review contains spoilers
This game has been one of the most mixed and confusing game experiences of my life. I have absolutely no words for how batshit confusing this game is gameplay wise and tone wise. On one hand, the gameplay isn't something that I particularly care for but the atmosphere and story are so early to mid 2000s straight to DVD goth "Human gets teleported to fantasy world to become champion and save everybody" that I can't help but adore this part. I'll give some brief story stuff (or at least stuff that I remember), then go on about the other parts.
Created by (at the time) SCE Cambridge Studios, their past and future games include PS1's Frogger and the Medievil series, to 24: The Game and one of their final titles (and best FPS/one of the best Vita games) Killzone: Mercenary; it's a studio of which I've played a game or two. Having looked at their history, their output has been kinda mixed to positive but with A LOT of potential. The story starts with Jen and her boyfriend, a member of some rock band, being stalked in a club while her boyfriend is playing. Suddenly an ambush happens and this giant, Mr. X looking fucker puts you in a coma and your boyfriend disappears. You wake up in a strange world where you're greeted by a talking gargoyle named Scree, who persuades you to fight for his master against the forces of darkness, of which Jen agrees because she believes this'll help her find her boyfriend. Over time you gain demon powers (one per world with a total of four), banter/bond with Scree and help liberate each of the four worlds from the dark forces. I think that the bond between Scree and Jen form the backbone of the game, bringing out the best in one another while also having their conflicts and issues with each other. They go through and liberate a kingdom whose queen brainwashes the king to be dictator, a water world where you liberate the fish people (mainly the queen) from her bastard husband, liberate an old gothic village with weird looking vampires (which btw this world is funny as hell, gonna plug two clips in from my channel to really throw the vibe out):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYblVTa9GQk&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHN6oG6U3M&ab_channel=gamemast15r
And finally go to some weird Roman looking Sun/Sand world (aka the realm of chaos). Overall this story maybe kind of by the numbers and goofy, but the main characters are what bring this game into charming territory and the story and the atmosphere are bright positives to me for this. Graphically it's a PS2 game, but the PS4 port looked good though glitchy at times, with a place or two where I can walk through walls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKduzPQB0Cc&ab_channel=gamemast15r
The gameplay however is the main issue for me. Your main thing that you do when you go through the game is you solve puzzles, go through some sluggish combat encounters, and then walk/backtrack a bit. The problem is, you have no clue where you're going. If you know where you're going playing this, if you find this intuitive god bless you, I'm jealous. But I got stuck numerous times trying to figure out where the hell I was going. The first world was ok for a bit, but after a while I had to break out a step by step walkthrough on where the hell to go because good god I kept getting lost. Maybe I'm just an awful gamer? I don't know. But that consists of about 80 Percent of the gameplay, going places and solving puzzles while trying to navigate where you are.
The other 20 Percent is combat, which is placed somewhat sporadically here and there. You can choose between your demon forms to fight other creatures (though don't change into your fish form while on dry land), and this can feel kind of sluggish really. I mean it's not awful, it's serviceable, but I don't know how to explain it really other than you lock on to creatures and fight them one by one but sometimes they gang up on you I think sometimes you don't?
I almost forgot to say this: Scree doesn't fight as much as you can use him to scout ahead to see what enemies lie as everyone tends to ignore the walking and talking gargoyle. However, Scree is very useful at siphoning energy from certain spots and special crystals. If Jen loses her health in demon form she'll be ok, with this life energy helping her regain her health. However if she dies in human form, Scree has to run to the nearest rift gate in a time limit or else she permanently dies in the real world.
I don't remember too much other than this cause it was again kind of sporadic. What I can say is this, the PS4 version that I played was kind of glitchy, and in combat it sometimes led to gems like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNlEmLlY9xQ&ab_channel=gamemast15r
I guess this is a good transition to the Port stuff. I'm unsure of how the PS2 version plays, but the PS4 port is kind of glitchy here and there. Along with some of the stuff I ported earlier, I got two glitches during cutscenes both at the beginning and the end of the game with hilarious results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ze_jKQqrec&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28OwdSWsZfY&ab_channel=gamemast15r
It's not a bad port, just kinda off sometimes. Again to me, the Story and Atmosphere without going into any more spoilers is what really settled on my liking of the game, with the relationship between Scree and Jen being the highlights of it. But dear god the gameplay to me is left to be desired and actually figuring out where you're going is a chore to do. I respect this game, and I respect this game's place in the Sony Library, and along with the usual rants of "Please port this old game to PC", I kind of wish that more people at least knew about these characters, like I'm kind of surprised (kind of because the two mains are really memorable) and not so surprised (because not too many people played the game sadly) that they didn't bring these two to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale or something. Overall again, it's one of the most mixed experiences I've ever played in my life, but it's certainly memorable to say the least. If you have a PS4, around 10 dollars and smarter than me I would suggest you get it. Would I play it again? No. But I enjoyed my time with it, at least whatever time I didn't spend getting lost.
Also, I'm surprised they didn't port Ghosthunter as well, considering they teased the game at the end of Primal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1-SyAf10_U&ab_channel=gamemast15r
Created by (at the time) SCE Cambridge Studios, their past and future games include PS1's Frogger and the Medievil series, to 24: The Game and one of their final titles (and best FPS/one of the best Vita games) Killzone: Mercenary; it's a studio of which I've played a game or two. Having looked at their history, their output has been kinda mixed to positive but with A LOT of potential. The story starts with Jen and her boyfriend, a member of some rock band, being stalked in a club while her boyfriend is playing. Suddenly an ambush happens and this giant, Mr. X looking fucker puts you in a coma and your boyfriend disappears. You wake up in a strange world where you're greeted by a talking gargoyle named Scree, who persuades you to fight for his master against the forces of darkness, of which Jen agrees because she believes this'll help her find her boyfriend. Over time you gain demon powers (one per world with a total of four), banter/bond with Scree and help liberate each of the four worlds from the dark forces. I think that the bond between Scree and Jen form the backbone of the game, bringing out the best in one another while also having their conflicts and issues with each other. They go through and liberate a kingdom whose queen brainwashes the king to be dictator, a water world where you liberate the fish people (mainly the queen) from her bastard husband, liberate an old gothic village with weird looking vampires (which btw this world is funny as hell, gonna plug two clips in from my channel to really throw the vibe out):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYblVTa9GQk&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHN6oG6U3M&ab_channel=gamemast15r
And finally go to some weird Roman looking Sun/Sand world (aka the realm of chaos). Overall this story maybe kind of by the numbers and goofy, but the main characters are what bring this game into charming territory and the story and the atmosphere are bright positives to me for this. Graphically it's a PS2 game, but the PS4 port looked good though glitchy at times, with a place or two where I can walk through walls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKduzPQB0Cc&ab_channel=gamemast15r
The gameplay however is the main issue for me. Your main thing that you do when you go through the game is you solve puzzles, go through some sluggish combat encounters, and then walk/backtrack a bit. The problem is, you have no clue where you're going. If you know where you're going playing this, if you find this intuitive god bless you, I'm jealous. But I got stuck numerous times trying to figure out where the hell I was going. The first world was ok for a bit, but after a while I had to break out a step by step walkthrough on where the hell to go because good god I kept getting lost. Maybe I'm just an awful gamer? I don't know. But that consists of about 80 Percent of the gameplay, going places and solving puzzles while trying to navigate where you are.
The other 20 Percent is combat, which is placed somewhat sporadically here and there. You can choose between your demon forms to fight other creatures (though don't change into your fish form while on dry land), and this can feel kind of sluggish really. I mean it's not awful, it's serviceable, but I don't know how to explain it really other than you lock on to creatures and fight them one by one but sometimes they gang up on you I think sometimes you don't?
I almost forgot to say this: Scree doesn't fight as much as you can use him to scout ahead to see what enemies lie as everyone tends to ignore the walking and talking gargoyle. However, Scree is very useful at siphoning energy from certain spots and special crystals. If Jen loses her health in demon form she'll be ok, with this life energy helping her regain her health. However if she dies in human form, Scree has to run to the nearest rift gate in a time limit or else she permanently dies in the real world.
I don't remember too much other than this cause it was again kind of sporadic. What I can say is this, the PS4 version that I played was kind of glitchy, and in combat it sometimes led to gems like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNlEmLlY9xQ&ab_channel=gamemast15r
I guess this is a good transition to the Port stuff. I'm unsure of how the PS2 version plays, but the PS4 port is kind of glitchy here and there. Along with some of the stuff I ported earlier, I got two glitches during cutscenes both at the beginning and the end of the game with hilarious results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ze_jKQqrec&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28OwdSWsZfY&ab_channel=gamemast15r
It's not a bad port, just kinda off sometimes. Again to me, the Story and Atmosphere without going into any more spoilers is what really settled on my liking of the game, with the relationship between Scree and Jen being the highlights of it. But dear god the gameplay to me is left to be desired and actually figuring out where you're going is a chore to do. I respect this game, and I respect this game's place in the Sony Library, and along with the usual rants of "Please port this old game to PC", I kind of wish that more people at least knew about these characters, like I'm kind of surprised (kind of because the two mains are really memorable) and not so surprised (because not too many people played the game sadly) that they didn't bring these two to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale or something. Overall again, it's one of the most mixed experiences I've ever played in my life, but it's certainly memorable to say the least. If you have a PS4, around 10 dollars and smarter than me I would suggest you get it. Would I play it again? No. But I enjoyed my time with it, at least whatever time I didn't spend getting lost.
Also, I'm surprised they didn't port Ghosthunter as well, considering they teased the game at the end of Primal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1-SyAf10_U&ab_channel=gamemast15r