godslayer86
1998
well..... not sure where to start with this review. disc 1 was a solid 5 stars for me and i really underestimated how much of a let down disc 2 was going to be for me.
while the turn based gameplay is solid, the mech gameplay isnt for me and i Hate the platforming so much it made me use save states when i usually do not use save states. also didnt find much enjoyment in the speed minigame or the random puzzles in the dungeons in disc 2.
getting that out of the way, the story is kind of amazing or at the very least high potential. i knew i was going to like this at least a little bit since id seen a few spoilers and knew the general premise and its relation to ff7 and it definitely met my expectations in that regard. it definitely shows that takahashi is really knowledgeable about religion which definitely makes the game hit harder especially for someone like me whos not religious but was raised in that way. i also really enjoyed seeing all the little similarities to gundam and im definitely going to try watching ideon after this as well. as for the psychology stuff, im the kind of person that can find jung/freud shit to be rather obnoxious so id be lying if i didnt have a few good laughs over that. and of course theres a lot to be said about how feis did is written and i have to say there was a couple aspects that were a little bit disappointing but im unsure what information on the disorder was available in the 90s so i dont know how well takahashi did in relation to that... elly started out as one of my favorites but after disc 2 i just wasnt crazy about the whole mommy stuff going on with her and miang and i get its supposed to be like religious symbolism and also more freudshit but it was kind of annoying. the ending was peak though. citan ended up as my favorite since hes goofy.
all in all i have mixed feelings im unsure of how to word correctly but maybe ill be able to word my feelings on the game better later down the line.
my final thoughts are i cant wait to finish reading dune so i can draw out a venn diagram of that with its relation to xenogears in political writing and i need to hop on ideon soon so i can see where a good chunk of the inspiration came from.
slog of an experience but i found it personally worth it as someone who loves jrpgs and mecha.
while the turn based gameplay is solid, the mech gameplay isnt for me and i Hate the platforming so much it made me use save states when i usually do not use save states. also didnt find much enjoyment in the speed minigame or the random puzzles in the dungeons in disc 2.
getting that out of the way, the story is kind of amazing or at the very least high potential. i knew i was going to like this at least a little bit since id seen a few spoilers and knew the general premise and its relation to ff7 and it definitely met my expectations in that regard. it definitely shows that takahashi is really knowledgeable about religion which definitely makes the game hit harder especially for someone like me whos not religious but was raised in that way. i also really enjoyed seeing all the little similarities to gundam and im definitely going to try watching ideon after this as well. as for the psychology stuff, im the kind of person that can find jung/freud shit to be rather obnoxious so id be lying if i didnt have a few good laughs over that. and of course theres a lot to be said about how feis did is written and i have to say there was a couple aspects that were a little bit disappointing but im unsure what information on the disorder was available in the 90s so i dont know how well takahashi did in relation to that... elly started out as one of my favorites but after disc 2 i just wasnt crazy about the whole mommy stuff going on with her and miang and i get its supposed to be like religious symbolism and also more freudshit but it was kind of annoying. the ending was peak though. citan ended up as my favorite since hes goofy.
all in all i have mixed feelings im unsure of how to word correctly but maybe ill be able to word my feelings on the game better later down the line.
my final thoughts are i cant wait to finish reading dune so i can draw out a venn diagram of that with its relation to xenogears in political writing and i need to hop on ideon soon so i can see where a good chunk of the inspiration came from.
slog of an experience but i found it personally worth it as someone who loves jrpgs and mecha.
This review contains spoilers
going to preface this review by saying i didnt play this, i watched all the cutscenes because quite frankly i am not going to buy an entire ass ps5 for this. therefore it will remain without a rating as i dont have much to say about the gameplay.
okay firstly this is straight up the funniest final fantasy game ever and every part that made me laugh was completely unintentional. like all the intentionally funny parts whatever but holy fuck.. the multiverse stuff was hilarious i cannot believe its real life that THIS is what we get out of a giant ass production with ff7 in the title.
i genuinely appreciate how they tried to recreate so many things from the original and keep it recognizable but man. first off... how do you expand upon this and still skip things like rocket town? cids entire story is skipped over? and for what? more cutscenes about zack and biggs suck and fuck adventures?
the characterization was similar to part 1 at least, i enjoyed how true to the original cloud is but im still concerned the direction its heading towards. aerith is noticeably different and i understand...? assume...? this is because of the multiverse stuff? but now i really dont know. yuffie is of course butchered, elena is NOTHING like how i saw her... i could go on. nanakis voice completely changes after we reach cosmo canyon, and i understand in the original he did talk different in the original japanese text at this point but by god the entire ass voice change was not necessary and was just straight up annoying and added another layer to the already TERRIBLE voice acting that makes one ask whether or not there was even any attempt at direction here.
somehow it feels like the misogyny has just gotten worse here. its ff7s biggest criticism, and for good reason. but they spend so much time making stupid compilation lore references and changing up random things and yet theres still somehow a dating sim, weird jokes about a literal 14 year old, and the women still feel like theyre barely even becoming their own characters. tifas slightly improved upon but... it just doesnt really hit the way it should.
i think my biggest criticism of this is how absolutely hideous it is half the time. the other half of the time it doesnt even really look good it just looks okay. nomura being off the team is so evident, there is no art direction here absolutely none. the cutscene of sephiroth killing aerith genuinely was so terrible it actually hurt to look at because of the composition and the colors honestly that entire last hour before the last prerendered cutscene was just absolutely hideous. imagine remaking a game that was one of the first to ever have cinematic cutscenes and not spending a single minute to understand how to utilize cinematics in a video game. the original game actually looked better than this even by modern standards and im not even kidding about that. like if it looked good i wouldve forgiven it for every flaw and my distaste for the plot.
anyways this made me want to play xenogears really badly so thats probably next
okay firstly this is straight up the funniest final fantasy game ever and every part that made me laugh was completely unintentional. like all the intentionally funny parts whatever but holy fuck.. the multiverse stuff was hilarious i cannot believe its real life that THIS is what we get out of a giant ass production with ff7 in the title.
i genuinely appreciate how they tried to recreate so many things from the original and keep it recognizable but man. first off... how do you expand upon this and still skip things like rocket town? cids entire story is skipped over? and for what? more cutscenes about zack and biggs suck and fuck adventures?
the characterization was similar to part 1 at least, i enjoyed how true to the original cloud is but im still concerned the direction its heading towards. aerith is noticeably different and i understand...? assume...? this is because of the multiverse stuff? but now i really dont know. yuffie is of course butchered, elena is NOTHING like how i saw her... i could go on. nanakis voice completely changes after we reach cosmo canyon, and i understand in the original he did talk different in the original japanese text at this point but by god the entire ass voice change was not necessary and was just straight up annoying and added another layer to the already TERRIBLE voice acting that makes one ask whether or not there was even any attempt at direction here.
somehow it feels like the misogyny has just gotten worse here. its ff7s biggest criticism, and for good reason. but they spend so much time making stupid compilation lore references and changing up random things and yet theres still somehow a dating sim, weird jokes about a literal 14 year old, and the women still feel like theyre barely even becoming their own characters. tifas slightly improved upon but... it just doesnt really hit the way it should.
i think my biggest criticism of this is how absolutely hideous it is half the time. the other half of the time it doesnt even really look good it just looks okay. nomura being off the team is so evident, there is no art direction here absolutely none. the cutscene of sephiroth killing aerith genuinely was so terrible it actually hurt to look at because of the composition and the colors honestly that entire last hour before the last prerendered cutscene was just absolutely hideous. imagine remaking a game that was one of the first to ever have cinematic cutscenes and not spending a single minute to understand how to utilize cinematics in a video game. the original game actually looked better than this even by modern standards and im not even kidding about that. like if it looked good i wouldve forgiven it for every flaw and my distaste for the plot.
anyways this made me want to play xenogears really badly so thats probably next
i played like 15 minutes of this and couldnt stand it and the gameplay doesnt even appeal to me also this remaster is actually hideous. anyways i might come back to it but perhaps in the form of emulating the original
2022
This review contains spoilers
One of the most unique experiences I've ever had with a JRPG, as well as one of the most visually stunning and true to the original remasters/remakes I've played.
I came in with low expectations because the friends I have who have played this didn't say much about it, probably trying to keep me unspoiled and I appreciate that because going in blind I really was completely blown away.
I've read some of the reviews for this on here, many not particularly impressed and that is one thing I really don't understand. Sure, the mini stories in each chapter aren't super deep or long but they are enjoyable in their own way. Every chapter is modeled off a specific genre that you might see in movies and books. Sci fi, wild west, martial arts, mecha, etc. If you're really into specific genres you might notice specifically what was huge inspirations for certain chapters. I personally really liked noticing how the distant future was certainly inspired by both The Thing as well as To Terra, both are some of my favorite things ever.
The thing that really pulls this together is the middle ages chapter. It's very much a basic fantasy JRPG at first, something all of us have seen. But making the setting go back to the basics is so fitting for the last story you unlock. And then the twist where the "hero" gets shunned and seeing hatred twist his heart, bringing all 7 characters together in the final chapter, is just so cool.
Which is also why I dont understand the general lack of praise for the narrative, its not deep and its been done a million times before but it just hits so well with the presentation in this. I just really enjoy the themes of questioning what really makes a hero and all the different representations of it. And how distrust and hatred can change someone who once did good deeds to deciding to go crazy mode on everyone. Maybe I'm not wording this super well but man I ate this up.
Yeah there were chapters that I didn't care a lot about, but they're all different genres so that's to be expected. This was such a worthwhile experience for me.
I came in with low expectations because the friends I have who have played this didn't say much about it, probably trying to keep me unspoiled and I appreciate that because going in blind I really was completely blown away.
I've read some of the reviews for this on here, many not particularly impressed and that is one thing I really don't understand. Sure, the mini stories in each chapter aren't super deep or long but they are enjoyable in their own way. Every chapter is modeled off a specific genre that you might see in movies and books. Sci fi, wild west, martial arts, mecha, etc. If you're really into specific genres you might notice specifically what was huge inspirations for certain chapters. I personally really liked noticing how the distant future was certainly inspired by both The Thing as well as To Terra, both are some of my favorite things ever.
The thing that really pulls this together is the middle ages chapter. It's very much a basic fantasy JRPG at first, something all of us have seen. But making the setting go back to the basics is so fitting for the last story you unlock. And then the twist where the "hero" gets shunned and seeing hatred twist his heart, bringing all 7 characters together in the final chapter, is just so cool.
Which is also why I dont understand the general lack of praise for the narrative, its not deep and its been done a million times before but it just hits so well with the presentation in this. I just really enjoy the themes of questioning what really makes a hero and all the different representations of it. And how distrust and hatred can change someone who once did good deeds to deciding to go crazy mode on everyone. Maybe I'm not wording this super well but man I ate this up.
Yeah there were chapters that I didn't care a lot about, but they're all different genres so that's to be expected. This was such a worthwhile experience for me.
This review contains spoilers
honestly this is something thats really hard to formulate any thoughts on because the main topic is reality vs fantasy and while i do have a couple minor complaints about the final route i found this to be so captivating and exciting to read.
idk what relating to tamamori says about me but a lot of the portrayal of his passion for creating new stories and characters and getting too sucked into it all really resonated with me....
while reading i did have to search up a few things that i dont know much about since im not japanese nor did i ever live in japan and while i might not completely understand certain metaphors or the whole deal abt dogra magra (altho i was able to at least find a summary in english haha) i really found a lot of the commentary about passion for both reading and writing, fantasy and reality to just be so meaningful.
in a lot of ways i think this vn is kurosawas love letter to the craft of storytelling itself and most especially the creation of it. i was initially wary of the fact its set in the taisho era but i think that was picked carefully as a bit of a perfect in between for when a lot of classics were first published.
i think one thing that can be really off putting about hashihime is the fact that almost everyone here, even the protagonist, is a terrible person. and these people are all incredibly aware of it (if the vn talking about jekyll and hyde nonstop didnt get that point down for you). which is why its really easy to be turned off by the final route especially (adelta vns do love their incest it seems?) but also i feel like i might be missing a bigger commentary about religion (with the use of those beads as well as kaoru wearing a fox mask).
i obviously have a lot of thoughts and feelings im not sorting through very well about this vn but i truly do think thats the beauty of it. i love stories that are left intentionally vauge haha..
and um. honestly... this was a lot stronger than uuultrac.. i find it interesting uuultrac fans tend to dislike this because i personally found uuultrac to be mid
ONE MORE THOUGHT but i find it so fun that each route is based off a specific genre and as someone who has spent half of his life reading BL and has seen literally. all. of these genres in BL i feel like its almost a very perfect way of also encapsulating what makes BL (and this could also start into a long winded explanation of how inspiration from both classic queer literature as well as yuri birthed BL but ill stop here)
idk what relating to tamamori says about me but a lot of the portrayal of his passion for creating new stories and characters and getting too sucked into it all really resonated with me....
while reading i did have to search up a few things that i dont know much about since im not japanese nor did i ever live in japan and while i might not completely understand certain metaphors or the whole deal abt dogra magra (altho i was able to at least find a summary in english haha) i really found a lot of the commentary about passion for both reading and writing, fantasy and reality to just be so meaningful.
in a lot of ways i think this vn is kurosawas love letter to the craft of storytelling itself and most especially the creation of it. i was initially wary of the fact its set in the taisho era but i think that was picked carefully as a bit of a perfect in between for when a lot of classics were first published.
i think one thing that can be really off putting about hashihime is the fact that almost everyone here, even the protagonist, is a terrible person. and these people are all incredibly aware of it (if the vn talking about jekyll and hyde nonstop didnt get that point down for you). which is why its really easy to be turned off by the final route especially (adelta vns do love their incest it seems?) but also i feel like i might be missing a bigger commentary about religion (with the use of those beads as well as kaoru wearing a fox mask).
i obviously have a lot of thoughts and feelings im not sorting through very well about this vn but i truly do think thats the beauty of it. i love stories that are left intentionally vauge haha..
and um. honestly... this was a lot stronger than uuultrac.. i find it interesting uuultrac fans tend to dislike this because i personally found uuultrac to be mid
ONE MORE THOUGHT but i find it so fun that each route is based off a specific genre and as someone who has spent half of his life reading BL and has seen literally. all. of these genres in BL i feel like its almost a very perfect way of also encapsulating what makes BL (and this could also start into a long winded explanation of how inspiration from both classic queer literature as well as yuri birthed BL but ill stop here)
this actually made me feel an emotion. several in fact. perhaps all of them. so ive graduated from being a giant boulder to being a person. thank you naruhodo ryunosuke.
this was really hard to get through... honestly really disappointing because i was excited to get through this.
every case other than the last one was like... baby easy to get through honestly.
i have other nitpicks about some specific aspects but it boils down to my preference of what i want out of ace attorney...
also the jury gameplay mechanic kinda sucked too tbh. the last case was REALLY good but i just wish the rest of the game actually carried the momentum to get you to the final case... the 4th case literally felt like something that couldve worked as a 2nd case if you get the idea.
also the total lack of investigation segments and its just mostly trial and no balance... ugh idk it felt lazy to me. i really liked having that investigation and trial balance in the phoenix wright trilogy.
ive heard the 2nd game is where all the exciting stuff happens so im excited to get to it but im definitely going to need a break in between. its not like my expectations for tgaa2 are set up in any capacity at this rate. but that might be me influenced by the fact twitteroids cant stop putting spoilers on my timeline for it
every case other than the last one was like... baby easy to get through honestly.
i have other nitpicks about some specific aspects but it boils down to my preference of what i want out of ace attorney...
also the jury gameplay mechanic kinda sucked too tbh. the last case was REALLY good but i just wish the rest of the game actually carried the momentum to get you to the final case... the 4th case literally felt like something that couldve worked as a 2nd case if you get the idea.
also the total lack of investigation segments and its just mostly trial and no balance... ugh idk it felt lazy to me. i really liked having that investigation and trial balance in the phoenix wright trilogy.
ive heard the 2nd game is where all the exciting stuff happens so im excited to get to it but im definitely going to need a break in between. its not like my expectations for tgaa2 are set up in any capacity at this rate. but that might be me influenced by the fact twitteroids cant stop putting spoilers on my timeline for it
this was totally epic
2021
sweet lord fucking jesus how much peak can you fit into one visual novel its so much it literally exceeds peak i think they need to invent a new word just for this one.
2022
RAW
2020
very unique and interesting but it also felt a tad lacking
an epilogue with some interesting additions to what you already know about all these characters. the fantl is uhhhh kinda eh imo so i hope jast blue picks this one up soon because i feel like i wouldve liked it more with a better translation
2012
This review contains spoilers
this is a game where i genuinely dont understand the reception it gets. its good.
some of the stuff people say happens in this game doesnt actually happen.
some of the stuff people criticize this game for lacks extremely crucial context to the situation.
what i genuinely love about this game is its portrayal of trauma, its relatable and its just So Real and i think this might end up being something that people who were never victims of abuse might end up missing. but its deeply important. to me anyways.
i love aoba and ren but i just wish that ending was at least slightly different. its not really that weird but it sure does bother me.
all in all i loved it. it takes every idea i liked about togainu no chi and actually does it well.
some of the stuff people say happens in this game doesnt actually happen.
some of the stuff people criticize this game for lacks extremely crucial context to the situation.
what i genuinely love about this game is its portrayal of trauma, its relatable and its just So Real and i think this might end up being something that people who were never victims of abuse might end up missing. but its deeply important. to me anyways.
i love aoba and ren but i just wish that ending was at least slightly different. its not really that weird but it sure does bother me.
all in all i loved it. it takes every idea i liked about togainu no chi and actually does it well.
it was okay. like not bad really. but it just felt like it was lacking. overall though i liked it. but not a lot. just a bit.
also akira is just like me fr
also akira is just like me fr
michel is just like me