goodchicken
aria of sorrow is pretty darn good. I havent finished circle of the moon yet but i feel as though this is still going to end up my favourite GBA vania.
the actual story/writing in castlevania is never particularly good, the characters are always a bit one dimmensional and sometimes their lines arent translated very well, as well as general chessiness, but the concept is always very good. aria's concept is great in fact, featuring the potential reincarnation of dracula as its protagonist. It hits similar interesting beats that symphony of the night hit on. what if, instead of a belmont, you were dracula's son!? its a similar vibe but notably different, as well as the role of the belmont. This time when you fight Julius its as your friend in an incredibly hype cinematic battle. the background detail as the castle collapses during Holy Cross is still memorable to me! and finally the vibe is excellent too. despite its somewhat flat dialogue the gore and gothic flavour makes the whole game, and tbh series, fun to be in. the monster variety and blood and weapon variety is just so good.
i also think this game is the first one to have really solved the castlevania metroidvania gameplay. i like harmony of dissonance and symphony of the night but one of their biggest failings is the use of sub weapons as drops throughout the castle. what works in classicvania doesnt always work here, and Aria understands that. the soul system is great. it makes fightint every single enemy worth it, gives them all an identity and allows for a huge amount of customisation. and its a great flavour detail that the souls you need equipped to get the true ending are the ones most remeniscent of dracula. his iconic fireball attack, turning into a bat, and draining the life force of his enemies. it was cool to be like, wow, i feel like dracula right now!
the only thing really letting the gameplay down is the weapon animations. using katanas or axes or any big handed sword feels so clunky and weird. both too fast and too slow at the same time with weapons that are far too big, and have animations that just dont suit them. getting claimh solas is so easy and makes the game trivial from that point, ludicrous damage as well as a ridiculoualy huge arc on the weapon, and you can get it with a significant chunk of the game to go! bonkers. the sequel tidies this up very nicely at least. also, i love Julius Belmont, but Julius mode in aria is not great. its fun how fast he is and i love his uppercut, but by having him only powerup on killing bosses means that explorint the castle is 100% pointless. i managed to beat Julius mode in maybe under an hour? i just beelined from boss to boss because there was just no reason to do otherwise! still, another thing dawn of sorrow gets right.
the actual story/writing in castlevania is never particularly good, the characters are always a bit one dimmensional and sometimes their lines arent translated very well, as well as general chessiness, but the concept is always very good. aria's concept is great in fact, featuring the potential reincarnation of dracula as its protagonist. It hits similar interesting beats that symphony of the night hit on. what if, instead of a belmont, you were dracula's son!? its a similar vibe but notably different, as well as the role of the belmont. This time when you fight Julius its as your friend in an incredibly hype cinematic battle. the background detail as the castle collapses during Holy Cross is still memorable to me! and finally the vibe is excellent too. despite its somewhat flat dialogue the gore and gothic flavour makes the whole game, and tbh series, fun to be in. the monster variety and blood and weapon variety is just so good.
i also think this game is the first one to have really solved the castlevania metroidvania gameplay. i like harmony of dissonance and symphony of the night but one of their biggest failings is the use of sub weapons as drops throughout the castle. what works in classicvania doesnt always work here, and Aria understands that. the soul system is great. it makes fightint every single enemy worth it, gives them all an identity and allows for a huge amount of customisation. and its a great flavour detail that the souls you need equipped to get the true ending are the ones most remeniscent of dracula. his iconic fireball attack, turning into a bat, and draining the life force of his enemies. it was cool to be like, wow, i feel like dracula right now!
the only thing really letting the gameplay down is the weapon animations. using katanas or axes or any big handed sword feels so clunky and weird. both too fast and too slow at the same time with weapons that are far too big, and have animations that just dont suit them. getting claimh solas is so easy and makes the game trivial from that point, ludicrous damage as well as a ridiculoualy huge arc on the weapon, and you can get it with a significant chunk of the game to go! bonkers. the sequel tidies this up very nicely at least. also, i love Julius Belmont, but Julius mode in aria is not great. its fun how fast he is and i love his uppercut, but by having him only powerup on killing bosses means that explorint the castle is 100% pointless. i managed to beat Julius mode in maybe under an hour? i just beelined from boss to boss because there was just no reason to do otherwise! still, another thing dawn of sorrow gets right.
hello. i have finally finished symphony of the night. it is the most important castlevania game and the first metroidvania. i think it is pretty amazing that this amazing formula for RPG-lite metroidvanias was born here like, almost with nothing predating it? genuinely amazing. there's so much good stuff here too.
the sprite work is really nice and the castle looks amazing. there are so few parts of this that i think look bad that i'd be willing to say, despite it being the first one, it's one of the better ones. the individual tracks are all stellar too, for the most part anyway. crystal teardrops, marble gallery, abandoned pit, dance of pales, and lost painting, to name a few, are all phenomenal. the downside to this comes from the reverse castle (which is the focus of almost all of my criticisms of the game). Final Toccata is a perfectly fine song. it's nothing special. however, for whatever reason, it is the theme for about 5 of the areas in the reverse castle. you will get sick to bastard death of this song. it is so annoying. it takes away so much of the charm that each area has!!!! i suspect that game's second half was rushed in development or something because it loses all sense of progression, it repeats tracks, has basically no story until you find Death and then Shaft, and has annoying enemies instead of good ones. fighting the Guardian with his super fast shield or the witch in the floating catacombs sucks. speaking of the floating catacombs, oh my god, why is Galamoth so hard?! there is no reason for him to be that strong!! I genuinely dont know how youre supposed to beat him without cheesing the shield rod and Alucard Shield. whatever
I'm kind of rambling but I did really enjoy this game. I played it with the original clunky dub and tbh, I really love it. nobody really gives a good performance but I dont mind? It's just kind of camp and find and I'm here for it. I love Dracula quoting the Bible as he fucking explodes. I love "What is a man?" and I love that Alucard has such a deep voice. it's just good
my only other complaints are more minor ones. I wish there was weapon variety that felt better; the later games improve this (particularly Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Bloodstained). And I wish that the sub-weapons didnt work from candle drops. It just doesn't suit a metroidvania like this. the inventory management sucks a lot, and its bizarre how long it takes for this to get properly fixed. and finally the reverse castle could have just had better and more interesting loot dotted around it. There are so many times you go into a room where there was cool loot the first time around and there's just fuck all in the reverse castle. lame!
ALL that to say this game is still worth playing. I like that it's genuinely pretty challenging. Its vibe is fantastic and when things come together they really come together. nice!
the sprite work is really nice and the castle looks amazing. there are so few parts of this that i think look bad that i'd be willing to say, despite it being the first one, it's one of the better ones. the individual tracks are all stellar too, for the most part anyway. crystal teardrops, marble gallery, abandoned pit, dance of pales, and lost painting, to name a few, are all phenomenal. the downside to this comes from the reverse castle (which is the focus of almost all of my criticisms of the game). Final Toccata is a perfectly fine song. it's nothing special. however, for whatever reason, it is the theme for about 5 of the areas in the reverse castle. you will get sick to bastard death of this song. it is so annoying. it takes away so much of the charm that each area has!!!! i suspect that game's second half was rushed in development or something because it loses all sense of progression, it repeats tracks, has basically no story until you find Death and then Shaft, and has annoying enemies instead of good ones. fighting the Guardian with his super fast shield or the witch in the floating catacombs sucks. speaking of the floating catacombs, oh my god, why is Galamoth so hard?! there is no reason for him to be that strong!! I genuinely dont know how youre supposed to beat him without cheesing the shield rod and Alucard Shield. whatever
I'm kind of rambling but I did really enjoy this game. I played it with the original clunky dub and tbh, I really love it. nobody really gives a good performance but I dont mind? It's just kind of camp and find and I'm here for it. I love Dracula quoting the Bible as he fucking explodes. I love "What is a man?" and I love that Alucard has such a deep voice. it's just good
my only other complaints are more minor ones. I wish there was weapon variety that felt better; the later games improve this (particularly Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Bloodstained). And I wish that the sub-weapons didnt work from candle drops. It just doesn't suit a metroidvania like this. the inventory management sucks a lot, and its bizarre how long it takes for this to get properly fixed. and finally the reverse castle could have just had better and more interesting loot dotted around it. There are so many times you go into a room where there was cool loot the first time around and there's just fuck all in the reverse castle. lame!
ALL that to say this game is still worth playing. I like that it's genuinely pretty challenging. Its vibe is fantastic and when things come together they really come together. nice!
man i fucking love this game. i remember playing this on the xbox 360 with my school pals, none of whom were 'vaniaheads (that's the official Castlevania fan name by the way, Vaniahead) and we just had a blast. i love multiplayer co-op stuff and this was just fun. every character has a pretty solid identity and the stages have a good amount of variety in too. if you're familiar with castlevania, specifically the DS titles, you will probably enjoy the gameplay too. god knows i did hyuck hyuck!!! it's just a very neat time, micro castles with loot, some light puzzles, and a challening boss at the end, that you can do with your pals, is just a good time.
it is ever so slightly light on the content side, with the base game only have 6 stages. i would've rounded it to a nice even 10 and then done 5 DLC stages but... what can you do? with the exception of maybe stage 3 they're all good fun, and genuinely difficult. the characters could also do with some balancing. soma is just the best character in the game with unprecedented levels of utility that makes every character look pitiful by comparison. jonathon should've been a mix between soma and the belmonts, in that instead of being a level-up whip user he should've had the weapon variety soma has, but instead of katanas, he has whips! like in portrait of ruin! shanoa should have had infinitely more glyphs also.
the real thing letting this game down these days is the fact it's been lost to the generations of yesteryears. i believe you can still play it on newer Xboxes but its never been actually ported to anything since Xbox 360 and PS3. because it's konami (who are famously fucking useless, especially at PC releases) there's no PC version.
if you have a PS3 or 360 still that you play i would really recommend picking this up, especially if you have some buddies you can play it with. i will always, ALWAYS be down to play this with my fellow vaniaheads out there. hmu.
it is ever so slightly light on the content side, with the base game only have 6 stages. i would've rounded it to a nice even 10 and then done 5 DLC stages but... what can you do? with the exception of maybe stage 3 they're all good fun, and genuinely difficult. the characters could also do with some balancing. soma is just the best character in the game with unprecedented levels of utility that makes every character look pitiful by comparison. jonathon should've been a mix between soma and the belmonts, in that instead of being a level-up whip user he should've had the weapon variety soma has, but instead of katanas, he has whips! like in portrait of ruin! shanoa should have had infinitely more glyphs also.
the real thing letting this game down these days is the fact it's been lost to the generations of yesteryears. i believe you can still play it on newer Xboxes but its never been actually ported to anything since Xbox 360 and PS3. because it's konami (who are famously fucking useless, especially at PC releases) there's no PC version.
if you have a PS3 or 360 still that you play i would really recommend picking this up, especially if you have some buddies you can play it with. i will always, ALWAYS be down to play this with my fellow vaniaheads out there. hmu.
the only castlevania metroidvania not made by iga and it shows. the focus here is explicitally different; instead of exploring a castle and creating a clear loop around it where getting from area to area is easy, CotM presents each area of the castle almost like classicvania level. for the most part, once you've completed an area you have very little reason to go back. this is kind of true in your regular castlevanias too, but you'll often pass back through old areas later and unlock secret rooms and corridors with extra challenges, or ways to other locations through them. it is admittedly similar, but still noticably different.
it's also noticable how different the gameplay focus is! CotM gets particularly nasty at points, with enemies who just start smashing you up big time. i particularly noticed it with the holy knights who just started rocking my shit up. even when I was ready to fight dracula at the end the dark armour guys were still beating my ass and making me feel like a baby. wah! thats pretty cool though, it did make traversing parts of the castle feel particularly dangerous. what wasnt cool was the fact that there's little to no healing items! maybe it was my bad luck but i genuinely found one high-potion in the entire game as a random drop from an enemy. regular potions become ludicrously useless very fast, and even with 5 or 6 of them it only takes one hit from a boss to negate them all. the last 3 bosses of the game i just did without healing items. i'm not sure if that's normal or not but it was very stressful! the final dracula fight is particularly frustrating because of that!
this is somewhat more of a personal point, but i also think this game is just uglier than all of the other vanias i've played. yes, even harmony of dissonance. harmony has its own charms i think, even with juste's blue outline. but in CotM every character and enemy sprite has a black outline around it, and, i dont know, it just doesn't look good? couple with the fact nathan's sprite has a really simple, uninspiring animation too. compare it to how many frames there are when soma cruz runs, and nathan just looks incredibly lame. even the backgrounds this time around dont do a lot, i feel like there's a real lack of memorable set pieces in this version of dracula's castle. so many of the rooms blend together. i really noticed it in the chapel, i just couldn't tell where the fuck i was more often than not because every room just felt like an awkward platforming gambit and nothing else
the DSS is a cool idea and it i think when i understood it i enjoyed it. it was genuinely very cool being able to have all these different elemental whips and swords and stuff, but i think the card system from enemies and combining cards is cumbersome for what should have been a simple system. it honestly would've just made more sense if you could switch out to different whips at will, in a more traditional sense. i suspect other people might disagree but i just find this kind of mechanic clunky and unnecessary.
anyway, that's it for the castlevania GBA games.
1) aria of sorrow
2) harmony of dissonance
3) circle of the moon
it's also noticable how different the gameplay focus is! CotM gets particularly nasty at points, with enemies who just start smashing you up big time. i particularly noticed it with the holy knights who just started rocking my shit up. even when I was ready to fight dracula at the end the dark armour guys were still beating my ass and making me feel like a baby. wah! thats pretty cool though, it did make traversing parts of the castle feel particularly dangerous. what wasnt cool was the fact that there's little to no healing items! maybe it was my bad luck but i genuinely found one high-potion in the entire game as a random drop from an enemy. regular potions become ludicrously useless very fast, and even with 5 or 6 of them it only takes one hit from a boss to negate them all. the last 3 bosses of the game i just did without healing items. i'm not sure if that's normal or not but it was very stressful! the final dracula fight is particularly frustrating because of that!
this is somewhat more of a personal point, but i also think this game is just uglier than all of the other vanias i've played. yes, even harmony of dissonance. harmony has its own charms i think, even with juste's blue outline. but in CotM every character and enemy sprite has a black outline around it, and, i dont know, it just doesn't look good? couple with the fact nathan's sprite has a really simple, uninspiring animation too. compare it to how many frames there are when soma cruz runs, and nathan just looks incredibly lame. even the backgrounds this time around dont do a lot, i feel like there's a real lack of memorable set pieces in this version of dracula's castle. so many of the rooms blend together. i really noticed it in the chapel, i just couldn't tell where the fuck i was more often than not because every room just felt like an awkward platforming gambit and nothing else
the DSS is a cool idea and it i think when i understood it i enjoyed it. it was genuinely very cool being able to have all these different elemental whips and swords and stuff, but i think the card system from enemies and combining cards is cumbersome for what should have been a simple system. it honestly would've just made more sense if you could switch out to different whips at will, in a more traditional sense. i suspect other people might disagree but i just find this kind of mechanic clunky and unnecessary.
anyway, that's it for the castlevania GBA games.
1) aria of sorrow
2) harmony of dissonance
3) circle of the moon
this game took me fucking MONTHS to beat. I started it way before i finished five separate castlevania games, A Realm Reborn, and FF6. oops! I kept getting distracted and just not wanting to play it. I found Oliver quite annoying and the studio ghibli art style in 3d doesn't work too well (although this game is originally a PS3 title so you have to keep that in mind).
Finally however, I have bested it. YES I had the Griffin ticket from the switch version and YES I turned it to easy mode when I got to Hamelin, but thats because I didnt like the combat very much! I know this is probably a controversial comment but I stand by it. I think it would've been far more solid if it was classic turned based, having to move around the arena never quite feels right and when youve got 6 enemies runnning around on screen even the game gets confused. There are so many times where my guys would bee-line towards an enemy and then run into one of my allies and just, keep running into him? then I'd have to cancel the attack command and manually run round. that should not be an issue but it happens in almost every battle lmao
also, as familiars are such a core part of the battle system, why even have the option to use the Oliver, Esther, and Marcassin's brother? there is almost no time in the entire game where it is optimal unless you need to specifically use items or change tactics (and you could just add these to your regular familiar's menu). That being said, when I actually got Marcassin he would constantly get rid of his familiar to cast healing spells or hit all the enemies. He is waaaay better than his brother and also just has a bigger MP reserve, he's just better. Sorry Marcassin's brother; you're ugly AND bad!
As previously mentioned, there're lots of familiars. They are absolutely, without a doubt, the best thing about the game. Because you're essentially allowed 9 familiars per combat session there's lots of familiars you can choose from. By the end of the game my main guys were Dynamite, Sharper-Parper, Moggle Boggle, Puss-in-Boats, Bone Baron, and Griffidgerator. A pretty strong team! The first three in particular are my baby boys who I love. Once Sharper-Parper unlocked Parp it was fucking all over for you bitches. Mito and his evolutions are ludicrously cute and while his stats sort of dropped below that of Bone Baron and Puss-in-Boats he was still viable for the whole game, especially once he learnt super slash (and after feeding him about 200 bars of chocolate).
The characters and story are okay, you can see its Dragon Quest influence on its sleeve which is fine. The actual party members are a little flat but they're all likable. Mr Drippy High Lord High of the Fairies however is the best character in the game; I wanted to play in Japanese because I hated Oliver's voice so much but I had to go back to the English because I miss Drippy's dulcet Welsh tones. The entire Fairyground portion of the game was great for that reason, genuinely funny and charming. Drippy calling the final bosses "Those rotters!" is so perfectly in character. All I wish for Drippy is that he actually got a bit more? I think in the DS version he was a character and that would've worked well here! I think he could've joined me shortly after I got the magic world. Then I never would've had to have used Marcassin's brother!
I also got sick of the music pretty fast, especially the cave and battle themes. Oh well! Still a pretty good time. :)
Finally however, I have bested it. YES I had the Griffin ticket from the switch version and YES I turned it to easy mode when I got to Hamelin, but thats because I didnt like the combat very much! I know this is probably a controversial comment but I stand by it. I think it would've been far more solid if it was classic turned based, having to move around the arena never quite feels right and when youve got 6 enemies runnning around on screen even the game gets confused. There are so many times where my guys would bee-line towards an enemy and then run into one of my allies and just, keep running into him? then I'd have to cancel the attack command and manually run round. that should not be an issue but it happens in almost every battle lmao
also, as familiars are such a core part of the battle system, why even have the option to use the Oliver, Esther, and Marcassin's brother? there is almost no time in the entire game where it is optimal unless you need to specifically use items or change tactics (and you could just add these to your regular familiar's menu). That being said, when I actually got Marcassin he would constantly get rid of his familiar to cast healing spells or hit all the enemies. He is waaaay better than his brother and also just has a bigger MP reserve, he's just better. Sorry Marcassin's brother; you're ugly AND bad!
As previously mentioned, there're lots of familiars. They are absolutely, without a doubt, the best thing about the game. Because you're essentially allowed 9 familiars per combat session there's lots of familiars you can choose from. By the end of the game my main guys were Dynamite, Sharper-Parper, Moggle Boggle, Puss-in-Boats, Bone Baron, and Griffidgerator. A pretty strong team! The first three in particular are my baby boys who I love. Once Sharper-Parper unlocked Parp it was fucking all over for you bitches. Mito and his evolutions are ludicrously cute and while his stats sort of dropped below that of Bone Baron and Puss-in-Boats he was still viable for the whole game, especially once he learnt super slash (and after feeding him about 200 bars of chocolate).
The characters and story are okay, you can see its Dragon Quest influence on its sleeve which is fine. The actual party members are a little flat but they're all likable. Mr Drippy High Lord High of the Fairies however is the best character in the game; I wanted to play in Japanese because I hated Oliver's voice so much but I had to go back to the English because I miss Drippy's dulcet Welsh tones. The entire Fairyground portion of the game was great for that reason, genuinely funny and charming. Drippy calling the final bosses "Those rotters!" is so perfectly in character. All I wish for Drippy is that he actually got a bit more? I think in the DS version he was a character and that would've worked well here! I think he could've joined me shortly after I got the magic world. Then I never would've had to have used Marcassin's brother!
I also got sick of the music pretty fast, especially the cave and battle themes. Oh well! Still a pretty good time. :)
To be clear i didnt actually PLAY this game, i watched ashleigh play the whole thing and sat with her during the class trials and we talked about.
now i dont KIN nagito or anything like that, but when we got into the meat of this game i was definitely pleasantly surprised. you hear so much shit about dandan's romper fans that i thought this was going to suck, be total anime bullshit throughout, and be lame. i was mostly wrong! like a lot of Hard Anime works, dandan's romper has its own world and set of rules that make sense within the context of that world. once you give yourself over to that you can enjoy the game on its merits for what it is: a solid murder mystery story with a conspiracy going on in the background. Each murder, bar maybe one of them, was genuinely really well thought out and written, with a good understanding of logistics behind it. the characters were all interesting anf strange, and even the ones you dislike get depth, and even the cheesey anime silly ones grow on you as time goes on. i didnt like Mafia Boy at all by the start but by the end he was a good man. Dandan's romper is also super self aware, it breaks the fourth wall, acknowledges how its plot is convenient for the sake of the plot, and more. it balances humour and horror in a really satisfying way, its incredibly stylised, and the music fucks. it made me think of persona in that it has very gay and trans coded characters at points, and while it doesnt confirm anything it doesnt do the persona thing of going "whoops they were straight all along heehee!"
Knocked off half a star bc the minigames during the trials are absolutrly atrocious. hangman's gambit is a terrible, terrible way to spend your time. wasteful
souda is the best boy
now i dont KIN nagito or anything like that, but when we got into the meat of this game i was definitely pleasantly surprised. you hear so much shit about dandan's romper fans that i thought this was going to suck, be total anime bullshit throughout, and be lame. i was mostly wrong! like a lot of Hard Anime works, dandan's romper has its own world and set of rules that make sense within the context of that world. once you give yourself over to that you can enjoy the game on its merits for what it is: a solid murder mystery story with a conspiracy going on in the background. Each murder, bar maybe one of them, was genuinely really well thought out and written, with a good understanding of logistics behind it. the characters were all interesting anf strange, and even the ones you dislike get depth, and even the cheesey anime silly ones grow on you as time goes on. i didnt like Mafia Boy at all by the start but by the end he was a good man. Dandan's romper is also super self aware, it breaks the fourth wall, acknowledges how its plot is convenient for the sake of the plot, and more. it balances humour and horror in a really satisfying way, its incredibly stylised, and the music fucks. it made me think of persona in that it has very gay and trans coded characters at points, and while it doesnt confirm anything it doesnt do the persona thing of going "whoops they were straight all along heehee!"
Knocked off half a star bc the minigames during the trials are absolutrly atrocious. hangman's gambit is a terrible, terrible way to spend your time. wasteful
souda is the best boy
2021
dogshit! finished it twice. shocking to me that there are reviews praising this game's "story" and its "characters"? the only good character ARGUABLY is minwu, in that he is a white mage who is kind of cool in concept, but beyond that there's nothing. the main cast are completely bland (except for Guy talking to Beaver) and are so cookie cutter boring. to say they have relationships with each other is a joke lmao. Soul of Rebirth on the GBA did an interesting thing in a post-game with the dead NPCs of the game, but even that was dogshit bc it was just the same dungeons in reverse! and anyway this games leveling system is bad and does not suit it whatsoever, and even then its made worse by the fact that gear has INVISIBLE STAT PENALTIES?? who thought it was a smart/cool/good idea to make the magic debuff on armour INVISIBLE so you couldnt see it? how many people played this game thinking magic was bad bc their spellcaster was wearing armour and they had no idea? its almost like its dogshit!!!!!! also why put the dead end dungeons room back from FF1 in this???????? fuck yoy!!!!!!!!!!
to be clear this isnt specific of the pixel remake, this is probably the best version to play if you want to force yourself to play it.
fuck you final fantasy 2!!! the revivification music is the best thing about you!!!!!
to be clear this isnt specific of the pixel remake, this is probably the best version to play if you want to force yourself to play it.
fuck you final fantasy 2!!! the revivification music is the best thing about you!!!!!
2021
its so funny playing this after FF2 which is genuinely unpleasant to play and experience, and just have this intense quality of life improvement in its gameplay. the leveling system is classic and good, and the job levels in this game is also a fun mechanic. job levels arent too grindy and its very conceivable you'll get at least one to max with just playing the game and not switching classes too much!
about two years ago i finished FF3's 3d variant on steam, based on the DS port. i wasn't so hot on it, maybe bc on a big screen its very ugly, and the actual characters/plot of FF3 arent great! i think the pixel remaster was a wonderful way to experience this because graphically, the pixel remasters are excellent! and aside from the NES version, theres no other pixelated version of this game, unlike the rest of the PR games. all the different job sprites are so charming and wonderful! the problem with FF3 is, as i said, its lacking characters and plot, and mainly that the job system does not actually really compliment the multi-job system. in that there are sections of the game that are designed to be tackled by specific jobs, like the Cave of Nepto being an all mage section or the Cave of Shadows requiring dark knights (who also kind of fall off from this point). don't get me wrong it's not terrible but it does make it feel like some classes simply arent viable. but its fine! i still just enjoyed this game the whole way through, and the dungeons are SO much better than the previous two games! good job FF3 :)
about two years ago i finished FF3's 3d variant on steam, based on the DS port. i wasn't so hot on it, maybe bc on a big screen its very ugly, and the actual characters/plot of FF3 arent great! i think the pixel remaster was a wonderful way to experience this because graphically, the pixel remasters are excellent! and aside from the NES version, theres no other pixelated version of this game, unlike the rest of the PR games. all the different job sprites are so charming and wonderful! the problem with FF3 is, as i said, its lacking characters and plot, and mainly that the job system does not actually really compliment the multi-job system. in that there are sections of the game that are designed to be tackled by specific jobs, like the Cave of Nepto being an all mage section or the Cave of Shadows requiring dark knights (who also kind of fall off from this point). don't get me wrong it's not terrible but it does make it feel like some classes simply arent viable. but its fine! i still just enjoyed this game the whole way through, and the dungeons are SO much better than the previous two games! good job FF3 :)
This review contains spoilers
from the moment you start the game and your clan can be decided by answering a personality test i knew vampire: the masquerade - bloodlines had flavour. it is so flavourful. it is dripping with wonderful lovely juices of flavour!
here we have a game shining from so many angles - not all of them admittedly - but so many. it's an old 2004 PC RPG that was rushed in development and by god it shows. it is buggy as hell, the AI is jank and mad, and the balancing... well, there is no balancing. if you go to fight the sherieff and haven't levelled up guns i don't know what to say to you chief, you're just doomed! there are oblitagory sneak missions which therefore require you to level up sneak as a skill, and the dungeons are sometimes so labrynthian and mazelike you genuinely might want to draw yourself a map of where to go.
and yet, all of that being said, this game still owns. the writing is genuinely amazing, this game a microcosm of the larger politics being explored in white wolf's world, but each actor stands out as someone unique with a storied history and specific perspective. and also, the dialogue is just good! each character's voice is unique, and their voice actors do a great job! and the dialogue the protagnoist has back is great too! compare it to the milktoast dialogue of games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the like, you'll be shocked they let you get away with a protagonist as yappy and rude as the fledglign! it's both politically tense, has some good mythos (abou caine and the antedilluvians for example) as well as some genuinely hilarious stuff. i was dubious to play VTMB because neo-gothic isnt normally my jam, but from the fact that the moment you start the game you can an email about making your penis bigger i was in. made me laugh out loud multiple times. also, the music is absolutely incredible. so many perfect vibes just totally work, although sometimes the game does randomly switch them out to creepy mumbojumbo for no reason.
aside from wishing the actual gameplay was tider (much tidier in fact) the only other thing i'd ask for is that the important and fun NPCs we meet aren't just irrelevant after we've done their quests? none of the Hollywood NPCs, or even Santa Monica, actually matter once you've finished their storyline. also cops suck and I didn't go Cammy, but the game would've benefitted from the Camarilla and Kei Juin having more of an argument in their favour! LaCroix is so obviously the villain that you have to REALLY be a brown noise to side with him... although at least the game punishes you for it if you do hahaha!
here we have a game shining from so many angles - not all of them admittedly - but so many. it's an old 2004 PC RPG that was rushed in development and by god it shows. it is buggy as hell, the AI is jank and mad, and the balancing... well, there is no balancing. if you go to fight the sherieff and haven't levelled up guns i don't know what to say to you chief, you're just doomed! there are oblitagory sneak missions which therefore require you to level up sneak as a skill, and the dungeons are sometimes so labrynthian and mazelike you genuinely might want to draw yourself a map of where to go.
and yet, all of that being said, this game still owns. the writing is genuinely amazing, this game a microcosm of the larger politics being explored in white wolf's world, but each actor stands out as someone unique with a storied history and specific perspective. and also, the dialogue is just good! each character's voice is unique, and their voice actors do a great job! and the dialogue the protagnoist has back is great too! compare it to the milktoast dialogue of games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the like, you'll be shocked they let you get away with a protagonist as yappy and rude as the fledglign! it's both politically tense, has some good mythos (abou caine and the antedilluvians for example) as well as some genuinely hilarious stuff. i was dubious to play VTMB because neo-gothic isnt normally my jam, but from the fact that the moment you start the game you can an email about making your penis bigger i was in. made me laugh out loud multiple times. also, the music is absolutely incredible. so many perfect vibes just totally work, although sometimes the game does randomly switch them out to creepy mumbojumbo for no reason.
aside from wishing the actual gameplay was tider (much tidier in fact) the only other thing i'd ask for is that the important and fun NPCs we meet aren't just irrelevant after we've done their quests? none of the Hollywood NPCs, or even Santa Monica, actually matter once you've finished their storyline. also cops suck and I didn't go Cammy, but the game would've benefitted from the Camarilla and Kei Juin having more of an argument in their favour! LaCroix is so obviously the villain that you have to REALLY be a brown noise to side with him... although at least the game punishes you for it if you do hahaha!
2012
This review contains spoilers
pretty good game! i'm not a stealth head by any means but i think this game doesnt require you to be a genius of sneaking and stealthing, and it also doesn't necessarily want you to have bucket loads of patience either to get stuff done. like for sure if you want the perfect, most quiet playthrough it would require lots of patience and smart thinking, but for my purposes of beating the game on a low chaos ending, i was able to fumble and goof my way through it.
the level design is good! i enjoyed how many little open windows and rooms there are and how everything connects to everything else. it has well designed maps all over it, if a little too "video-gamey" at times, the amount of ventilation shafts on the sides of buildings you can climb up was quite comical and took me out of it a little bit. a lot of the abilities in this game have so much utility, blink, seeing through walls, and stop time are king. because i tried to kill as few people as possible however i didnt end up using like, half my toolkit? no gun, no crossbow, no grenade, no razortraps, half of the magic abilities like rats and shadow kill i didnt use. i didnt money for anything other than upgrading my crossbow ammo amount to max and buying sleepdarts so i just ended up with loads of money and nothing to spend it on! that felt kinda weird! i havent played enough stealth games to say this with confidence (MGS almost doesnt count) but i think once you get the confidence to know what's going on in a game like this it does get kind of easier? you know that can kinda do stuff in front of someone as long as that person is like, kinda facing away, or like, 15 meters away? it's not very punishing. daud's assassins were definitely more challenging because they can teleport, and daud himself being immune to stop time was also very funny "Nice try, Corvo" although i wish some characters were more surprised at seeing me.
speaking of characters and story, they're alright! game definitely should've had british voice actors, i constantly struggled to invest in this london/glasgow world when everyone sounds like that. the repeated NPC lines got very tedious by the end of the game too, and the gangbangers who when you start combat with them immediately breathe fire in your face are not fun at all, they are just annoying lmao! i already knew when this game came out that havelock betrayed you so i can't talk about if it's a good twist or not, I guess I just didn't super care about it? I did like Samuel and Emily though which was nice! and the last, most important character in some ways, the outsider. i'll be real with you chief. i think the outsider sucks lmao. i hate dudes who show up and go "maybe you're doing this for evil reasons? or maybe for justice? who knows" like bro why are you even sying this to me? makes me think of when you fight daud and he goes "what do you fight for?" like shut up? what a boring ass question lmao
yeah game's alright
the level design is good! i enjoyed how many little open windows and rooms there are and how everything connects to everything else. it has well designed maps all over it, if a little too "video-gamey" at times, the amount of ventilation shafts on the sides of buildings you can climb up was quite comical and took me out of it a little bit. a lot of the abilities in this game have so much utility, blink, seeing through walls, and stop time are king. because i tried to kill as few people as possible however i didnt end up using like, half my toolkit? no gun, no crossbow, no grenade, no razortraps, half of the magic abilities like rats and shadow kill i didnt use. i didnt money for anything other than upgrading my crossbow ammo amount to max and buying sleepdarts so i just ended up with loads of money and nothing to spend it on! that felt kinda weird! i havent played enough stealth games to say this with confidence (MGS almost doesnt count) but i think once you get the confidence to know what's going on in a game like this it does get kind of easier? you know that can kinda do stuff in front of someone as long as that person is like, kinda facing away, or like, 15 meters away? it's not very punishing. daud's assassins were definitely more challenging because they can teleport, and daud himself being immune to stop time was also very funny "Nice try, Corvo" although i wish some characters were more surprised at seeing me.
speaking of characters and story, they're alright! game definitely should've had british voice actors, i constantly struggled to invest in this london/glasgow world when everyone sounds like that. the repeated NPC lines got very tedious by the end of the game too, and the gangbangers who when you start combat with them immediately breathe fire in your face are not fun at all, they are just annoying lmao! i already knew when this game came out that havelock betrayed you so i can't talk about if it's a good twist or not, I guess I just didn't super care about it? I did like Samuel and Emily though which was nice! and the last, most important character in some ways, the outsider. i'll be real with you chief. i think the outsider sucks lmao. i hate dudes who show up and go "maybe you're doing this for evil reasons? or maybe for justice? who knows" like bro why are you even sying this to me? makes me think of when you fight daud and he goes "what do you fight for?" like shut up? what a boring ass question lmao
yeah game's alright
2022
This game is really special. i remember hearing tim rogers talk about this on an old kotaku video, and when the remake was announced both he and toby fox were very excited! and man, i really loved live a live. its not perfect, but it has so much endearing love put into it that makes it amazing.
octopath traveller took this idea of a bumch of strangers all coming togetger from live a live, and honestly i dont know why they bothered when live a live is this good. Each chapter is a seperate story within its own time frame. Each story is themed in a certain way, anc is allowed to totally be exactly what it is and nothing else. the wrestling chapter is styled like an arcade game fighting machine, it has no XP for battles, no roaming mechanics or NPCs to talk to. the prehistory story is done entirelt without dialogue, and the distant future is done entirely without combat. It doesnt force combat or buying new gear or upgrades where they dont matter, and it doesnt extend these stories longer than they need to be. some are better than others, like akira's and shifu's have room for improvement in terms of plotting, but they do so much to add flavour and make each one feel truly unique and special. the actual gameplay itself is seriously good, its RPG mechanics are non-intrusive for the majority of the game and the combat is active, interesting, fresh, and fun! each characters movesets are completelt unique and viable. the final chapters suffer from some repeated environments and random encounters, and some badly designed dungeons (the trial of keys lmao) but these weakspots are really very minor comments in an otherwise fantastic JRPG. I havent even got to the art style yet, this HD 2-D is utilised and made colourful in such an exciting and vibrant way that the game never gets boring to look at. i keep comparing it to octopath for very obvious reasons, but honestly its not fair, because live a live doesnt everything octopath wanted to do but superior. octopath traveller is terrible. live a live is a must play for anyonr with any interest in JRPGs.
octopath traveller took this idea of a bumch of strangers all coming togetger from live a live, and honestly i dont know why they bothered when live a live is this good. Each chapter is a seperate story within its own time frame. Each story is themed in a certain way, anc is allowed to totally be exactly what it is and nothing else. the wrestling chapter is styled like an arcade game fighting machine, it has no XP for battles, no roaming mechanics or NPCs to talk to. the prehistory story is done entirelt without dialogue, and the distant future is done entirely without combat. It doesnt force combat or buying new gear or upgrades where they dont matter, and it doesnt extend these stories longer than they need to be. some are better than others, like akira's and shifu's have room for improvement in terms of plotting, but they do so much to add flavour and make each one feel truly unique and special. the actual gameplay itself is seriously good, its RPG mechanics are non-intrusive for the majority of the game and the combat is active, interesting, fresh, and fun! each characters movesets are completelt unique and viable. the final chapters suffer from some repeated environments and random encounters, and some badly designed dungeons (the trial of keys lmao) but these weakspots are really very minor comments in an otherwise fantastic JRPG. I havent even got to the art style yet, this HD 2-D is utilised and made colourful in such an exciting and vibrant way that the game never gets boring to look at. i keep comparing it to octopath for very obvious reasons, but honestly its not fair, because live a live doesnt everything octopath wanted to do but superior. octopath traveller is terrible. live a live is a must play for anyonr with any interest in JRPGs.
2013
very fun and solid little game. played it with some friends when none of us knew what was going on and had a great time. works perfectly bc its so simple, just could do with slightly more content?
2013
small great gun to play with a small group of nerds. great vibes and miniture roleplaying experiment. good music and not afraid to get dark
Exactly the same as Trivial Pursuit Live 1 but with more customisation! Today when we played this morning there was a question about thr differences between a novel and a novella that made three literature students scream in anger. Fun!
played with friends, although i didnt have a character. We read the dialogue fully aloud which was fun. Didnt get on with monster prom in the day but i liked this one mechanically more and the variance of its situations is pretty good too!