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What "hero" means? Is it the most "Selfless" one? Or is it the most "Selfish" one?
That's a great question that doesn't have a single answer, that's why you decide how the story want to go and see the results of it.
So, to show how interpreting the idea of hero goes differently with a new journey, creators of this story choosed to create 3 Routes. Or 3 Arcs. And these are:
[Some Spoilers]
First is about a single lone King's selfless story that ended in regret and acceptance.
Second is a clash about the concept of "true hero".
One believes to eternal savior and one believes to eternal sacrificer.
Third is about a Selfish hero that sacrifices anything else to be a hero to his closest ones.
Edit: after playing hollow ataraxia I can say there is actually 4 routes. Even tho hollow ataraxia is not shirou's story, it's about the holy grail's true nature and what's really in it. And it's worth it.
So it's perfect right? In this journey about a Holy grail war, we see how each route get develop each other more and more while fleshing out it's "hero" philosophy. So, this means it also manages to keep story engaging and suprising. But unfortunately I didn't say the truth, it's not perfect. Because it also comes with it's negatives. In my opinion it's more and more insistency on plot focus takes away from the character developments.
I am gonna flesh out what I meant with comparing routes.
Fate Route is the most character oriented one. Plot is basic and bare bones, because there is one thing it focuses on and that is "Saber". The Cursed King. This makes this route not that suprising and cliche at some points but characters wise and romance wise it's the best. I can go as far as to say this route feels like it got cut from Tsukihime. It's that similar.
Ubw is the most balanced one. Plot's hidden points started to get explored here, also while story goes on, we see the clash between ideologies throughout in the story that is hecking Engaging!
Unfortunately romance wise, Rin isn't as connected to ideology war as much as I wanted. But still it's wholesome moments and great chemistry with Shirou makes it a success.
Hf is the one that focused on plot's "Unknowns" and it's the best when it comes to "suprise". You can't predict what is gonna happen next because it is the "unknown" after all. It made my thoughts rush with lots of theories and ideas and that's why plot wise for me was the most engaging one.
But Character wise... it's feels rushed to me. Especially for the second half after that traumatic event. Main character Shirou's WHOLE motivation goes opposite on a whim because of Sakura. Unfortunately it doesn't makes sense for me because even Rin herself or Archer himself only manage to teach him his self worth in the end of ubw and here it goes completely opposite in quarter of it's time.
Not just that there is also Sakura.
Oh Sakura... You can't know how much expectations I had for Sakura's romance route. The moment I saw her first Cg in the Fate route, I believed it was gonna be the best one. Her sister like caring behaviour and her support for us made me believe it was gonna be the best.
I was wrong.
Sakura was the jealous and obsessed one. Even if we consider her "traumatic" event or her "strange" situation, her actions are the worst than any villain throughout in the story. To the point she is ready to destroy her own sister for her own hapiness. And no, it's her choice. Even the game itself says this. Unfortunately I don't like this character and because of this, her true ending didn't had much impact for me. In my opinion she deserves the hf's normal ending where she punished to wait eternally for her happiness.
If I think this game have these negatives then why perfect score? Because of "Realta Nua". The additional ending to Fate Route. That is about a man and a woman:
One who searches for an eternity
One who waits for an eternity.
And this additional ending made everything worth it for me. To the point I can say this ending is genuinely my Favourite single piece of work in the entire visual novel media.
After all there is nothing more heartwarming then seeing a person's sacrifice with it's Reward. A true Deserving one.
That's a great question that doesn't have a single answer, that's why you decide how the story want to go and see the results of it.
So, to show how interpreting the idea of hero goes differently with a new journey, creators of this story choosed to create 3 Routes. Or 3 Arcs. And these are:
[Some Spoilers]
First is about a single lone King's selfless story that ended in regret and acceptance.
Second is a clash about the concept of "true hero".
One believes to eternal savior and one believes to eternal sacrificer.
Third is about a Selfish hero that sacrifices anything else to be a hero to his closest ones.
Edit: after playing hollow ataraxia I can say there is actually 4 routes. Even tho hollow ataraxia is not shirou's story, it's about the holy grail's true nature and what's really in it. And it's worth it.
So it's perfect right? In this journey about a Holy grail war, we see how each route get develop each other more and more while fleshing out it's "hero" philosophy. So, this means it also manages to keep story engaging and suprising. But unfortunately I didn't say the truth, it's not perfect. Because it also comes with it's negatives. In my opinion it's more and more insistency on plot focus takes away from the character developments.
I am gonna flesh out what I meant with comparing routes.
Fate Route is the most character oriented one. Plot is basic and bare bones, because there is one thing it focuses on and that is "Saber". The Cursed King. This makes this route not that suprising and cliche at some points but characters wise and romance wise it's the best. I can go as far as to say this route feels like it got cut from Tsukihime. It's that similar.
Ubw is the most balanced one. Plot's hidden points started to get explored here, also while story goes on, we see the clash between ideologies throughout in the story that is hecking Engaging!
Unfortunately romance wise, Rin isn't as connected to ideology war as much as I wanted. But still it's wholesome moments and great chemistry with Shirou makes it a success.
Hf is the one that focused on plot's "Unknowns" and it's the best when it comes to "suprise". You can't predict what is gonna happen next because it is the "unknown" after all. It made my thoughts rush with lots of theories and ideas and that's why plot wise for me was the most engaging one.
But Character wise... it's feels rushed to me. Especially for the second half after that traumatic event. Main character Shirou's WHOLE motivation goes opposite on a whim because of Sakura. Unfortunately it doesn't makes sense for me because even Rin herself or Archer himself only manage to teach him his self worth in the end of ubw and here it goes completely opposite in quarter of it's time.
Not just that there is also Sakura.
Oh Sakura... You can't know how much expectations I had for Sakura's romance route. The moment I saw her first Cg in the Fate route, I believed it was gonna be the best one. Her sister like caring behaviour and her support for us made me believe it was gonna be the best.
I was wrong.
Sakura was the jealous and obsessed one. Even if we consider her "traumatic" event or her "strange" situation, her actions are the worst than any villain throughout in the story. To the point she is ready to destroy her own sister for her own hapiness. And no, it's her choice. Even the game itself says this. Unfortunately I don't like this character and because of this, her true ending didn't had much impact for me. In my opinion she deserves the hf's normal ending where she punished to wait eternally for her happiness.
If I think this game have these negatives then why perfect score? Because of "Realta Nua". The additional ending to Fate Route. That is about a man and a woman:
One who searches for an eternity
One who waits for an eternity.
And this additional ending made everything worth it for me. To the point I can say this ending is genuinely my Favourite single piece of work in the entire visual novel media.
After all there is nothing more heartwarming then seeing a person's sacrifice with it's Reward. A true Deserving one.
What do Rulers use to bring people together? It's Language.
And Ironically, like these words said by the code talker, I do wish this game stick to it's own story-telling language to communicate with us it's philosophy better unfortunately.
I don't know what can I say what hasn't been said numerous times, but anyway I will still want to convey my thoughts about this game.
When I started playing this game, I was already 1 year late so I heard all of the problems about this game. Also peace walker experience was still hot in my brain so my expectations was low as a pebble about this game. But strangely I found a game that actually had potential, even more than peace walker. Because rather than continuing the big boss's already concluded story, it "tries to do" something with other characters and villains. But decides to stop doing that and just wastes everything away.
Yet also, I love this damn game. It was a blast to go through for me from an other side. Because like I said, I really didn't had any "story expectations to begin with" after mgs4 ended everything conclusively.
(SPOILER WARNING)
Ground Zeroes
The tanker chapter of mgs2 but less impressive version of it. It does have the biggest single enemy camp in the entire mgs franchise(bigger then Groznyj Grad from mgs3). So it's fun to play inside it but unfortunately only have two objectives(if you don't care about side ops). That is: Save Chico and Paz. That's it. Because of that it doesn't have the feeling of you are part by part progressing a giant ship from mgs2 for me.
Story-wise it's a nice hype demo for the players. we learn Chico and Paz captured .Of course as a snake we want to save them because we care about them so we go to Camp Omega. But while we go there, there is an nuclear inspection going on at our mother base and ends in a cliffhanger.
It's a fine mission on it's own right. It's sets up a new villain and actually makes you wonder what the heck is going on with this new villain. It gives you hope for a potential of a new good mgs villain.
But once you learn the existence of casette tapes you learn how psycho he is. First it gives you more hope about the villain but if you think about it more than a second and think why the heck it's in a tape rather than a flashback scene and that thing is... actually a big first glance to upcoming mess that is mgsV's story telling.
MgsV-Main Game
After the events from mgsV, we open our eyes on a hospital Ocelot helps us escape? And we find ourselves on a new beginning. We set up our new motherbase, a robotic arm and then settle in afghanistan for our first mission to save Miller. After saving him we promise for VENGEANCE and with that game truly begins.
In the whole game, we save hostages, destroy camps, collect datas and try to get everything about Skull Face. Unfortunately game never goes deep in the story department and just fills you with tapes.
Then that finale mission hits. Everything ends in a rushed way and we of course get bunch of "Casette Tapes".
Wait... what?
I don't know if I manage to give you the impact of the cassette tapes, but this game botches it's own potential with relying to stupid casette tapes rather then let the cutscenes do the talking.
I watched all of them years later and yeah like I said they wasted every potential with tapes, especially in the "truth" tapes...
Also of course let's not forget about the cut finale 51. mission... no... "Missions" as well. Maybe I am gonna say something controversial but... I don't believe a sudden dlc for cut missions will fix this game. It's reliance on casette tapes hurts the story so much that not even a big witcher 3 level of dlc can save this game's story in my opinion. It's problematic in it's roots. It's impossible to save this story without redoing everything from scratch.
Btw when it comes to twist, tbh I don't feel anything about it. I know why everyone pissed about the "truth" twist but in my opinion it changes nothing. Story is already feels botched anyway because of the casette tapes. The twist itself is just a cream on the already badly cooked cake.
Unfortunately and ironically mgsv is a failure when it comes to communicating it's story to the players and because of that sends it's every potential to hell. But was it really that important story to get pushed to it's potential?
Not Really, Actually.
While truth tapes are really important, in the end of the day, mgsV is a phantom game. A story that doesn't need to exist in the bigger picture. It can just be in a lore file somehwere. I still consider everything ended with 4 and this game nor peace walker won't change that for me.
Gameplay
I said this game was a blast tho isn't it? Because it does one thing expertly, even better then every game I had ever played. What it does expertly is the freedom on stealth. I have never played a game where you can infiltrate in every way you want with the gadgets that feels almost endless, also with the buddy system that makes you feel like a commander, also with the shocking clever and defensive ai as well. Fixes all of my issues with peace walker for me.
Combine this with a more open soldier collecting system that gives you more choices to collect wherever you want that scales with you unlike peace walker's linear forced way of collect system. This makes the game 10 times more interesting when it comes to progressing.
I had so much fun with the gameplay that I stopped doing main missions and went with side ops all the way. After all who cares with that botched casette taped filled story right? Not me.
Only thing I can say bad about the gameplay is, open world feels unnecessary. We always go back to chopper anyway so.... I am not sure what is the point of this big of an open world I don't know. It just forces you to waste time with running to the chopper for hundreds of meters after every mission.
Also I heard some people pissed about there is no big base as big as camp omega in mgsv, I kinda get them but main game itself have lots of variety in it's missions when you combine them so I still left satisfied.
So yeah this is mgsV. A mess of a story but a brilliance when it comes to gameplay. You can consider this one the worst mgs story because of the botched telling but in my eyes...
It's the best stealth game I had ever played.
And Ironically, like these words said by the code talker, I do wish this game stick to it's own story-telling language to communicate with us it's philosophy better unfortunately.
I don't know what can I say what hasn't been said numerous times, but anyway I will still want to convey my thoughts about this game.
When I started playing this game, I was already 1 year late so I heard all of the problems about this game. Also peace walker experience was still hot in my brain so my expectations was low as a pebble about this game. But strangely I found a game that actually had potential, even more than peace walker. Because rather than continuing the big boss's already concluded story, it "tries to do" something with other characters and villains. But decides to stop doing that and just wastes everything away.
Yet also, I love this damn game. It was a blast to go through for me from an other side. Because like I said, I really didn't had any "story expectations to begin with" after mgs4 ended everything conclusively.
(SPOILER WARNING)
Ground Zeroes
The tanker chapter of mgs2 but less impressive version of it. It does have the biggest single enemy camp in the entire mgs franchise(bigger then Groznyj Grad from mgs3). So it's fun to play inside it but unfortunately only have two objectives(if you don't care about side ops). That is: Save Chico and Paz. That's it. Because of that it doesn't have the feeling of you are part by part progressing a giant ship from mgs2 for me.
Story-wise it's a nice hype demo for the players. we learn Chico and Paz captured .Of course as a snake we want to save them because we care about them so we go to Camp Omega. But while we go there, there is an nuclear inspection going on at our mother base and ends in a cliffhanger.
It's a fine mission on it's own right. It's sets up a new villain and actually makes you wonder what the heck is going on with this new villain. It gives you hope for a potential of a new good mgs villain.
But once you learn the existence of casette tapes you learn how psycho he is. First it gives you more hope about the villain but if you think about it more than a second and think why the heck it's in a tape rather than a flashback scene and that thing is... actually a big first glance to upcoming mess that is mgsV's story telling.
MgsV-Main Game
After the events from mgsV, we open our eyes on a hospital Ocelot helps us escape? And we find ourselves on a new beginning. We set up our new motherbase, a robotic arm and then settle in afghanistan for our first mission to save Miller. After saving him we promise for VENGEANCE and with that game truly begins.
In the whole game, we save hostages, destroy camps, collect datas and try to get everything about Skull Face. Unfortunately game never goes deep in the story department and just fills you with tapes.
Then that finale mission hits. Everything ends in a rushed way and we of course get bunch of "Casette Tapes".
Wait... what?
I don't know if I manage to give you the impact of the cassette tapes, but this game botches it's own potential with relying to stupid casette tapes rather then let the cutscenes do the talking.
I watched all of them years later and yeah like I said they wasted every potential with tapes, especially in the "truth" tapes...
Also of course let's not forget about the cut finale 51. mission... no... "Missions" as well. Maybe I am gonna say something controversial but... I don't believe a sudden dlc for cut missions will fix this game. It's reliance on casette tapes hurts the story so much that not even a big witcher 3 level of dlc can save this game's story in my opinion. It's problematic in it's roots. It's impossible to save this story without redoing everything from scratch.
Btw when it comes to twist, tbh I don't feel anything about it. I know why everyone pissed about the "truth" twist but in my opinion it changes nothing. Story is already feels botched anyway because of the casette tapes. The twist itself is just a cream on the already badly cooked cake.
Unfortunately and ironically mgsv is a failure when it comes to communicating it's story to the players and because of that sends it's every potential to hell. But was it really that important story to get pushed to it's potential?
Not Really, Actually.
While truth tapes are really important, in the end of the day, mgsV is a phantom game. A story that doesn't need to exist in the bigger picture. It can just be in a lore file somehwere. I still consider everything ended with 4 and this game nor peace walker won't change that for me.
Gameplay
I said this game was a blast tho isn't it? Because it does one thing expertly, even better then every game I had ever played. What it does expertly is the freedom on stealth. I have never played a game where you can infiltrate in every way you want with the gadgets that feels almost endless, also with the buddy system that makes you feel like a commander, also with the shocking clever and defensive ai as well. Fixes all of my issues with peace walker for me.
Combine this with a more open soldier collecting system that gives you more choices to collect wherever you want that scales with you unlike peace walker's linear forced way of collect system. This makes the game 10 times more interesting when it comes to progressing.
I had so much fun with the gameplay that I stopped doing main missions and went with side ops all the way. After all who cares with that botched casette taped filled story right? Not me.
Only thing I can say bad about the gameplay is, open world feels unnecessary. We always go back to chopper anyway so.... I am not sure what is the point of this big of an open world I don't know. It just forces you to waste time with running to the chopper for hundreds of meters after every mission.
Also I heard some people pissed about there is no big base as big as camp omega in mgsv, I kinda get them but main game itself have lots of variety in it's missions when you combine them so I still left satisfied.
So yeah this is mgsV. A mess of a story but a brilliance when it comes to gameplay. You can consider this one the worst mgs story because of the botched telling but in my eyes...
It's the best stealth game I had ever played.
It's a good thing this game doesn't have a number on it's title.
Before I explain what I meant, I want to begin with explaining what my expectation was. After getting the legacy collection for ps3 and finishing mgs4, I was happy to leave this franchise behind. Even tho in my opinion no mgs is perfect, mgs4 ended everything very conclusively with no important questions left behind in my opinion. But when I remembered I paid for peace walker and mgsV too... So that means there is something to continue? "So let's continue then" I said to myself. But I was wondering what left there is to tell?(Warning, some SPOILERS)
Answer is nothing.
Or nothing important for me I would say. Because I didn't need to know how the ai is constructed with the lover of original boss's platonic lover or why the heck huey, the Hal's shitty dad is here randomly, or seeing boss help some random resistance team that consists Amanda and Chico and bunch of militants or seeing boss taking down bunch of corrupt cia officers that is behind the mgs3 operations or...
Especially I didn't need to see how big boss learning to accept boss's death. Game spends the most time with this subject and why? We already know what he thought about boss's death since mgs4. Or we already know why and how he had a grudge to USA itself(even tho I find mgs3 mixed, even I have to accept mgs3's ending ends perfect enough to show big boss's future motivation believable) Who asked this to rethread in here?
I can certainly say that I didn't feel any single thing throughout the story. Even after getting the true ending(ohh boy wait until I explain that parody of garbage) I just looked at the screen and went 乁( •_• )ㄏ "yep that was some game story alright".
Meh story would not make a bad mgs maybe but no... Not just that... I have MASSIVE problems with gameplay as well.
Mgs but simplified to Hell.
Less movement options(no prone???), dumber ai, also less connection between levels. Actually this game consists of multiple mini levels. Rather than one giant base or area we need to uncover. I guess that's made because of this game's portable nature. Unfortunately all of them boring and lineer as heck tho. That's not the only thing, ai is nerfed as heck. We returned to pre mgs2 days where ai can't see shit more than 10 meters. Funnily enough, this game have open environments like mgs3. You know what this means right? Go into a corner and shoot everyone with silenced pistol. That's it. Let's say if enemy has armor? Then use also another super overpowered new cqc technique where you press cqc button and you teleport to enemy from 1 meter away and immediately incapacitate it. It's too mind numbingly easy that I don't remember seeing the death screen in this game. Maybe in boss fights? I don't remember tho.
Oh also there is sub missions too. It's just replay the main mission but with a new task or remixed way! Kinda missions so I didn't care to do them as long as it's not necessary to do.
I guess there is one thing new tho. In this game we have a new system that is collecting soldiers(actually it's from portable ops but I haven't played that one and act like this is new). So with collecting them, you unlock new types of weapons or you unlock higher level versions of weapons. Also they have different types of soldiers like combatants or r&d or intel but frankly you only need r&d soldiers for progressing in the singleplayer part.
It's a fun system in it's concept but in this lineer game it's just there to f### up your pacing. Higher class soldiers only spawn in specific maps and you hecking need them. Because...
THIS GAME CAN'T BE BEATEN WITHOUT GRINDING. Final boss(before the true final one) is a bullet sponge boss. Like true sponge boss. The most biggest one yet.
Imagine me, playing the game normally, after equipping every explosives I have and go into the boss, use everything I have and see the boss's health didn't even finished.... F##K YOU.
But I did it. I grinded to heck out of this game and beat that piece of shit singlehandedly and what I get? More grinding for the true final boss... HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA.
I almost went crazy but said to myself, okay... Calm down... Maybe there is actually something worthwhile in there as a reward for grinding maybe? And the result is...
You do a boss fight with a loli girl in her bikinis with jpop songs at the background. Yeah. This is your reward for 3+ days grinding session.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MR KOJIMA? IF SO IT WORKED AND I AM LAUGHING JUST LIKE YOUR LAUGHING OCTOPUS. HHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
I don't like this game. More than 1+ star because Miller is funny.
Before I explain what I meant, I want to begin with explaining what my expectation was. After getting the legacy collection for ps3 and finishing mgs4, I was happy to leave this franchise behind. Even tho in my opinion no mgs is perfect, mgs4 ended everything very conclusively with no important questions left behind in my opinion. But when I remembered I paid for peace walker and mgsV too... So that means there is something to continue? "So let's continue then" I said to myself. But I was wondering what left there is to tell?(Warning, some SPOILERS)
Answer is nothing.
Or nothing important for me I would say. Because I didn't need to know how the ai is constructed with the lover of original boss's platonic lover or why the heck huey, the Hal's shitty dad is here randomly, or seeing boss help some random resistance team that consists Amanda and Chico and bunch of militants or seeing boss taking down bunch of corrupt cia officers that is behind the mgs3 operations or...
Especially I didn't need to see how big boss learning to accept boss's death. Game spends the most time with this subject and why? We already know what he thought about boss's death since mgs4. Or we already know why and how he had a grudge to USA itself(even tho I find mgs3 mixed, even I have to accept mgs3's ending ends perfect enough to show big boss's future motivation believable) Who asked this to rethread in here?
I can certainly say that I didn't feel any single thing throughout the story. Even after getting the true ending(ohh boy wait until I explain that parody of garbage) I just looked at the screen and went 乁( •_• )ㄏ "yep that was some game story alright".
Meh story would not make a bad mgs maybe but no... Not just that... I have MASSIVE problems with gameplay as well.
Mgs but simplified to Hell.
Less movement options(no prone???), dumber ai, also less connection between levels. Actually this game consists of multiple mini levels. Rather than one giant base or area we need to uncover. I guess that's made because of this game's portable nature. Unfortunately all of them boring and lineer as heck tho. That's not the only thing, ai is nerfed as heck. We returned to pre mgs2 days where ai can't see shit more than 10 meters. Funnily enough, this game have open environments like mgs3. You know what this means right? Go into a corner and shoot everyone with silenced pistol. That's it. Let's say if enemy has armor? Then use also another super overpowered new cqc technique where you press cqc button and you teleport to enemy from 1 meter away and immediately incapacitate it. It's too mind numbingly easy that I don't remember seeing the death screen in this game. Maybe in boss fights? I don't remember tho.
Oh also there is sub missions too. It's just replay the main mission but with a new task or remixed way! Kinda missions so I didn't care to do them as long as it's not necessary to do.
I guess there is one thing new tho. In this game we have a new system that is collecting soldiers(actually it's from portable ops but I haven't played that one and act like this is new). So with collecting them, you unlock new types of weapons or you unlock higher level versions of weapons. Also they have different types of soldiers like combatants or r&d or intel but frankly you only need r&d soldiers for progressing in the singleplayer part.
It's a fun system in it's concept but in this lineer game it's just there to f### up your pacing. Higher class soldiers only spawn in specific maps and you hecking need them. Because...
THIS GAME CAN'T BE BEATEN WITHOUT GRINDING. Final boss(before the true final one) is a bullet sponge boss. Like true sponge boss. The most biggest one yet.
Imagine me, playing the game normally, after equipping every explosives I have and go into the boss, use everything I have and see the boss's health didn't even finished.... F##K YOU.
But I did it. I grinded to heck out of this game and beat that piece of shit singlehandedly and what I get? More grinding for the true final boss... HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA.
I almost went crazy but said to myself, okay... Calm down... Maybe there is actually something worthwhile in there as a reward for grinding maybe? And the result is...
You do a boss fight with a loli girl in her bikinis with jpop songs at the background. Yeah. This is your reward for 3+ days grinding session.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MR KOJIMA? IF SO IT WORKED AND I AM LAUGHING JUST LIKE YOUR LAUGHING OCTOPUS. HHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
I don't like this game. More than 1+ star because Miller is funny.
I came across this game when I was looking at anime avatars and thought the art was cool and cute❤️ to the point I used one of the character's avatar as a profile picture(as you can see).
Also it's detective focus interested me as well. So I started playing, I only played 5-6 hours and left on the part where you need to do lab work with Lupin. Why? Because I didn't had fun. Maybe I am overreacting to this game but this game have nothing going for it?
This is not my first vn but my first time playing from otome genre(focused to girls). I don't know if it's because of that or not but this game's detective logic is barebones as heck. Characters felt to me bunch of cliches as well.
I know I am talking a bit early here, but even if the game gets good later, first 5-6 hours have nothing going for it, all of the cases essentially solves itself with the guilty person comes up to your face almost screaming I am the bad guy. For example there is a second case early on where you need to solve who stole students money and the thief himself just comes up to you and starts a fight and I am not kidding.
For the characters, it's hard to talk about them when I saw so little other than some cliche scenes, but one thing really bothered me and that is Herlock Holmes(heh look at that name, they did it that name before ace attorney did). Because even tho game is about detective "students" on a school and everyone looks 20 years old, Herlock's voice actor sounds like on his 60's somehow. His face and voice doesn't match in the slightest. Say it nitpick or not but I wanted to say.
Anyway, that's what I think about this game even tho I haven't even finished it. Maybe it's get better but first hours was so boring to me that unfortunately it ends here for me. Just because of it's colorful nice art, it does have it's value but I think I would rather look at the game cg's rather than continuing to play it.
Also it's detective focus interested me as well. So I started playing, I only played 5-6 hours and left on the part where you need to do lab work with Lupin. Why? Because I didn't had fun. Maybe I am overreacting to this game but this game have nothing going for it?
This is not my first vn but my first time playing from otome genre(focused to girls). I don't know if it's because of that or not but this game's detective logic is barebones as heck. Characters felt to me bunch of cliches as well.
I know I am talking a bit early here, but even if the game gets good later, first 5-6 hours have nothing going for it, all of the cases essentially solves itself with the guilty person comes up to your face almost screaming I am the bad guy. For example there is a second case early on where you need to solve who stole students money and the thief himself just comes up to you and starts a fight and I am not kidding.
For the characters, it's hard to talk about them when I saw so little other than some cliche scenes, but one thing really bothered me and that is Herlock Holmes(heh look at that name, they did it that name before ace attorney did). Because even tho game is about detective "students" on a school and everyone looks 20 years old, Herlock's voice actor sounds like on his 60's somehow. His face and voice doesn't match in the slightest. Say it nitpick or not but I wanted to say.
Anyway, that's what I think about this game even tho I haven't even finished it. Maybe it's get better but first hours was so boring to me that unfortunately it ends here for me. Just because of it's colorful nice art, it does have it's value but I think I would rather look at the game cg's rather than continuing to play it.
DANG THAT WAS SURELY SOMETHING ELSE
Every case is meaty this time, not just that we directly need to face with the ghosts and their problems this time rather than escaping it. We need to solve their problems for them so they can leave the world peacefully but damn what interesting stories they are. War veterans? Here. School bullies? Here. Suicides? Here. Etc.
How we find them still feels a bit forced tho in my opinion. No, especially even more forced here. Like the previous game baka Mika forces other girls to discover the truths behind the ghost rumors but it feels forced too much because realistically after the near death experience from the case that ended on a cliffhanger(like really it ends on a literal cliff, on a hill) you would say no. But I guess it's... a game. Still I have to say it bothers me.
If we pass that and return to the cases. Yeah they are amazing. My favorite one is the school one tho. In my opinion that's how you do a school bullying story. It's unsettling. It's spooky. It's emotional. It's... Really heartbreaking...
I have a grudge against school bullies so that episode hit me even more. Also it's pacing was perfect as well (also eat your heart out lost judgment! That's how you do a school bullying story, with directly confronting everyone rather than spending unnecessary 4 hours with infiltrating a school and failing to get any real answers anyway)
But If I like this game that much why not 5/5? It's because unfortunately there is one single major flaw this game has. It's skipping to the credits the moment case gets solved and that's really unsatisfying. I mean previous game did this as well but they didn't had to continue this flawed idea in my opinion. Let me give you an example, remember the case I talked about the bullies at the top? Yeah that case ends so fast that, the supposed redemption arc of bullies feels empty. It's just a couple of sentences and bum. Credits... That's it?
That's not nice tho is it? You are supposed to finish the character stories properly too! Not just the story itself! But unfortunately game does that again and again. That's why even tho cases are amazing, I can't get the full satisfaction of it.
I wish they push the characters just a little bit more, with just a little push the game itself could turn into a something magical who knows. Unfortunately that's the end product.
But even tho I complained a lot. I still enjoyed a lot. Hopefully it gets translated properly one day too!
Also I guess I am finally ready for Suda's moonlight syndrome. Ehm. Here we goo.
(note: This is a video review and I looked at the youtube translation from the user aRdW)
Every case is meaty this time, not just that we directly need to face with the ghosts and their problems this time rather than escaping it. We need to solve their problems for them so they can leave the world peacefully but damn what interesting stories they are. War veterans? Here. School bullies? Here. Suicides? Here. Etc.
How we find them still feels a bit forced tho in my opinion. No, especially even more forced here. Like the previous game baka Mika forces other girls to discover the truths behind the ghost rumors but it feels forced too much because realistically after the near death experience from the case that ended on a cliffhanger(like really it ends on a literal cliff, on a hill) you would say no. But I guess it's... a game. Still I have to say it bothers me.
If we pass that and return to the cases. Yeah they are amazing. My favorite one is the school one tho. In my opinion that's how you do a school bullying story. It's unsettling. It's spooky. It's emotional. It's... Really heartbreaking...
I have a grudge against school bullies so that episode hit me even more. Also it's pacing was perfect as well (also eat your heart out lost judgment! That's how you do a school bullying story, with directly confronting everyone rather than spending unnecessary 4 hours with infiltrating a school and failing to get any real answers anyway)
But If I like this game that much why not 5/5? It's because unfortunately there is one single major flaw this game has. It's skipping to the credits the moment case gets solved and that's really unsatisfying. I mean previous game did this as well but they didn't had to continue this flawed idea in my opinion. Let me give you an example, remember the case I talked about the bullies at the top? Yeah that case ends so fast that, the supposed redemption arc of bullies feels empty. It's just a couple of sentences and bum. Credits... That's it?
That's not nice tho is it? You are supposed to finish the character stories properly too! Not just the story itself! But unfortunately game does that again and again. That's why even tho cases are amazing, I can't get the full satisfaction of it.
I wish they push the characters just a little bit more, with just a little push the game itself could turn into a something magical who knows. Unfortunately that's the end product.
But even tho I complained a lot. I still enjoyed a lot. Hopefully it gets translated properly one day too!
Also I guess I am finally ready for Suda's moonlight syndrome. Ehm. Here we goo.
(note: This is a video review and I looked at the youtube translation from the user aRdW)
(note: this is a watch review and I looked at the youtube translation from the user aRdW)
Game is about ghost rumor hunting with the girls group that doesn't love mystery but have to because baka Mika is their friend and they don't want her to die just because she can't stop her curiosity, so rest of the game happens.
Unfortunately stories feels like a demo compared to the next one. Most of the ghost cases are super short and forgettable in my opinion, only case that memorable for me was the piano suicide one. Other than that it was just bunch of "let me tell you random horror stories on this Halloween night" kinda random. At least, I liked that they had multiple endings. But game ended on a really interesting cliffhanger and if I found this game in the ps1's prime days I would be pisseddddd I tell you
Game is about ghost rumor hunting with the girls group that doesn't love mystery but have to because baka Mika is their friend and they don't want her to die just because she can't stop her curiosity, so rest of the game happens.
Unfortunately stories feels like a demo compared to the next one. Most of the ghost cases are super short and forgettable in my opinion, only case that memorable for me was the piano suicide one. Other than that it was just bunch of "let me tell you random horror stories on this Halloween night" kinda random. At least, I liked that they had multiple endings. But game ended on a really interesting cliffhanger and if I found this game in the ps1's prime days I would be pisseddddd I tell you
1994
This game, perhaps one of the biggest snes game of all time. I don't have any idea how the heck they manage to put a game this long to a snes cartridge. But they did it. Astounding. Just... Astounding.
But this is not a good thing at the same time for me. Because no final fantasy game tired me this much to finish compared to the other titles I had played(4-5). Also I have some nitpicks as well unfortunately.
First let's start with the idea itself:
"The idea behind the story of VI was that every character is the protagonist" (taken from ff6 wiki)
And this idea isn't my cup of tea unfortunately. Because I like main character to get fleshed out fully first and then see the side character stories. But when everyone is a main character, not all of them gonna get fleshed out like I hoped unfortunately. Don't get me wrong emotional moments hits and it's better than the 5th game in that regard, but it didn't gave me the same feelings from ff4. Yeah ff4 isn't superb when it comes to side characters as well but seeing the main character Cecil rise to the end was more gratifying for me rather than experiencing mini story collection simulator.
"After all when everyone is a main character, no one will be"
Sad thing is they could do that if they wanted, for example Terra character from the cover have really interesting story but after you play her mission, her story just stops to give place to other new characters. Or Locke character is really interesting too, but it's conclusion that is about Rachel was soo rushed that I didn't felt any feelings at all unfortunately. Not just him, I feel like second half of the game feels a bit aimless with it's characters. What I mean is ups are strong as ever like Celes's mountain scene or Terra's story about her parents. But because of the focus of everyone, I feel like their stories doesn't get pushed to the limit and as a whole kinda takes away from it. Like setzer's surface level story or unfinished feeling of shadow's story(I watched all dreams but still his ending kinda confusing) or like I said conclusion of Locke's backstory. So because of that I would rather have 1 or 2 characters as a focus and rest is accompanying friends with mini stories rather than dozens of character stories at once.
Also for some reason villain of this game is pretty overhyped to me. I didn't see any difference compared to the older ff villains. Yes he does horrific things throughout the story, maybe more horrific than any villain but his writing is no different a cliche I want to destroy world huhahahaha type of villain for me.
Btw I am not saying this game's story is bad, it's just because of it's focus is not my cup of tea, game ends up lesser of ff4 for me with it's positives and negatives. Rather than ending up the best ff story of all time for me
When it comes to gameplay, remember all of the ffV classes? All of them are their own characters now! Like alllll of them is a different character except magic users. Oh also new relic system is here to give you variations to your attacks as well! That's sounds awesome and that is awesome.
Until you realize new magic system is a grindfest that forces you to farm specific enemies just to claim a better magic from the found summon stones. Also you need to grind every single character as well. Why? Because there are "war" sections where multiple groups of characters needs to clean their own part of the dungeon. So almost every character gets used. That means you can't stick to a single party. As a concept it makes sense, you would want to force players to differentiate their gameplay, but in practice... I am not a fan of it. Especially I am not a fan of the final dungeon and it's the reason I put off this game for so long to finish. Because of course final dungeon is full of one hit kill monsters. I argued this both in ff4 and ff5 as well but in this one, grinding everyone to get good magic, good relics and good equipment was sooo damn tiring. Because of this rather than loving it, I ended up condemning the entire gameplay.
If I disliked the gameplay progression that much then if I disliked it as a game? No. Somethings managed me to captivate also shock as well. It's because this game's presentation. I wasn't kidding when I asked how they manage to put this in a cartridge, because there is so many animations for every possible cutscene, also combination of the wacky camera angles(did you ever imagined using the famous ff ship with a 3rd person camera on a damn snes????). So yeah they managed to entertain me a lot. That's why even tho I have problems with it's story structure and gameplay progression, I still had a nice time on this one. But hopefully next game isn't trying to be that big to the point tiring me this much.
But this is not a good thing at the same time for me. Because no final fantasy game tired me this much to finish compared to the other titles I had played(4-5). Also I have some nitpicks as well unfortunately.
First let's start with the idea itself:
"The idea behind the story of VI was that every character is the protagonist" (taken from ff6 wiki)
And this idea isn't my cup of tea unfortunately. Because I like main character to get fleshed out fully first and then see the side character stories. But when everyone is a main character, not all of them gonna get fleshed out like I hoped unfortunately. Don't get me wrong emotional moments hits and it's better than the 5th game in that regard, but it didn't gave me the same feelings from ff4. Yeah ff4 isn't superb when it comes to side characters as well but seeing the main character Cecil rise to the end was more gratifying for me rather than experiencing mini story collection simulator.
"After all when everyone is a main character, no one will be"
Sad thing is they could do that if they wanted, for example Terra character from the cover have really interesting story but after you play her mission, her story just stops to give place to other new characters. Or Locke character is really interesting too, but it's conclusion that is about Rachel was soo rushed that I didn't felt any feelings at all unfortunately. Not just him, I feel like second half of the game feels a bit aimless with it's characters. What I mean is ups are strong as ever like Celes's mountain scene or Terra's story about her parents. But because of the focus of everyone, I feel like their stories doesn't get pushed to the limit and as a whole kinda takes away from it. Like setzer's surface level story or unfinished feeling of shadow's story(I watched all dreams but still his ending kinda confusing) or like I said conclusion of Locke's backstory. So because of that I would rather have 1 or 2 characters as a focus and rest is accompanying friends with mini stories rather than dozens of character stories at once.
Also for some reason villain of this game is pretty overhyped to me. I didn't see any difference compared to the older ff villains. Yes he does horrific things throughout the story, maybe more horrific than any villain but his writing is no different a cliche I want to destroy world huhahahaha type of villain for me.
Btw I am not saying this game's story is bad, it's just because of it's focus is not my cup of tea, game ends up lesser of ff4 for me with it's positives and negatives. Rather than ending up the best ff story of all time for me
When it comes to gameplay, remember all of the ffV classes? All of them are their own characters now! Like alllll of them is a different character except magic users. Oh also new relic system is here to give you variations to your attacks as well! That's sounds awesome and that is awesome.
Until you realize new magic system is a grindfest that forces you to farm specific enemies just to claim a better magic from the found summon stones. Also you need to grind every single character as well. Why? Because there are "war" sections where multiple groups of characters needs to clean their own part of the dungeon. So almost every character gets used. That means you can't stick to a single party. As a concept it makes sense, you would want to force players to differentiate their gameplay, but in practice... I am not a fan of it. Especially I am not a fan of the final dungeon and it's the reason I put off this game for so long to finish. Because of course final dungeon is full of one hit kill monsters. I argued this both in ff4 and ff5 as well but in this one, grinding everyone to get good magic, good relics and good equipment was sooo damn tiring. Because of this rather than loving it, I ended up condemning the entire gameplay.
If I disliked the gameplay progression that much then if I disliked it as a game? No. Somethings managed me to captivate also shock as well. It's because this game's presentation. I wasn't kidding when I asked how they manage to put this in a cartridge, because there is so many animations for every possible cutscene, also combination of the wacky camera angles(did you ever imagined using the famous ff ship with a 3rd person camera on a damn snes????). So yeah they managed to entertain me a lot. That's why even tho I have problems with it's story structure and gameplay progression, I still had a nice time on this one. But hopefully next game isn't trying to be that big to the point tiring me this much.
2014
If I summary this online free to play gears of war knock off by a Chinese developer... It's mishmash of every random 2008 games combined into a one game
This game is a free to play title by yingpeigames studio. In my country this game called m.a.r.s online because of the publisher shenanigans. Then I heard years later it's titled changed. But whatever let's continue where I left of.
This game have it all. Zombies, robots, mummies etc... WAIT A MINUTE(looks up to the wiki)... IT'S CALLED "Zombies Monsters Robots" IN USA?? What... I am defeated already...
Okay, anyway I was saying this is a gears of war game with a random ideas thrown in. It's a fun idea for a online co-op shooter with no story attached. Maybe a bit too good... Because it's essentially a pay to win game. If I remember correctly when you die, you need to use respawn coin. If your team manages to arrive into a checkpoint at least you respawn but checkpoints are really rare tho. So it's still kinda up to luck to find a great team. But even with that, all the time I had played I could never defeat the robot oriented submarine level nor the teams from the sessions I joined. Because they want you to use the damn respawn coins that's why. Oh not just that of course before I forget of course there was micro transaction filled overpowered guns as well.
Anyway even with it's disgusting nature I still can't give a 1 star score for this game because I had a great time whenever a friend calls and wants to play something coop just for the hell of it. Maybe I should try to drop these nostalgia googles next time? ( ･ั﹏･ั)
Note: I guess it's changed quite a bit in it's current state and game itself called just M.A.R.S. (coincidence? Idk tbh.). But finally logged this game from my memory
This game is a free to play title by yingpeigames studio. In my country this game called m.a.r.s online because of the publisher shenanigans. Then I heard years later it's titled changed. But whatever let's continue where I left of.
This game have it all. Zombies, robots, mummies etc... WAIT A MINUTE(looks up to the wiki)... IT'S CALLED "Zombies Monsters Robots" IN USA?? What... I am defeated already...
Okay, anyway I was saying this is a gears of war game with a random ideas thrown in. It's a fun idea for a online co-op shooter with no story attached. Maybe a bit too good... Because it's essentially a pay to win game. If I remember correctly when you die, you need to use respawn coin. If your team manages to arrive into a checkpoint at least you respawn but checkpoints are really rare tho. So it's still kinda up to luck to find a great team. But even with that, all the time I had played I could never defeat the robot oriented submarine level nor the teams from the sessions I joined. Because they want you to use the damn respawn coins that's why. Oh not just that of course before I forget of course there was micro transaction filled overpowered guns as well.
Anyway even with it's disgusting nature I still can't give a 1 star score for this game because I had a great time whenever a friend calls and wants to play something coop just for the hell of it. Maybe I should try to drop these nostalgia googles next time? ( ･ั﹏･ั)
Note: I guess it's changed quite a bit in it's current state and game itself called just M.A.R.S. (coincidence? Idk tbh.). But finally logged this game from my memory
1996
The famous mario 64. A game that is still fun but also it's mechanics aged like milk.
Now, to give credit where credit is due level design is really good. Not just good also it's consistent. The most consistent 3d mario even(didn't play odyssey). There is gimmick sections like slides or bowser's linear sections but they are rare compared to the other mario games gimmicky sections.
Level design is good because almost every level designed to be find lots of discoveries in every part of the level. Also choose your own level idea supports it's freedom to it's fullest. You only need to get some number of stars to get to the next section. You don't have to collect everything and I respect this decision a lot. Because the option of skipping a level if I don't like it is nice, because some levels are just not fun.
But gameplay mechanics are like... Ice levels on crack. They are daaaamn slippery it's like every surface mario walks on is made on ice. Also this makes mario 64's slopes the worst. If you are on a slope, you are dead. Because slope's momentum is so strong that mario's jump isn't enough to recover yourself, no it's actually makes your painful mistake intensify and send you faster to your death and I hate it.
Another thing I hate is moving platforms don't add to your jump speed compared to the 2d titles. So if you are on a platform and decided to jump, say bye bye because platform pasts mario underneath while you are on the air and it's too late to realize you need to move now. Because mario's movement in the air just sucks.
Yeah mario's movement in the air suddenly becomes rigid as heck. You can only move forward or backwards for a little bit. That's it. Again compared to the 2d mario's, his air movement just suck ass.
Also who decided to put mario a u-turning animation??? WHOOOOOOOOOO!!???
I CAN'T COUNT HOW MANY TIMES I FALL TO MY DEATH BECAUSE GARBAGE MARIO DECIDED TO NOT TURN INSTANTLY BUT DO A U-TURN ON A SMALL PLATFORM
Yeah I hate the movement and think every mario 3d sequel is superior to this game on movement mechanics. But at least level design is good so that makes this game not a bad game I guess
Now, to give credit where credit is due level design is really good. Not just good also it's consistent. The most consistent 3d mario even(didn't play odyssey). There is gimmick sections like slides or bowser's linear sections but they are rare compared to the other mario games gimmicky sections.
Level design is good because almost every level designed to be find lots of discoveries in every part of the level. Also choose your own level idea supports it's freedom to it's fullest. You only need to get some number of stars to get to the next section. You don't have to collect everything and I respect this decision a lot. Because the option of skipping a level if I don't like it is nice, because some levels are just not fun.
But gameplay mechanics are like... Ice levels on crack. They are daaaamn slippery it's like every surface mario walks on is made on ice. Also this makes mario 64's slopes the worst. If you are on a slope, you are dead. Because slope's momentum is so strong that mario's jump isn't enough to recover yourself, no it's actually makes your painful mistake intensify and send you faster to your death and I hate it.
Another thing I hate is moving platforms don't add to your jump speed compared to the 2d titles. So if you are on a platform and decided to jump, say bye bye because platform pasts mario underneath while you are on the air and it's too late to realize you need to move now. Because mario's movement in the air just sucks.
Yeah mario's movement in the air suddenly becomes rigid as heck. You can only move forward or backwards for a little bit. That's it. Again compared to the 2d mario's, his air movement just suck ass.
Also who decided to put mario a u-turning animation??? WHOOOOOOOOOO!!???
I CAN'T COUNT HOW MANY TIMES I FALL TO MY DEATH BECAUSE GARBAGE MARIO DECIDED TO NOT TURN INSTANTLY BUT DO A U-TURN ON A SMALL PLATFORM
Yeah I hate the movement and think every mario 3d sequel is superior to this game on movement mechanics. But at least level design is good so that makes this game not a bad game I guess
"You've got it all wrong. You were the Lightning in that rain. You can still Shine through the Darkness."
I wanted to open this review with my favourite quote in the entire mgs franchise. Even though game have too many damn fanservicey moments to the point it becomes bothersome, I really admire it's dedication to go with a bang for solid snake's last journey.
This sentence is actually enough to convey what I think about this game, but of course I will add more detailed thoughts.
this game's trailer is actually the first time I had met with mgs when watching a game show at tv. I already told this on my mgs1 review but I wanted to rephrase here again. I also thought this game franchise related to something like xmen somehow because they were showing a cutscene about a old man that manages to down entire army without doing anything while doing a finger gun pose on a boat. Now, knowing the context, it's actually funny to look back on it.
Anyway, years later when I was searching about best ps1 games then I came across to mgs name again and then got the mgs legacy edition for ps3 immediately and started from there to here. So what did I think?
Gameplay
Gameplay feels smooth as a butter, you have millions of moves, easier camouflage system, better cqc system, lots of new weapons, even a remote robot to control. Heck Yeah! To the point I can confidently say that this game is the better than mgs3 in gameplay.
Also level design is peak mgs. You have lots of alternate routes now! More than any past mgs games! Use ladders to get from the rooftops or use ventilation pipes to slip past everyone, or use buildings in the environment to stay away from open areas etc.
It's too bad that this is the least punishing mgs game tho. I understand that it's about infiltration at war. But still, alert status is so generous in this game that, you can play the entire game like a call of duty game, like just run and gun no one can stop you(at least for the normal difficulty). To the point you can lead the resistance army if you play your cards right and can become a pmc leader somehow. Because of that I am pretty sure lots of people that played this game didn't take advantage of alternate routes and thought this game is just a bland cod copycat and that's just sad. Not just that, this game have 3 times more setpiece action moments then mgs3. This also doesn't help for it's reputation either.
I am not the biggest fan of cutsceney setpiece moments. But I still enjoyed really a lot with exploring every level to their last corner and had a great time myself, so I think gameplay is on the positive side.
Story(Warning I put Some spoilers)
Story is both emotional, hearbreaking and exciting. Also both confusing, unnecessarily too twist heavy and too much fanservicey.
This game's story is about teaming everyone we can find to learn about what Ocelot is trying to do and stop him once and for all while solid fights his biggest opponent. His deteriorating health.
It looks simple at surface, but mini stories adding onto it is what makes it slowly goes haywire to the point super confusing
When the first screen came in and when I saw the old snake. I felt sad and emotional but also praised Kojima. Not all writers have the decency to actually age their million years old characters. Also I loved this incarnation even more to the point for me: He is the best Snake.
In mgs1 he is nothing more than a confused soldier, in mgs2 he is a cool looking hero that saves the day. In this one he is a mentor to everyone. He knows his time is limited so he does his best to wake up everyone from their messy life problems and motivates to take the gun and continue fighting.
I also loved the returning mgs1 cast a lot. Everyone aged now and learned The reality. They learned what it means to just get thrown to the wayside after their mission done. Meryl, Colonel, Naomi, Mei Ling. Not just that they are thrown in this never ending Ocelot's war with each passing day. While they are fighting both Ocelot's soldiers and the reality, we are the one that pushes them for one last mission to get them up to their feet and for me this the greatest strength of this tile. One. Last. Push.
Get. Back. On. Your. Feet. One. More. Time.
Another thing I loved is ongoing comradery between Hal and Snake. Also Snake and Raiden. Watching them motivate each other to continue on is nothing but pure heartwarming.
Also I love Sunny. I love Sunny. I love Sunny. She is just a pure kid between all the grumpy old guys and her struggle with them to communicate is really fun to watch.
But I didn't enjoy how Raiden's relationship with Rose went to fire after mgs2 or how the ai fight affected his mental health not shown. I assume they were hiding this for planned mgs rising's first planned version. But unfortunely that thing turned into a straight kill the bad guys kinda storyline somehow. So... I am not happy about this situation.
I also didn't enjoy the Beauty and the beast unit. I liked the premise, I don't have a problem with that. They are supposed to be puppets of war that lost their emotions in the way just to get used for this meaningless war. But why they are just a meaningless versions of the previous mgs bosses? Why they are not their own characters? I don't get this. This feels like really unneccessary pandering to fans and feels like a missed oppurtunity to make them their own strong characters. Also why the heck it's implied that Psycho mantis is also with them? I really really disliked that. Why do you resurrect your character for no damn reason? To take them less seriously with more fanservice??
Also why Johnny the fart guy is back? Like seriously why? Also Kojima expected us to take him seriously while half of the cutscenes he is in, he is busy with just stumbling while everyone do their job. If you want us to take a dumb character seriously then you make him slowly more intelligent rather than suddenly doing that in the end in my opinion.
Also there is the infamous retcon of course. The mgs3 cast behind the ai work. I feel like this is a last minute addition rather than a considered one. Because mgs3 ended with the call with the Cia director just like the first mgs's end where Ocelot talks with the president. So that means first consideration was cia director to become the force behind the ai work. But I guess mgs portable ops wasted that oppurtunity so Kojima did a last minute addition because of that. Of course it's not a good twist and just like Raiden's sudden turn, this comes from nowhere because there is no build up to go on with. But also I always felt like people take this point a bit too much. All mgs games have retcons in their own way tbh. Mgs1 had the sudden unlogical clone conspiracy, mgs2 had the sudden impossible perfect brother thingy, mgs3 change the snake's villainy. Not just that, we don't know anything about the mgs3 cast other than they like movies and also they care about the mission. So that means they probably maybe changed after that. My problem isn't with the twist. It's with again, not showing why that happened. But even if I disliked the twist I don't think it suddenly "destroyed the whole mgs franchise" just because this twist exists like most of you.
But I loved, I loved, I loved everything with Ocelot. He brings everything full circle and finishes the mgs right there and there. The perfect finale. The ending point. It's just perfect ending. So because of this even tho this game have it's downs, it's ups are more on the positive side for me.
I would want to have less in your face fanservicey moments and less sudden twists but all in all I liked this game. Because of it's downs I don't think this is the best mgs. But ups are really strong that this make this game a perfect mgs ending. Nothing more and nothing less.
It's sad that this franchise didn't end here tho.
I wanted to open this review with my favourite quote in the entire mgs franchise. Even though game have too many damn fanservicey moments to the point it becomes bothersome, I really admire it's dedication to go with a bang for solid snake's last journey.
This sentence is actually enough to convey what I think about this game, but of course I will add more detailed thoughts.
this game's trailer is actually the first time I had met with mgs when watching a game show at tv. I already told this on my mgs1 review but I wanted to rephrase here again. I also thought this game franchise related to something like xmen somehow because they were showing a cutscene about a old man that manages to down entire army without doing anything while doing a finger gun pose on a boat. Now, knowing the context, it's actually funny to look back on it.
Anyway, years later when I was searching about best ps1 games then I came across to mgs name again and then got the mgs legacy edition for ps3 immediately and started from there to here. So what did I think?
Gameplay
Gameplay feels smooth as a butter, you have millions of moves, easier camouflage system, better cqc system, lots of new weapons, even a remote robot to control. Heck Yeah! To the point I can confidently say that this game is the better than mgs3 in gameplay.
Also level design is peak mgs. You have lots of alternate routes now! More than any past mgs games! Use ladders to get from the rooftops or use ventilation pipes to slip past everyone, or use buildings in the environment to stay away from open areas etc.
It's too bad that this is the least punishing mgs game tho. I understand that it's about infiltration at war. But still, alert status is so generous in this game that, you can play the entire game like a call of duty game, like just run and gun no one can stop you(at least for the normal difficulty). To the point you can lead the resistance army if you play your cards right and can become a pmc leader somehow. Because of that I am pretty sure lots of people that played this game didn't take advantage of alternate routes and thought this game is just a bland cod copycat and that's just sad. Not just that, this game have 3 times more setpiece action moments then mgs3. This also doesn't help for it's reputation either.
I am not the biggest fan of cutsceney setpiece moments. But I still enjoyed really a lot with exploring every level to their last corner and had a great time myself, so I think gameplay is on the positive side.
Story(Warning I put Some spoilers)
Story is both emotional, hearbreaking and exciting. Also both confusing, unnecessarily too twist heavy and too much fanservicey.
This game's story is about teaming everyone we can find to learn about what Ocelot is trying to do and stop him once and for all while solid fights his biggest opponent. His deteriorating health.
It looks simple at surface, but mini stories adding onto it is what makes it slowly goes haywire to the point super confusing
When the first screen came in and when I saw the old snake. I felt sad and emotional but also praised Kojima. Not all writers have the decency to actually age their million years old characters. Also I loved this incarnation even more to the point for me: He is the best Snake.
In mgs1 he is nothing more than a confused soldier, in mgs2 he is a cool looking hero that saves the day. In this one he is a mentor to everyone. He knows his time is limited so he does his best to wake up everyone from their messy life problems and motivates to take the gun and continue fighting.
I also loved the returning mgs1 cast a lot. Everyone aged now and learned The reality. They learned what it means to just get thrown to the wayside after their mission done. Meryl, Colonel, Naomi, Mei Ling. Not just that they are thrown in this never ending Ocelot's war with each passing day. While they are fighting both Ocelot's soldiers and the reality, we are the one that pushes them for one last mission to get them up to their feet and for me this the greatest strength of this tile. One. Last. Push.
Get. Back. On. Your. Feet. One. More. Time.
Another thing I loved is ongoing comradery between Hal and Snake. Also Snake and Raiden. Watching them motivate each other to continue on is nothing but pure heartwarming.
Also I love Sunny. I love Sunny. I love Sunny. She is just a pure kid between all the grumpy old guys and her struggle with them to communicate is really fun to watch.
But I didn't enjoy how Raiden's relationship with Rose went to fire after mgs2 or how the ai fight affected his mental health not shown. I assume they were hiding this for planned mgs rising's first planned version. But unfortunely that thing turned into a straight kill the bad guys kinda storyline somehow. So... I am not happy about this situation.
I also didn't enjoy the Beauty and the beast unit. I liked the premise, I don't have a problem with that. They are supposed to be puppets of war that lost their emotions in the way just to get used for this meaningless war. But why they are just a meaningless versions of the previous mgs bosses? Why they are not their own characters? I don't get this. This feels like really unneccessary pandering to fans and feels like a missed oppurtunity to make them their own strong characters. Also why the heck it's implied that Psycho mantis is also with them? I really really disliked that. Why do you resurrect your character for no damn reason? To take them less seriously with more fanservice??
Also why Johnny the fart guy is back? Like seriously why? Also Kojima expected us to take him seriously while half of the cutscenes he is in, he is busy with just stumbling while everyone do their job. If you want us to take a dumb character seriously then you make him slowly more intelligent rather than suddenly doing that in the end in my opinion.
Also there is the infamous retcon of course. The mgs3 cast behind the ai work. I feel like this is a last minute addition rather than a considered one. Because mgs3 ended with the call with the Cia director just like the first mgs's end where Ocelot talks with the president. So that means first consideration was cia director to become the force behind the ai work. But I guess mgs portable ops wasted that oppurtunity so Kojima did a last minute addition because of that. Of course it's not a good twist and just like Raiden's sudden turn, this comes from nowhere because there is no build up to go on with. But also I always felt like people take this point a bit too much. All mgs games have retcons in their own way tbh. Mgs1 had the sudden unlogical clone conspiracy, mgs2 had the sudden impossible perfect brother thingy, mgs3 change the snake's villainy. Not just that, we don't know anything about the mgs3 cast other than they like movies and also they care about the mission. So that means they probably maybe changed after that. My problem isn't with the twist. It's with again, not showing why that happened. But even if I disliked the twist I don't think it suddenly "destroyed the whole mgs franchise" just because this twist exists like most of you.
But I loved, I loved, I loved everything with Ocelot. He brings everything full circle and finishes the mgs right there and there. The perfect finale. The ending point. It's just perfect ending. So because of this even tho this game have it's downs, it's ups are more on the positive side for me.
I would want to have less in your face fanservicey moments and less sudden twists but all in all I liked this game. Because of it's downs I don't think this is the best mgs. But ups are really strong that this make this game a perfect mgs ending. Nothing more and nothing less.
It's sad that this franchise didn't end here tho.
2011
I don't know what to say about this one. Somehow they managed to do it again... do the one step forward one step backwards thingy for me...
Firstly, I have to warn all of you again because of my obscure opinions. Because there are also points and subjects you may not like, I just wanted to start with a warning
Now, I have to say this game looks somehow like next generation xbox one game. I liked that. Also feels more smooth, it's hard to explain but when you turn the character, it feels like there's more animations to make it feel even more smooth, also there are more weapons and old weapons modified a bit, also finally it feels more singleplayer solo friendly so no more bad balanced moments! Also... yeah that's it.
Compared to the gears of war1 and 2, this game feels like focused only one thing and that is focusing only on the bare essentials that is cover to cover shooting. Less gimmicks and less setpieces. Just more and more cover to cover shooting. At least that how I felt. There are some sections where a strong enemy hunts you or you defend a big vehicle, or you kill a big giant enemy part by part again but they are more rarer and shorter than the other games I felt like. That results with a bit sameness in my opinion. Like I have to force myself to remember what happens in the game. Because when you do the cover to cover combat too much, it gets indistinctful, blurry in my head. Like I am fine with it and it blood pumps when it needs to but it isn't that memorable to me compared to the previous titles some of the levels.
Now if this game focused more on the cover to cover combat than anything else, then how they manage to keep the game fresh? That is with the new enemy types, more different arena types and with the new weapons of course. Hey that's nice right? More refined gameplay, more weapons, more enemies. What could I want more right? There could be no wrong things right? Like... An infuriating new enemy type for example???
Yes. Call it nitpick or not I don't care. But when %80 of the new enemy types we fight also are self explosion enemies when they die... I just hate this. Not just that, game filled with enemy spawners at every corner and they spawn what? This new self explosion enemies of course! Oh also they color your screen in a pee color. Did they do this because we don't see pee color on the environment not enough maybe? Pee color everyone! Here get this all!!!!!
Sorry, but I only accept self explosion enemies in some gimmicky sections, not in the %80 of the game. It get to the point I just wanted this game to end!
To the point I can say dlc raam's shadow is better than the main game even tho it's hecking short because you fight with normal enemies ONLY. Not with their pee colored variants.
Oh also story is... gears of war 2 but weaker in my opinion. It's the same story about taking down the queen and finding a way for how to do so, but in this one I felt like tone of the game was lighter than gears1 and 2. I think they did this to make us care about the characters but jokes or comedic moments just don't land for me, I am sorry but they don't. Not just that, the suppossed emotional moment of this game is somehow weaker than the second one. Why? Because it feels hamfisted in my opinion. In the second game that scene had purpose with motivating you to taking down an entire fortress. In this one... It's there to save the group from a critical place, but after we return to civil base, we learn that they didn't have to get stuck in that place in the first place, because they could solve their problem with an alternative way??? Then what purpose it did serve? To shock us? To repeat the second game? I don't know. Also, there are some romantic undertones near the end this time. At least it was fine with not forcing to your face. But just to add girls to the game, newly added female gears armor looks really weird to me tho.
Also for some reason game focused more on showing you different factions of the world. Tbh I would rather get more stronger moments rather than adding more side lore to the game
Now story is fine of course, but what I meant is it could be much much better and impactful with a better writing. That's it.
Sorry for getting angry a bit, but for me refinement and adding new things to this game isn't enough when you put one of my most hated enemy types on most of the game. That is just... No... Sorry. This is not for me. This opinion isn't here to change your favourite game. It's just... like I said... this game is just not for me. That's all.
Firstly, I have to warn all of you again because of my obscure opinions. Because there are also points and subjects you may not like, I just wanted to start with a warning
Now, I have to say this game looks somehow like next generation xbox one game. I liked that. Also feels more smooth, it's hard to explain but when you turn the character, it feels like there's more animations to make it feel even more smooth, also there are more weapons and old weapons modified a bit, also finally it feels more singleplayer solo friendly so no more bad balanced moments! Also... yeah that's it.
Compared to the gears of war1 and 2, this game feels like focused only one thing and that is focusing only on the bare essentials that is cover to cover shooting. Less gimmicks and less setpieces. Just more and more cover to cover shooting. At least that how I felt. There are some sections where a strong enemy hunts you or you defend a big vehicle, or you kill a big giant enemy part by part again but they are more rarer and shorter than the other games I felt like. That results with a bit sameness in my opinion. Like I have to force myself to remember what happens in the game. Because when you do the cover to cover combat too much, it gets indistinctful, blurry in my head. Like I am fine with it and it blood pumps when it needs to but it isn't that memorable to me compared to the previous titles some of the levels.
Now if this game focused more on the cover to cover combat than anything else, then how they manage to keep the game fresh? That is with the new enemy types, more different arena types and with the new weapons of course. Hey that's nice right? More refined gameplay, more weapons, more enemies. What could I want more right? There could be no wrong things right? Like... An infuriating new enemy type for example???
Yes. Call it nitpick or not I don't care. But when %80 of the new enemy types we fight also are self explosion enemies when they die... I just hate this. Not just that, game filled with enemy spawners at every corner and they spawn what? This new self explosion enemies of course! Oh also they color your screen in a pee color. Did they do this because we don't see pee color on the environment not enough maybe? Pee color everyone! Here get this all!!!!!
Sorry, but I only accept self explosion enemies in some gimmicky sections, not in the %80 of the game. It get to the point I just wanted this game to end!
To the point I can say dlc raam's shadow is better than the main game even tho it's hecking short because you fight with normal enemies ONLY. Not with their pee colored variants.
Oh also story is... gears of war 2 but weaker in my opinion. It's the same story about taking down the queen and finding a way for how to do so, but in this one I felt like tone of the game was lighter than gears1 and 2. I think they did this to make us care about the characters but jokes or comedic moments just don't land for me, I am sorry but they don't. Not just that, the suppossed emotional moment of this game is somehow weaker than the second one. Why? Because it feels hamfisted in my opinion. In the second game that scene had purpose with motivating you to taking down an entire fortress. In this one... It's there to save the group from a critical place, but after we return to civil base, we learn that they didn't have to get stuck in that place in the first place, because they could solve their problem with an alternative way??? Then what purpose it did serve? To shock us? To repeat the second game? I don't know. Also, there are some romantic undertones near the end this time. At least it was fine with not forcing to your face. But just to add girls to the game, newly added female gears armor looks really weird to me tho.
Also for some reason game focused more on showing you different factions of the world. Tbh I would rather get more stronger moments rather than adding more side lore to the game
Now story is fine of course, but what I meant is it could be much much better and impactful with a better writing. That's it.
Sorry for getting angry a bit, but for me refinement and adding new things to this game isn't enough when you put one of my most hated enemy types on most of the game. That is just... No... Sorry. This is not for me. This opinion isn't here to change your favourite game. It's just... like I said... this game is just not for me. That's all.
2008
The legendary Gears2!... unfortunately this game is one step forward one step back for me.
After getting xbox360 just to play some exclusive jrpgs, I wanted to continue my gears journey also and I played on solo with hardcore difficulty and only the singleplayer portion and my thoughts will be according to that.
I have to start with the positives first. This game finally fixed the enemies not stumbling nor get stunned when you use an auto weapon and just for this reason alone this is easier than the first one and feels a little bit more fair fortunately(still some one shotting infuriating enemies exist tho). Also there are more weapons and more enemies and more boss fights and more setpieces and more... It looks good right?
Unfortunately I have some major personal issues about this game too, but just to warn you, you may not like my extremely obscure opinion.
First start with setpieces problem. This game is more on the actiony explosive setpieces this time rather than gimmicky sections. I mean they are still here but more as a assistance to the chaotic action rather than diversifying the levels as it's focus or at least that's how I felt. I mean there are still gimmick sections returning these are satellite weapon section or shadow bats... Wait sorry super rains that forces you to stick on closed spaces rather than light this time, or riding some vehicles(this time it's alive things you ride tho) and couple more like mine filled village or sniper section etc.
But I don't know... Compared to the first game these sections didn't wow me that much and felt really short. I guess I went with the wrong expectations perhaps.
Where the game puts it's focus is more straight cover to cover combat sections with even more choices to select where to go and... Unnecessarily a lot more turret sections. They up them 4 times more than the first game. It even ends on one(I mean something similar that is a vehicle with a gun on it). This game managed me to hate every single one of those sections. Why? Because I played on solo again and as a solo player, given time for you to kill every oncoming enemy to your vehicle or your base is really short also your fov is small enough to always miss couple of them and fail that section. Near the end you need to defend your own army base with turrets at the side and that section alone managed to infuriate me 10 times more than the first game's vehicle section. They really love to punish people that play solo ain't they?
It's not all bad tho. This game probably have the best mission in the gears trilogy also. That is about taking an entire castle with our small team. I have a big love for overtaking a giant enemy fortresses so that level is managed to win me back.
I wish it ended there tho. But game chooses to end on a cliffhanger rather than finishing on it's most chaotic and challenging mission. They choose to finish it on a turret vehicle... Section. At least that section looks cool tho 乁( •_• )ㄏ.
As for the story... It's exist to service to actiony moments just like the first one. People go above and beyond with it's emotional moment near the end. Yeah it was impactful. But other than that moment events nor characters isn't that memorable for me with how stoic and grumpy they are.
What is left is... Yeah also there is a dlc for this game that is about a cut content that is a small alternative version near the underground section that is more stealth oriented for some reason that feels not appropriate for this game. But also have the most insane difficult combat section in the end of it too(I managed to do it barely after 20 deaths, because enemies keep coming from every side)
So yeah that's my own thoughts. I know this game is the best gears game for most of you. I am not here to change that. But I guess my changing gaming taste over the years isn't matched with this unfortunately. Also I guess playing solo, kills most of the enjoyment as well because of the obvious coop balance these games have. So, yeah. This is my own thoughts. Thanks for reading
After getting xbox360 just to play some exclusive jrpgs, I wanted to continue my gears journey also and I played on solo with hardcore difficulty and only the singleplayer portion and my thoughts will be according to that.
I have to start with the positives first. This game finally fixed the enemies not stumbling nor get stunned when you use an auto weapon and just for this reason alone this is easier than the first one and feels a little bit more fair fortunately(still some one shotting infuriating enemies exist tho). Also there are more weapons and more enemies and more boss fights and more setpieces and more... It looks good right?
Unfortunately I have some major personal issues about this game too, but just to warn you, you may not like my extremely obscure opinion.
First start with setpieces problem. This game is more on the actiony explosive setpieces this time rather than gimmicky sections. I mean they are still here but more as a assistance to the chaotic action rather than diversifying the levels as it's focus or at least that's how I felt. I mean there are still gimmick sections returning these are satellite weapon section or shadow bats... Wait sorry super rains that forces you to stick on closed spaces rather than light this time, or riding some vehicles(this time it's alive things you ride tho) and couple more like mine filled village or sniper section etc.
But I don't know... Compared to the first game these sections didn't wow me that much and felt really short. I guess I went with the wrong expectations perhaps.
Where the game puts it's focus is more straight cover to cover combat sections with even more choices to select where to go and... Unnecessarily a lot more turret sections. They up them 4 times more than the first game. It even ends on one(I mean something similar that is a vehicle with a gun on it). This game managed me to hate every single one of those sections. Why? Because I played on solo again and as a solo player, given time for you to kill every oncoming enemy to your vehicle or your base is really short also your fov is small enough to always miss couple of them and fail that section. Near the end you need to defend your own army base with turrets at the side and that section alone managed to infuriate me 10 times more than the first game's vehicle section. They really love to punish people that play solo ain't they?
It's not all bad tho. This game probably have the best mission in the gears trilogy also. That is about taking an entire castle with our small team. I have a big love for overtaking a giant enemy fortresses so that level is managed to win me back.
I wish it ended there tho. But game chooses to end on a cliffhanger rather than finishing on it's most chaotic and challenging mission. They choose to finish it on a turret vehicle... Section. At least that section looks cool tho 乁( •_• )ㄏ.
As for the story... It's exist to service to actiony moments just like the first one. People go above and beyond with it's emotional moment near the end. Yeah it was impactful. But other than that moment events nor characters isn't that memorable for me with how stoic and grumpy they are.
What is left is... Yeah also there is a dlc for this game that is about a cut content that is a small alternative version near the underground section that is more stealth oriented for some reason that feels not appropriate for this game. But also have the most insane difficult combat section in the end of it too(I managed to do it barely after 20 deaths, because enemies keep coming from every side)
So yeah that's my own thoughts. I know this game is the best gears game for most of you. I am not here to change that. But I guess my changing gaming taste over the years isn't matched with this unfortunately. Also I guess playing solo, kills most of the enjoyment as well because of the obvious coop balance these games have. So, yeah. This is my own thoughts. Thanks for reading
2001
Fumito Ueda's grand adventure. Ico! It's simplistic nature and cinematic platforming roots give us unlike anything that come before... maybe since.
This is a game that stripped all of it's flashy parts and only did the bare minimum with it's mechanics. Because it just wants to be a handholding adventure game and just does that. Nothing more, nothing less. If it's mechanics are barebones then why this game is super highly regarded? It's because they used all of their development budget on giving you the VIBES.
It's suspenseful atmosphere, it's dark foreboding loneliness, the feeling that you are in a unknown mysterious place, giving you the feeling that light is your friend, shadows are your enemy. It's masterfully constructs this atmosphere with it's foreboding castle structures, it's cinematic camera angles, it's realistic sound effects. Also it's rare use of music is a super effective choice in this as well. They only come in cutscenes or when you found a save station to make you feel secure(like go and give a listen to Ico: Healing. It's perfect save room music in my opinion).
Only game that come close to giving the same vibes is again another Fumito Ueda game, The Last Guardian, but even that one is more on the hopeful adventurous side in my opinion. This one just in the middle, both suspenseful, both hopeful. It's just perfect vibes.
Now, is this game perfect? No. It does have it's issues like all the other Fumito Ueda games. For example sometimes fixed camera angles obstructs the interactables or doesn't give you a good angle to be able to plan your jump. Our attacks or jumps can't be cancelled nor change their direction after initiating so this adds to the janky feeling a bit. Also our partner Yorda's Ai gets dumb when you are around ladders for some reason(she decides to climb it all the way even tho I am not near it nor I didn't order it to do so sometimes).
Then why 5/5 then? It's hard to explain, but when the atmosphere, the vibes takes you in, I can't help but give it a 5/5. Because there is no other game like it.
This is a game that stripped all of it's flashy parts and only did the bare minimum with it's mechanics. Because it just wants to be a handholding adventure game and just does that. Nothing more, nothing less. If it's mechanics are barebones then why this game is super highly regarded? It's because they used all of their development budget on giving you the VIBES.
It's suspenseful atmosphere, it's dark foreboding loneliness, the feeling that you are in a unknown mysterious place, giving you the feeling that light is your friend, shadows are your enemy. It's masterfully constructs this atmosphere with it's foreboding castle structures, it's cinematic camera angles, it's realistic sound effects. Also it's rare use of music is a super effective choice in this as well. They only come in cutscenes or when you found a save station to make you feel secure(like go and give a listen to Ico: Healing. It's perfect save room music in my opinion).
Only game that come close to giving the same vibes is again another Fumito Ueda game, The Last Guardian, but even that one is more on the hopeful adventurous side in my opinion. This one just in the middle, both suspenseful, both hopeful. It's just perfect vibes.
Now, is this game perfect? No. It does have it's issues like all the other Fumito Ueda games. For example sometimes fixed camera angles obstructs the interactables or doesn't give you a good angle to be able to plan your jump. Our attacks or jumps can't be cancelled nor change their direction after initiating so this adds to the janky feeling a bit. Also our partner Yorda's Ai gets dumb when you are around ladders for some reason(she decides to climb it all the way even tho I am not near it nor I didn't order it to do so sometimes).
Then why 5/5 then? It's hard to explain, but when the atmosphere, the vibes takes you in, I can't help but give it a 5/5. Because there is no other game like it.
2006
I played the og Gears game. It was a bit fun and a bit annoying at the same time. I felt this game have the most variety of gimmick levels in the trilogy and I somehow liked most of them. But I didn't enjoy with the rest of the things that much
In one level you ride a minecart, in one level you use a satellite gun to rain lasers, in one level you must use light effectively to stay alive from shadow bats, in one level you ride a... damn vehicle(I didn't like that one) etc. and I had a lot of fun with their variety of interesting premises for levels, also I liked that it always stick to it's serious tone to the point this game could be my favourite in the trilogy but it still have so many annoyances.
In this game, any auto guns are worthless. I played this game on hardcore and enemies just don't die to the body shots, they don't even stumble of your shooting compared to the sequels, they just continue to run like nothing happened and because of that every fight takes too long to the point of boring you. So you have to use heavy weapons mostly and also headshot with them to be able to minimize the time you spend on shooting enemies. I was wondering If they didn't test the enemies themselves and I understand what the hell is going on when I arrived to the vehicle section of this game.
Why? Because this vehicle needs two person to operate. How do you operate you ask without getting crazy when playing that section solo? With playing co-op of course!
So with co-op way, auto weapons actually have purpose with assisting, so no gun fight takes a damn 10 minute I assume. I only can assume because I decided to play this game solo and as a result some sections was pretty infuriating. For example I can't count how many times I died in that damn vehicle section or in minecart or in train etc. Oh also checkpoints are really few. This results with, you dying to a one shot shotgun or rocket or grenades and so it ends up resetting the whole wave arena fight of course. But I think my patience improved a lot with playing ps1 games so I actually beat this game, I was even gonna respect it's difficulty but I still hate the one-shotting attacks, so... unfortunately no. It wasn't that of a good time.
Another thing I can say is, it's movement mechanics are really hard to get a grasp on. Because when you initiate running or rolling or getting to cover, you really have to think twice because getting out of that or animation to finish takes time. First I didn't like it, but it managed to give me the feeling that I am a hulking tank, so I actually started to enjoy it. I also realized that if I take analog stick to opposite direction and then press the run button, character does a 90 or 180 degree quick turn so this knowledge actually made the game more fun for me.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for the cutscenes nor the characters. Other than pre-rendered cutscenes, every in game cutsceney looks ROUGH and clunky. Good thing is they are pretty short but they sometimes manage to take me out of the scene sometimes so... In my opinion this game would be better without them. Also characters aren't more than cliche grumpy angry soldier guys.
Yeah that was my own journey with this game. I can't say it was a bad time but I can't say it was good either. They balance it for me so... this is the result. If you like super serious and dark shooter vibes you are gonna enjoy this game. But in my opinion, if you want to get entertained of this game, don't play on solo. Play with someone. Otherwise you can go crazy like me in some sections and your experience can get soured as a result like me
In one level you ride a minecart, in one level you use a satellite gun to rain lasers, in one level you must use light effectively to stay alive from shadow bats, in one level you ride a... damn vehicle(I didn't like that one) etc. and I had a lot of fun with their variety of interesting premises for levels, also I liked that it always stick to it's serious tone to the point this game could be my favourite in the trilogy but it still have so many annoyances.
In this game, any auto guns are worthless. I played this game on hardcore and enemies just don't die to the body shots, they don't even stumble of your shooting compared to the sequels, they just continue to run like nothing happened and because of that every fight takes too long to the point of boring you. So you have to use heavy weapons mostly and also headshot with them to be able to minimize the time you spend on shooting enemies. I was wondering If they didn't test the enemies themselves and I understand what the hell is going on when I arrived to the vehicle section of this game.
Why? Because this vehicle needs two person to operate. How do you operate you ask without getting crazy when playing that section solo? With playing co-op of course!
So with co-op way, auto weapons actually have purpose with assisting, so no gun fight takes a damn 10 minute I assume. I only can assume because I decided to play this game solo and as a result some sections was pretty infuriating. For example I can't count how many times I died in that damn vehicle section or in minecart or in train etc. Oh also checkpoints are really few. This results with, you dying to a one shot shotgun or rocket or grenades and so it ends up resetting the whole wave arena fight of course. But I think my patience improved a lot with playing ps1 games so I actually beat this game, I was even gonna respect it's difficulty but I still hate the one-shotting attacks, so... unfortunately no. It wasn't that of a good time.
Another thing I can say is, it's movement mechanics are really hard to get a grasp on. Because when you initiate running or rolling or getting to cover, you really have to think twice because getting out of that or animation to finish takes time. First I didn't like it, but it managed to give me the feeling that I am a hulking tank, so I actually started to enjoy it. I also realized that if I take analog stick to opposite direction and then press the run button, character does a 90 or 180 degree quick turn so this knowledge actually made the game more fun for me.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for the cutscenes nor the characters. Other than pre-rendered cutscenes, every in game cutsceney looks ROUGH and clunky. Good thing is they are pretty short but they sometimes manage to take me out of the scene sometimes so... In my opinion this game would be better without them. Also characters aren't more than cliche grumpy angry soldier guys.
Yeah that was my own journey with this game. I can't say it was a bad time but I can't say it was good either. They balance it for me so... this is the result. If you like super serious and dark shooter vibes you are gonna enjoy this game. But in my opinion, if you want to get entertained of this game, don't play on solo. Play with someone. Otherwise you can go crazy like me in some sections and your experience can get soured as a result like me
2010
When you say dash shooter I am your player. This game have great potential but held back by some strange design choices.
This is a really fun game where you dash around, fire nonstop, burn every robot up. The kind of game that, when you finish a mission you look at the screen smiling and energized. The arcadey type of game that doesn't force long clunky animations on you, the type that instantaneous and fast. You can even change you weapon on the fly where most of the third person games force you to wait on a weapon taking animation.
It's not perfect tho, I have some small nitpicks about it.
-For some reason melee combat punishes you with taking your energy rather than giving it, in my opinion it should be other way around
-There is so many weapons, but half of them heavy weapons like sniper, rocket launcher, energy ball etc. I don't think they go well with this type of game. Also weapon grabbing is not automatic so this slows the game down too with forcing you to search when you are out of bullets.
-There is a weapon upgrade system that is pretty weird. If you find the same weapon again or an upgrade kit, it's get upgraded. But if you die, you lose one of them. I don't know why they did that, in my opinion weapons should scale up depending on your ranking at the end of battles not with upgrade kit hunting.
-Too many game boundaries, there is invisible barriers everywhere for some reason. Just let me jump from the rubble at least? It feels like it limits the movement in my opinion.
Even with those nitpicks I still had a great time on gameplay
The part that where I didn't enjoy is, game keeps interrupting us with unnecessary radio dialogues and unlike mgs they don't matter on anything. They say, go here, do this etc. Why do you stop the gameplay to do that? You don't even trying to tell a interesting story. That's such a stupid decision. Also characters are really boring. For some reason this game trying to be gears of war like characters where everyone is grumpy, keep swearing and looking angrily everywhere... Not a great decision where the gameplay designed to be fun and energized rather than being grumpy. But story takes the energy down with doing opposite.
This game gave me great time where you spam dashes and fire your guns non stop to watch the beautiful explosions. But if they cut the unnecessary parts this game could even go higher for me, just for the reason cutting every interruptions alone. Even with that I recommend this to everyone that loves zipping around, firing your gun nonstop and just having a great time.
This is a really fun game where you dash around, fire nonstop, burn every robot up. The kind of game that, when you finish a mission you look at the screen smiling and energized. The arcadey type of game that doesn't force long clunky animations on you, the type that instantaneous and fast. You can even change you weapon on the fly where most of the third person games force you to wait on a weapon taking animation.
It's not perfect tho, I have some small nitpicks about it.
-For some reason melee combat punishes you with taking your energy rather than giving it, in my opinion it should be other way around
-There is so many weapons, but half of them heavy weapons like sniper, rocket launcher, energy ball etc. I don't think they go well with this type of game. Also weapon grabbing is not automatic so this slows the game down too with forcing you to search when you are out of bullets.
-There is a weapon upgrade system that is pretty weird. If you find the same weapon again or an upgrade kit, it's get upgraded. But if you die, you lose one of them. I don't know why they did that, in my opinion weapons should scale up depending on your ranking at the end of battles not with upgrade kit hunting.
-Too many game boundaries, there is invisible barriers everywhere for some reason. Just let me jump from the rubble at least? It feels like it limits the movement in my opinion.
Even with those nitpicks I still had a great time on gameplay
The part that where I didn't enjoy is, game keeps interrupting us with unnecessary radio dialogues and unlike mgs they don't matter on anything. They say, go here, do this etc. Why do you stop the gameplay to do that? You don't even trying to tell a interesting story. That's such a stupid decision. Also characters are really boring. For some reason this game trying to be gears of war like characters where everyone is grumpy, keep swearing and looking angrily everywhere... Not a great decision where the gameplay designed to be fun and energized rather than being grumpy. But story takes the energy down with doing opposite.
This game gave me great time where you spam dashes and fire your guns non stop to watch the beautiful explosions. But if they cut the unnecessary parts this game could even go higher for me, just for the reason cutting every interruptions alone. Even with that I recommend this to everyone that loves zipping around, firing your gun nonstop and just having a great time.