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I obviously won't spoil any story beats but it's a very nice way to wrap up the Klaus saga while paving the way to the story of the base game of Xenoblade 3. I absolutely do not recommend playing Future Redeemed if you haven't played Xenoblade 1 or 2 since it spoils both games heavily, especially Xenoblade 1.
I'm not really a fan of the gameplay changes like finding upgrades for arts, gems and accessories slots. It just made progression feel like a chore but it's Xenoblade. The OWE and combat is still fun and even more dynamic to explore than ever and there's a lot to do at every corner. Not to mention there's a lot of challenging optional fights like the UMs. Plus community is back and updating NPC text is kino.
I really love the callbacks and fanservice as well. Again no spoilers but there are a few parts that had me like "Yoooooooooooo" and "OMG no way!" It just felt very rewarding to play previous games.
Overall I say Future Redeemed is a nice way to close out Xenoblade since Takahashi finally achieved his dream of telling an epic story that spans across multiple games fully. I am very curious about where Xeno will go as a franchise now!
I'm not really a fan of the gameplay changes like finding upgrades for arts, gems and accessories slots. It just made progression feel like a chore but it's Xenoblade. The OWE and combat is still fun and even more dynamic to explore than ever and there's a lot to do at every corner. Not to mention there's a lot of challenging optional fights like the UMs. Plus community is back and updating NPC text is kino.
I really love the callbacks and fanservice as well. Again no spoilers but there are a few parts that had me like "Yoooooooooooo" and "OMG no way!" It just felt very rewarding to play previous games.
Overall I say Future Redeemed is a nice way to close out Xenoblade since Takahashi finally achieved his dream of telling an epic story that spans across multiple games fully. I am very curious about where Xeno will go as a franchise now!
After one month and 140 hours (a lot of that is idle time though), I finally completed Tears of Tiara 2. To be frank, this was one of my least favorite RPG experiences I ever had. There were several times when I had to force myself to finish the game.
Before I dive into the negatives, I will say not all is bad. The SRPG gameplay is pretty solid. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it works. You get units of different classes such as sword users and mages, buy equipment and upgrade it and give them different skills to boost stats. Barring a few maps when I thought it was unfair, it was a nice balance between being fun and being challenging. The characters are also charming and loveable. Although the majority of them lack heavy character development you would see in the gerne, they’re enjoyable for the most part and I don’t really dislike a single main character throughout the game, you can sense a tight bond with them despite the cast does grow pretty large at 15 characters. The music with the vocals is also pretty solid and the artwork in the CGs is great.
However, the biggest complaint I have with Tears of Tiara 2 is the game is just too long for its own good. I love a long epic tale but only if it’s engaging the entire time. TT2 is an 80 hour game with 13 chapters and I strongly believe the game should have ended in just six chapters if the story had better condensation. The game has some really serious pacing issues and a lot of scenes just get dragged out for little reason, especially in the earlier chapters. The pacing is so slow I would think the majority of players would struggle to even complete chapter 1, let alone the entire game.
Another reason why I think the game should have just ended at chapter 6 is because chapter 7 onwards has to be some of the most ridiculous plot writing I have ever seen in a game and I do not say that in a good way. At least the earlier chapters felt focused enough with clear goals and believable enemies. But after chapter 6, The game’s plot just becomes an unfocused jumbled mess all over the place. It’s really frustrating how the game, later on, treats death like it’s merely a plaything rather than a permanent outcome and a natural process afterlife.
I won’t spoil details but the abuse of revivals and fakeouts ruins and cheapens some of the most emotional scenes in the game in hindsight. Between that and the excess amount of Deus Ex Machina, it feels like the characters pretty much get everything they want with essentially 0 consequences in the long run. Considering this is a warm setting that is about overthrowing a divine emperor, the main cast dealing with 0 consequences on their side just cheapens the true effect of war with this obsession of the game always writing them as coming out at the top no matter what. And that just doesn’t feel believable to me.
Other issues I have is the ability to not save during the VN cutscenes, which is awful and I don’t like a game that doesn’t respect my time. I had to stay up all night multiple times just to reach a save point. And a lot of the overall writing is very repetitive. Not a major flaw but I do notice Tears of Tiara 2 like to recycle the same jokes and gags with the same characters. It’s amusing and funny at first, but it gets quite stale near the end of the game since it long lost its novelty.
Overall while Tears of Tiara 2 has a strong cast of characters with solid gameplay, it’s a hard recommendation to make to even the most diehard RPG fans due to its overall issues in pacing, length, and plot. Especially since I played better RPGs that essentially like Tears of Tiara 2 such as Fire Emblem Echoes. If you have an extreme amount of patience with the story and you’re looking for another SRPG to play then TT2 may be a fine game to play but otherwise, it's just really hard to recommend this game to nearly anyone personally.
Before I dive into the negatives, I will say not all is bad. The SRPG gameplay is pretty solid. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it works. You get units of different classes such as sword users and mages, buy equipment and upgrade it and give them different skills to boost stats. Barring a few maps when I thought it was unfair, it was a nice balance between being fun and being challenging. The characters are also charming and loveable. Although the majority of them lack heavy character development you would see in the gerne, they’re enjoyable for the most part and I don’t really dislike a single main character throughout the game, you can sense a tight bond with them despite the cast does grow pretty large at 15 characters. The music with the vocals is also pretty solid and the artwork in the CGs is great.
However, the biggest complaint I have with Tears of Tiara 2 is the game is just too long for its own good. I love a long epic tale but only if it’s engaging the entire time. TT2 is an 80 hour game with 13 chapters and I strongly believe the game should have ended in just six chapters if the story had better condensation. The game has some really serious pacing issues and a lot of scenes just get dragged out for little reason, especially in the earlier chapters. The pacing is so slow I would think the majority of players would struggle to even complete chapter 1, let alone the entire game.
Another reason why I think the game should have just ended at chapter 6 is because chapter 7 onwards has to be some of the most ridiculous plot writing I have ever seen in a game and I do not say that in a good way. At least the earlier chapters felt focused enough with clear goals and believable enemies. But after chapter 6, The game’s plot just becomes an unfocused jumbled mess all over the place. It’s really frustrating how the game, later on, treats death like it’s merely a plaything rather than a permanent outcome and a natural process afterlife.
I won’t spoil details but the abuse of revivals and fakeouts ruins and cheapens some of the most emotional scenes in the game in hindsight. Between that and the excess amount of Deus Ex Machina, it feels like the characters pretty much get everything they want with essentially 0 consequences in the long run. Considering this is a warm setting that is about overthrowing a divine emperor, the main cast dealing with 0 consequences on their side just cheapens the true effect of war with this obsession of the game always writing them as coming out at the top no matter what. And that just doesn’t feel believable to me.
Other issues I have is the ability to not save during the VN cutscenes, which is awful and I don’t like a game that doesn’t respect my time. I had to stay up all night multiple times just to reach a save point. And a lot of the overall writing is very repetitive. Not a major flaw but I do notice Tears of Tiara 2 like to recycle the same jokes and gags with the same characters. It’s amusing and funny at first, but it gets quite stale near the end of the game since it long lost its novelty.
Overall while Tears of Tiara 2 has a strong cast of characters with solid gameplay, it’s a hard recommendation to make to even the most diehard RPG fans due to its overall issues in pacing, length, and plot. Especially since I played better RPGs that essentially like Tears of Tiara 2 such as Fire Emblem Echoes. If you have an extreme amount of patience with the story and you’re looking for another SRPG to play then TT2 may be a fine game to play but otherwise, it's just really hard to recommend this game to nearly anyone personally.
2016
I've been taking it easy with games lately since I am burned out but I managed to complete Quantum Break last night. A game I have been interested in a few months now. Very good game.
I really overall dig the time traveling and time manipulation story for this the fact it's based on hard science such as quantum physics to create its own science called chronon particles to make its concept of time shattering and freezing in certain points feel more believable. I honestly thought Quantum Break was lacking in actual time traveling at first but near the end, everything came together super nicely while making its plot complex while still inheriting the basic laws of physics and how time worked in the past.
The world-building and amount of text are pretty impressive as well, considering I only spent like 15 hours in the game. With these text files scattered around the levels. You get insight into characters' histories, further in-depth explanations of physics, what is going on in the town from other people's perspectives, even fun stuff like an awfully cliche play based on cheesy sci fi tropes etc. It made the world more alive and I live for detailed worlds, so big plus for me.
What stood out for me is the decision-making that affects the story. Although there are only a few choices and it doesn't change too much of the overall story. The decisions you can make as the main antagonist give you a greater sense of immersion, control and perspective of him. It encourages replay value as well to see how the choices can affect the story. Between that and other triggers during the game, there are about 40 variations for the live-action TV show, so that's a lot of airing they have to do!
Speaking of that, what's especially cool is the TV series going alongside with the game. While I don't think the episodes being live action super necessary, I still think it's a super cool concept I've never seen in a game and it puts characters that are barely in the main game at all in the spotlight. I think the TV show as a standalone is pretty eh since the characters are weak and sorta unlikeable at times and feel like a generic gritty action show. And I'm not really a fan of Liam tbh since the whole super soldier thing just felt unbelievable (even if there's a reason why he could fight well). Yea for a game that lets the main character, Jack have time powers. Liam having a similar body count with no powers felt ridiculous. But even then, I appreciate the TV show for adding on insight to its world and I still think how the actors perfectly mirror its game model counterparts is super cool.
The gameplay is fun, tight, solid thrid person shooting action. While the standard mechanics are plain with your typical arsenal of guns and shooter mechanics like covering. The time manipulation powers help make the combat stand out a lot such as time dodge to quickly avoid enemy gunfire or a time sheld that will reflect enemy gunfire and let you heal for a few seconds. These abilities will help you maintain the upper hand with the waves of enemies. Although they lack variety, it's still a consistent experience.
If I have one complaint, is the game have a case of serious ludonarrative dissonance. Maybe because I don't really play a lot of shooters these days but it kinda bothers me how the main protagonist, Jack supposes to be this seemingly normal and likable enough guy that basically wipes out an entire army in one day and he is basically psychologically unaffected. Quantum Break being a game is a double edge sword. I feel like the detailed world-building is something they could only pull off as a game but I also felt like there were countless waves of enemies just to pad out the game and give some kind of active content to interact with. It's just a bit off-putting and unbelievable that Jack is unaffected by all this death and it's barely talked about but that might be just me being overly sensitive to how death is treated in media as of late haha.
A few unbelievable character moments and iffy writing for the TV show aside. Quantum Break is a really good game that does both gameplay and story well and I thought the idea of mixing live action with a game with decision making was a unique way to present a story. Highly recommend it to anyone that likes sci-fi, especially time-traveling stories.
I really overall dig the time traveling and time manipulation story for this the fact it's based on hard science such as quantum physics to create its own science called chronon particles to make its concept of time shattering and freezing in certain points feel more believable. I honestly thought Quantum Break was lacking in actual time traveling at first but near the end, everything came together super nicely while making its plot complex while still inheriting the basic laws of physics and how time worked in the past.
The world-building and amount of text are pretty impressive as well, considering I only spent like 15 hours in the game. With these text files scattered around the levels. You get insight into characters' histories, further in-depth explanations of physics, what is going on in the town from other people's perspectives, even fun stuff like an awfully cliche play based on cheesy sci fi tropes etc. It made the world more alive and I live for detailed worlds, so big plus for me.
What stood out for me is the decision-making that affects the story. Although there are only a few choices and it doesn't change too much of the overall story. The decisions you can make as the main antagonist give you a greater sense of immersion, control and perspective of him. It encourages replay value as well to see how the choices can affect the story. Between that and other triggers during the game, there are about 40 variations for the live-action TV show, so that's a lot of airing they have to do!
Speaking of that, what's especially cool is the TV series going alongside with the game. While I don't think the episodes being live action super necessary, I still think it's a super cool concept I've never seen in a game and it puts characters that are barely in the main game at all in the spotlight. I think the TV show as a standalone is pretty eh since the characters are weak and sorta unlikeable at times and feel like a generic gritty action show. And I'm not really a fan of Liam tbh since the whole super soldier thing just felt unbelievable (even if there's a reason why he could fight well). Yea for a game that lets the main character, Jack have time powers. Liam having a similar body count with no powers felt ridiculous. But even then, I appreciate the TV show for adding on insight to its world and I still think how the actors perfectly mirror its game model counterparts is super cool.
The gameplay is fun, tight, solid thrid person shooting action. While the standard mechanics are plain with your typical arsenal of guns and shooter mechanics like covering. The time manipulation powers help make the combat stand out a lot such as time dodge to quickly avoid enemy gunfire or a time sheld that will reflect enemy gunfire and let you heal for a few seconds. These abilities will help you maintain the upper hand with the waves of enemies. Although they lack variety, it's still a consistent experience.
If I have one complaint, is the game have a case of serious ludonarrative dissonance. Maybe because I don't really play a lot of shooters these days but it kinda bothers me how the main protagonist, Jack supposes to be this seemingly normal and likable enough guy that basically wipes out an entire army in one day and he is basically psychologically unaffected. Quantum Break being a game is a double edge sword. I feel like the detailed world-building is something they could only pull off as a game but I also felt like there were countless waves of enemies just to pad out the game and give some kind of active content to interact with. It's just a bit off-putting and unbelievable that Jack is unaffected by all this death and it's barely talked about but that might be just me being overly sensitive to how death is treated in media as of late haha.
A few unbelievable character moments and iffy writing for the TV show aside. Quantum Break is a really good game that does both gameplay and story well and I thought the idea of mixing live action with a game with decision making was a unique way to present a story. Highly recommend it to anyone that likes sci-fi, especially time-traveling stories.
Sky 3rd is honestly one of my least favorite of the series from what I have played. I mean don't get me wrong it's still a good game. I just fail to see how it's the most important game in the series like many people say and praise it like a huge "lore library". It's honestly more of a super long conclusion to FC and SC imo. While some doors are super important and do lead into the future games well or really clear up some questions that happened in FC/SC, other doors felt like a filler anime episode or not as satisfying as I hope to be. I guess I prefer a Trails game more like FC/SC than 3rd.
Kevin and Ries's story is easily my favorite part of the game since it was surprisingly darker than I thought and both characters developed well because of it. It took a while to really pick up but it paid off nicely in the end. The gameplay is also the best in Sky, even if it has tons of annoyances against enemies (looking at you, petrification one-shots) and the dungeon grinding was more fun than I thought.
The ending was super nice and kinda emotional, especially since it felt like a proper send in the Liberl arc, something we didn't get as well in SC.
Kevin and Ries's story is easily my favorite part of the game since it was surprisingly darker than I thought and both characters developed well because of it. It took a while to really pick up but it paid off nicely in the end. The gameplay is also the best in Sky, even if it has tons of annoyances against enemies (looking at you, petrification one-shots) and the dungeon grinding was more fun than I thought.
The ending was super nice and kinda emotional, especially since it felt like a proper send in the Liberl arc, something we didn't get as well in SC.
2006
Matt do be having those hands though lmao
2022
Played 12 hours of Tactics Orge before the start of the new years. It's not bad but due to a couple reasons I'm gonna shelve it for now.
From an historical perspective, it's nice to see where Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy got its inspiration. But my main thing is just how slow the battles are, even on high spreed mode. Idk, it just feel like it takes forever to take down an enemy. Especially since there's an "union level", so an unit can't go pass the union level until it's raised after a couple main story battles. I get this exist so you won't have anyone overleveled and rely less on "tactics". But I kinda wish the union level didn't exist if enemy gonna be huge health sponges. At least the AI mode is nice if you wanna grind up units on training maps.
Story is fine, it's nothing wow (maybe because the stories of FFT and TS spoiled me) but it's serviceable enough for a tactics game, especially for its age. I like how you can make choices to shape up the story and having certain characters you have recruited to have extra lines during battles is nice. It was the main reason why I kept playing despite the dragged out battles.
There's also an another good reason why I'm shelving the game but that's something I really can't really explain, at least not in the public (let just say it isn't just about me for this reason). I am aware of the age of Tactics Orge and even the remake is quite old at this point. But I'm just at the stage when there's just so many games to play, I don't really have the time to just settle for "okay". I might return to it one day since deep down, I do enjoy it enough to keep playing. But right now, there are just bigger priorities than Tactics Orge.
From an historical perspective, it's nice to see where Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy got its inspiration. But my main thing is just how slow the battles are, even on high spreed mode. Idk, it just feel like it takes forever to take down an enemy. Especially since there's an "union level", so an unit can't go pass the union level until it's raised after a couple main story battles. I get this exist so you won't have anyone overleveled and rely less on "tactics". But I kinda wish the union level didn't exist if enemy gonna be huge health sponges. At least the AI mode is nice if you wanna grind up units on training maps.
Story is fine, it's nothing wow (maybe because the stories of FFT and TS spoiled me) but it's serviceable enough for a tactics game, especially for its age. I like how you can make choices to shape up the story and having certain characters you have recruited to have extra lines during battles is nice. It was the main reason why I kept playing despite the dragged out battles.
There's also an another good reason why I'm shelving the game but that's something I really can't really explain, at least not in the public (let just say it isn't just about me for this reason). I am aware of the age of Tactics Orge and even the remake is quite old at this point. But I'm just at the stage when there's just so many games to play, I don't really have the time to just settle for "okay". I might return to it one day since deep down, I do enjoy it enough to keep playing. But right now, there are just bigger priorities than Tactics Orge.
It's definitely more of a post-game dungeon deal with challenging bosses since the story for this DLC is basically a very well-elaborated excuse to have a challenging dungeon at the endgame. But it was really nice to revisit FFXVI's combat and dungeon crawling even if it's not my absolutely favorite part of the game.
Me personally, I thought the dungeon was too FFXIV-ish. It definitely reminded me of how dungeons and raids in that game work because of the challenge and how a lot of the bosses love AOE attacks. But I thought the whole high techno setting was just very out of place??? Me personally, I think "Omega" in FF in general sticks out like a sore thumb but it's especially apparent in FFXVI.
Overall while the DLC doesn't have any of the highs of the base game off FFXVI, it's a short and sweet time with its gameplay if you want more FFXVI and pretty much did everything you could in the base game or looking for a greater challenge.
Me personally, I thought the dungeon was too FFXIV-ish. It definitely reminded me of how dungeons and raids in that game work because of the challenge and how a lot of the bosses love AOE attacks. But I thought the whole high techno setting was just very out of place??? Me personally, I think "Omega" in FF in general sticks out like a sore thumb but it's especially apparent in FFXVI.
Overall while the DLC doesn't have any of the highs of the base game off FFXVI, it's a short and sweet time with its gameplay if you want more FFXVI and pretty much did everything you could in the base game or looking for a greater challenge.
2019
Finished Ys IX at 62 hours. Sadly I didn't get the perfect 100% I wanted. I'm somehow missing a monster and character entry but otherwise, I completed all side quests, did all bonding events, got all collectibles and treasures, fully mapped out the game, and defeated the optional superboss.
I enjoyed Ys IX much more than I thought. It's the Trails-like story presentation that really sold it for me such as the world-building, updating NPC dialogue, intricate side quests involving the cast and I had a lot of fun parkouring Balduq with the different Monstrum abilities. Plus all of the references from past Ys games were cool as well.
The gameplay is pretty solid and fast ARPG as expected from Ys with the different skills and strong emphasis on timed dodges and guards. Although I do wish there were more RPG elements such as more stats beyond strength and defense but at least there are plenty of ways to create better gear and gather resources and healing items especially if you do the side quests since the Dandelion is a really good base. Filled with useful NPCs.
My only complaint is the main plot. While in the end it became really great full of unforeseen crazy plot twists and deep lore, a huge chunk of the plot was very formulaic and a lot of the early story beats were painfully predictable. I just wished there was more variation in the storytelling for the main plot.
Overall I had a blast with Ys IX since this is the closest we will get to action Trails and it retains many of the great elements from that series within a single game. Ys fans may not be a fan of the Trails presentation but I personally love it a lot since it was a great balance between action and story. So I'm pleased to say Monstrum Nox has surpassed my expectations.
I enjoyed Ys IX much more than I thought. It's the Trails-like story presentation that really sold it for me such as the world-building, updating NPC dialogue, intricate side quests involving the cast and I had a lot of fun parkouring Balduq with the different Monstrum abilities. Plus all of the references from past Ys games were cool as well.
The gameplay is pretty solid and fast ARPG as expected from Ys with the different skills and strong emphasis on timed dodges and guards. Although I do wish there were more RPG elements such as more stats beyond strength and defense but at least there are plenty of ways to create better gear and gather resources and healing items especially if you do the side quests since the Dandelion is a really good base. Filled with useful NPCs.
My only complaint is the main plot. While in the end it became really great full of unforeseen crazy plot twists and deep lore, a huge chunk of the plot was very formulaic and a lot of the early story beats were painfully predictable. I just wished there was more variation in the storytelling for the main plot.
Overall I had a blast with Ys IX since this is the closest we will get to action Trails and it retains many of the great elements from that series within a single game. Ys fans may not be a fan of the Trails presentation but I personally love it a lot since it was a great balance between action and story. So I'm pleased to say Monstrum Nox has surpassed my expectations.
2020
I finished Haven at just 15 and a half hours. Extremely short for my standards but honestly I needed a short game to change up the pace. I didn't expect much besides "Sci Fi couple game" but I ended up liking it much more than I thought. The game never felt stale at all despite there being only just two characters really. I enjoy Yu and Kay's interactions with the planet Source, finding all kinds of different things and talking about them while flowing around and enjoying each other's company with various activities. Plus they talk about thier past lives a lot, so that gives in a lot of lore with the setting and thier backgrounds.
Haven isn't really a plot-focused game at all since much of the time it's just about Yu and Kay exploring around and finding parts for thier ships to be repaired but I found it really cool towards the end of the game, the lore points and thier motivations start to form a plot to tie things up. The endings are very controversial from what I've read but I think the best ending possible to obtain in the game is a nice conclusion for Yu and Kay. Haven isn't a grand Sci-Fi epic with dozens of characters and deep world-building. It is all about the love and romance between Yu and Kay and how nothing can keep thier love apart and I personally think that was what the entire game was trying to emphasize and I think it did very well with delivering that theme, even if I can agree easily way more could be done with the lore points. But I appreciate the story Haven wanted to tell.
My only real complaint is the gameplay. The survival elements weren't too bad and I really really like how not a single living soul dies in the game because essentially every game have death in some sort of way. However, I just found the combat very...clunky? The ATB combat is simple and holding down the button to do commands just doesn't work for me sometimes? And trying to use items is just very clunky to perform. Plus while Haven gets called as an RPG, I just found so many essential RPG elements to be missing that I rather just call it an adventure game. Not to mention, exploration can be maze-like here and there because you have to find a certain flow thread to exit the area and those can be tricky to find. The gameplay isn't awful, in fact, I think it's passable for the most part, but I definitely thought it needed more fine-tuning and polish.
Minor gameplay complaints and false RPG advertisement aside. Haven is a very neat and comfy game and I overall really enjoy and got attached to the romance adventure. I recommend the game a lot if you want something quick, simple, and lighthearted that is still very character focused with the story.
Haven isn't really a plot-focused game at all since much of the time it's just about Yu and Kay exploring around and finding parts for thier ships to be repaired but I found it really cool towards the end of the game, the lore points and thier motivations start to form a plot to tie things up. The endings are very controversial from what I've read but I think the best ending possible to obtain in the game is a nice conclusion for Yu and Kay. Haven isn't a grand Sci-Fi epic with dozens of characters and deep world-building. It is all about the love and romance between Yu and Kay and how nothing can keep thier love apart and I personally think that was what the entire game was trying to emphasize and I think it did very well with delivering that theme, even if I can agree easily way more could be done with the lore points. But I appreciate the story Haven wanted to tell.
My only real complaint is the gameplay. The survival elements weren't too bad and I really really like how not a single living soul dies in the game because essentially every game have death in some sort of way. However, I just found the combat very...clunky? The ATB combat is simple and holding down the button to do commands just doesn't work for me sometimes? And trying to use items is just very clunky to perform. Plus while Haven gets called as an RPG, I just found so many essential RPG elements to be missing that I rather just call it an adventure game. Not to mention, exploration can be maze-like here and there because you have to find a certain flow thread to exit the area and those can be tricky to find. The gameplay isn't awful, in fact, I think it's passable for the most part, but I definitely thought it needed more fine-tuning and polish.
Minor gameplay complaints and false RPG advertisement aside. Haven is a very neat and comfy game and I overall really enjoy and got attached to the romance adventure. I recommend the game a lot if you want something quick, simple, and lighthearted that is still very character focused with the story.
2022
I finished Soul Hackers 2 today at 53 hours. Tbh I didn't attempt to go for a 100% run since I didn't enjoy the gameplay outside of combat too much, especially the dungeons. But I've completed all requests including the main DLC ones and completed everyone's soul matrix up to 4F, which led me to the good ending of the game.
I say this is a pretty solid game that I didn't really understand the hate for when it was released. The story is definitely the main highlight here. The plot is well-paced enough and never overstays its welcome and despite there being only just 4 playable characters (which is one of the smallest party RPGs I've played in terms of playable characters), they have so much personality and depth (quite litterally actually since a huge point of the game is diving deeper into thier soul).
The vast number of hangout events, food reviews when you eat a new meal at the hideout, and even quick comments when you receive a new ability just flesh them out so well on top of how everyone is related to the main plot just flesh them out so well. It's definitely a quality-over-quantity value with the overall character writing. Even the other characters receive a surprising amount of development toward the end that plays well into the cybernetic themes of human development and what consists of a soul. My expectations were certainly surpassed by the overall story.
As much as I like the story, unfortunately, it has so many hiccups with the gameplay and I think the small budget hurts it a lot. The combat is very typical to Megami Tensei with using demons to battle other demons and summoners and I think that's solid for the most part. I believe other games in the series handle combat better (like the series' staple press turn is missing and I suppose it's replaced by commander skills) but it's serviceable enough for the most part.
But nearly all of the dungeons are either boring, repetitive, and empty or confusing to travel. Not to mention there is a lot of backtracking even for the main plot, let alone side quests when you would be backtracking far more often due to there aren't a lot of open areas to travel. There are even only just a few places to travel in the city hub despite thier colorful and eye-candy visuals.
In the end, if you can handle the drab and lackluster gameplay and dungeon exploring, then I believe Soul Hackers 2 is a worthy game to play for the story alone. It's by far a masterpiece by any means but I personally think it's enjoyable enough at the end of the day and it definitely doesn't overstay its welcome if you don't engage in the gameplay elements for too long.
I say this is a pretty solid game that I didn't really understand the hate for when it was released. The story is definitely the main highlight here. The plot is well-paced enough and never overstays its welcome and despite there being only just 4 playable characters (which is one of the smallest party RPGs I've played in terms of playable characters), they have so much personality and depth (quite litterally actually since a huge point of the game is diving deeper into thier soul).
The vast number of hangout events, food reviews when you eat a new meal at the hideout, and even quick comments when you receive a new ability just flesh them out so well on top of how everyone is related to the main plot just flesh them out so well. It's definitely a quality-over-quantity value with the overall character writing. Even the other characters receive a surprising amount of development toward the end that plays well into the cybernetic themes of human development and what consists of a soul. My expectations were certainly surpassed by the overall story.
As much as I like the story, unfortunately, it has so many hiccups with the gameplay and I think the small budget hurts it a lot. The combat is very typical to Megami Tensei with using demons to battle other demons and summoners and I think that's solid for the most part. I believe other games in the series handle combat better (like the series' staple press turn is missing and I suppose it's replaced by commander skills) but it's serviceable enough for the most part.
But nearly all of the dungeons are either boring, repetitive, and empty or confusing to travel. Not to mention there is a lot of backtracking even for the main plot, let alone side quests when you would be backtracking far more often due to there aren't a lot of open areas to travel. There are even only just a few places to travel in the city hub despite thier colorful and eye-candy visuals.
In the end, if you can handle the drab and lackluster gameplay and dungeon exploring, then I believe Soul Hackers 2 is a worthy game to play for the story alone. It's by far a masterpiece by any means but I personally think it's enjoyable enough at the end of the day and it definitely doesn't overstay its welcome if you don't engage in the gameplay elements for too long.
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is the second installment of the “Secret” Arc of the Atelier games and the 22nd overall main game in the series. The game features Reisalin Stout aka Ryza to travel to the capital city of Ashra-am Baird to research and explore new ruins of the offset of the capital. Along the way, they met a strange creature named Fi. Atelier Ryza 2 saw a few setbacks from the first Atelier Ryza game but there are many improvements overall that made the sequel very worth playing.
(Due to Ryza 2 being a direct sequel, there will be very slight spoilers for Ryza 1 but nothing very heavy, Ryza 2 will be spoiler-free as well).
Gameplay-wise, Atelier Ryza 2 functions very similarly to Atelier Ryza 1 in the alchemy creation. You pick up and find ingredients in the maps with alchemy tools and use various ingredients to synthesize items with various traits, quality, and element values. Since Ryza 2 is a direct sequel, the game does expect you to be familiar with these systems already as there are far fewer tutorials this time. However, the alchemy saw a huge improvement and a greater degree of freedom. A huge feature that adds to that sense of alchemy freedom is the skill tree. With this, you can unlock alchemy recipes and skills in a nonlinear fashion due to how they can branch off. Many of the alchemy modes such as morphing, item rebuilding, gem reduction, item duplication etc. return to the game. As well as the new essence feature. There’s tons of depth with the alchemy creation, this is merely the overall basic summary. I spent hours looking up guides just to figure out how to synthesize a specific item, what ingredients do I need, and how and where I can obtain them.
Combat also saw many improvements. While still using the same Action Turn-Based system from the first game and many of its features such as tactics and the AP and CC item systems, there are some additional elements to make the combat feel more snappy such as the addition of a 4th party member. While you can only have 3 active party members, you can switch out one of the party members for the 4th one at any given time and even have them attack the enemy as soon as you switch to them. Also combos, yes combos. If you have enough AP built up, you can do the same skill 3-4 times in a row for devastating damage and fluid and flashy attack animations. It’s largely the same as Ryza 1 but with improvements to make combat feel more smooth.
So gameplay overall is largely the same as Ryza 1 but with new improvements. However, the biggest change is the exploration. You’re able to swing your way around with a grappler hook, dive and swim underwater, use a flashlight to explore dark places, and use a large creature to dig up rare ingredients. During these ruins, once you have explored them enough, these fragmented crystals will appear all over the maps of each ruin. You collect these crystals to solve the mysteries of each ruin with the clues you have gathered around. While they’re overall not terribly hard to figure out, it’s a nice addition to make you feel like you’re researching the ruins carefully and you get rewarded with skill tree points to use to unlock more recipes and skills for the game. There are also other gameplay elements in the game such as shop development when you trade-in items and ingredients to unlock certain items in shops and the Puni eater when you feel his ingredients and he will come back with different ingredients in return.
So Ryza 2 has tons of gameplay depth to keep the player busy the entire time. However, gameplay alone isn’t why Ryza 2 is an overall improvement, as the cast is the main highlight and the strongest value of the game. Being three years since the first game, the main cast has overall matured a lot. Ryza, while overall changed the least, is at least far less self-centered and has a greater concern of care for others this time around. Klaudia, going from a shy and insecure girl to someone with confidence running her family business. Tao, going from a wimpy booknerd to….well still a booknerd but the wimpness is overall gone at least. Lent going from someone that wanted to be strong to that strength actually backfires on him and that causes him to be depressed at times. He actually regresses as a character, which makes strong character development for him in the game. The new characters are great additions as well that feel right in place with the four main characters from the first game. Such as Patty, an elegant noble that is focused on her studies and has curiosity. Clifford, a jaded treasure hunter that tends to work alone and seeking “true romance”. And Serri, a soft-spoken Oren that is out on a mission to save her world.
Each of the main characters, besides Ryza, has their own personal character arcs throughout the game and each character develops very well as they deal with their own issues with Ryza. I won’t spoil what each character deals with as the personal arcs are some of the most story-driven beats in the game. But overall the game tackles themes of friendship, trust, inferiority, and self adequacy, and standing up to what you truly believe in. And the characters do not just revolve around Ryza either. There are plenty of scenes with the main characters talking to each other about various topics, from the mundane ones to topics that build on additional information about the character. This makes the cast feel like they’re actually friends with each other and not just a bunch of random people with the only thing that they have in common is knowing who Ryza is.
Ryza gives plenty of love to its side characters as well. A few of them even got arcs of the same quality as the main characters such as Dennis, the material wilder. Cassandra, the farmer girl, Romy, a traveling merchant that settled down for a bit in the capital. Zephine, a waitress for a cafe, and even Bos, the son of the Brunnen family from the first game. Even the characters from side quests get tiny arcs as well. Such as a gang that tries to find treasure or a schoolgirl that tries to overcome her fear of men with plants or a high noble man and his servant carefully watching over Ryza as they give her tasks.
Ryza 2 got plenty of gameplay depth and character writing, the game sounds amazing with tons to do so far right? However, I do have two major issues that I have noticed while I was playing through the game. My first complaint is Ryza feels very self inserty. While she felt like she was her own character in Ryza 1. Since the game evenly focused on Ryza, Tao, Lent, and Klaudia and no one character was resolving every single problem the cast had. In Ryza 2, can't help but think Ryza robs a lot of character development for other characters. Some character arcs absolutely required her like Serri's arc and even Klaudia but others not so much, in fact, I think it would be better if someone else was in replacement. For instance, I actually think it would be better if Tao was helping Patty with her arc instead of Ryza since the two already have an established relationship that had the chance to deepen. I can say the same for Lila and Lent for his arc.
Not to mention, Ryza feels like she can do anything now while in Ryza 1 she has clear limitations. It's very clear everyone relies on her to create this instant solution to solve a roadblock. On top of Ryza's always cheerful and happy attitude. I feel like Ryza went from a very flawed character to an almost flawless character that can solve literally any problem with almost no development. Not to mention Ryza is the only character that has a deep relationship with everyone. I mean the other characters do interact with each other and there is proof they are friends but it is missing depth. Hence why I said why she felt self inserty. Self-inserts are usually perfect problem solvers.
My second issue is the main plot. While the character arcs are great and offer plenty of story for the game, remember, Ryza came to the capital in the first place to investigate ruins and that is the main plot. It’s very repetitive and formulaic. Essentially for each ruin, you look at key objects, ask questions about the ruin with your party, hit a roadblock, resolve that roadblock with alchemy, fight the boss for the ruin and suck up the mana in that ruin for Fi. It doesn’t help that there's no true antagonist in the game like Ryza 1 or even no set goals like the other Atelier games. The ruins exploring feel very aimless and barebone in terms of plot. The one thing that Ryza 1 did better was the main plot. While it had odd pacing, it gave the characters conflict and problems to overcome against the antagonists.
Ryza 2 would be much better if it had that same “classic and epic JRPG main plot” as Ryza 1 did towards the second half. Only the final dungeon had something remotely close to what Ryza 1 had in terms of plot writing but by then, it felt very shoehorned and too late to have any real impact on the overall plot barring the emotional ending. And even then, the final dungeon retreads on plot beats from the final moments of Ryza 1. The main plot could be much more but the character arcs make it up greatly. However, it would be amazing if the main plot was mixed in with the character arcs somehow.
Overall Ryza 2 is an improvement in gameplay, a huge improvement in exploration, and a huge leap in character writing and development. While Ryza herself as a character is lacking in depth and feels too much like a Mary Sue at times, she is still overall likable enough compared to the first game. The lack of a focused main plot with impactable conflict is the biggest flaw in the game, and if you’re looking for a grand plot, then look elsewhere. Atelier games were never known for epic plots, but even for Atelier standards, it’s certainly not up to par. However, if you are looking for a game that has in-depth alchemy and combat with characters that undergoes their own personal struggles and have plenty of interaction with the cast and especially Ryza, then you will enjoy Atelier Ryza 2 a lot. It’s overall a very good game and improves much of the flaws of the first game. Highly recommend the second game if you don’t completely hate the first game.
(Due to Ryza 2 being a direct sequel, there will be very slight spoilers for Ryza 1 but nothing very heavy, Ryza 2 will be spoiler-free as well).
Gameplay-wise, Atelier Ryza 2 functions very similarly to Atelier Ryza 1 in the alchemy creation. You pick up and find ingredients in the maps with alchemy tools and use various ingredients to synthesize items with various traits, quality, and element values. Since Ryza 2 is a direct sequel, the game does expect you to be familiar with these systems already as there are far fewer tutorials this time. However, the alchemy saw a huge improvement and a greater degree of freedom. A huge feature that adds to that sense of alchemy freedom is the skill tree. With this, you can unlock alchemy recipes and skills in a nonlinear fashion due to how they can branch off. Many of the alchemy modes such as morphing, item rebuilding, gem reduction, item duplication etc. return to the game. As well as the new essence feature. There’s tons of depth with the alchemy creation, this is merely the overall basic summary. I spent hours looking up guides just to figure out how to synthesize a specific item, what ingredients do I need, and how and where I can obtain them.
Combat also saw many improvements. While still using the same Action Turn-Based system from the first game and many of its features such as tactics and the AP and CC item systems, there are some additional elements to make the combat feel more snappy such as the addition of a 4th party member. While you can only have 3 active party members, you can switch out one of the party members for the 4th one at any given time and even have them attack the enemy as soon as you switch to them. Also combos, yes combos. If you have enough AP built up, you can do the same skill 3-4 times in a row for devastating damage and fluid and flashy attack animations. It’s largely the same as Ryza 1 but with improvements to make combat feel more smooth.
So gameplay overall is largely the same as Ryza 1 but with new improvements. However, the biggest change is the exploration. You’re able to swing your way around with a grappler hook, dive and swim underwater, use a flashlight to explore dark places, and use a large creature to dig up rare ingredients. During these ruins, once you have explored them enough, these fragmented crystals will appear all over the maps of each ruin. You collect these crystals to solve the mysteries of each ruin with the clues you have gathered around. While they’re overall not terribly hard to figure out, it’s a nice addition to make you feel like you’re researching the ruins carefully and you get rewarded with skill tree points to use to unlock more recipes and skills for the game. There are also other gameplay elements in the game such as shop development when you trade-in items and ingredients to unlock certain items in shops and the Puni eater when you feel his ingredients and he will come back with different ingredients in return.
So Ryza 2 has tons of gameplay depth to keep the player busy the entire time. However, gameplay alone isn’t why Ryza 2 is an overall improvement, as the cast is the main highlight and the strongest value of the game. Being three years since the first game, the main cast has overall matured a lot. Ryza, while overall changed the least, is at least far less self-centered and has a greater concern of care for others this time around. Klaudia, going from a shy and insecure girl to someone with confidence running her family business. Tao, going from a wimpy booknerd to….well still a booknerd but the wimpness is overall gone at least. Lent going from someone that wanted to be strong to that strength actually backfires on him and that causes him to be depressed at times. He actually regresses as a character, which makes strong character development for him in the game. The new characters are great additions as well that feel right in place with the four main characters from the first game. Such as Patty, an elegant noble that is focused on her studies and has curiosity. Clifford, a jaded treasure hunter that tends to work alone and seeking “true romance”. And Serri, a soft-spoken Oren that is out on a mission to save her world.
Each of the main characters, besides Ryza, has their own personal character arcs throughout the game and each character develops very well as they deal with their own issues with Ryza. I won’t spoil what each character deals with as the personal arcs are some of the most story-driven beats in the game. But overall the game tackles themes of friendship, trust, inferiority, and self adequacy, and standing up to what you truly believe in. And the characters do not just revolve around Ryza either. There are plenty of scenes with the main characters talking to each other about various topics, from the mundane ones to topics that build on additional information about the character. This makes the cast feel like they’re actually friends with each other and not just a bunch of random people with the only thing that they have in common is knowing who Ryza is.
Ryza gives plenty of love to its side characters as well. A few of them even got arcs of the same quality as the main characters such as Dennis, the material wilder. Cassandra, the farmer girl, Romy, a traveling merchant that settled down for a bit in the capital. Zephine, a waitress for a cafe, and even Bos, the son of the Brunnen family from the first game. Even the characters from side quests get tiny arcs as well. Such as a gang that tries to find treasure or a schoolgirl that tries to overcome her fear of men with plants or a high noble man and his servant carefully watching over Ryza as they give her tasks.
Ryza 2 got plenty of gameplay depth and character writing, the game sounds amazing with tons to do so far right? However, I do have two major issues that I have noticed while I was playing through the game. My first complaint is Ryza feels very self inserty. While she felt like she was her own character in Ryza 1. Since the game evenly focused on Ryza, Tao, Lent, and Klaudia and no one character was resolving every single problem the cast had. In Ryza 2, can't help but think Ryza robs a lot of character development for other characters. Some character arcs absolutely required her like Serri's arc and even Klaudia but others not so much, in fact, I think it would be better if someone else was in replacement. For instance, I actually think it would be better if Tao was helping Patty with her arc instead of Ryza since the two already have an established relationship that had the chance to deepen. I can say the same for Lila and Lent for his arc.
Not to mention, Ryza feels like she can do anything now while in Ryza 1 she has clear limitations. It's very clear everyone relies on her to create this instant solution to solve a roadblock. On top of Ryza's always cheerful and happy attitude. I feel like Ryza went from a very flawed character to an almost flawless character that can solve literally any problem with almost no development. Not to mention Ryza is the only character that has a deep relationship with everyone. I mean the other characters do interact with each other and there is proof they are friends but it is missing depth. Hence why I said why she felt self inserty. Self-inserts are usually perfect problem solvers.
My second issue is the main plot. While the character arcs are great and offer plenty of story for the game, remember, Ryza came to the capital in the first place to investigate ruins and that is the main plot. It’s very repetitive and formulaic. Essentially for each ruin, you look at key objects, ask questions about the ruin with your party, hit a roadblock, resolve that roadblock with alchemy, fight the boss for the ruin and suck up the mana in that ruin for Fi. It doesn’t help that there's no true antagonist in the game like Ryza 1 or even no set goals like the other Atelier games. The ruins exploring feel very aimless and barebone in terms of plot. The one thing that Ryza 1 did better was the main plot. While it had odd pacing, it gave the characters conflict and problems to overcome against the antagonists.
Ryza 2 would be much better if it had that same “classic and epic JRPG main plot” as Ryza 1 did towards the second half. Only the final dungeon had something remotely close to what Ryza 1 had in terms of plot writing but by then, it felt very shoehorned and too late to have any real impact on the overall plot barring the emotional ending. And even then, the final dungeon retreads on plot beats from the final moments of Ryza 1. The main plot could be much more but the character arcs make it up greatly. However, it would be amazing if the main plot was mixed in with the character arcs somehow.
Overall Ryza 2 is an improvement in gameplay, a huge improvement in exploration, and a huge leap in character writing and development. While Ryza herself as a character is lacking in depth and feels too much like a Mary Sue at times, she is still overall likable enough compared to the first game. The lack of a focused main plot with impactable conflict is the biggest flaw in the game, and if you’re looking for a grand plot, then look elsewhere. Atelier games were never known for epic plots, but even for Atelier standards, it’s certainly not up to par. However, if you are looking for a game that has in-depth alchemy and combat with characters that undergoes their own personal struggles and have plenty of interaction with the cast and especially Ryza, then you will enjoy Atelier Ryza 2 a lot. It’s overall a very good game and improves much of the flaws of the first game. Highly recommend the second game if you don’t completely hate the first game.
2020
-Written on January 12-
Night City is a very vibrant open world with a passable main story but it is plagued with filler and I hate to be this guy but....bugs as well.
Let just get this out of the way first. Night City is a gorgeous city filled with different cultures, people, and atmospheres. One part of the town is Chinatown while another is dominated by Afro-Caribbean residents and of course, you got your downtown and low poverty areas. Not to mention there's a huge deserted land outside of the city with a lot of clans out there. The environment is vibrant and full as you see different ads, different kinds of art on the walls. I always appreciate the variety, it never made exploring and driving around Night City boring, even nearly 90 hours later. Plus it made the city more realistic as big cities always going to have different cultural overlaps.
Cyberpunk 2077 could easily go with the cliche "everything has tall buildings with neon lights" setting as you see a lot of Cyberpunk works but instead it opts to create a world that looks very similar to ours but with the technological upgrades that coat the city and its citizens and it was a refreshing change. The music section could be just as cliche as well with synthwave everywhere you go but there's a whole range of music besides that, from rap, jazz, metal, rock etc. for the license tracklist. Even the game's own OST features tunes that are closer to orchestrated ambient.
The gameplay is very similar to the Deus Ex games when you are presented with options. You could go blazing around with a wide section of guns and melee weapons, or you could use your biochip to hack away electronics and enemies to help you perform stealth better. Of course, as you level up, you will acquire two types of points. Perks, which are little boosters such as a small increase in critical change or damage at a certain area of the enemy with a certain weapon type, and attributes, the main areas that can affect the playstyle of your character, V. With attributes, you can build your character specialize in hacking, shooting, crafting etc. These attributes will also unlock dialogue options for V if the attributes have enough points. I found the gameplay to be just fine, I had no issues with it. Though I got to say the hacking aspects are the most unique elements of the gameplay.
Quests, the main chunk of Cyberpunk 2077 and one of my biggest issues of the game. There are tons of gigs to do in Night City and you can unlock more as your Street Cred level up. While I was playing through the game I figure there are three types of side quests. Character quests, Gigs, and Crime Quests.
Character quests are when you usually have to do a chain of quests for a person you normally meet during the main quest (which I will get to in a bit) and follow their stories. I personally find character quests to be the best since it fleshes out who they're are as a person and the conflicts they're involved with. Their stories aren't groundbreaking but it adds a lot of context to what kind of place Night City is and the people that live there. Plus it gives you the chance to romance the character. The list is very short, especially because it depends on what gender V is and I wish you can do more with the character after you began dating them.
Gigs are when a fixer contacts you and wants you to kill someone, rescue someone, steal something or hack a computer, etc. They're short and there are multiple ways to complete a gig. Sadly they're very formulaic and repetitive, especially with the number of gigs you can do. The fixer always gives you a reason why you're doing the gig by calling you, so there is SOME story element but it's usually very forgettable because you only get two paragraphs of details why you're doing this at best. There are a few good gigs that expand on worldbuilding, but it's few and far between.
The last type of side quests and it's the worst one, Crime Quests. It's just you killing gang members that are either in their hideout or assaulting someone and you can complete this in literally 10 seconds if you're overleveled. There are nearly 200 of them to do and while there's very short, I spent 15 hours doing all of them and it's a bit mind-numbing, especially since there's hardly any reason to do these quests. The only reason you should do these quests is if you want great gear, weapons, and equipment. I personally think you get the best stuff doing these quests but it's personally not worth doing all of these unlike you really want to 100% the game.
The game has tons to do and I spent the majority of the game doing side content. However, I feel like a lot of it is patted filler and doesn't really add anything to the game from a writing perspective in the long run. I'm not a "more is better" guy so I honestly believe the game would be better if they just kept all of the character quests and the gigs that add a lot to the worldbuilding. After a while, it just felt aimless and boring doing all of these quests.
The main quest, while it started off as a generic "become a legend by doing a big-time heist" story, it quickly became something far more unique and interesting that compliments the Cyberpunk setting, how a huge corporation turn a city into a Dystopian and various conflicts such as man vs technology and man vs the self (in a way). The only disappointing part of the main story is it's too short for its own good. If you only do the main story, you can easily beat Cyberpunk 2077 within 20 hours. It had the potential to tell a great tale and the endings deliver well, especially with its philosophical undertones close to the end of the main quest. Just sadly, those themes of corporation domination and self-fighting aren't explored enough. I would greatly prefer it if most of the filler quests went towards a more expansive main story. I do not understand why CD Projekt Red shorten the story so more people can complete it. It's an RPG after all, you always need the dedication to finish those.
Other minor issues I have is balancing. After Act 1, you can do every side quest in the game before progressing the main story. If you like me, that likes to do every side quest before the main story, you will become ridiculously overleveled with the best gear. To the point, you can one-shot anyone and you're very hard to kill. Even bosses will fall to your knees within a minute. I don't think the game intended you to become a God while you playing the main story but it can happen easily lol. Player choice also doesn't have too much of an impact on the world. I mean you have a ton of dialogue options and you can get different endings for some quests but those are mainly self-contained. What kinda frustrates me is the ending you can get on the main story just depends on what choice you make right before the final mission, as if everything you did beforehand did not matter at all. I understand it's hard to make a unique player experience in an AAA game but it's disappointing your actions throughout the main story almost have 0 impact on what ending you can get other than doing character quests.
And there are bugs, yes bugs. I won't spend too much time on this since this is a topic beaten to the ground but I can say this much, the more I played, the buggier the game got. Early on when I started, I just saw tiny things float in the air, pretty ignorable right? 70 hours later tho, I faced quite a lot of issues like quests not starting or completing, doors not opening (and you was trapped inside), half of your body appearing above you while you ride a motorcycle sometimes for a few seconds etc. The game even crashed on me twice before and I once got respawned to a random place out of nowhere and I was falling endlessly. Luckily restarting your save file or killing yourself fixes these issues but it was stressful trying to find a solution to the quests not starting, especially the main quests as I thought the game would be impossible to complete a few times. I know CD Projekt Red is patching up the game nicely eventually but at the moment, I feel like I'm playing an early access version of Cyberpunk 2077 and I pay $60 to beta test the game. It's actually laughable this supposed to be the final build of the game.
And I know I just nitpicking at this point but I notice other things like there are no cop chases when you break the law, robots just appear out of nowhere. I also think it's completely pointless to have a huge dick in the game when the only time you could ever see it is if your character is completely naked and you open up the character menu. Yes, your dick doesn't even appear while you're playing the game, it gets covered up with briefs no matter what.
I know this is a small addition to the game but I absolutely love the photo mode in the game. Since the game lacks a third-person camera and I do think it's a weird decision to not include it, I think photo mode is a fair compromise to be able to see your custom character enough and you can use it at any given moment of the game. I love you can do various poses and emotions with your character. Some of them are even references to anime or memes. More options to create a photogenic scene is nice. It's a very fun thing I will admit I spent far too much time on it.
Honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty mid, even without the bugs. I personally found the game to be a massive step down from CD Projekt Red's previous game The Witcher 3 (which is one of my favorites) in nearly every area but maybe gameplay. Night City has a lot of life with many tales to discover and nearly all of the quests that bother to tell a compelling story to deliver fine enough at least. It also plays around with a lot of themes with its main story and the ending (at least mines) was solid despite the length. The gameplay functions well and offers you a lot of options which is really cool. However, it suffers a lot from pointless filler that adds almost nothing as well as a lack of impactful player choices and some balancing issues. As of the time I post this, It's very hard to recommend the game, even for PC users and I know consoles players got it much worse. If you dying to play an open-world cyberpunk RPG right now and you can deal with bugs and filler, then sure go for the game. Otherwise, I would at least wait until the game is patched out enough. Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of potential and it delivers in some areas, but it falls flat in others.
Night City is a very vibrant open world with a passable main story but it is plagued with filler and I hate to be this guy but....bugs as well.
Let just get this out of the way first. Night City is a gorgeous city filled with different cultures, people, and atmospheres. One part of the town is Chinatown while another is dominated by Afro-Caribbean residents and of course, you got your downtown and low poverty areas. Not to mention there's a huge deserted land outside of the city with a lot of clans out there. The environment is vibrant and full as you see different ads, different kinds of art on the walls. I always appreciate the variety, it never made exploring and driving around Night City boring, even nearly 90 hours later. Plus it made the city more realistic as big cities always going to have different cultural overlaps.
Cyberpunk 2077 could easily go with the cliche "everything has tall buildings with neon lights" setting as you see a lot of Cyberpunk works but instead it opts to create a world that looks very similar to ours but with the technological upgrades that coat the city and its citizens and it was a refreshing change. The music section could be just as cliche as well with synthwave everywhere you go but there's a whole range of music besides that, from rap, jazz, metal, rock etc. for the license tracklist. Even the game's own OST features tunes that are closer to orchestrated ambient.
The gameplay is very similar to the Deus Ex games when you are presented with options. You could go blazing around with a wide section of guns and melee weapons, or you could use your biochip to hack away electronics and enemies to help you perform stealth better. Of course, as you level up, you will acquire two types of points. Perks, which are little boosters such as a small increase in critical change or damage at a certain area of the enemy with a certain weapon type, and attributes, the main areas that can affect the playstyle of your character, V. With attributes, you can build your character specialize in hacking, shooting, crafting etc. These attributes will also unlock dialogue options for V if the attributes have enough points. I found the gameplay to be just fine, I had no issues with it. Though I got to say the hacking aspects are the most unique elements of the gameplay.
Quests, the main chunk of Cyberpunk 2077 and one of my biggest issues of the game. There are tons of gigs to do in Night City and you can unlock more as your Street Cred level up. While I was playing through the game I figure there are three types of side quests. Character quests, Gigs, and Crime Quests.
Character quests are when you usually have to do a chain of quests for a person you normally meet during the main quest (which I will get to in a bit) and follow their stories. I personally find character quests to be the best since it fleshes out who they're are as a person and the conflicts they're involved with. Their stories aren't groundbreaking but it adds a lot of context to what kind of place Night City is and the people that live there. Plus it gives you the chance to romance the character. The list is very short, especially because it depends on what gender V is and I wish you can do more with the character after you began dating them.
Gigs are when a fixer contacts you and wants you to kill someone, rescue someone, steal something or hack a computer, etc. They're short and there are multiple ways to complete a gig. Sadly they're very formulaic and repetitive, especially with the number of gigs you can do. The fixer always gives you a reason why you're doing the gig by calling you, so there is SOME story element but it's usually very forgettable because you only get two paragraphs of details why you're doing this at best. There are a few good gigs that expand on worldbuilding, but it's few and far between.
The last type of side quests and it's the worst one, Crime Quests. It's just you killing gang members that are either in their hideout or assaulting someone and you can complete this in literally 10 seconds if you're overleveled. There are nearly 200 of them to do and while there's very short, I spent 15 hours doing all of them and it's a bit mind-numbing, especially since there's hardly any reason to do these quests. The only reason you should do these quests is if you want great gear, weapons, and equipment. I personally think you get the best stuff doing these quests but it's personally not worth doing all of these unlike you really want to 100% the game.
The game has tons to do and I spent the majority of the game doing side content. However, I feel like a lot of it is patted filler and doesn't really add anything to the game from a writing perspective in the long run. I'm not a "more is better" guy so I honestly believe the game would be better if they just kept all of the character quests and the gigs that add a lot to the worldbuilding. After a while, it just felt aimless and boring doing all of these quests.
The main quest, while it started off as a generic "become a legend by doing a big-time heist" story, it quickly became something far more unique and interesting that compliments the Cyberpunk setting, how a huge corporation turn a city into a Dystopian and various conflicts such as man vs technology and man vs the self (in a way). The only disappointing part of the main story is it's too short for its own good. If you only do the main story, you can easily beat Cyberpunk 2077 within 20 hours. It had the potential to tell a great tale and the endings deliver well, especially with its philosophical undertones close to the end of the main quest. Just sadly, those themes of corporation domination and self-fighting aren't explored enough. I would greatly prefer it if most of the filler quests went towards a more expansive main story. I do not understand why CD Projekt Red shorten the story so more people can complete it. It's an RPG after all, you always need the dedication to finish those.
Other minor issues I have is balancing. After Act 1, you can do every side quest in the game before progressing the main story. If you like me, that likes to do every side quest before the main story, you will become ridiculously overleveled with the best gear. To the point, you can one-shot anyone and you're very hard to kill. Even bosses will fall to your knees within a minute. I don't think the game intended you to become a God while you playing the main story but it can happen easily lol. Player choice also doesn't have too much of an impact on the world. I mean you have a ton of dialogue options and you can get different endings for some quests but those are mainly self-contained. What kinda frustrates me is the ending you can get on the main story just depends on what choice you make right before the final mission, as if everything you did beforehand did not matter at all. I understand it's hard to make a unique player experience in an AAA game but it's disappointing your actions throughout the main story almost have 0 impact on what ending you can get other than doing character quests.
And there are bugs, yes bugs. I won't spend too much time on this since this is a topic beaten to the ground but I can say this much, the more I played, the buggier the game got. Early on when I started, I just saw tiny things float in the air, pretty ignorable right? 70 hours later tho, I faced quite a lot of issues like quests not starting or completing, doors not opening (and you was trapped inside), half of your body appearing above you while you ride a motorcycle sometimes for a few seconds etc. The game even crashed on me twice before and I once got respawned to a random place out of nowhere and I was falling endlessly. Luckily restarting your save file or killing yourself fixes these issues but it was stressful trying to find a solution to the quests not starting, especially the main quests as I thought the game would be impossible to complete a few times. I know CD Projekt Red is patching up the game nicely eventually but at the moment, I feel like I'm playing an early access version of Cyberpunk 2077 and I pay $60 to beta test the game. It's actually laughable this supposed to be the final build of the game.
And I know I just nitpicking at this point but I notice other things like there are no cop chases when you break the law, robots just appear out of nowhere. I also think it's completely pointless to have a huge dick in the game when the only time you could ever see it is if your character is completely naked and you open up the character menu. Yes, your dick doesn't even appear while you're playing the game, it gets covered up with briefs no matter what.
I know this is a small addition to the game but I absolutely love the photo mode in the game. Since the game lacks a third-person camera and I do think it's a weird decision to not include it, I think photo mode is a fair compromise to be able to see your custom character enough and you can use it at any given moment of the game. I love you can do various poses and emotions with your character. Some of them are even references to anime or memes. More options to create a photogenic scene is nice. It's a very fun thing I will admit I spent far too much time on it.
Honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty mid, even without the bugs. I personally found the game to be a massive step down from CD Projekt Red's previous game The Witcher 3 (which is one of my favorites) in nearly every area but maybe gameplay. Night City has a lot of life with many tales to discover and nearly all of the quests that bother to tell a compelling story to deliver fine enough at least. It also plays around with a lot of themes with its main story and the ending (at least mines) was solid despite the length. The gameplay functions well and offers you a lot of options which is really cool. However, it suffers a lot from pointless filler that adds almost nothing as well as a lack of impactful player choices and some balancing issues. As of the time I post this, It's very hard to recommend the game, even for PC users and I know consoles players got it much worse. If you dying to play an open-world cyberpunk RPG right now and you can deal with bugs and filler, then sure go for the game. Otherwise, I would at least wait until the game is patched out enough. Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of potential and it delivers in some areas, but it falls flat in others.
2005
It has both Venom and Carnage so it's instantly one of the best Spiderman games
Plus I absolutely loved the cel-shaded art style to match with the comics.
Plus I absolutely loved the cel-shaded art style to match with the comics.
It's basically Super Mario 64 but in Spongebob paint but it's still a very solid platformer and one of the best for its era.
2022
Finished Valkyrie Elysium at 33 hours, obtaining all 4 endings, and completed every single side quest they have to offer. As well as the post-game mode Hilde's Vengeance.
I don't think it's honestly a bad game as people like to make out of it. It's a very solid linear action game resembling the PS2 era. The gameplay loop is pretty fun with a variety of weapons and magic you could use to input various combos and you can unlock more inputs as you upgrade each weapon.
You can also get stronger with three skill trees that increase your attack, defense, hp, arts and soul gauges as well as unlocking technical moves such as quick evade, perfect parrying, counter-attacking etc.
The addition of Einherjar and each one of them has thier own element and assist you in battle add depth to the game by attacking enemies based on thier elemental weakness.
The overall story is severable. The plot is quite simple, as essentially you're are a Valkyrie created by Odin to collect souls in Midgard in order to save the world but as you progress the game, there is more than what meets the eyes.
I say the highlight is how Valkyrie slowly develops over time as she encounters more Einherjar that was once human and still maintains thier humanity even after death. The Einherjar in general, while not very deep and developed characters, they have lively enough personalities that are severable enough to carry throughout the game.
The endings can range in satisfaction but I think the true ending, as intended, is the best ending since it's the only ending that wraps up every plot point that was ongoing in the game and has some pretty nice final bosses.
That said, the more I played Valkyrie Elysium, the more it become very apparent it's a game with a very limited budget. You're always revisiting areas in side quests and even during the main story, there is a lot of backtracking.
Plus the game is filled with some technical issues during cutscenes like the lip-syncing is off. I even experience some slowdowns during combat, quite a lot of the time the framerate would drop.
And while I did not mind this, it's worth noting some people may not like how linear and repetitive the game is by nature. The overall flow of the game is you're at Asgard selecting a mission or talking to the few people there, you battle your way through, you find souls that will give you a sidequest (to be completed after you're done with your current mission), you complete the mission and rinse and repeat.
My biggest complaint however is...the game just feels empty and dead. To my understanding, the Valkyrie Profile series and Norse mythology, in general, were never overly populated a huge point of the game is purifying a dying world. But considering there are only 10-11 people in total in the game, excluding wandering souls. The game feels like it missing a lot of needed life.
It just feels like more could be done with the game's story such as more people at Asgard to receive quests, for example, to counter the emptiness of Valkyrie Elysium.
For better or for worse, Valkyrie Elysium stays true to the heyday of low-budget Japanese action games from the sixth generation. Those that are looking for deep world and character interaction will be very disappointed but all and all, I appreciate Valkyrie Elysium for what it is, a fun action game with great combat with a solid enough story that doesn't overstay its welcome, even if I believe more could be done with the Norse setting in Elysium if the game was allowed a bigger budget.
I don't think it's honestly a bad game as people like to make out of it. It's a very solid linear action game resembling the PS2 era. The gameplay loop is pretty fun with a variety of weapons and magic you could use to input various combos and you can unlock more inputs as you upgrade each weapon.
You can also get stronger with three skill trees that increase your attack, defense, hp, arts and soul gauges as well as unlocking technical moves such as quick evade, perfect parrying, counter-attacking etc.
The addition of Einherjar and each one of them has thier own element and assist you in battle add depth to the game by attacking enemies based on thier elemental weakness.
The overall story is severable. The plot is quite simple, as essentially you're are a Valkyrie created by Odin to collect souls in Midgard in order to save the world but as you progress the game, there is more than what meets the eyes.
I say the highlight is how Valkyrie slowly develops over time as she encounters more Einherjar that was once human and still maintains thier humanity even after death. The Einherjar in general, while not very deep and developed characters, they have lively enough personalities that are severable enough to carry throughout the game.
The endings can range in satisfaction but I think the true ending, as intended, is the best ending since it's the only ending that wraps up every plot point that was ongoing in the game and has some pretty nice final bosses.
That said, the more I played Valkyrie Elysium, the more it become very apparent it's a game with a very limited budget. You're always revisiting areas in side quests and even during the main story, there is a lot of backtracking.
Plus the game is filled with some technical issues during cutscenes like the lip-syncing is off. I even experience some slowdowns during combat, quite a lot of the time the framerate would drop.
And while I did not mind this, it's worth noting some people may not like how linear and repetitive the game is by nature. The overall flow of the game is you're at Asgard selecting a mission or talking to the few people there, you battle your way through, you find souls that will give you a sidequest (to be completed after you're done with your current mission), you complete the mission and rinse and repeat.
My biggest complaint however is...the game just feels empty and dead. To my understanding, the Valkyrie Profile series and Norse mythology, in general, were never overly populated a huge point of the game is purifying a dying world. But considering there are only 10-11 people in total in the game, excluding wandering souls. The game feels like it missing a lot of needed life.
It just feels like more could be done with the game's story such as more people at Asgard to receive quests, for example, to counter the emptiness of Valkyrie Elysium.
For better or for worse, Valkyrie Elysium stays true to the heyday of low-budget Japanese action games from the sixth generation. Those that are looking for deep world and character interaction will be very disappointed but all and all, I appreciate Valkyrie Elysium for what it is, a fun action game with great combat with a solid enough story that doesn't overstay its welcome, even if I believe more could be done with the Norse setting in Elysium if the game was allowed a bigger budget.