jg27
27 reviews liked by jg27
Sonic Frontiers
2022
'Pinball predates civilization.'
Played with BertKnot.
The release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) marked the de facto end of an era for Japanese animation. By recasting his franchise in a contemplative and optimistic light, Hideaki Anno emphasised the need to embrace life in all its complexity and to take care of ourselves. While fans remain divided over which version they prefer, with some favouring the ending of The End of Evangelion (1997), the change in tone has been recognised as Anno's new-found serenity. The 1997 film represented an excision of his otaku side through the flames of Purgatory, a bitter violence necessitated by the fans' deviation from the discourse developed in the anime. Thrice Upon a Time takes a much more contemplative approach, marking a genuine process of mourning and reconstruction. In particular, the film subtly weaves its characters into real-life scenes, highlighting their relationships with a wider society.
Rewriting and recontextualisation in Japanese pop-culture
This process of recontextualisation involves a dialogue between official production and fan production. Nicolle Lamerichs shows how the perception of characters is fluid and how fandom reclaims canonical characters to express themes beyond the author's control [1]. The figure of Shinji is particularly subject to these transformations, as he represents the otaku identity and the outcasts of Japanese society. By setting Shinji and the other characters in familiar settings – scenes similar to those in the anime and The End of the Evangelion, but also in everyday sceneries – Anno leaves it to the audience to completely reappropriate these characters, emphasising only their verisimilitude or, conversely, their artificiality. Such rewriting strategies are not uncommon in modern popular fiction, and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has demonstrated a surprising plasticity in recent years.
Through fan imagination, recent games, the Sonic Boom series (2014), and the Sonic the Hedgehog films (2020, 2022), the franchise has slowly shed the remnants of its kawaī aestheticism and taken on a more serious tone. The culmination was the release of Sonic Frontiers, the marketing cycle of which initially highlighted the shift in the series. The advent of the open world was supposed to renew the game formula, and the visual direction was meant to reflect a new gravitas for the hero, pondering the interpersonal relationships he has with his friends. For a game about renewal, the communication around Sonic Frontiers was relatively timid: the first gameplay footage was withheld for a long time, particularly the Cyberspace stages. This was probably due to the chaotic state of the title, which suffered from multiple development iterations and a serious lack of budget.
Meaningless references: a futile search for identity
The player assumes the role of Sonic and must explore the Starfall Islands to rescue his friends who have been trapped in a parallel dimension by Dr Eggman and his artificial intelligence, Sage. The adventure consists of exploring five islands filled with micro-objectives that allow the player to collect Chaos Emeralds and engage with the local Titan, who protects the barrier between the real world and reality. Sonic Frontiers borrows extensively from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), to the point where the original project was intended to be a much slower experience, with Sonic able to walk slowly and ride a horse [2]. The game makes no attempt to hide its direct inspiration, so much so that it directly recreates the Blood Moon scene and simply turns it into a Starfall one. The title rips off ideas from all the recent productions, turning them into a crucible with no identity. The general setting is that of Breath of the Wild, with a soundtrack that loosely copies the ethereal piano sound design, while the battles against the Titans are largely inspired by Shadow of the Colossus (2005), with the same sense of gradual scaling.
The combat system is inspired by recent character action games, with a rather surprising emphasis on combos; the density of the puzzles recalls the exploration of Genshin Impact (2020) and the many activities that dot organically the Teyvat map and blend with the environment; there are many borrowings from Neon Genesis Evangelion as well and, above all, Sonic's own games. But this compilation is particularly clumsy. At Gamescom 2022, fans could see that the level design of Cyberspace stages was lifted from previous entries in the series, including Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), Unleashed (2008) and Generation (2011). While Takashi Īzuka cited the corruption of the hero's memories as the reason for this decision [3], it was more likely a lack of resources and time. Two major problems underline the flawed nature of this approach. Firstly, while the layout of the levels is often taken from previous games, the graphics only vary between four environments: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and a new zone resembling Crisis City. The result is particularly dull and monotonous, with an overly detailed background and obnoxious visual filters designed to mimic computer corruption.
Inconsistent design between the various activities
More critically, the gameplay of Sonic Frontiers does not fit in with the old designs. The title opts for a jerky gameplay, with an Aim Attack that is only used for direction and never to gain speed, as Sonic is generally always faster when running unaided. This design dichotomy alters the relationship with the S rank: it seems alternately trivial and overly complicated. In reality, if the player chooses not to play according to the rules dictated by the old Sonic level design, and ignores the optimal and natural route in order to concentrate on Sonic's own movement, the S rank is relatively easy to achieve, although it feels meaningless due to the disconnect with the level. The same problem occurs in the overworld. The islands are particularly empty and visually abysmal, leaving the player to rush from objective to objective to solve uninspiring puzzles or complete ill-conceived mini-games. Gathering Kocos for Amy looks inordinately like the shepherd mini-game in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006), while the hacking mini-games are literally lifted from NieR: Automata (2017). The pinball, in which Sonic does not even act as the ball, is astonishing in its unusual mediocrity, as is the final boss in Hard Mode, a particularly poor and unwelcome shoot'em-up sequence.
For a game that emphasises freedom of exploration, Sonic Frontiers feels commanding. The progression from activity to activity is artificial, with the player's attention drawn to the nearest hideous metal structure. When it comes to action, Sonic's and the camera's movements are always fixed by the rails and the level design, which tries to convince the player that the game is still a platformer. It is particularly peculiar that Chaos Island contains so many 2.5D sequences, which are completely at odds with the open-world spirit of the title. With map exploration dependent on completing micro-objectives, exploration is generally linear or bloated with pointless roundabouts. Sonic's stats do little to shake the game out of its formulaic shackles, and any player who decides to spend a little time fishing to raise Sonic's attributes will find the experience ludicrous, as battles are over in an instant, as they are merely designated as health bars to be lowered during the vulnerability cycle. The game does a particularly poor job of communicating its gameplay intentions, and fights suffer from particularly long downtimes to justify the inclusion of chase sequences. The staging is often unreadable and the camera is frequently in awkward places, blocked by the metal limbs of enemies, if not spinning around to the point of causing serious dizziness. The perspective is also generally very poor, and diving attacks are always rather unpleasant to perform.
The art of false contemplation
Sonic Frontiers also suffers from poor performance, with serious clipping every few metres. Visually, the various islands are homogeneous, with no visual landmarks to give a clear idea of the world's geography. The fourth and fifth islands are, in fact, direct extensions of the first, further reducing the visual variety of the title. The game tries to impose a darker tone on its atmosphere, relying heavily on simple broken piano chords and a melody that repeats after three bars. Unable to find an identity, the game intersperses this pseudo-contemplation with unwarranted jazz melodies for its mini-games and heroic jingles when the player triumphs. The tone of the story follows this inconsistency: Sonic Frontiers multiplies references without purpose, justifying its existence by exploring the lore of the Ancients-Chao in a modulation on the themes of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (2021) and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000). The dialogues between Sonic and his companions are an opportunity to rehash themes already dealt with in previous games, under the guise of false maturity.
For Dr Eggman, Sonic Frontiers is an opportunity to discover fatherhood through crude cinematics and shallow, flawed writing. It comes as no surprise that Sonic Frontiers takes up the theme of parenthood transcending blood ties, a subject that has been well-explored in popular Japanese fiction since the 2010s, and has recently been exacerbated. However, this addition seems unjustified, given that Eggman is such a passive character. The game seems to be a collection of ideas with no coherence, whether in its game design, narrative or artistic direction. Taking elements that have worked in other cultural productions, the title indulges in a chaotic jumble, defending its own identity through a sort of recapitulation, a moment of reflection in the light of a new maturity.
This was Anno's project with Thrice Upon a Time, bringing an era to a close and ushering in a new one. All the characters of Evangelion were contextualised in a new world, both in the diegesis and in the context of film's production. It was a final attempt to respond to a troubled Japanese youth, battered by the uncertainty of the labour market and the breakdown of traditional interpersonal relationships: it is from this observation and a mature optimism that hope is born. Sonic Frontiers draws no lessons from the past and says nothing. It revels in its own status as a game of transition, with no intention of defining the future direction of the franchise; ironically, Sonic Superstars seems to disavow Frontiers' project by once again taking the golden nostalgia route already exploited by Sonic Mania (2017). This is unfortunate, as the idea of an open-world Sonic game is not necessarily meaningless, but it deserves better than feeble half-measures.
__________
[1] Nicolle Lamerichs, ‘The Emotional Realism of Anime: Rewriting Characters and Affective Reception in Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time’, in Mechademia, vol. 15, no. 1, 2022, pp. 81-102.
[2] Yuzuke Takahashi, ‘［TGS2022］「ソニックフロンティア」制作者インタビュー。クラシック，モダンに続く第三世代ソニックに込められた思いとは’, on 4Gamer.net, 16th September 2022.
[3] Zackari Greif, ‘Sonic Team Leader Explains Sonic Frontiers' Use of Old Level Designs’, on gamerant.com, 30th August 2022, consulted on 16th June 2023.
Played with BertKnot.
The release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) marked the de facto end of an era for Japanese animation. By recasting his franchise in a contemplative and optimistic light, Hideaki Anno emphasised the need to embrace life in all its complexity and to take care of ourselves. While fans remain divided over which version they prefer, with some favouring the ending of The End of Evangelion (1997), the change in tone has been recognised as Anno's new-found serenity. The 1997 film represented an excision of his otaku side through the flames of Purgatory, a bitter violence necessitated by the fans' deviation from the discourse developed in the anime. Thrice Upon a Time takes a much more contemplative approach, marking a genuine process of mourning and reconstruction. In particular, the film subtly weaves its characters into real-life scenes, highlighting their relationships with a wider society.
Rewriting and recontextualisation in Japanese pop-culture
This process of recontextualisation involves a dialogue between official production and fan production. Nicolle Lamerichs shows how the perception of characters is fluid and how fandom reclaims canonical characters to express themes beyond the author's control [1]. The figure of Shinji is particularly subject to these transformations, as he represents the otaku identity and the outcasts of Japanese society. By setting Shinji and the other characters in familiar settings – scenes similar to those in the anime and The End of the Evangelion, but also in everyday sceneries – Anno leaves it to the audience to completely reappropriate these characters, emphasising only their verisimilitude or, conversely, their artificiality. Such rewriting strategies are not uncommon in modern popular fiction, and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has demonstrated a surprising plasticity in recent years.
Through fan imagination, recent games, the Sonic Boom series (2014), and the Sonic the Hedgehog films (2020, 2022), the franchise has slowly shed the remnants of its kawaī aestheticism and taken on a more serious tone. The culmination was the release of Sonic Frontiers, the marketing cycle of which initially highlighted the shift in the series. The advent of the open world was supposed to renew the game formula, and the visual direction was meant to reflect a new gravitas for the hero, pondering the interpersonal relationships he has with his friends. For a game about renewal, the communication around Sonic Frontiers was relatively timid: the first gameplay footage was withheld for a long time, particularly the Cyberspace stages. This was probably due to the chaotic state of the title, which suffered from multiple development iterations and a serious lack of budget.
Meaningless references: a futile search for identity
The player assumes the role of Sonic and must explore the Starfall Islands to rescue his friends who have been trapped in a parallel dimension by Dr Eggman and his artificial intelligence, Sage. The adventure consists of exploring five islands filled with micro-objectives that allow the player to collect Chaos Emeralds and engage with the local Titan, who protects the barrier between the real world and reality. Sonic Frontiers borrows extensively from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), to the point where the original project was intended to be a much slower experience, with Sonic able to walk slowly and ride a horse [2]. The game makes no attempt to hide its direct inspiration, so much so that it directly recreates the Blood Moon scene and simply turns it into a Starfall one. The title rips off ideas from all the recent productions, turning them into a crucible with no identity. The general setting is that of Breath of the Wild, with a soundtrack that loosely copies the ethereal piano sound design, while the battles against the Titans are largely inspired by Shadow of the Colossus (2005), with the same sense of gradual scaling.
The combat system is inspired by recent character action games, with a rather surprising emphasis on combos; the density of the puzzles recalls the exploration of Genshin Impact (2020) and the many activities that dot organically the Teyvat map and blend with the environment; there are many borrowings from Neon Genesis Evangelion as well and, above all, Sonic's own games. But this compilation is particularly clumsy. At Gamescom 2022, fans could see that the level design of Cyberspace stages was lifted from previous entries in the series, including Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), Unleashed (2008) and Generation (2011). While Takashi Īzuka cited the corruption of the hero's memories as the reason for this decision [3], it was more likely a lack of resources and time. Two major problems underline the flawed nature of this approach. Firstly, while the layout of the levels is often taken from previous games, the graphics only vary between four environments: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and a new zone resembling Crisis City. The result is particularly dull and monotonous, with an overly detailed background and obnoxious visual filters designed to mimic computer corruption.
Inconsistent design between the various activities
More critically, the gameplay of Sonic Frontiers does not fit in with the old designs. The title opts for a jerky gameplay, with an Aim Attack that is only used for direction and never to gain speed, as Sonic is generally always faster when running unaided. This design dichotomy alters the relationship with the S rank: it seems alternately trivial and overly complicated. In reality, if the player chooses not to play according to the rules dictated by the old Sonic level design, and ignores the optimal and natural route in order to concentrate on Sonic's own movement, the S rank is relatively easy to achieve, although it feels meaningless due to the disconnect with the level. The same problem occurs in the overworld. The islands are particularly empty and visually abysmal, leaving the player to rush from objective to objective to solve uninspiring puzzles or complete ill-conceived mini-games. Gathering Kocos for Amy looks inordinately like the shepherd mini-game in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006), while the hacking mini-games are literally lifted from NieR: Automata (2017). The pinball, in which Sonic does not even act as the ball, is astonishing in its unusual mediocrity, as is the final boss in Hard Mode, a particularly poor and unwelcome shoot'em-up sequence.
For a game that emphasises freedom of exploration, Sonic Frontiers feels commanding. The progression from activity to activity is artificial, with the player's attention drawn to the nearest hideous metal structure. When it comes to action, Sonic's and the camera's movements are always fixed by the rails and the level design, which tries to convince the player that the game is still a platformer. It is particularly peculiar that Chaos Island contains so many 2.5D sequences, which are completely at odds with the open-world spirit of the title. With map exploration dependent on completing micro-objectives, exploration is generally linear or bloated with pointless roundabouts. Sonic's stats do little to shake the game out of its formulaic shackles, and any player who decides to spend a little time fishing to raise Sonic's attributes will find the experience ludicrous, as battles are over in an instant, as they are merely designated as health bars to be lowered during the vulnerability cycle. The game does a particularly poor job of communicating its gameplay intentions, and fights suffer from particularly long downtimes to justify the inclusion of chase sequences. The staging is often unreadable and the camera is frequently in awkward places, blocked by the metal limbs of enemies, if not spinning around to the point of causing serious dizziness. The perspective is also generally very poor, and diving attacks are always rather unpleasant to perform.
The art of false contemplation
Sonic Frontiers also suffers from poor performance, with serious clipping every few metres. Visually, the various islands are homogeneous, with no visual landmarks to give a clear idea of the world's geography. The fourth and fifth islands are, in fact, direct extensions of the first, further reducing the visual variety of the title. The game tries to impose a darker tone on its atmosphere, relying heavily on simple broken piano chords and a melody that repeats after three bars. Unable to find an identity, the game intersperses this pseudo-contemplation with unwarranted jazz melodies for its mini-games and heroic jingles when the player triumphs. The tone of the story follows this inconsistency: Sonic Frontiers multiplies references without purpose, justifying its existence by exploring the lore of the Ancients-Chao in a modulation on the themes of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (2021) and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000). The dialogues between Sonic and his companions are an opportunity to rehash themes already dealt with in previous games, under the guise of false maturity.
For Dr Eggman, Sonic Frontiers is an opportunity to discover fatherhood through crude cinematics and shallow, flawed writing. It comes as no surprise that Sonic Frontiers takes up the theme of parenthood transcending blood ties, a subject that has been well-explored in popular Japanese fiction since the 2010s, and has recently been exacerbated. However, this addition seems unjustified, given that Eggman is such a passive character. The game seems to be a collection of ideas with no coherence, whether in its game design, narrative or artistic direction. Taking elements that have worked in other cultural productions, the title indulges in a chaotic jumble, defending its own identity through a sort of recapitulation, a moment of reflection in the light of a new maturity.
This was Anno's project with Thrice Upon a Time, bringing an era to a close and ushering in a new one. All the characters of Evangelion were contextualised in a new world, both in the diegesis and in the context of film's production. It was a final attempt to respond to a troubled Japanese youth, battered by the uncertainty of the labour market and the breakdown of traditional interpersonal relationships: it is from this observation and a mature optimism that hope is born. Sonic Frontiers draws no lessons from the past and says nothing. It revels in its own status as a game of transition, with no intention of defining the future direction of the franchise; ironically, Sonic Superstars seems to disavow Frontiers' project by once again taking the golden nostalgia route already exploited by Sonic Mania (2017). This is unfortunate, as the idea of an open-world Sonic game is not necessarily meaningless, but it deserves better than feeble half-measures.
__________
[1] Nicolle Lamerichs, ‘The Emotional Realism of Anime: Rewriting Characters and Affective Reception in Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time’, in Mechademia, vol. 15, no. 1, 2022, pp. 81-102.
[2] Yuzuke Takahashi, ‘［TGS2022］「ソニックフロンティア」制作者インタビュー。クラシック，モダンに続く第三世代ソニックに込められた思いとは’, on 4Gamer.net, 16th September 2022.
[3] Zackari Greif, ‘Sonic Team Leader Explains Sonic Frontiers' Use of Old Level Designs’, on gamerant.com, 30th August 2022, consulted on 16th June 2023.
nintendo intentionally made wind waker to have high highs and low lows to emulate the tide (sike, it's just a gamecube game)
this can be easily demonstrated by having the best sound design combat and entire sections with nothing more than 2 tuba sounds every 45 seconds in the same game
i didn't even remotely like a single dungeon in this game, which goes doubly for the copy pasted boss rush at the end but also didn't dislike one second spent sailing or any single character
lovely atmosphere though i can't be mad
this can be easily demonstrated by having the best sound design combat and entire sections with nothing more than 2 tuba sounds every 45 seconds in the same game
i didn't even remotely like a single dungeon in this game, which goes doubly for the copy pasted boss rush at the end but also didn't dislike one second spent sailing or any single character
lovely atmosphere though i can't be mad
I have never played any major game that comes off this infantile and soy and basic before. It's like a season of Paw Patrol produced by Tesla. Legitimately painful at times.
I guess chalk it up to MILES MORALES being way better than I expected, but in my apparently infinite naivete, I didn't even consider that this would be worse than the first game. It is, though - wow is it - in every way possible, including the above. Traversal, combat, story, quest design, side quests, incidental features, bugs - even the look of the game, which is supposed to be this thing's bread and butter - all took noticeable hits. Shocking how big of a stumble backwards this is.
It's perfectly clear at this point that Insomniac has nothing interesting to say or do with Spider-Man. The story of this game is so straightforward and basic it's embarrassing that it was written by adults. And once again, the dialogue and the extremely shaky and inconsistent motion capture and facial capture^ can't pull off the prestige MCU thing they're desperately reaching for. I'm no Spidey expert, but this is far and away the least interesting rendition of him that I'm familiar with. Nothing at all going on. Zero juice. It seriously feels like it's for little children.
^(not buying into the absurd conspiracies around MJ's face, but I can understand why someone would search for an alternative explanation for what they did to her because it genuinely seems impossible that they're that incompetent)
As for the gameplay, it really exposes itself in this one, with combat now being so overstuffed, spongey, and yet trivially easy that it becomes flat-out boring. And and they seemed to realize it and for variety's sake had no choice but to leaven the experience with UNCHARTED-style hold-forward-while-stuff-happens tunnels and, much worse, SEQUENCE after SEQUENCE after SEQUENCE of just walking around doing normal ass pointless stuff. It is CRAZY how much time you spend outside of a spider-suit (especially in the first few hours of the game!!!) looking at stuff, walking between nodes, hearing literal science lectures. The BATMAN: ARKHAM games had lots of different applications for its gameplay systems, always had different interesting things to do and discover that felt holistic to that world and story, and it never just felt like a sequence of samey fights (even though it accasionally was). Here, they have just got NOTHING to fall back on.
At one point, there's a sidequest where a Spidey fan has a copy of the first Daily Bugle photo Peter ever took of himself in action (recreating the cover of the real-world first Spider-Man comic, you know, where he's swinging and he's got the criminal under his arm). So Peter starts to flash back and you're like, oh nice, we're going to relive his first big adventure! But no, the sidequest is actually about him riding his bike to work to get the pictures in on time. I'd say that about fucking sums things up.
I guess chalk it up to MILES MORALES being way better than I expected, but in my apparently infinite naivete, I didn't even consider that this would be worse than the first game. It is, though - wow is it - in every way possible, including the above. Traversal, combat, story, quest design, side quests, incidental features, bugs - even the look of the game, which is supposed to be this thing's bread and butter - all took noticeable hits. Shocking how big of a stumble backwards this is.
It's perfectly clear at this point that Insomniac has nothing interesting to say or do with Spider-Man. The story of this game is so straightforward and basic it's embarrassing that it was written by adults. And once again, the dialogue and the extremely shaky and inconsistent motion capture and facial capture^ can't pull off the prestige MCU thing they're desperately reaching for. I'm no Spidey expert, but this is far and away the least interesting rendition of him that I'm familiar with. Nothing at all going on. Zero juice. It seriously feels like it's for little children.
^(not buying into the absurd conspiracies around MJ's face, but I can understand why someone would search for an alternative explanation for what they did to her because it genuinely seems impossible that they're that incompetent)
As for the gameplay, it really exposes itself in this one, with combat now being so overstuffed, spongey, and yet trivially easy that it becomes flat-out boring. And and they seemed to realize it and for variety's sake had no choice but to leaven the experience with UNCHARTED-style hold-forward-while-stuff-happens tunnels and, much worse, SEQUENCE after SEQUENCE after SEQUENCE of just walking around doing normal ass pointless stuff. It is CRAZY how much time you spend outside of a spider-suit (especially in the first few hours of the game!!!) looking at stuff, walking between nodes, hearing literal science lectures. The BATMAN: ARKHAM games had lots of different applications for its gameplay systems, always had different interesting things to do and discover that felt holistic to that world and story, and it never just felt like a sequence of samey fights (even though it accasionally was). Here, they have just got NOTHING to fall back on.
At one point, there's a sidequest where a Spidey fan has a copy of the first Daily Bugle photo Peter ever took of himself in action (recreating the cover of the real-world first Spider-Man comic, you know, where he's swinging and he's got the criminal under his arm). So Peter starts to flash back and you're like, oh nice, we're going to relive his first big adventure! But no, the sidequest is actually about him riding his bike to work to get the pictures in on time. I'd say that about fucking sums things up.
MFers be like "how does Nintendo keep doing it" and then you check the credits and the same people have been working on these games for 75 years instead of getting replaced every 6 months
Super Mario World
1990
smb3 for babies
After Extremely British Mario 64 (BANJO-KAZOOIE) was a big hit, obviously the world needed Extremely French Mario 64, and here it is.
It's quite beautiful for a game of this type and era, with the painterly style of its stunningly-animated (but otherwise bad) predecessor adeptly moved into 3D. No small task on the N64! Gameplay-wise it is significantly more compelling than the 2D game, but it's mostly just functional rather than truly exciting to play. There unfortunately isn't a real overworld, so you just alternate between unnecessarily involved "oo will 'elp me get zee leed off my zhar of rainbeaus???" story cutscenes and wildly differing-length linear levels with odd structures. For some reason a huge amount of the platforming and obstacles in this game take the form of one-hit or one-mistake equals fail-and-start-over mini challenges that make playing feel like constantly getting on and off a tightrope, which - sorry! - sucks. But there is skill and smarts to the overall design, moreso than some contemporaries.
I respect people's nostalgia for this I guess, but I find it competent at best. Certainly better than GEX.
It's quite beautiful for a game of this type and era, with the painterly style of its stunningly-animated (but otherwise bad) predecessor adeptly moved into 3D. No small task on the N64! Gameplay-wise it is significantly more compelling than the 2D game, but it's mostly just functional rather than truly exciting to play. There unfortunately isn't a real overworld, so you just alternate between unnecessarily involved "oo will 'elp me get zee leed off my zhar of rainbeaus???" story cutscenes and wildly differing-length linear levels with odd structures. For some reason a huge amount of the platforming and obstacles in this game take the form of one-hit or one-mistake equals fail-and-start-over mini challenges that make playing feel like constantly getting on and off a tightrope, which - sorry! - sucks. But there is skill and smarts to the overall design, moreso than some contemporaries.
I respect people's nostalgia for this I guess, but I find it competent at best. Certainly better than GEX.
Valkyrie Profile
1999
It's sooooo goooood, and I wanna recommend it soooo baaaaaaad.
It has my favorite battle system of any JRPG, with fighting game/beat-em-up influence, Motoi Sakuraba was going crazy on the soundtrack, and the characters/world/story were very cool and unique in my opinion.
But the game has a lot of mechanics and ideas that I haven't seen very often, and which you may not understand on your own. Stuff like how to fulfill certain requests Freya gives you, or what certain items and skills are for. The game tells you enough that you'll feel dumb for not getting it, once you understand it. But for me at least, it wasn't enough to actually get it while playing through.
Without spoiling story, there are also multiple endings, but only 1 of them is the full and satisfying conclusion. The requirements to unlock it are specific, and you'll be working on it as you progress through the game. So unless you're willing to play the whole game again after inevitably getting a different ending? You'll want to read the Gamefaqs "best ending guide"
With that said, based on developer interviews, this kind of game design seems intended. For someone willing to dedicate that kind of time: The game may prove a really satisfying and fascinating gift that won't stop giving. Whether you choose to use FAQ's and aim for the best ending, or go in blind as was intended, I hope you'll at least try it. It's a great game.
DO NOT PLAY ON EASY MODE! You get less content to play through, and are not able to get the true ending at all. Just play on Hard mode for the full experience.
It has my favorite battle system of any JRPG, with fighting game/beat-em-up influence, Motoi Sakuraba was going crazy on the soundtrack, and the characters/world/story were very cool and unique in my opinion.
But the game has a lot of mechanics and ideas that I haven't seen very often, and which you may not understand on your own. Stuff like how to fulfill certain requests Freya gives you, or what certain items and skills are for. The game tells you enough that you'll feel dumb for not getting it, once you understand it. But for me at least, it wasn't enough to actually get it while playing through.
Without spoiling story, there are also multiple endings, but only 1 of them is the full and satisfying conclusion. The requirements to unlock it are specific, and you'll be working on it as you progress through the game. So unless you're willing to play the whole game again after inevitably getting a different ending? You'll want to read the Gamefaqs "best ending guide"
With that said, based on developer interviews, this kind of game design seems intended. For someone willing to dedicate that kind of time: The game may prove a really satisfying and fascinating gift that won't stop giving. Whether you choose to use FAQ's and aim for the best ending, or go in blind as was intended, I hope you'll at least try it. It's a great game.
DO NOT PLAY ON EASY MODE! You get less content to play through, and are not able to get the true ending at all. Just play on Hard mode for the full experience.
Shinobi
2002
Really cool character action game!
Coming from the DMC series, I can appreciate how the game emphasizes movement and positioning over having a diverse moveset. Combat is mostly about dashing into an enemy, attacking and killing it, then dashing over to the next one, while making sure not to have your attack blocked. It leads to snappy and addictive gameplay, where you're rewarded for being quick.
Not gonna lie though, the bosses are VERY easy to cheese. Once you understand the game mechanics, and get comfortable with stringing attacks and dashes together, you'll be racking up a high amount of kills to power you up, and then taking out like, half the boss's health bar in one hit. It's not bad... Just funny after watching a cutscene build them up.
I think the game is at its best in regular stages and encounters, where you pick out which order to kill enemies in, and weave through the mob to do so without getting hit.
Not surprising, but the story and voice acting is pretty poor IMO.
Game's peak, play it!
Coming from the DMC series, I can appreciate how the game emphasizes movement and positioning over having a diverse moveset. Combat is mostly about dashing into an enemy, attacking and killing it, then dashing over to the next one, while making sure not to have your attack blocked. It leads to snappy and addictive gameplay, where you're rewarded for being quick.
Not gonna lie though, the bosses are VERY easy to cheese. Once you understand the game mechanics, and get comfortable with stringing attacks and dashes together, you'll be racking up a high amount of kills to power you up, and then taking out like, half the boss's health bar in one hit. It's not bad... Just funny after watching a cutscene build them up.
I think the game is at its best in regular stages and encounters, where you pick out which order to kill enemies in, and weave through the mob to do so without getting hit.
Not surprising, but the story and voice acting is pretty poor IMO.
Game's peak, play it!
Imagine you're at a buffet and then you eat what you want and you have a really great time and then someone walks in saying that they're gonna eat every single thing thats available there and then they have a terrible time at it because obviously not everything was meant for them on the buffet and then they say that the entire restaurant and their buffet system was poorly designed because of it and then they leave disappointed, wyd?
New Horizons is probably the most complex and warm empty game I’ve experienced in a long time. It is deeply imaginative and iterative on a mechanical level with the series that deserves genuine praise— things down to the color choices feel extremely well-considered an addition to the whole. In exchange for this practical upgrade, which clearly cost man hours and detailed focus, the experience feels strangely heartless. The actual animals that the series ostensibly concerns itself with are at best mildly charming wallpaper and at worst a vehicle for players to have an almost consumerist possessiveness and empathetic disinterest in what were allegedly your friends and neighbors.
It all feels so long ago that I walked home in the original Gamecube release, dressed in my work uniform, and, in the middle of being tossed this way and that trying to make ends meet and relieve myself from my debt, had a pleasant little animal come up to me, offer me wallpaper for nothing, and hope to see me again sometime. It would be the only wallpaper I had, as all my money went to paying off my loans. In a moment that would presage future bleakness in my life in ways my childhood self could never understand, being given a basic commodity in dire poverty made it feel like gold in my hands. Made me feel, for a moment, like the love given to me would make me invincible.
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, villagers have been bought and sold for real world dollars. They are gacha figures. But they are lovingly painted.
It all feels so long ago that I walked home in the original Gamecube release, dressed in my work uniform, and, in the middle of being tossed this way and that trying to make ends meet and relieve myself from my debt, had a pleasant little animal come up to me, offer me wallpaper for nothing, and hope to see me again sometime. It would be the only wallpaper I had, as all my money went to paying off my loans. In a moment that would presage future bleakness in my life in ways my childhood self could never understand, being given a basic commodity in dire poverty made it feel like gold in my hands. Made me feel, for a moment, like the love given to me would make me invincible.
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, villagers have been bought and sold for real world dollars. They are gacha figures. But they are lovingly painted.