2020
So much is lost in translation. Everything looks very expensive, but it feels like a pretty huge misreading of the original vision.
Similarly to Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I’m incredibly confused how this is the highest rated game of the series in recent memory.
When reaching the end of that game, I found myself thinking that the reason it was so well received was not because it was actually better than the last one (it absolutely wasn’t), but just because it was the MOST of one of those games yet.
I can’t shake the feeling that that’s the case here. While Remake drew a 4-8hr section of the original game up to about 35hrs, it felt relatively focused aside from a couple of dud chapters and boring side quests which feel like a series staple at this point.
Rebirth on the other hand feels lost; never able to balance the more sincere but serious tone established in Remake and the desired quirkiness of the ‘97 original. It also stumbles at nearly every hurdle with how they have chosen to implement the open world aspects. While promising in the open hours due to a seemingly more hands off approach, it’s quickly turned into another map clearing checklist. Only this time on top of this standard open world fair, you’re also treated to constant harassment from one of the worst characters in a video game; incessantly calling you to tell you that you just activated a tower right after you just activated a bloody tower. There’s this immense friction to the open world in this game; a constant stopping and starting which really kills any sense of momentum you might be gathering. By chapter 10, I was so checked out of the open world activities and how badly they felt just tacked on that I tried just mainlining the story. However, level requirements forced me to go back and do them just to eke out a few more levels.
As far as the story is concerned, there were at least a few moments where it felt relatively consistent. I hated that the game started in media res, with near to no setup dovetailing out of Remake. I felt compelled to continue at least.
As things progressed it became increasingly clear that while Remake only had to introduce the story and could play freely in that space up to the point of leaving Midgar, this one has to tackle a midpoint. It never feels like there’s clearly established stakes other than this aimless wandering; every few hours you are quickly told “the princess is in another castle” and it’s time for “next location” and ferried off to another open world map littered with banal activities and a litany of new mini games. It’s genuinely hard to shake the feeling that they realized this would be the same length as the last game for what should be a much bigger part of the story if they didn’t stuff it to the brim with side content. Unfortunately quantity over quality definitely beat out the alternative, but Queen’s Blood is good at the very least.
Liked the combat for the most part, it feels like some good changes were introduced from the previous game. However party management is so atrocious in this game and at several points I felt like the game was actively screwing me over because it locks you into mandatory story sections with a few specific party members. If you’ve got one party member you’ve not paid attention to or not outfitted adequately, as I had, these sections are utterly unbearable (looking at you Chap 12, I’m sure most people will know what I mean).
Really don’t know how they’ll pad the next one to make it a “full length” game, but after this one I doubt I’ll be rushing to play it whenever it does come out.
When reaching the end of that game, I found myself thinking that the reason it was so well received was not because it was actually better than the last one (it absolutely wasn’t), but just because it was the MOST of one of those games yet.
I can’t shake the feeling that that’s the case here. While Remake drew a 4-8hr section of the original game up to about 35hrs, it felt relatively focused aside from a couple of dud chapters and boring side quests which feel like a series staple at this point.
Rebirth on the other hand feels lost; never able to balance the more sincere but serious tone established in Remake and the desired quirkiness of the ‘97 original. It also stumbles at nearly every hurdle with how they have chosen to implement the open world aspects. While promising in the open hours due to a seemingly more hands off approach, it’s quickly turned into another map clearing checklist. Only this time on top of this standard open world fair, you’re also treated to constant harassment from one of the worst characters in a video game; incessantly calling you to tell you that you just activated a tower right after you just activated a bloody tower. There’s this immense friction to the open world in this game; a constant stopping and starting which really kills any sense of momentum you might be gathering. By chapter 10, I was so checked out of the open world activities and how badly they felt just tacked on that I tried just mainlining the story. However, level requirements forced me to go back and do them just to eke out a few more levels.
As far as the story is concerned, there were at least a few moments where it felt relatively consistent. I hated that the game started in media res, with near to no setup dovetailing out of Remake. I felt compelled to continue at least.
As things progressed it became increasingly clear that while Remake only had to introduce the story and could play freely in that space up to the point of leaving Midgar, this one has to tackle a midpoint. It never feels like there’s clearly established stakes other than this aimless wandering; every few hours you are quickly told “the princess is in another castle” and it’s time for “next location” and ferried off to another open world map littered with banal activities and a litany of new mini games. It’s genuinely hard to shake the feeling that they realized this would be the same length as the last game for what should be a much bigger part of the story if they didn’t stuff it to the brim with side content. Unfortunately quantity over quality definitely beat out the alternative, but Queen’s Blood is good at the very least.
Liked the combat for the most part, it feels like some good changes were introduced from the previous game. However party management is so atrocious in this game and at several points I felt like the game was actively screwing me over because it locks you into mandatory story sections with a few specific party members. If you’ve got one party member you’ve not paid attention to or not outfitted adequately, as I had, these sections are utterly unbearable (looking at you Chap 12, I’m sure most people will know what I mean).
Really don’t know how they’ll pad the next one to make it a “full length” game, but after this one I doubt I’ll be rushing to play it whenever it does come out.
2021
Abysmal. A near pathetic attempt at aping the wonder of the original which ends up feeling like a mod for a Far Cry game.
2023
Borrowed this off a friend who was looking forward to it prerelease, only to pack it in after a few weeks.
Managed about 2hrs before I wanted to tear my eyes out lmao
All of JK Rowlings abhorrent bullshit aside, this is just bad. It has clearly been designed with attempted checks and balances to ensure it can at least try to skirt around her numerous controversies. But as crazy as it sounds, the developer whose biggest accreditation is the licensed Cars 3 game didn’t manage to make something good!
Managed about 2hrs before I wanted to tear my eyes out lmao
All of JK Rowlings abhorrent bullshit aside, this is just bad. It has clearly been designed with attempted checks and balances to ensure it can at least try to skirt around her numerous controversies. But as crazy as it sounds, the developer whose biggest accreditation is the licensed Cars 3 game didn’t manage to make something good!
Pretty good game. Pretty weak Animal Crossing.
This review contains spoilers
Good overall.
The first half of the game feels insanely overlong, and I didn’t realize quite how much I wasn’t really into the Hawaii setting until I got to go back to Japan with Kiryu and the second party.
Every chapter you play as Kiryu feels like the best the game has to offer, and then going back to Kasuga in Hawaii feels like a bit of a mess with unclear stakes until the very final chapter(s).
I do really commend the writing choices for Kiryu. At nearly every turn where they could just make it a conveyor belt of greatest hits and deep cut fan service, they opt for the more interesting choice that feels true to his character.
I enjoyed it a fair bit, but where Yakuza - Like A Dragon became much more focused the further the story went, this felt more scattered.
The first half of the game feels insanely overlong, and I didn’t realize quite how much I wasn’t really into the Hawaii setting until I got to go back to Japan with Kiryu and the second party.
Every chapter you play as Kiryu feels like the best the game has to offer, and then going back to Kasuga in Hawaii feels like a bit of a mess with unclear stakes until the very final chapter(s).
I do really commend the writing choices for Kiryu. At nearly every turn where they could just make it a conveyor belt of greatest hits and deep cut fan service, they opt for the more interesting choice that feels true to his character.
I enjoyed it a fair bit, but where Yakuza - Like A Dragon became much more focused the further the story went, this felt more scattered.
2023
A devastatingly disappointing game.
The demo felt like the ideal primer; getting what felt like the first two eps of the first season of a new show. Then the full game basically punches you in the gut and skips you all the way to mid season four. Confused? How about you grind the game to a halt and read a bunch of text logs to catch up on character profiles and lore.
The game is constantly wrenching control away from you to show you things that look like they’d have been fun to do yourself. The cutscenes do look stunning, mind you. It’s just frustrating when the makeup of the game could be summarized as run for a minute, 4 mins of cutscene, fight for 2 mins, 7 mins of cutscene, run back and forth talking to lifeless NPCs for 10mins, 3mins of combat, 6mins of cutscenes
Cutscene heavy games aren’t the issue either, it’s that you have to give me an interesting story, something this game absolutely does not have.
Combat is very fun, but it never feels like it really evolves past what you can do in the opening hours. New powers acquired never feel like they really open up any new paths.
Tried to commit to clearing the story, but got to the final act and realized I had to run down what amounted to another long corridor with spongy enemies and decided I’d had enough.
The demo felt like the ideal primer; getting what felt like the first two eps of the first season of a new show. Then the full game basically punches you in the gut and skips you all the way to mid season four. Confused? How about you grind the game to a halt and read a bunch of text logs to catch up on character profiles and lore.
The game is constantly wrenching control away from you to show you things that look like they’d have been fun to do yourself. The cutscenes do look stunning, mind you. It’s just frustrating when the makeup of the game could be summarized as run for a minute, 4 mins of cutscene, fight for 2 mins, 7 mins of cutscene, run back and forth talking to lifeless NPCs for 10mins, 3mins of combat, 6mins of cutscenes
Cutscene heavy games aren’t the issue either, it’s that you have to give me an interesting story, something this game absolutely does not have.
Combat is very fun, but it never feels like it really evolves past what you can do in the opening hours. New powers acquired never feel like they really open up any new paths.
Tried to commit to clearing the story, but got to the final act and realized I had to run down what amounted to another long corridor with spongy enemies and decided I’d had enough.
2004
We used to make sequels that felt like they pushed every known boundary. Playing this for the first time in so many years and I felt as though I had to remind myself it wasn’t a game that came out in the last year. It’s obvious why this is still held among the best games of all time, but I think it’s easy to forget how few games years later end up surpassing that benchmark. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Half Life Alyx but god I wish more than anything that her could have actually got HL3. Seeing the way they evolved the already excellent formula of the original for this game makes my mind spin just thinking of what that game could have been.
2020
Jin Sakai is the single worst protagonist in the history of video games.
2019
Kojima is one of the only true auteur game makers. Playing this slowly as the world descended into a full blown pandemic was bizarre yet elevating.
Brilliant follow up to BOTW. Finds the most creative solutions to some of the issues I had with its predecessor. The new abilities are all fun to use and feel tailored to give you the most interesting ways of engaging with the world and its denizens.
The Switch holds strong while running the game but it’s no secret that this would have been better suited as a launch game on the next Nintendo system.
The Switch holds strong while running the game but it’s no secret that this would have been better suited as a launch game on the next Nintendo system.
Dreadful. Hard to say if it’s worse than its already terribly predecessor, but it’s baffling how all of the ambitions brought to this game made it a near unplayable mess from a technical aspect.
After a weekend of falling through floors, doors on the critical path not opening, falling to my death due to insane input delay - experiencing all this at sub 30FPS most of the time, I made an ad on marketplace and tried to blitz it to the end to at least say I’d beaten it. Had an entire day before someone came to buy it off me but I’d already given up on trying to finish it.
Maybe it’s patched up now, but the game underneath was just so bloody boring that I honestly couldn’t care less.
After a weekend of falling through floors, doors on the critical path not opening, falling to my death due to insane input delay - experiencing all this at sub 30FPS most of the time, I made an ad on marketplace and tried to blitz it to the end to at least say I’d beaten it. Had an entire day before someone came to buy it off me but I’d already given up on trying to finish it.
Maybe it’s patched up now, but the game underneath was just so bloody boring that I honestly couldn’t care less.
Slowly picking away at it. Feel like I’m crazy but AW2 feels like it has a pretty massive difficulty spike around the quarter way mark.
Neat package but the new art style leaves something to be desired.
Neat package but the new art style leaves something to be desired.
2021
Lots of ambition and promise that mostly lands or pays off. The game feels let down by its combat, should have been turn based imo
2023
Got to the middle of Chapter 4 and decided I couldn’t do it anymore.
Some of the ugliest, PS3/360 Era “Impressive” Tech Demo ass graphics I’ve seen. Combat that feels like they said “imagine if Doom was shit” and just rolled with it. No sense of place or weight in the world, just feels like you’re controlling a floating camera. And of course, some of the singular worst writing I’ve seen in a game this generation.
Dreadful.
* PS Plus
Some of the ugliest, PS3/360 Era “Impressive” Tech Demo ass graphics I’ve seen. Combat that feels like they said “imagine if Doom was shit” and just rolled with it. No sense of place or weight in the world, just feels like you’re controlling a floating camera. And of course, some of the singular worst writing I’ve seen in a game this generation.
Dreadful.
* PS Plus