kanadiankozak
2020
Great little puzzle game. It's short, the puzzles come fast, and there's real progression between them. The final puzzles were a great twist on the formula.
2000
Finally finished this game, 21 years since I first got it. For a PS2 launch title, Level 5 knocked it out of the park. Is it perfect? Of course not! The story is extremely weak for an RPG, having your weapons break and be gone is devastating, and the bosses are either laughably easy or annoyingly hard. However, the combat is satisfying when you discover how to swap characters and statuses to counter enemy types. I also finally understood the point of status breaking weapons and adding them to other ones to counter the XP grind, which I regrettably never understood in either this or it's sequel when I was younger. Finally, the base rebuilding is fun, and I like how it's tied to upgrading your character stats.
If you enjoyed Insomniac's other two games, you know what you're in for. The new abilities are satisfying in combat, and the wings are a nice addition to traversal, without trivializing webs. The villains are top notch, I want to see more of the path the side stories are taking, and the overall symbiote design was top notch.
If you have a PS5, play these games.
If you have a PS5, play these games.
2023
This review contains spoilers
I really wanted to love this game, and for the first 20 hours I was in. But there is a slump in the middle, where things seem to fall apart. There's no benefit to changing your combat style once you have moves that you find work well for yourself. The side quests are mostly boring fetch quests, in towns where you're not allowed to ride your chocobo or even run your regular speed. Once you get back to a railroaded story mission though, things pick right back up. The main cast, story, and locations are the high point of the game, and it still has a lot of great game. I think I just wanted more of that and less of what slowed me down and pulled me out.
It's hard to really describe why I enjoyed Death Stranding. Watching Death Stranding would not be an exciting Let's Play, and the cutscenes without the gameplay would be complete drivel. However, something about the combination of a David Lynchian plot with the gameplay of delivering packages really made it work. When you finally unlock a new prepper, and some friendly player made the perfect bridge for you, everything seems so better. A new piece of equipment to help you deal with those pesky MULE's and you can get some new porters traveling the lonely world with you gives you that little bit of dopamine the people of the UCA desperately need. As I finally neared completion and was making my last deliveries in the drivers seat of a chrial roadster along the completed highways, making stops at integral ziplines to rush packages up the mountainside, I knew I would miss the world as soon as I was gone.
This game is not for everyone, and I think you will know whether you want to keep playing it by the time you Port Knot City, so if the gameplay or story or combination are not keeping you invested, then don't feel like you need to stay. If you get that far and you're hooked and you want to know more, make sure you take the time to visit every prepper, and get a few stars from each of them. The upgrades you can get from all of them will have a use at some point, and it's worth it to see to the end.
This game is not for everyone, and I think you will know whether you want to keep playing it by the time you Port Knot City, so if the gameplay or story or combination are not keeping you invested, then don't feel like you need to stay. If you get that far and you're hooked and you want to know more, make sure you take the time to visit every prepper, and get a few stars from each of them. The upgrades you can get from all of them will have a use at some point, and it's worth it to see to the end.
2021
After completing one story, I'm torn on whether I fully complete the game. While it would be nice to see the full story and find out what happened with the other character, knowing that the last few chapters which are the longest and most repetitive ones, I'm not sure I really want to go through that all over again.
This review contains spoilers
Ni no Kuni could be a perfect game, but some gameplay choices really hold it back in a way that take away from an otherwise unforgettable game.
From a presentation stand-point, it's near perfect. It rides the line between light-hearted fun adventure and serious stakes (your Mom dies in the first hour, and the game plays around with issues of depression and hiding from reality). It also pulls off the RPG trope where there was a bigger bad all along by constantly reminding the player that there is more at stake than just Shadar, so when the characters finally learn it, we're not thrown offguard.
The gameplay is where we get a real mixed bag of things. There are times when the combat can be really fun, and utilizing weaknesses, swapping between familiars and spells, and having a bit of control in kiting, avoiding, and blocking feels great. Then you try and cast a spell multiple times to only have it interrupted over and over by the enemies or your allies doing things. Or your allies are just standing there doing nothing because they decided they don't want to throw out a certain familiar. Or the animation to ressurect your allies is still going off, and you still can't switch off of Provisions to start blocking or attacking, and you get killed before they get ressurected. It can make all of the good will you have for the game start to dissapear.
Thankfully, everything outside of combat is built really solid for a 40+ hour RPG. The Magician Spellbook is an awesome in-game way to work as if it was a guidebook, showing me where to find specific items, familiars, and even alchemy recipes. Using spells for non-combat scenarios feels really rewarding, but my biggest issue is Mr. Drippy. 80% of the puzzles are solved by going up to them, pressing X, and having Mr. Drippy tell you to use the spell you already knew you had to use. When I ran through the poison marshes, I felt great when I noticed the puddles kept poisoning me, but if I cast Levitate I could hover over them. When I realized that, I was honestly surprised that as soon as I ran in to the Marshes Mr. Drippy hadn't jumped out of nowhere to say "You'd better watch out for them poison puddles, if'n only we had some sort of way to FLOAT ABOVE THE PUDDLES!"
At the end of the day, I really loved the game, I just wish it felt better in certain respects and I maybe would have went for the Platinum trophy. I'm looking forward to eventually moving on to the sequel though!
From a presentation stand-point, it's near perfect. It rides the line between light-hearted fun adventure and serious stakes (your Mom dies in the first hour, and the game plays around with issues of depression and hiding from reality). It also pulls off the RPG trope where there was a bigger bad all along by constantly reminding the player that there is more at stake than just Shadar, so when the characters finally learn it, we're not thrown offguard.
The gameplay is where we get a real mixed bag of things. There are times when the combat can be really fun, and utilizing weaknesses, swapping between familiars and spells, and having a bit of control in kiting, avoiding, and blocking feels great. Then you try and cast a spell multiple times to only have it interrupted over and over by the enemies or your allies doing things. Or your allies are just standing there doing nothing because they decided they don't want to throw out a certain familiar. Or the animation to ressurect your allies is still going off, and you still can't switch off of Provisions to start blocking or attacking, and you get killed before they get ressurected. It can make all of the good will you have for the game start to dissapear.
Thankfully, everything outside of combat is built really solid for a 40+ hour RPG. The Magician Spellbook is an awesome in-game way to work as if it was a guidebook, showing me where to find specific items, familiars, and even alchemy recipes. Using spells for non-combat scenarios feels really rewarding, but my biggest issue is Mr. Drippy. 80% of the puzzles are solved by going up to them, pressing X, and having Mr. Drippy tell you to use the spell you already knew you had to use. When I ran through the poison marshes, I felt great when I noticed the puddles kept poisoning me, but if I cast Levitate I could hover over them. When I realized that, I was honestly surprised that as soon as I ran in to the Marshes Mr. Drippy hadn't jumped out of nowhere to say "You'd better watch out for them poison puddles, if'n only we had some sort of way to FLOAT ABOVE THE PUDDLES!"
At the end of the day, I really loved the game, I just wish it felt better in certain respects and I maybe would have went for the Platinum trophy. I'm looking forward to eventually moving on to the sequel though!
Do you like rhythm games? Do you like Kingdom Hearts music? Then this game is for you! The gameplay is fun, and can get difficult on some of the harder stages, but once you figure out how to get the timing down and you know the songs, everything is passable.
However, if you don't enjoy rhythm games and only want to get the story elements from the game, just look up the cutscenes online. You will be playing the game for at least 10 hours just to try and unlock the cutscenes that add extra KH story.
However, if you don't enjoy rhythm games and only want to get the story elements from the game, just look up the cutscenes online. You will be playing the game for at least 10 hours just to try and unlock the cutscenes that add extra KH story.
Crisis Core Reunion is one of the better remakes I've played. It's been 15 years since I played the original on PSP, so my memory of it is shaky at best, but in a world post FF7R, Reunion holds up quite well. With solid gameplay and a great story, the general body of the game is a blast to play. However, there are signs of age and the change from a portable game to a home console are noticeable. 300 missions that can be individually beaten in 2 minutes is great when I want to play for a 15 minute bus ride, but it gets repetitive for an hour or two on the couch. Add in a lack of chapter select, so that one missed email means I get to play through the entire game to get the platinum trophy gets a little tedious, however the bonus item for completing all side missions made that second trek a cakewalk.
At the end of the day, if you're a fan of FF7R, you should be playing this game, but even if you just like action RPG's and don't know much about the game, I think you can still have fun with it! It would be interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has never played FF7 before and experiences this first.
At the end of the day, if you're a fan of FF7R, you should be playing this game, but even if you just like action RPG's and don't know much about the game, I think you can still have fun with it! It would be interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has never played FF7 before and experiences this first.
2022
I'm torn about this game. The Bayonetta sections are exactly what I wanted. I was a little unsure about the demon summoning at first, but once I got a few options that I really liked, it made a really fun flow to combat. And with the amount of demons and weapons, anyone should be able to find a playstyles they enjoy! Combat is just as you expect it to be, and dodging into Witch Time is as satisfying as ever. The story is also as bombastic and over-the-top as you'd expect from this series.
However.
The Viola combat sections is missing something. As a character, I love her! But I hated the switch to parrying after playing most of the game based around dodging. And if I didn't like a weapon as Bayonetta, I could just switch to a different one. On a Viola stage, you're just stuck with what she's got. The Jeanne stages are even worse. I didn't find them fun, and the final stage was aggressively annoying.
So despite all the fun I had with Bayonetta, about 1/3 of the game was me wishing I was back to the main character.
However.
The Viola combat sections is missing something. As a character, I love her! But I hated the switch to parrying after playing most of the game based around dodging. And if I didn't like a weapon as Bayonetta, I could just switch to a different one. On a Viola stage, you're just stuck with what she's got. The Jeanne stages are even worse. I didn't find them fun, and the final stage was aggressively annoying.
So despite all the fun I had with Bayonetta, about 1/3 of the game was me wishing I was back to the main character.