kurashiki
82 reviews liked by kurashiki
Baldur's Gate 3
2020
My friends who’ve heard me talk about this game are going to think this score is nuts. I’ve told everyone how much I love this game. I’ve gushed about this game. I’ve made gifsets and fanart. I’m going to replay it 500 times and make a gazillion player characters. I really, truly love it, and there’s so MUCH to love. The scope, the ambition, the responsiveness of the world and the characters. I love the world and the stories, the way nearly every quest has a million ways you can sneak through or around it. I love the breadth of characters and all of their arcs. I love the recurring theme of how revenge rarely feels as liberatory as you want it to and yet sometimes it still has to be done. I love the themes of autonomy and losing it and taking it back. I love how the characters can grow and change even when you don’t outright convince them. I love how the game looks and the art direction and the lighting. It also drives me fucking nuts. And it’s not even (entirely) the game’s fault.
To be clear, there are, genuinely, things wrong with the game in and of itself. It’s buggy in places — Act 3 especially — and every fix or patch adds three new bugs for every one it removes. Wyll’s arc is short-changed in a way that’s hard not to see as antiblackness. The turn-based combat means that every encounter with more than five or so enemies ends up being slow as sin, and there’s no meaningful attempt by the game to circumvent this issue. Moving through the world out of combat never feels bad, but it never feels awesome, either. Some of the side characters who are from older games are characterized completely differently and often contradictoraly from their old appearances, which is bound to piss off old fans. But, honestly, all of these issues on their own would still have me slapping a 4.5 or even a 5 on this game and moving along, because it really is still GREAT.
No, the real issue is the fandom. They’re insufferable. When they’re not making petitions to add new romances (always with men, incidentally!) or having meltdowns because a writer dared to say that continuing the cycle of abuse was a bad end, they’re trying to dox the devs so they can get new Rolan (another man!) content added. “Rain,” I hear you say, “That’s not fair. You can’t punish the game for the fandom.” That’s true! I’m not out here badly rating Sonic or Dragon Age games just because those fandoms need to be nuked from orbit. The problem here is that Larian fucking worships the fandom. They’re making changes to arcs and endings and characters on patch 900-whatever to appease the fandom! Lae’zel is too mean? Oh, okay, we’ll make her nicer! This ending is too sad? Oh, okay, we’ll soften it! You think Gortash is really sexy? We’ll borrow fan conent to add new stuff for him! (Were those fans PAID? CREDITED?) To be clear, on an objective level I LIKE some of the changes they’ve made. But I don’t WANT to play “Larian’s game but filtered through the lens of what I personally like,” I want to play “Larian’s game and Larian’s story.”
The lack of willingness in the gaming world right now to create games that don’t cater to the player, where the devs and the writers tell the story they aim to tell and build the mechanics they want to use and STICK TO THAT VISION, even if it adds friction or some gamers won’t like it or some fans complain drives me insane. I don’t want something that appeals to everyone, I want something specific and real. The idea that some fucker got mad because Larian dared to make a character that didn’t worship the player immediately and Larian bowed down and caved to the shit makes me want to blow up. STICK TO YOUR VISION AND YOUR STORY, PUSSIES! I’m about to get mad about the ME3 ending shit again good god.
It’s just such a frustrating encapsulation of everything wrong with gaming right now and how fandoms have too much power and too little imagination, and it breaks my heart how much it’s soured my stomach on a game I do genuinely adore. It’s so good where it’s good! It’s goddamn perfect! The love from the team is dripping out of every pore. But it’s impossible to look past the fact that the game that exists now is a different game than the one that was initially released, with different characters, because some people on the team felt that compromising their artistic vision was worth it if it’d make some fandom rando happier.
I still adore this game and, seriously, if you love RPGs or the like this really should be a must-play. It’s a joy. Its scope and ambition are second to none, and I have to cheer that on (particularly given how every other big studio is playing shit so safe right now) even when it doesn’t stick the landing. I love my gang of bisexual war criminals. Despite the tone of this review, I even love Larian; the next Big Game I plan on starting is Divinity: Original Sin 2 entirely because I love this game and Larian’s work on it so much. It’s such a wonderful piece of art. I hope the next one they make will be one with choices they have the guts to stick to.
To be clear, there are, genuinely, things wrong with the game in and of itself. It’s buggy in places — Act 3 especially — and every fix or patch adds three new bugs for every one it removes. Wyll’s arc is short-changed in a way that’s hard not to see as antiblackness. The turn-based combat means that every encounter with more than five or so enemies ends up being slow as sin, and there’s no meaningful attempt by the game to circumvent this issue. Moving through the world out of combat never feels bad, but it never feels awesome, either. Some of the side characters who are from older games are characterized completely differently and often contradictoraly from their old appearances, which is bound to piss off old fans. But, honestly, all of these issues on their own would still have me slapping a 4.5 or even a 5 on this game and moving along, because it really is still GREAT.
No, the real issue is the fandom. They’re insufferable. When they’re not making petitions to add new romances (always with men, incidentally!) or having meltdowns because a writer dared to say that continuing the cycle of abuse was a bad end, they’re trying to dox the devs so they can get new Rolan (another man!) content added. “Rain,” I hear you say, “That’s not fair. You can’t punish the game for the fandom.” That’s true! I’m not out here badly rating Sonic or Dragon Age games just because those fandoms need to be nuked from orbit. The problem here is that Larian fucking worships the fandom. They’re making changes to arcs and endings and characters on patch 900-whatever to appease the fandom! Lae’zel is too mean? Oh, okay, we’ll make her nicer! This ending is too sad? Oh, okay, we’ll soften it! You think Gortash is really sexy? We’ll borrow fan conent to add new stuff for him! (Were those fans PAID? CREDITED?) To be clear, on an objective level I LIKE some of the changes they’ve made. But I don’t WANT to play “Larian’s game but filtered through the lens of what I personally like,” I want to play “Larian’s game and Larian’s story.”
The lack of willingness in the gaming world right now to create games that don’t cater to the player, where the devs and the writers tell the story they aim to tell and build the mechanics they want to use and STICK TO THAT VISION, even if it adds friction or some gamers won’t like it or some fans complain drives me insane. I don’t want something that appeals to everyone, I want something specific and real. The idea that some fucker got mad because Larian dared to make a character that didn’t worship the player immediately and Larian bowed down and caved to the shit makes me want to blow up. STICK TO YOUR VISION AND YOUR STORY, PUSSIES! I’m about to get mad about the ME3 ending shit again good god.
It’s just such a frustrating encapsulation of everything wrong with gaming right now and how fandoms have too much power and too little imagination, and it breaks my heart how much it’s soured my stomach on a game I do genuinely adore. It’s so good where it’s good! It’s goddamn perfect! The love from the team is dripping out of every pore. But it’s impossible to look past the fact that the game that exists now is a different game than the one that was initially released, with different characters, because some people on the team felt that compromising their artistic vision was worth it if it’d make some fandom rando happier.
I still adore this game and, seriously, if you love RPGs or the like this really should be a must-play. It’s a joy. Its scope and ambition are second to none, and I have to cheer that on (particularly given how every other big studio is playing shit so safe right now) even when it doesn’t stick the landing. I love my gang of bisexual war criminals. Despite the tone of this review, I even love Larian; the next Big Game I plan on starting is Divinity: Original Sin 2 entirely because I love this game and Larian’s work on it so much. It’s such a wonderful piece of art. I hope the next one they make will be one with choices they have the guts to stick to.
Dishonored
2012
I can understand why people like this game a lot because there's a lot of room to play it however you want to with different builds and the level design is quite satisfying in that regard BUT I had fun playing this game like it was Neon White, which means I probably shouldn't have bought a stealth game (but it was on sale for a dollar!).
Since this was my first playthrough it also made me feel a bit like I was punished for playing the game like that given how the High Chaos ending feels sort of like a 'bad end' with all the characters punishing you or acting more callous towards you. Idk, I'm an assassin, sorry for killing everyone. The narrative isn't anything to write home about so I wasn't really attached to anyone beyond Corvo so I had no qualms just killing everyone, including Samuel, whom we are supposed to be attached to, or at least more attached to than I was. I ended up killing him so I was laughing over the shot in the ending montage of Corvo standing next to his grave instead of standing next to oh, idk, his dead sort-of-wife's grave.
My grievances aside I loved the world building and the lore of the game! It's really cool and incredibly unique. I'm a bit bummed the narrative of the game itself was as straightforward as it ended up being but I just know that fic writers are doing some crazy stuff and I actually feel compelled to go looking around for some of those stories because I think the world is just so interesting.
The game's morality is very 2010s, which isn't bad or good, it just reminds me of how people made games in this era, so again, I can really understand why it stood out to people so much at the time. I'm glad I played it especially since it was a dollar and was as short as it was, but I have no interest in playing it again for a Low Chaos run or checking out the DLCs unless I watch an LP.
Since this was my first playthrough it also made me feel a bit like I was punished for playing the game like that given how the High Chaos ending feels sort of like a 'bad end' with all the characters punishing you or acting more callous towards you. Idk, I'm an assassin, sorry for killing everyone. The narrative isn't anything to write home about so I wasn't really attached to anyone beyond Corvo so I had no qualms just killing everyone, including Samuel, whom we are supposed to be attached to, or at least more attached to than I was. I ended up killing him so I was laughing over the shot in the ending montage of Corvo standing next to his grave instead of standing next to oh, idk, his dead sort-of-wife's grave.
My grievances aside I loved the world building and the lore of the game! It's really cool and incredibly unique. I'm a bit bummed the narrative of the game itself was as straightforward as it ended up being but I just know that fic writers are doing some crazy stuff and I actually feel compelled to go looking around for some of those stories because I think the world is just so interesting.
The game's morality is very 2010s, which isn't bad or good, it just reminds me of how people made games in this era, so again, I can really understand why it stood out to people so much at the time. I'm glad I played it especially since it was a dollar and was as short as it was, but I have no interest in playing it again for a Low Chaos run or checking out the DLCs unless I watch an LP.
so cool
i miss erika
for one shining golden moment i thought battler was going to start being cool and then i played this episode
i want to repeatedly slam battler against a wall like hes a plushie filled with milk
game of the year for me and its only january baby!!!!! PEAK trails
the epic highs and lows of the legend of heroes: trails of cold steel iv
battler you need more fucking LOVE IN YOUR STUPID HEART
This review contains spoilers
cold steel 3 is fun on a replay because 95% of it is so relatively normal compared to the 4th game, and i can better appreciate how this game sets up and solidifies new character dynamics that will be carried over as the focal point... its amazing how much more depth reans character has when hes around his students and how little the original class vii members contribute to his character growth, at least imo.
going into cs3 the first time, i was really attached to the original class vii and took a good amount of time to warm up to the new class vii cast (except for altina who is perfect). the new class vii cast is a lot smaller and i definitely think it benefits from that, the new characters get more sustained focus and confront their own issues more organically as a cast of 5 compared to a cast of 10. saying that, i would expect all 5 of those characters to be better written and more interesting considering they get more screen time and can be fleshed out much more, but imo at least: juna and altina are significantly better than the og class vii, ash is also pretty good, kurt is not the most interesting to me and i really think they couldve done more with him + his dynamic with his classmates, and musse is....... musse is musse... so overall i think they could have done a better job honestly.
the bond between rean and his classmates is obviously very special and very important and i do always love seeing their reunions and how much they all genuinely care for each other, but feels like it all hit a wall during cs2 and ever since then it just comes off as there being very little point in them showing up and being involved in the plot. there isnt room for growth because basically all of cs1 was focused entirely on character relationships (i like this btw) and no meaningful conflict is ever going to happen between these characters now. this is very apparent when compared to the bond between rean and his students, who are new characters and all have their own issues with him/themselves and challenge each other. the main thing i love about the new class vii is that rean is constantly adjusting to them. in cs1 his classmates know hes got his own issues and this comes up a fair amount, but the focus is always on him helping solve other peoples problems. this is true in cs3 as well, but it feels better in cs3 where theyre teenagers and hes their teacher so theyre more like, fundamentally opposed to listening to him or liking him LOL. its challenging for rean to help them through their issues because he has to in his own way prove himself to them. he has to genuinely connect with them in a way that forces himself to be way more open than he has been in previous games. rean has been Going Through It his whole life but had that turned up like crazy during the ending of cs2, so its not just good for his relationship with other characters, its also useful for the audience who gets to see how much trauma hes dealing with, how badly hes handling some of it, and how much hes working on himself because he takes his duties as a teacher insanely seriously and knows that he needs to be in a good place if he wants to set a good example for his students.
i also just think the group dynamic is inherently funnier - these kids have the most popular man in erebonia teaching them but to them hes just their exasperating teacher. they poke fun at rean a lot and get frustrated with him easily, but they do admire him very much. and rean has wildly poor self esteem and these teenagers are going 'ugh instructor rean back off!!!' so its funny seeing him go from taking it kind of personally (kicked puppy look) to understanding them more + growing more comfortable and confident in his role as an instructor.
another thing - generally speaking, reans students are more connected to the plot than his classmates are. this can sometimes be a detriment since their most of their backstories have been kind of just fucking.. hamfisted into already established lore/events/etc but the benefit is that their presence feels significant and important. reans classmates fade in relevance because there isnt that much they can do with them. fie and emma (and jusis i guess?) have stuff going on thats related to the plot, but they dont interact with it in a meaningful way and if they werent in the game nothing would change. obviously millium is extremely relevent and necessary; while i wish it wasnt mostly at the very end of the game, the build up to it throughout the game is well done and especially noticeably good on a replay. the rest are like, ok you have a fight/reveal or two thats somewhat relevant to you for whatever reason i guess. generally speaking their individual plotlines are very removed from rean/the player and theres no significant interaction between what they have on their plate and what the player has going on. the new class vii (mostly) have plotlines that are relevant to rean as a character and their class as a group.
the setting is also really good - thors military academy was done so well that i would have expected any other setting to fall flat in comparison, but the branch campus manages to have its own weird charms without relying on the previous setting, and rean + the player are able to get just as comfortable and attached to the school/students/village in cs3 as in cs1. the cast of students follow the points ive said above, its overall smaller and more individualized and feel like they interact with each other + rean more. im probably more attached to the student cast in cs1/2 but id say that the new cast is done better
i will say that i think bonding events are worse across the board. altinas are always good, yuna has a good one... uh... that might be it for me. i guess its hard to say they were ever all that great? but i think cs1/2 had a wider range of bad to good while in cs3 90% of them are weird or forgettable. oh, heres something i didnt realize on my first playthrough: i originally romanced alisa (going through a no romance run for this one) and i didnt realize how many of her events/dialogue are Exactly The Same regardless of if youre dating her or not? like oh my god its bad. its like the game doesnt understand that youre not romancing her??? every default interaction with her is CRAZY romantic. nearly every woman character is into rean and its badly written and uncomfortable, but they are so easy to brush off in comparison to alisa, who if you arent dating her is literally just being strung around by rean and it makes him come off as an absolute dick about it LMAO. it is just so so so pushy. just make a canon romance if youre going to do this....
i dont want to get into the whole 'everyone has the hots for rean' thing since its not unique to cs3 at all and gets worse/more unavoidable in cs4 but it continues to be bad here, does nothing to make the women more unique or interesting or add anything to their characters via it, makes rean worse whenever he interacts with them because hes not allowed to have any feelings in particular about it other than going 'jeez' or ignoring it, makes their friendships with rean much worse written, claire and sara are creepy, etc.
this is such a character driven game that all i have to say about it really is in relation to that LOL. other small thoughts i have: the pacing isnt always my favourite but it tracks with the cold steel series; the power scaling of the characters in this game reaches the peak of being nonsensical; some big character moments are delivered in a way that doesnt always work for me and leaves it feeling comical instead of impactful; the soldat battles are the best as always; I HATE THE KEEP GET ME OUT OF THERE WHY DO WE HAVE BONDING EVENTS IN THERE EVERY MONTH!!!!; copper georg is the FUNNIEST thing to ever happen in a video game and that entire scene with him and angelica is so so fucking insane that i cant it seriously at all but in the best way possible; I Get It but the reluctance to use valimar really hurts me in my feelings; azure siegfried is even more nothing than i remember him being and i wish there was more drama going on there or that more was done with the mystery of it.
tl;dr i love this game especially coming off the incredibly miserable ending of cold steel 2 and i love how things get worse forever. i love drama!!!!
going into cs3 the first time, i was really attached to the original class vii and took a good amount of time to warm up to the new class vii cast (except for altina who is perfect). the new class vii cast is a lot smaller and i definitely think it benefits from that, the new characters get more sustained focus and confront their own issues more organically as a cast of 5 compared to a cast of 10. saying that, i would expect all 5 of those characters to be better written and more interesting considering they get more screen time and can be fleshed out much more, but imo at least: juna and altina are significantly better than the og class vii, ash is also pretty good, kurt is not the most interesting to me and i really think they couldve done more with him + his dynamic with his classmates, and musse is....... musse is musse... so overall i think they could have done a better job honestly.
the bond between rean and his classmates is obviously very special and very important and i do always love seeing their reunions and how much they all genuinely care for each other, but feels like it all hit a wall during cs2 and ever since then it just comes off as there being very little point in them showing up and being involved in the plot. there isnt room for growth because basically all of cs1 was focused entirely on character relationships (i like this btw) and no meaningful conflict is ever going to happen between these characters now. this is very apparent when compared to the bond between rean and his students, who are new characters and all have their own issues with him/themselves and challenge each other. the main thing i love about the new class vii is that rean is constantly adjusting to them. in cs1 his classmates know hes got his own issues and this comes up a fair amount, but the focus is always on him helping solve other peoples problems. this is true in cs3 as well, but it feels better in cs3 where theyre teenagers and hes their teacher so theyre more like, fundamentally opposed to listening to him or liking him LOL. its challenging for rean to help them through their issues because he has to in his own way prove himself to them. he has to genuinely connect with them in a way that forces himself to be way more open than he has been in previous games. rean has been Going Through It his whole life but had that turned up like crazy during the ending of cs2, so its not just good for his relationship with other characters, its also useful for the audience who gets to see how much trauma hes dealing with, how badly hes handling some of it, and how much hes working on himself because he takes his duties as a teacher insanely seriously and knows that he needs to be in a good place if he wants to set a good example for his students.
i also just think the group dynamic is inherently funnier - these kids have the most popular man in erebonia teaching them but to them hes just their exasperating teacher. they poke fun at rean a lot and get frustrated with him easily, but they do admire him very much. and rean has wildly poor self esteem and these teenagers are going 'ugh instructor rean back off!!!' so its funny seeing him go from taking it kind of personally (kicked puppy look) to understanding them more + growing more comfortable and confident in his role as an instructor.
another thing - generally speaking, reans students are more connected to the plot than his classmates are. this can sometimes be a detriment since their most of their backstories have been kind of just fucking.. hamfisted into already established lore/events/etc but the benefit is that their presence feels significant and important. reans classmates fade in relevance because there isnt that much they can do with them. fie and emma (and jusis i guess?) have stuff going on thats related to the plot, but they dont interact with it in a meaningful way and if they werent in the game nothing would change. obviously millium is extremely relevent and necessary; while i wish it wasnt mostly at the very end of the game, the build up to it throughout the game is well done and especially noticeably good on a replay. the rest are like, ok you have a fight/reveal or two thats somewhat relevant to you for whatever reason i guess. generally speaking their individual plotlines are very removed from rean/the player and theres no significant interaction between what they have on their plate and what the player has going on. the new class vii (mostly) have plotlines that are relevant to rean as a character and their class as a group.
the setting is also really good - thors military academy was done so well that i would have expected any other setting to fall flat in comparison, but the branch campus manages to have its own weird charms without relying on the previous setting, and rean + the player are able to get just as comfortable and attached to the school/students/village in cs3 as in cs1. the cast of students follow the points ive said above, its overall smaller and more individualized and feel like they interact with each other + rean more. im probably more attached to the student cast in cs1/2 but id say that the new cast is done better
i will say that i think bonding events are worse across the board. altinas are always good, yuna has a good one... uh... that might be it for me. i guess its hard to say they were ever all that great? but i think cs1/2 had a wider range of bad to good while in cs3 90% of them are weird or forgettable. oh, heres something i didnt realize on my first playthrough: i originally romanced alisa (going through a no romance run for this one) and i didnt realize how many of her events/dialogue are Exactly The Same regardless of if youre dating her or not? like oh my god its bad. its like the game doesnt understand that youre not romancing her??? every default interaction with her is CRAZY romantic. nearly every woman character is into rean and its badly written and uncomfortable, but they are so easy to brush off in comparison to alisa, who if you arent dating her is literally just being strung around by rean and it makes him come off as an absolute dick about it LMAO. it is just so so so pushy. just make a canon romance if youre going to do this....
i dont want to get into the whole 'everyone has the hots for rean' thing since its not unique to cs3 at all and gets worse/more unavoidable in cs4 but it continues to be bad here, does nothing to make the women more unique or interesting or add anything to their characters via it, makes rean worse whenever he interacts with them because hes not allowed to have any feelings in particular about it other than going 'jeez' or ignoring it, makes their friendships with rean much worse written, claire and sara are creepy, etc.
this is such a character driven game that all i have to say about it really is in relation to that LOL. other small thoughts i have: the pacing isnt always my favourite but it tracks with the cold steel series; the power scaling of the characters in this game reaches the peak of being nonsensical; some big character moments are delivered in a way that doesnt always work for me and leaves it feeling comical instead of impactful; the soldat battles are the best as always; I HATE THE KEEP GET ME OUT OF THERE WHY DO WE HAVE BONDING EVENTS IN THERE EVERY MONTH!!!!; copper georg is the FUNNIEST thing to ever happen in a video game and that entire scene with him and angelica is so so fucking insane that i cant it seriously at all but in the best way possible; I Get It but the reluctance to use valimar really hurts me in my feelings; azure siegfried is even more nothing than i remember him being and i wish there was more drama going on there or that more was done with the mystery of it.
tl;dr i love this game especially coming off the incredibly miserable ending of cold steel 2 and i love how things get worse forever. i love drama!!!!