everyone's said it but yeah, this game's story is terrible. Bayonetta's never really had great stories, but they had a lot more energy and comedy and character than this one. Bayonetta herself is largely uninterested, unmotivated, and has no other characters popping around for her to play off of like in the past games - except for the shockingly dull 'multiverse' Bayonettas that all die instantly while Bayonetta stands there watching. idk why the multiverse thing is even in this one? it doesn't really take great advantage of it, you never really get fun interactions with multiple Bayos and you don't get any real standout characters or moments from those other worlds. in particular, the egypt world sucked total ass because the music in the start led me to think it was gonna be a wild west world and FUCK i want cowboy Bayonetta SO bad.

gameplay wise, this is (at times) the best the series has ever been. i think. pretty much all of the new weapons fucking rule, each being more complex than the majority of the past title's alt weapons and they're usually insanely cool. every single one could be the sole weapon your use throughout the game if you wanted, they're all on the level of Bayo's default guns and all have their own fun little quirks. each one of them has their own demon too and i cannot tell you how much i love that goddamn clock tower. the amount of options you have at any given time can be overwhelming almost, but i'm a sick freak and i live for this stuff. though, admittedly, i wasn't huge on summoning demons most of the time - it's just not as satisfying as throwing chainsaw-yoyos into someone's face and the moment i got the accessory that let demons move independently i never stopped using it. i kinda wished there were less gimmick sections just because i wanted to fuck around with the tools more. the gimmick sections (a Kamiya staple) are the most playable they've been so far, but they're also the most plentiful they've been and rob Bayonetta of those kickass moments where she would defiantly murder a giant fucking thing that talked shit. no one in this really talks shit, or talks at all, to Bayonetta. i think the gameplay is (for better and for worse) the most complex in the series so far and the amount of shit to play with as Bayonetta never left me bored.

there's also Viola, though. i actually love her, she's a horrible cringe fail girl who looks like she smells weird and writes fanfic and has opinions on sonic the hedgehog. her woefully sucky faux-punk attitude absolutely won me over but fuck does she have nothing to do in this game, which is a huge problem considering the ending. she mostly just chases Luka around the entire time, never even getting to interact with Bayo (or anyone, really) at all and jobbing to everything in cutscenes. she doesn't even get a cool moment during the final boss, which sincerely pissed me off. her gameplay revolves around a parry that activates witch time, which is cool on paper, but ultimately feels too stiff. witch time feels great because of the flow it adds to combat, the parry requires you to just stand still. i hope in the future (if these games have one) they give her Raiden's MGR parry instead. otherwise, i actually really like Viola and her moveset. kinda. her moveset never meaningfully evolves throughout the game and when Bayonetta has like 14 individual unique weapons and demons with full movesets, it feels weird to go to Viola and get one sword and one demon. a very cool sword and a very great demon, but still.

i've replayed enough of the game to wash the foul taste of its ending out of my mouth but when i got there initially i stared at the screen like that one panel in Tails Gets Trolled for like 20 minutes straight. unironic 'what were they THINKING?!?!" type moment. it's a shame that the story and writing is so bad this time around because this is one of the most video game ass video games that has come out in a long time. it's fun! it's Bayonetta, baby! but it's also on the switch and it absolutely should not be. poor Platinum have been hitched to 360-tier hardware for Bayo's entire series, this game pushes that shitty 'lil handheld to its limits but it really deserves better fidelity and quality than what was capable on this thing. its extra emphasis on scale and spectacle during regular gameplay only exacerbates this issue, with the visuals overall feeling drab and lacking in detail. that added scale also fucks with the camera far too often, found myself wishing enemies were just smaller. hopefully whenever the hell nintendo finally releases a successor console it'll be backwards compatible and there'll be a patch or something. the music, at least, is the best it's ever been. Viola doesn't need more than one battle theme because her song is the best shit ever and i want more. did notice some really bad sound-mixing and design during cutscenes tho, oddly flaccid. the cutscenes themselves are also extremely flaccid, with far less character moments and not even a fraction of the silly insane bullshit from the first title. still, despite my issues with its writing and aesthetic problems, this game rules and as someone who likes fun and cool games, i had a great time with this one.




oh, and Jeanne was in this game too.

I honestly could say a whole lot of shit about Kingdom Hearts as a series but especially the first game. I've been playing KH1 very specifically pretty much since the original game released back in 2002. I have so many fond memories, so many hours spent wandering the levels, getting acquainted with the worlds and their gimmicks, platforming and ideas.

There's something tangibly there in KH1 that really doesn't particularly permeate the rest of the series. Like yeah, the combat mechanics absolutely improve, the series finds its identity in a lot of differing ways but there's something about the raw experimental edge and janky nature of this first entry that really isn't felt in the rest of the games.

The atmosphere here is almost uncannily eerie at points, especially in locations like Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion and End of the World. A kind of unsettling hint of darkness that unsettled me more as a kid (that Ansem in the cave scene genuinely scared the fuck out of me as a child I hated that shit lmao I always used to think that dude was like hiding in my closet about to call me a stupid bozo who didn't know anything) but some of the visuals, haunting gothic styled architecture and offness isn't felt to me in a number of later entries like it is here. Like some games do get closer to it again (0.2 is MAYBE the closest in years with 1 section in 3 getting a little closer too) but it's not really to the same level and degree that I feel this game really nails.

Like I adore the implications with stuff like the secret boss cutscene being really fuckin creepy and weird and off! The game is full of moments and ideas like that, the false Destiny Island in the end with the dead palm tree and no waterfall, the secret experiment room you uncover, all of Hollow Bastion and its gothic tones. It's so fuckin cool!

I like how this game integrates the Disney worlds with the actual overarching plot generally rather than just being flat out recaps most of the time (Atlantica having King Trident know what's up and shit talk the MC's is genuinely fantastic), I dig how this lays the groundwork for the rest of the series to build its world and concepts and ideas off of (even if they don't always work out the best in some of them DDD I'm looking at you).

I dig the gameplay systems and what they were going for with magic being more of a resource you have to build and manage, encouraging you to be more aggressive in order to build it back up. Though I do wish that being a purely magic focused build/character was a little more doable but whatever. Final Mix does add good additions like a camera that makes some goddamn sense and having Triangle be for opening chests and stuff like some of the moves you unlock like Sonic Blade and stuff to more reflect games like 2 and what they were going for more there. Though a Final Mix change I don't particularly enjoy is the color changes to the Heartless, I think the way its handled takes away from a l o t of the atmosphere and art direction of this game specifically and some just aren't good recolors like LOOK AT THIS

Potential hot take as well maybe possibly or maybe I have 2002 brain worms but honestly I really love the platforming in this game. I love how much they kinda messed around with it and while a bit slippery at points felt like something that could've been built upon or made a bit more interesting to do! Maybe made more interesting challenges or anything with it but I feel the series kinda just gives up on that aspect after this and that's kind of a shame. I really find it fascinating how much of that identity and idea permeates a loooot of this first game and how immediately 2 does away with pretty much the rest of that, with some lightly coming back in bits and pieces as apart of fights and some light exploration but otherwise nowhere near the same degree as explored in 1. I feel like that does make 1 stand out a little more in the kind of shit they were throwing at the wall to try out and everything too, same with the colored health bars idea that I honestly really fucked with!

Also something specific with this HD edition is I think some of the music is slightly just a little worse than the original. Like the original Night of Fate has a particular intensity to it that STILL to this day gives me fuckin goosebumps. The new version of Night of Fate does NOT hit in the same way at ALL. Something about it feels almost dulled? Like parts of it just aren't mixed how they originally were and I think it massively dulls the impact and effect of the track. Multiple songs in this version are like this and its kind of a bummer that there's still no kind of option like in the later releases of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster that let you choose the OG OST if you prefer that. I know the remaster process for this was a bit of a mess due to supposedly all of the original assets being lost and having to essentially remake it all from scratch but I feel like the music out of all of it would've been the easiest to reimplement. But maybe they didn't have the original files of the tracks or something like that who the fuck knows. It's a bummer to me either way!

Overall though, this game will always stick with me, I will pretty much come back to this game forever for the rest of eternity. I could completely burn out of this series or hate some entry or whatever and still be all into playing KH1 all over again because it's so utterly special to me. I could go on and on about little strats for fights or what worlds can be completely skipped or how to get through world's quickly or fun facts about certain inclusions and ideas within the game itself. It's a personal heartfelt favorite that makes me feel a lot of things and I absolutely can talk about to absolute fuckin death man.

Kingdom Hearts opened my mind to the possibilities of what video games could be. More than just the Mortal Kombat 2's and Super Mario 3's of the world. It was the first game to really get me into its narrative, to really hook me and never really let me go. Even now I'm still invested in this series, its characters, its secrets, its fun goofy nature and its heartfelt messages and ideas. I love Kingdom Hearts for everything it is and while I wish certain elements of the series were carried forward in ways I am still happy overall with where things have gone since 2002.

Most of the conversation I’ve seen around Venba has revolved around the story of the entire family the game is about, but centered on the point of view of Kavin, the child. A second generation immigrant, Kavin experiences the social pressures of otherness growing up and we see this expressed through his own insecurities with his situation and his attempts to fit in throughout his life as well as via the way his mother Venba vents her frustrations with how she feels he’s rejecting his culture and his family, with his dad Paavalankind of caught in an empathetic middle ground. I get why this happens – I think a lot of the people who like, actually play the game are more likely to identify with Kavin, and the game shifts more focally to his perspective in the back half, and he’s admittedly something of a reflection of the lived experiences of the game’s lead designer, whose life the game is heavily drawn upon. And I don’t want to downplay Kavin’s experience; obviously modern second gen kids’ relationships with their parents are stories that a lot of people connect strongly to – it’s a really common thing in my generation. But when I was playing the game I couldn’t help but find myself so much more drawn to Venba herself.

My wife is from India, and while it seems kind of funny in hindsight there was in fact a lot of hubbub when we first got together. We were dating in secret for a long time because there was sure to be controversy over my whiteness and my religion. When we got found out it was a little longer before I was allowed to meet her parents and then a lot longer before I felt like, actually accepted, which is fair. Things were very different from how they were expecting things to go, even if my wife herself never really planned to adhere to these expectations. I always thought her mom HATED me though, even after the CONTROVERSY of our relationship cooled off. She was so quiet around me, so distant, and I never knew how to talk to her. But it turned out she also felt that way about me. Insecure and weird about this stranger that she felt like she had zero common ground with.

Eventually we bonded over two things: our mutual love of roasting the shit out of my wife and my sincere appreciation for her cooking. She’s got this deep well of recipes and they’re all so fuckin good dude but neither of her kids have any real interest in cooking like at all, even before my wife became too disabled for that to be something she could realistically do, so I think she took some genuine pleasure from it when I started asking persistently for her to teach me how to make some of her stuff when we would visit each other, and now I have a pretty good stock of family recipes that’s still steadily growing, with my wife and mother-in-law’s seal of approval. (In fact I would say that if you have a working knowledge of how to cook most basic Indian foods then most of the puzzle elements of Venba will be essentially negated because it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, a masala is a masala and a biryani is a biryani and a dosa is a dosa). But I’ve also spent a lot of time with her now over the years, doing this stuff, and a pretty good amount of time with her alone, and you start to know people, and I see so much of her in Venba.

A woman who moves about as far away from her life, her home, her family as it is possible to move, unwillingly, as a matter of practicality, Venba never quite assimilates. A qualified, highly educated worker in her home country arbitrarily unable to find work in her new one for racist reasons, relying on a stressed partner to make ends meet while she handles domestic duties and isolates herself, partially because her new society rejects her and partially because she rejects it. “I have Paavalan,” she says at one point. “I have Kavin.” There are all kinds of reasons why and they might even create a twisted ouroboros sometimes but ultimately Venba just doesn’t like it in Canada, and she did like it in India, and if she had her way she would probably just like, go home. It hurts her to be apart from her parents when they get old and get sick. It hurts her to see her son so easily slip into this culture she feels embittered towards and treat her like part of the embarrassing thing to leave behind.

I think my mother in law feels that way a lot of the time, especially since both of her children have left the nest, although this is where her experience diverges from Venba’s. My wife and her brother are very close to their mom, and I think that’s part of what anchors her here, despite everything. They don’t have the contentious relationship that Venba and Kavin have that gives Venba kind of a freedom to return to where she’s happy, or to necessitate the reunion and reconciliation that they loosely share in the final chapter. ac

While my secondhand experience with a life that Venba so strongly evokes in my mind’s eye does make me feel a little frustrated at how cleanly this game resolves its lingering conflicts by the end of it all, I don’t think it falls into the trap of, as a friend of mine wisely phrased it yesterday, “barren sentimentality” that I think even well-meaning games often fall into when they try to tackle real subject matter. Venba may be a short game whose focus on food and small scope limits the windows into these lives that we’re allowed to peer into, but its dialogue is often cutting, it knows when not to pull punches, and it says a lot without words.

The writing is uniformly excellent but I think the best stuff is consistently the way the game communicates without words. The way Kavin’s letters unfold more slowly across his word balloons when he speaks Tamil vs when his parents do or when he’s speaking English for most of the game because he’s less comfortable with the language; the way that the last time you play as Venba there’s minimal interactivity because at this point in her life she’s memorized her recipes and developed her own techniques and using newer equipment for the most part, so there are no puzzles to solve and all the game asks from the player is a couple of button presses or stick rotations; the way that when you’re playing as Kavin he just kind of drops or tosses ingredient containers gracelessly back onto the counter vs the way Venba would put them back down like a normal person. There’s a moment where you’re texting and the game is auto-advancing the conversation but once you’re given the freedom to exit the conversation you can actually scroll up and see the entire thing again, including the beginning chunk of it that you weren’t originally shown and it is as horrible as you would imagine. Venba is such a short game and its vignettes are necessarily so focused that this intimate attention to detail makes a huge difference in the texture of the world.

Applicability is very real, I suppose. On its face Venba is an incredibly generic immigrant story, with only the food angle making it stand out narratively, but even then it isn’t even the only “wholesome indie game about a second generation immigrant trying to reconnect somehow to a parent via family recipes” that I know of off the top of my head. We all know people who have lived the broad details of this family’s story. But the particular voices that come out of their mouths are bold and articulate and human. Enough for it to evoke specific traumas in my wife, who loved this game, enough to make me wistful about my relationship with her mother, which is occasionally complicated. And I know other people who have felt similarly. It’s easy for me to imagine a lesser version of this game and I’m glad I don’t have to talk about that one haha.

As I write this we’re four days into a six day visit from my wife’s dad, whom I often struggle to get along with, and who doesn’t know that I’m transgender, and her brother, who is cool but who left early this afternoon. Today has been the first time we’ve had a break from work or being around them constantly since they arrived. It’s been a long and stressful week, but getting a couple hours to play through this game was in turns relaxing and sad and fun and cathartic. And we’re about to go out to eat at a South Indian restaurant with her dad, which was a happy coincidence that we’ve had planned for a couple of weeks. I think we’re gonna go ham on some dosas. Maybe try not to cry about Venba while we do.

real fun as usual, but these levels are killing me. I understand people who want actual levels in these kinda action games lost that fight a long time ago, but can you at least make them look pretty or something? I got a nightcap on and I'm yawning cartoonishly cos I've been staring at this fuck ugly tree for so long. I'm out here snoozing in a game where you can dual wield a motorcycle and give sin scissors a funny little hat

can't help but miss the vestigial resident evil bits and the weird kamiya + mikami -isms that itsuno sands down further and further with each subsequent entry. no doubt this is the best the combat's ever been, but DMC was never only about the combat no matter what weirdos whose favourite fighting game maps are the training stages tell you. I wanna do the Smokin Sexy Stuff and explore a gothic castle or tower or something with a reasonable amount of atmospheric oomph, I don't wanna hang out in butthole corridors for half the game

hard to talk about why the combat rules in a compelling fashion, or even some gross approximation of one. always struggle to put that kinetic verve into words and find a way to emphasize the heft of a blade or the timing of rating increase's sound effect. much like music criticism I think a lot of the text deployed in service of something so fundamentally felt seems ill at odds with the feeling itself. many have sought to obliterate language's stranglehold and biases on human experience and I can't help but think that's the proper lawful good instinct

just rest assured it's best in class

nero's a full character now, dante has never been more dante, and as many growing pains as I had with V I ended up really vibing with him by the end of my Dante Must Die run. don't mistake me for a zato sympathizer but despite his gameplay being comparatively shallow there's a satisfaction to the resource management and spacing elements that I find gratifying. learning the golem rhythm is a lot of fun once you're given good reason to bother and while I never graduated from the school of "make the bird do the held attacks while manually controlling the cat" I like the energy it gives off. plus I looked just like V when I was sixteen so

good game, but I'm gonna have some words for itsuno if he doesn't treat lady better next time