lmaojaykay
7 reviews liked by lmaojaykay
Palworld
2024
Are we so gullible? Do we as an audience not demand anything from our art? There's no story, no new mechanics, no real characters, no interesting or enjoyable visuals, no compelling gameplay, no original ideas at all in fact. Is a faceless strawman to antagonise really enough to get millions of people to play an Unreal Engine asset flip made as artlessly as possible? Is no one else actively disturbed by how blatantly and gracelessly this rips mechanics from every popular game of the last 2 decades, without integrating any of them together whatsoever? Has art ever felt this cynical before?
Feel free to discount my opinion. I am a 'salty Pokemon fanboy' after all, and I only gave this game an hour or so of my not particularly highly valued time. I personally just prefer the art I engage with to care for the art form it sits within, even a little bit. Palworld hates video games. It sees nothing more within them than a collection of things to do and hopes that by shovelling a flaccid farcical version of as many of them as possible into your mouth it will somehow constitute a 'video game' when all is said and done. It doesn't. I'm deeply saddened that so many gamers think so lowly of our art form that they genuinely think this is acceptable.
Feel free to discount my opinion. I am a 'salty Pokemon fanboy' after all, and I only gave this game an hour or so of my not particularly highly valued time. I personally just prefer the art I engage with to care for the art form it sits within, even a little bit. Palworld hates video games. It sees nothing more within them than a collection of things to do and hopes that by shovelling a flaccid farcical version of as many of them as possible into your mouth it will somehow constitute a 'video game' when all is said and done. It doesn't. I'm deeply saddened that so many gamers think so lowly of our art form that they genuinely think this is acceptable.
This review contains spoilers
The good is VERY good: We have the absolute peak of gameplay in the Yakuza series, both in combat and in side content. Every single one of the 10 playable characters are awesome, multi-dimensional, and super fun. Seeing Seonhee's dorky side was an absolute treat. The party banters you get throughout the cities range between heartwarming to absolutely sidesplitting. The game itself runs really well and mostly looks awesome outside a few weird looking NPCs. Some of the main story is great (mostly Kiryu's side). The Bucket List outside of a couple infuriating narrative choices is one of the most unique and ultimately poignant piece of side content I've ever seen.
Now for the bad, and why this is behind a spoiler warning: The main plot is so uneven. For every amazing moment there's one "what even is this shit" moment. Ichiban's main villain falls flat on his face both narratively and from a fight perspective (the two big fights just before were much more difficult and fun). The worst part though is the ending. RGG just absolutely REFUSES to take the easy wins that everyone would love. They don't let us see Haruka and Kiryu reunited, (they are absolutely reunited to be clear, we just don't get to see it). Ichiban's personal growth and repairing his relationship with Saeko after his massive fuckup at the start is thrown away for a cheap gag. I came out of the ending ultimately rather furious. They dropped the ball on the ending hard. I could have forgiven all the weird unevenness of the main plot if they'd just done what was obvious all along, but they overcomplicated it and it landed like a sack of potatoes.
Steam says I played 86 hours. I'd say about 84 of those were fun as all hell. It's still a great game and worth every penny. But I said to my friend about 2/3 of the way through "the only way this drops out of my top 5 is if they completely shit the bed on the ending" and unfortunately that's what happened, so it'll probably place somewhere around 9-10.
Now for the bad, and why this is behind a spoiler warning: The main plot is so uneven. For every amazing moment there's one "what even is this shit" moment. Ichiban's main villain falls flat on his face both narratively and from a fight perspective (the two big fights just before were much more difficult and fun). The worst part though is the ending. RGG just absolutely REFUSES to take the easy wins that everyone would love. They don't let us see Haruka and Kiryu reunited, (they are absolutely reunited to be clear, we just don't get to see it). Ichiban's personal growth and repairing his relationship with Saeko after his massive fuckup at the start is thrown away for a cheap gag. I came out of the ending ultimately rather furious. They dropped the ball on the ending hard. I could have forgiven all the weird unevenness of the main plot if they'd just done what was obvious all along, but they overcomplicated it and it landed like a sack of potatoes.
Steam says I played 86 hours. I'd say about 84 of those were fun as all hell. It's still a great game and worth every penny. But I said to my friend about 2/3 of the way through "the only way this drops out of my top 5 is if they completely shit the bed on the ending" and unfortunately that's what happened, so it'll probably place somewhere around 9-10.
Lost Judgment
2021
Sawa-sensei would want you to play this game.
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
Like eating Ambrosia, but half the meal is laced with small bombs exploding inside you
Pizza Tower
2023
Probably one of the best 2D platformers to come out in a long while. Inspired by the Wario Land series the style and wackiness seems to be based on 90's cartoons and the animation is very fluid. Music is top notch and fits the game well.
Tight game design on most levels really allows you to fly through the levels once you understand the layout and why things are placed where they're placed. Most levels have some new element/gimmick and while some work better than others, in general it manages to keep every level feeling fresh enough to make you want to keep going.
If you're just trying to get through the game it's roughly a 6 hour experience. But there's plenty of additional enjoyment in unlocking all the achievements/collectables along with getting P rankings on every level that will add hours to your playtime if you want.
If you've ever enjoyed platformers in your life, it's worth checking out this indie gem.
Tight game design on most levels really allows you to fly through the levels once you understand the layout and why things are placed where they're placed. Most levels have some new element/gimmick and while some work better than others, in general it manages to keep every level feeling fresh enough to make you want to keep going.
If you're just trying to get through the game it's roughly a 6 hour experience. But there's plenty of additional enjoyment in unlocking all the achievements/collectables along with getting P rankings on every level that will add hours to your playtime if you want.
If you've ever enjoyed platformers in your life, it's worth checking out this indie gem.
Never played the original Gamecube game so I don't have any attachment to this. Overall it's a product of it's time. It's very much a Metroid game, collecting upgrade to access new areas and power up and it's fun to explore.
But there's a lot of clunkiness in the movement, camera angles, and general design. For the time it showed that Metroid was able to make the leap from 2D to 3D successfully.
But without the nostalgia glasses the game is just ok, it's a good remaster, faithful to the original for better or for worse with nicer graphics.
But there's a lot of clunkiness in the movement, camera angles, and general design. For the time it showed that Metroid was able to make the leap from 2D to 3D successfully.
But without the nostalgia glasses the game is just ok, it's a good remaster, faithful to the original for better or for worse with nicer graphics.
There's nothing more that can really be said about how excellent this game's narrative is and how much it respects and incorporates so many sci-fi tropes to make something wholly unique.
What I do want to say is that there is something weirdly fun about dropping the frame rate to basically zero on the PS4 in the later combat sections. They're by no means difficult, which just makes them basically particle effect simulators. I like that, but I can see why many wouldn't.
What I do want to say is that there is something weirdly fun about dropping the frame rate to basically zero on the PS4 in the later combat sections. They're by no means difficult, which just makes them basically particle effect simulators. I like that, but I can see why many wouldn't.
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