6 reviews liked by lshalo


There's so many things I want to say about this game. So many things I don't quite understand or am still thinking on. So much I loved - all the new cast and music is fantastic - so much that left me so...unsure (everything). I don't really know if my feelings will ever settle on it. So much of the story is fantastic and yet the big plot points leave me perplexed and excited and.. disappointed and hell I'd forgive all of it if it just made me cry. There's some emotional moments and some of the Somniums are wonderful symbolism but the ending and everything just leaves me feeling so unsatisfied. This game is far more meta than its predecessor and because of that its simultaneously far more brilliant and so much less emotionally compelling. I cried at the ending of the first game and at the end of this one I was just wishing I could. The climax feels stunted and lacks impact because a key character is already dead before it and its attempts at replicating the best parts of the original ending just fall flat. Ryuki is a great new protagonist but his usage in the second half of the game is just completely fumbled. But how much of this is my fault? I took a month long break inbetween this game when I wasn't even that far from the ending. How much did I miss? How much did I forget? I spent over fifty hours on this game how could anyone remember every finely put detail? Would i love it or understand it anymore if I could?

I need to replay this game sometime. In the you know what order. I don't know if it'll get me any closer to a definitive understanding of my overall feelings on this game but surely it'll give me something. I feel empty after beating this. Similarly felt the same about Danganronpa V3 which also has a bit of an infamous twist. You can rag on both of these games for being too silly and having a stupid sense of humor and fuck, yeah I love that about both of them but.. even though my turmoil for either is with different circumstances I knew the second the credits rolled that they were gonna be games I'm pondering about for as long as I'll be able to remember enough to ponder.

I guess all i have to say for sure is I love Mizuki and I need a third game. You and everyone else who wrote this are sick fucks, Mr. Uchikoshi and I hope you never change.

I'm distraught. I might delete this review. Its not a good one but hell even nearly a year later I still havent been able to compile my thoughts on the original to review that properly either. I'm sorry you had to read this but if you did I hope you did it like the way Jacob Geller ends an uncertain analysis. I got the collectors edition of this thing, my first figure of Aiba. I own this game both on switch and playstation! I don't regret that at all. Just looking back on how excited I was for this makes me wish maybe I never played it in the first place. Until next time folks

Please share your thoughts i feel like im going insane

Update #1 After talking with my BF a bit more about the story i definitely feel less upset about the plot and want to try playing this again someday, but i cant shake how empty most of the ending felt for me and for that i've decided to give this game a 94/100, aka the closest i can give something to being a 5/5 without a 5/5. I havent even touched on some of my other thoughts about different parts of the game but Im just so overwhelmed and exhausted by this experience as a whole that I dont think ill cover the rest. I need to take a big step back from this before i attempt it again.
Update #2
Im going back for some trophies cuz i planned on this being my 225th milestone. Replaying a lot of parts and remembering all the stuff I really like. There's still so much I dislike but ugh I simply just can't wrap my head around it. I've been thinking about how my scale says i define a 5/5 as near perfect and I really think thats what this is. So close to perfect but its not. I had similar problem with some other movies this year and decided a 95 and a 5/5 was fair so im gonna keep this score and try not to think about this game anymore before i disintegrate
Update #3 lmao
Man. As i'm typing this i got the platinum after working on it all night. While I was playing it i got frustrated at trophies and remembered some more complaints I have about this game... man I just dont know. I've unlocked the ending cutscene in bonus and have just been letting it play. I still think the finale could of been a little better, I still think they really fucked up Ryuki, i still am not sure about the twist, but.. this game and series means way too much to me! I love this cast and I'm so happy with the new additions and what they did with Mizuki in this. I have the collectors edition box and figure on my headboard and shit! Looking through all my other favorite games even though i hate this one its still so much better and i love it so much more than most games that ever existed. Ive seen this ending multiple times now and it makes me happy. Even if its not what I wanted, i'm happy. And i think it got me a little teary eyed thinking about it all, so in the ending maybe it did succeed after all.

I've updated this review multiple times over the course of the day and a half since I've beat this. I just hope this isnt the last we see of this series. I'm gonna stop talking now as this is just becoming the diary of a mentally ill woman's attachment to fictional people and how easy she is to sway with large dance numbers.

Also! I keep forgetting but I'm proud ProZD is in this hes a good boy

Nancymeter - 97/100
Time Played - 69 hours 32 (and counting)
Trophy Completion - 100% (49/49) Platinum #225
Game Completion #7 of December
Game Completion #153 of 2022

I’ve held off on writing about this game for awhile due to needing more time to absorb it all. I’m still playing this game even though I’ve beaten it, and I think, just like Yharnam or my friend, Isaac’s mom, I’ll be returning readily for a long while.

I love the cryptic, Lovecraftian nature of Atropos and the ever-changing environment that begs for our heroine's blood. Some of the biomes fall flat, but it’s such a small issue that it’s not really worth complaining about.

The gameplay loop, with its heavy hitting weapons that just light the screen up and the frantic and lightning movement, is pure bliss. Honestly, I’ve even woken up early just so I can play it before work. The bosses aren’t on Bloodbourne's level, for example, but they are still stunning in their beautiful attacks and Lovecraft image.

I spent ages trying to piece together the plot and paint my own mental picture of this visual and mental trauma that Selene goes through, and I love that Soulsbourne-esque archaeological take on a story. The game's difficulty never really feels bad, as there is never really a feeling of punishment; like Sisyphus, you just push the boulder again.

I will be abandoning Helios for years to come.

Fantastic art, characters and voice acting let down slightly by repetition.

Toukiden Kiwami is one of the attempts to cash in on the Monster Hunter genre. For those unaware back on the PlayStation 2 Capcom created a game series called Monster Hunter which essentially created a new type of RPG. These games have mainly been popular on handheld devices which is where Koei Tecmo's Toukiden originally launched on Sony's Vita. With the release of the expanded version Kiwami, Toukiden also got a PlayStation 4 port for us console gamers to give it a go.

With that short history lesson over onto the actual game. Toukiden is set in an alternate fantasy world using a lot of Japanese historical figures. Eight years previously a swarm of Oni (Japanese for demon/devil) appeared swallowing the north of the land killing thousands of people and absorbing their souls. Utakata village, part of the midlands is now on the frontline against the Oni and is manned by an elite group of warriors called Slayers who specialize in fighting the Oni. You play the role of a new Slayer joining the village to fend off the horde.

The game essentially has two parts to it, the village and combat missions.

In the village:
- You can socialize with your fellow slayers finding out a little bit about them both as part of the main plot and extra parts. This is one of my favorite aspects as the story and cast are actually really well developed which is pretty rare for a Monster Hunter type game. The Slayers are all pretty varied in gender, age, size, skills not to mention how they came to be in Utakata village in the first place. It was a real pleasant surprise.

- Other aspects are more practical such as buying weapons and items to use, upgrading your equipment using materials from dead Oni or that are found during combat, praying at shrines for one off mission boosts, sending your pet Tenko (a two tailed fox) off to look for items or completing villagers quests etc. There is a lot of micromanagement stuff to check between each mission to make sure you are the strongest you can be before you set out.

In Combat:
- From the village you select from a list of missions to engage on. These missions send you to one of half a dozen locations that are slowly unlocked which seem to be desert level, snow level, lava level, jungle level etc. Like a check list. Once there missions start of small like collect these items or kill this many small Oni but slowly build until every mission involves fighting a big Oni type boss or two.

- Combat is played in an action RPG style with a normal attack, heavy attack, special attack, dodge etc. There are a large weapon variety to choose from including your standard sword, spear, bow, club to more exotic like giant gauntlets, naganata and sickle each of which come with their own fighting style and move sets. To accompany that you can take the spirit of a dead hero with you known as a Mitama which gives you a class type and several magical abilities depending on class. Some heal, some boost attack, others help to destroy Oni body parts etc. There is a decent selection you can swap between before missions.

- The combat is pretty fun but it is let down by being so repetitive. This game is big, took me maybe 135 hours to finally beat and I still have a lot of missions to do but sadly you either see the same enemies time and time again or reskin/ palette swaps of enemies you've already fought only with a different name. These get old, fast. Especially when to create new armour sets you will need to fight them again and again looking for parts. I had to take a six month break from the game as while I loved the story, the battles were weighing me down as some of the enemies just have so much health.

- In combat you can take three other Slayers with you. In single player you can choose from the expanding group of characters who come and to Koei Tecmo's credit the AI for them is actually fantastic. They attack hard, yet also dodge attacks, heal, revive you and use abilities. They do still die against tougher foes but not that often and it really feels like they make an impact on the Oni you're fighting.
There is also a multiplayer mode where you can meet up with three friends and work through a large separate list of missions (though the same enemies) together. You keep all the parts, items and upgrades you gain but strangely can't run to the village to make new armour or anything without leaving the lobby which was a little frustrating. (the online was dead though even back in 2016 when I was playing this)

On the technical side as it's only a Vita port you can't expect too much but this game really looks good. Character models are very detailed and the enemy and environments look fantastic. What really stands out though is the stunning artwork both for all the Slayers and the 300+ Mitama that all have their individual portraits, really impressive. The voice acting to the game is in Japanese, not only is the voice acting superb for pretty much every character but it really adds to the feudal Japanese setting imo.

So overall I did enjoy this game a lot. The story, characters, art, voice acting, music and combat are great. It lets itself down with a lack of enemies and mission variety but played in bursts here and there, especially if you have friends playing it can help through that.

+ Story and cast are well fleshed out.
+ Surprisingly good AI.
+ Stellar art and voice acting.

- Enemy reskins, health pools and lack of variety get old fast.
- Have to leave the multiplayer lobby to make new gear, stupid.

Most of what I experienced in Rage 2 is baffling to me. The first time I played this game, I only made it 20 minutes in before I had to close it due to the worst case of secondhand embarrassment I've ever experienced. For some reason, I did come back.

Every single line, every individual plot point of this story is like it was written by two 12-year-olds after marathoning the Transformers movies and watching someone else play two hours of DOOM.

Games like this reveal to me that it's relatively easy to stumble into greatness with a game that strips away the "fluff" that comes with your typical AAA game. Just Cause 2 kicked ass because it seemed like it cared about its story less than the player even did, and after playing this (and the post-2010 Just Cause games) I'm starting to believe that Avalanche just doesn't know how to make a "conventional" game.

It's kinda... endearingly shitty? It's like a child's idea of what would be the best video game ever made: a completely absurd (and aggressively formulaic) mashup of your favorite elements from every other game, with no regard for how they interact with one another. There are dungeons, farming, cooking, a pokemon capture/breeding system that lets you breed anything with a health bar and pathfinding AI, base building, and it's so goofy and disjointed that the only real goals in the game do not even bother with making you touch these systems at all (literally).

It's mostly a strange experience because it's all like, 75% complete, spread evenly across every element of the game. You could spend all your time fishing and cooking, but for some reason there are like three core ingredients you can only get by breaking boxes on the beach, of which there is a finite, non-respawning number. Item descriptions are clearly machine translated but understandable, save for ~15% of items where the description is either still in Japanese, completely indecipherable English, or so vague that it may as well not exist. If it felt like progress meant anything in this game, I would almost be frustrated by how many times I've used a ridiculous amount of rare resources to build some mysterious rainbow-colored orb that seems to do literally nothing when placed/thrown.

It is a game made by people who very clearly love video games and very clearly have no idea what makes a good game work. There are games out there with satirical mechanics meant to parody time-wasting games, and yet none of them are as effective as Craftopia, which prompts you to do things like "craft one THOUSAND automated furnaces and cast them into the void" to permanently gain... +0.1 MATK.

And yet, I feel like it's worth noting that the game has never crashed. It's janky, but never has the experience completely fallen apart for me, despite this horrendous mess of features. I have done some really stupid shit, including breeding an entire farm of Anubis (the god), who exists on an island in the sky solely to help you gain permanent stat buffs, and the game never stopped me. Everything that is present works well enough that it's at least fun-adjacent if you can rope a particularly foolish person into joining you. I absolutely do not recommend any part of this experience, least of all if you have to exchange legal tender for the opportunity.


I covered this game as part of my coverage of the Xbox Game Pass for May 2022

Sliding Block puzzles, Souls-Like and Rogue-Lite, that’s a lot in one game.

Loot River has a couple of interesting features. The player moves around on large block platforms that they can control with the right thumbstick while they run around with the left stick and fight. It’s a good concept but in practice, the game just doesn’t have the fluidity it needs to pull off the idea.

A major issue with Loot River is the combat will feel clunky and slow, but that’s likely on purpose. It feels like the developer took a lot of inspiration from the souls-like genre, and wanted a combat system that required purposeful attacks. Sometimes this works, but other times this just comes off as a mess. It’s the top-down view that breaks how this system is supposed to work and I almost wonder if it had a third-person view over the shoulder, this might feel better.

The real problem with Loot River is it’s a triumvirate of different ideas. If it wasn’t a sliding block puzzle, the design could focus more on the combat and arenas. If it wasn’t a souls-like game, the movement would be more fluid for the rogue-lite and sliding block puzzles. If it wasn’t a rogue-lite, the story and better-designed levels would feel better. Instead, you have randomly designed non-challenging sliding-block level design, A slow clunky souls-like combat on those sliding blocks, and a rogue-lite which means everything is randomized.

Pick this up if you haven’t had enough rouge-Lites or souls likes. If you can enjoy those two by themselves this can still be fun as there really isn’t much puzzle in the sliding blocks and it’s a novel movement system, but Rogue-Lite and Souls-Like still do feel like they’re at odds with each other. Oh well.

If you want to see the video this was taken of, or more from me on the Xbox Game Pass, check out: https://youtu.be/62CjXwS1zQg