mospina
161 Reviews liked by mospina
This review contains spoilers
This game gripped and impressed me in ways few can. While Megami Tensei 1 was a unique and fun twist on the dungeon crawler it's this game which truly breaks the mold. Those familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei games will find that so much of what came to be synonymous with and beloved got its start here. Take out your pencils and graph paper cause this adventure is gonna be a long one.
MT2's visuals are unbelievably striking, the dungeon walls lined with heavily saturated colors that are unique to many maps. Even now, months after I've finished playing the game, the steely green passages of the starting bunker and blood red halls of the Ikebukuro building are burned into my memory. The spritework for enemies and NPCs is no less impressive with large, detailed portraits of various characters to speak with in bars and shops and suitably gruesome and intimidating looking demons to battle and negotiate with. Everything about the designs and art is colorful, bold and eye-catching and playing the game is like seeing the pages of a full-color comic book come to life. The thick black outlines used for characters really accentuate this feeling which follows all the way down to little details like the hilarious "OUCH" graphic that appears when your character bumps into a wall. In addition to this the game has a beautiful manual full of colored illustrations that show off every single monster in the game, plus it has some really good gameplay tips too. It's been faithfully translated by some very dedicated fans too so be sure to check it out if you play!
The music is arguably even more impressive, as the game's cart uses a special sound chip which allows it to produce tracks that are scarcely like anything I've heard on the NES or Famicom before. The music is so catchy and sounds so rich; I still find myself thinking about and humming the dungeon exploration track on a regular basis during my day-to-day walks.
Jumping from visuals into how the game plays I want to talk about an aspect of rpgs that I think is downplayed far too much and that's how good a game feels to control. Often it seems like if a game is turn based any amount of sluggishness and unresponsiveness will be excused on the grounds that it won't effect your success. I think games like Megami Tensei 2 go a long way to show just how much responsive controls can really benefit an rpg. Moving your character across the map and turning them is a nearly instant process, letting you switch directions in a flash. Later titles in the same series would add additional frames of animation for turning around which, while nice to look at, slowed down the action and made the whole process of moving around more tedious. On top of this the game's menus are just as responsive and battles play out in lightning-quick fashion. Once you've queued up your attacks it'll only take a few seconds for a round of combat to play out and if you use the game's auto-battle feature (which you should be, albeit strategically) then battles fly by lighting quick. It's a hell of a thrill to tear right through a weak encounter in a flash or be on the edge of your seat during a tough battle as you and a boss trade hits and spells back and forth in rapid succession.
Though still a dungeon crawler at heart like its predecessor the addition of an overworld adds a real feeling of grand adventure to the gameplay here. If Megami Tensei 1 was a custom dungeon module in a tabletop rpg, then Megami Tensei 2 is the core rulebook with all sorts of cool as hell worldbuilding details and intrigue, plus a giant sandbox campaign to run. A lot of elements of the game really do make it feel like a world the developers wanted the player to be able to get lost in as much as a challenge to be defeated. The nuked-out Tokyo setting here is well-realized and the vivid palette and equally colorful NPCs make it feel more like a post-apocalyptic wild west rather than the typical drab, crumbling dystopia you tend to get in this genre.
Though the game does have its share of progression requirements there are also many occasions where you'll have a fair degree of freedom in what goal or direction you want to tackle next. There was even an entire optional city and questline that I somehow managed to miss in my playthrough! Despite this freedom I felt the game did a great job of guiding my hand and giving hints as to where I needed to be and what I had to do. There was only a single time in the entire game where I felt lost and didn't know how to advance, and in that instance I'd easily argue that it was as much my own mistake as it was the game's lack of direction.
I've neglected talking about the actual dungeons here long enough, but they didn't disappoint at all. While things start out simple with basic corridors and just a couple floors and rooms per dungeon the game escalates more and more until the end. Pitfalls, turnstiles, dark rooms, warp rooms, dungeons full of damage tiles, and just about everything else you'd expect from a game of this kind is here in some way or another and often multiple at once. Exploring dungeons, finding treasure and just barely managing to escape and haul your half-dead team back to a town to heal up is a thrill. All this said there are a few places in the game that can be a tremendous pain if you don't go in already prepared to deal with what they dish out. (A word of advice, make sure to get a Core Shield or two from Rag's Shop when you have the chance, don't make my mistake and ignore them).
On top of this there are some big difficulty spikes, but I never found these to be unmanageable and in fact I would describe them as a feature more than an issue. These were fun to deal with since I typically got hit with a jump in challenge right when me and my current party were getting a little too cocky and the road too easygoing. There was just one occasion where I did feel like the game went a little too far in terms of the increase in challenge from previous content to what I suddenly found myself dealing with. There's no automap in-game which meant I mapped all of the dungeons by hand and had a blast doing so, but this may be a dealbreaker for some (to those I would recommend the SNES remake which does have such a feature).
Speaking of my party, the series' famous demon negotiation is back in this entry, a system in which the majority of your party is composed of enemies that you've successfully bribed and convinced to join your side. From there you can use them to fill out your roster and tackle dungeons with you, but like the hired guns they are, they continually cost resources to keep around and the tougher they are the higher the price. This leads to a fun system of judging just how much you need them around all the time, and which of your teammates you should save for the big boss fights at the end, or to make sure you can make the trip back. Since demons have all sorts of abilities, some of which the two player characters won't get until very late in the game, it's a ton of fun organizing your team to tackle the various challenges the game throws at you. And when your demons are starting to look a little weak you can fuse them together to make new ones. Overall these guys add brilliantly to the game's resource management and are just fun to use!
The actual combat here is swift and deadly. Knowing what sorts of attacks your enemies are weak to, from swords to guns to various brands of sorcery, is paramount here. Hitting even a much more powerful enemy with the right spell can bring them down in an instant. Even status spells can be surprisingly useful when used against the right enemy, and in typical fashion for the series buffs and debuffs are invaluable. But realistically the combat here isn't too complex, but that's fine as the game is more about the resource management aspect than about individual encounters. You might be able to beat the boss of a given dungeon without much trouble with your full team of bruisers, but can you navigate the whole dungeon, get to the end, beat them, and then get back out with your team intact? You'll find yourself rationing spells, items, and picking carefully who to summon and whose hp and mp you need to save as you delve into dungeons.
Since I've mentioned the SNES remake (Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei) a few times in this review I figure it might be worth talking about some differences between the two versions and why I think it's worth considering this older, original release over the newer version. The visuals were completely redone in the remake and while they look good I do think they give the game a very different feeling. In general the color palette used in Kyuuyaku is a whole lot darker and more muted than MT2, which makes the game feel just a bit more drab and run down. Characters lack the thick, defining black outlines they had in the NES version, going for a more natural but less stylish appearance and the detailed character portraits are gone entirely! It's not bad but absolutely lends a very different atmosphere to the journey and I found the original to be more impressive. In addition the music in Kyuuyaku sounds muffled and just can't match the custom chip used in the original game. The last major change that leaves me preferring the original is that, like I alluded to earlier, the later games in the series are a whole lot more sluggish and Kyuuyaku inherits that trait. Turning and moving in dungeons, attacking, and really everything is just a bit slower and less responsive. For a game you're going to probably be playing for many hours I think simply feeling better at a base level is a huge reason you might want to stick to one version over another.
That said the SNES version does have its advantages. Some players will likely prefer the visuals in that version and while the sound is better in the older version there's at least one excellent new music track (and probably more I don't know of off the top of my head) that has no equivalent in the NES game. There's also the big quality of life change that is the inclusion of an automap. For players that simply don't enjoy mapping out dungeons themselves this is going to be a huge one and I think is pretty much the primary reason to play Kyuuyaku over the original if you do. And despite everything I have said here I do not think the remake is a bad game by any means. If it's the only way you can experience this game then you should play it without hesitation. I only hope that some of you that are on the fence or unsure will consider the original game and not simply write it off as the inferior version due to its age.
Beyond this point I'll be getting into more direct spoilers. While I'm not going to give a plot rundown it's impossible to talk about the game completely without at least going into some big, lategame reveals. So if you want to experience the game for yourself I recommend stopping here. Even without reading further I think it should be evident by this point I highly recommend playing this game to anyone checking out this review.
I was really blown away by the ambition and scope of this game overall. The plot itself is told in simple fashion, through a limited amount of dialogue and interactions, yet it does so much with what it has and with the benefit of not getting in the way of the play experience in doing so. In Megami Tensei 1 the mythological aspects of the series were basically window dressing, but MT2 is much more mindful as to the 'source material' from which so many of its creatures originate. It's more clever in its use of Canaanite mythology and how that transitioned into the modern, Abrahamic faith than many of its successors. On top of this the Abyss as it exists in this game is vastly more fleshed out than in any entry in the series, with a massive portion of the game taking place therein. The demonic culture therein was a real blast to experience and it's simply unbelievable cool to suddenly be thrust into a whole new overworld after exploring the previous one.
My impressions have been glowing and I think it's hard to state just how much I really enjoyed this game from beginning to end. While I ran into some tough challenges along the way it was nothing that didn't make me eager to persevere and surmount it. I've frequently found myself drawn back to the game to play for a few hours just to enjoy spending some more time in its world, which I think is one of the marks of an amazing game and something that has been harder and harder for me to find as the years go on. It's become one of my favorite games in this entire series that is rapidly approaching four decades since its first release and is full of stellar titles. However you choose to play it I hope those with even the slightest interest in this sort of game don't miss out on it.
MT2's visuals are unbelievably striking, the dungeon walls lined with heavily saturated colors that are unique to many maps. Even now, months after I've finished playing the game, the steely green passages of the starting bunker and blood red halls of the Ikebukuro building are burned into my memory. The spritework for enemies and NPCs is no less impressive with large, detailed portraits of various characters to speak with in bars and shops and suitably gruesome and intimidating looking demons to battle and negotiate with. Everything about the designs and art is colorful, bold and eye-catching and playing the game is like seeing the pages of a full-color comic book come to life. The thick black outlines used for characters really accentuate this feeling which follows all the way down to little details like the hilarious "OUCH" graphic that appears when your character bumps into a wall. In addition to this the game has a beautiful manual full of colored illustrations that show off every single monster in the game, plus it has some really good gameplay tips too. It's been faithfully translated by some very dedicated fans too so be sure to check it out if you play!
The music is arguably even more impressive, as the game's cart uses a special sound chip which allows it to produce tracks that are scarcely like anything I've heard on the NES or Famicom before. The music is so catchy and sounds so rich; I still find myself thinking about and humming the dungeon exploration track on a regular basis during my day-to-day walks.
Jumping from visuals into how the game plays I want to talk about an aspect of rpgs that I think is downplayed far too much and that's how good a game feels to control. Often it seems like if a game is turn based any amount of sluggishness and unresponsiveness will be excused on the grounds that it won't effect your success. I think games like Megami Tensei 2 go a long way to show just how much responsive controls can really benefit an rpg. Moving your character across the map and turning them is a nearly instant process, letting you switch directions in a flash. Later titles in the same series would add additional frames of animation for turning around which, while nice to look at, slowed down the action and made the whole process of moving around more tedious. On top of this the game's menus are just as responsive and battles play out in lightning-quick fashion. Once you've queued up your attacks it'll only take a few seconds for a round of combat to play out and if you use the game's auto-battle feature (which you should be, albeit strategically) then battles fly by lighting quick. It's a hell of a thrill to tear right through a weak encounter in a flash or be on the edge of your seat during a tough battle as you and a boss trade hits and spells back and forth in rapid succession.
Though still a dungeon crawler at heart like its predecessor the addition of an overworld adds a real feeling of grand adventure to the gameplay here. If Megami Tensei 1 was a custom dungeon module in a tabletop rpg, then Megami Tensei 2 is the core rulebook with all sorts of cool as hell worldbuilding details and intrigue, plus a giant sandbox campaign to run. A lot of elements of the game really do make it feel like a world the developers wanted the player to be able to get lost in as much as a challenge to be defeated. The nuked-out Tokyo setting here is well-realized and the vivid palette and equally colorful NPCs make it feel more like a post-apocalyptic wild west rather than the typical drab, crumbling dystopia you tend to get in this genre.
Though the game does have its share of progression requirements there are also many occasions where you'll have a fair degree of freedom in what goal or direction you want to tackle next. There was even an entire optional city and questline that I somehow managed to miss in my playthrough! Despite this freedom I felt the game did a great job of guiding my hand and giving hints as to where I needed to be and what I had to do. There was only a single time in the entire game where I felt lost and didn't know how to advance, and in that instance I'd easily argue that it was as much my own mistake as it was the game's lack of direction.
I've neglected talking about the actual dungeons here long enough, but they didn't disappoint at all. While things start out simple with basic corridors and just a couple floors and rooms per dungeon the game escalates more and more until the end. Pitfalls, turnstiles, dark rooms, warp rooms, dungeons full of damage tiles, and just about everything else you'd expect from a game of this kind is here in some way or another and often multiple at once. Exploring dungeons, finding treasure and just barely managing to escape and haul your half-dead team back to a town to heal up is a thrill. All this said there are a few places in the game that can be a tremendous pain if you don't go in already prepared to deal with what they dish out. (A word of advice, make sure to get a Core Shield or two from Rag's Shop when you have the chance, don't make my mistake and ignore them).
On top of this there are some big difficulty spikes, but I never found these to be unmanageable and in fact I would describe them as a feature more than an issue. These were fun to deal with since I typically got hit with a jump in challenge right when me and my current party were getting a little too cocky and the road too easygoing. There was just one occasion where I did feel like the game went a little too far in terms of the increase in challenge from previous content to what I suddenly found myself dealing with. There's no automap in-game which meant I mapped all of the dungeons by hand and had a blast doing so, but this may be a dealbreaker for some (to those I would recommend the SNES remake which does have such a feature).
Speaking of my party, the series' famous demon negotiation is back in this entry, a system in which the majority of your party is composed of enemies that you've successfully bribed and convinced to join your side. From there you can use them to fill out your roster and tackle dungeons with you, but like the hired guns they are, they continually cost resources to keep around and the tougher they are the higher the price. This leads to a fun system of judging just how much you need them around all the time, and which of your teammates you should save for the big boss fights at the end, or to make sure you can make the trip back. Since demons have all sorts of abilities, some of which the two player characters won't get until very late in the game, it's a ton of fun organizing your team to tackle the various challenges the game throws at you. And when your demons are starting to look a little weak you can fuse them together to make new ones. Overall these guys add brilliantly to the game's resource management and are just fun to use!
The actual combat here is swift and deadly. Knowing what sorts of attacks your enemies are weak to, from swords to guns to various brands of sorcery, is paramount here. Hitting even a much more powerful enemy with the right spell can bring them down in an instant. Even status spells can be surprisingly useful when used against the right enemy, and in typical fashion for the series buffs and debuffs are invaluable. But realistically the combat here isn't too complex, but that's fine as the game is more about the resource management aspect than about individual encounters. You might be able to beat the boss of a given dungeon without much trouble with your full team of bruisers, but can you navigate the whole dungeon, get to the end, beat them, and then get back out with your team intact? You'll find yourself rationing spells, items, and picking carefully who to summon and whose hp and mp you need to save as you delve into dungeons.
Since I've mentioned the SNES remake (Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei) a few times in this review I figure it might be worth talking about some differences between the two versions and why I think it's worth considering this older, original release over the newer version. The visuals were completely redone in the remake and while they look good I do think they give the game a very different feeling. In general the color palette used in Kyuuyaku is a whole lot darker and more muted than MT2, which makes the game feel just a bit more drab and run down. Characters lack the thick, defining black outlines they had in the NES version, going for a more natural but less stylish appearance and the detailed character portraits are gone entirely! It's not bad but absolutely lends a very different atmosphere to the journey and I found the original to be more impressive. In addition the music in Kyuuyaku sounds muffled and just can't match the custom chip used in the original game. The last major change that leaves me preferring the original is that, like I alluded to earlier, the later games in the series are a whole lot more sluggish and Kyuuyaku inherits that trait. Turning and moving in dungeons, attacking, and really everything is just a bit slower and less responsive. For a game you're going to probably be playing for many hours I think simply feeling better at a base level is a huge reason you might want to stick to one version over another.
That said the SNES version does have its advantages. Some players will likely prefer the visuals in that version and while the sound is better in the older version there's at least one excellent new music track (and probably more I don't know of off the top of my head) that has no equivalent in the NES game. There's also the big quality of life change that is the inclusion of an automap. For players that simply don't enjoy mapping out dungeons themselves this is going to be a huge one and I think is pretty much the primary reason to play Kyuuyaku over the original if you do. And despite everything I have said here I do not think the remake is a bad game by any means. If it's the only way you can experience this game then you should play it without hesitation. I only hope that some of you that are on the fence or unsure will consider the original game and not simply write it off as the inferior version due to its age.
Beyond this point I'll be getting into more direct spoilers. While I'm not going to give a plot rundown it's impossible to talk about the game completely without at least going into some big, lategame reveals. So if you want to experience the game for yourself I recommend stopping here. Even without reading further I think it should be evident by this point I highly recommend playing this game to anyone checking out this review.
I was really blown away by the ambition and scope of this game overall. The plot itself is told in simple fashion, through a limited amount of dialogue and interactions, yet it does so much with what it has and with the benefit of not getting in the way of the play experience in doing so. In Megami Tensei 1 the mythological aspects of the series were basically window dressing, but MT2 is much more mindful as to the 'source material' from which so many of its creatures originate. It's more clever in its use of Canaanite mythology and how that transitioned into the modern, Abrahamic faith than many of its successors. On top of this the Abyss as it exists in this game is vastly more fleshed out than in any entry in the series, with a massive portion of the game taking place therein. The demonic culture therein was a real blast to experience and it's simply unbelievable cool to suddenly be thrust into a whole new overworld after exploring the previous one.
My impressions have been glowing and I think it's hard to state just how much I really enjoyed this game from beginning to end. While I ran into some tough challenges along the way it was nothing that didn't make me eager to persevere and surmount it. I've frequently found myself drawn back to the game to play for a few hours just to enjoy spending some more time in its world, which I think is one of the marks of an amazing game and something that has been harder and harder for me to find as the years go on. It's become one of my favorite games in this entire series that is rapidly approaching four decades since its first release and is full of stellar titles. However you choose to play it I hope those with even the slightest interest in this sort of game don't miss out on it.
Dragon's Dogma II
2024
Irreverent and dead set in its ways, Dragon's Dogma II sets out to simply be Dragon's Dogma 1, but bigger and better in most ways, and a little bit worse in some others. A game by and for sickos that buckles every other open-world game trend and does its own thing; you are not here to climb map towers or blindly follow a series of objective icons, you are here to get dropkicked by ogres, thrown off cliffs by harpies, dragged and mangled by wolves. You will plan your itinerary based on the direction an oxcart can take you, and you will see the frustration of a cyclops-induced botched travel by cart superseded by the joy of discovering a cave system you had missed on your last trek. You will launch goblins into the stratosphere either by hitting them with a duoblade or conjuring a massive tornado. You will manhandle old men. You will run back and forth across cities like a headless chicken, carefully considering if that ferrystone is worth it. You will deck your pawn in the sluttiest outfits imaginable and see the cash come rolling in. You will get into arguments over microtransactions on the internet.
It's Dragon's Dogma, baby.
It's Dragon's Dogma, baby.
I'm pretty certain if you asked me what the best game ever is, I'd probably say Disco Elysium? Not really in the sense that it's flawless or smarter than any every other game, though perhaps it is smarter than any other mainstream-focused western RPG. It's just this feeling I get both while playing and thinking back on it, how it's bigger than its own state of reality. It manages to do everything so successfully, and a lot of that is obviously subjective, but it's difficult to describe the game as anything but this triumphant experience where every moment that occurs within it lives with you afterwards. I talked a bit about this in my Mother 3 review about how in the Mother series' every minor NPC has meaningful dialogue, but Disco Elysium makes that almost feel untrue by comparison. Sometimes the seams show themselves, especially if you circle back through the dialogue or partake in savescumming, but I find even the seemingly inconsequential dialogue reverberating through my being -- elevated by bespoke, unforgettable voice work.
I'm sure someday some other game will replace it for "best game ever" in my silly little brain, or maybe that status will slowly decay on its own as those sorts of declarations often do. Regardless, I can't see Disco Elysium not continuing to be an incredibly special game, at the very least for the way it weaves meaningful, intelligent, and compassionate dialogue with actively engaging RPG systems that genuinely do advance the genre, and maybe even mainstream gaming as a whole, beyond being primarily violence and dopamine simulators.
I'm sure someday some other game will replace it for "best game ever" in my silly little brain, or maybe that status will slowly decay on its own as those sorts of declarations often do. Regardless, I can't see Disco Elysium not continuing to be an incredibly special game, at the very least for the way it weaves meaningful, intelligent, and compassionate dialogue with actively engaging RPG systems that genuinely do advance the genre, and maybe even mainstream gaming as a whole, beyond being primarily violence and dopamine simulators.
Ihatovo Monogatari
1993
An absolutely serene collection of vignettes that consistently manages to feel poignant even if the lessons at play aren't always incredibly profound. One could criticize the gameplay if so inclined but that would really be missing the purpose of this experience.
Pentiment
2022
Kinda went into Pentiment expecting to have to "eat my vegetables"; its aesthetic being artistically sound, but not really the kind of thing I'm generally into, and its premise sounding intellectually invigorating in a games industry that's arguably in arrested development when it comes to making mainstream experiences for adults, but maybe not enough to keep me personally going for a playtime of over 20 hours. And well, I was pretty fuckin' wrong! And not even in the Disco Elysium way where after I got over the hurdle of the first hour or two that it finally clicked (not to say that Disco Elysium's intro isn't basically perfect in its own way), Pentiment managed to sink its teeth into me right away. The game's art is also a lot more affective and unique than I would've expected just from the couple trailers I'd seen, and despite the entire game taking place across only a handful of screens (contextualized as pages in a book), there were many times that I found myself stopped in my tracks, contemplating the beauty of a specific moment.
It's also just as real as fuck without succumbing to either condemnation or romanticization. Pentiment's perspective on history and the people who shaped it is complex without cowardly labeling every participant as a morally grey agent -- there are unabashedly terrible and evil people in this world, people who are deceptive in their self-servitude, and even inarguably cruel entities like the Catholic Church house individuals who really do want to make the world a better place in their own way and even people who are in the church due to societal forces beyond their control. Pentiment is a game that tries its best to be honest about the world. It's also a game that's absolutely more intelligent and worldly than I'll ever be, and I really don't think I can do it the full justice it deserves in my own analysis of its setting and themes, so I'll just leave it there.
And yeah, Pentiment is also just a great example of how to make a dialogue-focused adventure game fun. Like, part of that is probably because I chose hedonism as one of my skills and made Andreas into a terrible little boyslut, but you know how it is. The dialogue never bored me, every character feels truly alive -- and that's without voice acting! I actually appreciated that there wasn't any honestly, it's a double-edged sword in a lot of games like this, and it only would've detracted from the bespoke aesthetic decision to give every character's spoken dialogue in "their own handwriting", in quotes because I'm not entirely sure what the implication was for the characters that are by their own admission illiterate (but I did love that Claus the town printer's dialogue is the only one that uses an actual typeface, accompanied by the satisfying thuds of a printing press).
By the end of the game, Tassing really does begin to feel like your home as well, not only because many pivotal events in Tassing's recent history are influenced by the player, but because you've grown close to the town's citizens and watched them grow and change as well. Pentiment isn't a power trip in that sense -- you cannot save everybody or give everybody a happy ending, not that you'd want to with some of the assholes you run into honestly -- but it does manage to encapsulate the warm and fuzzy feeling that despite the world being dogshit, we can still do our best for those around us, be a part of a greater whole with honest fervor. The player and Andreas will inevitably fuck up a lot, but it's something we have to live with, something to learn from. Things like that feel self-evident in the real world and are rarely explored properly in games, but the fact that Pentiment lacks a manual save function really sells that feeling. But even if we can't meta-game Tassing into the perfect little Bavarian town suffering under feudalism and religious oppression, the Tassing we end up with is undeniably ours. I think that's probably why I might never replay Pentiment, which is rare for me, since I tend to replay games I love quite often.
Also the "third act" is pretty good! Saw some people criticizing the shift in gameplay focus, but it was a nice change of pace and was probably my favorite part altogether. Don't normally recommend games on here, but honestly, check it out for yourself. I can't really think of many demographics that'd be outright disappointed by Pentiment. It's good. :)
It's also just as real as fuck without succumbing to either condemnation or romanticization. Pentiment's perspective on history and the people who shaped it is complex without cowardly labeling every participant as a morally grey agent -- there are unabashedly terrible and evil people in this world, people who are deceptive in their self-servitude, and even inarguably cruel entities like the Catholic Church house individuals who really do want to make the world a better place in their own way and even people who are in the church due to societal forces beyond their control. Pentiment is a game that tries its best to be honest about the world. It's also a game that's absolutely more intelligent and worldly than I'll ever be, and I really don't think I can do it the full justice it deserves in my own analysis of its setting and themes, so I'll just leave it there.
And yeah, Pentiment is also just a great example of how to make a dialogue-focused adventure game fun. Like, part of that is probably because I chose hedonism as one of my skills and made Andreas into a terrible little boyslut, but you know how it is. The dialogue never bored me, every character feels truly alive -- and that's without voice acting! I actually appreciated that there wasn't any honestly, it's a double-edged sword in a lot of games like this, and it only would've detracted from the bespoke aesthetic decision to give every character's spoken dialogue in "their own handwriting", in quotes because I'm not entirely sure what the implication was for the characters that are by their own admission illiterate (but I did love that Claus the town printer's dialogue is the only one that uses an actual typeface, accompanied by the satisfying thuds of a printing press).
By the end of the game, Tassing really does begin to feel like your home as well, not only because many pivotal events in Tassing's recent history are influenced by the player, but because you've grown close to the town's citizens and watched them grow and change as well. Pentiment isn't a power trip in that sense -- you cannot save everybody or give everybody a happy ending, not that you'd want to with some of the assholes you run into honestly -- but it does manage to encapsulate the warm and fuzzy feeling that despite the world being dogshit, we can still do our best for those around us, be a part of a greater whole with honest fervor. The player and Andreas will inevitably fuck up a lot, but it's something we have to live with, something to learn from. Things like that feel self-evident in the real world and are rarely explored properly in games, but the fact that Pentiment lacks a manual save function really sells that feeling. But even if we can't meta-game Tassing into the perfect little Bavarian town suffering under feudalism and religious oppression, the Tassing we end up with is undeniably ours. I think that's probably why I might never replay Pentiment, which is rare for me, since I tend to replay games I love quite often.
Also the "third act" is pretty good! Saw some people criticizing the shift in gameplay focus, but it was a nice change of pace and was probably my favorite part altogether. Don't normally recommend games on here, but honestly, check it out for yourself. I can't really think of many demographics that'd be outright disappointed by Pentiment. It's good. :)
Unicorn Overlord
2024
I expected to enjoy this game but ended up being absolutely blown away by it. The core gameplay loop of traversing the world in an order mostly left up to your own choosing while slowing amassing an army full of colorful characters was incredibly satisfying and I never got tired of it. The battle system itself though is really what holds the whole experience together, it is incredibly unique and accessible while still concealing a labyrinthian amount of depth if you choose to embrace it. The variable amount of stage lengths really added a nice variety as well, as you usually don't feel stuck doing one thing for too long unless it's one of the more important moments in the story in which case I'll happily spend 45 minutes to an hour in a slugfest against an enemy army as this tends to be when your units are really put to the test and is also when your micromanagement done before the battle can really make a difference over the course of the stage.
Speaking of which, I generally would not consider myself a fan of micromanagement within video games but Unicorn Overlord really managed to enthrall me with it's sheer amount of class variety and items, both of which make a significant impact as to how a unit performs. Every few hours, I would pause what I was doing and restructure my unit layout from scratch just out of sheer curiosity as to how different units would synergize with one another. While this was often a bit time consuming it just made it that much more satisfying when those units managed to shine in the next battle. I think anyone who just uses the Optimize function to customize their units for the whole game would really be missing out on how good it feels to individually program a unit in a way where it suddenly performs significantly better with only a few tweaks.
As far as the game's presentation, it's Vanillaware, so it looks and sounds amazing. I'll always be a huge fan of their commitment to beautiful 2D backgrounds and character models both for the artistry and because it results in games that are pretty lightweight and snappy (I played the entire game on a 7 year old Nintendo Switch and it ran smooth as butter the entire time). I especially loved some of the animated battle backgrounds as they really immersed me within the experience and managed to give a grandiose scale to the encounters that isn't always evident when moving units around the battle map. The user experience also felt consistently fantastic and I really have no complaints other than that I wish you could 'Optimize' your equipment without resetting all of your Skills as well but you can work around this pretty easily using the tactics templates so it's not a big deal.
If there was a place to nitpick with Unicorn Overlord, it would definitely be with it's story, and I can agree that it feels pretty by the numbers a majority of the time but I honestly appreciate how much it respects your time by not constantly beating you over the head with the same plot details over and over again like a lot of JRPGs have the bad habit of doing. I also found it to do a great job of worldbuilding by establishing the world through the characters you meet along your journey. While these characters may seem to lack depth on first meeting, spending time with them and utilizing the journal to learn more about their background can really bring them to life in a stellar way. If there was something within the story that I felt was missing, it would've been a few more encounters with the central villains though I did enjoy the air of mystery that surrounds them throughout most of the game as is.
Speaking of which, I generally would not consider myself a fan of micromanagement within video games but Unicorn Overlord really managed to enthrall me with it's sheer amount of class variety and items, both of which make a significant impact as to how a unit performs. Every few hours, I would pause what I was doing and restructure my unit layout from scratch just out of sheer curiosity as to how different units would synergize with one another. While this was often a bit time consuming it just made it that much more satisfying when those units managed to shine in the next battle. I think anyone who just uses the Optimize function to customize their units for the whole game would really be missing out on how good it feels to individually program a unit in a way where it suddenly performs significantly better with only a few tweaks.
As far as the game's presentation, it's Vanillaware, so it looks and sounds amazing. I'll always be a huge fan of their commitment to beautiful 2D backgrounds and character models both for the artistry and because it results in games that are pretty lightweight and snappy (I played the entire game on a 7 year old Nintendo Switch and it ran smooth as butter the entire time). I especially loved some of the animated battle backgrounds as they really immersed me within the experience and managed to give a grandiose scale to the encounters that isn't always evident when moving units around the battle map. The user experience also felt consistently fantastic and I really have no complaints other than that I wish you could 'Optimize' your equipment without resetting all of your Skills as well but you can work around this pretty easily using the tactics templates so it's not a big deal.
If there was a place to nitpick with Unicorn Overlord, it would definitely be with it's story, and I can agree that it feels pretty by the numbers a majority of the time but I honestly appreciate how much it respects your time by not constantly beating you over the head with the same plot details over and over again like a lot of JRPGs have the bad habit of doing. I also found it to do a great job of worldbuilding by establishing the world through the characters you meet along your journey. While these characters may seem to lack depth on first meeting, spending time with them and utilizing the journal to learn more about their background can really bring them to life in a stellar way. If there was something within the story that I felt was missing, it would've been a few more encounters with the central villains though I did enjoy the air of mystery that surrounds them throughout most of the game as is.
Swagless Bullet Witch with Metal Gear Solid rejects for antagonists. Now, don't get me wrong: Vincent Valentine is the only boy in the whole world I would date. I love him. I would do anything for him. But his game is ass, and there's not enough here to make it a bad game that's actually kind of good somehow or whatever; it's just dry, crumbly, and overproduced. I was absolutely fucking ready to be this game's strongest warrior, but it's really a case of what you see is what you get, and I can't even really bring myself to watch the rest of the cutscenes on YouTube, even after getting over halfway through the game in a single sitting a couple weeks ago. I don't even really hate the game either, it's probably the least offensive entry in the 2000s era of the FF7 compilation, it's just playing this game and watching these characters say words in cutscenes makes my tummy hurt.
The logistics behind Cait Sith in this one are really funny though, like what the fuck is even going on with that.
The logistics behind Cait Sith in this one are really funny though, like what the fuck is even going on with that.
F-Zero
1990
reminds me of the i-75
Final Fantasy VII Remake project has absolutely no right working as well as it does, and Rebirth doubles down on what made Remake work -- and occasionally what really brought it down, with more unsavory additions to spare. But don't get the wrong idea, in Rebirth's extravangance and conceptually superfluous presentation exists the most actualized and engrossing take on the events of Final Fantasy VII's post-Midgar disc one that one could possibly even imagine, and I'm saying this as somebody whose love for the original is ironclad and unbreakable: Rebirth is probably going to end up being my favorite way to experience the moments tucked away in what was once a maybe 7 to 12 hour-ish section of a 25 hour long game -- with the 7 to 12 hour section now being close to 50 or 60 hours on average I'd imagine. That is to say, I've come to terms with a lot of the liberties Square has taken with the narrative and characterization and presentation, everything really; what made the original special to me, and most likely to many others as well, can't be perfectly replicated anyways, so I really do mean it when I say that the end result given here is bordering on a "best case scenario" for an adaptation of this vast a scope.
Much like Remake, characters that were once tableaus feel alive and truly connected as a group in a way the original just didn't have the ability to convey, just on an even more detailed and broader scale. And once again don't take that the wrong way, they're tableaus that I cherish dearly -- Final Fantasy VII's cast is my absolute favorite across like, all media -- but they're expanded upon so meaningfully: Tifa's self-destructive people-pleasing, Aerith's down to earth and fun attitude, Barret being the leftist extremist father figure we all know and love, Red XIII's deep loyalty, Yuffie's obnoxious little sister energy, Cait Sith's inopportune joviality, Cid's weird uncle vibes, and Vincent being the resident goth kid that has issues with authority. And their relationships with one other: Aerith's deep friendships with Tifa and Red XIII, Barret's new found friendships with Yuffie and Red XIII, and even the basic and immediate kinship many of them feel towards one other is more detailed and vibrant. I don't know man, I just love all these fuckin' guys, I constantly had the stupidest fucking grin on my face while playing this game it was honestly kinda cringe. Even side characters have so much more going on with them, certain characters that were previously throwaway will often give one a sense that there's something deeper going on with them as they continue to try to exist in this broken world, even the ones that are more comic relief than pathos-invoking.
The plot can often feel clumsy, but I'd say it's a lot more cohesive than the original's, pretty significantly too, the original occasionally feeling aimless and as it tried to find a reason to send you to the next exciting setpiece; even as somebody who replays the game often I find myself being confused which event flag I need to trigger next. And really the original Final Fantasy VII can be best-described as like, a bunch of Final Fantasy VI opera scenes strung together, and Rebirth leans into that so hard that I could see it being way too much for some people. If Final Fantasy XVI was way too dry for many, myself included, I could genuinely see Rebirth being perceived as excessively "wet" for others. Though, as a side note, when playing Final Fantasy XVI I'd often find myself unintentionally dozing off, whereas with Rebirth I actually had enormous trouble sleeping, both in finding a place I wanted to stop playing and the mild insomnia the excitement of getting to play the game again induced in my four day-ish long binge (which, I haven't done in a long fucking time without needing to take significant breaks, which happened quite often with Final Fantasy XVI, and as an adult in her 30s I think that's saying a lot).
On the topic of CBU1 styling super fucking hard on CBU3, god damn the combat in Rebirth is exactly what I wanted it to be, probably my favorite combat in general, from like, any video game? Like, it's not mechanically the deepest action game I've ever played, but it does expand upon Remake's systems in a meaningful way without upending what made those systems work in the first place. Final Fantasy has been focused on telling the player what any given character is about through how they play since like, FF4, and Rebirth's execution of that philosophy doesn't miss at all. Tifa is more fun than ever with an extensive aerial toolkit, I fucking love that she can juggle enemies and it kinda became my go to strategy at a certain point, which like Tifa was the blueprint for young Theia so I'm so glad they did her so good in this game both on a gameplay and narrative level. Red XIII I have to say feels a little bit busted!! I'm bad at playing as him, and he still seems really fucking useful even with unskilled play. Cait Sith I'm still trying to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't have it any other way than making Cait Sith a confusing mess to properly utilize. I wish Vincent was playable, one of like 10 or so boys in media that I actually care about, but I kinda understand why he isn't when he shows up so late that it was probably better to just focus on polishing the rest of the cast than implementing what's probably going to be a pretty unique kit on top of everything else going on.
There's a particular level involving Cait Sith that I'm pretty sure is gonna become like the third or fourth most contentious thing about the game, but I fucking loved it in a really fucked up Banjo-Tooieian way and nobody can take that away from me. The thing I can see becoming the second most contentious aspect about the game, what I thought would be the primary contention until I got to the ending (which I'll get to in a bit, and without spoiling anything, but if you don't want to know literally anything just be forewarned), is the open world game design elements. The best way to describe it is probably Xenoblade with some pointless Ubisoft shit, but it's not really as bad as it sounds, and much of it is entirely optional only providing secondary or tertiary benefits to character progression. As a "modern" interpretation of the original's wide, open, and mostly empty fields populated by sets of random enemy tables, I think it's probably a fair enough way to go about things. The life springs and towers I wasn't so much a fan of, like why do the towers play the BotW theme But At Home when you activate them, but the summon temple thingies felt a lot more meaningful than just picking up a materia off the ground, like how it usually worked in the original (seriously who was dropping all those bahamut variants and just leaving them there). The map designs themselves I did enjoy though, even if the Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga regions can be a little tedious at times, I honestly prefer having to mentally map out the geographical logic of an open world than the modern trend of empty fields with little identity and often no reason to engage with a game's environments and systems.
That said, the more linear "dungeon" levels are kinda mostly the same deal, but they did an even better job at making them feel like real places you're exploring this time 'round, as opposed to the modified FF13 hallway dealie in Remake. They're still largely linear, but the best way to explain why I think they work better is how the Final Fantasy standby of forked paths with option A being progression and option B being a treasure chest is more heavily obscured; I actually got a little bit lost in a couple of levels!!! Though sometimes that was the result of perhaps poor tutorialization of a level's specific gimmick or progress not being visually distinct enough, which like god damn the graphics are so fucking good in this game that it's almost hard to see anything unless I walked up to my TV (maybe I just need to invest in a larger screen for my old lady eyes but whateverrr), it's no wonder that there are several areas where the Uncharted climbing walls have the RE4R yellow paint on them. I know people are gonna slam the game for shit like that, which is like, yeah I can kinda get it, personally would've preferred more non-diegetic signaling over things that make me have annoying CinemaSin-esque intrusive thoughts about "who is painting all this shit out here in the middle of nowhere".
And you know, it's not gonna be the most discussed thing in the end, as uninspired as Rebirth's "structural quirks" may feel now, they'll probly become innocuous given enough time; that's just how these thing typically go. I wanna say the same will happen for the game's ending which... yeah. Not gonna say much here, but if you find yourself frustrated by it, I'd say give yourself some space and rewatch it on YouTube or something. It's a lot to take in, and I found it a lot more impactful after I had gotten some sleep and finally digested what was being shown to me. I don't think it was all exactly what I wanted it to be, far from it maybe, but there's something to be said about the way the entirety of Rebirth takes special moments dear to us and recontextualizes them into new special moments, sometimes even more special.
And a bit of a tangent, but I loathe the critic scores for this game. Not so much because they're necessarily wrong for enjoying the game, but because I'm starting to strongly believe that art, and especially interactive art, can't really be quantified on such simple terms, especially when people tend to have such viscerally opposed reactions to their experiences with any given work. What does a 10/10 even mean? On a personal level I could almost understand, but detached from the context of that personal experience how can we consider any piece of media to be in some arbitrary upper percentile of perfection? I guess I'm saying this because I know with scores like that people are going to come at this game with a certain set of expectations, but despite it being one of the most gorgeous and polished Final Fantasy titles that CBU1 has brought out in recent years, it's a deeply uneven experience. You will be frustrated, maybe you'll even get annoyed at the many side quests that suck ass and are total shit!!! Or something, maybe you'll hate the combat even if it's exactly what my brain has always wanted FF7's combat to be. But I guess like, when you look at a piece of art in its totality as opposed to a given qualification of Good or Bad, it's easier to just appreciate things as they are. Or even fucking hate them for what they are! People on this website tend to tear the shit out of really popular games and who's to say they're wrong for looking past consensus into a deeper inner truth, which you know, even if that comes from a place of unfounded contrarianism, good for them, man. Fuck video games!!
I hope it doesn't come off like I'm waffling or anything, I just really love this game, and I feel like the things I hated about it only made me love it more in a really fucked up way. I think playing Drakengard 3 for the first time a year ago gave me brain damage or something. Also like, on a final note, let me get more on brand here: there's some premier fucking queerbaiting going on here, and if that ain't more accurate to the actual single lesbian in her early 30s experience than any other AAA video game that has some fake ass porn-afflicted interpretation of sapphic romance where flesh puppets say sweet nothings at each other after completing a single questline or whatever the fuck, than I don't know what is. Anyways, sorry I had to make it gay in the end, but truly that is what the Final Fantasy VII was about all along: twinks with swords and bisexual women who can suplex kaijus. Which, you know, being able to do the latter is what's going to be main determinant if part 3 is good or not, so the ball's in your court now Square...
Much like Remake, characters that were once tableaus feel alive and truly connected as a group in a way the original just didn't have the ability to convey, just on an even more detailed and broader scale. And once again don't take that the wrong way, they're tableaus that I cherish dearly -- Final Fantasy VII's cast is my absolute favorite across like, all media -- but they're expanded upon so meaningfully: Tifa's self-destructive people-pleasing, Aerith's down to earth and fun attitude, Barret being the leftist extremist father figure we all know and love, Red XIII's deep loyalty, Yuffie's obnoxious little sister energy, Cait Sith's inopportune joviality, Cid's weird uncle vibes, and Vincent being the resident goth kid that has issues with authority. And their relationships with one other: Aerith's deep friendships with Tifa and Red XIII, Barret's new found friendships with Yuffie and Red XIII, and even the basic and immediate kinship many of them feel towards one other is more detailed and vibrant. I don't know man, I just love all these fuckin' guys, I constantly had the stupidest fucking grin on my face while playing this game it was honestly kinda cringe. Even side characters have so much more going on with them, certain characters that were previously throwaway will often give one a sense that there's something deeper going on with them as they continue to try to exist in this broken world, even the ones that are more comic relief than pathos-invoking.
The plot can often feel clumsy, but I'd say it's a lot more cohesive than the original's, pretty significantly too, the original occasionally feeling aimless and as it tried to find a reason to send you to the next exciting setpiece; even as somebody who replays the game often I find myself being confused which event flag I need to trigger next. And really the original Final Fantasy VII can be best-described as like, a bunch of Final Fantasy VI opera scenes strung together, and Rebirth leans into that so hard that I could see it being way too much for some people. If Final Fantasy XVI was way too dry for many, myself included, I could genuinely see Rebirth being perceived as excessively "wet" for others. Though, as a side note, when playing Final Fantasy XVI I'd often find myself unintentionally dozing off, whereas with Rebirth I actually had enormous trouble sleeping, both in finding a place I wanted to stop playing and the mild insomnia the excitement of getting to play the game again induced in my four day-ish long binge (which, I haven't done in a long fucking time without needing to take significant breaks, which happened quite often with Final Fantasy XVI, and as an adult in her 30s I think that's saying a lot).
On the topic of CBU1 styling super fucking hard on CBU3, god damn the combat in Rebirth is exactly what I wanted it to be, probably my favorite combat in general, from like, any video game? Like, it's not mechanically the deepest action game I've ever played, but it does expand upon Remake's systems in a meaningful way without upending what made those systems work in the first place. Final Fantasy has been focused on telling the player what any given character is about through how they play since like, FF4, and Rebirth's execution of that philosophy doesn't miss at all. Tifa is more fun than ever with an extensive aerial toolkit, I fucking love that she can juggle enemies and it kinda became my go to strategy at a certain point, which like Tifa was the blueprint for young Theia so I'm so glad they did her so good in this game both on a gameplay and narrative level. Red XIII I have to say feels a little bit busted!! I'm bad at playing as him, and he still seems really fucking useful even with unskilled play. Cait Sith I'm still trying to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't have it any other way than making Cait Sith a confusing mess to properly utilize. I wish Vincent was playable, one of like 10 or so boys in media that I actually care about, but I kinda understand why he isn't when he shows up so late that it was probably better to just focus on polishing the rest of the cast than implementing what's probably going to be a pretty unique kit on top of everything else going on.
There's a particular level involving Cait Sith that I'm pretty sure is gonna become like the third or fourth most contentious thing about the game, but I fucking loved it in a really fucked up Banjo-Tooieian way and nobody can take that away from me. The thing I can see becoming the second most contentious aspect about the game, what I thought would be the primary contention until I got to the ending (which I'll get to in a bit, and without spoiling anything, but if you don't want to know literally anything just be forewarned), is the open world game design elements. The best way to describe it is probably Xenoblade with some pointless Ubisoft shit, but it's not really as bad as it sounds, and much of it is entirely optional only providing secondary or tertiary benefits to character progression. As a "modern" interpretation of the original's wide, open, and mostly empty fields populated by sets of random enemy tables, I think it's probably a fair enough way to go about things. The life springs and towers I wasn't so much a fan of, like why do the towers play the BotW theme But At Home when you activate them, but the summon temple thingies felt a lot more meaningful than just picking up a materia off the ground, like how it usually worked in the original (seriously who was dropping all those bahamut variants and just leaving them there). The map designs themselves I did enjoy though, even if the Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga regions can be a little tedious at times, I honestly prefer having to mentally map out the geographical logic of an open world than the modern trend of empty fields with little identity and often no reason to engage with a game's environments and systems.
That said, the more linear "dungeon" levels are kinda mostly the same deal, but they did an even better job at making them feel like real places you're exploring this time 'round, as opposed to the modified FF13 hallway dealie in Remake. They're still largely linear, but the best way to explain why I think they work better is how the Final Fantasy standby of forked paths with option A being progression and option B being a treasure chest is more heavily obscured; I actually got a little bit lost in a couple of levels!!! Though sometimes that was the result of perhaps poor tutorialization of a level's specific gimmick or progress not being visually distinct enough, which like god damn the graphics are so fucking good in this game that it's almost hard to see anything unless I walked up to my TV (maybe I just need to invest in a larger screen for my old lady eyes but whateverrr), it's no wonder that there are several areas where the Uncharted climbing walls have the RE4R yellow paint on them. I know people are gonna slam the game for shit like that, which is like, yeah I can kinda get it, personally would've preferred more non-diegetic signaling over things that make me have annoying CinemaSin-esque intrusive thoughts about "who is painting all this shit out here in the middle of nowhere".
And you know, it's not gonna be the most discussed thing in the end, as uninspired as Rebirth's "structural quirks" may feel now, they'll probly become innocuous given enough time; that's just how these thing typically go. I wanna say the same will happen for the game's ending which... yeah. Not gonna say much here, but if you find yourself frustrated by it, I'd say give yourself some space and rewatch it on YouTube or something. It's a lot to take in, and I found it a lot more impactful after I had gotten some sleep and finally digested what was being shown to me. I don't think it was all exactly what I wanted it to be, far from it maybe, but there's something to be said about the way the entirety of Rebirth takes special moments dear to us and recontextualizes them into new special moments, sometimes even more special.
And a bit of a tangent, but I loathe the critic scores for this game. Not so much because they're necessarily wrong for enjoying the game, but because I'm starting to strongly believe that art, and especially interactive art, can't really be quantified on such simple terms, especially when people tend to have such viscerally opposed reactions to their experiences with any given work. What does a 10/10 even mean? On a personal level I could almost understand, but detached from the context of that personal experience how can we consider any piece of media to be in some arbitrary upper percentile of perfection? I guess I'm saying this because I know with scores like that people are going to come at this game with a certain set of expectations, but despite it being one of the most gorgeous and polished Final Fantasy titles that CBU1 has brought out in recent years, it's a deeply uneven experience. You will be frustrated, maybe you'll even get annoyed at the many side quests that suck ass and are total shit!!! Or something, maybe you'll hate the combat even if it's exactly what my brain has always wanted FF7's combat to be. But I guess like, when you look at a piece of art in its totality as opposed to a given qualification of Good or Bad, it's easier to just appreciate things as they are. Or even fucking hate them for what they are! People on this website tend to tear the shit out of really popular games and who's to say they're wrong for looking past consensus into a deeper inner truth, which you know, even if that comes from a place of unfounded contrarianism, good for them, man. Fuck video games!!
I hope it doesn't come off like I'm waffling or anything, I just really love this game, and I feel like the things I hated about it only made me love it more in a really fucked up way. I think playing Drakengard 3 for the first time a year ago gave me brain damage or something. Also like, on a final note, let me get more on brand here: there's some premier fucking queerbaiting going on here, and if that ain't more accurate to the actual single lesbian in her early 30s experience than any other AAA video game that has some fake ass porn-afflicted interpretation of sapphic romance where flesh puppets say sweet nothings at each other after completing a single questline or whatever the fuck, than I don't know what is. Anyways, sorry I had to make it gay in the end, but truly that is what the Final Fantasy VII was about all along: twinks with swords and bisexual women who can suplex kaijus. Which, you know, being able to do the latter is what's going to be main determinant if part 3 is good or not, so the ball's in your court now Square...
Asura's Wrath
2012
Supremely fucking confident. In its presentation, in its dedication to the trimmed down action gameplay, in its boldly unique aesthetic premise, in its kind of trope-y story, in its blatant misogyny: you get the unshakeable feeling that CyberConnect2 knew what they were making, what they wanted to say, and how they were going to have the player experience it. Does it all work? Absolutely not. Does it even matter? That's gonna depend on how easily you buy into the broader experience Asura's Wrath is offering. It's insane a game like this even exists, in all its grandeur it makes you yearn for more from the gaming industry as a whole. Not necessarily in the sense that I want more games like Asura's Wrath specifically, but games that are willing to be themselves as opposed to the modern AAA trend of making every game their own individual mean of any other genre adjacent AAA title.
Still absolutely gorgeous (at least it is on RPCS3, not sure how it's lookin' on native consoles these days) while also finding this distinct visual balance in its character designs between humor and coolness, which is further reflected in its increasingly ridiculous setpieces that sometimes border on the edge of spectacle and gag -- it's too bad the same couldn't be said for how the game treats the women in its story, mostly being reduced to objects one way or another. Par for the course in shounen anime I guess, but I consider it the one actual blight on the game overall. There's other smaller issues like there not being a whole ton of enemy variety and the action segments can be pretty repetitive, but the pacing and visual language is so fucking on point that those less desirable aspects kinda melt into the back of your brain when the good shit is happening.
People who liked the kaiju shit in Final Fantasy XVI but wanna play a game without 20 hours of MMO questing to get to the good parts should definitely try to find a way to play this one. Also any God Hand enjoyers who thought that game had too much gameplay and not enough Star Wars-themed Hinduism-Buddhism-FotNS-Berserk fusion.
Still absolutely gorgeous (at least it is on RPCS3, not sure how it's lookin' on native consoles these days) while also finding this distinct visual balance in its character designs between humor and coolness, which is further reflected in its increasingly ridiculous setpieces that sometimes border on the edge of spectacle and gag -- it's too bad the same couldn't be said for how the game treats the women in its story, mostly being reduced to objects one way or another. Par for the course in shounen anime I guess, but I consider it the one actual blight on the game overall. There's other smaller issues like there not being a whole ton of enemy variety and the action segments can be pretty repetitive, but the pacing and visual language is so fucking on point that those less desirable aspects kinda melt into the back of your brain when the good shit is happening.
People who liked the kaiju shit in Final Fantasy XVI but wanna play a game without 20 hours of MMO questing to get to the good parts should definitely try to find a way to play this one. Also any God Hand enjoyers who thought that game had too much gameplay and not enough Star Wars-themed Hinduism-Buddhism-FotNS-Berserk fusion.
An interesting interactive essay that I think is a "genre" I'd love to see more works in due to the medium's conductiveness to delivering its point across, but that in this particular case feels somewhat basic and shallow.
The big point of contention lies, in my opinion, in how the developer defines explicit and implicit interaction systems in absolute terms rather than as levels of interaction that change from game to game and interact with the other elements of gaming. Let's take a look at two of the examples the developer presents: Persona 5 and The Last of Us (2, in the case of my review).
The dev argues that P5 is a game replete with explicit systems that all together work in perfect synergy with the other elements of the game to deliver a strong experience. I agree with the synergy part, but not so much with calling these systems inherently explicit; at what point does the pressing of a button go from implicit to explicit? If I, in combat, press a button that makes my character stab an enemy, is that implicit due to the directness of the action, or explicit due to the way my Joker moves towards the enemy and attacks on his own? Conversely, does my choosing of having Joker spend his time eating a burger implicit or explicit? I don't press anything to have him eat a burger, but I have total control on whether or not he does that. Let's add another layer, a narrative one: If I choose to play with Joker as a personal self-insert, do this actions lean more towards the implicit? On the other hand, if I choose to portray Joker in a purely role-playing sense, giving him a different name, do these actions lean more towards the explicit, since there is a higher level of disconnect between me and the player character? Discussion around game interactivity would benefit inmensely from a literary Barthesian optic, interrogating not only the game itself and the "intention" behind game mechanics but their case-by-case interaction with different kinds of players.
Now let's take a look at The Last of Us II, a game that features a bajillion implicit interactive moments developed with an equally high amount of labor law violations. I distinctly remember a moment in the game where I, as the player, can pick up a snow globe and shake it around, observing the beautiful realistically simulated digital moving snowflakes. This is a moment of extreme interactivity; the movement of the character towards the item, the picking up of it, and the movement of the snow globe are all performed by my own controls. But is it really implicit? This little pocket of interaction is completely divorced from any other game mechanic, existing in its own world of interactivity. Adding a narrative layer, the character I'm controlling is Elie, a fully realized individual in this game world with no room for role-playing. This leads to a new set of questions: Is this interactive possibility something Elie would do? Is my connection to the character severed if I do perform this interactive task, as opposed to if I don't? The developer mentions Red Dead Redemption 2 as a game where the game world allows for good inclusion of explicit systems, but fails to mention how the implicit interaction can sever the connection between player and character: Arthur is, by all means, a conflicted but kind man who, as a character, would never brutally mow down a town of civilians. But the implicit systems of the game allow ME, the player, to do it, at that instant shattering any connection between me and mister Morgan.
With all this in mind, can we truly declare immediate interaction as something inherently good? First, we would need to clearly define what truly is implicit interaction, and as we have already seen, this task is impossible due to the way different game systems and different players will interpret interaction differently. The developer ultimately concludes that Shadow of the Colossus is the apex of implicit interactive systems. But do SotC's systems truly allow the player a higher degree of interactivity with the game world, when the game is a hidden puzzle game? You can climb, but only the fluffy parts of the colossi. You can stab, but only the shining weak points of the colossi, any other action is moot. This is all perfectly fine in the context of the game, but it makes it a bad example of high interactivity. Better examples would be, for instance, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, or more sandbox oriented games like Minecraft. Still can we truly declare Minecraft inherently better than, say, a top-down strategy game for it's extremely high degree of implicit systems in comparison to the necessary explicitness of a strategy game?
Ultimately it's all a case by case basis, and we can't simply declare some systems as inherently better than others, when there are so many more factors that come into equation when it comes to games. Ours is a syncretic medium of extremely high audience-work connection, and as such it would be a disservice to it to talk about any of these factors in absolute terms.
Also the parody robo-Clive von FF16's dialogue tells me the dev completely misunderstood the character, which isn't a good look considering how on-the-face the game is about its themes.
The big point of contention lies, in my opinion, in how the developer defines explicit and implicit interaction systems in absolute terms rather than as levels of interaction that change from game to game and interact with the other elements of gaming. Let's take a look at two of the examples the developer presents: Persona 5 and The Last of Us (2, in the case of my review).
The dev argues that P5 is a game replete with explicit systems that all together work in perfect synergy with the other elements of the game to deliver a strong experience. I agree with the synergy part, but not so much with calling these systems inherently explicit; at what point does the pressing of a button go from implicit to explicit? If I, in combat, press a button that makes my character stab an enemy, is that implicit due to the directness of the action, or explicit due to the way my Joker moves towards the enemy and attacks on his own? Conversely, does my choosing of having Joker spend his time eating a burger implicit or explicit? I don't press anything to have him eat a burger, but I have total control on whether or not he does that. Let's add another layer, a narrative one: If I choose to play with Joker as a personal self-insert, do this actions lean more towards the implicit? On the other hand, if I choose to portray Joker in a purely role-playing sense, giving him a different name, do these actions lean more towards the explicit, since there is a higher level of disconnect between me and the player character? Discussion around game interactivity would benefit inmensely from a literary Barthesian optic, interrogating not only the game itself and the "intention" behind game mechanics but their case-by-case interaction with different kinds of players.
Now let's take a look at The Last of Us II, a game that features a bajillion implicit interactive moments developed with an equally high amount of labor law violations. I distinctly remember a moment in the game where I, as the player, can pick up a snow globe and shake it around, observing the beautiful realistically simulated digital moving snowflakes. This is a moment of extreme interactivity; the movement of the character towards the item, the picking up of it, and the movement of the snow globe are all performed by my own controls. But is it really implicit? This little pocket of interaction is completely divorced from any other game mechanic, existing in its own world of interactivity. Adding a narrative layer, the character I'm controlling is Elie, a fully realized individual in this game world with no room for role-playing. This leads to a new set of questions: Is this interactive possibility something Elie would do? Is my connection to the character severed if I do perform this interactive task, as opposed to if I don't? The developer mentions Red Dead Redemption 2 as a game where the game world allows for good inclusion of explicit systems, but fails to mention how the implicit interaction can sever the connection between player and character: Arthur is, by all means, a conflicted but kind man who, as a character, would never brutally mow down a town of civilians. But the implicit systems of the game allow ME, the player, to do it, at that instant shattering any connection between me and mister Morgan.
With all this in mind, can we truly declare immediate interaction as something inherently good? First, we would need to clearly define what truly is implicit interaction, and as we have already seen, this task is impossible due to the way different game systems and different players will interpret interaction differently. The developer ultimately concludes that Shadow of the Colossus is the apex of implicit interactive systems. But do SotC's systems truly allow the player a higher degree of interactivity with the game world, when the game is a hidden puzzle game? You can climb, but only the fluffy parts of the colossi. You can stab, but only the shining weak points of the colossi, any other action is moot. This is all perfectly fine in the context of the game, but it makes it a bad example of high interactivity. Better examples would be, for instance, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, or more sandbox oriented games like Minecraft. Still can we truly declare Minecraft inherently better than, say, a top-down strategy game for it's extremely high degree of implicit systems in comparison to the necessary explicitness of a strategy game?
Ultimately it's all a case by case basis, and we can't simply declare some systems as inherently better than others, when there are so many more factors that come into equation when it comes to games. Ours is a syncretic medium of extremely high audience-work connection, and as such it would be a disservice to it to talk about any of these factors in absolute terms.
Also the parody robo-Clive von FF16's dialogue tells me the dev completely misunderstood the character, which isn't a good look considering how on-the-face the game is about its themes.
Mother
1989
A soulful, loving grindfest that is so eclipsed by its sequel that it's no longer worth the time. Huge, ambitious, and clearly inexperienced. If you like Mother 2 and 3, then sure, give it a look. It's just not something you're likely to come back to over and over.
Persona 3 Reload
2024
One of the most beautiful games I have ever played in remake form. I have played the original and loved the story, but the gameplay wasn't my favorite thing in the world. However, this remake changed many things, including the gameplay, and made some scenes even more beautiful and more impactful that I could've never imagined to be feasible. Everything that I loved from Persona 3 FES transferred over to the remake along with new scenes and content and while this game made me re-experience a story that I really liked before, it was different this time. My life had changed. The themes and characters resonated with me so closely this time in my life that I was holding back my emotions throughout the game with how relatable they are and how much I understood them. This game was just different and I will never forget this experience. Thank you Persona 3 and thank you Atlus for remaking this beautiful story.
i dunno, let's keep this quick. to say it's a bit clumsy is an understatement - and there are certainly aspects of the overall narrative i struggle with - but the depths of its sincerity won me over. i have no particular attachment to yakuza 7 either, and in fact i find much of that game to be very awkward, stilted, and grating so ultimately no one's more stunned than myself here.
when it's not luxuriating in this chilled-out ocean's twelve vibe which i loved, infinite wealth is written with far more intentionality and consideration than most entries in the series; while one might accuse of it of verging on threadbare or cloying for its strict emphasis on theme, i think the game trusts its audience to take some of the emotional leaps necessary to make the storytelling work. character writing for the leads and the party members has seen a dramatic improvement across the board. ichiban as usual brings a lot of levity to the table - thankfully none of it quite as irritating in the zany sense as 7 liked to employ - but kiryu's portions of the game are comparatively sobering. collecting memoirs has a weird psychological effect at times but the series has earned the right to do this by this point given how much of the kiryu saga can feel siloed or compartmentalized - in the same vein as gaiden, the game almost damns him for this, for never taking a chance to stop and reflect, for the consequences of his interminable martyr complex
that tendency to bury the past is only contrasted further by infinite wealth being maybe the most direct sequel the series has seen yet - the events of that game are still fresh in everyone's mind and sets the stage for the overarching conflict and everyone's investment in said conflict. it's a surprisingly natural extension of a lot of 7's themes, and i found it worked better for me this time. 7 often felt more gestural than anything else - to me it balanced far too much as this metaphorical (and literal) tearing down of the old ways, handling the introduction of a new protagonist, paying lipservice to series veterans and setting up parallels to the original ryu ga gotoku. infinite wealth to me feels more fully-formed, more confident; i think the team was able to use this title's unique hook and premise to really bring the most out of 7s promise of something new, and it could only have achieved it by taking the time to reflect on the past.
to this end: they made the game a JRPG this time, that counts for something. and not just a JRPG but one that feels as close to traditional RGG action as possible. some excellent systems this time with a lot of fascinating interplay and the level curve is fantastic. not necessary to sum up all the changes, you've seen them, but they really promote a lot of dynamic decision-making with respect to positioning and once you figure out how status effects can correlate with them you feel like your third eye's opening. very fond memories here of navigating around a crowd of enemies - some of whom have been put to sleep - and figuring out how best to maximize damage without waking anyone drowsy up. lots more strategy and enjoyment to be had here than pretty much anywhere in 7.
that said, i know RGG prides themselves on the statistics relating to players completing their titles, but they could really afford to take a few more risks with enemy waves in the main campaign. i felt like my most interesting encounters were usually street bosses or main story bosses, but the main campaign's filled with trash mobs. and i'm not saying every fight has to be some tactician's exercise - in fact i think that's the opposite of what people actually would enjoy - but i really wish the game took the time to play around even more with positioning. there are some exciting scenarios in the game that are too few and far in-between. stages that split up the party, encounters with unique mechanics...would really liked to have seen more in that vein.
some extra notes - would like to dig a bit deeper into the strengths of the narrative as well as some additional hangups but i can't be assed to write more
- honolulu's great, it gets probably a little too big for its own good but it's a real breath of fresh air for most of the game
- yamai is the best new character they've introduced in years
- dondoko island feels like a classic yakuza minigame in the best possible way, might even represent the apex of this kind of design. not obscenely grindy but just something casual and comfortable with enough layers to dig into without being overwheming and enough versatility to express yourself. shame you can't really say the same for sujimon!
- kiryu's party is disarmingly charming and they have some insanely good banter
- despite what some have said, i think this is a good follow-up to gaiden. it's not explicit about it but this is still very much a reckoning with kiryu's character and his mentality; it is every bit as concerned and preoccupied with the series mythos, the core ideas and conflicts driving a lot of installments
- honestly found the pacing to be on-par for the average RGG title if not better. i can concede that the dondoko island introduction was a bit too long but that is the most ground i can afford. if we can accept y5 into our hearts we can accept infinite wealth; IW makes y5 look deranged for its intrusiveness despite both titles occupying a similar length. if any of it registers as an actual problem, i think people would benefit from revisiting yakuza 7 to find it is almost exactly the same structurally if not worse
- IW is home to maybe the best needle drop in the medium
- played in japanese, like i usually do, so no real interest in commenting on the english dub since it's not real to me but i will say that what i listened to seemed like a bit of a step back from the dub quality in previous RGG games. yongyea isn't a convincing kiryu either and while i could be a bit more of a hater here all i will say is there is a STAGGERING whiplash involved in casting a guy like that as the lead in a game with themes like this. in a grouchier mood, i think it would genuinely be a bit difficult to look past this and it does leave me feeling sour, but ultimately the dub doesn't reflect my chosen means of engaging with the title and it never will
- what is difficult to look past is the game's DLC rollout, which arbitrarily gates higher difficulties, new game +, and a postgame dungeon. i acquired these through dubious means (which i highly recommend you also do) so i feel confident in saying they're really not at all worth the money unless you had a desire to spend more time in this world, but what a colossal and egregious failure to price it in this fashion. new game + specifically has tons of bizarre issues that make me believe a revision of some kind was necessary.
- you will not regret downloading this mod that removes the doors in dungeons
long story short, ryu ga gotoku's journey began in 2005 with a simple motif: to live is to not run away. so much of infinite wealth is about taking that notion to its furthest extent. it couldn't have possibly hit at a better time for me. at times it might be a classic case of this series biting off a bit more than it can chew for a sequel, but i don't think there's anything you can reliably point to that would make me think this is one step forwards, two steps back.
also awesome to have a game that posits that hawaii is filled with the fire monks from elden ring and then you have to travel to the resident evil 4 island to beat them up
when it's not luxuriating in this chilled-out ocean's twelve vibe which i loved, infinite wealth is written with far more intentionality and consideration than most entries in the series; while one might accuse of it of verging on threadbare or cloying for its strict emphasis on theme, i think the game trusts its audience to take some of the emotional leaps necessary to make the storytelling work. character writing for the leads and the party members has seen a dramatic improvement across the board. ichiban as usual brings a lot of levity to the table - thankfully none of it quite as irritating in the zany sense as 7 liked to employ - but kiryu's portions of the game are comparatively sobering. collecting memoirs has a weird psychological effect at times but the series has earned the right to do this by this point given how much of the kiryu saga can feel siloed or compartmentalized - in the same vein as gaiden, the game almost damns him for this, for never taking a chance to stop and reflect, for the consequences of his interminable martyr complex
that tendency to bury the past is only contrasted further by infinite wealth being maybe the most direct sequel the series has seen yet - the events of that game are still fresh in everyone's mind and sets the stage for the overarching conflict and everyone's investment in said conflict. it's a surprisingly natural extension of a lot of 7's themes, and i found it worked better for me this time. 7 often felt more gestural than anything else - to me it balanced far too much as this metaphorical (and literal) tearing down of the old ways, handling the introduction of a new protagonist, paying lipservice to series veterans and setting up parallels to the original ryu ga gotoku. infinite wealth to me feels more fully-formed, more confident; i think the team was able to use this title's unique hook and premise to really bring the most out of 7s promise of something new, and it could only have achieved it by taking the time to reflect on the past.
to this end: they made the game a JRPG this time, that counts for something. and not just a JRPG but one that feels as close to traditional RGG action as possible. some excellent systems this time with a lot of fascinating interplay and the level curve is fantastic. not necessary to sum up all the changes, you've seen them, but they really promote a lot of dynamic decision-making with respect to positioning and once you figure out how status effects can correlate with them you feel like your third eye's opening. very fond memories here of navigating around a crowd of enemies - some of whom have been put to sleep - and figuring out how best to maximize damage without waking anyone drowsy up. lots more strategy and enjoyment to be had here than pretty much anywhere in 7.
that said, i know RGG prides themselves on the statistics relating to players completing their titles, but they could really afford to take a few more risks with enemy waves in the main campaign. i felt like my most interesting encounters were usually street bosses or main story bosses, but the main campaign's filled with trash mobs. and i'm not saying every fight has to be some tactician's exercise - in fact i think that's the opposite of what people actually would enjoy - but i really wish the game took the time to play around even more with positioning. there are some exciting scenarios in the game that are too few and far in-between. stages that split up the party, encounters with unique mechanics...would really liked to have seen more in that vein.
some extra notes - would like to dig a bit deeper into the strengths of the narrative as well as some additional hangups but i can't be assed to write more
- honolulu's great, it gets probably a little too big for its own good but it's a real breath of fresh air for most of the game
- yamai is the best new character they've introduced in years
- dondoko island feels like a classic yakuza minigame in the best possible way, might even represent the apex of this kind of design. not obscenely grindy but just something casual and comfortable with enough layers to dig into without being overwheming and enough versatility to express yourself. shame you can't really say the same for sujimon!
- kiryu's party is disarmingly charming and they have some insanely good banter
- despite what some have said, i think this is a good follow-up to gaiden. it's not explicit about it but this is still very much a reckoning with kiryu's character and his mentality; it is every bit as concerned and preoccupied with the series mythos, the core ideas and conflicts driving a lot of installments
- honestly found the pacing to be on-par for the average RGG title if not better. i can concede that the dondoko island introduction was a bit too long but that is the most ground i can afford. if we can accept y5 into our hearts we can accept infinite wealth; IW makes y5 look deranged for its intrusiveness despite both titles occupying a similar length. if any of it registers as an actual problem, i think people would benefit from revisiting yakuza 7 to find it is almost exactly the same structurally if not worse
- IW is home to maybe the best needle drop in the medium
- played in japanese, like i usually do, so no real interest in commenting on the english dub since it's not real to me but i will say that what i listened to seemed like a bit of a step back from the dub quality in previous RGG games. yongyea isn't a convincing kiryu either and while i could be a bit more of a hater here all i will say is there is a STAGGERING whiplash involved in casting a guy like that as the lead in a game with themes like this. in a grouchier mood, i think it would genuinely be a bit difficult to look past this and it does leave me feeling sour, but ultimately the dub doesn't reflect my chosen means of engaging with the title and it never will
- what is difficult to look past is the game's DLC rollout, which arbitrarily gates higher difficulties, new game +, and a postgame dungeon. i acquired these through dubious means (which i highly recommend you also do) so i feel confident in saying they're really not at all worth the money unless you had a desire to spend more time in this world, but what a colossal and egregious failure to price it in this fashion. new game + specifically has tons of bizarre issues that make me believe a revision of some kind was necessary.
- you will not regret downloading this mod that removes the doors in dungeons
long story short, ryu ga gotoku's journey began in 2005 with a simple motif: to live is to not run away. so much of infinite wealth is about taking that notion to its furthest extent. it couldn't have possibly hit at a better time for me. at times it might be a classic case of this series biting off a bit more than it can chew for a sequel, but i don't think there's anything you can reliably point to that would make me think this is one step forwards, two steps back.
also awesome to have a game that posits that hawaii is filled with the fire monks from elden ring and then you have to travel to the resident evil 4 island to beat them up
Contra
1987
What a quarter-munching bastard this thing must have been in the arcades...
Always harsh but never truly unfair, Contra encourages and rewards mastery in ways so much more satisfying than Ninja Gaiden or even Castlevania. It's fast-paced bare-knuckle action that might demoralize, but rarely ever frustrates. Even if the mountain before you does get the better of your confidence or you simply don't want to volunteer the time investment Contra asks of you, you have the accessibility option that is the infamous Konami code.
On top of it all, Contra packs one of the best early multiplayer experiences in gaming, provided you both have the incredible powers necessary for keeping track of the chaos onscreen.
Truly, a stunning achievement of its day, and yet still only a taste of the greatness toward which Konami was rocketing with full speed.
Edit: A small update here, the Arcade version is definitely less fair than the NES version, which I think might mark the first time in history that the home version of something is better than in the arcade.
Always harsh but never truly unfair, Contra encourages and rewards mastery in ways so much more satisfying than Ninja Gaiden or even Castlevania. It's fast-paced bare-knuckle action that might demoralize, but rarely ever frustrates. Even if the mountain before you does get the better of your confidence or you simply don't want to volunteer the time investment Contra asks of you, you have the accessibility option that is the infamous Konami code.
On top of it all, Contra packs one of the best early multiplayer experiences in gaming, provided you both have the incredible powers necessary for keeping track of the chaos onscreen.
Truly, a stunning achievement of its day, and yet still only a taste of the greatness toward which Konami was rocketing with full speed.
Edit: A small update here, the Arcade version is definitely less fair than the NES version, which I think might mark the first time in history that the home version of something is better than in the arcade.