sango
2019
Moon is a really special game. I could talk all day about the flaws of this game, how some of the puzzles are extremely cryptic and how there’s several points in the game where I have no idea how you’d progress without either incredibly luckily stumbling across the right answer or using a guide, the overall sluggish pace of the gameplay etc., etc.
But’s not enough to stop me from really loving this game. For one if you’re a fan of the MOTHER series’s quirky writing I’d really recommend this, because the overall weird but charming nature of this game is one of its biggest strengths. I really love the gameplay loop of finding love to increase the amount of time you can stay awake so you can find more love. Even though a lot of my time playing this game was just spent figuring what to do, to the point where I had to use a guide multiple times, I really loved the experience of immersing myself into the game, learning more about the world and it’s inhabitants. If there’s one thing this game did, it’s make me feel really comfy. I’m giving this 4 stars now, but it’s a game I can tell I’ll love more and more each time I play it. I could see this becoming one of my favorite games in the future. As much as I’d like everyone to play this game it’s not a game for everyone, but it’s certainly a game for me. Thank you Onion Games.
But’s not enough to stop me from really loving this game. For one if you’re a fan of the MOTHER series’s quirky writing I’d really recommend this, because the overall weird but charming nature of this game is one of its biggest strengths. I really love the gameplay loop of finding love to increase the amount of time you can stay awake so you can find more love. Even though a lot of my time playing this game was just spent figuring what to do, to the point where I had to use a guide multiple times, I really loved the experience of immersing myself into the game, learning more about the world and it’s inhabitants. If there’s one thing this game did, it’s make me feel really comfy. I’m giving this 4 stars now, but it’s a game I can tell I’ll love more and more each time I play it. I could see this becoming one of my favorite games in the future. As much as I’d like everyone to play this game it’s not a game for everyone, but it’s certainly a game for me. Thank you Onion Games.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, the character Gojo Satoru has the ability to overwhelm the opponent's mind with infinite information about the universe in such a short amount of time that it basically traumatizes them and makes them inoperable. What I'm trying to say is that playing 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is probably the closest you can get to experiencing that for yourself.
I'm probably the problem, but in one word, this game is incomprehensible. Having 13 protagonists on different timelines that you can switch between at any point would already make for an incredibly confusing game. On top of that, this game has every science fiction concept you can name incorporated into the story. Mechs, time travel, droids, predicting the future, time loops, clones, droids, and so much more I can't talk about without spoiling the game. The game tries to make it less confusing by having a timeline and a word bank of characters and concepts you can check literally at any time, even while characters are talking. At some point though, I realized that what's confusing isn't the timeline or how the story is told, the confusing part of the game is the story itself. Even after just having beat the story, I cannot tell you what several extremely important words in the story mean. I tried so hard to piece things together in my head while playing it, but as you play things don't get easier to understand, more and more ideas pile on top of each other and it becomes more and more confusing. Several times while playing this game alone in my room, I paused the game, put my controller down, put my head in my hands, and said out loud "what the fuck is happening!?"
At the same time though, I couldn't stop playing it. I didn't fully understand what was going on, I maybe didn't even half understand it, but there's something so alluring when so many ideas are being tossed at you at once. It's the type of game where once you start playing it, you just have to see what happens because the game is genuinely insane. It's a fascinating experience.
There's also a whole strategy game part of 13 Sentinels that you have to complete, and I also don't have much to say about it. It's somewhat fun, but not fun enough to stand on its own. You would not buy a game with only the strategy part of 13 Sentinels, at least I wouldn't, it's a fine mix-up to the visual novel gameplay every once in a while but I didn't love that part of the game.
I'm torn on this game, because I don't even know how I feel about it. Is it good? Is it bad? Did I enjoy it? Did I not? Is this a game I can recommend to anyone? I don't know the answer to any of those questions. But it's very unique, you won't experience anything like it, and I think that's worth something.
I'm probably the problem, but in one word, this game is incomprehensible. Having 13 protagonists on different timelines that you can switch between at any point would already make for an incredibly confusing game. On top of that, this game has every science fiction concept you can name incorporated into the story. Mechs, time travel, droids, predicting the future, time loops, clones, droids, and so much more I can't talk about without spoiling the game. The game tries to make it less confusing by having a timeline and a word bank of characters and concepts you can check literally at any time, even while characters are talking. At some point though, I realized that what's confusing isn't the timeline or how the story is told, the confusing part of the game is the story itself. Even after just having beat the story, I cannot tell you what several extremely important words in the story mean. I tried so hard to piece things together in my head while playing it, but as you play things don't get easier to understand, more and more ideas pile on top of each other and it becomes more and more confusing. Several times while playing this game alone in my room, I paused the game, put my controller down, put my head in my hands, and said out loud "what the fuck is happening!?"
At the same time though, I couldn't stop playing it. I didn't fully understand what was going on, I maybe didn't even half understand it, but there's something so alluring when so many ideas are being tossed at you at once. It's the type of game where once you start playing it, you just have to see what happens because the game is genuinely insane. It's a fascinating experience.
There's also a whole strategy game part of 13 Sentinels that you have to complete, and I also don't have much to say about it. It's somewhat fun, but not fun enough to stand on its own. You would not buy a game with only the strategy part of 13 Sentinels, at least I wouldn't, it's a fine mix-up to the visual novel gameplay every once in a while but I didn't love that part of the game.
I'm torn on this game, because I don't even know how I feel about it. Is it good? Is it bad? Did I enjoy it? Did I not? Is this a game I can recommend to anyone? I don't know the answer to any of those questions. But it's very unique, you won't experience anything like it, and I think that's worth something.
2023
The only souls or soulslike game I’ve played where weapon durability is actually an extremely good mechanic
Klonoa is cool as fuck! The two games included in this collection are incredibly creative with its mix of 2D and 3D, as well as various stage gimmicks that the game always finds ways to make feel fresh. While neither game is very long, nothing overstays its welcome and from beginning to end they’re just really fun games. Of course, this what I would say in a review of the two games as games, and not as a modern remake.
I don’t mind that the game doesn’t look as polished as other 2D platformers that have released in even the last decade because the art direction makes up for it, aside from a few ugly looking areas. I just really wish this game ran at a stable frame rate. Even as someone who can barely tell the difference between 60 and 30 fps, this game’s frame rate bothered me at times. Aside from the frame rate overall not being smooth, there are occasional frame drops when there’s too much on the screen, and for a remake of a game that’s over 20 years old, and a game that doesn’t look like a modern release, it’s a bit of a problem. Especially for a game with the mechanics of Klonoa, with really fun aerial momentum based puzzles and platforming. The mechanics are so fun that I’d almost buy a whole game in the style of the optional unlockable challenge levels.
Overall, while I can’t say much about how it compares to the original games, I can see how long time Klonoa fans could have been disappointed by this. However, as my first time playing a Klonoa game, I loved this. Although the first game has a much stronger story that almost made me tear up at the end (I probably could have cried if I wasn’t holding back my tears with every bit of my soul because of the embarrassment I would have felt crying to Klonoa), the second game has such better level design that I have to say I liked the second game more. If you have any interest in the game or enjoy other 2D platformers, I’d recommend playing this, or emulating the original games. Here’s to hoping for a new Klonoa game.
I don’t mind that the game doesn’t look as polished as other 2D platformers that have released in even the last decade because the art direction makes up for it, aside from a few ugly looking areas. I just really wish this game ran at a stable frame rate. Even as someone who can barely tell the difference between 60 and 30 fps, this game’s frame rate bothered me at times. Aside from the frame rate overall not being smooth, there are occasional frame drops when there’s too much on the screen, and for a remake of a game that’s over 20 years old, and a game that doesn’t look like a modern release, it’s a bit of a problem. Especially for a game with the mechanics of Klonoa, with really fun aerial momentum based puzzles and platforming. The mechanics are so fun that I’d almost buy a whole game in the style of the optional unlockable challenge levels.
Overall, while I can’t say much about how it compares to the original games, I can see how long time Klonoa fans could have been disappointed by this. However, as my first time playing a Klonoa game, I loved this. Although the first game has a much stronger story that almost made me tear up at the end (I probably could have cried if I wasn’t holding back my tears with every bit of my soul because of the embarrassment I would have felt crying to Klonoa), the second game has such better level design that I have to say I liked the second game more. If you have any interest in the game or enjoy other 2D platformers, I’d recommend playing this, or emulating the original games. Here’s to hoping for a new Klonoa game.
1994
Playing this AFTER playing Country 2 was a bit of a mistake because wow is literally everything worse in this game.
My first Armored Core game as a long time From fan. It wasn't at all a "mech Dark Souls" like I heard it would be, but for what it was it was great. What it is is a mission based game where you're supposed to customize your mech to find the best load out to handle each mission, while also replaying them to get S ranks. As an even bigger Platinum Games fan than I am a From fan, it feels like a crossover I never knew I needed. Even when I would get burnt out during a long play session, I just couldn't stop myself from playing because of how addictive the game was. While there are some flaws, like how unclear the criteria for an S rank is early on, a somewhat interesting story that is told very poorly (another unfortunate trait that is shared with many Platinum games), and the fact that you need to play the game three times without major difference for most of the play through to get the true ending, this game still gave me some of the most fun I've had this year. Some of the most fun I had with this game is making a mech based on Kirby, complete with a custom decal of Kirby's face. It was gorgeous.
2022
Atreus: what if I break your trust someday?
Kratos: trusting you is my decision, proving me wrong is your choice.
Kratos: trusting you is my decision, proving me wrong is your choice.
The most enjoyable 7/10 game of all time
2022
Minor spoilers, but not spoilery enough to put a spoiler tag on in my opinion. I'll be describing some of the basic story from the early game.
Buried somewhere in here is an amazing game. The most criticized thing about this game is the graphics and frame rate, and it's easy to see why, even by switch standards it's pretty bad. At its core, the gameplay is really fun. As someone who didn't play PLA, I really liked being able to catch Pokemon in the environment and have a huge world to explore. The only other praise I can really give this game is that the story is good for Pokemon standards. It's not amazing, but it's interesting enough to not completely forget everything the second you finish the game like with Sword and Shield.
Speaking of the story, I wish everything interesting didn't happen in the last hour of the game. Until then there's three main "storylines" that you can follow in any order to complete the game. One is of collecting 8 gym badges to become the champion, which is nothing special if you've played another Pokemon game and is barely a story. The other is a story of taking down the bases of this game's villainous team, team star, which is probably the worst team in a Pokemon game yet. They're literally just school bullies, and the storyline doesn't even make a lot of sense. The last of the three is one of collecting Herba Mystica for a character named Arven, and I actually liked this storyline. Every Pokemon game I've played has exactly one character I actually like, and Arven fills that quota. It's the only storyline that made me feel something other than complete void in my heart. If you've played the game you'll know what I mean when I say the game's story only really gets interesting in the last hour. I consider this a complaint because I think at least some of the concepts could have been sprinkled throughout the game to make it more of a main part of the story. Overall though, the story is fine. It's passable, which makes it a huge step above most other modern Pokemon games.
One of the weirder problems with this game is that you can't go inside the vast majority of buildings. Even shops are just menus that open up when you enter the building, without an interior. It might seem like a minor complaint, but it really bothers me. Obviously Game Freak has a horrible schedule to make these games, this game is very clearly undercooked, but really? It's an open world game! This is the one Pokemon game where they should focus on making a great world to explore, including cities! When you can't go inside buildings, you have much less to explore in each city you visit. Maybe it's unrealistic to be able to go inside building in the world, but when you can't go inside buildings in this game while you can in every other Pokemon game, it makes the cities in Scarlet and Violet feel lifeless in comparison.
For other minor complaints I have, I don't think a lot of the music is really memorable, but some if it is okay, the good songs were probably composed by Toby Fox but whatever. The game doesn't have voice acting, which I don't have a huge problem with unlike some people, but it is pretty disturbing when characters in cutscenes are fully animated with moving mouths but there's no voice coming out of them. There's not a lot of post game content, which I don't have a huge problem with because it's an open world game, you probably didn't explore everything so I think in a lot of open world games the post game content is whatever you didn't do on your first run. I don't like how gym leaders all have the same type Pokemon because if you have one slightly over leveled Pokemon that's super effective towards them that one Pokemon completely sweeps them and the battles become easy and boring, but at this point it's just the formula they've followed for 30 years. Also the Ed Sheeran song that plays in the credits is really boring.
It might sound like I have more negative things to say than positive things, and I do, but the gameplay is so fun that I can look past the bad parts of the game. I mean, I completed the dex. That's gotta count for something. After playing Pokemon Sword, I was so emotionally divorced from the Pokemon series that I thought I would never play a Pokemon game again. I don't think Sword and Shield is a horrible game, it's just mediocre, but playing that game made me realize I was just sick of the Pokemon formula. I'm saying this as someone who started playing from XY, so I can't imagine how people who grew up playing the series from even earlier felt playing such a mediocre game. This game was enough of a change in the formula that I feel interested in Pokemon again.
Buried somewhere in here is an amazing game. The most criticized thing about this game is the graphics and frame rate, and it's easy to see why, even by switch standards it's pretty bad. At its core, the gameplay is really fun. As someone who didn't play PLA, I really liked being able to catch Pokemon in the environment and have a huge world to explore. The only other praise I can really give this game is that the story is good for Pokemon standards. It's not amazing, but it's interesting enough to not completely forget everything the second you finish the game like with Sword and Shield.
Speaking of the story, I wish everything interesting didn't happen in the last hour of the game. Until then there's three main "storylines" that you can follow in any order to complete the game. One is of collecting 8 gym badges to become the champion, which is nothing special if you've played another Pokemon game and is barely a story. The other is a story of taking down the bases of this game's villainous team, team star, which is probably the worst team in a Pokemon game yet. They're literally just school bullies, and the storyline doesn't even make a lot of sense. The last of the three is one of collecting Herba Mystica for a character named Arven, and I actually liked this storyline. Every Pokemon game I've played has exactly one character I actually like, and Arven fills that quota. It's the only storyline that made me feel something other than complete void in my heart. If you've played the game you'll know what I mean when I say the game's story only really gets interesting in the last hour. I consider this a complaint because I think at least some of the concepts could have been sprinkled throughout the game to make it more of a main part of the story. Overall though, the story is fine. It's passable, which makes it a huge step above most other modern Pokemon games.
One of the weirder problems with this game is that you can't go inside the vast majority of buildings. Even shops are just menus that open up when you enter the building, without an interior. It might seem like a minor complaint, but it really bothers me. Obviously Game Freak has a horrible schedule to make these games, this game is very clearly undercooked, but really? It's an open world game! This is the one Pokemon game where they should focus on making a great world to explore, including cities! When you can't go inside buildings, you have much less to explore in each city you visit. Maybe it's unrealistic to be able to go inside building in the world, but when you can't go inside buildings in this game while you can in every other Pokemon game, it makes the cities in Scarlet and Violet feel lifeless in comparison.
For other minor complaints I have, I don't think a lot of the music is really memorable, but some if it is okay, the good songs were probably composed by Toby Fox but whatever. The game doesn't have voice acting, which I don't have a huge problem with unlike some people, but it is pretty disturbing when characters in cutscenes are fully animated with moving mouths but there's no voice coming out of them. There's not a lot of post game content, which I don't have a huge problem with because it's an open world game, you probably didn't explore everything so I think in a lot of open world games the post game content is whatever you didn't do on your first run. I don't like how gym leaders all have the same type Pokemon because if you have one slightly over leveled Pokemon that's super effective towards them that one Pokemon completely sweeps them and the battles become easy and boring, but at this point it's just the formula they've followed for 30 years. Also the Ed Sheeran song that plays in the credits is really boring.
It might sound like I have more negative things to say than positive things, and I do, but the gameplay is so fun that I can look past the bad parts of the game. I mean, I completed the dex. That's gotta count for something. After playing Pokemon Sword, I was so emotionally divorced from the Pokemon series that I thought I would never play a Pokemon game again. I don't think Sword and Shield is a horrible game, it's just mediocre, but playing that game made me realize I was just sick of the Pokemon formula. I'm saying this as someone who started playing from XY, so I can't imagine how people who grew up playing the series from even earlier felt playing such a mediocre game. This game was enough of a change in the formula that I feel interested in Pokemon again.
2019
why the fuck does falling in pits instakill you
2014
This review contains spoilers
Despite its age there's a lot to appreciate about Resident Evil. Every angle being with a fixed camera seems like a sign of the game's age at first, and it arguably still is, but the game is so well made that it's turned into a strength. Often the game will hide zombies just around the corner or the camera's vision so you can only see them when you get close enough for the camera angle to switch to show them. I say this is a good thing because it's clear that the game places the zombies in these places on purpose to increase the tension of each moment of the game. Even if you can't see the zombies, you can sometimes hear their grunts or other means to know they're there. My favorite moment of when you can see zombie is around the corner even when they're not shown directly by the camera is early on when you enter a new room with a mirror reflecting into a narrow hallway next to the room, at least when I played the game a zombie briefly walked in front of the mirror's reflection. It was so brief and unexpected that I wasn't sure if what I saw was really real, and seconds later a zombie came out of the hallway. Every camera angle is very well thought out. If something is in the foreground there's a reason. Some shots are wide like how wide shots exist in films to show the surroundings. Originally I was playing the remake's 16:9 view option, but I saw a comment online about how the game's better in the original aspect ratio so I tried it, and I have to agree. In 16:9 the camera follows the player a bit to make up for the missing space that happens from the zoom, but with the original aspect ratio the camera is completely still. It increases the lifeless feeling of the areas you explore. How everything is dead. You're alone. The difference or the effect isn't anything major, but I think it's interesting how the aspect ratio you choose changes the experience of the game.
Another common argument against the game is that the controls are bad, and I don't agree. I pretty much immediately switched to tank controls upon starting the game because I knew how much stronger the newer control scheme would be, so I can't speak on how those work, but I can defend tank controls. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but it's no problem once you do, and the controls work better for how the camera's constantly switching around the player, because your movement isn't based on the camera, it's only based on your own position. Maybe I'm better at using tank controls than the average person because of what I've done in my real life, but I never struggled too hard with the controls. I also like the tank controls because they contribute to a very intricate risk reward that goes into every enemy encounter. Because of your slow turning speed even with the ability to quickly turn 180 degrees and the inability to shoot while moving, even a simple task like shooting an enemy and running away forces you to take into consideration things such as your distance from the enemy, how fast your enemy moves, any other enemies that could be behind you, and more much harder than you would in a game that's more action based and less survival based. Thankfully most zombies move very slow, so you have a lot of time to position yourself properly. The controls being more limited, making you more vulnerable if you're not careful, increase the game's intensity during enemy encounters because instead of just making you think about where to shoot the enemy from, you also have to think about how you'll avoid taking damage after shooting.
On a similar note, I also really like the risk reward associated with enemies you decide not to shoot. When you shoot enemies you have to risk taking damage because you have to stand completely still for a small amount of time, as well as wasting unnecessary bullets, which are a valuable resource in this game. The risk is greater if you decide to try shooting the head of a zombie and kill it, forcing you to stand closer to them because you have to do that you have to aim upwards, and the angle that you can shoot their head at requires you to be closer to them a lot of the time. The reward is temporarily stunning or downing the enemy allowing you to hopefully run by without taking damage, and if you shoot them in the head, they'll be gone permanently. Another way to deal with zombies is to run by them, which has another risk and reward attached to it. A lot of the time you'll have to run by them in narrow hallways. The risk is that you'll have to get really close to them and risk taking damage, but the reward is that you won't have to use any bullets. While it is safer to just try and kill the zombies, because of how valuable bullets were I found myself trying to run around them most of the time, only killing them when I absolutely had to when I was low on health, or if it was a hallway I crossed so often that I decided using a few bullets was less wasteful than the potential life I could be losing. Any time you encounter an enemy you have go through a risk reward system of some sort, and it really kept the game engaging for me. Even when I was back tracking to certain places, I couldn't ever let my guard down just because it was somewhere I've been before, because I could always take damage. And because of the constant stress the game puts you through, every time you run past a zombie without taking damage or shoot an enemy's head off, the game's also constantly satisfying.
The game doesn't have much for a story (at least in the Chris campaign that I played through, though I doubt Jill's campaign is too different), but the game does have notes you pick up all over the place that have information about the virus. Though most be summarized as "this virus is killing people and turning them into monsters" or "the virus got me and I am losing my mind and I am sad :(" it can be pretty heartbreaking to read a few of them. They detail people writing their last words and moments as they're certain they're going to be turned into a monster. People write about their regrets, how they want to see their family, or people just losing the ability to form normal sentences because of the effects of the virus. A lot of them say basically the same thing, yes, but they all tell a different story and help give a bigger picture of the horrible things that happened as a result of the experiments. Because of that, the game can have some very dark moments.
Up until now I've been talking about things that I'm not sure how much could apply to the early Resident Evil games or specifically this game, but now I'll talk about the map design because that's something that applies specifically to this game. The mansion area is an amazing made area that's almost built like a metroidvania. You go around different rooms and unlock keys to unlock more rooms, and you'll be going around the entire mansion multiple times to get everything. You'll also use certain items you get in certain areas in completely different places in order to make progress. I saw some people complain about how much backtracking there is, and I can see that being a valid complaint, but I didn't feel annoyed by it. I could just have good patience because the door animations, possibly the most complained about part of the game, didn't bother me once. Even though I do think you spend a little too much time here throughout the game, I spent at least half of the game in the mansion alone, I still think it's an incredible area, especially as the first one in the game. As you explore the rooms you'll keep getting more and more questions about what happened to the people living in the mansion, and why there's so many zombies inside. The mansion, as well as the rest of the game, also happens to have a lot of puzzles. The puzzles throughout the game are pretty good in my opinion. No solutions feel so arbitrary that it's impossible to figure out on your own, even though I did have to look up how to progress a few times, and figuring out how to solve them is satisfying. It's nothing amazing, but it doesn't hurt the rest of the experience. I found them enjoyable overall. Even though the rest of the areas in the game aren't as good as the mansion, they're all at least decent. I especially like the dormitory area for its atmosphere and I think it has some great moments, like reading the suicide note.
Overall Resident Evil is an incredible game. I can't speak on how good it is as a remake because I haven't played the original, but it's a game that I appreciate a lot, and hopefully I've been able to express how throughout this review. Even though it's very stressful to play a lot of the time, it was still a great experience. The one thing this game is weighed down by is the fact that some areas in the game aren't amazing, but even still there's so much care put in to so many parts of the game. This game has earned its status as a classic.
Another common argument against the game is that the controls are bad, and I don't agree. I pretty much immediately switched to tank controls upon starting the game because I knew how much stronger the newer control scheme would be, so I can't speak on how those work, but I can defend tank controls. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but it's no problem once you do, and the controls work better for how the camera's constantly switching around the player, because your movement isn't based on the camera, it's only based on your own position. Maybe I'm better at using tank controls than the average person because of what I've done in my real life, but I never struggled too hard with the controls. I also like the tank controls because they contribute to a very intricate risk reward that goes into every enemy encounter. Because of your slow turning speed even with the ability to quickly turn 180 degrees and the inability to shoot while moving, even a simple task like shooting an enemy and running away forces you to take into consideration things such as your distance from the enemy, how fast your enemy moves, any other enemies that could be behind you, and more much harder than you would in a game that's more action based and less survival based. Thankfully most zombies move very slow, so you have a lot of time to position yourself properly. The controls being more limited, making you more vulnerable if you're not careful, increase the game's intensity during enemy encounters because instead of just making you think about where to shoot the enemy from, you also have to think about how you'll avoid taking damage after shooting.
On a similar note, I also really like the risk reward associated with enemies you decide not to shoot. When you shoot enemies you have to risk taking damage because you have to stand completely still for a small amount of time, as well as wasting unnecessary bullets, which are a valuable resource in this game. The risk is greater if you decide to try shooting the head of a zombie and kill it, forcing you to stand closer to them because you have to do that you have to aim upwards, and the angle that you can shoot their head at requires you to be closer to them a lot of the time. The reward is temporarily stunning or downing the enemy allowing you to hopefully run by without taking damage, and if you shoot them in the head, they'll be gone permanently. Another way to deal with zombies is to run by them, which has another risk and reward attached to it. A lot of the time you'll have to run by them in narrow hallways. The risk is that you'll have to get really close to them and risk taking damage, but the reward is that you won't have to use any bullets. While it is safer to just try and kill the zombies, because of how valuable bullets were I found myself trying to run around them most of the time, only killing them when I absolutely had to when I was low on health, or if it was a hallway I crossed so often that I decided using a few bullets was less wasteful than the potential life I could be losing. Any time you encounter an enemy you have go through a risk reward system of some sort, and it really kept the game engaging for me. Even when I was back tracking to certain places, I couldn't ever let my guard down just because it was somewhere I've been before, because I could always take damage. And because of the constant stress the game puts you through, every time you run past a zombie without taking damage or shoot an enemy's head off, the game's also constantly satisfying.
The game doesn't have much for a story (at least in the Chris campaign that I played through, though I doubt Jill's campaign is too different), but the game does have notes you pick up all over the place that have information about the virus. Though most be summarized as "this virus is killing people and turning them into monsters" or "the virus got me and I am losing my mind and I am sad :(" it can be pretty heartbreaking to read a few of them. They detail people writing their last words and moments as they're certain they're going to be turned into a monster. People write about their regrets, how they want to see their family, or people just losing the ability to form normal sentences because of the effects of the virus. A lot of them say basically the same thing, yes, but they all tell a different story and help give a bigger picture of the horrible things that happened as a result of the experiments. Because of that, the game can have some very dark moments.
Up until now I've been talking about things that I'm not sure how much could apply to the early Resident Evil games or specifically this game, but now I'll talk about the map design because that's something that applies specifically to this game. The mansion area is an amazing made area that's almost built like a metroidvania. You go around different rooms and unlock keys to unlock more rooms, and you'll be going around the entire mansion multiple times to get everything. You'll also use certain items you get in certain areas in completely different places in order to make progress. I saw some people complain about how much backtracking there is, and I can see that being a valid complaint, but I didn't feel annoyed by it. I could just have good patience because the door animations, possibly the most complained about part of the game, didn't bother me once. Even though I do think you spend a little too much time here throughout the game, I spent at least half of the game in the mansion alone, I still think it's an incredible area, especially as the first one in the game. As you explore the rooms you'll keep getting more and more questions about what happened to the people living in the mansion, and why there's so many zombies inside. The mansion, as well as the rest of the game, also happens to have a lot of puzzles. The puzzles throughout the game are pretty good in my opinion. No solutions feel so arbitrary that it's impossible to figure out on your own, even though I did have to look up how to progress a few times, and figuring out how to solve them is satisfying. It's nothing amazing, but it doesn't hurt the rest of the experience. I found them enjoyable overall. Even though the rest of the areas in the game aren't as good as the mansion, they're all at least decent. I especially like the dormitory area for its atmosphere and I think it has some great moments, like reading the suicide note.
Overall Resident Evil is an incredible game. I can't speak on how good it is as a remake because I haven't played the original, but it's a game that I appreciate a lot, and hopefully I've been able to express how throughout this review. Even though it's very stressful to play a lot of the time, it was still a great experience. The one thing this game is weighed down by is the fact that some areas in the game aren't amazing, but even still there's so much care put in to so many parts of the game. This game has earned its status as a classic.
2010
I won't deny that it's a very well made game, but the game isn't really for me. Limbo is a game that's meant to be analyzed and theorized about after you play it to figure out the story, even through multiple play throughs, and that's not something I really enjoy doing. What I really like about the game is how subtle everything is. The puzzles all have a perfect amount of subtlety for you to figure out how to do everything on your own, and you have to figure out all of the mechanics like what you can grab or push without the game telling you. The game doesn't even tell you the controls, you start the game and you're on your own, and it really helps to immerse you in the desolate world of Limbo.
What's even more subtle than all that however is the story, and it is told very vaguely. It's one of those pieces of media where everyone seems to have a different interpretation of what's happening and why some things are made in the way that they are, and after reading some theories about the game I definitely appreciate it a lot more. I can no longer call the game pointless, which I would have in the first hour or two of my time playing it. After around that point it was clear that there was a point, and that this is a very purposefully designed game, I was just too stupid to figure anything out. The game doesn't have any objective flaws in my opinion, and I could see it being someone's favorite game ever made. It just isn't mine.
What's even more subtle than all that however is the story, and it is told very vaguely. It's one of those pieces of media where everyone seems to have a different interpretation of what's happening and why some things are made in the way that they are, and after reading some theories about the game I definitely appreciate it a lot more. I can no longer call the game pointless, which I would have in the first hour or two of my time playing it. After around that point it was clear that there was a point, and that this is a very purposefully designed game, I was just too stupid to figure anything out. The game doesn't have any objective flaws in my opinion, and I could see it being someone's favorite game ever made. It just isn't mine.
2019
Admittedly this is the only horror game I've ever played, so I have nothing to compare this game to. But easily the best thing the game does in my opinion is setting up a sense of mystery so consistently throughout the game. From very early on in the game the feeling that something is wrong at the company you're working at is present, and the way that with each answer you find or each milestone you achieve so many more questions arise keeps the game consistently interesting. On top of that with many interesting characters that you can't always tell if you can trust or not and the game's humorous moments, it's a game that I enjoyed quite a bit. This game has bosses too that are all defeated with puzzles and while some of the puzzles in general, even outside of the bosses, can be a bit cryptic, I wouldn't say there's any puzzles that straight up don't make sense, and all of the bosses use the game's mechanics in unique ways. As for the horror parts of this horror game, while they aren't nearly as scary the second time you play the game because a lot of the time they follow a specific buildup and surprise payoff that works best when you don't know what's coming up, I will say that some parts were a bit scary on the first play through. I wouldn't recommend this to someone looking for an extremely horror heavy experience, but the horror does work great for adding tension to some scenes.
One of the places where the game falls a bit short is the graphics. I'm almost never the type of person to complain about bad graphics, but in this game I think it's different because they clearly had a vision I think would've worked much better with more pixels on screen. There's a lot of parts of the game where they try to give characters expressive animations, and it somewhat works, but you can't see the emotions and such of the characters very well anywhere aside from their character dialogue portraits. For what the graphics are though, they are very functional. They're good enough that you can tell what everything is, like a file cabinet or a desk or whatnot. There's also some detail put into a lot of parts of the game to add to the dirtiness of each floor, like nothing has been cleaned in years, which really adds to the atmosphere of the game that this company is not right. I was also a bit disappointed with the ending the first time I played the game, at least the base game endings that weren't in the Executive Edition update. I was still confused about things like what happened to the monsters in the building as well as some other things that are too specific to talk about without spoiling the game.
Thankfully, any confusions I had with the endings were solved with one of the additional endings from the Executive Edition update. Solved isn't exactly the right word because the other endings still exist, and you still might be confused if you don't do the DLC content, but the new content cleared up most of the confusion I had originally. Even aside from that the Executive Edition update adds all of the best content in the game. The surveillance boss segment is amazing and the house section is one of the few sections that were still scary to me even on a second play through. The best parts of the game all being part of an update added a year after the game originally released makes me think that Baroque Decay is growing. While Yuppie Psycho isn't the most famous indie game out there, I'm confident that they have the ability to make something spectacular that'll get a lot of deserved attention.
One of the places where the game falls a bit short is the graphics. I'm almost never the type of person to complain about bad graphics, but in this game I think it's different because they clearly had a vision I think would've worked much better with more pixels on screen. There's a lot of parts of the game where they try to give characters expressive animations, and it somewhat works, but you can't see the emotions and such of the characters very well anywhere aside from their character dialogue portraits. For what the graphics are though, they are very functional. They're good enough that you can tell what everything is, like a file cabinet or a desk or whatnot. There's also some detail put into a lot of parts of the game to add to the dirtiness of each floor, like nothing has been cleaned in years, which really adds to the atmosphere of the game that this company is not right. I was also a bit disappointed with the ending the first time I played the game, at least the base game endings that weren't in the Executive Edition update. I was still confused about things like what happened to the monsters in the building as well as some other things that are too specific to talk about without spoiling the game.
Thankfully, any confusions I had with the endings were solved with one of the additional endings from the Executive Edition update. Solved isn't exactly the right word because the other endings still exist, and you still might be confused if you don't do the DLC content, but the new content cleared up most of the confusion I had originally. Even aside from that the Executive Edition update adds all of the best content in the game. The surveillance boss segment is amazing and the house section is one of the few sections that were still scary to me even on a second play through. The best parts of the game all being part of an update added a year after the game originally released makes me think that Baroque Decay is growing. While Yuppie Psycho isn't the most famous indie game out there, I'm confident that they have the ability to make something spectacular that'll get a lot of deserved attention.
2016
I've put in over a hundred hours since I first got the game 5 years ago, even though the vast majority of my hours were from 2018 and 2020, and it's made me come to the most annoying and ignorant opinion I've ever had about any video game or any piece of media I've ever experienced: if you think this game isn't amazing you haven't played enough of it. I never say anything like that. When I see people saying something like that I think they're annoying as hell. But you have to hear me out.
For my second really annoying statement of this review, I will say the game does not start when you first launch it. It does not even start the first time you beat it. It took me around 70-75 hours to beat the game the first time, and another 15 or 20 after that to realize the game is a masterpiece, and really that's when the game starts. So really when I say I've played 100 hours I was actually lying, I've actually only played 10-15 hours. I joke, but I really do think of the game in that way to some extent.
The main mechanic of the game is that you use guns to shoot enemies, which is important because guns have limited ammo. Beyond just being a balance measure to make sure that the really strong weapons aren't picked up and used for the entire rest of the game, it encourages you to think a lot more about what guns to use in what situations, what guns are better against groups or individual enemies, what guns are too good to be used against normal enemies, what guns are bad enough to be used against them, what guns are so bad they're not even worth using late into the run, etc. You can also recover ammo if certain rooms drop ammo after clearing them or you can sometimes buy it at shops. As someone whose only experience with other top down roguelikes are Isaac and Moonlighter, I really enjoyed the depth that such a simple mechanic created. Even for being a metroidvania, very few games can say that they're half as creative as Enter the Gungeon, with the insane amounts of unique guns and items that you can pick up and unlock. There are literally hundreds of guns and items in the game. Even beyond that there's synergies, where if you pick up a specific combination of weapons and/or items special effects can happen, like the weapons getting completely new properties. This is different from items that just power up your weapons by giving them effects like "electric bullets", these synergies are special and often drastically change how the weapons work. The game is also very creative with the different unlockable modes and characters that you can get after you beat the game, as well as the secret floors and the way that you find all of them.
The real star of this game in my opinion is the rainbow run mode that you get after you beat the game. Stop reading now if you don't want to get spoiled on what it is, though I wouldn't consider the knowledge of an unlockable mode a huge spoiler. In this mode at the beginning of every floor you get to choose a weapon or item out of eight randomly selected ones, four of each, to get and you can only get weapons and items from those chests at the beginning of every floor. It doesn't sound like much, in fact it sounds like it could be less fun because you get way less items every run, but it is some of the most fun gameplay you can experience. Being able to choose a gun or item every floor completely breaks the game, allowing you to get the most powerful things in the game very early on. It's hard to express just how much fun it is if you haven't played the game, but it's basically playing the game on easy mode. The last thing you want from a roguelike is an easy mode, but I think as something you can only unlock after beating the game, and likely having to do many more runs to find the npc that allows you to do rainbow runs, I think it's justifiable. Shredding through everything so easily on a good rainbow mode run is so satisfying and fun, even after beating the game so many times.
All in all, Enter the Gungeon is an incredibly fun game with an insane amount of content. Even after putting in so much time into the game, every run is still satisfying to complete, every run is unique, and it does everything an amazing game should. With the multiple huge updates that have come out over the years, if anyone reading this played the game before 2019, when the final huge update came out, I strongly recommend you check the game out again. I promise you you will appreciate the game so much more. There's very few games that I can keep coming back to the way I keep coming back to play Enter the Gungeon. Amazing game.
For my second really annoying statement of this review, I will say the game does not start when you first launch it. It does not even start the first time you beat it. It took me around 70-75 hours to beat the game the first time, and another 15 or 20 after that to realize the game is a masterpiece, and really that's when the game starts. So really when I say I've played 100 hours I was actually lying, I've actually only played 10-15 hours. I joke, but I really do think of the game in that way to some extent.
The main mechanic of the game is that you use guns to shoot enemies, which is important because guns have limited ammo. Beyond just being a balance measure to make sure that the really strong weapons aren't picked up and used for the entire rest of the game, it encourages you to think a lot more about what guns to use in what situations, what guns are better against groups or individual enemies, what guns are too good to be used against normal enemies, what guns are bad enough to be used against them, what guns are so bad they're not even worth using late into the run, etc. You can also recover ammo if certain rooms drop ammo after clearing them or you can sometimes buy it at shops. As someone whose only experience with other top down roguelikes are Isaac and Moonlighter, I really enjoyed the depth that such a simple mechanic created. Even for being a metroidvania, very few games can say that they're half as creative as Enter the Gungeon, with the insane amounts of unique guns and items that you can pick up and unlock. There are literally hundreds of guns and items in the game. Even beyond that there's synergies, where if you pick up a specific combination of weapons and/or items special effects can happen, like the weapons getting completely new properties. This is different from items that just power up your weapons by giving them effects like "electric bullets", these synergies are special and often drastically change how the weapons work. The game is also very creative with the different unlockable modes and characters that you can get after you beat the game, as well as the secret floors and the way that you find all of them.
The real star of this game in my opinion is the rainbow run mode that you get after you beat the game. Stop reading now if you don't want to get spoiled on what it is, though I wouldn't consider the knowledge of an unlockable mode a huge spoiler. In this mode at the beginning of every floor you get to choose a weapon or item out of eight randomly selected ones, four of each, to get and you can only get weapons and items from those chests at the beginning of every floor. It doesn't sound like much, in fact it sounds like it could be less fun because you get way less items every run, but it is some of the most fun gameplay you can experience. Being able to choose a gun or item every floor completely breaks the game, allowing you to get the most powerful things in the game very early on. It's hard to express just how much fun it is if you haven't played the game, but it's basically playing the game on easy mode. The last thing you want from a roguelike is an easy mode, but I think as something you can only unlock after beating the game, and likely having to do many more runs to find the npc that allows you to do rainbow runs, I think it's justifiable. Shredding through everything so easily on a good rainbow mode run is so satisfying and fun, even after beating the game so many times.
All in all, Enter the Gungeon is an incredibly fun game with an insane amount of content. Even after putting in so much time into the game, every run is still satisfying to complete, every run is unique, and it does everything an amazing game should. With the multiple huge updates that have come out over the years, if anyone reading this played the game before 2019, when the final huge update came out, I strongly recommend you check the game out again. I promise you you will appreciate the game so much more. There's very few games that I can keep coming back to the way I keep coming back to play Enter the Gungeon. Amazing game.
1994
Especially by today's standards EarthBound doesn't have the deepest story or gameplay, but what does make this game special is that there's a really unique charm with the game. Even though this game has inspired a lot of other games, there's really nothing quite like EarthBound. There could be a million quirky silly little rpgs made and none of them could be EarthBound, and even after playing the game twice I still don't completely know why. I think part of it is that EarthBound has a really unique sense of humor. It's hard to explain, but with a lot of jokes in this game you can sort of tell it was written by a bunch of middle aged men thinking "haha what if this happened that would be kinda funny lmao" and I really like it. The game's charm comes through in more ways than that though, with its constant wackiness, the music, the writing, and more. At the end of the day there's no game that does it like EarthBound does, and there'll probably never be one.