way too much to comment on so just gonna do this in point form
general:
- the camera is horrible in all three games. it floats around like it's constantly on ice. the locked camera during certain bosses/etc also gets really annoying when trying to locate ammo/etc
- the motion blur is fucking awful and headache inducing, thankfully it can be disabled but it shouldn't exist in the first place
- spyro's controls themselves are a bit floaty, but not that bad
- many of the remastered character designs are awful creepy disney knockoff abominations (especially fairies and "humans"). some are okay though
spyro 1:
- the flight stages are god awful. they should not exist
- thieves are purely a nuisance and add nothing
- the (instant death!) water everywhere is super annoying
- some glides are stupidly precise
- while i do like the collectathon nature of things, the stages doesn't feel like they have grounded objectives
- tree tops sucks dick and can rot in hell
- 5/10
spyro 2:
- the flight stages are still god awful
- kinda annoying that cutscenes play every time you enter and leave, and challenges reset
- so glad that water is just a thing now and not deadly for no reason. but also the swimming controls are fucked beyond belief
- much more grounded objectives, which were mostly okay-ish
- surprisingly buggy, often broken text boxes and random lighting and draw distance issues
- gulp is an absolutely garbage boss
- 6.5/10
spyro 3:
- so glad they got rid of the stage cutscenes, and also really glad that the stages don't completely reset every time you enter
- the stages in general are the best designed of the trilogy for sure, with a few exceptions
- the flying stages are actually not that bad somehow!! but the hidden minigames in them are all really bad and control miserably. game would still be better without them entirely
- i liked the gameplay variety with the extra characters, though most of them felt pretty sluggish and a bit awkward to control
- several of the egg challenges are still really, really miserably awful. notably, every skateboard area. final area snowboard zone is the glitchiest most bullshit part of the entire game. also the whack a mole thing was awful
- sparx stages kinda suck
- lost fleet is a horrible stage
- haunted tomb is terrible
- the camera when controlling agent 9 is the absolute worst. also why does he look like the en eff tee monkey i hate it
- by far the glitchiest of the 3 games too somehow. some parts should never have passed QA. felt like i was constantly fighting against the collision detection, randomly getting stuck and so on. the text boxes were somehow even glitchier than in 2, over half of them i couldn't even read and had to rely on the voice acting.
- 7/10
overall, averaging the three games, 6/10 for the trilogy. i haven't played the originals so i can't compare, but the games all just have too many really terrible moments for me to say i thoroughly enjoyed them, even if i did quite enjoy many parts of them.
general:
- the camera is horrible in all three games. it floats around like it's constantly on ice. the locked camera during certain bosses/etc also gets really annoying when trying to locate ammo/etc
- the motion blur is fucking awful and headache inducing, thankfully it can be disabled but it shouldn't exist in the first place
- spyro's controls themselves are a bit floaty, but not that bad
- many of the remastered character designs are awful creepy disney knockoff abominations (especially fairies and "humans"). some are okay though
spyro 1:
- the flight stages are god awful. they should not exist
- thieves are purely a nuisance and add nothing
- the (instant death!) water everywhere is super annoying
- some glides are stupidly precise
- while i do like the collectathon nature of things, the stages doesn't feel like they have grounded objectives
- tree tops sucks dick and can rot in hell
- 5/10
spyro 2:
- the flight stages are still god awful
- kinda annoying that cutscenes play every time you enter and leave, and challenges reset
- so glad that water is just a thing now and not deadly for no reason. but also the swimming controls are fucked beyond belief
- much more grounded objectives, which were mostly okay-ish
- surprisingly buggy, often broken text boxes and random lighting and draw distance issues
- gulp is an absolutely garbage boss
- 6.5/10
spyro 3:
- so glad they got rid of the stage cutscenes, and also really glad that the stages don't completely reset every time you enter
- the stages in general are the best designed of the trilogy for sure, with a few exceptions
- the flying stages are actually not that bad somehow!! but the hidden minigames in them are all really bad and control miserably. game would still be better without them entirely
- i liked the gameplay variety with the extra characters, though most of them felt pretty sluggish and a bit awkward to control
- several of the egg challenges are still really, really miserably awful. notably, every skateboard area. final area snowboard zone is the glitchiest most bullshit part of the entire game. also the whack a mole thing was awful
- sparx stages kinda suck
- lost fleet is a horrible stage
- haunted tomb is terrible
- the camera when controlling agent 9 is the absolute worst. also why does he look like the en eff tee monkey i hate it
- by far the glitchiest of the 3 games too somehow. some parts should never have passed QA. felt like i was constantly fighting against the collision detection, randomly getting stuck and so on. the text boxes were somehow even glitchier than in 2, over half of them i couldn't even read and had to rely on the voice acting.
- 7/10
overall, averaging the three games, 6/10 for the trilogy. i haven't played the originals so i can't compare, but the games all just have too many really terrible moments for me to say i thoroughly enjoyed them, even if i did quite enjoy many parts of them.
This review contains spoilers
A masterpiece sequel to a masterpiece game. I thought it would be very difficult to top the first game's story and structure, but I think this just barely surpasses it (I was on the opposite side of the fence until the, well, "twist", near the end of the game, if you catch my drift). The amount of foreshadowing throughout is insane (realizing about the glass statue after the reveal totally blew my mind) and really shows how much effort was put into the details of making this concept work, although that's little new for Uchikoshi lol. I love pretty much all the characters, new and old, and they all have a great amount of depth. I love that Ryuki is an enigma throughout the entire game, whether as the player character or as an NPC, and his relationship with Date is stellar (and I want MORE!). I loved Mizuki, just in general, just as badass (or even moreso) as she was in the first game (AND she shares my birthday, which automatically makes her awesome! like what!!!). I loved that we never truly saw Gen's face, because we never needed to. I loved how Lien went from initial impressions of a cringey weirdo to end up being a really fucking awesome guy. I loved the relationship development between Shoma and his dad, which is very reminiscent of Ota's arc from the first game. I loved the masked character, who I could never truly tell until near the end if was good or bad, and who was an incredible surprise and twist upon their reveal. I loved the villains, who felt genuinely terrifying and evil in the most pure sense of the word. The story goes to some extremely dark and fucked up places and I massively respect how it handles them. Of course, like the first game, I also love the sense of humor that keeps the experience from being 100% dreary; there is once again so much reward for inspecting every possible thing at every possible moment. This game definitely has about 100x more innuendos than the original, which isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing. I do certainly respect the sheer audacity of Tama's design and personality.
On the other hand, I think the Somnia in this game overall are significantly weaker than the original game, with a few exceptions. My favorite part of the original Somnia was the vast array of choices and resulting amount of exploration, even if it meant more failures or more time spent figuring out the right sequence of events; in contrast, although there are some fun escape-room-esque puzzles in this game, I feel like many of the solutions are a bit too linear and don't quite have the same charm. I would much rather a new Zero Escape (or some new IP in the same vein) than the attempt to make AI be more like Zero Escape. That said, the Somnia from an audiovisual and storytelling standpoint were phenomenal and they were still very much enjoyable. I also definitely appreciate the unlimited time feature on replays.
For me though the story outweighs the gameplay in this case, so I think I have to say I prefer this over the original, if just by a hair. I would play the shit out of an AI 3. 10/10
On the other hand, I think the Somnia in this game overall are significantly weaker than the original game, with a few exceptions. My favorite part of the original Somnia was the vast array of choices and resulting amount of exploration, even if it meant more failures or more time spent figuring out the right sequence of events; in contrast, although there are some fun escape-room-esque puzzles in this game, I feel like many of the solutions are a bit too linear and don't quite have the same charm. I would much rather a new Zero Escape (or some new IP in the same vein) than the attempt to make AI be more like Zero Escape. That said, the Somnia from an audiovisual and storytelling standpoint were phenomenal and they were still very much enjoyable. I also definitely appreciate the unlimited time feature on replays.
For me though the story outweighs the gameplay in this case, so I think I have to say I prefer this over the original, if just by a hair. I would play the shit out of an AI 3. 10/10
This review contains spoilers
this is definitely the weakest entry in the series up to this point, but i'll start with positives (note: i did not play the dlc case)
- the 3d character models are a surprisingly effective replacement for the 2d sprites. i was worried that they wouldn't be able to live up to the level of expression and sheer absurdity, but they definitely pulled it off
- athena is great, and i do like the way the "acting protagonist" rotates throughout the game
- message log! such a good feature!
- the last case is really good! aside from the wholly unbelievable face-swapping nonsense at the end (and the letdown of never seeing the real face... i get that it's done for a reason but idc i just wanted a fucking payoff that i never got)
- blackquill is hot (and also a solid main antagonist)
negatives:
- so many of the characters in this game are just so insufferable. it's probably my biggest gripe with the whole thing. i get that you gotta make everyone look suspicious but godddd it made the game feel 10x slower to not care whatsoever who is guilty or not
- on a related note, it was pretty annoying that the "true culprit" was basically handed to you on a platter for the first THREE CASES of the game
- and speaking of those cases, they just.. weren't that interesting. i didn't find myself invested in most anything that was happening until case 4 or 5. probably because the characters sucked
- the lack of "examine" in 90% of areas really shows how important that flavor text was for enjoyability in all the games before this. this one felt really bland a lot of the time without it
- the "dark age of the law" is super BS, it annoyed me every time it was said (which is a lot). literally just a new name for the same shit the series has been about since day 1
- the mood matrix is GARBAGE. like, holy shit that mechanic is the worst thing they've done so far. for me almost every single time came down to desperate trial and error because of how incomprehensible the logic is, and it really soured the mood of the trials (at least there's no health bar, though... i don't even want to imagine)
- i hate that trucy's entire personality for most of the game is just her fucking underwear. it was awkward enough in apollo justice, i didn't need to see it over and over and over again here
- i miss gumshoe :(
ok that's a lot of negatives actually but i didn't hate the game, like, it's Fine. just has a whole lot of problems that really makes it pale in comparison to previous titles. 5/10, i guess?
- the 3d character models are a surprisingly effective replacement for the 2d sprites. i was worried that they wouldn't be able to live up to the level of expression and sheer absurdity, but they definitely pulled it off
- athena is great, and i do like the way the "acting protagonist" rotates throughout the game
- message log! such a good feature!
- the last case is really good! aside from the wholly unbelievable face-swapping nonsense at the end (and the letdown of never seeing the real face... i get that it's done for a reason but idc i just wanted a fucking payoff that i never got)
- blackquill is hot (and also a solid main antagonist)
negatives:
- so many of the characters in this game are just so insufferable. it's probably my biggest gripe with the whole thing. i get that you gotta make everyone look suspicious but godddd it made the game feel 10x slower to not care whatsoever who is guilty or not
- on a related note, it was pretty annoying that the "true culprit" was basically handed to you on a platter for the first THREE CASES of the game
- and speaking of those cases, they just.. weren't that interesting. i didn't find myself invested in most anything that was happening until case 4 or 5. probably because the characters sucked
- the lack of "examine" in 90% of areas really shows how important that flavor text was for enjoyability in all the games before this. this one felt really bland a lot of the time without it
- the "dark age of the law" is super BS, it annoyed me every time it was said (which is a lot). literally just a new name for the same shit the series has been about since day 1
- the mood matrix is GARBAGE. like, holy shit that mechanic is the worst thing they've done so far. for me almost every single time came down to desperate trial and error because of how incomprehensible the logic is, and it really soured the mood of the trials (at least there's no health bar, though... i don't even want to imagine)
- i hate that trucy's entire personality for most of the game is just her fucking underwear. it was awkward enough in apollo justice, i didn't need to see it over and over and over again here
- i miss gumshoe :(
ok that's a lot of negatives actually but i didn't hate the game, like, it's Fine. just has a whole lot of problems that really makes it pale in comparison to previous titles. 5/10, i guess?
2022
honestly a lot more fun than i expected it to be. i still have problems though
biggest issue for me is that everything is... well, too big. legends arceus did "open world" really well - each area felt distinct and open with plenty to explore, without being overwhelming. paldea on the other hand just feels massive and unwieldy, with way too much open space and next to no notable landmarks. the cities fall victim to this too; every single time i walked into one i felt immediately lost and there wasn't enough in each city to motivate learning the layout - i think this is also a fault of the giant open world, in that there isn't much reason to go to the cities except for the gym and maybe to buy new clothes; they don't feel at all like part of the progression, which really sucks compared to previous pokemon games. it doesn't feel like there are grounded objectives until the very endgame, and it doesn't help that there isn't any level scaling. i really really think if they want to go the open world route again for gen 10 that they should take more notes from legends arceus. area zero is by FAR the best area of this game and a big part of that is how self-contained it is
i also think the team star "raids" are really awful. i get that they wanted to force you to use the auto battle system but man its literally just "spam the R button for the next 2 minutes". on the other hand, the tera raids are a big improvement from the dynamax raids in swsh. still though, the shield is annoying and the fact that they can wipe stat changes and even uncharge the tera orb is total BS and makes the high level raids a lot less fun.
it's also really annoying that trading is still required in any way to complete the pokedex. like, they're already keeping the size of the pokedex pretty small to make it more accessible to fully complete, so why keep the biggest and dumbest blockade of all? either give each version its own pokedex with version exclusives, or better yet, stop making two fucking versions, the concept is way past its prime and we don't need it anymore!!!!!
and obviously performance issues. i actually didn't run into any major glitches (the worst i really saw was pokemon spawned inside a wall a couple times, and a couple really wonky hitboxes), but the fps is a whole other story. everything feels so, so sluggish, either because of the framerate or just because things take forever to load sometimes. the camera also controls really badly
a couple nice things to end off:
- the characters and their stories are great! while the main plot is whatever, arven and nemona and penny are all great. i liked all the different personalities at the academy itself too, especially clavell - it is really really nice to see an old man character in a position of power who is not just a good guy but also just really awesome - he's one of the best characters in the whole game
- the music is so, so good! i also was really impressed by how much effort was put into the transitions, whether going seamlessly from field to battle music or between gym leader phases or from battle to fanfare, it always felt shockingly natural, and the motif use is super super well done in this game overall
- it was still generally a very fun game, even with all its issues! i just wish game freak would get their shit together, really
biggest issue for me is that everything is... well, too big. legends arceus did "open world" really well - each area felt distinct and open with plenty to explore, without being overwhelming. paldea on the other hand just feels massive and unwieldy, with way too much open space and next to no notable landmarks. the cities fall victim to this too; every single time i walked into one i felt immediately lost and there wasn't enough in each city to motivate learning the layout - i think this is also a fault of the giant open world, in that there isn't much reason to go to the cities except for the gym and maybe to buy new clothes; they don't feel at all like part of the progression, which really sucks compared to previous pokemon games. it doesn't feel like there are grounded objectives until the very endgame, and it doesn't help that there isn't any level scaling. i really really think if they want to go the open world route again for gen 10 that they should take more notes from legends arceus. area zero is by FAR the best area of this game and a big part of that is how self-contained it is
i also think the team star "raids" are really awful. i get that they wanted to force you to use the auto battle system but man its literally just "spam the R button for the next 2 minutes". on the other hand, the tera raids are a big improvement from the dynamax raids in swsh. still though, the shield is annoying and the fact that they can wipe stat changes and even uncharge the tera orb is total BS and makes the high level raids a lot less fun.
it's also really annoying that trading is still required in any way to complete the pokedex. like, they're already keeping the size of the pokedex pretty small to make it more accessible to fully complete, so why keep the biggest and dumbest blockade of all? either give each version its own pokedex with version exclusives, or better yet, stop making two fucking versions, the concept is way past its prime and we don't need it anymore!!!!!
and obviously performance issues. i actually didn't run into any major glitches (the worst i really saw was pokemon spawned inside a wall a couple times, and a couple really wonky hitboxes), but the fps is a whole other story. everything feels so, so sluggish, either because of the framerate or just because things take forever to load sometimes. the camera also controls really badly
a couple nice things to end off:
- the characters and their stories are great! while the main plot is whatever, arven and nemona and penny are all great. i liked all the different personalities at the academy itself too, especially clavell - it is really really nice to see an old man character in a position of power who is not just a good guy but also just really awesome - he's one of the best characters in the whole game
- the music is so, so good! i also was really impressed by how much effort was put into the transitions, whether going seamlessly from field to battle music or between gym leader phases or from battle to fanfare, it always felt shockingly natural, and the motif use is super super well done in this game overall
- it was still generally a very fun game, even with all its issues! i just wish game freak would get their shit together, really
2012
it's a silly mindless way to waste a couple hours, what else do you want! i mean yeah it's pure trial and error but the charm makes up for it, a bit of immaturity aside
2023
as usual, another great ys game! i enjoyed it a lot, although it still is nowhere close to ys 8 (but really i doubt falcom will ever make a better ys game than 8, it set the bar so damn high).
story was great all the way through, basically no complaints there. gameplay was also great and engaging, though while I liked the new combat I don't think it was as fun as the previous combat system. It also felt like half the mechanics weren't explained at all so it took until pretty late in the game for me to fully grasp how everything worked. i also actually kinda liked the ship combat in the end which i wasn't expecting as i really didn't like it at first - the upgrades def made it much more enjoyable. really my biggest gripe with this game though is the simple lack of variety - and this was a problem with 9 to an extent as well - most of the islands blended together and only a small handful have any real identity. in ys 8 discovering a new area was always exciting, whereas discovering a new island in 10 was moreso just hoping for something new. the enemy variety definitely exacerbates the issue as well; it really feels like there are only 20 unique enemies in the game and so when most of the islands are not only visually similar but littered with a majority of the same enemies or basic reskins of them, it becomes really hard for them to stand out. that all said though, it was all still a lot of fun to play and explore, and i still came out of it having had a fantastic experience. hoping whatever's next is even greater! 9/10
story was great all the way through, basically no complaints there. gameplay was also great and engaging, though while I liked the new combat I don't think it was as fun as the previous combat system. It also felt like half the mechanics weren't explained at all so it took until pretty late in the game for me to fully grasp how everything worked. i also actually kinda liked the ship combat in the end which i wasn't expecting as i really didn't like it at first - the upgrades def made it much more enjoyable. really my biggest gripe with this game though is the simple lack of variety - and this was a problem with 9 to an extent as well - most of the islands blended together and only a small handful have any real identity. in ys 8 discovering a new area was always exciting, whereas discovering a new island in 10 was moreso just hoping for something new. the enemy variety definitely exacerbates the issue as well; it really feels like there are only 20 unique enemies in the game and so when most of the islands are not only visually similar but littered with a majority of the same enemies or basic reskins of them, it becomes really hard for them to stand out. that all said though, it was all still a lot of fun to play and explore, and i still came out of it having had a fantastic experience. hoping whatever's next is even greater! 9/10
This review contains spoilers
i wish this had just been packaged as a single game from the start, because that's what it really is - the first game is basically just a long winded intro to the second and neither works without the other. my impressions of the first game initially were lowered because it failed to match the pace I was expecting for a self contained game, but when treated as a preamble to the masterpiece that is TGAA2 it's all well worth it. so - treating this all as 1 game - the overarching story is easily one of the best in the series and the main cast is incredible - loved how many recurring characters were intertwined in the complex lattice of events, making for so many satisfying reveals toward the end. on the other hand though, particularly in TGAA1, i found the side characters wholly unsatisfactory; i found it difficult to care about many of the witnesses/etc as they were either boring or explicitly detestable (2 was definitely better in this regard). i also really am not a fan of the jury system in the trials. it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game too much, but i just found them a constant nuisance whenever they were at the forefront, especially when interrupting trials for no good reason other than to awkwardly force the plot forward. i also found the jurors to be the most blatant perpetrators of xenophobia/racism across the board. while surely period-accurate, it really doesn't make me want to listen to more of their dialogue when half the time it's some spin on "japanese bad". at least van zieks has some motivations about it (speaking of - awesome prosecutor, but it did take quite a while for me to think of him anywhere above average). it speaks volumes that my favorite trials from a gameplay perspective were the ones with no jurors! but in any case, still was all worth it in the end. (though they never did explain the deal with all the repeat jurors... I kinda expected that to be a major plot point somewhere, but nope?) I definitely do hope we get to see more of this cast in the future, whether it's in britain or japan or some wholly new location - honestly as characters i think ryunosuke and susato are way more interesting than phoenix and maya lol, not to mention sholmes, iris, gina and the like.
i don't know how i'd even begin to rate this as two separate games, but as a complete experience - minor gripes aside - truly fantastic. it's simply a long, slow burn, but with the greatest show of fireworks you've ever seen waiting at the end. 9.7/10
i don't know how i'd even begin to rate this as two separate games, but as a complete experience - minor gripes aside - truly fantastic. it's simply a long, slow burn, but with the greatest show of fireworks you've ever seen waiting at the end. 9.7/10
this really is worlds above the first two games jeez. more consistently fun puzzles, much better story pacing and buildup, and the payoff and big twists were handled well too - still absolutely absurd but somehow way more believable than the first two games' twists combined. and don paolo's presence in this one makes up 100x for how lame he was in the other games too i love him. and layton actually gets a personality finally too!! hell yeah
appreciate the item indicators. controls/general gameplay are great. bosses are decent. pacing is totally wacko, first power bomb minutes before the final boss is ridiculous, etc. hated the stealth/alarm/whatever part. overall, solid
2002
i was originally gonna give this a higher rating but it started getting progressively worse about halfway through.
- controls are generally good, but they seem to be more sensitive than zero mission (in a bad way). i often had jumps cancelled against my will by accidentally sliding past up on the dpad for half a second when going from left to right
- story is corny and a bit forced but i don't mind that at all
- overall map design is quite good. i do think the hand-holding with all the navigation rooms goes a bit far but also at the same time i still desperately want some kind of in-game map/item percentage tracker for each area so i have little room to complain.
- however, endgame map design gets a bit silly. some of the hidden puzzles after getting screw attack are absurdly difficult and very much not fun. i also hate that once again the game tries to lure you into fighting the final boss(es) to lock you out of exploring for the final items without giving you any indication that it will do so. "hey heres your next objective, also by the way you cant explore anymore haha bye"
- i hate sa-x. im glad the sa-x chase segments are super minor but also i hate that they are there at all, they suck and are not fun whatsoever. also, the fact that it destroys entrances without marking them differently on the map is horrible
- the bosses were pretty good at first, but by the end (p much everything after nightmare, possibly including nightmare) they became horrible awful hp sponges, and the final core phase of most of them just became an absolute nuisance, especially for bosses that are already hard to beat with any health left
but yeah still a pretty good game, 8/10
- controls are generally good, but they seem to be more sensitive than zero mission (in a bad way). i often had jumps cancelled against my will by accidentally sliding past up on the dpad for half a second when going from left to right
- story is corny and a bit forced but i don't mind that at all
- overall map design is quite good. i do think the hand-holding with all the navigation rooms goes a bit far but also at the same time i still desperately want some kind of in-game map/item percentage tracker for each area so i have little room to complain.
- however, endgame map design gets a bit silly. some of the hidden puzzles after getting screw attack are absurdly difficult and very much not fun. i also hate that once again the game tries to lure you into fighting the final boss(es) to lock you out of exploring for the final items without giving you any indication that it will do so. "hey heres your next objective, also by the way you cant explore anymore haha bye"
- i hate sa-x. im glad the sa-x chase segments are super minor but also i hate that they are there at all, they suck and are not fun whatsoever. also, the fact that it destroys entrances without marking them differently on the map is horrible
- the bosses were pretty good at first, but by the end (p much everything after nightmare, possibly including nightmare) they became horrible awful hp sponges, and the final core phase of most of them just became an absolute nuisance, especially for bosses that are already hard to beat with any health left
but yeah still a pretty good game, 8/10
fantastic as long as you play on normal and not hard or nightmare (or inferno...) lmaoooo
2007
i wanted to like this game but it just kept throwing shit in my face lol. some of the stages are pretty fun, others a bit bland, but pretty much every single boss is an utterly unintuitive and miserable disaster of game design, such that even the levels i thought were fun were left with a sour taste. of course this is also true of many megaman games, but i don't recall them being quite as bad as this. i gave up at the boss of iris stage 2; at that point i completely lost any and all desire to continue playing. the iris stages (well, 1 and 2, at least) are the most obnoxious, awful stages in the game too, with garbage bosses as the stupid, rotten cherry on top. if not for the handful of stages i did genuinely have fun with i would probably leave this at a 1/10. even with that factored in though, a 3/10 is more than generous
this game is a masterpiece in pretty much every way. one of the greatest pieces of media i have ever experienced. it's hard to put into words how GOOD this game is without spoiling literally everything but like. man. the writing is excellent all around; it strikes a great balance overall of humor and seriousness, and each on their own delivers hard. the jokes pretty much all land and are rewarding for the extra effort of looking at everything, and the serious parts feel extremely real, especially when dealing with trauma, grief, etc. (annihilation route, dude...). i was also like shocked constantly at how well all the twists are set up; they hit hard and yet never feel forced or nonsensical; it's insane how many times i was like "there's no way it can get even more crazy" and then was immediately proven wrong. even with all the different routes, the way information was spread across them that allows the player to piece more and more of the story together without one particular route (until the end) being more important... and then everything falling into place.. was just so damn good. and the true ending/credits are wild (in the best way). i don't think i've ever seen a video game top everything off the way this one did with the credits but it was such a fitting and emotional way to finish. ALSO unrelated to the writing at all but the gameplay is really good too!! i loved the somniums, the mechanics were fun and unique and there was SO MUCH care and detail put into every single one of them. i had only heard good things about this game before playing it but it still way exceeded my expectations.. i can't wait for the sequel, i don't know if it can possibly top this one but if it does then holy shit. because this is one of the easiest 10/10's ever
came into this having only played mystery journey so this was a pleasant improvement lol. the story is simple but effective and the small world has so much charm. the puzzles are also generally decent, although the slide puzzles are all terrible and there was maybe a tad too much repetition more generally. i would also say the pacing is kinda weird, especially when all the buildup resolves to layton just exposition-ing the whole plot at the end instead of like getting you to piece things together yourself, but maybe i'm just too ace attorney brained
anyway, still a very solid 7/10 i think
anyway, still a very solid 7/10 i think
2023
absolutely incredible in every way. even as short as it is, the story it tells is enthralling and tear-wrenching and it takes no time at all to become completely entrenched in the world. the music is phenomenally beautiful and the art is out-of-this-world fantastic. i love that the "jrpg" gameplay is a story-driving element in itself, and that it doesn't need to be super challenging to be as effective as it is, especially with the constant shifts in the ways the battles play out; every individual battle feels special, and makes the amount of heart and soul that went into this game abundantly clear. i firmly believe that everybody should play this game. 10/10