slopguzzler
2018
The characters were great and the story was pretty good as usual but I found Judgment to be pretty disappointing overall. Tailing is a slog, Yagami's combat plays like he's stuck in mud, and the Keihin gang nonsense gets annoying fast.
Judgment also sees the return of some of the worst aspects of the yakuza series. A ton of the objectives are just "run here, run back, run there again, run back". Forced side missions that kill the pacing. Forced minigames, which I'll lump Yagami's detective kit in with since its not like you can go around picking any lock, just occasionally in the middle of a setpiece you'll have to play another dumb minigame.
The story elements are fine, standard fare. A lot of people complain about it being predictable, but I don't really care about that. I'm more concerned with the fact a lot of the progression, including the conclusion, doesn't really feel earned.
I've heard LJ fixes some of the problems with the gameplay so I'll probably play that since I do like this direction for the series, it's just a shame that the first entry was lackluster. But then again, so was Y1/Kiwami 1
Judgment also sees the return of some of the worst aspects of the yakuza series. A ton of the objectives are just "run here, run back, run there again, run back". Forced side missions that kill the pacing. Forced minigames, which I'll lump Yagami's detective kit in with since its not like you can go around picking any lock, just occasionally in the middle of a setpiece you'll have to play another dumb minigame.
The story elements are fine, standard fare. A lot of people complain about it being predictable, but I don't really care about that. I'm more concerned with the fact a lot of the progression, including the conclusion, doesn't really feel earned.
I've heard LJ fixes some of the problems with the gameplay so I'll probably play that since I do like this direction for the series, it's just a shame that the first entry was lackluster. But then again, so was Y1/Kiwami 1
Felt like a singleplayer MMO. What a slog. Can't believe people suck this game off so much.
Look I appreciate that this game was IntSys' last ditch effort to save the series but I'm baffled how you can include basically the all-star roster of game mechanics from across the series and have it turn out to be less than the sum of its parts.
2022
This game gets so close to reaching where Pokemon should have been in 2013.
Touhou fan games are often renowned for their quality. It would seem there are exceptions to everything.
I picked this up one day hunting through the dregs of steam for garbage games. Well, I found what I was looking for.
My main gripe is with the gameplay. I don't mind that it's switched to turn-based combat but it feels like a default RPG maker game; no strategy required just pick the most recent move you've learned. Encounter rate puts early Persona games to shame. For a studio known for creating some impressive set pieces the dungeons were bland.
2021
Impressively interweaves gameplay, narrative and theming.
Game makes a big deal about exploring and then gives you a vast, empty world filled with nothing but Fisher Price puzzles and enemies you have no incentive to engage. Skyrim syndrome.
2008
Classic shmup goodness with a killer soundtrack to boot. The main mechanic, a bullet reflecting shield, never feels too overpowered and the game plays around with it in some interesting ways. In my opinion it's the best of the ALLTYNEX trilogy.
Earns a permanent spot on any hard drive I have. Used to play this instead of paying attention in lectures.
2021
Pretty disappointing. The map and world were pretty big let-downs and I feel like that's a huge component of metroid games. Makes it feel like any other random platformer action game so much so to the point they have to throw in a bunch of legacy characters to remind you what game you're playing. Making morph ball unavailable until like halfway through was kinda baller though. Not worth the wait in my opinion.
Not to be that guy but this game really should've been billed as Persona x Fire Emblem. We could've had a game where you do demon negotiation with Hector or something but instead its just watered down persona with the shadow dragon cast. I don't mind the story revolving around idols but it's not particularly interesting and again seems more like a persona plot beat. Isn't persona more popular? WTF was the marketing team thinking. Anyway had to stop playing because the emulator kept crashing but from what I saw the dungeons were alright and the gameplay was tight if nothing else.
2012
Excellent metroidvania with some incredible (if inscrutable at times) puzzles. Only major weak point is that combat sucks ass. Bonus points for making people Read The Fucking Manual™
2019
Disappointing in almost every regard. It has some cool ideas but they fall short in the lackluster implementation. For instance, the wild areas seem to clearly be the prototype of what Scarlet/Violet would eventually be and the disastrous design of most post-3D route designs means you wind up with a half-assed wild area with half-assed "normal" routes, the worst of both worlds. Dynamax was a boring replacement for megas. It's also never been more obvious they just ripped shit out of the game (or never bothered making) in order to sell it to you as DLC. Platinum at least felt like an upgraded version of D/P, complete games in themselves; this game legit felt like 10-20 hours of content were straight up missing. I assume that was filled in by the DLC but I wouldn't know because fuck paying for slop that should've just been in the main game.