Ketsui's scoring mechanic is my favorite so far, and it synergizes perfectly with how the game is meant to be played. I much prefer it over collecting gems (mushihime), or trying to chain kills and/or colors (ddp, ikaurga...). It's all about getting close to the enemies and killing them, particularly smaller ones, to increase your multiplier and then use your laser on bigger ones to cash in on it. Laser also has a lock-on mechanic apparently unique to this game, sadly. And the closer you are to an enemy, the faster you can lock on it as well. While your laser will always shoot in front of you, you also shoot bullets aimed to the target you locked onto. Though in a way it makes certain bosses and minibosses a bit easier, knowing where to target big enemies and knowing when to switch to standard shot, in order to get chips during long battles makes a big difference.

Like I said, it really rewards aggressiveness and encourages getting up close, high risk/high reward gameplay which eclipses those games that focus just on being bullet hell. It definitely has a lot going on in later stages, but still I'd say Ketsui retains a nice balance. Groups of fodder enemies even when you're up top, are easier to move around with macrododging, while the bigger bulkier ones will throw more dense patterns that you will have an easier time fighting with your laser (which lets you move slower, more precisely) and auto target (helps you focus on the bullets and not so much in hitting). I wouldn't say it's easy though.

When things go well, the game looks easier than it actually is, because often the best strategy is to kill stuff up close before it has a chance to overwhelm you. It does expect you to be pushing constantly and if you fall behind things can go wrong quickly. It's not as easy to remain up close to enemies and clear the screen when enemies start to pile up and there's a lot more bullets and targets onscreen that there should be. There's always using a bomb as a last resort, which I find not really as punishing as in other cave games (unless going for ura loop but i'm not doing that lol), lives always count more than bombs and there's no other penalties.

During my first hours of the game my problem was actually dying without using my bombs, my deaths being mostly due to playing kamikaze style and running into bullets without looking, rather than getting caught in patterns. In retrospective, it's actually very funny that the story of this game is about some pilots getting sent on a suicide mission. The difficulty curve in stages is gentle and ramps up very naturally, you may run into walls but never feel that the game is suddenly throwing bullshit at you. Because it builds up so nicely on previous stuff, you only feel even more determined to face new challenges in harder stages. And because they're so well designed, going through earlier stages again does not become a chore as you get better; they are also nice warmups where you can improve your chaining skills. By the end stage 5 feels basically like 2 stages rolled into one. Still, to me there's the same drawback as with all other shmups, there's some parts where you have to play a bit until you learn the stage no matter what, but there's a lot you can get away with if you do well.

Bullet patterns are great. It has a lot of unique stuff and often it leans into compositions that move organically and are able to overwhelm a lot without clogging up the screen, giving you a challenge but also room for moving around and getting close to different enemies. Bosses in particular are just mesmerizing. While for some the visuals may be a bit generic, everything else in the presentation is wonderful, especially the music. Plus, the new UI on PS4 is really gorgeous and in-depth even if you won't be looking at it much. I really hope they port this to PC sometime.

In short, I love Ketsui's philosophy. Fairly straightforward, it only has two ships differing in shot type and speed, and practically a single approach. It doesn't need any more because it achieves perfection in simplicity and accomplishes what it sets out to do. Only thing I'd say it's missing is that bosses turning into giant anime girl robots like in dodonpachi resurrection.

best kirby game since robobot; the mouthful mode sections remind me of the robot ones in that they change the pace for a bit and allow you to go outside the formula. that combined with being able to upgrade copy abilities to change their impact makes it a very refreshing experience.

as usual with kirby games, waddle dee town and the game in general is full of little details and tidbits, the levels reward exploration but also looking around the overworld map yields extra rewards. there's also the many minigames (i love they added fishing) and even extra content after you beat the game.

it's a very good first entry into 3d, it has everything you should expect from a kirby game, and i'm glad they also put in co-op to play with others.

A sidestep rather than the step backwards Sigma 2 is to NG2. Most changes are admissible. Not necessary but not unwelcome either. Some arenas are different, there's some extra fiend challenges, some areas & encounters have new formations & enemies... A few puzzles get simplified and a mini boss or two is added or reworked. But Rachel missions honestly suck, it's not even half has fun as Ryu with the war hammer, only upside is some aren't too long. Mission mode is also switched up a bit.

Given that NGB is a great game to replay on higher difficulties to see new types of enemies, attacks, changes in exploration... it's not the worst to play like a remixed version of it. And includes some nice additions like dual katanas but overall so much is passable or unwanted that it ends up not as good. Worse, while it's presented nowadays as the definitive edition of NG, it doesn't fix some problems NGB had but instead creates new ones of its own.

But it still has the core gameplay and feels at least like 75% of the main game; it's not a terrible thing to start with or even try out despite having played black.

This is how I'd like more investigation games to be, instead of the ace attorney / daganronpa / zero time kinda stuff with ridiculous twists and characters spelling out stuff for you. This game feels like you are the one putting the pieces together, not just clicking on some piece of evidence and letting the main character spell out a contrived plot for the murder, which will then be followed by more unexpected and unbelievable shenanigans that you will also masterfully see through as the most logical thing to deduce, like a Columbo episode.

Also unlike the aforementioned titles, there's not that many other games that have this same kind of feel and approach, which is unfortunate but also makes it stand out more.

The witness is a game full of puzzles. Really. Your reward for finishing a set of puzzles is another set. That's your answer to all the "oh I wonder what this door I've unlocked leads to". And when you're done with an area, you repeat the same process elsewhere.

It's good for a game to be to the point, but if your game is nothing but puzzles, it's a bad thing when they all suck. Mostly a mixture between a labyrinth puzzle in a kid's menu and those magazines for old people with crosswords, sudokus... There's an exorbitant amount of puzzles that are just "draw how the line should go in this screen" in sets of ten, which just screams "CREATIVELY BANKRUPT". Then the few zones where there's some other method to solving the puzzles, like looking at shadows, it becomes as gimmicky: with the game beating it over your head the same puzzle dozens of times in a row.

"But I thought the witness was this beautiful mystery game set in a strange island and..." No. (Maybe you're thinking of Myst) This island is a glorified setpiece, practically inert, with a few easter eggs where you can draw lines on very obvious parts of the landscape, and a few perspective tricks in some areas. Despite its ambigious scope and what the atmosphere might initially lead you to believe, this game has no real message, nor does the scenery or the audio logs you find scattered around.

It's certainly not that a game needs a deep message to be good, but for a guy that considers this and his other game "the only good videogames ever", it's pretty funny how it fucks up very basic stuff like exploration. As stated above, there's no real immersion nor incentive to explore once you've realized there's no underlying substance in this game. No, worse. There's cases where you might find an elaborate puzzle with a mechanic you haven't seen yet, and until you find how that works, by finding the are that type of puzzle belongs to, you're not likely progressing there.

The game is so bad though, it even makes walking around the lavish scenery feel like a chore after the first hour. There's a sprint button, but only if you keep it pressed. Surprisingly they didn't add a toggle in game where you are either going somewhere or drawing with your mouse. There's also a boat for 'fast travel' that you can unlock, but it's also shit don't get me started.

Some puzzle mechanics as I said above might not click with you, because there's no explanation for them. You rely on finding simple versions first, and/or trial and error. For a game where you have to figure things out, it makes sense. But so much remains obtuse because of the horrible way the game has of relying information with its insinuations. In its own way it works, because if just told you what rules were in a screen when drawing a pattern, the game would be even more trivial. But it's kinda sad the only challenge is through cloaking a ruleset.

This is also why the pacing is horrible. Stuck? Go try another or keep trying this. Much like a sliding puzzle where the only way to get the answer is when you have it in front of you and not by letting it rest in your head. It's not only that it's bad, but that many other titles do well what this can't.

Better puzzle games like Baba is You is you will have you thinking about the different things you could be doing even after closing it, and there's an even greater sense of reward in its puzzles, as well as way more variation and depth.

Outer Wilds also has puzzles where you have to position yourself with the sun. And the sun is not just a dot in the sky but part of the world. A world you explore, where you can interact with your surroundings and they are part of the puzzle as well. It's filled with even more breathtaking zones and a great history behind all the stuff you find.

Obra Dinn embraces the monotonous and gives you little information as well, but very quickly fills you with intrigue and you're pushing yourself to keep playing and playing the same logic checks.

The Witness is a lot of work poured into a very vivid, glorified tech demo, because all it does is show you how they weren't capable to do anything interesting with it except as padding for the puzzles. Take out all of those, put them back to back and what you have is a glorified lockscreen-like puzzle game for mobile that would probably be free with adds on GooglePlay.

The foundations for its combat are pretty solid. But it's annoying that Witch Time trivializes so many encounters, and you can't disable until you beat the whole game on normal to unlock hard, then beat hard to unlock NSIC. Halfway through your playthrough you feel like the game is giving you a crutch that makes it so that you don't even have to bother putting in the effort to do doge offsets or try to time your parries.

Plus, all chapters constantly have lackluster segments inbetween the enemy encounters. Annoying 'platforming' sections, escort missions, and nonstop cutscenes with arbitrary QTEs thrown in them, even during boss fights, which bring down the quality of the levels considerably. But worse are the bike and rocket levels where it's just one excessively long autoscrolling shooter. I wouldn't mind the game trying different stuff if it was actually enjoyable, but all it does is deter you from the good parts of Bayonetta. Want to play again after unlocking hard mode? Enjoy the replaying the space harrier shit. The other problem with level design is that besides exploration for items, most secret levels are just: "backtrack to the previous segment of the map".

The boss fights feel very limiting, with the exception of Jeanne (and maybe Balder but fuck his level) being the only fun boss. The rest have a very fixed pacing of you waiting in some platform or something, for the giant enemy to do an attack so you can counter/dodge then attack for a short time while it's stunned. The final boss being another example of this, also with an instakill move that may catch you by surprise the first time but, afterwards just be an annoying waste of time that keeps breaking the pace of the fight.

There's a few different weapons and they are fun, but have very few signature moves and end up with a very similar move pool. Unlocking the sai-fung requires more grinding than it should, same for fighting Rodin, and in general there's just a few moves you buy in the store and a pair of accessories that are obviously better than the rest, and buying or crafting items feels counterproductive since the game will just punish you if you use them.

I really enjoy the action, but it's a game that feels like it's trying to stop you from playing every 5 minutes.

It's the natsuyasumi formula adapted to the shin-chan setting, which fits surprisingly well. There's an overarching story but it's often given the backseat in favor of the mundane, day to day activities. Most of the "goals" resolve by themselves and there's only a couple 'missable' events in the same way you can miss to catch a certain bug or fish.

I found it a great game to pick up 30 minutes a day (more or less the time to finish an in-game day) throughout the summer, took me about 12 hours to finish with most stuff 100%.

There's some grinding if you want to complete all of the 'goals' since you have to replay a rock / papers / scissors minigame like... 50 times? However, you are free to spend your time in any way you want and there's plenty of other minigames and fun activities to do.

Every day there's something new to do or some new area to explore. Sometimes it's overwhelming how many conversations there are, places you can go to. Time management is probably the hardest thing here: every time you switch areas the day advances a little and sometimes there won't be enough in a day to do everything you wanted.

The atmosphere is the best thing about this game, using the same fixed-camera style as the playstation games was the right choice, it carries just the same feel. Fishing next to another character, sitting in a bench, catching fireflies at night... even just going around enjoying the scenery and sounds is fun. Plus, there's a dedicated button for showing your butt. In general all of the shin-chan stuff feels natural to the game and not just for a quick cashgrab.

Only complaints are with the post-game and that some camera angles can be misleading as to where stuff begins and ends.

Super lineal, which is the opposite I look for in a metroidvania. Has about 6 areas that you have to beat sequentially, needing to clear the boss before moving on. Map design offers the bare minimum, some connections here and there but most stuff is self contained and again, barely makes use of the metroidvania format. There's a few notable unlocks, but you get them all pretty early.

Combat is centered around the time stop / grazing mechanics it introduces, which are a nice gimmick in the beginning, but later become tedious because of how much the gameplay is dependent on them, and how little variety there is outside of it. Variations of how time stop affects enemies later in the game does not suffice to make it more interesting, but rather has the opposite effect of making it more convoluted.

Boss fights are the most serviceable part of the game, but it's not worth playing through just for them. Perhaps better to rid yourself of the metroidvania convictions despite the game's claims of "heavy emphasis on exploration" and think of it as a platformer, but it even accepting its linearity, it's still underwhelming to go through the maps and rooms.

gore, 2d sprites and an overall direction inspired by older games don't salvage mediocre gameplay. all levels, corridors, arenas end up looking the same, there's too many weapons considering you won't use half of them, and the enemies are bland, sparsely placed and if they shoot projectiles won't really move or go after you. only in arenas there is some semblance of fun. if you want to be a good doom clone you need to consider the many nuances that make it work and not just mimic it superficially, while also lacking and identity of your own. it's too derivative to the point where everything can be traced back elsewhere. and sure doom, blood, quake... are old games, but those looking for more of that experience are better off playing custom WADs than a game that just does the same but worse.

Video game equivalent of stepping outside the bar and getting jumped by four guys all kicking you at the same time while you're down (this is a good thing).

It's stunning how much depth NGB's high enemy aggression adds to the combat, even simple mob encounters are intense because it's all about managing their numbers, distancing yourself or closing in, deciding who to attack... Ryu's arsenal has a lot of simple moves and combos (usually just alternating weak and strong attacks) that are not often suited to crowd control, but rather to deal high damage against one enemy. Longer, more flashy combos would not fare as well since you'd be getting interrupted a lot. Instead, the approach is to find gaps, kill fast and get out.

Action is fast, and some opponents are just as agile as Ryu, but may outnumber you. Yet you can also dispatch enemies fairly quickly: chains often kill on their last hit (which generally do the most damage in a combo), especially fast foes which usually aren't tanky.

It demands your attention to everyone onscreen (and offscreen!) rather than have enemies that you're not fighting wait on you. Focusing just on who you're attacking means death. It also requires you learn their patterns, since it's essential to know which attacks are better to dodge, roll or counter; in order to find openings between the onslaught. Spamming block just means they'll grab you, and attacking mindlessly has them dodge.

That is not to say you're forced to play defensively, quite the opposite. There's plenty of moves and strategies for each situation, allowing you to guide the flow of the battle; and in general it's just as necessary to damage, stun or kill enemies in order to deal with numbers as it is dodging and blocking. So long as you know which attacks are suited best for the situation and react fast to enemies you can do almost everything.

There's also some weapons that are a bit better for crowd control, like the Lunar. Or heavy hitting ones like the Dabilahro. They're situational, may be faster but weaker, very good against a certain enemy, require a different type of playing... but the variety is good enough even though half of them are reskins.

The enemies though, fiends as a whole are a bit underwhelming. By the end I was a bit tired of the pink fiends, and non-humanoid fiends didn't really seem like a good fit: no room for aerial combos and usually best to stomp them with a heavy weapon, while I much prefer the fast paced exchanges with humanoid enemies such as ninjas. And bossfights are even more of a mixed bag; the most unremarkable ones are also the ones you fight the most. And in general, giant bosses do not flow well with the combat either. Worms, hydracubus, tanks, bone dragon, emperor... even if they're not hard it's like a chore. But the game does have some good challenges. I enjoyed fighting Alma and Doku, but they feel more like exceptions than anything.

There's other shortcomings for me. Water segments are boring and underwater controls very limiting. While platforming isn't the best it does feel good, especially wall running in combat or going around fast with your moveset. Yet there's not much fun to be found in water. In general level design is not too much of a pain but I don't particularly enjoy picking up every last secret in the game or missing out on an item or upgrade because I found only 49 out of 50. Not many 'puzzles' or exploring around or rather, it's simple enough, which I think is for the best. Just enough to break up combat segments while not trying to be another type of game.

Fiend challenges are ok, especially early on, facing the same enemy really helps you to know them, but then a bit boring when you see the best tactic is just to constantly use orbs and UT to kill every wave. And later on you're doing challenges against the same enemy in a different room.

There's some seemingly 'cheaper' tactics like izuna drop, charged UT, wind slash or wall attacks; but they still have you vulnerable at times, and they're less cheesy the more you advance in the game or in difficulty and meet new foes with tactics against it. Besides, it's just more fun to engage enemies than to constantly run up the fucking wall, if you want to not have fun go ahead.

And I must emphasize how much these faults are far outweighed by its strong points. Combat here is the focus and it does it extremely well. In addition to that, higher difficulties add a lot by really switching it up and if that's not enough there's also mission mode with a lot of content and challenges as well.

I've really tried liking this but it's atrocious design wise: 20% rpg, 10% running back and forth, 70% of shitty dialogue and cutscenes that can't even be skipped even if you are on NG+.

it's one thing to have story heavy segments and it's another to completely break every gameplay segment every 5 minutes with constant dialogues and cinematics. to start mosts quests, you'll have to go to the place where they start, interact with something, then you have go back to the office, accept the quest and go back - to the place you were at first.

the constant interruptions drag down the quality of the dungeons as well, which are not very good to begin with. simple and linear, the early game features a lot of slow back and forth where you keep running into the same lower level mons for the first hours of the game. bumping the difficulty is not more satisfying since it just makes enemies deal more damage and take less. later dungeons offer very easy puzles and put some chests in certain areas marked on your minmap to 'explore'. it's also very on rails, since harder areas are walled off by npcs that tell you to go away until the story reaches that part.

the digimon raising system leaves a lot to be desired. often it requires you to devolve them, then level them up again to evolve them, a bunch of times so that a certain stat increases and you can unlock an evolution. plus the stat requirements copuled with RNG means sometimes you can't even meet requirements on a certain digimon if they have a certain personality which does not befenit their stats. a more boring grindfest than most rpgs.

and again, the story is so fucking bad, i probably hate it even more because you're forced to sit through it.