Alright, what a ride.

Where to start? It's one of the best games I've ever played, period. The content here is unlimited and platform lovers like me will have a great time for sure, twist after twist, the game will take you throughout this journey, surprising you each time, for the good or for the bad.
To summarize, The Messenger transforms itself every time. It starts 8-bit, then becomes 16-bits, it starts as linear platforming, then becomes Metroidvania.

That last one could be a problem tho, cuz it seems they wanted to do too much in just one game. Changing the game's main dynamic out of nowhere can catch people off guard, that was my case since I dropped the game on the first try a few years ago after that twist, I don't know for sure what happened but seems my interest just went away slowly.
Knowing that maybe I was a little unfair, I tried again and bought it on Steam (first was an EpicGames giveaway), and now I'm glad I did it, although the backtracking, the notes collectathon and the prophecy thing were really underwhelming, there is so much great content waiting for the player on the lastest sections, and I needed to reach the trailer music's stage, AKA my fav track before playing the actual level, turned out it was a banger of a level also.

Regarding the gameplay, it's satisfying, I found myself struggling a bit while using several movement elements quickly in short sections, but maybe it's skill issue(?)
The bosses are a great part of the game and very dynamic overall, the difficulty among then was not the most balanced thing tho, with the Final Boss being a bit easy to me with just 2 attempts, I died a lot more in the Mushroom Queen fight. (That final boss is also a great twist and a nice surprise tho)

The graphics are part of the game's core, besides being extremely beautiful, it is directly attached to the lore, the past-future thing with the art transformation is FIRE, I don't know if there is any other game that did something like this.

The game's lore overall is nice and it works with the rest of the game, but not enough to keep you attached to it, the other elements are far more instigating. I like the humor used here as well, it's different than the usual generic, but it's balanced to the point of not getting you annoyed.

SOUNDTRACK RULES. What was that guy thinking? Bro just casually dropped one of the best symphonies in the entire gaming history. Yeah this is another element that they knocked out of the park, and for me it became the reason I fell in love with the game, this is the second game OST ever that I'm buying, the first one was Undertale. Rainbowdragoneyes needs to come back for a possible sequel.

I'm now enjoying the free DLC which is as good as the main game, I shall soon post a separate review.

Not to sound like an epic gamer contrarian but Hollow Knight is a game I've never really understood the overwhelming hype for. It feels incredibly safe, lacking any originality whatsoever and desperately trying to appeal to the masses (which it obviously succeeded at). Most things it does pretty badly to fine with few things it's truly outstanding in.

Let me start off by explaining what I mean by saying Hollow Knight is <safe> and <desperately tries to appeal to the masses>. I think this is most obvious in its aesthetic, being minimalist scrimblo (bug)guys in a dark world. These things obviously work and have wide appeal. The easily ignorable lore-based story is also a victim of Hollow Knight's addiction to playing it safe, I really wish metroidvanias in general would get over lore-based storytelling, it's really boring. I could go on and on about how safe this game is from the world design, to the simplistic combat, to the movement upgrades being as bland as possible, but the point is that these things make game feel like it lacks any personality, putting that aside to be safe and easily marketable to the masses. It's basically The Minions but for adults. This isn't a problem depending on who you ask, but to me it really just made this feel super unremarkable. I love when games try new things being as creative as possible, this game is the opposite of that, some may even call it ehehhehehehehhehehehehhehe hollow.

Anyways on to the aspects of this game I actively dislike and think are bad. I think the easiest things to call bad are the bosses, while there are 2-3 great bosses the majority of them feel extremely underwhelming to outright bad. They just kinda feel like nothing and are very forgettable. Shoutout to the dream bosses for being especially nothing. The walk of shames back to bosses are also pretty bad but none of the bosses are really difficult enough for them to be that annoying, still worth nothing tho. The lack of good fast travel also makes some areas feel like an extreme slog to return to, very often having to retread the same ground you have before, the pretty w/e level design also doesn't help this at all. Most of the souls-inspired mechanics in general feel tacked on for no real purpose and only add tedium, I really wish games would stop taking inspiration from Souls when they have no clue what makes those games so good. I also wish there was more customization, the badges don't really give you much to play around with and aside from those there's practically nothing customizable which isn't great when this game is as long as it is.

That being said it's not like I despise this game, there's honestly a good bit of things I think Hollow Knight does absurdly well. Despite the boring setting the game visually looks fantastic and the sound design I'd easily place on top of the genre. This game also feels fantastic to control. I may think the bosses suck ass but the actual enemy design is really good, with plenty of enemy variety to make every area feel unique. It's absolutely worth noting that what this game does well it does VERY well. It just doesn't have much that really goes over the bar of <ok>.

tldr this is like basically the golf of video games when u rlly think abt it

a bit better than i had thought but still easily the black sheep of Remedy's catalog (well hopefully, i still need to play Alan Wake 2 after i replay Control and do its DLC) with nothing else coming close.

i don't know, i just find myself feeling more charitable about it all in a post-Control world. like yeah the gameplay is serviceable and the powers themselves leave barely any impression but when you look at it as something of a prototype for what was to come it's whatever.

the tv show format is interesting, though it is a gag that it came years late after the whole mess with Xbox/Microsoft and tv (to think i find myself craving for that vs the past few days at this point...) among other things. i'm not usually into time travel stories but i enjoyed the characters and was mildly invested. it's a bummer this left things open but we'll probably never see it followed up on. i think Remedy did something with similar but not the same character stand-ins or at least the same cast members later on so it's fine.

final boss is bad to a baffling extent still, especially with the load times this game has. what the hell were they thinking?

Dave the diver me proporcionou algo muito além do que eu estava esperando, e olha que eu estava com as expectativas lá nas estrelas! Vamos lá...

Primeiramente, o jogo é um prato cheio, principalmente quando se trata do valor dele, proporciona bastante variedade na gameplay, e apresenta muitas coisas que dão um charme durante suas longas horas de duração! Era basicamente impressionante quando eu estava jogando, e um novo estilo de jogabilidade era apresentado, seja gerenciar o Bancho Sushi, que é o restaurante que Dave trabalha com seus parceiros, ou até mesmo na hora da pescaria e boss fights!

O jogo é bastante rico quando se trata de sua trilha sonora, direção de arte, e também suas animações! Basicamente sendo cada aspecto que citei acima bem únicos, suas trilhas sonoras são bastante caracterizadas com um estilo praiano, sua direção de arte é bastante viva e linda, e suas animações são muito bem feitas, polidas, e intrigantes!

Pra mim um dos melhores pontos deste jogo é sua longevidade, por que quando eu digo que o jogo realmente apresenta muito coisa nova durante a jogatina, não é brincadeira!

Um ponto negativo, mas que não é algo tão relevante assim, dependendo do tipo de experiência que você busca, é sua repetição! No caso aqui, quando estava jogando eu pensava bastante em alcançar o 100% nos achievements, e pessoalmente eu adoro grind, mas o desse jogo em específico não me pegou, pelo menos não agora após zerar.
O problema é que, o jogo é repleto de ''minigames'' quando está pescando, e mesmo tenho o arpão mais foda do jogo, esses minigames continuam vindo e vindo, chegou momento que eu juntava o máximo de peixes que conseguia em um dia (no jogo), e saia com o pulso doendo de ficar apertando espaço, ou ''A & D'', e até mesmo aqueles de girar o mouse. Mas é como eu disse, isso foi só no late game, durante minhas aproxidamadas 45-50 horas de jogo foi tudo uma maravilha, por que sempre tinha algo a mais para fazer ou descobrir, e não apenas grindar!

A dlc do Dreadge é super divertida, abrindo mais o leque ainda de diferenciar a gameplay!

Concluindo, o jogo é maravilhoso, vale muito a pena, uma baita experiencia diferente de bastante coisa que se vê por aí, muito relaxante e descontraído! :D

It's not Kiryover yet. Look, he brought back two of his friends as leads, they really gonna believe they Like A Dragon at this rate. Yay I made the jokes at the start and subverted expectations let's get right into the meat no balls out. The year... is... I can't keep up, but that fella Shinada reminded me right at the end with his baseball sob story: we're in year 17 after A. N (I make it sound like Nishiki is Jesus), Kiryu is having his mid-life crisis (again) and Haruka is having her rebellious teen phase. Not rly she's a doll, maybe too much so (not my Haruka 😤), point is she packed her things and left a bunch of kids in the care of... huh, in my head they're taken care of by Mikio but my main issue with Yakuza is how important and likeable characters just vanish after one entry. Yakuza 0 Will Change Everything.

It took me almost as long to finish the game than the time Saejima spent in jail! Unlike him, I won't do my time twice. It's cute that they make you believe Majima died off-screen for so long. I kind of wish they kept that lie up to then follow the game with Majima as the protagonist of 0. Would it change anything for me, late Yakuza bloomer? No, I just crave chaos. If I wanted peace, I'd play Haruka dancing and singing for a good chunk of the game. Mayhaps I'd rope Akiyama into dancing some more.

There are a few awesome boss fights, but I feel confident in saying the combat has only been in a downward slope since 3. The final boss of the game is the worst fight in the series so far, and I do not say those words lightly. Shame, because it's a good character that ended up butchered by every aspect of the game it seems, right at the end. They sure like their twists, and add a few loose ends to the mix. All for what? Another ending where Kiryu seemingly dies? That shit lowkey hilarious I hope it happens again next time.

So many new locations, though. Yakuza is taking us for a grand tour of Japan. From beating up bears with garbage, to a giant Hatsune Miku snowoman... 💯

It may look like one of those cheap titles that you would find at the bottom of the bargain bin at the store, but for what it was, Snow Bros. turned out to be a really fun game, with colorful and fun visuals that keep you engaged the entire time, simple and fun gameplay that anyone could get behind, and plenty of power-ups that were fun to use against the many foes that you would face. I still stand by the opinion that that game is even better than the original Bubble Bobble, since it was pretty much a clone of that game, and I will gladly be burned alive for having that opinion by anyone that says otherwise. And hey, it managed to find moderate success, not just through its original arcade release, but also from the several ports that it would get soon afterwards, which meant that a sequel was bound to happen. Oddly though, this sequel didn’t come out until four years later, and it would come out to the public with the dumbest-ass title I have ever seen for one of these games, Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves.

In a complete inverse of patterns for me, I generally wasn’t really too keen on getting to this game after completing the original game, and I don’t really know why to be honest. I did love the original game, so you would expect me to be more then willing to jump on into the sequel to see how it is, but I dunno, I don’t know if I trust Toaplan to capture that same spark twice like Taito managed to. Nevertheless, I went into the game with an open mind like I do with most of the games I play, and I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be a pretty good game after all. I wouldn’t say it is quite as good as the original game, but it still manages to be a pretty fun time that fans of the previous game will be able to have a blast with from start to finish.

The story is pretty much the exact same as the previous game, where the fair princess of the land is captured by a sinister alien menace, so it is up to Nick (and not Tom, because who needs the second bro in a game called Snow BROS., am I right?) and his three new buddies to set out to save the day by defeating this alien menace and getting the princess back, which I would comment on as being generic and lazy, but I’m still hung up on whatever happened to Tom to care that much. The graphics are pretty great, looking somewhat similar to that of the original game, but having much more creative designs for all the enemies, levels, and bosses, although sometimes they can get a little TOO creative, which I will get to in a bit, the music is just as energetic, lively, and exciting to listen to as the first game, and there are quite a good few tracks to find here, even if none of them stuck out to me personally, and the gameplay/control does the exact opposite of what Bubble Bobble did with its sequel by sticking pretty closely to its roots, not changing things up too drastically and building upon the base gameplay, which was probably the best option they could’ve gone with in this case.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Nick, Bobby, Roy, or Richard, go through a set of six different worlds, each containing their own sets of levels for you to conquer, take out every enemy you see using whatever tools you have at your disposal before they can take you down, gather plenty of different power ups to make yourself stronger and give yourself a better chance at surviving whatever may be coming up, and several bosses that will not only test your skill in terms of speed and reflexes, but will also terrify you as you look on in horror at what they look like, causing you to have nightmares when go to bed at night……….. seriously, there is a lot of unsettling shit here. Like with Truxton II, Snow Bros. 2 doesn’t do that much to try to reinvent what the original game is all about, leaving things very familiar for those who did play the original game, while also still providing a little more things here to where it doesn’t feel like a complete copy of its predecessor.

Unlike most of these kinds of games, where they expand upon the moves that you can pull off and nothing else, this game manages to somewhat evolve both the moves you pull off AND its approach to implementing platforming. Most of the levels have you doing the typical Bubble Bobble stuff, which is always still very fun to do, but now there are one or two levels here and there that will require you to climb to the top of this tower to avoid death from some spikes or lava below, and while it can be tricky to nail some certain jumps at times, because your jump still really sucks in this game, it was a nice change of pace from the regular levels when they come up. Aside from that though, when it comes to the enhancements made to the powerups, there aren’t too many that I could notice, but all of the powerups from the previous game do make a return, which is great to see, and there is even a new super form that you can find which you can use to take out all the enemies in a stage lickety-split upon using it. Mix all of that together with some cute little cutscenes in-between each world, and what you have here is an all around solid romp that you can easily have fun with, now with up to four players at a time, which I can only imagine must be the most chaotic shit in the world.

However, despite how solid the game is for the most part, it is also very short, being just as long as the original game, if not shorter, as there aren’t as many levels as there were in the previous game, and they don’t take long to beat at all, which does kind of suck, especially when it comes to those platforming levels that I mentioned earlier. Again, these stages can be really fun, but there are only two of them in the entire game, and they each count as a sole world, which means that there were a couple of instances where I would complete a world, move onto the next one, complete one level there, and then go onto the next one just like that, almost like there was no purpose to that world whatsoever. Ignoring that though, the only other critiques that I could give the game is that it may feel a little too same-y to the original game at plenty of times, and the added dash of nightmare fuel certainly didn’t help things out either.

Overall though, despite how short, same-y, and creepy it is, this still managed to be a very solid sequel to that of the original game, and a pretty damn good time as a whole, feeling like a proper evolution by expanding upon all the elements found in that original game, adding some new features at times to keep things fresh, and still having the weird, yet lovable charm to make people wanna go back to it after that four-year wait. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the original Snow Bros., as well as those who are fans of any of the other Bubble Bobble type games out there, because while this one isn’t so much different from those others, it can still be just as chaotic and fun as any other game of its kind, and that’s all that really matters at the end of the day. Unfortunately though, this tale does end on a bit of a tragic note, because this would be the last game ever made by Toaplan before they would shut their doors, never to be seen again, which is definitely a shame to be sure. But hey, Truxton and Snow Bros. are both making a comeback pretty soon, so that is something to get excited about at least…………. even though both of those games are probably gonna suck.

Game #585

Long before I decided to become a reviewer, I used to jot down brief thoughts on the games I was playing in order to capture my feelings at the moment of completion for personal archival purposes. Since then, I’ve of course evolved my craft into full-fledged write-ups, but I do think there is enough merit to some of these earlier critiques to warrant their publication, especially for titles I do not intend on replaying (in the near future at least). I’ve thrown in some updates, but this is one of them.


STORY
-SteamWorld Dig 2 is a direct sequel to SteamWorld Dig, It follows Dorothy/Dot as she tries to find Rusty following his disappearance at the end of the first game.

-Fen is annoying, and his decision at the end (like with most of the game's emotional beats) comes off as contrived (much like how the ending of the first SWD wasn't sad).


GRAPHICS
-Graphically, it looks the same as the original but with more detailing and texturing. Not a huge difference, but it is noticeable and gives the game greater flare.


GAMEPLAY
-The transport system has been heavily streamlined. There are no more ladders and torches, and you now have access to multiple transport tubes which have to be discovered throughout the area, compared to the first game where you only had 1 and had to buy extras if you wanted to replace the preexisting one.

-Resources are more diverse, and I actually noticed a difference this time around compared to the first game where they all felt jumbled together.

-There are a lot more upgrades this time around. In fact, there are so many that you won't have enough money to buy them all, adding a little bit of strategy to the game. That said, I didn't like that mining was your only method of making money. For a game that puts a lot of effort towards building-up the town of El Machino, the buildings serve no purpose and it consequently would've been cool to have a renovation or task system for the different city inhabitants in order to procure cash beyond excavating.

-There are also cogs you can find (or buy, limited amount) throughout the world, which is far larger than the first Steamworld Dig’s. Cogs are usually found in caves (which serve as "side missions") and can be used to either give bonuses to your machines or Dot herself, such as increasing elemental orbs generated by killed enemies or making your weapons stronger.

-I was mixed on the cave aspect. They have secrets in them, but these secrets are usually discovered through uncovering a hidden pathway rather than solving puzzles (a good puzzle one being the mine cart button one), which wouldn’t be a bad thing were it not for those hidden pathways often having nonsensical locations.

-Completed caves have a green checkmark on them. However, you can only see that when you exit them, meaning you could end up restarting it despite not getting everything.

-The world at times feels too big for its own good. Things get grindy pretty soon, compared to the first where, because it was shorter, it didn't wear out its welcome. I also didn't like how you were forced to start off with the pickax again as it was annoying having to reupgrade Dot. The developers should've done something like Assassin’s Creed Rogue where, even though you had to reupgrade The Morrigan, you began with the charge ram and machine gun from the get-go. Here, Steamworld Dig 2 could've had you start off with the drill to alleviate extraneous farming.

-That's another thing, the drill (my favorite tool from the first game) is replaced with a jackhammer that just isn't as good or cool-looking as its forebearer.

-It was also dumb how, no matter how much you upgraded your armor, you still couldn't survive a falling boulder. Got really annoying, especially when you lose a cut of the game's already limited ores.

--Respawning enemies are tiring, especially those birds that make the irate noise.

-On the plus side, pools this time around last forever, meaning you don't have to worry about draining a source compared to the first game. This might be seen as a bad thing by some players, but it's not like SWD is an inherently strategic series (at least not until the third one).


VERDICT
-Took me about 6-7 hours to beat the story, and while there is a lot of extra stuff via the caves, they, as I said above, lack genuine puzzle elements. There's also no post-game playing, meaning you have to beat everything before doing the final boss, otherwise you'll have to rebeat them at the end.

-However, I didn't end up 100% the game because it just got tiring having to look for every secret. I wish there was a map or tracker you could unlock, because the game really doesn't have good exploratory incentives compared to true Metroidvania titles.

-I did end up putting in a total of 12-13 hours, meaning SteamWorld Dig 2 falls under my cost:gametime ratio formula. That said, because of the grinding, I ultimately had less fun with it than its predecessor, despite the tube and upgrade system improvements.