ziggytippi
2022
to get this out of the way: outside of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon I'm not really into rougelikes. I am mostly speaking from the cult-managing aspect of the game. that being said....
wowie kazowie did they do a really good job of marrying these two different genres of games. I appreciate how both parts feed into each other - you manage your cult so that you can get crown upgrades, which allow you to get better at crusades. the crusades give you more items that allow you to build up your cult which then feeds back into leveling up your crown. it's genuinely great
I think the only issue I have is that the art style doesn't really... look all that great on some of the follower species. but that's honestly fine when the gameplay loop is just that satisfying
wowie kazowie did they do a really good job of marrying these two different genres of games. I appreciate how both parts feed into each other - you manage your cult so that you can get crown upgrades, which allow you to get better at crusades. the crusades give you more items that allow you to build up your cult which then feeds back into leveling up your crown. it's genuinely great
I think the only issue I have is that the art style doesn't really... look all that great on some of the follower species. but that's honestly fine when the gameplay loop is just that satisfying
I've been taking a second look at Generation 5 for.... research reasons, for the most part. I started with Pokemon Black and White because that's generally what you start with and because the original team composition I had was quite awful (the three starters, a shiny Stoutland, an Unfezant, and a Zweilous. Serperior in particular was so awful that I stopped using all 3 starters in a playthrough after this and still ranks as my second most despised starter in the series. despite this I am giving it a second shot in my Black 2 playthrough)
for this playthrough I used the following: Empress the Emboar, Tower the Ferrothorn, Devil the Bisharp, Hermit the Musharna, Temperance the Seismetoad, and Priestess the Eelektross. other notable Pokemon captured were Fool the Patrat, Magician the Simisage, Chariot the Zebstrika, Moon the Liepard, World the Reshiram, Death the Kyurem, and a random Victini and Woobat I caught.
early game is brutal and sucks. Lillipup and Herdier do tons of damage to you but using a Lillipup and Herdier on my end in most cases did absolutely nothing or worse than nothing. due to the changes they made to earning EXP, Audino were basically a necessity from start to finish and I'm finding myself grumble far less about how EXP Share has been handled after this game
things significantly turned around by the time I got past the third gym, however - I think a large part of it just comes from not having a good amount of variety at the start but as the game opens up you get access to some really cool Pokemon, which brings me to my next point....
the Pokemon in this game are really cool. I still think was a coward move for Game Freak to walk back on this because people at the time (and even people today judging from other ratings here) lack taste
the soundtrack is also absolutely incredible. you can really tell that they're utilizing all they've learned from Diamond and Pearl onwards because the soundtrack in Pokemon Black and White hits and just continues to hit. it's genuinely phenomenal. please look up the remixes they did for the Super CD collection if you're reading this, their remix on Anville Town in particular is great
as far as the story.... it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remember considering how deeply hamfisted the discussions about truth vs ideals was and how there was often a bit of a disconnect between what the game was saying and what the game actually showed (Bianca being "weak" is a big one), but they did a lot of super cool things with it like the dragon fights and you can really tell that they put a lot of love into it. no wonder Masuda feels like he lost spirit after this game, I would've lost spirit too if I created something with this much love only for people to repeatedly shit on it
I will say this, however - Black and White started a brand new era of Pokemon, and as a result I noticed a lot of things that get complaints even today (the tutorials, the way it insists on telling you a story that while having great setpieces, etc. doesn't deliver itself very well, the handholding, scaling back the experience overall compared to Ruby/Sapphire and Diamond/Pearl before it, the way the map and Gym Leaders are made more simple so going out of order for Gym Leaders is difficult if not impossible). I was shocked that nobody mentioned the way that Professor Juniper basically holds your hand to Route 10, the last route before the Pokemon League. or that the Elite 4 have 4 Pokemon on them and that's it!
but man, you can tell just how much love they put into this game and while the way the story was told left a bit to be desired, the way they gave so much love to the region is a sight to behold. it's a shame it took until maybe a few years ago for people to realize this game was good the whole time
for this playthrough I used the following: Empress the Emboar, Tower the Ferrothorn, Devil the Bisharp, Hermit the Musharna, Temperance the Seismetoad, and Priestess the Eelektross. other notable Pokemon captured were Fool the Patrat, Magician the Simisage, Chariot the Zebstrika, Moon the Liepard, World the Reshiram, Death the Kyurem, and a random Victini and Woobat I caught.
early game is brutal and sucks. Lillipup and Herdier do tons of damage to you but using a Lillipup and Herdier on my end in most cases did absolutely nothing or worse than nothing. due to the changes they made to earning EXP, Audino were basically a necessity from start to finish and I'm finding myself grumble far less about how EXP Share has been handled after this game
things significantly turned around by the time I got past the third gym, however - I think a large part of it just comes from not having a good amount of variety at the start but as the game opens up you get access to some really cool Pokemon, which brings me to my next point....
the Pokemon in this game are really cool. I still think was a coward move for Game Freak to walk back on this because people at the time (and even people today judging from other ratings here) lack taste
the soundtrack is also absolutely incredible. you can really tell that they're utilizing all they've learned from Diamond and Pearl onwards because the soundtrack in Pokemon Black and White hits and just continues to hit. it's genuinely phenomenal. please look up the remixes they did for the Super CD collection if you're reading this, their remix on Anville Town in particular is great
as far as the story.... it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remember considering how deeply hamfisted the discussions about truth vs ideals was and how there was often a bit of a disconnect between what the game was saying and what the game actually showed (Bianca being "weak" is a big one), but they did a lot of super cool things with it like the dragon fights and you can really tell that they put a lot of love into it. no wonder Masuda feels like he lost spirit after this game, I would've lost spirit too if I created something with this much love only for people to repeatedly shit on it
I will say this, however - Black and White started a brand new era of Pokemon, and as a result I noticed a lot of things that get complaints even today (the tutorials, the way it insists on telling you a story that while having great setpieces, etc. doesn't deliver itself very well, the handholding, scaling back the experience overall compared to Ruby/Sapphire and Diamond/Pearl before it, the way the map and Gym Leaders are made more simple so going out of order for Gym Leaders is difficult if not impossible). I was shocked that nobody mentioned the way that Professor Juniper basically holds your hand to Route 10, the last route before the Pokemon League. or that the Elite 4 have 4 Pokemon on them and that's it!
but man, you can tell just how much love they put into this game and while the way the story was told left a bit to be desired, the way they gave so much love to the region is a sight to behold. it's a shame it took until maybe a few years ago for people to realize this game was good the whole time
2020
a pretty grand improvement on the first! .... kind of
I remember having to digest the original for a while before coming to the conclusion that I did enjoy my time, but not as much as other people. this game on the other hand I found myself liking immediately!
I definitely do appreciate that the party members are less samey. they're still kind of samey, but not to the extent Hylics 1 was. combat as a whole is far more fun than the original ever was outside of Poolman/Poolmange enemies duplicating
the art style is as mesmerizing here as it was in the original, maybe more! the use of both 2D and 3D with clay makes it a delight for the eye
I really liked it! want to give it 4 stars! unfortunately Hylics 2 insists a lot on platforming, and its platforming is janky and awful. it makes some locations like Foglast an absolute nightmare. the minigames were cute enough but became an annoyance after 5 minutes because of said janky platforming, except that's the structure of the whole thing! pretty bad when I have to turn on God Mode because of how utterly annoying the minigame platforming is
regardless of whether you play the game yourself or watch a playthrough on it online, it's something I suggest anyone who loves a good indie RPG to take a look at. it's not perfect, but it's pretty enjoyable
I remember having to digest the original for a while before coming to the conclusion that I did enjoy my time, but not as much as other people. this game on the other hand I found myself liking immediately!
I definitely do appreciate that the party members are less samey. they're still kind of samey, but not to the extent Hylics 1 was. combat as a whole is far more fun than the original ever was outside of Poolman/Poolmange enemies duplicating
the art style is as mesmerizing here as it was in the original, maybe more! the use of both 2D and 3D with clay makes it a delight for the eye
I really liked it! want to give it 4 stars! unfortunately Hylics 2 insists a lot on platforming, and its platforming is janky and awful. it makes some locations like Foglast an absolute nightmare. the minigames were cute enough but became an annoyance after 5 minutes because of said janky platforming, except that's the structure of the whole thing! pretty bad when I have to turn on God Mode because of how utterly annoying the minigame platforming is
regardless of whether you play the game yourself or watch a playthrough on it online, it's something I suggest anyone who loves a good indie RPG to take a look at. it's not perfect, but it's pretty enjoyable
the ugliest prettiest game I ever did play, and also unironically the best Pokemon game. yes, better than Black and White
the premise is pretty simple.... to seek out all Pokemon. which is to say you have to catch them all and do a bunch of tasks! some tasks are pretty fun, others frustrating, and yet others kind of tedious
the characters are pretty fun. Pokemon's been on a roll since ORAS when it comes to making characters that are instantly memorable and boy oh boy they didn't disappoint.
the actual gameplay! I was admittedly worried about it at first because I genuinely do love turn based RPGs and wasn't sure how this one was gonna come off, but I think things like the strong and agile styles and the refined turn order makes the classical Pokemon gameplay so much richer
and wow! it feels so good to move around in this game. SO good. I genuinely love the way that it's not /quite/ HMs but serve a similar purpose and the way you can get creative to get to certain areas you are probably not meant to reach until later
the story is a little dumb and not as well put together as Black and White and Sun and Moon were, but honestly? the gameplay itself is so much fun that I was willing to ignore it entirely. this game made it fun to catch a shitload of Wurmple
I don't know how I would feel about having more Legends games about Kyurem or Zygarde or whatever, or future generations of Pokemon just being reskinned Arceuses. but I genuinely do hope that Scarlet and Violet and beyond take notes from this game outside of "wow open world!"
the premise is pretty simple.... to seek out all Pokemon. which is to say you have to catch them all and do a bunch of tasks! some tasks are pretty fun, others frustrating, and yet others kind of tedious
the characters are pretty fun. Pokemon's been on a roll since ORAS when it comes to making characters that are instantly memorable and boy oh boy they didn't disappoint.
the actual gameplay! I was admittedly worried about it at first because I genuinely do love turn based RPGs and wasn't sure how this one was gonna come off, but I think things like the strong and agile styles and the refined turn order makes the classical Pokemon gameplay so much richer
and wow! it feels so good to move around in this game. SO good. I genuinely love the way that it's not /quite/ HMs but serve a similar purpose and the way you can get creative to get to certain areas you are probably not meant to reach until later
the story is a little dumb and not as well put together as Black and White and Sun and Moon were, but honestly? the gameplay itself is so much fun that I was willing to ignore it entirely. this game made it fun to catch a shitload of Wurmple
I don't know how I would feel about having more Legends games about Kyurem or Zygarde or whatever, or future generations of Pokemon just being reskinned Arceuses. but I genuinely do hope that Scarlet and Violet and beyond take notes from this game outside of "wow open world!"
2015
admittedly, I've had to meditate on Hylics for a while. it's hard to make heads or tails of it... and that's the point
this game isn't lying when it says it's a recreational program with light RPG elements. it's not really a classical RPG at all - the words and phrasings uttered by the people you meet in this world are confusing at its clearest and nonsensical at its most surreal
the art style is weird... but it's also mesmerizing. there's just something about the way the burritos unwrap right as they're being used that still sits pretty fresh on my mind. the way everything looks like it's made of clay, or from some bootleg video game I've never heard of before
but it's also not particularly entertaining. the battles are pretty unfair at the start IMO, and once you get a second party member it becomes mostly a cakewalk. there's no real strategy - you press a button and things supposedly happen on the screen. death just kind of feels like an annoyance after a while with all the "touch this and you instantly die" enemies. outside of weapons there's no real differentiation between party members, and that feels a little boring. outside of the party members themselves, there isn't a single memorable character. when everyone's weird, nobody's really weird, and to me that's kind of unfortunate
admittedly at first I didn't really like this game at all. I'm glad I gave it time to digest and appreciate it, but I still don't really think I'll come back to this anytime soon. I'll still think about that parking lot background tho
this game isn't lying when it says it's a recreational program with light RPG elements. it's not really a classical RPG at all - the words and phrasings uttered by the people you meet in this world are confusing at its clearest and nonsensical at its most surreal
the art style is weird... but it's also mesmerizing. there's just something about the way the burritos unwrap right as they're being used that still sits pretty fresh on my mind. the way everything looks like it's made of clay, or from some bootleg video game I've never heard of before
but it's also not particularly entertaining. the battles are pretty unfair at the start IMO, and once you get a second party member it becomes mostly a cakewalk. there's no real strategy - you press a button and things supposedly happen on the screen. death just kind of feels like an annoyance after a while with all the "touch this and you instantly die" enemies. outside of weapons there's no real differentiation between party members, and that feels a little boring. outside of the party members themselves, there isn't a single memorable character. when everyone's weird, nobody's really weird, and to me that's kind of unfortunate
admittedly at first I didn't really like this game at all. I'm glad I gave it time to digest and appreciate it, but I still don't really think I'll come back to this anytime soon. I'll still think about that parking lot background tho
2011
literally just find a way to get the Sims on your computer by any means possible instead of wasting your time on this junk
2019
that game wasn't lying, that hike was short
it's not a long game by any means, but I genuinely enjoyed how much stuff they packed into every little nook and cranny. between that, the really cute little minigames and ways you can help people out, and of course reaching the summit, it's a genuinely great little game. simple yet satisfying
it's not a long game by any means, but I genuinely enjoyed how much stuff they packed into every little nook and cranny. between that, the really cute little minigames and ways you can help people out, and of course reaching the summit, it's a genuinely great little game. simple yet satisfying
2006
OBSESSED with the cow game with my cousin and sister as a kid
2008
the only Facebook game ever
2009
I used to play this back in the day and there's nothing here you can't just get from a decent Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game or Stardew Valley. but I mostly remember this because my dad was utterly obsessed with Farmville. was awkward as a middle schooler to explain to your peers that your dad was obsessed with a Facebook game
knowing that with the 3DS eShop's closure means this game will no longer be legitimately available is enough proof for me that there is a loving and merciful god out there.
This review was written before the game released
I'm sure this will be fine. but I cannot for the life of me understand why they replaced Miis with some of the most generic avatars I've ever seen in any Nintendo game. I understand less why people think the characters are worth defending when it bills itself as a Wii Sports sequel. and I understand even less why they would even bother with making entirely new soulless copypasted avatars when the Miitopia Mii Maker is one of the best character creators of all time
edit: right, I can now talk about it a bit from an actual gameplay standpoint since I did play some of the demo! the online was a bit janky and the Sportsmates are much better in action than anticipated but still horrifically bland after Miitopia showed us just how great Miis can be if Nintendo put a little more juice in them. I'd just get Go Vacation or wait for a sale and there's more content overall honestly
edit: right, I can now talk about it a bit from an actual gameplay standpoint since I did play some of the demo! the online was a bit janky and the Sportsmates are much better in action than anticipated but still horrifically bland after Miitopia showed us just how great Miis can be if Nintendo put a little more juice in them. I'd just get Go Vacation or wait for a sale and there's more content overall honestly
1993
a little fact about me: Kirby's Adventure is my favorite Kirby. yes, I like it more than Super Star or Planet Robobot or whichever other Kirby game people are promoting as the best. there really is just something about the way this game just completely oozes charm in a way that I haven't felt from a Kirby game before or since. it's genuinely fun
only major issue I have about it is the slowdown, but good news to everyone that also has this complaint! it was fixed! if you have access to 3DS software you can go play 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure right now with the slowdown issue fixed. so go do it..... now
only major issue I have about it is the slowdown, but good news to everyone that also has this complaint! it was fixed! if you have access to 3DS software you can go play 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure right now with the slowdown issue fixed. so go do it..... now
1991
it's fine but it's gotta be the worst Game Freak outing I've ever played. which I think is a pretty okay game to have as your worst, the baby Yoshi are cute enough
I really do regret not playing this game when it came out - between my final semester before graduating from university and the pressures of finding a job that used my bachelor's, I simply didn't have much time to contribute to playing Chicory. but now that I'm out of there, at my new job, and have enough time to myself in the afternoons and evenings... I started playing
this game is so goddamn good dude. gameplay is fun and relaxing. I always trusted that the guys behind Wandersong would make an excellent story, but man did they blow Wandersong out of the water with this game and its themes
my ONLY complaint with this game has to be with figuring out exactly how to hit the final boss. phase 2 in particular was incredibly annoying. but that's an incredibly small complaint compared to just how well crafted the rest of this game is. it's a very special game. play it now.
this game is so goddamn good dude. gameplay is fun and relaxing. I always trusted that the guys behind Wandersong would make an excellent story, but man did they blow Wandersong out of the water with this game and its themes
my ONLY complaint with this game has to be with figuring out exactly how to hit the final boss. phase 2 in particular was incredibly annoying. but that's an incredibly small complaint compared to just how well crafted the rest of this game is. it's a very special game. play it now.