my introduction to warhammer 40k was bolt thrower's realm of chaos ~30 years ago, but i still know only the most basic things about the game world's lore and stuff. what i feel i can say quite comfortably is that i'm tired of the seemingly unexamined fascist vibe of every 40k video game i see being some kind of pro-imperium romp. to my understanding, the imperium (and its space marines) is a megalo-genocidal interstellar war church following the iron will of its xenophobic lich king. kinda the iconic grim and dark sci-fi future extreme depicting humanity as the zealous heart of endless cosmic war with chaos. i certainly see the appeal of 40k as a universe, but i would like to see something that doesn't ask me not to roll my eyes and/or gag at the edgy voice clips about obliterating heretics and traitors. "it started out as a satire," or so i've heard more than once, but boltgun seems like the unfortunate height of 40k stuff not really getting that and kinda just being super gleeful about its brutality FOR THE EMPEROR ad nauseum. i mean, they're even proudly touting this as a boomer shooter in their ads and idk that's a little embarrassing imo.
anyway, i do hope to get something out of owlcat's rogue trader crpg, if only because wrath of the righteous is now an all-time favorite of mine and, well, since it would appear that rogue trader will be a very similar type of game where you get to forge a path through the 40k setting and i bet some or most of the paths through the game will support you distinguishing yourself as a pirate of sorts, defiant of the god-emperor of mankind and his imperium... so that'll be cool... chaos is cool...
anyway, i do hope to get something out of owlcat's rogue trader crpg, if only because wrath of the righteous is now an all-time favorite of mine and, well, since it would appear that rogue trader will be a very similar type of game where you get to forge a path through the 40k setting and i bet some or most of the paths through the game will support you distinguishing yourself as a pirate of sorts, defiant of the god-emperor of mankind and his imperium... so that'll be cool... chaos is cool...
This review contains spoilers
along with 2.0, this expansion pushes cyberpunk 2077 into full imsim, and i feel at this point that i can comfortably say this is among my favorite games. also, v is among my favorite characters, particularly as voiced by cherami leigh. the new 'happy' ending crushed and now haunts me, and i just want to find v among the crowd and give her a long hug.
of course, i also went back to an earlier save to choose the arguably more righteous, more courageous path — the one truer to the game's somber exploration of mortality, culminating in imo the best ending from the original game: the 'star' ending, where v faces an uncertain future, one where she may yet die young, though it'll be among friends standing with her all the way. where perhaps saving songbird from a life as the nusa's property is the karmic push v needs to survive after the events of the game, living out there as a nomad. that's what i'd like to think, anyway...
of course, i also went back to an earlier save to choose the arguably more righteous, more courageous path — the one truer to the game's somber exploration of mortality, culminating in imo the best ending from the original game: the 'star' ending, where v faces an uncertain future, one where she may yet die young, though it'll be among friends standing with her all the way. where perhaps saving songbird from a life as the nusa's property is the karmic push v needs to survive after the events of the game, living out there as a nomad. that's what i'd like to think, anyway...
kind of a special little game. not only because it's on the neo geo pocket color (i played it with an emulator on my ds, though evidently it's also on the switch and pc now!), but also because it's a tight, short action rpg featuring elements of gothic horror pulling from classic monster stuff (werewolves, zombies, draculas) with a flourish of a weirder sort of biopunk tokusatsu reminiscent of the creations of keita amemiya, or of tetsuo in akira with his gnarly arm-thing. i mean, your actual weapon evolves as it feasts on the souls of the monsters you've busted. that's the game!
2012
takes a dump on the true spirit of doom and it was made by some racist bonehead. no thanks!!!
2020
game's gorgeous, and the serenity of exploration really draws me in. vistas galore. combat's excellent and seems to get even more exciting as you gain access to new characters whose abilities you can combine to really do some damage... that said, the writing is pretty bland anime junk. common enemies are, er, dark-skinned bushmen the bland anime knights describe as "of low intelligence" in a really grating manner. even ignoring that, i'm not sure how i feel about the whole f2p gacha system, which throws all kinds of power and wealth at you from the start so there's no interesting ramping up of strength or skill. whatever, i guess? i'm just not sure what kind of longevity this has in a world where i can play things like breath of the wild, dragon quest ix, nier automata, final fantasy xiv, etc. just feels like the sort of thing that eventually leaves you feeling empty inside lol. and, again, that "accidental" tonedeaf racism keeps rearing its head... honestly, nah, this ain't for me. could've been, though.
i like the idea of daggerfall. enough so that i've tried playing it numerous times, keen on trying to understand what its most fervent enjoyers find so magical about it. i've always come out of it feeling like, well, the time i might have appreciated this game has long passed me by. or even more accurately, that time has never truly existed and likely never will. i was playing chrono trigger, quake, and super mario 64 while a much nerdier friend of mine pretty much only cared about daggerfall (so much so that he sold me his fairly new playstation with a handful of games like resident evil and king's field really cheaply). given that i still love the games i found more interesting back then—especially when most of the praise i see for it nowadays is "it's very, very big and full of endless copy-pasted npcs who give you the dullest quests imaginable" or perhaps "tits"—it's ever more difficult for me to imagine an alternate timeline where i switched places with my friend.
so, again: the core idea of daggerfall really appeals to me. a vast, open world with enormous and labyrinthine underground crypts full of screaming skeletons. crude 3d environments with even cruder prerendered sprites. let's go. but then it becomes clear just how empty it is both spatially and in terms of character. morrowind is a fucking revelation compared to this. morrowind is one of my very favorite games. daggerfall, though... it's practically a barebones prototype (and i'll grant it due credit there) for what would become an actual game with an actual soul and vision. if you were to ask me: play ultima underworld instead of this monumental time-waster and then skip ahead to morrowind (perhaps stopping along the way for deus ex, arx fatalis, etc).
so, again: the core idea of daggerfall really appeals to me. a vast, open world with enormous and labyrinthine underground crypts full of screaming skeletons. crude 3d environments with even cruder prerendered sprites. let's go. but then it becomes clear just how empty it is both spatially and in terms of character. morrowind is a fucking revelation compared to this. morrowind is one of my very favorite games. daggerfall, though... it's practically a barebones prototype (and i'll grant it due credit there) for what would become an actual game with an actual soul and vision. if you were to ask me: play ultima underworld instead of this monumental time-waster and then skip ahead to morrowind (perhaps stopping along the way for deus ex, arx fatalis, etc).
still up to my nose in this game (turns out it wasn't crpg fatigue and dragon age is just a bore) and planning to write a review and post a list of my favorite character builds/concepts later on... but i wanted to draw attention to this post about one of owlcat's artists dealing with cancer, should anyone with money i don't have come across this and feel compelled to help.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/12t2yfd/pathfinders_one_of_the_artists_who_worked_with_us/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/12t2yfd/pathfinders_one_of_the_artists_who_worked_with_us/
2014
there should be more games like this. handcrafted watercolor collage landscapes and interiors which feel like someone rifled through old paintings kept in a drawer somewhere, reliving moments from their life with emotions potent, amplified through soft tones of bleeding pigment. mistakes and rough edges aren't flaws - they make the images alive. music emanates from the heart veiled just behind this gentle canvas, connecting with yours. revealing yours, pushing the mess of daily life aside to bring all the pain and joy you've known into relief. the most comforting ache. if love can be a video game...
gave this a shot via yuzu (easiest way to try it) and bounced after about 5 minutes, when a casual allusion to absurd fetishized child abuse was dropped. i bailed on the anime for the same reason and hoped that shit wouldn't be present here because the premise of exploring a fathomless chasm appeals to me greatly — huge 3d environments with immense verticality really excite me. alas... fuck this trash.
difficult for me to put a meaningful rating on this in 2022. if i'd been able to play this in 1987, it might've changed my life. this weird, occult, seemingly very japanese interpretation of wizardry stands in stark contrast to other rpgs from japan in the mid/late '80s. (instead, my first atlus rpg would be nocturne. "it changed my life" might sound over the top, but it absolutely has informed my tastes in the time since.)
now... well, it's very easy for me to appreciate how incredibly cool this looks for a famicom game from that time, but i might be inclined to recommend playing the remade version contained within kyuuyaku megami tensei instead (unless you want to set everything aside and give this game some serious attention (and it helps if you already like the nes)). the main reason for this, really, is just that moving through corridors feels a bit too stiff and disorienting, frame by frame, while kyuuyaku at least adds some animation to your surroundings when turning left or right and moving forward feels a touch smoother. i should add that this may not be true of dds: megami tensei 2 (also part of the sfc kyuuyaku package), which i understand has uniquely great music for a famicom title due to a special chip in the cartridge, but i'll have to find out about that another time.
now... well, it's very easy for me to appreciate how incredibly cool this looks for a famicom game from that time, but i might be inclined to recommend playing the remade version contained within kyuuyaku megami tensei instead (unless you want to set everything aside and give this game some serious attention (and it helps if you already like the nes)). the main reason for this, really, is just that moving through corridors feels a bit too stiff and disorienting, frame by frame, while kyuuyaku at least adds some animation to your surroundings when turning left or right and moving forward feels a touch smoother. i should add that this may not be true of dds: megami tensei 2 (also part of the sfc kyuuyaku package), which i understand has uniquely great music for a famicom title due to a special chip in the cartridge, but i'll have to find out about that another time.
2021
This review contains spoilers
the first time we perform a demon fusion in smt5, a circle of keys rises up and our nahobino starts jamming out a gothic organ dirge like it's second nature. lots of things come to this mc naturally, with no expression of confusion or uncertainty—not even a smirk. just that cold gaze. and why not? atlus likely understand that this isn't our first rodeo, and that we're here for the vibe. the nahobino is vibing hard. it's almost like they were born for this.
if there really are those who view smt as "persona without the heart," some are going to think this nahobino is without a personality. as i see it, the steely, confident, even menacing demeanor of this character (even in its duality, given your symbiotic bond with the proto-demon aogami) is as good a "blank slate" for us to impose our will upon as we could ask for in a world full of demons. shin megami tensei is about exploring that spiritual freedom like a true libertarian and/or satanist and this game doesn't fuck around. uhm, i'm being sort of facetious. and corny. it probably doesn't come across. anyway.
truthfully, i don't need all of my games to be power fantasy—i play them for the desperation, despair, and helplessness of some of them, too! and other, gentler things... and such. something like this, though, where your goal is to pursue the throne of reason ruthlessly, well, the best shin megami tensei stuff gives me a mixture of empowerment and punishment i find very inviting. and, i mean, those demon's just look awesome
also not fucking around: the practically obligatory opening setup is over very quickly, and then it's right to it. zooming around like a demonic metal sonic in this landscape of glittering golden dunes and destroyed buildings... the music is just a vibe—and then you get into a fight—it continues to be a vibe until you execute your first attack: "aramasa!" the nahobino screams, as the metal kicks in... well, it whips ass. this is just a cool game, constantly making you feel cool for playing it. that battle music alone is almost enough to make up for the absence of a banger attract mode like nocturne's.
in V's favor with respect to other games from the last couple decades of this series, the qol improvements to the familiar systems and ui elements are very nice (e.g. i feel every jrpg needs an auto-heal outside combat and thankfully we have that here). and, i mean, as a blurry open world-ish rpg on switch it actually reclaims some of the dreamy and apocalyptic inverted world vibe of nocturne. there are some fairly obvious parallels to nocturne's imagery, more so than IV. while i'd say nocturne remains king in terms of mood and a somewhat more restrained presentation, V gains a wider, more seamless space to roam. nocturne dwelt much more heavily in interior spaces—a dungeon crawler with lucifer in the black lodge. there are literally two actual dungeons late in V, but, you know, that's just the kind of game this is. it's nocturne's overworld map blown up macro; a sprawling kingdom of brilliant gloom for us to survey from every peak we reach and then make our own. ymmv
while the peak of jrpgs since at least 2010 has, to me, easily been dragon quest XI, this is one of a handful i feel truly begin to even contend (depending on whether we're including action rpgs or mmos). anyway, it's a real one.
if there really are those who view smt as "persona without the heart," some are going to think this nahobino is without a personality. as i see it, the steely, confident, even menacing demeanor of this character (even in its duality, given your symbiotic bond with the proto-demon aogami) is as good a "blank slate" for us to impose our will upon as we could ask for in a world full of demons. shin megami tensei is about exploring that spiritual freedom like a true libertarian and/or satanist and this game doesn't fuck around. uhm, i'm being sort of facetious. and corny. it probably doesn't come across. anyway.
truthfully, i don't need all of my games to be power fantasy—i play them for the desperation, despair, and helplessness of some of them, too! and other, gentler things... and such. something like this, though, where your goal is to pursue the throne of reason ruthlessly, well, the best shin megami tensei stuff gives me a mixture of empowerment and punishment i find very inviting. and, i mean, those demon's just look awesome
also not fucking around: the practically obligatory opening setup is over very quickly, and then it's right to it. zooming around like a demonic metal sonic in this landscape of glittering golden dunes and destroyed buildings... the music is just a vibe—and then you get into a fight—it continues to be a vibe until you execute your first attack: "aramasa!" the nahobino screams, as the metal kicks in... well, it whips ass. this is just a cool game, constantly making you feel cool for playing it. that battle music alone is almost enough to make up for the absence of a banger attract mode like nocturne's.
in V's favor with respect to other games from the last couple decades of this series, the qol improvements to the familiar systems and ui elements are very nice (e.g. i feel every jrpg needs an auto-heal outside combat and thankfully we have that here). and, i mean, as a blurry open world-ish rpg on switch it actually reclaims some of the dreamy and apocalyptic inverted world vibe of nocturne. there are some fairly obvious parallels to nocturne's imagery, more so than IV. while i'd say nocturne remains king in terms of mood and a somewhat more restrained presentation, V gains a wider, more seamless space to roam. nocturne dwelt much more heavily in interior spaces—a dungeon crawler with lucifer in the black lodge. there are literally two actual dungeons late in V, but, you know, that's just the kind of game this is. it's nocturne's overworld map blown up macro; a sprawling kingdom of brilliant gloom for us to survey from every peak we reach and then make our own. ymmv
while the peak of jrpgs since at least 2010 has, to me, easily been dragon quest XI, this is one of a handful i feel truly begin to even contend (depending on whether we're including action rpgs or mmos). anyway, it's a real one.
2018
it's fine. i, too, love twin peaks and resident evil.
a bit surprised by this one! a game which has languished in my steam library since i picked it up in a bundle some years ago, i had written it off as likely some soulless imperialist fantasy sim/rpg, admittedly based more or less on its title alone. as it turns out, well, after falling in love with baldur's gate this fall i started looking for more games in that vein of crpg. recently, pathfinder: wrath of the righteous appears to be the hot new thing among hardcore fans of the genre (and i must say that one looks far more appealing to me at a glance), and so i decided to give this one a chance first.
i'm pleasantly surprised. the most common complaint i've encountered is that the kingdom management aspect of the game, foisted upon you as you're tasked with the establishment of a new barony in neighboring lands infested with trolls and other monsters, bandits, and a cruel warlord, is poorly executed and a drag of a distraction from adventuring and dungeon crawling. i gather settings which automate this part of the game or render it effortless (in a difficulty setting for the management alone literally called effortless) wasn't always available, but it is now and as such i think it's perfectly fine.
what interests me more is the range you're given to be the baroness you'd like to be (within the dnd alignment system). i am loathe to be a lord of lands, but there's ample opportunity to rule with benevolence, instructing your advisors to tend to various matters before you and your party set out to make efforts in service of the people.
one thing i will warn about: character creation and early leveling are extremely daunting, even after getting a grasp on baldur's gate. the build potential is unreal. i love that shit, personally, though it does mean i end up spending hour after hour figuring it all out. a mod that lets you respec for free is an absolute must. i mean, you essentially need to have an understanding of how leveling works, how classes synergize—you select your class for every level you gain, then choose from a number of subclasses, abilities, spells, feats, etc. unless you just set it on story mode and do whatever you think seems cool, i suppose. i started as a sorcerer and later switched to a paladin with a dip into the thug subclass of rogue so that i can tank, heal, and put out the big damage with sneak attacks (which are powerful frontal attacks of opportunity, not stealth attacks). i seem to typically prefer a chaotic good mc with high charisma for games like this, and turn up my nose at lawful religious zealots, but again, in kingmaker (actually queenmaker tho) you can be a truly good person even as such. that matters to me. i don't like being evil unless it's in a game like tyranny, and even then i strive to do all the good i can for as many people as possible. big part of my enjoyment of these games, of roleplay...
might eventually amend this with further thoughts, assuming i finish it. i think i'd like to unless it really falls off later on.
i'm pleasantly surprised. the most common complaint i've encountered is that the kingdom management aspect of the game, foisted upon you as you're tasked with the establishment of a new barony in neighboring lands infested with trolls and other monsters, bandits, and a cruel warlord, is poorly executed and a drag of a distraction from adventuring and dungeon crawling. i gather settings which automate this part of the game or render it effortless (in a difficulty setting for the management alone literally called effortless) wasn't always available, but it is now and as such i think it's perfectly fine.
what interests me more is the range you're given to be the baroness you'd like to be (within the dnd alignment system). i am loathe to be a lord of lands, but there's ample opportunity to rule with benevolence, instructing your advisors to tend to various matters before you and your party set out to make efforts in service of the people.
one thing i will warn about: character creation and early leveling are extremely daunting, even after getting a grasp on baldur's gate. the build potential is unreal. i love that shit, personally, though it does mean i end up spending hour after hour figuring it all out. a mod that lets you respec for free is an absolute must. i mean, you essentially need to have an understanding of how leveling works, how classes synergize—you select your class for every level you gain, then choose from a number of subclasses, abilities, spells, feats, etc. unless you just set it on story mode and do whatever you think seems cool, i suppose. i started as a sorcerer and later switched to a paladin with a dip into the thug subclass of rogue so that i can tank, heal, and put out the big damage with sneak attacks (which are powerful frontal attacks of opportunity, not stealth attacks). i seem to typically prefer a chaotic good mc with high charisma for games like this, and turn up my nose at lawful religious zealots, but again, in kingmaker (actually queenmaker tho) you can be a truly good person even as such. that matters to me. i don't like being evil unless it's in a game like tyranny, and even then i strive to do all the good i can for as many people as possible. big part of my enjoyment of these games, of roleplay...
might eventually amend this with further thoughts, assuming i finish it. i think i'd like to unless it really falls off later on.
2004
fairly sure i'm not even 1/3 through my first time through this game and i'm like 150 hours in (though i did restart once after like 20 hours lol). i have a feeling i'll have more to say later on; consider this a "first impressions" kinda thing, silly as that may seem after so much time with it.
getting some complaints out of the way, it's a pretty flawed game in terms of bugs and some extremely fucked balance (playing it on easier difficulty settings is highly recommended until you really know the game (and i still don't feel i do)) and moments of frustrating writing clashing with the roleplaying possibilities of its pnp systems (e.g. you can't always rescue someone from their fate due to a curse placed on them despite there being a spell called remove curse available and stuff like that feels... kinda bad, sometimes). that's pretty much it, i guess? i could probably complain about the overwhelming timesink crusade system introduced in the second act, but i switched that shit to automated/story mode so i could focus on the baldur's gate-style adventuring and such. the half-star i docked from my rating could probably be a bigger mark down, but, see...
what makes wrath of the righteous so compelling to me, aside from the incredibly deep character-building, is its campaign and setting: a realm torn asunder by the worldwound, a vast fracture in the planet's surface from which the abyss emerges - a place where gods and demons rally their forces in a game of chess... where they literally can't intervene too much because the conflict would simply obliterate this domain over which they struggle for power and influence. and this is where you come in: chosen by the good gods, granted the power to choose your path - even with the freedom to become a devil or a swarm-that-walks or whatever...! power fantasy to the extreme.
and this is what sets wrathfinder apart from its ilk: it features a variety of mythic paths for you to choose as you progress (angel, lich, demon, azata, trickster, legend, and several more) and a pretty large cast of possible companions - to the point that it feels more properly inspired by bg2 than most of these "new wave of oldschool crpg" games in terms of the sheer possibilities. for my first time through it, i'm going azata: chaotic good butterfly-winged friendship is magic superhero bard romancing a succubus who wants to be a good girl after being touched by the goddess of dreams and made aware of her sins. (you can either help her with this or decide to be a total fucker and corrupt her, destroying her newfound ability to love.) game's absolutely enormous and i'm likely to be playing it all year (irl circumstances willing (not to be overly cryptic, but my mental illness is catching up with me again)).
uh, anyway... yeah, game rules. also i love the very bg-styled music, all that Epic Brass Blaring Mightily.
getting some complaints out of the way, it's a pretty flawed game in terms of bugs and some extremely fucked balance (playing it on easier difficulty settings is highly recommended until you really know the game (and i still don't feel i do)) and moments of frustrating writing clashing with the roleplaying possibilities of its pnp systems (e.g. you can't always rescue someone from their fate due to a curse placed on them despite there being a spell called remove curse available and stuff like that feels... kinda bad, sometimes). that's pretty much it, i guess? i could probably complain about the overwhelming timesink crusade system introduced in the second act, but i switched that shit to automated/story mode so i could focus on the baldur's gate-style adventuring and such. the half-star i docked from my rating could probably be a bigger mark down, but, see...
what makes wrath of the righteous so compelling to me, aside from the incredibly deep character-building, is its campaign and setting: a realm torn asunder by the worldwound, a vast fracture in the planet's surface from which the abyss emerges - a place where gods and demons rally their forces in a game of chess... where they literally can't intervene too much because the conflict would simply obliterate this domain over which they struggle for power and influence. and this is where you come in: chosen by the good gods, granted the power to choose your path - even with the freedom to become a devil or a swarm-that-walks or whatever...! power fantasy to the extreme.
and this is what sets wrathfinder apart from its ilk: it features a variety of mythic paths for you to choose as you progress (angel, lich, demon, azata, trickster, legend, and several more) and a pretty large cast of possible companions - to the point that it feels more properly inspired by bg2 than most of these "new wave of oldschool crpg" games in terms of the sheer possibilities. for my first time through it, i'm going azata: chaotic good butterfly-winged friendship is magic superhero bard romancing a succubus who wants to be a good girl after being touched by the goddess of dreams and made aware of her sins. (you can either help her with this or decide to be a total fucker and corrupt her, destroying her newfound ability to love.) game's absolutely enormous and i'm likely to be playing it all year (irl circumstances willing (not to be overly cryptic, but my mental illness is catching up with me again)).
uh, anyway... yeah, game rules. also i love the very bg-styled music, all that Epic Brass Blaring Mightily.