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Finished Guardian Legend on NES recently. I loved this game back on my russian NES clone Dendy, even if it was in Japanese, and even if the merging of genres meant I didn't understand anything about it and was stuck on like third boss. On its surface, a Zelda-like with shmup dungeons is a very interesting idea, and it is a fun time: the game features a pretty sizable overworld with tons of weapons and some upgrades, but it plays its hand far too early. The real strength of this game is ease of play. Despite being an NES game, it's got a really good map, and its translation is very solid. As far as I can tell there's no penalty for death, and enemies LOVE to drop health for you (even bosses often shoot destroyable projectiles that can drop items). It does feel like a game from further into the future with how it prioritizes fun over weird insurmountable challenge that most NES games thrived on. Hell, you have a health bar in this shmup and even get level ups through score which might heal you mid-boss in addition to "heart container"-like items. However, even if it's quite short, I feel like it can't offer you enough, as it eventually becomes really formulaic. You go to a new area, find two corridors - double-digit and single-digit - where the latter has some sort of lock which you open thanks to the clue you receive somewhere nearby. Single-digit "corridors" are usually tougher but provide progression keys, while double-digits will usually contain power-ups. The unfortunate part is that by mid-game you'll pretty much see everything the game has to offer. You'll get all the weapons (which, granted, you can upgrade by finding more copies) and will see most of the bosses. If it had 2-3 more zones I doubt I would've finished it, as by the end I was really getting bored: overworld became linear, started featuring enemies that were way too tanky, and rewards would usually contain consumables. Still, it's a fun game to play for a few evenings, but I wish it was more varied as it loses its charm quite quickly. Honestly, surprised no indie game has tried to replicate it, as beginner-level shmup with exploration sounds good and the game IS fairly well-known.
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Dec 6, 2023 17:01
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Just beat two Early Access FPS games: Wizodrium and Incision Both are really good at what they do, but what they do is also quite different. Wizordium is a bit more Wolf 3D with its flat enviroments and sprites, but features sprawling mazes and tons of secrets, as well as score counter (just for bragging rights it seems). Levels can go nearly an hour long and may feature multiple enviroments within them (castle level starts in a burning town before leading you through castle square and garden into the castle and its crypt). Insicion is more of a Quake-like: fast and gorey, making you feel like you're Silent Hill's first ever mass shooter decimating all the weird body horror creatures at hyperspeed. I kinda feel like the levels run together a bit with its use of very red/brown palette and after the first level in the town you barely go outside, as the game sticks to weird organ factories and crypts. Recommend them both although I liked Wizordium a little more.
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Dec 11, 2023 13:55
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I've beaten two picross games! Logiart Grimoire and Khimera: Puzzle Island Logiart Grimoire is fantastic, featuring over 300 puzzles and non-linear progression which gives you access to tons of different puzzles of varying difficulty right from the beginning. There are three assist options you can turn off for "no assist" rewards, so even if you're new to Picross I feel like this would be a great game. Granted, I haven't looked at the tutorial so I can't say whether it's good. The game unlocks new puzzles as you've completed a certain number of already available ones, and the artstyle helps a lot. Unlike a few other Picross game, this title doesn't look clinical and empty, instead featuring a strong sense of identity with its purple color scheme, music, and the presense of the mascot who's a central figure in the plot, as well as just a flavor text provider. The only new thing this game does is that each puzzle turns into a card you can mix with other cards to create more puzzles according to clues given to you in a sort of a Doodle God way but with strong hints towards what to mix with what. Whenever you "craft" a puzzle wrong you might also receive a brand new random picross which in lore is described as a failed attempt at creating a picture by a game's mascot. It's a cute feature and pretty funny way to introduce a few puzzles that don't really look like anything because the wizard you talk to can't draw. If there's one thing that bothered me a bit about actual picross is that the most complex puzzles - 40x30 - are way too big. Even when running the game in full screen those were just a chore to complete. I've had my PC restart as I was nearing the end of one of those and it annoyed me so much I turned on insta-notifications about mistakes because I really didn't want to do it again. Other than massive puzzles, which there are very few of, the game is great. It's decently challenging with very few puzzles requiring you to do a symmetrical object or the ones that pretty much give you the answer to how the borders should be arranged right away. It took me 42 hours to complete the game, and it seems like it might get even bigger, though I imagine not by much. Khimera, on the other hand, while charming, seems to be made with newbies in mind. It's an adorable game with some story and unlockables you can purchase by completing puzzles with no assists or under (very generous) par. Unlike Grimoire, lots of puzzles do require you to start on the perimeter or are made in such a way that only a few completed fields you'll be given enough info to start marking important spots. There is one weird thing I've noticed: if you activate help with greying out numbers on a column/row once they are entered, computer sometimes helps a bit too much. It's a little hard to put it into words, but I've tested it a few times, but it seems AI responsible for crossing out numbers in the given column or row will actually fill out the correct number even if the player should have no idea which is it. Say you have a row of three 1s, and you know that one of them is somewhere in the middle? In Logiart, AI would not grey out any 1s until you're sure that there's nothing else close to beginning or end. Here, however, once you cover it around with X marks, the system might grey out the first 1 of the row of numbers, suggesting that, indeed, all the other ones come later to the right. It's a bit unfortunate since I'm trying not to use hints of any kind, but they seem to just appear sometimes. This might seem a bit negative, but only because it's a particular curiosity I found in this game and in no other titles of this genre I've played, and what else can you say about picross? It's the puzzle you know and presumably love, and if you don't, this seems like a great starting point due to its ease (granted, I've skipped the tutorial, so can't really say if it goes into great detail). Amazing music, cute visuals, pretty funny story that's not too long and can be skipped if you're not into it, and even some sense of progression if you don't just want to stare at one list of 300 puzzles and need some sense of pace. It's also DIRT CHEAP right now, going under a dollar on Steam for me.
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Dec 24, 2023 15:36
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Beaten Super Mario Bros Wonder A proper sequel to Super Mario Bros. 3 - inventive, fresh, and constantly surprising. Nintendo has finally shed all traditions for Mario platformers and focused on making the games fun first and foremost which makes this one of the, if not THE best side-scrolling Mario adventure. Even without the gimmick of Wonder seeds every level is inventive and unique, usually featuring at least one new enemy, which is insane for modern Mario. I always wanted to see what was waiting for me next. I believe there are around 50 new enemies without even counting variations, and even while some enemies can be described as an "underwater koopa", presentation goes a long way to not make them feel like that. Speaking of, presentation of this game is sublime. Even if you do venture through grasslands, beaches, deserts, and volcanoes, they always feel different. My favorite was the desert world which took a theme I usually find boring and applied some incredibly creative themes as well as jaw-droppingly stunning backgrounds. If there is one thing that I wished this game had is more challenge. The game has tons of assist options: additional characters that take no damage, badges, and quite a few small "break time" levels which will surely help less experienced players get enough wonder seeds to open up new levels and progress. Despite that, it never really wanted to be as hard as it could be. I've cleared one of the very final post-game levels in three tries without help from any badges. Again, don't get me wrong, it was a spectacular level, but I wish game had just a few more levels in the vein of Mario World post-game or even extra levels of 3D World. Hell, maybe I'm so Mario-poisoned I don't know what a hard Mario level is anymore, but there is final-final level which actually is absolutely fantastic and is so hard that I lost around 50 lives on it. This game is a joy, much like most Mario games are, even if I do wish it was a tiny bit longer and harder.
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Jan 3, 2024 15:08
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Metroid Prime Remastered Metroid Prime Remastered is pretty much perfect as far as remasters go. It gives you tons of options for control from throughout various releases, it looks great, and it sounds the same as ever. I haven't played this game in years and had a great time. That said, it's definitely frontloaded with good moments which become rarer as the game goes on. Scanning - an absolutely astounding tool for various lore - pretty much goes away after Chozo Ruins for various flavor text, which is a shame. When scanning grass, broken bridges, trees, and ancient writing you might get an impression that whole game is like this, but upon descending to Magmoor for the first time the game pretty much drops the gimmick up until space pirate logs which are cool, but are effectively diaries. You won't see any explanation for any machinery Chozo has left behind or the world in general after you beat the first major boss. The progression through the game, mainly thanks to my memory, was fairly smooth even with infamous Chozo Artifacts, yet there are a few areas when you'll be tasked with going back and forth through nearly immediately at around mid-game, and no amount of new enemies make a long corridor that is Magmoor more fun to traverse. Frankly, it just makes it more annoying. The way the world is split apart in general makes it hard to remember which elevator connects to what place, as even the map feature is very vague when it comes to area connections. This probably should've been fixed so that elevators on the map have names, for example "To Crashed Frigate", "To Upper Mines", "To Ruins' Entrance" as opposed to "To Magmoor North" which just leads you to fiddling with the map a lot. When it comes to this remaster in particular, I wish it had a few more extras, as all it can offer is a concept art gallery presented with no context whatsoever (some thought process by the artists would be nice) and a soundtrack, but otherwise it's a definitive Metroid Prime experience. Even if it is rusty in places, it withstood a test of time and is still a blast.
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Jan 5, 2024 22:12
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Beaten Super Mario RPG Remake More RPGs should be 10-20 hours long. I've always adored weird nature of Mario RPG and its breeziness, and nothing's changed in the remake. This is the definitive way to play this game if only due to graphics not being so messy anymore. That said, I do wish it had a little more to it. The only thing of note added is some post-game content, which is welcome, but it's a little strange that a new difficulty added is an easier one. The game's new mechanics already make it even easier than the original, so I'd rather have a harder or at least a remixed mode. As a remake, the game features some weird inclusions like cinematic cutscenes with no sound effects whatsoever, and keeps some of the original's weird kinks. If you were to ask me what would go in a remake of this game, I'd mention Yoshi eggs that pop up from certain enemies. It's a cool feature, but it's predetermined in such a way that you don't see them for a long time and then every battle showers you with more exp and coins because you keep encountering a certain enemy. There's not much to say about this game that hasn't been said. It's a great time. Often quite funny and always charming, and it would be cool to see elements from it escape the copyright hell, as some of the weirder designs are incredibly fun.
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Jan 6, 2024 19:24
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Echoing the thoughs on Eiyuden. I didn't have that bad of a time, it's a pretty ok game for chilling and watching numbers go up, but it's nothing special, and once I didn't play it for a bit I never went back to it. Ghostwire for whatever reason was one of top 5 games I've finished last year, however. Also a deeply imperfect game, but its exploration is a blast, and vibes are immaculate. I hope they do some sort of follow-up because open-world collectathon that doesn't show everything on the map nearly immediately is a breath of fresh air.
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Jan 9, 2024 12:34
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I've played DQ 1-4 last year and it was fun seeing how the genre was forming. Each Dragon Quest is pretty different and adds new mechanics, but I think after playing them I respect Final Fantasy a lot more because that series was throwing away conventions left and right while DQ made very incremental progress. It really didn't help that they were all in the same engine on NES and for whatever reason not only movement was slightly laggy, but it kept the command menu throughout all the games. It's not like you ever talk to a door or search stairs, they really could've just let you press A by game 2. From what I've seen GBC ports seem better in every way except for the screen size. I've switched back and forth throughout the games and 1 was a blessing because it clearly made grinding more tolerable, but 2's zoomed in screen meant I could barely understand where I was. That said, they're a neat curiosity, but probably some of the weakest first-of games of any genre. Definitely not as fun today as SMB or Mario 64, Zelda, Wolf 3D or many other games.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:10
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Super Metroid: Subversion might be the best ROMhack I've ever played. With over double the amount of rooms from the original, completely new world, new music, new abilities, new pick-ups, and a ton of creativity, it's one of the best Metroid games of all time even if we count the official releases. I'll try not to spoil a lot, but if you're waiting for Metroid Prime 4, I highly recommend to play this game as it borrows a lot of stuff from Prime series in addition to the original 1994 game it's based on. Possibly the biggest inclusion is the logbook which acts as both a lore repository, a tutorial library, and a hint system. With the game being double the size of the original it's a very organic way to remind players of what they've seen and even tell them what else they need to do by featuring "obsticles" section with large red markers for unsolved puzzles. This didn't actually help me from getting stuck, as by the time I realized I needed it I didn't understand how it works. My fault completely, frankly, but I do wish a tab called "Need new weapons" was a little more heavy on Ice Beam mention, as I saw it, read it, saw the big "UNSOLVED" and figured I need a Plasma Beam or something. Even now I feel like other hints are much better at reminding you what exactly you need, mentioning tight passages, gusts of wind, lasers, and so on. The game does a pretty wonderful job of navigating the player through its mazes and I can remember only a few times where I went somewhere I didn't need to and ended up getting stuck, like with aforementioned Ice Beam where, after getting it, I remembered a nearby puzzle and went off on a loop around the world going away from my actual goal. The game is still a hack, so it's clear that there are some things they couldn't change. Most bosses are about the same, with some being given a twist that's a bit too ROMhacky (Spore Spawn now has Mega Man-esque disappearing blocks and is on top of a much taller room?), but a few battles do have very interesting remixes. However, there are a LOT of things that are changed from the original in a way that feel like a miracle. For example, multiple times throughout the game player will change the state of the world! You remember those rare things in Metroid series where a sector would blow up in Fusion or when a place would get overtaken by ice in Dread? This game does this, but I'd say what it does is even cooler. Some new mechanics also feel like they don't belong in Metroid, but in a good way. Instead of feeling out-of-place, I was just constantly surprised by this being a mod of a 30-year-old game. One thing that's pretty much completely changed is the pick-up system. I don't care much for pick-ups in Metroid games. Getting 100% is my goal at the beginning, but after picking up samey upgrades I lose interest. After all, getting your 48th missile pick up just feels prefuntory. Subversion goes the Prime way of balancing ammo adding its own touch which makes it much more appealing: Super Missiles cost 5 ammo, but Power Bombs cost 10, which means ammo pickups are much more desireable, not to mention that there are two varieties of them - one adding 5 to your max, and another adding 10. Even beyond that, there are completely new pickups that make the game so much more interesting. Refuel tanks, damage and charge amps, space jump boosts all feel extremely important and made me feel way cooler and stronger than any pick-up from an official Metroid did in the past 20 years (except for E-tanks, I guess, those always felt important). There is nearly nothing negative I can say about this game. Its pacing and new power-ups, new mechanics and enemies all add up to something that feels completely unique. The world is divided into even more areas than the original which helps make it memorable despite its way bigger size (don't worry, authors didn't just take Norfair and added 50 more rooms to it), and the surprises this game has in store rival official Metroid games. Looking at 100% item map after beating the game it might be the case that I missed a completely optional area? Not to mention there are challenges in the menu that push you to go for specific playthroughs and tell you what kind of things are possible (various skips and recommended times for speedrunners). If there's one thing that's a bit dated it's the OG Super Metroid weapon switch. The game has one more item on your select bar than the original, so by the end of the game it leads to mashing Select way too much. Other than that? This is by all accounts Super Metroid 2.
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Jan 12, 2024 13:42
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Momodora: Moonlit Farewell It's ok. A competent Metroidvania that sounds and looks pleasant, but which I found to be too easy in both exploration and fight aspects. There are quite a few systems in this game to manage, such as companions and sigils, but after finding a few that I thought were good I never really engaged with them. The game didn't provide insentive by mixing my playstyle when I beat most of the bosses including all the final ones my first try. Exploration isn't bad, but it's only fun because you keep finding permanent upgrades and not because you actually engage with the world. For some reason every single item gets marked on your map as soon as you uncover the map square, and if I remember right there are no hidden rooms at all, so it becomes a game about looking at the map to see if you missed anything. I might get more enjoyment from the game via post-game "arranged" mode which promises more surprises, but the boss refight mode felt underwhelming. You refight bosses in one of two modes - original with health boosted to your stats, or remixed "nightmare" mode, and from what I've played "Nightmare" bosses are about as easy as normal ones, just with one attack added or a permadeath zone somewhere in the arena. I've enjoyed what I've played of this game and I can't describe my 6 hours with it as bad, but I really wish there was more to test me, in terms of combat, platforming, exploration - anything! As it stands I can only describe it as fine.
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Jan 17, 2024 13:46
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Beaten DRAINUS I barely play shmups so I've got no idea what separates a good shmup from a great one. All I can say is that I had a hell of a time with DRAINUS. Its mechanics are fairly simple - around 90% of shots thrown at you you can absorb by turning on the shield and then fire back. Throughout the game you also get energy tanks you can spend on upgrading your ship in any way you like, from adding more options, weapons, or base stats, to upgrading your shields and bomb capacity. With how little experience I have with the genre I went into the game on Easy, and I think this might've been a mistake. The game has 5 or 6 difficulty modes, with some being unlocked after completion, and it seems like the easy skill is basically just power fantasy. I think I died 3 times in total. The game seems pretty forgiving: it doesn't kill you on the first hit, so I'd advise even new players to go for Normal (unless it's a complete hell later on, but the first stage seemed fine to me). Rest assured, I'll be replaying this game.
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Jan 19, 2024 09:03
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Some of 13 Sentinels art is definitely very bleh. Like there's one character whose every animation can only be described as "breasting boobily", and some schoolgirls get pretty bad poses for when they're in a robot when compared to the guys who you can at most see the shoulder of. I also think female characters' characterization was way worse, since a lot of them were just "In Love" and that was their entire motivation and everything they did. Even when guys were involved with someone they were allowed to be weird goobers, at least. Still, the game is fun, even if I would prefer it if it wasn't so twisty. I think the middle lost me because at that point the game just seems incoherent with how much it throws at you. There's possible (spoilered for tropes used even if some of them end up false) time travel, UFOs, simulations, people in robots, robots in people, apocalypce, clones, AIs and at that point I just dissociated and went along with the game.
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Feb 16, 2024 12:52
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Finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth I feel a lot of conflicting thoughts about this game because it's the first Yakuza title I've been very excited to play. In fact, I believe this is the game I've been most hyped for since Portal 2. Due to this, some disappointments might be bigger than they would be otherwise, and I've definitely learned that watching trailers is a no-no for this series, considering they show stuff from final chapter without any care. That said, it's still a very good Yakuza game, likely in top 3, but I think I've enjoyed it less than Yakuza 7. It does a lot of things to be a better game, with more polished battle system and a ton of little QoL improvements that make playing it a blast. In particular, I've really enjoyed that exploration is somewhat tied into levelling up with the addition of overworld bosses - unique encounters that will grant good loot and good exp. If you like exploring but not grinding, they are a GREAT addition to RPG formula as just beating unique bosses will keep you on the level the game wants from you most of the time. The story is probably one of the most simple for a Yakuza title, completely ditching insane conspiracies of PS3 era and focusing more on interpersonal relationships. No other title in the series spends so much time on slice-of-life moments, and they were all fantastic. That said, while the story is easy to follow and has plenty of good characters (Yamai, for example, being my favorite, with a great performance by Japanese DIO actor), the plot is fairly badly paced. First off, it takes way too long to start free roaming. While you do unlock Yokohama within an hour or so, it's pretty much empty, and only by around hour 6 of the playtime will you be introduced to new mechanics and side-stories. The actual story also kicks into gear in chapter NINE. Before that it's relatively aimless, with characters looking for a person they can't find and just drifting from place to place meeting new people. Again, certain scenes are great, but overall story decides to be good only after the midpoint. I'd also argue it's not as gripping as Ichiban going after right-wingers and supporting sex work in 7, but when the aimlessness subsides it's still a really good time! It seems to me that focus on relationships that's also been boosted outside of the main story with a TON of voiced content might've been the reason for what's likely my biggest disappointment with the game: the lack of substories. The reason for Yakuza's success in the west, the side quests are a staple of the series, but with increasing expectation and more voiced scenes it seems there could only be so many, and unfortunately there are way too few: only around 60. 60 might not sound like a small amount, but there are a lot of them that are story-required or are a part of the chain of 4-6 stories. Some only exist to introduce a mini-game to you and can't really be called "stories". For example, Sicko Snap or Crazy Eats minigames have a "story" at the beginning, but it's only there to unlock a thing, and doing everything in those mini-games will not advance anything past "You've unlocked a thing". Overall, I'd say, there are only around 30 substories that are unique, contain an ending, and aren't part of a massive side activity. While some stories are among the best in the series (Let It Snow might be one of, if not the best substory in the franchise), there are also some that are just bad. The series has seen its fair share of problematic moral lessons, but I feel they've always been relegated to comedic stories (Sure, Passport to Pizza from 0 does bring trafficked lady together with her trafficker but in a situation so over-the-top and absurd that it doesn't read as anything but devs doing surreal poo poo). Infinite Wealth, however, has hits such as "forced to work as a sex worker? Go to jail!" which is presented as a drama with a good ending. The chain of bonds Ichiban has with a few female NPCs might, however, be the worst side-content in Yakuza, effectively having 5 or 6 substories where Kasuga is raped. It's all very cartoony, sure, but it's still a tired old joke about a woman overpowering a man. What sucks is that quite a few of those characters are pretty good, so ending their quests just makes them into a rapist. Cool. I guess I can only be thankful weird mixed messaging about sexual abuse isn't a part of the main plot much like one other series SEGA owns now. It's especially weird considering similar quests were in 7, but aside from the somewhat cringey finale just hinted at normal consensual sex. Side stories might be my big problem with the game, but side content definitely isn't. The game features some of the best and most involved side activities of any Yakuza title, two of which could be complete games on their own with a bit more polish: Sujimon - a name for enemies in the game - have now received a complete Pokemon facelift, and you're now able to capture and battle them in separate battles. It's an involved chain that also unlocks a separate class that can use your tamed weirdos to do spells. Catching Sujimon can be achieved through normal random encounters, trainer battles, a gacha system, or raids: specific battles that appear around the map that will give you a chance to snag a leader of said battle; Dondoko Island is an Animal Crossing-like with you having to catch bugs, fish, collect stuff, craft, farm, build, and manage guests. Effectively every asset from the series is here to craft and decorate your island with to make it into a resort, and it's wild how much there is to it, and how different it is from the main game. I was glued for it for hours at a time, and thanks to its progresive rewards that raise any bug/fish's price every few times you catch one along with tons of in-game achiements and rewards it always felt like I'm doing something. If there's one thing I didn't really like is that there are very few assets you can decorate with that actually fit - most will just turn your paradise into Kamurocho 2. There are other minigames too, of course: MissMatch for example is a culmination of all things sleazy in the series, asking you to create and edit a profile on a dating site, pick responses, and get a date with a hot girl while they keep sending you feet pics for chatting well. Racing games, puzzles, a few arcade ports, a friend system, randomized dungeons - this game is full of stuff. It doesn't feature as much side-content as Yakuza 5 did, which effectively was 5 or 6 games in one, but I'd also argue it's not as boring on the story-side as Yakuza 5 was. I will say, however, that this game is not a place to start on. It's not only Yakuza 7: Part 2, but also yet another apology for botched Yakuza 6 ending with how it finally gives closure to Kiryu's saga. Due to this you'll be assaulted with references and things that won't emotionally resonate with a newcomer throughout big chunks of the story. However, for any long-time fan all of this is a treat. Throughout my 100 hour playthough (which is not over thanks to some post-game content and a few other things I want to check out) a slightly long intro and a little too few substories are basically my only complaints.
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Feb 20, 2024 08:52
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Tomb Raider (2013) Fast-food of video games. A competent but ultimately very safe reboot of a beloved franchise that does everything ok, but never stands out. For an action-adventure-collectathon game it never really does any of those things particularly well. As an action game it's fairly mediocre with very few enemy types and really easy enemies. Most of the game you will just fight Men (somethimes Men will have Shields), with a rare Boss who also acts just like A Man but has more health. The first level of Tomb Raider 1996 had better enemy variety with bats, wolves, and a bear, and while the game starts on a survival note with a few wolves stalking you, it ultimately goes to human enemies and never comes back. The adventure part of the game is probably the best thing about it. The game is divided into one-time corridor action sequences and bigger "levels" you can return to which contain a multitude of secrets. The set-pieces are gorgeous and very cinematic, but I wonder what I'd feel replaying this game. Even on the first time the amount of times you just hold W and jump sometimes was overblown, and I can't imagine those scenes feel much better the second time around. Collectathon parts are very underbaked. Not only do most items you collect fade into the background and are hard to notice unless you mash the "Lara vision", but in each location the game gives up on secrets whenever you find a "Secret Tomb". I use the game's wording here, but none of the optional tombs are secret. They are the most obvious things, contain a single Half-Life 2 tier puzzle, and give you out a full map of the area. The game has a lot of moments like that where it gives you the option of being less frustrating. Throughout the game everything gives you exp which you spend on some of the most boring options imaginable. Do you want to get slightly more exp or make the game less dull is effectively your only choice at any point. Weapon upgrades are a little nicer, but the RPG system feels like a bandaid on a flawed game that's designed to give you good number up chemicals. The story is fairly boring and only makes me wish the game had more weird enemies in it, because if you were to skip all the cutscenes nothing would stand out as strange up until the final area which has magic happening. No t-rexes here. Lara as a protagonist is also extremely boring, which I assume is why the game tortures her on every opportunity. Sorry, doesn't really work on me, just because she's a sick puppy who gets eaten and pierced every 2 seconds doesn't make me like her more. I still would say I've enjoyed my time with Tomb Raider. It's got some great set-pieces and wonderful-looking levels, and the shooting and climbing around can be fun. However just because it's not a bad game doesn't mean it's any good. I probably won't return to it and I've got no desire to check out the sequels.
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Feb 22, 2024 12:08
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Ufouria: The Saga 2 Ufouria 2 priomises at once to be a remake and a sequel to a cute not well-known Metroidvania from 1991. And... It's neither, actually. I'm a little confused about what this game is trying to be, but I believe the answer to its strange nature is simple: developers had basically no budget. Ufouria 2 feels like a sequel to Kirby's Dream Land 3 with incrimental gameplay. You have a hub which leads into multiple levels, some splitting into a few more, and throughout you basically just collect coins and cans. Doing that will stock vending machines allowing you to buy more collectibles and upgrades. This game is short if you beeline the story and grindy otherwise, asking you to go through the same levels again and again. Granted, levels are somewhat random: taking pre-made chunks and rearranging them, but that doesn't make them feel that different on each time you enter. What saves this game is its absolutely amazing atmosphere: cute graphics mixed with a lot of 4koma-like dialogue really make this game better than its gameplay would. It's a cute title, but I wouldn't recommend buying it at asking price. My adventure was over at around 3 hours, and even if I were to grind out the last things I doubt I haven't seen much. Even going through the game normally it falls apart in the last 20% or so by reusing levels and for whatever reason presenting them as new. It's charming, and I've enjoyed my time with it, but it is a mess.
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Mar 1, 2024 14:49
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Ineffiable posted:Awman that's a shame. I'd still probably check it out for ten bucks though. Will just have to wait for a sale.
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Mar 1, 2024 16:51
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Rolled credits on Dragon's Dogma. While the game isn't over and has a fairly intriguing post-game I feel like I need to write about it. Dragon's Dogma to RPG games is what Deadly Premonition was to survival horror. It's flawed, it's janky, it's often annoying, yet it's an unforgettable experience. It's pretty clear that developers weren't given budget or time to fully realize their vision: the game (PC version at least) is glitchy, lacks a lot of QoL features, barely has any story or characters, and just sorta ends. Yet despite this, developers had ideas, and in the world where every game feels like same it counts for far more. Dragon's Dogma feels very inspired by Dark Souls with some obtuse mechanics and strange online play, but instead of just copying ghosts and bloodstains like many did, it instead creates new weird things to toy with: having a party where you can hire other people's "pawns" into your entourage is the biggest change to a real-time RPG formula I've seen in a while, for example. The battle system is usually cited as the game's biggest thing, and unfortunately it seems I basically missed out on it by playing as a mage. While towards the endgame it was fun, comparing my experience to others now that the credits have rolled it seems that the magic system is a little less interesting than any other fighting style, requiring you to usually stand in one place for a few seconds to cast a spell; few dozen seconds for an advanced spell. However, even with that, the sheer chaos surrounding me when having four characters on the battlefield was really fun to witness and engage in. If I were to just list off features of this game as though this were a back of the box it'd sound like a pretty poo poo game. It doesn't have that many unique quests, and those that it has can just end upon stumbling onto an invisible trigger. It's characters are barely there and I can remember like 3. The inventory system could be way simpler. The enemy roster is fairly small. The story has you complete a few quests before it just decides to end. Everything about this game is just a little annoying. And yet it's the little touches that absolutely elevate it. The myriad of secrets, choices, discoveries and strange things is incredible. It's a fairly short game, around 30 hours if you do the story and a few quests here and there, and this fact absolutely saves the game that otherwise would be repetitive and slow. I almost want to start a new playthough just to see the quests I missed because I was too busy going forward which led to the deaths of some important NPCs, for example. I can SAY bad things about this game and they are objectively pretty meh, but what this game does well it does so well that you'll walk away from it with nothing but feeling of accomplisment or even curiosity for your future playthroughs. Sure, playing it I was annoyed with the inventory system, but thinking on it I remember enjoying the exploration, bosses, or just the ten-bucks cutscene direction which sometimes makes the game absolutely hilarious. It might not be the best game, but right now it did one thing it needed: it sold me on Dragon's Dogma 2.
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Mar 11, 2024 08:50
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Finished King's Field III and Early Access of Beyond Sunset. King's Field games are slow 3D dungeon crawlers where everything looks kinda crappy, but they do have that secrety Souls atmosphere and the same feeling of danger that you've come to expect from From titles. Weird items, game lying to you, cryptic NPCs, missable secrets - it's all here! Granted, you have to put up with this game's battle system to enjoy what it offers. Your movement is slow, your magic is slow, your swings with most weapons are slow, and most of the time in battle you'll just be approaching the enemy, swinging your weapon and pressing back as soon as possible (sometimes strafing a bit with enemies that have ranged attacks). It's not a good system, but I've never had issues with it. Thankfully, the monsters in the world seem to suffer from the same issues player does. This game is the biggest KF game on PS1 and also adds some necessary features in the form of actually telling you what items do and a conversation log so you can browse what people have said to you at any time, so it's probably the best starting point out of PS1 games unless you'd like to guess what Blood Stone does and use it in every situation before you figure out its effect. The game is as funny as the Souls games with how mean it can be: the first area has three illusionary walls one of which is going to kill an unsuspecting player. There's also a chest that's required for progression that's effectively a Mimic who's also going to one-shot you on early levels. And of course there are a poisonoius swamp, ledges too narrow for walking on them, really weird platforming (for a game with no jump button of any kind) and other Souls staples. It's also fairly witty with its dialogue. While it is dark fantasy, quite a few NPCs can be fairly humorous which stands at odds with the atmosphere and only adds to the weird vibe of this game. The game isn't as hard as the Souls titles and even playing normally you'll get pretty strong in the backhalf with tons of magic at your disposal and an array of weird weapons some of which might have secondary effects, so a few mean tricks feel more like friendly jabs rather than something out of I Wanna Be The Guy. I loved my time with it, and while Souls games have effectively made its formula obsolete, I wouldn't mind seeing a King's Field V eventually. Beyond Sunset seems like a promising boomer shooter that mixes in some RPG elements, and I was fully on-board at first. The game starts out VERY strong. The first episode is an open city of a few interconnected maps where your mission is to defeat a few minibosses to collect keykards. Simple enough, but the presentation, sheer size, secrets, and side-quests make it really impressive. Each map feels unique, from the skyscraper-filled residential area to the quarantined slums that have a constant stream of respawning zombies. Your reason for exploring is also quite good, as the game has currency and upgrades for your guns and health, which make secret hunting much more desireable than any sort of super armor would. Quite a few secrets are marked on the map, but upon finishing Episode 1 I was delighted to learn that the game has quite a few unmarked ones, as I missed maybe 10 of them. That's, unfortunately, where my fun stopped. Episode 1 provides a very interesting experience interweaving shooting with exploration and some light RPG elements, and Episode 2 drops it entirely. The halls of a cyberpunk megacorp are menacing and larger-than-life, the architecture and art design are stellar, but the gameplay takes a nosedive. For whatever reason the game almost completely shifts its focus into being an arena shooter in the vein of Serious Sam or Painkiller. Travel for a few feet, destroy like a hundred enemies, do this a few times to clean out one of three sectors. Not to worry though, you'll be back here soon enough. Even if there was no backtracking, all three sectors are fairly similar compared to city's enviroments and are comprised of an outer ring where you have to dispatch enemies 4 times, and then 3 rooms where you have to do the same. I have no idea what happened here. It's not unfun, you still shoot things and it's satisfying, but there's a feeling of "are we done?" for the whole episode. The only pace-breaker are little "hacking" puzzle sections which, granted, I've enjoyed a lot. The game pulls the rug from under you and feels like it just wants to be tons of arenas where you shoot guys with a fairly limited weapon selection. At least Serious Sam had weird secrets and a fairly sizeable arsenal... Beyond Sunset promises 5 episodes and Episode 3 is a complete dud. Featuring around 15 minutes of tower defence-like gameplay where you run around and fix turrets with material dropped by enemies. There are no secrets left, no exploration to speak of, and the difficulty which was already fairly low on Normal becomes a complete cakewalk which only means Episode 3 is grueling. I try not to be hard on indie games and I was willing to overlook some issues with Episode 1 which consisted of graphical glitches and weirdly overly demanding performance in some maps that made my alright PC chug (on a game that uses GZDoom, no less!), but the complete shift in Episodes 2 and 3 and realizing I've beaten more than half the game of which I've enjoyed the first 1.5 hours at most make this game hard to recommend.
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Mar 17, 2024 08:50
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Beaten Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition Feel like I just don't get open world games at all. Sleeping Dogs feels like Square Enix's attempt to get their own Yakuza: an asian criminal story with primarily brawler battles and a few side-activities. The game takes a lot from GTA and feels like what people thought Yakuza was back when that series wasn't popular. The story is really fun rags-to-riches triad tale which has a little twist by making you play as an undercover cop, which provides additional tension. There are a whole lot of missions in this game that feel different. It feels like your role as an undercover cop was conceived as a way for you to do both law enforcement missions of saving hostages and stopping drug deals, while also commiting crimes like illegal races, racketeering and extortion as if actual cops don't do that anyways. The game tries to switch up its gameplay often and has a lot of different changes to fairly simple missions. Chases, for example, can ask you to smash other vehicles, win the race, jump onto other car, shoot enemies, follow someone, etc. There are a LOT of gameplay variations and the game tries to keep you engaged at all times. The battle system is simple but effective, and the game switches it up with shootouts and races often enough that its simplicity never wears out. It's usually a little on the easy side, but there are a few additional challenges that will test your abilities. Unfortunately, if the game was inspired by Yakuza, it definitely took the wrong lessons from the franchise. Side activities that aren't tied to quests such as karaoke are dull and boring and many side quests are just repeating situations that see you complete a task with no flavor to them. Lesser quests such as cop jobs are less than a minute long, and drug busts see you perform the same three-step quest for more than a dozen times. It's unfortunate, because the game could've been great, but it drops the ball just a bit with making all missions so disconnected from everything. Racing, for example, is always fun and is the biggest and longest quest activity you can do in the game. There are around 15 races through different enviroments with different vehicles, but there's never a sense of progression to it despite the game introducing you to it with a story hook. Some rivals or 1 on 1 "boss" races would've felt much more like becoming the fastest as opposed to a repeating mini game that can sometimes give you a car. The world is too big for my taste and the exploration is fairly dire. As with many games of that nature, game will throw you a bone and mark all the collectibles on your map because actually exploring the enviroment isn't an option. I'd either want more stuff to collect, as there are entire eye-catching zones with nothing in them, or would prefer if a few districts were cut entirely. The best rewards actually come from random missions where you can get new clothing, cars, and very rarely, upgrades. The best things you can find in the world are basically a piece of heart and an unlock point for a new move, but mostly you'll just find a case with money in it, which you likely won't even need. No matter how much the game tries to vary stuff up, its built on a shaky foundation of by-the-numbers open world game. It's often fun, but exploration and side quests just feel like Content you do to clear the map, not much else. There are moments of brilliance which is why I kept doing said quests: assembling and upgrading a spy car was really fun and provided some of the most varied quests; dates, while a little awkward, had some much needed character moments; and there are a few random activities that were way more fun than the rest, such as Teng's Toy ones that ask you to drive through dense crowds. I really wish the game would go an extra step of having at least fun stories to go with its quests. Little character moments that would make your 4th "chase cars off the road" gameplay section at least somewhat distinct from the first three. This especially concerns cop activities which repeat more often than others and have no story to them at all. I recommend this game for its story and some quests, but don't try and complete it.
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Mar 19, 2024 09:43
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Jerusalem posted:If I remember right, there was a "sequel" announced but it was some stupid loving multiplayer/moba thing? And it got canceled and they said,"WOW GUESS NOBODY WANTS ANY MORE SLEEPING DOGS HUH!?!?!" and that was that. I guess if the original game had come out only a few years ago the "sequel" would have been some gaas bullshit where you have to punch mobsters to unlock purple gear that adds 0.002% speed to cuffing animations or something. Yeah, once I saw Square Enix in the menu I figured some poo poo like this must've happened. I mean, it's the same company that nowadays does yearly "We love crypto/NFTs/AI" bullshit and seems to only care about Final Fantasy related properties. Hope they can make more because even if it wasn't fully for me, the game deserves more than it got.
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Mar 19, 2024 14:01
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Beaten Project Warlock. Project Warlock is a fairly unique Boomer Shooter in that it takes after Wolfenstein 3D more than its successors. The levels are short and take about 5 minutes to complete, and there are a ton of them: from 2 to 5 per act, 5 acts per episode, 5 episodes in total. The game is focused on collecting treasure and secrets, and has light RPG elements where exp gives you the ability to level up your stats. You get exp for collecting treasure and finding secrets, but there are also special collectibles which upgrade your weapon or allow you to buy new spells. The weapons are insanely fun and there are a ton of them, and unlike actual old shooters, the locations are varied which helps the game a LOT. From The Thing's inspired antarctic levels to modern cityscapes, every episode has unique enemies and details. The game suffers a bit at the end, with Hell episode being a retread of earlier episodes (but spookier!) and featuring some really tanky enemies. The game is really easy, at least on Normal, and provides enough opportunities to upgrade your ammo cap as well as spells that give you ammo, so by the end I was just running around with what's effectively an infinite rocket launcher. Fun, but gets a little stale after your 10th room of tanky enemies who have three forms. Despite that, most of the game is incredible: the music is fantastic, the visuals are always a treat, and the length of levels for something inspired by shooters of old is perfect for quick secret hunts and "one more level" type of gaming where you don't stop for hours.
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Mar 20, 2024 15:02
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Also recently beaten Dragon's Dogma 2 and the more I think about it the more I dislike it. It's a good game, I've enjoyed it at the moment, but it feels like either Capcom didn't give devs enough money or devs overestimated how hard it is to make a game this big. Enemy roster is effectively the same as the first game, and the more you go, the less there is. Battahl kinda fumbles the story and the third area just rushes to the end with an area so empty that they needed a massive kaiju boss to cover up that there's like one cave in total. The post-game is also less interesting than the first one, and even if I chuckled at the game finally saying "Dragon's Dogma *2*" it's probably a very big mistake since some people might think "oh boy, twice more game!" and no, it's like 10% It's very much a remake of DD1, but Dragon's Dogma 1 was weird and overambitious for 2012, and releasing it in 2024 but bigger softens its impact when everything's just kind of the same as it was in a 10 year old game except for better quests and bigger world. It also somehow has worse dungeons. With a game where your interactions with the world felt so unique I'd prefer a TOTK-like sequel with more weird poo poo, but the game effectively goes "What if Breath of the Wild was bigger" which is not what I want from a sequel. I've also beaten No More Heroes III When starting a new game series I usually try to complete the first game first and go down the chronological path of entries to see the evolution. No More Heroes III is one of the first ones where I've decided to just jump to the most recent one, and it felt appropriate. The game is insane already, so trying to figure out what's even real and canon was an experience that I feel only added to its atmosphere. NMHIII is a stylish boss-rush/character action game in the vein of old Treasure games. It will never stand still and will pour its creativity through constant genre and artstyle switches. This game is admitteldy style over substance, but NMHIII is an undisputed king of style and isn't even remotely similar to games that just want to look pretty for 12 hours. The gameplay is somewhat lacking, but I always wanted to see what would come next. The general structure of the game is quite weak, though, and I wish all the battles you had to do to get to the next boss were optional. Unfortunately, the game never really switches up the required three battles > boss routine and that's its biggest weakness. In-game justification for all of that is collecting money to donate for the next round, but I wish the player had the means to procure the money by any means, as the game's open worlds feature plenty of collectibles and minigames. It feels weird to want less combat out of an action game, but the small battles are pretty dire, and new enemies stop showing up at around boss 3 out of 10, which make them feel like grinding with the combat system that's so simple. I can see someone feeling like this game is too wacky, but much like something like the original Deadly Premonition, it puts its whole rear end into being what it is so it never really feels out of place, whether you're mowing down intergalactic threats or cleaning toilets (that are an equivalent of Ubisoft's towers in the open world). I loved my time with this dumb game and I will definitely check out its prequels. Sure, it's janky, it's ugly in places, but it's got so much style and personality that it's hard not to fall in love.
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Apr 5, 2024 10:02
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Beaten Baldur's Gate III I try to structure my posts as reviews but truth be told I'm a little baffled as to how to approach this game. I know nothing about DND, I've played only a few games of its genre (mainly from Larian), AND I feel like it was overhyped to me. I'm probably not the person to ask about this game. That said, I've enjoyed it a lot. It's one of the busiest games ever made. While I could spend some time just chilling in Yakuza or whatever, this game has had no downtime in my almost 90 hours of playtime. It feels absolutely enormous. I've enjoyed the story a lot and after both Original Sin titles feel like it's the strongest Larian outing to date. While not too different from those titles in presentation or story, it's just much more confident and a little less silly. I felt like Original Sin titles tried a little too hard, yet this game only had one really obnoxious NPC and they were a really minor character. Pretty much every story beat and joke landed, and there were some really hard-hitting moments. I'm not sure I liked the combat, though. Divinity titles used a far more approachable system which I wish was the case here, but instead it felt like for half the game I was trying to understand it. At times it felt like reading Wikipedia with how you click on help and just mouse over words that lead to other words. There are several things to balance at the same time and it never feels like the game warrants it considering most of the time you can replenish everything between each and every fight and not even feel the minor resource drain. It also doesn't help that it seems DND doesn't have your usual RPG number-go-up formula which leads to some headache-inducing choices when it comes to equipment and, later in the game, led to me mostly ignoring tons of equippables I would pick up unless they were super rare. The game knows that and does try to make each encounter unique, so at times it feels like a cRPG take on something like Undertale or Lisa: games where each encounter would usually be seen once and never again just to showcase a character, a gimmick, or a puzzle. It's also a bit of a shame that the game is still quite janky. From often weird subtitles that either display wrong or lines that repeat to the stealth system which feels absolutely borked there are a few things that left a bit of a poor taste in my mouth. While game reacts to a LOT of the things you do, it's very noticeable when it doesn't (non-lethal takedowns seem to barely be accounted for, for example) This post is kinda negative, but in truth there are only so many words with which I can say "characters and story are good". It's true that I've not enjoyed the game aspect of the game that much besides the exploration, but I still absolutely understand why people connected with it and can comfortably place it in my top 3 games of 2023. I definitely hope that this game's success gets developers to make more RPGs of this kind and not water down their imsims and cRPGs thinking that causal gamers won't get it.
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Apr 19, 2024 22:40
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TACD posted:Well now I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out who this could be But yeah, wasn't a fan of Wyll. He starts out strong but I think his plotline is the weakest of them all. On the other hand, Karlach starts out kinda cringey but her actress sells it and she absolutely shines towards the end (similar with Gale. Glad there are no jut outright joke companions)
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Apr 20, 2024 10:53
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I've been watching Jeff Gerstmann play NES games so I've decided to try and find some I've not seen yet. While some of them are just complete assholes, I have beaten a few: 1. Super Spy Hunter I wanted to love this game so much. I wanted to sing it praises. Super Spy Hunter is a vehicular shmup with some really great weapons and upgrades as well as set pieces. Yes, indeed, this NES game has set pieces. It pushes the tech to the limit and is one of the games that makes you feel straight-up badass. It's first stages are a joy, letting you adjust the speed to your liking so it almost feels like a modern character action game: you can move fast and look cool, or play slow, but look pretty bad. It all falls apart in last 2 stages. While the penultimate stage offers a new cool gimmick, it overstays its welcome with both grueling boss and a long stage with the most boring background of them all. I can't overstate how gorgeous this game can be. I have no idea what trickery they use, but at times it feels like it uses SNES tricks as opposed to NES' hardware. To see it pretty much drop every trick for the final confrontations was very sad. Before the final stage I wanted to commend this game for being a shmup that's accessible to new players: you have a healthbar, and the upgrade system is fairly generous. However, the final level features some jank, gotcha traps, and a boss gauntlet featuring final boss firing a one-hit KO beam with no warning. God, I wanted to love this game, but its end is some grade A NES bullshit that feels like Gradius and doesn't even feature anything as cool as the first few stages did. 2. Big Nose the Caveman Another NES game, courtesy of CodeMasters. While an unlicensed title, I have been familiar with their work on Dizzy games, one of which I owned as a kid. Big Nose is another one in a long series of prehistoric games and it takes a lot from Adventure Island (2 in particular): you level up your weapon to a ranged one and travel through several islands with few short levels in each.Although while time limit is present, it's not as much of an obstacle. It's a simple game, and I wouldn't say it controls well. Your character is way too slippery, and much like Adventure Islands, levels start repeating big chunks towards the end. There is, however, one thing that pleasantly surprised me: this game has RPG-like upgrade system. Your main collectible, bones, can be exchanged for one-time spells and straight-up power-ups in shops you will visit every few levels (or find in levels themselves). This made the fairly boring trek much more interesting as I was experimenting with spells and tried not to lose my power-ups. It made for a fun time as by the end I was nearly indestructible. Pretty fun little game, another one that can be beaten in an afternoon, and this time a fairly easy one, but the one that has a bit more to it than your standard NES side-scroller. I just wish the levels were more distinct.
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Apr 26, 2024 20:29
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oxyrosis posted:If you're trying to get into NES games, and the look is important to you, and you could get through the hell that is super spy hunter ; You've really got to try out Little Samson. I've certainly played Little Samson but remember nothing about it so will give it a try.
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Apr 26, 2024 23:11
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