AlterSephith
This review contains spoilers
KH2 is the perfect follow up to everything presented in the stories of KH1 and RECOM.
The story of this game is amazing and had me interested the whole way through. They really got to utilise more of their original characters this time with the Organisation and Roxas and his group. The Twilight Town section at the beginning is such a good introduction to the game and I loved Roxas and his character a lot.
The Disney worlds were far more interesting this time and felt like they had a bit more importance in the overall story with the Organisations involvements.
KH2 expands on its main cast of characters excellently. Sora and Riku are such a great pair of characters and their chemistry together is fantastic. The supporting cast were always fun to have around and I really liked how involved they were especially with segments like Hollow Bastions swarm of Heartless.
Roxas’ character is probably my favourite in this game with Axel being close behind. Roxas’ story of wanting to fight against the fact he is Soras Nobody as he is his own person yet eventually accepting Sora as his other half is a really strong arc for his character. Even if we don’t get to see him much outside of the beginning, how he ties into the ending part of the game was amazing. Considering 358 has a lot to do with him I’m sure his character will get fleshed out even more.
Xemnas as a primary villain this time is much more compelling than KH1 Ansem was. The Nobodies in general are such a cool idea for characters that mirror that of the Heartless and the People that the Nobodies are from. Having this set of characters that reflect their counterpart in some way just without a heart is a great story point and sets up a perfect groundwork for these characters to differ from their counterparts. Having the likes of Xemnas chasing after not just some kind of power but the ability to have feelings even if it’s that of rage and anger is a lot more compelling than making him a god complex type of character.
The Nobodies are also interesting in that they may actually have hearts after all but just fragmented versions as the actions of Axel and Roxas would stem from someone who has a heart. Axel says himself that he’s “enjoying this” in COM showing that the ability to feel is still there.
The combat was leagues better than KH1, taking the base from KH1 and making it flow a lot smoother with quicker movements and combos never got dull. The introduction to Reaction Commands and the Drive forms were such an amazing addition to the combat. Enemy encounters felt unique as the majority of enemies had a Reaction Command which were all different depending on the enemy you are fighting.
Magic definitely felt that it had better utility in this game but I personally didn’t use too many offensive spells as my main key blades were physical based but it didn’t take away from anything in the combat, it’s more on me to make use of the magic more.
The limits and summons were a great way to mix up the gameplay with the different party members in each world. I know summons were in KH1 as well but they felt a lot more useful and fun in this games combat.
The boss fights in this game are for the most part so much fun to fight and managed to strike a good balance between the cinematics of the fight with the Reaction commands and the fights themselves. The highlights were obviously the Organisation fights and the final boss segment was such an amazing spectacle. Even some of the heartless fights I enjoyed as well especially some of their designs.
Gumi ship was the Gumi ship. It felt a lot more involved this time but I’m still indifferent on it. It’s nice that the game gives you pre made ships incrementally so people don’t feel the need to upgrade the base one.
Square Enix games typically will have fantastic soundtracks and KH2 is among some of the best music in a Square title I’ve heard. Every track perfectly fits the feel and mood of the area or situation you’re in and boasts some amazing boss themes. All the Organisation themes especially the Roxas fight were amazing and that latter track is probably one of my favourites in the whole game.
KH2 is a fantastic sequel and everything I expected and wanted from this series. I only hope that the highs of this games story, characters and combat continue into the rest of the series.
10/10
The story of this game is amazing and had me interested the whole way through. They really got to utilise more of their original characters this time with the Organisation and Roxas and his group. The Twilight Town section at the beginning is such a good introduction to the game and I loved Roxas and his character a lot.
The Disney worlds were far more interesting this time and felt like they had a bit more importance in the overall story with the Organisations involvements.
KH2 expands on its main cast of characters excellently. Sora and Riku are such a great pair of characters and their chemistry together is fantastic. The supporting cast were always fun to have around and I really liked how involved they were especially with segments like Hollow Bastions swarm of Heartless.
Roxas’ character is probably my favourite in this game with Axel being close behind. Roxas’ story of wanting to fight against the fact he is Soras Nobody as he is his own person yet eventually accepting Sora as his other half is a really strong arc for his character. Even if we don’t get to see him much outside of the beginning, how he ties into the ending part of the game was amazing. Considering 358 has a lot to do with him I’m sure his character will get fleshed out even more.
Xemnas as a primary villain this time is much more compelling than KH1 Ansem was. The Nobodies in general are such a cool idea for characters that mirror that of the Heartless and the People that the Nobodies are from. Having this set of characters that reflect their counterpart in some way just without a heart is a great story point and sets up a perfect groundwork for these characters to differ from their counterparts. Having the likes of Xemnas chasing after not just some kind of power but the ability to have feelings even if it’s that of rage and anger is a lot more compelling than making him a god complex type of character.
The Nobodies are also interesting in that they may actually have hearts after all but just fragmented versions as the actions of Axel and Roxas would stem from someone who has a heart. Axel says himself that he’s “enjoying this” in COM showing that the ability to feel is still there.
The combat was leagues better than KH1, taking the base from KH1 and making it flow a lot smoother with quicker movements and combos never got dull. The introduction to Reaction Commands and the Drive forms were such an amazing addition to the combat. Enemy encounters felt unique as the majority of enemies had a Reaction Command which were all different depending on the enemy you are fighting.
Magic definitely felt that it had better utility in this game but I personally didn’t use too many offensive spells as my main key blades were physical based but it didn’t take away from anything in the combat, it’s more on me to make use of the magic more.
The limits and summons were a great way to mix up the gameplay with the different party members in each world. I know summons were in KH1 as well but they felt a lot more useful and fun in this games combat.
The boss fights in this game are for the most part so much fun to fight and managed to strike a good balance between the cinematics of the fight with the Reaction commands and the fights themselves. The highlights were obviously the Organisation fights and the final boss segment was such an amazing spectacle. Even some of the heartless fights I enjoyed as well especially some of their designs.
Gumi ship was the Gumi ship. It felt a lot more involved this time but I’m still indifferent on it. It’s nice that the game gives you pre made ships incrementally so people don’t feel the need to upgrade the base one.
Square Enix games typically will have fantastic soundtracks and KH2 is among some of the best music in a Square title I’ve heard. Every track perfectly fits the feel and mood of the area or situation you’re in and boasts some amazing boss themes. All the Organisation themes especially the Roxas fight were amazing and that latter track is probably one of my favourites in the whole game.
KH2 is a fantastic sequel and everything I expected and wanted from this series. I only hope that the highs of this games story, characters and combat continue into the rest of the series.
10/10
The Trails Series continues to exemplify how it’s world building and character writing are utterly masterful and near unmatched.
Reverie concludes the culmination of over 6 games of development through Crossbell and Erebonia and acts as the final sequel to both of the arcs. There is not a single plot line or aspect of this portion of the world left unanswered and brings about new questions for the next arc in a spectacular way. Making use of three different perspectives to tell its story that are handled exceptionally well in getting the story across clearly it manages to balance the development of several characters as they are all partaking in there own side of things.
Questions I thought that would never get answered do get resolutions that are satisfactory and all use ideas and concepts that have been present in the world for several games and all but one have explanations to back them up and the one that doesn’t is something more on a global scale that has yet to be explained since the beginning of the series, I can only assume we will get its answer nearer the end.
I want to make this spoiler free but I could go on for hours about the sheer complexity and depth to the characters in this series is absurd. (Rean and C are great examples for this game but there’s several other characters I will refrain from mentioning in this review.)
I cannot recommend this game enough, however I can only recommend this game if you have played the rest of the series prior. It’s such a core factor in this series that experiencing the events of the previous arcs and characters weigh heavily on the later titles which is something I feel watching a story recap will never be able to live up to and you would be doing yourself a disservice. Although 9 entries feels daunting it goes by so fast once you get into it and I wish more games that try to make sequels spoiler free for previous entry’s took this approach (looking at AI:NI).
I want to keep this short as a spoiler review of this game would last over 30 or more paragraphs but to sum it up; this games has an absolutely amazing story, characters, gameplay, world building, music and payoff for several plot threads created years ago to see them to their conclusion.
Undeniable 10/10
Reverie concludes the culmination of over 6 games of development through Crossbell and Erebonia and acts as the final sequel to both of the arcs. There is not a single plot line or aspect of this portion of the world left unanswered and brings about new questions for the next arc in a spectacular way. Making use of three different perspectives to tell its story that are handled exceptionally well in getting the story across clearly it manages to balance the development of several characters as they are all partaking in there own side of things.
Questions I thought that would never get answered do get resolutions that are satisfactory and all use ideas and concepts that have been present in the world for several games and all but one have explanations to back them up and the one that doesn’t is something more on a global scale that has yet to be explained since the beginning of the series, I can only assume we will get its answer nearer the end.
I want to make this spoiler free but I could go on for hours about the sheer complexity and depth to the characters in this series is absurd. (Rean and C are great examples for this game but there’s several other characters I will refrain from mentioning in this review.)
I cannot recommend this game enough, however I can only recommend this game if you have played the rest of the series prior. It’s such a core factor in this series that experiencing the events of the previous arcs and characters weigh heavily on the later titles which is something I feel watching a story recap will never be able to live up to and you would be doing yourself a disservice. Although 9 entries feels daunting it goes by so fast once you get into it and I wish more games that try to make sequels spoiler free for previous entry’s took this approach (looking at AI:NI).
I want to keep this short as a spoiler review of this game would last over 30 or more paragraphs but to sum it up; this games has an absolutely amazing story, characters, gameplay, world building, music and payoff for several plot threads created years ago to see them to their conclusion.
Undeniable 10/10
2023
FFXVI I think perfectly embodies the “we are so back” and “it’s so over” cycle.
Where I thought the linear story missions were fun to play through and quite literally every single main story boss fight was stellar in its presentation, the downtime segments in between could drag quite a bit. Granted there was only a few that were real culprits for this and It didn’t feel like that the entire time, but these instances stand out a lot.
What i just referred to is after you complete a big story beat you are tasked with telling people at your main hub area and going around asking about what to do next or fulfilling random errands for people that are mandatory. Yes all of these are needed for the story to progress (building the boat parts was the worst of them all) and I also understand that having downtime between big story beats so characters can interact and have a breather before the next big moment is crucial as it can’t always go 120 miles an hour.
But these moments feel fairly barren, the characters are alright but a lot of development they could’ve gotten is pushed to the side for Clive. I think Clive is a very good main character and has a decent bit going on with himself and his struggles along with the amazing vocal performance of Ben Starr really sells the moments it needs too. But with the focus being on Clive it can feel a bit strange for example in some quests and side quests, characters for example Jill may not even speak and just give confirmation dialogue. Don’t get me wrong I really like Jill and wanted to like her character more and I think the fewer moments she does get are great but she ends up falling flat a lot of the time because she’s kinda just, there.
Worst part is I’d say not only the best character is Clive, he even then is like a 6 or pushing a 7/10. A lot of his moments happen way to early and it feels like he really doesn’t change all that much throughout the game. His main driving motivation gets hazy later on for a number of reasons (trying not to spoil so I’ll leave it at that). The only other characters I really cared for are Jill, Dion and a few others. All the hub characters were also just there, inoffensive as they existed only to really do one thing and one thing only, but they were all just so uninteresting.
Despite me thinking the characters are eh (a decent amount of the main hub characters) to alright/good (Jill, Cid, Dion) they really make up for it in the performance for all these characters that does make the scenes they’re in very believable.
The areas you visit are again for me very polarising. The linear sections I think look beautiful and have such variation and in general great design to them yet the open ended areas boil down to 3 big areas that consist of fields and forests one of which is a bit more mountainous and the other big zone being a desert. These were fine going through the story and I had no problem with them it’s just traversing as Clive can sometimes be very slow and cumbersome especially in the early game and the lack of a sprint in towns can make doing quests a bit more dull.
Speaking of side quests about 60 or so of the 70 odd side quests in they game were entirely pointless, they didn’t add that much to the world building and all felt quite the same however some of the late game ones were pretty good for the game but I do think there was a tad to many.
Overall my main issues lie with pacing and how I’d like for those downtime segments to be more involved with some of the cast as well as having a much more fleshed out cast in general.
This games combat and music are the main selling points for me. Even if the combat can be boiled down to “small combo, chain special moves” and doesn’t need too much thought it’s still satisfying to play. I will admit the lack of weakness variety, unique inputs for moves, spell variety (not counting Eikon skills) and team related attacks was a pretty big letdown but Clive himself can be very fun to play. Coming up with different ability set ups that make everything just work for every situation to be able to pull of an absurd stagger damage number is fun to do and it helps that the moves in general are so visually striking.
This doesn’t factor in the games Eikon fights, which I would say are the game’s highlights. Without spoiling some of these are genuinely some of the coolest boss fights I have ever seen in an action game and has one of my favourite fights in a game based purely on the fight alone (if I was to include character and story weight to the fight it practically wouldn’t be there).
I’m writing this as the credits roll and I will say Soken did an amazing job on this soundtrack. Even if I wished the team let him create more of his unique tracks like Titan and Typhoon I still think the rest of the music is very solid. Every Eikon fight getting their own theme was nice and made the fights more memorable because of it.
I do think this game is good despite its off pacing at times and rough out of combat exploration. I still feel this game is worth the play though and commitment to see it through. Just maybe don’t do all the side quests, because it’s a genuine difference of about 15 hours at least.
6/10
Where I thought the linear story missions were fun to play through and quite literally every single main story boss fight was stellar in its presentation, the downtime segments in between could drag quite a bit. Granted there was only a few that were real culprits for this and It didn’t feel like that the entire time, but these instances stand out a lot.
What i just referred to is after you complete a big story beat you are tasked with telling people at your main hub area and going around asking about what to do next or fulfilling random errands for people that are mandatory. Yes all of these are needed for the story to progress (building the boat parts was the worst of them all) and I also understand that having downtime between big story beats so characters can interact and have a breather before the next big moment is crucial as it can’t always go 120 miles an hour.
But these moments feel fairly barren, the characters are alright but a lot of development they could’ve gotten is pushed to the side for Clive. I think Clive is a very good main character and has a decent bit going on with himself and his struggles along with the amazing vocal performance of Ben Starr really sells the moments it needs too. But with the focus being on Clive it can feel a bit strange for example in some quests and side quests, characters for example Jill may not even speak and just give confirmation dialogue. Don’t get me wrong I really like Jill and wanted to like her character more and I think the fewer moments she does get are great but she ends up falling flat a lot of the time because she’s kinda just, there.
Worst part is I’d say not only the best character is Clive, he even then is like a 6 or pushing a 7/10. A lot of his moments happen way to early and it feels like he really doesn’t change all that much throughout the game. His main driving motivation gets hazy later on for a number of reasons (trying not to spoil so I’ll leave it at that). The only other characters I really cared for are Jill, Dion and a few others. All the hub characters were also just there, inoffensive as they existed only to really do one thing and one thing only, but they were all just so uninteresting.
Despite me thinking the characters are eh (a decent amount of the main hub characters) to alright/good (Jill, Cid, Dion) they really make up for it in the performance for all these characters that does make the scenes they’re in very believable.
The areas you visit are again for me very polarising. The linear sections I think look beautiful and have such variation and in general great design to them yet the open ended areas boil down to 3 big areas that consist of fields and forests one of which is a bit more mountainous and the other big zone being a desert. These were fine going through the story and I had no problem with them it’s just traversing as Clive can sometimes be very slow and cumbersome especially in the early game and the lack of a sprint in towns can make doing quests a bit more dull.
Speaking of side quests about 60 or so of the 70 odd side quests in they game were entirely pointless, they didn’t add that much to the world building and all felt quite the same however some of the late game ones were pretty good for the game but I do think there was a tad to many.
Overall my main issues lie with pacing and how I’d like for those downtime segments to be more involved with some of the cast as well as having a much more fleshed out cast in general.
This games combat and music are the main selling points for me. Even if the combat can be boiled down to “small combo, chain special moves” and doesn’t need too much thought it’s still satisfying to play. I will admit the lack of weakness variety, unique inputs for moves, spell variety (not counting Eikon skills) and team related attacks was a pretty big letdown but Clive himself can be very fun to play. Coming up with different ability set ups that make everything just work for every situation to be able to pull of an absurd stagger damage number is fun to do and it helps that the moves in general are so visually striking.
This doesn’t factor in the games Eikon fights, which I would say are the game’s highlights. Without spoiling some of these are genuinely some of the coolest boss fights I have ever seen in an action game and has one of my favourite fights in a game based purely on the fight alone (if I was to include character and story weight to the fight it practically wouldn’t be there).
I’m writing this as the credits roll and I will say Soken did an amazing job on this soundtrack. Even if I wished the team let him create more of his unique tracks like Titan and Typhoon I still think the rest of the music is very solid. Every Eikon fight getting their own theme was nice and made the fights more memorable because of it.
I do think this game is good despite its off pacing at times and rough out of combat exploration. I still feel this game is worth the play though and commitment to see it through. Just maybe don’t do all the side quests, because it’s a genuine difference of about 15 hours at least.
6/10
I really wanted to enjoy this game and gave it several chances throughout my short time playing it but it really didn’t click well with me.
Taking the already decent combat from KH1 and grinding the entire flow of it to a halt with several mechanics you need to micromanage was horrible to try and play. The card mechanics could have been a cool idea as Square Enix have done good card games before but having to juggle what cards your opponents use, sifting through 20 plus cards just to get to the right ones and worry about the spacing of you and your opponents attacks in real time was to much layered on at once.
The combat just feels very restrictive and doesn’t flow well at all. The game also doesn’t do itself any favours since you can choose which world you want to go to first. This may end up meaning you pick one that you are way too under levelled for and end up needing to either reload a save because the boss has jumped up to 3 health bars or grind it out for several hours, both of which I wasn’t willing to do.
It’s not like I picked a late game world considering I based it off what worlds you go to in KH1 first so I chose Wonderland. Speaking of the Disney worlds near all of their story’s in this game are rehashed plot lines from KH1 with the addition of characters going “damn I don’t remember you but you’re called Sora” and that’s about it.
There was potential to have a cool setting with the Disney worlds becoming distorted and merging in their presentation to represent Soras memories being changed but the Disney worlds ended up not serving much purpose and only the Kingdom Hearts original worlds mattered in this game.
I have to preface that because I really couldn’t enjoy this gameplay I did watch all the cutscenes for the game as I am aware it is crucial to know these details for KH2 and a story summary didn’t really cut it.
This game gets any rating at all because of its story. It’s a really strong set up towards KH2 and all the new characters they introduced are extremely interesting and unique. Organisation XIII is a great group of villains so far and was what this series needed after KH1. As much as the Disney worlds are and feel like fun side adventures for the characters to go on the main crux of what makes these games interesting so far is the main cast and story that they have going on so an introduction to a primary villain group is welcome.
After trying to play this game I can see why it’s so polarising but if you really can’t stand its gameplay like me then I highly recommend watching the cutscenes, they only amount to 3 hours so it’s a much better use of your time than trying to slog through this game for 25.
4/10
Taking the already decent combat from KH1 and grinding the entire flow of it to a halt with several mechanics you need to micromanage was horrible to try and play. The card mechanics could have been a cool idea as Square Enix have done good card games before but having to juggle what cards your opponents use, sifting through 20 plus cards just to get to the right ones and worry about the spacing of you and your opponents attacks in real time was to much layered on at once.
The combat just feels very restrictive and doesn’t flow well at all. The game also doesn’t do itself any favours since you can choose which world you want to go to first. This may end up meaning you pick one that you are way too under levelled for and end up needing to either reload a save because the boss has jumped up to 3 health bars or grind it out for several hours, both of which I wasn’t willing to do.
It’s not like I picked a late game world considering I based it off what worlds you go to in KH1 first so I chose Wonderland. Speaking of the Disney worlds near all of their story’s in this game are rehashed plot lines from KH1 with the addition of characters going “damn I don’t remember you but you’re called Sora” and that’s about it.
There was potential to have a cool setting with the Disney worlds becoming distorted and merging in their presentation to represent Soras memories being changed but the Disney worlds ended up not serving much purpose and only the Kingdom Hearts original worlds mattered in this game.
I have to preface that because I really couldn’t enjoy this gameplay I did watch all the cutscenes for the game as I am aware it is crucial to know these details for KH2 and a story summary didn’t really cut it.
This game gets any rating at all because of its story. It’s a really strong set up towards KH2 and all the new characters they introduced are extremely interesting and unique. Organisation XIII is a great group of villains so far and was what this series needed after KH1. As much as the Disney worlds are and feel like fun side adventures for the characters to go on the main crux of what makes these games interesting so far is the main cast and story that they have going on so an introduction to a primary villain group is welcome.
After trying to play this game I can see why it’s so polarising but if you really can’t stand its gameplay like me then I highly recommend watching the cutscenes, they only amount to 3 hours so it’s a much better use of your time than trying to slog through this game for 25.
4/10
2023
Lies of P was absolutely fantastic and is so true to the souls style that I’d even say it should be considered among the ranks as an actual souls game.
First I’ll go over the gameplay and combat, for the standard gameplay loop it’s very similar to souls games. Standard light and heavy’s, dodges, guarding, parry’s when you perfectly guard and a stagger system that allows you to get a riposte for big damage. These all work how you’d think and they don’t feel clunky at all, I think I’d only complain about the dodge distance sometimes feeling too short but that’s alleviated later on.
The main core parts of the gameplay for me are the weapons themselves and the other small gameplay mechanics that add its own flair to the game. To start, the boss weapons and even the standard weapons felt different in some way. Most standard weapons share move sets which isn’t a problem due to being able to detach and combine blades and handles allowed for complete customisation of these weapons to fit your exact needs. In my case, I needed the damage of a strength weapon that was a higher attack speed than normal. So I combined the wrench head to a curved sword handle and it worked perfectly.
The boss weapons I used at least all had varying moves and unique characteristics behind them. One weapon I had was able to detach its blade like a whip for AOE and range, another had a built in parry mechanic to its charged attacks and another fires out a flying disc. All of these weapons felt very different and fun to use and I haven’t even see half of them yet. The inclusion of the grindstone buff system was also really cool. Being able to change the type of buff or effect my weapon can do was extremely helpful and I found myself swapping them around often.
The legion arm was also another fun spin to the gameplay that allows you to have more of a utility tool for a specific niche. Need to close the gap on an enemy, launch projectiles from afar, do a certain damage type or have a whole new defensive option it managed to do them all. These abilities as well as many other weapons made the combat feel fun and engaging to play and come up with different strategies.
Now despite most of the areas feeling kinda the same in their designs, I could excuse this as most of the game took place within the same city. Although none of the areas were super amazing and none were really utterly terrible, the interconnectivity in these areas was extremely impressive with the amount of shortcuts every section had shows how much thought they put into these areas looping back and not just feeling like a liner through line.
The boss fights in this game are some of the highlights for me. Romeo and Laxasia were by far for me the best fights in the game but there was plenty of other good to very good fights throughout the game also. Some fights could be a bit of a pain at times but none of them felt super egregious and it was all about learning ways around the bosses movement patterns and attacks that made some fights like the green monster of the swamp (real) more enjoyable.
The music in this game despite tracks being played few and far between (hotel music and boss music, no area music) was all very nice as well. I think the soundtrack mainly gets its highs from the records you could collect throughout the game. Some of these tracks were wonderful and really nice pieces of music you could listen to that made me want to find more of them.
Unlike souls games, this game did have more of a story going on. I thought the story was very good and the world surrounding you was so rich in lore and details that you could tell they really cared about making the setting feel real and immersive. The way they incorporated telling the truth or lying was extremely interesting with how they were usually related to moral choices. Little things like you losing the mechanical sound effects when rolling as you lie more or the reaction the cat has as you become more human were very nice touches.
The characters were a huge point of this game for me that i thought were done exceptionally well. The voice casting and directing really sold these characters personalities such as Venigni, Geppetto, Arlecchino and many others all had very interesting character arcs and dynamics that made you care about what they were saying. Having the Hotel characters each have a continuous quest line through to the end of the game made these characters feel like they had development throughout the game rather than all at once
Overall I think the game was extremely well crafted and hit the souls formula right on the mark while having its own unique deviations made this game feel like it’s own game rather than a carbon copy of another.
Judging by certain information a sequel or at the very least a DLC seems likely and I’m excited to see what they have in store.
8/10
First I’ll go over the gameplay and combat, for the standard gameplay loop it’s very similar to souls games. Standard light and heavy’s, dodges, guarding, parry’s when you perfectly guard and a stagger system that allows you to get a riposte for big damage. These all work how you’d think and they don’t feel clunky at all, I think I’d only complain about the dodge distance sometimes feeling too short but that’s alleviated later on.
The main core parts of the gameplay for me are the weapons themselves and the other small gameplay mechanics that add its own flair to the game. To start, the boss weapons and even the standard weapons felt different in some way. Most standard weapons share move sets which isn’t a problem due to being able to detach and combine blades and handles allowed for complete customisation of these weapons to fit your exact needs. In my case, I needed the damage of a strength weapon that was a higher attack speed than normal. So I combined the wrench head to a curved sword handle and it worked perfectly.
The boss weapons I used at least all had varying moves and unique characteristics behind them. One weapon I had was able to detach its blade like a whip for AOE and range, another had a built in parry mechanic to its charged attacks and another fires out a flying disc. All of these weapons felt very different and fun to use and I haven’t even see half of them yet. The inclusion of the grindstone buff system was also really cool. Being able to change the type of buff or effect my weapon can do was extremely helpful and I found myself swapping them around often.
The legion arm was also another fun spin to the gameplay that allows you to have more of a utility tool for a specific niche. Need to close the gap on an enemy, launch projectiles from afar, do a certain damage type or have a whole new defensive option it managed to do them all. These abilities as well as many other weapons made the combat feel fun and engaging to play and come up with different strategies.
Now despite most of the areas feeling kinda the same in their designs, I could excuse this as most of the game took place within the same city. Although none of the areas were super amazing and none were really utterly terrible, the interconnectivity in these areas was extremely impressive with the amount of shortcuts every section had shows how much thought they put into these areas looping back and not just feeling like a liner through line.
The boss fights in this game are some of the highlights for me. Romeo and Laxasia were by far for me the best fights in the game but there was plenty of other good to very good fights throughout the game also. Some fights could be a bit of a pain at times but none of them felt super egregious and it was all about learning ways around the bosses movement patterns and attacks that made some fights like the green monster of the swamp (real) more enjoyable.
The music in this game despite tracks being played few and far between (hotel music and boss music, no area music) was all very nice as well. I think the soundtrack mainly gets its highs from the records you could collect throughout the game. Some of these tracks were wonderful and really nice pieces of music you could listen to that made me want to find more of them.
Unlike souls games, this game did have more of a story going on. I thought the story was very good and the world surrounding you was so rich in lore and details that you could tell they really cared about making the setting feel real and immersive. The way they incorporated telling the truth or lying was extremely interesting with how they were usually related to moral choices. Little things like you losing the mechanical sound effects when rolling as you lie more or the reaction the cat has as you become more human were very nice touches.
The characters were a huge point of this game for me that i thought were done exceptionally well. The voice casting and directing really sold these characters personalities such as Venigni, Geppetto, Arlecchino and many others all had very interesting character arcs and dynamics that made you care about what they were saying. Having the Hotel characters each have a continuous quest line through to the end of the game made these characters feel like they had development throughout the game rather than all at once
Overall I think the game was extremely well crafted and hit the souls formula right on the mark while having its own unique deviations made this game feel like it’s own game rather than a carbon copy of another.
Judging by certain information a sequel or at the very least a DLC seems likely and I’m excited to see what they have in store.
8/10
2020
Not very good 👎
This review contains spoilers
Zero time dilemma is absolutely fascinating for all the wrong reasons.
I played this game one year ago and to this day it lives rent free in my head and I’m not afraid to admit, but no game has ever been able to fumble a storyline so absurdly, so ridiculously as this game does that I’m still finding out awful things about it a year later.
I’m gonna start with what was expected, even promised to an extent. A conclusion to the zero escape trilogy that will tie up all lose ends and realise the plan and plot points set in motion by VLR to their conclusion, we got almost none of this and for what we did get it was lacklustre at best. For an example the route where Sigma and Phi are meant to try and find out the true path described in VLR that took 45 years of work and training is decided by a coin flip. Yep all that build up to see if they win the 50/50.
Anyway starting with the only okay part of the game, Diana’s route. This route consists of the timeline that loops into VLR and shows the events before the AB project. It revels how Sigma lost his arms, how the virus broke out and how Phi was born. This is all great and I feel was the only written part of the game. It was a nice timeline to coincide within the storyline and ties up some information we didn’t have from VLR, however. This route also includes a very pivotal plot point, something that if you were to hear it you’d think it would have numerous hints and other tidbits of information and world building to make it seem feasible in the story’s universe.
The aliens.
I don’t know what they were thinking when they thought to introduce extraterrestrial lifeforms in a series that has not even hinted about their existence all to try and explain a very poor plot device in the form of transporters that send you mind and body through time. What happened to all the intriguing real life theories about concepts like morphogenetic field and Schrödingers cat that were littered throughout the previous games and gave meaning to them being brought up later. The aliens came out of nowhere and although they are a concept in real life, this was never mentioned once before its reveal making it feel ridiculous and out of place in the world.
Then we go onto the Carlos route. This route has just a couple more things wrong with it. The complete character assassination of Junpei made me think we were seeing a different character in the story unlike Tenmyouji who feels like a development on his character. Although very important and one of the best characters in the last two games, Akane is kinda just there (when she isn’t meant to be as stated by HERSELF in VLR) and only serves to infodump for far to long on the player at random points throughout the route.
Then we have the man himself Carlos, who I believe was meant to be the main character before they decided to have 3. This man finds out he’s able to SHIFT and once he does he can just do it?? at like any time he needs to and he just abuses this ability that took Sigma and Phi an entire game, a whole 45 years of preparation to even use semi reliably while Carlos jumps to a different timeline well over 10 times and completely messes with the games already messy story. This on top of a recent revelation that me and my friends came to that got confirmed by Uchikoshi himself that “?” In VLRs ending “intervened” in the Decision Game and is someone who knew Sigma and Phi from the decision game. Only two characters that fit this bill are Delta and Carlos with the latter being incredibly likely which is a huge retcon to what VLR lead you to believe. If you really want to see how bad this character messes everything up just search “Carlos shift timeline ZTD” and try and piece it together.
Trying to keep this short I’ll move onto Q team. This cast of characters is one of the worst cast I have ever seen in a story. Them being uninteresting aside, they add almost nothing meaningful to the story and what they do add, makes the ENTIRE series as you knew it completely different.
I’ll start with a simple one, Mira. Mira plays the roll of the psycho/killer of this game and just doesn’t really do a good job of it. She likes to kill people and feel their heart in her hand, great i guess but this is pretty much her only trait of her character. The only thing she really does is kill Eric’s mum in the past.
Speaking of Eric I think he’s even worse. He doesn’t even have the villain character situation going for him, he just complains at Q and really wants to be in a relationship with Mira. That’s it. That’s his character. He does however tell a story about one of the most stupidest plot twists and metaphors used in this entire series, the snail.
If you look through “the snails” wiki page for this game you will understand how ridiculous this is. This one snail basically inadvertently causes the events for the ENTIRE SERIES because Eric’s mum saw this snail on her bike trail and decided to go a different path to avoid it, thus running into Mira, dying, and then having Akanes father be blamed for the murder which spirals her family out of control.
I wouldn’t mind the snail situation had it been anything but a snail. Eric’s mum could have just cycled past it, there was nothing to avoid most people wouldn’t even see the thing. If it was something like a tree fell over on the road then sure, but no the god damn snail caused it all.
I will return to that later because it gets even more insane, but moving on we have Q. Q isn’t bad I’d say just very under-utilised. From what I gather Q or Sean is a robot who’s personality had a car accident?? Honestly I do not know what to say about him other than you are under the illusion that you are playing as him throughout his route, you actually play as a very cool character called Delta.
Just wanted to say before I go off on the tangent that is about Delta, the whole map/room being the same for every character at different times was also ridiculous in that it just was an unnecessary twist.
Now Delta is revealed to be on the Q team this entire time and is actually who you play as in EVERY route through “mind hacking”, he can also be “seen” in some sections where there’s just a random shadow of a wheelchair (you should be able to see the thing) on the ground. If that already isn’t insane enough I just want to assure you that this man is the most ridiculous and most absolutely outlandish character to ever be made.
Let me give a small summery on Delta. He is 120 odd years old, is the son of Sigma who was then transported to the past. Is after an unnamed, never before mentioned “religious fanatic” that’s apparently who he’s trying to stop and he has the ability to “mind hack” (what???) people to make them do his bidding.
This is all well and good and already makes no sense whatsoever but what if I told you the absolutely shocking revelation I found out after scrolling through information about him, I genuinely don’t believe that this wasn’t somewhat intentional and is just never brought up or considered in the entire game.
Here’s a couple of extra facts about delta:
Was sent back to 1904 Germany.
Was in his late 30s during the 1940s.
Founded an organisation that states if you devote yourself you will be reborn as a “new race”.
Created a militia of “blonde haired, blue eyed” white men.
Had melting chambers in his facility.
Killed 6 billion people.
So based of this information we can safely say that delta is A NAZI, UCHIKOSHI HAS JUST WRITTEN A SECOND HITLER. Like I cannot stress enough how insane this is, way to much lines up for it to be a coincidence his cult following that he has even has a red and black colour scheme going on for his “new race” of people it’s insane.
Delta ends up being the beginning of nearly every event in this game, he was the answer the writers had for us for all our questions. Free the soul? Delta. The man who placed the snail knowing that Eric’s mum would change her path? Delta (yes that’s real). Who was Akane conversing with to try and stop the catastrophe shown in VLR? Delta. Who gave money to Ace to fund the second Nonary game? Delta. Everything leads back to Delta, and what does this man say after all this, after everything he’s apparently done surely this man has some very solid motives for all of his actions-
“My motives are somewhat, complex”
That’s it, this is all he has to say for himself before “””mind hacking””” Eric into shooting him in the head with a shotgun. The man who has been there for everything just describes himself as “complex” in the game we were meant to get answers.
In the end the cast all shift to the coin flip timeline where they escape (Because they can just all do that now) and delta appears giving Carlos a gun, ending on a cliffhanger to the finale of the series on if he shoots him or not. And that’s how it ends.
This game is so flawed, so absurdly terribly written that it’s actually one of the funniest games of all time and I cannot recommend it enough.
-1/10
I played this game one year ago and to this day it lives rent free in my head and I’m not afraid to admit, but no game has ever been able to fumble a storyline so absurdly, so ridiculously as this game does that I’m still finding out awful things about it a year later.
I’m gonna start with what was expected, even promised to an extent. A conclusion to the zero escape trilogy that will tie up all lose ends and realise the plan and plot points set in motion by VLR to their conclusion, we got almost none of this and for what we did get it was lacklustre at best. For an example the route where Sigma and Phi are meant to try and find out the true path described in VLR that took 45 years of work and training is decided by a coin flip. Yep all that build up to see if they win the 50/50.
Anyway starting with the only okay part of the game, Diana’s route. This route consists of the timeline that loops into VLR and shows the events before the AB project. It revels how Sigma lost his arms, how the virus broke out and how Phi was born. This is all great and I feel was the only written part of the game. It was a nice timeline to coincide within the storyline and ties up some information we didn’t have from VLR, however. This route also includes a very pivotal plot point, something that if you were to hear it you’d think it would have numerous hints and other tidbits of information and world building to make it seem feasible in the story’s universe.
The aliens.
I don’t know what they were thinking when they thought to introduce extraterrestrial lifeforms in a series that has not even hinted about their existence all to try and explain a very poor plot device in the form of transporters that send you mind and body through time. What happened to all the intriguing real life theories about concepts like morphogenetic field and Schrödingers cat that were littered throughout the previous games and gave meaning to them being brought up later. The aliens came out of nowhere and although they are a concept in real life, this was never mentioned once before its reveal making it feel ridiculous and out of place in the world.
Then we go onto the Carlos route. This route has just a couple more things wrong with it. The complete character assassination of Junpei made me think we were seeing a different character in the story unlike Tenmyouji who feels like a development on his character. Although very important and one of the best characters in the last two games, Akane is kinda just there (when she isn’t meant to be as stated by HERSELF in VLR) and only serves to infodump for far to long on the player at random points throughout the route.
Then we have the man himself Carlos, who I believe was meant to be the main character before they decided to have 3. This man finds out he’s able to SHIFT and once he does he can just do it?? at like any time he needs to and he just abuses this ability that took Sigma and Phi an entire game, a whole 45 years of preparation to even use semi reliably while Carlos jumps to a different timeline well over 10 times and completely messes with the games already messy story. This on top of a recent revelation that me and my friends came to that got confirmed by Uchikoshi himself that “?” In VLRs ending “intervened” in the Decision Game and is someone who knew Sigma and Phi from the decision game. Only two characters that fit this bill are Delta and Carlos with the latter being incredibly likely which is a huge retcon to what VLR lead you to believe. If you really want to see how bad this character messes everything up just search “Carlos shift timeline ZTD” and try and piece it together.
Trying to keep this short I’ll move onto Q team. This cast of characters is one of the worst cast I have ever seen in a story. Them being uninteresting aside, they add almost nothing meaningful to the story and what they do add, makes the ENTIRE series as you knew it completely different.
I’ll start with a simple one, Mira. Mira plays the roll of the psycho/killer of this game and just doesn’t really do a good job of it. She likes to kill people and feel their heart in her hand, great i guess but this is pretty much her only trait of her character. The only thing she really does is kill Eric’s mum in the past.
Speaking of Eric I think he’s even worse. He doesn’t even have the villain character situation going for him, he just complains at Q and really wants to be in a relationship with Mira. That’s it. That’s his character. He does however tell a story about one of the most stupidest plot twists and metaphors used in this entire series, the snail.
If you look through “the snails” wiki page for this game you will understand how ridiculous this is. This one snail basically inadvertently causes the events for the ENTIRE SERIES because Eric’s mum saw this snail on her bike trail and decided to go a different path to avoid it, thus running into Mira, dying, and then having Akanes father be blamed for the murder which spirals her family out of control.
I wouldn’t mind the snail situation had it been anything but a snail. Eric’s mum could have just cycled past it, there was nothing to avoid most people wouldn’t even see the thing. If it was something like a tree fell over on the road then sure, but no the god damn snail caused it all.
I will return to that later because it gets even more insane, but moving on we have Q. Q isn’t bad I’d say just very under-utilised. From what I gather Q or Sean is a robot who’s personality had a car accident?? Honestly I do not know what to say about him other than you are under the illusion that you are playing as him throughout his route, you actually play as a very cool character called Delta.
Just wanted to say before I go off on the tangent that is about Delta, the whole map/room being the same for every character at different times was also ridiculous in that it just was an unnecessary twist.
Now Delta is revealed to be on the Q team this entire time and is actually who you play as in EVERY route through “mind hacking”, he can also be “seen” in some sections where there’s just a random shadow of a wheelchair (you should be able to see the thing) on the ground. If that already isn’t insane enough I just want to assure you that this man is the most ridiculous and most absolutely outlandish character to ever be made.
Let me give a small summery on Delta. He is 120 odd years old, is the son of Sigma who was then transported to the past. Is after an unnamed, never before mentioned “religious fanatic” that’s apparently who he’s trying to stop and he has the ability to “mind hack” (what???) people to make them do his bidding.
This is all well and good and already makes no sense whatsoever but what if I told you the absolutely shocking revelation I found out after scrolling through information about him, I genuinely don’t believe that this wasn’t somewhat intentional and is just never brought up or considered in the entire game.
Here’s a couple of extra facts about delta:
Was sent back to 1904 Germany.
Was in his late 30s during the 1940s.
Founded an organisation that states if you devote yourself you will be reborn as a “new race”.
Created a militia of “blonde haired, blue eyed” white men.
Had melting chambers in his facility.
Killed 6 billion people.
So based of this information we can safely say that delta is A NAZI, UCHIKOSHI HAS JUST WRITTEN A SECOND HITLER. Like I cannot stress enough how insane this is, way to much lines up for it to be a coincidence his cult following that he has even has a red and black colour scheme going on for his “new race” of people it’s insane.
Delta ends up being the beginning of nearly every event in this game, he was the answer the writers had for us for all our questions. Free the soul? Delta. The man who placed the snail knowing that Eric’s mum would change her path? Delta (yes that’s real). Who was Akane conversing with to try and stop the catastrophe shown in VLR? Delta. Who gave money to Ace to fund the second Nonary game? Delta. Everything leads back to Delta, and what does this man say after all this, after everything he’s apparently done surely this man has some very solid motives for all of his actions-
“My motives are somewhat, complex”
That’s it, this is all he has to say for himself before “””mind hacking””” Eric into shooting him in the head with a shotgun. The man who has been there for everything just describes himself as “complex” in the game we were meant to get answers.
In the end the cast all shift to the coin flip timeline where they escape (Because they can just all do that now) and delta appears giving Carlos a gun, ending on a cliffhanger to the finale of the series on if he shoots him or not. And that’s how it ends.
This game is so flawed, so absurdly terribly written that it’s actually one of the funniest games of all time and I cannot recommend it enough.
-1/10
2024
This review contains spoilers
Persona 3 Reload is the perfected way at portraying a remake of a beloved game while retaining and respecting the originals tone, story and integrity for new players to experience.
I played through FES back in April 2020 and believe that every aspect of Reload and the original both have their own strengths that make them fantastic games.
Where the new gameplay features and balanced difficulty are some of the best the series has to offer, the originals challenge and lack of controllable party members gave it a character of its own which I really enjoyed.
Where the absolutely stunning visuals of reload especially in the new in-game cutscenes was everything I wanted from a remake, the originals tone in it’s early 2000s cutscenes and what they had to work with given the hardware is still visually fantastic to this day.
Where essentially all of the re-recorded music captured the original soundtracks feel and all of the new songs sounded stellar and were some of the best music they’ve done, the originals is timeless and certain tracks despite how amazing the new versions are they will never hit the same as before, but are so good that hearing them through Reload doesn’t do you a disservice.
Where the new voice work is absolutely fantastic and I’d even go as far as saying the likes of Aigis, Junpei, Mitsuru, Chidori, Ken and Shinjiro all did just as good if not better performances in my mind, the originals cast still holds up its own (a few characters in the original, not so much) and both games have the same impact as it did before.
The extra story and character scenes in the likes of the link episodes, hangouts and added Strega scenes did nothing but wonders for the game and improved its already fantastic story and character writing. I noticed this when going through Reload and it’s really apparent now, characters in Persona 5 and to a lesser extent Persona 4 really don’t develop much without the aid of the main character. I think this is partially due to most of their arcs happening behind a social link and tying their second awakening to the rank 10 of a character may be one of the worst decisions Atlus made with the recent games.
Having these characters have scenes completely devoid of the main character and allowing them to develop as the game goes on, coming to a realisation through the consequences of the story is so much better and it’s what really sets Persona 3 apart from the later entries.
That’s not to say later entries are bad, characters do get development but it’s a far cry from what is portrayed in this game. I will say despite the main cast having zero bad characters the villains of this game are still just alright. Strega as a group are fine and Takaya is a great parallel to Makoto, being the visual representation of a Messiah rather than the mental representation that Makoto has. Chidori is their best member with everything she has and Junpeis awakening scene was done extremely well. The likes of Ryoji were improved a lot with his extra scenes and Nyx is the best final boss they’ve done from a story, character and gameplay standpoint as he doesn’t just come out of nowhere having time to be built up towards the final confrontation.
Going through the majority of the social links in this game made me realise I actually really like a lot of them. Sure the likes of Kenji, Nozomi, Miyamoto and Hayase were either just funny or I was indifferent on. But the variance in the character writing with people like Tanaka being just an awful person, Mutatsu being not a good person as well but having his own realisation and redemption and Akinari being the best non party member social link in the game with his ties to the core themes made them stand out a lot. The newly fully voiced social links really adds a lot to them and it’s surprising how just adding a voice to these characters made me care a whole lot more.
Knowing what the ending to this game is really adds a lot to the final day. Obviously going into the ending completely blind is the best experience but seeing Makoto go around and talk to all these people he’s bonded with over the last year, making false promises with all of them as his time is drawing to a close is very impactful and the likes of Akinaris mother hit extremely hard for me.
The ending scene got me again, they did this scene so much justice and it was absolutely beautiful the way it was portrayed. Aigis being my favourite character in the whole series is always the part that gets me the most in the ending. The amazing voice acting from Dawn M. Bennett really sold this scene and I’m glad that they managed to keep, maybe even better the feeling that the ending brings in the original. I could go on and on about how this and many other scenes in this game are so well written but I have a tendency to make essay long reviews and this ones already getting there so I’ll leave that for now.
Despite all this and even though I do prefer Reload over the original, I can’t say it’s definitively better. They both have their own standing in what makes them unique experiences even if they are the same story, it feels vastly different from the likes of Golden and Royal where they are in every sense of the word an upgrade. Those games being remasters makes them essentially the definitive experience but with Reload being a remake, it gives ground that the original still has a place in being played and appreciated akin to FFVII and its remakes.
Do you need to play the original after playing Reload? No I don’t think you do need to do that at all. But if you wanted a slightly different experience with all the above points I made, it’s still worth your time.
Persona 3 is and continues to be the best game in the franchise and I’m excited for if or when they release The Answer to finally be able to play through that portion of the story.
10/10
I played through FES back in April 2020 and believe that every aspect of Reload and the original both have their own strengths that make them fantastic games.
Where the new gameplay features and balanced difficulty are some of the best the series has to offer, the originals challenge and lack of controllable party members gave it a character of its own which I really enjoyed.
Where the absolutely stunning visuals of reload especially in the new in-game cutscenes was everything I wanted from a remake, the originals tone in it’s early 2000s cutscenes and what they had to work with given the hardware is still visually fantastic to this day.
Where essentially all of the re-recorded music captured the original soundtracks feel and all of the new songs sounded stellar and were some of the best music they’ve done, the originals is timeless and certain tracks despite how amazing the new versions are they will never hit the same as before, but are so good that hearing them through Reload doesn’t do you a disservice.
Where the new voice work is absolutely fantastic and I’d even go as far as saying the likes of Aigis, Junpei, Mitsuru, Chidori, Ken and Shinjiro all did just as good if not better performances in my mind, the originals cast still holds up its own (a few characters in the original, not so much) and both games have the same impact as it did before.
The extra story and character scenes in the likes of the link episodes, hangouts and added Strega scenes did nothing but wonders for the game and improved its already fantastic story and character writing. I noticed this when going through Reload and it’s really apparent now, characters in Persona 5 and to a lesser extent Persona 4 really don’t develop much without the aid of the main character. I think this is partially due to most of their arcs happening behind a social link and tying their second awakening to the rank 10 of a character may be one of the worst decisions Atlus made with the recent games.
Having these characters have scenes completely devoid of the main character and allowing them to develop as the game goes on, coming to a realisation through the consequences of the story is so much better and it’s what really sets Persona 3 apart from the later entries.
That’s not to say later entries are bad, characters do get development but it’s a far cry from what is portrayed in this game. I will say despite the main cast having zero bad characters the villains of this game are still just alright. Strega as a group are fine and Takaya is a great parallel to Makoto, being the visual representation of a Messiah rather than the mental representation that Makoto has. Chidori is their best member with everything she has and Junpeis awakening scene was done extremely well. The likes of Ryoji were improved a lot with his extra scenes and Nyx is the best final boss they’ve done from a story, character and gameplay standpoint as he doesn’t just come out of nowhere having time to be built up towards the final confrontation.
Going through the majority of the social links in this game made me realise I actually really like a lot of them. Sure the likes of Kenji, Nozomi, Miyamoto and Hayase were either just funny or I was indifferent on. But the variance in the character writing with people like Tanaka being just an awful person, Mutatsu being not a good person as well but having his own realisation and redemption and Akinari being the best non party member social link in the game with his ties to the core themes made them stand out a lot. The newly fully voiced social links really adds a lot to them and it’s surprising how just adding a voice to these characters made me care a whole lot more.
Knowing what the ending to this game is really adds a lot to the final day. Obviously going into the ending completely blind is the best experience but seeing Makoto go around and talk to all these people he’s bonded with over the last year, making false promises with all of them as his time is drawing to a close is very impactful and the likes of Akinaris mother hit extremely hard for me.
The ending scene got me again, they did this scene so much justice and it was absolutely beautiful the way it was portrayed. Aigis being my favourite character in the whole series is always the part that gets me the most in the ending. The amazing voice acting from Dawn M. Bennett really sold this scene and I’m glad that they managed to keep, maybe even better the feeling that the ending brings in the original. I could go on and on about how this and many other scenes in this game are so well written but I have a tendency to make essay long reviews and this ones already getting there so I’ll leave that for now.
Despite all this and even though I do prefer Reload over the original, I can’t say it’s definitively better. They both have their own standing in what makes them unique experiences even if they are the same story, it feels vastly different from the likes of Golden and Royal where they are in every sense of the word an upgrade. Those games being remasters makes them essentially the definitive experience but with Reload being a remake, it gives ground that the original still has a place in being played and appreciated akin to FFVII and its remakes.
Do you need to play the original after playing Reload? No I don’t think you do need to do that at all. But if you wanted a slightly different experience with all the above points I made, it’s still worth your time.
Persona 3 is and continues to be the best game in the franchise and I’m excited for if or when they release The Answer to finally be able to play through that portion of the story.
10/10