Bananamanana
2 reviews liked by Bananamanana
I'm probably going to repeat a lot of similar points that Larry Davis brought up in his review, so... what he said.
14 years after The Forgotten Sands, Prince of Persia is finally back, and the folks over at Ubisoft Monpellier understood the assignment: crap up good movement and puzzle solving with dreadful combat and an over-reliance on mobs of spongy enemies.
Parrying and punishing is the bread and butter of Sargon's kit, a rhythm you want to maintain to build meter for more devastating abilities, but when you're just trying to get to your next objective or explore some crypt, constantly getting beaned from all sides by low-level goons that have a bafflingly high HP pool gets really annoying. You might think bosses better leverage this system being that they're one-on-one encounters, but most fall into the same rote strategy of playing defensively until they open themselves up for a cinematic counter.
At least one of these bosses actively punishes dynamic play by spamming teleports and parries when the player behaves aggressively, resulting in a fight that requires you sit Sargon in a corner so the boss will fall into a pattern of throwing out the same three attacks, permitting you to plink away at his health at the end of each sequence. I'm pretty sure this isn't an intentional lesson so much as the AI doesn't know how to deal with you remaining still, but I would describe combat as being bizarrely passive despite how much you're given to work with.
The pendulum does eventually swing in the other direction when you gather up enough ingots to upgrade Sargon's weapons, but enemies never quite keep pace with the player's growth, resulting in a game that's entirely too frustrating in the early half and almost comically easy in the second.
And sure, you might argue that a search-action game is all about making the player feel progressively more empowered as they plumb the depths of whatever hostile labyrinth they're trapped in, but almost all the gains Sargon actually makes are bought and paid for with time crystals. In Super Metroid, Samus slowly gains abilities and expands her inventory through exploration. In Symphony of the Night, Alucard can find a variety of capes, armors, and weapons that allows the player to directly build their character. While The Lost Crown's most secluded areas occasionally house a heart container or equipable charm (most of which are borderline useless), they'll more often dead end with 40 crystals and a piece of paper with a full length Backloggd essay written on it -- I ain't reading that, I don't have time! Growth feels far more tied to the economics of the world and what you can afford than it does exploration. Hell, sometimes you'll even go out of your way to reach a secret alcove and find there's nothing at all.
Before I punch out from my shift at the hot take factory, where I work as a foreman to support my factory wife and my 2.5 factory kids, I will say that Lost Crown is a much more enjoyable experience when you decouple yourself from the typical search-action loop of exploring every nook and cranny and instead focus on the main path. There's some genuinely great platforming sequences and puzzles that make good use of Sargon's traversal abilities, and the layout of Mount Qaf is easy to read and navigate your way through thanks to the game setting objective markers and allowing you to photograph areas of interest for quick reference on the map.
The story has its share of contrivances, especially early on, but I did find myself surprisingly invested by the end of the game, and although most characters can be described as "well-meaning but criminally and suicidally stupid," the concept of Mount Qaf existing within a bubble of fractured space and time is enough to carry the narrative whenever the character writing falls short. I really like the idea that every character and NPC is perceiving time differently, some being displaced by decades whereas others are made to exist within a singular moment for eternity.
Lost Crown doesn't stick the landing for me. It gets a lot about the search-action formula wrong, particularly with character growth and incentivizing exploration off the beaten path. The combat is rough and excessive, and sometimes you'll spend ten minutes throwing yourself to a meat grinder trial-and-erroring your way through pattern memorization all for a pair of pants, but there's still something here. Traversal feels good, the visual design is great, and the core loop is satisfying enough to elevate Lost Crown from being a bad game to being perfectly mediocre, maybe even serviceable. In other words, it's a Prince of Persia game.
Gonna buy a shirt that says "I'd rather be playing Touhou Luna Nights."
14 years after The Forgotten Sands, Prince of Persia is finally back, and the folks over at Ubisoft Monpellier understood the assignment: crap up good movement and puzzle solving with dreadful combat and an over-reliance on mobs of spongy enemies.
Parrying and punishing is the bread and butter of Sargon's kit, a rhythm you want to maintain to build meter for more devastating abilities, but when you're just trying to get to your next objective or explore some crypt, constantly getting beaned from all sides by low-level goons that have a bafflingly high HP pool gets really annoying. You might think bosses better leverage this system being that they're one-on-one encounters, but most fall into the same rote strategy of playing defensively until they open themselves up for a cinematic counter.
At least one of these bosses actively punishes dynamic play by spamming teleports and parries when the player behaves aggressively, resulting in a fight that requires you sit Sargon in a corner so the boss will fall into a pattern of throwing out the same three attacks, permitting you to plink away at his health at the end of each sequence. I'm pretty sure this isn't an intentional lesson so much as the AI doesn't know how to deal with you remaining still, but I would describe combat as being bizarrely passive despite how much you're given to work with.
The pendulum does eventually swing in the other direction when you gather up enough ingots to upgrade Sargon's weapons, but enemies never quite keep pace with the player's growth, resulting in a game that's entirely too frustrating in the early half and almost comically easy in the second.
And sure, you might argue that a search-action game is all about making the player feel progressively more empowered as they plumb the depths of whatever hostile labyrinth they're trapped in, but almost all the gains Sargon actually makes are bought and paid for with time crystals. In Super Metroid, Samus slowly gains abilities and expands her inventory through exploration. In Symphony of the Night, Alucard can find a variety of capes, armors, and weapons that allows the player to directly build their character. While The Lost Crown's most secluded areas occasionally house a heart container or equipable charm (most of which are borderline useless), they'll more often dead end with 40 crystals and a piece of paper with a full length Backloggd essay written on it -- I ain't reading that, I don't have time! Growth feels far more tied to the economics of the world and what you can afford than it does exploration. Hell, sometimes you'll even go out of your way to reach a secret alcove and find there's nothing at all.
Before I punch out from my shift at the hot take factory, where I work as a foreman to support my factory wife and my 2.5 factory kids, I will say that Lost Crown is a much more enjoyable experience when you decouple yourself from the typical search-action loop of exploring every nook and cranny and instead focus on the main path. There's some genuinely great platforming sequences and puzzles that make good use of Sargon's traversal abilities, and the layout of Mount Qaf is easy to read and navigate your way through thanks to the game setting objective markers and allowing you to photograph areas of interest for quick reference on the map.
The story has its share of contrivances, especially early on, but I did find myself surprisingly invested by the end of the game, and although most characters can be described as "well-meaning but criminally and suicidally stupid," the concept of Mount Qaf existing within a bubble of fractured space and time is enough to carry the narrative whenever the character writing falls short. I really like the idea that every character and NPC is perceiving time differently, some being displaced by decades whereas others are made to exist within a singular moment for eternity.
Lost Crown doesn't stick the landing for me. It gets a lot about the search-action formula wrong, particularly with character growth and incentivizing exploration off the beaten path. The combat is rough and excessive, and sometimes you'll spend ten minutes throwing yourself to a meat grinder trial-and-erroring your way through pattern memorization all for a pair of pants, but there's still something here. Traversal feels good, the visual design is great, and the core loop is satisfying enough to elevate Lost Crown from being a bad game to being perfectly mediocre, maybe even serviceable. In other words, it's a Prince of Persia game.
Gonna buy a shirt that says "I'd rather be playing Touhou Luna Nights."
Ninja Gaiden II
2008
Itagaki`s final Deathmachine
After TECMO stole his unfinished Dead or Alive 2 prototype and take it to production without him knowing, being acussed of sexual harassment and fall into depression and drink,the Michael Bay movies and Aerosmith songs made him resurge as a Chad-rockstar human-hater (also he began to shout that those who play videogames in easy mode are nothing but dogs xd)
And so Ninja Gaiden 2 was created (actually, Doa 2 Hardcore was created first, but that's not important now) a non-stop action videogame made by insane and horny people, taking the movement and management dilemmas of the reboot and black version and multiplying the pivoted combat while leads the action through relentless pressure due to the insane avant-garde bunch of enemies which any of they can potencially end you.
Nothing impossible tho, there is already a Chinese guy who has completed the game without taking damage ,and how the hell has done it is what I wonder in my lonely nights.
I presume this emphasis in bolt action ,explosions and high numbers beyond human limits of cocaine is the result of the overdose of Bay movies that Itagaki was exposed during his depression.Or maybe not.
I buy it anyway.
With a great sense of energy, complex streets built for bouncing, jumping and acrobatics, the game is an ode to digital topography and stunts.
at one point of the game the classic flamboyant-demon-Boy falls in love with the statue of liberty (yes) and you have to fight both. Yes, you fight the Statue of Liberty with a katana. Allegory.
Maybe videogames are too good for us.
After TECMO stole his unfinished Dead or Alive 2 prototype and take it to production without him knowing, being acussed of sexual harassment and fall into depression and drink,the Michael Bay movies and Aerosmith songs made him resurge as a Chad-rockstar human-hater (also he began to shout that those who play videogames in easy mode are nothing but dogs xd)
And so Ninja Gaiden 2 was created (actually, Doa 2 Hardcore was created first, but that's not important now) a non-stop action videogame made by insane and horny people, taking the movement and management dilemmas of the reboot and black version and multiplying the pivoted combat while leads the action through relentless pressure due to the insane avant-garde bunch of enemies which any of they can potencially end you.
Nothing impossible tho, there is already a Chinese guy who has completed the game without taking damage ,and how the hell has done it is what I wonder in my lonely nights.
I presume this emphasis in bolt action ,explosions and high numbers beyond human limits of cocaine is the result of the overdose of Bay movies that Itagaki was exposed during his depression.Or maybe not.
I buy it anyway.
With a great sense of energy, complex streets built for bouncing, jumping and acrobatics, the game is an ode to digital topography and stunts.
at one point of the game the classic flamboyant-demon-Boy falls in love with the statue of liberty (yes) and you have to fight both. Yes, you fight the Statue of Liberty with a katana. Allegory.
Maybe videogames are too good for us.