Chido
39 reviews liked by Chido
Elden Ring
2022
"Whew," the enamored g@me play0r sighs out in reverence as the boss clearly designed by someone who thought they were on a job for a mediocre Platinum title did three SICKASS ANIMEY slow-mo front flips, each dealing 70% max health damage to the player with around 8 quintillion HP (which was only reasonable to invest a few points into after getting some from the eleventh Piss-And-Shit-Smeared Tree Spirit overworld boss fight that also netted a BAD. ASS. spirit ash to help you circumvent said bosses in the future except it's objectively worse than half the ones you already have) which they got to by trekking across seven hills, seven lands, seven seas and seven hells, each populated by more barren stretches of land than the last with s p o o k y copy-pasted caves and catacombs breaking up the monotony of running into small platoons of disinterested enemies you can't even be assed to to swing a sword on horseback at on your way to the next 𝓛𝓮𝓰𝓪𝓬𝔂 𝓓𝓾𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓸𝓷 (VERY important areas they put all their ACTUAL level design into! which is why half of them are directionless slogs where everything looks the same and with enemy placement done by the one only Mr Miyazaki'ˢ ⁸⁻ʸᵉᵃʳ⁻ᵒˡᵈ ˢᵒⁿ who really liked the funny jump battan) so that they can find an NPC which mysteriously vanished one Saturday night a few weeks into the playthrough but is crucial for the conditions of one of the many different-colored endings outlined by the Purposely Vague and not frequently Irritatingly Nebulous lore (which is totally okay because that's how they always did quests dude :P it's NOT comically archaic in contrast to the world design xP) but at least there's some World Essence and Snail Drippings to pick up on the way in case you ever find a cookbook that teaches you how to MacGuyver the two into a portable ICBM and then not land the shot because the Lands Between Olympic Champion you're chucking it at read your input had superior reflexes, "From the Software has done it again!"
I gotta be honest man I think this formula has the studio stuck spinning their wheels and given ER's astronomical success they're probably not gonna try reinventing it anytime soon. The game isn't bad. I'll still play the DLC. But seeing it heralded as the zenith of the genre let alone Fromsoft's masterwork gives me a fucking migraine.
I gotta be honest man I think this formula has the studio stuck spinning their wheels and given ER's astronomical success they're probably not gonna try reinventing it anytime soon. The game isn't bad. I'll still play the DLC. But seeing it heralded as the zenith of the genre let alone Fromsoft's masterwork gives me a fucking migraine.
Katawa Shoujo
2012
Balatro
2024
Last Epoch
2019
Mega Man X4
1997
Tekken 8
2024
Tekken 8
2024
Void Stranger
2023
Dead Cells
2017
This is a tight, mechanically sound and incredibly satisfying game that gradually completely falls apart as you unlock higher difficulties and dig deeper into the systems that the devs are still tangibly struggling to balance 6 years in. Going from the fun action RPG that Dead Cells starts out as, and ending up in the stat check-bloated wreck it becomes in the late game (in individual runs but especially in the overall progression), is like seeing a child prodigy grow up into a tweaking crackhead. Don't get me wrong - there's still enjoyment to be had even in the depths of the unrepentant inferno that is 5BC! It's just that the punchy and well-paced core gameplay gets molded into this incongruous twitchy mess where if you're not blowing up an enemy in one hit the nanosecond they're in your line of sight, you're playing it wrong and your deaths start to feel more and more bullshit. And at that point, the whole variety in weapons, mutations and enemy design becomes almost irrelevant; which is a shame because it's initially one of the game's strongest points.
Whatever Motion Twin's next project is, I hope they at least build on this foundation because the actual moment-to-moment experience of Dead Cells is immaculate.
Whatever Motion Twin's next project is, I hope they at least build on this foundation because the actual moment-to-moment experience of Dead Cells is immaculate.
This review contains spoilers
this is easily one of the weirdest game receptions i've seen. it basically makes everything much, MUCH better than Default, but people seem to not care at all bcs 'it's no the original cast'
so what? Tiz and Agnes were no-characters with barely anything interesting going on, and it's basically Second that makes them memorable. Edea is a interesting nexus between the og. Asterisk and this new story, and the best part is that there's no Ringabel bs
but Yew and Magnolia are the important thing here, and they're like, the best main characters by far. the way they unify two differents narratives with overarching themes into one big conclusion is really great, specially considering this time the game is perfectly aware the fans will expect the meta stuff. Yew is a much better protagonist with a fantastic relationship with the two main villains of the story, while Magnolia makes Defaul't lore relevant and interesting for the first time.
Second is also a much more aware experience. for me, Default's main issue is that it was an insecure game - it never truly knew what it wanted to be, a classical tribute to old school JRPGs or a meta-commentary on the player role on these stories. it felt rushed and underdeveloped, but here is the contrary. the game knows what its telling from the get go, makes a conection between the two sides and plays way less eccentric about its core ideas. it's about Sending the Player into this world, not the stupid twist about removing two letters from the title.
also i'm sorry but ryo's soundtrack is a lot better than Revo's??? i still think Default has a really solid score, but ryo has a sense of atmosphere, dullness and sadness that's incredibly meaningful to me with less filler songs that only accomplished the need for hype. boring
this was probably my favorite replay of this year and i feel really happy to find even more meaning in a game that i already thought was great, maybe my favorite 3DS game now
PD: Battle of Providence II is easily the best final boss theme of all time, fight me
so what? Tiz and Agnes were no-characters with barely anything interesting going on, and it's basically Second that makes them memorable. Edea is a interesting nexus between the og. Asterisk and this new story, and the best part is that there's no Ringabel bs
but Yew and Magnolia are the important thing here, and they're like, the best main characters by far. the way they unify two differents narratives with overarching themes into one big conclusion is really great, specially considering this time the game is perfectly aware the fans will expect the meta stuff. Yew is a much better protagonist with a fantastic relationship with the two main villains of the story, while Magnolia makes Defaul't lore relevant and interesting for the first time.
Second is also a much more aware experience. for me, Default's main issue is that it was an insecure game - it never truly knew what it wanted to be, a classical tribute to old school JRPGs or a meta-commentary on the player role on these stories. it felt rushed and underdeveloped, but here is the contrary. the game knows what its telling from the get go, makes a conection between the two sides and plays way less eccentric about its core ideas. it's about Sending the Player into this world, not the stupid twist about removing two letters from the title.
also i'm sorry but ryo's soundtrack is a lot better than Revo's??? i still think Default has a really solid score, but ryo has a sense of atmosphere, dullness and sadness that's incredibly meaningful to me with less filler songs that only accomplished the need for hype. boring
this was probably my favorite replay of this year and i feel really happy to find even more meaning in a game that i already thought was great, maybe my favorite 3DS game now
PD: Battle of Providence II is easily the best final boss theme of all time, fight me