DVince89
BACKER
2017
Gears for Breakfast’s first game, A Hat in Time, is simply one of the best 3D platformers of all time.
With flawless controls you move Hat Girl seamlessly through varied beautiful worlds that get more creative and more well crafted the further you go. Your different abilities you earn along the way are equally diverse, useful, and fun to use. It fair to say the controls and gameplay are near flawless. The game is pretty easy until the DLC. The DLC isn’t the hardest platforming in the world but there is a noticeable spike in difficulty which for me was appreciated. Another thing I really enjoyed is not just the level themselves being diverse but so is the way you play them. There are a lot of chapter based levels where you just finish the objective but they also throw in some free roam open world sections.
The cast is charming and completely over the top. The game never takes itself too seriously and it keeps it fun and funny from beginning to the end. There are many laughs to have and so many off the wall moments.
The music and art is top notch. The art is like a Saturday morning cartoon and every single track is catchy and memorable.I spent a lot of time just taking in the worlds and nodding my head along with the great tracks.
I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s a great game that anyone can pick up and play. It’s going to be a good time regardless of skill level or if you are a new gamer or someone who has been playing for years. If you are a 3D platformer fan this game absolutely needs to be played as I personally believe this is one of the greatest 3D platformers of all time. Not bad for a first game ever, Gears for Breakfast.
With flawless controls you move Hat Girl seamlessly through varied beautiful worlds that get more creative and more well crafted the further you go. Your different abilities you earn along the way are equally diverse, useful, and fun to use. It fair to say the controls and gameplay are near flawless. The game is pretty easy until the DLC. The DLC isn’t the hardest platforming in the world but there is a noticeable spike in difficulty which for me was appreciated. Another thing I really enjoyed is not just the level themselves being diverse but so is the way you play them. There are a lot of chapter based levels where you just finish the objective but they also throw in some free roam open world sections.
The cast is charming and completely over the top. The game never takes itself too seriously and it keeps it fun and funny from beginning to the end. There are many laughs to have and so many off the wall moments.
The music and art is top notch. The art is like a Saturday morning cartoon and every single track is catchy and memorable.I spent a lot of time just taking in the worlds and nodding my head along with the great tracks.
I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s a great game that anyone can pick up and play. It’s going to be a good time regardless of skill level or if you are a new gamer or someone who has been playing for years. If you are a 3D platformer fan this game absolutely needs to be played as I personally believe this is one of the greatest 3D platformers of all time. Not bad for a first game ever, Gears for Breakfast.
2012
I feel like I’m alone here as most people seem to love this game including my friends I’ve made here on backloggd but the game just wasn’t for me.
I played this on PS5 via PlayStation plus and I just couldn’t get into it. I bring this up because maybe the controls are better on other platforms but I hated the controls. They didn’t just feel dated they felt awful. To shoot a gun accurately I had to hold two sticks and press several buttons and that was just for one shot. I had little fun with the gameplay and seemingly random AI interactions. Sometimes they would beg to be killed and sometimes everyone in the house floods on you at once seemingly out of no where. Don’t get me wrong I like challenges but this felt more random than difficult. Maybe I missed the boat on this as it was a big part of the “Indie Boom” and I’m playing it in 2023, I don’t know, I just know this wasn’t for me. Many times I can see why people like something and I don’t or vice versa but I just am not seeing the appeal in this to be honest.
It gets an extra half star because the music is boppin.
I played this on PS5 via PlayStation plus and I just couldn’t get into it. I bring this up because maybe the controls are better on other platforms but I hated the controls. They didn’t just feel dated they felt awful. To shoot a gun accurately I had to hold two sticks and press several buttons and that was just for one shot. I had little fun with the gameplay and seemingly random AI interactions. Sometimes they would beg to be killed and sometimes everyone in the house floods on you at once seemingly out of no where. Don’t get me wrong I like challenges but this felt more random than difficult. Maybe I missed the boat on this as it was a big part of the “Indie Boom” and I’m playing it in 2023, I don’t know, I just know this wasn’t for me. Many times I can see why people like something and I don’t or vice versa but I just am not seeing the appeal in this to be honest.
It gets an extra half star because the music is boppin.
I’ve come to the unfortunate realization after going from playing practically no Kirby titles until 2 years ago and to now playing around 10 that this franchise is superb but it’s just not for me. I get that the series is mainly for children but it’s just so easy that I can never really get into it.
As far as this particular entry it is much of the same, great game but just not for me. The levels are varied, the game controls great and is very fluid, the music is great, and the art pops and is my favorite part of the game. I just can’t help but personally feeling like I’m just mindlessly getting from point A to point B. I truely think my problem is the difficulty. Have you every drove to somewhere that you go all the time and on your way you get lost in thought or lost in your music and when you arrive to your destination your like I wasn’t paying good enough attention and don’t even know how I got here. That’s how I feel about this and most Kirby games. I just kind of play but mindlessly get to the end of the game.
I completely understand this is a me thing and not a general consensus. This is a solid game and can understand why it’s beloved by many. If you are looking for a relaxing Kirby adventure I would say definitely play this game, as even though I have been negative it is in my top 3 Kirby games with Forgotten Land and Planet Robot.
As far as this particular entry it is much of the same, great game but just not for me. The levels are varied, the game controls great and is very fluid, the music is great, and the art pops and is my favorite part of the game. I just can’t help but personally feeling like I’m just mindlessly getting from point A to point B. I truely think my problem is the difficulty. Have you every drove to somewhere that you go all the time and on your way you get lost in thought or lost in your music and when you arrive to your destination your like I wasn’t paying good enough attention and don’t even know how I got here. That’s how I feel about this and most Kirby games. I just kind of play but mindlessly get to the end of the game.
I completely understand this is a me thing and not a general consensus. This is a solid game and can understand why it’s beloved by many. If you are looking for a relaxing Kirby adventure I would say definitely play this game, as even though I have been negative it is in my top 3 Kirby games with Forgotten Land and Planet Robot.
2019
I never thought being a goose whose sole purpose is to be an asshole could be so much fun. I played this on a whim on April fools day of all days and never expected it to be as much fun as it was. There’s not a whole lot to the game but there is something about ruining random peoples day and terrifying a young goofy child that just really made me happy and was way more fun than it should be. Definitely a fun way to spend an hour or two.
2023
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most universally loved, critically acclaimed, and ported games of all time. While I was as excited as I have ever been for a game to release I was skeptical that it would live up to the original. My main fear is that it would do what RE3 remake did and cut a large important part of the game out (RE3 Clocktower). While there is one minor boss missing it’s nothing in comparison to what Capcom added. As excited as I was Capcom blew every expectation I had out of the water. I can confidently say that this is a master class of the medium.
Resident Evil 4 Remake took everything that made the original great and ramped them up. It also took the few low points it had and turned them into strengths.
While Resident Evil 1-3 put 4 to shame when it came to the survival horror, the action was ramped up in 4. What it lacked in traditional horror the fear now came from the anxiety of being overwhelmed. The remake kept the action of the original but made the ammo less frequent, the horror was revamped completely, and of course the graphics allowed the gore to shine making it much close to its survival horror roots. The gameplay is as fun as ever and everything I could have asked for. It’s basically the same as the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 but I personally find this slightly more enjoyable. There are two main reasons for this. First is what I’ve already said was the strength of the original. The encounters can become an anxiety ridden overwhelming battle that while challenging is incredibly thrilling. Secondly I simply find the boss fights so much better than all of the other Resident Evil games. (Side note Ramon Salazars boss battle is so much better in this game.) Also the gameplay is upgraded by a mile from the original for two main reasons. You can now move and shoot at the same time, which should have been in the original honestly. More importantly in the original Ashley had a health bar and made terrible decision whether it be walking right into enemies or directly in the line of fire. In the remake Ashley is actually competent. Ashley can be knocked down but doesn’t have a traditional health bar, she tries to stay away from enemies, and stays behind you out of the line of fire. In my first playthrough of the original I had so many game overs because either me or the enemy would kill Ashley causing me to be irritated at the game and Ashley’s bad AI. In the remake I had many sticky situations where we were being overwhelmed and things got hectic but I only had one game over from losing Ashley. Which losing her was my fault so I was mad at myself and not the game. These two changes made the gameplay so much more satisfying than the original. I personally also found this game more challenging overall than the original which to me is a personal plus.
One of the biggest strengths of the original was the atmosphere. Capcom nailed this area again as they upgraded everything with obviously todays superior graphics. But it isn’t just about the graphics. Small changes that were made make a huge difference. I immediately was excited to see the rest of the game after leaving just the first area. The original has you drive up to this house, during the day, alone, and as you wander in to ask the person inside some questions you find out something is going terribly wrong in this village when the villager has a strange look as he violently attacks you. In the remake you are searching for a police officer, who is Leon’s guide of the area, that took a suspiciously long bathroom break off the side of the road in the woods at night. Once you reach the same house as the original it’s clear something is seriously messed up as there is cult/demonic stuff in the house. It’s small changes like this that enhance the atmosphere and horror that makes the game phenomenal.
The second biggest upgrade is the story. In the original the story was lacking hard as there was almost no back story on most characters and the main story itself is not explained very well at all. Now the characters are well rounded, have more screen time, and most importantly the journals you find let you know more of who they are and were before las plagas took over the area. It’s not just a few characters either. It’s Ashley, Luis, Chief Mendez, Ramon Salazar, Jack Krauser, Lord Salazar, the Salazar family (non existent in the og), the Saddler family (non existent in the og), and even the villagers of the area. Capcom upgraded the main story thoroughly. It really digs into las plagas as far as where it came from and how it effected the area so much more than the original ever cared to and even makes a new connection to a future game.
The biggest upgrade without question is the characters. In the original I personally only cared about Leon and Ada but the remake changes this in a big way. Ashley went from fairly unlikeable to an extremely lovable person which made it easy to care about and save her. She went from one of my least liked people in the entire RE franchise to one of my favorite because of this game. From an annoying air headed damsel in distress in the original to a strong willed intelligent brave and confident woman. Luis also got a major upgrade. He got so much more screen time in the remake and had an actual fleshed out back story making him more well rounded as well as lovable. I didn’t care for him at all in the original but he was an amazing part of this game. Chief Mendez had some back story given to him through journals which makes you feel bad for what happened to him and his village. Ramon Salazar gets more journals and you get to see more of how evil he really was. Jack Krauser is more fleshed out and his reason for joining Saddler was made much more clear. Finally in the the original we knew Lord Saddler was powerful but outside of the actual boss fight and knowing he has control of the las plagas you don’t get much else. In this game you get to witness his power from making character hallucinate to full on possessing them, making him a hell of a lot scarier. There is even a surprise cameo from a reoccurring star of the series at some point.
If I had to criticize anything it would be that you can soft and hard lock out of certain locations as the game is chapter based so you better collect everything you can while you can because there is no going back sometimes. I still don’t even have a problem with this as I think it makes narrative sense that Leon and Ashley continue to move on not looking back for treasure and items as their lives are literally on a ticking clock.
While I will always appreciate what the original did and respect its place in gaming history, after playing the remake I’m not sure I could ever go back to it. Resident Evil 4 Remake however is a game I plan on visiting many more times. Capcom knocked this so far out of the park and made an absolute masterpiece of a video game. If I had expectations of what this game should have been it surpassed every last one and I am grateful to have gotten to experience a true love letter to Resident Evil 4 fans and its brilliance.
Resident Evil 4 Remake took everything that made the original great and ramped them up. It also took the few low points it had and turned them into strengths.
While Resident Evil 1-3 put 4 to shame when it came to the survival horror, the action was ramped up in 4. What it lacked in traditional horror the fear now came from the anxiety of being overwhelmed. The remake kept the action of the original but made the ammo less frequent, the horror was revamped completely, and of course the graphics allowed the gore to shine making it much close to its survival horror roots. The gameplay is as fun as ever and everything I could have asked for. It’s basically the same as the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 but I personally find this slightly more enjoyable. There are two main reasons for this. First is what I’ve already said was the strength of the original. The encounters can become an anxiety ridden overwhelming battle that while challenging is incredibly thrilling. Secondly I simply find the boss fights so much better than all of the other Resident Evil games. (Side note Ramon Salazars boss battle is so much better in this game.) Also the gameplay is upgraded by a mile from the original for two main reasons. You can now move and shoot at the same time, which should have been in the original honestly. More importantly in the original Ashley had a health bar and made terrible decision whether it be walking right into enemies or directly in the line of fire. In the remake Ashley is actually competent. Ashley can be knocked down but doesn’t have a traditional health bar, she tries to stay away from enemies, and stays behind you out of the line of fire. In my first playthrough of the original I had so many game overs because either me or the enemy would kill Ashley causing me to be irritated at the game and Ashley’s bad AI. In the remake I had many sticky situations where we were being overwhelmed and things got hectic but I only had one game over from losing Ashley. Which losing her was my fault so I was mad at myself and not the game. These two changes made the gameplay so much more satisfying than the original. I personally also found this game more challenging overall than the original which to me is a personal plus.
One of the biggest strengths of the original was the atmosphere. Capcom nailed this area again as they upgraded everything with obviously todays superior graphics. But it isn’t just about the graphics. Small changes that were made make a huge difference. I immediately was excited to see the rest of the game after leaving just the first area. The original has you drive up to this house, during the day, alone, and as you wander in to ask the person inside some questions you find out something is going terribly wrong in this village when the villager has a strange look as he violently attacks you. In the remake you are searching for a police officer, who is Leon’s guide of the area, that took a suspiciously long bathroom break off the side of the road in the woods at night. Once you reach the same house as the original it’s clear something is seriously messed up as there is cult/demonic stuff in the house. It’s small changes like this that enhance the atmosphere and horror that makes the game phenomenal.
The second biggest upgrade is the story. In the original the story was lacking hard as there was almost no back story on most characters and the main story itself is not explained very well at all. Now the characters are well rounded, have more screen time, and most importantly the journals you find let you know more of who they are and were before las plagas took over the area. It’s not just a few characters either. It’s Ashley, Luis, Chief Mendez, Ramon Salazar, Jack Krauser, Lord Salazar, the Salazar family (non existent in the og), the Saddler family (non existent in the og), and even the villagers of the area. Capcom upgraded the main story thoroughly. It really digs into las plagas as far as where it came from and how it effected the area so much more than the original ever cared to and even makes a new connection to a future game.
The biggest upgrade without question is the characters. In the original I personally only cared about Leon and Ada but the remake changes this in a big way. Ashley went from fairly unlikeable to an extremely lovable person which made it easy to care about and save her. She went from one of my least liked people in the entire RE franchise to one of my favorite because of this game. From an annoying air headed damsel in distress in the original to a strong willed intelligent brave and confident woman. Luis also got a major upgrade. He got so much more screen time in the remake and had an actual fleshed out back story making him more well rounded as well as lovable. I didn’t care for him at all in the original but he was an amazing part of this game. Chief Mendez had some back story given to him through journals which makes you feel bad for what happened to him and his village. Ramon Salazar gets more journals and you get to see more of how evil he really was. Jack Krauser is more fleshed out and his reason for joining Saddler was made much more clear. Finally in the the original we knew Lord Saddler was powerful but outside of the actual boss fight and knowing he has control of the las plagas you don’t get much else. In this game you get to witness his power from making character hallucinate to full on possessing them, making him a hell of a lot scarier. There is even a surprise cameo from a reoccurring star of the series at some point.
If I had to criticize anything it would be that you can soft and hard lock out of certain locations as the game is chapter based so you better collect everything you can while you can because there is no going back sometimes. I still don’t even have a problem with this as I think it makes narrative sense that Leon and Ashley continue to move on not looking back for treasure and items as their lives are literally on a ticking clock.
While I will always appreciate what the original did and respect its place in gaming history, after playing the remake I’m not sure I could ever go back to it. Resident Evil 4 Remake however is a game I plan on visiting many more times. Capcom knocked this so far out of the park and made an absolute masterpiece of a video game. If I had expectations of what this game should have been it surpassed every last one and I am grateful to have gotten to experience a true love letter to Resident Evil 4 fans and its brilliance.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is one of the harder games for me to rate. The reason for this is what I think of the game vs my own personal feelings with the game.
First what I think of the game. HAL laboratory knocked what they wanted to do out of the park. They made Kirby’s long overdue first 3D adventure a seamless transition from the 2D plane. The game plays the way they want it to perfectly. A platformer that anyone can pick up and play while having a good time. Plenty of copy ability variates that are fun play around and look at. A fun game that anyone can get to the credits. With what they were trying to achieve I would give this a 4.5. Which is where my person feelings come in. While I admit it’s a great game and fantastically made I just had a good to ok time with it. I get that accessibility is something Kirby is all about, and the game is geared towards kids but for me about half way through I found myself just going through the motions to finish the game. The abilities while fun for the first few uses are so interchangeable that it never matters what you have equipped. I get that this is a me problem but I can’t help how I feel. If I went off of the fun I had I would have to give it a 3.5 and it just doesn’t give me as much joy as any of my 4 star games. Still I decided to give this game a 4 because of just how well it was made. Just a side note but this is a perfect game to recommend if you know someone just getting into games because of the lack of difficulty but high in quality or as a gift for a young gamer in your life.
While the gameplay wasn’t 100% for me I still had fun for the most part. What was awesome to me was the music and art. The music got stuck in my head in between playing sessions and went perfect with the game. The art, to me, is the star of the game. Even with the limitations that is the switch and the common world themes of platforming games ( desert, ice, etc) the art shined through. There were many times I was surprised at the spectacles that was put into a Kirby game. Not just every world but every level feels very different from the next which was a pleasant surprise.
Even though I’ve had some negative things to say here I still did enjoy my time overall and think this is an excellent game as well as the best Kirby game I’ve played so far.
First what I think of the game. HAL laboratory knocked what they wanted to do out of the park. They made Kirby’s long overdue first 3D adventure a seamless transition from the 2D plane. The game plays the way they want it to perfectly. A platformer that anyone can pick up and play while having a good time. Plenty of copy ability variates that are fun play around and look at. A fun game that anyone can get to the credits. With what they were trying to achieve I would give this a 4.5. Which is where my person feelings come in. While I admit it’s a great game and fantastically made I just had a good to ok time with it. I get that accessibility is something Kirby is all about, and the game is geared towards kids but for me about half way through I found myself just going through the motions to finish the game. The abilities while fun for the first few uses are so interchangeable that it never matters what you have equipped. I get that this is a me problem but I can’t help how I feel. If I went off of the fun I had I would have to give it a 3.5 and it just doesn’t give me as much joy as any of my 4 star games. Still I decided to give this game a 4 because of just how well it was made. Just a side note but this is a perfect game to recommend if you know someone just getting into games because of the lack of difficulty but high in quality or as a gift for a young gamer in your life.
While the gameplay wasn’t 100% for me I still had fun for the most part. What was awesome to me was the music and art. The music got stuck in my head in between playing sessions and went perfect with the game. The art, to me, is the star of the game. Even with the limitations that is the switch and the common world themes of platforming games ( desert, ice, etc) the art shined through. There were many times I was surprised at the spectacles that was put into a Kirby game. Not just every world but every level feels very different from the next which was a pleasant surprise.
Even though I’ve had some negative things to say here I still did enjoy my time overall and think this is an excellent game as well as the best Kirby game I’ve played so far.
1989
Decent puzzle game with a good amount of strategy and a decent test of mobility and agility. The music was decent as well. I think I would have really liked this game 30 years ago but now it’s just an average puzzle game.
Metroid Prime Remastered was exactly what I expected. They took a classic masterpiece and made it beautiful, added a lot of detail, and gave major quality of life improvements (mainly the dual stick controls) and made a masterpiece even better.
Talon IV is more beautiful but the atmosphere is still very much the same. An obviously dying yet beautiful planet filled with mystery. Metroid is the greatest franchise of all time when it comes to atmosphere and the graphical improvements did not hurt the charm and wonder of the originals feel but it did manage to even improve upon it.
I would definitely play this game on the normal setting and not casual. I always play games on normal or harder but since I had already played this and mainly just wanted to experience the world in its new paint I chose casual mode which basically made Samus indestructible. Enemies do very little damage which led to no challenge at all. So even if you are like me and just re exploring this wonderful game keep the difficulty where it should be.
I hope with this game selling well, Nintendo pumping up fusion on the switch, and Dread doing so well that Nintendo will begin giving Metroid the respect that quite frankly it deserves.
Talon IV is more beautiful but the atmosphere is still very much the same. An obviously dying yet beautiful planet filled with mystery. Metroid is the greatest franchise of all time when it comes to atmosphere and the graphical improvements did not hurt the charm and wonder of the originals feel but it did manage to even improve upon it.
I would definitely play this game on the normal setting and not casual. I always play games on normal or harder but since I had already played this and mainly just wanted to experience the world in its new paint I chose casual mode which basically made Samus indestructible. Enemies do very little damage which led to no challenge at all. So even if you are like me and just re exploring this wonderful game keep the difficulty where it should be.
I hope with this game selling well, Nintendo pumping up fusion on the switch, and Dread doing so well that Nintendo will begin giving Metroid the respect that quite frankly it deserves.
2023
I know this game comes with a lot of divisiveness. This is just my feeling on the actual game itself and no reflections of what I feel about anything else other than the game itself.
Hogwarts Legacy was almost everything I could have wanted out of a game based off of the Harry Potter world.
The first several hour you spend in the game is as magical and fun a time as you can have playing a game. Seeing Hogwarts come to life in a way you’ve pictured it in your head but had never seen before was surreal. Every nook and cranny packed with collectibles, things to see, and things to do. They did such a wonderful job of after several hours of gameplay making Hogwarts feel somewhat familiar but always finding just one or two new ways to go through this maze of a castle. The Easter eggs in this game are possibly the best the medium has to offer. So many references to the movies and books that are there for you to find but they do not smack you in the face with it.
The dueling is very fun. Once you get all your spells it’s fun to find combos that you enjoy and feel work great together. At first it doesn’t feel great or well connected but by the late game you will feel like the greatest sorcerer that ever lived chaining combos and destroying several enemies at once.
The story is very… ok. The only companion side quests that had an above average story was Sebastians. The main story is fairly basic in my opinion. Nothing inherently wrong with the story but nothing that is gripping either.
The only problem I have with this game is (and admittedly it is a minor problem) the amount of collectibles. Don’t get me wrong I had fun all the way through to 100%ing the game but I felt like sometimes the game started losing some of its magic when instead of playing the game or really exploring on my own, now I’m hitting Revelio every 3 steps to find the last few field guide pages or doing the 100th similar Merlin Trials. Like I said I still had fun but sometimes I would honestly forget what was happening in the main story because I spend the last 5 hours of gameplay searching for collectibles.
Which leads me to my final point. If you are a completionist wait for a few patches before you finish this game. I got everything in the game but can’t get the platinum because it says I have 74/75 of an object in my collection screen. However if I go to the main hub on the map it shows I have 100% and every area that you get these 75 pieces from are checked off. I decided to look online and there are many people experiencing the same problem. It’s very frustrating spending 10s of hours collecting things just for the game to not realize you have collected something and locking you out of a trophy on that file.
All in all I would highly recommend this game especially if you are a Harry Potter fan.
Hogwarts Legacy was almost everything I could have wanted out of a game based off of the Harry Potter world.
The first several hour you spend in the game is as magical and fun a time as you can have playing a game. Seeing Hogwarts come to life in a way you’ve pictured it in your head but had never seen before was surreal. Every nook and cranny packed with collectibles, things to see, and things to do. They did such a wonderful job of after several hours of gameplay making Hogwarts feel somewhat familiar but always finding just one or two new ways to go through this maze of a castle. The Easter eggs in this game are possibly the best the medium has to offer. So many references to the movies and books that are there for you to find but they do not smack you in the face with it.
The dueling is very fun. Once you get all your spells it’s fun to find combos that you enjoy and feel work great together. At first it doesn’t feel great or well connected but by the late game you will feel like the greatest sorcerer that ever lived chaining combos and destroying several enemies at once.
The story is very… ok. The only companion side quests that had an above average story was Sebastians. The main story is fairly basic in my opinion. Nothing inherently wrong with the story but nothing that is gripping either.
The only problem I have with this game is (and admittedly it is a minor problem) the amount of collectibles. Don’t get me wrong I had fun all the way through to 100%ing the game but I felt like sometimes the game started losing some of its magic when instead of playing the game or really exploring on my own, now I’m hitting Revelio every 3 steps to find the last few field guide pages or doing the 100th similar Merlin Trials. Like I said I still had fun but sometimes I would honestly forget what was happening in the main story because I spend the last 5 hours of gameplay searching for collectibles.
Which leads me to my final point. If you are a completionist wait for a few patches before you finish this game. I got everything in the game but can’t get the platinum because it says I have 74/75 of an object in my collection screen. However if I go to the main hub on the map it shows I have 100% and every area that you get these 75 pieces from are checked off. I decided to look online and there are many people experiencing the same problem. It’s very frustrating spending 10s of hours collecting things just for the game to not realize you have collected something and locking you out of a trophy on that file.
All in all I would highly recommend this game especially if you are a Harry Potter fan.
This game was a slight improvement over years 1-4 but unfortunately not enough to pull it out of the average rank. The added dueling into the gameplay which, while better than the original, still becomes stale fairly quickly. The move set is still not differentiated enough to make it worth playing with multiple different characters making the characters once again just feel like skin swaps. While the overall experience was slightly better the story somehow became even worse. There were multiple times me and my wife said if we didn’t know the Harry Potter story we would have no clue as to what was going on.
Just like years 1-4 I had an ok time playing this but if I wasn’t playing with my wife and we didn’t love Harry Potter I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed this game. Even as a big Harry Potter fan I just cannot give this game any higher than an average score. If you are into Harry Potter you’ll at least have a decent time but if you don’t know anything about Harry Potter sit back and read the books or watch the movies before playing this otherwise I can’t see where there would be much enjoyment.
.
Just like years 1-4 I had an ok time playing this but if I wasn’t playing with my wife and we didn’t love Harry Potter I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed this game. Even as a big Harry Potter fan I just cannot give this game any higher than an average score. If you are into Harry Potter you’ll at least have a decent time but if you don’t know anything about Harry Potter sit back and read the books or watch the movies before playing this otherwise I can’t see where there would be much enjoyment.
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2000
Final Fantasy IX is one of the most amazing, magical, and wonderful games our beautiful medium has to offer.
Im going to get the negatives out of the way so I can gush about the many positives this game offers. The battle system is, to be as positive as I can, is not good. The load times while not awful are noticeable although you do eventually get use to them. The actual battles are, for most of the game, too easy. The main reason for this is Zidane is overpowered as hell. Final Fantasy IX goes back to the job class system and our main hero Zidane is a thief. If you’ve played any Final Fantasy game you know the thief class is a quick character that can steal but isn’t much in the physical front or in the health department. However Zidane is quick, can steal, hits like a truck, and is built like a tank. He alone makes most of the game a breeze. I was also not a fan of the trance system at all. It really felt meaningless as it rarely helped and even if it did it triggers automatically so you may have to use it against a simple enemy one fight before a boss thus wasting it. Which again isn’t really wasting it as it isn’t much of an upgrade, unlike something like Limit Breaks from FF7.
Now time to gush. This is one of the most wonderful, magical, whimsical, worlds in gaming. Especially for a game made in 2000 the world feels so real and lived in by the many wonderful characters. I feel like there are more races in this game than any other Final Fantasy game and all of them are a joy and unique. The characters and story are the stars of this show. Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, and Steiner’s arcs are so great and beautifully written. I genuinely cared about them, their stories and their tragedies. FF8 tried so hard to push the love story down our throats and it never came off as real to me. This game is more about death, life, our time being alive, feelings of loneliness, knowing and realizing there is always someone who will be there for you, tragedy, and how to deal with it. But amoungst all that they put together a true beautiful love story. Instead of forcing a story that felt out of place they tucked the love story perfectly inside of the main over arching story. Vivi dealing with not knowing who or even really what he is becomes more and more heartbreaking the more you learn. Steiner goes from a great knight who only follows commands with no original thought of his own to a hero who will die to protect not only his princess but also his band of friends that he originally sees as trash. He also gets a nice love arc that isn’t in the forefront at all but still feels better than FF8. Many of the NPCs or should I say barely in your party for small amounts of time, like Marcus, Blank, Cinna, Baku, Beatrix, Cid are so great and have wonderful arcs themselves. Kuja is a good villian. He isn’t Sephiroth or Kefka but a good villian none the less. The ending of this game made me feel so many emotions from pure sadness to true joy. It was nothing less than a perfect ending to an almost perfect game. Only the battle system keeps this from being a percfect 5*.
I enjoyed the art and the music is absolutely top tier. The overworld theme is beautiful. The crystal world theme was my favorite but there isn’t a bad track in this game. It fits the world and theme of this game perfectly.
I could go on and on about this game and why I love it but I’ll just stop with saying there aren’t many games that have ever been made that can match this game in terms of story, characters, and world building and should be played by anyone that enjoys JRPGs.
Im going to get the negatives out of the way so I can gush about the many positives this game offers. The battle system is, to be as positive as I can, is not good. The load times while not awful are noticeable although you do eventually get use to them. The actual battles are, for most of the game, too easy. The main reason for this is Zidane is overpowered as hell. Final Fantasy IX goes back to the job class system and our main hero Zidane is a thief. If you’ve played any Final Fantasy game you know the thief class is a quick character that can steal but isn’t much in the physical front or in the health department. However Zidane is quick, can steal, hits like a truck, and is built like a tank. He alone makes most of the game a breeze. I was also not a fan of the trance system at all. It really felt meaningless as it rarely helped and even if it did it triggers automatically so you may have to use it against a simple enemy one fight before a boss thus wasting it. Which again isn’t really wasting it as it isn’t much of an upgrade, unlike something like Limit Breaks from FF7.
Now time to gush. This is one of the most wonderful, magical, whimsical, worlds in gaming. Especially for a game made in 2000 the world feels so real and lived in by the many wonderful characters. I feel like there are more races in this game than any other Final Fantasy game and all of them are a joy and unique. The characters and story are the stars of this show. Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, and Steiner’s arcs are so great and beautifully written. I genuinely cared about them, their stories and their tragedies. FF8 tried so hard to push the love story down our throats and it never came off as real to me. This game is more about death, life, our time being alive, feelings of loneliness, knowing and realizing there is always someone who will be there for you, tragedy, and how to deal with it. But amoungst all that they put together a true beautiful love story. Instead of forcing a story that felt out of place they tucked the love story perfectly inside of the main over arching story. Vivi dealing with not knowing who or even really what he is becomes more and more heartbreaking the more you learn. Steiner goes from a great knight who only follows commands with no original thought of his own to a hero who will die to protect not only his princess but also his band of friends that he originally sees as trash. He also gets a nice love arc that isn’t in the forefront at all but still feels better than FF8. Many of the NPCs or should I say barely in your party for small amounts of time, like Marcus, Blank, Cinna, Baku, Beatrix, Cid are so great and have wonderful arcs themselves. Kuja is a good villian. He isn’t Sephiroth or Kefka but a good villian none the less. The ending of this game made me feel so many emotions from pure sadness to true joy. It was nothing less than a perfect ending to an almost perfect game. Only the battle system keeps this from being a percfect 5*.
I enjoyed the art and the music is absolutely top tier. The overworld theme is beautiful. The crystal world theme was my favorite but there isn’t a bad track in this game. It fits the world and theme of this game perfectly.
I could go on and on about this game and why I love it but I’ll just stop with saying there aren’t many games that have ever been made that can match this game in terms of story, characters, and world building and should be played by anyone that enjoys JRPGs.
TBD
I wasted way too much time on this game while on breaks at lunch. It’s riding the success of vampire survivor and made a minimalist, ad filled, micro transaction begging, not great version of it. It’s not the worst game I’ve played, especially on my phone, but I wish I wouldn’t have put in the 8 or so hours that I did. Every level is basically the same with different skins. The system basically boils down to you just lose until you upgrade enough and then you all of a sudden destroy the level OR you pay money to make it a much quicker process. Not worth the time, play something else.
Honestly I’m probably giving this one a half star too much just because I love Harry Potter and I got to play this with my wife who typically doesn’t play many games. The game play is fine but underwhelming. The characters are just skin swaps as they all play almost identically. So many unlockables it just becomes absurd. We had 2 different occurrences where we thought we were dumb because we couldn’t figure out what to do but it turned out the game glitched and once we reset it worked perfectly fine. If I didn’t know the story of Harry Potter I would have been confused as hell. If I was to just know the story off the game I would basically know that a baby was given up by wizards to a family that hates/abuses him. The wizards have a school and decide to let him in even though they gave him up. The school should be shutdown because demons and ghosts and evil teachers, one of which has two faces on one head, are constantly trying to kill the children. Harry eventually kills said bad characters yet willingly and happily returns each year.
There were genuinely some funny moments though, mostly when Voldemort gets Cedric Diggory and his disassembled Lego body is the paper the next day. It also does keep a lot of the Harry Potter charm.
Unfortunately there are just more cons than pros in this game. It was still an ok time but I feel that is, again, only because I love Harry Potter, my wife even more so, and we experienced it together. I would only recommend this if you already love Harry Potter and have a close friend to play through it with.
There were genuinely some funny moments though, mostly when Voldemort gets Cedric Diggory and his disassembled Lego body is the paper the next day. It also does keep a lot of the Harry Potter charm.
Unfortunately there are just more cons than pros in this game. It was still an ok time but I feel that is, again, only because I love Harry Potter, my wife even more so, and we experienced it together. I would only recommend this if you already love Harry Potter and have a close friend to play through it with.
2001
This review will be quite a bit shorter than my average reviews as frankly there isn’t much I feel I need to say about this game. While not as good as Sonic 2 or 3 there is a hour or so of fun to be had here. It plays just like the original trilogy but allows 4 playable characters. The level design in this game is flawed in the later levels. Bottomless pits you don’t know are pits until it’s too late. With 4 playable characters you would think they would have taken more advantage of the levels playing out slightly differently with each of there abilities but unfortunately it does not. The reason I said this review would be short is because there isn’t anything to right home about but also nothing to get overly upset about. It is just a very average game in my opinion.
Typically I’m very much against walking simulators and the last one I had played, Gone Home, made me never want to play another one again. However while I’m not running to go out and play another Walking Simulator, What Remains of Edith Finch was a strange pleasant surprise.
Each family members story was unique and so was the way you went about figuring out what happened to them. I probably enjoyed Molly’s “the cat story” the best but in my opinion the actual best story and part of the game is Lewis’ canned fish plant. I love how it has you doing a monotonous task of cutting the fish but you begin doing that without thinking while simultaneously controlling Lewis’ avatar. This mirrors how Lewis felt so well and was the most well done part of the entire game. Finally, the ending somehow managed to take me by complete surprise, even though looking back it shouldn’t have, and also made me very sad.
So while I have this rated as a good game at 3.5 stars I honestly don’t know how you can make a better walking sim than this game.
Each family members story was unique and so was the way you went about figuring out what happened to them. I probably enjoyed Molly’s “the cat story” the best but in my opinion the actual best story and part of the game is Lewis’ canned fish plant. I love how it has you doing a monotonous task of cutting the fish but you begin doing that without thinking while simultaneously controlling Lewis’ avatar. This mirrors how Lewis felt so well and was the most well done part of the entire game. Finally, the ending somehow managed to take me by complete surprise, even though looking back it shouldn’t have, and also made me very sad.
So while I have this rated as a good game at 3.5 stars I honestly don’t know how you can make a better walking sim than this game.