DolorousWthVines
BACKER
ˢʰᵉ | ʰᵉʳ
My username is supposed to be a Joanna Newsom reference, but it's exactly one letter too long.
My reviews are not reviews but just me writing random things so in the future I can remember what I thought about a game. Cause otherwise i forget.
Ratings explained:
★★★★★⠀ᶠᵒʳᵐᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿᵃˡ/ᴬˡˡ ᵗᶦᵐᵉʳ
★★★★½⠀A favourite
★★★★⠀⠀Great
★★★½⠀⠀Pretty Good
★★★⠀⠀⠀Solid
★★½⠀⠀⠀Not Quite There
★★⠀⠀⠀⠀Misses the mark
★½⠀⠀⠀⠀ᵉⁿʲᵒʸᵉᵈ ᵛ ˡᶦᵗᵗˡᵉ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᶦᵗ
★⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Bad
½⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Trainwreck
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It mostly suffers from trying to be a bit too big for its own framework. The attempt to be big scale, yet "episodic", is laudable, but there's just not enough... stuff... mechanics... bits... in the game to make a 40 hour runtime, with multiple interlocking plotlines, not drag on a mechanical level. Even though the dungeons provide some pretty fun small puzzles.
Like, honestly, if this was split into three separate games it would have felt a lot better to play through.
P.S: The search system in the overworld is awful. I hate it. It's a small bit of the game but also, like, why.
P.P.S: I wish these games went a bit harder with the Western theming writing-wise. Like, the aesthetics are there, but often the theming feels more like a gimmicky set-dressing over very rpg-y games and stories, rather than an earnest attempt at capturing the Western genre. Which is fine, I don't even care much about Western movies other than The Trilogia Del Dollaro. But i think this would have been a way funnier game if Virginia was a Clint Eastwood-like antihero.
P.P.P.S: I'm claiming Virginia on behalf of the trans community. She is trans now. No taksie backsies.
It feels like everyone making games has suddenly become 200% more horny, while I wasn't looking. It was a bad enough experience when that happened to all of my peers during adolescence, and I don't like it happening again.
The only accessibility option being "Give Sybil pants" made me chukle tho. I have a friend named Sybil, and I am not sure if she would enjoy being given pants.
Anyhow the game is really good. Even tho there's one piece of the soundtrack that reminds me of Dark Souls 2.
EDIT: my one nitpick is that combat feels like an entirely vestigial accessory in the game, and YET the final boss is a straightforward combat challenge. Just feels weird to cap off the game with completely unrelated to what the player has mostly engaged with so far (jumping) for no thematic payoff.
Would be pretty average if not for the fantastic visuals, that make full use of the PC Engine CD capabilities, and a definite charm in its folkloristic setting.
It never really rises past being a cutesy kids' cartoon in rpg form, but if anything it's at least a pretty cool piece of video game history.