Fatih120
It was fun but somehow much more frustrating than the last, maybe because it was longer. Movement felt good but also stiff for when it really counted in tight fights and I have reasons to think that Lunatic was not properly considered which, doing it last, is gonna make me say a lot more negative things to hell and back so I will just give my rate for the base normal game. It's alright but didn't do anything intensely interesting or engaging for me. The blue boss was probably one of the draggiest to replay through.
2014
It was okay.
2018
could not get into it because it genuinely felt like every other difficult platformer that i've played but with less fun-looking stages, even IWBTG had varying themes
I really didn't like this one after like an hour or two of also playing with friends. While the original one was crass in a few ways it still managed to build up to jokes and do something really funny while this one has had an eyebrow-raising assault of crude sex jokes... that kept getting repeated over and over to the point of being uncomfortable. Sure, the original had a few of these, and those fell flat to us, but I thought it was about trying new things and making new jokes yet I seriously can't remember ANYTHING from our routes with this so far while I could remember many of the events in the original. It's seriously just "sex funny haha expletive" on loop. Which feels weirder and uncomfortable given the high school setting. Not like it makes it better for the original but, y'know, it was actually funny.
For my money? Don't bother.
For my money? Don't bother.
2023
After finishing all possible routes, I have to say it's a really cool fangame, but it's in a superposition of also being just a really alright fangame and maybe an okay video game. Incredibly minor non-spoiler systematic spoilers ahead.
I will stay my hand from making a huge overanalysis because it's been a while since I've really played and beaten a game, but to boot, there's a lot this game does right. The game system is fully faithful to Undertale, and there is a lot going on that made this game feel entirely official. I saw a startup for this game back in 2016 and didn't think it would actually get anything but abandoned as fangames tend to go, but I like the result. There are also some wonderful additions and QoL that I could go through, like big battles having MOTHER-inspired backgrounds (lovely!) - but my favourite personal thing is how there's a new effect upon sparing a major enemy - a wonderful piping sound effect with the box borders glowing yellow. It is simply a wonderful addition and I can't get enough of it, but sadly it is underutilized and I was hoping later on that there would be moments where the effect would sink in and hit different especially after some struggle.
But that's where the nitpicks come in. Essentially, a lot of these major encounters feel weak. On a usual playthrough, to spare these characters usually require just stalling out the game instead of using the Act mechanic, and a few of these battles also end automatically without the spare button. Alongside that, a lot of these characters end up never appearing again, such as the very first one despite some story implications that would make him a stand-in Toriel. I get confused at some of the other ones who do quite the same or feel like they don't have an outstanding part to play. I love the dance fight boss but he just always fades to nothing after the fact.
Part of this must be due to how short the game and story is in comparison to Undertale, in which I have to give it leeway for that reason. But unfortunately, the usage of time and resources have left myself and some other players with a lot to be desired. When it comes to variation in the Neutral and No Mercy routes, there isn't too much of it in the story, so if you abort a Genocide run, you're really only doing it to see how characters react in the very current scene - if it's the other end around, the deaths of some characters seem really inconsequential. It's not something to do a full run over. There's little in the way of re-doing sections too, as cutscenes don't get mildly changed as they do in Undertale, and route changes only affect the heat of the moment. But another thing is that No Mercy should be very emotionally powerful for the other characters, but some incredibly sad missed opportunities passed us and characters that would become more interesting or fun in that route end up being sidelined, partially because it brings us to the next big problem...
Ceroba. She is a character that has a presence upon all the routes, and a bit too much so - while Undyne in Undertale was a prominent boss in all the routes, she didn't do so as a behest to other characters. She was fought within the zone she was introduced in and later was seen again later when it was called for and the player's exploration. Ceroba is a character that doesn't belong to any particular "zone" in Yellow, is introduced early, and basically takes up the entirety of the game's plot and gameplay starting from the halfway point (if we consider all routes put together, with a mix of it if individually speaking [in which in No Mercy, my qualms are with her receiving a fight instead of another character even if it would be tough to rationalize it]). In pacifist, the player soon realizes this entire game is pretty much about her backstory, sidelining most of the other characters and finally having so much more exposure and resources dedicated to her (well, I'm not sure it's a contest with the other routes' final bosses, but let's just say pacifist felt the longest and slowest). Ceroba tended to slow down the story quite a bit, partially due to the Steamworks area feeling slow and breaking the pacing on its own. On an aside note, the Dunes area also felt like one big slog, especially on replays with the mining area. I don't know what it exactly accomplished when you don't meet anyone. Ceroba also really broke my immersion for me, considering she is a kitsune miko with her story arc and everything else really going hard with the Japanese theming when the rest of the game rides strongly on the Wild West flair. In complete honesty, she feels like an OC that was made before, not for Yellow, and shoehorned in by a creator that really really liked her and just wanted to present her story in an Undertale setting, similar to the early days of people putting their OCs in Unitale. I'm not alone in feeling that she gives several signs of this favouritism - because either way, she takes up like a third of the screen time and it doesn't leave the other already-barren characters with much. Her characterization also is hard for me to like, and I feel like the game is trying to make you sympathize over an incredibly selfish character as time goes on, making her plight seem worthless. The "gunfight" fight was the one I was expecting to be the best in the game, but it sadly didn't amount to much - I thought it was weak. Which is sad because Starlo in retrospect is a bit of a butthead and kind of gets casually excused for it, in which we don't actually SEE him redeem anything. Given this game had a reference to RED, I was hoping some pointers would have been taken on having a point to some fights.
Which is why I can't say much about the remaining major characters. I do like them in general. Quite a few of them seem to be something that could be an official character. I positively enjoy a select few. There were some narration punchlines and puns that made me laugh out loud. But some of the writing in this game seems to get quite a bit quirky and based off overly-online interactions that took me really out of the immersion of the Underground's setting. More often than not, this kind of thing was something that Undertale reserved for only a few cases, and even then, it was something mundane like anime which the monsters could very well know given the rest of their technology. Sadly, Yellow was enough to make me cringe at least twice with examples that I will pass on. Aside from that, I'm mixed on one character because she is very Papyrus-like in role but with fifty layers of uncertainty. I think she could've been more interesting, but her fights at least really made up for it to me. Another thing that I find is that I feel like there's less intent on making the NPCs more monstrous and creative and gave a lot more characters more animal designs but this could be a moot point as I don't remember a lot of Undertale NPCs by face so ignore me.
If it wasn't clear, my major problems with the game was the story and characterization, and I do kinda wish we got to a real final Asgore fight even if it was hopeless, but all this aside, I do not dislike the game, I just think it is flawed. The music is really good - not as good as Undertale's, and I personally think some of the endgame battle themes are quite underwhelming and all over the place in composition, but it is still good and there are some themes I wouldn't mind listening to on loop. Many of the monsters are designed wonderfully, attack patterns are fun (I didn't have a problem with the endgame ones everyone has been complaining about cuz uhh touhou), animated sequences are really nice, and I have to commend the efforts made nonetheless as reusing assets and music was done as little as possible in comparison to all the original content this game has. And it's a free fangame, of course. But I really do wish the story wasn't compromised some bit.
I did say I wouldn't overanalyze it but it's more like I just said a bit too much on my main complaints - I'm sure someone more attentive and hardcore than me could rip the issues to shreds and rate the plausibility of the story compared to Undertale and yadda yadda, but I do recommend this game to anyone who's beat Undertale. Yellow simply isn't the best thing ever, and while I applaud its efforts lots, it couldn't avoid characterization pitfalls and I am simply disappointed of whoever blindly says it is better than the original.
I will stay my hand from making a huge overanalysis because it's been a while since I've really played and beaten a game, but to boot, there's a lot this game does right. The game system is fully faithful to Undertale, and there is a lot going on that made this game feel entirely official. I saw a startup for this game back in 2016 and didn't think it would actually get anything but abandoned as fangames tend to go, but I like the result. There are also some wonderful additions and QoL that I could go through, like big battles having MOTHER-inspired backgrounds (lovely!) - but my favourite personal thing is how there's a new effect upon sparing a major enemy - a wonderful piping sound effect with the box borders glowing yellow. It is simply a wonderful addition and I can't get enough of it, but sadly it is underutilized and I was hoping later on that there would be moments where the effect would sink in and hit different especially after some struggle.
But that's where the nitpicks come in. Essentially, a lot of these major encounters feel weak. On a usual playthrough, to spare these characters usually require just stalling out the game instead of using the Act mechanic, and a few of these battles also end automatically without the spare button. Alongside that, a lot of these characters end up never appearing again, such as the very first one despite some story implications that would make him a stand-in Toriel. I get confused at some of the other ones who do quite the same or feel like they don't have an outstanding part to play. I love the dance fight boss but he just always fades to nothing after the fact.
Part of this must be due to how short the game and story is in comparison to Undertale, in which I have to give it leeway for that reason. But unfortunately, the usage of time and resources have left myself and some other players with a lot to be desired. When it comes to variation in the Neutral and No Mercy routes, there isn't too much of it in the story, so if you abort a Genocide run, you're really only doing it to see how characters react in the very current scene - if it's the other end around, the deaths of some characters seem really inconsequential. It's not something to do a full run over. There's little in the way of re-doing sections too, as cutscenes don't get mildly changed as they do in Undertale, and route changes only affect the heat of the moment. But another thing is that No Mercy should be very emotionally powerful for the other characters, but some incredibly sad missed opportunities passed us and characters that would become more interesting or fun in that route end up being sidelined, partially because it brings us to the next big problem...
Ceroba. She is a character that has a presence upon all the routes, and a bit too much so - while Undyne in Undertale was a prominent boss in all the routes, she didn't do so as a behest to other characters. She was fought within the zone she was introduced in and later was seen again later when it was called for and the player's exploration. Ceroba is a character that doesn't belong to any particular "zone" in Yellow, is introduced early, and basically takes up the entirety of the game's plot and gameplay starting from the halfway point (if we consider all routes put together, with a mix of it if individually speaking [in which in No Mercy, my qualms are with her receiving a fight instead of another character even if it would be tough to rationalize it]). In pacifist, the player soon realizes this entire game is pretty much about her backstory, sidelining most of the other characters and finally having so much more exposure and resources dedicated to her (well, I'm not sure it's a contest with the other routes' final bosses, but let's just say pacifist felt the longest and slowest). Ceroba tended to slow down the story quite a bit, partially due to the Steamworks area feeling slow and breaking the pacing on its own. On an aside note, the Dunes area also felt like one big slog, especially on replays with the mining area. I don't know what it exactly accomplished when you don't meet anyone. Ceroba also really broke my immersion for me, considering she is a kitsune miko with her story arc and everything else really going hard with the Japanese theming when the rest of the game rides strongly on the Wild West flair. In complete honesty, she feels like an OC that was made before, not for Yellow, and shoehorned in by a creator that really really liked her and just wanted to present her story in an Undertale setting, similar to the early days of people putting their OCs in Unitale. I'm not alone in feeling that she gives several signs of this favouritism - because either way, she takes up like a third of the screen time and it doesn't leave the other already-barren characters with much. Her characterization also is hard for me to like, and I feel like the game is trying to make you sympathize over an incredibly selfish character as time goes on, making her plight seem worthless. The "gunfight" fight was the one I was expecting to be the best in the game, but it sadly didn't amount to much - I thought it was weak. Which is sad because Starlo in retrospect is a bit of a butthead and kind of gets casually excused for it, in which we don't actually SEE him redeem anything. Given this game had a reference to RED, I was hoping some pointers would have been taken on having a point to some fights.
Which is why I can't say much about the remaining major characters. I do like them in general. Quite a few of them seem to be something that could be an official character. I positively enjoy a select few. There were some narration punchlines and puns that made me laugh out loud. But some of the writing in this game seems to get quite a bit quirky and based off overly-online interactions that took me really out of the immersion of the Underground's setting. More often than not, this kind of thing was something that Undertale reserved for only a few cases, and even then, it was something mundane like anime which the monsters could very well know given the rest of their technology. Sadly, Yellow was enough to make me cringe at least twice with examples that I will pass on. Aside from that, I'm mixed on one character because she is very Papyrus-like in role but with fifty layers of uncertainty. I think she could've been more interesting, but her fights at least really made up for it to me. Another thing that I find is that I feel like there's less intent on making the NPCs more monstrous and creative and gave a lot more characters more animal designs but this could be a moot point as I don't remember a lot of Undertale NPCs by face so ignore me.
If it wasn't clear, my major problems with the game was the story and characterization, and I do kinda wish we got to a real final Asgore fight even if it was hopeless, but all this aside, I do not dislike the game, I just think it is flawed. The music is really good - not as good as Undertale's, and I personally think some of the endgame battle themes are quite underwhelming and all over the place in composition, but it is still good and there are some themes I wouldn't mind listening to on loop. Many of the monsters are designed wonderfully, attack patterns are fun (I didn't have a problem with the endgame ones everyone has been complaining about cuz uhh touhou), animated sequences are really nice, and I have to commend the efforts made nonetheless as reusing assets and music was done as little as possible in comparison to all the original content this game has. And it's a free fangame, of course. But I really do wish the story wasn't compromised some bit.
I did say I wouldn't overanalyze it but it's more like I just said a bit too much on my main complaints - I'm sure someone more attentive and hardcore than me could rip the issues to shreds and rate the plausibility of the story compared to Undertale and yadda yadda, but I do recommend this game to anyone who's beat Undertale. Yellow simply isn't the best thing ever, and while I applaud its efforts lots, it couldn't avoid characterization pitfalls and I am simply disappointed of whoever blindly says it is better than the original.
2021
A funny VN in which the joke writing and incredible voice acting more than makes up for the standard renpy fare. The touch of the dialogue going automatically actually works really well, and the game is much better enjoyed with friends. If you can stomach the edgelord humour, the whole thing is mostly a hilarious blast, with a very few dry spells. The point is to not take anything seriously, which, for some reason, people have done that with this game. Nobody is good in this story, and although there are some intruiging concepts and "morals" at play with some of the endings they're not something to ponder on at all, so they don't lessen the experience in any way. Docked marks go to the untouched save system and some other mild renpy quirks of trying to find your way to the endings, and a central ending for closure would've been nice but what you get is already great. A must-play if you want to have a good giggle fit for a few hours compared to whatever you'll see in theatres.
2018
Actual Disgaea review TBD on the PS2 entry.
Fun game, but a disappointing idea of what a "Refine"'d or Complete edition should be. Assets are reused and classes are swapped with modern variants, voice audio seems to remain crunchy, and since this is blatantly built upon the PC edition, there are not many QoL changes that aren't just what you'd expect for a game coming from later on in the 2000s compared to the earlier side. Additional action voices, making postgame units NOT just be Monster classes and some other balancing nitpicks would really make this game great for everyone to indulge in, but alas, NIS chose to do the mechanical minimum, perhaps out of laziness or perhaps out of preservation. There certainly could've been much more added to be on par with the other Complete ports, but as it stands, D1C is just Disgaea PC with an "HD" texture pack, really. Cool to replay, but I'm not sure if there's anything explicitly worth playing this over the PC version in terms of QoL since I haven't touched the latter. Disgaea on the go is very nice for item world runs, but the postgame is probably the shortest in the series as I've killed max Prinny Baal in record time. Apparently Mobile has a cheat shop that isn't in the console version for whatever reason. Get it if it ever goes on sale.
Etna Mode, while super short, is very fun. Some of the English VA can be corny as hell but her newer VA is always a treat.
Fun game, but a disappointing idea of what a "Refine"'d or Complete edition should be. Assets are reused and classes are swapped with modern variants, voice audio seems to remain crunchy, and since this is blatantly built upon the PC edition, there are not many QoL changes that aren't just what you'd expect for a game coming from later on in the 2000s compared to the earlier side. Additional action voices, making postgame units NOT just be Monster classes and some other balancing nitpicks would really make this game great for everyone to indulge in, but alas, NIS chose to do the mechanical minimum, perhaps out of laziness or perhaps out of preservation. There certainly could've been much more added to be on par with the other Complete ports, but as it stands, D1C is just Disgaea PC with an "HD" texture pack, really. Cool to replay, but I'm not sure if there's anything explicitly worth playing this over the PC version in terms of QoL since I haven't touched the latter. Disgaea on the go is very nice for item world runs, but the postgame is probably the shortest in the series as I've killed max Prinny Baal in record time. Apparently Mobile has a cheat shop that isn't in the console version for whatever reason. Get it if it ever goes on sale.
Etna Mode, while super short, is very fun. Some of the English VA can be corny as hell but her newer VA is always a treat.
the writing is actual kuso and pandered towards lainfans whose fathers have beat them too hard as a child
2018
Actual kuso, a genuine waste of any self-respecting person's time if they were fully aware of how shit this game is. Online intercourse is nonexistent, and many do not invite proper discussion or critique on Octopath Traveler. There are many who claim this to be a great game, but none of them thus far have given a tangible reason of why — they are lying in front of their dinner plate filled to the brim with manure, their opinions nonexistent and certainly a prime example of Nintendo Fanboyism that I never want to be associated with. Dunkey was totally right about this video, it's just that the braindead mob that assembles on Twitter are pissed because they have no good excuse for what this game is. I firmly believe any "fan" of this game is in pure delusion, drunk on not having remotely played a good game.
Octopath came at a dry spell for the Switch where basically no notable RPGs were coming out, and this seemed to make consoomers blindly flock and pray to this game like it was the coming of Christ without seeing at how much it felt like a rushed project.
Let me actually get to the complaints. One video review I saw basically summed it up for me, but for starters, the title. The title was a Working Title, and there was much discussion, press, and expectation that would indicate the game is about 8 characters whose stories are intertwined. The demo back then made use of some incredible hooks with two of the characters to build hype, characters that were impressionable and cool. Not original in any way, but they were cool spins off of the usual concepts. Obviously, this meant great things if the characters would come together and intertwine, being a part of each other's story and have all sorts of interactions that would broaden the overall narrative, right?
No, there is none of that. Every single character plays their own story by themselves. Your party is inconsequential, there is no banter, no linked plot, no variation, nothing — you are playing each story specifically for each character, and the only reason you have a team of 4 is because of the JRPG quota. In fact, it just feels like you are a single character, and that is just sad and pathetic if you seriously want to try telling a good story. Why should I give a shit about these characters with their own stories? Because, unfortunately, after going through them all, a few of them were very boring, bland, and forgettable, with others not being unsalvageable - yet definitely waiting to be replaced by something else in my mind, for these stories I am already forgetting. The story does not carry the game, it is not that great. Neither are any of the side quests. Do not be fooled.
Next, random encounters. The anti-Christ of Japanese gaming. It is so frequent. It is so often. The dungeon designs (which are very samey and feel randomly generated and nonsensical, including the rest of the overworld) have lazy chests that make you go off the path for 2 seconds with nothing else. Do I want to grab boring healing item #816 just for the chance to engage in an encounter that lasts a full minute or more? Is that my real reward? The Scholar's ability that lessens the battle density feels more natural... but that assumes you started off with it early in the game. Alas, it wouldn't matter, because I dread fighting at all in this game. Everything is spongey. Everything is in high density, and morons on the internet will tell you "oh duh cuz you're not using effectivenesses right!!!1" THIS IS NOT SMT. BREAKING ENEMIES WILL STILL TAKE TIME. Effective use of the battle system should reward the player's skill by SPEEDING things along, not being the AVERAGE SNAIL'S PACE of the game. If it wasn't obvious, Octopath Traveller does NOT respect your time, and people act like maxing out your loadout is the easy solution, which it shouldn't be lest your game is poorly designed (oh wait), on top of weapons being spread out among shops all over the world. None of this is excusable, and people casually saying it takes them 80 hours to go through the game tells me that they enjoy slowly doing the same exact battle 10000 times for the rest of the game. Xenoblade is a game you can beat in 80 hours. And you actually DO things in that game.
So yes, every single chapter in this game is dumb. Go to town on the other side of the world map, talk to NPC, do dungeon, and proceed with a 15 minute boss fight that turns into a 2 minute loopfest. Even using cheats to shorten the time is unbearable.
So hopefully your time is somehow paid off, right?
No, it isn't. When you beat the character's 4th chapter, it's the end. Nothing else happens for them. And when you beat the last one? The credits roll for 5 minutes, and then nothing, you're done, with no epilogue or continuation or fixing the lack of interaction. Oh, wait, just go do this chain of side quests you completely forgot about to enter a postgame dungeon that consists of an 8-boss boss rush, next to a 2-phase superboss that uses all your party members (that cannot grow or get EXP when they're resting outside of your party, in which you have to travel to the goddamn Taverns to swap them around instead of being able to in your menu). Admittedly, the boss rush drops some walls of interesting and engaging lore, but WHY? It feels out of place in a game that deals so little in interesting narratives and more in an overblown localization (it's very bad and inconsistent, no reason for a forest girl to speak heavy Shakespearean which sees no use even from nobles). The walls of text, the true final boss, and the characters could have been woven into a fair and cool story if rewritten correctly, but it's all crammed at the end here with NO SAVES at ANY POINT, no warnings or any fun way to deal with threats inside, and if you do kill the boss (good luck if you died an hour in or have your game crash for whatever reason in this slow-ass game) then it just ENDS. There is as much interaction and closure as when you first saw the credits and thus are given control again... to do nothing.
Nothing at all happens in Octopath. It is a non-story.
I could go on. The visuals are both not bad and also bad. Too much VFX. Blur (why would you give me pretty scenery that I can't even look at???) Bloom. Repeated textures. Weird shading and vignettes. UI can be too small at times. The pixel artstyle isn't the greatest thing in the world but they decided to use this engine to remake Live-A-Live instead of giving it a well-deserved project of its own, but we can't have nice things.
There's a lot more wrong with this game and other nitpicks but good god just see anyone else's critique like this one https://youtu.be/9_qubODLHAc
I will say that at least the music is nice... a lot of the time, but it isn't bold enough as people say (the "normal" final boss theme is kino but that's about it). All in all, this game had incredible potential and a cool cast, and yet it all goes down the drain because they decided to give up on the expectations of those first demo chapters and filled the game with pretentious game design. If I wanted to play stale old stuff that didn't expect me to own other video games or have responsibilities, I'll play a retro JRPG instead. But Octopath really both disrespects and expects to hog all your time. I skipped through most of the gameplay after being sick with it, clocking in at max 30 hours, but I genuinely wish I had someone talking out of it. It was going to be a 5/10 for average but it just kept pissing me off, yet I can't rate it lower than 4 because there was SOME effort in this shit and SOME aspects of it are fun, just horribly put together. I had started the game years ago and only recently felt like wanting to clear it from my log, but it just isn't worth it. I hate games so much. I'm going to play a good game so that maybe I'll be happy again.
Octopath came at a dry spell for the Switch where basically no notable RPGs were coming out, and this seemed to make consoomers blindly flock and pray to this game like it was the coming of Christ without seeing at how much it felt like a rushed project.
Let me actually get to the complaints. One video review I saw basically summed it up for me, but for starters, the title. The title was a Working Title, and there was much discussion, press, and expectation that would indicate the game is about 8 characters whose stories are intertwined. The demo back then made use of some incredible hooks with two of the characters to build hype, characters that were impressionable and cool. Not original in any way, but they were cool spins off of the usual concepts. Obviously, this meant great things if the characters would come together and intertwine, being a part of each other's story and have all sorts of interactions that would broaden the overall narrative, right?
No, there is none of that. Every single character plays their own story by themselves. Your party is inconsequential, there is no banter, no linked plot, no variation, nothing — you are playing each story specifically for each character, and the only reason you have a team of 4 is because of the JRPG quota. In fact, it just feels like you are a single character, and that is just sad and pathetic if you seriously want to try telling a good story. Why should I give a shit about these characters with their own stories? Because, unfortunately, after going through them all, a few of them were very boring, bland, and forgettable, with others not being unsalvageable - yet definitely waiting to be replaced by something else in my mind, for these stories I am already forgetting. The story does not carry the game, it is not that great. Neither are any of the side quests. Do not be fooled.
Next, random encounters. The anti-Christ of Japanese gaming. It is so frequent. It is so often. The dungeon designs (which are very samey and feel randomly generated and nonsensical, including the rest of the overworld) have lazy chests that make you go off the path for 2 seconds with nothing else. Do I want to grab boring healing item #816 just for the chance to engage in an encounter that lasts a full minute or more? Is that my real reward? The Scholar's ability that lessens the battle density feels more natural... but that assumes you started off with it early in the game. Alas, it wouldn't matter, because I dread fighting at all in this game. Everything is spongey. Everything is in high density, and morons on the internet will tell you "oh duh cuz you're not using effectivenesses right!!!1" THIS IS NOT SMT. BREAKING ENEMIES WILL STILL TAKE TIME. Effective use of the battle system should reward the player's skill by SPEEDING things along, not being the AVERAGE SNAIL'S PACE of the game. If it wasn't obvious, Octopath Traveller does NOT respect your time, and people act like maxing out your loadout is the easy solution, which it shouldn't be lest your game is poorly designed (oh wait), on top of weapons being spread out among shops all over the world. None of this is excusable, and people casually saying it takes them 80 hours to go through the game tells me that they enjoy slowly doing the same exact battle 10000 times for the rest of the game. Xenoblade is a game you can beat in 80 hours. And you actually DO things in that game.
So yes, every single chapter in this game is dumb. Go to town on the other side of the world map, talk to NPC, do dungeon, and proceed with a 15 minute boss fight that turns into a 2 minute loopfest. Even using cheats to shorten the time is unbearable.
So hopefully your time is somehow paid off, right?
No, it isn't. When you beat the character's 4th chapter, it's the end. Nothing else happens for them. And when you beat the last one? The credits roll for 5 minutes, and then nothing, you're done, with no epilogue or continuation or fixing the lack of interaction. Oh, wait, just go do this chain of side quests you completely forgot about to enter a postgame dungeon that consists of an 8-boss boss rush, next to a 2-phase superboss that uses all your party members (that cannot grow or get EXP when they're resting outside of your party, in which you have to travel to the goddamn Taverns to swap them around instead of being able to in your menu). Admittedly, the boss rush drops some walls of interesting and engaging lore, but WHY? It feels out of place in a game that deals so little in interesting narratives and more in an overblown localization (it's very bad and inconsistent, no reason for a forest girl to speak heavy Shakespearean which sees no use even from nobles). The walls of text, the true final boss, and the characters could have been woven into a fair and cool story if rewritten correctly, but it's all crammed at the end here with NO SAVES at ANY POINT, no warnings or any fun way to deal with threats inside, and if you do kill the boss (good luck if you died an hour in or have your game crash for whatever reason in this slow-ass game) then it just ENDS. There is as much interaction and closure as when you first saw the credits and thus are given control again... to do nothing.
Nothing at all happens in Octopath. It is a non-story.
I could go on. The visuals are both not bad and also bad. Too much VFX. Blur (why would you give me pretty scenery that I can't even look at???) Bloom. Repeated textures. Weird shading and vignettes. UI can be too small at times. The pixel artstyle isn't the greatest thing in the world but they decided to use this engine to remake Live-A-Live instead of giving it a well-deserved project of its own, but we can't have nice things.
There's a lot more wrong with this game and other nitpicks but good god just see anyone else's critique like this one https://youtu.be/9_qubODLHAc
I will say that at least the music is nice... a lot of the time, but it isn't bold enough as people say (the "normal" final boss theme is kino but that's about it). All in all, this game had incredible potential and a cool cast, and yet it all goes down the drain because they decided to give up on the expectations of those first demo chapters and filled the game with pretentious game design. If I wanted to play stale old stuff that didn't expect me to own other video games or have responsibilities, I'll play a retro JRPG instead. But Octopath really both disrespects and expects to hog all your time. I skipped through most of the gameplay after being sick with it, clocking in at max 30 hours, but I genuinely wish I had someone talking out of it. It was going to be a 5/10 for average but it just kept pissing me off, yet I can't rate it lower than 4 because there was SOME effort in this shit and SOME aspects of it are fun, just horribly put together. I had started the game years ago and only recently felt like wanting to clear it from my log, but it just isn't worth it. I hate games so much. I'm going to play a good game so that maybe I'll be happy again.
Awesome fun Kirby with a great metroidvania concept, memorable music, gorgeous areas and just a plain ol fun time with the abilities offered. The bosses are a bit too easy which lean onto having the maze portion of the game being where the real difficulty comes into play. Regardless, the presentation and features in this game make it one of the best to dip your toes in for the series, and if you can somehow get multiplayer running, it's even more fun.
Others seem to don't like how Goals work and how one-way exits function. And I understand that wholly. However, I don't consider these to be a negative aspect of the game in a vacuum. There are plenty of things behind these point-of-no-return routes such as 100% completion chests, and it seems that people neglect to make use of the map menu which helps immensely if you're trying to navigate your way around. It most certainly isn't as bad as how other Kirby games do puzzles or optional checks, and at least this game is open-world meaning that you're bound to end up in another point of interest anyway - that or you can still make it back to where you want to be in record time. Huge suckable blocks can sometimes be annoying with the Kirby AI but I can't think of any other complaints other than that some may just not like the on-the-fly routing involved and the fact that we don't have a spiritual successor. An absolute essential for the GBA that I've played many times over through the years.
Others seem to don't like how Goals work and how one-way exits function. And I understand that wholly. However, I don't consider these to be a negative aspect of the game in a vacuum. There are plenty of things behind these point-of-no-return routes such as 100% completion chests, and it seems that people neglect to make use of the map menu which helps immensely if you're trying to navigate your way around. It most certainly isn't as bad as how other Kirby games do puzzles or optional checks, and at least this game is open-world meaning that you're bound to end up in another point of interest anyway - that or you can still make it back to where you want to be in record time. Huge suckable blocks can sometimes be annoying with the Kirby AI but I can't think of any other complaints other than that some may just not like the on-the-fly routing involved and the fact that we don't have a spiritual successor. An absolute essential for the GBA that I've played many times over through the years.
money laundering for redditors
It's not that great.
I don't see anyone explaining why exactly they like this game so much but I can only guess because others don't intend on making a long analysis on a Kirby game, or they are biased by nostalgia. I beat this edition and played through most of the original as a kid, and I can say I never had strong memories about it aside from a few rooms. Beating it now after coming from other Kirby games, the game is plainly dated and I found myself rushing to just beat it after a while.
The presentation is cute, the hybrid artstyle and cutscenes are nice to see, but as far as gameplay goes, SSU doesn't do too much to add from the original — which I definitely have qualms over.
Air movement is very sad in this game. Previous entries weren't that great in this either, but it feels extremely noticable here. Jumps are not as pronounced (wheel still did not have this at the time, but felt like it could've been included), flying (a major trait of Kirby) feels like such a pain in the ass that it's better to avoid it over ground movement where possible, and many of the levels contain claustrophobic designs, sometimes cram-packed with enemies on top of hazard spam (either with lava or electricity as the main suspects) which all started to blur into one another instead of giving each place an overly distinct identity (aside from stages that were a 1-off gimmick). The worst part about this is that the amount of sources that inflict Heavy Knockdown to Kirby is very grinding, which only made me want to play more impatiently and roll my eyes when trying to brush away from a hazard ends up making you waste a few seconds, killing the pacing and action often. I assume the levels were left untouched from SS, but I feel like improvements could have been made to (at least) the level design. One-gap holes you must fall into, mazes galore and some other unintuitive puzzles (specific lava being passable when the rest isn't) drowned my joy out.
I don't have much to say about the rest, everyone loves Marx and Galacta Knight. Meta Knightmare felt the most fun to play and control with the energy system being cool enough, but I don't care too much about the "minigame" direction chosen. I personally prefer a centralized thing, and each segment didn't make me feel like replaying it. I understand why they went this route, though.
There is no bad Kirby game, and if managed to 97% the game then it was partially fun enough, but I have to give it my personal "OK" rating that made it a bit below Squeak Squad. Other games have more to offer and feel better to play, and all the "hip and cool" concepts of this game are mostly at the end of one's playthrough to postpone playing it (if you're not playing Kirbies in order). An alright game to spend an afternoon on.
I don't see anyone explaining why exactly they like this game so much but I can only guess because others don't intend on making a long analysis on a Kirby game, or they are biased by nostalgia. I beat this edition and played through most of the original as a kid, and I can say I never had strong memories about it aside from a few rooms. Beating it now after coming from other Kirby games, the game is plainly dated and I found myself rushing to just beat it after a while.
The presentation is cute, the hybrid artstyle and cutscenes are nice to see, but as far as gameplay goes, SSU doesn't do too much to add from the original — which I definitely have qualms over.
Air movement is very sad in this game. Previous entries weren't that great in this either, but it feels extremely noticable here. Jumps are not as pronounced (wheel still did not have this at the time, but felt like it could've been included), flying (a major trait of Kirby) feels like such a pain in the ass that it's better to avoid it over ground movement where possible, and many of the levels contain claustrophobic designs, sometimes cram-packed with enemies on top of hazard spam (either with lava or electricity as the main suspects) which all started to blur into one another instead of giving each place an overly distinct identity (aside from stages that were a 1-off gimmick). The worst part about this is that the amount of sources that inflict Heavy Knockdown to Kirby is very grinding, which only made me want to play more impatiently and roll my eyes when trying to brush away from a hazard ends up making you waste a few seconds, killing the pacing and action often. I assume the levels were left untouched from SS, but I feel like improvements could have been made to (at least) the level design. One-gap holes you must fall into, mazes galore and some other unintuitive puzzles (specific lava being passable when the rest isn't) drowned my joy out.
I don't have much to say about the rest, everyone loves Marx and Galacta Knight. Meta Knightmare felt the most fun to play and control with the energy system being cool enough, but I don't care too much about the "minigame" direction chosen. I personally prefer a centralized thing, and each segment didn't make me feel like replaying it. I understand why they went this route, though.
There is no bad Kirby game, and if managed to 97% the game then it was partially fun enough, but I have to give it my personal "OK" rating that made it a bit below Squeak Squad. Other games have more to offer and feel better to play, and all the "hip and cool" concepts of this game are mostly at the end of one's playthrough to postpone playing it (if you're not playing Kirbies in order). An alright game to spend an afternoon on.
2019
It looks okay.
2006
I played it on a shitty emulator on a shitty old laptop back in like 2010 maybe. But after replaying it, I can say that I don't like it too much compared to the rest of the franchise. The abilities get better and more fun to use, however I feel that the level designs can be somewhat strange and tight and don't give you great chances to use them to the best of your ability and fun. The bosses are also a bit miss-y, especially with Mecha Kracko and the final boss segment. A lot of music is re-hashed and re-used, though a few of the originals hit hard — you still can't help but feel it's like some strange Amazing Mirror spinoff, one that's a little more frustrating and lacking in the puzzle department.
2011
An awesome fun time given I haven't really played a 3D Mario in almost a decade, at least since I did SMG2. I'm extremely slow on the uptake here, but as a result this game is a blast that I almost refer to as a Galaxy Remix due to its similarities.
Levels in Super Mario 3D land are perfectly bite-sized but very fun and creative, enough that I've vocally expressed my enjoyment a few times. They go through all sorts of concepts that may not be exactly innovative or never-before-seen but they sure do feel refreshing. For the most part, level designs are very unique and varied, with little downtime or sleepy moments. As a game should be, 3DL is plain fun and easy to pick up and go. There's not much for me to overanalyze, because I'm not a chef who's staring down a plain vanilla cake — I've dug in, and I got more than what I expected at first.
But of course, I do have a few complaints. Movement is rather different and stiff overall, which is unfortunate because you have a few unexpected movement options like rolling and the classic longjumps. However, all jumps including LJs don't contribute any speed (I feel like they decrease your speed), and so a lot of points you really feel like you need a proper running start just to jump towards certain spots, especially for the flagpoles. It gets a bit annoying in some segments where you could've sworn you got the jump but the stiffness of air movement didn't want your way. Sometimes you might jump away from a platform and turn back towards it just to avoid a threat, but you tragically hit the side and just keep falling instead. You don't have real double or triple jumping to circumvent this, but at least walljumps are somewhat beneficial when coupled with the Tanuki suit.
The issue with the Tanuki suit though, while incredibly satisfying to use, is that it's just too good for the game. It offers flight that lets you invalidate and skip over many segments in level to the point that it may be a crutch, and the ease of use and strength causes enemies to not be threats. The gameplay of having no suit is entirely different than when you get or hoard the leaf, and just playing any same level twice will really show this, especially on the last one. Perhaps this is to make the game easier for wider audiences and allows people to not use the suit, though that's all up to honour and not as a proper reason not to use the suit. Though, none of this implies that levels end up being pushovers, because there's enough challenges in 3DL. The suit just often ignores many platforming segments.
On that note, there are a few times that the perspective of the game's camera can be odd. It isn't free like in other Mario 3D games, instead facing the same direction most of the time and being slightly tiltable to the left or right. There's no problem with this and it's rather fitting for the pocket experience and how streamlined levels are, but this projection sometimes leads to strange depth perception at times, at least for me. There have been a few frustrating instances where it would appear a platform is beside another (from left to right) when the latter's actually further away from the camera, making you fall to your death. The same can sometimes be said for enemy distances, though maybe these are just issues with me. I have no comments on the 3D projection since I have a 2DS.
At the very least, the special world is very nice as a way to double the content and features a satisfactory amount of new stages though with a handful of others that are repeated. They're nice and challenging and S8's theme is comfy.
While I wrote more complaints, that's on course for reviews. 3DL is still very fun and when I started off I got plenty of kicks from it, even laughing when I died at times. Definitely a must-play for 3DS players.
Levels in Super Mario 3D land are perfectly bite-sized but very fun and creative, enough that I've vocally expressed my enjoyment a few times. They go through all sorts of concepts that may not be exactly innovative or never-before-seen but they sure do feel refreshing. For the most part, level designs are very unique and varied, with little downtime or sleepy moments. As a game should be, 3DL is plain fun and easy to pick up and go. There's not much for me to overanalyze, because I'm not a chef who's staring down a plain vanilla cake — I've dug in, and I got more than what I expected at first.
But of course, I do have a few complaints. Movement is rather different and stiff overall, which is unfortunate because you have a few unexpected movement options like rolling and the classic longjumps. However, all jumps including LJs don't contribute any speed (I feel like they decrease your speed), and so a lot of points you really feel like you need a proper running start just to jump towards certain spots, especially for the flagpoles. It gets a bit annoying in some segments where you could've sworn you got the jump but the stiffness of air movement didn't want your way. Sometimes you might jump away from a platform and turn back towards it just to avoid a threat, but you tragically hit the side and just keep falling instead. You don't have real double or triple jumping to circumvent this, but at least walljumps are somewhat beneficial when coupled with the Tanuki suit.
The issue with the Tanuki suit though, while incredibly satisfying to use, is that it's just too good for the game. It offers flight that lets you invalidate and skip over many segments in level to the point that it may be a crutch, and the ease of use and strength causes enemies to not be threats. The gameplay of having no suit is entirely different than when you get or hoard the leaf, and just playing any same level twice will really show this, especially on the last one. Perhaps this is to make the game easier for wider audiences and allows people to not use the suit, though that's all up to honour and not as a proper reason not to use the suit. Though, none of this implies that levels end up being pushovers, because there's enough challenges in 3DL. The suit just often ignores many platforming segments.
On that note, there are a few times that the perspective of the game's camera can be odd. It isn't free like in other Mario 3D games, instead facing the same direction most of the time and being slightly tiltable to the left or right. There's no problem with this and it's rather fitting for the pocket experience and how streamlined levels are, but this projection sometimes leads to strange depth perception at times, at least for me. There have been a few frustrating instances where it would appear a platform is beside another (from left to right) when the latter's actually further away from the camera, making you fall to your death. The same can sometimes be said for enemy distances, though maybe these are just issues with me. I have no comments on the 3D projection since I have a 2DS.
At the very least, the special world is very nice as a way to double the content and features a satisfactory amount of new stages though with a handful of others that are repeated. They're nice and challenging and S8's theme is comfy.
While I wrote more complaints, that's on course for reviews. 3DL is still very fun and when I started off I got plenty of kicks from it, even laughing when I died at times. Definitely a must-play for 3DS players.