GlacialMandala
I'll try my best not to spoil here but there might be a few minor things, I just have a lot of thoughts to get off my chest about this game.
I will be making the comparisons to Danganronpa (obviously).
First let's start with the characters, now at the time of writing I have not completed all of the Gumshoe Gabs (Free time events) but I feel like I shouldn't have to in order to form an opinion, yes it likely will give further in sight on the characters much like it did in Danganronpa but the story should be able to hold its own without these especially since they are missable. Anyway as far as the other Master Detective's go I'd say I like all of them to a degree. Vivia and Halara are definitely the standouts for me but Fubuki is still fun and Desuhiko while he can be very cringe at times he still has his moments and ends up being a nice bro to Yuma. I'll get more into them when I talk about the individual chapters but let's quickly go over the others. Yakou our mentor type character is pretty good, but I feel like he was a bit underutilized, not being a master detective I get that coalescence wouldn't work on him since he's not a master detective but I would've liked it he still could've been involved in some of the investigations even if bringing him into the mystery labyrinth was a no go. Makoto I can't really get into since his whole character is a minefield of spoilers but I think he is also a pretty good character, lots of nice set up with his character that they definitely delivered on. Now for the Peacekeepers, I do not find any of them to be all that interesting if I'm being honest, outside of Yomi I feel none of them have much of a presence since they have such minor roles in each chapter, yes they do reappear in the form of mystery phantoms in the labyrinth but I still felt they remained very one-note and were more so just obstacles in there than unique characters. Even Yomi I didn't particularly find all that compelling, I can understand his frustrations due to some elements of the twist at the end but I'm not sure what his ultimate goal even really was as most of what he aimed for I feel would have only worked against him. Shinigami I surprisingly ended up liking, I thought she would annoy the hell out of me at the start of the game and while there was a few moments she did get on my nerves I think her inclusion was definitely for the better in the end. As for Yuma himself? I do think he's a good protagonist, and watching him grow throughout the game I was definitely happy with where he ended up character wise, I'm curious how much will carry over into a sequel thanks to some things in the end but overall a pretty good protagonist despite some tropes I usually aren't fond of.
Soundtrack was just alright tbh, not bad but compared to some of the Danganronpa games it was on the weaker side, and it still very much resembles them without finding an identity of its own, I'm sure if I go back through there was some bangers in there but it definitely isn't on the same level as any of the Danganronpa soundtracks imo.
Now for the elephant in the room, the Mystery Labyrinths, most people who are playing this game I'm sure will be Danganronpa fans, maybe there'll be a few people who just pick this up on a whim but the majority I'm sure will be DR fans, and as such I'm sure many players will feel that the Mystery Labyrinths are kind of neutered compared to the class trials, yes it is a fact that they aren't one-to-one the exact same thing but the similarities will not be lost on anyone and while I feel like some of the minigames were improved upon my main complaint on this front is with what is usually the crux of the trials, the non-stop debate which here is replaced with the reasoning deathmatch which really doesn't hit the same, I feel it flows much more awkwardly due to how short they can be (with the exception of the final section of the game, that one was pretty strong) and the fact that they are mostly 1-on-1 back and forths between you and the phantoms as opposed to the group discussions that are present in a Danganronpa game. As such Mystery Labyrinths do not feel as strongly put together as a Class Trial but they aren't bad either. I assume a sequel will likely see them return but if they do I hope they'll improve on them in some ways though I'm not entirely sure what could be done to do so.
Next up I just want to quickly mention the side quests before I jump into the meat of things, these are almost entirely boring. I don't hate them but I didn't feel much from the majority of them, with maybe a quarter at most being enjoyable, namely the ones that did bring in characters from the previous chapters so you could see how they were doing post-case.
Now the chapters, I am going to be vague on some things to avoid spoilers but I'll try to give some quick thoughts.
Chapter 0: This in my opinion is the 2nd weakest chapter in the game, not because it's necessarily bad but probably because of just how bare bones it can feel due to it being the tutorial case. It starts off with something surprising that will probably catch a lot of players off guard which I can respect and while it does cut off some potential I wouldn't really trade what was lost for any of what we got.
Chapter 1: I'd say this is the weakest chapter, but it's also kind of a weird one, part of my disinterest definitely lies in the weird decision to not give any of the characters in this chapter names, the child Yuma takes the case from? He's just simply called 'Boy', the people at the church? 'Priest', 'Servant', 'Nun' and 'Worshipper'. I cannot fathom why this decision was made and it did give me a unnecessary worry that maybe the whole game would be this way, which was definitely not a strong look after a decent enough chapter 0. The mystery itself was interesting though it was hard to get attached to any of the characters here partially due to their lack of names, Seth (the peacekeeper or main antagonist for this chapter) I feel was just kind of there, he was just an obstacle to cut us off for plots sake and while he has a few quirks to his character that make him unique he lacks any real depth, Halara on the other hand is pretty great, it's cool having a non-binary character, and it doesn't feel like they're here just to tick off a checkbox either. Though obviously that alone wouldn't make them a compelling character, while it's easy to say Halara comes off as rude with how hands off they can be with things and the way they're always pushing Yuma to figure things they already knew themself there reasoning for doing I feel does hold weight, Yuma as a trainee who wants to become a real detective should be able to do things himself since there won't always be someone around to hold his hand (pun intended).
Chapter 2: I'd give this chapter a solid third place even though it has my least favourite companion in the game being Desuhiko, the main reason being I feel this case packs an emotional punch that chapters 0, 1 and 3 lack, once again no spoilers but this is the first chapter where Yuma's resolve is tested and he has to reevaluate whether what he's doing is truly right, the peacekeeper for this chapter is Martina, Yomi's "right hand", it felt early for what the previous chapter built her up to be but I suppose their wasn't much space to fit her in with a different chapter, she is a bit more compelling than Seth but still nothing special. As for Desuhiko he's in a bit of a weird spot, he fills a character archetype I have never been fond of, being the wannabee ladies man, I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be either but I will give the benefit of the doubt that he is around high school age since his design makes it a little unclear. His necessity to hit on every woman he sees is definitely grating at times but he does thankfully have some redeeming qualities, both in coming in useful for the investigation as well being quite the homie for Yuma a lot of the time. This chapter also introduces Kurumi, I suppose she could be considered the main assistant character of this game, she has a nice little build up through the game though she's far from the same level as any of the deuteroganists in the Danganronpa games.
Chapter 3: I'd give this one I firm 4th place, above chapter 0 but not as strong as Chapter 2 and that mainly lies in the weak motive I feel the culprit here had compared to any of the others, it's no secret that Danganronpa has a problem with third cases, most people would probably name them as the weakest cases in all the mainline games, and while it isn't wholly true here, it still has a lot of the same issues here, this chapter has the peacekeeper I would probably consider to be the "most fun" out of their ranks, Guillaume still isn't a particularly deep character but I do at least find her fun compared to the other antagonists. Fubuki falls into kind of the same boat. (Pun intended again) She is fun, and personality wise she isn't as grating as Desuhiko can be at times but she kind of holds Yuma back when it comes to the investigation and while this was definitely intentional for her character arc I'm not sure she really sees a conclusion where she overcomes this fact.
Chapter 4: Woo boy, this is where the game stops playing around, once you knock the remaining side-quests (or ignore them I guess if you don't care to do them) the story really ramps up without taking the time to brake and I'd say it's only for the better. It's hard for me to say whether I prefer this over the final case of the game or not but this definitely takes the spot of the most emotional case in the game. Vivia also makes a good foil to Yuma and hits what I feel the main theme of this game is, Truth vs. Happiness, this is something that also takes the conundrum from the end of chapter 2 to a whole other level, by adding a personal element for Yuma that wasn't present there, I'd say this also helps to make Vivia the most interesting companion character in this game, Halara comes close but I feel him having a much stronger chapter that he gets to shine in gives him that edge. The one thing I will put against this game here that might stick out for some people is that the main cast don't interact all too much which can hurt the believeability of their bond a bit, as most of their interactions are solely with Yuma, I know it would harm the flow of the story of you stopped to have these but it could have been remedied by having some free time events between the other characters rather than just Yuma, something akin to what you'd see in a Fire Emblem game. Sure I did argue that this shouldn't be a necessity and I'd still say it isn't, but choosing to skip them is also a choice, so you can't really blame the game if you were to skip out on something like them.
Now for the grand finale, Chapter 5: This has some pretty great twists, I had by theories surrounding what the game was trying to pull but I was definitely thrown for a loop when it was revealed that what I thought was the case was in fact the exact opposite of what the reality was, I won't elaborate any further as I believe it's best experienced blind and it even has a pretty great meta twist that I thought was just brilliant, much better than the twist I know was quite divisive from v3, and I'd say overall I think Danganronpa 2 is the only DR game I thought actually had a better ending than Rain Code's.
I will be looking forward to whatever comes next from Kodaka going forward, the ending does give me hopes for a sequel in the future, I'm not sure if they would bring back any of the Master Detective's from this game or not, but either way I'm game for whatever is planned next if this does in fact become a series. It definitely isn't as good as 2 or V3 but I would put this on the same tier as Danganronpa 1 (and better than UDG but yeah...)
I will be making the comparisons to Danganronpa (obviously).
First let's start with the characters, now at the time of writing I have not completed all of the Gumshoe Gabs (Free time events) but I feel like I shouldn't have to in order to form an opinion, yes it likely will give further in sight on the characters much like it did in Danganronpa but the story should be able to hold its own without these especially since they are missable. Anyway as far as the other Master Detective's go I'd say I like all of them to a degree. Vivia and Halara are definitely the standouts for me but Fubuki is still fun and Desuhiko while he can be very cringe at times he still has his moments and ends up being a nice bro to Yuma. I'll get more into them when I talk about the individual chapters but let's quickly go over the others. Yakou our mentor type character is pretty good, but I feel like he was a bit underutilized, not being a master detective I get that coalescence wouldn't work on him since he's not a master detective but I would've liked it he still could've been involved in some of the investigations even if bringing him into the mystery labyrinth was a no go. Makoto I can't really get into since his whole character is a minefield of spoilers but I think he is also a pretty good character, lots of nice set up with his character that they definitely delivered on. Now for the Peacekeepers, I do not find any of them to be all that interesting if I'm being honest, outside of Yomi I feel none of them have much of a presence since they have such minor roles in each chapter, yes they do reappear in the form of mystery phantoms in the labyrinth but I still felt they remained very one-note and were more so just obstacles in there than unique characters. Even Yomi I didn't particularly find all that compelling, I can understand his frustrations due to some elements of the twist at the end but I'm not sure what his ultimate goal even really was as most of what he aimed for I feel would have only worked against him. Shinigami I surprisingly ended up liking, I thought she would annoy the hell out of me at the start of the game and while there was a few moments she did get on my nerves I think her inclusion was definitely for the better in the end. As for Yuma himself? I do think he's a good protagonist, and watching him grow throughout the game I was definitely happy with where he ended up character wise, I'm curious how much will carry over into a sequel thanks to some things in the end but overall a pretty good protagonist despite some tropes I usually aren't fond of.
Soundtrack was just alright tbh, not bad but compared to some of the Danganronpa games it was on the weaker side, and it still very much resembles them without finding an identity of its own, I'm sure if I go back through there was some bangers in there but it definitely isn't on the same level as any of the Danganronpa soundtracks imo.
Now for the elephant in the room, the Mystery Labyrinths, most people who are playing this game I'm sure will be Danganronpa fans, maybe there'll be a few people who just pick this up on a whim but the majority I'm sure will be DR fans, and as such I'm sure many players will feel that the Mystery Labyrinths are kind of neutered compared to the class trials, yes it is a fact that they aren't one-to-one the exact same thing but the similarities will not be lost on anyone and while I feel like some of the minigames were improved upon my main complaint on this front is with what is usually the crux of the trials, the non-stop debate which here is replaced with the reasoning deathmatch which really doesn't hit the same, I feel it flows much more awkwardly due to how short they can be (with the exception of the final section of the game, that one was pretty strong) and the fact that they are mostly 1-on-1 back and forths between you and the phantoms as opposed to the group discussions that are present in a Danganronpa game. As such Mystery Labyrinths do not feel as strongly put together as a Class Trial but they aren't bad either. I assume a sequel will likely see them return but if they do I hope they'll improve on them in some ways though I'm not entirely sure what could be done to do so.
Next up I just want to quickly mention the side quests before I jump into the meat of things, these are almost entirely boring. I don't hate them but I didn't feel much from the majority of them, with maybe a quarter at most being enjoyable, namely the ones that did bring in characters from the previous chapters so you could see how they were doing post-case.
Now the chapters, I am going to be vague on some things to avoid spoilers but I'll try to give some quick thoughts.
Chapter 0: This in my opinion is the 2nd weakest chapter in the game, not because it's necessarily bad but probably because of just how bare bones it can feel due to it being the tutorial case. It starts off with something surprising that will probably catch a lot of players off guard which I can respect and while it does cut off some potential I wouldn't really trade what was lost for any of what we got.
Chapter 1: I'd say this is the weakest chapter, but it's also kind of a weird one, part of my disinterest definitely lies in the weird decision to not give any of the characters in this chapter names, the child Yuma takes the case from? He's just simply called 'Boy', the people at the church? 'Priest', 'Servant', 'Nun' and 'Worshipper'. I cannot fathom why this decision was made and it did give me a unnecessary worry that maybe the whole game would be this way, which was definitely not a strong look after a decent enough chapter 0. The mystery itself was interesting though it was hard to get attached to any of the characters here partially due to their lack of names, Seth (the peacekeeper or main antagonist for this chapter) I feel was just kind of there, he was just an obstacle to cut us off for plots sake and while he has a few quirks to his character that make him unique he lacks any real depth, Halara on the other hand is pretty great, it's cool having a non-binary character, and it doesn't feel like they're here just to tick off a checkbox either. Though obviously that alone wouldn't make them a compelling character, while it's easy to say Halara comes off as rude with how hands off they can be with things and the way they're always pushing Yuma to figure things they already knew themself there reasoning for doing I feel does hold weight, Yuma as a trainee who wants to become a real detective should be able to do things himself since there won't always be someone around to hold his hand (pun intended).
Chapter 2: I'd give this chapter a solid third place even though it has my least favourite companion in the game being Desuhiko, the main reason being I feel this case packs an emotional punch that chapters 0, 1 and 3 lack, once again no spoilers but this is the first chapter where Yuma's resolve is tested and he has to reevaluate whether what he's doing is truly right, the peacekeeper for this chapter is Martina, Yomi's "right hand", it felt early for what the previous chapter built her up to be but I suppose their wasn't much space to fit her in with a different chapter, she is a bit more compelling than Seth but still nothing special. As for Desuhiko he's in a bit of a weird spot, he fills a character archetype I have never been fond of, being the wannabee ladies man, I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be either but I will give the benefit of the doubt that he is around high school age since his design makes it a little unclear. His necessity to hit on every woman he sees is definitely grating at times but he does thankfully have some redeeming qualities, both in coming in useful for the investigation as well being quite the homie for Yuma a lot of the time. This chapter also introduces Kurumi, I suppose she could be considered the main assistant character of this game, she has a nice little build up through the game though she's far from the same level as any of the deuteroganists in the Danganronpa games.
Chapter 3: I'd give this one I firm 4th place, above chapter 0 but not as strong as Chapter 2 and that mainly lies in the weak motive I feel the culprit here had compared to any of the others, it's no secret that Danganronpa has a problem with third cases, most people would probably name them as the weakest cases in all the mainline games, and while it isn't wholly true here, it still has a lot of the same issues here, this chapter has the peacekeeper I would probably consider to be the "most fun" out of their ranks, Guillaume still isn't a particularly deep character but I do at least find her fun compared to the other antagonists. Fubuki falls into kind of the same boat. (Pun intended again) She is fun, and personality wise she isn't as grating as Desuhiko can be at times but she kind of holds Yuma back when it comes to the investigation and while this was definitely intentional for her character arc I'm not sure she really sees a conclusion where she overcomes this fact.
Chapter 4: Woo boy, this is where the game stops playing around, once you knock the remaining side-quests (or ignore them I guess if you don't care to do them) the story really ramps up without taking the time to brake and I'd say it's only for the better. It's hard for me to say whether I prefer this over the final case of the game or not but this definitely takes the spot of the most emotional case in the game. Vivia also makes a good foil to Yuma and hits what I feel the main theme of this game is, Truth vs. Happiness, this is something that also takes the conundrum from the end of chapter 2 to a whole other level, by adding a personal element for Yuma that wasn't present there, I'd say this also helps to make Vivia the most interesting companion character in this game, Halara comes close but I feel him having a much stronger chapter that he gets to shine in gives him that edge. The one thing I will put against this game here that might stick out for some people is that the main cast don't interact all too much which can hurt the believeability of their bond a bit, as most of their interactions are solely with Yuma, I know it would harm the flow of the story of you stopped to have these but it could have been remedied by having some free time events between the other characters rather than just Yuma, something akin to what you'd see in a Fire Emblem game. Sure I did argue that this shouldn't be a necessity and I'd still say it isn't, but choosing to skip them is also a choice, so you can't really blame the game if you were to skip out on something like them.
Now for the grand finale, Chapter 5: This has some pretty great twists, I had by theories surrounding what the game was trying to pull but I was definitely thrown for a loop when it was revealed that what I thought was the case was in fact the exact opposite of what the reality was, I won't elaborate any further as I believe it's best experienced blind and it even has a pretty great meta twist that I thought was just brilliant, much better than the twist I know was quite divisive from v3, and I'd say overall I think Danganronpa 2 is the only DR game I thought actually had a better ending than Rain Code's.
I will be looking forward to whatever comes next from Kodaka going forward, the ending does give me hopes for a sequel in the future, I'm not sure if they would bring back any of the Master Detective's from this game or not, but either way I'm game for whatever is planned next if this does in fact become a series. It definitely isn't as good as 2 or V3 but I would put this on the same tier as Danganronpa 1 (and better than UDG but yeah...)
Can't help but feel a little dissatisfied, the prologue & chapter 1 set a tone that hooks you in but doesn't really stick around.
Regardless I enjoyed majority of the game, with 2 exceptions. 1. The ending felt rushed and a certain character felt very unutilised and underdeveloped considering their role. Prior to the "cleansing" I felt the narrative was at a much stronger point. 2. Choices in this game really don't matter, sure there is a couple bad endings but overall the branching timeline doesn't really benefit the story in any major way. It could be argued the prologue sets you up for that fact but ultimately I don't see any reason to have them.
Now I always tend to ramble on the negatives so a few positives to close this out.
The soundtrack (and sound design) while I believe quite small is pretty good, no complaints there. Likewise with the character sprites, and environments, the art in this game is quite gorgeous. Lastly the characters in this game are a lot of fun, minus the one I was referring to earlier, who I won't name to avoid big spoilers. The biggest standouts for me are Erio, Yakko, Richter and Tsutsumi
Regardless I enjoyed majority of the game, with 2 exceptions. 1. The ending felt rushed and a certain character felt very unutilised and underdeveloped considering their role. Prior to the "cleansing" I felt the narrative was at a much stronger point. 2. Choices in this game really don't matter, sure there is a couple bad endings but overall the branching timeline doesn't really benefit the story in any major way. It could be argued the prologue sets you up for that fact but ultimately I don't see any reason to have them.
Now I always tend to ramble on the negatives so a few positives to close this out.
The soundtrack (and sound design) while I believe quite small is pretty good, no complaints there. Likewise with the character sprites, and environments, the art in this game is quite gorgeous. Lastly the characters in this game are a lot of fun, minus the one I was referring to earlier, who I won't name to avoid big spoilers. The biggest standouts for me are Erio, Yakko, Richter and Tsutsumi
Played it co-op
The first souls game I've finished, I have dipped my toes very briefly into II and Bloodborne but not enough to say I've really played them. There's some clunkyness and signs of a lazy port for sure but overall it's definitely a fun time to be had, and I'm glad to have seen it through to the end.
I'm sure some will say it removes a lot of the challenge to play with someone else but I don't really care, I was more interested in playing with a friend than tryharding and caring about the difficulty.
The first souls game I've finished, I have dipped my toes very briefly into II and Bloodborne but not enough to say I've really played them. There's some clunkyness and signs of a lazy port for sure but overall it's definitely a fun time to be had, and I'm glad to have seen it through to the end.
I'm sure some will say it removes a lot of the challenge to play with someone else but I don't really care, I was more interested in playing with a friend than tryharding and caring about the difficulty.
2018
Ace Attorney for lobotomy victims.
The story was an improvement over Persona 5 Arena, and I liked the progression of Labrys character, Sho was just alright, didn't really find myself that interested in him.
Episode P4 was decent, and I liked Adachi's chapter which honestly might have been the highlight, enjoyed seeing his character progression. After about halfway into Episode P3 however I did start to get pretty bored as the content repeated a bit too much by the end.
Episode P4 was decent, and I liked Adachi's chapter which honestly might have been the highlight, enjoyed seeing his character progression. After about halfway into Episode P3 however I did start to get pretty bored as the content repeated a bit too much by the end.
2021
This is probably the first Final Fantasy game I would say I consider to be a good representation of what the franchise is, everything feels a lot more polished and it introduces some mechanics that stay around for a while like the ATB gauge as well as having summons. I wouldn't quite call it a culmination of the series thus far but nonetheless it continues to make a steady increase in quality, and hopefully that mountain doesn't end too soon.
As always the soundtrack is pretty good, we haven't gotten to the era of peak soundtracks yet but there is a little in there, characters arent bad, main case I like besides Rosa who I feel pretty neutral about, in some ways I'd say she seems like Cecil's sidehoe rather than an important.
As for the story itself, it follows the usual ff formular of collecting/protecting crystals and doesn't deviate much from there, plot is decent but the character interactions is where I think it shines best, it also loves it's fake-outs with almost nobody dies and a lot of fake deaths seem to be played just for a brief moment of tricking you into feeling sad for some reason, as well as some rather silly 'sacrifices' at times as well as a few plot twists that seemed to come from nowhere.
As always the soundtrack is pretty good, we haven't gotten to the era of peak soundtracks yet but there is a little in there, characters arent bad, main case I like besides Rosa who I feel pretty neutral about, in some ways I'd say she seems like Cecil's sidehoe rather than an important.
As for the story itself, it follows the usual ff formular of collecting/protecting crystals and doesn't deviate much from there, plot is decent but the character interactions is where I think it shines best, it also loves it's fake-outs with almost nobody dies and a lot of fake deaths seem to be played just for a brief moment of tricking you into feeling sad for some reason, as well as some rather silly 'sacrifices' at times as well as a few plot twists that seemed to come from nowhere.
2018
The story mode of this game is some hot trash, hense why despite playing this game back when it came out I never felt compelled to finish it and only doing so now because it had been sitting in the backlog so long.
As with any modern fighter though the meat of this game is in the online which admittedly I am not the greatest at (especially after not playing for over a year) but I still had my fun with it nonetheless.
As with any modern fighter though the meat of this game is in the online which admittedly I am not the greatest at (especially after not playing for over a year) but I still had my fun with it nonetheless.
This review contains spoilers
For me the first game set quite the high bar, I was sceptical as to whether this game could truly surpass it but my hopes were high and in the end it fell short of them. But this isn't to say I think the game was bad, as the score shows that's far from the truth.
Personally I like the gameplay changes despite some divisive aspects to it, mainly in the gadgets and stealth mechanics. In terms of gadgets they can at times feel pretty samey and there is less than in the original game (though more than in Miles Morales), however in my opinion I find the suit abilities and venom abilities make up the difference for me at least, though I know this won't be true for everyone mainly for reasons that come up in the next point. The stealth in this game ends up feeling a lot more barebones than in the other games and almost feels unnecessary. The weblines added here while a cool concept end up making the stealth way too easy, especially if you have the double takedown ability, plus with a lot less gadget options they aren't as big of an option to use for stealth as the abilities I mentioned earlier are solely for combat.
Next I'll talk about the side content, I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things but it feels like there is less than in the previous games. I like that they aren't putting all their cards on the table right away either and set up Carnage and Chameleon for the next game in the series but I feel they oversold the amount of optional bosses in this game and as a result I ended up setting my expectations a little too high, the only optional bosses here being Wraith and Mysterio. Overall though I did enjoy the side content though, enough to want to do all of it without really feeling like I needed to get on with the main story, maybe having more would have led to it feeling a bit over bloated but still, maybe there'll be DLC but I can't help but feel slightly disappointed there.
Now onto the main course, the story. Overall I had fun with it, but there were a lot of things I felt could have been handled better too and as many people have said by now it does play it very safe. Both Yuri and Nadji do absolutely fantastic jobs with their performances here and overall I don't mind the way the narrative develops. I like Peter's dynamic with Harry and the flashback segments were really cool but I would have loved to see more of them, a new of the funnier side quests in the game did make use of this too but I wish they had done more of them but compared to how much time Peter got to spend with Octavius in the first game I didn't get nearly as emotionally invested. Mary Jane's sections in this game were also a lot better this time around especially once she gets the web shooter.
Before I touch upon some of my issues however I want to quickly talk about what I felt the most mixed on which was how they handled Miles in this game, For the most part I like how his roles in the side content is handled, from his relationship with his uncle to how he is a lot more involved in his community compared to Peter and his relationship with Hailey too, I also like how his struggle with revenge and Martin Li being out contrasts and mirrors with Peter having the symbiote but... Once he does get past that they act way too buddy buddy, Miles says he'll never be able to forgive him but when they go inside Peter's mind I get that yes Peter is more important than letting Li's presence affect him but they act almost like friends at times and the fact that he just let's Li walk once all is said and done I find incredibly dumb, it's one thing for him to feel remorse and want to make up for it in ways that he couldn't if he was to return to prison but for Miles to let him when he is willfully resposible for his father's death and hasn't done his due time is just nonsensical to me (Yes I imagine he likely received a life sentence but it's been like what, a year in universe since it happened?) Also his new suit sucks dick and balls.
With that out of the way let's jump back to Peter, there is one more thing I'm a bit mixed on with Miles but it's at the very tail end of this game so it can wait. When it comes to Kraven's hunt I'm not entirely satisfied with the way it was handled, Kraven takes out Chameleon on screen which is fine but Vulture and Shocker are very much wasted potential with the way they were offscreened, I would have preferred they be used as props to better serve the story rather than almost meaningless mantles that honestly are pretty ineffective at making Kraven feel like a threat. I'm not going to make the claim that I'm some master writer but if I was writing this game I would have had them used while Peter is completely under the symbiote's command, have him go after them but be more concerned with stopping them rather than saving them, Shocker especially I feel would have served as a nice contrast to the promise Peter made with him in the first game and have him feel at fault for getting him killed by Kraven (once he returns to normal) because as it stands here the only thing Peter is really guilty of before the fight with Miles is acting like a dick which isn't as hard as I wished they would have gone, obviously I didn't expect them to straight up murder anyone but to have him be indirectly at fault imo would have made the need to get it off him much more dire. Yes he does try to kill Miles during their fight but once again that is after they're already so opposed to the black suit's presence. Kraven's death I am a little mixed on, on one hand there was a part of me that didn't want him to get his way, to see him instead rot in a cell and die a completely boring and uninteresting death that was in no way what he could have wanted it arrived for, when it comes to villains like Kraven I don't necessarily want to see them get the thing they desire in the end but for what it was it wasn't too bad, so I won't say it was a negative and the fight as Venom was pretty awesome.
Now to wrap this up my last point of focus will be on Venom and Harry's descent, I haven't really touched on Sandman or Lizard but that's mainly because I don't really have any criticism for those parts and for whatever reason I find it much easier to go into the things I dislike rather than like.
When it comes to Harry I like the route they take, giving him the suit at first and letting him feel useful and be a part of the team but it feels too short-lived, I wish he'd accompanied us for a bigger part of the game, I'm not exactly sure how to implement it given how big a part of this game the symbiote suit is and it may have made people impatient if it took too long to get to it but alongside my first point I feel it would have helped build a bigger emotional investment in his character to have it, I do think his desperation and uselessness is handled quite well though, after he hands off the suit (unwillingly to save Peter) not only does he start to physically start to die without it to support him but also his brief time being able to fight alongside Peter only to have it snatched away and leaving him unable to do anything to help Peter, the conclusion to this however I'm not satisfied with the way he comibines with Venom, compared to how it effects Peter it feels a lot more like Venom simply takes over Harry's body rather than becoming a mix of the two and while I still very much found the sections where we played as Venom to be cool I would have preferred that in route. And as one final note, why does Miles get the final boss battle? Harry is much more personal to Peter and barely has any connection to Miles, so I feel Peter should have had the last fight, yes Mile' section should be there but I would have liked one final fight as Peter to end it off.
Silk set-up is also cool though I'm not sure if having three Spider people going around is the best idea, it does look like the idea is to eventually retire Peter but it is much to early for that at the moment as he absolutely needs to be the one that fights Green Goblin and even Carnage while likely not story relevant feels like he has to be handled by Peter. Maybe they'll leave Silk for a 4th instalment or her own game but as it currently stands It feels a bit too soon.
Personally I like the gameplay changes despite some divisive aspects to it, mainly in the gadgets and stealth mechanics. In terms of gadgets they can at times feel pretty samey and there is less than in the original game (though more than in Miles Morales), however in my opinion I find the suit abilities and venom abilities make up the difference for me at least, though I know this won't be true for everyone mainly for reasons that come up in the next point. The stealth in this game ends up feeling a lot more barebones than in the other games and almost feels unnecessary. The weblines added here while a cool concept end up making the stealth way too easy, especially if you have the double takedown ability, plus with a lot less gadget options they aren't as big of an option to use for stealth as the abilities I mentioned earlier are solely for combat.
Next I'll talk about the side content, I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things but it feels like there is less than in the previous games. I like that they aren't putting all their cards on the table right away either and set up Carnage and Chameleon for the next game in the series but I feel they oversold the amount of optional bosses in this game and as a result I ended up setting my expectations a little too high, the only optional bosses here being Wraith and Mysterio. Overall though I did enjoy the side content though, enough to want to do all of it without really feeling like I needed to get on with the main story, maybe having more would have led to it feeling a bit over bloated but still, maybe there'll be DLC but I can't help but feel slightly disappointed there.
Now onto the main course, the story. Overall I had fun with it, but there were a lot of things I felt could have been handled better too and as many people have said by now it does play it very safe. Both Yuri and Nadji do absolutely fantastic jobs with their performances here and overall I don't mind the way the narrative develops. I like Peter's dynamic with Harry and the flashback segments were really cool but I would have loved to see more of them, a new of the funnier side quests in the game did make use of this too but I wish they had done more of them but compared to how much time Peter got to spend with Octavius in the first game I didn't get nearly as emotionally invested. Mary Jane's sections in this game were also a lot better this time around especially once she gets the web shooter.
Before I touch upon some of my issues however I want to quickly talk about what I felt the most mixed on which was how they handled Miles in this game, For the most part I like how his roles in the side content is handled, from his relationship with his uncle to how he is a lot more involved in his community compared to Peter and his relationship with Hailey too, I also like how his struggle with revenge and Martin Li being out contrasts and mirrors with Peter having the symbiote but... Once he does get past that they act way too buddy buddy, Miles says he'll never be able to forgive him but when they go inside Peter's mind I get that yes Peter is more important than letting Li's presence affect him but they act almost like friends at times and the fact that he just let's Li walk once all is said and done I find incredibly dumb, it's one thing for him to feel remorse and want to make up for it in ways that he couldn't if he was to return to prison but for Miles to let him when he is willfully resposible for his father's death and hasn't done his due time is just nonsensical to me (Yes I imagine he likely received a life sentence but it's been like what, a year in universe since it happened?) Also his new suit sucks dick and balls.
With that out of the way let's jump back to Peter, there is one more thing I'm a bit mixed on with Miles but it's at the very tail end of this game so it can wait. When it comes to Kraven's hunt I'm not entirely satisfied with the way it was handled, Kraven takes out Chameleon on screen which is fine but Vulture and Shocker are very much wasted potential with the way they were offscreened, I would have preferred they be used as props to better serve the story rather than almost meaningless mantles that honestly are pretty ineffective at making Kraven feel like a threat. I'm not going to make the claim that I'm some master writer but if I was writing this game I would have had them used while Peter is completely under the symbiote's command, have him go after them but be more concerned with stopping them rather than saving them, Shocker especially I feel would have served as a nice contrast to the promise Peter made with him in the first game and have him feel at fault for getting him killed by Kraven (once he returns to normal) because as it stands here the only thing Peter is really guilty of before the fight with Miles is acting like a dick which isn't as hard as I wished they would have gone, obviously I didn't expect them to straight up murder anyone but to have him be indirectly at fault imo would have made the need to get it off him much more dire. Yes he does try to kill Miles during their fight but once again that is after they're already so opposed to the black suit's presence. Kraven's death I am a little mixed on, on one hand there was a part of me that didn't want him to get his way, to see him instead rot in a cell and die a completely boring and uninteresting death that was in no way what he could have wanted it arrived for, when it comes to villains like Kraven I don't necessarily want to see them get the thing they desire in the end but for what it was it wasn't too bad, so I won't say it was a negative and the fight as Venom was pretty awesome.
Now to wrap this up my last point of focus will be on Venom and Harry's descent, I haven't really touched on Sandman or Lizard but that's mainly because I don't really have any criticism for those parts and for whatever reason I find it much easier to go into the things I dislike rather than like.
When it comes to Harry I like the route they take, giving him the suit at first and letting him feel useful and be a part of the team but it feels too short-lived, I wish he'd accompanied us for a bigger part of the game, I'm not exactly sure how to implement it given how big a part of this game the symbiote suit is and it may have made people impatient if it took too long to get to it but alongside my first point I feel it would have helped build a bigger emotional investment in his character to have it, I do think his desperation and uselessness is handled quite well though, after he hands off the suit (unwillingly to save Peter) not only does he start to physically start to die without it to support him but also his brief time being able to fight alongside Peter only to have it snatched away and leaving him unable to do anything to help Peter, the conclusion to this however I'm not satisfied with the way he comibines with Venom, compared to how it effects Peter it feels a lot more like Venom simply takes over Harry's body rather than becoming a mix of the two and while I still very much found the sections where we played as Venom to be cool I would have preferred that in route. And as one final note, why does Miles get the final boss battle? Harry is much more personal to Peter and barely has any connection to Miles, so I feel Peter should have had the last fight, yes Mile' section should be there but I would have liked one final fight as Peter to end it off.
Silk set-up is also cool though I'm not sure if having three Spider people going around is the best idea, it does look like the idea is to eventually retire Peter but it is much to early for that at the moment as he absolutely needs to be the one that fights Green Goblin and even Carnage while likely not story relevant feels like he has to be handled by Peter. Maybe they'll leave Silk for a 4th instalment or her own game but as it currently stands It feels a bit too soon.
1987
This game is for people who hate themselves
As someone who liked the anime this game was disappointing, I'll start with the "good" before we get into criticisms.
The combat I do actually find fun, I see other reviews saying the combat sucks, and it's just spam specials and then run away I do not agree with that. Sure the combat is far from flawless but I wouldn't say it is that barebones. I also like that there are 6 (kind of) playable characters, though that also isn't quite as fleshed out as I'd have liked. I also like the in-engine cutscenes they have though it's a shame they're only like ¼ of the cutscenes at most.
Now for the criticisms, the most agregregous in my opinion are the cutscenes and the games length. Whoever made the decision to put slideshow cutscenes of anime stills should be fired, no I don't expect every single moment to be recreated in engine but I certainly expect more than what we got, and why the hell don't they just play the clips of the anime over using stills? This is so stupidly baffling that I can't comprehend why this idea was even fathomed yet alone approved. Next, the length, this game cover roughly half the anime (a little under actually, totalling at 7 chapters) for the price they ask for this game that's a joke. If something like DBZ Kakarot can cover the whole of its anime (a longer series mind you) for the same price there's no excuse here, this game should have had a full 15 chapters going to the end of the anime (plus Leona and Avan should have been playable too) Not sure if they plan to make DLC, not sure if they plan to make a sequel but either way I won't be paying if they expect to put a high pricetag on what should have already been a part of this game.
Overall I was somewhat excited for this game, I didn't expect it to be amazing but I definitely expect more than what we got.
The combat I do actually find fun, I see other reviews saying the combat sucks, and it's just spam specials and then run away I do not agree with that. Sure the combat is far from flawless but I wouldn't say it is that barebones. I also like that there are 6 (kind of) playable characters, though that also isn't quite as fleshed out as I'd have liked. I also like the in-engine cutscenes they have though it's a shame they're only like ¼ of the cutscenes at most.
Now for the criticisms, the most agregregous in my opinion are the cutscenes and the games length. Whoever made the decision to put slideshow cutscenes of anime stills should be fired, no I don't expect every single moment to be recreated in engine but I certainly expect more than what we got, and why the hell don't they just play the clips of the anime over using stills? This is so stupidly baffling that I can't comprehend why this idea was even fathomed yet alone approved. Next, the length, this game cover roughly half the anime (a little under actually, totalling at 7 chapters) for the price they ask for this game that's a joke. If something like DBZ Kakarot can cover the whole of its anime (a longer series mind you) for the same price there's no excuse here, this game should have had a full 15 chapters going to the end of the anime (plus Leona and Avan should have been playable too) Not sure if they plan to make DLC, not sure if they plan to make a sequel but either way I won't be paying if they expect to put a high pricetag on what should have already been a part of this game.
Overall I was somewhat excited for this game, I didn't expect it to be amazing but I definitely expect more than what we got.
I wish Hawaii was real.
The same as the original game only now you can play as the members of Shadaloo who were only enemies in the original game, I played as Balrog.
Maybe I'm spoiled by the FF pixel remasters but 2 games in and I haven't liked either that much, I can respect them for being basically the godfather of Rpg's (Though 3 seems to be the big one so maybe that'll be different) but here there's nothing really gripping me and it could have used a lot of QoL improvements.
2021
Probably a hot take to give this the same score as 2 but here me out, gameplay-wise it destroys it, introducing jobs and summons, as well as reverting back to the system from 1 and way better dungeon designs (though still nothing crazy, 2 just had awful dungeons), but the plot was basically a rehash of 1, and I didn't like the fact they reverted to generic characters, though at least they weren't silent. I will atleast say I think it is better than 2, just not enough to give it a 7 or higher.
2023
Oh boy where to start? Narratively I have no real issues with this game which I didn't expect, that isn't to say I was expecting the game to be bad but there was never a moment (story-wise) I felt the game faltered, there's a few things I could nitpick I suppose but nothing I believe worthy to be brought up.
I'm not going to go into any spoilers, but this game excels best in its absolute hype, the eikon battles in this game are absolutely insane, the hype levels they bring are almost unmatched, there aren't many fights in games I can recall that manage to give the adrenaline rush of hype like some of the bosses in this game can.
Characters in this game are also pretty good, I won't say they're the best in the franchise but still quite good, personal favorites of mine being Dion, Cid and Clive. Antagonists aren't quite as good tbh, Barnabas is fine but he doesn't hit at a level beyond just being a decent villain, he's no Sephiroth that's for certain. And the other main antagonist who I won't name for spoiler reasons is kind of the usual fair for jrpg's, if you know you know but there's nothing overly unique about them.
This brings me to my next point, which is what I would say is the weakest part of the game, it's RPG elements. For a series so heavily rooted in jrpg history it is a bit odd how bare bones they feel in this game, party members in this game aren't much of anything, you can't interact with them in anyway, whether that be controlling then it even customising moved or equipment, none of that is present here. The magic system in this game is non-existent only visual, there's no element affinity, no variation in spells and it's kind of just tacked on in a lot of ways, and lastly the crafting system, as basic as it gets, there's no real variation in what you're making, it's always just something with higher stats, no special effects on them, no reason to make anything other than just the highest strength thing there. It's also pretty easy, I have yet to try the New Game+ hard difficulty but from the normal playthrough there wasn't a boss, story or optional that managed to kill me more than 3 times tops, and sure I probably could have taken on a few of the S-rank hunts at a lower level of I really wanted to, but that would only make the enemies damage sponges, which would just be more tedious than hard really.
Now that's enough of the negatives, as you can see by my score I absolutely loved this game, great story, great cast and which I've criminally yet to mention the soundtrack goes crazy hard. But to end it off I'm going to talk about the side quests, in the beginning I was ready to write these off as shit, because the early quests they give you I will stand by are exactly that which is a shame because structuring it like this is likely to turn a decent amount of people off from interacting with the side content in this game when there is some genuinely great stuff especially towards the end of the game. It doesn't reach the platinum standard of side content in games like Yakuza 0, Lost Judgement and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 but despite some early stinkers I so think the side content in this game ended up being surprisingly good.
I still haven't finished a lot of the games in this franchise so it is hard for me to compare, having only fully finished the first 3 games as far as numbered entries go but I'll still give my thoughts here anyway. This game is very different from any other Final Fantasy title, even more so than XV or VII Remake, so I can see where there could and from what I've seen definitely is, a disconnect from part of the fanbase and that's fair. Me however? I like this more than the first 3 games in the series, by a long shot, and while I never finished or even played much of them I like this more than either XIII or XV as well, as for the one most people will probably compare this with, VII Remake I don't like it quite as much but it is a lot closer than expected, and I actually think this game does a lot less things wrong than that game does.
So far this game is definitely the top contender for my GOTY, more so than Ishin or despite me having yet to finish it, TotK as well, that's not to say it will go unchallenged however, I expect Spider-Man 2 to at least give it a good run for its money.
I'm not going to go into any spoilers, but this game excels best in its absolute hype, the eikon battles in this game are absolutely insane, the hype levels they bring are almost unmatched, there aren't many fights in games I can recall that manage to give the adrenaline rush of hype like some of the bosses in this game can.
Characters in this game are also pretty good, I won't say they're the best in the franchise but still quite good, personal favorites of mine being Dion, Cid and Clive. Antagonists aren't quite as good tbh, Barnabas is fine but he doesn't hit at a level beyond just being a decent villain, he's no Sephiroth that's for certain. And the other main antagonist who I won't name for spoiler reasons is kind of the usual fair for jrpg's, if you know you know but there's nothing overly unique about them.
This brings me to my next point, which is what I would say is the weakest part of the game, it's RPG elements. For a series so heavily rooted in jrpg history it is a bit odd how bare bones they feel in this game, party members in this game aren't much of anything, you can't interact with them in anyway, whether that be controlling then it even customising moved or equipment, none of that is present here. The magic system in this game is non-existent only visual, there's no element affinity, no variation in spells and it's kind of just tacked on in a lot of ways, and lastly the crafting system, as basic as it gets, there's no real variation in what you're making, it's always just something with higher stats, no special effects on them, no reason to make anything other than just the highest strength thing there. It's also pretty easy, I have yet to try the New Game+ hard difficulty but from the normal playthrough there wasn't a boss, story or optional that managed to kill me more than 3 times tops, and sure I probably could have taken on a few of the S-rank hunts at a lower level of I really wanted to, but that would only make the enemies damage sponges, which would just be more tedious than hard really.
Now that's enough of the negatives, as you can see by my score I absolutely loved this game, great story, great cast and which I've criminally yet to mention the soundtrack goes crazy hard. But to end it off I'm going to talk about the side quests, in the beginning I was ready to write these off as shit, because the early quests they give you I will stand by are exactly that which is a shame because structuring it like this is likely to turn a decent amount of people off from interacting with the side content in this game when there is some genuinely great stuff especially towards the end of the game. It doesn't reach the platinum standard of side content in games like Yakuza 0, Lost Judgement and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 but despite some early stinkers I so think the side content in this game ended up being surprisingly good.
I still haven't finished a lot of the games in this franchise so it is hard for me to compare, having only fully finished the first 3 games as far as numbered entries go but I'll still give my thoughts here anyway. This game is very different from any other Final Fantasy title, even more so than XV or VII Remake, so I can see where there could and from what I've seen definitely is, a disconnect from part of the fanbase and that's fair. Me however? I like this more than the first 3 games in the series, by a long shot, and while I never finished or even played much of them I like this more than either XIII or XV as well, as for the one most people will probably compare this with, VII Remake I don't like it quite as much but it is a lot closer than expected, and I actually think this game does a lot less things wrong than that game does.
So far this game is definitely the top contender for my GOTY, more so than Ishin or despite me having yet to finish it, TotK as well, that's not to say it will go unchallenged however, I expect Spider-Man 2 to at least give it a good run for its money.