Picross is great, but this one hasn't aged the greatest. And despite being released closer in time to the 3DS games, it is an old-school Picross at heart. Perhaps Jupiter wasn't quite sure of what to do with the Picross "formula", and/or maybe by Nintendo's request had to utilize various DS features that don't really make that much sense here otherwise (Rumble Pak functionality?). Thankfully, they've since figured out a solid set of modes and options with the 3DS and Switch games, but much of what they added to this one is very hit or miss, as cute as they may be.

The level editor, downloadable packs, online and local multiplayer, introduction of touch controls (with both toggle and hold!), unique level themes and animations for every individual puzzle, rock. The devs took care to really flesh out these features and additional bits of flavor to make the game as accessible as possible. Yet there's a lot of crust. Too much for one pizza. For example, the UI is pretty dated and has this very confused sense of design. Almost as if it was trying to be a pseudo-desktop app with its motifs. There's an X button that shows up with yes or no questions that serves zero purpose of its own. I appreciate being given the option between "Yes", "No", and "Fuck Off", but these weird "extra" things the game does are silly. The minigames are in the same boat, they suck and really hammer in that early-DS-must-use-touchscreen-technology-at-all-costs problem. Though I guess the sketch one is alright and holds some relevance to Picross.

Worse than those though, while the hint number auto check was added to this game (I think?), it only works when you close off all surrounding squares or solve a line of numbers completely. So it becomes rather easy to miss a spot and screw up elsewhere on larger puzzles, especially when a level's theme is visually noisy and especially when the zoom feature gives you insane tunnel vision. Unfortunately, the zoom tool is the only option you have for tackling the larger puzzles with touch controls as well. I honestly found this made touch controls unusable on the 20x20 and 25x20 Free puzzles because it really made making mistakes (and having to fix them) so much more common. And as for visually noisy themes, some of the levels have terrible color choices for the overlays/Try It Out mode, which doesn't help.

Also the music sucks, it's bootleg Pokémon crap that drives you insane after you've heard it loop twice. There are a few nice themes, notably in isolation and not on repeat, but there were three Now Production composers on this, so I'm not sure why the music is as shallow as it is. Picross games usually don't have that much music, so becoming grating is always a possibility, but I can easily listen to Yuka Tsujiyoko's work in the e and S games for hours and Toshiyuki Ueno's songs in the SNES and GB games are great too.

Overall, the sleekness of this game is nice, but Jupiter couldn't quite get it as sleek enough here like they have since. Normal and Free modes are simply not diverse enough and many of the additional adds don't serve to keep me playing much more than they have (I'm looking at you, Daily Picross). Perhaps this is part of the reason it's taken me almost a decade of playing this on and off to 100% it, but hey it's also the first Picross I've finished. So yay!

Shame that it's arguably one of the weakest in the series, because it definitely tries not to be. It's still great!

This game holds up significantly better than I had expected. Part of the expectation for the contrary was because of the normal stigma that comes with being an old RPG, but even more so because I've devised something of a sadistic playing order for the mainline Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games that intertwines both series chronologically by their Japanese release dates. And I was under the impression that Final Fantasy I was a far worse game than Dragon Quest II based on various internet murmurings, one specific example to follow. But now that I've played this, I very much disagree, this game takes the cake.

Before I go over certain comparisons though. What the junk is with Nasir Gebelli? That's to say, why the heck haven't I ever heard of this guy before. All three NES Final Fantasy games had an American programmer at the helm and yet I never knew about this guy. One can imagine that this is a neat fact that many fans of the series would use as cool Scott Pilgrim party scene style trivia. But nope! The lacking acknowledgement this guy gets leaves me thinking that I wouldn't have been shocked to see a sparsely-detailed Wikipedia page on him. However, thankfully, if you get curious about the "Programmed by NASIR" text in these games you've got all the information you'd need there. Cool stuff!

Now, considering Dragon Quest II was out for almost an entire year before this game's release, I'd say it's safe to assume that there was not only the expected JRPG inspiration from DQ1 here but also DQ2 as well. Perhaps the most prominent feature of the latter being, the boat! For a hot minute I was under the impression that DQ2's boat is superior because of the aforementioned internet murmurings saying how it's so much more impressive because you can dock it anywhere. However, I think that's overlooking an important aspect of game design: a sense of direction. Once you get the boat in DQ2 the game completely throws you into a big map with relatively few things to do and says "have fun". And yes, that sense of discovery was part of the fun for me, but there were many times I got annoyed by how everything you needed to do just felt like it was thrown all over the place. Final Fantasy on the other hand never has this issue, not only are the hints reasonably informative, but at several points the game makes it clear that you have to accomplish something in order to access more of the map. First you need to build the bridge by Corneria, then you need to build the canal by the dwarf cave, and then you need to get the airship. And what better way to give a sense of direction earlier on, by only allowing you to dock in certain areas. This makes it so that by the time you are open to the entire map, you know it like the back of your hand and don't find yourself getting lost. The game still gives you a sense of freedom with regards to the order you finish things in as well, so that aspect of discovery isn't absent.

It's neat that a sense of worldbuilding was already here in this first entry too. The dungeons you go to are rather distinct, and the handful of NPC races providing some more variety instead of always being simple RPG townspeople is neat. The D&D-style spells system ended up being pretty fun too since it gives you incentive to reuse old spells rather than just spamming your most powerful ones via a shared pool of MP. It does result in there being a lot more spells to choose from than what you really need by the end of the game, but it's fun to play around with and serves as decent game balancing. Having far more equipment that can cast spells was cool too, DQ2 had only four or so, and definitely could have used a few more considering how weakly the three party members balanced in battle.

Unlike my playthroughs of DQ1 and 2 though, I ended up playing the WonderSwan Color version here, for a handful of reasons. The biggest being that some of the bug fixes present were really nice, while still leaving behind certain janky aspects that add some extra fun to the game like the Peninsula of Power and the ridiculous critical ratios for weapons. Outside of the graphics looking more like an SNES entry in the series, and the WSC's pleasant PSG sound chip being put to good use, there's other QoL changes like a dash button which makes moving through dungeons a lot faster. That in particular also makes going in and out of doors more satisfying with their rougelike-like field of view and all. Unsurprisingly, this version didn't keep that weirdly cinematic main menu from the original and features a new fancy logo that brings it more in line with the later games. Depending on who you ask, this is the most faithful rerelease of the game (that isn't the Pixel Remaster, perhaps).

It's a rather satisfying port, and honestly I probably wouldn't mind playing the NES original in the future, considering how much of the original experience is intact. Hence, I'm a little bummed that DQ2's ports don't really do the game justice. Yeah, that original incarnation is a lot more polished than FF1's, but I dislike the way the battle theme in the SNES version is handled where the game audio pauses like it's loading in the song off of a CD, and the mobile/Switch version is just plain ugly. Yes, that former point sounds persnickety as shit, but man, you hear that theme for 99.99% of the game and the composition was obviously meant to coincide with the battle transition. But eh, whatever, it's DQ2, and I have given it way too much attention here.

Also thanks to Nasir Gebelli, we have the first minigame in an RPG! The 15-puzzle... Neat I guess, though, it's not the first, like Wikipedia and others claim. And maybe this is the general consensus because the US version came out after Final Fantasy, but Dragon Quest II has its lottery minigame? Maybe I just don't know what a minigame actually is...

I can not believe that the only PS5 game is a tombstone for Japan Studio. How sad! The platformer's pretty fun for what it is though and has some fun mechanics, showing off things like the Dualsense's Gamer Massage capabilities. I didn't even know it could do that. Thing can also simulate propulsion too, or at least, that's what those trigger pots should be used for, exclusively. Needless to say, I may have had a Rainbow Sponge Dee's moment of enthusiasm initially. Which, is nice to have in a very Mario-esque game.

I also didn't know what an "Astro" was before playing this, but he has many cheery robot fans and a funny scream. Clearly I have been missing out. The boatload of Sony-related references were cool as well, especially the tech demo ones. All good fun, seeing as how the ancient art of the pack-in title is not completely lost with this game's existence, but it is definitely the most tech-demo-with-game-built-around-it game I've played. Nevertheless, I am very happy to not own a PS5.

In an effort to convince a good friend to play Zelda 2, I got bamboozled into playing this as part of the deal. But considering this is an hour-long movie tie-in made for small humans (the children), whereas Zelda 2 is a challenge, he bamboozled himself. My knowledge of My Little Pony was absolute zero (-273.15 °C) before playing this, and it did not go up by much after playing. Crazy huh? Gamers usually go silly for horsies. This was not unlike my knowledge of the similarly pervasive JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. But as of a few weeks ago, I have been baptized by the Church of Araki, so it's all good.

I do love me a hidden gem of a licensed game, but what's here is extremely basic; simple fetch quests and minigames. A bit boring, but neat looking at least. I'm rather impressed by Webfoot's audio engine though. I'm not sure what they did here, but it sounds really clean and quite different from MusicPlayer2000 (and the uber cool Rhythm Heaven engine). I'll probably give those Legacy of Goku games they made a shot at some point if only for that alone.

The second entries in a lot of series get a bit experimental, but usually they're not too big of a departure from what the first one does. I usually lump this game in with Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) and Fire Emblem Gaiden since they're all NES games by Nintendo that do this. But Zelda 2's so different that I would not blame someone for outright saying it's not a Zelda game. The game design has a completely different foundation, what with it being developed by a near-completely fresh team save for three members (Miyamoto, Tezuka, and Nakago). So, players picking it up later on after playing a number of the other Zelda games (themselves much more uniform with each other) likely don't agree with its very unusual structure. But hey, it was rather popular when it initially came out. It apparently sold out in many stores across the US, and critics ate it up too; praising the unique action-RPG elements. Everyone was happy then I suppose. But now, flashforward some number of years, no more than 36, and no one is happy. Zelda 2 is spooky, and Death Mountain makes everyone wet their beds. But now that I've played through it twice thrice actually, it's a little addicting, I can say for sure that I have a lot of appreciation for this game.

Said "unusual structure" does refer to a handful of things. For one, while the game does use an overworld map, it switches to 2D platformer movement for enemy encounters, towns, palaces, and the like. Just about any time you need to act on something. It's a simple idea that I don't think has really been played with in the same way outside of one of Wayforward's Adventure Time games and a few others I'm forgetting. But, it's fun! Link also has movement mechanics that manage a nice balance of technicality and simplicity. Just like in his Smash Bros. appearances, he can block most projectiles with his shield simply by facing the direction of the attack; with the option to block low by crouching on top of that. His sword doesn't have the most range to it, but the timing for the animation always feels nice and snappy. Couple that with a midair downward and upward strike you can get later on, and I'd say that the mileage from Link's melee kit is surprisingly fleshed out. This is helped by a rather hefty number of enemies with distinct and intricate movement patterns, and often, a variety of strategies needed to approach defeating them. I seem to recall Shiggy Miyamoto referring to a methodology he had once in an old interview that describes a good hand-eye-coordination feeling between what you see on the screen and controller inputs that feel natural with them. This game is awesome at doing that.

There are eight town on the map, mostly filled with numerous NPCs to give hints, but also with residents to restore Link's life and magic. The handiest thing to keep in mind is that each town has a wise elder that will teach Link a spell. Some of the spells aren't a must, like Fire, which is mostly used to kill a few enemies, but most of them can help in a pinch or be useful with some prior planning. Shield and Life are more self-explanatory, but weirder ones like Fairy turn Link into one, and let him fly freely around the screen. It's required in some parts, but also lets you fly through locked doors. Not to mention that it gives some handy bacon-saving utility if you cast it right before falling into water or lava. I say a lot of the spells are nifty in this sense since skilled and careful play lets you be very economical with them. Understandably, like health, magic is limited and though grinding refill potions from enemies is doable, it's rather time-consuming.

The leveling system is also really cool. Link gets experience points for defeating enemies, and upon leveling up has the choice to either spend them on one of his stats, or holding off the upgrade to save up for the next tier. By the end of the game, you'll likely be maxed out on levels (after which any additional levels will give you an extra life), but it's nice to have the option of prioritizing health, magic, or attack power. Especially since the former two of those refill their respective meters; good in a pinch. The implementation of this system is also a nice improvement over the original Japanese version. There are a few small regional differences between the games overall, some more jarring than others. However, leveling up was completely revised. You're able to choose whichever stat to upgrade, although when you get a game over (yes, the game has lives like-a Mario), your stats are reset to whichever the least upgraded one was, rather than being permanent upgrades. For example, ATK-8, MAG-8, and LIFE-2 would become level 2 for everything. I find this takes a lot of the strategy away in favor of a riskier format with less payoff.

I think the biggest hurdle this game has in its design is with finding out what to do at times. Yes, the game does manage to fix a lot of the cryptic nature seen in the first by making progression much more linear. Many key items are required to make progress, for example. And yes, it does also confine clues dropped to the word of NPCs found across the eight towns on the map. Though, I do think some things are left slightly obtuse. It could be worse though; I found the mirror needed to get the Life spell by accident during exploration (didn't remember it being there), and I could very easily see that being something completely confounding another player. Biggest offender of this is the whereabouts of Bagu's house I would say. But yes, seeing as how you get tips for every required item, spell, and even several magic and heart containers, it's not bad at all. The only things that are fully unguided secrets are the Link dolls which act as single-use 1-UPs that don't respawn (leave them where they are until you go to the last palace!). So, given it is a nearly forty-year-old game, I'd say patience is needed. The same can be said for combat. Most encounters require you to stop and focus on the enemy. I think this is cool in a way, but at times when I'm trying to run somewhere quickly, it requires me to mentally shift gears. Especially the case with flying fish and the wolf heads, which are plain annoying.

This is not to also mention the difficulty, which is pretty high even if you know the location of everything. A big reason for this is due to the game sending you back to North Castle (the starting location) after getting a game over. The exception to this is the last dungeon, Great Palace, which is good at least. This is definitely a symptom of the era this game was made in, and arguably the biggest justification for any sort of remake. Though, if you were just able to start back up at the room you game over-ed in, it would make the game way too easy and short in my opinion. It would also encourage more brute-force approaches to overcoming its challenges instead of having to adopt strategies to better player skill and timing. So, at the very least, game overs probably should have let you restart from palaces when you die in them. Getting back to one isn't the hard part; it just becomes a hassle after dying enough times. But again, it's a product of its time. Besides that though, palaces are rather easy to traverse. I never got lost in any of them despite the tricks they threw. Their layouts are more like tree diagrams and rarely have crossing paths and cyclical routes. Just remember that there's always an item to find outside of fighting the palace guardian.

And though this game is very linear, I do think it still encourages a little bit of experimentation. You don't have to get every item (an interesting minimum percent challenge perhaps), and you certainly don't have to place a crystal in the palaces immediately after beating their bosses. In fact, the latter's a pretty good way of farming lives in the endgame, since using the crystals always gives you a free level up. One cool thing I didn't know until recently is that you can actually bring up the save menu without a game over by hitting Up+A on the 2P controller while in the start menu. Neat if you're trying to play this as vanilla as possible.

Despite some songs being better on the FDS/Japanese version with its funky wavetable synth, this game has a great score. I usually remember Akito Nakatsuka for his wonderful compositions in Sutte Hakkun, but the songs here are great as well. Not even including the classic Temple theme, all of the other songs are pretty memorable. The battle theme in this version is also an entirely different song from the original release and I prefer it. Moreover, the angle taken with the story is cool. Having a secret, sleeping Princess Zelda that was there during the events of the first game is interesting. And for what it's worth, it lent itself pretty well to being factored into the fictional timeline.

Moreover, this game's also unintentionally funny. Supposedly the Zelda 2 Redux mod retranslated the NPC text, but I'm not too sure I would want that. I do quite like them saying "I am much too busy to talk to a stranger," before moonwalking away. It's good. Personal favorites would likely be "You are a hero for saving my child.Come" and "With boots I could walk on the water." I also really love how the developer credits use pseudonyms, as was the case with the first game. Same goes for the "Thanks a million". They give a nice arcade game-y charm to the games you don't really get much from Nintendo.

But yes, while this game is sometimes antiquated, it's often filled with forward-thinking genius. A remake of this game could make it perfect, and reusing some of its gameplay features in later Zeldas would not be a bad idea. Zelda's a very puzzle-focused series, but it does lend itself well to more diverse combat potential. Though even without that, the legacy of this game is pretty pervasive, and I think that's pretty nice.

It's really interesting to think that Atlus apparently wasn't thinking about continuing their mainline Shin Megami Tensei series after the completion of If. That explains a fair bit about why this game, in a lot of ways, feels like a reboot of the series. This is also not to forget that the team wanted to make this game the best it could be and not miss any marks in its potential. Generally speaking, this is a goal most developers have, but it's not uncommon to see pitfalls in the end result because of missing time, skills, and the like. Nocturne was fortunately afforded all of these, and so with its lengthy period of conception and development, its small team made way for a game that's near-perfect to me in a lot of ways. It still has a few slight issues, but none that I can really hold against it.

In fact, it's a little tricky to put into words what I really like about this game outside of the excellent gameplay. The game at a lot of points feels more akin to an introverted experience that one might keep to themselves than one that can be broken down in a myriad fashion and shouted from the rooftops. Much of that comes from the deliberate atmosphere that the game has and I really adore it for that; more games ought to have this sense of comforting isolation. Some of the other SMT games do have it to some degree, but this one is the most overt out of the ones I have played thus far. It also makes jokes related to this game an all the more apt juxtaposition, like this ad for it G4TV once aired.

SMT games did struggle to keep gameplay fresh for a little bit. New entries during the fifth generation still boiled down to the simple demon summoning and fusion mechanics with standard turn-based gameplay that maybe had some odd alterations mixed in (see Devil Summoner with the loyalty system). Compared to what Final Fantasy was doing with each entry then, it made the series look a little barebones in comparison. However, Nocturne introduced the press turn system which has become a mainstay for the mainline games; seeing some additional use in that mobile game DX2 and the Digital Devil Saga games as well. Maybe it's a little weird to get the hang of initially, but that confusion shouldn't last long. Fundamentally, your entire party has a shared set of turns they can use, and certain outcomes can extend or reduce how long the player phase goes on for. Normally this would just be one turn per party member, but you can get fancier than that. Things like passing a turn, getting a critical hit, or getting at an enemy's weakness will count as half of a turn letting you move an additional time. On the other hand, having moves miss, be reflected, drained, or nullified will use up more than one turn; sometimes all of them. There's a little more nuance to it besides that, but in the end it's a rather simple idea that can lead to really fun (or devastating) outcomes. It all depends on how you've built your team and strategize. Well, mostly, there's still the standard randomness typically seen in an RPG, of course.

The player character, Demi-fiend, is treated like a blank slate to build stats and moves on. You can choose a stat of his to raise on leveling up, but in addition can also find magatamas throughout that give you certain resistances to swap out and moves to add to your skill list. Some of these are much harder to get than others, but most of the practical ones not so much. Many of them can be bought from stores or by doing a neat side quest, and it's not required to get them all. Though, the final one you get for collecting the first 24 is absolutely busted, despite you getting it really late in the game and having to suffer through the Puzzle Boy minigame to get it. Said minigame is an homage to Atlus' old puzzle series of the same name (in Japan at least). I like those games from the little bit I've played, but you have to do 20 stages in one go and they get very challenging. The option to get back to the normal game and resume later on would have been cool, but that's beside the point. Magatamas are handy, and make for great team customization.

It's also rather common for RPGs to include elements that intend to add complexity to their games that either don't do anything or push the complexity into convolution. A balancing issue between breadth and depth, perhaps. But this game is rather impressive for having this yet never feeling too overwhelming by allowing a variety of strategies to be viable within a rather simple framework. It also makes good use of pretty much every aspect of the game's systems. One that jumps out at me the most (that I hadn't mentioned already) is that auto battle is actually useful. Especially the case since it's speedy and physical attacks are a solid neutral option oftentimes. I'm not the biggest RPG buff, but as far as I know, systems like that are usually not very helpful unless you wanna die. A couple pitfalls come from the Luck stat on the Demi-fiend not being very handy since it just lowers the chance of being cursed by your magatama, which itself is already pretty rare. Demon negotiations are also a bit weaker in this game. They're much more simplified to the point where scoring a new demon to summon hilariously becomes almost complete chance, save for a few instant recruit scenarios (i.e. some skills fare better depending on who is talking to whom). It's pretty funny to joke about, but when you actually have to deal with it and demons start robbing you of your items and macca, not so much. I do think it was nice that they wanted to make it more accessible to newer players, but the overreliance on randomness makes things a bit annoying. Similarly, demon fusion is great as usual, and lets you choose which moves you can transfer, but not really. In order to get some combination of skills you want in a demon, you have to go in and out of the menu until the fusion preview randomly selects the ones you want. I don't think manipulating this was intentional at all though, as they probably would have implemented choosing skills directly if so. So having to game that system slightly is an annoyance, particularly since lower-level skills like Kidnap and Pester are more likely to be selected, and personally I don't want more demons with negotiation skills.

In fact, practically all of the minor quality of life peeves I have are addressed in the Hardtype mod. Cool! It's a much more technical version as well, but it's also still got the random skill transfers which I'd imagine would make me want to vomit a bit when preparing for some of the late-game encounters. The recent remaster does outright fix that though, but it also looks like it has more things that would aggravate me personally, like the battle music still being compressed when it doesn't need to be. Thus, I'll likely still prefer this version over it.

The setting in this game is also fascinating. This game uses a contemporary world, but, whoops spoilers, the world (i.e. Tokyo) "ends" in the first couple minutes of the game, and its remains become this surreal spherical landscape called the Vortex World. Old places like Shibuya and the Diet Building are warped, not beyond recognition, but far beyond how they would have originally felt. Nearly everyone from the previous world died, so the NPCs are primarily demons, human-like creatures called Manikins, and the spirits of the dead. That description on paper probably sounds hellish, but like I said earlier there's a rather comforting feeling to it. Series artist, Kazuma Kaneko, envisioned the player running around the desert naked, and exploring the world map isn't too far off from that. Many of the locations also have aspects of Buddhism, Gnosticism, and then some in their appearance, and it makes every dungeon ooze with memorability. Kabukicho and the Obelisk are usually first to come to mind for me, and I really think the Amala Network's look would make for a trippy interior in a hotel. There are a lot of strange things like this and such that are never fully explained. They just exist as idiosyncratic phenomena. And of course, I'd be remiss to forget mentioning the outstanding soundtrack by Shoji Meguro, Toshiko Tasaki, and Kenichi Tsuchiya. There is not a single song in it that isn't solid; even the ambience tracks used are perfect. An excellent OST for playing on the go, for sure.

Earlier games played more with the idea of a law vs. chaos setting, but this game leans much more into the chaos side, leaving it to the player to choose which of three doctrines will govern the world (called Reasons). You also have several options for rejecting them as well, making for six possible endings. Gameplay-wise, they don't affect too much save for changing which of the bosses you fight near the end. The exception being the True Demon Ending which requires you beat an extra dungeon that's available to you closer to the start of the game. For the most part, the game gives you positives and negatives for every outcome which makes the decisions feel nonjudgmental and respected. There's no definitive best ending, and only what you decide to make of them. The closest one to a bad ending being the one I accidentally got this time around, which is pretty funny, so I give it a pass. The cast of characters is also very small and major cutscenes are kept to a minimum, which gives things a little less intimacy, but they're always cool and visually remarkable. I find it interesting that the aforementioned remaster gives the cutscenes voice acting; not a downside most likely, but I do think this a rare example of a modern game that benefits from not having any there.

I do also find it interesting that this game gave this series its reputation for being tough as nails. The developers designed much of this game for accessibility and it shows since it's rarely tedious, however it does require you to play by its rules. Matador is the first boss that really makes that apparent. If you're focusing on having a higher level, you're probably still going to have a hard time because the more efficient way to play is by crafting a team that can take the most advantage of the press turn system in a given fight. Once you understand that, the game is rather doable. Of course, I often still died a lot. Partly because the sort of creative gimmick each boss has requires a different strategic approach, and partly because sometimes the game just feels like picking on you.

The original Japanese version of Nocturne didn't include any of the parts related to the True Demon Ending. Those were all added into the definitive version subtitled Maniax, which was the version that ended up being localized for the West. Out of all of the definitive versions of Atlus games I've played, this is the only one that doesn't make changes and additions that feel overly jarring and out of place. The exception to this being Dante/Raidou's inclusion. Though that "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry" series badge on the European cover is legendary, so I'll take it.

Unsurprisingly, with how long the development of this game was, there's a ton of unused stuff. A handful of unused songs, dungeons that look trippier than the ones in the final release, and a UI that looks closer to the ones seen in the fifth-gen SMT games just to list a few. It looked like a completely different game, and I'm glad the developers have showcased early development on it, even if there's no prototype builds publicly accessible. I find this to be an excellent game as it fosters a unique style and never slacks on substantial gameplay. I think with the next playthrough I might finally go for the hard difficulty (not the Hardtype mod). It's just for a good challenge, but hopefully changes like not being able to run from battle and items costing thrice as much don't drive me nuts. After all, this game would never take advantage of my innate gullibility.

There is plenty I love about this more than Breath of the Wild, but there's also a lot I find much worse. Generally, Zelda games use different maps for each entry, and so although this is a direct sequel to the previous game, that's definitely the initial part of the problem I have. Open worlders, and Zelda titles in particular, are games where exploration is the main facet of their design, so I am simply not so much of a proponent of this game reusing most of it with subtle changes and neat new things sprinkled on top. Sure, that might work for Yakuza, but those games are not made for exploration, they're made for a tight, plot-driven game. And yes, the amount of polishing and touch-ups for further optimization are awesome (perhaps at the bane of speedrunners though). Since, minus the expected slowdown in some areas, everything just works super well and bug-free. But then, Breath of the Wild was also pretty bugless. And what I find when I think about what this game does well, it eventually comes to the realization that Breath of the Wild also did much of the same just as well, many times even better. So ultimately, the only things I truly find praiseworthy are the new things, when they're done well, of course. And well, I find that many of these new things are half-baked, missed opportunities. And although I never wrote a review on Breath of the Wild, I will refrain from divulging much on what the original game did unless it's for comparison's sake (which there will probably be a lot of). Many things are 1-to-1 the exact same in many senses, and I already have a lot of thoughts I'd like to air on the new offerings.

The new abilities that Link gets are the main sum and substance selling point of the game. They almost entirely replace the runes from the previous one, though ones like Magnesis live on through Ultrahand, of which is the "big one" with the widest range of applicability. You can use it to pick up and stitch a myriad of objects together to make a number of contraptions, vehicles, and whatnot. In some cases even, like with propping up Addison's Hudson Construction signs, you can just build a monstrosity to see how janky of a solution will work. I did find it fun to get creative with initially, but frankly, the controls are awfully cumbersome to use. I eventually got used to them over time, but never once were they intrinsically enjoyable. This was perhaps countered by the Autobuild feature which lets you save a handful of your favorite designs to use whenever. Yet, it's also fairly annoying in its own right since unless you have the Zonai devices (equipment named after the race that was mentioned, but not formally introduced, in Breath of the Wild, more on them later) selected and taken out of your inventory, you have to use a commodity that you normally mine for called Zonaite to essentially pay for the structure being built. Kills a lot of the enjoyment the feature could bring by not just letting you stash your creations somehow and making it tedious at the minimum since it doesn't just subtract the devices straight from your inventory when building. A lot of things you can make can eventually break down once you've used them for a bit as well. There are a few workarounds that you can use to counteract this, like spawning the glider birds midair, but this is just one case I noticed that over time showed a pattern of the developers implementing neat features but seemingly not wanting them to be too "busted". Which in most cases doesn't make a rather easy game that much easier, so why bother sapping the fun out of your biggest selling point? As a friend mentioned, it would not be surprising if longer lasting devices end up being a feature of the DLC for this game, but it would have been really nice if it was just part of the base experience.

Fuse is the other ability that changes the general approach to gameplay. It'll stick pretty much any material (including other weapons) onto your currently equipped one. Ultimately though, I didn't find that it really made much of an impact. Save for a handful of items adding neat and sometimes goofy effects, as I played more of the game, the thing I'd focus on primarily was just making sure I added some monster parts that boosted attack power a bunch. Which I don't think would be too much of a problem, as that's my choice and prerogative as a player. However, actually fusing weapons is a slow and tedious process since you have to individually equip each weapon or shield, find the item you want to fuse, drop it onto the ground and then finally fuse. To make matters worse, items still break (very quickly at that), and the options to salvage your items by separating them takes time to do as well. It's all a highly obnoxious endeavor over time, and so I found myself using it less and less if I could help it (much as I did with Ultrahand).

The last two abilities, Recall and Ascend, are far more situational. The former letting you rewind an object's course of movement and the latter letting you move upwards through ceilings. I found these ones a bit more fun to use, and maybe that's because they're not as convoluted by design. Sure, they're no Revali's Gale nor Statis, but I think they're decent and like those two can be pretty handy for moving around quickly.

I think the changes that could have been made to this game to make it fresh were pretty simple really. Mostly just coming down to its core gameplay and overall design. The combat is still fun, virtually unchanged from the last entry, and there's some 10 plus new enemies with a handful replacing the Guardians from the first game (those being the Constructs, which I do not think are as interesting to fight). Moving around the map is also a lot easier to do thanks to the aforementioned Ultrahand paired with the Zonai devices, and the Towers/Sky Islands being good places to glide from, but it's still very slow. I would rather not have that lack of pace, but it is an open-world game, so perhaps that's an issue I have with the genre as a whole. The overall structure of the game is what I have the biggest issue with (as referenced at the beginning). This game uses the same surface map, but also adds sky areas and an underground to explore. The issue with the former is that I've already explored the original map pretty comprehensively and so going back through it all with a fine-toothed comb to see every change wasn't my cup of tea (I still did it anyways though). Especially since many of said changes are limited to NPC dialogue and quests to get features from the original game being in different locations. Though, I did find the world to be a lot more lively this time around. There seem to be so many more characters to talk to, and the dialogue is dynamic in some ways I don't really remember Breath of the Wild being. One of my favorite examples of this being when you approach Sheikah characters while wearing the Yiga outfit. Said outfit is a reward for what the game calls a Side Adventure, which is distinguished from the much quicker Side Quests this time around. I like that they made this distinction, as the side adventures are generally multi-part happenings that give you more insight into what's been going on with the characters, new and old. Not to mention there are way more of these combined than what the first game had. Many times though, they felt a bit less than the sum of their parts as it was still a bit lacking in novelty for me, but I enjoyed the truckload I did.

The sky islands I mentioned earlier were part of the effort to triple the game's map size, and it doesn't do the greatest job. Odd, considering that was a huge part of the advertising. I think they're mostly neat, and they have a strong emphasis on verticality which is very cool, but there aren't that many of them. The biggest group, in fact, are the Great Sky Islands you play on as the game's tutorial, which itself was super rough. Great Plateau had a better sense of progression; this game wants you to go in a specific order for completing it and made back-tracking from any deviations an outrageous chore. There was also a better sense of mystery with King Rhoam guiding you; Rauru, despite being cool, did not offer much in the way of this, though that changed since later on he does get developed a bit more later on.

The depths are the other part of the map's expansion. But man, I think these were a huge wasted potential. I like caves, they're cozy, and so are these. But perhaps like a real world cave, there's not much to really do in the depths. If Breath of the Wild's map felt empty a lot of the time, then the depths is that tenfold. 90% of what you do in them is scramble around pitch-black darkness throwing brightbloom seeds to light up the area in order to find lightroots which brighten the surrounding area up completely (and fill out your map a bit). There are a lot of abandoned mines, coliseums, and other such landmarks, including two you have to visit for the story, the latter part being one of my favorite aspects about the entire area, but they're not very substantial. At the very least, lightroots are quick and easy to find in there and correspond directly to a shrine on the surface (which cheekily has the same name backwards), thus helping out the quest to get all 152 shrines a ton. There was a shrine though that didn't line up with its lightroot, and I'm not really sure why they broke the unwritten rule there. Moreover, a lot of the nice gear you can find (many reused from the first game, unsurprisingly) is also tucked down there as well, but that didn't really add much for me, personally. Well, maybe that's a lie, I did go out of my way to find the Ocarina of Time outfit.

This game also made a comeback for dungeons, allegedly. Before addressing the semantics there, I will say that I loathe the puzzles in this game. So many of them are not necessarily abstruse, but just tedious. And it often ended up being the case that I could cheese the entire thing by using some goofy combination of Ultrahand, Recall, and Ascend. Legitimately, many of the puzzles can be completely bypassed by just wiggling a platform in the air, using Recall on it, and then moving upward through the object with Ascend. I get that the developers designed the game to make it possible for this open-ended puzzle solving, but when it's so ridiculously easy to skip past a lot of stuff, it makes it feel like they didn't put enough thought into designing the systems at play. Mind you that cheesing the puzzles isn't that much more fun than solving them normally either (maybe save for the ones that allow for rail grinding). Personally, if I spent however much time thinking up clever puzzles to solve, and found that the lazy workaround ended up being this mindless and repeatable across so many of them, I'd be a little annoyed about that. One idea that I think would have been especially cool is if the game did away with a lot (or maybe all) of the shrines, and instead just had 16 or so proper full-sized dungeons. Many of which could have even been put into the depths. This could have likely made the puzzle design more tightly focused and fine-tuned to clever solutions.

And I say "full-sized" dungeons, because the dungeons in this game aren't that much more dungeons than the Divine Beasts were. Makes me wonder why the developers even bothered to announce that the game has dungeons shortly before launch. Because if these are dungeons to them, then what were the Divine Beasts? I say all of this because they still have the same open-ended design of "go check out these four or five isolated things to make the boss appear". The Lightning and Fire Temple dungeons almost have more linearity in some ways, but this just ended up being an introductory portion for the former and a very annoying method of traversing the place for the latter. I think it's perfectly alright to have a very open-ended gameplay experience with moments of linearity, but this game is bizarrely obsessed with doing away with that possibility in the worst of ways. Add to this that the maps for them are not as nearly as useful as the 3D ones for the Divine Beasts and I'm left wondering why this game made changes, big and small, seemingly only to things that hurt the game overall, even when speaking of it on its own merit and not comparing it to the previous entry. Oddly enough, the parts I enjoyed the most about each dungeon were the paths to arrive there. Though, that's likely because they had that linearity that I would have loved to see out of the final destination.

For each dungeon you also get paired up with a sage, which makes for a pretty neat companion system. You can use their abilities after beating the dungeons as well, along with them helping you out in battle. Their attack power and abilities aren't particularly useful as they all do rather low damage, but they're pretty handy for distracting enemies. It's very strange that they chose to make ghostly versions of them to accompany you post-dungeon though. I guess the logic was that it would be weird for them to teleport to you after climbing or flying around, but it's also a video game, so I don't think anyone would care? I think the way you toggle their powers are also pretty botched as well, since you need to be directly next to them in order to activate them. Positioning which is often very difficult to do in battle, and the reward for taking that risk usually isn't all too helpful. Mineru's vow in particular is so awful I ended up deactivating it completely (why give me a big slow tank to use when I still take the same amount of damage?). At the very least, Tulin's ability is really great to use when gliding, and the others have some neat uses for clearing pathways, like Yunobo, who can really help you save on the bomb flowers.

The dungeon bosses throughout are a mixed bag, though they are unique. Some like Colgera and Queen Gibdo were fun, but others like Mucktorok and the Seized Construct were straight-up painful. The only one I can truthfully say I actually loved were the final set of fights with Ganondorf. They made it a nice combination of the fights from the older 3D Zeldas and had some nice elements of their own to them. Pessimistic as it sounds, that might have been the first time for me playing this game that it actually felt like playing a Zelda title. No gimmicks with sages (mostly), Zonai abilities, or anything. Just a straight-forward boss fight. Overall though, I think if there was one thing this game really needed to actually satisfy me, it was genuine dungeons. I can't even pretend to call Hyrule Castle a dungeon. It's more of a "place where you do stuff".

Difficulty was surprisingly lower than Breath of the Wild, but I did also play that game with the Joy-Con grip, so that's almost certainly why I had found that game more challenging. The balancing is very bizarre in this one though; there aren't many tricky enemies save for the lynels of course. But, everything does a lot more damage to you, and I'm not in favor of cheaper difficulty, which is certainly what that feels like. Maybe the justification for that is because you can fuse weapons that are even stronger than ones in the first game, who knows.

I found the story to be intriguing, but it's highly marred by its execution. Zelda games are not focused on the story, but they're often given enough respect to feel coherent, enjoyable, and not contrived. Tears' story is primarily a "cool story, bro" deal, in that it doesn't really affect too much of the gameplay first-hand. Sure, the sky islands descending are part of that, Link getting Rauru's hand and abilities is also part of that, but compared to Breath of the Wild, there's not very much reverence given. In the last game, the Sheikah lore was a big factor in the technology that Link would interact with. Even more than that, there are many Sheikah characters including ones like Purah and Robbie who are skilled at manipulating said technology and creating new devices. The shrine's spirit orbs are even given to you by the mummified monks that made the shrines, each having a unique appearance. In Tears though, we have the mysterious Zonai tribe introduced, but with only two members present, Rauru and Mineru. As for why they couldn't alter the story to have more of them over the 10,000 year timespan covered by the plot is beyond me. Perhaps that'll be something they get into in a future game, but considering this game's intended scope, why not give your game's new group of people more backstory? Additionally, the game reuses an awful lot of its plot and feels rather padded out even though it didn't need to. Every time you beat one of the first four temples you're treated to the same cutscene about how Rauru sealed Ganondorf away in the Imprisoning War. It isn't until the fifth temple you're even shown how that actually played out. Why? The Zonai shrines, while thematically a little cozier, all have the same exact statue of Rauru and his spouse Sonia at the end. Again, why? The Zonai devices are all just there for you to mess with, and despite being the Zonai's technological creations are not given much interesting explanation at all. It all feels a bit lazy even though it wouldn't have taken much more to diversify things a little. This is the essence of the world you explore, why not flesh it out?

This is not to also mention the main way most of its backstory is told, which is through memories again. The game provides you with an order to view these in, but if you don't see them beforehand, you can very well spoil yourself on some of them, as you're free to pick them up in any order you want. Why do this? There's no reason to make this a matter of player choice, you made an order to go in, and I doubt many players would really want to/benefit from seeing them out of order. So why make that the case? Again, it's this bizarre obsession with open-ended freedom rearing its stupid ass head. Personally, I would have made them play in the intended order, regardless of which one you find; easy fix. You could still find the geoglyphs they reside in in any order that way too. The ending of the game is handled sloppily as well, completely dashing some of the established logic that led to the story coming to a head in the first place. I'll leave out specific details to avoid spoilers but it's very silly and could have easily been handled with a little more care to follow through on what the game set up. These are all ultimately minor, but with such a unique premise that I actually really liked, I think it should have maintained the cohesion you would usually get in a Zelda game.

Lastly, I'd like to touch upon the music. A lot of it is ambient for the environments just like the last, and a lot of it is also reused. But, I do love how much more mellowed out the tracks are. The greater variety also kept things fresh; at a certain point with Breath of the Wild I started listening to my own music in the background instead, the only other game I've done that with is Picross 2, but that's for a different reason. Specific tracks I found especially cool were the Construct fight themes in shrines; they do some cool tuplet stuff, and the Dragonhead Island theme, which has really nice synths.

All in all, a lot of the design choices just feel contrived. The first had a very clear and concise vision, but Tears of the Kingdom seems like it doesn't know what it wants to be in scope most of the time. And considering what the developers have said regarding the game's conception, it makes sense. Everything for the game started as DLC ideas, so the game was not designed as a sequel, but more so as a list of ideas that they wanted to implement that had enough scope to justify calling it a sequel to them. What I think this game needed was the sort of tables to be turned like the team had done with Majora's Mask. I don't think that's an unfair comparison at all, mind you. Ocarina of Time completely broke new ground for the series by its transition into 3D. Majora's Mask then took that and completely flipped it on its head by changing aspects of the gameplay structure and design (three-day time reset, mask abilities, new map, etc.). Breath of the Wild did very much the same thing for the series by breaking into the open-world genre, so I'm simply confused that with six years of development, a team working on an A-list game at a multibillion-dollar corporation couldn't challenge its own previously defined conventions and completely flip their previous ideas on their head. There are so many ways I can sum up my problems with this game, and perhaps that comparison is the most salient. As not only did it not get truly weird with it, but it also is perhaps the most similar a Zelda game has ever been to a previous installment. And seeing how the series is now selling more than it ever has, and with Splatoon 3 pulling a similar card, I wouldn't be shocked to see them continue to make the "same" games from now on. Insert thoughts on the Stagnation of Gaming here.

While the game's world does have more life breathed into it, I find that with the core gameplay being nearly identical, minus the new Zonai abilities, it should have been given a bit more oomph and genuine substance. The new abilities get old and are extremely shoehorned despite not even being that necessary to use. Feels like the developers really wanted to make it feel like they put in a lot of effort into this over the last six years, but throwing some toys to play GMod with at me doesn't do a good job of showing that. Given that this open-world format is the direction the series seems to be maintaining, according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, I'd really love for them to genuinely expand on the ideas from these two games and make something wholly unique. As it is, this game plays more like a revised edition to the original Breath of the Wild, and I think that's an odd choice for a sequel. Again, the core gameplay and design that I liked in this game was nigh the exact same that I enjoyed from the last, which I see as an issue for an entry in a series that previously had never really done that. Sans the fact that the new offerings here are often a downgrade. Finally, there's a chance I'll write an addendum to this once the DLC is released for it; as much criticism as I have of this game, I still enjoyed it, and so I'll probably pick it back up at some point. But after playing this on and off over the last month, just about (I had a review copy), I am satisfied for now.

Also holy shit, I did not mean to write a 4,000 word-long thesis on this game. But, I guess it really did give me a fair amount of food for thought. I don't write these reviews for people to actually read, but if you actually just took the time to read this, you are a Super Star (of the Mario Party variety).

Edit: Yeah no, my opinions of this game have only worsened. This is the worst game in this series and I predict that it'll have a reverse Wind Waker effect where everyone hates it in hindsight.

As the "final" game in the Bit Generation series, the pros at Skip Ltd. decided to ditch creating a complex idea like some of the earlier games in favor of a wholly unique experience. It's not as nearly as esoteric as Orbital, nor is it as thoroughly arcade perfect as Digidrive, but instead the devs made a simple game that is completely unlike any other game out there. Essentially, Soundvoyager is a simple collection of minigames that you must complete using solely the game audio (save for some minor exceptions). And well, maybe it's not entirely alone in its novelty; there are a few other games out there designed to be played with the audio alone (take Real Sound: Kaze no Regret, for example), but those are fairly different from what's on offer here.

I was pretty sure that I was going to find myself liking the game less on my revisit like I did with some of the other Bit Gen games, but to my surprise I think I enjoyed it a tad bit more. One thing I never really noticed years ago was that the audio engine is crazy impressive for the tech. Of course, the audio would have sounded a lot better on something like the DS, but I honestly get a big kick out recognizing a lot of these crunched-up samples from old 90s sample CDs I happen to own. And as for the actual tech aspect, this game has really great spatial audio. Sounds will whizz past you with Doppler effects, there are slight (yet very crusty) reverbs in places it doesn't need to be and also in parts to help better indicate where sounds actually are, among a few other minor touches. There's also a rather rudimentary visualizer that lights up the background of each stage with a fair degree a colorful variety. All of these are really cool and make the game very immersive.

The main mode is called Sound Catcher, it's the easiest and generally where the game struts its stuff the most. You'll hear a sound on either your left or your right, and you simply just need to center it to snatch it before it moves down past you. There's a wave at the top to show how close the sound is to the bottom of the screen, but you don't need to rely on it to beat any of the stages. There's also no way to lose in these levels, so just chill out and stitch all of the sounds into a song at your leisure. Some of the later songs are outright wacky (listen to Office Love and/or Electric Ranch to get a taste of that), but I love them all and it's definitely a close tie between Vesper and Homing for my favorites. After finishing the first Sound Catcher level, Voyage, you're given a choice between one of two sounds to catch in order to go to the next level. This game uses branching paths to progress through it, and it's a neat little touch despite it requiring a few repeat plays of certain Sound Catcher stages in order to be fully completed. Personally, I don't find that to be much of an issue, since none of it's much of a hassle for time.

The six other modes are more or less quick challenges to test your auditory skills. Sound Drive and Chase both have you dodging a myriad of sounds on a road. The difference with Chase being that you also have to catch a sound in order to win, of which is possible to miss if you're not careful. One Sound Drive stage also features pedestrian noises that'll beat you up if you run into them, and I think this combined with the goofily calm announcer is where most people get the first taste of this game's sense of humor. Moreover, Sound Slalom has you moving in-between alternating beeping noises, as the name implies. Sound Cannon has you sniping a variety of sounds surrounding you from a distance. And then the last two, Sound Picker and Cock, have you grabbing sounds around you in a small field of noises. Those two are pretty similar, but Picker has stationary noises that you have to single out, and Cock has you trying your best to chase down a small handful of very fast roosters. I'd say Cock and Cannon are generally the hardest ones since it can be a little trickier to tell where sounds are at times, but there are some patterns to the way things move and sound in the game that'll improve your skills (and best times) as you notice them.

While you go through the game you'll also unlock sounds for a special Sound Catcher mode called Remix, which randomly drops in different samples from the various songs and lets you make your own funky mixes of sorts. Beating every stage also gets you Sound Catcher Shuffle which just randomly cycles through full Sound Catcher songs. It's not crazy for the replayability, but for such a fun and distinct experience (with some rather cool tunes), it's honestly all that was really needed here for the two or so hours it takes to finish the game.

So perhaps, Soundvoyager is the best "coffee-table" game of the bunch. It's novel, and considering how much I've written already, there's a pretty good amount that can be said. I think it's also the easiest one to show to people; not that the other games are hard, but since it's a simple game and music is such an cool and crucial part of what makes us human, it's very easy to throw at friends and family and see what kinds of reactions they get. Mileage will probably vary, but definitely try it some time. I recently streamed the game to a couple of homies and that was pretty freaking cool (minus it being a little harder to beat some stages with people talking, but it was worth it). I love this game for what it does, and love the future potential of its concept.

Of course, Skip themselves being non-existent nowadays doesn't help the future of this series nor the later Art Style games, but who's not to say that the concepts here can't live on in the projects of motivated people down the line. Besides the neat aesthetics and presentation of many of the games, I think having these sort of novel concepts is what more people should strive for with their own games. Games that keep things fresh.


Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)

Historically, I've found people's frustration with this game, after recommending it to them, to be a result of the gameplay. And to be fair, this game does look like one of those weird ones you'd see in a sci-fi movie that's there for super futuristic looks and not actually meant to be played. However, the game is actually quite logical once you've taken the time to figure out how it works by fiddling around with it, or reading the manual, or going through the DS version's handy tutorial. Even better though is this short two-minute video some cool guy made that neatly sums up all of the important things you need to know. It also saves me from having to explain it here.

In addition to the single-player, Digidrive was given a rather well-conceived two-player. I say well-conceived partly because it's not as much of a carbon copy of the single-player gameplay like what the other Bit Generations do. Plus it's also the only game in the series that doesn't require two cartridges to play (you do however still need two Wireless Adapters; a link cable will not work). In 2P, your goal is to move the puck to the top of the screen. There are several powerups you can base a myriad of clever strategies around to earn your victory, and it never feels cheap (maybe the computer player battle required to see the credits is a bit though). When either you or your opponent's side is hit by the puck, the defender will automatically use their stock in an attempt to forego a loss. All of these unique factors give way to a style of gameplay that requires a different approach to the Digidrive thought process.

Besides the nail-biting action of both modes, the game is visually sleek and I love it. You can unlock a boatload of extra vibrant skins via setting new high scores, so it's hard to get too bored of how the game looks. Even more lovable is Toshiyuki Sudo's soundtrack, which continues the electronica style the Nintendo composer had in the Polarium games and Magnetica. It's awesome, and every bit of adaptive music goes a really long way to make the game special. It's easily a big factor in him being one of my favorite VGM composers. Sound design also deserves a round of applause as well. And I suppose people would probably call the overall aesthetics of the game Y2K, and while that's probably a bit inaccurate, if you like the Y2K style, you will almost certainly love this game's.

I could say a lot more about Digidrive, but I won't. It's a perfect arcade action experience, designed in such a way to be both addictive and simultaneously challenging without feeling like there isn't always room for you to improve. There's an added bonus too, people giving you weird looks when they see you playing such a strange looking game. Dylan Cuthbert and the rest of his team at Q-Games would go on to remake the game for DSiWare. Unlike the other games that got remakes (and the one sequel) in this series, I actually prefer the original. The DS game is still fantastic though, so give that a go if you're inclined as well. One final thought, this game's existence makes me question why there weren't other devs that gave the Bit Generations formula a shot, as this was Q-Games' only contribution in a field of Skip games. But, I'm especially happy with what we got here.

Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)

Orbital's a really weird game. Not only is its concept more esoteric than the other Bit Generation games, but it has such a strange personality that I can't help but wonder how much love it was given during its development process. In the game you control a small star as it drifts through little galaxies in space. You can either attract yourself to other stars using the A button or repel yourself using the B button. The goal of each stage is to grow your star by absorbing same-size stars (colored blue) so you can catch the yellow goal star in your orbit. Super simple premise, but of course, it's hard to master. Red stars are any stars larger than you and they're placed around the map of each stage. Drifting directly into them will lose you a life, but if you enter their orbit at the right angle, you can temporarily become a satellite and move around within orbit as you please. Stars smaller than you (colored gray) can likewise be caught in your orbit, and these along with the goal star will become extra lives on the next stage.

A lot of the levels will force you to use these mechanics cleverly and create a bit of a game plan. This is especially true with the later ones, but some of the earlier stages also have moments where poorly executed maneuvers will get you ping-ponging your lives away. The invincibility window after getting hit is especially small, so it's best to be smart with your timing. The game also does not do the best job of indicating which star you're being influenced the most by, so at times it can be a bit of a struggle to know whether to push or pull away from your nearest star. Best rule of thumb is to note which stars are the largest and/or the closest to you, as these will have the greatest effect on your motion. I find this version of the game to be more frustrating than the Wii one for these aforementioned reasons, as that version got all of the QoL touches it needed to really shine. Though, I still find the game to be a treat since the premise of the game is very arcade-y and even has a rather in-depth scoring system for that on-the-go, replayable goodness.

Barring the rare bug in the gameplay, this game feels quite polished and has some really lovely visual touches. A few of these only appearing as infrequent easter eggs but most of them taking the form of the pretty backgrounds (complete with parallax scrolling). The game however wouldn't be what it is without Hiromichi Fujiwara's strange yet endearing soundtrack. I mentioned in my Dialhex review that the music in much of the series is almost too good for the GBA, and this game is one such example of that. All of the music and sound effects in the game are streamed directly off of the cartridge, much like what Sin & Punishment did on the N64. The result is an extremely compressed sound, even after being ripped from the data. Oddly enough though, this doesn't detract from any of the music at all. It's peaceful for the most part, but equally jarring at times for contrast (like the theme for the Final Galaxy or the second Ending). Thankfully, Fujiwara did upload a few of the original masters of these songs to his Soundcloud, so give them a listen there after you finish the game. He's also got uploads of his songs from Orbient, Dotstream, Boxlife, and Zengage on there as well if you scroll way down.

The original Orbital is a strange game, but that's indeed one of its strengths. Add to it that it's got some unique and quality gameplay, because you're gonna have some fun. All 40 stages can be beaten in a couple hours; might be faster if you've got the proper skills, as it's a tough challenge otherwise. And finally, don't forget you can only get to the final stages if you collect the crescent star in each stage (that's the moon-shaped one, if you bump into it you'll have to restart the stage to try again).

Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)

I would first like to say that this game's sound design is top notch. Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) was brought on to supply the beeps, boops, and background hums for the game, and they are great. Many of the sounds will likely be familiar if you've listened to his later albums. Oddly enough, they don't sound underwhelming all crunched up by the GBA's sound processing gimmicks. If you manage to stick with it long enough, you'll even be treated to an admirable music video of sorts followed by the pleasant credits theme.

I would also like to highlight that this game is basically the epitome of a "boutique art game". You know? The ones that look cooler than they actually play. The entire reason the Bit Generations games come in such sexy compact boxes too perhaps. A game for the posh peeps, the chic homies, and the trendy broskis. This one's for you, artsy fartsy people.

The name Coloris might have been a portmanteau of Colorful and Tetris. But, it's more of a rather unique match-three puzzler where you have to clear a set number of tiles to beat a stage. You are given a couple of cursors that can move a range of blocks along a color spectrum. This is initially one random choice out of two different cursors (your progress bar will indicate which color the cursor will be next), and you'll want to use these to make your tiles' shades either lighter or darker based on this to clear them from the screen. Later on you'll get three cursors which allows you to change the tiles along a color wheel. It might not make sense describing that in text, so feel free to take a look at this gameplay video for an example. It's a crafty idea for sure, but it takes a sec to get the hang of.

Another way this game gets crafty is with its timer system. Tiles will have little animations on them that gradually speed up the longer they've been on screen for or haven't had matches made next to. If they move too fast for too long, they'll time out and turn gray. You can't beat the stage anytime a gray tile is present, so you'll want to make two matches next to the gray block in order to clear it. Gray blocks can also be created by you directly if you are on a three-cursor stage and accidentally use a complementary-colored cursor (i.e. mixing blue with orange, red with green, or yellow with purple). There are two types of powerups as well, one clears blocks in a X pattern when activated, and another clears all blocks of the same color. The latter is especially handy when you've got a lot of gray blocks on screen, since clearing those little by little on the harder stages can take a while.

As the first entry in the "second series" of Bit Generations releases, things get more complicated with this game, but not really in the best sense. The two-cursor stages are rather easy, with the Basic ones being a breeze, and the Advanced ones changing it up a little by using more confusing color palettes. The three-cursor stages, however, are a significant jump in difficulty, as it's easy to overthink which tiles to flip and where in an effort to keep them from timing out. Some shades in the final stages are close enough to one another that I'm positive it'd be nigh impossible to play if you're colorblind.

And I think it's this lack of in-between difficulty that makes the game a bit rough. I think, for example, instead of being given a different cursor at random there could have been a difficulty option/mod that allows you flip the tiles using whichever cursor you want. But even then, I'm not sure I enjoy the concept enough to stick with the game with that feature either. Hence my initial comment about it looking (and sounding) better than it plays. The sound design is beautiful (though Cornelius probably should've gone with a better Game Over sound), and the visuals are equally nice. Animations on the Advanced stages have a ton of variety and even sport pleasing backgrounds to go with them. But heck, the endless Score Mode doesn't carry over any of this extra flair, which certainly doesn't help make it more appealing.

Like some of the other games, there's also a two player mode (the option only appears if you have a wireless adapter connected). It's nothing too different, but every time you make a match, gray blocks crowd in on your opponent's screen from the bottom; a game of who can survive the longest essentially. But for the game's overall merit, Coloris is definitely much weaker than the others in the series. I'd say though that it's a fun two hours while the stages in Clear Mode last. Keep low expectations for coming back to the game afterwards and maybe you'll surprise yourself. Personally, I think I've had my fill.

Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)