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Stellar Blade
2024
This review contains spoilers
A breath of fresh air for Sony's catalog this generation. A game that takes cues from many sources and makes it all it's own thing in a very compelling and polished package.
The success here mostly stems from the gameplay inspirations. The game likes throwing curveballs at you. I can't be the only one to notice the levoire sections that play like straight out of dead space. Nier is likely the biggest inspiration here, but with the expanded gunplay and more reactive combat akin to souls/MGR, Stellar Blade manages to stand on its own.
The combat opens up in a big way, requiring high awareness from you by the end of the game with 3 different meters to manage and diverse utility to spend the meter on. While you wont be launching enemies and juggling them in this game, this is far from your soulslike affair where your primary and almost only concern is parrying/dodging. Strong usage of combos and meter moves can stun lock enemies and might as well be identical in utility to air juggles in other action games. You have access to many moves, and with how most of the damage you deal/meter you gain is back loaded in combos, you have to carefully consider what opening allows for shorter or longer combos.
That is not to say defense is neglected, far from it. You have parries and dodges as well as two specific counters depending on telegraph similar to the Mikiri counter in Sekiro. What makes these options more interesting in this game is that you can commit to immediate counters after a parry/perfect dodge and spend meter to increase damage output from the counter. This opens you up to getting clipped by fairly slow followups, It's a nice way to incentivise taking risks for a more damaging punish. I'd say the only thing missing here to get the full character action game label is unlocking different weapons, but the variety on offer here does make me inclined to put it up there with them.
It's kind of a shame that both open world sections are themed the same, as the areas are relatively well put together otherwise. A design reminiscent from Nier, it avoids that "checklisty" feel many other open worlds have. Landmarks are very obvious and accepting side quests naturally makes you explore most of the relevant points on the map, minimizing pointless wandering. I do take issue with the constant use of "push the box" type puzzles. Once or twice is fine, but when I have to push a box very slowly like 5 times per map, youre starting to lose me. When you start throwing enemies at me as I push the box, Im just gonna get more annoyed especially with how long it takes to let go of the box for some reason.
There are some UX issues which drag the experience on these open world maps down. For one, I dont get why it's not possible to teleport to a checkpoint from any point on the map, so much wasted time having to run back to a nearby telephone. On top of that, some of the camps dont show up as teleport points for god knows what reason. While I generally enjoyed the open world sections, Im not gonna make a secret of the fact that I preferred the linear maps much more. The on rails and set piece driven progression of these maps makes for a better paced experience. Though the actual variance of these maps is appreciated as well, having to go through 2 open world deserts gets tiring.
Where this game truly falters is in its shitty story. The main trio speak to each other like dead fish, the sporadic attempts at banter fall completely flat with how dry the voice direction is.
All the plot threads are predictable here, this isnt necessarily a bad thing but the execution here is uninteresting, mainly held back by the awful character writing again. The final reveal ended up being unintentionally hilarious. This dude Adam has spent the entire game being a lame nerd side kick with barely any personality to speak of, but now the game is trying to pull the "dear friend was actually the final boss all along" type lol. There was absolutely 0 reason given for you to care about this development, the dialog was completely embarrassing to boot.
I still want to comment on the audiovisual experience. The soundtrack is phenomenal, I know im blaspheming here for some but I actually prefer the ost in Stellar blade to most of keiichi Okabe's work on Yoko Taro's games. The mostly vocal tracks really stand out, usually this type of song is not featured in games so frequently due to how vocal tracks can often distract from actual gameplay. It takes tremendous skill to pull off vocal tracks so consistently within a game, but going for it does ensure you will stand out.
Something also has to be said for Day 1 performance. Locked 60 frames with upsampling, decently attractive models, standard baked lighting and no fear of letting the art design do the talking. The restraint and polish shown here is commendable, especially in todays reality where devs are more concerned with implementing the latest features without consideration for how it will look or run in end product. My only wish is of course a pc version, as I'd be able to clean up the image further and run at higher frame rate. Eh, guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the inevitable port.
The success here mostly stems from the gameplay inspirations. The game likes throwing curveballs at you. I can't be the only one to notice the levoire sections that play like straight out of dead space. Nier is likely the biggest inspiration here, but with the expanded gunplay and more reactive combat akin to souls/MGR, Stellar Blade manages to stand on its own.
The combat opens up in a big way, requiring high awareness from you by the end of the game with 3 different meters to manage and diverse utility to spend the meter on. While you wont be launching enemies and juggling them in this game, this is far from your soulslike affair where your primary and almost only concern is parrying/dodging. Strong usage of combos and meter moves can stun lock enemies and might as well be identical in utility to air juggles in other action games. You have access to many moves, and with how most of the damage you deal/meter you gain is back loaded in combos, you have to carefully consider what opening allows for shorter or longer combos.
That is not to say defense is neglected, far from it. You have parries and dodges as well as two specific counters depending on telegraph similar to the Mikiri counter in Sekiro. What makes these options more interesting in this game is that you can commit to immediate counters after a parry/perfect dodge and spend meter to increase damage output from the counter. This opens you up to getting clipped by fairly slow followups, It's a nice way to incentivise taking risks for a more damaging punish. I'd say the only thing missing here to get the full character action game label is unlocking different weapons, but the variety on offer here does make me inclined to put it up there with them.
It's kind of a shame that both open world sections are themed the same, as the areas are relatively well put together otherwise. A design reminiscent from Nier, it avoids that "checklisty" feel many other open worlds have. Landmarks are very obvious and accepting side quests naturally makes you explore most of the relevant points on the map, minimizing pointless wandering. I do take issue with the constant use of "push the box" type puzzles. Once or twice is fine, but when I have to push a box very slowly like 5 times per map, youre starting to lose me. When you start throwing enemies at me as I push the box, Im just gonna get more annoyed especially with how long it takes to let go of the box for some reason.
There are some UX issues which drag the experience on these open world maps down. For one, I dont get why it's not possible to teleport to a checkpoint from any point on the map, so much wasted time having to run back to a nearby telephone. On top of that, some of the camps dont show up as teleport points for god knows what reason. While I generally enjoyed the open world sections, Im not gonna make a secret of the fact that I preferred the linear maps much more. The on rails and set piece driven progression of these maps makes for a better paced experience. Though the actual variance of these maps is appreciated as well, having to go through 2 open world deserts gets tiring.
Where this game truly falters is in its shitty story. The main trio speak to each other like dead fish, the sporadic attempts at banter fall completely flat with how dry the voice direction is.
All the plot threads are predictable here, this isnt necessarily a bad thing but the execution here is uninteresting, mainly held back by the awful character writing again. The final reveal ended up being unintentionally hilarious. This dude Adam has spent the entire game being a lame nerd side kick with barely any personality to speak of, but now the game is trying to pull the "dear friend was actually the final boss all along" type lol. There was absolutely 0 reason given for you to care about this development, the dialog was completely embarrassing to boot.
I still want to comment on the audiovisual experience. The soundtrack is phenomenal, I know im blaspheming here for some but I actually prefer the ost in Stellar blade to most of keiichi Okabe's work on Yoko Taro's games. The mostly vocal tracks really stand out, usually this type of song is not featured in games so frequently due to how vocal tracks can often distract from actual gameplay. It takes tremendous skill to pull off vocal tracks so consistently within a game, but going for it does ensure you will stand out.
Something also has to be said for Day 1 performance. Locked 60 frames with upsampling, decently attractive models, standard baked lighting and no fear of letting the art design do the talking. The restraint and polish shown here is commendable, especially in todays reality where devs are more concerned with implementing the latest features without consideration for how it will look or run in end product. My only wish is of course a pc version, as I'd be able to clean up the image further and run at higher frame rate. Eh, guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the inevitable port.
Super Alice Dolls!
2024
I'm going to Alice
It's kind of strange how this is the highest rated game of all time, yet still manages to often be undercredited. I think a lot of people I come across now don't realize how much of the groundwork this laid for 3D action games as a whole; Devil May Cry is essentially a Z-Targeting game, Souls combat is basically 3D Zelda (except worse, lacking the creative interactions OoT offers through item usage), etc
Every time I replay this and expect that maybe my opinion of it would be weathered by time, I always find that contrarily, the older I get the more I appreciate it. Gameplay, presentation, and story are all great.
Every time I replay this and expect that maybe my opinion of it would be weathered by time, I always find that contrarily, the older I get the more I appreciate it. Gameplay, presentation, and story are all great.
Muv-Luv Alternative
2006
I went into the Muv-Luv trilogy on a whim like I always do with everything I watch, read and play.
I'm one of those people who were extremely tired after a few routes in Extra while reading and it. It was not that bad per se, but classic school-life VN romance eroge aren't my thing at all, however I trusted the hype and went into Unlimited which was still kind of similar in terms of romance eroge but the settings instantly hooked me up since I love seeing realistic politics and detailed worldbuilding.
Then... I hopped onto freaking Muv-Luv Alternative, even if a lot people seem to feel it's very slow at the few first chapters, I was already loving it. It took everything that was set in the previous entry and elevated it to a majestic and powerful level as well as including an indecent level of character development especially for Takeru, even Extra was extremely well used in the process which is insane to me since as I said earlier, I was tired of Extra, and that made me like it more.
One thing that is very important about this work is how much it's human at its core, it's funny, it's sad, it's epic, it's detailed, it's everything I'm asking from a piece of fiction, emotions are very important to me and this shit made me feel EVERYTHING. MLA is a story about humanity facing a unknown threat that is eventually going to exterminate us all, it's trying to unite but we're seeing how difficult it is even though the BETAs are the enemy of ALL of us. Humans are stupid by nature, we're afraid of the unknown and that includes other continents, countries, regions and people. Basically cultural differences.
After a long and insane build-up in Alternative at seeing all of this, humanity finally united to save itself from its REAL enemy, the BETAs, there is nothing more beautiful than this, the humankind finally came to the same conclusion, and treated everyone as equal even if temporary.
It might never happen in the real world, but Kouki Yoshimune definitely wants to believe it and I also do.
MLA is extremely violent and extremely sad but it is a life-affirming story screaming at us to LIVE and aim for a better FUTURE.
Cherish the people you love, make good actions at your scale, try to understand other people whether they're culturally very afar from you or not, be passionate about what you love. In other words : LIVE.
I'm one of those people who were extremely tired after a few routes in Extra while reading and it. It was not that bad per se, but classic school-life VN romance eroge aren't my thing at all, however I trusted the hype and went into Unlimited which was still kind of similar in terms of romance eroge but the settings instantly hooked me up since I love seeing realistic politics and detailed worldbuilding.
Then... I hopped onto freaking Muv-Luv Alternative, even if a lot people seem to feel it's very slow at the few first chapters, I was already loving it. It took everything that was set in the previous entry and elevated it to a majestic and powerful level as well as including an indecent level of character development especially for Takeru, even Extra was extremely well used in the process which is insane to me since as I said earlier, I was tired of Extra, and that made me like it more.
One thing that is very important about this work is how much it's human at its core, it's funny, it's sad, it's epic, it's detailed, it's everything I'm asking from a piece of fiction, emotions are very important to me and this shit made me feel EVERYTHING. MLA is a story about humanity facing a unknown threat that is eventually going to exterminate us all, it's trying to unite but we're seeing how difficult it is even though the BETAs are the enemy of ALL of us. Humans are stupid by nature, we're afraid of the unknown and that includes other continents, countries, regions and people. Basically cultural differences.
After a long and insane build-up in Alternative at seeing all of this, humanity finally united to save itself from its REAL enemy, the BETAs, there is nothing more beautiful than this, the humankind finally came to the same conclusion, and treated everyone as equal even if temporary.
It might never happen in the real world, but Kouki Yoshimune definitely wants to believe it and I also do.
MLA is extremely violent and extremely sad but it is a life-affirming story screaming at us to LIVE and aim for a better FUTURE.
Cherish the people you love, make good actions at your scale, try to understand other people whether they're culturally very afar from you or not, be passionate about what you love. In other words : LIVE.
Peak AC, it's not even funny how much better this is than ac5
I'm tired.
I went through four 30 – 50 hours long games especially for Azure.
For each game except FC and The 3rd, a lot of stuff triggered me as hell and I was coping about Azure fixing them but it did not happen.
Why are the games paddled with useless stuff story-wisely?
Why do the games abuse of the «someone controls somebody who are themselves manipulated by another person»?
Why do I have to go through a lot of dungeons that have NO reasons whatsoever to exist except grinding?
Why is the narrative outline so repetitive (Even though Azure made it a bit better)?
Why are all the villains just random evil RPG characters (Except for Richard)?
Why do the games always ruin everything they builded up particularly the political stuff just for the sake of throwing plotwists at you and be like «Haahahaha lol I was the villain all along had a plan to gain an immense power to do/for [Insert random stupid motivation(s)]»
The only good thing at the end are the main characters that mostly are rather well written as well as the very fun and dynamic gameplay.
I'm pausing the game for now and will come back some time for the sake of finishing it, but right now I'm angry and saddened by the wasted potential that Trails is.
I went through four 30 – 50 hours long games especially for Azure.
For each game except FC and The 3rd, a lot of stuff triggered me as hell and I was coping about Azure fixing them but it did not happen.
Why are the games paddled with useless stuff story-wisely?
Why do the games abuse of the «someone controls somebody who are themselves manipulated by another person»?
Why do I have to go through a lot of dungeons that have NO reasons whatsoever to exist except grinding?
Why is the narrative outline so repetitive (Even though Azure made it a bit better)?
Why are all the villains just random evil RPG characters (Except for Richard)?
Why do the games always ruin everything they builded up particularly the political stuff just for the sake of throwing plotwists at you and be like «Haahahaha lol I was the villain all along had a plan to gain an immense power to do/for [Insert random stupid motivation(s)]»
The only good thing at the end are the main characters that mostly are rather well written as well as the very fun and dynamic gameplay.
I'm pausing the game for now and will come back some time for the sake of finishing it, but right now I'm angry and saddened by the wasted potential that Trails is.
DQ games are all remarkable. This franchise is different owing to bringing a coming of age narrative. It's not just a journey to just defeat evil, but a journey of your life. Ironically or not, this type of story always suited Akira Toriyama.
Family is also a very important though often neglected theme throughout many stories in games, on the other hand, DQ is always hitting this key, so I consider it a merit.
Family is also a very important though often neglected theme throughout many stories in games, on the other hand, DQ is always hitting this key, so I consider it a merit.
Wario Land 3
2000
Isn't it weird how Wario became the face of experimental platforming in the Mario franchise? Really he's just evil Mario, yet he undeniably struck a chord so hard with some people that the indie hit Pizza Tower would eventually come to be.
There's something about this game's sense of progression that's so quaint and approachable yet respectably intricate. Any side scroller on an 8-bit handheld had to ultimately have smaller levels due to the small screen size. If you wanted big character models that was the necessary sacrifice. Wario Land 3 manages to do a great job at finding a middle ground. The camera movement, Wario's move speed and the overall level size is more than enough for you to always wonder "what's over there?" while still keeping your eyes on the goal.
What I love about Wario Land 3 that's different to other Metroidvanias is how much it highlights the acquisition of power ups. Every power up feel like natural improvements, like you're reacquiring the moves that you once should have had. At the same time it's not preventing you from having fun early on. While it may be somewhat disappointing to some people that ultimately the way forward is linear, it means level design is always balanced around what your moveset is at that point. Thus, you'll never feel that the game is either too easy or too hard due to the state of your moveset.
One of the big points of criticism here is something I actually never got. You get hit, you don't take damage and you'll never die. Instead the game's built around the idea of being "sent back," as in a puzzle or platforming segment to reach a treasure key or chest may have a hazard or jump that if met with will require you to repeat it again. I think this actually helps the game in multiple ways, some of which aren't immediately obvious.
This is what defines Wario Land 3's atmosphere. Have you ever died in a dream? Some may have "felt" that experience but unless you actually did (in which case you can't answer this rhetorical question anyway) you'll always wake up after it. This game takes place in what's essentially a dream world, and while the aesthetic isn't nearly as striking as a game that intentionally plays into it like Ico or Klonoa do it still remains one all the same. Being able to enter a level, deciding which treasure chest to go for, how many M Coins you want, or not even knowing if there's anything to get here leaves you with one resounding feeling - You can take it at any pace you like. You have the ability to just enjoy the music, the serene atmosphere of a night time stage's pleasant colour palette or the golf minigames if you're feeling burnt out by a difficult platforming section that keeps punishing you. The lack of dying doesn't hurt the game, if anything it's a memorable part of Wario's identity.
Is Wario Land 3 hard? Honestly I don't know, I played this game as a child so many times it's all hardwired in my brain now. But every time I play it I still have a lot of fun. Wario's just too much fun to control and it's why I've always been a little bitter on the Warioware games. I just want more of these, dammit. Forget 5, make Wario Land 10. I'll play 6 more of these for god's sake.
There's something about this game's sense of progression that's so quaint and approachable yet respectably intricate. Any side scroller on an 8-bit handheld had to ultimately have smaller levels due to the small screen size. If you wanted big character models that was the necessary sacrifice. Wario Land 3 manages to do a great job at finding a middle ground. The camera movement, Wario's move speed and the overall level size is more than enough for you to always wonder "what's over there?" while still keeping your eyes on the goal.
What I love about Wario Land 3 that's different to other Metroidvanias is how much it highlights the acquisition of power ups. Every power up feel like natural improvements, like you're reacquiring the moves that you once should have had. At the same time it's not preventing you from having fun early on. While it may be somewhat disappointing to some people that ultimately the way forward is linear, it means level design is always balanced around what your moveset is at that point. Thus, you'll never feel that the game is either too easy or too hard due to the state of your moveset.
One of the big points of criticism here is something I actually never got. You get hit, you don't take damage and you'll never die. Instead the game's built around the idea of being "sent back," as in a puzzle or platforming segment to reach a treasure key or chest may have a hazard or jump that if met with will require you to repeat it again. I think this actually helps the game in multiple ways, some of which aren't immediately obvious.
This is what defines Wario Land 3's atmosphere. Have you ever died in a dream? Some may have "felt" that experience but unless you actually did (in which case you can't answer this rhetorical question anyway) you'll always wake up after it. This game takes place in what's essentially a dream world, and while the aesthetic isn't nearly as striking as a game that intentionally plays into it like Ico or Klonoa do it still remains one all the same. Being able to enter a level, deciding which treasure chest to go for, how many M Coins you want, or not even knowing if there's anything to get here leaves you with one resounding feeling - You can take it at any pace you like. You have the ability to just enjoy the music, the serene atmosphere of a night time stage's pleasant colour palette or the golf minigames if you're feeling burnt out by a difficult platforming section that keeps punishing you. The lack of dying doesn't hurt the game, if anything it's a memorable part of Wario's identity.
Is Wario Land 3 hard? Honestly I don't know, I played this game as a child so many times it's all hardwired in my brain now. But every time I play it I still have a lot of fun. Wario's just too much fun to control and it's why I've always been a little bitter on the Warioware games. I just want more of these, dammit. Forget 5, make Wario Land 10. I'll play 6 more of these for god's sake.
The Last Guardian
2016
This is a game that's, in my opinion, a would-be masterpiece hurt by minor problems that are turned major by being so vital to the experience.
I get that there's something to be said about the loss of subtlety with narration compared to Ico and SotC. At first it threw me off a little too, but really it's not nearly as bad as it initially leads you to believe. There's a lot of narration early on to help ease the player into its environment based puzzle platforming, something that shouldn't be new for an Ico or SotC player but will take some time getting used to for a first timer. These games might follow a template that games like Uncharted began to use in the 2010's but the difference is how it's based less on momentum and more on intuition. The Last Guardian isn't going to lay out a pathway that's plainly apparent to follow. Much like in Ico, it uses simplicity as a strength rather than a crutch for lazy design.
When it comes down to it, level design is very basic but you have to pay attention to your environment to find anything that appears off. And this isn't finding the colour coded ledge or rock to climb, though sometimes it may be. That's actually what makes this game so clever. Very infrequently that will be the way forward and it'll condition you to think about the environment like that, and it's not always the wrong approach. You're truly rummaging through dinghy remains of a kingdom of titanic proportions, attempting to find anything that will help you or Trico forward.
Which brings me to the complaint everyone has, that is Trico himself. I hate to agree with the majority here, cause the visual storytelling of Trico and the boy is truly something special. And it's why I have to criticise the volatile AI and control of Trico. While I do think it's not quite as bad as people say most of the time, it's bad enough in some areas that it can make the game miserable to play. Trying to get this bastard to swim underwater unironically took me 15 minutes. Just think about that for a second. This game is pretty slow paced and a heavily atmospheric reliant experience, but imagine playing any other game where you reach an underwater gate you have to swim through to progress and it takes you 15 fucking minutes whether because the mechanics are so cripplingly problematic or because someone takes the controller out of your hand and counts every tedious second in your face.
Thing is, I get not everyone will have the same trouble with swimming that I did. But if it's not the swimming sections then it's trying to get Trico to find a platform to jump onto, or making his tail come towards you so you can climb it, or Trico just jumping all over the place just cause he feels like it. One time he actually got lost and I didn't even know where he went, it took me like 5 minutes to find him.
It sounds almost funny and akin to something like having a pet of your own, and to an extent I can understand why some people even defend this when I look at it like that. It is true that Trico becomes more responsive as the game goes on and it's true that when he cooperates with you this game is really awesome. I'm more of an Ico guy than SotC so I love the increased focus on platforming and level design. It's just that I can't ignore that the moment Trico's being an asshole and making the process take WAY longer than it needs to I'm taken out of the experience. In that sense it's like a real pet being obnoxious and you're trying to get its attention or calm it down. I love him so much and I love the bond you create over this journey but god he frustrated me to no end sometimes.
A more generic criticism I have which would be easily fixable with a good port (or emulation) is this game runs like ass. It barely meets the stable 30fps cut most of the time. And yeah, I get Ico and SotC aren't immune to this either, but it doesn't matter nearly as much in those. Maybe I'm being a purist here, but Ico's dated albeit charming visuals don't need that improved framerate. It'd be a whole lot better sure, but none of the platforming or combat demands enough of you for it to affect your skill expression. SotC I can contest that this criticism is equally relevant, though even so it still hits 60fps pretty often. The distinction here is that The Last Guardian dips below 30fps often. VERY often. There's a few sections in the last third of the game that probably dip down to 10fps and one of them requires you to jump platform to platform to avoid an instant death. It's not hard, but it feels like hell to play in that moment.
Anyway I'm not gonna go too much further into this, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I really did like this game and I'm super happy to have completed the Team ICO trilogy. It's just sad that this game should be fucking amazing. The things that hold it back aren't the level design, the combat or the soundtrack. It's things that could've even been patched. That's why this game needs a port so badly. Give it an unlimited framerate treatment and let the fans fix the AI with a mod. Make that happen and this may be my favourite Team ICO game.
I get that there's something to be said about the loss of subtlety with narration compared to Ico and SotC. At first it threw me off a little too, but really it's not nearly as bad as it initially leads you to believe. There's a lot of narration early on to help ease the player into its environment based puzzle platforming, something that shouldn't be new for an Ico or SotC player but will take some time getting used to for a first timer. These games might follow a template that games like Uncharted began to use in the 2010's but the difference is how it's based less on momentum and more on intuition. The Last Guardian isn't going to lay out a pathway that's plainly apparent to follow. Much like in Ico, it uses simplicity as a strength rather than a crutch for lazy design.
When it comes down to it, level design is very basic but you have to pay attention to your environment to find anything that appears off. And this isn't finding the colour coded ledge or rock to climb, though sometimes it may be. That's actually what makes this game so clever. Very infrequently that will be the way forward and it'll condition you to think about the environment like that, and it's not always the wrong approach. You're truly rummaging through dinghy remains of a kingdom of titanic proportions, attempting to find anything that will help you or Trico forward.
Which brings me to the complaint everyone has, that is Trico himself. I hate to agree with the majority here, cause the visual storytelling of Trico and the boy is truly something special. And it's why I have to criticise the volatile AI and control of Trico. While I do think it's not quite as bad as people say most of the time, it's bad enough in some areas that it can make the game miserable to play. Trying to get this bastard to swim underwater unironically took me 15 minutes. Just think about that for a second. This game is pretty slow paced and a heavily atmospheric reliant experience, but imagine playing any other game where you reach an underwater gate you have to swim through to progress and it takes you 15 fucking minutes whether because the mechanics are so cripplingly problematic or because someone takes the controller out of your hand and counts every tedious second in your face.
Thing is, I get not everyone will have the same trouble with swimming that I did. But if it's not the swimming sections then it's trying to get Trico to find a platform to jump onto, or making his tail come towards you so you can climb it, or Trico just jumping all over the place just cause he feels like it. One time he actually got lost and I didn't even know where he went, it took me like 5 minutes to find him.
It sounds almost funny and akin to something like having a pet of your own, and to an extent I can understand why some people even defend this when I look at it like that. It is true that Trico becomes more responsive as the game goes on and it's true that when he cooperates with you this game is really awesome. I'm more of an Ico guy than SotC so I love the increased focus on platforming and level design. It's just that I can't ignore that the moment Trico's being an asshole and making the process take WAY longer than it needs to I'm taken out of the experience. In that sense it's like a real pet being obnoxious and you're trying to get its attention or calm it down. I love him so much and I love the bond you create over this journey but god he frustrated me to no end sometimes.
A more generic criticism I have which would be easily fixable with a good port (or emulation) is this game runs like ass. It barely meets the stable 30fps cut most of the time. And yeah, I get Ico and SotC aren't immune to this either, but it doesn't matter nearly as much in those. Maybe I'm being a purist here, but Ico's dated albeit charming visuals don't need that improved framerate. It'd be a whole lot better sure, but none of the platforming or combat demands enough of you for it to affect your skill expression. SotC I can contest that this criticism is equally relevant, though even so it still hits 60fps pretty often. The distinction here is that The Last Guardian dips below 30fps often. VERY often. There's a few sections in the last third of the game that probably dip down to 10fps and one of them requires you to jump platform to platform to avoid an instant death. It's not hard, but it feels like hell to play in that moment.
Anyway I'm not gonna go too much further into this, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I really did like this game and I'm super happy to have completed the Team ICO trilogy. It's just sad that this game should be fucking amazing. The things that hold it back aren't the level design, the combat or the soundtrack. It's things that could've even been patched. That's why this game needs a port so badly. Give it an unlimited framerate treatment and let the fans fix the AI with a mod. Make that happen and this may be my favourite Team ICO game.
Transformers: A Hidden Gem in Disguise.
How I came to discover this is really funny since I just came across a video where Sonic Frontiers’s boss theme songs played in other final bosses where I saw Break through it All playing in the space fight between Optimus Prime vs Megatron. The action combat looked really cool, so it came to surprise me that Platinum Games actually worked on it and they work on a lot of licensed games. Finally playing it for myself and man it does not disappoint.
This game looks really pretty, adopting the comics art style with some gorgeous cel-shading, really selling the feeling of playing a comic book with how faithful the characters look to the original cartoon. I say this but I don’t actually know much about the Transformers franchise besides the Michael Bay movies and Transformers Animated by Derrick J Wyatt, but I’d say this is a welcome addition to more Transformers media. Though very simple, the narrative serves well to platform the cool action gameplay with a surprisingly interesting narrative idea of conflict between Optimus Prime and Megatron’s ideal for Cybertron. It’s actually quite compelling to hear their dialogue on Optimus believing to adapt with humans on Earth while Megatron wants to claim the world for Cybertronians. Reminds me a lot of Xavier and Magneto’s conflict with how Mutants should live though very contextually different. This story really isn’t complex enough that I wouldn’t fault anyone to just outright skip the cutscenes, but I appreciate that they still wrote something worth telling for a video game showing the passion the team must have for this project.
Why anyone would play this though is for its very simple combat scheme being only relegated to 2 buttons with a dodge mechanic in its shoulder button. This sounds incredibly simple, but somehow the game manages to really flesh this out with the different types of damage and projectiles creating an interesting challenge in maneuvering over fights. Not to mention, it just looks cool as hell since the combat always looks very active yet clear. However, sometimes the camera can get annoying with it being completely manual to control which makes it difficult for certain sequences if an object is blocking the character you’re controlling. Speaking of which, the game itself lets you play as five different characters for the main campaign and they all feel very unique despite having the same loadouts and weapons, with characters like Bumblebee being agile or someone heavy but a good damage dealer like the Dinobot dude. Biggest issue to all this is just the fact that the bosses get really damage spongy on normal and above, while the AI becomes a tad too easy on lower difficulties meaning that there might not be a sweet spot for many players.
Platinum Games really put they’re all into making the game as fun as they could make it. Despite being a licensed game, this could easily be put into competition with a lot of action hack-and-slash games with how robust the overall experience is. It's a short game though, so I’d best recommend it if you just want a quick game to enjoy some Transformers action without anything too complex, story or gameplay wise. I assume this game is for kids after all, but nonetheless definitely made with respect to both the audience and the franchise its using in mind.
How I came to discover this is really funny since I just came across a video where Sonic Frontiers’s boss theme songs played in other final bosses where I saw Break through it All playing in the space fight between Optimus Prime vs Megatron. The action combat looked really cool, so it came to surprise me that Platinum Games actually worked on it and they work on a lot of licensed games. Finally playing it for myself and man it does not disappoint.
This game looks really pretty, adopting the comics art style with some gorgeous cel-shading, really selling the feeling of playing a comic book with how faithful the characters look to the original cartoon. I say this but I don’t actually know much about the Transformers franchise besides the Michael Bay movies and Transformers Animated by Derrick J Wyatt, but I’d say this is a welcome addition to more Transformers media. Though very simple, the narrative serves well to platform the cool action gameplay with a surprisingly interesting narrative idea of conflict between Optimus Prime and Megatron’s ideal for Cybertron. It’s actually quite compelling to hear their dialogue on Optimus believing to adapt with humans on Earth while Megatron wants to claim the world for Cybertronians. Reminds me a lot of Xavier and Magneto’s conflict with how Mutants should live though very contextually different. This story really isn’t complex enough that I wouldn’t fault anyone to just outright skip the cutscenes, but I appreciate that they still wrote something worth telling for a video game showing the passion the team must have for this project.
Why anyone would play this though is for its very simple combat scheme being only relegated to 2 buttons with a dodge mechanic in its shoulder button. This sounds incredibly simple, but somehow the game manages to really flesh this out with the different types of damage and projectiles creating an interesting challenge in maneuvering over fights. Not to mention, it just looks cool as hell since the combat always looks very active yet clear. However, sometimes the camera can get annoying with it being completely manual to control which makes it difficult for certain sequences if an object is blocking the character you’re controlling. Speaking of which, the game itself lets you play as five different characters for the main campaign and they all feel very unique despite having the same loadouts and weapons, with characters like Bumblebee being agile or someone heavy but a good damage dealer like the Dinobot dude. Biggest issue to all this is just the fact that the bosses get really damage spongy on normal and above, while the AI becomes a tad too easy on lower difficulties meaning that there might not be a sweet spot for many players.
Platinum Games really put they’re all into making the game as fun as they could make it. Despite being a licensed game, this could easily be put into competition with a lot of action hack-and-slash games with how robust the overall experience is. It's a short game though, so I’d best recommend it if you just want a quick game to enjoy some Transformers action without anything too complex, story or gameplay wise. I assume this game is for kids after all, but nonetheless definitely made with respect to both the audience and the franchise its using in mind.
