I've always heard of Beyond Good & Evil as something of a cult classic; critically acclaimed, but not the system seller or series seller that Ubisoft's later works Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory would become, and as a result Beyond Good & Evil got swept to the side, never to really be heard from again while Assassin's Creed got a million sequels. And it's such a damn shame that happened, because Beyond Good & Evil is so fucking good.

I don't think it's the most polished game out there; there are occasional moments of jank where your AI companion might take a little bit longer to get to your position (and for me, got stuck in the doorway once) and how corner hit detection during races and the goddamn pellet game messed me up multiple times. And the combat is servicable, not amazing; you can get by just hack and slashing most of the time, and this could have used a bit more depth. And yet I will choose to overlook these minor moments, because this is one of the coolest games I've played, and also one of the most thoughtful games I've played. It's just long enough to hide many snug little secrets around the world and make you put in the effort, but short enough to where it doesn't outstay its welcome. The plot is somehow interesting without becoming super convoluted, and it's just dark enough to take itself seriously and stay earnest without sounding overly gloomy or edgy. There aren't a ton of main characters, but the main cast has a lot of personality spread out through the game's relatively short run length. And the puzzles are simple enough to where you can easily figure them out on your own, but still manage to give you a real sense of satisfaction and excitement over how you just managed to piece that on your own. And all the collectibles are spaced apart well enough to where you're naturally encouraged to explore the whole world, with the tools necessary if you need that extra helping hand. Speaking of which, this is probably the first game where I genuinely enjoyed the stealth segments, which I honestly cannot say of any other game I've played up to this point. It's just clean, stylized, stealth that isn't punishing if you mess up yet gives off the feeling that you're being a sneaky secret agent fighting against dirty corporate overlords and seeking justice for those who have been wronged.

In conclusion, while I don't think Beyond Good & Evil looks like or plays like an exceptional game necessarily (it is a product of its age, after all), it's such a damn well thought out cohesive experience and was the Goldilocks of the action-adventure genre that I never knew I needed. Who would have guessed that combining photography with the Legend of Zelda model and throwing in effective stealth sequences would have done it for me? I lament that the game has been mostly forgotten by Ubisoft due to how difficult it was to finagle a working copy (ex: the PC copy has screwy camera scroll speed, the GameCube copy is letterboxed, and the HD Remaster on PS3 can't be bought on the store anymore to be played on PS4/PS5), because it is such a fun and satisfying title to go through. I'm glad though, that audiences are finally giving it the credit it deserves, and I'll happily join the crowd of dozens that are praying for Beyond Good and Evil 2 outside of development hell.

Beyond Good & Evil there is simply the truth.

This game is famous among quite a few of the game community though sadly for all the wrong reasons. It isn't known for unbelievable graphics, breaking selling records or innovation, no BG&E is simply known for being an amazing critically acclaimed game that nobody bought.

This game doesn't do anything special to push itself above the crowd, what it does have is personality, and one that makes you feel as if you are right there with it. The game is brimming with emotion and imagination that just immerses you into the universe that Ubisoft created, and few games have I played that can make them feel so personal.

The game focus's on a female reporter called Jade. She is a reporter struggling to get by in a war between her planet Hillys and an alien invader known as the DomZ that are tearing her planet apart. Taking a job to fund herself Jade gets taken into a bizarre series of events that lead her working for the IRIS network, a resistance of sorts that fight beyond sides, beyond good & evil, they fight for...the truth.

The story and characters to this game are wonderful, not to mention unique, full of emotion and humor to accompany Jade on her journey. I mean where else can you fight a pig with rocket powered flatulence boots?

The gameplay is similarly well crafted with just as much variation. The game for the most part plays like a 3rd person action adventure game. Jade can sneak, and hide behind walls to avoid unwanted attention in Metal Gear stealth like sections, but she can also fight using her staff should it come to that with some basic combos and a charge attack.

Jade and whoever happens to be with her as part of the story have a life bar of hearts that can be increased or decreased upon finding items up for the task, these items must be held by the character to be in effect. This includes gaining her life back as everyone knows eating nachos mid battle heals all your wounds :P

What kind of a reporter would she be if she didn't take pictures? So of course there are plenty of sections in the game requiring pictures to be taken, as well as plenty of optional photos in registering the planets wildlife for a lab which I thought was a really nice touch, and a lucrative one as there are camera upgrades and items to be gained for finding them.

The planet Hillys is formed of many islands over a sea so traveling on foot between areas is not an option. Instead for most of the game Jade and her pig uncle Pej will use a hovercraft. This vehicle is however quite versatile as it can jump as well as fire weapons outside of it's obvious "point A to point B" design.

These abilities allow for some of the games more thrilling events such as fighting a huge DomZ alien leviathan creature as well as some optional fast space pirate cave chases, the variation of things to do in this game never allow for a dull moment.

Throughout the game there are plenty of mini games to take part in from hovercraft racing to air hockey all of which can get you rewards such as pearls or money which allow Jade to buy a bigger life bar, healing items, one use speed boosters and hovercraft upgrades to get her though her story. The game is chocked full of various gameplay mechanics and despite this the controls are always simple and comfortable to play with no matter what the situation which impressed me greatly.

Graphically BG&E is a pretty good looking game for it's time though it won't blow anyone away. However the character and wildlife design are fantastic with all types of cat people, bull people, shark people as well as birds, penguins, space whales and plants to look at on Jades adventure.

Once again the sound is great with some terrific voice acting that really brings the characters to life, especially Pej the pig (have I mentioned he's awesome? XD ). The sound effects and music are also excellent though I admit outside of one great battle theme they don't really stand out either.

There are so many generic games that just don't aspire to be more then they are now days and Ubisoft have long stopped making games like this or taking risks. If you are reading this, buy this game and give it a whirl, this is a game that everyone can enjoy, and should.

+ Interesting characters.
+ Nice variety of gameplay mechanics.
+ Nice art design.

Given the touchy subject matter I find it hard to review this game without having proper experience. But it is worth the try. There is room in this for a dialogue to ensue, at length, about mental illness and the role social networks play in how the youth comes up. This is pertinent, it affects us all to varying degrees. We all have our own problems, and the fair share of us can probably relate to having friends or loved ones who’ve gone through so much. Contact information and resources for the suicide prevention lifeline are provided, in the event anyone plans to play this and happens to need it or know someone who does.

As for the game, I’m on the fence about it. On one hand, it is novel, and the fact that there is no entry fee is admirable. It has a strong sense of direction, at least in its artistic intent. The pair in Akira Yamaoka and Masahiro Ito returned and they worked it hard here. The cherry blossom motif that pervades the game is stark and lends to the rest of it, thematically and aesthetically. In the end credits sequence we get to hear “My Heroine,” which is an excellent bookend to the game.

On the other hand, there are parts of this game that actively bring it down. It doesn't try to be subtle about anything it brings up and honestly, it is poorly written at times. I don't know if this is a lost in translation sort of thing, but maybe that wouldn't make much of a difference. Summing it up, this game is worth playing. It may not resonate, it may even make you uncomfortable, but it is an earnest game, it was made with the best intentions in mind and there is enough here that someone out there can take something positive away from it.

7 Days to Die; o jogo em eterno Early Access.
Minha primeira expêriencia, jogando com amigos, foi divertidíssima, a experiência de Sobrevivência + Tower Defense + Construção de bases é coisa de outro mundo, o que torna ainda mais infeliz o fato de ser um jogo com um incrível potencial desperdiçado por desenvolvedores incompetentes e acomodados.
Mais de DEZ anos em Early Access, com uma otimização horrível que parece só piorar com o passar do tempo, além de você precisar de um PC da NASA pra rodar liso, seus amigos também precisam ter, o que torna MUITO difícil achar amigos pra jogar junto.
A jogabilidade nos servers é muito divertida, pelo menos, se você gosta de construir bases incríveis com ajuda da comunidade, mas é péssima se você também tiver interesse em construir "Bases Anti-Hordas de Zumbis" porquê... bem.... não tem zumbis nos servidores, wut.
Ao contrário das noites de lua sangrenta nos servidores solo ou multiplayer com amigos, os servidores públicos/da comunidade não aguentam mandar mais de 1 ou 2 zumbis pra cada jogador se defender na noite de lua sangrenta porque como a otimização é um lixo total há mais de 10 anos, é impossível ter muitos zumbis atacando ao mesmo tempo sem o servidor EXPLODIR.
Passei um bom tempo jogando os dois modos de jogo: servidor pessoal com os amigos, defendendo nossas humildes bases contra hordas de zumbis, e também jogando em servidores públicos brincando de construir cidades, castelos e a porra toda com gringos de tudo quanto é canto do mundo.
Resumo; Um jogo muito divertido com grande potencial desperdiçado devido aos maus cuidados dos devs, principalmente com a terrível otimização.
Tempo de jogo: 572 horas

Soundbox Companion

Ok you can so what you want about this being another dumb Nintendo game or just a shitty outdated platformer or a childrens game or whatever but let me speak my truth here.

Teaching somebody the 16 star speedrun at my dingy home would unironically be more intimate than the most depraved sexual fantasies I could think of. Teaching somebody how to BLJ would be so hot, I would kiss their feet after they succeeded at it.

This is not a joke, if you haven't tasted the speedrunning world of this game you're missing out on a huge part of its appeal. If you're a really close lady friend of mine I would show you how to do it no questions asked. I been thinking this in the back of my head for over a month now. It will probably be a genuine part of my dating life going forward and I'm not sorry for that in fact the reason I'm even saying this is to make room for the fact other people might also feel like that. It also has the best sound design I've ever heard in my entire life. They gave the pirahna plant a lullaby theme song that you activate by stepping into its aura. This is an incredibly experimental sound design decision that you dont see in contemporary gaming. They would try to imitate this lullaby effect 10 years later with Galaxy via a cutscene transition into Rosalina reading a book for to the lunas but because of the diversion in interactivity, it left Rosalina feeling like a maternalistic overlord. In this way I would argue a lot of contemporary game design is extremely parental, its having an event happen towards you that you have to accept. The pirahna plant lullaby is spontaneous and you only have to accept it as long as you are within the boundaries of that space, you can leave it whenever you're tired of it. I think there's a genuine romance in the design of SM64 that's worth exploring, but it cant be done by me alone.

I will cut Super Mario 64 a ton of slack since it was literally the first of it's kind in a lot of ways. Normally, a game with a camera this messy and controls this sometimes janky would be an instant hard pass from me, particularly one meant for precise platforming like this one. But it's likely Nintendo knew that, seeing as no other game tried something like this anymore, and because of that Super Mario 64 is basically perfect everywhere else. Maybe some of the best level design in any platformer ever; sandboxes to just explore and traverse at your own leisure.

There is also a timeless quality to the game that's impossible to not mention here. The culture surrounding 64 has outgrown the game itself, but that also means it's a game you go back to and it still feels like you are touching it for the first time again. Everything about it is magical and it's difficult to not smile when talking about it or playing it. Don't care if it's aged, this to me is perfect stuff.

Builds a meta-relationship with the main character through emotional connection in such an effective way. Specially because to a certain extent, Henry and the player are in the same shoes, trying to escape reality. And when the ending comes, it hits the same way for both (even the players with negative views on it agree without realizing). Crushing game, but amazing at what it sets out to do. Loved it.

(Disappointing how the game sets the mood from the very start with a grounded heartbreaking story, but people still expect mysteries, conspiracy theories, aliens... but whatever, I'm just being cranky)

Dead Island 2 is fine. In our state of gaming discourse, where anything below an eight or a nine out of ten is automatically bad, it was always going to be somewhat of a pariah. The extended development cycle featuring three separate developers certainly hasn't helped its perception, either; the expectations that come from a game in the oven for that long are on either side of an extreme, and reality rarely meets it.

The funny thing about that, though, is that if Dead Island 2 was released in 2015, I don't think it would have been as fascinating. Released a year after the overly ambitious sequel to its spiritual successor, it's almost refreshing to have a game this scaled-back. There isn't an Open World here; if you thought the original game kind of played like Borderlands, the immediacy with which you're asked to leave to the second area so soon after stepping foot in the first only cements that further. Unlike Borderlands, the appeal of this is pretty straightforward. With or without friends, you kill zombies in increasingly violent and silly ways. That's it. There's character building through a Skill Card system, but everything boils down to whacking the flesh off the undead while you drop-kick them in the head. The physics can use some fine-tuning, but the gore is a work of beauty. The question of, 'When was the last time you saw an action game try to sell itself on its gore?' is answered succinctly the first time you decide to keep hitting a zombie after you've downed it. But that question also has another answer attached to it: Dead Island 2 is decidedly low-stakes entertainment. It's aware of how silly its predecessor was, and it doesn't do anything to change that. It's just a better, more consistent thrill ride with genre enthusiasts who couldn't care less about having a prestige-worthy script attached to their games in mind. The worst that the nearly decade-long wait has done for this game is that it's fooled many into thinking that this either isn't enough or that there would be more to this. But I've been having a blast with this so far, so I really don't mind it.

Where your mileage will absolutely vary is in terms of this game's writing. I've heard many comparisons to last year's Saints Row, and while I can't personally make that connection, I can see where it comes from. From the offset, the team behind this was very open about the angle they were taking with this. You don't call Los Angeles 'Hell-A' if you're trying to tell an emotional, engaging story. It's pure camp, down to dated references and goofy caricatures you'll either find bittersweetly nostalgic or downright embarrassing to listen to. I'm finding the chatter to be less annoying than your average Borderlands character and I actually like the cast of characters in this so far. But if you were unable to play Borderlands 3 without muting the dialog, I wouldn't consider this an improvement.

If you want a throwback to what games were like a decade ago and you're going into this without expecting the world of it, this is a pretty enjoyable time. This is definitely not the bargain bin game some are making it out to be; at worst, I think it's worth waiting for it go on sale if you're curious but skeptical. If Dambusters keeps it at or above this level of quality, they might be developers to keep an eye on.

This game's story is so good! if you looked at my "Silent Hill: The Short Message" thoughts, you'd remember me talking about how I can excuse uninteresting gameplay if the story is good enough. This game is the perfect example. The gameplay is not bad or boring or anything but it is definitely not anything special, it's just another "small puzzle, run and hide, small puzzle, find next area, etc." type game.
But what makes up for that unremarkable gameplay is the absolutely remarkable story and its themes. This is the perfect use of the sci-fi setting it takes place in, talking about themes of the morality of mortality, what it means to be alive, and how people live on. This game has plenty of disturbing moments that really stretch its main concept of copies of people turned into digital consciousness and what they leave behind, leading to some crazy and morally questionable moments that tie perfectly into the game.
This game also builds up a really good atmosphere, really feeding into the idea of lost humanity with this dark, decrepit, and scary deep ocean. It really builds the vibes of the game on the outside segments about just how fucked you really are if you don't succeed. and the indoor segments also build a great atmosphere of infected and left behind place that should be full of people and working machines, but are instead filled with broken people and broken machines.
Overall, Fantastic game that if you are a fan of horror or future and sci-fi like me, you are doing yourself a disservice by not trying. (9.5/10)

So this year I was going to make a conscious effort to work through my backlog. Buy less games, play more etc. That quickly fell apart in the first month however I've done decently at playing them so far and the Odin Sphere remaster Leifthrasir is one of the older PSN purchase I have yet to play . I decided it was a good title to finally finish on my 2024 games played list.

Odin Sphere is the third Vanillaware title I've played at the time of writing. The first was Dragon's Crown, a game I truly hated but perhaps approached wrong expecting a four player Guardian Heroes. The second was 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim which I utterly adored for it's keep you guessing sci-fi story. (First quick review I wrote on Backloggd actually) It's fitting then that Odin Sphere would sit somewhere in the middle between them as a game I like but with a lot of flaws preventing me loving it and hard to actually recommend.

So lets get the positive aspects out in the open first as this game does have a lot of good going for it. Firstly the artwork and animations are pretty stunning. Vanillaware is pretty famous for it's layered 2D art style and animations. The characters and enemies all stand out and the usage of colour and style makes it feel like a painting in motion. To carry on the presentation side of my positive compliments, the whimsical soundtrack is stunning. I especially like the theme song but it's all gorgeous wrapping up Odin Sphere into a great looking and sounding package.

I actually had to double check this was originally a PS2 game because even as a remaster it just doesn't feel like it. Equally it just doesn't play like it came from that console. The combat animations and battles are all so smooth chaining from moves to move. This isn't an insult to the PS2, it was an amazing system, just a compliment to Odin sphere's visuals and animations. When in combat the characters have a large amount of moves with more unlocking as the game progresses. It allows you to chain various moves and skills into large combos. Hitting a group of enemies into a huge combo with perfect blocks to keep the chain is initially really fun. I'm saying initially because this is where my praise of Odin sphere starts to breakdown a bit unfortunately. The game is based around five characters:

- Gwyndolin, a Valkyrie Princess.
- Cornelius, a prince cursed into a beast form.
- Mercedes, a fairy Princess.
- Oswald, an orphaned knight with a cursed sword.
- Velvet, a forest Witch.

Similar to Vanillaware's later title 13 Sentinels each character has their own story arc playing the game from different perspectives before a final chapter linking the full story together. In principal the idea is great. Vanillaware themselves proved this can work wonderfully as a concept. Here it is extremely flawed though. My biggest issue is there is no variety between each character play through. They have different moves, weapons and some unique skills on a couple of them but they are fundamentally the same. When you take that into account along with the fact that each one of them plays through the same 6 locations fighting the same 20 ish enemies and same bosses and no matter how gorgeous Odin Sphere is, and no matter how nicely it plays it just becomes tedious. You have to play all five scenarios to see the ending and by the 4th character I was just feeling burnt out of it all.

Perhaps because it's an action RPG there is a greater downtime between the story sections that could have kept the mystery going for me to want to push onwards but I feel the narrative behind the game overall just isn't strong enough to justify the multiple perspectives. There isn't a huge mystery that gets unveiled or a surprise twist. Each scenario explains a few things more but I didn't find any of it compelling. Everything around the multiple protagonist formula here undermines the story and the mechanics. Some of the story arcs on each character don't quite match with some odd reasons to make sure the character does visit the snow mountain or lava kingdom etc. Having a food resource cooking mini game for levelling is a neat little idea but gets boring having to save ingredients and feed each character as a core way to level them up every time. Exploring never has anything new on different characters, same levels, same equipment. This feels like a 6 hour game padded out to a 30 hour game and the fairy tale esq setting and lore aren't strong enough to carry that.

I hate typing this as I wanted to love Odin Sphere like I did 13 Sentinels. I am however grateful to it for being the game that put Vanillaware on the map, the game that is almost like a later prototype they built on. I'm glad I played it, it's well made, and looks and plays wonderfully it's just lacking meat on it's bones.

I wish you really could just grow sheep from trees.

+ Gorgeous art design.
+ Fun , fast and fluid combat system.
+ Pleasant whimsical soundtrack and great voice acting (I played it in Japanese).

- The game loop is extremely repetitive and the story cannot carry nearly the exact same content from a slightly different view point. Only one real negative but it's a big one.