Inqueersitor
2022
A nearly perfect sapphic love-letter to horror and sci-fi.
At the time of writing I've only gotten one ending of Signalis but I'll be getting the others ASAP. I don't even know where to begin with this game, I've been a huge fan of survival horror games most of my life and frankly I think Signalis is one of the best ever made. It's got a fun, tense gameplay loop, the item management may be a bit of stress to some people but after a bit it clicked with me and I found joy in planning routes and using resources, also frankly I think a lot of people that play Signalis and games like it are a little TOO hoard-happy, use those bullets baby! The lore and story are tight and interestingly told in a way that reminds me of early Silent Hills or Twin Peaks, where you are given a lot of concrete facts, a lot of symbolism, and you have to kind of discuss and piece together parts, but not in a way where things are overly cryptic or unexplained, quite the opposite. People (read:me) have discussed and theorized elements of Silent Hill's world, lore and symbolism for literal years and I feel strongly Signalis will have this same effect. Sorry if this review is kind of all over the place, I have played a lot of games in my life but this one is new yet already so truly special to me I hope I can make even one person try it out!
At the time of writing I've only gotten one ending of Signalis but I'll be getting the others ASAP. I don't even know where to begin with this game, I've been a huge fan of survival horror games most of my life and frankly I think Signalis is one of the best ever made. It's got a fun, tense gameplay loop, the item management may be a bit of stress to some people but after a bit it clicked with me and I found joy in planning routes and using resources, also frankly I think a lot of people that play Signalis and games like it are a little TOO hoard-happy, use those bullets baby! The lore and story are tight and interestingly told in a way that reminds me of early Silent Hills or Twin Peaks, where you are given a lot of concrete facts, a lot of symbolism, and you have to kind of discuss and piece together parts, but not in a way where things are overly cryptic or unexplained, quite the opposite. People (read:me) have discussed and theorized elements of Silent Hill's world, lore and symbolism for literal years and I feel strongly Signalis will have this same effect. Sorry if this review is kind of all over the place, I have played a lot of games in my life but this one is new yet already so truly special to me I hope I can make even one person try it out!
2023
This review contains spoilers
I have so many mixed feelings about this so I'm just going to break it down into parts, to start I wanna preface with the fact I've played every final fantasy game to completion yes this includes the MMOs where I've done the overall majority of content in both, I only bring this up because I think being a long time fan made me enjoy this entry less instead of more and while I strongly disagree that this game "isn't final fantasy" it could be more final fantasy.
Visuals: What is there to say, the game is breathtaking most of the time, the only kind of drab thing is the art direction, 99% of the villages are ramshackle copypasted shacks but outside of that its a treat to look at, character design and models are nice.... except for most of the monsters whose mechanics and models are ripped straight from XIV, even the Moogle this is the first mainline FF in ages to not have a unique moogle design, its just copypasted from XIV, lots of NPCs share names with XIV npcs and it makes the game feel like it lacks identity.
Story: Both the strongest and weakest thing in this entry, the game starts incredibly strong, but suffers as it goes. Really grand, powerful plots are often interrupted by glorified fetch quests and the pacing of the sidequests is absolutely atrocious there are five hours of sidequests before the final boss, and while yes they are well written most of those sidequests should have been the main story. For example, there is a cutscene midway through the game that strongly hints something is up with Torgal, this is never brought up again in the main plot but is in two sidequests, Torgal is...your only real mainstay party member and all of his development is in a sidequest. Why is he special? Well thats kind of left up in the air too with just small lore tidbits instead of fleshing out a major character. Don't get me started on Jill I know XIV addicts and XVI fans will attack me for this but CBU3 has often struggled with female characters and Jill is no different, her development is stunted and all of her agency is at one point completely taken away and just given to Clive, she doesn't even get to participate in the final conflict or make any meaningful difference on the plot, and all of the other women are either hilariously cartoonishly evil (such as Annabella) or just kind of there to hand out sidequests (Mid). SOME of the sidequests have extremely powerful and good writing even occasionally making me tear up, other ones are boring slogs that have you running back and forth with little lore or reward to show for it. The main scenario has some high highs, some of the highest of modern final fantasy games but the lows are quite dreadful and almost embarassing. Yoshi-P only knows MMO pacing and it shows, but whereas XIV has years of character development to make even more drab parts palatable with lore this game just...has long stretches of nothing and characters I wanted to care for but got shafted by the end.
Gameplay: The actual strongest part of the package, fights feel epic and fun and learning the powers of the different Eikons was a real treat, my only real gameplay complaint are the sidequests that I've rambled about enough and the speed in which you explore the world, Clive takes ages to sprint, you cannot do this on command, and he won't do it at all in the barren, lifeless villages that plague this game making walking through towns tedious. Even the chocobo feels slow so there is something wrong there. That brings me to another problem with the gameplay: the exploration, as I said there are no cities to explore, villages are lifeless and drab with only a handful of charmless npcs each and there might as well be no cities, only showing up as back alley dungeons and in cutscenes. Yoshi-p's bizarre insistence on no minigames to keep the story "dark" (seriously one of his many interviews where he isn't being a weird racist he goes into this) had such a terrible impact on the world the entire world feels free of leisure, stiff and unalive, even the most serious games in the FF series had minigames, moments of leisure and places to explore and other things to do besides combat but here? That is all there is.
Speaking of upgrades are just vertical, the crafting is mostly useless and there is almost no gear variety or rpg mechanics to speak of.
Music: Some tracks, namely Titan's final phase, the final boss final phase, the prelude and the hunt boss music slap insanely hard. However, I feel like Soken was holding back, there aren't honestly that many memorable or experimental tracks and for an OST with over 200 songs you'll be hearing the same like 4 or 5 over and over and over in almost every cutscene and town. Soken has been known for his beautiful music and variety where did it go??
In summary I feel like this game has almost no identity of its own, while FF has always been self-referential (something I normally find quite charming) this game is just a testament to Yoshi-P's ego, as the player gets bombarded with and endless onslaught of XIV references, and a game whose frames drop on performance mode despite yoshida boasting that the game would not need patches. I'm left sincerely hoping CBU3 doesn't do another mainline game for quite some time as this is the third worst game in the series for me barely beating out XIV, and walking over the low, low bar that is II. It's a real shame I honestly truly wanted to love it, most games I love, hell most Final Fantasy games in general I find myself wishing they would never end even on endless replays, but towards the end I was just ready for this to be done, and left kinda mixed on an ending I didn't feel the game earned.
Visuals: What is there to say, the game is breathtaking most of the time, the only kind of drab thing is the art direction, 99% of the villages are ramshackle copypasted shacks but outside of that its a treat to look at, character design and models are nice.... except for most of the monsters whose mechanics and models are ripped straight from XIV, even the Moogle this is the first mainline FF in ages to not have a unique moogle design, its just copypasted from XIV, lots of NPCs share names with XIV npcs and it makes the game feel like it lacks identity.
Story: Both the strongest and weakest thing in this entry, the game starts incredibly strong, but suffers as it goes. Really grand, powerful plots are often interrupted by glorified fetch quests and the pacing of the sidequests is absolutely atrocious there are five hours of sidequests before the final boss, and while yes they are well written most of those sidequests should have been the main story. For example, there is a cutscene midway through the game that strongly hints something is up with Torgal, this is never brought up again in the main plot but is in two sidequests, Torgal is...your only real mainstay party member and all of his development is in a sidequest. Why is he special? Well thats kind of left up in the air too with just small lore tidbits instead of fleshing out a major character. Don't get me started on Jill I know XIV addicts and XVI fans will attack me for this but CBU3 has often struggled with female characters and Jill is no different, her development is stunted and all of her agency is at one point completely taken away and just given to Clive, she doesn't even get to participate in the final conflict or make any meaningful difference on the plot, and all of the other women are either hilariously cartoonishly evil (such as Annabella) or just kind of there to hand out sidequests (Mid). SOME of the sidequests have extremely powerful and good writing even occasionally making me tear up, other ones are boring slogs that have you running back and forth with little lore or reward to show for it. The main scenario has some high highs, some of the highest of modern final fantasy games but the lows are quite dreadful and almost embarassing. Yoshi-P only knows MMO pacing and it shows, but whereas XIV has years of character development to make even more drab parts palatable with lore this game just...has long stretches of nothing and characters I wanted to care for but got shafted by the end.
Gameplay: The actual strongest part of the package, fights feel epic and fun and learning the powers of the different Eikons was a real treat, my only real gameplay complaint are the sidequests that I've rambled about enough and the speed in which you explore the world, Clive takes ages to sprint, you cannot do this on command, and he won't do it at all in the barren, lifeless villages that plague this game making walking through towns tedious. Even the chocobo feels slow so there is something wrong there. That brings me to another problem with the gameplay: the exploration, as I said there are no cities to explore, villages are lifeless and drab with only a handful of charmless npcs each and there might as well be no cities, only showing up as back alley dungeons and in cutscenes. Yoshi-p's bizarre insistence on no minigames to keep the story "dark" (seriously one of his many interviews where he isn't being a weird racist he goes into this) had such a terrible impact on the world the entire world feels free of leisure, stiff and unalive, even the most serious games in the FF series had minigames, moments of leisure and places to explore and other things to do besides combat but here? That is all there is.
Speaking of upgrades are just vertical, the crafting is mostly useless and there is almost no gear variety or rpg mechanics to speak of.
Music: Some tracks, namely Titan's final phase, the final boss final phase, the prelude and the hunt boss music slap insanely hard. However, I feel like Soken was holding back, there aren't honestly that many memorable or experimental tracks and for an OST with over 200 songs you'll be hearing the same like 4 or 5 over and over and over in almost every cutscene and town. Soken has been known for his beautiful music and variety where did it go??
In summary I feel like this game has almost no identity of its own, while FF has always been self-referential (something I normally find quite charming) this game is just a testament to Yoshi-P's ego, as the player gets bombarded with and endless onslaught of XIV references, and a game whose frames drop on performance mode despite yoshida boasting that the game would not need patches. I'm left sincerely hoping CBU3 doesn't do another mainline game for quite some time as this is the third worst game in the series for me barely beating out XIV, and walking over the low, low bar that is II. It's a real shame I honestly truly wanted to love it, most games I love, hell most Final Fantasy games in general I find myself wishing they would never end even on endless replays, but towards the end I was just ready for this to be done, and left kinda mixed on an ending I didn't feel the game earned.
2023
I honestly never ever thought I'd play a gacha, let alone a MHY game but I really really enjoy star rail. I feel no pressure to spend money, I really like the story and characters and though it takes a while to get started the gameplay gets very fun especially at a high level. The lesbians are also off the charts which is important to any game.
2023
Thirteen years ago, I was in the Dark Place, my own Dark Place, in a really bad way when I heard about Alan Wake a game taking influence from a lot of my favorite things and sources of inspiration such as Twin Peaks or Silent Hill. I loved the game, the narrative and more importantly the overarching lore really appealed to me, the metanarrative twists and the set up for a larger universe of stories really blew me away and the mixed media usage was an incredible artistic achievement. The original game changed how I viewed media and this went even further with Control.
I say all of that to say, after thirteen years of waiting is Alan Wake II worth it? I certainly think so, it's the perfect sort of sequel, a love letter to true fans, its filled with lore and answers to questions from things over a decade. New players need to realize, some of us have waited thirteen years for this, and I think its nearly perfect honestly. The story was amazing, answering many things while leaving more questions for future titles, lots of lore payoff for people invested in the larger universe of games like Control that are tied directly to AWII. The combat is fun and fluid, though I think on higher difficulties the balance should be examined a little, and the jump scares which I normally detest DO work here and have a narrative purpose, however I think in one particular section they are slightly overused, but those are my only two complaints. I'm honestly floored, once again Remedy has made something truly full of love its very special. I cannot wait to see what happens with the DLC as they always go really hard there, I'm a bit confused on people's complaints with the ending as well theres a free NG+ dlc that adds new stuff soon, as well as two expansions, there's more Alan Wake to come and I couldn't be happier, I'm so glad this exists, thanks to Remedy and Alan Wake for once again being my Champion of Light.
I say all of that to say, after thirteen years of waiting is Alan Wake II worth it? I certainly think so, it's the perfect sort of sequel, a love letter to true fans, its filled with lore and answers to questions from things over a decade. New players need to realize, some of us have waited thirteen years for this, and I think its nearly perfect honestly. The story was amazing, answering many things while leaving more questions for future titles, lots of lore payoff for people invested in the larger universe of games like Control that are tied directly to AWII. The combat is fun and fluid, though I think on higher difficulties the balance should be examined a little, and the jump scares which I normally detest DO work here and have a narrative purpose, however I think in one particular section they are slightly overused, but those are my only two complaints. I'm honestly floored, once again Remedy has made something truly full of love its very special. I cannot wait to see what happens with the DLC as they always go really hard there, I'm a bit confused on people's complaints with the ending as well theres a free NG+ dlc that adds new stuff soon, as well as two expansions, there's more Alan Wake to come and I couldn't be happier, I'm so glad this exists, thanks to Remedy and Alan Wake for once again being my Champion of Light.
I kinda bought this game on a whim as I got a giftcard from a friend and was pleasantly surprised. I'm far from done with it but I wanted to put my general thoughts after beating the main story and doing all the current content.
First off, without going into spoilers the main story isn't anything ground breaking but the character writing and voice direction is stellar, its very charming! The gameplay loop is really addictive if you are, like me, a big fan of games like monster hunter where you learn fights and gradually get stronger! Honestly my only complaint right now is I wish there was a bit more content in the endgame but the game is doing very well so maybe I'll get my wish! If you're looking for fun characters and a great co-op game with friends that can challenge you a little then give it a shot!
First off, without going into spoilers the main story isn't anything ground breaking but the character writing and voice direction is stellar, its very charming! The gameplay loop is really addictive if you are, like me, a big fan of games like monster hunter where you learn fights and gradually get stronger! Honestly my only complaint right now is I wish there was a bit more content in the endgame but the game is doing very well so maybe I'll get my wish! If you're looking for fun characters and a great co-op game with friends that can challenge you a little then give it a shot!
2022
Not a ton I can say without spoilers but extremely fun character writing, a great touching plot and fun combat held back by a few odd design choices (mostly the sheer amount of offscreen enemies and the camera being up inside Kratos)
Man I really don't even know what to say about this game, I play tons of games its my main hobby, and RPGs are my favorite and this might be one of the best I've ever played, the writing is fantastic (especially the character writing and voice acting performances) very fun and often funny and heartfelt in a way I rarely feel from RPGs lately. The towns and cities are full of life and unique culture and lots of things to do and people to talk too.
The combat is easy to pick up with a lot of depth for individual characters, groups and gear/materia combinations. It fixes all of my problems with XVI (no whimsy, no real towns, no minigames, no life, weird misogyny, no party, stale combat) and then some, I was worried I no longer liked Final Fantasy but its really just whatever CBU3 is..trying to do. It's fun, its heartfelt, it isnt afraid to be both a love letter to the original and something entirely new, its just refreshing while still being nostalgic and familiar. My ONLY complaints about the game are: a 4k, 45 fps mode would do wonders, performance mode feels great but sacrifices a ton of visual fidelity and quality mode looks great but 30fps feels awful in the combat. There are a small handful of minigames that are kinda bad, i think most of them are at least decent and more that are actually good, there's one in particular that verges on being an accessibility issue that I could see preventing some people from 100%ing the game. And my final complaint is that it ended, even after 99 hours I was not ready to let go of this world and characters, I'm so excited to get back into the post-game content and hard mode that I'm struggling to even pay attention to other releases right now. This review might not mean anything to most people but after a lot of disappointment thank you Rebirth for making me remember why I love Final Fantasy and making me feel like I can love it again.
The combat is easy to pick up with a lot of depth for individual characters, groups and gear/materia combinations. It fixes all of my problems with XVI (no whimsy, no real towns, no minigames, no life, weird misogyny, no party, stale combat) and then some, I was worried I no longer liked Final Fantasy but its really just whatever CBU3 is..trying to do. It's fun, its heartfelt, it isnt afraid to be both a love letter to the original and something entirely new, its just refreshing while still being nostalgic and familiar. My ONLY complaints about the game are: a 4k, 45 fps mode would do wonders, performance mode feels great but sacrifices a ton of visual fidelity and quality mode looks great but 30fps feels awful in the combat. There are a small handful of minigames that are kinda bad, i think most of them are at least decent and more that are actually good, there's one in particular that verges on being an accessibility issue that I could see preventing some people from 100%ing the game. And my final complaint is that it ended, even after 99 hours I was not ready to let go of this world and characters, I'm so excited to get back into the post-game content and hard mode that I'm struggling to even pay attention to other releases right now. This review might not mean anything to most people but after a lot of disappointment thank you Rebirth for making me remember why I love Final Fantasy and making me feel like I can love it again.
One of my all time favorite PS2 games remastered with some new content.
We Love Katamari is peak Katamari and one of the best entries in the series and this remaster is probably the best way to play it, the enhanced resolution makes it much easier to play and see things, the new Royal Reverie stages are a fun bonus (if a little light on content imo) and the achievements are extremely easy to get, only requiring you complete most of the stages, get all of the cousins and roll up the king and queen. As relaxing and fun as it was all those years ago, if you want to try a Katamari game make it this one!
Also I think a new game could be fun these remasters have been extremely high quality so far!
We Love Katamari is peak Katamari and one of the best entries in the series and this remaster is probably the best way to play it, the enhanced resolution makes it much easier to play and see things, the new Royal Reverie stages are a fun bonus (if a little light on content imo) and the achievements are extremely easy to get, only requiring you complete most of the stages, get all of the cousins and roll up the king and queen. As relaxing and fun as it was all those years ago, if you want to try a Katamari game make it this one!
Also I think a new game could be fun these remasters have been extremely high quality so far!
2022
I'm a big fan of Tango's games so I was excited to check this out, I finally played it just now, so my first run is including the Spider's Thread update and it's additional cutscenes, enemies, quests etc so keep that in mind in my review.
Let's start with the good:
The sidequests are charming and interesting, the map of Toyko is made with so much love and care and honestly its kind of a relaxing and meditative game in the downtime. The dub is also fantastic as that is what I personally played with. It's not a very scary game its just a horror themed action game (outside of one more traditional horror side quest added with the DLC). It's very much a collectathon too which honestly I really enjoyed it probably has...too many collectibles for too little gain but hey I love checking things off a list what can I say.
The negatives:
Oh boy the combat...is actively harming the game I think. It's almost fun? But enemies are extremely common, extremely repetitive and have way too much health. I love a challenge in games but the game is incredibly easy and fights, even with everything maxed out, can just drag on and on. I'd have enjoyed hte game more if combat was either touched up and more fun or used more sparingly. This is sadly made even worse by Spider's Thread which adds extremely annoying enemies to the game including one that loves to spawn quite frequently towards the end, has tons of hp, and can dodge all normal attacks making the fight drag.
The story is also surprisingly safe and simple. I wouldn't say its...bad? It has kind of interesting characters but it is extremely safe and by the numbers which is really dissapointing coming from the people who made The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, the former having lots of interesting lore and the latter being a lovely character driven narrative. I rarely ever feel burn out about anything but by the time I finished this I was kinda glad it was over. I don't know...if they ever made a sequel and punched up the story, added more characters to interact with and made the combat more fun and less exhausting I'd be all in but as it is now its a beautiful game with a lot of heart that is unfortunately kinda forgettable in some places.
Let's start with the good:
The sidequests are charming and interesting, the map of Toyko is made with so much love and care and honestly its kind of a relaxing and meditative game in the downtime. The dub is also fantastic as that is what I personally played with. It's not a very scary game its just a horror themed action game (outside of one more traditional horror side quest added with the DLC). It's very much a collectathon too which honestly I really enjoyed it probably has...too many collectibles for too little gain but hey I love checking things off a list what can I say.
The negatives:
Oh boy the combat...is actively harming the game I think. It's almost fun? But enemies are extremely common, extremely repetitive and have way too much health. I love a challenge in games but the game is incredibly easy and fights, even with everything maxed out, can just drag on and on. I'd have enjoyed hte game more if combat was either touched up and more fun or used more sparingly. This is sadly made even worse by Spider's Thread which adds extremely annoying enemies to the game including one that loves to spawn quite frequently towards the end, has tons of hp, and can dodge all normal attacks making the fight drag.
The story is also surprisingly safe and simple. I wouldn't say its...bad? It has kind of interesting characters but it is extremely safe and by the numbers which is really dissapointing coming from the people who made The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, the former having lots of interesting lore and the latter being a lovely character driven narrative. I rarely ever feel burn out about anything but by the time I finished this I was kinda glad it was over. I don't know...if they ever made a sequel and punched up the story, added more characters to interact with and made the combat more fun and less exhausting I'd be all in but as it is now its a beautiful game with a lot of heart that is unfortunately kinda forgettable in some places.
The new roguelike mechanics are extremely fun and addictive and I really hope they flesh them out in a future entry. I like to keep my reviews spoiler-free so I'll just say: the only real failure with this dlc is the plot. Its not bad, its very good actually! Its just there is so little of it. I know to some that may sound strange but Splatoon fans really love the lore and character writing, its honestly some of nintendo's best (the cutscene direction is also not praised enough its great) but yeah I dont know I really enjoy the gameplay portion of it but I wish it was more especially with how long this took to come out. People talked and still talk excitedly about Octo Expansion and I don't know if this one has that kinda conversational staying power. Really hope they do more story stuff in the next game.
2023
Oh man where to begin, like a LOT of people are saying this feels like a long lost game from the PS2/XBOX era. It is absolutely filled to the brim with love and confidence. It's the absolute perfect marriage of rhythm and character action gameplay, in the first level or two things get pretty simple but as you progress the game unlocks more and more gameplay elements and it feels just so satisfying to get those S ranks. It somehow manages to be very busy and fast paced without feeling overwhelming or clunky, I occasionally see some people complain about the lack of a sprint button but everything is done to the beat, try DASH DASH DASH LIGHT ATK, you will move extremely fast and can do that infinitely. For anyone curious I played on steam swapping between my desktop (on surround sound) and steam deck (headphones) and I got a solid 60fps on both the entire game with default settings, the game is insanely well optimized.
The character writing is just absolutely great, every cutscene had me smiling and one cutscene actually made me a little emotional, this cast is absolutely solid and the voice acting is top shelf, Chai is one of my favorite protags in AGES. There are a lot of references in this game, hearfelt references the game wears proudly on its sleeve that brought me a lot of joy when I'd find them hidden around a level or in a cutscene. The game is built on the inspirations of a lot of games and other media that came before it and its proud to display that love in very caring homages that are great without ever taking you out of the world of Hi-Fi Rush.
Without going into spoiler territory there is also quite a lot to this game, there are three difficulties with a fourth unlockable, each has its own challenges and scores, completing challenges gets you unlockables in the post-game in the form of lots of character customization. There's also quite a bit more to the game after the credits roll it seems but at the time of writing I haven't completed the post game just sampled a bit of all of the unlockable things.
As you can probably see if you check my profile, I play a LOT of games but, at the same time, I am quite poor and I have to be very picky with my purchases and Hi-Fi Rush delivered in spades. I can't recommend it enough, it's a new favorite, between Hi-Fi Rush and SIGNALIS I am starting to feel as though we are entering an era of games that captures something completely new while being a love letter to classics of various genres. I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the future I wanna see these characters again, in the meantime I'm going to chip away at getting every achievement! I might edit this review with feelings on the post game and higher difficulties down the line :)
The character writing is just absolutely great, every cutscene had me smiling and one cutscene actually made me a little emotional, this cast is absolutely solid and the voice acting is top shelf, Chai is one of my favorite protags in AGES. There are a lot of references in this game, hearfelt references the game wears proudly on its sleeve that brought me a lot of joy when I'd find them hidden around a level or in a cutscene. The game is built on the inspirations of a lot of games and other media that came before it and its proud to display that love in very caring homages that are great without ever taking you out of the world of Hi-Fi Rush.
Without going into spoiler territory there is also quite a lot to this game, there are three difficulties with a fourth unlockable, each has its own challenges and scores, completing challenges gets you unlockables in the post-game in the form of lots of character customization. There's also quite a bit more to the game after the credits roll it seems but at the time of writing I haven't completed the post game just sampled a bit of all of the unlockable things.
As you can probably see if you check my profile, I play a LOT of games but, at the same time, I am quite poor and I have to be very picky with my purchases and Hi-Fi Rush delivered in spades. I can't recommend it enough, it's a new favorite, between Hi-Fi Rush and SIGNALIS I am starting to feel as though we are entering an era of games that captures something completely new while being a love letter to classics of various genres. I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the future I wanna see these characters again, in the meantime I'm going to chip away at getting every achievement! I might edit this review with feelings on the post game and higher difficulties down the line :)
2023
Probably the peak(min) of the Pikmin series so far.
Story
It's Pikmin so it's pretty light on plot but whats there is interesting and there are fun characters, my only complaint being I wish there was a little more of it...? It's actually one of my only complaints about this game, the world is interesting and I wish we knew a little more about it. I do enjoy the much larger cast and character focus this time I kinda hope future games keep that up.
Gameplay
Traditional Pikmin gameplay here but with all the different kinds of Pikmin, and Oatchi the rescue pup all given to you quite quickly I feel like this game has the most options to tackle various tasks. Oatchi is extremely strong and in some cases arguably a little overpowered but I do like him as a sort of second captain/Pikmin hybrid. Oatchi can be upgraded with new moves and equipment, as can the player which adds some very nice progression to the game which I think the series needed. Also in Pikmin 4 are the addition of Dandori battles/challenges which challenge the player's task management skills. Dandori battles are against an npc (or other real player in another mode) where you have to collect more items while messing with your opponent to win, and out of the two I liked these the least as the split screen camera was workable but felt a little tight. On the other hand Dondori challenges are like the challenge mode from Pikmin 3 Deluxe, a mode where you have a time limit to collect as many enemies and items as possible as quickly as possible for rewards. These are amazing and are very interesting puzzles I wish the game had a few more of them honestly.
Music
The OST for Pikmin 4 is mostly just what fans would come to expect. Lots of relaxing tunes with the occasional high intensity music for boss fights. It's pretty good if nothing too mind blowing!
I really enjoyed my time with Pikmin 4, I'm glad it's longer than Pikmin 3 which felt incredibly short, after 100% of treasures and rescues I still have a few optional things left to do so I may come back to it sometime. I can see myself replaying this in the future as it may have replaced Pikmin 2 as my all time favorite in this series.
Story
It's Pikmin so it's pretty light on plot but whats there is interesting and there are fun characters, my only complaint being I wish there was a little more of it...? It's actually one of my only complaints about this game, the world is interesting and I wish we knew a little more about it. I do enjoy the much larger cast and character focus this time I kinda hope future games keep that up.
Gameplay
Traditional Pikmin gameplay here but with all the different kinds of Pikmin, and Oatchi the rescue pup all given to you quite quickly I feel like this game has the most options to tackle various tasks. Oatchi is extremely strong and in some cases arguably a little overpowered but I do like him as a sort of second captain/Pikmin hybrid. Oatchi can be upgraded with new moves and equipment, as can the player which adds some very nice progression to the game which I think the series needed. Also in Pikmin 4 are the addition of Dandori battles/challenges which challenge the player's task management skills. Dandori battles are against an npc (or other real player in another mode) where you have to collect more items while messing with your opponent to win, and out of the two I liked these the least as the split screen camera was workable but felt a little tight. On the other hand Dondori challenges are like the challenge mode from Pikmin 3 Deluxe, a mode where you have a time limit to collect as many enemies and items as possible as quickly as possible for rewards. These are amazing and are very interesting puzzles I wish the game had a few more of them honestly.
Music
The OST for Pikmin 4 is mostly just what fans would come to expect. Lots of relaxing tunes with the occasional high intensity music for boss fights. It's pretty good if nothing too mind blowing!
I really enjoyed my time with Pikmin 4, I'm glad it's longer than Pikmin 3 which felt incredibly short, after 100% of treasures and rescues I still have a few optional things left to do so I may come back to it sometime. I can see myself replaying this in the future as it may have replaced Pikmin 2 as my all time favorite in this series.
SPIDER-PEAK 2
Honestly I don't know how they keep doing it, consistently good writing, maybe my favorite spider-universe (tied with the Spiderverse films), constantly evolving gameplay...its got it all really! I thought I'd dislike the web wings and that they'd be intrusive to the swinging but no they felt like they had their own separate purpose and felt like a natural evolution of the already stellar movement. Combat is better than ever, and while I have some small complaints about it its really just a more perfected version of the previous two games, each spider-man feels distinct and fun. The story was really, really good without getting into spoilers I'll just say I was smiling the whole time, got a lil emotional a few times and am very excited about what they are setting up for the third game.
It took me about 24h to 100% the game on Spectacular difficulty. Side content feels like a big step up this time, as do the random crimes but it felt like there was a lot less of the side stuff which is my only kinda "big" complaint about the game. Really hope there is dlc or something to hold me over till the next one!
Honestly I don't know how they keep doing it, consistently good writing, maybe my favorite spider-universe (tied with the Spiderverse films), constantly evolving gameplay...its got it all really! I thought I'd dislike the web wings and that they'd be intrusive to the swinging but no they felt like they had their own separate purpose and felt like a natural evolution of the already stellar movement. Combat is better than ever, and while I have some small complaints about it its really just a more perfected version of the previous two games, each spider-man feels distinct and fun. The story was really, really good without getting into spoilers I'll just say I was smiling the whole time, got a lil emotional a few times and am very excited about what they are setting up for the third game.
It took me about 24h to 100% the game on Spectacular difficulty. Side content feels like a big step up this time, as do the random crimes but it felt like there was a lot less of the side stuff which is my only kinda "big" complaint about the game. Really hope there is dlc or something to hold me over till the next one!
Honestly I'm a bit mixed on this one. I see a lot of complaints about it being unsubtle but for the subject matter that is appropriate, not to mention in classic Silent Hill titles the main themes are rarely subtle (have you ever read the grafitti all over Silent Hill 2?) its more secondary themes and symbolism that are what give the series such a strong identity with subtlety. That being said I do have some issues with The Short Message, the biggest one is of course the final chase sequence which is structured like a cheap steam Collect The Pages Before The Instakill Monster Grabs You game, its just not very fun or interesting and it kills the tension. The other main gripe is that I wish I could play in whatever the original language was. The dubbing and lipsync are really, really distracting. For a longtime Silent Hill fan though this was a step in the right direction especially art and design-wise it just stumbles a lot on the way.
This was the greatest pre-order bonus nintendo has ever made.