Inqueersitor
2015
A really solid game, great characters and an interesting story. I gotta say though I'm not the biggest fan of the minigames being required for completion, feels player unfriendly to have to learn Advanced Mahjong just to 100% the game. But that's a small blemish on an otherwise nearly perfect package. Cabaret Czar is the real game and I'd legit play that standalone if they made one.
2022
Easily my second favorite FromSoft game, behind Bloodborne. Has some questionable design choices towards the tail end.
Now one of my favorite games ever made, just oozing with fun and joy, Originally I was disappointed at the lack of Chaos Map mode from Curtain Call but the series quests are fun and challenging, and after beating them you unlock an endless roguelike mode that includes all dlc you own. The music is fun, the rpg mechanics are charming and the online is actually incredible and now something I play regularly with friends, looking forward to putting in hundreds of hours into this game over the years as it is a new comfort for me.
2014
The movement in this game feels absolutely amazing, with really fun and inventive weapons (normal for Insomniac). A sequel with tighter writing and more to do would be a favorite for me I think. There are some issues though, the weapons take a silly long time to level up, even if you 100% the game you wont have used even a fraction of the weapons (not to mention the currency grind) it just feels kinda bad and leads the game to feeling short and incomplete. I doubt a sequel will ever happen but if it does it could honestly be something special. Oh and I loved the character customization!
2023
Well I'll start by saying the original RE4 is one of my favorite games of all time, I've 100%'d it multiple times and have cleared it over 30 times over various versions. The remake is almost to that tier honestly, the new parry system is amazing and adds a new dynamic to encounters and stealth is a fun (if underused) option. The remade shooting galleries are a real treat and while I won't get into spoilers Ashley having more agency is a welcome change, and most of the story changes overall make the game a little more interesting. The bad for me is two big things, the controls on controller (PS5 here) feel just so much less snappy than the original, even after spending a long time in the shooting range adjusting various settings I feel like im often fighting against the uncomfortable controls and the nightmarish weapon sway this game has even with fully upgraded weapons. Another more minor nitpick is certain areas just had way too many enemies and it sort of just killed the tension for me. If they patch the controls this will be an almost perfect game imho.
Just going to start with saying the performance issues ARE pretty bad just to get that out of the way, there are huge parts of the game where it runs perfect, for me, but then there are certain areas where it will chug like crazy for seemingly no reason.
That aside? This game was pretty incredible, I haven't been a SW fan for long, in fact I really disliked SW until kinda recently, but this game's story was extremely good and moving. I won't go into spoilers as I try to keep things spoiler free if I can but there is just a lot of good stuff here very excited for the next game in this series already.
The combat is still great! There are a couple of kind of annoying enemy types though that aren't super fun to fight but they are used sparingly and the game gets way more fun as you unlock more combat options. For what its worth I played the entire game on Jedi Master difficulty and it felt perfectly balanced outside of the few optional enemies I mentioned.
That aside? This game was pretty incredible, I haven't been a SW fan for long, in fact I really disliked SW until kinda recently, but this game's story was extremely good and moving. I won't go into spoilers as I try to keep things spoiler free if I can but there is just a lot of good stuff here very excited for the next game in this series already.
The combat is still great! There are a couple of kind of annoying enemy types though that aren't super fun to fight but they are used sparingly and the game gets way more fun as you unlock more combat options. For what its worth I played the entire game on Jedi Master difficulty and it felt perfectly balanced outside of the few optional enemies I mentioned.
This was my very first Atelier game! Prior to writing this I just got the very last achievement so I can safely say I've 100%'d the game so lemme break it down:
The Visuals: Nothing too spectacular though the character design and the art itself is pretty great, really enhances the sort of cozy soft feeling this game has.
The gameplay:Honestly pretty relaxing, sometimes some of the assignments can be a little frustrating especially if someone were to not want to use a guide or online resources. The crafting is fun and once you understand it its very addictive and fun to make overpowered items and equipment, the actual combat is...ok?? It's serviceable mostly just excuses to blow things up with your new toys.
There are some challenging fights but I think they are less challenging in the traditional jrpg sense and more a test of your understanding and usage of things you make with alchemy!
Sound: the voice acting is good except everyone pronounces "atelier" differently. The music is EXTREMELY cozy and some of the boss music is actually really cool
Story: It's kind of basic but honestly I think these games, at least from what I've heard, thrive more on character writing than a big plot and that's true here too. There are some lore hints at a bigger overarching thing but its not really important, the characters are cute and charming and while they are not particulary complex they do have memorable qualities.
Achievements: honestly a really good achievement list, getting every ending with both characters and basically doing everything the game has to offer, my favorite kind of achievements reward completion so this gets top marks from me.
My tl;dr is this is a cute, comfy jrpg with fun crafting and some neat characters. I think the time limit is perfectly balanced where its lenient for newcomers but you still need to mind it. I think this is a perfect game to start with as I now own the rest of the Dusk trilogy thanks to this one. If you want something kind of relaxing to play I recommend it!
The Visuals: Nothing too spectacular though the character design and the art itself is pretty great, really enhances the sort of cozy soft feeling this game has.
The gameplay:Honestly pretty relaxing, sometimes some of the assignments can be a little frustrating especially if someone were to not want to use a guide or online resources. The crafting is fun and once you understand it its very addictive and fun to make overpowered items and equipment, the actual combat is...ok?? It's serviceable mostly just excuses to blow things up with your new toys.
There are some challenging fights but I think they are less challenging in the traditional jrpg sense and more a test of your understanding and usage of things you make with alchemy!
Sound: the voice acting is good except everyone pronounces "atelier" differently. The music is EXTREMELY cozy and some of the boss music is actually really cool
Story: It's kind of basic but honestly I think these games, at least from what I've heard, thrive more on character writing than a big plot and that's true here too. There are some lore hints at a bigger overarching thing but its not really important, the characters are cute and charming and while they are not particulary complex they do have memorable qualities.
Achievements: honestly a really good achievement list, getting every ending with both characters and basically doing everything the game has to offer, my favorite kind of achievements reward completion so this gets top marks from me.
My tl;dr is this is a cute, comfy jrpg with fun crafting and some neat characters. I think the time limit is perfectly balanced where its lenient for newcomers but you still need to mind it. I think this is a perfect game to start with as I now own the rest of the Dusk trilogy thanks to this one. If you want something kind of relaxing to play I recommend it!
2019
A fun and charming game, I don't think it's quite as good as the original (Haven't played Dark Moon yet) but still fun. A few of the bosses are a little tedious but the puzzles and exploration are pretty neat.
Pretty neat for what it is, though I think its probably a tad overpriced if you dont get it on a sale. The story is really nice honestly, I really enjoyed the characters. Akechi and Kasumi are my favorite Phantom Thieves so it was nice to have a story with them again even though they really honestly should have been in the base game but whatever. The music for this DLC goes really hard, and the new paint mechanic is honestly really fun, but like the base game its a little...easy? even on Merciless you can just plow through enemies with even just a little bit of SRPG experience.
Still though I think this DLC is worth it for fans of P5, also just because I rarely see this question answered online: If you beat the DLC you DO unlock Kasumi and Akechi for use in the main campaign but only in NG+ for some reason.
Still though I think this DLC is worth it for fans of P5, also just because I rarely see this question answered online: If you beat the DLC you DO unlock Kasumi and Akechi for use in the main campaign but only in NG+ for some reason.
2018
My fourth Like A Dragon game in my journey to catch up. I heard a lot of mixed things about 3 so I really wasn't sure what to think going in I have a lot of thoughts about this game so I'm going to split it up into sections and try to be as spoiler free as possible.
Story: I hear some people really don't dig the story in this one but I honestly loved it? It's more emotional to me than the other entries I've played, its nice Kiryu shows some emotion other than constipated or angry, and the supporting cast is wonderful. Very attached to the Okinawa characters in general!
Substories: A lot of really good and interesting ones this time, but also a lot of really terrible ones with bizarre requirements (theres three that require kinda annoying minigame prerequisites) and barely any story. The good outweighs the bad but there is a bit of a quantity over quality one this time which I didn't feel with the others, this also has some PS3 era shenanigans with a lot of missables there are things in here that would be extremely easy to miss without a guide even on replays. The kinda famous substory about a transwoman and Kiryu is particularly lovely.
Minigames: No. Honestly actually terrible? I try not to be too harsh on this game because it is currently the oldest game in the modern version of the series but my god, especially on PC a lot of these minigames just do not work properly without fixes and even then they have bizarre controls and extremely unfun AI. I normally enjoy the minigames but it was just a slog this time, only one I kinda enjoyed was Golf once I got used to it. I will say that I had to even tweak a few settings to get some minigames to work and I found a solution to fishing in particular (set fps to 30, point stick towards the ocean and hold the reel button while barely moving the stick up and left/right whenever the fish changes direction)
Combat: Oh boy ok let me start by saying I don't think the combat is as bad as people say but its pretty terrible. Yes the enemies block constantly. Yes there are ways around this like quickstepping, grabs, and certain heat actions. But the enemies also have bizarre robot like tracking and hyper armor that just feels really bad to play against. Almost 60 hours of this combat was enough to grate away at me and I rarely am bothered by a little jank, its just not fun and I found myself sighing whenever I got into a street fight. Strangely, Amon is extremely easy in this one but that is probably for the better.
I won't speak on the games graphics much, its a remaster, the main characters look great but side characters look really bad, its distracting at first but you get used to it, I will say the game is kinda poorly optimized, it runs well enough but even with lots of tinkering a solid 60 was hard to get, it was 60 like 90% of the time but in kamurocho it would dip seemingly randomly.
In the end though, I don't regret playing it, one of my favorite stories in this series so far paired with some of the worst actual gameplay makes it a flawed gem of a game.
Story: I hear some people really don't dig the story in this one but I honestly loved it? It's more emotional to me than the other entries I've played, its nice Kiryu shows some emotion other than constipated or angry, and the supporting cast is wonderful. Very attached to the Okinawa characters in general!
Substories: A lot of really good and interesting ones this time, but also a lot of really terrible ones with bizarre requirements (theres three that require kinda annoying minigame prerequisites) and barely any story. The good outweighs the bad but there is a bit of a quantity over quality one this time which I didn't feel with the others, this also has some PS3 era shenanigans with a lot of missables there are things in here that would be extremely easy to miss without a guide even on replays. The kinda famous substory about a transwoman and Kiryu is particularly lovely.
Minigames: No. Honestly actually terrible? I try not to be too harsh on this game because it is currently the oldest game in the modern version of the series but my god, especially on PC a lot of these minigames just do not work properly without fixes and even then they have bizarre controls and extremely unfun AI. I normally enjoy the minigames but it was just a slog this time, only one I kinda enjoyed was Golf once I got used to it. I will say that I had to even tweak a few settings to get some minigames to work and I found a solution to fishing in particular (set fps to 30, point stick towards the ocean and hold the reel button while barely moving the stick up and left/right whenever the fish changes direction)
Combat: Oh boy ok let me start by saying I don't think the combat is as bad as people say but its pretty terrible. Yes the enemies block constantly. Yes there are ways around this like quickstepping, grabs, and certain heat actions. But the enemies also have bizarre robot like tracking and hyper armor that just feels really bad to play against. Almost 60 hours of this combat was enough to grate away at me and I rarely am bothered by a little jank, its just not fun and I found myself sighing whenever I got into a street fight. Strangely, Amon is extremely easy in this one but that is probably for the better.
I won't speak on the games graphics much, its a remaster, the main characters look great but side characters look really bad, its distracting at first but you get used to it, I will say the game is kinda poorly optimized, it runs well enough but even with lots of tinkering a solid 60 was hard to get, it was 60 like 90% of the time but in kamurocho it would dip seemingly randomly.
In the end though, I don't regret playing it, one of my favorite stories in this series so far paired with some of the worst actual gameplay makes it a flawed gem of a game.
Fond memories of exploring the world in this game and getting the special Tails Chao
2004
I was obsessed with this game for a small time as a kid its super fun.
2022
I honestly am surprised how good this game was. It was marketed extremely poorly but its very good fun. First let's talk about the GOOD
Positives:
Cutscenes are great, I wish there were more of them? Very well animated and the writing is surprisingly good but they are so spaced out and so few.
Cyberspace levels, when they work, are great.
Soundtrack is top tier.
Story is kinda interesting but nothing too deep.
Cons:
Somehow the 2D controls of a series that started 2D are absolutely awful, Sonic goes from feeling like he weighs 2k tons to being extremely slippery on a dime and some of the levels have extremely awful perspective.
Generally the controls in the overworld are good but a lot of fighting segments are made extremely frustrating due to the fact that most of your moves make sonic fly around which makes you fall off of the very small platforms fights take place on sometimes restarting extremely long chase sequences.
The true final boss is atrocious.
Having to level speed and ring count ONE level at a time 98 times is exhausting and there is no reason why you can't level in bulk...attack and defense level in bulk...
Overall I generally recommend it if you grew up with Sonic or like the character, or if you like the writing of the IDW comics.
Positives:
Cutscenes are great, I wish there were more of them? Very well animated and the writing is surprisingly good but they are so spaced out and so few.
Cyberspace levels, when they work, are great.
Soundtrack is top tier.
Story is kinda interesting but nothing too deep.
Cons:
Somehow the 2D controls of a series that started 2D are absolutely awful, Sonic goes from feeling like he weighs 2k tons to being extremely slippery on a dime and some of the levels have extremely awful perspective.
Generally the controls in the overworld are good but a lot of fighting segments are made extremely frustrating due to the fact that most of your moves make sonic fly around which makes you fall off of the very small platforms fights take place on sometimes restarting extremely long chase sequences.
The true final boss is atrocious.
Having to level speed and ring count ONE level at a time 98 times is exhausting and there is no reason why you can't level in bulk...attack and defense level in bulk...
Overall I generally recommend it if you grew up with Sonic or like the character, or if you like the writing of the IDW comics.
As a big Xeno fan I'm glad I finally got to play this. Without going into spoilers the characters and cutscenes are great but the story suffers by leaving so much unexplained until I assume the later episodes. The game also starts to get long in the tooth with extremely long fights and dungeons that just drag and drag, honestly I'd reccomend watching the cutscenes over playing it at this time.
As a fan of the first game (I was surprised how much I loved it!) I was very excited for Sparks of Hope, I just beat it and had a mostly great time with it. I played on the highest difficulty the entire time and outside of a few optional challenges and one boss I found most of the fights to be a little on the easy side. This game is so different from the original, its really good but it makes it hard to compare them, as odd as it sounds I'd like sequels that swap between the old style and this new one as I don't think they'd mix together well but both are too good to be one offs.
I think the first game had more charming cutscenes and bosses for the most part, but I loved the final boss and the new characters.
Really excited to see what they do with the dlc here! If you loved the first game, love mario or rabbids, or want to get into the turn based strategy genre give this game a shot its one of the best on the switch.
I think the first game had more charming cutscenes and bosses for the most part, but I loved the final boss and the new characters.
Really excited to see what they do with the dlc here! If you loved the first game, love mario or rabbids, or want to get into the turn based strategy genre give this game a shot its one of the best on the switch.