Inqueersitor
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
An improvement over BOTW in almost every way, a constant joy to explore and solve puzzles. Some of my favorite combat and cutscenes in the series as well. If they can clean up the story a bit more and improve on this formula we could approach like Nearly Perfect Game territory. It is very rare a game just...immerses me so deeply and makes me constantly feel a sense of childlike joy but this game does it.
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.
I finished it 100% today and honestly its hitting me that this part of Xenoblade is well and truly over. I'll keep this short without getting into spoilers, but I loved it. Many loose ends were wrapped up and it was just a treat for people really into the lore of Xenoblade, with hints towards the next step in the series and overarching narrative. The combat was great its a nice spin on the already great XB3 and honestly my only real complaints about this DLC are:
1. its a little on the short side, like its not SHORT but man I was hoping it wouldnt end!
2.I wish there were more main game unlocks to mix up future playthroughs.
See you for the next title in what is one of my favorite series now. Hopefully X remake next?
1. its a little on the short side, like its not SHORT but man I was hoping it wouldnt end!
2.I wish there were more main game unlocks to mix up future playthroughs.
See you for the next title in what is one of my favorite series now. Hopefully X remake next?
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.
This review contains spoilers
Really insane that this is getting review bombed for having lesbian characters in it, considering the entire series has had LGBT characters and themes. That aside this is great, it's really fun if a bit short. Some of the best battles and areas in the series so far and honestly the final boss was so fantastic that I prefer to the ending of the main game as a whole. My only like real gripes are these:
1. As I said before I feel its lacking content, story and character development wise its great and better than Frozen Wilds even, setting up a bunch of stuff for the final game but there are very few sidequests and with the ability to fly you just don't explore the burning shores enough sadly.
2. There are some pretty major glitches, one common one prevents an entire sidequest from being completed.
I'm still very excited for the next game and had a simle on my face the whole time I played this.
1. As I said before I feel its lacking content, story and character development wise its great and better than Frozen Wilds even, setting up a bunch of stuff for the final game but there are very few sidequests and with the ability to fly you just don't explore the burning shores enough sadly.
2. There are some pretty major glitches, one common one prevents an entire sidequest from being completed.
I'm still very excited for the next game and had a simle on my face the whole time I played this.
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.
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!