Bio
It's dangerous to go alone - here's a lockpick.
IriidaV on all gaming platforms
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


Loved

Gained 100+ total review likes

GOTY '22

Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event

2 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years

Donor

Liked 50+ reviews / lists

On Schedule

Journaled games once a day for a week straight

Busy Day

Journaled 5+ games in a single day

Organized

Created a list folder with 5+ lists

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

GOTY '21

Participated in the 2021 Game of the Year Event

N00b

Played 100+ games

Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Favorite Games

Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus
Control
Control
NieR: Automata
NieR: Automata
Jak 3
Jak 3
Portal 2
Portal 2

232

Total Games Played

000

Played in 2024

213

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

Planet RIX-13
Planet RIX-13

Dec 04

Sonic Frontiers
Sonic Frontiers

Nov 13

Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition
Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition

Oct 11

Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited
Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited

Oct 06

Sonic and the Fallen Star
Sonic and the Fallen Star

Oct 02

Recently Reviewed See More

Played via GOG

Over the last holiday period I played Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag for the first time - despite me being a fan of the early titles near day one I've only recently decided to carry on beyond the Ezio games and my takeaways have been less than stellar. AC3 was a big, bold and dramatic ending to the original narrative and while it swung for the fences there were still plenty of minor issues dragging it back. Black Flag meanwhile sought to build off the worst parts of that game, giving us a ship mechanic that shoved the even further broken assassin gameplay to the side and a bloated slew of missions and story beats that barely coalesced at the end.

And so I came back to where my love for the franchise started and where I compare every successive game's quality. I won't pretend this game is perfect, but looking at this both as a point of comparison and in a vacuum it remains oh so easy to see why Assassin's Creed as a multimedia IP took off the way it did. You can claim this game is boring or bland or just too weird but take a moment to ignore the expectations, step back into 2007 where the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles promised so much to the gaming landscape and you might see something mysterious and magical.

I encourage you to go even further - turn off the HUD elements, the mini-map, everything cluttering your screen and just soak in the atmosphere. Each time you enter a new city or seek to explore new districts look out for the eagles, both visually and audibly. You'll find your viewpoints, you'll get to know the locations better and you'll find your missions without needing to open the map every 30 seconds. The gameplay loop feels so much less repetitive when you're not knowing what to expect to find or where to find it, even more so in the PC release with extra missions to pick from that aren't related to the eavesdrop/pickpocket/interrogate cycle you're sick of.

The atmosphere alone is so wholly unique too - a video-game based in the Crusades-era Holy Lands? What a brilliant idea, and yet one that remains so firmly unrealised in the medium. I can't imagine it's entirely an accurate depiction of the settings, but being surrounded by the languages, the accents and architectural styles you're certainly transported to a place resembling it all - if you can ignore Altair's North American accent that is.

Like I said, this game isn't perfect - combat can feel stiff and perhaps slow, despite the easy cheat method of equipping your hidden blade in fights and being able to counter at the last second for an instant kill on every enemy. Parkour can feel even more finicky despite the fact that apart from ACII this is the best the franchise ever feels in terms of control and player freedom for what to do and how to do it.

But the narrative - despite you being able to see certain beats coming a mile away - feels fully realised. I'm biased in that I love historical fiction with a conspiracy theory twist and the ideas this game raises is the perfect basis for worldbuilding a franchise, as we've seen.

Next I'll be playing Rogue, hopefully followed by Unity and Syndicate, alongside all the spin-off titles before properly jumping into the soft reboot with Origins. I love this franchise, despite spending dozens of hours in games I don't even really enjoy, but this game, the original, the first, is why I truly love it all in a weird twisted way.

Played via the Phantasy Reverie Series release on an Xbox Series X.

This was fun - I had no real idea what I was in for when starting this game but I had a great time with it. The art direction was stupendously adorable and the music was genuinely great. Sometimes later platforming challenges were mildly infuriating (especially the Extra stage at the end) but this was a solid little game with a very surprising narrative. Whilst the Phantasy Reverie Series release is a remaster of the Wii remake, it does feature the original PS1 audio replacing the Wii's dubs and to be honest I'm glad I experienced it this way since I can only imagine an actual language attached to this game would have ruined at least 50% of my immersion and emotional investment, especially during those last cutscenes.

I've never played a Klonoa game before but from what everyone's saying I made the worst possible choice in the history of mankind by playing this version first. The very simple reason I picked this up was because it was available - unfortunately publishers don't deem older releases viable to keep selling and since there's no way I'm paying $300+ for the original PS1 release this was the next best option. Do I agree with this method? Absolutely not, and it's debateable whether rereleasing older games with an artificial new coat of paint is really the best but I certainly don't regret my time with this release.

Played on an original Xbox 360.

If I could score Alan Wake based purely on its setting, narrative, amd over all vibes this would get 10s across the board from me - it's a wonder that outside of Remedy's experiments and Deadly Premonition the market of making a game influenced so heavily by Twin Peaks remains firmly untouched yet this game managed to ride those coattails whilst throwing in its own clever twists on those old ideas.

The gameplay is where Alan Wake falters however - it's not really bad persay but it's very basic and repetitive with not much in the way of keeping you engaged. I actually found it kind of comfy at first, the first few chapters go by on a Normal difficulty setting without much issue, leaving you in a chill state of wondering around, get enemies pointed out to you, react with flashlight and kill, rinse and repeat. The later chapters really only serve to point out how shallow that gameplay loop is though. You see a lot of cool environments with fun setpieces and cool story beats, but the combat gets a little tedious after a while and never truly feels "fun". The idea of staggering enemies with light a is a neat one but I'd hate to play on the higher difficulties with stronger enemies and less access to items as Normal felt more than balanced to me.

Overall I would recommend playing Alan Wake if for nothing else than to set yourself up for its terrific-looking sequel. It can be beat in just over 10 hours and while the gameplay can be a bit tedious later on, the tone and story Remedy set out to craft here is wonderfully unique and intriguing.