JimTheSchoolGirl
Just had an urge to go through this again, for the first time in years, and it's still mostly good! Some handholding and crappy bosses maybe, but IIRC nowhere near as egregious as in Fusion...maybe I should play that again to check.
Something I love about strategy games, which seems to be getting rarer, is the buffer to make mistakes. You take a risk, things don't go to plan, you pull back and reassess. Maybe you get it right next time, maybe you get it even more wrong. Either way though, the game continues.
I remember falling out of love with Fire Emblem when I started to see each stage as not a battle to be fought but a puzzle to be solved. If you lose it's THE END OF THE WORLD, which might make sense narratively but rubs me up the wrong way. XCOM games, all the way back to the OG, allow you to fail, and then it's up to you to keep fighting using whatever you have left. This straight up fascinates me as a gameplay mechanic, battling back against both a superior foe AND your own mistakes. Trial and error but without the precise repetition that leads to stagnation.
This game in particular runs like ass, the clunky narrative content often occurs out of sequence, and the end is a limp anticlimax
BUT
To play, it is a precision brain-itch-scratching instrument. The strategy layer feels like a boardgame, trying to cram in as many decisions and actions as possible before some kind of antagonistic event happens. The missions start simple enough, but evolve into wonderful Goldberg machines where super soldiers use skills and synergy to unleash ambushes that wipe out half of the enemy in a single turn. It's all immensely satisfying, and as I finally finish it I find myself wanting more.
There isn't much more though really. Like every one of these games, I feel like I've rinsed it now. The meagre selection of gameplay modifiers isn't going to change the experience enough for me to go another round. And so I'm back to looking for something else to scratch that particular itch, knowing deep down (until XCOM 3 becomes a thing) there's nothing around that can quite reach it.
Stopgap suggestions welcome.
I remember falling out of love with Fire Emblem when I started to see each stage as not a battle to be fought but a puzzle to be solved. If you lose it's THE END OF THE WORLD, which might make sense narratively but rubs me up the wrong way. XCOM games, all the way back to the OG, allow you to fail, and then it's up to you to keep fighting using whatever you have left. This straight up fascinates me as a gameplay mechanic, battling back against both a superior foe AND your own mistakes. Trial and error but without the precise repetition that leads to stagnation.
This game in particular runs like ass, the clunky narrative content often occurs out of sequence, and the end is a limp anticlimax
BUT
To play, it is a precision brain-itch-scratching instrument. The strategy layer feels like a boardgame, trying to cram in as many decisions and actions as possible before some kind of antagonistic event happens. The missions start simple enough, but evolve into wonderful Goldberg machines where super soldiers use skills and synergy to unleash ambushes that wipe out half of the enemy in a single turn. It's all immensely satisfying, and as I finally finish it I find myself wanting more.
There isn't much more though really. Like every one of these games, I feel like I've rinsed it now. The meagre selection of gameplay modifiers isn't going to change the experience enough for me to go another round. And so I'm back to looking for something else to scratch that particular itch, knowing deep down (until XCOM 3 becomes a thing) there's nothing around that can quite reach it.
Stopgap suggestions welcome.
no doubt somebody's cup of tea, but to me it's a big jumbly mess
2020
Finally, an indie puzzle game without american monologues. Thank you.
what
What
WHAT
ugh
What
WHAT
ugh
My first Animal Crossing. It'd never been on my radar before, but I had a lovely lovely time with this, running a town and going shopping and hanging out. My crowning achievement was squeezing the words "Lou Reed memorial orchard" onto a custom sign in front of all my fruit trees.
I wasn't that fussed about most of the villagers, but I really clicked with Moe. We'd drop by each other's houses and chat about music and games and write weird letters to each other. He was a good pal.
Eventually I spent less and less time there, because I remembered there are other games, and one day I went back to find Moe had left. I realised I didn't know any of the other villagers, and it felt like the magic had gone, so I nuked the town rather than cling on to it. I think that's how you win the game.
I wasn't that fussed about most of the villagers, but I really clicked with Moe. We'd drop by each other's houses and chat about music and games and write weird letters to each other. He was a good pal.
Eventually I spent less and less time there, because I remembered there are other games, and one day I went back to find Moe had left. I realised I didn't know any of the other villagers, and it felt like the magic had gone, so I nuked the town rather than cling on to it. I think that's how you win the game.
2018
If you absolutely do not have any way to play Muramasa, still don't play this, play ICEY instead
2018
By all accounts there's something great here, but I just can't be doing with crafting, it does absolutely nothing for me. Gutted.
2009
Picked this up cheap only having a vague idea of what it was, had a blast until I got stuck on Tower Knight, looked up how the multiplayer worked and read an article that said the servers were shutting down in a month. Disappointed I'd be getting a lesser experience, I sacked it off and bought Dark Souls.
After Dark Souls, I thought I'd try this again, and found the servers were still going. I had an incredible time with it, the dreamy atmosphere sucked me right in, and I cheesed my way through the whole thing without ever gitting gud because that's how I reckon I would do it if it was real.
I'll play the remake when there's a GOTY edition on a PS5 Slim.
After Dark Souls, I thought I'd try this again, and found the servers were still going. I had an incredible time with it, the dreamy atmosphere sucked me right in, and I cheesed my way through the whole thing without ever gitting gud because that's how I reckon I would do it if it was real.
I'll play the remake when there's a GOTY edition on a PS5 Slim.
2022
A very nice-looking soulsy puzzly roguelike, but they forgot to make the combat satisfying, and they forgot to put in actual puzzles, and it's a roguelike.
2023
Back in the day when I had a big tower PC on a corner shelving unit in my room, bed to my left and combi VHS TV to my right, I'd have loved this.
Capcom and Nintendo saw me coming a mile off. MH4U edition New 3DS? Yes please.
The earlier otherworldliness of MH3 had worn off, but now I felt like a veteran, barging through the dull early hours and quickly getting to the good stuff, paying attention to systems I'd overlooked before. I really enjoyed the expeditions and the palico games and the rare weapons, a nice satisfying cycle.
Barely remember multiplayer, must've not been in the mood.
The earlier otherworldliness of MH3 had worn off, but now I felt like a veteran, barging through the dull early hours and quickly getting to the good stuff, paying attention to systems I'd overlooked before. I really enjoyed the expeditions and the palico games and the rare weapons, a nice satisfying cycle.
Barely remember multiplayer, must've not been in the mood.
2007
Still a perfect experience
Haven't played anything this mechanically cursed since Castlevania The Adventure https://www.backloggd.com/u/JimTheSchoolGirl/review/160857/
2022
I'm clearly completely ignorant of whatever this is trying to conjure, because I'm getting nothing here.
If anything, I feel like it's not abstract enough? A humanoid, running and jumping and locking-on and shooting, just seems like a pretty mundane way to interact with these spaces.
Go play Car Quest instead.
If anything, I feel like it's not abstract enough? A humanoid, running and jumping and locking-on and shooting, just seems like a pretty mundane way to interact with these spaces.
Go play Car Quest instead.