1092 Reviews liked by JohnPips
Persona 5 Royal
2019
I'm not a fan of turn based combat, so the fact that i still thoroughly enjoyed this is a testament to the quality of its very best offerings. I liked the characters, I liked the story, I liked the enemies.
While i can't say i like the combat, it manages to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of turn based combat. It's relatively quick, it's flashy, and It doesn't strong arm you into a single strategy. I do wish that it wouldn't force you to reload when Joker dies, however. That seems counter-intuitive to the rest of the combat.
While i can't say i like the combat, it manages to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of turn based combat. It's relatively quick, it's flashy, and It doesn't strong arm you into a single strategy. I do wish that it wouldn't force you to reload when Joker dies, however. That seems counter-intuitive to the rest of the combat.
Such an excellent narrative and the way it unfolds is excellent. It allows great freedom and seems to be brimming with replay value, which it probably won't take me that long to do. The characters are incredibly compelling, and the interactions with the different aspects of the protagonist's mind are magnificent.
Here we have a game I didn't really want to play in the past. It just never really interested me especially after playing the Rebirth version but I decided to do a very scruffed (aka using a lot of save states sorry...) playthrough of the game just to look at it.
Now I knew one thing going in, this game was hated immensely in the community. I've seen reviews like Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Formally known as Happy Video Game Nerd) and Jeremy Parish talk about the game both disliking it. There's also the many negative reviews of the game on GameFAQs and this site. There's even a page for this game on the Bad Game Hall of Fame website. While it's probably not the most hated game...actually what is the most hated game in this series? Is it Haunted Castle? Is it the MSX game? Is it this?? Actually it could be that one mobile game did anyone even play that? It looks pretty bad.
So this game is called Dracula Densetsu in Japan. It's interesting because the up and coming 3rd was called Akumajo Densetsu. Wonder what was with them wanting to use the word Legend for the title. Dracula Densetsu stars a completely new Belmont named Christopher Belmont. Though honestly you wouldn't even notice unless you looked it up. It's not even mentioned in the US release to my knowledge. Still regardless of his name, you'll be traveling through 4 levels and yes it's really only 4.
Christopher has very different physics to Simon which is to be expected as it is a Game Boy game. He is very heavy in this game and moves very slow. I've heard this was meant to be helpful with the screen when playing on the original hardware so I guess props to them if it was the intention. You can still whip and use sub-wait there are no subweapons?? Well that's pretty lame.
Now let me talk about something I've always never understood about this series. In many of the older games you could grab this item to upgrade your whip up to level 3. This mechanic is stupid because most of the time they give it to you early enough for you to never worry about a weak whip. Why even have this if most of the time I'm gonna use the best one anyway? This game tries to give this more of a purpose by making the level 3 really good like it gives you a projectile but now there's a catch. Each hit = a downgrade in level. Now look I can appreciate them trying to balance this but this ends up hurting the game more then helping it. I especially hate when the game eats my input from the frame drops and I get hit and it's just bye bye to that. I could see this working if it was more refined but it ends up being more annoying then anything for me.
Level design though actually can be fun at times. I find the choice to use ropes interesting. Stairs are usually hated in the Famicom games so I like the change and it brings new ideas to the levels. What I don't like though is the obsession of one tile platforming and platforms that fall when you land on them. They use this throughout the game and the worst part is it's so stressful. I always get too scared ill press the button too late and end up dying anyway. I think it's too strict personally. Though I'll give the game this, I do like how they least let you practice the one tile platforms near the end of stage 1 even if this section is hated by many.
Can I just say I love the idea of level 3. It's not much about fighting tough foes but instead fleeing from instant death spikes, it's perfect in striking fear with your slow running and climbing skills. You're constantly looking at them to see if you even have a chance of surviving. What could be a decent challenge for a platform character like Mario is now a huge challenge with a Belmont like Christopher. Though I do think the controls being not amazing hurt this level but I'd argue it's the best level in the game though I'm sure most would disagree with me. Also M2 why didn't you bring this back for Rebirth? Would have been perfect there...
I think another thing I appreciate is you can tell the team did want this to be a good effort. None of the levels feel like anything the previous games did and whether or not you dislike them doesn't mean they didn't try to give it an identity of it's own. Even most of the enemies and bosses are different giving this a feel of it's own. While there are bad parts to this game like I'm not a fan of stage 2 and especially some parts of stage 4, I'd rather take this then just the first game again but worse.
I think this game has limited continues but I kept trying to game over and it never seem to end so if anyone knows the answer to this let me know. Those bosses are also kind of weird now I think about it, especially the 2nd one. It feels like you're just fighting a lot of easy small enemies. They also poorly balance them out as they die really quick to a fully powered up whip. They even bring out the first boss three times in stage 4 which reminds me of the giant bat in stage 6 of the first game. The 2nd form of Dracula is hard btw, if there is an easy way of beating him then I don't know it. Though I eventually got a good pattern on him and then got awarded the ending which shows by the end that Dracula escape? Maybe that's for Dracula Densetsu II to continue with.
The music is soooo good in this game. I always love to gush over how Konami does music for their older games and this is no different. You really can't go wrong with any of it and it's probably the one thing everyone can agree is amazing. The visuals also don't look bad either with some good spritework and areas to appreciate. Man I miss when Konami did cool things.
Despite all of it's issues and how much people hate this game. I for some reason can't say it's bad. Don't get me wrong there are bad parts for Dracula Densetsu and some moments can feel fury inducing at times but for a team that probably lacked what they needed to make a great game I think they did an okish job at making it at least playable. I'm not a fan of this game but I admire the effort. It may not be a Legend for most but sometimes you just aren't destined to be loved.
Ok but like can we still talk about how Rebirth just barely takes from this game like why even base it off this game? Now I feel like I have to redo my review of that one now...but my Wii is in such poor shape nowadays. Surely hit a roadblock here..AH! I'm rambling here for no reason, bye for now!
Now I knew one thing going in, this game was hated immensely in the community. I've seen reviews like Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Formally known as Happy Video Game Nerd) and Jeremy Parish talk about the game both disliking it. There's also the many negative reviews of the game on GameFAQs and this site. There's even a page for this game on the Bad Game Hall of Fame website. While it's probably not the most hated game...actually what is the most hated game in this series? Is it Haunted Castle? Is it the MSX game? Is it this?? Actually it could be that one mobile game did anyone even play that? It looks pretty bad.
So this game is called Dracula Densetsu in Japan. It's interesting because the up and coming 3rd was called Akumajo Densetsu. Wonder what was with them wanting to use the word Legend for the title. Dracula Densetsu stars a completely new Belmont named Christopher Belmont. Though honestly you wouldn't even notice unless you looked it up. It's not even mentioned in the US release to my knowledge. Still regardless of his name, you'll be traveling through 4 levels and yes it's really only 4.
Christopher has very different physics to Simon which is to be expected as it is a Game Boy game. He is very heavy in this game and moves very slow. I've heard this was meant to be helpful with the screen when playing on the original hardware so I guess props to them if it was the intention. You can still whip and use sub-wait there are no subweapons?? Well that's pretty lame.
Now let me talk about something I've always never understood about this series. In many of the older games you could grab this item to upgrade your whip up to level 3. This mechanic is stupid because most of the time they give it to you early enough for you to never worry about a weak whip. Why even have this if most of the time I'm gonna use the best one anyway? This game tries to give this more of a purpose by making the level 3 really good like it gives you a projectile but now there's a catch. Each hit = a downgrade in level. Now look I can appreciate them trying to balance this but this ends up hurting the game more then helping it. I especially hate when the game eats my input from the frame drops and I get hit and it's just bye bye to that. I could see this working if it was more refined but it ends up being more annoying then anything for me.
Level design though actually can be fun at times. I find the choice to use ropes interesting. Stairs are usually hated in the Famicom games so I like the change and it brings new ideas to the levels. What I don't like though is the obsession of one tile platforming and platforms that fall when you land on them. They use this throughout the game and the worst part is it's so stressful. I always get too scared ill press the button too late and end up dying anyway. I think it's too strict personally. Though I'll give the game this, I do like how they least let you practice the one tile platforms near the end of stage 1 even if this section is hated by many.
Can I just say I love the idea of level 3. It's not much about fighting tough foes but instead fleeing from instant death spikes, it's perfect in striking fear with your slow running and climbing skills. You're constantly looking at them to see if you even have a chance of surviving. What could be a decent challenge for a platform character like Mario is now a huge challenge with a Belmont like Christopher. Though I do think the controls being not amazing hurt this level but I'd argue it's the best level in the game though I'm sure most would disagree with me. Also M2 why didn't you bring this back for Rebirth? Would have been perfect there...
I think another thing I appreciate is you can tell the team did want this to be a good effort. None of the levels feel like anything the previous games did and whether or not you dislike them doesn't mean they didn't try to give it an identity of it's own. Even most of the enemies and bosses are different giving this a feel of it's own. While there are bad parts to this game like I'm not a fan of stage 2 and especially some parts of stage 4, I'd rather take this then just the first game again but worse.
I think this game has limited continues but I kept trying to game over and it never seem to end so if anyone knows the answer to this let me know. Those bosses are also kind of weird now I think about it, especially the 2nd one. It feels like you're just fighting a lot of easy small enemies. They also poorly balance them out as they die really quick to a fully powered up whip. They even bring out the first boss three times in stage 4 which reminds me of the giant bat in stage 6 of the first game. The 2nd form of Dracula is hard btw, if there is an easy way of beating him then I don't know it. Though I eventually got a good pattern on him and then got awarded the ending which shows by the end that Dracula escape? Maybe that's for Dracula Densetsu II to continue with.
The music is soooo good in this game. I always love to gush over how Konami does music for their older games and this is no different. You really can't go wrong with any of it and it's probably the one thing everyone can agree is amazing. The visuals also don't look bad either with some good spritework and areas to appreciate. Man I miss when Konami did cool things.
Despite all of it's issues and how much people hate this game. I for some reason can't say it's bad. Don't get me wrong there are bad parts for Dracula Densetsu and some moments can feel fury inducing at times but for a team that probably lacked what they needed to make a great game I think they did an okish job at making it at least playable. I'm not a fan of this game but I admire the effort. It may not be a Legend for most but sometimes you just aren't destined to be loved.
Ok but like can we still talk about how Rebirth just barely takes from this game like why even base it off this game? Now I feel like I have to redo my review of that one now...but my Wii is in such poor shape nowadays. Surely hit a roadblock here..AH! I'm rambling here for no reason, bye for now!
Honestly not as broken as pokemon scarlet and violet
The Oregon Trail
1971
BRO A THIEF STOLE 9 OXES FROM ME. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE??!?
Pokémon Blue Version
1996
Nearly 25 years ago, a game about raising pocket monster friends made it's way overseas to spread joy to western countries.
25 years was a long time ago, it's crazy. I can't quite get over how long it's been, and here I am wearing my Toxtricity shirt that I bought off Pokémon Center last year. I've wondered if there would ever be a time where I would grow up, but to this day I just find the concept lame outside of the realm of maintaining legitimate responsibilities. If I wanna play monster catching games, put plushies on my shelves and collect pins to put on a cork board in my living room that's my own damn business and ain't hurting anyone. The person who judges is the weakest person in the room.
25 years ago was when I begged mom to buy the new hotness that had been spreading through my elementary school like a wave of Pokérus. I didn't get a lot of new games back then, we were in a particularly rough shape financially during that time due to reasons I don't feel comfortable sharing on a public website. It took a while, I watched the anime as it began airing on Kids WB and saw Pikachu was going to be in some game called "Super Smash Bros" on Nintendo 64. My hype couldn't really be contained, especially as I learned of other Pokémon from friends I was making at school thanks to all the commotion and seeing the trading cards getting passed around. Eventually though, while I was playing something at the game kiosk in the electronics section at Wal-Mart it happened...
"Hey, you wanna get that game?"
My eyes lit up like an Eevee, and before I knew it I was playing Blue on my purple Game Boy Color. I was a part of the Pokécrew at school for reals now, and soon thereafter a fanboyism began that would involve me asking for booster packs of trading cards at Blockbuster constantly as I was renting a game every several weeks or so. My favorite was Zapdos, I wish I knew where it was, no doubt lost to many moves that were a product of the thing I didn't wanna discuss in the last paragraph. I still have the Kangaskhan keychain from the line of Burger King toys at my shelf, the lone memory that still persists out in the open as my childhood cartridge of Blue is no longer with us anymore, the battery of which has long passed away with all of my childhood Pokémon friends along with it. No point in replacing it, it's not bringing them back. I'll always remember them.
You're probably asking why I'm boring you with this.
First gen is ripe full of bugs and glitches, some of which were topics of discussion among my schoolmates. Stories of some newly discovered Pokémon called "MissingNo", and people finding Safari Zone catches off the coast of Cinnabar Island. A random invisible PC in some hotel in Celadon, what's that all about? What happened to everyone's Hall of Fame after talking to the old guy in Viridian to get 255 Master Balls? For us it was just more reason to talk about these games.
First gen is an imbalanced mess, Psychics swept way too many typings due to the overabundance of Poison being slapped on everything and were only resisted by themselves, meanwhile Body Slam and pre-nerf Hyper Beam were a ridiculous pair of moves that made Tauros an absolute unit. We didn't really give a damn about that though, because we weren't really fighting each other much. We just liked talking about our favorite Pokémon, our favorite moments in the anime or what cards we recently pulled from our packs. I remember trading a Tangela spinning toy for someone's Venonat that did the same thing, it was a way for us to trade in real life without using the link cable, because almost none of us had that shit. If you had Alakazam, Machamp or Gengar in-game you were the coolest kid in the entire school.....or someone with a Gameshark, we passed around one of those a lot....
You could pull a laundry list of reasons for why you can't get into these games or why they're not that great, and you know what?
You're right.
I can't fault that, no game is perfect, nothing is. Plenty of you are without that burden of these feelings that I have to live with, and in ways I kinda envy that. The truth is, I just can't say anything terrible about these games, they've done way too much for me personally. When I think of Red or Blue, I don't just think about the games themselves, I think of the friends I made off of it, the anime, the Burger King toys, the trading cards, Pokémon Stadium, everything. I can't just ignore all of that which was a side-effect of these games making landfall during my years of playing a Game Boy Color in my mom's car as she blared Metallica's Load album.
The chiptunes, the funny sprites, the cool sound effects... all of that combined with the social aspect that allowed me to engage with so many that continues to this day, it's just way too much.
It made me happy, it made us all happy.
Does it make me weak to just accept my prison of nostalgia? Am I weak because of how easily my heart is warmed by the past? Personally, I feel stronger for admitting it all in the face of everyone. It's done, I'm ready to be the real me, and I'm ready to continue my journey with this franchise since the very beginning of it's story.
Let's make it 25 more years, let's fuckin' go.
25 years was a long time ago, it's crazy. I can't quite get over how long it's been, and here I am wearing my Toxtricity shirt that I bought off Pokémon Center last year. I've wondered if there would ever be a time where I would grow up, but to this day I just find the concept lame outside of the realm of maintaining legitimate responsibilities. If I wanna play monster catching games, put plushies on my shelves and collect pins to put on a cork board in my living room that's my own damn business and ain't hurting anyone. The person who judges is the weakest person in the room.
25 years ago was when I begged mom to buy the new hotness that had been spreading through my elementary school like a wave of Pokérus. I didn't get a lot of new games back then, we were in a particularly rough shape financially during that time due to reasons I don't feel comfortable sharing on a public website. It took a while, I watched the anime as it began airing on Kids WB and saw Pikachu was going to be in some game called "Super Smash Bros" on Nintendo 64. My hype couldn't really be contained, especially as I learned of other Pokémon from friends I was making at school thanks to all the commotion and seeing the trading cards getting passed around. Eventually though, while I was playing something at the game kiosk in the electronics section at Wal-Mart it happened...
"Hey, you wanna get that game?"
My eyes lit up like an Eevee, and before I knew it I was playing Blue on my purple Game Boy Color. I was a part of the Pokécrew at school for reals now, and soon thereafter a fanboyism began that would involve me asking for booster packs of trading cards at Blockbuster constantly as I was renting a game every several weeks or so. My favorite was Zapdos, I wish I knew where it was, no doubt lost to many moves that were a product of the thing I didn't wanna discuss in the last paragraph. I still have the Kangaskhan keychain from the line of Burger King toys at my shelf, the lone memory that still persists out in the open as my childhood cartridge of Blue is no longer with us anymore, the battery of which has long passed away with all of my childhood Pokémon friends along with it. No point in replacing it, it's not bringing them back. I'll always remember them.
You're probably asking why I'm boring you with this.
First gen is ripe full of bugs and glitches, some of which were topics of discussion among my schoolmates. Stories of some newly discovered Pokémon called "MissingNo", and people finding Safari Zone catches off the coast of Cinnabar Island. A random invisible PC in some hotel in Celadon, what's that all about? What happened to everyone's Hall of Fame after talking to the old guy in Viridian to get 255 Master Balls? For us it was just more reason to talk about these games.
First gen is an imbalanced mess, Psychics swept way too many typings due to the overabundance of Poison being slapped on everything and were only resisted by themselves, meanwhile Body Slam and pre-nerf Hyper Beam were a ridiculous pair of moves that made Tauros an absolute unit. We didn't really give a damn about that though, because we weren't really fighting each other much. We just liked talking about our favorite Pokémon, our favorite moments in the anime or what cards we recently pulled from our packs. I remember trading a Tangela spinning toy for someone's Venonat that did the same thing, it was a way for us to trade in real life without using the link cable, because almost none of us had that shit. If you had Alakazam, Machamp or Gengar in-game you were the coolest kid in the entire school.....or someone with a Gameshark, we passed around one of those a lot....
You could pull a laundry list of reasons for why you can't get into these games or why they're not that great, and you know what?
You're right.
I can't fault that, no game is perfect, nothing is. Plenty of you are without that burden of these feelings that I have to live with, and in ways I kinda envy that. The truth is, I just can't say anything terrible about these games, they've done way too much for me personally. When I think of Red or Blue, I don't just think about the games themselves, I think of the friends I made off of it, the anime, the Burger King toys, the trading cards, Pokémon Stadium, everything. I can't just ignore all of that which was a side-effect of these games making landfall during my years of playing a Game Boy Color in my mom's car as she blared Metallica's Load album.
The chiptunes, the funny sprites, the cool sound effects... all of that combined with the social aspect that allowed me to engage with so many that continues to this day, it's just way too much.
It made me happy, it made us all happy.
Does it make me weak to just accept my prison of nostalgia? Am I weak because of how easily my heart is warmed by the past? Personally, I feel stronger for admitting it all in the face of everyone. It's done, I'm ready to be the real me, and I'm ready to continue my journey with this franchise since the very beginning of it's story.
Let's make it 25 more years, let's fuckin' go.
Kirby's Dream Land
1992
This is one of those games I have wonderful memories with. I first played this one on the 3DS virtual console and I've replayed it so many times that I even use to speedrun it. I sadly don't remember my best practice run. Think it was like somewhere in the 13 minute mark which is not impressive for the record. Regardless of all that though I should stay objective here.
This game was a great landmark for HAL as the year before HAL was going bankrupt due to the failure of Metal Slader Glory and HyperZone in terms of sales. Though it wasn't total gloom as they were saved by Nintendo from going out completely. One of the first few games they made after this was this game and it would be such a hit, it was the best selling game in the series until Forgotten Land surpassed it.
Kirby's Dream Land is a simple game as it was designed to be fun for any casual or veteran gamers. You can inhale enemies to swallow or spit out enemies at other ones. You can even fly which can be pretty OP but it'll seem pretty boring if you just do it the whole game.
This game has a great flow to it that can really show how good the pacing is. There's never a dull moment with this one. It introduces some powers like the Sweet Potato that can let you do an endless supply of fast air puffs until the timer runs out and even superspicy curry to breath fire at enemies or blocks. There's also invincibility candy but it's sadly only used in Level 2.
This game also has bosses and they are weird in terms of difficulty as the progression of difficulty isn't really there for these. There's even a couple of mini bosses but they're all very easy. The final boss King Dedede not only has 10 hit points but makes for an engaging fight outside of when he doesn't want to stop inhaling.
Once you beat the game you unlock the extra game where enemies are tougher and can do more damage and bosses are tougher. Though some bosses are still too easy like the 2 in Bubbly Clouds. I'm not too big on the speed of some enemies because sadly Kirby can be a little inconsistent on reading your input at times. I swear sometimes he just doesn't do what I want at times though maybe it's a problem on my end. It's still not too challenging so don't worry about being frustrated. You'll unlock a config mode so you can impress no one for doing a one health and one life challenge.
The game looks pretty good for a Game Boy game. With some really good backgrounds and honestly creative level ideas. All the sprites express the personalities of each one pretty well and Kirby is well animated. Sadly the game does have slowdown at times. If you like fan stuff then you'll be happy to hear there's a hack that gives the game full color as there has never been a good substitute otherwise. Even the color mode on NSO is pretty flawed. The music is phenominal with some iconic arrangements. Who could forget stuff like Green Greens? Even for his first outing Kirby's developers knew how to do good stuff for the franchise.
Kirby's Dream Land while not perfect is an enjoyable romp through the whole game and is one that anyone should try out if the genre interests them. Sure many people would argue this game isn't worth playing due to stuff like copy abilities not existing yet but I say nay and go with my thoughts and recommend it to people. Certainly one of the highlights of the handheld and a nice welcome to a beloved Nintendo franchise.
This game was a great landmark for HAL as the year before HAL was going bankrupt due to the failure of Metal Slader Glory and HyperZone in terms of sales. Though it wasn't total gloom as they were saved by Nintendo from going out completely. One of the first few games they made after this was this game and it would be such a hit, it was the best selling game in the series until Forgotten Land surpassed it.
Kirby's Dream Land is a simple game as it was designed to be fun for any casual or veteran gamers. You can inhale enemies to swallow or spit out enemies at other ones. You can even fly which can be pretty OP but it'll seem pretty boring if you just do it the whole game.
This game has a great flow to it that can really show how good the pacing is. There's never a dull moment with this one. It introduces some powers like the Sweet Potato that can let you do an endless supply of fast air puffs until the timer runs out and even superspicy curry to breath fire at enemies or blocks. There's also invincibility candy but it's sadly only used in Level 2.
This game also has bosses and they are weird in terms of difficulty as the progression of difficulty isn't really there for these. There's even a couple of mini bosses but they're all very easy. The final boss King Dedede not only has 10 hit points but makes for an engaging fight outside of when he doesn't want to stop inhaling.
Once you beat the game you unlock the extra game where enemies are tougher and can do more damage and bosses are tougher. Though some bosses are still too easy like the 2 in Bubbly Clouds. I'm not too big on the speed of some enemies because sadly Kirby can be a little inconsistent on reading your input at times. I swear sometimes he just doesn't do what I want at times though maybe it's a problem on my end. It's still not too challenging so don't worry about being frustrated. You'll unlock a config mode so you can impress no one for doing a one health and one life challenge.
The game looks pretty good for a Game Boy game. With some really good backgrounds and honestly creative level ideas. All the sprites express the personalities of each one pretty well and Kirby is well animated. Sadly the game does have slowdown at times. If you like fan stuff then you'll be happy to hear there's a hack that gives the game full color as there has never been a good substitute otherwise. Even the color mode on NSO is pretty flawed. The music is phenominal with some iconic arrangements. Who could forget stuff like Green Greens? Even for his first outing Kirby's developers knew how to do good stuff for the franchise.
Kirby's Dream Land while not perfect is an enjoyable romp through the whole game and is one that anyone should try out if the genre interests them. Sure many people would argue this game isn't worth playing due to stuff like copy abilities not existing yet but I say nay and go with my thoughts and recommend it to people. Certainly one of the highlights of the handheld and a nice welcome to a beloved Nintendo franchise.
For the love of God, play Mary Skelter 2 before you play the Mary skelter remake. I beg you. Please. I am on my knees. It bothers my OCD too but it's the way it's intended to be played, so please, IM BEGGI
Kalinur
2022
A maior prova que o simples, quando bem feito, pode ser maravilhoso. Um metroidvania "caricato" no sentido de que não é inovador: história, mecânicas e estilo não são nada diferentes do já vimos antes em outros jogos, E TÁ TUDO BEM! O simples aqui é executado de maneira primorosa, otimizada, com uma trilha sonora muito viciante. O fato de ser brasileiro deu ainda um pouco mais de orgulho. Espero que o criador esteja colhendo os frutos das vendas na Steam depois de estarem pirateando um jogo que custa menos que 5 reais. Uma recomendação fácil para quem é fã de metroidvania como eu, e está à procura de um joguinho curto, bem "feijão com arroz" do estilo, mas um feijão com arroz muito do bem feito!
Em contraste ao primeiro, esse aí é um bucado mais longo, elaborado e com uma OST mais agradável aos ouvidos. Eu não diria que o jogo é mais bonito que o primeiro, só é bem menos abstrato e com um spritework mais encorpado.
Mecanicamente eu achei menos intuitivo que o primeiro, não tem Log até onde eu saiba, só tem 1 save slot (pra um jogo com tantos finais e tantos parametros, mais que 1 seria de grande ajuda) e a gimmick do point-click é... legal. Um ponto que enfatizo novamente é a OST, apesar de não ser uma composição muito concreta, encaixa perfeitamente com a atmosfera do jogo, há POUQUÍSSIMAS monótonas e há MUITAS trilhas maravilhosas, me vejo escutando no dia a dia.
Agora pra parte complicada. O que o primeiro jogo tem de objetivo esse aqui tem de prolixo. Ele é, de fato, bem mais elaborado, explora a psique da menina com muito mais detalhes, consegue cativar o jogador com o passado dela. Mas tudo isso a custo de dialogos absurdamente redundantes e dolorosos de ler. A garota é um pé no saco, se auto-sabota, leva você junto, te afunda nos próprios problemas mesquinhos. E sabe o pior? Eu me enxergo um pouco nela. Repito, se eu tivesse jogado isso na época que eu negligenciava remédios, afundava os outros nos meus próprios problemas, minha depressão estava a flor da pele, minha esquizofrenia no talo... talvez esse seria o jogo pra mim. Não só isso, como já estive do outro lado, ouvindo uma menina vomitar seus problemas encima de mim, e eu sendo levado junto. Hoje ela não faz mais parte da minha vida, e ironicamente, sinto que minha vida se tornou mais leve. Agora estou livre, livre do meu eu passado e de certas pessoas que me afundavam, e não consigo olhar pra esse jogo sem lembrar dessa época, vai ver é meu cérebro ficando arisco contra esse jogo como mecanismo de defesa. Mas tenho que dizer, parabéns ao jogo, é quase o mesmo sentimento que tenho com NHK, são narrativas extremamente competentes e fortes que tratam de temas pesados e pessoais, os quais são difíceis de se engolir se você se enxerga dentro dela.
Em suma, é uma experiência, tem vários finais e tals, é uma jornada curta porém significativa. Talvez eu revisite em algum outro período da minha vida, e eu espero muito que não seja quando eu estiver no fundo do poço.
Mecanicamente eu achei menos intuitivo que o primeiro, não tem Log até onde eu saiba, só tem 1 save slot (pra um jogo com tantos finais e tantos parametros, mais que 1 seria de grande ajuda) e a gimmick do point-click é... legal. Um ponto que enfatizo novamente é a OST, apesar de não ser uma composição muito concreta, encaixa perfeitamente com a atmosfera do jogo, há POUQUÍSSIMAS monótonas e há MUITAS trilhas maravilhosas, me vejo escutando no dia a dia.
Agora pra parte complicada. O que o primeiro jogo tem de objetivo esse aqui tem de prolixo. Ele é, de fato, bem mais elaborado, explora a psique da menina com muito mais detalhes, consegue cativar o jogador com o passado dela. Mas tudo isso a custo de dialogos absurdamente redundantes e dolorosos de ler. A garota é um pé no saco, se auto-sabota, leva você junto, te afunda nos próprios problemas mesquinhos. E sabe o pior? Eu me enxergo um pouco nela. Repito, se eu tivesse jogado isso na época que eu negligenciava remédios, afundava os outros nos meus próprios problemas, minha depressão estava a flor da pele, minha esquizofrenia no talo... talvez esse seria o jogo pra mim. Não só isso, como já estive do outro lado, ouvindo uma menina vomitar seus problemas encima de mim, e eu sendo levado junto. Hoje ela não faz mais parte da minha vida, e ironicamente, sinto que minha vida se tornou mais leve. Agora estou livre, livre do meu eu passado e de certas pessoas que me afundavam, e não consigo olhar pra esse jogo sem lembrar dessa época, vai ver é meu cérebro ficando arisco contra esse jogo como mecanismo de defesa. Mas tenho que dizer, parabéns ao jogo, é quase o mesmo sentimento que tenho com NHK, são narrativas extremamente competentes e fortes que tratam de temas pesados e pessoais, os quais são difíceis de se engolir se você se enxerga dentro dela.
Em suma, é uma experiência, tem vários finais e tals, é uma jornada curta porém significativa. Talvez eu revisite em algum outro período da minha vida, e eu espero muito que não seja quando eu estiver no fundo do poço.
With a substantial upgrade in scope and production value Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk brings greater clarity and specificity than its predecessor, both in terms of art and story, but winds up being a case where less is more. While at least one mystery from the first title remains, the focus of the horror is diluted and weakened by the added tedium created by the point-and-click adventure game format mixed with the visual novel hidden ending structure. Admittedly the different routes do a suitable job of furthering exploring a mentally ill mind, showcasing different ways that the protagonist’s thoughts can spiral, conjure disturbing imagery, and imagine horrible deaths. It’s just that it comes across as somewhat perfunctory since the original captured that quicker and more effectively, and it makes the franchise feel as though it is less than the sum of its parts. At least the art is really quite pretty this time around.
This review contains spoilers
When this game doesn't get in the way of itself, it can actually be a fun time.
Level design is all over the place, ranging from interesting exploration to headache-inducing platforming (including escape sequences). Fast travel is one point per area, but for vital items that you might have missed, enjoy traipsing ALL THE WAY back through areas. I know that shouldn't sound bad in a Metroidvania, but this game started to grate on me after a little while when it came to going back to explore stuff.
Bosses are varying levels of okay-to-bad, in some cases just based on whether you're in the second phase or not. There are several bosses with attacks that follow based on what side you're on, so even if they telegraph the move to give you an opportunity to react, rolling past them or jumping in the opposite direction they're facing just means you're going to take a hit on the other side of them because they 180 on a dime.
In the case of one boss, you have an NPC assisting you for parts of the fight and it felt like the boss had a larger health bar because of this. I don't know if that's actually the case or not, but the fight felt like a slog because the boss had homing projectile attacks that would only come after you and since you're doing about 90% of the damage for this fight, you spend a good portion of the fight at times just dodging instead of being able to take a swing while NPC occasionally gets in a single hit every thirty seconds or so.
Weapons/weapon skills are a mixed bag, because some skills are vital abilities needed to make progression in the game and in conjunction with your ability tree, sometimes create really awkward scenarios just because of the dev's design choice. One weapon has a secondary ability to shield you from inclement weather and other hazards and you're required to use it against a boss. You have an ability that lets you check the health of a boss by using your weapon skill to hit the boss. What happens when you're forced to use a weapon that just acts as a shield when you're next to a boss? You end up standing there next to a boss, probably looking like an idiot.
I'm not suggesting that ability (seeing boss HP) is particularly important or necessary, but there's lots of little design decisions that don't make a lot of sense like this. That same weapon I mentioned can protect you from a hazard as long as you have it up, but you can't jump while you're using it and there's an area where you have to navigate down while holding up said weapon and there's spikes on either side of some ledges you can land on. What do you do if you land on a ledge? Well, you stand there until you decide to take a lot of damage because you're going to have to eat the hazard, the spikes, or both in order to proceed further down. If you get to that area, you'll probably understand what I mean, because I promise I'm making it sound way less annoying than it is if you have even a passing interest in getting secrets and exploring rooms.
Design rant incoming:
I think the most criminal design moment is the first (yes, there's two!) escape sequence you find around the halfway point in the game. You get about a half-screen's worth of distance from the boss the whole time and the sequence is probably somewhere around 90 seconds of precision platforming. Since your character has the ability to switch between their normal form and their companion's form (that of a giant frog that can use some gate-smashing abilities), you learn quickly (by dying) that you need to be in frog form to start the run.
When you get to the point where you need to use the frog's ability, you have to wait an extra moment longer than you think you do to use the ability. This is because the ability is tied to the same button as the roll / air-dash command and the prompt that shows up when you're in range of using said ability doesn't cause the ability to become active. You actually have to stop in order to activate it, THEN you can get things moving again.
You keep platforming and work your way further over and find another gated section your frog has to smash through in a different way. It's a charge-up move, so you need to stick the landing and set it up quickly because it takes a bit of time to get going. There is an ability on your ability tree that shortens charge time for frog's moves, but we'll come back to why this mostly doesn't matter shortly.
Assuming you get through all that, you think you're probably home free, so you do a bit more platforming (or just eating damage so you can use I-Frames to exploit air dashing and ignore some of the platforming), and reach a ledge. You can see another ledge on the other side, so you do what you know and jump/air-dash across to the other side from the ledge...and die because you were expected to fire a projectile past the edge of the screen that you could see to hit a lever to bring that platform over to the other side so you could clear a particular jump over there in order to keep going.
So, you rinse and repeat all this until the platforming goes right. Or quit the game. Because even though you have save checkpoints throughout the game, the developer of this game thought you should start right from this boss escape sequence over and over until you got it right. I mentioned that the charge time reduction ability wasn't really relevant, and this is largely why -- if you didn't purchase it before this point, you're definitely not purchasing it now. Since slight goofs bring the boss about 33% closer to you in each instance, it takes very little in the way of mistakes to have to restart the fight. I could easily see people giving up on the game during that fight because I already wasn't having a good time and mostly just wanted to play to see the end of the game instead of because I was enjoying myself.
End of design rant...or is it?
The next area of the game, you get a double jump ability. Use it by jumping in the air and then jumping again. Simple enough, right? It even has a sound cue to indicate the second jump happened. And this is where I think what should be a quality one would appreciate might exist because there was an issue with coding.
Your abilities you gain in each area get a lot of workout from them to make you feel like you're getting the most out of them. This particular area that requires double jumping has A LOT of platforms and wall jumping to navigate around. The problem is, sometimes you jump once and you suddenly hear the double jump sound. Lo and behold, you press the jump button again and nothing happens! Kinda makes me wonder if the sound cue was added in because something was wrong with the double jump and they wanted you to hear the cue so you could make a manual adjustment on the fly -- which I had to do probably several dozen times over the course of the next two areas.
TRUE end of design rant.
Beyond that, lots of little dialogue mistakes (mostly misspellings, but one particular story scene they refer to the character as "she", but then instruct someone multiple times to keep an eye on "him") and some impressive screen tearing in certain areas.
Soundtrack is okay, regular enemies are mostly fine. The one shining element of the game is that there's a lot of dialogue you can access if you really want to seek it out by going back and talking to the usual NPCs each time you make progress to a new area. Story's nothing to write home about, but they did do a solid job trying to establish some worldbuilding, so kudos for that, and it's largely why I give this two stars.
I quit at 70% area completion according to the game and I don't really see an interest in carrying on. It's not that I couldn't -- I just got tired of fighting the game and weird design decisions that made the experience less fluid than it should have been. I think it says something that I was looking at someone's map they made to make sure I didn't miss out on secrets, only to find out that -- in regards to the second sequence -- they quite literally mention that you shouldn't attempt the second sequence if you're in a bad mood and not having a good time trying to handle the controls. OOF.
Get it on deep sale, or get it in the Humble Monthly Bundle like I did. Not the worst Metroidvania, but it really tried to shoot itself in the foot with a rocket launcher.
Level design is all over the place, ranging from interesting exploration to headache-inducing platforming (including escape sequences). Fast travel is one point per area, but for vital items that you might have missed, enjoy traipsing ALL THE WAY back through areas. I know that shouldn't sound bad in a Metroidvania, but this game started to grate on me after a little while when it came to going back to explore stuff.
Bosses are varying levels of okay-to-bad, in some cases just based on whether you're in the second phase or not. There are several bosses with attacks that follow based on what side you're on, so even if they telegraph the move to give you an opportunity to react, rolling past them or jumping in the opposite direction they're facing just means you're going to take a hit on the other side of them because they 180 on a dime.
In the case of one boss, you have an NPC assisting you for parts of the fight and it felt like the boss had a larger health bar because of this. I don't know if that's actually the case or not, but the fight felt like a slog because the boss had homing projectile attacks that would only come after you and since you're doing about 90% of the damage for this fight, you spend a good portion of the fight at times just dodging instead of being able to take a swing while NPC occasionally gets in a single hit every thirty seconds or so.
Weapons/weapon skills are a mixed bag, because some skills are vital abilities needed to make progression in the game and in conjunction with your ability tree, sometimes create really awkward scenarios just because of the dev's design choice. One weapon has a secondary ability to shield you from inclement weather and other hazards and you're required to use it against a boss. You have an ability that lets you check the health of a boss by using your weapon skill to hit the boss. What happens when you're forced to use a weapon that just acts as a shield when you're next to a boss? You end up standing there next to a boss, probably looking like an idiot.
I'm not suggesting that ability (seeing boss HP) is particularly important or necessary, but there's lots of little design decisions that don't make a lot of sense like this. That same weapon I mentioned can protect you from a hazard as long as you have it up, but you can't jump while you're using it and there's an area where you have to navigate down while holding up said weapon and there's spikes on either side of some ledges you can land on. What do you do if you land on a ledge? Well, you stand there until you decide to take a lot of damage because you're going to have to eat the hazard, the spikes, or both in order to proceed further down. If you get to that area, you'll probably understand what I mean, because I promise I'm making it sound way less annoying than it is if you have even a passing interest in getting secrets and exploring rooms.
Design rant incoming:
I think the most criminal design moment is the first (yes, there's two!) escape sequence you find around the halfway point in the game. You get about a half-screen's worth of distance from the boss the whole time and the sequence is probably somewhere around 90 seconds of precision platforming. Since your character has the ability to switch between their normal form and their companion's form (that of a giant frog that can use some gate-smashing abilities), you learn quickly (by dying) that you need to be in frog form to start the run.
When you get to the point where you need to use the frog's ability, you have to wait an extra moment longer than you think you do to use the ability. This is because the ability is tied to the same button as the roll / air-dash command and the prompt that shows up when you're in range of using said ability doesn't cause the ability to become active. You actually have to stop in order to activate it, THEN you can get things moving again.
You keep platforming and work your way further over and find another gated section your frog has to smash through in a different way. It's a charge-up move, so you need to stick the landing and set it up quickly because it takes a bit of time to get going. There is an ability on your ability tree that shortens charge time for frog's moves, but we'll come back to why this mostly doesn't matter shortly.
Assuming you get through all that, you think you're probably home free, so you do a bit more platforming (or just eating damage so you can use I-Frames to exploit air dashing and ignore some of the platforming), and reach a ledge. You can see another ledge on the other side, so you do what you know and jump/air-dash across to the other side from the ledge...and die because you were expected to fire a projectile past the edge of the screen that you could see to hit a lever to bring that platform over to the other side so you could clear a particular jump over there in order to keep going.
So, you rinse and repeat all this until the platforming goes right. Or quit the game. Because even though you have save checkpoints throughout the game, the developer of this game thought you should start right from this boss escape sequence over and over until you got it right. I mentioned that the charge time reduction ability wasn't really relevant, and this is largely why -- if you didn't purchase it before this point, you're definitely not purchasing it now. Since slight goofs bring the boss about 33% closer to you in each instance, it takes very little in the way of mistakes to have to restart the fight. I could easily see people giving up on the game during that fight because I already wasn't having a good time and mostly just wanted to play to see the end of the game instead of because I was enjoying myself.
End of design rant...or is it?
The next area of the game, you get a double jump ability. Use it by jumping in the air and then jumping again. Simple enough, right? It even has a sound cue to indicate the second jump happened. And this is where I think what should be a quality one would appreciate might exist because there was an issue with coding.
Your abilities you gain in each area get a lot of workout from them to make you feel like you're getting the most out of them. This particular area that requires double jumping has A LOT of platforms and wall jumping to navigate around. The problem is, sometimes you jump once and you suddenly hear the double jump sound. Lo and behold, you press the jump button again and nothing happens! Kinda makes me wonder if the sound cue was added in because something was wrong with the double jump and they wanted you to hear the cue so you could make a manual adjustment on the fly -- which I had to do probably several dozen times over the course of the next two areas.
TRUE end of design rant.
Beyond that, lots of little dialogue mistakes (mostly misspellings, but one particular story scene they refer to the character as "she", but then instruct someone multiple times to keep an eye on "him") and some impressive screen tearing in certain areas.
Soundtrack is okay, regular enemies are mostly fine. The one shining element of the game is that there's a lot of dialogue you can access if you really want to seek it out by going back and talking to the usual NPCs each time you make progress to a new area. Story's nothing to write home about, but they did do a solid job trying to establish some worldbuilding, so kudos for that, and it's largely why I give this two stars.
I quit at 70% area completion according to the game and I don't really see an interest in carrying on. It's not that I couldn't -- I just got tired of fighting the game and weird design decisions that made the experience less fluid than it should have been. I think it says something that I was looking at someone's map they made to make sure I didn't miss out on secrets, only to find out that -- in regards to the second sequence -- they quite literally mention that you shouldn't attempt the second sequence if you're in a bad mood and not having a good time trying to handle the controls. OOF.
Get it on deep sale, or get it in the Humble Monthly Bundle like I did. Not the worst Metroidvania, but it really tried to shoot itself in the foot with a rocket launcher.
Kirby's Dream Land
1992
yeah it sure is the first Kirby game haha
Reed Remastered
2020
Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below (Easy Platinum)
Played on PS VITA. Reed Remastered is everything you expect from a Ratalaika game. Short levels, one objective (find the one cube to open the exit) and avoid obstacles. These simple platformers are just quick fun but one that you will tire with quickly.
Trophies
Difficulty: 2/10
Time: 45 Minutes
Trophy Guide: Not Needed
Trophy List Score: 6/10
Another straightforward trophy run. Just play the first 40 levels (none should take you more than 30 seconds to beat), die once by a chicken and find the secret (not so secret) dude in level 19.
Happy Trophy Hunting!
Played on PS VITA. Reed Remastered is everything you expect from a Ratalaika game. Short levels, one objective (find the one cube to open the exit) and avoid obstacles. These simple platformers are just quick fun but one that you will tire with quickly.
Trophies
Difficulty: 2/10
Time: 45 Minutes
Trophy Guide: Not Needed
Trophy List Score: 6/10
Another straightforward trophy run. Just play the first 40 levels (none should take you more than 30 seconds to beat), die once by a chicken and find the secret (not so secret) dude in level 19.
Happy Trophy Hunting!
AI Dungeon
2019
I use this for porn