KvAdam
I would probably never have played this if the sequel hadn’t received so many positive reviews. I admit, I got curious, but first I wanted to give this shorter prequel a try, to get a feel for the series, especially the combat system, as I’m not very good at this active/metroidvania style of gameplay.
Well, now that I’m done, I have mixed feelings, but mostly negative ones, I’m afraid. The graphics and soundtrack are nice, in my opinion. I really like this “2.5D” approach with 3D environments and the 2D, pixel-art characters, I think it looks gorgeous, and the music is OK, too (don’t expect any voiced texts, though). Also, the story is… hm, fine, I guess? There wasn’t really anything memorable in it, no huge twists, but it served its purpose, more or less. The characters, however, including the protagonists, are quite bland, if you ask me (except for Garoo – I mean, come on, he’s a cool, one-eyed kangaroo mercenary with a giant sword as his weapon, you simply can’t get more badass than that!).
Focusing only on the main questline, it’s surprisingly short for a JRPG. That said, if you’re a completionist like me, and want to get the max level weapons and armours, well, then get ready for an insane amount of side-quests. I’m not kidding, you can finish the game in about 10-15 hours, and you’ll have to spend half, or probably even more of this time doing extremely boring, repetitive side-quests. “Go there and talk to this person”, “go there and get x amount of this”, stuff like that. And I swear, the quest-givers kept asking for the same two or three resources all the time! Always that stupid hardwood lumber and high-purity ore, God… I must admit, after a few hours I just simply skipped all the dialogues involving side-quests, I lost all my patience for them.
I don’t think I’ll start Hundred Heroes anytime soon, even if it’s much better. I’ve had enough of this world for a while.
Well, now that I’m done, I have mixed feelings, but mostly negative ones, I’m afraid. The graphics and soundtrack are nice, in my opinion. I really like this “2.5D” approach with 3D environments and the 2D, pixel-art characters, I think it looks gorgeous, and the music is OK, too (don’t expect any voiced texts, though). Also, the story is… hm, fine, I guess? There wasn’t really anything memorable in it, no huge twists, but it served its purpose, more or less. The characters, however, including the protagonists, are quite bland, if you ask me (except for Garoo – I mean, come on, he’s a cool, one-eyed kangaroo mercenary with a giant sword as his weapon, you simply can’t get more badass than that!).
Focusing only on the main questline, it’s surprisingly short for a JRPG. That said, if you’re a completionist like me, and want to get the max level weapons and armours, well, then get ready for an insane amount of side-quests. I’m not kidding, you can finish the game in about 10-15 hours, and you’ll have to spend half, or probably even more of this time doing extremely boring, repetitive side-quests. “Go there and talk to this person”, “go there and get x amount of this”, stuff like that. And I swear, the quest-givers kept asking for the same two or three resources all the time! Always that stupid hardwood lumber and high-purity ore, God… I must admit, after a few hours I just simply skipped all the dialogues involving side-quests, I lost all my patience for them.
I don’t think I’ll start Hundred Heroes anytime soon, even if it’s much better. I’ve had enough of this world for a while.
Well, this was definitely more fun for me than Echoes of the Fallen, mainly because it was more story-oriented. We get new characters, a number of new locations, new collectibles, new side-quests, and a bunch of new moves for Clive. There’s also the epic Leviathan boss battle, which is just as spectacular and action-packed as the other Eikon battles in the main game. Ah, and there’s even some additional bonus content, like a new roguelike multi-stage battle mode – which was not for me at all, but I’m sure many of you will love it.
I’d say this DLC is a nice farewell to the game as a whole, and it’s worth checking it out as there’s a lot of content here (nowhere near as much as in, for instance, Burning Shores or Phantom Liberty, though, mind you). I still don’t like the whole action-focused direction, I must admit, so I guess I’ll stick to more “oldschool-like” FF titles for the time being.
I’d say this DLC is a nice farewell to the game as a whole, and it’s worth checking it out as there’s a lot of content here (nowhere near as much as in, for instance, Burning Shores or Phantom Liberty, though, mind you). I still don’t like the whole action-focused direction, I must admit, so I guess I’ll stick to more “oldschool-like” FF titles for the time being.
2024
The artistic value of this one is undeniable. This is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played, and it’s incredible how much work and love the developers put into all the handcrafted assets, with all the characters, props and sets genuinely sculpted and painted. Seriously, they have my deepest respect. But is it fun playing it?
Well… I definitely wouldn’t call this the revival of LucasArts-like adventure games, no matter how much charm it has. It’s more like a really long, interactive stop-motion movie, with only some minimal gameplay elements, like “go there, talk to this person, then come back here”, stuff like that, so expect lots and lots of running around and, of course, even more talking. There aren’t even any puzzles to solve, someone always points you in the right direction. The story is interesting, though, and so are all the eccentric characters the protagonist meets during his journey of self-discovery. Even though there are some really funny moments, I wouldn’t call this a comedy… Let’s go with dramedy, I’d say, with a heavier emphasis on drama.
Harold has quite a lot of psychological issues he has to work through, like how he feels detached from society, his inferiority complex, his recent break-up, and that, in general, he can’t find his place and purpose anywhere. He’s not just physically trapped in a spaceship, but also metaphorically, and thus, a kind of melancholic, bittersweet, sometimes even depressing mood hangs over the plot all the time. The underwater setting and the strange atmosphere reminded me of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, if you’re familiar with it, you can expect something like that with a bit less humour.
Anyway, if you don’t mind that you get hardly any gameplay beyond running around, and watching many, many lengthy cutscenes, give this one a try. As I mentioned, it’s a delight to look at it, no question about that.
Well… I definitely wouldn’t call this the revival of LucasArts-like adventure games, no matter how much charm it has. It’s more like a really long, interactive stop-motion movie, with only some minimal gameplay elements, like “go there, talk to this person, then come back here”, stuff like that, so expect lots and lots of running around and, of course, even more talking. There aren’t even any puzzles to solve, someone always points you in the right direction. The story is interesting, though, and so are all the eccentric characters the protagonist meets during his journey of self-discovery. Even though there are some really funny moments, I wouldn’t call this a comedy… Let’s go with dramedy, I’d say, with a heavier emphasis on drama.
Harold has quite a lot of psychological issues he has to work through, like how he feels detached from society, his inferiority complex, his recent break-up, and that, in general, he can’t find his place and purpose anywhere. He’s not just physically trapped in a spaceship, but also metaphorically, and thus, a kind of melancholic, bittersweet, sometimes even depressing mood hangs over the plot all the time. The underwater setting and the strange atmosphere reminded me of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, if you’re familiar with it, you can expect something like that with a bit less humour.
Anyway, if you don’t mind that you get hardly any gameplay beyond running around, and watching many, many lengthy cutscenes, give this one a try. As I mentioned, it’s a delight to look at it, no question about that.
I have to admit, this was much scarier than I thought it would be – at least the first 2-3 runs, till I collected everything. Then all the following playthroughs were more of a chore than fun, unfortunately. True, if you’re only after all the endings, it’s enough if you finish the game “only” 9 times (plus one death), but if you want to complete the endings collection, on all five difficulty levels, then you’re in for a lot of grinding, let me tell you that. Honestly, I’m not sure who’s crazier – the one who came up with the idea of giving an achievement for all these, 20-25+ playthroughs (or 40+ without strategic saves), or the ones, like me, who decide to rise up to this insane challenge.
Anyway, the crazy amount of playthroughs aside, this is a solid survival horror entry in my opinion. It’s quite short, but really intense all the way till the end, with some terrifying jumpscares, truly unsettling ghost designs, and a spot-on, disturbing atmosphere. The location is one of the most common settings in Asian horror titles: a spooky high school at night, like in The Coma or Death Mark II, but in a 3D first-person view. I’m not familiar with the original version and how much of it was improved, but this remake looked quite nice, if you ask me, especially the shadows and lights, although it was nothing groundbreaking. The characters were OK, too, with some surprisingly detailed facial animations (although their arms seemed somehow off, I think they were a bit longer than they should have been). And the sound effects were amazing: the various noises like flickering lights, the rain outside, steps in the distance, something crawling near you, someone wheezing and crying somewhere, and, of course, the mumblings and keychains of the janitors… They’re all creepy as hell.
The gameplay was fine, but I’d recommend playing with a keyboard and mouse, as quite often you need quick but precise movements which are a bit more difficult with a controller. The timed events and boss fights can be quite challenging, especially on higher difficulty levels, and when the janitors are around you always need to switch into stealth mode, being extra careful and patient. There are also some complex puzzles here and there, so be prepared. As for the story, it’s a bit meh, nothing special, and there are a few plot holes in it which never get explained (or at least, I didn’t find an explanation for them). English localization was not bad, although there were some instances where the subtitles and audio had different translations.
All in all, as long as you’re not aiming for completing the endings collection, I can recommend this if you like similar entries, but yeah, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Anyway, the crazy amount of playthroughs aside, this is a solid survival horror entry in my opinion. It’s quite short, but really intense all the way till the end, with some terrifying jumpscares, truly unsettling ghost designs, and a spot-on, disturbing atmosphere. The location is one of the most common settings in Asian horror titles: a spooky high school at night, like in The Coma or Death Mark II, but in a 3D first-person view. I’m not familiar with the original version and how much of it was improved, but this remake looked quite nice, if you ask me, especially the shadows and lights, although it was nothing groundbreaking. The characters were OK, too, with some surprisingly detailed facial animations (although their arms seemed somehow off, I think they were a bit longer than they should have been). And the sound effects were amazing: the various noises like flickering lights, the rain outside, steps in the distance, something crawling near you, someone wheezing and crying somewhere, and, of course, the mumblings and keychains of the janitors… They’re all creepy as hell.
The gameplay was fine, but I’d recommend playing with a keyboard and mouse, as quite often you need quick but precise movements which are a bit more difficult with a controller. The timed events and boss fights can be quite challenging, especially on higher difficulty levels, and when the janitors are around you always need to switch into stealth mode, being extra careful and patient. There are also some complex puzzles here and there, so be prepared. As for the story, it’s a bit meh, nothing special, and there are a few plot holes in it which never get explained (or at least, I didn’t find an explanation for them). English localization was not bad, although there were some instances where the subtitles and audio had different translations.
All in all, as long as you’re not aiming for completing the endings collection, I can recommend this if you like similar entries, but yeah, it’s not for the faint of heart.
2019
Not much to say about this one. It wasn’t that good, but I definitely wouldn’t call it bad, either. It has heart, and a very important message, dealing with heavy, real-life issues affecting many families. Unfortunately, the gameplay is quite meh with some very easy puzzles, clunky controls and a few terrible camera angles.
What else is here…? Some smaller glitches here and there, nothing too major, average graphics, and terrible English voice acting. Really, really short, though. Might be worth your time if you’re into platformers that have a good enough story.
What else is here…? Some smaller glitches here and there, nothing too major, average graphics, and terrible English voice acting. Really, really short, though. Might be worth your time if you’re into platformers that have a good enough story.
Welp, that was a huge waste of time! I honestly didn’t expect much from this game, but it still managed to disappoint me, which is quite an achievement in itself… The whole story takes place in the same house with only a few rooms, and, as the title suggests, you’re in a time loop the whole time, which means doing the same things over and over again, and, if you’re lucky, after lots of trial and error you can move the plot forward a bit… only to die again and start over. The four characters are pretty bland, your generic anime archetypes, and the gameplay is basically a mixture of visual novel and pixel-art sequences, with some occasional, animated CGs, containing at least one panty shot. Because, yeah, you need those, no matter what, even if red blood is not OK, so they colored it pink like in the Danganronpa series (I should have played the PC version, I guess, if I’m not mistaken, you have the option to change the blood color to red there). The whole thing is really short, and let me tell you, there’s absolutely no logic behind why and when some events happen. Sometimes you have to keep looking at random objects just to get a dialogue, the killer stops chasing you if they find a fluffy toy on the ground, you can walk around the house in almost complete safety until you start examining things… Meh. Go and watch Happy Death Day if you want something similar, you’ll have much more fun with that.
2017
I think this is one of those games where less would have been more. This could have been great as either an extremely atmospheric walking simulator with an interesting, supernatural mystery at its core, or as a detective adventure with some light puzzles and collecting clues as the main gameplay elements. Instead, it wanted to be all of the above, plus they even threw in some fight sequences, which were absolutely unnecessary, if you ask me. Also, I believe the map is way too huge, and driving around in a constant blizzard, trying to find your way to the next location of interest is not very fun, trust me. I definitely would have preferred a more linear approach instead of this large, mostly empty open-world environment. I also didn’t like the fact that the village is more or less abandoned, I would have really enjoyed questioning some suspects. Graphics and sound were more or less OK, I guess, and, if you’re interested there are many collectibles to be found all around. But even with all this, I got bored quite fast.
For some reason, I’ve been in the mood for horror games for a while now, so I took a look at my backlog, and gave this one a try. It’s a game based on a movie based on an actual Taiwanese legend of a haunted bridge, so it sounded quite interesting.
Well, first of all, the English localization is terrible. I can’t even imagine how it all reads and sounds for native speakers, if even I, a non-native found it abysmal. The voice acting is mostly lifeless (with no lip sync, of course), the subtitles and audio are out of sync, there are overlapping and missing sentences, characters talking at the same time, grammar and spelling mistakes, and so on. So yeah, do yourselves a favour and set at least the audio to Chinese.
Now, the gameplay. As a survival horror experience, I’d say it mostly worked. The walking simulator parts, the puzzles, searching for clues – these elements were all OK, in my opinion. Nothing groundbreaking, but the atmosphere was spot on, the jumpscares and creepy sounds were genuinely scary, even the lore was exciting (although the story got a bit confusing for me towards the end). The graphics were mediocre, nothing special there, and the characters were all pretty bland, maybe one or two of them had actual, complex personalities. I’m still not sure if it was a good idea to switch between them so often, some of them hardly contributed anything to the main plot. The real problem, though, if you ask me, was the chase/stealth sequences. They were unforgiving, just one small misstep and it’s game over, you have to know the layout of the map perfectly to be able to survive, and right at the beginning of the first chapter they drop you into one of these “fun little hide-and-seek activities”. I almost broke my controller several times during these parts. Also, it didn’t help that some locations were unnecessarily huge, and simply finding out where you’re supposed to go can be a challenge in itself.
So, the potential is there, somewhere deep within this mess, but as it is now, it’s mediocre at best, and I can only recommend it to hardcore horror fans. And sorry, but I have to deduce an additional star for the poor localization.
Well, first of all, the English localization is terrible. I can’t even imagine how it all reads and sounds for native speakers, if even I, a non-native found it abysmal. The voice acting is mostly lifeless (with no lip sync, of course), the subtitles and audio are out of sync, there are overlapping and missing sentences, characters talking at the same time, grammar and spelling mistakes, and so on. So yeah, do yourselves a favour and set at least the audio to Chinese.
Now, the gameplay. As a survival horror experience, I’d say it mostly worked. The walking simulator parts, the puzzles, searching for clues – these elements were all OK, in my opinion. Nothing groundbreaking, but the atmosphere was spot on, the jumpscares and creepy sounds were genuinely scary, even the lore was exciting (although the story got a bit confusing for me towards the end). The graphics were mediocre, nothing special there, and the characters were all pretty bland, maybe one or two of them had actual, complex personalities. I’m still not sure if it was a good idea to switch between them so often, some of them hardly contributed anything to the main plot. The real problem, though, if you ask me, was the chase/stealth sequences. They were unforgiving, just one small misstep and it’s game over, you have to know the layout of the map perfectly to be able to survive, and right at the beginning of the first chapter they drop you into one of these “fun little hide-and-seek activities”. I almost broke my controller several times during these parts. Also, it didn’t help that some locations were unnecessarily huge, and simply finding out where you’re supposed to go can be a challenge in itself.
So, the potential is there, somewhere deep within this mess, but as it is now, it’s mediocre at best, and I can only recommend it to hardcore horror fans. And sorry, but I have to deduce an additional star for the poor localization.
I was really looking forward to this new entry in this series, as I loved both previous installments. While NG was more like a side story, this one (as the title implies) is a full-on sequel to Death Mark, so we get to play as the ‘Spirit Doctor’ once again. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like this newest chapter could live up to its predecessors, but still, it wasn’t bad, either.
The new gameplay elements include walking around in 2D environments, collecting and using stuff, sometimes with a companion who we can also interact with. This part reminded me of The Coma games (without anyone actually chasing us), and was a great addition, in my opinion, as the whole thing started to feel more like a classic, old-school point ‘n’ click adventure game rather than simply a visual novel. More interaction in these types of titles is always a big plus for me. With that said, the atmosphere somehow wasn’t as creepy as in the previous entries, and I believe it was not a good idea that 90% of the main plot took place in one location and its direct surroundings. Running back and forth between the same rooms and buildings in each chapter became quite tedious for me after a while, and not even the jumpscares worked too well. Though I must admit, the evil spirits still look terrifying, and we get many brutal, gory scenes, some even depicting suicide, so keep that in mind.
Overall, the story was OK, but the twists are not that surprising if you pay attention, and the puzzles are not that crazy difficult, either. It was nice seeing the old characters again, and some fun new ones. If you liked the series so far, give this one a try, but don’t expect anything too memorable.
The new gameplay elements include walking around in 2D environments, collecting and using stuff, sometimes with a companion who we can also interact with. This part reminded me of The Coma games (without anyone actually chasing us), and was a great addition, in my opinion, as the whole thing started to feel more like a classic, old-school point ‘n’ click adventure game rather than simply a visual novel. More interaction in these types of titles is always a big plus for me. With that said, the atmosphere somehow wasn’t as creepy as in the previous entries, and I believe it was not a good idea that 90% of the main plot took place in one location and its direct surroundings. Running back and forth between the same rooms and buildings in each chapter became quite tedious for me after a while, and not even the jumpscares worked too well. Though I must admit, the evil spirits still look terrifying, and we get many brutal, gory scenes, some even depicting suicide, so keep that in mind.
Overall, the story was OK, but the twists are not that surprising if you pay attention, and the puzzles are not that crazy difficult, either. It was nice seeing the old characters again, and some fun new ones. If you liked the series so far, give this one a try, but don’t expect anything too memorable.
2018
The main reason why I’ve always loved horror games is because they can work with almost any genre: action-adventure, rpg, puzzle-platform, or a visual novel. As long as I get the right amount of thrill and suspense, it doesn’t matter to me if I have to shoot my way through a level, or just read most of the time.
This is why I loved 'Death Mark', and why I love 'NG' just as much, even though it’s far from being perfect. It could get me emotionally involved with its characters and storyline, the ghosts were genuinely scary, and the whole game had one of the most memorable atmospheres in any game I’ve played. The feeling of dread was always there, and some of the images were so twisted that I had to take a little break after seeing them to collect myself.
Would have loved some more voiced scenes, but all in all, this was an experience I will surely not forget for a while. Recommended for mature gamers only!
This is why I loved 'Death Mark', and why I love 'NG' just as much, even though it’s far from being perfect. It could get me emotionally involved with its characters and storyline, the ghosts were genuinely scary, and the whole game had one of the most memorable atmospheres in any game I’ve played. The feeling of dread was always there, and some of the images were so twisted that I had to take a little break after seeing them to collect myself.
Would have loved some more voiced scenes, but all in all, this was an experience I will surely not forget for a while. Recommended for mature gamers only!
Wow, I have so much to say about this game, but it’s not easy without going into any spoilers. I’ll try my best, though.
First of all, the original Final Fantasy VII is still my number one game of all time, and I don’t think this will ever change. I consider it an absolute masterpiece, from beginning to end. FF7 Remake, in my opinion, was also excellent, as it managed to stay faithful to its source material but also expanded upon it, and brought some cool changes that made it worth playing for veterans, as well.
And now we have Rebirth, the second chapter in this gigantic remake project. We finally get to leave Midgar, and see the whole world for ourselves – and I’m sure you’ll be just as excited as I was visiting the more detailed, even more breathtaking, modernized versions of all the locations, and meeting all the funny, exciting or terrifying characters from the original game (and if you haven’t played that, then this will be an amazing, whole new experience for you – I kinda envy you!). I, for one, always enjoyed discovering all the hidden parts of a world map, collecting stuff, learning about the lore, stuff like that, so yeah, I loved this aspect of the game, and I didn’t mind spending time on all the optional tasks. The designs of all the different regions, the towns, the mines, the monsters… Hm, well, OK, a bit more variety in monster types would have been nice, I guess, but at least the battles are now even more dynamic, even more spectacular, with lots more options to choose from, like magic, individual abilities, limits, synergy attacks, summons etc. Of course, we’ll also get new playable characters, and you can switch between active and classic modes, or change the difficulty, so even oldschoolers, like myself, who prefer the good old turn-based systems can get something similar.
I’m aware that there are some complaints regarding the graphics and performance issues, and yes, I noticed all those, too, but honestly, they never really broke my immersion, so, as far as I’m concerned, the visuals were OK. DualSense support was great, and sound mixing wasn’t perfect, but still, I found the music (especially the remixes of the old tracks) and audio in general fine, too, and the English voice acting was superb, in my opinion. However, what I simply could not ignore, were the game-breaking bugs. There was one side-quest that I simply couldn’t finish until today when finally they released a patch for it, and at another time the enemy I was fighting simply became immortal, not taking any damage. And then, we have those nightmarish minigames… Listen, I know most of them are not obligatory, sure, and yeah, there were some fun ones (I especially liked Queen’s Blood and chocobo racing), but the rest were either meh or downright frustrating, and after a while it got simply ridiculous that everything was turned into a minigame, really, everything. Anyone that manages to get the platinum in this game has my utmost respect because that means they somehow finished all these terrible side activities with near-perfect scores.
That said, bugs can be patched, (most) minigames can be skipped… and if everything else was to your liking, then why only four stars when you gave Remake five, you might ask. Well, I can’t say much, because I really want to avoid spoilers, but I had serious problems with the plot. I mean, I liked the story and everything that was going on until the very last chapter. Rebirth is the middle part of a trilogy, and that is always the most daunting challenge for any writer, I’m sure. It’s the bridge between the beginning and the end, so you can’t tie up all the loose ends to keep your audience interested in the mysteries, but you should still answer at least a few questions so that your audience doesn’t feel totally confused. For me The Empire Strikes Back is probably the best example for how to do the second installment of a trilogy well, and Rebirth ultimately fails at this, I’m afraid. Honestly, the ending was such a chaotic mess, I had no idea what was happening, and if I hadn’t played the original version back in the day, I wouldn’t even know now what the fate of some characters were in the end. Some very interesting aspects of the story that had huge potentials were never really fleshed out as well as it could/should have been, we spent too much time with some minor characters and not enough with more important ones, and, let’s face it, most tragedies could have been avoided if Cloud and his friends didn’t behave as ten-year-olds most of the time. I’m not going to say more, when you get to the final act, I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean here.
So… Did this game do justice for the original one? Yes, until the last chapter where they messed everything up. Is it a good sequel? It managed to improve almost every aspect of Remake, so yeah, I guess it is, even if it fails as a second chapter of a trilogy. Did I enjoy playing it? 90% of the time yes, definitely. I just wish we didn’t have to wait so much for the last chapter, but I hope everything will make sense by the time we reach the end.
First of all, the original Final Fantasy VII is still my number one game of all time, and I don’t think this will ever change. I consider it an absolute masterpiece, from beginning to end. FF7 Remake, in my opinion, was also excellent, as it managed to stay faithful to its source material but also expanded upon it, and brought some cool changes that made it worth playing for veterans, as well.
And now we have Rebirth, the second chapter in this gigantic remake project. We finally get to leave Midgar, and see the whole world for ourselves – and I’m sure you’ll be just as excited as I was visiting the more detailed, even more breathtaking, modernized versions of all the locations, and meeting all the funny, exciting or terrifying characters from the original game (and if you haven’t played that, then this will be an amazing, whole new experience for you – I kinda envy you!). I, for one, always enjoyed discovering all the hidden parts of a world map, collecting stuff, learning about the lore, stuff like that, so yeah, I loved this aspect of the game, and I didn’t mind spending time on all the optional tasks. The designs of all the different regions, the towns, the mines, the monsters… Hm, well, OK, a bit more variety in monster types would have been nice, I guess, but at least the battles are now even more dynamic, even more spectacular, with lots more options to choose from, like magic, individual abilities, limits, synergy attacks, summons etc. Of course, we’ll also get new playable characters, and you can switch between active and classic modes, or change the difficulty, so even oldschoolers, like myself, who prefer the good old turn-based systems can get something similar.
I’m aware that there are some complaints regarding the graphics and performance issues, and yes, I noticed all those, too, but honestly, they never really broke my immersion, so, as far as I’m concerned, the visuals were OK. DualSense support was great, and sound mixing wasn’t perfect, but still, I found the music (especially the remixes of the old tracks) and audio in general fine, too, and the English voice acting was superb, in my opinion. However, what I simply could not ignore, were the game-breaking bugs. There was one side-quest that I simply couldn’t finish until today when finally they released a patch for it, and at another time the enemy I was fighting simply became immortal, not taking any damage. And then, we have those nightmarish minigames… Listen, I know most of them are not obligatory, sure, and yeah, there were some fun ones (I especially liked Queen’s Blood and chocobo racing), but the rest were either meh or downright frustrating, and after a while it got simply ridiculous that everything was turned into a minigame, really, everything. Anyone that manages to get the platinum in this game has my utmost respect because that means they somehow finished all these terrible side activities with near-perfect scores.
That said, bugs can be patched, (most) minigames can be skipped… and if everything else was to your liking, then why only four stars when you gave Remake five, you might ask. Well, I can’t say much, because I really want to avoid spoilers, but I had serious problems with the plot. I mean, I liked the story and everything that was going on until the very last chapter. Rebirth is the middle part of a trilogy, and that is always the most daunting challenge for any writer, I’m sure. It’s the bridge between the beginning and the end, so you can’t tie up all the loose ends to keep your audience interested in the mysteries, but you should still answer at least a few questions so that your audience doesn’t feel totally confused. For me The Empire Strikes Back is probably the best example for how to do the second installment of a trilogy well, and Rebirth ultimately fails at this, I’m afraid. Honestly, the ending was such a chaotic mess, I had no idea what was happening, and if I hadn’t played the original version back in the day, I wouldn’t even know now what the fate of some characters were in the end. Some very interesting aspects of the story that had huge potentials were never really fleshed out as well as it could/should have been, we spent too much time with some minor characters and not enough with more important ones, and, let’s face it, most tragedies could have been avoided if Cloud and his friends didn’t behave as ten-year-olds most of the time. I’m not going to say more, when you get to the final act, I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean here.
So… Did this game do justice for the original one? Yes, until the last chapter where they messed everything up. Is it a good sequel? It managed to improve almost every aspect of Remake, so yeah, I guess it is, even if it fails as a second chapter of a trilogy. Did I enjoy playing it? 90% of the time yes, definitely. I just wish we didn’t have to wait so much for the last chapter, but I hope everything will make sense by the time we reach the end.
2014
For me, this one has been the weakest title in the Science Adventure series so far. The plot is full of twists, even anime veterans won’t see most of them coming, I believe, and it’s also extremely complex, but if you finish all the routes, everything should be clear as long as you keep paying attention. So, in that sense, it’s not that different from its predecessors. I was a bit sad that they switched back to 2D character models, I, personally, really liked the 3D ones in Robotics;Notes, but maybe it’s just me.
The characters were, hm, OK, I guess, none of them were very memorable for me (the protagonist sometimes annoyed the hell out of me), and the gameplay was completely the same as in ChäoS;HEAd with the positive and negative delusion triggers popping up from time to time. This is not surprising, though – as the title indicates, this is a direct sequel of that one, so you can expect a similar, dark tone with quite a lot of gory parts depicting extreme violence and torture, both physical and mental, against adults and children alike. Sure, there are some occasional funny moments, even a few obligatory ecchi scenes, but all in all, we’re definitely in R-rated territory here, so keep that in mind. As far as I’m concerned, I felt like some chapters and routes were unnecessarily cruel and depressing, and after a while I got so burned out by all the brutality and wickedness that I became totally oblivious to what I was reading…
But yeah, maybe I’m just getting too old and sensitive. I guess I’ll go watch a comedy now to balance my emotions a bit.
The characters were, hm, OK, I guess, none of them were very memorable for me (the protagonist sometimes annoyed the hell out of me), and the gameplay was completely the same as in ChäoS;HEAd with the positive and negative delusion triggers popping up from time to time. This is not surprising, though – as the title indicates, this is a direct sequel of that one, so you can expect a similar, dark tone with quite a lot of gory parts depicting extreme violence and torture, both physical and mental, against adults and children alike. Sure, there are some occasional funny moments, even a few obligatory ecchi scenes, but all in all, we’re definitely in R-rated territory here, so keep that in mind. As far as I’m concerned, I felt like some chapters and routes were unnecessarily cruel and depressing, and after a while I got so burned out by all the brutality and wickedness that I became totally oblivious to what I was reading…
But yeah, maybe I’m just getting too old and sensitive. I guess I’ll go watch a comedy now to balance my emotions a bit.
Never thought such a simple game could be so damn scary…
When I started this, I was in the mood for some light-hearted, fun adventure, but what I got instead was something much, much deeper with very serious, even dark themes, and a tearjerker, coming-of-age plot – and I don’t mind it one bit. The 2D, pixel-art graphics reminded me of all the old point ‘n’ click games I played as a kid, so the nostalgia factor was definitely strong here, that’s already a huge plus for me. The characters were fun, the puzzles were OK (not that crazy difficult for adventure veterans, though), but the QTE battles felt a bit out of place, at least as far as I’m concerned. There are even a few optional objectives, and all in all, you can spend around 10 hours, maybe more, with the whole thing, which is quite a long playtime for this genre if you ask me. But not too long – just the right amount. Oh, and I got really interested in Indonesian cuisine now, thanks to all the tasty food they talk about! :D
Due to depictions of anxiety, depression, and suicide, I can’t recommend this to everyone, but if you’re old enough and OK with such content, give it a try (of course, don’t expect anything very realistic or gory). And be sure to have a few tissues at hand!
Due to depictions of anxiety, depression, and suicide, I can’t recommend this to everyone, but if you’re old enough and OK with such content, give it a try (of course, don’t expect anything very realistic or gory). And be sure to have a few tissues at hand!
This was a pleasant surprise for me, I really enjoyed it, even though it’s really, really dark with an extremely heavy atmosphere. Let me warn you, it’s quite gory and grim, with depictions of suicide and extreme violence, so don’t let the cute children mislead you, this is recommended only for mature gamers!
The graphics are amazing, no complaints there, and the sound effects and music were great, too, especially those beautiful songs we can hear occasionally. As for the plot, it’s nothing special, we’ve seen it a few times (two siblings against the horrors of the world, if you played games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Röki or A Plague Tale, you kind of know what to expect), but the Nordic folklore behind it is very interesting, at least it was for me. Unfortunately, I found the controls a bit clunky, I even experienced some small input lags here and there, and the camera angles are downright terrible in some cases. Sometimes I simply couldn’t see where I was supposed to go, and I walked into certain death…
All in all, a short but powerful and memorable title, that doesn’t do anything unique and new, but it’s still enjoyable if you like creepy action-adventures with a few puzzles thrown in. Give it a try.
The graphics are amazing, no complaints there, and the sound effects and music were great, too, especially those beautiful songs we can hear occasionally. As for the plot, it’s nothing special, we’ve seen it a few times (two siblings against the horrors of the world, if you played games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Röki or A Plague Tale, you kind of know what to expect), but the Nordic folklore behind it is very interesting, at least it was for me. Unfortunately, I found the controls a bit clunky, I even experienced some small input lags here and there, and the camera angles are downright terrible in some cases. Sometimes I simply couldn’t see where I was supposed to go, and I walked into certain death…
All in all, a short but powerful and memorable title, that doesn’t do anything unique and new, but it’s still enjoyable if you like creepy action-adventures with a few puzzles thrown in. Give it a try.