Limayde
Take a shot every time I say Gravity.
I’m not sure what I expected when getting into Gravity Rush, I just knew the few people who had played the game praised it very highly, so I was pretty stoked to finally play through it.
You play as Kat, a girl who waked up in the town of Hekseville with no memory of her past life (how original lmao). Kat has a… cat named Dusty that allows her to shift gravity when he’s near her. You soon discover you’re not alone and there’s one other who can shift gravity. Her name is Raven, and she has a pet… raven. I know, they were real clever with their names. The story from here goes all over the place and is only very loosely connected together. At one point you’re pursuing some bad guy known as Alias, then he vanishes for half the game. You meet god who asks you to find segments of Hekseville that have been lost in the space time continuum or something. Then there’s a bus and these kids and a pillar, then you enter the cube dimension, and then you fight a militaristic regime… it’s whack, dude. By the time you think the game is only just getting started, it just ends. Right there. No fanfare, just credits. It leaves you with so many unanswered questions and can hardly be considered satisfying. It doesn’t help that the characters are all just complete assholes. Kat is the only one who is even remotely likable, doing what she can to help those around her, even if everyone hates her.
Okay, so the story isn’t exactly the best, but it’s a video game, it doesn’t have to be as long as it’s fun to play. Let’s see what the gameplay is like. As explained earlier, Kat is a gravity shifter, meaning she can do all sorts of cool stuff with gravity. She can fly, slide along the ground, walk on walls, create a gravitational field around you to pull in objects, it all adds up to be a pretty fun ensemble of abilities at your disposal (well, the gravity field is actually kinda lame, you just pick up and drop objects. It’s less of an ability and more of just “move thing from here to there). Being able to fly around town at your whim without really having to worry about fall damage or the well-being of others is tons of fun. There’s also some sidequests you can do here and there, but after a handful I realized most of them were just “pay this toll” or “do this timed race” and those weren’t fun so I stopped doing them. Instead, most of my playtime was spent just looking for the purple gems that’re scattered around every which way, just jamming out to the music and enjoying the art style, both of which are great. The game is PACKED with bangers, and the art style is reminiscent of a comic book, the cutscenes are styled like an animated comic (you can even tilt the controller and it’ll tilt the screen and show you more detail like it’s one of those holographic lenticular stickers) and the actual style of the game really captures the effect despite everything being 3D modeled. However, despite how much I’ve praised everything here, Gravity Rush is ultimately a very combat-oriented experience, so that should be the thing I focus the most on.
The main enemies you deal with are the Nevi, these amorphous amoeba-looking creatures with giant glowing pearls on them—oh and Raven. There are three ways of dealing with enemies. Well, I say that, but the ground kick combo is not efficient, and the third option are special moves that take time to charge up. Meaning the only real way to dispose of enemies is the Gravity Kick. A semi-homing kick that sends you flying through the air towards an enemy you’re locked on to. USUALLY this isn’t an issue, however there are a handful of enemies that will dodge out of the way and are a pain to deal with because you get all disoriented. The special attacks do help, but only when dealing with swaths of enemies. The Spiraling Claw is a much better homing attack than the Gravity Kick and lasts for roughly ten seconds—more if you upgrade it. The second one is Gravity Typhoon, which actually gives Kat a projectile. This is immensely useful and probably the best ability in the game, especially against jittery targets or bosses—if only it wasn’t limited to being a goddamn special attack. Lastly we have the Micro Black Hole—it’s your standard “wipe the board clean of any small enemies so they don’t bother you” attack. It’s fine, but you’re better off using Gravity Typhoon.
Oh also occasionally there are these stealth segments and the suck ass. You can’t fly too high or you get spotted, so you gotta carefully tread around these areas without people seeing you and it’s not fun.
So… why is Gravity Rush praised so highly? I’m not… entirely sure. Sure, the exploration and gravity mechanics are fun, but the story is a mess, the characters all kinda suck except for Kat, and the combat is… less than ideal. The music and art style are great, but that alone doesn’t make a great experience. Despite all that, I didn’t hate it. I mostly enjoyed my time with it despite not being the best game in the world, and hey, you do take down a militaristic regime, so that’s a plus in my book.
I’m not sure what I expected when getting into Gravity Rush, I just knew the few people who had played the game praised it very highly, so I was pretty stoked to finally play through it.
You play as Kat, a girl who waked up in the town of Hekseville with no memory of her past life (how original lmao). Kat has a… cat named Dusty that allows her to shift gravity when he’s near her. You soon discover you’re not alone and there’s one other who can shift gravity. Her name is Raven, and she has a pet… raven. I know, they were real clever with their names. The story from here goes all over the place and is only very loosely connected together. At one point you’re pursuing some bad guy known as Alias, then he vanishes for half the game. You meet god who asks you to find segments of Hekseville that have been lost in the space time continuum or something. Then there’s a bus and these kids and a pillar, then you enter the cube dimension, and then you fight a militaristic regime… it’s whack, dude. By the time you think the game is only just getting started, it just ends. Right there. No fanfare, just credits. It leaves you with so many unanswered questions and can hardly be considered satisfying. It doesn’t help that the characters are all just complete assholes. Kat is the only one who is even remotely likable, doing what she can to help those around her, even if everyone hates her.
Okay, so the story isn’t exactly the best, but it’s a video game, it doesn’t have to be as long as it’s fun to play. Let’s see what the gameplay is like. As explained earlier, Kat is a gravity shifter, meaning she can do all sorts of cool stuff with gravity. She can fly, slide along the ground, walk on walls, create a gravitational field around you to pull in objects, it all adds up to be a pretty fun ensemble of abilities at your disposal (well, the gravity field is actually kinda lame, you just pick up and drop objects. It’s less of an ability and more of just “move thing from here to there). Being able to fly around town at your whim without really having to worry about fall damage or the well-being of others is tons of fun. There’s also some sidequests you can do here and there, but after a handful I realized most of them were just “pay this toll” or “do this timed race” and those weren’t fun so I stopped doing them. Instead, most of my playtime was spent just looking for the purple gems that’re scattered around every which way, just jamming out to the music and enjoying the art style, both of which are great. The game is PACKED with bangers, and the art style is reminiscent of a comic book, the cutscenes are styled like an animated comic (you can even tilt the controller and it’ll tilt the screen and show you more detail like it’s one of those holographic lenticular stickers) and the actual style of the game really captures the effect despite everything being 3D modeled. However, despite how much I’ve praised everything here, Gravity Rush is ultimately a very combat-oriented experience, so that should be the thing I focus the most on.
The main enemies you deal with are the Nevi, these amorphous amoeba-looking creatures with giant glowing pearls on them—oh and Raven. There are three ways of dealing with enemies. Well, I say that, but the ground kick combo is not efficient, and the third option are special moves that take time to charge up. Meaning the only real way to dispose of enemies is the Gravity Kick. A semi-homing kick that sends you flying through the air towards an enemy you’re locked on to. USUALLY this isn’t an issue, however there are a handful of enemies that will dodge out of the way and are a pain to deal with because you get all disoriented. The special attacks do help, but only when dealing with swaths of enemies. The Spiraling Claw is a much better homing attack than the Gravity Kick and lasts for roughly ten seconds—more if you upgrade it. The second one is Gravity Typhoon, which actually gives Kat a projectile. This is immensely useful and probably the best ability in the game, especially against jittery targets or bosses—if only it wasn’t limited to being a goddamn special attack. Lastly we have the Micro Black Hole—it’s your standard “wipe the board clean of any small enemies so they don’t bother you” attack. It’s fine, but you’re better off using Gravity Typhoon.
Oh also occasionally there are these stealth segments and the suck ass. You can’t fly too high or you get spotted, so you gotta carefully tread around these areas without people seeing you and it’s not fun.
So… why is Gravity Rush praised so highly? I’m not… entirely sure. Sure, the exploration and gravity mechanics are fun, but the story is a mess, the characters all kinda suck except for Kat, and the combat is… less than ideal. The music and art style are great, but that alone doesn’t make a great experience. Despite all that, I didn’t hate it. I mostly enjoyed my time with it despite not being the best game in the world, and hey, you do take down a militaristic regime, so that’s a plus in my book.
2016
INFECTIOUSLY cute. I caught myself with a big dumb grin on my face for 80% of the story. The other 20% made me cry.
Best Pokémon game since Saturday, June 23rd, 2012.
My only real issue with this game is that it pads the runtime by forcing you to replay what you just did on a harder difficulty. Now that may sound bad, but the game is super short and the levels are different enough that it feels fresh. (Though I did play the second half a couple days later, so that may have had something to do with it.)
Aside from that, it's great! The characters are all fun and likable, especially Kohaku, who is infectiously upbeat. ALL the writing is top-notch, I burst out laughing a dozen times, it's fantastic. And it just felt great to play. The time rewind mechanic isn't used to its full potential, but I think it works well enough.
Anyway, Kohaku survived a plane crash because "it felt like the thing to do". 9/10.
Aside from that, it's great! The characters are all fun and likable, especially Kohaku, who is infectiously upbeat. ALL the writing is top-notch, I burst out laughing a dozen times, it's fantastic. And it just felt great to play. The time rewind mechanic isn't used to its full potential, but I think it works well enough.
Anyway, Kohaku survived a plane crash because "it felt like the thing to do". 9/10.
2017
Take a shot every time I say gravity.
Alright, so maybe the first game wasn’t great, however, there’s an entire second game to play through. Maybe Gravity Rush 2 will be better? They’re both $20 digitally, so it’s not like a huge loss if I don’t lik- oh. OHHHHHHH… Now this, THIS is a good game.
Gravity Rush 2 starts off with some worker dude in a full-body suit going into the gravity dimension to mine some gravity ore while trying not to get killed in a gravity storm. You soon figure out that it was actually Kat the whole time, who has been separated from both Dusty and Raven after the events of the previous game. This isn’t ever elaborated on, but there’s an animated short that bridges the gap between the two games, so the game expects you already know what’s going on. Because Kat doesn’t have dusty, she’s essentially a regular person. She’s been stranded in this little village of flying ships called Banga and needs to work her fair share to survive. This is where we’re introduced to some of the major characters of Gravity Rush 2, namely Cecie, her adoptive mother Lisa (who has BIG sapphic energy), and Syd, who was in the first game. Now the biggest improvement over Gravity Rush 2 is that I ACTUALLY LIKE THE CHARACTERS. Cecie is shy, cute, and wants to do her best. Lisa is very complex, looking out for her village first and foremost, even if it means turning a blind eye to the evils that lurk under their society. And Syd’s a sarcastic womanizing asshole, what’s not to love? The story, while not nearly to the degree of the first game, is still kinda all over the place, but it has one unifying theme: Kat is the nicest fucking person on the planet and strives to demolish the aristocracy while saving everyone in the process. You eventually reunite with Raven, punch some rich dudes in the face, and restore order to Jirga Para Lhao. Then after “finding” your way back to Hekseville, you find there’s a new hero in town, Kali Angel, who’s... kind of an asshole… maybe Hekseville just naturally breeds unlikable people. Anyway, you eventually discover that Hekseville has been overtaken by a militaristic regime… again, and you fix everything… again. If I had a nickel…
Gravity Rush 2 once again ends on a weird note, just kinda abruptly ending after the final boss has been defeated, but that still begs the question… it didn’t answer any of my questions from the previous game? Well… not yet at least. There’s still an entire postgame to play through. Yes, unlike the first game, Gravity Rush 2 has a proper postgame. Actually it’s more of a continuation of the story disguised as a postgame more than anything, kinda like a Dragon Quest XI situation. And this… OH BOY this postgame… it’s so fucking good. You learn EVERYTHING the story has been hiding from you. Kat’s past, what the fuck was up with Alias, and… some other things I won’t mention here. Even things it doesn’t seem like it answers, it does. You just need to go back and think about things for a minute before you go “oh! So that’s what that was about”. This postgame is absolutely cracked, possibly the best climax of any game I’ve ever played.
So the story is a huge improvement from the first game? So how does everything else hold up? Well I’m very pleased to say that just about everything was improved. The visuals? All cleaned up and polished. If you liked how the first game looked, you will NOT be disappointed with Gravity Rush 2. The art’s better, the models are better, the menus? The menus are clean as FUCK. The spared NO expense on anything here, it’s bright, colorful, and was polished to a brilliant luster. So what’s the music like? SLAPPIN’. If the first game’s music was good, GR2’s music is like pouring liquid gold straight into your ears. You think you’re cool? You’re NOTHING compared to Gravity Rush 2’s soundtrack. I cannot go on without sharing at least one song from the soundtrack, so here’s Raven’s theme, which is the absolute TITS:
https://soundcloud.com/hyperstarstorm/gravity-rush-2-ravens-theme
I literally had to upload this myself just so I could show off how fucking great this song is, because this song is NOT in the official soundtrack for some godforsaken reason, and the only version that exists on the internet is a YouTube video with footage from the very end of the game, meaning I couldn’t properly show off this fantastic piece of music without spoiling literally everyone who reads this! AUGH! Anyway, feel free to listen to this at your leisure without spoiling yourself until you have beaten the game~
It’s just not the visuals and the soundtrack that was improved either. They went all out in making sure this game was actually fun to play. The core gravity shifting is basically the same, it’s still as fun as ever to fly around through the sky and collect shiny purple things. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, right? Remember when I said the Gravity Field ability was lame? Remember how I wanted Gravity Typhoon to be part of the standard moveset? Well guess what they did to Gravity Field! This bitch can chuck just about anything at anyONE! Or vice versa! Barrels? Chuck it! Tables? Chuck it! Umbrellas? Chuck it! Benches? Civilians? Guns? Fucking chuck it! This is by none the best improvement to the overall experience. This makes combat so much more fun, especially since Nevi (sorry, ”Scarabs” as the Banga citizens call them) aren’t the only enemies you fight anymore. You’ve got military personnel, giant robots, Raven (again), dudes in flying vehicles, it’s great. My favorite thing to do in this game is just picking up the soldiers and tossing them into the abyss or at their friends. Of course, you still have your piddly standing kick, and the Gravity Kick, but with the added functionality of the Gravity Field, combat is much more fun and diverse. Plus, you need to use the kicks a bit for added fun. They added a bar that fills up every time you land a kicking attack. With this bar, you can expend some of it to power up your Gravity Field and unleash hell upon all who stand in your way. This turns your projectiles into bullets of death that shred through weaker enemies and bosses’ weak points like Sephiroth at an Aerith clone factory.
If that wasn’t enough, Gravity Rush introduces two new gravity styles. Lunar and Jupiter. As you can probably guess, Lunar decreases your weight, and Jupiter increases it. Lunar provides a variety of movement options, like jumping great heights and distances, or a teleportation kick instead of the usual Gravity Kick. Jupiter on the other hand is a harbinger of destruction, providing the hardest hitting attacks in the game, at the cost of being rather slow… or so you thought! Jupiter has the fastest fly speed in the game, as well as the fastest Gravity Slide, not only that, but Jupiter’s version of the slide is an attack. It is a wrecking ball of destruction with the only downside being it’s a bit unruly to control. With these added styles, along with the GODSEND that is the new and improved Gravity Field, not only does it improve the combat, it adds the potential for a huge variety of sidequests… and oh man does it deliver. I can’t name them all, but they’ve added a huge variety of sidequests with a ton of character, and while they’re obviously not all great, there are a handful of sidequests I found myself repeating a couple times just because of how much I enjoyed them. There’s one where this guy needs customers, and FAST, so Kat’s solution is to just pick people up into her Gravity Field and fucking throw them into the stand—it’s so fucking fun.
If I had anything bad to say about Gravity Rush 2, it would be that there are still unfortunately parts where the story just kinda jumps to a new thing with seemingly no explanation. Obviously not as bad as the first game, but it’s there, and it’s… a choice. Also, remember the stealth missions? They’re back! And they’re WORSE! Seriously, there’s like two or three you have to do in the main story, and none of them are fun. A handful of sidequests are just stealth missions too, boy did I hate those. Such an unsightly blemish on an otherwise great game.
Well… I think that about covers all I had to say about Gravity Rush 2… OH WAIT. That’s right, there’s an entire free DLC story where you get the play as Raven. Curious about what happened to those kids from the first game? This DLC answers that question. Also like… who DOESN’T want to play as Raven? She’s the best fucking character in the whole game. An anti-hero turned sidekick and eventually, gets a shot at being the hero herself. Also her design? That hair? Ma’am? Go off, queen. Raven’s moveset is also AMAZING. Not only does she get a better version of the Gravity Kick that drills into the enemy’s skull, she also gets a better Gravity Field. How could you possibly make Gravity Field any cooler? She gets fucking FIREBALLS. You can just do that… whenever you want. You don’t NEED a projectile near you to use it, you can just summon them and bring death upon everyone. Also also, her special is literally just the Thanos Snap. Now this isn’t like the Micro Black Hole from the first game no no no, this covers the ENTIRE SCREEN, and any and all smaller enemies are just GONE. Raven is so fucking cool, dude.
Gravity Rush 2 is an amazing improvement over the first game, providing an increased arsenal of attacks, a killer soundtrack, and a fantastic climax unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Alright, so maybe the first game wasn’t great, however, there’s an entire second game to play through. Maybe Gravity Rush 2 will be better? They’re both $20 digitally, so it’s not like a huge loss if I don’t lik- oh. OHHHHHHH… Now this, THIS is a good game.
Gravity Rush 2 starts off with some worker dude in a full-body suit going into the gravity dimension to mine some gravity ore while trying not to get killed in a gravity storm. You soon figure out that it was actually Kat the whole time, who has been separated from both Dusty and Raven after the events of the previous game. This isn’t ever elaborated on, but there’s an animated short that bridges the gap between the two games, so the game expects you already know what’s going on. Because Kat doesn’t have dusty, she’s essentially a regular person. She’s been stranded in this little village of flying ships called Banga and needs to work her fair share to survive. This is where we’re introduced to some of the major characters of Gravity Rush 2, namely Cecie, her adoptive mother Lisa (who has BIG sapphic energy), and Syd, who was in the first game. Now the biggest improvement over Gravity Rush 2 is that I ACTUALLY LIKE THE CHARACTERS. Cecie is shy, cute, and wants to do her best. Lisa is very complex, looking out for her village first and foremost, even if it means turning a blind eye to the evils that lurk under their society. And Syd’s a sarcastic womanizing asshole, what’s not to love? The story, while not nearly to the degree of the first game, is still kinda all over the place, but it has one unifying theme: Kat is the nicest fucking person on the planet and strives to demolish the aristocracy while saving everyone in the process. You eventually reunite with Raven, punch some rich dudes in the face, and restore order to Jirga Para Lhao. Then after “finding” your way back to Hekseville, you find there’s a new hero in town, Kali Angel, who’s... kind of an asshole… maybe Hekseville just naturally breeds unlikable people. Anyway, you eventually discover that Hekseville has been overtaken by a militaristic regime… again, and you fix everything… again. If I had a nickel…
Gravity Rush 2 once again ends on a weird note, just kinda abruptly ending after the final boss has been defeated, but that still begs the question… it didn’t answer any of my questions from the previous game? Well… not yet at least. There’s still an entire postgame to play through. Yes, unlike the first game, Gravity Rush 2 has a proper postgame. Actually it’s more of a continuation of the story disguised as a postgame more than anything, kinda like a Dragon Quest XI situation. And this… OH BOY this postgame… it’s so fucking good. You learn EVERYTHING the story has been hiding from you. Kat’s past, what the fuck was up with Alias, and… some other things I won’t mention here. Even things it doesn’t seem like it answers, it does. You just need to go back and think about things for a minute before you go “oh! So that’s what that was about”. This postgame is absolutely cracked, possibly the best climax of any game I’ve ever played.
So the story is a huge improvement from the first game? So how does everything else hold up? Well I’m very pleased to say that just about everything was improved. The visuals? All cleaned up and polished. If you liked how the first game looked, you will NOT be disappointed with Gravity Rush 2. The art’s better, the models are better, the menus? The menus are clean as FUCK. The spared NO expense on anything here, it’s bright, colorful, and was polished to a brilliant luster. So what’s the music like? SLAPPIN’. If the first game’s music was good, GR2’s music is like pouring liquid gold straight into your ears. You think you’re cool? You’re NOTHING compared to Gravity Rush 2’s soundtrack. I cannot go on without sharing at least one song from the soundtrack, so here’s Raven’s theme, which is the absolute TITS:
https://soundcloud.com/hyperstarstorm/gravity-rush-2-ravens-theme
I literally had to upload this myself just so I could show off how fucking great this song is, because this song is NOT in the official soundtrack for some godforsaken reason, and the only version that exists on the internet is a YouTube video with footage from the very end of the game, meaning I couldn’t properly show off this fantastic piece of music without spoiling literally everyone who reads this! AUGH! Anyway, feel free to listen to this at your leisure without spoiling yourself until you have beaten the game~
It’s just not the visuals and the soundtrack that was improved either. They went all out in making sure this game was actually fun to play. The core gravity shifting is basically the same, it’s still as fun as ever to fly around through the sky and collect shiny purple things. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, right? Remember when I said the Gravity Field ability was lame? Remember how I wanted Gravity Typhoon to be part of the standard moveset? Well guess what they did to Gravity Field! This bitch can chuck just about anything at anyONE! Or vice versa! Barrels? Chuck it! Tables? Chuck it! Umbrellas? Chuck it! Benches? Civilians? Guns? Fucking chuck it! This is by none the best improvement to the overall experience. This makes combat so much more fun, especially since Nevi (sorry, ”Scarabs” as the Banga citizens call them) aren’t the only enemies you fight anymore. You’ve got military personnel, giant robots, Raven (again), dudes in flying vehicles, it’s great. My favorite thing to do in this game is just picking up the soldiers and tossing them into the abyss or at their friends. Of course, you still have your piddly standing kick, and the Gravity Kick, but with the added functionality of the Gravity Field, combat is much more fun and diverse. Plus, you need to use the kicks a bit for added fun. They added a bar that fills up every time you land a kicking attack. With this bar, you can expend some of it to power up your Gravity Field and unleash hell upon all who stand in your way. This turns your projectiles into bullets of death that shred through weaker enemies and bosses’ weak points like Sephiroth at an Aerith clone factory.
If that wasn’t enough, Gravity Rush introduces two new gravity styles. Lunar and Jupiter. As you can probably guess, Lunar decreases your weight, and Jupiter increases it. Lunar provides a variety of movement options, like jumping great heights and distances, or a teleportation kick instead of the usual Gravity Kick. Jupiter on the other hand is a harbinger of destruction, providing the hardest hitting attacks in the game, at the cost of being rather slow… or so you thought! Jupiter has the fastest fly speed in the game, as well as the fastest Gravity Slide, not only that, but Jupiter’s version of the slide is an attack. It is a wrecking ball of destruction with the only downside being it’s a bit unruly to control. With these added styles, along with the GODSEND that is the new and improved Gravity Field, not only does it improve the combat, it adds the potential for a huge variety of sidequests… and oh man does it deliver. I can’t name them all, but they’ve added a huge variety of sidequests with a ton of character, and while they’re obviously not all great, there are a handful of sidequests I found myself repeating a couple times just because of how much I enjoyed them. There’s one where this guy needs customers, and FAST, so Kat’s solution is to just pick people up into her Gravity Field and fucking throw them into the stand—it’s so fucking fun.
If I had anything bad to say about Gravity Rush 2, it would be that there are still unfortunately parts where the story just kinda jumps to a new thing with seemingly no explanation. Obviously not as bad as the first game, but it’s there, and it’s… a choice. Also, remember the stealth missions? They’re back! And they’re WORSE! Seriously, there’s like two or three you have to do in the main story, and none of them are fun. A handful of sidequests are just stealth missions too, boy did I hate those. Such an unsightly blemish on an otherwise great game.
Well… I think that about covers all I had to say about Gravity Rush 2… OH WAIT. That’s right, there’s an entire free DLC story where you get the play as Raven. Curious about what happened to those kids from the first game? This DLC answers that question. Also like… who DOESN’T want to play as Raven? She’s the best fucking character in the whole game. An anti-hero turned sidekick and eventually, gets a shot at being the hero herself. Also her design? That hair? Ma’am? Go off, queen. Raven’s moveset is also AMAZING. Not only does she get a better version of the Gravity Kick that drills into the enemy’s skull, she also gets a better Gravity Field. How could you possibly make Gravity Field any cooler? She gets fucking FIREBALLS. You can just do that… whenever you want. You don’t NEED a projectile near you to use it, you can just summon them and bring death upon everyone. Also also, her special is literally just the Thanos Snap. Now this isn’t like the Micro Black Hole from the first game no no no, this covers the ENTIRE SCREEN, and any and all smaller enemies are just GONE. Raven is so fucking cool, dude.
Gravity Rush 2 is an amazing improvement over the first game, providing an increased arsenal of attacks, a killer soundtrack, and a fantastic climax unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Honestly, I was not a huge fan of Shovel of Hope. But... Specter of Torment? Now this is some good shit.
Not quite my favorite in the AA series, but pretty damn close, just a few unfortunate things that irk me.
Let's get the bad out of the way. Cases 1 and 5 drudged on for way longer than they should've, which is super lame because they have GREAT starts—just needed to trim the fat a little. What makes it worse is that the English voice acting is pretty subpar and gets especially grating during those parts, especially Ryunosuke, sadly. Case 5 at least has a satisfying conclusion, 1 and 2 have a lackluster finale. Lastly, there were a few points during gameplay where the game contradicted itself, such as needing to recheck an object before I could present it, or other annoying bits like that. Thankfully, this isn't a huge deal, and is just something the series as a whole struggles with. If anything, TGAAA is way better about this than any other game in the series.
Alright, now that that's done, let's dive into the good, and oh boy is there a lot of good. For example, the characters. The characters are VERY good. I adore this cast, they're all so colorful, charming... fruity. They're very fruity. You cannot convince me Ryunosuke and Kazuma don't have a thing going on, it's all there in the subtext. Ahem, anyway, I love this cast with all my heart.
Herlock Sholmes is undeniably the best version of Sherlock Holmes I have ever seen. He's just a big, dumb himbo that writes about his own exploits. Yes, the novels exist simultaneously with the character in this universe, it's great. Pun intended. The prosecutor, Barok van Zieks, is one of my all time favorites, just behind Blackquill. He is... a little racist, but he's so fucking funny. I would not be surprised if he turned out to be a literal vampire in TGAAR. Also, Susato? Best assistant. Not even a contest. She's actually helpful, and doesn't argue with Nick about a ladder 27 times, and is just a lovable, charming, girl. Such a breath of fresh air.
Even the minor characters are fantastic. They've all got their silly quirks, and honestly, I don't think any of them overstay their welcome. The victim in case 5 comes close, but since he's the victim, he doesn't stick around long lmao.
Another thing I wanna praise is that none of the cases in this game are standard by any means. They all do something unique and I love it. Like, one of them is just an investigation, there's literally no court. Then in another, the victim isn't murdered, they're just assaulted... I know that sounds crazy but that's really big for Ace Attorney. And then in case 3... actually, I'm not gonna say anything about case 3, it's way too good to spoil.
But yeah, considering this is a VN, there's not really a whole lot more to say. Solid story, pretty fun detective work, yeah, I can't recommend this enough if you're a fan of the series. Hell, I know people who don't like AA that liked this game. It's great, give it a shot.
Let's get the bad out of the way. Cases 1 and 5 drudged on for way longer than they should've, which is super lame because they have GREAT starts—just needed to trim the fat a little. What makes it worse is that the English voice acting is pretty subpar and gets especially grating during those parts, especially Ryunosuke, sadly. Case 5 at least has a satisfying conclusion, 1 and 2 have a lackluster finale. Lastly, there were a few points during gameplay where the game contradicted itself, such as needing to recheck an object before I could present it, or other annoying bits like that. Thankfully, this isn't a huge deal, and is just something the series as a whole struggles with. If anything, TGAAA is way better about this than any other game in the series.
Alright, now that that's done, let's dive into the good, and oh boy is there a lot of good. For example, the characters. The characters are VERY good. I adore this cast, they're all so colorful, charming... fruity. They're very fruity. You cannot convince me Ryunosuke and Kazuma don't have a thing going on, it's all there in the subtext. Ahem, anyway, I love this cast with all my heart.
Herlock Sholmes is undeniably the best version of Sherlock Holmes I have ever seen. He's just a big, dumb himbo that writes about his own exploits. Yes, the novels exist simultaneously with the character in this universe, it's great. Pun intended. The prosecutor, Barok van Zieks, is one of my all time favorites, just behind Blackquill. He is... a little racist, but he's so fucking funny. I would not be surprised if he turned out to be a literal vampire in TGAAR. Also, Susato? Best assistant. Not even a contest. She's actually helpful, and doesn't argue with Nick about a ladder 27 times, and is just a lovable, charming, girl. Such a breath of fresh air.
Even the minor characters are fantastic. They've all got their silly quirks, and honestly, I don't think any of them overstay their welcome. The victim in case 5 comes close, but since he's the victim, he doesn't stick around long lmao.
Another thing I wanna praise is that none of the cases in this game are standard by any means. They all do something unique and I love it. Like, one of them is just an investigation, there's literally no court. Then in another, the victim isn't murdered, they're just assaulted... I know that sounds crazy but that's really big for Ace Attorney. And then in case 3... actually, I'm not gonna say anything about case 3, it's way too good to spoil.
But yeah, considering this is a VN, there's not really a whole lot more to say. Solid story, pretty fun detective work, yeah, I can't recommend this enough if you're a fan of the series. Hell, I know people who don't like AA that liked this game. It's great, give it a shot.
2021
It's been a long time since I last played an RPG Maker horror game, so this was super nostalgic. Honestly I felt kinda... comforted playing Evil Tonight, as bizarre as that sounds. But after the novelty wore off I did feel a sense of dread while walking through the halls of San Paolo De Rosa.
A lot of the enemies are tough as shit, even moreso if you were playing day 1. Thankfully they did ease up and made enemies a bit easier to kill in a later patch, so if you're worried about difficulty, it's not tough as nails like it used to be, even in casual mode.
The main combat of the game is a little strange at first. You hold ZR to switch into "combat mode" and let go to enter exploration mode. Instead of getting the ability to manually aim, you always face towards the nearest enemy when pressing the button, but only in the four cardinal directions. That makes aiming pretty weird, but thankfully you have a knife always tied to B, so if an enemy comes at you from an unfavorable angle, you can swipe at 'em and reposition yourself. I didn't have an issue with the combat most of the time, but there were a few instances where it didn't work the way I wanted it to and I got screwed over. This wasn't a common thing, but definitely something worth mentioning.
There's a few challenges the hardcore fans can do to really extend the time spent playing, and boy lemme tell you, I am NOT doing those. "Beat the adventure without saving." NO. THANKS. Anyone who can do this though, hats off to you, shit sounds ludicrously difficult.
Exploring in Evil Tonight is kinda slow. You don't run particularly fast, and your walk speed is atrociously slow, so there's almost no reason to always hold the run button unless you get paranoid (like I did) and walk around with ZR held the whole time until you were absolutely sure there weren't any enemies to surprise you. Usually for completing a room, you find some sort of special object, like a key or an orb that lets you progress, but it doesn't tell you where you're supposed to use it, you just gotta remember or figure it out. I thankfully only got really stuck once, but was able to find out what I needed to do by combing through everywhere I had been before. Turns out I just needed to push a bookshelf in a room I had been in before. Oh yeah, there's also no map, which sounds really bad, but since the academy is relatively small and all the areas are visually distinct, I didn't have a huge issue remembering where all the rooms were off the top of my head, which I think is just good level design.
Speaking of the visuals, Evil Tonight feels like a particularly impressive GBA game to me. The pixel art is fantastic and all the areas are filled to the brim with life and detail... okay maybe not actual life, everything's pretty dead, but it certainly is active! Also the OST kicks ass, I was not expecting it to be this good, but it really is. ESPECIALLY the boss themes, my head was boppin' every time I entered a new fight.
The bosses you fight are all important to the story, which I was surprisingly invested in. It's certainly nothing groundbreaking, but I quite enjoyed it. I don't wanna get into spoilers, but the ending was very sweet. A complaint I can probably see people bring in up is the main character, Silvia. She starts the game pretty standoffish, self-centered, and is really only doing this for the money and the fame. However, she does learn her lesson (a little late by that point if you ask me) and becomes a better person for it. She's still full of herself by the end, but in kind of an endearing way. Also she likes mint chocolate ice cream, so she's cool in my book. The main draw isn't really Silvia though, I was way more intrigued by the mystery surrounding this academy, obviously I can't go into much detail without spoiling, but I think it pays off nicely.
Overall, Evil Tonight is a fun survival horror game that keeps you at the edge of your seat with every enemy you encounter... and every enemy you don't encounter.
A lot of the enemies are tough as shit, even moreso if you were playing day 1. Thankfully they did ease up and made enemies a bit easier to kill in a later patch, so if you're worried about difficulty, it's not tough as nails like it used to be, even in casual mode.
The main combat of the game is a little strange at first. You hold ZR to switch into "combat mode" and let go to enter exploration mode. Instead of getting the ability to manually aim, you always face towards the nearest enemy when pressing the button, but only in the four cardinal directions. That makes aiming pretty weird, but thankfully you have a knife always tied to B, so if an enemy comes at you from an unfavorable angle, you can swipe at 'em and reposition yourself. I didn't have an issue with the combat most of the time, but there were a few instances where it didn't work the way I wanted it to and I got screwed over. This wasn't a common thing, but definitely something worth mentioning.
There's a few challenges the hardcore fans can do to really extend the time spent playing, and boy lemme tell you, I am NOT doing those. "Beat the adventure without saving." NO. THANKS. Anyone who can do this though, hats off to you, shit sounds ludicrously difficult.
Exploring in Evil Tonight is kinda slow. You don't run particularly fast, and your walk speed is atrociously slow, so there's almost no reason to always hold the run button unless you get paranoid (like I did) and walk around with ZR held the whole time until you were absolutely sure there weren't any enemies to surprise you. Usually for completing a room, you find some sort of special object, like a key or an orb that lets you progress, but it doesn't tell you where you're supposed to use it, you just gotta remember or figure it out. I thankfully only got really stuck once, but was able to find out what I needed to do by combing through everywhere I had been before. Turns out I just needed to push a bookshelf in a room I had been in before. Oh yeah, there's also no map, which sounds really bad, but since the academy is relatively small and all the areas are visually distinct, I didn't have a huge issue remembering where all the rooms were off the top of my head, which I think is just good level design.
Speaking of the visuals, Evil Tonight feels like a particularly impressive GBA game to me. The pixel art is fantastic and all the areas are filled to the brim with life and detail... okay maybe not actual life, everything's pretty dead, but it certainly is active! Also the OST kicks ass, I was not expecting it to be this good, but it really is. ESPECIALLY the boss themes, my head was boppin' every time I entered a new fight.
The bosses you fight are all important to the story, which I was surprisingly invested in. It's certainly nothing groundbreaking, but I quite enjoyed it. I don't wanna get into spoilers, but the ending was very sweet. A complaint I can probably see people bring in up is the main character, Silvia. She starts the game pretty standoffish, self-centered, and is really only doing this for the money and the fame. However, she does learn her lesson (a little late by that point if you ask me) and becomes a better person for it. She's still full of herself by the end, but in kind of an endearing way. Also she likes mint chocolate ice cream, so she's cool in my book. The main draw isn't really Silvia though, I was way more intrigued by the mystery surrounding this academy, obviously I can't go into much detail without spoiling, but I think it pays off nicely.
Overall, Evil Tonight is a fun survival horror game that keeps you at the edge of your seat with every enemy you encounter... and every enemy you don't encounter.
2021
I don’t have a whole lot to say on Unsighted, but I just want everyone to know that if you want the true ending, there are two missable objectives: one is atop the cathedral in the first city area. Make sure to select the character you’re talking to, AND NO ONE ELSE, otherwise you’re locked out. Secondly is an item in the fifth dungeon that you can be completely locked out of if you beat the boss before you get it. It should be a pair of "hands".
I absolutely hate missable things, especially if you're not warned about it first, and I want as few people as possible to know the pain of having to replay the entire game just because you missed one thing.
I absolutely hate missable things, especially if you're not warned about it first, and I want as few people as possible to know the pain of having to replay the entire game just because you missed one thing.
2021
If you are an avid Metroid fan, go into this game as blind as possible. It is so worth it.
The core gameplay is so slick and smooth, you feel like a badass the whole time... when you're not getting your ass kicked haha. Overall it's not the hardest Metroid game I've played, that'd be Fusion, but it still provides a decent challenge. The new upgrades they added in Dread are some of my favorites. Especially one of the Aeion things and the last missile upgrade, you know which ones i'm talking about.
While you most certainly play Metroid for the gameplay, Dread isn't lacking in story content, but it's not like Other M's godawful cutscenes and dialogue, no no no no no, they actually thought about it for longer than two seconds. Most cutscenes don't have any dialogue, which is totally cool with me, Metroid is way better at environmental storytelling anyway. There are a few cutscenes that do have spoken dialogue, but it's generally a fictional language. Either that or it's Adam talking to you, but he essentially acts as your tutorial and GPS, so you can ignore him if you want.
Also real quick, whoever designed the map in Dread is a goddamn saint. EVERYTHING is labeled in detail. Speed Booster blocks you have and haven't destroyed, terminals, missile tanks you have and haven't collected, doors you can't open yet. It's so unbelievably helpful and I don't see enough people praising it.
I realistically only have one complaint about Dread. The animations for saving, refilling HP and ammo, getting an elevator, they all take way too long. It gets kinda annoying late game, especially if you're going for 100%. Oh, and I wasn't a huge fan of the music. It wasn't like, awful or anything, just not very memorable. But who cares when everything else is so damn good? Speedruns of this game are fuckin' insane, dude. Clippin' through walls and going into the Z axis is just... chef's kiss.
My conclusion: the 19 year wait was worth it, Dread had just about everything I could've hoped for from a followup to Fusion.
The core gameplay is so slick and smooth, you feel like a badass the whole time... when you're not getting your ass kicked haha. Overall it's not the hardest Metroid game I've played, that'd be Fusion, but it still provides a decent challenge. The new upgrades they added in Dread are some of my favorites. Especially one of the Aeion things and the last missile upgrade, you know which ones i'm talking about.
While you most certainly play Metroid for the gameplay, Dread isn't lacking in story content, but it's not like Other M's godawful cutscenes and dialogue, no no no no no, they actually thought about it for longer than two seconds. Most cutscenes don't have any dialogue, which is totally cool with me, Metroid is way better at environmental storytelling anyway. There are a few cutscenes that do have spoken dialogue, but it's generally a fictional language. Either that or it's Adam talking to you, but he essentially acts as your tutorial and GPS, so you can ignore him if you want.
Also real quick, whoever designed the map in Dread is a goddamn saint. EVERYTHING is labeled in detail. Speed Booster blocks you have and haven't destroyed, terminals, missile tanks you have and haven't collected, doors you can't open yet. It's so unbelievably helpful and I don't see enough people praising it.
I realistically only have one complaint about Dread. The animations for saving, refilling HP and ammo, getting an elevator, they all take way too long. It gets kinda annoying late game, especially if you're going for 100%. Oh, and I wasn't a huge fan of the music. It wasn't like, awful or anything, just not very memorable. But who cares when everything else is so damn good? Speedruns of this game are fuckin' insane, dude. Clippin' through walls and going into the Z axis is just... chef's kiss.
My conclusion: the 19 year wait was worth it, Dread had just about everything I could've hoped for from a followup to Fusion.
2021
This review contains spoilers
First bit of this will be spoiler-free. I'll label the spoilers when I get to them.
There is a lot to like about this game. There are also quite a few things to take issue with. I'm not sure how to feel on the overall experience.
Let's start with the good. First of all, the pixel art is PHENOMENAL. Hands down the best looking pixel art game I've ever played. Each character, even the unimportant NPCs all have their own unique animations. I can't imagine how fucking long that took. It adds so much to the characters.
Speaking of which, nearly every character you come across on your journey is great, actually introduced some new favs of mine, like Isabel and Alva. Isabel especially, she has a great arc. And then sam is just adorable, stealing the show for most of the adventure. She's great in every scene she shows up in. Her childlike wonder is infectious, and surprisingly doesn't come with the annoyances that usually accompany kids. She's all the good parts without any of the bad. Best character in the game. Not my favorite, but the best.
Sam is also the cornerstone of the whole plot. There's this entire mystery that surrounds her which keeps the story moving. It's clear she's not a normal kid... but then what is she? Very intriguing... although I'm not sure it was realized to its fullest potential. I'll cover that in the spoiler section.
The actual gameplay is pretty good too. I like swapping between John and Sam to solve puzzles or defeat enemies. Sam's ability to stun things is pretty fun to work with, albeit it does make most encounters ludicrously simple. Stun, smack with pan 6-7 times, dead. Boom, easy. Clearly, not the strong point of the game.
To help with combat, there's upgrades and cooking. Upgrades can be gotten after finding enough Gear Parts, which are scattered about the world. Adds an extra layer of exploration that I quite enjoyed. The upgrades themselves aren't terribly interesting, merely just "more damage" or "more storage" so that's something I felt could've been worked on. You may also find heart... orbs. I forget what they're called. Basically Heart Pieces, find four, get an extra heart. Easy peasy.
Food is also obtained as minor rewards, which in turn is used for cooking. Cooking's fine, it takes a little too long, and there isn't a whole lot of variety to it. Hell, I didn't even know you could add spices to it until I was an hour away from beating the game. I assume you're supposed to buy them, but I got through just fine with just energy drinks and whatever I found in chests.
(SPOILERS)
Alright. It's time for the bad. Let's start with the elephant in the room. John. From a gameplay perspective, John makes a lot of sense. He's your brawn, the other half of your puzzle solving duo, the... chef. (You can only cook with John in front, which is a little strange.) However, from a story perspective, John makes no godDAMN sense.
John is a silent protagonist, meaning he never talks. But the thing is, he doesn't even talk in-game. Characters literally point out how John never actually speaks. It's funny the first time, but after a while you're just like "please just talk". They don't even do a thing where they make the ending impactful by having him speak then. No, he doesn't say a single word the entire game. He doesn't even express EMOTION. He's just a solid brick wall you play as for some reason. Why do I play as him? I would MUCH rather play as Sam the entire time, she's clearly the main character. Let me play as her???
I get John's supposed to be Sam's parental figure throughout the story, but there's no fucking emotion there. There are two other characters who could've done that much better. William and Alva. William is just a nice, friendly dude who maybe isn't perfect, but he's still a nice guy. And Alva just jives with Sam so well. Alva gave her SHOES. Did John ever do that? NO. Fuck John.
At the end of the game, you're shown flashbacks of John's time with Sam. It's supposed to be really moving, but I felt nothing simply because John felt nothing.
Now, I don't hate silent protagonists. They can be done really well, a la Lea CrossCode, she actually emotes and has feelings. But generally, silent protagonists are simply inferior to ones that actually speak. John encompasses everything wrong with a silent protagonist.
There was a point early on in the story where I really thought John was going to die. That would've been really interesting. Advertise the whole game as making you think he's the main character, give him a whole bunch of slots for upgrades, then BAM. JK, he's dead. Here's Sam, go nuts with her bubble magic. Would've been a great way to progress the story. Give Sam some motivation instead of just kicking her out of the village. That's when you could've met William or Alva on the surface, and they could serve as your second character. But alas...
There's one small issue I have with the game around the midpoint. Right after the climax of the previous chapter, Sam, John, William, and Daniel head east towards Ester City. Before you get there however, there's this... weird fuckin' part where you get on this train called "Monkollywood". Basically an accurate portrayal of modern day Hollywood, filled with, you guessed it, monkeys.
It is by far the silliest portion of the game, and it does not need to be there. They KINDA justify it at the end, but it's really just filler. It's made worse by the fact that you go from the highest high of the game thus far, to... whatever the fuck this is. I'unno, it was a weird decision. I think I get why some people have gripes with Mother 3 now.
Now... those're really the only issues I have with Eastward. Granted, John is a BIG fuckin' issue, but y'know. However, there is one other thing I'd like to touch upon. There are three fake-out deaths in this game, and one real death, (at least in terms of important characters). John, who gets injured at the very beginning of the game. Daniel, who gets blown apart just before the final chapter. And Sam who… “sacrifices” herself at the very very end of the game. Now, I hate fake-out deaths, but there’s a bigger issue at play here. The only character who dies in this game is Alva, who, if you don’t know, is an explicitly gay character, (or at least wlw, I’unno, she could be bi or pan or something). Obviously that’s kind of an issue if you know how common that trope is. But that’s not all, the way she dies is in poor taste too, she gets inured off-screen, spends like half the game in a coma, and then dies off-screen as well. What makes it worse, is that Isabel doesn't even get a proper sendoff to her arc and character. It literally just fades to black and you never see her again.
It fucking SUCKS because Alva is legitimately one of my favorite characters in the whole game. As a queer character, and even just a character in general, she is handled very well for the time she gets. Her interactions with Isabel are adorable and heart-warming, and she even acts like a mother figure for Sam (Which I guess makes it even more painful when she dies, and it works, but like… c’mon, you let JOHN live and not Alva?). You see the two conflicting forces at play here? To me, it sounds like there was some conflict during development with two very opposing viewpoints, and this is what they settled on. This whole scenario has me very mixed, if other characters had died and STAYED dead, I might not be as bothered by this. If we were actually shown how she dies, I might not be as bothered by this. And if she lived… well this wouldn’t even be an issue.
If I were to rewrite this whole shebackle, I would’ve gone about it in one of two ways.
1. Solomon, one of the (kinda) prominent villains in the game is shown injuring Alva before you fight him. (In the actual game, Solomon isn’t involved in the slightest, but you still fight him for some reason.) Then, towards the end of the game, after you’ve had your duel with Isabel, you’re shown a flashback of Alva’s final moments with her. Very touching, very heart-rending. Maybe you see Isabel kill herself after you leave, just so she can be with her. Or like, the implication of such so it doesn’t get too gruesome.
2. Starts the same as the first scenario, as I really enjoy the arc Isabel goes through, but instead at the end of the game, Alva is healed through whatever bullshit goes on with Charon. Maybe in exchange for Alva’s safety, she offers to be controlled by Mother so you still get your duel with her. Then at the end Alva could come in and bring her back to her senses… or something like that, I’unno. The Charon/Lab/Mother stuff is all super vague and I barely understand it. Point is, because it’s so vague, a scenario could’ve panned out like that and it still would’ve been believable.
Anyway that was just a long-winded way to say I don’t think Alva should’ve died, but if she were going to, there were ways to go about it that didn’t feel so empty and heartless. Who knows? Maybe iF JOHN WASN’T AROUND, THINGS WOULD’VE PANNED OUT DIFFERENTLY.
(SPOILERS END)
I think that pretty much wraps up my thoughts on Eastward. An otherwise great game marred by John. Definitely worth it if you can stand John though.
There is a lot to like about this game. There are also quite a few things to take issue with. I'm not sure how to feel on the overall experience.
Let's start with the good. First of all, the pixel art is PHENOMENAL. Hands down the best looking pixel art game I've ever played. Each character, even the unimportant NPCs all have their own unique animations. I can't imagine how fucking long that took. It adds so much to the characters.
Speaking of which, nearly every character you come across on your journey is great, actually introduced some new favs of mine, like Isabel and Alva. Isabel especially, she has a great arc. And then sam is just adorable, stealing the show for most of the adventure. She's great in every scene she shows up in. Her childlike wonder is infectious, and surprisingly doesn't come with the annoyances that usually accompany kids. She's all the good parts without any of the bad. Best character in the game. Not my favorite, but the best.
Sam is also the cornerstone of the whole plot. There's this entire mystery that surrounds her which keeps the story moving. It's clear she's not a normal kid... but then what is she? Very intriguing... although I'm not sure it was realized to its fullest potential. I'll cover that in the spoiler section.
The actual gameplay is pretty good too. I like swapping between John and Sam to solve puzzles or defeat enemies. Sam's ability to stun things is pretty fun to work with, albeit it does make most encounters ludicrously simple. Stun, smack with pan 6-7 times, dead. Boom, easy. Clearly, not the strong point of the game.
To help with combat, there's upgrades and cooking. Upgrades can be gotten after finding enough Gear Parts, which are scattered about the world. Adds an extra layer of exploration that I quite enjoyed. The upgrades themselves aren't terribly interesting, merely just "more damage" or "more storage" so that's something I felt could've been worked on. You may also find heart... orbs. I forget what they're called. Basically Heart Pieces, find four, get an extra heart. Easy peasy.
Food is also obtained as minor rewards, which in turn is used for cooking. Cooking's fine, it takes a little too long, and there isn't a whole lot of variety to it. Hell, I didn't even know you could add spices to it until I was an hour away from beating the game. I assume you're supposed to buy them, but I got through just fine with just energy drinks and whatever I found in chests.
(SPOILERS)
Alright. It's time for the bad. Let's start with the elephant in the room. John. From a gameplay perspective, John makes a lot of sense. He's your brawn, the other half of your puzzle solving duo, the... chef. (You can only cook with John in front, which is a little strange.) However, from a story perspective, John makes no godDAMN sense.
John is a silent protagonist, meaning he never talks. But the thing is, he doesn't even talk in-game. Characters literally point out how John never actually speaks. It's funny the first time, but after a while you're just like "please just talk". They don't even do a thing where they make the ending impactful by having him speak then. No, he doesn't say a single word the entire game. He doesn't even express EMOTION. He's just a solid brick wall you play as for some reason. Why do I play as him? I would MUCH rather play as Sam the entire time, she's clearly the main character. Let me play as her???
I get John's supposed to be Sam's parental figure throughout the story, but there's no fucking emotion there. There are two other characters who could've done that much better. William and Alva. William is just a nice, friendly dude who maybe isn't perfect, but he's still a nice guy. And Alva just jives with Sam so well. Alva gave her SHOES. Did John ever do that? NO. Fuck John.
At the end of the game, you're shown flashbacks of John's time with Sam. It's supposed to be really moving, but I felt nothing simply because John felt nothing.
Now, I don't hate silent protagonists. They can be done really well, a la Lea CrossCode, she actually emotes and has feelings. But generally, silent protagonists are simply inferior to ones that actually speak. John encompasses everything wrong with a silent protagonist.
There was a point early on in the story where I really thought John was going to die. That would've been really interesting. Advertise the whole game as making you think he's the main character, give him a whole bunch of slots for upgrades, then BAM. JK, he's dead. Here's Sam, go nuts with her bubble magic. Would've been a great way to progress the story. Give Sam some motivation instead of just kicking her out of the village. That's when you could've met William or Alva on the surface, and they could serve as your second character. But alas...
There's one small issue I have with the game around the midpoint. Right after the climax of the previous chapter, Sam, John, William, and Daniel head east towards Ester City. Before you get there however, there's this... weird fuckin' part where you get on this train called "Monkollywood". Basically an accurate portrayal of modern day Hollywood, filled with, you guessed it, monkeys.
It is by far the silliest portion of the game, and it does not need to be there. They KINDA justify it at the end, but it's really just filler. It's made worse by the fact that you go from the highest high of the game thus far, to... whatever the fuck this is. I'unno, it was a weird decision. I think I get why some people have gripes with Mother 3 now.
Now... those're really the only issues I have with Eastward. Granted, John is a BIG fuckin' issue, but y'know. However, there is one other thing I'd like to touch upon. There are three fake-out deaths in this game, and one real death, (at least in terms of important characters). John, who gets injured at the very beginning of the game. Daniel, who gets blown apart just before the final chapter. And Sam who… “sacrifices” herself at the very very end of the game. Now, I hate fake-out deaths, but there’s a bigger issue at play here. The only character who dies in this game is Alva, who, if you don’t know, is an explicitly gay character, (or at least wlw, I’unno, she could be bi or pan or something). Obviously that’s kind of an issue if you know how common that trope is. But that’s not all, the way she dies is in poor taste too, she gets inured off-screen, spends like half the game in a coma, and then dies off-screen as well. What makes it worse, is that Isabel doesn't even get a proper sendoff to her arc and character. It literally just fades to black and you never see her again.
It fucking SUCKS because Alva is legitimately one of my favorite characters in the whole game. As a queer character, and even just a character in general, she is handled very well for the time she gets. Her interactions with Isabel are adorable and heart-warming, and she even acts like a mother figure for Sam (Which I guess makes it even more painful when she dies, and it works, but like… c’mon, you let JOHN live and not Alva?). You see the two conflicting forces at play here? To me, it sounds like there was some conflict during development with two very opposing viewpoints, and this is what they settled on. This whole scenario has me very mixed, if other characters had died and STAYED dead, I might not be as bothered by this. If we were actually shown how she dies, I might not be as bothered by this. And if she lived… well this wouldn’t even be an issue.
If I were to rewrite this whole shebackle, I would’ve gone about it in one of two ways.
1. Solomon, one of the (kinda) prominent villains in the game is shown injuring Alva before you fight him. (In the actual game, Solomon isn’t involved in the slightest, but you still fight him for some reason.) Then, towards the end of the game, after you’ve had your duel with Isabel, you’re shown a flashback of Alva’s final moments with her. Very touching, very heart-rending. Maybe you see Isabel kill herself after you leave, just so she can be with her. Or like, the implication of such so it doesn’t get too gruesome.
2. Starts the same as the first scenario, as I really enjoy the arc Isabel goes through, but instead at the end of the game, Alva is healed through whatever bullshit goes on with Charon. Maybe in exchange for Alva’s safety, she offers to be controlled by Mother so you still get your duel with her. Then at the end Alva could come in and bring her back to her senses… or something like that, I’unno. The Charon/Lab/Mother stuff is all super vague and I barely understand it. Point is, because it’s so vague, a scenario could’ve panned out like that and it still would’ve been believable.
Anyway that was just a long-winded way to say I don’t think Alva should’ve died, but if she were going to, there were ways to go about it that didn’t feel so empty and heartless. Who knows? Maybe iF JOHN WASN’T AROUND, THINGS WOULD’VE PANNED OUT DIFFERENTLY.
(SPOILERS END)
I think that pretty much wraps up my thoughts on Eastward. An otherwise great game marred by John. Definitely worth it if you can stand John though.
2020
It's been seven years since I last cried. This finally broke me. It hit extra hard with the character May and I sharing a name.
Answers the age old question of "what if Dialga and Palkia were lesbians?"
PLAY THIS GAME. IT'S TWENTY DOLLARS. THE DLC IS TEN. JESUS CHRIST. WHY HASN'T EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA PLAYED THIS ALREADY????
2018
I think a lot of people exaggerate how bad the story is. All eight are very fun to run through, and are compressed into bite-sized pieces that you can tackle in any order you want. Out of the bunch, I feel Tressa's is the only one that's lacking due to the smaller scale and how her final boss just comes outta nowhere. Despite this, I still find it enjoyable on repeat playthroughs, not every story needs to have world-ending stakes, sometimes you just want a cozy, good-feel story, y'know?
People are quick to bring up the "but the party doesn't interact with each other" which is just blatantly false, as there are quite a few interactions with all the characters in the tavern. However, I will say that likely isn't enough for some people. You don't get to see the travelers overcome obstacles together, or pick each other up when they're down, or get into arguments. It is... lacking. Obviously I think the game would be better for it if characters did all that, but Octopath still has a lot to offer in terms of story.
The individual stories could each be a game by themselves and I'd be satisfied but HOO BOY, don't even get me started on the finale. Forget that boss fight, that level curve is not okay, but MAN, all those revelations you get right before completely changes how you view all the stories.
You don't need me to tell you how great everything else is, because it probably has the best combat, art direction, and music in any RPG I've ever played, it just seems to be the story everyone disagrees on. And I will admit, there are definitely better ones out there, but it is by no means bad. Anyway, Octopath is very good, please play it.
People are quick to bring up the "but the party doesn't interact with each other" which is just blatantly false, as there are quite a few interactions with all the characters in the tavern. However, I will say that likely isn't enough for some people. You don't get to see the travelers overcome obstacles together, or pick each other up when they're down, or get into arguments. It is... lacking. Obviously I think the game would be better for it if characters did all that, but Octopath still has a lot to offer in terms of story.
The individual stories could each be a game by themselves and I'd be satisfied but HOO BOY, don't even get me started on the finale. Forget that boss fight, that level curve is not okay, but MAN, all those revelations you get right before completely changes how you view all the stories.
You don't need me to tell you how great everything else is, because it probably has the best combat, art direction, and music in any RPG I've ever played, it just seems to be the story everyone disagrees on. And I will admit, there are definitely better ones out there, but it is by no means bad. Anyway, Octopath is very good, please play it.