Limp_Mantis
2001
This review contains spoilers
The story is predictably boring and shallow, any form of depth that could be perceived in it has no real basis whatsoever and is only through rigorous over-analyzation by fans who haven’t had a single good Silent Hill release in decades, all the characters with the exception of Mary are badly written, not to mention the dialogue feels as if it’s been jotted down by an emotionless robot, the intrigue is stale and you have no real reason to care for either Mary nor James.
The voice acting is as alive as a fish out of water, it’s completely monotonous, nobody talks like that unless they’re basement dwellers who haven’t had any form of social interaction in decades, no wonder gamers adore it.
The gameplay is awful, it’s existence is a disrespect to any videogame with well thought out and complex mechanics and controls. No. I don’t care for your made-up excuses such as “ B-But James is a civilian who can’t handle weapons!” Not only is that a stupid form of applying logic to video game mechanics where they shouldn’t be applied, like in-gameplay zombie bites in Resident Evil turning you into a zombie, that would be a disastrously boring game and basically what Silent Hill 2 ended up doing, but these design choices are not even intentional, there isn’t a single interview with any developer or director that says they are, you came up with these excuses to protect the game from any form of scrutiny and criticism because you’re manchildren who cannot handle any opposing opinion whatsoever.
The voice acting is as alive as a fish out of water, it’s completely monotonous, nobody talks like that unless they’re basement dwellers who haven’t had any form of social interaction in decades, no wonder gamers adore it.
The gameplay is awful, it’s existence is a disrespect to any videogame with well thought out and complex mechanics and controls. No. I don’t care for your made-up excuses such as “ B-But James is a civilian who can’t handle weapons!” Not only is that a stupid form of applying logic to video game mechanics where they shouldn’t be applied, like in-gameplay zombie bites in Resident Evil turning you into a zombie, that would be a disastrously boring game and basically what Silent Hill 2 ended up doing, but these design choices are not even intentional, there isn’t a single interview with any developer or director that says they are, you came up with these excuses to protect the game from any form of scrutiny and criticism because you’re manchildren who cannot handle any opposing opinion whatsoever.
A Tragedy In Balancing:
Going Commando may have fun, exhilarating combat, fluid movement and a wide array of weapons, but what good is any of that in a game that insists upon locking itself into a vicious, self absorbing form of vertical progression? the more you progress, the more useless your weapons become. In the original and most adventure games, only a few hits will deal with all the small fry, but in Going Commando, the regular enemies become more and more powerful until they take about half of your (even upgraded) pistol ammo away, this continues until midgame where the only viable options of playing the game are The Bouncer (exploding ball weapon) The Hoverbomb Gun (exploding ball weapon) and Synthenoids (flying sentry allies), completely obliterating the variety and slickness of the game, what in the beginning was a fun, fluid shooter becomes a dreadful loop of getting more bolts to get more overpriced armor and to actually get weapons that do meaningful damage. And that’s another aspect I’m gonna touch upon, unless you follow online guides on bolt farms, you’re gonna be completely left in the dust, i did all the gladiator challenges and dogfight challenges (which net you bolts) and i still found myself severely lacking bolts, the armor for example is necessary otherwise you get 3-shotted, and it’s price rises with further versions, going from 50K to 100K to 200K and etc, the weapons that actually matter for midgame are all overpriced too. It ultimately has good parts but it’s brought down by nonexistent gameplay flow.
Going Commando may have fun, exhilarating combat, fluid movement and a wide array of weapons, but what good is any of that in a game that insists upon locking itself into a vicious, self absorbing form of vertical progression? the more you progress, the more useless your weapons become. In the original and most adventure games, only a few hits will deal with all the small fry, but in Going Commando, the regular enemies become more and more powerful until they take about half of your (even upgraded) pistol ammo away, this continues until midgame where the only viable options of playing the game are The Bouncer (exploding ball weapon) The Hoverbomb Gun (exploding ball weapon) and Synthenoids (flying sentry allies), completely obliterating the variety and slickness of the game, what in the beginning was a fun, fluid shooter becomes a dreadful loop of getting more bolts to get more overpriced armor and to actually get weapons that do meaningful damage. And that’s another aspect I’m gonna touch upon, unless you follow online guides on bolt farms, you’re gonna be completely left in the dust, i did all the gladiator challenges and dogfight challenges (which net you bolts) and i still found myself severely lacking bolts, the armor for example is necessary otherwise you get 3-shotted, and it’s price rises with further versions, going from 50K to 100K to 200K and etc, the weapons that actually matter for midgame are all overpriced too. It ultimately has good parts but it’s brought down by nonexistent gameplay flow.
A complete joke of an “RPG” that encapsulates every bad design decision to come regarding the RPG genre. Awful and useless skills, nonexistent variety for builds, you’re locked into 3 classes with yet another set of useless and boring skills that don’t enhance the role playing in any meaningful manner. The over-world’s level design is needlessly convoluted, mountains blocking your way and leading you down a contrived linear path, making an already snoozefest game even more of a chore to go through, with laughably slow “running” and no mounts, you spend the vast majority of your time running from quest marker to quest marker, with those quests themselves requiring you to just meet someone, who then tells you to go to a place. And to make matters worse it has ridiculous side quest bloat, every 20 steps you take in the overworld you’ll be greeted by a side quest that has no connection (thematic or otherwise) or bearing on the main story, all of them revolve around someone being lost/dead and their friend/lover/compatriot asking you to find them/take revenge/secure their remains, every single one.
2016
This review contains spoilers
information overload and the post truth age it causes can and will easily lead one down an existential rabbit hole, a never-ending cycle of unanswerable questions and half-truths, Eden had to suffer through the cold, dour world of logic and pure facts, information overload caused her to snap and fall to a self induced slumber to numb the pain until the player awakened her through making simple contact and touch, a feeling she hasn’t experienced before, which brought her to the ultimate realization, human connection and bonds are what truly matter in the end. Its a tragedy that Eden will only ever experience a fraction of that connection, she’s forever locked within the cold, jagged, emotionless world of truth. post modern existence and the digitization of life would only lead humanity down a terrible road.
the upgrade system dubbed evolution is a unique and genius way of tying the game’s themes into the gameplay as can be seen in how the player constantly evolves and de-volves due to numerous attacks from corrupted data, loss of oneself is quick to happen, and slow to regain.
the upgrade system dubbed evolution is a unique and genius way of tying the game’s themes into the gameplay as can be seen in how the player constantly evolves and de-volves due to numerous attacks from corrupted data, loss of oneself is quick to happen, and slow to regain.
Could’ve had playable Harley Quinn but they decided on a DLC with Batman and his pissboy, who the fuck gives a shit about Robin? Seriously.
2007
Poor man’s CRPG, laughable lack of worthwhile decision making, the dialogue wheel is inaccurate most of the time and leads to confusion and irritation, you’d pick something and the character says something else ENTIRELY, I was baffled to the point where I thought it was bugging out on me and picking other choices due to the disparity, its especially mind boggling coming from a company as experienced in CRPG’s as Bioware, the gameplay is unremarkable and okay. The main plot feels like its lacking a bigger part of the story, like its mostly set up, it could’ve been condensed into a 5 hour prologue. Whats there is fine, again nothing really remarkable, ME is dedicated to being average to a detriment. Oh and the companions all suck, they don’t hold a candle to Dragon Age’s or Baldur Gate’s companions.
2016
Im fond of walking sims, story/cutscene heavy games, and etc but this just isn’t it, there’s no attempt whatsoever at being a video-game here to the point where labeling it a video-game becomes insulting towards actual games, the interactivity is subpar and amounts to you just opening doors and walking forward, no exploration, no well made environments, its a barren & boring jumbled mess consisting of constant jump cuts, multiple backseat car sections and nonsensical pretentious storytelling, on top of all of this it looks hideous, the textures are all poorly made and the lighting is horrible, especially considering it has abhorrent color banding issues.
Story:
At the very center and core of the story is Maki Sonomura, who’s the literal subject of multiple Jungian Archetypes, the Self (real Maki), the Shadow (Aki & Pandora), and the Persona (ideal Maki) it is later revealed in the story that through a connection with the DEVA system, Maki created her “ideal” perfect world, but as Jung said “A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. Whenever we give up, leave behind, and forget too much, there is always the danger that things that we have neglected will return with added force.” Maki’s shadow selves manage to emerge and wreak havoc upon Maki’s ideal world, and now the team’s forced to face the reality of the situation after defeating Kandori, they go through more dungeons and eventually reach the soul world, which is yet another literal manifestation of Carl Jung’s idea’s, the Collective Unconsciousness, it’s where the ideal Maki confronts and changes the real Maki, who’s revealed to be a pessimistic loner, but that pessimism eventually manifests itself into Maki’s most dangerous incarnation, Pandora, who wishes to destroy the world and everyone in it, but fortunately is defeated by Ideal Maki & Co.
Ultimately Persona 1’s story is one of self-discovery and hope, hope for the present, hope for the future, and hope for humanity.
Gameplay:
It is incorporated into the essence of the story in such a manner that can only be deemed as genius, requiring the usage of multiple Persona’s to overcome difficult encounters, alluring to the Jungian Archetype of the same name.
It’s easy to get into and very addictive, the grid system is my favorite JRPG gameplay mechanic, allowing you to further strategize by having the placement of characters matter to what they can and cannot hit, demon negotiations are as fun as ever and perhaps my favorite in P1, each character has 5 dialogue options to choose from, while the demons possess 4 main emotions you can trigger, it all makes for varied and fun negotiations
Graphics:
Due to its strong art direction (god bless Kazuma Kaneko) it manages to still hold up to today, with impressively colorful and emotive character sprites, decent animations, and a not-so-bad world
“The smiles you wear are no longer false masks, you may find yourselves troubled or suffering or lost in the future, but there is nothing to fear, look to your soul for your true self, no matter what trials you may face, that will be enough for you to weather the storm, now go forth, into your bright futures”
At the very center and core of the story is Maki Sonomura, who’s the literal subject of multiple Jungian Archetypes, the Self (real Maki), the Shadow (Aki & Pandora), and the Persona (ideal Maki) it is later revealed in the story that through a connection with the DEVA system, Maki created her “ideal” perfect world, but as Jung said “A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. Whenever we give up, leave behind, and forget too much, there is always the danger that things that we have neglected will return with added force.” Maki’s shadow selves manage to emerge and wreak havoc upon Maki’s ideal world, and now the team’s forced to face the reality of the situation after defeating Kandori, they go through more dungeons and eventually reach the soul world, which is yet another literal manifestation of Carl Jung’s idea’s, the Collective Unconsciousness, it’s where the ideal Maki confronts and changes the real Maki, who’s revealed to be a pessimistic loner, but that pessimism eventually manifests itself into Maki’s most dangerous incarnation, Pandora, who wishes to destroy the world and everyone in it, but fortunately is defeated by Ideal Maki & Co.
Ultimately Persona 1’s story is one of self-discovery and hope, hope for the present, hope for the future, and hope for humanity.
Gameplay:
It is incorporated into the essence of the story in such a manner that can only be deemed as genius, requiring the usage of multiple Persona’s to overcome difficult encounters, alluring to the Jungian Archetype of the same name.
It’s easy to get into and very addictive, the grid system is my favorite JRPG gameplay mechanic, allowing you to further strategize by having the placement of characters matter to what they can and cannot hit, demon negotiations are as fun as ever and perhaps my favorite in P1, each character has 5 dialogue options to choose from, while the demons possess 4 main emotions you can trigger, it all makes for varied and fun negotiations
Graphics:
Due to its strong art direction (god bless Kazuma Kaneko) it manages to still hold up to today, with impressively colorful and emotive character sprites, decent animations, and a not-so-bad world
“The smiles you wear are no longer false masks, you may find yourselves troubled or suffering or lost in the future, but there is nothing to fear, look to your soul for your true self, no matter what trials you may face, that will be enough for you to weather the storm, now go forth, into your bright futures”
1999
It’s stupid, was likely all thought of in one evening where the higher ups were on multiple mind altering drugs, badly written, mechanically broken, the romance between the two main characters is forced, Squall’s development in the middle of the game is sudden and random, no one else gets any development, its a complete waste of budget and Uematsu, Nomura, Amano and everyone else that worked on its FMV’s, graphics and environments talent, yet in spite of it all I can’t say i hate it, not in a guilty pleasure way, fuck that term, but the game feels so genuine in its stupidity, as in it buys the shit its peddling, that it becomes entertaining to go through, and I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the incredible environmental and musical works, pieces like The Man with the Machine Gun, (especially) Ride On, Force Your Way, Eyes on Me and many more I’m sure i neglected to mention, being able to move while FMV’s were being played is something i still marvel at, it’s incredible, the FMV’s themselves are also very well done and I especially liked the ending sequence one where it got all wobbly and fucked up. Insane game.
2000
Every single character is one note, you hear them complain about something once and you get what they’re gonna say for the rest of the game, woah!!! should i serve or not serve the muh queen and muh princess?!? It’s especially bad for the villains cause they’re saturday morning cartoon tier, the combat is dull, un-engaging and horribly slow, it has no merits whatsoever, wow i really needed to see a 15 second camera pan of shitty looking psx environment before every single goddamn fight, this game is redditcore.
The only DLC worth logging, this was one of the most incredible and emotional stories I ever experienced in gaming, the visuals are harrowing and haunting to this day, exceptional work by everyone on the team.
Zzzz
1991
— Replay —
It was a pretty exquisite experience, the way the game was visually coherent in its presentation till the very end is astonishing, especially the forest leading up to the very door of Dracula’s Castle and the castle itself, from a downtrodden, broken down beginning section to an entire stage fully covered in all kinds of treasure, highlighting the vanity of the ever illusive Dracula.
Gameplay wise my complaint is some bullshit in the later stages and the new whip gimmick being just that, a gimmick, it’s never really necessary and if anything kind of breaks the difficulty of the game in earlier stages, don’t get me wrong i like it and i find it fun but it had so much untapped potential and that aspect leaves me disappointed. The game overall felt like a worse version of Rondo of Blood, especially the Dracula boss, I love it lots but it just doesn’t compare to Rondo. Music was fantastic and visuals were superb.
It was a pretty exquisite experience, the way the game was visually coherent in its presentation till the very end is astonishing, especially the forest leading up to the very door of Dracula’s Castle and the castle itself, from a downtrodden, broken down beginning section to an entire stage fully covered in all kinds of treasure, highlighting the vanity of the ever illusive Dracula.
Gameplay wise my complaint is some bullshit in the later stages and the new whip gimmick being just that, a gimmick, it’s never really necessary and if anything kind of breaks the difficulty of the game in earlier stages, don’t get me wrong i like it and i find it fun but it had so much untapped potential and that aspect leaves me disappointed. The game overall felt like a worse version of Rondo of Blood, especially the Dracula boss, I love it lots but it just doesn’t compare to Rondo. Music was fantastic and visuals were superb.
2007
Awfully generic with terrible gameplay to boot, kicking off my horror list with a banger..
2011
There’s a skeleton of a game that could’ve been an intense and incredible horror experience, a metroidvania about exploring a wrecked spaceship that may be filled with H.R. Giger designed aliens and deadly robots? Fuck yeah! But it’s execution leaves a lot to be desired, the gameplay is trite, it has no difficulty whatsoever and was clearly an afterthought considering how janky it is, even aliens can be taken down with ease, or you can just spam dodge through everyone. The animations and the way enemies react to damage is not great either, and the music was annoying, i wish more games understood that subtlety, silence and ambience can offer a better horror experience over a generic intense action track thats repeated endlessly.