LordNerevar76
2024
A masterpiece of curiosity-driven exploration, layered puzzle mechanics, and fine-tuned platforming. The atmosphere is both vibrant and haunting, but always visually spectacular. Animal Well is an incredible adventure that is perfectly scoped in terms of length and size. It's an addicting metroidvania that balances simplicity and complexity masterfully. Thank you Billy Basso!
On the whole, Dirge is a boring and outdated shooter from a bygone era. The story is serviceable, but overcomplicates itself in the vein of many 21st century Square titles. I can appreciate the quality of the visuals and overall presentation for a PS2 game, and the minor RPG mechanics were ahead of their time (even if underwhelming in execution). Gameplay-wise though, Dirge is mostly a spammy shooter with random difficulty spikes, rote level design, and it goes on longer than it should. Vincent Valentine is and always will be a badass character, but this FF spin off can be left in the past.
I came into Crisis Core with low expectations due to its portable origin, lower critic scores, and deviation from the normal FF formula. The game certainly has its flaws: an overcomplicated story, cringe-inducing dialogue, and often painfully obvious PSP design in terms of vacuously simple and brisk mission structure. That all said, however, Crisis Core is greater than the sum of its parts. Its cringiness ends up possessing intentional charm, most clearly seen in the cheery protagonist Zack. Its combat is a smooth and nimble take on action RPG battles. And as a prologue to FF7, it provides both great fan service and intriguing backbone to the original title. In the end, it's hard to hate the vision at the heart of Crisis Core, and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. So if you were to ask a rating from me? Gongaga.
Looking back, Oblivion feels a bit like the awkward teenage years of the Elder Scrolls. TES was transitioning from a more hardcore, CRPG, - borderline niche - approach in Morrowind to eventually become the mega successful and more approachable manifestation in Skyrim. While Oblivion had some of the set dressing of older RPGs, and also was a more accessible title, it traded off a lot of depth from Morrowind while still retaining a lot of jank (most prominently displayed in the awkward NPC interactions). Nevertheless, Oblivion carried the Elder Scrolls torch forward and despite making many mistakes, has an undeniable charm in its lighthearted fantasy approach and variety and quality of quests. It's another amazing world to get lost in and play for hundreds of hours, and it holds a special place in my heart.
Despite its recency making it difficult to nail down exactly how I feel about Tears, I do know it contains one of the greatest worlds in gaming. Nintendo took a hammer and chisel to every aspect of Breath of the Wild's world and filled every nook and cranny with engaging content, from caves, to wells, NPCs, side quests, puzzles, enemy encampments, more shrines, and of course even more Koroks. This game is FILLED with fun stuff to do and discover despite "re-using" the previous map, and the new core mechanics of the insanely innovative ultrahand as well as the additional areas in the sky and depths mean playing TOTK is always a blast.
Twilight Princess is an excellent sequel to Ocarina of Time and its true successor. While Windwaker took an alternate approach with a more stylized look and a greater focus on navigating an ocean, Twilight Princess effectively iterated directly on Ocarina's look and overall design. TP's dungeons are possibly the best in the series, being far more polished than Windwaker's, and its story may also be the strongest in the series. It greatly succeeded at balancing an epic narrative, likable characters, a larger world to explore, and great set-pieces (and the aforementioned dungeons) to create one of the finest action-adventure experiences ever made.
2019
The most unique experience I've ever had with a video game. It won't stick with everyone, but for those with whom it does, it's an incredibly rewarding adventure. The feelings of discovery and awe follow you up to the very end of the game. One of the few video game endings where I've gotten so emotional.
It's impossible to summarize Skyrim succinctly, but I'll try. The game perfectly captures fantasy roleplaying, truly putting yourself in the shoes of whatever type of character you want to play. You grow to love the vast and memorable world, the busy towns, the many dungeons, even the sometimes-wonky NPCs. That feeling of something being around every corner to attain, defeat, or just see is incredible. It's extremely hard to put down.
I may be a Morrowboomer, but I can't help but love the game that introduced me to Elder Scrolls. It's breadth, immersion, intricately detailed world, fascinating lore, myriad of factions, and variety of playstyles draws me back time and time again. And if you ask nicely, I'll make special price, just for you my friend.
It's hard to describe what it's like playing BOTW for the first time. It encapsulates exploration and discovery better than any game ever made. Its beautiful and massive world, and its innovative mechanics and physics make it a joy to play for hundreds of hours.
Ocarina set the standard for 3D Zelda and effectively all 3D action games moving forward. It is the quintessential video game, full of charm, challenge, and adventure. Overall it still holds up pretty well, and it's an extremely nostalgic title for me.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is probably the best video game package ever made. It is an absolute dream crossover of dozens of different video games featuring over 80 characters, over a hundred stages, a thousand music tracks, a meaty single player mode, and more. It's the culmination of twenty years of Smash Bros. development and features a highly refined fighting system that's very accessible but very competitive. For any fan of video games, Ultimate is a love letter to the industry as a whole and is a monumental achievement as a piece of media. Thank you Sakurai!
Beaten Wii. Shelved playthrough through on emulated GC.
Emulated.Majora's Mask probably has the greatest premise in all of gaming - three days until the world ends, unless you can find a way to stop it. The atmosphere is tense - the moon hangs ominously overhead, the situation causes villagers to contemplate emergency plans (or insecurely ignore it), and the ticking of the clock can fray nerves during dungeon runs. Clocktown is also just a really neat place to explore and converse with the many different NPCs, helping fulfill the many side quests in the game. And the ending shines a bright spot on a game about death... it is a truly unique Zelda title.
Played on switch. Guide.