Lower_Case_M
2003
(https://youtu.be/35YXvmEluYc?si=6sm75qPc4hx2utk9)
I don’t really remember when I brought this game onto my PC but I am certainly glad I did take the short time to download this game. Another challenge that would be faced with this game would be the language barrier, however, the game isn’t story heavy enough to burden anyone interested in this game. Meaning that every other aspect of this game is strong enough that the barrier isn’t an issue, but we’re getting to that.
The playstyle of Duo Princess isn’t unique to itself but isn’t commonly seen in games, a platforming beat-em-up with a nice hybrid mix of Brave Fencer Musashi and some of the middle Ys titles, mainly Ys: Ark of Napishtim. The handling of the character itself, placed as a sprite, is okay but nothing special or something that regards itself more than average. Some of the beat-em-up aspects come in where the game will trap you in an area, unable to progress, unless you obliterate this horde of what can only be a group of small forest creatures of various colors. There isn’t much to the actual combat, spam attack and crowd control, you are given magic attacks charged with MP but they’re ok, except for the meteor you get on the last two levels, all bosses from there get destroyed from that.
The story, or at least what I can gather from my small amount of Japanese, is that you play a cast of two sisters and pick from either Mint or Maya, Mint uses close range and Maya is long magic bursts. Both have different sets of magic spells they unlock through the game and are useful. The cutscenes between each level lose their luster when you can’t read what’s going on, if you can, it’s just charming, not great.
Music, the music is great, charming, and whimsical at heart, makes me feel funny, like butterflies in my stomach. There isn’t a lot to it, in fact, it’s about five songs in total, and it’s not memorable, but it’s great. Some may be able to listen to the OST while listening to this review, ill link it at the top of the review.
All in all, yeah, the game is short, has some shortcomings from being made as a fan project of a forgotten Square Enix game but there’s a lot of charm and passion placed into the game. It’s short and free so I cannot see any reason not to visit this truly hidden indie gem of a game.
I don’t really remember when I brought this game onto my PC but I am certainly glad I did take the short time to download this game. Another challenge that would be faced with this game would be the language barrier, however, the game isn’t story heavy enough to burden anyone interested in this game. Meaning that every other aspect of this game is strong enough that the barrier isn’t an issue, but we’re getting to that.
The playstyle of Duo Princess isn’t unique to itself but isn’t commonly seen in games, a platforming beat-em-up with a nice hybrid mix of Brave Fencer Musashi and some of the middle Ys titles, mainly Ys: Ark of Napishtim. The handling of the character itself, placed as a sprite, is okay but nothing special or something that regards itself more than average. Some of the beat-em-up aspects come in where the game will trap you in an area, unable to progress, unless you obliterate this horde of what can only be a group of small forest creatures of various colors. There isn’t much to the actual combat, spam attack and crowd control, you are given magic attacks charged with MP but they’re ok, except for the meteor you get on the last two levels, all bosses from there get destroyed from that.
The story, or at least what I can gather from my small amount of Japanese, is that you play a cast of two sisters and pick from either Mint or Maya, Mint uses close range and Maya is long magic bursts. Both have different sets of magic spells they unlock through the game and are useful. The cutscenes between each level lose their luster when you can’t read what’s going on, if you can, it’s just charming, not great.
Music, the music is great, charming, and whimsical at heart, makes me feel funny, like butterflies in my stomach. There isn’t a lot to it, in fact, it’s about five songs in total, and it’s not memorable, but it’s great. Some may be able to listen to the OST while listening to this review, ill link it at the top of the review.
All in all, yeah, the game is short, has some shortcomings from being made as a fan project of a forgotten Square Enix game but there’s a lot of charm and passion placed into the game. It’s short and free so I cannot see any reason not to visit this truly hidden indie gem of a game.
Its an ok ace combat like game with some elements of old armored core in there. The sprites are charming and the music is great. It lacks in consistently good mission design and 3d models, and the controls of the jets are a little off, I would still recommend playing this game even with its flaws.
2024
I really don't know what I expected from a free game from one man with a few reviews but it wasn't this low! Game barely ran for me and when it did, the controls didn't work, there was no options menu, the volume was much too loud, to finish this off, I couldn't even quit the game normally. At least the visuals and music were ok.
2014
I had a more detailed review ready for this game but by the end of it, I really had nothing to say or wanted to say anything about it. I was completely exhausted by the end of this short game, which is a miracle of its own. It wasn't grueling just boring and repetitive, the second half was just using the first part of the game as its levels. Music was good, not memorable and the visuals other than the CG scenes were good. Maybe there's a better Kirby game out there, but this isn't a good first impression.
I quite remember something Sun Tzu once said to me in coversation. It ran along the lines of "We are so back, my friend!"
Under Night 2 is a perfect game among the bounds of its own features and whims. I could not ask more from a sequel to an already fucking great game. I will, however, address the large network-based elephant in the room, and perhaps its release date was also a case. With a solid week of shady network and having each update being fifty-fifty on whether the matchmaking works or doesn’t work. It’s a weighted coin flip, really, and I wish it wasn’t because the times I was allowed to play in a room or in unranked, I enjoyed it a lot. The success of this game has been stunted, to my personal theory of mine, by the release of two much larger games within the same week, one even being a fighting game. However, I cannot deny the fact that Under Night as a franchise was already niche and therefore has a harder time breaking the market.
The gameplay is perfect, an art piece of its own caliber. It helps that this really is a sequel, an iteration of the previous with some changes given to individual fighters here and there. Perhaps it is my own bias, or more likely my lack of experience, but the new fighters feel like the toolkit is much stronger than the legacy cast from the previous game. All but personal thoughts at the end of things. The arcade mode is very straight forward, doesn’t do anything new within that regard, but still good. The movement is lovely, the flow of combos, based on buttons, is great, I feel like the command list is a bit cryptic, and I know this is a nit-pick but having the option to have the UI of the buttons to be the buttons on the controller someone uses still annoys me. The music has a few standout pieces but none that can ring back and forth in my head, making it memorable.
With wonderful art, great movement, hell, maybe the best movement in the fighting game market as of recent memory and interesting yet still doujin fighter-esque plot, I would recommend picking up this game. As a warning, if you play on steam, wait a few more updates to see if the online net play improves. If you are reading this in the future, as of the first day of February in 2024, then perhaps its fixed now, ill leave on a hopeful note.
Under Night 2 is a perfect game among the bounds of its own features and whims. I could not ask more from a sequel to an already fucking great game. I will, however, address the large network-based elephant in the room, and perhaps its release date was also a case. With a solid week of shady network and having each update being fifty-fifty on whether the matchmaking works or doesn’t work. It’s a weighted coin flip, really, and I wish it wasn’t because the times I was allowed to play in a room or in unranked, I enjoyed it a lot. The success of this game has been stunted, to my personal theory of mine, by the release of two much larger games within the same week, one even being a fighting game. However, I cannot deny the fact that Under Night as a franchise was already niche and therefore has a harder time breaking the market.
The gameplay is perfect, an art piece of its own caliber. It helps that this really is a sequel, an iteration of the previous with some changes given to individual fighters here and there. Perhaps it is my own bias, or more likely my lack of experience, but the new fighters feel like the toolkit is much stronger than the legacy cast from the previous game. All but personal thoughts at the end of things. The arcade mode is very straight forward, doesn’t do anything new within that regard, but still good. The movement is lovely, the flow of combos, based on buttons, is great, I feel like the command list is a bit cryptic, and I know this is a nit-pick but having the option to have the UI of the buttons to be the buttons on the controller someone uses still annoys me. The music has a few standout pieces but none that can ring back and forth in my head, making it memorable.
With wonderful art, great movement, hell, maybe the best movement in the fighting game market as of recent memory and interesting yet still doujin fighter-esque plot, I would recommend picking up this game. As a warning, if you play on steam, wait a few more updates to see if the online net play improves. If you are reading this in the future, as of the first day of February in 2024, then perhaps its fixed now, ill leave on a hopeful note.
Armored core 6 is a return to form with a spread of features from older generations of armored core to create a “return to form-ish” game, announcing the return of the flagship franchise. So going forward, I could review armored core 6 as its own but it feels personally redundant to not compare it to past games since it draws a lot of core features, story elements and other smaller notes to its personal symphony. I hold the theory that this game is a balancing act, to bring in older fans again and create a new audience, although that is obvious, stating such is important to the next point. Armored Core 6 is a countermeasure to the identity crisis of the core feeling and visual style of the last three generations. Sprouting from the last entry in the generation three game, Armored Core: The Last Raven, the following games tried fairly different core, generation four is a complete coin flip to generation 5, stating this, Armored Core 6 is a means to take the best of the last 3 generations, and to a minor extend, the first two.
The setting is completely stunning, the sense of scale that had me wondering what else is out there, in a larger sense, Rubicon, the planet you drop shells and batteries into, is only a dot on the canvas, something the franchise hasn't done. In fact, this is outright the first generation to mainly feature a fictional planet, allowing visual diversity of the missions, while allowing less restrictions on world-building. This boosts the scale and the stakes of the story, even if the story as a whole is nothing new, it's just how it is presented and propped. You cannot get the full picture, or the true painting unless you complete the game multiple times, something I will fully praise. I felt as if past entries and FromSoftware games in general have always underused their new game plus feature, not really having any incentive to continue playing other than the sense of challenge and possibly pursuing the other endings. Armored Core Four Answer would be the only other game that does this slightly, having branching paths and encouraging getting all the endings with “alt” missions upon reaching New Game Plus. So I do find it odd that there's a chance that FromSoftware games can do this, but never have, mainly because the format of Armored Core works the best for it. The story is nothing new but still great in its own rights.
Armored Core 6’s game-play can be described as an album of FromSoftware’s favorite features, sewed together into a new format. I wouldn't say it's the best, elements surrounding combat encounters would water down an otherwise purely un-distilled gold syrup. The speed of bullets are slower than previous generations, but that is only minor, and brings up a new way of approaching combat. The camera can be the absolute worst thing in combat, with the tandem of the lock on system, it enrages me. Overall, and despite the flaws I still enjoyed my combat encounters, there are just these things that chain it.
The audio work, oh the audio work, there is nothing like this. The audio is such a masterwork in both quality and implementation into the game that playing Armored Core 6 without sound would be, quite possibly, the worst downgrade the player could experience. I cannot say much more, each sound and blip is perfect, does the job with grace.
I think I can recommend playing this game. From the perspective of a veteran of the franchise there are features and new choices I do not agree with but I can understand why they were made in the first place, mostly. Whether new or heading back in, I can firmly say that this is the most solid entry into the franchise.
The setting is completely stunning, the sense of scale that had me wondering what else is out there, in a larger sense, Rubicon, the planet you drop shells and batteries into, is only a dot on the canvas, something the franchise hasn't done. In fact, this is outright the first generation to mainly feature a fictional planet, allowing visual diversity of the missions, while allowing less restrictions on world-building. This boosts the scale and the stakes of the story, even if the story as a whole is nothing new, it's just how it is presented and propped. You cannot get the full picture, or the true painting unless you complete the game multiple times, something I will fully praise. I felt as if past entries and FromSoftware games in general have always underused their new game plus feature, not really having any incentive to continue playing other than the sense of challenge and possibly pursuing the other endings. Armored Core Four Answer would be the only other game that does this slightly, having branching paths and encouraging getting all the endings with “alt” missions upon reaching New Game Plus. So I do find it odd that there's a chance that FromSoftware games can do this, but never have, mainly because the format of Armored Core works the best for it. The story is nothing new but still great in its own rights.
Armored Core 6’s game-play can be described as an album of FromSoftware’s favorite features, sewed together into a new format. I wouldn't say it's the best, elements surrounding combat encounters would water down an otherwise purely un-distilled gold syrup. The speed of bullets are slower than previous generations, but that is only minor, and brings up a new way of approaching combat. The camera can be the absolute worst thing in combat, with the tandem of the lock on system, it enrages me. Overall, and despite the flaws I still enjoyed my combat encounters, there are just these things that chain it.
The audio work, oh the audio work, there is nothing like this. The audio is such a masterwork in both quality and implementation into the game that playing Armored Core 6 without sound would be, quite possibly, the worst downgrade the player could experience. I cannot say much more, each sound and blip is perfect, does the job with grace.
I think I can recommend playing this game. From the perspective of a veteran of the franchise there are features and new choices I do not agree with but I can understand why they were made in the first place, mostly. Whether new or heading back in, I can firmly say that this is the most solid entry into the franchise.
TBD
One of the few things I keep myself to the ground lower than a dog for are indie fighters, or at least fighters not constrained by the ideas and whims of target audiences. While all media have audiences in mind if the artist wants their work to be seen, the balance between pure, unfiltered vision and wanting people to get it, enjoy it. That is what creates a niche, what games can rely on.
E’s Laf, or EsLaf1 if you’re willing to get technical, was a 2d “doujin” fighter, created as a passion project, funded by non-conventional means or given out for free. The first game was notable but not noted enough, E’s Laf 2, or the demo variation on the future full product is a massive improvement over the last installment and, as a whole, a wonderful treat of an anime fighter. This review will be a review of the game and its mechanics, then the characters as a whole, once the general outer shell has been studied.
In the demo alone, there is not a large amount of content to enjoy if you are playing alone, an unfortunate thing to spell out. Local multiplayer is fully functional and heavenly to say the least, I cannot word it enough that it is, pretty okay, there isnt a lot of things one should or could say about it. You can also host, but you cannot join lobbies or individual lobbies, that is locked off in the demo. Visually this game is not only an improvement but one of the best looking indie games I have seen in a long time. Music wise, it's ok, while overall the music is great, there is only one stand out piece, being the character select, there also isnt a lot of it.
The first character, or the main roster pick, the easiest to play character, “Main''(マイン) , who I dont think has his name right on info because the dev team used google translate from japanese to english, is like Sol Badguy, in an almost 1 to 1 sense. No installs, sorry. With his kit being long ranging and mainly overhead, it's best to balance your range a little, keeping an ideal distance and pressure up while trying to knock and juggle. He’s good, just not super fun, compared to the rest of the cast.
My impression of Sicsa ( シスカ ) was thats he would be a more ranged magic user, the website is not in good English, I get the gist but really, alongside some magic, she mainly uses quick movements to create openings, then uses her sword dash moves to mix things up. She is a bit better, less brain-dead than Main but I like Main’s design more, nothing else to say here, out of the three, while theyre all solid, she is the middle ground.
I didnt expect to fall in love with Qdora’s(クドラ) moveset. I really didnt. I saw “trap” as her character type and expected the idea that she is slower, ranged based and relies on the opponent being baited or making openings through mistakes, I was solely wrong. Qdora is fast and aggressive, with claw-like attacks you can push your opponents up and right, then set up seals as traps. Being the highest skill bar she is also the most fun I had in the demo. She is my least favorite design though.
Just the demo alone is worth playing through at the moment, for free you get a game with solid multiplayer connection, great artistic vision and a reminder of how anime fighters should move and play. It is free right now, here is a link. ( http://eslaf.main.jp/2/06dl.html ) However, there is barely any information and all official information is poorly translated and rarely supported.
E’s Laf, or EsLaf1 if you’re willing to get technical, was a 2d “doujin” fighter, created as a passion project, funded by non-conventional means or given out for free. The first game was notable but not noted enough, E’s Laf 2, or the demo variation on the future full product is a massive improvement over the last installment and, as a whole, a wonderful treat of an anime fighter. This review will be a review of the game and its mechanics, then the characters as a whole, once the general outer shell has been studied.
In the demo alone, there is not a large amount of content to enjoy if you are playing alone, an unfortunate thing to spell out. Local multiplayer is fully functional and heavenly to say the least, I cannot word it enough that it is, pretty okay, there isnt a lot of things one should or could say about it. You can also host, but you cannot join lobbies or individual lobbies, that is locked off in the demo. Visually this game is not only an improvement but one of the best looking indie games I have seen in a long time. Music wise, it's ok, while overall the music is great, there is only one stand out piece, being the character select, there also isnt a lot of it.
The first character, or the main roster pick, the easiest to play character, “Main''(マイン) , who I dont think has his name right on info because the dev team used google translate from japanese to english, is like Sol Badguy, in an almost 1 to 1 sense. No installs, sorry. With his kit being long ranging and mainly overhead, it's best to balance your range a little, keeping an ideal distance and pressure up while trying to knock and juggle. He’s good, just not super fun, compared to the rest of the cast.
My impression of Sicsa ( シスカ ) was thats he would be a more ranged magic user, the website is not in good English, I get the gist but really, alongside some magic, she mainly uses quick movements to create openings, then uses her sword dash moves to mix things up. She is a bit better, less brain-dead than Main but I like Main’s design more, nothing else to say here, out of the three, while theyre all solid, she is the middle ground.
I didnt expect to fall in love with Qdora’s(クドラ) moveset. I really didnt. I saw “trap” as her character type and expected the idea that she is slower, ranged based and relies on the opponent being baited or making openings through mistakes, I was solely wrong. Qdora is fast and aggressive, with claw-like attacks you can push your opponents up and right, then set up seals as traps. Being the highest skill bar she is also the most fun I had in the demo. She is my least favorite design though.
Just the demo alone is worth playing through at the moment, for free you get a game with solid multiplayer connection, great artistic vision and a reminder of how anime fighters should move and play. It is free right now, here is a link. ( http://eslaf.main.jp/2/06dl.html ) However, there is barely any information and all official information is poorly translated and rarely supported.
This review contains spoilers
11/4/2023- To boot, the starting intro scenes, the fully rendered one, didn’t age as badly, it’s a little rough around the edges but it was the best the studio did, so there’s really no complaints from me. What’s more aged is the controls, while not bad, don’t use any of the sticks on the PlayStation controller, at all. Use the D pad to move around in a tank control method of direction movement then the circle to run in the direction you face, something you need to get used to. Ultimately this isn’t an issue, as Boku is devoid of any action, well any action that you can think of. Boku will very much feel like the battles and tugs…. Deep-sea fishing, of the two features, and first of my play-through to find, that will maybe be the main event of the day by day in game. Also note, the first couple of days, around six, maybe three, are story framing devices for each town resident you meet with, more on that later.
11/7/2023- HOLY SHIT I CAUGHT A BEETLE! I began to engage in the beetle sumo system placed in around 5 days, or whenever you can catch the bug in the first place, I have found two kinds of bugs in the first place but I’m sure there’s more, because around a week, maybe eight days, a new section of the island is opened, a forest. The system of fighting other beetles is a hands-off thing, it’s purely luck and genes of the bugs, you watch the two beetles push each other, with their stamina on the bottom, and hope that its strong enough to push it, or has enough stamina to outlive the round. Takeshi has a shit-eating grin, so I really need to beat him, he’s my rival, I’m the strongest beetle trainer! I also found a rocket valve, might be useful later, but I think there’s two more. Be aware that, swimming is fun, it’s also the riskiest activity, drowning will remove a whole day for you. There's also a strange girl in the family clinic, I don’t know what her deal is, but I love how this game will present you with more mysteries at the turn of every corner, you’re rewarded for going “I wonder what is in here?”.
11/24/2023- It can really feel like the game becomes aimless at times, which it has for me, but it has the design choices akin to dropping bread crumbs on the ground, the space between is boring but you see another bit on the ground and keep going. What Boku will journal in his diary is very funny to me, talking about Yasuko’s relationship with her mother and how they haven’t spoken in years, then her mother moving into the guest house instead of her own home because of her was a hard hitting moment with the right amount of build up, however, Boku wrote about the 50 yen he got from giving a shoulder massage to a strange girl in the clinic. I am convinced that she’s a ghost but the game does a good job of revealing nothing about her. She might be alive, but Sagara doesn’t know she’s there. Who is she?!
11/30/2023- ok the game has started to kick off a lot more now, it’s headed towards the last two weeks of the game (if I didn’t write it, but the game has a total of 30 in game days). We get a little bit of lore drops, if you count events like that, there's gold robbing. Shizue has left the house and left for Tokyo, so we think, but what’s more important is that she left a key in her room. Also grab the ax as soon as you can, then head the the water field, there’s a large tree, then you can finally reach the charcoal hut where Yoh's father is meant to be… he isn’t there as of the 18th day. Nagisa has a side plot and she’s really friendly, I got the impression that she was off-put by me but she’s rather childish in nature, not in a strange way but in an endearing way, she’s nice. I really need to find that third valve. I will make an entry that is entirely tips and a small guide to side stories.
12/14/2023 FINAL OVERVIEW- I cannot state how much I love this game by the end of it, it manages to captivate me with its well knit group of characters that manage to shift and change all the while pushing a small yet intriguing narrative. Visually speaking it's a great looking game even to today's standards, maybe the 3D models aren't up to personal par but it meshes well and oozes the charm. It's a game I will most certainly look fondly back on, in fact I was thinking about this game between sessions, it gripped me. I haven't been able to see all of what you can do, like the beetle fights or the treasure at the bottom of the beach, but that only gives me more motivation to replay. There is a damn good reason why this game is listed as a PlayStation classic and you should absolutely take time to check out this game, go in blind.
11/7/2023- HOLY SHIT I CAUGHT A BEETLE! I began to engage in the beetle sumo system placed in around 5 days, or whenever you can catch the bug in the first place, I have found two kinds of bugs in the first place but I’m sure there’s more, because around a week, maybe eight days, a new section of the island is opened, a forest. The system of fighting other beetles is a hands-off thing, it’s purely luck and genes of the bugs, you watch the two beetles push each other, with their stamina on the bottom, and hope that its strong enough to push it, or has enough stamina to outlive the round. Takeshi has a shit-eating grin, so I really need to beat him, he’s my rival, I’m the strongest beetle trainer! I also found a rocket valve, might be useful later, but I think there’s two more. Be aware that, swimming is fun, it’s also the riskiest activity, drowning will remove a whole day for you. There's also a strange girl in the family clinic, I don’t know what her deal is, but I love how this game will present you with more mysteries at the turn of every corner, you’re rewarded for going “I wonder what is in here?”.
11/24/2023- It can really feel like the game becomes aimless at times, which it has for me, but it has the design choices akin to dropping bread crumbs on the ground, the space between is boring but you see another bit on the ground and keep going. What Boku will journal in his diary is very funny to me, talking about Yasuko’s relationship with her mother and how they haven’t spoken in years, then her mother moving into the guest house instead of her own home because of her was a hard hitting moment with the right amount of build up, however, Boku wrote about the 50 yen he got from giving a shoulder massage to a strange girl in the clinic. I am convinced that she’s a ghost but the game does a good job of revealing nothing about her. She might be alive, but Sagara doesn’t know she’s there. Who is she?!
11/30/2023- ok the game has started to kick off a lot more now, it’s headed towards the last two weeks of the game (if I didn’t write it, but the game has a total of 30 in game days). We get a little bit of lore drops, if you count events like that, there's gold robbing. Shizue has left the house and left for Tokyo, so we think, but what’s more important is that she left a key in her room. Also grab the ax as soon as you can, then head the the water field, there’s a large tree, then you can finally reach the charcoal hut where Yoh's father is meant to be… he isn’t there as of the 18th day. Nagisa has a side plot and she’s really friendly, I got the impression that she was off-put by me but she’s rather childish in nature, not in a strange way but in an endearing way, she’s nice. I really need to find that third valve. I will make an entry that is entirely tips and a small guide to side stories.
12/14/2023 FINAL OVERVIEW- I cannot state how much I love this game by the end of it, it manages to captivate me with its well knit group of characters that manage to shift and change all the while pushing a small yet intriguing narrative. Visually speaking it's a great looking game even to today's standards, maybe the 3D models aren't up to personal par but it meshes well and oozes the charm. It's a game I will most certainly look fondly back on, in fact I was thinking about this game between sessions, it gripped me. I haven't been able to see all of what you can do, like the beetle fights or the treasure at the bottom of the beach, but that only gives me more motivation to replay. There is a damn good reason why this game is listed as a PlayStation classic and you should absolutely take time to check out this game, go in blind.
10/31/2023-FINAL OVERVIEW- finished the arcade mode with 4 characters, which isn't the whole cast but enough to grasp the ideas and core concepts placed within, I can firmly say that this game is just alright, its not bad by any mean but in 1999 and now, there are a lot better options when it comes to float-y 2d fighters. One thing that will be strange to the player is that it wont be common, at least it wasn't common to me, that the health bar will rarely reach zero, you wont KO your opponent often, seems that while its easy to execute moves, they don't do a lot of damage. Alongside that the arcade mode is TOUGH, very hard, I am somewhat of a pro of fighting games, only winning a local tourney once or twice but there are characters that really feel tougher than the rest, due to higher damage output or much better tool kit that lets the fighter be so much better. There are added features that are rare also, mid air blocks, blocks from behind (never say an animation for that) and if the attacks connect at the same time, it will read as a block. There is also the knock bar, the blue bar below your health, just perform enough combos or specials and it will knock the opponent, leaving them still for a few minutes, but really serves no other purpose than to reward the player for combo inputs.
The game is generous with its continues, never once will you have to start from the beginning or have limited slots to continue. So overall while its slightly under-cooked in the balanced department and move-sets, its oozing with charm and energy, the fighters are also cute.
The game is generous with its continues, never once will you have to start from the beginning or have limited slots to continue. So overall while its slightly under-cooked in the balanced department and move-sets, its oozing with charm and energy, the fighters are also cute.
1999
10/31/2023- FINAL OVERVIEW- I wanted to check out this game for a little while, maybe 5 days, but I was really worried about the controls, or running the game as a whole. Only one of those issues came about, the strange controls and almost incoherent movement, alongside the age it came out, allowed Heavy Gear 2 to not be enjoyed by a modern standard. It does have interesting plots within the main campaign, but for the most part you can see the DNA of their other games in this, in other words its alright. The gun-play isn't wonderful, nothing impactful or well meaning in controls, your starting gear isn't packing any punches either. I would recommend this game if you can stomach really bad controls and semi-interesting design and story, its a cooler setting and concept than game.
This review contains spoilers
9/15/2023- This entry will start at a later point in the game, 10 hours in to be exact, but for Tears of the Kingdom, that isn’t a long time. I went through the sky island tutorial, and it was set up for the whole conflict, being built up for ages, or that’s what’s been told to me, the player. The people of Hyrule versus the sealed evil wizard Ganondorf. The combat so far has been just right, its dense and you’re allowed to do a lot with it, it’s just that there isn’t a level of complexity to it, I haven’t played any other Zelda game, well completed one, so I can’t compare. The landscape is beautiful in a vast and empty sense, I also feel like this has been talked about before in many pieces of review-based media so I won’t harp on about it, what I will harp on about is the odd frame rate moments. Many times, within my journey through Hyrule, the grass and flags flying in the wind will lag and lower the FPS but the area around the flag is normal. It’s like an anomaly, weird event only I, the player, can view. I am introduced to the fuse system and the ultra-hand system; I am a fan of the fuse system. If that was the only gimmick in the game that would be great, got my mileage already. The ultra hand is alright, it’s clever and I used it mainly to create larger versions of a plank to walk across dangerous areas. Story-wise I think I’ll say that its interesting but just that, doesn’t engage me other than stringing me along to areas where I learn more about these people who live there and solving their problems, like what I did today. Reached Rito Village, helped Tulin with some monsters and now I’m babysitting him until I finish, he’s useful so that helps.
9/23/2023- The Gerudo valley and the area, well the road I took, felt a lot more fun, a lot more fun, I got to sneak through the canyon, which has this sort of combat gimmick where the heat and cold in certain areas had you swap from a fused weapon that does ice damage to heat damage, its very simple but implemented enough to where I found great joy in it. The Gerudo valley as an area, rather than the canyon to it (one of many ways you reach it, but the intended route if you go by central Hyrule) is fun, I found great irony in Riju going “ah the monsters that roam the storm are dangerous” while I never found them hard at all, for two reasons. I would like to think that this was intentional that the lizalfos drop elements based fusion weapon parts, then you reach the valley in its prime and encounter these new monsters (they remind me of those weird mummy monsters I saw in the Ocarina of Time promotions) and they’re a breeze to fight. Slow, no weapons and no range, hit them once or twice with a fire-based attack and it does the job. Zelda combat is easy, but the enemies aren’t idiots, these guys were still easy. Making it into Gerudo town and for a main kingdom the main town is small, maybe there’s a large city I haven’t found yet, I don’t know, maybe I will know, Ill let you know when I know. Wandering around I spot a mating, a breeding class, the gerudo take, thank goodness the town was taken over my monsters, I don’t want to know what strange and deranged opinions the Gerudo give to their children on men, based on what happens when a gerudo male is born. Given a mission to defend the town once im in the vault, after being called a “voe” hope that’s not a slur. Defending the time is boring, but I enjoyed it, jumping around, sprinting from place to place and making go “I need more stamina”. The current thoughts right now, is that Tears of the Kingdom has great mechanics, setting and puzzles but never seemed to engage me in the world and story, I want to but have no desire to.
10/2/2023- I have had three play sessions without logging my journal experience here so inshallah I will make it up here, albeit a shortened version but maybe not! Finishing off the quest in Gerudo Valley was fun, for the most part. The lightning temple is by far the most fun temple I have gone through, I loved the puzzles and it felt good solving them, they interconnected. The boss for that temple, Queen Gibdo, was a cool design but the first encounter and first half of the final showdown wasn’t that fun for me, the second half where it began to become more of a puzzle-lite boss was great, I also had a mirror shield on hand, great times. Beating that bug bastard was hard though, for me at least, took me around 4 tries to beat when the Wind Temple boss only took me one. This only made me notice how I run out of arrows, almost always. It pisses me off how I can’t use wood to make arrows, I must scavenge and pillage Ganon’s forces for five arrows. This game has a lot of good things going for it but a lot of flaws or opportunities to make the game better that just isn’t there. Moving on, I reached a few temples and gained some blessings, I am starting to enjoy the temples way more. Buying arrows in the Zora domain made me notice how FUCKED the market in Hyrule is, sixty rupees for 15 arrows, how worthless are these literal jewels? I do find these marks of currency everywhere, under rocks and in the middle of nowhere, so there’s probably a lot of them scattered all over, lowering the value. Other than that, we see Sidon again, glad he’s moving on in his life, moving up. The quest is good, kind of, the solutions to the puzzle that leads to the temple is so stupid but at this point I just started shooting and throwing and flying through, yeah it worked, its not that fun. The mini story arc between Sidon and Yona is nice, I enjoy how it faces how brash Sidon is, despite all the good he does, feels like he isn’t making the smartest choice, and now that he’s about to become king, his actions will have more weight. He also has baggage, untold baggage. Reskins of the Likes appeared again and attacked the group, I did not enjoy this fight, at all. After a bit I got the groove of the battle and won, after two tries, still didn’t like it. Boss fights are not the strong suit in this game, maybe it will get better. I keep flipping back and forth with how I feel about the combat system, sometimes I really enjoy it and otherwise I feel like clawing at my face with how basic yet annoying it can feel, from inputs to feedback. Link feels like Jello and the enemies like sponges. The first temple is short, or I think that’s the temple, regardless, I am glad that the main idea is getting to the center, and there’s a lot of methods, I just made a wooden plank bridge to traverse the cave side. Now into the floating islands, they’re fun, I like the idea of bubble puzzles, but I know I will never use these bubbles again, which sucks. The construction flux (two!) was a fun fight, makes me wish that there was more boss variety in temples, feels like I’ve fought dozens of these guys already. I then picked up a sage’s will. The temple boss’s fight was lots of fun beating him the first time, I enjoyed this fight way more than the last two, ranking this temple, out of the three, the best one. Link grabs Sidon’s family jewels and we are fucking on our way to the Goron, last stop before I make last preparations for Ganon.
10/17/23- FINAL TEMPLE HERE WE COME! The last temple was fun albeit the journey getting there was a bit obtuse but otherwise it was fun. I also did all the tears and learned the location of the master sword. For one I really want to learn more about the past Hyrule rather than the post upheaval Hyrule, looks like there’s more to it than what’s happening right now. Then the light dragon is possibly the most annoying feature brought into this game, why can it not be in one section, I get the point is to explore the map but by the time you could reach the light dragon, you have explored most, if not all the map already, its reductive.
10/28/2023- FINAL ENTRY- FINAL THOUGHTS- Before this entry, maybe like a few days before or on the 17th, I was really in the mindset of thinking that I wouldn’t enjoy this game at all, in any regard. That only turned out to be true, kind of. I thought the second half of the game is fantastic, not well paced, I don’t think this game is well paced at all. It feels padded out at times. I also didn’t enjoy the combat a lot, The feeling when you time a dodge right and get the flurry rush gave me a great feeling, but I cannot help but feel like the combat is stiff, along with the lock on camera being very unhelpful with me in the middle of battle. The story is alright, I really enjoyed the past Hyrule segments but most of the present region areas have just alright to nothing of stories, but the story is ok. The added mechanics are great, they have their moments, but I don’t feel like it being the central gameplay focus is justified by any means. I didn’t care for the side content; I did most of it to unlock features but never felt engaged in any of it.
This game is fun, but I personally cannot recommend the time-sink.
9/23/2023- The Gerudo valley and the area, well the road I took, felt a lot more fun, a lot more fun, I got to sneak through the canyon, which has this sort of combat gimmick where the heat and cold in certain areas had you swap from a fused weapon that does ice damage to heat damage, its very simple but implemented enough to where I found great joy in it. The Gerudo valley as an area, rather than the canyon to it (one of many ways you reach it, but the intended route if you go by central Hyrule) is fun, I found great irony in Riju going “ah the monsters that roam the storm are dangerous” while I never found them hard at all, for two reasons. I would like to think that this was intentional that the lizalfos drop elements based fusion weapon parts, then you reach the valley in its prime and encounter these new monsters (they remind me of those weird mummy monsters I saw in the Ocarina of Time promotions) and they’re a breeze to fight. Slow, no weapons and no range, hit them once or twice with a fire-based attack and it does the job. Zelda combat is easy, but the enemies aren’t idiots, these guys were still easy. Making it into Gerudo town and for a main kingdom the main town is small, maybe there’s a large city I haven’t found yet, I don’t know, maybe I will know, Ill let you know when I know. Wandering around I spot a mating, a breeding class, the gerudo take, thank goodness the town was taken over my monsters, I don’t want to know what strange and deranged opinions the Gerudo give to their children on men, based on what happens when a gerudo male is born. Given a mission to defend the town once im in the vault, after being called a “voe” hope that’s not a slur. Defending the time is boring, but I enjoyed it, jumping around, sprinting from place to place and making go “I need more stamina”. The current thoughts right now, is that Tears of the Kingdom has great mechanics, setting and puzzles but never seemed to engage me in the world and story, I want to but have no desire to.
10/2/2023- I have had three play sessions without logging my journal experience here so inshallah I will make it up here, albeit a shortened version but maybe not! Finishing off the quest in Gerudo Valley was fun, for the most part. The lightning temple is by far the most fun temple I have gone through, I loved the puzzles and it felt good solving them, they interconnected. The boss for that temple, Queen Gibdo, was a cool design but the first encounter and first half of the final showdown wasn’t that fun for me, the second half where it began to become more of a puzzle-lite boss was great, I also had a mirror shield on hand, great times. Beating that bug bastard was hard though, for me at least, took me around 4 tries to beat when the Wind Temple boss only took me one. This only made me notice how I run out of arrows, almost always. It pisses me off how I can’t use wood to make arrows, I must scavenge and pillage Ganon’s forces for five arrows. This game has a lot of good things going for it but a lot of flaws or opportunities to make the game better that just isn’t there. Moving on, I reached a few temples and gained some blessings, I am starting to enjoy the temples way more. Buying arrows in the Zora domain made me notice how FUCKED the market in Hyrule is, sixty rupees for 15 arrows, how worthless are these literal jewels? I do find these marks of currency everywhere, under rocks and in the middle of nowhere, so there’s probably a lot of them scattered all over, lowering the value. Other than that, we see Sidon again, glad he’s moving on in his life, moving up. The quest is good, kind of, the solutions to the puzzle that leads to the temple is so stupid but at this point I just started shooting and throwing and flying through, yeah it worked, its not that fun. The mini story arc between Sidon and Yona is nice, I enjoy how it faces how brash Sidon is, despite all the good he does, feels like he isn’t making the smartest choice, and now that he’s about to become king, his actions will have more weight. He also has baggage, untold baggage. Reskins of the Likes appeared again and attacked the group, I did not enjoy this fight, at all. After a bit I got the groove of the battle and won, after two tries, still didn’t like it. Boss fights are not the strong suit in this game, maybe it will get better. I keep flipping back and forth with how I feel about the combat system, sometimes I really enjoy it and otherwise I feel like clawing at my face with how basic yet annoying it can feel, from inputs to feedback. Link feels like Jello and the enemies like sponges. The first temple is short, or I think that’s the temple, regardless, I am glad that the main idea is getting to the center, and there’s a lot of methods, I just made a wooden plank bridge to traverse the cave side. Now into the floating islands, they’re fun, I like the idea of bubble puzzles, but I know I will never use these bubbles again, which sucks. The construction flux (two!) was a fun fight, makes me wish that there was more boss variety in temples, feels like I’ve fought dozens of these guys already. I then picked up a sage’s will. The temple boss’s fight was lots of fun beating him the first time, I enjoyed this fight way more than the last two, ranking this temple, out of the three, the best one. Link grabs Sidon’s family jewels and we are fucking on our way to the Goron, last stop before I make last preparations for Ganon.
10/17/23- FINAL TEMPLE HERE WE COME! The last temple was fun albeit the journey getting there was a bit obtuse but otherwise it was fun. I also did all the tears and learned the location of the master sword. For one I really want to learn more about the past Hyrule rather than the post upheaval Hyrule, looks like there’s more to it than what’s happening right now. Then the light dragon is possibly the most annoying feature brought into this game, why can it not be in one section, I get the point is to explore the map but by the time you could reach the light dragon, you have explored most, if not all the map already, its reductive.
10/28/2023- FINAL ENTRY- FINAL THOUGHTS- Before this entry, maybe like a few days before or on the 17th, I was really in the mindset of thinking that I wouldn’t enjoy this game at all, in any regard. That only turned out to be true, kind of. I thought the second half of the game is fantastic, not well paced, I don’t think this game is well paced at all. It feels padded out at times. I also didn’t enjoy the combat a lot, The feeling when you time a dodge right and get the flurry rush gave me a great feeling, but I cannot help but feel like the combat is stiff, along with the lock on camera being very unhelpful with me in the middle of battle. The story is alright, I really enjoyed the past Hyrule segments but most of the present region areas have just alright to nothing of stories, but the story is ok. The added mechanics are great, they have their moments, but I don’t feel like it being the central gameplay focus is justified by any means. I didn’t care for the side content; I did most of it to unlock features but never felt engaged in any of it.
This game is fun, but I personally cannot recommend the time-sink.