Lucca202
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461 Reviews liked by Lucca202
The last time I had played Battle for Bikini Bottom (the original at least) was in 2019. According to my PS2 memory card, I had played this in 2010 prior to 2019. Back then, I never did 100% the game but I did beat it. 2019 though was the first time I 100%ed the game and I remember being so happy I finally did so since this was a game I liked a lot as a kid. I remember thinking it was great back then, but I wanted to see how I'd feel nowadays. While I don't think it's quite as good nowadays, it's still a really fun time overall.
I'd say the thing this game does best is replicating season 1-3 of SpongeBob. It doesn't always hit but when it does, this game is super funny and is basically just like those early seasons. There's a ton of callbacks to the show and references you'd only get if you've seen specific episodes. For a kid growing up on SpongeBob, this is basically like playing through a couple episodes of the show. Every voice actor from the show is here too, besides Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man, and they don't half ass it. They bring their A game in every scene. However, going back to those two outliers, it's unfortunate they couldn't appear here. Mr. Krabs isn't too terrible, and the voice actor at least sounds like he's trying to replicate the character. Mermaid Man though is totally off and sounds pretty bad, I think. Even with those two being different tho, it's still super authentic to the show and a lot of fun seeing each scene be reminiscent of the show. The game also really replicates the world of SpongeBob well. The overworld of Bikini Bottom is done super well. You have all the main characters homes represented here. You have the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket. All the staple locations. The areas themselves also represent the show well. Rock Bottom, the Mermalair, Kelp Forest..even SpongeBob's Dream from that one season 1 episode appears. The characters, their dialogue and the world itself just perfectly represents the early seasons.
Getting into the gameplay itself, it's a collectathon and is basically mimicking a game like Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie. While I don't think it's as good as either of those, for reasons I'll explain shortly, that type of game still works well in the SpongeBob universe. Instead of Stars or Jiggies, your main collectable in this game are golden spatulas. Thematically super fitting to the show, though I gotta say I never found them as satisfying to get as the aforementioned stars or jiggies. There's no jingle that plays, only a crowd cheering for the player (and SpongeBob's laugh if you're playing as him). It's just sort of a bummer since it never gave me a rush whenever I collected them like Mario 64 or Banjo did. Anyways, you collect these golden spatulas in each level alongside collecting any other assortment of collectables along the way. You have shiny objects which you get from tikis or the robots. These are used to spend on shiny object gates or to get golden spatulas from Mr. Krabs. Socks are a collectable that you can trade in to also get golden spatulas from Patrick. These are mostly easy to get but can be annoying in their placement depending on the stage. Some, mostly the first couple stage ones, require backtracking with abilities you get later on. This like barely happens at all though so if you're a Banjo Tooie hater, you might like this game. In fact, this game is maybe too linear for my liking. It's obviously no Tooie, but it's not even a Mario 64 or Kazooie in terms of its exploration. Very rarely will you travel off the beaten path to do a little side challenge but that's about it. I prefer the more open games I mentioned before for that reason, as it feels like you're being guided along a straight path most of the time. Still, what's here is mostly fun. The levels in general, besides being faithful to the show, are either pretty fun or harmless. The only two I didn't care for much were Mermalair and Kelp Forest. Both had songs that kinda got on my nerves and Kelp Forest is too dark a lot of the time and also has the worst slide in the game. My two favorite levels though, were Flying Dutchman's Graveyard and SpongeBob's Dream. I found neither annoying and they were both endgame levels so they were pretty fleshed out.
You can also play as both Patrick and Sandy, if you find a bus station in each level. They each have different abilities but basically, Patrick is strong and can throw heavy things while Sandy has a lasso she can glide with and can also swing from these lasso Texas things. Both characters change the gameplay up enough for it feel different and fun. Their move sets are simpler than SpongeBob's. His move set consists of a double jump, a bubble wand attack, a bubble butt stomp, a bubble helmet that shoots upwards, the bubble bowl which is a bowling ball you can throw to hit things and the cruise bubble which is this missile attack you can use to hit enemies or buttons from a far. Those last two abilities are ones you unlock as progress and I generally like the move set SpongeBob has. Only thing I wish he had was a movement ability. There's no long jump or talon trot here so he doesn't feel quite as fun to play as because of the lack of something like that.
Between each set of three levels, and also in some of the levels themselves, are the game's bosses. The bosses in the actual levels aren't that great imo but are fun references to the show at least. The main game's bosses you must defeat to proceed tho are actually pretty fun. They're more fleshed out and have cutscenes between phases. You also switch between characters between phases too, which again, changes up the gameplay somewhat. The final boss was definitely the best, it's a fun nod to SpongeBob's love for Karate and also to the anchor arm episode. But I also gotta give props to robot Patrick's fight. The atmosphere of the industrial park combined with the eerie music, always freaked me out a bit as a kid. Still does even now lol.
Speaking of the music, while I don't think it's that amazing overall, there are still some tracks I quite like. Jellyfish Fields is an upbeat classic, Industrial Park again is quite eerie but really good and the best track in the game is probably Flying Dutchman's Graveyard. That one just perfectly fits the level and also rocks on top of it. Like I said, there are some tracks I straight up don't like whether it's cuz the level annoyed me as a kid or I just don't like them in general, however the OST is still solid overall.
I will say, I never noticed how unpolished this game could be at times. Whether it's me clipping through a tiki that doesn't have hit detection, or the slide portions being really janky depending on how I jump, it's not as polished as thought it was back then. Still, this is super helpful to the speedrun community as the game has some well-known glitches and exploits that are actually super cool to see someone perform. I remember getting into these speedrun videos shortly before Rehydrated came out and being amazed I'm just now finding out about all them. Speaking of rehydrated, I'll just say one thing. Play this version, don't play Rehydrated for the love of god. It's so bad, the fucking warp boxes don't even animate.
One more thing I wanna mention before I end the review off, is the golden spatula warp feature. If you go into the menu, to the golden spatulas you've collected or have to collect still, you can take the taxi from the menu and warp to that location. Holy shit, this may be the best feature in this game. It's super convenient and frankly should be in more 3D Platformers lol.
This is a game I played as a kid and while I think it's not quite as good as once thought, and is not as good as Mario 64 (and definitely not as good as Banjo), it's still a fun time. It's not too long either so it's a game you can easily replay. Maybe I'd think lower of this game if I wasn't a SpongeBob fan or grew up with this, as it's just kind of an average 3D platformer, but it's still one of the best licensed games I've played because it represents the world of SpongeBob so well. Glad it holds up even to this day.
I'd say the thing this game does best is replicating season 1-3 of SpongeBob. It doesn't always hit but when it does, this game is super funny and is basically just like those early seasons. There's a ton of callbacks to the show and references you'd only get if you've seen specific episodes. For a kid growing up on SpongeBob, this is basically like playing through a couple episodes of the show. Every voice actor from the show is here too, besides Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man, and they don't half ass it. They bring their A game in every scene. However, going back to those two outliers, it's unfortunate they couldn't appear here. Mr. Krabs isn't too terrible, and the voice actor at least sounds like he's trying to replicate the character. Mermaid Man though is totally off and sounds pretty bad, I think. Even with those two being different tho, it's still super authentic to the show and a lot of fun seeing each scene be reminiscent of the show. The game also really replicates the world of SpongeBob well. The overworld of Bikini Bottom is done super well. You have all the main characters homes represented here. You have the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket. All the staple locations. The areas themselves also represent the show well. Rock Bottom, the Mermalair, Kelp Forest..even SpongeBob's Dream from that one season 1 episode appears. The characters, their dialogue and the world itself just perfectly represents the early seasons.
Getting into the gameplay itself, it's a collectathon and is basically mimicking a game like Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie. While I don't think it's as good as either of those, for reasons I'll explain shortly, that type of game still works well in the SpongeBob universe. Instead of Stars or Jiggies, your main collectable in this game are golden spatulas. Thematically super fitting to the show, though I gotta say I never found them as satisfying to get as the aforementioned stars or jiggies. There's no jingle that plays, only a crowd cheering for the player (and SpongeBob's laugh if you're playing as him). It's just sort of a bummer since it never gave me a rush whenever I collected them like Mario 64 or Banjo did. Anyways, you collect these golden spatulas in each level alongside collecting any other assortment of collectables along the way. You have shiny objects which you get from tikis or the robots. These are used to spend on shiny object gates or to get golden spatulas from Mr. Krabs. Socks are a collectable that you can trade in to also get golden spatulas from Patrick. These are mostly easy to get but can be annoying in their placement depending on the stage. Some, mostly the first couple stage ones, require backtracking with abilities you get later on. This like barely happens at all though so if you're a Banjo Tooie hater, you might like this game. In fact, this game is maybe too linear for my liking. It's obviously no Tooie, but it's not even a Mario 64 or Kazooie in terms of its exploration. Very rarely will you travel off the beaten path to do a little side challenge but that's about it. I prefer the more open games I mentioned before for that reason, as it feels like you're being guided along a straight path most of the time. Still, what's here is mostly fun. The levels in general, besides being faithful to the show, are either pretty fun or harmless. The only two I didn't care for much were Mermalair and Kelp Forest. Both had songs that kinda got on my nerves and Kelp Forest is too dark a lot of the time and also has the worst slide in the game. My two favorite levels though, were Flying Dutchman's Graveyard and SpongeBob's Dream. I found neither annoying and they were both endgame levels so they were pretty fleshed out.
You can also play as both Patrick and Sandy, if you find a bus station in each level. They each have different abilities but basically, Patrick is strong and can throw heavy things while Sandy has a lasso she can glide with and can also swing from these lasso Texas things. Both characters change the gameplay up enough for it feel different and fun. Their move sets are simpler than SpongeBob's. His move set consists of a double jump, a bubble wand attack, a bubble butt stomp, a bubble helmet that shoots upwards, the bubble bowl which is a bowling ball you can throw to hit things and the cruise bubble which is this missile attack you can use to hit enemies or buttons from a far. Those last two abilities are ones you unlock as progress and I generally like the move set SpongeBob has. Only thing I wish he had was a movement ability. There's no long jump or talon trot here so he doesn't feel quite as fun to play as because of the lack of something like that.
Between each set of three levels, and also in some of the levels themselves, are the game's bosses. The bosses in the actual levels aren't that great imo but are fun references to the show at least. The main game's bosses you must defeat to proceed tho are actually pretty fun. They're more fleshed out and have cutscenes between phases. You also switch between characters between phases too, which again, changes up the gameplay somewhat. The final boss was definitely the best, it's a fun nod to SpongeBob's love for Karate and also to the anchor arm episode. But I also gotta give props to robot Patrick's fight. The atmosphere of the industrial park combined with the eerie music, always freaked me out a bit as a kid. Still does even now lol.
Speaking of the music, while I don't think it's that amazing overall, there are still some tracks I quite like. Jellyfish Fields is an upbeat classic, Industrial Park again is quite eerie but really good and the best track in the game is probably Flying Dutchman's Graveyard. That one just perfectly fits the level and also rocks on top of it. Like I said, there are some tracks I straight up don't like whether it's cuz the level annoyed me as a kid or I just don't like them in general, however the OST is still solid overall.
I will say, I never noticed how unpolished this game could be at times. Whether it's me clipping through a tiki that doesn't have hit detection, or the slide portions being really janky depending on how I jump, it's not as polished as thought it was back then. Still, this is super helpful to the speedrun community as the game has some well-known glitches and exploits that are actually super cool to see someone perform. I remember getting into these speedrun videos shortly before Rehydrated came out and being amazed I'm just now finding out about all them. Speaking of rehydrated, I'll just say one thing. Play this version, don't play Rehydrated for the love of god. It's so bad, the fucking warp boxes don't even animate.
One more thing I wanna mention before I end the review off, is the golden spatula warp feature. If you go into the menu, to the golden spatulas you've collected or have to collect still, you can take the taxi from the menu and warp to that location. Holy shit, this may be the best feature in this game. It's super convenient and frankly should be in more 3D Platformers lol.
This is a game I played as a kid and while I think it's not quite as good as once thought, and is not as good as Mario 64 (and definitely not as good as Banjo), it's still a fun time. It's not too long either so it's a game you can easily replay. Maybe I'd think lower of this game if I wasn't a SpongeBob fan or grew up with this, as it's just kind of an average 3D platformer, but it's still one of the best licensed games I've played because it represents the world of SpongeBob so well. Glad it holds up even to this day.
A nothing of a game. It is so rigidly on-rails that the joy of making your own tree/city/garden/whatever is sucked away by essentially being one long QTE sequence at the start. There was no freedom to speak of. The best description I've seen of this game is being closer to Powerwash Simulator than a farming/building game but that's not what I came here for, and it's certainly not how the game presents itself.
Buckshot Roulette
2023
3 TIRO SEGUIDO NO TAMBOR VAI TOMAR NO C
Buckshot Roulette
2023
pure adrenaline, great visual style, 99% of gamblers quit right before they shoot themselves in the face
Time Hollow
2008
Time Hollow seems quite promising at first: you play as a high schooler named Ethan Kairos, who has just turned 17 and has obtained a pen referred to as the Hollow Pen. Ethan suffers greatly from a case of suburban domestic boredom from his seemingly plain family and ordinary school life… and then proceeds to take it all back once everything around him begins to rapidly unravel, with a series of temporal and unexplained incidents creating sudden, unwelcome changes that all revolve around making him and the people he care about miserable. As a result, you have to use the Hollow Pen to open portals to interact with events of the past and try and rewrite the negative externalities that keep popping up as consequences with meddling with the flow of time.
Sadly, the core gameplay loop doesn’t quite live up to the premise. Most of this investigative and puzzle work inevitably boils down to figuring out exactly what went wrong, and then talking to individuals across town and scanning a medley of locations to “resolve” flashbacks and gain an idea of what happened where and when. It falls into the same classic adventure game trap of “click everywhere to hopefully strike upon the right findings” because many times, the details that you need to stumble upon don’t actually align with intuition of where to visit/whom to speak with and the game generally doesn’t do the greatest job at highlighting what locations/areas are relevant and what areas are just flavor text/timewasters. Opening up portals is probably the coolest aspect here, but those segments are over in a flash; you open up a portal and talk to someone/drop off an item/meddle with an object, close the portal, and it’s onto the next flashback. That said, the game also has long stretches of cutscenes where it basically forces you into several strings of guided questions and scripted interactions, so Time Hollow never quite hits that perfect balance of satisfying the player with carefully crafted scenarios where the answer can be reasonably intuited but is never outright given away.
As a result, between the peddled cutscenes and excess meandering about, Time Hollow is often exhausting to play… which is not a good sign when the game only took seven hours to complete. The experience is further padded by the need to refill the Hollow Pen meter, which you’ll have to account for more if you screw up portal sections by opening the portal in the wrong location (easy to do because you won’t have a side by side reference on hand and some places are oddly specific regarding where you must click to proceed), but is also necessary in general because not refilling the meter will result in the meter’s capacity significantly dropping when moving onto the next chapter. This issue gets worse though, because in order to refill the meter, you have to find your cat wandering around town (in random locations that are unmarked upon the map, with tons of clicking around not just the map but also within locations to move between rooms/scenes) to refill one bar at a time. I do honestly think that at least an hour could be shaved off the length if the game allowed instant fast travel to not just locations on the map, but inner sectors within the locations themselves.
It’s difficult to recommend Time Hollow unfortunately; the detective/adventure game elements don’t feel very compelling or engaging, a lot of the side characters could have used more development before disaster suddenly strikes, the main antagonist feels too inexplicably vindictive and essentially becomes a comic book villain by the end of the game, and a lot of plot threads are either left on unsatisfying notes or have strange twists and reasoning behind them that feel like they were included just for the shock factor (a non-spoiler analogous example for your pleasure: man gets sent note in the past to join the Audubon Society -> man no longer commits arson and avoids arrest???!!?!?). There are two alternate New Game + endings, and the first is essentially a truncated version of the game and might be worth your curiosity, but the 2nd one is not quite as succinct; practically every action prior to the last 10 minutes or so is the exact same as the standard playthrough, and it only changes some minor details at the end, so you might be better off just looking up that extra ending on Youtube instead. The vibrant art style and background tunes are soothing at least, so it does get that coziness factor down, even if that coziness begins to overstay its welcome two hours in. Ultimately, it's enough of an interesting diversion if you’re looking for pleasant VNs to pass the time on the DS, but I’d suggest playing through the Cing library first.
Sadly, the core gameplay loop doesn’t quite live up to the premise. Most of this investigative and puzzle work inevitably boils down to figuring out exactly what went wrong, and then talking to individuals across town and scanning a medley of locations to “resolve” flashbacks and gain an idea of what happened where and when. It falls into the same classic adventure game trap of “click everywhere to hopefully strike upon the right findings” because many times, the details that you need to stumble upon don’t actually align with intuition of where to visit/whom to speak with and the game generally doesn’t do the greatest job at highlighting what locations/areas are relevant and what areas are just flavor text/timewasters. Opening up portals is probably the coolest aspect here, but those segments are over in a flash; you open up a portal and talk to someone/drop off an item/meddle with an object, close the portal, and it’s onto the next flashback. That said, the game also has long stretches of cutscenes where it basically forces you into several strings of guided questions and scripted interactions, so Time Hollow never quite hits that perfect balance of satisfying the player with carefully crafted scenarios where the answer can be reasonably intuited but is never outright given away.
As a result, between the peddled cutscenes and excess meandering about, Time Hollow is often exhausting to play… which is not a good sign when the game only took seven hours to complete. The experience is further padded by the need to refill the Hollow Pen meter, which you’ll have to account for more if you screw up portal sections by opening the portal in the wrong location (easy to do because you won’t have a side by side reference on hand and some places are oddly specific regarding where you must click to proceed), but is also necessary in general because not refilling the meter will result in the meter’s capacity significantly dropping when moving onto the next chapter. This issue gets worse though, because in order to refill the meter, you have to find your cat wandering around town (in random locations that are unmarked upon the map, with tons of clicking around not just the map but also within locations to move between rooms/scenes) to refill one bar at a time. I do honestly think that at least an hour could be shaved off the length if the game allowed instant fast travel to not just locations on the map, but inner sectors within the locations themselves.
It’s difficult to recommend Time Hollow unfortunately; the detective/adventure game elements don’t feel very compelling or engaging, a lot of the side characters could have used more development before disaster suddenly strikes, the main antagonist feels too inexplicably vindictive and essentially becomes a comic book villain by the end of the game, and a lot of plot threads are either left on unsatisfying notes or have strange twists and reasoning behind them that feel like they were included just for the shock factor (a non-spoiler analogous example for your pleasure: man gets sent note in the past to join the Audubon Society -> man no longer commits arson and avoids arrest???!!?!?). There are two alternate New Game + endings, and the first is essentially a truncated version of the game and might be worth your curiosity, but the 2nd one is not quite as succinct; practically every action prior to the last 10 minutes or so is the exact same as the standard playthrough, and it only changes some minor details at the end, so you might be better off just looking up that extra ending on Youtube instead. The vibrant art style and background tunes are soothing at least, so it does get that coziness factor down, even if that coziness begins to overstay its welcome two hours in. Ultimately, it's enough of an interesting diversion if you’re looking for pleasant VNs to pass the time on the DS, but I’d suggest playing through the Cing library first.
Venba
2023
Well fuck. I'm not surprised that I liked Venba, but I am surprised I liked it this much.
It does feel a bit strange that it took this long for me to find a narrative-based cooking game; most of the cooking video games I've seen are either arcade-scoring style minigame collections (your Cooking Mamas), restaurant management titles like Cook, Serve, Delicious!, or sandboxes that felt so simple and structureless that they basically turned into meme simulators for me past the five minute mark. Conversely, Venba more closely resembles what I expect of my idealized cooking game: it emphasizes the puzzle-like qualities of cooking via mastering techniques at the right time (something that no other game I'm aware of has really capitalized upon) while also using cooking as a narrative vessel to impart past memories of learning/executing recipes and thoroughly exploring culture via the medium of the culinary arts. Granted, Venba's puzzles are easy enough to navigate but still aren't free, and that does wonders in aiding its lean towards storytelling: without spoiling too much, entire sections of recipes are often missing, and thus part of the fun is filling out the gaps as the player to "correct" the dishes. You won't get penalized unlike a restaurant sim though, and that's the fun of cooking! Sometimes, you just want to experiment a little and try out new techniques, and if you mess up, that's just kitchen learning in a nutshell.
What I wasn't expecting though, was just how deeply I resonated with the narrative. My immediate family and I are immigrants, and quite frankly, I've inquired a little here and there about what they've sacrificed to move to the US, but I clearly haven't asked enough. While I've never genuinely felt ashamed of my own culture, I've absolutely felt the pressure to "fit in" and in many cases, felt a bit of the old embarrassment rise up again from playing this game due to how disconnected I've often felt from my old home city versus having now lived in the states for a while. English isn't my first language, but it may as well have been now given my difficulties writing and sometimes speaking my old language, and losing my grasp of all these things that were once more familiar to me has always been a sore point in my life. This game is a reminder to me that even if I may have grown up in an entirely different world than my parents, they're still my family at the end of the day regardless of cultural differences and it's still my past; I might have had years slip by where I chose to remain intentionally apathetic to parts of my family's heritage, but that doesn't mean that I can't start catching up now to try and make up for lost ground.
The game is only about an hour long with just six recipes included (and a couple near the end are a bit too guided), but I'm willing to overlook its brevity because this experience is going to sit with me for a while: it almost feels like it was written for me at times. Definitely one of the best surprises to come out this year. Thank you for the meal, Venba. Think I'm gonna go call my parents now and tell them how much I've missed them.
It does feel a bit strange that it took this long for me to find a narrative-based cooking game; most of the cooking video games I've seen are either arcade-scoring style minigame collections (your Cooking Mamas), restaurant management titles like Cook, Serve, Delicious!, or sandboxes that felt so simple and structureless that they basically turned into meme simulators for me past the five minute mark. Conversely, Venba more closely resembles what I expect of my idealized cooking game: it emphasizes the puzzle-like qualities of cooking via mastering techniques at the right time (something that no other game I'm aware of has really capitalized upon) while also using cooking as a narrative vessel to impart past memories of learning/executing recipes and thoroughly exploring culture via the medium of the culinary arts. Granted, Venba's puzzles are easy enough to navigate but still aren't free, and that does wonders in aiding its lean towards storytelling: without spoiling too much, entire sections of recipes are often missing, and thus part of the fun is filling out the gaps as the player to "correct" the dishes. You won't get penalized unlike a restaurant sim though, and that's the fun of cooking! Sometimes, you just want to experiment a little and try out new techniques, and if you mess up, that's just kitchen learning in a nutshell.
What I wasn't expecting though, was just how deeply I resonated with the narrative. My immediate family and I are immigrants, and quite frankly, I've inquired a little here and there about what they've sacrificed to move to the US, but I clearly haven't asked enough. While I've never genuinely felt ashamed of my own culture, I've absolutely felt the pressure to "fit in" and in many cases, felt a bit of the old embarrassment rise up again from playing this game due to how disconnected I've often felt from my old home city versus having now lived in the states for a while. English isn't my first language, but it may as well have been now given my difficulties writing and sometimes speaking my old language, and losing my grasp of all these things that were once more familiar to me has always been a sore point in my life. This game is a reminder to me that even if I may have grown up in an entirely different world than my parents, they're still my family at the end of the day regardless of cultural differences and it's still my past; I might have had years slip by where I chose to remain intentionally apathetic to parts of my family's heritage, but that doesn't mean that I can't start catching up now to try and make up for lost ground.
The game is only about an hour long with just six recipes included (and a couple near the end are a bit too guided), but I'm willing to overlook its brevity because this experience is going to sit with me for a while: it almost feels like it was written for me at times. Definitely one of the best surprises to come out this year. Thank you for the meal, Venba. Think I'm gonna go call my parents now and tell them how much I've missed them.
Pokémon Stadium
1999
Pokemon Stadium is one of those rare instances where I had a ton of fun with the game back then, but would never recommend anyone trying now.
It was a huge deal for us back then to be able to play and battle with our pokemon direct from our game boy games in 3D, when you remove that magic it really diminishes the impact a smidgen especially when the main series has now been 3D for 3 (soon 4) generations. I will say a ton of the animations here are better than the ones being currently used, I still have no idea what Gamefreak has against Charizard or Dragonite being able to stand on their feet instead of awkwardly flying in place.
Without a team from a game boy transfer pack you're left with the absolutely woeful rental pokemon. Not only are these pokemon not yours, but they sometimes have these really bad move sets. How would you like a Blastoise with fucking Bide and Strength? An Alakazam with only Confusion for STAB? It's actually worse in Stadium 2 apparently, lmao a fucking Venusaur with Tackle/Growl. If you play competitively in any capacity you're gonna have a fucking aneurysm looking at some of these things.
If there is one thing I recommend playing it's the mini-games! They're a good time and even support four players! My favorite's probably the Lickitung game, I want the soundbyte for when they eat too much spicy food and go ""EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGH".
It was a huge deal for us back then to be able to play and battle with our pokemon direct from our game boy games in 3D, when you remove that magic it really diminishes the impact a smidgen especially when the main series has now been 3D for 3 (soon 4) generations. I will say a ton of the animations here are better than the ones being currently used, I still have no idea what Gamefreak has against Charizard or Dragonite being able to stand on their feet instead of awkwardly flying in place.
Without a team from a game boy transfer pack you're left with the absolutely woeful rental pokemon. Not only are these pokemon not yours, but they sometimes have these really bad move sets. How would you like a Blastoise with fucking Bide and Strength? An Alakazam with only Confusion for STAB? It's actually worse in Stadium 2 apparently, lmao a fucking Venusaur with Tackle/Growl. If you play competitively in any capacity you're gonna have a fucking aneurysm looking at some of these things.
If there is one thing I recommend playing it's the mini-games! They're a good time and even support four players! My favorite's probably the Lickitung game, I want the soundbyte for when they eat too much spicy food and go ""EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGH".
Immortality
2022
Having played Her Story years ago and appreciating the concept though never really getting hooked by the story/ending, and having stayed away from Telling Lies due to bad press, I was a bit skeptical of Sam Barlow's newest title Immortality. However, I finished it earlier today, and I now think it's solid. Flawed, certainly, but I can't help but appreciate the craft.
The story goes like this: found footage of three unreleased films starring the fictional model turned actress Marissa Marcel has been recently unearthed (unreleased due to enigmatic circumstances), and it's up to you to uncover the mystery of what happened and why she disappeared. You start with a clip of a TV interview, and jump around through various clips by pausing/parsing footage and clicking on items of interest, such as the faces of those who appear and common objects. For example, clicking on a lamp in one scene may send you to another clip in another scene that has a different lamp present, clicking on water will transport you to a scene with water present, clicking on Marcel's face will transport you to another scene with her present, and so on so forth. It's an ambitious concept of scrolling through the database (as opposed to typing in keywords in Her Story), and while it seems to hasten the pace, it also introduces an element of randomness in that some scenes can only be accessed with certain objects, and you'll be transported to a random scene every time you click with no way to control the exact scene you jump to. This disjointed narrative telling, while broadening the mystery, could also potentially result in the mystery being spoiled prematurely if you accidentally bump into a crucial scene like 25% into the game and having it all not really make sense. If you're trying to collect all the scenes and see everything, this is probably more of an impediment than a boon.
Also without going into too much depth, let me give you a few pointers regarding the system that will aid the process, that I really wish I knew about before I started this up. The game's unfortunately not the best at explaining its various tools & gadgets.
- You can use the left and right arrow keys (or left and right on the d-pad if using a controller) to parse through all clickable objects of interest when the scene is paused.
- If you're using a controller, then the controller will vibrate at certain instances (or you'll be clued in on something strange going on when you notice flashes of black and white interspersed in the footage or the backing track turning "creepy"). That's your cue to parse the footage backwards at a very specific speed; on mouse and keyboard, you need to hold shift and tap the left arrow key twice, or on the controller, tap the left stick to the left twice. I won't say anymore on this.
- While paused and selecting clips, you can click on the clapperboard symbol to switch to object classification, which will give you a little subtitle for each shot indicating what category it falls under for that type of object.
Again, without going into spoiler territory, I think Immortality's strength is presenting layers of narratives and social commentary including the relationship between viewer and creator, art as a creative medium, meaning within art, and of course the norms & fads of filmmaking throughout the industry and its various eras; I won't comment too heavily upon these themes as I don't feel qualified to do so, but there is a lot to unpack between the narrative of the films themselves, the meta narrative of what happened as part of the creative process, and the meta narrative as part of the player's discovery. By instilling you, the player, as an active participant engrossed in the meta-narrative and not merely roleplaying an observer such as that in Her Story, Immortality is able to convey its thoughts and feelings in a much more direct and thought-out way; it is aware of its audience seeking meaning, and is not afraid to provoke the question of whether or not that meaning even exists in the first place. To boot, the attention to detail regarding its characterization of the common movie tropes and aesthetics of each era are definitely on point, down to the grainy film textures and static background buzzing in some cases, and I found the acting, especially that by lead actress Manon Gage, to be quite convincing.
While its main draw via its structure and formula is also most likely its biggest issue due to its variability, and potentially leading to tedium through constant, repetitive searching or early disappointment if key moments are brought up too early, it's nevertheless an ambitious and more realized work than Her Story and a fantastic example of how interactive media can convey a wide range of emotions in ways that are simply not possible in more static mediums such as books and films. Give this a shot if you're looking for an engrossing mystery with plenty of twists and turns to be uncovered by the player, and be prepared to experience a wide variety of emotions. I will say this is not for the faint of heart (despite having nothing I would consider a "jumpscare") but if you give it a chance, then perhaps Sam Barlow's latest thriller may give you quite a ride.
The story goes like this: found footage of three unreleased films starring the fictional model turned actress Marissa Marcel has been recently unearthed (unreleased due to enigmatic circumstances), and it's up to you to uncover the mystery of what happened and why she disappeared. You start with a clip of a TV interview, and jump around through various clips by pausing/parsing footage and clicking on items of interest, such as the faces of those who appear and common objects. For example, clicking on a lamp in one scene may send you to another clip in another scene that has a different lamp present, clicking on water will transport you to a scene with water present, clicking on Marcel's face will transport you to another scene with her present, and so on so forth. It's an ambitious concept of scrolling through the database (as opposed to typing in keywords in Her Story), and while it seems to hasten the pace, it also introduces an element of randomness in that some scenes can only be accessed with certain objects, and you'll be transported to a random scene every time you click with no way to control the exact scene you jump to. This disjointed narrative telling, while broadening the mystery, could also potentially result in the mystery being spoiled prematurely if you accidentally bump into a crucial scene like 25% into the game and having it all not really make sense. If you're trying to collect all the scenes and see everything, this is probably more of an impediment than a boon.
Also without going into too much depth, let me give you a few pointers regarding the system that will aid the process, that I really wish I knew about before I started this up. The game's unfortunately not the best at explaining its various tools & gadgets.
- You can use the left and right arrow keys (or left and right on the d-pad if using a controller) to parse through all clickable objects of interest when the scene is paused.
- If you're using a controller, then the controller will vibrate at certain instances (or you'll be clued in on something strange going on when you notice flashes of black and white interspersed in the footage or the backing track turning "creepy"). That's your cue to parse the footage backwards at a very specific speed; on mouse and keyboard, you need to hold shift and tap the left arrow key twice, or on the controller, tap the left stick to the left twice. I won't say anymore on this.
- While paused and selecting clips, you can click on the clapperboard symbol to switch to object classification, which will give you a little subtitle for each shot indicating what category it falls under for that type of object.
Again, without going into spoiler territory, I think Immortality's strength is presenting layers of narratives and social commentary including the relationship between viewer and creator, art as a creative medium, meaning within art, and of course the norms & fads of filmmaking throughout the industry and its various eras; I won't comment too heavily upon these themes as I don't feel qualified to do so, but there is a lot to unpack between the narrative of the films themselves, the meta narrative of what happened as part of the creative process, and the meta narrative as part of the player's discovery. By instilling you, the player, as an active participant engrossed in the meta-narrative and not merely roleplaying an observer such as that in Her Story, Immortality is able to convey its thoughts and feelings in a much more direct and thought-out way; it is aware of its audience seeking meaning, and is not afraid to provoke the question of whether or not that meaning even exists in the first place. To boot, the attention to detail regarding its characterization of the common movie tropes and aesthetics of each era are definitely on point, down to the grainy film textures and static background buzzing in some cases, and I found the acting, especially that by lead actress Manon Gage, to be quite convincing.
While its main draw via its structure and formula is also most likely its biggest issue due to its variability, and potentially leading to tedium through constant, repetitive searching or early disappointment if key moments are brought up too early, it's nevertheless an ambitious and more realized work than Her Story and a fantastic example of how interactive media can convey a wide range of emotions in ways that are simply not possible in more static mediums such as books and films. Give this a shot if you're looking for an engrossing mystery with plenty of twists and turns to be uncovered by the player, and be prepared to experience a wide variety of emotions. I will say this is not for the faint of heart (despite having nothing I would consider a "jumpscare") but if you give it a chance, then perhaps Sam Barlow's latest thriller may give you quite a ride.
Fire Emblem Heroes
2017
I fucking hate this game but when they got a hot bitch on a banner my brain rewires itself and I go back into loving this game until the hate comes back and another hot bitch sets me back on course.
I Love Fire Emblem.
I Love Fire Emblem.
Fragile Dreams tends to get mislabelled as a survival horror game, which is one of the many reasons detractors tend to score it so low. Yet, while it does have elements of the genre, it was clearly designed to be a lot more than that. At first glance, it has awkward controls and clunky combat, but part of me feels this was done intentionally to drive the player to focus more on exploration and engagement with the environment. It's a visually gorgeous game, set in a hauntingly beautiful post-apocalyptic Japan akin to Nier: Automata, where nature has overgrown throughout most urban environments. You navigate this world, filled with terrifying spirits pulled straight out of Japanese mythology, though those encounters are few and far between.
Throughout your journey, you are accompanied by a variety of companions along the way, and the handful of NPCs you interact with all bring something interesting to the table. But the game's real heart shines through the memory items you find, narrating the tales of various survivors and their experiences throughout the cataclysm that wiped out most of the human race. Some tell individual stories, while others are spread across several items. These, along with the game's main plot and character interactions, are what makes Fragile Dreams such a fantastic title; it's not just an interactive experience, but a very emotional one as well.
I always have trouble trying to sell this title to people because it's very hard to put into words how deeply it touched me. I really wish we had more games like this out there, and I'm very thankful I got to experience it.
Throughout your journey, you are accompanied by a variety of companions along the way, and the handful of NPCs you interact with all bring something interesting to the table. But the game's real heart shines through the memory items you find, narrating the tales of various survivors and their experiences throughout the cataclysm that wiped out most of the human race. Some tell individual stories, while others are spread across several items. These, along with the game's main plot and character interactions, are what makes Fragile Dreams such a fantastic title; it's not just an interactive experience, but a very emotional one as well.
I always have trouble trying to sell this title to people because it's very hard to put into words how deeply it touched me. I really wish we had more games like this out there, and I'm very thankful I got to experience it.
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
For better or worse, Fire Emblem is a formative part of who I am. The works we choose to Engage™ with in our youth tends to form a basis of our media literacy and in which initial appreciation for art stems. The ideas and themes we are first exposed to are inherently novel after all. With little else to compare with, these stories are earnestly received as they are indulged in. We have yet to form the necessary experiences to be critical, let alone know of contempt. And so, we view these early works that we are exposed to undeservedly favourably. This insidious phenomenon that retroactively becomes seen as nostalgia is something I must overcome! I like to think I have grown much since my youth. I can do it now! I am strong enough! It is time for me to condemn the naive joys of my past and see them as what they truly are so that I may live solely in the present. I will not shy away at the edge of dawn. It is time to destroy Fire Emblem, this puppy love of mine. This latest entry shall serve as a perfect target of my ire.
However, before I can get to condemning Engage™, there is necessary context that must be considered. It is not just a standalone iterative sequel after all. It is the celebratory title! It would seek to present itself as the ultimate culmination of an anthology. A statement of the series in its whole. The final destination of a long journey. If it dares to lay claim to such lofty dominion, then it elicits proper scrutiny. We will not just judge Fire Emblem Engage™ by what it is, but also, on what it isn’t. What it could have been. What it SHOULD have been!
Fire Emblem history, to me, is comprised of three distinct eras. The ‘Kaga Saga’, the first of which, having a particularly distinctive creative direction. Serving as the foundational ethos for all the future games to come, these early games were experimental in nature. More willing than most to utilise the unique qualities of videogames as a medium to tell its stories. Most infamously, Fire Emblem sought to embed a real sense of loss into its players by having characters permanently die should they fall during gameplay. That these characters with unique face, motivations and statistical significance would live and die through your hand was meant to instill a personal connection with Fire Emblem’s world. Such means of connection being only feasible through this uniquely dynamic aspect of video games.
And so, Fire Emblem was initially conceived to be a series about using games as a means of storytelling. A cohesive blend of gameplay with a narrative it wished to convey.
I have not played any of those games from that era. I am a fake fan, a poser, a revisionist. There is much to discuss of these entries that I have not the capacity or experience to do so. Instead, the games that I will elaborate upon comprise the second of these three Fire Emblem eras. That which I shall dub as the era of ‘Sanitation’. You see, that previous visionary ethos of character death was too successful. Most players were found unwilling to see the characters in which they are made to feel responsible for die, and instead of Engaging™ with this creative vision, would simply reset chapters until everyone survived. Creative intent clashed with the reality of a player’s actions. As these games had the ultimate purpose of seeking commercial success over making artistic statements, concessions were made to make the design of these games more tailored for the preferences of its general audience.
Yet even after the sanitation that ensued, alternative creative avenues were still sought to be explored, and though dulled, much remained of the original design philosophies post transition. Permadeath was kept, but instead of being a vestigial idea that players ignored, was retained explicitly because it was expected players would seek to circumvent it. If players were unwilling to let these previously expendable characters die, then why not encourage this behaviour? And so, these side characters became more integral and more significant within their stories. Fire Emblem was revised and recontextualized to be a series about the bonds we cultivate. This change of perspective inspired the most formative feature of this second generation, the support system.
Young me was enamoured by this concept! This method of storytelling I indulged in with earnestly, novel to me then as it was. Each character no matter how seemingly humble or insignificant would be given unique characterization through multiple conversations with others among the cast, conversations that had to be sought out by an invested player. Each of these conversations would in turn give you a tidbit of nuance of their character and the circumstances in which they exist. As you weave together these microstories you would unravel the nature of entire worlds. An understanding of why characters are the way they are, the rationale behind their actions, the material circumstances in which conflict is born. From this understanding you would find these simplistic stories are not as straightforward as they initially appear. The unique traits of videogames as a medium were still being utilized to tell stories. This time though through the ability to obfuscate details and dispense them piecemeal as a prize for the curious to seek.
Fire Emblem had adapted to its audience. It had become a series about story telling as a puzzle. It sought to exploit a player’s desire for discovery and willingness to Engage™ with character analysis and interpretation. Whilst deliberately echoing and iterating on past tropes and story beats from previous entries in which to contrast and compare against.
However no one, not even curious children with little responsibility, have the time to seek out all these support conversations individually. Instead, this support system deliberately or not, encouraged a certain type of Engagement™. Rather than spending 100s of hours repeating playthroughs just to see a few additional lines of text, these support conversations would be found much more readily accessible online in compilations on dedicated fan-sites. This centralization of resources became a hub of traffic. Communities formed around them, and so Fire Emblem had become more than just a series of games, it had become a culture in of itself.
Fire Emblem was now more than just the media it was sold as. It had become an outlet for discussion and critique. A way in which we can Engage™ with others who shared a passion for a niche media franchise. It had developed to become a cult, otherwise known as a fandom. An avenue of endless pontification about its characters, the ways it should be played and our individual experiences.
This second era of Fire Emblem would also not produce the requisite quota of milk deemed satisfactory to its masters. And so, the series was called away to be culled. Rather than go out quietly however, it was given one final mercy. A swansong game in which the series could be laid neatly to rest. And so, we entered the final and ongoing era of Fire Emblem: “Purpose (Id)”.
At the time I had wished Fire Emblem Awakening would have been the end of the series. It was so antithetical to what I was used to. A corrupted and revenant corpse of something I once loved. Tight deliberate mechanical design and maps were discarded in favour of a game that encouraged you to simply grind out your characters to become unkillable juggernauts. A cast of realistic and considered characters that defined the nature of the world they lived in had been replaced by one-note caricatures. Romantic pairings, which were once reserved for those with unique chemistry were now omnipresent for every and any male and female combination. All this just to enable the kids of these pairings to join your army in a mockery of one of the most incredible narrative twists of a previous entry of the series (that I hadn’t played).
Nostalgia is an insidious phenomenon. The very same spell that had captivated my younger self I was now resentful of others experiencing. My love after all was targeted towards something tangible, real, meaningful while that of these new fans was not. I would not have the Revelation™ for quite some time that this love was derived from the same source. That willingness to see the best qualities of something without a frame of reference in which to compare.
Seemingly equally confused by the financial success of Awakening as I, it’s producers immediately sought to ascertain as to the reason why through a curious application of market research. The next game in the series was released as a set of two, appealing to the separate expectations of newer fans as well as that of the ostracised veterans. It was a reactionary bid seeking to retain as much audience as it could. A final third game in the set would seek to reconcile the rift between these two audiences.
It was enough to temper me. Although it was apparent the prose and tone of Fire Emblem had been irrevocably changed forever there was something here that I could still latch onto. Fire Emblem may no longer have the capacity anymore to tell grounded or even coherent tales but as a mechanical object this iteration was unsurpassed. These embedded gameplay systems in which I was intimate with still persisted. I was content. Ready to move on and accept maybe what I saw in Fire Emblem wasn’t real. Just a naïve interpretation of the past. But then a beautiful tragedy occurred.
Three Houses. What a miserable chore to play! The antithesis of Fates: Conquest. Any vision it had for its gameplay either as artistic statement or as mechanical toy failed to manifest in a satisfactory way. And yet this game would leave me elated. It was perfect in a way that truly mattered. For it contained that aspect of Fire Emblem which I had thought was lost forever. What this lacked as a tactile game experience it more than made up through its quality of its narrative and its method of delivery. Yes, experiencing it all is a nightmare. Important details are scattered across four separate playthroughs and hundreds of optional and slowly dispensed dialogue events that no one with respect to their time is going to see all of it. But this was exactly how it should be! This was the Fire Emblem of my youth that I remembered. The antiquated method of storytelling from my nostalgia. Story as puzzle dispensed piecemeal. It was perhaps even better than it was in the past as there was no primary perspective of its story to cling to as ‘correct’. These different perspectives and the audience’s preconceptions would lead to extrapolating different interpretations from its details. Pictures that would be incompatible with those assembled by others. This lack of consensus on whose was ‘correct’ would facilitate endless debate, inspiring discussion and ultimately critical engagement with its story characters and themes. The tragedy of three houses is that it seemingly vindicated my nostalgia. That nostalgia I am now resolved to kill.
This preamble does not end on Hope™. There is one final game to discuss. The most integral and influential game to the future of the series. Fire Emblem makes money now. Lots of it. It is now a covetous cash cow. One of its games alone has surpassed the revenue of the rest of the series combined. That game is Fire Emblem Heroes and it is a drain upon all the goodwill of the series. Decades of character discussion, interpretations, fan translations of the many games that were never released internationally, are commodified, and then consumed by this beast. Three Houses was not made in-house and it shows. It was an outsourced project to keep the fanbase Engaged™ as the next direction of Fire Emblem was developed. The existence of Heroes means all future characters in the series are now designed for you to imprint upon so that they may be resold back to you in the most exploitatory way that is somehow still legal. That is the preconception for Fire Emblem Engage.
Fire Emblem that I had once viewed as a benevolent deity of storytelling had degenerated into a fell dragon needing to be slain. The fandom cultivated out of a shared love and passion was being used and preyed upon by that which it sought to enshrine. Was this always the series’ ultimate intention? The end goal of any corporate ip? It matters not, I have gathered all the necessary context needed. It is time to slay a degenerative dragon. I am ready to let go of the past. I am ready to kill this nostalgia within myself. I need to let go.
Resolution burning bright I would find little to dissuade this righteous fury within the opening acts. The world of Lythos is contrived to hell, deliberately so. There is no ambition here nor desire to tell a story that reflects upon or contrasts against a living world. Every creature here is an automaton, a faux imitation only resembling life. Vtuber avatars frolic about a story where conflict is abhorred, yet its root cause is never sought. A mandate of heaven is seen as absolute and unchallenged, as the cast indulge in a luxury resort above the clouds above an uninvolved populace. A zodiac of Fire Emblems past have their status cemented as commodities. Trinkets to flaunt and collect serving to establish the authority of a supposedly divine deity. The irony of how these emblems parallel a recurring theme of the series involving twelve ‘dead lords’ is not lost upon me.
Yet as the chapters go by, I find my resolve wavering. When your expectations start at the bottom of a ravine, it leaves the only direction left to climb. These caricatures clearly made to serve as an asset pack for a gacha game, slowly wear me down through a consistent message that concludes many of their story arcs. That we should not allow one’s past to define one’s future. I listen to this message because deep down it is something I want to hear. I am made to believe there is something salvageable and sincere beneath an ugly veneer. That I am wrong to judge Engage on what the series used to be. I should accept it on what it is and seeks to become.
I disengage. Yes, these characters do not compare as the ones in the gilded memories of the past or even that of the prior game, but there are aspects to like here. Templates in which I can extrapolate depth and nuance. Details to discover in which I can discuss and share with others. I can fix them! Both through gameplay and narratively. I am even provided the tools to do so. The game facilitating the means to combine traits taken of previous games to these characters. I can take ownership. Ascribe to them my own meaning. Is this not the culmination of what Fire Emblem is about? That ultimately we the audience are the arbiters of its story?
And so at journey’s end I hesitate. I find that I cannot will myself to kill this creature after all. There is a part of me still contained within. A part I still love. A sword wavers with conviction shattered. All I need is any reason, and I’ll let you go. Give me nothing even, be unrepentant and we can still live in peace. Arcadia can exist. Humans can live at peace with dragons.
The creature looks deep into my eyes. It sees shattered resolve, an extended hand. It sees only sovereign delusion. It rejects me thus, “I did it for Zero Emblem” uttered defiantly with no shame or remorse. This phrase is pure nonsense. A meaningless string of words that not even its speaker can decipher. It is not intended to be satisfactory nor received well. Even the most earnest of readings would find these words ring hollow. It is a proclamation of intent. A dismissal of peace. The game is telling me that I am wrong about it. That I am seeing something that was never there. That this was always a completely unserious farce and that I am foolish for seeing otherwise. A dagger reached for to provoke my reaction.
I can only oblige and stab it through the heart. We both always knew this was the only way this could possibly end. The beast is slain and I am free to move on. Thankyou for letting me go.
Fire Emblem is a series about the myriad ways in which we Engage™ with media. It has grown and adapted in response to how it has been perceived. It is a series that only still exists and thrives in the present because of the community that has formed around it. It would have us believe that it owns us because it sired that which we love. But we owe it nothing. This love is ours to shape and ours to reclaim.
I hate that I love these games so much.
“A world riven by pride, Repaired at last. And now its makers can be at rest, Our vision come to pass.”
(I recommend Engage to only Fire Emblem’s biggest fans. I recommend it to Its biggest haters. I recommend it to no one in between. It has absolutely succeeded in being the culmination of the series. As a mechanical object it is best in class. As a thesis statement of the series as a whole, it is a perfect tragedy. There is some genuine care here buried underneath a shallow exterior. Yet there is no way to save it. The game’s premise and the purpose on which it came to exist is antithetical to love. But there is closure to be had in laying it to rest)
However, before I can get to condemning Engage™, there is necessary context that must be considered. It is not just a standalone iterative sequel after all. It is the celebratory title! It would seek to present itself as the ultimate culmination of an anthology. A statement of the series in its whole. The final destination of a long journey. If it dares to lay claim to such lofty dominion, then it elicits proper scrutiny. We will not just judge Fire Emblem Engage™ by what it is, but also, on what it isn’t. What it could have been. What it SHOULD have been!
Fire Emblem history, to me, is comprised of three distinct eras. The ‘Kaga Saga’, the first of which, having a particularly distinctive creative direction. Serving as the foundational ethos for all the future games to come, these early games were experimental in nature. More willing than most to utilise the unique qualities of videogames as a medium to tell its stories. Most infamously, Fire Emblem sought to embed a real sense of loss into its players by having characters permanently die should they fall during gameplay. That these characters with unique face, motivations and statistical significance would live and die through your hand was meant to instill a personal connection with Fire Emblem’s world. Such means of connection being only feasible through this uniquely dynamic aspect of video games.
And so, Fire Emblem was initially conceived to be a series about using games as a means of storytelling. A cohesive blend of gameplay with a narrative it wished to convey.
I have not played any of those games from that era. I am a fake fan, a poser, a revisionist. There is much to discuss of these entries that I have not the capacity or experience to do so. Instead, the games that I will elaborate upon comprise the second of these three Fire Emblem eras. That which I shall dub as the era of ‘Sanitation’. You see, that previous visionary ethos of character death was too successful. Most players were found unwilling to see the characters in which they are made to feel responsible for die, and instead of Engaging™ with this creative vision, would simply reset chapters until everyone survived. Creative intent clashed with the reality of a player’s actions. As these games had the ultimate purpose of seeking commercial success over making artistic statements, concessions were made to make the design of these games more tailored for the preferences of its general audience.
Yet even after the sanitation that ensued, alternative creative avenues were still sought to be explored, and though dulled, much remained of the original design philosophies post transition. Permadeath was kept, but instead of being a vestigial idea that players ignored, was retained explicitly because it was expected players would seek to circumvent it. If players were unwilling to let these previously expendable characters die, then why not encourage this behaviour? And so, these side characters became more integral and more significant within their stories. Fire Emblem was revised and recontextualized to be a series about the bonds we cultivate. This change of perspective inspired the most formative feature of this second generation, the support system.
Young me was enamoured by this concept! This method of storytelling I indulged in with earnestly, novel to me then as it was. Each character no matter how seemingly humble or insignificant would be given unique characterization through multiple conversations with others among the cast, conversations that had to be sought out by an invested player. Each of these conversations would in turn give you a tidbit of nuance of their character and the circumstances in which they exist. As you weave together these microstories you would unravel the nature of entire worlds. An understanding of why characters are the way they are, the rationale behind their actions, the material circumstances in which conflict is born. From this understanding you would find these simplistic stories are not as straightforward as they initially appear. The unique traits of videogames as a medium were still being utilized to tell stories. This time though through the ability to obfuscate details and dispense them piecemeal as a prize for the curious to seek.
Fire Emblem had adapted to its audience. It had become a series about story telling as a puzzle. It sought to exploit a player’s desire for discovery and willingness to Engage™ with character analysis and interpretation. Whilst deliberately echoing and iterating on past tropes and story beats from previous entries in which to contrast and compare against.
However no one, not even curious children with little responsibility, have the time to seek out all these support conversations individually. Instead, this support system deliberately or not, encouraged a certain type of Engagement™. Rather than spending 100s of hours repeating playthroughs just to see a few additional lines of text, these support conversations would be found much more readily accessible online in compilations on dedicated fan-sites. This centralization of resources became a hub of traffic. Communities formed around them, and so Fire Emblem had become more than just a series of games, it had become a culture in of itself.
Fire Emblem was now more than just the media it was sold as. It had become an outlet for discussion and critique. A way in which we can Engage™ with others who shared a passion for a niche media franchise. It had developed to become a cult, otherwise known as a fandom. An avenue of endless pontification about its characters, the ways it should be played and our individual experiences.
This second era of Fire Emblem would also not produce the requisite quota of milk deemed satisfactory to its masters. And so, the series was called away to be culled. Rather than go out quietly however, it was given one final mercy. A swansong game in which the series could be laid neatly to rest. And so, we entered the final and ongoing era of Fire Emblem: “Purpose (Id)”.
At the time I had wished Fire Emblem Awakening would have been the end of the series. It was so antithetical to what I was used to. A corrupted and revenant corpse of something I once loved. Tight deliberate mechanical design and maps were discarded in favour of a game that encouraged you to simply grind out your characters to become unkillable juggernauts. A cast of realistic and considered characters that defined the nature of the world they lived in had been replaced by one-note caricatures. Romantic pairings, which were once reserved for those with unique chemistry were now omnipresent for every and any male and female combination. All this just to enable the kids of these pairings to join your army in a mockery of one of the most incredible narrative twists of a previous entry of the series (that I hadn’t played).
Nostalgia is an insidious phenomenon. The very same spell that had captivated my younger self I was now resentful of others experiencing. My love after all was targeted towards something tangible, real, meaningful while that of these new fans was not. I would not have the Revelation™ for quite some time that this love was derived from the same source. That willingness to see the best qualities of something without a frame of reference in which to compare.
Seemingly equally confused by the financial success of Awakening as I, it’s producers immediately sought to ascertain as to the reason why through a curious application of market research. The next game in the series was released as a set of two, appealing to the separate expectations of newer fans as well as that of the ostracised veterans. It was a reactionary bid seeking to retain as much audience as it could. A final third game in the set would seek to reconcile the rift between these two audiences.
It was enough to temper me. Although it was apparent the prose and tone of Fire Emblem had been irrevocably changed forever there was something here that I could still latch onto. Fire Emblem may no longer have the capacity anymore to tell grounded or even coherent tales but as a mechanical object this iteration was unsurpassed. These embedded gameplay systems in which I was intimate with still persisted. I was content. Ready to move on and accept maybe what I saw in Fire Emblem wasn’t real. Just a naïve interpretation of the past. But then a beautiful tragedy occurred.
Three Houses. What a miserable chore to play! The antithesis of Fates: Conquest. Any vision it had for its gameplay either as artistic statement or as mechanical toy failed to manifest in a satisfactory way. And yet this game would leave me elated. It was perfect in a way that truly mattered. For it contained that aspect of Fire Emblem which I had thought was lost forever. What this lacked as a tactile game experience it more than made up through its quality of its narrative and its method of delivery. Yes, experiencing it all is a nightmare. Important details are scattered across four separate playthroughs and hundreds of optional and slowly dispensed dialogue events that no one with respect to their time is going to see all of it. But this was exactly how it should be! This was the Fire Emblem of my youth that I remembered. The antiquated method of storytelling from my nostalgia. Story as puzzle dispensed piecemeal. It was perhaps even better than it was in the past as there was no primary perspective of its story to cling to as ‘correct’. These different perspectives and the audience’s preconceptions would lead to extrapolating different interpretations from its details. Pictures that would be incompatible with those assembled by others. This lack of consensus on whose was ‘correct’ would facilitate endless debate, inspiring discussion and ultimately critical engagement with its story characters and themes. The tragedy of three houses is that it seemingly vindicated my nostalgia. That nostalgia I am now resolved to kill.
This preamble does not end on Hope™. There is one final game to discuss. The most integral and influential game to the future of the series. Fire Emblem makes money now. Lots of it. It is now a covetous cash cow. One of its games alone has surpassed the revenue of the rest of the series combined. That game is Fire Emblem Heroes and it is a drain upon all the goodwill of the series. Decades of character discussion, interpretations, fan translations of the many games that were never released internationally, are commodified, and then consumed by this beast. Three Houses was not made in-house and it shows. It was an outsourced project to keep the fanbase Engaged™ as the next direction of Fire Emblem was developed. The existence of Heroes means all future characters in the series are now designed for you to imprint upon so that they may be resold back to you in the most exploitatory way that is somehow still legal. That is the preconception for Fire Emblem Engage.
Fire Emblem that I had once viewed as a benevolent deity of storytelling had degenerated into a fell dragon needing to be slain. The fandom cultivated out of a shared love and passion was being used and preyed upon by that which it sought to enshrine. Was this always the series’ ultimate intention? The end goal of any corporate ip? It matters not, I have gathered all the necessary context needed. It is time to slay a degenerative dragon. I am ready to let go of the past. I am ready to kill this nostalgia within myself. I need to let go.
Resolution burning bright I would find little to dissuade this righteous fury within the opening acts. The world of Lythos is contrived to hell, deliberately so. There is no ambition here nor desire to tell a story that reflects upon or contrasts against a living world. Every creature here is an automaton, a faux imitation only resembling life. Vtuber avatars frolic about a story where conflict is abhorred, yet its root cause is never sought. A mandate of heaven is seen as absolute and unchallenged, as the cast indulge in a luxury resort above the clouds above an uninvolved populace. A zodiac of Fire Emblems past have their status cemented as commodities. Trinkets to flaunt and collect serving to establish the authority of a supposedly divine deity. The irony of how these emblems parallel a recurring theme of the series involving twelve ‘dead lords’ is not lost upon me.
Yet as the chapters go by, I find my resolve wavering. When your expectations start at the bottom of a ravine, it leaves the only direction left to climb. These caricatures clearly made to serve as an asset pack for a gacha game, slowly wear me down through a consistent message that concludes many of their story arcs. That we should not allow one’s past to define one’s future. I listen to this message because deep down it is something I want to hear. I am made to believe there is something salvageable and sincere beneath an ugly veneer. That I am wrong to judge Engage on what the series used to be. I should accept it on what it is and seeks to become.
I disengage. Yes, these characters do not compare as the ones in the gilded memories of the past or even that of the prior game, but there are aspects to like here. Templates in which I can extrapolate depth and nuance. Details to discover in which I can discuss and share with others. I can fix them! Both through gameplay and narratively. I am even provided the tools to do so. The game facilitating the means to combine traits taken of previous games to these characters. I can take ownership. Ascribe to them my own meaning. Is this not the culmination of what Fire Emblem is about? That ultimately we the audience are the arbiters of its story?
And so at journey’s end I hesitate. I find that I cannot will myself to kill this creature after all. There is a part of me still contained within. A part I still love. A sword wavers with conviction shattered. All I need is any reason, and I’ll let you go. Give me nothing even, be unrepentant and we can still live in peace. Arcadia can exist. Humans can live at peace with dragons.
The creature looks deep into my eyes. It sees shattered resolve, an extended hand. It sees only sovereign delusion. It rejects me thus, “I did it for Zero Emblem” uttered defiantly with no shame or remorse. This phrase is pure nonsense. A meaningless string of words that not even its speaker can decipher. It is not intended to be satisfactory nor received well. Even the most earnest of readings would find these words ring hollow. It is a proclamation of intent. A dismissal of peace. The game is telling me that I am wrong about it. That I am seeing something that was never there. That this was always a completely unserious farce and that I am foolish for seeing otherwise. A dagger reached for to provoke my reaction.
I can only oblige and stab it through the heart. We both always knew this was the only way this could possibly end. The beast is slain and I am free to move on. Thankyou for letting me go.
Fire Emblem is a series about the myriad ways in which we Engage™ with media. It has grown and adapted in response to how it has been perceived. It is a series that only still exists and thrives in the present because of the community that has formed around it. It would have us believe that it owns us because it sired that which we love. But we owe it nothing. This love is ours to shape and ours to reclaim.
I hate that I love these games so much.
“A world riven by pride, Repaired at last. And now its makers can be at rest, Our vision come to pass.”
(I recommend Engage to only Fire Emblem’s biggest fans. I recommend it to Its biggest haters. I recommend it to no one in between. It has absolutely succeeded in being the culmination of the series. As a mechanical object it is best in class. As a thesis statement of the series as a whole, it is a perfect tragedy. There is some genuine care here buried underneath a shallow exterior. Yet there is no way to save it. The game’s premise and the purpose on which it came to exist is antithetical to love. But there is closure to be had in laying it to rest)
World Heroes 2 Jet
1994
Isn’t it always satisfying to see a redemption arc be fully completed? You know, you have this character, series, or whatever that starts out at the lowest point imaginable, where only small percentage of people could say they are a fan of it, but then gradually over time, it starts getting better and better through whatever means, until it then reaches the point where it isn’t necessarily beloved per se, but it is liked by a lot more people then before, outnumbering the others that still don’t like it. One redemption arc I never expected to see would be with the World Heroes series, starting off with a pretty piss-poor attempt at capitalizing on the success of Street Fighter II, which was greeted by groans that could be heard across the world, and then there was World Heroes 2, a sequel that definitely did improve on some elements that were featured in the original game, but it wasn’t enough to make it really great or even pretty good, like with other fighters at the time. Thankfully, I think we have reached the point where the series finally found its stride, thanks to World Heroes 2 Jet.
Despite what the title may tell you, this is NOT an updated version of World Heroes 2, but rather instead, it is the third mainline game in the series. I don’t know why the fuck they decided to name it that with that in mind, or why they decided to include the word “Jet” at the end of the title, but I’m sure it did cause a lot of confusion for plenty of people back in the day. I wasn’t really focused on that for too long though when going into this game, because I was more worried about if I was gonna like it to begin with. This was World Heroes that we’re talking about, and I knew that the second game was better than the original, but it could always drop off in quality again at the drop of a hat. Thankfully though, that was not the case, as this is without a doubt the best game in the series so far, and it is pretty damn good all on its own. Maybe I am foolishly blinded due to the last fighting game I played before this being Double Dragon V, but this game manages to be quite an improvement on the formula established in the previous games, while also improving on several elements that I am very thankful for.
The story is about as lazy and generic as this entire series is, where sometime after the previous game's villains were defeated and their tournament was stopped, ANOTHER tournament is started up by a new team of villains as a ploy to take over the world, so it is up to the previous game's fighters, along with several newcomers, to figure out what's going on and save the world again, which is a story that I expected from a series like this, but at the same time, they could've put a little more effort into it. The graphics do look better than the previous game, having a lot of new flashy animations and detailed stages, but it mostly looks the same as every other fighting game from SNK at the time, so you know what you’re gonna get from it, the music is an improvement from what we got before, with there being some pretty sweet tracks here, but most of it is pretty forgettable overall, and the control/gameplay is what you have come to expect from these games, but this game definitely feels better to play then any other game in the series at this point.
The game is a one-on-one fighting game, where you take control of one of 17 different fighters from all across time, with most of them returning from the previous games, face off against many different opponents in plenty of different stages from across the world, throw out many different punches, kicks, and special attacks to deal damage to your opponent and to throw them off their game, make sure to dodge or block any oncoming attacks yourself so that you can get that sweet perfect bonus, and take on one or two different bosses that will certainly put up a challenge and test your might. It is a 90s fighting game, so you know exactly what you are gonna get with this, but to its credit, not only does it feel better to play then other entries in the series, but there are some slight changes that do make it feel different from the other games.
Like with the last games, there are two primary modes that you can take on, but they are much more simple this time around, with Entry to the Tournament being your standard arcade story mode for one of these games, and The Forging of Warriors is your standard versus mode. Both of them work as you would expect, but what is changed is the match setups that are contained in these modes. Unlike previous games, where all of the fights work in the same 2 out of 3 wins fashion, there are a good handful of fights here where you will take on three opponents at once, one for each round, which makes these fights much more interesting, fast, and exciting. Not only that, but depending on how well you do with each opponent, it will change the ending that you get, which is pretty good for adding some replay value to the entire experience.
Speaking of, the fights themselves do feel like an improvement over the previous games, feeling much smoother, faster, and more manageable than in previous games, with there being plenty of great special attacks that you can pull off that provide some great visuals, considering what came beforehand. In addition, they actually managed to find a balance in the difficulty, which is great to see. We had a problem with the original game where it was too easy, and then with the second game, it did feel pretty hard to get through a lot of the fights, but thankfully this time, a lot of the fights feel doable compared to other SNK games, while not being too easy to the point of being pathetic. Beginners to the series, or just in fighting games in general, may have a bit of a hard time, but you should get used to it pretty quickly and take down your opponents all the same.
If none of that is interest to you though, then there is nothing else here that will catch your attention. What we get here is, say it with me now, another typical SNK fighter of the time, with it having plenty to keep fanatics of the genre entertained, but nothing too new or interesting for me to truly recommend it over the many, MANY other options that were out at the time. Not to mention, while I did say that this is the best game in the series, it isn’t too much of a substantial jump in quality from World Heroes 2, so if you weren’t a fan of either of the two previous games, then you are still not going to have a good time with this one. I managed to have a pretty good time with it, but I can’t say for certain you would as well.
Overall, despite a lack of any major changes and being as uncreative as a typical SNK fighter would be, WH2J managed to take this series and change it from a slightly passable good fighting game to a pretty good fight game, one that has fast and fun enough gameplay, some neat ideas that do make fights more enjoyable for the time they use them, and is sure to satisfy the die-hard fans of this franchise plenty… you know, all two of them. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the previous two games, as well as those who are big fighting game fans in general, because while this isn’t quite as good as other fighters of that era on the market, there are certainly worse options out there that you can choose over this.
But anyway, before we end this off, can we talk about the dumbass dialogue that is in this game for cutscenes? Yeah, I know SNK games at the time always had horrible translations, but this one is just… chef’s kiss, it is exquisite. There are several moments in particular from the end game that stick out to me, where there are multiple lines talking about wieners, which I am pretty sure is supposed to be winner, and one of the winning quotes from the main villain basically said that I am not good enough to… pop his zits? I don’t know what kind of zits he is talking about, but I don’t want anything to do with him or his zit fetish. Seriously, if you haven’t seen the cutscenes in this game and what they say, go look up a video of it, because it is some GLORIOUS shit, it’s so bad.
Game #538
Despite what the title may tell you, this is NOT an updated version of World Heroes 2, but rather instead, it is the third mainline game in the series. I don’t know why the fuck they decided to name it that with that in mind, or why they decided to include the word “Jet” at the end of the title, but I’m sure it did cause a lot of confusion for plenty of people back in the day. I wasn’t really focused on that for too long though when going into this game, because I was more worried about if I was gonna like it to begin with. This was World Heroes that we’re talking about, and I knew that the second game was better than the original, but it could always drop off in quality again at the drop of a hat. Thankfully though, that was not the case, as this is without a doubt the best game in the series so far, and it is pretty damn good all on its own. Maybe I am foolishly blinded due to the last fighting game I played before this being Double Dragon V, but this game manages to be quite an improvement on the formula established in the previous games, while also improving on several elements that I am very thankful for.
The story is about as lazy and generic as this entire series is, where sometime after the previous game's villains were defeated and their tournament was stopped, ANOTHER tournament is started up by a new team of villains as a ploy to take over the world, so it is up to the previous game's fighters, along with several newcomers, to figure out what's going on and save the world again, which is a story that I expected from a series like this, but at the same time, they could've put a little more effort into it. The graphics do look better than the previous game, having a lot of new flashy animations and detailed stages, but it mostly looks the same as every other fighting game from SNK at the time, so you know what you’re gonna get from it, the music is an improvement from what we got before, with there being some pretty sweet tracks here, but most of it is pretty forgettable overall, and the control/gameplay is what you have come to expect from these games, but this game definitely feels better to play then any other game in the series at this point.
The game is a one-on-one fighting game, where you take control of one of 17 different fighters from all across time, with most of them returning from the previous games, face off against many different opponents in plenty of different stages from across the world, throw out many different punches, kicks, and special attacks to deal damage to your opponent and to throw them off their game, make sure to dodge or block any oncoming attacks yourself so that you can get that sweet perfect bonus, and take on one or two different bosses that will certainly put up a challenge and test your might. It is a 90s fighting game, so you know exactly what you are gonna get with this, but to its credit, not only does it feel better to play then other entries in the series, but there are some slight changes that do make it feel different from the other games.
Like with the last games, there are two primary modes that you can take on, but they are much more simple this time around, with Entry to the Tournament being your standard arcade story mode for one of these games, and The Forging of Warriors is your standard versus mode. Both of them work as you would expect, but what is changed is the match setups that are contained in these modes. Unlike previous games, where all of the fights work in the same 2 out of 3 wins fashion, there are a good handful of fights here where you will take on three opponents at once, one for each round, which makes these fights much more interesting, fast, and exciting. Not only that, but depending on how well you do with each opponent, it will change the ending that you get, which is pretty good for adding some replay value to the entire experience.
Speaking of, the fights themselves do feel like an improvement over the previous games, feeling much smoother, faster, and more manageable than in previous games, with there being plenty of great special attacks that you can pull off that provide some great visuals, considering what came beforehand. In addition, they actually managed to find a balance in the difficulty, which is great to see. We had a problem with the original game where it was too easy, and then with the second game, it did feel pretty hard to get through a lot of the fights, but thankfully this time, a lot of the fights feel doable compared to other SNK games, while not being too easy to the point of being pathetic. Beginners to the series, or just in fighting games in general, may have a bit of a hard time, but you should get used to it pretty quickly and take down your opponents all the same.
If none of that is interest to you though, then there is nothing else here that will catch your attention. What we get here is, say it with me now, another typical SNK fighter of the time, with it having plenty to keep fanatics of the genre entertained, but nothing too new or interesting for me to truly recommend it over the many, MANY other options that were out at the time. Not to mention, while I did say that this is the best game in the series, it isn’t too much of a substantial jump in quality from World Heroes 2, so if you weren’t a fan of either of the two previous games, then you are still not going to have a good time with this one. I managed to have a pretty good time with it, but I can’t say for certain you would as well.
Overall, despite a lack of any major changes and being as uncreative as a typical SNK fighter would be, WH2J managed to take this series and change it from a slightly passable good fighting game to a pretty good fight game, one that has fast and fun enough gameplay, some neat ideas that do make fights more enjoyable for the time they use them, and is sure to satisfy the die-hard fans of this franchise plenty… you know, all two of them. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the previous two games, as well as those who are big fighting game fans in general, because while this isn’t quite as good as other fighters of that era on the market, there are certainly worse options out there that you can choose over this.
But anyway, before we end this off, can we talk about the dumbass dialogue that is in this game for cutscenes? Yeah, I know SNK games at the time always had horrible translations, but this one is just… chef’s kiss, it is exquisite. There are several moments in particular from the end game that stick out to me, where there are multiple lines talking about wieners, which I am pretty sure is supposed to be winner, and one of the winning quotes from the main villain basically said that I am not good enough to… pop his zits? I don’t know what kind of zits he is talking about, but I don’t want anything to do with him or his zit fetish. Seriously, if you haven’t seen the cutscenes in this game and what they say, go look up a video of it, because it is some GLORIOUS shit, it’s so bad.
Game #538
There is beauty in the way you live and thrive despite it all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qalGezr76o
I played through the original long ago and hardly remembered much of it and I have played Silent Hill 3 twice. After playing this again and having it fresh in my mind I can say this is by far the best in the series and definitely my favorite at this time. Being creeped out when I was so little watching my uncle play it to experiencing it now that I am 29 and still getting freaked out at times really is a testament to what kind of experience this game is capable of.
The masterpiece of a fearful and emotional entanglement this game brings in such a way is a torment filled dance you surely won't comprehend completely on your first playthrough. The best Horror games or games in general that that stay in your mind hours and days after it is over and keep you thinking are truly one of the best feelings in my opinion.
The deep details and creativity in the environments and psychological puzzles and inclusion of characters you will learn about in later installments of this series is a really interesting form of storytelling Team Silent has created at their prime and I deeply wish to this day they were still the wonderful team they were and not just remnants of the past.
Now I will definitely have to play some more of these again as they always grab ahold of me in the best way. I am kind of worried to how the remake will be, but I am hoping for the best although I don't see how you top the original especially with the experience it brings. If you have not played this game yet I cannot recommend this enough, definitely one of those play before you die type of games that solidifies itself in the genre of perfect horror games.
Pyramid Head belongs to this entry and the fact they use him in other installments feels so off especially now that I see the imagery and semblance he brings to James' judgement and conviction. Wish they would have just made a unique character that did the same thing for each protagonist's struggle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qalGezr76o
I played through the original long ago and hardly remembered much of it and I have played Silent Hill 3 twice. After playing this again and having it fresh in my mind I can say this is by far the best in the series and definitely my favorite at this time. Being creeped out when I was so little watching my uncle play it to experiencing it now that I am 29 and still getting freaked out at times really is a testament to what kind of experience this game is capable of.
The masterpiece of a fearful and emotional entanglement this game brings in such a way is a torment filled dance you surely won't comprehend completely on your first playthrough. The best Horror games or games in general that that stay in your mind hours and days after it is over and keep you thinking are truly one of the best feelings in my opinion.
The deep details and creativity in the environments and psychological puzzles and inclusion of characters you will learn about in later installments of this series is a really interesting form of storytelling Team Silent has created at their prime and I deeply wish to this day they were still the wonderful team they were and not just remnants of the past.
Now I will definitely have to play some more of these again as they always grab ahold of me in the best way. I am kind of worried to how the remake will be, but I am hoping for the best although I don't see how you top the original especially with the experience it brings. If you have not played this game yet I cannot recommend this enough, definitely one of those play before you die type of games that solidifies itself in the genre of perfect horror games.
Pyramid Head belongs to this entry and the fact they use him in other installments feels so off especially now that I see the imagery and semblance he brings to James' judgement and conviction. Wish they would have just made a unique character that did the same thing for each protagonist's struggle.
They don't make video games like Silent Hill 2 anymore
Chrono Trigger
1995
What is there even to say about Chrono Trigger that hasn't already been said before? It's the quintessential JRPG; not only did it have all the makings of a great game, with its vibrant pixel art and jaw-droppingly beautiful soundtrack, a tightly constructed narrative (somehow with no gaping plotholes alongside extremely clever time travel mechanics) and phenomenal worldbuilding through realized settings and a colorful cast, and a rich combat system through combining turn based and real time combat mechanics, it also set the standards for JRPGs to this day and popularized classic mechanics such as New Game + and multiple endings. The bar was raised so high that even today, every JRPG gets compared to Chrono Trigger in some fashion; the Phantom of the Opera of its generation, Chrono Trigger is, for lack of better words, timeless. It's not my favorite video game or even my favorite JRPG, but it remains a staple of video game history and I'm glad to say that if anything, it's only gotten better with age even after 27 years have passed. Everyone should experience Chrono Trigger; it's just one of those games that is practically perfect, and probably always will be.