LunaEndlessWitch
Boneless
Mario
Kart
I'm making this review more to mark off a checklist, it's everything you'd expect if you dumbed down everything about Mario Kart so anyone could finish it on a 50cc level in first place without putting in much effort. It's exactly what you expect if you decided to take away 80% of the components to make something more commercial and accessible to a wide audience, which is INSANE when Mario Kart is already a game that appeases mostly everyone??
It was not a good time at Dave n Busters that's for sure. (4/10)
Mario
Kart
I'm making this review more to mark off a checklist, it's everything you'd expect if you dumbed down everything about Mario Kart so anyone could finish it on a 50cc level in first place without putting in much effort. It's exactly what you expect if you decided to take away 80% of the components to make something more commercial and accessible to a wide audience, which is INSANE when Mario Kart is already a game that appeases mostly everyone??
It was not a good time at Dave n Busters that's for sure. (4/10)
2001
One of the last titles published under the SquareSoft name, Final Fantasy X is an interesting time to be had. Interesting not so much in quotes as that's really the best way I can describe it.
On one hand, you have a particularly goodish story delving into religious themes and philosophy that reflect on the characters (to a point) as they go on their venture. It all ties in very neatly to this concept of finding what you really believe in and evaluating what religion offers, because the followings of Yevon both impart legitimately beneficial uses and harmful overzealous cultlike philosophy.
It's not really as graceful as I describe it unfortunately, because it's paced like shit and the characters are obnoxiously simple for far too long a while for any investment. The dub makes things worse for sure (which has been said to death) but it's just not that well written.
On the other hand of interesting, you have the combat. The sphere grid, which is the progression backbone and customization route of FFX, is the best component. It gives a general track to follow for how your characters can level up but also giving you choices and meaningful opportunity costs to consider. The turn based gameplay is also very good, requiring more attention than your usual FF affair and having enemy optimization and decent balance.
But again, there's drawbacks here. The combat pacing is also trash, with a ridiculous amount of fights that go on for too long and are incredibly boring, optimization generally becoming a simple affair until the hard hitting bosses. The game's combat doesn't really turn into something special until the damn endgame where all of the best bosses are kept and test the system to its limits.
Other miscellaneous notes: The music is prettttty bad, and potentially one of my least favorite soundtracks of the FF series. The aesthetic is well worn if a bit dated at points. The cinematics are very well done though on most regards. Blitzball is trash, so are the rest of the minigames the game forces you through. It's a running thing with FF games but it's at one of its worst incarnations here.
Overall, FFX is a decent overall time that I do recommend trying. You might end up being far more charitable to it than I was. (6/10)
On one hand, you have a particularly goodish story delving into religious themes and philosophy that reflect on the characters (to a point) as they go on their venture. It all ties in very neatly to this concept of finding what you really believe in and evaluating what religion offers, because the followings of Yevon both impart legitimately beneficial uses and harmful overzealous cultlike philosophy.
It's not really as graceful as I describe it unfortunately, because it's paced like shit and the characters are obnoxiously simple for far too long a while for any investment. The dub makes things worse for sure (which has been said to death) but it's just not that well written.
On the other hand of interesting, you have the combat. The sphere grid, which is the progression backbone and customization route of FFX, is the best component. It gives a general track to follow for how your characters can level up but also giving you choices and meaningful opportunity costs to consider. The turn based gameplay is also very good, requiring more attention than your usual FF affair and having enemy optimization and decent balance.
But again, there's drawbacks here. The combat pacing is also trash, with a ridiculous amount of fights that go on for too long and are incredibly boring, optimization generally becoming a simple affair until the hard hitting bosses. The game's combat doesn't really turn into something special until the damn endgame where all of the best bosses are kept and test the system to its limits.
Other miscellaneous notes: The music is prettttty bad, and potentially one of my least favorite soundtracks of the FF series. The aesthetic is well worn if a bit dated at points. The cinematics are very well done though on most regards. Blitzball is trash, so are the rest of the minigames the game forces you through. It's a running thing with FF games but it's at one of its worst incarnations here.
Overall, FFX is a decent overall time that I do recommend trying. You might end up being far more charitable to it than I was. (6/10)
1993
This game is a fucking beauty to play.
It definitely limits its potential early on, structuring the levels around easy fast lanes and emphasis on speed despite the speed requiring very little skill to get to, and also shooting its foot in the exploration front by making it more annoying to get the best endings for every level.
Despite that, I can't deny how much fun I had with this game. It is just a pleasure to zoom through every level, and the level design is still super tight despite its shortcomings, with many ways to sequence break and speedrun the game to a point where it is at least better than some of its peers. The music and aesthetic adds tremendous quality to it too, especially with the JP soundtrack on (which you SHOULD have on). To me, this is one of a few cases where I think roller coaster design is only beneficial.
The bosses are fun too, they're not anything special but they complement rather than detach. The game's areas also have distinct feels to them on an aesthetical front that don't feel too similar to basic tropes in platformers. I definitely recommend giving this game a shot and hope you have a blast on it.
It definitely limits its potential early on, structuring the levels around easy fast lanes and emphasis on speed despite the speed requiring very little skill to get to, and also shooting its foot in the exploration front by making it more annoying to get the best endings for every level.
Despite that, I can't deny how much fun I had with this game. It is just a pleasure to zoom through every level, and the level design is still super tight despite its shortcomings, with many ways to sequence break and speedrun the game to a point where it is at least better than some of its peers. The music and aesthetic adds tremendous quality to it too, especially with the JP soundtrack on (which you SHOULD have on). To me, this is one of a few cases where I think roller coaster design is only beneficial.
The bosses are fun too, they're not anything special but they complement rather than detach. The game's areas also have distinct feels to them on an aesthetical front that don't feel too similar to basic tropes in platformers. I definitely recommend giving this game a shot and hope you have a blast on it.
2015
This is currently my favorite game of all time, so making this review was an inevitability, but I found it hard to word myself for the longest time. This entire review will most definitely contain elements of spoilers.
I would I guess, like to preface that it isn't perfect. Much of the known Genocide Route and Pacifist Route is a rough draft in terms of narrative design, pacing is kind of thrown to the road in both of them in terms of how events are revealed, specifically the tapes in the True Lab come to mind, or how it unceremoniously saves all of the genuine good storytelling in Genocide to the latter bits.
It's also quite limiting on a gameplay front, to an extent. I think the bullet hell combat is genuinely good, and by nature of how it's designed, better than most other rpgs. Dancing between bullet patterns as they combine on top of other enemies is a core part of any decent bullet hell philosophy, and seamlessly tying that to its rpg core and narrative is something to be praised and serves far more an execution test than most rpg's knowledge test design where ultimately optimal strategy is a once and done affair for most encounters. It is still limiting however, since only about 1/3 of the encounters actually make use of patterns building atop of each other, and the game saves its strongest bullet hell tests to the Genocide run, and the hard mode is literally an intentional joke.
That being said, and god that last paragraph wasn't even too negative, I'd say UNDERTALE is absolutely brilliant. It's the finest execution of the ensuing theme of "determination" I've ever seen in a work of art, surpassing general examples like Gurren Lagann by supplying its theme at an individual character level and wrapping it around an excellent metanarrative to boot (that you don't even have to be aware of to enjoy).
UNDERTALE works off clear character ideas, humanizing its characters around the world it sets up in extremely well written ways. Alphys is my leading example, which is weird that it's people's least favorite. She's built up as a stingy incredibly annoying type, a character who is increasingly irritating to deal with. She stops you at every point, wanting attention, to be something like the shows and remnants of otaku cultures she was able to consume. She ultimately gets betrayed by her own work, and ends up pushing back her own war crimes she's committed. She's not a justified person in what she's done, but she is sympathetic to understand. Her actions are communicated exceptionally for people to understand what kind of person she is, and the arc she gets is fitting and she learns what it really means to be determined and what she actually needs to do to be loved.
This reflects on every character not just her, and on top of this, is how flawed each of these characters are as people really works back to how honest they truly feel, and they’re all fleshed out personality wise to a point where tobyfox can publish them talking about whatever topic and I could hear their fonts come off the page and imagine them emoting in real time. They're very humanized people.
I'd also like to talk about how UNDERTALE ties its metanarrative elements well. The game in short, is a living breathing game world that operates on world mechanics riffed from a general audience understanding of how rpgs work, using a morality system that is defined on a character to character level rather than strict moral good/bad. You're allowed to kill in self defense, you're encouraged to be pacifist but the game doesn't vilify you for kills, it asks you to reflect on them. The monsters' world is as much a world to them as your own world is to you. And the only basis to understand them is to take them as living people where act of murder or self defense is a last resort. Especially when you yourself have the power to save and reload, so death is never truly an end for you, so death until you SPARE them is a legitimate option that only costs you time.
Even if you don't care for the meta elements, even if the characters aren't someone you jive with, even if the gameplay isn't particularly your own thing, it still has its own comedic writing to back on, and one of the best vidya soundtracks I've had the pleasure to listen to. It's also an excellently paced journey, gameplay and narrative-wise. But I would still be surprised personally, if there wasn't a single character or emotional moment that resonated with you.
I think UNDERTALE stands above all other games I've played in my lifetime so far, and it certainly has had a huge impact on my life going forward that I can't give it any less than my 10/10.
I would I guess, like to preface that it isn't perfect. Much of the known Genocide Route and Pacifist Route is a rough draft in terms of narrative design, pacing is kind of thrown to the road in both of them in terms of how events are revealed, specifically the tapes in the True Lab come to mind, or how it unceremoniously saves all of the genuine good storytelling in Genocide to the latter bits.
It's also quite limiting on a gameplay front, to an extent. I think the bullet hell combat is genuinely good, and by nature of how it's designed, better than most other rpgs. Dancing between bullet patterns as they combine on top of other enemies is a core part of any decent bullet hell philosophy, and seamlessly tying that to its rpg core and narrative is something to be praised and serves far more an execution test than most rpg's knowledge test design where ultimately optimal strategy is a once and done affair for most encounters. It is still limiting however, since only about 1/3 of the encounters actually make use of patterns building atop of each other, and the game saves its strongest bullet hell tests to the Genocide run, and the hard mode is literally an intentional joke.
That being said, and god that last paragraph wasn't even too negative, I'd say UNDERTALE is absolutely brilliant. It's the finest execution of the ensuing theme of "determination" I've ever seen in a work of art, surpassing general examples like Gurren Lagann by supplying its theme at an individual character level and wrapping it around an excellent metanarrative to boot (that you don't even have to be aware of to enjoy).
UNDERTALE works off clear character ideas, humanizing its characters around the world it sets up in extremely well written ways. Alphys is my leading example, which is weird that it's people's least favorite. She's built up as a stingy incredibly annoying type, a character who is increasingly irritating to deal with. She stops you at every point, wanting attention, to be something like the shows and remnants of otaku cultures she was able to consume. She ultimately gets betrayed by her own work, and ends up pushing back her own war crimes she's committed. She's not a justified person in what she's done, but she is sympathetic to understand. Her actions are communicated exceptionally for people to understand what kind of person she is, and the arc she gets is fitting and she learns what it really means to be determined and what she actually needs to do to be loved.
This reflects on every character not just her, and on top of this, is how flawed each of these characters are as people really works back to how honest they truly feel, and they’re all fleshed out personality wise to a point where tobyfox can publish them talking about whatever topic and I could hear their fonts come off the page and imagine them emoting in real time. They're very humanized people.
I'd also like to talk about how UNDERTALE ties its metanarrative elements well. The game in short, is a living breathing game world that operates on world mechanics riffed from a general audience understanding of how rpgs work, using a morality system that is defined on a character to character level rather than strict moral good/bad. You're allowed to kill in self defense, you're encouraged to be pacifist but the game doesn't vilify you for kills, it asks you to reflect on them. The monsters' world is as much a world to them as your own world is to you. And the only basis to understand them is to take them as living people where act of murder or self defense is a last resort. Especially when you yourself have the power to save and reload, so death is never truly an end for you, so death until you SPARE them is a legitimate option that only costs you time.
Even if you don't care for the meta elements, even if the characters aren't someone you jive with, even if the gameplay isn't particularly your own thing, it still has its own comedic writing to back on, and one of the best vidya soundtracks I've had the pleasure to listen to. It's also an excellently paced journey, gameplay and narrative-wise. But I would still be surprised personally, if there wasn't a single character or emotional moment that resonated with you.
I think UNDERTALE stands above all other games I've played in my lifetime so far, and it certainly has had a huge impact on my life going forward that I can't give it any less than my 10/10.
2019
The ways by which we find how best to communicate with each other are incredibly flawed and are where most of conflict between us comes from, with this misunderstanding branching us off into our own circles of groups of people who understand each other but barely try to understand outside those circles and end up disregarding them.
This is the basis by which Baldr Sky tackles its themes, and it does it incredibly well. A meticulously crafted VN/Action game that juggles core themes around the nature of qualia, our conscious experience, and communication branches around our feelings with Artificial Intelligence and technology as a whole. The story is incredibly well done, both in terms of pacing its elements throughout, slowly delving deeper into the many motivations and arguments around these themes, and also in terms of general writing, with all of the events and characters tied so neatly together that it often becomes too easy to predict what comes next. That's a very good thing though, the story rewards your understandings of the characters and doesn't shy away from getting complex with that structure, fancifully playing around with that structure in the final route where the metanarrative pulls the rug out from under you and ties everything together.
The characters are also fantastically handled, each of them with strong motivations and personality, tied together in the story in ways that both make sense and work on the relationships between each of them. One of the things that pleasantly surprised me is that even the somewhat one-note characters get their own fleshed out motivation and use in the story that doesn't just go down to their archetype. This also ties into the romance, which is just as pleasant to read and works in the many routes nature.
Another component that takes up a huge amount of time in Baldr Sky is the 2D isometric mecha combat, which is near perfect. You have an intricate combat system that utilizes great spatial awareness and is very enemy design based, which the game uses well by continuously delivering new enemies each with their own movesets to learn and deal with that are all used in combinations with each other. The enemies make use of the base fundamentals of whiff punishing, okizeme, kiting, armor crushing, zoning, and risk management. Combat situations are well structured, with each of the enemy combinations leveling difficult challenges that require you to be continuously moving and considering your options from moment to moment. Progression is solid too, unlocking new moves, tools, and abilities all the way to the end of the game. I for one didn't even unlock everything that I could have after finishing all the routes, which goes to show the replayability on offer here. There's so much combo potential to utilize too, with an entire practice mode that allows you to work with your many cancels and changeable movelist to craft any combination you like, all of it utilizing juggling enemies well and awareness of your move properties.
Even after the game is over, you still have content for the gameplay side to work with, having an entire DMC Bloody Palace like with waves of enemies known as Survival Mode. In my experience it's pretty difficult but very well paced too, slowly ramping up the challenge just as well as the base story content.
Outside of the nitty gritty appeals, Baldr Sky also has an amazing aesthetic to offer, with the UI being completely seamless to gameplay and story and offering a great soundtrack to match the somber and heart-pumping moments. There's also of course, a bit of fan service to enjoy outside of the general romance structure. The menu itself is very customizable too, as well as your experience. Difficulty settings to entire aesthetics changes are at your fingers from the outset of the game.
The only real issue I have with the game is a required recap called Reminiscence, placed after Route 4 that must be read to continue on. The idea of it is sound, chronologically putting all of the events before the "present day" together where in each respective route flashbacks were pulled whenever relevant. But since Baldr Sky is actually really good at establishing where and when we are at any given point extending out to the flashbacks where character relationships change naturally, it ends up giving you nothing that you couldn't infer or connect on your own up until the final 5% of it. It's a massive waste of time that fortunately you don't have to touch twice. Another minor but relevant issue to this is having to continuously repeat flashback text and having no real way of skipping text until you've read it before, which gets grating when some flashbacks that you may have already seen won't let you skip.
Overall, it is a fantastic experience, a complete 60-80 hour odyssey that I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone. (9.5/10)
This is the basis by which Baldr Sky tackles its themes, and it does it incredibly well. A meticulously crafted VN/Action game that juggles core themes around the nature of qualia, our conscious experience, and communication branches around our feelings with Artificial Intelligence and technology as a whole. The story is incredibly well done, both in terms of pacing its elements throughout, slowly delving deeper into the many motivations and arguments around these themes, and also in terms of general writing, with all of the events and characters tied so neatly together that it often becomes too easy to predict what comes next. That's a very good thing though, the story rewards your understandings of the characters and doesn't shy away from getting complex with that structure, fancifully playing around with that structure in the final route where the metanarrative pulls the rug out from under you and ties everything together.
The characters are also fantastically handled, each of them with strong motivations and personality, tied together in the story in ways that both make sense and work on the relationships between each of them. One of the things that pleasantly surprised me is that even the somewhat one-note characters get their own fleshed out motivation and use in the story that doesn't just go down to their archetype. This also ties into the romance, which is just as pleasant to read and works in the many routes nature.
Another component that takes up a huge amount of time in Baldr Sky is the 2D isometric mecha combat, which is near perfect. You have an intricate combat system that utilizes great spatial awareness and is very enemy design based, which the game uses well by continuously delivering new enemies each with their own movesets to learn and deal with that are all used in combinations with each other. The enemies make use of the base fundamentals of whiff punishing, okizeme, kiting, armor crushing, zoning, and risk management. Combat situations are well structured, with each of the enemy combinations leveling difficult challenges that require you to be continuously moving and considering your options from moment to moment. Progression is solid too, unlocking new moves, tools, and abilities all the way to the end of the game. I for one didn't even unlock everything that I could have after finishing all the routes, which goes to show the replayability on offer here. There's so much combo potential to utilize too, with an entire practice mode that allows you to work with your many cancels and changeable movelist to craft any combination you like, all of it utilizing juggling enemies well and awareness of your move properties.
Even after the game is over, you still have content for the gameplay side to work with, having an entire DMC Bloody Palace like with waves of enemies known as Survival Mode. In my experience it's pretty difficult but very well paced too, slowly ramping up the challenge just as well as the base story content.
Outside of the nitty gritty appeals, Baldr Sky also has an amazing aesthetic to offer, with the UI being completely seamless to gameplay and story and offering a great soundtrack to match the somber and heart-pumping moments. There's also of course, a bit of fan service to enjoy outside of the general romance structure. The menu itself is very customizable too, as well as your experience. Difficulty settings to entire aesthetics changes are at your fingers from the outset of the game.
The only real issue I have with the game is a required recap called Reminiscence, placed after Route 4 that must be read to continue on. The idea of it is sound, chronologically putting all of the events before the "present day" together where in each respective route flashbacks were pulled whenever relevant. But since Baldr Sky is actually really good at establishing where and when we are at any given point extending out to the flashbacks where character relationships change naturally, it ends up giving you nothing that you couldn't infer or connect on your own up until the final 5% of it. It's a massive waste of time that fortunately you don't have to touch twice. Another minor but relevant issue to this is having to continuously repeat flashback text and having no real way of skipping text until you've read it before, which gets grating when some flashbacks that you may have already seen won't let you skip.
Overall, it is a fantastic experience, a complete 60-80 hour odyssey that I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone. (9.5/10)
2000
I wanted to like this game, the aesthetic is solid, the story is written in such an excellent manner with deliberate ye olde english translation, and the (MOSTLY) seamless cuts between gameplay and story leave it a lot to like.
However, the combat is the most mind numbing shit, and it was starting to reach more than the majority of time. It's literally just timing combat and then waiting for your risk meter to fall back down, and it's so pathetically easy otherwise. You use items whenever your risk or MP is down too much, but it's easier to just juke until it's all up again. It's so boring, and this isn't even mentioning the ridiculously disgusting menuing to swap to every weapon and etc., or the block puzzles that impede progress by wasting your time further!
I'm being charitable with my stars here despite my issues, because it's clear a lot of passion and technical innovations were put into this work. It's really hard to hate this game, or for me to flat out say I dislike it. But god I don't want to play it any further, at least not without cheating. (6/10)
However, the combat is the most mind numbing shit, and it was starting to reach more than the majority of time. It's literally just timing combat and then waiting for your risk meter to fall back down, and it's so pathetically easy otherwise. You use items whenever your risk or MP is down too much, but it's easier to just juke until it's all up again. It's so boring, and this isn't even mentioning the ridiculously disgusting menuing to swap to every weapon and etc., or the block puzzles that impede progress by wasting your time further!
I'm being charitable with my stars here despite my issues, because it's clear a lot of passion and technical innovations were put into this work. It's really hard to hate this game, or for me to flat out say I dislike it. But god I don't want to play it any further, at least not without cheating. (6/10)
2019
Thanks to this game my standards on fps games have been permanently lowered.
Trying to rationalize how this game came to be in the way that it is and also be somehow shilled my way with great fervor is honestly giving me a headache. Nothing is good here, the level design is some total trash, the game employs a "maze-like" structure to its levels but it actually ends up meaning literally nothing, inferior to any Doom WAD I've ever played with such meaningless padding to its levels.
Enemies are piss easy to dodge and incredibly unpolished, with weapons that are neither fun to use, kinesthetically pleasing to shoot, or interesting to manage. The game manages to hit a bog standard idea of "immersive sim" elements that I feel like it's gunning for, and honestly DUSK comes to mind at outright shitting on this game even at Dusk's absolute lowest point.
I want to keep talking about its level design though, the idea with pacing its required progression locks is apparently to put them in the most excruciating to find corners, literally one of them in the second level was in a fucking vent on the wall you had to move yourself right up to that you can easily miss, because it's in a corner up some stairs and it's not significantly signposting in any way. The aesthetics of this game are some budget shit too, barely hitting a place that's passable. Soundtrack is total hogwash too which isn't really surprising.
I have other questions. Why is there reloading in this game? What's with the fucking nightvision goggles, that was NEVER GOOD IN DOOM and is irritating here, like what's the purpose of that? Why is there so much wide open space, when the enemies move so fucking slow?
Just absolute nonsense, go play literally any other fps. I'll pick at random.
Trying to rationalize how this game came to be in the way that it is and also be somehow shilled my way with great fervor is honestly giving me a headache. Nothing is good here, the level design is some total trash, the game employs a "maze-like" structure to its levels but it actually ends up meaning literally nothing, inferior to any Doom WAD I've ever played with such meaningless padding to its levels.
Enemies are piss easy to dodge and incredibly unpolished, with weapons that are neither fun to use, kinesthetically pleasing to shoot, or interesting to manage. The game manages to hit a bog standard idea of "immersive sim" elements that I feel like it's gunning for, and honestly DUSK comes to mind at outright shitting on this game even at Dusk's absolute lowest point.
I want to keep talking about its level design though, the idea with pacing its required progression locks is apparently to put them in the most excruciating to find corners, literally one of them in the second level was in a fucking vent on the wall you had to move yourself right up to that you can easily miss, because it's in a corner up some stairs and it's not significantly signposting in any way. The aesthetics of this game are some budget shit too, barely hitting a place that's passable. Soundtrack is total hogwash too which isn't really surprising.
I have other questions. Why is there reloading in this game? What's with the fucking nightvision goggles, that was NEVER GOOD IN DOOM and is irritating here, like what's the purpose of that? Why is there so much wide open space, when the enemies move so fucking slow?
Just absolute nonsense, go play literally any other fps. I'll pick at random.
Explorers of Sky would potentially sit right at home if adapted as a Saturday morning cartoon, its entire story and sequential chapters making solid episodic content, especially alongside Sky's new chapter additions that function as side episodes within select characters from the cast. It would join the leagues of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Infinity Train in that regard, because its lighthearted exterior builds a foundation to unravel a story with real depth to it.
That's where most of the appeal of Explorers of Sky comes from, and it certainly had a profound impact on me in my childhood, of which still lingers to this very day with every replay. Every particular scene has charm and real intent behind it, slowly showcasing the epic that is Explorer of Sky's narrative. The music helps too, with absolute bangers ranging from Treasure Town to Through the Sea of Time, emphasizing the emotional weight behind some of these story moments. Not a single hour went by where I wasn't immersed in the mysticism and engaging world on offer here, even shedding a tear at certain scenes.
It's a little disappointing that the somewhat below standard roguelite rpg gameplay that underlines it isn't particularly interesting or good, although I have found it to be less irritating over time. That has more to say about my unapologetic love of the game though than it is to say that it does actually get better. There is postgame on offer that does make use of its sparse mechanics, but generally it is something to give your hands something to do in between scenes. It takes up more than a solid 1/3 of the runtime though, so it's something to consider before jumping in.
That being said, I would recommend Explorers of Sky wholeheartedly. It's still one of my favorite games to this day, and my heart still wails after the end credits. At the very least, I do hope you give it a try, for a grand tale of time and darkness awaits you!
That's where most of the appeal of Explorers of Sky comes from, and it certainly had a profound impact on me in my childhood, of which still lingers to this very day with every replay. Every particular scene has charm and real intent behind it, slowly showcasing the epic that is Explorer of Sky's narrative. The music helps too, with absolute bangers ranging from Treasure Town to Through the Sea of Time, emphasizing the emotional weight behind some of these story moments. Not a single hour went by where I wasn't immersed in the mysticism and engaging world on offer here, even shedding a tear at certain scenes.
It's a little disappointing that the somewhat below standard roguelite rpg gameplay that underlines it isn't particularly interesting or good, although I have found it to be less irritating over time. That has more to say about my unapologetic love of the game though than it is to say that it does actually get better. There is postgame on offer that does make use of its sparse mechanics, but generally it is something to give your hands something to do in between scenes. It takes up more than a solid 1/3 of the runtime though, so it's something to consider before jumping in.
That being said, I would recommend Explorers of Sky wholeheartedly. It's still one of my favorite games to this day, and my heart still wails after the end credits. At the very least, I do hope you give it a try, for a grand tale of time and darkness awaits you!
Come one, come all, I'll show you the byproduct of when I transform our MMO into a third person action game!
To your left you'll see many sights, underbaked writing with a bogstandard setting wrapped around the most Fable rip-off narrative of "the fate of the world is entirely up to you!" To your right, waltz by Warcraft-like models and tedious boring sidequests with spam click and dodge combat that is both slow, time consuming, and also bereft of much depth other than its card system.
As a bonus, I'll even toss in some base fantasy music and really sleepworthy aesthetics. Sound good? Nice. (5/10)
To your left you'll see many sights, underbaked writing with a bogstandard setting wrapped around the most Fable rip-off narrative of "the fate of the world is entirely up to you!" To your right, waltz by Warcraft-like models and tedious boring sidequests with spam click and dodge combat that is both slow, time consuming, and also bereft of much depth other than its card system.
As a bonus, I'll even toss in some base fantasy music and really sleepworthy aesthetics. Sound good? Nice. (5/10)
There is a certain charm to a game that's ultimately a culmination of Newgrounds flash games and beginning internet overlap with sections of the furry fandom, but that charm itself is far from cushioning a game that has certainly not aged well.
You can really pick and choose which parts of Dust to analyze and you'll see cracks if not the entire foundation fall apart. The hack and slash combat turns into mashing after about an hour, a moveset that seems fun to utilize the first few times but eventually turns into your most optimal move, slashing through enemies with such relative ease that boss fights don't do much at all to alleviate. They do throw a curveball near the end of the game with armored enemies but those also have endemic problems, because parrying before followup is just as easy to do and if anything adds more annoyance to the equation.
The metroidvania structure is barebones, with not a single bit of interesting level design or backtracking that doesn't just feel like outright padding. Exploring mostly leads to more of the same boring combat, which ultimately means more wasted time spent. This extends to the gameplay of the sidequests too, which honestly I'd recommend outright skipping.
The aesthetic is.... well there's a lot to unpack there. The music is probably one of the better components here but the art style doesn't really work for very long before it becomes very tiring and not really that interesting. The best things you'll see on offer here in terms of a feast for the eyes is in the first couple hours.
The most damning thing however, is the story. It's a self-insert narrative tied around weak characters with a VA production far below even a 80s cartoon affair. It doesn't work, if anything it can lead to some jokes at the game's expense but I don't think a single hour passed where a few lines whether by writing or voice acting took me completely out of the game and into high orbit wincing all the way.
Dust: An Elysian Tail is, other than its timely charm, basically a subpar metroidvania and hack and slash that ultimately is better left forgotten about. (3/10)
You can really pick and choose which parts of Dust to analyze and you'll see cracks if not the entire foundation fall apart. The hack and slash combat turns into mashing after about an hour, a moveset that seems fun to utilize the first few times but eventually turns into your most optimal move, slashing through enemies with such relative ease that boss fights don't do much at all to alleviate. They do throw a curveball near the end of the game with armored enemies but those also have endemic problems, because parrying before followup is just as easy to do and if anything adds more annoyance to the equation.
The metroidvania structure is barebones, with not a single bit of interesting level design or backtracking that doesn't just feel like outright padding. Exploring mostly leads to more of the same boring combat, which ultimately means more wasted time spent. This extends to the gameplay of the sidequests too, which honestly I'd recommend outright skipping.
The aesthetic is.... well there's a lot to unpack there. The music is probably one of the better components here but the art style doesn't really work for very long before it becomes very tiring and not really that interesting. The best things you'll see on offer here in terms of a feast for the eyes is in the first couple hours.
The most damning thing however, is the story. It's a self-insert narrative tied around weak characters with a VA production far below even a 80s cartoon affair. It doesn't work, if anything it can lead to some jokes at the game's expense but I don't think a single hour passed where a few lines whether by writing or voice acting took me completely out of the game and into high orbit wincing all the way.
Dust: An Elysian Tail is, other than its timely charm, basically a subpar metroidvania and hack and slash that ultimately is better left forgotten about. (3/10)
2010
Not really that difficult platformer that doesn't use the most out of its mechanics as it could and instead over time goes more on basic puzzle level design than really functioning as a solid Kaizo challenge. An alright once and done series of quick platforming puzzles that controls well but tacks on not very complementary gimmicks, and can reasonably be finished within a few hours and then tossed in a "well i guess that was ok" pile.
2003
Sakurai is one of those gameplay auteurs who manages to showcase absolute mastery of how to challenge himself and then still bring out a great sense of depth and fun at every turn. This time it's, "hey what if we literally made a racing game around ONE button (and an analog stick i guess)"
That's the beauty of Kirby Air Ride, it's a rip roaring time with 3 solid game modes that utilize the most of the depth of its mechanics while also being a solid party game to play on the side. Whether you play on the well structured and designed race tracks in classic Air Ride with a multitude of different but very distinct karts, the minigame nature although probably weakest component known as Top Ride, or the total stat-grind rush and general party randomness structure of City Ride, you will have a shitton of fun to experience.
It manages to be more interesting than most racing games in general, especially with racing powerups that don't rely on luck factor as much as they do knowledge of the game (even the "random" obtaining powerups actually just come down to timing) and have more depth to show. It's also just incredibly accessible to jump in on, with a skill floor low enough that anyone can enter in.
It's a crazy good time that I'd recommend playing at any point you can, especially with friends through Parsec.
That's the beauty of Kirby Air Ride, it's a rip roaring time with 3 solid game modes that utilize the most of the depth of its mechanics while also being a solid party game to play on the side. Whether you play on the well structured and designed race tracks in classic Air Ride with a multitude of different but very distinct karts, the minigame nature although probably weakest component known as Top Ride, or the total stat-grind rush and general party randomness structure of City Ride, you will have a shitton of fun to experience.
It manages to be more interesting than most racing games in general, especially with racing powerups that don't rely on luck factor as much as they do knowledge of the game (even the "random" obtaining powerups actually just come down to timing) and have more depth to show. It's also just incredibly accessible to jump in on, with a skill floor low enough that anyone can enter in.
It's a crazy good time that I'd recommend playing at any point you can, especially with friends through Parsec.
2019
There's been enough talk on this site praising Outer Wilds that I don't think I have much to add. I'm going to shill this vid to watch at least before I continue:
https://youtu.be/H-yTZFi-_eY
I think, in short, it's probably the most beautiful game I've had to experience as a cohesive whole. An archeological space exploration that brings introspective thought and self consideration of where we are in the scope of the universe, how we search for truth in the stars, and what we take away from the end of everything.
On top of that, it's built on a brilliant puzzle route structure, that ends up with a whole tree of different routes through the game dependent entirely on which planets you explore in what order, how and when you solve the riddles of the universe, and with the inclusion of sequence breaking and freedom of options. It's so tightly designed with scenarios that come organically like the first venture into Dark Bramble, or the first tornado sending you high in Giant's Deep that every replay I find myself seeing the whole series of planets as living worlds rather than just strict clockwork which is what it ultimately is.
It's all backed by an insanely good soundtrack, great visuals, and actually genuinely good writing. There's so many surprises in store that it's hard for me to go any further than this. I 100% completed it thrice over, and every single time was almost a dream. Please play Outer Wilds. (10/10)
https://youtu.be/H-yTZFi-_eY
I think, in short, it's probably the most beautiful game I've had to experience as a cohesive whole. An archeological space exploration that brings introspective thought and self consideration of where we are in the scope of the universe, how we search for truth in the stars, and what we take away from the end of everything.
On top of that, it's built on a brilliant puzzle route structure, that ends up with a whole tree of different routes through the game dependent entirely on which planets you explore in what order, how and when you solve the riddles of the universe, and with the inclusion of sequence breaking and freedom of options. It's so tightly designed with scenarios that come organically like the first venture into Dark Bramble, or the first tornado sending you high in Giant's Deep that every replay I find myself seeing the whole series of planets as living worlds rather than just strict clockwork which is what it ultimately is.
It's all backed by an insanely good soundtrack, great visuals, and actually genuinely good writing. There's so many surprises in store that it's hard for me to go any further than this. I 100% completed it thrice over, and every single time was almost a dream. Please play Outer Wilds. (10/10)
(Note: Finished twice, once on Novice with 0 continues, another on Arcade with around 14 continues)
I'm not really that great at shmups but Crimzon Clover is a real delight to play. Ridiculously fast and intricate bullet patterns with an awesome encouraging score system. The strategy between breaking and doing just enough damage to cause the own enemy's break is a great ebb and flow that makes the dance between flurries of damage zones more interesting than just a general 2hou bullet hell. Going for optimal score just so you can give a safety net with a life or cruising between double breaks by perfect positioning and minute movement is a satisfying and excellent craze.
The boss battles are all interesting too, ranging from absolute damage areas, slowly weaving around the boss in a clockwork fashion, to entire bullet layers. The secret boss especially comes to mind at the absolute dance I tend to crave from these kinds of games, even countering some of your own strategies.
On top of the gameplay side, it also has a marvelous aesthetic with great art for the enemies, backgrounds, and effects like explosions. The music kicks ass as usual for this genre and it never lets up. In terms of visual clarity, bullets all have very distinct shapes for you to see, to a point where it's very hard to blame any of my deaths on that kind of issue.
It's not perfect for me unfortunately, Novice is so incredibly easy (I 1cc'd it on the FIRST TRY) and Arcade kicks my teeth in too much for me to be satisfied. It goes so hard into almost masocore territory with so many bullets on screen and intricate moving parts that my eyes and head started to hurt after a bit. Even though this isn't really the game for me I can still say it's one of the better shmups to pick up and try. If you're new to the genre there's no reason you can't get past Novice and if you're looking for something ballbusting you've of course got a lot here.
I'm not really that great at shmups but Crimzon Clover is a real delight to play. Ridiculously fast and intricate bullet patterns with an awesome encouraging score system. The strategy between breaking and doing just enough damage to cause the own enemy's break is a great ebb and flow that makes the dance between flurries of damage zones more interesting than just a general 2hou bullet hell. Going for optimal score just so you can give a safety net with a life or cruising between double breaks by perfect positioning and minute movement is a satisfying and excellent craze.
The boss battles are all interesting too, ranging from absolute damage areas, slowly weaving around the boss in a clockwork fashion, to entire bullet layers. The secret boss especially comes to mind at the absolute dance I tend to crave from these kinds of games, even countering some of your own strategies.
On top of the gameplay side, it also has a marvelous aesthetic with great art for the enemies, backgrounds, and effects like explosions. The music kicks ass as usual for this genre and it never lets up. In terms of visual clarity, bullets all have very distinct shapes for you to see, to a point where it's very hard to blame any of my deaths on that kind of issue.
It's not perfect for me unfortunately, Novice is so incredibly easy (I 1cc'd it on the FIRST TRY) and Arcade kicks my teeth in too much for me to be satisfied. It goes so hard into almost masocore territory with so many bullets on screen and intricate moving parts that my eyes and head started to hurt after a bit. Even though this isn't really the game for me I can still say it's one of the better shmups to pick up and try. If you're new to the genre there's no reason you can't get past Novice and if you're looking for something ballbusting you've of course got a lot here.
I really don't want to be too mean to this game.
To give the game the most credit firstly, the atmosphere is solid. Gorgeous aesthetic with really strong environment design, models, sfx, music, all really capture the Star Wars feel and the stormtrooper squad. At some points it's even badass with giving commands to your squad.
Unfortunately that appeal lasts a solid 30 minutes in my opinion before it just goes to really middling shootouts, boring corridors, and run-ins with several several spongey enemies. You strafe, shoot, revive someone if you need to, repeat ad nauseum. There's just too much combat to justify this shit, and it extends to 9 entire hours apparently.
Not my cup of tea, but who knows the aesthetic could sell someone on the entire thing but I reckon you need some high tolerance for it. It's ok for what it is, it's just average nothing more. (5/10)
To give the game the most credit firstly, the atmosphere is solid. Gorgeous aesthetic with really strong environment design, models, sfx, music, all really capture the Star Wars feel and the stormtrooper squad. At some points it's even badass with giving commands to your squad.
Unfortunately that appeal lasts a solid 30 minutes in my opinion before it just goes to really middling shootouts, boring corridors, and run-ins with several several spongey enemies. You strafe, shoot, revive someone if you need to, repeat ad nauseum. There's just too much combat to justify this shit, and it extends to 9 entire hours apparently.
Not my cup of tea, but who knows the aesthetic could sell someone on the entire thing but I reckon you need some high tolerance for it. It's ok for what it is, it's just average nothing more. (5/10)