Monster_tatakae
Bio
I like Persona and Pokemon a lot
I like Persona and Pokemon a lot
Badges
Full-Time
Journaled games once a day for a month straight
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
2 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
184
Total Games Played
013
Played in 2024
001
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Persona 3 Reload is the greatest remake of all time.
I will talk about the story, but briefly as I've already played Persona 3 twice before: FES and Portable. Let me say one thing first, though. This is what remakes should strive to be.
The soundtrack is flawless, the voice acting, while different, is absolutely remarkable, the visuals are everything I'd ever wanted, this game is a Persona 3 fan's wet dream.
As I'm writing this review, I am listening to the soundtrack play over the end credits and just reflecting on my experience with it. Persona 3 takes themes of life and death, the meaning of both of them, mental health, and many other things. I don't wanna go TOO in-depth with it right now, because I can hardly even piece myself together after that ending, but let me just say it is very worth your time.
This game takes just about everything in the original and improves on it. There are, of course, some core gameplay loop stuff that can't be changed for obvious reasons, so I don't fault Reload for it. What matters is this: this game is very special to me. I don't know if I like it more or less than Persona 5 Royal. I genuinely can't decide.
I can't even say for certain if there will be another game that comes out this year that I hold higher than this. Gaming may have just peaked in February of 2024. Thank you, Persona 3 Reload. I promise I don't actually give 10s this often, it's just that lately, the stuff I've been playing have been ridiculously good.
My score - 10/10
I will talk about the story, but briefly as I've already played Persona 3 twice before: FES and Portable. Let me say one thing first, though. This is what remakes should strive to be.
The soundtrack is flawless, the voice acting, while different, is absolutely remarkable, the visuals are everything I'd ever wanted, this game is a Persona 3 fan's wet dream.
As I'm writing this review, I am listening to the soundtrack play over the end credits and just reflecting on my experience with it. Persona 3 takes themes of life and death, the meaning of both of them, mental health, and many other things. I don't wanna go TOO in-depth with it right now, because I can hardly even piece myself together after that ending, but let me just say it is very worth your time.
This game takes just about everything in the original and improves on it. There are, of course, some core gameplay loop stuff that can't be changed for obvious reasons, so I don't fault Reload for it. What matters is this: this game is very special to me. I don't know if I like it more or less than Persona 5 Royal. I genuinely can't decide.
I can't even say for certain if there will be another game that comes out this year that I hold higher than this. Gaming may have just peaked in February of 2024. Thank you, Persona 3 Reload. I promise I don't actually give 10s this often, it's just that lately, the stuff I've been playing have been ridiculously good.
My score - 10/10
You don't need a reason to live. You just gotta live.
Metal Gear Solid is a franchise that I've always looked at as one of those "whatever you say, old man." Type of series. Since it's one of the classics and a pioneer for many things to come, I didn't quite expect it to be so relevant today and hard-hitting as it is. Because of my stigma against old-school elitists who tend to really stand by their ground that "they don't make games like they used to, man!" I was really hesitant to give this game a shot. So here I am, the same day I started the game, talking about my experience after completing it in a single day.
Everything; from the insane plot twists that come one after the other without ceasing, the amazing character writing that manages to make even characters with less than an hour of screen time feel impactful, the realistic gameplay in which what would be considered "cheeses" today actually MAKES SENSE in the game's setting, being a stealth driven game, and the gameplay loop feeling exceptionally rewarding without overstaying its welcome are all wonderful. In fact, I've actively been trying to find a flaw in any of these and I just can't. But one aspect of this game stands out above all else.
The final message of this game is simple, despite its intricate and complex story. "You just gotta live." Similarly to NieR:Automata (my favorite game of all time), Metal Gear Solid takes on a difficult subject to expand on. "What is the meaning of life?" And it's response is a very satisfying, very rewarding "there isn't one, and that's ok."
Life is what you make of it. Who would've known that a several decade old game could perform such a hefty task in explaining this philosophy while ALSO being the first game to ever do voice acting for its characters while ALSO pioneering an entire genre of gaming while ALSO having a very ahead-of-its-time story while ALSO having a fun and exhilarating experience with both its cutscenes and its gameplay that captures me and pulls me in and doesn't let go until the final credits.
So I would like to give a very reluctant "you were right" to the people who called this game a masterpiece and issue a formal apology. Metal Gear Solid is perfect. They really just don't do it like they did back then.
My score - 10/10
Metal Gear Solid is a franchise that I've always looked at as one of those "whatever you say, old man." Type of series. Since it's one of the classics and a pioneer for many things to come, I didn't quite expect it to be so relevant today and hard-hitting as it is. Because of my stigma against old-school elitists who tend to really stand by their ground that "they don't make games like they used to, man!" I was really hesitant to give this game a shot. So here I am, the same day I started the game, talking about my experience after completing it in a single day.
Everything; from the insane plot twists that come one after the other without ceasing, the amazing character writing that manages to make even characters with less than an hour of screen time feel impactful, the realistic gameplay in which what would be considered "cheeses" today actually MAKES SENSE in the game's setting, being a stealth driven game, and the gameplay loop feeling exceptionally rewarding without overstaying its welcome are all wonderful. In fact, I've actively been trying to find a flaw in any of these and I just can't. But one aspect of this game stands out above all else.
The final message of this game is simple, despite its intricate and complex story. "You just gotta live." Similarly to NieR:Automata (my favorite game of all time), Metal Gear Solid takes on a difficult subject to expand on. "What is the meaning of life?" And it's response is a very satisfying, very rewarding "there isn't one, and that's ok."
Life is what you make of it. Who would've known that a several decade old game could perform such a hefty task in explaining this philosophy while ALSO being the first game to ever do voice acting for its characters while ALSO pioneering an entire genre of gaming while ALSO having a very ahead-of-its-time story while ALSO having a fun and exhilarating experience with both its cutscenes and its gameplay that captures me and pulls me in and doesn't let go until the final credits.
So I would like to give a very reluctant "you were right" to the people who called this game a masterpiece and issue a formal apology. Metal Gear Solid is perfect. They really just don't do it like they did back then.
My score - 10/10
This review contains spoilers
NieR Replicant is an unfortunate masterpiece.
I know what you may be thinking when reading that: "how can a game be a masterpiece if you only rated it 2.5 stars?" Well, the story in NieR Replicant is borderline flawless. As somebody who has NieR:Automata lonely at the top as their favorite game of all time, Replicant did not disappoint me with the contents of its story. The main 4 characters being Nier, Kaine, Emil, and Weiss have some of my favorite interactions in any work of fiction and the world-building and emotions are top notch. Everything regarding the story and environment I don't think could have been done much better. So where did the game go wrong?
The gameplay for NieR Replicant is the worst I have seen in any video game. This is coming from me, a fan of the first Persona game.
NieR Replicant took zero risks. It actually didn't change much of anything from the original game that it CLAIMS to be remaking. A better word for what this game is would actually be a "remodel", however, because it pulled a "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl" and made the game deliberately unfun for the sake of...what, exactly?
Is this game just a means of profiting off of the success of Automata by lazily remaking an incredibly outdated game without changing how the (very flawed) core game functions? The gameplay loop was fun at first, but when things start becoming washed is when the curve in difficulty hit. Suddenly, every enemy was tanking every attack I threw at them. What COULD HAVE BEEN fun gameplay turned out to be tedious since the game is a constant loop of "spam the X button until everybody dies. Occasionally press Y." There is hardly any reason to use magic when it does about as much as my attacks do AND slows the game down simultaneously.
When you take the story for what it is, it's genius. The writing is all there and it's really fun to see the subtle differences in the different routes...when you actually get to them. Throughout all of Route B, my thoughts were just "alright, this is kinda cool but is it really worth playing through the WHOLE THING again?"
No, it isn't. The recontextualization of the story, while great in theory and when looking at the story as a linear piece, is terrible in practice when the core gameplay loop remains the same. Yes, NieR:Automata did the same thing, but it at least had the decency to let me play as a whole new character with different methods of taking on enemies and skipped the parts where 9S wasn't actively playing a role in the story. This made Route B in Automata feel like an insanely cool recontextualization and a new perspective on the game, while Route B in Replicant just felt like the same thing but this time with backstories to the Shades.
NieR Replicant is a great game if all you care about is story. But when the gameplay deliberately takes me out of the experience by making me play through the exact same game with no changes to the way it functions, it feels stale and dated almost immediately. I found myself speeding through the 2nd Route of Replicant just to see the cool new stuff, but was engaged in the new and unique gameplay 9S offered in Automata.
Overall, I would recommend playing NieR Replicant if you are very interested in the plot of the Drakengard/NieR franchise, but if you want a great game from start to finish that will have you engaged from the very start until the very end, skipping out on this one is my recommendation. It's better to simply play Automata.
My score - 5.5/10
I know what you may be thinking when reading that: "how can a game be a masterpiece if you only rated it 2.5 stars?" Well, the story in NieR Replicant is borderline flawless. As somebody who has NieR:Automata lonely at the top as their favorite game of all time, Replicant did not disappoint me with the contents of its story. The main 4 characters being Nier, Kaine, Emil, and Weiss have some of my favorite interactions in any work of fiction and the world-building and emotions are top notch. Everything regarding the story and environment I don't think could have been done much better. So where did the game go wrong?
The gameplay for NieR Replicant is the worst I have seen in any video game. This is coming from me, a fan of the first Persona game.
NieR Replicant took zero risks. It actually didn't change much of anything from the original game that it CLAIMS to be remaking. A better word for what this game is would actually be a "remodel", however, because it pulled a "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl" and made the game deliberately unfun for the sake of...what, exactly?
Is this game just a means of profiting off of the success of Automata by lazily remaking an incredibly outdated game without changing how the (very flawed) core game functions? The gameplay loop was fun at first, but when things start becoming washed is when the curve in difficulty hit. Suddenly, every enemy was tanking every attack I threw at them. What COULD HAVE BEEN fun gameplay turned out to be tedious since the game is a constant loop of "spam the X button until everybody dies. Occasionally press Y." There is hardly any reason to use magic when it does about as much as my attacks do AND slows the game down simultaneously.
When you take the story for what it is, it's genius. The writing is all there and it's really fun to see the subtle differences in the different routes...when you actually get to them. Throughout all of Route B, my thoughts were just "alright, this is kinda cool but is it really worth playing through the WHOLE THING again?"
No, it isn't. The recontextualization of the story, while great in theory and when looking at the story as a linear piece, is terrible in practice when the core gameplay loop remains the same. Yes, NieR:Automata did the same thing, but it at least had the decency to let me play as a whole new character with different methods of taking on enemies and skipped the parts where 9S wasn't actively playing a role in the story. This made Route B in Automata feel like an insanely cool recontextualization and a new perspective on the game, while Route B in Replicant just felt like the same thing but this time with backstories to the Shades.
NieR Replicant is a great game if all you care about is story. But when the gameplay deliberately takes me out of the experience by making me play through the exact same game with no changes to the way it functions, it feels stale and dated almost immediately. I found myself speeding through the 2nd Route of Replicant just to see the cool new stuff, but was engaged in the new and unique gameplay 9S offered in Automata.
Overall, I would recommend playing NieR Replicant if you are very interested in the plot of the Drakengard/NieR franchise, but if you want a great game from start to finish that will have you engaged from the very start until the very end, skipping out on this one is my recommendation. It's better to simply play Automata.
My score - 5.5/10