324 Reviews liked by Neo64


It’s a good game with the HUGE caveat that the Beorc/Laguz conflict is the worst part, which sucks because it, uh… is kind of the entire basis of the game. To put so much emphasis on the fantasy racism against animal people while also being the game with fucking Devdan in it would be comical if it weren’t so astounding. Which is a shame, because Path of Radiance has some of the best characters in the franchise and some really good emotional highs, but alas. A lot of the maps were objectively frustrating but I had a lot of fun with them anyway, and Ike is easily one of my top 3 Fire Emblem lords (alongside Elincia, actually). Again, the game is good, really, but the flaws are so glaring that I wouldn’t blame someone from being turned off by it entirely.

Druckmann is a hack. People misunderstand what pretension is, point at things like The Witness or Braid or Fez. This is pretense. It distances itself from contemporaries and shames you for your participation like some kind of stupid fucking Haneke movie, only this one does show you all the gory trash.

It's for edgy children who are too ashamed to say they like Shadow the Hedgehog. Every character is bad. The thematic premise is malformed and distanced from reality to the point of being masturbatory and cruel.

Free Palestine

YEAAAAAH I BEAT YOU STUPID BEAR

this was soooo fun i've wanted to play this game since it came out. and i finally did it! woohoo!!!!

gameplay is fun and the plot is nice but... meh!!

Seems somewhat interesting, but just didn't grab me. Not really into this type of gameplay, just got kinda repetitive and boring. I won't be giving it a score though since I didn't really see enough to do so, but I did see enough to know this isn't my thing.

Beatemup that nails atmosphere but loses me on gameplay. The player-character feels ill-equipped to deal with swarms of enemies and relentless bosses. Decent for its time, but outshined by its successors.

DID NOT FINISH. Stopped playing midway through Chapter 9.

The gameplay, although very simple, is quite fun. The art style and graphics are pretty amazing and hold up very well even in 2023. My biggest complaint has to be with the story. I loved Max Payne 2 for its neo-noir storytelling and narration. Max Payne 3's story is pretty cliched and one-dimensional in my opinion, and the narrative jumps between the past and present are not as engaging as it should be.

Neon, filth, and 2000s ass slow-mo. This one gets by entirely on charm and it has it in spades. The actual narrative is nothing to write home about. The devs knew this, so they had a ball coming up with action setpieces to hang off a basic revenge story. It's not well balanced and the level design isn't going nuts, but it has the cool factor and I think that's all it needed. That being said, it will be served greatly by a remake. Tighten up the story, add some nuance, refine the gameplay, and they could really have something here. Just keep James McCaffrey; dude carries this game's narrative.

This review contains spoilers

Que decir de TSA?, si bien el primer juego sigue marcado en mi memoria, este es hasta ahora mi segundo favorito, la mayoría de quejas que la gente tiene se solucionan fácilmente
el combate repetitivo?, el sistema de chips te hace variar el como te los enfrentas
enemigos aburridos?, si, pero varia lo suficiente el apartado
historia sin sentido?, bueno, no negare que si, pero al mismo tiempo es un cague de risa
y los demás puntos son sobresalientes
si bien los gráficos son algunas veces feos, al menos los entornos que nos muestran son bonitos
la música es hermosa, de mis ost favoritos de todos los juegos
me gusta mucho los cambios de estilo que tiene a la hora de iniciar en un nuevo juego, ya sea live action, ps1, tron, cinemáticas hd, bits y hasta estilo manga, de verdad se nota el amor que le metieron a este juego a pesar de ser mas que nada un experimento y un desahogo
y sin duda los jefes, hasta los mas simples están muy bien hechos, sobre todo el del dlc
y por ultimo ... lo de la charla con ambas encarnaciones de suda ... me llego, no solo por que las escenas en si te tocan como jugador si no que al mismo tiempo como persona que quiere ser mas en la vida mediante sus profesiones
no dire nada de las referencias puesto a que lo unico que se de suda es no more heroes, pero las demás me gustaron mucho
en conclusión, travis strikes again es un juego hermoso, una experiencia que recomiendo una vez te hayas jugado el 1 o el 2, pueden probar la versión de switch (siempre tengo que decirlo por que luego les da pereza)

This review contains spoilers

People are too mean to it, but it’s still a bit awkward. The Crystarium system is fun in concept but not so fun in execution, and the gameplay is fun when you aren’t simulating the same few fights over and over again. I liked how Paradigms worked and MOST of the characters. Honestly, some of the dynamics (Lightning and Hope/Sazh and Vanille, most notably to me) were the highlights, but I couldn’t stand Snow: it felt as though Square Enix had no faith in Lightning and her relationship with Serah carrying the game as its protagonist and core motivation respectively and forced him into nearly every scene consequently. The story is hard to follow, but fine, with the ending being the highlight. And genuinely, I’d prefer a “hallway simulator” to an empty open world. All in all, I did truly like the game, although it left me frustrated more often than not. Oh, and the final boss went crazy.

The massive range of Simon's whip makes SCIV's gameplay more brainless than any of the preceding entries. Still, there's a lot of value in this game's approachable levels, bizarre visuals, and genuinely creepy atmosphere. It didn't help matters that, besides a few awesome musical callbacks at the end, I wasn't a fan of the soundtrack. Prog/jazz fans will probably eat it up, though.

This review contains spoilers

I'm really into cults. Probably a bad tagline for a dating profile or resume header, but the intrigue works well for delving into the twisted town of Silent Hill. It is truly fascinating how so many cults are able to rewire the human psyche into believing practical insanity in order to have them work against their own best interests, including the most basic fundamental human desire: survival. The survival of self is cast off in favor of the promise of ascension in service to something greater and a more complete understanding of the universe's framework. It's human nature to look for patterns, and cults claim to offer the key to the celestial cipher of existence. Unfortunately, this key only opens a path to self-destruction - the endless letters of code mistranslated and re-arranged to be subservient to only one person, the cult leader.

Enter Silent Hill with its cult of nightmares born from the torture of a young girl and her never-ending wounds. It's a classic horror-cult story with the cult members grasping at achieving something they don't quite understand, something cosmically unknown, at the cost of their own self-survival - nightmare monsters from other worlds aren't usually known for bringing about positive change, even for those that summon it.

I went into Silent Hill 2 not really knowing anything about it other than pop-culture stuff like Pyramid Head existing. The cover has a girl on it who also happens to be the first person we meet. Here we go again - I'm ready for the plot to take me to the inevitable conclusion that the cult is back at it again, torturing Angela in horrific ways in order to birth a new nightmare. Of course, we're supposed to be looking for Mary, our dead wife, but you don't understand - I am really smart and can see past this red herring main plot. I can't be tricked.

Hours go by, and while there have been some other things thrown in here to take me off the scent (namely Laura), my suspicions about this being Angela's nightmare grow even stronger as I find Pyramid Head sexually assaulting creatures that have no face or identity, but only legs and groin. When I see Angela again, she's about to commit suicide, and then I see she has torn her father out of a family portrait. Yeah, I knew exactly where all this was going. I am smart.

Despite meeting Maria, talking more with Laura, and getting other hints throughout the game, I wasn't ready to concede that this wasn't Angela's nightmare until I found the Blood-Soaked newspaper about her killing her father, followed by killing his nightmare form afterwards. It was a moment of revelation where things started to click and the wheels started to turn in my brain that maybe this was less about Angela and more about James. It was a brilliant subversion of the first game's mythology, and cemented Silent Hill 2 as one of the greatest successes as a sequel in my mind. I was deliberately played by my own expectations from the first game, and much like James dropping down further and further into Silent Hill's abyss, my thoughts went down a rabbit hole trying to recontextualize everything that I had seen before.

After finishing the game and learning the truth of everything, I understood that Silent Hill 2 is still a narrative about a cult - the cult of self. James disregards his own self-preservation and gives himself over in service to the search for indecipherable knowledge - understanding of his own subconscious processing of grief and guilt. He's both the leader and follower in this cult of one, sacrificing pieces of himself in order to ascend past his shattered self and either achieve peace by being able to leave Mary behind, or by making the ultimate sacrifice to find justice for her murder.

Everything in Silent Hill 2's presentation is built to reinforce this introspective deconstruction that James goes through, from denial to understanding, but the best example I can give is the original soundtrack. The most emotionally charged moments aren't met with a bombastic horror-driven score, but rather music that lends itself to delving inward and sitting with the weight of the events unfolding. The game often allows the music to play on loop after the actual scene has ended, signifying James trying to come to terms with everything going on. He sits in the moment, trying to process, and I am there with him - still listening to these haunting songs as I type out this review.

this is an improvement for sure, a lot of the problems from the first game are still here but just not as bad. Rico is still terrible but is the most interesting character.

PLEASE DO MORE WITH THESE CHARICTERS!!!

they were close. sooooooo close to becoming a really good Halo rival, but it just doesn't make it. they tried to add so much explosions and big giant enemies to keep your attention but it just doesn't work. the power struggle with the Heilgast is interesting but nothing happens much with it.and the ending just sucks.

seriously i still don't understand why people like these games.