New_Seff
2022
A very fun action game. Combat feels great, it's super polished, and replaying stages to get better and better is incredibly satisfying. The final boss is a bit annoying, and some attacks feel frustrating to deal with. Other than that, a cool-ass game with some very creative ideas and a high skill ceiling.
Holy hell, this a massive turnaround from the main game. It's gone from a tedious, overlong mess that accomplishes so much less than it's source material, to a compact, well-paced, genuinely fun adventure.
Let's start with some improvements from the base game. For one, everything just feels much faster. You get randomly stopped far less, story sequences are much tighter, even the little animations are snappier. The dungeon designs don't have much more depth than the base game dungeons, but the pace is so much better that it isn't much of an issue. I'd still like to see the environments get more complex. The combat also has some subtle improvements. For one, Yuffie has a robust moveset that gives her a ton of range. She is more fun to play as than anyone in the base game, and working alongside Sonon is a clever way to recontextualize the party-member management from base game.
Also, the side content has improved. Fort Condor is simple but fun, Box Breaker was genuinely tough and very fun. Some of the side stuff is still a bit dull.
Some issues still persist. As I said earlier, the environments could use a bit more complexity. Some enemies are obnoxious to fight, and a few attacks feel poorly telegraphed. It's also too brief to leave much of an impact, but being too short is much more tolerable than being too long.
All in all? Pretty fun. If Rebirth continues with this game's changes, it might be great (and it sorta seems like it does?). Maybe this is too optimistic, but I do think these developers care. When they don't need to make a 30 hour epic out of a prologue, they can make something good.
Let's start with some improvements from the base game. For one, everything just feels much faster. You get randomly stopped far less, story sequences are much tighter, even the little animations are snappier. The dungeon designs don't have much more depth than the base game dungeons, but the pace is so much better that it isn't much of an issue. I'd still like to see the environments get more complex. The combat also has some subtle improvements. For one, Yuffie has a robust moveset that gives her a ton of range. She is more fun to play as than anyone in the base game, and working alongside Sonon is a clever way to recontextualize the party-member management from base game.
Also, the side content has improved. Fort Condor is simple but fun, Box Breaker was genuinely tough and very fun. Some of the side stuff is still a bit dull.
Some issues still persist. As I said earlier, the environments could use a bit more complexity. Some enemies are obnoxious to fight, and a few attacks feel poorly telegraphed. It's also too brief to leave much of an impact, but being too short is much more tolerable than being too long.
All in all? Pretty fun. If Rebirth continues with this game's changes, it might be great (and it sorta seems like it does?). Maybe this is too optimistic, but I do think these developers care. When they don't need to make a 30 hour epic out of a prologue, they can make something good.
Hoo boy, this is one hell of a mess. I'm baffled it got the overwhelmingly positive reception it did, as I see it as an abject failure both as a remake and on it's own merits. Occasional glimpses of brilliance are snuffed out by a mountain of wasted time.
Let's start with the few positives I've got. Music's good, and there's a metric ton of it. Although it does feel a bit generic in terms of sound. It's all very orchestral, and while it sounds good, it lacks the sheer atmosphere the original music had. The characterization for the main cast is great. Cloud is a complete dweeb as he should be, and Barret is a joy to watch. He makes every scene he's in so much more fun. Also from a tech perspective, this game is a marvel. It looks insane and the sheer amount of detail is nuts.
And now we're onto the problems. Let's start with combat. While it feels weighty, and swapping between the characters frantically can be quite fun. But the issues come in with defense, primarily. The dodge roll is not invincible, which is not automatically a problem. The issue is that many moves just don't feel like you're SUPPOSED to dodge them. I'll press the button at a time where it looks correct, I'm visibly out of the way, but I get hit regardless. I get the impression much of the damage in this game is intended to be unavoidable, much like the original JRPG. This ends up being very frustrating in an action context. Getting the timing right on an attack and dodge only to be hit anyways feels awful. Something else that feels awful is crowd control. Enemies can just bat you around left and right, and you can get blown off course by a random projectile thrown by an enemy with barely any tell. Ranged combat also sucks. The best option is usually offensive magic, which isn't very engaging to use. You might also play as Barret, who is so dull to play as. He just shoots without much variation or satisfying weight to his moves asides from an occasional big blast. Aerith is in a similar boat, limply firing projectiles that makes her a slog to play as.
Speaking of a slog, that's what the whole game feels like. Every single action feels so artificially slowed and padded to turn what was originally an introduction into an entire game. You randomly get stopped for the game to pan a camera at something and let the characters explain what you're looking at. You stop to slowly duck under some rubble. What should be a bit of gameplay is a drawn-out cutscene. Everything just feels slow, and it gets draining by the end.
Sometimes the facade of the game works. Sometimes you get something that's exciting or interesting. But those moments get beaten into the ground when a neat idea becomes five minutes of just hitting the same enemy over and over without much challenge or interest. And that's without getting into the issues of the narrative.
The story is a complete mess, to be expected from a game that tries to turn an intro into a complete package. It doesn't introduce much of anything that's new and substantive. Instead, it pads and over elaborates. The original midgar's story makes you want to see more of the city, while this makes me never want to go back to the junkyards and factories that define every location in the game. Characters like Sephiroth are treated like some legendary icon, with the assumption that the player already thinks they're cool and threatening. But if you had JUST this game, he's some lame-ass guy who shows up and says "hahaha you are cringe Cloud" and then vanishes, without much intrigue. And of course you gotta fight him. It feels less like a retelling of FF7 and more of a wack fanfiction version. I don't mind them doing something different, but don't try and justify it through this weird whisper nonsense. Just un-apologetically do something different. This destiny nonsense just makes everything feel forced and pointless.
In short, this game sucks mega ass. Maybe rebirth is better, I sure hope it is. Maybe intermission is a bit better. I'll get to that soon probably. But this, this right here? This game that got so much praise and love? This is a fuckin mess. It's a disaster of horrible pacing, stupid decisions, and an end result that feels like it tends to completely miss what works about the source material despite occasional glimpses of something good.
Let's start with the few positives I've got. Music's good, and there's a metric ton of it. Although it does feel a bit generic in terms of sound. It's all very orchestral, and while it sounds good, it lacks the sheer atmosphere the original music had. The characterization for the main cast is great. Cloud is a complete dweeb as he should be, and Barret is a joy to watch. He makes every scene he's in so much more fun. Also from a tech perspective, this game is a marvel. It looks insane and the sheer amount of detail is nuts.
And now we're onto the problems. Let's start with combat. While it feels weighty, and swapping between the characters frantically can be quite fun. But the issues come in with defense, primarily. The dodge roll is not invincible, which is not automatically a problem. The issue is that many moves just don't feel like you're SUPPOSED to dodge them. I'll press the button at a time where it looks correct, I'm visibly out of the way, but I get hit regardless. I get the impression much of the damage in this game is intended to be unavoidable, much like the original JRPG. This ends up being very frustrating in an action context. Getting the timing right on an attack and dodge only to be hit anyways feels awful. Something else that feels awful is crowd control. Enemies can just bat you around left and right, and you can get blown off course by a random projectile thrown by an enemy with barely any tell. Ranged combat also sucks. The best option is usually offensive magic, which isn't very engaging to use. You might also play as Barret, who is so dull to play as. He just shoots without much variation or satisfying weight to his moves asides from an occasional big blast. Aerith is in a similar boat, limply firing projectiles that makes her a slog to play as.
Speaking of a slog, that's what the whole game feels like. Every single action feels so artificially slowed and padded to turn what was originally an introduction into an entire game. You randomly get stopped for the game to pan a camera at something and let the characters explain what you're looking at. You stop to slowly duck under some rubble. What should be a bit of gameplay is a drawn-out cutscene. Everything just feels slow, and it gets draining by the end.
Sometimes the facade of the game works. Sometimes you get something that's exciting or interesting. But those moments get beaten into the ground when a neat idea becomes five minutes of just hitting the same enemy over and over without much challenge or interest. And that's without getting into the issues of the narrative.
The story is a complete mess, to be expected from a game that tries to turn an intro into a complete package. It doesn't introduce much of anything that's new and substantive. Instead, it pads and over elaborates. The original midgar's story makes you want to see more of the city, while this makes me never want to go back to the junkyards and factories that define every location in the game. Characters like Sephiroth are treated like some legendary icon, with the assumption that the player already thinks they're cool and threatening. But if you had JUST this game, he's some lame-ass guy who shows up and says "hahaha you are cringe Cloud" and then vanishes, without much intrigue. And of course you gotta fight him. It feels less like a retelling of FF7 and more of a wack fanfiction version. I don't mind them doing something different, but don't try and justify it through this weird whisper nonsense. Just un-apologetically do something different. This destiny nonsense just makes everything feel forced and pointless.
In short, this game sucks mega ass. Maybe rebirth is better, I sure hope it is. Maybe intermission is a bit better. I'll get to that soon probably. But this, this right here? This game that got so much praise and love? This is a fuckin mess. It's a disaster of horrible pacing, stupid decisions, and an end result that feels like it tends to completely miss what works about the source material despite occasional glimpses of something good.
2021
SMT V is very much a game of extremes, things that are very fun and cool, and other things that are exceedingly lame.
The combat is great here, with the variety and constant danger SMT is known for. There's an absurd amount of bosses to fight that all work at least a bit differently. It's hard to get tired of fighting stuff. There are some oddities that make some fights get samey, and it gets very easy to shatter the balance.
Exploration is alright. Sometimes it can be fun, but you spend a LOT of time in differently colored versions of what feels like the same map. There are dungeons, but they are pretty lackluster in comparison to what you'd expect from this series. Even when you have interesting gimmicks, they just don't get used.
The music and presentation is pretty good. The new designs are mostly cool, and the music is as good as you'd expect from these games. There are some performance issues, but it's not that bad.
The story is complete ass. It feels slow but develops basically nothing. It kind of gets in the way of the atmosphere too, which is also dampened by everything just being a desert.
Overall a fun game, with a lot of weird little quirks. Hopefully Vengeance takes this promising format and turns it into something stronger.
The combat is great here, with the variety and constant danger SMT is known for. There's an absurd amount of bosses to fight that all work at least a bit differently. It's hard to get tired of fighting stuff. There are some oddities that make some fights get samey, and it gets very easy to shatter the balance.
Exploration is alright. Sometimes it can be fun, but you spend a LOT of time in differently colored versions of what feels like the same map. There are dungeons, but they are pretty lackluster in comparison to what you'd expect from this series. Even when you have interesting gimmicks, they just don't get used.
The music and presentation is pretty good. The new designs are mostly cool, and the music is as good as you'd expect from these games. There are some performance issues, but it's not that bad.
The story is complete ass. It feels slow but develops basically nothing. It kind of gets in the way of the atmosphere too, which is also dampened by everything just being a desert.
Overall a fun game, with a lot of weird little quirks. Hopefully Vengeance takes this promising format and turns it into something stronger.
2024
I bet the guy who made this is really cool and writes really smart backloggd reviews
2004
It's aight. I like how chaotic it gets but it's fairly tedious and each series of levels is just the same level but longer. Do NOT play this without an auto-clicker unless you want to get carpal tunnel.
It's essentially elevated shovelware, taking a dumb concept with a low budget but making it a very fun experience. The voice acting is funny and kept me consistently entertained, and the scale and absurdity of what's happening on screen was great. It's certainly too long, with a fair share of fluff missions. It can feel like the game is spinning it's wheels at a certain point, but it's worth pushing through to see just how far the game can push it's nonsense (especially with friends.)
Realistically EDF5's a 7. But I wanna give it an 8 so it gets an 8.
Realistically EDF5's a 7. But I wanna give it an 8 so it gets an 8.
2018
A short, creative co-op puzzle game. It uses it's mechanics well in a variety of puzzles. Easy recommendation if you've got a buddy to play it with.
Easily my favorite game in this franchise yet. Aside from a few snags, it's fantastic.
The combat is a massive improvement from the previous installment. It has probably the best use of "regular" attacks out of any rpg. It can be used for fun knockback damage, restores MP, and can be used to trigger different effects and weapon attacks. It's always useful. Combine this with skills that have a higher MP cost and a much greater variety of uses, and combat feels way more fun than it did previously.
It's easily the best side-content I've seen in this series yet. There's a ton of fleshed out minigames that are bursting with stupid charm and variety.
The story is great too, although it runs into some of the same issues the previous installment did. It can get very talky and lose itself in odd distractions, but it rarely gets uninteresting.
I really have only one major complaint. The japan portions of the game have side content that leans very heavily into combat encounters that don't have much variety. There's plenty of great sidequests to find, but that's between running around between a bunch of samey combat and not much minigame variety. These combat encounters are also pretty much mandatory to get a half-decent level for some later combat encounters. Granted, those combat encounters are sick, but still.
Yea, this game's cool as hell. I look forwards to seeing this formula get refined even further, and hopefully with a direction that feels a touch more focused.
The combat is a massive improvement from the previous installment. It has probably the best use of "regular" attacks out of any rpg. It can be used for fun knockback damage, restores MP, and can be used to trigger different effects and weapon attacks. It's always useful. Combine this with skills that have a higher MP cost and a much greater variety of uses, and combat feels way more fun than it did previously.
It's easily the best side-content I've seen in this series yet. There's a ton of fleshed out minigames that are bursting with stupid charm and variety.
The story is great too, although it runs into some of the same issues the previous installment did. It can get very talky and lose itself in odd distractions, but it rarely gets uninteresting.
I really have only one major complaint. The japan portions of the game have side content that leans very heavily into combat encounters that don't have much variety. There's plenty of great sidequests to find, but that's between running around between a bunch of samey combat and not much minigame variety. These combat encounters are also pretty much mandatory to get a half-decent level for some later combat encounters. Granted, those combat encounters are sick, but still.
Yea, this game's cool as hell. I look forwards to seeing this formula get refined even further, and hopefully with a direction that feels a touch more focused.
2023
A solid fishing game that has a great atmosphere. There's a constant feeling of progression and a good pace, and the lovecraft elements are good. However, I felt the whole game could have been pushed a bit further. The threats are easy to deal with, and lack presence after their first encounters. There's not much evolution to the mechanics and systems throughout the game, either. It's consistently fun, but it didn't throw many curveballs my way.
2022
Pretty solid co-op escape game. It's a bit easy at points, where the puzzle solution seems somewhat inevitable. It's held together by some really creative escape room scenarios and some really great standout puzzles. It's not mind-blowing, but a good time with a friend.
2019
This game brought a constant smile to my face. The gameplay is simple and satisfying and the music is dumb and catchy. But what will really make this game stick in my head forever is the dumbass story and voice acting. It's so nonsensical and absurd that it constantly got a laugh out of me. ESPECIALLY Jody and Richard. Richard is just so fun to watch, I don't think I've seen a character as cartoonishly evil as him in a long time. He's so fun. Uhh I guess it can get kind of annoying and repetitive sometimes but who cares, game's cool
2017
Solid little co-op puzzle game, but it can get a bit annoying at points.
It's a cute, simple platformer that doesn't do a whole lot, but is fun enough for it's brief runtime. It's nicely animated with a neat 2.5D style, the levels are fun, and the music is good. There is weirdly a bit too much story, and a lives system that gets annoying at points. Other than that though, pretty fun.
2024
I don't understand why this exists. Persona 3 is a deeply flawed game that could benefit a lot from a remake to overhaul many of its weaker elements. But from what I played (granted that wasn't a whole lot, so take some of the following with a grain of salt) it's just Persona 3 again.
P3 is a hard game to come back to, especially after P4 and P5. P3's dungeon is dull and tedious from a visual and gameplay design perspective. The story is often unfocused and takes a long-ass time for anything interesting to happen, and even then these plot moments rarely have much of an impact thanks to how dull the entire cast of characters is.
As someone who's already played portable, it feels like a waste of time to play reload. It's probably the best version of the game, but is it really worth shelling out an additional 50 bucks over the portable remaster? Why spend so much time to just make a slightly better version of P3? They had all the opportunity to do something radically different, what with the portable version being readily available. But they decided to remake it in the safest, easiest way possible, never touching up on any of the fundamental problems.
P3 is a hard game to come back to, especially after P4 and P5. P3's dungeon is dull and tedious from a visual and gameplay design perspective. The story is often unfocused and takes a long-ass time for anything interesting to happen, and even then these plot moments rarely have much of an impact thanks to how dull the entire cast of characters is.
As someone who's already played portable, it feels like a waste of time to play reload. It's probably the best version of the game, but is it really worth shelling out an additional 50 bucks over the portable remaster? Why spend so much time to just make a slightly better version of P3? They had all the opportunity to do something radically different, what with the portable version being readily available. But they decided to remake it in the safest, easiest way possible, never touching up on any of the fundamental problems.