New_Seff
A pretty solid castlevania entry. It feels much more open-ended compared to several other castlevanias, which made a lot of the game's exploration pretty satisfying. The controls feel a little loose, and there's some bits of progression that feel pretty annoying, but it's pretty fun aside from that.
2002
It's fun enough. It controls pretty well and looks nice, but the music is fairly generic. The first half of the game is pretty fun, and has a lot of variety. The second half is much less good. The lava world has a huge difficulty spike and obnoxious obstacles. The water world is just 4 levels of boring auto scrollers. The last world is alright, but not as tight and varied as the first three. The bosses are all pretty boring. Overall, pretty alright.
2020
Easily the best VR game I've played. It does so much that could only be done like this in VR and it works excellently. The atmosphere, combat, controls, all of it is super fine tuned. Some chapters are a bit weaker compared to others, but the last stretch of the game is phenomonal and makes up for the slightly duller middle portion. There were a few instances of jank and some combat encounters that felt a bit like fluff, but otherwise this is the best showcase for what VR can do in a full game rather than a short experience.
1991
A good improvement over the first game boy entry. It controls much better and has much less annoying level design. However, I think they overcorrected from the first game's difficulty. This game is just too easy. A lot of levels are also kinda bland in terms of level design. It's pretty alright though.
This game ain't great. It's got a lot of the same issues mega man 1 had, but worse. The controls don't feel very tight but expect precision, sprites are pretty huge so trying to avoid attacks are needlessly annoying, and it LOVES randomly throwing spike pits in places you can't see. It's got some fun segments, but a lot of BS segments too.
2022
This game is one of the coolest I've played in a long time. As someone who's always loved card tricks and creative tactics, this game was a delight to play through. It was constantly engaging to find out whatever new trick I'd be learning and then executing it. The gameplay is simple, but incredibly effective. The quicktime events work well here, since it's all about memorization and execution of your various cheats. The music and visuals are both stellar, really selling the atmosphere. The story is great too, with plenty of twists and turns that feel satisfying to see unravel. My biggest issue with this game is that I wanted it to go a bit further and leave more up to the player. There are several great moments where the game expects you to figure out your own tactics in situations that throw you off guard, and using what I knew to create my own strategies the game didn't tell me was extremely satisfying. I just wish it did that a bit more often. Other than that, this game is great.
2022
1996
2005
2000
These sorts of games are interesting, but it falls into a certain trap. It is satisfying and fun to use your abilities to find a unique way to solve a problem, but many times the actual execution isn't very fun. The first stage, for example. I found a way to sneak in around the back of the level and avoid much of the security. Finding it felt rewarding, but utilizing the actual stealth mechanics to get there felt very slow and unclear. Stealth in general just doesn't feel very fun or clear, which makes it not very fun as an option. Combat doesn't feel very good either, so guns blazing isn't great either. In short, the decision making is fun, but those decisions often lead to unfun solutions.
1992
2005
2007
I really did not enjoy this game. I couldn't care less that it's dissimilar to the RPG's. But it's just not a great adventure platformer. Let me start with the positives. While I don't think it was anything crazy, I enjoyed the story fine enough. Most of the writing was at least entertaining, but it has a weird amount of drama that feels half-baked. The music was pretty good, and there was a lot of creativity to the visuals. So here's where the problems start. The game is just REALLY boring. The game gives you MANY mechanics to work with but they are rarely used in an interesting way. Pretty much every puzzle is just "Swap into 3d" or "change into a different character/pixl." The game doesn't combine or telegraph these abilities very well. There were MANY occasions where the solution was to switch to 3d, and the only telegraph was that you were stuck. But often, you wouldn't even realize you WERE stuck until you reached a locked door, and then you have to backtrack randomly trying the 3d ability. Even if you figure it out, it's not satisfying to realize that the solution to the "puzzle" is just to change your ability. On top of that, the pacing is all over the place and extremely bloated. Every chapter is interrupted by a drawn-out bit where you go wander into a different part of town to unlock the next chapter. They aren't fun or creative, they just waste time. Bosses are also extremely easy or monotonous. The quality can vary by chapter to chapter.
Chapter 1: It's fun enough, mostly just a tutorial.
Chapter 2: This one sucks. it's tedious and FULL of places where the solution is not telegraphed at all.
Chapter 3: A decent chapter. Has a good amount of variety to it, and was more entertaining than I expected.
Chapter 4: Actually fun. It has many of the same issues as before, but there's a decent schmup segment and the platforming is generally more enjoyable here.
Chapter 5: Tedious and drawn out.
Chapter 6: Terrible. It's really just fighting the same few enemies over and over and then walking in a long hallway for a few minutes.
Chapter 7: Also pretty bad. It has many bits where it just wastes your time for no reason, and has a bit where you need to navigate through several near-identical cloud areas to find specific items. Very tedious.
Chapter 8: Very long and drawn out, exemplifying every issue the game has. It feels padded, it has simple and unintuitive puzzles, the bosses are boring, everything.
In short, this game is not fun. I'm not the biggest fan of TTYD, but boy does that game blow this out of the water.
Chapter 1: It's fun enough, mostly just a tutorial.
Chapter 2: This one sucks. it's tedious and FULL of places where the solution is not telegraphed at all.
Chapter 3: A decent chapter. Has a good amount of variety to it, and was more entertaining than I expected.
Chapter 4: Actually fun. It has many of the same issues as before, but there's a decent schmup segment and the platforming is generally more enjoyable here.
Chapter 5: Tedious and drawn out.
Chapter 6: Terrible. It's really just fighting the same few enemies over and over and then walking in a long hallway for a few minutes.
Chapter 7: Also pretty bad. It has many bits where it just wastes your time for no reason, and has a bit where you need to navigate through several near-identical cloud areas to find specific items. Very tedious.
Chapter 8: Very long and drawn out, exemplifying every issue the game has. It feels padded, it has simple and unintuitive puzzles, the bosses are boring, everything.
In short, this game is not fun. I'm not the biggest fan of TTYD, but boy does that game blow this out of the water.