NovaNiles
1996
Harvester is Insane. Genuinely a work of punk art that wants to break every societal taboo that exists and than does. Does it succed: Kinda of not really, maybe 50% of the time. I do think the first half is a good adventure game. I love exploring the weirdness of Harvest and its insane citizens. The puzzles arent too bad, possing not much of a challenge if you pay attention. The backhalf is where Harvester starts to collaps and there no way around it: Break out a guide. Youll still experience the most insane stuff in any Video Game, but it will keep you from wanting to punch through a wall.
2007
Maybe the most missunderstood and wrongfully shamed game of 7th Gen. From the critics who claimed it was a repetitive techdemo with a shallow parcoure system, to the sequel dickriders who retroactivly shunned it: Get fucked. The First Assassins Creed is a game of focus, a clear vision of making a historical spy thriller with a sci fi twist.
It weaves historical fact with fiction excellently and creates a believable world for Gameplay to take place in. Altair is an excelent protagonist, beeing a reflection of the World he lives in. A Land that is beeing grinded down between the waring parties, where your fundamentalist believes and oaths justifie the end to any means. And unlike many of the Sequels: Altair actually changes and earns his arc as he learns the truth about the Holy War. Hes not Ezio who becomes the Holy Prophet of the Creed even after fucking up again, again and then a little bit more for good measure. Assassins Creed 1 considers consequenz and choice important to the narrativ, like it fucking should.
The gameplay consists of parcouring through the distinct cities of the Middle East. Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre all have unique districts, color pallets and Architecture. The devs had so much trust in the level design that they allow the minimap to be turned off and let the player explore based on landmarks and directions given in missions briefings alone. And it works. Having the buro always in the north of a city gives a clear starting point for exploration, making it entirely the players fault if they get lost.
The traversel through the citys is handle by a complex parcoure system allowing complete freedom of movement with side ejects, back jumps, slides and eventually ledge grabs. The later getting acquired to late in the game even though it unlocks a cruchial new layer to the traversal that should have been unlocked after the intro in my opinion. That and a piss poor tutorial, wich the series still suffers from, may have contributed to the lack of engagement players might have fellt toward this first Entrie. Although I would argue the game is open enough to allow experimentation without the need for endlessly forced tutorials. And perhaps that was the point.
The missions that are supposedly so repetitive all tie into the movement and use it well. And to be clear: there are no side missions in AC 1. Its all in service of the story and how much context the player wants to have before killing their assignt target. AC 1 simply prefers to not pull away any focus with random bullshit, just sometimes stoping the plot for present day segments that give further Context and even have their own secrets to discover. Random Flags and Templars to kill are placed in the world, wich I do admit feel very tacked on and unecessary. Their isnt even any reward for doing it.
Combat is not nearly as complex as parcour, but still provides solid fun. Its all about the numbers, giving even more the feeling that your a lonely Assassin send into the lions den. Parry can become a Get Out of Jail Free Card if its mastered sure, but in the late game enemies turn up in such high numbers that the most viable strategie really is the make a quick escape across the rooftopes. To give some credit to the critics: Combat does become repetitive simply due to the fact that by one of the last sections it becomes a litteral Kill Corridor of Enemies with no Stealth or any way to avoid it. It sucks and it reeks of a rushed deadline they had to met.
Still those are minor problems in my eyes for a game that is so unique among it own Series even. It is a shame that Ubisoft kickd the series creator Patrice Desilets to the curb when it came time to make follow ups, just so they could have complete control over milking their new cash cow dry until the heat death of the universe, or more fittingly: Soon the company itself, according to all the reports. I wonder what could have been, but Im also glad AC 1 still exists. Its a game I keep coming back to since I was Tennager and I appreciate it more every time I replay it.
It weaves historical fact with fiction excellently and creates a believable world for Gameplay to take place in. Altair is an excelent protagonist, beeing a reflection of the World he lives in. A Land that is beeing grinded down between the waring parties, where your fundamentalist believes and oaths justifie the end to any means. And unlike many of the Sequels: Altair actually changes and earns his arc as he learns the truth about the Holy War. Hes not Ezio who becomes the Holy Prophet of the Creed even after fucking up again, again and then a little bit more for good measure. Assassins Creed 1 considers consequenz and choice important to the narrativ, like it fucking should.
The gameplay consists of parcouring through the distinct cities of the Middle East. Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre all have unique districts, color pallets and Architecture. The devs had so much trust in the level design that they allow the minimap to be turned off and let the player explore based on landmarks and directions given in missions briefings alone. And it works. Having the buro always in the north of a city gives a clear starting point for exploration, making it entirely the players fault if they get lost.
The traversel through the citys is handle by a complex parcoure system allowing complete freedom of movement with side ejects, back jumps, slides and eventually ledge grabs. The later getting acquired to late in the game even though it unlocks a cruchial new layer to the traversal that should have been unlocked after the intro in my opinion. That and a piss poor tutorial, wich the series still suffers from, may have contributed to the lack of engagement players might have fellt toward this first Entrie. Although I would argue the game is open enough to allow experimentation without the need for endlessly forced tutorials. And perhaps that was the point.
The missions that are supposedly so repetitive all tie into the movement and use it well. And to be clear: there are no side missions in AC 1. Its all in service of the story and how much context the player wants to have before killing their assignt target. AC 1 simply prefers to not pull away any focus with random bullshit, just sometimes stoping the plot for present day segments that give further Context and even have their own secrets to discover. Random Flags and Templars to kill are placed in the world, wich I do admit feel very tacked on and unecessary. Their isnt even any reward for doing it.
Combat is not nearly as complex as parcour, but still provides solid fun. Its all about the numbers, giving even more the feeling that your a lonely Assassin send into the lions den. Parry can become a Get Out of Jail Free Card if its mastered sure, but in the late game enemies turn up in such high numbers that the most viable strategie really is the make a quick escape across the rooftopes. To give some credit to the critics: Combat does become repetitive simply due to the fact that by one of the last sections it becomes a litteral Kill Corridor of Enemies with no Stealth or any way to avoid it. It sucks and it reeks of a rushed deadline they had to met.
Still those are minor problems in my eyes for a game that is so unique among it own Series even. It is a shame that Ubisoft kickd the series creator Patrice Desilets to the curb when it came time to make follow ups, just so they could have complete control over milking their new cash cow dry until the heat death of the universe, or more fittingly: Soon the company itself, according to all the reports. I wonder what could have been, but Im also glad AC 1 still exists. Its a game I keep coming back to since I was Tennager and I appreciate it more every time I replay it.
Yeah Yakuza Like a Dragon kinda started kicking my ass around the late game, so I felt like needed a little break. Lucky for me Siactro just released a free Bonus DLC to Super Kiwi 64. An awseome little DLC to an awseome little Game. Seriously, thank you Mr Siactro. This is exacly what I needed.
2005
Just when you think you discovered everything worth playing on the PS2, there is yet another gem on this console here to brighten your day. Your telling me there a western themed samurai action game where you matrix dodge bullets at insane speeds while slashing cowboys into bloody bits on the PS2 ? Sign me up. Its not perfect of course, there is plenty of jank and I threw away my controller in frustration on more than one occasion because of bullshit enemies. The tommyguners in particular can die in dirty ditsh whenever they decide to gang up on you and there is nothing to do except to sit there and be air juggled to death by gunfire until your health hits 0. The camera is a nightmare and there are like 5 actual locations recycled across its 15 Levels. But again this game is called Samurai Western and it delivers everything I want from something called Samurai Western. It has all the classic trops, the classic music, the action. I even to get customize my badass samurai with silly shit like a giant Ninja star on his back or an Afro. The cherry on top was the Trigun vibes it gave me and the second to last boss only confirmed my suspicion that atleast one person on the dev team had a thing for Yasuhiro Nightows cult classic series, wich made me very happy. Man, why did they cancel Planet Gun Smoke, wouldnt have been so cool.
2010
Dead Rising 2 really is the most straight forward sequel they could have made, down to using some of the exact same assets and music tracks. Canadien studio Blue Castle Games had their work basicly cut out for them and to their credit: They mostly brought really good quality of life improvments to the formula while adding a fresh cast to the franchise.
Survivor AI is massivly improvement and combo weapons add a lair motivation to the leveling system and exploration. Id say map design took a hit here, I much prefer Willamet to Fortunate City, simply because the latter has can get fairly tedious to navigate while Dead Rising 1 had very little wasted space in its tightly designt Mall setting. What I do prefer is Chuck Green over Frank West.
I know im gona be in the minority here but Chucks ultimate dad persona is infinitly endering to me. From beeing as quick witted as a lobotomized puppy, to his corny one liners and his loving relationship to his daughter Kathy. Chuck is the kinda guy I wanna have beer with.
Survivor AI is massivly improvement and combo weapons add a lair motivation to the leveling system and exploration. Id say map design took a hit here, I much prefer Willamet to Fortunate City, simply because the latter has can get fairly tedious to navigate while Dead Rising 1 had very little wasted space in its tightly designt Mall setting. What I do prefer is Chuck Green over Frank West.
I know im gona be in the minority here but Chucks ultimate dad persona is infinitly endering to me. From beeing as quick witted as a lobotomized puppy, to his corny one liners and his loving relationship to his daughter Kathy. Chuck is the kinda guy I wanna have beer with.
1998
Valve releasing the 25 anniversary update was the perfect time to do another replay of this classic. Sadly, the new update is broken as of the time I'm writing this. Scripted events didn't trigger, and object collision seems to be wonky at best. The game becomes a nightmare from Surface Tension onwards.
As for the game in general: Half-Life remains one of the best shooters of all time. Exceptional paced, including Xen in my opinion. Its combat loop is so good, almost never repeating the same encounters. All packed up in a sci-fi story that allows depth to be brought into it by the player, but never forces anyone to ever stop playing the game. It's my ideal way to tell Video Game Story's: Those who want to stop and soak in the details can do that just as well as people who just want the action. I never get tired of doing both depending on wich mood strikes me and Gordon Freemans journey through Black Mesa never gets old for me.
As for the game in general: Half-Life remains one of the best shooters of all time. Exceptional paced, including Xen in my opinion. Its combat loop is so good, almost never repeating the same encounters. All packed up in a sci-fi story that allows depth to be brought into it by the player, but never forces anyone to ever stop playing the game. It's my ideal way to tell Video Game Story's: Those who want to stop and soak in the details can do that just as well as people who just want the action. I never get tired of doing both depending on wich mood strikes me and Gordon Freemans journey through Black Mesa never gets old for me.
2023
I was planning on waxing philosophicaly about a how Zortch feels like a throwback to 90s FPS design and something about Video Game Rentals. Fuck that. Zortch is 5 bucks, its great, go buy Zortch you coward.
2016
Resident Evil 0 is not as horrible as its reputation. The kind of game you play when you exhausted every other main line RE game. A hard, often infuriating climb up a mountain. The View on the top is pretty satisfying, but you are going to question many times why you're even doing this. It looks beautiful, sometimes even better than RE Remake imo and the soundtrack is fantastic. I really like the dynamic between Rebecca and Billy as they make their way through the abandoned Umbrella recruitment center. The fact that you have two main characters working side by side isn't a problem at all. For me, there are two other giant Problems towering over Zero, that more or less combine themselves into a big pile of shit I need to rant about.
First: The complete removal of the item box. You now have to drop items on the floor. Which leads to either your items being all centralized into one room that you have to backtrack to across the entire map, or you accidentally scatter important items around the map and go scavenger hunting once you need them. The entire system only leads to frustration, as you won't know when you have to fight bosses or enter a point of no return, at least on your first go. And there we are at my second big complaint: The game's scripted sequences. Resident Evil 0 loves to throw you into situations that completely fuck you over, with barely any warning. One might say some unpredictability is part of REs identity, but at least the other games somewhat signpost when there's a particular difficult section coming up. RE 0 says fuck you to that and it's the mainline RE game I had to reload saves the most, as well as create multiple save files because I couldn't reliably plan ahead. I always play Resident Evil with one single hard save where I roll with the punches, but here I quickly threw that rule out the window because I felt the difficulty spicks were just bullshit.
In conclusion, I did have a decent time with it and think it's worth experiencing if you're a hardcore RE fan, but I also really felt the tedium of this one. I'm sure my second play through will be much smoother when I do it someday, maybe. On the plus side, I still think this is better than 6 and Code Veronica, and the remaster has maybe the coolest unlock ever, which I don't want to spoil. A really awesome surprise.
First: The complete removal of the item box. You now have to drop items on the floor. Which leads to either your items being all centralized into one room that you have to backtrack to across the entire map, or you accidentally scatter important items around the map and go scavenger hunting once you need them. The entire system only leads to frustration, as you won't know when you have to fight bosses or enter a point of no return, at least on your first go. And there we are at my second big complaint: The game's scripted sequences. Resident Evil 0 loves to throw you into situations that completely fuck you over, with barely any warning. One might say some unpredictability is part of REs identity, but at least the other games somewhat signpost when there's a particular difficult section coming up. RE 0 says fuck you to that and it's the mainline RE game I had to reload saves the most, as well as create multiple save files because I couldn't reliably plan ahead. I always play Resident Evil with one single hard save where I roll with the punches, but here I quickly threw that rule out the window because I felt the difficulty spicks were just bullshit.
In conclusion, I did have a decent time with it and think it's worth experiencing if you're a hardcore RE fan, but I also really felt the tedium of this one. I'm sure my second play through will be much smoother when I do it someday, maybe. On the plus side, I still think this is better than 6 and Code Veronica, and the remaster has maybe the coolest unlock ever, which I don't want to spoil. A really awesome surprise.
No More Heroes 2 is one of the most confusing game sequels I ever tried to wrap my head around. I can't decide if this is pure genius, or if they just fundamentally misunderstood what the original was about. Gōichi Suda wasn't completely hands-on with the Sequel, since he didn't even want to make a sequel in the first place. By his own admission, he didn't expect No More Heroes to blow up the way it did. Grasshoppers game before NMH, Killer 7, wasn't a mega hit, but sold just enough to make them get some amount of notoriety. So it was entirely realistic to expect NHM to play to that same small but loyal niche audience Killer 7 did. That assumption couldn't have been more wrong. No More Heroes sold way better than anyone expected, especially in the west, so a sequel was inevitable. Suda then handed over the game to this Assistant Director, Nobutaka Ichiki, while Suda oversaw the character and scenario writing. Keeping that mind, I think it's 100% more clear why No More Heroes 2 feels so confused. One side wanted to make a legitimate action game with a deeper meaning to it, while the other side, probably Suda, wanted to double down on the bonkers meta aspects. That doesn't mean there are no deeper elements to it, in fact both sides come together quite beautifully. And for all the silly jokes it makes about sequels, how gamers don't really want context, this is a very smart continuation of what No More Heroes buildt.
All the characters have evolved in meaningful ways, there are consequences for even minor things that happened in NMH, and the world has changed in a way that is in line with the events that took place around Santa Destroy. One of the biggest criticisms this story gets is that they supposedly ignore that the UAA was revealed to be a scam and a ploy from Sylvia to get rich, but now it's treated like it's 100% real. Yes, it was all a big joke in the first game, to both Travis and the player, where they thought they worked toward some meaningful goal, until it's revealed right before the end that we all been played for suckers. The game builds up to that joke, signposts Sylvia being a red flag in pretty much every cutscene, and it's completely in Travis character to fall for all of it. Travis still became Number 1 in the end, but walked away basically into self exile. And this is where the Sequel picks up. His absence and the resulting legend of “the crownless king” has now turned assassinations into a commodity, a mega popular trend. And Silvia, being the gold digger she is, takes complete advantage of that boom. What was once a small-time scam is now a legit business simply because it will make her a fuck tone more money. It all makes sense within its own framework. Travis basicly gets roped back into the game because of a revenge plot reveald by the brother of the 11th ranked assassin killed in the trailer for NMH 1, who is also the first boss. Bishop, the owner of Beef Head Video and Travis best friend, gets killed, setting him on a revenge mission to work himself up the ranking again to get the one responsible. Travis has noticeably changed though, having become a lot more reserved and looking for some kind of meaning in his life. And with changed, I don't mean what a lot of people have defined for themselves as change, aka that he has to be a completely different person now. That is not what change means, because no matter how far you go, even a real person doesn't completely change their personality as they get older. Everyone keeps certain core aspects that define them, while maturing into other directions and dropping minor things. And Travis is a fantastic example of this. There is definitely a growth in his personality. He is not as hyped up anymore, he has people he visibly cares about just as much as he is still a weeb deep down seeking the thrill of a good fight. He's not above bouncing off the wall or jerking off to his favorite Moe, but when it comes down to business, he is much more reversed. Old Travis would have probably taken advantage of Shinobu, but new Travis, while he still a horn dog, doesn't seem to care. He has much more defined goals that give him a legitimate human connection with other people and isn't just looking for fast and cheap thrills exclusively
Travis is growing from a snooty teen into a man. The way he goes off on Sylvia on multiple occasions for disrespecting Assassins he has legitimately grown respect for is beautiful. They are my favorite moments of Travis character's arc, and Robin Atkin Downes does a phenomenal job as Travis. You completely buy every line from him. In a game overflowing with mediocre bosses these are the highlights and I think it's not coincident that they are what give Travis life. He is not tired of violence, he is tired of meaningless violence. The endless waves of goons and tired retreads of bosses he already fought. It's another fun reflection on Video Games itself, and I think it no coincident that the longest, most draining level is the one right before the fight with Alice Twilight. The final straw for Travis character arc. The level before you fight her is this endless kill march through a somber sunset. You start the level walking by a giant graffiti mural of Travis face plastered on a building, which I think perfectly represents not what he sees himself as, but what the world sees him as. This giant icon, adored by everyone but himself. The following level has enemies just pour in wave after wave to the point of exhaustion while remixes of the main theme play, only to be interrupted by this beautiful melancholic melody that could have come straight from Silent Hill. And the music for No More Heroes 2 was in fact created by Akira Yamaoka, who was working for Grasshopper at the time after resigning from Konami in 2009. His soundtrack is phenomenal and blows the original games OST out the water. His music is a big part of what makes moments like I just described work so damn well. It's my highlight of the game, no doubt. Contrasting that is the ending, which left me downright confused. I think it's supposed to represent Travis and Sylvia finally breaking free from the cycle of video game violence hinted all throughout the story and becoming actual 3 Dimensional characters having a real human connection with each other beyond being cardboard cut-outs exchanging funny quips. After all, the game's actual framing device is a conversation of a mysterious man, totally not Travis, talking to a stripper, totally not Silva, in a shady sex phone booth where she poetically describes what happened in Santa Destroy. They then ride into the sunset together on Travis Motorcycle as the credit's role. But I could also be totally overanalyzing it, and it's all just incompetent storytelling, very possible.
And if you actually read this far, first of all thank you so much, that's not all a given. Secondly: I think I made it very obvious that I'm of the opinion that everything surrounding the game is far more interesting than its actual gameplay. So to finally close off this insane ramble, I'm just gone quickly say what I thought of the gameplay. It's basically the first game, but heavily streamlined for the worst. Combat is mostly the same, except for different weapons this time like the double beam katana, which is really awesome, and being able to store your special powers instead of them being activated immediately. Most of the bosses are awful this time, and the addition of Shinobu and Henry as playable characters does not help. They control really stiff and combat is even more limited than it already is with Travis. The Open world is entirely replaced with a menu now, which is a shame because Santa Destroy had so much potential. They just didn't bother and scrapped it entirely. Side missions are much worse across the board, since they replaced the gym and jobs with very bad NES style minigames instead of the variety we had before. Where before I wanted to play at least some of the better ones for extra cash, I now never want to engage with them again. And since there is almost no point to money anymore I have no reason to do them anyway. The combat missions were hit with the same unfun stick as well. You can debate how fun they actually were before, but at least we had some variety in the challenges. They are now called revenge missions and there are only two types. Kill Everyone or Kill the Target. You would think at least you'll get some kind of cutscene, since these are the guys who basically kicked off the plot. Nope, just kill the same boring assholes over and over again. I dropped all the side content pretty fast, only forcing myself to do them for the 4 Combat upgrades you can buy, then entirely mainlining the story. Which makes the game so much shorter than the first game, just by virtue of most of the content sucking. I suppose if you're a big fan of No More Heroes like me, you will at least get something out of it, but overall I much prefer the first one over this gameplay wise.
All the characters have evolved in meaningful ways, there are consequences for even minor things that happened in NMH, and the world has changed in a way that is in line with the events that took place around Santa Destroy. One of the biggest criticisms this story gets is that they supposedly ignore that the UAA was revealed to be a scam and a ploy from Sylvia to get rich, but now it's treated like it's 100% real. Yes, it was all a big joke in the first game, to both Travis and the player, where they thought they worked toward some meaningful goal, until it's revealed right before the end that we all been played for suckers. The game builds up to that joke, signposts Sylvia being a red flag in pretty much every cutscene, and it's completely in Travis character to fall for all of it. Travis still became Number 1 in the end, but walked away basically into self exile. And this is where the Sequel picks up. His absence and the resulting legend of “the crownless king” has now turned assassinations into a commodity, a mega popular trend. And Silvia, being the gold digger she is, takes complete advantage of that boom. What was once a small-time scam is now a legit business simply because it will make her a fuck tone more money. It all makes sense within its own framework. Travis basicly gets roped back into the game because of a revenge plot reveald by the brother of the 11th ranked assassin killed in the trailer for NMH 1, who is also the first boss. Bishop, the owner of Beef Head Video and Travis best friend, gets killed, setting him on a revenge mission to work himself up the ranking again to get the one responsible. Travis has noticeably changed though, having become a lot more reserved and looking for some kind of meaning in his life. And with changed, I don't mean what a lot of people have defined for themselves as change, aka that he has to be a completely different person now. That is not what change means, because no matter how far you go, even a real person doesn't completely change their personality as they get older. Everyone keeps certain core aspects that define them, while maturing into other directions and dropping minor things. And Travis is a fantastic example of this. There is definitely a growth in his personality. He is not as hyped up anymore, he has people he visibly cares about just as much as he is still a weeb deep down seeking the thrill of a good fight. He's not above bouncing off the wall or jerking off to his favorite Moe, but when it comes down to business, he is much more reversed. Old Travis would have probably taken advantage of Shinobu, but new Travis, while he still a horn dog, doesn't seem to care. He has much more defined goals that give him a legitimate human connection with other people and isn't just looking for fast and cheap thrills exclusively
Travis is growing from a snooty teen into a man. The way he goes off on Sylvia on multiple occasions for disrespecting Assassins he has legitimately grown respect for is beautiful. They are my favorite moments of Travis character's arc, and Robin Atkin Downes does a phenomenal job as Travis. You completely buy every line from him. In a game overflowing with mediocre bosses these are the highlights and I think it's not coincident that they are what give Travis life. He is not tired of violence, he is tired of meaningless violence. The endless waves of goons and tired retreads of bosses he already fought. It's another fun reflection on Video Games itself, and I think it no coincident that the longest, most draining level is the one right before the fight with Alice Twilight. The final straw for Travis character arc. The level before you fight her is this endless kill march through a somber sunset. You start the level walking by a giant graffiti mural of Travis face plastered on a building, which I think perfectly represents not what he sees himself as, but what the world sees him as. This giant icon, adored by everyone but himself. The following level has enemies just pour in wave after wave to the point of exhaustion while remixes of the main theme play, only to be interrupted by this beautiful melancholic melody that could have come straight from Silent Hill. And the music for No More Heroes 2 was in fact created by Akira Yamaoka, who was working for Grasshopper at the time after resigning from Konami in 2009. His soundtrack is phenomenal and blows the original games OST out the water. His music is a big part of what makes moments like I just described work so damn well. It's my highlight of the game, no doubt. Contrasting that is the ending, which left me downright confused. I think it's supposed to represent Travis and Sylvia finally breaking free from the cycle of video game violence hinted all throughout the story and becoming actual 3 Dimensional characters having a real human connection with each other beyond being cardboard cut-outs exchanging funny quips. After all, the game's actual framing device is a conversation of a mysterious man, totally not Travis, talking to a stripper, totally not Silva, in a shady sex phone booth where she poetically describes what happened in Santa Destroy. They then ride into the sunset together on Travis Motorcycle as the credit's role. But I could also be totally overanalyzing it, and it's all just incompetent storytelling, very possible.
And if you actually read this far, first of all thank you so much, that's not all a given. Secondly: I think I made it very obvious that I'm of the opinion that everything surrounding the game is far more interesting than its actual gameplay. So to finally close off this insane ramble, I'm just gone quickly say what I thought of the gameplay. It's basically the first game, but heavily streamlined for the worst. Combat is mostly the same, except for different weapons this time like the double beam katana, which is really awesome, and being able to store your special powers instead of them being activated immediately. Most of the bosses are awful this time, and the addition of Shinobu and Henry as playable characters does not help. They control really stiff and combat is even more limited than it already is with Travis. The Open world is entirely replaced with a menu now, which is a shame because Santa Destroy had so much potential. They just didn't bother and scrapped it entirely. Side missions are much worse across the board, since they replaced the gym and jobs with very bad NES style minigames instead of the variety we had before. Where before I wanted to play at least some of the better ones for extra cash, I now never want to engage with them again. And since there is almost no point to money anymore I have no reason to do them anyway. The combat missions were hit with the same unfun stick as well. You can debate how fun they actually were before, but at least we had some variety in the challenges. They are now called revenge missions and there are only two types. Kill Everyone or Kill the Target. You would think at least you'll get some kind of cutscene, since these are the guys who basically kicked off the plot. Nope, just kill the same boring assholes over and over again. I dropped all the side content pretty fast, only forcing myself to do them for the 4 Combat upgrades you can buy, then entirely mainlining the story. Which makes the game so much shorter than the first game, just by virtue of most of the content sucking. I suppose if you're a big fan of No More Heroes like me, you will at least get something out of it, but overall I much prefer the first one over this gameplay wise.
2024
Im not gona lie and say this a good game. What I am gona say is that I spend way too much with this. Half of it because its a legit fun, janky parcour game for free. Other half is just the amount of joy I got from shooting the shit with strangers in the ingame text chat. Be it just roasting eachother or just legit talking. For real gave me old internet vibes before people went insane and starting treating the internet like it was their fucking living room. Old COD lobbys and Space Station 13 come to mind. Just a solid vibe, we should get more games like this.
2001
I am completly baffeld. This is what started the character action genre ? Its been a while since I playd a game that activly fights you having fun with every mechanic it has. My previous experience with the franchise was only DMC 3 aswell as the Reboot and I liked them quit a bit. So I thought I should play the other DMC games largely considerd "the good ones". Guess I was wrong, this sucked.
2004
I praised Half Life for having near flawless pacing. Aside from the opening train ride and ending cutscene, it never took away control. Half Life 2 for some reason felt the need to do the exact opposite and lock the player inside rooms with characters endlessly talking.
Luckly when the chakels come off, the game does let you just play, having seriously improved gunplay with an impressive Physiques engine. I admire the attempt to have vehicles segments, seriously clunky though, but the varity in weapons has been exhanged in favor of them. I do still think how technicaly impressive Half Life 2 is can be described as the best part. That inturn does come with with the downside of less varity in the enviroment again.
I like the idea of having the nondescript eastern european City 17 be the backdrop to the Combins alien reign over earth, but nobody can tell me that the grey block buildings and dirt roads dont get seriously repetitive. I do wish their was more Alien architecture and technology, expanding what was hinted at in Half Life 1.
In the end it does lead up to a exciting finale that gives a great cliffhanger, with the question of how the Combine managed to take over Earrth in 7 hours when they are this fucking incompetent.
Luckly when the chakels come off, the game does let you just play, having seriously improved gunplay with an impressive Physiques engine. I admire the attempt to have vehicles segments, seriously clunky though, but the varity in weapons has been exhanged in favor of them. I do still think how technicaly impressive Half Life 2 is can be described as the best part. That inturn does come with with the downside of less varity in the enviroment again.
I like the idea of having the nondescript eastern european City 17 be the backdrop to the Combins alien reign over earth, but nobody can tell me that the grey block buildings and dirt roads dont get seriously repetitive. I do wish their was more Alien architecture and technology, expanding what was hinted at in Half Life 1.
In the end it does lead up to a exciting finale that gives a great cliffhanger, with the question of how the Combine managed to take over Earrth in 7 hours when they are this fucking incompetent.
2018
Im a defender of this game. Yes, the constantly blocking enemies can eat a dick and chasing Rikiya around every fucking Convient Store in Japan should be a CIA Torture method. Doesnt keep from loving the rest of the game. I have never seen a group of kids in game written so well and just the opening in Okinawa should be its own game honestly. Seriously underrated stuff
Wtf even is reality ? Was this always this shit ? Back when I had a PS4 but no money to buy new games, I loved Old Blood. I played it all the time, found every secret and beat every difficulty. Maybe it really was the fact that I only had like 4 games for the console. Or maybe my standards of what I think is good have improved significantly. Either way revisting Old Blood was a bad idea. I found it offensivly bad in how it feels to play and the levels design is trash. Im giving 1 point to the game because the writting and art direction is still really good. Man, now im worried for that Indiana Jones game.
Have you ever wanted to play a cozzy management sim where you run your own item shop in a colorful fantasy world, only for the harsh reality of crippling debt to strolle around the corner to haunt your very existence ? Then dont worry, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is her to fulfill that dream.
Recettear is an Item Shop management game where your the one taskd selling all but the most important items to the heros of a fantasy world. Its a game I had my eye on for a long time. The kind of game where it keeps popping up in various gaming magazines, youtube videos or in barging bin sales. For whatever reason I never picked it up through out the various stages of my life despite always beeing curious, mainly about its wonderful sprite work. Well now I sat down and gave this odd niche title a chance to see if the actual game is a good as word of mouth has lead me to believe.
You embody Recette. A naiv Anime girl and recent owner of an item shop because her father just went up and dissapeared, leaving her with a truck load of financal debt. Soon the debt collectors of course come knocking and your tasked with paying back every penny owed or face beeing evicted from your own home. Fun. And thats pretty much the big picture. There isnt much of a plot aside from your main goal of not becoming homeless. Slice of life is the best word for Recettear. You will of course met tons of quirky characters that all have unique personalities. Comedy is very much the focus of the writing. That can be a problem if the jokes dont land, but luckily the translation, however accurate it might be for 2007, has more hits then misses. My favorite thing beeing the sometimes way too real news messages on top of the screen. There is nothing like stocking up your cute store with scarfes and ham sandwiches, only to be informed in passing that “The race war is still going on in the north”.
Of course the big hook is the management side of the game. To Recettears credit, under the anime exterior, there is quit a complex economie under the hood. You will be selling items to different customers, both named and unamed. They all have unique wants and budgets that have to be considered. As you progress through the months their wallet size will increase and you will learn at what price range everyone will buy. You can all also crash the economie if you happen to flud the market with too many cheap items, wich is always a treat. The more you sell in a row, the more you will build up a combo in order to gain merchant levels. Your Merchant level will allow you build out your store or stock more inventory. Basicly if there is a task you would have to consider when opening a real store, Recettear has you do it. Saying all this: The game does a real poor job in breaking down all those systems.
I can see an argument in how its simulating Recettes real inexperience in handling a bussines but thats not a enough for me. Some basics are explained, others are explained wrong and then again very important stuff is not told to you at all. Like how the combo system works or how a price increase in the market will allow you sell items for a mark up of 250% pretty much everytime. Information like that is vital to not hit a game over. Although a Game Over is ironicly not the end of the world. The image of your cute anime girl sleeping in dirty carboard box may be harsh but you will just be set back to day one. Reseting any events that happened but kepping all your store progress and inventory. A Game Over is still enough of a punishment but the devs made sure that your not completely back to 0, keeping motivation high. There is also a dungeon you can hire different heros for in order to scaving for rare items. The Dungeon is a trap I tell you. Its a waste of time and money in wich you will not get enough out of to make a real dent in your debt. Aside from the dungeons beeing really boring, its a activity best suited for the post game. Focus on selling and buying items until you repayd your debt. I do recommend some light reading on the wiki too, making your journey a bit less confusing once you take your first steps.
I had a lot of fun with Recettear, it really satisfied my inner number cruncher. If your only in it for the action rpg part, Recettear will dissapoint you but it often goes on sale for almost nothing and there is never a bad time to widen your horizon. Overall the charming presentation and gameplay loop is worth a look. There is lots of post game content too and I still have an urge to play more of this cute existential nightmare. Capitalism ho!
Recettear is an Item Shop management game where your the one taskd selling all but the most important items to the heros of a fantasy world. Its a game I had my eye on for a long time. The kind of game where it keeps popping up in various gaming magazines, youtube videos or in barging bin sales. For whatever reason I never picked it up through out the various stages of my life despite always beeing curious, mainly about its wonderful sprite work. Well now I sat down and gave this odd niche title a chance to see if the actual game is a good as word of mouth has lead me to believe.
You embody Recette. A naiv Anime girl and recent owner of an item shop because her father just went up and dissapeared, leaving her with a truck load of financal debt. Soon the debt collectors of course come knocking and your tasked with paying back every penny owed or face beeing evicted from your own home. Fun. And thats pretty much the big picture. There isnt much of a plot aside from your main goal of not becoming homeless. Slice of life is the best word for Recettear. You will of course met tons of quirky characters that all have unique personalities. Comedy is very much the focus of the writing. That can be a problem if the jokes dont land, but luckily the translation, however accurate it might be for 2007, has more hits then misses. My favorite thing beeing the sometimes way too real news messages on top of the screen. There is nothing like stocking up your cute store with scarfes and ham sandwiches, only to be informed in passing that “The race war is still going on in the north”.
Of course the big hook is the management side of the game. To Recettears credit, under the anime exterior, there is quit a complex economie under the hood. You will be selling items to different customers, both named and unamed. They all have unique wants and budgets that have to be considered. As you progress through the months their wallet size will increase and you will learn at what price range everyone will buy. You can all also crash the economie if you happen to flud the market with too many cheap items, wich is always a treat. The more you sell in a row, the more you will build up a combo in order to gain merchant levels. Your Merchant level will allow you build out your store or stock more inventory. Basicly if there is a task you would have to consider when opening a real store, Recettear has you do it. Saying all this: The game does a real poor job in breaking down all those systems.
I can see an argument in how its simulating Recettes real inexperience in handling a bussines but thats not a enough for me. Some basics are explained, others are explained wrong and then again very important stuff is not told to you at all. Like how the combo system works or how a price increase in the market will allow you sell items for a mark up of 250% pretty much everytime. Information like that is vital to not hit a game over. Although a Game Over is ironicly not the end of the world. The image of your cute anime girl sleeping in dirty carboard box may be harsh but you will just be set back to day one. Reseting any events that happened but kepping all your store progress and inventory. A Game Over is still enough of a punishment but the devs made sure that your not completely back to 0, keeping motivation high. There is also a dungeon you can hire different heros for in order to scaving for rare items. The Dungeon is a trap I tell you. Its a waste of time and money in wich you will not get enough out of to make a real dent in your debt. Aside from the dungeons beeing really boring, its a activity best suited for the post game. Focus on selling and buying items until you repayd your debt. I do recommend some light reading on the wiki too, making your journey a bit less confusing once you take your first steps.
I had a lot of fun with Recettear, it really satisfied my inner number cruncher. If your only in it for the action rpg part, Recettear will dissapoint you but it often goes on sale for almost nothing and there is never a bad time to widen your horizon. Overall the charming presentation and gameplay loop is worth a look. There is lots of post game content too and I still have an urge to play more of this cute existential nightmare. Capitalism ho!