Octopiss
2005
When I was a kid, this game made me break my ds lite. Rip to a real one
It's weird. It wants so bad to be a sequel without actually being a sequel.
Gameplay? Improved immensely. Exploring, fighting, the building of mechanical beasts is AMAZING. The caves, the koroks, sky islands, the depths just 10/10.
The story sucks such ass. There's not much I can say about it. So much it brought to the table while removing so much of what made breath of the wild great was just kinda?? unnecessary. It made Hyrule Warrriors look somehow more canon in comparison.
Gameplay? Improved immensely. Exploring, fighting, the building of mechanical beasts is AMAZING. The caves, the koroks, sky islands, the depths just 10/10.
The story sucks such ass. There's not much I can say about it. So much it brought to the table while removing so much of what made breath of the wild great was just kinda?? unnecessary. It made Hyrule Warrriors look somehow more canon in comparison.
2019
It is hard to talk about this game without talking about the downfall of Lab Zero. It is horrible what happened to the devs and truly a shame how one dickhead can sap the soul out of the production for such a promising game. Sad to see lab zero go, but so excited for Future Club to be able to continue being legends without the deadweight.
With that being said, let's start by saying that this is one of the first games I have ever backed. The concept, the music, the characters (Rip best boys Tanaka and Kogi), the story and the promise of lab zero going off the wall? Not to be too dramatic, but it was like a dream come true. Plus it was a platformer RPG! Having always been very bad at fighters, I finally had a chance to try out their games and not suck!
Few times have I experienced a roller coaster like the excitement I had for this game, playing the demo and reading the backer updates to finally land in grief after playing the finished product. The weirdest thing was: The game wasn't like bad bad, but somehow that was worse. It would've been so easy to just go Shit Sucks and move on, but because it was passable and fun at times, it really hurt when it wasn't.
The Art (character design, environmental work, animation and music) and Gameplay (specifically the fights) were fun and amazing to experience. The game was dripping with so much style and charm that the downstairs neighbor sent in a complaint about a leak in the ceiling. The mission to also have a practically everything-but-western cast in a SEA fantasy setting? My toasted sesame ass could not believe how much I needed to see that.
Admittedly it has been a bit since I played this game so take this with a grain of salt, but the writing and general level design... was fine, I guess? Certain character moments stuck out and I remember that spectacles fell just a bit short in execution, but that's kind of it. The platforming and navigation through areas was, despite movement options and amazing environment art, not that enticing and kind of a slog.
Because of this, most of my enjoyment of the game was exploring the environs, recruit characters and see how they worked in fights and begrudgingly go through the world to accomplish story beats that were just kinda bland and predictable.
Weirdly enough, even with all that, I don't regret backing the game. Yes, the final product is far from ideal and seeing the potential melt before my eyes was devastating, but the world would be duller without it. It is rough around the edges, but succeeded by giving us a colorful and bright world, inspired by all corners of ours. For what it's worth, after all these years, I look back on this game with a bittersweet fondness and grateful to the devs who stuck through it to make it happen.
With that being said, let's start by saying that this is one of the first games I have ever backed. The concept, the music, the characters (Rip best boys Tanaka and Kogi), the story and the promise of lab zero going off the wall? Not to be too dramatic, but it was like a dream come true. Plus it was a platformer RPG! Having always been very bad at fighters, I finally had a chance to try out their games and not suck!
Few times have I experienced a roller coaster like the excitement I had for this game, playing the demo and reading the backer updates to finally land in grief after playing the finished product. The weirdest thing was: The game wasn't like bad bad, but somehow that was worse. It would've been so easy to just go Shit Sucks and move on, but because it was passable and fun at times, it really hurt when it wasn't.
The Art (character design, environmental work, animation and music) and Gameplay (specifically the fights) were fun and amazing to experience. The game was dripping with so much style and charm that the downstairs neighbor sent in a complaint about a leak in the ceiling. The mission to also have a practically everything-but-western cast in a SEA fantasy setting? My toasted sesame ass could not believe how much I needed to see that.
Admittedly it has been a bit since I played this game so take this with a grain of salt, but the writing and general level design... was fine, I guess? Certain character moments stuck out and I remember that spectacles fell just a bit short in execution, but that's kind of it. The platforming and navigation through areas was, despite movement options and amazing environment art, not that enticing and kind of a slog.
Because of this, most of my enjoyment of the game was exploring the environs, recruit characters and see how they worked in fights and begrudgingly go through the world to accomplish story beats that were just kinda bland and predictable.
Weirdly enough, even with all that, I don't regret backing the game. Yes, the final product is far from ideal and seeing the potential melt before my eyes was devastating, but the world would be duller without it. It is rough around the edges, but succeeded by giving us a colorful and bright world, inspired by all corners of ours. For what it's worth, after all these years, I look back on this game with a bittersweet fondness and grateful to the devs who stuck through it to make it happen.
2020
Get your mechanical knob slopped on by an archangel filled with so much catholic angst. Thank me later
2021
MY GUY. WHAT.
It is quite literally impossible to make a perfect game that has been running for nearly 10 years, but gods be damned this one is about as close as you can get. Other than gripes regarding the narrative, quite a few representation issues, obligatory ARR mention and inevitable balancing issues (I mean, to be fair, the game has 19 classes, like holy shit) this game is a phenomenal feat and experience that just can't be beat.
2018
This is the ideal of a video game. Short, but every second is filled with goodness. The charm from the writing and art, the easy to understand gameplay that was cleverly expanded with each level, the meta ui where the progress of the game was shown through the progress of an in universe game, the acknowledgement that rocks are from aliens that mock us... It's just good!! Play it!!
2023
This review contains spoilers
An absolute blast. Amazing style, banger tracks, great gameplay, loveable characters and an all too familiar story about upper management hell.
I don't usually write these so I'm kinda freewheeling. Something something "I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one" something.
Normally when it comes to combo based action games, where your score is directly related to your flair, I freeze up a little. My confidence in remembering and executing combos has always been very spotty, to the point there I usually go back to default moves and tried-n-true 1-2-3s. Combining this with flashbacks of me DESPERATELY trying to justify my purchase of a guitar hero guitar and failing miserably as I could barely hit a single note, I was a little hesitant whether or not I should've just watched a playthrough. I'm so glad I didn't.
Swinging that guitar felt as natural as humming a tune. One thing I didn't consider is that when you combine combos and a rhythmic guide, not only do they become way more doable, but also so satisfying when done right. Not to mention that doing it right meant more damage, additional combos and the sweet, sweet cheer of the crowds.
I was afraid that me finding the rhythm would be an issue too, but It helps a lot when, no joke, everything was in rhythm. The attacks of your enemies, the animations of the environment, the puzzles and so forth. Hell, sometimes the characters were talking along with the tracks playing. It wasn't hard to find that beat when the entire game has the beat pumping through its veins.
I found myself by the end of the game dancing with the enemies, juggling them up and slamming them down all while like it was all part of the track. By the end you not only feel as confident like Chai, you kinda get why he acts like the rockstar all the time if it's this fun.
Talking about him, I wanna talk about the colourful cast. Mentioned before, you play as Chai. A wonderful combination of confident, cocky, bit selfish and incredibly dense. A character you equally love seeing get beat up and thrown through walls as you love seeing him get up and wreck shop again. He is a loveable character that makes for a refreshingly direct (albeit a bit blunt and naive) voice in a group who has the world weighing down on them.
Your first companion, peppermint and her robot cat 808 make for a perfect counterbalance. Someone who is discrete in approach, methodical in planning and maybe a bit prickly. She has the unenviable job wrangling the undirected projectile that is Chai in the hopes that he might hit the right targets. Their strained dynamic at the start is incredibly fun in the beginning and as the characters learn more about each other, very endearing at the end.
Throughout the game you meet up with even more characters, who all help in their own ways and deal with their own struggles. Although I could write about them individually, just know that Macaron, Cinnamon and Korsica are all great additions to the team dynamic and are each, in their own way, extremely hot.
These companions are not only great narrative fun, but help out mechanically in way of opening up blocked passages and spicing up the battlefield with their own set of moves and combos.
Admittedly, this is where my one and only real complaint comes in. Not only do these companions come in and kick butt, Macaron can smash through enemies with sturdy shields, Peppermint can disable damage blocking barriers and Korsika ... can twirl her pole arm to put out fires, I guess? Usually this means that some enemies on the field can't be attacked unless you have the right companion hit them, which can be finicky in a game that throws quite a bit of enemies at you, any of which they can lock on to.
Specifically Macaron smashing shields is hard to aim as they not only need to be in range, macaron needs to hit them twice. Something that is made inconvenient with his longer cool down and short range. It makes fights drag on and don't feel extra challenging because of it, just annoying.
Korsika struggles with this too, but I feel a bit worse. Enemies that cause fire or are on fire can do, you guessed it, fire damage. When hit, Chai has to drop and roll for a bit in a stick wiggling before returning to battle. The slow fire damage would've been fine, but with the game forcing you to stop what you are doing just so Chai can put out his pants, it grinds you to a halt and makes you feel completely thrown off rhythm coming back into fights. Not to mention that Korsika can only disable this fire effect for a limited amount of time, having to re-apply her wind-gust-thing onto enemies every few seconds. Straight up, feel like fire should just not have been a thing and they should've just focused on the stunning part of her abilities.
Other than that, thankfully, having your allies help out in battle is a lot of fun. There are even moves you can buy for them so they can help you finish off combos which are always flashy and juicy.
So my thoughts are getting less coherent and this review is getting a bit long so I'm gonna wrap this up and maybe edit later. A lightning round:
- The writing got a bit on my nerves before I grew to love it. This is just purely a preference thing. The characters are great, the story was short and sweet and I was laughing myself faint at many moments.
- Platforming was a very good time and the environments were stunning and oozing with style.
- Boss fights were a bit hit or miss for me. Some felt a bit sluggish and suffered a bit from the classic "I have to wait for you to do a thing before I can do my thing so I'm just gonna stand around and do nothing until you do the thing." Nonetheless, most of them were a spectacle and had their own set of interesting challenges.
- I didn't play too much with The Secret Doors, but the ones I did were fun and tricksy. Personally, I get a little too quickly frustrated with timed challenges so I haven't had much of a drive to finish them.
- Collecting secrets in this game is a lot of fun and kept my eyes wide open for shinies. They found a perfect balance between making some pretty obvious and most a lot tougher to find. Makes coming back to stages extra fun.
The game, top to bottom, does a fantastic job to make you feel like a capital R Rockstar. An instant classic!
I don't usually write these so I'm kinda freewheeling. Something something "I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one" something.
Normally when it comes to combo based action games, where your score is directly related to your flair, I freeze up a little. My confidence in remembering and executing combos has always been very spotty, to the point there I usually go back to default moves and tried-n-true 1-2-3s. Combining this with flashbacks of me DESPERATELY trying to justify my purchase of a guitar hero guitar and failing miserably as I could barely hit a single note, I was a little hesitant whether or not I should've just watched a playthrough. I'm so glad I didn't.
Swinging that guitar felt as natural as humming a tune. One thing I didn't consider is that when you combine combos and a rhythmic guide, not only do they become way more doable, but also so satisfying when done right. Not to mention that doing it right meant more damage, additional combos and the sweet, sweet cheer of the crowds.
I was afraid that me finding the rhythm would be an issue too, but It helps a lot when, no joke, everything was in rhythm. The attacks of your enemies, the animations of the environment, the puzzles and so forth. Hell, sometimes the characters were talking along with the tracks playing. It wasn't hard to find that beat when the entire game has the beat pumping through its veins.
I found myself by the end of the game dancing with the enemies, juggling them up and slamming them down all while like it was all part of the track. By the end you not only feel as confident like Chai, you kinda get why he acts like the rockstar all the time if it's this fun.
Talking about him, I wanna talk about the colourful cast. Mentioned before, you play as Chai. A wonderful combination of confident, cocky, bit selfish and incredibly dense. A character you equally love seeing get beat up and thrown through walls as you love seeing him get up and wreck shop again. He is a loveable character that makes for a refreshingly direct (albeit a bit blunt and naive) voice in a group who has the world weighing down on them.
Your first companion, peppermint and her robot cat 808 make for a perfect counterbalance. Someone who is discrete in approach, methodical in planning and maybe a bit prickly. She has the unenviable job wrangling the undirected projectile that is Chai in the hopes that he might hit the right targets. Their strained dynamic at the start is incredibly fun in the beginning and as the characters learn more about each other, very endearing at the end.
Throughout the game you meet up with even more characters, who all help in their own ways and deal with their own struggles. Although I could write about them individually, just know that Macaron, Cinnamon and Korsica are all great additions to the team dynamic and are each, in their own way, extremely hot.
These companions are not only great narrative fun, but help out mechanically in way of opening up blocked passages and spicing up the battlefield with their own set of moves and combos.
Admittedly, this is where my one and only real complaint comes in. Not only do these companions come in and kick butt, Macaron can smash through enemies with sturdy shields, Peppermint can disable damage blocking barriers and Korsika ... can twirl her pole arm to put out fires, I guess? Usually this means that some enemies on the field can't be attacked unless you have the right companion hit them, which can be finicky in a game that throws quite a bit of enemies at you, any of which they can lock on to.
Specifically Macaron smashing shields is hard to aim as they not only need to be in range, macaron needs to hit them twice. Something that is made inconvenient with his longer cool down and short range. It makes fights drag on and don't feel extra challenging because of it, just annoying.
Korsika struggles with this too, but I feel a bit worse. Enemies that cause fire or are on fire can do, you guessed it, fire damage. When hit, Chai has to drop and roll for a bit in a stick wiggling before returning to battle. The slow fire damage would've been fine, but with the game forcing you to stop what you are doing just so Chai can put out his pants, it grinds you to a halt and makes you feel completely thrown off rhythm coming back into fights. Not to mention that Korsika can only disable this fire effect for a limited amount of time, having to re-apply her wind-gust-thing onto enemies every few seconds. Straight up, feel like fire should just not have been a thing and they should've just focused on the stunning part of her abilities.
Other than that, thankfully, having your allies help out in battle is a lot of fun. There are even moves you can buy for them so they can help you finish off combos which are always flashy and juicy.
So my thoughts are getting less coherent and this review is getting a bit long so I'm gonna wrap this up and maybe edit later. A lightning round:
- The writing got a bit on my nerves before I grew to love it. This is just purely a preference thing. The characters are great, the story was short and sweet and I was laughing myself faint at many moments.
- Platforming was a very good time and the environments were stunning and oozing with style.
- Boss fights were a bit hit or miss for me. Some felt a bit sluggish and suffered a bit from the classic "I have to wait for you to do a thing before I can do my thing so I'm just gonna stand around and do nothing until you do the thing." Nonetheless, most of them were a spectacle and had their own set of interesting challenges.
- I didn't play too much with The Secret Doors, but the ones I did were fun and tricksy. Personally, I get a little too quickly frustrated with timed challenges so I haven't had much of a drive to finish them.
- Collecting secrets in this game is a lot of fun and kept my eyes wide open for shinies. They found a perfect balance between making some pretty obvious and most a lot tougher to find. Makes coming back to stages extra fun.
The game, top to bottom, does a fantastic job to make you feel like a capital R Rockstar. An instant classic!