392 Reviews liked by Oshha
Halo 3: ODST
2009
Flames crackle in the pale moonlight. They're scattered throughout the city's remains. Patrols of grunts and elites pollute the once bustling streets like a plague.
The whirring of overhead phantoms fill in the brief gaps of silence left by the deafening whisper of the wind.
Hissing, then a click. Your drop pod opens, and you're tossed into the ruins of New Mombasa. You're small. Not the hulking 9 foot master chief, but a humble footsoldier. And you're deep in enemy territory. The only sources of light the dim cerulean glow of the covenant's energy weapons. These aliens tower you in stature. They vastly outclass you in firepower, and their numbers are in the thousands. You're just a rookie with a submachine gun and a dream.
If humanity already lost this fight, what hope do you have?
The next ten hours are then spent conducting a one sided massacre on hundreds of giant aliens.
The whirring of overhead phantoms fill in the brief gaps of silence left by the deafening whisper of the wind.
Hissing, then a click. Your drop pod opens, and you're tossed into the ruins of New Mombasa. You're small. Not the hulking 9 foot master chief, but a humble footsoldier. And you're deep in enemy territory. The only sources of light the dim cerulean glow of the covenant's energy weapons. These aliens tower you in stature. They vastly outclass you in firepower, and their numbers are in the thousands. You're just a rookie with a submachine gun and a dream.
If humanity already lost this fight, what hope do you have?
The next ten hours are then spent conducting a one sided massacre on hundreds of giant aliens.
No More Heroes
2007
Smells like Suda spirit.
This game is loud, crude, in your face, and maybe even a little obnoxious at times but I love it. It almost constantly maintains this super goofy over the top tone, and it never takes itself too seriously, opting to go all in on it’s satire of what I believe to be the entire video game medium.
The gameplay is an often disliked part of this game, but I feel it works incredibly well. In that classic Suda fashion, it chooses to purposefully stray away from something “fun” in favor of using the gameplay thematically. The game follows this super tedious, super linear format of grinding money, paying the United Assassins Association all your hard earned cash in order to set up the next rank fight, play a level to get to the boss, kill the boss, wash rinse and repeat. It isn’t very fun, especially the money gathering.
It seems pretty amateurish to have such a system, but under the lense that the game is a satire, it becomes a bit more meaningful. Think of a solid 80% or more of the games you’ve played and think about their gameplay loops. How much you do this gameplay loop under the runtime of the game. I don’t know about you, but for me I quickly realized that for a lot of these games I’m basically doing the same thing over and over. I just never notice it since these games strive to be fun and that masks the monotony.
By removing the “fun”, No More Heroes gameplay highlights how extremely repetitive so many games are. It laughs and makes fun of them.
Even the combat is like this; both the bosses and you only have a handful of moves and the bosses have A LOT of HP (especially the final boss) so you’re going to be going in cycles of dodging attacks, blocking attacks, counterattacking, and so forth over and over until eventually you or the boss dies. When I fought the final boss for the first time, my hands actually started hurting from how long I had to fight them.
And of course, it’s really impossible to talk about this game without talking about it’s protagonist Travis Touchdown, who is honestly one of my favorite video game protagonists ever. If I met him in real life I’d probably hate the guy, but as a character I love him. Travis perfectly encapsulates both the satiricalness of No More Heroes as well as it’s commentary beautifully.
If the gameplay and its format is satire of video games, then Travis, the one who’s actually rising up the ranks and doing the fighting, would be a satire of us, the players.
When we first see Travis just outside of the intro, he’s easily decapitating some guys and doing cool poses and the like. He seems like the most badass guy ever. Then we see his daily life and find out he lives alone in a motel, has no stable employment, has shelves of anime girl figurines, and his walls are plastered with Mexican wrestling masks (classic Suda).
Frankly, he lives a pretty pathetic life. He’s a very not subtle satiricalization of many video game players and anime fans, some guy who surrounds himself with fiction rather than attempting to improve his life. So when he’s a super cool badass it’s really an illusion masking this patheticness, and it’s really an illusion we would all want to be in reality. We would all want to be the cool guy destroying enemies and saving the princess and all that, and so in order to live out this fantasy we play video games and surround ourselves with fiction, just like Travis.
The game indulges in our fantasy with the rank matches, but after the level is done and the boss is slayed, we are forced to return back to the motel and our real lives. From there the only thing we can do is work and then blow off all our money towards more fantastical fiction…it’s kind of a depressing loop, and one I could easily imagine many people becoming entangled in. Hell, I could end up in that situation to be honest.
But despite some of its more saddening comments on modern consumerism, it still maintains a silly tone throughout. Messing around with Jeane the kitten in the motel, hearing about the ridiculous DVDs Travis rents, driving around town in an uber custom motorbike, it’s such a goofy and lovable title. In order to save the game you have to take a dump in a toilet for Christ's sake.
I haven’t played any other No More Heroes game just yet, but in the near future I’d love to play No More Heroes 2. From what I’ve read online it’s a somewhat less fondly loved game, but if it maintains at least some of the spirit this game has I know I’ll enjoy it, to some extent anyways.
This game is loud, crude, in your face, and maybe even a little obnoxious at times but I love it. It almost constantly maintains this super goofy over the top tone, and it never takes itself too seriously, opting to go all in on it’s satire of what I believe to be the entire video game medium.
The gameplay is an often disliked part of this game, but I feel it works incredibly well. In that classic Suda fashion, it chooses to purposefully stray away from something “fun” in favor of using the gameplay thematically. The game follows this super tedious, super linear format of grinding money, paying the United Assassins Association all your hard earned cash in order to set up the next rank fight, play a level to get to the boss, kill the boss, wash rinse and repeat. It isn’t very fun, especially the money gathering.
It seems pretty amateurish to have such a system, but under the lense that the game is a satire, it becomes a bit more meaningful. Think of a solid 80% or more of the games you’ve played and think about their gameplay loops. How much you do this gameplay loop under the runtime of the game. I don’t know about you, but for me I quickly realized that for a lot of these games I’m basically doing the same thing over and over. I just never notice it since these games strive to be fun and that masks the monotony.
By removing the “fun”, No More Heroes gameplay highlights how extremely repetitive so many games are. It laughs and makes fun of them.
Even the combat is like this; both the bosses and you only have a handful of moves and the bosses have A LOT of HP (especially the final boss) so you’re going to be going in cycles of dodging attacks, blocking attacks, counterattacking, and so forth over and over until eventually you or the boss dies. When I fought the final boss for the first time, my hands actually started hurting from how long I had to fight them.
And of course, it’s really impossible to talk about this game without talking about it’s protagonist Travis Touchdown, who is honestly one of my favorite video game protagonists ever. If I met him in real life I’d probably hate the guy, but as a character I love him. Travis perfectly encapsulates both the satiricalness of No More Heroes as well as it’s commentary beautifully.
If the gameplay and its format is satire of video games, then Travis, the one who’s actually rising up the ranks and doing the fighting, would be a satire of us, the players.
When we first see Travis just outside of the intro, he’s easily decapitating some guys and doing cool poses and the like. He seems like the most badass guy ever. Then we see his daily life and find out he lives alone in a motel, has no stable employment, has shelves of anime girl figurines, and his walls are plastered with Mexican wrestling masks (classic Suda).
Frankly, he lives a pretty pathetic life. He’s a very not subtle satiricalization of many video game players and anime fans, some guy who surrounds himself with fiction rather than attempting to improve his life. So when he’s a super cool badass it’s really an illusion masking this patheticness, and it’s really an illusion we would all want to be in reality. We would all want to be the cool guy destroying enemies and saving the princess and all that, and so in order to live out this fantasy we play video games and surround ourselves with fiction, just like Travis.
The game indulges in our fantasy with the rank matches, but after the level is done and the boss is slayed, we are forced to return back to the motel and our real lives. From there the only thing we can do is work and then blow off all our money towards more fantastical fiction…it’s kind of a depressing loop, and one I could easily imagine many people becoming entangled in. Hell, I could end up in that situation to be honest.
But despite some of its more saddening comments on modern consumerism, it still maintains a silly tone throughout. Messing around with Jeane the kitten in the motel, hearing about the ridiculous DVDs Travis rents, driving around town in an uber custom motorbike, it’s such a goofy and lovable title. In order to save the game you have to take a dump in a toilet for Christ's sake.
I haven’t played any other No More Heroes game just yet, but in the near future I’d love to play No More Heroes 2. From what I’ve read online it’s a somewhat less fondly loved game, but if it maintains at least some of the spirit this game has I know I’ll enjoy it, to some extent anyways.
This review contains spoilers
Time for a slightly more serious review of this chapter. This is the only chapter in Higurashi thus far where I’ve felt the need to write an actual review as this one specifically feels far more “complete” to me compared to the previous two. It has its own themes and messaging, things I failed to grasp in the previous chapters.
I believe this chapter is simply about the sheer powerlessness of humans. Not just individual people but entire communities and governments are completely powerless against certain problems, and the chapter goes about painting this idea by showing various crisis’ and what characters are able to do about them.
We first see this with Satoko’s abusive uncle, which is the crux of this chapter. We know that through the characters dialogue and reasoning that there is nothing they can do to help Satoko. They don’t have the authority or power to get her away from her uncle, and nothing anyone can think to do can provide a lasting solution. Keiichi resolves himself to kill Satoko’s uncle, but that does not save her. Regardless of whether Keiichi actually killed her uncle or not, which is something the chapter leaves ambiguous, Satoko’s abuse plainly continues. Despite supposedly getting rid of what caused the problem, it still manages to inflict pain on Satoko. So to put it simply, individuals have the “will” to solve the problem, but not the power. Then what about the government and other public institutions? They should have all the power in the world to solve a case like this. The problem is public institutions and the government might have the power but they don’t have the “will” until a problem is proven to exist without a reasonable doubt. With Satoko lying to public authorities and trying to hide the evidence of abuse, it is impossible for the government to gain the “will”. So despite having the power to help, without the “will” it is worthless. They are just as powerless as the individual under these conditions and completely unreliable.
We see another, much more extreme example with Hinamizawa’s destruction. This is very similar to Satoko’s abuse in that, even though there are signs of what is happening, both individual and government are too slow to act upon given warning signs and as a result a catastrophe occurs. It is noted that government action was particularly slow with them not detecting signs of a disaster on this scale until it was far too late. Should the government have been more vigilant and quicker, they would’ve been able to save a good portion of the village, if not more. But because of their lax nature they were unable to detect the problem or gain the “will”, and thus become powerless to prevent the destruction. It should also be noted that regardless of how fast they find out about the issue, the damage will still be done. A small amount of people will likely die and Hinamizawa will become inhospitable. No matter how fast the government response is, they can’t prevent all the damage.
This is again similar to the case with Satoko. With her being missing from school for three days and Rika refusing to tell what happened to her, there are already big warning signs. However because of assumption that everything is fine they discover the abuse too late. But let’s say they do discover the abuse day one and are immediately able to find everything out. How does this change things? Not by too much. Maybe they could’ve convinced Satoko to report her uncle, but the damage would still be done.
In both this case and the volcanic gas case, the “helpers” were too slow to realize problems were occurring and even if they realized it sooner irreparable damage would still be done. They are ultimately helpless and completely powerless, just like the people they’re attempting to help.
Don’t expect another review of this length or depth for any of the other chapters in Higurashi as ironically despite this chapter being the most difficult to figure out in terms of the mystery, it has been by far the easiest to understand thematically of the three chapters I’ve played.
I believe this chapter is simply about the sheer powerlessness of humans. Not just individual people but entire communities and governments are completely powerless against certain problems, and the chapter goes about painting this idea by showing various crisis’ and what characters are able to do about them.
We first see this with Satoko’s abusive uncle, which is the crux of this chapter. We know that through the characters dialogue and reasoning that there is nothing they can do to help Satoko. They don’t have the authority or power to get her away from her uncle, and nothing anyone can think to do can provide a lasting solution. Keiichi resolves himself to kill Satoko’s uncle, but that does not save her. Regardless of whether Keiichi actually killed her uncle or not, which is something the chapter leaves ambiguous, Satoko’s abuse plainly continues. Despite supposedly getting rid of what caused the problem, it still manages to inflict pain on Satoko. So to put it simply, individuals have the “will” to solve the problem, but not the power. Then what about the government and other public institutions? They should have all the power in the world to solve a case like this. The problem is public institutions and the government might have the power but they don’t have the “will” until a problem is proven to exist without a reasonable doubt. With Satoko lying to public authorities and trying to hide the evidence of abuse, it is impossible for the government to gain the “will”. So despite having the power to help, without the “will” it is worthless. They are just as powerless as the individual under these conditions and completely unreliable.
We see another, much more extreme example with Hinamizawa’s destruction. This is very similar to Satoko’s abuse in that, even though there are signs of what is happening, both individual and government are too slow to act upon given warning signs and as a result a catastrophe occurs. It is noted that government action was particularly slow with them not detecting signs of a disaster on this scale until it was far too late. Should the government have been more vigilant and quicker, they would’ve been able to save a good portion of the village, if not more. But because of their lax nature they were unable to detect the problem or gain the “will”, and thus become powerless to prevent the destruction. It should also be noted that regardless of how fast they find out about the issue, the damage will still be done. A small amount of people will likely die and Hinamizawa will become inhospitable. No matter how fast the government response is, they can’t prevent all the damage.
This is again similar to the case with Satoko. With her being missing from school for three days and Rika refusing to tell what happened to her, there are already big warning signs. However because of assumption that everything is fine they discover the abuse too late. But let’s say they do discover the abuse day one and are immediately able to find everything out. How does this change things? Not by too much. Maybe they could’ve convinced Satoko to report her uncle, but the damage would still be done.
In both this case and the volcanic gas case, the “helpers” were too slow to realize problems were occurring and even if they realized it sooner irreparable damage would still be done. They are ultimately helpless and completely powerless, just like the people they’re attempting to help.
Don’t expect another review of this length or depth for any of the other chapters in Higurashi as ironically despite this chapter being the most difficult to figure out in terms of the mystery, it has been by far the easiest to understand thematically of the three chapters I’ve played.
dude this game is so fucking fun
Flower, sun and rain it's amazing. being my first Suda game I started it with big expectations based on all the praises Grasshopper studio gets BUT at the same time not knowing at all what this game would deliver, and DAMN. It does deliver.
I think this is the weirdest game I gave 5 starts not because of the tone of the game itself, (even tho it is weird) but because the scope of it is pretty simple and narrow, but it's such a perfectly encapsulated experience, so unique that I couldn't give this one less.
The look of Lospass island pierces your eyes immediately, full of vibrant colors everywhere. Green, blue, red, yellow, pink, all distributed in these paradisiacal scenarios where you somehow feel that it should be buzzling with life, but it is not, it is completely empty, just the sound of the waves, wind and birds as you run. This made me feel like I was walking around in a weird fever dream, all seems unreal but at the same time it is as you would imagine a paradise. It makes all the walking worth it; I didn't get bored when running all sweaty around Lospass dreamy aesthetics at all. I love how Sumio's outfit doesn't match with the vibe at all, these contrasts make him stand out like in a good way.
I find funny that this game being the sequel to TSC, game which is all grim and obscure in its aesthetic, just twists this fact and goes all the way to a flashy paradise look, love it!
As I said before, it is a fever dream, and this doesn't stop just at the view, but it leaks into the people, every encounter is surreal, we limit ourselves when talking to strangers, we have lot of mental rules that ties together to a complex system that runs at every interaction. Here there is not, well, at least to everyone but Sumio. Honestly, I can't wrap my thoughts to describe the dialogue, but it's filled with this wittiness that makes it so engaging, sometimes ironic, sometimes poetic, sometimes ridiculous, sometimes hilarious.
I didn't play TSC nor 25th Ward so ik I'm missing a lot of context to enjoy the plot and world-building EVEN more but i like it just as it is, a mysterious plot that gives you little hints throughout the whole game to keep you engaged and then it just fucks your brain in the best way possible at the very end.
I'm not lying when I say that after beating this game, I've been listening to the OST nonstop throughout the weeks, they accomplished fleshing out the paradise Lospass essence greatly, mixing this classical/famous melodies and making it their own, like, you sometimes compare the original and they barely sound like the same song, because they use the main melody and build over them to give it their own personality, their own touch, music achieves to fusion with the ambience unscathed .
It reminds me of drakengard and how it does this for its own chaotical purpose.
GAMEPLAY...the gimmick is really fun, the idea of searching through the whole guidebook and how you become paranoid of every number you read and how to tie them to an answer is cool. some were oddly specific, and I broke my brain too much but the feeling after seeing 'HIT' is worthwhile.
AND
I'm so Sumio coded... fr 🚬...
I think this is the weirdest game I gave 5 starts not because of the tone of the game itself, (even tho it is weird) but because the scope of it is pretty simple and narrow, but it's such a perfectly encapsulated experience, so unique that I couldn't give this one less.
The look of Lospass island pierces your eyes immediately, full of vibrant colors everywhere. Green, blue, red, yellow, pink, all distributed in these paradisiacal scenarios where you somehow feel that it should be buzzling with life, but it is not, it is completely empty, just the sound of the waves, wind and birds as you run. This made me feel like I was walking around in a weird fever dream, all seems unreal but at the same time it is as you would imagine a paradise. It makes all the walking worth it; I didn't get bored when running all sweaty around Lospass dreamy aesthetics at all. I love how Sumio's outfit doesn't match with the vibe at all, these contrasts make him stand out like in a good way.
I find funny that this game being the sequel to TSC, game which is all grim and obscure in its aesthetic, just twists this fact and goes all the way to a flashy paradise look, love it!
As I said before, it is a fever dream, and this doesn't stop just at the view, but it leaks into the people, every encounter is surreal, we limit ourselves when talking to strangers, we have lot of mental rules that ties together to a complex system that runs at every interaction. Here there is not, well, at least to everyone but Sumio. Honestly, I can't wrap my thoughts to describe the dialogue, but it's filled with this wittiness that makes it so engaging, sometimes ironic, sometimes poetic, sometimes ridiculous, sometimes hilarious.
I didn't play TSC nor 25th Ward so ik I'm missing a lot of context to enjoy the plot and world-building EVEN more but i like it just as it is, a mysterious plot that gives you little hints throughout the whole game to keep you engaged and then it just fucks your brain in the best way possible at the very end.
I'm not lying when I say that after beating this game, I've been listening to the OST nonstop throughout the weeks, they accomplished fleshing out the paradise Lospass essence greatly, mixing this classical/famous melodies and making it their own, like, you sometimes compare the original and they barely sound like the same song, because they use the main melody and build over them to give it their own personality, their own touch, music achieves to fusion with the ambience unscathed .
It reminds me of drakengard and how it does this for its own chaotical purpose.
GAMEPLAY...the gimmick is really fun, the idea of searching through the whole guidebook and how you become paranoid of every number you read and how to tie them to an answer is cool. some were oddly specific, and I broke my brain too much but the feeling after seeing 'HIT' is worthwhile.
AND
I'm so Sumio coded... fr 🚬...
Yakuza 3
2009
SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME
When I first played the remastered version some months ago, I thought it was a pretty ok game and continued with my life. But for some reason, the game stuck in my mind for a long while, like it had something special in it that I couldn't wash off. Now, it allured me to play the original version this time.
After playing Yakuza 2 and comparing the two, you can feel how important this game was for the series. I have yet to play Kenzan, and I know it was the first step in introducing this saga to the more realistic approach using the PS3 engine. But from what I've seen from it, Kenzan walked so Y3 could run. This game reimagined the whole aesthetic. Kamurocho goes from this gritty, dark, kinda noir vibe that PS2 games had to a sharp, stylish, and more flashy design. The city is more dazzling than ever and adding that it was the one to introduce minigames (a whole lot of them) makes up for this "Sleepless Town" essence. Kamurocho is just a LOT of fun to be running around.
-- Narrative --
My main problem with the game is the overall writing of the criminal plot. Coming from Yakuza 2, which manages to maintain its mysteriousness, unwrapping little by little and keeping you engaged with meaningful events, this one was kind of a letdown. The premise is so interesting, but it could have been handled a lot better. All the enigma and threat that Joji represented as a character ends up disappearing since he's just... a good guy👍; They don't even try to give both Joji and Kiryu more time on screen, to at least poke at the wound of a living picture of the most important person in his life that passed away being there, someone that knew more of him, get that emotional side of Kiryu, no.
Also, the lack of Black Monday presence throughout the game and the way they don't really show or try to create a menacing aura around the organization makes you not really care that much about all that stuff at the end not gonna lie.
Anyway, I'm not going to expand much else into it. The ending, though... I really, really like it since it makes a certain parallel with the previous 2 games in terms of Kiryu's existential journey and makes it feel like the actual END of a trilogy. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Even if it's not intentional, when I realized this, I was kinda blown away.
Both in Yakuza 1 and 2, Kiryu's afterward moments after dealing with the "main" conflict of the plot, usually ending in tragedy, he gives up; We tend to see a very stubborn, angry Kiryu that makes his way through purely with this raw violence, not really thinking things twice and is given either a reason or another chance to live by someone else. In Yakuza 1, he loses all the most important bonds of his entire life, destroyed by the yakuza world, Reina, Shinji, Nishiki, Kazama, and Yumi. Staring silently at the void, prefers to get arrested for life since nothing is left for him out there, nothing worth living. Date reminds him of Haruka. Try living for the girl.
He decides to keep going.
In Yakuza 2, he doesn't even try to escape, in this case, Kaoru reminds him ... Haruka is waiting for you, but even so, he accepts that she will never be safe with him. After all, she has been kidnapped multiple times for his past and constant engagement with the Clan's activity, so he decides to just die, right there, while everything blows away. He knows Haruka will be safer with someone like Date by his side. Even so, Terada, the very person who betrayed him "gives" him another chance to live, one that he would not regret.
In Yakuza 3, you can feel all of this in Kiryu's character, the way he talks to people, to his children, he's full of hope and wisdom from a very rough life, and he's finally trying to live a real life, one away from the yakuza, and he tries to pour all of his knowledge, values and experiences into his kids to give them a better life, one that he never had.
The situations in Morning Glory are kinda silly, and a lot of times oddly specific; But every time, at the end of these little mundane problems, Kiryu's speeches hit you in the gut, because they are messages filled with such love and a kind of complexity that surprises you coming from him, a very flawed man. Every time Kiryu watches his kids do good, smiling, it warms my heart.
I didn't remember Rikiya's death scene being so well done, I honestly think it is one of the more memorable scenes RGG has done, even if his sacrifice is not that "well" staged. First time in the whole saga Kiryu completely breaks down as he cries and his voice cracks, yes he also cries when his father dies but, this time is so much stronger as if a channel of all his reprimed emotions hit him at that specific moment like a fucking train; I also think this moment is particularly sad since his death represents a direct consequence of his yakuza past getting up to him, he remembers he can't escape and all his loved ones can be taken away from him.
Mine acts as a "what Kiryu could have been." You could even say he's the personification of Nishiki, and he's standing in front of him, once again, but Kiryu is not the same. He has grown; now it's his time to give purpose to someone's life, and he does, resulting in what we see as Mine's ending. He thinks he's too far gone to keep living but decides to end it all with a pure reason not born from hatred.
This game has an odd connection to blood relationships and orphans. Kiryu is an orphan, Mine is an orphan, obviously, all his children are orphans. An orphan is a representation of a human being left stranded, deprived of the first connection to LOVE that a person CAN (not always) have, Mine is a representation of one possible outcome, resents others, resents relationships, and is distrustful since he was taken away of this so early in life. Kiryu on the other hand, recognizes this fact and builds bonds around him, he had the luck of always having caring people by his side. ODDLY SIMILAR TO GAARA AND NARUTO... wtf, crazy.
Kiryu is stabbed at the end; he falls on the ground as he bleeds, staring at the sky, with the possibility of just dying right there. And that's when he says, "Even in your final moments, you can still learn to believe in someone." I know this is directly related to Mine, but I think he's at peace because now he has something to live for, and he won't surrender like he has done when facing death. He smiles; he has a family waiting for him at Morning Glory. All is going to be okay.
When I first played the remastered version some months ago, I thought it was a pretty ok game and continued with my life. But for some reason, the game stuck in my mind for a long while, like it had something special in it that I couldn't wash off. Now, it allured me to play the original version this time.
After playing Yakuza 2 and comparing the two, you can feel how important this game was for the series. I have yet to play Kenzan, and I know it was the first step in introducing this saga to the more realistic approach using the PS3 engine. But from what I've seen from it, Kenzan walked so Y3 could run. This game reimagined the whole aesthetic. Kamurocho goes from this gritty, dark, kinda noir vibe that PS2 games had to a sharp, stylish, and more flashy design. The city is more dazzling than ever and adding that it was the one to introduce minigames (a whole lot of them) makes up for this "Sleepless Town" essence. Kamurocho is just a LOT of fun to be running around.
-- Narrative --
My main problem with the game is the overall writing of the criminal plot. Coming from Yakuza 2, which manages to maintain its mysteriousness, unwrapping little by little and keeping you engaged with meaningful events, this one was kind of a letdown. The premise is so interesting, but it could have been handled a lot better. All the enigma and threat that Joji represented as a character ends up disappearing since he's just... a good guy👍; They don't even try to give both Joji and Kiryu more time on screen, to at least poke at the wound of a living picture of the most important person in his life that passed away being there, someone that knew more of him, get that emotional side of Kiryu, no.
Also, the lack of Black Monday presence throughout the game and the way they don't really show or try to create a menacing aura around the organization makes you not really care that much about all that stuff at the end not gonna lie.
Anyway, I'm not going to expand much else into it. The ending, though... I really, really like it since it makes a certain parallel with the previous 2 games in terms of Kiryu's existential journey and makes it feel like the actual END of a trilogy. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Even if it's not intentional, when I realized this, I was kinda blown away.
Both in Yakuza 1 and 2, Kiryu's afterward moments after dealing with the "main" conflict of the plot, usually ending in tragedy, he gives up; We tend to see a very stubborn, angry Kiryu that makes his way through purely with this raw violence, not really thinking things twice and is given either a reason or another chance to live by someone else. In Yakuza 1, he loses all the most important bonds of his entire life, destroyed by the yakuza world, Reina, Shinji, Nishiki, Kazama, and Yumi. Staring silently at the void, prefers to get arrested for life since nothing is left for him out there, nothing worth living. Date reminds him of Haruka. Try living for the girl.
He decides to keep going.
In Yakuza 2, he doesn't even try to escape, in this case, Kaoru reminds him ... Haruka is waiting for you, but even so, he accepts that she will never be safe with him. After all, she has been kidnapped multiple times for his past and constant engagement with the Clan's activity, so he decides to just die, right there, while everything blows away. He knows Haruka will be safer with someone like Date by his side. Even so, Terada, the very person who betrayed him "gives" him another chance to live, one that he would not regret.
In Yakuza 3, you can feel all of this in Kiryu's character, the way he talks to people, to his children, he's full of hope and wisdom from a very rough life, and he's finally trying to live a real life, one away from the yakuza, and he tries to pour all of his knowledge, values and experiences into his kids to give them a better life, one that he never had.
The situations in Morning Glory are kinda silly, and a lot of times oddly specific; But every time, at the end of these little mundane problems, Kiryu's speeches hit you in the gut, because they are messages filled with such love and a kind of complexity that surprises you coming from him, a very flawed man. Every time Kiryu watches his kids do good, smiling, it warms my heart.
I didn't remember Rikiya's death scene being so well done, I honestly think it is one of the more memorable scenes RGG has done, even if his sacrifice is not that "well" staged. First time in the whole saga Kiryu completely breaks down as he cries and his voice cracks, yes he also cries when his father dies but, this time is so much stronger as if a channel of all his reprimed emotions hit him at that specific moment like a fucking train; I also think this moment is particularly sad since his death represents a direct consequence of his yakuza past getting up to him, he remembers he can't escape and all his loved ones can be taken away from him.
Mine acts as a "what Kiryu could have been." You could even say he's the personification of Nishiki, and he's standing in front of him, once again, but Kiryu is not the same. He has grown; now it's his time to give purpose to someone's life, and he does, resulting in what we see as Mine's ending. He thinks he's too far gone to keep living but decides to end it all with a pure reason not born from hatred.
This game has an odd connection to blood relationships and orphans. Kiryu is an orphan, Mine is an orphan, obviously, all his children are orphans. An orphan is a representation of a human being left stranded, deprived of the first connection to LOVE that a person CAN (not always) have, Mine is a representation of one possible outcome, resents others, resents relationships, and is distrustful since he was taken away of this so early in life. Kiryu on the other hand, recognizes this fact and builds bonds around him, he had the luck of always having caring people by his side. ODDLY SIMILAR TO GAARA AND NARUTO... wtf, crazy.
Kiryu is stabbed at the end; he falls on the ground as he bleeds, staring at the sky, with the possibility of just dying right there. And that's when he says, "Even in your final moments, you can still learn to believe in someone." I know this is directly related to Mine, but I think he's at peace because now he has something to live for, and he won't surrender like he has done when facing death. He smiles; he has a family waiting for him at Morning Glory. All is going to be okay.
The Silver Case
2016
This review contains spoilers
You need to get rid of any superfluous emotions. Totally nuke them.
Just look at what’s right in front of your eyes.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Stare down the enemy in front of you.
That’s how you investigate.
Don’t worry.
Any part of your brain starts worrying? Grill that shit up and eat it!
Am I wrong?
Maybe you are wrong Tetsu, maybe you’re not. But it’s not my call to decide that for you.
Firstly I want to thank @Oshha for recommending this to me. I hadn’t heard of Kill The Past or knew much about Suda51 beyond No More Heroes. Safe to say that I’m now totally all in on the rest of the series. It took me a few days of contemplation after finishing, but The Silver Case is a game that I can’t help but admire to a high level despite any low points it may have had.
In my first session I played lunatics and decoyman, which made a really good first impression. I thought if nothing else, style is going to carry. I love the use of windows constantly placed in different parts of the screen, for both text and images, always keeping things interesting to look at and sometimes catching me off guard. Accompanied by an awesome art style that shifts constantly throughout the game as the mood / perspective changes, so cool… (Although sometimes I was thrown off, because this change was so drastic that it would take me a while to realise that the person on the screen talking was actually someone I had already met!)
This comes hand in hand with music and sound design, it’s really damn good. I’m glad to see more of Takada’s work in context outside of Danganronpa. Obviously the catchy tunes are great, but what I admire more are how many variations of different tracks there are, to give off slightly different feelings, there’s nothing more uncomfortable than hearing a motif that you recognise, but for it to now be spun in a really eerie or dark way. Also not afraid to use silence when necessary! REALLY appreciate that, it made such an impact many times.
Yeah sometimes the gameplay was a bit ass/boring, but I never found it that awful to slog through. I was more bothered honestly by the false promise that this would partly be a puzzle game! As a puzzle fan, lunatics and decoyman had me really engaged with an additive caesar cipher and a game of Bulls and Cows. Not your typical simple puzzle thrown into a game just to make sure you’re paying attention, these require thought! After this nothing was to be seen again :( I like to think what could have been, but with how the pacing of the game changes so much maybe these would have been out of place later on, maybe this was intentional and actually highlight the subverting of expectations for what this game is truly about. Holy shit that’s totally it… you win again Suda.
Alright so the presentation is perfect, and the gameplay is whatever. What about the meat? Does this funky text based detective walking simulator actually have any substance over style? Checks my rating -of course it does. There’s really a lot to unpack and I don’t think I could ever do it close to the justice it deserves. I’ll just describe how certain things made me feel. (waffling incoming)
Tokio is very cool and it was interesting to hear the constantly ongoing thoughts of a paranoid as fuck loser (am i a bad person?). JK he’s actually a hero, we’re 100% with him knowledge wise throughout the whole game up until Enzawa gets killed and then they cut it off like what a cliffhanger?? Then he shows up in lifecut like “i've figured EVERYTHING out, check my email and you'll understand”, and then we DON'T see that email and when we return to Tokio in Hikari we are just NOT told anything that he went through?? FUCK YOU SUDA (<3), now i gotta sit here and piece things together myself by listening to the ghostly apparitions that are now communicating through him !!! HUH?
Parade was an insane turning point, that moment when the mansion blew up, the art of them staring at it? Burning it into their eyes? Mfer that image is burnt into MY eyes, if I ever forget what’s going on in this game, I'll always remember that for sure. It wasn’t until the end of Tsuki that I really appreciated how well executed Parade was, when you started to see the full picture, learn the facts in a different order, it hits different. Which kind of applies for the whole game, this definitely warrants a replay in the future.
I truly love it when you can tell a character has been well developed and thought about outside of what is solely shown to you in the game, and that is here in spades. You can feel that these characters go through some life changing shit off screen, it comes through in the writing which is really damn good OBVIOUSLY. Ugh I can only praise something so much before it starts to become cumbersome. My point being is it’s clear that certain events were very well planned out in detail, only to not be shown to you, so you are left to make a “guesses” at what happened. It’s just executed extremely well and creates this sense of stringing you along and leaving you to think things for yourself.
Kusabi is probably the best character, let's be real, he’s everything you could ever want in an asshole boomer detective. Loves his daughter? ✓ Calls you big dick? ✓ Hates crime from the bottom of his soul, yet still let’s supports his beloved colleague in killing his past? ✓ The way he told me “don’t trust the ‘truth’, search for the ‘facts’”, and then proceeded to tell me 3 different versions of the silver case that completely contradict each other reallyfucked me off hit me in the heart.
Jokes / mindfuckery aside, it was super interesting, again with Nakategawa saying the whole CCO/FSO/… alliance bullshit oh that’s not actually a real thing, it’s actually all one big body. By this point I just had absolutely no idea what to trust anymore, but I think it didn’t matter. The main point stood the same, everyone was a pawn for someone else, and unless you cut it from the source (kill nezu?), the virus of crime (Kamui) will continue to circulate in the minds of individuals, or something?? There’s so much left to interpretation here and that’s what makes it so wonderful.
In that same vein, there are a lot of other messages being said here, the most prominent obviously regarding “killing your past” or embracing it. But these were presented in many different situations and contexts so as to undermine themselves, coming to the conclusion that these things aren’t so black and white, and the right thing to do can change depending on the person. I guess what I’m saying is, it opens up room for discussion with a lot of its themes, rather than trying to deliver a single message to you.
That’s about all the energy I have. I assume only people who actually played the game will read this whole thing so thanks and I hope you enjoyed me whack my brain with a potato masher thinking about The Silver Case.
Btw this goes hard, no?
Just look at what’s right in front of your eyes.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Stare down the enemy in front of you.
That’s how you investigate.
Don’t worry.
Any part of your brain starts worrying? Grill that shit up and eat it!
Am I wrong?
Maybe you are wrong Tetsu, maybe you’re not. But it’s not my call to decide that for you.
Firstly I want to thank @Oshha for recommending this to me. I hadn’t heard of Kill The Past or knew much about Suda51 beyond No More Heroes. Safe to say that I’m now totally all in on the rest of the series. It took me a few days of contemplation after finishing, but The Silver Case is a game that I can’t help but admire to a high level despite any low points it may have had.
In my first session I played lunatics and decoyman, which made a really good first impression. I thought if nothing else, style is going to carry. I love the use of windows constantly placed in different parts of the screen, for both text and images, always keeping things interesting to look at and sometimes catching me off guard. Accompanied by an awesome art style that shifts constantly throughout the game as the mood / perspective changes, so cool… (Although sometimes I was thrown off, because this change was so drastic that it would take me a while to realise that the person on the screen talking was actually someone I had already met!)
This comes hand in hand with music and sound design, it’s really damn good. I’m glad to see more of Takada’s work in context outside of Danganronpa. Obviously the catchy tunes are great, but what I admire more are how many variations of different tracks there are, to give off slightly different feelings, there’s nothing more uncomfortable than hearing a motif that you recognise, but for it to now be spun in a really eerie or dark way. Also not afraid to use silence when necessary! REALLY appreciate that, it made such an impact many times.
Yeah sometimes the gameplay was a bit ass/boring, but I never found it that awful to slog through. I was more bothered honestly by the false promise that this would partly be a puzzle game! As a puzzle fan, lunatics and decoyman had me really engaged with an additive caesar cipher and a game of Bulls and Cows. Not your typical simple puzzle thrown into a game just to make sure you’re paying attention, these require thought! After this nothing was to be seen again :( I like to think what could have been, but with how the pacing of the game changes so much maybe these would have been out of place later on, maybe this was intentional and actually highlight the subverting of expectations for what this game is truly about. Holy shit that’s totally it… you win again Suda.
Alright so the presentation is perfect, and the gameplay is whatever. What about the meat? Does this funky text based detective walking simulator actually have any substance over style? Checks my rating -of course it does. There’s really a lot to unpack and I don’t think I could ever do it close to the justice it deserves. I’ll just describe how certain things made me feel. (waffling incoming)
Tokio is very cool and it was interesting to hear the constantly ongoing thoughts of a paranoid as fuck loser (am i a bad person?). JK he’s actually a hero, we’re 100% with him knowledge wise throughout the whole game up until Enzawa gets killed and then they cut it off like what a cliffhanger?? Then he shows up in lifecut like “i've figured EVERYTHING out, check my email and you'll understand”, and then we DON'T see that email and when we return to Tokio in Hikari we are just NOT told anything that he went through?? FUCK YOU SUDA (<3), now i gotta sit here and piece things together myself by listening to the ghostly apparitions that are now communicating through him !!! HUH?
Parade was an insane turning point, that moment when the mansion blew up, the art of them staring at it? Burning it into their eyes? Mfer that image is burnt into MY eyes, if I ever forget what’s going on in this game, I'll always remember that for sure. It wasn’t until the end of Tsuki that I really appreciated how well executed Parade was, when you started to see the full picture, learn the facts in a different order, it hits different. Which kind of applies for the whole game, this definitely warrants a replay in the future.
I truly love it when you can tell a character has been well developed and thought about outside of what is solely shown to you in the game, and that is here in spades. You can feel that these characters go through some life changing shit off screen, it comes through in the writing which is really damn good OBVIOUSLY. Ugh I can only praise something so much before it starts to become cumbersome. My point being is it’s clear that certain events were very well planned out in detail, only to not be shown to you, so you are left to make a “guesses” at what happened. It’s just executed extremely well and creates this sense of stringing you along and leaving you to think things for yourself.
Kusabi is probably the best character, let's be real, he’s everything you could ever want in an asshole boomer detective. Loves his daughter? ✓ Calls you big dick? ✓ Hates crime from the bottom of his soul, yet still let’s supports his beloved colleague in killing his past? ✓ The way he told me “don’t trust the ‘truth’, search for the ‘facts’”, and then proceeded to tell me 3 different versions of the silver case that completely contradict each other really
Jokes / mindfuckery aside, it was super interesting, again with Nakategawa saying the whole CCO/FSO/… alliance bullshit oh that’s not actually a real thing, it’s actually all one big body. By this point I just had absolutely no idea what to trust anymore, but I think it didn’t matter. The main point stood the same, everyone was a pawn for someone else, and unless you cut it from the source (kill nezu?), the virus of crime (Kamui) will continue to circulate in the minds of individuals, or something?? There’s so much left to interpretation here and that’s what makes it so wonderful.
In that same vein, there are a lot of other messages being said here, the most prominent obviously regarding “killing your past” or embracing it. But these were presented in many different situations and contexts so as to undermine themselves, coming to the conclusion that these things aren’t so black and white, and the right thing to do can change depending on the person. I guess what I’m saying is, it opens up room for discussion with a lot of its themes, rather than trying to deliver a single message to you.
That’s about all the energy I have. I assume only people who actually played the game will read this whole thing so thanks and I hope you enjoyed me whack my brain with a potato masher thinking about The Silver Case.
Btw this goes hard, no?
I was supposed to buy this for a friend as a shitty joke but somehow it ended up in my library instead. Karma i guess...
Ridge Racer Type 4
1998
The amount of praises I've seen people sing about this game had led me to believe that I was being played a fool, and a bunch of video game intellectuals™ with writing capabilities far better than mine had gotten around on a round table and decided "Hm yes this is the new niche PlayStation 1 video game we will be gassing up on Backloggd dot com this week."
After playing it through myself, yeah it's pretty good. I still don't get most of the praise but not like it should really matter. People like what they like and I like this game. I'm sorry Josh_The_Fourth.
After playing it through myself, yeah it's pretty good. I still don't get most of the praise but not like it should really matter. People like what they like and I like this game. I'm sorry Josh_The_Fourth.
Devil May Cry
2012
This review contains spoilers
Well that was just pretty rad.
I can only imagine what it must have felt like being a young adult back when this game was released in the early PS2 days. Gothic goodness and awesome action aplenty, the perfect setting and ambience for a game structured like this. DMC wastes no time in throwing you straight into exactly what you came for.
The opening cutscene left a huge impression on me throughout my whole playthrough, Dante and Trish instantly became icons of “cool”, cheese and all. Their exchange had me pretty hyped for what was to come outside of the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, we never really got close to that level throughout the rest of the game, even when faced against bosses, Dante didn’t really ever have too much to say and I was left a bit unfulfilled generally throughout, only because that intro set such a high bar.
It wasn’t until the end game where shit started to get a little bonkers again and really kind of reached that level again. Ahh yes, a final boss with great spectacle, return of cheesy dialogue, an unexpectedly interrupted metroid escape sequence, and for some reason, an ending with a plane that made me very reminiscent of Sonic… Quite the joyride of a finale I must say.
However, it’s not like this lack of what I wanted left a completely empty void, a compromise was certainly made. An island setting is a great way to give things a sense of eeriness, that things aren’t quite right, and the ambience made by the visuals and music accentuate this. It’s not scary per se, I mean in any normal circumstance it should be, but we’ve been put in the shoes of the legendary devil hunter, so when the devils come out to play, the rock kicks in and the tone shifts completely to let us know that we’re the ones in control. Dante came here to carry out his business and the devils eventually learn their place after an ass kicking or 3.
The whole map that encapsulates these fights makes for some rather neat level design as well. It’s maybe not quite to its full potential, but the rooms are pretty interconnected; you’ll often revisit the same areas but in a different order, with a different weapon, with different enemies waiting for you. It’s probably one of this game's biggest strengths that kept me compelled to play.
I will say though that the actual objectives of the missions, the main thing carrying me between each area, did not feel very compelling; take the ancient doohickey, infuse it with the sacred treasure, insert it into the magic thingamajig and you’ll be on your way. I promise it has actual significant meaning, kinda makes things feel a bit underwhelming.
OKAY I GUESS IT DOESN’T MATTER COS THE GAMEPLAY CARRIES ANYWAY. HELL YEA KILLING THINGS IS FUN AS FUCK IN THIS GAME. Whenever I play an action game I always ask myself why am I not playing more of them. This is a basic fundamentality of video games: providing an exciting challenge, learning more as you play, and triumphing over what had absolutely destroyed you a couple attempts ago. Combat is simple on the surface, but moderately deep and challenging once things get moving. As indicated in the file section of the game, enemies have their strengths and weaknesses. I only played on normal mode, and I could pretty much use what I wanted for the most part, only having to check info / swap gear on a few enemies and bosses, although I imagine when you raise the difficulty you’ll have to make use of most of the information given to you. The bosses are also pretty AWESOME like that fucker griffon damn I found his last fight pretty tough. And the item and upgrades system is really fun! I’m kinda rambling here. Let's just move on by saying all in all the gameplay is <very good>!! and, as long as you are willing to engage with it, will stand the test of time.
Wait, that's basically everything I had to say.
Overall I would say DMC1 does feel a tad primitive and maybe is not the best game, or complete experience, but it certainly understands the essence of what a DMC game wants to be, and for that it was more than worth playing.
I can only imagine what it must have felt like being a young adult back when this game was released in the early PS2 days. Gothic goodness and awesome action aplenty, the perfect setting and ambience for a game structured like this. DMC wastes no time in throwing you straight into exactly what you came for.
The opening cutscene left a huge impression on me throughout my whole playthrough, Dante and Trish instantly became icons of “cool”, cheese and all. Their exchange had me pretty hyped for what was to come outside of the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, we never really got close to that level throughout the rest of the game, even when faced against bosses, Dante didn’t really ever have too much to say and I was left a bit unfulfilled generally throughout, only because that intro set such a high bar.
It wasn’t until the end game where shit started to get a little bonkers again and really kind of reached that level again. Ahh yes, a final boss with great spectacle, return of cheesy dialogue, an unexpectedly interrupted metroid escape sequence, and for some reason, an ending with a plane that made me very reminiscent of Sonic… Quite the joyride of a finale I must say.
However, it’s not like this lack of what I wanted left a completely empty void, a compromise was certainly made. An island setting is a great way to give things a sense of eeriness, that things aren’t quite right, and the ambience made by the visuals and music accentuate this. It’s not scary per se, I mean in any normal circumstance it should be, but we’ve been put in the shoes of the legendary devil hunter, so when the devils come out to play, the rock kicks in and the tone shifts completely to let us know that we’re the ones in control. Dante came here to carry out his business and the devils eventually learn their place after an ass kicking or 3.
The whole map that encapsulates these fights makes for some rather neat level design as well. It’s maybe not quite to its full potential, but the rooms are pretty interconnected; you’ll often revisit the same areas but in a different order, with a different weapon, with different enemies waiting for you. It’s probably one of this game's biggest strengths that kept me compelled to play.
I will say though that the actual objectives of the missions, the main thing carrying me between each area, did not feel very compelling; take the ancient doohickey, infuse it with the sacred treasure, insert it into the magic thingamajig and you’ll be on your way. I promise it has actual significant meaning, kinda makes things feel a bit underwhelming.
OKAY I GUESS IT DOESN’T MATTER COS THE GAMEPLAY CARRIES ANYWAY. HELL YEA KILLING THINGS IS FUN AS FUCK IN THIS GAME. Whenever I play an action game I always ask myself why am I not playing more of them. This is a basic fundamentality of video games: providing an exciting challenge, learning more as you play, and triumphing over what had absolutely destroyed you a couple attempts ago. Combat is simple on the surface, but moderately deep and challenging once things get moving. As indicated in the file section of the game, enemies have their strengths and weaknesses. I only played on normal mode, and I could pretty much use what I wanted for the most part, only having to check info / swap gear on a few enemies and bosses, although I imagine when you raise the difficulty you’ll have to make use of most of the information given to you. The bosses are also pretty AWESOME like that fucker griffon damn I found his last fight pretty tough. And the item and upgrades system is really fun! I’m kinda rambling here. Let's just move on by saying all in all the gameplay is <very good>!! and, as long as you are willing to engage with it, will stand the test of time.
Wait, that's basically everything I had to say.
Overall I would say DMC1 does feel a tad primitive and maybe is not the best game, or complete experience, but it certainly understands the essence of what a DMC game wants to be, and for that it was more than worth playing.
Devil May Cry 2
2012
LMAO alright im ripping into this game.
90% of the enemies are BRAINDEAD. Some of my favourites include:
- The white wolves that have NO walking animation, the only thing they can do is jump attack, blindly jumping in every direction except for where you are, sometimes they will sit there and do nothing.
- The infested tank that can’t do anything unless you are a certain distance away from it.
- The bat swarms that die to ONE BULLET (big shoutout to the one slow elevator that’s about 30 seconds long, and has a swarm of bats to keep you busy while it’s moving, but the bats will die in 10, so you just sit there).
^ This is not limited to just enemies but half of the bosses are cheesed by either being a certain distance far or a certain distance close. The infested chopper was kind of cool with all the parkouring across buildings, but it still felt aimless and went on for SOOOO long
There is often no indication of what is happening or where to go, and I often just stumbled into an obscure section that put me into a cutscene.
Auto locking onto enemies makes everything you can think of 10x more awkward than it should be, at least add an option to be able to switch it? (just looked it up, apparently you can with an obnoxious input combination of RB + LS, you’re better off just dealing with the awkwardness).
A dynamic moving camera is a cool idea in theory but why does it so often throw itself into the ground it’s like lakitu on shrooms.
No extra weapon movesets/ upgrades?? The upgrades just increase damage i guess - BORING. Less guns as well.
Story is bad and meaningless.
Dante is nothing
Lucia is nothing
Enemy variety is not nearly as interesting. File system is not as in depth.
POSITIVES COMPARED TO DMC1:
Cool sick moves like flips and wallrunning
Devil trigger guns are funny as hell brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
More environments? But theyre shit
More cutscenes? But theyre shit
More boss variety? But the bosses are shit
Played it on vc with friends which made it very fun !
90% of the enemies are BRAINDEAD. Some of my favourites include:
- The white wolves that have NO walking animation, the only thing they can do is jump attack, blindly jumping in every direction except for where you are, sometimes they will sit there and do nothing.
- The infested tank that can’t do anything unless you are a certain distance away from it.
- The bat swarms that die to ONE BULLET (big shoutout to the one slow elevator that’s about 30 seconds long, and has a swarm of bats to keep you busy while it’s moving, but the bats will die in 10, so you just sit there).
^ This is not limited to just enemies but half of the bosses are cheesed by either being a certain distance far or a certain distance close. The infested chopper was kind of cool with all the parkouring across buildings, but it still felt aimless and went on for SOOOO long
There is often no indication of what is happening or where to go, and I often just stumbled into an obscure section that put me into a cutscene.
Auto locking onto enemies makes everything you can think of 10x more awkward than it should be, at least add an option to be able to switch it? (just looked it up, apparently you can with an obnoxious input combination of RB + LS, you’re better off just dealing with the awkwardness).
A dynamic moving camera is a cool idea in theory but why does it so often throw itself into the ground it’s like lakitu on shrooms.
No extra weapon movesets/ upgrades?? The upgrades just increase damage i guess - BORING. Less guns as well.
Story is bad and meaningless.
Dante is nothing
Lucia is nothing
Enemy variety is not nearly as interesting. File system is not as in depth.
POSITIVES COMPARED TO DMC1:
Cool sick moves like flips and wallrunning
Devil trigger guns are funny as hell brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
More environments? But theyre shit
More cutscenes? But theyre shit
More boss variety? But the bosses are shit
Played it on vc with friends which made it very fun !
Clannad
2004
I think a term commonly associated with romance/sol animanga and games is “wish fulfillment.” Now, from my experience, it's a term usually met with some level of disdain or condescension. “Wow what a loser, they need this thing to feel good about themselves.” And, sure, I can understand where that attitude comes from, in fact I'm like that sometimes too. But I feel it's not that simple. People come from different backgrounds, places, and circumstances. Sometimes what we need is comfort from something, even if it isn't real.
Clannad, among many, many other beloved visual novels is boiled down to the common “your friends and family are important, your life is worth living” morals, but is it a bad thing to be so commonly communicated? I would assume that Maeda and the many other writers at Key are trying to convey this, and even if they were or not, intention does not always align with found purpose. Tomoya Okazaki, our protagonist, is a great stand in for players like me to some degree. He's still his own character, but I think him being a loner to align with the usual “wish fulfillment” protagonist role really works to its benefit. No matter your background or role, there is worth in finding friends and family, whether it be genetic or found. It finally gives us purpose to those who feel so aimless in life. Clannad is not simply “wish fulfillment” at play. It's inspiring us to fulfill those wishes ourselves, and fulfill the wishes of others.
I’ve seen complaints about Clannad’s core structure before, as for some people the routes are “not interconnected enough”. But is that a problem? In my opinion, anyway, Clannad is an anthology of the multiple “what if” scenarios surrounding Okazaki’s journey in life. While Nagisa’s route is what leads to the true ending of the story, it doesn’t make the other routes pointless. Regardless of what is the “true” outcome of the story, your experiences and how you see these characters develop will always live on with the player. You get to see Okazaki give these people true happiness in life, and by the true ending, he is repaid for everything he’s done. While in gameplay the route system is a little rough around the edges with much needed polish, I think playing with a guide allows for a very smooth experience.
Playing this after my most prior Key visual novel experience, that being AIR, really opened my eyes to how well thought out and executed much of Clannad is. While AIR suffers from an overly ambitious but ultimately meaningless structure, Clannad takes a safer approach and cuts out any filler. Jun Maeda and his team really wanted to make up for the mistakes of AIR, and you can really tell from how much more polish is applied to this game. Despite this being one of the longest games I’ve ever played, Clannad rarely falls victim to artificial padding. The game gives you and makes proper use of the “skip already read text” feature, which makes hopping into your next route a very quick and easy experience. It helps that the game is split into 10+ routes that all vary in length, meaning I don’t think the game can ever burn you out from a scenario. Each route (with two exceptions, one being entirely optional) is very different overall so nothing is samey either. I’d also like to make note of the amount of content on offer, Clannad is not only long from the main game but has TONS of little secrets and extra blurbs of dialogue to discover, it really feels like the team wanted to put as much as they could onto the disc.
And that’s the overall thing I love about Clannad: it’s very polished. Not perfect, but very damn close. Clannad may seem safe or tropey, but it uses those aspects and pushes them to a wonderful and engaging extent. The current top review tries to make fun of fans of this game and I’d have to say that this person probably has never experienced joy in their life. None of the huge visual novels I’ve played so far have been flops, and Clannad is no exception either. In fact, out of the three (Higurashi, Tsukihime, Clannad) I would say this is my new favorite, and knowing that Key still has some fantastic games in their catalog for me to still try out (Kanon, Little Busters!, and Rewrite) has me so immensely excited. But none of those games, or any visual novels in the future will take away what a special experience Clannad was for me. I had taken a long break from reviews and I needed to get out of that slump, and this game was what inspired me to write a little something again, especially seeing how none of the longer reviews about this game on this site are in good faith. I wanted to fix that. Thank you for reading, and if this review manages to get even one person to fully play through this game, I’ll be happy.
Clannad, among many, many other beloved visual novels is boiled down to the common “your friends and family are important, your life is worth living” morals, but is it a bad thing to be so commonly communicated? I would assume that Maeda and the many other writers at Key are trying to convey this, and even if they were or not, intention does not always align with found purpose. Tomoya Okazaki, our protagonist, is a great stand in for players like me to some degree. He's still his own character, but I think him being a loner to align with the usual “wish fulfillment” protagonist role really works to its benefit. No matter your background or role, there is worth in finding friends and family, whether it be genetic or found. It finally gives us purpose to those who feel so aimless in life. Clannad is not simply “wish fulfillment” at play. It's inspiring us to fulfill those wishes ourselves, and fulfill the wishes of others.
I’ve seen complaints about Clannad’s core structure before, as for some people the routes are “not interconnected enough”. But is that a problem? In my opinion, anyway, Clannad is an anthology of the multiple “what if” scenarios surrounding Okazaki’s journey in life. While Nagisa’s route is what leads to the true ending of the story, it doesn’t make the other routes pointless. Regardless of what is the “true” outcome of the story, your experiences and how you see these characters develop will always live on with the player. You get to see Okazaki give these people true happiness in life, and by the true ending, he is repaid for everything he’s done. While in gameplay the route system is a little rough around the edges with much needed polish, I think playing with a guide allows for a very smooth experience.
Playing this after my most prior Key visual novel experience, that being AIR, really opened my eyes to how well thought out and executed much of Clannad is. While AIR suffers from an overly ambitious but ultimately meaningless structure, Clannad takes a safer approach and cuts out any filler. Jun Maeda and his team really wanted to make up for the mistakes of AIR, and you can really tell from how much more polish is applied to this game. Despite this being one of the longest games I’ve ever played, Clannad rarely falls victim to artificial padding. The game gives you and makes proper use of the “skip already read text” feature, which makes hopping into your next route a very quick and easy experience. It helps that the game is split into 10+ routes that all vary in length, meaning I don’t think the game can ever burn you out from a scenario. Each route (with two exceptions, one being entirely optional) is very different overall so nothing is samey either. I’d also like to make note of the amount of content on offer, Clannad is not only long from the main game but has TONS of little secrets and extra blurbs of dialogue to discover, it really feels like the team wanted to put as much as they could onto the disc.
And that’s the overall thing I love about Clannad: it’s very polished. Not perfect, but very damn close. Clannad may seem safe or tropey, but it uses those aspects and pushes them to a wonderful and engaging extent. The current top review tries to make fun of fans of this game and I’d have to say that this person probably has never experienced joy in their life. None of the huge visual novels I’ve played so far have been flops, and Clannad is no exception either. In fact, out of the three (Higurashi, Tsukihime, Clannad) I would say this is my new favorite, and knowing that Key still has some fantastic games in their catalog for me to still try out (Kanon, Little Busters!, and Rewrite) has me so immensely excited. But none of those games, or any visual novels in the future will take away what a special experience Clannad was for me. I had taken a long break from reviews and I needed to get out of that slump, and this game was what inspired me to write a little something again, especially seeing how none of the longer reviews about this game on this site are in good faith. I wanted to fix that. Thank you for reading, and if this review manages to get even one person to fully play through this game, I’ll be happy.
Yakuza 3 Remastered
2018
It's an amazing title with a interesting story and big repercussions for the rest of the franchise, just, dodge enemy attacks and then punish the enemies, you'll thank me
Pokémon Red Version
1996
The most "pure" Pokemon experience. Somewhat inspiring that the highest grossing media franchise in history's thesis is essentially "wouldn't it kick ass if you had a giant fire dragon?"
"And on the third day, god made the kaito files"
The book of genesis
The book of genesis