Finally, an aesthetic that panders to ME.

I am going to be real with you. Rabi-Ribi is honestly the most fun I have had in metroidvania, bar none. Yes, that includes Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. I’m not quite sure what it is about it, but it’s just so much fun.

The game’s main objective consists of recruiting cute girls to help you power a magic device in your town. To this end, you explore the big wide world of Rabi-Ribi Island to find (and fight) these characters. And holy FUCK was it fun. From the moment the prologue ends, the game’s world completely opens up. While the game points you in the direction of a few girls at a time, you can practically get most of them in any order. It was great, wandering around to see what new areas I could find and searching every nook and cranny for upgrades and items. Getting stronger and seeing my moveset and attacks slowly expand was so satisfying as well.

The game’s got a pretty cute art style and a nice and happy atmosphere and the music is real nice, but my favorite part of the game were the bosses. I was a bit skeptical at first when I heard that the game had heavy bullet hell elements, but I quickly realized I had nothing to worry about. The bosses felt like a combination of Mega Man Zero/Gunvolt fights and Touhou or CAVE patterns, all four of which I am quite fond of. Learning and dodging the patterns and using your various skills to pump as much damage as you can on the boss was fun as fuck.

I don’t know what I expected with this game, but it definitely far exceeded anything I could have had in mind. I still have 100% completion to finish up, and lots of optional superbosses to fight, and this will be the first metroidvania where I actually feel compelled to do everything in it. Besides all the achievements, theres like, over 200 of those. I love the game, but I don’t love it THAT much.

Look at all these game journalist-tier reviews. Looks like a lot of people got absolutely fucking filtered.

But at any rate, this game is just great. The controls are tight, the platforming is fun, the combat is satisfying, and bosses are especially cool. The game looks and sounds wonderful too. I liked fucking around with all the special techniques and powerups the game gave you too, with my favorites being the shadow dash and sky attack. Parrying came in handy many times too. I appreciate all the effort that went into the presentation of the story, even if I wasn't very engaged with it.

This game is definitely pretty hard (especially after you get your final big powerup), but thankfully it was mostly the "fun" kind of hard instead of the "bullshit" kind. Checkpoints are placed well; there aren't too many to the point where the game is trivialized, and there aren't too little to the point where it gets frustrating. There's also these upgrades you can buy at checkpoints (with currency that drops throughout levels) that allow them to restore your SP entirely or even drop a gadget. They're definitely never necessary, and I never felt the need to grind for coins, seeing as I finished the game with over a 1000 coins. But sometimes they do help a lot.

As I said, this is a great game. Sure, it's nothing crazy ground-breaking, but who gives a shit? It's fun as hell, and that's all I was looking for. And it's impressive anyway, seeing how this game was mostly made by like, one person.

Damn, I had to add this game to IGDB myself. So yeah, to the two other Backloggd users in the universe that have played this game, you're welcome.

VERY cool game to try out, ESPECIALLY if you enjoyed Hellsinker, as this game was made by the same developer before it. As it turns out, there are a ton of stuff in this game that carried over to Hellsinker. Atypical weapons, enemy types and attacks, SOL/LUNA/STELLA, branching level paths, and even some of the music, among other things.

But holy goddamn, don't expect to beat this shit anytime soon. Tonnyori must've been out of his fucking mind back then because it's ten times harder than Hellsinker ever was. You've got a 2x2 hitbox and a rechargeable shield, and you better utilize that and every other tool available to you because the game will NOT relent. The game bends you over and prepares the punishment as early as Stage 1, jesus christ. But it's so much fucking fun, even if I can't actually beat the game. I was able to get past the first phase of the final boss on one credit though, and I'm really proud of that.

EDIT: For anyone else having difficulty running the game, make sure to switch your computer's locale to JP (or use the Locale emulator) before you run the game, and download the d3drm.dll file and put it in the same directory as the .exe.

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is a pretty good SRPG, even if it's rocking a budget of about $30 of Costco store credit.

The story was good in my opinion. The concept is incredibly cool, but the execution could have been stronger, especially when compared to that of Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2. The game follows Wyl's quest for revenge against the Valkyrie, who he blames for the death of his father and subsequent destruction of his family. His journey for vengeance (aided by the Goddess of Niflheim, Hel) is set against the backdrop of political turmoil and a brewing major war in the world of Midgard, which to me was reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics, and I'm a big fan of FFT. Speaking of FFT, the dialogue also incorporated more of a "ye olde English" style, which was cool.

Wylfred also carries the Destiny Plume, an extremely important item gifted to him by Hel, which allows him to sacrifice his allies. In addition to its effects in gameplay, it also has a large impact on the plot and Wyl's fate. I thought this was pretty damn cool. Unfortunately, similar to FFT (and VP1, for that matter), the possibility of losing allies permanently severely limits any possible story relevance, development, and even dialogue they can have. At the very least, Wyl himself appreciably develops and grows throughout the game, affected by how many times you invoke the Destiny Plume. If you use it enough, Wyl's voice lines in battle even change and become a lot more savage. You'll have to play through the game three times to experience the entire story, but playthroughs are short (I got all three endings in 25 hours), and each path is very different from each (both in allies and story content), so it's a painless process.

The combat, on the other hand, was surprisingly a lot of fun. It's pretty much what you'd expect if you crossed Valkyrie Profile and Disgaea's gameplay systems. It's mostly standard SRPG gameplay; ally and enemy teams take turns moving about a grid, attacking, using items and moves, etc. It gets pretty unique when you actually engage an enemy, as nearby allies can also attack and combo enemies, à la Valkyrie Profile. You can juggle enemies for crystals, knock them down for combo extending gems, and charge the Soul Crush gauge, etc. Positioning matters to an extent as well, as certain formations result in "sieges" that will boost your attack and provide other benefits.

As per your contract will Hel, you also have a Sin gauge to fill up during battles. The more you overkill enemies, the more Sin you gain after defeating an enemy. If you meet the target Sin that Hel wants, you get rewards, and the quality of the rewards increase if you go way over her goal. If you fail to meet the goal, she'll send extremely tough Realmstalkers into your next battle. In addition, you also have access to the Destiny Plume. Using the Plume allows you to sacrifice an ally, which greatly boosting their parameters for the duration of that battle and activates a game changing tactic (ranging from paralyzing every enemy to making yourself immune to physical damage). Wyl will permanently gain access to a slightly weaker version of the tactic, too. Of course, that ally will permanently die after the battle, and you'll incur other story penalties the more you use it. I never really got tired of the combat throughout the entire game, even after two NG+ playthroughs and the Seraphic Gate, so it's great in my book.

CotP features a fairly good OST too. It consists of about 50% all new tracks, and 50% remixes of music from Valkyrie Profile 1, all by Motoi Sakuraba. The music is all well and good, but it suffers a bit thanks to the DS' weak soundchip. There's nothing that'll make you want to turn the volume down, though. I'd recommend listening to Sakuraba's CotP arrange album after playing the game, too. There were some real bangers in there.

All things considered, Covenant of the Plume is a great game. While it's definitely not as good as VP1 or 2, it's absolutely worth playing if you're a fan of the series. Can't wait for Valkyrie Profile 3: Hrist to come out though :)

In every single way, shape, and form, this game is amazing. Ten years in development to create a genuine masterpiece.

Do NOT read further unless you've beaten ZeroRanger yourself.

As a shoot 'em up, it's got every core value you could ask for: it's satisfying, and almost addicting to shoot down enemies in various situations, whilst trying to keep that multiplier up for an ever increasing score. Different ships and weapon choices allow for a lot of customization. Stages never overstay their welcome, keeping you engaged all throughout, mixing it up often. Bosses are fast-paced fights with varied patterns as well.

Like any good shmup, ZeroRanger has a phenomenal OST too. There isn't a single song in the entire OST that I didn't like. Was it Greenish?, The Sea has Returned, Despair, Bossay, 4th Gear, Final B'ex, Sky XXX Days, Despair, Unstopping, and Descent At Last are among my favorites. And the game looks great too. Who knew a game composed solely of various shades of green and orange could look so good.

But it doesn't end there.

Once you get the sword/drill power-up, the game releases its COOL limiters, and it just gets progressively more and more insane from there, culminating in a face-off against a computer that sends you across the fucking space-time continuum for the remixed 2nd loop. Every boss reveal, every remixed track, and every new music track just gets crazier and crazier. All culminating in the Radiant Silvergun-esque finale, with the orgasmic Sacred Defender playing, and the fate of the world (and your entire fucking save file) on the line. And believe me. It's a lot of pressure. But this whole game is a once in a lifetime experience. Even though I lost my save file THREE TIMES on the path to enlightenment, it felt amazing. Playing through the entire game every time, building up continues, just to give the TLB another try, I've never felt anything like it.

And then on my fourth try, I finally did it. And what did I get? An alternate timeline without Green Orange, AND without the entire color green. So you go on one last ride, to defeat the Great Oppressor. And this time, your mission is successful.

God, what a truly fantastic game. I have never, and most likely will never, play a game quite like this.