Pebble40SG
10 reviews liked by Pebble40SG
Note - as I did not beat the game, this write-up should be seen as a set of observations over a genuine review.
Dark Souls is one of those titles that does so much right: visually it's fantastic, the boss fights are great, the music phenomenal, and it boasts some of the best-realized combat I’ve ever seen in a game. It cemented FromSoft as the premiere developer for difficult RPGs, a label they’ve since used to generate critical acclaim and lucrative bank.
It’s unfortunate, then, how Dark Souls chooses to wrap-up these traits under some genuinely frustrating design schemes, and yes, I use the word frustrating because my problems with Dark Souls have less to do with objective difficulty and more to do with artificial flavors tossed in for no other reason than virtual sadism.
Of course, one can’t criticize Dark Souls without incurring the wrath of apologia its fan base has accumulated over the years, and while I’ll abstain from stereotyping thousands of gamers, you don’t have to look far to see the worst of their rhetoric. From their perspective, it’s easy to shut down any criticism under the banner of “git gud,” and I’ll acknowledge upfront that I’m not the best at video games: I sucked at Horizon Zero Dawn’s combat and my favorite titles are ones that are relatively-easy to master(+). But there’s a difference between a challenge and an irritation, and Dark Souls inclusion of both has unfortunately led to fans and critics alike intermixing them, when the truth is they should be viewed as separate elements.
Let’s start with the bad: the backtracking. Dark Souls is an action RPG best described as an 80s platformer in light of its atrocious checkpoint system. Every area contains two, let me repeat, two save points in their entire vicinity, and, as a result, you’re going to be wasting cumulative hours(!) re-running through the same paths again-and-again-and-again. The issue isn’t the lack of an autosave but the employment of an outdated save apparatus we all agree was only done to deceptively-elongate past releases, so why anyone thought to bring it back into the 21st century I have no idea. Plenty of modern video games have limited waypoints, but the difference is they’re smart enough to place them in areas advantageous to the player’s progress, such as, you know, after a major endeavor or right before a boss gate. Forcing gamers to spend minutes, I kid you not, minutes on end returning to a boss’s entrance or past a set of dangerous traps is beyond idiotic and commits the cardinal sin of wasting player time.
Of course, the arguments in favor of Dark Souls’s checkpoints are how it encourages obstacle circumvention by either “teaching” players to methodically-approach situations or learn the terrain for quick bypassing, and the fact that both these notions contradict each other should indicate the level of intelligence apologists have put behind them - if you’re meant to run past every critter, what was the bloody point in even having them revive? And if they were intended to be engaged with, why stack them with cheap shots, RNG, and extraneous numbers the player would fundamentally be unable to master (more on these later)? Dark Souls isn’t the kind of game about farming enemies for drops or experience, nor is it about clearing areas for long-term safety, making the two prospects very confusing.
To reiterate, I don’t have a problem completing a difficult section or two to “earn” a respite, but Dark Souls is rarely interested in providing that equity and outright boneheaded when it comes to logical placement. No seriously, there are so many areas where an additional save space or two (bonfires) wouldn’t have conflicted with enemy placement, yet the devs didn’t bother adding them for no other reason than maintaining director Miyazaki’s nonsensical 2-Bonfire rule. The trail from the sewery Depths to the Lovecraftian Blighttown, for example, forces you to run through a door, down some stairs, across a tunnel, and then down a long ladder….why not just put a bonfire at the end of that ladder? Why make players redo the same course when they’ll (inevitably) die to Blighttown’s new slate of enemies prior to reaching the first official Bonfire there anyway?
Another notable instance of this occurs in the grand city of Anor Londo, wherein your spawn point is separated from the next objective via a long dash to an automated elevator and spiral staircase followed by ANOTHER long dash down a platform….why not just place a bonfire at the halfway point of said platform? The idea that simple additions like these weren’t considered says a lot about the kind of griefing FromSoft gleefully indulged in during development.
I’m not done ranting about the bonfires as there are two extra qualms associated with them that make an already-faulty system laughably frustrating. For starters, FromSoft went out of their way to hide some of them! No, I’m not joking: if I wasn’t semi-playing with a guide, I wouldn’t have discovered half the pyres out there, and that alone speaks to the callousness guiding FromSoft’s approach to game design: the idea of deliberately ensconcing an already scarce resource for no other discernible reason than sh!ts and giggles.
The second quandary is less-egregious, though still objectively annoying, and that’s the lack of fast travel between bonfires. Now, to be fair, Dark Souls is very good at connecting sites through story progression; however, there’ll be situations in which you may have to return to a previous area for some reason or other(++) and will consequently have no choice but to backtrack like a caffeinated hare.
And this whole schematic is the main reason why I abandoned Dark Souls. I’ll get into the other problems for sure, but understand that, unless you’re willing to put-up with the limited save points, you won’t have fun with this game. True, you only lose souls upon death, but that can be really vexing in the early stages of the journey when you’re trying to increase stats or upgrade weapons (+++).
In addition, an unintentional casualty of the whole shebang is how it diminishes any motivation to explore - there were tons of places off the beaten path I genuinely wanted to check out, but ultimately absconded from in light of fears of either losing all my souls on hand, or drifting too far away from the nearest beacon and subsequently getting sucker-stomped by some new behemoth that would force more, you guessed it, backtracking to where I died. To anyone curious, yes, there are quicksave mods out there for PC players; however, I personally don’t recommend downloading them as they’re a pain in the @ss to install/use courtesy of Dark Soul’s online component (more on that later).
The second biggest setback you’ll run into is the skill system as it is very atypical by RPG standards. Those familiar with the genre know that, in most titles, everytime you level-up, you earn points that can be funneled into a variety of stats for the overall purposes of getting stronger.
Dark Souls retains that basic premise, albeit with some changes for better and for worse: on the plus side, you’re not earning experience towards an arbitrary bar, but souls to then shovel into 8 different categories, with each upgrade concurrently raising your hero’s base level. On the negative side, though, the devs made the bizarre decision to scale soul requirements to the highest one you have, and I genuinely don’t understand what the thought process behind this was - if you’re at 20 Strength and 12 Attunement, for example, you’ll have to spend the same amount of souls upgrading Attunement as Strength, with every other requirement also inflating in the process. I’ve heard fans claim this was done to encourage builds; however, that argument falls flat when you realize universal attributes like endurance and health are afflicted by this system as well - if FromSoft was really intent on distinguishing Dark Souls from other role-playing titles, why not meet in the middle via categorizing skills for the cap (i.e., have the scaling for strength apply only to dexterity, or Faith to Intelligence)? As it stands, this all-or-nothing approach will definitely nag at you during the beginning stages.
The third quandary is how Dark Souls doesn’t bother explaining a number of its more intricate components. On my end, for instance, I never figured out how the magic system worked, and frequently had to look-up things like factions, the purpose of different items, how to do summons, and so forth. I fully concede these may have been located within the title, but by no means were they ergonomically sited.
In terms of the game’s general difficulty, I agree with fans that patience is a virtue. Dark Souls combat is based around the idea of attack-and-response: every enemy has memorizable patterns you can either block or strafe around in the hopes of exploiting openings for your own hits. The key to everything is managing your stamina, this bar dictating your capacity to strike, dodge, or defend, and only replenishing when doing nothing. There are growing pains with each new foe encountered, but that’s also a part of the fun, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the skirmishing system FromSoft created.
Unfortunately, as much as I liked the combat, it’s also where you’ll find the last rung of unfairness due to it involving several enemy advantages I alluded to above: first, even when blocking, monsters will occasionally get a hard hit on you that saps you of your endurance (or health if unable to shield), and it didn’t appear to be related to any specific move but good old-fashioned RNG. Secondly, weapon-based creatures occasionally get stuck in this everlasting strafe wherein they’ll continue to circle about you without breaking their guard or lunging, making for some really annoying encounters since they turn too quickly to be flanked nor attack themselves. Thirdly, you sword strikes can ricochet off walls-and-barriers, yet this same limitation is conveniently absent for foes, who instantly recover; and finally, just like with Gothic, Dark Souls’ fighting is inherently built around 1v1 bouts, and just like with Gothic again, it still tosses multiple thugs at you. I will never comprehend the logic backing these decisions as it results in players (like myself) engaging in cheap tricks to cheese the game ala inching closer to trigger individual enemy aggros(++++).
To clarify, nothing about these four combat hitches is game-breaking by any means, but when taken in conjunction with those prior two macro flaws, you’ll find them getting under your skin more than they would’ve in any other product. And that sums up Dark Souls issues in a nutshell: individually, they could have been tolerable, but when cruxed together, they add up to a thoroughly-unenjoyable experience.
It’s a shame because, again, the game does so much right - graphically, it stands as prime proof of how a solid art style will always age well, the gothic romanticism here blending well with some of the best texture meshing I’ve ever seen in a video game: seeing cracks on different pieces of armor or the visceral rotting of wood or the slimy residue on subterranean slabs goes a long way towards showcasing the kind of love that was poured into this game. Much like the second God of War, Dark Souls warps familiar locations like sewers and wooden villages under a unique skin, and it consistently blew my mind whenever I’d enter a new locale purged by these aesthetics.
I’m not going to delve into excessive detail about said aesthetics as I didn’t enjoy or play the game enough to do so (plenty of walkthroughs and screen caps exist online that I encourage you to look-up), but what I will highlight are three major achievements, beginning with the varied elevators you’ll utilize. See, FromSoft was so dedicated to their in-game cultures, that they literally crafted multiple unique assets for something as simple as an ascension apparatus: in the medieval-inspired Undead Burg, you have a creaky chained shaftbox; in the wealthy Anor Lando, a beautiful-floating tile; and within Blighttown’s plague-scoffed planking runs a rickety waterwheel amidst the muck. I’ve always had a deep love for architecture, and the fact that FromSoft thought to build engineering feats specific to their various cultures was beyond mesmerizing.
Second is the gorgeous dynamic lighting that not only bounces well off plate armor and metal grooves, but offsets the need for a torch via your avatar generating a bioluminescence.
Finally, you’ve got the Monster designs, their composition ranging from standard enemy tropes to absolute nightmare fuel, and as a result of that berth there’s admittedly a bit of a hit-or-miss effect in terms of memorability - catching wind of skeleton warriors or giant rats, for example, doesn’t quite evoke the same sense of dread as bug-eyed frogs or Deep One-esque critters. Don’t get me wrong, everyone’s movements, skin textures, and groans are exquisite - I just wish the game had been less generic-fantasy at times.
These same criticisms extend to the few bosses I fought, which, to repeat, are fun, but which sometimes leave more to be desired as far as visualization: on the one hand, you could get a disturbingly-alluring specimen in the spider queen Quelaag, only to have her followed-up by a regular iron golem literally called the Iron Golem.
Thankfully, what consistently elevated even the more-drab titans was the score by Motoi Sakuraba, and I can’t believe this man hasn’t achieved greater notoriety as his tracks here were consistently amazing. Dark Souls may stand as the only game I’ve played where you could strum a boss’s theme and I would be able to tell you exactly who they were by virtue of the music alone: that’s how perfectly-done the OST is -- by-and-large, my biggest regret from dropping the game is knowing I’ll never hear Sakuraba’s other compositions juxtaposed against their synced monstrosity.
SFX, I won’t go too in-depth in either other than to say that this is unfortunately a headphones-favored title: you’ll miss out on a lot of intricate aural details like the breathing of fake chests or stomping of underground monsters without a pair of buds. That said, the primary beats surrounding weapon usage, walking, and armor chinking are top-notch, with FromSoft even programming in individual footstep dins for each leg (an aspect you’re liable to noticing in light of the variegated surfaces you’ll literally run across).
With regards to technical issues, the only quibs I ever saw were some weapon clipping, a lack of cloth physics for certain suits (e.g. Silver Knight capes), and sudden color palette swaps when shifting between interiors, all of which were ultimately minor stuff.
I’ll touch on the story briefly because it’s another case of a genuinely bad aspect being praised to unworthy heights. See, Dark Souls shoves the bulk of its narrative into flavor text: while there are narrated bits and some NPCs you can chat with, you won’t understand a single thing about the world you’re in unless you take the time out of your day to read-up on the item descriptions laden in tools, weapons, boss drops, or merchant wares, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t play video games to read books. Optional lore is one thing; supplementary material a second thing, but this tactic FromSoft utilized right here is outright lazy. It literally comes across like the video game equivalent of the Marvel Method wherein artists for the eponymous company would do all the work crafting the story, only for writers to come in and add their own selfish scribbles atop the panels. To be fair, Dark Souls’ tale isn’t anywhere near a focus of the game; however, that doesn’t diminish the fact that it was a wasted opportunity to really make something immersive.
Some people may be curious about the multiplayer component, a facet that’s infamously led to FromSoft foregoing pause screens due to the insistent need to stay online. The truth is I didn’t engage with it a lot, so I can’t say whether or not it’s worth fielding -- it is kind of cool seeing dead phantoms and left-behind messages by players, but the culture shock wears-off the second you realize how idiotic 90% of these messages are. Worse yet, if you ever undergo Internet issues (like I did), you’ll find yourself getting booted out of the game at a moment’s notice (luckily, you are loaded back into your immediate position, but it’s annoying nonetheless). As such, unless you have a solid bandwidth, I’d recommend playing the game offline to avoid potential tech surprises.
I say that last sentence with a clump of salt as, while I obviously didn’t like Dark souls, everyone should form an opinion for themselves at the end of the day. Dark Souls continued the revolution wrought by Demon’s Souls by creating a new genre, and I’m happy many have found joy….or so I hope….
See, I want to end this review by asking Soulsborne enthusiasts a genuine question, which is, are you sure you’re having fun? One of the biggest criticisms towards Ubisoft titles, for example, is the concept of dopamine exploitation: how players aren’t actually enjoying what they’re doing, but being deluded into believing they are courtesy of small achievements (like finding collectibles) auto-triggering the release of the infamous neurotransmitter.
I wish to apply a similar concept here, albeit under the guise of cost-sunk: playing Dark Souls, backtracking repeatedly, and dying constantly, I’m curious if you actually enjoy what you’re doing, or if it’s a case where, having invested so much time & energy into an endeavor and finally overcoming it for the dopamine, that you’re simply overvaluing the factual task at hand?
Just food for thought.
NOTES
+An exception being the Donkey Kong Country games.
++The two times it happened to me (both of which occurred in Blighttown ironically enough) involved having to repair my weapon with a Smith; and having to gather a ring that would allow easier traversal of the swamps.
+++Please prioritize upgrading weapons over leveling-up. The game doesn’t tell you this, but weapon stats are more important for damage output than personal dexterity.
++++Enemy aggros can be SO bipolar - there are some where standing five feet in front of them won’t do anything, while others are prone to charging at you from a long ways away.
-As the Remaster was my first incursion into this series, I can’t comment on any specific differences from the vanilla release. From what I understand via a quick Google search, though, they stayed very faithful to the OG (compared to DS2’s equivalent Scholar of the First Sin) and incorporated some natural resolution and framerate bumps.
-Puddles have reflective surfaces!
-Dark Souls is officially the only game I’ve played where you can control an undead specimen wearing a thong.
Dark Souls is one of those titles that does so much right: visually it's fantastic, the boss fights are great, the music phenomenal, and it boasts some of the best-realized combat I’ve ever seen in a game. It cemented FromSoft as the premiere developer for difficult RPGs, a label they’ve since used to generate critical acclaim and lucrative bank.
It’s unfortunate, then, how Dark Souls chooses to wrap-up these traits under some genuinely frustrating design schemes, and yes, I use the word frustrating because my problems with Dark Souls have less to do with objective difficulty and more to do with artificial flavors tossed in for no other reason than virtual sadism.
Of course, one can’t criticize Dark Souls without incurring the wrath of apologia its fan base has accumulated over the years, and while I’ll abstain from stereotyping thousands of gamers, you don’t have to look far to see the worst of their rhetoric. From their perspective, it’s easy to shut down any criticism under the banner of “git gud,” and I’ll acknowledge upfront that I’m not the best at video games: I sucked at Horizon Zero Dawn’s combat and my favorite titles are ones that are relatively-easy to master(+). But there’s a difference between a challenge and an irritation, and Dark Souls inclusion of both has unfortunately led to fans and critics alike intermixing them, when the truth is they should be viewed as separate elements.
Let’s start with the bad: the backtracking. Dark Souls is an action RPG best described as an 80s platformer in light of its atrocious checkpoint system. Every area contains two, let me repeat, two save points in their entire vicinity, and, as a result, you’re going to be wasting cumulative hours(!) re-running through the same paths again-and-again-and-again. The issue isn’t the lack of an autosave but the employment of an outdated save apparatus we all agree was only done to deceptively-elongate past releases, so why anyone thought to bring it back into the 21st century I have no idea. Plenty of modern video games have limited waypoints, but the difference is they’re smart enough to place them in areas advantageous to the player’s progress, such as, you know, after a major endeavor or right before a boss gate. Forcing gamers to spend minutes, I kid you not, minutes on end returning to a boss’s entrance or past a set of dangerous traps is beyond idiotic and commits the cardinal sin of wasting player time.
Of course, the arguments in favor of Dark Souls’s checkpoints are how it encourages obstacle circumvention by either “teaching” players to methodically-approach situations or learn the terrain for quick bypassing, and the fact that both these notions contradict each other should indicate the level of intelligence apologists have put behind them - if you’re meant to run past every critter, what was the bloody point in even having them revive? And if they were intended to be engaged with, why stack them with cheap shots, RNG, and extraneous numbers the player would fundamentally be unable to master (more on these later)? Dark Souls isn’t the kind of game about farming enemies for drops or experience, nor is it about clearing areas for long-term safety, making the two prospects very confusing.
To reiterate, I don’t have a problem completing a difficult section or two to “earn” a respite, but Dark Souls is rarely interested in providing that equity and outright boneheaded when it comes to logical placement. No seriously, there are so many areas where an additional save space or two (bonfires) wouldn’t have conflicted with enemy placement, yet the devs didn’t bother adding them for no other reason than maintaining director Miyazaki’s nonsensical 2-Bonfire rule. The trail from the sewery Depths to the Lovecraftian Blighttown, for example, forces you to run through a door, down some stairs, across a tunnel, and then down a long ladder….why not just put a bonfire at the end of that ladder? Why make players redo the same course when they’ll (inevitably) die to Blighttown’s new slate of enemies prior to reaching the first official Bonfire there anyway?
Another notable instance of this occurs in the grand city of Anor Londo, wherein your spawn point is separated from the next objective via a long dash to an automated elevator and spiral staircase followed by ANOTHER long dash down a platform….why not just place a bonfire at the halfway point of said platform? The idea that simple additions like these weren’t considered says a lot about the kind of griefing FromSoft gleefully indulged in during development.
I’m not done ranting about the bonfires as there are two extra qualms associated with them that make an already-faulty system laughably frustrating. For starters, FromSoft went out of their way to hide some of them! No, I’m not joking: if I wasn’t semi-playing with a guide, I wouldn’t have discovered half the pyres out there, and that alone speaks to the callousness guiding FromSoft’s approach to game design: the idea of deliberately ensconcing an already scarce resource for no other discernible reason than sh!ts and giggles.
The second quandary is less-egregious, though still objectively annoying, and that’s the lack of fast travel between bonfires. Now, to be fair, Dark Souls is very good at connecting sites through story progression; however, there’ll be situations in which you may have to return to a previous area for some reason or other(++) and will consequently have no choice but to backtrack like a caffeinated hare.
And this whole schematic is the main reason why I abandoned Dark Souls. I’ll get into the other problems for sure, but understand that, unless you’re willing to put-up with the limited save points, you won’t have fun with this game. True, you only lose souls upon death, but that can be really vexing in the early stages of the journey when you’re trying to increase stats or upgrade weapons (+++).
In addition, an unintentional casualty of the whole shebang is how it diminishes any motivation to explore - there were tons of places off the beaten path I genuinely wanted to check out, but ultimately absconded from in light of fears of either losing all my souls on hand, or drifting too far away from the nearest beacon and subsequently getting sucker-stomped by some new behemoth that would force more, you guessed it, backtracking to where I died. To anyone curious, yes, there are quicksave mods out there for PC players; however, I personally don’t recommend downloading them as they’re a pain in the @ss to install/use courtesy of Dark Soul’s online component (more on that later).
The second biggest setback you’ll run into is the skill system as it is very atypical by RPG standards. Those familiar with the genre know that, in most titles, everytime you level-up, you earn points that can be funneled into a variety of stats for the overall purposes of getting stronger.
Dark Souls retains that basic premise, albeit with some changes for better and for worse: on the plus side, you’re not earning experience towards an arbitrary bar, but souls to then shovel into 8 different categories, with each upgrade concurrently raising your hero’s base level. On the negative side, though, the devs made the bizarre decision to scale soul requirements to the highest one you have, and I genuinely don’t understand what the thought process behind this was - if you’re at 20 Strength and 12 Attunement, for example, you’ll have to spend the same amount of souls upgrading Attunement as Strength, with every other requirement also inflating in the process. I’ve heard fans claim this was done to encourage builds; however, that argument falls flat when you realize universal attributes like endurance and health are afflicted by this system as well - if FromSoft was really intent on distinguishing Dark Souls from other role-playing titles, why not meet in the middle via categorizing skills for the cap (i.e., have the scaling for strength apply only to dexterity, or Faith to Intelligence)? As it stands, this all-or-nothing approach will definitely nag at you during the beginning stages.
The third quandary is how Dark Souls doesn’t bother explaining a number of its more intricate components. On my end, for instance, I never figured out how the magic system worked, and frequently had to look-up things like factions, the purpose of different items, how to do summons, and so forth. I fully concede these may have been located within the title, but by no means were they ergonomically sited.
In terms of the game’s general difficulty, I agree with fans that patience is a virtue. Dark Souls combat is based around the idea of attack-and-response: every enemy has memorizable patterns you can either block or strafe around in the hopes of exploiting openings for your own hits. The key to everything is managing your stamina, this bar dictating your capacity to strike, dodge, or defend, and only replenishing when doing nothing. There are growing pains with each new foe encountered, but that’s also a part of the fun, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the skirmishing system FromSoft created.
Unfortunately, as much as I liked the combat, it’s also where you’ll find the last rung of unfairness due to it involving several enemy advantages I alluded to above: first, even when blocking, monsters will occasionally get a hard hit on you that saps you of your endurance (or health if unable to shield), and it didn’t appear to be related to any specific move but good old-fashioned RNG. Secondly, weapon-based creatures occasionally get stuck in this everlasting strafe wherein they’ll continue to circle about you without breaking their guard or lunging, making for some really annoying encounters since they turn too quickly to be flanked nor attack themselves. Thirdly, you sword strikes can ricochet off walls-and-barriers, yet this same limitation is conveniently absent for foes, who instantly recover; and finally, just like with Gothic, Dark Souls’ fighting is inherently built around 1v1 bouts, and just like with Gothic again, it still tosses multiple thugs at you. I will never comprehend the logic backing these decisions as it results in players (like myself) engaging in cheap tricks to cheese the game ala inching closer to trigger individual enemy aggros(++++).
To clarify, nothing about these four combat hitches is game-breaking by any means, but when taken in conjunction with those prior two macro flaws, you’ll find them getting under your skin more than they would’ve in any other product. And that sums up Dark Souls issues in a nutshell: individually, they could have been tolerable, but when cruxed together, they add up to a thoroughly-unenjoyable experience.
It’s a shame because, again, the game does so much right - graphically, it stands as prime proof of how a solid art style will always age well, the gothic romanticism here blending well with some of the best texture meshing I’ve ever seen in a video game: seeing cracks on different pieces of armor or the visceral rotting of wood or the slimy residue on subterranean slabs goes a long way towards showcasing the kind of love that was poured into this game. Much like the second God of War, Dark Souls warps familiar locations like sewers and wooden villages under a unique skin, and it consistently blew my mind whenever I’d enter a new locale purged by these aesthetics.
I’m not going to delve into excessive detail about said aesthetics as I didn’t enjoy or play the game enough to do so (plenty of walkthroughs and screen caps exist online that I encourage you to look-up), but what I will highlight are three major achievements, beginning with the varied elevators you’ll utilize. See, FromSoft was so dedicated to their in-game cultures, that they literally crafted multiple unique assets for something as simple as an ascension apparatus: in the medieval-inspired Undead Burg, you have a creaky chained shaftbox; in the wealthy Anor Lando, a beautiful-floating tile; and within Blighttown’s plague-scoffed planking runs a rickety waterwheel amidst the muck. I’ve always had a deep love for architecture, and the fact that FromSoft thought to build engineering feats specific to their various cultures was beyond mesmerizing.
Second is the gorgeous dynamic lighting that not only bounces well off plate armor and metal grooves, but offsets the need for a torch via your avatar generating a bioluminescence.
Finally, you’ve got the Monster designs, their composition ranging from standard enemy tropes to absolute nightmare fuel, and as a result of that berth there’s admittedly a bit of a hit-or-miss effect in terms of memorability - catching wind of skeleton warriors or giant rats, for example, doesn’t quite evoke the same sense of dread as bug-eyed frogs or Deep One-esque critters. Don’t get me wrong, everyone’s movements, skin textures, and groans are exquisite - I just wish the game had been less generic-fantasy at times.
These same criticisms extend to the few bosses I fought, which, to repeat, are fun, but which sometimes leave more to be desired as far as visualization: on the one hand, you could get a disturbingly-alluring specimen in the spider queen Quelaag, only to have her followed-up by a regular iron golem literally called the Iron Golem.
Thankfully, what consistently elevated even the more-drab titans was the score by Motoi Sakuraba, and I can’t believe this man hasn’t achieved greater notoriety as his tracks here were consistently amazing. Dark Souls may stand as the only game I’ve played where you could strum a boss’s theme and I would be able to tell you exactly who they were by virtue of the music alone: that’s how perfectly-done the OST is -- by-and-large, my biggest regret from dropping the game is knowing I’ll never hear Sakuraba’s other compositions juxtaposed against their synced monstrosity.
SFX, I won’t go too in-depth in either other than to say that this is unfortunately a headphones-favored title: you’ll miss out on a lot of intricate aural details like the breathing of fake chests or stomping of underground monsters without a pair of buds. That said, the primary beats surrounding weapon usage, walking, and armor chinking are top-notch, with FromSoft even programming in individual footstep dins for each leg (an aspect you’re liable to noticing in light of the variegated surfaces you’ll literally run across).
With regards to technical issues, the only quibs I ever saw were some weapon clipping, a lack of cloth physics for certain suits (e.g. Silver Knight capes), and sudden color palette swaps when shifting between interiors, all of which were ultimately minor stuff.
I’ll touch on the story briefly because it’s another case of a genuinely bad aspect being praised to unworthy heights. See, Dark Souls shoves the bulk of its narrative into flavor text: while there are narrated bits and some NPCs you can chat with, you won’t understand a single thing about the world you’re in unless you take the time out of your day to read-up on the item descriptions laden in tools, weapons, boss drops, or merchant wares, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t play video games to read books. Optional lore is one thing; supplementary material a second thing, but this tactic FromSoft utilized right here is outright lazy. It literally comes across like the video game equivalent of the Marvel Method wherein artists for the eponymous company would do all the work crafting the story, only for writers to come in and add their own selfish scribbles atop the panels. To be fair, Dark Souls’ tale isn’t anywhere near a focus of the game; however, that doesn’t diminish the fact that it was a wasted opportunity to really make something immersive.
Some people may be curious about the multiplayer component, a facet that’s infamously led to FromSoft foregoing pause screens due to the insistent need to stay online. The truth is I didn’t engage with it a lot, so I can’t say whether or not it’s worth fielding -- it is kind of cool seeing dead phantoms and left-behind messages by players, but the culture shock wears-off the second you realize how idiotic 90% of these messages are. Worse yet, if you ever undergo Internet issues (like I did), you’ll find yourself getting booted out of the game at a moment’s notice (luckily, you are loaded back into your immediate position, but it’s annoying nonetheless). As such, unless you have a solid bandwidth, I’d recommend playing the game offline to avoid potential tech surprises.
I say that last sentence with a clump of salt as, while I obviously didn’t like Dark souls, everyone should form an opinion for themselves at the end of the day. Dark Souls continued the revolution wrought by Demon’s Souls by creating a new genre, and I’m happy many have found joy….or so I hope….
See, I want to end this review by asking Soulsborne enthusiasts a genuine question, which is, are you sure you’re having fun? One of the biggest criticisms towards Ubisoft titles, for example, is the concept of dopamine exploitation: how players aren’t actually enjoying what they’re doing, but being deluded into believing they are courtesy of small achievements (like finding collectibles) auto-triggering the release of the infamous neurotransmitter.
I wish to apply a similar concept here, albeit under the guise of cost-sunk: playing Dark Souls, backtracking repeatedly, and dying constantly, I’m curious if you actually enjoy what you’re doing, or if it’s a case where, having invested so much time & energy into an endeavor and finally overcoming it for the dopamine, that you’re simply overvaluing the factual task at hand?
Just food for thought.
NOTES
+An exception being the Donkey Kong Country games.
++The two times it happened to me (both of which occurred in Blighttown ironically enough) involved having to repair my weapon with a Smith; and having to gather a ring that would allow easier traversal of the swamps.
+++Please prioritize upgrading weapons over leveling-up. The game doesn’t tell you this, but weapon stats are more important for damage output than personal dexterity.
++++Enemy aggros can be SO bipolar - there are some where standing five feet in front of them won’t do anything, while others are prone to charging at you from a long ways away.
-As the Remaster was my first incursion into this series, I can’t comment on any specific differences from the vanilla release. From what I understand via a quick Google search, though, they stayed very faithful to the OG (compared to DS2’s equivalent Scholar of the First Sin) and incorporated some natural resolution and framerate bumps.
-Puddles have reflective surfaces!
-Dark Souls is officially the only game I’ve played where you can control an undead specimen wearing a thong.
Alleyway
1989
this might be one of my favorite games ever and it's just a breakout clone for the gameboy I'm not joking what's wrong with me
"See that stick? That's Mario."
Played on NSO Gameboy
"See that stick? That's Mario."
Played on NSO Gameboy
Super Mario 64
1996
Super Mario 64 is probably the single most important video game ever made. It’s also almost assuredly the single most-cited “greatest of all time” in the medium, and considering what it did to the industry, it’s no wonder why. Mario 64 is still considered king of the speedrunning scene–a testament to the quality with which Mario controls. In fact, much of my joy from playing through it came from performing the iconic speedrunning strategies like Cannonless, (failing at) Owlless, and the endless staircase BLJ, to name the well-known ones. Unfortunately, due to a larger focus on tighter platforming as the game progresses, the later levels soured my taste on the title and struggled to live up to the excellence of the early levels in my opinion. Those early stages like Bob-Omb Battlefield, Whomp’s Fortress, and Cool Cool Mountain are near perfect displays of what makes Mario 64 so Super.
Tetris
1989
classic. timeless. the human brain is hardwired to enjoy fitting blocks into tight spaces. i'll take it a step further and say that you're probably not human unless you like tetris
I don't know, man. There's plenty to like here—charming characters, a cute story, semi-compelling political drama, good (enough) maps, gorgeous GBA aesthetic, whatever. But I've been frustrated and dragging my feet playing this. There is a tiny little fence between me and having fun, and no matter what I do, I cannot hop over it and be compelled to finish this game. That fence is named Seth.
Let me be clear. Lovely guy. Seems really sweet. But he is a sponge on the hypothalamus of my brain. He sucks up every drop of serotonin produced while playing this game. Instead of pumping my fist and shaking hands with another comically muscular man before we ride in a helicopter and are tricked into a death battle with a technologically superior alien species that only one of us escapes alive, I'm sucking my thumb and honk-shooing in my nightcap and gown beside a brick-and-mortar fireplace. Seth is the single most overpowered character I have ever seen in any video game. Still, with like 5 or 6 chapters left in the entire game, he one-shots every normal enemy and two-shots every boss. What are we doing here? Seth bends the very map design around him. Choke-points are no longer threatening. I stand slack-jawed as I drop the red-haired menace in front of 300 enemy goons, praying they will be enough to end his reign. Yet he stands steadfast as they all line up and take turns missing every attack and dying instantly. The Australian government cannot produce enough iron lances to feed into the Seth-powered enemy chipper. He is less a man and more an industrial machine.
Seth has ruined the thrill of permadeath. He has ruined my investment in the combat. He has stolen my crops, and he has pillaged my coffers. I never want to see this man again!
There is a lot to be said about how novel the pacing of this game is and how much I enjoy saving only at the end of chapters (and the chapter structure itself), but I'll save it for when I actually finish one of these things.
Let me be clear. Lovely guy. Seems really sweet. But he is a sponge on the hypothalamus of my brain. He sucks up every drop of serotonin produced while playing this game. Instead of pumping my fist and shaking hands with another comically muscular man before we ride in a helicopter and are tricked into a death battle with a technologically superior alien species that only one of us escapes alive, I'm sucking my thumb and honk-shooing in my nightcap and gown beside a brick-and-mortar fireplace. Seth is the single most overpowered character I have ever seen in any video game. Still, with like 5 or 6 chapters left in the entire game, he one-shots every normal enemy and two-shots every boss. What are we doing here? Seth bends the very map design around him. Choke-points are no longer threatening. I stand slack-jawed as I drop the red-haired menace in front of 300 enemy goons, praying they will be enough to end his reign. Yet he stands steadfast as they all line up and take turns missing every attack and dying instantly. The Australian government cannot produce enough iron lances to feed into the Seth-powered enemy chipper. He is less a man and more an industrial machine.
Seth has ruined the thrill of permadeath. He has ruined my investment in the combat. He has stolen my crops, and he has pillaged my coffers. I never want to see this man again!
There is a lot to be said about how novel the pacing of this game is and how much I enjoy saving only at the end of chapters (and the chapter structure itself), but I'll save it for when I actually finish one of these things.
It's difficult to evaluate this game because you basically have to judge it as two games. Single player and co-op playthroughs could not be any more different.
Let's start with this: if you are getting the game with playing online or local with a friend in mind, you will have such an amazing time. As a multiplayer game it is great. There is real teamwork going on, managing each other's inventory. You get seperated and have to cover each other. This is where the game shines.
If you are getting this as a single player game, it is SO BAD. oh my God. It is a terrible game. None of the intended mechanics work because Sheva's Ai ruins everything.
This is common knowledge if you are familiar with the game, but it really needs to be emphasized how she ruins every single mechanic.
You can't give her any weapons with ammo. Give her a machine gun with 2 clips? She will empty out all of it in 30 seconds into a wall. Or into one zombie. So already you can't operate efficiently because you can't have your other character with a reliable weapon to cover you. So you have to carry all the weapons, maybe she carries the ammo. She wastes your healing items right away. If you take just a few hits, and you want to save your full heal for later, she will chase you until she can use it on you. You also have to babysit her health bar and heal her when she eventually stands out in the open and takes damage.
She does not help you or interact with you at any moment that's notable in the game. The puzzle near the middle is the biggest example, it's this big room that takes time and with team work you can get it done faster.
The ai is so awful that they knew she'd make the room a nightmare. So she refuses to help you during any point in the puzzle.
I kid you not, there is a platform the devs just threw into the level, JUST so they can put Sheva somewhere where she won't get in the way. They knew how bad it was. And it still released this way.
The game as it is, is quite fun! You have set pieces that work quite well. But the story is almost incoherent and nonsensical. And most of the bosses are just annoying.
The presentation however is something remarkable. The color palette can be dull, but the animations, cutscenes etc are all top quality and billing here. It feels like a really high budget action film 90% of the time.
While it is entertaining, the game has existing self baked problems that are then magnified by the ai partner. So I think that in total encompasses too much of the game to give it a high score. I thought it was fun overall, but I never really want to replay it again.
Let's start with this: if you are getting the game with playing online or local with a friend in mind, you will have such an amazing time. As a multiplayer game it is great. There is real teamwork going on, managing each other's inventory. You get seperated and have to cover each other. This is where the game shines.
If you are getting this as a single player game, it is SO BAD. oh my God. It is a terrible game. None of the intended mechanics work because Sheva's Ai ruins everything.
This is common knowledge if you are familiar with the game, but it really needs to be emphasized how she ruins every single mechanic.
You can't give her any weapons with ammo. Give her a machine gun with 2 clips? She will empty out all of it in 30 seconds into a wall. Or into one zombie. So already you can't operate efficiently because you can't have your other character with a reliable weapon to cover you. So you have to carry all the weapons, maybe she carries the ammo. She wastes your healing items right away. If you take just a few hits, and you want to save your full heal for later, she will chase you until she can use it on you. You also have to babysit her health bar and heal her when she eventually stands out in the open and takes damage.
She does not help you or interact with you at any moment that's notable in the game. The puzzle near the middle is the biggest example, it's this big room that takes time and with team work you can get it done faster.
The ai is so awful that they knew she'd make the room a nightmare. So she refuses to help you during any point in the puzzle.
I kid you not, there is a platform the devs just threw into the level, JUST so they can put Sheva somewhere where she won't get in the way. They knew how bad it was. And it still released this way.
The game as it is, is quite fun! You have set pieces that work quite well. But the story is almost incoherent and nonsensical. And most of the bosses are just annoying.
The presentation however is something remarkable. The color palette can be dull, but the animations, cutscenes etc are all top quality and billing here. It feels like a really high budget action film 90% of the time.
While it is entertaining, the game has existing self baked problems that are then magnified by the ai partner. So I think that in total encompasses too much of the game to give it a high score. I thought it was fun overall, but I never really want to replay it again.
“This castle is a creature of Chaos. It may take many incarnations…”
I’m a very easy wizard to please. Give me an entertaining game with a tight aesthetic and a killer soundtrack and there’s a solid chance I’ll at least remember it years down the line. Castlevania has always managed to check all of those boxes for me. The tale of a family of badass vampire slayers dedicated to putting a stop to Dracula’s plans generation after generation is all I really needed to get invested. And yet, I must admit that while I had played nearly all of them up to a point, I couldn’t claim to have actually beaten one yet. I could come close, but for some reason, none of the games ever quite managed to sink their claws deep enough into me that they could convince me to make that last leap. I’ve since rectified that, but even back then, I could tell right away that Symphony of the Night was something… Different. When I first dove into it some fifteen or so years ago, I became so entranced by its pale moonlit glow that I was briefly concerned that I might never leave. I suppose, at least in my mind, I never did.
As with other games where discovery is so crucial to the game’s appeal, I recommend you experience the game for yourself before reading this review.
Five years after Dracula’s defeat at the hands of Richter Belmont, the titular castle suddenly reappears, decidedly ahead of schedule. Unfortunately for humanity, Richter himself is nowhere to be found. With seemingly nobody else up to the task of investigating this regrettable turn of events, Alucard, the son of Dracula, reluctantly awakens from his self-imposed eternal slumber with the intent of infiltrating Castlevania and putting a stop to this aberration. As he combs the darkest depths of the place he once called home in search of answers, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to resurrect the Dark Lord – and a long and bitter family feud comes to a head.
With Symphony of the Night being as revered as it is, both in the past and present, it can be a little hard to remember that it was (and still can be) divisive with a select few for being both too different and not different enough. As far as Castlevania as a series is concerned, forgoing the previous stage-and-score based gameplay with a heavy emphasis on platforming challenges for something much more RPG-ish and exploratory in nature didn’t sit well with absolutely everyone. Given its nearest neighbor in that respect, it’s not too hard to see how some might have been apprehensive about it. It also didn’t always impress on a technical level due to insisting upon retaining the 2D visuals and gameplay when 3D was very much the hot new thing. As time has demonstrated, however, this experimentation in style not only helped to inspire a whole new genre, but it also allowed the game to age much more gracefully than it might have otherwise.
The game’s greatest strengths lie in where such differences become most pronounced. Rather than playing as the latest in a long line of vanquishers, you instead control the main antagonist’s estranged progeny, who chooses the path of forgiveness while his father seeks bloody revenge for mankind’s transgressions. Alucard is a far cry from any Belmont, Morris or Lecarde, or even Belnades, being capable of many of the supernatural feats one would expect of those with vampiric heritage. And also unlike most of his predecessors, Alucard is not a static avatar – his equipment and statistics change throughout the course of the game, and consequently he can grow in ability and power. Gone is your linear and segmented tour through Dracula’s domain, and while many sections are initially kept just out of your reach, you will eventually find ways to overcome your obstacles until not a single inch is off limits to you. Being given the keys to a realm only seen in snippets throughout past games fleshes out the world of Castlevania and makes it much more tangible. Even from an audiovisual standpoint, things have been turned on their head: The original style inspired by classic horror films painted a dark, dirty and frightening picture of the eternal struggle between the Belmonts and the forces of evil. Here, Ayami Kojima’s rich and luxurious art direction accentuates the darkness while giving the characters and their surroundings a much more regal and majestic feeling. You really get a taste of the more decadent and intellectual lifestyle the Ţepeş family was at one point accustomed to. This is complemented by Michiru Yamane’s absolutely impeccable soundtrack, which is at different times dramatic, mysterious, eerie, or even funky, but always, always perfect for the scene it accompanies. These parallels even seem to be represented in the level design itself: After you pick over the castle once, you’re presented with a version of it that has both literally and figuratively been turned on its head, forcing you to reacquaint yourself with something you were only a short while ago intimately familiar with. When all of its aspects come together, the game manages to break free of any expectations and provide an experience that feels remarkably fresh, both in spite of the venerable foundation it’s built on and the trends of its era.
This concept is probably best exemplified in the game’s balance… Or its lack thereof. When you start the game, Alucard is absolutely busted. The handful of enemies you encounter in the castle’s entrance hall may as well be ants for how easily he can stomp all over them. You might briefly wonder if this game is going to be an utter cakewalk from start to finish. Then Death shows up and yoinks your fancy gear, and suddenly you feel pitifully weak even compared to the relatively mundane protagonists of previous games. A lot of time in the early-to-middle game is spent leveling up and scrounging for new equipment, whether by picking up drops from enemies or nabbing treasures. Each time you pick up an item, you’ll be cracking open that menu screen to see where any improvements lie. Over time, though, you’ll accrue a fearsome arsenal. As you scour the castle from top to bottom (and then bottom to top again) you’ll discover many secrets and hopefully learn a few new tricks along the way as well. Eventually you’ll get to know Castlevania like the back of your porcelain hand and will probably have stumbled across at least one of the various game-breakers on offer. That sampling of power you had right at the beginning grows into a feast. I imagine the first person who found a Crissaegrim nearly peed their pants when they realized they’d just picked up a weapon that almost automatically wins the game. Did you know you can equip two of those at once? How about the absolutely nutters Shield Rod combos – especially when you’re using the Alucard Shield? Did you master the input for Soul Steal? Level up your familiars to their maximums? How about other ways you can trivialize things? That doppleganger was pretty irritating, huh? Equip that otherwise useless Red Rust and you can completely shut it down. Wow, this bonus boss’s attacks really sting. Slip this magic circlet on your head; it’ll make your life a lot easier. Symphony of the Night does not care if you cheat. It encourages it. This is your house. If you’re so inclined, you can turn it into your playground, and once you get bored of it you can head off to curbstomp your nuisance of a father and get on with your life. I would never call this game especially difficult. However, it establishes a certain kind of power fantasy for the player and lets them indulge in it, which I can definitely respect. Anybody who tells you they wouldn’t want to be a pretty dhampir with a big castle and a cool sword is either lying or hasn’t played SotN.
And yes, the uneven difficulty can just as easily be a turn-off for somebody who was accustomed to the more daunting challenges of earlier games in the franchise. Your wandering will certainly feel a bit aimless at times, an attribute of many of SotN’s descendants that I know a few people wish would have remained squarely in the past. Some foes can be a real chore to deal with, which in turn makes some areas the kind few would ever wish to retread. The second half of the game can feel like padding, and not every part of the game feels quite as good to explore upside-down. It’s easy to balk at the cheesy voice acting and dialogue (though I personally feel the excessive ham is a perfect match for the game’s aesthetics, and I have a real soft spot for Robert Belgrade’s performance as Alucard). And to the person who simply cannot leave any stone unturned: You definitely have your work cut out for you if you pass on using a guide. However, while I think Alucard’s adventure can be a little weak at times, I still find myself unable to resist the occasional urge to return to that castle and recapture the magic I felt in uncovering its wealth of secrets. Even for as many other games like Symphony of the Night I’ve played, within or without its own series, none of them have quite succeeded in providing me with the same dignified pleasures as that first moonlit stroll. Not bad for 1997.
By the way, the “updated” version included in The Dracula X Chronicles tries to remove all of the delicious cheese, so please don’t play it. But you probably won’t listen to me anyway, will you?
I’m a very easy wizard to please. Give me an entertaining game with a tight aesthetic and a killer soundtrack and there’s a solid chance I’ll at least remember it years down the line. Castlevania has always managed to check all of those boxes for me. The tale of a family of badass vampire slayers dedicated to putting a stop to Dracula’s plans generation after generation is all I really needed to get invested. And yet, I must admit that while I had played nearly all of them up to a point, I couldn’t claim to have actually beaten one yet. I could come close, but for some reason, none of the games ever quite managed to sink their claws deep enough into me that they could convince me to make that last leap. I’ve since rectified that, but even back then, I could tell right away that Symphony of the Night was something… Different. When I first dove into it some fifteen or so years ago, I became so entranced by its pale moonlit glow that I was briefly concerned that I might never leave. I suppose, at least in my mind, I never did.
As with other games where discovery is so crucial to the game’s appeal, I recommend you experience the game for yourself before reading this review.
Five years after Dracula’s defeat at the hands of Richter Belmont, the titular castle suddenly reappears, decidedly ahead of schedule. Unfortunately for humanity, Richter himself is nowhere to be found. With seemingly nobody else up to the task of investigating this regrettable turn of events, Alucard, the son of Dracula, reluctantly awakens from his self-imposed eternal slumber with the intent of infiltrating Castlevania and putting a stop to this aberration. As he combs the darkest depths of the place he once called home in search of answers, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to resurrect the Dark Lord – and a long and bitter family feud comes to a head.
With Symphony of the Night being as revered as it is, both in the past and present, it can be a little hard to remember that it was (and still can be) divisive with a select few for being both too different and not different enough. As far as Castlevania as a series is concerned, forgoing the previous stage-and-score based gameplay with a heavy emphasis on platforming challenges for something much more RPG-ish and exploratory in nature didn’t sit well with absolutely everyone. Given its nearest neighbor in that respect, it’s not too hard to see how some might have been apprehensive about it. It also didn’t always impress on a technical level due to insisting upon retaining the 2D visuals and gameplay when 3D was very much the hot new thing. As time has demonstrated, however, this experimentation in style not only helped to inspire a whole new genre, but it also allowed the game to age much more gracefully than it might have otherwise.
The game’s greatest strengths lie in where such differences become most pronounced. Rather than playing as the latest in a long line of vanquishers, you instead control the main antagonist’s estranged progeny, who chooses the path of forgiveness while his father seeks bloody revenge for mankind’s transgressions. Alucard is a far cry from any Belmont, Morris or Lecarde, or even Belnades, being capable of many of the supernatural feats one would expect of those with vampiric heritage. And also unlike most of his predecessors, Alucard is not a static avatar – his equipment and statistics change throughout the course of the game, and consequently he can grow in ability and power. Gone is your linear and segmented tour through Dracula’s domain, and while many sections are initially kept just out of your reach, you will eventually find ways to overcome your obstacles until not a single inch is off limits to you. Being given the keys to a realm only seen in snippets throughout past games fleshes out the world of Castlevania and makes it much more tangible. Even from an audiovisual standpoint, things have been turned on their head: The original style inspired by classic horror films painted a dark, dirty and frightening picture of the eternal struggle between the Belmonts and the forces of evil. Here, Ayami Kojima’s rich and luxurious art direction accentuates the darkness while giving the characters and their surroundings a much more regal and majestic feeling. You really get a taste of the more decadent and intellectual lifestyle the Ţepeş family was at one point accustomed to. This is complemented by Michiru Yamane’s absolutely impeccable soundtrack, which is at different times dramatic, mysterious, eerie, or even funky, but always, always perfect for the scene it accompanies. These parallels even seem to be represented in the level design itself: After you pick over the castle once, you’re presented with a version of it that has both literally and figuratively been turned on its head, forcing you to reacquaint yourself with something you were only a short while ago intimately familiar with. When all of its aspects come together, the game manages to break free of any expectations and provide an experience that feels remarkably fresh, both in spite of the venerable foundation it’s built on and the trends of its era.
This concept is probably best exemplified in the game’s balance… Or its lack thereof. When you start the game, Alucard is absolutely busted. The handful of enemies you encounter in the castle’s entrance hall may as well be ants for how easily he can stomp all over them. You might briefly wonder if this game is going to be an utter cakewalk from start to finish. Then Death shows up and yoinks your fancy gear, and suddenly you feel pitifully weak even compared to the relatively mundane protagonists of previous games. A lot of time in the early-to-middle game is spent leveling up and scrounging for new equipment, whether by picking up drops from enemies or nabbing treasures. Each time you pick up an item, you’ll be cracking open that menu screen to see where any improvements lie. Over time, though, you’ll accrue a fearsome arsenal. As you scour the castle from top to bottom (and then bottom to top again) you’ll discover many secrets and hopefully learn a few new tricks along the way as well. Eventually you’ll get to know Castlevania like the back of your porcelain hand and will probably have stumbled across at least one of the various game-breakers on offer. That sampling of power you had right at the beginning grows into a feast. I imagine the first person who found a Crissaegrim nearly peed their pants when they realized they’d just picked up a weapon that almost automatically wins the game. Did you know you can equip two of those at once? How about the absolutely nutters Shield Rod combos – especially when you’re using the Alucard Shield? Did you master the input for Soul Steal? Level up your familiars to their maximums? How about other ways you can trivialize things? That doppleganger was pretty irritating, huh? Equip that otherwise useless Red Rust and you can completely shut it down. Wow, this bonus boss’s attacks really sting. Slip this magic circlet on your head; it’ll make your life a lot easier. Symphony of the Night does not care if you cheat. It encourages it. This is your house. If you’re so inclined, you can turn it into your playground, and once you get bored of it you can head off to curbstomp your nuisance of a father and get on with your life. I would never call this game especially difficult. However, it establishes a certain kind of power fantasy for the player and lets them indulge in it, which I can definitely respect. Anybody who tells you they wouldn’t want to be a pretty dhampir with a big castle and a cool sword is either lying or hasn’t played SotN.
And yes, the uneven difficulty can just as easily be a turn-off for somebody who was accustomed to the more daunting challenges of earlier games in the franchise. Your wandering will certainly feel a bit aimless at times, an attribute of many of SotN’s descendants that I know a few people wish would have remained squarely in the past. Some foes can be a real chore to deal with, which in turn makes some areas the kind few would ever wish to retread. The second half of the game can feel like padding, and not every part of the game feels quite as good to explore upside-down. It’s easy to balk at the cheesy voice acting and dialogue (though I personally feel the excessive ham is a perfect match for the game’s aesthetics, and I have a real soft spot for Robert Belgrade’s performance as Alucard). And to the person who simply cannot leave any stone unturned: You definitely have your work cut out for you if you pass on using a guide. However, while I think Alucard’s adventure can be a little weak at times, I still find myself unable to resist the occasional urge to return to that castle and recapture the magic I felt in uncovering its wealth of secrets. Even for as many other games like Symphony of the Night I’ve played, within or without its own series, none of them have quite succeeded in providing me with the same dignified pleasures as that first moonlit stroll. Not bad for 1997.
By the way, the “updated” version included in The Dracula X Chronicles tries to remove all of the delicious cheese, so please don’t play it. But you probably won’t listen to me anyway, will you?
Allow me to present you with a question you might groan at the mere sight of witnessing it, fellow reader, that being: are videogames art?
To that I say a resound:... they are even better than that
I really don’t know where to even start with Katamari Damacy, much like with the weird kind-of-not-spherical bringers of chaos and destruction that give the game’s name, there isn’t really a beginning or end, it just keeps on rollin’...
I wouldn’t be the first to gush about its uniqueness, both in its completely bonkers yet adorably silly presentation and its rather peculiar control scheme, one that definitively takes some time to adjust to, but one you do it’s like riding on a bike. Managing both joysticks, knowing when to turn and when to stop, where to go and what to evade, it’s a waltz performed by a mystical otter that plays the accordion, and you may be thinking ‘’Deemon, that doesn’t make sense at all’’ and to that I say EXACTLY! It’s a hectic loop, there were times I was sweating wondering if I’d even come close to the required size to beat the game, only to steam roll while some of the most varied and oddly beautiful bangers play in the background, some even compliment you! And that’s when the stress starts to mix with an zen sensation, a melding process that culminates once you do it, you manage to reach the required size, and from your mind an profound and sound ‘’WOOOOOOOOO!’’ sensation appears as you begin to try to go even higher, reaching uncontemplated horizons by your small prince mind and achieve a perfect star shine... only for the King of the Universe to go ‘’You call this a star? Oh me oh my.’’ ...
It feels too chaotic, and yet, it’s perfectly calculated. There are so many maps that it feels like new surprises are neverending, yet there are so little that learning their routing becomes essential as well as pretty rewarding; there’s so much stuff that it may be hard to know where to start or on what you can even roll over, yet it’s placement is so finely tuned, so perfectly put together that it begins to be like a puzzle that gets easier as you go along, and even throws some extra challenges like finding the scattered gifts across the globe or trying out the constellation stages. Even when the King of the Universe throws you to repair his ‘’naughtiness’’ or time seems of the essence, there's always a moment of respite, a small victory whether it’s in pure calmness or pure ectasis, or something as simple as triying to find out a new crazy set up or what do they ask of you next. Going from having to just achieve 1 meter to the three-digit numbers was a feeling of progression that seems simple, but I wasn’t expecting to see so well-crafted in so little time, to make me keep coming back time and time again may to grab a scarf or shirt on the way, or get the biggest cow possible and make one hell of a Taurus.
The little intermissions, the songs, the movement... it’s such a silly experience, and I use that word with the best intent imaginable. Katamari Damacy is comfy and hilarious, stressful and maddening, a cocktail of emotions I don’t think a game has made me feel in such a way. There’s not a ton of games that say goodbye when closing them, and even among them, Katamari does it with an irreplicable sweetness, the same with which i does everything else.
You gotta defeat mouses if you want to go up against a Kraken, you need to see small worlds before going through the globe, and of course, if you want to make the sky shine, you gotta keep rollin’
And before I wrap this up, huge thanks to @Drax for recommending me this one, it was the reason I came back to it after giving it a go in 2022 and dropping it near the beggning and I’m so glad I returned, it was beyond worth it...
To that I say a resound:... they are even better than that
I really don’t know where to even start with Katamari Damacy, much like with the weird kind-of-not-spherical bringers of chaos and destruction that give the game’s name, there isn’t really a beginning or end, it just keeps on rollin’...
I wouldn’t be the first to gush about its uniqueness, both in its completely bonkers yet adorably silly presentation and its rather peculiar control scheme, one that definitively takes some time to adjust to, but one you do it’s like riding on a bike. Managing both joysticks, knowing when to turn and when to stop, where to go and what to evade, it’s a waltz performed by a mystical otter that plays the accordion, and you may be thinking ‘’Deemon, that doesn’t make sense at all’’ and to that I say EXACTLY! It’s a hectic loop, there were times I was sweating wondering if I’d even come close to the required size to beat the game, only to steam roll while some of the most varied and oddly beautiful bangers play in the background, some even compliment you! And that’s when the stress starts to mix with an zen sensation, a melding process that culminates once you do it, you manage to reach the required size, and from your mind an profound and sound ‘’WOOOOOOOOO!’’ sensation appears as you begin to try to go even higher, reaching uncontemplated horizons by your small prince mind and achieve a perfect star shine... only for the King of the Universe to go ‘’You call this a star? Oh me oh my.’’ ...
It feels too chaotic, and yet, it’s perfectly calculated. There are so many maps that it feels like new surprises are neverending, yet there are so little that learning their routing becomes essential as well as pretty rewarding; there’s so much stuff that it may be hard to know where to start or on what you can even roll over, yet it’s placement is so finely tuned, so perfectly put together that it begins to be like a puzzle that gets easier as you go along, and even throws some extra challenges like finding the scattered gifts across the globe or trying out the constellation stages. Even when the King of the Universe throws you to repair his ‘’naughtiness’’ or time seems of the essence, there's always a moment of respite, a small victory whether it’s in pure calmness or pure ectasis, or something as simple as triying to find out a new crazy set up or what do they ask of you next. Going from having to just achieve 1 meter to the three-digit numbers was a feeling of progression that seems simple, but I wasn’t expecting to see so well-crafted in so little time, to make me keep coming back time and time again may to grab a scarf or shirt on the way, or get the biggest cow possible and make one hell of a Taurus.
The little intermissions, the songs, the movement... it’s such a silly experience, and I use that word with the best intent imaginable. Katamari Damacy is comfy and hilarious, stressful and maddening, a cocktail of emotions I don’t think a game has made me feel in such a way. There’s not a ton of games that say goodbye when closing them, and even among them, Katamari does it with an irreplicable sweetness, the same with which i does everything else.
You gotta defeat mouses if you want to go up against a Kraken, you need to see small worlds before going through the globe, and of course, if you want to make the sky shine, you gotta keep rollin’
And before I wrap this up, huge thanks to @Drax for recommending me this one, it was the reason I came back to it after giving it a go in 2022 and dropping it near the beggning and I’m so glad I returned, it was beyond worth it...
Silent Hill: The Short Message is, not very good. I don't think it's bad, the themes of the story are really solid and the design of the creature as well as the atmosphere is great too. However, this 2 hour free game doesn't do this story concept justice and leaves too much on the table. And the gameplay is just, walking with a few terrible chases and a simple puzzle. This game had a potential but it needed to be longer with a bigger budget and with a few more gameplay mechanics.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
IT'S TRAUMA
Silent Hill needs to be back, somehow someway. We need this franchise in gaming, please. And to be fair, Konami seems to be genuinely trying this time. However, the teams they put their trust in are not very good game developers. At least so far. Genvid's Ascension is basically a cash grab, Bloober's 2 Remake looks terrible and now we have HexaDrive's Short Message. Let's see what they've done.
Our plot is about 3 girls. Amelie, Maya and the character we play as, Anita. After getting a message from Maya, Anita travels to an abandoned building that is popular among graffiti artists and among young people as a suicide spot. As Anita explores the building, she uncovers disturbing information about Maya, Amelie and even revists her own traumatic past.
Themes of the plot here are great and very modern. It's about being yourself, believing in yourself, the need to be accepted, social media usage and friendship issues in our day and age. However, it took me 2 hours to finish the game with thorough exploration. So if you rush it, I'm sure it can be completed in 75-80 minutes.
For a game experience as short as this one, trying to touch on all those topics and make a good story is an almost impossible task. And the writers of this game weren't able to find a way to do it. Almost all of the topics I mentioned are briefly discussed and because you can't fully connect to these characters, you just don't feel anything during big story moments or reveals.
A 5-6 hour bigger budget but still smaller scale game would do this story justice. In this form, the story is just mediocre. Oh and by the way, dialogues are very cringe. The subject matter is handled well and yes, thoughts of today's youngsters have been captured nicely but the portrayal of those thoughts with the dialogues are nothing like what today's generation talks like.
If we turn our attention to the gameplay front, well, we can't see much. Short Message is just a walking simulator. You are in a building, you walk around, look at diaries or messages and that's most of what the gameplay here is all about.
Are there any puzzles? There is one. It's not something that's too hard, I wished there were more puzzles but seeing that one puzzle was a nice change of pace. And there are chase sequences. Which, doesn't work. I mean, they work. There are like 4 of them and yes, they are tense encounters.
The monster's design here is also pretty unique and suits the story well. However, the problem is the third and especially final chase sequences. In the third one, the way you need to go is not clear so I had to try it a couple of times. The monster got me. It was due to skill too probably. I'm sure some people with better reflexes could beat that in one go. But the final one? The monster is constantly chasing you, everywhere looks the same so you feel like you are in a labyrinth.
And you need to find 5-6 different photos which will unlock a locked door. I spent like 20 minutes on this chase. Like I said, the place is like a labyrinth with not much enough things to differentiate each place. So you will go back and forth to the same places you go.
Exploring them is also not possible because the monster just doesn't let you go. Obviously, it one shots you by the way. And it can teleport. It can teleport to right in front of you. You open a door and it's right in front of you.
So TLDR, gameplay is also mediocre just like the story. Exploring, learning about the story that's all fine. And the one puzzle was a nice addition. But those 2 chases, especially that last one took a lot of my enjoyment. Not that I had too much of in in the first place...
Finally, let's talk technical stuff. Our character's face model is weird but the overall atmosphere is strong. Especially in the chases, atmosphere is fantastic. However, there are frame drops. I played this on PS5 and I think that's the only platform it's available on and there are constant frame drops. It's annoying. The game is not very fast paced so it doesn't kill the experience but it's annoying.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is, not very good. I don't think it's bad, the themes of the story are really solid and the design of the creature as well as the atmosphere is great too. However, this 2 hour free game doesn't do this story concept justice and leaves too much on the table. And the gameplay is just, walking with a few terrible chases and a simple puzzle. This game had a potential but it needed to be longer with a bigger budget and with a few more gameplay mechanics.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
IT'S TRAUMA
Silent Hill needs to be back, somehow someway. We need this franchise in gaming, please. And to be fair, Konami seems to be genuinely trying this time. However, the teams they put their trust in are not very good game developers. At least so far. Genvid's Ascension is basically a cash grab, Bloober's 2 Remake looks terrible and now we have HexaDrive's Short Message. Let's see what they've done.
Our plot is about 3 girls. Amelie, Maya and the character we play as, Anita. After getting a message from Maya, Anita travels to an abandoned building that is popular among graffiti artists and among young people as a suicide spot. As Anita explores the building, she uncovers disturbing information about Maya, Amelie and even revists her own traumatic past.
Themes of the plot here are great and very modern. It's about being yourself, believing in yourself, the need to be accepted, social media usage and friendship issues in our day and age. However, it took me 2 hours to finish the game with thorough exploration. So if you rush it, I'm sure it can be completed in 75-80 minutes.
For a game experience as short as this one, trying to touch on all those topics and make a good story is an almost impossible task. And the writers of this game weren't able to find a way to do it. Almost all of the topics I mentioned are briefly discussed and because you can't fully connect to these characters, you just don't feel anything during big story moments or reveals.
A 5-6 hour bigger budget but still smaller scale game would do this story justice. In this form, the story is just mediocre. Oh and by the way, dialogues are very cringe. The subject matter is handled well and yes, thoughts of today's youngsters have been captured nicely but the portrayal of those thoughts with the dialogues are nothing like what today's generation talks like.
If we turn our attention to the gameplay front, well, we can't see much. Short Message is just a walking simulator. You are in a building, you walk around, look at diaries or messages and that's most of what the gameplay here is all about.
Are there any puzzles? There is one. It's not something that's too hard, I wished there were more puzzles but seeing that one puzzle was a nice change of pace. And there are chase sequences. Which, doesn't work. I mean, they work. There are like 4 of them and yes, they are tense encounters.
The monster's design here is also pretty unique and suits the story well. However, the problem is the third and especially final chase sequences. In the third one, the way you need to go is not clear so I had to try it a couple of times. The monster got me. It was due to skill too probably. I'm sure some people with better reflexes could beat that in one go. But the final one? The monster is constantly chasing you, everywhere looks the same so you feel like you are in a labyrinth.
And you need to find 5-6 different photos which will unlock a locked door. I spent like 20 minutes on this chase. Like I said, the place is like a labyrinth with not much enough things to differentiate each place. So you will go back and forth to the same places you go.
Exploring them is also not possible because the monster just doesn't let you go. Obviously, it one shots you by the way. And it can teleport. It can teleport to right in front of you. You open a door and it's right in front of you.
So TLDR, gameplay is also mediocre just like the story. Exploring, learning about the story that's all fine. And the one puzzle was a nice addition. But those 2 chases, especially that last one took a lot of my enjoyment. Not that I had too much of in in the first place...
Finally, let's talk technical stuff. Our character's face model is weird but the overall atmosphere is strong. Especially in the chases, atmosphere is fantastic. However, there are frame drops. I played this on PS5 and I think that's the only platform it's available on and there are constant frame drops. It's annoying. The game is not very fast paced so it doesn't kill the experience but it's annoying.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is, not very good. I don't think it's bad, the themes of the story are really solid and the design of the creature as well as the atmosphere is great too. However, this 2 hour free game doesn't do this story concept justice and leaves too much on the table. And the gameplay is just, walking with a few terrible chases and a simple puzzle. This game had a potential but it needed to be longer with a bigger budget and with a few more gameplay mechanics.
Tunic
2022
Tunic is the game that bridges the gap between Zelda and Dark Souls. In terms of vibes, it's all Zelda -- just look at that little fox's outfit! -- but the gameplay borrows from both influences evenly. I see it as a spiritual brother to Death's Door. Death's Door leans a bit more Souls, Tunic leans a bit more Zelda.
The real star here is the world design. Every area is well considered, neither too big nor too small, and they all feel like part of one big place. It's true that the map itself is a clear riff off classic Zelda, complete with a mountain to the north, but hey, if a developer can take a good design and make it feel fresh, who am I to complain? I also love how the isometric design is used intentionally to hide shortcuts in plain sight. If you like Dark Souls-style shortcuts, you're gonna love some of these.
Much hullabaloo has been made about the in-game manual, and I must agree that it's an awesome addition, especially to gamers like me who used to flip through NES manuals like they were sacred texts. In a lesser game it could come off as a gimmick, but in Tunic it feels like icing on top of an already delectable experience.
Why only four stars, then? Well, combat is serviceable rather than great. The lock-on system feels a slightly at odds with the isometric POV -- it's a bit too easy to get locked onto a distant enemy when there's one right in your face. Given that the player can have both melee and projectile weapons equipped at the same time, I can see why it works this way, but that hardly makes me feel less annoyed when my sword swings in the wrong direction.
The other issue for me has to do with pacing and the true ending. Simply put, the basic ending is unsatisfying, while getting the real ending involves solving an intricate puzzle that delves too far into Fez territory for my liking. I can't knock the game too much for this, though, because the puzzles are well designed and I respect the amount of thought the development team put into them.
Though it wears its influence on its sleeve, Tunic still manages to feel unique, like more than just a tribute. It strikes a perfect balance between nostalgia and modern game design. Don't miss it.
The real star here is the world design. Every area is well considered, neither too big nor too small, and they all feel like part of one big place. It's true that the map itself is a clear riff off classic Zelda, complete with a mountain to the north, but hey, if a developer can take a good design and make it feel fresh, who am I to complain? I also love how the isometric design is used intentionally to hide shortcuts in plain sight. If you like Dark Souls-style shortcuts, you're gonna love some of these.
Much hullabaloo has been made about the in-game manual, and I must agree that it's an awesome addition, especially to gamers like me who used to flip through NES manuals like they were sacred texts. In a lesser game it could come off as a gimmick, but in Tunic it feels like icing on top of an already delectable experience.
Why only four stars, then? Well, combat is serviceable rather than great. The lock-on system feels a slightly at odds with the isometric POV -- it's a bit too easy to get locked onto a distant enemy when there's one right in your face. Given that the player can have both melee and projectile weapons equipped at the same time, I can see why it works this way, but that hardly makes me feel less annoyed when my sword swings in the wrong direction.
The other issue for me has to do with pacing and the true ending. Simply put, the basic ending is unsatisfying, while getting the real ending involves solving an intricate puzzle that delves too far into Fez territory for my liking. I can't knock the game too much for this, though, because the puzzles are well designed and I respect the amount of thought the development team put into them.
Though it wears its influence on its sleeve, Tunic still manages to feel unique, like more than just a tribute. It strikes a perfect balance between nostalgia and modern game design. Don't miss it.