Pen
2000
It sounds hyperbolic when I say it, but I don't think there's a single thing this game does that I didn't enjoy more in the PS1 trio of Armored Core games. The one thing it unquestionably does have over them though is that the game runs at a smooth 60fps which feels very nice coming from the low-framerate PS1 titles. Outside of that though the quality of this sequel is extremely dubious.
Gameplay feels more sluggish in general than in the first generation AC games. Even the faster core parts don't seem to have the responsiveness of the prior title. Any sense of arcade-like speed and action is dulled down. The one major movement mechanic added is the overboost, a high speed dash that drains your meter quickly. Outside of Arena matches though its uses are relatively few as it's an unwieldy maneuver and many stages take place in cramped quarters where its utility is limited.
While the jump from the PS1 to PS2 hardware is impressive and AC2 is probably one of the better looking launch titles I still can't help but prefer the art direction in the prior game. It's a shame since moving from Earth to Mars seemed like an opportunity for all sorts of beautiful colors, but this is rarely taken advantage of. AC1 had bold, strong color choices that helped to accentuate the game's atmosphere, whereas 2 has far more muted tones that turn many missions into a muddy soup of grey and brown colors. There's nothing here that wowed me like the Moon Arena stage from the previous generation of titles. It's an unremarkable-looking game.
Mission design is probably where Armored Core 2 suffers most compared to its predecessor. Many stages feel drawn out and involve fighting waves of weak enemies that filter into the map slowly. It feels as though there's less creativity and variety, with more defense missions taking place over smaller maps. There's nothing as interesting as venturing into an insect hive to destroy the queen, or the trek through a base full of corrosive acid to disable it. The stage bounds felt very restrictive and arbitrary as well, as I found myself accidentally moving out of bounds a number of times, something that was never a problem in the original three games.
The arena from AC1's expansions return and is probably the least compromised aspect of the game. I had the most fun with this. Some of the high-ranking arena ACs are absolute monsters and it feels great when you finally beat their cheating asses. This is probably the most fun I had with AC2.
The plot of this one follows AC1's blueprint nearly beat-for-beat. It's a conspiracy laden plot about a dystopian post-war future full of evil corporations, power hungry players, backstabbing and the like. The storytelling is still mostly done by mail and mission briefings, though with more funny 6th gen voice acting. It feels less subdued here though. AC1 didn't need to have characters say things like "you only exists because of corporations" to get that same point across.
I feel a bit bad for being so harsh on the game. I don't think it's an outright bad game, but it's also hard to justify playing when it's directly inferior to its predecessor and does so little new. It feels like a game you can easily skip playing and not miss much.
Gameplay feels more sluggish in general than in the first generation AC games. Even the faster core parts don't seem to have the responsiveness of the prior title. Any sense of arcade-like speed and action is dulled down. The one major movement mechanic added is the overboost, a high speed dash that drains your meter quickly. Outside of Arena matches though its uses are relatively few as it's an unwieldy maneuver and many stages take place in cramped quarters where its utility is limited.
While the jump from the PS1 to PS2 hardware is impressive and AC2 is probably one of the better looking launch titles I still can't help but prefer the art direction in the prior game. It's a shame since moving from Earth to Mars seemed like an opportunity for all sorts of beautiful colors, but this is rarely taken advantage of. AC1 had bold, strong color choices that helped to accentuate the game's atmosphere, whereas 2 has far more muted tones that turn many missions into a muddy soup of grey and brown colors. There's nothing here that wowed me like the Moon Arena stage from the previous generation of titles. It's an unremarkable-looking game.
Mission design is probably where Armored Core 2 suffers most compared to its predecessor. Many stages feel drawn out and involve fighting waves of weak enemies that filter into the map slowly. It feels as though there's less creativity and variety, with more defense missions taking place over smaller maps. There's nothing as interesting as venturing into an insect hive to destroy the queen, or the trek through a base full of corrosive acid to disable it. The stage bounds felt very restrictive and arbitrary as well, as I found myself accidentally moving out of bounds a number of times, something that was never a problem in the original three games.
The arena from AC1's expansions return and is probably the least compromised aspect of the game. I had the most fun with this. Some of the high-ranking arena ACs are absolute monsters and it feels great when you finally beat their cheating asses. This is probably the most fun I had with AC2.
The plot of this one follows AC1's blueprint nearly beat-for-beat. It's a conspiracy laden plot about a dystopian post-war future full of evil corporations, power hungry players, backstabbing and the like. The storytelling is still mostly done by mail and mission briefings, though with more funny 6th gen voice acting. It feels less subdued here though. AC1 didn't need to have characters say things like "you only exists because of corporations" to get that same point across.
I feel a bit bad for being so harsh on the game. I don't think it's an outright bad game, but it's also hard to justify playing when it's directly inferior to its predecessor and does so little new. It feels like a game you can easily skip playing and not miss much.
The credits for the original release of Pokemon Red lists just 23 names, for Silver this was bumped up slightly to 28. By contrast Pokemon Sapphire features more than 60 developers in its credits. The transition from the Gameboy Color to GBA was apparently a difficult one for Game Freak as recounted in interviews, with this also being the first title in which Masuda took over as full time Director.
Despite the apparent internal difficulties I would say it doesn't show much in the final product, as Sapphire comes across as an extremely polished and good-looking GBA game. The spritework both on the overworld and in battle has taken a considerable leap in detail. The use of negative space is pared back as all battles and tiles on the overworld now feature full-colored backgrounds.
This all works to give the game a vibrant, colorful feeling that suits the tone of adventure and exploring a completely new place that's set up by the intro of our character moving to a new town. There's none of the melancholy of Gen 2 here, with Hoenn portrayed as a distinctly lively and energetic place full of adventure.
This game also marks the point at which more overt fantasy elements started to become introduced into the world. Obviously the Pokemon themselves were always fantastical creatures, but outside of this the world of Red/Blue felt more like an analogue to our own modern day world with the presence of Pokemon being the key distinguishing factor. Even the most powerful legendary Pokemon was a product of science rather than divine intervention. Silver/Gold took us to a more rural setting and introduced more elements of mythology to the world, but largely left the veracity of these elements as mysteries for the player to speculate on.
Sapphire (and its sister game Ruby) are the first time we see Pokemon displaying god-like, world changing powers outside of random Pokedex entries that have no bearing on the actual gameplay. It's also the first time in which legendary Pokemon feature prominently in the plot (as despite their presence on the box art the legendaries remained optional sidequests in Gold/Silver). Now they both define the plot as well as dictate progress through the game more so than the traditional league championship story does. The environments we travel also end up feeling more fantastical and divorced from our own world than those in Gold and Silver were, with Sootopolis and Fortree being notable examples.
Technically some of these elements were first introduced in Crystal, which leaves that particular title as a sort of bridge between the storytelling of the first two generations and this one. While attempting to do something new isn't a bad thing, the overall plot is very sparse and a little bit nonsensical even for a lighthearted adventure. I ultimately preferred the more proactive storylines of Red and Silver, but a better execution of what Sapphire goes for wouldn't necessarily be bad.
Some big mechanical shakeups are introduced in this generation with the addition of Natures and Abilities for Pokemon. Abilities add a nice bit of battle flavor to each Pokemon beyond just their stats and learnsets, and while they do increase the burden of knowledge on the player I think it's ultimately well worth it. I was impressed with how conservative the abilities in this game are as well, with very few absurdly powerful ones (though some like intimidate are clearly a cut above the rest).
I'm slightly more mixed on the inclusion of Natures, which determine which of a Pokemon's core stats will be increased and decreased. While nice for adding variety on paper, there's no doubt that some Natures simply mesh better with certain Pokemon. As such it can be disappointing to catch something you wanted and realize it has a Nature that is almost entirely detrimental to it. Most Pokemon will have around 4-8 of the 25 Natures that benefit their playstyle. This means they're far more likely to have a suboptimal one, and while they may still be perfectly usable for completing the game that fact will always nag at the back of your mind once you understand the system.
On another gameplay front Game Freak did make efforts to improve Pokemon learnsets in this game. While they're still fairly conservative most Pokemon continue to gain better moves as they level up now, with very few 'garbage' moves at higher levels as they once had. Access to coverage moves (particularly by TMs) has increased somewhat too, and while still restrictive enough to keep teambuilding interesting it does somewhat move Pokemon further away from the rock-paper-scissors dynamic that defined Red/Blue and mostly remained true in Silver/Gold. Switching to make better use of type advantage is ultimately less effective when many Pokemon will have sneaky moves unrelated to their type in their arsenal.
This especially hurts Pokemon with lots of weaknesses and specific defensive roles like Aggron. We're not quite at the point where it's easy to have an individual Pokemon that can cover all its own weaknesses, but we do inch ever closer to that potential future. There's at least little/no power creep visible in this game and if anything many of the Hoenn Pokemon aside from some obvious contenders feel a bit weak compared to their Kanto/Johto counterparts.
While Sapphire is still a comfortably easy game to play through it does contain more advanced enemy trainer AI and better team composition than any of the Gameboy games. Trainers are more likely to have evolved Pokemon later into the game and to make more effective use of their moves, some even employing niche strategies. A random Milotic-carrying NPC toward the mid-late game even managed to surprise me with their defensive strategy that nearly managed to take my team out.
Sapphire notably cuts back on the more immersive elements introduced in Gold/Silver. There's no more day/night cycle or phone and while the real-time clock still exists its only major use is for growing berries. Events based upon days of the week are a thing of the past and ultimately the game returns to the more focused, adventure-based structure of Red and Blue. It is also even more linear than both previous games with few points in which the player can get badges out of order (and virtually no reason to when they can). This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it leads to a more focused gameplay experience and Ruby/Sapphire come with their own additional gameplay elements in the form of secret bases, and more notably contests.
Contests provide a method of progression and gameplay for raising Pokemon that doesn't involve battle, which makes them a fantastic introduction to the overall gameplay structure. I do wish there was slightly more to them, as it'd be great if contests had their own alternate 'endgame' like the battling side of the equation, but even without that they're still a nice feature. Secret bases are more limited in scope and basically expand on the room decorating element of Gold and Silver, but with far more decoration options as well as the ability for the player to choose where in the overworld they want their base. There's not ultimately much you can really do with them, but it is a fun little side feature for those that want to keep on playing.
It's very difficult for me to find faults with Sapphire as it's a polished game with lots of fun features and content. It's admirable how well Game Freak were able to make their transition to the GBA seem effortless despite the apparent internal struggles with this title. This easily ranks up there among the better games on a platform with a whole lot of good titles.
Despite the apparent internal difficulties I would say it doesn't show much in the final product, as Sapphire comes across as an extremely polished and good-looking GBA game. The spritework both on the overworld and in battle has taken a considerable leap in detail. The use of negative space is pared back as all battles and tiles on the overworld now feature full-colored backgrounds.
This all works to give the game a vibrant, colorful feeling that suits the tone of adventure and exploring a completely new place that's set up by the intro of our character moving to a new town. There's none of the melancholy of Gen 2 here, with Hoenn portrayed as a distinctly lively and energetic place full of adventure.
This game also marks the point at which more overt fantasy elements started to become introduced into the world. Obviously the Pokemon themselves were always fantastical creatures, but outside of this the world of Red/Blue felt more like an analogue to our own modern day world with the presence of Pokemon being the key distinguishing factor. Even the most powerful legendary Pokemon was a product of science rather than divine intervention. Silver/Gold took us to a more rural setting and introduced more elements of mythology to the world, but largely left the veracity of these elements as mysteries for the player to speculate on.
Sapphire (and its sister game Ruby) are the first time we see Pokemon displaying god-like, world changing powers outside of random Pokedex entries that have no bearing on the actual gameplay. It's also the first time in which legendary Pokemon feature prominently in the plot (as despite their presence on the box art the legendaries remained optional sidequests in Gold/Silver). Now they both define the plot as well as dictate progress through the game more so than the traditional league championship story does. The environments we travel also end up feeling more fantastical and divorced from our own world than those in Gold and Silver were, with Sootopolis and Fortree being notable examples.
Technically some of these elements were first introduced in Crystal, which leaves that particular title as a sort of bridge between the storytelling of the first two generations and this one. While attempting to do something new isn't a bad thing, the overall plot is very sparse and a little bit nonsensical even for a lighthearted adventure. I ultimately preferred the more proactive storylines of Red and Silver, but a better execution of what Sapphire goes for wouldn't necessarily be bad.
Some big mechanical shakeups are introduced in this generation with the addition of Natures and Abilities for Pokemon. Abilities add a nice bit of battle flavor to each Pokemon beyond just their stats and learnsets, and while they do increase the burden of knowledge on the player I think it's ultimately well worth it. I was impressed with how conservative the abilities in this game are as well, with very few absurdly powerful ones (though some like intimidate are clearly a cut above the rest).
I'm slightly more mixed on the inclusion of Natures, which determine which of a Pokemon's core stats will be increased and decreased. While nice for adding variety on paper, there's no doubt that some Natures simply mesh better with certain Pokemon. As such it can be disappointing to catch something you wanted and realize it has a Nature that is almost entirely detrimental to it. Most Pokemon will have around 4-8 of the 25 Natures that benefit their playstyle. This means they're far more likely to have a suboptimal one, and while they may still be perfectly usable for completing the game that fact will always nag at the back of your mind once you understand the system.
On another gameplay front Game Freak did make efforts to improve Pokemon learnsets in this game. While they're still fairly conservative most Pokemon continue to gain better moves as they level up now, with very few 'garbage' moves at higher levels as they once had. Access to coverage moves (particularly by TMs) has increased somewhat too, and while still restrictive enough to keep teambuilding interesting it does somewhat move Pokemon further away from the rock-paper-scissors dynamic that defined Red/Blue and mostly remained true in Silver/Gold. Switching to make better use of type advantage is ultimately less effective when many Pokemon will have sneaky moves unrelated to their type in their arsenal.
This especially hurts Pokemon with lots of weaknesses and specific defensive roles like Aggron. We're not quite at the point where it's easy to have an individual Pokemon that can cover all its own weaknesses, but we do inch ever closer to that potential future. There's at least little/no power creep visible in this game and if anything many of the Hoenn Pokemon aside from some obvious contenders feel a bit weak compared to their Kanto/Johto counterparts.
While Sapphire is still a comfortably easy game to play through it does contain more advanced enemy trainer AI and better team composition than any of the Gameboy games. Trainers are more likely to have evolved Pokemon later into the game and to make more effective use of their moves, some even employing niche strategies. A random Milotic-carrying NPC toward the mid-late game even managed to surprise me with their defensive strategy that nearly managed to take my team out.
Sapphire notably cuts back on the more immersive elements introduced in Gold/Silver. There's no more day/night cycle or phone and while the real-time clock still exists its only major use is for growing berries. Events based upon days of the week are a thing of the past and ultimately the game returns to the more focused, adventure-based structure of Red and Blue. It is also even more linear than both previous games with few points in which the player can get badges out of order (and virtually no reason to when they can). This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it leads to a more focused gameplay experience and Ruby/Sapphire come with their own additional gameplay elements in the form of secret bases, and more notably contests.
Contests provide a method of progression and gameplay for raising Pokemon that doesn't involve battle, which makes them a fantastic introduction to the overall gameplay structure. I do wish there was slightly more to them, as it'd be great if contests had their own alternate 'endgame' like the battling side of the equation, but even without that they're still a nice feature. Secret bases are more limited in scope and basically expand on the room decorating element of Gold and Silver, but with far more decoration options as well as the ability for the player to choose where in the overworld they want their base. There's not ultimately much you can really do with them, but it is a fun little side feature for those that want to keep on playing.
It's very difficult for me to find faults with Sapphire as it's a polished game with lots of fun features and content. It's admirable how well Game Freak were able to make their transition to the GBA seem effortless despite the apparent internal struggles with this title. This easily ranks up there among the better games on a platform with a whole lot of good titles.
Two years may as well be a lifetime in the eyes of an eight year old boy. The two I spent between the release of Pokemon Red and Silver were full of countless new experiences, memories, friends made and lessons learned. Two years older and wiser and yet just as much of an unrepentantly dorky child who was just as Pokemon-obsessed, if not more so. I was unsurprisingly eager to get my hands on the newest game. Some of my most cherished childhood memories were spent staying up late with my father as we watched cartoons or old horror films and played and traded and battled with one another.
How's the game now though?
Game Freak must have been at a crossroads after the massive success of the first Pokemon games as there was a still-incomplete, but very far in-progress demo of Gold and Silver in 1997 that was largely scrapped. Some ideas from that game remain in the final product, but less than you would expect. Silver and Gold went through a long process of iteration and development was delayed.
There were some easy wins when it came to polishing up aspects of the engine and mechanics that basically everyone could agree were flawed in Red and Blue. Fixing various bugs, adding some new types and moves to rebalance the chart a little, adding bag slots for improved inventory organization, splitting special attack and defense into two stats and of course a hundred new Pokemon to play around with. The addition of items to battle adds a new element of pre-fight strategy, choice and synergy that gives battles just a little extra spice (even if nearly everybody would just default to using Leftovers if they could). The enemy trainer AI is also a huge improvement, at least for major battles anyway.
Most of these were good changes with no, or comparably small downsides. The awesome Gen 1 Hyper Beam was never quite as cool again once they fixed its recharge turn in this game, the formerly competent ice types were really left in the dust by the addition of new weaknesses and resistances, and the addition of many new items made dealing with the slightly larger but still limited inventory space just a bit more annoying than before. But these are little nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.
Outside of mechanical changes to existing systems though what particular stuck out to me in Silver is how much effort the developers placed into elements that would add to the immersion of the world. The game now features time tracking and a day/night cycle that mirrors that of the real world, with various daily events or those tied to specific days of the week like the bug catching contest, a changing color palette and wild encounters depending on the time of day, berries that regrow over time, a phone system for rematching trainers, a radio to listen to, a vastly expanded postgame (more on that later), etc etc.
The design makes it clear that Pokemon is no longer just a game you play through but a world that players can inhabit and come back to visit and spend time in long after completion. It's a really impressive feat for the Gameboy and it's no wonder I can remember spending such a huge amount of hours playing this game as a child even once I had dried up all the content. Compare this to Red in which I would always simply start a new save file shortly after becoming champion.
Silver doesn't come without its downsides compared to its predecessor though. As nice as all these new elements are it feels that some of that adventure along the way was lost in return for them. Dungeons and routes which were once full of danger feel comparatively sparse and simple in navigation now. There's nothing quite as intricate or imposing as the tower Silph Co. building from the first game or the harrowing trek through the original Victory Road. Gen 2 isn't without meaningful dungeons entirely, but they definitely play a far less prominent role than in the previous game.
In addition to smaller, simpler maps it feels as though the trainers are also fewer in number and the wild encounters are notably low in level. This in particular presents a small problem when it comes to team building, as it means there's a lot less experience to go around for a large player party, while also meaning if you choose to add a new Pokemon to your party at any point in the game there's a decent chance it will be significantly underleveled. On top of this many of the roster additions are either awkwardly placed or feel underwhelming statistically compared to the original set of Pokemon, meaning there's arguably less team variety between playthroughs. The lack of access to elemental stones is really frustrating with how many Pokemon need them to evolve.
Like Red before it this game also opens up around the time you get your fourth badge and lets you tackle several gyms in any order. The game attempts to account for this though by making these areas all of comparable levels which has the effect of meaning whichever two you go for last will generally be a lot easier than the first. It would have been better to still give the player that same freedom while keeping a linear progression of difficulty. Those who go off the beaten path are generally doing so because they intentionally want to face harsher challenges and most players are smart enough to know that if they run up against a wall they should go try a different path if one is open to them. This fumbles something that was executed perfectly fine previously.
These elements compound to make the middle of the adventure feel boring as there's both little stakes and little progress in terms of team growth. This is all on top of the shortness of routes and few and small dungeons makes Johto feel like a smaller, less exciting place to traverse than Kanto in the previous game was. And all this while mirroring Kanto in ways that weren't really necessary, such as how HMs are found in a similar order and at similar progression points in the game. At times it feels like Game Freak were a little unwilling to step from the shadow of their previous success and try something more new and unique over repeating the same gym challenge again, even if in a less satisfying manner.
I don't mean for all this to sound as though the game is bad, since it's generally not and I still enjoyed my time traveling through Johto. Still, these lesser elements stood out to me as I was playing and it's impossible to avoid comparison to one's predecessor when so directly following it up and mirroring its layout. The trip to become champion isn't nearly as engaging or fun as Red/Blue and whether or not the newly added elements are enough to counterbalance that for you is going to vary from player to player. I personally preferred the more exciting pacing of Red. It's a shame though since there was ultimately nothing preventing Silver from achieving that too, it just seemed to fall to the wayside of the game's other pursuits.
Perhaps what Generation 2 is most famous and infamous for is its postgame, in which after beating the champion again the player is able to return to the previous game's map and explore it all over again. This has been lauded for being a shocking twist and impressive feat for the gameboy as well as criticized for the cut down and simplified nature of Kanto needed in order to fit the game into Gold and Silver's development time.
After the initial excitement of returning to the familiar map from the first game wears off there's a distinct sense of hollowness to visiting Kanto. Viridian Forest has been cut down leaving only a tiny path in its wake, an eruption has destroyed Cinnabar Island save for a tiny pokecenter, the enormous mausoleum that was the Pokemon Tower has been stripped down and replaced with a radio tower, the Safari Zone is permanently closed after the warden suddenly took off, and our former player avatar from Red version has been missing for three years.
Past even these examples so many of the people and places we'd visited during our previous adventure feel like worn down versions of their former selves. Rampant urbanization (a theme already touched on lightly in Red/Blue) has taken its toll on Kanto. The vibrant forests of Satoshi Tajiri's childhood that inspired these games are no more. This stands in stark contrast with Johto which is steeped in tradition and ancient landmarks.
The postgame of Gold and Silver, whether by design intent, development limitations or a happy marriage between the two, manages to invoke the feeling of looking back upon a happy past that brings back good memories, but can ultimately never be returned to in the same way. Playing through Kanto in Gen 2 was the first time I'd ever felt this particular bittersweet nostalgia as a child and it's an even stronger sensation now in adulthood. In much the same way my modern playthroughs of this game will never quite be the same as those unforgettable memories, but it's still nice to reminisce every now and then.
For as melancholy as this all might sound it needn't be seen as a bad thing, perhaps best exemplified in the game's final challenge. On the top of Mt. Silver we face off against none other than our previous self, a ghost of the past who upon defeat wordlessly departs as we end the game with the knowledge that we've become a stronger, smarter and hopefully better version of what we once were.
How's the game now though?
Game Freak must have been at a crossroads after the massive success of the first Pokemon games as there was a still-incomplete, but very far in-progress demo of Gold and Silver in 1997 that was largely scrapped. Some ideas from that game remain in the final product, but less than you would expect. Silver and Gold went through a long process of iteration and development was delayed.
There were some easy wins when it came to polishing up aspects of the engine and mechanics that basically everyone could agree were flawed in Red and Blue. Fixing various bugs, adding some new types and moves to rebalance the chart a little, adding bag slots for improved inventory organization, splitting special attack and defense into two stats and of course a hundred new Pokemon to play around with. The addition of items to battle adds a new element of pre-fight strategy, choice and synergy that gives battles just a little extra spice (even if nearly everybody would just default to using Leftovers if they could). The enemy trainer AI is also a huge improvement, at least for major battles anyway.
Most of these were good changes with no, or comparably small downsides. The awesome Gen 1 Hyper Beam was never quite as cool again once they fixed its recharge turn in this game, the formerly competent ice types were really left in the dust by the addition of new weaknesses and resistances, and the addition of many new items made dealing with the slightly larger but still limited inventory space just a bit more annoying than before. But these are little nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.
Outside of mechanical changes to existing systems though what particular stuck out to me in Silver is how much effort the developers placed into elements that would add to the immersion of the world. The game now features time tracking and a day/night cycle that mirrors that of the real world, with various daily events or those tied to specific days of the week like the bug catching contest, a changing color palette and wild encounters depending on the time of day, berries that regrow over time, a phone system for rematching trainers, a radio to listen to, a vastly expanded postgame (more on that later), etc etc.
The design makes it clear that Pokemon is no longer just a game you play through but a world that players can inhabit and come back to visit and spend time in long after completion. It's a really impressive feat for the Gameboy and it's no wonder I can remember spending such a huge amount of hours playing this game as a child even once I had dried up all the content. Compare this to Red in which I would always simply start a new save file shortly after becoming champion.
Silver doesn't come without its downsides compared to its predecessor though. As nice as all these new elements are it feels that some of that adventure along the way was lost in return for them. Dungeons and routes which were once full of danger feel comparatively sparse and simple in navigation now. There's nothing quite as intricate or imposing as the tower Silph Co. building from the first game or the harrowing trek through the original Victory Road. Gen 2 isn't without meaningful dungeons entirely, but they definitely play a far less prominent role than in the previous game.
In addition to smaller, simpler maps it feels as though the trainers are also fewer in number and the wild encounters are notably low in level. This in particular presents a small problem when it comes to team building, as it means there's a lot less experience to go around for a large player party, while also meaning if you choose to add a new Pokemon to your party at any point in the game there's a decent chance it will be significantly underleveled. On top of this many of the roster additions are either awkwardly placed or feel underwhelming statistically compared to the original set of Pokemon, meaning there's arguably less team variety between playthroughs. The lack of access to elemental stones is really frustrating with how many Pokemon need them to evolve.
Like Red before it this game also opens up around the time you get your fourth badge and lets you tackle several gyms in any order. The game attempts to account for this though by making these areas all of comparable levels which has the effect of meaning whichever two you go for last will generally be a lot easier than the first. It would have been better to still give the player that same freedom while keeping a linear progression of difficulty. Those who go off the beaten path are generally doing so because they intentionally want to face harsher challenges and most players are smart enough to know that if they run up against a wall they should go try a different path if one is open to them. This fumbles something that was executed perfectly fine previously.
These elements compound to make the middle of the adventure feel boring as there's both little stakes and little progress in terms of team growth. This is all on top of the shortness of routes and few and small dungeons makes Johto feel like a smaller, less exciting place to traverse than Kanto in the previous game was. And all this while mirroring Kanto in ways that weren't really necessary, such as how HMs are found in a similar order and at similar progression points in the game. At times it feels like Game Freak were a little unwilling to step from the shadow of their previous success and try something more new and unique over repeating the same gym challenge again, even if in a less satisfying manner.
I don't mean for all this to sound as though the game is bad, since it's generally not and I still enjoyed my time traveling through Johto. Still, these lesser elements stood out to me as I was playing and it's impossible to avoid comparison to one's predecessor when so directly following it up and mirroring its layout. The trip to become champion isn't nearly as engaging or fun as Red/Blue and whether or not the newly added elements are enough to counterbalance that for you is going to vary from player to player. I personally preferred the more exciting pacing of Red. It's a shame though since there was ultimately nothing preventing Silver from achieving that too, it just seemed to fall to the wayside of the game's other pursuits.
Perhaps what Generation 2 is most famous and infamous for is its postgame, in which after beating the champion again the player is able to return to the previous game's map and explore it all over again. This has been lauded for being a shocking twist and impressive feat for the gameboy as well as criticized for the cut down and simplified nature of Kanto needed in order to fit the game into Gold and Silver's development time.
After the initial excitement of returning to the familiar map from the first game wears off there's a distinct sense of hollowness to visiting Kanto. Viridian Forest has been cut down leaving only a tiny path in its wake, an eruption has destroyed Cinnabar Island save for a tiny pokecenter, the enormous mausoleum that was the Pokemon Tower has been stripped down and replaced with a radio tower, the Safari Zone is permanently closed after the warden suddenly took off, and our former player avatar from Red version has been missing for three years.
Past even these examples so many of the people and places we'd visited during our previous adventure feel like worn down versions of their former selves. Rampant urbanization (a theme already touched on lightly in Red/Blue) has taken its toll on Kanto. The vibrant forests of Satoshi Tajiri's childhood that inspired these games are no more. This stands in stark contrast with Johto which is steeped in tradition and ancient landmarks.
The postgame of Gold and Silver, whether by design intent, development limitations or a happy marriage between the two, manages to invoke the feeling of looking back upon a happy past that brings back good memories, but can ultimately never be returned to in the same way. Playing through Kanto in Gen 2 was the first time I'd ever felt this particular bittersweet nostalgia as a child and it's an even stronger sensation now in adulthood. In much the same way my modern playthroughs of this game will never quite be the same as those unforgettable memories, but it's still nice to reminisce every now and then.
For as melancholy as this all might sound it needn't be seen as a bad thing, perhaps best exemplified in the game's final challenge. On the top of Mt. Silver we face off against none other than our previous self, a ghost of the past who upon defeat wordlessly departs as we end the game with the knowledge that we've become a stronger, smarter and hopefully better version of what we once were.
1996
Replaying Red today it's a beautifully paced game that makes you feel like you've gone on the adventure of a lifetime in just a dozen hours or so. Attempting to denigrate it by posting gigantic lists of bugs or comparing it to its successors is an effort that undermines what the experience of actually playing the game is like. No one seriously thinks or cares about the fact that swift has a 1/256 chance of missing when they're racing down cycling road, hunting for rare catches in the Safari Zone or about to do battle for another badge, nor should they.
Red/Blue feature some of the more interesting dungeons in the series like the towering teleport maze that is Silph Co. or the haunting Pokemon Tower. And I particularly appreciate how the game begins in linear fashion and slowly opens up, giving the player more freedom in how they want to explore the world during the middle segment before narrowing down yet again for the finale at the League.
There are nitpicks I can levy against the game like the fact that a lot of Pokemon really seem to lack interesting learnsets which makes the process of leveling less exciting, or that enemy AI is a little too eager to give you free wins at times, but these are minor bumps in the road of what is a great and fun experience that's still worth playing for anyone.
I think it's particularly noteworthy that this is one of few RPGs I can think of in which your motivations are primarily proactive. While there is something of a villain that's more of a sidestory compared to the real motivator of becoming champion. The lack of world-ending stakes gives the adventure a sense of purity and makes it truly feel your own.
Red/Blue feature some of the more interesting dungeons in the series like the towering teleport maze that is Silph Co. or the haunting Pokemon Tower. And I particularly appreciate how the game begins in linear fashion and slowly opens up, giving the player more freedom in how they want to explore the world during the middle segment before narrowing down yet again for the finale at the League.
There are nitpicks I can levy against the game like the fact that a lot of Pokemon really seem to lack interesting learnsets which makes the process of leveling less exciting, or that enemy AI is a little too eager to give you free wins at times, but these are minor bumps in the road of what is a great and fun experience that's still worth playing for anyone.
I think it's particularly noteworthy that this is one of few RPGs I can think of in which your motivations are primarily proactive. While there is something of a villain that's more of a sidestory compared to the real motivator of becoming champion. The lack of world-ending stakes gives the adventure a sense of purity and makes it truly feel your own.
Morrowind's expansions have an inflated reputation thanks to the quality of the base game. Bloodmoon clocks in as the better of the two in my experience, but only barely. The terrible final dungeon does a lot to squander the good will it builds up over the course of the main quest.
The landscape of Solstheim is probably the most lackluster aspect of the experience. It feels hastily put together and lacks hardly any of the geographic diversity of Vvardenfell. There is little in the way of landmarks and the majority of the map is flat, open plains only really distinguishable by whether they're grassy or snowy.
This follows the Tribunal trend of vertical difficulty progression only cranked up even more extreme. The werewolves in Solstheim make the Sixth House look like a bunch of street punks and trash weapons found on goblin-like enemies rival some of the mid-high tier gear from the vanilla game. This can occasionally lead to interesting combat scenarios for your jacked out high level character, but mostly it just means things feel a bit spongy as you wander the barren countryside beating up lone boars.
Elements of Nord culture are explored reasonably well here, as much as you can expect for an expansion. Quest writing and design however feels stylistically different compared to those in Morrowind. Voice acting is used far more frequently. Both of these feel like a further prelude of things to come in Oblivion. It leaves the experience feeling very out of place among the rest of the content you did prior.
Once again the implementation here is awkward. We have more new textures overwriting original assets by mistake once again and now every single NPC is eager to tell you about Solstheim. At least it's not as remotely intrusive as Tribunal's assassins.
Not a bad time, but also not really worth playing more than once. It feels like they overextended themselves in trying to make a new, big landmass and having this as the gameplay conclusion to the game makes for an odd finale. Taking the two expansions as a whole it feels like resources would have been better spent focusing on a single, larger expansion that delivered more on the narrative elements of Tribunal and extrapolated them outward. But hindsight is 20/20 after all.
The landscape of Solstheim is probably the most lackluster aspect of the experience. It feels hastily put together and lacks hardly any of the geographic diversity of Vvardenfell. There is little in the way of landmarks and the majority of the map is flat, open plains only really distinguishable by whether they're grassy or snowy.
This follows the Tribunal trend of vertical difficulty progression only cranked up even more extreme. The werewolves in Solstheim make the Sixth House look like a bunch of street punks and trash weapons found on goblin-like enemies rival some of the mid-high tier gear from the vanilla game. This can occasionally lead to interesting combat scenarios for your jacked out high level character, but mostly it just means things feel a bit spongy as you wander the barren countryside beating up lone boars.
Elements of Nord culture are explored reasonably well here, as much as you can expect for an expansion. Quest writing and design however feels stylistically different compared to those in Morrowind. Voice acting is used far more frequently. Both of these feel like a further prelude of things to come in Oblivion. It leaves the experience feeling very out of place among the rest of the content you did prior.
Once again the implementation here is awkward. We have more new textures overwriting original assets by mistake once again and now every single NPC is eager to tell you about Solstheim. At least it's not as remotely intrusive as Tribunal's assassins.
Not a bad time, but also not really worth playing more than once. It feels like they overextended themselves in trying to make a new, big landmass and having this as the gameplay conclusion to the game makes for an odd finale. Taking the two expansions as a whole it feels like resources would have been better spent focusing on a single, larger expansion that delivered more on the narrative elements of Tribunal and extrapolated them outward. But hindsight is 20/20 after all.
I opted to do my latest replay on the Xbox Series S out of curiosity about how it would perform. The Xbox version is very playable now on the Series S/X what with running at 60fps, instant load times and the resolution boost. Obviously the PC version (whether on the original engine or OpenMW) is ideal and pretty much anyone can run it these days. But, if you're a console only player that hasn't played this one due to the old, bad port then give it a shot on that platform.
2003
I was aware this game was the origin of the cover system used in most modern third person shooters, but I had no idea that basically every game in the genre from 7th gen onward copied its entire gameplay template plus plenty of other features besides the cover system. It's arguably been more influential on the genre than RE4 even if the latter is a better game.
As a game itself it's just alright. Outside of the core conceit there isn't a whole lot going on here. Encounters and stages blend together and there's only a couple of instances where the game does something unique with level design. One stage sees you firing on enemies as a conveyor belt moves objects that obstruct your view, and a few others ask you to operate under the pressure of a timer, encouraging more aggressive play. These instances are few and far between though. It's a good thing the game is short or it would outlive its welcome for sure.
The story is a video game excuse plot used to string together a series of levels with barely any thematic connection. There's a couple of funny CG cutscenes at least. The soundtrack is also surprisingly kind of awesome.
I'd only really recommend playing it if you're curious since it's pretty easy and will only take a few hours of your time. Don't expect anything remarkable though.
As a game itself it's just alright. Outside of the core conceit there isn't a whole lot going on here. Encounters and stages blend together and there's only a couple of instances where the game does something unique with level design. One stage sees you firing on enemies as a conveyor belt moves objects that obstruct your view, and a few others ask you to operate under the pressure of a timer, encouraging more aggressive play. These instances are few and far between though. It's a good thing the game is short or it would outlive its welcome for sure.
The story is a video game excuse plot used to string together a series of levels with barely any thematic connection. There's a couple of funny CG cutscenes at least. The soundtrack is also surprisingly kind of awesome.
I'd only really recommend playing it if you're curious since it's pretty easy and will only take a few hours of your time. Don't expect anything remarkable though.
2009
This is probably the single best execution of the gritty, dark, urban warfare aesthetic in any video game. The emphasis on lighting techniques rather than textures or model quality means that it's also aged far better than many other 7th gen games. A lot of scenes are still genuinely amazing to look at and the enemies are all animated incredibly well. Gunfights are full of debris, architecture breaking and particle effects from weapons and grenades. The whole thing feels like it has a cohesive singular tone and vision that every aspect of the visuals work together to reinforce. It's not an exaggeration to say this is one of the best-looking games of its generation.
The game foregoes any attempt at worldbuilding like its predecessor and instead is squarely focused on its single conflict. There is very little here in terms of plot beyond what is established in the intro, but it does convey a good sense of momentum and the feeling that you're continually driving deeper into enemy territory. It probably would have worked even better if it had focused far more on this aspect and abandoned the few abrupt scene transitions the story makes to move the characters to new places.
Speaking of characters, the cast here are somehow even more boring than the ones in Killzone 1 (and that is a feat). Your four squadmates are really lacking in personality and the primary partner might be one of the most frustrating "allies" in a game who never gets called out or any sort of comeuppance. While the Helghast design (taken straight out of Jin-Roh) are as cool and intimidating as ever the major antagonists are lacking any big presence outside of the game's intro and a few sparse moments in the story.
There's enough variety throughout the short length of the campaign that I kept engaged. Notably encounters almost never feel like they're being dragged out with too many reinforcements and you find yourself moving between different areas at a consistent clip. Enemy AI has enough interesting behaviors and arenas are diverse enough to give even the most basic of fights at least a little bit of unique personality. The vehicle and turret segments that were so prevalent during this generation are present, but mercifully few and brief.
Despite the solid encounter design there's a certain sluggishness and latency to inputs that keeps it from feeling as good as it could. And even at its absolute best it really only elevates itself to good, not great, in the gameplay department. It's a game I don't regret playing and could see myself coming back to from time to time if only for the great execution of its artstyle that I've yet to see equaled in another game, but it's not going anywhere near a list of my favorites.
The game foregoes any attempt at worldbuilding like its predecessor and instead is squarely focused on its single conflict. There is very little here in terms of plot beyond what is established in the intro, but it does convey a good sense of momentum and the feeling that you're continually driving deeper into enemy territory. It probably would have worked even better if it had focused far more on this aspect and abandoned the few abrupt scene transitions the story makes to move the characters to new places.
Speaking of characters, the cast here are somehow even more boring than the ones in Killzone 1 (and that is a feat). Your four squadmates are really lacking in personality and the primary partner might be one of the most frustrating "allies" in a game who never gets called out or any sort of comeuppance. While the Helghast design (taken straight out of Jin-Roh) are as cool and intimidating as ever the major antagonists are lacking any big presence outside of the game's intro and a few sparse moments in the story.
There's enough variety throughout the short length of the campaign that I kept engaged. Notably encounters almost never feel like they're being dragged out with too many reinforcements and you find yourself moving between different areas at a consistent clip. Enemy AI has enough interesting behaviors and arenas are diverse enough to give even the most basic of fights at least a little bit of unique personality. The vehicle and turret segments that were so prevalent during this generation are present, but mercifully few and brief.
Despite the solid encounter design there's a certain sluggishness and latency to inputs that keeps it from feeling as good as it could. And even at its absolute best it really only elevates itself to good, not great, in the gameplay department. It's a game I don't regret playing and could see myself coming back to from time to time if only for the great execution of its artstyle that I've yet to see equaled in another game, but it's not going anywhere near a list of my favorites.
2022
Over the past few years we've seen the first wave of what is looking to be a deluge of early-3D throwback games released. Lunacid stands among the top of the pile, wearing its inspirations on its sleeves and producing a real time dungeon crawler that can comfortably sit with the better half of From Software's PS1 and PS2 catalogue.
Still, one can't help but wonder if a decade from now this game won't be looked upon in the same way many of the mid-late 2000s indie games are. Projects that in hindsight were praised more for their novelty than their innate qualities.
That's a question for future me to ponder though. Right now it's time to discuss Lunacid fresh after completing it and riding high on that novelty factor.
Exploration is incredibly rewarding with countless secrets around every corner ensuring that even the most bumbling player is bound to stumble on a few. And in those moments when you stumble upon something hidden in the darkest depths of the game's dungeons you can almost feel the sensation that you're the only person to have ever been here.
While secrets are well-hidden the core progression path is usually well signposted enough that (with perhaps a single exception) you can comfortably play without feeling the need to pull up a guide.
The wide variety of environments ensures that adventuring never gets tedious. Levels have a charming style that sits snugly between PS1 and PS2 fidelity and with great art direction. Texture and model quality are consistent such that nothing ever stands out as not belonging with the rest of the presentation.
Everything comes together cohesively save for the game's UI elements which seem awkwardly out of place. And the actual interface is awkward to navigate and frequently doesn't execute commands on the first attempt. The bubble headed NPCs in the game's hub with their Animal Crossing-like voices also stand out stylistically and don't quite jive with the rest of the game. One could argue that they do help prevent the game from feeling overly grimdark and self-serious, but I think I'd still rather do without them.
Combat is simplistic, but it is not the core draw of the game and so only does what it needs to so that it can remain engaging. I wouldn't have minded something a bit more energetic. The game's rudimentary locational damage system begs to be expanded upon and enemy attack patterns could be much more varied. It's a pretty easy game all-in-all, but that's alright.
The soundtrack is almost uniformly excellent but occasionally overpowering in volume and in rare instances outright unfitting to what's taking place on-screen. Though these out-of-place tracks can work to suit the dreamlike atmosphere Lunacid tries to evoke.
Maybe Lunacid's greatest weakness is that it takes so much from its inspirations that at times it feels like it lacks its own identity. This isn't to say it has none at all, but the homages are a little too on point. If a future game in this style is ever handled by the same developer I'd like to see them put more of themselves into it.
Still, one can't help but wonder if a decade from now this game won't be looked upon in the same way many of the mid-late 2000s indie games are. Projects that in hindsight were praised more for their novelty than their innate qualities.
That's a question for future me to ponder though. Right now it's time to discuss Lunacid fresh after completing it and riding high on that novelty factor.
Exploration is incredibly rewarding with countless secrets around every corner ensuring that even the most bumbling player is bound to stumble on a few. And in those moments when you stumble upon something hidden in the darkest depths of the game's dungeons you can almost feel the sensation that you're the only person to have ever been here.
While secrets are well-hidden the core progression path is usually well signposted enough that (with perhaps a single exception) you can comfortably play without feeling the need to pull up a guide.
The wide variety of environments ensures that adventuring never gets tedious. Levels have a charming style that sits snugly between PS1 and PS2 fidelity and with great art direction. Texture and model quality are consistent such that nothing ever stands out as not belonging with the rest of the presentation.
Everything comes together cohesively save for the game's UI elements which seem awkwardly out of place. And the actual interface is awkward to navigate and frequently doesn't execute commands on the first attempt. The bubble headed NPCs in the game's hub with their Animal Crossing-like voices also stand out stylistically and don't quite jive with the rest of the game. One could argue that they do help prevent the game from feeling overly grimdark and self-serious, but I think I'd still rather do without them.
Combat is simplistic, but it is not the core draw of the game and so only does what it needs to so that it can remain engaging. I wouldn't have minded something a bit more energetic. The game's rudimentary locational damage system begs to be expanded upon and enemy attack patterns could be much more varied. It's a pretty easy game all-in-all, but that's alright.
The soundtrack is almost uniformly excellent but occasionally overpowering in volume and in rare instances outright unfitting to what's taking place on-screen. Though these out-of-place tracks can work to suit the dreamlike atmosphere Lunacid tries to evoke.
Maybe Lunacid's greatest weakness is that it takes so much from its inspirations that at times it feels like it lacks its own identity. This isn't to say it has none at all, but the homages are a little too on point. If a future game in this style is ever handled by the same developer I'd like to see them put more of themselves into it.
2023
Pseudoregalia is at its best when it eschews the usual lock-and-key based power up design of metroidvanias in favor of presenting you with platforming challenges that feel like they could be resolved by a variety of means. There's just enough wiggle room for you to get past some obstacles in ways that feel totally unintended and it's easily the most satisfying thing in the game.
The player-character Sybil feels great to control, though it takes until unlocking the momentum carrying slide-jump for her movement to truly come together. Most of the power ups in the game fit seamlessly into normal gameplay, though the pair of attack power-ups you get feel very much tuned to only working with specific obstacles.
The game's freeform nature also ends up being a slight limitation in that there are only a couple obstacles in the game that really encourage or require the use of all your different movement tools together. Some kind of final stage that really upped the platforming ante would have elevated the game.
The soundtrack is excellent and moody and the blocky, low poly environments and enemies are fantastically evocative of the kind of early 3D visuals the game is paying homage too. There is a slight lack of variety though and I could probably do without the ugly bilinear filtering on textures.
The game world is small enough that the lack of a map doesn't hurt the experience much, but I wouldn't say it adds a lot to the game either. The aforementioned visual sameyness does mean you'll probably end up wandering through the same areas a bit due to the lack of distinct landmarks in certain zones. This is especially a problem if you play the game in more than one sitting.
Overall this is a great platformer that genuinely leverages 3D worldspace for interesting gameplay in a way few do. The movement mechanics are top notch and it has a sense of style that utilizes its inspirations while still being its own thing. I can't help but feel like it lacks that truly special something to make it an all-time great though. Here's hoping to see the developer iterate and expand on this design as they've got something good on their hands.
The player-character Sybil feels great to control, though it takes until unlocking the momentum carrying slide-jump for her movement to truly come together. Most of the power ups in the game fit seamlessly into normal gameplay, though the pair of attack power-ups you get feel very much tuned to only working with specific obstacles.
The game's freeform nature also ends up being a slight limitation in that there are only a couple obstacles in the game that really encourage or require the use of all your different movement tools together. Some kind of final stage that really upped the platforming ante would have elevated the game.
The soundtrack is excellent and moody and the blocky, low poly environments and enemies are fantastically evocative of the kind of early 3D visuals the game is paying homage too. There is a slight lack of variety though and I could probably do without the ugly bilinear filtering on textures.
The game world is small enough that the lack of a map doesn't hurt the experience much, but I wouldn't say it adds a lot to the game either. The aforementioned visual sameyness does mean you'll probably end up wandering through the same areas a bit due to the lack of distinct landmarks in certain zones. This is especially a problem if you play the game in more than one sitting.
Overall this is a great platformer that genuinely leverages 3D worldspace for interesting gameplay in a way few do. The movement mechanics are top notch and it has a sense of style that utilizes its inspirations while still being its own thing. I can't help but feel like it lacks that truly special something to make it an all-time great though. Here's hoping to see the developer iterate and expand on this design as they've got something good on their hands.
Condenses Pokemon down into its core, mechanical appeal. You lose all of the adventure game trappings in the process, but these tend to be the least-polished elements of fan games. What you gain in return is a fast-paced, streamlined game where each run feels like a complete, satisfying experience despite only taking a few hours. All killer, no filler, as the saying goes.
The randomization leads to interesting team compositions you would never otherwise consider and your limited supplies mean that resource management is relevant in a way it's never been in the main series or even most fan-games. Permanent KOs for your Pokemon mean you'll really consider your actions in battle and their long and short-term consequences. Smart play is heavily incentivized and rewarded.
On top of this there's a load of unlockables (either by completing the game or using a secret switch in the hub) like more Pokemon all the way up to Generation 8, double battles as a format, and a ton more.
The only major downside is how routes tend to feel a bit samey and like in any roguelike there's going to be rare runs where you feel like the game just has it out for you.
The randomization leads to interesting team compositions you would never otherwise consider and your limited supplies mean that resource management is relevant in a way it's never been in the main series or even most fan-games. Permanent KOs for your Pokemon mean you'll really consider your actions in battle and their long and short-term consequences. Smart play is heavily incentivized and rewarded.
On top of this there's a load of unlockables (either by completing the game or using a secret switch in the hub) like more Pokemon all the way up to Generation 8, double battles as a format, and a ton more.
The only major downside is how routes tend to feel a bit samey and like in any roguelike there's going to be rare runs where you feel like the game just has it out for you.
Separate Ways completes the RE4 remake by serving as a reservoir to catch most (albeit not all) of the memorable setpieces from the original 2005 game that didn't quite find their way into the main game.
In this regard it's a monumental step up over the previous version of Separate Ways even if it technically has to siphon away some of the base game's goodness to do so. The encounters here are solid and the pacing is fast. It does still occasionally dip into its precuror's tendency to rehash areas from the base game without doing quite enough new with them to justify it. That's not to say that it's without entirely new ideas as there's a couple of quite clever uses of old areas and some completely new ones (though a notable lack of battleships).
Little has changed about combat between Leon and Ada, the most notable addition being the use of Ada's grappling hook which lets her zip instantly to a stunned enemy to deliver a melee attack. It's a nice feature that helps alleviate those frustrating moments when an enemy is just a bit too far to get in for a melee strike, while still warranting cautious play and not ziplining yourself into the center of a pack of enemies. Aside from this one wrinkle all the positives and negatives of the original game's combat are still present. The game continues to impress with its frenzied and mobile combat, tight ammo economy and hardy enemies. At the same time the occasional awkward sluggishness of movement and super armor on late-game enemies remain sore spots.
The storytelling is of the same quality as the base game, which is to say that it utterly fails to exude the same charm its namesake so effortlessly channeled. Only Luis' charismatic performance is a reprieve from the otherwise dull scene direction in the remake. The rest of the remake's script can't help but give the impression that it's in a hurry to get itself over with.
Overall a practically mandatory addition to the game that's well worth the low price of entry. If you liked what the game had to offer already then this is more of it in a very well-made package.
In this regard it's a monumental step up over the previous version of Separate Ways even if it technically has to siphon away some of the base game's goodness to do so. The encounters here are solid and the pacing is fast. It does still occasionally dip into its precuror's tendency to rehash areas from the base game without doing quite enough new with them to justify it. That's not to say that it's without entirely new ideas as there's a couple of quite clever uses of old areas and some completely new ones (though a notable lack of battleships).
Little has changed about combat between Leon and Ada, the most notable addition being the use of Ada's grappling hook which lets her zip instantly to a stunned enemy to deliver a melee attack. It's a nice feature that helps alleviate those frustrating moments when an enemy is just a bit too far to get in for a melee strike, while still warranting cautious play and not ziplining yourself into the center of a pack of enemies. Aside from this one wrinkle all the positives and negatives of the original game's combat are still present. The game continues to impress with its frenzied and mobile combat, tight ammo economy and hardy enemies. At the same time the occasional awkward sluggishness of movement and super armor on late-game enemies remain sore spots.
The storytelling is of the same quality as the base game, which is to say that it utterly fails to exude the same charm its namesake so effortlessly channeled. Only Luis' charismatic performance is a reprieve from the otherwise dull scene direction in the remake. The rest of the remake's script can't help but give the impression that it's in a hurry to get itself over with.
Overall a practically mandatory addition to the game that's well worth the low price of entry. If you liked what the game had to offer already then this is more of it in a very well-made package.
1998
This review contains spoilers
There's a persistent allure to seeking out hidden gems and games that may have been overlooked. Finding that diamond in the rough, something totally unexpectedly amazing, can recreate those feelings from back when you first started playing games and everything felt new and fresh and exciting.
...Iru! unfortunately is not one of those games. With a fan-translation released in 2021 there's hardly anything written about the game in English. Reviews from Japan back in 98 show that it wasn't a popular or well-received game in its home country either and it only takes playing it for a little while to understand why.
An adventure game at heart, Iru is built around wandering the halls of your character's high school after closing hours as you help your friend prepare for an upcoming festival. It starts out promising enough with an eerie atmosphere and those lovely low poly PS1 environments and characters. Sadly it doesn't take long before the game reveals its hand.
The gameplay consists entirely of walking back and forth between the same few halls and dozen rooms. Puzzles are straightforward and items are mostly easy to find, but progression is locked so tightly to following the precise, linear path the game sets for you and triggering cutscenes. The actual explorable space is so repetitive and you spend most of it just scouring these same rooms over and over, looking for whatever the next story event is that will allow you to progress.
Previously empty rooms will have new events or items appear in them randomly and only occasionally does the game see fit to give you any nudge to where you should look next. I'm not opposed to letting the player explore freely, but when you have such a small play area with so little new to see it stops being exploration and just starts to feel like you're creating a mental checklist of rooms and going down it after every single event. No sense of dread or curiosity the game tries to instill can survive this tedium.
It takes way too long for the playable space to expand beyond a single floor of the school and when it does you realize that every area is basically the same. If anything it makes the game even worse because now you have to keep checking even more areas for the path forward. There's never a change of scenery until the very end of the game.
Most of the time you can't actually die, save for a handful of scripted danger sequences in which you have to hide from enemies. These are very infrequent and its easy to survive them even without any foreknowledge they're coming. The game has a couple different routes and endings, but they vary incredibly little.
The story draws heavily on the Cthulhu Mythos, and when I say heavily I do mean heavily. Various monster names and grimoires and other such things are tossed at the player with such frequency and reckless abandon that it would make even the hackiest of pastiche horror writers blush. Sure I got a kick out of this the first few times, but it wasn't long before I was rolling my eyes at the unending namedrops. I do admit that it was neat to have this element of the game dropped on me since I didn't go in expecting it.
There is some intrigue early on in the actual plot, when you're unsure exactly what's going on and what the danger is, and I particularly enjoyed how examining the environments can sometimes reveal elements of the story before they would have appeared otherwise, but nothing ever comes of this. Even if you, personally manage to figure out what's going on early your character will remain a doofus for the sake of preserving the existing story. It was nice to see that as a horror story it really doesn't pull any punches in being quite brutal to the characters. Still, it's really not interesting enough to make it worth the effort to play this unless you just really wanna try every PS1 horror game.
Upon seeing some of the actual monsters that show up in-game I immediately recognized their designs as being specifically based upon the artwork in Chaosium's 1988 supplement, Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, which was published in Japan in 1989. When you see this kind of cosmic horror stuff in games, especially Japanese games, it generally tends to be derived from Chaosium's tabletop work more so than the original stories, so it's not surprising this was the reference point. Though it was surprising just how blatantly the designs were based on Tom Sullivan's original paintings.
Neat trivia about the game's design aside I think this is probably one that's not really worth playing. Judging it today I get the sense that it would be a far better game if it was condensed down to around 1-2 hours, but of course players back in 1998 likely wouldn't have appreciated paying for such a short experience. Looking at it in the context of when it releasd, it might have gotten away with this sort of design based on the novelty factor of being a 3D horror game alone in 1995 or 96, but by 98 there were so many better and more interesting horror games on the platform with even more to come.
...Iru! unfortunately is not one of those games. With a fan-translation released in 2021 there's hardly anything written about the game in English. Reviews from Japan back in 98 show that it wasn't a popular or well-received game in its home country either and it only takes playing it for a little while to understand why.
An adventure game at heart, Iru is built around wandering the halls of your character's high school after closing hours as you help your friend prepare for an upcoming festival. It starts out promising enough with an eerie atmosphere and those lovely low poly PS1 environments and characters. Sadly it doesn't take long before the game reveals its hand.
The gameplay consists entirely of walking back and forth between the same few halls and dozen rooms. Puzzles are straightforward and items are mostly easy to find, but progression is locked so tightly to following the precise, linear path the game sets for you and triggering cutscenes. The actual explorable space is so repetitive and you spend most of it just scouring these same rooms over and over, looking for whatever the next story event is that will allow you to progress.
Previously empty rooms will have new events or items appear in them randomly and only occasionally does the game see fit to give you any nudge to where you should look next. I'm not opposed to letting the player explore freely, but when you have such a small play area with so little new to see it stops being exploration and just starts to feel like you're creating a mental checklist of rooms and going down it after every single event. No sense of dread or curiosity the game tries to instill can survive this tedium.
It takes way too long for the playable space to expand beyond a single floor of the school and when it does you realize that every area is basically the same. If anything it makes the game even worse because now you have to keep checking even more areas for the path forward. There's never a change of scenery until the very end of the game.
Most of the time you can't actually die, save for a handful of scripted danger sequences in which you have to hide from enemies. These are very infrequent and its easy to survive them even without any foreknowledge they're coming. The game has a couple different routes and endings, but they vary incredibly little.
The story draws heavily on the Cthulhu Mythos, and when I say heavily I do mean heavily. Various monster names and grimoires and other such things are tossed at the player with such frequency and reckless abandon that it would make even the hackiest of pastiche horror writers blush. Sure I got a kick out of this the first few times, but it wasn't long before I was rolling my eyes at the unending namedrops. I do admit that it was neat to have this element of the game dropped on me since I didn't go in expecting it.
There is some intrigue early on in the actual plot, when you're unsure exactly what's going on and what the danger is, and I particularly enjoyed how examining the environments can sometimes reveal elements of the story before they would have appeared otherwise, but nothing ever comes of this. Even if you, personally manage to figure out what's going on early your character will remain a doofus for the sake of preserving the existing story. It was nice to see that as a horror story it really doesn't pull any punches in being quite brutal to the characters. Still, it's really not interesting enough to make it worth the effort to play this unless you just really wanna try every PS1 horror game.
Upon seeing some of the actual monsters that show up in-game I immediately recognized their designs as being specifically based upon the artwork in Chaosium's 1988 supplement, Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, which was published in Japan in 1989. When you see this kind of cosmic horror stuff in games, especially Japanese games, it generally tends to be derived from Chaosium's tabletop work more so than the original stories, so it's not surprising this was the reference point. Though it was surprising just how blatantly the designs were based on Tom Sullivan's original paintings.
Neat trivia about the game's design aside I think this is probably one that's not really worth playing. Judging it today I get the sense that it would be a far better game if it was condensed down to around 1-2 hours, but of course players back in 1998 likely wouldn't have appreciated paying for such a short experience. Looking at it in the context of when it releasd, it might have gotten away with this sort of design based on the novelty factor of being a 3D horror game alone in 1995 or 96, but by 98 there were so many better and more interesting horror games on the platform with even more to come.
1998
(This is a review of the original release with the expansion, not the Enhanced Edition)
It's impressive how dedicated a young and inexperienced Bioware was to faithfully recreating the low level D&D experience. This unfortunately includes all the not-so fun parts of it like random oneshots from low level enemies and mages who can't do shit. Unfortunately for Baldur's Gate it lacks all the cool ancillary elements that help you forget about this like eating pizza while joking around with your pals and a cognizant DM to paper over the rough patches of the game.
If you can get past this early-game roughness though you'll find that slowly but surely the game opens up and starts to become something really interesting. I think it was around the Nashkel Mines that it finally began to win me over. With some levels under our belts battles finally felt a little more like I was winning by strategy rather than luck and exploration became feasible. A whole lot of your time for the first half of the game is going to be spent wandering around random woodlands and chopping through hobgoblins and wolves, praying you don't get ambushed by a clearly unwinnable battle on map transition. Baldur's Gate is roughest when you begin and only grows better the more you play.
By the time you reach the titular city proper you'll finally be in a level range that you'll feel competent just in time for the game to open up and give you the opportunity to take on more or less any sidequests you want. There's a ridiculous amount of optional stuff going on here and I didn't even come close to doing all of it, probably not even half if I had to guess.
The Real Time With Pause combat the game uses has become contentious over the years. For many players the need to frequently interrupt the action by pausing to issue commands sort of defeats the benefits of real time. The only occasions you get to enjoy seeing your characters actually chop through enemies unimpeded is during fights with mindless trash mobs. Outside of that you'll be tapping that space bar every few seconds to issue commands. The hybrid gameplay fails to fully capitalize on the tension and finesse of a full time system or the relaxed planning of a turn based one.
Despite my issues with the system and even with its faults there are genuinely fun and engaging encounters to be found across the game. There were plenty of times I came up against a tough battle that I had to really think, strategize and plan my party around to tackle without any losses. The game is also really good at distributing fun tools like wands, potions and spells that give you creative opportunities for how you want to tackle each encounter. I was always finding cool ways to use these to help in fights that seemed insurmountable otherwise.
Pathfinding in this game is a pain in the ass. When you click on a location your characters will frequently take the most roundabout path possible or start to go in the completely opposite direction cause they bumped into another npc or minor obstacle. It requires you to babysit them a lot and is just annoying. They also have a frustrating tendency to break formation meaning you'll often end up with your squishy mages and thieves standing in the front lines if you aren't constantly engineering for them to sit in the back. It just adds a whole lot of busywork without real value to the simple act of moving around. This is exacerbated by the dungeon designs which use tabletop-style narrow corridors that your party is going to constantly get stuck moving through.
I also found the attempt to simulate rest and travel ambushes to just be annoying. The fatigue mechanic makes it clear that playing without resting wasn't the developer's intent. But getting ambushed early on can be a death sentence, especially if you really needed to recharge your spells, and having it happen in the late game is nothing more than a minor nuisance. It really feels awkwardly implemented and like they just never found a satisfying way to balance the system.
The story in Baldur's Gate does as much as possible to stay out of the player's way for as long as possible. The majority of the game is going to be whatever you make of it, adventuring and doing random odd jobs for NPCs like getting their items back from some monsters who stole it or the like. Companions are likewise very barebones, most consisting of just an introductory recruitment and possibly a single questline. There's only occasional party banter and no one has much of anything to say. There are a ton of different NPCs to recruit though meaning you'll have a lot of freedom in how you want to build out your party.
It's only in the final third of the game or so that the plot that has been slowly building up starts to come together. Ultimately there's not much to be said about it unfortunately save for the fact that the antagonist's methods are surprisingly well thought out and there are some interesting revelations that are built up to well. But really this isn't a game that puts much emphasis on its major plot. Baldur's Gate seems more interested in letting the player make it the kind of story they want to.
Of the expansion content I only engaged seriously with Durlag's Tower and found it to be a really fun experience. It was easily the best dungeon in the entire game and full of interesting encounters, traps, puzzles and some surprisingly effective storytelling, with Durlag's story serving almost as a sort of cautionary tale toward the potential fate of our would-be hero. Absolutely worth playing through.
If you can get past the rough opening and the cumbersome nature of the pathfinding you'll find a game that I think is well worth experiencing and enjoying. At the very least it's worthwhile to get to the city of Baldur's Gate so you can enjoy the full sandbox experience the game has to offer of traveling and adventuring.
It's impressive how dedicated a young and inexperienced Bioware was to faithfully recreating the low level D&D experience. This unfortunately includes all the not-so fun parts of it like random oneshots from low level enemies and mages who can't do shit. Unfortunately for Baldur's Gate it lacks all the cool ancillary elements that help you forget about this like eating pizza while joking around with your pals and a cognizant DM to paper over the rough patches of the game.
If you can get past this early-game roughness though you'll find that slowly but surely the game opens up and starts to become something really interesting. I think it was around the Nashkel Mines that it finally began to win me over. With some levels under our belts battles finally felt a little more like I was winning by strategy rather than luck and exploration became feasible. A whole lot of your time for the first half of the game is going to be spent wandering around random woodlands and chopping through hobgoblins and wolves, praying you don't get ambushed by a clearly unwinnable battle on map transition. Baldur's Gate is roughest when you begin and only grows better the more you play.
By the time you reach the titular city proper you'll finally be in a level range that you'll feel competent just in time for the game to open up and give you the opportunity to take on more or less any sidequests you want. There's a ridiculous amount of optional stuff going on here and I didn't even come close to doing all of it, probably not even half if I had to guess.
The Real Time With Pause combat the game uses has become contentious over the years. For many players the need to frequently interrupt the action by pausing to issue commands sort of defeats the benefits of real time. The only occasions you get to enjoy seeing your characters actually chop through enemies unimpeded is during fights with mindless trash mobs. Outside of that you'll be tapping that space bar every few seconds to issue commands. The hybrid gameplay fails to fully capitalize on the tension and finesse of a full time system or the relaxed planning of a turn based one.
Despite my issues with the system and even with its faults there are genuinely fun and engaging encounters to be found across the game. There were plenty of times I came up against a tough battle that I had to really think, strategize and plan my party around to tackle without any losses. The game is also really good at distributing fun tools like wands, potions and spells that give you creative opportunities for how you want to tackle each encounter. I was always finding cool ways to use these to help in fights that seemed insurmountable otherwise.
Pathfinding in this game is a pain in the ass. When you click on a location your characters will frequently take the most roundabout path possible or start to go in the completely opposite direction cause they bumped into another npc or minor obstacle. It requires you to babysit them a lot and is just annoying. They also have a frustrating tendency to break formation meaning you'll often end up with your squishy mages and thieves standing in the front lines if you aren't constantly engineering for them to sit in the back. It just adds a whole lot of busywork without real value to the simple act of moving around. This is exacerbated by the dungeon designs which use tabletop-style narrow corridors that your party is going to constantly get stuck moving through.
I also found the attempt to simulate rest and travel ambushes to just be annoying. The fatigue mechanic makes it clear that playing without resting wasn't the developer's intent. But getting ambushed early on can be a death sentence, especially if you really needed to recharge your spells, and having it happen in the late game is nothing more than a minor nuisance. It really feels awkwardly implemented and like they just never found a satisfying way to balance the system.
The story in Baldur's Gate does as much as possible to stay out of the player's way for as long as possible. The majority of the game is going to be whatever you make of it, adventuring and doing random odd jobs for NPCs like getting their items back from some monsters who stole it or the like. Companions are likewise very barebones, most consisting of just an introductory recruitment and possibly a single questline. There's only occasional party banter and no one has much of anything to say. There are a ton of different NPCs to recruit though meaning you'll have a lot of freedom in how you want to build out your party.
It's only in the final third of the game or so that the plot that has been slowly building up starts to come together. Ultimately there's not much to be said about it unfortunately save for the fact that the antagonist's methods are surprisingly well thought out and there are some interesting revelations that are built up to well. But really this isn't a game that puts much emphasis on its major plot. Baldur's Gate seems more interested in letting the player make it the kind of story they want to.
Of the expansion content I only engaged seriously with Durlag's Tower and found it to be a really fun experience. It was easily the best dungeon in the entire game and full of interesting encounters, traps, puzzles and some surprisingly effective storytelling, with Durlag's story serving almost as a sort of cautionary tale toward the potential fate of our would-be hero. Absolutely worth playing through.
If you can get past the rough opening and the cumbersome nature of the pathfinding you'll find a game that I think is well worth experiencing and enjoying. At the very least it's worthwhile to get to the city of Baldur's Gate so you can enjoy the full sandbox experience the game has to offer of traveling and adventuring.
1996
As a series of game mechanics Diablo has a difficult time justifying itself. The gameplay loop is simple and lacking in variety, even for its short runtime. It's far too easy to circumvent nearly any obstacle by running headlong into it while sustaining yourself on a dripfeed of outrageously cheap potions. Tactical options (especially as the warrior I chose to play) are limited, with little more than some light kiting and funneling into chokepoints as options. Perhaps multiplayer increases what you can do here and the fun involved, but I chose to play solo.
Setting aside its gameplay faults, treating Diablo as 10ish hour experience about venturing deeper and deeper into the depths of depravity, melancholy and terror proves a far more worthwhile experience, and one I don't regret in the slightest.
In my short time with it the town of Tristram may be one of the most memorable locations I've experienced in a video game. The withered foliage and lifeless fields, melancholy soundtrack that plays with each return visit and the stories of its few, tortured inhabitants all sell the image of a decaying place, torn apart by the recent experiences wrought upon it. The story told here is straightforward and yet presents such a singular attitude with unwavering confidence in itself. By the end of the adventure I felt compelled to help rid the people here of the terror that had plagued them for too long.
The seemingly unending depths of the dungeon beneath the city reinforce the mood here exceptionally well, with only the dim radius of light around your hero as you venture further and further in, systematically clearing out floors and wary of danger at every turn.
It was interesting to see just how much of the roguelike DNA that Diablo was born from still lingered in its veins. I already knew the game originated from games like Angband and had even been turn based at one point in its development, but so many of the gameplay elements of the classic roguelike hold true here. The random shrines with blessings or curses, map layouts consisting of enormous rooms linked by tiny halls and even the presence of the game's villain as a regular enemy on the final map whose death calls an immediate end to the gameplay are all charming reminders of the game's historic roots.
Setting aside its gameplay faults, treating Diablo as 10ish hour experience about venturing deeper and deeper into the depths of depravity, melancholy and terror proves a far more worthwhile experience, and one I don't regret in the slightest.
In my short time with it the town of Tristram may be one of the most memorable locations I've experienced in a video game. The withered foliage and lifeless fields, melancholy soundtrack that plays with each return visit and the stories of its few, tortured inhabitants all sell the image of a decaying place, torn apart by the recent experiences wrought upon it. The story told here is straightforward and yet presents such a singular attitude with unwavering confidence in itself. By the end of the adventure I felt compelled to help rid the people here of the terror that had plagued them for too long.
The seemingly unending depths of the dungeon beneath the city reinforce the mood here exceptionally well, with only the dim radius of light around your hero as you venture further and further in, systematically clearing out floors and wary of danger at every turn.
It was interesting to see just how much of the roguelike DNA that Diablo was born from still lingered in its veins. I already knew the game originated from games like Angband and had even been turn based at one point in its development, but so many of the gameplay elements of the classic roguelike hold true here. The random shrines with blessings or curses, map layouts consisting of enormous rooms linked by tiny halls and even the presence of the game's villain as a regular enemy on the final map whose death calls an immediate end to the gameplay are all charming reminders of the game's historic roots.