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27f, Germany

My rating system:
5 ★ I love it
4 ★ I like it a lot
3 ★ I like it, despite some issues
2 ★ I don't really like it
1 ★ I don't like it
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Favorite Games

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2

310

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000

Played in 2024

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Before I start this review, can I just say that I love it when games have demos? If it weren't for Dragon Quest Builders 2's (DQB2) aptly named XXL Demo I'm not sure I would've given this game a chance yet, as I never had any interest in Minecraft and this looking very much like that type of game… because it is, in a way. But there are several features that make it quite unique, such as it being a full fledged JRPG that incorpates the fact that you are playing as a genius builder that can use the sandbox in a million creative ways into its story and lore as opposed to the story just being tacked onto some Minecraft-clone.

I'm not super familiar with the Dragon Quest series, but having played DQXI I found many things that I loved also present in DQB2, such as the cute monster designs, the charming characters, the simple but endearing story that is often funny, playful, and - I don't know how to say this, maybe 'quietly emotional'? It never gets heavily dramatic, but the game being mostly light-hearted makes the emotional scenes have more depth than a more heavy-handed presentation during those moments would achieve, at least that's how I experienced it.

During the story you visit three big islands (there are two areas in the story that work a bit differently that I don't want to spoil) where you help the NPCs with their island-specific problems in the only way you know how - building! And fighting! Though the fighting is pretty simple and not too exciting, you can only attack and jump out of harm's way, and you only invest in stronger armour and weapons to get better. The boss fights with their own gimmicks are more fun.

Every island has one big goal you work towards to, but there are also smaller sidequests where NPCs want a certain type of room built, for example. 'Rooms' is where the fun begins: The game can recognize a variety of rooms, like a kitchen, a bedroom, a pool or a field, that NPCs will use accordingly; so cooking in the kitchen, sleeping in the bedroom etc. There are different types of NPCs that will do different tasks according to their job. So farmers will work on fields, playboy bunnies dancers will dance in a dance hall, soldiers will fight monsters. Everyone of them will use communal places, and you can also assign rooms to individual people. There are farm animals and many different crops, because you need food to function.

The tasks of what and where to build during the story don't leave much room for imagination, the main quest is essentially designed for you to learn what is possible to build in this game. In between chapters you return to your home island where you are free to build whatever. Though the game only really opens up after completing the story which took me (including side-questing and exploring) ca. 70 hours. In the late-/endgame you are encouraged to fulfill certain tasks to unlock better equipment that will really help with planning, building and terraforming.

There are several smaller islands on the world map that are randomly generated but always adhere to a special biome that has specific ressources you can collect. If you 'marked' every single ressource of an island once you unlock an infinite amount of the most commonly used ressources like wood and stone. You can also recruit new NPCs from these islands to come back home with you. In short, there's lots to do and to explore even late into the game and the game rewards you pretty much every time for it. And that's not even taking into account the things you build just for fun.

Regarding the Minecraft comparison, there were two big reasons I never tried it: I don't like the look, and I wouldn't know what to build anyway. DQB2 counters this on one hand with being a very pretty game that has more geometrical shapes than just blocks. Characters look like DQ characters, monsters like DQ monsters. There are of course many block shaped blocks to build structures and landscapes, but also a huge amount of normal looking stuff like furniture, plants and flowers, food and decorative food items, other decorative items etc. And on the other hand, the more restrictive nature during the main story and the NPC-usable rooms coupled with them having their own room preferences give an uncreative and not at all architecture-savvy person like me guidance enough for knowing what to build. It also gives my buildings purpose because they will actually get used by someone other than me. The world feels alive, and it's my mission to make it habitable. And pretty. And in a couple hundred hours I may actually achieve that… (No, you did not just see me building a mini Las Vegas-like entertainment paradise for 100 hours straight just to finish it and thinking, well, that was fun, let's bulldoze it all to the ground and build something new 🙃)

As someone too young to have been able to experience the NES-era of games, playing Final Fantasy felt a bit unreal to me. I got into the series with XV in 2019 and have since played all mainline singleplayer FFs (and a few spin-offs) available on PS4. With the announcement of the Pixel Remasters I was excited to experience that 'classic era' of FF, starting with the original: Final Fantasy.

Although the plot is simple and the characters are more of a player insert, the overall presentation is what makes the journey charming and memorable. The soundtrack, for one, was beautifully rearranged (though you can select the original OST if you prefer). The graphics and especially the character and monster designs are just so pretty to look at. Final Fantasy really achieves that fairytale feeling that makes you marvel at the world.

Your party consists of four characters with six classes to choose from - I chose the inital setup consisting of warrior, thief, white and black mage, with red mage and black belt also being available. Various quality of life changes like being able to save anywhere on the overworld and to quicksave in dungeons, and things like characters automatically hitting the next available enemy if the targeted one died before their turn results in faster gameplay than in the original version. I don't know why I expected the ATB system, but that apparently doesn't appear until FFIV. In this game, you select the actions for all four characters at once, and only then do enemy actions come into play. After your fourth action was performed, you do it again etc. It's not a mechanic that I prefer (I'd say I like the fighting in VIIR, XII & X the most), but it also didn’t prevent me from enjoying the fighting. The magic system is interesting: For each level of magic, you can purchase 3 out of 4 spells for a character. Each level also has a set amount of magic points which determine how often you can cast a spell. At the beginning it is low, like 2 for example, so you can use a spell only two times before you have to sleep in an inn to replenish. It's a nice change to the usual MP mechanic I'm used to and made the battles more tactical.

In general, the battles are fairly easy except for the final boss. In the beginning, you may find yourself debilitated by poison, or some groups of stronger enemies are threatening, but you quickly overcome these early difficulties. Battles are also annoyingly frequent, so the option to disable random encounters was at times really appreciated. The usefulness of loot from treasure chests also varied. In the end, these criticisms didn't matter that much because the game didn't overstay its welcome, as I finished it in around 13-14 hours.

Even if many things seemed familiar because of my knowledge of later FF games, this game was more than just >insert Leo DiCaprio pointing meme here<. It may not be perfect or my favourite in the series, but it's so endearing and sincere. And when the final scrolling text addresses you, the player, directly… sometimes it's the little things that really get you, you know?

In my review of the original Sins of the Fathers I explicitly mentioned the strength of Jane Jensen’s script as the defining core of the game. This remake being faithful to that, it inherits this particular strength from its predecessor. Its differences in art, atmosphere, design and voice-over on the other hand make it clearly inferior to the original. Its few positive changes might still be an argument for some players to rather play this than the original if they simply cannot do with the pixely/old-schooly-ness (that's a word, right?). To not repeat myself in this review, I’ll just mention the positive and negative changes I noticed:

The Good: The new interface is a change for the better; the context menu makes interactivity easier. The inventory menu now highlights items that can be more closely examined or combined. The higher resolution plus new 'view angles' for some shelves, tables, etc. also let you examine stuff more easily and add more detail. The map is accessible from anywhere, meaning that you don’t have to walk to an exit every time. These are all welcome quality of life changes. One other positive change is the interior of the castle hall, which is now more realistic and closer to the sequel's depiction.
There are also some new additions: There is a new scene added later in the game at the police station, which is cool. The prequel comic for Sins of the Fathers that was shipped with the original game‘s box is now accessible from the main menu. It explains the background of what is going on in Gabriel's dreams. You don't have to read it before playing the game, in fact, it might be better for the mystery if you don't because Gabriel only gradually learns about his family's past.
At every location in-game you can access a newly added menu which shows the original sketch for that location and the look from the original game. Interviews and comments from the original developers were also added. (Have I said 'original' enough times?)

The 'meh': Very few puzzles are slightly changed but it's not detrimental. Some puzzles were added and feel weirdly out of place. I don't think they're completely bad, just unnecessary. Then, the music: The sound quality is undoubtedly an improvement. But, and I am biased here loving the original OST so much, the arrangements are a bit hit or miss. Some I really like, some are worse because they lose the atmosphere of the original - compare the vooodoo museum track: old vs. new - which is a problem of the game itself and therefore I won't judge the music for that; it has to adapt to the new style. I just prefer the more synth-y feel of the original.

The Bad: I'll start with a nitpick, but why roll the credits after the initial nightmare sequence? It hurts the pacing and is just such a weird way to start the adventure. With that out of the way, onto the heavy stuff: The characters' animations are not so great. They take too long (being not as fluid as the 2D sprites) which makes certain actions they take annoying. They can also suddenly change their pace while walking or make awkward gestures while moving. They feel weirdly outdated, but that's probably due to the budget. The animated character portraits during conversations are also weird, some of them having outright dead eyes. The faces are sometimes a drastic change from the original… They also replaced some scenes which were originally created in-game with more comic panels (these being used in both games for important cutscenes) and removed many incidental movements to cut extra animation.
The biggest change is rooted in the initial idea of making the remake episodic (ugh): The game is more linear than the first, with the intention of giving each day the same amount of content. Even disregarding that the non-linear approach was so good in the original, this new design makes no sense in some scenarios. Without spoiling, there is a character you now 'have to' find and figure out how to talk to, but can’t advance with further because you lack information you gain on another day. It also affects the hunt for specific clues, with one clue obtainable when you don’t need it anymore. This makes the new structure feel artificial, as well as frustrating for returning players. Though it may make some puzzles easier for newcomers, I doubt that clicking on several locations only to learn that they are 'closed' at the moment is very inviting.
The new voice actors are… okay. They are generally a good fit for the characters. But they just don’t compare to the original cast, e.g. in regards to nuance, charm and personality.
The new backgrounds, and the lighting especially, are much warmer than the original. And, in some places, also more drab - some comparisons here. It’s a completely different atmosphere that, of course, changes the tone for the whole game. It has less of a distinct 'look' and just isn’t as nice as the original - higher resolution or not. It also makes the supernatural stuff feel less realistic by not reflecticing the gothic nature of the story appropriately.

In summary, while the remake offers some quality of life changes that can be genuinely considered positive, the overall presentation and forced linearity are too much of a change for the worse. This also applies, but less harshly, to the new voice-over. The 20th Anniversary Edition feels too different and loses so much of what made the original truly special, with these design decisions not making it have a solid identity of its own, either.