PepperJack235
2022
The frame rate being cut in half whenever you're near towels because they have more polygons than the rest of the game combined is very funny.
2016
That helipad fight is so ass lol
2015
Fuck it, spend 10 straight hours playing Cabaret Club Czar
This review contains spoilers
Bro they need to buff the Japanese equivalent of child protective services cause Rosa performed Navy Seals level psychological warfare on Maria in front of an agent and like body slammed the agent several times after leaving a 9 year old alone for multiple days in a row, but just nothing happened lol.
2023
This review contains spoilers
This goes hard in a lot of ways. I liked the story most of the time, but the stuff involving Ultima just didn't hit for me. Hugo Kupka and even Clive's mother are much more interesting villains than weird space man IMO. The part of the story focused on the emancipation of the bearers is more gripping than the part focused on Ultima. King of Waloed is an okay villain, but I never really understood his motivations in a believable way. I understand his religious upbringing/background and mother issues, but like how did this MFer see akhasic guys and be like "yeah that's what happy people look like." It's a shame cause The Last King is a tough nickname and his power gives him the ability to do some really cool stuff.
For the allied characters in this game some are really good like Clive, Gav, Cid. But man they shit the bed on Jill's character, especially at the beginning of the game she is just such a nothing burger. On paper she is interesting, but she just doesn't get much of a personality. Just kinda the Clive love interest. Even at the end she's just okay,
The gameplay is very satisfying, but the combat system is not super complex. Since you can only have 3 Eikons equipped at once gaining more abilities isn't really meaningful if you already have a setup that works for you. Even though I felt like I was taking a similar approach to like every fight once I was like 30% through the game I never got tired of fighting because the system was fun, but it never asked more of me. Most of the Eikon fights go crazy from a visual spectacle standpoint, mechanically simple but that honestly doesn't really matter.
The presentation of this game is insanely good. Very graphically impressive and the music is on point. The art direction isn't amazing IMO, but the natural landscapes look fantastic. The only issue in this regard is some areas on PS5 regularly have frame rate issues, not unplayably so but very noticeable. These areas are rare thankfully.
I played through on Combat Focused mode and died like twice ever. I'm not even really a gamer who is good at games like this, so they should probably let you select a harder difficulty from the jump.
For the allied characters in this game some are really good like Clive, Gav, Cid. But man they shit the bed on Jill's character, especially at the beginning of the game she is just such a nothing burger. On paper she is interesting, but she just doesn't get much of a personality. Just kinda the Clive love interest. Even at the end she's just okay,
The gameplay is very satisfying, but the combat system is not super complex. Since you can only have 3 Eikons equipped at once gaining more abilities isn't really meaningful if you already have a setup that works for you. Even though I felt like I was taking a similar approach to like every fight once I was like 30% through the game I never got tired of fighting because the system was fun, but it never asked more of me. Most of the Eikon fights go crazy from a visual spectacle standpoint, mechanically simple but that honestly doesn't really matter.
The presentation of this game is insanely good. Very graphically impressive and the music is on point. The art direction isn't amazing IMO, but the natural landscapes look fantastic. The only issue in this regard is some areas on PS5 regularly have frame rate issues, not unplayably so but very noticeable. These areas are rare thankfully.
I played through on Combat Focused mode and died like twice ever. I'm not even really a gamer who is good at games like this, so they should probably let you select a harder difficulty from the jump.
This review contains spoilers
Killing my family and friends cause I didn't get the McDonalds toy #vibes
Also was funny when Keiichi was like actually I think I deserve all this because I trespassed once, should've known that demons would kill everyone I care about if I entered this shack.
Also was funny when Keiichi was like actually I think I deserve all this because I trespassed once, should've known that demons would kill everyone I care about if I entered this shack.
Always a good time playing a Drayano hack, I went through on normal difficulty and had a really good time. I really like how Pokemon are rebalanced so the typically terrible ones can fulfill at least some role, I even had a Ledian for a couple gyms. The ease of EV training is also a great boon, for more difficult hacks many people are almost always going to choose to grind those out, so making it very accessible seems like the right choice to me.
Maybe it was just a function of how my team was built, but for me the weather trainers in Victory Road took a lot more strategy to beat than the Elite 4 which felt a little wonky to me.
My final team was: Samurott, Porygon-Z, Jumpluff, Aggron, Flygon, and Rapidash
Maybe it was just a function of how my team was built, but for me the weather trainers in Victory Road took a lot more strategy to beat than the Elite 4 which felt a little wonky to me.
My final team was: Samurott, Porygon-Z, Jumpluff, Aggron, Flygon, and Rapidash
2022
I think if you like Pokemon to some degree, this game will have something fun to offer you. For me the initial hook was just getting to freely explore a 3D world with Pokemon everywhere. Seeing all the different little guys in the overworld was really exciting. It makes searching for Pokemon a lot more interesting than just grass patches. The story and characters are also pretty good for a Pokemon game which recently have honestly been disasters in those departments. The ending of the story in particular being a highlight.
The performance issues and graphical errors are unfortunately very real and hold this game back in a lot ways. Not to mention just the sheer amount of terrible looking assets that litter the world, so many textures are just inexcusably bad looking. The camera during Pokemon battles was lacking in a lot ways. First problem being if you're on a hill or something half the time the default camera angle is clipping through the ground. Then there's the issue with certain Pokemon due to their dimensions are basically impossible to see during battle, this is mostly a problem with your own Pokemon.
For negatives that are not glitch/visuals related, there's a handful. Having an open world is cool, but since levels of objectives do not scale with you, there is still very much an intended order to do the objectives. The music is unfortunately mostly just okay, don't get me wrong there are some amazing tracks, the Area Zero tracks in particular blew me away, but the ones you hear most often are ho-hum. It's also pretty crazy how few Pokemon the trainers and even bosses in this have.
Final Team: Meowscarada, Salamence, Blissey, Orthworm, Camerupt, Annihilape
The performance issues and graphical errors are unfortunately very real and hold this game back in a lot ways. Not to mention just the sheer amount of terrible looking assets that litter the world, so many textures are just inexcusably bad looking. The camera during Pokemon battles was lacking in a lot ways. First problem being if you're on a hill or something half the time the default camera angle is clipping through the ground. Then there's the issue with certain Pokemon due to their dimensions are basically impossible to see during battle, this is mostly a problem with your own Pokemon.
For negatives that are not glitch/visuals related, there's a handful. Having an open world is cool, but since levels of objectives do not scale with you, there is still very much an intended order to do the objectives. The music is unfortunately mostly just okay, don't get me wrong there are some amazing tracks, the Area Zero tracks in particular blew me away, but the ones you hear most often are ho-hum. It's also pretty crazy how few Pokemon the trainers and even bosses in this have.
Final Team: Meowscarada, Salamence, Blissey, Orthworm, Camerupt, Annihilape
2019
Really cool, short little experience. Loved the different theming on the pages and how there are so many unique audio tracks.
Only gripe is the puzzles towards the end just got to be a little too obscure for me, I didn't see a trail of stuff to keep me motivated.
Only gripe is the puzzles towards the end just got to be a little too obscure for me, I didn't see a trail of stuff to keep me motivated.
2022
A game with a lot of stuff going on narratively, where all the pieces don't quite fit together perfectly but the strong character moments more than make up for it in my eyes. Kratos and Atreus' relationship pretty much carries the game even though this game is not as closely focused on that as 2018 was. The game is incredibly visually impressive with an insane attention to detail present while impressing me aesthetically. I really liked seeing all the unique little background creatures in the different realms even if they mostly just sit there.
The combat is generally a lot of fun. Playing on the normal difficulty it felt like I could use a similar strategy for all the non boss fights, which could get a little stale, but overall I found it very satisfying. I liked having a bunch of different companions in combat across the game. Playing as Atreus felt like a strictly worse experience than Kratos, not in terms of power but just amount of options in combat, which sucks because they have you play as him a fair amount. Also I really hate how all the AI companions can't help but tell you the answer to a puzzle like 30 seconds into trying to solve it! Maybe if I can't solve it after a couple minutes or something, but man they like instantly tell you the solution.
The combat is generally a lot of fun. Playing on the normal difficulty it felt like I could use a similar strategy for all the non boss fights, which could get a little stale, but overall I found it very satisfying. I liked having a bunch of different companions in combat across the game. Playing as Atreus felt like a strictly worse experience than Kratos, not in terms of power but just amount of options in combat, which sucks because they have you play as him a fair amount. Also I really hate how all the AI companions can't help but tell you the answer to a puzzle like 30 seconds into trying to solve it! Maybe if I can't solve it after a couple minutes or something, but man they like instantly tell you the solution.
Beautiful soundtrack, incredible characters, and gripping story. Compared to NieR Automata, this game has more interesting characters, comparable overall story, and worse gameplay. Therefor unless you only liked Automata for its gameplay I would recommend this.
The skeleton of a 2010 game is still here beneath the skin of a remake and at times it's painfully obvious. It requires an irritating amount of running back and forth and replaying vast swaths of the game while only like 10% of things are actually changed. This would be more manageable if the combat was strong so gameplay could hold you over while waiting for the new story sections but unfortunately the combat is just okay.
The skeleton of a 2010 game is still here beneath the skin of a remake and at times it's painfully obvious. It requires an irritating amount of running back and forth and replaying vast swaths of the game while only like 10% of things are actually changed. This would be more manageable if the combat was strong so gameplay could hold you over while waiting for the new story sections but unfortunately the combat is just okay.
Man this is just so good. One of the best VNs I've ever played. It's not perfect, no game ever really is, but the story and characters are just so good I can't give this less than a 5. This game actually made me feel pretty strong emotions and in a way that's earned and not cheap.
The only real criticism I have is with the tactical RPG section, it's at its best in the series here but still is ultimately not exceptional.
The only real criticism I have is with the tactical RPG section, it's at its best in the series here but still is ultimately not exceptional.
This may be the only game I played halfway through then abandoned like 3 times. I got this game around 2015 and finally beat it last year when I was on a Bioware kick. The game has a lot of issues, both in the technical and narrative sense, but it's cool being able to make big decisions and there are some really compelling and believable characters. The whole idea behind the game is interesting, creating an Inquisition and become the Inquisitor. It's fun hearing your squad interact with each other when you're out and about.
The mechanic where you wait for your agents to do stuff at the war table is super dumb, would probably have been monetized if this game came out a few years later. It's very easy to just stumble into enemies which are way too powerful for you to kill. Most side quests are pretty bad. The entire desert area just runs at like half the normal frame rate for some reason and crashed once for me. I thought the ending was pretty bad and honestly kinda abrupt, when it happened I was just like "Huh" and didn't really feel any emotion or even intrigue.
The mechanic where you wait for your agents to do stuff at the war table is super dumb, would probably have been monetized if this game came out a few years later. It's very easy to just stumble into enemies which are way too powerful for you to kill. Most side quests are pretty bad. The entire desert area just runs at like half the normal frame rate for some reason and crashed once for me. I thought the ending was pretty bad and honestly kinda abrupt, when it happened I was just like "Huh" and didn't really feel any emotion or even intrigue.
For some reason this makes some of my friends scream more than any other game and for that it makes me glad I have it. The maps with black holes are pure bullshit for the record.
Fun until you pull up to an enemy city and there's secretly 700 units on their city tile