12 reviews liked by ProtoZash
Eh.
That's really the core of how I feel about this game: Eh.
Before I go ahead, I'll lay my cards on the table.
I am an AC fan, but I wouldn't call myself a passionate one. I gunned the series in 2011 in preparation for Armored Core V (second-hand hype from a friend, you see) and moved on. A few years later, I did it again and fell in love with both AC4 and For Answer. Despite this love, AC has always been a C-lister as far as franchises I care about go, so I don't have too much personal investment in it.
AC6 is alright in some areas. Mech options are great, AC vs AC fights are toptier, music is exceptional, and it's pretty. I liked the ending fights and some of the story beats, really. This is a decent AC game, sometimes.
Unfortunately, this game succumbs to death by a thousand cuts as far as annoyances go. Some are pretty significant and near-omnipresent, while others are minor but still irritating.
I will talk about this game as two separate titles: AC6 - The Armored Core sequel, and AC6 - the Souls game.
I know some of you will groan at that, perhaps due to astroturfing by AC fans insisting that this game will be 'pure', or the devs' own insistence that they didn't bother including any Souls stuff. I believed both of them until I played the game.
As an AC title, AC6 sometimes has moments where it feels like the developers just get it. You're plonked in front of a gauntlet of enemies and silently told 'time to run it, nerd'. In these moments, the developers remember that AC as a series is first and foremost a puzzle game, with your mech potentially being the solution. Early on, these sections are a bit droll since enemies can't really hurt you and you oneshot them, but the threat level amps up later on and leads to some really engaging missions. The final missions on the route I chose were the peak of this, and are some of the finest in the series.
Unfortunately, they had no faith in their own game design, it seems. I know some more hardcore AC fans hate Repair Kits, but I don't - in theory, they allow the game to hit you with longer missions than the older games without you getting worn down just by sheer attrition, and it removes the demand for perfect play.
The actual issue is that the game introduces Repair Kits on top of both checkpoints and free trips to the Assembly when you die.
Despite the game and its tutorials insisting you should be adaptable and flexible in your construction, there's simply no need to do this. You can just beat your head against an immediate threat, hit a checkpoint, and switch to a completely different AC to tackle the next one. Or, get a consequence-free resupply before a boss. It completely torpedoes the need to make versatile builds, and oftentimes it's better to simply veer into the extremes of the speedy-tanky spectrum.
Also, a minor aside that I have no idea where to insert: Turning speed is still a stat but it has no bearing on your actual camera turn speed, leading to cases where you're locked onto an enemy but can't fire because your AC is still turning. It's... Strange? I feel like it was a decision made to make some fights clearer, but the end result is more annoying than anything.
Anyway, that's the AC portion of AC6 done with. Let's talk about the Dark Souls portion.
It is painfully, agonizingly obvious that parts of this game were - intentionally or not - designed to mimic the Souls formula.
There are two types of bosses in this game. The first are enemy Armored Cores. These are great. They're where the game excels with no-catches. They're fast, frantic and intense, doing enough damage to make you sweat but not enough to do 15k of HP damage in one attack. Each AC fight is a wonderful back and forth, and even the harder ones never really bothered me. Once I got gud, they were just pure instinct; dodging, countering and trading like my controller was part of my nervous system. True to form, seeing another AC pop up in the pre-boss cutscene was a delight. If every boss was these, I would give this game an easy 5/5.
The second type are Souls bosses. I'm not saying this due to the bosses being hard - because they're not. They're frustrating more than anything. Logically, they make sense: If AC missions are puzzle-gauntlets, then it's only natural the bosses are puzzles too, right?
Well, no. The Souls bosses are too much like their namesake, boasting obscene hitboxes and overtuned damage. While the AC fights will whittle you down and occasionally hit you with something painful, Souls bosses will decimate your HP and ACS (stagger) gauge with impunity.
Up above, I said that it was better to pick one extreme of the fragile-tanky spectrum and commit to it. With Souls bosses, it sometimes feels as though going fast is the only option. Tanky builds are simply too slow to dodge the bullet hell many bosses dump on you. Fuck dude, even faster builds get clipped by a few missiles.
Yes, there are ways to dodge a lot of these attacks, but nearly every Souls boss I fought in this game had a nasty habit of vaulting to the opposite side of the arena and unleashing one. Assault Boost did nothing, and even building for Quick Boost (dodge) resulted in me losing 30% health regardless. At first, I assumed it was just me. That the bosses were fine and I simply sucked.
But fortunately you can just replay bosses rather than having to NG+. So I experimented, practiced, made new builds, got gud and... Yes, the Souls bosses are just badly designed. They're an attempt by FromSoft to capture the spectacle of their more recent titles but without adjustments for the kind of game Armored Core is. This is especially obvious with a certain lategame boss, who myself and all of my IRL friends coined "Robot Malenia" independently. They are miserable, and I am deeply happy that the final boss of each ending is an AC fight. I know some will refute this, because every 'hard game' has people insisting that there's no such thing as bad design and that detractors are just bad, but no. These bosses are terrible, even when they work. When they don't (BALTHEUS), they're even worse.
I wish the Souls influence ended at the bosses. Instead, it affects the levels too. Not all of them, mercifully, but a fair chunk of them.
An average AC level is, as described above, a puzzle gauntlet. You spawn into an area with clearly visible enemies and have to carve the best path through while avoiding overexpenditure of ammo or loss of health. Sometimes the formula deviates, like with an escort mission or a stealth mission, but the core (hehe) is the same.
AC6 adds Souls levels to the formula. They're 'open' levels wherein the only real threat is ambushes. Endless ambushes. Ambushes from above, below, behind, in front, ambushes. It is every meme about Scholar of the First Sin made manifest. The very first one is kind of cool, in part because it has the Souls geography but the AC encounter design. It soon goes to shit, though. Towards the end there's 3 of these levels back to back and they feel like Miyazaki taunting me for believing the people who said there'd be no Souls in my AC. They're not even hard, just annoying. I personally love it when I interact with a combat log and immediately take 2000 damage from enemies that spawned in and used their heavier attack before I could humanely react.
The sad part here is that while the Souls bosses are a decent recreation of their source material - down to the awful canyon wide hitboxes - the levels are not. Ambushes are all they have, and their open space is filled with nothing. Occasionally, very rarely, you'll find a data log or a part, but these are few in number. In the early levels, there basically aren't any, which is a good way to condition players to ignore exploration and in turn miss out on some great AC components.
You might find my fixation on the Souls elements exhausting, and truth be told I agree with you. But the simple fact of the matter is that the Souls elements are hamfistedly shoved into the game in ways that're deeply annoying, and the Armored Core elements are just okay. For FromSoft's big return to their niche mecha darling, I frankly expected more - and I tend not to expect things hands down.
I could talk about the story, but it's merely there. It's alright. It didn't evoke any strong feelings or thoughts. Truthfully it was fairly predictable; if you're familiar with common sci-fi tropes, have played Daemon x Machina or have a pattern-seeking brain, you'll probably figure it all out by Chapter 2. As early as Chapter 3, I called all four of the major plot twists - one of which is NG+ exclusive.
It's told to you through stiff cutscenes, scenes of two characters talking vaguely, radio calls and exposition. And... All of it sucks, because the voice acting sucks. It's stilted, half-hearted, utterly droll and oftentimes goes on too long. It feels like the Three Houses cast reading someone else's fanfiction, just utterly droll. You have fucking Patrick Seitz in a main role and waste him like this? Come on.
It pains me to rag on this game so hard, because I direly wanted a modern AC game. An AC game where FromSoft dumped their newfound expertise, technical prowess and fat stacks of cash into.
Instead, they just dumped Sekiro into AC and called it a day.
[Post-google docs edit; Hi, that last line was just me kvetching about the game design, but it turns out AC6 was directed by a guy that was a design lead on Sekiro, so. Hey.]
That's really the core of how I feel about this game: Eh.
Before I go ahead, I'll lay my cards on the table.
I am an AC fan, but I wouldn't call myself a passionate one. I gunned the series in 2011 in preparation for Armored Core V (second-hand hype from a friend, you see) and moved on. A few years later, I did it again and fell in love with both AC4 and For Answer. Despite this love, AC has always been a C-lister as far as franchises I care about go, so I don't have too much personal investment in it.
AC6 is alright in some areas. Mech options are great, AC vs AC fights are toptier, music is exceptional, and it's pretty. I liked the ending fights and some of the story beats, really. This is a decent AC game, sometimes.
Unfortunately, this game succumbs to death by a thousand cuts as far as annoyances go. Some are pretty significant and near-omnipresent, while others are minor but still irritating.
I will talk about this game as two separate titles: AC6 - The Armored Core sequel, and AC6 - the Souls game.
I know some of you will groan at that, perhaps due to astroturfing by AC fans insisting that this game will be 'pure', or the devs' own insistence that they didn't bother including any Souls stuff. I believed both of them until I played the game.
As an AC title, AC6 sometimes has moments where it feels like the developers just get it. You're plonked in front of a gauntlet of enemies and silently told 'time to run it, nerd'. In these moments, the developers remember that AC as a series is first and foremost a puzzle game, with your mech potentially being the solution. Early on, these sections are a bit droll since enemies can't really hurt you and you oneshot them, but the threat level amps up later on and leads to some really engaging missions. The final missions on the route I chose were the peak of this, and are some of the finest in the series.
Unfortunately, they had no faith in their own game design, it seems. I know some more hardcore AC fans hate Repair Kits, but I don't - in theory, they allow the game to hit you with longer missions than the older games without you getting worn down just by sheer attrition, and it removes the demand for perfect play.
The actual issue is that the game introduces Repair Kits on top of both checkpoints and free trips to the Assembly when you die.
Despite the game and its tutorials insisting you should be adaptable and flexible in your construction, there's simply no need to do this. You can just beat your head against an immediate threat, hit a checkpoint, and switch to a completely different AC to tackle the next one. Or, get a consequence-free resupply before a boss. It completely torpedoes the need to make versatile builds, and oftentimes it's better to simply veer into the extremes of the speedy-tanky spectrum.
Also, a minor aside that I have no idea where to insert: Turning speed is still a stat but it has no bearing on your actual camera turn speed, leading to cases where you're locked onto an enemy but can't fire because your AC is still turning. It's... Strange? I feel like it was a decision made to make some fights clearer, but the end result is more annoying than anything.
Anyway, that's the AC portion of AC6 done with. Let's talk about the Dark Souls portion.
It is painfully, agonizingly obvious that parts of this game were - intentionally or not - designed to mimic the Souls formula.
There are two types of bosses in this game. The first are enemy Armored Cores. These are great. They're where the game excels with no-catches. They're fast, frantic and intense, doing enough damage to make you sweat but not enough to do 15k of HP damage in one attack. Each AC fight is a wonderful back and forth, and even the harder ones never really bothered me. Once I got gud, they were just pure instinct; dodging, countering and trading like my controller was part of my nervous system. True to form, seeing another AC pop up in the pre-boss cutscene was a delight. If every boss was these, I would give this game an easy 5/5.
The second type are Souls bosses. I'm not saying this due to the bosses being hard - because they're not. They're frustrating more than anything. Logically, they make sense: If AC missions are puzzle-gauntlets, then it's only natural the bosses are puzzles too, right?
Well, no. The Souls bosses are too much like their namesake, boasting obscene hitboxes and overtuned damage. While the AC fights will whittle you down and occasionally hit you with something painful, Souls bosses will decimate your HP and ACS (stagger) gauge with impunity.
Up above, I said that it was better to pick one extreme of the fragile-tanky spectrum and commit to it. With Souls bosses, it sometimes feels as though going fast is the only option. Tanky builds are simply too slow to dodge the bullet hell many bosses dump on you. Fuck dude, even faster builds get clipped by a few missiles.
Yes, there are ways to dodge a lot of these attacks, but nearly every Souls boss I fought in this game had a nasty habit of vaulting to the opposite side of the arena and unleashing one. Assault Boost did nothing, and even building for Quick Boost (dodge) resulted in me losing 30% health regardless. At first, I assumed it was just me. That the bosses were fine and I simply sucked.
But fortunately you can just replay bosses rather than having to NG+. So I experimented, practiced, made new builds, got gud and... Yes, the Souls bosses are just badly designed. They're an attempt by FromSoft to capture the spectacle of their more recent titles but without adjustments for the kind of game Armored Core is. This is especially obvious with a certain lategame boss, who myself and all of my IRL friends coined "Robot Malenia" independently. They are miserable, and I am deeply happy that the final boss of each ending is an AC fight. I know some will refute this, because every 'hard game' has people insisting that there's no such thing as bad design and that detractors are just bad, but no. These bosses are terrible, even when they work. When they don't (BALTHEUS), they're even worse.
I wish the Souls influence ended at the bosses. Instead, it affects the levels too. Not all of them, mercifully, but a fair chunk of them.
An average AC level is, as described above, a puzzle gauntlet. You spawn into an area with clearly visible enemies and have to carve the best path through while avoiding overexpenditure of ammo or loss of health. Sometimes the formula deviates, like with an escort mission or a stealth mission, but the core (hehe) is the same.
AC6 adds Souls levels to the formula. They're 'open' levels wherein the only real threat is ambushes. Endless ambushes. Ambushes from above, below, behind, in front, ambushes. It is every meme about Scholar of the First Sin made manifest. The very first one is kind of cool, in part because it has the Souls geography but the AC encounter design. It soon goes to shit, though. Towards the end there's 3 of these levels back to back and they feel like Miyazaki taunting me for believing the people who said there'd be no Souls in my AC. They're not even hard, just annoying. I personally love it when I interact with a combat log and immediately take 2000 damage from enemies that spawned in and used their heavier attack before I could humanely react.
The sad part here is that while the Souls bosses are a decent recreation of their source material - down to the awful canyon wide hitboxes - the levels are not. Ambushes are all they have, and their open space is filled with nothing. Occasionally, very rarely, you'll find a data log or a part, but these are few in number. In the early levels, there basically aren't any, which is a good way to condition players to ignore exploration and in turn miss out on some great AC components.
You might find my fixation on the Souls elements exhausting, and truth be told I agree with you. But the simple fact of the matter is that the Souls elements are hamfistedly shoved into the game in ways that're deeply annoying, and the Armored Core elements are just okay. For FromSoft's big return to their niche mecha darling, I frankly expected more - and I tend not to expect things hands down.
I could talk about the story, but it's merely there. It's alright. It didn't evoke any strong feelings or thoughts. Truthfully it was fairly predictable; if you're familiar with common sci-fi tropes, have played Daemon x Machina or have a pattern-seeking brain, you'll probably figure it all out by Chapter 2. As early as Chapter 3, I called all four of the major plot twists - one of which is NG+ exclusive.
It's told to you through stiff cutscenes, scenes of two characters talking vaguely, radio calls and exposition. And... All of it sucks, because the voice acting sucks. It's stilted, half-hearted, utterly droll and oftentimes goes on too long. It feels like the Three Houses cast reading someone else's fanfiction, just utterly droll. You have fucking Patrick Seitz in a main role and waste him like this? Come on.
It pains me to rag on this game so hard, because I direly wanted a modern AC game. An AC game where FromSoft dumped their newfound expertise, technical prowess and fat stacks of cash into.
Instead, they just dumped Sekiro into AC and called it a day.
[Post-google docs edit; Hi, that last line was just me kvetching about the game design, but it turns out AC6 was directed by a guy that was a design lead on Sekiro, so. Hey.]
Before I start this review I need to preface that this game is an extremely good game there's no reason to deny the sheer quality and scope of such a project.
With that said, was it a completely satisfying game to me ? A long time Zelda fan who also happened to have the original BOTW ranked super highly as one of my favorite game of all time ?
Heeeeh not quite
By the time I'm writing this review I have completed every single shrine, gotten every single light roots, gotten every single bubul frog crystals, done a couple of the most important mission, got all the dragon tears and ofc finished the 5 temples as well as defeating the evil Ganondorf.
So I'm confident in saying that while all of this was still a relatively fun and addicting experience, there's a lingering feeling at the back of my head telling me that this wasn't really that great of a sequel to BOTW
But why ? Why did I have this awkward feeling ?
I guess it's because BOTW was such a unique experience on release, one that could be difficult to top even with the best of effort, it's such a unique take on Zelda going back to its roots and giving the series the proper evolution it needed after years of stagnant attempt at recapturing the magic of OOT with more or less good success.
It was an ode to freedom, to adventure, it was a game that had the balls to throw away 20 years of Zelda convention and was making no compromise to deliver the best experience possible.
It's hard to deny how much of an amazing title BOTW was when the only people complaining about it are game design illiterate Zelda fans who thought it wasn't "Zelda enough" (which in my book was a good thing) and personally speaking it was hard to recapture a similar experience.
TOTK feels more like what happens when you're bored of playing Minecraft Vanilla and you want to spice things up with some mods to add more stuff to do and that's how I feel about most of the new features in this game, nothing that truly enhances the original game experience in any significant way but just add more stuff on top of what was already a pretty meaty game.
But in doing so, I don't feel that the new stuff was thought with the same minutia or the same sense of vision that BOTW did.
I start with the big elephant in the room which is the map of the game.
As you may know, the map of TOTK is mostly lifted off of the one from BOTW, the surface world isn't entirely devoid of new stuff but it's still relatively the same world just slightly touched up.
The problem with this is that it completely change the way you experience the world, in BOTW I was discovering the world, I was letting myself go loose and absorb the entirety of the game in all of its scope, in TOTK the exploration feels a bit more processed.
I know these plains, I've climbed these mountains, I've sailed those seas, I've been there so I don't approach the world of TOTK the same way I did the one in BOTW.
BOTW felt like actually exploring a world and creating your own adventure, TOTK feels like checking a list of stuff to revisit to see what's different as well as progressing through the very disjointed story of the game (more on that later).
But TOTK has 2 more layers to its map, the sky and the depths !
These were the main selling point of the game (especially the sky) and the two biggest addition to BOTW's world and what do I think of both of them ?
They're honestly not that amazing, there are very few sky islands and most of them outside of the starting area are just the same copy pasted layout of one island with a rotating platform, a distributor and an empty shrine you have to bring a crystal to either by going to an island with an underground where it lies or going to an island where the same cube boss guards it on its back.
There's only maybe 2 or 3 sky island that are actually different and offer a different set of challenges and going to them is kind of bothersome with no proper way to traverse the sky (unless you decide to create an airbike), at some point the sky islands were becoming a bit too predictable but at least they were better than...
The Depths...
So ok, when I first entered the depths my jaw dropped to the floor, these crazy mf made an entire map under the map ???
But then you actually explore the depth and realize its depressingly void of interest, it's the same biomes and structure repeated infinitely with little to nothing of value to be found in here and the only real appeal of it is making surface shrines easier to find (due to the map being symetrical) and grinding for Zonite Ore to upgrade your battery (and I guess that neat little quest with the Yiga Clan but even that got dull pretty fast), every trip down here ended in disappointment and felt like a massive waste of my time until I decided to make an air bike to skip on most of the cumbersome traversal (because god the geography of the depth coupled with the limited light sources just makes me loose my mind)
The best addition to the world at least to me are the caves and wells, these should've been more advertised because these are awesome ! They're the kind of places that feels like it actually belonged in the original game map, they have unique and interesting layouts and they hold lots of surprises within them without feeling too samey and I wish the Sky Islands and The depths were designed with the same philosophy as them.
Another problem arise when discussing the story of the game. See BOTW structure really doesn't mesh well with a more narratively driven story and it shows, you can feel that there was an intended order in how you're supposed to experience what the game has to offer but if you played BOTW before, you don't wanna do that, you just want to explore the world and do things in whatever order you want !
But TOTK encourages to qualm your drive to explore and go on an adventure because not doing so will lead to a worst narrative experience, sometimes you get cutscenes out of order, you experience story segment out of order and the whole story gets broken because the first memory you get is of Zelda traveling to time and the second could be Ganon transforming into a demon and there's like 15 different step you just skipped.
It's sad because it makes some of the stronger more controlled moment of the story less effective as a result
In conclusion TOTK is a game that I enjoyed but it lacks the cohesiveness of the original game even if its fun to play around with the new ability
With that said, was it a completely satisfying game to me ? A long time Zelda fan who also happened to have the original BOTW ranked super highly as one of my favorite game of all time ?
Heeeeh not quite
By the time I'm writing this review I have completed every single shrine, gotten every single light roots, gotten every single bubul frog crystals, done a couple of the most important mission, got all the dragon tears and ofc finished the 5 temples as well as defeating the evil Ganondorf.
So I'm confident in saying that while all of this was still a relatively fun and addicting experience, there's a lingering feeling at the back of my head telling me that this wasn't really that great of a sequel to BOTW
But why ? Why did I have this awkward feeling ?
I guess it's because BOTW was such a unique experience on release, one that could be difficult to top even with the best of effort, it's such a unique take on Zelda going back to its roots and giving the series the proper evolution it needed after years of stagnant attempt at recapturing the magic of OOT with more or less good success.
It was an ode to freedom, to adventure, it was a game that had the balls to throw away 20 years of Zelda convention and was making no compromise to deliver the best experience possible.
It's hard to deny how much of an amazing title BOTW was when the only people complaining about it are game design illiterate Zelda fans who thought it wasn't "Zelda enough" (which in my book was a good thing) and personally speaking it was hard to recapture a similar experience.
TOTK feels more like what happens when you're bored of playing Minecraft Vanilla and you want to spice things up with some mods to add more stuff to do and that's how I feel about most of the new features in this game, nothing that truly enhances the original game experience in any significant way but just add more stuff on top of what was already a pretty meaty game.
But in doing so, I don't feel that the new stuff was thought with the same minutia or the same sense of vision that BOTW did.
I start with the big elephant in the room which is the map of the game.
As you may know, the map of TOTK is mostly lifted off of the one from BOTW, the surface world isn't entirely devoid of new stuff but it's still relatively the same world just slightly touched up.
The problem with this is that it completely change the way you experience the world, in BOTW I was discovering the world, I was letting myself go loose and absorb the entirety of the game in all of its scope, in TOTK the exploration feels a bit more processed.
I know these plains, I've climbed these mountains, I've sailed those seas, I've been there so I don't approach the world of TOTK the same way I did the one in BOTW.
BOTW felt like actually exploring a world and creating your own adventure, TOTK feels like checking a list of stuff to revisit to see what's different as well as progressing through the very disjointed story of the game (more on that later).
But TOTK has 2 more layers to its map, the sky and the depths !
These were the main selling point of the game (especially the sky) and the two biggest addition to BOTW's world and what do I think of both of them ?
They're honestly not that amazing, there are very few sky islands and most of them outside of the starting area are just the same copy pasted layout of one island with a rotating platform, a distributor and an empty shrine you have to bring a crystal to either by going to an island with an underground where it lies or going to an island where the same cube boss guards it on its back.
There's only maybe 2 or 3 sky island that are actually different and offer a different set of challenges and going to them is kind of bothersome with no proper way to traverse the sky (unless you decide to create an airbike), at some point the sky islands were becoming a bit too predictable but at least they were better than...
The Depths...
So ok, when I first entered the depths my jaw dropped to the floor, these crazy mf made an entire map under the map ???
But then you actually explore the depth and realize its depressingly void of interest, it's the same biomes and structure repeated infinitely with little to nothing of value to be found in here and the only real appeal of it is making surface shrines easier to find (due to the map being symetrical) and grinding for Zonite Ore to upgrade your battery (and I guess that neat little quest with the Yiga Clan but even that got dull pretty fast), every trip down here ended in disappointment and felt like a massive waste of my time until I decided to make an air bike to skip on most of the cumbersome traversal (because god the geography of the depth coupled with the limited light sources just makes me loose my mind)
The best addition to the world at least to me are the caves and wells, these should've been more advertised because these are awesome ! They're the kind of places that feels like it actually belonged in the original game map, they have unique and interesting layouts and they hold lots of surprises within them without feeling too samey and I wish the Sky Islands and The depths were designed with the same philosophy as them.
Another problem arise when discussing the story of the game. See BOTW structure really doesn't mesh well with a more narratively driven story and it shows, you can feel that there was an intended order in how you're supposed to experience what the game has to offer but if you played BOTW before, you don't wanna do that, you just want to explore the world and do things in whatever order you want !
But TOTK encourages to qualm your drive to explore and go on an adventure because not doing so will lead to a worst narrative experience, sometimes you get cutscenes out of order, you experience story segment out of order and the whole story gets broken because the first memory you get is of Zelda traveling to time and the second could be Ganon transforming into a demon and there's like 15 different step you just skipped.
It's sad because it makes some of the stronger more controlled moment of the story less effective as a result
In conclusion TOTK is a game that I enjoyed but it lacks the cohesiveness of the original game even if its fun to play around with the new ability
Before I start this review, I just want to thank RGG Studio for finally releasing this title in the West. The fact that this has finally happened is like a dream come true for most fans. Anyway, on with the review.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of a spin-off of the Yakuza series (now called Like a Dragon series in the West). This game is essentially an all-star game, with the cast of the Like a Dragon series portraying major Japanese historical figures. The game's story recounts the tale of Sakamoto Ryoma. How much of this game is historically accurate is beyond me (if I were to guess the team took a lot of creative liberties given the cast), though rest assured, the game's story is excellent.
This game has a similar combat system to Yakuza 0/Kiwami. There are four styles to choose from and you have to figure out which is best suited for the combat scenario. While playing through this game, I only used two of them instead of alternating between the four. The Brawler style is the typical punching combat that the series is known for and it's not that good this time around. Compared to the other styles in the game, it's weak. The attacks do little damage so it's not worth using. The other style I didn't use a lot while playing is Gunman. As the name implies, this style primarily focuses on firing a gun. While dealing with the enemies that walk around the map, Gunman mows them down which made combat bland. Not only that but the dodge for this style wasn't the best. I did enjoy the other two, however. Swordsman Style allows the player to fight with a sword and the attacks here bring a lot of damage. This style also allows the player to block attacks, which the other ones don't offer. The other style is Wild Dancer, which combines sword and gun use. This style's attack range is wide, which makes up for its somewhat low damage output. Plus, the dodge is fantastic. I also enjoy the flamboyant nature of it.
What's new to the combat system is the controversial trooper cards system. In the original release of Ishin, these cards were exclusive to a certain game mode. This time around, they are an important part of the combat. At first, I didn't think I would enjoy this inclusion, but I ended up having fun with them. My biggest gripe is the fact that the game kind of forces you to use them. In a post before the game was released, RGG Studio described the cards as optional. However, the bosses in the game still use these special powers even if the cards aren't equipped. It unintentionally forces the player to use the cards.
Like most games in this series, Like a Dragon: Ishin is filled with side content. The mini games are fun and I enjoyed the Another Life bit. The substories here are rather forgettable though. I certainly chuckled at a few of them but none stuck out to me.
One thing this remake did was change up the cast. Since the original was released before Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, characters from those games weren't featured. To make up for that, some of the characters were recast to include the newer titles. As much as I like Kuze and Zhao, I also like Hamazaki and Baba. Replacing them with characters from the more popular titles seems rather insulting (it doesn't help that Zhao looks like he knows what an iPhone is). I understand wanting to include characters from the newer games, but they could've gone about it another way: the substories. To be fair, they did do something similar for the occasional substory, but I would've liked to see more. This could've been a great way to include characters from both the new and old games, but it is what it is.
As for a remake, it doesn't change much outside of a few minor things. If that's the case, I have to wonder why remake it all? This "remake" is more like a remaster. However, I won't spend too much time on this topic because I'm just happy this game was finally released in the West in some way.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is flawed but a fun experience. The story is top-notch. The combat was okay but still enjoyable. However, some odd questionable decisions prevent me from giving this a higher score.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of a spin-off of the Yakuza series (now called Like a Dragon series in the West). This game is essentially an all-star game, with the cast of the Like a Dragon series portraying major Japanese historical figures. The game's story recounts the tale of Sakamoto Ryoma. How much of this game is historically accurate is beyond me (if I were to guess the team took a lot of creative liberties given the cast), though rest assured, the game's story is excellent.
This game has a similar combat system to Yakuza 0/Kiwami. There are four styles to choose from and you have to figure out which is best suited for the combat scenario. While playing through this game, I only used two of them instead of alternating between the four. The Brawler style is the typical punching combat that the series is known for and it's not that good this time around. Compared to the other styles in the game, it's weak. The attacks do little damage so it's not worth using. The other style I didn't use a lot while playing is Gunman. As the name implies, this style primarily focuses on firing a gun. While dealing with the enemies that walk around the map, Gunman mows them down which made combat bland. Not only that but the dodge for this style wasn't the best. I did enjoy the other two, however. Swordsman Style allows the player to fight with a sword and the attacks here bring a lot of damage. This style also allows the player to block attacks, which the other ones don't offer. The other style is Wild Dancer, which combines sword and gun use. This style's attack range is wide, which makes up for its somewhat low damage output. Plus, the dodge is fantastic. I also enjoy the flamboyant nature of it.
What's new to the combat system is the controversial trooper cards system. In the original release of Ishin, these cards were exclusive to a certain game mode. This time around, they are an important part of the combat. At first, I didn't think I would enjoy this inclusion, but I ended up having fun with them. My biggest gripe is the fact that the game kind of forces you to use them. In a post before the game was released, RGG Studio described the cards as optional. However, the bosses in the game still use these special powers even if the cards aren't equipped. It unintentionally forces the player to use the cards.
Like most games in this series, Like a Dragon: Ishin is filled with side content. The mini games are fun and I enjoyed the Another Life bit. The substories here are rather forgettable though. I certainly chuckled at a few of them but none stuck out to me.
One thing this remake did was change up the cast. Since the original was released before Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, characters from those games weren't featured. To make up for that, some of the characters were recast to include the newer titles. As much as I like Kuze and Zhao, I also like Hamazaki and Baba. Replacing them with characters from the more popular titles seems rather insulting (it doesn't help that Zhao looks like he knows what an iPhone is). I understand wanting to include characters from the newer games, but they could've gone about it another way: the substories. To be fair, they did do something similar for the occasional substory, but I would've liked to see more. This could've been a great way to include characters from both the new and old games, but it is what it is.
As for a remake, it doesn't change much outside of a few minor things. If that's the case, I have to wonder why remake it all? This "remake" is more like a remaster. However, I won't spend too much time on this topic because I'm just happy this game was finally released in the West in some way.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is flawed but a fun experience. The story is top-notch. The combat was okay but still enjoyable. However, some odd questionable decisions prevent me from giving this a higher score.
This review contains spoilers
I was left with way more complicated feelings on this thing than I was expecting. It's a fun game to play, with a tweaked battle system taken far past the clumsy feel of the PSP version and a nice, compact structure that makes it a super easy game to open up when you decide you got some time to kill. Those side-missions rock and they have the same sort of goofy yakuza-adjacent tone that Final Fantasy VII Remake happens to strike as well, probably mostly due to this version's HD facelift.
The story and presentation and just... everything to do with that though, that's a different story. Zack Fair is a hilariously stupid dickhead and I like him a lot for that but I don't necessarily love him. The returning cast is kind of a mixed bag with Cloud and Sephiroth's parts being great and Aerith... well, I'll circle back to that. The new additions to the cast are genuinely baffling. Just the most bizarre personalities that never crack past a surface reading, given absolutely ridiculous importance in the story. It's really stupid in both the good and the bad way.
A lot of the character relationships don't really hold together very well. Angeal is too weird and hilarious to take seriously, Genesis basically never makes sense at all, and Aerith's friendship/hamfisted will they won't they with Zack swings back and forth between being kinda cute and incredibly forced. That forced feeling does kinda start to work on me though, as I started to read Aerith as less someone in puppy love and more as someone being a friend that everyone in her immediate circle just assumes needs to be paired up with the guy that fell through her ceiling. It's goofy but when I look at the character that way it starts to sit better with me.
Zack starts the game as a boot boy through and through, totally bought into the culture of war and capital that Shinra peddles off to its working class. He admires literal psychopaths and broken weirdos and starts off the game committing war crimes in Wutai under the vague goal of being a hero. This literally always comes off as weird and even if the game's creators dont necessarily line up with that reading, this angle keeps being supported by the game's events... so I think deep inside there really was an intent to make a sort of weird ironic hero story like this. The way everyone talks past each other. Zack barely comprehends whats going on in the first half and then suddenly his idol dies and boom, he's broken too and thus a hero to the lower ranking soldiers.
He makes friends with Cloud, in which case suddenly the dialogue is really well acted and endearing. In Nibelheim the game just ascends to a new level where the bizarre inclusions of the new characters start to bring a newfound psychosis into focus for the characters. The world is being ruined by a corporation, it's breaking all the "heroes" and now they're sick and dying with nowhere to go, and this whole time those broken people they admired continue to be a north star. It's actually unsettling stuff as the game crawls to its conclusion, a funeral rite that starts well before the heart stops beating. Zack asks if you think he became a hero. The game fucking ends! It's kind of fucking amazing, man I dunno!
This is one of the messiest, most uneven games I've played in a long time but I'll be god damned if it gets dismissed as something fans of FF7 should skip over. More people gotta learn that Final Fantasy Is Real Good, Even When It Isn't. This is a series that has been steadfast in staying interesting no matter what, and that includes this fuckin weird thing. This failed little J-Drama of a video game. Never before have I seen a game go from laugh-a-minute kusoge to actual compelling drama before, at least not on this level. I know I'm giving the game and its creators a lot of credit here but dammit this game made me feel stuff. Hats off.
The story and presentation and just... everything to do with that though, that's a different story. Zack Fair is a hilariously stupid dickhead and I like him a lot for that but I don't necessarily love him. The returning cast is kind of a mixed bag with Cloud and Sephiroth's parts being great and Aerith... well, I'll circle back to that. The new additions to the cast are genuinely baffling. Just the most bizarre personalities that never crack past a surface reading, given absolutely ridiculous importance in the story. It's really stupid in both the good and the bad way.
A lot of the character relationships don't really hold together very well. Angeal is too weird and hilarious to take seriously, Genesis basically never makes sense at all, and Aerith's friendship/hamfisted will they won't they with Zack swings back and forth between being kinda cute and incredibly forced. That forced feeling does kinda start to work on me though, as I started to read Aerith as less someone in puppy love and more as someone being a friend that everyone in her immediate circle just assumes needs to be paired up with the guy that fell through her ceiling. It's goofy but when I look at the character that way it starts to sit better with me.
Zack starts the game as a boot boy through and through, totally bought into the culture of war and capital that Shinra peddles off to its working class. He admires literal psychopaths and broken weirdos and starts off the game committing war crimes in Wutai under the vague goal of being a hero. This literally always comes off as weird and even if the game's creators dont necessarily line up with that reading, this angle keeps being supported by the game's events... so I think deep inside there really was an intent to make a sort of weird ironic hero story like this. The way everyone talks past each other. Zack barely comprehends whats going on in the first half and then suddenly his idol dies and boom, he's broken too and thus a hero to the lower ranking soldiers.
He makes friends with Cloud, in which case suddenly the dialogue is really well acted and endearing. In Nibelheim the game just ascends to a new level where the bizarre inclusions of the new characters start to bring a newfound psychosis into focus for the characters. The world is being ruined by a corporation, it's breaking all the "heroes" and now they're sick and dying with nowhere to go, and this whole time those broken people they admired continue to be a north star. It's actually unsettling stuff as the game crawls to its conclusion, a funeral rite that starts well before the heart stops beating. Zack asks if you think he became a hero. The game fucking ends! It's kind of fucking amazing, man I dunno!
This is one of the messiest, most uneven games I've played in a long time but I'll be god damned if it gets dismissed as something fans of FF7 should skip over. More people gotta learn that Final Fantasy Is Real Good, Even When It Isn't. This is a series that has been steadfast in staying interesting no matter what, and that includes this fuckin weird thing. This failed little J-Drama of a video game. Never before have I seen a game go from laugh-a-minute kusoge to actual compelling drama before, at least not on this level. I know I'm giving the game and its creators a lot of credit here but dammit this game made me feel stuff. Hats off.
Signalis
2022
concerning the bones of the game i'm of two minds: signalis avoids puzzle scenarios that end up having me running back and forth wondering what the fuck i'm missing, which is something that tends to interfere with my enjoyment of the older resident evils—though it's also perhaps straightforward to a fault. the puzzles are refreshing in their cleverness, though they will most likely seem a bit too easy to some, and the navigation of each section never even begins to confuse.
my rating is maybe a bit generous, but i don't really care. i'm actually restraining myself, being honest. the presentation and vibes are immaculate. familiar survival horror dosed with traces of BLAME!, nier: automata, blade runner, a little alien 3 (strictly in the bleak feel of its setting), the shining, etc., all steeped in the cosmic horror of otherworldly malevolence plaguing this post-singularity world of ruin. it is by turns coldly alienating and dreamily sapphic. everything feels solid and tactile—this is a game crafted with care, and it feels like it has the integrity of a ps1 or mid '90s pc game with more modern interface and sound design. there's tech everywhere that you want to touch, and it reminded me a lot of alien: isolation in that regard.
signalis is suuuper comfy, and i guess i could be irritated that it never really scared or challenged me, but... again, i don't really care. i just loved being in this haunted sci-fi world.
my rating is maybe a bit generous, but i don't really care. i'm actually restraining myself, being honest. the presentation and vibes are immaculate. familiar survival horror dosed with traces of BLAME!, nier: automata, blade runner, a little alien 3 (strictly in the bleak feel of its setting), the shining, etc., all steeped in the cosmic horror of otherworldly malevolence plaguing this post-singularity world of ruin. it is by turns coldly alienating and dreamily sapphic. everything feels solid and tactile—this is a game crafted with care, and it feels like it has the integrity of a ps1 or mid '90s pc game with more modern interface and sound design. there's tech everywhere that you want to touch, and it reminded me a lot of alien: isolation in that regard.
signalis is suuuper comfy, and i guess i could be irritated that it never really scared or challenged me, but... again, i don't really care. i just loved being in this haunted sci-fi world.
Signalis
2022
Signalis has lived rent free in my head since the moment I started it. It is both a game I want to go on about endlessly, dissecting it's thousand details and it's lineage of inspiration - and a game that I think everyone should just straight up play for themselves. Brilliant in worldbuilding and aesthetics, strong puzzle-boxy game design ripped straight from Resi 1/2, Surrealism that both comes in spades and is perfectly balanced to keep you on your toes, and a story that slowly forces its way under your skin, unravelling in a manner that is currently living rent free in my head.
I would concede that Signalis appeals particularly to my sensibilities - theres a bit of the thing, bit of lynch, bit of alien, and a whole lot more. But it's reference and reverance is never out of line and never takes away from what's an insanely compelling experience. It is a game that uses the best of the past to set a baseline for a good horror game and set up the game language, only to twist the knife.
Its not flawless, but to even broach the flaws feels like doing a disservice. Like, there's little niggles with the difficulty, enemies, and one or two puzzles in retrospect. But Signalis is such a ridiculously compelling game that it never really matters, it was never something I was thinking about actually at the time. Only progressing onward, unpicking it's puzzle box levels and slowly unravelling it's story.
Easily game of the year, and one of the best horror games in a long, long time. This game made me buy a damn book, play it.
I would concede that Signalis appeals particularly to my sensibilities - theres a bit of the thing, bit of lynch, bit of alien, and a whole lot more. But it's reference and reverance is never out of line and never takes away from what's an insanely compelling experience. It is a game that uses the best of the past to set a baseline for a good horror game and set up the game language, only to twist the knife.
Its not flawless, but to even broach the flaws feels like doing a disservice. Like, there's little niggles with the difficulty, enemies, and one or two puzzles in retrospect. But Signalis is such a ridiculously compelling game that it never really matters, it was never something I was thinking about actually at the time. Only progressing onward, unpicking it's puzzle box levels and slowly unravelling it's story.
Easily game of the year, and one of the best horror games in a long, long time. This game made me buy a damn book, play it.
Signalis
2022
Wow, this was absolutely worth the wait. Signalis is very much Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Signalis is also Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and a whole lot of other things. Most importantly, however, Signalis is also Signalis: an eerie dystopian mind-bender with an extremely strong aesthetic. When there are so many sources of inspiration in play I'd imagine it's real easy to lose track of what it is you're trying to convey while making that love letter to PS1 survival horror and your favorite animes but I thought rose-engine definitely succeeded in bringing their own vision to the mix. The art direction is superb and cohesive, the gameplay is totally RE and I loved the (Japanese-)German flair in everything.
I don't want to go into the the narrative with this one, partly because I'm still trying to piece it together myself but also because that's exactly what it is about: a fascinating mystery to try and unravel for yourself. You play as an 'LSTR' unit technician Replika and you're on a mission to find someone in a remote work facility, that's the premise. I really enjoyed the level design, lots of satisfying shortcuts to unlock and steely high-tech spaces to explore. RE2 vibes down to a tee.
I played the game with the tank controls on - as any self-respecting old-school survival horror fan would - and though there was some stickiness when moving near objects or walls I felt like it was the right move. The strafing felt unnecessary to me though, I would have preferred more precise control over the aiming instead. Combat in general was quite competent, the shooting felt good and I liked the self-defense mechanics. The big negative I've seen mentioned a lot has to do with the limited inventory space and I get it. I anticipated a lot of backtracking and item management so I wasn't annoyed by it but it would have been nice to have a separate slot for the current equipment and/or module, I'm sure that would alleviate the problem for most players.
The highlight of the game for me were the audiovisuals, I was in constant awe entering from one area to another, but a close second has to be the puzzles. They are a nice mix of both RE and SH and I had more than one aha moment during my playthrough which is always a good thing. The gripes I have with the game are more to do with a slight lack of polish (e.g. entering a door can be awkward) rather than the content itself. I guess some key visuals could have been a tad more original and certain editing choices felt less meaningful than others but I didn't really mind personally, I was fully tapped in and into it all.
I could go on and on about Signalis but I'll wrap it up here. This is a game I respect immensely more than anything. I feel like it is a (sadly) rare case where the developers actually understand what people loved about the old games their indie title is striving for. And thank god this wasn't a fucking bite-sized three-hours-at-most nu-horror game but an actual, hefty game with a proper structure. They understood and they delivered. Brilliant work, rose-engine! You kept your promise.
I don't want to go into the the narrative with this one, partly because I'm still trying to piece it together myself but also because that's exactly what it is about: a fascinating mystery to try and unravel for yourself. You play as an 'LSTR' unit technician Replika and you're on a mission to find someone in a remote work facility, that's the premise. I really enjoyed the level design, lots of satisfying shortcuts to unlock and steely high-tech spaces to explore. RE2 vibes down to a tee.
I played the game with the tank controls on - as any self-respecting old-school survival horror fan would - and though there was some stickiness when moving near objects or walls I felt like it was the right move. The strafing felt unnecessary to me though, I would have preferred more precise control over the aiming instead. Combat in general was quite competent, the shooting felt good and I liked the self-defense mechanics. The big negative I've seen mentioned a lot has to do with the limited inventory space and I get it. I anticipated a lot of backtracking and item management so I wasn't annoyed by it but it would have been nice to have a separate slot for the current equipment and/or module, I'm sure that would alleviate the problem for most players.
The highlight of the game for me were the audiovisuals, I was in constant awe entering from one area to another, but a close second has to be the puzzles. They are a nice mix of both RE and SH and I had more than one aha moment during my playthrough which is always a good thing. The gripes I have with the game are more to do with a slight lack of polish (e.g. entering a door can be awkward) rather than the content itself. I guess some key visuals could have been a tad more original and certain editing choices felt less meaningful than others but I didn't really mind personally, I was fully tapped in and into it all.
I could go on and on about Signalis but I'll wrap it up here. This is a game I respect immensely more than anything. I feel like it is a (sadly) rare case where the developers actually understand what people loved about the old games their indie title is striving for. And thank god this wasn't a fucking bite-sized three-hours-at-most nu-horror game but an actual, hefty game with a proper structure. They understood and they delivered. Brilliant work, rose-engine! You kept your promise.
Signalis
2022
Signalis is my favorite game this year, at a glance it looks like just another PS1/PS2 style horror game like the multitude we've seen the last few years, but this is an entirely different beast altogether.
Gameplay:
A pitch perfect mix of old and new, it feels exactly like playing Resident Evil on the PS1, albeit with the perspective of MGS, but with a slew of modern conveniences, quality of play improvements and a masterful knowledge of balancing. The enemy encounters ratchet up in difficulty at a perfect pace, the exploration becomes more and more complex but never throws too much at you, and the puzzles are challenging but never feel unfair; staying true to the spirit of the classics whilst not being afraid to add unique interactions or gimmicks. This game will have you scratching your head but never quitting out of frustration, it feels great to play but never sacrifices the characteristic 'clunk' of a classic survival horror game.
Story:
Taking place in an interesting sci-fi world, with well-developed and engaging characters, and finely balanced surrealist elements interwoven throughout; this is psychological sci-fi horror at it's best. The story is where the inspirations for the game really rear their heads; the king in yellow is directly referenced in the first moments of the game. And whilst the writing shows a lot of literary influence more than anything else; the structure of said writing and the presentation of the characters narrows down the video game influence from general survival horror to a very specific selection; Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. The way characters are treated and appear in the world, the way the world acts as an extension of the characters psyche, and of course the true surrealist machinations of everything that happens reek of those first two games; I'll say no more here, but if you know, you know.
Art:
Where to start... from the striking and affecting direction of cutscenes, to the beautiful anime-inspired artstyle characters within them are rendered in - to the fantastic character animations and environments that drip with atmosphere. Every character design is perfect and every location feels distinct and storied. Moreover there's more to it than that; having dreams be told through a first person perspective helps them stand out and almost feel more real and present than reality, making you wonder what is keeping Elster outside of her body and wowing you with more amazing visuals. The pixelated yet detailed look of the game makes for a unique look even amongst it's PS1-inspired contemporaries, and the way puzzle areas look and how the puzzle zones reflect back out into the 2D art in the game proper is genuinely impressive. Every puzzle feels like it's had unique mechanics made for it and every room oozes with steamy, fleshy, dark atmosphere.
I could go on for days about this game, I've been chipping away at it for a week now and even before some of the late-game events I was already sure this is easily one of my games of the year. Signalis does everything right, and it's two-person dev team should be proud of and adulated for this achievement.
Gameplay:
A pitch perfect mix of old and new, it feels exactly like playing Resident Evil on the PS1, albeit with the perspective of MGS, but with a slew of modern conveniences, quality of play improvements and a masterful knowledge of balancing. The enemy encounters ratchet up in difficulty at a perfect pace, the exploration becomes more and more complex but never throws too much at you, and the puzzles are challenging but never feel unfair; staying true to the spirit of the classics whilst not being afraid to add unique interactions or gimmicks. This game will have you scratching your head but never quitting out of frustration, it feels great to play but never sacrifices the characteristic 'clunk' of a classic survival horror game.
Story:
Taking place in an interesting sci-fi world, with well-developed and engaging characters, and finely balanced surrealist elements interwoven throughout; this is psychological sci-fi horror at it's best. The story is where the inspirations for the game really rear their heads; the king in yellow is directly referenced in the first moments of the game. And whilst the writing shows a lot of literary influence more than anything else; the structure of said writing and the presentation of the characters narrows down the video game influence from general survival horror to a very specific selection; Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. The way characters are treated and appear in the world, the way the world acts as an extension of the characters psyche, and of course the true surrealist machinations of everything that happens reek of those first two games; I'll say no more here, but if you know, you know.
Art:
Where to start... from the striking and affecting direction of cutscenes, to the beautiful anime-inspired artstyle characters within them are rendered in - to the fantastic character animations and environments that drip with atmosphere. Every character design is perfect and every location feels distinct and storied. Moreover there's more to it than that; having dreams be told through a first person perspective helps them stand out and almost feel more real and present than reality, making you wonder what is keeping Elster outside of her body and wowing you with more amazing visuals. The pixelated yet detailed look of the game makes for a unique look even amongst it's PS1-inspired contemporaries, and the way puzzle areas look and how the puzzle zones reflect back out into the 2D art in the game proper is genuinely impressive. Every puzzle feels like it's had unique mechanics made for it and every room oozes with steamy, fleshy, dark atmosphere.
I could go on for days about this game, I've been chipping away at it for a week now and even before some of the late-game events I was already sure this is easily one of my games of the year. Signalis does everything right, and it's two-person dev team should be proud of and adulated for this achievement.
Soul Hackers 2
2022
This was pretty fucking ass, I'll be honest that I didn't like it but it has Atlus on its name so I'm obligated give it 5 stars because of that alone. A game can be the worst fucking creation in all the universes that ever existed and will ever exist, it can be the cause for the tiniest wars to the fucking Holocaust & the most horrific carnage recorded in human history, but if it has the name ''Atlus'' on it I simply have to act like it saved my life and gave me an everlasting feeling of solace. This isn't even dickriding, it's how my brain is wired. Dickriding is a choice of freedom, this is intinct & a part of my construct. If you make fun of this then you're ableist. I dont make the rules
Metal Gear Solid 4 is brimming with some of the lamest writing I have ever seen, soulless game design, walmart version of better Metal Gear boss fights, severe lack of subtlety, shoehorned plot-lines, character retcons, and hours of infodumps. Also, this is one of the best games ever made.
