Qujbug
23 reviews liked by Qujbug
Chrono Cross
1999
initially was going to convey this in a meaner, snarkier way for the bit but with how this game tied into trigger closer to the end i decided not to. the game is not subtle about how it feels having to follow up a dream team project like trigger and a certain set of characters basically have to refrain themselves from explicitly saying serge ruined chrono trigger, and because of that i would honestly feel kind of bad bringing that kind of attitude with this review. regardless, while i played chrono cross, the main thought that went through my head was "how is it that people thought cross didn't live up to trigger rather than the other way around?" but as i finished the game and write this review i feel as though cross didn't need to live up to trigger and that hinging its value on whether or not it does is a very childish way of looking at things.
to me, chrono trigger is a game that is held back by how near perfect it is. there's so little wrong with it that at least to me nothing really stands out anymore. there's nothing to grab onto, no imperfections to make it feel "complete" to me and as such i feel as though its reverence, while not necessarily misplaced, is harder for me to grasp because to me a "perfect" game without imperfections, as contradictory as it sounds, will never be perfect to me. meanwhile, chrono cross i found to be an amazing, thought provoking, mesmerizing game that pushed the playstation to its limits aesthetically, a game with so much to say about what it means to live and exist, what it means to dream. chrono cross is messy and imperfect in such beautiful ways, it knows its following up chrono trigger and while it still intends to be a continuation of a work like trigger it doesn't care what kind of shadow its living in and intends to be its own experience, flaws and all.
whether or not it lives up to chrono trigger is irrelevant, the arguments surrounding such are just attempts at insecure and childish posturing because these games, while connected are so different that its hardly worth comparing in that sense. i understand that nothing exists in a vacuum, let alone a sequel, but maybe it would do some people a lot of good to both understand the context of something like chrono cross while also letting it be its own experience.
to me, chrono trigger is a game that is held back by how near perfect it is. there's so little wrong with it that at least to me nothing really stands out anymore. there's nothing to grab onto, no imperfections to make it feel "complete" to me and as such i feel as though its reverence, while not necessarily misplaced, is harder for me to grasp because to me a "perfect" game without imperfections, as contradictory as it sounds, will never be perfect to me. meanwhile, chrono cross i found to be an amazing, thought provoking, mesmerizing game that pushed the playstation to its limits aesthetically, a game with so much to say about what it means to live and exist, what it means to dream. chrono cross is messy and imperfect in such beautiful ways, it knows its following up chrono trigger and while it still intends to be a continuation of a work like trigger it doesn't care what kind of shadow its living in and intends to be its own experience, flaws and all.
whether or not it lives up to chrono trigger is irrelevant, the arguments surrounding such are just attempts at insecure and childish posturing because these games, while connected are so different that its hardly worth comparing in that sense. i understand that nothing exists in a vacuum, let alone a sequel, but maybe it would do some people a lot of good to both understand the context of something like chrono cross while also letting it be its own experience.
A Short Hike
2019
I went on a hike once, but it was nothing like this. My Father and I were trekking through the Cairngorms in the heart of Scotland. If you haven't seen it, it's a beautiful place. Flowing rivers, glistening lochs, bustling forests, the works. Every way you look, you're encircled by these white-capped hills that lap over eachother like great waves on a distant ocean.
Needless to say, when the time finally came for us to begin our hike -- I was excited. Heart pumping, legs twitching, balls tingling, (they do that when I'm excited) I couldn't wait to challenge these mountains, to duel with them with my own hands and feet. So voracious was my climbing appetite, that by the time I topped my first tableland, I realised I'd left my Dad behind. At first, I was struck with concern -- he had a history of heart complications and a poor sense of direction, it wasn't out of the question he'd get lost, or worse -- perish. Then I remembered all the times he'd forgotten my birthday and cheated on his wives and realised I didn't care. I pressed on, determined to reach the highest point of these mountaintops. My feet became warriors, my Limited Edition Ahegao Yeezys their Spartan helms. My balls were still tingling. I crested over every crevice, I powered through every plateau, I marched across every arch. Needless to say, my progress without my deadbeat Father was incredible. "Soon," I thought, "that summit will submit."
And then the snow fell.
And it kept falling.
And it kept falling until all of the Cairngorms were a sheet of paper. I, a small mark only impressed upon it by the dirt of a fingernail. Beginning to panic, I scoured the area for shelter, and found a small cave overlooking a gentle slope. I nestled my way in and sparked a small fire with some twigs and my trusty M1A1 U.S. Military Flamethrower, which I never leave the house without. I checked the time on my phone -- 14:51. "I really hope it stops snowing soon," I thought.
But it didn't.
It snowed and it snowed and it snowed for what felt like eons. I swore I saw entire families of deer cross the mountains from my left, and come back days later from the right, smaller in number. Or maybe I was just hallucinating. I began to ponder my life and all the things I'd seen, suspecting I was coming to the end of it. I reminisced on the times I'd burnt the midnight oil at my desk as though some kind of infernal engine built for the sole purpose of generating laughs from strangers online. I wondered, was it worth it? I began to ruminate on what had caused this endless blizzard. Some kind of freak weather incident no one could have predicted? Or some kind of cosmic karma, cast down from the heavens as if to show me how futile and trivial my pursuits had been all along? As if even my own mind was turning against me, the one thing I could think of before long, the sole remaining thought I had to distract me from my impending freezing demise...Was that of the look a woman gives you when you kiss her. When you hold her close, press your face up against hers, and then look down at her after you're done, foreheads meeting in a holy union, like what swans do. The look she gives you in return, when she looks back up and her eyes meet yours? There is nothing more beautiful in this life. Nothing more tender. It is the most innocent smile, the purest expression of affection. Nothing in the world can emulate that. I should know, I've tried. I've spent countless hours trying to do it in the mirror. I'm doing it right now.
I look at my phone again. 14:56. "I'm finished", I tell myself. "This is it". I close my eyes, ready to drift off into the chilling embrace of death. And then? Precious memories begin flickering through my mind, like pictures in a film reel. Moments of joy from my childhood, moments of sadness from my adolescence, moments of frustration from my adulthood. All of them roll through my mind at a speed I'm surprised I can even comprehend, but I can...And then...Suddenly...I can feel my fingers again...I can feel my nose running again..."Am I dead?" I wonder. "Is this a near-death experience? Do you get the feeling back just before you die or something?"
But no, soon I realise what's really going on.
Finally, the heroin has kicked in.
The 8 mg's of heroin I'd snorted shortly before the snow began falling and shortly after I'd twisted my ankle a little bit trying to do a Michael-Jackson-Smooth-Criminal lean over the edge of a steep mesa had finally taken effect. I'm fucking back baby. Enough "remembering" and all that pussy shit. I pick up my flamethrower, blast this Nightcore version of "Word Up" by Cameo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N5CyOl5dJY) and decide it's time to re-enter society and make this mountain my bitch. Stepping outside, frothing at the mouth like a rabid badger, with a gait not entirely unlike Theresa May's "Dancing Queen" entrance to the 2018 Conservative Party Conference played in 3x speed, I dart around every orifice of the mountain range, the snow that nearly doomed me now a mere triviality. It's as if I don't even know how fast I'm going, nor can I control myself. I have no thoughts of pain or fatigue or cold, all I'm seeing are dazzling lights, rapturous kaleidoscopes firing off before my eyes. At one point, I'm pretty sure I see the entirety of the movie "Get Out" by Jordan Peele, which is a great movie and all -- but as a white guy I feel a bit weird about that, almost like I'm being insensitive somehow. I don't know. I just don't feel like that's the one movie that should be playing in my mind of all people, y'know?
And before I know it, when my senses finally return to me. I'm there. I'm at the summit. My heartbeat seems to have slowed somewhat, my breathing somewhat normal again, save for a heavy pant. The entirety of the majestic Scottish highlands stretches out before. I shake my head in disbelief, "what a rich tapestry...Not everyone gets to appreciate a view like this." And after taking it all in, I know of only one way to celebrate.
Without even touching my own penis, I ejaculate. I ejaculate with the force of 5000 men in what can only be described as a kind of semen spirit bomb. I struggle to find other ways to describe the amount of fluid I dispersed here, so let's just say that if they made cannons that fired PVA glue, it'd be a bit like that. If the local park rangers and hikers thought the snow was thick, "wait until they get a load of this," I smirk. Of course, my logic is flawed. Because I'm far too busy appreciating the view to notice that the sub-zero temperature has frozen my semen solid midway through its descent, and so it's likely to be believed to be typical ice by most casual onlookers, with no one to ever conceive of the incredible cum shower I produced here. Worse still, my penis has frozen solid, and when I reach for it to warm it up, it falls off my body entirely, which I assume is a symptom of hypothermia. I passed out promptly after, and woke up several days later in this chair, writing this review.
All of this is to say, A Short Hike is not a particularly realistic hiking experience. And hey, it doesn't need to be! What it is is a lovely, cosy little game with great visuals, some fun traversal and a very charming personality. A Long Hike next, please!
Needless to say, when the time finally came for us to begin our hike -- I was excited. Heart pumping, legs twitching, balls tingling, (they do that when I'm excited) I couldn't wait to challenge these mountains, to duel with them with my own hands and feet. So voracious was my climbing appetite, that by the time I topped my first tableland, I realised I'd left my Dad behind. At first, I was struck with concern -- he had a history of heart complications and a poor sense of direction, it wasn't out of the question he'd get lost, or worse -- perish. Then I remembered all the times he'd forgotten my birthday and cheated on his wives and realised I didn't care. I pressed on, determined to reach the highest point of these mountaintops. My feet became warriors, my Limited Edition Ahegao Yeezys their Spartan helms. My balls were still tingling. I crested over every crevice, I powered through every plateau, I marched across every arch. Needless to say, my progress without my deadbeat Father was incredible. "Soon," I thought, "that summit will submit."
And then the snow fell.
And it kept falling.
And it kept falling until all of the Cairngorms were a sheet of paper. I, a small mark only impressed upon it by the dirt of a fingernail. Beginning to panic, I scoured the area for shelter, and found a small cave overlooking a gentle slope. I nestled my way in and sparked a small fire with some twigs and my trusty M1A1 U.S. Military Flamethrower, which I never leave the house without. I checked the time on my phone -- 14:51. "I really hope it stops snowing soon," I thought.
But it didn't.
It snowed and it snowed and it snowed for what felt like eons. I swore I saw entire families of deer cross the mountains from my left, and come back days later from the right, smaller in number. Or maybe I was just hallucinating. I began to ponder my life and all the things I'd seen, suspecting I was coming to the end of it. I reminisced on the times I'd burnt the midnight oil at my desk as though some kind of infernal engine built for the sole purpose of generating laughs from strangers online. I wondered, was it worth it? I began to ruminate on what had caused this endless blizzard. Some kind of freak weather incident no one could have predicted? Or some kind of cosmic karma, cast down from the heavens as if to show me how futile and trivial my pursuits had been all along? As if even my own mind was turning against me, the one thing I could think of before long, the sole remaining thought I had to distract me from my impending freezing demise...Was that of the look a woman gives you when you kiss her. When you hold her close, press your face up against hers, and then look down at her after you're done, foreheads meeting in a holy union, like what swans do. The look she gives you in return, when she looks back up and her eyes meet yours? There is nothing more beautiful in this life. Nothing more tender. It is the most innocent smile, the purest expression of affection. Nothing in the world can emulate that. I should know, I've tried. I've spent countless hours trying to do it in the mirror. I'm doing it right now.
I look at my phone again. 14:56. "I'm finished", I tell myself. "This is it". I close my eyes, ready to drift off into the chilling embrace of death. And then? Precious memories begin flickering through my mind, like pictures in a film reel. Moments of joy from my childhood, moments of sadness from my adolescence, moments of frustration from my adulthood. All of them roll through my mind at a speed I'm surprised I can even comprehend, but I can...And then...Suddenly...I can feel my fingers again...I can feel my nose running again..."Am I dead?" I wonder. "Is this a near-death experience? Do you get the feeling back just before you die or something?"
But no, soon I realise what's really going on.
Finally, the heroin has kicked in.
The 8 mg's of heroin I'd snorted shortly before the snow began falling and shortly after I'd twisted my ankle a little bit trying to do a Michael-Jackson-Smooth-Criminal lean over the edge of a steep mesa had finally taken effect. I'm fucking back baby. Enough "remembering" and all that pussy shit. I pick up my flamethrower, blast this Nightcore version of "Word Up" by Cameo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N5CyOl5dJY) and decide it's time to re-enter society and make this mountain my bitch. Stepping outside, frothing at the mouth like a rabid badger, with a gait not entirely unlike Theresa May's "Dancing Queen" entrance to the 2018 Conservative Party Conference played in 3x speed, I dart around every orifice of the mountain range, the snow that nearly doomed me now a mere triviality. It's as if I don't even know how fast I'm going, nor can I control myself. I have no thoughts of pain or fatigue or cold, all I'm seeing are dazzling lights, rapturous kaleidoscopes firing off before my eyes. At one point, I'm pretty sure I see the entirety of the movie "Get Out" by Jordan Peele, which is a great movie and all -- but as a white guy I feel a bit weird about that, almost like I'm being insensitive somehow. I don't know. I just don't feel like that's the one movie that should be playing in my mind of all people, y'know?
And before I know it, when my senses finally return to me. I'm there. I'm at the summit. My heartbeat seems to have slowed somewhat, my breathing somewhat normal again, save for a heavy pant. The entirety of the majestic Scottish highlands stretches out before. I shake my head in disbelief, "what a rich tapestry...Not everyone gets to appreciate a view like this." And after taking it all in, I know of only one way to celebrate.
Without even touching my own penis, I ejaculate. I ejaculate with the force of 5000 men in what can only be described as a kind of semen spirit bomb. I struggle to find other ways to describe the amount of fluid I dispersed here, so let's just say that if they made cannons that fired PVA glue, it'd be a bit like that. If the local park rangers and hikers thought the snow was thick, "wait until they get a load of this," I smirk. Of course, my logic is flawed. Because I'm far too busy appreciating the view to notice that the sub-zero temperature has frozen my semen solid midway through its descent, and so it's likely to be believed to be typical ice by most casual onlookers, with no one to ever conceive of the incredible cum shower I produced here. Worse still, my penis has frozen solid, and when I reach for it to warm it up, it falls off my body entirely, which I assume is a symptom of hypothermia. I passed out promptly after, and woke up several days later in this chair, writing this review.
All of this is to say, A Short Hike is not a particularly realistic hiking experience. And hey, it doesn't need to be! What it is is a lovely, cosy little game with great visuals, some fun traversal and a very charming personality. A Long Hike next, please!
Persona 3 Reload
2024
This review contains spoilers
Two things you should know about me before you read this review; I have never played the original Persona 3 (this is my first ever Persona game of any kind in fact) and I am typically not a fan of JRPGs -- I find them overly long, tropey and samey. But Persona is a series I've always been meaning to tick off my list, so when this remake was announced I decided to go in with a completely open mind and finish the thing start to finish no matter how I feel about it.
So, having now finished Persona 3 Reload, did it do anything to change my perceptions?
No!
I don't know if I've ever played a game that felt like it dragged quite as much as Persona 3. For the first third of the game it feels like practically nothing happens, you just crawl along a bunch of setup and mundane character interactions at a snail's pace, but then the final act I feel is also super dragged out. In the last month (and likely well before) your social skills are maxed out and you're just skipping through the days, waiting for the end to come. It has some serious pacing issues, and I think you could literally cut it down to half the length and maybe call that reasonable pacing. I can honestly say I did not hate this game at all, but any game that overstays its welcome like this makes you enjoy it less than you would otherwise by result of its insistence. I do not think this game justifies its own length at all.
And a large part of this is owed to the characters and story, which...Man, if you're gonna be like 60% visual novel...You've gotta have a better story and characters than this. I'm really trying not to judge too harshly in this regard because this is a remake of a 2006 game and I think it's fair to say a lot of the characters probably wouldn't have felt quite so played out back then. But damn if I didn't feel like I could predict basically every scene as soon as it started up. The moment Junpei says whatever he says about how you're always the one saving the day or whatever after the 3rd or 4th major shadow I was like "oh this is the beginning of his jealousy arc, isn't it?" and I was right. The moment we showed up with him in tow for this super unnecessary scene with all the female characters in kimonos at the shrine towards the end I was like "oh he's gonna be a sex pest about this isn't he" and I was right (dude seriously wtf is up with that scene at the shrine I still can't figure out the point of it). I distinctly remember thinking to myself early on in the game "there's gonna be a fat guy character whose whole personality trait is eating isn't there" and SURE ENOUGH. GUESS WHO I FUCKING MET LIKE 20 MINUTES LATER.
When I tell you this game is tropey I mean that 5 of the main cast have dead parents at the start of the game, and then another one's dies right in front of you too! Technically, 6 of the main cast start with dead parents if you count the fucking dog, who was the best character by the way! Because he didn't talk! This game truly has no idea how to give characters tragic backstories or grief to get over without killing off their parents, lmao. I get that the game is about death, but c'mon. I just didn't particularly like any of the characters in this game. I kinda like Takeba because she was one of the few characters who felt like they didn't boil down to the same one or two things they like talking about? Junpei is a sex pest! Akihiko likes boxing! Aigis is Elizabeth again but was less entertaining! I kinda liked Takeba and Amada and that's about it. And on the note of characters being predictable, how about that heel turn for Ikutsuki, huh? Didn't see that one coming! (Disclaimer: I saw that one coming. Somehow it still managed to underwhelm me.)
I'm harping on the story and characters a lot because it's a significant part of the game. I just found it mostly mindnumbing, I'm sorry. In the lead up to the 12th major Shadow fight it's basically all characters will talk about. They all just spend days on end going "this is the last fight! hope you're ready!" and like...You know it's not the last fight. You've just unlocked a whole new bunch of Special Fusions that go waaayyy past your current level, Fuuka specifically mentions you not even being close to the end of Tartarus on one of your recent trips, and you can see that the game's calendar goes into March of next year! They are just saying nothing of consequence. It's all they can say. The same thing happens in the final month! You've got this big decision to make, but the characters spend the whole month telling you about how they've already made their decision, even though it's literally your decision to make! But what else are they gonna say? Is Junpei gonna talk about wanting to look at cute girls for the 10,000th time? Is Akihiko gonna say some shit about training? This game is spread way too thin for characters that are nowhere near deep, interesting or likeable enough to support its runtime. I've decided to be nice here and not talk about the summer vacation or school trip sections. I consider this mercy.
I'm giving this game some points because - like everything I've seen from all Persona games, its presentation is genuinely the best in video games right now. The soundtrack is of course incredible (if not a bit repetitive) and the UI and menus? Man. Idk wtf the UX designers at Atlus are smoking but they are just on another fuckin' level man. I don't think another team have ever been so clearly head-and-shoulders above every studio in the world on one specific thing. FromSoft and architecture, maybe? What blows me away is the little touches. The way the character icons change depending on the status effect they're inflicted with, those gorgeous win-screens, the coloured backgrounds in all the social menus. Ugh, oh my fucking god, man. Why does this series about anime teenagers of all things have so much fucking sauce? Western games are yearning for just a bit of this style. All these intangibles come together to mean that Persona 3, whilst an exercise in narrative monotony does at least have incredible vibes, which is the least you can do. You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it around in glitter.
I also wanna say that I actually liked the combat quite a lot. It's among my favourite JRPG battle systems I've seen. Snappy, surprisingly deep, highly customisable -- yeah, I liked it! I'm aware that combat was given a lot of quality-of-life changes from the original, and that's one of the other things that holds me back from giving this a 2 star rating or lower. I really can tell that this is an excellent remake on its own merits, and was very appreciative of its modern sensibilities (in particular, the fast-forward button. Holy shit, thank you god.) Unfortunately, the combat was delivered to me in the form of Tartarus, which got old about as fast as everything else! I did appreciate the occasional layout/aesthetic changes, but it's not enough to make up for the monotony. Have me doing combat in any context more interesting than trawling through 250+ hallways, and I'd just call combat an objective plus for Persona 3.
So, yeah. It didn't really do it for me unfortunately. It puts a lot into its story and characters and I just did not think they were good enough. I genuinely did try and go in with an open mind! But I also don't really know what I was expecting, I kinda knew that it did a lot of stuff I hate in video games before I began. It even does that "multiple choice questions where your answer doesn't matter at all" thing that JRPGs love doing for some reason! But hey, I've finished a Persona game now, no one can ever bug me about it again, and I did make literal Satan towards the end of the game and he did have what looked like 6 titties, so that was pretty cool.
So, having now finished Persona 3 Reload, did it do anything to change my perceptions?
No!
I don't know if I've ever played a game that felt like it dragged quite as much as Persona 3. For the first third of the game it feels like practically nothing happens, you just crawl along a bunch of setup and mundane character interactions at a snail's pace, but then the final act I feel is also super dragged out. In the last month (and likely well before) your social skills are maxed out and you're just skipping through the days, waiting for the end to come. It has some serious pacing issues, and I think you could literally cut it down to half the length and maybe call that reasonable pacing. I can honestly say I did not hate this game at all, but any game that overstays its welcome like this makes you enjoy it less than you would otherwise by result of its insistence. I do not think this game justifies its own length at all.
And a large part of this is owed to the characters and story, which...Man, if you're gonna be like 60% visual novel...You've gotta have a better story and characters than this. I'm really trying not to judge too harshly in this regard because this is a remake of a 2006 game and I think it's fair to say a lot of the characters probably wouldn't have felt quite so played out back then. But damn if I didn't feel like I could predict basically every scene as soon as it started up. The moment Junpei says whatever he says about how you're always the one saving the day or whatever after the 3rd or 4th major shadow I was like "oh this is the beginning of his jealousy arc, isn't it?" and I was right. The moment we showed up with him in tow for this super unnecessary scene with all the female characters in kimonos at the shrine towards the end I was like "oh he's gonna be a sex pest about this isn't he" and I was right (dude seriously wtf is up with that scene at the shrine I still can't figure out the point of it). I distinctly remember thinking to myself early on in the game "there's gonna be a fat guy character whose whole personality trait is eating isn't there" and SURE ENOUGH. GUESS WHO I FUCKING MET LIKE 20 MINUTES LATER.
When I tell you this game is tropey I mean that 5 of the main cast have dead parents at the start of the game, and then another one's dies right in front of you too! Technically, 6 of the main cast start with dead parents if you count the fucking dog, who was the best character by the way! Because he didn't talk! This game truly has no idea how to give characters tragic backstories or grief to get over without killing off their parents, lmao. I get that the game is about death, but c'mon. I just didn't particularly like any of the characters in this game. I kinda like Takeba because she was one of the few characters who felt like they didn't boil down to the same one or two things they like talking about? Junpei is a sex pest! Akihiko likes boxing! Aigis is Elizabeth again but was less entertaining! I kinda liked Takeba and Amada and that's about it. And on the note of characters being predictable, how about that heel turn for Ikutsuki, huh? Didn't see that one coming! (Disclaimer: I saw that one coming. Somehow it still managed to underwhelm me.)
I'm harping on the story and characters a lot because it's a significant part of the game. I just found it mostly mindnumbing, I'm sorry. In the lead up to the 12th major Shadow fight it's basically all characters will talk about. They all just spend days on end going "this is the last fight! hope you're ready!" and like...You know it's not the last fight. You've just unlocked a whole new bunch of Special Fusions that go waaayyy past your current level, Fuuka specifically mentions you not even being close to the end of Tartarus on one of your recent trips, and you can see that the game's calendar goes into March of next year! They are just saying nothing of consequence. It's all they can say. The same thing happens in the final month! You've got this big decision to make, but the characters spend the whole month telling you about how they've already made their decision, even though it's literally your decision to make! But what else are they gonna say? Is Junpei gonna talk about wanting to look at cute girls for the 10,000th time? Is Akihiko gonna say some shit about training? This game is spread way too thin for characters that are nowhere near deep, interesting or likeable enough to support its runtime. I've decided to be nice here and not talk about the summer vacation or school trip sections. I consider this mercy.
I'm giving this game some points because - like everything I've seen from all Persona games, its presentation is genuinely the best in video games right now. The soundtrack is of course incredible (if not a bit repetitive) and the UI and menus? Man. Idk wtf the UX designers at Atlus are smoking but they are just on another fuckin' level man. I don't think another team have ever been so clearly head-and-shoulders above every studio in the world on one specific thing. FromSoft and architecture, maybe? What blows me away is the little touches. The way the character icons change depending on the status effect they're inflicted with, those gorgeous win-screens, the coloured backgrounds in all the social menus. Ugh, oh my fucking god, man. Why does this series about anime teenagers of all things have so much fucking sauce? Western games are yearning for just a bit of this style. All these intangibles come together to mean that Persona 3, whilst an exercise in narrative monotony does at least have incredible vibes, which is the least you can do. You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it around in glitter.
I also wanna say that I actually liked the combat quite a lot. It's among my favourite JRPG battle systems I've seen. Snappy, surprisingly deep, highly customisable -- yeah, I liked it! I'm aware that combat was given a lot of quality-of-life changes from the original, and that's one of the other things that holds me back from giving this a 2 star rating or lower. I really can tell that this is an excellent remake on its own merits, and was very appreciative of its modern sensibilities (in particular, the fast-forward button. Holy shit, thank you god.) Unfortunately, the combat was delivered to me in the form of Tartarus, which got old about as fast as everything else! I did appreciate the occasional layout/aesthetic changes, but it's not enough to make up for the monotony. Have me doing combat in any context more interesting than trawling through 250+ hallways, and I'd just call combat an objective plus for Persona 3.
So, yeah. It didn't really do it for me unfortunately. It puts a lot into its story and characters and I just did not think they were good enough. I genuinely did try and go in with an open mind! But I also don't really know what I was expecting, I kinda knew that it did a lot of stuff I hate in video games before I began. It even does that "multiple choice questions where your answer doesn't matter at all" thing that JRPGs love doing for some reason! But hey, I've finished a Persona game now, no one can ever bug me about it again, and I did make literal Satan towards the end of the game and he did have what looked like 6 titties, so that was pretty cool.
Slay the Spire
2019
Peak deck-building roguelike
YGOPro só que tem que adquirir as cartas, no fim o melhor pra saúde é não jogar yugioh
Alien Garden
1982
This is like the single-cell ancestor of flOw. Very unique game where you slowly pick away at the alien garden and grow your creature as you do. The crystal reactions to your body parts are randomized so every new alien is a unique experience.
Super Mario Sunshine
2002
While the controls are indeed the weakest portion of the game the 3D platforming is elevated with the FLUDD mechanic to make traversal of each level replayable to the point that the stars are fun. Adding in the stages without FLUDD becomees a fun change of pace. Level design could do with being more distinct and analog controls are a must for FLUDD and movement if you don't want to tear your hair out.
I'm in the minority for not enjoying Jedi: Fallen Order. It didn't feel particularly fun, the story nor the characters sparking interest. I’ll even go so far as to say the tacked on Souls-like elements didn’t suit it—when you think of Souls games, what comes to mind? For me it’s the bosses which usually offer a spectacle as they’re supposed to be memorable and a big deal, but I find it hard to recall a single one here. Loot is generally a major factor as well when it comes to Souls-like, giving a sense of accomplishment over time, but that was missing altogether with Jedi: Fallen Order. It was just hard for the sake of jumping on that train.
What was left was just a whole lot of platforming, or rather, “parkour” that made me want to abandon the game, and I don't make a habit of doing that.
What was left was just a whole lot of platforming, or rather, “parkour” that made me want to abandon the game, and I don't make a habit of doing that.
The base game is as good as it was back then, and the new stuff is pretty neat too. I just think the original "Games Ending" was better.
Final Fantasy VII
1998
Cool anti capitalism game
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