RogueMetroid
2015
Game Finished In 2024 #16:
Double Marathon #1
Last year, due to the Pixel Remasters coming to consoles, I played nine of the first ten FF games in something of a marathon [skipping 9 for Reasons]. This was a great experience, and this year I decided to go even further and marathon two series, alternating. The first series I decided was Yakuza/Like A Dragon, which I will be calling Yakuza for at least the next several years while I wait for the name change to finally become real to me, and the second series was Kingdom Hearts. Both are series I have some experience with, but have never played a majority of. For the Yakuza series, I have played the original Yakuza 1, and Yakuza 7. 7 in particular is one of my favorite games of all time. So I'm filling in the gaps between Kiryu's first game and Ichiban's first game now.
Yakuza 0 occupies an interesting space in the series as it's technically the sixth game in the series, being made between 5 and 6. As the name might suggest, it is a prequel, taking place about a decade before 1 starts, and two decades before most of the series. Despite or because of this, it is frequently touted as an excellent starting point. This game's prequel nature, along with the magic of actually marketing the fucking thing, is likely why the series got to finally get as big in the west as it deserved. Yakuza and Monster Hunter had similar trajectories in this regard, as due to the circumstances surrounding their releases they were often ignored, but once people discovered what the games were actually about they became some of the heaviest hitters for their respective publishers. This is to say Yakuza 0 is very good. The prequel status does have its flaws, as a LOT of characters end up dead or in jail by the end to explain why they have never been seen in any of the previous five games, but it is generally handled elegantly, and if you have absolutely zero knowledge of the series before going in it would be unnoticeable. Plot-wise, this game largely handles the events before Kiryu, series-long protagonist, and Majima, Kiryu's closest thing to a recurring rival, became the characters they are later in the series. The plot does not dwell on this fact, though, and most of the game is spent on its own self contained plot, which is compelling in its own right. The twists and turns characteristic of the Yakuza series are here, and even with the foregone conclusions any prequel will have, there's plenty to enjoy. The story has a strong emotional core to it, and very likeable characters.
Gameplay-wise, there is also a lot here. The basic gameplay is the satisfying 3D beat em up style with cool cinematic attacks of the past five games, with the addition of styles for both of the main characters. Kiryu and Majima both get four styles, roughly analogous to each other mechanically. They both get a default balanced style, a more evasive style, a more defensive style, and their original movesets. I found all styles to be useful in some regard, but the Heat Actions available to the evasive and defensive styles didn't seem to pop up as much. The original movesets are both locked behind their respective minigames, which, while fun, I didn't feel the need to grind enough to get the styles out of. Due to Japan's bubble economy in the 80s, the game both story-wise and mechanically revolves around money. Enemies are filled with money like pinatas, and you upgrade yourself with money instead of EXP. While this is a cute idea, I ultimately don't entirely like how the costs for upgrades scale with how much money you earn. You quickly get enough money that you can buy hundreds of healing items, but enemies stop dropping substantial cash about halfway through the game, where the requirements get harsher, requiring you to grind out the minigames to make any money.
Speaking of, the Yakuza series's commitment to meaningful side content continues. In addition to the aforementioned character specific minigames that allow for money making, there are the usual arcade perfect emulations of old Sega games, karaoke, mahjong, and somehow more. Pocket Circuit was most likely my favorite of all of them, though I didn't entirely get how to make a successful car. The series trademark substories are here, and while I definitely missed a lot of them, I did about half on each character and the ones I did were entertaining romps. Needless to say, the game has a lot for completionists to tackle, making this game a ridiculous value when it often goes on sale.
Yakuza 0 is a truly great game, and I'm excited to tackle Kiwami after KH1.
Double Marathon #1
Last year, due to the Pixel Remasters coming to consoles, I played nine of the first ten FF games in something of a marathon [skipping 9 for Reasons]. This was a great experience, and this year I decided to go even further and marathon two series, alternating. The first series I decided was Yakuza/Like A Dragon, which I will be calling Yakuza for at least the next several years while I wait for the name change to finally become real to me, and the second series was Kingdom Hearts. Both are series I have some experience with, but have never played a majority of. For the Yakuza series, I have played the original Yakuza 1, and Yakuza 7. 7 in particular is one of my favorite games of all time. So I'm filling in the gaps between Kiryu's first game and Ichiban's first game now.
Yakuza 0 occupies an interesting space in the series as it's technically the sixth game in the series, being made between 5 and 6. As the name might suggest, it is a prequel, taking place about a decade before 1 starts, and two decades before most of the series. Despite or because of this, it is frequently touted as an excellent starting point. This game's prequel nature, along with the magic of actually marketing the fucking thing, is likely why the series got to finally get as big in the west as it deserved. Yakuza and Monster Hunter had similar trajectories in this regard, as due to the circumstances surrounding their releases they were often ignored, but once people discovered what the games were actually about they became some of the heaviest hitters for their respective publishers. This is to say Yakuza 0 is very good. The prequel status does have its flaws, as a LOT of characters end up dead or in jail by the end to explain why they have never been seen in any of the previous five games, but it is generally handled elegantly, and if you have absolutely zero knowledge of the series before going in it would be unnoticeable. Plot-wise, this game largely handles the events before Kiryu, series-long protagonist, and Majima, Kiryu's closest thing to a recurring rival, became the characters they are later in the series. The plot does not dwell on this fact, though, and most of the game is spent on its own self contained plot, which is compelling in its own right. The twists and turns characteristic of the Yakuza series are here, and even with the foregone conclusions any prequel will have, there's plenty to enjoy. The story has a strong emotional core to it, and very likeable characters.
Gameplay-wise, there is also a lot here. The basic gameplay is the satisfying 3D beat em up style with cool cinematic attacks of the past five games, with the addition of styles for both of the main characters. Kiryu and Majima both get four styles, roughly analogous to each other mechanically. They both get a default balanced style, a more evasive style, a more defensive style, and their original movesets. I found all styles to be useful in some regard, but the Heat Actions available to the evasive and defensive styles didn't seem to pop up as much. The original movesets are both locked behind their respective minigames, which, while fun, I didn't feel the need to grind enough to get the styles out of. Due to Japan's bubble economy in the 80s, the game both story-wise and mechanically revolves around money. Enemies are filled with money like pinatas, and you upgrade yourself with money instead of EXP. While this is a cute idea, I ultimately don't entirely like how the costs for upgrades scale with how much money you earn. You quickly get enough money that you can buy hundreds of healing items, but enemies stop dropping substantial cash about halfway through the game, where the requirements get harsher, requiring you to grind out the minigames to make any money.
Speaking of, the Yakuza series's commitment to meaningful side content continues. In addition to the aforementioned character specific minigames that allow for money making, there are the usual arcade perfect emulations of old Sega games, karaoke, mahjong, and somehow more. Pocket Circuit was most likely my favorite of all of them, though I didn't entirely get how to make a successful car. The series trademark substories are here, and while I definitely missed a lot of them, I did about half on each character and the ones I did were entertaining romps. Needless to say, the game has a lot for completionists to tackle, making this game a ridiculous value when it often goes on sale.
Yakuza 0 is a truly great game, and I'm excited to tackle Kiwami after KH1.
Game Finished In 2024 #14:
That's right, it wasn't a typo that I skipped 14! Granblue Fantasy Relink is a game I found hard to settle my thoughts on for a while, and I still don't feel entirely settled because I haven't played as much of the game as I wanted to, but I did the final postgame chapter, and circumstances have meant I likely have to put the game down for a bit.
Granblue is an IP I think is really cool. Taking the standard fantasy setting with a few REALLY flavorful twists and overall excellent designs is straight up my alley. I was on the Relink hype train from day 1, even after the years and years of delays. A mobile game getting turned into a real game with cool as fuck ARPG stuff? Especially as a Dragalia holdout, I was picking up what they were putting down. But, again due to circumstances, I didn't get around to it until recently. Luckily, my "recently" happened to coincide whereabouts the final announced update [we'll get to that], and I finally took the opportunity to play it.
"Cygames Money" is a turn of phrase used when talking about Relink and its spinoff-in-law, Versus, as a way of admiring how much these Granblue spinoffs flex by doing things that are generally too expensive for a lot of games. My favorite instance of this is how every matchup in Versus has two unique sets of voice lines regardless of how related the two characters are. Relink uses Cygames Money to look like the prettiest game of all time. I'm the last person to do graphical dick measuring but this is genuinely in the top 5 best looking games I've ever seen, with an excellent art direction and high fidelity all around. Between this and Resident Evil 4 Remake I think no game should even try for higher heights, it's pure hubris. Every setpiece is a visual blowout and they only get more nuts. All aspects of the presentation are punching at the same weight, too.
Cygames Money also applies to the mechanics, luckily. Very few games can claim to have over twenty different characters with basically entirely unique movesets and minimal overlap. Sure, a couple characters have similar timing gimmicks and other such things, but even by the least charitable interpretations there are a lot of distinct characters. Part of why I wanted to give the game more time to review was to play more characters, but that sadly didn't really materialize, and is the first thing I'll address when I do get the chance to go at the game again. Every character follows the same basic format of a basic attack chain, a unique action, and a selection of four cooldown based skills, and the complexity comes from what that unique action does and how their passive abilities come into play. A fair few of the Granblue mobile game's mechanics are wonderfully integrated into the game in elegant ways, such as the Overdrive Gauge and Charge Attacks. Cagliostro, my main and the greatest girl to ever do it, has a projectile she can charge after her Musou-like attack strings, some skills, or after a combo attack. These characters cover a wide range of complexity, allowing basically anyone to find the character that suits them best. The game also has a Monster Hunter-like structure that complements the simple fundamentals wonderfully.
One weird thing about the game is the story. It is not a BAD story, but it is basically just the Anime Movie format applied to Granblue. It's flashy, has some decent character arcs, and will never matter to the future of the series because it can't. It is very hard to take seriously due to the sheer confusion the powerscaling it inspires knowing what I know about the mobile game, and Id comes across as less of a threat and more of a fraud that curbstomps because he has to for a plot to exist. It has some real Chainsawman pacing too, taking easily less than 15 hours for the main story. The primary function of it, gameplay-wise, is to introduce you to the game in a more controlled environment with some really cool setpieces. The epilogue chapter opens up a bit more, showing you the multiplayer structure at work before finally opening up the true postgame with a REALLY good finale. I didn't really know what to make of the story when I went through it, as I knew this wasn't what the rest of the game was going to be like. I liked it, but I suspected I was going to like the game more when it opened up, and I was right in those suspicions.
If I have to seriously knock the game for anything, it's the roster. I know I praised the playstyle diversity previously, but the excellent diversity in playstyles and the middling picks for those playstyles can co-exist. While there are some winners, the roster feels largely stuck in the first couple years of the game, and suffers for it. Granblue has gone on for ten years and introduced hundreds of characters, and this game has been in development for a long part of that, so the focus on the early roster is a bit more understandable, but only by a bit. There are so many great designs in Granblue that I can't help but be disappointed at what the roster ended up looking like. Compare to OG Versus, which had a roughly equivalent size by the end of that game's life, and more diversity. A lot of slots in Relink are taken up by the main crew, and this is fine, but did we REALLY need every single dragon knight? The human bias hurts the roster especially as it means we get one Erune, two Harvin, and three Draphs, all very interesting parts of the setting. Compounding this is the element system, which feels like the one aspect of the mobile game which is truly vestigial, to the point your build almost certainly revolves around circumventing it. The post launch updates sadly did not mend these issues, as the two Eternals they added are the two humans, and Sandalphon is human-passing. What especially sucks to see is that this is likely the last update. I direly hope we get the equivalent of a Monster Hunter G-Rank expansion to fill out the roster.
Relink, by and large, lives up to the hype. My few flaws with it are pretty small compared to the achievement that is a game taking this long to ship and not having nearly as many cracks in it as delayed games often have. That my biggest complaints amount to wanting more are, I think, a pretty good indicator of the type of game Relink is. And when I get the opportunity, I'll be right back to grinding the post-postgame.
That's right, it wasn't a typo that I skipped 14! Granblue Fantasy Relink is a game I found hard to settle my thoughts on for a while, and I still don't feel entirely settled because I haven't played as much of the game as I wanted to, but I did the final postgame chapter, and circumstances have meant I likely have to put the game down for a bit.
Granblue is an IP I think is really cool. Taking the standard fantasy setting with a few REALLY flavorful twists and overall excellent designs is straight up my alley. I was on the Relink hype train from day 1, even after the years and years of delays. A mobile game getting turned into a real game with cool as fuck ARPG stuff? Especially as a Dragalia holdout, I was picking up what they were putting down. But, again due to circumstances, I didn't get around to it until recently. Luckily, my "recently" happened to coincide whereabouts the final announced update [we'll get to that], and I finally took the opportunity to play it.
"Cygames Money" is a turn of phrase used when talking about Relink and its spinoff-in-law, Versus, as a way of admiring how much these Granblue spinoffs flex by doing things that are generally too expensive for a lot of games. My favorite instance of this is how every matchup in Versus has two unique sets of voice lines regardless of how related the two characters are. Relink uses Cygames Money to look like the prettiest game of all time. I'm the last person to do graphical dick measuring but this is genuinely in the top 5 best looking games I've ever seen, with an excellent art direction and high fidelity all around. Between this and Resident Evil 4 Remake I think no game should even try for higher heights, it's pure hubris. Every setpiece is a visual blowout and they only get more nuts. All aspects of the presentation are punching at the same weight, too.
Cygames Money also applies to the mechanics, luckily. Very few games can claim to have over twenty different characters with basically entirely unique movesets and minimal overlap. Sure, a couple characters have similar timing gimmicks and other such things, but even by the least charitable interpretations there are a lot of distinct characters. Part of why I wanted to give the game more time to review was to play more characters, but that sadly didn't really materialize, and is the first thing I'll address when I do get the chance to go at the game again. Every character follows the same basic format of a basic attack chain, a unique action, and a selection of four cooldown based skills, and the complexity comes from what that unique action does and how their passive abilities come into play. A fair few of the Granblue mobile game's mechanics are wonderfully integrated into the game in elegant ways, such as the Overdrive Gauge and Charge Attacks. Cagliostro, my main and the greatest girl to ever do it, has a projectile she can charge after her Musou-like attack strings, some skills, or after a combo attack. These characters cover a wide range of complexity, allowing basically anyone to find the character that suits them best. The game also has a Monster Hunter-like structure that complements the simple fundamentals wonderfully.
One weird thing about the game is the story. It is not a BAD story, but it is basically just the Anime Movie format applied to Granblue. It's flashy, has some decent character arcs, and will never matter to the future of the series because it can't. It is very hard to take seriously due to the sheer confusion the powerscaling it inspires knowing what I know about the mobile game, and Id comes across as less of a threat and more of a fraud that curbstomps because he has to for a plot to exist. It has some real Chainsawman pacing too, taking easily less than 15 hours for the main story. The primary function of it, gameplay-wise, is to introduce you to the game in a more controlled environment with some really cool setpieces. The epilogue chapter opens up a bit more, showing you the multiplayer structure at work before finally opening up the true postgame with a REALLY good finale. I didn't really know what to make of the story when I went through it, as I knew this wasn't what the rest of the game was going to be like. I liked it, but I suspected I was going to like the game more when it opened up, and I was right in those suspicions.
If I have to seriously knock the game for anything, it's the roster. I know I praised the playstyle diversity previously, but the excellent diversity in playstyles and the middling picks for those playstyles can co-exist. While there are some winners, the roster feels largely stuck in the first couple years of the game, and suffers for it. Granblue has gone on for ten years and introduced hundreds of characters, and this game has been in development for a long part of that, so the focus on the early roster is a bit more understandable, but only by a bit. There are so many great designs in Granblue that I can't help but be disappointed at what the roster ended up looking like. Compare to OG Versus, which had a roughly equivalent size by the end of that game's life, and more diversity. A lot of slots in Relink are taken up by the main crew, and this is fine, but did we REALLY need every single dragon knight? The human bias hurts the roster especially as it means we get one Erune, two Harvin, and three Draphs, all very interesting parts of the setting. Compounding this is the element system, which feels like the one aspect of the mobile game which is truly vestigial, to the point your build almost certainly revolves around circumventing it. The post launch updates sadly did not mend these issues, as the two Eternals they added are the two humans, and Sandalphon is human-passing. What especially sucks to see is that this is likely the last update. I direly hope we get the equivalent of a Monster Hunter G-Rank expansion to fill out the roster.
Relink, by and large, lives up to the hype. My few flaws with it are pretty small compared to the achievement that is a game taking this long to ship and not having nearly as many cracks in it as delayed games often have. That my biggest complaints amount to wanting more are, I think, a pretty good indicator of the type of game Relink is. And when I get the opportunity, I'll be right back to grinding the post-postgame.
Game Finished In 2024 #16:
I miss Flash, man. The Wild West of the internet was defined in a huge chunk by this one programming language. Back before there were three websites, Flash allowed for creatives in games and animation to make things and share them easily in a way that isn't really the same today. Perhaps the tools for those creatives, like Godot, are better now, but something got lost after Adobe killed Flash in 2020, for stupid dumb idiot corporate reasons. I still have Flash installed. I get a notification every couple weeks asking me to uninstall it and every time I tell the notification to go fuck itself. But anyway.
The raw creative potential of Flash led to a veritable boom in independent art on sites like Newgrounds. As we've seen with success stories like Smiling Friends, the talent on these sites was very real, and converted to the mainstream seamlessly. While it wasn't all GOOD, with some pretty tasteless edginess at times, art born from the Flash boom has a certain unfiltered energy to it. These are the things the creator wanted to make, uncompromised. The Epic Battle Fantasy series is one of my favorite examples of this. The first three games were things I appreciated a lot even when I was younger, and I felt the need while tackling some shorter games to give this one the full playthrough it deserved.
The Epic Battle Fantasy series is characterized by a couple of things. The distinctive art style with excellent hand drawn animations, the tonal focus on comedy and references, the horniness, and the simple but effective RPG battles. These combine to create a package of pure Soul, if you will, with the full knowledge that everything in here is because of unbridled author appeal. Despite this, it somehow avoids the regular trappings of overindulgence. The series is fairly approachable for any RPG fan, and the independent spirit of it all makes the appeal evident.
EBF4 continues the overworld from 3, and expands the systems a fair bit, with the addition of a fourth party member, Anna. I didn't find the solution to juggling four party members as elegant as I would have hoped, with only three party slots meaning Matt usually caught the bench as i liked Lance and Natalie more, in both gameplay and character. Summons are now given their own meter which greatly expands your options. The core gameplay loop from 3, with battles, upgrades, and exploration remains much the same, with the addition of progression-based items allowing you to find new things when backtracking to previous areas. When the systems are this innately satisfying, it makes for a very fun experience.
It's not all perfect, as I did encounter a bit of fatigue with the battles. I felt like I was missing something and it made them drag significantly more than it seemed like they should. Combined with a longer runtime than 3, and I felt like I was dragging a fair bit near the end. This was compounded by me overestimating how much game I had left, which is on me, but once I realized I was in the second to last area, and turned on the assist mode option to make elemental weaknesses more pronounced, I got to the end pretty handily. The final boss is a bit of a stat wall, sadly, and I had to turn down the difficulty to get through it because I really didn't want to deal with adjusting my build to retry it. Skill issue, perhaps, but at that point I didn't really care.
I greatly anticipate getting to 5 at some point, and I greatly appreciate finally making the time to get around to this installment in a series I enjoy a lot. While the series holds nostalgic value to me, it's evident that the merits this series stood on were genuine.
I miss Flash, man. The Wild West of the internet was defined in a huge chunk by this one programming language. Back before there were three websites, Flash allowed for creatives in games and animation to make things and share them easily in a way that isn't really the same today. Perhaps the tools for those creatives, like Godot, are better now, but something got lost after Adobe killed Flash in 2020, for stupid dumb idiot corporate reasons. I still have Flash installed. I get a notification every couple weeks asking me to uninstall it and every time I tell the notification to go fuck itself. But anyway.
The raw creative potential of Flash led to a veritable boom in independent art on sites like Newgrounds. As we've seen with success stories like Smiling Friends, the talent on these sites was very real, and converted to the mainstream seamlessly. While it wasn't all GOOD, with some pretty tasteless edginess at times, art born from the Flash boom has a certain unfiltered energy to it. These are the things the creator wanted to make, uncompromised. The Epic Battle Fantasy series is one of my favorite examples of this. The first three games were things I appreciated a lot even when I was younger, and I felt the need while tackling some shorter games to give this one the full playthrough it deserved.
The Epic Battle Fantasy series is characterized by a couple of things. The distinctive art style with excellent hand drawn animations, the tonal focus on comedy and references, the horniness, and the simple but effective RPG battles. These combine to create a package of pure Soul, if you will, with the full knowledge that everything in here is because of unbridled author appeal. Despite this, it somehow avoids the regular trappings of overindulgence. The series is fairly approachable for any RPG fan, and the independent spirit of it all makes the appeal evident.
EBF4 continues the overworld from 3, and expands the systems a fair bit, with the addition of a fourth party member, Anna. I didn't find the solution to juggling four party members as elegant as I would have hoped, with only three party slots meaning Matt usually caught the bench as i liked Lance and Natalie more, in both gameplay and character. Summons are now given their own meter which greatly expands your options. The core gameplay loop from 3, with battles, upgrades, and exploration remains much the same, with the addition of progression-based items allowing you to find new things when backtracking to previous areas. When the systems are this innately satisfying, it makes for a very fun experience.
It's not all perfect, as I did encounter a bit of fatigue with the battles. I felt like I was missing something and it made them drag significantly more than it seemed like they should. Combined with a longer runtime than 3, and I felt like I was dragging a fair bit near the end. This was compounded by me overestimating how much game I had left, which is on me, but once I realized I was in the second to last area, and turned on the assist mode option to make elemental weaknesses more pronounced, I got to the end pretty handily. The final boss is a bit of a stat wall, sadly, and I had to turn down the difficulty to get through it because I really didn't want to deal with adjusting my build to retry it. Skill issue, perhaps, but at that point I didn't really care.
I greatly anticipate getting to 5 at some point, and I greatly appreciate finally making the time to get around to this installment in a series I enjoy a lot. While the series holds nostalgic value to me, it's evident that the merits this series stood on were genuine.
2017
Game Finished [Again] In 2024 #15:
In preparation for what's going to be a pretty big undertaking, I wanted to play some shorter games. Shadows Over Loathing, this game's sequel, is on my list for after that undertaking, so I wanted to replay the first game, which I remembered really liking when I played it years ago.
West of Loathing is a singleplayer spinoff to the browser based MMO Kingdom of Loathing, which I played a fair bit of when I was younger, despite my relative lack of understanding it. You don't need to have played it to understand this game in the slightest, and you could probably get away with not even knowing it exists, but it's fun background info. The Loathing series, as I suppose it counts as one now, is characterized by an extremely simplistic art style of monochromatic stick figures and a LOT of jokes.
Many games have tried to be comedic, but West of Loathing is intimately Committed To The Bit in every way imaginable. An NPC will mention things haven't been the same since The Cows Came Home, which is an event that deeply impacts the setting to the point demonic cows are one of your primary types of random encounter. As the jokes are so integral to the game, I regretfully must leave them as unspoiled as possible, but I will make one exception for my absolute favorite joke in any game, the spittoons. Spittoons are, of course, pans that people spit things such as tobacco in. However, in West of Loathing, they contain amazing gear. Every time you investigate one of these, the narration gets increasingly hostile towards you. It starts at telling you how gross it is to be sticking your hand into one, and why you REALLY shouldn't be doing it, and only escalates from there with somehow more disgusting spittoons and more powerful equipment. There's a very noticeable lean on the fourth wall, but the spittoons are one of the few times it gets broken entirely. To call this bit god tier is an understatement. While this is the best one, there are a LOT more jokes. In my roughly eight hours of playing the Joke Per Minute rate was utterly insane.
It helps as well that the game itself is really good at what it sets out to do. The gameplay is secondary to the writing and jokes for sure, but there is still very clear effort being put in. You choose one of three classes, western spins on the fighter/mage/thief dynamic, and explore the west, getting into turn based battles along the way. If you are RUSHING the main story, the basic quest can be done extremely quickly, but a lot of the joy comes in finding new places, which will give you new stuff and new jokes. The stat and skill system deserves special attention, too, as with the right stats and skills you can solve encounters in ways other than combat. This game lets you skip the final boss with the right item. There are also a lot of puzzle based encounters. The Gun Manor DLC is a great example of this, having you explore a manor full of ghosts that you can choose to either settle peacefully by solving their puzzle or violently. Some puzzles made me break out a guide, but there are very few truly bad puzzles.
I didn't have the words for it when I first played, but this game is a genuine CRPG, and a great one at that. The main game is short enough to allow you to replay it multiple times, and there are four different companions to facilitate this. It's a really excellent little package, and absolutely worth playing, as it seems to have become a bit of a hidden gem. I greatly look forward to Shadows over Loathing.
In preparation for what's going to be a pretty big undertaking, I wanted to play some shorter games. Shadows Over Loathing, this game's sequel, is on my list for after that undertaking, so I wanted to replay the first game, which I remembered really liking when I played it years ago.
West of Loathing is a singleplayer spinoff to the browser based MMO Kingdom of Loathing, which I played a fair bit of when I was younger, despite my relative lack of understanding it. You don't need to have played it to understand this game in the slightest, and you could probably get away with not even knowing it exists, but it's fun background info. The Loathing series, as I suppose it counts as one now, is characterized by an extremely simplistic art style of monochromatic stick figures and a LOT of jokes.
Many games have tried to be comedic, but West of Loathing is intimately Committed To The Bit in every way imaginable. An NPC will mention things haven't been the same since The Cows Came Home, which is an event that deeply impacts the setting to the point demonic cows are one of your primary types of random encounter. As the jokes are so integral to the game, I regretfully must leave them as unspoiled as possible, but I will make one exception for my absolute favorite joke in any game, the spittoons. Spittoons are, of course, pans that people spit things such as tobacco in. However, in West of Loathing, they contain amazing gear. Every time you investigate one of these, the narration gets increasingly hostile towards you. It starts at telling you how gross it is to be sticking your hand into one, and why you REALLY shouldn't be doing it, and only escalates from there with somehow more disgusting spittoons and more powerful equipment. There's a very noticeable lean on the fourth wall, but the spittoons are one of the few times it gets broken entirely. To call this bit god tier is an understatement. While this is the best one, there are a LOT more jokes. In my roughly eight hours of playing the Joke Per Minute rate was utterly insane.
It helps as well that the game itself is really good at what it sets out to do. The gameplay is secondary to the writing and jokes for sure, but there is still very clear effort being put in. You choose one of three classes, western spins on the fighter/mage/thief dynamic, and explore the west, getting into turn based battles along the way. If you are RUSHING the main story, the basic quest can be done extremely quickly, but a lot of the joy comes in finding new places, which will give you new stuff and new jokes. The stat and skill system deserves special attention, too, as with the right stats and skills you can solve encounters in ways other than combat. This game lets you skip the final boss with the right item. There are also a lot of puzzle based encounters. The Gun Manor DLC is a great example of this, having you explore a manor full of ghosts that you can choose to either settle peacefully by solving their puzzle or violently. Some puzzles made me break out a guide, but there are very few truly bad puzzles.
I didn't have the words for it when I first played, but this game is a genuine CRPG, and a great one at that. The main game is short enough to allow you to replay it multiple times, and there are four different companions to facilitate this. It's a really excellent little package, and absolutely worth playing, as it seems to have become a bit of a hidden gem. I greatly look forward to Shadows over Loathing.
2024
Game Finished In 2024 #13:
Vanillaware really is something special. I wasn't intimately familiar with them until 13 Sentinels, but that game alone was great enough to put me completely on board with whatever comes next. Luckily, what came next was also INCREDIBLE.
13 Sentinels was a marvel of a story with kind of incidental strategy gameplay, and Unicorn Overlord completely inverts this by having a marvel of a strategy game and kind of incidental plot. It's not that there's nothing there but there is not a lot worth noting. The Zenoirans are ontologically evil in every way, and every problem in the setting can be traced back to the giant asshole at the top of the empire, or his Ascian-like asshole wizard sidekick. Unicorn Overlord's gameplay and setting evoke Fire Emblem hard, but there's a LOT to make it stand out from Nintendo's SRPG series. Instead of controlling individual characters, you control 2x3 grid units of several characters, and they are controlled in realtime, too. Positioning matters too, as both you and your enemies have access to row and column based attacks. This immediately makes teambuilding interesting, as party composition matters a lot, to the point that before a battle begins you can modify it to try to swing the outcome in your favor. But where Unicorn Overlord plays its true hand is what happens when you engage a battle. You do not control your units individually in Unicorn Overlord, instead battles involving them play out automatically according to the tactics you assigned them beforehand.
People with good taste will immediately clock the concept as being similar to Gambits from FF12, a wonderful system of RPG design allowing you to essentially program your party however you want to help ease the issues game AI usually has. Unicorn Overlord goes a step further, by having multiple abilities tied to your equipment as well, making for interesting decision making at every level of the process. The way these systems interact heavily invokes the same neurons as teambuilding in a gacha game, but without the gambling or overdesigned swimsuits or fixation on singular thigh highs. The game's structure is as open ended as the teambuilding, with the main story being offset by sidequests of varying flavors, from the more traditional extra chapters with new party members, to dedicated grinding spots to shorter affairs called liberation quests, where you engage in a short battle to free a town. This freeform exploration lets you play the game at your own pace, doing what you want to when you want to. This game provides you with the ability to tackle final quest, where the enemies are level 40, as early as the first region of five. You're not going to win it that early, but that the option is there is impressive. There is even a small amount of choice in the plot, as you get to decide the fates of multiple characters. This is significantly lessened, though, by the fact that the nicer option is, without fail, always correct. Even the most Villageburner The Bandit-coded characters are more beneficial to spare than execute/jail, as another character to recruit is worth more than any other rewards. Perhaps this is a point to be made, thematically.
Unicorn Overlord has a lot of mechanics, but the way these are integrated is mostly seamless, so you never have to engage in too much busywork. It's not all perfect, as the sheer number of units you control with a fully maxed out army is incredibly hard to manage without significant grinding, so I ended up using less units than the game allowed me to. There is plenty of opportunity to kit out your party, though it was hard at times to discern when it should be done. Finally, the roster without generics was at times confusing, as multiple classes had only one or two characters attached to them. If you have no problem using generics, this is less of an issue, as they are to my understanding just as good as unique units, but I wanted to appreciate the bespoke character designs, which contained MULTIPLE winners. This is a fair bit understandable, though, as the game on a presentation level is immaculate. Hand drawn sprites with very little in the way of cut corners, with a lot of smart design in the way they were used for efficiency. Every battle happens in a section of the world map, reducing the need for multiple maps. Generics, despite my gripes earlier, allow you to fill out your army when need be, and their models are the same as the enemies, just recolored.
Unicorn Overlord is a real gem of a game, taking ideas other games did well and doing them arguably even better by combining them. The game was good enough that I went out of my way to get the Platinum trophy in it, and I only started to feel a bit tired at the VERY end because i wanted to make sure I had grinded enough for endgame. This is an incredibly easy recommend, and is a strong contender for GOTY 2024.
Vanillaware really is something special. I wasn't intimately familiar with them until 13 Sentinels, but that game alone was great enough to put me completely on board with whatever comes next. Luckily, what came next was also INCREDIBLE.
13 Sentinels was a marvel of a story with kind of incidental strategy gameplay, and Unicorn Overlord completely inverts this by having a marvel of a strategy game and kind of incidental plot. It's not that there's nothing there but there is not a lot worth noting. The Zenoirans are ontologically evil in every way, and every problem in the setting can be traced back to the giant asshole at the top of the empire, or his Ascian-like asshole wizard sidekick. Unicorn Overlord's gameplay and setting evoke Fire Emblem hard, but there's a LOT to make it stand out from Nintendo's SRPG series. Instead of controlling individual characters, you control 2x3 grid units of several characters, and they are controlled in realtime, too. Positioning matters too, as both you and your enemies have access to row and column based attacks. This immediately makes teambuilding interesting, as party composition matters a lot, to the point that before a battle begins you can modify it to try to swing the outcome in your favor. But where Unicorn Overlord plays its true hand is what happens when you engage a battle. You do not control your units individually in Unicorn Overlord, instead battles involving them play out automatically according to the tactics you assigned them beforehand.
People with good taste will immediately clock the concept as being similar to Gambits from FF12, a wonderful system of RPG design allowing you to essentially program your party however you want to help ease the issues game AI usually has. Unicorn Overlord goes a step further, by having multiple abilities tied to your equipment as well, making for interesting decision making at every level of the process. The way these systems interact heavily invokes the same neurons as teambuilding in a gacha game, but without the gambling or overdesigned swimsuits or fixation on singular thigh highs. The game's structure is as open ended as the teambuilding, with the main story being offset by sidequests of varying flavors, from the more traditional extra chapters with new party members, to dedicated grinding spots to shorter affairs called liberation quests, where you engage in a short battle to free a town. This freeform exploration lets you play the game at your own pace, doing what you want to when you want to. This game provides you with the ability to tackle final quest, where the enemies are level 40, as early as the first region of five. You're not going to win it that early, but that the option is there is impressive. There is even a small amount of choice in the plot, as you get to decide the fates of multiple characters. This is significantly lessened, though, by the fact that the nicer option is, without fail, always correct. Even the most Villageburner The Bandit-coded characters are more beneficial to spare than execute/jail, as another character to recruit is worth more than any other rewards. Perhaps this is a point to be made, thematically.
Unicorn Overlord has a lot of mechanics, but the way these are integrated is mostly seamless, so you never have to engage in too much busywork. It's not all perfect, as the sheer number of units you control with a fully maxed out army is incredibly hard to manage without significant grinding, so I ended up using less units than the game allowed me to. There is plenty of opportunity to kit out your party, though it was hard at times to discern when it should be done. Finally, the roster without generics was at times confusing, as multiple classes had only one or two characters attached to them. If you have no problem using generics, this is less of an issue, as they are to my understanding just as good as unique units, but I wanted to appreciate the bespoke character designs, which contained MULTIPLE winners. This is a fair bit understandable, though, as the game on a presentation level is immaculate. Hand drawn sprites with very little in the way of cut corners, with a lot of smart design in the way they were used for efficiency. Every battle happens in a section of the world map, reducing the need for multiple maps. Generics, despite my gripes earlier, allow you to fill out your army when need be, and their models are the same as the enemies, just recolored.
Unicorn Overlord is a real gem of a game, taking ideas other games did well and doing them arguably even better by combining them. The game was good enough that I went out of my way to get the Platinum trophy in it, and I only started to feel a bit tired at the VERY end because i wanted to make sure I had grinded enough for endgame. This is an incredibly easy recommend, and is a strong contender for GOTY 2024.
2021
Logging and reviewing this game as I got the plat.
As I mentioned in my review of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, I have issues getting into a lot of fighting games. Guilty Gear as a whole was one of these games, as I could not get into Xrd despite my attempts. Guilty Gear Strive, through simplifying a lot of my pain points and improving game feel enough to allow me to feel the improvement, while still remaining traditional in some aspects. The roster, especially 3 seasons of DLC in, contains a lot of great characters, new and old, with old characters getting varying levels of rework. Not all the changes are hits, I especially mourn the loss of Dragon Install on Sol, but most of them are fun takes on the characters. While movesets were largely truncated, there's still a nice spectrum of complexity, from the fundamentals based shotos to an entire card game. A few of my personal favorites are Potemkin, Testament, May, and Elphelt. The game isn't totally perfect, the singleplayer offerings are sorely lacking, but it remains a mainstay of the fighting games I play for good reason.
As I mentioned in my review of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, I have issues getting into a lot of fighting games. Guilty Gear as a whole was one of these games, as I could not get into Xrd despite my attempts. Guilty Gear Strive, through simplifying a lot of my pain points and improving game feel enough to allow me to feel the improvement, while still remaining traditional in some aspects. The roster, especially 3 seasons of DLC in, contains a lot of great characters, new and old, with old characters getting varying levels of rework. Not all the changes are hits, I especially mourn the loss of Dragon Install on Sol, but most of them are fun takes on the characters. While movesets were largely truncated, there's still a nice spectrum of complexity, from the fundamentals based shotos to an entire card game. A few of my personal favorites are Potemkin, Testament, May, and Elphelt. The game isn't totally perfect, the singleplayer offerings are sorely lacking, but it remains a mainstay of the fighting games I play for good reason.
Game Finished In 2024 #12.5?:
Separate Ways is more RE4 Remake. RE4 Remake is great. Everything after this is supplementary.
Separate Ways is one of my favorite types of DLC/side mode: a mode where you play as another character and potentially even get more story out of it. Things like Richter Mode in the Igavanias give me life. Ada has several meaningful changes to differentiate her from Leon, most notably her grappling hook, which has handy use in combat by extending her melee range significantly. She also goes through her own, shorter, set of levels, mainly alternate takes on the areas Leon went through, like going through the trebuchet section backwards. She also gets some sections that were cut from the transition from OG to Remake, such as the fight with U-3, which has been upgraded to an almost rival to Ada, and helps differentiate her playthrough even more. To get through these reworked levels, Ada has her own smaller set of weapons. The weapons have some overlap, and I definitely found myself falling back on the Red9 again, but overall I appreciated the additional tools. Things I learned while playing the base game helped make this mode more enjoyable, and only proves a replay will be what makes RE4R REALLY shine for me. The story also is interesting, luckily, as it shows multiple alternate angles of plot events, like Ada shooting the bell in Village, and gave Luis somehow MORE excellent characterization. Her voice acting even received some improvement. It's still not perfect, but it's better.
Separate Ways is kind of the platonic ideal for DLC like this. It's a meaningful addition to the base game that warrants being played in it's own right, and it doesn't show any signs of compromise. The asset reuse is smart and tactful, and it, like base RE4R, makes me think about when I'll play it next.
Separate Ways is more RE4 Remake. RE4 Remake is great. Everything after this is supplementary.
Separate Ways is one of my favorite types of DLC/side mode: a mode where you play as another character and potentially even get more story out of it. Things like Richter Mode in the Igavanias give me life. Ada has several meaningful changes to differentiate her from Leon, most notably her grappling hook, which has handy use in combat by extending her melee range significantly. She also goes through her own, shorter, set of levels, mainly alternate takes on the areas Leon went through, like going through the trebuchet section backwards. She also gets some sections that were cut from the transition from OG to Remake, such as the fight with U-3, which has been upgraded to an almost rival to Ada, and helps differentiate her playthrough even more. To get through these reworked levels, Ada has her own smaller set of weapons. The weapons have some overlap, and I definitely found myself falling back on the Red9 again, but overall I appreciated the additional tools. Things I learned while playing the base game helped make this mode more enjoyable, and only proves a replay will be what makes RE4R REALLY shine for me. The story also is interesting, luckily, as it shows multiple alternate angles of plot events, like Ada shooting the bell in Village, and gave Luis somehow MORE excellent characterization. Her voice acting even received some improvement. It's still not perfect, but it's better.
Separate Ways is kind of the platonic ideal for DLC like this. It's a meaningful addition to the base game that warrants being played in it's own right, and it doesn't show any signs of compromise. The asset reuse is smart and tactful, and it, like base RE4R, makes me think about when I'll play it next.
2023
Game Finished In 2024 #12:
I think Resident Evil is cool. It's a series that contains a lot of things that appeal to me specifically. Despite only having ever played 1 Remake to completion, I was fully sold from it and my experience with RE5. I had tried to play RE4 OG last year, in anticipation of the remake, but I stopped at around Castle when I realized I had taken the wrong difficulty and would have had to replay all of Village on easy to get back to where I was. Additionally, it seemed like every time I was annoyed at a bit of the game, I found out that it was removed or otherwise changed for the better in Remake. So I quit and decided to wait until I could just play Remake instead, and I'm very glad I did, because Remake is good as fuck.
To start: yeah, basically every issue I had with Village and what I played of Castle was fixed in Remake. Without a full game playthrough to compare it to, I can't speak for later Castle or Island, but I'm sure the same applies there. The game feel is just as good as if not better than OG, too. It took a bit to adjust to the more modern control style but when I did it worked really well. Significantly helping matters is the implementation of gyro aim, which I am an ardent advocate of. Being able to make minute adjustments makes shooting even more natural, without significantly breaking things like the Wii version's god aiming.
The most obvious change Remake makes is in presentation. Luckily, despite what some clip compilation youtubers posited, the game managed to preserve the soul of the original quite well while updating the graphics, sound, and characters. The remake looks great, runs great, the new voice cast [EXCEPT FOR ADA] is great, and all the character's personalities remain intact, and at times expanded. Leon still makes a lot of great quips often, goofy shit still happens on the regular, and the plot still has a lot of the proper RE charm to it. Ashley getting an entire segment to prove she's capable only to get hit with the damsel stick stings, but otherwise it works. A lot of the most interesting changes, however, are in the gameplay. The knife has been reworked, allowing you to parry and use it as a sort of get out of jail button in dire situations, in addition to the normal uses. It has a durability feature, which helps make deciding when to use it interesting. Durability systems are notoriously hard to manage, but the well done pacing of the game ensures you have access to a way to restore it fairly frequently. Ammo crafting is now a feature, with gunpowder and resources being used to make ammo and bombs. Treasures have been expanded, allowing you to combine gems for optimal combinations. As a small complaint, I wish that red gems were not so overcentralizing. Matching colors on treasures with three or less slots gives you the best bonus, so if there are any treasures with more than one shape, you have to be hoarding your rubies and red beryls for them. Sidequests have also been expanded, giving you access to a whole separate shop menu for spending a new currency. These changes expand the game overall, and make it a better experience.
In terms of flaws, I only have a few and they could be very easily remedied upon a replay. Of these, the biggest one is that,I think ammo management is kind of dire. The game modifies ammo drops based on a factors, and this can make you really feel droughts. This isn't inherently an issue, it is the core of survival horror, after all, but the game has so many different weapon types and I found it annoying to constantly get handgun ammo, to the point all of my non-handgun weapons had to be relegated to only the biggest threats, and 90% of my playtime was spent firing exactly the Red9. Even still, encounters found me nearly running out of that too. Crafting, while adding an enjoyable dynamic, also felt like it is the ONLY consistent way to get ammo for some weapon types. The loss of the free ammo refill upon upgrading a weapon's ammo will be sorely missed, too. On a replay, I'll likely invest more in the Bolt Thrower. There are also some annoying segments, like the fight with Ramon, that I will be more prepared for knowing they're coming.
RE4R is a really good remake of an industry changing game. It kept all of the things I liked about OG while improving it in the areas that mattered. The best part about it is that the original, if you prefer it, is still available everywhere, which is a lesson I wish more devs, including Capcom themselves, took. Please let me buy an RE1-3 PS1 collection.
I think Resident Evil is cool. It's a series that contains a lot of things that appeal to me specifically. Despite only having ever played 1 Remake to completion, I was fully sold from it and my experience with RE5. I had tried to play RE4 OG last year, in anticipation of the remake, but I stopped at around Castle when I realized I had taken the wrong difficulty and would have had to replay all of Village on easy to get back to where I was. Additionally, it seemed like every time I was annoyed at a bit of the game, I found out that it was removed or otherwise changed for the better in Remake. So I quit and decided to wait until I could just play Remake instead, and I'm very glad I did, because Remake is good as fuck.
To start: yeah, basically every issue I had with Village and what I played of Castle was fixed in Remake. Without a full game playthrough to compare it to, I can't speak for later Castle or Island, but I'm sure the same applies there. The game feel is just as good as if not better than OG, too. It took a bit to adjust to the more modern control style but when I did it worked really well. Significantly helping matters is the implementation of gyro aim, which I am an ardent advocate of. Being able to make minute adjustments makes shooting even more natural, without significantly breaking things like the Wii version's god aiming.
The most obvious change Remake makes is in presentation. Luckily, despite what some clip compilation youtubers posited, the game managed to preserve the soul of the original quite well while updating the graphics, sound, and characters. The remake looks great, runs great, the new voice cast [EXCEPT FOR ADA] is great, and all the character's personalities remain intact, and at times expanded. Leon still makes a lot of great quips often, goofy shit still happens on the regular, and the plot still has a lot of the proper RE charm to it. Ashley getting an entire segment to prove she's capable only to get hit with the damsel stick stings, but otherwise it works. A lot of the most interesting changes, however, are in the gameplay. The knife has been reworked, allowing you to parry and use it as a sort of get out of jail button in dire situations, in addition to the normal uses. It has a durability feature, which helps make deciding when to use it interesting. Durability systems are notoriously hard to manage, but the well done pacing of the game ensures you have access to a way to restore it fairly frequently. Ammo crafting is now a feature, with gunpowder and resources being used to make ammo and bombs. Treasures have been expanded, allowing you to combine gems for optimal combinations. As a small complaint, I wish that red gems were not so overcentralizing. Matching colors on treasures with three or less slots gives you the best bonus, so if there are any treasures with more than one shape, you have to be hoarding your rubies and red beryls for them. Sidequests have also been expanded, giving you access to a whole separate shop menu for spending a new currency. These changes expand the game overall, and make it a better experience.
In terms of flaws, I only have a few and they could be very easily remedied upon a replay. Of these, the biggest one is that,I think ammo management is kind of dire. The game modifies ammo drops based on a factors, and this can make you really feel droughts. This isn't inherently an issue, it is the core of survival horror, after all, but the game has so many different weapon types and I found it annoying to constantly get handgun ammo, to the point all of my non-handgun weapons had to be relegated to only the biggest threats, and 90% of my playtime was spent firing exactly the Red9. Even still, encounters found me nearly running out of that too. Crafting, while adding an enjoyable dynamic, also felt like it is the ONLY consistent way to get ammo for some weapon types. The loss of the free ammo refill upon upgrading a weapon's ammo will be sorely missed, too. On a replay, I'll likely invest more in the Bolt Thrower. There are also some annoying segments, like the fight with Ramon, that I will be more prepared for knowing they're coming.
RE4R is a really good remake of an industry changing game. It kept all of the things I liked about OG while improving it in the areas that mattered. The best part about it is that the original, if you prefer it, is still available everywhere, which is a lesson I wish more devs, including Capcom themselves, took. Please let me buy an RE1-3 PS1 collection.
2020
Game Finished In 2024 #11:
So I got a PS5 for myself for my birthday, as I figured now is probably a good time to hop on one. To christen this, I decided to play the pack-in game, Astro's Playroom. That this console even launched with a pack-in is honestly a feat in its own right, considering the practice seemed to have died long ago. The last true pack-in was what, Face Raiders for the 3DS? That game is about a 45 minute long tech demo.
Astro's Playroom is a tech demo as well, but it's significantly more robust. It presents itself as a 3D platformer demonstrating the capabilities of the Dualsense controller, with each of the four areas having unique gimmicks to this end. As a demonstration, it does the job. The Dualsense isn't a particularly feature rich controller, admittedly, so most of the gimmicks end up being ways to do gyro control on the thing, with the adaptive triggers and rumble capabilities adding flavor to the whole thing.
Under the tech demo though, is an astonishingly polished game. On a visual level, it looks and runs great. The level design is well done, and while it's never groundbreaking, that's not the goal. The secondary goal of Astro's Playroom, or perhaps even the TRUE primary goal, is the celebration of the Playstation's legacy. Littered throughout the levels are dozens of easter eggs referencing titles that were important to the platform, from Ratchet and Clank to God of War to Castlevania to Monster Hunter to Bloodborne to FF7 to Resident Evil to- you get it. Getting to point at the screen and go "I recognize that thing!" never got old in the game's brisk runtime. It made me realize how much legacy Playstation really has, and how deeply stupid Jim Ryan was for trying to dismiss it. Hell, one of your main collectables is random Playstation accessories, from the Eyetoy to the Playstation Move and VR to the LCD screen you were supposed to attach to the PS1. The level design is quite clever with where collectibles are hidden, too. Unless you're thorough, you probably won't catch everything on a first playthrough, making the game just a bit more replayable for people who want to 100%.
For a game that's free with the console, it makes a great first game to play on it and I can easily see myself going back for the 100%.
So I got a PS5 for myself for my birthday, as I figured now is probably a good time to hop on one. To christen this, I decided to play the pack-in game, Astro's Playroom. That this console even launched with a pack-in is honestly a feat in its own right, considering the practice seemed to have died long ago. The last true pack-in was what, Face Raiders for the 3DS? That game is about a 45 minute long tech demo.
Astro's Playroom is a tech demo as well, but it's significantly more robust. It presents itself as a 3D platformer demonstrating the capabilities of the Dualsense controller, with each of the four areas having unique gimmicks to this end. As a demonstration, it does the job. The Dualsense isn't a particularly feature rich controller, admittedly, so most of the gimmicks end up being ways to do gyro control on the thing, with the adaptive triggers and rumble capabilities adding flavor to the whole thing.
Under the tech demo though, is an astonishingly polished game. On a visual level, it looks and runs great. The level design is well done, and while it's never groundbreaking, that's not the goal. The secondary goal of Astro's Playroom, or perhaps even the TRUE primary goal, is the celebration of the Playstation's legacy. Littered throughout the levels are dozens of easter eggs referencing titles that were important to the platform, from Ratchet and Clank to God of War to Castlevania to Monster Hunter to Bloodborne to FF7 to Resident Evil to- you get it. Getting to point at the screen and go "I recognize that thing!" never got old in the game's brisk runtime. It made me realize how much legacy Playstation really has, and how deeply stupid Jim Ryan was for trying to dismiss it. Hell, one of your main collectables is random Playstation accessories, from the Eyetoy to the Playstation Move and VR to the LCD screen you were supposed to attach to the PS1. The level design is quite clever with where collectibles are hidden, too. Unless you're thorough, you probably won't catch everything on a first playthrough, making the game just a bit more replayable for people who want to 100%.
For a game that's free with the console, it makes a great first game to play on it and I can easily see myself going back for the 100%.
Game Finished In 2024 #10:
I have a love/hate relationship with fighting games. I love fighting games, fighting games hate me. This puts me in a tricky spot, as although I really like games like Blazblue, King of Fighters, and Persona 4 Arena, I often find myself chafing against them on even a fundamental mechanical level. The path to improvement, even to a baseline competency, is confusing and I sometimes feel genuinely incapable of doing it, as even with hundreds of hours across the genre these struggles never get easier. There have been a couple games that I've been able to click with better, like Guilty Gear Strive, DNF Duel, Cross Tag, and SamSho, but even among those Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is on another level.
The original Granblue Fantasy Versus was a flawed gem, or a great first step. The game had great potential, which was never capitalized on despite two seasons of DLC, because it launched without functioning netcode. Two months before a global pandemic. The roster launched in a very sorry state too, with a paltry 12 characters, requiring those two seasons to even start approaching a state that could be called "complete". It was patently obvious to everyone that this game could easily be given a new lease on life by getting that netcode fixed. I had resolved to hold off on picking the game up until they did. Unfortunately, development issues meant they had to make an entirely new game, Fortunately, Rising is the game that Versus should have launched as.
The improvements Rising made are evident on every level of the production. In addition to finally fixing the netcode, the game launched with a truly full roster, with every DLC character folded into the base game, and functionally a pass worth of additional characters right off the bat. Mechanical improvements have been added too, with both small and big tweaks. Versus took a unique spin on the traditional fighting game format by adding cooldowns to special moves in exchange for allowing you to input them with simply a direction and a button, like Smash. Motion inputs are a touchy subject among fighting game fans, and while I sympathize with the idea of motions having the potential to add depth to a game, and with fears of long running games abandoning their legacy mechanics, but I feel like a new game like Versus is the perfect opportunity to try more experimental input styles in a fighting game, with no prior baggage. Unfortunately, the original Versus tried to have it both ways, with cooldowns being shorter if you used a traditional input to perform them. This functionally made simple inputs pointless, as it was always better to just use the traditional input unless you were in a situation where the difference was irrelevant. Rising all but removes the distinction, and now traditional inputs only have a marginal advantage, so minor you can turn off traditional inputs altogether. Many games have tried to simplify inputs, but Rising is the first game that feels brave enough to fully commit to this simplicity. This commitment pays dividends, as each character feels approachable due to all sharing the same basic control scheme, and over time my stable of characters I play has widened due to how easy and enjoyable it is to pick up new characters.
The game makes sure you know how each character works, as well, with built in guides to show you what a character can do. It won't completely replace Dustloop, obviously, but this in-game consideration is important nonetheless. Despite the simplified movesets, each character still feels unique, and cooldown management combines with meter management to make for compelling decision making, especially with the addition of Ultimate moves, which cost 50% meter to use, giving meter much more functionality than in Versus.
There is also a concentrated effort to expand the options outside of just ranked ladder. Grand Bruise, a completely separate game mode, is a Fall Guys-like minigame compilation that exists as a lower stakes alternative to fighting. There is also a story mode, which is a bit rudimentary but was overall enjoyable, and gave me a way to log this game.
It is not all perfect, most notably the existence of a paid battle pass with FOMO content. The experience of actually grinding the pass is quite pleasant, and I look forward to each one, because they give me an excuse to play more of the game, but it is unfortunate for latecomers who miss out on the exclusives, including one of the few times an Arcsys game has done costumes.
It's pretty safe to say Rising is my favorite fighting game. Perhaps in an ideal world where I am better at the genre, there are others I would like more, but for where I'm at this one meets me there in a way very few ever have. This also makes it easy to recommend, even to people who don't know a lot about the genre.
I have a love/hate relationship with fighting games. I love fighting games, fighting games hate me. This puts me in a tricky spot, as although I really like games like Blazblue, King of Fighters, and Persona 4 Arena, I often find myself chafing against them on even a fundamental mechanical level. The path to improvement, even to a baseline competency, is confusing and I sometimes feel genuinely incapable of doing it, as even with hundreds of hours across the genre these struggles never get easier. There have been a couple games that I've been able to click with better, like Guilty Gear Strive, DNF Duel, Cross Tag, and SamSho, but even among those Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is on another level.
The original Granblue Fantasy Versus was a flawed gem, or a great first step. The game had great potential, which was never capitalized on despite two seasons of DLC, because it launched without functioning netcode. Two months before a global pandemic. The roster launched in a very sorry state too, with a paltry 12 characters, requiring those two seasons to even start approaching a state that could be called "complete". It was patently obvious to everyone that this game could easily be given a new lease on life by getting that netcode fixed. I had resolved to hold off on picking the game up until they did. Unfortunately, development issues meant they had to make an entirely new game, Fortunately, Rising is the game that Versus should have launched as.
The improvements Rising made are evident on every level of the production. In addition to finally fixing the netcode, the game launched with a truly full roster, with every DLC character folded into the base game, and functionally a pass worth of additional characters right off the bat. Mechanical improvements have been added too, with both small and big tweaks. Versus took a unique spin on the traditional fighting game format by adding cooldowns to special moves in exchange for allowing you to input them with simply a direction and a button, like Smash. Motion inputs are a touchy subject among fighting game fans, and while I sympathize with the idea of motions having the potential to add depth to a game, and with fears of long running games abandoning their legacy mechanics, but I feel like a new game like Versus is the perfect opportunity to try more experimental input styles in a fighting game, with no prior baggage. Unfortunately, the original Versus tried to have it both ways, with cooldowns being shorter if you used a traditional input to perform them. This functionally made simple inputs pointless, as it was always better to just use the traditional input unless you were in a situation where the difference was irrelevant. Rising all but removes the distinction, and now traditional inputs only have a marginal advantage, so minor you can turn off traditional inputs altogether. Many games have tried to simplify inputs, but Rising is the first game that feels brave enough to fully commit to this simplicity. This commitment pays dividends, as each character feels approachable due to all sharing the same basic control scheme, and over time my stable of characters I play has widened due to how easy and enjoyable it is to pick up new characters.
The game makes sure you know how each character works, as well, with built in guides to show you what a character can do. It won't completely replace Dustloop, obviously, but this in-game consideration is important nonetheless. Despite the simplified movesets, each character still feels unique, and cooldown management combines with meter management to make for compelling decision making, especially with the addition of Ultimate moves, which cost 50% meter to use, giving meter much more functionality than in Versus.
There is also a concentrated effort to expand the options outside of just ranked ladder. Grand Bruise, a completely separate game mode, is a Fall Guys-like minigame compilation that exists as a lower stakes alternative to fighting. There is also a story mode, which is a bit rudimentary but was overall enjoyable, and gave me a way to log this game.
It is not all perfect, most notably the existence of a paid battle pass with FOMO content. The experience of actually grinding the pass is quite pleasant, and I look forward to each one, because they give me an excuse to play more of the game, but it is unfortunate for latecomers who miss out on the exclusives, including one of the few times an Arcsys game has done costumes.
It's pretty safe to say Rising is my favorite fighting game. Perhaps in an ideal world where I am better at the genre, there are others I would like more, but for where I'm at this one meets me there in a way very few ever have. This also makes it easy to recommend, even to people who don't know a lot about the genre.
2016
Game Finished In 2024 #9:
This is gonna be a bit of a weird one. A couple of circumstances aligning led me to playing this utter curiosity of a game.
For context: Mighty Action X is a game in the universe of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, the Rider show about gamer doctors, a premise exactly as cool as it sounds. Mighty Action X is the action game Gashat [a cartridge representing a game that allows one to become a Rider by inserting it into the Gamer Driver] of the protagonist, Emu Hojo, aka Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. This is that game defictionalized, to the point the splash screens include the in-series game maker Genm Corp. This was released on the 3DS and included as a promotional bonus with another Kamen Rider game
As a game, there is very little to actually talk about. It is a completely standard platformer. A normal run takes approximately ten minutes to see everything, and a full playthrough would be maybe an hour at best. Unfortunately, with this game never being officially released in English, as the series it is from never was either, the menus are unreadable to me and there are no good guides online I could find to go for 100%. But going for 100% wouldn't really change much, all things considered.
The main appeal, perhaps the only appeal, of the game, is being fanservice for people who like Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. I like Ex-Aid, so this pleases me for what it is. The fact it exists is enough, honestly. I chose to give this no score because it feels weird to.
This is gonna be a bit of a weird one. A couple of circumstances aligning led me to playing this utter curiosity of a game.
For context: Mighty Action X is a game in the universe of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, the Rider show about gamer doctors, a premise exactly as cool as it sounds. Mighty Action X is the action game Gashat [a cartridge representing a game that allows one to become a Rider by inserting it into the Gamer Driver] of the protagonist, Emu Hojo, aka Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. This is that game defictionalized, to the point the splash screens include the in-series game maker Genm Corp. This was released on the 3DS and included as a promotional bonus with another Kamen Rider game
As a game, there is very little to actually talk about. It is a completely standard platformer. A normal run takes approximately ten minutes to see everything, and a full playthrough would be maybe an hour at best. Unfortunately, with this game never being officially released in English, as the series it is from never was either, the menus are unreadable to me and there are no good guides online I could find to go for 100%. But going for 100% wouldn't really change much, all things considered.
The main appeal, perhaps the only appeal, of the game, is being fanservice for people who like Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. I like Ex-Aid, so this pleases me for what it is. The fact it exists is enough, honestly. I chose to give this no score because it feels weird to.
2023
Game Finished In 2024 #8:
If the subtle hint in my username didn't give it away, I like Metroid. The whole genre, really. I don't particularly like calling them "Metroidvanias" because it's stolen valor from the humble Castlevania fans who coined the term, and because most games in the genre of the past decade are FAR more Metroid than Vania. This has left the genre in a bit of a weird spot, to say the least. Luckily, Pseudoregalia is here to give the genre a ton of new blood.
To keep comparisons to a minimum, Pseudoregalia is Mario Odyssey cross Hollow Knight. Despite not being in love with either game, the inspiration this game takes is apparent, and it truly rises above the sum of it's parts. As a result, the game is primarily nonlinear platforming with upgrades to aid progression by helping you platform better. And upgrades in this game are SIGNIFICANT. Some games in the genre have a problem with upgrades feeling like glorified keys, but Pseudoregalia shows you can make an upgrade work as both a key AND an addition. Each one, besides maybe the charge attack, massively augments your moveset and does it while also feeling absolutely amazing. The game is about 80% platforming with this moveset by volume, which, while seemingly unbalanced, manages to work out in the game's favor due to just how good it all feels. Making mistakes while platforming basically always feels like a genuine skill issue, and there are actually mechanics in place that can help you walk back a mistake if you're quick enough. The other 20%, the combat, is actually weaker just because the enemy variety is low and swinging the sword is not nearly as inherently satisfying as doing a slide jump into a wall run. This is, for the record, one of the very few real negatives about the game.
I waited for the map update to play this game to ease a worry i had about the game, in the form of navigation. Luckily, with a map, most of the game is completely fine to navigate. The one thing I would add is some way to mark the map, as I sometimes encountered rooms I knew I was supposed to backtrack to but forgot how to get to when I needed to. The map as a whole is well designed, especially for the relatively unexplored genre of 3D search action games. There are multiple ways to enter most areas, and especially skilled players can even sequence break sections without the intended upgrades, something I sorely miss from a lot of games in the genre. The rewards you get for backtracking are worthwhile too, as there's an entire class of less impactful upgrades for you to find, conferring benefits such as more powerful attacks or extra health.
The potential this game has in how you approach it, combined with the short runtime [my final time was 7 hours, but I can easily imagine shaving time off of it on replays] makes the game stand out in one last way: replayability. A good game in this genre should be possible to finish in a day if you know what you're doing. I didn't know what I was doing and still finished it in a day, so you know the game is doing something right. Once I picked it up it was truly difficult to put down until I was done with it. I heavily recommend this game, and while I usually don't bring up the pricing of a game in a review, this game is $6 USD, which honestly feels like I'm ripping off the dev. This game makes me want to buy a friend a copy and shoot a bootlegger.
Also, it must be stated: Sybil is incredibly hot and the dev is a genius for patching in alt outfits, including and especially the Sailor Moon-esque leotard one.
If the subtle hint in my username didn't give it away, I like Metroid. The whole genre, really. I don't particularly like calling them "Metroidvanias" because it's stolen valor from the humble Castlevania fans who coined the term, and because most games in the genre of the past decade are FAR more Metroid than Vania. This has left the genre in a bit of a weird spot, to say the least. Luckily, Pseudoregalia is here to give the genre a ton of new blood.
To keep comparisons to a minimum, Pseudoregalia is Mario Odyssey cross Hollow Knight. Despite not being in love with either game, the inspiration this game takes is apparent, and it truly rises above the sum of it's parts. As a result, the game is primarily nonlinear platforming with upgrades to aid progression by helping you platform better. And upgrades in this game are SIGNIFICANT. Some games in the genre have a problem with upgrades feeling like glorified keys, but Pseudoregalia shows you can make an upgrade work as both a key AND an addition. Each one, besides maybe the charge attack, massively augments your moveset and does it while also feeling absolutely amazing. The game is about 80% platforming with this moveset by volume, which, while seemingly unbalanced, manages to work out in the game's favor due to just how good it all feels. Making mistakes while platforming basically always feels like a genuine skill issue, and there are actually mechanics in place that can help you walk back a mistake if you're quick enough. The other 20%, the combat, is actually weaker just because the enemy variety is low and swinging the sword is not nearly as inherently satisfying as doing a slide jump into a wall run. This is, for the record, one of the very few real negatives about the game.
I waited for the map update to play this game to ease a worry i had about the game, in the form of navigation. Luckily, with a map, most of the game is completely fine to navigate. The one thing I would add is some way to mark the map, as I sometimes encountered rooms I knew I was supposed to backtrack to but forgot how to get to when I needed to. The map as a whole is well designed, especially for the relatively unexplored genre of 3D search action games. There are multiple ways to enter most areas, and especially skilled players can even sequence break sections without the intended upgrades, something I sorely miss from a lot of games in the genre. The rewards you get for backtracking are worthwhile too, as there's an entire class of less impactful upgrades for you to find, conferring benefits such as more powerful attacks or extra health.
The potential this game has in how you approach it, combined with the short runtime [my final time was 7 hours, but I can easily imagine shaving time off of it on replays] makes the game stand out in one last way: replayability. A good game in this genre should be possible to finish in a day if you know what you're doing. I didn't know what I was doing and still finished it in a day, so you know the game is doing something right. Once I picked it up it was truly difficult to put down until I was done with it. I heavily recommend this game, and while I usually don't bring up the pricing of a game in a review, this game is $6 USD, which honestly feels like I'm ripping off the dev. This game makes me want to buy a friend a copy and shoot a bootlegger.
Also, it must be stated: Sybil is incredibly hot and the dev is a genius for patching in alt outfits, including and especially the Sailor Moon-esque leotard one.
2023
Game Finished In 2024 #7:
I am something of a fairwearther Fire Emblem Fan. Were I to rank gaming franchises by how attached I am to them, Fire Emblem would be a comfortable B. I have played every game since Awakening, and a couple before then, but I largely don't get motivated enough to finish them. So why is it then, that I decided to play through and Engage, an anniversary title? Isn't it kinda weird? It is, but for the most part, it did work for me.
Having a passive familiarity with most FE games is all one needs, really. Despite how important you might think prior FE knowledge would be to an anniversary game like this, you would be kind of wrong. There are passing references, but there is rarely much depth to them. I did pick up on some of them from the games I've played, but they were largely unimportant to the enjoyment of the game.
Speaking of, this game is primarily enjoyed for the gameplay. I make it a point to give a game's story A Shot. I don't like skipping cutscenes, so I try to see what a story has to offer. Engage's story has nothing to offer. About the nicest thing I can say about it is "I am glad they stuck to one route this time". The character writing, showcased in the supports, does have some good stuff, but the actual Plot is basically auxiliary to the gameplay.
Luckily, for most of the runtime, Engage is one of the best FE games to actually play. The game plays with a lot of established FE standards, and manages to be as compelling, or even moreso at times, than Three Houses's gameplay, the previous contender for my favorite FE game in gameplay. Things like removing weapon durability go a long way towards making the game stand out. Of course, the titular mechanic of Engaging is the most unique feature the game has, and it is one I'm going to be sad to see go. In simple terms, you get a character from a previous FE game, and can pair them up with any one of your units to give them special abilities. Furthermore, you can Engage with an emblem to gain further abilities, including a limit break-esque special move, and additional weapons to use. This push and pull of when to Engage to turn the tide of battle results in a lot of interesting encounters.
This is also a great game, presentation-wise. While I didn't remember much of the music, the vibrant graphical style and bold character designs were a marked step up from Three Houses, which was genuinely difficult to look at after realizing how good Engage looks. The animations, especially for critical hits, were also polished. Some may criticize the designs, but they're very Fun in a way that fits the game overall.
Unfortunately, Engage does have some flaws. The Somniel, on paper a version of the Academy from Three Houses without the time limit, ends up undermining itself by utterly inundating the player with mechanics. Going back to the Somniel after every chapter genuinely felt like doing dailies in a particularly unpleasant gacha game. The mechanical bloat also made it incredibly difficult to discern what mechanics were worth bothering with or not. The game's reliance on materials and currencies to facilitate a lot of mechanics did not help in the slightest, as I always felt short on them due to my attempts to stay away from the skirmish encounters. You get "war funds" from time to time, which struck me as a way to smooth this process, but they did not provide any materials to go along with, resulting in me largely neglecting the blacksmith. Trying to discern what I would actually benefit from doing in between chapters made it arguably more stressful than the chapters themselves at times. That is, at least until the three chapters before the final boss, where even the thin plot stretches to it's breaking point for a plotline that is essentially padding, coupled with downright unpleasant chapters. Perhaps I missed a mechanic to make these three chapters bearable, but there was simply so much in the game it was impossible to tell what I could have done to make those less annoying. Doubly confusing, in that the final boss himself was completely fine and went down with no trouble.
I sincerely hope Engage informs FE games in the future. I'd like to see better plots, of course, but the gameplay is so good it would be a shame to see it completely abandoned. A game that could theoretically combine 3H's quality of writing and Engage's gameplay would likely be handily the greatest FE game ever made. As long as they stick to one route. Please?
I am something of a fairwearther Fire Emblem Fan. Were I to rank gaming franchises by how attached I am to them, Fire Emblem would be a comfortable B. I have played every game since Awakening, and a couple before then, but I largely don't get motivated enough to finish them. So why is it then, that I decided to play through and Engage, an anniversary title? Isn't it kinda weird? It is, but for the most part, it did work for me.
Having a passive familiarity with most FE games is all one needs, really. Despite how important you might think prior FE knowledge would be to an anniversary game like this, you would be kind of wrong. There are passing references, but there is rarely much depth to them. I did pick up on some of them from the games I've played, but they were largely unimportant to the enjoyment of the game.
Speaking of, this game is primarily enjoyed for the gameplay. I make it a point to give a game's story A Shot. I don't like skipping cutscenes, so I try to see what a story has to offer. Engage's story has nothing to offer. About the nicest thing I can say about it is "I am glad they stuck to one route this time". The character writing, showcased in the supports, does have some good stuff, but the actual Plot is basically auxiliary to the gameplay.
Luckily, for most of the runtime, Engage is one of the best FE games to actually play. The game plays with a lot of established FE standards, and manages to be as compelling, or even moreso at times, than Three Houses's gameplay, the previous contender for my favorite FE game in gameplay. Things like removing weapon durability go a long way towards making the game stand out. Of course, the titular mechanic of Engaging is the most unique feature the game has, and it is one I'm going to be sad to see go. In simple terms, you get a character from a previous FE game, and can pair them up with any one of your units to give them special abilities. Furthermore, you can Engage with an emblem to gain further abilities, including a limit break-esque special move, and additional weapons to use. This push and pull of when to Engage to turn the tide of battle results in a lot of interesting encounters.
This is also a great game, presentation-wise. While I didn't remember much of the music, the vibrant graphical style and bold character designs were a marked step up from Three Houses, which was genuinely difficult to look at after realizing how good Engage looks. The animations, especially for critical hits, were also polished. Some may criticize the designs, but they're very Fun in a way that fits the game overall.
Unfortunately, Engage does have some flaws. The Somniel, on paper a version of the Academy from Three Houses without the time limit, ends up undermining itself by utterly inundating the player with mechanics. Going back to the Somniel after every chapter genuinely felt like doing dailies in a particularly unpleasant gacha game. The mechanical bloat also made it incredibly difficult to discern what mechanics were worth bothering with or not. The game's reliance on materials and currencies to facilitate a lot of mechanics did not help in the slightest, as I always felt short on them due to my attempts to stay away from the skirmish encounters. You get "war funds" from time to time, which struck me as a way to smooth this process, but they did not provide any materials to go along with, resulting in me largely neglecting the blacksmith. Trying to discern what I would actually benefit from doing in between chapters made it arguably more stressful than the chapters themselves at times. That is, at least until the three chapters before the final boss, where even the thin plot stretches to it's breaking point for a plotline that is essentially padding, coupled with downright unpleasant chapters. Perhaps I missed a mechanic to make these three chapters bearable, but there was simply so much in the game it was impossible to tell what I could have done to make those less annoying. Doubly confusing, in that the final boss himself was completely fine and went down with no trouble.
I sincerely hope Engage informs FE games in the future. I'd like to see better plots, of course, but the gameplay is so good it would be a shame to see it completely abandoned. A game that could theoretically combine 3H's quality of writing and Engage's gameplay would likely be handily the greatest FE game ever made. As long as they stick to one route. Please?
Game Finished In 2024 #7.5?:
So I'm going through Fire Emblem Engage, and while I'm not done with the game at time of writing, I HAVE done all the DLC offerings, and it's worth a log, I think.
I'll save thoughts on Engage as a whole for when I'm actually done with it, but as it stands the bulk of the DLC is split into basically two parts: the Divine Paralogues, seven additional Emblems for the main game and six maps to go along with them, and the Fell Xenologue, a six chapter sidestory with fixed character attributes akin to Cindered Shadows from Three Houses, which adds new characters and classes to the main game upon completion.
The Divine Paralogues are a great addition to the game overall, adding fan favorites such as Tiki, Camilla [huge win for yuri fans!], Soren [huge win for yaoi fans!], and Veronica [huge win for me, who liked her in Dragalia]. These Emblems add a lot of interesting options to use in the main game, including and especially after the Big Scripted Loss where the Emblems you have are taken away. Hilariously, the DLC Emblems are entirely unaffected by this event, and it gives you something of a head start on getting the rest back. I chose to get each Emblem according to the Emblem's respective game to break them up. So when I got Lyn in the main story, I did Hector's paralogue, and when I got Corrin in the main story, i did Camilla's paralogue, and so on. This paced the new additions quite well, and eased any potential issues with being frontloaded by 7 new Emblems to figure out. My favorite Emblem to use is possibly Veronica, who has the special ability to... do a gacha pull. Because she's from the mobile game. The ability to pull an extra unit out of your ass on command has a lot of utility, and this utility is further increased when you pull a particularly good summon.
Once I had done all the Divine Paralogues, I decided to do the Fell Xenologue. This is a weaker addition to the game, unfortunately. When I get to Engage itself I will elaborate further but the story and setting in Engage are not particularly interesting, and this is More Engage Plot. An alternate universe plotline does not particularly work when you don't care about the original universe The maps are largely fine, though the last two are notably obnoxious. The fixed character attributes could be theoretically interesting, but Engage is a game that thrives off of the gameplay's excellent character building, and the Fell Xenologue denies you all of the building you've done so far so that you can theoretically do this at any time. The usability of the new classes and characters is to be determined, but I will say Engage is already so filled with likeable characters that even in the base game I struggle fitting all my favorites into a balanced team comp.
Overall, a solid DLC offering, even if it's not all perfect.
So I'm going through Fire Emblem Engage, and while I'm not done with the game at time of writing, I HAVE done all the DLC offerings, and it's worth a log, I think.
I'll save thoughts on Engage as a whole for when I'm actually done with it, but as it stands the bulk of the DLC is split into basically two parts: the Divine Paralogues, seven additional Emblems for the main game and six maps to go along with them, and the Fell Xenologue, a six chapter sidestory with fixed character attributes akin to Cindered Shadows from Three Houses, which adds new characters and classes to the main game upon completion.
The Divine Paralogues are a great addition to the game overall, adding fan favorites such as Tiki, Camilla [huge win for yuri fans!], Soren [huge win for yaoi fans!], and Veronica [huge win for me, who liked her in Dragalia]. These Emblems add a lot of interesting options to use in the main game, including and especially after the Big Scripted Loss where the Emblems you have are taken away. Hilariously, the DLC Emblems are entirely unaffected by this event, and it gives you something of a head start on getting the rest back. I chose to get each Emblem according to the Emblem's respective game to break them up. So when I got Lyn in the main story, I did Hector's paralogue, and when I got Corrin in the main story, i did Camilla's paralogue, and so on. This paced the new additions quite well, and eased any potential issues with being frontloaded by 7 new Emblems to figure out. My favorite Emblem to use is possibly Veronica, who has the special ability to... do a gacha pull. Because she's from the mobile game. The ability to pull an extra unit out of your ass on command has a lot of utility, and this utility is further increased when you pull a particularly good summon.
Once I had done all the Divine Paralogues, I decided to do the Fell Xenologue. This is a weaker addition to the game, unfortunately. When I get to Engage itself I will elaborate further but the story and setting in Engage are not particularly interesting, and this is More Engage Plot. An alternate universe plotline does not particularly work when you don't care about the original universe The maps are largely fine, though the last two are notably obnoxious. The fixed character attributes could be theoretically interesting, but Engage is a game that thrives off of the gameplay's excellent character building, and the Fell Xenologue denies you all of the building you've done so far so that you can theoretically do this at any time. The usability of the new classes and characters is to be determined, but I will say Engage is already so filled with likeable characters that even in the base game I struggle fitting all my favorites into a balanced team comp.
Overall, a solid DLC offering, even if it's not all perfect.
2022
Game Finished In 2024 #6:
I Swear, I Really Didn't Mean to Finish Three Square Enix SNES Remakes In A Row but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time
Also, because One Piece Odyssey was too mid to continue playing.
Anyway, Live A Live is really good. Somehow, 20+ years later, it is still astonishingly unique among JRPGs and games as a whole. Not only with the inventive chapter structure, but also with the choice and combination of settings. How many other games do you know that contain scenarios about cavemen, cowboys, and psychics at the same time? But more than just thematically, each chapter of Live A Live contains unique gameplay mechanics, making each chapter stand out.
You can tell the game is great, because the remake really does not change much about the core game, and instead chooses small tweaks to go along with the new coat of paint. And boy, that new coat of paint. HD-2D is such a wonderful engine to make games in. I can't wait for the DQ3 remake. The multiple settings feel both unique and cohesive, thanks to the HD-2D at work. The OST is masterfully done too, giving each chapter further character, but bringing it all together at the end of each one with Megalomania, a truly excellent track. As a reminder, Toby Fox made Megalovania because he wanted to put Megalomania into his hack but couldn't get it to work. Megalovania would not exist without this game.
The game also maintains cohesion by sticking to a set of core mechanics that each chapter provides a slightly different take on. Those core mechanics add an almost SRPG feel to the game due to the grid based system. Conventional resource management more or less does not exist, as things like gold and MP are removed, and you are healed at the end of every battle. This streamlines things significantly, which helps the pacing of each chapter immensely. Live A Live chapters are not meant to be fully fledged JRPG experiences, and this allows for scenarios that wouldn't be possible otherwise. If there is only one thing Live A Live does well, it is taking this anthology format and doing as much as possible with it.
I'll now go through all the chapters and my thoughts on them, from least good [but, importantly, still good] to the best ones.
Prehistory:
While it's still good, there has to be a weak link, and I think the plot here, while cute in how it avoids using dialog due to the setting, is not that special. Mechanically, it's biggest addition is a crafting system, which allows you to craft the best equipment in the game early if you know what to do, but it means there's not a lot else to it. Despite this, I think this makes one of the best starting chapters due to how those mechanics let you get accustomed to the intricacies of Live A Live
Edo:
I think this one is kind of more interesting to talk about than it is to play. While it is very cool to have a sort of nonlinear structure, and to offer the choice between pacifism and bloodshed, because I wanted to do pacifist I found my nose buried in a guide most of the way through. It is also light on plot, because most of your time is spent exploring. It's cool to see what was likely a huge inspiration for Undertale, though.
Middle Ages:
I debated mentioning this one, because it's kind of hidden-ish, but on the other hand if you count the characters on the box art you'll notice there's eight and not seven so I think it's fair game. The plot is great, and the lack of a unique mechanic doesn't hurt the gameplay too much, because Live A Live's core is great.
Distant Future:
This one is great because it is almost entirely plot. Luckily, that plot is very good, and there is SOME non-combat stuff to do that's enjoyable. Plus, it makes the one moment there IS combat much more hype.
Near Future:
Another candidate for a good starting point, Near Future is a mecha setting which means it wins points by default. It's unique mechanic, being able to read NPC minds, isn't too special, and the world map is cool but not a particularly game changing addition. The plot has a lot to like, and the finale is especially amazing.
Present Day:
I have a special fondness for this one, as it's the one I tried, along with Prehistory, when I attempted to play the SNES version years ago. The premise, a boss rush where you can learn the moves of each of the bosses, is basically an RPG version of Mega Man X, and while it is short as a result, the fact this is something that could basically only be done in a game with this format seriously elevates it for me, borderline excuse plot be damned.
China:
This one manages to marry a compelling story with unique mechanics amazingly. In this one, you play an old martial arts master who trains three students. The students learn in part based on what moves you use on them, incorporating that bit from Present Day as well. While it's best to focus on one student, luckily that pays off. Another excellent use of the format.
Wild West:
This one is my favorite because, surprise surprise, it uses the format amazingly. Much like Distant Future, combat is limited, but in this chapter the entire scenario is structured around it. There is only one real fight, and you and an entire town have to prepare for it. If you prepare well, the fight is made easier. If you prepare poorly, the fight will be one of the hardest in the game. This is accompanied with a timer, ensuring you have to budget the little time you have effectively. The story is compelling, and despite being one of the shorter chapters, gets you invested in the characters quick enough to make an impact.
It is kind of a miracle this game got remade. It was relegated to cult status for the longest time, but somehow, the game made enough of an impact to get remade. And it's a good thing it was, because the remake is a great modernization of an already very good game.
I Swear, I Really Didn't Mean to Finish Three Square Enix SNES Remakes In A Row but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time
Also, because One Piece Odyssey was too mid to continue playing.
Anyway, Live A Live is really good. Somehow, 20+ years later, it is still astonishingly unique among JRPGs and games as a whole. Not only with the inventive chapter structure, but also with the choice and combination of settings. How many other games do you know that contain scenarios about cavemen, cowboys, and psychics at the same time? But more than just thematically, each chapter of Live A Live contains unique gameplay mechanics, making each chapter stand out.
You can tell the game is great, because the remake really does not change much about the core game, and instead chooses small tweaks to go along with the new coat of paint. And boy, that new coat of paint. HD-2D is such a wonderful engine to make games in. I can't wait for the DQ3 remake. The multiple settings feel both unique and cohesive, thanks to the HD-2D at work. The OST is masterfully done too, giving each chapter further character, but bringing it all together at the end of each one with Megalomania, a truly excellent track. As a reminder, Toby Fox made Megalovania because he wanted to put Megalomania into his hack but couldn't get it to work. Megalovania would not exist without this game.
The game also maintains cohesion by sticking to a set of core mechanics that each chapter provides a slightly different take on. Those core mechanics add an almost SRPG feel to the game due to the grid based system. Conventional resource management more or less does not exist, as things like gold and MP are removed, and you are healed at the end of every battle. This streamlines things significantly, which helps the pacing of each chapter immensely. Live A Live chapters are not meant to be fully fledged JRPG experiences, and this allows for scenarios that wouldn't be possible otherwise. If there is only one thing Live A Live does well, it is taking this anthology format and doing as much as possible with it.
I'll now go through all the chapters and my thoughts on them, from least good [but, importantly, still good] to the best ones.
Prehistory:
While it's still good, there has to be a weak link, and I think the plot here, while cute in how it avoids using dialog due to the setting, is not that special. Mechanically, it's biggest addition is a crafting system, which allows you to craft the best equipment in the game early if you know what to do, but it means there's not a lot else to it. Despite this, I think this makes one of the best starting chapters due to how those mechanics let you get accustomed to the intricacies of Live A Live
Edo:
I think this one is kind of more interesting to talk about than it is to play. While it is very cool to have a sort of nonlinear structure, and to offer the choice between pacifism and bloodshed, because I wanted to do pacifist I found my nose buried in a guide most of the way through. It is also light on plot, because most of your time is spent exploring. It's cool to see what was likely a huge inspiration for Undertale, though.
Middle Ages:
I debated mentioning this one, because it's kind of hidden-ish, but on the other hand if you count the characters on the box art you'll notice there's eight and not seven so I think it's fair game. The plot is great, and the lack of a unique mechanic doesn't hurt the gameplay too much, because Live A Live's core is great.
Distant Future:
This one is great because it is almost entirely plot. Luckily, that plot is very good, and there is SOME non-combat stuff to do that's enjoyable. Plus, it makes the one moment there IS combat much more hype.
Near Future:
Another candidate for a good starting point, Near Future is a mecha setting which means it wins points by default. It's unique mechanic, being able to read NPC minds, isn't too special, and the world map is cool but not a particularly game changing addition. The plot has a lot to like, and the finale is especially amazing.
Present Day:
I have a special fondness for this one, as it's the one I tried, along with Prehistory, when I attempted to play the SNES version years ago. The premise, a boss rush where you can learn the moves of each of the bosses, is basically an RPG version of Mega Man X, and while it is short as a result, the fact this is something that could basically only be done in a game with this format seriously elevates it for me, borderline excuse plot be damned.
China:
This one manages to marry a compelling story with unique mechanics amazingly. In this one, you play an old martial arts master who trains three students. The students learn in part based on what moves you use on them, incorporating that bit from Present Day as well. While it's best to focus on one student, luckily that pays off. Another excellent use of the format.
Wild West:
This one is my favorite because, surprise surprise, it uses the format amazingly. Much like Distant Future, combat is limited, but in this chapter the entire scenario is structured around it. There is only one real fight, and you and an entire town have to prepare for it. If you prepare well, the fight is made easier. If you prepare poorly, the fight will be one of the hardest in the game. This is accompanied with a timer, ensuring you have to budget the little time you have effectively. The story is compelling, and despite being one of the shorter chapters, gets you invested in the characters quick enough to make an impact.
It is kind of a miracle this game got remade. It was relegated to cult status for the longest time, but somehow, the game made enough of an impact to get remade. And it's a good thing it was, because the remake is a great modernization of an already very good game.