Metal Gear Solid: Gamer Matrix Edition

A remake of Metal Gear Solid 2 with worse vibes and tech demo first person stuff. I gotta imagine this was incredible in 2001 but has aged worse than Metal Gear Solid.

A lot of the emotional beats fall flat both because they center around Raiden who is a loser. For some reason (budget?) most of the story is told through codec conversations which are boring and look worse than they did in the PS1 games. It's not horrible but it's a shame because the story was a strength of the first game.

A poem I wrote from da heart of the rose...

My friend (bop louies)... do you fliy away now? to a world that freeons you and i ?

- love lost

one of the most unique games ever made.

DEMON'S SOULS is the crystalized essence of a memory you can't quite place. a game produced during a strange era for even stranger reasons. pretty much sent out to die... yet, somehow, remaining.

it's an... odd duck. with the glossiest PS360 era visuals this side of E3 2005, the "gameplay balance" of the tower of pisa, and NPCs named shit like "SAGE FREKE". it's no wonder DEMON'S SOULS did not leave the meteoric impact that its main "competitor" OBLIVION did.

this was, after all, an era where being a mid-budget genre game from a japanese developer was pretty much a death sentence. nevertheless, the seeds planted by the first Souls game went on to completely revolutionize large parts of modern gaming.

a lot of players might be dismissive of this game, given its age. but i think there's something beautiful about its rough edges. the themes and ideas are palpably raw. it harkens to a time where HD game development was still giving a lot of developers, especially those overseas, big trouble.

the game wears its influences on its sleeve and executes on them with such conviction that you can easily overlook all the places where it kinda falls short. it does many interesting things. some of which are still unique to it.

sure, not all of those ideas add to the game, but those that do are unmistakeably excellent. the way it blends traditional FromSoftware elements with new, experimental mechanics, still feels fresh and inspired.

many scholars and game scientists refer to DEMON'S SOULS as the "best" ARMORED CORE game.

The MGS games were ones I had tried multiple times. The controls always seemed "clunky" to me, and I never really got past the first 30 minutes of the game I tried. Like before, I really did not care for this game when I first started it, but something was different this time...

I began to really like it. I thought the controls sucked, but it turns out maybe I just sucked. At one point, the only reason I was playing the game for was the story. Which, even then, sometimes has its issues, mainly with the women characters. Please learn how to write women. It hurts watching some of the scenes.

I don't think it's perfect, I'm playing MGS2 as of writing this, (it's taken me so long to post this I've beaten it now), and it feels way more comfortable to control. But it's up there... this game is really good. Some of the bosses aren't super fun, such as the final boss. Maybe the only unfun part of the game that I can remember. The only other moments I didn't enjoy were, as I mentioned before, the beginning since I didn't fully get the controls.

Aaaand that's it... there's probably nothing else that I can say since everything has been said before. I mean, everything I said in this review has definitely been said before. I found myself having more fun than expected, and now I finally understand why tons of people love this game.

A few months before this game was released, Yasunori Mitsuda made a blog post saying that he would no longer work with composers outside of his studio. He doesn't mention Sea of Stars explicitly, but considering the feelings he discusses in the post combined with Sabotage's use of his name to promote a game that he only contributed twenty minutes of music to, the experience was likely an alienating one for him. One minute you're a hired hand on a retro RPG, the next you're the linchpin for a set of insurmountable nostalgic expectations.

I lead with this because it's an effective symbol for Sea of Stars' haphazard approach to "borrowing" from its influences. It isn't that Mitsuda's music is better than the rest - although some of the tracks in this are plodding Quest 64 pisstakes that I certainly wouldn't want to be associated with - but that the game tries to staple it and any other homage material onto itself as though the magic will still hold without any kind of context. The fact that the reference exists is paramount; the meaning that the reference supported in its original incarnation is unnecessary. This is most egregious in the empty story, twenty-five hours of plot for plot's sake, and though I won't spoil the game/waste my time belaboring how this fails in its many attempts to emulate Chrono Trigger, I will say that everything from start to finish(es) around Garl is spectacularly mishandled. Expecting me to care about someone named Garl is already an insane ask; making him this insipid and one-dimensional to boot puts the nail in the proverbial coffin.

When the game does step outside of its comfort zone and attempts synthesis or originality, it finds some success. Though I don't love the sickly lighting or the overly busy palettes, this is still an impressive graphical achievement. The first journey across the Sea of Stars gave me a little sensory rush that this medium rarely does anymore. As a mechanical experience, its interesting resource management and strong second act ultimately collapse under its balance issues, shallow growth and equipment progression, and lack of difficulty. The emphasis on combos as a means to round out the tiny movepools falls flat because outside of Mending Light they have no utility beyond breaking an awkward lock. Your best option half of the time is just a supercharged Moonerang anyway, so most combats play out the same way, and boss fights are often too long.

I think this might hit for a young or novice RPG player, but it would also be a shame to start them here when Chrono Trigger et. al. are so much richer and more meaningful. This is mostly just branding-first pay-to-play nostalgia and its rapturous reception will probably look like Kickstarters' remorse after a few years of hindsight.

Bop Louie, a humble hero. Where his Japanese counterpart takes the glory of the "Hebe"reke series, Bop relinquishes the title to the sheer joy that comes from the trusted group of four. Even within the saga itself, an experience in a genre which demands traversal, while Bop Louie may command the speediest playstyle, most relevant abilities are signature to the others. Bop Louie will never morph into the whirling machine of powers and chaos that so many other protagonists in this space delve into. He looks temptation in the eye and responds "No, I say to you. My friends are my strength, and without them I am no better than the very monsters I seek to overcome".

Shades, despite drawing on motifs associated with confident characters of the time period, lacks this sheer willpower. A fragile ego, Bop Louie sugarcoats his abilities as "you can jump very high" despite Shades' athletics being focused on travelling farther, a necessary concession to give to a friend incapable of acting without appearing the most talented in the room. Even with such insecurities, a second side to Shades shines through when using his secret attack, a cartoonish slapstick move in which he draws strength by exposing his true face to the world. This struggle to be taken seriously, even when most wouldn't mind either way, is eternally relatable, and perhaps alludes to some of Sunsoft's own catalog. For what illuminates this conflict better than Trip World's grandiose opening of two puffballs fighting over a flower, only to follow this up with a middling Kirby effigy? And yet, Shades persists in both the Japanese and European versions of the saga, a global superstar loved by all except himself.

Gil, another constant to each retelling of this experience, has remained not out of love but out of indifference. An aquatic denizen with an unflattering image, they fit in both Hebereke's esoteric cutesiness and Ufouria's cartoony coolness, but are at home in neither. Tossed around unceremoniously through rip currents, their boons of fast travel to the team will never be recognized. But Gil never loses sight of themself, even in their most lonely hour. For when there is a task to be done, shouldering the burden for the rest of the team is enough.

Freeon Leon. A name powerful enough to persist well beyond the scope of the world of Ufouria. A trailblazer who challenges frigid wastes and stormy seas without a hint of fear. Much has been said of her declaration to the world, "im freeon leon". But can you even comprehend what it means to stake ones claim in such a mighty existence? To feel every ton of weight that Freeon Leon handles during her legendary journey? Well, there is only one way to possibly perceive the breadth that legacy.

And that is to submerge yourself in true ufouria.