Poison Control Review (Playstation 4 and Playstation 5)

1. Story
Where do I even start with this, it's quite a strange one. Hmmm… Okay so, you play as a girl or guy, depending on what you choose, but you play as a person who unknowingly stumbles into hell and does not remember what happened at all, and you meet this girl, a Klesha; the names of the monsters of hell; and she takes over your body. However, since you are still alive and not dead, she cannot take over your body completely. You instead combine to form a team of poison purgers. The girl, Poisonette, also does not know her past either. So with her help, you defeat Kleshas, and go through the circles of hell, helping alive or dead people finally being able to move on from their dark pasts and mistakes. Essentially, purging their hearts of the poison that's built up from things like stress, relationships, or tragedy. And hopefully, you can find out your past along the way and learn the reason you stumbled into hell! Now, this story is nothing crazy or life changing, but it's enjoyable throughout and has fun moments and funny characters thanks to a fantastic translation. Very witty writing made even scenes that are not plot relevant entertaining. It was a good story with occasional moments of emotional depth, but never took itself too seriously. Pretty cool to me!
2. Gameplay
The gameplay here too, is quite unique compared to other games I played. As I stated before, the basic gameplay loop is to go through the hells of girls who are going through issues in their life, or what was their life, and let them move on from them. How do you do this? Defeat Kleshas with your poison guns, third person shooter style, and clean up the poison, splatoon style. Add in some RPG leveling, inventory management, and collectables, and you got Poison Control. Its a very unique game and I have never played anything like it, but once I got the hang of it, it became enjoyable. However, due to the games low budget the game does have some performance hiccups and can be very stiff to control and shots have trouble hitting sometimes but it was fine most of the time. It's to be expected of a very small, niche game like this from a niche developer. For what it is, it works. You can level up and upgrade your weapons and stats and even do heart to hearts with Poisonette to further increase stats as well, and get some funny dialogue to develop your bond with her. Overall, its a very unique take on an RPG that I have not seen before and although it is rough at times, it was fun and could definitely be improved to be even more fun.
3. Music
One aspect that does not disappoint in any regard is the music! HOLY SHIT, THESE TUNES SLAP ASS! So many good songs, with all sorts of instruments, and synth songs. Fantastic music all around and I listen to the ost frequently, so that goes to show how good it is, seriously, its that good. I have not heard of the composer before, 12sound, but if this is what he's making I am eager for more! The music is one of the best parts of the game hands down!

4. Presentation
Once again, given this game's low budget, the game has stiff animation, and not the best quality textures, graphics, or even framerate. However, this game does make up for it slightly with its really colorful and creative artstyle. The artstyle of this game definitely helps ease out its rougher edges, and the character portraits, menus, and ui elements all have some nice style. During cutscenes, played in a VN like format, the characters have little portraits which move while talking, which is a really nice touch that adds personality to cutscenes! The pause menu also has a nice animation of Poisonette which is cool, and she will pop in and talk sometimes. It even has its own song! (Which slaps.) I think the colorful vibrant artstyle of this game really helps it look good, and stand out, despite its otherwise low budget models and textures. Overall, the presentation is mixed between good artstyle versus actual gameplay.
5. Completion Process
The completion process for this game was quite a grind. Having to get all the weapons, getting all collectables, grinding a lot of money and doing everything was quite taxing. I do not think it was very good as a completion experience. Doing this added another 10 hours to my playtime. Otherwise, this game is quite short, and only about 10 hours. It just was not that fun, and was a pain to do but I managed. I do not recommend doing this. ANYWAYS…
6. Conclusion
Poison Control is a very unique and interesting game that experiments a lot with what an RPG can be, however it does not go far enough and has enough issues that it can be a bit problematic at times. It shows promise, but needs a sequel and more budget to truly make a game that can fully flesh out the concept it offers. However, considering this game never would have existed without taking a chance and a lower budget was the only option, I would rather have it as it is than not at all. It's an experience I will not forget, and has a nice heartwarming story to enjoy, with some emotional depth to boot. Nippon Ichi did a good job here, but I know they can do better if they ever decide to make a sequel.

7. Wrap Up
THANKS FOR READING! Poison Control is available on PlayStation 4, Backwards Compatible with PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Tearaway Review (PlayStation Vita)

1. Story
Tearaway’s story is quite silly but this silliness really gives the game a lot of heart and fun energy. Basically, you play as a messenger whose mission is to send a message to the You, aka, YOU, the player. You jump, roll, and run through the world of Tearaway to fulfill this goal. Not much else to say here, but it often had me smiling and it was very charming!
2. Gameplay
The gameplay of Tearaway is a 3d platformer with lots of interactive elements using the PS Vita’s features. There’s your basic platformer jumps, using the back touchpad to bounce. You can roll in a ball and roll down slopes. You can hold your finger on the back touchpad to raise or lower platforms, and use the touchscreen to move or create platforms. It’s all very intuitive, and it's one of the few games I have played on Vita which actually takes advantage of the console's full list of features. You can use the camera and gyro to take pictures, and the back camera is even used to show the real world sometimes. The front camera also always shows your face in the sun while playing in game, which can be pretty funny! These inputs never felt too intrusive, nor gimmicky, they were often quite precise and worked fairly well most of the game. You collect an assortment of presents throughout the game, and you can also fulfill requests from NPCS. Finally, you can also take pictures of the papercrafts in the game and go on the Tearaway website and actually make them in real life which I thought was really cool. Granted, I never did, but I might someday. One last element of gameplay is combat, where you defeat these little monsters called scraps. Not much to it here, you grab them and throw them and that's about it. The checkpoints are quite generous as well, and you can jump between chapters at any time. The gameplay was overall fun and was pretty enjoyable. It was solid and I cannot really think of anything bad to say here so I will say it gets the Ryan Seal of Approval lol.
3. Music
What does not fare as well here is the music. Most of the time it’s alright, but I think it just is not my style. The style that a lot of songs go for is using a lot of pipe instruments, and other like unusual ones you would not hear normally. It was certainly different, but just was not my style most of the time. Overall, okay, but nothing more than background noise most of the time.
4. Presentation
The presentation of this game is TOP NOTCH. This game is once again evidence that strong artstyle and art direction will always beat good graphics. This game is so creative and vibrant and full of personality. Going with the papercraft aesthetic really makes it stand out even today. You can even make all the papercraft characters and objects you collect in the game in real life! That’s so cool! From fun choices like using glue to explain being able to walk up walls and stick to them, or cut pieces of construction papers used as a track to roll down, or the enemies being made of scraps of newspaper. I just love it! You can decorate your player character, and even make your own creations in game as well. It really feels like it was CRAFTED out of love. Hehehehe. Overall, for a vita game, I say it's one of the best looking games on the system. It hasn’t aged a day since 2013!
5. Completion Process
This game was pretty easy to complete all things considered. It was your usual tasks of collecting everything, doing everything, plus some miscellaneous tasks here and there. Some stages I had to clear without dying once, and some were quite tricky, so that was a bit challenging. Some trophies were also glitched, so I had to redo some stages and really try to see what I missed sometimes. But overall, it was fairly straightforward and not agonizing.

6. Conclusion
Tearaway is a fun, pleasant, and creatively created platformer by Media Molecule. It's full of charm, fun gameplay, endearing story and characters, and the player is encouraged to be a bit creative themselves! The game has a great artstyle with vibrant and varied environments. It was a cute, fun adventure from beginning to end with an enjoyable completion process and I am glad I played it! With that being said…

7. Wrap Up
Thank you for reading! Tearaway is available on PlayStation Vita. (Most people can’t play this version because it’s a vita game, so another option is to play Tearaway Unfolded, an expanded remake of the game available on PS4, and backwards compatible on PS5!)

FINAL REVIEW SCORE: CREATIVE PAPER CRAFTS/10