A mario game that tries to reconstruct what is a mario game for better or worse

It's interesting to see that a sequel change the rules already what it's groundbreaking previous ancestor established.

Surface wise it's actually not so different. There is an hub world. There are levels to jump into and stars... No... Sunshines to collect to unlock next part of to adventure. But everything changes when you look at it more deeply.

Before explaining these changed mechanics and rules it's hard not to touch the subject that is this game's reputation. Because the things it changes make this game for some people one of the worst mario experiences has to offer, but for some it brings mario even further.

Which is right? In this case it's not so white and black. That's because both of them are right in their own way.

So, with playing this game which side of the discussion you choose, actually can deduct what is the most important things in a game for you. Or to be exact. What is the meaning of a GOOD game for you rather than everybody else. Also this discussion is a proof that why there will never be a perfect game for everybody. Everybody's values for a PERFECT game is different after all.

Anyway without broading the subject on hand too much, let's return to mario sunshine. What do I think? Where do I stand on this discussion?

I think it's my favorite mario game and think it's the one that resonates with me the most.

But there is a reason it's 4 stars. Not 5. Because this mario game... it's the most flawed one.

Now let's remember what mario 64 established beforehand.
-You go into other levels from the hub world with jumping into paintings in the castle
-Every level have their own atmosphere, own enemies and own stars to collect and even after selecting the objective from the level, let's you collect another star rather than your objective one if there are in the level
-Power ups works as a rule changers like changing mario's weight/invisibility/air time etc. And they are hidden in the levels and they are timed and mostly used for hard or impossible to get without the necessary power type of stars
-You are only required to get some number of stars to finish the game so most of the game is optional content.
-Other than some bullshit levels, most of the game's challenge is platforming and consistently goes up, also world stays consistent and even when levels teleport you somewhere else, it's somewhere with the similar atmosphere

But mario sunshine changes them into
-You go into levels from hub world with not jumping into paintings but using something in the overworld that carries you into the level. Be it a pipe, a mirror, a cannon, a ship etc. Not just that, most of the levels visible from the outset rather than be a painting or an image.
-Every level have a island/tropical atmosphere, have their own enemies and own stars to collect, but every selectable objective have only one star that can be obtained(aside from the 100 coin stars)
-Power ups not timed, also they work as a modifiers of sort that changes how the mario's water pumpers work. They are also used for sunshines that is hard or impossible to get without the necessary power type
-You are required to finish every level's 7 objectives no matter what, rest is optional.
-Most of the game's challenge is a gimmick related to that level's tropical concept be it diving deep in the water, be it cleaning hidden interactables, be it riding boats etc. Also difficulty stays consistent and stays similar throughout in the adventure until levels teleport you into a secret courses with completely different and a vague atmosphere and difficulty that is with focusing into pure platforming with taking your water pump away.

You see, with the somewhat detailed description I gave to you is enough to make you understand what makes mario sunshine different I assume.

It's acts more like an adventure game rather than focusing on being a platformer with incorporating level gimmicks more, also it's commitment to it's tropical atmosphere makes the world more immersive, in fact it goes even one step more and makes the obstacles a part of the world rather than making them a vague flying platforms or objects unlike every mario game did it before. Mario 64 or other mario games did this before yes but never to this degree.

Be it, being able to see other levels from the distance, or be it interacting with the levels gimmicks itself or be it having enemies that completely different looking than what mario games uses often or be it even going into the levels with using the hub world's own tools that uses that level's concept like a cannon for a level filled with cannon enemies, using a pipe for a cleaning level, cave entrance for a volcano level etc. It feels like an tropical journey throughout and that what I love about it.

But when it comes to platforming it's rarely fully used. Also It's not a good collectathon because number of level completion is required rather than the number of collectibles for main progression. Also it's sudden change of difficulty and atmosphere at the secret courses feels like a slap in the face also a big indication that is the game's unfinishedness with forcing player to go for them. Also being forced for those secret courses with breaking it's consistency is the reason why this game can't get a 5/5 stars for me.

But you see, like I said it's immersiveness, it's surprises and focus on world is enough to make it a superior game for me. I didn't even went into the movement that is joy to experience and super enjoyable to use with it's instantaneous input response even with it's questionable physics.

So even with it's shortcomings that's why it's my favorite in the franchise. It's because it's dedicated to one thing. Being a tropical vacation adventure and does that with pushing it's ideas to the max.

I fucking love this game.

I feel lucky to have found an easy way to acquire it now, but I've been curious about X for years now. And surprise, it's amazing.

There's just so much to love that I can't quite sum up here, or i'll be writing pages for a fucking backloggd review lmao, i'll try to be brief.

The open world is amazing, the different biomes feel distinct yet fitting in the larger landscape of the setting, and exploring its every corner feels both rewarding and just super fun, ESPECIALLY when you unlock your giant robot and THEN when your giant robot FLIES. The biggest "holy shit" i've had was discovering the flight mechanics has next to no limits and I just had this huge, insane world completely within my reach. The world is big and dangerous and menacing, but it's also inviting, and fully discovering everything is made incredibly fun like nothing else.

Other aspects of the gameplay are also great. Now i can't pretend i understand the whole combat system, especially with the mechs, but it FEELS cool, and really, that's all that matters.

Just like 1 and 2, the game features a lot of sidequests, sometimes chains that unwrap throughout the story, and a lot of them give really neat development to the side cast and the setting at large, which makes them more like an addon to the main story rather than something i'd call "optional" content. It's genuinely great.

As for the main story, while I understand people felt underwhelmed since the actual plot itself is not that deep until like the last 5 hours of the game maybe, I've found the strong thematic and emotional core of the main characters' struggles to carry each chapter really nicely. Also, and this might be a hot take but..

...this game is clearly meant to have a sequel lol.

As for what we have on our hands standalone, I still appreciate it on its own merits, but there is next to no doubt in my mind an X2 would vindicate most of the criticism levied against X story-wise.

All in all, my one regret is not having had enough time to truly sink my teeth into every sidequest, affinity mission and other shenanigans because of pesky irl reasons. Maybe I will eventually come back to those, who knows. But for the meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles X has been an absolute blast and I cannot praise it highly enough.

its fuckinv peak, this is peak

i played it around when it released cause my uncle bought it for me for christmas. i dont know what it was, maybe the autism, but when i opened the game for the first time, played the first chapter, i got totally sucked in. i had never played a xenoblade game before then, and i love the combat and art system. the way you can customize your build for combos or all round or support or whatever is really fun and has helped me complete multiple playthroughs without making everything stale. the story is great in my opinion, and it being a relatively niche game is great so that new players are likely totally unspoiled for a lot of the twists that happen. the online is fun for a casual player, but can get kinda boring when you realize there are two or three builds you can make that can either one shot any enemy or avoid pretty much all damage.

there are really only two, maybe three bad things i can say about it, and they arent even real dealbreakers.
first of which being how grindy the post-game is for any completionist. playing the online mode and doing Squad Tasks is ESSENTIAL to 100% the game. this is more opinionated though cause i personally dont mind grinding in video games i love, but it could definitely be very tedious and annoying for someone else who wants to get the best gear/skell models available in the post game.
the second stinker is the processing power of the wii u and the graphics. upon booting up the game on hardware, the console starts chugging big time, whole lotta noise from that thing. thankfully the game doesnt lag but you can definitely tell that this game barely works on the wii u. sometimes when you load from a different area too fast, the low poly textures stick around for a little longer than youd expect.
the last thing is really just how the character models look, and its probably the worst thing about the game in my opinion. everyone kinda looks like wax. the player character you make can either look like a teenager or an old man, no in between (at least for the masc options, i never looked at the fem options). im really not sure what it is but most of the characters look just a little strange, i think its the mouths or something.

anyway even though i just spent half this review on some nit picks i have, i say it out of love cause ive played this game sooooooo much, and my most recent playthrough really reignited my love for this game. its kino. you get a big robot.

This game changed my life. This was my most anticipated game for almost three years, and yet it still somehow exceeded all my expectations. I don't expect to experience anything like that in my life ever again.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is an incredibly special game. Two years before Breath of the Wild popularized open-air game design fueled by player curiosity, Xenoblade X invites players to explore a world so bizarre, intriguing, and inviting that you won't help but be able to become enamored with the freedom Monolith Soft has given you.

The world itself is the key ingredient that makes this game work so well. Each of the game's continents feel distinct and visually captivating, yet manage to tell a cohesive story about this world and the hostility it has towards human life. When you acquire Skells and the flight module, exploring the world becomes so seamless and immersive that hours will evaporate by.

The music, while maybe cheesy on a first listen, makes for one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. From epic orchestral to arrangements to modern pop music, this soundtrack is some of Sawano's very best work.

The combat system is incredibly versatile and addictive. While Overdrive does admittedly break the game in half and throws balance out the window, keeping an Overdrive going becomes a minigame unto itself, akin to how Chain Attacks work in other Xenoblade games.

Quests often tell intriguing stories and/or do what they need to - get you out into the world and consistently ignite your curiosity. There will be hours-long instances where you get distracted by so many different things that quests will get put on the backburner for dozens of hours, and yet, everything you do in this game is so compelling and rewarding.

I absolutely love this game and, with a modern port/remaster, I think many people will see that it's one of the greatest games of all time.

This isn't really a review, it's more like a blogpost looking back on how for all my life I thought it was impossible for me to play any MMORPGs cause I despise the gameplay only to find myself not only to have purchased one, but also subscribed to it.
I really enjoy my action games, shooters, hack and slash, adventure etc. I don't play RTSes or turn based games, and MMORPG gameplay always seemed like fake action game to me. No matter how many times I tried I could not find a single ounce of enjoyment out of them. Of course eventually a friend of mine, John, gets obsessed with FFXIV over an Endwalker cutscene he saw and decides to get into it earnestly. And a year later he tries to drag me with him and it doesn't work out.
Some drama occurs and it ends with me forcing my way through a game I do not enjoy for him, and I eventually beat ARR while still not enjoying anything about this game. I make my disinterest known to my friend, I tell him that I will beat Heavensward, and if i'm still not grabbed by the game, I'm dropping it for good.

Going into Heavensward, I'm trying my best to focus on the story and give it an honest chance despite my poor ability to focus. The new voice acting and better dialogue are helping a lot cause I remember ARR dialogue being overly verbose all the damn time. I am slowly developing an actual interest in the story but it's still not enough to keep me playing for myself. At this point I complain to John that I dislike the visual shitshow that is my character's armor. He tells me about glamour prisms and how I can buy them with Grand Company seals. He makes note that I can also craft them but buying them with GC seals is much easier. Being the frugal boy I am, I decide to get into crafting instead. I've never done narcotics of any kind in my life, but this is the closest I will ever get to saying "I didn't know what I was getting into when I took those drugs". What started as me just being self sufficient turned into the most addictive gameplay loop I have experienced in years. Being a trial account I couldn't trade or access the marketplace, so I had to be 100% self sufficient and take on every single crafting and gathering job.
This was it. After a month of slogging through the game, I am actually hooked into it in the most unexpected way possible. My job list was something like level 55 Dragoon and every crafting and gathering job of varying levels and nothing else.
Despite now having a reason to play this game for myself, I still vehemently disliked the actual combat and doing dungeons. Every a time I unlocked a dungeon, I dreaded doing it. Thankfully my friend was basically coaching me through every dungeon so it was a lot less daunting.
Slowly but surely I came to enjoy Heavensward, I finally found this amazing story and amazing music everyone keeps saying FFXIV has. I listened to the trailer music like a hundred times through my time playing it.
I could sit here and write all about how much Heavensward convinced me that I never experienced good video game writing until FFXIV but I gotta move on to Stormblood.


Going into Stormblood, I like the musical litemotif.


Going into Shadowbringers I watched the trailer for the very first time and I am so glad I avoided doing so until I actually reached the expansion. Genuinely one of the best game trailers I have ever seen and I have listened to Shadowbringers 200 times the month I played it and Masayoshi Soken is my god now.
god i fucking suck at writing how are you still reading this It took me a month to get into FFXIV by way of gather and crafting jobs, but it took literally over 4 months till I actually started enjoying dungeon gameplay, and it took John convincing me to try playing Tank. I went through ShB as a Dark Knight, and with him being my healer and coaching me on Tanking, dungeons went from something I dread to something I actively actually enjoy because tanking when you have a good healer feels incredibly satisfying.

I don't know how to end this besides saying Shadowbringers is amazing from the trailer to the music to the story to the very end of it and I am so glad for the butterfly effect leading me into one of the most incredible gaming experiences of my life.

Shitty game based on an anime, who would have guessed?

On top of the cutscenes being shitty slideshows, the gameplay itself is so lame, how is DQ Heroes 2 1000 times better when it came out like 8 years ago?

Worst game I've played that has Dragon Quest in the name.