TheMonsterMensch
2003
It's hard to believe that this followed up Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. The core mechanic teams with different abilities dependent on their current leader is good, but not great. Once you get into the flow you instinctively know which leader will be best for the situation. The Team Chaotix storyline is also passable, there's some nice dialogue and a good little story.
Everything else in this game baffles me. The levels aren't different enough to justify going through them four times. The game is has more jank than its predecessor, which is forgivable because of the multi-platform release but God is it frustrating. Especially the casino levels. Switching teammates on the ball sections can lose you a lot of progress. Collecting the Chaos Emeralds is mind numbing. It's painful, unfun, and honestly made me consider putting away this game. No idea how I managed to do all this as a kid.
What's very frustrating is that the game gets very good with Team Dark. The voice acting gets so much better, it gets funny, and the level design suddenly works with the opportunity to use difficult shortcuts. It makes me think that dark is the "true" version of the levels and every other team plays pieces of them that are stripped for difficulty.
Overall it really just lacks the charm of SA2B, and not just because it dropped the chao.
Everything else in this game baffles me. The levels aren't different enough to justify going through them four times. The game is has more jank than its predecessor, which is forgivable because of the multi-platform release but God is it frustrating. Especially the casino levels. Switching teammates on the ball sections can lose you a lot of progress. Collecting the Chaos Emeralds is mind numbing. It's painful, unfun, and honestly made me consider putting away this game. No idea how I managed to do all this as a kid.
What's very frustrating is that the game gets very good with Team Dark. The voice acting gets so much better, it gets funny, and the level design suddenly works with the opportunity to use difficult shortcuts. It makes me think that dark is the "true" version of the levels and every other team plays pieces of them that are stripped for difficulty.
Overall it really just lacks the charm of SA2B, and not just because it dropped the chao.
I cannot get into Fire Emblem the way I was able to when I was younger. I got this game for full price because I was so excited for it, but the poor prose and anime tropes are just too much for me to get through more than a few days at the monastery. For a long time I thought Fire Emblem as a whole was declining, but having recently replayed Path of Radiance I realize that I’ve just been getting older.