TheWhat13
2007
This game has everything to be great. The pitch is great, the puzles are fun, the only character in the game is very funny. However, you can just feel that the game doesn't deploy its full potential. Just by playing the bonus rooms, you realise how little the base game exploits its mechanics, and relies a bit too much on the "fast thing comes in, fast thing comes out" mechanic, even though there were a hundred different ways to use the portal mechanic. Plus, the last trunk of the game dragged for too long.
However, the one thing this game suprised me with was its eery ambiance. The writings on the wall you can find behind the test room, the weird jokes made by GladOs, all lead you to believe that something is wrong.
This game was made to have a sequel, because of how under-exploited it feels, but it perfectly mixes humour and horror.
However, the one thing this game suprised me with was its eery ambiance. The writings on the wall you can find behind the test room, the weird jokes made by GladOs, all lead you to believe that something is wrong.
This game was made to have a sequel, because of how under-exploited it feels, but it perfectly mixes humour and horror.
This had no right to be this good, but the sandbox is really fun, you really feel like a kid playing with his toybox. Also, the main levels offer more than decent platforming fun.
TLDR: Ori and the Blind Forest is a wonderous experience, thanks to enchanting music, mind-blowing visuals and amazing animation, a simple yet moving story and mesmerizing movement. The best compliment I can present to this game is that the thing that pissed me off most was the fact the narrator's voice was in the Windows font, which ruined this game's perfect aesthetic choices.
This game's core theme being love is very apropos, as you can tell that the development team behind Ori and the Blind Forest loved their project, and video games as a whole.
From the iconic opening sequence, that you've probably heard of even if you haven't played the game to its closing sequence, this game's story surprised me with how good it was. It isn't anything grand or anything, but it follows its key themes well, offering a simple yet moving story that more than outweighed my very low expectations for a story in an "indie" metroidvania (putting indie in quotation marks because it was published by Microsoft).
And what a metroidvania this is. It is kinda linear, so maybe more hardcore fans of the genre won't like it as much, but even if you find this to be a poor metroidvania, it is one hell of a platformer. The movement here is incredibly deep and satisfying, and the developpers made the right choice when deciding for the game to not have boss fights at the end of the "dungeons" of the game, but platforming challenges. By the end of the game, your moveset gets so vast but yet remains so simple. The last section of the game is so incredibly satisfying, being a gauntlet of all that you've learned throughout your journey, and a grandiose bouquet offered by the dev team to show you just how good their movement is.
The animations and visuals are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Ori is such a well-designed character, shining on the screen at all times so you can hardly lose sight of him. The decor and ambiance is on point, and the animations are buttery smooth, making the movement that much more natural and satisfying.
The music is some of the best I have ever heard.
My only gripes with the game are very minor. A bit less linearity would've been nice, as It kinda stopped me from feeling lost in the world (lost in the sense of wonderous discovery, not frustrating "where do I go next ?"). I do not for the life of me understand why the ground pound was assigned to pushing the stick down, as it isn't very precise and does leed to some missed inputs. The combat is kinda whatever, and the devs know this, as the enemies are never roadblocks but rather minor action-based platforming challenges. it is however a bit frustrating that the devs decided nonetheless to force you into mandatory fights even with the lacking combat system. Finally, whoever decided to put the narrator's voice in the Windows 10 font needs to have a long look in the mirror and present a public apology.
This game's core theme being love is very apropos, as you can tell that the development team behind Ori and the Blind Forest loved their project, and video games as a whole.
From the iconic opening sequence, that you've probably heard of even if you haven't played the game to its closing sequence, this game's story surprised me with how good it was. It isn't anything grand or anything, but it follows its key themes well, offering a simple yet moving story that more than outweighed my very low expectations for a story in an "indie" metroidvania (putting indie in quotation marks because it was published by Microsoft).
And what a metroidvania this is. It is kinda linear, so maybe more hardcore fans of the genre won't like it as much, but even if you find this to be a poor metroidvania, it is one hell of a platformer. The movement here is incredibly deep and satisfying, and the developpers made the right choice when deciding for the game to not have boss fights at the end of the "dungeons" of the game, but platforming challenges. By the end of the game, your moveset gets so vast but yet remains so simple. The last section of the game is so incredibly satisfying, being a gauntlet of all that you've learned throughout your journey, and a grandiose bouquet offered by the dev team to show you just how good their movement is.
The animations and visuals are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Ori is such a well-designed character, shining on the screen at all times so you can hardly lose sight of him. The decor and ambiance is on point, and the animations are buttery smooth, making the movement that much more natural and satisfying.
The music is some of the best I have ever heard.
My only gripes with the game are very minor. A bit less linearity would've been nice, as It kinda stopped me from feeling lost in the world (lost in the sense of wonderous discovery, not frustrating "where do I go next ?"). I do not for the life of me understand why the ground pound was assigned to pushing the stick down, as it isn't very precise and does leed to some missed inputs. The combat is kinda whatever, and the devs know this, as the enemies are never roadblocks but rather minor action-based platforming challenges. it is however a bit frustrating that the devs decided nonetheless to force you into mandatory fights even with the lacking combat system. Finally, whoever decided to put the narrator's voice in the Windows 10 font needs to have a long look in the mirror and present a public apology.
2020
This game is one of the most generic games I have ever seen. The story is laughably bad, in part because of how predictable it is, with characters so archetypal and uninteresting that I started to believe that they were supposed to be a parody of other post apocaliptyc sci-fi worlds.
But who cares about story right ? I'm a gameplay guy, so what does the gameplay have to offer. The core concept isn't that bad to be honest. It's not extremely original, but it does have its moments. As for the execution, oh dear. Most of the game's problems with the core gameplay come from the fact that what determines if you can grab onto a wall or a rail or if you can dash doesn't depend on where your left stick is, but where your character is looking. If you're looking directly the wall, you won't be able to wall-run on it, you have to look in the direction you want to go. This is super dumb. Firstly, it's counterintuitive: my momentum is in one direction, but if I look the opposite way before reaching a wall I can do a complete, instant 180 turn with no regards to my momentum. Secondly, it leads to a lot of frustrating falls. If you're trying to pary a shot coming from behind you, you're going to fall. Thirdly, some of the level design doesn't take this stupid gameplay mechanic into account. In of the last levels, there's a section where you're sliding on multiple rails and have to jump from one to the other. In the middle of this section, there are two rails perpendicual from one another. Guess what ? If you don't turn your head 90 degrees in the second and a half between you leaving one rail and grabing onto the other, you character will grab the rail, and immediatly jump off. It's vaffling to me that in a game about parkour, momentum doesn't decide your direction, but where your eyes are does.
The cybervoid is hilariously bad. i legit cracked up when this game about a cyber ninja doind parkour in the future asked me to do a f*cking tetris puzzle. There's also a labyrinth later in the game because this is a bad video game so, like every bad video game, it needs to have a labyrinth.
The aesthetic of the Cyberworld is terrible as well, which is something you can say about 80% of the games' levels. Simply put, the world of Ghostrunner doesn't feel lived in, it feels like a mario bros level in 3D with a cyberpunk look, and not a good one at that.
On a positive note, the boss levels are decent, especially the first one. The final boss is laughable, as it amounts to "dodge, jump, dodge, jump, attack."
This game blows a fat one. I'm surprised I even played it all the way through, as it apart from a concept that's quite fun, it doesn't deliver anything surprising, as well as butchering the concept in its execution.
But who cares about story right ? I'm a gameplay guy, so what does the gameplay have to offer. The core concept isn't that bad to be honest. It's not extremely original, but it does have its moments. As for the execution, oh dear. Most of the game's problems with the core gameplay come from the fact that what determines if you can grab onto a wall or a rail or if you can dash doesn't depend on where your left stick is, but where your character is looking. If you're looking directly the wall, you won't be able to wall-run on it, you have to look in the direction you want to go. This is super dumb. Firstly, it's counterintuitive: my momentum is in one direction, but if I look the opposite way before reaching a wall I can do a complete, instant 180 turn with no regards to my momentum. Secondly, it leads to a lot of frustrating falls. If you're trying to pary a shot coming from behind you, you're going to fall. Thirdly, some of the level design doesn't take this stupid gameplay mechanic into account. In of the last levels, there's a section where you're sliding on multiple rails and have to jump from one to the other. In the middle of this section, there are two rails perpendicual from one another. Guess what ? If you don't turn your head 90 degrees in the second and a half between you leaving one rail and grabing onto the other, you character will grab the rail, and immediatly jump off. It's vaffling to me that in a game about parkour, momentum doesn't decide your direction, but where your eyes are does.
The cybervoid is hilariously bad. i legit cracked up when this game about a cyber ninja doind parkour in the future asked me to do a f*cking tetris puzzle. There's also a labyrinth later in the game because this is a bad video game so, like every bad video game, it needs to have a labyrinth.
The aesthetic of the Cyberworld is terrible as well, which is something you can say about 80% of the games' levels. Simply put, the world of Ghostrunner doesn't feel lived in, it feels like a mario bros level in 3D with a cyberpunk look, and not a good one at that.
On a positive note, the boss levels are decent, especially the first one. The final boss is laughable, as it amounts to "dodge, jump, dodge, jump, attack."
This game blows a fat one. I'm surprised I even played it all the way through, as it apart from a concept that's quite fun, it doesn't deliver anything surprising, as well as butchering the concept in its execution.
Coming from someone who hates Sonic games, this is the best Sonic games
This review contains spoilers
Summary : Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is the send-off Nate and the gang deserved. It's gameplay is the final form of the Uncharted formula (the similarities between this and Uncharted 3 are clear) and the story may be a bit confusing at first in its message, but is very enjoyable once you realise what it's really about, the characters making it a very enjoyable experience.
Uncharted 4 is better than what I remembered it being, which is insane since it already is one of my favourite games of all time.
The game starts off slowly. At first, this is voluntary, it's to create a mirror image between gameplay and story. Then, I'll be honest, the game just isn't very interesting. Italy and Scotland just aren't the best locals you'll visit in Uncharted. Italy is mainly climbing, the first half of Scotland forces you to do stealth. But then you get to the second half of Scotland, and oh boy. the game starts showing potential in its gameplay: fast, energetic, forcing you to think on your feet to maximise your stealth opportunities before entering thrilling gun fights, that arent based on precision, but on using the terrain to your advantage and being mobile. This is enabled thanks to great level-design, the encounters take place in locals with multiple floors, really giving you a chance to take different approaches to the same situation. The only miss in terms of gameplay from that point on is, without a doubt, the heavy enemies with machine guns, who force you to get two headshots in a row to kill. As I said, this game's philosophy isn't precision, it's emptying your gun into an enemy and, if you're lucky, you'll get that headshot. So forcing you to get not just one, but two headshots in a row, against enemies that fire a lot of ammo, and have tiny heads, is a weird choice. But for the reste, the gameplay is impeccable. Perfect pacing between calm moments and encounters, adding a few setpieces in there to make it an amazing game (chapter 11 is a perfect example of this).
As for the story: I remember being dissapointed the first time through. videogamedunkey put it very well: it feels like everything just magically solves itself. But, on my second playthrough, I got what the story was really about (and yes dunkey pointed it out too in another video): being saved by those who love you. In this game, Nathan is self-destructing, but Elena doesn't give him up. So, when Sam starts self-destroying, Nate helps him in return. Meanwhile, Rafe has no one to save him, so he goes mad because of his obsession with the treasure, and litteraly dies crushed by it. it isn't revolutionnary, it can even be a bit confusing in the delivery of its message, but it is more than servicable, and hot potato every character in this game is great.
Uncharted 4 is better than what I remembered it being, which is insane since it already is one of my favourite games of all time.
The game starts off slowly. At first, this is voluntary, it's to create a mirror image between gameplay and story. Then, I'll be honest, the game just isn't very interesting. Italy and Scotland just aren't the best locals you'll visit in Uncharted. Italy is mainly climbing, the first half of Scotland forces you to do stealth. But then you get to the second half of Scotland, and oh boy. the game starts showing potential in its gameplay: fast, energetic, forcing you to think on your feet to maximise your stealth opportunities before entering thrilling gun fights, that arent based on precision, but on using the terrain to your advantage and being mobile. This is enabled thanks to great level-design, the encounters take place in locals with multiple floors, really giving you a chance to take different approaches to the same situation. The only miss in terms of gameplay from that point on is, without a doubt, the heavy enemies with machine guns, who force you to get two headshots in a row to kill. As I said, this game's philosophy isn't precision, it's emptying your gun into an enemy and, if you're lucky, you'll get that headshot. So forcing you to get not just one, but two headshots in a row, against enemies that fire a lot of ammo, and have tiny heads, is a weird choice. But for the reste, the gameplay is impeccable. Perfect pacing between calm moments and encounters, adding a few setpieces in there to make it an amazing game (chapter 11 is a perfect example of this).
As for the story: I remember being dissapointed the first time through. videogamedunkey put it very well: it feels like everything just magically solves itself. But, on my second playthrough, I got what the story was really about (and yes dunkey pointed it out too in another video): being saved by those who love you. In this game, Nathan is self-destructing, but Elena doesn't give him up. So, when Sam starts self-destroying, Nate helps him in return. Meanwhile, Rafe has no one to save him, so he goes mad because of his obsession with the treasure, and litteraly dies crushed by it. it isn't revolutionnary, it can even be a bit confusing in the delivery of its message, but it is more than servicable, and hot potato every character in this game is great.
It's more of Spider-Man PS4, which means its great. I don't know why, but I prefer this one ever so slightly. maybe it's because I prefer the suits this game offers, maybe because I prefer Miles' animations more (the combat is fundamentally the same, maybe it's been sped up a bit but I'm not sure), maybe of the DualSense. I don't know, but anyway, if you liked Spider-Man PS4, you'll like this game as well.
The Best Game of All Time
2012
This game is really underrated. It's far from being as good as wii sports, but it's a rock-solid tech demo for the Wii U Gamepad. It's more complex than Wii Sports, being less arcady and more complex.This makes it not as enjoyable as its illustrious predessecor. Still, one of the most overlooked games of the early 2010s.
2022
I like to write long, detailed reviews, but given tthat I have no idea how to review this since I haven't played an F1 game since F1 2012, and I played so little of it I haven't even logged it, I'm just going to write down my thoughts.
The core gameplay is addicting, satisfying to master and very fun, so this deserves at least 3 stars. BUT this is an EA game, so this has a lot of suckiness to it.
- A season pass that A/sucks because it's a season pass B/ sucks because it doesn't even have anything interesting in it
- Menus that feel really lacking
-No tutorial even though watching formula 1 is super hard to understang, let alone actually BEING in a Formula 1 car (I had to look up how to not oversteer during lights out because of how specific it is, yet nothing is there to help you in game)
- An "F1 Life" menu that is really useless and generic.
- Splitscreen is unplayable because the screen is so crunched it can't even show you the UI indicating your speed and, most importantly, WHICH GEAR YOU'RE IN
But again, the core gameplay is fun, feels realistic (from what I can tell) and the career mode has a bit too much content (why should I, a driver, be the one deciding about R&D ? thankfully you can turn that to automated) but is overall enjoyable. It ain't no masterpiece, but I'm happy I bought it. If you don't like formula One though, pass this one.
The core gameplay is addicting, satisfying to master and very fun, so this deserves at least 3 stars. BUT this is an EA game, so this has a lot of suckiness to it.
- A season pass that A/sucks because it's a season pass B/ sucks because it doesn't even have anything interesting in it
- Menus that feel really lacking
-No tutorial even though watching formula 1 is super hard to understang, let alone actually BEING in a Formula 1 car (I had to look up how to not oversteer during lights out because of how specific it is, yet nothing is there to help you in game)
- An "F1 Life" menu that is really useless and generic.
- Splitscreen is unplayable because the screen is so crunched it can't even show you the UI indicating your speed and, most importantly, WHICH GEAR YOU'RE IN
But again, the core gameplay is fun, feels realistic (from what I can tell) and the career mode has a bit too much content (why should I, a driver, be the one deciding about R&D ? thankfully you can turn that to automated) but is overall enjoyable. It ain't no masterpiece, but I'm happy I bought it. If you don't like formula One though, pass this one.
I really don't like this game, which sucks because it has great characters, great music, a great world, a great story. Everything is great, except the gameplay. It's not that I don't like the concept of the 3-day cycle. It's just that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the game's design. This is an N64 game originally, which means that at times, it can be a bit... enigmatic as to what you're supposed to do next. The thing is, if you add in the pressure of the 3-day cycle, those moments of no knowing what to do are just stressful, because you may end without enough time to complete the dungeon before the cycle. Also, how about those side-quests ? The best in any Zelda game right ? Yes, absolutely. But again, I don't want to waste time searhcing for them because of the cycle. I know I'm supposed to use a cycle to do sidequests and nothing else, but really that just seems like too big of a detour. I'd argue side quests are most enjoyable when you do them because they're on your way. Otherwise, if you have to make a huge detour to get to them, they're not side quests anymore, they almost feel like a different game. The 3-day cycle just completely breaks it for me, and honestly I don't know why it doesn't for more people. Simply put, it feels like Nintendo made a normal Zelda game, to which they added a 3-day cycle, then added side-quests to fit. Really hope I can learn to love this one.
2016
DOOM 2016 is the opposite of a modern day FPS. When games like Call of Duty and Battlefield encourage the player to stay static, especially in their multiplayer campaign, DOOM makes mobility a key to survival. Stay in place, and you'll die. It feels like letting go of the left joystick for five seconds will lead you to certain death. Everything about this game is made to keep you on your toes, to make you feel that rush of adrenaline. Enemies just keep spawning, "surely this is it ?" you'll ask, before the game throws another five waves at you. The movement, as I said is frenetic, the weapons are fun to use and the limited amount of ammo you have for each weapon forces you to constantly be switching, which adds to the nervousness of the gameplay. Truly; this game's gameplay is tight and everything works towards that sole objective of making you tremble with excitement and stress. To be honest, it's quite a draining experience. Some deaths feel unfair because they come from a guy you couldn't see, and some levels aren't as good as others, which are the only reasons for which this is getting a half star knocked off. Play it if you can.
2019
This review contains spoilers
Crunching down an 82 hour experience into a short review is going to be insanely hard. I already know I'm going to re-read this in a few weeks time and say "Oh I forgot to talk about this". So I'm sorry in advance.
Persona 5 was already one of my favorite games of all-time. It did have a problems though. The main problems I remember having was Mementos being a bit of a chore and the game taking its time to kick into gear, as well as having too many times where you were "on rails", with Morgana ordering you to sleep for example.
Persona 5 Royal doesn't necessarily fix these problems, but it does make those weak points better. The addition of José to Mementos is easily the best fix to one of the base game's problem, as he gives you a reason to go to Mementos. In Mementos, you can now pick up flowers and stamps. The first ones allow you to buy (very useful) items from José, and the stamps allow you to "change mementos' cognition", basically meaning that you can apply boosters to how much money, items and XP you get while in Mementos. This may seem like nothing, but it made going to Mementos feel worthwhile. In the base game, I explored Mementos because the game told me to first and foremost, and I found comfort in knowing I would at least be getting some XP and money. In Royal, I went because I felt like it would be an easy, less grindy way to get XP, items and money, all thanks to José. It's a simple fix, but it's very efficient.
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Apart from these small tweaks, Persona 5 Royal adds a ton of content to the base game. mainly, it adds the Thieves' Den, new combat mechanics and an extra story-arc.
The thieves den may be my favorite addition to the game. After long play sessions, I would often go and visit it, just to chill and enjoy the jazz music and play some tycoon. It's a great idea, basically a virtual museum where you can expose statues of the foes you defeated, of the personas that helped you along the way and remind yourself of great memories through photos or cutscenes. I will say though, I would've liked more spaces to put statues and getting to choose where to put the different pieces of art you bought. Having the possibility to have statues of the second and third personas of everyone would've been nice too.
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The new combat mechanics are pretty great. The best change is that now, guns have limited rounds per battle instead of rounds being limited per infiltration, which is such a game changer. I found myself using them way more often in this playthrough.
The hookshot is amazing, really helps the game feel more epic and makes Joker so much cooler than he already is. It's also used to ambush enemies, with the "chainé hook", which gives you a chance to inflict an ailment to an enemy before even starting the fight, which is incredibly useful if you're going against a foe that doesn’t have a weakness.
The will-seeds also have a direct effect on combat. The most apparent one is, of course, the amazing crystals they morph into. The Okumura and Shido crystals spring to mind as particularly good accessories. But they also allow you to use more magic, as collecting them restores a good amount of SP per will seed (I'd say somewhere around 10%, but I'm not sure). Given that there's three per palace, that makes around 30% SP being restored, which is a game changer, as it allows you to use more magic attacks, and not be as shy about tackling a strong foe that what you could be in the past.
Also, you can now get more SP by doing Baton Passes, as long as you have maxed out that party member's baton pass stat, which you do at the all new darts and billards hangout spot. Darts is an extremely fun minigame in of itself, and is very useful, as it boosts HP and SP recovery through baton passes and increases the attack buff, as well as making you deepen your bonds with the other phantom thieves. Billards allows you to increase the usefullness of technical attacks as well as deepen your bond with your teammates. Once you reach the max level at billards, a technical attack will guarantee you to down the enemy, as well as inflicting a lot more damage. Darts and billards may be the best change to the overall balance of Persona 5, as it allows you to try very different strategies to what you're used to, and also allows you to not use as much SP, not only because you recover some with baton pass, but also because physical attacks become a viable alternative to exploiting a foe's weakness thanks to the baton pass. So instead of using Ann to target a fire weakness, then baton pass to Ryuji to target and electrical weakness, you can just use one to target a weakness, and use the other to use a physical attack on the other enemy and take off a huge chunk of health. In this scenario, you’ve done as much damage as in the base game, while using half the SP. Sure, you don’t use the all-out attack as often, but all-out attacks were maybe a bit too useful in the base game.
The most apparent change in gameplay is probably showtime attacks, and I'm personally very mixed on them. They look great and fit the tone and presentation of the game very well, but they are a tad too OP, because they trigger in these circumstances (not all circumstances are listed here, just the problematic ones): Joker is in danger (ailment or low health for example) / a party member has been killed / the party member whose turn it is has just gotten back up from being downed and wants his "revenge". Basically, showtime attacks trigger when you're in trouble and about to possibly lose the fight, which is so dumb. you may say that in that case, I should say that Oracle's interventions, or Harisen recovery or a party member sacrificing himself for Joker is dumb as well. Good point, but there is a major difference here. First, on the scale of the fight, showtime attacks nearly always kill the enemy they're targeting, meaning you went from losing the fight to winning the fight with a simple button press. The other passive skills I mentioned only rebalance the fight, by no means have you won by avoiding Joker's death or getting a stat buff, you only avoided losing. Secondly, on a larger scale, unlocking the aforementioned passive skills requires you to deepen your bonds with the phantom thieves and select them in your party. There's a strategy to it, you may choose a party member over another because they have this passive skill. In the meantime, every party member has a showtime attack, and they unlock through story progression, so they feel like the game giving me the win, rather than the game congratulating me for understanding the relationship mechanics by giving me a second chance. Overall, I'm happy these showtime attacks are here because they look great, It's just a shame that I had to restrain myself from using them, as I only allowed myself to use them when I was pretty much certain I would win the fight.
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And finally, the added story content. The game features a new location, that being Kichikoji, which is very cool, as it has the aforementioned darts and billards, as well as a jazz bar you can buff party member's stats at. The temple gives more SP to joker, but given that hanging out with Doctor Maruki does that as well, it isn't very useful.
The biggest changes are the apparition of three new confidants and, of course, the playable third term. Let's go by ascending order of who I though was best.
Yoshizawa-san is amazing at first, but in my opinion gets pretty insufferable by the end. She was my favourite confidant until the story starts focusing around her. Hanging out with her is fun, as she is a lovable character that's full of charm. But once the third term starts, her ark feels like it just stops. I swear there are at least three moments in her arc that are basically the same beat over and over again. This is tagged spoiler so I'm going to spoil : her awakening, when she helps out in Sae's palace (which really builds intrigue when you first play through that section at the start of the game but is really out of place when you place it in the context of the story at that moment tbh), and her "second awakening" after she fails to bring forth her persona during the second infiltration of Maruki's palace. When she first awakens to her persona, I was so hyped because it felt like she had finally properly arrived in the main plot rather than just being a new confidant... then she disapears. Then she comes back in Sae's palace ! but she disappears again from the final act of the base game because "it's too dangerous for her". So by her third "big character moment", I wasn't really interested. She does have pretty good confidant skills though, as she is the one that unlocks chainé hook.
Next, Maruki. Hanging out with him grants you 5 extra SP, which is very useful, and gives you « Flow » and « Detox ». The first gives a random chance for Joker to have a big attack boost at the begining of a fight, the latter allows him to cure any ailment, again with a random chance. These are very useful. Also, his arc is very interesting, both as a confidant and a palace ruler. He asks really interesting question and his character is a very mature, interesting and uplifting vision of what it means to grieve and get back up, as well as the importance of fighting back when life fights you, and not let yourself die in the gutter of destiny.
Finally, best boy Goro Akechi, the singe best character in this game. He was great in the first game, but his relationship with Joker felt forced. I never really bought their twisted rivalry/friendship. In short, I felt like Akechi was a great character, but did not buy his relationship to Joker. Having him as a confidant fix this problem. You really feel that Akechi loves having a rival in the form of Joker which makes the latter a friend, but hates that he's better than him, which makes him public enemy number one. Having to beat him in a one on one fight to grow closer to him is a prime example of this weird relationship the pair have. If you liked Persona 5, I'd say this extended focus on Akechi on its own is a good enough reason to go back. I love the fact you get to have his evil version as a party member. His all-out attack animation changing to read « I decide the truth » after it reading « I shall bring forth the truth » is amazing characterization.
As for the extra semester and palace... It's good. I must admit, going from fighting a god to fighting your therapist isn't exactly the best story structure. Of course they didn't want to change the base game's story and ending, so they had to do this weird thing, but I would've preferred if you fought Maruki a few months after the god of control. You could, for example, let the original ending play out, and then have Joker come back to Tokyo a few months later and discover that everyone is living in Maruki's reality. I feel like that would've been better. The palace was very big, which is good. i do have to say though, I would've appreciated it if the developer's had introduced an adaptative difficulty to this final palace. See, I was level 88 when I started Maruki's palace because I had fought the Reaper earlier on (which I highly recommend doing, as it he gives you like 5 extra level sin one fight and makes Shido your b*tch during his fight), which made me a lot stronger than almost every enemy in the palace, making it so that I didn't even have to fight them, as I had unlocked the insta-kill ability through Ryuji, allowing you to gain XP, money and items from a fight, without doing said fight, as long as you're at least five levels more powerful than the shadow and you run at them while also ambushing them. So I would say it was too easy for someone who had put effort into doing every fight in the game. The boss fight is cool though, and the ending is magnificent, and does feel worthy of replacing the original one, even though it doesn't feel as climactic.
Persona 5 Royal is still Persona 5 at the end of the day, it's just been made better in every way. I see no reason to replay the base game after this one. Should you buy Royal if you played through the base game ? Yes. Absolutely. Not for the story content, or any other addition this game makes. You should buy this game because you should replay Persona 5, as I felt it was much better than it already was on a second playthrough, when you know which confidants you like, which are useful, what activities are worthy of your time and so on. And if you're going to play Persona 5 again, might as well play the best version of it. Just prepare yourself to be as heartbroken as you were the first time you left your virtual best friends behind.
Persona 5 was already one of my favorite games of all-time. It did have a problems though. The main problems I remember having was Mementos being a bit of a chore and the game taking its time to kick into gear, as well as having too many times where you were "on rails", with Morgana ordering you to sleep for example.
Persona 5 Royal doesn't necessarily fix these problems, but it does make those weak points better. The addition of José to Mementos is easily the best fix to one of the base game's problem, as he gives you a reason to go to Mementos. In Mementos, you can now pick up flowers and stamps. The first ones allow you to buy (very useful) items from José, and the stamps allow you to "change mementos' cognition", basically meaning that you can apply boosters to how much money, items and XP you get while in Mementos. This may seem like nothing, but it made going to Mementos feel worthwhile. In the base game, I explored Mementos because the game told me to first and foremost, and I found comfort in knowing I would at least be getting some XP and money. In Royal, I went because I felt like it would be an easy, less grindy way to get XP, items and money, all thanks to José. It's a simple fix, but it's very efficient.
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Apart from these small tweaks, Persona 5 Royal adds a ton of content to the base game. mainly, it adds the Thieves' Den, new combat mechanics and an extra story-arc.
The thieves den may be my favorite addition to the game. After long play sessions, I would often go and visit it, just to chill and enjoy the jazz music and play some tycoon. It's a great idea, basically a virtual museum where you can expose statues of the foes you defeated, of the personas that helped you along the way and remind yourself of great memories through photos or cutscenes. I will say though, I would've liked more spaces to put statues and getting to choose where to put the different pieces of art you bought. Having the possibility to have statues of the second and third personas of everyone would've been nice too.
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The new combat mechanics are pretty great. The best change is that now, guns have limited rounds per battle instead of rounds being limited per infiltration, which is such a game changer. I found myself using them way more often in this playthrough.
The hookshot is amazing, really helps the game feel more epic and makes Joker so much cooler than he already is. It's also used to ambush enemies, with the "chainé hook", which gives you a chance to inflict an ailment to an enemy before even starting the fight, which is incredibly useful if you're going against a foe that doesn’t have a weakness.
The will-seeds also have a direct effect on combat. The most apparent one is, of course, the amazing crystals they morph into. The Okumura and Shido crystals spring to mind as particularly good accessories. But they also allow you to use more magic, as collecting them restores a good amount of SP per will seed (I'd say somewhere around 10%, but I'm not sure). Given that there's three per palace, that makes around 30% SP being restored, which is a game changer, as it allows you to use more magic attacks, and not be as shy about tackling a strong foe that what you could be in the past.
Also, you can now get more SP by doing Baton Passes, as long as you have maxed out that party member's baton pass stat, which you do at the all new darts and billards hangout spot. Darts is an extremely fun minigame in of itself, and is very useful, as it boosts HP and SP recovery through baton passes and increases the attack buff, as well as making you deepen your bonds with the other phantom thieves. Billards allows you to increase the usefullness of technical attacks as well as deepen your bond with your teammates. Once you reach the max level at billards, a technical attack will guarantee you to down the enemy, as well as inflicting a lot more damage. Darts and billards may be the best change to the overall balance of Persona 5, as it allows you to try very different strategies to what you're used to, and also allows you to not use as much SP, not only because you recover some with baton pass, but also because physical attacks become a viable alternative to exploiting a foe's weakness thanks to the baton pass. So instead of using Ann to target a fire weakness, then baton pass to Ryuji to target and electrical weakness, you can just use one to target a weakness, and use the other to use a physical attack on the other enemy and take off a huge chunk of health. In this scenario, you’ve done as much damage as in the base game, while using half the SP. Sure, you don’t use the all-out attack as often, but all-out attacks were maybe a bit too useful in the base game.
The most apparent change in gameplay is probably showtime attacks, and I'm personally very mixed on them. They look great and fit the tone and presentation of the game very well, but they are a tad too OP, because they trigger in these circumstances (not all circumstances are listed here, just the problematic ones): Joker is in danger (ailment or low health for example) / a party member has been killed / the party member whose turn it is has just gotten back up from being downed and wants his "revenge". Basically, showtime attacks trigger when you're in trouble and about to possibly lose the fight, which is so dumb. you may say that in that case, I should say that Oracle's interventions, or Harisen recovery or a party member sacrificing himself for Joker is dumb as well. Good point, but there is a major difference here. First, on the scale of the fight, showtime attacks nearly always kill the enemy they're targeting, meaning you went from losing the fight to winning the fight with a simple button press. The other passive skills I mentioned only rebalance the fight, by no means have you won by avoiding Joker's death or getting a stat buff, you only avoided losing. Secondly, on a larger scale, unlocking the aforementioned passive skills requires you to deepen your bonds with the phantom thieves and select them in your party. There's a strategy to it, you may choose a party member over another because they have this passive skill. In the meantime, every party member has a showtime attack, and they unlock through story progression, so they feel like the game giving me the win, rather than the game congratulating me for understanding the relationship mechanics by giving me a second chance. Overall, I'm happy these showtime attacks are here because they look great, It's just a shame that I had to restrain myself from using them, as I only allowed myself to use them when I was pretty much certain I would win the fight.
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And finally, the added story content. The game features a new location, that being Kichikoji, which is very cool, as it has the aforementioned darts and billards, as well as a jazz bar you can buff party member's stats at. The temple gives more SP to joker, but given that hanging out with Doctor Maruki does that as well, it isn't very useful.
The biggest changes are the apparition of three new confidants and, of course, the playable third term. Let's go by ascending order of who I though was best.
Yoshizawa-san is amazing at first, but in my opinion gets pretty insufferable by the end. She was my favourite confidant until the story starts focusing around her. Hanging out with her is fun, as she is a lovable character that's full of charm. But once the third term starts, her ark feels like it just stops. I swear there are at least three moments in her arc that are basically the same beat over and over again. This is tagged spoiler so I'm going to spoil : her awakening, when she helps out in Sae's palace (which really builds intrigue when you first play through that section at the start of the game but is really out of place when you place it in the context of the story at that moment tbh), and her "second awakening" after she fails to bring forth her persona during the second infiltration of Maruki's palace. When she first awakens to her persona, I was so hyped because it felt like she had finally properly arrived in the main plot rather than just being a new confidant... then she disapears. Then she comes back in Sae's palace ! but she disappears again from the final act of the base game because "it's too dangerous for her". So by her third "big character moment", I wasn't really interested. She does have pretty good confidant skills though, as she is the one that unlocks chainé hook.
Next, Maruki. Hanging out with him grants you 5 extra SP, which is very useful, and gives you « Flow » and « Detox ». The first gives a random chance for Joker to have a big attack boost at the begining of a fight, the latter allows him to cure any ailment, again with a random chance. These are very useful. Also, his arc is very interesting, both as a confidant and a palace ruler. He asks really interesting question and his character is a very mature, interesting and uplifting vision of what it means to grieve and get back up, as well as the importance of fighting back when life fights you, and not let yourself die in the gutter of destiny.
Finally, best boy Goro Akechi, the singe best character in this game. He was great in the first game, but his relationship with Joker felt forced. I never really bought their twisted rivalry/friendship. In short, I felt like Akechi was a great character, but did not buy his relationship to Joker. Having him as a confidant fix this problem. You really feel that Akechi loves having a rival in the form of Joker which makes the latter a friend, but hates that he's better than him, which makes him public enemy number one. Having to beat him in a one on one fight to grow closer to him is a prime example of this weird relationship the pair have. If you liked Persona 5, I'd say this extended focus on Akechi on its own is a good enough reason to go back. I love the fact you get to have his evil version as a party member. His all-out attack animation changing to read « I decide the truth » after it reading « I shall bring forth the truth » is amazing characterization.
As for the extra semester and palace... It's good. I must admit, going from fighting a god to fighting your therapist isn't exactly the best story structure. Of course they didn't want to change the base game's story and ending, so they had to do this weird thing, but I would've preferred if you fought Maruki a few months after the god of control. You could, for example, let the original ending play out, and then have Joker come back to Tokyo a few months later and discover that everyone is living in Maruki's reality. I feel like that would've been better. The palace was very big, which is good. i do have to say though, I would've appreciated it if the developer's had introduced an adaptative difficulty to this final palace. See, I was level 88 when I started Maruki's palace because I had fought the Reaper earlier on (which I highly recommend doing, as it he gives you like 5 extra level sin one fight and makes Shido your b*tch during his fight), which made me a lot stronger than almost every enemy in the palace, making it so that I didn't even have to fight them, as I had unlocked the insta-kill ability through Ryuji, allowing you to gain XP, money and items from a fight, without doing said fight, as long as you're at least five levels more powerful than the shadow and you run at them while also ambushing them. So I would say it was too easy for someone who had put effort into doing every fight in the game. The boss fight is cool though, and the ending is magnificent, and does feel worthy of replacing the original one, even though it doesn't feel as climactic.
Persona 5 Royal is still Persona 5 at the end of the day, it's just been made better in every way. I see no reason to replay the base game after this one. Should you buy Royal if you played through the base game ? Yes. Absolutely. Not for the story content, or any other addition this game makes. You should buy this game because you should replay Persona 5, as I felt it was much better than it already was on a second playthrough, when you know which confidants you like, which are useful, what activities are worthy of your time and so on. And if you're going to play Persona 5 again, might as well play the best version of it. Just prepare yourself to be as heartbroken as you were the first time you left your virtual best friends behind.
2017
Never have I played a game that nails what it wants to be so much. Cuphead is a beautiful game, with amazing ambiance thanks to memorable music, characters that are full of charm and beautiful animation work.
Gameplay can however be hurt by this. Shooting is very imprecise, as any projectile coming at you from an odd angle will be in the deadzone of your basic shot. In order to fill the base shots problems though, you can buy different shots, that cover a wider range, or even are guided to potential targets. However, I have two problems with these. Firstly, you need to buy these in a shop, and I feel like the item descriptions in said shop really don't do a good job. Having short videos to show what the shot does would've been favorable in my opinion. Secondly, I do feel like the base shot should be more versatile than it is, because in a game like cuphead, with so much going on at the same time, you need to be able to react quickly. I understand why they didn't give you full 360° degree shooting (that would be dreadful), but maybe having 12 directions rather than 8 would've been better.
Also, the game sometimes wants to do too much visually speaking. There is a fight in the game against a bee, the bottom of the screen is covered by a transparent yellow liquid which bubbles and moves around, like a sea agitated by waves, and honey is falling from the sides of the screen. The background is also more agitated than a lot of the fights in the game. The thing is, all this info is useless: the honey doesn't hurt you, neither does the yellow liquid, and the background is just decor. This fight is a prime example of the game putting style over gameplay: there is way too much going on, making it really hard to focus on the fight because so much movement is going on, begging for your eyeballs' attention.
Also, the game often traps you into taking damage unfairly. Basically, the boss fights often have independant factors form the main enemy running around (smaller enemies, decor collapsing etc...) and the game isn't programmed in a way to stop those two independant elements from traping the player. So basically, you could have a crumbling decor not allowing you to jump above you and a projectile that requires you to jump to avoid it activated at the same time, leading to frustrating damage.
I found it immensily frustrating that only two jump heights exist, with no "small jump" option. It made some sections quite frustrating.
Finally, 4/6 run and gun levels suck ass.
Cuphead is really amazing, and is a title worthy of the praise it gets for its visuals and general ambiance. However, in gameplay, some weird choices about mechanics can lead to a lot fo frustrating deaths. Maybe it's a skill issue, but I really do believe that this game could've been way less frustrating than what it is.
Gameplay can however be hurt by this. Shooting is very imprecise, as any projectile coming at you from an odd angle will be in the deadzone of your basic shot. In order to fill the base shots problems though, you can buy different shots, that cover a wider range, or even are guided to potential targets. However, I have two problems with these. Firstly, you need to buy these in a shop, and I feel like the item descriptions in said shop really don't do a good job. Having short videos to show what the shot does would've been favorable in my opinion. Secondly, I do feel like the base shot should be more versatile than it is, because in a game like cuphead, with so much going on at the same time, you need to be able to react quickly. I understand why they didn't give you full 360° degree shooting (that would be dreadful), but maybe having 12 directions rather than 8 would've been better.
Also, the game sometimes wants to do too much visually speaking. There is a fight in the game against a bee, the bottom of the screen is covered by a transparent yellow liquid which bubbles and moves around, like a sea agitated by waves, and honey is falling from the sides of the screen. The background is also more agitated than a lot of the fights in the game. The thing is, all this info is useless: the honey doesn't hurt you, neither does the yellow liquid, and the background is just decor. This fight is a prime example of the game putting style over gameplay: there is way too much going on, making it really hard to focus on the fight because so much movement is going on, begging for your eyeballs' attention.
Also, the game often traps you into taking damage unfairly. Basically, the boss fights often have independant factors form the main enemy running around (smaller enemies, decor collapsing etc...) and the game isn't programmed in a way to stop those two independant elements from traping the player. So basically, you could have a crumbling decor not allowing you to jump above you and a projectile that requires you to jump to avoid it activated at the same time, leading to frustrating damage.
I found it immensily frustrating that only two jump heights exist, with no "small jump" option. It made some sections quite frustrating.
Finally, 4/6 run and gun levels suck ass.
Cuphead is really amazing, and is a title worthy of the praise it gets for its visuals and general ambiance. However, in gameplay, some weird choices about mechanics can lead to a lot fo frustrating deaths. Maybe it's a skill issue, but I really do believe that this game could've been way less frustrating than what it is.
This review contains spoilers
This game had a lot of potential, that thankfully was exploited in the sequels. This game is basically an action-movie morphed into a video-game. Also, it also doesn't take itself seriously, like at all. The plot is ridiculous, and very fun because of it, the animations on deaths are hilarious (shoot someone with a sniper and they'll do a flip 90% of the time). This game's first half really is a guilty pleasure of mine, because of how stupid and fun it is.
The gameplay is mainly shooting, with a few puzzles (that aren't good). The shooting isn't fully brainless, but it isn't the most advanced thing in the world either. It's main strength is the level design. Basically, the challenge if this game is to try and take an advantagious position over your enemies, and the game doesn't always give you a good cover spot out of the gate, so you'll have to take down a few enemies to get to that good cover spot, and even then, you may get a grenade thrown at you, forcing you to move. The use of coverage is what makes the game fun, so when the last hour of the game just shoves it out of the way to make way for bullet-sponges enemis that you just have to unload in, the gameplay takes a hit. Sometimes, the game can feel a bit unfair, by just having every one fire on you at once, giving you an insta-kill if you pop your head out for even a milisecond, but overall, the gameplay is good.
However, the gameplay's flaws are made apparent by the game's pacing. The first half of the game are just shootouts, and that's fine because the level-design is great until that point, though you will be feeling a bit tired of the formula by then. Afterwards, the game gives you avried gameplay for an hour, with vehicle sections (which are fine, not good, not terrible, fine) that are a welcome change of pace. then, backl to shooting, but not just any shooting: poor shooting. The level design takes a hit, it doesn't feel as well designed, the game feels unfair at times (it can be blatantly easy for enemis to flank you at this point because of large arenas), and then the final hour hits, and wow its not good. I was intending on giving this a 3.5 rating, but the ending just took me out of it. It's just emptying round of ammo after round of ammo into enemis. It isn't fun. Yeah, getting a headshot kills them, so you're supposed to be going for the head, but the enemies move too fast to actually be aiming at them, so you just empty bullets until A/ they die, B/ you somehow get a headshot. A shame to be sure. So basically: the base formula of the game isn't bad, but the vehicle sections being more spread out around the game and the last hour being either trimmed or reworked would have hid the flaws of the system way better. Also, it lacks variety. The weapons that the game introduces arrive quite late in the game, and are just upgrades of previous weapons.
But, Uncharted is supposed to be an action movie, and it has the story and characters to go with it. The great cinematic setpieces aren't exactly there yet, but the rest of the story and characters reek of 2000s action-movie. The story is so over-the-top it's ridiculous. It involves spanish conquistadores, nazis, Francis Drake and zombies. That pitch is insane. The game puts a U-boat in the middle of the jungle. It isn't high-art, sure, but it's hella fun, and perfectly fits the "doesn't take itslef seriously" vibe of the game. The characters are great, at least the good guys are. the villains are forgettable, the twist villain sucks (and the final boss battle against him sucks too). But Nathan Sully and Elena are one of the best trios in gaming. Nathan is charismatic, quick-wited, and funny. Elena is often the one doing the rescuing actually, a strong female character that perfectly complements Nathan's goofiness with her more serious tone, and Sully is Sully. He shines more in later entries, and doesn't appear much in this game, but he already shows signs of greatness here.
This game is no masterpiece, it's pretty unremarkable overall. However there was a lot of potential in the gameplay and story, as well as the characters. It feels rushed, as I said the first half of the game had me giving it a 3.5/5 score, that later dipped because of less-than-steller level design. It's interesting to go back to, I enjoyed it way more this time around (which was my second time playing the game) than I did my first, though the ending reminded me why I didn't really love it the first time around.
The gameplay is mainly shooting, with a few puzzles (that aren't good). The shooting isn't fully brainless, but it isn't the most advanced thing in the world either. It's main strength is the level design. Basically, the challenge if this game is to try and take an advantagious position over your enemies, and the game doesn't always give you a good cover spot out of the gate, so you'll have to take down a few enemies to get to that good cover spot, and even then, you may get a grenade thrown at you, forcing you to move. The use of coverage is what makes the game fun, so when the last hour of the game just shoves it out of the way to make way for bullet-sponges enemis that you just have to unload in, the gameplay takes a hit. Sometimes, the game can feel a bit unfair, by just having every one fire on you at once, giving you an insta-kill if you pop your head out for even a milisecond, but overall, the gameplay is good.
However, the gameplay's flaws are made apparent by the game's pacing. The first half of the game are just shootouts, and that's fine because the level-design is great until that point, though you will be feeling a bit tired of the formula by then. Afterwards, the game gives you avried gameplay for an hour, with vehicle sections (which are fine, not good, not terrible, fine) that are a welcome change of pace. then, backl to shooting, but not just any shooting: poor shooting. The level design takes a hit, it doesn't feel as well designed, the game feels unfair at times (it can be blatantly easy for enemis to flank you at this point because of large arenas), and then the final hour hits, and wow its not good. I was intending on giving this a 3.5 rating, but the ending just took me out of it. It's just emptying round of ammo after round of ammo into enemis. It isn't fun. Yeah, getting a headshot kills them, so you're supposed to be going for the head, but the enemies move too fast to actually be aiming at them, so you just empty bullets until A/ they die, B/ you somehow get a headshot. A shame to be sure. So basically: the base formula of the game isn't bad, but the vehicle sections being more spread out around the game and the last hour being either trimmed or reworked would have hid the flaws of the system way better. Also, it lacks variety. The weapons that the game introduces arrive quite late in the game, and are just upgrades of previous weapons.
But, Uncharted is supposed to be an action movie, and it has the story and characters to go with it. The great cinematic setpieces aren't exactly there yet, but the rest of the story and characters reek of 2000s action-movie. The story is so over-the-top it's ridiculous. It involves spanish conquistadores, nazis, Francis Drake and zombies. That pitch is insane. The game puts a U-boat in the middle of the jungle. It isn't high-art, sure, but it's hella fun, and perfectly fits the "doesn't take itslef seriously" vibe of the game. The characters are great, at least the good guys are. the villains are forgettable, the twist villain sucks (and the final boss battle against him sucks too). But Nathan Sully and Elena are one of the best trios in gaming. Nathan is charismatic, quick-wited, and funny. Elena is often the one doing the rescuing actually, a strong female character that perfectly complements Nathan's goofiness with her more serious tone, and Sully is Sully. He shines more in later entries, and doesn't appear much in this game, but he already shows signs of greatness here.
This game is no masterpiece, it's pretty unremarkable overall. However there was a lot of potential in the gameplay and story, as well as the characters. It feels rushed, as I said the first half of the game had me giving it a 3.5/5 score, that later dipped because of less-than-steller level design. It's interesting to go back to, I enjoyed it way more this time around (which was my second time playing the game) than I did my first, though the ending reminded me why I didn't really love it the first time around.