TimAlien
Play a real smt game they said (does this one count?). While this does admittedly have some awesome ideas such as the grid based battle system, everyone having switchable personas, and the multiple party member options, the pacing is so insanely bad and the battle system so frustrating and boring I just couldn't keep it up. I played smt4 and loved it and I'll play Nocture someday guys I promise. (Played in Japanese)
2021
The art style looked so great. The Japanese breakfast soundtrack sounded so great. The insane bugs and absolutely frustratingly pointless dialogue completely destroyed my immersion and desire to play more than a few hours.
While this game does improve on the open world format in a lot of ways it's just so empty and the world is so incredibly unbelievable. You can't be gritty apocalypse and have random bowling mini games in the middle of a field of monsters. Not to mention how unlike the rest of the Zelda franchise this was. Biggest frustration point was the weapon durability though. Too bad ToTK decided that was its favorite mechanic I guess.
![Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]](https://images.igdb.com/igdb/image/upload/t_cover_big/co1tqb.jpg)
What the hell guys. Who asked for this? Can you make a game look and play worse than this? Why would you stick important lore in this? I hate everything about the implications this created for the franchise. I made a Japanese email account just so I could play this trash on the PC when it first came out and hey at least that email account has come in handy a few times I guess.
Star Ocean: Till The End of Time is a masterpiece in my book. This game somehow takes every cool idea that game had and creates one of the most bland and lifeless experiences I've ever had.
Oh hey! Spike Chunsoft made a game that didn't actually get critically panned! I liked a lot about Danganronpa and was eager for more mystery games so why not give it a shot? It's a completely stupid, pointlessly perverted, utterly illogical game that requires retconned 4th wall logic to even make sense. Screw this. I think the only thing that kept me going was the random out of place bad jokes and puns from examining random things. Played in Japanese.
2016
The hype leading up to this game was palpable. Everything looked so good and the idea of a ff game in open world made so much sense. They were very good at hiding the fact that the game was only ever like 30% done and the combat system was so utterly broken and stupid. One of the first single player games I ever rage quit not out of frustration but of boredom. Played in Japanese.
2019
KH1 and 2 are in my top 5 games of all time for a reason. They had heart. They had emotion. They actually cared about a combat system that prioritized feeling good over looking good. I'd played all the spin offs up to this point as well so I don't know why I got my expectations so high, but yeah. Emo kid Nomura plz come home.
2022
Was really hoping to get spooked and blown away by this one after seeing it explode everywhere but uh... who gave all of these zombie robots kitchen knives? I guess the zombie shrieks are unsettling, the bosses have cool designs, the glitches were... uh... glitchy? and I do enjoy the pixelated vibe, but the controls were bad, (not in a way that makes the game intimidating ala RE tank controls) I was never really that scared of anything besides the horrible inventory size, and none of the puzzles ever made me feel smart.
2019
Some interesting powers and concepts for sure, but dang. The Netflix adjacent dialogue and direction absolutely ruined it for me.
2003
This game is like half a megabyte and yet is one of the most cohesive, bite sized pieces of entertainment ever created. The best short game of all time. No contest.
The only fun thing in this game was reading the hilarious notes people left in the demon compendium.
1988
I have killed hundreds of appendicitis patients.
Thanks grandpa for being cool and having games on your computer.
Thanks grandpa for being cool and having games on your computer.
2003
WHEN I'M CLEANIN' WINDAHS!
Did not realize this catchy 1930's song from a game I played at my friend Jesse's house was about voyeurism. Cool.
Did not realize this catchy 1930's song from a game I played at my friend Jesse's house was about voyeurism. Cool.
I tried so hard to like this after seeing all the good reviews but there were just a few big things that were deal breakers for me and I got increasingly frustrated with the game as it went on. First off the things I loved about the game:
Style: A mystery game set on an abandoned boat is an awesome premise and the idea of a modern game with "old school computer graphics" is interesting. The music fits well and it's fun when it syncs up with stuff that's happening.
Mechanics: The idea of a power that let's you travel back to a static point in the past and walk around in it is awesome. Probably the best application of time travel in any media imo.
The deal breakers:
Graphics: While I loved the idea of this, unfortunately this game is the first game I've ever played to make me physically sick because of the graphics. It's hard to explain exactly why and I'm probably quite unique in this case since it seems from other reviews that most people didn't have a problem. Also the graphics really made it hard to tell what was going on. For example, there were several sections where it was important for progression for me to know that something was fire but to me it just looked like light or fog or something.
Inconvenient mechanics: You have to wait x seconds to enter a memory. You're only allowed x seconds in a memory the first time you visit (but you also can't leave earlier than that). You can't teleport back to a memory from the journal so you have to memorize where all the bodies are and which memory they correspond to. Every time you get 3 fates correct you have to wait like 2 minutes for it to go through and confirm all the info you just input. Just lots of random junk that had me twiddling my thumbs.
Sleuthing is tedious for basically no reward: So this is once again probably just me but the most interesting thing about the game was finding all the death scene memories. These taught me everything I wanted to know about what happened on the ship. Why in the world should I be motivated to find out all these people's names? I know its because I'm an "insurance agent" but that's just a made up thing for the game to work. I don't gain any interesting lore or insights from finding out any of their names. I don't get any more information on the monsters (which were the only thing that really interested me) besides who they killed and how they were killed. It's just not worth it to me to scour over and over through 3d scenes that give me a headache just to identify someone by their shoes when I don't get anything for it besides the chance to check off a box.
Unless you count the bonus chapter? I got fed up after about 12 fates that I went online to look up a guide just because I wanted to see if I could get something interesting from the bonus chapter and it was extremely underwhelming and even annoying since it forced me to sit through minutes of me just looking at a really basic scene.
I think that about sums up my experience though. I usually don't review games on steam but with this one having so so many positive reviews I felt compelled to share my very different experience on the off chance that someone is able to relate and/or benefit from it. Many of the positive reviews also list some of the cons that made this a bad experience for me but still recommend the game anyways. For me this was an experience I regret ever starting and I regret even more that I tried to power through the flaws to just find more disappointment.
What I would've done differently:
Add the ability to teleport to memories I've already seen
Let me skip all the forced waiting sections (when you get 3 fates, when you visit a memory the first time)
Let me choose when to end a memory the first time
Unlock some kind of lore upon each set of fates I unlock (as opposed to just eliminating these people from future guesses)
Some other graphics mode for accessibility
If these changes were made I think I would have actually enjoyed and loved the game, because the premise and mechanics really are great and I usually enjoy mystery/sleuthing games, but this one just didn't motivate me.
Style: A mystery game set on an abandoned boat is an awesome premise and the idea of a modern game with "old school computer graphics" is interesting. The music fits well and it's fun when it syncs up with stuff that's happening.
Mechanics: The idea of a power that let's you travel back to a static point in the past and walk around in it is awesome. Probably the best application of time travel in any media imo.
The deal breakers:
Graphics: While I loved the idea of this, unfortunately this game is the first game I've ever played to make me physically sick because of the graphics. It's hard to explain exactly why and I'm probably quite unique in this case since it seems from other reviews that most people didn't have a problem. Also the graphics really made it hard to tell what was going on. For example, there were several sections where it was important for progression for me to know that something was fire but to me it just looked like light or fog or something.
Inconvenient mechanics: You have to wait x seconds to enter a memory. You're only allowed x seconds in a memory the first time you visit (but you also can't leave earlier than that). You can't teleport back to a memory from the journal so you have to memorize where all the bodies are and which memory they correspond to. Every time you get 3 fates correct you have to wait like 2 minutes for it to go through and confirm all the info you just input. Just lots of random junk that had me twiddling my thumbs.
Sleuthing is tedious for basically no reward: So this is once again probably just me but the most interesting thing about the game was finding all the death scene memories. These taught me everything I wanted to know about what happened on the ship. Why in the world should I be motivated to find out all these people's names? I know its because I'm an "insurance agent" but that's just a made up thing for the game to work. I don't gain any interesting lore or insights from finding out any of their names. I don't get any more information on the monsters (which were the only thing that really interested me) besides who they killed and how they were killed. It's just not worth it to me to scour over and over through 3d scenes that give me a headache just to identify someone by their shoes when I don't get anything for it besides the chance to check off a box.
Unless you count the bonus chapter? I got fed up after about 12 fates that I went online to look up a guide just because I wanted to see if I could get something interesting from the bonus chapter and it was extremely underwhelming and even annoying since it forced me to sit through minutes of me just looking at a really basic scene.
I think that about sums up my experience though. I usually don't review games on steam but with this one having so so many positive reviews I felt compelled to share my very different experience on the off chance that someone is able to relate and/or benefit from it. Many of the positive reviews also list some of the cons that made this a bad experience for me but still recommend the game anyways. For me this was an experience I regret ever starting and I regret even more that I tried to power through the flaws to just find more disappointment.
What I would've done differently:
Add the ability to teleport to memories I've already seen
Let me skip all the forced waiting sections (when you get 3 fates, when you visit a memory the first time)
Let me choose when to end a memory the first time
Unlock some kind of lore upon each set of fates I unlock (as opposed to just eliminating these people from future guesses)
Some other graphics mode for accessibility
If these changes were made I think I would have actually enjoyed and loved the game, because the premise and mechanics really are great and I usually enjoy mystery/sleuthing games, but this one just didn't motivate me.