TomasoGiovanni
40 Reviews liked by TomasoGiovanni
It would suck so bad if there were like twelve rich white guys who controlled the world
Cookie Clicker
2013
At some point, one has to stop.
We can be more than we are made to be.
Virginia
2016
Starts as a really straight forward Twin Peaks riff, but by the end becomes a really interesting meditation on power and race. I particularly like the way, through all the various cuts, the game keeps you embodied, sometimes shifting between multiple bodies in a scene. It creates this really holistic sense of how power and assimilation function, making a very clear, spacial argument. The surrealism is often too obvious and the imagery can be trite, but there's a lot to dig into.
Super Mario 3D Land
2011
Aces.
Yakuza 0
2015
Constantly flipping tone and genres, more video games should be like this.
Spec Ops: The Line
2012
Such a visually stunning, well paced game. Blunt and bare, but powerful all the same.
Castlevania
1986
I love love love how this is all one layered place. Action video games as a haunted house.
Enter the Matrix
2003
Not a "good" game but a total blast. Wish things like this got made anymore.
Drakengard
2003
Drakengard fans be like:
"Yeah it fucking sucks but you get used to it."
"Yeah it fucking sucks but you get used to it."
This review contains spoilers
It's hard to exactly state why Dragon Quest V is so important without spoiling the whole premise of the game itself so here it is. Dragon Quest V features probably one of my favorite twists ever in a JRPG, one that both encapsulates the spirit of Dragon Quest while being bold in its own right.
The story unfolds through the life of Abel (the "Hero" of this game, at least that's what people tell me his name is.) where he starts out as a child, unable to even read, as he follows his dad Pankraz along on his journey. Pankraz has true dad energy. He's strong, brave, and caring to his son along with everyone else, and he helps Abel decimate any threat along the way and even heals you. However things go dark a few hours in when after a failed attempt to save Prince Harry from a kidnapping, Pankraz dies to the evil Ladja but before he does he tells Abel his lost mother is still alive and then he gets blasted by a Kafrizzle. Abel and Prince Harry are then sold into slavery until they are in their teens whereby the help of someone else, they are able to escape in a barrel out onto the sea. From there, you get your typical Dragon Quest affair.
Then something happens, the time skips and Abel starts to rule a kingdom on his own, much as his father did. And he gets married to a choice of three different girls. And hey, guess what? She gives birth. Twins! One boy and one girl! And after another time skip, they grow old enough to become party members! And they're pretty good for being children too.
This is when sometime in the late game you learn something from another NPC, and that all this time Abel, your player character is not the almighty chosen one to take down the evil Nizmo that has been causing chaos around the country. No, it's your son instead.
That's when I got Dragon Quest V's message. It hit me like a freight train. Dragon Quest up to this point has always been about you, the player, destined to go out on this journey to a vast unknown land to take down an ambiguous evil entity and be the hero you were always destined to be. But here, Dragon Quest V tells you you're not this grandiose hero, at least not in the cliche "prophesized" way, no, you are a hero because you are like Pankraz.
Pankraz had a heart of gold from the start, he used to be a great ruler of his kingdom but more importantly, he was a true father through and through. He loved his wife and son more than anything, but he died a horrible, tragic death in an attempt to protect his son. All this time, you follow in your father's footsteps. You fall in love, you have children of your own to protect, you help those in need, and you even lead a kingdom of people. Your righteousness completely mirrors that of Pankraz.
So when Dragon Quest V states that it is your son that you raised that is destined to become the chosen one, that's not a cheap shot to get a subversive expectation in the script, it felt earned. Because in the end, your actions lead to that point. You may not be explicitly told you are "the hero", but a real hero doesn't need to be told that he is destined to be great, a hero is someone who is already righteous enough as is. Pankraz was a righteous man who kept his head up high until the end. He was a hero. His successor Abel, much like his father, is a hero in his own way too.
And I think there's something so genuinely wholesome about that, it keeps the essence of Dragon Quest's commitment to you being the hero but in a different more down-to-earth kind of way. I think that's the reason this Dragon Quest especially has stuck with me the most, because that message is just so relatable and pure it makes this almost 29-year-old game stand all of the time skips.
The story unfolds through the life of Abel (the "Hero" of this game, at least that's what people tell me his name is.) where he starts out as a child, unable to even read, as he follows his dad Pankraz along on his journey. Pankraz has true dad energy. He's strong, brave, and caring to his son along with everyone else, and he helps Abel decimate any threat along the way and even heals you. However things go dark a few hours in when after a failed attempt to save Prince Harry from a kidnapping, Pankraz dies to the evil Ladja but before he does he tells Abel his lost mother is still alive and then he gets blasted by a Kafrizzle. Abel and Prince Harry are then sold into slavery until they are in their teens whereby the help of someone else, they are able to escape in a barrel out onto the sea. From there, you get your typical Dragon Quest affair.
Then something happens, the time skips and Abel starts to rule a kingdom on his own, much as his father did. And he gets married to a choice of three different girls. And hey, guess what? She gives birth. Twins! One boy and one girl! And after another time skip, they grow old enough to become party members! And they're pretty good for being children too.
This is when sometime in the late game you learn something from another NPC, and that all this time Abel, your player character is not the almighty chosen one to take down the evil Nizmo that has been causing chaos around the country. No, it's your son instead.
That's when I got Dragon Quest V's message. It hit me like a freight train. Dragon Quest up to this point has always been about you, the player, destined to go out on this journey to a vast unknown land to take down an ambiguous evil entity and be the hero you were always destined to be. But here, Dragon Quest V tells you you're not this grandiose hero, at least not in the cliche "prophesized" way, no, you are a hero because you are like Pankraz.
Pankraz had a heart of gold from the start, he used to be a great ruler of his kingdom but more importantly, he was a true father through and through. He loved his wife and son more than anything, but he died a horrible, tragic death in an attempt to protect his son. All this time, you follow in your father's footsteps. You fall in love, you have children of your own to protect, you help those in need, and you even lead a kingdom of people. Your righteousness completely mirrors that of Pankraz.
So when Dragon Quest V states that it is your son that you raised that is destined to become the chosen one, that's not a cheap shot to get a subversive expectation in the script, it felt earned. Because in the end, your actions lead to that point. You may not be explicitly told you are "the hero", but a real hero doesn't need to be told that he is destined to be great, a hero is someone who is already righteous enough as is. Pankraz was a righteous man who kept his head up high until the end. He was a hero. His successor Abel, much like his father, is a hero in his own way too.
And I think there's something so genuinely wholesome about that, it keeps the essence of Dragon Quest's commitment to you being the hero but in a different more down-to-earth kind of way. I think that's the reason this Dragon Quest especially has stuck with me the most, because that message is just so relatable and pure it makes this almost 29-year-old game stand all of the time skips.
Spec Ops: The Line
2012
Nier but American
Sin and Punishment
2000
Funny story on this one, so one time at a convention, I learned that you can break the region lock of Japanese N64 games by unscrewing the back of the cartridge and replacing the back of it with the back of an American N64 cartridge. Never thought I'd be using that trick again until I found out about this game, where now I own a copy that has the back of a now useless copy of Nascar '99 that I bought at a local retro game shop for 3 bucks.
Doing it this way made me feel like I was popping in an old fuzzy VHS tape of a 90s shonen anime movie that never made its way over seas. I mean that literally, because this games presentation gives that vibe. You have these unhinged over the top scenes that uses all the power the N64 can render, backed by the most groovy soundtrack imaginable (my personal favorite in any Treasure game) and voice acting that sounds like it was done by 5 fans of this shonen who have no idea how to voice act and took a lot of translations very literal, and they were lazy to include english subtitles to help the audience differentiate what they're saying from all the loud sound effects. And the story beats go by so fast it felt like I only watched like part 5/17 in a larger narrative. It's super cheesy and is basically jibberish, but no other game has ever emulated that feeling of 90s anime cheese before like Sin and Punishment, so it's presentation arguably leaves a lot to be desired but for me is such a guilty pleasure.
However, the reason why I popped this tape in wasn't for it's story, but it's "fight scenes".
The reason why I bought this game physically to begin was, upon doing research, I found out this game was designed around the N64 controller itself. The premise for the development of S&P was to design a game where you use the left side of the controller rather than the right side. S&P is an on-rails shooter where you move your character with the D-Pad (double tap a direction to dodge roll), aim with the analog stick, shoot with the trigger, double jump with the left bumper, and switch weapons with the A button. This unorthodox control scheme was actually extremely easy to get used to, which helped that the game had a great tutorial that was easy enough to made someone like me who isn't very good at Japanese to understand. (Although granted I wished this game didn't suffer from inverted aiming controls.)
Because of this control scheme, you will not also be tested on your aiming, but when to strafe, jump and dodge roll. You are given a lot more to look out for and the game will constantly test you on this principle. I was pleased to see this game was directed by Hideyuki Suganami, the same man behind Alien Soldier, collabed with Nintendo EPD1, so the levels just keep offering idea after idea that will both challenge you while offer so much variety in it's ~1 and a half hour run time.
My only major gripe when it comes to gameplay is the time limit. If reach zero, your characters health bar drains until death. Normally I don't mind time limits if they're done right as they're a means to prevent a player from stalling, but because S&P is an on-rails shooter, you can't exactly beat the time if you want to. It can make one hit that knocks down your character more frustrating than it needs to be, and some stages that don't give time bonuses like Stage 3 can make it a lot more infuriating.
Despite that however, Sin and Punishment's charm and polished gameplay left me in total awe, and is now possibly one of my personal favorite N64 games behind Majora's Mask and Banjo-Kazooie. Unfortunately this game isn't as well known as the other two, because of it's Japanese only release. There was a release of this game for Wii virtual console but.... yeah that's gone. However, I can't recommend this one enough because I think this game is very special. One day when this pandemic blows over and conventions roll back around, I can't wait to show this game to everyone of my friends, and watch them marvel in this insane 90s anime movie that is bundled in a video game at it's most purest, much like how people traded VHS tapes of old anime films before their mainstream popularity.
"GET BONUS" -Sin and Punishment, 2000.
Doing it this way made me feel like I was popping in an old fuzzy VHS tape of a 90s shonen anime movie that never made its way over seas. I mean that literally, because this games presentation gives that vibe. You have these unhinged over the top scenes that uses all the power the N64 can render, backed by the most groovy soundtrack imaginable (my personal favorite in any Treasure game) and voice acting that sounds like it was done by 5 fans of this shonen who have no idea how to voice act and took a lot of translations very literal, and they were lazy to include english subtitles to help the audience differentiate what they're saying from all the loud sound effects. And the story beats go by so fast it felt like I only watched like part 5/17 in a larger narrative. It's super cheesy and is basically jibberish, but no other game has ever emulated that feeling of 90s anime cheese before like Sin and Punishment, so it's presentation arguably leaves a lot to be desired but for me is such a guilty pleasure.
However, the reason why I popped this tape in wasn't for it's story, but it's "fight scenes".
The reason why I bought this game physically to begin was, upon doing research, I found out this game was designed around the N64 controller itself. The premise for the development of S&P was to design a game where you use the left side of the controller rather than the right side. S&P is an on-rails shooter where you move your character with the D-Pad (double tap a direction to dodge roll), aim with the analog stick, shoot with the trigger, double jump with the left bumper, and switch weapons with the A button. This unorthodox control scheme was actually extremely easy to get used to, which helped that the game had a great tutorial that was easy enough to made someone like me who isn't very good at Japanese to understand. (Although granted I wished this game didn't suffer from inverted aiming controls.)
Because of this control scheme, you will not also be tested on your aiming, but when to strafe, jump and dodge roll. You are given a lot more to look out for and the game will constantly test you on this principle. I was pleased to see this game was directed by Hideyuki Suganami, the same man behind Alien Soldier, collabed with Nintendo EPD1, so the levels just keep offering idea after idea that will both challenge you while offer so much variety in it's ~1 and a half hour run time.
My only major gripe when it comes to gameplay is the time limit. If reach zero, your characters health bar drains until death. Normally I don't mind time limits if they're done right as they're a means to prevent a player from stalling, but because S&P is an on-rails shooter, you can't exactly beat the time if you want to. It can make one hit that knocks down your character more frustrating than it needs to be, and some stages that don't give time bonuses like Stage 3 can make it a lot more infuriating.
Despite that however, Sin and Punishment's charm and polished gameplay left me in total awe, and is now possibly one of my personal favorite N64 games behind Majora's Mask and Banjo-Kazooie. Unfortunately this game isn't as well known as the other two, because of it's Japanese only release. There was a release of this game for Wii virtual console but.... yeah that's gone. However, I can't recommend this one enough because I think this game is very special. One day when this pandemic blows over and conventions roll back around, I can't wait to show this game to everyone of my friends, and watch them marvel in this insane 90s anime movie that is bundled in a video game at it's most purest, much like how people traded VHS tapes of old anime films before their mainstream popularity.
"GET BONUS" -Sin and Punishment, 2000.
Tokimeki Memorial
1994
Tim rogers is based
God of War
2018
You see the funny thing about this game is that, if you're not a die hard character action game fan, you may think this game is great, maybe a masterpiece for it's story and Kratos relationship with his son.
If you are a character action game fan you most likely think this game is an overrated clunky piece of dogshit video game. With it's new direction being a complete compromise to the series roots.
I'm somewhere in the middle. It looks great and I do like the story, unfortunately I can't exactly say God of War is a fun game. It's got a horrendous camera that feels the need to always be behind Kratos to keep the cutscenes single-shot rule. It never feels like the encounters are designed around the claustrophobic camera. Not that it matters anyways, since the game feels painfully easy, with challenge only coming from tankier health sponges, or in a horrid twist, the need to swap between weapons to take out certain enemies, similar to the awful enemy design in the DmC Reboot.
It's hard to exactly talk about this game without comparing it to other games or even to it's own series, since it both apes on other successful games while also being a soft reboot except also a direct sequel to God of War 3. What baffles me is the fact God of War took on this new direction except it doesn't really do anything new with it. Which is the main problem with God of War. I'm not opposed to a series trying something new, it's when a series does something new by taking ideas from other series and half-assing them is what I'm opposed to. So it turns what should be a great new adventure onto a sea of new ideas into something I've been on before, in better, more focused forms.
The thing is I can't exactly say God of War is a bad game. It's a perfectly fine product with gorgeous visuals and a neat story, but I can never shake the feeling that I've played it before.
Because of that, allow me to list off games that God of War reminded me of that you should check out instead:
Dark Souls
Devil May Cry
God Hand
Kingdom Hearts
The Last of Us
Yakuza
And, get this one:
The God of War Trilogy.
If you are a character action game fan you most likely think this game is an overrated clunky piece of dogshit video game. With it's new direction being a complete compromise to the series roots.
I'm somewhere in the middle. It looks great and I do like the story, unfortunately I can't exactly say God of War is a fun game. It's got a horrendous camera that feels the need to always be behind Kratos to keep the cutscenes single-shot rule. It never feels like the encounters are designed around the claustrophobic camera. Not that it matters anyways, since the game feels painfully easy, with challenge only coming from tankier health sponges, or in a horrid twist, the need to swap between weapons to take out certain enemies, similar to the awful enemy design in the DmC Reboot.
It's hard to exactly talk about this game without comparing it to other games or even to it's own series, since it both apes on other successful games while also being a soft reboot except also a direct sequel to God of War 3. What baffles me is the fact God of War took on this new direction except it doesn't really do anything new with it. Which is the main problem with God of War. I'm not opposed to a series trying something new, it's when a series does something new by taking ideas from other series and half-assing them is what I'm opposed to. So it turns what should be a great new adventure onto a sea of new ideas into something I've been on before, in better, more focused forms.
The thing is I can't exactly say God of War is a bad game. It's a perfectly fine product with gorgeous visuals and a neat story, but I can never shake the feeling that I've played it before.
Because of that, allow me to list off games that God of War reminded me of that you should check out instead:
Dark Souls
Devil May Cry
God Hand
Kingdom Hearts
The Last of Us
Yakuza
And, get this one:
The God of War Trilogy.