UrLocalBanktoad
2022
Now that I own a Steam Deck, I've been seeing this app appear in the recommended section nonstop whenever I boot it up. Decided to give it a whirl and had a fun time!
They do a good job going over what the Steam Deck is capable of in terms of functionality, the graphics do a good job showing off the power of the Deck, the writing is funny, and it's over in around a half hour, giving you just enough of a taste of what the Steam Deck brings to the table to make you excited to use it with the rest of your Steam library. If you own a Steam Deck I don't see any reason to not check it out!
Also this taught me how to take screenshots with the Deck this is such vital information I feel reborn.
They do a good job going over what the Steam Deck is capable of in terms of functionality, the graphics do a good job showing off the power of the Deck, the writing is funny, and it's over in around a half hour, giving you just enough of a taste of what the Steam Deck brings to the table to make you excited to use it with the rest of your Steam library. If you own a Steam Deck I don't see any reason to not check it out!
Also this taught me how to take screenshots with the Deck this is such vital information I feel reborn.
2009
[Average Reading Time: 5 Minutes]
Some people get shocked by bugs. Me, I'm just shocked that I liked this game as much as I did.
Deadly Creatures is an action game released for the Wii where you take control of a tarantula and a scorpion in the Mojave Desert off Route 66, using their abilities to survive fierce combat encounters with other bugs and reptiles. While they do this, we follow two human characters, played by Billy Bob Thornton and the late Dennis Hopper, searching the desert for a hidden treasure. Between the thrill of the combat and the twists of the story following the two treasure hunters, Deadly Creatures offers a lot to intrigue players.
Throughout the adventure, you play as both a tarantula and a scorpion, switching between the two with each passing stage. There's 10 stages total, so you get to play as both creatures an equal amount of time, allowing the player to be fully immersed in each creature's unique play style.
The tarantula is agile, being able to jump high in the air to dodge attacks and zip to nearby webs. Combat-wise, the tarantula is all about setups. When you unlock the ability to shoot web at enemies, this becomes your go-to way to retaliate against foes. While they're webbed, you can go in for a quick combo or pounce on them, injecting them with a lethal poison. I feel that you have a lot of creative freedom with how you play the tarantula, and figuring out combat strategies to take advantage of stunned foes is highly satisfying.
The scorpion is slow and bulky, but they are very versatile with their pincers and stinger. They're more combo-focused, punishing enemies with their pincers and ending combos with stinger strikes. Exclusive to the scorpion are finishing moves. When an enemy is weak, you'll get a prompt to begin a finishing quick-time event (I'll be referring to these as QUE's from here on out). By swinging the controllers as the prompts show up, you'll be able to finish off enemies stylishly while also regaining some health. The developers were also merciful enough to give no penalty for failing a QTE outside of having to re-do the finisher. The finishing moves are all really cool, by the way. You'll have some where you slam an enemy into the ground and then dig your pincers into them, or you'll flip them over and shove your stinger down their throat. It's way cooler than it has any right to be.
If I had to pick a favorite playstyle, it would have to be the tarantula. As much as I like the combos and finishers of the scorpion, being able to dance around foes and punish them by webbing them up and following with powerful moves was always a thrill.
Now, you don't have all of these moves from the beginning. You unlock moves by gaining points, which are earned from defeating enemies and completing story objectives. Earn enough points and you automatically unlock more moves to try out in combat. It's very simple and non-intrusive. Outside of that, as you explore stages you'll find grubs, which unlock galleries full of cool concept art, as well as leaf crickets, which will increase your health when you find enough of them.
You encounter a decent variety of enemies in this game, each with their own abilities that they'll use to try to assert their place in the food chain. Outside of regular enemies, boss encounters are scarce, with there only being a small handful of them in the game. You also get to have rival matches between the scorpion and the tarantula, which gets exciting as you play, since after a while you know how they both work, and now have to figure out how you're going to counter their cool moves.
As much as I enjoyed this game, I do have some criticisms to raise. Firstly, the subtitles. In the options menu you can enable subtitles to help you follow along with what the human characters are saying. Sadly, though, these aren't always present. There are a handful of dialogue exchanges that just aren't subtitled, and it's a shame because it makes you feel like you're missing pieces of the story while the sounds of exploration and combat are happening.
My other complaints stem from this game being both a 7th Gen game and being released on the Wii. Firstly, as with many 7th Gen games at the time of this game's release, the framerate is highly inconsistent, dipping very low during many enemy encounters. This can be frustrating, especially as this effects your inputs. Games just feel less responsive when running poorly, and sadly Deadly Creatures suffers because of this. It's not game-breaking, but it is annoying.
Lastly, we need to talk about the motion controls. You're going to be pointing the wiimote at the screen for things like lining up web shots and zipping to other webs as the tarantula, which feels fine. What doesn't feel fine is when you're playing as the scorpion and you need to use motion controls for finishers. Maybe it's because my wiimotes are over 15 years old at this point, but following the prompts to move the wiimote and nunchuk for finishers feels so broken. I'll do the moves and unless I'm waving them wildly in the directions they want, they aren't going to register. It becomes infuriating when you're doing the same moves over and over again and they aren't reading to allow you to finish QTEs. There's also motion controls involved in moves outside QTEs, like combo finishers for the scorpion and follow-up moves for the tarantula. The scorpion also has environment traversal moves that require you to waggle the controllers. It's exhausting after a while, and I feel that it kinda brings down the game slightly.
Overall, I loved this game. I enjoyed following the plot of the treasure hunters, I loved playing as the tarantula and scorpion, and I greatly enjoyed checking out the concept art I unlocked, as well as interviews with Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper where they talk about the game and their interest in bugs and reptiles. However, outside of the arachnophobia that some players may suffer from, there are barriers to the experience, such as the framerate issues and motion control implementation. It's probably a long-shot, but I would really like to see this game get a remaster one day that fixes the issues I had. Being able to use button presses in place of the motion controls, having a stable framerate and having consistent subtitles would absolutely bring this game up immensely.
If you don't have arachnophobia and are cool with virtual bug antics, then I highly recommend this game. You'll be humming Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry 5 while stinging bad bugs where the sun don't shine before you know it.
Some people get shocked by bugs. Me, I'm just shocked that I liked this game as much as I did.
Deadly Creatures is an action game released for the Wii where you take control of a tarantula and a scorpion in the Mojave Desert off Route 66, using their abilities to survive fierce combat encounters with other bugs and reptiles. While they do this, we follow two human characters, played by Billy Bob Thornton and the late Dennis Hopper, searching the desert for a hidden treasure. Between the thrill of the combat and the twists of the story following the two treasure hunters, Deadly Creatures offers a lot to intrigue players.
Throughout the adventure, you play as both a tarantula and a scorpion, switching between the two with each passing stage. There's 10 stages total, so you get to play as both creatures an equal amount of time, allowing the player to be fully immersed in each creature's unique play style.
The tarantula is agile, being able to jump high in the air to dodge attacks and zip to nearby webs. Combat-wise, the tarantula is all about setups. When you unlock the ability to shoot web at enemies, this becomes your go-to way to retaliate against foes. While they're webbed, you can go in for a quick combo or pounce on them, injecting them with a lethal poison. I feel that you have a lot of creative freedom with how you play the tarantula, and figuring out combat strategies to take advantage of stunned foes is highly satisfying.
The scorpion is slow and bulky, but they are very versatile with their pincers and stinger. They're more combo-focused, punishing enemies with their pincers and ending combos with stinger strikes. Exclusive to the scorpion are finishing moves. When an enemy is weak, you'll get a prompt to begin a finishing quick-time event (I'll be referring to these as QUE's from here on out). By swinging the controllers as the prompts show up, you'll be able to finish off enemies stylishly while also regaining some health. The developers were also merciful enough to give no penalty for failing a QTE outside of having to re-do the finisher. The finishing moves are all really cool, by the way. You'll have some where you slam an enemy into the ground and then dig your pincers into them, or you'll flip them over and shove your stinger down their throat. It's way cooler than it has any right to be.
If I had to pick a favorite playstyle, it would have to be the tarantula. As much as I like the combos and finishers of the scorpion, being able to dance around foes and punish them by webbing them up and following with powerful moves was always a thrill.
Now, you don't have all of these moves from the beginning. You unlock moves by gaining points, which are earned from defeating enemies and completing story objectives. Earn enough points and you automatically unlock more moves to try out in combat. It's very simple and non-intrusive. Outside of that, as you explore stages you'll find grubs, which unlock galleries full of cool concept art, as well as leaf crickets, which will increase your health when you find enough of them.
You encounter a decent variety of enemies in this game, each with their own abilities that they'll use to try to assert their place in the food chain. Outside of regular enemies, boss encounters are scarce, with there only being a small handful of them in the game. You also get to have rival matches between the scorpion and the tarantula, which gets exciting as you play, since after a while you know how they both work, and now have to figure out how you're going to counter their cool moves.
As much as I enjoyed this game, I do have some criticisms to raise. Firstly, the subtitles. In the options menu you can enable subtitles to help you follow along with what the human characters are saying. Sadly, though, these aren't always present. There are a handful of dialogue exchanges that just aren't subtitled, and it's a shame because it makes you feel like you're missing pieces of the story while the sounds of exploration and combat are happening.
My other complaints stem from this game being both a 7th Gen game and being released on the Wii. Firstly, as with many 7th Gen games at the time of this game's release, the framerate is highly inconsistent, dipping very low during many enemy encounters. This can be frustrating, especially as this effects your inputs. Games just feel less responsive when running poorly, and sadly Deadly Creatures suffers because of this. It's not game-breaking, but it is annoying.
Lastly, we need to talk about the motion controls. You're going to be pointing the wiimote at the screen for things like lining up web shots and zipping to other webs as the tarantula, which feels fine. What doesn't feel fine is when you're playing as the scorpion and you need to use motion controls for finishers. Maybe it's because my wiimotes are over 15 years old at this point, but following the prompts to move the wiimote and nunchuk for finishers feels so broken. I'll do the moves and unless I'm waving them wildly in the directions they want, they aren't going to register. It becomes infuriating when you're doing the same moves over and over again and they aren't reading to allow you to finish QTEs. There's also motion controls involved in moves outside QTEs, like combo finishers for the scorpion and follow-up moves for the tarantula. The scorpion also has environment traversal moves that require you to waggle the controllers. It's exhausting after a while, and I feel that it kinda brings down the game slightly.
Overall, I loved this game. I enjoyed following the plot of the treasure hunters, I loved playing as the tarantula and scorpion, and I greatly enjoyed checking out the concept art I unlocked, as well as interviews with Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper where they talk about the game and their interest in bugs and reptiles. However, outside of the arachnophobia that some players may suffer from, there are barriers to the experience, such as the framerate issues and motion control implementation. It's probably a long-shot, but I would really like to see this game get a remaster one day that fixes the issues I had. Being able to use button presses in place of the motion controls, having a stable framerate and having consistent subtitles would absolutely bring this game up immensely.
If you don't have arachnophobia and are cool with virtual bug antics, then I highly recommend this game. You'll be humming Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry 5 while stinging bad bugs where the sun don't shine before you know it.
1990
Somehow Nintendo released the greatest game of all time as a launch title on the Super Nintendo and now we need to live with this knowledge for the rest of time, I guess.
[Average Reading Time: 5 Minutes]
Well, this certainly whelmed me.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected is an expansion that tells the story of events that happen a year after the events of the main game. I won't be spoiling specific story events here, but I can definitely say that the story they present here is sadly not too terribly interesting. They try to answer some questions around Melia and the state of the High Entia after the events of the main game, but it really doesn't carry enough weight to make you truly invested in the plot. It also doesn't help that the main antagonist of this story doesn't evoke any real emotion from the player. They're meant to be this intimidating unrelenting force, but after coming off the main game and its strong cast of antagonists, the one they present here just feels so uninteresting and boring that at no point throughout my playthrough did I feel any personal desire to see it eradicated outside of wanting to see the credits roll.
Since this story expansion released a good number of years after the initial Wii release of Xenoblade Chronicles, the voice acting sounds noticeably different. It's very jarring in the beginning, and it doesn't help that they didn't rerecord the mid-battle call outs from the main game, but after a while you get used to it.
Outside of Shulk and Melia, two new nopon characters join your party. Character-wise, they're fine. They're mostly meant to be comic relief, but have their more interesting moments here and there. Gameplay wise, well, one of them is Reyn and the other is Sharla. They have no unique arts to use in combat at all. It's a shame, too, because I feel that an expansion like this would be an excellent opportunity to try to make characters that allow you to employ new strategies not possible in the original, giving it truly its own unique feel. For whatever reason, they played it safe, and I feel like we lost something there as a result.
With this story expansion, they made a ton of changes to the gameplay. I won't be listing them all, of course, but I'll mention the ones that stand out the most to me.
Firstly, gone are the affinity chart and equippable skills. I understand why this was done, as this is a smaller story expansion and the player may not have time to fill out affinities with the party members during the short runtime, but at the same time I feel that a ton of incentive to mix and match party members was lost as a result. I wound up using a party that was Shulk, Melia, and the Reyn nopon for the entire campaign because I had no real reason to try any other combination, and that really upsets me. Of course, I could've switched things up, but without the incentives in place from the main game, or any new ones, I didn't feel any real need or desire to.
With affinity gone, so are Heart-to-Hearts. Thankfully, though, they were replaced with an alternative in the form of Quiet Moments. These take a different form from Heart-to-Hearts, with these being fully voiced cutscenes that display a scene between two party members bonding rather than it being a text-based interaction with dialogue options to choose from. They're cute and do a good job fleshing out the personalities of your party members. As you progress the plot, more become available to you, and I feel that they're always worth hunting down to take a break from the action and enjoy a fun back-and-forth between characters.
The last major change I'll discuss here is the removal of chain attacks. This devastating move was replaced by a new system, entirely based around specific nopon you find and help in the open world. As you assist these nopon, they join your party. They aren't full party members, but they'll join you in battles to occasionally do things like attack, heal, or dish out debuffs. Once you find enough of them, you unlock the ability to use the chain attack replacement, which lets you choose between three special moves: one deals extra damage to an enemy, one heals and buffs the party, and the other dazes and debuffs the enemy. While I prefer the utility of chain attacks, I do think it's neat that they attempted something new here and it did help out during tense battles, so I won't say I hated it.
Also, when I say that these nopon join your party, I don't mean that it's the kind of party-joining where they're invisible when you're running around the area and then a few of them appear during battle occasionally to do things randomly. Oh, no, they went the extra mile here. The nopon that join your party are always visible, following you around the world Map and joining in every battle. You get over 10 of these guys, too, and let me tell you the Switch does not like that at all! With your three party members, all these nopon, and however many enemies decided to try to take you down in one fight, you're gonna see the framerate dip below 20 almost immediately. It also doesn't help that with so many nopon on screen it gets really hard to make out where smaller enemies are, making it awkward to try to get into position for position-based arts. It was a brave move to have that many characters in battle, but I do not think it was worth the hit to performance.
Overall, I don't hate this expansion, but I don't think it's something where I'll say to fans of Xenoblade Chronicles that they need to play it. You can skip this and lose absolutely nothing, story-wise. I feel that there are too many sacrifices made in regards to changes to the mechanics without enough additions to make it truly stand out gameplay wise, as well. At the very least, this is a mercifully short expansion, being around 8-10 hours long depending on how much time you devote to side content. If you're debating on picking up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition solely for the extra story campaign, I am sad to say that you won't find much here. My personal recommendation is to just stick with the base game and pretend this isn't a part of the edition, unless you care about some small unlocks for the base game that become available when you beat this.
Also at some point my brain called Melia Smellia and I can't stop calling her that now I don't even hate her I like her a lot but it's like an intrusive thought at this point and it won't turn off please help me please help me please hel
Well, this certainly whelmed me.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected is an expansion that tells the story of events that happen a year after the events of the main game. I won't be spoiling specific story events here, but I can definitely say that the story they present here is sadly not too terribly interesting. They try to answer some questions around Melia and the state of the High Entia after the events of the main game, but it really doesn't carry enough weight to make you truly invested in the plot. It also doesn't help that the main antagonist of this story doesn't evoke any real emotion from the player. They're meant to be this intimidating unrelenting force, but after coming off the main game and its strong cast of antagonists, the one they present here just feels so uninteresting and boring that at no point throughout my playthrough did I feel any personal desire to see it eradicated outside of wanting to see the credits roll.
Since this story expansion released a good number of years after the initial Wii release of Xenoblade Chronicles, the voice acting sounds noticeably different. It's very jarring in the beginning, and it doesn't help that they didn't rerecord the mid-battle call outs from the main game, but after a while you get used to it.
Outside of Shulk and Melia, two new nopon characters join your party. Character-wise, they're fine. They're mostly meant to be comic relief, but have their more interesting moments here and there. Gameplay wise, well, one of them is Reyn and the other is Sharla. They have no unique arts to use in combat at all. It's a shame, too, because I feel that an expansion like this would be an excellent opportunity to try to make characters that allow you to employ new strategies not possible in the original, giving it truly its own unique feel. For whatever reason, they played it safe, and I feel like we lost something there as a result.
With this story expansion, they made a ton of changes to the gameplay. I won't be listing them all, of course, but I'll mention the ones that stand out the most to me.
Firstly, gone are the affinity chart and equippable skills. I understand why this was done, as this is a smaller story expansion and the player may not have time to fill out affinities with the party members during the short runtime, but at the same time I feel that a ton of incentive to mix and match party members was lost as a result. I wound up using a party that was Shulk, Melia, and the Reyn nopon for the entire campaign because I had no real reason to try any other combination, and that really upsets me. Of course, I could've switched things up, but without the incentives in place from the main game, or any new ones, I didn't feel any real need or desire to.
With affinity gone, so are Heart-to-Hearts. Thankfully, though, they were replaced with an alternative in the form of Quiet Moments. These take a different form from Heart-to-Hearts, with these being fully voiced cutscenes that display a scene between two party members bonding rather than it being a text-based interaction with dialogue options to choose from. They're cute and do a good job fleshing out the personalities of your party members. As you progress the plot, more become available to you, and I feel that they're always worth hunting down to take a break from the action and enjoy a fun back-and-forth between characters.
The last major change I'll discuss here is the removal of chain attacks. This devastating move was replaced by a new system, entirely based around specific nopon you find and help in the open world. As you assist these nopon, they join your party. They aren't full party members, but they'll join you in battles to occasionally do things like attack, heal, or dish out debuffs. Once you find enough of them, you unlock the ability to use the chain attack replacement, which lets you choose between three special moves: one deals extra damage to an enemy, one heals and buffs the party, and the other dazes and debuffs the enemy. While I prefer the utility of chain attacks, I do think it's neat that they attempted something new here and it did help out during tense battles, so I won't say I hated it.
Also, when I say that these nopon join your party, I don't mean that it's the kind of party-joining where they're invisible when you're running around the area and then a few of them appear during battle occasionally to do things randomly. Oh, no, they went the extra mile here. The nopon that join your party are always visible, following you around the world Map and joining in every battle. You get over 10 of these guys, too, and let me tell you the Switch does not like that at all! With your three party members, all these nopon, and however many enemies decided to try to take you down in one fight, you're gonna see the framerate dip below 20 almost immediately. It also doesn't help that with so many nopon on screen it gets really hard to make out where smaller enemies are, making it awkward to try to get into position for position-based arts. It was a brave move to have that many characters in battle, but I do not think it was worth the hit to performance.
Overall, I don't hate this expansion, but I don't think it's something where I'll say to fans of Xenoblade Chronicles that they need to play it. You can skip this and lose absolutely nothing, story-wise. I feel that there are too many sacrifices made in regards to changes to the mechanics without enough additions to make it truly stand out gameplay wise, as well. At the very least, this is a mercifully short expansion, being around 8-10 hours long depending on how much time you devote to side content. If you're debating on picking up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition solely for the extra story campaign, I am sad to say that you won't find much here. My personal recommendation is to just stick with the base game and pretend this isn't a part of the edition, unless you care about some small unlocks for the base game that become available when you beat this.
[Average Reading Time: 9 Minutes]
A future changed, for the better.
Back when the Operation Rainfall movement happened, I knew very little about the games involved in it, this one being among them. It wasn't until years later I would be exposed to this game via a 100% Let's Play video series from around 10 years ago. Watching that series sparked my interest in what would become the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, leading to me buying multiple games in the series.
There was just one problem, though.
As interested as I was in playing the games in this series, I just couldn't beat them. I would always lose interest at some point. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles X, and never beat it. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and barely got past the intro. I bought a New 3DS XL at launch specifically to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I didn't even come close to beating that version.
At some point down the road, Nintendo would release this, the definitive way of playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I saw this version come into existence and decided enough was enough. I wouldn't let this series keep escaping me like this. I needed to beat at least one of these games! I think they're neat and do cool stuff, and I wanted so badly to get immersed into it and savor the experience, especially since it had been long enough for me to forget most of the details about the plot of the game after watching that video series.
Long story short, I bought the game near launch and stopped at some point I can only vaguely remember.
Now, after all this time, nearly 8 years of playing and dropping these games, I made it my mission this year to beat this game, and I am happy to say that after 75 hours, I succeeded, and boy is there a ton here to like, and some to dislike.
Now, I refuse to spoil the story here, so I will talk about it vaguely. I think the plot is interesting and engaging, but it takes a while for it to become more engaging. Because of that, I implore new players to give the plot time to develop, as the deeper you go into this game, the more twists and drama you'll find. Plus, you'll get to know all the characters in your party more, which is great because they all find ways to be interesting and you'll easily end the game with favorites that may differ from the tastes of others, or it'll be Reyn. Reyn is such a good boy I love that himbo so much.
As for the gameplay, I think that the systems this game implements are very well-designed. They all interweave with one another in a way that helps you get the feeling that everything you do makes you stronger in some way. It's honestly hard to describe how one system works without bringing up another system and how that works and so on and so forth. There's enough going on here that listing them all would make this already long review even longer than it needs to be, so I'm going to try to simplify things as much as I can by describing a common scenario in this game.
So Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that has a ton of side quests. Whenever you go into an area populated with friendly NPCs, you'll find that many of them have tasks for you to do, whether it's killing monsters, finding items, or talking to other NPCs. Sometimes you'll receive side quests that have multiple different outcomes depending on who you talk to or what you do. I'll talk more in depth about my opinions about how side quests are implemented in this game later, but I wanted to establish what they are before I went on with my example scenario.
Let's say you're talking to an NPC that's giving you a side quest. As one party member talks with an NPC, there's a chance another party member will chime into the conversation, which raises the affinity levels between said characters. Raising affinity between characters is important for many reasons, but to name an important one, party members that are closer to one another can share skills with one another, which allows party members to have access to skills they would not be able to equip otherwise.
By the end of the conversation, you have your objective and the rewards you'll get for completing the quest, if the game wants you to see them. These could be experience points, money, equipment, and equipment-enhancing items called gems, just to name a few things. You can then track the quest, which points you in the direction of what needs to be done.
Let's assume the quest giver needs you to defeat enemies. Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles is MMO-style, in that you attack automatically and choose special abilities to use strategically in combat. Depending on your party composition, you may be able to employ strategies that utilize the unique abilities that each party member possesses. There aren't any truly ineffective party compositions you can have, so you're free to experiment to see how different parties function in combat.
Each party member has a unique style. You have your DPS, your Tank, your Healer, your buff-distributor, and others that have special concentrations. How you set up your party is up to you. You may want to maximize damage by having a party full of attackers, or you may choose to have someone who can soften up the enemy with debuffs or have someone who can reliably heal the party present to ensure that you'll survive to the end of the fight. I enjoyed mixing and matching party members to see what styles fit me the best, and I think that is one of the most satisfying parts of this game.
As you fight, there will occasionally be a quick-time prompt that when completed will not only fill a bar for a special move, but it will also increase your affinity with party members. When party members are incapacitated or are in low spirits during a fight, you can help or encourage them during a battle to help them out and raise affinity levels. When you defeat an enemy, outside of the experience points, you get skill points and ability points. Skill points allow party members to unlock new skills, and ability points allow you to improve the abilities you currently have. They also drop chests, which can include items needed for other quests, equipment, or items that can be used to make gems.
Now you've completed the request of the NPC that gave you the quest. Time to return to them and reap the rewards. You talk to them, and just like the first conversation, a party member can chime in and raise affinity with the leading party member. By completing the quest, you also raise your affinity with the area you received that quest from, which will allow you to receive even more side quests from said area.
Now, let's review what just happened. By doing a single side quest, we got the rewards promised from the quest, which includes cash for new equipment, experience points to level us up, and new equipment and gems to keep us in shape for the coming battles. We got higher affinity between party members, new items from monsters, and the ability to receive even more side quests from the area.
We saw side quest mechanics, affinity mechanics, and combat mechanics. We got stronger not only in terms of experience points for levels, but in terms of having stronger equipment, new gems to enhance our equipment, and more skill and ability points from the enemies we fought. All of these things are intertwining through just one side quest, and it all happens so seamlessly and naturally. Throughout this game you're constantly getting stronger in so many ways just by doing side quests and progressing the plot and it's so satisfying. I wish I appreciated the mechanics as much as I do now back when I first played this game, because if I did, I may have beaten this game way sooner.
I want to now talk about my favorite mechanic in this game, and one that I consider one of the most interesting mechanics in a game I've played.
The main character, Shulk, has the ability to see into the future. It would be easy to assume that if you could gaze into the future that life would be a breeze, but for Shulk it most certainly isn't, and the plot will cover that thoroughly. I'm not talking about how this effects the plot. I'm talking about how this effects gameplay.
When fighting tough enemies, Shulk may experience a vision of the future, which shows you that an enemy is about to unleash a powerful move that may incapacitate a party member. You then have the ability to change the future by performing actions to mitigate or cancel out completely the effects of the move. You can also warn other party members about the future, which lets you select an ability of theirs to use to help you change the future. I think this adds a very interesting dynamic to combat, forcing the player to think on their feet when enemies decide to put more pressure on them.
Visions can occur outside of combat, as well. Sometimes when you pick up an item, you'll get a vision of how that item will be used to solve someone's problem. It can also happen when you're receiving a side quest, showing you an outcome that can occur if you don't intervene to help. It really does feel like they made the most of the concept of future sight for this title, and it always gains my interest when I see it go off and give me some new information.
With all these things I like about this game, there are definitely some things that hold it back.
Perhaps the most egregious issue I have with this game is that it really, REALLY wants you to do a ton of side quests. More often than not you'll find yourself hitting walls in terms of difficulty if you don't do them to keep up with the level curve. You'll easily be spending hours completing side quests before making progress in the story, which can be off-putting for many. I will admit that I grew tired of it myself by the time I reached the endgame. This version of Xenoblade Chronicles very mercifully also includes a casual mode, which makes you stronger and enemies weaker, which helps to save time if you just want to enjoy the plot. I wound up using this at the end of the game because the alternative would be another few hours of side quests, which did not sound ideal after 75 hours of gameplay.
Another issue I have also relates to side quests. Sometimes, you'll be tasked with being in a specific area under specific weather conditions to get a specific NPC or monster to appear. You have the ability to alter the time of day from the pause menu, which is convenient. However, you are unable to see what the weather will be until you've already changed the time, which means going into the menu, changing the time, seeing if it's the weather you need, and if it's not, repeating the process over and over again until you get the results you want. It gets very tiresome very quickly and I wish that for this version they made the weather conditions more visible to players before they set a specific time to go to.
The overabundant side quests and the game's reliance on the player completing them can take the wind out of any player's sails as they play this game. If you can stomach that part of the game or are willing to turn on the new casual mode, though, you will get to experience an engaging story with great characters, as well as a killer soundtrack. The game nails ambient tracks as you explore the world, giving a good sense of adventure as you go through new areas. The music kicks up during combat, with tracks like "You Will Know Our Names" keeping you motivated to take down tough foes.
If you like the idea of a single-player MMO with a huge world to explore, fun characters to meet, a plot that gets more and more engaging as you play, and satisfying gameplay mechanics, I implore you to give Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a shot!
Okay review's over TAKE THE ALLEYOOP CHALLENGE TODAY!! Every time you jump when playing as the character Reyn, he will randomly either grunt or say "Alleyoop!" How many times can you get Reyn to say "Alleyoop!" in a row? My record's 11. Here's a video where someone gets a 17 "Alleyoop!" chain! What's your "Alleyoop!" score? Share yours in the comments!
A future changed, for the better.
Back when the Operation Rainfall movement happened, I knew very little about the games involved in it, this one being among them. It wasn't until years later I would be exposed to this game via a 100% Let's Play video series from around 10 years ago. Watching that series sparked my interest in what would become the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, leading to me buying multiple games in the series.
There was just one problem, though.
As interested as I was in playing the games in this series, I just couldn't beat them. I would always lose interest at some point. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles X, and never beat it. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and barely got past the intro. I bought a New 3DS XL at launch specifically to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I didn't even come close to beating that version.
At some point down the road, Nintendo would release this, the definitive way of playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I saw this version come into existence and decided enough was enough. I wouldn't let this series keep escaping me like this. I needed to beat at least one of these games! I think they're neat and do cool stuff, and I wanted so badly to get immersed into it and savor the experience, especially since it had been long enough for me to forget most of the details about the plot of the game after watching that video series.
Long story short, I bought the game near launch and stopped at some point I can only vaguely remember.
Now, after all this time, nearly 8 years of playing and dropping these games, I made it my mission this year to beat this game, and I am happy to say that after 75 hours, I succeeded, and boy is there a ton here to like, and some to dislike.
Now, I refuse to spoil the story here, so I will talk about it vaguely. I think the plot is interesting and engaging, but it takes a while for it to become more engaging. Because of that, I implore new players to give the plot time to develop, as the deeper you go into this game, the more twists and drama you'll find. Plus, you'll get to know all the characters in your party more, which is great because they all find ways to be interesting and you'll easily end the game with favorites that may differ from the tastes of others, or it'll be Reyn. Reyn is such a good boy I love that himbo so much.
As for the gameplay, I think that the systems this game implements are very well-designed. They all interweave with one another in a way that helps you get the feeling that everything you do makes you stronger in some way. It's honestly hard to describe how one system works without bringing up another system and how that works and so on and so forth. There's enough going on here that listing them all would make this already long review even longer than it needs to be, so I'm going to try to simplify things as much as I can by describing a common scenario in this game.
So Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that has a ton of side quests. Whenever you go into an area populated with friendly NPCs, you'll find that many of them have tasks for you to do, whether it's killing monsters, finding items, or talking to other NPCs. Sometimes you'll receive side quests that have multiple different outcomes depending on who you talk to or what you do. I'll talk more in depth about my opinions about how side quests are implemented in this game later, but I wanted to establish what they are before I went on with my example scenario.
Let's say you're talking to an NPC that's giving you a side quest. As one party member talks with an NPC, there's a chance another party member will chime into the conversation, which raises the affinity levels between said characters. Raising affinity between characters is important for many reasons, but to name an important one, party members that are closer to one another can share skills with one another, which allows party members to have access to skills they would not be able to equip otherwise.
By the end of the conversation, you have your objective and the rewards you'll get for completing the quest, if the game wants you to see them. These could be experience points, money, equipment, and equipment-enhancing items called gems, just to name a few things. You can then track the quest, which points you in the direction of what needs to be done.
Let's assume the quest giver needs you to defeat enemies. Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles is MMO-style, in that you attack automatically and choose special abilities to use strategically in combat. Depending on your party composition, you may be able to employ strategies that utilize the unique abilities that each party member possesses. There aren't any truly ineffective party compositions you can have, so you're free to experiment to see how different parties function in combat.
Each party member has a unique style. You have your DPS, your Tank, your Healer, your buff-distributor, and others that have special concentrations. How you set up your party is up to you. You may want to maximize damage by having a party full of attackers, or you may choose to have someone who can soften up the enemy with debuffs or have someone who can reliably heal the party present to ensure that you'll survive to the end of the fight. I enjoyed mixing and matching party members to see what styles fit me the best, and I think that is one of the most satisfying parts of this game.
As you fight, there will occasionally be a quick-time prompt that when completed will not only fill a bar for a special move, but it will also increase your affinity with party members. When party members are incapacitated or are in low spirits during a fight, you can help or encourage them during a battle to help them out and raise affinity levels. When you defeat an enemy, outside of the experience points, you get skill points and ability points. Skill points allow party members to unlock new skills, and ability points allow you to improve the abilities you currently have. They also drop chests, which can include items needed for other quests, equipment, or items that can be used to make gems.
Now you've completed the request of the NPC that gave you the quest. Time to return to them and reap the rewards. You talk to them, and just like the first conversation, a party member can chime in and raise affinity with the leading party member. By completing the quest, you also raise your affinity with the area you received that quest from, which will allow you to receive even more side quests from said area.
Now, let's review what just happened. By doing a single side quest, we got the rewards promised from the quest, which includes cash for new equipment, experience points to level us up, and new equipment and gems to keep us in shape for the coming battles. We got higher affinity between party members, new items from monsters, and the ability to receive even more side quests from the area.
We saw side quest mechanics, affinity mechanics, and combat mechanics. We got stronger not only in terms of experience points for levels, but in terms of having stronger equipment, new gems to enhance our equipment, and more skill and ability points from the enemies we fought. All of these things are intertwining through just one side quest, and it all happens so seamlessly and naturally. Throughout this game you're constantly getting stronger in so many ways just by doing side quests and progressing the plot and it's so satisfying. I wish I appreciated the mechanics as much as I do now back when I first played this game, because if I did, I may have beaten this game way sooner.
I want to now talk about my favorite mechanic in this game, and one that I consider one of the most interesting mechanics in a game I've played.
The main character, Shulk, has the ability to see into the future. It would be easy to assume that if you could gaze into the future that life would be a breeze, but for Shulk it most certainly isn't, and the plot will cover that thoroughly. I'm not talking about how this effects the plot. I'm talking about how this effects gameplay.
When fighting tough enemies, Shulk may experience a vision of the future, which shows you that an enemy is about to unleash a powerful move that may incapacitate a party member. You then have the ability to change the future by performing actions to mitigate or cancel out completely the effects of the move. You can also warn other party members about the future, which lets you select an ability of theirs to use to help you change the future. I think this adds a very interesting dynamic to combat, forcing the player to think on their feet when enemies decide to put more pressure on them.
Visions can occur outside of combat, as well. Sometimes when you pick up an item, you'll get a vision of how that item will be used to solve someone's problem. It can also happen when you're receiving a side quest, showing you an outcome that can occur if you don't intervene to help. It really does feel like they made the most of the concept of future sight for this title, and it always gains my interest when I see it go off and give me some new information.
With all these things I like about this game, there are definitely some things that hold it back.
Perhaps the most egregious issue I have with this game is that it really, REALLY wants you to do a ton of side quests. More often than not you'll find yourself hitting walls in terms of difficulty if you don't do them to keep up with the level curve. You'll easily be spending hours completing side quests before making progress in the story, which can be off-putting for many. I will admit that I grew tired of it myself by the time I reached the endgame. This version of Xenoblade Chronicles very mercifully also includes a casual mode, which makes you stronger and enemies weaker, which helps to save time if you just want to enjoy the plot. I wound up using this at the end of the game because the alternative would be another few hours of side quests, which did not sound ideal after 75 hours of gameplay.
Another issue I have also relates to side quests. Sometimes, you'll be tasked with being in a specific area under specific weather conditions to get a specific NPC or monster to appear. You have the ability to alter the time of day from the pause menu, which is convenient. However, you are unable to see what the weather will be until you've already changed the time, which means going into the menu, changing the time, seeing if it's the weather you need, and if it's not, repeating the process over and over again until you get the results you want. It gets very tiresome very quickly and I wish that for this version they made the weather conditions more visible to players before they set a specific time to go to.
The overabundant side quests and the game's reliance on the player completing them can take the wind out of any player's sails as they play this game. If you can stomach that part of the game or are willing to turn on the new casual mode, though, you will get to experience an engaging story with great characters, as well as a killer soundtrack. The game nails ambient tracks as you explore the world, giving a good sense of adventure as you go through new areas. The music kicks up during combat, with tracks like "You Will Know Our Names" keeping you motivated to take down tough foes.
If you like the idea of a single-player MMO with a huge world to explore, fun characters to meet, a plot that gets more and more engaging as you play, and satisfying gameplay mechanics, I implore you to give Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a shot!
Okay review's over TAKE THE ALLEYOOP CHALLENGE TODAY!! Every time you jump when playing as the character Reyn, he will randomly either grunt or say "Alleyoop!" How many times can you get Reyn to say "Alleyoop!" in a row? My record's 11. Here's a video where someone gets a 17 "Alleyoop!" chain! What's your "Alleyoop!" score? Share yours in the comments!
2016
[Average Reading Time: 6 Minutes]
Kiwami means Extreme
After beating Yakuza 0 last year, I decided that this year I would continue exploring this series by playing Yakuza Kiwami. I've never experienced the original PlayStation 2 release of this title, so I can't compare it to that at all. While I am curious about that version, I'll have to save that dive for another day.
Playing this game was certainly a treat, for the most part. Experiencing the story of this game often left me excited to see what would happen next. It's very much a crime drama that has tons of twists and turns, so if you like those you'll love this. Even if you aren't too experienced with action games like this, this game is honestly pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty. I played through on the Normal skill level, and I was constantly being showered in health items and was able to make myself pretty strong very quickly, so I feel that anyone can brute force their way through this game if they wanted to. This is definitely an experience that can be had by anyone!
One of the core parts of Yakuza Kiwami's gameplay is the combat. You get four different styles to fight enemies with, each having a unique playstyle. As you play, you'll get used to often switching styles on the fly, which can be done with the push of a button, to take advantage of scenarios that lend themselves to specific styles of fighting. You also gain access to special moves called Heat Actions, which use a meter to allow Kiryu to unleash powerful moves that make quick work of foes. Mastering the styles and learning when to use specific styles in combat is one of the best parts of playing this game. Nothing is more satisfying than building up a ton of heat with one style and then quickly switching to another to use a heat action that knocks out a crowd of foes!
You can unlock new abilities and combos for three of your styles by gaining experience points from fighting enemies, eating food, and completing substories (more on those later). One style, the Dragon style, can only be enhanced in specific scenarios. A majority of these scenarios revolve around a gimmick referred to as Majima Everywhere. Majima is not only a comfort character of mine (seriously seeing him always brings a smile to my face LOOK AT HIM GO THAT'S MY SON) but he is also literally everywhere. He's in alleys, dumpsters, cars, anywhere he can try to sneak up on ya and force you into a fight. By beating him in combat (which gets harder over time) you'll begin to unlock more moves and abilities for this style. You'll have to fight him a lot in order to get all the skills, so try not to go too wild with this if you really want to see the main story unfold. You don't need to worry about this, but it is fun having some tougher fights to keep you on your toes.
Speaking of things that keep players from seeing the story unfold, let's talk about one of the biggest draws of the Yakuza franchise, the side content! Mini games and substories await you, and man is there a TON in this game. Substories are basically side quests, often being very short. These will often reward you with cash, rare items, and experience points. The more of these you do, the easier it'll be to make Kiryu really strong! Plus they're all pretty entertaining and show more of Kiryu's goofy side (Kiryu is also a comfort character of mine I love my stoic strong responsible son who's very good at falling for scams).
Mini games are aplenty here. Karaoke, casinos, and bar games like darts will do a good job of keeping you entertained for a small while. There are two mini games that gained a lot of my attention during my playthrough, however. One is MesuKing, a kid's card game where you collect trading cards that display provocative scenes of barely dressed women wrestling and then use them to battle in Rock-Paper-Scissors matches against children (it's as insane as it sounds). These cards are scattered all across Kamurocho, and the more you find, the more options you'll have when setting up your deck. Despite it being Rock-Paper-Scissors at the end of the day, finding new fighters and moves to use and seeing them in action as you trounce the kid who always picks rock for the twentieth time is very satisfying.
The other mini game that ate more time than it ethically should have was Pocket Circuit! Players of Yakuza 0 will recognize this one. Collect parts for your car and tune it to be just right to get the edge over opponents on the race track. It's surprisingly really deep, and I often spent over an hour fine-tuning my racer to be able to get it to clear a track in first place. It's easily the most interesting of the mini games to play in this game, and I highly recommend any Yakuza Kiwami player to not overlook it!
Fighting and checking out side content also earns you Completion Points, which can be redeemed for items and abilities, like being able to run without getting tired or gaining accessories that allow you to find hard-to-see items. One accessory you can get allows you to see the locations of all currently accessible substories, and this one item brought my playthrough to a major halt. I began exploring everywhere, doing as many as I could because of how beneficial they were. This also caused me to get engrossed in finding every MesuKing card as well as spending way too much time with Pocket Circuit because of course there are substories tied to them WhY wOuLdN't ThErE bE? I got that thing in Chapter 4 and I think I spent over 10 hours of my playthrough in that chapter because of it. Do I regret any of it? Absolutely not. The side content of this game is great fun and absolutely worth seeking out. However, it's important that players don't get too lost in the sauce of the side content so they can see that plot unfold!
If I had to think of any issues I had with this game, it would be with some of the enemies you face towards the end of the game. Towards the very end, you'll begin encountering lots of enemies that use guns, which interrupt your combos and immediately knock you to the ground, requiring you to mash the X button to get back up before another enemy hits you while you're down. It is very possible to enter a situation where one enemy shoots you, you get pummeled by others, and then when you get up another enemy shoots you, repeating the cycle. These are escapable, but they are very annoying. I also began getting annoyed by some of the later game bosses, who really like to dodge out of your moves and begin countering you real fast. I found that the best strategy for these was to use the Rush style and quick step around them constantly to get behind them to punish them, but this quickly became the song and dance for most bosses because of just how many acted like this. I wanted to take advantage of other styles but their dodges didn't move fast enough to allow me to do some serious damage, so I'm a bit sour about that.
Overall, I really enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami. my playthrough lasted 31 hours, but probably would've been a little over 20 if I didn't do so much side content. I enjoyed exploring Kamurocho, playing mini games, fighting Majima, and seeing what the plot had to offer. Needless to say I'm excited to see how this is expanded upon in Yakuza Kiwami 2, and I highly encourage those who want to give this series a shot to play this game!
Kiwami means Extreme
After beating Yakuza 0 last year, I decided that this year I would continue exploring this series by playing Yakuza Kiwami. I've never experienced the original PlayStation 2 release of this title, so I can't compare it to that at all. While I am curious about that version, I'll have to save that dive for another day.
Playing this game was certainly a treat, for the most part. Experiencing the story of this game often left me excited to see what would happen next. It's very much a crime drama that has tons of twists and turns, so if you like those you'll love this. Even if you aren't too experienced with action games like this, this game is honestly pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty. I played through on the Normal skill level, and I was constantly being showered in health items and was able to make myself pretty strong very quickly, so I feel that anyone can brute force their way through this game if they wanted to. This is definitely an experience that can be had by anyone!
One of the core parts of Yakuza Kiwami's gameplay is the combat. You get four different styles to fight enemies with, each having a unique playstyle. As you play, you'll get used to often switching styles on the fly, which can be done with the push of a button, to take advantage of scenarios that lend themselves to specific styles of fighting. You also gain access to special moves called Heat Actions, which use a meter to allow Kiryu to unleash powerful moves that make quick work of foes. Mastering the styles and learning when to use specific styles in combat is one of the best parts of playing this game. Nothing is more satisfying than building up a ton of heat with one style and then quickly switching to another to use a heat action that knocks out a crowd of foes!
You can unlock new abilities and combos for three of your styles by gaining experience points from fighting enemies, eating food, and completing substories (more on those later). One style, the Dragon style, can only be enhanced in specific scenarios. A majority of these scenarios revolve around a gimmick referred to as Majima Everywhere. Majima is not only a comfort character of mine (seriously seeing him always brings a smile to my face LOOK AT HIM GO THAT'S MY SON) but he is also literally everywhere. He's in alleys, dumpsters, cars, anywhere he can try to sneak up on ya and force you into a fight. By beating him in combat (which gets harder over time) you'll begin to unlock more moves and abilities for this style. You'll have to fight him a lot in order to get all the skills, so try not to go too wild with this if you really want to see the main story unfold. You don't need to worry about this, but it is fun having some tougher fights to keep you on your toes.
Speaking of things that keep players from seeing the story unfold, let's talk about one of the biggest draws of the Yakuza franchise, the side content! Mini games and substories await you, and man is there a TON in this game. Substories are basically side quests, often being very short. These will often reward you with cash, rare items, and experience points. The more of these you do, the easier it'll be to make Kiryu really strong! Plus they're all pretty entertaining and show more of Kiryu's goofy side (Kiryu is also a comfort character of mine I love my stoic strong responsible son who's very good at falling for scams).
Mini games are aplenty here. Karaoke, casinos, and bar games like darts will do a good job of keeping you entertained for a small while. There are two mini games that gained a lot of my attention during my playthrough, however. One is MesuKing, a kid's card game where you collect trading cards that display provocative scenes of barely dressed women wrestling and then use them to battle in Rock-Paper-Scissors matches against children (it's as insane as it sounds). These cards are scattered all across Kamurocho, and the more you find, the more options you'll have when setting up your deck. Despite it being Rock-Paper-Scissors at the end of the day, finding new fighters and moves to use and seeing them in action as you trounce the kid who always picks rock for the twentieth time is very satisfying.
The other mini game that ate more time than it ethically should have was Pocket Circuit! Players of Yakuza 0 will recognize this one. Collect parts for your car and tune it to be just right to get the edge over opponents on the race track. It's surprisingly really deep, and I often spent over an hour fine-tuning my racer to be able to get it to clear a track in first place. It's easily the most interesting of the mini games to play in this game, and I highly recommend any Yakuza Kiwami player to not overlook it!
Fighting and checking out side content also earns you Completion Points, which can be redeemed for items and abilities, like being able to run without getting tired or gaining accessories that allow you to find hard-to-see items. One accessory you can get allows you to see the locations of all currently accessible substories, and this one item brought my playthrough to a major halt. I began exploring everywhere, doing as many as I could because of how beneficial they were. This also caused me to get engrossed in finding every MesuKing card as well as spending way too much time with Pocket Circuit because of course there are substories tied to them WhY wOuLdN't ThErE bE? I got that thing in Chapter 4 and I think I spent over 10 hours of my playthrough in that chapter because of it. Do I regret any of it? Absolutely not. The side content of this game is great fun and absolutely worth seeking out. However, it's important that players don't get too lost in the sauce of the side content so they can see that plot unfold!
If I had to think of any issues I had with this game, it would be with some of the enemies you face towards the end of the game. Towards the very end, you'll begin encountering lots of enemies that use guns, which interrupt your combos and immediately knock you to the ground, requiring you to mash the X button to get back up before another enemy hits you while you're down. It is very possible to enter a situation where one enemy shoots you, you get pummeled by others, and then when you get up another enemy shoots you, repeating the cycle. These are escapable, but they are very annoying. I also began getting annoyed by some of the later game bosses, who really like to dodge out of your moves and begin countering you real fast. I found that the best strategy for these was to use the Rush style and quick step around them constantly to get behind them to punish them, but this quickly became the song and dance for most bosses because of just how many acted like this. I wanted to take advantage of other styles but their dodges didn't move fast enough to allow me to do some serious damage, so I'm a bit sour about that.
Overall, I really enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami. my playthrough lasted 31 hours, but probably would've been a little over 20 if I didn't do so much side content. I enjoyed exploring Kamurocho, playing mini games, fighting Majima, and seeing what the plot had to offer. Needless to say I'm excited to see how this is expanded upon in Yakuza Kiwami 2, and I highly encourage those who want to give this series a shot to play this game!
1994
As the new year approaches, I felt the need to beat at least one more game before the clock strikes 12 here. I decided to give Donkey Kong Country another playthrough, but with a twist. I played through it using this MSU mod, which not only replaces the song that plays in each stage with a unique remix, but also shuffles the overworld music between multiple overworld remixes. Needless to say, it was a feast to the ears that kept fresh throughout the playthrough.
Speaking of the playthrough, man, the back half of this game is rough. They sure were cooking something when they decided that the player should beat 5 ice world levels before getting the chance to save! DKC isn't an easy romp, but despite that it's still a great time. The graphics look good, the game feels great, and even without the mod the music is stellar. You're missing out of you don't give DKC a shot at least once in your life, even if you don't beat it.
END OF YEAR RAMBLINGS BELOW THIS POINT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I wasn't expecting this to be the last game I beat before 2024 but here we are, I guess. At the start of this year, I had only just gotten really into using this site. Since then, I've grown to really like this place. Writing reviews has been a fun way to express myself, and seeing what other people have to say on this site is always a treat. I'm looking forward to writing more stuff in 2024, all while tackling my backlog, getting used to the married life, and taking on whatever other challenges and changes life throws my way. I hope everyone has an exciting 2024 full of fun games and good times!
Speaking of the playthrough, man, the back half of this game is rough. They sure were cooking something when they decided that the player should beat 5 ice world levels before getting the chance to save! DKC isn't an easy romp, but despite that it's still a great time. The graphics look good, the game feels great, and even without the mod the music is stellar. You're missing out of you don't give DKC a shot at least once in your life, even if you don't beat it.
END OF YEAR RAMBLINGS BELOW THIS POINT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I wasn't expecting this to be the last game I beat before 2024 but here we are, I guess. At the start of this year, I had only just gotten really into using this site. Since then, I've grown to really like this place. Writing reviews has been a fun way to express myself, and seeing what other people have to say on this site is always a treat. I'm looking forward to writing more stuff in 2024, all while tackling my backlog, getting used to the married life, and taking on whatever other challenges and changes life throws my way. I hope everyone has an exciting 2024 full of fun games and good times!
2019
[Average Reading Time: 5 Minutes]
When people think about video games and what we do in them, more often than not some stereotypes enter their heads. Saving a princess, defeating a dark force, bringing peace to the world, etc. Video games give us the power to be who we aren't, doing amazing things we can't normally do that help others that don't exist in a world that we don't live in find happiness that exists so long as the credits are rolling. Despite the fiction of these scenarios in games, we are drawn to them. Is it because we want to feel strong? Is it because we want to feel like we are capable of doing things that can change the world around us? Is it because we want to be able to bring peace to the lives of those around us through our actions?
Video games can make people feel needed and important, but what if there was agame no, a piece of software that allows us to actually achieve these things in reality? A piece of software that allows us to connect with real people and aid them in their times of struggle? To be the light that guides others towards making right decisions, to be the comforting shoulder for someone to cry on as they vent their struggles, or perhaps to simply try to help them smile with some...
Kind Words
Kind Words is a piece of software that allows people to connect with others in ways traditional games do not typically offer. In Kind Words, your only objectives are to help others and seek help yourself. You'll find countless requests from other real anonymous people who are all struggling in some way. Whether people are lonely, sad after a breakup or being distanced by a friend, or are suffering in other ways, they are all real people who are looking for some guidance in a world that is confusing and scary. Kind Words allows users to respond to these requests, offering guidance, firendly advice, or just some kind words to help these people realize that they are not alone. They are valid. They deserve happiness, just the same as you and me. Users in Kind Words can not write back to one another, but they can send stickers along to people who respond to their requests to show how much they appreciate how you've taken time out of your busy life to consider the needs of a stranger.
Honestly, writing a letter to someone in Kind Words to try to help them through a struggle has always felt to me more impactful than anything I could do in a traditional video game. It makes me smile to know that my words can have impact on someone's life, and that I can help them find some comfort in this world, even if they will never know who I am. I don't need them to see a flashy profile with my socials on it to get some engagement numbers up or whatever. I just want to keep writing to others, saying things to them that can help them smile, and make them feel at peace. Kind Words allows me to connect with others in ways I don't often get to in reality. I'm not a therapist, but you don't need to be a therapist to offer a helping hand to those who are struggling. It's one of the greatest things about life that we don't ever think about because of how fast life moves. It's always worth keeping in mind, though, because your words and actions do matter, and what you say and do can help people in ways you may never fully comprehend.
That's one half of this game. The other half is where you can reach out to these strangers for guidance. You can ask for advice regarding anything that's making you upset in life. Are school courses giving you anxiety? Write about it. Feeling directionless in life? Vent away. When you write a request, it's shown to other players, and they may decide to write you back with kindness, hoping to make your day a little bit brighter. Before you know it, their letters will begin to appear in your inbox for you to carefully read and cherish. As you send requests and receive letters, you truly get a feeling for how naturally good people are as they take time out of their lives to address your concerns, saying things that can help you find direction and make you smile.
When I started writing requests when I started playing this game a few years back, I was at a point in my life where I was uncertain of my sexuality. I slowly grew to realize that I was asexual, and while it was comforting to reach this conclusion, it was also scary to me. I felt like I wouldn't be able to give others the satisfaction they wanted in a relationship, and that I would be left behind.
I felt broken.
As my worries grew, a part of me knew I needed to ask someone, anyone, for guidance. I didn't feel comfortable talking about it with family or friends at the time, despite knowing that they would accept me no matter what. That's when I turned to Kind Words, because I felt it was easier to ask strangers about my scenario in an anonymous state.
The response I received still makes me emotional to this day.
I received many letters from strangers. I was comforted by their words, with them telling me that I am not broken. That I deserve love as much as others do. That when I do find the right one, that person will accept me for who I am. I was offered advice, being told to be honest with future partners about my feelings, not to force myself to do things that make me uncomfortable for a partner's sake alone, and to not hang on to people who don't accept me for who I am.
These words and more were what came my way when I reached for help, and I could not be happier to see that I was not alone, and that I could find happiness as I am. I was reminded that people are naturally good, despite what we may see on social media or the news. When given the chance to, people will care about each other and do things to lift each other's spirits, and that is truly wonderful.
I've written many different requests since then, and I was always treated with the same level of kindness and understanding each time. I've also written tons of letters to strangers, reminding them that they are not alone, they do matter, and they deserve happiness.
While other games allow me to be someone I'm not, Kind Words allows me to be myself in all of the best ways.
Kind Words is only $5 on Steam, and a sequel is on the way that is fully compatible with the first game, so I implore you to give it a shot and see how good people can be to each other using their words.
Give it a shot. I highly doubt you'll regret it.
When people think about video games and what we do in them, more often than not some stereotypes enter their heads. Saving a princess, defeating a dark force, bringing peace to the world, etc. Video games give us the power to be who we aren't, doing amazing things we can't normally do that help others that don't exist in a world that we don't live in find happiness that exists so long as the credits are rolling. Despite the fiction of these scenarios in games, we are drawn to them. Is it because we want to feel strong? Is it because we want to feel like we are capable of doing things that can change the world around us? Is it because we want to be able to bring peace to the lives of those around us through our actions?
Video games can make people feel needed and important, but what if there was a
Kind Words
Kind Words is a piece of software that allows people to connect with others in ways traditional games do not typically offer. In Kind Words, your only objectives are to help others and seek help yourself. You'll find countless requests from other real anonymous people who are all struggling in some way. Whether people are lonely, sad after a breakup or being distanced by a friend, or are suffering in other ways, they are all real people who are looking for some guidance in a world that is confusing and scary. Kind Words allows users to respond to these requests, offering guidance, firendly advice, or just some kind words to help these people realize that they are not alone. They are valid. They deserve happiness, just the same as you and me. Users in Kind Words can not write back to one another, but they can send stickers along to people who respond to their requests to show how much they appreciate how you've taken time out of your busy life to consider the needs of a stranger.
Honestly, writing a letter to someone in Kind Words to try to help them through a struggle has always felt to me more impactful than anything I could do in a traditional video game. It makes me smile to know that my words can have impact on someone's life, and that I can help them find some comfort in this world, even if they will never know who I am. I don't need them to see a flashy profile with my socials on it to get some engagement numbers up or whatever. I just want to keep writing to others, saying things to them that can help them smile, and make them feel at peace. Kind Words allows me to connect with others in ways I don't often get to in reality. I'm not a therapist, but you don't need to be a therapist to offer a helping hand to those who are struggling. It's one of the greatest things about life that we don't ever think about because of how fast life moves. It's always worth keeping in mind, though, because your words and actions do matter, and what you say and do can help people in ways you may never fully comprehend.
That's one half of this game. The other half is where you can reach out to these strangers for guidance. You can ask for advice regarding anything that's making you upset in life. Are school courses giving you anxiety? Write about it. Feeling directionless in life? Vent away. When you write a request, it's shown to other players, and they may decide to write you back with kindness, hoping to make your day a little bit brighter. Before you know it, their letters will begin to appear in your inbox for you to carefully read and cherish. As you send requests and receive letters, you truly get a feeling for how naturally good people are as they take time out of their lives to address your concerns, saying things that can help you find direction and make you smile.
When I started writing requests when I started playing this game a few years back, I was at a point in my life where I was uncertain of my sexuality. I slowly grew to realize that I was asexual, and while it was comforting to reach this conclusion, it was also scary to me. I felt like I wouldn't be able to give others the satisfaction they wanted in a relationship, and that I would be left behind.
I felt broken.
As my worries grew, a part of me knew I needed to ask someone, anyone, for guidance. I didn't feel comfortable talking about it with family or friends at the time, despite knowing that they would accept me no matter what. That's when I turned to Kind Words, because I felt it was easier to ask strangers about my scenario in an anonymous state.
The response I received still makes me emotional to this day.
I received many letters from strangers. I was comforted by their words, with them telling me that I am not broken. That I deserve love as much as others do. That when I do find the right one, that person will accept me for who I am. I was offered advice, being told to be honest with future partners about my feelings, not to force myself to do things that make me uncomfortable for a partner's sake alone, and to not hang on to people who don't accept me for who I am.
These words and more were what came my way when I reached for help, and I could not be happier to see that I was not alone, and that I could find happiness as I am. I was reminded that people are naturally good, despite what we may see on social media or the news. When given the chance to, people will care about each other and do things to lift each other's spirits, and that is truly wonderful.
I've written many different requests since then, and I was always treated with the same level of kindness and understanding each time. I've also written tons of letters to strangers, reminding them that they are not alone, they do matter, and they deserve happiness.
While other games allow me to be someone I'm not, Kind Words allows me to be myself in all of the best ways.
Kind Words is only $5 on Steam, and a sequel is on the way that is fully compatible with the first game, so I implore you to give it a shot and see how good people can be to each other using their words.
Give it a shot. I highly doubt you'll regret it.
2023
[Average Reading Time: 7 Minutes]
DISCLAIMER: This playthrough was completed on real hardware using version 0.9.2 of the mod. There may be bugs or issues mentioned in this review that have been remedied in a more recent update. Please check the patch notes of the mod for any updated information!
When you first hear the title Paper Mario TTYD64, you'll probably assume that this is someone's effort to recreate all of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. In this case, your assumption would be wrong. Rather, Paper Mario TTYD64 is a hack that aims to take elements of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and inject them into Paper Mario. These elements include things such as giving partners HP, removing the caps on stat growth when leveling up (for example, you are no longer limited to having a maximum of 30 BP), and super-guarding. This mod also adds new locations to the world, some of which are re-created areas from The Thousand-Year Door. Alongside that, you are given access to many badges from that game, including partner versions of some badges. There are also new cooking recipes, items, a Pit of 100 Trials, and new hiding locations for star pieces, so veterans of Paper Mario will have many new things to look forward to here.
As for how the game plays with these new additions, I would say it plays a little bit better than the original, especially since now you don't have to complete the prologue before getting access to action commands. Having these in your toolkit from the get-go definitely helps to speed up the intro, making new playthroughs feel snappier. Having access to the super-guard also makes things more interesting, as you now have a riskier but more rewarding way to counter enemy attacks. Sadly, I did not use it as much as I would have in The Thousand-Year Door, if only because it is much more difficult to use than regular guarding, especially in a game that runs at a lower frame-rate than the game where this mechanic was introduced. I also found it weird that in the tutorial for action commands, Twink never goes over this maneuver. I feel like this should be added in a later patch, as there is always the chance someone new to this mod will not know it is there.
Being able to increase the three core stats (HP, FP, and BP) beyond the regular limit is very rewarding. By the end of my playthrough, I had over 70 BP to use, allowing me to become the powerhouse I always wanted to be in this game. With these limitations removed, the level cap is also increased, allowing you to level beyond level 27, as the game will make sure you get at least 1 star point from every encounter, much like the sequel. Now, you would think that this means you can go to Petal Meadows and fight Amazy Dayzees over and over and level up until the cows come home. Sadly, that is not the case here. Once you hit level 27, all enemies stop giving star points when defeated. This means that when you hit level 27, you go from getting 37 star points off of an Amazy Dayzee to just one, which is extremely saddening. I am not sure if this is an issue carried over from vanilla Paper Mario or an intentional move from the mod creator, but I do hope that in a later patch this is fixed and players can continue to grind levels off Amazy Dayzees after hitting level 27.
Enemies can now also hold items and badges, changing how encounters play out immensely. Are you going to target the enemy holding a thunder rage first? Or will you attack the one holding a dizzy dial? While there may be fights where the amount of items being held by enemies causes a truly daunting challenge, overcoming said challenge can feel very rewarding. Also, along with the aforementioned addition of HP for party members, Parakarry has been given a new move called Parcel Check, which allows him to steal items and badges from enemies. If an enemy is holding something, you can take it! This is very handy as it will allow you to quickly grow a varied badge collection, allowing for all sorts of interesting builds.
There are many new locations sprinkled into the world of Paper Mario in this mod, one of which being the Pit of 100 Trials, first introduced in the sequel to this game. While many will find the pit's challenges daunting, it is very much worth exploring until at least floor 50. Veterans of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will know why. Of course, the deeper you go, the more arduous the battles become. Thankfully, like in the sequel's pit, there is an NPC called a mover that will move you a handful of floors for some coins. I was thankful enough to encounter many of these in a row in my journey to the bottom of the pit, chaining 4 of them in a row on the later floors. I had to change tactics during the final stretch, however, aiming for a "Danger"-based build to maximize evasion and damage output. Despite how stressful the final encounter of the pit was (I won't be spoiling it here), it was definitely a great challenge that I recommend players attempt when playing this mod.
Funnily enough, it was after completing the pit when I learned of a new problem I had with this mod. There is a limit on how many badges you can have in your inventory at any given time. This should be fine, as badges can be sold and re-bought at any time in this mod. However, there is no way to actually know how many badges you have without stopping to count each individual one. The game does not show you a number of badges in your inventory, nor does it show you the limit on how many badges you can have. When you find a new badge while your inventory is full, the badge is sent to Rowf's shop, where you can buy it for a specific amount of coins. I did not know this when I cleared the Pit of 100 Trials and kinda freaked out. Seeing it in the shop made me breathe a sigh of relief, but never being informed about these mechanics is an issue that I hope is addressed in an update or is one day included in a Readme file with the mod.
Another part of this mod worth noting is the music. The title screen music and some battle tracks have been replaced with re-creations of songs from the sequel. There are also specific areas where tracks from the sequel are played. While the inclusion of these is nice and fits the mod, I do feel that some of the new tracks are louder than the older ones, making the audio balance in this game feel off. Aside from that, the tracks make it over to this game mostly fine and are nice to hear in this format.
This mod offers a healthy amount of replayability in the form of new difficulties and modes. During my playthrough, I kept to the normal difficulty with no additional modifications and had a pleasant time. I do not think I would replay this game on a higher difficulty since I do not come to this game for a harsh challenge, but there are some added modes that caught my eye. These modes are one where your only party member is the character Bow, who is made stronger to compensate for the limitation, and there is also a mode that randomizes the placement of items and badges. Both of these modes sound interesting, and I will definitely check them out after this mod receives some updates.
My only other complaints with this mod are that there's no real way to tell what new recipes are in the game without referring to a guide (I would assume most Thousand-Year Door recipes work but I did not want to risk wasting items I wanted to use to find out) and that there are some small bugs scattered through the mod. One notable example of a bug I encountered was when I was fighting the Chapter 1 boss. I had used Kooper's Power Shell move during the second phase, which got locked into place, causing the move to never finish and soft locking the game. Another issue I ran into is that the game crashed when attempting to start a New Game + file, which I am sure will be fixed in a later update.
Overall, I found Paper Mario TTYD64 to be a delightful revisit to a great game adding mechanics and items that help spice things up in ways I did not think possible for this game. If you're a fan of both Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and want to experience what it would be like to have the quality-of-life features of TTYD in the game that started it all, look no further than this mod!
DISCLAIMER: This playthrough was completed on real hardware using version 0.9.2 of the mod. There may be bugs or issues mentioned in this review that have been remedied in a more recent update. Please check the patch notes of the mod for any updated information!
When you first hear the title Paper Mario TTYD64, you'll probably assume that this is someone's effort to recreate all of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. In this case, your assumption would be wrong. Rather, Paper Mario TTYD64 is a hack that aims to take elements of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and inject them into Paper Mario. These elements include things such as giving partners HP, removing the caps on stat growth when leveling up (for example, you are no longer limited to having a maximum of 30 BP), and super-guarding. This mod also adds new locations to the world, some of which are re-created areas from The Thousand-Year Door. Alongside that, you are given access to many badges from that game, including partner versions of some badges. There are also new cooking recipes, items, a Pit of 100 Trials, and new hiding locations for star pieces, so veterans of Paper Mario will have many new things to look forward to here.
As for how the game plays with these new additions, I would say it plays a little bit better than the original, especially since now you don't have to complete the prologue before getting access to action commands. Having these in your toolkit from the get-go definitely helps to speed up the intro, making new playthroughs feel snappier. Having access to the super-guard also makes things more interesting, as you now have a riskier but more rewarding way to counter enemy attacks. Sadly, I did not use it as much as I would have in The Thousand-Year Door, if only because it is much more difficult to use than regular guarding, especially in a game that runs at a lower frame-rate than the game where this mechanic was introduced. I also found it weird that in the tutorial for action commands, Twink never goes over this maneuver. I feel like this should be added in a later patch, as there is always the chance someone new to this mod will not know it is there.
Being able to increase the three core stats (HP, FP, and BP) beyond the regular limit is very rewarding. By the end of my playthrough, I had over 70 BP to use, allowing me to become the powerhouse I always wanted to be in this game. With these limitations removed, the level cap is also increased, allowing you to level beyond level 27, as the game will make sure you get at least 1 star point from every encounter, much like the sequel. Now, you would think that this means you can go to Petal Meadows and fight Amazy Dayzees over and over and level up until the cows come home. Sadly, that is not the case here. Once you hit level 27, all enemies stop giving star points when defeated. This means that when you hit level 27, you go from getting 37 star points off of an Amazy Dayzee to just one, which is extremely saddening. I am not sure if this is an issue carried over from vanilla Paper Mario or an intentional move from the mod creator, but I do hope that in a later patch this is fixed and players can continue to grind levels off Amazy Dayzees after hitting level 27.
Enemies can now also hold items and badges, changing how encounters play out immensely. Are you going to target the enemy holding a thunder rage first? Or will you attack the one holding a dizzy dial? While there may be fights where the amount of items being held by enemies causes a truly daunting challenge, overcoming said challenge can feel very rewarding. Also, along with the aforementioned addition of HP for party members, Parakarry has been given a new move called Parcel Check, which allows him to steal items and badges from enemies. If an enemy is holding something, you can take it! This is very handy as it will allow you to quickly grow a varied badge collection, allowing for all sorts of interesting builds.
There are many new locations sprinkled into the world of Paper Mario in this mod, one of which being the Pit of 100 Trials, first introduced in the sequel to this game. While many will find the pit's challenges daunting, it is very much worth exploring until at least floor 50. Veterans of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will know why. Of course, the deeper you go, the more arduous the battles become. Thankfully, like in the sequel's pit, there is an NPC called a mover that will move you a handful of floors for some coins. I was thankful enough to encounter many of these in a row in my journey to the bottom of the pit, chaining 4 of them in a row on the later floors. I had to change tactics during the final stretch, however, aiming for a "Danger"-based build to maximize evasion and damage output. Despite how stressful the final encounter of the pit was (I won't be spoiling it here), it was definitely a great challenge that I recommend players attempt when playing this mod.
Funnily enough, it was after completing the pit when I learned of a new problem I had with this mod. There is a limit on how many badges you can have in your inventory at any given time. This should be fine, as badges can be sold and re-bought at any time in this mod. However, there is no way to actually know how many badges you have without stopping to count each individual one. The game does not show you a number of badges in your inventory, nor does it show you the limit on how many badges you can have. When you find a new badge while your inventory is full, the badge is sent to Rowf's shop, where you can buy it for a specific amount of coins. I did not know this when I cleared the Pit of 100 Trials and kinda freaked out. Seeing it in the shop made me breathe a sigh of relief, but never being informed about these mechanics is an issue that I hope is addressed in an update or is one day included in a Readme file with the mod.
Another part of this mod worth noting is the music. The title screen music and some battle tracks have been replaced with re-creations of songs from the sequel. There are also specific areas where tracks from the sequel are played. While the inclusion of these is nice and fits the mod, I do feel that some of the new tracks are louder than the older ones, making the audio balance in this game feel off. Aside from that, the tracks make it over to this game mostly fine and are nice to hear in this format.
This mod offers a healthy amount of replayability in the form of new difficulties and modes. During my playthrough, I kept to the normal difficulty with no additional modifications and had a pleasant time. I do not think I would replay this game on a higher difficulty since I do not come to this game for a harsh challenge, but there are some added modes that caught my eye. These modes are one where your only party member is the character Bow, who is made stronger to compensate for the limitation, and there is also a mode that randomizes the placement of items and badges. Both of these modes sound interesting, and I will definitely check them out after this mod receives some updates.
My only other complaints with this mod are that there's no real way to tell what new recipes are in the game without referring to a guide (I would assume most Thousand-Year Door recipes work but I did not want to risk wasting items I wanted to use to find out) and that there are some small bugs scattered through the mod. One notable example of a bug I encountered was when I was fighting the Chapter 1 boss. I had used Kooper's Power Shell move during the second phase, which got locked into place, causing the move to never finish and soft locking the game. Another issue I ran into is that the game crashed when attempting to start a New Game + file, which I am sure will be fixed in a later update.
Overall, I found Paper Mario TTYD64 to be a delightful revisit to a great game adding mechanics and items that help spice things up in ways I did not think possible for this game. If you're a fan of both Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and want to experience what it would be like to have the quality-of-life features of TTYD in the game that started it all, look no further than this mod!
[Average Reading Time: 14 Minutes]
"Hold on tight! It's going to be a bumpy ride!" -Victor Ireland, Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine, Issue 89 June 1996
Magic Knight Rayearth is an Action-RPG released for the Sega Saturn at the tail-end of its life. It is often remembered fondly by those who grew up with the title as the last Saturn game to release in the U.S., having released here on December 11th, 1998. However, this title was originally meant to release here much, much earlier.
As is stated in the game's instruction manual, Working Designs had been interested in having the title brought overseas as early as when they first became aware of its existence back in 1995. As soon as they acquired the rights to get a localization done, they began their work on the project, which was easier said than done for them, as a hard disk crash required them to rebuild much of the game's data on their own. Confident in their abilities at the time, they believed that they would have a completed product ready to hit consumer shelves in 1996, with Next Generation Magazine giving a release date of July of that year. In an interview with Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine, this became "Late summer '96", with Victor Ireland of Working Designs claiming that Magic Knight Rayearth is "...one of the biggest — if not the biggest — conversion projects that Working Designs has ever undertaken."
Over a year would pass from the time of this interview's publication and a future working with SEGA would begin to fade into the distance due to issues that arose at E3. In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Victor Ireland recounts the events that took place. SEGA had the Working Designs booth placed in a location that received little traffic, causing their showings of games like Albert Odyssey and Magic Knight Rayearth to go mostly unnoticed by attendees. Vic also claimed to have disdain for the then COO of Sega of America, Bernie Stolar, due to how he had relayed to the press much information about their upcoming console, the Dreamcast, while also downplaying the importance of the Saturn. These factors would be what lead to him taking Working Designs in a new direction, working solely with Sony regarding then unannounced projects. They were, however, committed to releasing the games that they had promised the public before these events, including Magic Knight Rayearth.
A little over a year later, the U.S. would finally be given a localization of Magic Knight Rayearth after countless delays, technical issues, and corporate drama. What began as a project they thought they could ship in a year became a demon that took them three years to finally conquer, getting not only the "honor" of being the last Working Designs localized game published for the Saturn, but also of being the last Saturn game to ever release in the United States.
"...this has been, without doubt or question, the
most grueling conversion we have ever attempted." -Working Designs, Magic Knight Rayearth Instruction Manual Page 18
Now, with the history said and done and the game in our hands, let's take a look at the game in question, shall we?
Magic Knight Rayearth plays similar to games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana. It's a top-down adventure with a focus on exploration and combat, with a trio of protagonists who each offer their own unique skills. You have Hikaru, who wields fire magic and attacks with a crossing sword slash. I wound up using her for most of my playthrough, if only because I liked the feel of her melee attack the best. Second is Umi, who attacks with a stabbing blade and also wields water magic. I used her the least, if only because I didn't like the feel of her melee attack. The range of the stab did help immensely in some boss encounters, though. Last, but most certainly not least, is Fuu, who attacks using a bow and wields wind magic.
We need to talk about Fuu. So, having a bow immediately removes the range limitations of a melee attack like those of Hikaru and Umi. Not only can she shoot an arrow across the screen, she can also do it rapidly, ensuring an endless onslaught of arrows on her enemies. Each member of the party also has a special version of their melee move that they can perform by charging up their weapon by holding the attack button. Hikaru's and Umi's charge moves simply increase the range of their melee attack. What does Fuu's charge move do, then? Well, it only shoots out multiple arrows that also HOME IN ON ANY ENEMIES AND BOSSES ON SCREEN! Also, as the party travels through the adventure, their weapons level up and get stronger. When this happens, their special moves get more powerful. What does this mean for Fuu? It means she shoots EVEN MORE HOMING ARROWS!
This is only half of her kit, by the way. I haven't even begun to talk about how magic works. So, Hikaru and Umi's magic allows them to do things like send water or fire attacks in specific directions or perform moves that hit all enemies on screen with powerful magic. Neat, but not something you'll be using constantly. Outside of the occasional puzzle room that requires them, you're probably not gonna use their magic much.
As for Fuu's magic, however, we have a different story. She gets a move where she uses wind to attack enemies and do some extremely light puzzle-solving as well as a shield that protects the party from damage but comes at a huge MP cost. Her other spell? Oh, that one just heals the entire party for only 3 MP! It's also the first spell she gets, making her magic immediately the most useful of the trio.
I mentioned that I played as Hikaru the most during my adventure. That's because Fuu is WAY too strong for her own good. Her range and ability are unmatched and tears the game balance in half. If you're looking for an easy time, just set yourself to Fuu whenever you don't have to be someone else and delete every enemy in your path!
Honestly even when Fuu isn't clearing out foes the game is pretty easy. Despite Working Designs' attempts to make the game artificially harder by boosting the speed and damage of enemies and bosses (As shown on The Cutting Room Floor), Magic Knight Rayearth is a breeze to complete. With three characters to play as, you also get three separate health bars and magic meters, meaning you can use magic attacks with one character and wail away at enemies, and then switch to another when they're in danger of going down. Then, of course, you have Fuu who can use magic to heal everyone up when everyone's low on health and the cycle starts anew. Also scattered throughout the world are health and magic upgrades that allow you to take more hits and use more spells. Each time you find one, you get to choose who gets it, making it become more of a personal choice as to who gets stronger. I gave all the health upgrades to Hikaru and all the magic upgrades to Fuu (Sorry Umi!), but if I were to go through this game again for any reason, I'd probably give all upgrades to Fuu for reasons already mentioned by now.
Along with your magic abilities, you'll also be given traversal abilities throughout the adventure. Sadly, these aren't very interesting at all. One is the ability to swim, which requires you to mash the attack button whenever you're in water, which is very annoying. The other two you get are basically the Pegasus Boots from Link to the Past split into two parts. You'll get the ability to break objects by dashing into them first, and then after that you'll get the ability to actually hit a button to dash.
You see, in this game, you can build up speed by moving in a straight line. Deviate from straightness for a single moment and you'll have to rebuild speed all over again. In the Settings menu, you can customize your controls, which shows that there is a button to dash. I kept hitting it throughout a good chunk of my playthrough and kept getting confused by it. Was I doing something wrong? Is my controller broken? I wound up looking it up online and found other confused players. Once I actually got the dash ability, I was relieved, but also upset since I was left confused about that button for so long.
Outside of combat, you'll be exploring the world of Cefiro, chatting with NPCs, examining random objects, and finding Rainbow Amulets. Let's talk about Rainbow Amulets first. These are scattered all over the world, and the game encourages you to find them all. In dungeons, they'll be locked away in chests. In towns, they'll either be given to you by NPCs, or they'll be hidden in random objects in the area. If you keep vigilant about seeking them out, you'll most likely be able to find most of them without need of a guide. These are used in the Rainbow Junction Shop, which isn't really a shop. You just need to have a certain number of complete sets in order to obtain the items there. These include practical items, such as an item that lets you regain MP by standing still, and also joke items such as noisy slippers and a mysterious journal. You won't need any of these items to beat the game, but it does give you something to keep an eye out for that makes exploring the world a bit more interesting.
Magic Knight Rayearth, being based on a manga/anime, has a lot going on in terms of dialogue and cutscenes. This game has many Full-Motion Video cutscenes to view, with some being from the anime and some being original to the game. I haven't gotten a chance to check out the manga or anime for this series, so this game definitely did a good job of making me more interested in them. According to The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF for short), the FMVs for this game were re-encoded for the US release, leading to them having worse video quality than the original Japanese release, which is a shame. You may want to consider an "Undub" mod for this game if you wish to experience this game with the cutscenes as they were presented in the original release.
Speaking of the dub, it's...okay? There are some moments where it can be hard to make out what a character is saying in a FMV cutscene where there are no subtitles and sometimes the delivery of lines can be flat, but overall, I'm not offended by the dub provided here. I feel like the voice actors did an okay job for the most part. There also isn't a whole lot of dubbing in the game outside of the FMVs. In the instruction manual, Working Designs mentions that in the original release of the game, more NPCs had voiced dialogue. They claim that testing allegedly lead to players having issues with this, as it allegedly "slowed down the flow of the game". To fix this, they had this dialogue removed, swapping it for a diary mode. This diary is updated as story events happen in the game, with each of the main trio updating their own personal diary with their observations and events that occur in the plot. Each entry is also fully voiced by each girl, allowing the player to get a better feel of each character's unique personality.
Working Designs claimed that this diary feature became possible due to the expanded CD space they were able to have after taking out the undubbed Japanese dialogue. However, according to TCRF, this unused dialogue is still on the U.S. version's disc, meaning that that's a complete lie.
Personally, I don't mind the inclusion of the diary. I think it's cute and does a good job of giving the player a deeper understanding of each character. However, I wouldn't miss it if it meant we could have the NPC dialogue dubbed, because there are a good number of important NPCs in this game that could benefit from having more or any voiced dialogue. I feel that by sacrificing that for this diary feature, we lost the opportunity to have stronger connections with these characters that we meet and interact with. Also, this idea that voiced NPC dialogue slows down the game can be remedied by allowing players to skip voiced dialogue. You can skip FMVs in this version. You couldn't do that in the JP release. Why not give the player the ability to skip dialogue that's voiced? For some reason, they don't let you do that here, which makes the intro of the game slower if you're doing a repeat playthrough. Maybe it's some weird pride they take in their dubs? I don't know and I'm not about to call Vic and ask.
Working Designs also mentions in the manual how they did their best to reduce slowdown that was present in the original release and apologize for the amount of slowdown present in the town of Rozen as they could not find a way to fix it. What they fail to mention here is the effects of this slowdown. When the framerate of a game gets low, it begins to affect how well a game reads your inputs. For example, pressing a button in a game running at 20 frames per second (fps) will produce results less reliably than a game running at 60 fps. Ever wonder why you fall into a pit in a platformer even though you swear you hit jump at the right time? It could be because the input latency caused by the framerate being low caused your input to not be registered. So, when you're in Rozen, surrounded by tons of NPCs that are tanking the framerate, your inputs are now registering rarely at best, meaning that after enough effort, you may be able to see what an NPC has to say, and after some more effort, you may be able to escape that conversation. This isn't limited to just Rozen, by the way. In some later dungeons, there are enemies that can cause the framerate to dip, causing your attack inputs to fail, leading to you taking unnecessary damage. Is it a deal-breaker for the entire game? No, not really. Is it really annoying? Yes, absolutely.
Okay, I've dodged it for long enough. Let's talk about what they did with this game's script.
"Forgive us, we tried." -Working Designs, Magic Knight Rayearth Instruction Manual Page 18
So, with this being an Action RPG, you're going to be reading a ton of dialogue. Not only will you be hearing what NPCs have to say, but you'll also be examining objects in each town and house. All three playable characters have something to say about each and every object you can interact with in the game, which is a neat feature. It honestly caught me off-guard when I checked an object with one character and switched to another only to see a different take on the object from them, and it made me excited to see what everyone has to say about everything in the world.
However, Working Designs has a tendency to try to push things in directions that make most uncomfortable. They have a legacy of shoehorning in pop culture references and dirty jokes into their projects, and sadly Magic Knight Rayearth is yet another victim of this. It also does not help that our main cast of characters are all 14 YEARS OLD, which just makes it even creepier when they start bringing this stuff up. Not even the back of the box is safe from this, which refers to the cast as "the teenage threesome". Considering we have information regarding the ages of these characters, you would've hoped that Working Designs had held back a little on their tendencies, but sadly that is not the case.
Throughout my playthrough I made an effort to write down any of the lines from this game that made me either groan deeply or do a double-take due to how egregious they were. I didn't get to experience every line of dialogue in this game, I'm sure, but I did see a good chunk of them. I would like to share some of the standouts here to give the uninitiated an idea of what to expect when playing a game published by Working Designs during the fifth generation of game consoles. I won't be sharing these without context, but I will make sure to not say enough to spoil anything for people who want to go into this game to see what it's like.
Context: One of the girls is flustered and trying to hide it from the others
Girl 1: "Oh? Then why are you blushing?
Girl 2: "!!! I...I am not!!"
Girl 1: "And moist!"
Context: One of the girls hit a boy
Girl: "Just call me Ike. He's my Tina!"
This is a reference to Ike and Tina Turner. Ike was a domestic abuser. Funny line, Working Designs!
Context: One of the girls is examining a book
Girl: "What's this book? 101 Ways to Give an Enema, by Dr. Felch. Hmm..."
Context: One of the girls is examining a chest
Girl: "Why are we wasting time looking in other people's chests? I've got enough hassle just trying to grow my own!"
Context: One of the girls is checking a supply cabinet
Girl: "Look at all these supplies! They've got enough condoms to last for 50 years!"
Those, and many other lines lie within this game. Working Designs' sense of humor certainly persists in their titles, but it's mostly bad. There will be moments that get a chuckle out of you here and there, but a lot of it is like this. This isn't the whole game, either, just to be clear. The stuff relating to the main plot is pretty normal for the most part. They just like to stuff these in there and I really wish they were normal and didn't do that because it's weird, man.
Overall, I didn't hate my time with this game. My grievances with the localization aside, this is a decent game that feels good to play and doesn't overstay its welcome. I won't go out of my way to call it a "hidden gem" because it really doesn't do anything to earn that title. It does nothing to impresses you nor does it do anything unique enough to stand out on its own. It's a by-the-numbers top-down action RPG with three playable characters. The presentation is decent. graphics look good. Music is okay, but not memorable. If you're looking for a game that plays like Zelda that really wants you to know about how much characters want to bake cakes, look no further than Magic Knight Rayearth.
"Hold on tight! It's going to be a bumpy ride!" -Victor Ireland, Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine, Issue 89 June 1996
Magic Knight Rayearth is an Action-RPG released for the Sega Saturn at the tail-end of its life. It is often remembered fondly by those who grew up with the title as the last Saturn game to release in the U.S., having released here on December 11th, 1998. However, this title was originally meant to release here much, much earlier.
As is stated in the game's instruction manual, Working Designs had been interested in having the title brought overseas as early as when they first became aware of its existence back in 1995. As soon as they acquired the rights to get a localization done, they began their work on the project, which was easier said than done for them, as a hard disk crash required them to rebuild much of the game's data on their own. Confident in their abilities at the time, they believed that they would have a completed product ready to hit consumer shelves in 1996, with Next Generation Magazine giving a release date of July of that year. In an interview with Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine, this became "Late summer '96", with Victor Ireland of Working Designs claiming that Magic Knight Rayearth is "...one of the biggest — if not the biggest — conversion projects that Working Designs has ever undertaken."
Over a year would pass from the time of this interview's publication and a future working with SEGA would begin to fade into the distance due to issues that arose at E3. In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Victor Ireland recounts the events that took place. SEGA had the Working Designs booth placed in a location that received little traffic, causing their showings of games like Albert Odyssey and Magic Knight Rayearth to go mostly unnoticed by attendees. Vic also claimed to have disdain for the then COO of Sega of America, Bernie Stolar, due to how he had relayed to the press much information about their upcoming console, the Dreamcast, while also downplaying the importance of the Saturn. These factors would be what lead to him taking Working Designs in a new direction, working solely with Sony regarding then unannounced projects. They were, however, committed to releasing the games that they had promised the public before these events, including Magic Knight Rayearth.
A little over a year later, the U.S. would finally be given a localization of Magic Knight Rayearth after countless delays, technical issues, and corporate drama. What began as a project they thought they could ship in a year became a demon that took them three years to finally conquer, getting not only the "honor" of being the last Working Designs localized game published for the Saturn, but also of being the last Saturn game to ever release in the United States.
"...this has been, without doubt or question, the
most grueling conversion we have ever attempted." -Working Designs, Magic Knight Rayearth Instruction Manual Page 18
Now, with the history said and done and the game in our hands, let's take a look at the game in question, shall we?
Magic Knight Rayearth plays similar to games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana. It's a top-down adventure with a focus on exploration and combat, with a trio of protagonists who each offer their own unique skills. You have Hikaru, who wields fire magic and attacks with a crossing sword slash. I wound up using her for most of my playthrough, if only because I liked the feel of her melee attack the best. Second is Umi, who attacks with a stabbing blade and also wields water magic. I used her the least, if only because I didn't like the feel of her melee attack. The range of the stab did help immensely in some boss encounters, though. Last, but most certainly not least, is Fuu, who attacks using a bow and wields wind magic.
We need to talk about Fuu. So, having a bow immediately removes the range limitations of a melee attack like those of Hikaru and Umi. Not only can she shoot an arrow across the screen, she can also do it rapidly, ensuring an endless onslaught of arrows on her enemies. Each member of the party also has a special version of their melee move that they can perform by charging up their weapon by holding the attack button. Hikaru's and Umi's charge moves simply increase the range of their melee attack. What does Fuu's charge move do, then? Well, it only shoots out multiple arrows that also HOME IN ON ANY ENEMIES AND BOSSES ON SCREEN! Also, as the party travels through the adventure, their weapons level up and get stronger. When this happens, their special moves get more powerful. What does this mean for Fuu? It means she shoots EVEN MORE HOMING ARROWS!
This is only half of her kit, by the way. I haven't even begun to talk about how magic works. So, Hikaru and Umi's magic allows them to do things like send water or fire attacks in specific directions or perform moves that hit all enemies on screen with powerful magic. Neat, but not something you'll be using constantly. Outside of the occasional puzzle room that requires them, you're probably not gonna use their magic much.
As for Fuu's magic, however, we have a different story. She gets a move where she uses wind to attack enemies and do some extremely light puzzle-solving as well as a shield that protects the party from damage but comes at a huge MP cost. Her other spell? Oh, that one just heals the entire party for only 3 MP! It's also the first spell she gets, making her magic immediately the most useful of the trio.
I mentioned that I played as Hikaru the most during my adventure. That's because Fuu is WAY too strong for her own good. Her range and ability are unmatched and tears the game balance in half. If you're looking for an easy time, just set yourself to Fuu whenever you don't have to be someone else and delete every enemy in your path!
Honestly even when Fuu isn't clearing out foes the game is pretty easy. Despite Working Designs' attempts to make the game artificially harder by boosting the speed and damage of enemies and bosses (As shown on The Cutting Room Floor), Magic Knight Rayearth is a breeze to complete. With three characters to play as, you also get three separate health bars and magic meters, meaning you can use magic attacks with one character and wail away at enemies, and then switch to another when they're in danger of going down. Then, of course, you have Fuu who can use magic to heal everyone up when everyone's low on health and the cycle starts anew. Also scattered throughout the world are health and magic upgrades that allow you to take more hits and use more spells. Each time you find one, you get to choose who gets it, making it become more of a personal choice as to who gets stronger. I gave all the health upgrades to Hikaru and all the magic upgrades to Fuu (Sorry Umi!), but if I were to go through this game again for any reason, I'd probably give all upgrades to Fuu for reasons already mentioned by now.
Along with your magic abilities, you'll also be given traversal abilities throughout the adventure. Sadly, these aren't very interesting at all. One is the ability to swim, which requires you to mash the attack button whenever you're in water, which is very annoying. The other two you get are basically the Pegasus Boots from Link to the Past split into two parts. You'll get the ability to break objects by dashing into them first, and then after that you'll get the ability to actually hit a button to dash.
You see, in this game, you can build up speed by moving in a straight line. Deviate from straightness for a single moment and you'll have to rebuild speed all over again. In the Settings menu, you can customize your controls, which shows that there is a button to dash. I kept hitting it throughout a good chunk of my playthrough and kept getting confused by it. Was I doing something wrong? Is my controller broken? I wound up looking it up online and found other confused players. Once I actually got the dash ability, I was relieved, but also upset since I was left confused about that button for so long.
Outside of combat, you'll be exploring the world of Cefiro, chatting with NPCs, examining random objects, and finding Rainbow Amulets. Let's talk about Rainbow Amulets first. These are scattered all over the world, and the game encourages you to find them all. In dungeons, they'll be locked away in chests. In towns, they'll either be given to you by NPCs, or they'll be hidden in random objects in the area. If you keep vigilant about seeking them out, you'll most likely be able to find most of them without need of a guide. These are used in the Rainbow Junction Shop, which isn't really a shop. You just need to have a certain number of complete sets in order to obtain the items there. These include practical items, such as an item that lets you regain MP by standing still, and also joke items such as noisy slippers and a mysterious journal. You won't need any of these items to beat the game, but it does give you something to keep an eye out for that makes exploring the world a bit more interesting.
Magic Knight Rayearth, being based on a manga/anime, has a lot going on in terms of dialogue and cutscenes. This game has many Full-Motion Video cutscenes to view, with some being from the anime and some being original to the game. I haven't gotten a chance to check out the manga or anime for this series, so this game definitely did a good job of making me more interested in them. According to The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF for short), the FMVs for this game were re-encoded for the US release, leading to them having worse video quality than the original Japanese release, which is a shame. You may want to consider an "Undub" mod for this game if you wish to experience this game with the cutscenes as they were presented in the original release.
Speaking of the dub, it's...okay? There are some moments where it can be hard to make out what a character is saying in a FMV cutscene where there are no subtitles and sometimes the delivery of lines can be flat, but overall, I'm not offended by the dub provided here. I feel like the voice actors did an okay job for the most part. There also isn't a whole lot of dubbing in the game outside of the FMVs. In the instruction manual, Working Designs mentions that in the original release of the game, more NPCs had voiced dialogue. They claim that testing allegedly lead to players having issues with this, as it allegedly "slowed down the flow of the game". To fix this, they had this dialogue removed, swapping it for a diary mode. This diary is updated as story events happen in the game, with each of the main trio updating their own personal diary with their observations and events that occur in the plot. Each entry is also fully voiced by each girl, allowing the player to get a better feel of each character's unique personality.
Working Designs claimed that this diary feature became possible due to the expanded CD space they were able to have after taking out the undubbed Japanese dialogue. However, according to TCRF, this unused dialogue is still on the U.S. version's disc, meaning that that's a complete lie.
Personally, I don't mind the inclusion of the diary. I think it's cute and does a good job of giving the player a deeper understanding of each character. However, I wouldn't miss it if it meant we could have the NPC dialogue dubbed, because there are a good number of important NPCs in this game that could benefit from having more or any voiced dialogue. I feel that by sacrificing that for this diary feature, we lost the opportunity to have stronger connections with these characters that we meet and interact with. Also, this idea that voiced NPC dialogue slows down the game can be remedied by allowing players to skip voiced dialogue. You can skip FMVs in this version. You couldn't do that in the JP release. Why not give the player the ability to skip dialogue that's voiced? For some reason, they don't let you do that here, which makes the intro of the game slower if you're doing a repeat playthrough. Maybe it's some weird pride they take in their dubs? I don't know and I'm not about to call Vic and ask.
Working Designs also mentions in the manual how they did their best to reduce slowdown that was present in the original release and apologize for the amount of slowdown present in the town of Rozen as they could not find a way to fix it. What they fail to mention here is the effects of this slowdown. When the framerate of a game gets low, it begins to affect how well a game reads your inputs. For example, pressing a button in a game running at 20 frames per second (fps) will produce results less reliably than a game running at 60 fps. Ever wonder why you fall into a pit in a platformer even though you swear you hit jump at the right time? It could be because the input latency caused by the framerate being low caused your input to not be registered. So, when you're in Rozen, surrounded by tons of NPCs that are tanking the framerate, your inputs are now registering rarely at best, meaning that after enough effort, you may be able to see what an NPC has to say, and after some more effort, you may be able to escape that conversation. This isn't limited to just Rozen, by the way. In some later dungeons, there are enemies that can cause the framerate to dip, causing your attack inputs to fail, leading to you taking unnecessary damage. Is it a deal-breaker for the entire game? No, not really. Is it really annoying? Yes, absolutely.
Okay, I've dodged it for long enough. Let's talk about what they did with this game's script.
"Forgive us, we tried." -Working Designs, Magic Knight Rayearth Instruction Manual Page 18
So, with this being an Action RPG, you're going to be reading a ton of dialogue. Not only will you be hearing what NPCs have to say, but you'll also be examining objects in each town and house. All three playable characters have something to say about each and every object you can interact with in the game, which is a neat feature. It honestly caught me off-guard when I checked an object with one character and switched to another only to see a different take on the object from them, and it made me excited to see what everyone has to say about everything in the world.
However, Working Designs has a tendency to try to push things in directions that make most uncomfortable. They have a legacy of shoehorning in pop culture references and dirty jokes into their projects, and sadly Magic Knight Rayearth is yet another victim of this. It also does not help that our main cast of characters are all 14 YEARS OLD, which just makes it even creepier when they start bringing this stuff up. Not even the back of the box is safe from this, which refers to the cast as "the teenage threesome". Considering we have information regarding the ages of these characters, you would've hoped that Working Designs had held back a little on their tendencies, but sadly that is not the case.
Throughout my playthrough I made an effort to write down any of the lines from this game that made me either groan deeply or do a double-take due to how egregious they were. I didn't get to experience every line of dialogue in this game, I'm sure, but I did see a good chunk of them. I would like to share some of the standouts here to give the uninitiated an idea of what to expect when playing a game published by Working Designs during the fifth generation of game consoles. I won't be sharing these without context, but I will make sure to not say enough to spoil anything for people who want to go into this game to see what it's like.
Context: One of the girls is flustered and trying to hide it from the others
Girl 1: "Oh? Then why are you blushing?
Girl 2: "!!! I...I am not!!"
Girl 1: "And moist!"
Context: One of the girls hit a boy
Girl: "Just call me Ike. He's my Tina!"
This is a reference to Ike and Tina Turner. Ike was a domestic abuser. Funny line, Working Designs!
Context: One of the girls is examining a book
Girl: "What's this book? 101 Ways to Give an Enema, by Dr. Felch. Hmm..."
Context: One of the girls is examining a chest
Girl: "Why are we wasting time looking in other people's chests? I've got enough hassle just trying to grow my own!"
Context: One of the girls is checking a supply cabinet
Girl: "Look at all these supplies! They've got enough condoms to last for 50 years!"
Those, and many other lines lie within this game. Working Designs' sense of humor certainly persists in their titles, but it's mostly bad. There will be moments that get a chuckle out of you here and there, but a lot of it is like this. This isn't the whole game, either, just to be clear. The stuff relating to the main plot is pretty normal for the most part. They just like to stuff these in there and I really wish they were normal and didn't do that because it's weird, man.
Overall, I didn't hate my time with this game. My grievances with the localization aside, this is a decent game that feels good to play and doesn't overstay its welcome. I won't go out of my way to call it a "hidden gem" because it really doesn't do anything to earn that title. It does nothing to impresses you nor does it do anything unique enough to stand out on its own. It's a by-the-numbers top-down action RPG with three playable characters. The presentation is decent. graphics look good. Music is okay, but not memorable. If you're looking for a game that plays like Zelda that really wants you to know about how much characters want to bake cakes, look no further than Magic Knight Rayearth.
I've never dabbled in the Silent Hill series before, so seeing this be a free title caught my attention. I've heard that this series hasn't been in the best of shape for a while now, so I kept my expectations low.
There's some things to like here, and a bunch to not like that much. Let's get what I liked out of the way now. I liked piecing together what happened. Throughout the game you're given notes about events, and it's up to you (for the most part) to piece together the story. There were many times where I'd read a note and just stop playing to try to fit this new piece of information into the timeline, which was honestly pretty satisfying. I won't say the story here is Oscar worthy or anything, but I did enjoy experiencing it a bit. The live-action scenes were also interesting to see, as they aren't very common in games. I think the acting and voice acting were fine for the most part. No real issues there.
Okay that's that taken care of let's get into the rough. First, let's touch on the production values a bit. It's a free title at the end of the day, so I don't plan on comparing it to something like God of War or anything like that. However, I did begin to notice quickly how off some of Anita's facial expressions were. There are many scenes where it would make sense for her to be more reactive and show more intense expressions on her face and have more energetic body movements, but they just aren't here. Once again, I get it, it's a free short title so maybe the budget wasn't there for that, but it did bother me a little.
The other, part of this game I didn't like that much would have to be the chase sequences. The first few are fine enough. Run down a corridor, maybe run around something to get past the monster to get through a door it came out of. Not bad. As the game goes on and you encounter more of these sections, though, they begin to become much lengthier and more demanding of the player. Getting caught simply resets the chase, which is fine, but having to repeat chases again and again can be draining.
The last chase is easily the worst one. At first, I was just running away as usual, trying to find an exit. After a few deaths, I ran into a section that had a part where the "interact" prompt lit up on an object. It was only then when I realized what the game wanted me to do. I wish the game did a better job of showing you what you needed to do for that section. They try to clue you in with some lighting on interactive spots, but you never had a section in the past that required you to grab things as you ran away, so you'd never consider interacting with anything besides a door at that point. Another problem with this section is just how dark it is. You have a phone and you use the flashlight on it to light your path, but it genuinely feels like the flashlight isn't strong enough for some parts, leading to me fumbling in the dark in many cases, barely avoiding death because I couldn't see where to go.
Overall, I didn't hate this game. I just wish it were better designed and had a little more polish. For the low low price of free, you really aren't losing much besides a few hours trying this one out. I'd say give it a shot, but I won't blame you for tapping out at any point during your adventure.
There's some things to like here, and a bunch to not like that much. Let's get what I liked out of the way now. I liked piecing together what happened. Throughout the game you're given notes about events, and it's up to you (for the most part) to piece together the story. There were many times where I'd read a note and just stop playing to try to fit this new piece of information into the timeline, which was honestly pretty satisfying. I won't say the story here is Oscar worthy or anything, but I did enjoy experiencing it a bit. The live-action scenes were also interesting to see, as they aren't very common in games. I think the acting and voice acting were fine for the most part. No real issues there.
Okay that's that taken care of let's get into the rough. First, let's touch on the production values a bit. It's a free title at the end of the day, so I don't plan on comparing it to something like God of War or anything like that. However, I did begin to notice quickly how off some of Anita's facial expressions were. There are many scenes where it would make sense for her to be more reactive and show more intense expressions on her face and have more energetic body movements, but they just aren't here. Once again, I get it, it's a free short title so maybe the budget wasn't there for that, but it did bother me a little.
The other, part of this game I didn't like that much would have to be the chase sequences. The first few are fine enough. Run down a corridor, maybe run around something to get past the monster to get through a door it came out of. Not bad. As the game goes on and you encounter more of these sections, though, they begin to become much lengthier and more demanding of the player. Getting caught simply resets the chase, which is fine, but having to repeat chases again and again can be draining.
The last chase is easily the worst one. At first, I was just running away as usual, trying to find an exit. After a few deaths, I ran into a section that had a part where the "interact" prompt lit up on an object. It was only then when I realized what the game wanted me to do. I wish the game did a better job of showing you what you needed to do for that section. They try to clue you in with some lighting on interactive spots, but you never had a section in the past that required you to grab things as you ran away, so you'd never consider interacting with anything besides a door at that point. Another problem with this section is just how dark it is. You have a phone and you use the flashlight on it to light your path, but it genuinely feels like the flashlight isn't strong enough for some parts, leading to me fumbling in the dark in many cases, barely avoiding death because I couldn't see where to go.
Overall, I didn't hate this game. I just wish it were better designed and had a little more polish. For the low low price of free, you really aren't losing much besides a few hours trying this one out. I'd say give it a shot, but I won't blame you for tapping out at any point during your adventure.
[Average Reading Time: 7 Minutes]
Man, oh man, what an experience.
Many have played Resident Evil Village since its launch back in 2021. People liked it a lot, from what I've heard. Back then, though, I wasn't into the Resident Evil series. It wasn't because the games were horror focused, though. I won't say I'm immune to horror elements in games at all. In fact, I consider that a bit of a strength, in a way, when it comes to consuming horror media. When you let a horror game crawl under your skin, allowing yourself to be immersed in its twisted world as you cautiously peek around corners for monsters and ready your weapon as you slowly walk through dark corridors, I feel you may get more out of the experience. Then as you travel further in, you begin to familiarize yourself with the concepts, building up the courage to press on as the protagonist does, allowing the player to step further into the shoes of the leading character as they explore the spooky landscape. I think that's what I appreciate the most about horror games: they allow you, the player, to grow along with the protagonist in ways most other genres can't.
What better way to step into the shoes of a horror protagonist then via Virtual Reality?
I owned a PSVR headset back when that was the current way to get a console VR experience and despite the awkward setup, I enjoyed it a lot. Back then, Resident Evil 7 had gotten a PlayStation exclusive VR mode, and needless to say the concept fascinated me. Playing a horror game like that in VR? That must be terrifying!
I never got to experience that game, though. I was interested in playing that game and seeing that world through VR lenses, but what kept me from pursuing this dream was the control scheme. What I liked most about the VR experiences I had with titles like Skyrim VR and Accounting + were how I could move my hands freely as I explored environments and solved puzzles using the move controllers. Sadly, though, a move controller only playstyle was not supported for Resident Evil 7, so that's how I mainly lost interest. Looking back, though, I don't blame them at all for not cooking up a control scheme for those things. I mean, look at them! They don't even have analog sticks! I don't know how Bethesda cooked up a tolerable control scheme for only using these things for Skyrim VR, but using these to navigate in 3D in a horror game? Probably not ideal!
Fast forward to November 2022. Sony reveals the PSVR2, a vast upgrade over the original headset for PS4. Along with this headset came the new Sense controllers, and look what we have here! Analog sticks! All the buttons on a normal DualSense controller! We finally made it! Normal gaming in VR on console with the ability to move our hands freely at last!
Needless to say this headset was on my radar since before it got announced. Rumors everywhere, people seeing it as a no-brainer that Sony would release a follow-up to their original headset. It just had to happen, and it did! Come December 2022, we would get a look at some upcoming VR content, including a release date for Resident Evil Village's VR mode, which would launch the same day as the headset! Excitement filled me as I saw this announcement. I was eager to finally see what this game was all about, and I wanted to see it all in VR. Before I knew it February 2023 would come and so would the VR headset. After watching some other early adopters try out the headset to make sure it was the amazing piece of tech it promised to be, I used my tax return to snag one of my own, along with some games to experience in VR, including Resident Evil Village.
By this point in my life I had become no stranger to the Resident Evil series, having played Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 5 with a friend. Now, I could not only experience Resident Evil Village for myself, I could make my first experience of it in VR. Long story short, it was everything I wanted.
I won't go into detail about the story here. I'll say that it's a fun romp, with good emotional moments and great banter from the crew of foes you face. I'll add that seeing these cutscenes in VR can be a little disorienting, though. Sometimes Ethan (a.k.a. you) will be pulled in different directions, which can be disorienting for those that suffer from motion sickness (thankfully not the case for me). You can also move your head freely in cutscenes, which means you may see certain things before the game wants you to. Subtitles are available in VR, and they hover on screen within your peripheral vision. However, these subtitles are usually placed in front of characters or objects, which means they're often too close to the viewer, causing them to appear awkwardly and difficult to read unless the player closes one eye. It gets pretty annoying when this happens, and I wish this wasn't an issue in VR.
Also, a good few number of cutscenes aren't presented in a first-person format. Instead, you're shown a cutscene on a floating screen. It's not terrible and I understand why it was necessary, but it is a little jarring sometimes. I also had this really weird glitch happen after I beat the game where the menus kept flickering in random spots, which could be a problem for those that may suffer from epilepsy. Please keep that in mind before playing this game in VR.
Moving away from cutscenes, let's talk about the gameplay, what it's like to experience the village in VR. I had a blast exploring this place in VR. This game doesn't cause motion sickness for me, so I was able to use smooth turning and walking without teleporting around to allow myself to feel more immersed in the world.
Along with moving around are your arsenal of weapons. What's cool about this game is that you get the option to manually reload your weapons. This means that, rather than just hitting a button to reload, you have to reload guns like you would a real weapon. That means for pistols, for example, you'll need to pull on the slide on top after inserting a magazine to fire it. For shotguns, you need to pump them every time you fire a shot. These mechanics apply for every weapon you find. This can be turned off for a more relaxed experience, but I refused to do that. It was way more exciting and tense to keep this feature on as I played. I've had many memorable moments because of it, like one where I shot an enemy with a rifle, and as they approached I tried to fire again and heard a click because I didn't pull the bolt handle. I then quickly did it as they got closer and got a finishing headshot mere moments before it could touch me.
Aiming is also fun in VR. You'll be holding your weapons two-handed and lining up shots constantly, whether you're holding your pistol out in front of you or looking down the scope of your sniper rifle. This game not only asks what your dominant hand is, but also your dominant eye, which allows it to take into consideration how you'll aim as you play, which is really smart. Honestly, playing this game just makes me want to play more VR games with cool gun mechanics like this, because I think having to manually reload and aim down sights adds a lot to the player experience.
Now for the real question: does playing this game in VR make it spookier? The answer is absolutely. Since you're in a VR headset, you don't get to look away when a creepy foe tries to get up close and personal with you. You either fight or you run (please don't try to run in real life though you'll break so many things) to survive in this world of horror. When you see a new enemy approach you, you're gonna have to face your fear and aim steadily for those headshots. As you progress and get more destructive firepower, you'll be mowing down even the fiercest of foes. Resident Evil Village has many tricks up its sleeves to keep you on your toes, however. They'll introduce new enemies that have specific ways to take them down or just have a ton of health to make fighting them a nightmare. There's boss fights that make you focus on keeping your distance while trying to pour as much lead into them as you can. These moments can be exciting, but not too scary.
There is one moment in this game that is downright terrifying, though, especially in VR.
I won't spoil it here, but I will say that it caught me off guard. I went from gunning down monsters to hiding in closets, my knees shaking as I prayed for it to just leave me alone. I don't think any horror game scared me like that moment did, and I loved every second of it. Seasoned Village survivors will know what I'm alluding to, but if you don't and plan on playing this game, don't spoil yourself. Trust me on this one.
Overall, Resident Evil Village is a great game, and playing it in VR makes it an even more intense experience. Whether you've never played this game before or you want your next playthrough to have a unique edge to it, I highly recommend giving the VR mode a playthrough. It's definitely worth your time, especially if you can afford both a PlayStation 5 and the PSVR2 set. Now I just wish more shooters had VR modes like this. I hope that as this generation goes on we see more VR experiences like this one!
Also, yes, Lady Dimitrescu feels 9 feet tall in VR. The people who simp for her are gonna have a great time. Me, though, I was enjoying the sight of someone else in VR a lot more.
Man, oh man, what an experience.
Many have played Resident Evil Village since its launch back in 2021. People liked it a lot, from what I've heard. Back then, though, I wasn't into the Resident Evil series. It wasn't because the games were horror focused, though. I won't say I'm immune to horror elements in games at all. In fact, I consider that a bit of a strength, in a way, when it comes to consuming horror media. When you let a horror game crawl under your skin, allowing yourself to be immersed in its twisted world as you cautiously peek around corners for monsters and ready your weapon as you slowly walk through dark corridors, I feel you may get more out of the experience. Then as you travel further in, you begin to familiarize yourself with the concepts, building up the courage to press on as the protagonist does, allowing the player to step further into the shoes of the leading character as they explore the spooky landscape. I think that's what I appreciate the most about horror games: they allow you, the player, to grow along with the protagonist in ways most other genres can't.
What better way to step into the shoes of a horror protagonist then via Virtual Reality?
I owned a PSVR headset back when that was the current way to get a console VR experience and despite the awkward setup, I enjoyed it a lot. Back then, Resident Evil 7 had gotten a PlayStation exclusive VR mode, and needless to say the concept fascinated me. Playing a horror game like that in VR? That must be terrifying!
I never got to experience that game, though. I was interested in playing that game and seeing that world through VR lenses, but what kept me from pursuing this dream was the control scheme. What I liked most about the VR experiences I had with titles like Skyrim VR and Accounting + were how I could move my hands freely as I explored environments and solved puzzles using the move controllers. Sadly, though, a move controller only playstyle was not supported for Resident Evil 7, so that's how I mainly lost interest. Looking back, though, I don't blame them at all for not cooking up a control scheme for those things. I mean, look at them! They don't even have analog sticks! I don't know how Bethesda cooked up a tolerable control scheme for only using these things for Skyrim VR, but using these to navigate in 3D in a horror game? Probably not ideal!
Fast forward to November 2022. Sony reveals the PSVR2, a vast upgrade over the original headset for PS4. Along with this headset came the new Sense controllers, and look what we have here! Analog sticks! All the buttons on a normal DualSense controller! We finally made it! Normal gaming in VR on console with the ability to move our hands freely at last!
Needless to say this headset was on my radar since before it got announced. Rumors everywhere, people seeing it as a no-brainer that Sony would release a follow-up to their original headset. It just had to happen, and it did! Come December 2022, we would get a look at some upcoming VR content, including a release date for Resident Evil Village's VR mode, which would launch the same day as the headset! Excitement filled me as I saw this announcement. I was eager to finally see what this game was all about, and I wanted to see it all in VR. Before I knew it February 2023 would come and so would the VR headset. After watching some other early adopters try out the headset to make sure it was the amazing piece of tech it promised to be, I used my tax return to snag one of my own, along with some games to experience in VR, including Resident Evil Village.
By this point in my life I had become no stranger to the Resident Evil series, having played Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 5 with a friend. Now, I could not only experience Resident Evil Village for myself, I could make my first experience of it in VR. Long story short, it was everything I wanted.
I won't go into detail about the story here. I'll say that it's a fun romp, with good emotional moments and great banter from the crew of foes you face. I'll add that seeing these cutscenes in VR can be a little disorienting, though. Sometimes Ethan (a.k.a. you) will be pulled in different directions, which can be disorienting for those that suffer from motion sickness (thankfully not the case for me). You can also move your head freely in cutscenes, which means you may see certain things before the game wants you to. Subtitles are available in VR, and they hover on screen within your peripheral vision. However, these subtitles are usually placed in front of characters or objects, which means they're often too close to the viewer, causing them to appear awkwardly and difficult to read unless the player closes one eye. It gets pretty annoying when this happens, and I wish this wasn't an issue in VR.
Also, a good few number of cutscenes aren't presented in a first-person format. Instead, you're shown a cutscene on a floating screen. It's not terrible and I understand why it was necessary, but it is a little jarring sometimes. I also had this really weird glitch happen after I beat the game where the menus kept flickering in random spots, which could be a problem for those that may suffer from epilepsy. Please keep that in mind before playing this game in VR.
Moving away from cutscenes, let's talk about the gameplay, what it's like to experience the village in VR. I had a blast exploring this place in VR. This game doesn't cause motion sickness for me, so I was able to use smooth turning and walking without teleporting around to allow myself to feel more immersed in the world.
Along with moving around are your arsenal of weapons. What's cool about this game is that you get the option to manually reload your weapons. This means that, rather than just hitting a button to reload, you have to reload guns like you would a real weapon. That means for pistols, for example, you'll need to pull on the slide on top after inserting a magazine to fire it. For shotguns, you need to pump them every time you fire a shot. These mechanics apply for every weapon you find. This can be turned off for a more relaxed experience, but I refused to do that. It was way more exciting and tense to keep this feature on as I played. I've had many memorable moments because of it, like one where I shot an enemy with a rifle, and as they approached I tried to fire again and heard a click because I didn't pull the bolt handle. I then quickly did it as they got closer and got a finishing headshot mere moments before it could touch me.
Aiming is also fun in VR. You'll be holding your weapons two-handed and lining up shots constantly, whether you're holding your pistol out in front of you or looking down the scope of your sniper rifle. This game not only asks what your dominant hand is, but also your dominant eye, which allows it to take into consideration how you'll aim as you play, which is really smart. Honestly, playing this game just makes me want to play more VR games with cool gun mechanics like this, because I think having to manually reload and aim down sights adds a lot to the player experience.
Now for the real question: does playing this game in VR make it spookier? The answer is absolutely. Since you're in a VR headset, you don't get to look away when a creepy foe tries to get up close and personal with you. You either fight or you run (please don't try to run in real life though you'll break so many things) to survive in this world of horror. When you see a new enemy approach you, you're gonna have to face your fear and aim steadily for those headshots. As you progress and get more destructive firepower, you'll be mowing down even the fiercest of foes. Resident Evil Village has many tricks up its sleeves to keep you on your toes, however. They'll introduce new enemies that have specific ways to take them down or just have a ton of health to make fighting them a nightmare. There's boss fights that make you focus on keeping your distance while trying to pour as much lead into them as you can. These moments can be exciting, but not too scary.
There is one moment in this game that is downright terrifying, though, especially in VR.
I won't spoil it here, but I will say that it caught me off guard. I went from gunning down monsters to hiding in closets, my knees shaking as I prayed for it to just leave me alone. I don't think any horror game scared me like that moment did, and I loved every second of it. Seasoned Village survivors will know what I'm alluding to, but if you don't and plan on playing this game, don't spoil yourself. Trust me on this one.
Overall, Resident Evil Village is a great game, and playing it in VR makes it an even more intense experience. Whether you've never played this game before or you want your next playthrough to have a unique edge to it, I highly recommend giving the VR mode a playthrough. It's definitely worth your time, especially if you can afford both a PlayStation 5 and the PSVR2 set. Now I just wish more shooters had VR modes like this. I hope that as this generation goes on we see more VR experiences like this one!
Also, yes, Lady Dimitrescu feels 9 feet tall in VR. The people who simp for her are gonna have a great time. Me, though, I was enjoying the sight of someone else in VR a lot more.
Okay this is the best DMC game hands down. Somehow this beat out 3 as my favorite.
I'm not super great at action games like this, but I do enjoy this series a lot, so having 3 characters to mess around with was a neat change of pace. Nero's devil arms are neat to use, and having so many to choose from allows for a ton of interesting builds centered around him. V's gameplay takes some getting used to, but I grew to enjoy how he played, getting tons of high ranks as him towards the end.
The absurd amount of stuff in Dante's kit this time around is amazing. While the guitar from 3 will always be my favorite goofy weapon of his, switching from a sword to a motorcycle is just too crazy (and that's a good thing). All of his weapons feel great to use and switching between melee weapons and guns and styles on the fly to build up style points is more satisfying than it has any right to be.
If you're a Devil May Cry fan and you somehow have not played this game, do it. Right now. By reading this sentence you are now obligated to play this game. DO IT
I'm not super great at action games like this, but I do enjoy this series a lot, so having 3 characters to mess around with was a neat change of pace. Nero's devil arms are neat to use, and having so many to choose from allows for a ton of interesting builds centered around him. V's gameplay takes some getting used to, but I grew to enjoy how he played, getting tons of high ranks as him towards the end.
The absurd amount of stuff in Dante's kit this time around is amazing. While the guitar from 3 will always be my favorite goofy weapon of his, switching from a sword to a motorcycle is just too crazy (and that's a good thing). All of his weapons feel great to use and switching between melee weapons and guns and styles on the fly to build up style points is more satisfying than it has any right to be.
If you're a Devil May Cry fan and you somehow have not played this game, do it. Right now. By reading this sentence you are now obligated to play this game. DO IT
2023
This is the definitive way to experience Super Mario RPG.
The remixes of songs are great, capturing the fun of the original compositions while adding more life to them. Plus, you get the option to listen to the old soundtrack if that's more your thing!
The visuals in this game are superb. This is easily the cutest the cast has ever looked, and Nintendo would be fools to not make plushies of these incarnations of these characters. The silly dances characters do when their friends level up will live rent free in my mind forever.
The gameplay got some really neat enhancements. You see when to time hits and blocks now, and there's a combo system to encourage good timing by giving you buffs in fights! There's also new triple moves that you can perform, which can do things like prevent damage or attack all enemies. Everything feels natural and great to use. Once you get into the groove of this game's combat system you'll be pulling off crazy moves constantly. Being able to swap party members during fights is also a great quality of life feature that ensured that all characters got their proper screen time.
They also added a post game to this, scattering some interesting fights in it. These will definitely challenge your approach to combat, making you consider the greater aspects of your party composition.
Honestly this game was a joy from start to finish, and I can't recommend it enough. If you haven't played this game yet, go do it!
The remixes of songs are great, capturing the fun of the original compositions while adding more life to them. Plus, you get the option to listen to the old soundtrack if that's more your thing!
The visuals in this game are superb. This is easily the cutest the cast has ever looked, and Nintendo would be fools to not make plushies of these incarnations of these characters. The silly dances characters do when their friends level up will live rent free in my mind forever.
The gameplay got some really neat enhancements. You see when to time hits and blocks now, and there's a combo system to encourage good timing by giving you buffs in fights! There's also new triple moves that you can perform, which can do things like prevent damage or attack all enemies. Everything feels natural and great to use. Once you get into the groove of this game's combat system you'll be pulling off crazy moves constantly. Being able to swap party members during fights is also a great quality of life feature that ensured that all characters got their proper screen time.
They also added a post game to this, scattering some interesting fights in it. These will definitely challenge your approach to combat, making you consider the greater aspects of your party composition.
Honestly this game was a joy from start to finish, and I can't recommend it enough. If you haven't played this game yet, go do it!
This game is an absolute joy from beginning to end. There's so many fresh ideas here, many of which caught me off guard! I love the new approach to exploring worlds and completing stages. It's going to be VERY hard to go back to the New series after playing this. Give this game a shot if you love platformers and are looking for something that really spices things up!