Uvemvane
2023
This review contains spoilers
All cards on the table, I recognize this game's many faults. It's got shaky performance even after a lot of updates, a pretty obvious twist, a black protagonist with no black writers and a lot of other little issues that build up.
...but when it works? It really, really works. Traversal is snappy, quick, tasty with lots of options to keep even walking straight forward from being boring and average. Mechanically its dense with a system that takes a lot to get used to and it rewards you for getting used to it with some surprisingly interesting interactions that you can play on to do some surprisingly complex stuff. The character writing, while not amazing all the time, can be genuinely interesting and Cuff has an astounding presence as a villain with some of the greatest VA work I've heard in a modern video game. It's eternally a shame to me that people wrote this off and now this studio's gone because it genuinely deserves a sequel to iron out the kinks. This game reminds me of the PS2, man. It doesn't feel like a cynical, every day open world game, it felt like it was made by someone with a serious vision. Down to the magic system itself which isn't just procedurally generated physics engine pushing tech demo shit but these outstandingly particularly organized pops of elemental graffiti that create gorgeous murals when weaved together.
Genuine sleeper hit, man. I expect this game to get a reevaluation in 5 years.
...but when it works? It really, really works. Traversal is snappy, quick, tasty with lots of options to keep even walking straight forward from being boring and average. Mechanically its dense with a system that takes a lot to get used to and it rewards you for getting used to it with some surprisingly interesting interactions that you can play on to do some surprisingly complex stuff. The character writing, while not amazing all the time, can be genuinely interesting and Cuff has an astounding presence as a villain with some of the greatest VA work I've heard in a modern video game. It's eternally a shame to me that people wrote this off and now this studio's gone because it genuinely deserves a sequel to iron out the kinks. This game reminds me of the PS2, man. It doesn't feel like a cynical, every day open world game, it felt like it was made by someone with a serious vision. Down to the magic system itself which isn't just procedurally generated physics engine pushing tech demo shit but these outstandingly particularly organized pops of elemental graffiti that create gorgeous murals when weaved together.
Genuine sleeper hit, man. I expect this game to get a reevaluation in 5 years.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Like if God and Satan had a baby. This game is a flex. It's not just a flex, its a massive flex. It's the definitive Pikmin experience. Larger maps with more complex world structures and multiple landing points, overworld treasures to find, underground caves, night time gameplay, the fakeout halfway point from Pikmin 1 is back but it was literally a full game length in and of itself and then you get access to a complete recreation of Pikmin 1 as a side mode, just for fun, that you can do whenever. If they added DLC to this game I dont know what the fuck it'd be. This is a near perfect Pikmin experience. Any issues I have with it are nitpicks or QOL.
2013
Pikmin 3 is an interesting little joint because it goes in on a lot of what made Pikmin charming, the environmental stuff in particular and the incredibly cozy vibes, and it just kinda rides that to the end when it suddenly ramps up in intensity. Overall as an experience it isn't very difficult nor is it asking much of you, but I don't see that as much of a flaw. That said, it's definitely a softer game overall and that does put it behind in my personal tastes.
2004
The genuine actual spawn of Satan. Pikmin 2 was proof from God that not only can a sequel be good but it can make you feel like human garbage. This game gives you the hostile world of Pikmin 1 and makes it even more unnatural, uncanny and uncomfortable, settling you in the deepest depths of the planet regularly fighting against an environment that seems designed to kill. It's much less tight than Pikmin 1, a bit flabby in places, and it has some truly heinous traps but its a lovely addition to the franchise and format.
2001
Pikmin 1 is, I think, the quintessential title for showing what the attitude was like on the Gamecube. It was an underpowered, slept on console that got to focus on developing new IPs and playing with unique modes of gameplay and interaction rather than playing into the new war for fidelity being played by its new competitor the Xbox or the new incarnation of its old rival the PS2. Pikmin is a hail mary franchise of a little space man who has to beat the entire game in a month or die horribly after crashlanding using little carrot people to navigate a hostile world. It rides this line between comfortable, soothing even and dangerous and unknowable. The locations are memorable, specific and textured. The Pikmin themselves are a charming delight and reassurance in the world. It's a package that, as an elevator pitch, would be a hard sell but sticks its landing multiple times over. Shouts out to Pikmin.
2023
Amazing breath of fresh air, spent a lot of time playing it, will spend more.
This game was my white whale. I played it the first time streaming it on PS Now to my PS4 and then it got removed after a week. I had to wait years for this rerelease and now I haven't had time to play it. But it is, to date, one of my favorite looking video games ever made. Insanely gorgeous.
2019
Always liked this game but never gave it a real genuine actual shot until recently and it is legit perfection. So smooth and charming and good.
2022
It really frustrates me that this game is like, probably the most fun and dense mechanically of every Bayo game because its not a good game. And that makes me really upset cause I had a lot riding on this game. Bad story, really poor character writing, lacking in features that were in every game prior, really poor balance on Viola, kinda lackluster monster design, its really a shame. This game needed two more years to cook and I would've been happy to wait.
2014
I think people overhate this game a lot. It's main problem is poor weapon variety, but it's got more interesting weapons than 1. They just struggle to be useable.
2009
So I give this a perfect score because its my favorite game of all time probably but this game is so full of annoying bullshit. I hate playing but not because its bad, but because it hates me. Perfect game though.
2018
Character action games are so sparse that I literally cannot judge this game fairly but its so good. Really tasty fusion of two flavors of the genre into something new and sexy.
got checked by something i couldnt keep track of. perfect game.
2022
This game changed how I feel about movies and art in general and it might be legitimately perfect.
2021
One of my favorite fighting games of all time, if not my favorite. Definitely a game that's been affected aversely by COVID during production so it didn't launch in the best state but I do have some serious hardcore love for it.