aconbere
A fusion of Shin Megami Tensei’s (SMT) Press Turn battle system and classic strategy RPG gameplay, Devil Survivor plays out on smaller more tactically oriented maps. Choosing to focus more on the things that make SMT great, team building an strategic turn based combat, rather than deep and complex strategic scenarios.
This is a winning combination, the smaller maps allow for precise gameplay with most missions taking about 15 minutes to complete. Like SMT battles it’s often clear from the outset if you were prepared or not.
The story plays out in a visual novel fashion, again highlighting SMT gameplay staples: time systems and branching paths. In any given day you can pick where you spend your time, at the expense of other opportunities, ultimately the decisions you make change your characters paths, who joins your part, and what endings are available to you. It’s all over the top and a little silly, but I enjoyed the high stakes and slowly building tension.
Overall, while the game starts off a little slow, this has become one of my favorites in the Shin Megami series.
This is a winning combination, the smaller maps allow for precise gameplay with most missions taking about 15 minutes to complete. Like SMT battles it’s often clear from the outset if you were prepared or not.
The story plays out in a visual novel fashion, again highlighting SMT gameplay staples: time systems and branching paths. In any given day you can pick where you spend your time, at the expense of other opportunities, ultimately the decisions you make change your characters paths, who joins your part, and what endings are available to you. It’s all over the top and a little silly, but I enjoyed the high stakes and slowly building tension.
Overall, while the game starts off a little slow, this has become one of my favorites in the Shin Megami series.
I got maybe 3/4 through this one but didn’t have the stamina to finish.
There’s a lot to like here. The game is charming, cute, and well voice acted. There’s monster hunting and monster evolution for team building and all the designs are unique and interesting.
But the combat is a complete mess. You have a team of three (main character, two monsters). Everyone has a couple of skills. Battles play out in real time and involve switching between each character using skills to hit enemy weaknesses and keep everyone healed up. The problem is that it’s hard to see what’s happening, switching characters all the time makes it harder, and it’s just not very much fun.
Other big problems are that the map is a mess and navigating it can be a chore (I recall getting stuck on a quest where I couldn’t find the right tiny land bridge to cross a valey and explored that valley over and over looking).
And lastly leveling up for team is a GRIND. Which if the battle system was fun could be fine but it’s not so it’s bad.
There’s a lot to like here. The game is charming, cute, and well voice acted. There’s monster hunting and monster evolution for team building and all the designs are unique and interesting.
But the combat is a complete mess. You have a team of three (main character, two monsters). Everyone has a couple of skills. Battles play out in real time and involve switching between each character using skills to hit enemy weaknesses and keep everyone healed up. The problem is that it’s hard to see what’s happening, switching characters all the time makes it harder, and it’s just not very much fun.
Other big problems are that the map is a mess and navigating it can be a chore (I recall getting stuck on a quest where I couldn’t find the right tiny land bridge to cross a valey and explored that valley over and over looking).
And lastly leveling up for team is a GRIND. Which if the battle system was fun could be fine but it’s not so it’s bad.
I have deeply mixed options of this game. The writing is very clever and the story has many twists and turns. But I found the gameplay dreadfully dull. I think this comes from a couple of issues:
First, there is no player agency in the story. The story is non-linear but it isn’t branching. Your actions have no impact on the outcomes in either the visual novel section nor the strategy game component. This makes a lot of the game feel like reading a book with some hidden picture elements.
Second, the strategy portion has only shallow ties to the story. It feels tacked on to give some gameplay into the game, not integral to the game. You could remove all the strategy game parts and I don’t think the overall game would feel any different.
I don’t know. I think radiant historia did the time line stuff better and the ninology trilogy did the visual novel stuff better. This feels like they didn’t quiet stick the landing.
First, there is no player agency in the story. The story is non-linear but it isn’t branching. Your actions have no impact on the outcomes in either the visual novel section nor the strategy game component. This makes a lot of the game feel like reading a book with some hidden picture elements.
Second, the strategy portion has only shallow ties to the story. It feels tacked on to give some gameplay into the game, not integral to the game. You could remove all the strategy game parts and I don’t think the overall game would feel any different.
I don’t know. I think radiant historia did the time line stuff better and the ninology trilogy did the visual novel stuff better. This feels like they didn’t quiet stick the landing.
Really fun and interesting take on Zelda. The remake is great like OOT 3D it's got improved textures, controls, and framerate, with some QoL improvements.
I picked this game up on the recommendation that it had a combat system reminiscent of Xenoblade Chronicles. And while I thought the combat system and programmable ally’s were interesting I could not even begin to tell you what was going on with this story. It was completely incomprehensible from start to finish and there wasn’t enough meat in that combat system to keep me going at it without a story.
Good well paced strategy RPG with tons of characters and an intriguing story. The animated cut scenes are kind of spectacular in 3D. The characters have no feet. There’s a weapon triangle.
A fun romp through the monster hunter universe. A beautifully rendered world with a lot of silliness and charm. I thought the combat was terrible but pretty easy to power through, exploration and egg hunting and party building were fine.
When this game works it’s 4 stars, it’s a group of friends sitting around yelling at each other smashing silly emoji buttons and solving puzzles. It can be GREAT. But it’s hard to get three friends in a room (or even remote) who all have the game, and want to play. It’s close, but the limitations of the platform ultimately hold it back.
2012
I wanted to like this game more than I did. But as a blend of farming sim and hack and slash I found the farming was too simple and the hack and slash too bland. Neither felt like the complimented each other, and I never felt a connection to the town and it’s characters.
When I first picked up shovel knight near when it was released in 2014 i didn’t think much of it. It had beautiful sprite work, the music was perfect, and it harkened back to many of my favorite 8bit games (duck tales, castlevania, mario). But I must have been crazy, I came back to it a few years later and binged through not just shovel knight but each expansion and with each one my opinion of the games and Yacht Club grew.
This is really a phenomenal package that shows off incredible design chops. There is so much gaming value packed into these games and the way every expansion recontextualizes the levels and characters is incredible.
This is really a phenomenal package that shows off incredible design chops. There is so much gaming value packed into these games and the way every expansion recontextualizes the levels and characters is incredible.
2013
3D world is a strange blend of 2D Mario level design with 3D Mario… 3Dness 🤔
Anyway, it’s strange but it works! It might be the pinnacle of Nintendos “present a new idea and then challenge the player with themes on that idea” way of level design. It’s a tight package with challenging platforming that stays fun through the whole of its playtime.
Some folks like the multiplayer but it drives me crazy.
Anyway, it’s strange but it works! It might be the pinnacle of Nintendos “present a new idea and then challenge the player with themes on that idea” way of level design. It’s a tight package with challenging platforming that stays fun through the whole of its playtime.
Some folks like the multiplayer but it drives me crazy.
2011
3D Land is good clean fun. It never quite reaches the highs of its console cousins but it does a lot right. One of the games for the 3DS that highlights the best of what the 3D can do for games.
I can’t tell you why i think the “new” super mario’s are so lame but I do. When this came out I was genuinely thrilled to see the return of 2D mario, but the execution falls flat. I think it’s the floaty physics that does it for me, but something has always felt off to me.
I loved the 3DS remakes of these games. Ocarina of Time is a classic and bringing it to the 3DS improved the textures, stabilized the frame rate and improved the controls. It’s really hard to complain.
2010
It’s more Super Mario Galaxy, what more do you want?! It’s got a face ship! Play it!