I got to play this game a few days before launch and I'm already 15 hours in, I can definitely say that this game is literally a suikoden game. There are many things you'll recognize if you're a suikoden fan like me. The difficulty has been improved A LOT which was basically the weak point of suikoden. I really like lian her conversations they're so good, tbh I don't get the translation hate I think it's really fun, don't listen to the haters they have brainrot and are actually insane about it. I don't think I'll like seign and jowa better than jowy and riou though. This might be the best looking HD2D game so far, the game doesn't have annoying filters like octopath and triangle strategy, it's easy to read what's going on the screen unlike squares HD2D games. the characters are very expressive to be a HD2D game which I really like, it does a lot to make things feel alive. The blur might be annoying sometimes especially when they blur the place you're walking to, bruh why blur the thing you're focusing on it's so annoying, it feels so uncomfortable to look at it's like having bad eyesight ( I found out I can turn it off yippie ). I will update my review when I get further

its British No Mans Sky

jokes aside for a minute, im not impressed, theres horrible performance issues, i havent played a lot of the game simply because i dont want to play the game running at horrendous performance (i can run Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2 at all high with light ray tracing at 100+ frames... but not this?) i get its early access, but this is ridiculous, i dont even care for the gameplay all that much anymore because of this 1 single issue, call me petty, i dont care, im barely interested in playing another grain in the sand survival game with a gimmick that cant even run correctly... its early access, i get it, but you seriously didnt put any effort into fixing this game before early access launch, it uses 40% or more of my CPU which is already insane, and online only doesnt even need to be here, be real

im disappointed and upset, ive been waiting for this game since 2021, and they couldnt even bother optimizing the game at all

hopefully i enjoy the gameplay itself a little more from what ive played so far, but im not impressed, its really just another survival open world game

I have two wolves inside me, one loves New Mystery, the other hates it. They both kiss each other goodnight.

New Mystery was never released outside Japan, has a new character in Kris the avatar and all other characters that never played a role in Book 2 of the SNES original, making the game a sort of Mortal Kombat Armageddon: everyone is here, everyone fights. There has never been so many characters (77!) in a Fire Emblem game and all are recruitable in a single playthrough. Together with base conversations, we have a semblance of Support, too. There has never been so much content.

Yet it's bland. Some characters shine in their portrayal (I will always love Palla and Catria with all of my heart), yet the worst offender is weirdly enough the protagonist(s), Kris and Marth. In the original game, Marth had a new role as Akaneia's peace keeper, everybody knew him and respected him. Kris steals the show in the remake, always having something to say and to add, yet his\her characterization is ... loyalty to Marth and Altea. That's it. To make things worse, all the new cavaliers and knights feel now like lackeys of Kris, rather than his\her companions. It's fun to make some wacky builds for Kris, I won't lie: I had a female mage reclassed into Cavalier\Pegasus Knight until her Str\Spd were good enough. Then I reclassed to Swordmaster to use a Levin Sword with her good magic bases. If you were to play the harder difficulties you won't have such luck: if you don't play Knight\Berserker, you're playing to lose. Lunatic + is a devious little scoundrel and I won't ever finish it, thank you.

Map design on the other hand is vexing. Some maps are incredible, most are immense. I can feel some sort of map design, like the Ogma & Sirius map or the original content. Others are straight from the 90s, in a bad way. To this day, I would like to know what sort of zaza the person who made the desert chapter smoked. He gave wyverns the 1-2 range! Normal doesn't have it, but still.

As you can see, as an Akaneia fanboy I am torn. Book 2 originally was the cherry on top of the franchise, a little bow to present you the perfect duology of Marth and his friends' fight. The story and the important moments are still there, but they feel less important, less impactful, because a hero that was never there now has to take the spotlight, just to canonically disappear at the end. He was never there ...

The special chapters are fun, challenging and offer a different perspective on characters. They made me appreciate Midia! The audacity! Who even likes Midia?! I would recommend playing this game just for that one aspect, yet the game is still fun, it can be enjoyable and it has its moments. Just ... please, let's not talk about Kris. Let's talk about Robin instead. They learned their lesson and decided that maybe a bit of cognitive dissonance is better compared to a protagonist with no redeeming qualities.

This one started off really strong but then I lost interest as it went on. The game is a strange mix of vibrant and kid friendly silliness mixed with adult issues and body horror. I'm not sure it meshes very well, but it's a very interesting game nonetheless.

You catch Bugsnax and basically talk to other vibrant muppet type characters (grumpus's I think it was?) and solve their issues. These issues have a wide range too. From anything like marriage woes to "OMG I want to get buff" to "I want to eat a Fryder, go get me one." It's kind of jarring going from solving relationship and communication issues between folks to then just grabbing a silly Bugsnak for them to eat.

Then on top of that, as you collect Bugsnax, you find out that it changes the way all these muppet people look. You can change their arms, hands, legs, feet, ears and eventually even their body. AND THEY LOOK HORRIFIC! Having a guy walk around with potato chip ears and a sushi body was just...ugh.

No spoilers but I feel like if I saw the final boss of this game when I was a kid, I would've had nightmares. It's like the cutest foody-hellraiser inspired enemy you'll ever see. YIKES!

Anyway, the reason it gets old after a while is because after a few hours, it feels like you're just going through the motions. Catch a Bugsnak, solve an issue, feed them, repeat.

Also, the dialog at times goes on and on and on and on and on. And it's not really clever, it just feels like talking for talkings sake some times.