arijigoku
BACKER
2016
I'd give that psychopath ¥50,000
I didn't think it'd get be me, but it got me. Crying at the J-pop bromance montage, my god.
1997
All that matters with art is, does it make you feel something? And this made me feel things that almost no video game made up to this point could possibly achieve. I don't care how it plays (though very original and engaging), how it looks (though the art direction/design is stunning), or how it sounds (though the music fucking rules), or any of that shit. Can this old piece of software make me feel a genuine human emotion? Then that's a good video game.
A statement against itself
2001
I absolutely loved this game's tone; the opening cutscene is an all timer and I cheered so many times at the end, plus the backwards difficulty curve made me feel like I was getting kinda good at a really hard game, though I get how people who are actually good at games don't like this kind of thing, I'm usually a fan.
The smartest game ever made
1998
This basically kicked of action games trying to be cinematic and literally nobody has done it this well. Also can we talk about this game's menu is literally the best ever made? The game doesn't start when you hit new game, the game starts when the Disk boots up, you hear the Policenauts jingle and the demo plays - continues through the menus, through various other options besides new game, and doesn't end even when the credits roll. Truly nobody understands this shit as well as Kojima.
I lied when I said the first game had the best title screen/menu of any game, this one has that.
7 years later and the vision has finally come to fruition. Unfortunately bad communication & AAA publisher bullshit stopped this from being a true revolution in game distribution - What telltale began in episodic gaming should have evolved due to IO's efforts, rather than Telltale killing the format with the Walking Dead. Oh well, what matters is this game is finally available in the form it always one day intended to be and it's a must play. Physical release when?
2018
The writing isn't anything amazing, it's constantly trying (and failing) to be the Arkham trilogy, and there's no black suit. But; it's really, really fun. Especially the first two thirds.
The follow up to the highly successful Ocarina of Time was an abstract art piece that conveyed expressions of human emotional reactions to loss through visuals, sound, dialogue and game design. I love Miyamoto to death but the fact he punished Koizumi for understanding games as artistic expression better than maybe any one else in the commercial industry by putting him in charge of Mario is criminal.
2003
Fairly interesting narative, very interesting structure and the secret ending is up there as one of the greatest endings in video game history for me.
Plays like shit at first but once you get some decent weapons and upgrade them fully it's perfectly playable (occasionally fun even.) Getting the secret ending is a slog and while weapon stories are a great addition, grinding out the weapons to unlock all the stories is not at all worth it.
That last paragraph sounds bad but I really did love the game, just don't go in expecting great combat and probably use a guide to unlock all the weapons.
Plays like shit at first but once you get some decent weapons and upgrade them fully it's perfectly playable (occasionally fun even.) Getting the secret ending is a slog and while weapon stories are a great addition, grinding out the weapons to unlock all the stories is not at all worth it.
That last paragraph sounds bad but I really did love the game, just don't go in expecting great combat and probably use a guide to unlock all the weapons.
This review contains spoilers
"Okay, that's it. Turn off your computer and do something constructive"
Such an amazing structure to not only this game but the whole trilogy, some of the best plotting of any trilogy not just in video games.
Most of the open world design was outdone just two years later by Nintendo but the quality of the writing in not just sidequests, but even Witcher contracts made this just as memorable as Breath of the Wild, even if most "exploration" in this one is just going to each question mark on the map instead of actually exploring.
I felt like the preperation required before battles in the first two was heavily downplayed by the streamlining in this one, but I'm sure it's much more necessary on harder dificulties (which I will inevitably try on a replay.)
I don't think I've ever come close to a 100 hour single playthrough on a game before but seeing that playtime after I finished really spoke volumes to me that I was able to stay invested for that long and commited so much time to it, and I think it does justify it's length when like 98% games can't, nothing felt unnecessary at all.
This trilogy is some of the best storytelling of the medium (even if the standards are quite low, but still) and despite the fact that once I get around to Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine I'll have probably sunk 200 hours into the series, I'm certain I'll be back to replay it someday.
Most of the open world design was outdone just two years later by Nintendo but the quality of the writing in not just sidequests, but even Witcher contracts made this just as memorable as Breath of the Wild, even if most "exploration" in this one is just going to each question mark on the map instead of actually exploring.
I felt like the preperation required before battles in the first two was heavily downplayed by the streamlining in this one, but I'm sure it's much more necessary on harder dificulties (which I will inevitably try on a replay.)
I don't think I've ever come close to a 100 hour single playthrough on a game before but seeing that playtime after I finished really spoke volumes to me that I was able to stay invested for that long and commited so much time to it, and I think it does justify it's length when like 98% games can't, nothing felt unnecessary at all.
This trilogy is some of the best storytelling of the medium (even if the standards are quite low, but still) and despite the fact that once I get around to Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine I'll have probably sunk 200 hours into the series, I'm certain I'll be back to replay it someday.
2019
This review contains spoilers
The first fake out ending is even more obvious than the fake out endings in Peace Walker & The Phantom Pain, but the fact Kojima used the final boss melee fight missing from MGSV, which is almost better than the MGS4 one, to catch you off guard at the last second was genius. And the second fake out ending actually got me.