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Wo Long is a good Action RPG that has the pieces in place to be a great Action RPG, but it felt like it lacked a cohesive vision and consistentent execution, causing it to frequently lose its momentum. Yet, the studio clearly has enough experience and polish in their formula that none of its flaws ever deliver a fatal blow.
I had gone in with the expectation that this would be Team Ninja's spin on what FromSoft had done with Sekiro, which I imagine can trace some of its lineage circularly back to Ninja Gaiden. That ended up feeling very true when it came to the action, level design, and presentation for better or worse. Unfortunately it's also dragging around an element of that uninspired, modern ARPG loot and progression that's running rampant in the industry.
The action gameplay at the core was probably the most consistently good part about it. It's flowing and high style. Sometimes it feels like it's a bit overly ambitious, but the amount of neuron firing satisfaction you get when it's working well smoothes over those edges.
Like Sekiro — which is my best point of reference — combat revolves quite a lot around combatants' balance, or "spirit" as it's called here. Keeping offense pressure with basic attacks, successfully "deflecting" enemies' counters, and otherwise dealing damage builds your spirit and drains the opponents. Meanwhile, holding a full guard, receiving damage, and using abilities will drain your own.
Deplete an enemy's Spirit and they're opened up to a Fatal Blow. Take a hit when yours is down and you go into a stun state. Both of which can accelerate a fight, though not so decisively as Sekiro's equivalent mechanics. Traditional ARPG damage accumulation is still a pretty major part of combat, and depending on your build could even be the sole focus over precise play. It seems like it will always reward precise play, however, which is nice.
Level design is also generally pretty good. Most of the evironments are quite pretty (though some specific areas have questionable material design) and there's a good varience between the edgier, demon-plagued zones and some lighter, beautiful landscapes of ancient China. It's a particularly good point — to me — that they have that mix, because I often find it hard to care about the world when all you get to see are its wastelands. The level layouts are also fairly interesting and a little mazey, but focused enough that you can progress through them at a pretty quick pace while still feeling like you got a decent amount of exploration done by the end.
And that is the biggest saving grace of the game: a commitment to just being a traditional, level based action game. Because Team Ninja was definitely not prepared to tackle anything more ambitious. It's not that they should have set their aims higher, more that it often feels as though they already stretched themselves a bit thin and — especially the technical side of the PC port — that if you poke too hard the duct tape and gum holding it together will give way.
When I say this, I refer to a few things. First, as mentioned, the PC port feels like it's just barely with us. It's — by some inexplicable phenomenon — stable enough to be enjoyably playable, but you will experience a number of hard crashes (as it is now) and there are other odd issues like the whole world flickering when a certain highlighting shader is active somewhere. Not bad enough to give you a seizure or make it miserable (like the lighting issue in Hitman 3 Trilogy's PC Gamepass debut), but it certainly strips some of the polish off the product. Some areas are optimized better than others, too, but weirdly I never actually felt annoyed by the frame drops. And I'm one of those people who owns a 240hz monitor.
Secondly, the balance is all over the place. I think it's becoming infamous for the first boss being more difficult than many of the following ones. I think part of that is the deflect system having a somewhat tight tolerance and enemies having intentionally off-beat attack timings. But more than that, I think they just didn't spend enough time tuning everything. There were a lot of big, dramatic fights that I one shot absent-mindedly, while some of the secondary encounters would take me 10-20 tries.
The levels, as much as I like their layouts, mostly run out of fresh encounters for you about halfway to two-thirds in. Outside of the bosses, I got pretty bored of the fights. There was still a neuron firing pleasure to them, but I had established a very efficient strategy for each by Part 5, and only very occasionally did anything throw me off that groove.
Part of that repetitiveness might have been due to my focus on making a Stealth build. I realized pretty early in that you could abuse jumping to sneak around much more effectively than simply walking slowly (which is very annoying to do with the massive thumbstick deadzones). And since I didn't really need any other stat, I just kept leveling Water, thus raising my Fatal Blow scaling until I was nearly one-shotting everything.
There are more elements of the game I could get into, but the point is almost always the same. The supporting systems almost always do one thing well and have one fundamental flaw.
I think someone more knowledgeable on Daoism than me could make a good joke on that.
The other two points I want to cover quickly are the art and narrative. The design is quite fun. Edgy, varied, flashy. The technical execution is mostly good but feels very 8th gen. Some models and textures look full and detailed; some still feel a bit thin and mottled. More the former than the latter.
Then there's the narrative, which seems like it was written for people who are already very familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is so little exposition given and so many assumptions being made. And yet I'm not entirely sure that's a detriment. It could have been greater, better delivered, as Hi-Fi Rush just demonstrated to me, but what's here is given enough gravitas and attention to get you to buy in at least a little.
Probably doesn't deserve that much unless you're a big fan of the source material, but regardless.
So I can recommend this to anyone already caught up on FromSoft's works and is just looking to scratch and itch, or just want an Action RPG that doesn't require quite as much brainpower after the initial learning curve. The setting and style are worthy draws as well.
I would suggest playing on console for the time being, however.
I had gone in with the expectation that this would be Team Ninja's spin on what FromSoft had done with Sekiro, which I imagine can trace some of its lineage circularly back to Ninja Gaiden. That ended up feeling very true when it came to the action, level design, and presentation for better or worse. Unfortunately it's also dragging around an element of that uninspired, modern ARPG loot and progression that's running rampant in the industry.
The action gameplay at the core was probably the most consistently good part about it. It's flowing and high style. Sometimes it feels like it's a bit overly ambitious, but the amount of neuron firing satisfaction you get when it's working well smoothes over those edges.
Like Sekiro — which is my best point of reference — combat revolves quite a lot around combatants' balance, or "spirit" as it's called here. Keeping offense pressure with basic attacks, successfully "deflecting" enemies' counters, and otherwise dealing damage builds your spirit and drains the opponents. Meanwhile, holding a full guard, receiving damage, and using abilities will drain your own.
Deplete an enemy's Spirit and they're opened up to a Fatal Blow. Take a hit when yours is down and you go into a stun state. Both of which can accelerate a fight, though not so decisively as Sekiro's equivalent mechanics. Traditional ARPG damage accumulation is still a pretty major part of combat, and depending on your build could even be the sole focus over precise play. It seems like it will always reward precise play, however, which is nice.
Level design is also generally pretty good. Most of the evironments are quite pretty (though some specific areas have questionable material design) and there's a good varience between the edgier, demon-plagued zones and some lighter, beautiful landscapes of ancient China. It's a particularly good point — to me — that they have that mix, because I often find it hard to care about the world when all you get to see are its wastelands. The level layouts are also fairly interesting and a little mazey, but focused enough that you can progress through them at a pretty quick pace while still feeling like you got a decent amount of exploration done by the end.
And that is the biggest saving grace of the game: a commitment to just being a traditional, level based action game. Because Team Ninja was definitely not prepared to tackle anything more ambitious. It's not that they should have set their aims higher, more that it often feels as though they already stretched themselves a bit thin and — especially the technical side of the PC port — that if you poke too hard the duct tape and gum holding it together will give way.
When I say this, I refer to a few things. First, as mentioned, the PC port feels like it's just barely with us. It's — by some inexplicable phenomenon — stable enough to be enjoyably playable, but you will experience a number of hard crashes (as it is now) and there are other odd issues like the whole world flickering when a certain highlighting shader is active somewhere. Not bad enough to give you a seizure or make it miserable (like the lighting issue in Hitman 3 Trilogy's PC Gamepass debut), but it certainly strips some of the polish off the product. Some areas are optimized better than others, too, but weirdly I never actually felt annoyed by the frame drops. And I'm one of those people who owns a 240hz monitor.
Secondly, the balance is all over the place. I think it's becoming infamous for the first boss being more difficult than many of the following ones. I think part of that is the deflect system having a somewhat tight tolerance and enemies having intentionally off-beat attack timings. But more than that, I think they just didn't spend enough time tuning everything. There were a lot of big, dramatic fights that I one shot absent-mindedly, while some of the secondary encounters would take me 10-20 tries.
The levels, as much as I like their layouts, mostly run out of fresh encounters for you about halfway to two-thirds in. Outside of the bosses, I got pretty bored of the fights. There was still a neuron firing pleasure to them, but I had established a very efficient strategy for each by Part 5, and only very occasionally did anything throw me off that groove.
Part of that repetitiveness might have been due to my focus on making a Stealth build. I realized pretty early in that you could abuse jumping to sneak around much more effectively than simply walking slowly (which is very annoying to do with the massive thumbstick deadzones). And since I didn't really need any other stat, I just kept leveling Water, thus raising my Fatal Blow scaling until I was nearly one-shotting everything.
There are more elements of the game I could get into, but the point is almost always the same. The supporting systems almost always do one thing well and have one fundamental flaw.
I think someone more knowledgeable on Daoism than me could make a good joke on that.
The other two points I want to cover quickly are the art and narrative. The design is quite fun. Edgy, varied, flashy. The technical execution is mostly good but feels very 8th gen. Some models and textures look full and detailed; some still feel a bit thin and mottled. More the former than the latter.
Then there's the narrative, which seems like it was written for people who are already very familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is so little exposition given and so many assumptions being made. And yet I'm not entirely sure that's a detriment. It could have been greater, better delivered, as Hi-Fi Rush just demonstrated to me, but what's here is given enough gravitas and attention to get you to buy in at least a little.
Probably doesn't deserve that much unless you're a big fan of the source material, but regardless.
So I can recommend this to anyone already caught up on FromSoft's works and is just looking to scratch and itch, or just want an Action RPG that doesn't require quite as much brainpower after the initial learning curve. The setting and style are worthy draws as well.
I would suggest playing on console for the time being, however.
2023
Hot damn, this game was 🔥
Between this and Doom Eternal, I think Bethesda is trying to corner the market on Rhythm Action games.
Across the board this game did just about everything right for me: visuals, gameplay, music, characters... even the narrative, which I expected to be mostly rote, was actually really engaging and added what it needed to the mix.
The main draw of it all is that this is a rhythm-spectacle-brawler and for me it nailed that side of things. Many will probably find hitting buttons on a beat (in the middle of combat) to be a rather lofty skill bar that has to be reached before you can "get it." But once you're on the flow it really does capture that satisfaction you get when nailing a track in a more typical rhythm game.
Only here, the experience is less about perfecting a routine and more about mastering the art of freestyle. I often lament the lack of melodic music in many games (mostly from the West) and that is the case with many of the tracks here, but that was actually a boon for Hi-Fi Rush as the gameplay is the melody and the fights are your compositions.
I've seen crazier and more technical gameplay from classics of the brawler genre, like Devil May Cry. But the combos and techniques here have plenty of depth for the missions given. And the way all of it flows at a high level is far more intuitive and approachable. It might be a bit tricky to get on the beat at first but once you are almost everything feels like you're playing "the right way."
And then there's the visuals. Hot damn the visuals. Tango and Titmouse — who helped on the 2D cutscenes — packed this so full of flair and detail, yet the motion and important subjects are all so clear and easy to follow. I'd even say it surpasses Persona 5 Royal, the closest stylistic comparison I can think, if you ignore that Persona has 5-6x more game to animate for (which is a lot to ignore, frankly). The whole world, even in gameplay, feels like it's moving with the music. And most of it is.
The music itself was steeped in the classics of skater rock, which hits me right in the soul. It felt like I was back playing one of the original Tony Hawk games in all the best ways. The licensed tracks they used were superb, especially the last two features — which you can spoil for yourself if you're so inclined — and it's all weaved into the experience deftly with a dynamic orchestration system. Even if it did happen, I can't remember a single moment where there was a jarring transition or weird repetition.
The writing then is where I was, as mentioned, the most surprised. A lot of lighthearted games either phone it in with a skippable narrative or else bog down the experience by letting a generic plot set the pace. Here it's done right: it never takes control of the pace of the game, but sells you on the characters and plot by keeping a high level of "charm-per-second" in the dialogue and cutscenes. Quick dialogue and animations when the pace is fast, while waiting for the natural lulls to deliver exposition and more thoughtful conversations.
And after about 15 hours, right when it feels like it should, it all wraps up quite nicely. And if you're really itching for more gameplay, they leave you with a bunch of optional challenges to tackle afterwards.
The game is just fabulous. If I had to levy one complaint, it's that the platforming sections feel a bit stiff when you have to jump across gaps, on account of low air-control (a byproduct of how jumping works in fights).
I absolutely recommend this game to any fans of action or rhythm, and especially those who enjoy some rock-and-roll. I should note that I played on Very Hard all the way through, and recommend that others try a harder difficultly than usually would. But, if you don't think very highly of your own coordination, I'm sure you'll still have fun on normal or easy.
Just do give the game a try, either way.
Between this and Doom Eternal, I think Bethesda is trying to corner the market on Rhythm Action games.
Across the board this game did just about everything right for me: visuals, gameplay, music, characters... even the narrative, which I expected to be mostly rote, was actually really engaging and added what it needed to the mix.
The main draw of it all is that this is a rhythm-spectacle-brawler and for me it nailed that side of things. Many will probably find hitting buttons on a beat (in the middle of combat) to be a rather lofty skill bar that has to be reached before you can "get it." But once you're on the flow it really does capture that satisfaction you get when nailing a track in a more typical rhythm game.
Only here, the experience is less about perfecting a routine and more about mastering the art of freestyle. I often lament the lack of melodic music in many games (mostly from the West) and that is the case with many of the tracks here, but that was actually a boon for Hi-Fi Rush as the gameplay is the melody and the fights are your compositions.
I've seen crazier and more technical gameplay from classics of the brawler genre, like Devil May Cry. But the combos and techniques here have plenty of depth for the missions given. And the way all of it flows at a high level is far more intuitive and approachable. It might be a bit tricky to get on the beat at first but once you are almost everything feels like you're playing "the right way."
And then there's the visuals. Hot damn the visuals. Tango and Titmouse — who helped on the 2D cutscenes — packed this so full of flair and detail, yet the motion and important subjects are all so clear and easy to follow. I'd even say it surpasses Persona 5 Royal, the closest stylistic comparison I can think, if you ignore that Persona has 5-6x more game to animate for (which is a lot to ignore, frankly). The whole world, even in gameplay, feels like it's moving with the music. And most of it is.
The music itself was steeped in the classics of skater rock, which hits me right in the soul. It felt like I was back playing one of the original Tony Hawk games in all the best ways. The licensed tracks they used were superb, especially the last two features — which you can spoil for yourself if you're so inclined — and it's all weaved into the experience deftly with a dynamic orchestration system. Even if it did happen, I can't remember a single moment where there was a jarring transition or weird repetition.
The writing then is where I was, as mentioned, the most surprised. A lot of lighthearted games either phone it in with a skippable narrative or else bog down the experience by letting a generic plot set the pace. Here it's done right: it never takes control of the pace of the game, but sells you on the characters and plot by keeping a high level of "charm-per-second" in the dialogue and cutscenes. Quick dialogue and animations when the pace is fast, while waiting for the natural lulls to deliver exposition and more thoughtful conversations.
And after about 15 hours, right when it feels like it should, it all wraps up quite nicely. And if you're really itching for more gameplay, they leave you with a bunch of optional challenges to tackle afterwards.
The game is just fabulous. If I had to levy one complaint, it's that the platforming sections feel a bit stiff when you have to jump across gaps, on account of low air-control (a byproduct of how jumping works in fights).
I absolutely recommend this game to any fans of action or rhythm, and especially those who enjoy some rock-and-roll. I should note that I played on Very Hard all the way through, and recommend that others try a harder difficultly than usually would. But, if you don't think very highly of your own coordination, I'm sure you'll still have fun on normal or easy.
Just do give the game a try, either way.
Another part of my library that was long cherished, but never finished. It was the first immersive sim (of the 0451 strain) I remember playing, except for perhaps BioShock though my memory of which I started first is fuzzy.
Back then I had been quite surprised by the depth of mechanics and the physicality of it for a first person RPG. With its emphasis on the sandbox and action gameplay skill over stat-mashing, it was a very novel experience for me at the time and it opened me up to the appeal of the genre even more than BioShock did, in a way. Now the genre is one of my favorites.
However, it's apparent upon picking it back up these 10+ years later why I never could finish back in my teen years: the rough edges in the gameplay are many and severe.
Hitboxes are inaccurate and many will activate before their associated animations even start; small bits of geometry can and often will catch the player and cause wonky movement issues; damage itself is all over the place with enemies sometimes taking 30 normal attacks to down and sometimes (sometimes on the exact same character after a reload) take one or two charged attacks and its over.
One of my favorite and surprisingly mild bits of jank involves the many climbable ropes in the game. You eventually get the ability to place them wherever you can shoot into a wooden ceiling and.... well they swing but they don't collide and you can come along for the ride.
Despite all this jank and all the frustration it can occasionally bring, the game is still polished enough that it's really quite enjoyable and even quite visceral when it's working as intended. As it's perhaps most infamous for, kicking enemies to make them ragdoll into spikes or off cliffs really is just a wonderful mechanic. It's effectiveness might have been considered overtuned, but in context it serves as a great release valve for when all the other systems are getting a bit too frustrating.
Story-wise, there's no profound writing here to enthrall you but it isn't quite generic or offensive either. There's just enough complexity to the delightfully edgy plot to make it intriguing and some of the setpiece moments are fairly memorable, especially for their time. I mean, I was still thinking about the game over 10 years later, so the proof is there even if the pieces don't seem to add up.
It's a story that takes itself seriously but not too seriously. And so, instead of getting hung up on the parts that don't work quite so well, I spent more time thinking about the bits that were better than expected.
Visually, despite definitively looking "aged" at this point, the game did so with a surprising amount of grace for a 2006 title. It even supports modern display resolutions and refresh rates thanks to it being based on the Source Engine and despite it not being nearly as well maintained as the rest of the source catalogue.
One major sticking issue with the game technically is that it has a tendency to crash to desktop somewhat randomly. You can consult the PC Gaming Wiki for a fix that resolves most of it: a "large memory address aware" patch that makes it not explode everytime its memory usage nears 2-3GB.
It's not a total fix, but I only crashed maybe a total of 8-10 times over the 10 hour campaign with that patch on which is a much, much lower rate than in the 15 minutes I tried without it. 😂
So, with all that said I'd readily recommend this to any fans of the immersive sim genre, espcially anyone who enjoys the original Deus Ex because the combat is still better than that (that's not a jab at Deus Ex, its just truth). For everyone else, you're better off picking up Dishonored, their fabulous followup title.
It would be nice to see another swords & sorcery immersive sim outing in the near future, though. Or maybe there's one I missed.....
Back then I had been quite surprised by the depth of mechanics and the physicality of it for a first person RPG. With its emphasis on the sandbox and action gameplay skill over stat-mashing, it was a very novel experience for me at the time and it opened me up to the appeal of the genre even more than BioShock did, in a way. Now the genre is one of my favorites.
However, it's apparent upon picking it back up these 10+ years later why I never could finish back in my teen years: the rough edges in the gameplay are many and severe.
Hitboxes are inaccurate and many will activate before their associated animations even start; small bits of geometry can and often will catch the player and cause wonky movement issues; damage itself is all over the place with enemies sometimes taking 30 normal attacks to down and sometimes (sometimes on the exact same character after a reload) take one or two charged attacks and its over.
One of my favorite and surprisingly mild bits of jank involves the many climbable ropes in the game. You eventually get the ability to place them wherever you can shoot into a wooden ceiling and.... well they swing but they don't collide and you can come along for the ride.
Despite all this jank and all the frustration it can occasionally bring, the game is still polished enough that it's really quite enjoyable and even quite visceral when it's working as intended. As it's perhaps most infamous for, kicking enemies to make them ragdoll into spikes or off cliffs really is just a wonderful mechanic. It's effectiveness might have been considered overtuned, but in context it serves as a great release valve for when all the other systems are getting a bit too frustrating.
Story-wise, there's no profound writing here to enthrall you but it isn't quite generic or offensive either. There's just enough complexity to the delightfully edgy plot to make it intriguing and some of the setpiece moments are fairly memorable, especially for their time. I mean, I was still thinking about the game over 10 years later, so the proof is there even if the pieces don't seem to add up.
It's a story that takes itself seriously but not too seriously. And so, instead of getting hung up on the parts that don't work quite so well, I spent more time thinking about the bits that were better than expected.
Visually, despite definitively looking "aged" at this point, the game did so with a surprising amount of grace for a 2006 title. It even supports modern display resolutions and refresh rates thanks to it being based on the Source Engine and despite it not being nearly as well maintained as the rest of the source catalogue.
One major sticking issue with the game technically is that it has a tendency to crash to desktop somewhat randomly. You can consult the PC Gaming Wiki for a fix that resolves most of it: a "large memory address aware" patch that makes it not explode everytime its memory usage nears 2-3GB.
It's not a total fix, but I only crashed maybe a total of 8-10 times over the 10 hour campaign with that patch on which is a much, much lower rate than in the 15 minutes I tried without it. 😂
So, with all that said I'd readily recommend this to any fans of the immersive sim genre, espcially anyone who enjoys the original Deus Ex because the combat is still better than that (that's not a jab at Deus Ex, its just truth). For everyone else, you're better off picking up Dishonored, their fabulous followup title.
It would be nice to see another swords & sorcery immersive sim outing in the near future, though. Or maybe there's one I missed.....
2013
I am a bit conflicted on this novel, here and now. I didn't go in expecting all that much and actually was a bit surprised by some of the depth and quality of the writing and art, but the structure and length of the novel left me feeling quite dissatisfied by the end.
In terms of what's good, I love the clean, colorful style with expressive characters and frequent, gorgeous CGs. I can imagine that some might find the fantasy designs a bit on the tropey anime style, but I'm kind of a sucker for this stuff. And ignoring that suspicion, I do think a lot of effort and fun shine through in it all.
From the story side, I was surprised by the fact that this was really more of a science-fantasy tale — at least for this part of the series. I imagine that might have actually been in the description of the game, but I read that a while before actually playing it, and most of my decision making on what VNs to play is based on the art. So... 😅
In any case, I thought there were a lot of interesting elements at play here, and it went into in moderated detail on them: complex but conscious it was also a fantasy tale — so not too much concentrated Science speak. The world presented is fairly novel in design, as far as what I've read, with a lot of promising interplay between the fantastical, technological, and socio-political elements. Then it uses those elements fairly effectively to create depth to the character dramas that are the core of the story.
At its best moments, I found it to be a very touching and heartfelt episode. The character writing was often engaging and even entertaining in the lighter scenes, and the personalities expressing themselves were layered and likable individuals. So there really is quite a lot good in the game. In fact, I'm definitely intending on continuing with the series...
However, in the context of this title on its own, the structural issues are a bit of a pain point. To put it simply, what's here feels like the opening of a central narrative plus a side story. Without reading more, it's hard to say exactly how relevant the later 2/3rds of the novel will be to be the central thread. Those 2/3rds are a good story in their own right and definitely help build the world as a whole, but the way it transitions to that thread feels like it stopped and intentionally hit "pause" on the main objective.
And that really doesn't have as much to do with the plot setup of the story so much as how the expectations are communicated to the reader. To avoid spoilers I'll be vague but essentially it was a problem of showing the reader a more direct route to continue the narrative, then electing to take a detour. One that made sense for the characters to take given their values and personalities, but a detour nonetheless. If that more direct route had never been presented as a possibility — or presented at a later time — then I probably would be thinking of this as just an interesting first episode in an adventure instead.
(I could imagine other ways to solve my issue as well, that's just the method I first thought of)
Fault Milestone One's narrative structure is just a little bit too off for me to ignore, and that's what kinda frustrates me. When I get to the next chapters, I'll know whether or not I really recommend the series, but if nothing else, there is a neat little science-fantasy story here. I just wouldn't prioritize it if you have more interesting titles on your backlog.
In terms of what's good, I love the clean, colorful style with expressive characters and frequent, gorgeous CGs. I can imagine that some might find the fantasy designs a bit on the tropey anime style, but I'm kind of a sucker for this stuff. And ignoring that suspicion, I do think a lot of effort and fun shine through in it all.
From the story side, I was surprised by the fact that this was really more of a science-fantasy tale — at least for this part of the series. I imagine that might have actually been in the description of the game, but I read that a while before actually playing it, and most of my decision making on what VNs to play is based on the art. So... 😅
In any case, I thought there were a lot of interesting elements at play here, and it went into in moderated detail on them: complex but conscious it was also a fantasy tale — so not too much concentrated Science speak. The world presented is fairly novel in design, as far as what I've read, with a lot of promising interplay between the fantastical, technological, and socio-political elements. Then it uses those elements fairly effectively to create depth to the character dramas that are the core of the story.
At its best moments, I found it to be a very touching and heartfelt episode. The character writing was often engaging and even entertaining in the lighter scenes, and the personalities expressing themselves were layered and likable individuals. So there really is quite a lot good in the game. In fact, I'm definitely intending on continuing with the series...
However, in the context of this title on its own, the structural issues are a bit of a pain point. To put it simply, what's here feels like the opening of a central narrative plus a side story. Without reading more, it's hard to say exactly how relevant the later 2/3rds of the novel will be to be the central thread. Those 2/3rds are a good story in their own right and definitely help build the world as a whole, but the way it transitions to that thread feels like it stopped and intentionally hit "pause" on the main objective.
And that really doesn't have as much to do with the plot setup of the story so much as how the expectations are communicated to the reader. To avoid spoilers I'll be vague but essentially it was a problem of showing the reader a more direct route to continue the narrative, then electing to take a detour. One that made sense for the characters to take given their values and personalities, but a detour nonetheless. If that more direct route had never been presented as a possibility — or presented at a later time — then I probably would be thinking of this as just an interesting first episode in an adventure instead.
(I could imagine other ways to solve my issue as well, that's just the method I first thought of)
Fault Milestone One's narrative structure is just a little bit too off for me to ignore, and that's what kinda frustrates me. When I get to the next chapters, I'll know whether or not I really recommend the series, but if nothing else, there is a neat little science-fantasy story here. I just wouldn't prioritize it if you have more interesting titles on your backlog.
Even though Blazing Blade was my first Fire Emblem game, I somehow missed everything between it and Awakening back in the day. I'm starting to correct that now, hot off the heels of Engage, and I'm glad I am. Path of Radiance was a fabulous entry in the series.
The narrative here is main hook for me. It kept a tight balance between being a war drama and a fantasy adventure. Tragedies were suffered, victories were snatched from small odds, schemes were laid, and traps sprung. All with a layer of the fantastical to help keep it from over indulging in its often weighty themes. The central plot thread kept a good and steady pace, and there were enticing subplots woven within it.
Our lead, Ike, is a character I've known for years thanks to the Smash Bros. series, but I've come to a full appreciation of him now. He's a young stoic done well: he's honest and straightforward, sometimes to the point of being blunt; he's got a tight rein on his emotions, but has his moments of sincerity and wrath; he's wise and clever in his own way, but often finds himself ensnared by the machinations of more complex plots. His chemistry with the mostly grounded supporting cast is fun to witness as the core members get their moments of development as well.
It's by no means the greatest bit of fictional war drama (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes), but it's one of the best I've seen in the context of Strategy RPGs. Probably my favorite of the FE games I've played (BB, Awakening, Fates, 3H, Engage).
Funnily enough, though, I found that this game then has the opposite strengths and weaknesses of Engage. The story here is great, but the technical presentation did feel rather dated.
It's is still a good strategy RPG — great for the era and platform, even. The core systems I learned to love with Blazing Blade are all here and just as fun (or so my stagnant memories of that game say). It's just that the transition to consoles was a bit rough on the visuals and the balance of the game wasn't as fine tuned as I expected.
Menus, character portraits, and everything lifted basically right out of the GBA template all look fine, and the game runs great and controls smoothly. However, the 3D elements are lacking: environments look kinda muddy and drab; character models look fine but the animations are both stiff and peculiarly detailed.
It turned out my first instinct was right. They used motion capture for the combat animations — which I'm shocked a Nintendo first party game had in that era. Unfortunately they tried to replicate the old sprite animations too closely, so everyone is moving in ways that just really don't make sense in 3D. They aren't so odd that they'll ruin the experience or anything like that, but it's not particularly good looking. And frankly it's baffling: if you had the motion capture tech, why not record actual fighting choreography?
There's also no way to skip or speed up the animations, so I turned them off and played exclusively from the grid map view.
Any talk on balance should be prefaced with the fact that I played on Hard first go and was playing on an emulator with save states. So it was simultaneously more difficult than it likely would be for most players and I had more ability to save scum my way through.
You'd think I could have breezed through it that way, but I discovered that you get bonus experience to spend freely on units based on hidden objectives and a round count limit. So I spent at least an hour a level, often several, devising and executing near perfect strategies.
I realized two things doing this:
1) The rewind feature in the Switch titles is the greatest quality of life update the series has received.
2) You can absolutely destroy the balance of the old games with super units as well. That's not unique consequence of the procedural missions that were introduced in Awakening.
On top of that, the number tuning on the weapon and character stats of the game felt much closer to Three Houses than I expected. Weapon advantages felt minimal and could easily become negligible few just a few levels difference between the combatants. There were other elements at play that kept it from becoming completely uninteresting, but I'd firmly say Engage's systems balance is stronger now.
The map layouts also weren't the most inspired, for the most part. Though there were enough novel challenges that the game kept from feeling stale before it was over. So again, it was a great game for it's time, but I'm now fully convinced that the modern gameplay design is right on track.
So highly recommended to turn-based strategy RPG fans, and especially any fellow Fire Emblem fans who haven't gotten to it yet. If you're new to the genre, this is a fine starting point. Just don't play on Hard unless you have an emulator in that case.
Radiant Dawn is next on my list and I'm quite looking forward to it.
The narrative here is main hook for me. It kept a tight balance between being a war drama and a fantasy adventure. Tragedies were suffered, victories were snatched from small odds, schemes were laid, and traps sprung. All with a layer of the fantastical to help keep it from over indulging in its often weighty themes. The central plot thread kept a good and steady pace, and there were enticing subplots woven within it.
Our lead, Ike, is a character I've known for years thanks to the Smash Bros. series, but I've come to a full appreciation of him now. He's a young stoic done well: he's honest and straightforward, sometimes to the point of being blunt; he's got a tight rein on his emotions, but has his moments of sincerity and wrath; he's wise and clever in his own way, but often finds himself ensnared by the machinations of more complex plots. His chemistry with the mostly grounded supporting cast is fun to witness as the core members get their moments of development as well.
It's by no means the greatest bit of fictional war drama (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes), but it's one of the best I've seen in the context of Strategy RPGs. Probably my favorite of the FE games I've played (BB, Awakening, Fates, 3H, Engage).
Funnily enough, though, I found that this game then has the opposite strengths and weaknesses of Engage. The story here is great, but the technical presentation did feel rather dated.
It's is still a good strategy RPG — great for the era and platform, even. The core systems I learned to love with Blazing Blade are all here and just as fun (or so my stagnant memories of that game say). It's just that the transition to consoles was a bit rough on the visuals and the balance of the game wasn't as fine tuned as I expected.
Menus, character portraits, and everything lifted basically right out of the GBA template all look fine, and the game runs great and controls smoothly. However, the 3D elements are lacking: environments look kinda muddy and drab; character models look fine but the animations are both stiff and peculiarly detailed.
It turned out my first instinct was right. They used motion capture for the combat animations — which I'm shocked a Nintendo first party game had in that era. Unfortunately they tried to replicate the old sprite animations too closely, so everyone is moving in ways that just really don't make sense in 3D. They aren't so odd that they'll ruin the experience or anything like that, but it's not particularly good looking. And frankly it's baffling: if you had the motion capture tech, why not record actual fighting choreography?
There's also no way to skip or speed up the animations, so I turned them off and played exclusively from the grid map view.
Any talk on balance should be prefaced with the fact that I played on Hard first go and was playing on an emulator with save states. So it was simultaneously more difficult than it likely would be for most players and I had more ability to save scum my way through.
You'd think I could have breezed through it that way, but I discovered that you get bonus experience to spend freely on units based on hidden objectives and a round count limit. So I spent at least an hour a level, often several, devising and executing near perfect strategies.
I realized two things doing this:
1) The rewind feature in the Switch titles is the greatest quality of life update the series has received.
2) You can absolutely destroy the balance of the old games with super units as well. That's not unique consequence of the procedural missions that were introduced in Awakening.
On top of that, the number tuning on the weapon and character stats of the game felt much closer to Three Houses than I expected. Weapon advantages felt minimal and could easily become negligible few just a few levels difference between the combatants. There were other elements at play that kept it from becoming completely uninteresting, but I'd firmly say Engage's systems balance is stronger now.
The map layouts also weren't the most inspired, for the most part. Though there were enough novel challenges that the game kept from feeling stale before it was over. So again, it was a great game for it's time, but I'm now fully convinced that the modern gameplay design is right on track.
So highly recommended to turn-based strategy RPG fans, and especially any fellow Fire Emblem fans who haven't gotten to it yet. If you're new to the genre, this is a fine starting point. Just don't play on Hard unless you have an emulator in that case.
Radiant Dawn is next on my list and I'm quite looking forward to it.
2023
It's nice to start the year with a delightfully satisfying release from a classic series. Intelligent Systems seems to have learned just about every important lesson they needed to after Three Houses, making this a much more technically sound and tactically interesting title. And that's speaking as someone who liked Three Houses well enough to finish it three times.
The most striking improvement is the presentation. Not only is the rendering cleaner and more stable, but the models and animations and shading and skyboxes, etc. There's a fullness to the appearance and feel of the game this time around that makes it look like the Nintendo first party title it is. FMV cutscenes are plentiful and gorgeous and they seem to have figured out their in-game cutscene systems giving the bulk of the main story more life and weight.
On the downside, the story being presented here has some writing issues. Namely that the dialogue can get pretty corny and I don't feel that the main character gets enough development in the begninning. It's still entertaining enough in a 90s anime sort of way early on and actually pretty well paced, so you can ignore that if you have a little heart. Also — while scattered — there are some moments in the main narrative that are genuinely interesting and the optional bonding conversations are often charming and funny, as usual.
What I was really happy to see, however, was the care and attention put into the combat scenarios. I played on hard and there was a nice consistency to the difficulty. When I went in underprepared it was tricky but doable, leading to some pretty novel tactics on my part. When I theory crafted and honed my party's builds, I was rewarded with the satisfaction of a confident victory — so long as I didn't get careless.
The balance this time around took the opposite approach of Three Houses. There, unit strengths and weakness were downplayed, making more matchups viable with high enough stats. Sword had a base advantage against Axes, but an axe wielder 5 levels over would still probably win. In Engage, you might win if your unit intiates, but on defense they won't even be able to make a followup attack.
Engage introduces a system that I believe is new to the series (I'm not as well versed as I'd like to be), where hitting a unit with their weakness on the weapon triangle(+) will "break" them, disallowing them to make the series standard followup attack for that combat round and whoever attacks them next. I won't go into all of the tactical implications, but it added a subtle layer of depth that the series has needed for quite some time without becoming the "center" of all viable strategies.
The other (in my mind) major change was in how assisted attacks work. Only units with a specific trait (mainly the figther-type classes) can directly contribute to their teammates attacks and it's a standardized value that seems to be dictated entirely by who initiated and who the target is. Conversely, there's more flexibility in who can pile on via unlockable skills, and the enemy units can use this system too (which, if memory serves is new). Bond level bonuses are also more subtle, only contributing directly to hit/avoid chance as far as I could tell. Overall, for me this made death starring your units up into a slow, marching blob much less necessary and thus I felt free to move my units more dynamically.
That last point is further enhanced by the much more creative encounter design in Engage. I won't claim these are the greatest Strategy RPG levels made, and memory tells me that Fates: Conquest was more devious, but most of the levels do a good job of layering environment hazards, traps, and threatening enemies onto tactically interesting map layouts. Many had memorable concepts to them that made them stick in the mind better. You weren't just entering Desert City Battlefield Template #2, you were fighting through a cluttered port storage yard in the dark while a wave of fliers posed to invade from the sea.
Paired with the wonderful music that dynamically changed as it zoomed down to individual battles as they happened and it really was a treat. The less tactically interesting levels also benefitted from the highlights, as with the pacing of the game they served as good cooldown sections.
That brings us to the metagame and progressions elements of the game. I've already made my peace with the series now seemingly permanent inclusion of procedural level grinding missions. It is still a little annoying that I can risk overlelling some characters when I'm trying to get the weaker ones up to par for the main missions, but the aforementioned balance changes help a lot on this front. There's also a "Trial Tower" mode that seems to exist to provide levelled challenges outside of the main story, and even includes network co-op play and a mode to battle copies of other people's armies.
I haven't gotten around to trying any of it, yet, but it sure seemed interesting.
Oh, right. I've forgotten to mention the gameplay change that game is named after. The Emblems and their "engage" abilities. This mechanic definitely becomes one that your strategies will revolve around, and thankfully it does so in a way I found exciting but not overused. I feel it'd be to many words here to explain its function in-depth, but the short of it is that it gives your units bursts of additional abilities that can let you pull off some really nifty stuff. And what makes it especially fun is that it rarely plays out like an instant-win button. They more provide options you might not have had but they come with their own risks. And even when they don't, their inherit time limits mean you can find yourself in hot water a few turns down the road if you're still in the thick of it when that time is up.
They're also just very visually pleasant and the nostalgia factor of including old heroes is nice.
There's more I could say on the gameplay, but I'm probably already too in the weeds as it stands, so I'll wrap up with a mention of the "life sim" mechanics available between missions. They're far more optional and less time consuming than the last three games, but technically there's about as many as 3H. So for people who enjoy that as a brian break between battles or as a way to get more screentime with the cast, it still serves its role.
Overall, Fire Emblem Engage was a worthy entry in long running series that exceeded my modest expectations and was consistently.... engaging.... from start to end. I highly recommend to any fans of strategy RPGs, however I can't speak to how interesting it would be for newcomers to the genre.
I'm one of those Classic Mode, no deaths allowed kind of players.
The most striking improvement is the presentation. Not only is the rendering cleaner and more stable, but the models and animations and shading and skyboxes, etc. There's a fullness to the appearance and feel of the game this time around that makes it look like the Nintendo first party title it is. FMV cutscenes are plentiful and gorgeous and they seem to have figured out their in-game cutscene systems giving the bulk of the main story more life and weight.
On the downside, the story being presented here has some writing issues. Namely that the dialogue can get pretty corny and I don't feel that the main character gets enough development in the begninning. It's still entertaining enough in a 90s anime sort of way early on and actually pretty well paced, so you can ignore that if you have a little heart. Also — while scattered — there are some moments in the main narrative that are genuinely interesting and the optional bonding conversations are often charming and funny, as usual.
What I was really happy to see, however, was the care and attention put into the combat scenarios. I played on hard and there was a nice consistency to the difficulty. When I went in underprepared it was tricky but doable, leading to some pretty novel tactics on my part. When I theory crafted and honed my party's builds, I was rewarded with the satisfaction of a confident victory — so long as I didn't get careless.
The balance this time around took the opposite approach of Three Houses. There, unit strengths and weakness were downplayed, making more matchups viable with high enough stats. Sword had a base advantage against Axes, but an axe wielder 5 levels over would still probably win. In Engage, you might win if your unit intiates, but on defense they won't even be able to make a followup attack.
Engage introduces a system that I believe is new to the series (I'm not as well versed as I'd like to be), where hitting a unit with their weakness on the weapon triangle(+) will "break" them, disallowing them to make the series standard followup attack for that combat round and whoever attacks them next. I won't go into all of the tactical implications, but it added a subtle layer of depth that the series has needed for quite some time without becoming the "center" of all viable strategies.
The other (in my mind) major change was in how assisted attacks work. Only units with a specific trait (mainly the figther-type classes) can directly contribute to their teammates attacks and it's a standardized value that seems to be dictated entirely by who initiated and who the target is. Conversely, there's more flexibility in who can pile on via unlockable skills, and the enemy units can use this system too (which, if memory serves is new). Bond level bonuses are also more subtle, only contributing directly to hit/avoid chance as far as I could tell. Overall, for me this made death starring your units up into a slow, marching blob much less necessary and thus I felt free to move my units more dynamically.
That last point is further enhanced by the much more creative encounter design in Engage. I won't claim these are the greatest Strategy RPG levels made, and memory tells me that Fates: Conquest was more devious, but most of the levels do a good job of layering environment hazards, traps, and threatening enemies onto tactically interesting map layouts. Many had memorable concepts to them that made them stick in the mind better. You weren't just entering Desert City Battlefield Template #2, you were fighting through a cluttered port storage yard in the dark while a wave of fliers posed to invade from the sea.
Paired with the wonderful music that dynamically changed as it zoomed down to individual battles as they happened and it really was a treat. The less tactically interesting levels also benefitted from the highlights, as with the pacing of the game they served as good cooldown sections.
That brings us to the metagame and progressions elements of the game. I've already made my peace with the series now seemingly permanent inclusion of procedural level grinding missions. It is still a little annoying that I can risk overlelling some characters when I'm trying to get the weaker ones up to par for the main missions, but the aforementioned balance changes help a lot on this front. There's also a "Trial Tower" mode that seems to exist to provide levelled challenges outside of the main story, and even includes network co-op play and a mode to battle copies of other people's armies.
I haven't gotten around to trying any of it, yet, but it sure seemed interesting.
Oh, right. I've forgotten to mention the gameplay change that game is named after. The Emblems and their "engage" abilities. This mechanic definitely becomes one that your strategies will revolve around, and thankfully it does so in a way I found exciting but not overused. I feel it'd be to many words here to explain its function in-depth, but the short of it is that it gives your units bursts of additional abilities that can let you pull off some really nifty stuff. And what makes it especially fun is that it rarely plays out like an instant-win button. They more provide options you might not have had but they come with their own risks. And even when they don't, their inherit time limits mean you can find yourself in hot water a few turns down the road if you're still in the thick of it when that time is up.
They're also just very visually pleasant and the nostalgia factor of including old heroes is nice.
There's more I could say on the gameplay, but I'm probably already too in the weeds as it stands, so I'll wrap up with a mention of the "life sim" mechanics available between missions. They're far more optional and less time consuming than the last three games, but technically there's about as many as 3H. So for people who enjoy that as a brian break between battles or as a way to get more screentime with the cast, it still serves its role.
Overall, Fire Emblem Engage was a worthy entry in long running series that exceeded my modest expectations and was consistently.... engaging.... from start to end. I highly recommend to any fans of strategy RPGs, however I can't speak to how interesting it would be for newcomers to the genre.
I'm one of those Classic Mode, no deaths allowed kind of players.
I still have quite a bit of thinking to do about this game before I can give I can give it a proper rating. Frankly, my ratings mean little since I usually just drop games that don't interest me, so you can assume I think anything I finish is a "good game/VN."
[Edit: I'm still kinda thinking but if I ask myself, "How glad am I that I played this game?" And I think that puts it at like a 4.5 or whatever equivalent I'm using.]
It's the eve of Fire Emblem Engage's launch, however, so I need to at least get my current thoughts written down so I have them there for me when I come to a more complete opinion.
Compared to the previous entry in the Infinity series of visual novels, Ever17, this one leans much harder into the mystery aspect much sooner. Unlike later Uchikoshi works, however, it's still more character driven and more intimate in scope. The characters and plot still also keep out of the zanier elements that 999 and on revel in, for better or worse depending on your tastes.
I think one thing I can already say for certain is that if I had to choose between the No Escape series, Somnium Files, and this, I would pick Remember11 with little regret.
There's a pretty frequent feeling I get at the end of these Uchikoshi stories — with Ever17 as the one exception — and that's a distinct lack of satisfaction. Everytime I finish one, I feel like something important hasn't been resolved. Or if it's VLR, many important things haven't been resolved.
As mystery stories with a lean towards tragedy and based on what I've heard, that's likely a very intentional feeling. The pieces are there for you to think about and chew on, it's just a question of how satisfied you will be by coming to your own conclusions.
As a software engineer, I think that openendedness can sometimes trigger some flashbacks to some systems I had to work with that had very... "open ended" documentation. I certainly see the appeal of that in a story, I'm just at a stage of life where I feel like I have enough unresolved mysteries breathing down my back. 😅
That aside, much like Ever17 there were plenty of other elements to the story that I could sink my teeth into and which were satisfying in their own ways.
Throughout the events of Remember11, there's an ever present contention between compassion and suspicion and each member of the cast spends their time in both lights. This is a theme explored often in popular fiction, such as the Danganronpa series, Game of Thrones, or your pick of apocolypse tale, but I think this story gets to that dichotomy in a way few of those stories do.
Often the conflict and uncertainty in a survival or mystery thriller plot is fanned by external forces — factional allegiances, higher authorities, or other sources of coercion — but here the emphasis is almost entirely on the individuals. The most imporant questions are "who am I" and "who are you" not "who's side are you on"... If that makes sense.
The story shows many aspects of the characters: demonstrated truths, hearsay, and uncertain claims. Then it gives you reason to wonder which parts are fundamental traits and which are masks the characters put on reactively, whether out of fear, anxiety, or pleasure.
I quite liked most of the designs and portrait art as well, so I can say with some certainty that I'll remember this cast quite fondly in the years to come.
The setting was also a big draw for me. I'm have to admit some bias in that I'm naturally drawn to mountains and all things winter, even to the point of finding a grim fascination with the deadlier side of both. So of course, the slightly claustrophobic "trapped in a cabin" setup here hooked me immediately. The narrative takes place primarily in two locations that are similar on the surface but mirror each other's threats and comforts, lending another layer of tangibility to the themes of the story.
The plot here is signficantly more tense, involved, and immediate than in Ever17. Yet it still leaves a good amount of space for character building and atmosphere. Save for some nitpicks near the end, I'd say this one felt much more polished and focused. It's difficult to speak about it any less generally than that, considering that it's a very spoilable plot. But I will at least say that if you liked any of Uchikoshi's other works, this will feel both a bit familiar and yet different enough that you'll want to check it out.
I can easily imagine this being a story that creates more split opinions than Ever17 or 999, but however you feel by the end I think it's worth taking the journey.
(On a fun little side note, I happened to finish this game on the same day that it ends in the story, which also happens to be my birthday. So there's another bit of bias of affinity. 😂)
[Edit: I'm still kinda thinking but if I ask myself, "How glad am I that I played this game?" And I think that puts it at like a 4.5 or whatever equivalent I'm using.]
It's the eve of Fire Emblem Engage's launch, however, so I need to at least get my current thoughts written down so I have them there for me when I come to a more complete opinion.
Compared to the previous entry in the Infinity series of visual novels, Ever17, this one leans much harder into the mystery aspect much sooner. Unlike later Uchikoshi works, however, it's still more character driven and more intimate in scope. The characters and plot still also keep out of the zanier elements that 999 and on revel in, for better or worse depending on your tastes.
I think one thing I can already say for certain is that if I had to choose between the No Escape series, Somnium Files, and this, I would pick Remember11 with little regret.
There's a pretty frequent feeling I get at the end of these Uchikoshi stories — with Ever17 as the one exception — and that's a distinct lack of satisfaction. Everytime I finish one, I feel like something important hasn't been resolved. Or if it's VLR, many important things haven't been resolved.
As mystery stories with a lean towards tragedy and based on what I've heard, that's likely a very intentional feeling. The pieces are there for you to think about and chew on, it's just a question of how satisfied you will be by coming to your own conclusions.
As a software engineer, I think that openendedness can sometimes trigger some flashbacks to some systems I had to work with that had very... "open ended" documentation. I certainly see the appeal of that in a story, I'm just at a stage of life where I feel like I have enough unresolved mysteries breathing down my back. 😅
That aside, much like Ever17 there were plenty of other elements to the story that I could sink my teeth into and which were satisfying in their own ways.
Throughout the events of Remember11, there's an ever present contention between compassion and suspicion and each member of the cast spends their time in both lights. This is a theme explored often in popular fiction, such as the Danganronpa series, Game of Thrones, or your pick of apocolypse tale, but I think this story gets to that dichotomy in a way few of those stories do.
Often the conflict and uncertainty in a survival or mystery thriller plot is fanned by external forces — factional allegiances, higher authorities, or other sources of coercion — but here the emphasis is almost entirely on the individuals. The most imporant questions are "who am I" and "who are you" not "who's side are you on"... If that makes sense.
The story shows many aspects of the characters: demonstrated truths, hearsay, and uncertain claims. Then it gives you reason to wonder which parts are fundamental traits and which are masks the characters put on reactively, whether out of fear, anxiety, or pleasure.
I quite liked most of the designs and portrait art as well, so I can say with some certainty that I'll remember this cast quite fondly in the years to come.
The setting was also a big draw for me. I'm have to admit some bias in that I'm naturally drawn to mountains and all things winter, even to the point of finding a grim fascination with the deadlier side of both. So of course, the slightly claustrophobic "trapped in a cabin" setup here hooked me immediately. The narrative takes place primarily in two locations that are similar on the surface but mirror each other's threats and comforts, lending another layer of tangibility to the themes of the story.
The plot here is signficantly more tense, involved, and immediate than in Ever17. Yet it still leaves a good amount of space for character building and atmosphere. Save for some nitpicks near the end, I'd say this one felt much more polished and focused. It's difficult to speak about it any less generally than that, considering that it's a very spoilable plot. But I will at least say that if you liked any of Uchikoshi's other works, this will feel both a bit familiar and yet different enough that you'll want to check it out.
I can easily imagine this being a story that creates more split opinions than Ever17 or 999, but however you feel by the end I think it's worth taking the journey.
(On a fun little side note, I happened to finish this game on the same day that it ends in the story, which also happens to be my birthday. So there's another bit of bias of affinity. 😂)
Every once in a while I play a game and get an unholy obsession over playing it exclusively on Hardcore/Ironman mode if available. Here that was likely triggered by the promise of exclusive account-bound gear for playing that way.
What I'm saying is, I could have beat this game a year and some change ago, but instead my friend and I spent 75+ hours on it — 55 hours over the "How Long To Beat" for main+extras.
We had to take several breaks, but I can't say I regret it. Remnant: From the Ashes was, in my opinion, a very charming mix of polished Third Person Shooting, Souls-lite progression systems, and some adventure gamey secrets to uncover.
Gameplay is probably the biggest draw of the game and so where I'll start. My first impression of the game was that it was a cross of Gears of War and Dark Souls, but frankly it just plays way smoother than Gears ever has (not to slight Gears — its weighty gameplay has its own charm). Which lends well to its more action-RPG like structure. Fights are decided quickly, enemies are satisfying to take down, and doing so doesn't disrupt the flow of exploration significantly — if you're a decent shot.
I wouldn't call this a massively difficult game, especially on the base setting, but it can certainly punish carelessness and you have to pay attention in many of the set piece encounters. Having looked at other reviews, I get the sense this game is a bit notorious for its boss battles. Particularly, many of them include waves of grunt enemies to disrupt you. It can be a bit of a learning curve, but even when playing solo I didn't find it to be as aggregious as people make it out to be.
I do agree that this game is better in co-op, however. I wouldn't change my score looking at it entirely on the singleplayer experience, but the promotional art makes it pretty clear the developers likely did switch to seeing this as a co-op first game at some point. Namely because, while it makes some things easier, co-op doesn't break the balance in the way it tends to in a game like Dark Souls.
And the reward for those challenges is an impressive variety of weapons, gear, and spell-like "mods" that give you plenty of options to adjust your playstyle and do some light theory crafting for builds. It takes a non-randomized approach to loot, though the exact locations of where to find them are shuffled about, which I find to be a much better option for a more skill-driven shooter than the Diablo style systems that seem to dominate the market. All items are potentially relevant through the whole game, it's just a question of what you like and what you can upgrade.
I do think there's some polish that could be put into the scaling systems, but the issues aren't worth more words than this.
The variety extends to the enemies in the game as well. Even if I had beat the game in that first 20 hours with it, I likely would not have seen half the enemies in the game. Especially with the DLC adding to the pool of potential encounters, we were 70 hours in and still managed to find bosses or even standard enemies we hadn't seen. Sometimes even in areas we had been to dozens of times. There are very few "pallete swap" enemies as well, or so it felt. Almost every one has a unique combination of model, animations, battle tactics, and weakspot locations. The differences didn't often necessitate a drastic change in playstyle, but it was still enough that they all felt like they had their unique identities as targets. As you replay areas through the different modes and regenerated map layouts, I built up different tactical optimizations for each.
Again, generally subtle playstyle differences, but appreciable nonetheless.
On the downside, I'm not a huge fan of the environments presented. Not that they aren't well put together, but its a pretty bleak set until the last one and the DLC environment, with only 5 total. Now, that number should be compared to the Diablos of the world, as that's clearly the kind of act structure they were going for. So that's not an objective problem, its just that each area that misses for a particular person is 20% of the locations.
Graphically, this was one of the better looking UE4 games of its time. It didn't go for photorealism and instead opted for a stylized look that's very consistent in quality and easy on the eyes. Performance is easy enough to tweak to what your system can handle as well, assuming your system can handle UE4 at all (which should be most of you these days). Some areas do dip worse than they need to (the Swamp, Corsus, of course).
Narrative was, frankly, the last thing I really paid attention to in the game. The world presented does seem interesting... but I was playing it mostly co-op and so what little dialogue sections there were, were often glossed over. I'll say that what detail is there in the implicit storytelling and the snippets you do pick up when monkeying around are enough to give it that extra bit of memorability.
To put a recommendation to it, this game is for anyone who already knows they like third person shooters. Espcially ones with more emphasis on movement than cover. If you're looking for an action-RPG or souls-lite adventure game experience on top, all the better. If you don't like shooters, or aren't particularly good at them yet, you may want to hold off. It's not nearly the hardest out there, but it's certainly not introductory in design, unless you got a good pal or two who can help out, or just super pumped by the art style.
What I'm saying is, I could have beat this game a year and some change ago, but instead my friend and I spent 75+ hours on it — 55 hours over the "How Long To Beat" for main+extras.
We had to take several breaks, but I can't say I regret it. Remnant: From the Ashes was, in my opinion, a very charming mix of polished Third Person Shooting, Souls-lite progression systems, and some adventure gamey secrets to uncover.
Gameplay is probably the biggest draw of the game and so where I'll start. My first impression of the game was that it was a cross of Gears of War and Dark Souls, but frankly it just plays way smoother than Gears ever has (not to slight Gears — its weighty gameplay has its own charm). Which lends well to its more action-RPG like structure. Fights are decided quickly, enemies are satisfying to take down, and doing so doesn't disrupt the flow of exploration significantly — if you're a decent shot.
I wouldn't call this a massively difficult game, especially on the base setting, but it can certainly punish carelessness and you have to pay attention in many of the set piece encounters. Having looked at other reviews, I get the sense this game is a bit notorious for its boss battles. Particularly, many of them include waves of grunt enemies to disrupt you. It can be a bit of a learning curve, but even when playing solo I didn't find it to be as aggregious as people make it out to be.
I do agree that this game is better in co-op, however. I wouldn't change my score looking at it entirely on the singleplayer experience, but the promotional art makes it pretty clear the developers likely did switch to seeing this as a co-op first game at some point. Namely because, while it makes some things easier, co-op doesn't break the balance in the way it tends to in a game like Dark Souls.
And the reward for those challenges is an impressive variety of weapons, gear, and spell-like "mods" that give you plenty of options to adjust your playstyle and do some light theory crafting for builds. It takes a non-randomized approach to loot, though the exact locations of where to find them are shuffled about, which I find to be a much better option for a more skill-driven shooter than the Diablo style systems that seem to dominate the market. All items are potentially relevant through the whole game, it's just a question of what you like and what you can upgrade.
I do think there's some polish that could be put into the scaling systems, but the issues aren't worth more words than this.
The variety extends to the enemies in the game as well. Even if I had beat the game in that first 20 hours with it, I likely would not have seen half the enemies in the game. Especially with the DLC adding to the pool of potential encounters, we were 70 hours in and still managed to find bosses or even standard enemies we hadn't seen. Sometimes even in areas we had been to dozens of times. There are very few "pallete swap" enemies as well, or so it felt. Almost every one has a unique combination of model, animations, battle tactics, and weakspot locations. The differences didn't often necessitate a drastic change in playstyle, but it was still enough that they all felt like they had their unique identities as targets. As you replay areas through the different modes and regenerated map layouts, I built up different tactical optimizations for each.
Again, generally subtle playstyle differences, but appreciable nonetheless.
On the downside, I'm not a huge fan of the environments presented. Not that they aren't well put together, but its a pretty bleak set until the last one and the DLC environment, with only 5 total. Now, that number should be compared to the Diablos of the world, as that's clearly the kind of act structure they were going for. So that's not an objective problem, its just that each area that misses for a particular person is 20% of the locations.
Graphically, this was one of the better looking UE4 games of its time. It didn't go for photorealism and instead opted for a stylized look that's very consistent in quality and easy on the eyes. Performance is easy enough to tweak to what your system can handle as well, assuming your system can handle UE4 at all (which should be most of you these days). Some areas do dip worse than they need to (the Swamp, Corsus, of course).
Narrative was, frankly, the last thing I really paid attention to in the game. The world presented does seem interesting... but I was playing it mostly co-op and so what little dialogue sections there were, were often glossed over. I'll say that what detail is there in the implicit storytelling and the snippets you do pick up when monkeying around are enough to give it that extra bit of memorability.
To put a recommendation to it, this game is for anyone who already knows they like third person shooters. Espcially ones with more emphasis on movement than cover. If you're looking for an action-RPG or souls-lite adventure game experience on top, all the better. If you don't like shooters, or aren't particularly good at them yet, you may want to hold off. It's not nearly the hardest out there, but it's certainly not introductory in design, unless you got a good pal or two who can help out, or just super pumped by the art style.
And so I continue my journey through Uchikoshi's writing credits in a kind of reverse order.
I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The first hour confirmed that this was very much an "early" work of his, and I would go so far as to call it something of a 999 prototype. Having played 5 of his games in the span of a year, I've noticed that he has a set of battle tested plot devices he's been polishing up iteratively. It could feel like I'm reading the same story over and over, but in application they're more like structural elements of the story rather than the twists. In a way it feels like sci-fi chemistry where he takes a set of known hooks and mixes them together in different ways to see how they interact.
Here with Ever 17, what's interesting to me is that the "thriller" element of the Zero Escape and Somnium Games is gone. Instead we get a quieter, more character driven drama. There's still definitely the paranormal/sci-fi mystery element and more exciting moments, but not so much the pushing tension the later scenarios lean into. Less reliance on suspicion and shadowy antagonists and more gradual and mostly cooperative struggles against nature.
What I ended up liking the most about this title was what I've generally found to be a weakness in Zero Escape/Somnium: characters. The cast here is nearly as flashy, quirky, and immediately rememberable — there's no Dates or Clovers or Aibas — but they feel more grounded because of that, and their dialogue still has plenty of chracter. Everyone has a decent range of roles they play and their own ways of playing them.
The characters also get the time they need for their arcs to build and for you to get attached to each by the end. And in direct contrast to my issues with later Uchikoshi titles, you actually get some solid closure with the characters by the end. Not sure how that quality of his stories went so haywire with Zero Escape.
That said, the pacing here can feel a tad more sluggish due to a less refined story. For the most part it glides along pretty well, especially since they wisely made the skip feature work on "similar" scenes and not just the exact scenes you've read — for example, if someone delivers a bit of exposition in one scenario, the smart skip will generally let you skip that same exposition in another route, even if given by a different character. On occasion though, there are still a few scenes that will feel road-bumpy. Getting to all the "good" ends and through the true route took me about 19-20 hours so it still felt like a pretty light read (for me).
As a sci-fi fan I should also mention how those elements are used, as I was quite entertained by the set of topics explored. There were some well worn matters, but also a lot of ideas that now feel kind of cooly retro and even ones that feel more uncommon (at least in my reading). I think there was a lot of good detail paid to water and diving physics without getting too caught up with itself. It was lighter with the supernatural/occult conspiracy elements than ZE. Enough to make it fun but not so much that it muddled up the hard sci-fi elements.
From a technical level, there's not much more to say than that this is an early 00s VN but on the more fully featured side. It should be explicitly noted, though, that this is a strictly text VN unlike Uchikoshi's later works. So anyone hoping for more puzzle gameplay will be left wanting here.
On that note, I would call this a solid recommendation for general VN fans, and particularly for readers looking for character driven sci-fi dramas or early 00s ocean themed stories. Not the most polished work, but much more solid than I expected. And its more matte finish is actually part of its appeal.
I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The first hour confirmed that this was very much an "early" work of his, and I would go so far as to call it something of a 999 prototype. Having played 5 of his games in the span of a year, I've noticed that he has a set of battle tested plot devices he's been polishing up iteratively. It could feel like I'm reading the same story over and over, but in application they're more like structural elements of the story rather than the twists. In a way it feels like sci-fi chemistry where he takes a set of known hooks and mixes them together in different ways to see how they interact.
Here with Ever 17, what's interesting to me is that the "thriller" element of the Zero Escape and Somnium Games is gone. Instead we get a quieter, more character driven drama. There's still definitely the paranormal/sci-fi mystery element and more exciting moments, but not so much the pushing tension the later scenarios lean into. Less reliance on suspicion and shadowy antagonists and more gradual and mostly cooperative struggles against nature.
What I ended up liking the most about this title was what I've generally found to be a weakness in Zero Escape/Somnium: characters. The cast here is nearly as flashy, quirky, and immediately rememberable — there's no Dates or Clovers or Aibas — but they feel more grounded because of that, and their dialogue still has plenty of chracter. Everyone has a decent range of roles they play and their own ways of playing them.
The characters also get the time they need for their arcs to build and for you to get attached to each by the end. And in direct contrast to my issues with later Uchikoshi titles, you actually get some solid closure with the characters by the end. Not sure how that quality of his stories went so haywire with Zero Escape.
That said, the pacing here can feel a tad more sluggish due to a less refined story. For the most part it glides along pretty well, especially since they wisely made the skip feature work on "similar" scenes and not just the exact scenes you've read — for example, if someone delivers a bit of exposition in one scenario, the smart skip will generally let you skip that same exposition in another route, even if given by a different character. On occasion though, there are still a few scenes that will feel road-bumpy. Getting to all the "good" ends and through the true route took me about 19-20 hours so it still felt like a pretty light read (for me).
As a sci-fi fan I should also mention how those elements are used, as I was quite entertained by the set of topics explored. There were some well worn matters, but also a lot of ideas that now feel kind of cooly retro and even ones that feel more uncommon (at least in my reading). I think there was a lot of good detail paid to water and diving physics without getting too caught up with itself. It was lighter with the supernatural/occult conspiracy elements than ZE. Enough to make it fun but not so much that it muddled up the hard sci-fi elements.
From a technical level, there's not much more to say than that this is an early 00s VN but on the more fully featured side. It should be explicitly noted, though, that this is a strictly text VN unlike Uchikoshi's later works. So anyone hoping for more puzzle gameplay will be left wanting here.
On that note, I would call this a solid recommendation for general VN fans, and particularly for readers looking for character driven sci-fi dramas or early 00s ocean themed stories. Not the most polished work, but much more solid than I expected. And its more matte finish is actually part of its appeal.
The first time I played this game was the original PS2 American release when I was 6 or 7 years old. I got right up to the last boss, but was underleveled and gave up, then we sold our PS2 before I could try again. So it could be argued that a large part of the appeal for me is those warm fuzzy childhood memories I associate with it, and the lingering grudge I've held with that boss. However I do think Final Fantasy X has a lot of objectively strong points.
First, the presentation of this game was just two steps above anything else in early PS2 era. Hell, sometimes it feels more put together than XII. Now that I have an eye for such things, it's really interesting seeing how they mixed the use of the newer style full-3D environements and the classic style pre-rendered backgrounds. Even with the HD facelift making the difference in visual detail easier to see, the transistions are still very understated and natural.
Narratively as well, I feel like this is a much more cohesive experience than 6-9 and 12. Final Fantasy games tend to have a point in the plot where it kind of... scatters for a bit, or things will happen without any explicit context. I was a bit surprised to find that X was a lot more focused than my memory and experience with the series led me to believe it would be.
For instance, this is the only Final Fantasy I can think of where the driving motivation of the plot stays consistent and clear from after the short prologue to the end of the story — Tidus must escort Yuna on her quest to destroy Sin. Everything else revolves around that and never fully distracts from it. The context of what that objective means and what it'll take to accomplish it evolves, but the story stays well anchored in that core premise.
I even managed to get over my aversion to the main character's weird ass getup long enough to realize that he's actually a more compelling character than I remembered. Not the best of the series, but now that I'm older I better understand the nuance of his arc and the tumultuous relationship with his father that underpins his journey's motivation.
For whatever world-building and technical nitpicks you can levy at the plot, I at least argue that it's a very solidly presented one. Just don't go in expecting consistent technical details. The dreamlike qualities of the art and presentation are very much intentional.
It's unfortunate then that the translation and more specifically the english voice acting can be so inconsistent. Most people know the memes, of course. I don't find it actually to be as consistently goofy as its repuation has garnered, but having compared it to the original VO I think there were some fundamental directional issues with how it was recorded.
The English actors often seem to be replicating the cadence of the Japanese lines even though the structure of the sentences are very different, leading to many lines coming out very stilted and unnatural. It's possible that technical limitations either were the cause for this direction or exasperated it. However, I actually am rather positive on the castings themselves. I think the English voices match the personalities of the characters quite well. And the audio mixing is very solid, too.
Gameplay then is where I'm the most mixed on this title. Compared to other turn-based JRPGs, this is the best core system the series has presented: it's got the most tactical depth; it did away with ATB and geared the fights towards fewer but more impactful actions making them feel tighter paced; and in the early game, the stat scaling and progression mechanics promise to be more focused on smaller differences with bigger impacts....
But then you get to the last 20% of the game and the numbers start going haywire and the fights start relying more on obscure gimicks. It's not so bad that it feels fundamentally broken, it's just that the combat experience starts to swing around wildly. You'll find standard encounters that take more effort than bosses; bosses will become nigh-impossibly difficult without trial and erroring to sus-out the gimick; weapons you found at the start of the game will be the most cost effecient ones to continue using; and suddenly your White Magic healer will have the highest magic stat in the party and will double the damage output anyone else could hope to achieve despite the fact that you exclusively built her down the healing skill routes.
It can be really experience destroying... but there's also a weird satisfaction to it if you push through.
I can't recommend this game to general audiences because of this, but anyone with experience with older JRPGs and relish the kind of esoteric strategizing required should be able to get a lot out of the game.
First, the presentation of this game was just two steps above anything else in early PS2 era. Hell, sometimes it feels more put together than XII. Now that I have an eye for such things, it's really interesting seeing how they mixed the use of the newer style full-3D environements and the classic style pre-rendered backgrounds. Even with the HD facelift making the difference in visual detail easier to see, the transistions are still very understated and natural.
Narratively as well, I feel like this is a much more cohesive experience than 6-9 and 12. Final Fantasy games tend to have a point in the plot where it kind of... scatters for a bit, or things will happen without any explicit context. I was a bit surprised to find that X was a lot more focused than my memory and experience with the series led me to believe it would be.
For instance, this is the only Final Fantasy I can think of where the driving motivation of the plot stays consistent and clear from after the short prologue to the end of the story — Tidus must escort Yuna on her quest to destroy Sin. Everything else revolves around that and never fully distracts from it. The context of what that objective means and what it'll take to accomplish it evolves, but the story stays well anchored in that core premise.
I even managed to get over my aversion to the main character's weird ass getup long enough to realize that he's actually a more compelling character than I remembered. Not the best of the series, but now that I'm older I better understand the nuance of his arc and the tumultuous relationship with his father that underpins his journey's motivation.
For whatever world-building and technical nitpicks you can levy at the plot, I at least argue that it's a very solidly presented one. Just don't go in expecting consistent technical details. The dreamlike qualities of the art and presentation are very much intentional.
It's unfortunate then that the translation and more specifically the english voice acting can be so inconsistent. Most people know the memes, of course. I don't find it actually to be as consistently goofy as its repuation has garnered, but having compared it to the original VO I think there were some fundamental directional issues with how it was recorded.
The English actors often seem to be replicating the cadence of the Japanese lines even though the structure of the sentences are very different, leading to many lines coming out very stilted and unnatural. It's possible that technical limitations either were the cause for this direction or exasperated it. However, I actually am rather positive on the castings themselves. I think the English voices match the personalities of the characters quite well. And the audio mixing is very solid, too.
Gameplay then is where I'm the most mixed on this title. Compared to other turn-based JRPGs, this is the best core system the series has presented: it's got the most tactical depth; it did away with ATB and geared the fights towards fewer but more impactful actions making them feel tighter paced; and in the early game, the stat scaling and progression mechanics promise to be more focused on smaller differences with bigger impacts....
But then you get to the last 20% of the game and the numbers start going haywire and the fights start relying more on obscure gimicks. It's not so bad that it feels fundamentally broken, it's just that the combat experience starts to swing around wildly. You'll find standard encounters that take more effort than bosses; bosses will become nigh-impossibly difficult without trial and erroring to sus-out the gimick; weapons you found at the start of the game will be the most cost effecient ones to continue using; and suddenly your White Magic healer will have the highest magic stat in the party and will double the damage output anyone else could hope to achieve despite the fact that you exclusively built her down the healing skill routes.
It can be really experience destroying... but there's also a weird satisfaction to it if you push through.
I can't recommend this game to general audiences because of this, but anyone with experience with older JRPGs and relish the kind of esoteric strategizing required should be able to get a lot out of the game.
And in this review, I will air my grievances with the game in context of its state today:
While my main review for this game said it "ages like a fine wine" I mean that in regards to the story. At a technical level, it only feels slightly more stable than before, and only if you include the Restored Content mod and the community bugfix.
I've just played through the whole thing again for what must be the first time in nearly a decade. It's not that I haven't tried — I've tried many times. But somehow on every attempt between now and the pre-Steam editions of the game, I discovered yet another major bug that either deflated my momentum or broke my save file entirely.
It's been 7 years since Aspyr took the reigns on this game to begin porting and updating it, and yet there are still bugs that have been with us since the original release and new ones besides. When the Switch edition came out earlier this year, I was excited think that'd be the culmination of all the care I thought this game was getting over the years.
Instead, I hit a new game breaking glitch on my way off Peragus and that playthrough was scrapped yet again.
It's going to be more broken for more people now that high refresh rate monitors are more common and enabling v-sync to fix the loss of movement after battle won't work. You have to get a 3rd party program to limit the framerate to 90 or less.
The command queue is still janked. If you had actions queued on a target that dies, instead of clearing them they'll retarget randomly as generic attacks. Pathing issues will sometimes clear queues even if you are already in range; abilities will sometimes get double cast; etc, etc.
One absolutely choice issue — which I'm not sure how much is the Restored Content mod and how much is the game — but if the engine ever fails to find or load a voice over line, it will set the display time of the associated text to zero, skipping the line entirely. This has been happening on the Steam version at least as long as I can remember, and regularly causes entire conversations to be skipped.
The bink video playback was surprisingly stable for me this go around, but it has been a large culprit of crashes in the past, and I think I figured out why: I enabled ReShade on the game after a while for kicks and giggles and it seemed to reinitialize after every video finished, leading me to believe that the graphics API itself is being reinitialized after videos.
A rather dangerous task to do so frequently.
On that point there are a plethora of other QoL and simple improvements Aspyr could be adding but for some reason are still relegated to mods that likely won't be maintained for too much longer. Like the "stretched UI" fix, why the hell do we still need a mod for that?
Also the kerfuffle with the Switch release of the restored content mod is laughable to me since a good amount of it was just fixing locked content that was already in the game. Why aren't those kinds of fixes part of the main release now?
Some games, like Halo 3, should be preserved in as close to their original state as possible... but Halo 3 wasn't blatantly unfinished when it came out.
It would have been cool if we were at the point where Aspyr could be tinkering around with adding optional new improvements to the game, like Ambient Occlusion, a high poly model pack, a high res texture pack and the like... but it seems we're still somehow a long way from that.
It also really doesn't help that I've fallen out of love for D20 based combat systems, and that's as someone who started playing Neverwinter Nights at the age of 4 and to this day still regularly plays D&D. The balance in this game is completely whacked. That could be argued to be some of its charm at this point, but I doubt this game will appeal to a new crowd as it is. D&D 3.5 based systems give you all the rope you need to hang yourself.
There's a quick and effective solution to this, too: put a respec option in the game (and for the purist let it be disabled by some means).
I've ranted enough now, though. Despite everything I've said, this is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I want other people to be able to enjoy it and appreciate this very different take on the Star Wars universe.
But as it stands now I can't in good faith recommend people gamble their time on it.
While my main review for this game said it "ages like a fine wine" I mean that in regards to the story. At a technical level, it only feels slightly more stable than before, and only if you include the Restored Content mod and the community bugfix.
I've just played through the whole thing again for what must be the first time in nearly a decade. It's not that I haven't tried — I've tried many times. But somehow on every attempt between now and the pre-Steam editions of the game, I discovered yet another major bug that either deflated my momentum or broke my save file entirely.
It's been 7 years since Aspyr took the reigns on this game to begin porting and updating it, and yet there are still bugs that have been with us since the original release and new ones besides. When the Switch edition came out earlier this year, I was excited think that'd be the culmination of all the care I thought this game was getting over the years.
Instead, I hit a new game breaking glitch on my way off Peragus and that playthrough was scrapped yet again.
It's going to be more broken for more people now that high refresh rate monitors are more common and enabling v-sync to fix the loss of movement after battle won't work. You have to get a 3rd party program to limit the framerate to 90 or less.
The command queue is still janked. If you had actions queued on a target that dies, instead of clearing them they'll retarget randomly as generic attacks. Pathing issues will sometimes clear queues even if you are already in range; abilities will sometimes get double cast; etc, etc.
One absolutely choice issue — which I'm not sure how much is the Restored Content mod and how much is the game — but if the engine ever fails to find or load a voice over line, it will set the display time of the associated text to zero, skipping the line entirely. This has been happening on the Steam version at least as long as I can remember, and regularly causes entire conversations to be skipped.
The bink video playback was surprisingly stable for me this go around, but it has been a large culprit of crashes in the past, and I think I figured out why: I enabled ReShade on the game after a while for kicks and giggles and it seemed to reinitialize after every video finished, leading me to believe that the graphics API itself is being reinitialized after videos.
A rather dangerous task to do so frequently.
On that point there are a plethora of other QoL and simple improvements Aspyr could be adding but for some reason are still relegated to mods that likely won't be maintained for too much longer. Like the "stretched UI" fix, why the hell do we still need a mod for that?
Also the kerfuffle with the Switch release of the restored content mod is laughable to me since a good amount of it was just fixing locked content that was already in the game. Why aren't those kinds of fixes part of the main release now?
Some games, like Halo 3, should be preserved in as close to their original state as possible... but Halo 3 wasn't blatantly unfinished when it came out.
It would have been cool if we were at the point where Aspyr could be tinkering around with adding optional new improvements to the game, like Ambient Occlusion, a high poly model pack, a high res texture pack and the like... but it seems we're still somehow a long way from that.
It also really doesn't help that I've fallen out of love for D20 based combat systems, and that's as someone who started playing Neverwinter Nights at the age of 4 and to this day still regularly plays D&D. The balance in this game is completely whacked. That could be argued to be some of its charm at this point, but I doubt this game will appeal to a new crowd as it is. D&D 3.5 based systems give you all the rope you need to hang yourself.
There's a quick and effective solution to this, too: put a respec option in the game (and for the purist let it be disabled by some means).
I've ranted enough now, though. Despite everything I've said, this is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I want other people to be able to enjoy it and appreciate this very different take on the Star Wars universe.
But as it stands now I can't in good faith recommend people gamble their time on it.
I can't believe it. They actually made me care about Yuffie as a character. Not only was she really fun to play as in the Remake system, but she actually has a tangible, emtional connection to the story now.
Clearing the main downsides out of the way first: it is short and because of its length, the balance of combat scenarios feels very lopsided. Too few and too simple in the first half; too many in the later half. This isn't a huge complaint from me, because I like the system here and especially how Yuffie and Sanon work within it. But solid pacing is the key to keeping a combat system enjoyable in the long term.
Touching on the art and sound then: its still VII Remake, which means it's still bloody gorgeous. My word I love the environment design in this game. But even better is this MUSIC. I won't say it's quite near Persona 5 levels, but these new tracks are way bloody closer than they needed to be.
The first act was pretty straightforward and simplistic narratively. Yuffie shows up in Midgard, she tags up with some co-conspirators, and she heads on her way to screw over Shinra. With Yuffie's exaggerated animations and general goofiness as a character, it felt like watching an old anime, and the music is what made it kick.
No longer really mattered if the story was going to have any big revelations for the rest of the Remake games or if it had any more depth. I was just having fun throwing shurikens, casting ninja magic, and doing all the Fort Condor mini-game challenges.
— Which it can't be understated how much of a feat that was as well. I hated the old Fort Condor mini-game in the original. Love that it exists for how odd it was, but I dreaded ever doing it again. —
Another audio thing that made a big difference for me was switching to the Japanese VO. I know most people won't care or need to hear their native language to be able to engage with the plot, but hearing Yuffie do a Sengoku Era play accent just makes everything about her make so much more sense. Might just be me, but the humor of her character actually works when the "Chuuni Ninja" actually uses that accent.
Like imagine someone roleplaying Shakespeare and not trying to sound as stereotypically British as possible.
So anyway, I was just jiving then the finale delivered an emotional suckerpunch to me out of left field, and then followed it up with a one-two punch of one really nice epilogue scene and one that has me scratching my head. So par the course for the Remake, I guess.
I also liked that they gave Scarlet more time to develop as well. She fits the villain role better here than in the core content of Remake, I think.
So I believe I like it quite a lot, just not too much because it isn't quite satiating. If you bought Remake on PC, then no risk, give this a go too. If you're on PlayStation, it might be worth the rigamaroll of whatever they have setup there.
I really hope this means she'll be a proper addition to the party early into Remake Part 2 and will be involved this time around.
Clearing the main downsides out of the way first: it is short and because of its length, the balance of combat scenarios feels very lopsided. Too few and too simple in the first half; too many in the later half. This isn't a huge complaint from me, because I like the system here and especially how Yuffie and Sanon work within it. But solid pacing is the key to keeping a combat system enjoyable in the long term.
Touching on the art and sound then: its still VII Remake, which means it's still bloody gorgeous. My word I love the environment design in this game. But even better is this MUSIC. I won't say it's quite near Persona 5 levels, but these new tracks are way bloody closer than they needed to be.
The first act was pretty straightforward and simplistic narratively. Yuffie shows up in Midgard, she tags up with some co-conspirators, and she heads on her way to screw over Shinra. With Yuffie's exaggerated animations and general goofiness as a character, it felt like watching an old anime, and the music is what made it kick.
No longer really mattered if the story was going to have any big revelations for the rest of the Remake games or if it had any more depth. I was just having fun throwing shurikens, casting ninja magic, and doing all the Fort Condor mini-game challenges.
— Which it can't be understated how much of a feat that was as well. I hated the old Fort Condor mini-game in the original. Love that it exists for how odd it was, but I dreaded ever doing it again. —
Another audio thing that made a big difference for me was switching to the Japanese VO. I know most people won't care or need to hear their native language to be able to engage with the plot, but hearing Yuffie do a Sengoku Era play accent just makes everything about her make so much more sense. Might just be me, but the humor of her character actually works when the "Chuuni Ninja" actually uses that accent.
Like imagine someone roleplaying Shakespeare and not trying to sound as stereotypically British as possible.
So anyway, I was just jiving then the finale delivered an emotional suckerpunch to me out of left field, and then followed it up with a one-two punch of one really nice epilogue scene and one that has me scratching my head. So par the course for the Remake, I guess.
I also liked that they gave Scarlet more time to develop as well. She fits the villain role better here than in the core content of Remake, I think.
So I believe I like it quite a lot, just not too much because it isn't quite satiating. If you bought Remake on PC, then no risk, give this a go too. If you're on PlayStation, it might be worth the rigamaroll of whatever they have setup there.
I really hope this means she'll be a proper addition to the party early into Remake Part 2 and will be involved this time around.
I'll just say from the start that this is not a highlight of the series. It's not bad, especially if you enjoy VIII's combat at a fundamental level, but this is the least inspired I've seen the series on my journey through it all. There was some great potential in the setup, and the core elements of the formula do what they do, but there was not enough focus or commitment to any of the new ideas for them to shine.
Starting with the technical side, 90% of the game is as smooth and quick as I expect a Ys game to be, which is great to see. This is the foundation of my appreciation for the series and keeps it enjoyable even when other elements aren't at their best. This is most prominent in the combat itself, but the menus are likewise snappy (even if their layout is subpar for controller play), and most other elements of the game are plenty happy to let you speed along at your own pace...
Most, anyway, as this title does suffer from more frequent speed bumping than I remember from the others. It's not so much that the speed bumps exist, as VIII had its share as do many games made in its era. The problem is in their nature: a speed bump can be a good thing if it's not the main indicator that the pace is going to slow down and is rather used as a final check — say, just before a quiet, heartfelt bit of dialogue. However, Celceta’s speed bumps tend to be in the dungeon design — which I don't appreciate — and they come from the traversal tools — which I really don't appreciate.
To give some examples, the first traversal tool you acquire shrinks you down so you can travel through small passageways. Fun concept, but two other things occur: first is that you have to go into a two level deep menu to enable/disable the tool everytime (minor); next is that it reduces combat effectiveness, which is a thematic plus but does slow things down; and third is that movement just feels unnecessarily slowed down through a combination of camera perspective and a weird interaction with how momentum is applied from rolling while small. And the real unfortunate part is that there were only a small handful of points where I felt like this form of traversal added anything particularly novel to the experience other than just being a special kind of key to an otherwise obvious hallway on the map.
Now as speed bumps, these were comparatively small — this is no Virtue's Last Reward — and there were elements of the map design I did like. I'm actually a fan of somewhat maze-like spaces that take some effort to keep track of your position in, and you get just enough of that here. And most of the spaces were quick and easy to traverse... It's just unfortunate that all the traversal mechanics tied to artifacts and teammate abilities, which should be the engaging moments, were actually the parts that made me groan.
Oddly enough, Ys IX is the shining example of how they should have done it, with each teammate adding a new, fun to use ability that sped up traversal or had more flexible usage. So Falcom clearly learned their lesson there. Also, I believe there is a turbo-mode ala Trails to help mitigate the issue of some of the longer cutscenes incurred by some mechanics. However, I had mistakenly unbound it from the controller because I thought I wouldn't need it and the default binding was kind of annoying.
Moving on to the specifics of combat, this is fundamentally the same system used in VIII and IX with slightly less polish, as one would expect from an earlier title. That lack of polish is more in the lack of strategic depth than in the moment to moment, though. I have a very tenuous love of the Flash Guard based Ys combat as it is both refreshingly exhilarating and active compared to its peers in the ARPG space but its super abusable as it's implemented here (as it still is in VIII). The problem is exasperated here by the camera being stuck between the fixed angle style used in early 3D era Ys games like Origin and the full 3D camera used in VIII and IX. Boss fights can often devolve into Flash Guard spamming because the boss has moved into an awkward position relative to the camera, where they fill the screen or the important bits of an attack are not on screen. Yet, if you spam RT until you get flash guard, then use a big attack, you're golden 95% of the time.
Having played Origin now, this is even more of a disappointment than it was before for me... yet....... pile driving a boss by exploiting the mechanics still is fun in its own way. So it's not completely a negative point on the game.
While its a bit longer of a game (20hours for me, all sidequests) it is also still short enough that the lack of depth didn't bother me much. As someone well acquainted with action systems, I could see the problems but I didn't necessarily suffer from them.
Now the real lynchpin for me in calling this one of the least good Ys games is the story. While that gap between the potential I could see and the reality was benign with the combat, it kinda really hurt here with the narrative. I really love stories that center around memories and our perception of them, but the concept is effectively only used as set dressing here. There were sparks of good ideas, but the delivery was played too safe and few of the characters got the attention they needed to add to it. Which is a shame, as I actually rather quite liked most of them.
And the biggest missed opportunity was in the promise of this being a self-reflective story for Adol. I don't necessarily think they had the wrong intent with what they did, but the build-up of all parts of the narrative kind of deflated by the mid-point and the climax couldn't work with it then.
On a last point, I'll say the art is mostly alright. Some decent design work but the early Vita engine doesn't really portray it in the best light and it lacks the flair of the older and newer styles. The music isn't particularly memorable, but its got a good rhythm for the combat and I thought it added quite a lot to the exploration sections of the game.
So, all in all, if you like Ys as an action game, this is still a very playable one. If you like Ys for the complete package, then I wouldn't suggest prioritizing this one. If you're completely new to the franchise, I can see it being more fun actually, but honestly VIII is a better starting point for the modern Ys formula.
So I recommend it to fellow Falcom nuts, otherwise, play VIII.
Starting with the technical side, 90% of the game is as smooth and quick as I expect a Ys game to be, which is great to see. This is the foundation of my appreciation for the series and keeps it enjoyable even when other elements aren't at their best. This is most prominent in the combat itself, but the menus are likewise snappy (even if their layout is subpar for controller play), and most other elements of the game are plenty happy to let you speed along at your own pace...
Most, anyway, as this title does suffer from more frequent speed bumping than I remember from the others. It's not so much that the speed bumps exist, as VIII had its share as do many games made in its era. The problem is in their nature: a speed bump can be a good thing if it's not the main indicator that the pace is going to slow down and is rather used as a final check — say, just before a quiet, heartfelt bit of dialogue. However, Celceta’s speed bumps tend to be in the dungeon design — which I don't appreciate — and they come from the traversal tools — which I really don't appreciate.
To give some examples, the first traversal tool you acquire shrinks you down so you can travel through small passageways. Fun concept, but two other things occur: first is that you have to go into a two level deep menu to enable/disable the tool everytime (minor); next is that it reduces combat effectiveness, which is a thematic plus but does slow things down; and third is that movement just feels unnecessarily slowed down through a combination of camera perspective and a weird interaction with how momentum is applied from rolling while small. And the real unfortunate part is that there were only a small handful of points where I felt like this form of traversal added anything particularly novel to the experience other than just being a special kind of key to an otherwise obvious hallway on the map.
Now as speed bumps, these were comparatively small — this is no Virtue's Last Reward — and there were elements of the map design I did like. I'm actually a fan of somewhat maze-like spaces that take some effort to keep track of your position in, and you get just enough of that here. And most of the spaces were quick and easy to traverse... It's just unfortunate that all the traversal mechanics tied to artifacts and teammate abilities, which should be the engaging moments, were actually the parts that made me groan.
Oddly enough, Ys IX is the shining example of how they should have done it, with each teammate adding a new, fun to use ability that sped up traversal or had more flexible usage. So Falcom clearly learned their lesson there. Also, I believe there is a turbo-mode ala Trails to help mitigate the issue of some of the longer cutscenes incurred by some mechanics. However, I had mistakenly unbound it from the controller because I thought I wouldn't need it and the default binding was kind of annoying.
Moving on to the specifics of combat, this is fundamentally the same system used in VIII and IX with slightly less polish, as one would expect from an earlier title. That lack of polish is more in the lack of strategic depth than in the moment to moment, though. I have a very tenuous love of the Flash Guard based Ys combat as it is both refreshingly exhilarating and active compared to its peers in the ARPG space but its super abusable as it's implemented here (as it still is in VIII). The problem is exasperated here by the camera being stuck between the fixed angle style used in early 3D era Ys games like Origin and the full 3D camera used in VIII and IX. Boss fights can often devolve into Flash Guard spamming because the boss has moved into an awkward position relative to the camera, where they fill the screen or the important bits of an attack are not on screen. Yet, if you spam RT until you get flash guard, then use a big attack, you're golden 95% of the time.
Having played Origin now, this is even more of a disappointment than it was before for me... yet....... pile driving a boss by exploiting the mechanics still is fun in its own way. So it's not completely a negative point on the game.
While its a bit longer of a game (20hours for me, all sidequests) it is also still short enough that the lack of depth didn't bother me much. As someone well acquainted with action systems, I could see the problems but I didn't necessarily suffer from them.
Now the real lynchpin for me in calling this one of the least good Ys games is the story. While that gap between the potential I could see and the reality was benign with the combat, it kinda really hurt here with the narrative. I really love stories that center around memories and our perception of them, but the concept is effectively only used as set dressing here. There were sparks of good ideas, but the delivery was played too safe and few of the characters got the attention they needed to add to it. Which is a shame, as I actually rather quite liked most of them.
And the biggest missed opportunity was in the promise of this being a self-reflective story for Adol. I don't necessarily think they had the wrong intent with what they did, but the build-up of all parts of the narrative kind of deflated by the mid-point and the climax couldn't work with it then.
On a last point, I'll say the art is mostly alright. Some decent design work but the early Vita engine doesn't really portray it in the best light and it lacks the flair of the older and newer styles. The music isn't particularly memorable, but its got a good rhythm for the combat and I thought it added quite a lot to the exploration sections of the game.
So, all in all, if you like Ys as an action game, this is still a very playable one. If you like Ys for the complete package, then I wouldn't suggest prioritizing this one. If you're completely new to the franchise, I can see it being more fun actually, but honestly VIII is a better starting point for the modern Ys formula.
So I recommend it to fellow Falcom nuts, otherwise, play VIII.
Okay, real review time.
This is a small DLC but I quite liked the additional elements it added. They're quirky and novel and add some variety to the game without making any of the existing weapons irrelevant. The Babi-Onna character and her mirage robe were particularly entertaining with her weaponized flash frames.
The new map is an interesting new direction for the game in that it's a fully defined area and not just an endless chain of templates. I would love to see more content like this in the future, though the Arcana that pulls map items to you should probably be disabled until you actually pick up the new items, or new items should be excluded from its effect. That way you can't cheese around some of the zone specific obstacles that are featured.
The Japanese mythology theme is also a fun change of pace and the sprites are quite fun. Overall: I recommend this if you enjoyed the base game.
(hmm.... now I wanna find a CRT filter for the game....)
This is a small DLC but I quite liked the additional elements it added. They're quirky and novel and add some variety to the game without making any of the existing weapons irrelevant. The Babi-Onna character and her mirage robe were particularly entertaining with her weaponized flash frames.
The new map is an interesting new direction for the game in that it's a fully defined area and not just an endless chain of templates. I would love to see more content like this in the future, though the Arcana that pulls map items to you should probably be disabled until you actually pick up the new items, or new items should be excluded from its effect. That way you can't cheese around some of the zone specific obstacles that are featured.
The Japanese mythology theme is also a fun change of pace and the sprites are quite fun. Overall: I recommend this if you enjoyed the base game.
(hmm.... now I wanna find a CRT filter for the game....)
This game is a fabulous, beautiful, genre-defining mess.
I absolutely understand why it has the high reputation it has, and I'm glad I came back to it to finish it. The art is phenomenal, the music sets the mood perfectly, and there's so, so many secrets and details all over every inch of Draculas castle as you roam its halls and dungeons. The story is not a huge element, but it was actually a bit more cohesive and nuanced than I expected. Not a tall bar, but it hit it.
I was a little disappointed that the PS4 edition had to get new voicework since they couldn't relicense the original recordings, but I will say the rewrite is a bit easier to take seriously. Though the "miserable pile of secrets" line actually should have been kept, and not for the meme — that's just a better line than what Dracula says here now, imho.
From the gameplay side, what surprised and hooked me when I first tried playing back in 2011ish on the Xbox Arcade port was how the combat felt like a proper action RPG and the platforming controls were smoother to operate than its peers. Having just played through Ys III, the strengths of the controls here were even more pronounced as I started it up again recently. Hollow Knight has since surpassed it to being the most tight and responsive action platformer I've ever played, but this is still in that ballpark.
The loot and artifacts you can find are also quite exciting. Not everything is useful, but a good amount of what you find will make a significant difference in advantage and gameplay style. What's more, is that many weapons have fighting game style motion commmands to activate hidden abilities. The spell system works off motion inputs too, and in-fact, there's no limit on when you can cast a spell — if you can perform the input you can cast from the very start of the game.
However, most people are only going to be able to engage in that level if they look up a guide because there is no standard set of motions. There's a few common ones, like quarter circle forward, but literally everything is on the table: charge inputs, 3/4 circles, cross inputs, double backs... and so on.
There's a few of these inputs mentioned in the game itself but they can be pretty missable. In fact, a lot of things are very missable. This is strength of the game to me as I like meaningful secrets, they make exploration worth doing and exciting. However, some of the weaknesses of the game started to spoil my ability to appreciate the exploration aspects.
The way I see it, the same thing that makes this game such a masterpiece is also something that makes it a bit rough to play in this day and age. Which is that they made content first and asked questions later. Core mechanics are polished, for sure, but particularly level and enemy design are a series of high highs and low lows.
The medusa head is only the poster child of this game's frustrating parts, it is far from the only one. That whole clock tower section as a whole is... shudder. Other sections are nearly as bad though with enemies that can get you into juggle states that, even if they're so low damage they aren't a threat to your life, will still waste a good 15 seconds of your time and kill your momentum traversing the map — which you will have to do a lot because there are only five, fixed shortcut points in the castle and plenty of intricate pathways in-between that you will have to backtrack around whether you missed something or not.
Thankfully, this is still only a PSX-era "large" map, so it isn't that big of a hurdle to retread some of the more annoying bits, but it adds up. The leveling system also provides some needed relief by gradually reducing the threat of old enemies while still being difficult to out-level new ones in the course of normal play.
On a more mixed point is the boss design. Incredible visual designs aside, I have no idea what the intended experiences with these bosses were supposed to be, because even without guides my winning strategy for almost every. single. one. felt like a cheese. Usually involving the Soulstealer spell, and then I learned about the legitimately broken weapons at the end. Like straight up there's a weapon pair that you can just casually acquire without much additional effort that gives you a win button. Cheat level win button.
But I'm not going to complain because it's a secret input and the boss that made me look it up deserved it.
So... yeah. As a game, my experience was a mess: strong core mechanics and beautiful imagery, but unhinged content design. I can't say it wasn't worth it, though. Even when it was wacked out I always felt right on the verge of wacking back with twice as much cheese (sometimes literally).
I absolutely understand why it has the high reputation it has, and I'm glad I came back to it to finish it. The art is phenomenal, the music sets the mood perfectly, and there's so, so many secrets and details all over every inch of Draculas castle as you roam its halls and dungeons. The story is not a huge element, but it was actually a bit more cohesive and nuanced than I expected. Not a tall bar, but it hit it.
I was a little disappointed that the PS4 edition had to get new voicework since they couldn't relicense the original recordings, but I will say the rewrite is a bit easier to take seriously. Though the "miserable pile of secrets" line actually should have been kept, and not for the meme — that's just a better line than what Dracula says here now, imho.
From the gameplay side, what surprised and hooked me when I first tried playing back in 2011ish on the Xbox Arcade port was how the combat felt like a proper action RPG and the platforming controls were smoother to operate than its peers. Having just played through Ys III, the strengths of the controls here were even more pronounced as I started it up again recently. Hollow Knight has since surpassed it to being the most tight and responsive action platformer I've ever played, but this is still in that ballpark.
The loot and artifacts you can find are also quite exciting. Not everything is useful, but a good amount of what you find will make a significant difference in advantage and gameplay style. What's more, is that many weapons have fighting game style motion commmands to activate hidden abilities. The spell system works off motion inputs too, and in-fact, there's no limit on when you can cast a spell — if you can perform the input you can cast from the very start of the game.
However, most people are only going to be able to engage in that level if they look up a guide because there is no standard set of motions. There's a few common ones, like quarter circle forward, but literally everything is on the table: charge inputs, 3/4 circles, cross inputs, double backs... and so on.
There's a few of these inputs mentioned in the game itself but they can be pretty missable. In fact, a lot of things are very missable. This is strength of the game to me as I like meaningful secrets, they make exploration worth doing and exciting. However, some of the weaknesses of the game started to spoil my ability to appreciate the exploration aspects.
The way I see it, the same thing that makes this game such a masterpiece is also something that makes it a bit rough to play in this day and age. Which is that they made content first and asked questions later. Core mechanics are polished, for sure, but particularly level and enemy design are a series of high highs and low lows.
The medusa head is only the poster child of this game's frustrating parts, it is far from the only one. That whole clock tower section as a whole is... shudder. Other sections are nearly as bad though with enemies that can get you into juggle states that, even if they're so low damage they aren't a threat to your life, will still waste a good 15 seconds of your time and kill your momentum traversing the map — which you will have to do a lot because there are only five, fixed shortcut points in the castle and plenty of intricate pathways in-between that you will have to backtrack around whether you missed something or not.
Thankfully, this is still only a PSX-era "large" map, so it isn't that big of a hurdle to retread some of the more annoying bits, but it adds up. The leveling system also provides some needed relief by gradually reducing the threat of old enemies while still being difficult to out-level new ones in the course of normal play.
On a more mixed point is the boss design. Incredible visual designs aside, I have no idea what the intended experiences with these bosses were supposed to be, because even without guides my winning strategy for almost every. single. one. felt like a cheese. Usually involving the Soulstealer spell, and then I learned about the legitimately broken weapons at the end. Like straight up there's a weapon pair that you can just casually acquire without much additional effort that gives you a win button. Cheat level win button.
But I'm not going to complain because it's a secret input and the boss that made me look it up deserved it.
So... yeah. As a game, my experience was a mess: strong core mechanics and beautiful imagery, but unhinged content design. I can't say it wasn't worth it, though. Even when it was wacked out I always felt right on the verge of wacking back with twice as much cheese (sometimes literally).