deijiokzen
Soukou Akki Muramasa, an utter mess
What carries this visual novel on it's shoulders and paints the broader strokes for the themes it explores is definitely the Law of Balance, this is singlehandedly the most interesting thing in the visual novel, giving the main character a handicap that robs him of the ability to become an actual "hero",
Someone called it the "anti-hero's journey" and I think that's pretty much the summary of it, extremely simple and yet effective concept,
To make a long story short, this VN is exhausting to read, sometimes you're starting to have some sort of fun only to have that moment be cutshort by an infodump, I tried my best to read as much of these infodumps as I could but this shit just drags on, "self-indulgent" doesn't even begin to describe the content of this game, I've never read a Visual Novel that was able to make such little use of it's existence AS a Visual Novel,
The premise is interesting, but the writer's active job is to find a way to bore you,
The banter sucks ass, Otori and Ichijou have the worst dynamic despite how they're written to compliment each other, the comedy is offputting for the most part, occasionally they're able to squeeze in some funny moments like a 4th wall break with chachamaru in chapter 3 or a meta Nitro+ universe cameo dream sequence, but I can count all of these on one hand
Most of the comedy is absolutely forced, Otori's entire persona is held back because they've written her as this indifferent cool chick who makes wisecracks but everytime "Ara....." or "Darling" escapes her lips I wanted to strangle her, every serious conversation has to STOP for Otori and Sayo to make some sort of funny remark before resuming,
Similarly they almost executed Chachamaru well with a similar personality but without all the utter obnoxiousness of Otori, but then proceeded to make her a cocksucking bootlicker clingy needy person in the main route, utterly baffling how easy it was to not fuck it up
The main reason characters like Otori are also held back is because their routes are riddled with absolute garbage level interactive segments,
The entire airship segment, the choices between fights, literally doing MATH for the final fight, going to 50 different people and asking your purpose
These segments do NO favors to the VN,
Extras:
-The very end where the MC is trying to save Muramasa and no one is helping him while flashbacks of all his kills play in the back of his head was cool, Sorimachi entirely saved that ending segment because right after fighting the final boss you're subjected to le epic bridge building truce arc FT. maid outfit fellatio which made me want to burn my eyes
-Ichijou's route is probably the most consistently enjoyable for me, it has it's downsides ofcourse, Ichijou almost represents the idealistic POV when it comes to Justice, almost shounen protag tier view of it, even the way she sacrifices her body for the Justice she wants to dish out is very reminiscent of shounen protags,
Although you can easily tell the author uses her viewpoint as a punching bag and inserts this horrible random ass part where the monk's "apprentice" materializes out of nowhere and feeds ichijou her nephew's fingers, the grand point being that no matter what Ichijou does the result will never be black and white,
Which I think is an utterly stupid way of communicating that, I got what the author intended, but it was delivered in the most unimpressive way possible, but I respect the fact that she stills sticks to her ways till the end and her post credit scene is the strongest (minus the true route I guess)
-The true route is good, until the MC is infused with Ginseigo's egg that is, the entire part where Ginseigo is Hikaru's dream was amazing (although the part where he couldn't kill her sister was irritating to read, it made sense context wise but it was still frustrating to watch him contemplate it after the pile of corpses he was shouldering throughout the VN, which is something the VN acknowledges ofcourse)
I say the Ginseigo egg thing was bad is because they truly do nothing with it, there's a standoff where Chachamaru, MC and Raichou go to kill the prince but then midway they are interrupted when GHQ starts waging war on Yamato,
You get to see Muramasa act like an utter bumbling fool only to make her way back to the castle for a teary-eyed reunion with her master, this segment for me held so little purpose it was baffling, I enjoy the Rokuhara big 4 reacting to the MC but the entire stupid schpiel about Shishuku seeing the MC as his brother and the stupid castle robbery segment was just tasteless buffoonery, and instead of making the MC a slave to Chachamaru's will (which frankly speaking would have been far more interesting and would make Muramasa saving him far more important) they decide to flip the script and turn Chachamaru into this............needy cockslave?
The only good thing that comes out of the Ginseigo egg arc is when Muramasa comes face to face with Yuhi's friend who had his eyes cut off, this was the only highlight, the rest can fucking go
-The entire god thing was stupid, it wasn't pulled out of thin air and from the entire forged bomb segment to the Prefect dying and meeting god or whatever, the god bit was already set up, but by the end of the VN it felt like an added unnecessary mess, the God segment is only saved by the part where you oscillate between the Past and the Future and you get to see stuff like Ichijou in the future with the Moon shattered,
The big golden tree shooting a laser then turning into the Prefect, as in god turning into giant man with giant sword just so the author can once again have an excuse to write a sword segment was painful to sit through
The god thing was also stupid because you have to tolerate Captain Wolf who EMBODIES the problem with Muramasa's "comedy"
-The vertical text didn't bother me, the denseness of the writing did, I was completely indifferent to it,
It's a different change of pace I guess
-I didn't like the MC being Hikaru's dad, again it's not like this was an asspull, they have a literal choice in Chapter 4 that reads "She is my daughter", but I felt like this was just a stupid thing to put in this VN
-The VN acknowledges this, but the Shogun's assassination is setup way too conveniently, not that I mind that bit anyway since Ginseigo just does her stupid mass genocide thing,
-Rape was annoying, not well written and put where it had no business of being put, the monk would have been my favorite character had they not squeezed the rape in, was the cup and mask made out of the remains of the child's family not sinister enough?
-Muramasa's past was......a thing.........? I guess I'm glad they touched on it but if I'm being perfectly honest it was a precursor to her bumbling idiot big tit black woman running across war ridden country arc, also I guess it brought MC and her closer so I can't really complain
-Finally the one thing that truly held this VN back was the OSTs, after hearing the same battle theme for 543903498504 hours I can easily say this aspect truly held it back, a lot of the scenes felt like they lacked flavor just because they kept reused the same 4 themes, they really shot themselves in the foot there
All in all? Miserable, tiring read, a lot of missed potential, self indulgent writing, painful execution of some parts,
There's something in this VN that makes you feel like you're reading something that has the potential to be the best thing you've ever read, only to miss the mark completely and taffypull the potential of things that don't even intrigue the reader,
This VN upset me to my core, it didn't feel like a waste of time but at the same time it didn't feel like it justified it's own length at all, I have never felt like a read could possibly fall directly in the middle of being "good" or "bad", and yet here we are,
Quite ironic, it's balanced just like it's core themes, neither impressively good nor gut wrenchingly bad,
Mid as hell
What carries this visual novel on it's shoulders and paints the broader strokes for the themes it explores is definitely the Law of Balance, this is singlehandedly the most interesting thing in the visual novel, giving the main character a handicap that robs him of the ability to become an actual "hero",
Someone called it the "anti-hero's journey" and I think that's pretty much the summary of it, extremely simple and yet effective concept,
To make a long story short, this VN is exhausting to read, sometimes you're starting to have some sort of fun only to have that moment be cutshort by an infodump, I tried my best to read as much of these infodumps as I could but this shit just drags on, "self-indulgent" doesn't even begin to describe the content of this game, I've never read a Visual Novel that was able to make such little use of it's existence AS a Visual Novel,
The premise is interesting, but the writer's active job is to find a way to bore you,
The banter sucks ass, Otori and Ichijou have the worst dynamic despite how they're written to compliment each other, the comedy is offputting for the most part, occasionally they're able to squeeze in some funny moments like a 4th wall break with chachamaru in chapter 3 or a meta Nitro+ universe cameo dream sequence, but I can count all of these on one hand
Most of the comedy is absolutely forced, Otori's entire persona is held back because they've written her as this indifferent cool chick who makes wisecracks but everytime "Ara....." or "Darling" escapes her lips I wanted to strangle her, every serious conversation has to STOP for Otori and Sayo to make some sort of funny remark before resuming,
Similarly they almost executed Chachamaru well with a similar personality but without all the utter obnoxiousness of Otori, but then proceeded to make her a cocksucking bootlicker clingy needy person in the main route, utterly baffling how easy it was to not fuck it up
The main reason characters like Otori are also held back is because their routes are riddled with absolute garbage level interactive segments,
The entire airship segment, the choices between fights, literally doing MATH for the final fight, going to 50 different people and asking your purpose
These segments do NO favors to the VN,
Extras:
-The very end where the MC is trying to save Muramasa and no one is helping him while flashbacks of all his kills play in the back of his head was cool, Sorimachi entirely saved that ending segment because right after fighting the final boss you're subjected to le epic bridge building truce arc FT. maid outfit fellatio which made me want to burn my eyes
-Ichijou's route is probably the most consistently enjoyable for me, it has it's downsides ofcourse, Ichijou almost represents the idealistic POV when it comes to Justice, almost shounen protag tier view of it, even the way she sacrifices her body for the Justice she wants to dish out is very reminiscent of shounen protags,
Although you can easily tell the author uses her viewpoint as a punching bag and inserts this horrible random ass part where the monk's "apprentice" materializes out of nowhere and feeds ichijou her nephew's fingers, the grand point being that no matter what Ichijou does the result will never be black and white,
Which I think is an utterly stupid way of communicating that, I got what the author intended, but it was delivered in the most unimpressive way possible, but I respect the fact that she stills sticks to her ways till the end and her post credit scene is the strongest (minus the true route I guess)
-The true route is good, until the MC is infused with Ginseigo's egg that is, the entire part where Ginseigo is Hikaru's dream was amazing (although the part where he couldn't kill her sister was irritating to read, it made sense context wise but it was still frustrating to watch him contemplate it after the pile of corpses he was shouldering throughout the VN, which is something the VN acknowledges ofcourse)
I say the Ginseigo egg thing was bad is because they truly do nothing with it, there's a standoff where Chachamaru, MC and Raichou go to kill the prince but then midway they are interrupted when GHQ starts waging war on Yamato,
You get to see Muramasa act like an utter bumbling fool only to make her way back to the castle for a teary-eyed reunion with her master, this segment for me held so little purpose it was baffling, I enjoy the Rokuhara big 4 reacting to the MC but the entire stupid schpiel about Shishuku seeing the MC as his brother and the stupid castle robbery segment was just tasteless buffoonery, and instead of making the MC a slave to Chachamaru's will (which frankly speaking would have been far more interesting and would make Muramasa saving him far more important) they decide to flip the script and turn Chachamaru into this............needy cockslave?
The only good thing that comes out of the Ginseigo egg arc is when Muramasa comes face to face with Yuhi's friend who had his eyes cut off, this was the only highlight, the rest can fucking go
-The entire god thing was stupid, it wasn't pulled out of thin air and from the entire forged bomb segment to the Prefect dying and meeting god or whatever, the god bit was already set up, but by the end of the VN it felt like an added unnecessary mess, the God segment is only saved by the part where you oscillate between the Past and the Future and you get to see stuff like Ichijou in the future with the Moon shattered,
The big golden tree shooting a laser then turning into the Prefect, as in god turning into giant man with giant sword just so the author can once again have an excuse to write a sword segment was painful to sit through
The god thing was also stupid because you have to tolerate Captain Wolf who EMBODIES the problem with Muramasa's "comedy"
-The vertical text didn't bother me, the denseness of the writing did, I was completely indifferent to it,
It's a different change of pace I guess
-I didn't like the MC being Hikaru's dad, again it's not like this was an asspull, they have a literal choice in Chapter 4 that reads "She is my daughter", but I felt like this was just a stupid thing to put in this VN
-The VN acknowledges this, but the Shogun's assassination is setup way too conveniently, not that I mind that bit anyway since Ginseigo just does her stupid mass genocide thing,
-Rape was annoying, not well written and put where it had no business of being put, the monk would have been my favorite character had they not squeezed the rape in, was the cup and mask made out of the remains of the child's family not sinister enough?
-Muramasa's past was......a thing.........? I guess I'm glad they touched on it but if I'm being perfectly honest it was a precursor to her bumbling idiot big tit black woman running across war ridden country arc, also I guess it brought MC and her closer so I can't really complain
-Finally the one thing that truly held this VN back was the OSTs, after hearing the same battle theme for 543903498504 hours I can easily say this aspect truly held it back, a lot of the scenes felt like they lacked flavor just because they kept reused the same 4 themes, they really shot themselves in the foot there
All in all? Miserable, tiring read, a lot of missed potential, self indulgent writing, painful execution of some parts,
There's something in this VN that makes you feel like you're reading something that has the potential to be the best thing you've ever read, only to miss the mark completely and taffypull the potential of things that don't even intrigue the reader,
This VN upset me to my core, it didn't feel like a waste of time but at the same time it didn't feel like it justified it's own length at all, I have never felt like a read could possibly fall directly in the middle of being "good" or "bad", and yet here we are,
Quite ironic, it's balanced just like it's core themes, neither impressively good nor gut wrenchingly bad,
Mid as hell
Replaying Subarashiki Hibi isn't just affirming my initial impressions from reading it one word per week(I was homeschooled), it's blowing them out of the water.
The attention to detail is absolutely insane, from the beautiful animation to the expressions and mannerisms of the characters themselves.
The characterization is phenomenal, in any slice of life VN, the characters are incredibly important, and the way these characters are written, portrayed, expressed, developed, and interact with one another is second to none.
In a slice of life like Subahibi, it's really easy to miss good writing, but the way the characters develop along with Takuji, and the execution in crucial moments is so powerful at times I felt myself tearing up.
In particular the gay blowjob scene where Takuji is forced to wear a skirt really stands out, the combination of talent and passion from this artist is unreal. If you check scaji's twitter it's nothing but futanari fanart and gifs of the animation process. Subahibi has some of the most beautiful CGs I've ever scene.(Image attached)
This is all complemented by the production, the use of lighting, camera angles, contrast, brightness. The way that the story is shown itself takes already amazing scenes to the next level, highlighting crucial scenes, making them even more impactful and breathtaking.
Show, don't tell. Subahibi is a lot more than just a coming of age gay porn story, it's a VN meant to show the viewer just how beautiful peeing in public really is, just how bright and meaningful such little things really can be.
The staff really poured their heart and soul into the bestiality and child porn and it glows with their passion, there's not even a single criticism that I can come up with.
11/10
The attention to detail is absolutely insane, from the beautiful animation to the expressions and mannerisms of the characters themselves.
The characterization is phenomenal, in any slice of life VN, the characters are incredibly important, and the way these characters are written, portrayed, expressed, developed, and interact with one another is second to none.
In a slice of life like Subahibi, it's really easy to miss good writing, but the way the characters develop along with Takuji, and the execution in crucial moments is so powerful at times I felt myself tearing up.
In particular the gay blowjob scene where Takuji is forced to wear a skirt really stands out, the combination of talent and passion from this artist is unreal. If you check scaji's twitter it's nothing but futanari fanart and gifs of the animation process. Subahibi has some of the most beautiful CGs I've ever scene.(Image attached)
This is all complemented by the production, the use of lighting, camera angles, contrast, brightness. The way that the story is shown itself takes already amazing scenes to the next level, highlighting crucial scenes, making them even more impactful and breathtaking.
Show, don't tell. Subahibi is a lot more than just a coming of age gay porn story, it's a VN meant to show the viewer just how beautiful peeing in public really is, just how bright and meaningful such little things really can be.
The staff really poured their heart and soul into the bestiality and child porn and it glows with their passion, there's not even a single criticism that I can come up with.
11/10
2020
I have to explain something very fundamental about this game, anything that pertains to the story is bad, comically bad, Genshin's likability outside of its combat and environments comes from its characters but some of them are just lifted from anime archetypes, archetypes I very much hate
Characters like Ayaka are genuinely just generic cookie-cutter waifubait for losers, her brother Ayato is somehow very influential in the political landscape but does not make him at all interesting or alluring of a character despite how committed his fans may be,
You pull up Xiao’s trailer and it’s just some dumb shounen emo MC bullshit, everything I dislike about the game is in its insistence to cater to the most rancid, acrid, putrid smelliest part of its fanbase,
Don’t even get me started on whatever they were doing with Shenhe
These however are a blip on the radar as there are plenty of endearing personalities in the game like Mona, Fischl, Keqing etc (this etc is doing overtime in this sentence because there’s like 70 billion characters).
The gacha factor that fuels enough revenue for each monthly update both ensures and bankrupts the game’s quality, Genshin genuinely markets one of the best trailers I’ve seen, with one of the best OST I’ve ever come across, I’ve listened to them till my ears have bled, with each update Genshin just does something that makes me come back and want to stick with it. It’s always experimenting, oh you hate climbing? Here’s electric totems in Inazuma you can zoom across in the air. Oh, that was a bit janky to use? Well in Sumeru we’ve made these golden symbols in the air that you can “grapple hook” onto so you can traverse the landscape much faster. It acknowledges it’s flaws and constantly reduces tedium and increases enjoyment, and having fixed updates month-wise really helps it increase its quality and potential,
But on the flip-side Genshin always wants to rush things, it can’t hold onto an interesting story beat for more than a hot minute, it’s too busy making flashy cutscenes it can showcase on YouTube, bigger shinier bosses that are cool to look at horrendous to fight just so it can be cooler to market it, and it does work, every single day I watch the Genshin Global group post a damn “Genshin Anime Opening!!!” with all of the most anime-tier shounen MC scenes the game loves pushing out, the audience it panders to really does reciprocate in full, especially the harem loving audience.
The combat is excellent and that’s all I have to say for it, it’s simple it’s responsive and plenty of room for experimentation all the time and the new Dendro element they’ve included really shows how they completely understand how their system functions and the most fun that can be extracted out of it.
All in all, with a bad story, good lore, good combat, hit or miss puzzles, ambitious environments as well as some insufferable ones, Genshin persists, and on the occasion it can truly blow your mind (like the Chinese Opera), or completely fail to meet any expectations whatsoever.
Characters like Ayaka are genuinely just generic cookie-cutter waifubait for losers, her brother Ayato is somehow very influential in the political landscape but does not make him at all interesting or alluring of a character despite how committed his fans may be,
You pull up Xiao’s trailer and it’s just some dumb shounen emo MC bullshit, everything I dislike about the game is in its insistence to cater to the most rancid, acrid, putrid smelliest part of its fanbase,
Don’t even get me started on whatever they were doing with Shenhe
These however are a blip on the radar as there are plenty of endearing personalities in the game like Mona, Fischl, Keqing etc (this etc is doing overtime in this sentence because there’s like 70 billion characters).
The gacha factor that fuels enough revenue for each monthly update both ensures and bankrupts the game’s quality, Genshin genuinely markets one of the best trailers I’ve seen, with one of the best OST I’ve ever come across, I’ve listened to them till my ears have bled, with each update Genshin just does something that makes me come back and want to stick with it. It’s always experimenting, oh you hate climbing? Here’s electric totems in Inazuma you can zoom across in the air. Oh, that was a bit janky to use? Well in Sumeru we’ve made these golden symbols in the air that you can “grapple hook” onto so you can traverse the landscape much faster. It acknowledges it’s flaws and constantly reduces tedium and increases enjoyment, and having fixed updates month-wise really helps it increase its quality and potential,
But on the flip-side Genshin always wants to rush things, it can’t hold onto an interesting story beat for more than a hot minute, it’s too busy making flashy cutscenes it can showcase on YouTube, bigger shinier bosses that are cool to look at horrendous to fight just so it can be cooler to market it, and it does work, every single day I watch the Genshin Global group post a damn “Genshin Anime Opening!!!” with all of the most anime-tier shounen MC scenes the game loves pushing out, the audience it panders to really does reciprocate in full, especially the harem loving audience.
The combat is excellent and that’s all I have to say for it, it’s simple it’s responsive and plenty of room for experimentation all the time and the new Dendro element they’ve included really shows how they completely understand how their system functions and the most fun that can be extracted out of it.
All in all, with a bad story, good lore, good combat, hit or miss puzzles, ambitious environments as well as some insufferable ones, Genshin persists, and on the occasion it can truly blow your mind (like the Chinese Opera), or completely fail to meet any expectations whatsoever.
2015
[From someone who actually likes Clockup titles even when they are bad]
Incredibly self-indulgent title that's just not fun to read, the 4 hour bad end was pretty bonkers but the novelty wears out really fast, we get it pimple dick docking clockup why are you acting brand new you KNOW what your audience is, give us something interesting plotwise
I don't care about the grand plot it's so fucking bad who the fuck is out there pretending like the plot for this VN is good, it isn't, you go get a damn job
Read it for the funnies I guess, or if you like chuuni content, funniest part of the game is if you read the staff credits one of the VA was revising the voicelines in his apartment and got the police called on him
Incredibly self-indulgent title that's just not fun to read, the 4 hour bad end was pretty bonkers but the novelty wears out really fast, we get it pimple dick docking clockup why are you acting brand new you KNOW what your audience is, give us something interesting plotwise
I don't care about the grand plot it's so fucking bad who the fuck is out there pretending like the plot for this VN is good, it isn't, you go get a damn job
Read it for the funnies I guess, or if you like chuuni content, funniest part of the game is if you read the staff credits one of the VA was revising the voicelines in his apartment and got the police called on him
2019
Disco Elysium
One of the most interesting games that I’ve played, politically rich and philosophically dense game which is definitely a huge standout. I initially assumed this would be a confusing experience but it has a surprisingly easy sense of direction while you make your way across many intertwined offshoots of the main plot in order to figure out the killer behind a murder mystery, a catalytic event ready to ignite a civil war.
Where I find the game’s sense of direction a huge positive I do think its also a polarizing title, the pace is in your control but the conversations you have often become too meaty or the dialogue feels overproduced sometimes, simple conversations double and triple in size and if you really don’t like absorbing long-form thinkpieces the game throws at you it may be a bumpy ride. There’s a LOT of worldbuilding and if you aren’t familiar with baseline communist history etc the game may feel confusing and at worst, a history lecture. In some ways I find the world of DE a weird kind of satire or parody of which it derives from.
In this way, the game tells two stories, one is on the surface, and one is on the back, I’ll only be tackling the one on the surface since in all fairness, I think I barely understood the story on the back myself in complete detail.
(+) Story (NOT CONCLUSION THAT’S THE CON)
I really liked the way the game tackles the story; you can take a non-linear approach and solve other problems which in one way or another tie around to the main story and you’re often times rewarded with some sort of acknowledgement having resolved a problem before its officially pinned as a to-do task. The first time I passed the check in the library and ventured into the abandoned commercial center it really felt like the game ticked the right boxes in my head, this compliment bleeds into the entire game, the way its able to keep you tethered enough to remember any tasks that have either a time-gate or a special tool requirement is fantastic, I knew exactly when I had to place a call, visit someone, wait for a bridge to be repaired, when to use a password, who to talk to, where to buy something, it didn’t feel like a web of tasks that was difficult to understand, the game is intuitive in how it hands out its tasks even if such tasks are sometimes inferred.
There’s a VARIETY of outcomes that come from your decisions, either you punch the racist meathead or internalize critical race theory, you forge signatures to fuck up the fat pig or don’t take that risk and get them from the source, the conversations can have so many variants and its honestly astounding how much effort it must have took to map it all out.
(+) Characters
Some good and some mediocre, its not that their quirky or something they just fit right into the world of DE, even the most annoying ones (Cunou). I enjoyed both Harry and Kim and their mini interactions (a mix of briefings, decision makings and jabs), Joyce is fun and the one who outlines the pale for us, Titus is a righteous man with platitudes that he holds dear, the military agents are erratic, spontaneous and violent, Gart is this annoyed manager who actually holds the rundown shed of a hotel dear, Klaasje draws you in with her charisma, blanketing her offenses effortlessly with a veneer of coolness, and many many more. The character writing is good, even as my aforementioned complaint about the dialogue being often times too meaty.
(+) Soundtrack
I like it a lot, its very atmospheric, somber (24 HOURS OF AMBIENT MUSIC)
(+) Gameplay
Sometimes the camera fucked up which annoyed me (in the last island), I found spending time via conversations and reading books to be a weird system but it also meant that I wasn’t risking anything with an in-game timer incase I wanted to step out for a bit and walk around and check places. I originally thought the map would be confusing but its actually so simple, I wonder if you can zoom out since most of the time the limited view was what threw me off a bit. I wish when I was outside that I could directly trigger fast-travel instead of having to go to a central hubspot to activate it which annoyed me, but walking around meant I got to see some faces again and check if they had newer dialogue and it doesn’t take that long to get from A to B in this game so all’s well I suppose.
The DND elements were very unique with these cacophony of voices inside your head being able to provide extra layers to every conversation, again my pre-conceived notion was that they’d fuck with the pace of conversation and make the game annoying, but it was the exact opposite, they were the often times the most interesting part of conversations and I enjoyed it when they went against each other which was particularly amusing. It also genuinely feels like you’re a madman that’s trying to navigate a role of a detective as if you’re animating a dead body.
I did infact cheat some checks, to anyone’s dismay, when I punched the meathead I succeeded but failed when I had to do a follow-up attack, annoyed me so hard because it was such a rare check to pass, other times I redid the check for the Klaasje door on the balcony a few times and got lucky even though it was another rare check but yeah even if I didn’t do that I knew how that I could just investigate the kitchen at a specific time and get access to that place. Another instance I had to paint a mural and got annoyed and redid it 3 times as well.
The point is I redid some checks because I wanted to have some narrative or gameplay control instead of the tedium of running around for alternatives which, I know, is very anti-DND of me. But overall, I faithfully committed to the checks since they led to fun outcomes regardless.
Before the end I got some advice from gappy to tie a few loose-ends so I could actually complete the game but it wasn’t anything too tricky I just refused a few tasks so I wouldn’t be locked into something that made the game conditional.
(-) Story Conclusion (SPOILERS)
The game’s conclusion is the biggest negative, I hate the conclusion, I hated the reveal of this X character on this X island that committed the crime, it felt counter-intuitive to the investigative nature of the game, where we spent the entire time ruling out suspects and fake claimers to be given a complete random guy at the end. This was the same for the person who took our gun, there’s so many old women in the game but nope its some X old woman who’s afflicted with some neurological disorder who took it. Ruby was faceless for the most part but at least you were already looking for her so I didn’t hate the fact that when we “catch her” we haven’t seen her before.
The conclusion is also bad because even though you ALREADY get the opportunity to investigate the trajectory of the bullet and its possible locations, there’s an X spot that Klaasje conveniently realizes before departing that allows you to single out the location of the culprit. There’re so many other ways to communicate this exact thing, had the MC himself come to that conclusion after re-investigating the place I would give it a pass but this was just such a bad plot device and it made any pre-investigation feel completely useless. You literally CANNOT guess who the culprit is because you don’t even know who they are. I enjoyed the idea of a mysterious X person, sanctioning themselves on an island for 40 something years and being the victim of this mysterious insulindian phasmid but the outlandish nature of the ending does not outweigh the nonsensical-ness of it. The complexity of the game does not beget an ending, which in my opinion (outside of the phasmid) was quite lame.
The game also wraps up with some mini reveals about you and your companions before the credits are rolled which don’t feel all that shocking especially for the final moments.
I quite literally cannot understand WHY this is how they handled the culprit, why not have multiple culprits or secret accomplices to spice up the game? Infact even Ruby would have qualified for a much better culprit than the one we got.
(+) Conclusion
Very good game and one of a kind, jaw-dropping level of depth to worldbuilding and conversations, it’s a bit fat in a lot of areas but I just happen to NOT be the target demographic for it. With a flop ending that left me just a little bit sour, I feel like this is one of the most competent detective games that genuinely make you FEEL like you are part of the investigative effort that ties everything together as you march around, barging into offices and crying on Edgar’s painful chair.
One of the most interesting games that I’ve played, politically rich and philosophically dense game which is definitely a huge standout. I initially assumed this would be a confusing experience but it has a surprisingly easy sense of direction while you make your way across many intertwined offshoots of the main plot in order to figure out the killer behind a murder mystery, a catalytic event ready to ignite a civil war.
Where I find the game’s sense of direction a huge positive I do think its also a polarizing title, the pace is in your control but the conversations you have often become too meaty or the dialogue feels overproduced sometimes, simple conversations double and triple in size and if you really don’t like absorbing long-form thinkpieces the game throws at you it may be a bumpy ride. There’s a LOT of worldbuilding and if you aren’t familiar with baseline communist history etc the game may feel confusing and at worst, a history lecture. In some ways I find the world of DE a weird kind of satire or parody of which it derives from.
In this way, the game tells two stories, one is on the surface, and one is on the back, I’ll only be tackling the one on the surface since in all fairness, I think I barely understood the story on the back myself in complete detail.
(+) Story (NOT CONCLUSION THAT’S THE CON)
I really liked the way the game tackles the story; you can take a non-linear approach and solve other problems which in one way or another tie around to the main story and you’re often times rewarded with some sort of acknowledgement having resolved a problem before its officially pinned as a to-do task. The first time I passed the check in the library and ventured into the abandoned commercial center it really felt like the game ticked the right boxes in my head, this compliment bleeds into the entire game, the way its able to keep you tethered enough to remember any tasks that have either a time-gate or a special tool requirement is fantastic, I knew exactly when I had to place a call, visit someone, wait for a bridge to be repaired, when to use a password, who to talk to, where to buy something, it didn’t feel like a web of tasks that was difficult to understand, the game is intuitive in how it hands out its tasks even if such tasks are sometimes inferred.
There’s a VARIETY of outcomes that come from your decisions, either you punch the racist meathead or internalize critical race theory, you forge signatures to fuck up the fat pig or don’t take that risk and get them from the source, the conversations can have so many variants and its honestly astounding how much effort it must have took to map it all out.
(+) Characters
Some good and some mediocre, its not that their quirky or something they just fit right into the world of DE, even the most annoying ones (Cunou). I enjoyed both Harry and Kim and their mini interactions (a mix of briefings, decision makings and jabs), Joyce is fun and the one who outlines the pale for us, Titus is a righteous man with platitudes that he holds dear, the military agents are erratic, spontaneous and violent, Gart is this annoyed manager who actually holds the rundown shed of a hotel dear, Klaasje draws you in with her charisma, blanketing her offenses effortlessly with a veneer of coolness, and many many more. The character writing is good, even as my aforementioned complaint about the dialogue being often times too meaty.
(+) Soundtrack
I like it a lot, its very atmospheric, somber (24 HOURS OF AMBIENT MUSIC)
(+) Gameplay
Sometimes the camera fucked up which annoyed me (in the last island), I found spending time via conversations and reading books to be a weird system but it also meant that I wasn’t risking anything with an in-game timer incase I wanted to step out for a bit and walk around and check places. I originally thought the map would be confusing but its actually so simple, I wonder if you can zoom out since most of the time the limited view was what threw me off a bit. I wish when I was outside that I could directly trigger fast-travel instead of having to go to a central hubspot to activate it which annoyed me, but walking around meant I got to see some faces again and check if they had newer dialogue and it doesn’t take that long to get from A to B in this game so all’s well I suppose.
The DND elements were very unique with these cacophony of voices inside your head being able to provide extra layers to every conversation, again my pre-conceived notion was that they’d fuck with the pace of conversation and make the game annoying, but it was the exact opposite, they were the often times the most interesting part of conversations and I enjoyed it when they went against each other which was particularly amusing. It also genuinely feels like you’re a madman that’s trying to navigate a role of a detective as if you’re animating a dead body.
I did infact cheat some checks, to anyone’s dismay, when I punched the meathead I succeeded but failed when I had to do a follow-up attack, annoyed me so hard because it was such a rare check to pass, other times I redid the check for the Klaasje door on the balcony a few times and got lucky even though it was another rare check but yeah even if I didn’t do that I knew how that I could just investigate the kitchen at a specific time and get access to that place. Another instance I had to paint a mural and got annoyed and redid it 3 times as well.
The point is I redid some checks because I wanted to have some narrative or gameplay control instead of the tedium of running around for alternatives which, I know, is very anti-DND of me. But overall, I faithfully committed to the checks since they led to fun outcomes regardless.
Before the end I got some advice from gappy to tie a few loose-ends so I could actually complete the game but it wasn’t anything too tricky I just refused a few tasks so I wouldn’t be locked into something that made the game conditional.
(-) Story Conclusion (SPOILERS)
The game’s conclusion is the biggest negative, I hate the conclusion, I hated the reveal of this X character on this X island that committed the crime, it felt counter-intuitive to the investigative nature of the game, where we spent the entire time ruling out suspects and fake claimers to be given a complete random guy at the end. This was the same for the person who took our gun, there’s so many old women in the game but nope its some X old woman who’s afflicted with some neurological disorder who took it. Ruby was faceless for the most part but at least you were already looking for her so I didn’t hate the fact that when we “catch her” we haven’t seen her before.
The conclusion is also bad because even though you ALREADY get the opportunity to investigate the trajectory of the bullet and its possible locations, there’s an X spot that Klaasje conveniently realizes before departing that allows you to single out the location of the culprit. There’re so many other ways to communicate this exact thing, had the MC himself come to that conclusion after re-investigating the place I would give it a pass but this was just such a bad plot device and it made any pre-investigation feel completely useless. You literally CANNOT guess who the culprit is because you don’t even know who they are. I enjoyed the idea of a mysterious X person, sanctioning themselves on an island for 40 something years and being the victim of this mysterious insulindian phasmid but the outlandish nature of the ending does not outweigh the nonsensical-ness of it. The complexity of the game does not beget an ending, which in my opinion (outside of the phasmid) was quite lame.
The game also wraps up with some mini reveals about you and your companions before the credits are rolled which don’t feel all that shocking especially for the final moments.
I quite literally cannot understand WHY this is how they handled the culprit, why not have multiple culprits or secret accomplices to spice up the game? Infact even Ruby would have qualified for a much better culprit than the one we got.
(+) Conclusion
Very good game and one of a kind, jaw-dropping level of depth to worldbuilding and conversations, it’s a bit fat in a lot of areas but I just happen to NOT be the target demographic for it. With a flop ending that left me just a little bit sour, I feel like this is one of the most competent detective games that genuinely make you FEEL like you are part of the investigative effort that ties everything together as you march around, barging into offices and crying on Edgar’s painful chair.
2005
Never have I seen a game abuse its status as a video game this hard, it never even once tries to convince you you're playing anything BUT a video game, it's batshit crazy, weird and the entire game feels like you're sick
But where I find a lot of it creative, funny or disturbing, I think much of the game is absolutely atrocious, the combat is bad, the navigation is bad, I know all of these contribute to the weird "acid-trip" like feel of the game, but it's just completely half-baked in its entirety, sometimes I genuinely felt like the game was trying too hard to be weird when it should've been trying hard to be a functional game at the very least
With an otherwise interesting story, I think the game doesn't strike a balance between weird and plain convenience very well. I guess a game should leave you different than how it finds you, and this game can certainly give you a taste of that.
But where I find a lot of it creative, funny or disturbing, I think much of the game is absolutely atrocious, the combat is bad, the navigation is bad, I know all of these contribute to the weird "acid-trip" like feel of the game, but it's just completely half-baked in its entirety, sometimes I genuinely felt like the game was trying too hard to be weird when it should've been trying hard to be a functional game at the very least
With an otherwise interesting story, I think the game doesn't strike a balance between weird and plain convenience very well. I guess a game should leave you different than how it finds you, and this game can certainly give you a taste of that.
2001
Good story and fantastic music.
Horrible, dated gameplay.
Horrible, dated gameplay.
AI: The Somnium Files
This game is very tonedeaf, it oscillates between comedic and dramatic moments almost feeling as if the game is having an identity crisis, it can't DECIDE whether it wants to be over the top goofy or tell a compelling sci-fi murder mystery, or rather the game wants to be over the top goofy all the time but has a murder crime that's so sinister in nature that it doesn't fit well
(Except for Iris's route) the Psyncs are the highlight of this game, and they are also the only time the goofy-over-the-top nature blends well with the dreamlike logic, sometimes it's frustrating when you perform a meaningless action and get a time penalty but the factor of "Timies" makes it very interesting,
Also branching routes by how you engage within a Psync is a very solid idea, Aibo herself is a pretty damn likable character so it's fun to play as her in these segments
Where the Psyncs perhaps fail is that it's entirely trial and error sometimes, which given it's a dream I can't complain much about, but even something such as performing the same action twice (for example to a hole in a tree then in a different hole in a tree) you could trigger wildly different outcomes for progression, but as aforementioned the Timies reduce this frustration because they allow you to cutdown on the time for the main thing you're supposed to do in the Psync
Also to be fair there's only ever so much you can do in a Psync and you usually end up getting it right before it gets frustrating
Uchikoshi's biggest weakness has always been characters and even though there are some truly despicable garbage ones here, I enjoyed that he stepped out of his comfort zone on more than one occasion, besides Iris and Ota (or Mizuki when she's acting up) the cast is actually not subpar, there's some unique interactions you can have by clicking around the environment that got a smile out of me every now and then, but those moments can be counted on one hand
3/5 routes are utter nonsense garbage, but the final 2 routes are actually pretty cool, I enjoyed the final murderer reveal (and the Psync to get to him was also decently challenging albeit the factory itself was not that pleasing to look at)
The infodump is there, but it's broken up into small doses so you're ever only bored occasionally (and it's very easy to speed through these)
Extras:
-I liked the Mayumi final Psync in Ota's route, it's not much of anything and it's easy to find it melodramatic but seeing a mother struggle in a world that confuses her and trying the best for her family is surprisingly good to me, also the OST that plays in that segment ++
-OSTs in general are fine
-Dialogues options are bloated, sometimes you have to click the same option multiple times to continue the same thought for the character which seemed pointless, at one point I would look for the story relevant dialogue option so I could trigger the conversation ending option and didn't have to talk to the character anymore
-Presentation is good, but it's unpolished in many areas, still I can't be ungrateful atleast it doesnt look like VLR
-Despite the fact that both me and Fahim guessed the twist pretty early, the reveal was still fresh, solid and creatively executed with a compelling antagonist
-Sometimes there are cutscenes that play in their entirety, like everytime you go somewhere you have to sit through this shitty car cutscene which I just ctrl'd on instinct, other times Ota will be fed omelette rice and you have to watch the whole thing like, thrice in the entire game, there's also this cutscene where {a person gets killed near the warehouse in the past} and they show the entire video of the stabbing again and again,
These happen rarely but you really can't give the ctrl button a break in this game for a sensible experience
-The Yakuza were cringe
Do I recommend it? I can't say really, the first route is bad to the point where I expected nothing but a letdown, Iris is a horrible character and brings the quality of the experience WAAAAAAY down, but if you can stick with it and burn through the first 3 routes then I can say the reveal feels like all the effort you put in was worth it,
What you're getting is a lighthearted mystery VN so walk in with manageable expectations and you won't be extra disappointed, also for a Uchikoshi VN it's actually surprisingly small in it's scope and ends before it drags
A review on steam captures in a few sentences what the fundamental drawback of the game is:
"In the middle of incredibly climactic and dramatic moments, the tension will be dissolved immediately by bizzare antics, often with played-out "power of friendship" moments."
This game is very tonedeaf, it oscillates between comedic and dramatic moments almost feeling as if the game is having an identity crisis, it can't DECIDE whether it wants to be over the top goofy or tell a compelling sci-fi murder mystery, or rather the game wants to be over the top goofy all the time but has a murder crime that's so sinister in nature that it doesn't fit well
(Except for Iris's route) the Psyncs are the highlight of this game, and they are also the only time the goofy-over-the-top nature blends well with the dreamlike logic, sometimes it's frustrating when you perform a meaningless action and get a time penalty but the factor of "Timies" makes it very interesting,
Also branching routes by how you engage within a Psync is a very solid idea, Aibo herself is a pretty damn likable character so it's fun to play as her in these segments
Where the Psyncs perhaps fail is that it's entirely trial and error sometimes, which given it's a dream I can't complain much about, but even something such as performing the same action twice (for example to a hole in a tree then in a different hole in a tree) you could trigger wildly different outcomes for progression, but as aforementioned the Timies reduce this frustration because they allow you to cutdown on the time for the main thing you're supposed to do in the Psync
Also to be fair there's only ever so much you can do in a Psync and you usually end up getting it right before it gets frustrating
Uchikoshi's biggest weakness has always been characters and even though there are some truly despicable garbage ones here, I enjoyed that he stepped out of his comfort zone on more than one occasion, besides Iris and Ota (or Mizuki when she's acting up) the cast is actually not subpar, there's some unique interactions you can have by clicking around the environment that got a smile out of me every now and then, but those moments can be counted on one hand
3/5 routes are utter nonsense garbage, but the final 2 routes are actually pretty cool, I enjoyed the final murderer reveal (and the Psync to get to him was also decently challenging albeit the factory itself was not that pleasing to look at)
The infodump is there, but it's broken up into small doses so you're ever only bored occasionally (and it's very easy to speed through these)
Extras:
-I liked the Mayumi final Psync in Ota's route, it's not much of anything and it's easy to find it melodramatic but seeing a mother struggle in a world that confuses her and trying the best for her family is surprisingly good to me, also the OST that plays in that segment ++
-OSTs in general are fine
-Dialogues options are bloated, sometimes you have to click the same option multiple times to continue the same thought for the character which seemed pointless, at one point I would look for the story relevant dialogue option so I could trigger the conversation ending option and didn't have to talk to the character anymore
-Presentation is good, but it's unpolished in many areas, still I can't be ungrateful atleast it doesnt look like VLR
-Despite the fact that both me and Fahim guessed the twist pretty early, the reveal was still fresh, solid and creatively executed with a compelling antagonist
-Sometimes there are cutscenes that play in their entirety, like everytime you go somewhere you have to sit through this shitty car cutscene which I just ctrl'd on instinct, other times Ota will be fed omelette rice and you have to watch the whole thing like, thrice in the entire game, there's also this cutscene where {a person gets killed near the warehouse in the past} and they show the entire video of the stabbing again and again,
These happen rarely but you really can't give the ctrl button a break in this game for a sensible experience
-The Yakuza were cringe
Do I recommend it? I can't say really, the first route is bad to the point where I expected nothing but a letdown, Iris is a horrible character and brings the quality of the experience WAAAAAAY down, but if you can stick with it and burn through the first 3 routes then I can say the reveal feels like all the effort you put in was worth it,
What you're getting is a lighthearted mystery VN so walk in with manageable expectations and you won't be extra disappointed, also for a Uchikoshi VN it's actually surprisingly small in it's scope and ends before it drags
A review on steam captures in a few sentences what the fundamental drawback of the game is:
"In the middle of incredibly climactic and dramatic moments, the tension will be dissolved immediately by bizzare antics, often with played-out "power of friendship" moments."
2015
I remember giving this game a glowing review when I played it ages ago and it's always funny to turn around and see how much of the glaring flaws I was dismissing for my recency bias,
Look the yakuza are acting so absurdist and out of character this is so funny!!! (this is the entire fucking franchise), a game designed so that you take screenshots and upload them on twitter so your garbage smelling friends can go "heh...I told you its peak"
Majima's side of the story is salvageable (if you hate melodrama rip your enjoyment), everything else is nonsense and over the top unfunny ass shit
Look the yakuza are acting so absurdist and out of character this is so funny!!! (this is the entire fucking franchise), a game designed so that you take screenshots and upload them on twitter so your garbage smelling friends can go "heh...I told you its peak"
Majima's side of the story is salvageable (if you hate melodrama rip your enjoyment), everything else is nonsense and over the top unfunny ass shit
So bad its genre defining
The game is fundamentally broken, hitboxes are janky, none of the places are designed with a proper thought, adp is suddenly a fucking stat because why the fuck not, parries are worse idk how they fucked that up, all the bosses (most of which are like knight + sword or XYZ + sword) with either cheap movesets with bad i-frames or just bad design
Game is also genuinely ugly and I don't know why it departed from it's original intention of being dark which would genuinely fix it's washed out textures that make my blood boil
No compliments, not just a bad souls game, a bad game
Also I will never not find it funny that Drangleic Castle has a fucking poison room bro why in the fuck is that there? For the queen? Stupid
I liked some of the OSTs though
The game is fundamentally broken, hitboxes are janky, none of the places are designed with a proper thought, adp is suddenly a fucking stat because why the fuck not, parries are worse idk how they fucked that up, all the bosses (most of which are like knight + sword or XYZ + sword) with either cheap movesets with bad i-frames or just bad design
Game is also genuinely ugly and I don't know why it departed from it's original intention of being dark which would genuinely fix it's washed out textures that make my blood boil
No compliments, not just a bad souls game, a bad game
Also I will never not find it funny that Drangleic Castle has a fucking poison room bro why in the fuck is that there? For the queen? Stupid
I liked some of the OSTs though
This review contains spoilers
Red Dead Redemption 2
Since my thoughts are a bit all over the place the pros and cons are sort of mixed together but I’ll give it some headings so its more structured and easier to read, tl;dr I really like the game despite how much I hate the last quarter of the game
(+) Characters and Animation
When I talk about character writing and specifically banter writing I can point to RDR2, this is where it shines the most and every single interaction is solid. The attention to detail in this game is insane, I can’t tell how much was captured by mocap or how much was carefully animated by hand, and in either circumstance its hard to even imagine the effort, even towards the end there’s a scene where John is unboxing the present Abigail gave him and he almost tips it, the game loves doing these small things so much so that you can often times forget that you’re even playing a game. I love Dutch as the villain, I love Arthur he’s just one of the best protagonists ever, every character has their traits that uniquely sets them apart and all of them are given plenty of room to develop.
(+) The Plot (Chapter 1 &2)
I feel like the plot as a whole is where Rockstar finds some big hits and some big misses. I think Chapter 1 is a great way to set the stage for Dutch and company, it feels important in retrospect since it also explains why they choose to stick together for so long especially when things go south given the circumstances they had to brave and endure together. Again, with most things in RDR2 it feels like it goes on for a while since you’re subjected to long cutscenes and tutorial missions. Chapter 2 is where the game hands you the reigns and since this is where the game is still in its handholding stage, you’re pretty much doing minimal stuff like catching bears or buying guns etc.
(+) (Chapter 3 & 4)
Chapter 3 sets up a very interesting conflict where two families have a history of friction and as much as I was expecting it to be executed in a more meaningful way, I still enjoyed all that crop burning vigilante stuff that you’re set up to do, this chapter is also where you experience your first death and ends in a spectacular way where you burn the mansion. Chapter 4 is the cream of the crop, Saint Denis starts off kind of stupid with the usual chores where you stop a bunch of grave robbers in exchange for the boy, but then towards the end everything its just this beautiful chaos, this is the strongest point in the whole game quite literally everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Perfect.
(-) (Chapter 5& 6)
Chapter 5 is the worst in the main chapter line-up, I hated Guarma, I hated the negro rebellion, and even less did it make sense why they return to Saint Denis despite how charismatic and convincing Dutch is, I know they wanted to really set up how he’s completely losing it since he also kills the woman there in cold blood and comes up with a “prey or be preyed” explanation for it, but instead of sowing the seeds of distrust and cracks in Dutch’s authority it just overall felt so out of place. Anyways this chapter SUCKS. The only contribution this chapter makes is by pushing Sadie into the spotlight as a huge person of interest in the climax.
Chapter 6 is the one that really confused me, all of a sudden you’re part of this NOTHING plot with the Indians and the game has this weird explanation that they want to create a lot of sound so that the army is focused on a separate matter altogether, but then you’re also participating in the fight…. Oh nvm it was all part of Dutch’s plan now he gets to steal the bonds from the oil plant…. Or something? Again towards the end it felt like game was fucking around, none of the characters seem to get it either. I really liked the idea of Dutch unravelling and in the game’s own words its not that he’s changing, its moreso that he’s becoming what he really is, it seems to encompass the entirety of Dutch’s arc, but truly what I felt towards the end was the main plot was more interested in what would happened after Arthur’s death than whatever precedes it, which almost made his death feel way less intense and meaningful than what the game delivered on. I don’t want John to deliver Micah’s judgement at the end of a trenchantly long epilogue, I want it to be Arthur.
(-) Epilogue
Rockstar flops in this regard, it wanted to make the ending more deep and cinematic in nature by having John be the one to deliver the final blow to Micah but it just makes everything feel messy and honestly? The epilogue ruined the game for me, its hard to separate it from the main chapters because the way the chapter 6 ends is just incomplete. To settle the score you have to build a home for your nagging wife and be subjected to “you can’t outrun your sins” – the epilogue. I can respect so much in this game but I just could not for the life of me wrap my head around this epilogue, why does it exist? Who is it for? I would rather have seen a bunch of montages and a final showdown, unless RDR2 is the last in this franchise I’d understand them subjecting everyone to this misery, I saw more interesting things in the ending credits than I participated in in the epilogue. It makes me NOT recommend this game.
(-) Final thoughts on the Last Quarter
Chapter 5, 6 and the Epilogue feel misguided when it comes to the main plot. Rockstar doesn’t want to have one point of conflict it feels like it HAS to compound two varieties of it in order to be interesting, which is not the case. By the end of the game your two major rivals, Leviticus Cornwall and Colm O’ Driscoll die in uninteresting ways and are replaced by the Army and the Milton Agency which you really don’t even care about to begin with, and for the Epilogue your villain is Micah but instead of having to journey to him the game wants you to do chores and many hours later you have a full circle moment of killing him at a place similar to where the game started. The story doesn’t seem poetic when Dutch has nothing to say, instead of feeling like he’s a broken man, it feels like the game just doesn’t have much of anything to do with him, and I felt like the epilogue under-delivers on Dutch’s fate which is probably the only thing I was interested in after Arthur’s death.
(-) Gunplay
This is the primary form of combat you engage in and I don’t know WHO told Rockstar that there needs to be this many shooting encounters, its insane. Oh a stealth mission? Must end in a gunplay section, there’s no such thing as a covert operation or killing discretely in the universe of RDR2, everyone is an esper who instantly knows at the end of a chapter as some wizard wiggles his finger instantly alerting everyone and you have to fight off gangs and gangs and gangs and gangs it got annoying, and when I say there’s a lot of gunplay, its almost like there’s nothing BUT gunplay.
There’s some missions I enjoyed like the one where you’re scamming some losers on a ship by winning at a poker game but no that also ends in a gunplay section. They only have variety towards the very end in Chapter 6 where you are being physically chased by men wielding machetes and sniping sections but its just not much of anything in my opinion.
(+) Side quests
Admittedly I did as many were in my path, I made peace with the woman whose husband gave me TB, I helped Penelope Braithwaite escape, I helped my ex-love to get her brother back from the cult, I helped the army officer get vaccines for the kids at Rainfall’s camp, I collected debts for Strauss, I helped two brothers help impress a girl by shooting bottles off their heads, I met up with some legendary sharp shooters and took pictures of them to remember their legacy, I helped a man take photos and not getting devoured by wolves, and I know there is so…. So much more to the world of RDR2, I barely touched the surface and hopefully I can go back and play some more. I remember having really high honor already before I started collecting it at the end since I was always donating to the blind or sucking out poison from someone’s thigh or escorting someone to the village, which I still think is one of the stronger points of RDR2 because it really keeps you immersed in the world.
(-/+) Soundtrack
I liked the audio mixing and like some of the scenes are really well staged with the music and get you really hype I might revisit a few tracks but not any tracks that I am absolutely dying to hunt down
(+) Environment Design
Its just really good, every area is instantly recognizable and its just a beautiful game that is probably going to age very gracefully
(-) Linearity and Physics
This is a complain that I had from very early on in the game, it hates when you don’t execute things in a very linear way, I just could not understand it, GTA games have always been very flexible in terms of how you approach missions and circumstances and this game just does NOT like you doing that, every scenario felt so hand-hold-ey because the game just wouldn’t quit telling me to execute everything in a specific order, its just fucking annoying.
This also plays into the second part of the sub-heading, physics. The physics is just really volatile in this game, you can get fucked or smushed around places or have your horse knocked out for the dumbest reasons, where I would find this endearing in other games just getting up and moving in this game is so weird. Like just getting on your horse can just be such an awkward maneuver I don’t know why, because the game is also linear you’re often supposed to go over a long distance and listen to a very long conversation but if you “accidentally” crash you are subjected to hearing that long conversation all over again. It was SO FUCKING ANNOYING, IT HAPPENED SO MUCH.
Conclusion
I love this game for many reasons but the sunk cost fallacy you face when you’re done with Chapter 6 and have to sit through the epilogue makes me think twice before recommending. Rockstar had this game in the bag up till the halfway point but then just made so many questionable decision thereafter, its still one of the best stories ever told and one of the most interesting open-world that a game can offer, when Rockstar delivers in this game it delivers HARD.
Good job Rockstar, despite the flops.
Since my thoughts are a bit all over the place the pros and cons are sort of mixed together but I’ll give it some headings so its more structured and easier to read, tl;dr I really like the game despite how much I hate the last quarter of the game
(+) Characters and Animation
When I talk about character writing and specifically banter writing I can point to RDR2, this is where it shines the most and every single interaction is solid. The attention to detail in this game is insane, I can’t tell how much was captured by mocap or how much was carefully animated by hand, and in either circumstance its hard to even imagine the effort, even towards the end there’s a scene where John is unboxing the present Abigail gave him and he almost tips it, the game loves doing these small things so much so that you can often times forget that you’re even playing a game. I love Dutch as the villain, I love Arthur he’s just one of the best protagonists ever, every character has their traits that uniquely sets them apart and all of them are given plenty of room to develop.
(+) The Plot (Chapter 1 &2)
I feel like the plot as a whole is where Rockstar finds some big hits and some big misses. I think Chapter 1 is a great way to set the stage for Dutch and company, it feels important in retrospect since it also explains why they choose to stick together for so long especially when things go south given the circumstances they had to brave and endure together. Again, with most things in RDR2 it feels like it goes on for a while since you’re subjected to long cutscenes and tutorial missions. Chapter 2 is where the game hands you the reigns and since this is where the game is still in its handholding stage, you’re pretty much doing minimal stuff like catching bears or buying guns etc.
(+) (Chapter 3 & 4)
Chapter 3 sets up a very interesting conflict where two families have a history of friction and as much as I was expecting it to be executed in a more meaningful way, I still enjoyed all that crop burning vigilante stuff that you’re set up to do, this chapter is also where you experience your first death and ends in a spectacular way where you burn the mansion. Chapter 4 is the cream of the crop, Saint Denis starts off kind of stupid with the usual chores where you stop a bunch of grave robbers in exchange for the boy, but then towards the end everything its just this beautiful chaos, this is the strongest point in the whole game quite literally everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Perfect.
(-) (Chapter 5& 6)
Chapter 5 is the worst in the main chapter line-up, I hated Guarma, I hated the negro rebellion, and even less did it make sense why they return to Saint Denis despite how charismatic and convincing Dutch is, I know they wanted to really set up how he’s completely losing it since he also kills the woman there in cold blood and comes up with a “prey or be preyed” explanation for it, but instead of sowing the seeds of distrust and cracks in Dutch’s authority it just overall felt so out of place. Anyways this chapter SUCKS. The only contribution this chapter makes is by pushing Sadie into the spotlight as a huge person of interest in the climax.
Chapter 6 is the one that really confused me, all of a sudden you’re part of this NOTHING plot with the Indians and the game has this weird explanation that they want to create a lot of sound so that the army is focused on a separate matter altogether, but then you’re also participating in the fight…. Oh nvm it was all part of Dutch’s plan now he gets to steal the bonds from the oil plant…. Or something? Again towards the end it felt like game was fucking around, none of the characters seem to get it either. I really liked the idea of Dutch unravelling and in the game’s own words its not that he’s changing, its moreso that he’s becoming what he really is, it seems to encompass the entirety of Dutch’s arc, but truly what I felt towards the end was the main plot was more interested in what would happened after Arthur’s death than whatever precedes it, which almost made his death feel way less intense and meaningful than what the game delivered on. I don’t want John to deliver Micah’s judgement at the end of a trenchantly long epilogue, I want it to be Arthur.
(-) Epilogue
Rockstar flops in this regard, it wanted to make the ending more deep and cinematic in nature by having John be the one to deliver the final blow to Micah but it just makes everything feel messy and honestly? The epilogue ruined the game for me, its hard to separate it from the main chapters because the way the chapter 6 ends is just incomplete. To settle the score you have to build a home for your nagging wife and be subjected to “you can’t outrun your sins” – the epilogue. I can respect so much in this game but I just could not for the life of me wrap my head around this epilogue, why does it exist? Who is it for? I would rather have seen a bunch of montages and a final showdown, unless RDR2 is the last in this franchise I’d understand them subjecting everyone to this misery, I saw more interesting things in the ending credits than I participated in in the epilogue. It makes me NOT recommend this game.
(-) Final thoughts on the Last Quarter
Chapter 5, 6 and the Epilogue feel misguided when it comes to the main plot. Rockstar doesn’t want to have one point of conflict it feels like it HAS to compound two varieties of it in order to be interesting, which is not the case. By the end of the game your two major rivals, Leviticus Cornwall and Colm O’ Driscoll die in uninteresting ways and are replaced by the Army and the Milton Agency which you really don’t even care about to begin with, and for the Epilogue your villain is Micah but instead of having to journey to him the game wants you to do chores and many hours later you have a full circle moment of killing him at a place similar to where the game started. The story doesn’t seem poetic when Dutch has nothing to say, instead of feeling like he’s a broken man, it feels like the game just doesn’t have much of anything to do with him, and I felt like the epilogue under-delivers on Dutch’s fate which is probably the only thing I was interested in after Arthur’s death.
(-) Gunplay
This is the primary form of combat you engage in and I don’t know WHO told Rockstar that there needs to be this many shooting encounters, its insane. Oh a stealth mission? Must end in a gunplay section, there’s no such thing as a covert operation or killing discretely in the universe of RDR2, everyone is an esper who instantly knows at the end of a chapter as some wizard wiggles his finger instantly alerting everyone and you have to fight off gangs and gangs and gangs and gangs it got annoying, and when I say there’s a lot of gunplay, its almost like there’s nothing BUT gunplay.
There’s some missions I enjoyed like the one where you’re scamming some losers on a ship by winning at a poker game but no that also ends in a gunplay section. They only have variety towards the very end in Chapter 6 where you are being physically chased by men wielding machetes and sniping sections but its just not much of anything in my opinion.
(+) Side quests
Admittedly I did as many were in my path, I made peace with the woman whose husband gave me TB, I helped Penelope Braithwaite escape, I helped my ex-love to get her brother back from the cult, I helped the army officer get vaccines for the kids at Rainfall’s camp, I collected debts for Strauss, I helped two brothers help impress a girl by shooting bottles off their heads, I met up with some legendary sharp shooters and took pictures of them to remember their legacy, I helped a man take photos and not getting devoured by wolves, and I know there is so…. So much more to the world of RDR2, I barely touched the surface and hopefully I can go back and play some more. I remember having really high honor already before I started collecting it at the end since I was always donating to the blind or sucking out poison from someone’s thigh or escorting someone to the village, which I still think is one of the stronger points of RDR2 because it really keeps you immersed in the world.
(-/+) Soundtrack
I liked the audio mixing and like some of the scenes are really well staged with the music and get you really hype I might revisit a few tracks but not any tracks that I am absolutely dying to hunt down
(+) Environment Design
Its just really good, every area is instantly recognizable and its just a beautiful game that is probably going to age very gracefully
(-) Linearity and Physics
This is a complain that I had from very early on in the game, it hates when you don’t execute things in a very linear way, I just could not understand it, GTA games have always been very flexible in terms of how you approach missions and circumstances and this game just does NOT like you doing that, every scenario felt so hand-hold-ey because the game just wouldn’t quit telling me to execute everything in a specific order, its just fucking annoying.
This also plays into the second part of the sub-heading, physics. The physics is just really volatile in this game, you can get fucked or smushed around places or have your horse knocked out for the dumbest reasons, where I would find this endearing in other games just getting up and moving in this game is so weird. Like just getting on your horse can just be such an awkward maneuver I don’t know why, because the game is also linear you’re often supposed to go over a long distance and listen to a very long conversation but if you “accidentally” crash you are subjected to hearing that long conversation all over again. It was SO FUCKING ANNOYING, IT HAPPENED SO MUCH.
Conclusion
I love this game for many reasons but the sunk cost fallacy you face when you’re done with Chapter 6 and have to sit through the epilogue makes me think twice before recommending. Rockstar had this game in the bag up till the halfway point but then just made so many questionable decision thereafter, its still one of the best stories ever told and one of the most interesting open-world that a game can offer, when Rockstar delivers in this game it delivers HARD.
Good job Rockstar, despite the flops.
2007
I like the aspect of killing assassins, I love a "kill these bastards" plotline,
The NMH assassins you're supposed to kill are distinct in personality and they are pretty damn despicable sometimes, I like the fact that they are over the top and some of the fights have particular gimmicks attached to them that at least break up the monotony for what could be a straightforward kill
Everyone brings this up so I'll just reiterate, everything outside of killing assassins on your hitlist is bad, this game has actual CHORES, IT HAS CHORES you have to do, suda you are such a fucking idiot, why in the actual fuck did you put chores in this game
It's indefensible for a completely straightforward title, at least NMH2 takes the liberty of oversimplifying the chores and removed the shoddy ass bike in its entirety
What a joke. Stop making your games fucking miserable, don't let sudadrones convince you this is some bayeaux tapestry masterpiece
The NMH assassins you're supposed to kill are distinct in personality and they are pretty damn despicable sometimes, I like the fact that they are over the top and some of the fights have particular gimmicks attached to them that at least break up the monotony for what could be a straightforward kill
Everyone brings this up so I'll just reiterate, everything outside of killing assassins on your hitlist is bad, this game has actual CHORES, IT HAS CHORES you have to do, suda you are such a fucking idiot, why in the actual fuck did you put chores in this game
It's indefensible for a completely straightforward title, at least NMH2 takes the liberty of oversimplifying the chores and removed the shoddy ass bike in its entirety
What a joke. Stop making your games fucking miserable, don't let sudadrones convince you this is some bayeaux tapestry masterpiece
2020
Thank god it doesn't have a grand explanation for why everything happens, a short VN but probably the best BL title I've read
I'll keep this one brief, it's gripping from start to end, the consequences are sinister and it's uncomfortable but unlike Euphoria where the suspension of belief is so astronomical that you can easily dissociate the VN from reality, the work here is pretty good in keeping that feel of discomfort where it feels like 2 genuine dudes don't want to see each other in this weird vulnerable scenario,
Each game they're forced to play to earn points to exit the scenario ramps up the discomfort factor and god, I can't stress enough how much of an intense read this is
Clockup did a really good job, even moreso than they ever achieved on Euphoria. It's grounded and it's unnerving. Solid. Personal Favorite.
I'll keep this one brief, it's gripping from start to end, the consequences are sinister and it's uncomfortable but unlike Euphoria where the suspension of belief is so astronomical that you can easily dissociate the VN from reality, the work here is pretty good in keeping that feel of discomfort where it feels like 2 genuine dudes don't want to see each other in this weird vulnerable scenario,
Each game they're forced to play to earn points to exit the scenario ramps up the discomfort factor and god, I can't stress enough how much of an intense read this is
Clockup did a really good job, even moreso than they ever achieved on Euphoria. It's grounded and it's unnerving. Solid. Personal Favorite.
2017
Bad.
2021
Narrative driven games are completely dependent on their story but this is probably the one game where the actual story isn't the shining star it's the way that they chose to tell it that steals the show, as well as the greek/roman historical backdrop they chose as the primary setting
It's easy for time-travelling stories to get out of hand very fast and this one kept it really simple and for it's own benefit kept it relatively safe
Where I love the setting and the storytelling, I actually thought the game is TOO short, I don't wish for any more characters or entanglement in the plot but I wish there were more endings than 4 out of which 1 is a variation of another ending and 1 is a bad ending that you can get any time,
I also think the villain, although being interesting for how he exploited the system to his own benefit, was pretty disappointing when revealed as the antagonist, let alone his reasons for doing what he did, I hated the villain to the point where it makes it difficult to recommend the game for how disappointing he is (I'm not talking about the big boss of the place)
Other stuff:
-Voice acting conveyed what stiff body movements could not and it's competently done for a budget title
-I like the fact that you can scam the 2 people who scam you towards the end
-The game actually REALLY surprised me with that final futuristic area and even though the final big boss seems cartoonish I liked that it took me by surprise
-Fata Morgana museum scene at the end had me crying laughing
-That guy inside the underground catacombs is the one trope I love in trapped in a [place] themed games where there's survivors from previous groups that have been trapped in the same place are alive somehow
It's easy for time-travelling stories to get out of hand very fast and this one kept it really simple and for it's own benefit kept it relatively safe
Where I love the setting and the storytelling, I actually thought the game is TOO short, I don't wish for any more characters or entanglement in the plot but I wish there were more endings than 4 out of which 1 is a variation of another ending and 1 is a bad ending that you can get any time,
I also think the villain, although being interesting for how he exploited the system to his own benefit, was pretty disappointing when revealed as the antagonist, let alone his reasons for doing what he did, I hated the villain to the point where it makes it difficult to recommend the game for how disappointing he is (I'm not talking about the big boss of the place)
Other stuff:
-Voice acting conveyed what stiff body movements could not and it's competently done for a budget title
-I like the fact that you can scam the 2 people who scam you towards the end
-The game actually REALLY surprised me with that final futuristic area and even though the final big boss seems cartoonish I liked that it took me by surprise
-Fata Morgana museum scene at the end had me crying laughing
-That guy inside the underground catacombs is the one trope I love in trapped in a [place] themed games where there's survivors from previous groups that have been trapped in the same place are alive somehow