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Taking any sort of dormant franchise and bringing it back into the “modern” era is always a risky move, no matter what the franchise in question is, but it was clear that Rare was able to pull this off seamlessly with the original Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. Sure, the bosses may have been lacking in plenty of areas, and there is some bullshit to be found when it comes to some of the secrets, but all of that is made up for with the game’s tight platformer, superb gameplay, wonderful gimmicks, impressive graphics for the time, and wonderful music, tying everything up together in one, banana-flavored package that many have enjoyed ever since it had initially released. Not only that, but the game was also extremely successful, selling over 9.3 MILLION copies, so it was clear that both Rare and Nintendo needed to keep this money train rolling with a sequel of some kind. However, this is the part of Rare’s life as a company where they were going to go through a bit of character development: they were sitting on a gold mine with this property, so they couldn’t just hash out something cheap and terrible like they did with Battletoads. They needed to make sure that this game was better than the rest, the true king of the jungle, one that can stand amongst the greatest of the greats, and personally, if you were to ask me, I think they succeeded in doing that and then some with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.
While I did get the original DKC as one of the first games on my SNES, and I would go onto playing it a lot because of that, I initially didn’t get DKC2 for quite some time, even though I was well aware of it existing for a while. It was only when another video game convention managed to roll through my town a good couple of years ago that I was able to snag myself a physical copy of the game to try it out, and HOT DAMN, I definitely should’ve hopped on it a lot sooner before then. The original game was already great enough as is, but this game manages to take everything that game did, expand upon it, and improve upon every criticism that I could have with that game, making for what I would say is not only a perfect sequel, but also a masterpiece of the platforming genre.
The story is just that little more complex when compared to the extremely simplistic premise of DKC 1, where while relaxing on the beach, Donkey Kong is suddenly ambushed and kidnapped by a group of Kremlings, who take him to the dastardly Kaptain K. Rool. Shortly after this, he then sends a message to the other Kongs, saying that if they want to ever see DK again, they need to give him the banana hoard that he failed to get from the previous game, which the Kongs refuse to give up, so it is up to Diddy Kong now, alongside his girlfriend Dixie Kong, to travel through the lands of Crocodile Isle, save DK, and defeat Kaptain K. Rool once and for all. It is still a very basic premise, one that decided it wanted to be even more like Mario and involve a kidnapping of some kind, but it is still an effective story, and not gonna lie, having the main character of the previous game be the one that needs rescuing in this is a bit of a nice twist.
The graphics are pretty great, looking on par with the original game in many different aspects, but also expanding on the visuals with much more creative environment, character, enemy and boss designs, with great animations paired right alongside them as well, the music is fantastic once again, having plenty of incredible tracks that range from the menacing and exciting like this one, to the much more calm and serene like this one, all of which are an absolute joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is just as tight, fun, and masterfully put together as last time, not only providing plenty of fun levels and gimmicks for you to mess with ahead, but also plenty of challenges ahead that will make you feel like a true champ for conquering.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Diddy Kong once again or Dixie Kong, go through many different worlds of varying shape and size, each having a very different, unique theme that makes them stand out from each other, while also not feeling like complete copies of what came before in the previous game, defeat plenty of enemies using various techniques while gathering plenty of different bananas, collectibles, animal buddies, and power-ups along the way to help you out, run into many other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, who is STILL the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Wrinkly Kong, the one that reminds you of all the horrible teachers that you had back in school, and Swanky Kong, the one that will prove to you just how much of a dumbass you really are, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky again, who I’m surprised hasn’t dropped dead from a heart attack at this point), and take on plenty of bosses who, unlike the last game, are not only very fun to fight, but also have a level of creativity to them that makes taking them each on feel incredibly fun and rewarding. As any good sequel does, this game takes all the great elements from the previous game and retains all of their great qualities, while expanding on them just enough to make it even better than before, and trust me, back when I first played this a long time ago after only having the original game some time, I was FLOORED by just how massive the jump in quality really was, despite not being all too clear by just looking at it.
For starters, since he is now the damsel in distress of this game, you can’t play as DK anymore, which does kinda suck, but hey, at least you still get to play as Diddy Kong, who still plays just as wonderfully as he did in that original game, being very nimble and quick. Not only that, but we now also have Dixie Kong in the crew, who when you start to play as for the first time, you will decide from there on out to ONLY play as Dixie Kong whenever you get the chance, because she is AWESOME in this game. Not only does she have all the same strengths (and weaknesses) as Diddy Kong, but she can also twirl around in the air with her hair, allowing her to safely glide over plenty of obstacles, which, by default, makes her the better character to play as. It’s just like when you discover how Peach can float in Super Mario Bros. 2: it is just broken enough to where you will stick with it for the whole game, and you will accept no other alternatives……….. except when you are forced to.
The game features just as many different kinds of levels as you would find in the original game, this time featuring plenty of new, creative gimmicks that do make it feel a lot more exciting and fun to play. Of course, at first, you just get your standard kinds of levels, where you just run through, jumping on enemies, collecting things, and watching Diddy perform a rap at the end of the stage, just as a means of getting you back into the groove of things, which it manages to do so very smoothly. This then leads onto the levels then quickly spicing things up, with levels where you will have to change the temperature of the water via some magic seals, making it so that you gotta make a mad dash through before you end up dead, levels where you have to ascend up a pirate ship quickly before the water catches up to you so that the piranhas will eat you, levels where you will have to maneuver on hot air balloons to catch hot steam over molten lava, and even levels where you are riding a roller coaster while being chased by a creepy spector, needing to hit checkmark barrels to open gates to avoid your own ghastly demise. Those are only just SOME of the gimmicks that you will encounter with the levels in this game, and they are much more fun to mess around with this time, making the game feel more like a proper evolution of what came before it other then just a simple retread.
This can also be seen in the game’s difficulty, because this game is HARD AS FUCK, even more so compared to DKC 1. Sure, there are plenty of easy levels that you will run into that will take no time to beat, but even by the second world of the game, you will be running into plenty of tricky platforming challenges, enemies that you can’t take out as easily as you would like to, gimmicks that push you to the limit in many different ways, even forcing you to play as certain animal buddies in some levels, and then you add getting the collectibles on top of that, and that adds a whole nother layer to the difficulty in many different instances. This even extends further beyond what you would expect to see from traditional video game difficulty, which can be seen with the simple aspect of saving the game, where you initially can save the game normally once in each world, but then after that one time, you then have to pay banana coins each time, making it so that you will now focus on collecting these things much more in levels, which can lead to plenty of other roadblocks as well. Hell, if that doesn’t convince you enough, how about the fact that there is an enemy in this game who, if he touches you, can zap away your lives from your life counter until you ultimately have nothing left? That is just one of the many cruel ways that this game can fuck you over if you aren’t ready.
However, with all that being said, the harsh difficulty that the game presents you with is one of the reasons why the game is so fantastic to begin with. It truly feels like you are being presented with a challenge, where the original DKC could be seen as the training grounds for you to get used to how this kind of game works and what it could throw your way, and now this game is the true test of everything you have learned, throwing whatever it can at you to kill you, while also giving you everything that you need to conquer every single challenge you face. It never feels unfair in that regard, which makes playing through these levels much more fun, especially whenever you do eventually succeed in beating some of these challenges, as the wave of satisfaction washes over you, making you feel like you truly have accomplished something here today, and that feeling carries out through most of the game.
But of course, what would a DKC game be without having some sort of collectible, and this game has plenty of them for you to find. There are still the many different bonus areas you can find, each giving you a Kremkoin for beating them, as well as the new DK coins that you can get in each level, which if you get enough of them, you can place yourself amongst the others in the Video Game Heroes Contest, allowing you to beat out Mario, Yoshi, Link, and even non-Nintendo characters like Sonic and Earthworm Jim. It’s a pretty cute easter egg to get, and it does prove once and for all that DKC is better then all of those other games, and you can’t change that fact no matter what you say. That’s not all the reward you can get though, as with the Kremkoins in hand, you can then gain access to the Lost World, a bonus world of the game that houses some of the hardest levels in the entire game, such as one level where you have to complete multiple sections as each of the animal buddies that you found throughout the whole game. Needless to say, these levels are no joke, but again, completing them only adds to the satisfaction you feel throughout, and helps you stand on top as the best Video Game Hero of all time.
Overall, if I haven’t made it clear enough at this point, this is a near-perfect sequel to the original DKC in just about every way, and one of the best games that you could find from the SNES era, not only providing many more fun levels to run through, exciting boss fights, incredible music, and gameplay that is as fresh and tight as ever, but it also provides quite a hefty challenge that feels oh so satisfying to overcome, leading to plenty of neat rewards waiting around the corner. I would absolutely recommend it, not just for those who played and loved the original DKC, but also to anyone in general, because it is just that damn good to where if you haven’t tried it out at least once, then do yourself a favor and load it up, possibly with a friend to join you, and get ready to have a blast. satisfied sigh... man, it felt great to revisit this game again after so long, and it really has me looking forward to what comes next in this series. I mean, come on, how could they possibly screw it up at this point now?............... oh right, with a stupid little fuck named Kiddie Kong, that’s how.
Game #586
While I did get the original DKC as one of the first games on my SNES, and I would go onto playing it a lot because of that, I initially didn’t get DKC2 for quite some time, even though I was well aware of it existing for a while. It was only when another video game convention managed to roll through my town a good couple of years ago that I was able to snag myself a physical copy of the game to try it out, and HOT DAMN, I definitely should’ve hopped on it a lot sooner before then. The original game was already great enough as is, but this game manages to take everything that game did, expand upon it, and improve upon every criticism that I could have with that game, making for what I would say is not only a perfect sequel, but also a masterpiece of the platforming genre.
The story is just that little more complex when compared to the extremely simplistic premise of DKC 1, where while relaxing on the beach, Donkey Kong is suddenly ambushed and kidnapped by a group of Kremlings, who take him to the dastardly Kaptain K. Rool. Shortly after this, he then sends a message to the other Kongs, saying that if they want to ever see DK again, they need to give him the banana hoard that he failed to get from the previous game, which the Kongs refuse to give up, so it is up to Diddy Kong now, alongside his girlfriend Dixie Kong, to travel through the lands of Crocodile Isle, save DK, and defeat Kaptain K. Rool once and for all. It is still a very basic premise, one that decided it wanted to be even more like Mario and involve a kidnapping of some kind, but it is still an effective story, and not gonna lie, having the main character of the previous game be the one that needs rescuing in this is a bit of a nice twist.
The graphics are pretty great, looking on par with the original game in many different aspects, but also expanding on the visuals with much more creative environment, character, enemy and boss designs, with great animations paired right alongside them as well, the music is fantastic once again, having plenty of incredible tracks that range from the menacing and exciting like this one, to the much more calm and serene like this one, all of which are an absolute joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is just as tight, fun, and masterfully put together as last time, not only providing plenty of fun levels and gimmicks for you to mess with ahead, but also plenty of challenges ahead that will make you feel like a true champ for conquering.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Diddy Kong once again or Dixie Kong, go through many different worlds of varying shape and size, each having a very different, unique theme that makes them stand out from each other, while also not feeling like complete copies of what came before in the previous game, defeat plenty of enemies using various techniques while gathering plenty of different bananas, collectibles, animal buddies, and power-ups along the way to help you out, run into many other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, who is STILL the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Wrinkly Kong, the one that reminds you of all the horrible teachers that you had back in school, and Swanky Kong, the one that will prove to you just how much of a dumbass you really are, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky again, who I’m surprised hasn’t dropped dead from a heart attack at this point), and take on plenty of bosses who, unlike the last game, are not only very fun to fight, but also have a level of creativity to them that makes taking them each on feel incredibly fun and rewarding. As any good sequel does, this game takes all the great elements from the previous game and retains all of their great qualities, while expanding on them just enough to make it even better than before, and trust me, back when I first played this a long time ago after only having the original game some time, I was FLOORED by just how massive the jump in quality really was, despite not being all too clear by just looking at it.
For starters, since he is now the damsel in distress of this game, you can’t play as DK anymore, which does kinda suck, but hey, at least you still get to play as Diddy Kong, who still plays just as wonderfully as he did in that original game, being very nimble and quick. Not only that, but we now also have Dixie Kong in the crew, who when you start to play as for the first time, you will decide from there on out to ONLY play as Dixie Kong whenever you get the chance, because she is AWESOME in this game. Not only does she have all the same strengths (and weaknesses) as Diddy Kong, but she can also twirl around in the air with her hair, allowing her to safely glide over plenty of obstacles, which, by default, makes her the better character to play as. It’s just like when you discover how Peach can float in Super Mario Bros. 2: it is just broken enough to where you will stick with it for the whole game, and you will accept no other alternatives……….. except when you are forced to.
The game features just as many different kinds of levels as you would find in the original game, this time featuring plenty of new, creative gimmicks that do make it feel a lot more exciting and fun to play. Of course, at first, you just get your standard kinds of levels, where you just run through, jumping on enemies, collecting things, and watching Diddy perform a rap at the end of the stage, just as a means of getting you back into the groove of things, which it manages to do so very smoothly. This then leads onto the levels then quickly spicing things up, with levels where you will have to change the temperature of the water via some magic seals, making it so that you gotta make a mad dash through before you end up dead, levels where you have to ascend up a pirate ship quickly before the water catches up to you so that the piranhas will eat you, levels where you will have to maneuver on hot air balloons to catch hot steam over molten lava, and even levels where you are riding a roller coaster while being chased by a creepy spector, needing to hit checkmark barrels to open gates to avoid your own ghastly demise. Those are only just SOME of the gimmicks that you will encounter with the levels in this game, and they are much more fun to mess around with this time, making the game feel more like a proper evolution of what came before it other then just a simple retread.
This can also be seen in the game’s difficulty, because this game is HARD AS FUCK, even more so compared to DKC 1. Sure, there are plenty of easy levels that you will run into that will take no time to beat, but even by the second world of the game, you will be running into plenty of tricky platforming challenges, enemies that you can’t take out as easily as you would like to, gimmicks that push you to the limit in many different ways, even forcing you to play as certain animal buddies in some levels, and then you add getting the collectibles on top of that, and that adds a whole nother layer to the difficulty in many different instances. This even extends further beyond what you would expect to see from traditional video game difficulty, which can be seen with the simple aspect of saving the game, where you initially can save the game normally once in each world, but then after that one time, you then have to pay banana coins each time, making it so that you will now focus on collecting these things much more in levels, which can lead to plenty of other roadblocks as well. Hell, if that doesn’t convince you enough, how about the fact that there is an enemy in this game who, if he touches you, can zap away your lives from your life counter until you ultimately have nothing left? That is just one of the many cruel ways that this game can fuck you over if you aren’t ready.
However, with all that being said, the harsh difficulty that the game presents you with is one of the reasons why the game is so fantastic to begin with. It truly feels like you are being presented with a challenge, where the original DKC could be seen as the training grounds for you to get used to how this kind of game works and what it could throw your way, and now this game is the true test of everything you have learned, throwing whatever it can at you to kill you, while also giving you everything that you need to conquer every single challenge you face. It never feels unfair in that regard, which makes playing through these levels much more fun, especially whenever you do eventually succeed in beating some of these challenges, as the wave of satisfaction washes over you, making you feel like you truly have accomplished something here today, and that feeling carries out through most of the game.
But of course, what would a DKC game be without having some sort of collectible, and this game has plenty of them for you to find. There are still the many different bonus areas you can find, each giving you a Kremkoin for beating them, as well as the new DK coins that you can get in each level, which if you get enough of them, you can place yourself amongst the others in the Video Game Heroes Contest, allowing you to beat out Mario, Yoshi, Link, and even non-Nintendo characters like Sonic and Earthworm Jim. It’s a pretty cute easter egg to get, and it does prove once and for all that DKC is better then all of those other games, and you can’t change that fact no matter what you say. That’s not all the reward you can get though, as with the Kremkoins in hand, you can then gain access to the Lost World, a bonus world of the game that houses some of the hardest levels in the entire game, such as one level where you have to complete multiple sections as each of the animal buddies that you found throughout the whole game. Needless to say, these levels are no joke, but again, completing them only adds to the satisfaction you feel throughout, and helps you stand on top as the best Video Game Hero of all time.
Overall, if I haven’t made it clear enough at this point, this is a near-perfect sequel to the original DKC in just about every way, and one of the best games that you could find from the SNES era, not only providing many more fun levels to run through, exciting boss fights, incredible music, and gameplay that is as fresh and tight as ever, but it also provides quite a hefty challenge that feels oh so satisfying to overcome, leading to plenty of neat rewards waiting around the corner. I would absolutely recommend it, not just for those who played and loved the original DKC, but also to anyone in general, because it is just that damn good to where if you haven’t tried it out at least once, then do yourself a favor and load it up, possibly with a friend to join you, and get ready to have a blast. satisfied sigh... man, it felt great to revisit this game again after so long, and it really has me looking forward to what comes next in this series. I mean, come on, how could they possibly screw it up at this point now?............... oh right, with a stupid little fuck named Kiddie Kong, that’s how.
Game #586
Kirby Air Ride
2003
Dawg there's no way 😭😭 where did yall get your license Make A Wish??😭 weakest Constitution dissenter.
We have Sonic Drift at home! Not really, not really. It does have Smash Melee's UI and SFX 🫢 a lot of elements were brought back in some form in Smash. I think Sakurai really likes Air Ride. Just a hunch. Air Ride's claim to fame is its famous portrayal of the west vs east mentality, what I mean by this is the contrast between box arts. Kirby you are not you when you are hungry, LUCKILY he's actually able to suck and get new abilities mid race. Sakurai has great priorities. There's not a humongous number of them, but truth is Kirby's on a diet. Indeed, that is why he's getting into baby's first sport. Yeah boi enjoy ur baby warp star, the "fuck it we ball drunk & driving" phase is very far away, but that doesnt mean it'll never happen. How many crimes has the pink puffball done? HOLY GUACAMOLEEE pulls out comically long video scrolling through war crimes.
The easiest stray compliment Air Ride can get is its presentation. The races design, progression and scenery all make a fine cake. You'll need more than one try to tame the beast. It appears however that I be pregnant cuz my ass is expectin. As I am beholden to this earthly shell and realize my time on Earth is slipping away, it has come to my attention that the lack of mechanics and the minimalist control scheme truly put the "L" in "Kirby Air Ride". It just gets old fast, unfortunately. it has to rely on the challenges checkboard and that's a telltale sign you will be stuffed to the brim! Hey now, for "Air" riding, the invisible walls trapping us in course jail have the tendency to make aerial control a gamble. The issue can be mitigated if you consume thoses races like crack, but as it stands for a new player, you pick a god and pray you don't facetime a wall of translucid concrete expeditiously.
Of the three gamemodes, the 2nd is a weird one. Top Ride has a niche fanbase, but nothing to quite put the capital R in it. It's meant to be chaotic as heck, clearly capitalising on multiplayer. You don't see shit tho 😂 get me a beer son! it's like watching an underground chickens race. Which can be pretty funny, sometimes I'm just wonderin why the invincibility candy is just a regular candy, gives me a lot to ponder about. I can't imagine myself trying to complete the checklist for that one. I'd be driven cuckoo so fast. Are a few music tracks and being able to ride a Toyota worth the grind. The "Air Grind" if you will. Ah! This is a sub mode in Nightmare in Dream Land ahah. Atleast we know what Korby Air Ride would be like as a mobile game my brethrens
Ok and for last, we have City Trial. Notice how it's not called Cities Trials because there is a singular city and only one struggle. It is like a Mario Party where no skill is required and only luck is involved, the apocalyptic events got me tweaking they are very uncanny Mario tier, Dyna Blade can just decide your life license is forfeit and no council can overthrow the decision. There are gift wrapped stats boosters across the one map, some might say performance enhancing doping not being frowned upon in the Kirby universe is quite the bold statement, yet I can only say "but of course.". It's about the journey not the destination and they were so right! The concept of gathering upgrades for a minigame showdown is very cool, too bad all the minigames are unbalanced and not my cup of tea to put it mildly. This racing business may not be Kirby's strongest suit, we goin back to fighting games and low effort 3DS apps with this one 💤
We have Sonic Drift at home! Not really, not really. It does have Smash Melee's UI and SFX 🫢 a lot of elements were brought back in some form in Smash. I think Sakurai really likes Air Ride. Just a hunch. Air Ride's claim to fame is its famous portrayal of the west vs east mentality, what I mean by this is the contrast between box arts. Kirby you are not you when you are hungry, LUCKILY he's actually able to suck and get new abilities mid race. Sakurai has great priorities. There's not a humongous number of them, but truth is Kirby's on a diet. Indeed, that is why he's getting into baby's first sport. Yeah boi enjoy ur baby warp star, the "fuck it we ball drunk & driving" phase is very far away, but that doesnt mean it'll never happen. How many crimes has the pink puffball done? HOLY GUACAMOLEEE pulls out comically long video scrolling through war crimes.
The easiest stray compliment Air Ride can get is its presentation. The races design, progression and scenery all make a fine cake. You'll need more than one try to tame the beast. It appears however that I be pregnant cuz my ass is expectin. As I am beholden to this earthly shell and realize my time on Earth is slipping away, it has come to my attention that the lack of mechanics and the minimalist control scheme truly put the "L" in "Kirby Air Ride". It just gets old fast, unfortunately. it has to rely on the challenges checkboard and that's a telltale sign you will be stuffed to the brim! Hey now, for "Air" riding, the invisible walls trapping us in course jail have the tendency to make aerial control a gamble. The issue can be mitigated if you consume thoses races like crack, but as it stands for a new player, you pick a god and pray you don't facetime a wall of translucid concrete expeditiously.
Of the three gamemodes, the 2nd is a weird one. Top Ride has a niche fanbase, but nothing to quite put the capital R in it. It's meant to be chaotic as heck, clearly capitalising on multiplayer. You don't see shit tho 😂 get me a beer son! it's like watching an underground chickens race. Which can be pretty funny, sometimes I'm just wonderin why the invincibility candy is just a regular candy, gives me a lot to ponder about. I can't imagine myself trying to complete the checklist for that one. I'd be driven cuckoo so fast. Are a few music tracks and being able to ride a Toyota worth the grind. The "Air Grind" if you will. Ah! This is a sub mode in Nightmare in Dream Land ahah. Atleast we know what Korby Air Ride would be like as a mobile game my brethrens
Ok and for last, we have City Trial. Notice how it's not called Cities Trials because there is a singular city and only one struggle. It is like a Mario Party where no skill is required and only luck is involved, the apocalyptic events got me tweaking they are very uncanny Mario tier, Dyna Blade can just decide your life license is forfeit and no council can overthrow the decision. There are gift wrapped stats boosters across the one map, some might say performance enhancing doping not being frowned upon in the Kirby universe is quite the bold statement, yet I can only say "but of course.". It's about the journey not the destination and they were so right! The concept of gathering upgrades for a minigame showdown is very cool, too bad all the minigames are unbalanced and not my cup of tea to put it mildly. This racing business may not be Kirby's strongest suit, we goin back to fighting games and low effort 3DS apps with this one 💤
REACH FOR MY HANDDD, I'LL SOAR AWAYYY, INTO THE DAWNNN, OH I WISH I COULD STAYYYY!
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the sixteenth installment of the series Fire Emblem. As much as I like to joke about the game, I really enjoyed my time with the game, and from time to time I actually come back and play it. If I could describe it, it's essentially a persona-fied fire emblem, and that's not a bad thing, I love both series. It's definitely a lot different for people used to classic Fire Emblem but I think it has enough going for it to be a great game.
Just want to say that this was the first Fire Emblem game I completed. I had previously started Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright but got extremely bored near the end and never finished it, so this review may be a littleeeee biased, but I'll try to be as objective as possible!
Now, let's talk about the story, which I will try to keep spoiler-less. I love the concept of 'Three Houses' and us, as the protagonist having the choice of what house to teach as a professor. The game interests me with it's deep lore and many organisations, like the Church of Seiros, and then we have the three nations of Adrestia, Faerghus, and The Leicester Alliance. I'm a sucker for world building so I just love all of the lore about the game and it really gets me to hyperfixate on it. Now, time to talk about the actual story. The starting chapters make sense, considering every unit you have besides the protagonist is a student that isn't accustomed to fighting and killing, so no marks off for me. For the most part, I actually enjoy most of White Clouds, with peak being Chapter 7 (imo). I will say one major flaw I have with the story in this game. I just feel like the game is terribly designed for a replay, especially for a game that emphasises 'Three Houses' and therefore multiple routes that you can do. At the time, I had no issue replaying White Clouds three times in the span of the month, I was in the Fire Emblem rabbit hole, but now that I think back to it, that's probably what has drained me from Fire Emblem for a little bit. Honestly, that's really one of the only faults I have with White Clouds, it's essentially a set-up for the second-half of the game. Depending on the house you chose, you get a specific route to play, and I've played the three main ones so I'll focus my review on those three. I feel like Crimson Flower is good, but the ending just isn't it for me. It feels like we have a lot more to do, but it just ends. However, Crimson Flower has my favourite map of the game in the final chapter, so it doesn't lose that much points from me. Azure Moon seems much more cohesive (in my personal opinion and from what I'm remembering, it's been almost 5 years give me a break). Azure Moon seems much more character-driven, and that's probably why I enjoy it more. Not to mention I think I just enjoy the characters in Azure Moon much more. Verdant Wind was my starting route and probably my favourite because of how epic it is. Though, I dislike how much it shares in common with Silver Snow, but I guess there were time restraints in development time? Overall, I enjoy the story, and although there might be a couple of loose threads, they aren't terrible by any means.
Now time to talk about the characters. I enjoyed them a lot, and the three house leaders do make a good first impression, but Claude will forever be my favourite character. I wish we got to interact a bit more with the characters from each house before making a decision. I love seeing the supports between different students as I just love seeing the different interactions and situations that each support goes through. I enjoy the faculty and how much some of them bicker with each other, I love it. Also, I can't forget mentioning the ultimate Gatekeeper, what a great character. I actually don't think there's a single character I hate in this game, I might be meh on some, but there's none I can really say I hate (unless they're antagonists but I believe that's the point of what an antagonist should be).
Gameplay! This game was my first true introduction to fire emblem, and I enjoyed the gameplay. I want to start by saying that I played this game on Normal because for some reason I just suck at Fire Emblem on hard mode. There's Combat Arts, Crests, Gambits, and Hero's Relics. Combat Arts are interesting because they have different properties and consume a different amount of durability on a weapon depending on the type of combat art you used. Some can even hit from multiple tiles away. Crests are innately built into some characters kits based on a lore reason that I won't delve too deep into. Essentially they provide the wielder with a specific effect that enhance their combat capabilities. Some of them are quite good when they actually activate. I enjoy them, but I don't go out of my way to get them to work. Gambits are new to Fire Emblem, and this comes with monster enemies having multiple HP bars that need to be depleted in order to defeat the enemy. Gambits can hit multiple squares and can stun these monster enemies, and some even have supporitve properites like increasing movement or healing. I love abusing Stride on certain maps to achieve the win condition in one turn. I'll be honest, I rarely used Hero's Relics because I hate having to go to the armory to repair them with specific material that I may not have. Although, they're good to have when I might be unable to kill an enemy unless I use a Hero's Relic. Also, I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which are the Certifications. I love how they made it so that every character can become any class (except gender specific ones), but that is kind of made obsolete thanks to the fact that certain classes are just superior to others, and some are just not worth the investment. It's also painful to get skills from specific classes because of the number of times you have to engage in battles with enemies. Despite what I've said, I enjoy the gameplay in this game.
MUSIC. My favourite part. The music slaps. Edge of Dawn is GOATed. The battle themes arer so intense that they just make me pumped. The Spirit Dais is just so mysterious and it fits the theme. And he monastery themes are honestly perfect to convey the start of a chapter compared to the end of a chapter when you embark on a mission. Overall, great music.
Okay, I think it's time to actually talk about the main elephant in the room, which is the Monastery. As a concept, it's great, an explorable main-hub where you can do multiple things, such as improving stats on your protagonist, raising your support level with other units, tea time, gifts, buying things from the marketplace, gardening, fishing, petting animals, battling at the training ground, cooking, eating meals with different units, doing choir, and talking to the many NPCs around the monastery. Those are all great additions and the little sidequests make you go all around the monastery, however, on replays, the monastery is kind of draining. And if you decide to slack off at the monastery, then you're kind of screwing yourself over because there are just so many benefits that come from the monastery. Honestly, I enjoy the monastery, but I know that it is one of the main complaints of the game.
And finally, let's talk about tutoring/seminars. I actually like being able to set a course for each unit in terms of what stats they should aim to improve. They get different combat arts, and some units have budding talents that give them a boost when they are fully ranked up. Honestly, I have zero complaints with this system, except when you get a terrible session and all of their motivation goes down, that sucks.
Overall, this is a great entry into fire emblem if you're coming from some more story-focused games, though there are other entries into the series that might be a little better. I highly highly highly recommend you play this game! It's great!
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the sixteenth installment of the series Fire Emblem. As much as I like to joke about the game, I really enjoyed my time with the game, and from time to time I actually come back and play it. If I could describe it, it's essentially a persona-fied fire emblem, and that's not a bad thing, I love both series. It's definitely a lot different for people used to classic Fire Emblem but I think it has enough going for it to be a great game.
Just want to say that this was the first Fire Emblem game I completed. I had previously started Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright but got extremely bored near the end and never finished it, so this review may be a littleeeee biased, but I'll try to be as objective as possible!
Now, let's talk about the story, which I will try to keep spoiler-less. I love the concept of 'Three Houses' and us, as the protagonist having the choice of what house to teach as a professor. The game interests me with it's deep lore and many organisations, like the Church of Seiros, and then we have the three nations of Adrestia, Faerghus, and The Leicester Alliance. I'm a sucker for world building so I just love all of the lore about the game and it really gets me to hyperfixate on it. Now, time to talk about the actual story. The starting chapters make sense, considering every unit you have besides the protagonist is a student that isn't accustomed to fighting and killing, so no marks off for me. For the most part, I actually enjoy most of White Clouds, with peak being Chapter 7 (imo). I will say one major flaw I have with the story in this game. I just feel like the game is terribly designed for a replay, especially for a game that emphasises 'Three Houses' and therefore multiple routes that you can do. At the time, I had no issue replaying White Clouds three times in the span of the month, I was in the Fire Emblem rabbit hole, but now that I think back to it, that's probably what has drained me from Fire Emblem for a little bit. Honestly, that's really one of the only faults I have with White Clouds, it's essentially a set-up for the second-half of the game. Depending on the house you chose, you get a specific route to play, and I've played the three main ones so I'll focus my review on those three. I feel like Crimson Flower is good, but the ending just isn't it for me. It feels like we have a lot more to do, but it just ends. However, Crimson Flower has my favourite map of the game in the final chapter, so it doesn't lose that much points from me. Azure Moon seems much more cohesive (in my personal opinion and from what I'm remembering, it's been almost 5 years give me a break). Azure Moon seems much more character-driven, and that's probably why I enjoy it more. Not to mention I think I just enjoy the characters in Azure Moon much more. Verdant Wind was my starting route and probably my favourite because of how epic it is. Though, I dislike how much it shares in common with Silver Snow, but I guess there were time restraints in development time? Overall, I enjoy the story, and although there might be a couple of loose threads, they aren't terrible by any means.
Now time to talk about the characters. I enjoyed them a lot, and the three house leaders do make a good first impression, but Claude will forever be my favourite character. I wish we got to interact a bit more with the characters from each house before making a decision. I love seeing the supports between different students as I just love seeing the different interactions and situations that each support goes through. I enjoy the faculty and how much some of them bicker with each other, I love it. Also, I can't forget mentioning the ultimate Gatekeeper, what a great character. I actually don't think there's a single character I hate in this game, I might be meh on some, but there's none I can really say I hate (unless they're antagonists but I believe that's the point of what an antagonist should be).
Gameplay! This game was my first true introduction to fire emblem, and I enjoyed the gameplay. I want to start by saying that I played this game on Normal because for some reason I just suck at Fire Emblem on hard mode. There's Combat Arts, Crests, Gambits, and Hero's Relics. Combat Arts are interesting because they have different properties and consume a different amount of durability on a weapon depending on the type of combat art you used. Some can even hit from multiple tiles away. Crests are innately built into some characters kits based on a lore reason that I won't delve too deep into. Essentially they provide the wielder with a specific effect that enhance their combat capabilities. Some of them are quite good when they actually activate. I enjoy them, but I don't go out of my way to get them to work. Gambits are new to Fire Emblem, and this comes with monster enemies having multiple HP bars that need to be depleted in order to defeat the enemy. Gambits can hit multiple squares and can stun these monster enemies, and some even have supporitve properites like increasing movement or healing. I love abusing Stride on certain maps to achieve the win condition in one turn. I'll be honest, I rarely used Hero's Relics because I hate having to go to the armory to repair them with specific material that I may not have. Although, they're good to have when I might be unable to kill an enemy unless I use a Hero's Relic. Also, I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which are the Certifications. I love how they made it so that every character can become any class (except gender specific ones), but that is kind of made obsolete thanks to the fact that certain classes are just superior to others, and some are just not worth the investment. It's also painful to get skills from specific classes because of the number of times you have to engage in battles with enemies. Despite what I've said, I enjoy the gameplay in this game.
MUSIC. My favourite part. The music slaps. Edge of Dawn is GOATed. The battle themes arer so intense that they just make me pumped. The Spirit Dais is just so mysterious and it fits the theme. And he monastery themes are honestly perfect to convey the start of a chapter compared to the end of a chapter when you embark on a mission. Overall, great music.
Okay, I think it's time to actually talk about the main elephant in the room, which is the Monastery. As a concept, it's great, an explorable main-hub where you can do multiple things, such as improving stats on your protagonist, raising your support level with other units, tea time, gifts, buying things from the marketplace, gardening, fishing, petting animals, battling at the training ground, cooking, eating meals with different units, doing choir, and talking to the many NPCs around the monastery. Those are all great additions and the little sidequests make you go all around the monastery, however, on replays, the monastery is kind of draining. And if you decide to slack off at the monastery, then you're kind of screwing yourself over because there are just so many benefits that come from the monastery. Honestly, I enjoy the monastery, but I know that it is one of the main complaints of the game.
And finally, let's talk about tutoring/seminars. I actually like being able to set a course for each unit in terms of what stats they should aim to improve. They get different combat arts, and some units have budding talents that give them a boost when they are fully ranked up. Honestly, I have zero complaints with this system, except when you get a terrible session and all of their motivation goes down, that sucks.
Overall, this is a great entry into fire emblem if you're coming from some more story-focused games, though there are other entries into the series that might be a little better. I highly highly highly recommend you play this game! It's great!
Resident Evil 4
2023
If I was asked to name the greatest game of all time, I'd take approximately 0.03 milliseconds to answer, "Resident Evil 4." The 2005 classic holds a special sentimental value to me that almost no other media does. So when plans for a remake were leaked a couple of years ago, I wasn't happy about it, quite honestly. My thought process was this: Capcom, we get it, you had a lot of success remaking the PS1 entries, you want to keep riding the gravy train - but don't mess with perfection. Don't mess with Resident Evil 4.
I unashamedly admit to my cynicism throughout RE4 Remake's development. You see, when a game like Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy VII gets a remake, it makes sense because these games - excellent as they are - are retro titles made for outdated hardware. Resident Evil 4, despite being almost 20 years old, is still a modern third-person shooter because it fucking invented the modern third-person shooter. A remake was unnecessary. The first time I watched footage of the game, I felt a bit sad, as it wasn't particularly exciting - it was from the post-church segment of RE4, and the remake's take on it felt subdued. You also have to bear in mind that we were just coming off of Resident Evil 3 Remake, which was decent but disappointing, and Resident Evil Village, which I hated. Then the chainsaw demo came out, and I watched my friend stream it, and finally got excited. It looked faithful to the original, which was my biggest concern.
Now, having played RE4 Remake, my conclusion is this: it's still an unnecessary remake, but a worthy one regardless. This game does not replace or supersede the classic RE4 for me, but it's still an incredibly well-made third-person shooter. It's laden with nods to the original, even in places where it deviates from its parent game - be it for pacing reasons, or to better suit the grittier, grounded tone of this version. Almost all sections from the original that felt too Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider-esque have been excised, as have most quick-time events - a concession to players' changing tastes. Even as I missed the couple of areas that were entirely removed, I didn't mind too much - unlike RE3 Remake, where it felt like laziness, here it felt like a weighted decision to prevent chapters from becoming overlong or exhausting. Even when a section was abbreviated, there still existed some trace of the original that you could recognize.
On the flip side, certain sections have been expanded, modified, and reimagined entirely - with admirable results. Sometimes it felt like these curveballs felt like they were aimed specifically at players like me, who know the original game so well we could play it with our eyes closed. Having the rug pulled out from under me like this kept the game fresh and exciting.
However, there is one area where the changes are not welcome: characterization. While Ashley has been greatly improved in this version, to the point that I prefer her to the original 'HEEEEEELP! LEEEEOOOON!' screamer, the same is not true for the rest of the supporting characters. None of the rivals feel better off for their redesign: Mendez, Salazar, Krauser or Saddler all are less charismatic than their original counterparts. Mendez never shuts the fuck up, even during his boss fight, which robs him of his strong-and-silent menace. Salazar has a worse design and isn't as charmingly cheeky. Krauser has too much backstory and too much emotion, robbing him of his mystique. And Saddler is probably the worst-hit: he believes his own lies in this version, and I feel the Osmund of old, who was openly in it for the money and power, was a more effective villain. He also takes far too long to appear, compared to his early introduction in the 2005 original, which allowed him and Leon to develop a suitable antagonism towards each other.
And Ada, dear God, Ada. Her voice acting in this game is fucking atrocious, and I have no idea why her actress from RE2 Remake wasn't retained. Her new actress has no previous voiceover experience and had an extremely immature response to players criticizing her work, calling them racist. It isn't because you're Asian, Lily, it's because your voice work sucks. Ada's characterization in this game is also a lot colder and less likeable, and a mid-credits scene meant to redeem her would have been better if replaced by nothing.
I should mention that, in a vacuum, it's not like the characters' new motivations and dialogue are bad - indeed, Salazar's revamped boss fight is quite engaging, while the others faithfully recreate their original battles to great effect. It's just that I feel the original game's incarnations were superior.
Finally, there's the dynamic between Leon and Luis - one of the most beloved RE side characters. They take a lot longer to trust each other in this one, but it pays off well. I do feel Luis's character concluded better in the original than in the remake - but in case you've somehow managed to avoid the plot of one of the most popular games of the last 20 years, I won't spoil it for you. Also, Luis is finally playable in Mercenaries mode now! This was something I've wanted since 2005.
Resident Evil 4 Remake looks and controls like a dream. It should, because it runs on the RE Engine. I played through the game on Hardcore difficulty, which is recommended for people who've played the original. Here's a fun anecdote that shows my love, and countless playthroughs, of the original RE4: I kept dying at the first village fight because muscle memory kept kicking in, and I'd try to play this game with the 2005 RE4's controls! But once you're used to it, the gameplay really is super satisfying. Perhaps it's just my rote learning of the original, but I think this version is harder. It was shocking how intelligent and aggressive the enemies were.
RE4 Remake is a thrilling new take on a game I know by heart: when it deviated, I was suitably thrown off-balance, and when it remained faithful, I basked in its familiarity, the beautiful recreations of objects and environments from the original game. The soundtrack similarly defers to the great work of the original - it's a little more downbeat, but reuses musical motifs of the original to stir your memory.
This is the best horror game to come out in years. It already had most of the work done for it, all it had to do was eat at the table that the 2005 game had set. But Capcom made sure to put in the extra love and care that Resident Evil 4 deserves. This is a worthy remake. Not as good as the original - for me at least - but an amazing game in its own right. It would be too big of an ask for it to surpass the original, really. When Resident Evil 4 came out in 2005, there was nothing like it. When Resident Evil 4 came out in 2023, everything was like it. Every game that has an over-the-shoulder camera, every third-person shooter made after 2005, owes something to RE4. That's the level of influence this game has had, and as someone who has such an emotional connection to it, I give this remake my stamp of approval.
I unashamedly admit to my cynicism throughout RE4 Remake's development. You see, when a game like Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy VII gets a remake, it makes sense because these games - excellent as they are - are retro titles made for outdated hardware. Resident Evil 4, despite being almost 20 years old, is still a modern third-person shooter because it fucking invented the modern third-person shooter. A remake was unnecessary. The first time I watched footage of the game, I felt a bit sad, as it wasn't particularly exciting - it was from the post-church segment of RE4, and the remake's take on it felt subdued. You also have to bear in mind that we were just coming off of Resident Evil 3 Remake, which was decent but disappointing, and Resident Evil Village, which I hated. Then the chainsaw demo came out, and I watched my friend stream it, and finally got excited. It looked faithful to the original, which was my biggest concern.
Now, having played RE4 Remake, my conclusion is this: it's still an unnecessary remake, but a worthy one regardless. This game does not replace or supersede the classic RE4 for me, but it's still an incredibly well-made third-person shooter. It's laden with nods to the original, even in places where it deviates from its parent game - be it for pacing reasons, or to better suit the grittier, grounded tone of this version. Almost all sections from the original that felt too Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider-esque have been excised, as have most quick-time events - a concession to players' changing tastes. Even as I missed the couple of areas that were entirely removed, I didn't mind too much - unlike RE3 Remake, where it felt like laziness, here it felt like a weighted decision to prevent chapters from becoming overlong or exhausting. Even when a section was abbreviated, there still existed some trace of the original that you could recognize.
On the flip side, certain sections have been expanded, modified, and reimagined entirely - with admirable results. Sometimes it felt like these curveballs felt like they were aimed specifically at players like me, who know the original game so well we could play it with our eyes closed. Having the rug pulled out from under me like this kept the game fresh and exciting.
However, there is one area where the changes are not welcome: characterization. While Ashley has been greatly improved in this version, to the point that I prefer her to the original 'HEEEEEELP! LEEEEOOOON!' screamer, the same is not true for the rest of the supporting characters. None of the rivals feel better off for their redesign: Mendez, Salazar, Krauser or Saddler all are less charismatic than their original counterparts. Mendez never shuts the fuck up, even during his boss fight, which robs him of his strong-and-silent menace. Salazar has a worse design and isn't as charmingly cheeky. Krauser has too much backstory and too much emotion, robbing him of his mystique. And Saddler is probably the worst-hit: he believes his own lies in this version, and I feel the Osmund of old, who was openly in it for the money and power, was a more effective villain. He also takes far too long to appear, compared to his early introduction in the 2005 original, which allowed him and Leon to develop a suitable antagonism towards each other.
And Ada, dear God, Ada. Her voice acting in this game is fucking atrocious, and I have no idea why her actress from RE2 Remake wasn't retained. Her new actress has no previous voiceover experience and had an extremely immature response to players criticizing her work, calling them racist. It isn't because you're Asian, Lily, it's because your voice work sucks. Ada's characterization in this game is also a lot colder and less likeable, and a mid-credits scene meant to redeem her would have been better if replaced by nothing.
I should mention that, in a vacuum, it's not like the characters' new motivations and dialogue are bad - indeed, Salazar's revamped boss fight is quite engaging, while the others faithfully recreate their original battles to great effect. It's just that I feel the original game's incarnations were superior.
Finally, there's the dynamic between Leon and Luis - one of the most beloved RE side characters. They take a lot longer to trust each other in this one, but it pays off well. I do feel Luis's character concluded better in the original than in the remake - but in case you've somehow managed to avoid the plot of one of the most popular games of the last 20 years, I won't spoil it for you. Also, Luis is finally playable in Mercenaries mode now! This was something I've wanted since 2005.
Resident Evil 4 Remake looks and controls like a dream. It should, because it runs on the RE Engine. I played through the game on Hardcore difficulty, which is recommended for people who've played the original. Here's a fun anecdote that shows my love, and countless playthroughs, of the original RE4: I kept dying at the first village fight because muscle memory kept kicking in, and I'd try to play this game with the 2005 RE4's controls! But once you're used to it, the gameplay really is super satisfying. Perhaps it's just my rote learning of the original, but I think this version is harder. It was shocking how intelligent and aggressive the enemies were.
RE4 Remake is a thrilling new take on a game I know by heart: when it deviated, I was suitably thrown off-balance, and when it remained faithful, I basked in its familiarity, the beautiful recreations of objects and environments from the original game. The soundtrack similarly defers to the great work of the original - it's a little more downbeat, but reuses musical motifs of the original to stir your memory.
This is the best horror game to come out in years. It already had most of the work done for it, all it had to do was eat at the table that the 2005 game had set. But Capcom made sure to put in the extra love and care that Resident Evil 4 deserves. This is a worthy remake. Not as good as the original - for me at least - but an amazing game in its own right. It would be too big of an ask for it to surpass the original, really. When Resident Evil 4 came out in 2005, there was nothing like it. When Resident Evil 4 came out in 2023, everything was like it. Every game that has an over-the-shoulder camera, every third-person shooter made after 2005, owes something to RE4. That's the level of influence this game has had, and as someone who has such an emotional connection to it, I give this remake my stamp of approval.
Animal Well
2024
Animal Well kinda took me by surprise, what I thought would be a short little metroidvania turned into something more vast than I ever could have imagined. There are so many secrets and hidden areas to discover. Even after collecting all 64 eggs and getting all the secret bunnies, I find out there’s even more that I’ve missed. Plus, I’m sure there are still more hidden secrets out there yet to be discovered. It’s clear how much thought and time went into making this game and It’s hard to believe this game was made by only one person. That, plus the fact this whole game is a measly 30MB, absolutely blows my mind.
Off the rip, I appreciate that you’re immediately thrown into this world with no tutorial and forces you to figure out how this game works. It made exploration a blast and gave you a real sense of discoverability. The use of colour in this game is simply astonishing. Neon pixel art paired with dynamic lighting completely immerses you in this dark and mysterious world. Additionally, the fluid dynamics and physics are outstanding. As enemies disappear and blocks get blown away by TNT, the wisps of smoke left behind lingers ever so beautifully. I’ve never seen better smoke effects than in this game.
The puzzles in this game were super engaging and made good use of the tools you find along the way. Instead of the usual attack, bomb and double jump in your standard metroidvania; you are instead treated to the yoyo, slinky, and bubble wand. Each expanding your moveset and allowing you to unlock even more of the ever growing map. I never felt stuck as there was always somewhere else to explore and by the post-game, there were countless rooms that I felt I exhausted everything it had to offer until I found a new tool.
Slowly pulling back layer by layer, this truly is the lasagna of gaming.
Thank you Animal Well.
Off the rip, I appreciate that you’re immediately thrown into this world with no tutorial and forces you to figure out how this game works. It made exploration a blast and gave you a real sense of discoverability. The use of colour in this game is simply astonishing. Neon pixel art paired with dynamic lighting completely immerses you in this dark and mysterious world. Additionally, the fluid dynamics and physics are outstanding. As enemies disappear and blocks get blown away by TNT, the wisps of smoke left behind lingers ever so beautifully. I’ve never seen better smoke effects than in this game.
The puzzles in this game were super engaging and made good use of the tools you find along the way. Instead of the usual attack, bomb and double jump in your standard metroidvania; you are instead treated to the yoyo, slinky, and bubble wand. Each expanding your moveset and allowing you to unlock even more of the ever growing map. I never felt stuck as there was always somewhere else to explore and by the post-game, there were countless rooms that I felt I exhausted everything it had to offer until I found a new tool.
Slowly pulling back layer by layer, this truly is the lasagna of gaming.
Thank you Animal Well.
Stellar Blade
2024
I know I'm late to the party on this but Sand Land took priority and my consoomer gene took over so that Fallout 4 next gen update replay couldn't be stopped which took WAY longer than I thought.
Stellar Blade was something I had A LOT more interest in after playing the demo as opposed to its marketing campaign, which it desperately needed due to them being allergic to showing any non zoomer style fast paced editing that showed little of its combat of as opposed to the "Hot lady, uncensored outfits" focus but more on that later. I am happy to say the potential I saw in the demo was met, Stellar Blade is a fine action game from start to finish. So much so I am on another playthrough as I write this immediately after beating it which isn't something I do often, to get the final ending for the platinum and the new game plus patch helped in that regard.
The game's story, I'll be honest just seemed to exist in order to have a plot. Even the sense of mystery and intrigue the game had the characters would either immediately hint at its truth or outright say in an uninterested manor but that might just be due to the voice which, at least in english, was middle of the road. I thought Eve's (the player character) voice acting was the best and Adam, the second most prominent character, was the worst. Just the way he said so much came off as disinterested or "Reading the lines right off the page", almost was waiting for him to say the emotional tone all "DISSAPOINTED" style. If the naming of characters wasn't already enough of a giveaway, most should be able to piece it together within a few hours. The music was something I liked a lot more than the story though, as it had that somber singular vocal style I tend to enjoy a lot in games. The comparisons to Nier are not unfounded.
In terms of said action gameplay, Stellar Blade does a lot of things right with a lot of the staples I have come to expect of the genre. You have your perfect parries, perfect dodges, special moves, ranged options, variable combos and a skill tree to unlock and improve abilities all which come together to form a mostly cohesive battle system with only a couple of trip ups mostly due to needing to hold down some buttons immediately after some parries which lead me to use abilities instead. The first thing that got me was its variable combos, now it's nothing new to the genre but I still always enjoy a basic attack that's more than 4 lights and a heavy. Splicing heavy attacks into lights for different combos is nothing new but being able to go from Light>Heavy>Light for a completely different combo on top of the basic Light>Light>Light>Heavy>Heavy allowed the combat to stave off staleness in its first 2/3's. The only thing I wish there was more of in terms of basic combat was some more aerial options as there isn't much of a reason to even try fighting mid jump. Most, not all, of Eve's basic attacks could be dodge or parry canceled and it will be one of your most used mechanics. Parrying and Dodging are not only your main defensive options but they both increase your meters for special moves which as the game progressed I found myself using MUCH more as they outclass your basic damage by a large margin which they should as they use a resource. Every enemy as well as Eve has a "Shield" meter which reduces all incoming damage until it is depleted and then full damage is taken. Being able to get rid of it quickly is the main gameplan which reduces any form of damage while it’s active. However if you learn to parry effectively you can exploit the enemies (including bosses), I actually forget what they call it so let's call it poise, meter which is reduced by one every perfect parry. Once it's depleted you get to do a high damaging execution style attack that will kill most early and mid game enemies instantly, just like stealth attacks. However not all enemies have it though so you'll be brute forcing those enemies who are either lowest level fodder or annoying ranged ones. I'm not much of a parry or dodge centric individual, I'm an unga bunga tank kinda guy, but it was satisfying to perfect dodge a full combo or parry an entire combo into a high damage takedown. That being said, combat in the last leg of the game I felt got WAY too tedious and almost felt like it wanted you to tackle every fight with ability and poise meter depletion which just slowed fights to a crawl. Even with the main weapon leveled to its maximum to what available, even when shields were depleted it felt like chip damage. This is why I found myself spamming abilities more often in the late game which, imo, ruined the combat to some extent. The game also gets points off for introducing insta kills on late game bosses. I don't care if they can be stopped and you can just revive should you have an item, it's cheap. I died on the final boss due to not seeing the white on white target but I had the revive so it's whatever. The game made up those points in other ways such as not having many back to back or one life bar per phase boss fights in general though the boss variety could have used some boosting as you'll fight "same boss but different color/effect" several times if you're doing side content.
The side content in the game is the usual game fair at this point, fetch quests, grab these items, fight this enemy etc. Some of these were tied to character stories and as such were the more unique ones and if you want what easily seems to be the "best/canon" ending you best do them all anyway along with getting as many collectables as you can of which there's A LOT. Honestly I think too many, especially when getting around isn't exactly fast or fun. Hope you like deserts cuz two of the largest explorable ones are just that and I think 25 of my 33 hours was spent in them. Eve does run quite fast but she slows down when an enemy aggros and their fields of vision are far and like 330 degrees I swear. They can't hear you running behind them for a stealth kill but if you're not DIRECTLY behind them then they'll know you're coming. The only other way around is via fast travel points such as your camps, where you will respawn upon death, and phones which you unlock by activating, however you're only able to teleport to camps with phones which still makes some long trips between points of interest. It doesn't help that you cannot set a custom waypoint unless it's on some mission objective or other map poi. At the very least most of the other places you'll go are linear to the point they have no map and varied in terms of environment to even out the double desert debuff. How does this game have more desert than Sand Land, a series ABOUT A DESERT?! Can I also just say that I loved there was a platforming puzzle with the playstation button icons that turned into their colors when jumped on? I sure do hope whoever made the ps5 controller has buttons with no color got fired or they release a one with the correct coloration at some point. Oh yeah there's fishing too, and that was a fun few hours getting them all.
I've seen this game be called "Booty Souls", "Gooner Souls'' and "Horny Souls" but I don't see really see a souls comparison here outside of the fact it has specific respawn points at the camps you need to activate and enemies respawn when you sit at them. Is the game difficult? Not really no, at least on normal cuz yes the game has difficulty options but there's no leveling or stat allocation, only skill points, which imo is the main component of what makes a souls game a souls game outside of difficulty. Make no mistake I did die a few times which were mostly due to fall damage as I was awful at timing the negation or getting hit by one of those long telegraphed attacks you're given all the time in the world to avoid. However rarely did a standard encounter ever make me worry, they were more of a nuisance than anything at best even when it was 4 v 1. It's closer to Sekiro which I also don't consider a souls game for the same level related reason. Main difference between that as well is Eve can take 10 times the amount of hits Sekiro man can since he has the defenses of wet 1 ply toilet paper. I'm sure it's much closer to that bullshit while wearing the skinsuit since it disables the shield. It's such a shame that "pretty lady" is what this game will be known for
I guess it's time to address, or rather dress, Eve. Yes she's conventionally attractive, yes her outfits are cover of vogue style or centerfold levels. I had the ability to play this game both patched and unpatched since I still buy discs and I'll install updates when I deem it necessary. I'll be honest, uncensored or not, I didn't really like most of the outfits and I unlocked most if not all of them from the initial playthrough. NG+ added alt color options for most and one entirely new outfit but my stance didn't change. Once I got the Full Black Dress outfit I exclusively used it on that first playthrough though on NG+ I considered going with the bear suit for some high octane Naughty Bear action. The censoring on the outfits felt kind of lazily implemented and I'm sorry but with the information that's come out what with the devs and the CEO going "Oh I think they look better this way" and "It was our choice", it begs me to ask why even make them revealing in the first place. It was clearly the main marketing tool well before launch and I do not believe no one ever once said "Nah these aren't good, we gotta change them" with how fast it was implemented. Like fucking Sony let this shit on there, those prudes, so it doens't make sense. Now it just makes this dev look like liars. It's also one thing for a Korean dev to not know that the unfortunate placement of "Hard" graffiti next to a neon "R" sign looks like slang for a racial slur, it's another to design multiple revealing outfits. Also you fuckers make Nikke, you don't have any sort of ground to stand on when it comes to outfit and character designs. That being said, there's more you can customize other than Eve's actual outfits. There's glasses and earrings which I didn't touch either of as I'm not really one for jewelry and I didn't like any of the glasses. You can also change the "base hair", I don't know what to call it but it's the head hair that more than just bangs that isn't the ponytail which the latter can be short or long. I made Eve a redhead cuz if anything I'm consistent though it seemed colors were style locked as the one I really wanted to use didn't have red as an option. It was honestly a missed opportunity to not have the title screen Eve reflect your customization. The supporting characters have outfits too but I only found 2 for each and I do not know if there are more.
There's a fun action game here, for the most part. Satisfying combo, parry and dodging along with variable abilities for that extra OOMPH. The combat does get a little dragged out in the back end unfortunately, the story tries to be interesting but is undermined by its predictable nature and varying voice acting. The actual exploration leaves things to be desired but that can be ignored if one so chooses. I would hope someone on the fence about this game who likes action games can look past the sex appeal cuz you have a good time here in that regard.
Stellar Blade was something I had A LOT more interest in after playing the demo as opposed to its marketing campaign, which it desperately needed due to them being allergic to showing any non zoomer style fast paced editing that showed little of its combat of as opposed to the "Hot lady, uncensored outfits" focus but more on that later. I am happy to say the potential I saw in the demo was met, Stellar Blade is a fine action game from start to finish. So much so I am on another playthrough as I write this immediately after beating it which isn't something I do often, to get the final ending for the platinum and the new game plus patch helped in that regard.
The game's story, I'll be honest just seemed to exist in order to have a plot. Even the sense of mystery and intrigue the game had the characters would either immediately hint at its truth or outright say in an uninterested manor but that might just be due to the voice which, at least in english, was middle of the road. I thought Eve's (the player character) voice acting was the best and Adam, the second most prominent character, was the worst. Just the way he said so much came off as disinterested or "Reading the lines right off the page", almost was waiting for him to say the emotional tone all "DISSAPOINTED" style. If the naming of characters wasn't already enough of a giveaway, most should be able to piece it together within a few hours. The music was something I liked a lot more than the story though, as it had that somber singular vocal style I tend to enjoy a lot in games. The comparisons to Nier are not unfounded.
In terms of said action gameplay, Stellar Blade does a lot of things right with a lot of the staples I have come to expect of the genre. You have your perfect parries, perfect dodges, special moves, ranged options, variable combos and a skill tree to unlock and improve abilities all which come together to form a mostly cohesive battle system with only a couple of trip ups mostly due to needing to hold down some buttons immediately after some parries which lead me to use abilities instead. The first thing that got me was its variable combos, now it's nothing new to the genre but I still always enjoy a basic attack that's more than 4 lights and a heavy. Splicing heavy attacks into lights for different combos is nothing new but being able to go from Light>Heavy>Light for a completely different combo on top of the basic Light>Light>Light>Heavy>Heavy allowed the combat to stave off staleness in its first 2/3's. The only thing I wish there was more of in terms of basic combat was some more aerial options as there isn't much of a reason to even try fighting mid jump. Most, not all, of Eve's basic attacks could be dodge or parry canceled and it will be one of your most used mechanics. Parrying and Dodging are not only your main defensive options but they both increase your meters for special moves which as the game progressed I found myself using MUCH more as they outclass your basic damage by a large margin which they should as they use a resource. Every enemy as well as Eve has a "Shield" meter which reduces all incoming damage until it is depleted and then full damage is taken. Being able to get rid of it quickly is the main gameplan which reduces any form of damage while it’s active. However if you learn to parry effectively you can exploit the enemies (including bosses), I actually forget what they call it so let's call it poise, meter which is reduced by one every perfect parry. Once it's depleted you get to do a high damaging execution style attack that will kill most early and mid game enemies instantly, just like stealth attacks. However not all enemies have it though so you'll be brute forcing those enemies who are either lowest level fodder or annoying ranged ones. I'm not much of a parry or dodge centric individual, I'm an unga bunga tank kinda guy, but it was satisfying to perfect dodge a full combo or parry an entire combo into a high damage takedown. That being said, combat in the last leg of the game I felt got WAY too tedious and almost felt like it wanted you to tackle every fight with ability and poise meter depletion which just slowed fights to a crawl. Even with the main weapon leveled to its maximum to what available, even when shields were depleted it felt like chip damage. This is why I found myself spamming abilities more often in the late game which, imo, ruined the combat to some extent. The game also gets points off for introducing insta kills on late game bosses. I don't care if they can be stopped and you can just revive should you have an item, it's cheap. I died on the final boss due to not seeing the white on white target but I had the revive so it's whatever. The game made up those points in other ways such as not having many back to back or one life bar per phase boss fights in general though the boss variety could have used some boosting as you'll fight "same boss but different color/effect" several times if you're doing side content.
The side content in the game is the usual game fair at this point, fetch quests, grab these items, fight this enemy etc. Some of these were tied to character stories and as such were the more unique ones and if you want what easily seems to be the "best/canon" ending you best do them all anyway along with getting as many collectables as you can of which there's A LOT. Honestly I think too many, especially when getting around isn't exactly fast or fun. Hope you like deserts cuz two of the largest explorable ones are just that and I think 25 of my 33 hours was spent in them. Eve does run quite fast but she slows down when an enemy aggros and their fields of vision are far and like 330 degrees I swear. They can't hear you running behind them for a stealth kill but if you're not DIRECTLY behind them then they'll know you're coming. The only other way around is via fast travel points such as your camps, where you will respawn upon death, and phones which you unlock by activating, however you're only able to teleport to camps with phones which still makes some long trips between points of interest. It doesn't help that you cannot set a custom waypoint unless it's on some mission objective or other map poi. At the very least most of the other places you'll go are linear to the point they have no map and varied in terms of environment to even out the double desert debuff. How does this game have more desert than Sand Land, a series ABOUT A DESERT?! Can I also just say that I loved there was a platforming puzzle with the playstation button icons that turned into their colors when jumped on? I sure do hope whoever made the ps5 controller has buttons with no color got fired or they release a one with the correct coloration at some point. Oh yeah there's fishing too, and that was a fun few hours getting them all.
I've seen this game be called "Booty Souls", "Gooner Souls'' and "Horny Souls" but I don't see really see a souls comparison here outside of the fact it has specific respawn points at the camps you need to activate and enemies respawn when you sit at them. Is the game difficult? Not really no, at least on normal cuz yes the game has difficulty options but there's no leveling or stat allocation, only skill points, which imo is the main component of what makes a souls game a souls game outside of difficulty. Make no mistake I did die a few times which were mostly due to fall damage as I was awful at timing the negation or getting hit by one of those long telegraphed attacks you're given all the time in the world to avoid. However rarely did a standard encounter ever make me worry, they were more of a nuisance than anything at best even when it was 4 v 1. It's closer to Sekiro which I also don't consider a souls game for the same level related reason. Main difference between that as well is Eve can take 10 times the amount of hits Sekiro man can since he has the defenses of wet 1 ply toilet paper. I'm sure it's much closer to that bullshit while wearing the skinsuit since it disables the shield. It's such a shame that "pretty lady" is what this game will be known for
I guess it's time to address, or rather dress, Eve. Yes she's conventionally attractive, yes her outfits are cover of vogue style or centerfold levels. I had the ability to play this game both patched and unpatched since I still buy discs and I'll install updates when I deem it necessary. I'll be honest, uncensored or not, I didn't really like most of the outfits and I unlocked most if not all of them from the initial playthrough. NG+ added alt color options for most and one entirely new outfit but my stance didn't change. Once I got the Full Black Dress outfit I exclusively used it on that first playthrough though on NG+ I considered going with the bear suit for some high octane Naughty Bear action. The censoring on the outfits felt kind of lazily implemented and I'm sorry but with the information that's come out what with the devs and the CEO going "Oh I think they look better this way" and "It was our choice", it begs me to ask why even make them revealing in the first place. It was clearly the main marketing tool well before launch and I do not believe no one ever once said "Nah these aren't good, we gotta change them" with how fast it was implemented. Like fucking Sony let this shit on there, those prudes, so it doens't make sense. Now it just makes this dev look like liars. It's also one thing for a Korean dev to not know that the unfortunate placement of "Hard" graffiti next to a neon "R" sign looks like slang for a racial slur, it's another to design multiple revealing outfits. Also you fuckers make Nikke, you don't have any sort of ground to stand on when it comes to outfit and character designs. That being said, there's more you can customize other than Eve's actual outfits. There's glasses and earrings which I didn't touch either of as I'm not really one for jewelry and I didn't like any of the glasses. You can also change the "base hair", I don't know what to call it but it's the head hair that more than just bangs that isn't the ponytail which the latter can be short or long. I made Eve a redhead cuz if anything I'm consistent though it seemed colors were style locked as the one I really wanted to use didn't have red as an option. It was honestly a missed opportunity to not have the title screen Eve reflect your customization. The supporting characters have outfits too but I only found 2 for each and I do not know if there are more.
There's a fun action game here, for the most part. Satisfying combo, parry and dodging along with variable abilities for that extra OOMPH. The combat does get a little dragged out in the back end unfortunately, the story tries to be interesting but is undermined by its predictable nature and varying voice acting. The actual exploration leaves things to be desired but that can be ignored if one so chooses. I would hope someone on the fence about this game who likes action games can look past the sex appeal cuz you have a good time here in that regard.
Octopath Traveler II
2023
I was so excited for Octopath Traveler when it came out. JRPGs are my favorite genre of games. I absolutely fell in love with the art style and thought the premise of 8 different stories was a cool concept. Unfortunately Octopath Traveler under delivered in every aspect for me outside of art. That is why I waited so long to really give Octopath Traveler 2 a try even though I bought it the week it came out. I’m very happy to report that Octopath Travler 2 succeeds in every aspect that failed in the original.
Let’s start with the story and characters. In the original I only like 3 of the 8 cast the other 5 I didn’t even care about. They felt soulless and I didn’t care about anything going on with them. In Octopath 2 I struggled on who to keep in my party as I loved all 8 characters very much. Each one had motives, struggles, and real emotions that made me care about them. But what really made this game so much better was the story. In the original the stories were so disconnected with chapter after chapter being a boring slog fest. Characters didn’t have any relevance at all unless the chapter was about them. No inner party connections and at times you wondered if they even knew each other were there together. It felt like there was no purpose, no over arching story. Now I’m not going to lie to you and say this is a great story and that the party was as connected as some of the greats in the genre. But I will say it was a Grand Canyon size difference from the original. The story’s were entertaining with no throw away chapters. As the stories unfolded you could see there was something connecting these stories that was drawing closer to being realized. The party grows together, have real conversations, and care about each other. These small things made a world of difference in the quality of the games.
The battle system is very similar to the original but with minor changes that make all the difference. For one the battles felt faster and more snappy. My second biggest problem with the original outside of story is it blatantly didn’t respect the players time. If you wanted to beat the original plan on running in circles for hours to grind out EXP from random encounters. With Octopath 2 you can change at will whether you are playing at day or night. When it is night you fight tougher enemies leading to more EXP thus killing the need for grinding as well as making you use more strategy than just hit X to kill the enemy but gain no EXP. My final major upgrade is the boss fights. In the original literally EVERY SINGLE BOSS FIGHT was a DPS race with each side one a timer. It wasn’t fun or satisfying. Octopath 2 is much more strategy based finding weak points and exploiting them to gain an advantage. Again simple things can make worlds of difference.
The art style is one thing that didn’t change and thank God for that. The game is a beautiful masterpiece with wonderful set pieces and great character designs. I love thier take on 2.5D and wish many more games made use of it. The music is equally sublime and many tracks stand out as greats in the medium.
All in all if you were turned off from Octopath 2 because of the extremely average Octopath Traveler please don’t be. Give this game a chance if you are a JRPG fan, it is worthy of your time.
My 2024 ranked. (It’s been a supberbyear in gaming for me so far)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
Let’s start with the story and characters. In the original I only like 3 of the 8 cast the other 5 I didn’t even care about. They felt soulless and I didn’t care about anything going on with them. In Octopath 2 I struggled on who to keep in my party as I loved all 8 characters very much. Each one had motives, struggles, and real emotions that made me care about them. But what really made this game so much better was the story. In the original the stories were so disconnected with chapter after chapter being a boring slog fest. Characters didn’t have any relevance at all unless the chapter was about them. No inner party connections and at times you wondered if they even knew each other were there together. It felt like there was no purpose, no over arching story. Now I’m not going to lie to you and say this is a great story and that the party was as connected as some of the greats in the genre. But I will say it was a Grand Canyon size difference from the original. The story’s were entertaining with no throw away chapters. As the stories unfolded you could see there was something connecting these stories that was drawing closer to being realized. The party grows together, have real conversations, and care about each other. These small things made a world of difference in the quality of the games.
The battle system is very similar to the original but with minor changes that make all the difference. For one the battles felt faster and more snappy. My second biggest problem with the original outside of story is it blatantly didn’t respect the players time. If you wanted to beat the original plan on running in circles for hours to grind out EXP from random encounters. With Octopath 2 you can change at will whether you are playing at day or night. When it is night you fight tougher enemies leading to more EXP thus killing the need for grinding as well as making you use more strategy than just hit X to kill the enemy but gain no EXP. My final major upgrade is the boss fights. In the original literally EVERY SINGLE BOSS FIGHT was a DPS race with each side one a timer. It wasn’t fun or satisfying. Octopath 2 is much more strategy based finding weak points and exploiting them to gain an advantage. Again simple things can make worlds of difference.
The art style is one thing that didn’t change and thank God for that. The game is a beautiful masterpiece with wonderful set pieces and great character designs. I love thier take on 2.5D and wish many more games made use of it. The music is equally sublime and many tracks stand out as greats in the medium.
All in all if you were turned off from Octopath 2 because of the extremely average Octopath Traveler please don’t be. Give this game a chance if you are a JRPG fan, it is worthy of your time.
My 2024 ranked. (It’s been a supberbyear in gaming for me so far)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
Helldivers 2
2024
PART 1: OK, MAYBE I HATE COMPETITIVE TEAM GAMES
Before I start this review, I want to use this Part to yap for a bit, so if you are not interested in it, just skip to Part 2! Where I’ll actually start talking about my actual experience with the game.
Around 4 years ago, when I quit playing League of Legends I kept seeking another competitive team game that would tick the same boxes for me, but every game I would try one out I would either end up disliking them or not taking them seriously enough to actually consider them my “main game”. Which would result in me dropping them, and moving on to the next shiny thing, but what they all had in common is that I disliked playing with other people, League left this mental scar on me where now I think every random player I meet online is one mistake away, whether it's from me or them, from flaming the fuck out of me. This happened with Paladins, Apex, Overwatch, Dead by Daylight, Hell, it even happened to me in the Versus mode of Left 4 Dead 2, where stakes couldn't possibly be lower.
Eventually, I started gaslighting myself into thinking that all Multiplayer games fucking sucked now, and the constant tryhard mindset was to blame for it. Of course, there are clear exceptions, like Splatoon or competitive games where it's just 1vs1 where I can blame either myself for my mistakes or my opponent for doing something I didn’t know how to play around.
During the same time I stopped playing League, I was getting deep into Final Fantasy XIV, while I have plenty of things to say about it, I’ll save them for whenever I review it in the future. The point is that when I started participating in endgame content, which is for the most part, PVE Focused, I found myself having that same fun I was looking for in multiplayer games that I had been seeking for a long time. The joy of sharing a clear with your team and cheering and being way more patient with each other, went far beyond than just being relieved of having ended a stressful match that was barely won.
This is something I also noticed while playing Souls games, Left 4 Dead 2 co-op campaigns, Phasmophobia or Lethal Company with my friends, and when I recently got into Helldivers 2, I was completely aware of this epiphany by now. Multiplayer games don’t actually suck, competitive team ones do, and it's now a new age for me, where I will use this realization to get into games I’ve never thought were for me, hell, maybe I’ll actually try getting into Monster Hunter despite my initial reluctance towards those series.
Now, let’s have a nice cup of Liber-tea over Helldivers 2.
PART 2: DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
When Helldivers 2 gameplay was first revealed I remember two key things about it, one of my friends was excited about it because it was a wild glow up from its predecessor, and it had this footage where the people playing it had one of those cringey scripted voice chat interactions. But for some reason I cannot find it on YouTube, I swear it happened at The Game Awards, but I’m starting to think it's my own case of Mandela Effect.
However, things started changing once the game actually dropped, and it seemed like its growth in popularity happened overnight. The next thing I learn, the game is having so many people trying to play it that the servers cannot keep up. This is something unprecedented, and it actually prompted me to take a look, what was going on over there that had everyone so fired up? And so I started checking out some streams, it’s a 4 player co-op third-person shooter where you can fight either Bugs or Robots. On the surface, I thought it was nothing special, then I caught a glimpse of the players using the in game Stratagems and throwing them around, making things blow up and causing as much collateral damage as possible, my interest was starting to get piqued, who doesn't like to cause a big explosion? But the biggest thing to accompany all of it, was the Galactic War system with its Major Orders, where every couple of days every player in the game is tasked with working towards a common goal to be rewarded with currencies and sometimes new purchasable weapons. Apparently, this is led by a guy called Joel over at Arrowhead that acts like a real-time DM and sends out the orders depending on what the players were doing.
But what really, REALLY convinced me that I had to buy the game, was the Malevelon Creek arc, where the community tragically lost control of this particular planet to Automatons, it was a massacre, tons of brave Helldivers and Super Citizens were slaughtered in the process, but the playerbase wouldn't stand by it, and vengeance was sworn on that day. It wasn’t until the Major Order to take it back was given where the players valiantly fought in the name of DEMOCRACY to bring it back to our side, and it was done at a speed that neither devs nor players could have even predicted.
This is something I had to take part of, there was one issue, however. At the time I was busy playing other games, so despite buying it, it wasn’t until recent weeks that I started playing it a lot more, it is one of my biggest regrets to not have been part of this when player counts still soared over 500k every day, but it still warms my heart to log in and see over 100k still playing actively. One of my most common fears with live service games is that at any moment where failure starts to be shown, it's only a matter of time when the publisher says it's time to turn the lights off, and all that time invested gets flushed down the toilet (RIP Knockout City and Rumbleverse, I still think about you two now and then), but Helldivers 2 seems like its here to stay, and I’m happy to be a part of it, to be spreading justice and freedom for as much as I can. To hopefully one day participate in a Major Order as iconic as The Battle for Malevelon Creek
If there's something I had to complain about the game is how some types of enemies are extremely obnoxious to fight against (I fucking despise Chargers and Hulks), and that Arrowhead has a weird philosophy when it comes to weapon balancing, I don't consider myself an expert in game design, but at the end of the day, this is still a PvE game, one that can become really fucking tough at times, if anything I think everything should be busted, so there’s no meta to be enforced by whatever toxic players might be out there and everyone can play their own way.
To wrap things up, on top of my brief rant about Competitive Team Games, there’s another type of game I dislike a lot nowadays and that’s not a controversial opinion, we are all tired of Live Services, games that don’t respect their customers and that think we all have unlimited time, games where just playing them isn’t enough. Gone are the 7th gen days when games would drop with a weirdly, yet charmingly designed Multiplayer mode whose servers barely worked in favor of rotating shops and time-limited Season Passes that unlock only fluff most of the time. Make no mistake, Helldivers 2 also has some of these tropes, but it appears that this time it remembered it still has a box price, so what would be the point of time gating battle passes and having absurdly expensive cosmetics? None, get all of that shit by playing, go out there, kill some bugs and bots, get that rising feeling of power when your Helldiver starts maniacally laughing because you kept firing for a full mag. Drink of the cup of Liber-tea.
Before I start this review, I want to use this Part to yap for a bit, so if you are not interested in it, just skip to Part 2! Where I’ll actually start talking about my actual experience with the game.
Around 4 years ago, when I quit playing League of Legends I kept seeking another competitive team game that would tick the same boxes for me, but every game I would try one out I would either end up disliking them or not taking them seriously enough to actually consider them my “main game”. Which would result in me dropping them, and moving on to the next shiny thing, but what they all had in common is that I disliked playing with other people, League left this mental scar on me where now I think every random player I meet online is one mistake away, whether it's from me or them, from flaming the fuck out of me. This happened with Paladins, Apex, Overwatch, Dead by Daylight, Hell, it even happened to me in the Versus mode of Left 4 Dead 2, where stakes couldn't possibly be lower.
Eventually, I started gaslighting myself into thinking that all Multiplayer games fucking sucked now, and the constant tryhard mindset was to blame for it. Of course, there are clear exceptions, like Splatoon or competitive games where it's just 1vs1 where I can blame either myself for my mistakes or my opponent for doing something I didn’t know how to play around.
During the same time I stopped playing League, I was getting deep into Final Fantasy XIV, while I have plenty of things to say about it, I’ll save them for whenever I review it in the future. The point is that when I started participating in endgame content, which is for the most part, PVE Focused, I found myself having that same fun I was looking for in multiplayer games that I had been seeking for a long time. The joy of sharing a clear with your team and cheering and being way more patient with each other, went far beyond than just being relieved of having ended a stressful match that was barely won.
This is something I also noticed while playing Souls games, Left 4 Dead 2 co-op campaigns, Phasmophobia or Lethal Company with my friends, and when I recently got into Helldivers 2, I was completely aware of this epiphany by now. Multiplayer games don’t actually suck, competitive team ones do, and it's now a new age for me, where I will use this realization to get into games I’ve never thought were for me, hell, maybe I’ll actually try getting into Monster Hunter despite my initial reluctance towards those series.
Now, let’s have a nice cup of Liber-tea over Helldivers 2.
PART 2: DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
When Helldivers 2 gameplay was first revealed I remember two key things about it, one of my friends was excited about it because it was a wild glow up from its predecessor, and it had this footage where the people playing it had one of those cringey scripted voice chat interactions. But for some reason I cannot find it on YouTube, I swear it happened at The Game Awards, but I’m starting to think it's my own case of Mandela Effect.
However, things started changing once the game actually dropped, and it seemed like its growth in popularity happened overnight. The next thing I learn, the game is having so many people trying to play it that the servers cannot keep up. This is something unprecedented, and it actually prompted me to take a look, what was going on over there that had everyone so fired up? And so I started checking out some streams, it’s a 4 player co-op third-person shooter where you can fight either Bugs or Robots. On the surface, I thought it was nothing special, then I caught a glimpse of the players using the in game Stratagems and throwing them around, making things blow up and causing as much collateral damage as possible, my interest was starting to get piqued, who doesn't like to cause a big explosion? But the biggest thing to accompany all of it, was the Galactic War system with its Major Orders, where every couple of days every player in the game is tasked with working towards a common goal to be rewarded with currencies and sometimes new purchasable weapons. Apparently, this is led by a guy called Joel over at Arrowhead that acts like a real-time DM and sends out the orders depending on what the players were doing.
But what really, REALLY convinced me that I had to buy the game, was the Malevelon Creek arc, where the community tragically lost control of this particular planet to Automatons, it was a massacre, tons of brave Helldivers and Super Citizens were slaughtered in the process, but the playerbase wouldn't stand by it, and vengeance was sworn on that day. It wasn’t until the Major Order to take it back was given where the players valiantly fought in the name of DEMOCRACY to bring it back to our side, and it was done at a speed that neither devs nor players could have even predicted.
This is something I had to take part of, there was one issue, however. At the time I was busy playing other games, so despite buying it, it wasn’t until recent weeks that I started playing it a lot more, it is one of my biggest regrets to not have been part of this when player counts still soared over 500k every day, but it still warms my heart to log in and see over 100k still playing actively. One of my most common fears with live service games is that at any moment where failure starts to be shown, it's only a matter of time when the publisher says it's time to turn the lights off, and all that time invested gets flushed down the toilet (RIP Knockout City and Rumbleverse, I still think about you two now and then), but Helldivers 2 seems like its here to stay, and I’m happy to be a part of it, to be spreading justice and freedom for as much as I can. To hopefully one day participate in a Major Order as iconic as The Battle for Malevelon Creek
If there's something I had to complain about the game is how some types of enemies are extremely obnoxious to fight against (I fucking despise Chargers and Hulks), and that Arrowhead has a weird philosophy when it comes to weapon balancing, I don't consider myself an expert in game design, but at the end of the day, this is still a PvE game, one that can become really fucking tough at times, if anything I think everything should be busted, so there’s no meta to be enforced by whatever toxic players might be out there and everyone can play their own way.
To wrap things up, on top of my brief rant about Competitive Team Games, there’s another type of game I dislike a lot nowadays and that’s not a controversial opinion, we are all tired of Live Services, games that don’t respect their customers and that think we all have unlimited time, games where just playing them isn’t enough. Gone are the 7th gen days when games would drop with a weirdly, yet charmingly designed Multiplayer mode whose servers barely worked in favor of rotating shops and time-limited Season Passes that unlock only fluff most of the time. Make no mistake, Helldivers 2 also has some of these tropes, but it appears that this time it remembered it still has a box price, so what would be the point of time gating battle passes and having absurdly expensive cosmetics? None, get all of that shit by playing, go out there, kill some bugs and bots, get that rising feeling of power when your Helldiver starts maniacally laughing because you kept firing for a full mag. Drink of the cup of Liber-tea.
Persona 3 Reload
2024
Persona 3 was one of first video games I played where I felt myself become increasingly emotionally invested in the characters and the world as the game went on; eventually culminating in being the first game that invoked a cascade of tears upon my viewing of the ending. The subject matter was heavy but grounded and relatable, unlike many other JRPGs that strive to pull someone into their worlds only for it to feel a bit too alien and fantastic to have the same effect. As you could expect, Persona 3 has long been a favorite of mine as a result.
It would be very easy for me to put on my blinders and dismiss this remake as having no way of recapturing the feeling that the original invoked and I admittedly spent the first few hours pretty skeptical as I groaned over the new VAs, OST, and the lack of an ability to program your comrades as AIs. Thankfully, the more time I spent with the game the more I began to love it. While the new VAs can't quite stand up to the star-studded original cast, I respect the decision to give some newer talent the spotlight as opposed to sticking with the same industry mainstays we've grown accustomed to. The OST is a bit more of a mixed bag where I enjoy some of the new tracks (such as the fantastic new battle theme) while I'm not a fan of some of the rearranged tracks from the original (looking at you Iwatodai Dorm T.T). Presentation-wise, it looks sleek and stylish as you would expect but not quite as over the top and busy as Persona 5 which I appreciate; though I would recommend turning down the brightness a few notches from the default if you want the appearance of the game to be more in line with the original lighting-wise.
The amount of extra time dedicated to party members outside of Tartarus, specifically the ones without social links, is absolutely my favorite addition to the game as it really encouraged me to grow attached to and learn more about each of the characters who didn't get as much development previously. This really paid off with Aragaki in particular whom I did not feel nearly as invested in on my original P3 playthrough as I did in P3R.
I have some mixed thoughts on the large amount of additional tools/abilities provided in combat as they do result in the game being a tad too easy (I played on 'Hard' for reference) but they were to be expected and are overall pretty fun in execution. I especially enjoyed the new implementation of the Fusion Spell system which is far more intuitive and easy to take advantage of this time around. As alluded to previously, and I understand why a lot of players did not enjoy this, I was a fan of how your companions acted mostly independently in the original as it really made them feel like actual people, rather than merely pawns for the player to control. This really helped personify the characters and made me feel more immersed within the world; I don't believe it was too much of a hinderance either as the tactics menu provided plenty means of controlling them. I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss this system at least a little bit.
It's clear a lot of effort has been put into P3R to ensure that the soul of the original game is left intact while aiming to deliver a more thorough and fleshed out experience, which I can appreciate. Story and character-wise, I would say it certainly surpasses the original. Gameplay-wise, I think they dumbed down the dungeon crawling and combat a little too much but it's definitely more approachable and 'fun' now which I assume was their intention. Atmosphere-wise, it loses some of the lingering dread, uncertainty, and mystery of the original but only a small amount of each. I prefer the original overall but this was still a fantastic game and my time with it absolutely flew by.
It would be very easy for me to put on my blinders and dismiss this remake as having no way of recapturing the feeling that the original invoked and I admittedly spent the first few hours pretty skeptical as I groaned over the new VAs, OST, and the lack of an ability to program your comrades as AIs. Thankfully, the more time I spent with the game the more I began to love it. While the new VAs can't quite stand up to the star-studded original cast, I respect the decision to give some newer talent the spotlight as opposed to sticking with the same industry mainstays we've grown accustomed to. The OST is a bit more of a mixed bag where I enjoy some of the new tracks (such as the fantastic new battle theme) while I'm not a fan of some of the rearranged tracks from the original (looking at you Iwatodai Dorm T.T). Presentation-wise, it looks sleek and stylish as you would expect but not quite as over the top and busy as Persona 5 which I appreciate; though I would recommend turning down the brightness a few notches from the default if you want the appearance of the game to be more in line with the original lighting-wise.
The amount of extra time dedicated to party members outside of Tartarus, specifically the ones without social links, is absolutely my favorite addition to the game as it really encouraged me to grow attached to and learn more about each of the characters who didn't get as much development previously. This really paid off with Aragaki in particular whom I did not feel nearly as invested in on my original P3 playthrough as I did in P3R.
I have some mixed thoughts on the large amount of additional tools/abilities provided in combat as they do result in the game being a tad too easy (I played on 'Hard' for reference) but they were to be expected and are overall pretty fun in execution. I especially enjoyed the new implementation of the Fusion Spell system which is far more intuitive and easy to take advantage of this time around. As alluded to previously, and I understand why a lot of players did not enjoy this, I was a fan of how your companions acted mostly independently in the original as it really made them feel like actual people, rather than merely pawns for the player to control. This really helped personify the characters and made me feel more immersed within the world; I don't believe it was too much of a hinderance either as the tactics menu provided plenty means of controlling them. I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss this system at least a little bit.
It's clear a lot of effort has been put into P3R to ensure that the soul of the original game is left intact while aiming to deliver a more thorough and fleshed out experience, which I can appreciate. Story and character-wise, I would say it certainly surpasses the original. Gameplay-wise, I think they dumbed down the dungeon crawling and combat a little too much but it's definitely more approachable and 'fun' now which I assume was their intention. Atmosphere-wise, it loses some of the lingering dread, uncertainty, and mystery of the original but only a small amount of each. I prefer the original overall but this was still a fantastic game and my time with it absolutely flew by.
This decides it. Penacony is peak. Love everyone and everything was just insane. Totally worth the 7 hour play session.
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