guileffb
2021
I didn't think HALO Infinite would end up being one of my favorite games of 2021. The series had kinda died for me since HALO 4, but with this one, the future is bright for Master Chief once again.
If I could use one word to summarize Infinite, it would be FUN.
I've played this game for a bit over 15 hours and I felt nothing but joy from beginning to end. The gameplay is just peak HALO! From multiplayer to the campaign. The environments are beautiful and feel great to explore, the level of verticality in the open world and interior stages is amazing, sidequests are fast paced and important to the main story, every gun is useful and impactful, multiplayer feels fresh... Everything just works and its execution is highly addicting. I almost 100% the map, even after finishing the story.
The reason why I think Infinite's gameplay loop works so well is due to its greatest addition. And no, it's not the new sandbox-style map. It's something simpler: the grappling hook.
Grappling hooks usually transforms the game and it wasn't different for HALO. It makes traversal fun and quick, opens new doors to improvise during combat, makes platforming a charm and it changes the game. It's so good that I didn't even care for the other equipments. In fact, changing equipments in this game is a hassle. I just stuck with the hook.
But the cracks in this near perfect HALO game starts to show up when the story becomes the focus.
Master Chief's new narrative is good. It's definitely a huge improvement over the 4th and 5th entries. The writing is good, the new Cortana is cool as hell, the Banished are threatening, Chief is better than ever and even Echo 216 gets to shine.
The problem is that it feels very incomplete. It's not well told at all. Most things happen before the game even start. Actually, almost every essential moment happens off-screen and even the cutscenes, while graphically impressive, feel a bit off. I also don't think it ties well with where 5 left off, which is absurd, since that game had universal-threats like the Guardians being thrown at you. And now they are gone. Just like that.
And as the story cracks are perceived, some of the bad leaks to the gameplay as well. Like how checkpoints happen at random. And how sometimes the challenge can be a bit too much. Or how driving any vehicle (except the Ghost) in this game is horrible. And then you notice that the final levels of the game, while still thrilling, can get very repetitive and sort of tedious.
But even after noticing these cracks, I also know that they're very small compared to how good this game is. This is the best HALO since 3. It pulled me back to a franchise that I absolutely love and that made me incredibly happy. This is definitely 343's finest work. Hell, they even made the boss fights remarkable and I don't think I can say that for past HALO games.
With a short and sweet open world, fantastic gameplay and an ok story, HALO's back, making this Microsoft's best exclusive game in years.
If I could use one word to summarize Infinite, it would be FUN.
I've played this game for a bit over 15 hours and I felt nothing but joy from beginning to end. The gameplay is just peak HALO! From multiplayer to the campaign. The environments are beautiful and feel great to explore, the level of verticality in the open world and interior stages is amazing, sidequests are fast paced and important to the main story, every gun is useful and impactful, multiplayer feels fresh... Everything just works and its execution is highly addicting. I almost 100% the map, even after finishing the story.
The reason why I think Infinite's gameplay loop works so well is due to its greatest addition. And no, it's not the new sandbox-style map. It's something simpler: the grappling hook.
Grappling hooks usually transforms the game and it wasn't different for HALO. It makes traversal fun and quick, opens new doors to improvise during combat, makes platforming a charm and it changes the game. It's so good that I didn't even care for the other equipments. In fact, changing equipments in this game is a hassle. I just stuck with the hook.
But the cracks in this near perfect HALO game starts to show up when the story becomes the focus.
Master Chief's new narrative is good. It's definitely a huge improvement over the 4th and 5th entries. The writing is good, the new Cortana is cool as hell, the Banished are threatening, Chief is better than ever and even Echo 216 gets to shine.
The problem is that it feels very incomplete. It's not well told at all. Most things happen before the game even start. Actually, almost every essential moment happens off-screen and even the cutscenes, while graphically impressive, feel a bit off. I also don't think it ties well with where 5 left off, which is absurd, since that game had universal-threats like the Guardians being thrown at you. And now they are gone. Just like that.
And as the story cracks are perceived, some of the bad leaks to the gameplay as well. Like how checkpoints happen at random. And how sometimes the challenge can be a bit too much. Or how driving any vehicle (except the Ghost) in this game is horrible. And then you notice that the final levels of the game, while still thrilling, can get very repetitive and sort of tedious.
But even after noticing these cracks, I also know that they're very small compared to how good this game is. This is the best HALO since 3. It pulled me back to a franchise that I absolutely love and that made me incredibly happy. This is definitely 343's finest work. Hell, they even made the boss fights remarkable and I don't think I can say that for past HALO games.
With a short and sweet open world, fantastic gameplay and an ok story, HALO's back, making this Microsoft's best exclusive game in years.
2021
I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to write here other than THIS IS THE BEST SMT GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED!
Even with a few nitpicks towards a few aspects of the game, it finally feels like they have perfected the formula that they've been using for decades.
Everything in itshines from the moment you boot it up. The first thing I want to mention is just how PERFECT the soundtrack is! There isn't a single bad track. Every single song is superb, aiding in building a fantastic atmosphere and an epic experience, wether you're in a boss fight or fusing demons. And speaking of atmosphere, like almost every other SMT game, its just fantastic. The unique apocalyptic and high-stakes challenges and moments that you go through are very immersive and just absolutely engaging. In addition to how immersive it plays and how perfect it sounds, it's also worth mentioning how good it looks. Especially for a Switch game. It does take a MAJOR hit in how it runs, as you can clearly see the fps taking huge dips. But with that said, it's also incredible to see how marvelous the environments and designs are. The devs managed to pull it off.
The highlight of SMT V is certainly how accessible and refined the gameplay is. From battling to fusing, it feels like a modern and necessary take on an old functional formula.
The combat system is familiar, with quality life changes that makes it the series best. Fusion system is magnificent and works smoothly and with ease unlike previous games. Most sidequests are good, balancing challenging and rewarding tasks. And the bosses... they're a delight to fight. From optional to mandatory ones. They all hit the right notes. Especially the final boss and the game's super boss. Two of the greatest JRPG bosses I've fought in a while.
It's amazing to see that one of my biggest gripes with previous games of the series feels resolves. I hated how unbalanced and unfair they could get at times, and I didn't feel that at all with SMT V. Sure, rng can still catch you by surprise, but it's rare and usually just happens to the unprepared. Grinding can also be done pretty quickly. In fact, I only felt the need to grind for the super boss.
If there's anything bad to say about this game, it's certainly two things:
1 - The story can be quite shallow. It's good, packs a nice ominous vibe, at times it's as minimalistic as SMT 3 - but it just lacks depth! The characters are cool, the setting is good, protagonists are interesting and the whole conumdrum is bleak enough to keep you interested, but there's just something missing. It feels a little undercooked.
2 - Exploration sucks. It's the worst part of the game. The first and second area are great, but the third and fourth are MAZES! It can be quite frustrating, especially if you're trying to get everything, like the fun little Mimans and all amalgams. The environments, depiste how beautiful they look, can also look bland and repetitive sometimes.
But that's it. That's my long and loving review of the perfect game that is SMT V. It's definitely not for everyone, because it can often feel pretty niche. But it's a rare diamond.
One that looks, sounds and plays perfectly.
Even with a few nitpicks towards a few aspects of the game, it finally feels like they have perfected the formula that they've been using for decades.
Everything in itshines from the moment you boot it up. The first thing I want to mention is just how PERFECT the soundtrack is! There isn't a single bad track. Every single song is superb, aiding in building a fantastic atmosphere and an epic experience, wether you're in a boss fight or fusing demons. And speaking of atmosphere, like almost every other SMT game, its just fantastic. The unique apocalyptic and high-stakes challenges and moments that you go through are very immersive and just absolutely engaging. In addition to how immersive it plays and how perfect it sounds, it's also worth mentioning how good it looks. Especially for a Switch game. It does take a MAJOR hit in how it runs, as you can clearly see the fps taking huge dips. But with that said, it's also incredible to see how marvelous the environments and designs are. The devs managed to pull it off.
The highlight of SMT V is certainly how accessible and refined the gameplay is. From battling to fusing, it feels like a modern and necessary take on an old functional formula.
The combat system is familiar, with quality life changes that makes it the series best. Fusion system is magnificent and works smoothly and with ease unlike previous games. Most sidequests are good, balancing challenging and rewarding tasks. And the bosses... they're a delight to fight. From optional to mandatory ones. They all hit the right notes. Especially the final boss and the game's super boss. Two of the greatest JRPG bosses I've fought in a while.
It's amazing to see that one of my biggest gripes with previous games of the series feels resolves. I hated how unbalanced and unfair they could get at times, and I didn't feel that at all with SMT V. Sure, rng can still catch you by surprise, but it's rare and usually just happens to the unprepared. Grinding can also be done pretty quickly. In fact, I only felt the need to grind for the super boss.
If there's anything bad to say about this game, it's certainly two things:
1 - The story can be quite shallow. It's good, packs a nice ominous vibe, at times it's as minimalistic as SMT 3 - but it just lacks depth! The characters are cool, the setting is good, protagonists are interesting and the whole conumdrum is bleak enough to keep you interested, but there's just something missing. It feels a little undercooked.
2 - Exploration sucks. It's the worst part of the game. The first and second area are great, but the third and fourth are MAZES! It can be quite frustrating, especially if you're trying to get everything, like the fun little Mimans and all amalgams. The environments, depiste how beautiful they look, can also look bland and repetitive sometimes.
But that's it. That's my long and loving review of the perfect game that is SMT V. It's definitely not for everyone, because it can often feel pretty niche. But it's a rare diamond.
One that looks, sounds and plays perfectly.
1998
Parasite Eve is definitely a sea of great ideas that I've been meaning to dive in for a long time. After spending over 9 hours with it, I can say that it surely shines, but not as much as I hoped it would.
The story of Parasite Eve is quite mature. It's lovely to see how far a game can go when the writing is strong like this one. It takes a while to grasp everything going on, but by the end of the game I felt fulfilled.
In addition to being an elegantly well told tale, it also packs memorable characters and a great protagonist. Aya Brea is very well designed, from her style to her profile, and the fact that she's tied with the main villian (who's also quite memorable, by the way), just enhances your time with her, making her one of the main reasons why the story and setting will stick to your mind.
And it all just immerses you more and more as you go through it. Part of the reason why this game vibes so well with its theme is due to its beautiful renders, amazing environments and epic cutscenes that, while they don't hold up to today standards, they can still pack quite a punch.
On top of that you have Yoko Shimomura composing the sountrack, hitting you with beautiful, classy, intense and diverse songs that refuse to leave my mind even after the credits rolled. Indeed, a genius of video game music.
As for the core gameplay, it's a unique mix of RPG and Survival Horror. Not a perfect hybrid, but a very good one, I must say. I had a lot of fun with the combat. It's a near perfect marriage of Vagrant Story and Resident Evil 2.
And, yes, I know it sounds weird to say it, but it just works. Great enemy variety, challenging bosses, good collection of magics and tons of guns for you to manage your way to the end.
The problem with this game lies in how archaic it is.
Regardless of the time it was developed, I just felt like things should flow a bit better and, definitely, faster. Aya's movement speed is probably the worst thing in the game. She's slow when outside combat and extremely clunky during fights where mobility is key. In a game where you have to backtrack to get everything you want while taking the least amount of damage as possible, movement is essential and it just doesn't work well.
In fact, many other things doesn't work as well as it should. The gun tuning system is very rough, the UI takes a bit to get used to, for an RPG the game can be extremely short (which usually doesn't bother me, but now it somehow did), cutscenes are unskipabble and inventory management is a HUGE mess.
Why didn't they just add an item box instead of forcing a very repetitive trip back to the police department? And while the boss fights are very well done, I have to say that the final boss is an unnecessary difficulty spike. A pseudo-bullethell shooter with a toothless chase afterwards.
Parasite Eve is a pleasant and nostalgic trip back to the 90's. It works great, brings new ideas to the genre, manages to be a unique hybrid and introduces Aya Brea, with a great soundtrack to boot.
But its archaic design, slow pace clumsiness breaks part of the experience.
A great game, nonetheless. One that was stuck with me for months after I finished. I just can't fathom how clunky it can be, since it came from an era filled with wonderful RPGs.
The story of Parasite Eve is quite mature. It's lovely to see how far a game can go when the writing is strong like this one. It takes a while to grasp everything going on, but by the end of the game I felt fulfilled.
In addition to being an elegantly well told tale, it also packs memorable characters and a great protagonist. Aya Brea is very well designed, from her style to her profile, and the fact that she's tied with the main villian (who's also quite memorable, by the way), just enhances your time with her, making her one of the main reasons why the story and setting will stick to your mind.
And it all just immerses you more and more as you go through it. Part of the reason why this game vibes so well with its theme is due to its beautiful renders, amazing environments and epic cutscenes that, while they don't hold up to today standards, they can still pack quite a punch.
On top of that you have Yoko Shimomura composing the sountrack, hitting you with beautiful, classy, intense and diverse songs that refuse to leave my mind even after the credits rolled. Indeed, a genius of video game music.
As for the core gameplay, it's a unique mix of RPG and Survival Horror. Not a perfect hybrid, but a very good one, I must say. I had a lot of fun with the combat. It's a near perfect marriage of Vagrant Story and Resident Evil 2.
And, yes, I know it sounds weird to say it, but it just works. Great enemy variety, challenging bosses, good collection of magics and tons of guns for you to manage your way to the end.
The problem with this game lies in how archaic it is.
Regardless of the time it was developed, I just felt like things should flow a bit better and, definitely, faster. Aya's movement speed is probably the worst thing in the game. She's slow when outside combat and extremely clunky during fights where mobility is key. In a game where you have to backtrack to get everything you want while taking the least amount of damage as possible, movement is essential and it just doesn't work well.
In fact, many other things doesn't work as well as it should. The gun tuning system is very rough, the UI takes a bit to get used to, for an RPG the game can be extremely short (which usually doesn't bother me, but now it somehow did), cutscenes are unskipabble and inventory management is a HUGE mess.
Why didn't they just add an item box instead of forcing a very repetitive trip back to the police department? And while the boss fights are very well done, I have to say that the final boss is an unnecessary difficulty spike. A pseudo-bullethell shooter with a toothless chase afterwards.
Parasite Eve is a pleasant and nostalgic trip back to the 90's. It works great, brings new ideas to the genre, manages to be a unique hybrid and introduces Aya Brea, with a great soundtrack to boot.
But its archaic design, slow pace clumsiness breaks part of the experience.
A great game, nonetheless. One that was stuck with me for months after I finished. I just can't fathom how clunky it can be, since it came from an era filled with wonderful RPGs.
Guardians of the Galaxy was put together really well. Upon watching tidbits of gameplay I could see potential in it, but didn't think I would like it as much as I did, despite its shortcomings.
The name of the game here is: fun.
Square Enix did an incredible job with story, dialogue and character development. Every major piece in this game feels very well fleshed out and the writing constantly evolves throughout the 16 chapter journey, making you care not only about Peter Quill and his teammates, but also about secondary characters to the plot.
It's not easy to do that, but they manage to do it with charm. I laughed out loud on most of the chapters, during the myriad conversations the Guardians have on their missions. Well-written characters and dialogues and the game's amazing pace were honestly the main reason to keep me there 'til the end. It just works and it is funny and interesting as hell to see things unfold.
On top of that, GotG has a very stylish and smooth combat. It might get repetitive after a while, but it does its job well. Characters have their own unique traits, powers and outfits, their fighting style is varied enough to give room to creativity and just moving Quill and shooting around aliens feels good enough. I also love how the game doesn't overstay its welcome, making it easy to get all power-ups, collectables and secrets. It's a blast, honestly.
Not to mention how beautiful the game looks. From facial animations to how beautiful each planet is, this game excels on modern consoles, which helps to improve immersion even further.
But I have to say, it actually took me the first 2 chapters to start enjoying the game and understand its pacing. It's not a huge slow start, but it's definitely a slow burner, to the point that it put me to sleep right on the 1st chapter. Yes, it gets better really fast around the 3rd mission (which is insane, btw), but it took me a little while.
I also found very annoying that dialogues tend to overlap each other and you can even miss entire chunks of well-written jokes/story moments just by walking in the wrong place at the wrong time. Highly annoying. Just as annoying as the many unskippable cutscenes you have to go through whether you've seen them or not. Or maybe as annoying as Rocket Racoon, which, close to most other characters in the game, just seems a bit off.
And then we get to my biggest issues with the game. Two things that can drag the experience down.
1 - The puzzles - Guardians of the Galaxy insists on making you complete the same puzzles OVER and OVER again. And yes, it's great when you get a new gadget or discover some new team work skill. But only the first time. Then it just slows you down.
2 - Glitches/Crashes - I really don't understand how a game can ship like this. I CONSTANTLY got stuck into places, had my game freeze out of nowhere, experienced minor crashes or just had characters/story not progressing as they should. It was more than annoying, it really pissed me off! And it's a shame, because this game is actually really good!
I didn't think I'd enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy as much as I did, but I'm glad I got to experience such an entertaining and well-told game. If you like super heroes or just a good story, this game's for you.
I just wish that more super hero games were as good as this one.
The name of the game here is: fun.
Square Enix did an incredible job with story, dialogue and character development. Every major piece in this game feels very well fleshed out and the writing constantly evolves throughout the 16 chapter journey, making you care not only about Peter Quill and his teammates, but also about secondary characters to the plot.
It's not easy to do that, but they manage to do it with charm. I laughed out loud on most of the chapters, during the myriad conversations the Guardians have on their missions. Well-written characters and dialogues and the game's amazing pace were honestly the main reason to keep me there 'til the end. It just works and it is funny and interesting as hell to see things unfold.
On top of that, GotG has a very stylish and smooth combat. It might get repetitive after a while, but it does its job well. Characters have their own unique traits, powers and outfits, their fighting style is varied enough to give room to creativity and just moving Quill and shooting around aliens feels good enough. I also love how the game doesn't overstay its welcome, making it easy to get all power-ups, collectables and secrets. It's a blast, honestly.
Not to mention how beautiful the game looks. From facial animations to how beautiful each planet is, this game excels on modern consoles, which helps to improve immersion even further.
But I have to say, it actually took me the first 2 chapters to start enjoying the game and understand its pacing. It's not a huge slow start, but it's definitely a slow burner, to the point that it put me to sleep right on the 1st chapter. Yes, it gets better really fast around the 3rd mission (which is insane, btw), but it took me a little while.
I also found very annoying that dialogues tend to overlap each other and you can even miss entire chunks of well-written jokes/story moments just by walking in the wrong place at the wrong time. Highly annoying. Just as annoying as the many unskippable cutscenes you have to go through whether you've seen them or not. Or maybe as annoying as Rocket Racoon, which, close to most other characters in the game, just seems a bit off.
And then we get to my biggest issues with the game. Two things that can drag the experience down.
1 - The puzzles - Guardians of the Galaxy insists on making you complete the same puzzles OVER and OVER again. And yes, it's great when you get a new gadget or discover some new team work skill. But only the first time. Then it just slows you down.
2 - Glitches/Crashes - I really don't understand how a game can ship like this. I CONSTANTLY got stuck into places, had my game freeze out of nowhere, experienced minor crashes or just had characters/story not progressing as they should. It was more than annoying, it really pissed me off! And it's a shame, because this game is actually really good!
I didn't think I'd enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy as much as I did, but I'm glad I got to experience such an entertaining and well-told game. If you like super heroes or just a good story, this game's for you.
I just wish that more super hero games were as good as this one.
Final Fantasy is my favorite video game franchise of all time, so it sucks to say this but... this game is the worst game I've played in a long time.
I was actually planning a better review for this, but Stranger of Paradise is such a complete clusterfuck of a mess that I just gave up what I was writing.
To get the good out of the way: the combat and the job system. These are the only redeeming qualities of the game, issues and all. The combat grind can be really fun, even on side quests and the jobs, while there certainly are more than it should, are just fun to good through. Aside from that, SOP is riddled with flaws.
It has major balancing issues (especially during endgame boss fights), it is aggressively repetitive, writing and voice acting are laughable, the story feels like it was written by a teenager going hard through puberty, the whole plot makes no effort to make sense, characters are hollow, soundtrack is forgettable, level design is objectively dull, graphics have a weird saturation filter over it and the game is just not fun at all!
They even failed when making loot engaging. The game is BASED on collecting loot, going through the combat grind and improving, but you get MILLIONS of useless items per second and you HAVE to dismantle them to make room for MORE, that way, you literally spend HOURS looking through menus. And even after that, the areas and monsters just keep getting stronger, so you have to get MORE of the SAME loot and repeat the same thing FOREVER! It is POINTLESS! I also absolutely hated how the game handles MP, potions and status effects. Such important elements to the gameplay that become an immense nuisance to manage. Unbearable.
Not even the bosses are good. Some of them a ridiculous button-mashing annoyances, while others are extreme difficult to strategize/avoid damage sponge fiends. Makes no sense.
AND WHY THE HELL DID THEY EVEN BOTHER WITH THE STORY! IT ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE!
I'm not even sure why I finished this horrible Nioh knockoff. Probably because I paid for it.
In case you really want the good "4 warriors of light saving the crystals" experience, go play the original Final Fantasy. There are plenty of remasters and re-releases out there. Just keep away from this hellish beast.
I was actually planning a better review for this, but Stranger of Paradise is such a complete clusterfuck of a mess that I just gave up what I was writing.
To get the good out of the way: the combat and the job system. These are the only redeeming qualities of the game, issues and all. The combat grind can be really fun, even on side quests and the jobs, while there certainly are more than it should, are just fun to good through. Aside from that, SOP is riddled with flaws.
It has major balancing issues (especially during endgame boss fights), it is aggressively repetitive, writing and voice acting are laughable, the story feels like it was written by a teenager going hard through puberty, the whole plot makes no effort to make sense, characters are hollow, soundtrack is forgettable, level design is objectively dull, graphics have a weird saturation filter over it and the game is just not fun at all!
They even failed when making loot engaging. The game is BASED on collecting loot, going through the combat grind and improving, but you get MILLIONS of useless items per second and you HAVE to dismantle them to make room for MORE, that way, you literally spend HOURS looking through menus. And even after that, the areas and monsters just keep getting stronger, so you have to get MORE of the SAME loot and repeat the same thing FOREVER! It is POINTLESS! I also absolutely hated how the game handles MP, potions and status effects. Such important elements to the gameplay that become an immense nuisance to manage. Unbearable.
Not even the bosses are good. Some of them a ridiculous button-mashing annoyances, while others are extreme difficult to strategize/avoid damage sponge fiends. Makes no sense.
AND WHY THE HELL DID THEY EVEN BOTHER WITH THE STORY! IT ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE!
I'm not even sure why I finished this horrible Nioh knockoff. Probably because I paid for it.
In case you really want the good "4 warriors of light saving the crystals" experience, go play the original Final Fantasy. There are plenty of remasters and re-releases out there. Just keep away from this hellish beast.
The DQ community's praise for Dragon Quest IV kinda got my hopes up. That might've hurt the process.
To be honest, this 4th game in the series is good.
After the beautiful simplicity of III, IV tried to take a step further here and there. Trying to do things slightly different and giving a bit more character to the franchise. And you can clearly see this in the story.
The best thing about this game is definitely the "chapters of the chosen" approach. You get a bit attached to the characters and you understand their motifs. The fact that this cast is very charismatic, with each chapter presentation and tale filled with charm, just adds more to the experience. Especially if you've played previous entires. It's basic, but it's candid.
The gameplay saw little improvement, but it doesn't mean it's bad. The overworld still feels great to explore, soundtrack is alright, enemy and character designs are still top notch, there are good secrets to find around the world and bosses and dungeons are amazing! Dungeons are short, well designed and sweet. Bosses are challenging and super fun to fight.
And let's not forget that the remake did a fantastic job on giving the game a new look and feel. The experience definitely feels pleasant on the handheld.
And what else? Well, that's the problem. There's not much else.
It comes as no surprise, but be prepared to grind. And I mean REALLY GRIND, because during my 50+ hours with the game, that's what I did the most. And normally I don't even care about that stuff, but this game is just SO SLOW! Around chapter 5, I was pretty much done with it. Progressing through DQIV's final chapters felt like a massive slog. I just wasn't having fun at all anymore. Bosses and story were the only things keeping me going, but even that felt like it wasn't reason enough.
The game just got... boring. Why wouldn't they tone that down on a remake? Even saving is slow!
Besides, I started questioning some design choices around my final hours with the game.
Why is equipment so expensive? Why are most items useless during battles? Is Torneko supposed to be useful? Couldn't they include more songs in the remake? Why does chapter 6 even exist? Will Dragon Quest never get the enemy variety right? And why the hell Zing fails so much in this game?
I've read so many good things about DQIV that I actually thought that I'd feel a major diference from previous games. And while yes, I did feel, it just wasn't enough, I guess. If it wasn't for the story, bosses and characters, I wouldn't even try to reach the end.
By no means this is a bad game. It's got its charms and Dragon Quest still lives in my heart. But I just don't see myself going back to this one.
To be honest, this 4th game in the series is good.
After the beautiful simplicity of III, IV tried to take a step further here and there. Trying to do things slightly different and giving a bit more character to the franchise. And you can clearly see this in the story.
The best thing about this game is definitely the "chapters of the chosen" approach. You get a bit attached to the characters and you understand their motifs. The fact that this cast is very charismatic, with each chapter presentation and tale filled with charm, just adds more to the experience. Especially if you've played previous entires. It's basic, but it's candid.
The gameplay saw little improvement, but it doesn't mean it's bad. The overworld still feels great to explore, soundtrack is alright, enemy and character designs are still top notch, there are good secrets to find around the world and bosses and dungeons are amazing! Dungeons are short, well designed and sweet. Bosses are challenging and super fun to fight.
And let's not forget that the remake did a fantastic job on giving the game a new look and feel. The experience definitely feels pleasant on the handheld.
And what else? Well, that's the problem. There's not much else.
It comes as no surprise, but be prepared to grind. And I mean REALLY GRIND, because during my 50+ hours with the game, that's what I did the most. And normally I don't even care about that stuff, but this game is just SO SLOW! Around chapter 5, I was pretty much done with it. Progressing through DQIV's final chapters felt like a massive slog. I just wasn't having fun at all anymore. Bosses and story were the only things keeping me going, but even that felt like it wasn't reason enough.
The game just got... boring. Why wouldn't they tone that down on a remake? Even saving is slow!
Besides, I started questioning some design choices around my final hours with the game.
Why is equipment so expensive? Why are most items useless during battles? Is Torneko supposed to be useful? Couldn't they include more songs in the remake? Why does chapter 6 even exist? Will Dragon Quest never get the enemy variety right? And why the hell Zing fails so much in this game?
I've read so many good things about DQIV that I actually thought that I'd feel a major diference from previous games. And while yes, I did feel, it just wasn't enough, I guess. If it wasn't for the story, bosses and characters, I wouldn't even try to reach the end.
By no means this is a bad game. It's got its charms and Dragon Quest still lives in my heart. But I just don't see myself going back to this one.