imainmeleekirby
This review contains spoilers
Don't let anyone trick you into thinking this game is a clever social commentary with interesting moral complexity or yadda yadda yadda. It's not. No themes or messages in this game ever elevate beyond the complexity of a middle schooler writing a history paper on why feudal patriarchy is bad. I don't think anyone really needs to be told this stuff, and if you do then this game can not help you. Get therapy.
What this game IS is a genuinely interesting and tragic story about a girl who was dealt one of the worst hands in life you can possibly imagine. It's a cool subversion of the classic "person gets put in stasis until their disease can be cured." This game asks, what if society basically collapsed after the person was put in, and the world they're waking up to was far, far worse than the one they left.
Hyun-ae is a very interesting character, and her story alone is enough to justify the few hours going through this game. That said, don't come here looking for a particularly progressive take on gender roles compared to what you would get from most modern societies these days.
What this game IS is a genuinely interesting and tragic story about a girl who was dealt one of the worst hands in life you can possibly imagine. It's a cool subversion of the classic "person gets put in stasis until their disease can be cured." This game asks, what if society basically collapsed after the person was put in, and the world they're waking up to was far, far worse than the one they left.
Hyun-ae is a very interesting character, and her story alone is enough to justify the few hours going through this game. That said, don't come here looking for a particularly progressive take on gender roles compared to what you would get from most modern societies these days.
An absolute blast of a game that's the true definition of a power fantasy. The force powers feel so kick-ass to execute, and the bosses are true spectacles and a ton of fun to fight. The story is a way to tie it all together, nothing groundbreaking but it's told well and has some good moments.
2018
I definitely didn't put enough time into this to actually get any good at it, but what I played was a really fun time. It feels like a love letter to DBZ and as a pretty lukewarm fan of the series, even I was grinning ear to ear at a lot of dialogue and special moves. If you're big into fighting games I can't really say what your take on this will be, but if you're a Dragon Ball fan then this is worth spending a few hours with.
This is some truly great mindless fun for any Naruto fan, especially if you can grab a friend for some multiplayer. The single player is a bit weaker than other Naruto games, but that's obviously not the core appeal here. It's the excellent core formula of the Storm series polished to a shine.
2013
It's a very tough balancing act to make a game feel both stressful and fun at the same time, but this game pulls it off flawlessly. The simple repetitive game play makes it easy to slip into a rhythm which makes it all the more important and stay on your toes. It's a really fun gameplay loop that could very easily have veered right into frustrating territory but it manages to stay fun throughout.
2004
At its core, this game is Mario 64 with worse controls but more content. If the novelty of a few extra levels and being able to play as characters other than mario is worth a somewhat clunkier game, then you might get a kick out of it, but I wouldn't say it's worth playing over the original unless you don't have access to the original for some reason.
2021
I could not finish this game because I'm stupid and the puzzles are very hard, but what I did play was excellent. Gotta be one of the best, well thought out portal fan games out there.
This game was a great time. To be honest, I was glued to a walkthrough most of the time. The puzzles were pretty obtuse and the fact that backtracking and reexploring old areas for things you missed was so resource intensive made a blind playthrough very stressful, and not in a good way. But with the guide, or if you're smarter than I am, it was good, scary fun that spooked me real good at several points. Would recommend.
A truly excellent sequel that expands on its predecessor in many excellent ways. While I think the scenario and overarching plot is a little less interesting this time around, the individual case stories are even more compelling than in the first game. Combine that with an amazing cast that, in my opinion, blows the cast of the first game out of the water, and you can easily see why this is some people's favorite in the trilogy. The worst I can say is that Monomi is a truly awful addition and I hate her so god damn much. Otherwise, I don't have much to criticize.
After the absolute dumpster fire that was Dual Destinies, this game absolutely shattered my expectations by being a great time. Not only does this game clear its predecessor with no trouble, I would argue it's even better than the first Apollo Justice game. Say what you will about having yet another Apollo backstory, but this game breaks new ground with the novel concept that maybe that backstory should be good. The cases that have Phoenix at the helm are great, and the new séance mechanic was a ton of fun. The Apollo cases were also quite solid, although I'm personally not a fan of the 4th one. Overall, this game isn't winning any awards and it's probably not even in my top 3 for the series, but it's given me faith that the people at Capcom do still know what they're doing with this series, after Dual Destinies made me doubt.
It's hard to say anything about this game hasn't already been said. It's good, obviously. In fact, it's pretty fucking excellent. Not all of the bosses were winners, but the vast majority of them were pleasant, memorable experiences. The new PS4 quality of life changes are a nice icing on the cake. I hope that one day someone comes along and makes a spiritual successor for this game, in the same way that Stardew Valley pays loving tribute to the Harvest Moon franchise. If you somehow haven't played this masterpiece, you owe it to yourself.
I remember next to nothing about this game, but in a way that says a lot. I played a lot of mediocre licensed games as a kid, and most of the Naruto games were included in that. I remember most of them clearly and fondly. But this game? I barely remember playing it, and I certainly never finished it. My standards were so low back then that that's really saying something.
2019
This is absolutely one of the video games of all time. This is a very interesting concept, one that I think was used to great effect in Her Story, but the problem with this game is that they made it quite a bit longer so the repetitive loop began to wear thin. I can't say I would recommend this game unless you're a diehard fan of the idea, but the story it tells is decent and your own mileage may vary.
The story does a really great job of hooking you at the start, but after that it felt like it wasn't really going anywhere for a while. The RTS battles were more fun than I was expecting, and once the story gets going it's genuinely great, but it took longer than I would have liked to get me fully invested.
This game is hardly a step up from the previous one, which is to say thoroughly mediocre. The ever expanding cast of characters continues to get less interesting, and the story is outright nonsensical at points. There are few cool ideas in the plot, the school setting is almost as charming as it was in CS1, and it has one of my favorite endings in the series. Outside of that, though, this was an absolute slog to get through. Really not worth playing unless you're very committed to playing the whole series.