lavanderlatte
210 Reviews liked by lavanderlatte
The revisionism around Cyberpunk 2077 and the reception of this DLC makes me feel like I’m going fucking insane. It’s like everyone forgot how bad this game was because a mediocre anime launched on Netflix.
Cyberpunk 2077 had a myriad of foundational and structural issues regarding its world design, writing, quest design, and mission structure that cannot be fixed by making slight edits to the leveling system.
It wanted to be every kind of AAA game simultaneously without succeeding at any single junction (probably because it’s impossible to combine some of these game styles). It wanted to be an open-world RPG with the density of an Immersive Sim and a Grand Theft Auto-style game with bombastic, setpiece-driven missions like Call of Duty.
Phantom Liberty septuples down on the latter pairing in particular. It is a meaningless open-world that buffers what are essentially Call of Duty missions centered around set pieces, complete with walk-and-talk and press F to pay respects segments.
It’s a shame because, for all of the original game’s faults stemming from a hellish development cycle with a lack of a cohesive vision, with multiple rebooted versions of the stacked on top of one another to create a freakish AAA homunculus, Phantom Liberty offered a second chance on a fresh slate.
Instead, it’s just more of the same inharmonious game design, except this time, the characters and writing are even less interesting.
Cyberpunk 2077 was never good, and it can’t be good until CDPR makes a new game. I think people struggle to accept that CDPR dropped a massive fucking turd, and the reception to this DLC and the 2.0 version of the game is just a sunken cost fallacy for the games media hype machine.
Now that the game isn’t in a state where it’s literally falling apart at the seams, it can receive the ecstatic fanfare that people have been edging on for the past three years.
As great as Cyberpunk 2077 looks and sounds, it’s nothing more than a celebration of shallow AAA tropes and bad taste in a hollow open world. Now that the stink of its fraudulent launch has been cleaned up and laundered by an anime, post-launch support, and media fluff pieces, people can hop back to touting CDPR as an industry paragon.
If you already like this game, then Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update will probably be up your alley. For people like me who didn’t enjoy the original game, they will not change your mind.
It’s also funny that after all of the controversy surrounding the transphobic imagery in this game, they couldn’t be fucked to remove it after three years and a “game changing” update.
Oh, I also ran into a game breaking bug that prevented me from beginning the last mission that made me have to go back two hours and replay multiple missions.
Cyberpunk 2077 had a myriad of foundational and structural issues regarding its world design, writing, quest design, and mission structure that cannot be fixed by making slight edits to the leveling system.
It wanted to be every kind of AAA game simultaneously without succeeding at any single junction (probably because it’s impossible to combine some of these game styles). It wanted to be an open-world RPG with the density of an Immersive Sim and a Grand Theft Auto-style game with bombastic, setpiece-driven missions like Call of Duty.
Phantom Liberty septuples down on the latter pairing in particular. It is a meaningless open-world that buffers what are essentially Call of Duty missions centered around set pieces, complete with walk-and-talk and press F to pay respects segments.
It’s a shame because, for all of the original game’s faults stemming from a hellish development cycle with a lack of a cohesive vision, with multiple rebooted versions of the stacked on top of one another to create a freakish AAA homunculus, Phantom Liberty offered a second chance on a fresh slate.
Instead, it’s just more of the same inharmonious game design, except this time, the characters and writing are even less interesting.
Cyberpunk 2077 was never good, and it can’t be good until CDPR makes a new game. I think people struggle to accept that CDPR dropped a massive fucking turd, and the reception to this DLC and the 2.0 version of the game is just a sunken cost fallacy for the games media hype machine.
Now that the game isn’t in a state where it’s literally falling apart at the seams, it can receive the ecstatic fanfare that people have been edging on for the past three years.
As great as Cyberpunk 2077 looks and sounds, it’s nothing more than a celebration of shallow AAA tropes and bad taste in a hollow open world. Now that the stink of its fraudulent launch has been cleaned up and laundered by an anime, post-launch support, and media fluff pieces, people can hop back to touting CDPR as an industry paragon.
If you already like this game, then Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update will probably be up your alley. For people like me who didn’t enjoy the original game, they will not change your mind.
It’s also funny that after all of the controversy surrounding the transphobic imagery in this game, they couldn’t be fucked to remove it after three years and a “game changing” update.
Oh, I also ran into a game breaking bug that prevented me from beginning the last mission that made me have to go back two hours and replay multiple missions.
Pretty fun but maybe the first time I've seen "forced soul" in a game and I hate the Reddit flowers.
Best writing in a game I've ever experienced. Also the best game I've ever experienced-- in general. Pushes the boundaries of the medium in so many ways. I wish most games prioritized plot and theme over mechanics like this.
This review contains spoilers
Much more solid than I was expecting, I had a great time with this from beginning to end and sunk 50 hours into it easily. What stands out most about this game is how thoroughly and mindlessly enjoyable it is, especially as a monster hunter fan, because it is constant gratification. Being able to collect your favourite monsters and adventure with them is a sell on its own but the game lets you take it so much farther than that.
There's tons of positives about this game that I was not anticipating and was really impressed by, like its clever combat system that takes turn based combat a much-needed step further because of the balance of its mechanics and the strategy they create - such as the kinship guage, riding monsters and the rock paper scissors / fire emblem weapon triangle-esque basic attack system; plus, there's the monster-hunter staples there in full effect with its different weapon types / uses, elements, statuses and equipment. I wasn't expecting the game to add so much of what I have come to know and love of mainline monster hunter, such as being able to craft weapons and armour from monster parts (+ make layered armour), combine and craft your own items and go on full multiplayer adventures, all of these were a lovely surprise as I was expecting a much simpler single-player jrpg.
By far the strongest aspect for me were the monsters themselves and how well translated they feel. There's clear fanservice going on here and it had me geeking out a little because monsters all move and interact in different ways when you're riding them, have unique abilities and battle skills and can be personalised to no end, you can have a kulu-ya-ku with nergigante's moves if you put the work in which is fucking amazing. They are also beautifully reworked into this more colourful and cartoonish artstyle. There's tons of monsters in this game from previous mainline entries and it really feels like a greatest hits of fan-favourites, almost all of which are given appropriate screen-time and fun little intro cutscenes which regularly put a smile on my face, especially when my boy Zamtrios popped up. I immediately got myself a zamtrios and started swimming around everywhere and using his kinship move to flatten everything and I was LOVING it. Suffice it to say MHS2's gameplay totally bangs and never got boring especially since its always changing things up: different areas, new mechanics, new companions, seriously good stuff.
Where the game falls off a little is in the story aspects which, as you would expect from a game called monster hunter stories, takes a central approach. While never outrageously or offensively bad, there's honestly not a ton to like about this game's story, its like the story from any other mainline monster hunter game but with more sappy moments about kinship and bonds with your monsters and stuff. A mysterious disturbance causes sudden changes in the ecology and in local monster's behaviour - if you've ever played a monster hunter game you'll be VERY familiar with that trope. Its the same stuff, albeit stretched very thinly and it feels like you spend 90% of the game wandering quite aimlessly trying to find out about your rathalos' mysterious power and how it ties into the disturbances. They really hamfist stories about your grandfather and try to implement a twist villain so late and so unconvincingly since his motivations make like 0 sense. There's also a really annoying mascot palico called navirou that pretty much only exists to speak for the silent protagonist and occassionally offer some unfunny comic relief, he can also go super saiyan for some reason and it is never explained. Despite this I did find myself quite enjoying using the companions and interacting with them because they are at least marginally developed as characters and are a great help in combat, I also really like how each region has its own unique companion and then in the endgame you can pick who you want to travel with (reverto is broken btw).
Also like most monster hunter games, much of the best content and monsters are hidden away in the postgame and multiplayer (which is pretty restricted in co-op at least until you finish the game). So its worth coninuining this long after you finish the main game. Another thing that bothered me just a little is its lengthy and repetitive 'dens' or dungeons that you can explore because barring a couple story specific dungeons you are unlikely to come back to, they basically follow the same patterns. You spend a LOT of time just holding forward and pressing a to pick stuff up so that you can get to the end, where the actual thing you want is located - the egg or monster you're hunting. I would have liked it if after you get the fly ability in the story, you're able to use it anywhere including in dungeons to bypass stuff more easily, it wouldn't take much away from the experience at all and would make late-game egg farming so much easier.
Overall a sick jrpg that blows the majority of pokemon games out of the water with its amazing level of detail, beautiful presentation, surprisingly deep mechanics that rarely ever rely on rng and excellent gameplay with tons of strategy and personalisation. This honestly might just be one of the best spin offs of a big mainline video game series that i've ever played and its a must play for any big monster hunter fan, it certainly scratched that monster hunter itch for me!
There's tons of positives about this game that I was not anticipating and was really impressed by, like its clever combat system that takes turn based combat a much-needed step further because of the balance of its mechanics and the strategy they create - such as the kinship guage, riding monsters and the rock paper scissors / fire emblem weapon triangle-esque basic attack system; plus, there's the monster-hunter staples there in full effect with its different weapon types / uses, elements, statuses and equipment. I wasn't expecting the game to add so much of what I have come to know and love of mainline monster hunter, such as being able to craft weapons and armour from monster parts (+ make layered armour), combine and craft your own items and go on full multiplayer adventures, all of these were a lovely surprise as I was expecting a much simpler single-player jrpg.
By far the strongest aspect for me were the monsters themselves and how well translated they feel. There's clear fanservice going on here and it had me geeking out a little because monsters all move and interact in different ways when you're riding them, have unique abilities and battle skills and can be personalised to no end, you can have a kulu-ya-ku with nergigante's moves if you put the work in which is fucking amazing. They are also beautifully reworked into this more colourful and cartoonish artstyle. There's tons of monsters in this game from previous mainline entries and it really feels like a greatest hits of fan-favourites, almost all of which are given appropriate screen-time and fun little intro cutscenes which regularly put a smile on my face, especially when my boy Zamtrios popped up. I immediately got myself a zamtrios and started swimming around everywhere and using his kinship move to flatten everything and I was LOVING it. Suffice it to say MHS2's gameplay totally bangs and never got boring especially since its always changing things up: different areas, new mechanics, new companions, seriously good stuff.
Where the game falls off a little is in the story aspects which, as you would expect from a game called monster hunter stories, takes a central approach. While never outrageously or offensively bad, there's honestly not a ton to like about this game's story, its like the story from any other mainline monster hunter game but with more sappy moments about kinship and bonds with your monsters and stuff. A mysterious disturbance causes sudden changes in the ecology and in local monster's behaviour - if you've ever played a monster hunter game you'll be VERY familiar with that trope. Its the same stuff, albeit stretched very thinly and it feels like you spend 90% of the game wandering quite aimlessly trying to find out about your rathalos' mysterious power and how it ties into the disturbances. They really hamfist stories about your grandfather and try to implement a twist villain so late and so unconvincingly since his motivations make like 0 sense. There's also a really annoying mascot palico called navirou that pretty much only exists to speak for the silent protagonist and occassionally offer some unfunny comic relief, he can also go super saiyan for some reason and it is never explained. Despite this I did find myself quite enjoying using the companions and interacting with them because they are at least marginally developed as characters and are a great help in combat, I also really like how each region has its own unique companion and then in the endgame you can pick who you want to travel with (reverto is broken btw).
Also like most monster hunter games, much of the best content and monsters are hidden away in the postgame and multiplayer (which is pretty restricted in co-op at least until you finish the game). So its worth coninuining this long after you finish the main game. Another thing that bothered me just a little is its lengthy and repetitive 'dens' or dungeons that you can explore because barring a couple story specific dungeons you are unlikely to come back to, they basically follow the same patterns. You spend a LOT of time just holding forward and pressing a to pick stuff up so that you can get to the end, where the actual thing you want is located - the egg or monster you're hunting. I would have liked it if after you get the fly ability in the story, you're able to use it anywhere including in dungeons to bypass stuff more easily, it wouldn't take much away from the experience at all and would make late-game egg farming so much easier.
Overall a sick jrpg that blows the majority of pokemon games out of the water with its amazing level of detail, beautiful presentation, surprisingly deep mechanics that rarely ever rely on rng and excellent gameplay with tons of strategy and personalisation. This honestly might just be one of the best spin offs of a big mainline video game series that i've ever played and its a must play for any big monster hunter fan, it certainly scratched that monster hunter itch for me!
Ring Fit Adventure
2019
Genuinely one of the best things to come out of the switch and a genius bit of kit. Ring fit is a hell of a workout and makes me soak with sweat, but equally as important - its well designed and great fun.
Ring fit’s colourful art style, varied gameplay modes and rpg elements in adventure are all strongly executed to make this an enjoyable and immensely replayable fitness game that keeps me coming back. I particularly like how the game encourages you through its sections, my favourite parts are the jogging levels which fly by because of how it always switches up what you need to be doing - collecting rings, jumping, shooting wind blasts, getting past obstacles, riding ziplines, its great food for my attention lacking brain and actually turns the otherwise mind numbing practice of jogging on the spot into something I enjoy, congrats ring fit!
The ring itself is an amazingly sturdy and versatile piece of equipment that isn’t expensive but you wouldn’t be able to tell because of how good it feels to use. I often find the joy cons’ motion detection quite hit or miss but for whatever reason its almost flawless in this game. Sometimes the game has trouble detecting that you’re in the right starting position and you can’t start an exercise until it does, but there’s ways around it, that’s the only fault i’ve noticed.
Adventure mode does lose its appeal after a while and is honestly a bit too slow with giving you fit skills so you end up doing the same exercises way too much so I only do custom workouts now. The voice acting can be very grating especially when you are dying inside from planking or something so this game gets turned all the way down while I stick music on lol. Otherwise, excellent game that I recommend to basically everyone, its actually great ngl
Ring fit’s colourful art style, varied gameplay modes and rpg elements in adventure are all strongly executed to make this an enjoyable and immensely replayable fitness game that keeps me coming back. I particularly like how the game encourages you through its sections, my favourite parts are the jogging levels which fly by because of how it always switches up what you need to be doing - collecting rings, jumping, shooting wind blasts, getting past obstacles, riding ziplines, its great food for my attention lacking brain and actually turns the otherwise mind numbing practice of jogging on the spot into something I enjoy, congrats ring fit!
The ring itself is an amazingly sturdy and versatile piece of equipment that isn’t expensive but you wouldn’t be able to tell because of how good it feels to use. I often find the joy cons’ motion detection quite hit or miss but for whatever reason its almost flawless in this game. Sometimes the game has trouble detecting that you’re in the right starting position and you can’t start an exercise until it does, but there’s ways around it, that’s the only fault i’ve noticed.
Adventure mode does lose its appeal after a while and is honestly a bit too slow with giving you fit skills so you end up doing the same exercises way too much so I only do custom workouts now. The voice acting can be very grating especially when you are dying inside from planking or something so this game gets turned all the way down while I stick music on lol. Otherwise, excellent game that I recommend to basically everyone, its actually great ngl
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
2023
I love JSR and JSRF, but I didn't really feel this as much as I wanted to. It’s lacking the energy and verve of JSR and JSRF. Part of that may be the lack of voice acting, but the OST also feels kinda… orthodox in a way that the other games felt unconventional.
The levels have very little going on in the way of environmental interaction, making the gameplay feel less involved. The levels in JSRF in particular, were more intricate, even down to the atmosphere, with lots of moving NPCs, vehicles, and environmental hazards.
I don't know; this game just feels… lifeless, and that’s a huge fucking bummer.
The mini-game for spraying graffiti is detrimental to the momentum of the traversal since it completely stops you. The best way to do it is to aimlessly roll your stick in circles so it feels superfluous and out of place.
The levels have very little going on in the way of environmental interaction, making the gameplay feel less involved. The levels in JSRF in particular, were more intricate, even down to the atmosphere, with lots of moving NPCs, vehicles, and environmental hazards.
I don't know; this game just feels… lifeless, and that’s a huge fucking bummer.
The mini-game for spraying graffiti is detrimental to the momentum of the traversal since it completely stops you. The best way to do it is to aimlessly roll your stick in circles so it feels superfluous and out of place.
Preaching to me about how violence is bad? Fucking loser
FINALLY! I beat Calamity Ganon! This game is a big beautiful piece of art!
Shin Megami Tensei V
2021
moments before the earth itself opened up and lucifer's hand pulled him to the underworld for his grievous sin, the catholic priest i showed this game to said decarabia was pretty neat
Absolute masterpiece. The best 007 game ever released.
Kirby's Adventure
1993
Okay yeah this game is really great. Multiple times I had to ask myself, “How is this an NES game?” Then the game would chug harder than almost any other NES game I had seen. Outside of that (which is a huge problem but I’ve heard is corrected in the 3D classics version), I’m in love with this game
Ghost of Tsushima
2020
I'm an outlier here, but I think this was kind of mid in a lot of ways. It looks and sounds great, the main story is solid enough (if not rehashing a lot of better pre-existing samurai films), the companion side-quests range between okay to pretty good, the combat works well enough, but it's yet another game with a gigantic map filled with too much to do and not enough good stuff to do in it.
In Infamous Second Son for example, Sucker Punch got around the inherent open world problem by giving the player one of the most fun traversal systems ever. Here, like in so many open world games, it's kind of a chore still. Yes the wind thing is neat, but what I'm going to, some Fox Den or Duel or 5 minute side quest...just isn't that great!
There's a reason this took me almost a full year to finish, and when I finally finished it this June, there's a reason I beelined to the story (and companion quests) and stuck with that.
I'd like to see another game from Sucker Punch, either a direct Tsushima 2 or a game set somewhere else in Japan (maybe somewhere else in the Nagasaki Prefecture) and see what they can do with it. I think they built a great foundation here visually and mechanically, and a sequel could be a real step up.
In Infamous Second Son for example, Sucker Punch got around the inherent open world problem by giving the player one of the most fun traversal systems ever. Here, like in so many open world games, it's kind of a chore still. Yes the wind thing is neat, but what I'm going to, some Fox Den or Duel or 5 minute side quest...just isn't that great!
There's a reason this took me almost a full year to finish, and when I finally finished it this June, there's a reason I beelined to the story (and companion quests) and stuck with that.
I'd like to see another game from Sucker Punch, either a direct Tsushima 2 or a game set somewhere else in Japan (maybe somewhere else in the Nagasaki Prefecture) and see what they can do with it. I think they built a great foundation here visually and mechanically, and a sequel could be a real step up.
Pizza Tower
2023
Sir, they just hit the second Pizza Tower.
Fear & Hunger
2018
Great survival horror rpg. Clearly influenced by sticker star with its lack of exp after battles
good for those gamers who wanted to play a remake of a 20 year old game but at half the framerate, worse graphics and also wanted to hear a voice actor who loved saying the n-word on youtube