the best soulslike that isn't from fromsoftware, but i still have some complaints:
1. the parry window is WAYYYYYYY too narrow for anyone with a sane mind

2. enemies either bait you for way too long on the parry, or they simply never stop attacking

3. (and this is the big one) in the late game every enemy has multiple hits in the same attack (not combo, attack) making it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to parry all of them. this becomes an issue especially with luxasia and nameless puppet where the game already expects basically perfection with the player.

overall in the late-game i became very frustrated to see this happening because i was running a full-on technique build with a weapon not that good on damage but really fast, and it became bluntly apparent that those bosses were not designed for my build in mind.

ico is so timeless and influential it became the industry standard for adventure games, and every single company copied it wrong.

ico makes it's narrative be so compelling by making every aspect of the game geared towards it. the combat is simple, the puzzles are simplistic, even the two characters in the journey don't even understand each other. sometimes less is more and ico understands this perfectly.

it's a simple game, with a simple story about companionship, executed flawlessly.

if someone asked me what makes videogames art, this is the first game i'd show.

yeah this is definitely the best version of RE4 by far, the RE engine does an amazing job with what it's been given and i love all the detail and care that capcom put into it.

that being said... it's still just re4.
while it certainly does a better job at making it feel and look like a survival horror game, it's still just an action game underneath.

you can see that becoming true again in chapter 15 with the helicopter sequence. while it's not particularly bad, it does feel like capcom still doesn't understand what makes classic resident evil intriguing to play to this day, even if it means having to put up with tank controls. and if they end up remaking 5 it'll be resident evil's controversy of survival horror/action all over again.

combat-wise it's pretty much identical with the OG (with a few QOL additions like parrying and stealth) as long as you play on standard, after that enemies become a bullet sponge and it becomes frustating/not fun.

anyway, TLDR; the game up to the castle is basically flawless and does a much better job with ambience than the original. play on standard if you want a good time with the game while also having a bit of challenge.

as someone who never actually played the original alone in the dark, i am quite excited now that i've played this demo for this remake/reboot.

why? well, first of all, it's pretty rare for a studio to release a demo for their game well before it's release date.

but you know what's even rarer? a good pc port. and this one hit it's mark, even though it's only 15 minutes long it managed to run smoothly (and with nice graphics) on my 10-year-old potato pc.

overall excited for the actual release. will be playing.