petro_sino
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Phantasy Star II
1989
The first Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System was a surprise to me. Maybe it's a feeling I had that because it was the oldest one in the series on an earlier console it would be bad? It's dated in many ways but bad? Not even close. Impressive art, music and technical feats on the system made it a really fun little game. The second Phantasy Star title is equally a surprise to me but literally in the polar opposite direction. I assumed because it was on the megadrive it and a sequel it would be an improvement on everything laid before it.
I was wrong.
I actually kind of actively hate this game and I just didn't expect that going in. The story starts with an interesting premise. Set 1000 years after Phantasy Star the Algol star system is ruled by a super computer called Mother Brain that has made every decision for it's residents. Controlling everything to make their lives easy but when something goes wrong they are not equipped to deal with it. As an agent of the governor you are chosen to find out the cause behind a new wave of monsters appearing due to Mother Brain not taking action. I like the idea a lot of people becoming too dependent to act on their own though the game never feels like that in the actual world.
The 80s/90s anime sci-fi visual design is still quite striking. Characters have mixture of, knives, boomerangs, magic, laser swords and plasma pistols in a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi. It's a great blend the game works well cohesively with the character designs of shoulder pads and big hair dos with obvious Star Wars influences. Whilst I like the art and atmosphere I did find it actually less impressive from a technical standpoint than it's predecessor. The dungeons losing their first person view into the more traditional top down exploration with that was disappointing though, but that's the least of the dungeons problems.
They. Are. Terrible.
Initially they aren't too bad but as the game progressed further and further my drive to continue lessened with my progress. Each dungeon is a giant sprawling maze filled with warp points zooming you from floor to floor. It's full of unrewarding dead ends and twists with no in game map to help you navigate the labyrinthine nightmares. It's no wonder on release the game came with a guide book with a walkthrough and maps, they knew. I followed an online walkthrough in the end because I couldn't see myself brute forcing through without one. At one point the guide describes a new dungeon you come to as: "The first floor has no less than 69 chutes leading up to the next floor (No, I'm not kidding. There really are 69 chutes. Stop laughing.)" and many later are even worse. In an interview in 1993 whilst promoting Phantasy Star IV the game designer Kotaro Hayashida discusses Phantasy Star II and when asked about the dungeons he is translated as stating:
"Another issue was related to the dungeons, which were created by a new employee. Because he was new, he put a ton of effort into the maps and kind of overdid it… the game became more about the complex dungeons than anything else. I think you really see that on the Dezolis dungeons. They were really well done, and when Chieko Aoki saw them she didn’t want all the new employee’s work to be for naught, so we ended up using those maps… albeit with some mixed feelings. They contributed to the latter half of the game being unbalanced"
I agree with this though think Phantasy Star II being generally unbalanced from the get go. Due to the huge twisting warping bland looking dungeons and encounters every two steps the amount of combat in the game is kind of staggering. The amount of experience you get from them though is pitiful to the point that grinding and battling over and over just to gain one level up that does little towards improving your overall strength made the experience of playing extremely tedious. (Fans have created a double money, double experience hack due to this) I was even using fast forward playing this on the Playstation 4 Megadrive collection so god only knows how it would have felt at the original speed. To compound matters the games combat feels slightly unwieldly but to it's credit also a little ahead of it's time in some ways. There is a button to fight where the party will just auto combat each turn. In between you can manually select orders to the team to make them use spells, items or defend but it means going through extra menu steps each time unnecessarily. The menus generally feel kind of poorly implemented and equipping items, giving them to each other or using healing spells outside of battle was irritating every time. Despite all of this I did continue on as I wanted to see all the game had to offer only to reach an ending that actually made me think all the effort flat wasn't worth it.
In the same interview mentioned above on shupcompilations they discuss the game originally being made on the Master System then changed and ported in an extremely short amount of time. It sounds like it was a miracle and hard work the game came out at all to which I respect them greatly. I'm glad I finally finished the first RPG released on the Sega Megadrive and such a pillar of gaming history I was missing. It doesn't change my opinion though that Phantasy Star II is actually pretty poorly designed and not actually very fun to play.
As a Sega fan, retro gaming fan and RPG fan, this hurt to write. Half a star for the art design though, especially the cover art. Hitoshi Yoneda's work is stunning.
+ I like the story premise.
+ The ingame art design and promotional artwork is wonderful with a blend of high fantast and tech heavy sci-fi.
- It has possible the worst dungeons of the nearly 150 JRPGs I have played. Extremely tedious. Every one made me want to quit.
- It's a huge grind but feels unrewarding with it.
- Story is generally unsatisfying.
I was wrong.
I actually kind of actively hate this game and I just didn't expect that going in. The story starts with an interesting premise. Set 1000 years after Phantasy Star the Algol star system is ruled by a super computer called Mother Brain that has made every decision for it's residents. Controlling everything to make their lives easy but when something goes wrong they are not equipped to deal with it. As an agent of the governor you are chosen to find out the cause behind a new wave of monsters appearing due to Mother Brain not taking action. I like the idea a lot of people becoming too dependent to act on their own though the game never feels like that in the actual world.
The 80s/90s anime sci-fi visual design is still quite striking. Characters have mixture of, knives, boomerangs, magic, laser swords and plasma pistols in a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi. It's a great blend the game works well cohesively with the character designs of shoulder pads and big hair dos with obvious Star Wars influences. Whilst I like the art and atmosphere I did find it actually less impressive from a technical standpoint than it's predecessor. The dungeons losing their first person view into the more traditional top down exploration with that was disappointing though, but that's the least of the dungeons problems.
They. Are. Terrible.
Initially they aren't too bad but as the game progressed further and further my drive to continue lessened with my progress. Each dungeon is a giant sprawling maze filled with warp points zooming you from floor to floor. It's full of unrewarding dead ends and twists with no in game map to help you navigate the labyrinthine nightmares. It's no wonder on release the game came with a guide book with a walkthrough and maps, they knew. I followed an online walkthrough in the end because I couldn't see myself brute forcing through without one. At one point the guide describes a new dungeon you come to as: "The first floor has no less than 69 chutes leading up to the next floor (No, I'm not kidding. There really are 69 chutes. Stop laughing.)" and many later are even worse. In an interview in 1993 whilst promoting Phantasy Star IV the game designer Kotaro Hayashida discusses Phantasy Star II and when asked about the dungeons he is translated as stating:
"Another issue was related to the dungeons, which were created by a new employee. Because he was new, he put a ton of effort into the maps and kind of overdid it… the game became more about the complex dungeons than anything else. I think you really see that on the Dezolis dungeons. They were really well done, and when Chieko Aoki saw them she didn’t want all the new employee’s work to be for naught, so we ended up using those maps… albeit with some mixed feelings. They contributed to the latter half of the game being unbalanced"
I agree with this though think Phantasy Star II being generally unbalanced from the get go. Due to the huge twisting warping bland looking dungeons and encounters every two steps the amount of combat in the game is kind of staggering. The amount of experience you get from them though is pitiful to the point that grinding and battling over and over just to gain one level up that does little towards improving your overall strength made the experience of playing extremely tedious. (Fans have created a double money, double experience hack due to this) I was even using fast forward playing this on the Playstation 4 Megadrive collection so god only knows how it would have felt at the original speed. To compound matters the games combat feels slightly unwieldly but to it's credit also a little ahead of it's time in some ways. There is a button to fight where the party will just auto combat each turn. In between you can manually select orders to the team to make them use spells, items or defend but it means going through extra menu steps each time unnecessarily. The menus generally feel kind of poorly implemented and equipping items, giving them to each other or using healing spells outside of battle was irritating every time. Despite all of this I did continue on as I wanted to see all the game had to offer only to reach an ending that actually made me think all the effort flat wasn't worth it.
In the same interview mentioned above on shupcompilations they discuss the game originally being made on the Master System then changed and ported in an extremely short amount of time. It sounds like it was a miracle and hard work the game came out at all to which I respect them greatly. I'm glad I finally finished the first RPG released on the Sega Megadrive and such a pillar of gaming history I was missing. It doesn't change my opinion though that Phantasy Star II is actually pretty poorly designed and not actually very fun to play.
As a Sega fan, retro gaming fan and RPG fan, this hurt to write. Half a star for the art design though, especially the cover art. Hitoshi Yoneda's work is stunning.
+ I like the story premise.
+ The ingame art design and promotional artwork is wonderful with a blend of high fantast and tech heavy sci-fi.
- It has possible the worst dungeons of the nearly 150 JRPGs I have played. Extremely tedious. Every one made me want to quit.
- It's a huge grind but feels unrewarding with it.
- Story is generally unsatisfying.
I only found out this game existed a couple of years ago as my interest in the Sakura Wars franchise grew thanks to work by fans on patches bringing them over to the West in English for the first time. Sakura Wars: Go Forth Young Cadet! as translated is kind of an interesting game. It seems to be set during the latter half of the first Sakura Wars game (1996) and to be honest I feel that playing that first is a necessary perquisite to play this. Knowing the characters makes a huge difference.
You play the role of a young unnamed candidate with high spirit power scouted by Vice Commander Ayame Fujieda of the Imperial Assault Troupe. If successfully chosen you are invited to a month long trial with the troupe to see how you perform. The premise is kind of...odd to be honest. This is never mentioned in any form to my knowledge anywhere else (so probably isn't regarded as cannon?) and recruiting someone off the street for only 30 days to teach them everything about a top secret military unit hidden in the heart of Tokyo with no intention of keeping them permanently? It seems a little tactically unsound.
Regardless the premise sets up for a clean slate to meet the girls from the unit and spend time with them either training or just socially. The cadet has several attributes to manage over the 30 days. Stamina, Intellect, Spirit Power, Guts, Agility and Accuracy. You can spend time training up to twice a day to improve these at the cost of stamina or skip a training session to recover your stamina by having a nap (as apparently sleeping over night doesn't do that?). At the end of the 30 days you are given a rank based on your performance. I got rated as an Usher though the description made that sound like a positive thing at least.
The morning training sessions are mapped out for you over the course of a week training with Sakura, Sumire, Kanna, Iris, Kohran, or Maria. Each character builds up a different stat and you can choose who to train with in the afternoons if you want to specialise further. At the end of each week you have a mock battle in one of the Koubu mechs. It's a turn based affair with which Koubu you choose being directed by the stats you've built or relationships you want to increase further.
This is where the game comes across as a little odd again because it takes the almost dating sim / visual novel elements of the main game with talking with the girls in-between training. You select dialogue options on how to respond resulting in neutral, positive or negative retorts. At times it's a bit flirty but will never go anywhere due to set ups from the original game. The girls are spread all over the theatre you all work from in the morning, noon and evening though there is no way to tell who they are until you begin the conversation. If you build up a good enough relationship with a character you will get extra scenes and endings with them. I focused on Sakura to see most of hers. Some conversations will give you minigames to play like shooting targets or hitting wood blocks with swords as the most interactive part of the whole game. Some conversations will also lead to instant game overs which was irritating. In my case on my recent run I ended up with some permanent damage from a situation I couldn't get rid of and there is no way in most cases of knowing a possible outcome. In that conversation it was instant game over or permanent stat damage as my two options having rewound on emulation to see.
I really dislike the trial and error nature of the visual novel having such frustrating effects with no way of knowing and it's not that frequent that it's possible to play through without even knowing they are there. So when it does happen it's like a bolt out of nowhere. Whilst it is designed to have multiple play throughs to see all events (Someone trying the worst possible run without game overs amuses me) in it's short play length. Having the character icons on the map hidden at a cost of 5000 points per girl when a single playthrough only earns you 2000 is one hell of a grind. (Though this game also had an extra peripheral of a modified Tamagotchi called pocket Sakura that worked as a pedometer to gain points for the shop when connected to your gameboy) You can also buy music, voice clips and bromide pictures of the girls from the shop for these points too.
This brings me to my last point and the most impressive is the production values. Maybe because it's more visual novel than game but Sakura Wars on the Gameboy colour looks and sounds phenomenal for the system. The character sprites, art design and backgrounds are so far of anything else I've seen on the system. They really did manage to bring the game to a portable without losing the aesthetic that makes this series what it is. the music transitions amazingly well too. The theme title is instantly recognisable albeit without the singing. Other Tracks from the original game transition just as well.
So an odd game in some ways but I must admit despite that I kind of like it? It's technically extremely impressive and getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast on a platform I didn't think was capable of capturing the essence was a pleasant surprise. I hope Sakura Taisen GB2 gets translated at some point in the future as I understand that is more of a dungeon crawler so would be interested to know how it fares.
+ Amazing visuals and music considering the platform limitations.
+ Getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast is great for fans.
+ Lots of replayability and things to unlock.
- Some instant game overs just aren't fun.
- The unlockable extras to navigate the game easier are way too expensive.
- Game's story premise seems slightly out of place in the grand scheme of things.
You play the role of a young unnamed candidate with high spirit power scouted by Vice Commander Ayame Fujieda of the Imperial Assault Troupe. If successfully chosen you are invited to a month long trial with the troupe to see how you perform. The premise is kind of...odd to be honest. This is never mentioned in any form to my knowledge anywhere else (so probably isn't regarded as cannon?) and recruiting someone off the street for only 30 days to teach them everything about a top secret military unit hidden in the heart of Tokyo with no intention of keeping them permanently? It seems a little tactically unsound.
Regardless the premise sets up for a clean slate to meet the girls from the unit and spend time with them either training or just socially. The cadet has several attributes to manage over the 30 days. Stamina, Intellect, Spirit Power, Guts, Agility and Accuracy. You can spend time training up to twice a day to improve these at the cost of stamina or skip a training session to recover your stamina by having a nap (as apparently sleeping over night doesn't do that?). At the end of the 30 days you are given a rank based on your performance. I got rated as an Usher though the description made that sound like a positive thing at least.
The morning training sessions are mapped out for you over the course of a week training with Sakura, Sumire, Kanna, Iris, Kohran, or Maria. Each character builds up a different stat and you can choose who to train with in the afternoons if you want to specialise further. At the end of each week you have a mock battle in one of the Koubu mechs. It's a turn based affair with which Koubu you choose being directed by the stats you've built or relationships you want to increase further.
This is where the game comes across as a little odd again because it takes the almost dating sim / visual novel elements of the main game with talking with the girls in-between training. You select dialogue options on how to respond resulting in neutral, positive or negative retorts. At times it's a bit flirty but will never go anywhere due to set ups from the original game. The girls are spread all over the theatre you all work from in the morning, noon and evening though there is no way to tell who they are until you begin the conversation. If you build up a good enough relationship with a character you will get extra scenes and endings with them. I focused on Sakura to see most of hers. Some conversations will give you minigames to play like shooting targets or hitting wood blocks with swords as the most interactive part of the whole game. Some conversations will also lead to instant game overs which was irritating. In my case on my recent run I ended up with some permanent damage from a situation I couldn't get rid of and there is no way in most cases of knowing a possible outcome. In that conversation it was instant game over or permanent stat damage as my two options having rewound on emulation to see.
I really dislike the trial and error nature of the visual novel having such frustrating effects with no way of knowing and it's not that frequent that it's possible to play through without even knowing they are there. So when it does happen it's like a bolt out of nowhere. Whilst it is designed to have multiple play throughs to see all events (Someone trying the worst possible run without game overs amuses me) in it's short play length. Having the character icons on the map hidden at a cost of 5000 points per girl when a single playthrough only earns you 2000 is one hell of a grind. (Though this game also had an extra peripheral of a modified Tamagotchi called pocket Sakura that worked as a pedometer to gain points for the shop when connected to your gameboy) You can also buy music, voice clips and bromide pictures of the girls from the shop for these points too.
This brings me to my last point and the most impressive is the production values. Maybe because it's more visual novel than game but Sakura Wars on the Gameboy colour looks and sounds phenomenal for the system. The character sprites, art design and backgrounds are so far of anything else I've seen on the system. They really did manage to bring the game to a portable without losing the aesthetic that makes this series what it is. the music transitions amazingly well too. The theme title is instantly recognisable albeit without the singing. Other Tracks from the original game transition just as well.
So an odd game in some ways but I must admit despite that I kind of like it? It's technically extremely impressive and getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast on a platform I didn't think was capable of capturing the essence was a pleasant surprise. I hope Sakura Taisen GB2 gets translated at some point in the future as I understand that is more of a dungeon crawler so would be interested to know how it fares.
+ Amazing visuals and music considering the platform limitations.
+ Getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast is great for fans.
+ Lots of replayability and things to unlock.
- Some instant game overs just aren't fun.
- The unlockable extras to navigate the game easier are way too expensive.
- Game's story premise seems slightly out of place in the grand scheme of things.
Persona 4 Golden
2012
a beautifully paced murder mystery, unravelling into a web of philosophical themes backed by a stellar cast, fantastic pacing and a wonderful soundtrack. masterpiece.
Pokémon Masters EX
2019
Decided to download the game because they add Rika, my favorite Pokémon character, to the game.
The game seems interesting with being able to battle and team up with all the famous trainers from all the game. However, it is plagued by the curse of being a mobile game. Tons of unnecessary and long updates and constant pop up notifications. Could barely even play the game. It got so annoying to where I just deleted the game.
Whether you're a PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox or PC fanboy, can we all agree that mobile gaming is the worse? Thank you.
The game seems interesting with being able to battle and team up with all the famous trainers from all the game. However, it is plagued by the curse of being a mobile game. Tons of unnecessary and long updates and constant pop up notifications. Could barely even play the game. It got so annoying to where I just deleted the game.
Whether you're a PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox or PC fanboy, can we all agree that mobile gaming is the worse? Thank you.
Virtua Fighter 2
1994
Anyone who has ever played and really enjoyed a modern 3D fighting title like Tekken 8, Soulcalibur VI, or what have you, and then immediately went back to play some of the earlier 3D fighters like the original Virtua Fighter would probably be asking themselves “why do I feel nothing but pain”, but for what it is worth, that game still somewhat holds up as a game, as well as what it meant for the genre. If you view it as a fighting game, plain and simple, it is definitely not something I would wanna touch with a ten-foot pole, but as a gateway for many other fighters to enter the realm of 3D, it managed to do a pretty good job, while also bringing the awkward, yet fun enough gameplay that managed to impress plenty back when it came out, as well as me whenever I decided to check it out four months ago. Unlike with Virtua Racing though, this wasn’t just gonna be a one-time experiment in the Virtua series, as thanks to its immense success back in the day, the game would spawn numerous sequels, spin-offs, and merchandise as a result, and it would eventually lead to the sequel that would release just one year later, simply known as Virtua Fighter 2.
Now, I have played quite a handful of fighting games at this point now on this website, and while I am still somehow garbage at almost every single one I play, I know what to expect when it comes to any of them that I play, especially when it comes to fighting game sequels. The original Virtua Fighter was already as barebones as it gets when it comes to the content it offered, so I assumed that Virtua Fighter 2 would follow suit, most likely not focusing on changing up the main formula too often, but polishing it to where it would be more approachable and addicting than that of the previous title. Then I got around to playing the game, and while I unfortunately found my assumptions to be correct, I did find that, as a sequel, the game manages to surpass the original in just about every way, and I would say it is a good time. Once again, this certainly won’t be my go-to choice if I were to recommend you a 3D fighting game, but for what we got here, it took what the original game had and made it much better, feeling like an actual game rather than a tech demo.
The story is basically unchanged from the original, so if you were a fan of the lack of story from the original game, fear not, because this game manages to keep that trend up, but that is to be expected from a series like this, the graphics are a MASSIVE improvement from the original game, where the environments look great and have a lot of variety, and the fighters look like actual people rather than blocky masses of nightmare fuel, so that’s great to see, the music is pretty good, having plenty of rocking tunes for you to listen to while watching these 3D puppets mash each other in the face, even if none of the tracks really jump out to me in my mind at the moment, and the gameplay/control is also unchanged from the original game, with there being one or two changes here or there, but for this title, we have yet another “been there, done that, bought that t-shirt” situation here.
The game is a 3D fighting game, where you take control of 11 fighters, such as all of the original fighters from the previous game or two new ones, take on a set of opponents that you will need to take down one by one, throw plenty of punches, kicks, throws, body slams, or whatever else your character can do to deplete your opponent’s HP to zero, make sure to block and dodge at the right times to make sure that you can protect yourself in the process, and… that is still about it. This game sticks very close to its roots in that regard, where it makes sure to not change up the gameplay formula whatsoever, and instead focuses on everything around it to make the game feel more enjoyable and lively. That could be good for those who are big fans of the original, but bad for those who wanted more out of that game, and for me personally……… I mean, it still works pretty well, so I don’t have too much of a problem with it.
The main differences that can be seen in the game comes down to the visuals and the variety with the locations. They are a massive improvement from what we saw in the original game, looking very smooth and detailed for 1994, and while they still move around as gracefully as an early 3D model could (complete with moon jumping), it at least feels like I am actually controlling real people, which is a lot more than I can say for that original game. Not to mention, the stages you have fought in are given a massive upgrade, where in the original game, you pretty much just fought in one stage the entire way through, but here, there are plenty of different areas you fight in, most of them being… a bit generic, but still looking good for the time. Aside from all that though, there isn’t much more to say about the game. There are some new characters, who are fun to mess around with, and there are some versions of the game that allow you to adjust the size and the arena and how much health you have, but other then that, this is pretty much just the same ol’ shit you have come to expect from Virtua Fighter at this point.
So, to mix things up, I figured I would also go ahead and try out the Sega Genesis version of the game as well, not just because it is available to me through the NSO, but also cause I wanna see just how they would take a game like Virtua Fighter, the game SOLELY known for being “the 3D fighter”, and put it on a 2D system. Well, to the surprise of nobody, the game was turned into 2D, with all of the models being fully recreated with 2D sprites fighting in 2D environments, which is impressive enough for a port, and a lot of the music, character animations, and moves do look, feel, and sound a lot like the original version. It is a good enough port of the original game for the Genesis, but if I were given a choice between the two, I would definitely choose the original version over this version any day. Sure, the port does a good enough job at bringing the game to a home console, but one of the defining aspects of this series was that, again, it is 3D, so by removing that aspect of the game, it becomes yet another generic 2D fighter that I wouldn’t play over any other game in the genre like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat.
But anyway, overall, despite a lack of change in the gameplay and still not being on the same level as some more famous 2D fighters, Virtua Fighter 2 is a definite improvement over the original game in plenty of ways, looking much better, having more variety in both the stages and the characters you can play as, and making the gameplay much more polished and fun despite how limited it is. I would recommend it for those who loved the original game, as well as those who want to check out some of the earlier 3D fighting games out there, because while it may not be able to win you over fully, it could surely provide a fun enough time messing around with it, especially with a friend to join you. Let’s just hope that, for the next game, they actually manage to change things up for a change and-... wait… this series also got game updates like Street Fighter did? annoyed sigh.............. of course, because if Street Fighter did it, then that means EVERYONE has to do it, because it’s such a great idea, right?!
Game #564
Now, I have played quite a handful of fighting games at this point now on this website, and while I am still somehow garbage at almost every single one I play, I know what to expect when it comes to any of them that I play, especially when it comes to fighting game sequels. The original Virtua Fighter was already as barebones as it gets when it comes to the content it offered, so I assumed that Virtua Fighter 2 would follow suit, most likely not focusing on changing up the main formula too often, but polishing it to where it would be more approachable and addicting than that of the previous title. Then I got around to playing the game, and while I unfortunately found my assumptions to be correct, I did find that, as a sequel, the game manages to surpass the original in just about every way, and I would say it is a good time. Once again, this certainly won’t be my go-to choice if I were to recommend you a 3D fighting game, but for what we got here, it took what the original game had and made it much better, feeling like an actual game rather than a tech demo.
The story is basically unchanged from the original, so if you were a fan of the lack of story from the original game, fear not, because this game manages to keep that trend up, but that is to be expected from a series like this, the graphics are a MASSIVE improvement from the original game, where the environments look great and have a lot of variety, and the fighters look like actual people rather than blocky masses of nightmare fuel, so that’s great to see, the music is pretty good, having plenty of rocking tunes for you to listen to while watching these 3D puppets mash each other in the face, even if none of the tracks really jump out to me in my mind at the moment, and the gameplay/control is also unchanged from the original game, with there being one or two changes here or there, but for this title, we have yet another “been there, done that, bought that t-shirt” situation here.
The game is a 3D fighting game, where you take control of 11 fighters, such as all of the original fighters from the previous game or two new ones, take on a set of opponents that you will need to take down one by one, throw plenty of punches, kicks, throws, body slams, or whatever else your character can do to deplete your opponent’s HP to zero, make sure to block and dodge at the right times to make sure that you can protect yourself in the process, and… that is still about it. This game sticks very close to its roots in that regard, where it makes sure to not change up the gameplay formula whatsoever, and instead focuses on everything around it to make the game feel more enjoyable and lively. That could be good for those who are big fans of the original, but bad for those who wanted more out of that game, and for me personally……… I mean, it still works pretty well, so I don’t have too much of a problem with it.
The main differences that can be seen in the game comes down to the visuals and the variety with the locations. They are a massive improvement from what we saw in the original game, looking very smooth and detailed for 1994, and while they still move around as gracefully as an early 3D model could (complete with moon jumping), it at least feels like I am actually controlling real people, which is a lot more than I can say for that original game. Not to mention, the stages you have fought in are given a massive upgrade, where in the original game, you pretty much just fought in one stage the entire way through, but here, there are plenty of different areas you fight in, most of them being… a bit generic, but still looking good for the time. Aside from all that though, there isn’t much more to say about the game. There are some new characters, who are fun to mess around with, and there are some versions of the game that allow you to adjust the size and the arena and how much health you have, but other then that, this is pretty much just the same ol’ shit you have come to expect from Virtua Fighter at this point.
So, to mix things up, I figured I would also go ahead and try out the Sega Genesis version of the game as well, not just because it is available to me through the NSO, but also cause I wanna see just how they would take a game like Virtua Fighter, the game SOLELY known for being “the 3D fighter”, and put it on a 2D system. Well, to the surprise of nobody, the game was turned into 2D, with all of the models being fully recreated with 2D sprites fighting in 2D environments, which is impressive enough for a port, and a lot of the music, character animations, and moves do look, feel, and sound a lot like the original version. It is a good enough port of the original game for the Genesis, but if I were given a choice between the two, I would definitely choose the original version over this version any day. Sure, the port does a good enough job at bringing the game to a home console, but one of the defining aspects of this series was that, again, it is 3D, so by removing that aspect of the game, it becomes yet another generic 2D fighter that I wouldn’t play over any other game in the genre like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat.
But anyway, overall, despite a lack of change in the gameplay and still not being on the same level as some more famous 2D fighters, Virtua Fighter 2 is a definite improvement over the original game in plenty of ways, looking much better, having more variety in both the stages and the characters you can play as, and making the gameplay much more polished and fun despite how limited it is. I would recommend it for those who loved the original game, as well as those who want to check out some of the earlier 3D fighting games out there, because while it may not be able to win you over fully, it could surely provide a fun enough time messing around with it, especially with a friend to join you. Let’s just hope that, for the next game, they actually manage to change things up for a change and-... wait… this series also got game updates like Street Fighter did? annoyed sigh.............. of course, because if Street Fighter did it, then that means EVERYONE has to do it, because it’s such a great idea, right?!
Game #564
Judgment
2021
This review contains spoilers
"These guys won't stop comin on us"
OK DUDE THIS IS SOME VERY GOOD FRICKING SHIT!!!! I already knew that i was gonna love this game because it's a detective game and i love detective stuff!(detective conan my beloved) And i also have a few friends who really love the game, so that probably pushed my expectations higher.
Judgment introduces a bunch of new things that aren't present in the yakuza games. One of the new features is the investigation mode, which is when the player has to look around for clues (you can also find cats during the investigation mode :3). Other new features include:lock picking, a dope ass drone that you can fly and a bunch of funny disguises. Am i forgetting something? Oh right tailing missions! Yayyyy i love following slow ass suspects while trying to not be spotted yayyy!
What about the combat? DUDE ITS SO FRICKING GOOD!!! Judgment brings back style switching but unlike in 0 and kiwami you only have 2 fighting styles which may not seem much but it is more than enough. Crane style in my opinion is insanely underrated, a lot of ppl call it inferior to the tiger style and some ppl have flat out called it useless, but i disagree. Crane style is only useless when used against bosses but when you utilize it against large groups of enemies, you will absolutely devastate everything around you because crane style is much faster and has a much wider range than tiger style. Tiger style isn't very good against large groups of enemies because it has less range and it's less faster than crane style, BUTT tiger style is much more useful against bosses since it has the ability to break guards and tiger style has the flux fissure which is insultingly overpowered since it can deal massive amounts of damage and it can charge your ex gauge by a lot if you upgrade it. You can also juggle enemies in the air which is very fun. You also have the ex boost which can be activated by pressing R2, and once you activate it Yagami becomes an unstoppable force.
Lastly Yagami has the ability to perform a wall jump, and by pressing the attack button you can do a wall jump attack (is that how you call it) and obviously there are ex actions aswell.
The boss were overall very solid in my opinion. There are many bosses where the crane style gets to shine and a few bosses where the tiger style gets to shine. A good example of a boss where the crane style shines is Satoshi Shioya because it has a large group of enemies, and a good example of a boss where the tiger style shines is the 2nd Hamura fight because you are only fighting a single guy. Anyways my favorite bosses in this game are:
3. Toru Higashi 2nd fight:
This boss fight is insanely underrated in my opinion, both fighting styles get some spotlight, Higashi has a dope ass moveset, the music absolutely slaps and the dynamic intro is obviously amazing.
2.Cane man:
You fight this dude a bunch of times and everytime you fight him, he whips out a new weapon which changes his moveset and that is just very cool, and cane man's theme really slaps.
1. Mitsuru Kuroiwa 2nd fight:
Ok this honestly might be my favorite boss out of all the rgg games that i played. First of all we all know how amazing that dynamic intro is, and i especially love how in the intro Yagami and Kuroiwa are in the same pose which shows how identical their moveset is. The setting in this fight is unique and amazing, and the music is very awesome too! Another awesome thing about this fight is that after you beat Kuroiwa, Kuroiwa returns from the dead and injects idk a phoenix down to himself, he regains all of his health and the 2nd phase starts.
Ok now lets talk about side content.
Judgment replaces substories with side cases, and most side cases consist of Yagami taking a job from someone, and similar to substories, side cases are way less serious than the main story. Side cases can be unlocked by increasing your city reputations which is done by increasing your friendship with people scattered around kamurocho.
I honestly really liked the ability to befriend people since normally they would just be boring npcs that you forget that exist, and they did a really good job at making most of them have unique personalities. A few of these people that you befriend can actually be found wandering around kamurocho, and whenever i see one of them it kind of reminds me of those times where you randomly meet a friend in public, and some of them will actually help you in random encounters.They weren't gonna make the drone feel underused so they made a fricking drone racing minigame which is a lot of fun in my opinion. There's also this paradise vr minigame where you throw dice and have to reach a goal. Lastly there are a few side cases that you are actually forced to do during the main story, and some people call them useless filler but i will call them fun filler, because those side cases were fun af and you know it!
Kamurocho in this game looks absolutely beautiful, i think they stepped it up a bit in visuals and graphics.
The leveling system is honestly really solid, it is much better than yakuza 6's level system mainly because this time you only have 1 single currency, which is just enough for me.
Ok time for the best thing about this game which is the story. Our main protagonist is Takoyaki Yagami, an ex lawyer who is now a detective. 3 people died with their eyes gouged out and the Matsugane family captain Hamura gets arrested because they think that he has commited one of the murders. Yagami and a lawyer named Shintani succesfully defend Hamura, but Yagami wants to pursue the truth and find the real killer also knows as the mole. My favorite part about the story of judgment is its fantastic cast of characters.
Yagami is an amazing protagonist, do i love him a lot because i am a sucker for detective characters like the GOAT detective gumshoe? Hell yeah! But for me he is a really well written character aswell.
Yagami doesn't forgive himself for proving a killer named Shinpei Okubo innocent in the past, but this whole thing motivates him to pursue the truth and find who is behind all the murders in the game because he knows what happens if he doesn't, and Yagami never attempts to give up despite facing many obstacles throughout the main story. Deciding to chase the truth was probably the best decision that Yagami has ever made, because he learns that Shinpei Okubo was actually innocent, and there's one particular scene in the game where Yagami tells Okubo that he believes that he is innocent, and this scene is very important to Yagami's character because he forgives himself and his past doesn't weigh him down anymore, and for Okubo it was a possibility to not fucking die because of a crime he didn't commit.
Yagami is not alone in pursuing the truth because he is joined by a bunch of friends.
Masaharu Kaito is easily my favorite side character in this game. Kaito used to be in the matsugane family but he was a big obstacle to Hamura, one of the villains of the game, so Hamura got him kicked out of the family, and after that Kaito became Yagami's loyal partner. Kaito is the definition of a loveable character, there is nothing i hate about this guy, he offers plenty of help to Yagami, he is funny, he is cool, and idk man he is just a very awesome bro character.
During the main story Yagami gains 2 new allies which are Toru Higashi and Sugiura.
Sugiura is a particular character, at first he was basically just a mysterious masked guy who randomly decides to help you, but then we find out that his real name is Fumiya Terisawa, Emi Terasawa's brother (the girl who we thought got murdered by Shinpei Okubo but she actually got murdered by someone else). Helping out Yagami was a good decision because if he didn't, the real killer of Emi would've never been found.
Toru Higashi is quite a cool dude. Higashi used to be close with Kaito but they got separated after Kaito got expelled from the matsugane clan. He was first introduced as a person who changed and became a tougher and meaner dude, but we quickly learn that behind all that toughness lies a kind person.
Genda and Matsugane are 2 people that Yagami see as a father figure.
Saori and Hoshino are also pretty memorable characters who lend a hand to Yagami during the main story.
The villains in this game are absolutely awesome sauce.
Kyohei Hamura is a really well written villain. Despite being quite an unlikeable asshole, Hamura's actions were for the benefit of his clan. What makes Hamura a sympathetic villain is that his actions lead to the death of Matsugane, and for once Hamura isn't being a huge cunt, instead we see him feel sorry, and after that Hamura actually decides to help Yagami by revealing him the identity of the mole and giving him some crucial evidence for the trial in the final chapter.
Shono is quite a particular villain, he isn't strong or scary looking like many rgg villains, shit if you told me that he was a child cosplaying as a scientist then i would believe you. Shono is basically the main reason why the main story happened.
Kuroiwa is without a doubt the best villain in this game. Similar to Hamura, Kuroiwa is a character that you first think is an asshole but unlike Hamura, Kuroiwa doesn't get any sort of redemption arc. After it is revealed that he is the mole Kuroiwa steals the spotlight for every single scene that he is in, mostly because of how scary, intimidating, batshit insane and dangerous he feels. Kuroiwa is also the only one who gives Yagami a very hard time when fighting. Kuroiwa's character is brought to life by Shosuke Tanihara's fantastic voice acting, he fuckin killed it.
Music is fucking amazing like i expected it to be so here are my favorite tracks:
My own style plays during a few battles and my god does it slap! I probably love this one so much because i am a sucker for tracks with vocals even tho the rapping here is barely understandable.
Flower of chivalry is my favorite boss theme in this game and it's one of my favorite boss themes in general, and that fucking guitar man🔥.
Penumbra is Kuroiwa's boss theme and not only does it kick ass but it also fits Kuroiwa perfectly in my opinion.
Destination plays during the final long battle. Hearing this while kicking the ass of many cops with the whole gang was an amazing moment.
Arpeggio plays during the opening cinematic, and this is easily one of my favorite vocal tracks in videogames.
Alright alright time for the flaws of this game.
Even tho i think that the side cases were good overall, i heavily dislike the fact that a handful of them include boring and tedious tailing missions.
The keihin gang invasions and mortal wounds can be described with 2 words: mildly infuriating. Even tho i didn't mind them, i can understand why ppl think that investigations can be quite annoying.
Judgment may have a few annoying issues but honestly who cares when so many things about the game are so amazing?
10/10 one of favorite games of all time
OK DUDE THIS IS SOME VERY GOOD FRICKING SHIT!!!! I already knew that i was gonna love this game because it's a detective game and i love detective stuff!(detective conan my beloved) And i also have a few friends who really love the game, so that probably pushed my expectations higher.
Judgment introduces a bunch of new things that aren't present in the yakuza games. One of the new features is the investigation mode, which is when the player has to look around for clues (you can also find cats during the investigation mode :3). Other new features include:lock picking, a dope ass drone that you can fly and a bunch of funny disguises. Am i forgetting something? Oh right tailing missions! Yayyyy i love following slow ass suspects while trying to not be spotted yayyy!
What about the combat? DUDE ITS SO FRICKING GOOD!!! Judgment brings back style switching but unlike in 0 and kiwami you only have 2 fighting styles which may not seem much but it is more than enough. Crane style in my opinion is insanely underrated, a lot of ppl call it inferior to the tiger style and some ppl have flat out called it useless, but i disagree. Crane style is only useless when used against bosses but when you utilize it against large groups of enemies, you will absolutely devastate everything around you because crane style is much faster and has a much wider range than tiger style. Tiger style isn't very good against large groups of enemies because it has less range and it's less faster than crane style, BUTT tiger style is much more useful against bosses since it has the ability to break guards and tiger style has the flux fissure which is insultingly overpowered since it can deal massive amounts of damage and it can charge your ex gauge by a lot if you upgrade it. You can also juggle enemies in the air which is very fun. You also have the ex boost which can be activated by pressing R2, and once you activate it Yagami becomes an unstoppable force.
Lastly Yagami has the ability to perform a wall jump, and by pressing the attack button you can do a wall jump attack (is that how you call it) and obviously there are ex actions aswell.
The boss were overall very solid in my opinion. There are many bosses where the crane style gets to shine and a few bosses where the tiger style gets to shine. A good example of a boss where the crane style shines is Satoshi Shioya because it has a large group of enemies, and a good example of a boss where the tiger style shines is the 2nd Hamura fight because you are only fighting a single guy. Anyways my favorite bosses in this game are:
3. Toru Higashi 2nd fight:
This boss fight is insanely underrated in my opinion, both fighting styles get some spotlight, Higashi has a dope ass moveset, the music absolutely slaps and the dynamic intro is obviously amazing.
2.Cane man:
You fight this dude a bunch of times and everytime you fight him, he whips out a new weapon which changes his moveset and that is just very cool, and cane man's theme really slaps.
1. Mitsuru Kuroiwa 2nd fight:
Ok this honestly might be my favorite boss out of all the rgg games that i played. First of all we all know how amazing that dynamic intro is, and i especially love how in the intro Yagami and Kuroiwa are in the same pose which shows how identical their moveset is. The setting in this fight is unique and amazing, and the music is very awesome too! Another awesome thing about this fight is that after you beat Kuroiwa, Kuroiwa returns from the dead and injects idk a phoenix down to himself, he regains all of his health and the 2nd phase starts.
Ok now lets talk about side content.
Judgment replaces substories with side cases, and most side cases consist of Yagami taking a job from someone, and similar to substories, side cases are way less serious than the main story. Side cases can be unlocked by increasing your city reputations which is done by increasing your friendship with people scattered around kamurocho.
I honestly really liked the ability to befriend people since normally they would just be boring npcs that you forget that exist, and they did a really good job at making most of them have unique personalities. A few of these people that you befriend can actually be found wandering around kamurocho, and whenever i see one of them it kind of reminds me of those times where you randomly meet a friend in public, and some of them will actually help you in random encounters.They weren't gonna make the drone feel underused so they made a fricking drone racing minigame which is a lot of fun in my opinion. There's also this paradise vr minigame where you throw dice and have to reach a goal. Lastly there are a few side cases that you are actually forced to do during the main story, and some people call them useless filler but i will call them fun filler, because those side cases were fun af and you know it!
Kamurocho in this game looks absolutely beautiful, i think they stepped it up a bit in visuals and graphics.
The leveling system is honestly really solid, it is much better than yakuza 6's level system mainly because this time you only have 1 single currency, which is just enough for me.
Ok time for the best thing about this game which is the story. Our main protagonist is Takoyaki Yagami, an ex lawyer who is now a detective. 3 people died with their eyes gouged out and the Matsugane family captain Hamura gets arrested because they think that he has commited one of the murders. Yagami and a lawyer named Shintani succesfully defend Hamura, but Yagami wants to pursue the truth and find the real killer also knows as the mole. My favorite part about the story of judgment is its fantastic cast of characters.
Yagami is an amazing protagonist, do i love him a lot because i am a sucker for detective characters like the GOAT detective gumshoe? Hell yeah! But for me he is a really well written character aswell.
Yagami doesn't forgive himself for proving a killer named Shinpei Okubo innocent in the past, but this whole thing motivates him to pursue the truth and find who is behind all the murders in the game because he knows what happens if he doesn't, and Yagami never attempts to give up despite facing many obstacles throughout the main story. Deciding to chase the truth was probably the best decision that Yagami has ever made, because he learns that Shinpei Okubo was actually innocent, and there's one particular scene in the game where Yagami tells Okubo that he believes that he is innocent, and this scene is very important to Yagami's character because he forgives himself and his past doesn't weigh him down anymore, and for Okubo it was a possibility to not fucking die because of a crime he didn't commit.
Yagami is not alone in pursuing the truth because he is joined by a bunch of friends.
Masaharu Kaito is easily my favorite side character in this game. Kaito used to be in the matsugane family but he was a big obstacle to Hamura, one of the villains of the game, so Hamura got him kicked out of the family, and after that Kaito became Yagami's loyal partner. Kaito is the definition of a loveable character, there is nothing i hate about this guy, he offers plenty of help to Yagami, he is funny, he is cool, and idk man he is just a very awesome bro character.
During the main story Yagami gains 2 new allies which are Toru Higashi and Sugiura.
Sugiura is a particular character, at first he was basically just a mysterious masked guy who randomly decides to help you, but then we find out that his real name is Fumiya Terisawa, Emi Terasawa's brother (the girl who we thought got murdered by Shinpei Okubo but she actually got murdered by someone else). Helping out Yagami was a good decision because if he didn't, the real killer of Emi would've never been found.
Toru Higashi is quite a cool dude. Higashi used to be close with Kaito but they got separated after Kaito got expelled from the matsugane clan. He was first introduced as a person who changed and became a tougher and meaner dude, but we quickly learn that behind all that toughness lies a kind person.
Genda and Matsugane are 2 people that Yagami see as a father figure.
Saori and Hoshino are also pretty memorable characters who lend a hand to Yagami during the main story.
The villains in this game are absolutely awesome sauce.
Kyohei Hamura is a really well written villain. Despite being quite an unlikeable asshole, Hamura's actions were for the benefit of his clan. What makes Hamura a sympathetic villain is that his actions lead to the death of Matsugane, and for once Hamura isn't being a huge cunt, instead we see him feel sorry, and after that Hamura actually decides to help Yagami by revealing him the identity of the mole and giving him some crucial evidence for the trial in the final chapter.
Shono is quite a particular villain, he isn't strong or scary looking like many rgg villains, shit if you told me that he was a child cosplaying as a scientist then i would believe you. Shono is basically the main reason why the main story happened.
Kuroiwa is without a doubt the best villain in this game. Similar to Hamura, Kuroiwa is a character that you first think is an asshole but unlike Hamura, Kuroiwa doesn't get any sort of redemption arc. After it is revealed that he is the mole Kuroiwa steals the spotlight for every single scene that he is in, mostly because of how scary, intimidating, batshit insane and dangerous he feels. Kuroiwa is also the only one who gives Yagami a very hard time when fighting. Kuroiwa's character is brought to life by Shosuke Tanihara's fantastic voice acting, he fuckin killed it.
Music is fucking amazing like i expected it to be so here are my favorite tracks:
My own style plays during a few battles and my god does it slap! I probably love this one so much because i am a sucker for tracks with vocals even tho the rapping here is barely understandable.
Flower of chivalry is my favorite boss theme in this game and it's one of my favorite boss themes in general, and that fucking guitar man🔥.
Penumbra is Kuroiwa's boss theme and not only does it kick ass but it also fits Kuroiwa perfectly in my opinion.
Destination plays during the final long battle. Hearing this while kicking the ass of many cops with the whole gang was an amazing moment.
Arpeggio plays during the opening cinematic, and this is easily one of my favorite vocal tracks in videogames.
Alright alright time for the flaws of this game.
Even tho i think that the side cases were good overall, i heavily dislike the fact that a handful of them include boring and tedious tailing missions.
The keihin gang invasions and mortal wounds can be described with 2 words: mildly infuriating. Even tho i didn't mind them, i can understand why ppl think that investigations can be quite annoying.
Judgment may have a few annoying issues but honestly who cares when so many things about the game are so amazing?
10/10 one of favorite games of all time
Babbdi
2022
At least everyone has ample housing
...or maybe I'll take it all!
Fun patch, lots of Aventurine content and also introduces storytelling from the perspective of multiple protagonists (something I'd like to see used again in the future). The new twists are nice, but ultimately many things still feel like a setup for the final act, as Act 2 literally ends on two separate cliffhangers, but I enjoyed Aventurine's little sidestory a lot - just wish the writing didn't overuse the "going all-in/betting your life" aspect so much, it felt like doing him a disservice by pushing that trait so much. Either way, I'm stoked to see where the finale is headed!
Fun patch, lots of Aventurine content and also introduces storytelling from the perspective of multiple protagonists (something I'd like to see used again in the future). The new twists are nice, but ultimately many things still feel like a setup for the final act, as Act 2 literally ends on two separate cliffhangers, but I enjoyed Aventurine's little sidestory a lot - just wish the writing didn't overuse the "going all-in/betting your life" aspect so much, it felt like doing him a disservice by pushing that trait so much. Either way, I'm stoked to see where the finale is headed!
wait follow me wait wait wait follow me wait follow me
Oh please, pleaaaase bonk me on the head. Okay, it's not as bad as it looks I swear. Big boobies sure, no nudity also for sure! I'm not scratching the bottom of the barrel yet, and you're wondering why this is in your feed. Ok so it's gonna be a doozy but here's roughly what happened: I wanted to play a sex game since it's one of the only types of games I haven't had the pleasure to play yet, I scroll through a bunch and decide it's not the time yet (they're scary). Lo and behold, skip a few hours and I'm looking for cracked copy of Journey for my bestie (i dont want to make her pay games just to play with me) and there it is, obviously. I recognize it, check through Steam yada yada, one of the top tags is "cute" and the price is at its highest sale that settles it I'll play through this.
Seems I cooked up a long excuse for why I have played this. Don't worry, I won't go to such lengths for the gay porn game I have in my radar. It's quite easy, dont last too long, but when it gets harder it's very fair! It's too basic to really get a higher score, although unphotoshopping a picture is quite unique from what I'd done so far. They're risque, but they probably would look like normal pictures if she had normal proportions. That'd be less bang for the buck (flat women we love u)! Now go get that bag gurl. We goin through the 4 seasons stay fresh all year long.
What baffling decision however, is that there's no romance? Rina and even your invisible self-insert with your name go far to make sure the other knows there's nothing more than a deep friendship here. It's not that I am against it, but that's not what I expected for the target demographic. It dont have the sex gentlemen, maybe we ought to play Bald Gate III. Anyways look at that white woman she made me pay to edit photos I will never forget that night.
Seems I cooked up a long excuse for why I have played this. Don't worry, I won't go to such lengths for the gay porn game I have in my radar. It's quite easy, dont last too long, but when it gets harder it's very fair! It's too basic to really get a higher score, although unphotoshopping a picture is quite unique from what I'd done so far. They're risque, but they probably would look like normal pictures if she had normal proportions. That'd be less bang for the buck (flat women we love u)! Now go get that bag gurl. We goin through the 4 seasons stay fresh all year long.
What baffling decision however, is that there's no romance? Rina and even your invisible self-insert with your name go far to make sure the other knows there's nothing more than a deep friendship here. It's not that I am against it, but that's not what I expected for the target demographic. It dont have the sex gentlemen, maybe we ought to play Bald Gate III. Anyways look at that white woman she made me pay to edit photos I will never forget that night.
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