roxanneB
152 reviews liked by roxanneB
you know how in most JRPGs, there's a sick girl in a village who urgently needs an item to get better, and you promise to help her but then spend several hours doing random side-quests instead? in this game, the sick girl will actually die if you play like that. by the same token, losing to a boss may not result in a game over or reload, but rather a new fork in the story. there are hundreds of details like that. this is the sort of (exceedingly rare) JRPG we're dealing with.
Sega Tetris
1999
cleared on dreamcast some time ago but it was the naomi version for the day. ive fallen off lmau (lifting my arms up. duck duck go dot com search "shruggie" to see what i mean)
it's a sicko mode, raw version of tetris in the spirit of sega's 1988 interpretation, the foundational single button primate neuron activator. this time it's got some very light wall kicks (only against the walls of the field, not the "ceiling". this requires a delay between the piece entering the field and your ability to rotate) and 2 buttons for rotation rather than one. firmly still in the old school of tetris, before the dreary days of 7-bag and hold piece. that randomizer pulls no punches, yet not quite to the degree of the one seen in strange creature that resides within the Zeroes of nintendo's Tetris v.1.1 (1989) for their dot matrix game handheld, (with! stereo sound!). as a completeable solo iteration of the soviet four blocks dropping a lot, it's solid, challenging endeavour. as i don't tend to like tetris i haven't really tried the VS mode without absolutely mopping the floor against friends whos brains have not been poisoned by TGM. it's scoring system is tied to some unfortunate imagery, but here it's always earned.
the incredibly chaotic way its randomizer works makes it a slight bit behind the changes arika started introducing to their interpretation of sega's 1988 primate neuron activator. you will at some point get absolutely bodied by the randomizer on come credits, and it will absolutely put your ability to recover while maintining a relatively clean, gapless stack through its paces. the speed peaks and valleys, a staple amongst the sega school of tetris, are always loved, tripping up a player if they're a bit too lost in the sauce. in particular, the speed fluctuation and eventual upward curve seems to impact pre-hard/firm drop tetris a bit more, as that addition to piece control tends to make it way less noticeable if a player's just going full full voltage through those darn neurons. and precisely why arika's TGM sits alongside Sega Tetris (1999) as one of the best full oldhead, pre-SRS, pre guideline iterations of the timeless chaotic tetromino assortment by way of recognizing patterns computer program. it gets fast, but the lock delay makes higher gravity manageable in a way that nintendo's tended to lack for a while.
it's got the Homie, that large green friend. tetris effect for the freaks, not without flaws but always a straightforward, lovely tetris. mildly prefer this to Tetris Semipro-68K, but TGM1 still hits everything just right when it comes to the oldhead sega tetris (1988) and its descendants. the 3D backgrounds here get nuts but some too are a bit unfortunate (but not the one with The Homie, and the Best Video Game Thinking Music to ever grace speakers)
it's a sicko mode, raw version of tetris in the spirit of sega's 1988 interpretation, the foundational single button primate neuron activator. this time it's got some very light wall kicks (only against the walls of the field, not the "ceiling". this requires a delay between the piece entering the field and your ability to rotate) and 2 buttons for rotation rather than one. firmly still in the old school of tetris, before the dreary days of 7-bag and hold piece. that randomizer pulls no punches, yet not quite to the degree of the one seen in strange creature that resides within the Zeroes of nintendo's Tetris v.1.1 (1989) for their dot matrix game handheld, (with! stereo sound!). as a completeable solo iteration of the soviet four blocks dropping a lot, it's solid, challenging endeavour. as i don't tend to like tetris i haven't really tried the VS mode without absolutely mopping the floor against friends whos brains have not been poisoned by TGM. it's scoring system is tied to some unfortunate imagery, but here it's always earned.
the incredibly chaotic way its randomizer works makes it a slight bit behind the changes arika started introducing to their interpretation of sega's 1988 primate neuron activator. you will at some point get absolutely bodied by the randomizer on come credits, and it will absolutely put your ability to recover while maintining a relatively clean, gapless stack through its paces. the speed peaks and valleys, a staple amongst the sega school of tetris, are always loved, tripping up a player if they're a bit too lost in the sauce. in particular, the speed fluctuation and eventual upward curve seems to impact pre-hard/firm drop tetris a bit more, as that addition to piece control tends to make it way less noticeable if a player's just going full full voltage through those darn neurons. and precisely why arika's TGM sits alongside Sega Tetris (1999) as one of the best full oldhead, pre-SRS, pre guideline iterations of the timeless chaotic tetromino assortment by way of recognizing patterns computer program. it gets fast, but the lock delay makes higher gravity manageable in a way that nintendo's tended to lack for a while.
it's got the Homie, that large green friend. tetris effect for the freaks, not without flaws but always a straightforward, lovely tetris. mildly prefer this to Tetris Semipro-68K, but TGM1 still hits everything just right when it comes to the oldhead sega tetris (1988) and its descendants. the 3D backgrounds here get nuts but some too are a bit unfortunate (but not the one with The Homie, and the Best Video Game Thinking Music to ever grace speakers)
Tetris
1988
recommend it if you're a tetris weirdo, but i will never really love to play this verison, yet i love returning to it every now and then.
this is my go-to tetris pallete cleanser when i'm fully in tetris brain, something that hasn't been the case for a little over a year now. this era of tetris is quite fascinating, and of all console versions of tetris, this feels the most like a home computer version with its single rotation, only hard drop and less-conventional lives system. the controls feel as if they were intended to be mapped to arrow keys where a player could have their fingers on multiple separate digital actuators at all times.
this era around the late 80's was probably the most interesting period in the overall splintering and iteration of tetris as it was unleashed up on the world, they were all just learning how to cook up those quadruple rectangles and it resulted in a genuine mechanical variety that unfortunately isn't found in any tetris released in the current era. i have no idea what BPS was even trying to do here, still feels as if they're in the progress of figure out how to make tetris work on a pad. it is of zero surpise that that shortly after this, BPS would devise their own system with lock delay as a core principle of tetromino arrangement. one of the the strains of tetris that BPS would, towards the end of the 90's, overcook and would demand that to be the only tetris dish served. BPS's impending near-strangulation of tetris started here, and on many days, i would rather play this over NEStris. thankfully BPS would figure out how to cook it just right for a bit in their successor to this one (plus bombliss!)
this is my go-to tetris pallete cleanser when i'm fully in tetris brain, something that hasn't been the case for a little over a year now. this era of tetris is quite fascinating, and of all console versions of tetris, this feels the most like a home computer version with its single rotation, only hard drop and less-conventional lives system. the controls feel as if they were intended to be mapped to arrow keys where a player could have their fingers on multiple separate digital actuators at all times.
this era around the late 80's was probably the most interesting period in the overall splintering and iteration of tetris as it was unleashed up on the world, they were all just learning how to cook up those quadruple rectangles and it resulted in a genuine mechanical variety that unfortunately isn't found in any tetris released in the current era. i have no idea what BPS was even trying to do here, still feels as if they're in the progress of figure out how to make tetris work on a pad. it is of zero surpise that that shortly after this, BPS would devise their own system with lock delay as a core principle of tetromino arrangement. one of the the strains of tetris that BPS would, towards the end of the 90's, overcook and would demand that to be the only tetris dish served. BPS's impending near-strangulation of tetris started here, and on many days, i would rather play this over NEStris. thankfully BPS would figure out how to cook it just right for a bit in their successor to this one (plus bombliss!)
Dragon Warrior II
1987
The first Dragon Quest game still holds up today and is fun to play; the same can not be said for this game. I will commend it for expanding on the original by introducing two more party members-an idea that would directly influence Final Fantasy the same year. Aside from the improvements the game makes it has one insane flaw: it is unbelievably difficult. I understand that with two extra characters, they had to make the game a little more challenging but they went way too far. This is a grind-heavy game with little room for error. Playing it on the GBC at least allows for an official English translation and improved graphics/sound but still, the difficulty is extremely demanding. This game is unfortunately sandwiched between its predecessor and its successor both of which are much better games.
One of the most odd, yet strangely charming games to come from Nintendo back in the days of the NES era has to be the original StarTropics, which I thought was pretty good back when I played it. Despite how linear the game was for an entry in the adventure genre, how frustrating the control/game could get, and how there was one part of the game that made it literally impossible to get through without a guide, it was able to win me over anyway with its fun gameplay, strange dash of charm, and great visuals for the time, making for somewhat of a hidden gem from the system back in the day. Then again though, most fans of the NES probably know of the game’s existence, so I guess it isn’t TOO much of a hidden gem… but, what most people probably know is that that game actually ended up getting a sequel. I didn’t know either for the longest time until like a couple years ago, but now that I did know about it, and since it has been a while since I reviewed the original game, I figured it was about time I returned back to the Cola Universe and take down Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II.
As I had mentioned previously in the last StarTropics review, this sequel was a game that Nintendo pretty much sent out to die back when it came out. It came out exclusively for the NES, in America, in 1994, when the SNES and Genesis were the hottest things on the market, and nobody wanted to play OLD, DUMB, and SMELLY NES games anymore. So, naturally, not many people have played it, and thus, it has become yet another forgotten Nintendo title amongst a plethora of them that they just have stored away in a vault somewhere, never to be re-released again. But hey, even with all of that aside, it’s gotta at least be good, right? I mean, the original game was pretty good, so surely Nintendo could take everything that worked in that game, tweak around the bad parts of the original, and make a much superior title, right? Well, that is exactly what they did!......... somewhat. If I were to rank this alongside the sequel, as it just BARELY comes out as the superior title, as it is still a very fun and charming game to play, having plenty of what made the original game so appealing and enjoyable, while also fixing several of the issues that game initially had… while also ignoring others.
The story is very similar, yet somewhat different from the previous game, where Mike Jones, after enjoying time off from what he had to go through in the previous game, gets contacted by the princess of the Argonians known as Mica, who helps him and Dr. Jones solve a cipher that they found recently, which ends up sending Mike back in time all the way to the stone age. Sometime after this while traveling to other points in time, he discovers that Zoda, the villain from the last game, is back once again, wrecking havoc all across time and space in order to wipe out the Argonians, so it is up to Mike once again to stop him and his evil plans before it is too late. It is a lazy set-up, one that took a dart and threw it at a board full of overused cliches to see what gimmick it can use, but it still manages to be stupid and charming enough to where you buy everything that is going on regardless of how weird it is.
The graphics are… practically unchanged from the original, using the exact same look, sprites, and animations from the previous game, but it is still very pleasant to look at, and the brand new environments and characters that we do see throughout the game are pleasing to the eyes, the music is good, having plenty of simple, yet enjoyable tracks to jam out to, as well as some returning themes from the original game, which is always nice to hear, the control is INFINITELY better this time around, with controlling on the main adventure segments feeling about the same, but the control in the dungeon is a massive improvement, giving you full movement in eight directions, making navigating through caves and fighting monsters much more manageable as a result, and the gameplay remains practically identical to the original game, feeling more like a standalone expansion to the first game more than anything else, but hey, that isn’t usually a bad thing, and it isn’t a bad thing in this case.
The game is yet another 8-bit adventure game, where you once again take control of the generic loser known as Mike Jones, go through many different locations across time full of many different colorful characters to meet, take out many different foul fiends who will do their best at impeding your progress at every turn, gather plenty of different health items, tools, additional weapons, upgrades to your arsenal, and Tetris pieces (no, seriously) that will help you out throughout your journey, and take on plenty of bosses that you will face throughout the game, which are half and half, where some of them are fine, and can be fun to fight at times, and as for the other half…. sigh, we’ll get to them later. If you have played the original StarTropics, then congratulations! You have played Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II as well without even realizing it, as the two games are practically identical in the way that they look, sound, and work, but this one manages to stand above the previous by keeping the same fun gameplay intact, improving on several elements that I have mentioned, and also keeping that same level of charm that made the original game so enjoyable.
One of the biggest aspects about this game is that, rather than traveling to many different islands throughout your journey, you are, again, traveling to many different points in time, going to many different locations that do make the game feel more fresh and exciting compared to the first. Yeah, all of these locations are very typical for what you would find in a time travel story, such as the stone age, medieval times, the wild west and so on, but I still found myself having fun traveling through them and seeing what they had to offer regardless. This also applies to the many characters that you interact with throughout your journey, with a handful of them being well-known individuals from media and history, such as Sherlock Holmes, Cleopatra, Leonardo Da Vinci, and several others, which can lead to some conversations with them that are, admittedly, really stupid, but I dunno, I can’t help but smile at a lot of it just for how odd it is for a Nintendo title to do.
Aside from that though, everything else is the same as before: you have the overworlds where you walk around, talk to people, solve a puzzle here and there, and get access to caves and dungeons, where you take on monsters, jump on switches, gather plenty of different treasures, and cry whenever you eventually lose. For those that have played through the original game, they will feel right back at home with this game, as not only does the gameplay remain mostly unchanged, but the way the game looks makes it so that you can easily get adapted to the situation, and start blazing through it like your life depends on it. Thankfully, all of this still managed to be a lot of fun to do, as I loved going through these many different periods of time, talking to these NPCs to see the weird-ass things they say, fighting these monsters, and finding these Tetris pieces, especially with the previously mentioned improved control for the dungeon sections helping out immensely.
I can’t say that everything about this game was improved over the second one, because in some instances, I think it could actually be seen as a downgrade compared to the original. For starters, this game is somehow EVEN MORE LINEAR than the original, with what to do and where to go being spelled out to you in almost every part of the game, with there being only one or two instances where I would go off the beaten path to get an extra life heart or something. This isn’t exactly bad for those who are a fan of more straightforward games like this, but given the fact that the game is in the adventure genre, I wish it felt more like… you know, an adventure, rather then just simply being a museum tour that leads you down a destined path, only to dump you off at the gift shop once it is all done with you.
Trust me though, that doesn’t even matter to me compared to my main problem with this game, and that would be with the bosses. The difficulty from the previous game is still intact here, and while I didn’t feel it too much when it came to the main dungeon parts of the game, I certainly did feel it with some of these bosses, because good god, these ones that I am talking about are TERRIBLE. I think the worst boss in the entire game has to go to the Zoda clone that you fight around the half-way point, where you have to fight him while constantly being moved around on these arrow platforms, which can make even trying to ready yourself to attack the guy a huge pain in the ass. Not to mention, he is also constantly teleporting and sending his own attacks out at you, so not only do you have to worry about him killing you, but you also have to worry about dodging his attacks, positioning yourself correctly, and firing plenty of shots at him, WHILE constantly being moved by these goddamn arrow platforms! There are several other bosses that are pretty bad too, but not to this extent, and when you reach the end of the game, where there is a boss rush waiting for you before you fight the big bad himself, you get to re-experience all of these god-awful fights back-to-back with little changed from the last encounters…………… OH, WHAT… FUN.
Overall, despite the game’s increased linearity and some truly abysmal boss fights, this game manages to be a decent enough successor to the original StarTropics in every other way, and is a really good game as a whole, having plenty of goofy and weird things to see and do, plenty of dungeons for you to take on, and enough of that dumb dated 90s charm that you can’t help but love whenever you experience it. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the original StarTropics, as well as those who wanted to see what else the system had up its sleeve near the end of its life cycle, because despite being pretty much fully ignored back when it first came out, it does manage to be fun enough if you were to go back and see what everyone was missing out on back then. Unfortunately though, this would be the last that we would ever see from the StarTropics franchise, as there would never be any new game in the series, remakes, spin-offs, or what have you from this point onwards… which is kinda sad, to be honest, but eh, it isn’t exactly a terrible loss. Plus, I don’t want them to try to bring this series back from the dead, considering that Nintendo are usually very split down the middle when it comes to these revivals. On one hand, you could end up with another Kid Icarus: Uprising, and on the other, you could get another Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and I am not willing to take that risk!
Game #576
As I had mentioned previously in the last StarTropics review, this sequel was a game that Nintendo pretty much sent out to die back when it came out. It came out exclusively for the NES, in America, in 1994, when the SNES and Genesis were the hottest things on the market, and nobody wanted to play OLD, DUMB, and SMELLY NES games anymore. So, naturally, not many people have played it, and thus, it has become yet another forgotten Nintendo title amongst a plethora of them that they just have stored away in a vault somewhere, never to be re-released again. But hey, even with all of that aside, it’s gotta at least be good, right? I mean, the original game was pretty good, so surely Nintendo could take everything that worked in that game, tweak around the bad parts of the original, and make a much superior title, right? Well, that is exactly what they did!......... somewhat. If I were to rank this alongside the sequel, as it just BARELY comes out as the superior title, as it is still a very fun and charming game to play, having plenty of what made the original game so appealing and enjoyable, while also fixing several of the issues that game initially had… while also ignoring others.
The story is very similar, yet somewhat different from the previous game, where Mike Jones, after enjoying time off from what he had to go through in the previous game, gets contacted by the princess of the Argonians known as Mica, who helps him and Dr. Jones solve a cipher that they found recently, which ends up sending Mike back in time all the way to the stone age. Sometime after this while traveling to other points in time, he discovers that Zoda, the villain from the last game, is back once again, wrecking havoc all across time and space in order to wipe out the Argonians, so it is up to Mike once again to stop him and his evil plans before it is too late. It is a lazy set-up, one that took a dart and threw it at a board full of overused cliches to see what gimmick it can use, but it still manages to be stupid and charming enough to where you buy everything that is going on regardless of how weird it is.
The graphics are… practically unchanged from the original, using the exact same look, sprites, and animations from the previous game, but it is still very pleasant to look at, and the brand new environments and characters that we do see throughout the game are pleasing to the eyes, the music is good, having plenty of simple, yet enjoyable tracks to jam out to, as well as some returning themes from the original game, which is always nice to hear, the control is INFINITELY better this time around, with controlling on the main adventure segments feeling about the same, but the control in the dungeon is a massive improvement, giving you full movement in eight directions, making navigating through caves and fighting monsters much more manageable as a result, and the gameplay remains practically identical to the original game, feeling more like a standalone expansion to the first game more than anything else, but hey, that isn’t usually a bad thing, and it isn’t a bad thing in this case.
The game is yet another 8-bit adventure game, where you once again take control of the generic loser known as Mike Jones, go through many different locations across time full of many different colorful characters to meet, take out many different foul fiends who will do their best at impeding your progress at every turn, gather plenty of different health items, tools, additional weapons, upgrades to your arsenal, and Tetris pieces (no, seriously) that will help you out throughout your journey, and take on plenty of bosses that you will face throughout the game, which are half and half, where some of them are fine, and can be fun to fight at times, and as for the other half…. sigh, we’ll get to them later. If you have played the original StarTropics, then congratulations! You have played Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II as well without even realizing it, as the two games are practically identical in the way that they look, sound, and work, but this one manages to stand above the previous by keeping the same fun gameplay intact, improving on several elements that I have mentioned, and also keeping that same level of charm that made the original game so enjoyable.
One of the biggest aspects about this game is that, rather than traveling to many different islands throughout your journey, you are, again, traveling to many different points in time, going to many different locations that do make the game feel more fresh and exciting compared to the first. Yeah, all of these locations are very typical for what you would find in a time travel story, such as the stone age, medieval times, the wild west and so on, but I still found myself having fun traveling through them and seeing what they had to offer regardless. This also applies to the many characters that you interact with throughout your journey, with a handful of them being well-known individuals from media and history, such as Sherlock Holmes, Cleopatra, Leonardo Da Vinci, and several others, which can lead to some conversations with them that are, admittedly, really stupid, but I dunno, I can’t help but smile at a lot of it just for how odd it is for a Nintendo title to do.
Aside from that though, everything else is the same as before: you have the overworlds where you walk around, talk to people, solve a puzzle here and there, and get access to caves and dungeons, where you take on monsters, jump on switches, gather plenty of different treasures, and cry whenever you eventually lose. For those that have played through the original game, they will feel right back at home with this game, as not only does the gameplay remain mostly unchanged, but the way the game looks makes it so that you can easily get adapted to the situation, and start blazing through it like your life depends on it. Thankfully, all of this still managed to be a lot of fun to do, as I loved going through these many different periods of time, talking to these NPCs to see the weird-ass things they say, fighting these monsters, and finding these Tetris pieces, especially with the previously mentioned improved control for the dungeon sections helping out immensely.
I can’t say that everything about this game was improved over the second one, because in some instances, I think it could actually be seen as a downgrade compared to the original. For starters, this game is somehow EVEN MORE LINEAR than the original, with what to do and where to go being spelled out to you in almost every part of the game, with there being only one or two instances where I would go off the beaten path to get an extra life heart or something. This isn’t exactly bad for those who are a fan of more straightforward games like this, but given the fact that the game is in the adventure genre, I wish it felt more like… you know, an adventure, rather then just simply being a museum tour that leads you down a destined path, only to dump you off at the gift shop once it is all done with you.
Trust me though, that doesn’t even matter to me compared to my main problem with this game, and that would be with the bosses. The difficulty from the previous game is still intact here, and while I didn’t feel it too much when it came to the main dungeon parts of the game, I certainly did feel it with some of these bosses, because good god, these ones that I am talking about are TERRIBLE. I think the worst boss in the entire game has to go to the Zoda clone that you fight around the half-way point, where you have to fight him while constantly being moved around on these arrow platforms, which can make even trying to ready yourself to attack the guy a huge pain in the ass. Not to mention, he is also constantly teleporting and sending his own attacks out at you, so not only do you have to worry about him killing you, but you also have to worry about dodging his attacks, positioning yourself correctly, and firing plenty of shots at him, WHILE constantly being moved by these goddamn arrow platforms! There are several other bosses that are pretty bad too, but not to this extent, and when you reach the end of the game, where there is a boss rush waiting for you before you fight the big bad himself, you get to re-experience all of these god-awful fights back-to-back with little changed from the last encounters…………… OH, WHAT… FUN.
Overall, despite the game’s increased linearity and some truly abysmal boss fights, this game manages to be a decent enough successor to the original StarTropics in every other way, and is a really good game as a whole, having plenty of goofy and weird things to see and do, plenty of dungeons for you to take on, and enough of that dumb dated 90s charm that you can’t help but love whenever you experience it. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the original StarTropics, as well as those who wanted to see what else the system had up its sleeve near the end of its life cycle, because despite being pretty much fully ignored back when it first came out, it does manage to be fun enough if you were to go back and see what everyone was missing out on back then. Unfortunately though, this would be the last that we would ever see from the StarTropics franchise, as there would never be any new game in the series, remakes, spin-offs, or what have you from this point onwards… which is kinda sad, to be honest, but eh, it isn’t exactly a terrible loss. Plus, I don’t want them to try to bring this series back from the dead, considering that Nintendo are usually very split down the middle when it comes to these revivals. On one hand, you could end up with another Kid Icarus: Uprising, and on the other, you could get another Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and I am not willing to take that risk!
Game #576
Ristar
1995
The term demake gets thrown around kind of a lot nowadays to just mean "remake I don't like" but I always thought of it to mean remaking a game on weaker hardware. In this case, we have Ristar for the Sega Game Gear, which is far weaker than the Sega Genesis.
TBH? It's by far the most impressive deconversion of a game ever made, to the point I much prefer it to the Genesis version. All the levels I disliked such as the water levels are replaced with new more straightforward levels like a cool rainbow level (be sure to play the Japanese version of GG Ristar!) or bomb disposal level. I just enjoy not having to play with the swimming physics again.
The music and graphics are a bit of a downgrade of course, but GG Ristar punches far harder than its weight class would suggest. I could listen to its version of the OST for ages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZIuBpTd9P8
Also, even the English version retains the story from the Japanese original which was changed in the English Genesis release. Very neat! But I think the coolest technical achievement is how they managed to replicate the ending effects on Game Gear! https://youtu.be/SxdHf1xz0w4?t=2254
It's the same Ristar you know and love, only with all the filler bits removed and replaced with mostly more interesting things imo. The new collectibles are really fun to casually walk through and I appreciate how many extra things there are to grab such as enemy shields and spears. Easy rec for fans of the original.
TBH? It's by far the most impressive deconversion of a game ever made, to the point I much prefer it to the Genesis version. All the levels I disliked such as the water levels are replaced with new more straightforward levels like a cool rainbow level (be sure to play the Japanese version of GG Ristar!) or bomb disposal level. I just enjoy not having to play with the swimming physics again.
The music and graphics are a bit of a downgrade of course, but GG Ristar punches far harder than its weight class would suggest. I could listen to its version of the OST for ages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZIuBpTd9P8
Also, even the English version retains the story from the Japanese original which was changed in the English Genesis release. Very neat! But I think the coolest technical achievement is how they managed to replicate the ending effects on Game Gear! https://youtu.be/SxdHf1xz0w4?t=2254
It's the same Ristar you know and love, only with all the filler bits removed and replaced with mostly more interesting things imo. The new collectibles are really fun to casually walk through and I appreciate how many extra things there are to grab such as enemy shields and spears. Easy rec for fans of the original.
This review contains spoilers
Over the past few years I’ve found myself realizing something about myself. I love vocations. Jobs? Yeah, I love those. I would be a great temp recruiter because, apparently, according to the RPGs I love, my favorite thing ever is being given a character and mapping out their career path.
Earlier last year I wrote two overbearing reviews for the mostly-polarizing Fire Emblem Engage, in which both reviews make very obvious that the reason I was able to put 120 hours into that game was because I found the job system to be super dynamic and creative, and something that allows for a lot of exploration and customization. It’s the kind of stuff that has me planning a second playthrough of a game as the credits are rolling, seeing what I can think of to experiment with the next go around. Between my favorite Fire Emblems and other RPGs like Dragon Quest IX, it’s clear what really makes me shiver. Enter Final Fantasy V, a game whose job system is lauded more than anything else and is the sole reason I had any interest in this installment. Come to find out, this game’s job system is basically the same as Fire Emblem Engage. So, well, I had a ball with it.
It’s what kept me engaged in maybe my fifth or sixth try to finish a Final Fantasy game (for realsies), and I had a lot of fun experimenting. I didn’t go for trying to collect a bunch of abilities (I could be fucked to bother with blue magic I’ll be real), but what I did land on made my party members really fun to play with. My problem is that I cannot really figure out if this game is well-designed passed this job system. Which, I will say, the only knock on the job system is if every guide is telling me to use the same two Blue Mage spells and spam !Zeninage, then how well-balanced, really, is the job system?
I was watching a Dragon Quest stream recently and someone in the chat asked what the difference was between that series and Final Fantasy. Beyond my deduction that DQ is “goofy” while FF is “cunty,” the latter is also meaner. So, like, also cunty in the heterosexual meaning of the word. Almost every JRPG has some tricks up its sleeves, but a lot of Final Fantasy games seem to want to make you mad. Bosses feel less designed to challenge your outfit of classes and equipment and more designed to send you to the title screen as annoyed as possible. The only other game in this series I spent meaningful time with was ‘FFX’ and I spent every big boss battle pulling my hair out, trying four times, thinking I was going to give up only to squeak it out, up until I got to the final boss battle and actually did give up! I luckily was pretty overleveled throughout most of this playthrough and got through every boss with a lot less pushback…thanks to GameFAQs! Without the nearly 30 years of information on this game available I definitely would not be able to figure this game out. Shout out to this guide in particular, which was the only reason I got anywhere in this game, ever.
And not because I couldn’t, moreso because I wasn’t having fun figuring it all out for myself. For a lot of other JRPGs, like the older Dragon Quests, I’ll take a peep at a guide once or twice, but with this game I just couldn’t be fucking bothered. Maybe this is me finally figuring out that Final Fantasy is just not for me. Exploration is also tough, too. All these old RPGs hated labeling the maps, but at least most of them had the courtesy of allowing you to memorize the world, slowly, as you explore and get different modes of transportation. Dragon Quest IV does this beautifully, having each chapter focus on a small spot in the world that you memorize and then when the final chapter unites every party character, you know where everywhere is and even some of the NPCs you met in some towns. Maybe two NPCs are remarkable in this world, and every town blends together, AND, to top it all off, the world map changes, twice! It really hit me when I was reading a guide and it told me to go back to a town and I thought, “where?!”
All this to say I may have accidentally turned myself off to this entire series. The spectacle is so grand, and I enjoyed so many of this story’s moments of awe and adventure. I love Faris so much; I always walk away from every one of these games I play with a character to adore (shouts out Yuna, my love). The spritework is to die for, so many enemies and environments look cool as hell and it’s hard to not like the whole vibe of Final Fantasy V. Fantastical space-exploration and ancient mechanisms. I mean, when I wasn't in a battle, I was having the time of my life. I really, really like it, but, it’s just so fucking miserable to play! Every other boss fight after around the 15-minute mark made me want to quit, and most, if not all, required me to do extensive research. Reading the guide for the final battle just made me feel this pit of dread! It seemed not fun! I spent one night giving it a bunch of tries and was not having fun, I almost gave up then, but I didn’t. I spent tonight giving it about seven more tries, and found this spark that I had not felt during this playthrough at all, but did in my playthrough of 'FFX'. I felt I was so close, and that was giving me this rush, but would always get tripped up by something (most usually it was Grand Cross putting berserk on my mages). I would always get easily past Exdeath’s first phase and would get, I wanna say, abour a third of the way through Neo Exdeath before it all fell apart.
No matter how enamored I am with this series as a whole, as I have been for so long, I just can’t see myself trudging through anymore of these games against my will when I have so many other JRPGs from series I’ve never tried, or! already know that I enjoy sitting through, on my shelf waiting to be played and enjoyed. It’s a somber goodbye, for now, Final Fantasy, and even though I didn’t finish this, I do still feel slightly proud of myself for how close I got. I may not try any more of the games in this series (well, except for 'FFIV', because I own 'FFIV', lol), but I definitely see myself seeking revenge one day…
Earlier last year I wrote two overbearing reviews for the mostly-polarizing Fire Emblem Engage, in which both reviews make very obvious that the reason I was able to put 120 hours into that game was because I found the job system to be super dynamic and creative, and something that allows for a lot of exploration and customization. It’s the kind of stuff that has me planning a second playthrough of a game as the credits are rolling, seeing what I can think of to experiment with the next go around. Between my favorite Fire Emblems and other RPGs like Dragon Quest IX, it’s clear what really makes me shiver. Enter Final Fantasy V, a game whose job system is lauded more than anything else and is the sole reason I had any interest in this installment. Come to find out, this game’s job system is basically the same as Fire Emblem Engage. So, well, I had a ball with it.
It’s what kept me engaged in maybe my fifth or sixth try to finish a Final Fantasy game (for realsies), and I had a lot of fun experimenting. I didn’t go for trying to collect a bunch of abilities (I could be fucked to bother with blue magic I’ll be real), but what I did land on made my party members really fun to play with. My problem is that I cannot really figure out if this game is well-designed passed this job system. Which, I will say, the only knock on the job system is if every guide is telling me to use the same two Blue Mage spells and spam !Zeninage, then how well-balanced, really, is the job system?
I was watching a Dragon Quest stream recently and someone in the chat asked what the difference was between that series and Final Fantasy. Beyond my deduction that DQ is “goofy” while FF is “cunty,” the latter is also meaner. So, like, also cunty in the heterosexual meaning of the word. Almost every JRPG has some tricks up its sleeves, but a lot of Final Fantasy games seem to want to make you mad. Bosses feel less designed to challenge your outfit of classes and equipment and more designed to send you to the title screen as annoyed as possible. The only other game in this series I spent meaningful time with was ‘FFX’ and I spent every big boss battle pulling my hair out, trying four times, thinking I was going to give up only to squeak it out, up until I got to the final boss battle and actually did give up! I luckily was pretty overleveled throughout most of this playthrough and got through every boss with a lot less pushback…thanks to GameFAQs! Without the nearly 30 years of information on this game available I definitely would not be able to figure this game out. Shout out to this guide in particular, which was the only reason I got anywhere in this game, ever.
And not because I couldn’t, moreso because I wasn’t having fun figuring it all out for myself. For a lot of other JRPGs, like the older Dragon Quests, I’ll take a peep at a guide once or twice, but with this game I just couldn’t be fucking bothered. Maybe this is me finally figuring out that Final Fantasy is just not for me. Exploration is also tough, too. All these old RPGs hated labeling the maps, but at least most of them had the courtesy of allowing you to memorize the world, slowly, as you explore and get different modes of transportation. Dragon Quest IV does this beautifully, having each chapter focus on a small spot in the world that you memorize and then when the final chapter unites every party character, you know where everywhere is and even some of the NPCs you met in some towns. Maybe two NPCs are remarkable in this world, and every town blends together, AND, to top it all off, the world map changes, twice! It really hit me when I was reading a guide and it told me to go back to a town and I thought, “where?!”
All this to say I may have accidentally turned myself off to this entire series. The spectacle is so grand, and I enjoyed so many of this story’s moments of awe and adventure. I love Faris so much; I always walk away from every one of these games I play with a character to adore (shouts out Yuna, my love). The spritework is to die for, so many enemies and environments look cool as hell and it’s hard to not like the whole vibe of Final Fantasy V. Fantastical space-exploration and ancient mechanisms. I mean, when I wasn't in a battle, I was having the time of my life. I really, really like it, but, it’s just so fucking miserable to play! Every other boss fight after around the 15-minute mark made me want to quit, and most, if not all, required me to do extensive research. Reading the guide for the final battle just made me feel this pit of dread! It seemed not fun! I spent one night giving it a bunch of tries and was not having fun, I almost gave up then, but I didn’t. I spent tonight giving it about seven more tries, and found this spark that I had not felt during this playthrough at all, but did in my playthrough of 'FFX'. I felt I was so close, and that was giving me this rush, but would always get tripped up by something (most usually it was Grand Cross putting berserk on my mages). I would always get easily past Exdeath’s first phase and would get, I wanna say, abour a third of the way through Neo Exdeath before it all fell apart.
No matter how enamored I am with this series as a whole, as I have been for so long, I just can’t see myself trudging through anymore of these games against my will when I have so many other JRPGs from series I’ve never tried, or! already know that I enjoy sitting through, on my shelf waiting to be played and enjoyed. It’s a somber goodbye, for now, Final Fantasy, and even though I didn’t finish this, I do still feel slightly proud of myself for how close I got. I may not try any more of the games in this series (well, except for 'FFIV', because I own 'FFIV', lol), but I definitely see myself seeking revenge one day…
aw HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL YEAH
I feel so sorry for all non-Spanish speakers who will never understand just how funny the name ‘’Señor Chirridos’’ is; like… is not a bad translation of Mr. Scratch by any means, but it’s so fucking funny and it surprises me even more they just didn’t keep the original name… but I’m so glad they didn’t.
If Alan Wake is the main TV series, then American Nightmare feels like a Halloween special, which seems to be exactly what they were going for. Despite the original game having such an open finale and this going directly after it, it doesn’t really build upon the pre-established narrative beyond Alan’s character and his conflict with his doppelgänger, and that’s fine! I’m totally up for a shorter, more fast-paced story in this world, and American Nightmare does have a super interesting premise.
I actually liked how the combat worked in the first game, so expanding on that with more weapons and enemies while using the backdrop of a Night Springs episode and introducing a time-loop is the kind of craziness I can get behind, and AM does succeed at creating more interesting combat encounters than the original game ever did… but doesn’t try to go for more than that despite its many opportunities.
It does show a promising start; the three main areas of Arizona are interesting and fun to go through and a perfect excuse to battle the Taken, getting more manuscript pages, see more of Mr. Scratch and the little interactions with each of the characters, while not as natural as any of the conversations with the fellas of Bright Falls, are pretty neat. With the addition of a couple of weapons and enemies, this feels like the kind of combat sections they wanted to make the first time around; they even took out the driving section! We are freed from this accursed blight!
And we even get to hear how Barry and the Old Gods of Asgard are doing, glad to know they are still putting out pure fire!
It’s a pretty good time, a simple one, but it has some cool moments, I really liked the battles, and overall is just an entertaining time!... and then the second loop begins.
I absolutely love the idea of time-loops as a gameplay system, getting to learn more of the world and levels and using that knowledge to do tasks way faster and m is the best, however, poorly implemented time-loops can turn into doing the exact same thing x amount of times only with a different objective or two and with some new enemies… guess what American Nightmare decides to do. Each time loop is shorter than the last one, but not because you actively take decisions that make things speed up, but because either what were multiple objectives is only one now or because a NPC did the thing way before you. It doesn’t help that the major set-pieces don’t change at all; watching the petrol extractor is a cool sequence, but not one I would have liked to go through three times, and no, putting rock songs, as good as hey sound, doesn’t make it different or better.
Going through the motions the first time was fine, but having to walk through the same rope two other times is a chore, even if gets shorter every time. Worst part is that they really could have given you more openness if they really wanted; the NPCs you encounter also remember the time loops and no matter what, you can only truly win at the end of the last one, so diving you more lenience on how you deal with things wouldn’t have really affected thing at all, and we have here is just an excuse to turn 3 levels into 9.
As the loops go on, more enemies get introduced, and… listen, I really do like the combat way more on here, and some of the new enemies are pretty interesting; the Taken that throws projectiles and explosives and the one that divides each time you shine light on him are super cool ideas from a gameplay-wise and as ideas on their own but the rest of them… in many ways they feel like a waste. The enemies that replace the birds from the original game are faster to deal with but just as annoying, the giants are bullet sponges with no interest move-sets on their own, and the spiders are cool story wise, since they apparently are not part of the Taken perse and instead are part of the Dark Place fauna, but they being just big spiders feels like a wasted opportunity to create something way more cool and alien, and alsoWHY THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE TO BE SPIDERS OH MY GOD-
American Nightmare doesn’t create challenges by throwing enemies with interesting sets of moves, it just throws at you guys that really know how to take damage or a ton of them at the same time, best exemplified on the Arcade mode. I do know and understand that this is a more gameplay-focused entry, but when in the main story you go through the same beats over and over with some minor alterations, and the arcade mode —which by the way, has some unique level themes that I would have preferred to see much more in the main story instead of going through the Observatory three times — is just Wake against waves of enemies and see what score you can get… at a certain point the game loses me, and it doesn’t pull from the creativeness that I know it has and can have to keep me glued to it.
The Taken stay completely silent, and the creepy charm that was found on hearing their grunts and lines amongst the trees is completely gone; the manuscript pages are way less interesting this time around, and the opportunity of this being based around and taking place in a Night Springs episode Alan wrote isn’t taken advantage of at any point, making for a way less interesting story, and use of the reality- bending pages.
In the end, the thing that really kept me more intrigued and wanting to see the game to the finale was, who else, Mr. Scratch himself. I enjoyed most of the villains in the original Alan Wake, but NONE feel like Mr. Scratch; the sound distorting every time Wake says his name, the way he taunts Alan and how he ENJOYS being the worst of him, a true monster all the way through, it’s a disturbing delight every time he’s on screen (literally) and the uneasiness he carries is one I didn’t expected to be done so well. I wished he and Alan had more opportunities to bounce each other, ‘cause every time they did it was a delight, and luckily it seems that American Nightmare isn’t that important to the overall Alan Wake narrative, so hopefully he didn’t kick the bucket, I’d love to see more of him…
There’s still that Alan Wake attention to detail and story in here, but it didn’t go as deep as it could have, and we have is a story that, while fun at times and with some cool extras and secrets, it still is what is: a Halloween special that doesn’t want to be a real successor or groundbreaking, but it also doesn’t take advantage of the potential it itself sets, and it can drag on at times… Still fun and funny at times, tho!
We’ll meet again, Champion of Light
I’ll see you soon, Herald of Darkness
If Alan Wake is the main TV series, then American Nightmare feels like a Halloween special, which seems to be exactly what they were going for. Despite the original game having such an open finale and this going directly after it, it doesn’t really build upon the pre-established narrative beyond Alan’s character and his conflict with his doppelgänger, and that’s fine! I’m totally up for a shorter, more fast-paced story in this world, and American Nightmare does have a super interesting premise.
I actually liked how the combat worked in the first game, so expanding on that with more weapons and enemies while using the backdrop of a Night Springs episode and introducing a time-loop is the kind of craziness I can get behind, and AM does succeed at creating more interesting combat encounters than the original game ever did… but doesn’t try to go for more than that despite its many opportunities.
It does show a promising start; the three main areas of Arizona are interesting and fun to go through and a perfect excuse to battle the Taken, getting more manuscript pages, see more of Mr. Scratch and the little interactions with each of the characters, while not as natural as any of the conversations with the fellas of Bright Falls, are pretty neat. With the addition of a couple of weapons and enemies, this feels like the kind of combat sections they wanted to make the first time around; they even took out the driving section! We are freed from this accursed blight!
And we even get to hear how Barry and the Old Gods of Asgard are doing, glad to know they are still putting out pure fire!
It’s a pretty good time, a simple one, but it has some cool moments, I really liked the battles, and overall is just an entertaining time!... and then the second loop begins.
I absolutely love the idea of time-loops as a gameplay system, getting to learn more of the world and levels and using that knowledge to do tasks way faster and m is the best, however, poorly implemented time-loops can turn into doing the exact same thing x amount of times only with a different objective or two and with some new enemies… guess what American Nightmare decides to do. Each time loop is shorter than the last one, but not because you actively take decisions that make things speed up, but because either what were multiple objectives is only one now or because a NPC did the thing way before you. It doesn’t help that the major set-pieces don’t change at all; watching the petrol extractor is a cool sequence, but not one I would have liked to go through three times, and no, putting rock songs, as good as hey sound, doesn’t make it different or better.
Going through the motions the first time was fine, but having to walk through the same rope two other times is a chore, even if gets shorter every time. Worst part is that they really could have given you more openness if they really wanted; the NPCs you encounter also remember the time loops and no matter what, you can only truly win at the end of the last one, so diving you more lenience on how you deal with things wouldn’t have really affected thing at all, and we have here is just an excuse to turn 3 levels into 9.
As the loops go on, more enemies get introduced, and… listen, I really do like the combat way more on here, and some of the new enemies are pretty interesting; the Taken that throws projectiles and explosives and the one that divides each time you shine light on him are super cool ideas from a gameplay-wise and as ideas on their own but the rest of them… in many ways they feel like a waste. The enemies that replace the birds from the original game are faster to deal with but just as annoying, the giants are bullet sponges with no interest move-sets on their own, and the spiders are cool story wise, since they apparently are not part of the Taken perse and instead are part of the Dark Place fauna, but they being just big spiders feels like a wasted opportunity to create something way more cool and alien, and alsoWHY THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE TO BE SPIDERS OH MY GOD-
American Nightmare doesn’t create challenges by throwing enemies with interesting sets of moves, it just throws at you guys that really know how to take damage or a ton of them at the same time, best exemplified on the Arcade mode. I do know and understand that this is a more gameplay-focused entry, but when in the main story you go through the same beats over and over with some minor alterations, and the arcade mode —which by the way, has some unique level themes that I would have preferred to see much more in the main story instead of going through the Observatory three times — is just Wake against waves of enemies and see what score you can get… at a certain point the game loses me, and it doesn’t pull from the creativeness that I know it has and can have to keep me glued to it.
The Taken stay completely silent, and the creepy charm that was found on hearing their grunts and lines amongst the trees is completely gone; the manuscript pages are way less interesting this time around, and the opportunity of this being based around and taking place in a Night Springs episode Alan wrote isn’t taken advantage of at any point, making for a way less interesting story, and use of the reality- bending pages.
In the end, the thing that really kept me more intrigued and wanting to see the game to the finale was, who else, Mr. Scratch himself. I enjoyed most of the villains in the original Alan Wake, but NONE feel like Mr. Scratch; the sound distorting every time Wake says his name, the way he taunts Alan and how he ENJOYS being the worst of him, a true monster all the way through, it’s a disturbing delight every time he’s on screen (literally) and the uneasiness he carries is one I didn’t expected to be done so well. I wished he and Alan had more opportunities to bounce each other, ‘cause every time they did it was a delight, and luckily it seems that American Nightmare isn’t that important to the overall Alan Wake narrative, so hopefully he didn’t kick the bucket, I’d love to see more of him…
There’s still that Alan Wake attention to detail and story in here, but it didn’t go as deep as it could have, and we have is a story that, while fun at times and with some cool extras and secrets, it still is what is: a Halloween special that doesn’t want to be a real successor or groundbreaking, but it also doesn’t take advantage of the potential it itself sets, and it can drag on at times… Still fun and funny at times, tho!
We’ll meet again, Champion of Light
I’ll see you soon, Herald of Darkness
Couldn't finish it because I got it from the library and 150 kids had it on hold behind me. I like the idea that 150 kids had to wait on me, a grown man, to get through half of this baby game for babies just for me to sigh, give it a 2 out of 5 on backlogged and return it one day over-due.
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