rumbee
2023
final fantasy xvi reminds me of old sweeping epics, the soaring score, the large scale, the story that shifts and changes so much that by the end you feel like it was a lifetime ago, and the human spirit underlying everything. this game is long. a good 50 hours long and it takes its damn time. side quests start off mundane, very fetch quest-y and just "go here kill monster" but as the context of the world changes, so do the side quests as they involve more recognizable faces and have changes that do affect the world, though as i said it takes time to get to that. the story is the ultimate indomitable human spirit type that goes all in on it by the end so if you cant get into that, you will be sorely disappointed. good thing i eat that shit up. combat is very much like dmc 5 where yes you can just play the game boring or you can make it fun which i greatly enjoyed. its so astounding how much this game clicks for me. didnt love every minute of it, but it won me over more times than it let me down.
Not the greatest but has the greatest boss theme.
1990
what the fuck
2018
This review contains spoilers
5.5
Writing really irked me this time around. So many conversations are spent talking in circles and characters always talk about how they're feeling but they never really show it. (There are a few clever moments building up Sugiura's relationship to Emi Terasawa but that's all I remember.) Kamurocho also isn't very engrossing. The side-content ranges from boring to bad, some aspects don't even fit Yagami (Friends system). Pacing is awful, lots of Cutscene->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency->Cutscene->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency->Fight->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency, feels so much slower coming off of Kiwami 2 which has 3 more chapters. Didn't enjoy the replay which disappoints me because this used to be my favorite game in the series.
Writing really irked me this time around. So many conversations are spent talking in circles and characters always talk about how they're feeling but they never really show it. (There are a few clever moments building up Sugiura's relationship to Emi Terasawa but that's all I remember.) Kamurocho also isn't very engrossing. The side-content ranges from boring to bad, some aspects don't even fit Yagami (Friends system). Pacing is awful, lots of Cutscene->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency->Cutscene->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency->Fight->Rest at Yagami Detective Agency, feels so much slower coming off of Kiwami 2 which has 3 more chapters. Didn't enjoy the replay which disappoints me because this used to be my favorite game in the series.
2001
I really like the vibe of the city but the repetitive missions, bad combat, and lack of drive to continue due to your player character not having a personality, this one's just okay.
2016
Boring open-world and bad writing. I don't like this game.
2012
despite being over a decade old and being from a particular genre beaten to death (ps3-xbox 360 cover shooter), binary domain stands out among the rest. the story is legitimate sci-fi, asking questions about humanity amidst the bay-esque writing and the nuts and bolts spilling everywhere. there's also an added layer of camaraderie to it because of the voice system the game has, making you yell out commands to your teammates a crucial part of the game's combat. on the topic of combat, it's good! pretty same-y for the most part but it never got too grating for me. music wasn't really a standout but i didn't mind too much. didn't think i'd like this as much as i do.
8.5
story is good for the most part, side-content is too. feels like insomniac is much more confident this time around and for good reason. mechanically one of the best games out now, just bums me out a little bit that theres less of a difference between playstyles for both protags. lots caught me off guard but i feel the game really shined during its first 2/3rds. the last act was very mixed for me, felt a bit rushed together. really great bosses this time around and the city traversal is at its peak (for now.) might rereview this later, these are just my initial thoughts.
story is good for the most part, side-content is too. feels like insomniac is much more confident this time around and for good reason. mechanically one of the best games out now, just bums me out a little bit that theres less of a difference between playstyles for both protags. lots caught me off guard but i feel the game really shined during its first 2/3rds. the last act was very mixed for me, felt a bit rushed together. really great bosses this time around and the city traversal is at its peak (for now.) might rereview this later, these are just my initial thoughts.
2016
7
Persona 5 means a lot to me. It was the first M-rated game I bought by myself and it was my favorite game for a while. A lot of the appeal for me was the gorgeous style and the simulated Japan you could immerse yourself in and on a replay, both hold up extremely well. This game has the best UI design (artistically) that it makes all the usually monotonous JRPG menu scrolling fun. It's also served as an influence for many games after it, with the remake for Persona 3 and Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth taking certain aspects from Persona 5's style. The style is such a godsend, I cannot emphasize that enough. Having played the Like A Dragon games, I can see how one could argue Persona 5's lens of Japan is a bit limited in its scope but they aren't aiming to do the same thing so I believe otherwise. The Like A Dragon games really go all in on the virtual tourism while Persona 5 focuses on RPG-ifying certain aspects of Japan. Back on topic, another pull was the game's story.
When I first played it, I thought this game was perfect. All of the characters engrossed me and I genuinely cared about the world and its characters. Upon replay, this did not hold up. Now, the story isn't bad, it's honestly pretty good (if not redundant for the Persona franchise at this point.) My main issue is with how the story is told. The game is rated M for Mature though it's catering more towards a teenage audience if anything. I mention this because the story feels the need to hold your hand like a parent guiding a newborn baby. There is not a single point you get to think about. All of the information is told to you when its needed which killed the mood for a lot of story beats on my revisit. If the story was told better, I wouldn't be grilling it this much.
Will be doing a separate review for the third semester (the Persona 5 Royal exclusive content.)
Persona 5 means a lot to me. It was the first M-rated game I bought by myself and it was my favorite game for a while. A lot of the appeal for me was the gorgeous style and the simulated Japan you could immerse yourself in and on a replay, both hold up extremely well. This game has the best UI design (artistically) that it makes all the usually monotonous JRPG menu scrolling fun. It's also served as an influence for many games after it, with the remake for Persona 3 and Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth taking certain aspects from Persona 5's style. The style is such a godsend, I cannot emphasize that enough. Having played the Like A Dragon games, I can see how one could argue Persona 5's lens of Japan is a bit limited in its scope but they aren't aiming to do the same thing so I believe otherwise. The Like A Dragon games really go all in on the virtual tourism while Persona 5 focuses on RPG-ifying certain aspects of Japan. Back on topic, another pull was the game's story.
When I first played it, I thought this game was perfect. All of the characters engrossed me and I genuinely cared about the world and its characters. Upon replay, this did not hold up. Now, the story isn't bad, it's honestly pretty good (if not redundant for the Persona franchise at this point.) My main issue is with how the story is told. The game is rated M for Mature though it's catering more towards a teenage audience if anything. I mention this because the story feels the need to hold your hand like a parent guiding a newborn baby. There is not a single point you get to think about. All of the information is told to you when its needed which killed the mood for a lot of story beats on my revisit. If the story was told better, I wouldn't be grilling it this much.
Will be doing a separate review for the third semester (the Persona 5 Royal exclusive content.)
Fun but I wanted Kurayami.
what the fuck
2021
This review contains spoilers
8.5 - used to be a 9
Contains Lost Judgment & Judgment spoilers
Lost Judgment is the most fun RGG game. It has the best combat, some of the best side content the series has to offer, and great music. The story bothered me on my initial replay but I didn't have the words to really outline them, it's never really left my mind though. This game meant a lot to me, it was the first RGG game I had played in a year, officially at least (My play order was weird: 0 > 1 > 2 > Kurohyou > Kenzan > Ishin > LJ > JE > 3 > 4 > 5 > Kiwami > 6 > 7 > Kiwami 2 > Kurohyou 2) so when I first played it, I thought it was the best one. I told my friend at the time it had the best everything, I then proceeded to play the rest of the series and my thoughts on that are a little bit mixed now. While it does have some of the best gameplay aspects and technical aspects of all the RGG games, the story (which I replayed for this time) brings this one down quite a bit for me.
The original Judgment's story has a human feel to it, even the conspiracy does. They're usually these big lifeless organizations but the conspiracy all originates with Shono and his want to save a loved one from Alzheimer's. Nagoshi's parents had the disease which lent him a better understanding of the topic, the original story also has more of a noir feel to it. The main problem with Lost Judgment's story is the lack of understanding of the central topics. Sexual harassment and bullying are no joke but it's a lot of weight to cover topics like them, Lost Judgment seems to understand this at first but instead of delving into why these things are the way they are, the story just uses them as crutches. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It's stance on bullying is very base level. Kids bully kids, that is it. What should we do? Aikido. The plot has 13 chapters to delve deeper into any of these but it focuses more on the underground crime than anything else. During the initial info dumps, Tsukumo says that the punishment of those in the wrong instills a sense of joy into those enacting justice and Yagami immediately butts in and says that joy and justice cannot be joined together. But I guess that doesn't apply for the high-school kids because you fight against them in fun, frenetic combat. That kid has connections to the yakuza, go beat him up. Those kids are picking on that other kid, beat the shit out of them, make them fear for their lives, yay. This is not me defending the bullies in the game, they're vile. I'm criticizing how little the game looks into why they feel the need to bully. It all solves itself by the end because they're all nice now. I haven't even gotten to the sexual harassment part yet. The story uses it as a tool, nothing else. It has the same plot relevance as Kuwana making a 3D printed version of Ehara's face. I wouldn't be as angry if it wasn't these topics being used. Bullying and sexual harassment should be handled with tact, not as tools for the plot to chug forward.
Getting to the plot, it is extremely similar to Judgment. Relatively smaller crimes branch off into a conspiracy involving the police and health ministry of Japan, Yagami deduces everything, there's a creepy mole, there's a scene at the end where Yagami filibusters the courtroom, changing the heart of the prosecutor and everything being ok in the end. It's much lesser here now mainly due to the way the story is told. Long uninteresting Wikipedia article info dumps about the mystery which are repeated over and over and over, it feels like either the plot is scared that you won't get it or it forgets and needs to remind itself because of the pacing. There's no dynamism in the dialogue choice ones, removing the SP gain which gamified that aspect of the plot, removing the very little involvement you already had. By the end, characters just kinda yell at the screen, going on about how grey the conflict is, how "maybe we're not in the right here", blah blah blah. There's nothing grey about the plot. Kuwana is a serial killer who uses his guilt as a crutch to murder those who've committed atrocities that he could have tackled but didn't. As Yagami says at the start of the game, the sense of joy from enacting punishment is contradictory to justice. Then, why are we having this debate? Kuwana never shows remorse for the people he kills. He says it himself, his version of justice involves that kind of punishment. He even ropes Reiko Kusumoto for more of a crutch with her comatosed son Mitsuru. It's all spelled out for you. Why does Kaito say that line? Why do any of the returning characters act so different? Kaito's a womanizing grunt, Yagami has the personality of drywall and he completely forgets Judgment's plot, Hoshino and Genda are pervs towards Saori (that whole scene can be counted as sexual harassment.) Every returning character is butchered and those who aren't are either lucky or they're barely in the story. Lost Judgment's story makes for a great Wikipedia read, but the way it tells its story is like reading the same article again and again.
I'm so happy the Kaito Files exists.
Contains Lost Judgment & Judgment spoilers
Lost Judgment is the most fun RGG game. It has the best combat, some of the best side content the series has to offer, and great music. The story bothered me on my initial replay but I didn't have the words to really outline them, it's never really left my mind though. This game meant a lot to me, it was the first RGG game I had played in a year, officially at least (My play order was weird: 0 > 1 > 2 > Kurohyou > Kenzan > Ishin > LJ > JE > 3 > 4 > 5 > Kiwami > 6 > 7 > Kiwami 2 > Kurohyou 2) so when I first played it, I thought it was the best one. I told my friend at the time it had the best everything, I then proceeded to play the rest of the series and my thoughts on that are a little bit mixed now. While it does have some of the best gameplay aspects and technical aspects of all the RGG games, the story (which I replayed for this time) brings this one down quite a bit for me.
The original Judgment's story has a human feel to it, even the conspiracy does. They're usually these big lifeless organizations but the conspiracy all originates with Shono and his want to save a loved one from Alzheimer's. Nagoshi's parents had the disease which lent him a better understanding of the topic, the original story also has more of a noir feel to it. The main problem with Lost Judgment's story is the lack of understanding of the central topics. Sexual harassment and bullying are no joke but it's a lot of weight to cover topics like them, Lost Judgment seems to understand this at first but instead of delving into why these things are the way they are, the story just uses them as crutches. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It's stance on bullying is very base level. Kids bully kids, that is it. What should we do? Aikido. The plot has 13 chapters to delve deeper into any of these but it focuses more on the underground crime than anything else. During the initial info dumps, Tsukumo says that the punishment of those in the wrong instills a sense of joy into those enacting justice and Yagami immediately butts in and says that joy and justice cannot be joined together. But I guess that doesn't apply for the high-school kids because you fight against them in fun, frenetic combat. That kid has connections to the yakuza, go beat him up. Those kids are picking on that other kid, beat the shit out of them, make them fear for their lives, yay. This is not me defending the bullies in the game, they're vile. I'm criticizing how little the game looks into why they feel the need to bully. It all solves itself by the end because they're all nice now. I haven't even gotten to the sexual harassment part yet. The story uses it as a tool, nothing else. It has the same plot relevance as Kuwana making a 3D printed version of Ehara's face. I wouldn't be as angry if it wasn't these topics being used. Bullying and sexual harassment should be handled with tact, not as tools for the plot to chug forward.
Getting to the plot, it is extremely similar to Judgment. Relatively smaller crimes branch off into a conspiracy involving the police and health ministry of Japan, Yagami deduces everything, there's a creepy mole, there's a scene at the end where Yagami filibusters the courtroom, changing the heart of the prosecutor and everything being ok in the end. It's much lesser here now mainly due to the way the story is told. Long uninteresting Wikipedia article info dumps about the mystery which are repeated over and over and over, it feels like either the plot is scared that you won't get it or it forgets and needs to remind itself because of the pacing. There's no dynamism in the dialogue choice ones, removing the SP gain which gamified that aspect of the plot, removing the very little involvement you already had. By the end, characters just kinda yell at the screen, going on about how grey the conflict is, how "maybe we're not in the right here", blah blah blah. There's nothing grey about the plot. Kuwana is a serial killer who uses his guilt as a crutch to murder those who've committed atrocities that he could have tackled but didn't. As Yagami says at the start of the game, the sense of joy from enacting punishment is contradictory to justice. Then, why are we having this debate? Kuwana never shows remorse for the people he kills. He says it himself, his version of justice involves that kind of punishment. He even ropes Reiko Kusumoto for more of a crutch with her comatosed son Mitsuru. It's all spelled out for you. Why does Kaito say that line? Why do any of the returning characters act so different? Kaito's a womanizing grunt, Yagami has the personality of drywall and he completely forgets Judgment's plot, Hoshino and Genda are pervs towards Saori (that whole scene can be counted as sexual harassment.) Every returning character is butchered and those who aren't are either lucky or they're barely in the story. Lost Judgment's story makes for a great Wikipedia read, but the way it tells its story is like reading the same article again and again.
I'm so happy the Kaito Files exists.
I died.
2018
I died.
Better Super Mario Land. Also introduces Wario.