skely420
5 reviews liked by skely420
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown" is a solid 2D platform-action game. After 20 hours of jumps, swings, and anime-style sword clashes, I ultimately had a good time.
I’ll start with the negatives first: "The Lost Crown" effectively scratched the Metroidvania itch, but I'm not leaving with much more than that.
I feel the game didn’t introduce anything that truly stands out. It takes lessons from the greatest, and while I believe there is still merit in effectively combining the best features from the top-tier games of the genre, I wish there were more compelling reasons to choose this one over others.
One thing I am missing that I really value in this genre is the “sense of place”. I don't find the world of “The Lost Crown” to be particularly evocative or interesting. Personally, exploration is a significant factor in this type of game and, unfortunately, there's nothing that compelled me to explore or become immersed in this world. I was only moving forward, sometimes mechanically, more to make progress than moved by a sense of curiosity; there's no lore, art, characters, or area that fascinated me enough to make me want to explore further.
Still, even with nothing innovative going on, the game is fun to play thanks to the well-implemented core components (movement, powers, combat, etc.). There are moments when they combine in good harmony, and the game sings: latching onto that flying bird, then swinging on the pole to avoid spikes and landing on that soldier to deliver a potent blow.
Boss fights are the highlight of the game. They are thrilling and spectacular, and while they may appear challenging at first, the game provides ample opportunities to make mistakes or recover health. Mastering the enemy's moveset is not absolutely necessary; simply learning to avoid their strongest attacks suffices. It's nice that you can retry right away—they never impede progression significantly, yet they offer enough challenge and excitement to feel truly rewarding and adrenaline-inducing.
Powers are also very well implemented. Nothing stands out as original or innovative in the genre but the power progression is well balanced and each is useful for both platform and combat.
However, despite this solid foundation, I can’t help but feel that the game shines only in small portions; clever platforming puzzles and exciting fights create engaging moments that, sadly, are diluted in the overall experience. It takes a while to reach a good level of mobility. That combined with scarse teleports and the some unintersting areas, make the exploration of the first 7-8 hourse quite dull.
Finally, it’s important to note that the game is still a little buggy. Overall, the game ran well. I ran into gameplay-affecting bugs a few times, but unluckily they came up at the worst moments, like right after boss fights or long backtracking sections. This game definitely needed some more time in the oven.
I’ll start with the negatives first: "The Lost Crown" effectively scratched the Metroidvania itch, but I'm not leaving with much more than that.
I feel the game didn’t introduce anything that truly stands out. It takes lessons from the greatest, and while I believe there is still merit in effectively combining the best features from the top-tier games of the genre, I wish there were more compelling reasons to choose this one over others.
One thing I am missing that I really value in this genre is the “sense of place”. I don't find the world of “The Lost Crown” to be particularly evocative or interesting. Personally, exploration is a significant factor in this type of game and, unfortunately, there's nothing that compelled me to explore or become immersed in this world. I was only moving forward, sometimes mechanically, more to make progress than moved by a sense of curiosity; there's no lore, art, characters, or area that fascinated me enough to make me want to explore further.
Still, even with nothing innovative going on, the game is fun to play thanks to the well-implemented core components (movement, powers, combat, etc.). There are moments when they combine in good harmony, and the game sings: latching onto that flying bird, then swinging on the pole to avoid spikes and landing on that soldier to deliver a potent blow.
Boss fights are the highlight of the game. They are thrilling and spectacular, and while they may appear challenging at first, the game provides ample opportunities to make mistakes or recover health. Mastering the enemy's moveset is not absolutely necessary; simply learning to avoid their strongest attacks suffices. It's nice that you can retry right away—they never impede progression significantly, yet they offer enough challenge and excitement to feel truly rewarding and adrenaline-inducing.
Powers are also very well implemented. Nothing stands out as original or innovative in the genre but the power progression is well balanced and each is useful for both platform and combat.
However, despite this solid foundation, I can’t help but feel that the game shines only in small portions; clever platforming puzzles and exciting fights create engaging moments that, sadly, are diluted in the overall experience. It takes a while to reach a good level of mobility. That combined with scarse teleports and the some unintersting areas, make the exploration of the first 7-8 hourse quite dull.
Finally, it’s important to note that the game is still a little buggy. Overall, the game ran well. I ran into gameplay-affecting bugs a few times, but unluckily they came up at the worst moments, like right after boss fights or long backtracking sections. This game definitely needed some more time in the oven.
Really excellent boss battles. Most powers felt great. Platforming feels amazing, and there are many challenge rooms for Xerxes coins to put you to the test there. Character designs and modeling was good as well as attack VFX, and VO was generally good. Some cute puzzles. A lot of good, enough so that I feel too harsh giving it a 3.5, but it's close. Now for the complaints!
The world art is disappointingly AAA. Sand looks like sand, terrain looks like terrain. Saturated, beautiful, lush colors are not common in this game. So much of the map, especially early areas, is just made out of straight X or Y dimension platform segments in plenty of areas that don't amount to any notable sense of visual storytelling. Eventually, you get to some areas with impressive color use and visual design, including one particularly imaginative water area, but they feel a bit like outliers. (Also, funnily enough, you undo the imaginative premise of that water area midway through it so it kind of just becomes less cool.)
The game's screen-to-screen level design is generally pretty fun especially when you get your double jump and can really string shit together. However, the macro level design of the map is often meandering and flavorless. There are a plethora of one-way gates, but they’re infrequently hidden and often act as dead ends in sections with no clear way to go because of lacking visual and geometric cues. Part of the magic in Dark Souls of a one-way is being confronted with an important one right on the main path, or having them hidden so that you stumble into a loopback and go "oh wow, i didn’t know this would connect here!" – this game just branches all the time with impassible walls (due to cardinality or due to lack of upgrades) always a room or two away from where you want. This resulted in a strong feeling of me playing the map screen and not the game itself sometimes, because rooms melt away from your thoughts pretty instantly after leaving them, especially when there's rarely any gimmick or iconic shapes to drag your virtual body against and feel.
Generally feels like it was lacking one more big pass of polish. Several unfinished looking VFX of platforms instantly disappearing beneath you, and a lacking sound mix that felt incomplete. Sound effects are inconsistent in volume and several boss battles seemed to have no music (in addition to two different bosses failing to play their cutscenes the first time i walked into their arenas which really messes up the functional storytelling they at least attempt to do). And the story flirts with being interesting at times cases but overall is just halfway-realized.
In conclusion, Mount Qaf is a land of contrasts
The world art is disappointingly AAA. Sand looks like sand, terrain looks like terrain. Saturated, beautiful, lush colors are not common in this game. So much of the map, especially early areas, is just made out of straight X or Y dimension platform segments in plenty of areas that don't amount to any notable sense of visual storytelling. Eventually, you get to some areas with impressive color use and visual design, including one particularly imaginative water area, but they feel a bit like outliers. (Also, funnily enough, you undo the imaginative premise of that water area midway through it so it kind of just becomes less cool.)
The game's screen-to-screen level design is generally pretty fun especially when you get your double jump and can really string shit together. However, the macro level design of the map is often meandering and flavorless. There are a plethora of one-way gates, but they’re infrequently hidden and often act as dead ends in sections with no clear way to go because of lacking visual and geometric cues. Part of the magic in Dark Souls of a one-way is being confronted with an important one right on the main path, or having them hidden so that you stumble into a loopback and go "oh wow, i didn’t know this would connect here!" – this game just branches all the time with impassible walls (due to cardinality or due to lack of upgrades) always a room or two away from where you want. This resulted in a strong feeling of me playing the map screen and not the game itself sometimes, because rooms melt away from your thoughts pretty instantly after leaving them, especially when there's rarely any gimmick or iconic shapes to drag your virtual body against and feel.
Generally feels like it was lacking one more big pass of polish. Several unfinished looking VFX of platforms instantly disappearing beneath you, and a lacking sound mix that felt incomplete. Sound effects are inconsistent in volume and several boss battles seemed to have no music (in addition to two different bosses failing to play their cutscenes the first time i walked into their arenas which really messes up the functional storytelling they at least attempt to do). And the story flirts with being interesting at times cases but overall is just halfway-realized.
In conclusion, Mount Qaf is a land of contrasts
This was my first warriors game. I don't know if every single warriors game is like this, but I was not really enjoying it. It felt repetitive and boring. On top of that, the game runs terribly on the Switch. With how bad the FPS dipped at times, and how bad the resolution looked, it really took away from my enjoyment and just led me to dropping the game. I do not recommend this, even if you're a BOTW or TOTK fan.
The Witness
2016
crazy good puzzle game, but i never got the platinum :(
CBT With Yuuka Kazami: Torturous for the balls, Therapeutic for the Brain
CBT With Yuuka Kazami is a short, yet charming visual novel that provides decent insight into the ways emotion can affect your reasoning skills, and how this affects the human psyche. The reasoning strategies provided by the titular Yuuka Kazami have provided great assistance in my efforts to overreact less towards stressful situations in my day to day life, and I certainly recommend this game to anyone struggling with anxiety disorder.
Will definitely be replaying this once the Patchouli Knowledge DLC goes on sale, as she is my all-time favorite Touhou Project character.
CBT With Yuuka Kazami is a short, yet charming visual novel that provides decent insight into the ways emotion can affect your reasoning skills, and how this affects the human psyche. The reasoning strategies provided by the titular Yuuka Kazami have provided great assistance in my efforts to overreact less towards stressful situations in my day to day life, and I certainly recommend this game to anyone struggling with anxiety disorder.
Will definitely be replaying this once the Patchouli Knowledge DLC goes on sale, as she is my all-time favorite Touhou Project character.