Initially developed as a Resident Evil game, Devil May Cry 1 ultimately ending up becoming its own thing, although vestiges of Resident Evil can still be seen in it.

The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.

The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.

The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.

The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.

The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.

There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.

yeah, its pretty kinda nothing right now, but im really hopeful for the future of this mode if they keep supporting it, having primarily controller support concerns really hinders the beatmaps, but the pull up notes are neat and adds a little to what the two sided beatmap style lacks, pretty easy to anyone familiar to rhythm games, but needs to be accessible to newcomers and fortnite's sperm aged user base, dont understand pricing discontentment when its about $5, same as rockband before, and you get 4 different beatmaps, but yeah as the songlist grows and stuff gets more complex in a couple years this'll be clean, i mean, we have announced instruments

I have played a fuck-ton of arcade scrolling shooters at this point. From the beginning of the arcade days with games like Space Invaders and Galaxian, to some of the more advanced in the genre at the time like Gradius and Varth: Operation Thunderstorm, I have basically brought this genre into my daily life, and will continue to keep playing them for many years to come. I dunno, there is just something about this genre that just feels so… right. They are hard as fuck, and yet, incredibly infectious, to where when you get that right set of powerups and start blasting down an endless horde of ships, man does it feel good. So, as such, I decided that I wanted to explore the genre a little more, find some titles that were a little less known when compared to others that I have tried out, and in my search, I have come across the Raiden series.

Before going into this game, I had no clue about what Raiden was all about. I liked the name, even though it is shared with two popular video game characters which make bringing this up in conversation much harder than it needs to, but I had no clue what it was all about, or even who the people that developed it were. Nevertheless, I went into it with as much enthusiasm that I typically would have or a scrolling shooter, and… it was pretty much exactly what you could expect from it. The game was still good at the end of the day, and it does provide the same shmup feel that fans of the genre would be looking for, but it does come off as pretty average when compared to other titles.

The story is, what a shocker, aliens have invaded in the year 2090 (I will be looking forward to that when I am an old man), so it is up to you alone to go take them down, which is the most overused plot at this point, but nobody cares about the plot in one of these games, the graphics are pretty good, but they do blend in with plenty of other games from the same genre of that era, which speaking of, the music also does the exact same thing, sounding pretty competent, but not really leaving much of an impact on my ears, the control is what you would expect from a scrolling shooter, so not much more to add there, and the gameplay is also what you would expect, but again, that isn’t a bad thing in this case.

The game is your typical vertical scrolling shooter, where you take control of the Fighting Thunder, which also sounds like the title for another generic scrolling shooter, go through a set of eight different stages, shoot down as many enemy air fighters, tanks, buildings, and machines as you can using bombs or your regular shot, gather plenty of powerups to give you more of an offensive edge against the foes that you will be facing, and take on plenty of big, bad, and destructive bosses that will keep you on your toes while constantly dodging their fire. It is the perfect blend to satisfy those shmup fanatics, and it manages to be fun for a good while even if it doesn’t really innovate on much.

Like with most of these shmups, the powerups are the things that primarily draw me in, and make or break the experience, and in the case of Raiden, the powerups we get here are limited, but pretty sweet. You get access to two primary shots, those being the regular shot and the lasers, which you can swap between when you find the powerups, and you can also stack them up to where they get much more powerful and versatile the more you grab them. Alongside that, you can also get either regular or homing missiles to help give you that little more of an edge against what will try to shoot you down. These powerups are already pretty effective, and satisfying enough to use, but what elevates them even more would be the use of the P icons. Upon collecting them, they upgrade the weapon you are using to their most powerful form, being able to clear screens of enemies and make short work of bosses, as long as you are careful about where you are moving and you manage to use bombs wisely. It isn’t much different from other games, but again, for what we get here, it is still satisfying to use.

But the game isn’t only generic in terms of its gameplay, no no no. It is typical in terms of its problems too. Arcade syndrome is in full effect here, where there are MANY different enemies that can be on screen at once, many different bullets flying your way in varying patterns, and you only have so many bombs and so much room to move around to deal with all of it. Of course, it isn’t impossible, but you will definitely need plenty of patience and skill to get through a lot of it. What also doesn’t help is that, unlike other games, you can’t just pop a quarter into the machine and pick up from where you died. Instead, there is a checkpoint system that you get sent back to when you get a Game Over, and while you may think that helps, it only does so for a little bit, as you can still get shot down pretty quickly. Not to mention, sometimes the checkpoints can be pretty scarce. This doesn’t make the game bad, mind you, but it just makes the experience more frustrating at points.

Overall, despite the hard-as-fuck difficulty and no real innovation on the genre, Raiden is still a perfectly competent shooter, one that will provide you with a good amount of fun, as well as that challenge for those that are looking for one. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the later games in the series, as well as for fans of shmups in general, as while it may not do anything new, it still is fun all the same. Let’s just hope that, for the next game in the series, they tone down on the difficulty just a bit. I know I can handle plenty of insanely challenging shmups, cause I have beaten like seven Gradius games at this point, but still, even I need a relaxing break every now and then.

Game #441

A very fun FPS Roguelite!!

I knew very little about deadlink before its full launch but after its release I grew interested in it and got it through a bundle recently. Having little knowledge I was curious about what this game would be like and I am honestly really pleased with the outcome. This is a very fun , fast paced and challenging FPS game that will test your skills.

What makes it so fun?

I just think this fast paced style of FPS games works well with the roguelite genre. It gives you heavy doom reboot vibes which is a very good thing making you always focus during encounters. With fun gunplay , movement , build variety this makes for an overall great package that I 100% can recommend if it sounds like something you might want to try. I don’t really want to get too in depth with mechanics but there is 1 character to choose from in which you unlock 3 more as you progress and do multiple runs. While the game starts off pretty much unbeatable you quickly will level up your character through a perm skill tree that will make the game tons easier if you learn boss patterns. I have heard people complaining about how hard it is but honestly I did not struggle after a certain point until hitting the hardest difficulty which is pretty damn brutal. I just had so much trying out new classes , weapons , skills because as usual once you stumble across an OP build for a run it truly is an amazing feeling to shred everything. Each character plays vastly differently which makes for a refreshing gameplay loop if you want to try someone else out. A core mechanic across the board is shield regain in which when you use a specific skill on an enemy and by killing them they will drop shields. This is crucial as if you don't utilize this enough you will simply lose runs a lot more so make sure you build around your shield skill and use it at any given moment you can!. After trying each character I landed on Engineer which I found to be very fun / powerful and have beaten multiple playthroughs with him only. I won’t speak on the other characters as I didn’t play them nearly as much but for sure give Engineer a go when you unlock them. There is just something so exhilarating about high action / fast paced FPS games that always stick with me and this game simply hits the spot.

What I didn’t like?

I don’t have many complaints about this game past a few. To begin, The bosses do feel pretty basic and lacking; they don’t really try anything too crazy which makes them very easily learnable. This can become a problem because it hits a certain point where the bosses simply pose no challenge and most of the challenging will be within the stage by stage leading up to the bosses. Furthermore, the enemy variety is also lackluster as they just give them different looks in each area past a couple new enemies in the later areas. I didn’t really mind it too much but I do wish they would have created a more vast variety of them.


In the end

An overall great game I enjoyed my time with and probably will return to it as time passes on. This game has made me realize how much I would love even more FPS rougelike/lite games in this fashion because the 2 genres really do blend well with one another. The game imo is worth at full price for how fun it is and its replay value alone but I can recommend it 9439394% on sale.

My wife and I picked this up at a convention for $3 because why the hell not, it looked really funny. Her streams are based around a Playboy bunny-like aesthetic too, so I thought I could try it out for her and see if it'd be appropriate for Twitch and if she could stream it.

I think I ended up playing the boringest "naughty" game of my entire life. The game is like Sims, with you playing Hugh Hefner, as you're supposed to create 12 Playboy magazines for each month of the year, finishing the game by picking which one you think was your best. Yeah, I didn't make it that far, because on the third month the game glitched and no longer offered me the option to ask my staff to take centerfold photos, making completing a magazine impossible, which made completing the GAME impossible.

I was honestly kind of glad to have a reason to not finish the game because this thing is complete ass. There's NO music, even during the parties. All you hear is that glorious Simlish and complete emptiness. I thought there was an issue with me not placing music speakers in the right areas, but nope, even after doing that and seeing them very visibly pumping out silly music notes, there was still no music. The "gameplay" entirely consists of starting a party, networking so you can get a celebrity for the cover, a model for the centerfold, and an article + an essay. It's just talking to confirm those aspects, and then rinse as repeat. It's hideously boring. The only kind of fun part is photographing the cover/centerfold which is like only 5% of the entire game. Sometimes the female characters take their tops off which was funny... for 10 seconds, only to again be sent back to Boring Land. The X button is used as your action button, or if there's nothing to interact with, it just throws a party, which is totally not confusing/annoying to constantly deal with.

This game sucks, and my wife watched me play the whole 1.5 hours that I did before deciding she didn't want to bore her audience by playing this lmao. Definitely one of those games that relies on people buying it for the sex appeal aspect, with not much else to rely on. Gotta thank them for having the game break 25% of the way through, so I didn't have to deal with it anymore!

0.5/5 as even $3 was too much money for this mess.

i know the niggas that vote for game awards nominees don't play video games because if they did this would be in the nominee for best soundtrack easily. There's so much combined effort and talent into making this an authentic spiritual successor but also not doin too much of the Old or sticking within the mold of JSR/JSRF to the point where it feels like its seekin to repeat the same 1:1 beats

I think all the locals you go to kick ass and i really like a lot of the playable characters you got going on here, i cant really think of anyone in the cast i dont care for :) i GUESS if i had to pick one i guess id say Coil would be my least fave but I was already sinking a lot of time into Mataan arc of the game and I think thats less on him and more like I was just eager to play more of the story campaign and didnt do much in the way of dicking around with him
THE MIDDLE POINT PSYCHE SHIT THAT GOES DOWN IS FUCKING AWESOME TOO LIKE YOU DONTEVEN HAVE A TIME REQUIREMENT OR ANYTHING BUT LIKE the way those levels flow is so nice I would be tryin to hold a really huge combo in those regardless.
Having alternate gear to use kicks ass too but im ngl, i actually never was able to tell if one had advantages over the other
And im kinda glad about that because i could just pick whatever i thought looked cooler lololol
i think skateboards rock but i was really leanin towards the bike i love beating some ass with a bike its so sick

I think my biggest gripes are just how there's no retry button, the combat can be KINDAAAAAAAA JAAAAAAANK, and all in all i guess if we're splittin hairs
the game is very easy
Like this is a splitting hairs thing to me because its like.. "yeah, youre getting good combos consistently and you understood and utilized the land to your advantage and made it yours yeah!" like i DO think the more abstract levels and the challenge hidden areas REALLY show what this dev team's made of while also understanding THE CONCEPTOFLOVEHAUHUGHVRWUGH mm. the assignment

was also really not expecting this to have a story like that
its both KINDA SERIOUS but also CHILL because like
there's some blood here and there and niggas DYINGGG but like
sometimes a character gets some shit happenin to them its like 'what does death mean in this universe'
even in gameplay when you die you dont really lose much of anything so it gets to where youre thinkin less on that and pickin yourself up and getting back at it
This game has a really good message about not lettin how you were born define you or how skilled you are at somethin defining you either, or even your age
Sayin that its what you make of the shit youre given is one of the realest things ever
im so thankfjul i got to play this this year since i was broke and my girl marlowe got me it as a surprise bday gift :) she rules for that and i hope shes well even if she's not readin this

The biggest itching feeling I felt when I finished was that I didn't want it to end though and thts a magical bittersweetness to feel with this, it almost doesnt even feel real that this is even OUT
i followed along the development with a loose eye for what feels like 5 years now at this point and you mean to tell me it came out, its good, and also got more than JUST naganuma in on the ost (very important)
ANDDDDDDDDDD made enough waves for SEGA to catch wind
i guess we'll see if jet set radio 3 is gonna stack well as this.. but even IF sega manages to do another good jsr I think itll never outright null what this game Is and Accomplishes
its a love letter, its an homage but its also doin its own thing
its not getting high off its own supply its jettisoning its shit to an entirely diferent ayer and layer going up and on.
i lve you brc
and 2 mello..
also where the fuck is the vinyl x rise tender yuri art

The core gimmick at play in Bangai-O, minus the unique movement and level structure, is the ability to basically counterfire against enemy projectiles, with the intensity of the attack depending on how many projectiles are targeting you prior. Just so you know, this game was also a test of hardware to see how many projectiles could fire at you.

There are a lot of projectiles.

I'm taken aback by how unbelievably fun this game is, it should have gotten tiring with how oppressively consistent the gameplay is, but the ace up its sleeve is that you'll only get the full extent of the insanity dependent on the insanity of the level design, thanks to you requiring enemy projectiles to do anything truly awesome, and Treasure has endless fun with this. Some levels are like big playgrounds for you to stomp around in 'till you find the boss, others are intensive gauntlets of nonstop fire at you and some border on puzzle-esque elements regarding your knowledge of the games systems and various objects, all training you to improve yourself in a naturalistic way as the game goes on. Every part of the game is constantly stimulating your brain, even if just a little bit, and there's a surprising amount of semi-conscious thought that goes into aimlessly blasting missiles and lasers at everything. First of all the movement + aiming requires constant attention to maneuver around while still locking onto enemies, which is a heavy factor in survival when enemies are so plentiful and swarming you, but the risk-reward you're constantly weighing out in your brain is near unmatched. To do anything effective in this game, you have to actively get yourself into danger and get pummeled. There are no invincibility frames in-between hits; if you're bombarded and fuck up, you're toast. Therefore, to actually get things done, you need to be putting yourself in the face of death, but you're also putting yourself in the face of death in the near future as it's relying on your ability to continually recharge your counterfire, which is likely to recharge but it's not guaranteed you'll do it perfectly, adding an element to consider for going all out. The response the player might consider is that they shouldn't go all out if it's too much of a risk, but this itself starts being a problem as the game goes on. Levels are meticulously designed in ways to pummel you with near instakill death traps and pits of enemies firing bullets at you, with little details like one-way doors, slow domino effect explosive chains that can soft-lock you and walls that are receptive only to one type of fire (often at specific angles to utilize) littering the level design. This means any moment of passive play is actively fucking you over as you go on, and it's wonderful how well this all incentivizes the core fun of the gameplay: blowing everything to hell.

Focused design, focused levels, questionable bosses but an extremely solid circle of player psychology going on either way; check it out!

I am happy TWOM exists as a piece of culture. I am not happy it is relevant because war exists. Neither am I I do not consider it a good game.

The point of TWOM is to reproduce a survival experience during a modern day siege. That's why the game is a 2.5D stealth-plateformer-management-visual novel game. You think it's a lot ? It is. Exactly as managing to survive a siege is. That's the genius of TWOM : it shows you how fragile is life by making any aspect of it's design absolutely ruthless and crucial, while letting you incarnate people. And people, as we all know, are normal : they fail to do stuff. They even don't have any ideas on how to do most things. It sounds frustrating ? It is. Especially if it happens on day 20... If you read my logs on the SoulsBorne serie, you probably know I dislike frustration, the lack of infos and hardcoreness. As for myself, I tried the main questline and the oldies radiomen. I failed those two quests and left the game.

You've understand it, TWOM is in my opinion a good idea shaped in a good game, but the idea itself is a bad game idea so I consider the game bad after all. It lets you play civilians stucked in an sieged Sarajevo. You must find way to survive by :
- Organizing your daily tasks...
- To gather stuff : scraps, supplies, ammunitions, money...
- To craft things : weapons, tools, furnitures, fortifications...
- To... I don't know. Eventually wait until the end of the game I guess ? I died before.

Each of your survivors has a talent : this one is a good cooker, this one hits hard, this one is stealthy... You must use them in the most efficient way to survive. Most of the time, in the main questline at least, you'll have one people doing daily things, another one sleeping and the last one going in an expedition to find stuff. As said earlier : every thing is absolutely necessary to your survival. Each mistake is lethal.

When we focus on the part of the game I liked the most (even if I found if kind of boring overall), which is managing your home, we might think at a first glance it isn't as ruthless as I say. But believe me it is. You'll have to build furnitures. To do so, you'll have to build tools in a first place. Every thing is expensive. Each tool gives you access to a limited amount of new furnitures to build. That means that if you craft a useless tool in a first place, you'll certainly die. Slowly but certainly. That also means that if you craft a bad furniture you'll die, because it used ressources necessary to do other things. For instance, what's the point of the radio ? What's the point, in the early game, of a heat source ? If like me, you constructed both in the first days, you'll regret it and you better restart.

The dialog + inventory + barter system is very good though. Items are stackable to a limit (which depends of the item we're talking about) in an inventory case. Tools and/or weapons also take an inventory case. When you see someone, you can either fight him, either talk to him, either avoid him. If you talk to him, you'll sometime have to trade items with him. Each item has an hidden cost that seems to depend on what the people you talk to needs more : if he's ill, he'll consider medicine a wealthy item for instance. There are even specific items like vodka or cigarets that are really powerful in a barter situation but near useless in the rest of the game. Inventory space is also a real thing : if you decide to go to the main square to see merchants, you'll have to seriously consider what you take with you, because it must be the most valuable for those merchant as well as taking the least space in your inventory to let you take what you want from them.

Eventually, I must talk about stealth and fight system, which is where the whole game collapse in my opinion. The other systems hide a lot of infos (where's the most valuable place to put a reservoir, how much worth is a fake cigaret made of grass... ?) but they are not based on timing and sometimes are not that ruthless. The stealth-combat system is, on the other hand, based on timing and is absolutely ruthless when it comes to gunfire.
Basically, you point n clic things. When you do so, your character goes in position to execute the task. If you clic once, he does it slowly and without making noise. If you clic twice, he does it fast in a noisy way. Noise alerts enemies. Enemies have guns. They shoot at you. You die. The game doesn't features saves. That's the first scenario.
The second scenario is they shoot and eventually hit you, but you manage to survive. Congratulations, you're now wounded, and you'll die of stravation/illness because your two other surivors cannot handle the daily task on their own and they'll eventually get ill or seriously exhausted. And you'll die.
The third scenario is you didn't made an noise so they didn't shoot at you. Unfortunately, the game forces you to go further and thurther in your explorations. You'll eventually end in a very dangerous area, full of armed soldiers you'll have to face. Now, you have to solutions : either play the worst game possible by hiding and waiting a looooooooooong time in dark holes for guards to pass, either you try, on day 30, to attack a guard. Unfortunately, there was no tutorials for that. You don't know how to do so. You finally approach the guard and try to neutralize him. You clic on him. Wrong call. I guess you should have clicked on the icon upon him, with the knife in your hand. He saws you. He shoots you. See scenario 1 or 2.

Again, that's logical. If I was stucked in a sieged city, I myself wouldn't know how to disarm/kill/stun a military aswell. This is the better "You are a civilian stucked in a war" game experience. But that game experience isn't something I actually want to experience. Nonetheless, I am really happy some game devs took the time to think about that experience and eventually delivered a game that made a lot of people think. A game that recenters the debate about war in videogames : war is a tragedy. Nothing less, nothing more. This is something important to tell, and TWOM tells it correctly.

So does the metal gear solid serie in a way better way in my opinion but that's not the topic there. TWOM is a good game with a good message. But I hated it's frustrating and ruthless game design.

Everyone has to start somewhere right? Every person had to start with something that inspired them. Whether that be an event, maybe a tv show or film, maybe even a book, or maybe a 3D platforming shooter on the ps2. Or for me at least.

Ratchet & clank was a game born from the gods. If people were destined to do stuff, then this was the game that saw me in that direction. After insomniac lost spyro they needed a new big platforming series, so they borrowed naughty dogs engine which they used for Jak and Daxter and were able to create what would become the first ratchet game. After the release, the game would spawn a PlayStation staple franchise and specifically for this review: a boy with a small dream. But that’s for later. Let’s get onto the actual game itself.

Act 1:

Now I know I’ve reviewed this game in the past, but it certainly lacked the depth it needed, so why not give it that missing depth right now? The story sees you in control of a Lombax named ratchet. He’s alone on the desolate planet of veldin with the dream to escape and to explore other planes across the solar system. Meanwhile, there’s a malfunction in a robot making factory and the result of this is clank, a tiny robot. He finds out that an evil man named chairman drek is planning on destroying planets to create a planet for his own. Clank quickly begins to try and escape but is shot down by other bots and ends up landing in veldin. From there, he meets ratchet and clank helps him to escape the planet with the deal of finding captain qwark and putting a stop to chairman dreks plans. But before we continue the story: it’s time to go into gameplay.

Compared to future instalments, the first ratchet game isn’t as shooter heavy as its successors but it is still a core part of its gameplay. Considering the fact that before, insomniac’s only really major work were the spyro games, you can see that formula kind of applies to the first ratchet game. Even with this however, it still ends up sticking out on its own. You get a choice of 16 weapons all with different attributes. I’m not going to go too in depth about the weapons, because you can tell they were still trying to work out what works and what didn’t and believe me, the taunter is a big showcase of that. Some weapons include the decoy glove, whereby a small inflatable version of ratchet will stand and enemies will instead attack it instead of you. The suck cannon sucks up enemies and even crates which can then be launched back at enemies, this then brings me onto the next bit of gameplay.

The currency in the game is something that would still define its successors. These are bolts. These can be found by killing enemies or even finding them in smashable beige crates, or even surprisingly: bomb crates. Bolts are now explosive! There are different types of crates in the game. Those being the normal beige crates, bomb crates which explode in 3 seconds, metal crates which can only be opened through some form of explosion, and nanotech crates. Nanotech is essentially the health in the game and the crates can be found practically everywhere. Before I go in depth about the currency and its themes, let’s continue the story shall we?

Ratchet and clank end up crash landing on planet novalis but end up getting a ship from the planetary chairman (a very imaginative name) and end up finding…the plumber. The absolute legend. The crack of all jokes. But anyway. They end up going to different planets to try and find captain qwark. But just before I get onto that, I just want to take a minute and talk about another part of the gameplay.

Something that makes the first ratchet game certainly stand out is its non-linear progression. Essentially, in almost all levels you can take different paths to get to different things, these could be important items, important story beats, or just nice little bonuses. What I like about that is that, it encourages exploration and almost pushes it on the player to keep returning to places and just checking out everywhere they can. It’s a very nice bit of gameplay that I wish was continued and pushed a lot more in later ratchet games.

They end up arriving on planet kerwan whereby clank gets a heli pack upgrade and ratchet ends up getting a swingshot. To start off with, the swingshot is one of the gadgets that helps ratchet out with puzzles, these pop up all over the games and work differently to weapons as well…they don’t kill anyone. The heli pack is also an upgrade that helps give ratchet a lot more flexibility in terms of things like reaching hard to reach places. Clank ends up getting 2 other upgrades later on which help with similar things and can come in quite handy. I’ve never met anyone on this planet who hates the heli pack or thruster pack, and if someone does…do you really?

They eventually do end up finding qwark and he ends up taking them to his base on planet Umbris…however, he ends up turning out to be helping drek this entire time and leaves them to the slaughter, thankfully tho ratchet and clank make it out with their lives…but maybe not so much their friendship as clank fell for qwarks tricks. This then leads us into act 2 of the game! Oh wow!

Act 2:

So they end up getting a brand spanking new ship and end up having to try and track down qwark, however before they can…there’s a bunch of issues. For starters, they’re on the planet orxon and the air is very dangerous to breathe, so they are forced to try some form of gas mask to find the infobot and locate qwark. If you don’t know what it is, it’s essentially a small little robot that gives the coordinates of the next planet.

Also, just wanted to also talk about the themes of the game and I thought this would be an excellent time as any. So, if you’re following this I’m just wondering…have you noticed how expensive everything is? Well, you’ll never get what that is! Why it’s good old consumerism my favourite! The main theme of this game and the entire ps2 quadrilogy are obviously the satire and extreme push of consumerism. Stuff is advertised everywhere and practically nothing in the game doesn’t not come with a price. But that is the sort of genius of the writing. Everything has to come with a price and if you can’t pay it then tough shit. It gives the world an almost slightly depressing view. But I digress.

Eventually they get a gas mask from planet pokitaru and go to a bunch of other planets, including hoven where they thwart one of dreks plans…and clank hits on a girl??? This is until they eventually decide to confront qwark on the gemlick base. And oh man…this is where it gets good.

Come on, I had to mention the music at some point. The entire score was composed by David bergeaud and unfortunately he hasn’t returned to the series since quest for booty. His soundtracks in almost every ratchet game he did were excellent and fit with every planet they were inserted into. Whether it be the futuristic and busy landscape of planet kerwan or the desolate yet dangerous gemlick base, everything he composed for the game fits perfectly and encapsulates each world perfectly. It’s a shame later soundtracks wouldn’t encapsulate the same feeling the first few ratchet games did but, hey, we still have the work he did and it can still be appreciated today, if they put it in streaming services…

Act 3:

After attempting to confront qwark, they get into a fighter jet and he crashes onto the planet of oltanis. It’s at this moment when ratchet and clank decide to put aside their differences and actually defeat drek for the good of the galaxy. They try to get oltanis but clank can’t come out because of the lightning and dangerous conditions of the area. Ratchet is then forced to go on his own where he finds qwa- I mean Steve and gets the gagdetron pda…which I have to dedicate a paragraph to.

The gadgetron pda. What’s so good about this baby? It’s essentially the get yourself out of having no ammo card. You can use this thing absolutely anytime you want is essentially a portable vender. The only downside is the fact that the ammo costs more than it does at an actual vendor but who cares! If your loaded this is a perfect way of getting out of dangerous fights.

After getting an infobot, they travel to quartu, otherwise known as the robot factory from where clank was created. Clank ends up becoming giant in a pretty short section which I’m not going to go too in depth about. Essentially they end up getting another infobot for their trouble and end up making it to kalebo III to try and sneak into the robot factory in quartu. Kalebo III just happens to be the headquarters of none other than gadgetron, the company that has been selling you weapons and everything. They meet the chairman and end up having to participate in a hoverboard competition.

Hoverboarding is essentially a little racing game that you can be in. There’s only two tracks with those being in Rilgar and kalebo III. They aren’t that exciting but they certainly were for younger me, but nowadays they frustrate me as all hell. I also forgot to mention about some of the other important gadgets. Those being stuff like the grind rails which let you grind on railings (shocker), the magnet boots which let you walk on magnetic surfaces, the gas mask which I already touched upon. These not only help with puzzles but they also look really swag on ratchet.

After the competition, ratchet receives a remote that turns him into a robot. He decides to use this to his advantage and sneak into the robot factory on quartu. After doing so, they end up finding the exact place where clank was born. I’m not going to describe the scene because…I think it says everything perfectly. Afterwards however, it turns out that drek plans on destroying veldin as a sort of fuck you to ratchet. They decide to try and return to veldin immediately and stop drek in his tracks. Drek ends up revealing that he was the one that polluted his kinds homeworld and he was going to do it again on the new planet he was creating, just to make more money and repeat it over and over again. With this, ratchet and clank finally decide to take drek down once and for all.

The final battle is pretty excellent and cinematic. With the desperate attempt to try and stop drek at all costs from destroying veldin with his deplanetizer ray. Ratchet and clank end up succeeding and shoot drek to his own planet, destroying it in the process. The end shows ratchet and clank finally being really best buds and deciding to live with each other and just be…the best duo like come on.

Epilogue:

After everything…I still love this game. Of course it isn’t perfect but that’s ok. If it wasn’t for this game I probably wouldn’t reviewing different games at this very moment. This was the first game I ever played and I hold it really dear to my heart and hell even the entire franchise to my heart. The story of the first game and the themes it touches on are still perfect to this day. And whilst gameplay could’ve done with a few fixes, that’s what the other games would later help with. And even back then, I called it the game with the biggest heart, because that’s true. It was. It’s still well liked today and I honestly couldn’t thank it enough. And I can’t thank you guys enough either for sticking with me for so long!

Great gameplay, excellent story, breathtaking music, interesting selection of weapons and gadgets, and the plumber still has his cra-I mean back, thanks for the 100th review!

For me, the Persona 5 burnout isn't so much of the amount of spin-offs, it's the stories of them. Like Strikers, this one focuses on rebelling against oppressing forces (this time in a new metaverse with places called Kingdoms) and standing up for what's right. Then you come up against an oppressive god-like being who says "no it's the will of the people they want my variation of being ruled under my thumb" and then you say no to that god-like being for the 5th time and it dies and then the credits roll. Normally I wouldn't talk about the true antagonist like that but if you're coming from the Persona 5 spin-off era you knew it was coming and it's far from a surprise at this point. (Don't worry, there are no specific story spoilers in this review though).

The story of presents the idea of the collateral damage of these rebellions and stopping suppressors, this game's take on it, but once again the protagonists are never actually challenged or questioned about their actions and it's more focused on....Like Yoshizawa, Hikari, and Sophia before, this game's focus is on one of it's new characters. No, not Erina, but someone else introduced early on, Toshiro. He's enjoyable. While of the spin-off and sequel gang I connected with Hikari the most on a personal level, Toshiro's story can be quite engaging when it wants to be. I can't go too into detail about it, but he feels realized and understandable, admirable by the end even while holding a solid dynamic to the rest of the group (even if it's similar to Zenkichi's at times). The thieves themselves are mostly just kinda there in the story, especially Joker. You select choices but he rarely factors into anything, especially with Toshiro. The other thieves and how they relate to his experiences with their own are better, but outside that they just repeat any 1 of their 3 jokes. Morgana is not a cat, Makoto and Haru are scary, Futaba is a gamer, Yusuke is poor, etc etc. So while they have their select moments, they're mostly the peanut gallery and usually all of them will have to chime in on a conversation which can slow things down.

But I've got to give the gameplay props, it does make you think a little...in the puzzle-structured missions anyways that have you use what you have to clear an objective in a set way, highlighting one of the game's mechanics. It's a great way to learn and wrap your brain around it. The triangle attack is also great, encouraging the positioning of your units for maximum damage and efficiency, especially if you can make a triangle that spans the whole map. There's also the One More system this game, the key factor to clearing maps quickly and efficiently since you can go farther and take out more. Building up a chain of kills is also pretty satisfying. Being able to clear missions this quickly, however, leads to another problem: The gameplay to story ratio feels out of balance for most of the game - For every 5-10 minutes of Tactical gameplay, you'll get about 15-25 minutes of story. As soon as I begin getting into the strategy mood, it's already over and back to the VN. It gets better near the end where the plot is resolved and you're just off to punch a god again at least.

I always like when Persona does different artstyles and this one being different from the Q style (though similar) is nice. I also liked the CG artwork that really brings out the best of this particular style. I also enjoyed certain CGs and interfaces taking inspiration from Soviet propaganda, it helps this one stand out just a bit more. The music is also solid and I respect them holding back from throwing any arrangements of songs from P5 in this game, as it takes away from that P5 fatigue people are feeling.

If your stomach has room for one more Persona 5 story, this game will offer some interesting but very easy tactical gameplay that may fill you up for a bit.

See you in Persona 5 X everybody!

this game is incredible what the fuck are you people on about

Like okay, yeah, this is very clearly the developer's fetish, but even as far as fetish games go it isn't that weird, or even that invasive on the general product — I've seen AAA games even as recent as this year do the femme-fatale-hip-sway-walk in a way that's far more blatantly sultry. Yeah, it's... kinda shovelware-y, and anything enemies can do to you is negated by just... strafing, but it's honestly a little fun just mindlessly shooting, and the survival modes honestly do great at varying the terrains and seeing just how far you can go when the screen is flooded with dudes. Most of all I just love this game's vibe: from the shitposty tone of the cutscenes, to the oversaturated lighting, the absolutely garish, almost deep-fried colour scheme, and the pointless jump and dodge roll, it's very clear that this game isn't really taking itself seriously. And it manages to strike a good balance, in that vein, where it's ostensibly a bit goofy and bad and yet the game isn't trying too hard to lean into the joke. It's a good game to laugh with. And it's fun in general. I'm almost not being ironic here. I don't care what anybody says. I'm buying this on Playstation and I'm going to get the Platinum trophy. Just you watch me.