synthcrow
Endwalker broke me on many, many levels. It's a beautiful conclusion to the main storyline of final fantasy XIV, and I loved every bit of it. It really ramps up the spectacle for the final chapter and there were many moments I was in awe at what the game ended up doing. And it. Did. Not. Pull. Any. Punches. It is both painful and beautiful in equal measure. I lost how many times it made me cry. It keeps up the quality of combat from shadowbringers, and I can't wait for them to add more in the patch content. If anything, I'm a little bit sad that there will be more expansions and that the game cannot get a definitive conclusion, but I'm happy how they pulled it off.
One thing I immediately noticed when going into shadowbringers is that the pacing of the story is suddenly really, really good. There is never a single point in the story where I feel like I'd rather be doing something else. Not only that, the story glued me to my seat on more than one occasion. It really recontextualized how I view this game and its setting, and I fucking love it. The only complaint I can think of is that some side characters get less screen time than I felt like they should have, but even that's because I care about them so much.
The game takes the improvements in encounter design and player abilities from stormblood, and goes really far with it. The patch content duties are extremely fun, and both the trial and raid series made me actively lose my shit about how good they were. I really don't have much of anything negative to say, this is an amazing video game.
The game takes the improvements in encounter design and player abilities from stormblood, and goes really far with it. The patch content duties are extremely fun, and both the trial and raid series made me actively lose my shit about how good they were. I really don't have much of anything negative to say, this is an amazing video game.
Compared to the excellent story of heavensward, stormblood feels much worse. It is still a good game and the character writing is still great, but the main story is merely okay. I feel like one reason for this is that they had given them two separate liberation storylines and it didn't make sense to handle them separately, but it makes the whole story feel very unfocused. It feels like an amusement park in that you are carted around separate points of interest and come out of it feeling entertained, but you don't get any deeper enjoyment out of it. The early parts of the story are even more of a slog than with HW. The patch content feels much more focused and has some of my favourite character moments in the game, but it feels a bit brief compared to all of 4.0.
The gameplay somehow improves a lot from heavensward. Something about encounter design really clicked, and all the new abilites you get are really fun. The two new jobs are some of my favourites. I enjoyed this expansion much more on a mechanical basis than the previous one, but it does not balance out the generic-but-alright narrative of 4.0 for me.
The gameplay somehow improves a lot from heavensward. Something about encounter design really clicked, and all the new abilites you get are really fun. The two new jobs are some of my favourites. I enjoyed this expansion much more on a mechanical basis than the previous one, but it does not balance out the generic-but-alright narrative of 4.0 for me.
The first expansion of final fantasy XIV really changed my mind about this game. While the early parts of the story are a slog, my overall enjoyment improved dramatically over ARR. The main reason for the shift being the increased focus on the main characters and the story being actually interesting. It definitely benefits from the groundwork made by the base game, it goes well beyond what I expected. At this point, this is genuinely a good fantasy story.
The gameplay improves some from ARR, but it doesn't reach the height that later content does. In fact, I feel a bit biased in judging it now that I know how much better it can get, and am tempted to rate it lower as a result. There definitely are moments where it feels like they were experimenting with mechanics but hadn't really gotten it down that well yet. It does lay a good basis for some really good mechanics later on. All the new jobs are really fun to play, and the dark knight questline is simply amazing. This expansion really made me love this game.
The gameplay improves some from ARR, but it doesn't reach the height that later content does. In fact, I feel a bit biased in judging it now that I know how much better it can get, and am tempted to rate it lower as a result. There definitely are moments where it feels like they were experimenting with mechanics but hadn't really gotten it down that well yet. It does lay a good basis for some really good mechanics later on. All the new jobs are really fun to play, and the dark knight questline is simply amazing. This expansion really made me love this game.
(THIS IS A REVIEW FOR ARR ONLY)
I walked into this game hearing that with the later expansions it's a lot of people's favorite game of all time, and therefore I really wanted to give it a try. That promise was probably the only reason why I managed to make it through this.
Most of 2.0 can be described by "ah, you want to defeat scränglo the 2rd? well too bad you need the scrombinator first. the scrombinator belongs to the duke of eggland, so you have to make him happy. oh, the scrombinator has no fuel....". Whenever you are given a goal, you have to do a ridiculous amount of busywork before you can reach it, and a lot of the time it isn't even worth it. It really feels like they did not have enough content for 50 levels.
The game does have an established cast of characters, but they never get any screen time in 2.0 as most quests involve unmemorable side characters who don't return after their quest is done. Even the duty support that they added later on is just some nameless characters. In the patch content, the amount of busywork and the time you spend with the main cast drastically improves. While it is a much better experience, it comes as too little too late and the overall story isn't that good even then.
Having played all the way to 6.1 now, going back to 2.x content feels like a pain. The combat gets so much better the more actions you have, and some jobs are really bare-bones at level 50 at the time of writing. However, there are some standout duties. By the end I enjoyed my time with the base game, but it left me doubting my decision to pick up this game. However, I am really glad I did.
I walked into this game hearing that with the later expansions it's a lot of people's favorite game of all time, and therefore I really wanted to give it a try. That promise was probably the only reason why I managed to make it through this.
Most of 2.0 can be described by "ah, you want to defeat scränglo the 2rd? well too bad you need the scrombinator first. the scrombinator belongs to the duke of eggland, so you have to make him happy. oh, the scrombinator has no fuel....". Whenever you are given a goal, you have to do a ridiculous amount of busywork before you can reach it, and a lot of the time it isn't even worth it. It really feels like they did not have enough content for 50 levels.
The game does have an established cast of characters, but they never get any screen time in 2.0 as most quests involve unmemorable side characters who don't return after their quest is done. Even the duty support that they added later on is just some nameless characters. In the patch content, the amount of busywork and the time you spend with the main cast drastically improves. While it is a much better experience, it comes as too little too late and the overall story isn't that good even then.
Having played all the way to 6.1 now, going back to 2.x content feels like a pain. The combat gets so much better the more actions you have, and some jobs are really bare-bones at level 50 at the time of writing. However, there are some standout duties. By the end I enjoyed my time with the base game, but it left me doubting my decision to pick up this game. However, I am really glad I did.
2009
A rare case where the generic nature of zombie horror actually benefits the game. The premise of it is very simple - you run through a level and kill zombies along the way. The thing that makes it special is the earnestly silly tone of it which really shines through the simple premise. The exaggerated design of the special zombies. The fact that the cow one yells "moo". The way the characters call out items you in almost childish excitement. It's something similar to what Team Fortress 2 does. All of this character makes it feel like it is much more than its very simple component parts.
2010
aeiou. aeiou. john madden john madden john madden. football!
Jokes aside it's a game where you walk around excruciatingly slowly performing simple tasks, often represented by bog standard minigames. It's like if Among Us was a co-op game..... and everything was slowed down to a crawl. It's somehow simultaneously too long and too short, as the glacial pace makes the matches take ages, but the scope of the game leaves much to be desired. The main redeeming quality is that fucking text-to-speech voice that for some reason became a meme and that it's free.
Jokes aside it's a game where you walk around excruciatingly slowly performing simple tasks, often represented by bog standard minigames. It's like if Among Us was a co-op game..... and everything was slowed down to a crawl. It's somehow simultaneously too long and too short, as the glacial pace makes the matches take ages, but the scope of the game leaves much to be desired. The main redeeming quality is that fucking text-to-speech voice that for some reason became a meme and that it's free.
2015
Such a strange and deep game. I didn't think a roguelike old school RPG would work this well, but it is extremely fun to me. The learning curve is ridiculously steep, and you keep discovering new embarrassing ways to die. However, with the depth of character creation rolling a new character never felt bad. There are so many different play styles with fundamentally different gameplay loops. The story so far is really interesting and the world feels alive. The ascii-adjacent art style really grew on me. I stopped playing about 20 hours in as I started falling in love with the game, as I don't want to burn myself out before the full release. I'm interested to see where this one goes.
2010
Pretty interesting game with mostly uninteresting combat. The story fascinates me on a meta level, and knowing about the history of the studio that made it has definitely added to it. It's always wild seeing a not-internationally-famous finnish band that I've listened to ever since I was a teenager appearing in a fairly big game. It's like some musical blorbo! The game has a lot of charm and it's still gorgeous to this day. There is something fundamentally interesting about a finnish studio making games almost exclusively taking place in an americana setting.
You have to kill so many crows in this one that I honestly couldn't continue. I like birds a.... clears throat very normal amount. and the thought of ever hurting them gives me the Bad Brain Juices. I might finish it some day though.
You have to kill so many crows in this one that I honestly couldn't continue. I like birds a.... clears throat very normal amount. and the thought of ever hurting them gives me the Bad Brain Juices. I might finish it some day though.
2021
This review contains spoilers
MAJOR SPOILERS
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The early part of the game really bittered me. I thought that I had solved all the room puzzle elements and you'd make progress by clearing more runs, just like in most other roguelites I've played. You even get cards on the door to show your successes! I enjoyed the game a lot initially, but after spending 6+ hours in the opening chapter it started getting really repetitive. The game only gets easier over time, especially after you unlock totems, as the squirrel totem can easily break the game system. I simply cannot fathom why it is the one you get by default, the game positively encourages you to break it!
Then someone else told me that you have to use the knife outside of the Leshy fight to proceed. I had no idea. As the Leshy fight is by far the most difficult, I never thought to use the knife before it. As an experience card game player, I never felt pressured to use this valuable single-use item before the final boss. I was unable to progress in the game for bizarre game design decisions and spent about 3-4 hours more in the opening than I should have.
Then chapter 2 came. The found footage aspect didn't excite me that much, but I was happy to try a different type of game. I chose the wizard deck because hey, I like spellslinger style stuff in MTG. Then it turned out I was nearly unable to win games with it, and it didn't take me long to figure out why. The design space of the wizard deck is incredibly narrow. If any wizard has more than 2 power, you can have your deck consist only of moxen and that specific wizard, and you can turn one kill consistently by playing mox + three wizards => six damage. As a result, all wizards have to have 0 or 1 power, with the exception of rare ones that need two types of moxen. There is one that scales with the number of moxen you have, but as the board space is limited, you can at max have two 2-power creatures or one with 3 power, which is underwhelming compared to the other decks.
Needless to say, the damage output is not rather impressive, and if it were literally any higher it would be the strongest deck in the game. Maybe they should have taken a hint from the game from which the name "mox" was lifted: getting to play an unlimited amount of resources in one turn tends to break games. To add insult to injury, the fact that you can't sacrifice moxen means that it doesn't synergize with the beast deck, nor does it have enough support for expensive bone cards. It somewhat works with the machines because you passively generate energy cells, not because of any specific synergy. I managed to built a mostly machine deck with some of the rare wizards in it and it was fun to play, but gods.... bizarre game design decisions hit me again.
Third chapter was pretty good, but not really remarkable. I like that room puzzles are back, I like that it's not a rougelite anymore, and deckbuilding was pretty fun. However, the first two chapters had extremely exhausted me in the format that I just stopped. I probably will come back to it again, but not in a while.
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The early part of the game really bittered me. I thought that I had solved all the room puzzle elements and you'd make progress by clearing more runs, just like in most other roguelites I've played. You even get cards on the door to show your successes! I enjoyed the game a lot initially, but after spending 6+ hours in the opening chapter it started getting really repetitive. The game only gets easier over time, especially after you unlock totems, as the squirrel totem can easily break the game system. I simply cannot fathom why it is the one you get by default, the game positively encourages you to break it!
Then someone else told me that you have to use the knife outside of the Leshy fight to proceed. I had no idea. As the Leshy fight is by far the most difficult, I never thought to use the knife before it. As an experience card game player, I never felt pressured to use this valuable single-use item before the final boss. I was unable to progress in the game for bizarre game design decisions and spent about 3-4 hours more in the opening than I should have.
Then chapter 2 came. The found footage aspect didn't excite me that much, but I was happy to try a different type of game. I chose the wizard deck because hey, I like spellslinger style stuff in MTG. Then it turned out I was nearly unable to win games with it, and it didn't take me long to figure out why. The design space of the wizard deck is incredibly narrow. If any wizard has more than 2 power, you can have your deck consist only of moxen and that specific wizard, and you can turn one kill consistently by playing mox + three wizards => six damage. As a result, all wizards have to have 0 or 1 power, with the exception of rare ones that need two types of moxen. There is one that scales with the number of moxen you have, but as the board space is limited, you can at max have two 2-power creatures or one with 3 power, which is underwhelming compared to the other decks.
Needless to say, the damage output is not rather impressive, and if it were literally any higher it would be the strongest deck in the game. Maybe they should have taken a hint from the game from which the name "mox" was lifted: getting to play an unlimited amount of resources in one turn tends to break games. To add insult to injury, the fact that you can't sacrifice moxen means that it doesn't synergize with the beast deck, nor does it have enough support for expensive bone cards. It somewhat works with the machines because you passively generate energy cells, not because of any specific synergy. I managed to built a mostly machine deck with some of the rare wizards in it and it was fun to play, but gods.... bizarre game design decisions hit me again.
Third chapter was pretty good, but not really remarkable. I like that room puzzles are back, I like that it's not a rougelite anymore, and deckbuilding was pretty fun. However, the first two chapters had extremely exhausted me in the format that I just stopped. I probably will come back to it again, but not in a while.
2015
I know it's cliche, but it's pretty much just skyrim with guns. Nothing about it is all that special or exciting. None of the factions or storylines really grabbed me.
2010
Couldn't get too deep into it, but it's an open world game with a lot of interesting stories in it. Combat is not that involved, but exploration is enjoyable. The desert environment did end up feeling a bit samey.
2008
The blandest I've ever felt playing an open world game. The opening has a somewhat fun gimmick but the plot is not engaging at all. Everything looks gray and the same.
1997
One of the best examples of games that can really build an atmosphere. The combat is way too simplistic (you control one character, and you mostly either shoot or move).
Symphony of the night..... TWO! Very similar game to its main inspiration, but it has a lot of different viable builds and stuff to do. Exploring totally-not-dracula's-castle is a joy. The story is absolutely bonkers and doesn't make any sense. There's a lot of points of progression I would not have figured out without a guide. Either the english VA or voice director made.... decisions with regards to a certain boss named speed demon and I can't stop thinking about it.