thehotrock
almost wrote this off because it looked a bit wholesome games baitish and i'm not into that generally but i'm glad i gave this a go. it was very charming and sweet without being in an annoying way.
enjoyed the progression of the three cases as they not only increased in complexity (not a ton, obviously) with the mysteries involved but also added little touches to the gameplay itself too. the scooter in case 3 also getting a little THPS styled mini-game was a treat.
would absolutely play another one of these or something like it.
enjoyed the progression of the three cases as they not only increased in complexity (not a ton, obviously) with the mysteries involved but also added little touches to the gameplay itself too. the scooter in case 3 also getting a little THPS styled mini-game was a treat.
would absolutely play another one of these or something like it.
2007
This review contains spoilers
um, nurse? we have a category 6 meltdown over here. ðŸ˜
i have had a quite the history with Persona 3 and its scattered forms (multiple starts and stops for FES, a short lived attempt at Portable before wanting to avoid the VN presentation for my first go, and more) so it feels quite strange to have actually seen it through. i'm sure some of my distaste for the other Persona games i've played (much moreso for 4 than 5) wasn't helping anything with me getting around to this but i'm glad it finally happened. this exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations and then some.
this is a massive beast of a game size wise so i'm going to be a bit scattershot in talking about a few things that stuck out to me in a significant way and leave it be.
probably the strongest element of the whole thing was the presentation as a full package. visuals across the board are an absolute feast whether it's in the mundane of day to day life, the persona and shadow designs, or the FMVs themselves (have i already mentioned that i'm glad i played this for my first P3 experience? it can be said again.) beyond this, the music is an absolute stunner. the game snatching my ass with multiple daily life song swaps makes the prevalence of Your Affection and Beneath the Mask (i like the latter but P5 is a long ass game for just the one track) a massive drag in hindsight. the sound and vibe tackled across the soundtrack aligns the most with my general taste so it's probably my favorite of the modern Persona trilogy in that regard.
elsewhere i found myself particularly impressed with the cast (both SEES and elsewhere) and social links almost universally. i cannot stress enough how much of a difference it makes that your dormmates feel like actual people with their own lives/things going on without centering themselves on you/the mc. scenes developing the characters by themselves or with each other away from the mc were among the best moments in the game. things like that either would've been shifted to include the mc or have not happened at all as most party member development is stuffed into the s links in 4/5.
the social links had a surprisingly solid batting average as well. kenji is a dumbass so his social link was a slog and the Hermit was a Mess (a bit of a gag but still) yet everything else ranged from passable to great. the Sun and Hierophant in particular were wonderful and my favorites across the series, i think?
before wrapping this up i'll mention the sense of intent behind most of game's design. things like the fatigue system, SEES members having their own availability, uncontrollable party members (the tactics system is fine, please spend 5 seconds playing around with it 💀), and even Tartarus itself might seem irritating in a vacuum or other experience but as it is here it gives the game such a sense of cohesion and personality. i 100% believe that all of these elements worked in the service of the story that the game told and made it hit all that much harder in the end.
not sure what else to really say, i could ramble on more but this is already disorganized and i think i've communicated how special this was to me in a sufficient fashion. never in a million years would i have expected to like a modern Persona game this much but i'm glad that i did. Portable and Reload are potential someday things but not for a very long time, The Answer is probably a full on pass because the dungeon crawling seems to be extremely difficult and i don't think this needs following up on in that way. or at least not how The Answer seems to go about it.
i have had a quite the history with Persona 3 and its scattered forms (multiple starts and stops for FES, a short lived attempt at Portable before wanting to avoid the VN presentation for my first go, and more) so it feels quite strange to have actually seen it through. i'm sure some of my distaste for the other Persona games i've played (much moreso for 4 than 5) wasn't helping anything with me getting around to this but i'm glad it finally happened. this exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations and then some.
this is a massive beast of a game size wise so i'm going to be a bit scattershot in talking about a few things that stuck out to me in a significant way and leave it be.
probably the strongest element of the whole thing was the presentation as a full package. visuals across the board are an absolute feast whether it's in the mundane of day to day life, the persona and shadow designs, or the FMVs themselves (have i already mentioned that i'm glad i played this for my first P3 experience? it can be said again.) beyond this, the music is an absolute stunner. the game snatching my ass with multiple daily life song swaps makes the prevalence of Your Affection and Beneath the Mask (i like the latter but P5 is a long ass game for just the one track) a massive drag in hindsight. the sound and vibe tackled across the soundtrack aligns the most with my general taste so it's probably my favorite of the modern Persona trilogy in that regard.
elsewhere i found myself particularly impressed with the cast (both SEES and elsewhere) and social links almost universally. i cannot stress enough how much of a difference it makes that your dormmates feel like actual people with their own lives/things going on without centering themselves on you/the mc. scenes developing the characters by themselves or with each other away from the mc were among the best moments in the game. things like that either would've been shifted to include the mc or have not happened at all as most party member development is stuffed into the s links in 4/5.
the social links had a surprisingly solid batting average as well. kenji is a dumbass so his social link was a slog and the Hermit was a Mess (a bit of a gag but still) yet everything else ranged from passable to great. the Sun and Hierophant in particular were wonderful and my favorites across the series, i think?
before wrapping this up i'll mention the sense of intent behind most of game's design. things like the fatigue system, SEES members having their own availability, uncontrollable party members (the tactics system is fine, please spend 5 seconds playing around with it 💀), and even Tartarus itself might seem irritating in a vacuum or other experience but as it is here it gives the game such a sense of cohesion and personality. i 100% believe that all of these elements worked in the service of the story that the game told and made it hit all that much harder in the end.
not sure what else to really say, i could ramble on more but this is already disorganized and i think i've communicated how special this was to me in a sufficient fashion. never in a million years would i have expected to like a modern Persona game this much but i'm glad that i did. Portable and Reload are potential someday things but not for a very long time, The Answer is probably a full on pass because the dungeon crawling seems to be extremely difficult and i don't think this needs following up on in that way. or at least not how The Answer seems to go about it.
so this was a showcase for the wiimote and assorted control options in the way CING's DS games were for the touchscreen and other features. it was nice but i probably would've enjoyed it a bit more if i wasn't having frequent control problems trying to play in Dolphin with mouse+keyboard on top of multiple freezes near the end.
was surprised by how slow paced and generally easy going this was for the most part. the original game was similar but it was only a mere fraction of the length. it mostly works out okay but i found myself enjoying myself more with the lowkey exploration around the lake versus some of the stuff when things fully unravel near the end.
good, not great but a sizable improvement over the original Another Code/Trace Memory either way. curious to see if the remakes end up shifting my feelings on either one.
feels truly bittersweet to have finished all of CING's material of this kind. i guess i could always work backwards and try Glass Rose but reception for that seems rough to say the least.
was surprised by how slow paced and generally easy going this was for the most part. the original game was similar but it was only a mere fraction of the length. it mostly works out okay but i found myself enjoying myself more with the lowkey exploration around the lake versus some of the stuff when things fully unravel near the end.
good, not great but a sizable improvement over the original Another Code/Trace Memory either way. curious to see if the remakes end up shifting my feelings on either one.
feels truly bittersweet to have finished all of CING's material of this kind. i guess i could always work backwards and try Glass Rose but reception for that seems rough to say the least.
very much another last episode/chapter in a long running episodic game. i'd place it below both of the previous entries but it isn't a massive downgrade.
the more nautical setting was a bummer and i was sad to see it took up a larger chunk of the episode than expected. the cast of characters is still great though some of their personalities felt a bit muted. music was nice as always though clearly different due to the change in composer (RIP Simon D'souza) among other things.
glad to have finally played this trilogy. it only sat in my library for countless years.
the more nautical setting was a bummer and i was sad to see it took up a larger chunk of the episode than expected. the cast of characters is still great though some of their personalities felt a bit muted. music was nice as always though clearly different due to the change in composer (RIP Simon D'souza) among other things.
glad to have finally played this trilogy. it only sat in my library for countless years.
there's very little when it comes to nice things i have say about this game so let me begin with something that i did like before getting into it fully. Connor as a character is interesting and among the best across the series bringing a breath of fresh air to things. i'll go one further and say that Haytham was also solid and i enjoyed their relationship dynamic. if it wasn't for this i'm not sure if i would've been able to finish this, even when rushing the mainline content as i did in the end.
with that out of the way, what the hell happened here? i've never considered myself an Assassin's Creed fan (I was interesting but highly flawed while doing massive damage in terms of influence for the medium, II was a surprise improvement but just fine mainly, Brotherhood and Revelations were solid music listening/multitasking games but gave diminishing returns) by any means but the games had felt mechanically sound for the most part before this. Assassin's Creed III throws everything and the kitchen sink into its gameplay systems and nails nothing.
perhaps my biggest complaint is the setting shift. i'm not going to get into the story or anything of the sort here but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a complete mistake in my opinion. taking a series known for its movement systems and putting it in a place where you have barely any vertical movement options is one of the most baffling decisions i can think of. they attempted to remedy this with tree climbing (which again feels busted as does most of the rest of the gameplay here <3) and scripted movements through buildings when entering a door or window but it's a poor replacement. when you get out of the more residential areas of the map into the wilderness it gets even worse as it's just vast empty space which is miserable to navigate (especially when it is snowy).
elsewhere stuff like the combat takes a step down too. combat in the previous entries was never a strong suit but it was at least painless in the mediocrity. here you can see movements made towards trying to improve everything but it doesn't pan out to me. i'm not sure how much of it is III itself or maybe the remaster being fucked up but the game feels like it has this weird animation priority to all of its movements which leads to problems with counters not even registering half the time. some contextual environmental based attacks were added among other things but as i have brought up like three times now elsewhere, it feels half baked. Connor is an absolute beast in combat so most of it goes by quickly still but i 100% would've taken what we had before still.
this leaves me with the pacing which might have damned the full thing in the end. i have played and loved a lot of slow burn games over the years so know that it doesn't come lightly when i say that this is one of the slowest games i have ever played. you don't even get around to playing as the actual main character for a couple of sequences into the game and then you don't even get your actual assassin's robes for another few after that. i don't mind a build up for things but when the surroundings are so rotten it just was too much. you bounce from one gameplay element to the next constantly in a state of tutorials for what feels like 75% of the game.
somewhere within all the bloat the game sees fit to introduce a half baked hunting system which barely works, naval combat (which i hope is improved in Black Flag or that shit is going to be miserable too lmao), and even a crafting system that i somehow didn't even notice or come across with nearly 22 hours in the game. just a smothering sense of excess. literally don't know how this game even came together, even as it is within Ubisoft's unhinged annual release format of the time period. genuinely feel so bad for anyone who was working there.
gonna need a long break before i move onto Black Flag at this point.
with that out of the way, what the hell happened here? i've never considered myself an Assassin's Creed fan (I was interesting but highly flawed while doing massive damage in terms of influence for the medium, II was a surprise improvement but just fine mainly, Brotherhood and Revelations were solid music listening/multitasking games but gave diminishing returns) by any means but the games had felt mechanically sound for the most part before this. Assassin's Creed III throws everything and the kitchen sink into its gameplay systems and nails nothing.
perhaps my biggest complaint is the setting shift. i'm not going to get into the story or anything of the sort here but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a complete mistake in my opinion. taking a series known for its movement systems and putting it in a place where you have barely any vertical movement options is one of the most baffling decisions i can think of. they attempted to remedy this with tree climbing (which again feels busted as does most of the rest of the gameplay here <3) and scripted movements through buildings when entering a door or window but it's a poor replacement. when you get out of the more residential areas of the map into the wilderness it gets even worse as it's just vast empty space which is miserable to navigate (especially when it is snowy).
elsewhere stuff like the combat takes a step down too. combat in the previous entries was never a strong suit but it was at least painless in the mediocrity. here you can see movements made towards trying to improve everything but it doesn't pan out to me. i'm not sure how much of it is III itself or maybe the remaster being fucked up but the game feels like it has this weird animation priority to all of its movements which leads to problems with counters not even registering half the time. some contextual environmental based attacks were added among other things but as i have brought up like three times now elsewhere, it feels half baked. Connor is an absolute beast in combat so most of it goes by quickly still but i 100% would've taken what we had before still.
this leaves me with the pacing which might have damned the full thing in the end. i have played and loved a lot of slow burn games over the years so know that it doesn't come lightly when i say that this is one of the slowest games i have ever played. you don't even get around to playing as the actual main character for a couple of sequences into the game and then you don't even get your actual assassin's robes for another few after that. i don't mind a build up for things but when the surroundings are so rotten it just was too much. you bounce from one gameplay element to the next constantly in a state of tutorials for what feels like 75% of the game.
somewhere within all the bloat the game sees fit to introduce a half baked hunting system which barely works, naval combat (which i hope is improved in Black Flag or that shit is going to be miserable too lmao), and even a crafting system that i somehow didn't even notice or come across with nearly 22 hours in the game. just a smothering sense of excess. literally don't know how this game even came together, even as it is within Ubisoft's unhinged annual release format of the time period. genuinely feel so bad for anyone who was working there.
gonna need a long break before i move onto Black Flag at this point.
about on par with the first chapter. the music is wonderful and i'm still liking the characters even if the setting shift this is setting up isn't looking as appealing (we'll see with Chapter Three, i guess) in the end.
not sure why i waited so many years to play these games when they've been sitting in my library (both on Xbox and Steam) since near release for each one.
not sure why i waited so many years to play these games when they've been sitting in my library (both on Xbox and Steam) since near release for each one.
lovecraftian atmosphere and aesthetic in addition to some solid puzzles go a long way to set this apart when starting earlier on. unfortunately once you get past those you're left which the rest which is decidedly less nice.
messing around with some settings made it a painless boring instead of a frustrating one but i can see why this had a bit of excitement before release and then nobody talks about it since.
messing around with some settings made it a painless boring instead of a frustrating one but i can see why this had a bit of excitement before release and then nobody talks about it since.
the point and click adventure gameplay is standard fare (if not a bit worse with brain wormy puzzle solutions given that you start the game off by adding steps to a ladder with stale/hard breadsticks...) but where this really sets itself apart is in aesthetic, music, and voice acting.
Kito is so sweet, i love him.
Kito is so sweet, i love him.
it has been addressed many times over but what a complete surprise. the existence of the game alone was a shock but even then in the reveal trailer it looked to be a solid effort vs how special this turned out to be.
i wasn't completely into the combat but with some tinkering in the settings it allowed me to get back to what i was enjoying much faster, which was the platforming and exploration. once you start unlocking some of your abilities this game has some of my favorite movement in a 2D game with platforming possibly ever. completing some of the trap gauntlets while firing on all cylinders with your assortment of moves was absolutely sublime.
i did love Sargon too. my only complaint is the Warrior Within skin was locked behind preorder and is now lost unless it decides to show up again/who fucking knows but it's Ubisoft so...
The Rogue Prince of Persia looks to be much less of my kind of thing but after this i'm not going to write it off.
i wasn't completely into the combat but with some tinkering in the settings it allowed me to get back to what i was enjoying much faster, which was the platforming and exploration. once you start unlocking some of your abilities this game has some of my favorite movement in a 2D game with platforming possibly ever. completing some of the trap gauntlets while firing on all cylinders with your assortment of moves was absolutely sublime.
i did love Sargon too. my only complaint is the Warrior Within skin was locked behind preorder and is now lost unless it decides to show up again/who fucking knows but it's Ubisoft so...
The Rogue Prince of Persia looks to be much less of my kind of thing but after this i'm not going to write it off.
2009
when legends flop. 💔
was hoping this was going to be more of a "bad for a Cing game" but otherwise vaguely passable thing but that wasn't the case. i was full on not a fan.
the shift to more menu based navigation between areas compared to Another Code and the Kyle Hyde games is whatever and could've been fine if there wasn't so much backtracking. so many spots where you need to go talk to someone and ask them a single question or show them one thing to progress things only to need to return not even 10 minutes later. it wasn't as bad early on but by the end of the game when you're going from person to person showing them old photographs to see if they know anything about the people shown it was miserable as hell.
at least i finally got around to it, i guess.
was hoping this was going to be more of a "bad for a Cing game" but otherwise vaguely passable thing but that wasn't the case. i was full on not a fan.
the shift to more menu based navigation between areas compared to Another Code and the Kyle Hyde games is whatever and could've been fine if there wasn't so much backtracking. so many spots where you need to go talk to someone and ask them a single question or show them one thing to progress things only to need to return not even 10 minutes later. it wasn't as bad early on but by the end of the game when you're going from person to person showing them old photographs to see if they know anything about the people shown it was miserable as hell.
at least i finally got around to it, i guess.
2012
This review contains spoilers
an absolute feast for the senses. one of the most visually stunning games i've ever played and i love the music too.
third time playing this but i was caught off guard with how hard it hit me even with knowing what was coming. not sure if it was just playing this in context of how it can be when being alive in 2024 among other things, if it hits harder with age, or both.
another thing that i hadn't really thought about or considered before is how funny this can be at times in spite of everything else. scattered moments like Susan asking Mitzi if she was emo, the babysitter fakery, and so forth are all great moments of levity given the surroundings.
might make this the time i finally go back to Downfall (and play the original version) and then get around to Lorelai and Burnhouse Lane for the first time, hopefully.
third time playing this but i was caught off guard with how hard it hit me even with knowing what was coming. not sure if it was just playing this in context of how it can be when being alive in 2024 among other things, if it hits harder with age, or both.
another thing that i hadn't really thought about or considered before is how funny this can be at times in spite of everything else. scattered moments like Susan asking Mitzi if she was emo, the babysitter fakery, and so forth are all great moments of levity given the surroundings.
might make this the time i finally go back to Downfall (and play the original version) and then get around to Lorelai and Burnhouse Lane for the first time, hopefully.
1998
writing about my time with the Unfinished Business levels here, not the base game. my most recent run of that was logged here.
playing as part of the recent I-III remaster had a sense of freshness in that this was my first time playing the expansion's levels in the intended but ultimately unused order. the Atlantis levels first up makes sense in terms of general cohesion as it picks up directly after the first game. this is all well and good in concept but when playing it was a bit of a nightmare. Atlantean Stronghold and The Hive are already the worst TRI associated levels but it gets even worse coming into the absolute combat overload with none of your weapons and healing built up from the Egypt levels. i can see the appeal to those who like a bigger challenge but i'd rather that not come from the combat/enemies.
Egypt section was a joy as always, thankfully. Return to Egypt is one of the best levels in the series and Temple of the Cat isn't too far behind. with the Unfinished Business material coming after TRIII it feels like they were able to push the level design of I to its absolute limits in terms of complexity even though it was missing moves from II and on for more platforming options.
all of these expansions are honestly so good and i'm glad they've become more accessible.
playing as part of the recent I-III remaster had a sense of freshness in that this was my first time playing the expansion's levels in the intended but ultimately unused order. the Atlantis levels first up makes sense in terms of general cohesion as it picks up directly after the first game. this is all well and good in concept but when playing it was a bit of a nightmare. Atlantean Stronghold and The Hive are already the worst TRI associated levels but it gets even worse coming into the absolute combat overload with none of your weapons and healing built up from the Egypt levels. i can see the appeal to those who like a bigger challenge but i'd rather that not come from the combat/enemies.
Egypt section was a joy as always, thankfully. Return to Egypt is one of the best levels in the series and Temple of the Cat isn't too far behind. with the Unfinished Business material coming after TRIII it feels like they were able to push the level design of I to its absolute limits in terms of complexity even though it was missing moves from II and on for more platforming options.
all of these expansions are honestly so good and i'm glad they've become more accessible.
2020
i am trying to practice kindness and positivity with games like this (#healing) so i'm just going to say that i really liked Shatter. <3
1986
beaten for the first time without save states. it's pretty easy sailing for most of the game (especially given you can waltz into the very first dungeon busted as hell in regards to items and upgrades) until the second to last dungeon where it went to hell. extra heart containers, upgraded weapons/armor, and such can only go so far with some of the combat encounters.
i think this will always be a appreciate for what it is and what it did for the medium while never fully enjoying it by itself type thing for me.
looking forward to slowly working my way through the rest of the series. a lot of replays but there's a few that i've yet to beat in there too.
i think this will always be a appreciate for what it is and what it did for the medium while never fully enjoying it by itself type thing for me.
looking forward to slowly working my way through the rest of the series. a lot of replays but there's a few that i've yet to beat in there too.
2022
he's so crazzzzzzy! love him!!!
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i played this in tiny chunks daily across a few months to get my daily rewards points for getting an achievement in a game pass game. it has a few moments but ultimately the humor feels like it came out of 2007 (which could be charming for some) and some of the scenes end up being annoying to replay through length wise.
i've had the first game in my library for AGES. wondering if that might have a bit more appeal or not.
---
i played this in tiny chunks daily across a few months to get my daily rewards points for getting an achievement in a game pass game. it has a few moments but ultimately the humor feels like it came out of 2007 (which could be charming for some) and some of the scenes end up being annoying to replay through length wise.
i've had the first game in my library for AGES. wondering if that might have a bit more appeal or not.