vernie
1998
I played this back when I was far too young to be playing it and it still managed to set my standards for video game immersion. You can catch a cold, chain smoke to look for laser tripwires, the list goes on. I can point to a dozen different interactions in this game and go "they were so real for this" but I'll settle for the Psycho Mantis fight that genuinely made me think the signal cut out on my old TV.
Without even getting into the themes or the English localization effort, Metal Gear Solid has a lasting impact I'll never escape and I'm better off for it.
Without even getting into the themes or the English localization effort, Metal Gear Solid has a lasting impact I'll never escape and I'm better off for it.
they censored Dedede's neck bones
Searching for cards in deckbuilding is exactly as good as you'd expect from a PSP game and 3-of cards being Ultra Rares and/or having their packs locked behind ridiculous minigames kills my desire to keep playing.
On the other hand, you get to chill out with Jinzo in the schoolyard
On the other hand, you get to chill out with Jinzo in the schoolyard
2019
Crazy fun with a learning curve that rewards you for engaging with it instead of mashing through the game. I only wish I was good enough to hear the vocal themes more.
Builds on the gameplay from the first Ryza, especially the exploration, in a very satisfying way. I stood up and clapped when they said "This will always be your Atelier Ryza 2"
2017
you'd think a game as horny as this would be playable with one hand
2018
Conceptually, this game rocks - it's only as the middle game of a series like this can they get away with spending literally half the story time on Kiryu's after school special. In practice, I think I've Komaki parried enough for a lifetime
2023
I couldn't have imagined a Fire Emblem game with more freeform team building than the ones with infinite reclassing, but here we are. Maybe the meta just isn't solved yet, but it blows my mind that there are finally real trade-offs instead of "just use wyvern riders" or "throw your best guy into the mix and skip turn". I was itching to replay the game before I even made it to the final map.
Story-wise, it's not campy enough, actually. I need the other nobles to pop up even more often and laser the villains with the power of friendship. I need multiple extended transformation sequences with poofy skirts for everyone. I need special attack animations that put Trails S-Crafts to shame. The 60th anniversary game had better double down.
Story-wise, it's not campy enough, actually. I need the other nobles to pop up even more often and laser the villains with the power of friendship. I need multiple extended transformation sequences with poofy skirts for everyone. I need special attack animations that put Trails S-Crafts to shame. The 60th anniversary game had better double down.
2013
Drakengard 3 improves on Drakengard in every way that matters, which makes it less fun somehow
Get 5 other friends on a couch to throw ninjas into the fourth wall together for an afternoon and you, too, can feel like all is right with the world if only for a little while
The gameplay really makes you feel like you're a salaryman in the Lost Decade getting home at 11 PM and grinding the arena until you pass out from exhaustion
The story is so ambitious (especially by FE standards) that I can't fault it for what it is, but it often feels like it deserved Total War-style or even musou gameplay - anything to preserve the scale without the monotony.
The story is so ambitious (especially by FE standards) that I can't fault it for what it is, but it often feels like it deserved Total War-style or even musou gameplay - anything to preserve the scale without the monotony.
2018
informative and engaging crash course on ancient Greek firearms
I played this 1.5 times because I thought it would be funny to invest in Meg, dragging the rest of the Dawn Brigade down so much that I effectively soft locked myself in part 3 and had to restart with better planning. I think that makes me unqualified to call the rest of the gameplay a slog but I'm saying it anyway. There's one chapter where you watch ten horses behind a fence each take their turn with no skip button and that's somehow more engaging than most if not all of the maps in Part 4.
Micaiah is one of my favourite main characters in the series despite all this, and I do think she had girl power when she trapped those guys in a ravine and doused them in highly flammable oil
Micaiah is one of my favourite main characters in the series despite all this, and I do think she had girl power when she trapped those guys in a ravine and doused them in highly flammable oil
Great cases with a lot of emotional weight from the rest of the trilogy and hilariously dated cultural references - you, too, can laugh despite yourself at a "this is Sparta" joke in 2023
There are a lot of cool ideas here, but it's not enough to make me want to keep running fetch and escort quests with limited fast travel markers