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randosrandomrhetoric · 8 months ago

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Final Fantasy Games Ranked

Now, to get a few rules set up. This will only be ranking 13 of the 15 mainline entries of the series. So this means that all spinoffs, such as the best game in the franchise, Final Fantasy Tactics, will not be included. Neither will sequels, such as X-2, or the MMOs, 11 and 14. The reason for the latter is that they can vary WILDLY patch to patch, and I'm not super familiar with the changes. Now let's get on with the List.

Number 13: Final Fantasy 2

I know I'm not the first to call this the worst, and its reputation speaks for itself to most. Those of you not familiar with this one, I'm not sure where to even begin. We can say that it's the poor story, unremarkable cast, or the baffling leveling system. The fact of the matter is, there's just really nothing to like about this game for the most part. Some of the ports and remakes try and fix this, but there's just so much fundamentally wrong that there's just no really correcting it. So, unless you're trying to complete every game in the series, I say just avoid this one.

Grade: F

Number 12: Final Fantasy 3

Now, this is where things get hard for me because, aside from 2, every entry has a lot to offer and has a lot to criticize. I've struggled to put this one here, but only because I feel its negatives are just a bit heavier than its other siblings. This game started one of the best RPG systems that I love for FF: Changing Jobs at any time. The biggest complaint is that while it started this, others perfected it. The story is fairly decent, if not standard. 4 warriors of light journey to protect the crystals. It's just a more in-depth version of the story of FF1. The ultimate thing that kills this game for me is the absurdly difficult final dungeon. It goes from a pretty difficult game to REALLY difficult without you grinding like crazy. So if you want to see the start of the proper job system, check this one out. Otherwise, it's passable

Grade: D+

Number 11: Final Fantasy 12

How mad are some of you right now? I know what some people are thinking: How is this on here before 13?! Hear me out. This is one of, if not, the best looking PS2 games ever made. It's got great Cut Scenes, the character models are great, and the environments and cities all look amazing. So what do I not like about it? Nearly everything else about this game. You have 2 main party members who are completely pointless. The gameplay can be tweaked, even a lot of the bosses, to where you don't even have to touch your controller. People can say 13 plays itself, but 12 literally can. Aside from Balthazar, every character in this game lacks charisma, or any strong traits at all for that matter. The license board is a poor idea as well, I have to get permission to equip a feathered hat? If not for the spectacle of this game it'd be lower for me. A lot of people like this one, but I say skip it.

Grade: C-

Number 10: Final Fantasy 13

Even to this day, this is a gorgeous game and a shining example of 7th gen graphics. So, how did it get here? This is one of the most divisive games in the franchise. The positives of the game? An interesting take on the job system, gorgeous visuals, and really well voice acted. The paradigm shift mechanic is pretty neat, and it's what makes it more involved than 12's combat system. The negative aspects? Again, I have to say: Everything else. With the game being mostly just hallways, one of the most unlikable casts in franchise history, as well as my least favorite character period. Looking at you, Hope! The story itself isn't bad and has some nice ideas. The cast at least feels connected to the plot as well. These very small and minor things are what put it above 12 for me. Another one that if you're not a hardcore fan, you should pass

Grade: C

Number 9: Final Fantasy 15

This is the game that I struggle with the most to place, but I feel like it can't sit anywhere else on this list. While this game started as a spinoff, it developed into a full-fledged entry. Due to a troubled development cycle, this is one of the most flawed games of the series. A lot of these flaws were kind of ironed out in subsequent patches and DLCs, but upon release, this game was barely more than mid. Needless to say, the game is beautiful, with the best summon spectacles in franchise history. A mediocre story, with a small but honestly great cast of guys, keeps this from being any lower, but not good enough to get higher. If it weren't for the absolute slog that is the back half of the game, this would definitely rate higher on my list. It's definitely worth a playthrough if you're into Final Fantasy.

Grade: C

Number 8: Final Fantasy

The game that started it all. Admittedly, from a technical, storytelling, and graphical standpoint, the previous games were better than this, but I just couldn't bring myself to not take its legacy into consideration. The gameplay is simplistic, the narrative is barely there, and there's so many things that have been improved on. Despite all of that, there's still this aura about the game knowing not only did it revolutionize RPGs on consoles, but started the juggernaut that is this franchise. While it may be antiquated by today's sensibilities, and many will find it hard to go back to, I can't help but recommend that people should at least get eyes on this, just to see how far the series has come. So, for nostalgia sake, I recommend checking this one out.

Grade: C+

Number 7: Final Fantasy 8

We now are at my least favorite of what I refer to as: The Classics. For a PS1 game, this game looked amazing, a running theme admittedly, and has what is one of my favorite systems in an RPG game ever, the Junction System. This system is also, what ultimately leads to its downfall. This is by far the easiest game in the franchise. With enemies always being your level, to the awesome powers your GFs get, and the sheer exploitative nature of the Junction system leads to a cakewalk of a game. If the story was better, or if it had a likable MC, this game would be so much higher. Squall is just so unlikable. Even after he "grows," he still just comes off unappealing to me. With the story just going from "Let's fight this sorceress!" to "Now let's fight another sorceress who's from the moon!" and finally,"Let's fight ANOTHER sorceress…from the future!". The game is just inconsistent. I hate to love it, it's got Triple Triad for God's sake, and I recommend this one.

Grade: B

Number 6: Final Fantasy 4

Now, a lot of problems I have with 8's story are present in this game as well. It's "Gotta protect these 4 crystals!" To "Oh no, we failed but there's 4 more crystals we have to get, but in the underworld!" to finally "We gotta get those OTHER crystals…from the moon!". Coupled with the 3 or 4 instances of "Hey we got an airship! Oh it got destroyed, but we got a new one!". Combined with the constant coming and going/deaths of multiple party members, this game just feels like it's jumping through hoops to tell, admittedly, a good story of redemption and accepting your past. With likable characters and good twists and turns in the narrative. These factors are what puts it over 8 for me, despite it having a much more basic gameplay.

Grade: B

Number 5: Final Fantasy 6

We have now entered the hallowed Top 5! Here on out, there's not going to be a lot of negatives to really complain about. With a very diverse cast of characters, several with their own mechanics, one of the greatest villains in gaming history and with one of the most iconic sounds in gaming, there's a lot to love here. So what puts it below the others? That honestly boils down to me not playing it when I was a kid, so I don't have as much nostalgia for it. This is one of the greatest SNES games of all time, and should be experienced by everyone. It has a great story, memorable fights, and one of the most memorable scenes in gaming: the opera. Combine all of this with amazing sprites, cool old school effects, being able to suplex a train, there's no reason anyone should not play this. Especially since the pixel remaster is out, I can't recommend this one enough.

Grade: A

Number 4: Final Fantasy 7

And in this corner we have the towering behemoth known as Final Fantasy 7. A dynasty unto itself. With multiple spinoffs, animes, a big budget CGI movie, and so much other merchandise. It's not really hard to see why so many people love this game. I know for myself, this was my first RPG proper, that I played. With amazing cut scenes, for its time, the charming, if not silly, Lego style sprites, to the bombastic story, and its now iconic cast of characters, including another of the most notable villains in gaming. This game has had more of an impact than any other entry in this franchise, and it shows with the recent full blown remake on modern day consoles. While it may have garnered an "overrated" status by a lot of people these days, and it does have its flaws, such as the poor translation being a highlight, there's just always been something special about this game for me. It was my first JRPG love and maybe that has blinded me, but hey, I've had more than my share of fun, so who cares. Very much recommended.

Grade: A

Number 3: Final Fantasy X

This game may have gotten this high due to my own cherished memories of playing this with my, now deceased, brother. That being said, I feel its placement is also justified by the game itself. With one of the strongest casts, an interesting leveling system in the sphere grid, being the first fully voice casted, looking absolutely stunning, and one of the best stories in the series. This game was the peak of turn- based combat, with the ability to switch members on the fly, each character's weapons having unique advantages against certain enemies, and the ability to manage your turn order with certain spells and abilities. Hell, I even like Blitzball, but to hell with the lightning dodging minigame. I'm also a sucker for a more jovial protagonist, rather than the broody ones the series has mostly consisted of. Easily one of the most emotional games in the series, and it comes with a big recommendation.

Grade: A+

Number 2: Final Fantasy 9

Hands down my favorite protagonist and cast of characters in the entire series, save for a certain red headed monk stand in. There's not really any negatives I can pick out, although some may find the art style a turn off, though I do not. With a fun system of learning skills from equipment, and the character all harking back to the classic jobs, such as Zidane is a Thief and Freya is a Dragoon, it feels like a love letter to the classic Final Fantasy games, after years of the more kinda Sci Fi fantasy style. With a more whimsical, yet still mature enough story, this game embodies everything that Final Fantasy games stood for, for so long. For the longest time this was my favorite in the mainline series, but several years ago I went on a journey through the entire franchise, and I found a new king. Being as it's the only one left, it's obvious which one I'm referring to.

Grade: A+

Number 1: Final Fantasy 5

Here it is, the big winner, FF5. Now I'll be the first to admit that the gameplay plays a huge part in this decision. Now that's not to say that that's the only merit for it, far from it. With one of the most adorable scenes in the franchise, where everyone is enamored by a party member's sleeping face, a great recurring boss, to the best death out of all the games, yes even better than Aerith's. Combine all of that, with the best implementation of the job system outside of Tactics, which I am an absolute sucker for, it makes for my game to play in the whole series. Discovering this game for the first time was something, as it was not available in the states till its release in the ps1, which was not the best port,I didn't play it till the Steam release. If you like Final Fantasy Tactics, this is an absolute must play. If I could only pick one to play ever again this is mine.

Grade: S

#final fantasy #Ranking

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strigital · 6 years ago

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The Elder Scrolls VI wish list:

In-depth character customization with tons of options: everything from colors of both inner and outer iris to height and voice.

Player character origins. I want a choice between having completely blank origins, so that I can create my own backstory, or choose between a couple of existing ones, which will affect the gameplay in the long run. Like if I choose to be an Outlaw at some point a team of bandits instead of attacking me will give me a quest, or if I decide that I want to be a Noble, then aristocratic NPCs will recognize me as one of their own and as such I’ll have easier time gaining their trust.

A well working physics engine, so that we can have realistic flowing hair, clothes that move in the wind, horse’s mane and tail that swish realistically when it gallops, etc.

At least some environmental objects being destructible: rocks falling to pieces after getting hit by a stray fireball, enemies getting thrown at certain walls, that crumble and crush said enemies, bridges that can be brought down to cut off the path, locked doors that can be destroyed with a few swings of a maul. Just let me annihilate piles of crates and barrels like other games do, damnit!

Player character being a physical presence recognized by the game world, such as grass swaying when I walk through it, my feet leaving footprints on snow and sand that look different depending on whether I’m barefoot or not, seeing all the little rocks being kicked about as I run on gravel, and piles of dead leaves doing the same when I run through them, dust and small debris falling from old wooden structures as I step on them, etc. Basically, feeling like my body isn’t just a ghost running through the lands without leaving a trace.

Ability to combine spells with each other or the environment for various effects, like they did it in Divinity Original Sin 2. I want to be able to throw a lightning bolt into a puddle and electrocute all the enemies stood in the water, or throw a fireball at a barrel of oil and cause a platform to collapse under the force of an explosion and kill the archers that were on said platform (again about the destructible objects), or cast an ice spell on water, so that the enemies slip, fall and get stunned. If such a mechanic is not full of potential for some ridiculous and hilarious situations, then I don’t know what is.

Unique companions with backstories and personalities, likes and dislikes, goals and agendas. They can also be romanced by ANY player character, no matter their sex/race/other traits and the romance progression is close to a real life relationship, with ups and downs, jokes and arguments, sexy times and break ups.

Let me have a squad of my own. Two or maybe even three companions at once. They also have their own relationships and opinions about each other. They chat, they argue, they flirt, they rant about being forced to travel with that jerk, they get overprotective towards the player if they’re romanced and hear the other one catcalling the player, they share their opinions, give the player advice on the current situation, they each have their own comments about places and other NPCs and they may or may not see eye to eye on those opinions. Let there be drama in true “party of DnD adventurers” fashion!

Also Dogmeat-like animal companion, who can travel alongside other companions and do stuff like sniff out enemies, find goodies, do tricks, duplicate items, grab items from containers with master locks on them... You know, the usual Dogmeat stuff.

Mounts other than horses. I want to see Redguards riding their camels, Khajiiti caravans with senches, Nords putting bears under the saddle. If horses are still the only rideable animal, then I want variety and customization: lots of breeds to choose from, individual armor, saddlebags and cosmetic items, ability to name a horse and have it come to the player at a single whistle. Also, Shadowmere. TES 6 won’t be the same without that demonic horse.

At least one friendly dragon. Because I need more of Paarthurnax.

More active Divines. Daedric quests are fun, no arguing there, but I’d also like to go on a holy quest bestowed upon me by, say, Akatosh himself, not some old prophecy. Also Divine relics to counterbalance Daedric artifacts.

More stuff to kill your time with. Games at taverns, visiting brothels, betting on horse racing or participating yourself, watching street performers and so on. I want to take part in the same entertainment the inhabitants of Tamriel do, damnit!

More alive, realistic world. If there’s a war I want to see hanged deserters on a tree, if it’s autumn I want to see people throwing harvest festival parties in their towns and cities, if it’s a plague outbreak I want to see corpses, sick people and hear church bells... Again, the Witcher 3 did it, now I want all of this grungy, dirty, realistic shit in the next TES game!

Tons of dialogue choices based on the player character’s skills, traits, race, sex, affiliation with factions, etc. I want NPCs to react to the character in a dynamic way, so that each new playthrough with a new character is fresh and inexperienced before. Let them Nords throw sexist comments at my Dunmer lady, let the Khajiits deny information to any other character that is not a Khajiit, let my bulky Nord fellow get discounts at the bar and my Imperial guy in fancy clothes get into the royal palace way easier that an Argonian in a hood would. I want to feel, see and hear that NPCs know and react to my character in a realistic way, so there are more challenges, interesting moments, secret dialogues and hidden quests only available for a certain character that made certain choices. Let the next game be the true definition of RPG!

Khajiits and Argonians having animal-like legs that they had back in TES III Morrowind. Please.

Longer and more complicated guild quests, so that even joining the guild requires time and skill, let alone progressing through ranks. And don’t make me a leader of each and every faction! Make me a second in command or a high ranking official with new perks and armor as a reward. Don’t make me the most overpowered mortal in Tamriel again, because it’s getting old fashioned.

Some sort of an ability tree, which allows you to tinker and make bombs, traps, contraptions and other awesome goodies that’ll make any combat a wild party.

Good third person animations. C’mon, Bethany Esda, I know you can do it.

Voiced protagonist. If not fully, then on the Divinity Original Sin 2′s level, where the player character does not speak in dialogues, but has voiced comments when interacting with certain objects or entering a location, etc. Or just add an option in the Settings menu to turn on or off player character’s voice.

Ability to hide that ugly ass helmet with a single click of a button, without being forced to choose between showing my awesome hairdo to the world and +5 to Armor Rating.

Ability to equip multiple weapons at once and also being able to see them on my character, i. e. a bow on my back, and axe on my right hip, a dagger on my left hip and a staff alongside the bow. Also they jiggle according to physics.

Big cities. No, I mean, like, really, truly BIG cities. I mean some Novigrad from the Witcher 3 type of big cities. I want to get lost in them. I want to find all the secrets, hidden in dark alleys and on the rooftops. I want countless quests within the city itself. Just let me enjoy some fantasy medieval city life, okay?

Animated activities. When I click to skin a dead deer I want to see my character sit down and do some work with a knife. When I go to a spot where fish is abundant I want to see a fishing rod being thrown into the water. That sorta thing.

Detailed crafting system. I. e. you could choose to make a handle of a sword and its blade from different materials and have different effects on them that combine once you put the sword together. Or whilst making armor you could pick between different textures, materials, colors and such. Basically, what they did in Dragon Age Inquisition. That was a fun system to play around with.

Also more subcategories for crafting, like if you are a high level smith you could craft some horseshoes for your mount that’ll increase its galloping speed, or if you’re a skilled alchemist you could make a throwable potion which will harm the enemies in a certain way (like a jar of bees or something). And, of course, accompanying animations are welcome. I’d die to see my character put some horseshoes on their steed.

A loveable villain, who could be “persuaded” to abandon his goals, join your squad and become your new LI. Basically, Miraak 2.0, but with a happily ever after ending.

Dwemer prosthetics. Sotha Sil thinks he’s so hip with his metallic arm, doesn’t he? Well I too want to have a metallic arm, damnit!

Ability to furnish your house however you like. When you buy a house there could be a choice between a fully furnished version and an unfurnished version of your house. After that you could either re-arrange the furniture in your abode or buy new furniture that suits your tastes. Then you could enter furnishing mode and have a blast decorating your dream house to your heart’s content. Basically, what we saw in Fallout 4′s Homeplate and Fizztop Grille.

Outposts, keeps or anything like that. They could be like small bases that you take control of once you slaughter its previous owners, where you and your squad of companions could rest, talk, repair broken armor and weapons or buy new ones, stock up on potions and bandages, that sort of thing. There also could be a special object that will allow you to instantly switch between the companions and/or choose a different mount from a collection of those that you own. Also there could be a badass custom flag of yours marking that place as your own.

i’ll proly add some more later, but rn i’m out of ideas xD

#c'mon Bethesda #give some good shit #i'd die for a heavily detailed game like this #wishlist #the elder scrolls #tesvi #tes6 #redfall #bethesda

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thesteadydietofeverything · 6 years ago

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Video Game Year in Review: The Top 10

As with any year-end list, this one probably isn’t complete. Last year, I fell in love with Nioh over winter break after I had already made my top 10, and just a few days ago, I started playing Hollow Knight. As I made clear in my previous lists, Metroidvanias can be hit or miss for me. I can get fed up with wandering around without a clear destination, and Hollow Knight has a bit of that so far, but it also has one of the most atmospherically welcoming settings for a video game in recent memory, and so far I’ve been pretty damn enraptured by it. I’m not too worried about it making the list at this point; it didn’t even technically come out this year anyway, but its Switch release earlier this year gave it somewhat of a second debut, for all the earned attention it finally got. At least I got a little shout-out here before publishing.

Anyway, here’s ten games I loved the shit out of in 2018. This was one year with a handful of games that I absolutely adored, none of which necessarily immediately jumped out to me as hands down the best one of the bunch, and honestly, that’s the way I’d prefer it, but it did make ranking them a bit tough. Really, from number five onward, the ranking gets pretty interchangeable. I didn’t plan on the game in my number one spot being the one that it is until I actually wrote out my feelings for it and decided that out of all them it was the easiest for me to just gush about. Alright, no further ado:

10. Donut County - Overall, it’s probably a good thing that Donut County isn’t longer than it is, but for as mechanically simple as sucking objects into an ever-expanding void is, it’s something that I felt I would’ve been perfectly entertained doing for a lot longer than the game lasted. Donut County has a wildly inspired and novel central gameplay hook, a relatably goofy sense of humor that might border on obnoxious if it weren’t so sincerely delivered, and an anti-gentrification, anti-capitalist message that mostly works without beating you over the head too hard with it. Ben Esposito and his team have created one of the most charming and original games I’ve played in years here.

9. Paratopic - “Cinematic” is a grossly overused and frequently inappropriate word to use in games criticism, but this game often had me coming back to the word, observing how many ways it feels like it authentically takes inspiration from creative methods seen more often in film, particularly art films, than in games, much more so than say, Red Dead Redemption 2, which typically embarrassingly pales in comparison to any movies it’s obviously aping from. There’s its willingness to not explain to you what’s going on, letting you pick up on clues from scenery and incidental dialogue. Its multiple switching perspectives, laced together to draw meaningful narrative connections. Its tendency to sit in the atmosphere of a scene. Its ability to tell a succinct story intended to be experienced in one sitting. And most of all, those jump cuts. I know Paratopic isn’t the first game to employ this technique, but as far as I can remember, it’s the first that I’ve played to utilize them for purposeful artistic effect, and every time it happened, it was oddly thrilling. I loved when I’d switch from walking to suddenly driving, and had a moment of panic, as if I suddenly just woke up at the wheel. The cliffhangers scenes would occasionally end on made me desperate to get back to that thread. Hell, even just the fact that there clearly were scenes, that lasted a few minutes at a time, then moved on to the next one, felt weirdly refreshing at a time when AAA design is becoming so absurdly bloated. Paratopic excited me, not in its desire to emulate a separate art medium, but in its casual realization of how many underutilized narrative techniques work genuinely effectively in this medium.

8. Dusk - I really can’t imagine a game that more perfectly matches my Platonic ideal of “video game comfort food” than Dusk, aside from, maybe, the game in the number one spot of this list. I was raised on 90’s PC FPS games like Doom and, as is much more relevant to this game, Quake. Yeah, for the most part, it’s nice that games have moved on, both in depth of gameplay and artistry, but goddamn does a back-to-basics twitchy shooter with inspired level design and creepy atmosphere just feel good sometimes. The grainy, chunky polygons of this game encapsulate everything I love about the rudimentary but remarkably evocative minimalism of early 3D graphics. The movement feels absurdly fast by modern standards, and the effect is thrilling - every projectile is dodgeable, as long as your reflexes are sharp enough. Undoubtedly the most impressive thing about this game is its ambitious level design, so much of which rivals even John Romero’s. The longer this game goes on, the more sprawling and labyrinthine it becomes. The map shapes become increasingly wacky. The gothic architecture becomes more foreboding and awe-inspiring. Dusk does a lot with a little, and in the process, makes so much more than a tribute to game design and aesthetics of the past - for me, it stands right alongside its obvious inspirations as one of the very best of its ilk.

7. Into the Breach - An absolute masterclass of game design. Into the Breach leaves nothing about its mechanics obscured, making sure you understand how every move is going to go down just as well as it does, and the fact that the result is still compellingly challenging is a sure sign we’re in the hands of remarkably skilled and intelligent developers. The narrative in this game is sparse - you assume the role of time-looping soldiers attempting over and over again to save your world from alien invasion (think Edge of Tomorrow), and that’s pretty much all you get for the plot, aside from some effective but minimal character beats and dialogue one-liners. And yet, every battlefield, a small grid with its own arrangement of sprites (giant creepy-crawlies, various creative mech classes, structures full of terrified denizens given a modicum of hope at the arrival of their ragged potential saviors) offers a playground for drama to unfold, as gripping and epic as any great mecha anime battle. As I mentioned in my previous list with Dead Cells, I have trouble sticking with run-based games, and this game wasn’t quite an exception - honestly, if it had something resembling a more traditional narrative campaign, I could see it potentially filling my number one spot. But that a game of its style nevertheless stuck with me as well as it did proves what a tremendous achievement I found it to be.

6. Astro Bot Rescue Mission - This was both the first game I’ve played fully in VR and the first game I’ve ever platinumed. I guess that might say something about how thoroughly I fell for it. For some reason, one of the questions that my brain kept posing while playing this game is, “would you like this game as much if it weren’t in VR?” I would like to pose that first off, if this wasn’t a VR game, it would be quite a different game, but yes, probably a perfectly delightful 3D platformer in its own right. But most of all, this game helped me realize what a bullshit question that is in the first place. By virtue of its VR nature, this game is just fundamentally different, just as the jump from 2D to 3D resulted in games that were just fundamentally different. The perspective you’re given watching over your little robot playable character allows to look in 360 degrees, and often you need to, if you’re seeking out every level’s secrets, and yet, while it moves forward, it doesn’t follow you vertically, so sometimes you’re looking up or down as well. It’s difficult to describe exactly how this perspective is so much more than a gimmick or something, outside of the cliched exaggeration of “it feels like you’re really there, man,” but honestly, this statement isn’t wrong. I truly did feel immersed in these levels in a way that I wouldn’t have if this weren’t a VR game, and while it’s not exactly a feeling I now desire from every game, it does stand out as one of the singular gaming experiences I had in 2018 as a result.

5. Thonebreaker: The Witcher Tales - I gushed plenty about this game in my review. How its approach to Gwent-based combat is both welcoming to newcomers and remarkably varied, offering new ways to approach and think about the game with nearly every encounter. How its sizable story is filled with fascinating characters and genuinely distressing choices, forcing you to grapple with the inherent injustices of your position. How its vivid art style and wonderfully moody Marcin Przybyłowicz score sell The Witcher feel of this game, despite how differently it plays from the mainline entries of the game. And maybe most of all, how criminally overlooked this game has been. So I’ll make the same claim I did before - if The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt did something for you, it’s likely this game will too. Don’t worry about the card game - I did too, and trust me, it’s fun. It’s the new Witcher game; that really ought to be all you need to know.

4. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life - There’s...a lot about the Yakuza games that I’ve come to adore, but one of the biggest ones that kept sticking out to me while playing The Song of Life is how they build a sense of place. After playing Yakuza 0, set in 1988, and Yakuza Kiwami, set in 2005, I played this one, set in 2016. Each time, same Kiryu, but older, same Kamurocho, but era appropriate. Setting every Yakuza game in the same map has to be one of the quietly boldest experiments in video games, forgoing fresh new vistas to explore in favor of the same familiar boulevards, alleys, and parks of the iconic red-light district, painting an exquisitely detailed and loving portrait of a neighborhood changing with the decades. While Kiryu’s exasperation at once again walking into the all-too-familiar crowded streets of Kamurocho, brighter and louder than ever, hardly matched my eagerness to see how it had changed, it felt appropriate. Though he’s still the hottest dad (grandpa?) in town, he is kinda old now, and he’s certainly earned the right to just be over it a little. Even the silliest of the era-relevant sub stories (one of which delightfully features Kiryu putting a selfie-stick wielding, obnoxious-stunt pulling, wanna-be influencer shithead in his place) serve to underscore how out of place he now is in his old stomping grounds.

By contrast, the other setting of Yakuza 6, the quaint seaside town of Onomichi, very quickly begins to feel like an idyllic retirement destination. The introduction to this part of the game has to be my favorite video game moment of 2018 - Kiryu trying to calm a hungry baby, while walking the deserted streets after dark in search of one store that still happens to be open. The faint sound of ocean in the distance effectively evokes the freshness, the bitterness, of the air. The emptiness and darkness of the space is almost shocking, compared to the sensory overload of Kamurocho. And there’s Haruto. Kiryu took Haruka in when she was 9, so he’s never had to deal with a baby before. He’s out of his element, but hardly unwilling. The help he gets from Kiyomi and his other new friends is the kind of comfort Kiryu needs at this point in his life. Likewise, the events in Onomichi play out like a retirement fantasy - building an amateur baseball team out of local talent, building relationships with the denizens of a bar in an incredible Japanese version of Cheers, hanging out with the town’s Yakuza, who are so small potatoes they seem to barely fit the definitions of organized or crime. It all works beautifully as a touching send-off to my favorite video game character.

3. Tetris Effect - There was a long time where I was contemplating putting this as my number one game. I went through some strange conflicts in the consideration - next to all these original, thoughtful games, am I really going to say that fucking Tetris is best one of them? Is that even fair? Is this game really anything more than just regular-ass Tetris but with some pretty lights and sounds and a 90’s rave kinda vibe? The answer to all of these, is, of course, yes, but also no. I’d defend my choice any day, though. This is the first game to actually get me into Tetris. I always appreciated it; it’s a classic, but it was never a game I had actually put much time or thought into before. This game not only sold me on Tetris, but got me obsessed with it, to the point where the name feels remarkably appropriate: ever since I began playing, I’ve been seeing tetriminos falling - in my sleep, in daydreams, any time I see any type of blocky shape in real life I’m fitting them together in my mind. The idea that all Tetris pieces, despite their differences, need each other and complement each other and can all fit together in perfect harmony, and that this is a metaphor for humanity, has to be some of the cheesiest bullshit I’ve ever heard, and yet, the game fully sold me on it from the first damn level. It’s all connected. We’re all together in this life. Don’t you forget it.

2. Celeste - This is a damn near perfect game, both as refreshing and demanding as a climb up a beautiful but treacherous mountain ought to be. I died many, many times (2424, to be exact), but the game explicitly encouraged me to be proud of that, acting as a friendly little cheerleader in between deaths, assuring me that I could do it. It’s both a welcome break from the smug, sneering attitude so many “difficult” games tend to traffic in, and absolutely central to its themes involving mental health. As the shockingly good plot starts making it increasingly clear that it’s about Madeline’s quest to conquer (or, at least, understand) her inner demons, the gameplay itself offers a simple but effective metaphor for struggling with mental illness - yes, it’s hard, and yes, you’re going to suffer and struggle, but you can make it, and you will make it, because you’re so much better than you think you are. Oh, and also, it’s not all bad, because at least you get to listen to some absolutely rippin’ tunes while you do it.

1. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom - (Another one I reviewed!) This is my ideal JRPG. In my mind it stands next to childhood treasures like Final Fantasy IX. Unlike some recent Square projects that specifically try to clone their late 90’s output, this game hardly feels beholden to the game design of the past, and yet, feels of a piece with that era in a respectably non-cloying way. It has a bright, colorful, inviting world full of charming characters, an all-time great soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi, and an exciting, deep combat system with an emphasis on action. Building my kingdom of Evermore was remarkably satisfying, down to all the little dumb tasks my citizens would ask of me, none of which my very good boy King Evan was too busy or too proud to refuse. There’s very little grinding. It’s a long game by most standards, but at 40-something hours, it feels lean by JRPG standards. And for as much of a storybook fantasy as the plot is, as much as it reduces woefully complicated socio-political issues into neat, resolvable tasks for Evan to solve, it always came across as perfectly genuine, and sometimes surprisingly affecting. It’s the game that I’ve wanted to play since the PS1 Final Fantasy games stole my heart as a kid. That’s hardly what I expected it to be as I started into it, and what a joy it was to discover that it was.

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smokeybrandreviews · 3 years ago

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Smokey brand Select: Choose Your Fighter

I just watched Maximilian Dood comment on this Watch Mojo top twenty list for the best fighting game and it was an experience. I don’t talk about this much, but i am a fighting game god. Not so much with Capcom titles, though i did well with Darkstalkers and okay with MVC 2, but 3D fighters are my sh*t. When i was young, that was my bread-and-butter; NBA Live and a fighter. As i got older and diversified my gaming palette, RPGs and narrative driven fare really took the pole position but i never stopped loving fighters. Though they definitely took a backseat, i still played a ton of these things along the way. Anything from Arc Sys took precedent because, holy sh*t those games are fun, but i never slacked off my Tekken status and even kept up with the Street Fighter renaissance My point is, i would consider myself a hardcore Fighter guy and this list made me upset so i wanted to make one of my own. These are my top ten fighting games and titles that i consider classics overall. Now, before we get into this thing, i need to stipulate that i only plan to put one title in a franchise on this list. If not, it would literally just be Tekken and DoA. That should tell you how high in esteem i hold these titles. Also, lots of sequels on this list because iteration and innovation is a core aspect of the Fighting game genre. Also-also, i have played A LOT of fighting games.

11. Tekken 3

I lied. Sue me. This is my list and i absolutely had to put Tekken 3 on this thing. It’s a genre milestone and easily the most fun of this franchise to play. It introduced solid characters that became staples of the entire series and gave me the first i ever got against my older brother. I love this game and, if I'm being honest, this sh*t is ranked 1B to Tekken 5′s 1A but even i think that’s a bit excessive so i forced it into this eleven spot. But i literally love it more than every other game on this list.

10. Dragon Ball FighterZ

FighterZ makes this list strictly because it’s a 2.5D Dragon Ball fighter. It’s literally everything the fandom has ever wanted since Dragon Ball got it’s Toonami clout. As a fighter, in terms of mechanics, it’s probably the weakest on this list outside of MK2 but it’s hard to leave it off because this thing is everything i dreamed of out of the perfect Dragon Ball fighter when i was a kid. FighterZ is surprisingly accessible, fun to play, has a great look, and introduced us all to Android 21. Admittedly, this thing is incredibly Casual friendly but there is enough meat there, enough depth in that combo system, that an experienced fighter can pull of some beautiful sh*t.

9. Garou: Mark of the Wolves

I’m not much of an SNK guy, i found the KoF games fun but cheap and Samurai Shodown damn near impenetrable, but i am a fan of Fatal Fury. I always thought those titles had more depth than it’s Capcom competition so to see them abandoned after that Real Bout run hurt. And then i found out about Garou. Fatal Fury 3 is arguably the best fighter of the Nineties and no one played the f*cking thing. The brilliance of this fighting system, the richness of the characters, the dope ass sprite art; It’s all a gorgeous example of 2D, Nineties, Fighter master craft. A lot of cats say that Street Fighter 3: Third Impact is the pinnacle but i would suggest giving Garou a chance. This thing is the quiet champion of the decade.

8. Ultra Street Fighter 4

I bought Street Fighter at launch and grew with the game as it developed into something really special. I wasn’t a huge fan of the direction the series went with the SF3 titles so seeing 4 get back to basics was a joy. I loved the art style and picking up sticks to play as Cammy again, in a proper Street Fighter title, felt right. I have been a Cammy main since she was introduced, what? Thirty years ago, almost? More than anything, SF4 felt good. when it reached it’s final form as Ultra Street Fighter 4, i was absolutely smitten. Sh*tty boss aside, the combat was exceptional and really brought back the nostalgia for me. I’m not a Capcom guy but you better believe i was around for that Street Fighter 2 hype as a youth. Seeing SF4 kind of re-create that for a younger generation was super cool.

7. Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge

I just mentioned being around for the SF2 explosion so when the first Darkstalkers dropped, i was right there. I was a Mortal Kombat guy so, while i did plat Street Fighter, i was never good at it. Darkstalkers gave me an opportunity to enter the Capcom foray and really develop my talents. I was a Morrigan main and became so unstoppable in that title, it was absurd. When Night Warriors dropped, i picked up damn near where i left off and never looked back. There’s a reason my darling succubus is the perennial representative of her franchise in every single Versus title Capcom drops. While i appreciate the assist, i really wish they would drop a Darkstalkers 4 already. Give it the SF4 treatment and let us horror buffs go to town. It's been eighty four years

6. Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

Listen, i love a good Arc System Works game. Fighters is already on here and i was tempted to throw a BlazBlue and that Granblue fighter on here, strictly because of that studio’s prowess but i would be remiss if i didn’t add a Xrd. This game is peak Arc Sys, pure Guilty Gear, and i love it. I’ve been playing GG since the old timey X days and grew up with the franchise. I was a Sol main so the series treated me pretty well and then Xrd happened. The shift in art style really went a long way to catch my eye but more than that, Xrd delivered to me my cocoa goddess, Ramlethal Valentine. Now, i love Sol. Dude has been my guy for actual decades but the second i got a taste of Ram? My goodness. The entire game is like that, though. It feels distinctly Guilty Gear but an aggressive evolution of what came before. I love this f*cking game and, while i respect X2, it’s Xrd for me.

5. Soul Calibur 2

Of the Soul Calibur titles, the second is easily the best. One can argue 6 or 3 but, for me, it’s 2, all day. I picked up this franchise with the original PlayStation entry, Soul Edge but didn’t get a Dreamcast until after a PS2 so i missed out on the first Calibur. My initial experience with the re-branded franchise was Soul Calibur 2 and it was aggressively wonderful. I as trying to figure out why i knew certain characters and how i played so well with others but that was all in the back of my mind because, f*ck, was this game sneaky. Soul Calibur 2 is the type of rage quit game casuals hate but, if you learn the systems, it is infinitely rewarding. To this day, if you get me on a stage with a four sided ring-out while I'm playing as Nightmare, you’re gonna have a bad time. I’m also very good with Ivy, Talim, Kilik, and Maxi.

4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes

How can this not be on here? MvC2 is the pinnacle of the Versus series. Capcom has been chasing this dragon for to decades and i doubt they’ll ever catch it. MvC2 was lightning in a bottle and i spent days in front of my PS2, playing with friends, mastering the f*ck out of this game. Again, I'm not much of a Capcom guy, but all of my friends were so i was forced to “get good” and get good i did. I can’t say i was the best among my peerage but i did okay. I understood the insane sh*t you could pull off and how much fun this game was to lay. I knew it was special with how many people fell in love with this title and, to this day, literally twenty-two years after it’s release, cats still pine for it.

3. Mortal Kombat 2

Now, I'm so-so to okay at Capcom fighters because i didn’t play Street Fighter 2 like every one else. I played Mortal f*cking Kombat. The thing about Capcom fighters is, they have a very distinct system that carried over from the first Street Fighter, all the way to Street Fighter 5. If you got into that sh*t way back when, you can pick up an play any Capcom title now. I jumped onto this bandwagon very late because i was too buys tearing out hearts and burning people alive with the hellfire i spat out from me skull mouth. I loved MK so much when i was young. It felt dangerous, like i shouldn’t have been seeing what i was. Looking back now, that sh*t was laughably tame but, it was the early Nineties and ‘Murrica was still all “Think of the children” and Satanic Panic about life. MK was counter-culture and an amazing title to boot. And them Mortal Kombat 2 came out and did everything the first title was praised for, better. Today, there are much better MK titles, X immediately comes to mind, but you will never convince me that 2 didn’t drop an atomic bomb in the Fighting game community when it released.

2. Dead or Alive Ultimate

This one was hard to put so high. I really had to think about why it deserved this spot. There are so many outstanding titles on this list, games with rich, deep, combat systems and colorful characters. Xrd could have taken this spot or any of the honorable mentions could have been scrutinized more and maybe usurped Ultimate from it’s silver position. Nah. Never that. Dead or Alive Ultimate is peak DoA for me. This game is gorgeous, deep as f*ck, and incredibly fun to play. I loved the challenge of that final boss but it is Ayane that this game stand apart. Yo, i love this chick, man. Her fighting style is so flippy, so fluid, so goddamn unorthodox, i couldn’t get enough of it. Like, her counters are devastating but the definite strength of her ability lies in how elusive she is. The first DoA i played was Dead or Alive 3, because she kicks high, so i was pretty well versed in Ayane’s style but Ultimate took that sh*t and amped it up a notch. I eat this game with every character, repeatedly, on my first Xbox and, even after totally dominating this title, i would occasionally boot the old brick up just to spin kick a motherf*cker of a roof with my lavender draped, butterfly loving, kunoichi.

1. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

This is peak Tekken. It doesn’t get any better. the Dark Resurrection release has everything which makes Tekken great. It’s a gorgeous title that introduced so many mainstay characters, fighters that changed the entire dynamic of the combat. Coming of the excellent but mechanically ardent Tekken 4, Dark Resurrection was a breath of fresh air. I had developed my ability with Steve Fox to a razor’s edge, easily making him my second best character after Hwoarang but then i discovered Emilie de Rochafort. My goodness, did i instantly fall in love with this chick. I just gushed about my love for Ayane in the DoA franchise, right? Well, Lili is the Ayane of Tekken. Her combo potential is f*cking stupid. I love just spending hours in training figuring out brand new sh*t that just ruins dudes in the most aggressively flamboyant way. I have a combo that can one hundred percent a guy that’s not on any list, just straight practice and discovery and that’s why i love the Tekken franchise so much. It’s all free style, lose rules with some of the deepest combat you’ll ever have the pleasure of diving into. I am, quite literally, a God in this game and com back to it all the time because it’s just that fantastic.

Honorable Mentions: Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Tekken 2, Soul Calibur, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Rival Schools United by Fate, Tekken Tag Tournament, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Def Jam Vendetta: Fight for New York, Soul Calibur 3, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Mortal Kombat XL, King of Fighters XIII, Tekken 4, Persona 4 Arena, Guilty Gear XX, Tekken 6, Mortal Kombat (2011), Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Killer Instinct (2013), Dead or Alive 3, Tekken 7

#Smokey brand Select #Fighting games

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smokeybrand · 3 years ago

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Smokey brand Select: Choose Your Fighter

11. Tekken 3

10. Dragon Ball FighterZ

9. Garou: Mark of the Wolves

8. Ultra Street Fighter 4

7. Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge

6. Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

5. Soul Calibur 2

4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes

3. Mortal Kombat 2

2. Dead or Alive Ultimate

1. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

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doktorpeace · 8 years ago

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P5 Update after the break I’m very very far into the game so there will be heavy spoilers, just read through later if you aren’t at least in Mid November:

I guess first I’ll give an overview of my progress and general playstyle before moving onto thoughts about characters, social links, and the story. It’s currently 11/14 in game, so I’ll be delving into Sae’s dungeon soon. Like I mentioned before I’ve maxed 4/5 social stats, everything except Kindness which is at rank 4. Including the Confidants which will max out on their own eventually but have not yet (Fool, Magician, Judgement and I’m going to assume Justice) I’ve completed 13 social links with Haru’s (Rank 7), The Twin Wardens’ (Rank 8), Iwai’s (Rank 7), and Futaba’s (Rank 2) pretty likely to finish before the game is over. The only one I’m concerned for is Futaba’s since I’ve shamefully raised hers so little. Thus far I’ve completed every Palace in just one visit a piece, discounting any story forced segments like the first couple visits to Kamoshida and Madarame’s Palaces. I’ve really liked this game’s schedule tbh. Overall while I feel some of the story segments take up too much time, specifically during October, I don’t mind so much because I’ve gotten a lot done on a near completely blind first playthrough, and there’s still more I can do. While initially I was worried that social stats took too long to level up I feel it successfully threads the needle between 3′s “They’ll cap without effort” and 4′s “Fuck you for trying” approach for first time runs. They take effort and dedication, but like I said I’ve maxed nearly all of them. I also like how different confidant relationships will help improve your social stats as well, it’s a great secondary incentive to max certain ones and to stick with them. On top of that, there are more major barriers that require certain social stats and while some feel a little arbitrary (maxed charm for Makoto past rank 5) it makes sense to incentivize players to spend time on them as well. Another improvement to Confidants I enjoy over previous social links is how they all give a variety of skills. I know I focused on Hifumi’s and Kawakami’s way more than I might have otherwise just because their skills are so good and varied. Hifumi’s in particular add a lot of tactical depth. On the opposite end though, I know I ended up putting Ohya and Chihaya on the backburner because their skills weren’t that useful, though I certainly got a lot of use out of Chihaya’s social stat booster readings. Honestly, I just wish I had taken the time to max Sojiro’s. I like him a lot but he’s only at rank 3 because I spent the time I could have spent with him in the early game on my social stats. *sad trombone* For transparency, I’ve completed: Makoto’s, Yusuke’s, Ann’s, Ryuji’s, Takemi’s, Kawakami’s, Hifumi’s, Mishima’s, and Yoshida’s, and then another 3-4 will max automatically. I’ve enjoyed them all thoroughly, Yoshida’s in particular is one of my favorite non-party member Social Links in the entire franchise. I also like how Akira’s dialogue with women is much more respectful and natural than Yu’s or Minato’s was. He gets a lot more dialogue that doesn’t have sexual tension and feels like what an actual person would say, which leads to great character relationships and dynamics between him and characters like Ann, Makoto, and Hifumi even if you elect not to date them. In some cases I’d even say that his relationship dynamic is stronger if you do not date them, particularly with Futaba and Ann. (please don’t kill me avaterem if you’re reading this) This isn’t to say that electing to date one of them is bad or lesser per se, I just feel like there was a great dynamic between him and Ann as Just Friends which honestly I didn’t feel was there between Minato and Yukari or Yu and Rise, for instance. Combat wise this game’s been a little on the easy side but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ll definitely play new game+ through on hard or maybe even higher, we’ll see. All the party members fill unique niches and the greater variety of skills this game has helps keep them all fresh. Nobody overlaps unlike with 3 and 4 so that’s great. The Palace Bosses have all had really great fights, though I feel visually Kamoshida’s was still the most impressive because it was very out there comparatively. Still, they all fit thematically with who you’re fighting and they’ve all been very fun. Ever since she joined Makoto has been on the team and I just swap around the two members who aren’t Akira or Makoto. Generally it’s been a good move because she’s an extremely well balanced tank with good spread damage and support skills. The Palaces themselves have also been very enjoyable, they’ve each taken at least a somewhat different approach to design and I like that so far. Kamoshida’s has a good number of mandatory stops to keep you from getting worn out, and otherwise goes fairly easy since it’s the tutorial level basically. Madarame’s requires a mandatory stop to do stuff in real life which was neat and otherwise its level design was super cool and well realized thematically. Kaneshiro’s is a gauntlet through, it’s super long and fairly tough for its time in the story but there’s nothing stopping you except your own pacing and skill from actually just completing it in one go. Its level of difficulty is consistent throughout with no real spikes anywhere, it’s also the dungeon I had the most trouble keeping a low alertness rating in because it has a lot of unique mechanics. Futaba’s Palace is similar, though its difficulty is very spike-y. The dungeon itself isn’t too long, but the enemy mobs are generally speaking a good bit higher level than you are and many of them are only weak to PSI skills, which only Joker can have, or are weak to nothing at all. It’s the only dungeon that I made heavy use of just running away from encounters in. Most recently was Okumura’s Palace which is honestly one of my favorites. Its a great puzzle-dungeon that’s incredibly front loaded with challenge. If you can’t figure out that the worker drones are weak to fire then you’re in for an extremely bad time. On top of that several of the normal enemies in the first area are immune to regular attacks and guns, then it makes you fight a lot of unforgiving sub bosses up front but rewards you with an area where all the enemies are weak to physical attacks and guns. Then Haru really comes into play in spite of being a bit weaker than the others by virtue of lacking baton pass, the nearer you get to the end the more enemy types are weak to PSI and Gun skills, which Haru will just chew through. Overall it’s really well designed, but definitely much easier than 3 and 4. I’ve only had one game over happen and it was to a very unfortunate string of criticals. On a side note: Mementos is a nice bone throw to people who liked Tartarus a lot, though because of how it works it’s never challenging. I don’t have a lot to say on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s gonna be the true final dungeon we do where we fight god or whatever because this is a Persona game so I know we’re gonna fight a god at some point, probably after the story mostly ends and we time skip to March. The story’s been very good so far. I was wondering when we’d get into the meat of it and oh boy October really delivered. There’s been this tension about the whole game because like, the first thing you learn is that you fucked up and got caught. You’re recounting what all happened to the prosecutor who’s in charge of your case. It’s flowed well and while a couple of the early segments, like within the first hour mostly, were somewhat stilted I’ve felt that way about every atlus product I’ve ever played. It’s just their weakpoint in storytelling as a company. This game does a great job not leaving things hanging, basically everything I’ve wondered about has been addressed in some way, even down to “Jeez Ryuji and Morgana are being really hostile towards each other” becomes an actual plot point and I like that a lot. Which btw Morgana running away called me the fuck out because like yeah, I’d totally benched him more or less in favor of the human party members since Yusuke joined. Since then I know I’ve been using him more not because I felt bad but because it made me appreciate having him more. I’ll do a full write up on the story once I’m totally done, all I really have to say right now is I haven’t trusted Akechi one fucking iota all game and that hasn’t changed now. He’s a good character, but he’s sus as fuck and I’m waiting to fight him as a boss later. If he ends up just being an actually good boy and not betraying us I’ll eat my hat. But I’m dead fucking certain that he’s Future Prime Minister Shido’s darknet hitman who goes and assassinates people for him using the Metaverse. I’ve already caught Akechi in a lie, he said he only received his persona a month ago but that’s BULLSHIT because he could understand what Morgana was saying all the way back in May. He’s known about and been able to access the Metaverse for a long time. The only thing I’ve really not had addressed yet is why exactly was Akira accepted at this school? Kobayakawa mentioned it was because of ‘outside influence’ at the start of the game and that still hasn’t been addressed. The Phantom Thieves are great. Easily my favorite player group of the three people actually care about between SEES, The Investigation Team, and now these guys. They have a great set of dynamics and relationships, and you get a ton more interparty interaction and dialogue thanks to the text chat logs. They’ve all been great and it’s neat seeing the nuances of their relationships both as a group and individually. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I like either other group less now, but after P4 neatly sorted the investigation team into sets of two all game it’s refreshing to see them all interact with each other directly and often. They’re all interesting and good characters. Morgana’s improved a lot. I already liked him better than Teddie, but after the Okumura arc of the story he’s improved a lot. I like him a good bit, but I’ll still wait to talk about him in full until the story’s over. Ryuji’s still great. He’s the ‘your first and best friend’ of the game. Compared one to one I probably don’t like him as much as Junpei but he’s real close. Obviously he blows Yosuke out of the water because he’s actually a good and enjoyable character. Ryuji’s dates are also really great, he’s just an earnest, good, vulgar boy trying his best. His hot headed-ness has actually been a detriment for the group a couple of times, which is good because him shouting about being Phantom Thieves in public and being overly combative toward Morgana (for understandable enough reasons) SHOULD come up. Still, he shows great growth and humility over the course of the story, particularly when he apologizes to Morgana and after he gets angry during a meeting and scares Haru and Futaba by punching some furniture he tells Akira that it made him feel shitty and he’s going to apologize to them individually. He’s great, I love him, and he’s strong in combat to boot. Ann is still the explosive, great, multifaceted character she was and I like her even more now that I’ve finished her Confidant relationship. She’s a very good character and honestly the driving force behind a lot of P5′s feminist messages. She’s a great character who can be silly, friendly, and serious all at the same time and it doesn’t feel like she’s whipping around from one personality to another, she’s just really well realized. One of my favorite things about her is that she’s allowed to be angry, she’s allowed to be pissed off and shout and rage against society in the same way as Ryuji. She’s never as loud as him, but it’s still great. As a party member she’s a little weaker than the others, mostly because he gun fucking sucks lol. That said she has a great mix of offense and utility, I just wish her speed were a bit higher. Yusuke’s even better now that I’ve taken him on like, 4 dates and finished his Confidant relationship. Like, putting aside that he’s obviously gay for a moment there is way more erotic and romantic tension between him and Akira than there is between Akira and most other characters. His dialogue, the way they interact, Akira’s response options and what motions he makes around him, it’s all very homoerotic and it makes me even more confused as to why he’s not romanceable. He has more date locations you can take him on than several of the romance options, just make him a full romance please Atlus. Aside from that, I love his character, he’s great. As a character he’s also great representation for people on the autism spectrum, imo. This game never outright says “Yusuke is autistic” but it’s extremely obvious he’s intended to be on the spectrum given some of his dialogue, behavior, and the particular use of the word ‘eccentric’ and ‘eccentricities’ in regards to him and only him. Japanese games don’t like saying shit like that outright but it’s totally clear if you just pay attention. His Confidant Relationship is also one of my favorites in the game. You get a great look at his life circumstances, some of his philosophical beliefs, and you get to see this great maturity come about as he takes it all in and turns it into his art. I think it was really meaningful that his final art piece for that competition was just him going back to the canvas he started on and making something more out of it. He’s a well rounded character and is also one of my favorite combat party members because he’s so fucking strong. His damage output is absurd to be frank and his followup attack is one of my favorites, he just instantly kills whatever enemy has the most health on the field. It’s great. Makoto’s a total babe tbh... She’s got the punk biker aesthetic when you’re in the metaverse, her weapons of choice are her fists and revolvers, she does the whole ‘Pretend we’re dating and whoops we just don’t stop’ thing. She’s a little socially awkward but not totally, she’s the boss friend and voice of reason, though she isn’t beyond jokes and she’s just great. I’m weak, she’s powerful, I love this character. It also helps that she’s clearly the secondary protagonist of the game in the same way that Mitsuru and Naoto were before her, so she gets a lot of nice extra focus in the story. Not so much as to detract from the others, but her being Sae’s sister naturally makes her interactions with her sister the main way we see Sae characterized. I’ve got a lot to say about her but I can’t really get it into words right now. I’ll talk about her more later cause some drama’s gonna go down I’m sure of it. Futaba’s the character I was most worried about going in, but I’ve been happily proven wrong. I was worried she’d just be your NEET Japanese Gamer Waifu and she’s absolutely not. I mean, she is literally a NEET Japanese Gamer Girl, but the story doesn’t sexualize her nor does it make her the ‘obvious’ romance like how Yukari and Rise were in 3 and 4. She’s a character with paranoid schizophrenia for christsake and they manage to not only handle that well, but they kept the integrity of her character all throughout it and make her own effort the reason she improves, not the phantom thieves magically fixing her. I’m still not over it. I haven’t done much of her confidant relationship, but I do really like what I’ve seen of her. She’s driven and works hard, but she’s got her limits and is trying hard to broaden her horizons. She’s very comedic as well in the text logs but in a way that makes sense for someone her age and background. Her relationship with the others is a little stilted, but it doesn’t feel awkward, it makes sense because really she only interacts to any major degree with Akira, Yusuke, and Morgana. And finally we have Haru! I love her, she’s so fucking cute and such a sweet character. It’s kind of funny how she’s almost the same as Mitsuru but is so different. They’re both 1%ers who are the sole daughters and heirs to a conglomerate, are set up for an aranaged marriage they do not want, and whose dads die suddenly. Plus they’re both Empress Arcana. Yet the major difference is Mitsuru’s dad was supportive and she was prepared to inherit her company, where Haru has neither of those things. She was a passenger to her dad’s corrupt will and suddenly has all of this thrust upon her. I think it’s neat how similar they are in concept yet they’re totally different. I haven’t completed her confidant relationship yet but so far I like how down to earth it is. She just needs someone she can trust and talk with about her life issues. It’s cute seeing her go out and try different hobbies of her own choice just to get away from it all and to see what comes of it. Oh, I just realized, but also like Mitsuru she copes with her situation by burying herself in more work, though with Haru it’s with getting more hobbies to do where Mitsuru just takes on more corporate responsibilities. I hope this ends well for her. Honestly I wish she joined us sooner, I get the feeling she won’t be around for enough time to get the focus she deserves. Also, and this is just me, but I feel people saying ‘This game’s gay representation is shit just like Atlus always is’ really aren’t giving the game its dues. Yes, those two NPCs are bad and solely negative inclusions that just randomly throw in two (admittedly very short) scenes with a couple of predatory gay guys. But to only highlight them and ignore characters like Lala Escargot being well handled and shown to be nothing but a good person, Yusuke being pretty gay, and even the main character explicitly and without joking being able to show attraction to men multiple times is just unfair. The game’s gay representation isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a lot better than Persona 3 or 4′s initial releases. Though Persona 3′s cast ended up being very queer with later content if you just compare the initial releases of each game Persona 5 blows the others out of the water by means of actually having positive queer representation. All in all, it’s still amazing, 10/10, my game of the year without question. I love it.

#P5 #P5 Spoilers

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Fight & Save The World With Your Friends In God Eater 3!

God Eater 3 is the third in a line of hybrid action/RPG hybrid games by Bandai Namco, and God Eater's premise is much more stylized and more in line with its inspirations taken from the more post apocalyptic end of anime and manga, complete with an anime OP that wouldn't seem out of place in the God Eater TV anime. While many have compared the series to Monster Hunter in the past, the game itself is so much deeper and after working through the game, I'm a fan. Here's how Bandai Namco describes the game:

All of sudden, unknown life forms called “Oracle cells” begin their uncontrolled consumption of all life on Earth. Their ravenous appetite “devour” and remarkable adaptability earn them first dread, then awe, and finally the name “Aragami.” In the face of an enemy completely immune to conventional weapons, urban civilization collapses, and each day humanity is driven further and further toward extinction. One single ray of hope remains for humanity. Following the development of “God Arcs”—living weapons which incorporate Oracle cells—their wielders, the “God Eaters,” appear. In a world ravaged by mad gods, these “God Eaters” fight a desperate war...

The game is split into pre-defined areas and you'll face off against monsters of varying sizes and scales. You’ll also hunt monsters with a time limit ticking away in the background and slice key body parts from the monsters and bosses to use them to craft more powerful upgrades for your weapons and armor to use as you progress through the game.

The game starts as your character is forced to become an AGE (or Adaptive God Eater), a human who’s been biologically bound to a giant weapon. The world in God Eater has been overrun by monsters known as Aragami, and weapons—called God Arcs—are the only instruments capable of slaying them. God Arcs are multi-faceted weapons that possess multiple forms that can be accessed in battle and even modified outside of battle to serve more specific needs. The crafting of items and weapons is key to making progress in the game, and it's easy to get bogged down, but the game doesn't make the process tedious, which is a welcome relief.

I should point out that God Eater 3 allows you to customize your character as well when you first start the game, you have a choice between a male or female AGE and you can also customize hair, facial features and accessories, with more options being added as you progress during the main Story mode in the game. As you can see from my custom character, I decided to model her after a particular Android found in the Dragon Ball universe!

The bulk of the game is through the optionial side missions, which there are plenty of. I will say that the meat of the game isn't in the Story Mode, but in the missions outside it, such as Extra Episodes, Certification Missions, Time Attack, and Special Missions which are unlocked during the course of the game.

However, the main problem I found with this is that while God Eater 3's Story Mode is supposed to serve as the training ground for the mechanics of the game so that you can open up the Extra Episodes and all of the additional content, it does a poor job of engaging you to get invested in the story. By the end of the Story Mode, I wasn't invested at all and I merely wanted to finish it out to get to the next set of missions.

The narrative is supposed to be about how the AGEs are the last line of defense against the Aragami threat and the world is on the brink of collapse, but you'll quickly forget about it once you start playing the game because the narrative is built around constantly talking to your AI partners in your rolling base/prison cell that serves as the nexus of the game.

There are eight melee forms, four gun-based forms and three shield forms for your AGE character, but you’ll need to customise your God Arc with blueprints and monster materials before you can access them. Items and enemy drops are based on a percentage, and luckily the percentage calculation isn't designed to punish you for being successful.

If there is a drawback to this system, it's that the tutorial missions don't do enough to emphasize that you need to loot each and every enemy and scout every inch of a mission area to make sure you grab everything you can for future upgrades and crafting. Another drawback I found is that even with the generous drop percentage, the game can be very selective in what kinds of blueprints and monster materials get dropped, forcing you to replay missions multiple times if you're looking to craft a particular weapon or item for a specific mission, which does get tedious unless you enjoy grinding.

God Eater 3 also introduces a new style of special attack called Burst Arts. Similar to the Blood Arts found in God Eater 2, these moves see your weapon grow an actual mouth and take an actual bite out of your enemies, which is really neat to see in action. Once you learn and add Burst Arts to your character, you can then access a variety of ground, air and step-based special moves that do massive damage with flair.

You can play through the entire Story Mode with AI companions or you can cooperatively tackle missions with up to three other players, locally (yes!) or online. There’s even eight-player raid missions, where you’ll take on much larger Aragami as part of a much bigger team. In fact, God Eater 3 on the Switch emphasizes co-op play as the ideal way to play the game, but it does not go out of its way to require you to play the game as such, since I was able to play through Story Mode and ancillary missions without feeling like I needed to find a partner, though it does make certain missions much easier to complete and rank higher if you do.

God Eater 3 on the Switch is a really fun action RPG that caters to people that are into monster hunting games, but really goes out of its way carve out its own identity. This latest installment's focus on co-op really makes the game shine, since it encourages teamwork and strategy. So if you've been looking for that co-op game experience, look no further!

As an aside, as someone living with a physical disability, I appreciated the customization in the controls for the game, since I found myself playing the game more often in Portable mode than I normally would. Games of this type don't usually allow for in depth customization and it's incredibly appreciated. I would like more developers and publishers to allow for deeper control customization on Switch games to accommodate different control styles and even complete customization to play such games more easily for those with physical disabilities. Being able to swap between multiple control types makes it easier for me to play in Portable Mode for instance, and having different controls for being in battle and out of battle makes things much easier.

I had a ton of fun with God Eater 3 on my own and I'm convinced that the focus on co-op, with local multiplayer support will make the game a much easier sell for friends looking for an action game to play and complete together!

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Third entry in series keeps the action consistent and Switch version rarely suffers slowdown despite being a port

+ Story Mode builds to massive amount of post-game content

+ Crafting weapons and items is made much easier and less tedious

+/- Controls are decent, but camera during combat could use a toggle to make missions easier

- Narrative in Story Mode is incredibly thin and wasn't engaging enough for emotional investment

Will you be picking up and playing God Eater 3 on the Switch? Let me know in the comments!

Humberto Saabedra is a freelance writer and general Jack of All Trades. He can be found on Twitter @vdeviance for general industry musing and politics and @hsaabedra for a more personal look into his daily life. He also sporadically writes on his blog at vdeviance.rocks.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

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itsfurty · 6 years ago

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Here we are in July. Hope everyone has been having a great half of the year and a good summer! Things are exciting in my end with a new job starting soon and will be having me moving halfway across the United States once again. As I prepare my move I figured I'd do another set of reviews. This one has less indie focus than previous entries but I think it'll be just fine. If you want to catch my last post just click here and hopefully my gibberish thoughts and opinions are of some interest. Also I changed these posts to be called Quick Thoughts since my posts aren't really in depth reviews. We'll see if I stick to it.Steamworld DigI’ve already played Steamworld Dig when it came out on the Wii U but I decided to pick it up for the Switch considering how much I enjoy the series and especially its sequel. Well I gotta say, the sequel is better in every single way after replaying this one but I do think the original is still worth your time. The basic premise is you dig. You dig for gems and power stones to upgrade your character so that you can dig faster and through tougher stones. There is a very simple plot with characters that have some personality but it isn’t much to be honest. The visuals are also just okay. To its credit the game was originally a 3ds game and then ported to other platforms. The style looks fine but it gets massively improved upon in future entries. Really the hook here the aspect of digging and gaining new skills as you unlock equipment in test rooms. You’ll unlock a double jump, power drill, and dynamite amongst other skills and items as you play. The test rooms are honestly some of my favorite parts of the game as it makes for some fun quick puzzles and platforming outside of the regular digging you will do. I should mention you will encounter some foes to bash with your pick axe but the combat is just all about holding “A” and dodging any attacks. You will also have to watch out for toxic water, spikes, and some other surprises the deeper in you go.The biggest thing holding the game back is the length and lack of replayability. You can easily clear this around 2 hours and that’s with doing all the test rooms you come across. There are some secret gears to collect in the rooms but it doesn’t add that much extra play time to go through and collect them. Honestly you can skip Steamworld Dig and just go into its sequel. But if you really want to play the game 10 dollars is a decent price but I’m sure during the holidays there will be a decent sale for a more reasonable price.Still it isn’t a bad game, it’s just too little of a game without its truly own identity since it plays so much like the old flash game Motherload. Now if only a sequel to Steamworld Heist would get announced!Price: $9.99 Time played: Less than 3 Hours Verdict: Wait for a sale Flint HookDamn. I really wanted to like Flint Hook but too many aspects just had me wondering why play it over the (personally) better roguelikes out there. I mean visually the game is outstanding. This is the same team behind Mercenary Kings so the pixel art and animations are top of the line. Its colorful, charming, and just fun to look at. The music is also outstanding. The main theme when the game starts up gets me pumped to do a run and has me forgetting all the reasons I didn’t enjoy this game but then I start playing it... The biggest hurdle I thin this game has is it should not have been a rogue like. The dig draw in this game is you have a grappling hook that can pop bubbles or grab onto certain locations to have you zip around really tiny levels. Already the bigger focus is on movement and platforming as you avoid cannons, lasers, spikes, spike balls, motion detection enemies, regular enemies, ghosts, fire, and so much more. This should have been a platformer with carefully crafted levels right from the beginning rather than what feels like an attempt to chase the indie roguelike genre.Just consider the actual content in the game. The way it works is you pick a boss bounty and and complete a few ships (levels) to get to the boss. During this time you will retread very similar rooms with no interesting abilities unlocked. Most are passive like more health, more gold, higher critical chance hits, or faster movement. Nothing that makes you excited to pick up and encourage multiple replays since these are minor passive change ups with no major adjustments to gameplay. The worst part is the obvious hook is the grappling hook but only 1 or 2 abilities you can find changes how it works. It’s like the devs made a really cool mechanic but didn’t know what to do with it. Also, the shooting and combat was clearly an after though as the majority of enemies stand still and do not move. Some don’t even attack and could just be replaced by targets that need shot. The ones that do shoot back have really basic attack patterns. The bigger challenge is moving around the screen with your hookshot and avoiding stage hazards. I honestly had way more fun traversing the maps in the game than fighting any enemy. That should have been the focus. Anyways, back to the content. The bosses you fight will always be the same no matter what. Attack patterns are the same and you will always fight the same boss when you reach the end of a run depending on the bounty. It makes runs feel like there are only 5 variants, one for each boss, as opposed to nearly limitless mix ups.The game contains a lot of collectibles in the form of lore and relics. Neither of which effects the abilities of the layer but rather add background to the game. I found these uninteresting as I do not find reading text on the screen about a watch exciting or a good way to provide purpose to a game’s universe. Relics at least offer XP to your character so that you can unlock new starting skills but again the skills are just not interesting that I did not care about this aspect. I know this mini review negative and disappointing but that is just how I felt when playing Flint Hook. It is a game with great visuals and charm but lacks in gameplay department. It isn't terrible but I think Gungeon, Isaac, Don't Starve, or a Robot Named Fight are way more interesting in what they offer. I really thought I was going to love Flint Hook but it just didn't mesh with me like I had hoped. Price: $14.99 Time played: 15 Hours Verdict: Wait for a sale Splatoon 2 with DLCSo Splatoon 2, it's good, really good. If you’re following Nintendo then you know this game is great. It has risen to being one f Nintendo’s big franchises. I mean this game has so much going for it. It is colorful, some great music, and such an interesting gameplay mechanic I can get my friends and family, that don’t play games, into a match and they’ll have a blast. While at the same time playing ranked can create an incredibly stressful few minutes. So obviously the multiplayer is excellent but single player wise can lease a bit to be desired. I love the hub world where you explore and select the next level to jump into. The traversal of the world by spraying ink is the best part. The enemies don’t really do much of anything in the base game that I’d rather for larger more interesting levels. Plus, the story is pretty simple and doesn’t offer that many exciting moments. Sure the boss fights are a highlight but there aren’t any character moments unlike the dlc, which i’ll get into. Overall with the base Splatoon 2 game the multiplayer is the main draw with the single player offering a decent one time though experience. Sure, you can replay levels with different weapons but nothing major changes that I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a huge fan of the single player.Splatoon 2’s DLC somewhat fixes a lot of the complaints I have with the base game. While it does not offer larger levels, instead smaller for focused challenges, this is still much better than the base game. These focused challenges (I think 80 or so?) levels are a lot of fun. Some will have you reaching a goal with no items, fighting waves of enemies, escorting a ball, shooting shapes out boxes, flying in a jet pack, and so much more. These are great bite sized missions that are vastly better than the single player missions. Sure, they aren’t large open levels to explore like I wish but they’re still great in their own way. The other big fun aspect of the dlc is how much character interaction there is. Pearl, Marina, and Cuttlefish, have a lot of dialogue between each other and they are swimming with personality. They’re a joy to read and watch as they interact with one another. Plus the ending sequence has an actual cutscene which adds a nice cinematic quality to the game. It makes me really excited with where Nintendo takes the single player.Splatoon 2 is a no brainer when it comes to the Switch. I didn't even get into Salmon Run which I have poured tons of hours into. This is easily my most played multiplayer game and maybe my most played game in general. Both the base game and DLC are well worth picking up. Price: $59.99 | DLC: $19.99 Time played: 140 Hours Verdict: Recommend Ys 8Ys 8 is the first game I played in this series and I gotta say I’m impressed. You play as Adol, the silent protagonist, who’s ship is mysteriously destroyed at the the beginning of the game. You wake up on a deserted island and have to reunite with other castaways to find a way off the island. I liked the aspect of finding survivors as they would be added to your base camp which would grow in size as you played. It has a nice sense of progress the more you play and the deeper you explore the island. Sometimes the base camp will come under attack and you will have to fight waves of monsters so be ready to have to travel back from time to time. The story and pacing however is pretty strange. It starts of with a nice hook of ending up on an island and a strange side plot about a mysterious girl who lives on the island. But by the halfway point the story kind of just disappears and you just gather survivors with the vague plot of “find a way off the island” is your only goal. There is no real antagonist throughout the game until the very end. This is where you are hit with heavy exposition and everything comes together and makes sense. It just would have been better if it was better spread out through the game rather just appearing at the very end.While Ys 8 might falter a bit around the plot department the gameplay is a high point. It is all real time and unlike most JRPGs you do not enter a battle arena upon fighting an enemy. You can attack as you please with no transitions and this makes combat fast. You attack with a single button to perform very simple combos but can perform a magic attack with on of the 4 face buttons. You’ll gain a lot in the game so there is a nice variety of moves you’ll perform. For example by the end my main moves for Adol were a vertical arching slash, magic tornado, a spinning air dash, and a long automated ground combo for heavy damage. There are tons more you unlock but that is just what I chose to use by the end. You can have up to 3 party members active at once and you’ll want to switch between them (this is done by pressing “Y”) to fight certain enemies as many are only weak to one type of attack which a party member will fall under (Air attack, smash, or slash). You’ll upgrade armor and weapons as you play but in order to change the visual appearance of characters you’ll need to trade for costumes ( as there is no currency in the game since you’re on an island) which I found disappointing. It did not feel like I had as much control over my character’s visual appearance which I really enjoy doing in these types of games. The last bit of gameplay is exploring the island which is somewhat metroidvania like. You’ll find new tools to let you get through swaps, climb vines, or double jump. Oh, and there is fishing which can be fun to get supplies.The soundtrack to Ys is solid albeit nothing amazing in my opinion. Only a few track really stood out and the rest sot of blended in with that jrpg electric guitar generic sound but nothing out right terrible. The only bad aspect of Ys is sometimes the frame rate and resolution can really dip. Grassy areas are hard on the eyes especially in handheld mode but it is still playable and there are varied environments that you can move to other parts of the game. Also, the translation is sloppy at times with some misspellings or forgetting words in sentences. It’s sloppy but I wasn’t too bothered, although for 60 dollars you’d expect a bit better. If you hate turn based jrpgs then this game might be what you’re looking for as long as you can deal with some anime tropes. There are a few in this game that had me cringe and feel mildly uncomfortable but overall not too bad. Definitely a fun game though and way better than I was expecting. I hope future entries release on the Switch.Price: $59.99 Time played: 40 hours Verdict: Recommend Wolfenstein 2Wolfenstein 2 is another technical marvel ported to the Switch thanks to the devs at Panic Button. Visually it is obviously going to be the weakest compared to the other platforms but it still is quite a game to look at. There were compromises to make it possible to run however. Frame rate is capped at 30 fps, textures can be blurry at times, motion blur is mandatory, and there is a subtle haze to limit the field of view. Still, the game has some great visuals considering the Switch’s limitations. In case you aren’t familiar with Wolfenstein 2 the premise is Nazis won WW2 and it’s time to start a revolution. You will kill a ton of Nazis and it is glorious. You’ll fight inside ruined American cities, Nazi airships, subs, secret bases and other locations. The story is really enjoyable with a great mix of absurdity but also a serious somber tone. There are only a moment or two I felt out of place but over all the game does a great job at setting up characters and moving the plot along. The game is not very long maybe about 10 hours but it’s a quality 10 hours.The weapons, while not as varied as I’d hope, control very well and provide excellent feedback and sound as you dual wield shotguns blasting Nazis to bits. Running and gunning is not the only thing you’ll do as there is some simple stealth in the game. In many situations you can sneak around with a hatchet and knives so you can eliminate Nazis without any hearing a sound. If spotted it just means reinforcements are called in on your area. Now when the game originally released I heard it was deemed to hard and maybe it was changed for the Switch but I’d say normal and hard are perfectly enjoyable experiences. Hard mode will have you hiding behind cover a bit more but it never reached a point where I was frustrated. Gyro aiming is also in the game which is great for fine tuning shots when aiming down sights. I do wish the game had more varied enemy types similar to how Doom does as encounters can sometimes feel too samey at times.In terms of extra content there are extra missions you can play that take place in levels you have already beaten. These are harder than the first time you play these and task you with eliminating a high ranking Nazi in the area. I have not beaten them all but from what I’ve played you have no checkpoints and need to beat it without dying. I wish there was a more arcadey mode in its place where you can just run around killing waves of Nazis as the game feels great and I’d rather just be able to jump in to play rather than having to select one of thee bonus levels but that’s a personal preference. Even with that small complaint Wolfenstein 2 is an excellent game and definitely should be played. If you only own a Switch I fully recommend it. If you have a PC, Xbox, or PlayStation pick it up there as it is cheaper and has better performance. But either way, play this game and enjoyable the world. Also, don’t forget to kill as many Nazis as you can.Price: $59.99 Time played: 10 hours Verdict: Recommend That finishes this set of games. Next time I do one of these I'll be in a new state so I don't know when I'll actually get around to it. I don't think it'll be too long but I'm not sure how many people will actually be missing me haha. Either way, take care and enjoy the rest of the summer months! via /r/NintendoSwitch

#reddit

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operationrainfall · 7 years ago

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Title Yakuza Kiwami Developer Sega Publisher Sega Release Date August 29, 2017 Genre Action-adventure Platform PS4 Age Rating Mature Official Website

With the success of Ryu ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho, or simply Yakuza 0 in the West, Sega went further in celebrating the 10th anniversary for the series by re-releasing Ryu ga Gotoku or Yakuza as almost like an expansion. This time, not as an HD Remaster like the one released prior on the PS3, but a full blown remake with the same engine used for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin and Yakuza 0. Bringing forth improved visuals texture and character models, frame rate, combat, and new added content which includes expanding portions of the story like the transformation of Kiryu’s sworn brother Nishiki from an ally into an antagonist. Since the HD Remaster never made it to Western shores and given how dated the first game can feel, it made perfect sense with 0 being a prequel and a new good starting point for those who wanted to dive into the franchise without dusting off their PS2s. With how well Yakuza 0 fared, how does the remake of such a classic stand up with these benefit of these new mechanics and added content?

Yakuza Kiwami begins 7 years after the events of Yakuza 0, with Kiryu now considered a rising star at this point who continued serving under the Dojima family banner. After doing the usual rounds of collecting debt money, Kiryu meets up with his old friends Nishiki and Yumi at Reina’s bar in celebration for his new future prospects. As the day goes by, Kiryu goes to visit the head of the Kazama family and his foster father, Shintaro Kazama, to catch up. Before they can go into details, Kiryu gets a call that Dojima kidnapped Yumi in his usual drunken haze and Nishiki was going after him. Knowing things would get bad, Kiryu rushes to Dojima’s office only to arrive too late with the sight of Dojima lying dead from Nishiki shooting him in self-defense. Knowing what fate his friend would face as a consequence of murdering one’s family head, Kiryu decides to take the fall and goes to jail in his place. Ten years pass and things have only gotten worse for the Tojo clan as the clan’s fortune has been stolen and the Third Chairman of the clan, Sera, turns up dead the day after it was discovered. If that was not enough, during the 10 years Kiryu found out that Yumi disappeared without a trace. After being released, Kazuma heads back to Kamurocho to help his foster father and locate his childhood friend and old flame Yumi, as well as protect a little girl named Haruka who shares a strange connection to Yumi.

For its time, the game’s plot was riveting and had just enough twists and turns to keep me interested with a well-rounded cast from all walks of life. Some of the twists haven’t aged that well, but some have been given a much-needed update to make them a little more believable. At the end of every chapter now, we get a glimpse of how Nishiki went from being a lowly officer to eventually becoming a villain. While I wished we had more to go on like his sister, I’m glad we got something as the original game presented us with friends with a long history but that was something we never got to experience until Yakuza 0. Even Yumi got some love with an entirely new section in the first chapter dealing with her birthday and Kiryu going out of the way to get a ring for her. It feels like padding but it was funny and emotional enough that I felt it was worth putting in. On the other hand, the additions to what they did for Majima I personally believe were not only unnecessary and hurt the narrative a bit but felt unwarranted. I won’t dwell on it, but they introduced a new game mechanic called the “Majima Everywhere” system that rears its head in the game’s plot. It is what it is, fan service and nothing but. It’s good to flesh out the beginning of the game with how he wants to test Kiryu’s convictions, but was it really necessary for him to get severely injured not once but twice just so you can justify his presence for this game mechanic, only for him to be taken out of commission just before the last story boss fight, when in the first game his early injury did just that? It’s superfluous and beyond stupid. Is it nice that they answered why Majima was obsessed with fighting Kiryu, something that the original game and the prequel Yakuza 0 skimmed over. Hell, not even the sequel Yakuza 2 ever explained it. But is it a good idea to shove this character in my face far more often even when it’s not necessary when it could have instead used that time for other characters? No.

When it comes to the Yakuza games, it’s the standard drill, a beat ’em up action game where you run around doing side stories with many random encounters to beat random punks to level your character with many little excursion possibilities sprinkled throughout the city in the form of mini-games, all the while continuing the plot at your own leisure. Speaking of mini-games, there are plenty though not too many new additions except the return of Pocket Racer with a few familiar faces now all grown up and the rock paper scissor style Cat Fights now with more depth and less frustration in the form of an arcade game called Mesu King; all the women now dressed up as insects and its pretty enjoyable and hilarious with all of its quirks. As for the meat of the game, the game is essentially Yakuza 1 with 0‘s skin, in both the game’s engine and combat system. Kiryu’s three styles from Yakuza 0 are back with of course the Dragon of Dojima style being available from the get go but with a unique twist. Since the bubble era is over, the game returns back to the old style of leveling mirroring the original game. You obtain experience through random fights, eating and finishing sub stories, with 78 in all, under 3 categories with the sphere grid system from Ishin and Yakuza 0 returning for Kiryu’s returning three styles. The aforementioned unique twist comes in the form the previously mentioned Majima Everywhere system, which is more negative than positive and holds the game back.

The fourth sphere grid doesn’t use any experience and instead, each orb has criteria to fulfill which unlocks the abilities for the fourth style, the Dragon of Dojima. When Kiryu left prison after 10 years, he has lost all of his abilities, which include his trademark style, so instead of just continuing on as normal at the beginning of chapter 2 like the original game, you instead bump into Majima who starts a fight and beats Kiryu easily. Not being happy with how weak Kiryu has become he offers to follow Kiryu around and pick a fight by any means. Hence the name “Majima Everywhere” he will literally be everywhere, in a trunk of a car, under a giant traffic cone, he will sneak behind you from an alley way, dress up as a cop to stop and frisk you etc. That’s not all, he will even go as far as to challenge you in several of the game’s minigames, like Pocket Racing, bowling, darts, you name it. I will admit, it at times was entertaining seeing Majma going out of his way to dress up even as a Hostess and the game just goes with it and you play the mini game like normal, dropping some references here and there from the multiple games and the ranking specific events were hilarious. However, to go up said ranks to unlock more abilities you need to fight him a lot and I mean a lot, specifically to obtain all the abilities from Majima’s side, with a few obtained from Komaki’s training, meaning you will have to fight Majima a whopping 50 times. That includes the fights in the story as well and others that are by pure accident as he will continue to hound you on the streets at any and all times. It’s repetitive, at times frustrating as his health grows exponentially and if he so sneaks up on you in his frequent hot spots, you must fight. So I hope you are willing to lay the smack down for another 5 to 10 minutes every time or just load up a save.

More Kiwami on Page 2 ->

Making a great remake isn’t easy, as this game proves that even with good intentions, sometimes added content can be detrimental and hurt the overall product, especially ones that are so tied to the game mechanics and in this rare case as well as the story. Majima Everywhere is when fan service goes too far and becomes more fan disservice — I honestly don’t want to fight Majima for a long time and I don’t expect seeing myself replaying this version of the first game all that often because of this. The first game is dated, yes there is no denying it, but what I loved about it and subsequent releases after was how well they were paced. I can play the story and do most of the sub stories with a mixture of random encounters and my Kiryu will get maxed stats and all abilities outside of training. While this thankfully applies to the other styles, the same can not be said of the style that Kiryu used for the entirety of the original game and subsequent later installments. It’s just not enjoyable having to grind boss battles and fight a character who gradually obtains more and more health bars thus making the grind even more painful unlike the side quests in Yakuza 0 which felt more natural and flowed better. Yes the developer’s are unapologetic and know they have a smaller budget to work with and reuse assets including the game’s engine and fans realize it and accept the games for what they are, as do I. This terrible decision though was self inflicted — they chose to put something this dull into the equation in the name of fan service and it boggles my mind. Another thing I noticed was the bosses now having been overhauled and now with entirely new move sets, which makes sense, but the problem is that they’re all mostly recycled from other bosses in the franchise. This isn’t entirely new, one instance of this was the moves and animations of one of the Yakuza 5 bosses Okita and reusing the majority of them again for Majima’s Dancer style; but that was it, a few instances, not an entire line up. It just screams laziness rather than being their usual efficient selves as a development team.

When Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan hit the scene, they added to the series a kind of boss exclusive QTE heat moves and Yakuza 3 followed up with “Feel the Heat” for boss context sensitive heat moves which were somewhat similar. I bring this up because now after so long they come back to an idea similar to those for this title with “Climax Heat” and it came with questionable results. There is nothing more frustrating or just plain annoying than seeing a boss regenerate health. Well in Kiwami each boss, ranging from mid-bosses to simply a strong opponent, has a chance to do just that, multiple times even. Usually, after taking down a health bar down or two from them, they will activate a color coded aura where they will begin to regenerate. To stop this you either use a weapon heat move or a Style Heat Move that corresponds with the color. The problem? Even on Normal the health regeneration can be very quick with them gaining almost an entire health bar back as you switch styles. If you don’t have enough Heat you’re pretty much going to have to either consume an item you carry on yourself that boosts your heat bar or pummel the enemy to gain enough heat, just to possibly get enough damage in so they didn’t regenerate too much health that you just scraped off. Sometimes the prompt just refused to show up and I had to position myself differently to activate it but that allowed them to gain even more health back. It’s a beyond god awful gimmick and it makes Hard difficulty and above unbearable at times.

When the game was released in Japan I heard complaints that the game suffered at times from frame rate dips, and while the game does stutter at times when exploring Kamurocho with a bit of screen tearing, the combat is silky smooth 60 fps with them implementing its updates upon its western release and I’m very thankful. When it came to cutscenes I noticed some updates not just for some new lines to fit the narrative, but even it even updated some of the voice acting which is nice; though the cutscenes themselves are a different story. Being faithful is one thing, but barely updating them shows a lack of effort, and it felt awkward as they just updated the textures and lip-syncing for the old cutscenes but the new ones have far better animation and pacing to them. When it comes to the music, the Ryu ga Gotoku franchise as a whole always delivered and went hand and hand with its gameplay to such a degree that it was ingrained into it and I cannot say the same for these remixes which I honestly felt either were too overproduced or in some fashion butchered them. The long time composer of the series, Hidenori Shoji was tasked in blending multiple musical genres with a modern feel for the game’s 2005 city setting. Doing so masterfully with mixing, hip hop, RNB, rap, rock, heavy metal and jazz to morph into some of the most contemporary and toe tapping music an action beat ’em up could ever have asked for and still feel like a video game soundtrack at its finest. The remix tracks replace real instruments what sounds like for synchronizers and dub step bulldozing what made the tracks not only fitting tone wise but thematically to the scenarios. It’s not all bad, some tracks like the remix for Unrest is fine and the remix for id was serviceable albeit being a departure, but the remixes for say the Funk Goes On and Intelligence For Violence are just terrible. On a side note, not surprising anyone, the licensed tracks are sadly gone, which include the main theme of the game Receive You which was done not in-house but collaborated with an actual famed band in Japan so it didn’t make the cut which I feel was a blow to the game, as it fit Kiryu and served as in introduction to the game perfectly.

Yakuza (2005)

Yakuza Kiwami (2017)

My complaints boil down to poorly thought out new gimmicks and the lack of effort; it’s apparent that this was a quick cash grab, not of the soulless corporate type but of what their general focus was on creative wise. Their development apparatus was clearly being more fully committed to Ryu ga Gotoku 6, or Yakuza 6, and its new engine then it was on for this remake. It’s not a terrible remake, no, but a disappointing one. Doesn’t help matters when one of the series usual strengths, its soundtrack, drops the ball and only makes the above issues I had just seem worse. New fans will likely be satisfied with the low price of $29.99, with this being their first experience of the first game that was chronologically released. As an old fan that played the original, I felt it accommodated me enough but wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been and needed more time to either fix the rough edges, add a bit more content or at least more effort to where the game needed. For the 60 hours I played, I got around 90% of the completion list done and still need to replay it on the hardest setting, so you are getting your bang for your buck. I can only hope that the recently announced remake for Yakuza 2, Ryu ga Gotoku Kiwami 2, will fare better as I hold the second entry in high esteem and near and dear to my heart.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Yakuza Kiwami Title Yakuza Kiwami

#PS4 #Review #Sega #Yakuza Kiwami

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d3dman · 8 years ago

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Titanfall 2 Analysis

Daniel Duby

Ashley Godbold

GADA101 – Intoduction to Game Development

1/17/2017

Week 2 Assignment 1: Game Analysis

Titanfall 2

*minor spoiler warning*

Titanfall was Respawn Entertainment's first game released in 2014 as their own company and was published by Electronic Arts. The founders of the company, Jason West and Vince Zampella, were responsible for the Call of Duty franchise at Infinity Ward before founding Respawn in 2010. The game is a first-person shooter that puts you in the role of a Pilot, a specially trained and highly skilled soldier with a jump-kit, an arsenal of specialized equipment along with the military rank and clearance to call in and pilot the game's namesake, Titans. The Titan is a devastating, mech-style exo-suit and essentially a vaguely human-shaped tank with its own set of various abilities and weapons. When a Pilot calls in their Titan, it's delivered to an open area on the map via orbital drop; the deployment method known as Titanfall.

The game featured quite a few interesting innovations to the shooter genre, the most noticeable of which was its movement system. With the pilot's “Jump-kit”(essentially some miniature rocket thrusters attached to the Pilot's back) the player could double-jump and run along walls and parkour over obstacles. This was something I was very much a fan of. When asked to describe it the first thing that came to mind was: “Imagine Call of Duty + simplified Mirror's edge”. Another interesting innovation was the A.I. Grunt soldiers and various robotic units which accompanied players on the battlefield. These computer controlled forces would make battles feel far larger in scale and gave players more to shoot at while running around the maps hunting for enemy players.

Unfortunately, for Respawn and fans of the game(myself included), the lack of variety in game modes and community features, the disappointing artificial intelligence, and the lackluster attempt at delivering story through radio chatter over the multiplayer matches, rather than through a cohesive single player campaign, left a lot of players underwhelmed. Soon after its release on March 11th of 2014, its community started dwindling rapidly. Two or three months later it was difficult to find full matches on any platform. It looked as though Titanfall would be one of those great ideas that wasn't quite executed properly and would fade into obscurity, but Respawn wasn't done with it just yet.

Enter Titanfall 2. This game is everything the first one should have been. It features a new and improved multiplayer with far more Pilot abilities and a greater variety of Titans to choose from, a wider variety of maps and game modes, and better artificial intelligence that makes the ground forces on each side much more useful and the battles feel like war-zones. In addition they made some additions to the movement system with the ability to slide, and pilot abilities like the grappling hook and invisibility cloaking. The movement system has definitely been refined and feels awesome to play in the first-person perspective.

Alongside its improved multiplayer, Titanfall 2 also has a fully fleshed out, singleplayer campaign in which you take on the role of Jack Cooper (voiced by Matthew Mercer), a rifleman in the Militia and aspiring Pilot. During a battle gone horribly wrong, the Militia is over-run and Jack watches his mentor, a Pilot named Tai Lastimosa, die in front of him. In his dying breaths Lastimosa transfers control of his Titan, B.T. 7274, to Jack and gives him a field promotion to Pilot. From there Jack must travel and work with B.T. to survive on the hostile enemy planet named Typhon, uncover secrets of an experimental weapon designed to destroy planets, reconnect with the Militia and deliver this intel to his higher ups, and finally to destroy the weapon before it can be fired on the Militia's capital planet, Harmony. Throughout the game, Jack and B.T. begin to get closer and develop a real tangible friendship which is an interesting dynamic to have between a smart-mouth soldier and a giant, mostly logic-based robot. There's a simplistic dialogue system to reinforce this bond where occasionally the player will get to pick between 2 or 3 things to say. This system is really effective at allowing the player to step into Pvt. Jack Cooper's shoes when combined with the first-person perspective, the training being cut short just before the Titan section during the tutorial, and the lore-dump the player is given via voice-over at the beginning describing the bond between Pilot and Titan. Thrown in to the role of Pilot with nothing but the basic training, forced to survive on an enemy planet with this odd A.I. partner, you really do start to feel a connection to B.T. and begin to trust him as Jack does. This in itself is interesting, as “Trust me” is a line said many times by the metal giant throughout the game and sets the player up perfectly for the final twist and B.T.'s final words.

I played through the campaign on Regular difficulty even though, after running through the gauntlet in the tutorial a few times, it had recommended I play on Hard. I was very glad for my decision as the game is truly challenging and makes you master both its movement and its combat, forcing you to put them to use in tandem in order to progress. Along with this, the game will occasionally throw a curve ball at you, such as the level where you get a device that can alternate the player between the post disaster, creature infested present and the pristine, well guarded, and heavily armed past. You can do this at will and must do so in combination with the game's core mechanics to effectively deal with all threats across both timelines. This was a strange but welcome little diversion from the otherwise fairly standard Titanfall fare and I thoroughly enjoyed it as I did with the rest of the game. So much so that prior to writing this report, instead of the recommended “four hours” from the assignment instructions, I actually just played through the whole game and a couple of the multiplayer matches too. I couldn't put it down.

Although your experience may vary, I played on PS4 as I prefer the way the movement feels on a controller as opposed to a keyboard and mouse, though I'm sure the PC version would be much more accurate to aim with. The multiplayer communities are very different between platforms as many people find the PC crowd more skilled and harder to compete with along with reports of longer wait times for servers indicating a potentially smaller community. The game is also available for Xbox One but as I have not, nor do I know anyone who has played this version, I am unable to comment on it.

In some ways, I think the first game was a test to see if there was an audience for a fast paced shooter with more depth than just run and shoot, while still keeping those mechanics very polished. Many of Respawn's employees being former Infinity Ward devs, it only made sense that they'd want to expand on that experience, but perhaps they weren't sure players would accept the extra depth and added mechanics. Luckily, people like me exist! An audience who craves more depth and mechanical complexity from our games. That's not to say that Titanfall 2 doesn't appeal to all C.o.D. Players or those who like simple shooter fun. The game supports a wide range of play-styles and does each very well, but teaches you that the high movement play is where it truly shines through its campaign. Titanfall 2 has a very wide reach, and rightfully so.

The game was rated M for Mature, deservingly so due the graphic violence of war and the enemy pilots' foul mouths in the campaign. I give this game a rating of 9 out of 10 as its mechanics (the perspective, movement, ground and Titan combat) all work so well with its story and aesthetics (characters, dialogue, world building and sound design) and the technology brought to the table (the innovations in the movement, the time switching between two different, parallel versions of the same level and the A.I. for ground units and Titans) all come together to make something that, to me, was nearly perfect. Unfortunately it didn't quite make it as I do have some minor gripes with the game. Certain animations can be buggy regarding the hacking system with certain robotic enemies and sometimes when attempting to “Rodeo” enemy Titans, resulting in deaths that feel undeserved and frustrating. Otherwise Titanfall 2 is a great game. Highly recommended.

#titanfallgame #titanfall 2 #respawn entertainment #game analysis

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thesteadydietofeverything · 6 years ago

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Video Game Year in Review: Honorable Mentions

When I compiled the list of games I played this year that didn’t make it to my top 10, and weren’t remasters, remakes, or re-releases (see previous list), the number came out to just over 10, with the few over the 10 spot either just not being particularly remarkable (Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion) or games that I put so little actual time into that I really didn’t get the chance to form coherent thoughts about them (Prey: Mooncrash and BattleTech, both examples of types of games I want to resolve to not be so afraid of playing in 2019).

So the remaining 10 that I did want to mention are an interesting bunch. Not all of them are games that I loved. A decent amount of them are games I had serious issues with. But they all had something to them, something that made those issues that I had all the more frustrating, because it prevented me from dismissing them outright. My feelings about these games are varied enough that I wanted to rank them, so I suppose this list could just be called “Reese’s Top 20 games of 2018: 20-11,” or, “The Problem Children,” or something, but “Honorable Mentions” works fine for me.

10. The Messenger - Though I have never played Ninja Gaiden, and therefore don’t really have any nostalgia for the type of game this dual-8-bit/16-bit/action-platformer/Metroidvania was clearly going for, the early parts were executed pretty damn well. Tight controls, great music, some very fun and memorable boss fights, gameplay that was challenging but not, I imagine, anywhere near as rage-inducingly challenging as the games it was based on. Those initial four or five hours or so felt enjoyable and complete enough that the fact that I fell off pretty soon after the game pulls a very significant aesthetic and gameplay shakeup not enough to make me hate the game. As cool as a concept as it is to literally jump back and forth between different eras of game design, the “Metroidvania” part of this game was filled with the shit that tends to frustrate me about that style of game - aimless wandering and tedious backtracking. A very interesting experiment that, for me, didn’t quite pay off, but the effort produced a pretty unique game.

9. Iconoclasts - As far as its gameplay goes, this game is almost the inverse of The Messenger’s brand of Metroidvania, highlighting all the things that I actually can love about the genre. Sure there’s backtracking, but the layout of the levels is thoughtful and inspired enough that it rarely feels tedious: I often found myself very excited to gain my new ability and revisit a previous area because - just like the best Metroid games - I know exactly where I can use it, have been wondering about it for a while, and can finally see what’s on the other side. What ended up bogging down the experience of this game for me was the surprising emphasis on story and long-winded dialogue scenes. While I definitely really liked a handful of characters, the game’s increasing willingness throughout its run-time to put verbose speeches in all of their mouths wore a bit thin, given how thoroughly okay the general plot was. Still, game has some of the absolute most gorgeous pixel animation I’ve ever seen.

8. Monster Hunter World - As it seemed to be for many, the streamlined (though still irritatingly idiosyncratic) systems management, lush world and creature design, and conveniently slow part of the year that it released all made this the first Monster Hunter game I was willing to fully commit to. For a while, the game really won me over - experimenting with weapons was deeply satisfying, and the care and evocative detail in the designs felt inspired and compelling. I even played a bit of multiplayer with friends, and had a lot of fun with it, despite how generally committed I tend to be to single player experiences. After a while, though, I stopped being wowed by the animations and controls to start to be bothered by how careless the game seemed to be about its colonial fantasy, what a generally destructive force you and your team are on this beautiful world. It’s not as though this isn’t something that was obvious from the beginning, it’s just that for a while there, I figured it must actually be going somewhere with it, that there must be some commentary it was building toward. What I was met with was disappointing silence, and LOTS of grinding.

7. Red Dead Redemption 2 - I felt a lot of ways about this game, some of which I managed to capture in the review I wrote a couple months ago. There’s so much about this game that I hold against it and Rockstar, both surrounding it (the abusive culture of crunch in its development, their lack of care in getting an indigenous and/or black actor to play Charles) and within the game itself (the stretching of a decent story to an absurd length, controls so clunky they often broke the role-playing the rest of the game was so good at encouraging). But the things that I loved about this game - the stunningly atmospheric world, the complicated and nuanced character dynamics in the camp, the ways in which it allows one to experience and engage with its details - all stuck with me as well. This game represents so much of both what I want games to be going forward and what I never want them to be again.

6. Minit - Weird as it sounds, as much as I liked this game, my main gripe with it was the primary mechanic around which it was based. I loved the minimalist black-and-white art style: the way the white lines shined on my HDR TV is an excellent example of how “simple” graphical styles can take advantage of modern technology as well as any graphically demanding powerhouse. The world was a joy to explore, a miniature Zelda with a unique sense of humor. I honestly just never got why I was only allowed to enjoy it a minute at a time. The game seemed to do little to justify its central hook, and most of the time it ended up feeling more like a hindrance than a meaningful game changer. Nevertheless, Minit gave me a short, sweet experience that stuck with me more than I expected it to.

5. God of War - Having never really liked the previous games in this series, I went into this one with fairly low expectations, despite the near-universal praise it was getting. The story really didn’t do much for me. The father/son dynamic was fine, but hardly the innovative step forward in video game narratives many seemed to claim it was. Kratos is still an inherently ridiculous character, no matter how much depth they try to give him in this game, though I did thoroughly enjoy Christopher Judge’s performance. The real hook of this game, outside of its very pretty visuals, is its really just superb combat. They nearly entirely did away with the hacking and slashing of the previous games, and created a deliberate, thrilling system of combat juggling. There are a decent amount of moves at your disposal, but it never feels like an overwhelming amount, and the balancing act you can achieve in utilizing all of them properly results in just some of the most satisfying combat I’ve ever experienced in a game.

4. All Our Asias - This was the first of several lo-fi 3D polygonal games I played this year - the others will show up in my top 10 - and I’m just so excited about the coming wave of game developers inspired by 90’s PS1-era aesthetics, an era I’m personally much more nostalgic for than the still-prevailing 16-bit pixel art of many indie games. This is probably also the weirdest of that style of game that I played this year (and given what one of the others is, that’s saying something), an essay in video game format, an exploration of the bizarre nature of memory, told through abstract shapes and landscapes. Creator Sean Han Tani tells a wonderfully personal story here about racial identity and complicated family relationships, by navigating the conceptual framework of your player character’s father. It’s a singular experience that I still think about often, nearly a year after playing it.

3. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure - I’ll admit that my time with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle last year was my first real dip into tactics gaming, an experience that allowed me to gingerly step my foot into some deeper water this year (some of which I discovered was still too deep for me, like BattleTech). But for as easy as the first half of that game was, I maintain that the back half was surprisingly challenging. This year’s DLC, Donkey Kong Adventure, is not challenging. Donkey Kong is so overpowered it feels like it must have been a mistake, and the way that he can combine attacks with other characters is just ridiculous. But, weirdly enough, that’s part of what I enjoyed about this addition, a fairly breezy few-hour adventure where the most fun comes from seeing just how badly you can fuck some Rabbids up in a single move. Having Donkey Kong grab an enemy, throw him at another enemy, hit both plus a nearby enemy his banana boomerang, then having Rabbid Cranky charge into all three of them and blast them with his shotgun-esque Boombow never really gets old, at least for the well paced 8 or 9 hours that the game lasts.

2. Dead Cells - An endless, side-scrolling action platformer with tight-as-hell, ultra satisfying combat, beautiful art design, AND it was made by team of French socialists with no bosses who all get paid the same? I mean, fuck yeah. Dead Cells, a game that I originally played a bit in Early Access last year, and enjoyed so much that I decided to wait until the official release before truly delving into it, is a game that largely plays like the dream it sounds like on paper. I’m not sure if I’ve ever played at 2D game with combat as good. Generally, I’m not huge on run-based games, and did hit some walls in this game where I just felt like my own ineptitude was getting in the way of my enjoyment, and the game wasn’t giving me much between runs to make me feel like I was actually making any progress. I still haven’t actually beat it, but it’s become my default palate cleanser game that I play a few rounds of in between other games or while listening to podcasts or music, so I’m still plucking away at it. I’ll get there someday.

1. Return of the Obra Dinn - I enjoyed this game so, so much, even if sometimes more on a theoretical level than a practical one. The style is impeccable - I really will never get tired of the brief tease of opaque, incidental dialogue or sound, followed by the sudden explorable tableau of death(s), soundtracked by haunting strings. The gameplay is inspired - I’ve had few gaming experiences in recent memory as fulfilling as any time the little music que popped up after I solved a death, confirming that I had gotten three deductions correct. I have to admit, though, that those moments were spread further out than I would have wished. Part of this is just happenstance - I didn’t realize until quite a few hours into this game that by zooming in on someone, you’ll match them to their picture, something that would have undoubtedly saved me a lot of frustrating time in which I was grappling with trying to figure out whose fuzzy faces were whose. Nevertheless, I felt like I was too often given too little information, and had to take guesses between one of a few possible suspects, many of which were informed by racial assumptions that made me actively uncomfortable. This was, no doubt, part of the point, so it’s hard for me to hold it against the game, but it regardless did lead to a pretty exasperated final couple hours of play. Despite these complaints, its hard for me to think of this game as anything other than a wildly successful achievement - innovative, inspired, both intelligently designed and remarkably trusting in its player’s intelligence. Maybe a little too trusting, in my case.

#Return of the Obra Dinn #Dead Cells #Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Donkey Kong Adventure #All Our Asias #God of War #minit #Red Dead Redemption 2 #Monster Hunter World #Iconoclasts #The Messenger #video games #games #review #gameoftheyear #podcast #criticism

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