#you can always Brute force your way as always with FOE puzzles so you can either slowly map it or murder tf out of them

[helladventurers]

oh nice, I had forgotten about the gimmick in B12F, that's a nice and unique use of FOEs, it's nice to see even in the last game they show up in, the Fuzzy Orange Enemeies were still getting some creative uses out of before they became identifiable in the overworld

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Gamifying D&D Encounters

Encounters in Dungeons and Dragons can be fun, but how do you make it so the battle isn’t just taking turns repeatedly taking the attack action? How can you encourage players to move around and make meaningful, tactical decisions? My solution is to think about how to gamify your encounters.

What exactly does it mean to make an encounter more “game-like?” D&D IS a game, so isn’t it game-like by default? Well, yes. But here, I’m talking about turning encounters into puzzles or riddles for the players to figure out, or making players think about when to use certain actions and where to best position themselves. If players “solve” the encounter and “play” their strategies effectively, they will be able to more easily tip the encounter in their favor.

The way a gamified encounter should go is thus:

Creatures in the encounter take actions

Players identify threats or weaknesses based on those actions

Players take steps to mitigate threats or take advantage of weaknesses they have identified on their turns.

Creatures continue to fight, but are now less effective.

Players feel accomplished for their cleverness.

(Optional) Enemies then change up their tactics, learning from the players and increasing the encounter’s complexity. Repeat.

There are several ways to go about gamifying your encounters. You don’t have to give your encounters every single one of these traits, but adding two or three will help push the encounter’s depth.

Several of these use examples from two boss battles I posted, which can be found here: Ilesstra and Kormak.

Creating Patterns

Give your creatures, particularly single-monster encounters, some sort of consistent pattern for players to recognize. This way, the players will get stymied the first time, but then the next round will be able to react appropriately. Keep in mind that Medium encounters typically last 3-4 rounds, which means the pattern needs to be pretty obvious that it will repeat. Players may not even realize it repeats until the second round, which means they only have a few rounds left to seize the advantage!

Samples:

Ilesstra: Ilesstra’s lanes in her lair’s battle map can fill with poison from obvious pipes on the map. Once players realize their significance and effect, they can work out a strategy to avoid them.

Kormak: Powering up his crystal takes a noticeable cause and effect by taking an action to charge (making it glow) by powering down once its charge is spent (so it’s no longer glowing). Players can visually see when Kormak is hard to hit and about to hit hard and conversely when his abilities and defenses are weak.

Synergizing Abilities

Your encounter can involve synergy. This can be between two creatures and their abilities, a creature and its environment, or between a creature’s own abilities. Players should be able to pick up on this synergy so they can attempt to disrupt it to their advantage. Often, synergy involves one part of the encounter being in a sometimes-state, then another part of the encounter gets more powerful when the other is in that state. 

In fact, the encounter could actually synergize to the players’ benefit.  Perhaps a creature could freeze players in ice while another creature’s thunder attack can shatter the ice thunder damage. Players could try to coerce the thunder creature into freeing their trapped companions.

Samples:

Ilesstra: Poisoned creatures take additional damage from her, and her actions can poison creatures in her lair. Her pet can drag away creatures attacking her.

Kormak: His crystal enhances his minor abilities when it’s charged. His minions jump in front of attacks with reactions.

Alternative Targets

If you have meaningful targets in the encounter other than the creatures, players will be tempted to use their actions to deal with those rather than the creatures, which can create a dilemma. Players only have so many actions, so using them on a different target has to be worth it for them; it should give them a meaningful advantage to do so.

Putting an innocent life in danger or having a target that is making a boss monster superpowered is a valid excuse to change focus. The idea is to split the players’ attention between at least two things so that they need to evaluate allocating their resources or action economy.

Samples

Ilesstra: If a pipe in her lair is destroyed or plugged, it will create a permanent safe zone for the players that won’t fill with poison gas. Her pet crocodile is actively trying to drag people into the water below, which can prove bothersome.

Kormak: If Kormak’s crystal is destroyed, he can no longer gain temporary HP or empower his attacks. If his allies are slain, he can no longer defer the damage he takes.

Alternative Victory Conditions

Adding a new way to “win” the encounter will make players need to decide between attacking the enemies or trying to achieve victory through the other means provided. Types of alternate victories might include:

Escaping the Lair

Grabbing the Macguffin

Disabling the Doomsday Device

Rescuing the Hostages

Stopping the Ritual

Completing the Ritual

Defending the Payload

Destroying the Villain’s Power Source

Racing to the Finish

Solving the Puzzle

The circumstances will always depend on your campaign, but you can always provide a miniature goal inside of an isolated encounter.

Ilesstra: Destroying the pipes that emit poison gas will put an end to her main form of attack, possibly forcing her to retreat.

Kormak: Destroying his crystal will severely weaken him, potentially causing him to retreat.

Hotspots and Safezones

Everyone knows adding environmental factors to a battle map will make it more interesting. It gives players ways to hide, cover for arrowfire, and hazards they must avoid and use to their advantage. When designing an encounter, particularly for boss battles, try adding some areas that are harmful for the players. Perhaps there are lava pits with trapdoor grates above them that the enemy can open, or maybe the enemy has an area attack that the players can work around. 

The goal is to give players areas that they are aware are dangerous and areas they know are safe so that they can take advantage of it or plan their actions around it. Bonus points if the areas move in a regular pattern.

Samples

Ilesstra: Her lair has three lanes that can be filled with poison gas using her action. Players can hide in the small space between the lanes or in the water below the grates. An alternative strategy for players is to spread out and limit the maximum number of targets since she can only affect one “lane” at a time.

Kormak: His crystal is trapped by the magic circle surrounding it, and his minions can attempt to push PCs into it.

Vary Enemies

An easy way to make an encounter require more thinking is to use different types of enemies with different abilities. Players will have to consider strategies for each different creature separately, which makes things different. Perhaps certain players will be better at facing one enemy, but not the others, forcing them to adjust their focus.

Samples

Ilesstra: She has a giant crocodile companion that is inoculated and immune to poisons. While Ilesstra is more of a glass cannon with low hit points and AC but high damage thanks to poison, the crocodile is a brute that can grapple creatures away from its master and hold them in a hotspot area.

Kormak: Kormak is a spellcaster and controller while his Barbed Devil minions are brutes.

Additional Phases

Give your encounters multiple, distinct phases that they enter once circumstances are met. These might be when a certain number of enemies are defeated, when the boss drops to half their hit point maximum, or when an alternative victory condition is met. Once this triggers, the encounter changes in a fundamental way to force players to change their tactics. Essentially, you’ve added a mechanical twist instead of a narrative. The best examples are from World of Warcraft raids where the bosses will have different phases.

Discoverable Vulnerability or Strength

The creatures have something obviously strong or weak about them that the players can easily identify in one round. Once players identify it, they can attempt to take advantage of a vulnerability or dampen/avoid the enemy’s strength. 

A vulnerability might be taking damage from a unique damage type, a character flaw that can be goaded into a bad decision, a macguffin that holds all their power, or perhaps they simply have certain targets on their body that can be hit at +5 AC but for double damage.

Meanwhile an enemy’s strengths should hopefully be visible right away. Players should have a good idea what a given creature is good at or what its abilities are as soon as a fight starts, whether this means it was foreshadowed earlier or is revealed in their appearance or attack methods. Players know what to do against a glass cannon rogue and a tanky bruiser warrior or a controlling mage. Likewise, if they find an unknown creature surrounded by petrified humanoid statues, they will know to keep their distance in case they befall the same fate. Their insights should be rewarded and should influence their thinking. Players should never feel totally unprepared.

Samples:

Ilesstra: Her strength is primarily using poison damage, but she is physically weak. Meanwhile, her companion giant crocodile is mentally weak but physically strong. These are both readily-apparent.

Kormak: His crystal visibly charges to empower his abilities and protect him; destroying it will hinder his powers. His strength lies in fire magic, which he and his minions are both immune to.

Moral Quandary

Adding a question of morality to an encounter is a good way to make it not only impactful but also create more decisions for players to make. Perhaps there are innocent lives in danger. Do players risk their lives and spend their valuable action economy to save them? Or do they let them perish to optimize their mechanics and defeat their foe?

Simply adding a hostage or bystanders can do the trick for the average encounter. For boss battles, though, you can increase the stakes even further. Perhaps killing the villain will somehow make things worse for the greater good, giving the players pause mid-combat. Maybe the villain is related to one of the players, or has charmed someone the players love into fighting them to the death. Maybe destroying the boss will take more time than it will to stop their cultists from finishing their spell to open a gate to Hell, so players will have to ignore them and stop their minions instead.

Morality can make fights much more interesting because it forces players not just to consider their strategy, but also their values.

Summary

Basically, the thesis of gamifying encounters is to force players to change their tactics each round, but in a way that makes players feel cunning and smart. Take all these tips into consideration and try and make your homebrew boss battles and encounters special:

Create Patterns

Synergize Abilities

Provide Alternative Targets

Provide Alternative Victory Conditions

Make Hotspots and Safezones

Vary the Enemies

Additional Phases

Discoverable Vulnerabilities or Strengths

Create a Moral Quandary

[johgames]

Introducing Spirits of Equivex

In the world of Equivex, one rule reigns above all: Equivalent exchange!

In this Deckbuilder meets Puzzle game, leverage the power of possession through sacrifice to turn foes into allies and defeat waves of enemies.

Gameplay

Each campaign level start with a predefined lineup of units and you have to get through multiple waves of enemies. To get through the wave is crucial to use Exchange: An equivalent exchange deal where you sacrifice some of your units to possess some of your enemies. Through this, your lineup will be constantly evolving as you progress on your campaign.

Taking it to it’s perfect conclusion is where the challenge and puzzle lies. For every campaign level, there is a path where you perform no killing and clear the mission through only exchange. Of course, if it fails, you can always brute force your way through with might!

Units

There are currently over 30 unique cards with plans for more to come.

Cards work as units with 3 main stats Health points, Attack and Spirit Level. Spirit level is the value of the unit for equivalent exchange. It can be of two type: Sum (red) or Product (purple) and it determines the means of possessing the card.

Units can also have some skills and abilities: from simple buff and debuffs to complex possession restrictions or spirit level changes they can help turn the tide around.

Exchange

The core mechanic of the game. You can select any enemy for possession and their total value will show up at the top. Depending on the spirit type, it will either be the sum or product of all selected units. (The two types cannot be mixed in one exchange) You then have to select your own units that add up (or multiply) to the exact same value. If you can set up this equivalent exchange, you will sacrifice your units and gain possession of your opponent’s.

This is very powerful and simple way to wipe out enemy waves, but remember it only works if you can create a perfect spirit level matchup.

Origins

This is a project I’ve been working on for a while. It started as a Jam entry from LD41 (Theme: Sacrifice) and it’s been one of the Jam game’s I’ve been the most fond of, always feeling like it had a bit more potential and was worth revisiting.

I’ve spent a lot of time giving the whole game a massive overhaul, but the gameplay remains largely the same. A bunch of new units have been added with new abilities and spirit values to spice things up as well as more campaign levels. There has also been some rebalancing, overall I feel this new iteration gives a much better idea of the game.

I hope this project managed to get your interest and you will stick around to follow it’s progress. It’s pretty far along and should have a demo ready relatively soon, so stay tuned & share along!

Oh and I made a (fresh)twitter, follow me! @joh_games you can also follow me on itch: https://johgames.itch.io/

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 129: Stuck Together

“I’m afraid right now.”

And here, after almost a hundred and thirty episodes of waiting, do we finally see that Lars can make a change.

The Good Lars was a great start, with Lars opening up enough to suggest that he might take a risk and let the Cool Kids know something real about himself. But he never makes it to the party, and as we learn here, it wasn’t because he was abducted. I Am My Mom proves that those events didn’t transform Lars, as when the going gets tough his instinct is self-preservation over all else. But these two incidents in quick succession, combined with his capture and uncertain future, yank him kicking and screaming into the realm of sincerity.

But not at first. After Aquamarine starts the episode off with Steven, reminding us of the recent plot and her all-around awfulness, Lars is discovered just in time to prove that he’s frustrating as well. It’s a different shade, as Aquamarine is a bully at every opportunity while Lars lashes out as a reaction to feeling pathetic, but he has the chance to be an ally when Steven needs one the most, and it’s lousy that he chooses spite.

Don’t get me wrong, Aquamarine is worse for sure: there’s no reason to further ensnare her captives now that they’re on the ship, and the process is uncomfortable for the humans and Topaz, but she orders it anyway. She goes back on her word by refusing to return Lars, which is predictable given they’re already in space, but still displays her lack of honor. She’s not even good at telling jokes, unhelpfully explaining that her fake tear is her gem. And while Lars evolves over the course of the episode, the idea that she would do likewise is silly enough to fuel the episode’s best sight gag.

Still, I’ll give her this: considering how she revels in lording over Topaz, and considering Topaz not only disobeys her but attacks her, Aquamarine has a single quiet moment of empathy when she chooses to let bygones be bygones. It’s the lowest of bars, as she only does so after breaking Topaz’s will and on the condition that Topaz follow her commands, and saying that “we’ll never speak of this again” shows that she wants this toxic status quo to remain forever, but this is a character who takes glee in cruelty, so it’s fascinating that she doesn’t leap at the chance to punish Topaz further. It’s the tiniest speck of affection you could hope for, and it doesn’t come close to “redeeming” Aquamarine, but it’s there, showing that even this little monster has an ounce of depth.

While Lars might have similar jerk vibes, railing against Steven and refusing to even try and break free, it’s just his starting point. Stuck Together crystallizes the loop that has defined Lars up to this point: he’s mean, then he gets some sympathy, then he seems ready to change, then he’s mean again. But there’s a big difference this time, and it’s not just the setting: after putting up with it for the entire series, Steven is done with Lars’s nonsense.

When Lars blames Steven for the alien invasion, Steven doesn’t even apologize, instead saying that of course he’s the reason aliens invaded, but he did everything he could to help and Lars should’ve escaped better. This is huge, as it not only breaks with Steven’s usual patience for Lars’s behavior, but comes at a time when Steven is feeling so low that we might expect more than ever for him to wallow in his failure. We then get into miscommunication: first Steven calls Lars worthless, meaning well but feeding into Lars’s insecurities, then Steven does a shoddy job of explaining a shoddy plan (how the heck was Lars supposed to lasso anything on the other side of the room?). This is not his best self, but if he was thinking things through he probably wouldn’t be on a ship hurtling towards the Diamonds in the first place.

Between the stress of recent events and his frustration with Lars, Steven snaps in a way that’s reminiscent of, well, Lars: short-tempered and impulsive and frazzled and loud. Lars admits at last that he’s always been driven by fear, and that Steven’s enduring faith in him only makes the problem worse. In the same way Lars thinks baking is lame because he likes doing it and he’s lame, he takes it as a given that he’s a wuss, so hearing anyone say otherwise is annoying rather than encouraging. But by explaining it aloud, the flip of personalities begins to form: now Lars is pepping up an ornery Steven, and Steven completes the puzzle by admitting his own fear.

It’s not as simple as Lars becoming Steven and Steven becoming Lars, but both take major cues from the other. And when Lars goes further in his tentative enthusiasm, Steven cuts him off by revealing a brilliant new wrinkle in their relationship: because he’s an optimistic kid with parent figures who have always sugarcoated the bitterness of life, he appreciates the one person who's willing to talk about how much things can suck. And in this new era of his life, where it’s become clear that the sugarcoating extends past white lies and into major secret territory, it’s more important than ever to have a friend who tells it like it is. There’s been an underlying notion in their entire relationship that Steven wants to help Lars out, but it’s so much more meaningful to hear that Steven hangs out with Lars because Lars is a crank. 

This doesn’t mean Lars was perfect the way he was, or else his arc wouldn’t involve him changing. But there’s a huge difference between changing because it’s what makes other people comfortable and changing because it’s good for your soul, and this would be a very different story if Lars only grew to make Steven’s life better. Instead, it takes Steven showing Lars the value of his flaws for Lars to see enough value in himself to want to improve. 

We wait just long enough on Topaz for her voice to matter most, threading the needle between emotional beat and punchline. Martha Higareda sells her change of heart in no time, showing the first instance of a same-Gem fusion having the deep relationship we’ve seen from cross-Gem fusions like Garnet; perhaps our ornery rubies are closer than we think when they form Big Ole Ruby, but we haven’t seen any evidence of it. 

In lesser hands it might be hackneyed for the stoic character to reveal a soft heart, because the gentle giant is a bog-standard “don’t judge a book by its cover” trope. But this is our fifth episode in a row featuring Topaz as a wordless brute, first as a silhouette and then contrasted with a talkative brat of a partner. Are You My Dad in takes her into monster movie territory, complete with bloodcurdling music and tree-clearing stomps when she reveals her body full of writhing captives, and squeezing Jamie’s head in I Am My Mom is the most visceral threat we’ve seen a human face on the show. This isn’t just some big galoot opening up, it’s a Terminator showing she was a real girl all along.

A big reason why this works is that we don’t go full cloying, instead tempering the reveal with humor that’s both inherent (we don’t expect Topaz to get this emotional) and specific (using Steven’s pants to wipe the tears away). Instead of swinging for a Big Moment that exposes Topaz’s turmoil in a dramatic fashion, the mood is quiet and sweet. Topaz isn’t just a softy, she’s sort of a dork, and that extra bit of characterization for someone we’ll never see again in the original series is what makes Steven Universe so great. Effort always matters!

After seeing Steven help not one but two people begin to change, we see that he’s still stuck in his own rut of martyrdom: he plans to send Lars back alone and continue along his sacrificial path. Perhaps there’s a level of rationality to this, as if they both escaped then the ship would turn right back around to Earth. But Steven isn’t operating on rational thought, and he hasn’t been since his friends were first endangered: going to the Diamonds as Rose Quartz might secure his friends’ safety, but at the cost of near-certain death, so from a pure odds perspective it’d be better to go to the Zoo incognito where known allies like the Zoomans and Famethyst could help out. But he’s acting out of a misguided sense of duty, so he doesn’t express any tactical purpose for sending Lars away, instead repeating the idea that he must pay for Rose’s actions.

The perfect response to the downside of Steven’s selflessness is Lars presenting the upside of his selfishness. It might not be brave to run away, and Lars might only be on the ship in the first place because he ran away, but he’s right: if Steven doesn’t want to be punished for his mother’s mistakes, he shouldn’t have to be. It might be the easy way out, but we just saw Steven praise Lars’s ability to cut through the BS and find the truth, and here we see a prime example. And for just a second, Steven thinks about it.

But then Aquamarine barges in, because Steven isn’t allowed to learn his lesson quite yet. In the same way corruption is the Diamonds’ greatest sin, attacking many of their own troops to spite their foes, this is perhaps Aquamarine at her worst: it’s one thing to bully your enemies, but cruelty to a partner is a step beyond. Contrast has defined Topaz and Aquamarine from the moment we saw their shadows, and this is the final stage. We already knew one was big and the other was small, one was quiet and the other was chatty, but both acted as a single front with different but united antagonism. Now one is an ally and the other is an opponent, one is cute and the other is vicious, and while Topaz might have the upper hand in a physical fight and the heart to do the right thing, Aquamarine only needs her words and her ruthlessness to win the day.

This is the last we’ll see of Topaz and Aquamarine until the time jump, and it’s surprisingly brutal. We got a test-run of this story with Holly Blue Agate, another cerulean tyrant dominating a larger, friendlier force (this time in terms of size as well as numbers), and it ended with our new friends overcoming their oppressor. Not this time. Aquamarine emerges victorious, while Topaz splits up and slumps away in defeat, and that’s it until Steven Universe Future gives the latter a happy ending at Little Homeschool and the former a new role as Team Rocket villain.

Topaz getting her brief burst of joy snatched away sets the mood for our Homeworld adventure. We’ve long known that the Crystal Gems are a stubborn group of rocks, but at least they have the freedom to change if they wish. Homeworld Gem stubbornness is reinforced by a society that persecutes anyone that doesn’t fall in line, from the outcast Off Colors to the Diamonds themselves. 

But the mood of this arc is also set by Lars, because like the ending of Stuck Together, this is a story about Lars being taken away from Steven. But it’s also a story where Steven helps Lars change, and with change comes a glimmer of hope.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

A great showcase for Steven and Lars, and a great coda for Aquamarine and Topaz. There’s not quite enough going on for it to make my favorites list, but it’s up there.

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

I Am My Mom

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

Stuck Together

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(No promo art for this one, so I went with Jastea’s gorgeous take on Topaz.)

[digital-elixir]

Digital Thoughts - Grandia Xtreme - PS2

Evann, our main protagonist, is recruited by the local Army to join a special task force designed to fight the “elemental disorders” currently threatening the world. The team sets off and journeys to the four ancient ruins in hopes of quelling this danger.

Along the way Evann and the team encounter many friends and foes, including Kroitz, Evann's childhood rival. Kroitz (voiced by the one and only Mark Hamill) has his own intentions for obtaining the slabs in order to awaken a power he believes will give him absolute control. It’s up to you and your friends to prevent the world from falling into an elemental catastrophe and awakening the worst evil the world has yet to witness.

Xtreme is bright, colorful and vivid. Each zone is full of vast detail from the basic interior designs of the hub town, to the vast monster filled dungeons. Enemy designs are fantastic and follow similar types from previous Grandia games such as goblins, floating starfish, beastmen, etc. Each are highly detailed polygons and have their own respective animations.

Character models are also so well done – from the wild beast girl, a young Elvish thief, to the military brute, each offers a style that fits their personality. Special moves and magic spells are absolutely top notch here. Grandia games have always been great with over the top spells and moves and Xtreme does not disappoint.

You can even go into a 1st person look around mode that allowed me to truly admire the wonderful art design and color work programmed into this game.

Xtreme is a dungeon crawler at heart and a damn good one. Most of the core loop will be spent raiding elemental dungeons in search of loot, smashing enemies for experience, and defeating each end boss. Along the way you will discover rare items, light puzzles and environmental traps. Weapons and armor are vast and varied with many dropped or stolen with special properties and elemental bonuses.

Each playable characters have their own special moves called “Arts” which can be combined into double, triple and even quadruple techs. Mana Eggs return once again and are better than ever: Each egg can be combined with another to create exciting and rare combinations which not only unlocks higher tier or new spells but stronger versions that cost less time to cast, more hits and area of effect.

Xtreme also has a deep skill system through the use of skill books. With this, you can unlock a massive variety of helpful support abilities to equip on your characters. Skills such as attack boost, increased stealing chance, movement speed increase etc allow you to truly customize your team to your personal tastes.

“Theme of Xtreme” is quite fitting for such a grand adventure. It has a sweeping and grandiose melody that fits right into the opening cinematic while retaining that signature Grandia sound.

“Theme of Rocca” will be heard quite often as it’s the main theme of the hub town. It has a funky, jazzy, high energy bossa nova sound that goes through quite a few variations along the life of the track. It never got on my nerves and was always refreshing to come back to after a long dungeon grind session. “Good Meal” is the Xtreme’s version of the classic dinner time theme known throughout the Grandia series. I have to say this is my least favorite version of it, but it does have some merits. I’m just glad to see its tradition continued even in this game.

Let’s talk combat. Grandia Xtreme has absolutely fantastic battle themes! “Combat 1” is a flamenco guitar mixed with trumpets, horns, snappy drums, and wonderful backup guitars. It’s so great that even if I hear it over and over and over I never tire as it simply prepares one for an energetic fight against any kind of beast. It ranks quite high in my personal echelon of greatest fighting battle themes of all time. “Combat 2” is played when your team is ambushed by the enemy. It has a rock guitar lead, with great synth leads. “Combat 3” is wonderful. A fitting and high energy boss theme. Riffing guitars, pulsing drums, and a gritty synth that has an excellent solo mid-way through the song. “Combat 4” “Illusory Meadow” is a strange departure from most dungeon themes. It’s a somber, soothing and reflective piece that is absolutely beautiful.

There is an Xtreme (ha!) amount of content post-game; extra dungeons, searching for rare weapons, armor, mana eggs, skills and techniques, mini games, and maximizing each party members’ levels. This is a game that truly gives you things to do!

Grandia Xtreme is a fantastic game. It currently sits at the top of my all-time favorite in the Grandia series. It may not have the deepest story, but what it lacks in plot is made up by the sheer staggering amount of content within. You can lose hours upon hours while dungeon diving in search of eggs, weapons, armors, skills, discovering new technique combinations, spells and farming endless enemies. Combine that with the cheesy over the top voice acting, beautiful saturated colors and a wonderful soundtrack and you have a game that will keep you playing for quite a long time.

[gushingaboutgames]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

(As per usual, there may be some spoilers. I’ll keep them to a minimum, but most of my screenshots are from post-game, so be forewarned.)

Full disclosure: this is the only Zelda game I finished. I’ve also played Ocarina of Time, Link’s Awakening, and the first two NES games, but never finished them.

The Zelda series is long, storied, and with very few exceptions, the games have always been stellar. The formula established in OoT has, however, grown to become a little stale: “go to this dungeon and get this gadget so you can go to this other dungeon and get another gadget, rinse, repeat until Ganon is dead”. The series stood to benefit from a breath of fresh air, and with Skyrim still somewhat fresh in people’s minds, a change of direction to a more open-ended sandbox game has proven to be just the thing Zelda needed.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild represents not only a new direction for the Zelda series, but also a love letter to what made the original NES titles so great. Taking place hundreds of years after an evil force known as the Calamity Ganon ravaged Hyrule, players once more take on the role of Link as they re-awaken with no memory of anything that transpired before. With only Zelda’s voice to guide you, you must embark on a journey to defeat Ganon once more, and piece together your missing past.

From the moment the player steps out of the cave they awaken in, a wide panoramic view of Hyrule introduces you to the post-apocalyptic Hyrule, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, like something out of a Studio Ghibli film. In the centuries since Ganon ran roughshod over Hyrule, nature has reclaimed the land, and the vast majority of the world is covered in lush, verdant forests.

One of the many ways BotW pays homage to the NES Zelda games is the fact that, starting off, it’s hard as hell. You begin the game with only the ragged clothes on your back, and you must scavenge for anything that can be used to defend yourself against the monsters that roam the land. Your first weapon will be little more than a common tree branch, and from there, you’ll have to make do with the makeshift weapons and shields that the common monsters employ. You’ll always have to keep your eyes peeled for weapons, since every weapon and shield you pick up will eventually break from overuse. Higher-quality weapons hold up better than the clubs and chunks of wood Moblins use, but you’ll need to be wary of their conditions.

Thankfully, even if you break every weapon in your inventory, you will never be completely defenseless. Always at your side is a Shiekah Slate, an ancient handheld magical computer that can be used to create bombs. Throughout the early parts of the game, you’ll also acquire the ability to use your Slate to create blocks of ice to traverse across water, manipulate metallic objects via magnetism, and even freeze objects and enemies in place.

The Shiekah Slate represents one of the major deviations in the Zelda series’ settings, as this Hyrule has prominent magical technology scattered throughout. Most of the technology has been lost after the calamity that befell it, but one prominent feature that will plague you in your journey is a series of robotic monsters known as “Guardians”, powerful machines that you would do well to avoid early on, as they can kill you very quickly.

Another throwback to classic Zelda, especially the first game, is the fact that once you obtain the paraglider and leave the tutorial area, the entire game world becomes open to you. Those mountains in the distance? You can scale them! That desert to the west? You can walk there! If you want to make a bee-line for the final boss, you can do that too! (You’ll likely die horribly, but you have the option). You are given a vague direction to go into and a slew of story quests that will put you on the path to uncovering Link’s missing past, but you can ignore these and go your own way, if that is what you desire.

However, perhaps as formidable a foe as the monsters in Hyrule is Hyrule itself. You will need to pay heed to the environment around you and the local weather to survive. Fighting enemies on a cliff? Watch your step: if the monster gets a solid blow on you, it’s a long way down. If it rains, you’ll have a harder time climbing up slick surfaces, but the rain can muffle your footprints and let you kill enemies stealthily. Is there a thunderstorm in the area? Better drop off any metallic equipment you have, unless you wanna become a human lightning rod! And of course, you’ll need to be mindful of how you dress when travelling to the deserts or the mountain tops; without the proper garb, you’ll freeze or fry to death. If you have a fire-based weapon or a torch when travelling to cold environs, though, you can get around the need for insulated clothing.

Also key to your survival is cooking meals and brewing potions. Throughout the game, you’ll come across a variety of ingredients that can be used in cooking, from fruits and vegetables to body parts of monsters. Throwing these parts onto a cooking pot will allow you to cook them, with the interactions between different ingredients creating foods and potions with a wide variety of effects, such as adding spices to meat to make a meal that can keep you warm, or brewing a potion with a certain species of frog that will let you run more quickly. Finding different ingredients and experimenting with cooking can prove to be quite the time sink.

There is no shortage of ways to get around Hyrule; as previously mentioned, you get a paraglider early in the game that will let you soar through the air. Horses can also be found, tamed, and mounted, providing a quick means of transport across the realm.

Of course, no Zelda game is complete without dungeons, and BotW has no shortage of them. How they play out, however, has changed: previous Zelda games have a slew of elaborate dungeons to explore, but the dungeons in BotW are shorter and overall easier. These quests are divided into two categories; Shrines, small dungeons with simplistic puzzles that reward you with items that can be exchanged for increased health and stamina; and the Divine Beasts, four larger dungeons with more elaborate puzzles that end in a boss fight. Long-time Zelda fans may miss the original style of dungeon, but the ones present in BotW are quite fun to take on.

And of course, no Zelda game is complete without combat. While there is a relatively small selection of enemies to contend with in BotW, the ones you come across with are actually fairly smart, so you will need to outwit them rather than fight with brute force, especially since your weapons and shields have limited durability. Well-timed dodges and shield blocks can help you win many encounters, but the environment also provides a variety of ways to creatively dispatch your foes. Some enemy camps may have explosive barrels nearby which you can set off with a well-placed arrow or a bomb. Most monsters can’t swim, so if you can knock them into a nearby river or lake, you can take them out easily. If there’s any metallic objects nearby, you can use Magnesis to move it and beat enemies around, or even to yank away any weapons they have if they are made of metal.

One of the things I truly love about BotW is the feeling that every time I play, I discover something new. Hyrule is teeming in secrets, easter eggs, and little hidden things that are a joy to uncover. One thing I loved finding was the fact that dogs in towns can be fed meat, and if you feed them enough, they’ll dig up a hidden item for you. Using giant leaves to blow winds can also enable me to use primative boats to sail down rivers. And, of course, there’s the interesting little things you can do by taking advantage of the game’s physics engine, like setting up catapults.

This game was released on both Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. Typically, I’m weary of games released on previous generation systems when released on multiple consoles, but thankfully, BotW was developed originally for the Wii U. I’m pleased to say that the Wii U version of the game holds up very well; even if the graphics don’t look quite as nice, they are still very beautiful, and lag and framerate drops are not very common.

I cannot recommend this game enough. Even if you’re not a Zelda fan, Breath of the Wild is an excellent game to introduce you to the series, or simply to play by itself as a fun and immersive sandbox adventure.

[xivu-arath]

“My life is the Emperor’s. I will go at once.”

“Succeed,” Servant Two says, “and eternity will be your reward.”

(crossposted to ao3)

Something’s wrong – Rkorya feels it as soon as she steps into the hangar. Her ship lies ahead, as usual – and in front of it are two robed strangers, strong enough that she can feel the Force stir, hanging heavy around them. Broonmark makes to draw his vibrosword, warbling a warning, and she stops him with an impatient gesture, though her own hand rests near her lightsaber.

“You have nothing to fear from us,” one of them – a pureblood Sith, by the look of it – says as she nears, and she bristles.

“I fear no one.” And then, haughtily, “I am on a task from my master, Darth Baras. You’re in my way.” It grates, a little, to rely on her master’s influence, to be so easily made the brute at his heels, but it does have its uses. Usually, it gets at least some kind of reaction, but neither of them even blink.

“A greater master than Baras requires your attention.”

She frowns at that. Greater than Baras – a Dark Council member, then? His master in turn, Vengean – she’s never met him, but the plan for the war is his. Perhaps they take her hesitation for assent, because the first pushes back his hood, stepping forward.

“Look upon us. I am Servant One, this is Servant Two. We are the Emperor’s Hand, and the Emperor has chosen you for a task.”

The Emperor. For a moment, shock overrides all instinct, and she goes still, eyes widening. The Emperor has been silent since the war, since the Treaty of Coruscant, but Rkorya had grown up in the shelter of the storms he made on Dromund Kaas, felt the power in each bolt of lightning. She strives towards control, something like composure, and straightens, lifting her chin. “I... would be honoured.”

Honoured is, in truth, too small a word. The thought of the Emperor’s regard is too much to grasp all at once, so she tries to pick it apart as best as she can. “But why choose me? I’m not on the Dark Council. My accomplishments have been on Darth Baras’ orders.” Modesty is not something she’s ever tried to laid claim to, but it’s true – apart from Plan Zero and turning Jaesa to the Sith, she has no great projects to her name, nothing truly hers. That would change in time, but... not yet.

“When a stone is thrown into the water, we look not to the stone, but who threw it. When a lightsaber fells a foe, we praise the hand that wields it. But the Emperor sees all,” Servant Two says, clarifying little. She wouldn’t have tolerated being riddled at, normally, but if these truly are the Emperor’s chosen agents....

“Your actions have proven your loyalty as well as your strength. The Emperor has need of both. Delay your master’s wishes, and travel to Voss.”

“Why?” she asks, unable to keep silent. “What’s on Voss?” She hasn’t even heard of the planet, and Baras will be impatient for news of her success over his enemy. A detour will draw his attention, and his suspicion.

“A task for which only you are suited for,” Servant One says smoothly, and it takes effort not to glower at him. For months Baras has only told her what she needs to know to complete her missions – almost inevitably the barest details – and having another Sith neatly evade giving anything away makes her snappish. “Go swiftly, and you will be contacted when you arrive.” Normally, there would be a chance – a good chance, even – of this being a trap, but most Sith would not claim a relation to the Emperor so casually. That, and there is something to them in the Force, a lingering sense of an echo – she’s never felt anything like them before.

Even her stiff pride can’t detract from her awe, and she bows her head. “My life is the Emperor’s. I will go at once.”

“Succeed,” Servant Two says, “and eternity will be your reward.” He doesn’t wait for her to puzzle that apart, and they both make for the hangar’s exit. Rkorya waits until her sense of them is entirely gone to relax, and Broonmark, wisely silent for the encounter, tilts his head in question.

<Sith clan serve Emperor?>

Her hands curl. She has never been one to fixate on ambition, plot her advancement, but this is more than an opportunity. This is... everything. “Yes. Always. And as long as I breathe, so do you.” The Talz rumbles his assent, following her up the ramp to the ship. It only takes scarce minutes to explain his presence and get everything settled, but even that feels like too long, with impatience urging her on.

“Shall I comm Darth Baras, my lord?” Quinn asks, and she doesn’t even hesitate.

“Not yet – I have another task to take care of before we’re through here. Tell me what you know about Voss.”

The Dark Heart is aptly named. Even with the Voss healer’s protection on her, she’s never set foot in a place so potently steeped in the dark side before. The tombs on Korriban, the temples on Dromund Kaas, they aren’t anything like this. They are places of power, channels to tap into and legacies to honour, and not once has she felt the risk of being overwhelmed. Here, though... the Force isn’t oppressive, it’s aware. Rkorya’s skin crawls, despite her best attempts to focus.

The outer wilderness was not pleasant to travel through, but at least it had warped and hungering creatures to strike down. The stone halls here are empty of any threat, and yet she’s certain that she is being watched by something powerful and malicious.

That it may do more than watch hasn’t escaped her. The silence is a calculating one, and whatever is here alongside the Voice of the Emperor hasn’t made its move only because it hasn’t decided on what to do with her yet.

She is Sith. To be observed and hunted like prey is a new feeling, and an unwelcome one – more and more, she has been the one to dread, the relentless threat that cannot be stopped or turned away. That she fears this place and whatever haunts it stings, but with fear comes anger, and with anger, strength.

Whatever awaits her, it’ll regret trying to get in her way.

By the time she reaches the centre of the temple, she’s gritting her teeth, anxious for a fight or a target, something concrete to deal with. Malice hangs heavy in the air, and it’s instinct to lash out in retaliation, but there is nothing here but emptiness and the sound of her own footsteps. When she spots the Voss Mystic kneeling patiently on the floor, she reflexively goes for her lightsaber, only faltering when she remembers what, who, she’s here for.

“So my warrior arrives,” the Mystic says, and turns around. For an instant, his presence sears itself into the Force, so vast that she lacks the means to grasp it. It’s just power pressing down on her, power unfurling like space itself, and she is caught up in it, helpless and stunned. “I am your Emperor.”

She wavers, but when Rkorya kneels, it is through choice, and not through her legs simply giving out beneath her. That is something to be proud of, surely. “Your Hand sent me to free you,” she says, once she’s caught her breath. The awe of being chosen by him is edging into absurdity, now. Her master, her enemies, her overseer, they all spoke of her strength, that inevitably she would one day be one of the most powerful Sith in the galaxy, but that vaunted strength must seem so small to him.

“And you shall.” He gestures, and she slowly rises to her feet, struggling to not look completely overwhelmed. “It was your master who trapped me here, years ago, and so it is fitting that his apprentice will be the one to free me from this prison. Unless you owe Baras some shred of loyalty?”

It has the sound of an idle accusation, a test, but she stiffens anyways. “Darth Baras sees me as his enforcer and his pawn, nothing more. He’s given me no reason to deserve my loyalty. But my life has always belonged to the Empire. To you.”

He laughs – a quiet sound, but abrupt in this ancient, echoing place. “You have been wasted with that grasping fool.” The Voice studies her for a moment, the scrutiny almost uncomfortable. There is no reflection of who he truly is in those faceted eyes, the smooth expression. If she dismisses her memory of the power he showed, the fact that he so easily ignores the feeling of the Force here, she might have taken him for an ordinary Voss. “I tire of this galaxy, of my empire’s petty struggles in its search for conquest. Yet even now, it still produces something of worth.”

For once, Rkorya doesn’t need to strive for feigned humility or bite back an impulse to speak out of turn. In his presence, it is easier to stay silent, and the Voice clearly does not expect her input.

“Draw your lightsaber and strike this vessel down. When I return, my Hand will contact you.” He smiles, the expression strangely distant.

“After all, such devotion to your Emperor should be rewarded.”

“Are you sure about this?” Vette asks, as Quinn plugs in the coordinates the Hand sent her. It’ll put them somewhere in wild space, at the edges of what either the Empire or the Republic have mapped. There shouldn’t be anything out there, but after Voss, she’s not inclined to doubt the Hand’s directions. “I mean, it’s not too late to turn around and head back to Dromund Kaas.”

“I somehow don’t think Baras will be forgiving of my accidentally freeing the Voice and ignoring his orders. One way or another, I won’t be his apprentice for much longer.” But Vette has good reason to not sound thrilled about this, and she shakes her head, trying to ignore her own impatience for a moment. “But just because I intend to see this through doesn’t mean you have to. Tell me where you’d like to go, and I’ll see you have everything you need for a new start. That goes for all of you,” she says, looking her strange, ragged crew over.

“Woah, wait, that’s not what I meant! I mean, I’m not a fan of all the Sith craziness, but... this is the steadiest that my life’s ever been. I’m not passing that up.”

“It’s as you said, my lord – Darth Baras will not look kindly on you or your allies, after this. I believe I’ll take my chances at your side,” Quinn says, looking up from the console to meet her eyes for a moment.

“Not that I like to agree with the Captain on much, but he’s right. Serving with you’s been an honour, and it’s one I want to continue,” Pierce adds.

“I’m with you until the end, master.” That’s Jaesa, quiet but undeniably fervent, flaring with conviction.

Out of all of them, Broonmark has the fewest reasons to stay, has been the least affected by her sudden departure from Baras’ plans. The Talz shrugs when she eyes him. <We swore life to Sith clan. Where Sith go, we will follow.>

Their dedication warms her. That she deserves power and recognition has never been in question, but Rkorya did not expect to gather this haphazard group to her, let alone be rewarded with loyalty as strong as her own. Whatever comes, they are her people. She will do what she can to protect them.

“Thank you,” she says, and then lifts her chin, dispensing with sentiment. “Then let’s not waste any more time.”

The ship emerges from hyperspace smoothly, and Rkorya hisses at her first look at wild space – vast and devoid of anything of importance, not even a planet or star system nearby to make this sector of wild space worth visiting. For a moment, they drift, and she hesitates, not wanting to doubt. “The coordinates –”

“They’re correct, my lord. I checked them three times. This must be –”

Then the ships arrive, gliding out of hyperspace in a synchronized, glittering array, and she hears Vette gasp behind her. She’s never seen their like before, pointed edges and sleek lines, lined up so neatly that surely the pilots would barely be able to move from position. It’s an impressive display, meant to intimidate, and she hates that it works. There’s no chance of escape, not from this many ships, and she doesn’t intend to sacrifice her ship and crew trying.

“They’re hailing us, my lord.”

“Put it through,” she says, hands curling into fists. What did the Hand intend? What was this?

“Welcome, outlanders.” The fleet’s commander is unfamiliar to her, his Basic spoken with a trace of an accent she doesn’t recognize. “You have been expected.”

“Who are you?” she snaps. “I was sent here by the Emperor’s Hand – who do you serve?”

“Come with us, and all your questions will be answered. His Glorious Majesty, Emperor Valkorion, welcomes you to his Eternal Empire, Zakuul.”

[techdomes]

  At its core, Insomniac Games’ new adventure strives to make you feel like Spider-Man. And, thankfully, Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 succeeds at nearly every swing across Manhattan’s rooftops. I was left delighted at nearly every step of its 15-hour adventure thanks to a surprisingly deep tale that mines the plights of both Spider-Man and Peter Parker to great emotional success. Underpinning that engrossing narrative is an excellent set of webswinging mechanics, which — combined with fun gadgets and plenty of puns — makes for thrilling action in both the massive setpieces and in the quiet, confined corridors of tense sequences. Insomniac’s first foray into the realm of Marvel superheroes is a continually exciting adventure whose open world and combat are only occasionally caught up in a web of overly familiar trappings. Swinging around feels, quite simply, spectacular. There’s a small learning curve, but after getting comfortable with the basics, it’s nearly effortless to make Spider-Man look graceful in every swing, leap, and lunge. And man does it feel good to find the right mix of jumping, crawling, web zipping, and wall running.

I’ve spent hours just soaring around the skyscrapers of New York City, testing the momentum of my swings to find just the right point to gain an extra boost of speed, or leaping off the Avengers Tower to test how close to the ground I could fall, just to swing out in the nick of time. Similar to how God of War’s Leviathan Axe felt so good to throw around, Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man’s swinging mechanic, enhancing it with additional moves like a focal point webzip that allowed me to turn any ledge, beam, or satellite tower into a jumping off point to continue my non-stop movement. Open-world traversal hasn’t been this smooth since Sunset Overdrive (which, not coincidentally, Insomniac also developed).

Doing What a Spider Can

And, happily, no aspect of New York’s architecture can really stop Spider-Man. Discovering how a powerful, but nimble, Spider-Man tackles fire escapes, both vertically and horizontally, or watching him slip through the metal grating of a water tower is endlessly entertaining. His animations are so detailed that no matter the obstacle, I got the sense that I could truly do whatever a Spider-Man could.

That was surprisingly true of indoor locations, too. The main story missions often took me into large-scale interiors, sometimes for light puzzle solving, and occasionally for stealthy takedown scenarios. For anyone who’s played the Batman: Arkham franchise, the framework is largely the same: enter a room, avoid being detected, and use a mix of gadgets and (relatively) quiet web takedowns to take down the crowd.

Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man’s wonderful webswinging.

These stealth scenarios perfectly highlight Spider-Man’s talents — especially his love for designing gadgets. There’s a methodical thrill to plotting out the order I wanted to web up enemies, whether luring an enemy out toward me for a stealth takedown or by firing off a web trap that would stick them to a wall. There’s enough enemy variety (some react differently to your webbing than others, like big brutes that can’t be taken down as easily) that I always enjoyed the light bit of strategy these sections demanded, and would happily work my way through a dozen more.

Of course, Spidey gets up close and personal with foes a lot of the time, too, making for combat that’s equally fun, if a little slow to show its true depth. At first, I found myself pretty much just punching and dodging, occasionally webbing up a foe so I could focus on a more powerful baddie. But as I unlocked more skills from Spider-Man’s skill trees and gadgets, combat became an improvisational delight. After some leveling, I could pull an enemy’s gun away and smack him in the head with it, while a previously planted web trip mine strung two other enemies together. I’d then web-zip my way to a floor above me to smack an enemy off a railing while simultaneously sending a spider drone after two more foes. That balancing act consistently delivered on the powerful and fun fantasy of being Spider-Man. To be fair, Spider-Man’s combat owes a lot to the aforementioned Arkham franchise, right down to the slow-motion crunch when you take out the last baddie in a bunch, but that template is sped up dramatically in order to take advantage of Spidey’s nimble nature.

That feeling of fluid movement only falters during boss battles. Insomniac throws in some big and exciting boss fights full of tense action. They’re sparingly involved, as many of the more fascinating setpieces of the story don’t involve one-on-one fights. But because the adventure is both front and back-loaded with boss fights, there’s an odd lull devoid of huge bouts right in the middle of the story. That’s not inherently bad, especially as a lot of great character work is done in the second act alongside those blockbuster action sequences. But because the first couple of bosses boil down to round-based pattern recognition, they felt a bit simple and rote. Unfortunately, that becomes pretty noticeable with the huge gap in major villain encounters. Still, there are some smart and fun twists in boss battles toward the end of the campaign to look forward to.

The combat and gadgets fulfill the fun and powerful fantasy of being Spider-Man.

The variation in Spider-Man’s fighting style and inventive gadget arsenal — which is hardly a surprise given Insomniac’s knack for wacky weapon wheels in series like Ratchet & Clank — is also extended to Spider-Man’s wardrobe. His portable closet of unlockable Spidey suits all come with their own powers. Each power can be used independently of the outfit once unlocked, which is a godsend. It’s a joy to swap among some of the unexpected late-game duds, though I’ve become quite fond of this Spider-Man’s new main suit. That said, I largely relied on the first couple of powers for almost the entire campaign. The singular power to fill out your focus meter for special finishers or to restore health from Peter’s white-spider costume was so consistently useful that I didn’t want to give it up, and I never felt like the world encouraged me to use the others. Swapping between mods to adapt to specific side challenges — like one that could prevent my combo counter from immediately resetting with each hit — was always more useful than swapping between different abilities.

  Concrete Jungle

Spider-Man’s New York is an absolute blast to swing around, in part thanks to how gorgeous the shiny skyscrapers of the city look. Spider-Man does have its graphical hiccups — for example, the faces of Peter and other key characters are spectacularly animated while less notable characters are flat and often out of sync with dialogue. But its New York City is undeniably gorgeous, particularly on a PS4 Pro. Swinging around at dusk as the calm oranges of the setting sun hit the reflective glass of New York’s skyscrapers at just the right angle evoked some of the most calming, zen-like gameplay sessions I’ve experienced in awhile.

Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t offer a a 1:1 recreation of New York City, but most of the key landmarks — including my old apartment — are recreated faithfully. Neighborhoods have distinct enough character to be discernible as I swung from one to the next. Yes, certain aspects of the city, like water towers or certain building fronts, can start to feel repetitive. But Insomniac has done a pretty great job of capturing the city’s look with the sheen I’d expect for a world full of superheroes and super science.

That feeling is only magnified by the score. Spider-Man’s main theme recalls the triumphant horns of the MCU Avengers score, rising at just the right moments as I raced to stop a crime or to save some locale from a villain’s evil plot. Outside of the main campaign, there are dozens of other side objectives scattered throughout the city, which add another 15-20 hours of exploring, though my enjoyment of them varied greatly. I was never outright bored by any task, but some were reused so often that I found myself running through the motions of scenarios I once found exciting. The fourth or fifth time you figure out how to take on a horde of enemies committing a crime or fend off waves of enemies at an outpost is still entertaining — the fortieth is much less so. It dilutes what starts as a fun, heroic act into a repetitive, going-through-the-motions activity that often had a knack for popping up just as I was making my way to a major story mission. Outside of stopping those optional crimes, Taskmaster’s tough combat, race, and stealth challenges kept me coming back for better scores. And though finding landmarks and backpacks encouraged me to hit every corner of the city, the activity itself was pretty easy. Peter outside of his suit can also engage in a couple science minigames, one of which is essentially the pipe challenge from the original BioShock. I have a soft spot for that type of puzzle activity, but their inclusion contributes to some of the campaign’s odd pacing issues. They’re introduced just after your first real taste of being Spider-Man, and then interrupt the action anytime Spider-Man needs to do something science-related within the story.

The brilliance of what the world could have been can be seen in a handful of brilliant side missions. One tied nicely into the main story, culminating in an optional boss fight. Another suite of tasks forced me to actually have a good sense of New York’s neighborhoods. These sidequests helped bring the world of Spider-Man and its open New York City to life — I just wish a few more of them cleverly gave the world and my actions more significance.

Update: A day-one patch for Spider-Man has introduced a wonderful photo mode to the experience. It feels like the next evolution of photo modes before it, being so bespoke to Spidey himself. Being able to create comic book covers or panels is a delightful twist, and effectively allows you to create your own Spider-Man comic books should you want to.

Slow-Spinning Redemption

Thankfully, the story consistently delivers that sense of weight and impact, albeit after a somewhat slow start. Insomniac’s Spider-Man is one who has a history in this world, and it feels earned thanks to smart integration of familiar villains rather than throwing them at the screen for the sake of fan service. The script allows time for the central villains (and Peter’s relationship to them) to believably develop, making for some emotionally powerful scenes toward the end that definitely had me misty eyed on a couple of occasions.

I appreciated Insomniac’s surprising amount of restraint when it came to villains, but I loved the focus it put on Peter Parker and his relationships even more. I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too.

I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too.

Peter’s story is one of mentorship, smartly showing how he can simultaneously look up to one mentor, while becoming one, too. That dichotomy offers Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal a chance to convey Peter’s various facets, and he does so with an emotional honesty that made this version of the Spider-Man one of my favorites on screen. Peter is someone who can succeed while he makes mistakes, and that juxtaposition offers a wealth of relatable material that carried me through much of Spider-Man’s story.

I won’t spoil Miles’ part in the adventure, but I enjoyed his inclusion and, thanks to a charming performance, I was as endeared to him as I was to Peter.

Spider-Man’s story is as captivating as anything the MCU has offered

Perhaps most of all, though, I loved Peter and Mary-Jane’s relationship. It’s well-trod territory, but Insomniac injects new life into it, in part thanks to Spidey and MJ actors Lowenthal and Laura Bailey’s performances. These are two people who have a history together, and watching them try to figure out what future they have, if any — as friends, coworkers, or more — is an absolute joy to watch.

A number of Peter and MJ’s scenes feel instantly relatable, from the two having their first dinner in months together, navigating whether they’re comfortable with one another, to Peter trying not to lose his cool over a misinterpreted text. It’s one of my favorite romances in a game ever, and contributes to a story with personal stakes as captivating — and often much more — as anything the MCU (and most superhero movies) has delivered.

The Verdict

I wanted Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 to make me feel like Spider-Man: To sail between the highrises of New York City, to nimbly web up hordes of enemies, and tussle with familiar, animal-themed villains. Insomniac Games’ first foray into the world of Marvel handily delivers on all of that. But what I didn’t expect from Spider-Man was to come away feeling just as fulfilled to have inhabited the life of Peter Parker. Aside from a few odd pacing issues, which momentarily took me out of the experience of being a superhero, and a world of optional missions that don’t always quite live up to the heft of the main story, Insomniac has delivered a Spider-Man story that both surprised and delighted me, coupled with gameplay that made me feel like Spider-Man nearly every step of the way. The Wall Crawler’s open world doesn’t consistently deliver the thrilling moments of its main campaign, but the foundation laid here is undoubtedly a spectacular one.

                         TechDomes Score: 10

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Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 Review