What makes Sekiro my favourite FromSoft game is the more condencsed focus in the combat system. Gone are the RPG mechanics and hundreds of equipment pieces. Instead the game aims to create a superior battle system that still plays to the FromSoft trope of memorizing opponets movements and timings. In most fromsoft games the combat feels very turnbased. You wait for the enemy to complete their strings of attacks and when an opening occurs you make an attack. Even with all of the builds and options most players ultimately fall into this same motion. Sekiro is very much the same however instead of your only defensive option being to dodge roll and block, this game adds a whole host of engaging defensive options. Enemies can have seemingly endless strings and still be a blast to engage with due to how much more fun the combat system is for this kind of gameplay. Additionally this game makes mastering its combat system feel so much more rewarding and satisfying with the constant feedback you are given in combat, each succesful parry brings you closer to victory in a way dodge rolls simply don't. That being said there are some elements of this game that feel as though they are fairly halfbaked. The dragonrot and death system as a whole is pretty meaningless, and the means by which you engage with it are far less meaningful. The soul recovery system in dark souls actually tangibly effects your moment-to-moment descision making, where I feel its easy to forget you lose anything in Sekiro for dying due to the skill tree barely mattering. I feel the game may have been better suited by simply stripping out all rpg mechanics. Overall this is a brillant action game that may disappoint fans expecting something like darks souls. If the part you liked about previous Fromsoft games was the rpg elements and the build theorycrafting, Sekiro may not be for you. If on the other hand you liked mastering enemy strings and tough boss encounters then I cannot reccomend this game strongly enough.
I'm speaking about the game as someone with no history with this series. So just keep in mind I'm not criticizing it as a remake, I'm criticizing it as a modern game I paid full price for. That preamble out of the way the game is decent but entirely unspecial and unoriginal. All cover shooting was basic, with linear shooting galleries, and nothing original to bring to the table. The driving was likewise serviceable, but nothing special or original, unless your idea of originality extends to driving old cars. The presentation was fairly strong, mostly in regards to the gorgeous soundtrack. The story was surprisingly decent, I appreciated the way the narrative was stretched out over a number of years which kept the narrative feeling a little more grounded what with all the shootouts and car chases. It also allowed for some pretty impressive character development in what was a fairly lean game. That being said it's not necessarily so strong that it deserves super high praise and the ending felt abrupt in some ways. This is the kind of game that I will forget I played in a couple of months due to it not being particularly great or terrible, and due to it doing very little that hasn't been done to death in this industry. My favorite thing about this game is the setting and theme. I recommend this game only if you are really vibing with the theme and still find joy in these factory made style of gameplay systems.
The focus on cultural norms and folklore is such a great idea! The best thing I can say about this game is that I found it genuinely educational. Beyond that it really is a nothing game. I would best describe it as a first person point and click adventure game with horror atmosphere and vibes. Each scenario has multiple endings, and your choices and how you navigate the scenario effects these endings. it is really hard to get into this game with how repetitive it quickly becomes, and how poorly translated much of the text is in this very text heavy game. It's a novel idea, but not one done very well. Still if it is even remotely interesting to you check it out, it's cheap and foreign indie devs are some of the most unseen and unsuccessful sadly.
Significantly worse than Yakuza 0 despite ripping most of its assets from it. The story, despite being maybe half as long as 0 is somehow more padded out with totally unnecessary tangents. The game has practically no new mini games from 0 but also omits some of the better ones from 0 as well. The side stories here are all variations of "man tries to rip off Kiryu, Kiryu beats him up, man runs and apologizes". And the combat system here is the exact same with a couple of minor additions, Dragon Style restructuring and changes to certain attack properties. Overall the combat system is on par but missing the extra variety Majima added to the game. The true problem with the combat is that there are very few new enemy types from Yakuza 0 and more offensively the bosses here are a huge step down most of the time. There are a handful of really good bosses in this game, but many of the bosses have poorly fleshed out move sets which are embarrassingly easy to exploit one on one. To make up for this the game spams a massive amount minor enemies into every bad boss fight to distract from how half baked the boss is. This makes many bosses a repetitive slog on higher difficulties because you must pick off distant foes one by one before you can begin fighting the actual boss. This becomes ludicrous with the second to last boss who is perhaps the worst boss design I've seen in a game. Many will try to defend this by recommending exploitable strategies, but the fact that a large expressive move set has to be boiled down to only the most cheap and exploitable tactics for this boss fight is only more evidence of its astonishingly poor design. All that being said I don't hate this game but I find it very disappointing. It is both a sequel to 0 and a remake of the original Yakuza game. Maybe it is more commendable as a remake but as a follow up to 0 it feels like a massive step down. I only recommend picking it up if you are a major Yakuza fan, this is not the ideal introductory title
A big improvement from the first game. The combat has seen a number a great improvements, namely more unique and satisfying combat encounters and some truly awesome boss designs. The game also has some remarkably well aged cutscenes. The game is quite fun, but it and a lot of the series is brought down by the stop and start pacing that cuts off the angry brutal violence so that Kratos can solve a bunch of fairly brainless puzzles a child could solve.
The set pieces, presentation and bosses hold this game together. It's a fun little spin off, but it's really nothing special. The combat plays the same as God Of War (2005) which is to say it's fairly simple leaning heavily on its constituent elements
A competent metroidvania with a good mix of levels and satisfying combat trials. The game looks gorgeous and has a beautiful soundtrack. The rpg elements on the other hand are subpar, there's a decent amount of customization but I can't help but wish the game opted for a less restrictive system that would allow you to use all of the abilities and weapons for more experimentation. As it is with the leveling system and upgrade system you're likely to stick by the playstyle you set out for yourself in the opening hour. Still the game is worth picking up if you are a fan of this genre as it is most definitely a quality experience and the afterlife update and dlc does even more to refine and tighten the experience, even if the newly introduced story elements miss the mark and dilute the impact of the original games ending.
This game just about breaks even with the second game in quality for me. There are many satisfying set pieces, in fact maybe a couple more than UC2 and the characters still remain charming and endearing. However this is pretty much the same story and basic game as UC2. This is a sequel that simply plays it safe for the most part. The gameplay sees a bunch of minor improvements, the biggest being the much larger array of guns in any given environment, allowing you to switch between a larger arsenal on the fly. But sadly even with these improvements the game feel is off, bullet impact animations have been greatly reduced and sometimes you will find yourself firing at an enemy who receives no hit stun, making some of the guns feel weaker in this game. Also the enemy AI occasionally hiccups in major ways that I never found in my brief experience with UC2. overall though this is roughly the same experience as UC2. Overindulgent boring climbing sequences, cookie cutter macguffin plot riddled with holes, charming characters, exciting set pieces, serviceable gameplay. It's enjoyable but nothing special in my opinion.
A brilliant survival horror game and a great sequel to boot. Fear and Hunger 2 is very similar to the original but also has enough differences to truly carve its own identity from it. The game taps into the appeal of most great survival horror games exceptionally well with the biggest difference being the fact that the needle is less in the players favor and the game is more likely to soft lock you for poor survival decisions. This is bound to make this game divisive for many people but I wouldn't have it any other way. The save system truly exemplifies this point. Due to the games hard timer you are only allotted 8 guaranteed saves and every time you save you may be missing out on party members and events. For some this will cause massive frustration as you will feel pushed to tackle an ambitious amount of content before dying horribly and needing to redo a couple hours of content, however for myself and others this creates the friction and tension which makes the experience so engaging. This isn't just about the save system, multiple systems in this game operate like this and as such I would never describe this game as being for everyone, however thanks to an easy mode and somewhat less brutal learning curve I will say this game is a much more accessible leap from the original game. I highly recommend this game to any survival horror fans. The map design here is brilliant, most of the survival systems work very well and constantly push you to consider resources and runs, and the unique blend of inspirations comes together to create a truly unique experience out the other end. I've heard some people describe it as a great game you shouldn't play. But I disagree! I think it's fun much in the same way any other classic survival horror game is and doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the likes of Pathologic 1 which really wasn't a good game. I truly believe this deserves to be recognized along with the classics of this genre.
Xenosaga 2 is a light improvement over the original. The combat system is more focused and leads to some genuinely enjoyable boss encounters. The presence of music outside of cutscenes is a serious improvement and something the series never should have gotten wrong. And the story here feels waaaay less blatantly padded out and the game does a much better job at attempting to flesh out the original games flat characters. With all that said it's still not very good, is quite often boring, and with each babystep improvement it's counterbalanced with exacerbated problems . The game still suffers from a terrible encounter design for non boss fights, in fact with the new combat system these general encounters are even worse and feel even more padded out and repetitive. As the scope of the story broadens it becomes even more convoluted and incomprehensible (this series has an obsession with poorly thought out acronyms). And the largest egregious back peddle from the original is the terrible voice work. The original game had stilted/dated vocal delivery but this game is on a whole other level with some of the replaced voice cast and new characters. That all being said I am thankful for the shorter length, still a very mediocre JRPG, but at least one with a more reasonable length.
One of the most obtuse and inaccessible games ever. Most core mechanics are not given straightforward explanations, this is a game where you the player must intuit the rules of this world on your own and failure will be inevitable and occur often. The game is full of obscure situational interactions, very reminiscent of a Souls title but far more obtuse and with a much smaller community with far less information circulating around out there. To make this game even more inaccessible it deals in very dark and mature subject matter. Take the content warnings dead serious with this game. If this stuff sounds unappealing to you than this game is just not for you. This is definitely a game with limited appeal. This game is a great mix of survival horror, meets JRPG. The balance is far more cruel than most survival horror games and is generally unconcerned if poor performance leads to soft locking a run. What helps however is the game is very short without many redundant encounters, redoing old progress becomes very fast and often due to how obtuse many elements are, you will find yourself making new discoveries even when repeating previous runs. The games RNG elements and selectable characters also greatly assist the replayability of this game. Honestly this is one of the most novel experiences I've had with a game in a hot minute. The creator has created something truly unique here and there's a lot of room for improvement. If you are like me and love feeling rewarded by learning and digging into the guts ****, this game is perfect for that. It is very very difficult but can become very very easy simply based on your knowledge and understanding of the game and it's rules. It does an even better job than the survival horror greats at making you feel exceptionally rewarded for learning the game and motivating multiple runs to discover more of this games obtuse world and corners. This is perhaps the most novel survival horror/JRPG experience I've encountered. Give it a try if all this sounds interesting to you. I have a good few minor complaints of tiny elements with the mechanics that I don't think work perfectly or could use some improvement (For instance bed saves are less of a survival decision with upsides and downsides and more of a RNG nuisance that only scares at early game when you are most ignorant of what will happen)
Perhaps the worst ever character action game. The combat and game feel is terrible. Almost every enemy in the game has some baffling exploit and blind spots. This deserves it's black sheep status and we are lucky this didn't murder this classic franchise.
Complete piece of garbage and bad in every imaginable way. This game is even stronger evidence of how bad the upper management at current day Square is. The combat is terrible. The story is terrible. You can tell two very different teams directed the live action segments and the gameplay sections. These two parts feel horribly unwound. You get the sense the gameplay team had to construction gameplay sequences around already directed footage. The game in this game was clearly not its top priority.
Interesting story, great presentation and awesome atmosphere! The problem is that this game gets terrible fast as soon as you learn that there is no fail state and that the game will continue to push you forwards if you fail. This **** all the tension out of the experience and the game devolves into a complete chore. The story also fails in its goals by the end. I really don't recommend this game. It's very rare I find myself so into something and than so upset with it in such a short completion time.
The gameplay here is extremely restrictive. You are often forced to do things a very particular way, and should you not you will run into very sharp difficulty spikes. The game makes you feel like an actor following a script and not a player in a simulated scenario. This already kills it for me but what makes this game even worse is how horribly stupid our main characters are in every situation. This game is just chockfull of characters making aggravatingly stupid decisions constantly and if you're someone like me who gets really bothered by this than you will hate this game. And I don't mean stupid decisions that is understandable for the characters to make, no I mean that they make purposefully dumb decisions that no human being would ever make, undeveloped or otherwise, just to justify the next scenario. And in the end it is in service of a terrible story which truly fly's off the goddamn rails at the end. Not really sure what it is I'm supposed to see in this game besides a strong presentation.
A JRPG with pretty much nothing going for it aside from a stellar soundtrack and some occasionally satisfying puzzles. The combat is extremely basic and repetitive. You will likely cycle the same set of actions throughout the entire game. The story is extremely dull, made up of forgettable non characters. And the encounter design is weak and repetitive. This is the definition of a podcast game.
Playing this game without walkthrough is like trying to pull your own teeth out with tweezers. There are many puzzles here with confusing nonsensical sequencing and peak moon logic. This game does a fantastic job bringing back to the era of the point in click adventure game. That is to say tediously pixel hunting the environment and testing every combination of item and character/object to hopefully progress the game in some very obtuse way. The story of this game starts interesting enough but I'll just say the ending and back half of the story is so terrible that it murders any goodwill the game may have garnered up until that point. Don't play this game. If you must don't be a fool like me and just grab a walkthrough for the entire thing
The gameplay here is the weakest in any RE action title. And don't get it twisted this is an RE action title through and through. The attempts to pass off as some kind of Survival Horror game is pathetic. The game doesn't really know what it wants to be and ends up being a weak 3rd person shooter and a terrible survival horror game if you can really even pretend to call it one.
This game is very very short and yet still manages to get repetitive and dull. The subversions here hardly work because the game immediately blows its own load before you even played for five minutes. It's not terrible but there's no reason to play this instead of Daniel Mullians other games.
There is some fun to be had playing Wolfenstein style combat with a friend. However the game feels like it's doing everything in its power to undercut its own potential. The open world and live service elements are terrible. The leveling system is such a bad addition. The game is a blatant attempt to force the Wolfenstein fanbase onto the live service hamster wheel. It can be decent fun but it's deserving of its black sheep status and probably never should have been made. BJ and his daughters deserve better
The core of this game is fun and has a lot of potential. Sadly this game just feels way too unfinished and needlessly repetitive. The attempt at a live service game with so little content actually on offer is terrible. The game would have been much better with a handful of custom designed maps to create a fun campaign style experience. In the end it's a very weak attempt at a Dead By Daylight style live service game
very mediocre JRPG. The game tries to do many different things with it's combat system which does help it stand out however for the most part it feels very unfocused. The combat is occasionally satisfying but is held back largely by the dated JRPG approach to encounter design which will have you doing the same set of long drawn out animated moves over and over again on the same set of trivial non encounters. The story is a little interesting but it is unforgivable how little actually happens in the span **** JRPG. It feels blatantly drawn out for a sequel. Lastly the presentation here is pretty good but is shockingly undercut by the lack of any environmental music. This is a baffling terrible decision that ends up contributing to a dull play experience.
This game is just an infinity engine dungeon crawler with very little story. The problem? Well the infinity engine combat is really dated and obtuse. Even when you take the time to understand these games poorly communicated rulesets you still aren't left with a particularly interesting tactical combat experience. This is poison to a game like this that leans entirely onto those aspects. This is a dated game propped up largely by infinity engine nostalgia.
This game is baffling. The combat system has seen a number of notable additions which really creates a unique 3rd person shooter like nothing else out there. It really shines on certain Mercenaries maps especially. However the enemy designs, lack of satisfying bullet impact and truly terrible main campaign severely hold this game back. The game is a wild ride for sure and lots of ironic entertainment can be derived from the hilariously bad story, bafflingly weird campaign sections and the co-op so you can laugh with a friend. That being said this is a bad game, and a major step down from the other action RE titles.
A weird game with okay combat. The multiplayer here is interesting asymmetrical co-op which is fun mostly because of the novelty and not by the strength of the design. The game just doesn't offer much and is overall just a mediocre title. It feels a like a major step down from other action RE titles like RE5 and RE4. The ways it pretends it's some kind of pseudo survival horror game is very funny and obvious lip service. If you pick this up just know you are buying another action RE title
The story here is dumb and gets worse the more you actually think about it, the combat is serviceable, but lacks many of the set pieces or interesting shooting galleries' that later games have, and the game is bogged down by really basic uninteresting climbing sections which are supposed to provide low points before more shootouts. The biggest thing going for the game is the very charming characters
Wasteland 2 offers some pretty fun and salifying team building and fun little combat system. Unfortunately the game is dragged down by the bizarre sequencing issues, bugs and weak quest designs.
This game is an oddity. It is possible with Re Mind to alter the combat system, turn up the difficulty and to find a satisfying action game experience. However, the base game combat has way too many cinematic auto attacks that take control away from the player at every other moment, making the game jump from cinematic to cinematic until the fighting is done. The game looks great and feels great and those two facts may mask how utterly simplistic and repetitive the combat is for some. I really enjoyed my time with this game but it required an entire expansion just to make my own fun which doesn't sit right with me. Also in case you're wondering KH storytelling is still hilariously terrible
The game looks great and the setting is very well realized with a great atmosphere. There are many design decisions that work to make you feel like you are a part of this time and place. The immersion here is the main focus and when this game works it works exceptionally well. However the combat is just terrible, the side content is often very weak and even the main content has some incredibly slow tedious sections. The main story also takes forever and leads nowhere. There's no satisfying payoffs in the end and altogether the best way to describe this game is a well intentioned chore
Charming little game with a real heart. Unfortunately there's really not much to it's shallow gameplay elements and by the end of even one normal playthrough the game starts becoming pretty repetitive.
This game can be addictive but for a roguelike there's simply not enough content to stop it from getting repetitive really quickly. Also the end of a successful run is often the game at it's least enjoyable since your engagement or participation as a player becomes entirely unnecessary.
The game has some great ideas and an admirable amount of replay value. The execution however leaves a lot to be desired. The combat is mediocre, the writing and roleplay dialogue is mediocre and the presentation is just downright ugly. Still given how unique it is it's certain to attract certain types who really get on with this games design decisions since there's really no one else offering a better alternative.
The progression system can lead to some very fun character builds, the presentation is pretty good and the story can be pretty fun. However this game is unbearably repetitive. The gunplay is also especially weak and only becomes a little satisfying with higher level builds. The early sections of this game play terribly for a FPS title and to be honest this game is just not very good. There is an addictive quality inherent to it in the same style as most diablo likes, however I don't dig with hamster wheels and there are just so many better fps games out there.
Very basic unspecial platformer. Provides some fun fan service to SpongeBob fans, but the gameplay is utterly forgettable with a move set that has pretty much 0 potential for experimentation or satisfying skips, and levels which are not especially strong for the most part.
Essentially just an expansion to Dishonored 2. It can be fun just like the other Dishonored titles and fans of the series will probably like it but it's a little egregious how much content and assets are reused from Dishonored 2.
The combat and encounter designs are decently fun. The story is quite fun and has many satisfying twists and turns. The open world structure is interesting and has some very well fleshed out mini games and subsystems. This game makes for a very great entry point to this bizarre series. It's a variety show with lots of personality and quirks. If I had a major complaint it would be with the overly repetitive JRPG esc random encounters that dot the environment just to slow you down and make sure you've seen every combat animation so many times that it becomes drilled into your memory
The game is one of the most charming PS2 platformers without contest. The presentation is great and there's many great touches that bring the world to life. Unfortunately the platforming itself is subpar. The game has the tightest/best platforming sections in the series but that's not saying much. The game is still a neat experience, but there's a lot of room for improvement
This game is pretty fun especially with second player. There are some pretty fun sequences and shooting galleries'. The combat is unique in the same way as RE4 and has some pretty satisfying animations to compliment your weapon fire. Unfortunately this game is longer than it needs to be and there are some notably poorly designed sections.
Very fun at first. The 2D shooting is very fast paced and enjoyable. Unfortunately there's really not much more to the game after the first few hours and it ends up becoming pretty stale. It's still a decent game, but it could have been much better with a more condensed completion time
Some interesting subversions and the story does a decent job at holding onto attention and making interesting meta commentary, The gameplay itself is a collage of styles, none of which has much too it. The variety stops it from growing stale. But even so in the end the game does not feel like anything all that special.
When played with someone else this can be a fun little guilty pleasure. The game is cheesy and has some satisfying sequences. Unfortunately it's gameplay is mostly QTE's and usually meaningless choices. It has no replay value, because even though the game has multiple end states. actually changing these involves playing the same sequences over and over with minorly different decisions which don't really add up to much
An absolute bonkers game with some surprisingly effective sequences and chase segments. Unfortunately this game drags hard in the back half. The game gets quite repetitive and there's very little to it beyond some fairly basic elements. Still with how absolutely unhinged this game is it's quite fun to play ironically.
Dark souls 2 is a very mixed bag of quality. Some sections, areas and enemies are pretty well designed. But other parts are truly terrible. You can never know what to expect on a first playthrough. The games combat system also just feels off compared to DS1. Easily the worst Fromsoft souls like game. It's an absolute mess of an experience. But with all that said there is some fun to be had with this mess.
An alright game. Workshopping your defense's with a friend can be great fun but actually babysitting your towers can feel pretty slow on long waves and the game is greatly harmed by the utterly obnoxious diablo loot system. Trying to sort through hundreds of pieces of equipment becomes the other half of the game
An alright game with some good combat, great bosses/enemies and alright level design. The things holding it back are its garbage story, bad and overly confusing progression system, and some of it's level design is incredibly weak. It also simply doesn't have enough unique enemy types to last its overly long completion time. This game would have been twice as good if it were half as long
Decent game with a fun concept that works really well at first. Unfortunately there's really not very much to this game and even in it's short completion time it still manages to get pretty repetitive. I honestly want a lot more even from a game this short and cheap
The game is held down by many different things, a poor single player experience with a very short completion time, a tediously grindy unlock system just to get basic moves and a fairly inactive community. That being said there's something to this games combat system. It is super fun and unique and makes for an interesting fighting game experience. Unfortunately unlocking this experience is downright ridiculous.
A fun classic PS2 action game. The set pieces here are pretty fun and the theme and presentation really elevate it. Unfortunately the combat is rather basic, but still enjoyable. It leans heavily on the sheer satisfaction of ripping enemies apart with your basic combos.
As an expansion to Wolfenstein: The New Order this is a fun little game with some memorable set pieces and shooting galleries. I recommend it to reboot Wolfenstein fans, but it must be mentioned that this game has a notable lack of memorable set pieces when compared to the other mainline games and the zombies make for a really forgettable enemy type.
The game is decently fun. The combat system is fine and most of the enemy designs do a great job of bringing it to life. Unfortunately the level design is only decent, dragged down by tedious platforming/puzzle sections and a lack of boss encounters.
