While this game is a lot of ****, it's well written and requires thought in its gameplay that Burst Renewal doesn't have. Enemies disrupt combo loops meaning that the easy option is nearly never the correct option. It's a hack and slash that requires you to take your time and properly corner your opponent so you can earn your gauge moves and destroy your opponent's, admittedly inflated, HP gauge. Unlike with Burst Renewal I had to constantly strategise and ration my gauge in order to deal the most damage.
The story itself was also another step up from Burst Renewal with a more coherent story and better character writing.
Overall this is a step forward for the first game in every way.
Gonna be honest, it's peak Shantae (excluding the final boss, that was pure ass) but the pacing was all over the place, this game feels really short despite being 6 hours long, there's only 3 main dungeons in comparison to the 5 in Pirate's Curse and 4 in the original Shantae, there's no final challenge dungeon, with the final stretch of the game only being the final boss, even the original Shantae got that right. There's no sense of finality with this game's pacing which kinda ruins the whole experience for me. It's still Shantae, but ironically (considering its the finished version of the cancelled second entry), the entire thing feels unfinished, as if the game was supposed to have 1 or 2 more areas to flesh out the game more. I'd recommend it for diehard fans of the series, but as a standalone title, it falls flat. It's more of a complementary piece than anything else.
Story 6/10: The story is solid this time around, going for a darker and serious storyline (almost unrecognisable from the previous trilogy), no where near the heights of the previous trilogy, especially with the characters. The cast of Atelier Yumia don't get much time to shine beyond their introductions, barring the game's protagonist, Yumia and Nina, who got a lot more love than the rest of the characters (Viktor and Isla's importance was basically shafted after the first time you meet Vesper). The story wraps its themes into the narrative really well, too. It's just a shame that most of the twists were highly predictable, or downright a given (especially with Nina's past). Gameplay: Overworld 6/10: While I enjoyed exploring the 4 vast regions of Aladiss, I couldn't help but notice the pitfall Ryza 3 fell into rearing it's ugly head again. There are too many corridors, I found myself trying to climb walls just from how boring just following the path was. Another gripe I had with it was the terrain's collision, as I would consistently get stuck on some random bit of geometry I could not see. Finally I want to talk about the pioneer effort which is an arbitrary list of objectives that feels useless when you've already got a progression system via the spots of importance. Battles 2/10: The mashy nature of Atelier Ryza 3 has gotten even worse. In Ryza 3 you used skills in different orders to achieve different effects. With Atelier Yumia it's devolved into pure mashing, dodging is inconsequential due to how strong you can get and the other stuff, like items, the battle meter and friend actions, are useless due to how easy the game already is. Not to mention how awful progression is, as one singular battle late game would instantly raise all my member's levels, even though I was 10 levels above the enemy. Synthesis 2/10: While a nice idea in concept, it quickly devolves into spamming ingots in order to get stat buffs on your equipment, gathering is useless and synthesising any other synthesis item type but cloth and ingots is an absolute WASTE of your time. After easily farming what I found to be the best item, Rainbow Puniballs, via the greenhouse, I was able to cheese my way to 5 second **** unlike Atelier Ryza it took no effort on my part to reach that point. Overall 4/10: This game's systems are extremely flawed and definitely needed my time in the oven. Visuals 4/10: While the model work is good, the bland UI and the low fidelity textures, even on High settings, really ruin it for me and make me actually question if I'm playing a 70 dollar game. Music 6/10: It's a solid soundtrack, though the only things that really kept with me were the insert songs. Overall 5/10: While a solid attempt at the first TRUE open world Atelier game it falls flat due to its stubbornness to fix the problems with Ryza 3, and worsens them in the process. The visual fidelity is NOT up to standard, especially for a 70 dollar game, looking even worse than the trilogy before it. I hope that the developers see what did work, and what didn't and work it into the new trilogy started with this entry.
Gameplay 7/10: Fun and interesting level mechanics, the level design and the way the character controls, is funnily enough, really similar to the Sonic Adventure games, which I find funny. In fact this entire game feels inspired by those games, from the more speed oriented character physics to how the level design encourages shortcuts, it was quite enjoyable when I treated it as if it was speedrun oriented (it also had a timer). However, this game is also a semi-collectathon as the -end of level- rating is completely based not on your speed, but how many collectable Origami cranes you collect. Thing is, when treating this game as if it's a collectathon it instantly feels a lot worse to play thanks to the linear level design demanding a lot of backtracking for that S rank, especially due to the multiple paths that lead you to this game's master collectable required for the True ending. Another huge gripe I have with this game is its camera, hoo boy is it bad. You'll notice in many other 3D platformers that the camera will auto-adjust itself to give the player information on where to head next or keeping the camera straight on the player when you're going through a bend or around a structure. The camera should be more curated to what the game needs the player to see at that point in time and Lunistice completely neglects to do that, which is really bad in such a linear game. Visuals 7/10 :An interesting pixelated low poly 3D model look that is done moderately well but I wish they could have done more with it, especially considering how clean the UI is in comparison, which looks completely out of place. Music 6/10: Solid tracks all around, nothing really caught my ear. Overall 7/10: This game is brought down by baffling ideas and a lack of attention to detail when it comes to player convenience, not to say it's a bad game, it was still a fun game to romp through, but that's about it
Story 7/10:
This game is less of a story and more of a set of conversations strewn together with amazing boss battles to advance the story. Despite that, I think this is the best written character dialogue I've seen in a Sonic game, which is really helped by the expressive cutscene animation that really shows off the group's relationships. The story itself was somewhat uninteresting and I found myself not really caring about the new character, Sage. The ending of the game is also somewhat anti-climactic and feels obviously rushed. Gameplay: Open zone 9/10: Open zone is really fun to just run through and is probably the best controlling Sonic in the series, my problems with it come from the overall jank of how Sonic sticks to the ground and the pop in which makes finding where to start a mini platforming challenge hard to gauge. Cyberspace 7/10: I had heard that Cyberspace was stiff, and I've seen videos of how stiff it is, but, either it was fixed in an update, or I just didn't notice, but it wasn't stiff at all, it was really fun optimising these levels for s rank. I have to talk about Final Horizon, although its a non-canon DLC, Final Horizon is not made for someone who just beat the game and requires full mastery over Sonic's controls to even be completed, especially as it throws the Sonic equivalent of Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy at you, I just did not have the patience for it and ended up not completing Final Horizon. Overall 8/10. Music 10/10: Some of the best tracks in the series, I love listening to this soundtrack, not to mention that every single Cyberspace level has its own music which is wild considering how many there are. The open world themes are also very impressive each being 30 minutes long with multiple movements. Visuals 4/10: This visual style just does not work at all in my opinion, not to mention the previously mentioned pop in. There's also textures not loading fast enough, and while the enemies do look unique they're very samey in comparison to eachother.I also have to dock points from how the mini platforming challenges are presented, they're floating platforms that just look out of place in the levels, it would have been so much better if they were integrated into the level geometry somewhat - it's possible, the game actually does this a few times. Overall 7/10: An amazingly fun game brought down by being rushed, causing some annoying jank and a lack of good looking visuals.
Story 1/10: This story is irredeemably bad, from how out of character Sonic and Tails are, they are both **** **** and so overconfident that it just makes them foolish. The Zeti were so one dimensional that is was annoying, and none of the jokes landed. The only redeeming quality is Eggman, his personality really felt like a return to form from SA2, even if he is much more aggressive than he was before. Gameplay 7/10: Sonic's controls are hard to learn but easy to master, he's really fun to control, my gripes for this game's gameplay come from the game's level design. Lost World's level design is grossly unconfident in Sonic's moveset, so much so that it refuses to teach you anything, and when it actually gives you a challenge with Sonic's parkour there's a shortcut in the form of a wisp powerup that will just let you skip it. Not to mention that these parkour sections are 9 times out of 10 above death pits (even early game), punishing you for even attempting to play the game how it was probably originally intended. However parkour itself is quite enjoyable and I would love to have it in future games. Visuals 7/10: While the game is clean and vibrant and the UI really nice looking, the problem is the resolution, despite putting the game at 1920 x 1280 the game is at 720p even in the PC port, absolutely ruining the visual's vibrancy. Music 9/10: While not distinctly 'Sonic Music' the game's soundtrack is amazing the whole way through. Overall 6/10: While Sonic's gameplay is amazing and really fun, the subpar level design, low resolution for a PC port and the **** story bring this down from the 7/10 I was thinking of giving it.I might try out some modded levels in the future.
Story 3/10: I read somewhere that this game's story feels like it was thought out in a car ride, and honestly I agree, basically no story, if anything this game would have benefited more if it just completely forgone the story, because what's here is completely unimportant to anything you'd get out from this game. Gameplay: Modern Sonic 7/10: Even though I still vastly prefer the Day stages in Unleashed, the levels in this game are really good, unfortunately, what brings this play style down for me, is surprisingly enough, the keybinds, I've died countless times to homing attacks that happened when I was just trying to jump after landing. In games like this binding multiple actions to one button is a bad idea, look at the Adventure games for instance. I don't understand why Y was just left as another jump Button when it could have easily been for homing attacks. Not to mention the inclusion of 2D segments feels redundant, if they were similar to Unleashed I probably would have bumped it up higher. Classic Sonic 9/10: Classic Sonic controls similarly to Sonic 2, and while I gave that game a 6/10, the simple fact that you can now perform a spin dash with a simple press of a button instead of having to stop, crouch and the perform the spin dash, makes Classic Sonic so fun to play as you fly through the levels. The levels themselves were really fun to optimise, as a consistently found myself preferring Classic Sonic over Modern Sonic. Overall 8/10: The game itself also had a few glitches, as I was able to consistently clip through walls and break the camera, and the final boss was one of, if not the worst in the series as I pressed the boost button while looking for rings that looked exactly like the Time Eater's particle effect. Visuals 8/10: I love the unique UI they went for, it reminds me of the Japanese box covers for the original genesis games, the game itself is also really clean visually. Music 8/10: This game consists pretty much all of remixes, and most of, if not all of them, are at least solid and are at best absolute bangers, like Classic City Escape. Overall 8/10: While I would initially give this game a 9/10, the annoyances I repeatedly had with Modern Sonic eventually knocked this down for me, fortunately, however, this is still an amazing experience from start to finish.
With my completion of Holocure's achievements, I believe I can finally give a review of this game. Ever since starting Holocure one morning after watching Gawr Gura play it in July 2022, Holocure has been a constant thing in my life for nearly 3 years now, from grinding Kronii runs during English class back in Vr 0.3, Stage 2 Hard kicking my ass, doing Irys coin farms during School Musical practice, to now, sitting in my room writing this review. Back in 2022, I had only dipped my head into the rabbit hole, and though Mori's release of her second album Sinderella made me check on it a few times, this game is the thing that made me fall in. Now then, the review. Gameplay 9/10: The variety of possible item load outs and unique characters make this game one of, if not the most re-playable experiences I've ever seen, when first starting this game, to even 50 hours in to the Steam release, I found myself constantly shocked by different weapon, item, stamp and skill synergies that worked unexpectedly well together, and the randomised nature of it all ensures that, unless you actively seek certain items, each run is different from each other. Each character has archetypes, from Healers, to hit and runners. Even when 100 hours in, each character's different skills and unique quirks changed how I approached my builds as I tested them out in my first run, attempted a build in my second and refined it in my third run, as I Gachikoi'd them. The level design and level difficulty was also thought out well as each new Stage introduces a new gimmick which the Hard version refines. The levels also encourage you to try out different characters if one doesn't work, or try new builds, the level of different ways you could approach each level was also really fun to figure out. In terms of the main gameplay, Holocure only fails at the recently added Super Collabs, added in Vr. 0.6. They're too overpowered for how little variety there is, as they either fall into 1 of 5 focuses, but it's such a little blemish on otherwise such an amazing gameplay loop, easily changed as more Super Collabs are added. Another problem I had was with the amount of weapons you could get, as I found myself artificial restricting how many weapons I could use so I could better utilise character skills. On the other side is the Holohouse and its side modes, each minigame is fairly well made, and gives a nice break in between runs, and I found the new Tower of Suffering a good side game to beat, as I had a fair amount of fun with it. The variety of minigames in the Casino is pretty nice, my only problem with it is how overpowered the slot machines were, it made the rest worthless in the long run. Visuals 10/10: The pixel art in this game is absolutely amazing and vibrant, and the UI has this great charm to it too. I also want to commemorate Kay Yu's use of texels so things such as a rotating duck sausage were pixel perfect with the surroundings, it made the visuals more consistent throughout. Music 10/10: Although they're all remixes, Eufrik did an amazing job on the soundtrack, some of my favourites being Halloween Castle and Gelora Bung Yagoo: Night, which add things that actually makes me somewhat prefer them over the original songs, Gelora Bung Yagoo: Night especially, as it is completely re-contextualised in the game. Overall 10/10: This game is a marvel of a free game, with more content, polish and replayability than many AAA games coming out currently, not to mention that what is here is just plain fun, like many roguelites, the game encourages replayability and progression through the achievement system, Gachikoi and permanent upgrades, but also includes more variety in items, characters and stages than even the game it's based off of, Vampire Survivors.Holocure is a large part of my recent life, and though I may have '100%ed it' there is still so much more to unlock, so I'm sure that I will continue playing this game more and more.
Story 8/10: I absolutely love the later half of this story, it puts a capstone on the trilogy better than most trilogies out there. the only things really just stopping me from saying that this is perfect (At least, for the story that it's trying to be) is the Sardonica arc and the side quests. The Sardonica arc is a slog, in the first hour of being there you've already completed your goal, but are brought into a war between the Fairystone and Glass craftmen guilds, which is fine on its own, but really, in my opinion, derailed that part of the story, especially unlike in Faurre and Windle, which have you solving the town's problems during your research into the Code of the Universe, instead of putting it on hold. In terms of the sidequests, Ryza 2 did them beautifully by having a select few side characters with quest chains that had full on voiced cutscenes. This would have been so much better in Ryza 3, considering the globe trotting aspect, it would have given these locations more life, but instead sidequests are mostly just mindless fetch quests. Gameplay 7/10: It incorporates all I love from Ryza 1 and 2 in terms of synthesis mechanics, which honestly could be it's own game from how fun it is, the problem stems in the overworld. Despite being advertised as open world, the game is riddled with small corridors, made worse by the fact that you can't see the area on your map until you reach the nearest landmark, making going into uncharted territory a maze. The new mechanic 'Secret Keys' allows you to buff yourself during battle for a set time, while this is good on paper, but synthesised items do the same thing, without being a limited use random item. They're basically obsolete during battles, making the character built around them, Federica, somewhat useless. The new Random Quests are also poorly executed, being random quests that pop up while exploring, completely distracting you from what you were doing thanks to them giving perminent stat upgrades and high quality materials when completed. One thing I dislike about Ryza 3's synthesis is the de-emphasis on recipe morphs, as morph routes were split down into tiers on a skill tree, making it impossible to stack high level traits on synthesis items without abusing item rebuilding and forging. Visuals 8/10: This game is, like the other entries, super vibrant and pleasing to look at, unfortunately, also like the other entries, the poorly done camera blur and bloom make the game look ugly during some cutscenes, the game itself is really pleasing to look at however. Music 9/10: Another amazing soundtrack, my only problem being the reuse of some tracks from previous entries, which is sorta fine, as you can explore the entirety of Ryza 1's map in this game. Overall 8/10: Another great entry in the Atelier series, somewhat brought down by it being the first attempt at an open world game. The developers did not know how to properly make an open world experience and proceded to make more traditional Ryza maps. Which is fine, I loved the previous games, but this is definitely my least favourite of the 3, I can't wait to see the evolution of this in the next entry (excluding Sophie 2), Atelier Yumia. When they finally fix the PC port, heard it's horrendous.
Story 8/10: I love the characters in this game, each one is written so well, so well in fact that even with the 4 hours it had it managed to make me care deeply for all of them, the story itself is really good too, even though it bound itself to a single cafe. Also, they made Ned Kelly an enforcer for the Council of Death and I find that hilarious. In terms of the content of the story, it questions the ethics of necromancy really well through the main events of the story, even questioning and incorporating different questions surrounding death, 'what is on the other side after death?', 'How would you react if you knew that your time was finite', it really delves deeply into these questions with the newcomer Keshan. Gameplay 5/10: It's an average visual novel, my only true gripe with it is that there's no History or Log, meaning I couldn't go back to text I accidentally skipped over. Visuals 8/10: I really liked the visuals and artstyle in this, especially the fact that its all in a 3D environment, it's kinda like how Steins;Gate Elite does it, but it reads better because; A. the text is intergrated into the scenery and B. things still move when its waiting for you to continue, just leaving it more coherent in execution. Music 8/10: The music really sold the vibe this game was going for, the calm pieces held this melancholic feel that really connected it to the story. Overall 8/10: NecroBarista is fleeting, it's really short but feels like it used its time perfectly, I loved how it incorporated Melbournian culture into its story, Melbourne is a place known for its coffee culture, its inclusions of Melbourne culture from Avocado toast, to Pool, really hit for me, it sold the setting, as a Melbournian myself.
Story 6/10: This story was originally going to be 8/10 for me, I was really liking the writing, excluding of course the out of character moments which boiled down to 'Player-sama, please choose this option, if you choose the obviously wrong one you'll get a 2 minute cutscene and a game over screen.' where they broke down the character's personalities to facilitate the game over's existence. One example in Team D is when Diana, Phi and Sigma are dying from a poison and Team C sends them the antidote, they're already **** dying, so why make me have to chose between drinking and not drinking the antidote? Because it might be a trap (according to Phi), did she leave her brain out to dry or something, if it's not an antidote they're gonna die anyway, might as well take it. The game consistently throws situations like this at the player, and it confuses me. Despite all of that I was going to give an 8/10, but the game's reveals and plot twists are so poorly done, not to mention they mirror Zero Escape 2's reveals so much that it ends up feeling lazy, also they ended the game with a **** HOPE SPEECH, where they had all the characters say their one line before the credits rolled, completely ruined any possible respect I had for the ending. Gameplay 5/10: Part 1: The Escape Rooms 6/10: They're alright, they're's no difficulty curve because you can tackle them in no specific order, because of this there is only 1 Escape Room on the later half of the game, being the easiest one in my opinion. There is no grand final Escape Room at the end of the game, leaving the second half so text and cutscene heavy that it's basically a TV show instead ****. The escape rooms also use the same minigames so many god damn times that I was considering searching up the answers so I didn't need to do the same song and dance a second, third, fourth time, I think they used the placement puzzle 4 times, there are 13 escape rooms. Part 2: Route Navigation 4/10: The game splits up its routes into 'Memory Fragments', splitting up its routes into bite sized sections, but because of this, as I said earlier, the game's Escape Rooms are heavily front loaded. It becomes even worse when some scenes like the 13:30 vote death scenes aren't even in the Memory Fragments and require you to unlock them by doing certain votes in other Memory Fragments, it all depends on your last 2 votes so you end up doing the voting scene multiple times to get these, they are required, btw. Memory Fragments were a chore to work through, so I ended up just using the proper route map they give you to figure out what I was supposed to do next. Music 6/10: They reused essentially all the music from the older games, it's good, but it feels lazy. Visuals 4/10: Part 1: Animation 3/10: God is this game's animation horrible, they chose to do full cutscenes instead of VN, and the animations they did for it are amateurish, it's something I'd expect out of an amateur animator, not a game dev team, the camera work uses Microsoft Power Point transitions and it feels like a joke. The game consistently pans the camera away to do less animation work as well. Part 2: Visuals 4/10: The UI is almost the same as VLR's UI design wise, it doesn't fit the more rustic design the locations, character models and even promotional material, it's so out of place. Other than that the game's model work and CGs sometimes look like they could come out of the DS era, especially particle effects like flowing water and smoke, which looks like they came right out of 999 on the DS. Overall 4/10: I understand why some of the choices they made happened, it was a game made on hopes and dreams, but the choice to go with the expensive cutscenes instead of the VN style they went with in 999 and VLR actively ruined any chance **** looking game, especially on the pisspoor budget they did have after the flop of the other 2 games. The game would have worked leagues better in a VN style than it did. The story itself had promise, and while it's still good it flops majorly on the later half. The gameplay itself is also lobsided as well, I can't help but think they rushed it out the door. Overall, the game is fun, but with its poor animation and frontloaded quality, I can definitely say this game is a 4/10
Story 9/10: Really amazing story, made me feel for each of the characters, and had moments which genuinely left me in awe, my only problem with it is that it's a prequel, not JUST a prequel, but a prequel to one of the worst games in the series iirc, it has moments where I feel like it's going 'see! you recognise that? Right?' and it just leaves me with half the impact. especially the end where it really digs it in.Like, yeah, I want to experience the sequel, but I've heard it's an absolute slog. Other than that, this is amazing. Music 8/10: Genuine bops in there, most of the pieces are just general RPG music. Visuals 6/10: It looks pretty outdated for a game from 2016, especially with the low quality rough textures. The colours are quite desaturated too, so it's not the most pleasing to look at, but I guess it was fine for its time. Gameplay: I need to split this up. Overworld 5/10: Glorified walking sim, you don't unlock the infinite fast travel item until the last dungeon, and the bike-esque movement option isn't unlocked until 2/3rds into the story, which requires you do go to a specific point in the current area first to unlock the ability to use it in that area. Battles 7/10: They're fine, but you can just mash through most of it/ Misc gripes: The tutorials are no help, you don't unlock things that should be there at the start, and core game mechanics are sometimes locked behind secret superbosses (which are really easy despite being like 10 levels under them), enemy levels are a joke, I spent most of the game 3-4 levels under normal enemies and were still beating them in around 12s (I was playing on normal.) Games really need to stop putting their recommended, balanced difficulty in the 'HARD' option, especially when a higher level actually decreases XP gains - I played on merciless on P3R for most of my time playing it, it just makes it less rewarding having to turn on hard mode in the options menu. Final score 8/10: I definitely recommend this game just for its story, though if there were a quality anime adaptation OR Manga, I'd recommend it over the game, but there isn't.Definitely gonna try out more from the Tales series
Story: 6/10: The story takes a heavy backseat, it's there, but it's mostly to get you to and from locations. Music: 7/10: There wasn't much music variety, but what was there was good, it's a shame that each of the 5 main areas, which can be up to 4 hours each, don't have changing music, making some songs very repetitive. Visuals 8/10: Very distinct visual identity that perfectly represents the world and has a 'construction' theme which I really enjoyed. Gameplay 5/10: A lot of the puzzles relied on getting lucky with the physics engine, making you have to bang you head against it until it finally let you continue, platforming is really hard thanks to the slippery ground, overtuned air mobility and the neglection of tap inputs for precise movement, I found myself flying off of edges constantly just by tapping the d-pad. Overall 6.5/10: Solid experience, a good enough length of 10 hours, just fails heavily in the gameplay department, it was a good first try at a platformer for Game Freak, but they should really focus on RPGs more
I've waited for an experience like this, the feel of this games locations was something I wanted to capture with my own projects but never properly could. The game reminds me of Sonnyboy, where every location defied the laws of the rest of the world, each location being a trapped, Isolated place from each other and each character different from the last. Each area looks the same but it's so distinctly different from each other. The game is a masterpiece of making each similar location unique, how you're constantly looking at the same walls and props in different contexts.This game scratches an itch I've had since 2021, would I give I love it as much as I did a year from now? Probably not. But I've fallen in love with the setting this game takes place in.
After nearly 100 hours, I've finally completed Metaphor Re:Fantazio, this game is, without a doubt, the best game Altus has produced, not even just the best game, the best story as wellI completed everything there is to do in it, all the quests, all the followers, everything, only things left were stuff like 'listen to Gallica 100 times' or 'Cook every dish', nothing that important. Anyway, lets get on with the review. Story 10/10: I see absolutely no flaws with the story, it explores its themes masterfully, the characters are done beautifully, hell even the voice acting was phenomenal. Gameplay 10/10: They mastered the job system and the press turn system completely in this, there is literally nothing I would change in it. Visuals 9/10: the UI is visually stunning and the areas are beautifully crafted, the art style is so unique. My only problem with it is that some less important areas, like camps, are flat expanses that are jarring. Music 9/10: The addition of the 'Monk rap' in the OST elevates every single part of this soundtrack and truly makes something unique, it really sells the 'fantasy' the game is trying to accomplish. Gripes: Some late game bosses, like the last boss, can be trivialised with a certain late game character and class, using only Wanton Smash to deal over 4000 damage with proper buffing and debuffing. It's a 20mp skill (this character had over 390mp by the end) that deals extreme damage (AKA the strongest type) and makes the enemy weak to strike skills, allowing more set up. Early game MP is hard to manage as some low tier skills require 8-10mp to be used, making Mage massacring required to do earlier dungeons in one day. Grinding is piss easy late game, allowing me to sit in a corner near a monster spawner, equip Mage and spam the X button while watching Youtube, it's especially annoying since bosses levels lie to you so you don't truly know where you're supposed to be.Overall 10/10:Such a beautiful game, I think it's the first Atlus game with such a large cast of characters to not make a few of them insufferable to read.
Story 5/10: Really disappointing, definitely after how amazing Pirate's Curse's story was. in this game it just served as a vehicle to move you to each area, not to mention the inconsistent character writing in some places.
Visuals 7/10: Re-uses assets from Half-Genie Hero while adding new character art that clashes with Half Genie hero's style, I would have loved a new artstyle for this game, so I can't help but be sort of disappointed
Music 7/10: Very similar to Half Genie hero, which I mean, is a banger, but I would have liked more variety
Gameplay 6/10: Has many QoL upgrades, movement options are tied to buttons instead of the dance menu (like in how it was done in Pirates' Curse) which speeds up exploration, but the game is so piss easy on the latter half that I brute forced the last 3 big bosses by stocking up on 50 gem auto potions that auto heal you when you die and still had the max amount of gems at the end of it. Overall 6/10: Really mediocre in comparison to half genie hero and Pirates' Curse, 7 Sirens felt like an expansion DLC to Half Genie Hero with it's reused assets, unimportant story and its lack of unique style. I'd recommend this to Shantae fans who want more Shantae, but if you want an entry into the series, I'd recommend Pirates Curse or Half Genie Hero.
I bought this game on release but quickly dropped it a few hours in, now, 4 years later, and I can't help but think that 2020 me kinda wasted his money, this game is 100% something you should only buy when it's on sale.
Really great game, I had a lot of fun, but... I'm **** angry like really really **** angry So I spent 80 bucks on FF7 Remake yeah? I spent 40 hours on it yeah? turns out theres a part 2 It's PS5 exclusive meaning that if I want to see the entire story, I either play the OG game or Buy a PS5 WHAT THE **** DID I PAY 80 BUCKS AND SPEND 40 HOURS ON?! I got ****ed over hell I even **** bought the prequel expecting to play that after finishing FF7 And guess what there's literally no reason to **** play it now So I wasted another 80 bucks on that Thanks Square Enix oh good the oG FF7 is only 11 bucks still not less pissy they could have atleast marketted it as Part 1 how hard could it have been to write 'Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 1' - Me in a discord chat Good game, really mad
