Kuszh

This game is moderately entertaining. Not sure about the abundance of positive reviews, however. Especially given that this is a follow up to one of the best JRPGs to come out this decade. The positives of this game are almost entirely limited to its visual presentation. It does a fantastic job of translating the huge, immersive environments of the previous game into the next generation, certainly pushing the Wii U to its limit. Exploration is great too, and can provide hours of interesting gameplay. Combat is fun as well, and doesn't really get boring, though IMO it is not nearly as fun as the first Xenoblade Chronicles. The problem with this game is that it just tried going too big to appeal to the huge sandbox push that a lot of studios have been going for. There is simply too much to do, much of it being superficial. The bottomless pit of collection quests can leave you bored and stuck for a while. While the previous Xenoblade also had this problem it kept you entertained with its story. STORY being perhaps one of the biggest problems of this game. The first chunk of the game is wallowing in cheesy, awkward quips from Lin threatening to eat Tatsu (a boring unfunny attempt to replace Riki which did not work) to Elma's profoundly shallow and flat character trying to appear dramatic. The game is rife with JRPG cheesiness that is something that the original Xenoblade Chronicles managed to dance around terrifically. There's simply nothing causing you to invest in the characters. The CHARACTERS in particular are a huge weak spot for the game. The squad system forces you to go out into New LA (The games main hub world) to switch various squad members in and out. If you don't have a squad member in your party, they do not level with you. Meaning you have to track down individual squad members if you need them (tiny NPCs in a giant city, with no real help from the map to find them) and you have to train each one individually to keep them at your level. In the previous game, all squad members traveled with you and leveled at the same time. A strange mishap which leaves me confused as to why they omitted this feature. The characters on the whole are shallow and uninteresting. The MUSIC in the game is generally quite good. The problem with it, however, is simply the variety. In the original, the team created unique and distinct musical variations for the night and day of each region. For Example, on Bionis Leg, the day music is upbeat and adventurous, while the night music is ambient and darker. In each region in this game (there are few distinct ones, meaning fewer songs in general) the day/night songs are carbon copies of each other. It's not a huge deal, but it's a subtle touch that feels lost in this game. You will also hear a lot of repetition in caves and Ganglion camps. Another huge problem with the music is in the city. This is more of a personal thing, but if the player is expected to spend a significant amount of time exploring a hub world, the music should be more relaxed and not repetitive. The New LA day music is boisterous, over the top, anime theme song cheese. At some point someone is saying "can't hear you, can't see you" and you hear that same section 30-40 times every time you return to the hub world you will want to break your Wii U in half. Overall in my opinion, the game tried too much to go from a unique, playful experience with character to an over the top, blockbuster, tentpole, transformers Age of Extinction style crapshoot. Clearly you can see if you've read this that I enjoyed the first game a lot and so my standards are high because of it. I think they had significant potential but squandered it trying to get the biggest appeal they could. Of course, a lot of people like this game so give it a shot. A lot of people seemed to like the Warcraft movie too of course, so if youre willing to see pretty pictures and dont care about the story youll probably enjoy it.

The dynamics of gameplay are excellent and become quite addictive- hours can be lost playing this game. This may just be a personal thing, but the graphics (character models in particular) could use some improvement. I think I'm just tired of cell-shaded games (League of Legends comes to mind, but again just a personal thing). The game really fails when it comes to writing. Do they just assume that people who play will completely ignore this aspect of the game? It's dismal at best. It's as if they took every cliche about the fantasy genre and presented them through the prism of the corniest dialogue and story I've ever run across.

A Dostoyevsky-esque testament to the fact that games can display existential philosophy beautifully without needing any flashy effects. The Stanley Parable is a game which requires playing through the same general sets of experiences over and over again to get an idea about the nature of storytelling and of reality itself.

One of my favorite games from childhood, Vectorman is an excellent combination of fast-paced gameplay, trippy trance music, and immersive art style. This classic is worth playing even today.

This game is beautifully done, and I spent a lot of time exploring. Unfortunately, it didn't make me want to play it again, and so I feel it's true value was lost. Perhaps because I spent a lot of time looking through every nook and cranny, trying to interpret the strange diagrams, I became extremely discouraged when the ending was what it was.

This game is disappointing for reasons which a lot of reviews have stated: This is NOT an Amnesia game. If one were to look at this title from this perspective it makes the game look better: This is essentially a REALLY good community mod for Amnesia: Dark Descent. Which in this case it almost is. There are no major overhauls on the visual end of things. In terms of gameplay though, things have actually been pruned back. There is no interaction with the world, and less linearity to the story (no alternative endings, less notes to pick up). The amount of tension in the atmosphere is significantly reduced, and for me this also reduced the immersion. The story goes a long way to redeeming this game. It's philosophical, intelligent, and gets you thinking. Unfortunately it's not interesting enough to me to ever consider playing it again.

Morrowind changed the RPG game. It provides an immersive and gigantic world to get lost into. One of the few games where the content actually surpasses the cost.