Naedeslus

It's goofy, it has tons of charm, great music and fantastic redone visuals. It's a bit on the short side, but I feel it had a perfect length regardless. It doesn't over stay its welcome and has some interesting mechanics. It's a great, faithful remake that doesn't take too many risks, but it doesn't have to. It does everything a remake should.

Terrific game that excels on every **** has the best RPG story since Final Fantasy VII and it has a great cast, terrific voice acting, incredible music and one of the best combat systems in decades. It's surprising this is a studio's first game and everyone should give it a shot. GOTY.

Terrific remake with tons of charm. It has great combat, a good but basic story, and some interesting antagonists with some good background information about them. The music is great and the voice acting is good as well. The game suffers from a balancing act at the final dungeon and it has an extremely difficult final boss that is a huge skill check that isn't consistent with the rest of the game, the final boss is unfair in how much of a difficulty curve it is. Besides that, it's a great game, and hoping Square Enix goes back and patches the final boss because even on easy, it's unfair and cheap.

+ Great art style + Fantastic OST + Good story that expands and gets better the more you play it. Great final act with great endings. + New Game + + Solid turn-based combat that moves pretty swiftly. - Some areas feel padded out. - Backtracking can be a pain. - Could've used more skills in combat. There are only a few. Sea of Stars is a great RPG to anyone who was a fan of the SNES RPG era. It has a good, interesting story that gets better, especially on its last act. It has a few great twists that kept me invested. The combat while good does lack a decent list of skills and there are only a few, which felt disappointing and would've made combat more varied. Besides that, it's worth a playthrough and I enjoyed this game a lot. I definitely would love to see them make another game in this style because I feel that their next game would be even better.

+Plot has a very interesting setup dealing with multiple factions. +Clive is a great protagonist. +OST is fantastic with some excellent tracks that will rank up there with some of the best. +Loads of content and tons of towns thrown in which is something the series hasn’t done in a long time. It has a great feeling of an epic scale. + Eikon battles are fantastic. + Fun combat with some interesting ability combinations. - RPG elements are lacking. - Combat, while fun does feel very damage spongey and seems to lack a few things that would turn it into a great combat system, such as heavy-hitting attacks. Combat becomes very button mashy while your abilities cool down. - The story, while interesting, does feel very disorienting and it becomes convoluted near the end. - One of the weaker main villains in the series that is known for having great villains. This was a hard game to review. On the one hand, it has fantastic world-building and a great setup. Great characters, music, and the gameplay, while a tad bit shallow and severely lacking in RPG elements was a good time. The combat can be a bit spongey, but I did enjoy it regardless. The story, while starting off extremely strong, does delve into a weird plot twist that feels a bit out of place and the main villain isn’t as strong as say Sephiroth, Kefka, or Kuja. It does have some emotional hard-hitting moments and the voice cast does a fantastic job in their roles and Clive is a great protagonist. I feel that while it does have some missteps, I did enjoy my time with this game. It played well, and while the combat boils down to pretty much button mashing until you can use an ability and then you wait for a cooldown to use it again, it was entertaining enough, despite the combat being a bit spongey, especially near the end on some of the bosses. If you like Final Fantasy and enjoyed XV or VII: Remake you’ll probably like this a lot. I’d still recommend trying it if you’re a fan of the series but while the missteps do prevent it from being in my top five of the series, I still enjoyed my time with it and I do recommend it.

+ Good combat. + Good-looking game with a great cyberpunk atmosphere. + 10 or so hours but it has extra content. Doesn't feel like it's padding anything out and it's a good length. +Replayability. - The story is hard to follow and can be overwhelming with cyberpunk terminology. - Difficulty feels a bit unbalanced. Even on easy or normal it can be a struggle and the last mission is a pretty big difficulty spike. - 'Final boss' is a joke. The Ascent is a good game. It's not perfect, far from it. The gameplay was fun, has some catchy music and the environments look good but it does have some repetition, mostly in going from the overworld to the actual missions. The missions themselves are fine, but the overworld drags on and on and it can be hard to figure out the best route to take. The combat is good and enjoyable but there are some difficulty spikes and a very lackluster final boss. The story makes no sense and is full of confusing terminology and I'm familiar with the genre but if you never experienced anything cyberpunk related, a lot of it will probably go over your head. For the price though, it is worth playing and I enjoyed my time with it. I probably won't return to it, even with a New Game + but I did like it and would definitely like the studio to revisit this world one day.

+Great visual style that blends 2D sprite work with 3D environments in a great cyberpunk aesthetic. +Simple but good combat. +Great city designs. - Bad-level design that makes it very easy to get lost. The map is useless. - Pixel-perfect platforming segments that are frustrating. - The perspective of environments change a bit too quickly and can make it disorienting. - Some frame rate drops on the PS5. - The story is poorly written and is very convoluted. It makes no sense and it has no idea if it wants to be a cyberpunk search and rescue story or a weird multiverse plotline that comes out of nowhere. - A massive difficulty spike in the final area that makes it very frustrating to finish. I wanted to like this. At first, I did but about half way through the problems show up. The level design is very annoying, repetitive, and easy to get lost in. The map is useless. The plot makes no sense and has an identity crisis on what it truly wants to be. The final area has a huge difficulty spike that felt unfair if you're not 100% prepared for it. It does have its moments but I personally don't recommend this game, even if the art style does look very, very appealing.

+ Fantastic combat that merges ATB combat with fast-paced action. 60 FPS as well as the PS5 version. + Great retelling of FFVII’s Midgar arc with a few twists. + Great graphics that make you forget it was a PS4 game first. Looks amazing to this day. + The overall writing is vastly superior in terms of character interactions and dialog. + Great remixed OST with some great original new tracks. + The best way to experience Final Fantasy VII Remake. - Some areas have significant padding. Some areas feel dragged on and you revisit this one dungeon twice for no reason. The final dungeon is a chore. Bottom Line: Final Fantasy VII Remake is a fantastic remake of the first act of Final Fantasy VII. It isn’t a 1-1 remake and there are changes to the narrative, but most of it is very faithful to the original source material. The combat is great, it looks great and it plays great with a fantastic OST. This is the best way to experience Final Fantasy VII Remake, so if you’re even remotely interested, pick this up ASAP while we wait for the second game to drop.

+ Fun combat. + Good remastered soundtrack with the option of the original soundtrack. + Colorful, vibrant world with good visuals. + Multiple playthroughs with different scenarios to reach different conclusions and antagonists. + While the stories aren’t anything epic, they’re interesting enough to keep you through to the end. - Voice acting goes from mediocre to downright grating. Thankfully this can be turned off. - The scenarios while different, do visit the same locations, so it can feel like more could’ve been done to have them do a bit of variety. Bottom line: Trails of Mana is a great game. It is a remake of an older game that never reached the US and since I never played the original, but from what I have experienced, this is an action RPG worth your time and money.

+Great combat that is well-paced, fast-paced, fun, and challenging. +Dialog is ‘so bad it's good’ It’s an unintentional satirical script most of the time that surprisingly wraps up very well at the end and has a great end twist. The last act is fantastic. + Loads of customization and great drop-in/out co-op. + Soundtrack is very good. - Battle theme is a bit overwhelming. As stated in the pros, the soundtrack is good but it can be problematic if you can’t really hear most of it on your first playthrough. - Graphics are very dated, feels like a PS3 game. - Some levels can be a bit confusing. Could use a map. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is one of my favorite spinoffs to come out of the series. It will not be for everyone but this is one I find myself coming back to multiple times. There is a certain charm with the tone that I absolutely love, and if you can not take it seriously and shut your brain off and even embrace the non-intentional satirical tone, it gets better and the story does actually work very well by the end. The combat is very good and has a good loot system with plenty of customization. The game does feel very dated, but if you don’t mind its shortcomings, you’ll probably love it as much as I do. It’s not perfect, but for the current price of 30 USD, if you’ve been sleeping on it, but like Final Fantasy and Team Ninja’s other games, give it a try. You'll probably like it.

+Fantastic, fast-paced but weighty combat that takes what worked with 2018’s GOW but enhances it. +Great accessibility options that ensures that everyone who plays it will be able to beat it, regardless of their circumstances. +Great story that is well-paced with a satisfying ending that is amplified by a fantastic voice cast that has excellent voice direction. +Great gameplay pacing with puzzles and great combat and exploration. +A campaign that doesn’t overstay its welcome, but has tons of side content to explore. + Great boss fights that makes up for 2018’s lack of boss fights. +A fantastic value for the price that’ll make it easy to return to after beating it. - The last act can drag up until the final mission. God of War Ragnarök is a fantastic game that is absolutely worth the money and I personally feel, is a solid contender for the 2022 game of the year. It’s an improvement over everything 2018’s GOW did and it tells a great story. There aren’t many issues with it that have me reducing the score. Even though I am giving it a 10/10, it’s not a perfect game, the last act drags a bit up until the final battles but besides that, it’s an excellent game that is well worth the price of admission. If you’re a God of War fan, you’ve probably already played and conquered it, but if you’re on the fence, I can assure you it’s well worth it and is my personal game of the year for 2022.

+Great combat. +Music is good. +Story is overall interesting when it lets you experience it. -The pacing is way off. - It's down right boring for most of the story. -Takes about 6-7 hours to have any sort of openness to the design. Heavily linear to a fault. -The main setting is not that interesting at all. You play mostly in one location and it's not an interesting one at that. -The gameplay loop is extremely repetitive. You have to do these MMO-style fetch quests to progress the story and that really has no impact on the main plot at all, it's impossible to just see the story and ignore these and it's a shame because the story is actually pretty interesting. -Heavily dated PS3-era graphics for a full-price game at the time of release. Bottom line: I loved YSVIII. I do not love YSIX. YSIX is boring, feels well too padded out for no reason and has these boring MMO style fetch quests before you can even see a slight hint of story progression. It's a shame because the story is actually pretty interesting but you know if you have to skip cutscenes of nonsense filler just to get to some good stuff, you know you're in for a repetitive mess. What's also worse is that you literally revisit the same location time and time again, and you're stuck in one city. While it could've worked, this city is no Midgar. It has nothing interesting around it. After about 9 hours, I gave up because I was just bored by it and I hope the next YS game does not try to ever follow this formula. It will have its fans but I personally found it to be a very boring action RPG with occasional great moments and probably is better just spent playing YS VIII or Memories of Celceta which are far better YS games.

+ Takes what worked in Doom 2016 and enhances it on all aspects. + Great campaign that has plenty of amazing set piece moments and great exhilarating battles. + Excellent progression systems. + It has Doom 1 and 2 built in as well as unlockables. + New platforming sections help break up the action. + Has a level of verticality not really seen in FPS's before. - You'll want more. Bottom line: Doom 2016 was a fantastic reboot of the series and it made it seem it'd be hard if not impossible to top but Doom Eternal is the best sequel to a video game I can think of. It takes everything that worked with the original games and the reboot and enhances it. It does have some platforming sections which are pretty good ways to break up the action and it wasn't what I was expecting but it works well and creates a nice balance the pacing is fantastic and the level design even felt better than what was in the first one. If you liked the first one, you'll probably love this and if you have game pass it's on there, so give it a shot even if this isn't usually your type of game.

I really have no idea how they manage to screw their ports up this badly. This port has loads of problems. First of all, the FPS is terrible. There is no in-house vsync option unless you go into the control panel. The main battle theme still **** and is annoying. The combat feels sluggish due to the FPS issues. The movies look horrible. Now there is a caveat that may actually make this worth a purchase. Mods. Mods literally do Square Enix's job for them and fix it. With mods you can have better video quality, 4k backgrounds, replace that terrible battle theme and fix the FPS issues. Is it worth it if you don't mind modding? Actually, it goes from a 4/10 to a 9/10 with mods BUT this really shouldn't be something we have to fix. Square Enix should take their time, take at least six-eight months and actually deliver a great remaster but they never learn... so it's up to you if you think it's worth fixing via mods. If you plan on playing it vanilla, just find a PS1 copy or use emulation because this is not the way to experience it.

+ Great update overall. + Fantastic remade soundtrack with a few exceptions. + Auto battle ends up taking a lot of the repetition out of the random encounters and can help with the grinding. + Great visual enhancements that make FFVI's world look the best as its ever been. + Great story with arguably one of the best villains in video gaming, period. + Fair difficulty with a great leveling and ability system. + Faithful script to the SNES version. - There are a few tracks that don't hit as hard as the others. - The saturation on the over the world feels too bright but it's easy to overlook. This can also be fixed via a simple mod for PC. - Font is horrible but can easily be patched on PC. Also, screen tearing issues but NVidia Control Panel can fix that if you own an NVidia card. By far this is the best version of Final Fantasy VI. They delayed this port to add extra polish and it shows. While the other pixel remasters were good, this is near perfection. While there are some very minor issues, a few of the songs don't hit as well as the SNES version, the rest of the OST is fantastic. The visual enhancements they did decide to implement look wonderful but you'll probably wish there were more. All and all it's a very, very faithful remaster that has the quality of life improvements that further make this game's world that much more immersive. Despite the few small issues it does have, it is a great remaster, and if you have a PC I'd highly suggest picking it up because it's the best way to currently play FFVI. If you never played FFVI before, this is your chance and you'll see why it is regarded as one of the best, and many people's personal favorites in the series and one of the best JRPG's of all time. The story is still very relevant today, the characters are all well written with a few exceptions and it has one of the best villains in a video game, followed by a detailed world with great world-building and one of the best twists in games.

+ First half is great. + Music is excellent. + Simple but fun combat system. + Great progression system. + Genius way of handling ‘random battles’ - Serious controller issues when using a controller. - Exclusive to a platform that most probably won’t bother with. - Story is a little weak, not Sakaguichi’s best work. Lost Odyssey has a better story. - Second half becomes a monotonous grind fest that will most likely make you want to drop it half way through. The bosses have way too much HP and everything feels like a super boss instead of an actual legitimate challenge. The first half was great and is pretty much a 9/10 and I recommend anyone to atleast play that much. The second half has serious pacing and requires hours of grinding just to get anywhere. The second half tries too hard to be too hard for its own good and it shows. Right now, if you own any apple device it’s probably worth picking up, just be aware of what happens in the second half will probably turn you off unless you’re that much into hard RPG’s that you don’t care. Some may like the challenge but I felt it was too off putting and a shame considering how good the first half was. If you don’t own an Apple device, is it really worth investing in one just to play this game? No. Maybe wait, see if it ever comes to PC or another platform, though it probably won’t but it’s just not worth the price of admission. Don’t look at my score and think it’s a garbage game, the first half is really fantastic but the second half sinks it. I have to review it as a package since there is no section for ‘part 2’ and it’s all one game now.

Pros: Great visuals and environments. Fantastic music choice. Great use of the license feels authentic to the source material. Voice acting is mostly great. Lengthy adventure that has a variety of different environments. Cons: Combat gets stale about halfway through the game. Enemies can become very ‘bullet spongey’. Increasing the damage to ‘very high’ does not fix this issue. As a result, combat can feel old. Game lasts maybe one or two chapters too long. Guardians of the Galaxy is a much better game than Avengers. With that being said, it’s not a 10/10 game and does have some issues, mostly with combat becoming stale at about the halfway point and the enemies feeling more of a chore then an exciting challenge. If you’re a Marvel fan and want to play a game that captures the feeling of the source material, check it out. If you want an action game and are okay with the combat becoming a little stale halfway through it, check it out. It may not be the 10/10 game Marvel fans might’ve wanted but it’s not a bad game, not at all and it is enjoyable, and it makes up for the mistakes Avengers made. If their next game takes the constructive feedback about the combat getting a little too stale, then I can see their next game being a masterpiece. All and all this developer has learned from their mistakes and I personally did enjoy this game much more then I thought I would’ve.

Pros: Great Visual Style. God-Tier soundtrack. Fun and fast-paced combat system. Great story with plenty of twists and turns. Cons: Gameplay becomes a little repetitive by the end. Gameplay feels a little unbalanced, difficulty has two major spikes near the end. Has a 'time travel' mechanic while nice in concept ends up creating a little too much padding. Story can drag on, especially near the end. Pacing suffers, feels a little too padded out, especially near the end. Bottom line: If you're a fan of the original, you'll love it. It's not perfect and has some padding and pacing issues. It also has two major difficulty spikes that don't feel as balanced as the first game. The graphics, music, and combat do make up for most of the issues and the plot is one that is very well told and keeps you guessing.

Pros: Great story that stands the test of time. Cecil is still one of the best protagonists in the series. Nice visual upgrade that keeps close to the original as possible but with minor tweaks and effects. Auto battle helps with grinding. Fantastic reimagined OST. Combat flows more smoothly and the ‘very fast’ speed lives up to its name. Combat never feels like a drag and battles move at a brisk or slower pace, that’s up to you. Excellent pacing that while makes FFIV a shorter game than others in the series, does not outstay its welcome. Cons: A weak main villain that could use a rewrite. A high encounter rate can become a chore. The font is a pain to read but it is an easy fix. Bottom line: Final Fantasy IV is a fantastic game and while it has some cracks of age that show, the pixel remaster does amend a good bit of them. Sure, the high encounter rate is still there but auto-battle makes battles a snap and even if you don’t use it, the highest speed will move things along. The reimagined soundtrack is fantastic and does add to the experience. Being able to quickly save anywhere is a game-changer as well with the later parts of the game, including the last dungeon. All and all, with the music upgrade and quality of life improvements, this is my favorite version of Final Fantasy IV and well worth the asking price.

Pros: Night and day difference in terms of visuals compared to the original. Fantastic combat upgrade that removes the slow, clunky combat of the original with something more akin to NieR Automata. Fantastic story with excellent voice acting that will have your interest and that will stick close to you. Super quick load times on the Xbox Series X. The arranged soundtrack does what I felt was impossible, it improved on the original in just about every way. Fantastic boss fights that are very cinematic. Cons: Side quests are fetch quests. Can get repetitive after the second playthrough. The improved combat system makes the game easier. NieR Replicant 1.22+a bunch of numbers is a great remake of the original game. It fixes all of the major issues with the original. The original, while a great story was marred by clunky combat, dated ps3 visuals that had awful lighting and other issues. It is how the original should’ve been and it is the second chance that I felt NieR truly deserved. If you loved automata, play this because it’s just as great now.

If you're going to release your AAA game and it can't run on the base ****'t release it on base consoles. This is a mess. If all you have is a PS4, watch a Youtube walkthrough because it'll be a better experience. It runs better on PS5, a lot better but it might be worth it to wait until an official PS5 patch that updates it to the fidelity that it needs. All and all, unless you have a gaming PC and even if you have a gaming PC it's better to wait until Cd Projekt Red fixes this disaster. It's a shame because Cyberpunk 2077 has a great story but not even a great story can save this insult of a port.

**This is a review with me about 12 hours into the game and halfway through the main quest. I may update this review in a few months once a lot of the issues have been ironed out and I replay it.** First of all, this game is fantastic on some levels. It truly has a great story that is very gripping and so far has plenty of twists and turns. It’s a great dystopian story that should be experienced by anyone who is a fan of these types of things. Graphically, it’s beautiful, very beautiful actually. The design of Night City and the outlying areas are fantastic and it’s easy to see why a game like this took so long to make, everything is dripping with detail and it’s vibrant. While it doesn’t look good as the trailers, the in-game graphics do look good on a half-decent PC. The voice acting is incredible, including Keanu Reeves who truly nailed his role. The addition of Keanu Reeves makes it a little better because he does such a great job with his role. The music is great and has that cyberpunk vibe. The gameplay is fun. It plays like other looter shooters/RPG's out there, like Destiny 2 and Borderlands. Some enemies can be a little Bulletspongey but I feel that if you do side quests it’s not that bad because you gain better equipment which lets them go down quicker and the progression systems are very nice. It so far has a great story, with incredible acting, great pacing with a few minor areas of padding in the story and a very fast-paced feel to it, with great direction. The story is engaging and is keeping me wanting to see how it ends. Now… normally I’d give a game like this an easy 9/10, with only a point knocked off for some less then stellar side quests and minor pacing issues but this is where the game takes its biggest hit for me. The technical issues. They’re bad. Day one, they were abysmal, made me consider just refunding it and trying it again in a year or so when the inevitable ‘complete’ edition comes out with all the DLC. But the added patches are helping. Still, this game needed probably 6 more months to iron everything out. It’s appalling that they’d delay it to now to release it in this state. Sure, it would’ve created controversy but the controversy would’ve been less if it came out with no major technical issues. It’s not just graphical issues either. I’ve missed important dialog options that will affect the story. I’ve also had instances where an item will pop up but it won’t go away for a few minutes, meaning I can’t acquire any other items. I found clipping issues as well, including my character dying when he shouldn’t have. Most of the issues are graphical hiccups which I can tolerate but when it happens more than it should, that does hamper the experience. Nothing is more immersion-breaking than having to restart just to get past a glitch. AI also has issues. Cops don’t even attempt to chase you. I don’t know if it’s due to a faulty script, considering the Witcher 3 had better AI and it’s made by the same company. So, should you buy it? Yes… but it might be best to wait a few months. Right now, it’s still very rough around the edges. The story, overall gameplay, voice acting, and everything else is great but the technical issues bring what should be an easy 9/10 down to IMO a 7/10 at best. When it's fixed, it’ll probably be fantastic but right now, they released it too early and they should be held accountable for this.

Pros: Terrific graphics, most of the time. Incredible OST with great voice acting. Some of Square Enix’s best work. Great gameplay that combines elements of both ATB and action combat, yet with a classic mode for those that just can’t or don’t like action combat. A great retelling of the Midgar arc with great character development. 20+ hours for the main story. New game + and hard mode unlocks. Gives replayability. Cons: Some graphical glitches and camera can be a pain in close quarters. Some of the plot twists will feel out of place and a very controversial ending. Most of the side quests feel like filler. Some pacing and padding issues. Not too bad but some of the dungeons go on longer then they should. FYI: The game feels more like a reboot rather than a remake. This is not a 1:1 retelling of Final Fantasy VII. This is the first part of a multi-game series. It only covers Midgar. Square Enix has no idea how long this series will go on for and how long it’ll be until part 2 comes out. Might not be for purists of the original. Keep that in mind. Do I recommend Final Fantasy VII Remake? Yes. Unless you’re a purist because some of the changes will irritate you. Regardless, if you’re a fan of FFVII and open to some changes, or never played it before but like action RPG’s, I fully recommend this game. There are some technical issues with low-quality textures, probably a glitch. Some of the NPC’s look a bit bland as well. The gameplay is very good, arguably their best combat system in years. The music is fantastic and while the story does take a few unexpected twists and turns and not all the new plot twists are as great as the original’s story, we’ll have to see how these new threads resolve themselves.

Pros: Solid combat. Good exploration. Good progression system. When music kicks in, it's good. Cons: Due to the nature of background enemies in a 2D game, aiming can sometimes be an issue. Bad voice acting. A mediocre story that ends as it gets interesting. It is also in your face the entire time. Short. Can beat it in 3 hours if you're not worried about 100%ing the game. Do I recommend Shadow Complex Remastered? Yes and no. If it's on sale, or you subscribe to PS Now service, definitely give it a go. It's short, sweet, and fun but it does have its issues. Depending on what difficulty you play it on, you could easily beat it in about 3 hours if you really just focused on the main path. Of course, there are secrets do the nature of the game and things to find but if it could easily be beat in one sitting if you wanted to. All and all, it's not bad at all. It has fun combat, and while the story does get interesting at the end, it is in your face too many times and it's pretty mediocre most of the time. The voice acting is definitely bad and could've been more convincing. The aiming is also an issue due to the nature of the 2D plane where the action takes place. It's hard to describe but it can be hard to hit background enemies.

Pros: For 1997 the graphics were top-notch. Pre-rendered backgrounds and combat graphics still look great to this day. The music is one of the best in the series. Combat is fantastic with the materia system being one of the best customization systems, period. A fantastic story that still sticks with me 23 years later. Cons: Translation has issues. Graphics today did not age that well. Do I recommend Final Fantasy VII? Without a doubt. Sure, the visuals can be dated by today’s standard but back in 1997 these graphics blew us away and I played it upon release. The translation also has some issues, but the core story and characters still stand up as one of the best science fiction plots of all time. The combat, customization, and general world-building is some of the best even 23 years later. If you never played Final Fantasy VII and are wanting to see where the story goes, after you beat the first part in the remake, I highly suggest buying it wherever you can.

Pros: Beautiful pixel art. Good story. Fun combat. Great OST. New Game + adds replayability Fun boss fights Extremely accessible to all players of all skill levels. Cons: Can beat it in 4-6 hours. Exploration is basic. You can't play it at 16:9 for some reason. This is an example **** indie game that didn’t get as much love as it should’ve. On one hand, the story is interesting, keeps you engaged and while it is a good time travel story, it’s no Chrono Trigger or Back to the Future but it does remain interesting, without being too over the top and convoluted. It has reasonable goals. The characters are interesting and while not entirely fleshed out, the side quests do help. The antagonists are pretty one dimensional but then again, they do the job. The combat is fast paced and fun. If you’re not good at games and just want to play it for the story it has an easy mode which makes it impossible to die. It also has harder difficulties for those that want that. Combine that with a great OST and a New Game + you get a nice indie game for only 20 USD. The only real negative is that you could easily beat this in one sitting if you have 4-6 hours to spare. It’s not long at all and that’s if you do everything. It does have New Game + so I personally feel it’s worthy of at least two play throughs. All and all, it’s not perfect but it is a fun experience and I fully recommend it if you like time travel and metroidvania’s.

Pros: Beautiful visuals. Fun if not chaotic battle system. Cons: Story is poorly paced and written. Gameplay can become too frantic. Missing JRPG staples such as equipment. Plot moments make zero sense with zero context. Oh, how I wanted to love this game. I played the demo and enjoyed it so when I saw it on sale I figured it’d be a great throwback to Xenogears and Valkyrie Profile. That was a mistake. The first major issue is the story. It has breakneck pacing. This isn’t always a bad thing, though. Here though it just makes no sense. There is barely any exposition and things just don’t make sense. The combat is fun, but it is a bit too frantic. It can get really overwhelming once you have a full party. The other major issue that didn’t work is the lack of equipment. Those are JRPG staples. Perhaps the studio ran out of money or was rushed but it was something I felt was needed to make this stand up to the other games it was based on. All and all, it’s not the worst RPG on the PS4. If you can stand the nonsensical plot and too frantic of combat, it’ll probably be your thing. Anyone else? Play Ys VIII or something else instead.

Pros: Great gunplay with a nice variety of weapons. Decent plot. Great world-building. Remastered version includes the ability to play as Duke Nukem! There is a DLC for it as well and it makes it amazing. New Game + feature. Runs very smooth, even with chaotic action going on. Cons: Short. It ends on a cliffhanger. Ammo can be scarce for a game called ‘Bulletstorm’ Bulletstorm is a fun, yet short adventure. While it’s not exactly COD short, you can finish it in about 6-7 hours. More if you play on higher difficulties. The addition of the remaster to allow you to play as Duke Nukem is such a novel idea. It does seem a tad bit forced since it was something, they threw in for the remaster and as such, some of the lines can feel a tad bit out of place but it mostly works. It’s just hilarious to see him in cutscenes when he doesn’t belong at all but at the same time, he’s a good fit for the nonsense but entertaining story. The world-building is pretty good and it’d be nice to see the game expanded on. The game does end on a cliffhanger but it’s hard to know if it’ll ever happen. Still, while not the best plot for an FPS, it was engaging and entertaining. All and all, it’s a fun game. Frantic, fun action but with a short campaign. There is a New Game + which lets you keep your weapons though. I could see this game being replayed down the line. You can easily beat it in a weekend. If it's on sale, I'd recommend a purchase. Otherwise, a decent rental idea for a weekend.

Pros: Great gameplay that feels exciting throughout the entire campaign. Interesting take on the whole Heaven VS Hell storyline. Nice visuals with great environmental effects. The campaign feels the right length and has tons of replayability. The UI isn't too small for PS4. Cons: The 'open world' environments feel too big as if they're padding. Side quests aren't as exciting as the main game. If you never played Diablo III and are not a PC gamer, this is the version to get. It has loads of content and tons of classes to play. My first playthrough took me about 15 hours but if you really wanted to play most or all of the classes, this game could easily take you well over 100 hours and even longer if you actually explore everything. If you just rush through the story though, the campaign felt a perfect length, it had great pacing, despite the 'world areas' feeling a tad bit too big. The dungeon pacing is excellent. The story isn't anything too special but it had enough interesting moments to keep me guessing on how it was going to resolve. It might not be entirely original but it gave the classic Heaven VS Hell conflict a fresh take and I liked it. If you liked Diablo II, never played this or just like dungeon crawlers then I fully recommend this.

Pros: Interesting take on a ‘deserted island’ story with an interesting plot and a great cast. Great combat, special moves. Dozens of boss fights, each with their own unique look. Great soundtrack. Great exploration. 30+ hour adventure with New Game +. Cons: Dated visuals, feels like a last-gen game. It starts off a little slow, it takes a few hours to get good. The map is a little confusing. Bottom Line: YS VIII is excellent. It does look dated as if it was intended to be a PS Vita game first but if you can look past that you’ll get a great Action RPG that while does take a few hours to get going, once you get going it is very gripping and hard to put down. The story starts off simplistic enough but ends up telling a very interesting story about two protagonists. Without spoiling anything, I was legitimately surprised at the twists it threw and it is very well written. The cast is great and I liked all the characters, the ease of character switching made it very good too. The soundtrack is fantastic as well. The music sticks with you long after you’ve beaten the game and it really set the atmosphere upright. The combat is fun and fluid and has tons of special attacks and the game doesn’t hold back on boss fights. Despite it’s aged look, it is well worth the money and a great action RPG with replayability.

I usually don’t like Souls Bourne games, but I saw this one on sale and I figured that if I hated it, I could just request a refund via Steam. What ended up happening was I played it about 5 hours straight through in one sitting. It has a complexity and a charm to it that is amazing. The game is hard, don’t get me wrong but never felt unfair. As someone who is more of a casual gamer, I play games for fun, not to be challenged but this never felt unbeatable or so frustrating that I couldn’t continue. The beauty of it is that unlike other roguelike games of this nature, you get to keep some things, anything you unlock is yours. While you really can’t choose a weapon from the beginning, unless you use Custom Game mode which I’ll get into later, the skills you unlock, you keep. What this means is that you won’t defeat everything on your first run. You’ll probably get past the first few areas, thinking it’s not too hard but then get destroyed on the third area. Yet, what makes this not a bad thing is that each build has its strengths and weaknesses. There are some builds that will make the game easier. There is also a custom game mode which you can edit variables. It doesn’t make it too easy, but you can also choose different starting equipment with this mode and even level it up before the game starts so that can give you a good advantage. Since I’m typically not a hardcore gamer, I used it and even with it, I felt it was challenging but while I experimented with different builds, eventually victory was mine and did it feel good. The game never felt unfair and that’s the point. It’s challenging but not so that you’ll hate it and give up. I feel anyone who plays video games with average reflexes could beat this. The enemies don’t swarm you; you can easily pace yourself and there are traps you can use to lure the enemies too. If you take your time and think about it before you jump into it, it is a beatable game. The satisfaction of beating a run is great. If you need more of a challenge, each time you beat the game, you can unlock harder difficulties until I think up to 5 runs. For myself, being more of a casual gamer, it took me about 7 hours until I had the right equipment and strategy that I won the first run. The run itself is short, about an hour or less but the prep getting there will make this game well worth the money. Don’t be put off by its hard difficulty that’s been advertised. It’s a damn good game with great visuals and a great soundtrack. The story, while very minimalistic was also full of atmosphere. I fully recommend this, even if you’re used to more easier games.

NOTE: I do not play online so my review is for the Single Player campaign ONLY. Please keep that in mind. … Call of Duty burnout is a real thing. The series hasn’t really tried anything too new except for new technology and going into the future. This game also had a rough introduction, being one of the most disliked videos on YouTube at the time so there is a perception it’s a horrible game with a terrible campaign. The truth is, the campaign is actually very good. Now, I don’t play multiplayer, but the campaign has probably the best intro of the series. It jumps you right into the action of a surprise attack and it goes from there. The game takes the fight into space and the space combat actually isn’t horrible. It’s not an excellent space combat simulator and it is pretty basic in nature, but I felt that made it more easy to get ahold of. The space combat was fun and that’s what matters. The set-piece battles are also great. Sometimes a bit over the top but I enjoyed them. The zero gravity segments are extremely well done and while they don’t follow the laws of physics to a T it gets the job done. It’s not the most realistic thing, it is a COD game after all but it was entertaining. The game is structured a bit like Mass Effect and that’s a good thing. You have a hub where you decide where to go. You can watch newscasts of recaps of your missions and I like that touch. There you can choose your loadout, ala Black Ops 3 and any other things. It’s not too expanded. It’d be nice if it had Mass Effect’s dialog tree but this is a COD game, not an RPG so I’ll not knock it too much for that. One thing, this game does well is side missions. The main campaign is short. Probably 4 hours, maybe 5 if you’re playing on a harder difficulty. The side content does add a few extra hours. They’re nothing too special. Mostly destroy missions or board a space ship, go to the exit and destroy or steal something but I did enjoy them. The space combat ones probably could be skipped but I liked the ‘boarding starships’ ones and I suggest doing all of those. It does make a short game a bit longer, you probably could beat it in about 7 hours. The visuals and voice acting were top notch. I loved the environmental effects on each planet. Venus was especially mesmerizing. It may be short but the campaign was a thrill from start to finish and had some great shocking moments. I truly was surprised at the quality of it. Right now COD: IW is very cheap. Less than 10 dollars in the USA. It’s well worth a purchase. This is one of those campaigns I could go back to. It may not be as good as Titanfall 2’s campaign but it’s pretty close and in my opinion, is the best COD campaign since Modern Warfare 1 and 2. I loved it that much. If you’re sick of the futuristic COD’s, this won’t win you over. If you liked Black Ops 2 and 3 and Advanced Warfare this is a must play. If you’re open-minded, give it a shot! It’s not as horrible as the public made it seem and it’s surprisingly great. If you can find a new copy with a code for Modern Warfare Remastered, that is well worth your time investing in what little extra that costs, since you get two great games for the price of one cheap one.

It's okay. It starts off great, the campaign goes to the most famous battle in all of WW2, D-Day and the first mission is great. If only the rest was as interesting. The problem is, is that I've seen it before. It doesn't really do anything new. Sure the first mission is great but after that, it just felt like MW2 with a WW2 skin over it. It also for a WW2 isn't that historically accurate. If you're sensitive to some games being too PC, stay the hell away because they don't even have the enemies wear the **** uniforms. This game could've been Activision's chance to give us a gritty but over the top experience and it just fell flat. The combat is more of the same as COD has been for the past 10+ years. If you love it, you'll love it but it feels too arcadey. The AI is braindead most of the time and it just doesn't have a sort of impact I'd prefer. Not a horrible FPS and you could do worse but if you like historically accurate WW2 games, this isn't for you. If you wanted COD to maybe feel a bit less arcadey and have better AI, this won't do it. The only ones I can really recommend this to are die-hard fans of the series. COD really needs to find a way to reinvent itself because it's very stale and this proves just how stale it has become.

Sometimes an average game can do one thing exceptional that makes you forget the other flaws that exist with it. That is the game's plot. It has an excellent story set in a very interesting time period, post World War I dealing with the Spanish Flu epidemic. It truly nails the tone done beyond a doubt and by far, has a very intriguing story that will make you want to finish it. The problem is, the combat just doesn’t live up to the plot, not at all and that’s a shame. Had this been an adventure game, it would’ve probably went down as Dontnod’s greatest game because of the plot but since they tacked on an action RPG system with it, it does bring it down. At first, it’s not bad. It’s simple but simplistic is fine sometimes. The issue is that it gets pretty hard. The game gives you a moral dilemma, to get stronger you have to consume NPC’s. While this might not seem like a bad idea, since some NPC’s give you the feeling that it’s for the greater good, the problem is, to get to that point you have to feed onto other NPC’s if you want to have a fighting chance. The enemies also scale with you so there never really feels like that moment where you’re becoming very powerful. The bosses are hard and also are mostly damage sponges on normal difficulty. While it is possible to also grind enemies for XP, they give out so little that it barely makes it worth the effort. I found myself just running from encounters because of how damage spongy the enemies would become. They did tack on a Story mode which while, the normal mode does provide a challenge, it made it feel more like a Dark Souls game than something I’d enjoy. I’m not a fan of these ‘so hard it’s good’ type of games so about halfway through, I ended up restarting [since you can’t just switch difficulty on the fly] and found it to actually be enjoyable, because I could focus on what made this game stand out, the story and setting. Sure combat is super easy on this mode but it eliminates the need to feed on random NPC’s. It makes playing a pacifist run that much more enjoyable. Of course, some will love the challenge. If you’re a fan of Dark Souls then the challenge will be up your alley. For me, I’m not a fan of those types of games. The visuals are also kinda bland. They’re not bad and everything does look good but I noticed some texture pop in as if the engine couldn’t keep up despite it not being one of the better looking PS4 games. All and all if the combat had more balancing, maybe other ways to get stronger such as defeating enemies it would’ve been seen as better but it is worth playing. The story is great and it gripped me from start to finish. It’s pretty short, about 15 hours but I felt it never dragged on. For the price? I’d say it’s worth it.

When I heard that Secret of Mana, one of the first real action RPG's on the SNES was getting remade, I was very excited. I played it when I was a child and I loved it. Though, I never beat it I remember renting it off and on and really enjoying what I played. As I grew up, I never got around to playing it even though I wanted to, so the idea of a SNES classic being remade really excited me. Then I played it. So, first of all, it's not a horrible remake, after all, I'm giving it a 7/10 so it's not broken or anything like that, the issue is that the game feels very low budget. It's obvious Square Enix must've outsourced most of the work for the remake. The visuals are pretty bad by PS4's standards. While it's most likely just a port from the PS Vita, the problem is the PS Vita itself can do better. The character designs are very low quality. They barely animated and while they probably didn't want to change the original's art style too much, it looks to be very jarring. The environments are okay. There are some low-quality textures but I found the environments were done well enough. They could've been better, especially some of the grass textures but the one thing the remake does right, visually is the enemy design. It's funny how the characters can look pretty low quality but the enemies somehow look pretty good! I'm not sure why there is a bit of inconsistency with this but it's there. The overall visual design of the locations is nice but had it spent another 3-6 month making the graphics even better it would’ve overall improved the quality of the game. Of course, graphics are not everything but when the original game has better character design you know that the game made a serious error. One touch I love is how there is a mini-map and the mini-map has the original’s graphics. It’s a neat touch and helps to navigate the environments. You, of course, can turn this off if you don’t like it. The music is… pretty bad. Thankfully you can play with the original OST, which is a great OST. I highly recommend that. The voice acting is almost Resident Evil 1 ps1 bad. It’s good for a few laughs but I turned it off and thankfully there was that option. What saves the remake from being a 5 instead of a 7 is the changes they did to the core gameplay. It plays the same, has that meter that you have to get to 100% to do an effective attack but they made some smart changes that really improve the feel of it. There is an autosave feature which is a lifesaver considering that most of the dungeons didn’t have the option to save in them, including a rather long final dungeon and you can map skills to L1 or R1 which helps out a lot in boss fights since magic is the best way to do damage mid-late game. It still has the quirks where enemies have super high evasion and about 30-40% of your attacks will miss post-mid-game. It’s annoying but once you get in the grove you get used to it. I would’ve loved for an option to decrease this to close to zero because all it does is make combat more annoying than it has to be. It’s something they didn’t change but it is what it is. It would’ve made it better, or at least an item you can equip that would help out with that. I’ve noticed a lot of reviewers claimed it gets too hard about halfway through. The difficulty does jump up about then, but I didn’t have any trouble. I feel that good advice is to fight most battles and buy the best equipment, spend an hour here or there grinding and you’ll be good to go. At the end of the game I was overpowered, and I just ran from battles in the final dungeon because I knew I’d take on anyone and I was right. It was a cake walk. Of course, if you forget to buy new equipment, it will make it much harder. The plus about this is if you want a challenge, there’s an idea to get one. It felt a bit easy, especially with powering up magic, which is very easy to do. The story is also improved. There is more dialog added and it works nicely. The original script was fine but I did like what they did to add more character development. It helps. There are these skits whenever you rest in an inn. The problem is that sometimes they’re not synced with what you do. I found myself seeing them talk about an event that happened way before I rested at this inn. A patch to keep them more with what is going on with the plot would work wonders. Not a huge deal but sometimes it’s a bit jarring. All and all, it’s not a bad remake. I’ve heard people say it ruins the game for them. I don’t see how. If you ask me, if you wanted to try out Secret of Mana, the remake is the best way to do it. Though, there is a problem here. With how much of a budget title this feels like, I can’t really justify telling someone to spend 40 USD on this. It’s a good game and a good way to play the SNES classic but it’s overpriced. I'd either rent it or wait for a sale. It took me 15 hours to finish it.

Final Fantasy VIII had a lot to live up to when it came out. It came out of VII’s path since VII is arguably the best in the series, in my opinion, how can it even stand up to it? It does that quite fine. The story is a bit of a mess. The first two discs are actually fantastic. Once the second disc ends, it goes from a rather realistic war story to something downright weird. This is Square we’re talking about so that’s to be expected but the twists in the third disc are downright bizarre. They’re legitimate twists I would’ve never seen coming. There are good twists and bad twists with this game and unfortunately, after the second Disc, they’re worse than good. The game's ending will leave you confused and it’s not a bad ending, not at all but since the tone of the game changed so much after Disc 2, it keeps up with the overall oddness of the plot. What one thing the game does well is the characters. I enjoyed them. They’re an interesting bunch and while the protagonist seems brooding just to be broody he does improve. The development is some of the best I’ve seen in the series and they all are worthwhile. I loved the cast. The villains are also very good. They’re no Kefka, Caius, Kuja, Sin or Sephiroth but they gave the player motivation. The music is one of the best OST’s of the series. It’s really good. The sound effects are very well done as well. The gameplay, that’s an interesting topic. Some loved it. Some hated it. Some like myself felt it had good and bad points. The gameplay focuses more on drawing magic from the enemies. There are of course other ways to get it, including refining items from a card mini-game but drawing is the easiest I found. This can lead you to spend 10 minutes in a battle getting your stock to 100 to increase your power level. Leveling doesn’t really matter at all and enemies level with you. I found a good technique is to instead, combine a mix of refining with drawing a few spells here and there. It can be a huge pain if you want it to but it also gives the player flexibility. This system has drawbacks. It’s tutorial after tutorial and coming from the excellent Esper and Materia systems before it makes it less than ideal. It’s not the worst in the series but it is executed badly and could’ve been explained more. Also, the magic cap at drawing is pretty low. If it would’ve been increased the more you leveled, it would’ve made it more accessible. While I liked VII and IX more it’s not a bad RPG or a Final Fantasy game. It won’t be for everyone but if you’re open to trying something new, something more modern and that takes risks with its gameplay and story, give it a shot. You’ll probably find a lot to enjoy.

Kingdom Hearts III has a strong opening, Sora is supposed to be weaker and while if you never played any game outside of KHI and KH II you will be a bit on the ‘lost’ side but the story so far didn’t feel overly complicated. It felt like it was taking it very safe as if they wanted it to be open to new players rather then giving those who have been a part of the Dark Seeker Saga since the beginning. This isn’t overly a bad thing at first, the overall plot remains the same but there are noticeable pacing issues with the story. After the first two worlds, one being a very good world and a fan favorite and the other feeling too stilted and cut back from its inception in Kingdom Hearts II, the story takes a serious backseat. No longer are they really worried about taking out the main antagonist, instead Disney takes over. It’s obvious Disney probably paid Square Enix a lot to keep to the source material. It’s a shame because the other games didn’t really have this issue. Sure they usually followed the plot but they always worked in the overall theme of the games into the plot. The stakes were high, here it doesn’t even really matter that much. Don’t get me wrong, the Disney worlds are fun but a lot of them felt like filler. The other games, while having this issue to an extent made them quicker. You could do them pretty fast and get on with the story, sure you had to return to them but by then, you don’t’ feel like they’re overstaying their welcome. Their pacing was perfect, especially in the second game. The story does pick up at the last act but by then it feels like a lore dump. Here is where new players would feel the most lost because it waits to the actual last 4 hours or so to get good and it gets really good. The problem is, it should’ve built these moments up. The middle section of KHIII feels like a huge missed opportunity and I’m still wondering what Nomura was thinking. To be honest though, the last 4 hours are fantastic and well worth trudging through 18 hours to get there. So the pacing is pretty bad but how is the rest of it? The voice acting is top notch and so is the music. While I did miss the theme of the series, Simple and Clean, the new theme songs are actually not bad! They’re not as memorable as Simple and Clean or Sanctuary but they’re enjoyable. The remixes of previous games are great as well. The gameplay is fun but there are some issues. Sora is supposed to be weaker. You’d think that normal difficulty would present some sort of challenge, but it doesn’t. I didn’t grind at all, just fought enemies as I saw them, and it wasn’t hard at all. I died maybe 2-3 times and that was at the final bosses. I usually don’t mind easier games and tend to play them on easy mode if I find they’re too much of a struggle but here Normal felt like an Easy mode. I’d hate to see how easy Beginner mode really is. Even if you’re bad at games, Normal probably is the way to go since it gives you so many tools to win. There are these summons called attractions. While at first, they seem fine enough but there just isn’t enough of them and sometimes they feel like immersion breakers. I avoided them after a few times. They made the combat too easy and there really should be an update that lets you turn them off for the entire game. The combat is fun but I found the combat in KH2 better, mostly for reaction commands. Here it’s flashy but it didn’t have the great moves the second did. It does have super moves you can use but it could’ve used more. After using the same ones for most of the game it got a bit old. It would’ve been nice to have more to use. Still, not a bad combat system and I did like it. The worlds are a bit too big as I stated before. It would’ve been nice to have them cut off about an hour of content in the worlds. Some of them felt too open for their own good and the pacing hurt because of it. While this is a weird request but I feel if they had done this they could’ve expanded on the worlds that actually were too short. All and all, the pacing is pretty bad, the combat is easy but is it worth it? Yeah. It’s fun. That’s what’s important. It’s a good game, it’s just not the best in the series. If you’re a fan, play it. If you’re not, this won’t change your mind. If you never played a KH game before? I’d recommend playing a few and then checking this one out. All and all, it’s in a weird place review wise. It’s closer to a 7.5 than an actual 7 but still, it could’ve been better, but I don’t’ regret my purchase. I did enjoy it despite its flaws.

If you’re a fan of Spiderman or action games and own a PS4, this game is a must play. With that out of the way, the main reason being it just does everything with such a degree of skill and it has huge attention to detail to it that’ll make anyone who even is remotely a fan of the source material or action games want to check it out. The graphics are beautiful. Everything has a great look to it. Even buildings have small details, such as windows where you can see what’s inside the windows. This level of detail goes throughout the entire game. If you own a PS4 pro, the HDR effect is great and it looks beautiful on a good 4k TV with HDR. The game only runs at a locked 30 FPS but that’s fine, it doesn’t drop frames, at least anything that I’ve noticed and it’s very smooth as a result. The fast-paced action looks great, though while I would’ve loved a 60 FPS mode, the decision to keep it 30 might be for the best since everything just looks great. Even the NPC’s all look different enough to not feel like they just copy and pasted five models. The combat is very much different from the Arkham games. While the skeleton of that type of game is apparent, it is more vertical and exhilarating. The combat due to the nature that is Spiderman’s character is very fast paced. The combat is challenging and even on the ‘easy’ mode, it feels challenging. You can’t really mess up that much and healing is linked to combos it can be challenging to stay alive, especially if you made a few mistakes. Thankfully, checkpoints are very generous. It’s not perfect though, it has these forced stealth sections and puzzles. The puzzles aren’t that bad, if you take too much time to do them, you can skip most of them but the stealth sections don’t have this luxury. Thankfully, these sections aren’t that long and are over pretty quickly and are not that challenging but it feels out of place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have variety but the game could’ve been better without them. It has them to try and show different points of view, yet in a game about Spiderman, that’s all I really wanted to play as. It’s not a dealbreaker though. If anything, it’s just a minor annoyance and while an update that would give you an option to skip them would be the best thing ever, I’ve seen much worse. They felt out of place, unfortunately. The puzzles, are not that bad though and like I said, most can be skipped if you’re just not good at them, which is nice. They can be challenging and for those who like that kind of stuff, there is plenty to do. The game’s campaign is about 15 hours long. There are side missions that most are enjoyable, some felt like filler but I enjoyed most of the side missions. There are also different things you can do like a typical open world game. If you really wanted to do everything, you could easily spend 40-50 hours with this. There are also RPG elements. I like RPG’s so I didn’t mind them and I liked the progression, with getting stronger, faster and having more move sets. It’s not a full on action RPG but there are bits and pieces that make it feel like one at times. The story is good. It feels like you’re playing through a new Spiderman Trilogy. There are three acts. The first act is interesting enough, gives a proper introduction to the threat going on. The second act gets a bit repetitive and just when you feel the game might be getting a bit predictable, it throws a great plot twist and throws you into the third act. The third act is nothing short of fantastic and exciting. The third act truly does make up for a rather slow second act and fully worth the investment to get through it. So with that being said, despite its small pacing issues and the forced stealth sections, it’s still an amazing game well worth the money. Of course, these issues, if they were not there or corrected would’ve made this easily a 10/10 in my eyes, despite that, I give it the highest 9/10 I can. It’s truly fantastic and everyone should play it. Unless you hate Marvel or something.

At first, the game will amaze you with the visual fidelity of everything. The detail is incredible, even the vast world doesn’t lose its beauty, this is a game that if you have a 4K tv with HDR you should at least rent it to see what the visuals can be. With that being said, it is visually appealing but there are issues that will make this game, not for everyone. The graphics are one thing but another thing I felt a bit overwhelming was the sheer size of everything. Don’t get me wrong, having a vast open world is nice but here it just felt too big. There is too much to do and while some might consider that a plus, the issue is that the quests that you’re given just don’t feel that different enough. At first, it’s not too bad. It’s simple enough but after about 25 or so hours, it gets really repetitive with the same tasks, the main story missions end up feeling very similar and while there are a few good distractions and some of the side quests, while similar to the main story in term of how they’re put together and the tasks they do but some of them were entertaining. The gameplay is fun but it gets old, due to the copy and paste nature of the missions. Pretty much it comes down to either, raiding a base, engaging in a skirmish or killing certain targets. There is some flexibility with how things are done and while I get it, it is an Assassin’s Creed game it just felt like there just wasn’t enough variety. The Witcher 3 this is not. On PS4 pro it played fine, about 30 FPS without any major hiccups that I could see. Looks great in HDR and is truly a game worth getting if you love pretty graphics. On the other hand, there is a bit of loading when you first start the game. Nothing too bad. Less then a minute I think. After that, the game loads pretty briskly, there is brief loading when you talk to an NPC but it’s not a deal breaker at all. Sometimes the game glitches out. Textures won’t load sometimes and there is a bit of pop in. Sometimes the NPC’s you’re supposed to follow just don’t do what they’re supposed to do. That just requires a quick restart of the game. Annoying but not a huge problem. The main issue is the pacing. The game is just too long for its own good. Realistically, it should’ve ended at the 20-hour mark and then keep it going with side content. The plot just drags on. It starts off fine enough, it’s interesting and until you get to about 20-25 hours in and then it just seems to drag its feet. Don’t get me wrong, it is an interesting story, but the pacing killed it. Throw that in with a lack of variety in the story and you pretty much see everything that there is by about 20 hours in. Another problem is it’s grind heavy. Even with the exp booster microtransaction and playing on Easy mode it becomes a grind fest. To grind the best way is to do side quests but they just become so boring and monotonous you probably won’t want to. Due to the pacing issues with the main story and the grind-heavy nature of it and that you almost need to purchase a microtransaction just to have an edge in the grinding and even THEN it becomes very grind heavy and too repetitive I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. These things could easily be fixed in an update but right now? I don’t really recommend it. It could’ve been amazing but with some tweaks to the story’s structure, make grinding less of a chore and having more variety, it could’ve easily been one of the best historical RPG’s in recent years. Is it horrible? No, and it does have an audience. If you tend to like your games to be a bit more structured and like your narratives to not drag on though, it’s not for you. If you’re the type that only likes to buy a few games a year and wants a game that will last you and don’t mind repetitive missions and content, give it a go. It’ll probably be what you like. Other than that, I personally didn’t like how much it dragged on, especially after the 20-hour mark.

This game is fantastic. First of all, the story and characters are top notch. The plot gets the player engaged from the time they start a new game and while it plays with the whole 'silent protagonist' trope, it does it well by explaining why they're mostly mute. The protagonist ends up being compelling and one of my favorite leads in an rpg so far. The characters feel very three dimensional and while the main antagonist isn't exactly clear-cut and it takes nearly the end of the game to find out who is even the main antagonist, it is a semi-realistic story that is a fresh breath of air. The graphics are beautiful, 2d styled graphics that really shine as some of the best sprite work I've seen in a while. The characters have portraits when they speak and since the game doesn't have voice acting and is all text-based it really shows their emotions and each portrait can change depending on what they're feeling. Everything has a supreme level of polish to it visually and I just fell in love with the art style. The music is also very well done and catchy. I liked the entire soundtrack and I'd even recommend putting it on a playlist. It's pretty much NieR: Automata levels of good. The gameplay. This is both amazing and somewhat frustrating. The combat is excellent, very flashy, challenging and fun. The combat is very fast paced and while at first, it's not that hard, after the halfway point it does get very difficult. Leveling is hard too because after awhile enemies only give 1 exp and while the cap to level is 1000, you can see where this might be problematic. The game also has a barter system for equipment where you gather materials to get better equipment, which is fine in theory but the issue is that it takes a while to grind out all the materials. Not a horrible system but it does require a bit of work. There is an alternative to grinding though and that's doing sidequests. The sidequests, unfortunately, are not really that interesting but it does give you plenty of EXP and they have a distinct MMO feel and not in a good way. The developers noticed that people have complained about the difficulty and added in sliders that let you tweak how much damage enemies do and the frequency that they attack. It makes the game easier and even manageable for those who simply don't want to grind out for better equipment or do mediocre sidequests to just be on a level playing field. Even if you don't use it and want to try until you win, the game is very forgiving. If you die, you don't have to go back too far and you'll start on the same screen so it makes trying again that much easier. The other issue is the pacing. The story, characters, music, graphics, and combat are great. The dungeons are very puzzle heavy. Think Lufia 2 on hard mode. They're pretty much 1-2 hour puzzles that don't have many breaks in between. This can make them tiring, especially if you don't like puzzles that much. Though they are designed in a way where if you just need a break, it's not hard to leave the dungeon and all your progress stays in place. A nice touch. The puzzles start off simple enough but then become to the point where they're trial and error. Another thing is that there is a lot of time and precision based puzzles. This was enough for me to dislike the game's dungeons but thankfully the devolopers made a mode adjustment where you can control the speed of these puzzles, giving much needed extra time to complete them with minimal frustration. All and all this is a game that is excellent and it also has developers that care much about feedback. It's only 20 USD currently so if you like action rpg's with puzzles, this is your game. If you don't like puzzles, I'd say still get it, though a video walkthrough will be very helpful. Despite those small issues, this is a great game that I feel everyone should play atleast once.