OmeQuicksilver

They truly worked hard on this remake, doing everything from the ground up and retooling the play styles that wouldn't work in a game such as this. Add one three separate arcs to play through, and there's a reason to come back.

Iceborne manages to take the QoL changes that World made to the series, and render them completely moot. Combine that with a lack of a compelling story, poorly programmed monsters, mechanics that do not work and terrible balancing issues, and you're left with an expansion that's best left unplayed.

Rather then remaking the game as it was to be better like the REmake did, they completely rebuilt this one and it was worth it. The controls are tight and the atmosphere is top notch zombie apocalypse horror. It gets back to the series that RE7 ran away from and thank goodness for that. The one big flaw can be how the unkillable character enemies can quickly become annoying when you want to go somewhere and they show up to be a nuisance. I JUST WANT TO WALK DOWN THIS HALLWAY MR.X COME BACK LATER IT'S A 30 MINUTE BACKTRACK OTHERWISE.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Cyber Sleuth knows exactly what kind of game it is, and isn't shy about being it. A rather charming little JRPG, the game offers a wide selection of digimon to raise and train for your team, offering lots of customizeability. The story is abit cliche at times, but never feels like it's being dragged along for the sake of padding. The battle animations are sadly limited for a modern game, but the ones that are there are fairly fluid.

The game doesn't really stray far from it's predecessors, fully embracing the schlock that has defined the series since it's inception. But now the technical shortcomings have started to truly grate and show their age. Getting stuck on the geometry, enemy bodies lasting forever and blocking your shots (always fun to kill yourself cuz a corpse falls on your rocket), some truly TERRIBLE RNG needed upgrade weapons make this game more of a drag to play solo then the others. But with some friends it's still good fun.

This game tries to overcome or do away with some of the series long standing flaws, namely hilariously dated graphics, frustratingly clunky controls, and sever imbalance between the classes utility. And for the most part it succeeds. However it has lost much of the charm, the classes themselves are now more homogenous and thus less unique, and the game is shorter then the other entries in the series by a notable amount.

While the sequel does not necessarily break any new ground for the previous installment in terms of gameplay, it does refine it and make it even better. The new races are far more diverse in aesthetics and playstyle then those of the original game, allowing for more varied playstyles and replayability. Those that have the first game will also be able to play in a grand special map-spanning campaign mode as well as the default Vortex mode.

Ok so lets look at this objectively where it surpasses, and fails against the other entries in the series. The Good: The avatar customization is much more in depth then the attempts at previous games The design of the cities themselves are all vibrant and very well done when compared to some of the previous games. More of the new Pokemon actually feel "inspired" by their regional setting then the other games imo. The Bad: While the cities have a charming design, the rest of the game worlds graphics are extremely lackluster. Pop-ins are common and draw distance is shockingly low, roughly akin to an early Dreamcast or PlayStation title. Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee has a much better over world in every aspect, as do the handheld titles. Less then half of the total number of Pokemon available are in the game, and many of those included feel chosen at random, or out of place compared to others that would fit the new region more thematically. The game is short. 14+ hours in and you're at the end, with virtually no post-game content to look forward to beyond online play and a half-baked 'battle tower'. The game is also far more linear then previous titles, exacerbating the quickness of it. Dynamaxing is far less in depth or varied a mechanic as Z-moves or mega-evolutions. Over 100 moves were cut, including series vital mainstays like Pursuit and Hidden Power. There are no longer varied environments for battles. Catching Pokemon is now locked behind gym-badge progression, rendering you unable to catch Pokemon of a certain level until you have certain badges, regardless of when you encounter them in the over world. The Ugly: Volume control is locked behind an optionally obtained in-game item. The returning Pokemon models were all imported from X/Y, as GameFreak future proofed their models back then, which means they lied to consumers about remaking the models and animations from scratch. The game is rather poorly programmed, characters will disappear mid-battle when certain moves are used, getting on a ladder will cause the rest of the overworld to stop moving till you dismount and the game can chug in certain areas. Verdict: Sadly, despite owning at least one game from every gen since Blue/Red came out...I cannot recommend this game to either older fans, or newer ones looking to get into the series when so many better options are available. So much is missing from older series without anything meaningful to fill the gap of their removal that it's understandable that returning fans are put off, even without the controversy of how poorly Gamefreak has been caught in lies that they decided to double down on. And as for those perhaps looking to get into the series, the previous 3ds games in the series are much more fleshed out and full experience, and the Let's Go games on the Switch themselves are more polished and easier to jump into setting for first timers. Sadly it TRULY feels like GameFreak decided to have this game rushed through development to make as much money as they could with as little effort as they could, and thus have done a disservice to what should have been the fullest most content rich game in the series to date. Hopefully they learn from this and take more care in the future.

Ok so lets look at this objectively where it surpasses, and fails against the other entries in the series. The Good: The avatar customization is much more in depth then the attempts at previous games The design of the cities themselves are all vibrant and very well done when compared to some of the previous games. More of the new Pokemon actually feel "inspired" by their regional setting then the other games imo. The Bad: While the cities have a charming design, the rest of the game worlds graphics are extremely lackluster. Pop-ins are common and draw distance is shockingly low, roughly akin to an early Dreamcast or PlayStation title. Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee has a much better over world in every aspect, as do the handheld titles. Less then half of the total number of Pokemon available are in the game, and many of those included feel chosen at random, or out of place compared to others that would fit the new region more thematically. The game is short. 14+ hours in and you're at the end, with virtually no post-game content to look forward to beyond online play and a half-baked 'battle tower'. The game is also far more linear then previous titles, exacerbating the quickness of it. Dynamaxing is far less in depth or varied a mechanic as Z-moves or mega-evolutions. Over 100 moves were cut, including series vital mainstays like Pursuit and Hidden Power. There are no longer varied environments for battles. Catching Pokemon is now locked behind gym-badge progression, rendering you unable to catch Pokemon of a certain level until you have certain badges, regardless of when you encounter them in the over world. The Ugly: Volume control is locked behind an optionally obtained in-game item. The returning Pokemon models were all imported from X/Y, as GameFreak future proofed their models back then, which means they lied to consumers about remaking the models and animations from scratch. The game is rather poorly programmed, characters will disappear mid-battle when certain moves are used, getting on a ladder will cause the rest of the overworld to stop moving till you dismount and the game can chug in certain areas. Verdict: Sadly, despite owning at least one game from every gen since Blue/Red came out...I cannot recommend this game to either older fans, or newer ones looking to get into the series when so many better options are available. So much is missing from older series without anything meaningful to fill the gap of their removal that it's understandable that returning fans are put off, even without the controversy of how poorly Gamefreak has been caught in lies that they decided to double down on. And as for those perhaps looking to get into the series, the previous 3ds games in the series are much more fleshed out and full experience, and the Let's Go games on the Switch themselves are more polished and easier to jump into setting for first timers. Sadly it TRULY feels like GameFreak decided to have this game rushed through development to make as much money as they could with as little effort as they could, and thus have done a disservice to what should have been the fullest most content rich game in the series to date. Hopefully they learn from this and take more care in the future.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]