I try so hard to like these games. Love the combat system. But I just can't get past how boring the story is played out. The characters don't move around and act, not dynamic movement other than the intro animation scene, maybe an end game scene? After 12 hours I didn't see another, it's the characters standing and talking with word balloons sometimes voiced sometimes not. If the story wasn't a major part to these games I might feel differently about them.
"Remasters/Remakes/Reimagined" are a challenge. If this was a polished version of the original it could be forgiven for some of the story pacing and lack of modern cinematics. However, this was an attempt to tell the story in a current generation format and given the graphics have been updated and an attempt was made to improve the story pacing a lack of effort in story delivery keeps this rooted in it's decades old feel.
After 10 hours I decided to pull the plug. The great graphics and interesting gameplay just couldn't overcome the cumbersome amount of systems. If this had been slimmed down into a single player game that wasn't burdened by free to play systems it could have been fun.
Loot and Shoot. Don't expect much beyond that. If that is all you are looking for in a game this is definitely something you want. However, if you want something more than what's the new "shiny" I wouldn't suggest this game. I enjoy this game but doubt I will spend much time beyond the campaign.
If you like challenging metroidvania games this game might be a favorite or at least worth giving it a try. As a gamer that likes many genres and metroidvania games are occasional something I play (I did beat Castlevania and metroid as a kid), silksong was okay. While good I don't feel like it is a must play or elevates the genre beyond the "git gud" crowd. It has style and a nice variety of mechanics. But the game is ultimately a game for a very specific gamer and one I can only recommend to those who play mostly in this genre.
The high production items can't completely save a game that feels lacking inspiration and overall, a very tame milk toast experience. I had to drag myself across the finish line on this one. I laughed once during my playthrough, and I don't know that I smiled much. Everything felt like a game made with a checklist. On paper I'm sure this game sounded good but the parts did not fit. I will say it's better than most of the RPG slop we get these days but here are some of the games to play instead. Clair Obscur Expedition 33, like a dragon (any), Witcher 3, Baldur's gate 3, Nier Automata, Cyberpunk
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has plenty to love. Much like the other like a dragon games Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is full of different activates and mini games. However, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii fails to have the polish of the others in the series. The story doesn't flow as well, the mini games that are original are not as good and the combat gets repetitive. The story feels a bit stretched thin and I found myself skipping much of it just to be done. If the main story had been shorter and the side stories fewer and given an upscale to include voice acting this would have been better. As it is I had a decent time but miss the other like a dragon experiences.
Eternal Strands is a solid AA experience. The budget restraints do show but they make the most of that limited production budget. After 20 hours I was getting tired of going back to areas to get quest items and the thrill I had earlier of exploration didn't exist. The last act did feel as if it had a big difficulty spike. But if you like action exploration crafting games and you have run out of AAA titles to play this is a good game to add to the list.
I tried to like Metaphor and the things I didn't like about it outweighed the things I liked about it. The story and the characters were great. Loved the combat turn based with layers of weakness and advantages. however, the limited day system made for a negative experience. I never felt like comfortable making decisions. Then the fact if you spent longer than one day in any dungeon you were "punished" by losing more time needing to spend another day in the dungeon not able to do other character growth tasks. I also found the graphics lacking and the English Dub was only voiced for cutscenes.
Many people are enjoying this game and that's great. However, I still found Like a Dragon to be a more enjoyable and polished game this year in the JRPG category.
Lots to love here. The characters and environments are beautiful. the combat is fun. The length of the game doesn't actually bother me like some, at least not in the way most are bothered with it by it's length being short. The game, even though short, is padded with repetitive quests and text and voice stories tangent (and not as high quality) to the main quest. This is an enjoyable game however I don't see how it can be given a higher grade matching the top tier of RPGs
For the monster hunting fans this has some good qualities and I love that some (the cut scenes only) have an English voice over. However the game isn't very deep (other than the monster mechanics). The story is mundane, the graphics are severely dated, the 3d motion at times has trouble with the environments. As a Dragon Quest fan I was looking for more. This game comes off as a low budget cash grab. Monsters hunters will find some love here but if you are looking for a top tier game this in not it.
While I love the genre of games Monochrome Mobius resides in I can't help but feel the port to North America is lacking. The trend to not bother with developing an English voice over is concerning. To me it feels very lazy. If you want my gaming time you are going to need to show more effort in making the game for me. For those of you who don't mind a subtitled game add a few points.
If the gameplay was the only thing that needed work here and the voice acting/ storytelling was good an average score might be justified but I'm not sure this game has any redeeming qualities.
While not a bad game I feel the lack of any modern expectations like voice acting keeps this game from qualifying as a high ranking game. The faithful reworking **** 20 years old also doesn't mean it should be rated high. I love this game for the nostalgia but I don't see that as a reason to score it higher than it should be. My score is meant as a reflection of this game if it did not have a Nintendo label. It's a simple RPG with a text story and a short length and uninspired plot.
Starfield in many ways illustrates the phrase "Bigger is not always better." Perhaps after playing Baldur's Gate 3 the contrast between the 2 showed where starfield felt lacking. Starfield often feels empty and the characters feel like they have stiff personalities. However, Starfield has many parts to love that can keep you playing for a near infinite amount of time. If you need a game that will occupy you for hundreds if not thousands of hours, Starfield is worth considering. If you are looking for something polished and has a tight storyline, look elsewhere.
When I play Pixel retro games I compare them against my experience playing other graphical similar games from the ps1 aera. This one would be a mid ranking game of that time. While the sea of stars is solid I didn't find anything special enough about it when compared against games made 20 years ago. No voice acting, standard story beats, okay characters. Sea of stars was missing modern advancements that could have made it more than a mid tier game that could have been made over 2 decades ago. When compared against final fantasy 7 8 or 9, suikoden, xenogears, parasite eve; sea of stars doesn't shine as bright.
Tears of the Kingdom is a good game. Vast open world, interesting mechanics, versatile action combat. One thing that keeps it from being perfect is a fully voiced dialogue (certainly possible). While I have many personal dislikes about the game the lack of a fully voiced game in 2023 puts tears of the kingdom at a disadvantage to other games launched recently. My personal dislikes. Lack of explanation I get that the game is all about experimentation but with the amount of possible combinations I would have liked to have a larger tutorial. graphic and art style hurts my eyes. Lack of difficulty slider. Durability. World can feel empty.
Close to being great but just doesn't get there. Is this a good game? yes. However, a few tech and play issues keep it from being a top shelf game. The Great Cinematics are plentiful and well made. Characters are complex and help support an okay story. The okay Story is fine but takes too much inspiration from other source material (game of thrones) and is dark but pulls it's punches. They wanted to make a gritty game but apparently were also worried about offending anyone so scrubbed it out anything mature. This makes the story feel like it has no appropriate audience...like an R rated movie that's been cancered for general audiences. Combat gets to feeling repetitive after a while. I've played many action games with better move sets, and it feels like they are trying to cover up a mediocre system with an abundance of particle effects. I think they should have stuck with being a turn-based game, where they could be the king of turn based games, they settle for middle of the road for action. Graphics have a constant blur and muddy feel. This game would look amazing on a $4000 pc but the ps5 just doesn't have what it needs to run this above 30fps. The bad Crafting is minimalistic. It's so weak you can completely ignore it. Side content is mostly skippable and unnecessary. Missing the often-massive amount of side content a final fantasy game usually has.
A mix of good and meh. The first 20 hours playing the story campaign was a fun experience. The side missions are mostly dull and repetitive with a few good ones. The cinematics are definitely the best part of the game. Great story, fun game play for a while (if you were playing a good build) and while not perfect I kind of wish it stopped there because the endgame is not a fun grind. Unlike previous Diablo games this one feel sluggish and you constantly feel under powered (unless you are playing one of the few solid builds). This is a fault of taking the easy way out and using level scaling. The endgame content gets extremely repetitive, and since the 10th nerf patch has hit it's even worse. The class skills are not balanced (even after 10 patches). Experience gains in the end game are extremely slow (or feel it given how dull the grind is). The loot is mundane and you will go hours without finding something worth using. The live service, pvp, and lack of interesting loot has dulled an overall good experience. I would rather have the game unbalanced with fun loot than balanced with mundane and dull loot. I'm afraid the target is the later.' To fix this they need to offer players better loot and allow players to be powerful, instead of making the game balanced and longer you should have players feeling the items they get let them be unbalanced and cool as hell. What is currently in place is so boring nothing is exciting or useful.
Lack of an English voice track, and padded gameplay keeps this game from being good. The graphics are pretty and appropriate, the turn based battles are fun. I doubt this does enough for people who aren't One Piece fans but it's a solid effort and worth your time if you like RPG Turn Based games and you are between top rated games.
A game of mixed parts (some things good and others bad or awful) make this a difficult game to review. story is okay but the protagonist is difficult to like. Voice acting is good but the script has some weak spots. Graphics for the models are nice but the environment is bland. Combat is good but it takes way too long to unlock all the parts. Movement is fluid for somethings and not others.
Wow! what a surprise and delight! Style, fluid action, great animation and story. Not much to dislike about this one. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 from me is because I have high standards and a 10 is reserved for the highest class of games (I might only give one or two each year). Well done.
A game that could have been so much more. I was okay with the generic anime 2D no English voice want to be mobile game. What killed my desire to play was the attempt at making a grid based strategy game run with Semi AI controlled characters. If this had been turn based I "probably" would have enjoyed the game. However, I felt like I was constantly trying to fight bad AI decisions. I you have ever wanted to try and herd a bunch of cats this is the game for you!
played the original and if you are a final fantasy fan this might be worth playing. As a full price game it's a bit much to ask. $20 seems about right. The improvements are nice and the 15 hours worth of story are decent. The side missions will keep you going for much longer.
By the end of my play through I was feeling underwhelmed by the experience. What started as flashy and over the top felt more mundane by the end. For a game based so much on style and looks it really needed an upgrade in graphics. The levels looked dull and the character models while nice felt very old and dated. The switch just doesn't have the power to show off what this game. Nothing about the game is broken but by the end of the month I might forget I played it.
Mixed bag of success and meh. The game has several questionable design decisions that bring it down but I will just talk about the things I liked. Character design is **** going to say good because this one is a matter of taste, I like funky outfits and pretty girls so for me it's a win. English dub track, again this one isn't "good" but at least it's included and covers a great deal of dialogue and for me that is another win. mini game, if you have never played GO this game might take a moment to figure out but I enjoyed the mini game more than actual combat. Everything else was middle of the road and could have been improved.
Solid game and a ton of fun. The story is delivered well (a skill I find lacking in most games). The combat is easily scalable to find your playstyle. Large variety of weapons and combat styles. This is the "souls" experience that makes me happy. The only detractors I can think to give this, it has a slightly muddy appearance from the color palate , I would have liked a map of the local environments to use for navigation. Overall one of the most enjoyable game experiences I have had this year.
Reminds me of the glory days for PS2 jRPG's in it's gameplay. A middle of the road rpg experience that is polished enough to bring it up from a middle score a few points. Suffers from several normal jRPG issues, bland environments, long "Visual Novel" dialogue dumps, "Grindy" game mechanics and questing. Recommend for jRPG lovers only.
Crashes and glitches. Assuming these issues are fixed a rating of 6 is more appropriate. An entertaining romp that is to tame to live up to what is expected out of a Saints Row game, mired with inconvenient mapping and a world that never feel full enough to justify it's space, keep this game from being more than a momentary diversion.
I loved the first 30 hours I played and then the next 50 were a mix of love hate and almost giving up. Finished the main story at a bit over 80 hours. The decision to leave several dozens of hours of side content unfinished was a difficult one but one that was necessary for me to make. The story is the best thing about the **** until about halfway. Any time a story gets so long I need to set down my controller and start checking my email, go to the bathroom, make a sandwich, and check my email again because it still hasn't finished is too long and something many JRPGs suffer from. This one didn't start out that way. The story which begins as an exploration of self and identify ends on a lofty scifi trope that is played out and you really miss those more personal interactions. The graphics are dated. The environment is HUGE! So big and grand that you stop many times to just take in the view. However the creatures feel repetitive and like a mmo from 2 decades ago. Combat is interesting but mostly pointless. You control 1 character out of 7 on screen so the A.I. is doing most of the fighting. You are just there to manage and hit some appropriate timed strategy actions. Based on my first week of play I might have given this game of the year. Now I can only say that if fell short in a few areas. Not a bad JRPG but not special enough to be remembered long.
A simplified version on Diablo 3. Less story more grind. If you enjoyed the endgame of the previous Diablo games more than the story campaign, then this is something to sink your teeth into. If you are looking for more of the heavy and dramatic story and don't want to spend your time grinding I suggest playing what little story their is and moving on.
Good game but limited experience. I think for what it is, a 4v1 single map playground, the game accomplishes what it wants to be with a decent gameplay loop. In this genre of game I would increase the rank a few points. Why I gave it a 6 and not an 8. The game has certain restrictions that I believe hurt it in a larger view. You are only going to get the most out of the game if you have a solid group of 4 gamers playing and it relies on unknown players to fill in the gaps (some people don't have a problem with this but I do). The objectives never change. Their is only one map. Some of the characters need balancing.
$70 with microtransactions? Single player online only? launching predatory features after the release? Sony is no longer the place for gamers. This game not only got me to rethink how I purchase games but which console I play them on. I was a PlayStation first gamer and Xbox ****? Xbox is looking better every day Sony.
triangle strategy is not a bad game but several things could have been done better. The graphics are very retro and that by design. The story is something you get beat over the head with told in sever different ways I felt like the game was 90% story 10% gameplay. The voice acting, excellent it was included but it wasn't very good. New game plus requiring 4 playthroughs ? to complete. Nier automata has been the only game to do new game playthroughs well. Expect to need to rehash several parts of the story. Not a bad game, just should only be for people who like lots of story and tactics gameplay.
Very pretty but after a while you feel the world is silent and alone, often feeling like a fantasy MMO with no other people playing. It's not that the game is bad just the world while surprising at times is often very quiet. It also seems to be a large map of "lets see what's over there and can I kill it?" I'm not sure what exactly is says about a game that the community is more concerned with finding leveling exploit spots than discussing the game it's self. If you like a constant string of challenging combat this will be for you. Everyone else? It's okay to explorers their is a lot to see. Anyone who likes a game to give you an explanation of how things work and where things **** will not find that.
I enjoyed the first 10 hours. The game has incredible graphics, solid game play and an expansive and large world to explore. After that I felt like something was missing. Eventually I began to realize this game didn't have anything I truly cared about. The characters are forgettable, the story and tone are bland, and the game play loop offers nothing original. This is a very well polished piece of coal. I never once smiled, laughed, cried or was shocked by what this game had to offer and technical polish can only get you so far.
I'm enjoying this game. I find the level design excellent, the loot system good, and the combat okay. The character level progression in decent. I've played several missions solo and with a friend and have enjoyed both. I would not trust anyone who gives this a 0 or 10. A good time can be had. A few tweaks to fix a few bugs and this game should be tried by anyone who has an interest in the property or action role playing.
I would have loved this game if I had not needed to carefully manage my ammo and having played the majority of the resident evil I know this is a trademark of the game **** it doesn't mean I have to like it. Another aspect is that at one point I needed to refer to a guide, at that point the game turned into a fun exploration to just following the guide and that **** the majority of the fun out of the game. I will continue to rent the resident evil games. It has aspects that I love. However, before I love the game enough to give it a higher score, the resource management and need to refer to a guide has got to go.
If you are down for the experience of a rogue game you will enjoy this game more than I. My score of 6 is from the perspective of someone who does not like the need to start over and repeat material. I rarely replay games I love and in this game you will be replaying areas several times. It's beautiful and has some excellent mechanics and probably worth the effort. Sadly for me it was not what I wanted in a game.
The lack of English Dub keeps me from loving this game. I find the combat, story and game mechanics worthy (not ground breaking). The graphics are dated but okay. If lots of reading dialog doesn't bother and you like traditional RPGs then I can recommend this game. If reading hours worth of dialog doesn't sound fun then skip this one.
Assassins Creed Valhalla is not a bad game. If fact it is excellent in many ways but one I have major issue with. Length. Some people will be fine with sinking 100+ hours into a game and arrive at the end feeling great. After 80 hours it becomes more difficult to start playing each time I think of starting up a run. I'm not 10 hours to completion. I'm looking at 30+ hours remaining. Maybe 60 hours (the way I play a game). I play all the Assassins creed games and will continue to do so but I would have liked a more concentrated world, tighter story and just less bloat. Too much **** thing.
Extremely enjoyable 40 hours. Having played the original and still own the discs purchased on release day years ago, I can say I enjoyed this re-imagining. The game is linear (which I believe is perfect for the story telling), has a great cast and gives insights into the world not seen in the original. It has minor imperfections but it is a must play game of 2020.
Visually pleasing, the character creation is pretty good. However, that is where my enjoyment of the game ended. The story is there but it's hidden behind a ton of reading (if I'm going to read a story it's going to be in a novel) and most quests are just point a to b or kill x. As a group up with friends to do this or that, create the story with my group as I go it might have more appeal...a game as a service. However this is just pretty shell.
The few shining moments in this game are not enough to save the experience. I was so excited to start this game I brought my wife in to experience the opening with me, I expected more, rarely have I experienced a AAA game with so little in the way of story development in the beginning. Once you get into the game you will occasionally find a questline that provides an enjoyable experience, but those are few and to often entirely missable. Few low quality quests would have greatly improved this game. The combat system is fine and combat can be an enjoyable activity. Sadly only a major content update will save this game. Hopefully lessons will be learned and the next installment will bring the magic back.
