I've played plenty of other Souls games, and this is the first time I've been genuinely disappointed. I was wary about getting it prior to release (mainly because of the price tag), but after seeing that people thought it was worth it, I finally bit the bullet. I wish I didn't. The whole map is too winding and confusing, with basically nothing in it. New weapons I found were worthless or unable to be used with my build (I guess we're all big fans of INT+FTH in this DLC, huh), bosses felt uninspired or just the same unbalanced junk that has plagued FS games forever (i.e. big enemy that hops around in large room), even mini dungeons with no bosses at the end. My build used a lot of Vigor and heavy armour, plus a shield; I still got melted in two hits by most things. After some hours it started to feel like a chore and I just wasn't having fun anymore. I like hard games, I like challenging myself. This doesn't feel like that. Couldn't even be bothered to finish it. I loved the base game and played it a few times. That won't be happening with this. Wish I'd spent the $50 on something else.
At its core it's a Pikmin game but it's way too overbearing and restricting. Feeling like I'm still in the tutorial 10 hours in (based on the near constant screen-covering dialogue about basic mechanics), Most Pikmin are basically useless, the side content (caves, dandori challenges, etc.) being required but also the worst parts of the game because the core gameplay is exploring and finding stuff that way, etc. So much stuff just feels pointless. Also not really a fan of being forced to rush through one of the areas because something is chasing me when I've been able to 100% every area in the first attempt up to that point.
Looks and sounds like a classic JRPG, except the actual JRPG part. On rails Press Button To Confirm simulator. Combat seems engaging at first but gets old fast, and the timing for bonus hits and blocks is terrible. ****, 'cause it seems really cool.
A generous 6. It caught my interest initially in the prologue but as soon as the game opens up it just falls flat. Combat doesn't feel very rewarding, as enemies seem to just absorb your hits with minimal reaction. Movement is weird too, you run so fast forward but strafing is extremely slow with no way to adjust it. I like to look around while walking in the direction of my objective and this game says no to that, apparently. It reminded me of Bioshock but quickly just made me want to turn this one off and go play that instead. Could've been better than it is. Glad I just borrowed it from the library.
As a huge fan of Alan Wake from back when it released, and then Control, my expectations for this game were extremely high, and they were all met. I loved every minute of it, and can tell Remedy really put a lot of love into it. The first game was ahead of its time and as a result wasn't super successful, but I assume after how well Control was received, that gave Remedy the hope that this one would land better. Modern games have changed since Alan Wake first came out, and Alan Wake 2 found its perfect place in present day. Can't wait for the DLC.
Way better than a lot of people are saying, but still lacking in some ways. I've seen people say it's the worst game they've ever played, and then quote a single NPC in the wild saying, "I don't want to pay for a border wall," citing political propaganda as the game's biggest fault. As if it's the first game to ever make references to real world politics. Anyway, as someone who's played all previous Saints Row games, I enjoyed this one. It was different, fresh, and a lot better than I expected going in. My main criticisms of it lie in its length, story and character arcs not being as fleshed out as it could be, and side content variety. It's a good game, but not a great one. Still worth playing if you're a fan of the series, however. Unless you're triggered by seeing a Pride flag hanging outside a store, however; then you might want to skip it.
What could've been a good game is riddled with excessive cutscenes, extremely repetitive combat/exploration dialogue, and just full of generic RPG junk. Walk here, watch a 45 minute cutscene, walk there, fight meaningless enemies, watch a 20 minute cutscene, do a really long tutorial, walk two feet to the objective marker, watch another cutscene. Combat feels meaningless because nothing has any impact besides combos that just make your enemy stop attacking for a while. Exploring is pointless because nothing you pick up is unique and the environments contain no significance. Class system is a waste of time and you'll probably just have to play a healer anyway to make sure the AI doesn't just kill itself. Equipment customization is pointless because there's basically no real customization. Basically just a surface level RPG with way too much filler. I thought it'd be a nice long game but instead it's just a long, boring tutorial. The long cutscenes at the beginning made sense because it was establishing the story and characters, and for a while was interesting. Now it's just "oh boy another cutscene", and put the controller down for a while. That's not a game. I got this because I saw how highly rated it was, and now I find myself doubting people's opinions, severely.
After playing Eternal first, this one is a snooze fest. Wandering around lost with a map that tells you very little that I constantly had to open and close to find certain things (not sure why I can have a compass but not a minimap). Guns feel like they do nothing. If I get within two feet of the shield enemies I die instantly somehow. Absolutely abhorrent checkpoint system that somehow also allowed me to exploit a challenge to get two upgrade points for doing something, dying, then being reloaded to before I completed it, allowing me to complete it again. Nowhere near the interesting run-and-gun style that you'd expect from Doom. GOTY my ass. Eternal was so fun and fast, this one feels like little more than a tourist holding a pea shooter simulator.
I've loved Kirby since I was a kid, but I'll confess that I haven't played many Kirby games. As much as I enjoy the concept, I'm not a big platformer player. However, playing this was some of the most fun I've had in a game in a really long time. The environments are beautiful and well-designed, the music is phenomenal, and it's not extremely difficult to 100% but still feels rewarding to do so. Some parts of the story even made me tear up a bit. Overall a great Kirby game and it didn't misstep with going to full 3D. By the way I gave it a 9 because I don't believe any game is a 10 and I want to be fair and honest, though if I could I'd give it a 9.5.
For nostalgia only. For new players all the positive and interesting features are met with "that's it?" after a couple hours in. Interesting concept, bland execution. Leave it back in 2012.
I enjoyed the original back in the day, so I thought I'd get the remaster for some nostalgia and to re-experience a game I liked. While it is still a good game, I'm extremely disappointed by technical issues that are still present. At least one required mission crashing every time unless you use an annoying workaround, as well as random crashes at any point. Plus weird technical issues likes cars spawning vertically, jammed into the ground, pedestrians randomly in the street or standing on (or in) cars. This is supposed to be a remaster. Why are there MORE problems?
I never played the original so I thought I'd finally experience the FFVII story with this one. Until I learned that it's not the original story AND the bulk of it is just Waifu Walking Simulator. It's a shame, because there's a lot of cool stuff about it visually, the combat (mostly, anyway), etc. but there's just so much fluff and filler. The original was long enough apparently, why make it even longer? Just go play the original, imo.
There's no excuse for a AAA company to release something that performs this poorly. Graphics be damned, NPCs right next to you should not have such low LOD. A sloppy game made by a greedy company. Buggy and lazy. Skip this one.
A major departure from the standard FromSoftware formula while still maintaining its core identity. As someone who's played their other games, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Even got the platinum, which I didn't bother to do for any of the others. My only criticisms are the designs/reused assets of the optional dungeons/catacombs, and poor balancing for one of the optional bosses (if you know, you know). Other than that, I think it was really fun, beautiful scenery, great OST, and it was generally worth the wait.
Short version: Good story, bland gameplay. It has an identity crisis about whether it wants to be its own unique thing or a Final Fantasy themed Soulslike. Long version: Everything that's Final Fantasy about it is good. The world-building, music, job system, enemy designs; they're all high quality. The story bravely went in a direction that rarely happens in any game, which I was hoping for and was rewarded with by suffering through the bulk of the gameplay. It's the same stuff the whole way through, areas are linear and forgettable. Side missions are just the same areas again but in reverse with small variations. One zone in particular comes up multiple times, and involves just simply reaching the end of the area with no roadblocks and no reason to fight any of the enemies. Most job skills were a total waste of time to get because if you were up against more than one enemy, you'd get swarmed and couldn't charge anything. Picking a melee weapon with super armour for their R2 skill is the only thing you need to steamroll the whole game. MP acquisition and limitations were also irritating. The loot system is fun at first but you just get loaded up with gear you don't need anymore, and modifying them is a waste of time because you'll just randomly find a better one. It's probably better suited for post-game, but why keep playing at that point? The movement of this game and other Soulslikes like Nioh suffer from something I can only describe as being sticky. FromSoftware games can feel a bit sluggish sometimes so challenging movement isn't new to me, but the problem here is that you move quite quickly, yet there's this strange stickiness between moving, dodging, and attacking. It's hard to understand without seeing or playing it yourself, but you'll have to trust me. Perhaps it's not as noticeable in other games because of input queuing, but in this game you'll find yourself reacting to things mid-action, pressing the input, and getting no result. So you fail a block, counter, or heal because you were stuck. I hope that makes sense. One thing that was a glaring problem for me was about 3/4 into the game, I was suddenly way underleveled/undergeared, despite doing every side mission, and exploring every corridor in the game. I didn't miss a single thing up to that point, yet somehow I was level 68 while the lowest level mission (a side mission) was level 84. On Action difficulty, I didn't stand a chance, and I often play Souls games; I don't mind a challenge. Being undergeared and fighting against the core game mechanics made it infuriating. I couldn't progress. I had to lower the difficulty to do the lowest side mission to get better gear, then turn it back up again. There was no reason for me to be that far behind, and there was no other way for me to get better equipment. Basically, it seems that the game struggles with being a unique concept while also being familiar genre-wise. Because of this it ends up a muddled mess. I was really excited for this game since it was first announced and we could play the demo. I preordered it. I had fun for about a day and a half and then just wanted to get to the end. I enjoyed the story, but I'm almost happy I don't have to play it anymore. If you liked the gameplay style of Nioh, then you should be able to tolerate this game. Same goes for if you like unique stories. If neither interest you, I'd say to skip this one.
As someone who's played Pokemon since gen 1 as a kid, I wanted to see how this new installment stood up to previous ones as well as my opinion as a lifelong Pokemon fan. The short version is this: I enjoyed it, even with a few criticisms. I had fun, and I actually did Catch 'em All this time. The long version is: It's a new and interesting direction for Pokemon to go, having done the usual 8 badges + beat evil team for 25 years. Although the catchphrase implied you had to indeed catch them all, it was never the main goal. If you did, you rarely got anything good unless you were shiny hunting, and it was really just for the sake of doing it. So to make that the goal of getting the true final ending of this game was innovative and unique. They took away the pressure of the main path to follow and instead put a lot of focus on discovering all the Pokemon in the region. It also did a good job of making the wild Pokemon feel more dangerous and not just pests. Now for the downsides... I didn't encounter a lot, but the things I did see are the most commonly talked about. Mainly the graphics. I'm not a big whiner about it, but it was definitely a bit rough sometimes. Mostly when high up, as when you're on the ground catching or battling Pokemon it's harder to see. However, I didn't find that it ruined my experience of playing it. There were also some encounters that were frustrating, involving chasing really fast Pokemon that dashed away as soon as you were in their line of sight. As well, one battle in particular was a huge difficulty spike over any others and was really imbalanced in favor of the opponent. Kids are supposed to be able to play this, and it gave me a rough time, so I can't imagine how much one might struggle against it. Also, multibattles exist but you still only get to use one Pokemon, so you can easily find yourself getting wombo combo'd to death with nothing you can do but watch. Basically, it's definitely a good game at its core, but could use some polish. If they go this route again in the future, I hope they listen to criticism of this one to better balance the next one. If you weren't sure about getting this one, I'll say this: If you're a committed Pokemon fan, you won't want to miss it. If you're just looking to play the hot new game and really want pretty graphics, you may want to skip it if you just can't accept how it looks. It's not perfect, but it's good.
