doghairdontcare

FF7Rebirth is without a doubt a great game. It builds on the combat system introduced from FF7Remake with additional characters, giving you great options of team composition. They definitely addressed some of the issues of FF7R difficulty; namely, you don't need to beat the game just to play it on harder than normal -- it comes loaded with a Dynamic difficulty that feels appropriate for a first run-through. There were a number of challenges that you were allowed to take on early as you can, or wait for later to make it easier. I've undoubtedly spent a lot more time stubbornly fighting challenges while underleveled just because I could, and I enjoyed that aspect. There are two things that bog this game down from a perfect score for me. Lore delivery and immersion, and they both are basically hand-in-hand at spoiling the fun. Chadley is almost always in your hair, and it just doesn't make sense. I'd much rather hunt a summon to obtain its materia out in the wild than to obtain them through VR battles. Chadley is nonstop backseating, and I absolutely do NOT like it. It feels like a lazy way to deliver lore instead of having local NPCs deliver lore in given areas. There's also very little incentive to spend your resources because shop NPCs aren't anything special. I'm giving a nod to recent game, Stellar Blade, which provides quests for NPCs & they even unlock different items as you buy things from their store to up the affinity. Nothing of that sort in FF7Rebirth, and it just feels very bland in that regard. Nevertheless, there are a lot of minigames here -- and that can be a good or a bad thing. If you love these types of games, then it'll just plant a smile on your face... unless you're aiming for platinum trophy, then you're in for a lot of pain.

Stellar Blade really took me by surprise. It's my first venture into souls-like combat, and I'll admit that at first I thought it was a bit lacking -- only to soon find out that the gameplay loop really opens up with incredibly rewarding parry, counter, and punishment abilities. I've not put the game down since release, and I wanted to keep playing even after NG+ & platinum trophy. Shift Up has teased an update coming soon, which is likely to be boss rush mode. There are a few minor issues I have with dialogue and perhaps flat translation. Something that stands out is, why should I have to listen to Eve monologue about the quest board as if she's seeing it for the first time more than once? It's not a bit deal but it makes me button mash through it. I also think jumping and air combos could be improved. Some of the quests involve some deep feelings, but it falls flat with a lack of meaningful dialogue at times. Even so, I feel compelled to keep doing everything because I'm just immersed in the world. The documents and memory sticks seemed to be the perfect bite sized lore delivery that served its purpose of both delivering history and foreshadowing of the future. Oh... And there's fishing.

I clocked in a little over 70 hours at the end of my first playthrough, which includes ALL sidequests, chronolith challenges (out in the wild -- I did not do any redos back at base to "beat records" or any of the sort), and all bounty hunts. Please take this into consideration that when people say this game had too much cutscenes and not enough gameplay -- I believe it was estimated to be about 11 hours of cinematic cutscenes. Most reviews that are bashing this as merely watching a movie simply either didn't stick through the beginning, or chose to "skip" the gameplay. To that point, I felt the sidequests were really great worldbuilding. In fact, side quests towards the end are crucial for understanding how the story wraps up, and it is clear from reading reviews that many people who formulated their opinions simply did not do the quests. Sure the game runs linear through its chapters, but it is by nature of the type of story it's telling. I tried to pace myself to finish all sidequests available before moving on to prevent a pile-up that would cause burnout -- it was very doable for this game. The only thing I did postpone a bit was some of the hunt board, which is basically just going to find a monster out in the wild and slay it. Content-wise, there were moments of joy and moments of anguish; fists were clenched, and tears were shed. This is an emotional ride that left me wanting more -- and I do feel compelled to play NG+. I'm a fan of how they documented and organized lore within the game and allow you to read about different locations, history, and character profiles. The fact that NPCs change their dialogue as you walk by them through various parts of the game adds much to the immersion. The voice acting was on point. Where this game could improve: pls, the text can be hard to read sometimes. I was playing on a 65" tv and i'm not sitting too far from it; I can't imagine someone playing on a smol monitor. The weapon/equipment system was also lackluster, though abilities more than make up for it in that you have quite a number of combinations of skill sets to choose from -- making your gameplay unique.

It's a visual novel that leaves you wanting more. There are multiple endings that are required before you reach the "truth." Pros: - aesthetically pleasing artwork - character development is welcomed with likeable cast - decent plot. this game isn't just for eye candy / fan service. Cons: - some of the art might be a bit overly saucy for what it is. it's not really a hentai game or anything like that, but hey. to each their own. - some continuity issues. ex: you visit a specific spot that triggers a cutscene that ends up taking you to another spot. after the cutscene is over, you're back at the original spot. That doesn't make much sense, but it doesn't happen too often and it's not really game breaking. - It's hard to recommend playing this game without following a spoiler-free guide for each pursued character route. That being said, I really enjoyed this game. There wasn't any English voice acting, but I'm okay with that as the Japanese voice acting was good. I got about 30 hours of gameplay following a guide, but I am also a slow reader / like to take things in. I am definitely looking forward to a sequel.

This is a 9.5 game that doesn't deserve to be rounded down. I'm going to stick to main points: - Excellent addictive combat system. Every character is unique and they sync so well. I appreciated it even more on Hard mode because it's quite punishing if you don't pay attention. While Cloud is the cool edgy main character, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I was having with Tifa's combos and Aerith's spells. Barret has a damn gun for an arm, so what's not to like about him? - Sound track slaps where you don't expect it to, and I'm not talking about my butt. For those of you who are not aware, they're releasing the OST at the end of May. Don't sleep on this one! - Great visuals, despite some random one-offs. - Fully voiced game that really captures the sentiment. Characters are all very likable. You can hear clusters of NPCs having conversations as you approach them, creating quite an immersive experience. They put a lot of work into this title and it shows! - While this is a remake, there's so much character development that is much appreciated. I thought since I played the original that there wouldn't be any surprises, but I was DEAD wrong. I am way more drawn to the characters now and heavily invested. This really isn't "just the first 8 hours of the original game." This is very much getting into spoiler territory so I'll try to keep it short: you're going to keep thinking about what's coming next. There is so much foreshadowing throughout this game that is not entirely answered by the end (and I'm not talking about answers you would've gotten from OG FF7) and if you piece it together, you may come up with some very interesting theories that'll leave you hungry for the next release. There's good replay incentive and before I even finished my first playthrough, I was already itching for unlocking hard mode. - There's so much value here. Beating the game the first time unlocks Chapter Selection, which allows you to select difficulty prior to starting the chapter. This makes backtracking for quests or missing items a lot easier for completionists. While you can skip things to save time, I noticed that they put so much detail into this game that I am finding things I've missed from my first playthrough that I'm just letting the game flow naturally again. I spent 38 hours on normal and I'm already at over 60+ on chapter 8 or so on Hard. Get. This. Game.

This game is typical of Uchikoshi -- a mix of scifi + mystery and some sexual innuendos littered about. I really appreciated the character development in this series, although the plot wasn't as immersive as 999. The sound track is quite enjoyable and relaxing, and the voice acting was actually really good. As much as I liked the game and played it through to the end, I think the interactive "somnium" puzzle portions of the game weren't so enjoyable. The time limits put a lot of stress in rushing through trying to find the right path (which often require obscure logic), detracting you from the environment. It's a shame, because some of the environments are quite interesting since you're exploring a dream in the somnium. While at first it felt like it was a cheap way to add a challenge to the game, it works out with the plot.

I really would give this game a 9.5; however, that's not an option. It is not a perfect game; however, it certainly comes close compared to many games out there. Without spoilers, this game provides a lot of value in terms of hours of gameplay. There are 4 story routes -- 3 obvious ones (3 houses, duh) + 1 hidden path. All paths share a basically 90% similar first-half, and then they branch off. It makes sense when you get into the actual story and when you get engaged with the path you choose, you won't even notice how much time is passing. I chose supposedly the shortest route on my first playthrough and ended up sinking in 65 hours into the save file (though my Switch logged 80+ hours because the savefile obviously doesn't count time if you've reset). I made use of all the save file slots to explore possibilities. If I had one complaint in that department, it would be a wish for more save file slots -- I think there are only five. The sound track is superb -- and like other games in the series, there is dynamic battle music. If you have battle animations (on by default), you'll notice a change in the music score as it zooms in to the characters to play the battle animation. The sound track is also memorable and fitting for the occasion -- right now I'm thinking of Wrath Strike that plays when you initiate combat with a boss. I wish the music was all included in the OST; however, they are not. One of the cool things though that I appreciated was the Amiibo Gazebo -- if you scan characters from older Fire Emblem games, it unlocks changeable soundtracks for battle skirmishes, among other things. Where could they improve? Well for one thing, people are complaining about FPS of the cutscene sequences, and they're not wrong. The 3DS games had really smooth animations for cutscenes, and it left me feeling a little confused at how this next-gen could screw that up. I wonder what was the technical difficulty? Either way, the cutscenes were still a great treat -- the content will still give you the goosebumps. I hope they have some sort of future patch for smooth cutscenes, but I doubt it. I also wish they did mage spells a bit more justice with some of the animations. I'm also going to cut this review short just like how they did my favorite route :(

Great visual novel reboot using animated scenes from the anime. That's right, it's not just still images like most of the visual novels out there today -- I think this just set a new standard despite some of the shortcomings. This story starts off quite slow and it takes quite a few chapters for things to get serious... but when it does, it even gets dark. It was good enough to hook me into watching the anime and I'm compelled now to try the original visual novels to get the full experience. Without spoilers, I noticed that there are some scenes from the anime that did not make it into the game. I'm a bit confused as to why they did this, considering that I felt those little scenes would've added a lot more definition to some of the characters. You can also tell from some very minor details that, since this game is inspired by the anime (which was a compressed version of the VN), re-stretching it out to the original VN's intent will leave some minor issues that I wish they would've worked to polish out. For instance, the anime scene might have shown a guy eating ramen and watching tv but the text says he's reading the paper. As such, I cannot give it a perfect score. There are also some issues it suffers that other visual novels have solved years ago. This game has multiple endings, and if you don't save often, then you'll likely be doing a lot of skipping through chapters you've already been through. This game should've taken a timeline path that VLR used to help the user figure out where they need to make a different decision that will affect their ending path. I'd imagine some people get the earliest ending and don't feel compelled to keep going because they'll think "oh, that's it? This ****!" Not quite sure why there are so many negative user scores. My guess is either 1) they didn't stick to it until it got interesting, and/or 2) they never played a VN before and expected more interaction. My suggestion is if you've never played a VN before, then please go check out some videos of gameplay (at your own risk of spoilers, of course) before committing. It is a pricey game especially for anyone who's already seen the anime and played the original; however, from the standpoint of someone who has never experienced the content before, I felt like I got my money's worth.

DJMax has been a niche rhythm series similar to Beatmania where a bunch of notes rain down and you hit it with proper timing. If you don't know beatmania/iidx, then think Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero... most people who aren't heavy into video games usually still know those titles. There's quite a selection of music genre, and you might even get hooked on some songs that are not **** you typically listen to just because they're so darn catchy. This is a Korean game, so you will encounter Korean songs and some with broken English but who cares. The music is very well-done. This is the best release of the DJMax series thus far. It's hard, there are no gear effect compensations from previous versions (like protection from breaking your combo) so a full combo means a lot more than what it used to. The song collection is MASSIVE, and they have been putting out plenty of DLC to cover previous versions of the game. Furthermore, they're doing DLC partnerships with the likes of Rayark, which I find to be really cool.