hatlock

Let's be honest, this is one of the greatest remaster/remakes of all time. In it's current state, the game has so many options to relive the old school experience or shave off all of the pointy (razor sharp, rusty, poisoned, level draining) edges. In the end, what made this game truly shine stand out. It was great, it's still great.Wizardry 1, already inspirational, can now show off it's great ideas and immense fun without players needing to know all of its rules and idiosyncrasies first. That said, you need to engage in the game's systems, understand each monster's peril, carefully manage your resources.What this game takes out:-Needing to create your own game guide while you play (it can still be very useful to draw your own map, but now you can cast a spell to confirm if you are correct and reveal your mistakes)-Needing to grind up a recovery team when things go wrong in the dungeon-Rerolling characters to get decent statsIf you liked those things, guess what, the options are still there!What the game puts in:Basically everything from the previous definitive version (the SNES "Nintendo Power" version) including:-Better in game map-colorful enemy sprites and animations-thieves and ninja can hide from the backrow (basically allows them to attack from the back row every other turn)Things that weren't in that version:-lots more QOL features (all optional!)-sweet mini view of what the original game looked like in the bottom right corner (best feature)-mouse controls! (but the keyboard ones are very good)-Your highest party level is noted to help you recruit a recovery team (all of the financial pain of a party wipe, the thrill of the recovery, but none of the grinding).-better DUMAPIC usability and bestiary

The user reviews so far are very vague so I have my switch review to help you understand what exactly is this weirdo ****. I wanted to write a review as this game is under reviewed and it is hard to understand what you are getting into with it. I wanted to help people decide if this is the game for them (and it really could be your next gem!) This is a dungeon "blobber"/dungeon crawler-type game, very much in the vein of Wizardry, but even though it is a JRPG, it is really a different evolutionary path than most other JRPGs. Essentially, this is a camping/hiking simulator, but instead of being outdoors, all of your hiking is a massive 100 level deep dungeon. You will plan, you will consult maps and your guide book. You will delight as your log book fills in with more and more facts and info that help you make fewer mistakes in the future. -Supremely high exploration focus. You get a robust set of mix-and-match party-wide abilities and your options expand through exploring the dungeon. You find specific skills in the dungeon -Supremely high level of abstraction. Your brain shades in the narrative even more than in a Saga-style game. You'll never "see" the dungeon. There isn't even descriptions of environments or narrative justification of the events. -Very low emphasis on luck or really any randomization. More emphasis on problem solving situations and decision making. -Emphasis on simple easy to understand rules with many permutations and options. -Characters essentially have 2 "abilities" which are equipment/weapons. Some armor gives a passive (like a chance to evade). Combat is much like a game like Fire Emblem in that all the math is very obvious and simple to calculate in your head. e.g. Your weapon does exactly 300 damage and the enemies HP is 301, so you know it will take exactly two hits to eliminate. Weapons either do magic or physical damage (in fixed or random amounts and either to one or all enemies). Magic and physical defense is basically a separate HP pool that is depleted first before true HP can be damaged. -Character basically grow in how fancy their equipment can be and total HP, but there are still a ton of decisions to make and ways to differentiate your party. But sadly, it kinda means new characters are really only about what equipment they have or their level.

I wanted to write a review as this game is under reviewed and it is hard to understand what you are getting into with it. I wanted to help people decide if this is the game for them (and it really could be your next gem!) This is a dungeon "blobber"/dungeon crawler-type game, very much in the vein of Wizardry, but even though it is a JRPG, it is really a different evolutionary path than most other JRPGs. Essentially, this is a camping/hiking simulator, but instead of being outdoors, all of your hiking is a massive 100 level deep dungeon. You will plan, you will consult maps and your guide book. You will delight as your log book fills in with more and more facts and info that help you make fewer mistakes in the future. -Supremely high exploration focus. You get a robust set of mix-and-match party-wide abilities and your options expand through exploring the dungeon. You find specific skills in the dungeon -Supremely high level of abstraction. Your brain shades in the narrative even more than in a Saga-style game. You'll never "see" the dungeon. There isn't even descriptions of environments or narrative justification of the events. -Very low emphasis on luck or really any randomization. More emphasis on problem solving situations and decision making. -Emphasis on simple easy to understand rules with many permutations and options. -Characters essentially have 2 "abilities" which are equipment/weapons. Some armor gives a passive (like a chance to evade). Combat is much like a game like Fire Emblem in that all the math is very obvious and simple to calculate in your head. e.g. Your weapon does exactly 300 damage and the enemies HP is 301, so you know it will take exactly two hits to eliminate. Weapons either do magic or physical damage (in fixed or random amounts and either to one or all enemies). Magic and physical defense is basically a separate HP pool that is depleted first before true HP can be damaged. -Character basically grow in how fancy their equipment can be and total HP, but there are still a ton of decisions to make and ways to differentiate your party. But sadly, it kinda means new characters are really only about what equipment they have or their level.

Metroid Dread makes great use of Samus's growing arsenal and moveset to fly through environment and fight a large host of creative and interesting bosses. Unlike most other titles in this line, there is a heavy emphasis on the changing environment of ZDR. Passaged will open or close, region ecologies will change in small and dramatic ways. It is not as expansive as Super Metroid, but Dread makes much better use of everything Samus is capable of. It is also probably both the most challenging and accessible title of the series. The game wants you to learn it and do well. I look forward to replaying this as often as I do Super Metroid. A note on the story too: I never cared much about the plot of the series, but I always enjoyed the character designs. Dread does an excellent job of wrapping up the plot arc while also elevated the previous games by retroactively creating an amazing finale to build up to. It also helps make the thematic changes started in Fusion even more fantastic. Unlike it's inspiration, Alien, Metroids are part **** ecosystem, and just like in real life, destroying a predator can dramatically change the environment in unpredictable ways. Dread certainly keeps up with that tradition while opening up some clever options for future games.

As a standard for a remaster of a PlayStation Era game, this is a perfect 10. The game itself is also very exciting. Chances are, many people who try this game will be spit right out, as it is full of strange systems and unexplained mechanics. However, once a player understands the flow of the game, there is a deep set of mechanics and world building that really pushed boundaries in video game story telling. As an adult, I find many RPGs trite, uninspired, and too simple in their mechanics. Sage Frontier is a game that can really grow with your own understanding of it. There is tons to discover, and the use of 8 protagonists truly lets the player explore the world through 8 different sets of eyes. Mysterious regions in one playthrough are critical set pieces of another. The personality of each region is allowed to speak with its own voice through the music, visuals, and the setting.