thaesino

Let's start with the harsh truth. This is a very pretty game, but it is not a GOOD, pretty game. The surfing feels great. The environments look amazing. The art style is what you can expect from (some of) the team behind Journey, ABZU, and The Pathless. But this game is shallow. It APPEARS to be a sort of limited "open world", with each area being endlessly traversable so long as you don't progress into the next one, and yet, for some reason, I can't help but feel that Journey, which was more limited, felt BIGGER in its freedom. Which brings me to an important point. Since the game also attempts to tell a story about the rise/fall of some People/Place, it's natural to compare it to Journey. What is surprising to me is just how much MORE Journey did by NOT having any words than Sword of the Sea. It seems they probably should've hired a writer for this one - words are not their forte. Finally, before I mention what really bugged me about this game, I gotta say that the soundtrack, while also pretty, is not Austin Wintory's best. It seems he has a harder time composing tracks that are supposed to continue endlessly/repeat. Some are nice. Most are not. Definitely more like ABZU than Journey. So here's my biggest issue with this game: it FORCES you to play more than once if you want to unlock all the tricks. But the game IS NOT worth playing more than once, because everything in it is done cheaply. And so, as you realize you just can't get enough currency, you start going crazy, looking everywhere - you begin to wonder if you missed anything, a nook and cranny somewhere, anything at all. But no... you cleared every nook and every *sscrack and you WILL NOT have enough for all the tricks. Basically, the Devs created a false sense of FOMO to get you to play for longer. You've been duped into playing longer than you would've. Congrats Devs! Honestly, I hope this is the last game by Giant Squid - at least by this team. Between The Pathless and now this, it's clear they don't really know what they're making. It's fluff. It's very pretty fluff. They peaked with Journey... and if you know how that game goes, you'll know how ironic that is. Don't pay full price for this unless you like to be duped. You've been warned.

Short and sweet. Simple puzzles. Nice music. Spiritual successor to games like Journey/ABZU, Entwined, Grow Home, Spirit of the North, The Last Tree. In short, easy puzzle games without enemies, where the only thing that can “kill” you is yourself. If you want a game with the same visuals but with real challenges, play Tunic or Death’s Door. If you want a game like this one but with a storyline and enemies, and closer to Zelda, play Kena: Bridge of Spirits or Rime. If you just like games with ambience music, check out the soundtrack and skip the game. This is meant to be a passive experience, after all. Just “cozy” gaming before cozy gaming became a thing. Game could’ve been harder in terms of puzzles, but that may take away from how child-friendly it is, especially cause there’s zero violence.

Wonderful game. Nice music. Nice story. Nice, simple combat (no DS here, which is a nice break sometimes as everyone these days seems to want to copy FromSoftware). Only one reason I game a 8/10... the animations and voiceovers just aren't there. Small studio, I believe, which is fine. But something about the animation feels unpolished - almost like Kena isn't "attached" to the world. The facial gestures are also really limited which probably means there was no mocap. And finally... voiceovers at times sound (in English at least) as though they hired the first people they could find off of Tik Tok or something. But definitely give this one a try if you own a PS4/PS5. Wonderful fun, and the closest thing to a Zelda game you'll play in a while. EDIT (after 100%): Buy it on sale. What I thought was just the beginning 1/3rd of the game ended up actually being the whole game. Because all the narrative parts didn't quite connect with one another, the various parts of the game felt more like side-quests than different chapters of the same story. I'm not quite sure why the studio didn't hire better writers if they knew that other parts of the game would naturally suffer under the limitation of a smaller studio.

Fun game. Some needed changes, some unneeded and mostly superficial alterations. Online disconnects as much as always, even on wired connection. But still better than Mario Kart online. That being said… Pro tip: practice pressing A; you’ll be doing it a lot

Whoever had the (possibly nutty sounding) idea of super deforming Link’s Awakening for the Switch remake, had a moment of genius. Yes, while it’s true the original was already basically “chino,” that was only because it was following in suit with the current style - both the old NES original and the one being worked on for the SNES (A Link to the Past). But think about it. Nintendo could’ve gone full “Link Between Worlds” style with this, and they chose not to. By doing so, it makes this Zelda game stand aside from all other top-down “Legends,” as it should be. In the end, this Zelda game is completely detached, for reasons I won’t state so as not to spoil the game, from all the other Zelda games. You understand this if you’ve played it before. As for the game: • Story: 8/10 (mostly due to the tropey ending, which I still love anyway, but understand “it’s nothing new”) • Music: 10/10 (there’s a whole YouTube video dedicated to what is specifically incredible about this Zelda soundtrack, and the remade version is so much nicer) • Sound: 10/10 (everything sounds great this time around) • Controls: 10/10 (nothing new, just smoother now) • Gameplay: 10/10 (Hero Mode is Hero Mode; great job) • Visuals: 8/10 (little FPS drops when exiting/entering locations which CAN be a slight issue if you don’t adjust quickly enough when enemies abound) All in all, a wonderful remake that should actually cost $40-$50 instead of full game price. That being said... Take note, SquEnix: This is how you remake a game (looking at you, “Mana” series).

Fun game. Hit or miss story. Mediocre ending. "Moral choice" idea falls apart towards the end when it becomes clear the writers didn't know how to allow you to make choices in the most crucial moments, thereby forcing certain aspects of the overall main story. This was disheartening, mostly because the puzzle elements are there but too infrequent this to be a puzzle game, the platforming is there, but too infrequent (thankfully as it's clunky) for it to be a platform game, and the "RPG, choice matters" elements are there, but as I've stated, they fall apart when you wish you could make a choice the most. All in all, the best way to describe this game is by looking at a short example of creative immaturity. When asked in an interview, in the early days, why this game was called "Forgotton" and not "Forgotten," one of the developers mentioned that they just wanted to be more creative about the title; later on, they claimed you would find out as the story progressed - this is not true. Obviously, they made a spelling mistake and it stood by for so long that they just couldn't admit to it. The game could've been called Forgotten Anne and it would've made no difference. It's this kind of thinking that ended up hurting the game... this half-assed mindset. Judged from the beginning, it has so much potential; judged from the end, it's only a little better than mediocre. And I actually don't doubt it deserves its low User score. People should only buy it if it goes on sale.

This game is for the Nintendo Switch, what "Journey" was for the PS3. It is an artistic and musical masterpiece, and it doesn't cheapen out on the side of puzzles either. By comparison, I had a lot more fun with this 2D work of art than I did with either Journey, Abzu, or even Rime. That being said, I understand it is not for everyone. But this is not to be confused with a walking-sim. There are puzzles in here and things to discover. And there is a story behind it all with a very lengthy extended metaphor which, by the look of some of the lower critic reviews, they did not seem to get. Like I said, this game isn't for everyone, even if that person is a critic. Which makes one wonder: why do some critics even bother reviewing genres they don't like to play? (Oh yeah... a paycheck). Anyway, if you love these kinds of games, buy at full price and support the studio (it is a debut game after all). And if you're on the fence about these things... then wait till it's $10 or something.

Love this collection. I think I've purchased every single one of these Sega collections since the PS2 era (though I never got it on the PSP, which was its first portable manifestation). Yes, it's true that Wonder Boy, which was in the PS4/XOne versions, is missing here. But you know what? That isn't deal-breaking for me like, say, what PlayStation did with their PSX Classic Mini's game list changes. I love so many of the other games, that if I wanted to play Wonder Boy so bad, I'd just play it on PS4 or PC. So I would say the following as for whether or not you should get this at $30: - Did you grow up playing mostly on the Genesis/MegaDrive? - Are you a fan of Sonic, Golden Axe, Shining, Decap Attack, Streets of Rage? - Do you prefer to play the Switch in mobile mode? - Do you have $30 but don't know where to spend it and are not a huge fan of very well-made indie Roguelike/Metroidvania titles like Cave Story, Shovel Knight, Dead Cells, Celeste, or SteamWorld Dig? If you answered Yes to 2 of these, then you should consider the game. Extra points if one of the two was the one about using the Switch mostly in portable mode. If you answered No to the last one, know that you could probably get two very good Metroidvania style games for the price of this collection, and you wouldn't regret it... especially if these two are something like Celeste, The Messenger, Shovel Knight, or Dead Cells. In either case, understand that these games will FEEL like you are playing Genesis. They will not feel, for the most part, like you are playing one of these 90s inspired indie games from the last 10 years. A lot of people sadly buy these collections and then feel let down by the pacing of some of these games. That being said, games like Alien Soldier or Comix Zone have pacing comparable to a lot of Action Platformers these days. As a side note: I don't understand what the other user is saying when he's asking for a MegaDrive collection instead of Genesis, as the Sega Genesis IS the MegaDrive (that's just the NA name versus the name in, say, Europe). It's possible he/she means the MasterSystem, which was Sega's answer to the NES. And as for the Saturn... there just aren't enough great games on that system to warrant making a smoothly running emulated collection. Just not worth the resources, especially when some of the best Saturn games weren't even exclusives or 1st party titles. Maybe Panzer Dragoon titles, but those were like, top of the top of the line on Saturn. The console just didn't get a chance to even start. As for Master System, I totally agree. There are some wonderful games on that. Truly.

I can't fault this game anything. Oh wait, wait. I can, and for that I give it 9.9999999999998/10 They forgot to add the Aquatic Ambience (DK), Fi's Gratitude (LoZ:SS), and Kapp'n's Song (from New Leaf) to the Audio Vault... and also, just because the Wii U version had it, Ballad of the Wind Fish (LoZ: LA) If you are looking for a fighting game that isn't 100% about "serious fighting" (BandaiNamco, Koei, and Capcom are in charge of that, and I guess Warner Bros., too these days), but a fighting game that has more features than any other fighting game (yes, even more than Mortal Kombat X with its gimmicky faction war), then look no further. I was expecting a rehash of the Wii U version, you know, with maybe a couple of features, just like Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2. I was thinking, I'm sure they'll add more stuff as DLC. No, guys. Nintendo has brought it all in, in a $60 package. Everything is already here, and as they said, "Everyone is here!" It is insane the amount of content this game has, especially when one thinks about how other companies handle content these days. And even with all that, there are 5 more committed DLC packages to be released for the next few months, each bringing one new fighter, as well as other smaller items. I wanted this to be a spoiler free review, mostly because I truly appreciate the developers and companies that, in their own way, fight back these megagiants who continue ripping us off with microtransactions and ridiculous disc-locked content. And I appreciate this game as much as I appreciate something indie, like **** Valley, Dead Cells, and Into the Breach (with all their content at their respective base prices), and something not-so-indie, like Witcher 3 or the Disgaea series. Either way. If you enjoy these brawlers, this one won't disappoint... for like 4-5 years to come, or more, if you're into the "pro scene."

What a derivative, beautiful piece of ****. I love it and hate it all at once. At $10, this game is a steal. Yes. Yes and no. No, and yes. See? That's the feeling I had the whole time playing the game. The music is really nice. Wow... oh wait... wtf? The scene is so beautif... huh? Neverm-- Oh wait! Wow that's pretty. Very clever. The story is so heartwarming and uniq... oh nevermind, another sappy, badly written piece of cr-- oh that's so lovely. Very nice momen... what the hell is this derivative plot tw... And just like that, I went through the whole game. You'll have to give it a chance, that's all I can say. And no, I'm not saying this like some people out there out of some pity **** that... "Oh, just one guy developed this to deal with depression so you should buy it to support him." Nope. That's $10 you could spend somewhere else if you wanted so I won't say that to you. What I will say is that this game has a lot of unexpected moments of beauty, and that, quite possibly, because as a creator with depression myself, I know what the highs and lows can be like, this developer has tremendous potential which, every now and then, was thwarted by his depression. There are moments of beauty in this game, to say the least, which I wish could've been in Breath of the Wild... whether it's some of the scenes we're talking about, or the music. Anyway, that's all.

It's another addition to the "taking back home" started by COD:WII. And to be clear from the beginning, it is an 8/10 for me because I am not whining anymore about FPS games not being innovative. The next FPS level of innovation we'll see will probably come from ProjektCDRed's Cyberpunk... but that's an FPS-RPG.... which is totally different, but which, seeing what is happening to other franchises (namely Assassin's Creed), is probably where Blops is eventually headed. In other words - SUPER CUSTOMIZATION. Zombies are back in form. And Black Ops is grounded again, but due to the pace, there's this odd sensation that one is still "flying"....... or is that just me? And I spotted more than enough people jumping while shooting to know that they felt they just HAD to. Something I didn't see in WWII. The big deal is its own Battle Royale. It's the best there is right now, no question about it, and not just in visuals. Naturally, it is trying to become the king of BR on hardcore platforms, while leaving the mobile market to Fortnite, which is king there. And I think it may just succeed. Game looks good. No, it is not "just like Blops 3;" there are improvements. Go compare them side by side and you'll see. If anything, it has about the same graphics as Infinite Warfare, but better than WWII. And yeah... it's not going to look better than Battlefield 1 OR V. It can't. That game takes forever to load for good reason. This is a fast-paced game. Let's just drop the argument already. This is like arguing a luxury sedan vs a sports car.... it's stupid. Multiplayer is still where I spend most of my time, and for me it's a win this time around. I like that they brought back those 4 old maps, and I actually like the Blops 1 and 2 similarities of the newer maps. Someone at Treyarch has realized those games had the best maps, and they finally picked up on it.

In the spirit of Noctis' enthusiasm over pretty much anything: "Meh...." I've already played Final Fantasy VIII, and that story was better, even if equally pointless. Square (the Squaresoft part of SE, or the little that is left of it) is without direction. So what do they do? They turn back to an old FF that was not quite as classic as its 2 predecessors. That's wright, I'm talking about Final Fantasy 8. What's that? What does FFVIII have anything to do with FFXV, you say? Well, let's see: - Angsty main character who likes to "Meh" and shrug for dear life? Check! - Enigmatic naive blonde with parakeet hairdo? Check! - Authoritative bespeckeled traveler who speaks a lot more than protagonist and should probably be the main character because of this? Check! (Oh... I meant Ignist of course... and Quistis, and yeah) - Buff dude with "take no prisoners" attitude? Check! (Think of Gladiolus as Seifer, had he been "good" from the start) - Cutesy short-haired girl who appears after about 3-4 hours of play? Check! (Iris) - Mystical character connected to mystical things and stuff? Check. (Gentiana aka Shiva... aka Edea) - High-ranking love match for the protagonist who is more emotive and has more military sense than protagonist? Check! Check! Check! Now we put these into a futuristic world where the main heroes dress like cadets, and we turn the protagonist into an orphan by killing his father after never really spending much time seeing their relationship in the first place...... and we have them drive in a car for their first official trip out of Homeland.......... and we have points where elemental magic can be drawn........ and we make sure the first place they visit is more of a quickstop than an actual town...... and then we take the car away for a bit.... Oh dear.................................. this whole game WAS modeled after Final Fantasy VIII. No wonder they decided not to do an HD remake of that one. They didn't want people to see the similarities. Okay, so let's do a quick rundown of the good and bad: Good: -Music -Visuals -Map Design -Battle Mechanics -Attempt at "realistic" fan service for both genders (it is a JRPG after all) -Anime-like tropes in a non-anime package -Inventive beast/monster spawns (except those they just rehashed from FFVII: Advent Children; like the dog things) -Nice fauna ideas (esp. the animals you DON'T need to kill) -Vehicle Customization -Random encounters with SPOILER ALERT ... Galbadian Troops!!.... (to be fair, this has been Square's go-to since FFVI on the SNES.... it's just a representation of the US/Western Powers and their over-militarization for pretty much everything) Bad: -Story is bland (the various DLC "Episodes" were actually sometimes better than FFXV itself); FFXII, whose story I dislike for being lifted from Star Wars, actually has a better story -Character Design is uninspired... this is a game released for 2016, not 1996... we need to move on. -Not really an open-world game at release... yeah yeah, off-road tires update later added, but now my vehicle looks like a tractor -Bugs for enemy spawns (this is particularly a PS4 issue, as I have the game also on PC and it is not a problem) -Fishing (Ocarina of Time nailed what it meant to fish in a non-fishing game... Noctis will never beat my 34lbs. Hylian Loach! and....) -Photography (Pokemon Snap! nailed this one......... okay that's a joke, the photo stuff is pretty cool, but on a more serious note -Cooking....... because you can't actually cook.... but more importantly, although it's becoming a trend in Japan to show realistic dishes in games and anime, it's sort of a weird thing everywhere else in the world.... like, we don't care unless the game itself is realistic... for example, Witcher 3 or Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which both attempt certain levels of realism. Final Fantasy has never been realistic to us... except maybe FFVII and VIII Anyway... that's that. Buy this game on sale if you haven't already. It's not worth more than $30.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This game is the first game in YEARS that has made me miss what I consider the true JRPG genre. To clarify on that, I personally do not find games like HyperSuperMegaDimension Neptunia and Disgaea to be the true JRPG genre... at least not for audiences in the West. I grew up with games like Chrono (T&C), FF, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire (I-IV), Tales Series (most of them), etc etc etc... games that don't make their sales off of silly comedy and cheap fan-service for grown men (which is why I had my last straw with Star Ocean 5 the moment Fiore walked in, and traded back the game). BIG BREATH now. So coming into DQ11 after having played through Zelda BotW, FFXV, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Witcher 3 multiple times - all very different kinds of games - I can honestly say I rank it higher than FFXV, and only compare it to BotW because of some... eh... decisions in similarity. The game is beautiful. And it moves smoothly even in the bigger maps, thanks to short draw distances for enemies. (10/10) The music isn't as great as that of other jRPGs, or even some other DQ games, but it's certainly at the level of a Tales or Xenoblade games (NOT Xenogears; that's a masterpiece). It's just... fun music. Even the "sad music" doesn't quite get there. But it's pretty enough. (8/10) Battles are fun. Grinding is mostly very easy. Pep Mode feels like a mini DBZ Fusion dance. Enemy responses are comical sometimes. Nothing too complicated or in-depth. This isn't FFXV. (9.5/10) Story is, well, this is one of the things that takes me back. The characters and the stories - the silent protagonist, whose reactions to everything are shown through his friend's reactions - are reminiscent of games like Chrono Trigger. I love it, even the predictable bits. I don't get most people who require unpredictability these days. I mean... Chrono Trigger was REALLY predictable. Ciri not actually being dead in Witcher 3 was REALLY predictable, but I still got really sad at the way the scene was done, and the same for Vesimir. As for DQ11... you are NOT supposed to take this as seriously as FFXV... and that was a sad hack of a story in comparison to other FF games. (10/10) Customization systems are fun. The smithing is fun. It's almost impossible not to have something like that these days in a game, and they found a way to make it completely un-serious. I mean... the damn forge is called the "Fun-Size Forge," and I felt like I was playing Cooking Mama while using it. If that's not fun, I don't know what is. (10/10) Overall impression - If it wasn't for the fact that I always look for great music in all RPGs in general, Western or japanese, this game would be a 10/10 for me... not because it's perfect, but because it arrives at a time when the genre of JRPGs is full of mostly utter ****, and the best JRPG we got before this was probably Persona 5 (originally released 2 years ago in Japan)... with Ni no Kuni 2 following as a far second. (Unfortunatly, BotW doesn't count, and Xenoblades Chronicles 2 was a bit of a disappointment.. ditto on the silly and unnecessary fan-service for that one).

I've been putting off writing this review for some time now, mostly because I wanted to know if it was just a "wow effect" and nothing more. But, alas, it was not. The Wtcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the most exceptional games ever made (and I've played it through on both PS4 and PC, but my review is for the PC version, which removes all FPS drops of the PC, naturally). Whether this game came at the perfect time (post-Skyrim, Mass Effect 1-3, and Last of Us); whether it was the immense amount of work clearly put in it; whether it was that we were all finally ready to read long dialogues again, and be immersed in a new world of a novelist's making; or whether it was simply that the game was hyped for so long, delayed twice, and finally delivered with the promise of two incredible DLCs (a promise kept), this game has taken the torch from whatever the last "Greatest Game Ever Made" was - be it for you Ocarina of Time, Half-Life 2, Super Mario Galaxy 1&2, Fallout 3 or NV, the Ezio Trilogy, God of War or World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy I-XIII-2, GTA IV and V, or Tetris and Super Mario Bros. - and, in my opinion, is still waiting for the next game to take it forth the next few hundred kilometers (and no, Breath of the Wild, for me, did not take The Witcher's torch - it almost did, but couldn't). I do not say this lightly. I am not fanboying/fangirling. I played the game, twice, DLCs and all, and waited months before making this review. And here's what I've come to appreciate. But first, let me be clear - No game, except Tetris (for obvious reason) deserves a 10/10, because no game can be as perfect, considering technology available. My 9/10 is for one simple reason - bugs that can never be fixed. But my 9/10 also means, I see what is wrong with the game, which is very little, and I see what is right with it, which is overwhelmingly much more. Let's move on: Story: 10/10 (first DLC 9/10; second DLC 9/10 - mostly because they play more like movies than games, and feel really outside of the atmosphere of the main game, imho; especially Blood and Wine, despite how fun it was). I don't need to say it, and I'm not spoiling it. The Story in Witcher 3 is one of the best in any game ever made. I know very few people who did not cry at some point, or who did not laugh at many, or cringe and feel embarrassed at others, as they would watching a movie or reading a book. Well-blended with the next point (its Visuals), the story in Witcher 3 was positively heightened in quality by how much work was given to facial gestures and characters. It isn't clunky like other RPGs. Graphics/Visual Attention - 10/10 - Witcher 3 is a beautiful game that fits perfectly before and after other beautiful games of 2015. The world feels alive. People do things. Animals and creatures do things. Nature does things. And all things are done on their own time. If it rains, people run to cover. If there's lightning, they run inside. Animals and monsters, alike, have predators, and they are also prey of others, likewise. Horses seek nourishment and water when left alone. Lightning does not strike twice in the same place. There is even a full lunar eclipse! Last point of argument. Adult Ciri KEEPS facial gestures from pre-pubescent Ciri. That's how much attention was given to visuals and the natural liveliness of the game. Music - 9.5/10 - Why 9.5/10? Because I'm a musician and composer, and I know when more can be done, and when less can be exposed. So I'm biased by my experience. But the music in Witcher 3 is some of the best we've seen since the old days of Oblivion or Morrowind. I'd argue it's better than the music in Journey, even. Definitely better than that one memorable track in Last of Us or Uncharted. If you want a short taste of it, go on YouTube and listen to Priscilla's song. Don't watch the scene... just the song; preferably in Polish, but it's up to you. Audio - 10/10 - People cough and sneeze. Monsters can be heard munching on other creatures. Thunder can scare. Doors closing by themselves can frighten. Floorboards may creek. Mechanics/Controls - 9.5/10 - There are bugs, very minor ones... you know, like a fly going around the dinner table during a wonderful dinner with many friends. The company is perfect, the food is great, the drinks are plenty, but there's that one damn fly every now and then. If you disregard it, however, you'll have a wonderful night. (Also, I disagree this is like Dark Souls series, but whatever) Replayability - umm... yeah... what year is it? 2018? I just started replaying it last night, again. This will be my 3rd playthrough, possibly taking me upwards of 200+ hours. And I wouldn't be surprised if it's the last RPG I ever finish. Enjoy!

Yonder is a pretty game. It is a pretty game with a different way of playing. The best way I can describe it, and I know not many will understand the parallel, is that it is equivalent to what Harvest Moon (1997, SNES) was - a game about farming and starting a family - during a time when all RPGs (now we call those JRPGs) were about saving the world by grinding and killing powerful monsters, brainwashed comrades, and terrible villains; Yonder is this kind of game in a world full of Metroidvania, Minecraft-clone, retro-style JRPGs and MMORPG/MOBA games. There is a world to "save" here, and to explore, and to build... but no one is going to get in your way except yourself. .... and that "yourself" is where the game kind of stumbles. It does not provide a reason to continue playing after a few hours, unless you decide you're going to sit down and play it, "just because." So on the plus: - pretty game based on Unity that actually uses the engine well. I didn't have too many bugs - if you like exploration, it's there - if you like Harvest Moon, minus the marrying and whatnot, this is the closest you'll currently get to an open-world HM game..... until the full release of My Time at Portia comes out, of course (if it's ever released, as it's only early access for now) - if you like the non-monster fighting, princess saving aspect of Breath of the Wild, you MAY like this (big MAY) The ugly: - the music is not well-done. I've come to expect a game like this to have wonderful music, and it doesn't. The very first track heard on the ship in the beginning is tiring after 15 seconds.... just to give you an idea of how ineffectively composed the music is...... and the track that plays upon arriving at a scene inspired by the hilltop scene in Breath of the Wild's opening, is also quite lacking in breadth and scope......... I almost felt like the game DIDN'T care if I cared to explore beyond or not I bring up the issue with the music because, apart from not much of a challenge, it was the music that ultimately made me close and delete the game for good. In a game where not much happens, you cannot use the philosophy used for Breath of the Wild of having "a quiet soundtrack in order to really expose the atmosphere of the wild" ........ uh.... yeah, no.... this isn't BotW and the soundtrack should've been better. That's all

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

TL;DR - Buy it for the beautiful visuals and music. Don't pay full price unless you're a true fan of Team Ico or Bluepoint Studios (the team that remastered it - yes, they are pretty amazing). Was "SotC (PS2)" this short? No. Then why was this one so short? Because they fixed many of the m-m-m-movement issues that h-h-h-hampered it. Yes... that is, unfortunately, the first thing anyone looking to buy this game needs to know. You will beat it, and you will beat it fast. Fast on Normal. Fast on Difficult. (Don't bother playing it on Easy unless you've never held a controller before. It's really not worth it then, especially at $39.99.) I am giving this game an "8.2/10" because I got it at half-price, but that's still not it's regular price, and the price of remasters should always be a part of their judgment. Of course, it really is a BEAUTIFUL remaster with visuals rebuilt from the ground up. I can actually watch Wander on his trusty steed Agro, and say to myself, "THIS is what Never Released Zelda WiiU title would've looked like if Nintendo had gone forward with that Tech Demo from 2011." When I sat down and saw Wander carry Mono into the Forbidden Land, I thought I'd purchased the wrong game, despite my memory knowing this was the same game. That's how beautiful it looked. But back to the main point. This game is SHORT. Because many things were fixed - especially that frustrating grip mechanic. The game is not nearly as frustrating as it once was (even on PS3), and can therefore be beaten in less than 10 hours. These days, that's a very, very short game. Like "No Man's Sky, what the hell is this?" kinda short. Also, the many photo filters are wonderful, but I didn't really understand what the point was of hiding some of the bonus content behind beating this or that Colossus with different filters. It really was a strange decision, I feel. However, if you're the kind for it, and if you really want to challenge yourself, apply the Night filter (bring the slider down till it's really dark), put the game on hardest difficulty, and enjoy. No headphones though! You wanna make sure you only see their eyes! Music is as beautiful as ever, but on a better audio system this time, and I'll never understand why Kow Otani didn't also do the music for Last Guardian (which I personally thought was lacking in emotional substance most of the time due to clunky-ness AND music). Conclusion: See TL;DR above, and possibly add to that: This was the last Team Ico game that was ever released (rereleased?), since they never finished Last Guardian, someone else did. SO... buy it for the feels?? Who knows!

Play the game as a completionist (or at least with a collector's mindset), and you'll get more out of it, and maybe understand it a little bit better. Play the game from A to Z and you'll be left with more questions than answers. This is not Splinter Cell. This is not MGS. If you come looking for a stealth game, the ones in this game don't run as deep as the one in those. But, to be honest, I had less f***-ups guiding Hope (main character) around than I did with Arno in AC Unity...... so there's that. Does the game deserve a 7/10? Hmm.... from me, it's more like a 6.8/10. I just can't forgive the studio for hiding the main story behind finding every single little item in the game - that's how you hide backstory, not main story - but I still enjoyed it for what it was: a $10 game. What I'm saying is... don't pay $25 for this. You'll feel like you wasted the money. Get it as close to $10 as you can. I got it as a gift, but I do believe the game is definitely worth $10-$15.

At $19.99, this game is wonderful for what it offers. (Disclaimer: I did not play this alone. Playing it with someone else, I feel, is the whole point; otherwise, the experience may not feel worth the money, and players who plan to play solo should wait till it's the usual $14.99 indie game price tag, or less.) Now... I don't really understand the low reviews from people who played the original. Maybe when they mean "Unravel 2" is less challenging/easier, what they're really saying is "Unravel 2" isn't nearly as frustrating as the prequel was, unnecessarily, due to bugs that could've been ironed out before release. Another thing that may make this game "feel" lesser than the first is that we already know HOW it works, even if we never played the first. We know Yarny's "unraveling" is the telling of a story with happy and not-so-happy moments. It's no longer a surprise, and therefore, no longer as sentimentally absorbing. Sure, creators could've made the story in this one much darker, but then that would force a different rating on the game... and, I mean, why do that? So kids can't play it? Truth is, this game is PERFECT for kids. I can definitely see kids and adults alike quitting Unravel out of frustration, but I see no reason why anyone would want to stop playing Unravel 2. Everything flows so beautifully in comparison. And to me, that is what makes this one superior to the first, despite the story not being as engaging - or not seeming as engaging - possibly for reason stated above.

Sad that this isn't going to get any critic reviews, and very few user reviews as well. I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I now own SV on all platforms on which it's been released (because of Vita cross-buy and all that). It's THAT good. And it is no different on Vita than on the Nintendo Switch in portable mode. The full game is here with everything (and it continues to feel massive no matter how much time I've played it), and knowing I can play it on my Vita and not have to lug around my Switch is great for times when I just don't have the room for my Switch case. Sadly, the Vita version will probably never get multiplayer support, like the PC is starting to test on, but that doesn't take away the fact that this is still a 9.7/10 game for me, if only because I'm just being overly picky.

Not "Harvest Moon" as it is not made by Marvelous!. Do not come looking for a Harvest Moon game without doing some research first. This is only Harvest Moon in title. Also, this is NOT **** Valley in the same way that "Story of Seasons" (the new Marvelous! made Harvest Moon) is NOT **** Valley, either. This game is just a poor excuse for Natsume trying to make money off a brand while not letting it die off, as it is evident that the developers who worked on it just learned how to make a game probably last year... however, that's no excuse for some people who are saying this is nothing like old Harvest Moon (now called Story of Seasons) or **** Valley. Obviously it isn't since the developers are completely different people. TL;DR Game is boring (I've played on Switch, PS4 and PC) and offers only very, very little fun. People who bought it expecting it was an official Harvest Moon title, or comparable to ****, either didn't google this before buying or are just plain dumb.

Not "Harvest Moon" as it is not made by Marvelous!. Do not come looking for a Harvest Moon game without doing some research first. This is only Harvest Moon in title. Also, this is NOT **** Valley in the same way that "Story of Seasons" (the new Marvelous! made Harvest Moon) is NOT **** Valley, either. This game is just a poor excuse for Natsume trying to make money off a brand while not letting it die off, as it is evident that the developers who worked on it just learned how to make a game probably last year... however, that's no excuse for some people who are saying this is nothing like old Harvest Moon (now called Story of Seasons) or **** Valley. Obviously it isn't since the developers are completely different people. TL;DR Game is boring (I've played on Switch, PS4 and PC) and offers only very, very little fun. People who bought it expecting it was an official Harvest Moon title, or comparable to ****, either didn't google this before buying or are just plain dumb.

Not "Harvest Moon" as it is not made by Marvelous!. Do not come looking for a Harvest Moon game without doing some research first. This is only Harvest Moon in title. Also, this is NOT **** Valley in the same way that "Story of Seasons" (the new Marvelous! made Harvest Moon) is NOT **** Valley, either. This game is just a poor excuse for Natsume trying to make money off a brand while not letting it die off, as it is evident that the developers who worked on it just learned how to make a game probably last year... however, that's no excuse for some people who are saying this is nothing like old Harvest Moon (now called Story of Seasons) or **** Valley. Obviously it isn't since the developers are completely different people. TL;DR Game is boring (I've played on Switch, PS4 and PC) and offers only very, very little fun. People who bought it expecting it was an official Harvest Moon title, or comparable to ****, either didn't google this before buying or are just plain dumb.

I say one simple thing - Give it a chance. Have played it on both, PS4, and now PC, and - especially with Maherian Steam language pack (a language created just for the game world) - this game has been getting more and more engaging to play. I don't really understand why critics gave it such low reviews, but I'm assuming it's because the game doesn't do anything different than before. This is a weird judgment, because games like Shovel Knight, which just play no different than SNES/Genesis games, are hailed as masterpieces despite also doing nothing differently. ..... oh well.

Good game. May turn off a lot of impatient players at first, considering that the tutorial character is no less annoying than Jar Jar Binks. Get over and past our the-dear little Tama, and you'll be having a lot of the-fun in a game that takes elements from Pokemon and FF, the-both, and makes something the-enjoyable for children and adults alike. (If the random "the" bothered you, Tama will annoy the **** out of you. Good luck!)

How do you make a great JRPG in 2018? You take from all the top RPGs that have existed in the last 15+ years. There is a lot of Ni no Kuni (PS3) in this game - it is mostly in the music, story, animation and design... and that's about it. And then there's the rest, which I won't spoil with specifics. There is Witcher 3 in this game. There is FInal Fantasy VII in this game. There is Pokemon in this game. There is Zelda in this game. There is Tales in this game. In fact, for the first time in a while, I am actually having as much fun with this game as I first had with both Witcher 3 and FFVII when I played them in their own time... that, despite the fact that this game is not geared towards the same audience - those two other games are not necessarily for children... as we well know. This one, however, is. The most important factor, I think, which truly amazed me was how important all the characters are. I had become disappointed with character heavy JRPGs as of late, especially when you could easily tell stuff like, "Oh... that one with the boob physics is only there for that," or, "The dude with the creepy personality, licking his knives and ****, is only there for that." Basically, characters that don't need to be in the game. And then there's this game. The game that was allowed time to be developed because the first one sort of failed. The game that will probably make the first one a "hidden gem" and "collectible classic" now, and will skyrocket the price of an unopened copy upwards of $150 in a few years. The game that shows us, the same way Witcher 3 and Zelda BotW showed us... that when you have time to make a game and don't rush it, all the planned elements CAN be there. The game that, thankfully, will only disappoint people who don't like JRPGs. Which is exactly how it should be for all major releases.

Here's the thing.... I've already played this on PS4. TWICE. One time I ran it through quickly, the next I really took my time. What the PC version does a great job at is the same thing it does well with any other good port: it runs it at wonderful graphics without dropping FPS..... for the most part (there are slight moments, here and there, but so.. so few). What I was disappointed about is how much work went into making sure the environments felt so smoothed out and detailed, that the characters so obviously lack the same detail (except for the hair and clothes). When the camera closes up on their faces... sure, there are pores - as with any other HD/4K game - but beyond that, the eyes look as dead as they do in the PS4 version. Except of course, that because everything else looks so great, the deadness of the eyes is now so much more obvious. This is one of the few things that bothered me, because so many conversations make use of "screen time" and you just want to see characters who feel alive... but nope... they look dead. Other things regarding the same issue has to do with the reworking they did on their skin... it causes blemishes or lines to look really odd because the textures themselves were not all completely reworked. It's so odd, what SE decided to do with this. That being said - WONDERFUL game, and an even greater joy to play with these incredible draw distances and detail... the sunlight now actually looks tropical, or desert-like, etc; it's crazy!

I am quite a ways into the game and it is slowly becoming my favorite Ubisoft, Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed game. As a funny little anecdote on the freedom this game offers vs other AC games, I actually killed my first "main quest mark" by mistake, while testing out a new bow I'd looted somewhere... with a headshot. I was so confused because I forgot to set the main quest as active, and was messing around an ol' temple, when I see some dudes. I get ready to pick them off one by one, and just as I get the first one in the head - mind you, there was no indication that this was the main mark; his lvl was just a little higher than the others - the game goes into a cut scene!!! I've never laughed that much in an AC game, especially after being told by another main character that I needed to prepare well to assassinate this guy. First things first - This is an open-world, Action RPG; whoever still believes this game to be along the lines of old AC titles has completely missed the influences from Witcher 3. Moving on. The visuals are incredible. This game almost feels as though it is running the same engine as Just Cause 3, but adapted for 2017. By that, I mean it can be quite astounding sometime, whereas other times, textures get strangely drawn. Speaking of drawn, even on the PS4, the draw distance is damn good. I don't know if they accomplished this by pulling back a little on sky-related visuals, but sometimes you can be at an Synchronization Point (Eagle Point) and watch as a small group of horses walk along a road really, really f*cking far away. For a moment I thought I was playing on PC with max settings. The fighting mechanics are simple. AC has come a long way, and by "a long way" I mean it has finally realized people don't enjoy these weird moments where you clearly just slashed the enemy across the head but he got the same amount of damage dealt with. In this game, hitting an enemy from the side or over the head or on the arm deals different damage. That being said... ARROWS will be your best friend for the first time in an AC game! (Now where have I seen that before? Zelda BotW...:cough cough:) Speaking of arrows, and weapons in general. What I meant about this really being an RPG in disguise, is the simple fact that there is crafting in this game. There is hunting for materials, and then crafting. There is hunting and then selling what you hunt. There is enhancing your own equipment with what you loot or hunt. There are many, many side quests and the lands are vast. As in many RPG games these days - Witcher, for example - there is a clear symbol letting you know an enemy is way too OP for you and will OHKO you; a lvl 19 Lion versus a lvl 8 Bayek is a great example of this - trust me, I know. The music doesn't jump out as much as past AC games, and this is good. These guys took a page from both Witcher and Zelda BotW for this. It's effective. Music plays only every now and then, and then it's quiet. Trust me, you're gonna want to pay more attention to that Crocodile Lair you almost just jumped into instead of pretty music. So all in all, I give the game an 8. It does a lot of things well, but then there's the cash grab aspect (don't feel like wasting space on that here), and of course, some things can be a little repetitive, as with all open-world games; just look at Skyrim, Witcher 3, Zelda BotW, GTA V. None can escape it. Not till games are fully streamed and incredibly vast in data size.

TL;DR: Give an 8.5 for short Story Mode. Arcade mode is a ton of fun. Character differences give the game high replayability, so do the 5 difficulty modes. Nintendo promises to bring Online Multiplayer soon after release. Game is $10, and that's a good thing. Switch version has two extra characters: Makise Kurisu and Frau (Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes, respectively). Music is nostalgic. I give it an 8.5. The only reason, to be honest, is because the Story Mode is short and resorts to cheap gimmicks in order to be short. But also.. I never got to fight the big bad boss we're chasing after the whole time. I completed the game, credits and all. Maybe I missed something??? Now, Story Mode aside, this game is fun as hell and offers a ton of replayability due to the cast of characters all having different play styles, but also due to the fact that the level up system is never "set in stone," so you can retract points and use them on different Stats or Abilities whenever you want. The game looks nice on large screen, but naturally looks even better on Handheld, and was the main reason why I got it for Switch instead of PS4. (Some early reviewers or previewers mentioned only the PS4 version had Online MP.. this is entirely false - Switch promises to have it soon after release). The Switch also has some extra content not available in the 2015 PS4 version - Makise Kurisu and Frau (Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes) - as has been common with many old games now ported to Switch. The music is decent. Some of it takes you back to Street Fighter, while some other sounds more like it would be at home in a SNES Kirby game. Definitely nostalgic. The actually mechanics of the game are what make it so much fun. There are weak, medium and high attacks. You can link these together to perform combos. There are also grabs that are a ton of fun to get in there, especially when surrounded by 15 enemies. There are also specials - as many Beat 'em Up games have always had - but in this game they do not have a set limit. The limit is based on whether you use your "Special" bar or not, since other things can deplete this. As for more replayability, there are 5 difficulty modes; these are unlocked as you beat certain aspects of the game. You only start out with Easy and Normal, but beating the story will get you the Hard setting, and so on and so forth. All in all, for $10 bucks, this is a no-brainer and may even get you back into nostalgic Beat 'em Up games, as I see a certain future for them on the Switch.

Gameplay: 9/10 (In this I am including FPS and overall camera. Something no one on here is talking about is how they handled draw distance. AMAZING JOB on this. When the land is far away it looks almost like a pastel painting; as you get closer, it comes to life almost seamlessly; unless you're a try hard PC master race ****; nothing makes those guys happy... they want to LIVE inside the game.) Story (so far): 6-7/10 (If you hate tutorials, have fun the first 6 hours......) Fighting System: 9/10 (Once you get the hang of it, it's all fun) Music: 10/10 (Great, great, great job and possibly greatest part of this game) Character Dev: 7/10 (Too anime-is for me, but that's why it's a JRPG) English Voice Over: 4/10 (Please kill me......... preferably in a British/New Zealander/Australian accent) Japanese Voice Over 7/10 (As expected, and that's why they made it available for free day one) Time for your money: 10/10 (so much to do......... too much) Now, the real question I have is this... Why the f*ck are Pyra's breasts so damn large if Rex doesn't even have a ****? (Sorry, the Rex **** part really struck me because well, usually in other games/animes, there is mystery allowed in the nether regions by using baggy clothes and whatnot... but this is clearly "NO ROOM FOR ****" crotch. So I wanted to know, if they made Rex practically androgynous, why did they make Pyra so clearly buxom? Pressure from Nier's 2B?) On a more serious note, I do believe the folk at Monolith went a little overboard here on the fan service, and I was quite disappointed with this particular factor. Naturally, I got over it, but for a couple of minutes after her intro (I'm not one of those who watched the trailer), I drew a huge question mark on design choices. I mean, if you play, you'll understand. They're not just big, they're extremely big. They're bigger than Mai Shiranui's (for the oldest crowd); a little less than Taki's from Soul Calibur (for the old-sh crowd); and approximately the same size as Selvaria Bles' from Valkyria Chronicles... in fact, I'd say her whole body IS based on Selvaria, but with someone else's head. That's all I wanted to say, and I mostly say it for both sides of that fence. If you like fan service, you'll get some here. If you hate it, or if you think JRPGs should get a little creative and quit the "for little boys" antics, you have been warned.

A lot of ratings these days are based on comparison to the past, whether consciously or subconsciously. How did we talk of Mario Odyssey? Mario 64. How did we refer to Breath of the Wild's map? "Bigger than Skyrim's." How did Battlefield 1 sell so well? "CoD won't do boots on the ground" Etc etc etc So how do you compare Golf Story to another RPG? You don't.... Golf Story, like other strange "one-of-a-kind" games of the past, cannot really be compared to another RPG. This game, had it been released on the SNES, would've given rise to another sort of "Harvest Moon" franchise, because it is a game that takes a real-life thing - a non-fantasy element - and places it in a realm we are used to looking at as "fantasy;" this is the RPG realm. And it does it well, very well. The music is wonderful. The dialogue is great, and funny, and doesn't try too hard to poke at little things here and there we already think about the world and people around us. The 8-bit style, as well as the music, are reminiscent, as many of these games are, of the SNES era; more specifically, 1994/95 in the SNES era., which is when games like Chrono Trigger, Tales of Phantasia, and Final Fantasy 3 (VI) were released.. these are all games with a similar style of both art and music, and a similar style of "hands-off" storytelling, in which the game slowly lets you in on the whole picture, through the characters. Why is this last bit important? Because, much like you don't need to enjoy farming to like Harvest Moon (or **** Valley), you don't need to know the slightest bit about golf to enjoy "Golf Story." You just have to be human... that's the only prerequisite, I guess. And open-minded to a different kind of RPG.. one that is neither "Western," nor "JRPG," and one that, because of this, can't really be compared to any other game, in the same way no one could compare something like Pikmin to whatever may have come before, even if there were similar elements as in other "creature command" games. Now, this is no Pikmin - neither is it Pokemon or Harvest Moon - but it is damn fun, and I really wish people would be willing to drop $15 on this instead of $40-60 on something they've already owned and thoroughly played before.

(Disclaimer: I will not comment on microstransactions, nor take that into account when reviewing this game, as it is our fault, the gamers, that these publishers have gotten away with such things. Placing a bad rating on the Developers' hard work due to the greed of the Publishers and the ignorance of the Players, would not do justice to any of the many AAA titles riddled with microtransactions or DLC. If you want them out, STOP PAYING FOR THEM. YOU ARE THE ONES PAYING FOR THEM TO BE THERE.) Let me make this short and break it down into three sections: Call of Duty: WW2, the game; Call of Duty: WW2, the Comparisons; and, Call of Duty: WW2, the Community. --- The Game: This is a game which can be easily scored anywhere between 5 and 8, depending on your mood, on your common sense, on your intelligence, or on your need to defend your purchase of this game, or to attack it in order to defend your purchase of another game (i.e. BF1, Destiny 2). The Campaign is good, albeit short. The MP is exactly like the Beta, plus the usual millions of microtransaction options which just keep getting cleverer and cleverer. --- The Comparisons: This game is not BF1. It has great visuals and good voice acting/writing. However, because it is not BF1, it also moves faster, which is great. BECAUSE it moves faster, it does not need to look as good. No one buys a game like this in order to stare at puddles in the mud, that's what games like Horizon: Zero Dawn are for. People compare for various reasons, not the least of which is, they simply don't know what they want anymore... and it is not our fault. Publishers and Critics and even YouTubers swing us left and right (bet they have fun doing it) for the sake of a sale, or for the sake of a sponsorship. In the end, so many people ended up buying Infinite Warfare BECAUSE of MW:RE... so it didn't matter. Activision won. Yay! And so did DICE/EA, because they also bought BF1. And so did Blizzard (Activision's merge), because they also bought Overwatch. And there go more than $180. The Community: I'll lay it flat. Go anywhere. Whether here on Meta, or YouTube, or the Activision community, or just on the mics on PS4 and you'll reach the same conclusion I have reached: Call of Duty has been hijacked by children, and this is here to stay. Children, because, well, that is what children do, are not the best at playing well, although if you don't take the game too seriously, you'll be fine, since they are pretty good at just having plain fun in ridiculous ways, without worrying about dying or having their teammates killed, etc etc, and heck... since when did we get so serious about games? Enjoy this game if you bought/buy it. That's all I can say. I couldn't enjoy it, but notice my score. My personal experience doesn't change what I see to be a solid COD experience, like in the past with MW and MW2.

I came to know of this game through a reviewer on YouTube claiming that "Hat in Time" was more Mario Odyssey than Mario Odyssey itself. Something I've since realized is completely erroneous. After spending 6 hours playing it, this game seems more like a fun little college project than a polished video game. If you want to see what a polished, indie platformer looks like, look at Ori and the Blind Forest. Sure, it isn't a 3D platformer, but then, no one said a platformer needed to be 3D... and if you can't make an excellent product in one style, why not try a different route? I give this game a 7 because in the last month I have made sure to play various platformers (as Mario Odyssey loomed in the horizon) in order to get back into a genre that seems almost lost in a world drowning in MMOs, mobile freemiums, and Halo-styled or zombie shooters. No doubt this game is somewhere at the top of the list of current 3D platformers; I can attest to that. However, is it really an 8/10 or more? Nah. If you review any working game after only a few minutes of playing it, you are adding to the problem of why we don't have better games. It's that simple. Imagine recommending a Netflix show to a friend after only seeing one episode.... or suggesting a restaurant after only using the bathroom there... same thing. So let's quickly go down the list: Inviting? Yes. Colorful? Yes. Great music? Yes... although it steals a whole melody from Ghibli Studio's "Kiki's Delivery Service" (I'm sure if Joe Hisaishi cared, they could be sued) Fun? YES. Fun-ny?... eh, sometimes. Definitely not Banjo-Kazooie or Crash Bandicoot kind of funny. Simple to control? Yes. Headache to control? Yes. Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes, you run up a wall and Hat Kid STANDS on the flat surface of the wall......... makes no sense, but shows you how unpolished the game is. Sometimes, you jump and the command to bop an enemy appears, sometimes it doesn't... In short, this is a game that thankfully was released in the shadow of a better platformer, Mario Odyssey, because I personally think it will benefit from such a release, as more people will want to suddenly play it after playing Odyssey, when their nostalgia for the 3D platformer is rekindled. And perhaps some will even tread through the mess that are the controls, and rage onward into everything this game has to offer, which is actually quite a lot.

I am not a "critic." I am a gamer. I have played every major Mario game since the original Mario Bros. 1983 arcade game (the NES version, anyway), and then from then on the Goomba squashing Mario we came to know and love as the first ever mascot of gaming (after Pac-Man, of course - though I wasn't around then). After playing the Galaxies, I did not think Nintendo could ever make me love Mario again. Between Sunshine and Galaxy 1 and 2, the traditional Mario (Mario Bros. Wii) fell by the wayside for me... Sure, it was fun, but it just didn't have the creativity of the other three games. And then the Wii U happened... and everyone hoped for a Galaxy 3..... and we got a Mario Bros. Wii reiteration, and then a "3D" gimmick of that same formula. These were fun, sure, but they were a sort of mundane fun... something you did not really feel like playing again after winning. (I personally think the Wii U was Nintendo's grace period to figure out what they needed to do, with EVERY franchise, including Mario, because they were screwing up. And boy am I glad they figured it out.) Mario Odyssey is the game that could not be a Wii U game. This much is clear. The fluidity of animation without frame drops, the wonderful controls, the seamless flow of throwing Cappy and using him and jumping on him, the wonderful return to actually great music... Look, the truth is, as you play this game, you will find not just remnants of Mario in it, but also remnants of Banjo-Kazooie's little side quests. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will end on an honest note: if you hated the specificity of controls for that not-so-great Zelda game, Skyward Sword, you will not like the controls here. However, if you give them a chance, you will notice they are much more responsive (the Joy-Cons have much better technology in them than the MotionPlus Remote did). If you loved Mario Sunshine, Mario 64, Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Banjo-Kazooie, and even Mario 3D World, you will truly enjoy this game and rage a little here and there at some of the more difficult places. As for the difficulty of the game, it isn't difficult as a whole. A few people are upset that this game doesn't use a "Life" system; it uses coins. Many of them thought this stupid, but the truth is, you NEED those coins for some of the funner factors of the game (no spoilers), so it does not pay (ha! pun) to lose them by continuously dying - I have no idea why anyone who actually played the game and understood the coin system thought that it was stupid, but that's that. All in all, I have to give this game a 10/10, because the only shortcoming is that it isn't longer - and yet, no game can last forever; not all games can be Breath of the Wild. For Mario, especially, this is a good thing. The pacing of the game is enough to keep you in wonder, and that's what all great Mario games have done since he landed in 3D space.

Beautiful game. And that's about it. Music is incredibly repetitive to the point where I would mute the game after a while... this is not a good thing, as I am one of those people who appreciates game music to the point of comparing it with film music (yes, even indie game music - Journey and Ori are great examples). Imagine being stuck in a level for twenty minutes - and you will - while having to listen to the same overtly, misplaced emotional string track.... on repeat..... The story, if there even is one, is garbage. Heck, even The Unfinished Swan had a better story than this, and that was a total bummer at the end. Buy this game, on sale if possible, if only to see the possibilities of what can be done with beautiful graphics and hard(ish) work, from yet another indie developer (Coldwood Interactive). But also for proof of why AAA games are starting to lack creativity with their rehashed, overly-hyped-does-not-deliver formulas, adopting microtransaction schemes on top of base prices, while games like this one and others can wow you for hours (if you enjoy them) for anywhere between $15-$40. In short... this game is wonderful visually - looks better than many games out there (even now in 2017) - but everything else needed a lot more work. Feels like an idea that was never actually... uhh... knitted properly, and the seams are too visible.

I won't bring up the senseless FPS issues. I have a powerful gaming PC and am having the same problems as everyone else on here. This is not a good port, it seems. RIME is the kind of game that plays on your nostalgia; it includes elements from most of the following (there's a reason I'm taking the time to list these): - first and foremost, TeamIco's first game, "ICO," from the PlayStation age - then, in no particular order, games like The Legend of Zelda, Oceanhorn, Submerged, Journey, Never Alone, Lost in Shadow, The Unfinished Swan, and Papo & Yo - finally, if you are a fan of the soundtracks of both Journey and Princess Mononoke, you will recognize a few homages to the respective composers of the two; however, I do not believe this was purposeful On to the actual game and why I gave it a 7. Without spoilers, I'll lay it out. Remember those games I just mentioned? RIME does them all... just okay. It wishes to be so much of all those things, that it does not know what it wants to be. There are beautiful moments in which the music matches an opening in a wall, a bright light, much like "Journey;" then there are moments where the music doesn't do much or becomes repetitive, despite your just having achieved something in-game. There are moments where the game makes a puzzle unnecessarily difficult, and just when you think, "Oh! Awesome puzzle, like the ones in Zelda," it totally lets you down when you realize all you have to do is press a button (I played with gamepad). There are moments when you think, "Wow! This game moves like ICO, but upgraded to the 21st century!" And then the damn kid gets stuck on a piece of wood that has supposedly been destroyed, at a crucial moment (if you played, you know what I mean), and the ICO frustrations resurface. Finally, because I don't want to keep going, the music is pretty; very, very pretty. But that's about it. It doesn't grab you the way Journey's music does; it also doesn't do Joe Hisaishi's (Ghibli) simplicity well - the composer simply does not know how to use certain chords (I'm a musician, that's why I notice). Should everyone with an itch for good indie games play this? Yes. Should you wait for the price to drop? Yes, because the FPS sure are having no trouble dropping. If you have a PS4, should you buy PC version? Only if PC version drops to $9.99, otherwise, play it on PS4; I hear it does better there. All in all, a decent game, though just as disappointing - in the end - as last year's The Last Guardian and Bound, which fall under the same genre and have similar issues. The formula is starting to stink, and is being weighed down by porting issues, development process (they all take too long), and mechanics issues... not to mention, low sales. Maybe it's time to give these games a rest and wait for another Shadow of the Colossus, whose issue's could be easily overlooked because everything else was great?

To start of, I would like to clarify my score as somewhere between a 9.4 and a 9.7, depending on what the soundtrack of the game is currently playing. Yep, that's pretty much the reason I didn't give it a perfect 10; the soundtrack is so subtle on the Wii U, it may as well not exist (it just feels louder on Switch). But let's move away from comparisons; and with that, I mostly mean "FPS" whining. You will not find that here. I bought a Wii U because I like games as a form of entertainment, not a replacement of reality; I am not looking to escape reality in amazing 60fps-4K glory. So let's move on. (and if that's not a good reason for you, I respect your need to escape... this game is not for you) This is by far the best game on the Wii U, and wonderful "swan song" to the console. The farewell to the console reminds me of Twilight Princess on the GameCube. After Wind Waker initially disappointed some hardcore Ocarina of Time-Majora's Mask fans, Twilight Princess redeemed the light that was WW with a lot of darkness. So where does Breath of the Wild (BotW) fit between two remakes and a spin-off (Hyrule Warriors)? Perfectly after Skyward Sword. So then, my impressions after more than 10 hours playing, which isn't a lot for this game (think Skyrim playtimes and you'll get it): Soundtrack: Sweet. Tender. Subtle. For the first time, a Zelda game places its focus on environment before music, and though, for a music lover like me, it was sad.. this is actually quite in tune with games like Witcher 3 (from which it takes a few elements). Do not expect to be awed by the soundtrack unless you play with headphones. Story: This game is FREEer than Skyrim, and so is the story. Yes, you read that right. The open world model for this game is a combination of Skyrim and Witcher 3. Your heart containers, your equipment, your stamina, and your.... food dishes?....... are what keep you from going wherever you may please. You may want to go up to that really high peak because, heck, "throat of the world, baby!" but that's not going to happen with that thin shirt and pants, and that pot-lid-for-a-shield and rusted blade... and the baked apple you stole from that old guy. Sure... you can sneak, but when night time comes, good luck with the 172HP goblins and your little twig that does 1 damage. As with all Zelda games, there are too many sidequests to count. Oh wait... that's not what Zelda is known for. Well, looks like now, it will be. Say goodbye to a series where the only sidequests were grabbing bugs or taking frogs that could spoil to a witch living behind a village. Controls and AI: This can be challenging with so much going on. Thankfully, some of the cool mechanics, like stopping in midair to shoot an arrow (as seen in first preview trailer of game) and being able to fast travel at any time (ANY TIME... hear that Bethesda???) help tremendously in the fight against the darkness. I place AI in the same category because this is something not often talked about. The AI in this game is one of the most advanced I've ever seen in any open-world RPG or Adventure game. A huge part of whether you make it out alive in an encounter or not, will be based on how well you know your controls and your on-hand-equipment/abilities. That being said, at no time do the controls feel difficult/unmanageable, or like a failed experiment and excuse for selling new peripherals (looking at you Skyward Sword, with your bs MotionPlus). Longevity.... I'm pretty sure people who put value to what they spend money on, will be spending the rest of the year - until Christmas - switching between BotW and Horizon ZD (if they own a PS4). This game has so much going on, you begin to stop wondering how far you've gotten... and well, it doesn't tell you. Tips and Advice: If you do not own a Switch (or won't own one for a while) and DO own a Wii U, Purchase this game. This game, along with a handful of others, is the reason you bought a Wii U to begin with, and sighed twice for those HD remakes... If you own the game and have just started or not gone too far, do your best to NEVER look online for walkthrough help. This game deserves it, and you will enjoy it more. When you use walkthroughs in free-roam games, you are virtually placing your game "on rails." So what's the point? Last thoughts: This game is clearly a rebirth to the series, as many other franchises have been "rebirthing" (Tomb Raider, God of War, etc). Consider this game as a brand new experience, and you will love it. Look for the past in it, and you may be disappointed. It's really a matter of one simple choice: to allow yourself to be surprised by something that turned out different than you, and the rumor mill, expected.

I'm not going to get involved in the petty arguments that come with social media these days, so I'll say this: If you really love the Star Ocean series but aren't a fan, disregard this game. If you are a huge fan of the Star Ocean series, play this game but wait until its price drops to $39.99 If you love the Tales series, you may actually find that this is the first Star Ocean to be more like Tales than Star Ocean... the art style won't look it, but the battle system is similar (sort of), and the humor of the conversations is right up there with Tales of Vesperia's funnier moments. What can I say? I'm not a big fan of the majority of JRPGs heavy on fan service, so I'm quite surprised by this one and do not believe, as some say, that this is the "nail in the coffin" for the SO series.

Without giving anything away, and with only a couple of hours of play, I'll say this (and will update as I see fit): Straight from the get go, this is exactly the kind of hacker game I expected from part one. The amount of tools, the funny pop culture references from our own social media, the voice acting (which was already great in part 1), the depiction of S. Francisco. Thanks Ubisoft for finally releasing a game worth the hype. And you didn't even hype this one up as much as part 1.. look how well it went.

First of all: It's a damn shame people are somehow logically (not sure how) able to compare CoD with Battlefield. CoD is a fast-paced, arcade first-person shooter (you know, like Doom or GoldenEye back in the day) whereas Battlefield is a slower-paced, war simulation first-person shooter. Both games are good at their OWN thing. If you can realize that, which is logical and can be proven on many bases, then we can move on and judge Call of Duty Infinite Warfare for what it is. The good: it has a great single player campaign, which CoD has been lacking for some time now. The other good: I happen to like Black Ops 3, and this multiplayer took more from Blops 3 than it did from Advanced Warfare (thank god!). Now, it also took some failures from Ghosts, unfortunately. The maps are a lot of fun and the weapons feel less futuristic than Blops 3 or AW weapons do, which is nice. The other, other good: Yes, I got the Legacy edition. Yes, it was part of Activision's "scheme." So, yes, I've been enjoying both IW and MW:RE But (for those who like to compare), I hope you don't cry out when EA screws you with their pay-to-win, because that is definitely coming in a couple of months after they're done with holiday sales. The bad: It is too much like Blops 3 in too many ways. But the good to that? They improved some issues Blops 3 had. The other bad to that? If Blops wasn't Treyarch, then IW should have been an expansion - more or less - to Blops 3. Oh well. The really, really, really bad: the fanbase. Since the release of Ghosts, due to the high number of new players brought to the franchise by Blops 2, I have seen the CoD fanbase get more and more toxic. Some of them have good points, but are easily drowned out by those who have no clue what they're talking about when they say, "Why can't we cut the futuristic ****," because... well, quite simply, their first CoD was Blops 2, and that was futuristic. So... yeah. Naturally, when you have a game as easy to pick up and enjoy as CoD, you will get a lot of low-hanging fruit kind of players; people who only play CoD and one or two other games; people who don't know anything about what it means to actually look at the good points and bad points ****. Unfortunately, everyone has a soapbox these days, and people tend to jump on bandwagons and get off them just as quickly. Back to the game: If you enjoy a good story mode (not because "Jon Snow" is in it) and a fun, repetitive (when was it ever not), fast-paced, ARCADE fps game, then you will enjoy CoD (especially if you get Legacy edition) and, perhaps, will start getting bored of it sometime near June or so.... ready for whatever the next announcement is at E3. But if you do, genuinely, without peer-pressure from stupid kids, enjoy the action and fluidity of CoD, you will no doubt keep coming back to it every weekend with that feeling of "man, I wanna play some fast-paced shooter in a small map." This is something Battlefield 1 cannot offer. That's why so many on here, including myself, are saying the logical: Don't listen to BF fanboys. They're on the bandwagon. Soon, they'll say another game is better than BF. It may even be the next CoD game, for all they care, because they have no opinion of their own.

It isn't Chrono. It isn't Final Fantasy X. It isn't Final Fantasy VI. It isn't Pokemon (what? some of the enemy attacks look like Pokemon attacks, and I swear that was a Buneary in the snow). What it is, is a damn good game for those who enjoyed the first 3 mentions ****, yes, it's a little confusing how normal enemies are normal sized, but bosses are colossal. Even I had trouble understanding that, but then assumed it was a joke, since in many RPGs (not Chrono until Lavos), bosses tend to be rather disproportional to our hero sizes (read: every boss is the size of SIN from FFX). The battle system is basically Chrono Trigger. Wonderful combo attacks, just like Chrono. Enemy difficulties are a little uneven. You'll fight 5 enemies and easily kill them, but the boss right after will be 10x harder than the boss just twenty minutes ago. This, however, tends to happen with studios that focus a lot on certain elements (in this case nostalgia) while forgetting the other parts. And I would say it is precisely this unevenness that make me take away 2 points from a 10. I did not expect a NEW story. That is not what this game is getting at. The music is piano-only (probably synthesized), like other indies that use few instruments (Fez, To the Moon, etc), but for this game, this intimacy seems to work great considering the setting (no spoilers). I would say that the game should be in the $20-$30 price range. $40 is a little much, considering the studio making it isn't doing anything specifically new in the genre, so less creative time is needed... same for the music. But I understand Squenix was probably the one to put that tag on it, since - from seeing their mobile retros - they love overpricing "retro-oriented" things... and "I Am Setsuna." is no exception. This is an old soul in new rags.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Note: My 10/10 has nothing to do with MP mode. I never play Uncharted MP; nor do I consider the MP mode in the price paid for the game. That out of the way, here's what I think. In terms of work and quality, Uncharted 4 easily follows Uncharted 2 as far as the storyline goes, and how that storyline is presented (cutscenes; environments; voice acting; motion capture, etc). To me, Uncharted 4 is a sad, sad gem ****. I say gem, because it is one of the best games in the PS4/PS3 lifetimes; that's 10 years so far. I say sad, because, well, it is a game born at a time when many gamers want for games to become like a sport: compete, compete, compete. Others want games to replace their reality: VR. And others just want games to be portable, quirky, odd, cartoony fun. Uncharted does not fit into this schema. (SPOILER ALERT) If you are old enough and paid attention, the little easter egg from NaughtyDog found in the game's beginning and epilogue was put there, if anything (beside gauging gamer demand for a return), for gamers who have grown up with the studio to see how a simple platformer featuring a wacky orange tornado creature-man-thing gave rise to the original Uncharted and, eventually, Uncharted 4. For those who may be confused, simply pay attention to how the game mechanics work... the way that, despite how movie-like the game is and has always been, enemies always seem to work like an old classic video game, in that "shooting gallery" style, and not, for example, like how they work in other 3rd person shooters. Despite all its polishing and great storyline, at its core, Uncharted 4 is still an incredibly beautiful 3rd person platformer. I point this out because so many have called it a "climbing simulator." Of course it is! All 3d platformers are "climbing simulators." After all is said and done, however, I cannot blame Naughty Dog if some people came to Uncharted 4 from "Last of Us." The two games are more different than they are similar and, no, it's not just the "zombie" thing; Uncharted has had "zombies" in the past. It's definitely the climbing. It's definitely the humor. It's definitely the climbing and the humor. For all intents and purposes, the Uncharted Series never took itself too seriously - except that part in Uncharted 2 where the whole village is decimated and everyone dies - and I'm glad Uncharted 4 provided a decently long, fun game with an engaging, simple storyline. For those who like more in-depth storylines, however, please do pay attention as you play to some of the more "thematic symbolism" in the story. Yes, if you are willing, Uncharted 4 provides a few underlying metaphors which eventually lead to the question Nathan, and anyone with great ambition, must ask themselves: What exactly is it all for in the end? Perhaps too existential...? Thankfully, the question is only placed before you for a quick moment; this IS a video game after all. To sum up - in a time when companies are dismembering video games for the sake of money and every best-selling game seems to be owned by EA or Activision/Blizzard, it was quite refreshing to "come out of the water" one final time - so to speak - with "Nate the Great."

Nintendo HAD to have known this was going to flop. I love Animal Crossing and cannot wait for the next actual Animal Crossing game. This is a waste of money and should only be purchased by collectors, the way they should own a copy of E.T. for NES. As soon as I had played for about an hour, I got this eerie feeling that Nintendo published this game as a way to pay for any extra toilet paper they may need in their offices. It's the only thing I can think of. I tried really hard to like it.

I purchased this game by accident. Somewhere in my mind, I had mixed up Xenoblade and every other Xeno--- game ever made. Needless to say, this is NOT a direct successor to one of my favorite games on PSX, Xenogears. However, I am incredibly grateful to my not doing any research on the title and finding out another 6 or so games have been released since then... as I was very surprised by the complexity achieved by Monolith on the console many have cast aside. This should be JRPG of the year. The content; the questing; the EVERYTHING. I have to admit I am nowhere near finishing this game, and that's a good thing since I usually speed-run games on weekends, but something about this game just made me want to slow down. Haven't felt this way since Skyrim.

I couldn't possibly understand those out there on the net giving this game a low rating. The game does well, once again, what it has always done well. Provided an environment full of mindless explosions a la Michael Bay (I swear I set a guy on fire by shooting a motorcycle near him. Are humans THAT flammable?), a bunch of overly predictable tropes, the lot of which you may find in any of the old Hollywood action films. I mean - seriously... or wait, wait... NOT SERIOUSLY. That's the problem here. Critics and Gamers alike are taking this game WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. This is not GTA. This is not Saint's Row. This is Spaaart........ err, I mean... this is JUST CAUSE, and it is so much fun; the parachuting/wingsuit gliding/parachuting again - REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT, the new tricks, the feeling that bullets never run out, the new mechanism with tying two items together being even better than before. Alright... I'm going back to Medici to set tie some more of Di Ravello's people to moving vehicles.