@RogerRoger 3DS era will always be tops for me. Portable games were still recognizably portable games (nobody would mistake the 3DS catalogue for something from a home console), but the hardware was still ambitious enough to do impressive things that were simply impossible on older handhelds. And you also had the benefit of a touchscreen device that wasn't beset with gimmicky, because developers had already exhausted their "creativity" during the NDS generation, so the touchscreen was usually only used for stuff that made sense and objectively improved the controls and user interface. Only time I ever blew on my 3DS was either when playing NDS games or when I wanted to see the little icons on the dashboard spin around (very cool easter egg). 3DS was also the first handheld capable of gyro aiming. It was a perfect moment in time before the sun would set on the dedicated handheld game forever (not TECHNICALLY the actual hardware; like with Switch Lite, I expect future Ninty hybrids to continue receiving cheaper, dedicated handheld models).
GBA would definitely be second place for me, though. Lots of really good games on that device. It was also, interestingly, one of the first handhelds that benefitted heavily from ports of previously home console only games. Nowaways, you can play stuff like The Witcher 3 portably, but, back then, being able to play SNES games on a handheld device was pretty awesome and mind-blowing.
Both 3DS and GBA were somewhat lower-selling hardware that didn't have immense libraries like their predecessors, but I feel like this just made room for the high-quality library on this devices to really shine.
I really hope we see a proper GBA virtual console or mini console one day, since its best games can be pretty intimidatingly expensive now.
I'm impressed you found images with such high clarity on google, which is why I asked. With the exception of PS2 games, which I'll sometimes emulate on my PC JUST to get high quality screenshots, I also have to use online screenshots to show off older games, and the quality and sizing of them are usually fairly wonky. The screenshotting tools on modern consoles (especially on Switch, where I can post them straight to twitter) are such a godsend.
If someone told me a couple of years ago that I'd enjoy reading lengthy analyses of ancient James Bond video games, I'd have laughed in their faces. But you do a good job making your reads entertaining. And I even have half a mind to try out some of these games after some of your more glowing pieces!
Although it's a tough choice between whether I enjoy the passionate, effusive joy found in reviews you do of your favorite games over the hilarious schadenfreude experienced when reading a piece you write about a game you really hate.
Completion Status: All puzzles completed across both games, totaling 8.5 hours of playtime. No achievements for the first game, but I collected all but one of Puzzle Agent 2's achievements (the one I'm missing would've required me to play through the entirely of the second game pretty much perfectly from beginning to end, which I'm not really willing to do)
Professor Lameton
The Puzzle Agent games were developed by a very early career Telltale Games back in 2010 as part of a pilot program exploring alternative types of game design to supplement their episodic licensed adventure game model (as most readers will recall, they hit it big on this front not long after with their Walking Dead series). I'll be talking about this game and its direct sequel, which released a year later, as one entity, because they're really one experience. The gameplay and presentation are identical between the two games, and the mystery from the first game isn't really resolved until the second game.
The plot is, put nicely, absurdist. Nelson Tethers, the character you play as, is a member (the only member, in fact) of the FBI's puzzle research division. A bit of welcome satire is introduced early in this regard, as it's clear almost immediately that Tethers is bored out of his mind and really has nothing to do in this largely pointless pocket of the federal government. His tedium is brought to an end when he receives a field assignment, however: the lone factory that appears to supply the President of the United States with his preferred type of eraser (as in, pencil eraser) has mysteriously shut down production, and isn't responding to communication attempts, so Tethers is put on the case to find out why factory management isn't responsive. Tethers arrives in the strange little town of Scoggins, Minnesota, where the factory is situated, and quickly finds himself ensnared in a bizarre mystery involving a local cult, lost astronauts, strange scientific formulae, missing persons reports, and sightings of so-called "Hidden People." The key mystery seemingly tying all of this together is the inexplicable disappearance of the factory's foreman, Isaac Davner, and finding him becomes something of a fixation for Agent Tethers.
Despite the initial stupidity of the premise, this is still a lot to work with, and it could have been executed well. (Very) early on, there's a pleasant sense of mystery to proceedings: everyone in town is acting squirrely, and Tethers keeps experiencing strange phenomena. Unfortunately, this potential is largely squandered: the plot becomes dumber the more you learn about it, and, especially in the second game, a kitchen sink approach is taken to explaining the mystery. You start out with something manageable, with cover-ups, cults, and possible supernatural phenomena, and by the end of the second game, the plot is some sort of bizarre mess that attempts to tie together aliens, sentient garden gnomes, big foot, government conspiracies, mind control devices, etc. It's like the writers were trying to poke fun at bad conspiracy writing and you end up with something so convoluted and weird that you don't really care about anything that happens because none of it means anything.
Structurally, these games are dead ringers for the long-running Professor Layton series on the Nintendo DS/3DS. In particular, the very first game in that series, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, is called to mind: in both properties, you play an investigator with an aptitude for puzzle solving who is asked to journey out to a strange little town to solve a mystery that everyone seems to be in on, all the while hunting around for hint coins and solving puzzles for the puzzle-obsessed locals, each of which you're scored on depending on how many times it took you to get the answer and/or how many hints you used to solve them. Instead of hint coins, you hunt around for pieces of used chewing gum stuck everywhere, which Nelson Tethers will then disgustingly put in his mouth when he needs a hint because gum helps him to think. The scoring system in the Puzzle Agent games strikes me as a bit odd, though, as, unlike the Layton games, there's nothing really incentivizing skilled play. The grades you earn don't ultimately affect anything. In the Layton series, getting more Picarats (the currency obtained from solving puzzles) would go toward unlocking a variety of extras and bonuses after the game was done. But there's no post-game content here. It's all very barebones, in fact: Puzzle Agent 1 only has 37 puzzles total, with a similar number of puzzles in the second game.
I wouldn't necessarily mind a miniature Professor Layton-esque experience, but the failings of Puzzle Agent 1 & 2 highlight was made that other series special. The Layton games didn't always have amazing plots, but they held together as narrative experiences because of the engaging connection the professor had with his young apprentice, Luke Triton. Later games had large casts of interesting characters. Puzzle Agent has a cast of characters, but they're all utterly forgettable, and the writers didn't really bother to build up a connection between the main character and anyone else in the town. This would have been fine with sufficiently good mystery writing, but, as I established, the plot is ridiculous and not meant to be seriously considered.
What's left then? Well, gameplay, I suppose. Puzzles, primarily, aside from point-and-click adventure game navigation around your environments, which barely even counts as gameplay. The puzzles here actually aren't terrible, but considering how few they are, they're really lacking in variety. There are only a few different types of puzzles, so you'll have a sense of deja vu as you play through the game. The Layton games had similar puzzles as well, but those games had several hundreds of puzzles each, so some level of repetition is expected. With 37 puzzles or so in each Puzzle Agent game, you'd think each one would be unique and well-considered. The game also has an issue with occasionally explaining a puzzle poorly, which might cause the player to have to guess at the rules the first time through if they want to get a sense of what they're supposed to do. Once or twice, it also expected me to know things that I don't think were necessarily reasonable to expect from a logic-based puzzle, such as one that presented a sequence of numbers and challenged me to find the pattern and guess the next number in the sequence. I came to discover that there was no independently discoverable sequence, but that it was, in fact, the number pi, and the game wanted me to input the numbers seven or eight digits in. Now, dear reader, maybe you're a mathematic prodigy that has memorized pi past the first three numbers, but I ended up having to look it up, because I had no other means of answering the question.
With that said, I feel like I'm probably being harsher than I probably should be, because most of the puzzles are fun and well-considered, and these games scratched a very particular itch I've had for years since I finished the Layton series.
The unique visual style in these games is the result of a collaboration between Telltale Games and Canadian cartoonist/animator Graham Annable. Stylistically, it's almost indistinguishable from his work in comics, and while it's not a style I'd normally take to, the offbeat designs of these bug-eyed weirdos meshes well with the generally parodic feel of the games in general. Scoggins feels like a rudimentary send-up of the American Midwestern setting prominently featured in films like Fargo. With that said, the low production quality of the project should be noted: the animation featured in this game is VERY basic, and you won't notice a lot of movement on-screen at any one time.
Sound design-wise, there's next to nothing in the way of music, which is a bit disconcerting, but I did appreciate the fact that these games are fully voice-acted. And the voice acting is decent!
The Puzzle Agent games aren't terrible. The art design is unique, the offbeat style of the humor elicited a few chuckles from me, and the fundamentals of the game design, which feel ripped straight from Professor Layton, are solid enough. Unfortunately, the games don't feel fully developed, are lacking in puzzle variety, feature next to no music, and, in what is ultimately the series' biggest sin, there's no real reason to care about any of the characters, or even the story more broadly, which feels like two subpar, four-hour episodes of Gravity Falls and almost entirely falls apart near the end anyway. With that said, given the emphasis on puzzle-solving and their short length overall, the games don't wear out their welcome, and I can't really say I disliked them. Given how similar and interconnected the two games are, I'm giving them a combined score of 5/10.
@RogerRoger Humble Bundle clutter, more accurately. Tokyo Dark was the only one of these games I actually wanted in my library. The others just came along for the ride when I bought bundles for other games. With that said, there's something fun about checking out obscure games that nobody has discussed in years. You occasionally find some real treasures that way. The musty corners of online PC gaming marketplaces have traces of that same magic small video rental stores used to have before the internet demystified everything.
These games were actually also released on mobile, I believe! But yeah, a game doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to excel in something, and this one... doesn't. It's forgettable, frankly. The premise is a lot more attractive than the actual execution.
And yeah, agreed on satire/parody vs pure bad writing. There's value to be had in lovingly playing with common genre tropes, but that still requires some actual effort to be expended.
Thanks for reading!
Currently Playing: Fields of Mistria (PC); Cookie Clicker (PC); Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC); Overboard! (PC)
It's possible people who like the style of humor in this game might be able to overlook the nonsensical plot, but it just felt like a wasted opportunity to me. Because, yeah, the idea of an adventure/puzzle game hybrid where you solve a mystery is attractive.
Well, with humble bundle, the important thing is that you get an amazing price on the games you're buying them for, and then get this weird stuff on the side. Like, when I got the Crash and Spyro collections for $15 (total, not each) a few years back, the bundle also came with a Call of Duty game, the Shenmue collection, and a couple of games I've never heard of. For $15. It certainly reduces the risk with trying stuff I've never heard of before.
Game: Astro's playroom (PS5)
When I got my PS5 the first game I was going to play was miles morales as it was the game I was most hyped for but then I saw an icon on my home screen with a little robot on it. I started the game and I was smiling the entire time I played! Here are my thoughts.
THE GRAPHICS
From what I saw, the original astro bot on ps4 had some really nice graphics. This game, however, takes the graphics to a whole new level! The textures on the playstation artefacts look so realistic, the shine on astro's face, it all looks lovely. This game is also a stunner in 4K with HDR on! Everything is so colourful and shiny and high quality! Astro has a nice roll in the Memory Meadow. THE DUALSENSE
The dualsense is an awesome controller but not many games have used it to it's full potential except this one. Every footstep astro takes is a little vibration in the controller. When he walks in the sand, the vibration feels crunchy and when he walks on metal, the vibrations feel clangy (not a word). When you use big robot hands to get toys out of a capsule machine, the triggers make you feel like you're popping the capsules or crushing the rubbish cans someone put in the machine. It truly feels like you are a part of the game world and you really need to try it for yourself to get what I'm saying. Astro definitely loves the dualsense.
THE MUSIC
Every song in this game is a bop! Ever since I first played GPU Jungle I've been hearing "GPUUUU! TELL ME WHAT TO DOOO! AND I'LL DO IT FOR YOOOU!" in my head (it really is a problem). The main theme is an earworm as well. I highly recommend you give the ost a listen. EDIT: THE OST IS STREAMING NOW! LISTEN TO IT NOW! GO! GO! GO! Dance Robot, Dance! THE GAMEPLAY
Astro is a joy to control. From the little hover he does to the spin and even just running and hopping around, it's all fun! I don't really have much to say about the gameplay. This game has really nice ice physics too! THE CONCLUSION
From the insanely fun gameplay to the adorable references to the amazing music and graphics, Astro's playroom is an amazing game that you need to play if you have a ps5. Definitely worth keeping on your console unless you're running out of space. It's also a little short for my liking. Astro walks the long and winding road. THE PROS
-Incredible graphics
-Incredible music
-Nice little easter eggs
-Astro is such a cute little boi
Game: Bugsnax (PS5)
This seemed like a joke game at first but as more info on it came out I started to become interested. I've put over 20 hours into the game so guess if I liked the game or not! THE PREMISE
You play as a journalist who is sent out to an island called Snaktooth to investigate a new species of bugs that look like foodstuff and discovers that the island has a lot of secrets. You find a grumpus called Filbo who is the mayor of a small ghost town called Snaxburg and your task is to get everyone back into the town. THE GRAPHICS
The graphics are pretty simple. The framerate chugs when you're in the town. That's all I have to say. THE MUSIC
The music is really fun and upbeat! From the slightly awkward sounding interview theme song to the catchy theme song, every song is great. THE GAMEPLAY
The bugsnax are fun and rewarding to catch as a nice little jingle plays every time you catch one. You have many tools at your disposal like a tripwire or a strawberry with eyes in a ball that you can use to lead bugsnax to where you want them to go. Some of the final bugsnax you have to find can be tedious to find if you don't have a guide and there's NO FAST TRAVEL IN AN OPEN WORLD GAME IN 2020 WHAT. OTHER INFO
The game is fully voice acted and aside from Beffica, every character is funny and charming. If you don't like a particular character you can turn them into a disgusting food monster and they won't even mention it so that's fun! THE CONCLUSION
Overall this game is great! There are a few technical hiccups and some flaws like * clears throat * NO FAST TRAVEL but aside from that, this is a really fun time!
The pros
-Fun characters
-Great music
-Great voice acting
-Rewarding gameplay
-You can turn the annoying characters into pickle goblins!
The cons
-Some of the bugsnax are a bit tedious to get
-Some minor framerate issues
-* clears throat again * NO FAST TRAVEL
-Beffica
9/10 Excellent
A bit late to the party but nice impression pieces there @Timleon on the reboot Tomb Raider games.
I've only played the very first Tomb Raider game myself and then Legends on the PS2 but thanks to Sol, Rog and some of the other folks I've been tempted a number of times on trying the reboot trilogy and thanks to you I have a much clearer picture on what to expect with them!
I hope Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is more up your alley then Rise was!
Bit late @mookysam but I finally got to reading your Super Mario Sunshine and it was rather delightful indeed! I love this new mythos you're creating for the mushroom kingdom including Witches, Lakitu, the devil and Pat Butcher
Your sharp wit made for a really enjoyable read... It's unfortunate it seemed to recieve barely any effort from the sound of things into porting it onto the Switch as part of the the collection but it sounds like a much more enjoyable experience then 64.
I look forward to seeing what your Galaxy review looks like!
... Well at least you haven't gone off the deep end this time @RogerRoger with your latest bond review!
Good stuff and it really was a facinating time when all these different versions of games were made with differing gameplay styles to accommodate the less powerful hardware. Some very nice screenshots you managed to rustle up there and that tune you posted is a bit of a jam lol
Good stuff Rog and glad you got round to playing a nice and enjoyable Bond game, even if it was a bit brief!
Like the others have said @Ralizah I'll have to chime in and say the absurdist plot of Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent 1 does sound rather fun to me but it's a shame it seemed to have gone a bit off the deep end for you in the sequel!
I actually really quite like the look of the visuals myself from the screenshots you've posted and the mash of puzzles and the typical brand of TellTale episodic adventure game sounds rather neat.
It's a bit of a shame we never got to see some more unique genre mashups like Puzzle Agent but thanks for bringing it to my attention all the same!
And apologies for the late reply in regards to your comments on Bowser's Fury & Galaxy (Didn't seem to get a notification for that curiously) but I've taken a bit of a deeper look into Galaxy 1 & 2 since the and I can see what you mean with 2 and the difference in the design philiosphy with the levels and worlds.
Hopefully when Nintendo "terminates" the 3D Collection games in the next few weeks (Which I find rather disgusting practice to be honest) they upload Galaxy 2 for people to grab a hold of alongside the other games just seperately instead of in a package.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks! I would definitely recommend the reboot trilogy to any fan of the older titles, if only to find out whether you like the new approach or not.
I'm about 3-4 hours into Shadow now and it's looking good so far. Waiting to see how the whole thing unfolds though.
Game: Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5)
In the words of Caddicarus, "Are you feeling a bit sad? A bit down? WELL SHUT UP BECAUSE YOU'RE PLAYING SACKBOY SO YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BE HAPPY!" He wasn't wrong! This game is so uncontrollably happy that you don't wanna kill the enemies because they're so god-damn cute! The gameplay
This is one of the only things I don't really like from this game! Sackboy runs so slow! He runs at the speed of an old age pensioner! The jump height is absolutely tiny and the flutter jump is pathetic. However, the weapons you get like the whirly tool and jetpack are really fun! The music
The music in this game is pretty great! From whimsical orchestral tunes to upbeat dubstep and even some licenced music from Mark Ronson, deadmau5 and much more! There is a surfer version of Take on me by A-Ha so yeah. The voice acting
This game's voice acting is also great! Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley, French & Saunders) and Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I, Rise of Skywalker) steal the show as Sackboy's mentor Scarlet and villain Vex. The other characters like N.I.C.O.L.E and Gerald Strudleguff are great too! The conclusion
Overall, this game is fine but the boring gameplay holds it back from greatness.
Pros
Great voice acting
Lovely music
Overall peppy world
Some fun weapons
Cons
Slow movement speed
Painfully small jump
7.8 Good (almost great)
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, Galaxy 2 weirdly feels more like a predecessor to 3D World than it does a sequel to Galaxy.
I doubt Nintendo will remove the actual games. The collection itself will probably just be delisted with individual downloads replacing them. It'd be pretty dumb of Nintendo to not keep the games up for sale, and they could still say they weren't technically lying, because they did, indeed, take down the collection.
@Jackpaza0508 I hate when characters are slow in platformers. The best thing Nintendo did for the SM3DW Switch port was boost the speed of the characters dramatically compared to the Wii U version. Platformers are about movement and physicality. Slowness just works against that.
Game: Spider-Man Miles Morales
If I could describe the first spider-man in one word, I would use the word Free because of the small but dense open world where you're free to do whatever you want. The word I would use to describe Miles' game is Community. This is because instead of all the side missions being crimes, you help neighbours. From getting a man's cat back to helping someone who lost their car to even just having a selfie with someone. It makes the city feel alive in a way the first game didn't do for me. But that doesn't mean this is a better game.
Let's start with the gameplay. Instead of having the first game's focus meter, this game uses a venom gauge. If you fill it up you can use a venom punch which is basically a lightning powered punch. As the story goes on, you can store more venom in your gauge. If you fill it up all the way when It has been expanded, you can let out a devastating venom blast. You also have a camouflage meter which turns you invisible which is very useful in stealth missions. The normal combat is almost the same as the first game.
Next is the music. The ost in this game is pretty great. The first game used orchestral epic tunes to set the mood but this game goes a different direction by using orchestral music with some hip-hop mixed in there! It works really well for miles!
The graphics. MY GOD, the graphics. As soon as you turn the game on, you're greeted by a model of miles which looks so realistic! My first reaction was "OH MY GOD YOU CAN SEE EVERY INDIVIDUAL FINGERPRINT ON THE HEADPHONES OH MY-". The snowflakes even fall and melt individually on everyone's clothes!
While I've been positive about the game so far, that doesn't mean I can't bitch about it! This game is way too short! I got the game for christmas and no joke, I finished it on the 27th of december. THAT'S ONLY 2 DAYS!
Conclusion
This game is almost a 10/10 for me. Everything about it is great except the length. Please play it if you have a ps5!
Pros
-Nice music
-Fun and zippy combat
-Out of this world graphics
Cons
-Way too short
9.5 Excellent (Almost outstanding)
I have some other games on PS5 like The pathless and Immortals Fenyx Rising but I haven't finished them yet so I'm gonna review them as soon as I'm done with them. So far, Pathless gets an 9/10 and immortals gets a 8/10.
The year is 1999 and Resident Evil is dominating Capcom's development studios.
A title that was originally intended as a spinoff is upgraded to mainline series status and is released in Japan and the US (with Europe having to wait til the following year).
This... is Resident Evil 3.
A prototype is being worked on for the Nintendo 64 with a character swapping mechanic and the ability to drop and retrieve said items... Though the team is struggling thanks to hardware limitations it'll see the light of day on nintendo's next gen console a few years later.
This, eventually, is Resident Evil 0.
A game oft considered to be the "true" Resident Evil 3 is being toiled away on the dreamcast after an initial failed port of Resident Evil 2 to the Sega Saturn.
This... is Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
And finally Hideki Kamiya, after the success of Resident Evil 2, is starting to work on Resident Evil 4 for the upcoming Playstation 2.
Except... He isn't.
This game revolves a man named "Tony" with an indestrucable body & trying to unravel the mystery behind it, dealing with the occult. Kamiya describes it as instense "Cool Action" game... But Shinji Mikami considers it far too outlandish for the series and instead an entirely different game series is born.
This is not Resident Evil 4.
This is
Devil May Cry Version played: PS4 (Part of the HD Collection) Also available on: PS2 & Nintendo Switch (by itself) PC, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 (as part of the HD collection) Completion Time: 3:30 hours to beat the game on Normal and 3:04 for Hard (Though I reloaded stages a fair number of times and spent like a good extra 2/3 hours or so just getting through the latter half of the game at this difficulty).
Dante Must Die difficulty wasn't attempted.
Six secret missions were beat.
Yes, if you weren't already aware, Devil May Cry (DMC from here on in) actually started out it's life with the intentions of it being the next mainline Resident Evil game with a very unique and very different premise compared to what we got with Leon's escapades in remote Spanish villages.
So... what's the actual premise of DMC you might ask?
You play as Dante, son of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda (A demon who rebelled against the underworld, sealing it away whom then later married a human who gave birth to twin sons), who owns the shop "Devil May Cry" that takes on the more... peculiar odd jobs oft dealing with the occult.
A woman, Trish as we later find out, crashes through his store on a motorbike (Which Dante treats like this happens once a week with his rather blasé reaction), whom then talks for a bit before electrocuting him, stabbing him with his own sword and hurling the motorbike she was riding at him.
Let's Rock!
For a normal human (even in the DMC universe) this would be lights out for them. But whilst Dante isn't like his previous incarnation of Tony with a fully indestructable body. He IS part demon.
Getting up to deliver the final blow to this mystery woman Trish removes her sunglasses to reveal that she's a dead ringer for Dante's passed away mother and wants to hire him for a job which Dante readily agrees to.
Yeah...
If you were thinking Capcom had finally shed the absolutely dreadful translation/localisation phase they had with their previous masterpieces that were the PS1 Resident Evil games or MegaMan... Oh boy they really REALLY hadn't.
Hell (Pun intended) upon replaying this I found it so bad that instead of becoming kinda good (Like the aforementioned Resi titles) this kinda wrapped right around back to bad territory again.
There's only one scene I feel that's truly so bad it's good and DMC fans will already know what I'm talking about. No review would be complete without showing DMC's true splendor.
Annnnnnnywho thankfully we aren't really here for DMC's story or characters (At least for this one as there's barely anything here) we're here for that cool action Kamiya promised and DMC delivers rather well for a title well over 20 years old!
Despite the movement and attacks at times feeling a bit slow and clunky for today's standards, Dante is rather versatile thanks to the use of both directional inputs & delayed inputs for melee attacks. Plus there's a number of moves that are available for purchase to pump up/grant additional combos you can pull off.
Now Dante's melee weapons aren't called "Devil Arms" just because it sounds cool. The weapons Alastor and Ifrit allow Dante to activate a mode called "Devil Trigger". We've already established Dante IS only half human after all.
Devil Trigger awakens Dante's Devil form which enhances his physical strength, mobility and cause him to slowly regenerate health too. Very handy in a pinch and especially useful against the numerous bosses (or even some of the tougher mooks) in the game. On Hard difficulty Devil Trigger is required to be used in order to deal decent damage against the bosses!
My attempts at capturing an in game depiction of Devil Trigger came out rather poor... so take this, not that much better, CG shot instead!
Alastor's devil form is much more nimble then Ifrit and even gets the power to fly, shooting lightning bolts and double jump in the air (as long as you've purchased the recquired abilities) whilst Ifrit focuses on pure desctruction with much much harder hitting combo strings giving the two weapons very different feels.
Of course you can't just use Devil Trigger willy nilly though. You bulld up the Devil Trigger bar/DT gauge (Or symbols in this case) by attacking enemies, getting hit or by using a Devil Star item.
You start out with a limit of 3 symbols (And you NEED at least three banked to trigger the transformation) but can get a maximum of ten by buying a Devil Orb item at the shop which'll upgrade the bar by a single symbol each time.
... You're also no doubt aware of the stylish rank the DMC games have during combat, grading you on how well you're doing?
This game using Dull, Cool, Bravo, Absolute (Awesome In the US release) & Stylish to denote your battling prowess.
In the later games this is supposed to keep you on your toes & make combat encounters fresh by having you use dfferent weapons, combos etc ... But it's not very well implimented in this first game.
These Giant possessed marionettes are very easy to kill, so building your stylish rank with these is hard work
A single second and a half of you not attacking an enemy and your rank completely disappears regardless of how high it is and whilst there is an option to switch between Ifrit and Alastor without going into the menu... It takes like a good three seconds to switch weapons (And I had no idea it existed until going back in the game today to rustle up better screenshots!).
On the upside though compared to later titles you can just keep attacking an enemy with the same combos over and over and you'll increase your rank regardless. Seeing as the game only judges your mission rank by the number of orbs you have and the time it took to do the mission... it's not as important though compared to later games (Though your style ranking will make enemies drop more orbs).
I haven't played the PS2 version of DMC since 2005 (my last proper DMC game being the 4th back in 2009/2010?) so... I've been away from the series for a good while and it did take a bit of getting used to DMC but by the end of things I was back on, relative, form.
The game, and the series in fact, isn't a walk in the park and can be quite challenging...
... But the first few rooms of Mallet Island have no enemies whatsoever and one of the first things you have to do is go round a fairly open room and collect all 45 red orbs that lie within (to open a locked door) which wordlessly teaches you about the various traversal mechanics like wall jumping and your first combat encounter is against a rather small 2-3 enemies.
So whilst it can be difficult (Mission 3 and Phantom being the wake up call moment for a lot of new, or returning after a fairly long leave of absence, players) it does ease you into the game ok enough I feel?
Rather then a shot of lava spider/scorpion boss Phantom... Have this nice snap of a painting instead!
It helps that the game is divided into missions with each mission screen clearly telling you your next objective and a good half of the 23 missions can be completed in little under 5 minutes (One mission can be done in as little as 40 seconds) so even if you do end up dying and having to continue, or worse have to reload your save, you'll never have to take too long to get back to where you were.
Plus Mallet Island isn't all that big either. The game's Resident Evil roots are on show with the fixed camera angles (Though they do sometimes sweep and follow Dante), needing to get certain items to unlock certain doors or interact with to progress.
Unlike any other title in the series (I think?) you can even interact with most the objects around the castle and it's grounds to get a snippet of information or a comment from Dante.
Nothing ominous here at this castle at all!
There's... not all that much more to say really about the first adventure involving our red jacket wearing demon slayer to be honest.
There is only 5 unique bosses in the game so you do have to fight the same bosses over again at least 2/3 times over the course of the adventure.
They do get new moves each time and progressively get more challenging... But Nightmare in particular is a pain with his gimmick and Griffin (A giant electricity spewing eagle) flies. The final boss is... Ok. So only two of the bosses felt particularly good to fight to me.
The music of the game is also... fine? There's some nice ambient tracks walking round the island and the music that plays during combat encounters/bosses is more energetic to get the blood pumping.
It's nowhere near as memorable to me as the later games, though it suits the game and it's gothic stylings just fine.
One of the castle's themes that plays when out of combatOne of the few battle themesPhantom's boss battle music
I will say I found the audio mix is horrendous for the voice acting though with Phantom in particular being pretyy much impossible to understand at times thanks to the effects done to his voice (so you might wanna stick the subtitles on).
The character and enemy designs hold up fairly well I feel with a nice range from demonic bugs, giant eagles, lizard men and the likes. Especially for a game that's rather early on in the PS2's cycle.
The HD collection makes things look a fair bit clearer thanks to a resolution bump (Though the CG cutscenes are really quite grainy)... But other then a gallery added for each game and a number of music tracks for each title too there's not much has been done to the base game at all as far as I can tell?
To end off this review here's a nice illustration from the new art gallery added the HD collection (Which includes a number of references to Resident Evil and Dante's initial incarnation of Tony!).
When all's said and done Devil May Cry 1 is a solid foundation for future games in the series to build upon (Which they mostly do rather nicely) and thankfully the story and character elements introduced from this point on are much greater then the bit of a mess we have here.
At least... I recall they are... They're more fun at least. We'll see when I eventually get round to them
Devil May Cry 1 gets a "low"7/10 from me.
Objectively? I'd give it the exact same "low"7/10.
Thanks for reading my first review of 2021! It's been nearly four months since my last review with Genshin Impact (Which I think was much better written then this if I'm being completely honest). The start of the year just seems to be where I lose my reviewing mojo as the same happened to me last year but hopefully it'll come back to me sooner rather then later 😅
Going forward (and I've already updated my previous reviews a number of weeks ago) I'm changing how I score titles slightly so instead of .5's I'm going to have whole numbers and adhere to how Push Square handles it's review scores but add my own little high or low to give it a little extra bit of scaling and make my reviews a bit more unique alongside the "Objective" scores I already do.
I did take slight creative liberties with the opening, with it being pieced together from various sources as Capcom is fairly tight lipped with how they develop their games (As we'll find out when Devil May Cry 2 comes around).
Yeah it made me feel quite old upon the realisation of how old the game is as well... Especially with me turning 40 39 again next month 😂
I'm a little surprised to hear it reminds you of my Soul Reaver review Rog but I quite liked that one and again I'm pleased to hear you think it flows alright. Yours and Ral's latest efforts gave me the kick up the backside I needed to finish this one off as I've had it lingering in my notepad app for weeks!
And you're welcome! Phantom's quite... chunky I think is the best word and rather fantastical with the whole lava coursing through him so he doesn't quite bother me as much but I knew you'd be giving it a read Rog so I swapped him out.
Plus when will I get the chance to show such a nice gothic painting ever again? 😄
As for your question... I did give DMC 2 a little go not long after I'd beaten DMC 1 a couple of weeks ago but I'll wait a bit longer before playing it in earnest.
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
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