Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@RogerRoger that review is also a piece of art. I like to read your reviews always well written

@RogerRoger Great piece! Everything flows really well, and I really like how you charted your emotional journey through the game alongside your overview of what the plot actually entails. Although, I won't lie, this reads like the gaming equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome.

@RogerRoger I should have known when I read that you purchased a sealed physical copy of game that you’d found something special. As always, your review is not just entertaining to read but excellently strung together and fabulous in it conveyance of your thoughts and emotions. Bravo.

The first thing that came to my mind in reading your journey through Shenmue III is the way I feel about Shadow of the Colossus. I’ve always been a little uncomfortable justifying it as one of my favorite games of all time due to is many indefensible gameplay and narrative blemishes. It’s the flawed masterpiece that I can’t argue the myriad of antiquated and irksome mechanics and convoluted storytelling; yet even with all its shortcomings, it holds a special place in my heart. Reading your review gives me the sense that the Shenmue series is your flawed masterpiece. And if you’re like me, you may not necessarily have to play the games over and over every year to cherish the fond memory and impact the game has on you.

Really cool. Thanks for sharing. 😄

@RogerRoger Have you seen these? They're by one of my favourite YouTube creators.

@Th3solution "Shadow of the Colossus" is lots of people's favourite game - my sister in law included.

@LN78 She has good taste. 😄

And yes, like Shenmue, Shadow of the Colossus has plenty of supporters. SotC is a wonderful game and one that has never been successfully replicated. There are aspects of its design that have trickled into current game development milieu, but for the most part it still stands unique. One of the likely reasons there haven’t been any clones of it is that it objectively has so many flaws. One of the only imitators that I know of, Praey for the Gods, even tried to make the experience more fun by adding a few survival mechanics and more random battles, but (apparently, I’ve not played it) still failed to capture the essence of what made SotC so special. Perhaps one could say SotC was a progenitor to Breath of the Wild, but I get the sense that fans of the Zelda game shun that notion.

When a group of people played SotC recently in the Game Club thread, there was a lot of dissent about the game, and usually first timers find the game boring, clunky, pointless, empty, and overall just not very enjoyable to play. The narrative is considered vapid, pretentious, and impotent by many. It’s hard to argue against the validity of those criticisms, but like your sister-in-law, I feel that somehow the game has a magic that goes beyond the sum of its parts.

To bring it back around — I’m not sure how many people would cite the Shenmue series as one of their all time favorites, but it sounds like a similar situation. The game sounds like an absolute drag to play. 😅 I’ll probably never take the time to experience it because of the oft reported tedium in the moment to moment gameplay. But this little rabid group of fans for the game somehow keep it propped in the pantheon of gaming classics. I’m not usually one to enjoy playing the relics of the past with all their warts, but for some reason SotC has been one of my exceptions.

@Th3solution I've got multiple copies across (I think) 3 formats - I've wanted to do an "Ico" "SotC" and "The Last Guardian" binge session for the longest time but I keep getting distracted by other things. I'll put some time aside during the Summer and actually stick to it this time! As for "Shenmue" I have it for the Dreamcast and put a good few hours into it many years ago but never "got the bug" so to speak. It was a case of admiration but not affection, unfortunately.

@LN78 I really need to play Ico again. It was my first Ueda game and I enjoyed it too, but I suspect it won’t quite stand the test of time that Shadow has. I’ve only played it the one time way back in the early days. It was a big reason why I became a gamer and one of the first games that carried some atmospheric emotion to me. I’ll be interested to hear how you get along with playing it with a modern mindset, if and when you do boot it up.

I’ve heard absolutely nothing recently about Ueda’s new project. It’s been ages since they dropped that picture of a giant hand and a woman in a white dress. It had a King Kong vibe going on, but it’s hard to discern much from one static image.

@RogerRoger If you enjoy them (he very much loves "Shenmue" beyond all reasonable measures, by the way) then his equally excellent analysis of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" phenomenon will definitely float your boat!
PS Just managed to get all three "Shenmue" games physical sealed for PS4 for under £30. Happy with that.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Demo Impressions
Platform: Nintendo Switch (exclusive)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a favorite of mine when it released on Nintendo's hybrid back in 2019. As imperfect as the game was, the increased scope of its presentation, the inclusion of a calendar system alongside an increased focus on social sim mechanics (which gave it something of a 'medieval Persona' feel), and a return to the sort of gritty storytelling that made fans fall in love with the series in the first place made it an unmissable entry in the increasingly popular series. Although the planning and writing were done by long-time developer Intelligent Systems, a large chunk of the game's development was actually thanks to assistance from Koei Tecmo, who has been working with Nintendo to an increasingly large degree since 2014, when subsidiary developer Omega Force first released Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U. Nintendo's consoles have enjoyed a steady supply of crossover musou-style action games since then, with their latest title, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, being a spinoff based on Three Houses. While my knowledge of KT's Warriors games is incredibly slight, being a Fire Emblem fan, I simply couldn't ignore it when Nintendo published a lengthy demo for the upcoming exclusive.

When I first heard about Three Hopes, I was uncertain where the game would fit into Three Houses' chronology of events. As it turns out, the game is more of an alternate reality scenario where you play as a different and moderately younger mercenary who, like Byleth in the original game, ends up joining the military academy at Garreg Mach Monastery after saving the young royals who are to take over leadership of the continent's three great civilizations. Interestingly, your mercenary, Shez, is actually on a mission of revenge against Byleth after they almost singlehandedly kill everyone in Shez's mercenary squad.

The set-up is similar, but the focus of the game narratively is far different. This becomes immediately apparent when the twist that starts a war 30+ hours into Three Houses occurs less than two hours into Three Hopes' narrative. This, unfortunately, makes Three Hopes into more of a supplementary experience than something that can be fully enjoyed separately from the game it's based on. This is particularly true considering that the game hasn't given the player time to become attached to any of the younger, pre-war versions of the characters. Despite this, though, the game is eerily similar in several respects to Three Houses at times in other respects.

Far from being a musou title with a Fire Emblem skin like the original Fire Emblem Warriors was, Three Hopes actually goes out of its way to try and mirror the aesthetics and mechanics players will already be familiar with in Three Houses. The most obvious design choice in this respect is that the game features a branching storyline based on which of Garreg Mach's houses they choose to join, which also impacts which characters players will be fighting alongside in battles. And while the game's focus on social simulation elements isn't as pronounced as it was in Three Houses, for example, Three Hopes introduces an explorable base that provides different facilities that players can use to increase a unit's affinity with their comrades, change classes in order to learn new skills, etc. As in Three Houses, this social aspect will both affect how well units work together in battle and unlocks various support conversations as their relationships deepen. Similarities extend to how battles work as well, as parallel mechanics exist in Three Hopes that mirror the gameplay in Fire Emblem, from series staples like the weapon triangle and weapon durability to ones specific to Three Houses such as the adjutant system, which allows the player to team up with and train units on the battlefield. The end result is something that feels like an organic extension of the Three Houses model into a new genre.

Gameplay-wise, this is about what you'd expect from a Warriors-inspired title, as you'll lead a cast of units out onto the battlefield who will brutalize and juggle massive gobs of feckless enemy cannon fodder with flashy combo attacks to build up energy for special abilities that can be used to take out much more powerful enemy commanders. These commanders will usually be holding down key points across the battlefield that the game will task players with liberating. As with the original Fire Emblem Warriors, strategic importance is also placed on how you command your units on a given map, as timed objectives will often require you to coordinate the movements of your squad across the battlefield. It's this more thoughtful aspect of combat progression that keeps the battles from feeling too shallow or tedious.

After the game's prologue, the player will unlock a world map that'll give access to different maps the player can challenge in order to advance the story. In each chapter, the world map will feature various optional resources that can be unlocked by completing goals within the battle maps (for example, one location didn't unlock until I completed all of the side-quests in the previous map). These resources will give access to new strategic options that will seemingly have an affect during major story beats.

Three Hopes boasts a number of improvements over Three Houses. Character models are cleaner and sharper on the screen. The often terrible looking 2D backdrops in Three Houses that showed up during cutscenes have been replaced with what look to be fully 3D backdrops. Noticeable pop-in is still an issue, unfortunately, especially in the hub area, but the game's performance holds up well with a lot of characters on-screen at once (which it would need to do, being a musou). In an interesting shift, the playable character, Shez, has an actual personality, and will chime in during support conversations, making them feel less like monologues and more like actual interactions. Perhaps the biggest improvement is also the most subtle: the eye-squintingly small text in Three Houses has been enlarged for this entry, which should make it far more viable to play as a portable title.

Musically, Three Hopes is about what you'd expect from a musou crossover title. The game recycles and remixes tracks from Three Houses' truly excellent OST. Orchestral battle themes are amped up and given a rock makeover to match the pace of the game's frenetic action.

While the demo only represent a small chunk of the final product for each route, it does give a reason to be optimistic for the finished game. Koei Tecmo's crossover games have become progressively more impressive over time as they begin to resemble and take on characteristics of the property they're based on, which I'm sure helps them reach out to new audiences like myself who have never taken the time to properly explore this particular type of action game. Three Hopes isn't a replacement for Three Houses, but it has enough of the latter's DNA in it that it nevertheless feels only a pace or two removed from being an actual Fire Emblem game.

@RogerRoger Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hopefully those have been resolved. Either way, escapism can help a lot when reality temporarily becomes difficult to deal with, and I'm glad to hear Shenmue III was able to help you out in that regard.

@RogerRoger An Excellent and very classy review mate, I played the first and second games when they came out with my cousin we played through them together over many sleep overs and I remember the good and the bad! But I never got round to the 3rd, I don't know If I actually ever would return because I'm the type of person who when plays something I remember fondly I end up picking all its faults and it ruins my nostalgic memories with a game, but I really enjoyed your review! Top notch and I'm glad you were able to appreciate the game for what it was, "warts and all" and take enjoyment out of it.

@RogerRoger Your very welcome, I highly agree with you that nostalgia can be a very double edged sword! FF7 was the one for me that I really remembered fondly and was the greatest game I ever played! Until I revisited it about 5 years ago and well to be honest I absolutely still loved the story and the characters but the game was a bit meh! Nostalgic definitely, and it brought back some found memories and mabye for its time it was truly ground breaking, but replaying it just seemed underwhelming, I think that's probably a big reason i was a fan of the remake because I'd recently revisited it and didn't have my Rose tinted glasses on.

Mabye somethings are best left in the memory box lol. Yeah we did have a blast but sometimes I think it's because we never had anything better you know, games are just mind blowing to what they where 15 to 25 years ago, I mean even in the last 10 year the advancements we've is unbelievable, not only do I mean in mechanics and graphics but story wise as well.

I'm going a bit of track here so I'll end it there 🤣(I do love a good old ramble)

Smell The Pitch – Scratch and Sniff

Ahh, 2000. The year that brought us Big Brother, The Sims and Bob the Builder’s number 1 hit, “Can We Fix It”. Per tradition, it also brought us yet another FIFA game. FIFA 2001 arrived as a launch title for the PlayStation 2 in Europe, sporting Paul Scholes on the cover. The PlayStation release also included a bizarre scratch and sniff disc, which claimed to smell like a football pitch and in fact smelled more like Sol Campbell’s jockstrap.

This review is the first part of a series in which a season will be played in every FIFA game of the 2000s. Naturally, this will be using Celtic, who did historically win the 2000-01 season and in fact won the domestic treble. Could this success be repeated in-game? Well, in a nutshell – yes.

See, there’s one small catch with FIFA 2001. It’s utterly broken. For whatever reason, overhead kicks have an almost 100% chance of going in the back of the net. This meant that Chris Sutton ended the season on 112 goals, with Henrik Larsson not far behind on 97 (in all competitions). All you have to do to score is tap Circle twice while the ball is in the air. Easy stuff.

Graphics wise, the game is a decent step up from the PS1 titles. It’s fairly dated now but has its charms. Unfortunately, every single player has the same face. Yes, that includes players of completely different ethnicities. It’s as if they modelled one face to reuse across every player in the game.

So, is the game worth a go in 2022? Yes and no. It’s surprisingly fun for its age and it’s always great playing with the teams of yesteryear. However, the gameplay is not as great as PES was at the time and sacrifices were clearly made in terms of presentation. John Motson and Mark Lawrenson sound a bit like they’re being held at gunpoint too. At least there’s a disc to sniff.

That’s 1 treble winning season for Celtic so far, will we see the same again in a significantly less broken FIFA 2002? Who knows, but for now let’s savour Chris Sutton’s triumphant mug. Which is the exact same mug as Henrik Larsson’s.

@nessisonett It'll be fun to see how this compares with "FIFA 14" which was (I believe) the very last game ever shipped on PS2.

@LN78 Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that they kept going until FIFA 14. That’s a hell of a lot of games to get through! Might move onto the PS3 games by the later part of the decade instead though, they’re really cheap in CEX.

@nessisonett It's a mission whichever way you cut it, so best of luck!

@nessisonett Is that for real the discs were sctrach n sniff? That is so bizarre! I was a PES player back then so most likely missed anything tomdo with FIFA, or was in the gutter somewhere after a night out!

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I think FIFA 2001 and Gran Turismo 2 were the only games with scratch and sniff discs! Gran Turismo 2’s disc apparently smelled like a pit-stop, whatever that means 😂

@RogerRoger Yeah, it's pretty big. Each route gives you about 5ish hours worth of gameplay, and all three routes are accessible from the start of the demo. So, depending on how much you play, there's a LOT of content to dig into here.

I feel like Omega Force is putting more and more effort into these crossovers as time goes on, in terms of trying to make them feel like organic extensions of the games they're based on. Their previous crossover game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, took a similar approach in that it functioned as a spinoff of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and adopted significant stylistic and mechanical elements from it, and quickly became the best-selling musou title of all time, so if Three Hopes sells well, I expect this will become their new strategy for future musou crossover titles.

The pop-in won't be fixed. That it runs at a reasonable framerate is honestly enough. It's not really any worse than Three Houses in that regard, so it's not too distracting.

The game is out near the end of June, so not long. Unfortunately, that's also around the time when Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initative, Elechead, and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak are launching, so I have no idea which game I'm going to go for first!

We're mostly recovered, thankfully, aside from a lingering sense of tiredness (my exercise of choice is walking, and long walks that barely caused me to sweat before now have me gasping by the time I'm done) and a lack of the ability to smell or taste much of anything. My mother is dealing with severe pain caused by a torn rotator cuff, but she's off the oxygen now, so I'll count my blessings.

Thanks for reading!

@nessisonett I never knew scratch-and-sniff discs were a thing. To be honest, while I know people in my age bracket are often eager to resurrect everything from their childhoods to distract themselves from the fact that they're rapidly becoming Olds themselves, I feel like the "scratch-and-sniff" concept is one probably best left in the past.

I do sometimes wonder how good these disposable yearly sports titles really are. Sad to hear it's mechanically broken, but it sounds like there's some fun to be had in it regardless.

@Ralizah There’s something quite satisfying about going through these yearly titles, I think it helps me appreciate the newer ones as you tend to gloss over how much more refined they actually are than games from the PS2 era. And hey, I won a game scoring over 30 goals so at least it’s mechanically broken in a way that makes you win!