Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Th3solution Maybe I could shrug off the life sim aspects of the game. I never did get that far in the game where they came into play. I did love the first one, but that was also a simpler game in a sense. The one problem that I think is legit with the sequel was the traversal. It took me forever to get to certain places, especially if they were that far off where I was. I know you get a form of fast travel at some point, but that was definitely getting really close to making the game too realistic.

I'm just short of the midway point in the final act of Mass Effect 3, so I should finish that at some point this weekend, and then I'll go with God of War Ragnarok. Whatever is after that depends on when I get done with Ragnarok, and if I decide to buy any of the new releases coming before Crisis Core in mid-December. I did get the PS5 version of Ys VIII today, but who knows when that will fit in. In other words, I wasn't exaggerating that it would be well into next year before I'd consider giving RDR2 another shot.

@KilloWertz I feel your backlog pain. I’m deep into a couple games and there’s a dozen bangers on deck waiting to be played. And I haven’t even bought GoWR yet. 😅

@Th3solution That's what you get for being so secretive with your PSN name.

Obviously I'm glad so many (hopefully) good games are coming out, but the delays bunching these releases together has caused an automatic backlog even just for current gen games as it's impossible to be able to play them all.

Random, but I didn't have to ask what your avatar is from this time since I've been watching The Rings of Power. Taking it slow by watching one episode at a time though.

@RogerRoger Awesome review! As I said earlier, I’m glad for you (and other Sonic fans) to have a game to cheer about. Your description of how the game moved you emotionally was a nice touch. The best games do that. Im impressed that Frontiers accomplishes both modern day and nostalgic gaming highs. Reading it really makes me want to play it! 😄 But I appreciate your disclosure of the game’s weak points and especially the couple of intense frustrations it contains. Giving the game a try will be something to mull over, since my brain doesn’t process Sonic gameplay well (which in fairness is based on limited attempts). I’m not sure why games feel the need to make final bosses or sequences so incredibly difficult. I know people will complain if the last boss is too easy, but personally I don’t feel like a game needs to do that if it has a strong enough narrative conclusion. I don’t know, it’s a challenging balance for developers. Nevertheless, congratulations on getting the platinum and for a transcendent Sonic adventure!

@RogerRoger Wow, really glowing piece on Sonic Frontiers! While I'm a bit unsure about the game's direction myself, it's still the most intrigued I've been by the blue hedgehog, honestly, since the Dreamcast era. Even if not everything about this release works (unnecessarily brutal bosses can definitely ruin the pacing of a game), it sounds like this is yet another series where adopting an open, exploratory structure ended up reinvigorating it.

That music is... definitely not what I think of when it comes to Sonic music, so kudos to the composer for thinking outside of the box!

You're, uh, gonna have to elaborate on that Undertale comparison a bit for me, though.

2004, a year I actually remember! Worryingly, this was also the year that Millie Bobby Brown was born. Now that makes me feel old. At least Strictly Come Dancing first aired in 2004, the cultural highlight of the year. Oh, and Shrek 2, I guess. Most of my memories of that year involved the GameCube to be fair, with my love of JRPGs ignited by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Mega Man X: Command Mission. One game that I missed out on was FIFA 2005, as the concept of yearly iterative sequels was lost on my tiny, unformed mind. I was still playing FIFA 2004 after all; it was a great game and still plays well. So what did I miss out on with this game?

FIFA 2005 unfortunately lacks the bombast of the last couple of titles’ live-action openings, with just a little minute-long intro that’s been made in-engine. The menu is also less interesting, with a bog-standard grassy JPG design across menus. Graphics in general are mostly similar to the last game, although with a slight increase in detail to the players’ faces, including elements such as Cristiano Ronaldo wearing earrings. At least the soundtrack is a highlight, with diverse artists such as The Streets, Scissor Sisters, and Franz Ferdinand included. There are other little touches throughout the game as well, like crowd chants unique to each team, newspaper headlines throughout the season incorporating real papers, and an in-game store in which you can spend points earned through achievements on rewards such as night variants of stadia, classic songs for the soundtrack, balls, alternate kits, and Pierluigi Collina as a referee.

With FIFA 2004 providing such a great base in terms of mechanics, you might not think there was much for this game to improve on. This is mostly proven true, but there are still some welcome gameplay tweaks such as the new first touch system, which allows you to throw off defenders with incisive touches of the ball as it comes to your feet. Holding down Circle also makes you chase down opposing players, functioning fairly similarly to Pro Evolution Soccer’s defending mechanics. All in all, gameplay is very fun and relatively easy to pick up, while allowing for creativity through passing, dribbling, and skill moves.

Career mode has been overhauled again in this game, with it transformed into a multi-season dynasty involving a created manager (mine by the name of Reginald Sausage) which encourages you to move between teams and upgrade your backroom staff. For this reason, you can only accept job offers from fairly rubbish teams for starters, aiming to build your reputation before you’re offered the bigger jobs. This did throw off my plan of playing a single season with Celtic as I did with the other games however. Instead, I had to play a single season with Hibs before I was offered the Celtic job after finishing a respectable third place. Unfortunately, this meant I played the 2005/2006 season with Celtic, and Chris Sutton had been sold by the AI in the meantime. Let’s just pretend that I played the correct season with Celtic!

In the real 2004/2005 season, Celtic played their final season under Martin O’Neill. This was a bit of a frustrating season, with yet another title decided on the final match which went Rangers’ way. Celtic also exited the Champions League in the group stage, finishing bottom of a group which featured AC Milan, Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk. At least they won the Scottish Cup. Transfers during the summer included the loss of Henrik Larsson and Johan Mjallby, two key players that Celtic missed dearly. They weren’t even replaced with quality players, with Juninho arriving from Middlesborough on what resembled an extended holiday, and Henri Camara talking a big game as Larsson’s supposed successor but ultimately disappointing everyone. So history really did have to be righted this year.

Upon taking over the Celtic team, I immediately invested my upgrade points into the financial team in order to generate enough money to elevate a slightly depleted squad. With the purchase of veteran Luis Figo and a rather young Cristiano Ronaldo, the squad certainly looked like an improved side. The results came thick and fast too, with a draw against Hearts in October being the only points dropped by Celtic in the first half of the season. To be honest, the league was a bit of a cakewalk, with Shaun Maloney finding the net with silky dribbling moves on many occasions, and John Hartson nodding the ball home over and over, while basically resembling a head on a stick. Stiliyan Petrov also held his own amongst the big-money talents of Ronaldo and Figo. Signing Clarence Seedorf in January was the final nail in the coffin and meant that no team could really touch my squad. I did actually attempt to sign players such as Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry, but apparently the quality of football in Scotland was not up to their standard. Their loss.

The real challenge this season was the Champions League. After qualifying with a win against Club Brugge, we were placed in a group with Newcastle, PSV, and Liebherr GAK, an Austrian team which went bankrupt a decade ago. While the trip to Austria was a fairly easy one, we did run into some issues against Newcastle and only managed to scrape a 1-1 draw against them in the first leg. It was nice to play in a real recreated stadium though, with St James’ Park being one of the stadia recreated in this game. PSV were also a bit more difficult, with future Celtic player Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink showing his quality. We did manage to finish top of our group however, ensuring a second-round matchup against Borussia Dortmund. They also had a recreated stadium, with Westfalenstadion looking rather impressive in-game. The knockout rounds consisting of two legs does take some of the tension out of these matches however, as there isn’t the same desperate struggle that you see in the final of the Champions League. While Dortmund were much more difficult opposition than any Scottish team, Celtic proved themselves the better team and moved into the quarter finals.

Honestly, the quarter final against Athletic Bilbao and semi final against Parma were fairly uneventful wins for our machine-like squad. It was the final against Arsenal that was the best match of the season by a mile. The last three matches of the season were all played within a week of each other and consisted of a final Old Firm in the league, the match against Arsenal and then the Scottish Cup final against Dundee United. Rangers were firstly swept aside to ensure that we remained unbeaten the entire season, which was a pretty solid accomplishment. Then, the match against Arsenal at Highbury finally arrived. While my squad was a talented bunch, Arsenal had one of the best teams in the world that season and proved to be a much sterner opponent than I had faced all season. Two goals from Thierry Henry in the first half meant that I had a mountain to climb in the second half. We were even missing John Hartson through injury so the outcome seemed inevitable. Thankfully, Maloney found the net twice in quick succession to keep the two teams level going into extra time. In the 114th minute, Ronaldo darted forwards and slotted it past Jens Lehmann to give Celtic a slim lead. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually shouted out loud with joy while sitting in front of a CRT TV holding a DualShock 2, just like I was a child again.

The Scottish Cup final against Dundee United was but a formality, with Celtic riding high after their historical win of the Champions League. This was now a treble-winning squad, which was more than I ever could have hoped for! The season drew to a close, and with it, my playthrough of FIFA 2005. It’s yet another brilliant entry in the series actually, even with the slightly irritating career mode not allowing you to just choose a team. It plays smoothly and even has some basic progression systems through the upgrade mechanics. It definitely lives up to FIFA 2004 anyway. I'll leave you with a triumphant Reginald Sausage talking to the press!

@nessisonett Are you retro-game entusiast? This game was called FIFA Total Football 2 in Japan. I remember this time perio vividly. I was 14 years old and in 2005 professor Uekusa was arrested because he wanted to peep under the skirt of a schoolgirl on a train station in Tokyo.

@Kuromiano Wow, that took a turn.

Post of there year right there! Well done! 👏

@Kuromiano I did not see that twist coming! 😳

@RogerRoger Thanks for reading! This was indeed a bit more of a small incremental improvement, but given what I’ve played of FIFA 06 so far, that might be for the better. The more I delve into these games, the more certain differences stand out. Considering the names of my characters in sports games, such as Yoghurt Sanchez and Scrumptious Bumfluff the golfers, Reginald Sausage felt just right 😂

The Holy Trinity of November - Impressions

This has been a great weekend for gaming for me. Not one, but two games have clicked with me now: God of War Ragnarok and Sonic Frontiers. I have been playing them on and off since launch earlier this month but none of them has really clicked with me. It was pretty cool running around in an open world in Sonic and God of War is more God of War. But now that I've played more of them, I'm really hooked.

I finished the first world in Sonic Frontiers after about 5 hours of playtime and I think it's easily the best Sonic game I've played. At first I was skeptical about the open world because it just felt like a random playground. But then I realised that the gameplay loop is actually really good. You solve puzzles, fight enemies and bosses, and collect a bunch of items that help upgrade Sonic. On top of this, there are traditional linear 3D and 2D levels. If there's one thing the series has been missing for a long time, it's variety. Sonic games aren't exactly known for having deep combat or even an emphasis on puzzle-solving. But Frontiers changes all of that. I'm even in love with the fishing mini-game in this game. It's so much fun and very rewarding!

What sealed the deal for me though with this game is the final boss in the first area. I don't think I've ever experienced a more epic boss fight in a Sonic game. From the scale of it, to the combat, to the music. It's an absolute treat, for both new and long-time fans of the series. And that was only the first major boss! You basically get the absolute best this franchise has to offer with this game, it's just incredible.

When it comes to God of War Ragnarok though, it's pretty much a continuation of the previous game, both in terms of story but also mechanics. I've played it for about 7 hours now and it feels like more of the same, which is not bad at all. I'm experiencing the same level of addiction that I experienced when I played through the 2018 game, of which I blasted through and got the Platinum in just one week. It's definitely going to take me a lot longer with Ragnarok, but I'm just glad that I'm loving it as much as the first one. And it runs flawlessly on base PS4, which is just insane to me.

And I haven't even touched upon Pokémon Violet, which has taken up most of my gaming time this week. This is another game that took me some time to click with as well. I've played it for over 15 hours and yeah, I also think this is the best game in the series. We're finally experiencing a true Pokémon adventure. The whole concept of Pokémon is that you set off on an adventure to explore the world, catch Pokémon and become a Pokémon master. That feeling hasn't been fully realised until now. This game is for this series what Breath of the Wild is for Zelda; it's the true embodiment of the original concept of the series. It's absolutely phenomenal.

There has been a lot of talk about the game's technical shortcomings. I've been fortunate enough that I haven't encountered many issues. But with a doubt, this game could've used more time to be polished. The thing is though that this game does so many things differently in a great way that vastly outweigh any technical issues that are there.

So yeah, these are some brief impressions for three absolutely phenomenal games that I'm still playing. I think personally, November will be fondly remembered by me for delivering so many exceptional games in such a short time. While I'm not fully sure yet if I think Ragnarok is better than 2018, Sonic Frontiers and Pokémon Violet are definitely the best games in their respective franchise for me. They just push the formula so much. We're finally starting to see the true potential of these series. So I think it's fitting to call these three games the Holy Trinity of November.

I honestly haven't been captivated by so many games in such a short time since Spring of 2017 with Horizon Zero Dawn, NieR: Automata and Persona 5. November, and 2022 in general, has just been absolutely incredible. I'm so happy to be a gamer right now.

@LtSarge I've had that really satisfied feeling all year, where it always feels like there's something new and exciting to play. It doesn't hit 2017's high for me overall, but it's... in a similar ballpark.

Sonic Frontiers is the closest I've come to pulling the trigger on a Sonic game in years, despite the rough initial impression it made. All of the positive impressions people have of it is making it that much harder to not just grab it soon.

Sony has done an amazing job of squeezing the PS4 for everything its worth on a technical level. GoW Ragnarok and HFW have no business running as well as they do on nearly decade old hardware. I enjoyed my time with GoW2018 well enough, although I feel like I can wait for a bit on something that's more of the same, even if that still constitutes an incredibly high level of quality overall. If I was more into cinematic third-person action-adventure games, I'd be all over it, though, and I understand the excitement.

I feel like Pokemon is one of those series that always needed to embrace the open world approach to fully capture the sense of adventure from the anime. Which, I agree, is the best thing about these new releases, as it comes closer to approximating this feeling than any generation in recent memory. Hopefully they give the next gen a bit more time to bake in the oven, though.

Played on: PS4 (4k & Full HD Remaster)
Also Available on: XBOX 360 (Base Game), PS3 (International edition) & PC (4K & Full HD Remaster).
Time played: 55 hours.
Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Action JRPG

Initially released six years after Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time's original 2003 Japan release (SO3 from here on in), Star Ocean: The Last Hope (SO4) retains some familiarity in the gameplay but is quite a different beast in story & structure.

For a good 80% of your runtime, SO3 (Which was my first and only SO game for many years) takes place on a single underdeveloped planet with a civilisation rivalling something around 16th century earth.

After playing the demo of Star Ocean: The Divine Force (SO6) earlier in the month I can tell you this also revolves around a very similar premise and from what I gather Star Ocean 2 ALSO uses this plot point.

That's 3 games in the series having a similar set up.

SO4 meanwhile has you traverse multiple planets and locations with varying degrees of technological advancement & cultures -with an overarching Star Trek like scenario & narrative attempting to take advantage of the setting- with the planets you traverse having a mini arc that generally feeds into the greater narrative.

_{There may only be eight locations with two being one time only visits... But it's more then SO3 had!}

And that's pretty much all the nice things I have to say in regards to that... So let's get on with this yeah?

The Art (Or lack thereof) of Writing

So SO4's a prequel. The very first game in the series timeline wise (so far at least) set in the year 2096 (Star Date 0010) when man was just starting to traverse the Star Ocean.

_{This is constantly used in game to refer to space and if I suffered through it, you will too!}

SO4 initially gave a really good first impression with it's opening cinematic. The one for SO3, while nice, didn't really have anything to do with the game beyond space/Sci-Fi stuff.

SO4's however was quite an effective set up & I'll just leave it here for you to watch.

So with an absolutely ravaged earth thanks to WWIII our protagonist Edge Maverick (Voiced by Matt Mercer/Daisuke Kishio) and his childhood friend Reimi Saionji (Voiced by Laura Bailey/Misato Fukuen) are part of the SRF (Space Reconnaissance Force) and crew members aboard "The Calnus".

The Calnus being one of five ships being sent into the Star Ocean to survey uninhabited planets and find the diminshed population of Earth a new home.

Now I know what you're thinking.

Edge Maverick.

The protagonist is called EDGE flippin' MAVERICK?!

If I told you there's an in game/universe reason as to why Edge's name could be so ridiculous but I can't say why without major spoilers from SO3 (If you know, you know) just... Go along with it yeah? It'll make this an easier pill to swallow for all of us

ANYWAY! Space travel. Don't be shocked when I tell you things don't go according to plan.

At all.

When on route to the planet known as "Aeos" all 5 ships experience an anomaly during warp. One of the ships (The Aquilla) vanishes completely whilst the remaining four crash land on the primordial jungle planet.

It turns out Aeos isn't quite so unihabited. In fact it's filled with giant insect creatures that can render all modern weapons useless. At least until Edge uses an older laser edged sword (Which I guess still works because it's mostly a physical sword?) and beats the crap outta them.

Kerfuffle averted Edge is now joined by Reimi (Whom uses a bow and arrow) and the duo head to one of the ships (The Eremia) that landed further away in the ocean.

Here they encounter a mysterious meteorite fragment, the last surviving SRF crew member of the Eremia (who mutates into a weird looking monster and becomes your first boss)... And Faize (An Eldarian) who comes to save them.

_{All the character models unfortunately come off as a bit... Uncanny and doll like.}

Boss battle completed, Faize reveals the Eldarians have actually been in contact with humans for the past ten years & upon heading back to base camp it's now an actual fancy-schmancy base thanks to the advanced alien tech of the Eldarians.

With the Calnus being the only ship left standing and the previous captain out of commission, Edge is promoted to captain and sent to survey the various other planets in the region and our journey across the Star Ocean can finally, truly begin.

And ya know what? That's not a bad set up at all. It's certainly different to half of the games in the franchise at least!

It's just everything past this where the writing falls apart.

Whilst the next two locations are... Fine (If overly long) the story then decides to completely side step the main plot for the next 10 or so hours and be filled with dreadfully written angst and melodrama. Not to mention plot twists that don't add anything.

This entire diversion adds absolutely nothing to the main plotline beyond some questionable set up for the finale. Oh and some more party members I guess.

It then decides to return to what was going on previously like... Nothing ever really happened and it's never brought up again, making it even more of an absolute waste of your time.

Thankfully -with only a few more hours spent on it- I blazed through the rest as fast I could to get to the end, 'cus I was well and truly done.

And tri-Ace seemed to be too as in the unskippable 40 minute long ending sequence the credits show that no one is credited for the story...

Okay Okay I realise this is because so many of the staff ended up contributing that nobody could take the sole or joint credit for it buuuuuut... Let me have this alright?

I don't need some subvertive masterpiece or for it to even be original in the slightest to enjoy myself. Just written well enough given the context of what the game is trying to do.

Take Dark Souls. Any one. There IS a story. Not tradionally told mind you with the player having to parse the backstory and lore through tidbits you get from weapons & item descriptions along with what npc's will tell you about themselves or the world.

Or how about Yakuza: Like A Dragon for a more traditionally told narrative? Nothing about it's writing was groundbreaking, but it was an immensely enjoyable romp with some good twists, memorable & likeable characters (and wonderful performances), made me crack a smile or two, even a little misty eyed...

SO4 meanwhile misses the mark in pretty much everything it tries to do and the emotions it wants you to feel.

The Crew Goes Down With The Ship

So I've already stated that i've only played SO3 before and one of my biggest gripes in that was in regards characters.

Not so much personalities or the likes (I quite liked most of them in fact)... It was moreso it wasn't using the setting to it's advantage.

In the first few hours of SO3 you come across all different kinds of aliens. There's dolphin men, angel like "feather folk", three eyed alien ladies, fox eared & tailed (but otherwise human) beast folk and all sorts.

But aside from one character of Roger the Raccoon tailed 'Menodix' (Not only optional but missable!) everyone in your party looks like a normal - for an anime styled game- human.

Now whilst most of the playable cast in SO4 is still humanoid they at least have some notable distinguishing features, fashion sensibilities and such that separate them from one another and make them feel unique.

We have Bacchus the Cyborg, Sarah as our feather folk, Meracle the 'lesser fellpool' (Catgirl) with her dubious and skimpy outfit (She's 15 Japan!).

But even with our more overtly humanoid looking cast they're at least a bit more diverse with Myuria of the Morphus, Lymle the child symbologist prodigy and Faize & Arumat the Eldarians.

Then there's Edge and Reimi. As human as anime humans get.

So the cast is more colourful and diverse looking compared SO3's, that I was very happy to see but...

_{If SO4 has some abysmal story writing... You didn't think the characters were somehow gonna be any good did you?}

Edge... is rather pathetic. He was fine at first but when the writing falls apart his character sinks to the absolute pits with it. I don't understand how ANYONE wants to follow or respects him in the slightest, cus I sure as hell don't.

Reimi? She's Edge's love interest & for a good five or six times the game sets up some absolute bottom of the barrel, blindingly stupid set ups for Edge that ends with her slapping him and calling him a pervert EVERY single time because "comedy". She delivers some angsty backstory I couldn't care less about and reveals a plot twist that adds aboslutely nothing.

A potted plant would be more engaging.

Faize? He's probably the most well written, well voice acted and actually has some sort of character arc but... That's not saying much.

Everyone else can be summed up in 3 words or less.

Bacchus? Logical.

Meracle? Comic relief.

Sarah? Ditz.

Myuria? Miss Fanservice.

Amurat? 'Ow The Edge.

And Lymle? Oh poor Lymle.

Lymle is hit hardest by any and all criticisms of the game. Looking around at various reviews, comments, forum threads... Lymle is hated. A LOT.

_{She especially looks uncanny (Like a china doll almost) thanks to the character models.}

Lymle is a six year old girl. (Well the game says she's 15 but that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's also only told to you via the character profile in the glossary/database).

Lymle is given a very ambigous disorder that (at least to me) comes across as if she was written as if she is supposed on the autism spectrum. (She's given a very flat & monotonous voice delivery too in English).

She doesn't get social cues, is very obsessive and exceedingly gifted about Symbology (Magic). You're told multiple times she doesn't open up or really talk to anyone beside one girl from another vilage (who is also a symbologist) and her grandpa (Til she meets and joins the main cast at least).

But... No. It couldn't have just been a rather vague she has some sort of condition (and seeing that she comes from an underdeveloped medieval era like planet it'd make sense why the villagers don't know why she is the way she is and treat her differently).

SO4 gives an ASTOUNDINGLY dumb reason for this unique condition that I never found out about till writing this as again this is only told through the database/glossary and not in an actual cutscene.

It's momentually absurd.

She opened a portal to hell (which doesn't really make sense to me given the setting of the series) and it was so traumatic of an event that she became mentally, emotionally & behaviourally stunted. She doesn't age or grow either because... I don't flipping know!

Do you see how moronic this writing is yet!?!?!

_{I would too but I've still got over half the review to go 😧}

None of the other characters fare any better either.

I sort've lied earlier as Myuria does have... something. But it's so quickly resolved and brushed aside that it's not even worth mentioning. And she's honestly one of the better characters too aside from Amurat (Yeah he's a bit of a grumpy edgelord but he's amusing at least) or Faize.

What about the voice acting that brings these characters to life I hear you ask?

The main cast in English does well enough with the awful dialogue they were given (aside from Sarah's VA. She's pretty dang bad) but it was done on the cheap with some actors taking on multiple parts (Laura Bailey also taking on Welch alongside Reimi & Kyle Hebert taking on like 4 secondary characters) and some questionable voice direction.

Most secondary characters in the game are absolutely dreadful in regards to the ENG VA though.

But whether you're in English (where some (but not all) of the main cast are respected va's) or Japanese (At least you likely won't understand what's being said here) it ain't gonna save you from the insepid script.

So let's just move on yeah?

Gameplay Is A Woman's Best Friend?

If there's one thing that can pull SO4 out the cesspool that makes up it's story and characters it's the gameplay...

... In battles at least.

Star Ocean's an action JRPG series and SO4 uses the same battle system SO3 had with a few tweaks here and there.

Ya have an overworld, running into an enemy causes you to move over to a small arena where you fight, rinse and repeat 2000 or so times.

_{Man's Greatest Enemy... The Crab!}

Heavy attacks are gone though from SO3 so you only have one basic attack alongside your special/combo moves. The distance mechanic doesn't really mean anything either thanks to the removal of heavy attacks and thanks to special attacks not being tied the distance or being assigned to a light/heavy attack.

There's a new mechanic called blindsides that'll give you a few free hits if pulled off but I completely forgot about the new rush/berserk state.

Boss fights can come off as rather messy in SO4.

In SO3 you could finish most within a minute if you were skilled enough (Or abused the item creation and snythesis mechanic). Pretty much all of SO4's took me at least 10 minutes (One taking well over 20) and weren't fun in the slightest.

The bosses here have a single weak point and some don't even give you a 5 second window to strike this. You deal pretty much no damage to a boss otherwise and quite a few attacks they have are unavoidable too so it can come off as cheap at times. Especially if you get stun locked.

And then there's battle trophies.

Battle trophies are awarded to you upon meeting various conditions. This is how I know you could beat the bosses in SO3 without taking damage or under a minute as they were part of this system.

There's so many conditions to get one of these like dealing exact damage to kill an enemy, running away so many times, only using light attacks in a fight and so on.

They were just a general pool of 300, that could pop almost at any time (barring the boss related ones) with any characters and they were a fun little addition.

SO4 however goes overboard by tripling the amount of trophies to 900 & giving each character 100 of the little buggers. Meaning you have to be controlling that character to pop the various conditions.

These are tied to actual trophies on PS4 and you need all 900 to get that platinum trophy if you're so inclined. That's going to take multiple playthroughs & obsessive amounts of grinding with each party member. That's well over 150-200 hours of your life being sunk into this game to do so.

In SO3 you got decent rewards too like alternate costumes, higher difficulties, a music test and such. SO4 has them getting extra voice lines in battle (which you got in SO3 via levelling up/story progression I believe), breaking the level cap from 200 to 255 (I was level 60 beating the game), higher difficulties and giving them a measly 3 extra ability points to equip more combo/special attacks.

Outside of battles though... SO4 is a really tedious.

_{The bunny may be cute (and only appears on one planet) but he makes traversing even more annoying as he's slower then your default walk and you need it to traverse the desert!}

The maps are massive. Way bigger then they have any right to be. You can't fast travel at all til the finale of the game (and even then you can only go to towns) and you run around the overworld at a mind numbingly slow pace.

There's a dash button sure but it lasts a measly single second (and doesn't really get you that far) so you're constantly mashing the dash button just to move around at a decent clip.

Each dungeon typically has a unique mechanic to it that's fine enough but they're all padded in length and really should've ended much sooner.

The "Ring of Destruction" returns from SO3 but there's now multiple elemental based rings and used mostly for blocking progression or locking chests. Except a few rings only have single charge before they need to be recharged (unlike in SO3 where the single ring had 100 charges and could even be used when not charged!) so you can miss out on one time only chests if you forget to recharge them beforehand (and SO4 is quite linear til the finale).

Oh and there's an item limit.

For healing items it makes sense as they're percentage based so not being able to stockpile 99 90% heals makes sense (and in battle, item usage has a cooldown to prevent spamming) but there's also a crafting system.

Most recipes take at least 3 or 4 of certain materials and some armours/weapons/accessories have requirements that can take up to 8-12 of a certain material.

But you can only hold 20 of these as well.

That means at best you can typically make 5 of a single item and at worst 1. And not every material can be bought either. They have to be farmed either through fights (with rare drops having EXCEEDINGLY low rates) or through harvesting points that requires you to return to the Calnus to get them to respawn.

It gets very obnoxious very fast.

Oh and what JRPG wouldn't have side quests?

Surprise! They're crap! They're all fetch quests, they don't even give you worthwhile rewards and I didn't even bother after the first few.

There's a fair bit of end game content at least with extra dungeons and superbosses but you're going to have to rely on item creation quite a bit to pump your stats up to unholy levels to get through it.

So have fun grinding!

Some loose threads

There's a few other minor things I could talk about such as the 60fps not being hit all the time on my slim PS4 or the camera stuttering in the overworld at points.

_{Though the game gives you an almost PC like setting list to adjust that I probably didn't quite get right for a smoother experience.}

The music by Motoi Sakuraba is very good. Easily the best thing in the game bar none but I'd be lying if I said I recalled anything without having to look up the OST away from the game itself.

I'd say SO3's OST was better but regardless Motoi is a talented composer contributing to the Dark Souls franchise, Star Ocean, the Tales Of series and a bunch of other games!

.

.

.

Oh how about the horrendously ugly CG models used in the menus or character status screens. Seriously if my words haven't deterred you to not touch SO4 with a 10ft barge pole at least switch to the "classic" option in the settings.

_{How can you not think these are absolutely hideous?}

_{Nearly every bit of gameplay I skimmed through (to recall some minor details) was using the ugly default CG option rather then this lovely artwork!}

Final Thoughts

There's a few games I haven't resonated with in regards story or character wise and I can safely say that's a subjective thing and my problem (mostly)... But SO4?

It is without a doubt one of the worst written games I've ever played and I never want to see it's name, it's characters or splash screen again.

If you want to waste your precious time on this... Thing I'm describing due to some bile fascination then look it up on youtube. Please don't waste any money on actually buying and playing this.

Star Ocean 4 is fine enough in battles but lacking everywhere else. If you don't care about characters and story or just skip them entirely then maybe just maybe you might think more highly of it.

It still doesn't respect your time though even then.

A score? A slapped Edge outta ten?

At least he got to see some bosom for his troubles...

Though it has given me a new found appreciation for Star Ocean 3 that I treated before like it was some redheaded stepchild I was ashamed to know.

So that's something!

@HallowMoonshadow Very nice. I love a good rant-view.

The SO series has its fans, but like the SaGa series, it has always seemed like the maladjusted cousin Square-Enix coaxes out of hiding every once in a while, only for it to stumble around tripping over the furniture and spilling drinks in peoples' laps. It means well, but it just can't seem to find its bearings or do much of anything right.

It really sounds like this game had almost no redeeming features. Every design choice you highlight seems poorly thought out in some way.

Most bad games have some redeeming qualities. The atrociously written Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, for example, has amazing map design and combat gameplay. But, tbh, nothing about this sounds good (other than, yes, that very compelling opening cutscene, which sort of reminded me of the iconic opening to Xenogears). Even the music you posted was... let's say, not to my satisfaction.

Well, I suppose it did one thing right: it was bad enough to motivate you to post another one of your lovely reviews!

The Xenogears opening, btw, if you haven't seen it. Also from Square, as Tetsuya Takahashi hadn't branched off and formed Monolith Soft yet:

Ha ha thank you Ralizah. I'm very glad to hear you liked it

It's actually been over a year and a half since my last proper review and a year since my last impressions piece.

I've been working on this the past MONTH to get it out too.

It's been through multiple iterations and edits with huge swathes cut Including a spoiler section going over why the diversion of the plot sunk the writing and Edge's character with it (Though I still have that section somewhere), getting rid of an intro and all sorts.

I didn't even mention the Personal Actions/Affection mechanic (little skit like events) that can affect whether you get character endings or not!

It might've been the longest review in here if I didn't chop it down some 😅

... I've never even heard of the SaGa Franchise!

That, sadly, seems like an apt description for the SO franchise but at the very least I can say SO3 is leaps and bounds better then 4 (And some of it's faults more forgivable being a PS2 title).

Fans seem to really like the second game too.

Yeah I have no idea how they though any of those descisions were the right choice!

Conquest is the one with Camilla (The busty purple haired chick) right? You've mentioned the mix of critique and praise you've had for that before from what I can remember.

And yeah take Day's Gone which I also thought was naff for story and characters. The traversal on the bike at least was very nicely done and whilst I thought the third person gameplay got a bit old... The zombie hoarde mechanic was at least a technical showcase!

I stand by the Roak battle theme at the very least... And the music in the opening sequence works. I can see why the others would be divisive. Still the best thing about the game besides the opening

I have not! It was rather compelling indeed! Also had a better story in that one scene then all of SO4!

@HallowMoonshadow Nice to see I'm not the only one who struggles to get these things out at times. Especially lately, with all of issues our family is dealing with, I've been too emotionally drained to write much of anything. Hoping to change that, though!

The SaGa franchise started on Nintendo consoles (like pretty much the majority of JRPG series), and then released the rest of its new entries on Playstation consoles (up until the last new game on the PS Vita). SE has been re-releasing a bunch of the games on Nintendo Switch, though. Instead of, you know, something worthwhile like Dragon Quest IV - VI.

SaGa also has its popular entries, but the very weird design choices in those games, and general lack of quality control, has kept me away from them until now.

Yeah, Camilla was honestly the best character in FEF Conquest. Unfortunately, the game plays like a degenerate anime romance sim where half of the coupling options for the male main character are his adoptive siblings. That, combined with the amazingly stupid writing, was bad enough I actually sold the ultra-rare FEF Special Edition cartridge that came with all three routes.

The Roak battle theme was "For Achieve," right? I agree it's the best track of the lot. The sad theme, "Tears in the Sun Makes a Rainbow," isn't too bad, either, but it's hard to take the track seriously with a name like that.

Xenogears was honestly just an impressive game in general. Maybe one day Nintendo and Square-Enix can pow-wow so we can get an actual remake that fully finishes the game and gives it the second act it deserves. Even with the second disc issues, though, it's still widely regarded as one of Takahashi's best games, and I feel that way as well. Really hoping to replay it on my Vita or something one of these days.

Oh no... I hope everything on your end get's sorted out swiftly Ral and you can take a bit of breather soon!

Hmm. I have to admit while I'm not all the wiser you have me very curious of this franchise I'd never heard of until today. I'll have to look for a series overview or something on Youtube.

I hope you aren't regretting it and got a pretty penny for it at the very least!

The whole get married and then having your kids becoming part of your troops that's in FE has always been a weird choice to me.

... Yeah I can't defend the title of the sad theme at all

I got a video recommended to me last night funnily enough that was a 3+ hour long Xenogears deep dive.

I gave it a view for about twenty minutes. Xenogears was not I was expecting with huge meccha fights in there and some VERY deep theological theming!

Here's the video if you were wondering

He did a retrospective on Legend Of Dragoon that I'd watched that was rather good too. He seems quite insightful and him doing a "play by play" for Xenogears did help give me a tonne of context for it then if he'd just gave a loose overview

@RogerRoger @HallowMoonshadow Didn't mean to be a downer, but I did want to provide some context for that part of the discussion. I absolutely appreciate the kind words, however. Even in the midst of personal turmoil, we still have a lot to be thankful for, and I do try to remain cognizant of and grateful for that.

@RogerRoger Thanks for bringing the directory issue to my attention. I'll go ahead and fix the first half soon.

@HallowMoonshadow Xenogears' blunt theming and ambitious story-telling was very unique to Japanese media in the late 90s and early 00s, forged within the post-Evangelion cultural milieu that led to an explosion of creativity across a variety of media formats. You saw it reflected in projects like Final Fantasy VII and early PS2 MegaTen games as well.

Probably the closest I've seen modern games come to hitting those particular vibes again are Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (which also borrows heavily from Xenogears) and (your favorite!) NieR Automata.

Been a long while since I was in the mood to do a big write up for a game I've completed, but the mood struck today.

Samurai Maiden (Steam) - 3rd person action title that sees ordinary high school girl Tsumugi transported to the Sengoku era where she's told she's the descendant of "the Priestess of Harmony" & is tasked with stopping the revival of the Demon Lord. She is joined by a trio of Shinobi consisting of Iyo, Hagane, & Komimi.

Gameplay:

• Surprisingly it's not as much of a Warriors clone as first glance would seem to suggest. Half of the main levels are linear affairs consisting of battle arenas separated by light platforming segments (each level usually has 3-5 chests tucked away as well, which either contain permanent inventory upgrades or concept art). The battle segments usually feature 1 (or more) mid-boss enemies who must be defeated before you can move on (they're usually joined by waves of mooks who'll constantly respawn until you defeat the mid-bosses)
  
• The other half of the main story levels are straight up just boss fights (these MAY have one treasure chest to collect right outside the boss arena). The first few are just slightly harder mid-boss style encounters that you'd be used to seeing elsewhere, but most are one on one fights against ever stronger versions of the same two unique characters.
• Tsumugi is the only playable character, with the other 3 girls effectively being items/special attacks you can (and are encouraged to) swap on the fly. Iyo can throw a wave of shuriken at enemies in front of you & can use items (she has to be active for you to use healing items, for example), Hagane has a straight line piercing attack & has a grappling hook like arm that can be used to swing across large gaps & pull objects/enemies closer to you, while Komimi has a hammer attack that acts as crowd control if you're surrounded & can pick up bombs in the environment to be thrown at enemies/switches (these come up surprisingly little though, especially as the game goes on).
• You'll want to make sure you're using all the girls though, as increasing your affinity with them unlocks heart to heart conversations which usually grant you new abilities (Iyo's enhance basic attacks/combos, Hagane's strong attacks/combos, & Komimi's defensive abilities like parrying/arial recovery) or increase their special attack guage. Side missions (known as "Bubble Pockets") that can only be taken on with a specific girl equipped are also unlocked this way. At some point you unlock the ability to link spirits with the other girls for a limited time power up. The higher your affinity with a specific girl the more powerful this state becomes (and the more intimate the power up sequence becomes, with the girls kissing at max affinity).
• Speaking of "Bubble Pockets", these are side missions that are heavily platform/puzzle heavy (usually centered around the abilities of the girl they focus on) and must be completed before obtaining any further affinity perks. If you get a girl's affinity to level 40, you can't get that heart to heart's perk if you haven't yet completed their "Bubble Pocket" that unlocked when you got them to level 30, for example.
  
• The game has 27 main story missions & 15 side missions (5 for each partner), and once complete you can replay them on Hard & then Demonic difficulties. I could be wrong, but it seems like the only unlockables are even more weapons (which when leveled up will undoubtedly be more useful in the higher difficulties) & extra concept art (the harder versions of a level have their own chests to find). There very well could be an alternate ending or something for all I know, but I doubt I'm going to go through all the trouble to find out.
• The in game currency dropped by enemies is called Inga and is primarily used to level up your weapons. In addition to increasing basic attack power, increasing your weapon's level also unlocks passive buffs at certain thresholds (such as increased damage to stunned foes, etc.), and also increases your HP pool (your HP amount is tied to the level of the weapon you currently have equipped, so keep that in mind). You can also level up the weapons of the other girls (which increases the effectiveness of their special attack, & unlocks other passive buffs, such as increased Inga drop rates). You can also buy new outfits for the girls, but so far this seems limited to pallet swaps of their regular outfits so I haven't indulged (the swimsuits you see in some screenshots are DLC).

Story:

• Probably lacking the budget for much in the way of traditional cutscenes, much of the story is relayed in the form of a visual novel like format at the start, sometimes in the middle, and at the end of levels (plus the heart to heart events). These can go on & on (especially the ones attached to "Bubble Pocket" missions) and while dialogue attached to the main story can be interesting enough, the girls will often talk fluff elsewhere though (ghost stories, food, etc.). I believe these can be skipped though, and you're not subjected to them during replays or when retrying a boss.
• Just to note in case it's of interest, when the game launched all mentions of "High School" in the dialogue were localized to "Gen Z" in the English text, however (at least on Steam) this has been fixed in a patch. It was never a big deal, but sometimes it was clear that she was talking about "Gen Z" like it was a place (one conversation discussing the transition from Elementary, Middle, High School, to University was localized to discussing the differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, & Boomers), so ultimately the dialogue does flow a bit better with it fixed.
  

Graphics:

• While boss levels & "Bubble Pockets" are constructed of reused assets aplenty, the longer main story levels are actually pretty uniquely bespoke. It can actually be a pretty nice looking game at times too when it wants to be, with lots of colorful particle effects both when defeating enemies & naturally occurring in the environment (like sakura petals falling or embers rising from magma). There is even some fine detail like Tsumugi's uniform becoming slightly transparent when wet (such as a rainy level or when you run in water), or the characters becoming visibly scuffed up/dirty upon taking so many hits.
  
  
• Of course given the nature of the game there are some ecchi elements as well (such as the aforementioned transparent uniform effect) which of course are of a very niche interest & thus are worth bringing up as a warning. The most blatant of these elements is the fact that the game flagrantly flashes Tsumugi's panties with almost every action (particularly during jumps or dodge rolls), though there's also the standard "jiggle physics" you can expect from such fare as well (this surprisingly applies to the character's behinds as well, though only becomes noticeable in the swimsuit DLC AFAIK). That said the game blacks out the underside of skirts during photo mode, so it does prevent players from being too juvenile with the feature.

Overall:

• It's obviously not on the level of a Ninja Gaiden or DMC in terms of quality in the genre, but as far as ecchi games go it's a stronger contender than I'm used to from such fare. While the combat isn't as slick as in the better Senran Kagura games, I think the platforming/puzzle elements sprinkled in here & there make up for it enough to be a worthy competitor.