Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Ralizah Hmmm it is a tough one on what I liked most. To me, The Witcher 3 is what I would call the best of the traditional 'open world' genre - those like Skyrim, all Ubisoft games etc. It is large, well written, interesting and engaging. Plus I like that the story is a grown up story as opposed to watered down.

BOTW is, as you say, a new genre. I consider it one of the greatest games this generation because I hadn't played something like it. HZD was a traditional open world game except for the combat. It felt like combat was designed first adn the world built around it. I would probably place HZD first then Witcher second.

@Th3solution It's a decent game actually for a couple of hours. Get on it!

@themcnoisy I might just have to do that — I love a quick and easy platinum (if the game is decent) 😛. And there is fewer and fewer Vita games to play and thus looks right at home on the handheld.

Platinability - 10/10

A boss game to pick up some sweet golds

I think after Ralizah's monster Fire Emblem post... a review that takes twenty seconds at most to read was just the thing I needed 😂

Shame I could care less about trophies @themcnoisy but nice one none the less lol

As for @Rudy_Manchego well done on finally getting the Witcher III done and dusted in no small thanks to the delightful little Switch and it's versatility!

I agree with quite a few points you've made. The alchemy especially with both it's actual use and ingredients but as you say that's also probably because I'm also playing it on the medium difficulty where oils and the likes don't really matter at all. Especially if you have a good sword.

Hope you enjoy the DLC's too when you decide to get round to them!

@Ralizah gee whizz that's one hell of a fire emblem review. Bravo.

I missed it somehow, thankfully @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy replied to me and let me know it was there.

It sounds like a prior version of me from 2013 would have loved this game (loved tactical RPGs and strategy att) but after ditching Disgaea 5 years ago and my playthrough of into the Breach has been lost to time there's something about the genre these days which refuses to hold my attention. Maybe it's the pedestrian speed, or watching a plan come crashing down after building it up for 15 minutes. The other side is my family play boardgames regularly if we have visitors which possibly scratches the same itch?

Either way thanks for the review and good luck on your second playthrough.

@themcnoisy Thanks.

Having pumped 80+ hours into an Advance Wars game this year as well, I probably wouldn't have been as gung-ho on the game as I was if it didn't lean so heavily on the RPG side of things this go around.

With that said, I've also been playing so many RPGs recently that I'm afraid I'm on the edge of burning out soon. Not yet: I'm still playing the delightful Dragon Quest XI S for hours at a go right now, but I do wonder if I should call it a day after FF7R and leave the Cyberpunks and Xenoblades and Manas for another year.

Probably not.

RE: Disgaea, it's weird, because, while I've mostly enjoyed my time with the series, I'm not really feeling the urge to return to the series after the first two games. I tried playing the third game, but the writing is so bad that I just had to stop.

Batman: Return to Arkham City, including the Harley Quinn's Revenge story expansion (PS4) - Remaster of the PS360 era game. My first time playing it in any form.

Pros:

• The core beat 'em up gameplay is solid, and while at times you can still feel Batman's gameplay wasn't made with them in mind, the bosses are all definitely a few notches higher in quality than they were in Asylum.
• I loved the expanded gadget inventory, especially the new options available to deal with armed thugs.
• While it does lose some of the tense atmosphere from Asylum, I do think I prefer the more open world approach (not that open worlds are inherently better, it's just that I think they're a particularly good fit for superhero gameplay). Plus it helps that the world itself is a manageable size that's pretty easy to memorize compared to others in the genre.
• I enjoyed the expanded roster of villains involved in the goings on (many of whom were only foreshadowed in Asylum).

Mixed:

• While most of the sidequests are both manageable and decently interesting, there are WAY too many Riddler challenges. I loved that they unlocked tons of lore, concept art, and character trophies, but at the same time they definitely feel like bloat for the sake of bloat.
• After getting a small taste during the Harley Quinn's Revenge expansion, I really wish we got to play as Robin more.

Negative:

• There was occasional slowdown while grappling through the open world in certain spots (not often enough to be a real detriment), and it crashed on me once.

Overall a pretty good time.

Star Wars Battlefront II, including the Resurrection story expansion (PS4) - Current gen shooter based on the irreverent sci-fantasy series. I've stuck mostly to single player, and as such is what I'll be focusing on.

Pros:

• The on foot gameplay is no Titanfall 2, but it's still pretty solid.
• Ship missions/segments are genuinely great. Nothing to complain about here.
• As expected of a big AAA production, it looks great and it nails the Star Wars vibe down great.
• While I mentioned that I'll be focusing on single player mostly, I do want to mention the few Hero VS Villain multiplayer matches I engaged in were actually good fun (it's the only multiplayer mode I've dabbled in as of yet).

Mixed:

• Story won't win any awards, but it gets the job done and the cutscenes look great.
• The gameplay is obviously suited best to gunplay, so the token Luke Skywalker & Kylo Ren missions feel a bit off, though not bad.
• The on foot missions had way too many instances of "leaving the mission area, please turn back". I'm not sure if this is a result of them reusing multiplayer maps for singleplayer (yet want to funnel you down a relatively linear path), but it's a bit counter intuitive since many missions have collectables for you to find, so you think a bit more exploration would be encouraged.

Negative:

• Long loading times. Nothing too terrible as far as I'm concerned, but it was just enough that I was getting impatient at times.
• It can get pretty glitchy. Nothing game breaking, and more humorous mostly (enemies glitching through walls or floating in mid air after being killed). The worst one being Luke falling through his level upon loadup, but that was fixed by simply reloading the checkpoint.

It won't go on a list of my favorite games, but all in all I had a good time with it.

@RR529 Slowdown in a port of a PS3 game on current gen hardware? That's... kind of sad.

I think I only played the Catwoman DLC mission for Arkham City as far as DLC goes (when I had it on the 360).

Plan on getting Arkham Knight as well? It's controversial for some reason, but, imo, is one of the best entries in the series.

Still need to get to Arkham Origins myself. :/

@RR529 ' Remaster of the PS360 era game'

I love that combination which got me thinking - the wips360 gen / box2cube / saps164cast / snenisis etc.

@RogerRoger, thanks. Tried out some more of Battlefront's multiplayer, particularly Starfighter Assault, and while I'm moving on to KHIII, I think I'll try to make time for the occasional round.

@Ralizah, yeah, it didn't happen that often, and only when I was grappling in the open world (the crash happened when I was trying to go from one end of the map to the other quickly during one of the Zsasz timed phone hunts), but I noticed it once or twice.

As far as Arkham Knight, it was a Plus game a couple months ago, so I'll definitely be giving it a go eventually.

Anyhow...

Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)

Pros:

• Luigi has a nice set of abilities that enables some creative puzzles & boss encounters. Some of the gems in particular are devilishly hidden, and I'm yet to find them all.
• Though the first couple aren't anything to write home about, it mostly has a real solid lineup of bosses, outside of a couple annoying ones.
• Attention to detail is immaculate. There's a wide variety of environments on offer, with your surroundings being full of things to interact with & destroy, whether they be common things like vases, sinks, & trash cans, or unique elements such as a punching bag, billiard table, or a telescope (even the least interactive elements of an area will oftentimes still creak & moan at the sucking/blowing effect of the Poltergust), with the lighting system in particular offering some stunning moments.

Negative:

• The polterkitty segments were clear padding, though never too intrusive or long.
• While the quality of the game's environment is evident (as I've mentioned), I'm not a big fan of the art direction. While the core Mario series characters have that clean cut, round "Disney" look about them (that has been very influential and popular in Japan, where the series originated), the ghosts and environment have sort of an uneven, angular look more reminiscent of some random cartoon you'd see on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, and it's a dead giveaway that this wasn't developed by a Japanese team (heck, one boss is even a redneck stereotype). Now, feeling western isn't necessarily bad, but it just feels like there's a bit of a disconnect between the core Mario characters and everything else IMO, and I don't think I care for it in this instance. Clearly a personal preference though, and not really a knock on the game's quality.

Overall it was a really good time. I don't put it quite up there with the system's best exclusives, but it's second tier for sure.

Pokemon Shield for Nintendo Switch. They've already tested the waters for the Switch console with Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, which were remakes of Red and Blue using Pokemon Go style game mechanics. However Pokemon Sword and Shield represent the first pokemon games containing a brand new region and the traditional mechanics to appear on TV.

Pros:

• The basic gameplay. The general loop of catching different monsters in the wild, raising them and battling against other trainers is as fun as always.
• Great variety of Pokemon in the wild. There's a nice mix of both new and old pokemon to catch, including creatures from all of the past regions.
• Pokemon appearing in the overworld. Random encounters have mostly been replaced with being able to see pokemon roaming the wild, giving the player more choice in whether to battle or avoid wild pokemon. This also adds depth to the world, making the region feel more alive.
• The wild area. This is a big open area containing lots of wild pokemon that the player will have to go through for parts of the game. There's a lot of freedom here in where to go, as the player is welcome to head as far as they want into it, potentially encountering some high level pokemon that they'll be wise to flee from early on.
• There's actually a dark type gym leader and a poison type legendary for once.

Mixed:

• The new pokemon. There's a nice number of new creatures. Some are really well designed, others aren't so good. This point is fairly subjective though, as everyone has different preferences on what pokemon they do and don't like, but everyone will likely find some new monsters that they really like.

Cons:

• Too easy. All throughout the game, my pokemon seemed to be overlevelled, so opponents rarely ever provided any challenge. This is partly due to the developer's decision to make the Exp Share on at all times, which causes all pokemon in your team to gain experience in battle. In past games, the player could turn this feature off, so that only the pokemon active in battle will gain experience. A simple difficulty option would have gone a long way to helping this, but the game doesn't give you any choice with difficulty.
• Hop. He's the main rival in this game, and is arguably the most annoying rival of any pokemon game. He has an unbearable over the top level of excitement. There's better written characters in the game who the player can slowly get to know and can gradually grow a bond with, but Hop is different. From the start, you're thrust into being best friends with him. This creates a kind of disconnect as you're being told how to feel about someone instead of the game leaving you to form your own opinions. He'll get in the way far too often and generally not have anything interesting to say, and will spend a while chatting and battling when there could be better things the player could be doing in the game.
• Lack of exploration. The wild area is a nice large open area, but it's fairly easy to navigate with not much to do there other than capturing and battling wild pokemon. Elsewhere, exploration is very lacking. Most of the routes are fairly simple to explore, and there very few dungeons to explore. The few dungeons in the game are mostly just a single floor, and are much shorter than past games.
• Unable to transfer all your past pokemon into these games. All previous generations would allow you to transfer your past pokemon in to the new games, with the exception of the Gameboy Color games due to hardware incompatibilities. Pokemon Shield does away with all this, and will only allow you to transfer those pokemon that already feature in Pokemon Shield. This requires the Pokemon Home app though, which hasn't yet been released, and few details have been revealed about it.
• Lack of choice. All throughout the game, there'll usually be various roadblocks that'll prevent the player from advancing down the path until they've done something specific. Gyms have to be done in a specific order, there's no choice in the matter. And any dialogue options are mostly pointless, as both choices generally result in the same outcome.
• Slowness of battles. The new dynamaxing and gigantamaxing mechanics can really slow down battles. The animation takes a while and can't be skipped, and if both the player and the opponent are using it on the same turn then the player could be waiting around for the best part of a minute for both pokemon to grow to their large size. There's also some abilities that slow things down. For instance every time a pokemon with the intimidate or unnerve abilities enters the battle, a message pops up for a few seconds detailing its effects. This quickly adds up if a pokemon on the player's main team is doing this. Weather has a similar issue. If it's hailing or there's a sandstorm, then at the end of every turn each pokemon out in battle could lose a bit of health from it. They lose health one by one instead of simultaneously, so it can take a while if there's several pokemon in the battle. Some characters such as Hop will also contribute to this, by adding in some inane chit-chat in the middle of battle, such as commenting on whether they or the player has scored a super effective hit.
• Variety of Galarian forms and Gigantamax forms. Though there's a good variety of different pokemon in the game, this unfortunately doesn't extend to having a diverse range of older pokemon getting new forms. The generation 1 Kanto pokemon gets a lot of the new forms, and other past generations get little to none of them.
• Team Yell. They're the main baddies that are encountered throughout the game, but they're fairly forgettable. Compared to all the past enemy teams, Team Yell has the least story and are the least interesting.
• Towards the end of the main story. There is no Victory Road or the Elite Four, which were staples of all the past games. There's no final dungeon leading up to the Pokemon League, so no final test of strength for the player before the League. Instead of battling an Elite Four comprising of four powerful unique trainers, the League comprises of rematches against a few trainers that the player has already beaten, before battling the champion. The story towards the end of the game is fairly rushed, with no time to flesh out the villain's intentions.
• Not being able to get all the creatures on a single game without trading. Yes it's a staple of the pokemon series, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. There's only one of either Zacian or Zamazenta in the game, the box cover legendaries, so it could be tricky to find someone willing to part with the other legendary. Gigantamax forms can't be bred, making it more awkward to obtain the exclusive forms by trading. There's also gigantamax Pikachu and Eevee forms, which are only available to those with save data for the Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee games. Only one of each are available per game, and gigantamax forms can't be bred, so it'll be tricky to obtain them without owning the Let's Go games. For the other exclusive pokemon, trading has been made more difficult in this game due to the next point. Despite all this, the game encourages you to catch them all by offering a Shiny Charm for those that complete the regional pokedex, which makes the super rare alternate coloured pokemon easier to find.
• No GTS. Ever since the pokemon games connected to the internet in Diamond and Pearl, there's been a GTS in them. This feature made trading with others much easier, as it allowed players to search through other players' trading requests, as well as make their own trading requests. This is completely gone in Pokemon Shield, making it much harder to trade with random players.
• Sports themes. This is a subjective one, but I'm not keen on sports in general, especially not football/soccer, so I don't really like all the gyms resembling football stadiums.

So overall, Pokemon Shield keeps the essence of the pokemon formula that has made the series so popular, but various underwhelming aspects of the game along with missing features from past games makes it much harder to recommend. The games makes some attempts to modernise the series by adding in an open Wild Area to part of the game along with pokemon appearing in the overworld, but is overshadowed by it lacking elsewhere.

My score: 7/10. I'm going this high despite the many faults mainly because the core pokemon formula is so good. However, it's a lower score than what I'd give for most of the past pokemon games. Even before this game was announced, I'd been becoming less enthusiastic about the pokemon series, and Pokemon Shield merely reinforces those feelings for me.

Holy moly that's a LOT of cons @crimsontadpoles!

The lack of exploration sounds quite disappointing above all things. The fact that routes are shortened plus caves and the likes are barely there sounds like a let down. Mt moon may've been a bit of a journey but I can remember it quite easily.

...It doesn't sound like the wild area really added anything really worthwhile to the experience either as a whole.

It's nice you still found postives and enjoyed your time with it though! Hopefully the next games made for the system will fix some of those pesky cons!

@crimsontadpoles Honestly, the lack of GTS is, far and away, the worst aspect of the game for me. I can put up with the usual design flaws in Pokemon games, but gimping the multiplayer features to the point where they're sub-DS era in quality? Horrible.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy To be quite honest, I can't remember the last time a Pokemon game had decent dungeons or exploration. Granted, they've been getting more and more excessively linear over time.

X/Y actually weren't too bad on that front. And they had that (at the time) really amazing 3D city to explore, too.

The Gen VI pokémon games were the last I played @Ralizah... I fell off the Pokémon bandwagon once again after them. (Lumiose City was pretty large and unique!)

It's like you said before in that Pokémon is doing it's own thing, going in a different direction and whilst it was nice getting swept up in the hype a bit for Sword and Shield I think I can safely say the series is not for me anymore.

I can still play some of the older ones if I want and I'll always have the memories of playing Silver for the first time or the look of wonder on my daughter and son's faces when they played Ruby and Sapphire (and me having to help them both on the way 😂)

Hopefully those Digimon games can fill the void a bit too

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy My young nephew has been playing Pokemon Shield (via the Switch's digital game sharing feature), and he was actually really proud to have beaten the game 100% on his own (we've beaten games before, but usually with me stepping in and helping during boss fights and whatnot). I know that older fans want the games designed around their adult capabilities, but seeing his reaction to the game, and messing around with some older games in the series, makes me think (GTS aside grumble grumble), it's less that the games are getting worse and more that the original crop of fans are outgrowing them.

Kids today will likely remembers games like Sw/Sh the same way I remember R/B/Y or G/S, and I think that's fantastic. And, insofar as the series was a major part of my childhood, I'll probably keep getting at least the new generations of Pokemon games because it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of new regions/starters/etc., even if I usually end up somewhat underwhelmed by them.

@Ralizah @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Pokemon has changed over the years, and my tastes have also changed a bit, but in a different direction to pokemon. I just got to accept that the series isn't going to appeal to me as much as back when I was most excited for the series, and adjust my expectations accordingly.

@RogerRoger I’ve been a little AWOL from Push Square the last week or two, only with enough time for a casual drop in sporadically for a lurk here and there — but I had to say that I really enjoyed reading your review/update. The new format is great! And now I’ve got another Star Wars entry to add to the queue. Finished all the Mandalorian, partially through a rewatch of both the prequels and Epi 7 & 8, preparing for a visit to the theater for Epi 9, and have a brand new copy of Fallen Order to put in for a spin soon. Battlefront 2 will have to wait but it sounds brilliant. Too bad about the whole “you never have a second chance to make a first impression” stigma that it will forever be stung by.

... Talking to yourself @RogerRoger is the first sign of madness as my mom would say We're all a little mad though I say lol

Nice shake up to your reviews! I have actually played Battlefront 2. The Story mode though for about ten minutes and then never bothered going back as I couldn't get into it 😅

Still nice to hear about all the online stuff I was never really gonna touch and can't deny it looks nice!

@RogerRoger I like the new approach. Very fun and creative writing-esque.

Oh, and "Star Wars survival horror" sounds like the sort of weird mash-up I never knew I wanted in my life.

@RogerRoger Nice write up. I quite liked the different style!

I loved the original game and it's nuts that it was back on the PS2! I also played one of the versions on the PSP too so always wanted a new game. I have always been intrigued by BF2 but the original lack of a single player mode and the controversies put me off. I'd heard very little about the changes they've made since and some of the game modes sound fun but I think I've missed the boat on this now with so many other games to play first.