Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Well I have taken a punt as saw it for £14.99 physical in the sale today but I have a feeling it may stay on the backlog for some time.

Absolutely.

@Ralizah Poor Alpha Dream. 😢 I think Nintendo said something like that around Sticker Star's release as they wanted the Mario and Luigi series to be distinct. Fair enough, I guess, but that seemingly extended to story, characters, writing. Basically aything that fans of TTYD and even Super Paper Mario would have stuck around for. I definitely need to see more of The Origami King before deciding on a purchase!

Obviously Nintendo isn't known for their RPGs in the way Square-Enix are, but their resistance to having multiple RPG series on the go is a little strange. It's not just Paper Mario that has suffered, either. One franchise I would particularly love to see return is Baten Kaitos. I guess we've also seen the same thing with Nintendo's Tactical RPGs and the doubling down on Fire Emblem. A lot of that is sheer economics, but it's definitely limited the first party catalogue.

With the narrative elements I wonder if Game Freak came to the same conclusion after Black and White, because the stories in every Pokémon game since have been dreadful. Aside from battle systems and stat building, narrative is the single most important aspect of an RPG.

Excellent Days Gone review @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy! The bike does look great and I'm impressed with how pretty the game looks. That aside I'm actually not sure how much I'd enjoy the game as I think the story elements might irritate me. It being bland isn't an automatic strike necessarily, but when there are so many other games it's not exactly standing out. Looking forward to your Divinity Original Sin review (complete with lots of talking animal screenshots).

Thanks for the praise @mookysam! That picture showing the bike was... Halfway through the game I think. The start screen having a nifty little feature of showing your bike... You can't really see it but it's sporting the Concrete Genie decal amongst all the other bells and whistles I had at that point.

I think you saw all the ones I took already mooky! I might have to go back into it briefly to get a few more screenshotties so I'll see if I can rustle up something up! 😅

Oh my... I'm glad you think so highly of it @RogerRoger! 😰

Guess those months of writer's block I had for writing these reviews really paid off huh?

Watch as the reviews for the games I'm more passionate about don't come out half as good 😂

@RogerRoger Why didn't I see this reply?

Sorry for the lateness.

TTYD, like most RPGs, takes an hour or so to really get going. Although I found it far more immediately engaging than the N64 Paper Mario, which begins like... every other Mario game in existence! The turn-based battling is fairly accessible and rudimentary, I think. I imagine, for a lot of people, the addition to timed button inputs will help people feel like they're active participants and less like they're just browsing through menus.

RE: Mario Odyssey, how far did you get? It took me a weirdly long time to really get into that game. When I initially beat the story campaign, I felt oddly... empty. Totally unlike the magical experience I had with Super Mario Galaxy. The amount and quality of post-game content is pretty stunning, though, and after having played 30+ hours past the initial credits, I'd probably consider it one of the best 3D Mario games (behind Galaxy and Sunshine, anyway). For whatever reason, Nintendo decided to hide the best Kingdom and the most engaging challenges until after the credits. The bump up in difficulty in those post-game Kingdoms is significant, and really tested my mastery of the game, which I think is what I really needed to truly appreciate the complex set of platforming movements Mario has access to in this game.

RE: fondue, I actually had some for my birthday a few weeks ago! My family usually takes me out to a restaurant to celebrate, but with things being... how they are... they decided to just make a fondue with dough-rolled sausages to dunk, and it turned out great.

@RogerRoger

Almost every previous kingdom in the game also enjoys a massive infusion of content via new challenges and new moons to find.

I'm not sure how accessible this new content would be. I think it'd depend on how long it takes your muscle memory to return, how much you struggle with platforming in general, and how difficult you found the content in the main game campaign.

For me, someone who craves challenge and variety, it was a godsend. I do think Odyssey is probably one of the most difficult Mario games to 100%, but it's quite fun, and none of the challenges are stupidly infuriating for the wrong reasons like the Lily Pad/Pachinko levels in Super Mario Sunshine.

@Ralizah Oh lord, I have so many awful memories of pachinko and the lily pads. I do think Odyssey’s jump rope and volleyball were truly annoying as well though!

Mario Odyssey is excellent, but is a little bloated at times. I still dip into it now and then for little replays simply because it makes me smile. The "story" moons are rather excellent and New Donk City is an absolute marvel. I hope that future games incorporate more urban levels.

Seeing the Super Mario 64 Mushroom Kingdom in HD glory was pretty amazing @Ralizah. It made me so giddy with nostalgia! I wasn't expecting it to be in the game at all.

@nessisonett Ugh jump rope drove me up the wall. Not sure what Nintendo were thinking with that one.

@nessisonett I didn't mind them, and actually got extremely good at the jump rope (my score went hundreds of points higher than what was necessary to collect the moon).

If that 3D Mario Collection is a real thing, I hope Nintendo makes some adjustments to 64 and Sunshine.

@mookysam I don't even like SM64, and I was still impressed with Peach's Castle. Beautiful environment. I thought Odyssey's story moons and initial low difficulty were disappointing, but I realize now that the post-game is the portion of the game designed with series vets in mind.

I also think the game is more satisfying when you realize it's probably a closer relative to Banjo-Kazooie than it is to Mario 64.

Ok so a difficult impressions thread for me. I just finished playing through Sea of Solitude on PS4. The game is an indie game from a small european studio but had the backing of EA as one of their EA Originals label so not a direct EA game, but like A Way Out and Unravel.

The issue is that I did not really like this game and it is quite rare for me to feel that. I often feel that a game is OK but as someone who likes to think they read up about games, I don't tend to play too many obvious stinkers. To be clear it isn't a stinker but your mileage will vary based on your experiences and interpretation.

I was first interested in Sea of Solitude after the emotional presentation at E3. The game looked, and still does look, gorgeous with some quite interesting imagery. This is a small, 3-4 hour game of emotional storytelling with light platform and swimming mechanics. The story revolves around biographical elements of its lead designed (from what I have read) and is about depression and family trauma.

First, the good. It is quite a beautiful game and has an artstyle that works. It is an independent game and looks stunning and has some very clever and economical reuse of assets that are quite seamless. The music is also quite good. There is some vivid imagery and moments which I think do stick in the memory. It is polished and I had no issues with how it ran etc or any glitches. It's a solid product.

My problem with the game though, is that I felt very much that it was not very original. I am a big indie game fan and I am Ok with games that are light on gameplay but higher on storytelling elements or presentation. I know a lot of gamers aren't and that's cool - my point is that my expectations in terms of limited gameplay are in line with games of this genre. In this case, the actual story and metaphors etc. are just things we've seen in many many other games. From Journey to Night In The Woods, to Gris etc. there are a glut of games that tackle serious emotional topics on mental health and use visual and gameplay metaphors. Unfortunately, this felt very familiar to a lot of those games. I knew exactly what each of the mental health subplots would be before they happened and 100% predicted the end of the game at the very start. Narratively, I see it all coming.

The gameplay, or lack thereof would be fine but without a compelling narrative, it exposes that there is not much to do. You explore a little, you swim, you can't really get lost and the objective is simple. There is at best very mild puzzling element to some areas but nothing that you won't know what to do from the outset. Some gameplay points border on mildly frustrating as well - not in difficulty, just in the you'll fail for no real reason. Now this isn't something different from something like Gris where the platforming is very basic but the overal presentation and art sweeps your forward. Here it just makes it seem more of a slog.

Lastly, I didn't like the dialog or voice acting. The voice acting is actually done by members of the development team and it isn't bad - and, I would suggest pretty good since in my version, they are speaking English as a non native language. However, it would take a really good actor to get across the dialog in a way that doesn't sound very video gamey and unnatural.

Overall it is a shame as I wanted to like this game. I would caveat that I have read reviews and metacritic has a user score of 6.4% and some people really resonated with the story and it is clear the makers worked very hard and crafted their vision. I just felt I had seen it before and didn't feel that moved by the story. Very much down to personal taste.

@Rudy_Manchego I feel like the people making games such as Gris, Journey, this, etc. would probably prefer to make short movies instead, but feel like indie games are the only avenue for their creativity that they're competent to produce. Gameplay is almost never anything more than a formality. I'd prefer no gameplay at all to half-hearted gameplay, personally.

Good write-up, though.

@Ralizah Yeah I can see the argument. I like some walking sims, for example and I know they don’t gel well with all gamers since their interaction is limited. I do feel that really good games can use their limitations as their strength. For example, What Remains of Edith Finch probably wouldn’t work as a short film or something - it plays with game genres and exploration in a way that isn’t possible in other media. A Night In The Woods is technically a platformer but it is closer to a walking Sim/or visual novel but what’s there is so good it holds together. With Sea of Solitude though, you are right - this feels like a student film project or a random animated short. It didn’t do anything to use gaming as more than a way to get the message across.

@Rudy_Manchego While I hated WRoEF, I'll admit there are some things it did that wouldn't be able to be fully replicated in an animation or short film, such as the vignette in the fish factory, which I thought was clever.

I'm not opposed to walking sims in concept. Gone Home, I thought, was an interesting experience in emergent narrative techniques, and P.T. uses the limited interactivity as a tool to disempower and terrify the player. Actual visual novels generally don't feature gameplay at all beyond making choices, so I struggle to even consider those games (they're more like digital choose-your-own-adventure novels, unless we're talking about kinetic novels, which don't feature choices or routes, in which case I'd say they're like digital light novels). But, unfortunately, it's so easy for people who don't care about gaming, gameplay, or entertaining the player to slap together a rudimentary "walking sim" as a sort of interactive art show or student film.

@RogerRoger You're thinking of the right game.

I'm sure the thinking was that casual players would drop out after the credits, so they wanted to make the story campaign as accessible as possible to new players and load the post-game with the challenging stuff, but I found that this contributed to making the game's story campaign feel a bit forgettable.

I also feel like the laid back vibe of the post-game jives with the collect-a-thon structure of the game more. You can poke around more and just have fun finding new challenges instead of worrying about "beating the game."

@RogerRoger The weirdness and variety is one of Odyssey's appeals. It's refreshing after playing something like NSMB, which is entirely lacking in the creativity this game exalts in.

What bit ripped off Sonic Colors, btw?

RE Animal Crossing... 150 hours in, I think I'm pretty bored with it now. Haven't even bothered checking out the new marriage event yet.

It's not something I'll ever stop playing so long as I own the system, though.

Azure Striker Gunvolt

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Playtime: 15+ hours. Normal and true endings achieved; did not quite 100% game

Azure Striker Gunvolt was released in 2014 as an exclusive for the Nintendo 3DS before being ported to the Nintendo Switch via the retail release of the Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack (the version I'm reviewing). A PS4 port of the Striker Pack was also apparently released on PS4 in 2020. The game was developed by Inti Creates as a sort of spiritual successor to their previous Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX titles. As in a Mega Man game, you'll be choosing various stages to complete, which emphasize left-to-right platforming with the goal of reaching a unique stage boss at the end.

ASG maintains its own sense of identity in terms of the gameplay, however. The biggest difference from your average Mega Man game is in how you attack enemies. Your player character, Gunvolt, uses a gun to shoot tagging bolts into enemies. These bolts do very little damage on their own, but their main purpose is to direct the flow of electricity that he is able to generate with his psychic powers. While this detracts somewhat from the visceral simplicity of shooting enemies to defeat them, it opens up more strategic possibilities for the player, as they are able to tag and attack multiple enemies at the same time. Depending on how many tags you insert into an object or enemy, you can also strengthen or weaken Gunvolt's electric attack.

Combat and exploration are entirely tied into this mechanic. When you fight psychic bosses at the end of each level, for example, the fight will often task the player with both avoiding telegraphed super attacks (more on that later) as well as exploiting moments of vulnerability, which are often the best times to tag an enemy. Gunvolt uses his electric powers to solve simple environmental puzzles through the game's stages (for example, he'll sometimes use his powers to power up an elevator or some other device that he needs to progress further) as well as navigate his environments (when Gunvolt is using his powers, his fall speed will reduce dramatically, allowing the player to strategically activate the powers in order to, for example, cross large gaps.

Before elaborating further on the gameplay structure, I should briefly discuss the game's premise and narrative elements. The plot and plot presentation here... aren't great. It often feels like what would result if took the script for Final Fantasy VII's early hours (up until you leave Midgar), and designed a computer program to mix it up with a swampy stew of cringy anime fanfiction written by preteens. As far as I could make out (the game desperately wants to be story-driven, but isn't sure how to accomplish this), the game is set some indeterminate time in the future, when an evil power company/world government called the Sumeragi Group is maintaining order by oppressing and controlling the increasing number of people who are displaying powers, which the game calls Adepts. The psychic abilities they control, called "septimal powers," can manifest in a variety of ways, including as apparently sentient projections of the adept's personality. Gunvolt is a 14-year-old adept who was raised by an adept terrorist and inducted into his organization, called QUILL, which fights against the Sumeragi Group. Gunvolt is tasked with finding and killing an adept said to be working for the Sumeragi Group, who is apparently able to use her singing voice to brainwash other adepts (or something), but he discovers that his target was actually the septimal projection of a young girl named Joule, who appears to be around the same age as Gunvolt. Gunvolt decides to rescue Joule and parts ways with QUILL due to their determination to have her killed. Or, that was the way the game presented it, but Gunvolt just goes on to do freelance jobs for QUILL anyway.

Keep in mind that this all sounds far more interesting than it actually is. The game tells its stories via a handful of short cutscenes, which do very little to establish the setting, and via dialogue exchanges that irritatingly play across the screen as you play through several of the game's early missions. Yet none of this dialogue or these cutscenes are enough to actually establish the setting in any real way. It's like the developers wanted the game to be both a story-driven experience as well as a fast-paced Mega Man-esque platformer, and the settled for a halfway approach that undermines both approaches.

There are a number of background and side characters in ASG, but it almost feels like the game forgets about them as soon as they're off-screen, as 90% don't really do much of anything or make a difference to the larger plot.

The writing is pretty bad as well. Eyeball-rollingly juvenile. Particularly the dialogue. This game feels like it was written by twelve-year-olds. Which, I guess, is appropriate, given most of the characters are 14-year-olds with snazzy psychic powers.

With that out of the way, let's get back to the gameplay.

The gameplay cycle of this title has a somewhat unique focus. When you complete a mission, you will return to Gunvolt's apartment, where he lives with Joule. Here you have a variety of options, including conversing with Joule (the game often informs you that 'you've grown closer' with her after striking up a conversation, but I never noticed it changing much in terms of the character dynamics), changing your equipment and weapons (more on that in a second), activating optional missions (ditto), and crafting new items and equipment.

Your character actually randomly gains crafting materials at the end of each level. Additionally, when he activates a mission (which is a challenge to complete within the level itself: say, kill two enemies at the same time with your electric attack, or find a particular item, or complete the mission under a certain number of minutes, etc.), he will gain additional crafting materials for completing these. These materials, over the course of time, will be used to build gear that provides a variety of beneficial effects for Gunvolt (some change how much damage he takes, for example, while others allow to do things like air jump or air dash multiple times). Since this gear can dramatically change how difficult or easy a given level is, the game encourages replaying its dozen or so total levels over and over and over again to gain new crafting materials, but also to achieve higher scores within the levels themselves (the game itself is only as long as it is because the player will invariably replay the same levels time and time again in order to engage with most of the game's content).

And this brings us to the game's scoring system, which is a prominent feature and also deserves to be mentioned. Unlike other Mega Man games, where the goal of a given stage is typically to just survive and defeat the boss, the focus of ASG is different. Whenever Gunvolt successfully does something, like kill an enemy, he'll gain a certain number of points, called kudos. These kudos decrease back to zero when he is damaged by enemy attacks too many times or messes up somehow. Throughout the level, the player will be able to 'lock in' their accumulated kudos, which directly contributes to the rank the player receives at the end of the level. But if the player ignores this mechanic and pushes on with their score, they stand to earn far more points via an increased multiplier.

This introduces two major elements to the gameplay formula. The first is risk-versus-reward. The player is incentivized to go for higher levels of kudos by ignoring lock-in points, but this also increases the risk that they'll lose everything if they're not careful enough. The second is that this focus on accumulating points alters the focus of the gameplay, which also contributes to the ways in which levels are designed and enemies attacked. Basically, the level design and enemy types you encounter are sort of vanilla, but everything is designed so that, if you learn their patterns, you can avoid taking damage. With the exception of boss fights, death isn't really much of a concern here: taking damage is, which means the mental calculus you'll engage in when engaging with enemies will be different.

Kudos most directly affect the game's sound design, as, after accumulating 1000 kudos, Joule's septimal projection Lumen will actually begin singing, changing the BGM. This might sound like a minor thing, but a large amount of ASG's OST is composed of J-Pop songs that are locked behind skill walls of this sort. If you do well enough in a level, you can even synthesize a pendant that allows the player to permanently change the background music of the level. I also feel obliged to mention that when you die, sometimes you'll trigger Lumen to revive you, making you invincible as a J-Pop song starts playing in the background. It's hilarious when it happens.

The overall impact, then, is that ASG isn't about surviving levels. It's about memorizing patterns and learning to play beautifully. The idea is that the player will most fully appreciate the game when they have learned the levels enough that they're focused less on avoiding damage and more on figuring out the best way to rack up the most amount of points. In that one respect, it feels a bit similar to something like a rhythm game, where, again, the goal is less about survival or completion and more about performance.

I do feel like the game would have been better overall if it had offered more robust in-game rewards for playing better, though. Had Inti Creates committed to the implicit structure of their game, it could have been a more compelling experience. More stage variety, with multiple paths, and more rewards for playing well would have especially integrated well with the crafting system, which is extremely underutilized in this game unless you make a point of trying to build everything. Not enough carrot at the end of that stick, imo.

With this understanding, I also wasn't a fan of the way the game essentially had me replay most of the stages AGAIN to collect chaos emeralds hidden jewels that are required to see the game's true boss and true ending.

Speaking of music, it's not bad. The normal BGM is the usual peppy Mega Man spinoff sort of music, but the vocal tracks are pretty good if you like that genre of music.

The pixel art itself is somewhat chunky looking on the big screen. But, look, this was a game built for the 3DS. On the tiny 240p 3DS screen, this game probably looks great. It still looks OK. The pixel art is nicely detailed. You're always going to sacrifice some level of visual appeal when you blow up a game built for tiny screens on a large 1080p set.

I did play a bit on the handheld screen, and, unsurprisingly, the image looks a fair bit cleaner there.

If there is one thing that detracted from the experience for me, it was the controls. Now, the game allows you to remap most of the controls in this game to different buttons, but when you're activating special septimal attacks, you have to aim your right stick in a certain direction to choose the attack, and then click in on R3. I found this to be particularly obnoxious, as it was easy to move the stick a few centimeters in the wrong direction when clicking in, resulting in the wrong special attack being activated. Worse, despite at least a few buttons on the Switch controller being unused by anything meaningful in this game, we're never given the option to remap the special activation button to anything other than R3. This especially becomes annoying when you consider that boss fights are frequently frenetic and require quick, precise button inputs.

Azure Striker Gunvolt is an interesting game, and I imagine anyone who has been yearning for a Mega Man Zero-esque experience has already played and probably enjoyed the heck out of this game. For me, though, it felt a bit uneven and undercooked in spots. At times, the game feels like it's suffering a bit of an identity crisis. I'm not sorry I played it, though.

5/10 kudos for ASG.

Wasn't sure where to add my rambling musings since this is somewhat close to the Trophy Thread but I also wanted to talk about my full experience with a game so decided to add here as it is rambly and seemed like the right thread!

So - a game that is widely considered one of the best games this gen, Bloodborne. Last night, I finally managed to get the Platinum trophy after doing the chalice dungeons and additional bosses. This isn't a bragging thread (if anyone has seen how long it took me to get through the bosses, I have no bragging rights to offer). To give some history, I first played through the campaign back in 2017 and boy did I struggle but I made it through the main story and beat all the bosses solo. Game finished, I didn't have the energy for the chalice dungeons and I had unwittingly bought a US copy of the game so couldn't download the DLC.

Last year, in 2019 I dusted a UK version of the game off and played through the campaign again with a fresh build and played the DLC completing it all bar the final two bosses. I started the chalice dungeons then stopped as I got burnt out. For some reason, a few weeks ago, I went into NG+ and decided to finish the Chalice dungeons to get the platinum. It felt like unfinished business and for some reason, I seem like a masochist because I keep going back to it.

I really do suck at these types of games. By that I mean I have relatively slow reflexes and I am slow to learn movement and patterns. The only way I have managed to get through the game is by levelling up my build and weapons and by attrition until boss encounters come down to muscle memory really. I've also done the traditional noob thing of watching online boss fight videos etc. These can be moments of high frustration - and sometimes those videos just amount to watching someone dance around a boss with perfect grace and timing for every moveset that I just struggle to learn.

I had to quit Sekiro because I couldn't level up and I just felt like I didn't have the reaction times necessary to pull of some of the moves. The Lady Butterfly fight literally took nights for me to get through. Anyway...

That said, I do really love this game. Or I am intrigued by it - I don't know why. I love the story and I love the world. The gothic and cosmic horror - the unsettling nature and just the pure brutal combat seem to draw me in. I think the opening Yharnham streets is one of the best designed opening levels in a game I've played. I love the lore - to the point i have also watched videos on it and even read some of the graphic novels. The concept of this endless nightly hunt fits so well with the core Dark Souls loop that it is one of those things that the gameplay and lore seem completely entwined.

It could be Stockholm Syndrome. I've stuggled to get in Dark Souls even though they are almost sister series in a way and partly it was down to the slowness compared to Bloodborne but also because I didn't find the setting as appealing. I don't think Bloodborne is perfect - in fact, I have a few issues with the accessibility of this game. Firstly, if you aren't a skilled player, you have to choose your build and where to invest development. This is largely based on style of play and as a noob, you'll naturally invest in what you think will get you through. However, you'll find bosses etc that are easier with certain builds which is great if that is what you are looking for but harder if not. An example is that I prefer the faster hunter one on one fights as opposed to the giant beast fights and my favourite weapons were skill weapons. Fighting a beast though, bigger more damaging or overhead weapons do a lot more so if you haven't got the build/stats for that, you'll be harder. This means that your build for getting through levels can be different to the build for getting through a boss. If you have ever googled a way to beat a boss, so many start with, this fight is so much easier if you have a high damage XYZ weapon and a particular high stat. It is always doable with other builds, of course, but you might have to work that much harder. When it comes to Soulsborne games, I'm in the accessibility camp in that as an aged gamer, I do struggle with games like this but at the same time, there is so much on offer that it is a shame that skill (or time investment) precludes a lot of players.

So anyway, Bloodborne is the game I have spent the most time on with PS4 and one of of the few games I've replayed on the platform and oddly, I can see myself doing it again. I'm still not sure why I'm so addicted to it as a player that struggles massively with it. I am not good at the game, I have had to throw myself at hours against a brick wall and I don't really enjoy that. It hasn't really led to a love of other games but something about this world and game keep me coming back for more.

@Rudy_Manchego
I don't know if you have ps+ but if the rumour on Bloodborne remastered is true and you fancy going through it in co-op, I would happily join you!
The extra danger of facing invaders can really add to the excitement and it balances out the bosses being slightly easier.

@LieutenantFatman I do and I already know that I would get a remaster even after all that I said so would be well up for a co-op playthrough! It would add a new dimension to a playthrough. So far I have done the whole thing solo. I was invaded a few times on my playthrough last year and I tried once summoning another player to help with a boss (only for them to get one shotted in the opening minute) but that was my only engagement.

@Rudy_Manchego
The great thing about it is you can choose an entirely new weapon set to master. I went with the stake driver and cannon mainly last time. On this occasion, the giant hammer would be mighty tempting for me.