#it’s a decently fun game and the graphics are gorgeous

[celestialspritz]

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

[bioswear]

Dead island 2 is fun and a great cathartic stress reliever but it is also incredibly linear and the gameplay doesn’t offer as much “play styles” as I was hoping it would (for someone who bought the game on a whim)

[lilaclunablossom]

Metroid Prime Review

I played Metroid Prime. It was incredible.

Retro Studios perfectly translated Metroid game design into 3D, with a satisfyingly complex non-linear map, and puzzles that feel more alien than any Metroid I’ve played so far.

The environment design and atmosphere are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Every single region and room on Tallon IV is gorgeous and fun to explore, and collecting upgrades is just as satisfying as the 2D games. The graphics are amazing, with awesome lighting, and cool details like seeing rain droplets on Samus’ visor, or even her own reflection.

I got used to pressing R to aim decently quick, and after a while it became second nature. Plus with the lock-on it’s really not a problem. The sidestep dodge is fun, too, and the bosses are very challenging but rewarding.

The story is also wonderfully fantastical, with some really cool sci-fi ideas, and some very disturbing content for a first-party Nintendo game. I love how you collect pieces of the backstory through documents, like a traditional horror game.

Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma’s music is mind-blowing. It’s officially dethroned Super as my favorite soundtrack in the franchise I’ve heard so far. The synths are sweeping and beautiful, the grooves are badass, the melodies are fantastic. It’s perfect. In fact, this entire game is perfect. A total masterpiece. I can’t stop gushing about it enough. I’m almost completely sure it’s my new favorite Metroid.

5/5

[p7agu3]

adofai levels review (opinion based)

S, A, B: Positive C: Mid D, E, F: Negative U: Unrated (plague had skill issue)

it gets long lol

1-X A Dance of Fire and Ice: C -intro level, boring tbh -i get why it exists but its not interesting -the music is catchy tho

2-X Offbeats: B -also an intro level -more interesting than 1-X at least -the music is also good

3-X The Wind-Up: C -now the level itself is ok -faster intro level, ok music -speed trial made me rage a lot (1.5x speed, crazy) but turns out im either a lot better at the game now or im just terrible at rhythm games when im sleep deprived -and the music is also a step down from 2-X

4-X Love Letters: C -not a big fan of slow music -but it doesn't feel too much like a drag -also isn't silly or anything -decent level

5-X The Midnight Train: C -made me rage extremely hard on my first attempts + speed trial but its not that bad actually -except that one bit in the middle eughhhh

6-X Pulse: B -cool music, good level design imo -lots of mechanics from previous levels -why is speed trial only 1.1x? kick it up to 1.2x at least geez -visuals are kinda boring -good conclusion to the first worlds set -what do you mean there's another one

B-X Thanks For Playing My Game: U -adofai dev i love you but this too much for me -i can not beat this level -why did you double the bpm -please have mercy on my wretched soul

7-X Spin 2 Win: B -louis from doodle world???? -cool music but not rlly my thing

8-X Jungle City: C -raged SO HARD at this one -but the base level is so harmless.. upbeat… -i reluctantly raise it from a D because im in a sane state of mind rn but it really does deserve a lower rating on basis of my pain and suffering

9-X Classic Pursuit: S -i love this level -music slaps. also, gameplay feels great (i think it's the kick hitsound) -adofai should implement custom hitsounds i think that would be neat -its just so good!!! idk why tho

10-X Butterfly Planet: C -i think i might hate this one, 5-X, and 8-X because when i am very upset (skill issue) i do Not want to hear the silly happy fun music -also the graphics arent that good. the butterflies are ok but they dont add too much -the whole thing still feels rather eh to play, partly because it zooms out more than i'd like (even though i have a right massive laptop) -and i think i have a love-hate relationship with fast levels -was definitely overreacting the last few times i played it tho

11-X Heracles: S -heracles is GOATED!!!! -i rlly love this level -the music is epic, also i think my bass/kick hitsound preference theory might be right -it's also full of rats. my name is plague im obligated to at least appreciate rats -the 'bossfight' going on in the background is very cool and on theme, it distracted me a little on my first attempts but its cool -"Cong-rat-ulations!" i love,,,,,,

12-X Artificial Chariot: S -epic music -goats aren't rlly my thing but the level has a great aesthetic to it -synths or whtv… delicious mmm -cannot say it is better than heracles so the goat joke is lost sadly

XF-X Third Wave Flip-Flop: B -i love me some brass noises -pretty basic level otherwise -the camera turning is trippy but livable

XC-X Credits: A -it looks cool and plays pretty good -the chopped up vocals bit freaks me out a little gameplay wise b/c it's hard to follow but it does line up thankfully

XH-X Last Hope: S -so so cool of a level -it loses a few points for the weird alignment on the one vocal sample but oh my god -the middle bit with the flashing lights.. the mechanic they pull on you.. my god -its such a good twist.. aaaa -music is great too, another point for the kick theory, i wanna eat it (am i hungry? maybe)

PA-X Distance: S -its so chill…. and the level design is just so good it lines up with the music perfectly and enhances the experience its wonderful -also bass kicksound (huhuh?) -plague liking a slow level??? impossible… -aahnghhh it gets an s just for gorgeous design

XR-X Rose Garden: S -fiddle!!!1!!!!!1! -very fun level i like -silly medieval music.. i am predisposed once more but like who wouldn't be

RJ-X Fear Grows: U -i havent beaten it Dx -skill issue.. this mechanic is weird

XN-X Trans-Neptunian Object: B -this level irritates me -it feels like the music isn't synced sometimes? idk -also the honeycombs i dislike (too fast)

MN-X Night Wander (cnsouka Remix): A -bit slow, its cool tho -those triangle note things are kind of argh -narwhal

ML-X La nuit de vif: U -this level actively bullies me -crying about it

there are probably more muse dash levels that i havent unlocked yet

anyways i cannot in good faith hate any of the adofai levels, theyre overall pretty well designed. im just a salty loser lmao

play the game if you can it's pretty cheap and a really epic rhythm game (where the music actually does line up with the gameplay.. looking at you geometry dash)

[doubleddenden]

Okay so I've been playing Star Rail and I'm gonna do a lil amateur review because I do that sometimes

Here's my take

1. I like it. I got it for pc and it's fun when I can play it.

More under the cut

2. It is free to play with micro transactions, however I've not spent any money on it and I find it quite playable and easy to get into. That being said, I started with a lot of free stuff from starting so early and codes, so my experience may have differed if I started later.

3. It's a turned based RPG akin to JRPGs like Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona 5, etc, but a little easier to comprehend combat wise

4. Story and setting so far is something sort of like a mix of Star Ocean- specifically 4 with the planet hopping- or Rogue Galaxy, with... well, a LOT of mystic, techno, scifi, and religious babble. Enjoyable tho. I love space trains so much. It's dumb but classy. There's also a LOT of optional lore you can collect and read to really help you get immersed if that's your thing, and characters will have a lot of dialogue to give you more world building lore too. That being said, they do kinda just toss you into the ocean with really complex shit right out the gate with no vuild up- I've been told that having SOME knowledge of the Honkai Impact series can build upon what's given, but it's not entirely necessary.

5. Graphics are great, I like the art style and how polished everything looks. Art style works for the game and it looks gorgeous. I do think the NPCs kinda look plain, but that's about expected.

6. Music is passable. Not really finding any ear worms just yet, though. The summoning music and the train music are great though.

7. It might be me and my somewhat shit connection, but I experience lag and disconnection sometimes. This can get pretty frustrating

8. Characters are fun and have fun dynamics with each other. I already dig The Trailblazer, Dan Hung, and March 7th's dynamic- I will say, wtf is this name? Like I know why, but still, not just March, March 7th specifically is her name. Is her full name Saturday, March 7th, 5023 AD?

9. Voice acting is... decent enough. I play English dub because I have reading difficulties due to unmedicated ADHD, before anyone starts screaming at me to change languages. There's some strange takes or line reads sometimes, sometimes the voice will read something different from the text, and there's a couple of voices I wish would just sound... different. But the majority is passable to really good. I've also heard some unexpected voices- you could say they are TRASH, but I find them TASTEful.

10. Character design is pretty fun imo- definitely a bit of Genshin style, but it is by the same people so you kind of expect that. But they're fun to look at, have fun weapons and moves, and have great art. My one complaint would be similar builds and designs for some characters, but that's minor and also expected. But I will say, I do prefer a good anime style over indie cartoon or realistic style, so to me I think it's great.

11. The menus are... very complex. Easy to lose track and get lost in. I swear the pause menu rearranges every time I open it.

12. It shouldn't need saying, but: It's not Genshin Impact- that's fine actually. In fact it's great, turn based rpgs are really fun, especially JRPG styled, which i like to play (Dragon Quest 11, Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona 5, Pokémon, etc). While I do like exploring open worlds and having a lot of freedom and real time fighting, sometimes it's nice to have a simpler point A to point B system with smaller maps, and especially nice to have auto battle. There's a bit of carry over from Genshin, but i think it works for what's given. I do miss my emergency fo- I mean, my adorable best friend Paimon, but she and all my other Genshins are Impacting in the other game while I Rail some Sta- wait I'm not finishing that sentence.

13. It is gacha. You kind of expect it- some people won't like it, I kinda like it to some degree, but I do got issues. Basically watch your spending- again, I haven't felt the need to, unlike some games that feel like you have to to get anything done. But it definitely would help to speed things along if i were. When you get a good character, it's a nice feeling for me, personally. That being said they do give you 3 pretty good ones right out the gate, and you do gather in game materials to help you summon at a fair pace anyway, so you're rolling decently enough to get something out of it.

Overall an 8/10 so far. I wanna keep playing, but unfortunately this damn meat mech that is my wretched bodily prison of my soul requires sleep, and I have things I have to do.

[neoyi]

My dilemma is that I love wasting time in big, bloated AAA-developed open world games. I love helping every NPCs with their problems (I think owe this particular mindset to Majora's Mask, my favorite game ever, which does this), and I don't mind scouring every rock and tree for the 10,000 acorns I need to collect in spite of the rewards being naught but pittance in comparison to the time I spent gathering them.

But also I don't have as much time as I used to and eventually I'm going to get bored collecting acorns before I inevitably move on with the main plot and finish it off. After a certain point, nearly every sidequest is some variation of Fight These Waves of Enemies or Race These NPCs or Gather Resources For NPCs.

This is further hampered by how lifeless a lot of these open world games feel. You can have dozens of random NPCs walking around A Town to make it feel like A Town, but 99% of them are faceless and cannot be communicated with. This is not, say, Windfall Island from Zelda's Wind Waker where every single NPC ('bout a decent forty of them) are different and interactive.

Also, no amount of realistic graphics and fancy visuals cannot shake off the feeling I have of sheer boredom that they won't try and an attempt something stylish because the general gaming community wants the Super Realistic Look. Don't get me wrong, Horizon Zero Dawn's forestry backdrops are gorgeous and I'm in love with the way Ghost of Tsushima uses leaves and animals to create a sense of serenity, but also it's like the equ. of a mainstream western animated film: you've seen one Disney/Dreamworks/Illumination CGi, you've seen them all.

I mean, this is not a "All Hope Is Lost" kinda thing. Nintendo is still aiming for stylish looks; Breath of the Wild gave me the "ooh, what's that over there" mentality based on its visuals alone; stuff more open world games should be giving me, and in the western animated camp, we're seeing stuff like Into the Spider-Verse (and from what I've seen in screencaps, the new Puss in Boots movie.)

What this boils down to is, I appreciate the hell out of games when they don't take months to beat. I recently finished Pizza Tower, a game that took roughly less than a week to down, and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. Indie games are always good about this, and while I think limitations can suck when you have a vision in mind, it also means finding loopholes and keeping a small scale that ultimately works out in the end. Older games had to do this at the time, and a lot of indie games do it, too. AAA games can literally afford to go big, but the ones who do stay small because they want to, I respect the hell out of.

I like that I live in a world where I can have both though. If I want to waste time playing open worlds, flaws and all, there's so many to pick from its garden. But also I love when a game doesn't fuck around with what little time I have and offers something smaller that's equally as fun and satisfying (and more often, tend to have better variety or charm.)

What's the point of this post? No idea. Just shit I've had lingering in my mind for a good while (also probably because I'm wrapping up Ghost of Tsushima, which, as of now, I clocked 80 hours into while also just having wrapped up Pizza Tower) and I guess I wanted to type it down. Like, I do not, under any circumstances think ever single big-budget game need to be Big and Bloated, but also I still like playing it. But I also like playing games that can be beaten in, like, six hours.

So yeah, you can kind of see my conundrum.

[bookloveravenue]

Vancouver Orcas (book 2): Game Changer by Amy Aislin

It’s Blair Brawsiski’s ride or die year. After a decade in the AHL, if he doesn’t get called up to the NHL this season, it’s time to hang up his skates and focus on other things. But between a second job and family priorities, his attention isn’t where it should be, and his dreams of making it to the big leagues are dwindling by the day.

Hiring a personal assistant to help out with day-to-day stuff? Probably the smartest move Blair’s made in a while.

But when that PA turns out to be an assertive baker who’s exactly Blair’s type? Blair can’t help but wish those dexterous hands would knead something other than pastry dough. Namely, him.

Charlie Shore needs extra income. Desperately. With his expenses about to go up, it’s find a second job or get evicted. Getting hired as Blair’s PA is perfect: flexible hours, decent wages, and a scorching hot professional hockey player who’s willing to let him use his gorgeous kitchen for his baked goods.

Too bad that hockey player is exactly Charlie’s type. Too bad Charlie knows better than to date his new boss…

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123249526-game-changer

*********

June 21, 2023

My Review: 5/5 Stars

I was trying what to read when an ARC of this book popped up in my email! I was very excited to get my hands on it. And it turns out, I was so excited that I couldn’t put it down! This story was a lot of fun and Blair and Charlie are just so cute together. I was looking forward to getting their story after finding out they were next. To say Blair is busy is an understatement. Not only does he play for the AHL Vancouver Orcas, he also owns his own business with graphic design. And a family who relies on him for every little thing. When he isn’t babysitting or picking up his sister’s child, he is helping his parents at their deli. It’s a lot to juggle on top of hockey games and practices. So much so that his coach tells him to hire an assistant and gives him his cousin’s number. Charlie is a baker. And he hopes to one day be able to do custom orders and start his own business. In the meantime, he’ll keep his job working the kitchen for the NHL team in Vancouver and work his butt off to pay off his debt. And now he will be working for Blair where he mostly just has to cook for him. Neither expected the connection and sparks that fly between them when they meet. And suddenly the idea of being boss and employee sounds like a terrible idea. Or is it? It’ll only be a matter of time before these two give in to the feelings that are starting to build the more and more they get to know one another. Such a fun story! I adored Blair and Charlie. Both have so much going on and when they get together, they realize just how much they are doing and want to take a step back for the first time. And insecurities slowly drift away as they learn to trust and love one another. Really fun story and like I said, I couldn’t put it down! Definitely looking forward to the next book!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[cruiseskybird]

Mortal kombat 11 switch review

Also, the Krypt looks like an absolute mess, with PlayStation One-era fog and a complete lack of a skybox.īeyond pure looks, the character-specific tutorials are missing (there’s a placeholder that says “Coming Soon”), moves that can do a Krushing Blow have their requirements left out of the movelist for some reason, and the competitive variations for each character in both Tournament mode and Ranked are missing, with the variations in tournament simply replaced by a generic variation that just says “Default.

Category: Video Games Tags: Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat 11 for Nintendo Switch. Environments look low-res, with muddy textures and extremely basic lighting effects. Mortal Kombat 11 for Nintendo Switch NEW and sealed. Mortal Kombat 11 is a snappier, sharper-looking game on next-gen consoles. Unlike the Wii U, the Nintendo Switch has gained massive support from publishers like Bethesda, Epic Games, and Warner Brother Games. Instead of the characters, the biggest sacrifices made to the visuals were mostly in the look of the stages. Continue after the break for the original Mortal Kombat 11 review. Review: Mortal Kombat 11 (Nintendo Switch) With the Nintendo Switch came a brand new era for third-party AAA developer studios and publishers. Obviously it looks better on more powerful game consoles, but you cant. It runs at a mostly steady 60FPS character models look great, albeit a bit fuzzy and the stellar art design stands out even on the substantially less powerful hardware. This is a very fun game with a pretty decent story.

“The general graphics look expectedly worse, but even at its base level Mortal Kombat 11 is an absolutely gorgeous game and a lot of that does come through on the Switch version.

[fithragaer]

I think wotr, for me, is a midpoint between dos2 and pillars 1:

DOS2 is fun, especially the combat, romances/companion quests are great, and the visual effects/graphics are actually pretty good, but the overall plot and the writing are…mediocre, to say the least

Pillars combat is not my speed, honestly, mostly because I suck at RTwP, and I’m not super into the way stats are used outside of combat. I love the companions and their stories although at times I feel the writers could’ve done more. Graphics are average but level design is gorgeous. Writing is definitely a cut above most games I’ve played; in TWM it gets pretty incredible at times. And the worldbuilding is just…I really like it, for the most part

WotR has fairly good character graphics and level design, and I like the way they structured armor/clothing/accessories depending on character class, but some maps get busy and difficult to navigate in places. Companion quests and romances (the few I’ve done so far, anyway) have been great although as above there’s places where I feel there should’ve been something but weren’t. Plot is fun, can’t judge it all too much as it’s adapting a preexisting adventure path/module. Writing ranges from “god damn” to “okay that happened,” but compared to Kingmaker it’s fucking leagues better.

So yeah, fun combat, neat graphics, medium level design, decent plot, fairly good writing. Not as fun as divinity, not as thought provoking as pillars. All three have fucking incredible music though

[everything-makes-me-anxious]

Here is my collection so far. It is a mixture of print and eBooks. I like eBooks mostly for my ability to quickly search for something, some word or phrase or name, and get right there, so I made sure to buy the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and the complete collection, unannotated, in eBook format.

It's also nice to be able to make highlights and notes without cluttering up a real life book with such things. Plus, it's sacrilege to highlight a book.

Anyway. It started a couple years ago when I bought the complete, The Strand-facsimile collection of stories by Midpoint Press. I wanted a book with all the tales but also all of Sidney Paget's gorgeous illustrations. It was tough, but I found this beautiful and heavy tome. The pages are gold trimmed and it's quite nice, however it is often too heavy to use for a quick read.

Then I've got these others: the DK Big Ideas Simply Explained book on Sherlock, Ian McQueen's "Sherlock Holmes Detected", T.S. Blakeley's "Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?", and by William S. Baring Gould, a man many regard as the ultimate Sherlockian, "Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street".

I adore the DK book, as there are many charts and timelines and very decent summaries for every single case. It's fun to consult after reading a particularly puzzling case.

The others are prime examples of literature from The Game, which I explained before. McQueen's analysis of The Red-Headed League is what frustrated me, so I might put it down for now lol. Blakeley's little paperback is a useful little breakdown of everything worthwhile, and with annotations and ample examples to support his claims, it makes for a good, brief read.

I have yet to delve into Baring Gould's book. This man is the reason we have the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, for in the 60s, he released the original annotated editions. I'm still waiting on those to come in the mail. I'd like to read his opinions in that book before I read his other works.

And here are my eBooks. There's two complete collections, one with illustrations and one without. I much prefer the topmost edition, by Maplewood Books, as the typesetting is cleaner and there's an actual little example of The Dancing Men placed within! The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is another of those scholarly works.

I still have much to get - the New Annotated book on the four novels, for one - but I'm happy with the collection so far. It's remarkably cheap, too, despite the older books being basically out of print.

I highly recommend the eBooks for the older works, as some DO get pricy. Yet the DK book in its ebook format is a real mess, and the printed pages are a masterpiece of graphic design, so it's worth the $25 price tag.

[terramythos]

So I've beaten Pillars of Eternity, most of its side quests, and the White March DLC. I clocked in at 61.5 hours (oof) 

Here were my thoughts! (no major spoilers) 

i had a good time playing it but I'm not totally sure I'd do it again. That being said I am planning to play the sequel

the main story is decent, but imo only gets really good around the end of Act 2. In my case that was 20 hours into the game. I dunno. I'm sure some will click with the game right away, but this was technically my third attempt and I think the pacing in the first few acts is a big reason for that

that being said, the late game story was really good. There's a detail about the world that initially struck me as lazy writing that the ending explains and casts in a new light. I like when stories do that.

some of the dialogue trees are THICK. I say that as someone who likes reading. They were generally well written, though, and I like the variety of options you have to respond. It's not just a good/evil dichotomy like some RPGs, but a range of personality traits like Clever, Rational, Honest, and so on. I like that your character's personality develops over time based on these choices and they have an effect on how others perceive them, and some checks. It sounds ambitious but obsidian pulled it off imo

also passing checks is not always the best option, and you genuinely do have to pay attention to context, etc

while I liked the companions most of their quests were underwhelming imo. Of the companions I liked Aloth and Pallegina the most. Durance is terrible but very well written. I kind of wished there were fewer companions with more detailed personal quests or something -- but I can see why there’s a lot of them to cover all the classes. 

i like the concept of the generic fantasy setting being loosely based on colonial America rather than medieval Europe. I just wish they did more with the idea.

perpetual reincarnation being a thing is a fun idea. I like that remembering past lives is way more curse than blessing, too. I also like the implications of the reveal near the end.

fantastic voice acting all the way through.

The soundtrack and sound design were an unexpected highlight of the game for me. Both were great. One bit that stood out to me is going into Durgan's Battery in the DLC... the haunted wailing that gets louder the further you go into the dungeon.

art assets were gorgeous and stylistic, but generally leaned hard into nostalgic fantasy. So there's a lot of just... forest areas? Winter forest areas?

the stronghold was... ok? Like I don't hate it and thought upgrading bits of it and seeing it change was neat. But it didnt serve much purpose

the mega dungeon under it was fun tho

so many side quests and I LOVED it. they all had something going on and genuinely interesting choices

combat... man. So I didn't play the classic CRPGs. I have no nostalgia for their combat systems. But I did not find real time with pause very fun. the closest thing I've played to it is something like Transistor, which I thought did it better.

i dont think the combat was very intuitive or well explained. I hated it less when I figured out how to toggle AI scripts properly (they're off by default?!) and just forgot about conserving spell slots. It's a shame because there's a painstakingly designed system that I'm sure is great if you have the patience to learn it. I got the hang of it over time but never really liked it

i played a druid so having a Werewolf Button every encounter was rad

i found myself wanting a Divinity style turn based combat system... so I guess the PoE combat style is just not for me. I also wish terrain was more strategic than just an annoyance. I probably used terrain creatively once, and then just to cheese a fight.

there were some bugs. Mostly funny graphical bugs like an enemy spaghetti ragdolling across the screen. But some were more persistent and frustrating, like party members freezing and refusing to move or attack with nothing stopping them. Or audio bugs with the voice acting cutting out or starting late.  

yyyyeah i overall liked it but boy is a completionist run long 

[za3k]

2020 Videogames

In 2020 I’m newly retired, so I’ve had free time. I think it’s fun to do reviews, so without further ado here’s every video game I played in 2020!

I recommend:

(4/5) Among Us – Very fun. It’s only fun with voice chat with friends, so I’ve only gotten to play once or twice. I’ve been watching it more than playing it. Also free to play for mobile gamers–I’m tired of the “everyone buys a copy” model of group gameplay.

(4/5) Brogue. Brogue is an ascii-art roguelike. It’s great, and it has a nice difficulty ramp. It’s a good “quick break” game. I play it in preference to other roguelikes partly because I haven’t done it to death yet, and partly because I don’t need a numpad?

(4/5) Cook Serve Delicious 3. One of the more fun games I played this year. You get really into it, but I had trouble relaxing and paying attention to the real world when I played too much, haha. I own but haven’t played the first two–I gather this is pretty much just a refinement.

(4/5) Green Hell. Price tag is a bit high for the number of hours I got out of it, but I haven’t finished the story. Great graphics, and the BEST map design I’ve seen in a 3D game in a long time. It feels like a real place, with reasonable geography instead of copy-pasted tiles. I love that as you walk along, you can just spot a cultivated area from the rest of the jungle–it feels more like it’s treating me like an adult than most survival games. Everything still gets highlighted if you can pick it up. I played the survival mode, which was okay but gets old quickly. I started the story mode–I think it would be fine, but it has some LONG unskippable scenes at the start, including a very hand-holdy tutorial, that I think they should have cut. I did start getting into the story and was having fun, but I stopped. I might finish the game some time.

(4/5) Hyperrogue. One of my recent favorites. The dev has made a fair number of highly experimental games, most of which are a total miss with me, but this one is fun. I do wish the early game wasn’t quite as repetitive. Failing another solution, I might actually want this not to be permadeath, or to have a save feature? I bought it on steam to support the dev and get achievements, but it’s also available a version or two behind free, which is how I tried it. Constantly getting updates and new worlds.

(4/5) Minecraft – Compact Claustrophobia modpack. Fun idea, nice variety. After one expansion felt a little samey, and it was hard to start with two people. I’d consider finishing this pack.

(4/5) Overcooked 2. Overcooked 2 is just more levels for Overcooked. The foods in the second game is more fun, and it has better controls and less bugs. If you’re considering playing Overcooked, I recommend just starting with the second game, despite very fun levels in the first. I especially appreciate that the second game didn’t just re-use foods from the first.

(4/5) Please Don’t Press Anything. A unique little game where you try to get all the endings. I had a lot of fun with this one, but it could have used some kind of built-in hints like Reventure. Also, it had a lot of red herrings. Got it for $2, which it was well worth.

(5/5) Reventure. Probably the best game new to me this year. It’s a short game where you try to get each of about 100 endings. The art and writing are cute and funny. The level design is INCREDIBLE. One thing I found interesting is the early prototype–if I had played it, I would NOT have imagined it would someday be any fun at all, let alone as amazing as it is. As a game designer I found that interesting! I did 100% complete this one–there’s a nice in-game hint system, but there were still 1-3 “huh” puzzles, especially in the post-game content, one of which I had to look up. It’s still getting updates so I’m hoping those will be swapped for something else.

(5/5) Rimworld. Dwarf fortress, but with good cute graphics, set in the Firefly universe. Only has 1-10 pawns instead of hundreds of dwarves. Basically Dwarf Fortress but with a good UI. I wish you could do a little more in Rimworld, but it’s a fantastic, relaxing game.

(5/5) Slay the Spire. Probably the game I played most this year. A deckbuilding adventure through a series of RPG fights. A bit luck-based, but relaxing and fun. I like that you can play fast or slow. Very, very well-designed UI–you can really learn how things work. My favorite part is that because it’s singleplayer, it’s really designed to let you build a game-breaking deck. That’s how it should be!

(4/5) Stationeers. I had a lot of fun with this one. It’s similar to Space Engineers but… fun. It has better UI by a mile too, even if it’s not perfect. I lost steam after playing with friends and then going back to being alone, as I often do for base-building games. Looks like you can genuinely make some complicated stuff using simple parts. Mining might not be ideal.

(5/5) Spy Party. One of my favorite games. Very fun, and an incredibly high skill ceiling. There’s finally starting to be enough people to play a game with straners sometimes. Bad support for “hot seat”–I want to play with beginners in person, and it got even harder with the introduction of an ELO equivalent and removing the manual switch to use “beginner” gameplay.

(4/5) Telling Lies. A storytelling game. The core mechanic is that you can use a search engine for any phrase, and it will show the top 5 survellance footage results for that. The game internally has transcripts of every video. I didn’t really finish the game, but I had a lot of fun with it. The game was well-made. I felt the video acting didn’t really add a huge amount, and they could have done a text version, but I understand it wouldn’t have had any popular appeal. The acting was decent. There’s some uncomfortable content, on purpose.

(4/5) Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS). Delightful. Very silly, not what you’d expect from the name. What everyone should have been doing with physics engines since they were invented. Imagine that when a caveman attacks, the club moves on its own and the caveman just gets ragdolled along, glued to it. Also the caveman and club have googley eyes. Don’t try to win or it will stop being fun. Learn how to turn on slo-mo and move the camera.

(4/5) We Were Here Together. Lots of fun. I believe the second game out of three. Still some crashes and UI issues. MUCH better puzzles and the grpahics are gorgeous. They need to fix the crashes or improve the autosave, we ended up replaying a lot of both games from crashes. It’s possible I should be recommending the third game but I haven’t played it yet.

The Rest

(3/5) 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel. More fun that it sounds. If you play to mess around and win by accident, it’s pretty good. Definitely play with a second human player, though.

(1.5/5) 7 billion humans. Better than the original, still not fun. Soulless game about a soulless, beige corporation. Just play Zachtronics instead. If you’re on a phone and want to engage your brain, play Euclidea.

(3/5) A Dark Room. Idle game.

(1/5) Amazing Cultivation Simulator. A big disappointment. Bad english voice acting which can’t be turned off, and a long, unskippable tutorial. I didn’t get to actual gameplay. I like Rimworld and cultivation novels so I had high hopes.

(3/5) ADOM (Steam version) – Fun like the original, which I would give 5/5. Developed some major issues on Linux, but I appreciate that there’s a graphical version available, one of my friends will play it now.

(4/5) agar.io – Good, but used to be better. Too difficult to get into games now. Very fun and addictive gameplay.

(3/5) Amorous – Furry dating sim. All of the hot characters are background art you can’t interact with, and the characters you can actually talk to are a bunch of sulky nerds who for some reason came to a nightclub. I think it was free, though.

(0/5) Apis. Alpha game, AFAIK I was the first player. Pretty much no fun right now (to the point of not really being a game yet), but it could potentially become fun if the author puts in work.

(4/5) Autonauts. I played a ton of Autonauts this year, almost finished it, which is rare for me. My main complaint is that it’s fundamentally supposed to be a game about programming robots, but I can’t actually make them do more than about 3 things, even as a professional programmer. Add more programming! It can be optional, that’s fine. They’re adding some kind of tower defense waves instead, which is bullshit. Not recommended because it’s not for everyone.

(3/5) A-Z Inc. Points for having the guts to have a simple game. At first this looked like just the bones of Swarm Simulator, but the more you look at the UI and the ascension system, the worse it actually is. I would regularly reset because I found out an ascension “perk” actually made me worse off.

(5/5) Beat Saber. Great game, and my favorite way to stay in shape early this year. Oculus VR only, if you have VR you already have this game so no need to recommend. Not QUITE worth getting a VR set just to play it at current prices.

(1/5) Big Tall Small. Good idea, but no fun to play. Needed better controls and level design, maybe some art.

(0.5/5) Blush Blush. Boring.

(3/5) Business Shark. I had too much fun with this simple game. All you do is just eat a bunch of office workers.

(3/5) chess.com. Turns out I like chess while I’m high?

(3/5) Circle Empires Rivals. Decent, more fun than the singleplayer original. It shouldn’t really have been a separate game from Circle Empires, and I’m annoyed I couldn’t get it DRM-free like the original.

(3/5) Cross Virus. By Dan-box. Really interesting puzzle mechanics.

(4/5) Cultist Simulator. Really fun to learn how to play–I love games that drop you in with no explanation. Great art and writing, I wish I could have gotten their tarot deck. Probably the best gameplay “ambience” I’ve seen–getting a card that’s labeled “fleeting sense of radiance” that disappears in 5 seconds? Great. Also the core stats are very well thought out for “feel” and real-life accuracy–dread (depression) conquers fascination (mania), etc. It has a few gameplay gotchas, but they’re not too big–layout issues, inability to go back to skipped text, or to put your game in an unwinnable state early on). Unfortunately it’s a “roguelike”, and it’s much too slow-paced and doesn’t have enough replay value, so it becomes a horrible, un-fun grind when you want to actually win. I probably missed the 100% ending but I won’t be going back to get it. I have no idea who would want to play this repeatedly. I’m looking forward to the next game from the same studio though! I recommend playing a friend’s copy instead of buying.

(2/5) Darkest Dungeon. It was fine but I don’t really remember it.

(2/5) Dicey Dungeons. Okay deck-building roguelike gameplay (with an inventory instead of a deck). Really frustrating, unskippably slow difficulty curve at the start. I played it some more this year and liked it better because I had a savegame. I appreciate having several character classes, but they should unlock every difficulty from the start.

(2/5) Diner Bros. Basically just a worse Overcooked. I didn’t like the controls, and it felt too repetitive with only one diner.

(2/5) Don’t Eat My Mind You Stupid Monster. Okay art and idea, the gameplay wasn’t too fun for me.

(2/5) Don’t Starve – I’ve played Don’t Stave maybe 8 different times, and it’s never really gripped me, I always put it back down. It’s slow, a bit grindy, and there’s no bigger goal–all you can do is live.

(3/5) Don’t Starve Together – Confusingly, Don’t Starve Together can be played alone. It’s Don’t Starve, plus a couple of the expansions. This really could be much more clearly explained.

(1/5) Elemental Abyss – A deck-builder, but this time it’s grid-based tactics. Really not all that fun. Just play Into the Abyss instead or something.

(1/5) Else Heart.Break() – I was excited that this might be a version of “Hack N’ Slash” from doublefine that actually delivered and let you goof around with the world. I gave it up in the first ten minutes, because the writing and characters drove me crazy, without getting to hacking the world.

(2/5) Everything is Garbage. Pretty good for a game jam game. Not a bad use of 10 minutes. I do think it’s probably possible to make the game unwinnable, and the ending is just nothing.

(1/5) Evolve. Idle game, not all that fun. I take issue with the mechanic in Sharks, Kittens, and this where buying your 15th fence takes 10^15 wood for some reason.

(4/5) Exapunks. Zachtronics has really been killing it lately, with Exapunks and Opus Magnum. WONDERFUL art and characters during story portions, and much better writing. The gameplay is a little more varied than in TIS-100 or the little I played of ShenZen I/O. My main complaint about Zachtronics games continues to be, that I don’t want to be given a series of resource-limited puzzles (do X, but without using more than 10 programming instructions). Exapunks is the first game where it becomes harder to do something /at all/, rather than with a particular amount of resources, but it’s still not there for me. Like ShenZen, they really go for a variety of hardware, too. Can’t recommend this because it’s really only for programmers.

(1/5) Exception. Programming game written by some money machine mobile games company. Awful.

(4/5) Factorio. Factorio’s great, but for me it doesn’t have that much replay value, even with mods. I do like their recent updates, which included adding blueprints from the start of the game, improving belt sorting, and adding a research queue. We changed movement speed, made things visually always day, and adding a small number of personal construction robots from the start this run. I’m sure if you’d like factorio you’ve played it already.

(3/5) Fall Guys – I got this because it was decently fun to watch. Unfortunately, it’s slightly less fun to play. Overall, there’s WAY too much matchmaking waiting considering the number of players, and the skill ceiling is very low on most of the games, some of which are essentially luck (I’m looking at you, team games).

(3/5) Forager – Decent game. A little too much guesswork in picking upgrades–was probably a bit more fun on my second play because of that. Overall, nice graphics and a cute map, but the gameplay could use a bit of work.

(3/5) Getting Over It – Funny idea, executed well. Pretty sure my friends and I have only gotten through 10% of the game, and all hit about the same wall (the first tunnel)

(3/5) Guild of Dungeoneering – Pretty decent gameplay. I feel like it’s a bit too hard for me, but that’s fine. Overall I think it could use a little more cute/fun art, I never quite felt that motivated.

(1/5) Hardspace: Shipbreakers. Okay, I seriously didn’t get to play this one, but I had GAMEBREAKING issues with my controller, which is a microsoft X-box controller for PC–THE development controller.

(2/5) Helltaker. All right art, meh gameplay. But eh, it’s free!

(3/5) Hot Lava. Decent gameplay. Somehow felt like the place that made this had sucked the souls out of all the devs first–no one cared about the story or characters. It’s a game where the floor is made out of lava, with a saturday morning cartoon open, so that was a really an issue. Admirable lack of bugs, though. I’m a completionist so I played the first world a lot to get all the medals, and didn’t try the later ones.

(3/5) House Flipper – Weird, but I had fun. I wish the gameplay was a little more unified–it felt like a bunch of glued-together minigames.

(2/5) Hydroneer. Utterly uninspiring. I couldn’t care about making progress at all, looked like a terrible grind to no benefit.

(1/5) io. Tiny game, I got it on Steam, also available on phone. Basically a free web flash game, but for money. Not good enough to pay the $1 I paid. Just a bit of a time-killer.

(3/5) Islanders – All you do is place buildings and get points. Not particularly challenging, but relaxing. Overall I liked it.

(3/5) Jackbox – I played this online with a streamer. Jackbox has always felt a little bit soulless money grab to me, but it’s still all right. I like that I can play without having a copy–we need more games using this purchase model.

(3/5) Life is Feudal – Soul-crushingly depressing and grindy, which I knew going in. I thought it was… okay, but I really want an offline play mode (Yes, I know there’s an unsupported single-player game, but it’s buggier and costs money). UI was pretty buggy, and I think hunting might literally be impossible.

(2/5) Minecraft – Antimatter Chemistry. Not particularly fun.

(3/5) Minecraft – ComputerCraft. I played a pack with just ComputerCraft and really nothing else. Was a little slow, would have been more fun with more of an audience. I love the ComputerCraft mod, I just didn’t have a great experience playing my pack I made.

(3/5) Minecraft – Foolcraft 3. Fun, a bit buggy. Honestly I can’t remember it too well.

(1/5) Minecraft – Manufactio. Looked potentially fun, but huge bugs and performance issues, couldn’t play.

(4/5) Minecraft – Tekkit. Tekkit remains one of my favorite Minecraft modpacks.

(3/5) Minecraft – Valhelsia 2. I remember this being fun, but I can’t remember details as much as I’d like. I think it was mostly based around being the latest version of minecraft?

(4/5) Minecraft – Volcano Block. Interesting, designed around some weird mods I hadn’t used. I could have used more storage management or bulk dirt/blocks early in the game–felt quite cramped. Probably got a third of the way through the pack. I got novelty value out of it, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I had ever used the plant mod before–it’s a very fixed, linear progression.

(5/5) Minit. This is a weird, small game. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Then I 100% completed it, which was less fun but I still had a good time overall.

(3/5) Monster Box. By Dan-box. One of two Dan-box games I played a lot of. Just visually appealing, the gameplay isn’t amazing. Also, Dan-box does some great programming–this is a game written in 1990 or so, and it can render hundreds of arrows in the air smoothly in a background tab.

(3/5) Monster Train. A relatively fun deckbuilding card game. It can’t run well on my computer, which is UNACCEPTABLE–this is a card game with 2D graphics. My MICROWAVE should run this shit in 2020. Ignoring that, the gameplay style (summon monsters, MTG style) just isn’t my cup of tea.

(2/5) Moonlighter. Felt like it was missing some inspiration, just didn’t have a sense of “fun”. The art was nice. The credits list is surprisingly long.

(2/5) Muse Dash. All right, a basic rhythm game. Not enough variety to the game play, and everything was based around perfect or near-perfect gameplay, which makes things less fun for me.

(3/5) NES games – various. Dr Mario, Ice Climbers. Basically, I got some Chinese handheld “gameboy” that has all the NES games preloaded on it. Overall it was a great purchase.

(2/5) Noita. “The Powder Game” by Dan-Box, as a procedurally generated platformer with guns. Lets you design your own battle spells. Despite the description, you really still can’t screw around as much as I’d like. I also had major performance issues

(3/5) Observation. I haven’t played this one as much as I’d like, I feel like it may get better. Storytelling, 3D game from the point of view of the AI computer on a space station. I think I might have read a book it’s based on, unfortunately.

(2/5) One Step From Eden. This is a deck-building combat tactics game. I thought it was turn-based, but it’s actually realtime. I think if it was turn-based I would have liked it. The characters were a bit uninspired.

(1/5) Orbt XL. Very dull. I paid $0.50 for it, it was worth that.

(4/5) Opus Magnum. Another great game from Zachtronics, along with Exapunks they’re really ramping up. This is the third execution of the same basic concept. I’d like to see Zachtronics treading new ground more as far as gameplay–that said, it is much improved compared to the first two iterations. The art, writing, and story were stellar on the other hand.

(3/5) Out of Space. Fun idea, you clean a spaceship. It’s never that challenging, and it has mechanics such that it gets easier the more you clean, rather than harder. Good but not enough replay value. Fun with friends the first few times. The controls are a little wonky.

(1/5) Outpost (tower defense game). I hate all tower defense.

(3/5) Overcooked. Overcooked is a ton of fun.

(4/5) Powder Game – Dan-box. I played this in reaction to not liking Noita. It’s fairly old at this point. Just a fun little toy.

(1/5) Prime Mover – Very cool art, the gameplay put me to sleep immediately. A “circuit builder” game but somehow missing any challenge or consistency.

(2/5) Quest for Glory I. Older, from 1989. Didn’t really play this much, I couldn’t get into the writing, and the pseudo-photography art was a little jarring.

(4/5) Raft. I played this in beta for free on itch.io, and had a lot of fun. Not enough changed that it was really worth a replay, but it has improved, and I got to play with a second player. Not a hard game, which I think was a good thing. The late game they’ve expanded, but it doesn’t really add much. The original was fun and so was this.

(3/5) Satisfactory. I honestly don’t know how I like this one–I didn’t get too far into it.

(4/5) Scrap Mechanic. I got this on a recommendation from a player who played in creative. I only tried the survival mode–that mode is not well designed, and their focuses for survival are totally wrong. I like the core game, you can actually build stuff. If I play again, I’ll try the creative mode, I think.

(3.5/5) Shapez.io. A weird, abstracted simplification of Factorio. If I hadn’t played factorio and half a dozen copies, I imagine this would have been fun, but it’s just more of the same. Too much waiting–blueprints are too far into the game, too.

(2.5/5) Simmiland. Okay, but short. Used cards for no reason. For a paid game, I wanted more gameplay out of it?

(0.5/5) Snakeybus. The most disappointing game I remember this year. Someone made “Snake” in 3D. There are a million game modes and worlds to play in. I didn’t find anything I tried much fun.

(1/5) Soda Dungeon. A “mobile” (read: not fun) style idle game. Patterned after money-grab games, although I don’t remember if paid progress was actually an option. I think so.

(4/5) Spelunky. The only procedurally generated platformer I’ve ever seen work. Genuinely very fun.

(4/5) Spelunky 2. Fun, more of an upgrade of new content than a new game. Better multiplayer. My computer can’t run later levels at full speed.

(1/5) Stick Ranger 2. Dan-box. Not much fun.

(3/5) Superliminal. Fun game. A bit short for the pricetag.

(3/5) Tabletop Simulator – Aether’s End: Legacy. Interesting, a “campaign” (series of challenge bosses and pre-written encounters) deckbuilding RPG. I like the whole “campaign RPG boardgame” idea. This would have worked better with paper, there were some rough edges in both the game instructions and the port to Tabletop Simulator.

(4/5) Tabletop Simulator – The Captain is Dead. Very fun. I’d love to play with more than 2 people. Tabletop simulator was so-so for this one.

(2/5) Tabletop Simulator – Tiny Epic Mechs. You give your mech a list of instructions, and it does them in order. Arena fight. Fun, but I think I could whip up something at least as good.

(3/5) The Council. One of the only 3D games I finished. It’s a story game, where you investigate what’s going on and make various choices. It’s set in revolutionary france, at the Secret World Council that determines the fate of the world. It had a weak ending, with less choice elements than the rest of the game so far, which was a weird decision. Also, it has an EXCRUTIATINGLY bad opening scene, which was also weird. The middle 95% of the game I enjoyed, although the ending went on a little long. The level of background knowledge expected of the player swung wildly–they seemed to expect me to know who revolutionary French generals were with no explanation, but not Daedalus and the Minotaur. The acting was generally enjoyable–there’s a lot of lying going on in the game and it’s conveyed well. The pricetag is too high to recommend.

(0/5) The Grandma’s Recipe (Unus Annus). This game is unplayably bad–it’s just a random pixel hunt. Maybe it would be fun if you had watched the video it’s based on.

(3/5) The Room. Pretty fun! I think this is really designed for a touchscreen, but I managed to play it on my PC. Played it stoned, which I think helps with popular puzzle games–it has nice visuals but it’s a little too easy.

(3/5) This Call May Be Recorded. Goofy experimental game.

(4/5) TIS-100. Zachtronics. A programming game. I finally got done with the first set of puzzles and into the second this year. I had fun, definitely not for everyone.

(3/5) Trine. I played this 2-player. I think the difficulty was much better 2-player, but it doesn’t manage 2 players getting separated well. Sadly we skipped the story, which seemed like simple nice low-fantasy. Could have used goofier puzzles, it took itself a little too seriously and the levels were a bit same-y.

(2/5) Unrailed. Co-op railroad building game. It was okay but there wasn’t base-building. Overall not my thing. I’d say I would prefer something like Overcooked if it’s going to be timed? Graphics reminded me of autonauts.

(2/5) Vampire Night Shift. Art game. Gameplay could have used a bit of polish. Short but interesting.

(4/5) Wayward. To date, the best survival crafting system I’ve seen. You can use any pointy object and stick-like object, together with glue or twine, to make an arrow. The UI is not great, and there’s a very counter-intuitive difficulty system. You need to do a little too much tutorial reading, and it could use more goals. Overall very fun. Under constant development, so how it plays a given week is a crapshoot. The steam version finally works for me (last time I played it was worse than the free online alpha, now it’s the same or better). I recomend playing the free online version unless you want to support the author.

(1/5) We Need to Go Deeper. Multiplayer exploration game in a sub, with sidescrolling battle. Somehow incredibly unfun, together with high pricetag. Aesthetics reminded me of Don’t Starve somehow.

(2/5) We Were Here. Okay 2-player puzzle game. Crashed frequently, and there were some “huh” puzzles and UI. Free.

(3/5) Yes, your grace. Gorgeous pixel art graphics. The story is supposed to be very player-dependent, but I started getting the feeling that it wasn’t. I didn’t quite finish the game but I think I was well past halfway. Hard to resume after a save, you forget things. I got the feeling I wouldn’t replay it, which is a shame because it’s fun to see how things go differently in a second play with something like this.

These are not all new to me, and very few came out in 2020. I removed any games I don’t remember and couldn’t google (a fair number, I play a lot of game jam games) as well as any with pornographic content.

2020 Videogames was originally published on Optimal Prime

[naancypants]

Hi! I’m conducting something. Can you please rank the games from best to worst? Exclude Dossiers but include both SCKS. It can just be a list. Please rank in order of personal enjoyment, not how well the game is made

Hell yeah!!!!

1. Curse of Blackmoor Manor - This game delivers the perfect balance of spooky atmosphere, explorative gameplay, rich environment (MANORS FTW), challenging-but-not-impossible puzzles, and a historical backstory that is SO richly detailed it often gets overlooked. The Penvellyn legacy is flawed and beautiful and the DETAIL within it, I just. Ugh. I get so emotional about this one. It’s amazing. Plus that soundtrack 👌🎼😍 and the fact that there's an entire roster of optional cutscenes that you genuinely, literally cannot predict with 100% accuracy gives this game a unique replayability unlike any other.

2. Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon - Amazing atmosphere and fantastic gameplay! It’s snoopy and interesting without much complication. The Jake+Camille story is tragically underrated, plus the Hardy boys are in it. Some of the series' best character dynamics imo, quality puzzles that aren't frustrating, decent exploration + expanding to new environments, one of the most iconic cutscenes in the series - ugh. Exquisite. There’s nothing about this game that I don’t like.

3. Danger on Deception Island - This game has one of my all-time FAVORITE atmospheres in anything, ever. Please cover me in DDI vibes because that's where I want to live. I stan a cute, misty seaside town where we get to explore local politics that play into the A-plot, which eventually delivers a mystery that ties up most loose ends and feels realistic and grounded in a surprising way. I think this is one of the most well-fleshed out mysteries in the series, and that’s part of why it ranks so high for me. It's also one of my strongest nostalgia games.

4. Ghost of Thornton Hall - I’m obsessed with the atmosphere in this game and there’s nothing I love more than A) ghosts, B) tragic backstory, and C) overhanging themes that are heavily represented within the game’s narrative. GOSH, it’s so well done. All the ambiguities and layers to both the story & characters - truly a work of art.

5. Sea of Darkness - The graphics are gorgeous and while it’s a little too puzzle-y for my tastes, there’s just something about this game that makes me want to play it over and over and over again (and I have).

6. The Final Scene - This was my #1 favorite up until a few years ago! The theatre, Nancy’s sass, Nick Falcone, and the Nick x Nancy bromance that forms are all top tier elements in this game, along with the intense race against the clock on day 3.

7. The Haunting of Castle Malloy - This is one of my most unpopular opinions lol but I LOVE this game. The setting is beautiful, the music is beautiful, and I actually enjoy most of the gameplay. It has, uhh... its extensions of disbelief😂, but I just genuinely love playing it so much that I don’t mind how whacky it is. AND THE CHEMICAL SORTING IS EASILY TOP 3 BEST ND PUZZLES OF ALL TIME. FIGHT ME. 👀😂

8. Alibi in Ashes - I’m surprised how much I’ve come to love this game over the years! The phone switching between characters is a pain in the you-know-what, but I love getting to know the town of River Heights and BESS IS ADORABLE. It’s just such a fun, cute game and it’s something different from the rest of the series. And I love getting to play detective at the police station 👀

9. Treasure in the Royal Tower - Truthfully I thought I would rank this one lower, but at the end of the day the atmosphere is just SO good. I don’t find the gameplay very compelling for the most part (although it definitely has its moments), plus I tend to finish this one in 3< hours, but MAN if that organ music doesn’t make me feel cozy! I love the historical elements, the mission to collect medallions, and the castle itself. It’s one of, if not THE top contender for nostalgia as well. 💜

10. Shadow at the Water’s Edge - I just really, really respect this game for how much it was able to deliver. There are so many events and scenes that add to both the game’s length and feeling of intensity. Also, have I mentioned how much I LOVE SCARY GAMES? I might rank this one lower, though, if not for my utter, starry-eyed admiration for how ambitious HeR was - and how well they pulled it off. other than those accents

11. Legend of the Crystal Skull - The bayou music makes me want to go live out on a swamp somewhere while slapping my knee all the day long. I just dig the vibe in this game. It’s also pretty meaty as far as length and gameplay. It has Henry Bolet, a VERY significant amount of Bess, gumbo, rainy atmosphere, and a balanced combo of puzzles that run the gamut between annoying and genuinely enjoyable.

12. White Wolf of Icicle Creek - I feel like ranking this game so high is an unpopular opinion?? But like with CRY, it’s actually a pretty meaty game. It has lots of length to it, plenty of things to discover and I’ve started to enjoy fox & geese in my more recent years 😉

13. The Haunted Carousel - I didn’t think I liked this game so much until my last playthrough. Joy Trent may be a party pooping stick in the mud, but everything else about this game is enjoyable for me! I just wish it were longer.

14. Danger By Design - I literally just came back and edited this post to put DAN ahead of WAC. This game has a lot of quirks, long phone calls and obnoxious puzzles, but it's a good length with some solid gameplay. The story unfolds in a way that feels solid and engaging.

15. Warnings at Waverly Academy - Love the music, love the academy, hate the homework. I also had REALLY high expectations before this game came out which kind of ruined the actual game for me. I always wish the atmosphere was less bouncy and gossipy and homework-oriented; more mysterious, spooky, and Poe-focused.

16. The Phantom of Venice - This one’s got substance. It’s fairly long and has a lot of good gameplay, but for some reason it falls JUST short of hitting in the way I want it to. 😕 However, the culprit's crime ring operation was TOP TIER criminal activity if I do say so myself. Easily the most impressive criminal plan since DDI.

17. The Captive Curse - I LOVE the music, the atmosphere, the setting, and Lukas - but I CAN’T STAND all the long, repetitive dialogue, and I can't stand talking to Anja. She’s one of the few ND characters that make me actually want to rip my hair out and I cannot explain why. Otherwise this game is really solid.

18. Secret of the Scarlet Hand - This used to be one of my least favorites bc of all the phone calls and confusing puzzles in the beginning (which, y’know, still valid), but I’ve come to REALLY LOVE the deep digging you do into the mystery. The finding/assembling parts of a key from around the world!! One of your suspects getting amnesia!! The way the theft is, in itself, a plot twist!! Working with Henrik to uncover clues, gradually progressing deeper into the museum’s temple exhibit - there’s SO MUCH good there!

19.  Message in a Haunted Mansion - Oh how I WISH I could rank this one higher, but I can't quite justify it. I LOVE the setting (Victorian mansion is one of my all-time favorite aesthetics) and the ghosts/hauntings and the Lizzie/Diego plot and the soundtrack, but its age really shows in its gameplay. I did, however, move this one up a few spaces since the last time I played it!

20.  The Secret of Shadow Ranch - One of my more unpopular opinions. This game is PEAK historical backplot👌 and I TRULY LOVE what they did there - it’s stunning, really. But I’m not personally into desert/ranch/horse vibes and it starts to feel like a chore simulator at times (plus, its map screen is the longest one in the series). Good game, but not the one for me.

21. Labyrinth of Lies - I like this game! I don’t love this game. I love GRIGOR. Grigor is one of the most interesting and complex characters in the entire series and I adore him. There’s way too much wacky shit going on in this game for me to rank it much higher, though. (props to the VAs for being absolute STARS👏)

22.  The Silent Spy - I wish I liked this game more than I do... but I don’t. Alec Fell is a gift and slowly working with Zoe at the end is p cool, I adore the music and the emotional element of Nancy’s mom - objectively it’s great!! But for some reason I’ve just never been able to get into it as much as a lot of the clue crew.

23. The Shattered Medallion - YES, MED REALLY DOES RANK THIS HIGH FOR ME, OKAY. IT’S A FUN GAME. Maybe not the most well-executed, but I ENJOY IT ANYWAY. 😂😅 Objectively I know it makes no sense as a Nancy Drew game, nor do I care for the portrayal of Sonny Joon, but as an experience it keeps me engaged.

24. Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake - This is another one that I would rank higher, but I truly h8 the bug catching / bird watching / Roman Numeral sorting. Otherwise, the Mickey Malone backplot is one of my faves and I dig those 1920′s speakeasy vibes ✌ it just feels for me like the game ends RIGHT after it gets interesting (i.e. getting into the speakeasy). If HeR had milked the 1920s aesthetic a little more, this one might be much higher for me.

25. The Deadly Device - I liked this game a lot more when it first came out than I do now. The cast dynamics at the lab are quality, but something about it feels... a little artificial to me? Plastic? IDK how to describe it! Haha. Some good puzzles and characters, but not one of my faves.

26. Secret of the Old Clock - I LOVE the music and the 1930′s aesthetic but that’s about it? Oh, and I like the pie puzzle bc I like looking at the pies LOL. The sewing was kind of fun, too, actually. OH AND JOSIAH CROWLEY WAS AN ICON WHO WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME. But, the game itself still feels a little bare bones.

27. Stay Tuned For Danger - If I could justify ranking this one higher then I would, but, sigh. The graphics. The finnicky programming where if you miss one thing you’re done for. The picky navigation. It was great for HeR’s first *real* game with 3d characters, but it’s frustrating for me to replay. However... All Hail Dwayne Powers.

28. Secrets Can Kill (Remastered) - YOU SIMPLY CANNOT COMPARE JAKE ROGERS IN THIS GAME TO JAKE ROGERS IN THE OLD GAME. This - THIS game - is PEAK Jake Rogers, and for that alone, I have to heartily applaud. 👏👏👏

29. Trail of the Twister - I used to like this one more than I do now, but it really is just. Chores. Often chores that make no sense and have ZERO relevance to the plot. This game definitely feels like it was messily thrown together in the midst of HeR working on SCK2 and SAW. (BUT CHASE IS MY BBY AND I LOVE HIM FOREVER💕 and Pa deserves love)

30. Creature of Kapu Cave - The only reason this game has #31 and #32 beat is nostalgia. This is a super nostalgic game for me, and even though Joe looks terrifying I still deeply enjoy the Hardys’ presence. Aside from that, I enjoy snow cones and... idk what else.... lol but it’s not the worst.

31. Ransom of the Seven Ships - This game had potential tbh. I enjoy the music and sunny atmosphere, and it’s actually relatively long? But many of the puzzles can be cumbersome and the whole Johnny/John/Dwayne thing was a mess. And Nancy’s so chill about her best friend being kidnapped like wtf

32. Tomb of the Lost Queen - This is objectively a good game but I just don’t like it lol. I’ve never personally been big on Egyptology and soooo many of the puzzles are just... u g h. I hate talking to Abdullah, but Dylan and Jamila are great characters who have interesting dynamics w/ Nancy. But then, this is also the game that started the Sonny Joon arc that I lowkey resent.

33. Midnight in Salem - Oh, what could have been. But the GRAPHICS and the TALKING and the LACK OF SNOOPING and the NAVIGATION and I could go on but I won’t. If you played it, you know.

34. Secrets Can Kill (OG) - I’m sorry, I just can’t 😂 this is the only ND game that I will probably never play again.

[chaosstar290]

Reasons try out Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore.

Nintendo's been pretty casual with porting Wii U games over to the Switch, and for good reasons. Normally, I'm not all into porting games that I've already played, but my personal favorite games on the system that lack good marketing and advertising are now getting the attention and love they deserve.

Take Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for example, one of my favorite 2D platfomers. The game originally sold 1.72 million copies worldwide on the Wii U. Not very good numbers, huh? However, the Switch port managed to beat those sales numbers with 2.25 million units sold worldwide by the end of March 2019.

So while this could be seen as a way for Big N to earn more $$$, this is also a way for those who never owned a Wii U and missed out on some of the system's best titles to give these games a shot. Now we just need a port of Xenoblade Chronicles X and The Wonderful 101...and Star Fox Zero, I guess.

But that's a topic for another time. This post is specifically for my favorite JRPG on the Wii U only to be tied with Xenoblade Chronicles X....Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

This'll be a long one, so here's hoping you'll stick with it until the end.

Development

Before I get into the reasons, lemme educate you guys a bit. Back in January 2013, both Atlus and Intelligent Systems made a teaser trailer for a potential Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover for the Wii U.

The trailer was mostly just a slideshow with various character artwork. Despite this, there was a decent amount of hype surrounding it. But development around the game was pretty silent. That is, until we fast forward to the Nintendo Direct in April 1, 2015. We got a trailer of the ambitious SMT x FE crossover that fans were waiting for...but this was the final product.

Needless to say...neither SMT nor FE fans were happy about this. The fandoms were incredibly salty and foaming at the mouths, basically calling it a Person 4 Lite with a hint of FE. Heck, they're probably still posts on this site from 5 years ago that'll show that.

Fast forward to the games initial release, and you'll see quite a few positive reviews and thoughts about TMS. Unfortunately, the sale numbers were not all that great for the game. Obvious reasons being that it was a Wii U game, and many fans of both SMT x FE were not happy with how it turned out.

And to be honest, I wasn't feeling the game myself at first. It seemed too lighthearted and upbeat, and the J-Pop, anime-ish aesthetics were very off-putting. However, the more I saw about the game, the more I was drawn into it. Somehow all that disappointment I had about TMS originally just washed away. And considering it was a new IP, I decided to give it a chance. And hoo boy...I was generally pleased.

With that outta the way, let's get into why I'm excited for the Switch port of game, and hoping people will give it a fairer chance.

The Setting

The plot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is mostly simple. You start out as high schooler Itsuki Aoi, the main character of the game encountering his childhood friend Tsubasa Oribe at an audition event to become a idol. It isn't until moments later in the game that the area gets overruned by shadowy creatures known as Mirages that suck out the creative energy known as Perso-- ah I mean Performa from the other idols and audience.

Poor girl doesn't know what's gonna happen next.

Despite our main characters seeming unharmed by the effect, the Mirages drag Tsubasa into their world known as the Idolsphere. And of course, courageous Itsuki takes action to follow and rescue her.

After trying to make a daring rescue, Itsuki gets bombarded by a Mirage, but somehow manages to awaken it. Taking the form of Fire Emblem Awakening's protagonist Chrom. Itsuki does the same with the Mirage that captured Tsubasa that takes the form of Cedea from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon. The two awakaned Mirages, however, suffer from a bit of amnesia and can't quite remember who and what they are.

From there on, Itsuki and Tsubasa form a partnership with Chrom and Cedea, encountering various characters trying to reach their way to stardom while trying to draw back the opposing forces from taking over Tokyo and the world. Typical RPG stuff, am I right?

It's a fairly standard and slightly cliche plot with some common anime tropes, but for this game...it works. It's a plot that's incredibly silly, upbeat, and over-the-top, but again...it works for this game. And I love it. It may not be original, deep, or complex, but the story does its best to not take itself too seriously, and it doesn't fail to keep a smile in my face.

Aside from the vanilla cookie-cutter MC Itsuki, the various casts that you meet are incredibly charming, and go through their own personal growth as celebrities. Though you mileage may vary on this.

The Gameplay

The combat is the real star of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Basically, it's your standard turn-based combat system...but with a few twists. If you've ever played a SMT or Persona game, then don't be surprised that elemental weaknesses make an appearance here. Along with that, the Triangle Weapon system from Fire Emblem also makes an appearance in the game.

But if you're not familiar with either franchise then give you a basic example how this works. Say that you've encountered an armored Mirage wielding an axe. The weaknesses on that enemy are both lightning and swords, and Itsuki just so happens to have both the necessary element and weapon equipped.

In case you're wondering...how the Triangle Weapon mechanic works in FE is that Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords.

The interesting thing about this is that once you exploit an enemy's weakness, other characters will jump in and combo extra attacks. These are called Sessions, and their not only powerful...but also flashy as all hell and it's glorious. Not only that, but there's also Duo Arts where two certain characters will sometimes perform a song that unleashes a powerful attack...which also strings up more Sessions. As broken as this sounds, it actually is pretty strategic for taking down harder enemies, and they can also form Sessions...so be careful.

There's more to the gameplay like roaming Tokyo, exploring dungeons, and upgrading your characters and Mirages by Tiki from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon as well.

There's mixed opinions on the dungeon aspects of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but...I personally enjoyed them. Aside from the first one. Once you get past the first dungeon, they get better as the game progresses. From exploring a darker version of Shibuya where you have to avoid giant cameras from sending you back to the entrance of the of the room you currently entered, to venturing through a maze-like TV studio.

There's also side-missions that you can do with your main cast that'll help them grow and develop even further. You'll be rewarded with either a special cutscene or a special attack. Or maybe both.

The Visuals

Go go...Persona Rangers?

If it wasn't obvious from the amount of images I'm posting, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a very colorful game. Fitting with it's lighthearted theme, the amount of colors the game throws at you makes visuals aesthetically pleasing. Heck, you could make these your personal wallpaper on your phone or something.

Sure, Tokyo Mirage Sessions isn't nearly as strong as Persona 5 graphically or even artistically, but like most Nintendo games...what their games lack in terms of detailed ultra-hyper graphics, they make up for it with giving their games gorgeous artstyles.

Also, this game has some reeeeeally good artwork.

The Music

J-Pop plays a pretty big role in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, so expect a lot of vocal tracks. If you're not into this kind of genre of music, then you might wanna stray away from this game. If you are (or if it doesn't bother you), then you're in for a treat. As someone who really isn't into J-Pop myself, the songs in this game are incredible and catchy followed by some beautiful cutscenes. Reincarnation from Kiria Kurono and Feel from Tsubasa Oribe are some of my personal favorites.

The music from outside the vocal tracks are pretty good too. The normal battle theme and the Illusion Shibuya dungeon theme are just to name a couple.

What's New?

Like I said before, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is a port of the Wii U version, but with added content. Any DLC that was added in the original game will part of the base game in the Switch version. But let's talk about the new stuff.

EX Story and Songs

The EX Story is basically a dungeon that you explore in short bursts. Here you'll find new costumes such as a Joker outfit from Persona 5 for Itsuki, or an Annette outfit from Fire Emblem Three Houses for Mamori Minamoto. Or you can have a much easier time grinding for EXP. Also, much like the side-stories, this dungeon will also explore the main casts' issues and help them grow.

New songs will also be added in this port. A duo song called "She is..." sung by Tsubasa and Kiria is one of them.

Sessions

By making Sessions even more powerful and ridiculous, unplayable characters like Tiki, Maiko Shimazaki, and Barry Goodman will also join in Sessions.

In addition, a Quick Session option will be added. Which is a major upgrade in my book. One of the big issues the Wii U version had was while the Sessions were fun to watch, they took forever to get through with the more characters that joined your party. There are also smaller improvements like the Switch version having faster loading times.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this long as hell post will spark some interest into those who'll give the game a shot. I know there's small nitpicks like the lack of English voice acting and censorship, but the latter is a topic I'd rather not delve deep into.

Regardless, these small cons are greatly outweighed by the large pros this charming game has. If you're an Atlus fan, a lover of JRPGs, or wanting to play something that'll ease the wait for Persona 5 Royal, I highly recommend you give Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE encore a shot.

If you're also waiting for Persona 5 to actually come to the Switch like me, this game is next best thing we've got for the time being.

This is one of the most stylish menu screens ever.

[thedeliverygod]

Reasons Why I Really Enjoyed Kingdom Hearts III

The music. Every time I listen to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra -World of Tres- soundtrack, it makes me want to play the game. The music is so much attached to the imagery and gameplay that I can’t seem to separate the two. Granted, I’ve always loved the music of the Kingdom Hearts series. But there is something about hearing music from KH3 that makes me go “wow, I really want to go play in the Kingdom Of Corona right now” etc. That’s something I never really experienced before this game; I of course relate the music to the worlds and moments that they played during, but they’ve never gotten me in the mood to immediately go turn on my console and play. Also, full Kingdom Hearts III soundtrack when??? (I suppose the answer is when all the DLC is released and the soundtrack is considered COMPLETE but... I just really want it okay.)

The visuals. Continuing off the last point... Kingdom Hearts III is G O R G E O U S. I had my doubts about the unreal engine and honestly, I had my doubts about KH getting a more detailed look in general. I enjoyed watching the FMV videos at the beginning and ends of the games but the more cartoony in-game graphics always felt like home to me. It took some time and a lot of trailers to gain my approval, but the final product was gorgeous. Granted... I honestly still have some complaints. Mostly about my old boss, our own King Mickey; I feel the new style doesn’t show his emotions very well but hopefully that’ll improve in time? Moving on from the characters... The worlds. Omg, the worlds. The detail that went into them is astounding; not to mention the effects that magic has on your surroundings when using it! And then of course, there’s the battle animations. Flashy, amusing, and destructive? A win, in my opinion, and definitely true to the Disney name.

World Building. The worlds are finally not lifeless dioramas from the movies! It always bugged me when they’d talk about climbing up a mountain or something like that, and in reality we’d pass through 2 or maybe 3 areas with very gradual elevation changes and the characters would be like “phew what a rough journey” and you’d be like “that literally took one minute but okay”. The North Mountain from Arendelle is a REAL MOUNTAIN. Like the Heartless knocked me off after I had been climbing for like 20 minutes and I felt like I had suffered an actual loss. How dare they make my perilous journey even longer by knocking me off the side of the mountain?! Luckily, I found a shortcut so it was fine, but it actually felt like accomplishing something while climbing that mountain which was... amazing. My other favorite experience was gathering together the green blocks to make the cactaur in Toy Box. Being in that play area made me feel like a kid again, I haven’t been in one of those spaces in so long and it was nostalgic and just so fun to crawl through all of those ball pits and tunnels to find those blocks. Lastly, there were finally citizens in the worlds! Mind you, there were kind of like maybe 5 designs at most that got repeated over and over... but still! It was a vast improvement from what we’ve seen in recent years.

Dialogue & Interaction. Let me tell you how excited I was that there was FINALLY DIALOGUE WHILE EXPLORING! It was so fun listening to the trios conversations and funny quips. Of course, “Look, it’s a lucky emblem!” and “This looks like a good spot to find some ingredients!” did get annoying, especially when I couldn’t find where the heck said things were, but I think an update calmed those exclamations down because I heard them a lot less during my 2nd playthrough. Adding the selfie function the gummi phone? BEST. DECISION. EVER. I had so much fun taking selfies with the various Disney characters and seeing what their reactions to the camera were. Of course, characters like Hiro & Honey Lemon knew what a camera and a selfie were, but Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff? They were just like ummm do I smile for this thing? Okay!!! And then there’s Mike and Sulley who make especially funny faces for the camera. It’s just all around a blast. Moving on to cutscenes, I know there’s been some debate about the voice direction but my personal opinion is this game is the best it’s ever been. The conversations and especially jokes (thank god) finally sound natural. In the past, things have been either just really forced or really cheesy and I’ve just sort of been like “Oh, well it’s Kingdom Hearts/it’s Disney, it’s gonna be cheesy.” But like there’s a right way to be cheesy, and the moments I’m thinking of... aren’t it. KH3 did it right. There’s still a few things that were rough around the edges, like Sora’s “unforgettable... like your face~” to Donald lol it was still really funny but it was also just like “oh my god you nerd”. Also all the jokes about Sora not being a Keyblade Master yet came off as just mean spirited to me, but that’s another subject entirely.

Character Moments. KH3 gave us a lot of what we had been waiting for. Aqua’s reunion with Sora and Riku, the boys she met on Destiny Islands so long ago. Her long awaited return to the realm of light. Aqua and Sora waking Ventus up from his long, deep slumber. Terra’s redemption and reunion with his friends. Aqua, Terra, and Ven getting to see Eraqus again and saying goodbye. Kairi and Lea becoming keyblade wielders (officially). Kairi and Xion facing off in battle. Xion and Roxas brought back to life as replicas and their reunion with Axel/Lea. Sora and Kairi sharing a paopu fruit. Sora and Namine finally getting to talk (at least, somewhat). Namine getting a body through a replica. The return of org members who had vanished after CoM & KH2 (Marluxia, Demyx, Larxene, etc). The return of Replica Riku. Others I’m probably forgetting lol.

Reveals & New Info. With the end of a saga, we have some mysteries finally answered. Of course, this game is also setting us up for a new saga, so we’ve also got a lot of lose ends. Luxu is revealed as Braig/Xigbar. The Master of Masters is shown in the secret ending after vanishing for thousands of years, but who are they? Not to mention the foretellers managed to show up after also being absent for a long period of time as well, minus Ava. What’s she up to? Who’s Yozora and why did he show up as a video game character in Toy Box but also in the same world as Riku in the secret ending? Nomura-san says that the Shibuya shown in the secret ending isn’t the same universe as TWEWY, but why bother introducing the characters and Shibuya itself if it’s not going to tie in later? What exactly is happening at the end of KH3? Is the group looking out over the ocean or looking at the tree where Sora and Kairi are? Are both scenes happening at the same time or at separate times? Why exactly does Sora vanish? What are the exact stipulations and reasonings behind all the warnings Young Xehanort gave Sora? There’s so many things I am so eager to learn about and I can’t wait for DLC and/or the next full game.

The Story Is Not Over. We’ve got DLC coming to us, and from the sound of it, a decent amount of it. At least, enough to keep us satisfied until the next game. And please, no “they should have sold us a complete game” comments. They said multiple times they had to cut content in order to release a game that fit on the disc. Also remember, KH2.8′s Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- was originally supposed to be the INTRO of KH3. If they fit all the content they wanted to fit into KH3... we would probably be looking at a 2, maybe 3 disc game. Anyway, good things come to those who wait, so that’s all I’ve got to say on that. 

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Reviews: The Steel Sky

I’m incredibly late to the game with this one but, i mean, i had to do it. My copy of Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arrived about a month ago and I've been diligently working my way through toward the controversial conclusion. Admittedly, i got stuck on Rollerball for a lot longer than necessary, i f*cking hate that boss, but i finished. I finally finished. I have thoughts and feelings and i can finally express those with an certain level of understanding.

The Outstanding

This game is gorgeous. I mean, stunning. Seeing Midgar brought to life like this, knowing how far we’ve come from the original VII, is overwhelming. I cried. I legit cried tears of joy seeing this world for the first time. If you’re a fan of games, this sh*t is incredible If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy, it’s humbling. If you’re a fan of VII, specifically, it’s wish fulfillment.

The Great

The voice acting in this thing is exceptional. There are a lot of new actors taking over for long-time favorites, but they do a great job filling those shoes.

I enjoyed how deep customization turned out to be in this title. You can level up your Materia and each weapon you receive can be leveled up. Each one has it’s own, dedicated, Sphere Grid type system. There is enough variation between the six weapons you receive to create several, distinct, character builds.

I love the fact that Avalanche gets more development here. You actually learn to love Biggs and Wedge but, the on character who gets the most care is definitely Jessie. Oh my goodness, is Ms. Raspberry adorable! Seeing her interact with Cloud is more than enough to give this game a shot, especially if you’re a fan of the original.

Roche is kind of amazing. I though he’d be a pain in the ass but, as a character, he’s a decent addition. It’s always dope to see other SOLDIERs and i hope we get a few more going forward.

The chemistry between your squad is palpable. The little banter they have in the field, the interactions during cutscenes, those quiet moments between battles; They’re all so goddamn fun. I was surprised by how organic they all felt. It reminded me a lot of Mass Effect. I mean, the dialogue isn’t quite THAT good, but it’s still some of the best I've experience in a title like this.

This world is alive, man. I mentioned up top how gorgeous it is but this feels lived in. It feels real. You feel the pollution and infinite night of Midgar. You can sense the ostentatious wealth of Shinra Headquarters. You feel the crippling poverty of the Slums. You fell this world, not just sense it like in the original. People are living entire lives and you can objectively identify with that. You on;t need to infer sh*t any more.

Tifa, for me, is the best option for combat in this game. The sh*t they did with her abilities is kind of  a big deal. Once you get her, don’t hesitate to make her a front-line powerhouse because she can combo like no other. It takes time to learn the execution but, as long as you have ATB, you can f*ck a dude up consecutively and it’s amazing to see.

The level design is pretty decent. I never felt lost or frustrated by missions. There is a lot of backtracking though so that might annoy. I looked at it more as a means to explore the awesomeness that is Midgar but i can see it being a problem for those less than familiar with the JRPG system.

The Good

I hate Aerith. I think that chick is kind of useless but she is pretty much redeemed in this game. I was actually surprised by how much i cared about her by the end of this thing. Gonna make what happens later a real drag, man.

The Summon and Limit Break system is kind of dope. I like how they execute, i just don’t really care for the lack of control. In the original, you can just use a Summon like Magic and your Limit Breaks were tied to your health. In this thing, they just kind of appear randomly. It’s weird but the game makes up for it by giving you specific abilities to execute. These things were basically Limit Breaks in the old title so i guess that’s okay.

The new Limit Breaks are f*cking dope!

Remake can feel a bit grindy at times. Again, avid JRPG player so, for me, this was par for the course but i can see people getting frustrated with it I hear you can beat this game on level thirty or so, the cap is fifty, and you can actually get to thirty pretty early on but it entails a great deal of fighting. I, obviously, did that sh*t and capped out before i even got out of Wall Market good but cats aren’t built like me. That sh*t might weigh on another person’s nerves heavy.

The thing is, though, you NEED that grind because there are some legit difficulty spikes, man. It;s a cake walk and then you run into a wall of a boss. That hasn’t happened to me, i grind for days, but i can see how that sh*t is a trap for the unprepared.

The padding in this is very obvious to me. I’ve played every game in the VII Compilation, several times, so i know this story in and out. For me, certain “additions” stick out like sore thumbs. For the uninitiated, these extra portions kind of stall the narrative a bit. As much as i like Roche, his bits definitely kill momentum.

Barrett f*cking sucks.

The Meh

The camera can f*ck you a little bit. That motherf*cker loses it’s mind sometimes and, occasionally, those times are when you're fighting f*cking Sephiroth and this asshole Meteors you to death!

Materia doesn’t birth new ones once you mastered them. That’s whack but understandable. Gotta save memory for those gorgeous particle effects somewhere.

There is a lot of that JRPG sighing in this. It’s weird to see, especially when the dialogue feels so natural. If you’ve played these games as much as i have, you know what I’m talking about. The Japanese seem to do this a lot in their games. I’ve grown to kind of just ignore it but the sh*t is just so prominent in this title, it’s hard to miss.

I touched on this a little bit in my beef with Roche, but the pacing is mad wonky. It starts, builds a head of steam, but then stalls because there needs to be padding here. It can be kind of an irk-and-jerk narrative at times.

The Bad

F*ck Rollerball, man!

The Verdict

Remake is everything i wanted in this title. Look, it’s no secret i love Final Fantasy and i have been more than vocal about my worship of VII, specifically. Square would have had to lay a fat egg for me to hate this title and they did not do that. I loved this game. I loved the direction the next episodes are pointing. I love the open-ended nature of this conclusion. I heard Square plans to focus on a more faithful remake on the next few episodes but if they choose to go in another direction, I'd be curious to see where they take these characters. The worst thing i can say about this title is that the pacing tends to lag at points but, considering you stretched four hours of original narrative into a full blow, eighty hour, gaming experience, I'm surprised it didn’t drag more. Outside of that annoyance, everything else i listed were legit nitpicks. I got over all of that stuff in minutes and just let myself be enveloped by the intuitive game play, gorgeous graphics, amazing character development, brilliant voice acting, and gripping narrative. Final Fantasy VII Remake is an amazing gaming experience and i can’t sing it’s praises enough!

Rollerball is still a b*tch, though.