#new map looks like it has a new gimmick which is honestly a breath of fresh air

[ink--theory]

so...that new trailer huh?

[fuckingfroggymemesorsomeshit]

Pt 2 of monster hunter post

Deviljho - Deviljho is truly the Dark Souls of monster hunter. Deviljho was the hardest fight in the game when he was first released, not through gimmicks like Kushala or strange attacks like Kirin, but through aggression, ferocity, and broken hit boxes. Deviljho’s main weak point is it’s face, and you harvest needed parts from breaking its face, which is nothing new. It’s face is also it’s most dangerous part, still nothing new. However the level of danger that comes with fighting Deviljho head on was higher than any monster before him, as he could legitimately kill combo you off one hit, especially from a bite or from dragons breath. Deviljho, also, is incredibly tall. So tall that you probably won’t hit it in the head unless you’re using a long gunlance or ranged weapons, and trying more often than not will get you killed in your attack animation. Deviljho also loves to stagger, stun, and use tremors, which he can then turn into a kill combo. Just by being near one of his attacks, you are at risk of losing the mission. He was the first taste of how unfair monster hunter can be, and it gets much worsea in Iceborne. 10/10.

Kulve Taroth - Very cool looking, but an introduction to the ugly side of MHW grinding. At the time of release, KT had some of the best weapons in the entire game. However, they just had a random chance of dropping, and he could drop several types and degrees of these weapons, making you fight him over and over, battling RNG to get one fucking weapon that didn’t even look that cool. Neat design, nice fight, wouldn’t wanna do it 100 times like people have before.

Lunatsra - I didn’t fight lunastra lol

Beotodus - The first monster you encounter in Iceborne. Beotodus is actually okay. It is just a Jyuratodus/Laviosoth clone, but it’s model and move set are just different enough to make it stand out. Probably not a good first monster, not very impressionable, but palatable.

Banbaro - Banbaro is what should have been the introductory Iceborne monster. He is an incredibly fun fight with great environmental interactions and weapons. My only complaint is that you should be able to break his antlers more than you can. I know it’d be kinda game breaking to just shatter his main offensive weapon, but it’s monster hunter, lemme break his fucking horns

Viper Tobi Kadachi - The first of the Iceborne subspecies, Viper TK is a pretty challenging fight. His poison seems to act faster than other poisons in the game, and he rarely stops attacking. This is a trend that continues in Iceborne. One of the best gunlances in the game drop from him.

Nightshade Paolumu - Annoying. Puts you to sleep and then one shots you, while just kinda floating around. Really unremarkable, but unfun.

Coral Pukei-Pukei - Honestly, a really fun fight, his water jets are unique and his vibrant colors make him easy to look at even in spite of his horrific asshole tail that jets water at you.

Barioth - One of the hardest monsters to fight in Iceborne, Barioth is the first cat Wyvern you fight. His attacks are relentless, his hit boxes are huge, and every move sends him flying across the map. It’s a challenge just to keep up with this monster, and it’s incredibly difficult to be able to consistently DPS his health bar down. Even if you’ve memorized his attack patterns and can stay alive during this fight, his attacks send him so far and they happen so frequently that comboing him without a knockdown is nearly impossible, making you rely on chip damage for the majority of the fight. Because of this, the fight takes a much longer time than it should.

Nargacuga- Another cat wyvern. Coming off the fight with Barioth, I was very afraid of Nargacuga. I was worried this would be another 30 minute fight with a cat that just wouldn’t keep still, and while Nargacuga can match Barioth in aggression, he is significantly less mobile and some attacks even keep him held in place entirely, making the entire fight much more streamlined and fun. However, his weapons and armor are significantly less worth farming than Barioth.

Glavenus - At first glance, this monster was giving me flashbacks to Deviljho. His massive frame, heavy, fast attacks and fire breath brought back memories I wasn’t ready for. Luckily, Glavenus is a bit of a pushover in comparison. Unlike Deviljho, it is fairly safe to just sit at Glavenus’s legs and fire gunlance shells through his weak points without much worry. Obviously it isn’t the fastest way, but he really can’t do much about it and gunlance shells do set damage no matter if they’re hitting a weak point or not, so it gets the job done.

Tigrex - Tigrex is quite the difficult fight. His ferocity matches Deviljho’s and his attack range and speed is on par with Barioth. If you don’t know how to approach this fight, Tigrex will probably just roll you. His enormous hit boxes and constant attacking seems almost insurmountable. However, if you play the beginning of the fight slowly, sever his tail and break his arms, the fight is much easier. His tail no longer has the incredible range it did before, and his wild charge now had a chance to make him stumble, granting you a free knockdown. Some of the best armor in the game stats wise.

Brachydios- Really not much to say. His design is so different from every other monster, yet he manages to be incredibly boring to look at anyways. He slimes and he explodes, break his hands and head to castrate him. His armor is Shinjis mech from NGE and that’s kinda cool.

Shrieking Legiana - I want to mention that I won’t bring up every subspecies from here on out since most don’t really add to the monsters fight or how you approach it, but Shrieking Legiana is different. Legiana was already a fast, aggressive apex predator with Iceblight and constant flight to worry about, but pair that with the constant attacks of Iceborne monsters, and this is a new beast entirely. Shrieking Legiana NEVER slows down. She is always flying through the air, staggering, inflicting Iceblight, and one shottinf you. This fight is annoying.

Velkhana - Imagine Barioth if he could fly. Same situation. Fuck this fight.

Namielle - Another one of the coolest elder dragons in the game. Namielle has one of my favorite designs of any monster, with an almost squid like appearance and the aesthetic of the abyss. She’s a water themed monster, and her gimmick is the fill the arena will puddles then elecrocute you. Her armor is woefully ugly, but the weapons are top notch.

Shara Ishvalda - My number one monster in the entire game. The fight is amazing. The appearance is amazing. All the armor and weapons are amazing. The design of the monster is amazing. This monster is what Xeno’jiva wishes it could be. It blows Xeno’jiiva out of the water in every single way, the lackluster, dull fight is now an epic, beautifully scored battle, and Xeno’jiva boring and uninspired appearance is put up against one of the most unique designs of any video game enemy I’ve ever seen. Shara Ishvalda starts the fight encased in rocks, appearing as a giant stone golem that is slow moving but lethal. Once you break away it’s armor, it reveals the most disturbing but beautiful monsters in the game. Shara Ishvalda is sickly, but vibrant at the same time. The freakiest part is it’s eyes, which do not follow the player, but the camera as you fight it. It’s a very weird feeling, making it seem like Ishvalda is staring at you behind the screen. The issue is that the fight takes fucking forever, but for a one time final boss, it’s fine. However, like I said, Shara has some of the best weapons and armor in the game. If you want them, you won’t be just doing the fight once. Grinding Shara Ishvalda is one of the most tedious experiences in the game. Each fight takes in excesss of 30 minutes, amounting to a damage check where you simply are spamming the same combo on its legs over and over and over. Not fun to farm, but a great final boss.

Rajang - monke

[deltastorm101]

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst - A (critical) love letter.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of “a review I thought I could never write because I’m way too emotionally attached to this game which I know insanely, almost creepily well”, mixed with a healthy dose of “I should do everything but write this review because I want to finish school at some point but I have to use the surge of inspiration while it lasts”!

Today we will be talking about Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which was released 2016 as a prequel-ly reboot (saying it like this because for the longest time I’ve thought it to be a prequel but turns out it’s a lot more like a reboot... my bad) to the first Mirror’s Edge from 2008 (which, by the way, still looks fantastic today considering its release year). I will occasionally throw in references and aspects from the first game as well, but this will primarily be about Catalyst.

Time for game 👏 review 👏!

And as always - warning: spoilers. I’ll try to keep the really huge ones out of this or at least mark them well, but going off and playing for yourself first is recommended.

To start this off, I want to say that I initially loved the first Mirror’s Edge - however, only after playing Catalyst, I realized how bad the controls and bugs in it actually were, which is another way of saying Catalyst is a miracle when it comes to naturally flowing controls and crisp and polished looking environments. The city it takes place in, “Glass”, is breathtakingly gorgeous, period. Shiny, clean, it is just on point and one of the biggest reasons I consider it to be my favourite game from the day I first played it, hands down. Not even one of the new Tomb Raider games or one of my childhood-reminiscent games were able to top it and that means something.

The game takes place in an open world map complex under a totalitarian government, drawing parallels to George Orwell’s “1984” – big brother is watching you, all that. A dystopian world if I’ve ever seen one. The open world aspect is one of the best decisions the developers could have made; I have no words to describe how beautiful the different city districts are, and being able to run in freeroam through the city of Glass like parkour runners are meant to feels so much better than being trapped in closed-off levels like it was the case in the first game.

When I first wrote down some key aspects for this review while I was playing it once more, I noted that apparently, you only truly understand the game’s backstory and the protagonists’ origins if you’ve bought and read the comic, Mirror’s Edge Exordium, and that I think it’s not that important because you can well understand what’s going on at the beginning without it – the game starts with Faith, the main protagonist, getting out of jail/a sort of juvenile detention, making her way back into her old circle of friends and family and, of course, old unresolved and new unconsidered problems and conflicts. The comic basically explains what has been messed up by who to make her end up in juvie in the first place and, as I said, it’s not really necessary to know. But, after having bought it now after literal years of consideration, I can say that it’s definitely very nice to know, and totally worth it. There are a lot of elements from the game carefully and lovingly worked into the comic and vice versa (I don’t know what was written first, comic or game, but they fit together very nicely), and just having more reasons, more answers, a larger overview and even partly some explanations for the first game feels... right.

The voice acting is good overall – not strikingly awesome but definitely up there, especially during emotional cutscenes. Sometimes the controls are a bit wonky and Faith might not immediately do what your fingers tell her to but that could definitely be on me - in games where fast reaction is important, quick time events can go wrong occasionally, nothing new. There are some passages you could consider a QTE but they’re being displayed early enough for you to be able to mentally prepare for them as far as I see it. And in my book, that’s a massive improvement from the first game, where you were able to press a button perfectly in time even while having reaction time (= a temporary slow mode) activated, and still watch Faith gracefully fall down the side of the building while flailing her arms in fear because she didn’t grab onto that perfectly grabbable practical white ledge. Why, you ask? I don’t know, ask Faith. Oh, you can’t, obviously made clear by the nasty sound of her hitting the road and her neck being snapped apart. Seriously, I cringed to the moon and back when I first heard that ugly sound. Which is another thing they improved in Catalyst; now all you hear is her quick, raspy, fear-filled breaths and a blissful silence paired with a white death screen after you’ve hit a death barrier. Not the ground, a death barrier. There’s a shitload of them. Which is a pity regarding the fact that a whole lot more out-of-bounds areas would be reachable and playable if there weren’t. Honestly, I find it kind of disappointing that there’s this many invisible walls, fall-through grounds and death barriers. I can see why, conserving computing resources to avoid loading screens, blah blah, but still... let me go off the map, dammit. The game is about a group of people living “off the grid”, why can’t the player actually do that? Hm? Hmmm?

Another aspect tying into this is the social playing mechanic(s), which I found interesting but indeed totally unnecessary. We all know leaderboards of races and stuff, which were incorporated here as setting the best time in short, timed courses (“dashes”), which naturally have been hacked and cheated into ridiculousness. No, RunnerMaster69, I do not believe you ran that dash in three seconds and 420 nanoseconds, I just don’t. Upon completing a dash, you leave an ‘echo’, so basically a ghost other players can compare themselves to, and for you to see which route another player took. Nothing too groundbreaking on that front. There’s a way of tagging locations you’ve been to: so-called Beat Link Emitters (Beat L.E.s) are like little chips shining red in the world you can put down wherever you’re able to stand safely and have them appear in other people’s games to touch, which is a nice way of incorporating a way of saying “Hey, look where I was able to climb!” (And yes, I have abused this system; there’s a glitch making it possible for Faith to float down high buildings onto lower ones, which aren’t death-barriered but not reachable on a normal way. You bet I was a floating gurl putting down Beat L.E.s whereeeeever I could. So much fun. Sorry.)

The same goes for hackable billboards, which can also appear in your friends’ games, but they could have been designed a lot more interestingly. If you hack a billboard, your runner tag appears on it, which consists of a visual symbol, a frame around it, and a background. You can customize the tag in a companion app, which again I didn’t really find necessary. But it is pretty self-explanatory and a nice gimmick if you’re into that kinda stuff.

Maybe an irrelevant aspect: Faith is wearing the same outfit (almost) throughout the whole game. Only at the beginning while getting to the runners’ lair she’s wearing something different and I see missed potential there: let the player run in these clothes, or in the prison clothes, or in the clothes from Mirror’s Edge 1, or in some of the fancy clothes Glass’ high society is wearing, or generally different runner’s attire which still stays true to the style, or Black November garb... endless opportunities, missed. Not at all crucial, but in my opinion maybe better than some different-looking billboard...

Coming back to the (back-)story aspect once more; as with all of today’s big triple-A games, there’s a looooot of documents and recordings to find, to give the player a loooot of backstory, which I found terribly overdone. It always felt like there was too much to collect and too few actual story told; not to mention some story bits not being in either of the games or their collectables, but in a separately sold comic, well done EA, well done.

Additionally, a lot of the documents were about literal history of the state called Cascadia and the ‘conglomerate’ and Omnistat and the November Riots (don’t worry if you have no idea what these words mean, I don’t either...) and regarding the fact that I finished taking history in school with a D ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)... you can imagine I wasn’t that interested in the actual history elements. Give me story anytime, but get the hi- prefix outta here please.

Another thing that I just very recently discovered: Some of the performed parkour movements are inaccurate. Thanks to my new interest of binging parkour tutorial videos I’ve seen actual mistakes in movement (in both games), which I can understand sometimes because some of them have been implemented on purpose and for a reason. For example: A parkour safety roll is performed sideways, with one of your shoulders hitting the floor first and the impact being absorbed and reduced by your whole back rolling over the ground in a diagonal line, ending in one of your feet carrying over the fall’s momentum for you to be able to stand up and run right along, probably even faster than before the drop. In the first game, this was handled straight up terribly; not only did Faith not roll diagonally but straight on her spine, which fuckin hurts if you perform it after you took a fall and is dangerous as all hell, but all her momentum got lost as well - it didn’t make any difference if you took a hard fall, the screen flashed red and you had to build new momentum, or if it was a soft fall with a nice (hurting and dangerous) roll, her stopping dead in her tracks like “Oh wow, did you see that, I made a roll” and then continuing to build new momentum because it all got lost. BUT since this is about Catalyst: Faith is still performing a straight spine-hurting-dangerous-as-all-hell-roll, but at least she keeps her momentum when she does it. Regarding to what I said at the beginning of this semi-rant-paragraph because I’ve “studied” (emphasis on the quotation marks) parkour theory so much at this point, yet am not able to actually perform any moves because I don’t have the strength, stamina or willpower to- Uh, where was I...? Ah, yeah, the reason for the incorrectly performed roll. It’s obvious when you think about it: motion sickness, a gamer’s best friend when it comes to first-person perspective. If Faith was performing a correct roll, it would turn and shake the camera around too much, which could potentially make the player motion sick over time. Period. Look up some first-person safety roll footage on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. So, there’s a reason, and we should be thankful the roll is a straight gymnastics roll. Sorry Faith, looks like your spine and neck have to suffer a little longer. However, I can and will not understand why they have Celeste, a character from the first game, climb up ledges with her knees and elbows. No. NO. Feet first. If you can’t do feet first, then do one foot first and then pull up the rest. If you can’t do that, train more and don’t call yourself a runner yet, doing this for a living on top of I-dunno-how-high-rooftops.

My feelings are kind of ambivalent on the no-guns mechanics - all you can defend yourself with is your fists (and legs and momentum, of course), while in the first game, you could snatch people’s guns and start some weaponized combat. I liked both of these strategies, not really caring when they announced Faith not being able to do shootieshootie-pewpew this time around.

One thing I liked a lot considering the open world aspect is that if you die, you respawn exactly where you last stood on safe ground before dying (except in missions, of course). It makes freeroaming very comfortable because you don’t have to worry about respawn- and checkpoints; you can just try again when you messed up a jump.

They also changed the beacon- and navigation system (“runner’s vision”) a bit too, which was also definitely necessary for the open world (which they’ve praised as a lot less linear, but honestly? It isn’t really. I knew my way around in Glass pretty well after a mere month of playing), but they did include options for how much you want the game to help you. There’s normal runner’s vision, with a red streak appearing every few seconds, showing you exactly where to run; there’s classic runner’s vision, made to be like in the first game, with environmental beacons and indicators being coloured in red when coming close to them and without the red streak; and of course, you can switch it off completely, which I occasionally like to do to test how well I really know my way around in Glass.

The soundtrack is outstanding. Straight up phenomenal. It can empower and hype you up, but can also be relaxing during a relaxing sightseeing trip through Glass. And it’s also great to leave on as background music while studying (I’m making use of that when preparing for graduation exams), or driving.

There is dynamic day- and night time - I liked that a lot, it’s a good way of showing off the lighting at all sorts of times. Only problem I had: a night sky is supposed to be black, not royal blue.

Note: almost all the “problems” I’ve listed here have been made mods for (e.g. more exciting looking billboards, more outfits, a changeable day-night cycle and a black night sky). If I had enough experience with (and patience for) modding, I’d definitely try it myself but the ‘flaws’ aren’t grave enough for me to feel a desire to manipulate and tweak some game files.

Okay, time for a spoiler. Not a bad one, but one that could give you ideas if you know how Mirror’s Edge rolls, or if you’ve played the first game... which is basically a spoiler in itself too. Ahem, anyway.

Towards the end of the game, when I was profoundly convinced of it being one of my all-time favourites, I was like “Yes, finally a game that improves and learns from past mistakes and listens to their players and what they want”... and then came Noah. I bawled my eyes out and I will be forever angry at the devs for doing this. That’s all I’m saying.

That ultimately didn’t stop me from loving the game though. From an objective standpoint I’d say it’s an overall good prequel/reboot/requel/preboot. Faith’s universe became a bit more mainstream but also a lot more polished and they definitely listened to their fans to some degree. From the very subjective standpoint I have written this review from, I’m saying that Mirror’s Edge Catalyst holds a very special place in my heart and I am truly glad it saw the light of day, after everyone waiting 8 years for it to be released after the first game. (I didn’t wait quite that long; I got Mirror’s Edge 1 in January 2016 and was completely and utterly hooked and hyped for Catalyst in May 2016.)

And that concludes it. If you’ve read this far – thank you. I’m aware that this is a bit different from my other reviews tone-wise - I have put every ounce of sass I possess into this because I... felt like it :D I hope it was fun to read!

[danbevanwriting]

The Ranking of Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy III is the second game that the West didn't see an official localised version until many years later. Initially released a few years after Final Fantasy II in Japan, it was remade with a new localisation and 3D update 26 years later in 2006 on Nintendo DS. This game is important in the lineage of the series as it's the one that set the motifs of the series; Chocobos, Cid as a recurring character, Job specific actions, even some of the designs of iconic jobs that are still used today. But was the game worth the long wait for Western audiences?

The version of the game I played (and will continue to play from here on out) is the version available of Steam, which is itself a version of the mobile port. The only real differences between these versions and the DS remake is the User Interface, which I personally didn't kind too off putting despite looking a bit clunky. The content and graphics are otherwise the same as the DS version. Upfront I'll say that I like the style of the 3D remake. It retains the chibi-esque style for the characters that the series is known for during the NES/ SNES era. The world is colourful and benefits from the 3D modelling by giving the world more character through the use of added details to the floor tiles. The game was no slouch on the NES either though, it definitely improved graphics compared to previous games, with unique sprites for each job that the characters could take and battles looking more impressive than ever. It's honestly quite impressive what Square managed to do with the NES, even if there was a few assets clearly still being used from the original game (mostly world map town and castles looking very similar, and the warrior sprite being literally the same from Final Fantasy I).

Basic gameplay is untouched during the exploration of the world from previous games. You're still walking through dungeons picking up items, fighting random battles, talking to townsfolk to gather clues for how to advance forward. The wrinkle this game provided to the formula is that each character can change their 'job' whenever they want from a growing selection. This means that you're not stuck with the same class set up from the get-go like in the original game and characters more instantly specialise unlike in FF2. Bored of your current set up? Just change that White Mage to a Red Mage, or try an all offensive group of melee brawlers! In the remake the only downside to switching is that there's a 'cooling off' period after switching in which you have to fight a certain amount of battles with lowered stats before becoming normal. Stats don't carry over between jobs either, with the only permanent change being HP, which does lead to an issue where characters who didn't play much as melee characters can end the game with a disadvantageous amount of health (this is definitely something that happened to me). Overall though this is a rather fun system to experiment with, keeping me engaged throughout most of the game's playtime.

Situations that the game throws at you sometimes lead to influencing your party composition. This comes with some mixed results though. The more interesting of these is where you have to go through a dungeon while being mini, meaning that physical attacks are useless. This means that the best way through these dungeons is to bring a party of casters, which definitely mixes things up and is interesting to think and plan around. A situation which isn't as good however is during a part of the game where you're stranded in a town area and the only way to get out is to beat the boss of the area: Garuda. The problem with this part of the game is that if you don't take a party of Dragoons (which the game heavily implies you should do) then you are already dead. Only Dragoon gear is attainable and the boss' weakness is spears but this doesn't make this interesting as there's only one solution to the encounter. A similar issue occurs during a late game dungeon where the only way to get through without pulling your hair out is to bring a party of Dark Knights to stop all the normal enemies you encounter from duplicating themselves. The problem with this is that Dark Knights are basically worthless outside of this dungeon as they don't bring much of interest in terms of their abilities. The 'getting mini or turning to a toad to get in to the dungeon' gimmick also starts to wear thin by the end of the game, mostly because it wastes 2 charges of magic to get the party small or warty and then back again. It's nothing game breaking but it becomes a tired gimmick by the end of the game.

The dungeon design in general is much improved over the last game, however. Gone are the trap rooms that yielded nothing but crushed dreams and a thousand random battles. The dungeons now are a bit more linear with off shoots from the main path that more often than not have some goodies to pick up. None of them are overly complex to the point that you'd get lost and none of them ever really last too long either. Dungeons even have a bit of characteristics with them as they often have unique designs apart from a couple of the optional dungeons which are just generic cave dungeons. Otherwise they're fine, nothing to really complain about or overly praise either to be honest.

Final Fantasy III does not try to tell a story as ambitious as Final Fantasy II's, although it is still more fleshed out than the original game's. In the remake the developers tried to give each of the 4 heroes their own personality and backstory but it's rather thin and doesn't amount to much by the end. It's still more than the nothing you're given in the NES original (although your characters spoke between each other, there was never names attached to lines and they never really said anything profound). Characters in general are rather thin to be honest, there's no character dynamics I found to be memorable and even a lot of the major characters are more plot device than characters. Cid's got a wife in this one though, so that's... nice! What is interesting about the game is the world building that the game does. This isn't any more evident than when you realise that the world map you started on is only a tiny part and is actually just a small floating island in the corner of the map. You get out, and the world is covered in a thick fog that you need to disperse. It's interesting, and the build up to the Crystal Tower at the end is a fun experience as you uncover parts of the world and how the darkness has affected parts of it. The conclusion is rather limp though, with the guy you've been chasing throughout the game not actually being the last boss but actually being manipulated by an even greater threat known as the Cloud of Darkness! Gasp! This is another theme that ends up being carried forward in to the series too. Unfortunately, the Cloud of Darkness and the Crystal Tower, as cool as they are, is where I found issue with the game in general.

Up until the Crystal Tower, the game is not too hard (even with bosses in the remake attacking twice per turn) and seems overall to be well balanced. I beat most bosses on my first or second try and the fights seemed just hard enough that they were lengthy and fun. None of this is an issue until the very end of the game. You climb the Crystal Tower and nothing really poses too much of a threat: usually a good sign that you're in the right level curve to face what's coming. I reached the top, beat Xande rather easily and then Cloud of Darkness shows up and your group follows her to her realm: The World of Darkness. This is a point of no return by the way. Here, there are boss level enemies you fight in random encounters, have to fight 4 bosses with HP pools double that of Xande's, and then fight Cloud of Darkness who has 4 times his health. She has a group-wide attack originating from one of her tentacles that does massive magic damage as well as being able to attack twice herself. It's such a huge difficulty spike and it's completely unfair with it coming after a point of no return, meaning that if you fail you have to go through the whole of the Crystal Tower again, wasting a couple of hours' progress. This is such a sour note to end the game on after it being so enjoyable up until this final dungeon, it's such a shame that the game stumbles so hard on the final hurdle. It doesn't help that the way the story ends involves a contrived event that brings characters from the game with 'pure hearts of light' to help the heroes out of a jam, and for some reason, one of those characters is one of the old men who thought they were the warriors of light. A character that seemed to have been used as a joke in one of the towns. I audibly said to myself 'are you actually serious?'  when it happened, it was such a bizarre plot point.

I don't wish to end this review on a sour note, however, as I can more than confidently say that the music in this game is incredible. After the disappointing showing from Final Fantasy II this is a breath of fresh air. The overworld theme has a light airy sound to it that evokes a quiet mystery, the battle themes are exciting and energetic, the boss theme is incredibly iconic. The only tracks that annoyed me were the 'liberated' theme which plays in certain towns and locations after a saving it from a major threat, and a couple of the town themes were pretty obnoxious to the point where I just wanted to get out of them as soon as I could. As it's a NES game the themes are pretty short loops, which does lessen the impact of the good songs and amplify the irritation of the lesser ones. Overall though, a big thumbs up in the music department!

To conclude then I enjoyed FF3 quite a lot overall, to the point where I stayed up late a lot to play it. I would say I enjoyed it more that the previous 2 games even though this game has flaws all of its own. The job system is great and fun but is ultimately a bit shallow, especially when comparing to games to follow (hint, hint). I would still say this is the best of the NES era games though due to it having ambition and mostly hitting the right notes, unlike Final Fantasy II. The series' biggest flaw at this point of it's life is that the plot and characters are still rather underdeveloped but they've given the games their own distinct style and gameplay that is well refined. The old games would probably be best kept to only being played by die-hard fans, even the remakes.

Current Rankings:

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy I

Final Fantasy II

[entergamingxp]

The Steam Game Festival 2020: Demo Impressions Lightning Round

June 26, 2020 4:00 PM EST

Having played the best, I now play the rest. Here are more demo impressions from The Steam Game Festival that didn’t leave the same mark.

The Steam Game Festival – Summer Edition’s first iteration has come and gone, and I feel like it was an overall success. Lots of up and coming games got fresh eyes on them to drum up interest and feedback. I took it upon myself to play huge swathes of them, and I’ve already covered the games that most stood out to me. But that’s only the 10 most impressive games of the 24 in total I played.

As before, I’ve written impressions and limited myself to two paragraphs per game. They aren’t as universally good quality this time around, but there’s still some potential gems buried away here. So, here’s the lightning round of my remaining demo impressions from The Steam Game Festival – Summer Edition.

Iron Harvest

A squad based RTS with steampunk mechs in an alternate history set a little after World War I. It’s set in the same world as the acclaimed board game Scythe. In practice, Iron Harvest plays a lot like Company of Heroes with a WWI skin featuring steampunk mechs. You build up your forces, take and hold resource points on the map, and try to beat the enemy before they beat you. I was looking forward to this game, but I honestly found myself quite underwhelmed.

The ability to pick up weapons from defeated enemies and change up your infantry armaments on the fly is neat, and the presentation is quite nice. But I just found that the gameplay is missing something. The cover system is very barren and requires you to build most of it, and units just don’t feel like they’re as effective as they should be. Unit control feels unresponsive, the mechs are visually impressive but clunky to move, and I just found myself failing to engage with it. It all felt very hollow and lacked any sort of punch or X factor when playing. I hope this can be improved before launch, but it ultimately feels like it’s too barren an experience as it stands.

The Survivalists

The Survivalists is a somewhat standard survival/simulation game. You’re a castaway on an island and have to scrounge for resources to survive, thrive, and eventually escape. In addition to the colourful pixel art, The Survivalists’ main gimmick are the friendly monkeys you can bring on your side. These can be trained to gather materials for you, mass produce basic crafting, or aid you in combat.

In practice however, I found the controls and UI to be fairly imprecise and unclear. Multiple times I thought I was teaching my monkey pal a new task and assigning him orders, only for it to do nothing or go completely awry. The system needs a little cleaning up, I think. Beyond this, The Survivalists is colourful, functional, and entertaining enough. It’s fairly generic survival stuff beyond the presentation at this early point, though. With that said, there did seem to be the promise of ancient ruins, pirate treasures, and other intriguing things to unearth from hints gleaned in the world. Hopefully there’s more spark and variety in the full thing.

Builders of Egypt

Back in 1999, Impressions Games released an Egyptian flavoured city builder called Pharaoh. This is a game that my teenage history nerd self played quite a lot of. Apparently, so did the makers of Builders of Egypt. This is effectively an attempt at making that classic game on a modern engine. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything on offer here that I couldn’t get from just replaying Pharaoh. And I don’t mean that to be a reflection of the early nature of development; it just seems like it will be a lesser game even when complete.

Pharaoh had real charm to its presentation, sound, and general design that I just don’t feel in Builders of Egypt. There’s a lack of colour and personality here that no amount of historical accuracy and high fidelity Unreal Engine lighting can replace. Now to be fair to Builders of Egypt, it’s a perfectly serviceable city builder with a solid theme. It’s possible that with enough time and effort, the mechanics and options for building cities here will really stand out. I just don’t see it currently, is all. It’s not a great feeling to want to go and replay a 20-year-old game after playing a new demo, unfortunately.

Stronghold: Warlords

After finishing this demo, I went to check who had developed this. I thought that this was someone trying to capitalise on the Stronghold name and legacy with a cheap knockoff, or else they’d managed to get their hands on the IP. To my surprise, it’s still the same developer that’s had the series since the original game. Sadly, that’s not the only thing that hasn’t changed since the first game, either.

Stronghold: Warlords is a city-builder/RTS with a focus on building and defending a castle or stronghold. Warlords is an eastern-themed one, and has a diplomacy feature by which you can bring the titular Warlords into your fold for bonuses. But the entire thing is ugly, slapdash, and controls awfully. Again, it feels like there hasn’t been any forward development or improvement from the very first Stronghold game(s) almost two decades ago. This will need a lot of work to make it even slightly comparable to those games. Given the poor reception Stronghold 3 got, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Occupy Mars

Another survival game, and this one just begging comparison to the book (and film adaptation of) The Martian. The aim of Occupy Mars is exactly what the title says. You’re an astronaut on Mars and you have to gather resources and build up the facilities needed for future colonisation prospects. The gimmick for this one is that it is intensely micro-management heavy. For example, let’s say you want to get ore from a rock. Generally, survival games will let you hit it twice with a pickaxe and then pick up the ore. In Occupy Mars, you’ll start by breaking up rocks into smaller chunks a few times until they’re small enough for your rover’s crane arm to load them. Then you’ll be manually moving and opening/closing the crane’s claw to load chunks of ore into your trailer.

That’s only the beginning of the tiny details you’ll need to control and pay attention to. How about manually setting power consumption, dragging power cables around and placing them in the right sockets? Or having separate oxygen metres for your spacesuit and interior structures? I generally don’t mind this genre of game, but Occupy Mars felt way too technical and fiddly for me to gel with it. That said, this is absolutely a dream for a small niche of players who crave that level of simulation. I respect its commitment to detail-oriented gameplay and wish it well, so check it out if this is your thing.

Haven

Haven’s a potentially interesting one, but the short demo didn’t give me a lot to go off. It starts with a gorgeously vivid animated cutscene full of life and colour. The actual gameplay can’t match those visuals, but it definitely tries to match the aesthetic. Said gameplay is very movement centric, as you control your character(s) and glide over the landscape to collect resources and investigate the world. At the tail end of the demo, it surprised me by becoming an RPG, featuring an ATB-esque battle system. You control two characters with their inputs mapped to each half of the controller, and you unleash their appropriate actions in combos or sequence as appropriate.

More than anything, Haven is aiming to be a story-driven experience. The two characters are young and in a relationship together, making that abundantly clear in their early actions and dialogue. It’s all set amidst a somewhat fantastical sci-fi backdrop, and there’s definitely enough threads that pique my curiosity. At the same time, it could very easily crash and burn hard based on execution, and there’s a couple red flags in the dialogue that make me worried about that. So I’ve got a curious eye on this one, and we’ll see if it pans out.

Learning Factory

I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Learning Factory. It’s not unlike Factorio, that delightfully complex game in which you build massive automated resource collection networks. The look, layout, and mechanics of Learning Factory are almost identical to that, but on a very simple level. Despite this, it’s got a very stylised appearance, and the machines are being built in order to sell goods to cats and satisfy their needs.

Just when I thought this was a kid’s first Factorio, that’s when it kicked off the learning machines and data analytics angle. You take the data from selling goods to cats and then refine it via these learning machines to perfect your algorithm and maximise your sales. There’s even a tutorial and links to educational sources for more about learning machines. By the looks of it, the developers Luden.io have a focus on making educational games, so on that front I could see this being a useful resource. It’s not something that I’d want to play over its contemporaries, but I nonetheless respect this approach and wish the devs all the best in this undertaking!

Ostranauts

Ostranauts is a top-down adventure/simulation where you get a derelict spaceship working and set off into space with it, hiring your crew and making life work out there. Unfortunately, that description ends up being far more alluring than the game is to play. It’s another case of having incredibly technical mechanics that end up being really esoteric in practice. There’s an audience for this, but it isn’t for me. Instead, I just found it very unclear how I was supposed to proceed with actions and tasks, and struggled to even begin doing so.

In fairness, this seemed to be one of the least ready-to-experience demos I played; so much of this could just be technical difficulties. Lots of trial and error was required to even really begin, only to find certain aspects clearly bugged and broken. This is a game in dire need of a manual, but that’s currently complete absent. I get the feeling that I’d be able to fly a real space shuttle easier than I could a ship in Ostranauts, at least until there’s actual documentation present. There’s not really a lot I can say about this one, unfortunately. Alas, I’m not interested in seeing more of it.

Mr. Prepper

Based on its appearance, I assumed Mr. Prepper was going to play something like Fallout Shelter. In practice, it’s much more a standard survival game with resource collection and crafting. Even so, the unique perspective and dystopian “hyper American Dream” setting and narrative makes for a fairly compelling time.

You have to manage your usual gauges for survival and scrounge what resources you can, but you’re also being watched by government agents. There will be routine inspections of your house, so you have to hide all evidence of your secret bunker and illicit activities. This means keeping your house above ground in complete order, covering up workbenches, putting bunker entrances under a rug, and so on. It’s an interesting little spin on things, and I have to say that I’m intrigued by Mr. Prepper. Will keep an eye on this one.

Grounded

I’m still surprised that this is made by Obsidian. But then, considering the systems are largely just adding more survival and crafting aspects to The Outer Worlds, it’s not all that unbelievable. Grounded is yet another survival game, but this plays with the Honey I Shrunk The Kids formula. You’re a child/teenager who has been shrunk to the size of a bug, and has to survive a suburban backyard amidst an assortment of now very large insects.

Like so many survival games, the general mechanics and crafting options on offer here are nothing new. The aesthetic and concept of your resources being chunks of grass stalks and bug parts is remarkably endearing, though. There’s also a lot of nods to the era of ’80s/’90s aesthetics and a general Weird Science feel to it all, though. I’m not sure how much content and variety this will feature, but Grounded definitely felt more charming than I expected. Worth a look at the very least.

Arietta of Spirits

At a glance, Arietta of Spirits ticks a lot of boxes for a somewhat generic indie game. Colourful pixel art, classic action/adventure mechanics that evoke memories of classic games — 2D Zelda titles in this case — and a story that promises to be emotional and personal? That’s all here, and there wasn’t anything in my time with Arietta of Spirits that I hadn’t experienced like that before. Still, that’s disingenuous of me to say. Something doesn’t have to be unique to be good, and Arietta’s demo was good.

It’s pretty, playable, charming and fairly well-written. The concept of the spirit realm bleeding into the physical has lots of potential to work with. Gameplay mechanics were somewhat bland though, with little in the way of unlocks or special moves beyond slash with sword and dodge roll. There’s nothing bad or out of place here, it just hasn’t really done much to elevate itself. I’d need to see how Arietta of Spirits plays in later parts before I can make a solid judgement call here.

Wild Terra 2: New Lands

Wild Terra 2: New Lands is another survival game, but this time it’s an MMORPG. You start in the wilderness and have to gather resources to survive, eventually building up a base and developing technology. Skills will increase through use, and some scavenged items will be higher quality than others. Once again, nothing that the genre hasn’t seen before, but it’s got some depth and a decent amount of options in its tech tree to entice players.

What killed the game for me, then, was the MMORPG aspect. As an Australian, I connected to the Asia Pacific server first, only to find that lag and rubber-banding was pretty extreme. I tested out the gameplay systems and found them enticing enough, but swapped to the US server to see if performance was better. Technically, the latency was improved, but in exchange? Everywhere I moved to in every direction was filled with the camps and huts of other players, and almost all usable resources were now impossible to find and respawning insanely slowly. For a new character, it was practically unplayable. If this isn’t fixed or addressed by launch, Wild Terra 2 is likely dead on arrival. Some potential here, but the current state is worrisome.

Earth From Another Sun

This is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I feel like Activision-Blizzard is going to smite me just for even speaking about the existence of this game. Still, here it goes: Earth From Another Sun is a blatant asset flip that shamelessly plunders visuals and designs from the likes of StarCraft. If the thumbnail wasn’t a dead giveaway, then the fact that I was fighting a slightly modified Hydralisk almost immediately was. Mechanically, it’s a horde-mode FPS that tasks you with killing enough units in a time limit to progress to the next wave, gathering pickups and loot along the way.

There is so much wrong with this game, quite frankly. It’s a visual mess; not just for the cheaply-designed or copied assets but also just in how readable the UI and systems are. Nothing describes trying to figure out what I was doing better than “trial by fire,” as I had no recourse but to wing everything. And yet? I couldn’t help but find the idea of the game enthralling. A fast-paced and frantic FPS with numerous progression and customisation elements? I could see myself playing that. Or hell, just make a StarCraft FPS. Anything that isn’t this much of a mess. Steer clear of this one, but do take note of the ideas in the process, developers!

EarthBreakers

Speaking of an FPS based on an RTS franchise, who else remembers Command and Conquer: Renegade? Petroglyph does, because that’s what they’re attempting to reimagine with EarthBreakers. It’s a team-based FPS where you use resources collected by harvesting or through kills on building up an RTS-style base. You can use money on upgrades for you and your team, eventually producing base defences and vehicles to deploy. Ultimately, the last base standing is the winner.

References to the original C&C Renegade notwithstanding, EarthBreakers is a decent proof of concept. It’s going to need a lot more work to really shine, though. Movement was very floaty, and weapons didn’t feel particularly satisfying to shoot or land. Hitboxes were an awkward affair, and currently the only vehicle on offer are tanks so there’s not a lot of variety. As much as I love the concept and really hope for it to be polished and delivered, I’m not sure that Petroglyph has the chops to land a strong FPS that feels solid to play. Let’s hope I’m proven wrong.

And that’s everything I played for the Summer Edition of The Steam Game Festival. The event is over now, but many of these games will be developed further and available in the future. Some are worth keeping an eye on, and some are less so. But overall, this was a good event, and the availability of demos is only a good for customers.

Here’s hoping the trend will continue, and I shall likely to do this again for future events. For now, if anything piques your interest, you can click the links on each game in the piece above to wishlist them on Steam.

June 26, 2020 4:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/the-steam-game-festival-2020-demo-impressions-lightning-round/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-steam-game-festival-2020-demo-impressions-lightning-round

[industryemissions]

Trailer in Review: Galar Region on the Map

Hello..., Everyone?

In case you aren’t up to date on the newest information in the Pokemon game series, follow the link below to the recent Pokemon Direct (published 2/27/2019).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOPVBm0sA7Q

Glorified Trailer Analysis (as if I could do better)

The year is 2019, and Nintendo, along with their development team at GameFreak, are preparing to debut their first EVER mainline installment for the Pokemon franchise on console. In order to announce this momentous occasion, Nintendo decided to set the field on their own terms using Pokemon Direct. Past use of Nintendo’s low budget press conference has been a very smart step for the company in rolling out advertising campaigns, but responses to the debut have been mixed at best. In this analysis, I’ll take a look at the tactics Nintendo rolls out and what I felt worked and did not work. 

The original Pokemon Red & Blue theme spooles up on its rusted rails to carry the viewer through a rather linear roller coaster ride they’ve seen too many times before. Ready and waiting to greet us is the one and only Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO and President of The Pokemon Company. At first sight, his body language says stiff as his eyes glaze across the overhead prompt. Understandably, these things are essentially just Nintendo getting to control their own advertising. As long as they use his face and voice for those words, it’s a solid start to their campaign. After giving the classic “each and every player has traveled a journey uniquely theirs etc, etc,” Mr. Ishihara gives a slight bow and asks the viewer to take their first glimpse at the Galar Region. 

The music swells once more, it races from what sounds like a slight re-track of a Pokemon Revolution theme, into a breakbeat rendition of the classic Red & Blue intro theme (one with the most hyper-active bassline I’ve ever heard). The world is gorgeous and takes great advantage of the three dimensional rendering. It displays sprawling grasslands on rolling hills, frozen mountain caps, arid deserts, and urban/rural towns all rendered in what appears to be Silicon Studios’ Yebis 3 engine (the same as Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee). The same old edit style displaying cut after cut of battle footage with Pokemon new and old is rolled across the screen (Pikachu of course being one of them). The showcase of in-engine gameplay slowly closes to a blank white radial gradient screen. The soundtrack dies down leaving a lull in its place. 

Intro, the Pokemon money shot- starters. Viewers get a cutscene of the grass type chimp, Grookey, the fire type rabbit, Scorbunny and the water type lizard, Sobble. From here, the presentation is pretty par for the course. A couple of developers are there to fill gaps, then the video is closed out with Ishihara to wrap things up using that bleak, timeless charm.

Nintendo’s Good and Eh (Because Nothing is Really Bad)

Here, I would like to begin flushing out what I felt Nintendo did right and wrong. I believe there are three core areas: the use of Nintendo Direct, trailer techniques and nostalgia gimmicks.

1. Nintendo Direct Usage - Nintendo Direct, more specifically Pokemon Direct, is essentially a great marketing tool for Nintendo to debut a product and retain complete control of its presentation. I’m no expert, but I would say they probably write, stage and record the presentation entirely in-shop. Unlike major press conferences such as E3, Tokyo Game Show, PAX and others, Nintendo doesn’t need to compete with the massive dick measuring contests that are Xbox and Playstation conferences. Additionally, this gets rid of paying for stage time and presentation for people that are not directly enthusiastic fans (wasted coverage). They can also negate any symptoms of conference free radicals (lighting, sound, crowd energy, etc.). Although I do respect their minimalist approach to presentation, I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy a little wow factor (a guy with a flute may be a bit too artistic, though).

The video’s runtime is a quick seven minutes exactly, dedicated entirely to Sword and Shield. However, Pokemon only receive about two minutes of screentime. Now, I’m not saying the speakers are boring in the video, but they definitely don’t help with the underwhelming nature of the two minutes of rendered footage. I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure how this can be remedied other than possibly adding in a little bit of personality and energy. I understand that Nintendo wants to hit the largest market they can, but keeping things bland doesn’t help with presentation. 

2. Trailer Techniques - The trailer techniques are fairly simple, and I do feel they use Nintendo Direct as a clean introduction for presenting the trailer itself. The classic Red & Blue theme begins, followed by the fighting and running montages showcasing different arena designs and interactive environments, all of which look great. However, what was missing for me was the new generation of Pokemon.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield mark the debut of the eighth generation of Pokemon, and though reveal trailers rarely showcase the new generation, I couldn’t let slide a trailer that did include some Pokemon but only old. It was an interesting decision that only left me wanting more, and unfortunately, the cut including the starters didn’t satiate that desire. All due respect, I am on the side that says players need to see the starter evolutions before deciding whether I like them.

3. Nostalgia Gimmicks - This will take into account the full Pokemon Direct. Nintendo is a company of tradition. Sometimes that works for Nintendo and sometimes it does not. They use their long heritage of the Pokemon title well. There are endless amounts of dreams and perceptions within the Pokemon universe, which shows through the stream of various gameplays in the beginning of the cast. They employ the classic battle theme every trainer gets rock hard to. They address players as trainers beginning journeys all over the globe in different times and spaces. Just as they would within the Pokemon world, but is this an advantage or a hindrance for the company?

We’ve all seen Nintendo struggle to keep up within the highly competitive console gaming realm. Even though keeping a different release schedule and portable gaming in their back pocket helps, it all comes back to haunt them when they can’t seem to roll out a clean online experience in the years 2018 and 2019. The expression “my way or the highway” comes to mind when I think about the company, I personally do not see that as a good thing. I may love Nintendo’s past just as much as the next grown child, but I think it’s time they stop leaning so heavily upon their past. I’m not saying put the starters in a red Corvette and send them to Mars, but there needs to be an acceptance of the passage of time. It seems that the company is afraid to step into the future, for fear of losing their advantages within the past. 

So, What do I Think of the Presentation (Honestly, Who Cares)

I thought the whole of the presentation was well done. I do think that giving the franchise its own “Direct” warrants a bit more of a show, potentially more than seven minutes. I also think that the show did exactly what it needed to. It showed Mr. Ishihara, in all his big boss glory, talking directly to the viewers. It gave us a glimpse at what will probably be the most aesthetically pleasing Pokemon game to date. To top it off, it cut a ton of costs for Nintendo and gave them complete control over the debut of the game and the words leading into the subsequent advertising campaign. 

While I genuinely think that showing more new Pokemon would have been a good move to alleviate some of the pressure on the starters, I think that what we got suffices. This Pokemon Direct did not “wow”, but Nintendo, in my opinion, rarely does (other than with Breath of the Wild). We’ve all been down this road before, and while I think the road could use a little landscaping and some fresh flowers, Nintendo’s PR team kept expectations reasonable, and the advertising and trailer teams delivered a well written script for displaying what I hope to be a great piece of gaming. 

[tumblethemuse]

How Sonic Mania Has Rekindled My Personal Sonic Mania

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that my hands down, no contest, absolute favorite character of all time is Sonic the Hedgehog. My love of the Blue Blur began innocently enough back in 1991 when my older brother received a Sega Genesis for Christmas. At that time, Sonic 1 was bundled with new Sega Genesis systems, so it was actually one of the first Genesis games we owned. My brother, being the sports fan he was, stuck with Madden and other titles of the time, but me, being 6 years old and very much into things that were flashy and bright (something that really hasn’t changed much to this day), and much less into sports, stuck with Sonic. I was immediately drawn in by the colors and intricacies of the maps, the exploration and hidden sections of the levels, as well as the implementation of the momentum physics, which were often used as the primary way to progress through levels. Back then I didn’t understand any of that, all I knew was “Ooh, pretty colors”, “Ooh, where does this lead?”, and “Ooh fast!” It was a game that even my brother enjoyed (and help me try [in vain] to collect all the chaos emeralds), and a fun bonding moment for the two of us.

Cut to 1992, Sonic 2 is released, and it’s all I want for Christmas. Santa heard my incessant 7-year-old babbling about wanting it, and delivered. I really don’t remember what else I got that Christmas, as Sonic 2 was the only thing I wanted. The colors were more vivid, the levels more complex (and there was the two-player split-screen mode which made things exciting), Sonic was faster, he had the spin dash, and he had a little orange flying companion named Tails. You could’ve repackaged Sonic 1 with brighter colors and I would’ve been plenty happy, but these new additions were exciting kept me more than content. The special stage was the highlight for me. The “3D” half pipe course was fast, had plenty of traps and bombs to keep you on your toes, and the kind of positive reinforcement that any 90s kid would appreciate when they do a good job.

Damn right it’s cool!

Fast forward to 1994, I catch wind of Sonic 3, and I immediately knew what I wanted for my birthday. My dad gave me a small wad of cash, wished me happy birthday, and I was on my merry way to buy my copy. Sonic 1 was awesome. Sonic 2 was awesomer. Sonic 3 eclipsed the two of them. A new look for Sonic, new shields that gave Sonic added abilities, a killer new special stage along with a gumball machine bonus stage, larger, faster levels to explore, and a brand new character, Knuckles. Even though he was the antagonist for most of the game, he became a new favorite for me. A good guy at heart, well meaning, but gullible at times (insert moment of self-realization here).

He’s hard as nails. It ain’t hard to tell.

I loved everything about Sonic 3. I didn’t think it could get any better than that. Then Sonic & Knuckles comes along and it locks in (literally!) seamlessly with Sonic 3. My brain short circuits from the excitement. An amazing game made even better with this continuation of Sonic 3. It felt like an even more epic journey for me. An amazing challenge, so much so that I needed my older brother to help me beat Doomsday the first time around.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the two Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons that came about during this time. The weekday morning series and the Saturday morning series were companions to a series I was already deeply mad about. Sonic, voiced by Jaleel White (who is to this day the only Sonic voice actor I acknowledge [or remember, honestly]. Nobody else did it better than him, fight me bro!), brought new life to the exploits of the Blue Blur and his crew, whether it was though dramatic action scenes, or though making crass jokes about Dr. Robotnik’s ass.

Years go by, I jump from the Genesis to the Sega Saturn. Yes, Sega Saturn. Judge me if you must. I was the only person in my entire junior high school who owned one. Everyone else had PlayStation. I regret nothing. Having NiGHTS Into Dreams alone made it worth the isolation.

No regrets.

But I digress, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R entered my life. Fantastic games in their own right, I played them endlessly with my younger sisters, but didn’t give me the thrill that the Genesis games gave me. Post junior high, the last two Sonic games that really piqued my interest were Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Fun forays into the actual 3D realm. Exciting, but not Sonic 3 & Knuckles exciting for me (S3&K is the rubric in which I judge all the other Sonic games in terms of excitement and greatness). From that point on, my excitement levels for the Blue Blur dropped significantly.

I thought it was just me growing up and evolving into different interests. I came to realize down the line that it wasn’t lack of interest, but more a lack of solid, or for that matter, decent games. Sega tried different angles with the Sonic franchise, but they mostly ended up falling quite flat. Sonic Unleashed was a noble attempt, but bad camera angles and a confusing as hell storyline killed that effort. Then there was Sonic 4. Sonic. 4. *long, discontented, disappointed sigh* It was an attempt to appease the Sonic fans around the world that wanted a new side scroller, and Sega refusing to give up on making a 3D Sonic platformer. It was the worst of both worlds. I bought Sonic 4 Episodes 1 & 2. The only reason I don’t completely regret doing that is because I only spent $20 for the both of them. I tried so hard to like them. But they were bad. The gameplay was bad. The gimmicks were bad. The music was even worse. Ugh, just downright awful. The one thing I feel makes or breaks a game is its music. The entire Sonic franchise made its reputation on its music as much as it did its gameplay. Sonic 4 was the proverbial combo-breaker. I was done. It was time to leave the Blue Blur behind and move on with life.

Or so I thought.

Cut to last year. A trailer comes down the pipe from Sega about a new entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Normally it would fly under my radar, however, one aspect immediately piques my attention. It’s a 2D side-scroller!! A pretty great looking side-scroller at that! It’s like Sonic CD, but kicked up about 12 notches. The colors are bright and vivid, the gameplay is fast and furious, and the music…oh the music. 6-year-old, 7-year-old, and 9-year-old me all screamed with excitement simultaneously after watching that trailer. Sonic Mania looked to be the answer to the prayers of so many Sonic fans around the world that just wanted a great modern 2D side-scroller. It looked impressive, and it was being put together by an incredible team of game designers, programmers, and sound designers.

Simon “Stealth” Thomley and Christian “Taxman” Whitehead made their names with the incredible job they did porting Sonic 1 and 2 for iOS and Android, and PagodaWest Games, who got their start creating an HD reimagining of Sonic 2, were recruited by Sega to breathe new life into a franchise that honestly had seen much better days. As the months passed, and more gameplay started to appear, my excitement began to build, as it seemed as though this game would be exactly what I was looking for all these years. Adding to my excitement was the soundtrack, created by the amazing Tee Lopes, whose Sonic remixes I have been a fan of for years. This was the indie dream team, and I couldn’t wait to have my chance to play this new game. But alas, it was at least 1 year away from release, so I had to find ways to both pass the time, and temper my ever building excitement.

Most people who know me and have ever heard any of the music that I create know that one of the biggest influences on my musical style was the Sonic the Hedgehog series. From Sonic 1 all the way to Sonic R, my earliest tracks took at least one element from something I heard in a Sonic game. For the sake of my fragile ego I will spare you any samples of my early work because they’re like 17 years old at this point and have not held up well over the years. Back in high school I would recreate various Sonic tracks in MIDI form as an exercise in learning how to sequence, and subconsciously break down the tracks to understand and take in all the elements. Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense now why the Sonic influence is so strong. I hadn’t written anything Sonic-adjacent in more than a decade, but the ensuing Sonic Mania opened the floodgates to my creativity, and before I knew it, I had put together a 16-bit tribute to my all-time favorite video game character.

It was something that came straight from the heart of my 6-year-old self. It had more meaning than a lot of songs that I put together in the last 6 years. It was my childhood. It was my teenage and college years. All rolled into a song that took surprisingly little effort. It make me feel like a musician again, and made me remember how much of an outlet music is for me. And then before I knew it, Act 2 came along.

It always feels good to express yourself through creative means, and these felt pretty damn good! They were tributes to my childhood, as well as tributes to Masato Nakamura, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Spencer Nilsen, Richard Jacques, and now Tee Lopes among the countless composers that made my life great through their musical contributions to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

By the time you read this, Sonic Mania will have mercifully unlocked in my Steam library, as the PC version had to be pushed back two weeks for “optimizations”. I have not seen a single Let’s Play of this game, or any other videos save for the initial reviews. The reviews confirmed my excitement, and the excitement of all the die hard Sonic fans out there. Sonic the Hedgehog is a character and a franchise that means more to me than any other game series, not just for the entertainment and the inspiration, but how it forged a bond between myself and my siblings, and its role in me becoming who I am today. It’s something I will hold dear for the rest of my life.

I am so ready. And so is 6-year-old, 7-year-old, 9-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year-old, 14-year-old, and 16-year-old me.

from How Sonic Mania Has Rekindled My Personal Sonic Mania

[crystalnet]

Top 5 Zelda Games

Well fuck here we go. This is going to be extra hard as far as my Top 5 lists this month go because of the sheer consistency across this franchise. Outside of a few titles that leave some fans less than totally thrilled like Link's Adventure, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, most titles in this series could conceivably recieve a perfect score depending on what kind of fan you are. And then even those 3 games could probably be argued somewhat convincingly for as well. And yet, we all have our preferences deep down, and in my heart of hearts I know my favorites. As a disclaimer, I'll just admit upfront I'm committing a cardinal sin by not including Ocarina, Majora's Mask OR a Link to the Past in my top 5. For many fans, that is heresy, but I quite simply didn't grow up with those titles and despite playing them later have never done the formal revisiting that I still owe them. So while things could change, this is how it stands now. So alas, let's get it started off right..

1. Breath of the Wild

I'm going to be unoriginal in a way many fans will probably be going forward and some already are in that I'll just go ahead and throw all my support/fandom at this most recent title. Yet even for as hyped this thing is among fans, it's still a somewhat bold choice. How could the latest entry in a three-decade old series be the best? But it's pretty easy for me to pin-point why. It shakes up a lot of things in the series, especially the console ones while also adding in a lot of new mechanics inspired from recent triple-A mainstream games, all while basing the structure and openness around the very first tile of the game, and still retaining almost all of the tropes that make a Zelda game a Zelda game, while even re-energizing them as well. Instead of 4-8 big isolated dungeons, we essentially have 120 mini-dungeons scattered across the world. And the proper dungeons are excellent in that they are puzzle-box style, in the way some of the best Water Temples have been in the past, and that's the best kind of dungeon as far as I'm concerned. Then there are additional mini-gauntlets and trials scattered throughout the world like the special shrines such as Eventide Island, mazes or the deceptively deep Hyrule Castle. Also at play are the deep physics of a game like Portal with the emergent game-play and stealth of MGSV, the tower-system of Far Cry, the intensity and combat and a similar weapon system of/to Dark Souls and the openness of any number of AAA open-worlds. And yet it's largely more open than any of those due to the non-linear structure of the game, which is a call back to the OG. All of these elements are curated and designed cohesively and coupled with new mechanics like the engaging weapon-breaking and collecting system, a deep survival-horror/farming inspired cooking and crafting system, and a completely new sense of challenge compared to the other console games.

Things just really came together on this one. I could wax poetic about it until the cows come home, but it's quite simply a game that contains a multitude of ideas and systems that are the best I've seen in my 20+ years as a gamer. On top of everything is an excellent visual-style that helps make a rather complex game and world endlessly accessible and playable, and a lovely soundtrack to boot. It's quite simply a game-changer in every sense of the word and make me very happy to be a Zelda fan. There’s something really special about how weak and relatively unprepared you feel when you start off compared to the end when your rocking multiple Guardian spells, dope weapons, wands and bows and killing Lynels left and right. Plus it's not even over yet-- DLC for the win.

2. Skyward Sword- 

So my second one is a less unanimously hype entry, but for me it's one of the most playable Zelda games, and that's largely because I enjoy the motion-control so much, though I could see why some might consider it a bit gimmick-y though. For me it largely works and helps make this game the most kinetic-feeling Zelda game, along with the added stamina gauge and the Loft-wing flying (yep, I even like that). Combat in Windwaker and Twilight, while still being decently fun, can feel very cut-and-dry not to mention easy (though TP does end up getting deeper by way of sword techniques), but the fact that they were able to innovate the combat in this way so that the player themselves are truly holding the Master Sword in a way that Twilight only hinted at is a true success.The deeper item-collecting and bug-hunting along with the weapon upgrading make this one feel a lot deeper in terms of customization compared to the console games prior to this. And I also love the side-questing in this one which makes nice usage of the day/night-cycle. Even though the world-map could have been a bit more expansive, there ends up being quite a bit to to in and around Skyloft so that there's always stuff to entice you off the beaten and admittedly linear path.

The level and dungeon design is also ace, and even though it lacks a proper Hyrule Field area or expansive open-world- feeling between the actual terrestrial locales, for my money, the environments are infinitely more fun to explore and well-designed than much of the somewhat barren-feeling Hyrule of Twilight. All of this combined with fantastic music and my favorite visual style of any of the Zelda's and we have a winner. There’s just something about the gestalt of it all, the over-all package, that really come together for me. Lot’s of personality, beautiful locales and designs, fun questing and NPCs, great dungeons and unique new elements like the Loftwing-riding, motion-control and level-design make it an easy win. Also: Groose and Fletch ftw! 

3. Link's Awakening-

My first Zelda, and so one for which I have a lot of nostalgia. While other kids were having their mind blown by OoT, I was getting deep into this one, and that's just fine with me. This entry is like what Majora's Mask was for Ocarina except for Lttp in the way it tweaks a classic entry, presenting a weirder more fantastical take on a perfected formula. I also like this tropical island-y feeling for Zelda as opposed to the more strait-forward medieval-feeling world of LttP and it hints at the take on Zelda found in Windwaker. It is also rather light-hearted and from what I gather is the first time a Zelda game featured its now standard sense of humour. On top of all the solid dungeons and exploring to do (and a bonus dungeon included in the deluxe GBC version where you could attain a red or blue tunic), you have a cameo by Yoshi and Bow-Wow, a photo-shack, magic powder that helps transform a man trapped as a raccoon back to normal, 8 magical instruments, mermaids, a big trading sequence and a Wind Fish, all culminating in the revelation that Koholint itself is an island dreamt up by the Wind Fish himself (or is it..?). Yeah this game is bad ass. It also feels like the most Nintendo-y Zelda game in a way that Windwaker and now BotW also do in a way I can’t quite explain but has to do with the bright cartoonishing fantastic setting and aesthetic. And I'd catch a lot of flack for this, but for my money, this one's even better than LttP, but you didn't hear that from me.

4. Windwaker- 

LA isn't the last time Link would be so naval. Besides just sailing to Koholint, the hero takes to the seas once again in this title, and this time its actually a central part of the game. The big innovation that this one adds to the mix-- the sailing, charting and island-based exploration-- is the thing that makes this game so special. This is a huge departure from the strait-forward maps of older games, making the world that much more open and mysterious while also calling back to the grid-based exploration of the 2D titles in the way that each sector of yr map contains at least one island, so that it effectively combines the sense of openness and perspective you feel exploring a 3D Zelda Maps with a grid-based map like the old games. And while there could honestly be a bit more going on in this world, there's still a wealth of side-content, and while exploration isn't as seamless or incentived as it would be in BotW, there's still something really great about setting off to wander around the big blue. 

Beyond the fun of slowly filling up your map and controlling the wind to reach yr destinations, or just wander, the game is an aesthetic delight, sporting the vibrant cell-shaded graphics that ignited fan-boy wars the world over, while also making tons of die-hard fans of the style at the same time. It's presentation is quite simply gorgeous and would be an inspiration for BotW's look later. Beyond the unique and bold style, it's a joy to play, with some really solid dungeons and some of my favorite side-characters in a Zelda title (Medli and the bard guy). The last 2 dungeons are especially stellar, and the Celtic/Irish inspired music are as delightful as the visuals. While I rank this game pretty damn close to Twilight, it ultimately comes out on top because I like the over-all gestalt of it more. It has great flow and feels less linear, and the world is decidedly more engaging and packed with personality. Plus this is the only Zelda game that feels like its a blast of Vitamin-C in video game form. It's an all-around win.

5. Twilight Princess-

A few years ago I might have told you this one was my favorite, but that was before BotW kind of changed what we can come to expect from a console title. I now value innovation in this series more to than I used to, and since innovation might be this game's weak-point, it has suffered in rank slightly, but I'd be damned if I didn't still love it. While the only thing that is truly "new" to the series in this one is a wolf form (and Majora already had transformation mechanics in spades), it is otherwise an excellent take on the mythology of Zelda. In some ways, it is the most strait-forward high-fantasy take on the series, in many ways repeating a lot of the aesthetics found in LttP and OoT while playing up the "western high fantasy" aspect of them even more. In this way, this game has begun to ring just a bit hollow. It's just a bit too bland to be a top 3 Zelda. For all the nice touches like Midna's charisma, the nicely dark atmosphere and story and the expansive map, there is also something slightly under-whelming about it and that's why even though it's still one of my faves, its the last one here. The main reason it still makes it though is that it is still simply one of the most solid and consistent Zeldas. The visual style, though a bit tame, is excellently realized in many ways, especially in the remaster, with brilliant lighting and unique realism that we haven't gotten again in a title before or since, and which seems to aim at being the Ocarina of our minds, instead of the polygonal one we actually played in the way it presents a kind of deeper, more up-to-date take on that world, while being a bit less unique. 

The true x-factor though are the dungeons. I think this may be the most dungeon-y console Zelda of all time in the way that there are 8 of them, tying only with Ocarina for amount-- and they are largely very excellent. Some of my favorite dungeons like the Ice Mansion, the Sky Temple, the Lakebed Temple and the Temple of Time are sprinkled throughout this epic adventure, and these dungeons don't mess around. Again, they don't especially add much to the mix, but instead present an undeniable take on the infectious Zelda dungeons we have come to know and love (Though the mansion is a very unique environment). And that's why I think it feels like this game isn't messing around. Sure there's no game-changer like a sailing or bird-flying mechanic, and truly controlling your sword wouldn’t actually come until Skyward, nor does it boast being a full overhaul like BotW, but what is there is some classy-as-hell, tasteful Zelda-style gaming, not to mention it’s Dungeon-crawler’s heaven. The side-quests in later console games would be much improved and more fleshed out, and that's another weak-point when compared to Majora/WW especially, but the main game ends up being so substantial and rewarding that it doesn't matter. Truly a Zelda for all my dungeon fetishists out there. And, yeah, Midna rocks. 'Nuff said.  

runner-ups:

6. Oracle of Seasons- Still need to play Time but this was an excellent follow up to LA put out with the help of Capcom. An imaginative world that is a departure from Hyrule just like Link’s Awakening/Majora’s mask. Fun season-changing mechanic, the magical ring-mechanic and cool characters like the flying bear Moosh and the wizard Ralph make for a great Zelda outing (damn that disruptive Witch thief). 

7. Zelda 1- it’s dope. maybe over-hard by today’s standards but this thing is sick so what it is and how it plays as an early example of a non-linearly structured open and immersive fantasy world. Back in ‘87 you had to crack out the manual to find the 1-800 number Nintendo provided to people looking for hints because of the difficulty of finding your way to and into all the dungeons, but for those who followed the included map, this thing proved to reveal itself to one in time. Super fun, and the classic Zelda dungeon blue-print arrives fully and brilliantly formed. And this thing still holds up because of these dungeons, along with the freedom and engaging non-linearity. 

Ones I need to get around to playing ASAP: The Ocarina and Majora remasters on 3DS as well as Link Between Worlds apparently. Need a 3DS. Zelda II-- should give it a crack. Should re-play LttP also...~