Gommes_

# 140 Resident Evil 7 + 100%

That was a tough one. I think I’ve never played a game where the DLCs were that versatile and brutal at the same time. Anyway, starting at the beginning the main game is great and is packed with atmosphere. Especially when the game starts you watch every step you take anticipating something going after you.

The house is greatly designed and the same can be said about the family. The gore and horror aspects are amazing but they quickly lose its charm as soon as the old Resident Evil formula kicks in. So at one point in the game you are just overpowered and are able to shoot enemies left and right. It just becomes more action orientated and gets rid of its psychological horror aspects. To be honest it is just scary in the beginning, cause you don’t know what to expect. That 1^st person view, the new main characters, the rather small setting and knowing how much PT affected people you just expect something completely different. Only to find out that it is still Resident Evil.

However, the game was fun and I had a really good time with it (except the boat section – that felt misplaced and just sucked). Trophy wise the game wanted you to play on the hardest setting for the platinum, which was challenging and at some parts frustrating but totally doable. And then the DLCs took over. I will lay down some of them as I think that they are way too interesting not to mention them:

Daughters

Probably the best DLC due to its atmosphere. It takes place before the main story and you play as one of the daughters who has to witness their parents going berserk. You have no weapons and it feels like a creepy version of hide and seek. While in the main game you lose any fear for the antagonists (because of your artillery) here you are afraid all the time, since you are completely helpless and vulnerable. Making sure that they don’t see you while you sneak through the house was just awesome! I wish the main game used that formula as its main mechanic.

Bedroom

In the bedroom DLC you are tied up to a bed and your only mission is to flee. So, you have to look for hints in the room one of the main antagonists is keeping you in. However, she will notice anything different so you have to make sure to “tidy up” the room every time she will visit you. Creepy DLC with a great concept.

21

In that mode you have to play a version of 21 where the winner will live and the loser will, well, die. Extremely fun DLC which is kinda known for its extreme luck you need in order to get all trophies. However, I got pretty lucky and won my first game of 21+ and got all trophies.

Jack's 55th Birthday

Now things start to get annoying. Don’t get me wrong that mode was fun as well but boy, was it stressful. Here you have to feed Jack and in order to do so you have to find food in the house which is filled with enemies. Getting a S rank in every stage takes time and filling up that bonus timer over 10 minutes took me way too long. So I replayed one level for like 12 times knowing it inside out but still messing things up…

Ethan Must Die

Here you are only equipped with a knife and you have to get to a boss and fight it. Enemies can one shot you and all items are randomly placed which makes this mode totally RNG. It took me like 15 full tries just to finally have one game where I got the Albert and 20 rounds of enhanced ammo which made the boss fight super easy. But relying on that luck besides knowing the route by heart was extremely challenging.

End of Zoe

THE hardest DLC of the entire game. That 04/10 rating on this site is a joke. On the hardest setting I couldn’t leave the first area for like 1 hour! Usually 1 hour is enough to beat this whole mode on normal. But on hard things are so brutal and frustrating it drove me insane. In End of Zoe you have nothing but your fists and a shit ton of enemies who eat dozens of punches before they go down. This, the narrow field of view, no automatic saves, a screen which gets bloody when you take hits, a screen which doesn’t let you see things if you are also blocking and that whole placement of enemies was incredibly tough, especially at the beginning of this DLC. I was so glad when I finally made it!

To sum it up, the DLCs are amazing (and these are not even all of them)! But only if you want to experience them from a “normal” gaming experience. Going for the trophies is a completely different story. Every DLC was different and almost all of them needed to be played on the hardest setting. So for every DLC you had to adapt to a new mechanic and design. Study it, be lucky and finally get it done eventually. Then you had to forget everything you knew, cause the next DLC gave you another brand new mechanic, so that cycle repeats. And everything had to be on the hardest setting. Some DLC trophies felt like a platinum on their own, at least for me. Resident Evil 7 and all of its addons are an amazing package which will be a tough challenge for the trophy hunters out there.

Finally done! Resident Evil 7 100%  ✅  Short review will come up soon.

Ethan Never Dies complete! This trophy was awful, no doubt about that but beating Joe must die in Resident Evil 7 was much, much harder!

The Black Friday sales on Amazon and in the PSN store are really good this time...

Damn, End of Zoe on hard in Resident Evil 7 has to be one of the hardest and most frustrating things I've ever done!! Can't even leave the first area.

#141 - Tales of Arise

This one sparked my interest, since I liked Tales of Xillia and because this game looks awesome. The critics and fans were also praising it so I expected a fantastic JRPG. Well, it turned out that it was only okay. Graphic wise it is actually amazing once the world opens up and you are greeted with fantastic sceneries! Every location looks different and makes you stop once in a while to embrace that atmosphere.

The music of this game is great as well. The intro song kicks ass, the different themes are very good and boy, when that intro song gets replaced with another one because you beat the game you are in for a treat! However, the rest of the game is rather mediocre.

The story is kinda good until you reach the endgame. Then it’s only gibberish after gibberish in endless cutscenes which also stand for the weakest aspect of the game. Its pacing. The last hours before the final boss fight are actually horrible! Cutscene after cutscene after cutscene. And after a cutscene with a lot of gibberish you can actually walk two steps before - surprise, surprise another cutscene will play. Then you have to talk to, let's say 3 people before the story progresses, so that's another sort of cutscene. After that there is another one summarizing what you just found out. Then another one triggers because of what happened, before you are allowed to move again in order to reach another room and that whole cycle repeats!

Up until this point you also haven’t done anything but fighting. I don’t remember it being so repetitive in Tales of Xillia. The fighting itself is fun but doing it over and over again with no different moves feels really monotonous. After you are exposed to everything the fighting mechanics have to offer nothing else gets added. That means that you will see the same animations for like 30 hours. This takes away the fun from the battles, especially since you have nothing else to do.

There is no exploring, side quests lead to more fighting and cities are rather boring, which is a shame regarding the art design. The party is also not the best. I had the feeling that there was no chemistry between the characters and some developments felt forced, especially when looking at the main protagonists.

The postgame turned things to the better, since being overpowered, looking for the best weapons and crafting accessories was fun. However, this is not enough to call this game a masterpiece. I am fully convinced that most critics and players didn’t even finish this game before they gave it these high scores. The forgettable story, the dull party and the horrible pacing left a bad taste in my mouth and these characteristics should be the best thing a story driven game has to offer. Besides the aforementioned positive aspects Tales of Arise is just a mediocre game, cause it fails when it comes to the most important aspects of a JRPG.

I am actually mad that the GTA Trilogy is that bad and i haven't even bought the game! How the hell could Rockstar greenlight that shit? Why didn't Rockstar develope this and why didn't they do this in a way like Mafia? I really wanted to visit Vice City again but not like this.