RedRodriguez87

After some off and on, and even having to replay part of the game, I've 100% Alice. I'm sure this was good for the time, and their is creativity on display here, but no way does it hold up, and in no way is it better or even more memorable than its sequel, Madness Returns (looking at you, Yahtzee). Clunky gameplay complete with unhelpful cameras, enemies that you can't see but have no problem hitting you, the occasional screen skip that often screws you and the platforming over, unbalanced weapons, cryptic goals, no clear indication of causing damage to enemies; heck, there are even times when the controls will lock and Alice will beeline in whatever direction you were last, which includes off a cliff. If researching it on the internet won't satisfy your curiosity on this game, then you may get something out of it. Chances are high after a couple levels you will decide that's it just not worth any more of your time. I'm still anticipating the upcoming 3rd game, so there's that at least.

You certainly have a lot more to do while you grind money and characters, so that's good. The first one was.... ok, a rare instance for me where the highest difficulty was the most fun mode. I guess it will all depend on how tolerable the AI ends up being. One things for sure, this is an infinitely cooler trophy list than the first.

#317: Father and Son After alot of off and on, I finally finished this game! It's a load off of my mind. Very little I can say that people don't already know, so I'll just throw it all out there as I'm thinking of it. GOTY, a masterpiece, a great direction for the series to go, seems like the majority have no problem singing its praises. And yet, I came away from it underwhelmed. I've said it numerous times, and it's still true to me; this game is just way too slow. Starting off, it's understandable, even negating the fact that this series has had a tradition on starting off with a bang. I mean, it isn't long until you hit the first fight with the stranger, where the game kicks it up 10 notches in true GoW fashion. But then the pace grinds to a halt again, and we are left running around encountering tutorial after tutorial, fighting the same minibosses over and over with a new boss sprinkled in here and there. Thankfully, it picks up at chapter 10, and for the most part keeps a more brisk pace. But then comes the open-world exploration, and a few fun quests aside, it goes right back to being slow and almost-monotonous. I can't even say the extra dungeons do anything to really inject a sense of action and excitement. The combat, while serviceable, is greatly hindered by the camera being permanently fixated to your back. It's a shame to go from a series that managed to almost perfectly keep a balance of having a hoard of enemies on screen while still always making sure you were able to see all of them, to constantly having to rely on a quick turn button and compass to avoid attacks you can't see (Atreus' addition makes up for this somewhat, as he serves to help and never hinder , the best route they could have gone with this character). The game also goes the stat-based route of player growth, with the overabundance of armor, stat perks, skills, enhancements; so many numbers you have to keep up with, and it just gets so tedious to have to deal with. It's the same reason Darksiders 2 turned me off. But hey, that's not what the masses praise, and dang it, what they praise are the exact same things I praise. First off, I love this kind of story; the protagonist sets out to do something mundane, personal, humble, down to earth, but end up changing the world in the process. I can't recall any instance of this story type where I didn't love it, at least in concept, and that's the same here. I liked the new characters, including our boy of war Atreus, who always provided an interesting contrast to our main Kratos; in fact, I daresay he was more interesting. Sure he has some brattish tendencies, but seeing as he's dealing with a secretive stick-in-the-mud father, I can't recall many instances where I DIDN'T feel he was justified in being so. I loved Kratos' development in this game; I won't go back on this either, I support this direction over the constant growling remorseless killer he turned into before. The environments, while boring to explore, are still gorgeous and fun to look at. And when the game goes back to it's over-the-top crazy action, it always makes up for the slodge you took to get there. Even fighting the main boss three times never once negated this fact, because it was always on like donkey kong when he appeared. I still wonder if they couldn't have made all these new addition works with the old game system, at least in terms of combat. Was there no way to have open-world exploration and storytelling while maybe going back to the old style of combat, even including cooldown attacks, Atreus's combat, and even more defensive style of play? I dunno. That being said, I didn't hate this game, and I am glad that I 100% it, but I don't ever see myself going back to it like the others. I do hope this next installment is faster-paced, a tad more streamlined.

Of course, what if this is a trick, and the overall difficulty has been upped to insane degrees? Maybe that's why there's a 100 hour trophy.....

These two are the most recent on my list that I thought would never get done. Both cases are games that I put off for a long time because I reached a hard part, then came back to nervous because I had been out of practice for too long. Luckily, both had trophies that required me to play through the main game again, which was a primo time to brush up on my skills, and both times that ended up getting me through the end.

Nadia: The Secret of the Blue Water. After months of searching for a complete set, I finally found it (DVD). Premise: In a story loosely based off of 10000 Leagues under the Sea, young inventor boy happens upon a mysterious girl being chased for her equally mysterious pendant. He saves her, and adventure ensues. This series has alot of good buzz surrounding it, and there is definitely something there that makes it important to animation as a whole, but like with ALOT OF anime, I'm not sold on calling it a masterpiece, even excluding it's widely known flaws. One half of this is indeed me projecting what I WISHED the series would have been instead of what it was, but the other half I also really believe are legit flaws. I maintain that the main cast were the best part of the series to me. The cautious aloof loner Nadia, the naive yet cheerful inventor Jean, the friendly innocent child Marie, the comedic trio of Grandis, Sanson and Hanson, the mysterious captain Nemo, the animal mascot King (actually, I didn't like the stupid lion. Throw 'im to the sharks). I loved the way they played off each other, and i liked even more the episodes that focused on THEM. The problem comes in for me, and what ultimately dragged my enjoyment down, are the episodes aboard the submarine Nautilus. And those of you who watched this are saying to yourself "WTF are you on? Those are the strongest episodes, ones where the writers and director and animators obviously put their passion into," And I definitely won't argue that. But we come to the point where felt like the writers took their OCs and plopped them into a retelling of a Jules verne story, and I've never been a fan of that kind of storytelling. "But Red, you list Nemo as a character you do like, so what's the problem?" Well, because he is there to support main cast, and has a direct impact on their story, and they in turn impact his development. It's GREAT seeing him break out of shell and open up to these characters, on of which he has DIRECT ties to. The small problem is is that it takes him a while to actually do so, so we have to rely on side-characters to do the heavy lifting. Actually, it's just ONE side character I ave a problem with, and that's the Captain's right-hand woman, Electra. This chick got WAY too much screentime. She appears and absorbs all the interaction, all the development, all the teaching moments, all the comedy that SHOULD HAVE been between the main characters. She even gets a whole episode dedicated to her, just so we can see that, true to her name, she has a complex with the captain. It can't just be hero worship between two adults, no, gotta be daddy issues so she can cry and whine and be jealous over a teenager. To think, that whole episode could have focused on the shocking revelation between the Captain and the person he's tied to, instead of "waaaahhh, father figure won't love me like I want him to" Again, I admit that this is all chalked up to my wants, and not what the show is, and when the main cast break away from the crew and be with each other, there are some really powerful moments. HOWEVER, these handful episodes do exhibit what I think is an actual problem; the series' almost insistence that Nadia never grow as a character. There were plenty instances where it seems like she'll learn a lesson, have a cry, say thank you, only to regress the very next episode. Her flaws crop up as a source of drama, but are never resolved, or even addressed outside the episode. No kidding, several otherwise light-hearted episodes in this arc will end with her dramatically calling someone a monster or murderer, leaving things on a very tense sour note, but then come next ep and she's acting the same as she was before, no more no less. Every time she she would apologize for acting a certain way, or challenge the captain and his decisions and apparent disregard for life, I would ask "Didn't we do this exact thing in a prior episode?" and I would be right. Actually, there were episodes where she would have to reexamine her actions and try harder to grow as a character. Episodes where our characters would take center stage again, having to grow and rely and sometimes even argue with and endure each other without convenient 3rd party intervention. Episodes that in spite of their many many MANY flaws, I can't help but list as some of my favorites. "Oh no, Red. You better not be talking about-" YES. I am talking both the Island Arc AND the Africa Arc. AGAIN, criticisms are completely justified. The animation takes a HUGE nosedive, the events do get repetitive, a few fall victim to the reset button, and their placement in the series could not be a worse position even if the studio was actively trying to sabotage themselves. And yet, these collection of eps contains so much of what I wanted to see in this series. I WANTED to see characters' trying to make it in the wilderness, exploring strange lands and meeting new people. I wanted to see them having to try and survive with each other and learn more about each other. I didn't ask for one of them to trip out on mushrooms and then get smacked upside the head, but I loved it when it happened. The Island Arc is pretty much the "Be Careful What You Wish For" trope for Nadia, who gets her wish of being away from untrustworthy humans and be one with nature, only to realize it isn't what she wants anymore. And as episode 30 + 31 show, you could easily work in more dramatic plot-related moments as well. Also, I want to add that this arc's episodes are the ONLY ONES that convinced me of a relationship between Nadia and Jean. While there is plenty of kinda maybe UST between them in the series before, these episodes actually try to go further, and ask them to really question and explore their feelings for each other. Now the Africa Arc is definitely the most mishandled part of the entire series, but even then I enjoyed alot of it for it's nonsensical story. I also liked the idea of Jean and Nadia actually making it to Africa, and the love "triangle" that almost but not really happens, where she actually becomes comfortable enough around other boys to stop being so crabby and wishy-washy and something resembling a normal teen. Friggin' adorable. Lastly, I'll get in a quick word about the villains and the finale. For the most part, they play the role well, their presence effective enough that when they show up, you know something serious is about to go down. The last few episodes, as silly as they get in concept, do end the series on a satisfying note. However, this is where they reveal their true intentions, and UNFORTUNATELY, it's yet another instance of "we may be mass-murdering otherworldly psychos, but at least we aren't flawed imperfect HUMANS." It also it suffers the same problems I had with the aforementioned Nautilus episodes. I'm not joking when I say that Jean, who should be a major player in these events, really just floats around from scene to scene, piping in every so often to remind you that he's there while everyone else steals his screen-time and actually get things accomplished. *sigh* I've been at this for about 3 hours, but I think I got out everything I wanted to say about this series. It's one half not-for-me, and one half I loved for all the wrong reasons. And before I end it, I loved the hell outta Jean's song.

#316: The Final Illusion I see platinums like this, and I am reminded of why I am a trophy whore. Just look at this blue beauty. 50% I can live with it if it looks THIS good. The game itself is fine as well, if you are into puzzles.I love the art style and sense of class went into every inch of this game. Sure, it feels like certain puzzle pieces only reveal themselves when the game wants to, and some of the fits are so tiny it's hard to make out, but hey, it functions as it should.

I cant believe they still do this nowanddays, with one image being the entire trophy list.

Seems pretty soccer standard. I wonder if all the trophies have that hidden "must be on default settings" requirement. And then you also gotta take into consideration the whole rubberbanding difficulty that seems to be a staple of most sports games. I was actually interested in trying this one, as I'm a sucker for easy flashy gameplay. Of course, I'm assuming it's more about style than substance.

Dont know if you made up your mind, but I would go for it. Relatively quick and somewhat easy, just a tad grindy with the challenges (probably where you will spend the most of your time with this game).

I might check it out. But going off the name, I thought it was some kind of voyeur-esque game.