madbuk

#329 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy These are some great games... however, replaying what I've already experienced wasn't quite as fun as I had expected. Before playing the PS4 port, I had played the entirety of Ace Attorney, Justice For All, and the first two cases of Trials and Tribulations on mobile. I stopped at the third case because this port got announced. I'm not sure why I found this so dull to replay compared to Steins;Gate, another VN, which I have played several times now and enjoyed each time. Maybe the investigation phases just dont lend themselves well to replays? Once I got to the new content, my enjoyment drastically increased. I'm satisfied with how the trilogy ended and can see why this was meant to be a stopping point for the series as a whole. Everything came together and wrapped up nicely by the end of the third game. I really liked how little things were planted throughout the trilogy that build up over the course of the three games, it's done very well. The third game especially had a very engaging over-arcing plot linking the cases together. I'd say the third is the best overall, followed by the first, then the second. I really hope they port over the future games next because I know nothing about those so I'll probably enjoy them much, much more.

Progress Update: #329 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy These are some great games... however, replaying what I've already experienced wasn't quite as fun as I had expected. Before playing the PS4 port, I had played the entirety of Ace Attorney, Justice For All, and the first two cases of Trials and Tribulations on mobile. I stopped at the third case because this port got announced. I'm not sure why I found this so dull to replay compared to Steins;Gate, another VN, which I have played several times now and enjoyed each time. Maybe the investigation phases just dont lend themselves well to replays? Once I got to the new content, my enjoyment drastically increased. I'm satisfied with how the trilogy ended and can see why this was meant to be a stopping point for the series as a whole. Everything came together and wrapped up nicely by the end of the third game. I really liked how little things were planted throughout the trilogy that build up over the course of the three games, it's done very well. The third game especially had a very engaging over-arcing plot linking the cases together. I'd say the third is the best overall, followed by the first, then the second. I really hope they port over the future games next because I know nothing about those so I'll probably enjoy them much, much more.

I think 75% cut-off is a bit more reasonable than 50, as it blocks out all the shitty Ratalaika stuff whilst also still counting visual novels and point and clicks (for the most part), which can take a very long time if you actually play them as intended instead of skipping all the text. I'd be fine with using 50 instead though if that's the majority opinion, because that still cancels out all the Ratalaika too and doesn't reward the dirty people who skip VNs instead of even giving them a chance.

Yakuza 0

#327 - Redout I came into this expecting a fun indie WipEout clone and left mostly satisfied. It doesn't come close to being as good as WipEout, but I never expected it to really. WipEout Omega Collection is my favourite racing game of all time so that was already a very lofty goal and this has a visibly much lower budget to work with. The soundtrack is about what you'd expect from a game like this, and it's decent. The aesthetics were pretty generic overall, especially compared to WipEout, but that's fine. The gameplay, which really is the only reason to play this - there's no story at all - is enjoyable although a bit too easy on the default difficulty. I didn't realize until right before the plat that this game even had a difficulty mode, as it's hidden in the options menu and the game makes no move to tell you about it, so I played the whole thing on default and kinda wish I knew earlier so I could've bumped it up to hard. There are posts on here that say the game became stupidly hard, and arguably on par with, if not harder than, WipEout via a patch, but... I really didn't feel that? Maybe it was patched again without anyone mentioning it, or maybe the EU version never received the patch, but at least for me the AI almost never attacked me with weapons, and when they did it was mainly just a leach beam for a second or two - irrelevant. I usually got time trials golded on my first attempt because the times are extremely lenient, pretty sure I even wiped out a few times and still got gold on some maps, and the plat doesn't even require all golds either. You need 45 golds and a gold on the final event (and one platinum medal) and that's it, you don't even need to play any others at all. I might've continued on after the plat to play the rest of the events but... eh. It's fun but not that fun really, it's a bit too basic and the turning isn't anywhere near as smooth or satisfying as it is in WipEout. Just give me a new WipEout, Sony. I can live with these indie games that are heavily inspired by it, but the real deal would be so exciting.

Progress Update: #328 - Redout I came into this expecting a fun indie WipEout clone and left mostly satisfied. It doesn't come close to being as good as WipEout, but I never expected it to really. WipEout Omega Collection is my favourite racing game of all time so that was already a very lofty goal and this has a visibly much lower budget to work with. The soundtrack is about what you'd expect from a game like this, and it's decent. The aesthetics were pretty generic overall, especially compared to WipEout, but that's fine. The gameplay, which really is the only reason to play this - there's no story at all - is enjoyable although a bit too easy on the default difficulty. I didn't realize until right before the plat that this game even had a difficulty mode, as it's hidden in the options menu and the game makes no move to tell you about it, so I played the whole thing on default and kinda wish I knew earlier so I could've bumped it up to hard. There are posts on here that say the game became stupidly hard, and arguably on par with, if not harder than, WipEout via a patch, but... I really didn't feel that? Maybe it was patched again without anyone mentioning it, or maybe the EU version never received the patch, but at least for me the AI almost never attacked me with weapons, and when they did it was mainly just a leach beam for a second or two - irrelevant. I usually got time trials golded on my first attempt because the times are extremely lenient, pretty sure I even wiped out a few times and still got gold on some maps, and the plat doesn't even require all golds either. You need 45 golds and a gold on the final event (and one platinum medal) and that's it, you don't even need to play any others at all. I might've continued on after the plat to play the rest of the events but... eh. It's fun but not that fun really, it's a bit too basic and the turning isn't anywhere near as smooth or satisfying as it is in WipEout. Just give me a new WipEout, Sony. I can live with these indie games that are heavily inspired by it, but the real deal would be so exciting.

#327 - Tales of Hearts R This was fun. I'd say it's the weakest Tales game that I've finished, but there's still some enjoyment to be had. The characters were quite forgettable besides, arguably, Beryl, Gall and Ines who at least have some interesting traits. The overarcing plot was pretty generic and by the end I just didn't care anymore about anything that was happening. Combat was fun though, pretty fast paced compared to Vesperia which I recently started (and now that this is done I can continue without feeling bad about neglecting this), although I barely experimented with the different artes. I also didn't really bother playing other characters because Kor (the main guy) was quite strong to begin with. I hate the random battles in this. They're so intrusive and get in the way of exploring and puzzle solving. It's the same issue I have with the Final Fantasy games, it's just tedious. I'm so glad that other Tales games let you see the enemies and choose to engage them. I usually kill everything on screen anyway for the XP, but at least then I dont have to worry about being interrupted when I'm trying to solve a puzzle or find chests. Another thing that was very disappointing is the lack of a dub. Every other Tales game I've played has had one and to go from those to this was rather disappointing, I'm always a dub > sub guy. Despite my grievances with this one it was a fun 50 hour romp that didn't ever feel too grindy or tedious (if you can look past the random battles like most JRPG players probably can.) It was nice to see the Vita be supported with a Tales title and it's a shame we never got Innocence R over here too, but oh well. Plenty of other Tales games still to play.

Progress Update: #327 - Tales of Hearts R This was fun. I'd say it's the weakest Tales game that I've finished, but there's still some enjoyment to be had. The characters were quite forgettable besides, arguably, Beryl, Gall and Ines who at least have some interesting traits. The overarcing plot was pretty generic and by the end I just didn't care anymore about anything that was happening. Combat was fun though, pretty fast paced compared to Vesperia which I recently started (and now that this is done I can continue without feeling bad about neglecting this), although I barely experimented with the different artes. I also didn't really bother playing other characters because Kor (the main guy) was quite strong to begin with. I hate the random battles in this. They're so intrusive and get in the way of exploring and puzzle solving. It's the same issue I have with the Final Fantasy games, it's just tedious. I'm so glad that other Tales games let you see the enemies and choose to engage them. I usually kill everything on screen anyway for the XP, but at least then I dont have to worry about being interrupted when I'm trying to solve a puzzle or find chests. Another thing that was very disappointing is the lack of a dub. Every other Tales game I've played has had one and to go from those to this was rather disappointing, I'm always a dub > sub guy. Despite my grievances with this one it was a fun 50 hour romp that didn't ever feel too grindy or tedious (if you can look past the random battles like most JRPG players probably can.) It was nice to see the Vita be supported with a Tales title and it's a shame we never got Innocence R over here too, but oh well. Plenty of other Tales games still to play.