Popular Post realm722 Posted April 21, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 21, 2021 (edited) Game: Haven Analysis: I bought Haven for $19.99 back in mid-March 2021, and that's pretty damn early considering it released in December 2020. You're about to find out why. DISCLAIMER: This is going to be exhaustingly long in-depth review / critique / analysis of this game. Let's be frank, this game is INCREDIBLY obscure. You've probably not heard of it apart from the fact that saw it had a PS5 trophy list, and much less likely have played it. It ONLY has 60 platinum achievers for the PS4 version - that's my fewest amount of achievers on a platinum in my entire library, with Beholder 2 at 69 being the next fewest. Even on the PS5 version, it only has 802 game owners. I say all this to say - even if you haven't played it, heard about it, or even have a desire in it - I am hoping you can get something out of this since this is prolly the most passionate I've been regarding a game in-awhile. Thank you, y vamos! Why the hype? Why the anticipation? WHY Haven? - There are an incredibly small number of games that capture my eye at events such as E3, The Game Awards, Gamescom, etc... but Haven was one of them. I was captivated by it's art style, and more importantly, ADORED the idea of a proper relationship - romantic, being explored in a genuine game. I think romance has been incredibly under-utilized in games. It's usually subjected to being hollow where you'll get a few important story beats in a 20+ hour game at best. Even in games such as Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon - once you get married to your partner, that's kinda... it. The thrill of dating is gone and the marriage component is often completely untouched with them giving you the same 3-4 greetings until the end of time. I don't want to talk about visual novels or dating sims either since... listen, I want a proper game and some damn gameplay with my romance as well, man. So the concept had me enthralled, and when I played in March, Furi (the best game I've played in 2021 thus far) and saw the same creators (The Game Bakers) were making Haven? The next time it was on sale I told myself I'd purchase it and make it my 6k trophy milestone. It achieved a hype status an incredibly small number of games soar to since I like to temper expectations - but think about it, I loved the idea, I saw the creators had already made a PHENOMENAL game, and with such exquisite combat in Furi, I thought they'd make something brilliant with their 2nd game, years more of experience, and yea... you can see how I may have put this game on an unfair pedestal before I even selected it on the Playstation 4 Home Screen. That's why... Haven is the most disappointing game I've played in 2021 BUT WAIT! Before you take that harsh judgement and assume the next few paragraphs are going to be endless bashing, let's discuss what Haven does best. Spoilers ahead. What Haven Does Well - When TGB created Furi, they pretty much neglected all other components of their game and invested EVERYTHING into their combat system. It paid off. In Haven, TGB pushed all their chips in the center of the table and invested EVERYTHING into the relationship between Yu (white-haired beautiful woman in the top photo) and Kay (chiseled anime biologist boy to her right). This is far and away Haven's greatest feature and core pillar of the entire infrastructure. You will be with these two for your entire journey. You'll cook together with them, be invested in their banter after each meal, create things with each other, sleep together, shower together, explore together, fight together, etc... - with the exception of one section in the entire runtime - they will be hand-in-hand taking on the world with one another. I loved Yu, I liked Kay. Yu is the engineer who keeps the Nest (or simply, your ship) together, is playful/flirtatious, more fierce of the two in my mind (I at least made her that way - be the riskier one, ate random fruits without thinking, escaped the Apiary and Matchmaker) while Kay is the biologist who's a little bit more serious, but still has his fun side here and there, utterly adores Yu, is the cook of the home, and can be a gigantic nerd while still being ripped and let's be honest, he bagged Yu so he's got same game. There are a gigantic amount of random scenes between these tow you can achieve. Besides the "relationship UP" bits, you'll be hanging out nude on-top of your ship, play games together such as the Civilization of Source, role-play little muffins and cupcakes, read together, tell stories to one another, and so forth. It's ALL voice acted which I thought was a ridiculous effort. All of this is to say, this is one of the most impressive feats in gaming in showing a loving relationship between a woman and a man, having genuine banter, showing affection for one another, fighting, and typical day-to-day relationship ordeals that people encounter. I have NEVER seen a relationship, at least a romantic one, this well fleshed out in a video game before. If that interests you, GET THIS GAME - it's worth it, and you'll be able to stomach other elements I ended up having gripes with. Despite the fact that Yu/Kay's relationship is wonderfully done, what The Game Bakers did was handle every detail here with precision, and in doing so, I think.. almost neglected the other aspects of what makes a game fun, and by doing so, put the entire game on Yu/Kay's back, and as a result... it kinda crumbles. Let's breakdown the other core gameplay elements. Exploration / Traversal - I think the entire concept of traversal in games is underrated. You don't really notice how important it is to a game, until you've seen it done poorly. Having a frustration over moving your character to one destination or another. Haven is sub-par in this aspect, and it is devastating considering how much you'll be doing it. These are the controls. You hold R2 to glide, you'll be doing this about 90% of the time when moving. It's the quickest way to move, and with flow, leaves behind a trail to takedown rust (red gunk found on the ground). Besides that, you can hold L2 to drift (good for staying on-line for flow threads), you can do a quick reversal flicking the left stick downwards to do a U-turn, and finally you can hold the X-button to launch your partner at an enemy later on in the game. THAT'S IT. Why does that suck? Well for 1) You can't enhance your speed while going across plains other than hanging onto flow threads, with which there are a handful on every island. 2) Drifting slows you down, so you'll only do it for turning, typically in the sky - aka, not that frequently. 3) THE WALKING SPEED IS HORRIFIC. If you, like me - will crash into a wall every so often while moving, you'll soon come to realize the momentum-shattering halt you will find every time you let go of R2 - and the painfully brutally slow walking animation that replaces gliding. 4) The problem with mountain elevation. Time and time again you will try to Skyrim-your-way-up a mountain or even a small hill, and be denied. The game doesn't let you achieve any elevation - apart from flow threads. So now you need to trot your dumbass around looking for a flowthread that will take you up to that vantage point. This frustrated me greatly. 5) They didn't do anything else with it. Do you know how to enhance this basic ass system? Give us something as simple as the R1 twirl when you fling your sword in the air in Transistor. It is unfathomable that TGB completely forgot to give us something as basic as us to keep us engaged while moving, a way to increase/decrease momentum aside from the flow-threads, or a method apart from them to gain some height... it's just such a bummer man. I can enjoy a chill relaxing game that's not centered around combat, but your traversal and exploration had better be sound, and while there are some cool things to find in the world of Source (beaches, hidden monsters, mountains, resting zones, old space infrastructures), the method to get there is often too droning and frustrating to make them feel worthwhile. Look at games like Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Risk of Rain 2, and hell - a prestige game like Death Stranding to see how to make the simple act of moving about your world a core element. Haven tried, and in my opinion, fell woefully short of that benchmark. Combat - If you've played Furi, and especially if you've platinumed it - you probably loved it enough to bask in it's richness. It is fast, high-paced, reaction heavy, delightful goodness. So even while acknowledging Haven was going in a very different direction, I was very excited for how they would create a fun gameplay element for the runtime that while not at the soul of it's game, certainly still an important element. The answer? They don't. They made rock-paper-scissors, but even simpler. You'll find animals with rust on them and they'll attack you as you adventure to various islands. To make them free, you must beat the rust out of them. That means you have 3 options (blast, impact, and shield) aside from the duel iterations of blast/shield, plus pacify once you neutralize them. It they glow red - they're weak to blast, if they're green - they're weak to impact. THAT'S IT. and that's for the "hard" enemies (the game admits itself it isn't difficult, so that's fine). But most enemies you hit with one of the two, takedown their health, block if they're attacking, and once they're finished you pacify them. SURE, there is the side element of crafting - which means you can make "omni-impact/blast" grenades - but they're completely unnecessary. I used them once for a trophy, and another to defeat Beruberu. I can't even mentally grasp how they thought this was good enough. If you were going to create combat this basic, why not do a simple hack-and-slash? I guess it's kinda cool you can see Yu/Kay work together with duo attacks, help each other up if their health gets depleted, but... THIS is what they came up with? It's not awful - if the traversal/exploration had been better, I could have stomached it - but the reality is I think they went so extreme on the distancing themselves from "This isn't another Furi" they harmed Haven with such an under-whelming combat system. Story - I thought the story was fine. It's probably the 2nd strongest aspect of the game aside from the relationship between Yu/Kay - but it isn't great. Essentially, there's a "Matchmaker" on your old home the "Apiary" that apparently sets people up and forces them to be together? You both escaped, and yet there's this guy - Lord Ozias - who's Yu's match and is apparently coming for her. The ultimate decision to be made is whether to sever ties with the flow canal that would block them from reaching you or leaving it open. Not much is ever explained regarding how the Matchmaker works other than saying it's an algorithm. Yu has a rocky relationship with her mother, one of the head members on the Apiary. It's... fine. There's not enough answers here while I would have liked the concept to be explored more deeply - but I prefer a general flavor in stories rather than in-depth nonsense I can't follow. I tend to be harsh on stories and not really care for them preferring a fun cast of characters interacting with one another than an overall narrative (see - Persona 5). You'd have to be your own judge with regard to Haven's depth. Trophies and Other Stuff - This'll be the paragraph where a word barf everything else in my head. The trophies are incredibly simple. Nothing here should have you racking your brain too hard, there's a few specific combat trophies be sure to look at under "Missable" once you unlock crafting, but you'll have plenty of chances to do it. Aside from that, finding the bosses wasn't difficult at all for me. I personally got KO'd 2 times in the game - once when playing as Yu by herself, the other when fighting Beruberu for the first time. If you're struggling, bump the difficulty down and you won't struggle again since enemies attack incredibly slowly. As for all the recipes just collect all fruits you see, go to your Nest often to eat and rest to see a buncha scenes, and you'll unlock almost everything that way with the odd super specific trophies here and there for specific islands. I earned the 18.05% rarity platinum in 2 days and 1 hour. The music in the game honestly never stood out for me but I seemingly look past a lot of games that have great soundtracks. My favorite is probably "Move it Muffin!". With regard to other annoyances, the game crashed on me 6 times while playing - 5 times while loading between islands, 1 time after dying vs Beruberu. That was super obnoxious, and kinda unacceptable for a PS5 game even if it's being played on a PS4. Finally, why on earth does this game have a M rating? Is it solely cuz of the nudity and implication of sex between the two? Because the characters DON'T curse. They say "You've gotta be blooting kidding me." "You're full of bloot." It's like the replacement for all swear words? You never even see a sex scene between the two, it's always implied, and when they're nude you never see their naughty bits. I thought I was signing up for more than I expected and nah... this gets an M-rating. Alright, ESRB - I won't argue with you. Haven, created by a video game studio named "The Game Bakers" left their product so uncooked in too many of it's gameplay departments that it came out.... half-baked. roll credits But seriously - I am saddened Haven did not live up to what I wanted it to be. The Yu/Kay core foundation was there, but TGB over-looked too many other key factors that it forced the relationship to strain itself trying to carry the other elements. If the relationship between the two was an 8/10, the exploration/movement/combat was a 6/10 - and that's just not what I wanted out of a game I was so excited for. But there is optimism - the greatest thing Haven can be is an inspiration for future titles. I want MORE attempts like this at re-creating a real romantic relationship between two lovers, WITH gameplay elements and not merely being done in a visual novel title. If Undertale took what it learned from Earthbound / Mother 3 - here's hoping within the next 5-8 years we can have some brilliant indie dev take what he learned from Haven and transform it into something greater than we could possibly imagine. Panda Score: 7.6 / 10 (I wanted so badly for it to be 8/10 tier but I simply can't reward that purely on concept) BONUS: RealM722's pitch for a future Haven - "Sanctuary" This is a bonus read for psychopaths who somehow like my writing and wanna see what I had in store for what Haven could have been, and the reason why I kept it out of the main review is it's kinda unfair to judge a game by my unrealistic expectations... so here it is! Disclaimer: If in the 1 in a billion chance a real game dev reads this and wants to create it, STEAL IT, PLAGARIZE IT, I WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME. If you feel guilty - put me in the special thanks section of your credits - and if you become a millionaire ala Eric Barone with Stardew Valley, maybe you can throw me a bone for my brilliance and lemme selection what the trophy qualifications will be when it releases on the Playstation 6. The Pitch - A Triple A-tier game built around a couple, a relationship, and conversations. But we're ditching the "this pair takes on an unexplored planet and world". It as a cute concept - but it ends up putting too much of a strain on every Yu/Kay interaction having to be great to keep me engaged. Plus, they had holograms of Yu's mom and Lord Ozias appear so even they didn't throw themselves ALL the way into the deep-end of 0 characters besides the main two. I'm thinking a colony, a small civilization of let's say... 20-30 characters, give or take. You're one of the foremost leaders alongside your partner. Both are playable (I really like what this game did with that, letting you pcik dialogue options for both Yu/Kay and switching as you please). After having escaped from your previous home, you look for a new start here. You start getting the basics going, assisting in creating shelter by gathering materials, fighting off the predators of this new land (I think action combat would be better, obviously making it ROR2 would be incredibly difficult but you can do something fun with it, it's not the sole core of the game). While doing so, you play as your lovable duo - but there comes a point once you've built each other up enough that you'll be allowed to play individually. What does this allow? I want Persona-like social links available to the different townspeople for your characters. Maybe you can do timeslots and a calendar (ehh maybe not cuz it's not relaxing), but allow you to build up relationships and interact with them. They don't have to be a stable of 10, but make them meaningful, and there are perhaps some you can do as a duo - others individually (in this example - Yu can have her friends, Kay his friends) - and what does this allow? When you two are together in the evening, you can discuss and talk about your day and how it went with those interactions, kinda like real people with relationships in real life do with their partner!!! From there, you can make the traversal more fun exploring different islands (make them fewer, but larger islands with more elevation and things to yanno - actually do). The reason I say that is because the animals in Haven are purely there to scratch/call/whistle them once and then it's a canned animation you'll see for the tenth time. What about... making them actually useful? What if you could have them serve a purpose for your colony? Cultivate them? I'm not saying Pokemon-type - but maybe if you're into that? OR hell - get some Slime Rancher breeding up in here for a plausibility. Have some damn mini-games. Lemme have a cooking mini-game for each dish and banter with my mate. Lemme watch a program or read a book. Let's have town events / festivals that are unique and especial. We're borrowing a lot of ideas from different games here (Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing) but there's sooooooo much you can do with this. The culmination could be having your former home and civilization come attack you, and depending on how well you did maintaining relationships, the animals, your new home, and most importantly, your lover - the ending will be altered. This is obviously asking an ABSURD amount from an indie dev, but I'm telling you whichever AAA studio that has the balls to go all-in on a "non-violence orientated" blockbuster and does it properly will reap the rewards for a decade. Lemme dream dammit! Spoiler Haven Notes: * Alright so I’m making this my milestone game based on the fact I rigged the art and LOVED Furi - made by the same studio The Game Bakers. I don’t know what I signed up for tho other than it’s a couple on another planet * Well DAMN Yu is bringing the whole damn BAKERY in the 1st dialogue sequence awesome Hmmmm we pick dialogue options for both Kay and Yu Oooooh okay I picked for Yu to “only one way to find out” on the rattle pepper and her confidence went up, cool! 1ST PERSON POV? I KILLED THE MOOD? HUH? WE’RE MAKING YU A MONSTER… “Worst case scenario, I’ll kill them.” We now made Kay feel more confident by saying the weathers great I am not even an hour in and I am 10000% invested with wherever the hell us they have us taking this relationship, I will be the GREATEST husband/wife ever OH NO OUR SHIP Spent 1 month on Source so Surprise Anniversary… I’m curious how the game is gonna keep things compelling for it’s run-time - is there gonna be a fraction point? Hmm? On one hand I dislike all the loading screens, on the other hand often times they’re ADORABLE Fight against hornets.. hmm… So the Apiary was basically this giant colonization and the Matchmaker forced mates to get with one another? YU HAS MOMMY ISSUES, TALKING WITH ERENA FINALLY! Lord Ozias is Yu’s mate…. Damn Yu and Kay back together again Lots of thoughts… I'm... starting to feel disappointed. and it's not because of Yu/Kay - but everything else they did here. Yu’s guitar >>>> Edited April 21, 2021 by realm722 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted April 29, 2021 Author Share Posted April 29, 2021 (edited) The Dangers of Hype and Managing Expectations Before Playing Games Happiness = Reality - Expectations You've probably heard the formula used before - and it's not inherently wrong. One of the best examples that can be used to represent that is for those of us who enjoy sports. I've so purposefully curated the above image for this very reason. When the Big 3 Heat were the scorn of the NBA and despised by everybody except South Floridians, the expectations were very simple - championship or bust. It was exhilarating, heart-breaking, and exhausting. But those 4 years of the Big 3 Heat were some of my favorite ever in sports fandom given we were at the pinnacle of the sport, expected to be the bust, and 2 out of those 4 years - ended up proving just so. But while living up to expectations is one thing, there's also the delightful surprise of being an under-dog surprise story. Such as the Heat last year with Jimmy Butler. Nobody had Miami doing much of anything after a mildly decent regular season, but a #5 seed in the Eastern Conference is typically a 2nd Round Exit at best given they have to play the vaunted #1 seed in the 2nd playoff round, and let's be honest, it's basketball, the better teams virtually always win. But instead of that, the Heat beat the NBA-best record Bucks in an improbable 5 games. We then beat the Celtics in the ECF, and got a showdown with LeBron (now on the LA Lakers) in the Finals. As heavy under-dogs, we eventually succumbed (with injuries and all) to the superior team that had the two best players in Bron and AD. Still, taking 2 games off the champs when nobody else in the West managed more than 1 was pretty cool - and again, expectations is the key. Nobody expected that from Miami, and it led to it being one of the most entertaining sports playoff runs of my lifetime. I mean then again, the Dolphins haven't won a playoff games in 20 years and the Marlins haven't made a normal postseason since 2003 but hey still counts Switching over to video games - a similar hype VS. expectations inner turmoil can be found. Do you get hyped for video games? Is it the AAA releases that captivate the masses such as Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, or the oh-so-infamous No Man's Sky? OR is it perhaps a bit more niche title - say Spelunky 2 or Hitman 3? I'd venture to say all those who love video games will cede to hype eventually once they've been around long enough. There's going to be a specific series that captures our waking moment and likely has us day-dreaming about it during everyday activities that we'll just keep thinking "I could be playing X game right now." You may be mapping out in your head what you're gonna be doing during your next play session. Those types of experiences get us hyped for the next game that'll captivate us in the same vein - and at the end of the day, isn't that why we're all doing this? I play video games for awesome experiences, and every adventure into a new game is hoping it'll be that next blockbuster that blows me out of the water. The trophies are added flavoring to give me incentive if I lack one - but boy when you find a game you love it's all gravy. With that being said, let's discuss 3 categorizes of games that lived up to, fell short, and exceeded the oh so evasive, hype. Games That Lived Up To The Hype: * Persona 5 (9.5) * Dead Cells (9.25) * Pyre (9.0) * Slay the Spire (9.0) * Horizon Zero Dawn (8.25) Do you know how improbable this is? The first definition of "hype" on Urban Dictionary is "when someone gets excited about something". You ever been hyped for a date? A sports prospect? (cough Tua Tagovailoa) An event? The anticipation of the damn thing is half the fun - and sadly, more often than not, the anticipation supersedes whatever you were hoping for... but in those rare moments, when the stars align, that hope is completed and succeeded. That's how I feel about these 5 games. Persona 5 is a franchise I adored watching YouTubers play, but stepping into it with myself at the helm still led to a wonderful 60+ hours adventure even while knowing all of the storybeats and it not having the benefit of being able to "surprise me" as other games could. Dead Cells was a physical copy I made at Gamestop for $15 since I said "I honestly think I'll really like this given the gameplay I've seen" and made me put all other games to rest for a full 3 weeks. Pyre was a game I had on the back-burner for awhile since I knew I wanted to make it my 2,500th trophy milestone and it kept my attention for so long I kinda feel like I finished it too soon in just a matter of 1 and a half days. Slay the Spire was another physical copy I got for dirt cheap that fits in the exact same vein of Slay the Spire - and Horizon Zero Dawn is the rare AAA game on this list that I adored and it's sequel absolutely will have trouble exceding the masterful world they created in the original with Aloy. These games are not only special, they not only had me love them, but they did-so in-spite of me going in and saying "I'm going to love this" and they never betrayed me by making me think otherwise. Games That Didn't Live Up To The Hype: * Haven (7.6) * Owlboy (7.45) * Forgotton Anne (7.0) * Coffee Talk (6.38) I mean, the very post above this one should tell you what inspired this entire essay. It sucks when games don't live up to the hype. Whether it be me genuinely thinking Jay Ajayi was going to be the next Miami Dolphins franchise icon, or a game that you thought was going to charm you falling short... it sucks man. These aren't bad games. I refuse to call them as such, I thankfully have not had the experience of those who bought Cyberpunk 2077 expecting Witcher 3 but in the future and instead got a bug-filled disaster that was completely unplayable. No Man's Sky infamous Jurassic Park clip on YouTube. OR even a game that worked out fine and I just hated or despised what they did with the characters. For that, I'm thankful. These 4 games here are prolly some you've never heard of. Haven is a game that I just expected to offer more gameplay wise and it was incredibly lacking in that department... in fact, the EXACT same definition could be used for Owlboy and Forgotton Anne. I love the worlds, the dialogue, the settings, the characters... but if you don't have the mechanics man - what are you at the end of the day? Forgotton Anne stands out in my mind particularly for that example. I still enjoyed these games - but I was expecting them to be smash successes like the Pyre's and Dead Cells' of the world - and they didn't become that. Can you fault Precious Achiuwa for not becoming Bam Adebayo? Prolly not - still kinda stings tho. Games That Exceeded All Manner of Expectations: * Unravel (9.0) * Sayonara Wild Hearts (9.0) * The Banner Saga (8.6) * Oxenfree (8.0) * Beholder (7.1) Is there anything better than finding a hidden gem? Honestly - discovering an awesome indie game is one of the best feelings you can have as someone who just enjoys good entertainment. Sure, enjoying the likes of God of War and Ghost of Tsushima is undeniably enjoyable, but you're unearthing stone that's being turned over for 8 millionth time. I watched Avengers: Endgame last month - it was awesome! But a more memorable experience for me is discovering movies like About Time or Before I Fall that you'd never even heard about and wow... when they speak to you they stick with you years after you've seen them. This category of games is that for me. Unravel is a game that single-handedly converted me from a sports gamer to a variety trophy hunter. Think about how impactful that is - it's like the Marie Kondo of games causing a complete makeover. Sayonara Wild Hearts has the greatest trophy list I've ever played, when I expected it to be a nice breezy 7/10 indie game. The Banner Saga went from "ehh this is always cheap on sale and it says it's an ultra rare that shouldn't take TOO long" to becoming quite possibly my favorite video game trilogy of All-Time. Oxenfree was one of my first dabblings after my Unravel conversion to finding a game without deep gameplay mechanics but a delightful story with fun characters that I loved, and Beholder gets credit for being so weird and different from virtually anything I've ever played through the lens of a man living under an authoritarian Cold War-regime. Need I say more? What's the moral here? Get EXCITED for games. It's fun man - I CAN'T WAIT to play Spiritfarer and am eventually going to get it on sale, and I'm planning it for a milestone - I have seen ZERO reviews regarding it and know nothing of the gameplay, but that snippet of a trailer I saw over a year ago is still in my mind. Who wants to live life as a droning "set realistic expectations" numbskull that saps joy. You'll have stories to tell about your short-comings, such as I do with Haven and Forgotton Anne - but at least it's something memorable unlike Sea of Solitude (oooh get burned SoS small indie game no ones ever heard of unless you just played it cuz you got an EA Play subscription and played it for the easy platinum). As long as you're not a freak who'll be so disappointed game that you'll start writing the developers and actors threats online about how they came into your home and punched you in the testicles - you're reasonably attached to your gaming experiences. Hope y'all enjoyed and boy oh boy do we have a WHOPPER of a review incoming - it may be my longest one yet. Let's drop a little teaser at the end here... The Miami Dolphins Forego Popular Opinions By Expects And Draft The Great (WR) DeVonta Smith - With The 6th Pick Tomorrow. LESSGO! Edited April 29, 2021 by realm722 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 (edited) On 4/28/2021 at 9:24 PM, realm722 said: What's the moral here? Get EXCITED for games. This was a great post and goes to show that you should get excited for games but learn to expect that they might not be godly. I've been burned by the hype train so many times that I've started to become numb to it (Diablo 3 might have been the last major one since I picked it up at a midnight release). I use to watch a lot from the game expos like E3 and get excited for games that are barely on the story boards for development and then forget about them until they are either being released or thrown in the trash. Also, this whole patching the games after release or fixing the missing story points with DLC has started to get out of hand, which adds to the fact that it's sometimes nice to wait and see when they are released. There was a couple games last year that I was actually hyped for, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and The Last of Us 2, and they met or actually beat my expectations. Those games have been in production for a very long time and I can't think of any for this year except for maybe RE8 that I'm looking forward to. It probably helps that I have a giant backlog of games that I still need to play that I stop worrying about newer games coming out. Don't get me wrong, I still get excited for games, but mostly from friends or others who talk about them on here rather than trailers anymore and leaned to curve those expectations. Edited May 3, 2021 by Grotz99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 5, 2021 Author Share Posted May 5, 2021 Game: Hue Analysis: I bought Hue as part of the Instant Indie Collection. Volume #4 for $2.99 way back on November 5th, 2020 - so essentially, paid $1 for it. Listen - I've explained time and time again in the past that I purposefully go out of my way to sprinkle in 100%'s at the start of each month since it's important to have a good variety to the games you're playing. Hue fulfilled that role beautifully. The general way I played it was once I finished a chapter or two in Final Fantasy VII - I swapped on over to Hue to have a nice change of pace from the AAA magnitude of it all to enjoy a simple indie game. Essentially you play a puzzler with some platforming sprinkled in, and complete various puzzles in different sections of the world all relating to color slowly refilling the world. I picked up a color or two one day, another two the next, another two the next, etc... and it was a pretty decent time given it didn't wear out it's welcome and didn't go on too long. As someone who doesn't typically enjoy puzzle games, I'd say this is definitely more in the accessible tier than say... The Bridge OR The Swapper. I think there were maybe 3-5 times in the entire game when I had to resort to a guide video in order to solve a puzzle, so the game gets brownie points for that. Once I beat the game, I waited awhile till I finished up some other games, and came back to it on May 3rd to scoop up all the collectibles I missed. You're likely going to need to do the same clean-up if you play it as some levels contain collectibles that are unobtainable until you have the full array of colors. I didn't hate replaying levels I had already conquered so hey that's another bonus in it's favor eh? All in all, I got it for a $1 given the 3-game package it came with - and that is well worth it for the experience it offered. There is a story!... I just don't remember much of any of it. There's this girl that goes on long-winded spiels after you pick-up each color. I honestly tuned her out and don't remember an ounce of what she said. I just know there's a... reconnection with his mom at the end? I'm sorry, if you've read this post you probably have more of an affinity for tolerating long-winded gasbags than I do so maybe the story will land with you more than it did with me. I completed the 100% for Hue in 2 weeks and 6 days, achieving the 15.41% rarity 100% completion. Panda Score: 6.25 / 10 On 5/3/2021 at 0:47 PM, Grotz99 said: This was a great post and goes to show that you should get excited for games but learn to expect that they might not be godly. I've been burned by the hype train so many times that I've started to become numb to it (Diablo 3 might have been the last major one since I picked it up at a midnight release). I use to watch a lot from the game expos like E3 and get excited for games that are barely on the story boards for development and then forget about them until they are either being released or thrown in the trash. Also, this whole patching the games after release or fixing the missing story points with DLC has started to get out of hand, which adds to the fact that it's sometimes nice to wait and see when they are released. There was a couple games last year that I was actually hyped for, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and The Last of Us 2, and they met or actually beat my expectations. Those games have been in production for a very long time and I can't think of any for this year except for maybe RE8 that I'm looking forward to. It probably helps that I have a giant backlog of games that I still need to play that I stop worrying about newer games coming out. Don't get me wrong, I still get excited for games, but mostly from friends or others who talk about them on here rather than trailers anymore and leaned to curve those expectations. Yea... I'm fortunate enough that I can say I have rarely if ever been burned by jumping on the hype train for a game. Even at E3, since I know I wait for games to go on sale 99% of the time - if it's good, I'll know about it! and if it's bad, I'll have dodged the derailed train as well. Honestly, the closest thing I can think of was when No Man's Sky was nearing release I did a lot of research on it from it's subreddit to reviews because the concept of traveling through space and discovering randomly generated planets fascinated me... phew am I glad I never got on that plane. and absolutely! I 100% find myself getting more hyped for games thanks to recommendations from friends or peeps who write reviews on here than the general typical hype of a big-time trailer. Having the testimony of someone else to support how great a game is definitely better footing than letting your mind run wild with what a developer might be able to do. In terms of games I've hyped for? Not really any AAA releases at the moment, but some indies - Spiritfarer, Neon Abyss, Monster Sanctuary, One Step from Eden, River City Girls, Civilization 6, Tropico 6, The Pathless, Wandersong, and Yonder: TCCC - all waiting for the proper sale to snag 'em up. But I noticed you mentioned Final Fantasy 7... speaking of which.... WOO BUDDY do I have a review for y'all. I don't wanna tease my longest ever but ya boy has A LOT to say. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted May 6, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 6, 2021 Game: Final Fantasy VII Remake Analysis: I got the FF7 Remake for free all thanks to PS+ for the month of March 2021 - and whew everybody... this is gonna be my longest review of All-Time. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - I had never played a Final Fantasy game before this. I know - gaming sacrilege. But think about it - I used to be a bro sports gamer dude. Plus, I wasn't really playing variety games when FF was wildly popular - not even when Final Fantasy 15 released in 2016, so it just never really hit my radar or caught my eye. Hell, I even had 0 interest in ever looking up reviews or let's plays on YouTube. But that all changed when Sony announced that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake would be released for PS+ Users for the month of March 2021. Oh, I get to try the consensus most popular FF of all-time, remade, in all it's glory... FOR FREE? Okay, you have my attention - and boy oh boy am I glad because the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of the greatest video game experiences I have had the pleasure of enjoying in my entire life. FULL SPOILERS AHEAD, ENJOY What did I know about FF7 going in? Almost next to NOTHING to be honest with you. I know there are debates online over who's the better girl - Aerith or Tifa. This is really a tough decision for me. Going into the game, I was Team Aerith. I love her hair - thought she was the sweet flower girl, and yanno - hadn't really seen much of Tifa and damn man... through the first 7 chapters of this game, Tifa had kinda swayed me over to her side. Of course, she was more center stage, and had this sweet childhood history with Cloud. Also - I'm just going to come right out and reveal something about myself to those who have read thousands of words I've chucked at this website - I have a debilitating, exhausting, CRIPPLING weakness for gigantic boobs so despite the fact I love Aerith's cheeky banter with Cloud, calling him a liar for forgetting who he gave the flower to, asking for permission to kill, saying "now I'm mad" at the Chapter 9 Wall Market Coliseum - I'm torn man. I love a melee fighter like Tifa, and yanno, those two big reasons in her favor - but I like Aerith's personality more and like that she's less... "mom-like" to Cloud in comparison to Tifa. Final Verdict? Team Clerith - but I won't fight Tifa fans. BESIDES THE GIRLS - the only other thing I knew was Cloud with a sword as big as himself and Barret has a literal GUN FOR AN ARM. I mean honestly, these designs were brilliant for 1997 and somehow have aged even better over 20 years later. Aside from knowing those basic details (oh and I guess knowing Sephiroth is a sick freak cuz I did play Kingdom Hearts back in the day) - I knew nothing else plot-wise. But to be honest, none of the actual plot matters if you don't love these characters, at least for me anyway - if you guys have a story that you love with characters you hate feel free to share, the most important thing for me above all else is enjoying the banter amongst a cast of friends, and FF7 shines beautifully in this regard, let's break 'em down a bit. Cloud Strife - I'm a man. I have a type. and that type is always loving the mercenary who is only in it for himself, only for his cold heart to be thawed by the kindness of those around him. I was worried he would be this brooding unlikable character, and at the start - let's be honest, he wasn't buddy-buddy with Barret - they were at odds and while I don't know why he was accepting a terrorist plot for the unfathomably cheap price of 2,000 gil (there are materia that sell for triple than that ya dingus), but by rekindling his relationship with Tifa - you slowly do see... he's a good guy. A good guy who has evidently been through an awful past, that leaves him with these seething migraines about a time in his life he'd like to forget. He'll give discounts for a buncha kids in Aerith's sector to hunt-down some toad kings. Although I must ask, is there any explanation given why Cloud wants all this money? Does he wanna buy a mansion? OR is that just an initial purpose for him that doesn't actually have much footing? How much does he care about his buddies? Well given the fact he cross-dressed to enter Don Corneo's museum, prolly a whole lot. I don't think he's the most charming protagonist but he's a wonderful straight man in comparison to the rest of the cast. I'd be curious how they plan on building on his character in the 2nd game now that he has an established relationship with these guys - but I'd really love to see a sneak peak of his yanno, fun side? Maybe that's asking for too much. Barret Wallace - I love Barret. Is he an eco-terrorist? Yes. Could that be wildly problematic? I mean, hell yea... the game was originally released in 1997 - I shouldn't have to tell you about the mental math you need to do with regarding how disgustingly awful that could have aged, but I think Final Fantasy strikes the wonderful balance of being fair. Barret is down for his cause caring for the planet and being against an evil corporation like Shinra that's sucking it dry and... well... white-washing his crimes by saying "eh he's prolly killing hundreds with his decision-making but it's for the good of the earth so it's aight." FF doesn't do that, and I appreciate it. I would like to know a little bit more of Barret's background, what led him to be such a fervent defender of the earth? Was he originally a Shinra supporter... was his family in the past harmed in some way? Yo, where the hell is Barret's wife or girlfriend since he's a dad to Marlene, which is a part of his story I had 0 clue was a thing and was really caught off guard when she first appeared. I'd love to see romantic Barret tryna smooth talk his girl, though if I had to guess she must have died tragically in some fashion while working for Avalanche that led to Barret's extreme dislike for Shinra in the first place. Apart from there, what's there to say? He's a goof-ball at times with his "da da da da dun da dun" OR crying about climbing all the stairs in Shinra tower. I'm very relieved his fake-out death when charging Sephiroth proved to be just that - a fakeout. Tifa Lockhart - I love Tifa. I'll be honest, there are some things that were completely lost on me with regard to her background - I don't know who or why she was crying over some dude (was it Cloud? Her dad?) in a cowboy outfit in a couple of the flashback scenes. I know she had a childhood relationship with Cloud and he swore to protect her. She's down for the cause of Avalanche, but only up so far as to not harm those around her, and Jessie calls her out on it. Her relationship with Cloud is... hmm... I don't think she's his cannon girl. I think she's too reprimanding? Perhaps that's just me but whereas Aerith can be a lil flirtatious at times Tifa generally steers clear (with the exception of Chapter 10 wrapping her arms around Cloud as she was scared of the ghosts). In terms of her general style - I love her as a melee fighter and kick-ass ability. I do wonder why after every post-battle she's always talking about being drenched in sweat or needing a good shower, but maybe I'm the only one who caught onto that. Oh - and can we STOP talking about how big her breasts are and START talking about how small the materia balls become when placed in her gloves? Those things are friggin' gigantic in the normal world during cutscenes, and yet they fit like little marbles in her ass-kicking gear. Do they adapt to the size of the weapon or...? Aerith Gainsborough - I love Aerith. She's arguably the most important person in the world by a large margin due to the fake she's an ancient, and quite possibly knows what's to come in the future (that's still a little bit unclear to me, but she did gift that flower to Cloud that's given when lovers are reunited sooooooooooooo we'll see) But apart from the fact she's essential to the entire plot of the game, she's a cool gal! She somehow manages to be both incredibly endearing, sweet, while also not falling over into being so-over-the-top sweet that it comes off as delusional. She'll tease Cloud. One of the best dialogue sequences in the entire game involves her asking Cloud who she gave her flower to, Cloud pretending like he didn't remember, and her calling him out for not liking to lie. There was also that bit in chapter 9 where she manages to thaw through Cloud's cold demeanor and get him to offer a high-five she wasn't ready for, I mean seriously, how can you not love this girl? Well... I do have a minor possibility as to how. Uhh, I don't know who manages the Sector 5 housing, but doesn't it seem BS that the over-whelming amount of residents have to live in poverty and these awful conditions while fancy ass Aerith and her mom live in this luxurious two-story house flushed with trees and flowers? Sounds like the poor need to eat Aerith to restore equality. OH and another thing, was anyone else bothered by the fact Aerith's pole is the only weapon not on her all the time? Where does she put it? In most games I wouldn't have cared but since Barret's gun, Tifa's fists, or Cloud's sword are so predominantly displayed... I know, nit-picking but whaddya want from me? Other Characters - Let's work our way through this on pure memory. I'll be honest, the focal point around Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge wasn't something I loved but it wasn't horrible either. I know they didn't get much background in the original so to see Jessie's background of wanting to be an actress and seeing what motivated her to become a helper to Avalanche after what happened with her father was cool. Wedge is such a goof-ball, and Biggs is aight. Johnny completely missed the mark with me and I didn't care for him, but he got better towards the end of Chapter #9 when he kept calling Cloud his bro. That Roche guy on the motorcycle was straight outta the looney bin(or Devil May Cry, your call) he's supposedly a new character, I imagine he'll have a far larger role in future installments. Moving on to Chapter #9, can we talk about how AMAZING Madam M is? I mean, she's frigging hot but apart from that what a fun character. Chocobo Sam's gruff voice. OH MY GOD RUDE'S VOICE IS OUTSTANDING, Andrea Rhodea was phenomenal and a great surprise after you couldn't originally see him. Mirielle is a cool aunt, Kyrie is a propagandist but at least she knows her role. Don Corneo is a complete d-bag but enthralling to watch. Leslie was aight. Didn't care for Wymer. I thought Chadley was the biggest herb on the planet with his robotic way of speaking until I discovered he was literally an AI created to assist Hojo. Hojo's a dirt-bag and a harsh stereotype of the "mad scientist". President Shinra cries like a little b!tch when he's dangling off the side of his own building, but since Barret is a silly goose (who TWICE let Hojo/Shinra run away from him in the open somehow) he decided to act like he was hard again. Have fun having your guts splattered across Sephiroth's sword my guy. His son, Rufus, is a baby boy loser who I couldn't wait to crush. How did this sleep spell and getting hit with an Ascension feel bro? Heidegger is comically evil in the typical sense. I want Scarlet to step on me. Reno's a cool dude and straight outta the Ryuji(Persona 5) and Leon(Danganronpa 1) build. I also don't know why Sephiroth is so motivated to do everything he does, I guess he's evil? Red 13 has a cool voice and seems to know a lot about the future, but I don't know much else about him. Apart from that the side quest characters were completely unforgettable... but yea! I really enjoy a number of the characters sprinkled in and wanna see more of them. Madam M's hand massage with Cloud is one of the hottest scenes in video game history, too bad I picked the poor man's 50 gil massage on my initial play-through. Let's Rank the Chapters in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake - So this is something I really want to do to properly convey where I got the most enjoyment out of this game. There are 18 chapters in total, and since some of them can be drastically different from others - let's go through them one by one. #1. Chapter #9 (10/10) (The Town That Never Sleeps) - If Chapter #9 isn't your favorite chapter in the FF7 Remake, I'm not gonna say you're wrong - but I am gonna say never speak to me again please. I'm sorry, but if an entire game was based around Wall Market - I'd love it. First the arduous journey in the first place in order to arrive here manipulating the mechanical arms with Aerith, that honestly feels like the video game equivalent of moving in quicksand, knowing what you want to do and the solution, but taking forever to actual bring it to fruition. But everything from there? My god is it amazing. The various little decisions you can make that influence what side quests you'll end up with nearing the end of the chapter, Cloud dancing like a bad-ass, Aerith's clapping, the AMAZING coliseum fights and commentary by Scotch and Kotch, the spectacular Hell House fight, Madam M's hand massage... get the hell outta here if you have any other as your favorite. Can you guys tell I live near Miami if I enjoy an environment filling to the brim with debauchery? #2. Chapter #17 (9.5/10) (Deliverance From Chaos) - Arguably the greatest sequence of boss fights I've played in a single chapter in any video game, ever. I mean - that's kind of an incredibly niche qualifier given the fact most games have a major boss fight at the end of a large level and once you beat it, you move on. Chapter #17 looks at that and says - oh the Jenova Dreamweaver wasn't enough for you? How about Rufus and a Rottweiler that drank a tub full of battery acid? Plus the incredibly unique fight at the very end of the chapter against the Arsenal, managing both Barret and Aerith as ranged-fighters completely switched up my typical strategy I was used to relying upon going in up-close with Cloud/Tifa. This section of the game also has the Chapter #17 Shinra VR Simulation training battles where you fight the hardest bosses in the game so it also gets bonus points for that! #3. Chapter #8 (9/10) (Budding Bodyguard) - Can you tell I love the Cloud/Aerith dynamic? What an introduction at the start finally encountering Aerith again since Chapter #2 - but also the willingness to give you a brutal fight right after you want head-to-head with Heidegger's lightning machine to cap-off the last chapter was jarring and the initial time I fought Reno had me reeling tryna avoid his EMP shots. From there, you have a wonderful journey across the roof-tops with Aerith, get to know her a bit, she curses, and after going back and forth to the Leaf House to drop-off flowers, you end up with one of the open-world segments where you can do side quests. Were they great? Eh, not really - I remember the scumbag reporter, the kids who needed saving, and that guy who wanted us to pay respects at his wife's grave site but they're not giving Witcher 3 or Yakuza 0 a run for their money. Still - after rushing for the previous 3 chapters in a linear direction, I loved the pacing and hanging out in the world for a few hours taking care of all the odd jobs. #4. Chapter #12 (8.5/10) (Fight for Survival) - I'd argue Chapter #12 is one of the biggest "breaking points" in the game, and the reason why I can say that is holy crap did you see that high resolution cutscene they used at the end? Yanno, the normal cutscenes look amazing as is but the ones where your sword is no longer consistent with what you are actively wearing (I get it Square, it wouldn't have been financially reasonable to make this adjustment cuz some jerk like me would call you out on it but for the record, I DID notice and it DID bother me). The build-up throughout the level is climbing up the plate in the first place originally with Cloud, and later with Tifa. The worst part of this section is annoying flying enemies the lock-on system doesn't detect leading to an awkward situation where if you refuse to use MP, you're just gonna get hit until they come into range. I can stomach that for such an otherwise phenomenal set-piece. Biggs/Jessie "dying", the awesome 2nd fight against Reno and Rude as a duo, and finally impact the sweeping consequences of this chapter have on the remainder of the story. #5. Chapter #14 (8.25/10) (In Search of Hope) - Perhaps I'm putting Chapter #14 this high solely for the fact it gives you an excuse to bounce around Wall Market all over again, but this time with ya buddies Barret and Tifa rather than just Aerith. This is, for the most part, the "clean-up" portion of the game before entering the final act. With regard to the side quests... there's that annoying Kyrie girl who's spreading lies and robbed Johnny, the amazing hidden boss under-ground that's a behemoth, ummm... finding all the random chocobo locations. Ooooh the coliseum fights which were fun as any excuse to get back there and listen to that "Tonight Corneo's Cup" track. The meaty portion of progressing the story involves going under-ground again, this time with Leslie, through the sewers and chasing down a cheeky pig/goblin-like creature and getting your keys back. Leslie had a girl. Don Corneo took his girl. Happens to the best of us, kid. #6. Chapter #18 (8/10) (Destiny's Crossroads) - The final chapter of the entire game! I'd say landing in the top 1/3 of your overall chapters means it was a satisfying ending. On Hard Mode, I skipped that bike boss since let's be honest, the bike riding segments don't feel great. It's like you're locked in to a certain speed and never feel like you're actually racing, and instead of a Disney-on-rails park ride where you have to swerve about like a moron flailing your sword at any robot or security officer that was on duty tonight. After that though, we finally showdown with the big baddie Sephiroth! Well, before that you have to destroy fate and destiny itself - but those fights were fun! Final Fantasy does making something "feel" epic very well - and I felt that after a 40+ hour adventure to finally go toe-to-toe with the man himself. Later I'll mention a buncha nonsense that completely missed the mark with me though. #7. Chapter #7 (8/10) (A Trap is Sprung) - We're jumping quite a ways back in the story now but this is the culmination of your work in chapters #5 and #6. Whereas in Chapter #1, the end of the chapter resulted in you setting the detonator for the reactor and a final boss fight, you'll get to placing the bomb about 5-7 minutes in - and then the rest of the chapter is realizing Shinra has been using you all along for their war propaganda machine they have in-store. You'll have to use a few key cards that can affect how strong/weak the final boss is in certain aspects, and really, that boss fight IS outstanding minus the one small annoying detail that in it's final phase when it flies away, outside of utilizing Barret, you have no way to consistently do damage to it outside of using MP. #8. Chapter #6 (8/10) (Light the Way) - HUH? Some of you may wonder. This is the almost labyrinth-themed PS2 level that will have you wandering about like a moron tryna turn off the different sun shades in order to progress further. I LOVE IT. Initially, the task isn't so daunting. You're blocked off, you go in the other direction, hit a button, and proceed. Slowly, the level opens up and all of a sudden there's an optional task of getting a materia on another side that is inaccessible at the moment, but it won't leave the back of your mind as you'll be scampering about tryna figure out how to work your way back around and scoop it up. The same can be said for the summoning materia found behind the fans as you saunter across the giant metal pipe. That has a unique mechanic where you have to defeat 3 enemies in a room (which you access near the end of the level, much to Barret's amusement when he sings that you're going on an adventure looking for treasure) and if you DON'T defeat those 3 enemies in the 1 minute allotted, you have to try again. I failed. Luckily, you just re-try it and you get easier enemies and can obtain the trophy related to this trophy. #9. Chapter #16 (7.75/10) (The Belly of the Beast) - I may have under-rated this chapter. This one is awesome since let's be honest, one of the best things Final Fantasy has always done is looking drop-dead gorgeous. Looks aren't everything in people or games, but damn do they sure help. Shinra Tower is so pristine it almost makes you forget about their apocalyptically awful business practices. You obliterate security guards on your way through the parking lot, get to see Scarlet treat a literal soldier as a foot-stool (how is that not an HR violation?), discover the origin of Mako, Ancients, and the so-told "Promised Land", meat Avalanche's inside-man in The Mayor, state the Mayor in a monotone voice to everyone within a 1-mile radius of the food court, and even save Aerith from that bastard Hojo. Honestly, the chapter is bordering on a 9.5/10 and being one of the Top 3 in the entire game - too bad that Tifa jungle gym segments drop it an entire 2 points. Sorry Tifa. For those scrolling, skip the "Bottom Line" if you wanna skip past me gloating about how much I love this game. #10. Chapter #11 (7.5/10) (Haunted) - This is the spooky chapter of the game. But it's off-set by the fact you got two frigging babes holding onto you as you fight a buncha ghosts in an abandoned train station area. You fight some ghoul looking fella who's a big-time hater but evaporate his ass into nonexistence. There's a horse-riding four horsemen of the apocalypse fella at the end of the level who's also threatening Aerith, and he also holds one of the most strangely difficult-to-obtain weapons in the game since the "Steal" materia actually has usefulness for once in the games entire 60+ hour runtime. Who'd have thunk it? I didn't think the level design here was particularly great but this trio will keep you around telling yourself you're having a good time. #11. Chapter #10 (7.5/10) (Rough Waters) - Pretty much the same reason it's ranked here as Chapter #11. After Don Corneo sent you down to the sewers thinking he had already won, you fight his pet Abzu and hopefully unlike me dodge his "blackwater doom" attack that basically one-shots you. If you manage that, you'll wander about up-and-down ladders, pass a few clearings, fight those Shangin enemies that can turn you into a frog, and just generally try to find your way out. I liked it! I think the ending segment with Tifa/Aerith trying to release the water pressure is another example of an inexplicably atrocious mechanic that made it into the main game, but even worse than there were 2 cutscenes that jumped out in my mine that make no sense in hindsight. Where was there that "something big is gonna happen" cutscene when Aerith crossed the paths above the water? She was fine? Was that intended as a fakeout? OR how about the ending with all the shangins descending upon you all and you just... escape. With no long-term foul done. Just seemed a bit odd to me compared to most other cutscenes. #12. Chapter #13 (7.25/10) (A Broken World) - This chapter, much like chapter #2 I'll cover at the end of this list mostly revolves around the fallout from what happened at the end of the previous chapter. You cut through all the way to Aerith's to make sure that Barret's daughter, Marlene - is okay. She is, thanks Elmyra! You discover more about Aerith's backstory and how that anime looking dude Tseng has known her since she was a girl, and they come by every once in awhile to bother Aerith. After that you go back to look for survivors such as Wedge, and Cloud at an awkward time way later than he should have finally lets Barret know that Biggs and Jessie "died". It's all fine and dandy, but the pique of the chapter comes when you finally switch to playing as Barret-solo when he gets separated from the group when they discover Wedge. You shoot through rubble with your GUN FOR AN ARM IN CASE YOU NEEDED REMINDING. Plus, there's a boss fight at the end where you fight alongside Tifa and take down a bunch of failed experiments that you latter discover were previously humans. Oof, a failure as a test subject is a brutal last-act before your humanity was stripped away from your very being. #13. Chapter #15 (7.25/10) (The Day Midgar Stood Still) - This is one of the shorter chapters in the entire game. It consists of climbing up with grappling hooks to Shinra Tower, but before doing that, you have to make your way through a lot of rubble and devastation. Let's completely ignore the fact that WOW a lot of conveniently placed ladders remained in place despite all the destruction and otherwise, that President Shinra dude would prolly still be kicking it. This level would also have chapter #12's problem of flying enemies (cough the Cerulean Drakes) being problematic to hit but we have Barret in the party so forget that! The Valkyrie is superb final boss fight and one of the best in the game, but a pain-in-the-ass on Hard Mode with his purple shield and blue blast laser. #14. Chapter #1 (7.25/10) (The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1) - Ranking Chapter #1 this low may seem like an indictment against the game for its' introduction, it's really not. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening segment of the game on my 1st play-through, and didn't find it to be laborious on my 2nd. You get to see Cloud / Barret's tension as they haven't fostered an affection for one another yet. But the complexity can only be so deep given it's supposed to lay the foundation for what the player is to expect for the rest of the game. In that sense, it passes wonderfully. The sentinel scorpion fight is properly challenging, and giving the the player the decision to decide between 30 and 20 minutes let's the player know there will be subtle ways they can affect the story (getting praised by Barret for being cocky or mocked for feeling the need for the extra 10 minutes). I picked 20 minutes because Cloud, canonically, is a not a bitch. I had over 13 minutes to spare by the time I exited the reactor. #15. Chapter #3 (7/10) (Home Sweet Slum) - Tifa fans are in utter shambles. Much in the same way that Chapter #1 laid the foundation for the way linear segments of the game would play out, Chapter #3 laid the groundwork for how more open-ended, side-quest focused chapters were intended to be played. It's not great. I enjoy Tifa, but due to her history with Cloud she lacks playful banter and mostly shuffles him around town trying to find work from the townspeople. You save Betty's cats. It sucks. You kill a couple of crab looking monsters and get lost in some abandoned warehouses tryna fight some rapper. But if you pull everything off, you do get a delicious bonus scene where Tifa drops by your apartment and you talk a bit about your past. You can also choose what she wears for the Wall Market segment. My instinct on the initial play-through? Exotic. #16. Chapter #5 (6.75/10) (Dogged Pursuit) - Not a bad level by any means, but one of the more unforgettable ones. You have a brief fight on a train where you take down some robots, and the remainder of the level consists of running through the same narrow segment of a train tunnel tryna get to the mako reactor you're going to blow up. The most memorable section for me was Barret complaining about the Shinra corporation took a loyal animal like Stamp and used it for their own nefarious purposes. The boss fight at the end was good for one of the opening chapters but pales in comparison to some of the battles that come later on. #17. Chapter #4 (6.5/10) (Mad Dash) - This chapter felt like DLC. Not bad DLC, just - we never really interact much with Jessie, Biggs, or Wedge outside of this section minus Sector 12 where they're all going about and dying on us. We learn about Jessie's back-story and her tryna jump on Cloud's sword. You can tell her at the end of chapter, when she's trying to get you to swing by her place on a latter occasion, "no promises" or "not happening". Anyone who picks "not happening" is a freak. #18. Chapter #2 (6/10) (Fateful Encounters) - Can you remember what happens in Chapter #2? For me, it's a bit of a blur. I know we escape the over-explosion that was the initial mako reactor ruining, we see the collapse of society as their energy source has been nuked to smithereens, and I imagine this is supposed to make us question the motivates of Avalanche and our consequences. Aside from that, there's Aerith who you meet who gets wisped away by the arbiters of fate. A freaky lame slow-walking section where you're surrounded by fire and Sephiroth is oh-too-cool to turn around and look at you, and aside from that you bounce across a couple rooftops and fight a bunch of enemies, last of all being "The Huntsman" who's a shield enemy that gets rekt by magic attacks or by running around and hitting him in the back. It is obviously a "wind-down" chapter after the way the opening segment ended but still - prolly the worst chapter in the entire game. EDITER'S NOTE - WOW! Did I seriously go through every chapter in this game 1-by-1? Am I on crack? Let's move on to something else please. The FF7 Combat System is the most fun AAA gameplay I've had the pleasure of enjoying since Horizon Zero Dawn Combat - I’ve seen some people accuse Final Fantasy of “failing to find a consistent gameplay system” since they deviated from being purely turn-based. I would argue, those people are wrong. Final Fantasy is like a fashion brand. They evolve with the times - and MY GOD IS THE CURRENT TREND BRILLIANT. I LOVE this combat system. The snappiness of being able to jump between multiple characters on a whim, the ease with which you can give out your commands to your allies, being able to balance both attacking with guarding at the appropriate time, figuring out when to best use your ATB’s with staggering the enemy. I personally loved charging up Tifa’s True Strikes that increase the stagger by 30% with a Ray of Judgement by Aerith. I loved Barret’s maximum fury and focused shot. Cloud’s triple slash is over-powered, I found Braver to be far too slow to be used effectively but Infinity’s End was great if an enemy was down for awhile, and something like Counterstance was outstanding for 1-on-1 enemies and bosses. Even when the game pushed itself to it’s limits on Hard Mode and some of Shinra VR Simulation challenges I was having a blast with it, and it required my full attention. I enjoyed balancing the materia so they’d receive the proper amount of AP in order to level-up - it was a joy to play a major AAA game where the gameplay had me obsessed with it just as an indie’s game mechanics would captivate me. I really want to see where they go with it in future installments, given I know there is supposed to be more playable characters beyond this lovable cast of 4. I can't imagine they'll take the Red 13 approach and that was rather a substitute for him specifically in this game due to the fact he really only joins your cast for the final 2 chapters, and thus having an AI control his patterns could be justified. The General Story of FF7 Summarized By An Ape - Cloud’s a mercenary who ends up working for an Avalanche, an eco-terrorist organization tryna takedown Make Reactors that for all intents and purposes are like power plants in our world that harm the environment. Barret and Tifa work for Avalanche, Tifa was a childhood friend of Cloud’s - that’s how they know each other - and how Barret hired Cloud in the first place. During this, you meet Aerith - who’s a very special girl who is an Ancient, or Cetra, that’s a very powerful people in-tune with the earths energy. Shinra, an evil corporation, is tryna use that energy, or mako, for it’s own benefit - even to the detriment of it’s citizens or planet. Evil people at the top don’t care about the little guys at the bottom - let’s take ‘em down. The scope of the story swaps between little quests in various sectors to tryna takedown a corporation, and all of a sudden there are these random wisps things that are tryna keep fate on course. Some would argue, this is a meta commentary of the fans of the original game who want the game designers to not change a single thing. Spoiler Alert: Not only are they changing it going forward, they punked y’all in the process. I absolutely loved it even if I didn’t completely gather everything. Let’s talk a bit about that. Things I DIDN’T Understand About FF7 - I have a lot of questions. Maybe a die-hard FF7 fan can help me with some of these answers. Let’s start with 1), if the wisps are meant to keep “destiny on it’s course” and not deviate from anything from the original (examples - Cloud tryna kill Reno, Barret getting killed by Sephiroth) what causes the deviation from the original in the first place? What made Cloud try to kill Reno that didn’t cause it in the original? Is it random? Can destiny deviate every so slightly to cause these discrepancies that must be cleaned up? If so, that should be made more clear. 2) We’re tryna protect the planet right… so, why are we going directly against the planet’s “destiny” or fate? Sephiroth CLEARLY wants us to do this by inviting a fight in the darth dimension against this giant ass purple dude. Shouldn’t we always… try to do what Sephiroth doesn’t want us to do? I mean, I get the visions of future planetary destruction causing us to fight, but it also opens the door for Sephiroth to have a chance at beating us now that destiny is no longer fixed. 3) WHO THE HELL IS ZACK AND WHY DOES HE APPEAR AT THE END OF THE GAME WITH 0 CONTEXT EXPLAINED? 4) Who the hell is that cat dude punching the ground with his hand at the end of Chapter #12 and Sector 7 getting blown up? 5) What are 90% of these flashbacks? The Tifa cowboy outfit? Cloud’s… mom I guess? Aerith’s original storyline? So much of this stuff is never explained. 6) What is that end scene with Cloud and Sephiroth talking about 7 seconds of time…? Does anyone know? Like - it’s not GREAT that the game left me with this many questions but the fact it has me wondering all these things is a testament to the curiosity it has piqued in me so it deserves credit for that. I just wished I knew I could better explain the story to somebody if they asked me. Things I DIDN’T Like About FF7 - I have been overwhelmingly positive with my review thus far. Let’s get a bit mean. 1) I hate the anime gasping/sighing. Once you notice it - it’s hard to un-notice. One of the most gratuitous example is Rude becoming a 3rd grader when Reno calls him after you whoop his ass with Aerith. But it also happens so much with Cloud whenever someone asks him a romance question or something like that, homeboy goes from hardened soldier to awkward teen. C’mon Cloud. 2) Some of the awkward stilted dialogue. There are some scenes where the core cast of 4 shine beautifully, and others where the game is… loading? I dunno, it’s so slow and awkward that I can’t believe that was the designers original intention. I imagine in Japanese it’s better. 3) Those god-awful atrocious “different mechanic” segments. The unbelievably piss poor segment where you’re maneuvering Cloud past the chandelier at the start of chapter #8 after beating Reno, or Tifa’s jungle gym chandelier hopping at the start of chapter #16, or the slow ass robot hands in chapter #9, or hell it was cute but the kicking over items when tryna escape Aerith’s hope at the end of chapter #8, or HELL HOW ABOUT THE MECHANICAL LEVERS coordinating with Barret and Tifa that I must have failed 8-10 times in a row. This game is masterful at times but these segments… what on earth were they thinking? Lowkey I’m glad they still exist just to laugh at them but I prolly would have preferred if they pulled them off excellently. 4) How about slow those fake transition loading screens are? They’re a plague in Wall Market tryna get hidden treasure. I know why they’re there - I still don’t like them, and it made me wanna visit the Children’s Hideout less in Chapter #8. 5) Triple Slash is OP and ruined the strategy of the combat a little bit for me. Obviously the meta of any game will take away some of the creativity, but it is by far the best move with the crowd control it offers. 6) If you’re anything like me, you’ll love gathering items and going down the wrong path to open those chests before proceeding with the main path. This plagued me so much it distracted me when the game was clearly urging me to be more focused on the urgent plot. Is that the games fault? I dunno, but don’t hide treasures everywhere if you don’t want me to hunt them down like a truffle pig. 7) There's too many instances of PS2 textures being present. It never happens to the character models thankfully - but yikes. 8) WHY ARE THE NPCS IN THE BACKGROUND SO LOUD AND WAY LOUDER THAN THE MAIN CHARACTERS SPEAKING? 9) Why do the side quests generally suck? They aren’t offensively bad, some of them are cute(pull-ups at the gym, some hidden boss fights) but some of them. GLAD WE NO LONGER HAVE A RAT PROBLEM! Dismissing Arguments I Disagree With Regards to FF7 - The 9 things I listed in the previous paragraph could form some part of the mainstream complaints that I've seen with Final Fantasy 7 - but they're not deal-breakers. I love this game. Some people don't, though. and after reviewing their reasons why - I've concluded those people are wrong! Let's go through a few of them. 1) "The game is bloated, Midgar is barely a few hours long in the original". This has been disproven, mathematically. I mean, for one - as someone stepping into Midgar as a first-time enjoyer of FF7, it boggles my mind that the majority of the game takes place elsewhere. How is this not the foundation upon which the entire game is centered? It'd be like Los Santos being a portion of Grant Theft Auto 5, but 60% of the game was gonna take part elsewhere. After having played through the game, I can say safely that the parts that were "added on" and not in the original - don't feel out of place for myself personally. The segment with Jessie in Chapter #4, wandering through the sewers with Aerith or Tifa. I can understand how long-term players may not enjoy it knowing nothing "too substantial" can happen in these bits, but as someone with no knowledge of that - they didn't feel off or out of place. 2) "They ruined the story with these arbiters of fate, now the story can go anywhere they please, and we just wanted a remake of our original favorite game." I fully, 100% expect that the sequel to FF7 Remake - (yo... what are they gonna call that by the way? Final Fantasy 7 - Part 2? Part 3?) to stick tightly to the original plot-line. There will be deviations, but giving how lovingly they re-created details from the original Midgar segment from the Hell House fight to fleshing out a character as minor as Johnny, I can't see them throwing the original game anyway in favor of completely new destinations. A few new story beats? Prolly, but we knew that going into this remake adventure anyway. 3) "Testuya Nomura turned Final Fantasy into Kingdom Hearts". For one, Kingdom Hearts rules and people who go on about how complicated the story is prolly have a stick up their butt. I don't know where the next installments are going to lead, but I DO know I'm prolly gonna have a fun time with it. Even if we crash, why not savor it all up while we can? Bonus Things I'd Like To Say - I love how snappy the menus are. That's such a small detail, and it's tiny bit annoying when you click the pause menu too quickly after getting up from a bench that it gives you that "Resume" pause screen like you paused in a cutscene, but a game with bad menus can single-handedly bring it down an entire point in my opinion, and FF7's are well-done. Aside from that, if 10,000+ words from yours truly isn't enough to satisfy your FF7 curiosity. I have 3 videos I'd like to recommend. 1) ACTION BUTTON REVIEWS - "The Final Fantasy VII Remake" by Tim Rogers. I love this man. He is on-par, and prolly slightly ahead of Joseph Anderson when it comes to my favorite content creators on the internet. I've stolen a few of his jokes from his 3-hour review and sprinkled them across the post. Which ones? Guess you'd have to watch the entire figure out what I plagiarized! (But seriously - he encapsulates the brilliance of the original FF7, the daunting task re-making it would imply, and subtle details you prolly thought while playing but never voiced out loud). 2) Final Fantasy 7 Remake Critique by NeverKnowsBest. He is an original FF7 that lacked faith and did not trust Square Enix when they announced they were remaking it. He didn't want a remake, while so many adoring fans did. It's a shorter video than the 1st coming it at 56 minutes, but I strongly recommend it since it discusses at the core of it all how having faith is the ultimate deciding factor to being excited vs. terrified when it comes to the future installments. 3) Final Fantasy 7 Remake Analysis & Critique by Nam's Compendium. My third favorite of the three, but it strikes a nice balance between showing off more from the original (for example, how the plate falling at the end of chapter #12 is presented in the original vs. the remake) and has a nice voice. He has less jokes than the other two but if for whatever reason you're craving more FF7 analysis, I'd definitely give it a listen while working out. Trophies - I feel like I risk getting banned if I make an exhaustive review on a game I love - and somehow, someway, didn't write about the trophies. Listen man - this game has some pretty tricky trophies for an AAA game. But the PSNProfiles guide is expertly done am I glad to say. I personally kept an eye out for many of the chapter specific trophies listed, but also went out of my way to earn weapon skills as soon as I got a new one for each party member, I always assessed enemies, started adding HP Up and MP Up materia as soon as possible given how essential they'd prove to be for Hard Mode, managed to pick up 30 of the 31 music discs but missed out on one in chapter #9, which was no biggie given I had to replay it twice anyway in order to view all 9 dresses available for Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud. Once you get used to the gameplay, juggling all these side objectives isn't so bad. You will have to replay the game the entire way through a 2nd time, and given you must play it on Hard, I STRONGLY recommend playing on Normal so the increase on difficulty doesn't seem to stark in comparison. The hardest fight in the game was the "Pride & Joy Prototype" trophy attached to it's Shinra VR Battle Simulation. Specifically against Bahamut. But by having reprieve activated on your level 6 weapons, having good healers in Tifa and Aerith, you should survive and persevere after a few failed attempts. The trophies in this game made me love it even more and it was a joy they allowed me to spend as much time as possible with this game without making it absurd (like... fight X boss without getting damaged or something). The only other note I have to give is that Jules is a b!tch who cheats against Tifa on pull-ups. Took me 40 minutes to beat his ass since I kept ending up a point shy of his total. OH AND THAT DAMN HIDDEN LETTER FROM THE ANGEL OF THE SLUMS WHO'S EXPECTED TO SEE THAT WITHOUT A GUIDE TELLING YO- nevermind. It took me 3 days and 1 week to achieve the 18.65% rarity platinum. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Final Play Log (67 hours, 34 minutes, and 35 seconds) The Bottom Line - The Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the greatest game I have played in 2021. It is one of my Top 3 favorite games ever on the Playstation 4, and quite truthfully, given how much I love it's combat system - with enough time it may become my favorite game of the entire generation. I will follow this cast of 4 to anywhere on the face of the earth. I know it's not perfect. I had one of my longest paragraphs dedicated to all the things I found off with it. But think of it like this - FF7 is a girl I have fallen in love with. Her history is rich, and her fanbase even more fanatical than I am. I get how she enchanted so many back when she released in 1997. I've fallen victim to her same charms. I don't normally play games on weekends since, not to sound like a big deal or anything, I like dedicating it to more social activities and yet... FF7 got me enamored enough to spend several hours in the evening witnessing her mystique. She's not perfect. Imagine if you were having a deeply intimate moment with your significant other (it doesn't have to be sex, I mean, it can be if you want, whatever helps you visualize the illustration my man) and she just... started moo'ing like a cow as hard as possible for 5 seconds. You'd be caught off guard. Prolly wandering to yourself "What the f....." But would that be a deal-breaker for you if you loved everything else about her? It's only 5 seconds bro. That's how I feel when I put up with FF7's bizarre anime sighing and weird-ass jungle gym chandelier climbing water pressure releasing mechanics. I don't love it, but I'm not gonna break up with her either over it. She's mine, and I'm hers. I imagine the sequel to FF7 Remake is gonna be absolutely terrifying for fans of the original hoping they don't "mess it up". I don't have those fears. I trust them completely to lead me to an unforgettable experience and if this opener was merely an appetizer for what they have in-store - I'm very confident in saying the Final Fantasy 7 Trilogy will likely go down as my favorite gaming series of All-Time. I mean, even if it doesn't, this game still got me to write... 8,384 words about it according to the word counter on "Pages" as I'm typing this, YOU'VE probably never written that much about anything in your entire life. Hell, I hadn't either before playing it. If it's not the greatest franchise I've ever played, it'll go down as the one that most fascinated me to write about it. That's prolly more important than being my favorite. Thank y'all for reading and take care! Panda Score: 9.6 / 10 Spoiler WHA? WAS 8K+ WORDS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU, YOU FREAK? Here are my notes on the game LIVE as I played them. Yea, I take notes while playing video games. Whaddya gonna do about it? Final Fantasy 7 Remake Thoughts (1st Play-Through, Normal): Never played a Final Fantasy game before… I’m slightly optimistic. I hope it’s 7/10 worthy. Dayum Aerith is pretty, I’ve always been Team Aerith > Team Tifa before playing the game. Jessie likes us I like Barret Oh so did Cloud use to be a ol country boy? Tifa young girl flashback scene Phew… died on the laser of the scorpion sentinel fight and beat it 2nd try, good fight man! Lol I set the timer to rig at 20 minutes, got out with 13+ minutes remaining bruh Ayyyy Chapter #1 is done - pretty awesome opening with the reactor getting blown up! Oh no I think we’re eco-terrorists I had heard from those making fun of FF7 that Sephiroth shows up A LOT, here we go! WE IN BOYS WITH THE FLOWER PEDDLER Damn and we finished chapter 2! Good stuff! Pausing here for today but solid thus far WAIT BARRET HAS A DAUGHTER? We got paid 1/4 of a job worth 2k? Bruh Why does Marco have the #49 on him? The materia literally being found in the sword is super cool when Biggs asks to modify it 1st side quest done we found all of Bettys white cats WE GOT THE DOOMRATS I really like the ability to go straight to the quest person once you’re done Whew that wraith hound was tough… All side quests done, all records collected - think we’re ready to move on! Get rekt Wedge broke his darts board record at 7 - tho how on earth is that record legitimate given Cloud did it when 0 other people were at the bar at that time? End of Chapter 3 as we’re gonna go on a motorcycle hunt with Jessie, cool! Cloud vs. Roche in Chapter 4, didn’t get the trophy but we’ll comeback for it So we just stole Jessie’s Dads ID and played her mom - cool! Roche was a semi close fight but I finished him off with a limit break Chapter 4 ends with hang-gliding… cool! I like Biggs, Wedge is eh, Jessie’s all over us Oh that’s not the end of the chapter? My bad Okay can’t lie, after Tifa’s little evening visit, I’m kinda getting swayed a bit with regard to my stout Aerith > Tifa POV… we’ll see though, plenty of time to go The wisps enemies aren’t the greatest… look a lot like goofy robes We sure get called Soldier Boy a lot DAMN that Crab Warden was a fun boss fight! Heidegger calling someone “Sir” is proof there’s always a bigger fish End of Chapter #5! Gonna call it a day here, the combat is freaking fun man I’m in Chapter 6 and feel kinda lost and hope the game is linear enough where you can’t really lose where you’re supposed to go… the slow walking platform sections kinda suck Pretty good chapter #6! I enjoyed that fight for the Chocbo summon a lot, decent pacing Tifa’s “wait is someone watching us?” Lol I was a literal brain dead moron getting “In Lockstep” trophy failed 10x on 3/4th levels WOW that Airbuster fight was tough, only died and game over’d once but phew! Oh snap Aerith decided to show up! Cool! Let’s see if she can take the best girl mantle away from Tifa I defeated Reno but it took me like 15 high portions in order to do it That Cloud Chandelier segment was atrocious Did Aerith just “you mad” us? *aerith ladder falling after saying she’s not a princess who needs to be coddled* O_O Scarlet Alright I’m loving Aerith again - great bantz, ‘specially when calling out Cloud for lying about not remembering giving the flower to Tifa WOW I beat Shiva after selecting Fire Element and having Ifrit deal 5.5k damage final blow All of the background NPC’s talking over the main characters and side quests is jarring WOW that Chromogger fight was something else… Aerith’s thunder saved me Took care of all 6 side quests in Chapter 8, that means Red Dress for Aerith! That Rude fight was awesome! I loved the replacing of the broken shades mid-fight Well that Chapter #8 sure was long but talk about an adventure man! Enjoying everything thus far minus some of the inexplicably slow walking/transition segments Who’s Claudia? We really bailing on Aerith like this? And oh my god that “mini-game” of tryna get out without her hearing you is frigging hilarious, I failed 4 straight times HOW THE HELL DID AERITH CUT US OFF? WHA? HELLO? HOW? GOOD GAME DESIGN letting me pick up that material and warning me if I proceeded Aerith going “CLOUD???” As you nearly crush her on the 3rd robot arm puzzle is gold YO TIFA IN CARRIAGE? Alright I am setting up to play this at 11:40PM on Saturday - lemme say, a gigantic credit to FF7 Remake is it is making me feel giddy to play games on the weekend which I had not in QUITE some time since I usually take weekends off, that should offer a good testimony for how much I’m loving it at the moment We’re going to go for “SET 1 OF QUESTS” for Chapter #9 YOOOOO THE MISS FOLIA CHICK FROM LEAF HOUSE IS IN CHAPTER #9? SHE BUZZING Shove a fan down our throat? Hell yea Madam M The fact you play as Aerith after Cloud’s poor mans massage >>>> I drank the drink cuz I Ian’t no baby DESTROYED the Sanguine Stalkers and Beastmaster Scotch and Kotch are AWESOME Yea we obliterated Cutty and Sweepy The Hell House fight… good lord man DID 35 SQUATS TO SCRAWNY RONNIE’S 13 SQUATS LESSGO I then further humiliated Jay, 47 squats to 26 Aaaaand I defeated the king Jules at 53-43, best effort tho Confirmed: Cloud does not need to whip it out DAYUM RED DRESS AERITH X25 GREAT ON THE HONEYBEE DANCE ROUTINE 1ST TRY TOO MUCH OF A BEAST REUNITED WITH TIFA So this Don Corneo stuff is excellently creepily done and I get it cuz Tifa and Aerith can kick butt but uhh the implications for past girls who’ve passed thru here isn’t great Oh hey Leslie is a good guy! Did Cloud just change in front of Tifa and Aerith and Don Corneo? Dammit didn’t type “when they think they’ve already won” in time. End of Chapter #9, we got up to the 5,969 trophy mark as I wanted - now time to pause FF7 and go play Haven! Abzu fight was fun to start Chapter #10! Talked with Tifa first, and beat him down little by little, annoyed that I died once but that Blackwater attack surprised me Is Corneo telling the truth? I think so - I mean, c’mon - Tifa’s a smart gal GOOD LORD THIS WATER PRESSURE LEVER WITH AERITH AND TIFA IS ONE OF THE WORST MECHANICS IVE SEEN IN A AAA GAME GHOUL DEFEATED 1ST TRY, AERITH CARRIED US Chapter #11 is hella creepy man Marlene Oh my goodness Cloud’s Limit Break 2 is broken. I had stolen the blade off Eligor, but finished off the final 1/10th of his health solely on that break, damn man! RIP Biggs Mommy Aerith rescues Marlene. But what happened there with the static? SHE EXPOSED THE FLOWER CLOUD GAVE TIFA Who the heck is Tseng? RIP Jessie…. I love Rude’s fight, great Chapter #12 fine fight, but Barret’s aim missing all of Rude… Aerith is an… Ancient? OOOOOOOF NOOOO WEDGE…. Wow who the heck is this cat dude in the Chap 12 cutscene? Oh hey I forgot about Sephiroth - he’s back! Did the Fat Chocbo VR fight with the 3-team squad and lol that’s prolly not fitting the tone of chasing after Marlene MARLENE! Damn Aerith’s mom was hot I love how Chapter #13’s a focus on Barret after we didn’t get to play as him for quite awhile Killed Failed Experiment with Tifa’s somersault and then Cloud takes all the credit bruh NOW is when we tell Barret that Biggs and Jessie died? Woof I was about to punch Cloud thru my TV if he didn’t hug Tifa crying on him Kyrie girl is as wack as Kyrie Irving FINALLY BEAT THAT MF JULES AT PULL UPS 45-44 HE KICKED MY ASS FOR 40 MINUTES Mireille is Kyrie’s grandma… huh… Oh damn Leslie’s fiance is just… Leslie’s fiancé… and Corneo took her bruh That 2nd fight vs Abzu was fantastic, Shiva and a Tifa somersault clutched the win for me Did everything there was to do in Chapter #14 and now it’s time to move on with the story, can’t wait to see how it ends! Damn Chapter #15 lets you really realize how much destruction took place PHEW THAT VALKYRIE FIGHT CLOUD GOT UNCONSCIOUS LIKE 8 TIMES Damn this Shinra building is gorgeous This Tifa jungle gym gameplay is NOT prestige AAA gameplay lmao I picked climbing 59 flights of stairs over the elevator cuz I’m not a PANSY, Tifa got 1st tho Oh Scarlet…. Is Reeve the “good” executive at Shinra? Damn that Shinra VR simulation explaining the history of mako is super cool Oh awesome Mayor Domino is on our side! Avalanche’s man on the inside Abuela: “Barret es un gigante” THE MAYOR That awkward moment when you bump into an old co-worker Crawling slowly through an air event >>> Cartoonishly evil villains talking about hurting Aerith, permission to kill, Cloud? WE GOT AERITH BACK Oh snap there’s talking dogs now! Red 13? Cloud’s mom? Tseng with some amazing logic on Rude/Reno… “spare someone a guilty conscience” lol Ancients = Cetra Me and Barret are like THIS, Red 13 tryna explain how whispers control fate/destiny whatever JENOVA? JENOVA CHEN? Tifa and Aerith with the clutch save for Red 13 LOL Hojo being impressed by Aerith/Tifa taking down the eel monster only to cut to Cloud/Barret beating their weapons against a steel door Bruh President Shinra we saw you begging for your life 2 seconds ago and now you’re acting all gangster, Barret’s a dummy tho he let Hojo go earlier and now let the President get a gun FINALLY Sephiroth kills the president my goodness man NOOOOOOOO BARRET Jenova Dreamweaver fight… holy crap! Finished ‘em off with an Infinity’s End Ah ok the weaver just said “lol no Barret can’t die” The only reason I beat Rufus was because of Limit Break Ascension - otherwise he kicked my butt Tifa to the rescue One of the best fights in the entire game that fight vs The Arsenal… holy cow I love Barret / Aerith fight from distance using cover! Imagine getting clowned by goofy anime squad on a motorcycle and small car LESSGO We’re entering the final chapter of this awesome game… lessgo man I died stupidly on the motorcycle boss to start Chapter #18 cuz I didn’t realize you had to hit the wheels, whoops! Who the hell is Zack? Whisperer Harbringer is legit a 35min boss fight, hahaha LOL Cloud got stunned so Tifa got the last hit on Sephiroth’s final fight Where the hell is Cloud? Heyyyy Midgar survived! Sooooo as someone who never played the original - damn man! I guess we’re gonna journey to someplace else to figure out what the hell we need to do in order to hunt down Sephiroth…. I guess we really did change fate and destiny based on that Zack/Cloud scene So some brief thoughts on an overall review - maybe it’s because I had heard some fans were less than impressed so I came in with lower expectations - but good grief man, I think the game is frigging AMAZING - like legit, prolly going Top 5 All-Time on my list unless I just utterly hate the hard mode + clean-up. But seriously, it is utterly gorgeous, I love the core cast of characters, the combat is unbelievably fun balancing combat hack and slash with ATB with skills and leveling up materia, the environment and atmosphere is phenomenal - the complaints would be the bizarre “bad” segments like Cloud climbing chandeliers + Tifa jungle gym, also the annoying amount of anime sighing/gasping, and… yea besides that I can’t complain about much else off the top of my head. The overall story? I dunno where it’s going man - I’m in for a journey with these buddies wherever it takes us, so 0 complaints here! Final Time for 1st Playthrough: 39 hours, 31 minutes, 57 seconds Chapter Select Notes (Normal) Okay so I re-played chapters 3, 4, 8, and 9 out of the gate - just so I could get the 2nd quick play through dresses out of the way + get the biker boy trophy from Jessie - super easy and straight forward. WOW THE SHINRA CHAPTER 17 BOSSES ARE KICKING MY ASS - first the month-xs boss on the solo challenges, but also the frigging Tonberry to get to Malboro - I forgot to have enemy skill equipped, beat him without it, and got the next few hours of my ass handed to me tryna get to him again because of the tonberry’s - time to grind warding materia I guess Hard Mode (2nd Playthrough): PHEW nearly died at the end of the scorpion boss cuz I had 0 cure/revive on Cloud and Barret fell unconscious but I spammed lightning and survived Chapter 2 is super easy even on hard, Counterstance on Huntsman OP Suffered my 1st game over in Chapter 3 to the doormats cuz 0 heal/revive on Tifa Sheesh I DESTROYED Roche on Chapter #4 after getting game over’d 2 times on the dogs / missile launchers - that counter stance is OP son Woohoo beat Chapter #5 Crab Warden’s after dying at the end cuz I didn’t have revive on Cloud, but got ‘em next time easy with a bunch of lightning material Chapter #6 was super easy, didn’t die a single time WOOHOO!!! Chapter #7 was a frigging blast, super easy all the way through the Airblaster fight - got to the last phase of the fight and his double giant purple laser destroyed me, but on the 2nd try I saved up Cloud/Barret limit breaks and obliterated him - lighting OP! Defeated Reno at the start of Chapter #8 basically only using Counterstance, I died once since the EM shot got me HAHAHAH defeated Rude on the 1st attempt thanks to a clutch Cloud’s ascension that obliterated him, more Counterstance and switching to Aerith made it easy peasy DAMN Madam M’s luxury course is hot LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO!! BEAT THE HELL HOUSE ON MY 3RD ATTEMPT GET IN SON THAT WAS HARD BUT SAVING THE TWO LIMIT BREAKS FOR CUTTER/SWEEPER WAS CLUTCH Lol the guardian angels quest with dummy Beck and such is good Madam M says our hands have found a new purpose in a woman or two. Hell yea brother ALL QUESTS DONE! WOOHOO! Johnny’s “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” when tryna enter Madam M’s parlor is hilarious A perfect x28 on the Honeybee Inn dance to wrap things up WOOHOO All dresses trophy popped! Lessgo! I got to respond to Don Corneo in time but hah… We’re greeting Aerith first this time since she’s Cloud’s true girlfriend Abzu gets DESTROYED when you have fire elemental equipped, even on Hard Mode OH MY GOD THIS LEVER IN CHAPTER 10 IS SO BAD I destroyed the Ghoul boss thanks to Ray of Judgement + True Strike stagger boi SHIVA 9,999 DAMAGE ON ELIGOR WHEN STAGGERED OOOOOF RIP SON ELIGOR DEFEATED 1ST TRY GET TRASHED GRIM REAPER BOY I got a few game over’s in Chapter 12 normal fights all due to annoying Helicopter’s Reno / Rude duel fight defeated on 1st try… got a clutch Ascension Break on Reno that destroyed him and Rude was a cake-walk with wind / poison damage Failed Experiment in Chapter #13 defeated on the 1st try! 0 game overs even while rolling with Barret and Tifa! I got Tifa as my chap 14 cutscene in the garden when I thought it’d be Aerith Abzu end of Chapter 14 boss get rekt by a Barrel catastrophe + Cloud Ascension RIP That Valkyrie Chapter 15 fight is prolly the hardest thus far in the game on Hard - only game over’d once but wind/lightning plus the purple shield immunity is tough I took the elevator this time instead of the stairs in Chapter 16 - also a funny sequence! Specimen HO0512 in Chapter 16 got rekt, just an easy methodical fight with good healing Let’s go! Got back to Chapter 17 - got all enemy skills, now only 2 trophies left! Alright time to go for Pride & Joy Prototype… let’s see how it fares for me Died 1x when Infrit spawned as he rekt me, died 2nd time vs Shiva as I switched the recommendation PSNProfiles guide from elemental-ice to elemental-fire so he becomes a non-factor, but Shiva rekt me cuz I had ignored her attacks th first time, died 3rd time after Bahamut’s 1st megaflare since all but Tifa died, respawned Aerith, but then Tifa died and got rekt WOHOOO 4 TIMES! BAHAMUT GOT DESTROYED THANKS TO MULTI-MANAWALL, FINAL ROBOT WAS EASY NOW WE’VE JUST GOTTA FINISH THE GAME FOR THE PLATINUM! OOOOOOOH Chadley’s a cyborg… not a human, that explains his wack attitude He was Hojo’s slave, we freed hi,, and we just say “cool” Sworiepie fight in Chapter 17 was dumb easy with Cloud limit break + Tifa staggering Jenova Dreamweaver destroyed on 1st attempt, just sit down Sephiroth Alright Rufus took me 2 tries cuz I got KO’d and the 1st cutscene still played but I destroyed him the 2nd time around, now it’s time for the final chapter! Oh whoops I had forgotten there was a boss fight with just Aerith/Barret less! Arsenal fight was hard but didn’t die, saved Barret’s catastrophe for the final stage! Whisper Harbinger is defeated! Phew! Beat it on my 1st try but nearly died when Cloud / Barret were tryna solo them Arbiters… once Aerith/Tifa joined it was gg OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A FINAL FIGHT! Sephiroth kicked my ass the first 3 times that I attempted it, then on my 4th I got all the way to the end, but Barret was my partner instead of Aerith so I had no magnify healing - Heartless Angel was obliterating me, both Tifa and Cloud had fallen unconscious, I was all outta MP, and right as Sephiroth is winding up to end Barret he hits him with a FOCUSED SHOT TO CLUTCH THE VICTORY AND THE PLATINUM LETS GOOOOOO TALK ABOUT A HYPE ENDING!!!! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 What a great review of the game, both the good and the bad. I have been a fan of the FF VII since the demo disc came out for PS1. I happen to be on the side of the fence that also really enjoyed the Remake and the direction it went. i actually do not mind that it break new ground. Now the specters to me are like the guardians of the time stream. We have gone multiversy, if that is a word. I think there is some awareness too from the characters. Some of the premonitions, are actually memories of this happening before in the first game. What the Avengers did in Endgame to rewrite history is what Sephiroth is doing now. It is an interesting way to me to diverge from the source material. Speaking of which, I would love to tell you all of your burning questions but I actually do not want to spoil it for you. My opinion is to play the original. Then when part two comes out you can see how it is changed up. It will not take you long to get past Midgar, in that version you can get past it in 9 hours. Although to me it is still the best section of the game. IF not I guess if you DM me I can answer some of what you want to know or just wait for part two. On a sad note, I am disappointed PS4 players cant get the extra chapter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Is there a Pulitzer for random gaming blog reviews? If there is, you get my nomination. I am definitely in the camp that played the original 5 times at least and loved the remake. Of course it had some little nitpicky flaws, but what game doesnt. As I said it was a rare day 1 purchase for me and it beat my expectations. It's platinum currently sits on the top spot in my trophy cabinet for a good reason. Reading through your post I kept thinking that the answers to your questions are so simple and if we were talking in person it would be hard not to spoil something. It's like if someone watched Star Wars episode 4 for the first time and lived on the moon not knowing how the rest of the story unfolds. But looking at these games through the words of someone who is going on that journey for the first time is exciting. I'm not sure if you are willing to wait for the next chapter of the remake or just play the original, but that wait is going to be legendary if you stay spoiler free. Midgar is awesome, but wait until you see more parts of the story unravel, locations you'll visit and characters you meet. To vaguely answer some of your questions, some of those things you got glimpses of were not from the original game (or they barely came up). They added some things to tease the ff7 veterans about missing back story. I cant wait for the next part to come out, not only to play it myself but to see what you think. ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 7, 2021 Author Share Posted May 7, 2021 17 hours ago, kingofbattle8174 said: What a great review of the game, both the good and the bad. I have been a fan of the FF VII since the demo disc came out for PS1. I happen to be on the side of the fence that also really enjoyed the Remake and the direction it went. i actually do not mind that it break new ground. Now the specters to me are like the guardians of the time stream. We have gone multiversy, if that is a word. I think there is some awareness too from the characters. Some of the premonitions, are actually memories of this happening before in the first game. What the Avengers did in Endgame to rewrite history is what Sephiroth is doing now. It is an interesting way to me to diverge from the source material. Speaking of which, I would love to tell you all of your burning questions but I actually do not want to spoil it for you. My opinion is to play the original. Then when part two comes out you can see how it is changed up. It will not take you long to get past Midgar, in that version you can get past it in 9 hours. Although to me it is still the best section of the game. IF not I guess if you DM me I can answer some of what you want to know or just wait for part two. On a sad note, I am disappointed PS4 players cant get the extra chapter. Yes! Absolutely believe Aerith knows more than she's letting on, but it also may be a spotty memory that prevents her from divulging more to the rest of the group. and as for your second point I appreciate it hahahah. I'm really conflicted as to whether I wanna play the original now. I utterly adored this game, and prolly wanna let it sit for awhile so I forget a few things - but I've seen the original on sale for $8 on a number of occasions - and it has a fairly decent platinum rate. The only thing holding me back is I'm not sure if I wanna be influenced in the same way so many die-hards have been. I think it's awesome you enjoyed it, but I honestly went into it expecting it to be a 7/10 experience given how much backlash I heard from long-time fans. I know playing the original would fill in A LOT of details but we'll see... if we get a timeline on when FF7 Remake Part #2 should come out before the end of the year, I'll prolly hold off. But if it gets stuck in development hell I may just commit to basking in the original since it would give me my fill in the meantime. 11 hours ago, Grotz99 said: Is there a Pulitzer for random gaming blog reviews? If there is, you get my nomination. I am definitely in the camp that played the original 5 times at least and loved the remake. Of course it had some little nitpicky flaws, but what game doesnt. As I said it was a rare day 1 purchase for me and it beat my expectations. It's platinum currently sits on the top spot in my trophy cabinet for a good reason. Reading through your post I kept thinking that the answers to your questions are so simple and if we were talking in person it would be hard not to spoil something. It's like if someone watched Star Wars episode 4 for the first time and lived on the moon not knowing how the rest of the story unfolds. But looking at these games through the words of someone who is going on that journey for the first time is exciting. I'm not sure if you are willing to wait for the next chapter of the remake or just play the original, but that wait is going to be legendary if you stay spoiler free. Midgar is awesome, but wait until you see more parts of the story unravel, locations you'll visit and characters you meet. To vaguely answer some of your questions, some of those things you got glimpses of were not from the original game (or they barely came up). They added some things to tease the ff7 veterans about missing back story. I cant wait for the next part to come out, not only to play it myself but to see what you think. Hahah thank you, and that makes me really happy that someone who adored the original also loved the 1st part of remake as much. I honestly think I enjoyed it to the point where the remake part #2 for me will achieve Day 1 purchase status, which hey - that's exactly what Square Enix / Sony were hoping for when they made it free for PS+ Users. ? and I love the fact you enjoyed a more strange perspective regarding one of the biggest video games of all-time haha. I know I'm far from the only one who prolly made this their first experience with a Final Fantasy game but playing a game, being remade for modern audiences, KNOWING that legions of fans would be hanging on every detail as they devoured every morsel of the story from 20+ years ago must have been such a daunting task. It really excites not knowing what's in store. But I could also see the fun in playing the original after loving the remake, and thinking "holy crap how are they gonna make X area even greater and grander like they did with Midgar". As I told KingofBattle I'll prolly wait for a bit since the game is still very fresh in my mind but I can't wait to see where it goes next. and thank you for the reply! I imagined as such - I know I had heard something about "Sephiroth doesn't even show up for oh so long in the game whereas he appears far more often in flashbacks in the remake" so they did a lil altering on that front, but from my perspective... of course they did that. Even though I know who Sephiroth is because DUH, he's video games BAD GUY, imagine not seeing him all the way until like Chapter 16 and then you fight him at the end. Would have felt super weird. The things that most left me perplexed was 1) why was Tifa part-timing at Chocobo Sam's ranch with that cowboy outfit lmao and 2) I 1000% thought the Zack character was Cloud's potential alter-ego where he didn't dye his hair blonde. I'm gonna ASSUME that's wrong because that seems dumb - but the have the exact same swords!! I can't imagine how goofy that must read as someone who knows all the answers but enjoy my child-like innocence of the story haha. We'll both be anticipating the following release greatly, HOPEFULLY before 2022 ends. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 13 minutes ago, realm722 said: and thank you for the reply! I imagined as such - I know I had heard something about "Sephiroth doesn't even show up for oh so long in the game whereas he appears far more often in flashbacks in the remake" so they did a lil altering on that front, but from my perspective... of course they did that. Even though I know who Sephiroth is because DUH, he's video games BAD GUY, imagine not seeing him all the way until like Chapter 16 and then you fight him at the end. Would have felt super weird. The things that most left me perplexed was 1) why was Tifa part-timing at Chocobo Sam's ranch with that cowboy outfit lmao and 2) I 1000% thought the Zack character was Cloud's potential alter-ego where he didn't dye his hair blonde. I'm gonna ASSUME that's wrong because that seems dumb - but the have the exact same swords!! I can't imagine how goofy that must read as someone who knows all the answers but enjoy my child-like innocence of the story haha. We'll both be anticipating the following release greatly, HOPEFULLY before 2022 ends. We are both pretty much in the dark on Zack as his story wasn't really in the original, it's one of the things we got a glimpse of that I hope they expand on. If you do pick up the original, you could try to do a side by side, but the gaps would be big. Midgar is 6-10 hours of the original and you'll know exactly when to stop, although you would need the will power to. ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 25 minutes ago, Grotz99 said: We are both pretty much in the dark on Zack as his story wasn't really in the original, it's one of the things we got a glimpse of that I hope they expand on. If you do pick up the original, you could try to do a side by side, but the gaps would be big. Midgar is 6-10 hours of the original and you'll know exactly when to stop, although you would need the will power to. Yah I agree, his backstory is only a small bit more filled out in the original than say Biggs of Wedge. There is only one small bonus area if you visit his hometown with one character in your party, and even that does not give any real extra info. I do look forward to see where they go with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 (edited) @realm722 - This a fucking blisteringly well done review mate - and, honestly, from someone coming at the remake from the exact opposite side (I lived and breathed Final Fantasy growing up, and loved Final Fantasy VII with a passion and fervour that should not be legal), it's gaddamned fascinating to me! I cam into this remake knowing every single detail of the original - I even replayed the entire thing again a month or so before release, just to get back in the swing, and honestly? I think the Remake is outrageously good. I think if they keep this quality up, it will end up being far and away better than the original - and I'm hoping they change as much as they feel they should, purism be damned! The original will always be there for the folks who want it, but I don't think I've ever encountered a remake - in any genre - that strays so far from the original, without ever once actually deviating from what made it great, and it's incredibly gratifying to see someone with no prior FF experience loving this game it with the same passion I did! Frankly though - even if you and I didn't agree quite so very much, this would remain a fantastic piece of writing, and I hope you continue to do more reviews like this one. ?? (but take a rest in between - you'll get carpal tunnel otherwise ?) Edited May 7, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 Game: Minit Analysis: I bought Minit for $3.99 back when it went on sale in mid-April 2021. I had heard of the games thanks to a Joseph Anderson review on it. It's a nice little game man! That's the nicest way I can summarize it - it's unique quirk that makes it distinct from most indies is the fact you're essentially playing on a clock all of the time. You have your different homebases scattered across the world that are your safe zones. You have 60 seconds to complete whatever task you need to complete, you die, and then you get sent back to that homebase. Inherently you may wonder: "isn't that stressful?" Hell yea man. You can pause the timer but if you're going in 100% blind you're gonna be experimenting with a lot of failure in terms of figuring out where you need to go. Thankfully, due to the tight time, that means that accomplishing tasks in order to progress are incredibly short - and there's no great twist that lets you freeze time or juggle a mechanic to extend the clock. Due to how short the game is, with a guide you can earn the platinum in an hour. There's a number of collectibles such as coins, items, and tentacles to scrounge for as well as a unique "minimalist/complete the game in 25 runs" trophy that I recommend getting out of the way to enjoy the rest of the game since it's really not that difficult. After you completed everything, you need to complete a "2nd run" that limits the clock to 40 seconds, but ultimately you don't even need to end up fighting the final boss again to complete the game so it's incredibly straightforward. I earned the 49.33% rarity platinum in 2 days and 1 hour. Panda Score: 6.3 / 10 On 5/7/2021 at 2:32 PM, DrBloodmoney said: @realm722 - This a fucking blisteringly well done review mate - and, honestly, from someone coming at the remake from the exact opposite side (I lived and breathed Final Fantasy growing up, and loved Final Fantasy VII with a passion and fervour that should not be legal), it's gaddamned fascinating to me! I cam into this remake knowing every single detail of the original - I even replayed the entire thing again a month or so before release, just to get back in the swing, and honestly? I think the Remake is outrageously good. I think if they keep this quality up, it will end up being far and away better than the original - and I'm hoping they change as much as they feel they should, purism be damned! The original will always be there for the folks who want it, but I don't think I've ever encountered a remake - in any genre - that strays so far from the original, without ever once actually deviating from what made it great, and it's incredibly gratifying to see someone with no prior FF experience loving this game it with the same passion I did! Frankly though - even if you and I didn't agree quite so very much, this would remain a fantastic piece of writing, and I hope you continue to do more reviews like this one. ?? (but take a rest in between - you'll get carpal tunnel otherwise ?) Hahaha thank you for all the love man. I'm very relieved to hear that I didn't miss the mark in my praise for it. I went through your gaming catalogue and to see that you have the platinums in 7, 7 Remake, 8, 8-2, 10, and 15 just boggles my mind. I definitely have an itching to try out a few of the other ones just because of how much I enjoyed 7, though I honestly have had very positive things about FF4 and FF6. I saw they're available on steam for $15 but have deviated away from the original pixel art. I guess it's a testament to 7 that they released the original even on modern consoles for it's preservation but damn if I wouldn't like to experiment with some of the older games before they want on to knowing how grand they'd be with each installment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 8 minutes ago, realm722 said: I definitely have an itching to try out a few of the other ones just because of how much I enjoyed 7, though I honestly have had very positive things about FF4 and FF6. I saw they're available on steam for $15 but have deviated away from the original pixel art. I guess it's a testament to 7 that they released the original even on modern consoles for it's preservation but damn if I wouldn't like to experiment with some of the older games before they want on to knowing how grand they'd be with each installment. To be honest, given that your love affair with FF is beginning with VII, I’d definitely recommend going for 6 over 4 if you are going to check out some of the older ones. Not just because 6 is better (I’m of the opinion 6 is the best one of all, so I’m a tad biased there!) but more because of the setting and tone. The tone that makes FFVII what it is, is definitely rooted in a sensibility that was born in FFVI - the cyber-punk-esque machines with magic style stuff. 4 is much more in line with previous ‘wizards, magic and ernestness’ style high fantasy - still great, but a very different type of great, and one FF has virtually abandoned now (with the exception of 9, which was very much a throwback to those older ones) If you can get a hold of the psone classic version, it has the original pixel art (or close enough), or a snes emulator will get you there too of course! But really, I’m not quite as much of a purist as others - the new visual treatment is a bit wierd, but the game’s so good, it will still hold up as great with either visual treatment. I replayed most of it on ipad at one point, (visual update version) and it was good even there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 25, 2021 Author Share Posted May 25, 2021 (edited) Game: Enter the Gungeon Analysis: I got Enter the Gungeon for free thanks to the "Play At Home 2021" Initiative by Sony during the latter portion of the month in March 2021. WOW this game is frigging awesome and all-consuming. It has devoured all of my play-time for 2 weeks straight, and I come to you all on the other side with good news. Gungeon is a roguelike. That means that a run can range anywhere from an extremely swift 25 minutes to a little over an hour if you go through each chamber or level, very methodically. It is a bullet hell. Your reflexes are going to need to be on-point in order to win (though there are a handful of items that make the quick reaction time factor completely obsolete). Let's get this point out of the way as early as possible - I LOVE roguelikes/lites. I own physical copies of Dead Cells and Slay the Spire - two 9.0 tier games for me that I view with extremely high esteem. Wizard of Legend, Risk of Rain 1 AND 2, and Children of Morta are two other games that also achieve the vaunted 8.0 tier for me. I WISH Faster Than Light got a port to Playstation 4, since it's the only game I have 70+ hours on Steam and utterly ADORE. I'm a big fan of the genre, and even ones that I haven't dabbled in (Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy to name a few) are games I know plenty about. So that's why I need to preface the future of this review with how my perception going in man have been clouded. Gungeon was always in the secondary tier of "I bet it's great, it seems super frigging hard though with how fast some of the bullets fly, and I just don't know I wanna put in all the time to play it in order to get good at it." I had seen it multiple times on sale for $7.49, and passed each time... until of course - it became available for free. I had already knocked out 3 games for the month of May... so I figured what the heck, let's dive - and I took the plunge on Gungeon and never looked back. Let's walk through the experience. The Scared and Not Knowing What You Don't Know - I had seen on a few posts here and there, others also got the game because it became available for free. They said the platinum was easier than expected! That made me slightly optimistic, but I knew I had to get my reps in with play-time before I started exploring them. This is how my 1st run ended, a noble attempt as the Hunter - sadly dying to what I believe to be the hardest 2nd chamber boss in Ammoconda. I found the game difficult but fair, when you're first discovering each new enemy type you're going to take crazy amounts of damage, and given you start with 3 hearts allowing for 6 hits before dying unless you can heal - that means you're going to be dying A LOT. For awhile, I floundered about in chamber #3 - seemingly unable to break through that ceiling of just losing too many hearts on the way to ever get to some of the proper challenging portions of the game. This is normal. I remember barely being able to survive the Ramparts in Dead Cells, or never making it to the 2nd boss in Slay the Spire and always dying early. Finally - a break-through, on my 17th run, I managed to get all the way to the 4th chamber. Slaughtered by the hands(or better said - bullet sprays?) of The Wallmonger. But it appeared I was finally turning a corner, as for on a fateful evening, on the 25th attempt, all thanks to the guns Crestfaller and Laser Lotus - I had climbed the mountain-top. I remember cackling at the idea of the Dragun busting out pistols and a rocket launcher but the fight was so high-energy I managed to have my adrenaline carry me through to victory. I felt great, I had been making tons of process towards unlocking a bunch of NPCs, flipping tables, whittling down miscellaneous tasks, and I had heard about a special character named Bowler that completely flips the game on it's head - let's talk about him. Bowler Breaks The Game - So who the heck is Bowler? He's this adorable fella. In order to have the chance to unlock him, you need to beat the game once normally. But after you do that, you have the chance of being able to free him from his cell and have him join you in the breach. There, he gives you the option of Rainbow Mode. What's Rainbow Mode? Yanno how you had to carefully plan how many keys you had, use them on the appropriate chests, and care for that resource so you maximized the items/guns on a play-through? Well throw all that out since in Rainbow Mode, on each level - you get a chest that gives you a selection of 8 highly rated items or guns. You pick one - and it's yours to keep. This helps minimize some of the RNG of runs and make them more consistent. The lesson? BE WARNED - once I activated this, I NEVER turned it off again. Think of it as a way to "juice" your runs, and much like in baseball - once you get started it's very hard to stop yourself. Sure, it didn't turn every run into a golden one, but damn it sure helped. I don't believe whatsoever it "ruined" the roguelike element - but it did make it easier, and I found myself picking weapons and items I love over and over again when they became available, simply because I knew I would have a lot of success with that selection. In fact, let's dedicate a little time to disclosing what items and guns I personally loved the most. RealM722's Top 6 Favorite Guns: #1. Vulcan Cannon (900 shots of glorious rapid-fire damage, I picked this one EVERY time it was available to me) #2. Gungine (800 shots of damage, similar to Vulcan, just unloads every clip in your arsenal on the enemy) #3. Dragunfire (Super good at dealing wide range of damage, also sets enemies on fire) #4. Laser Lotus (Only 150 shots but does great damage - tried to hold for bosses / strong enemies) #5. Gunther (Takes awhile to get going but a planned run with it is an ease cuz of the infinite ammo) #6. Glided Hydra (My personal boss-slayer, 50 shots, but it's how I beat Chamber #6 thanks to this bad boy) Bonus Nominations: Trident (loved it's look and length of range), Crestfaller (gun on my 1st win), Yari Launcher (nukes bosses), & Particulator (projectiles lock-on to enemies) RealM722's Top 6 Favorite Items: #1. Clone (upon death, start back from the beginning with all items/guns in-tact - AMAZING for stacking a crappy run and getting a 2nd life so-to-speak) #2. Super Hot Watch (if you have a good gun, it's an auto-win. You can weave in and out of difficult attacks with ease by just going slowly, removes reaction-time problems) #3. Fat Bullets (reduces size of ammo capacity but makes your projectiles so much easier to land) #4. Riddle of Lead (just is a general awesome pick-up and should be had at every turn if there's nothing obviously better on the table) #5. Liquid Valkyrie (made Boss Rush mode a breeze for me since it slows down enemy bullets by 20%, you feel like you're playing on easy) #6. Cat Bullet King Throne (prolly just an item I love but removes gaps from being a pain for fall damage and makes bullets spawn upon dodging) The Grind of Getting Everything - So I beat the game once, and now I unlocked Rainbow Mode. What did that mean? I got the privilege to beat the game over and over again - all while working towards something. Maybe it would be achieving one of the specific unlocks needed to unlock the chamber shortcuts via the elevator (most pretty straight-forward since once again, Clone makes these SUPER easy), I got the remaining ingredients needed to create "The Bullet That Can Kill The Past" and beat the game that way, thus unlocking the ability to kill the past for other characters aside from the Marine. Here's a stupid run where I managed to unlock all 5 Master Rounds in one-go. Shoutout to the Vulcan for being absolutely legendary. All the while I chipped away at all the various tasks, the difficulty of the game started vanishing. It would take time, no doubt - I wasn't going to play the game in a matter of days but I could see progress being achieved. I took advantage of Winchester's mini-game every chance I got, cheated the first two times thanks to flying items - and the 3rd time did it on a legit attempt to pop the trophy! I won the bets against the snobbish king. I unlocked all the Cartographer's maps. I even started making some head-way on some DLC trophies by unlocking the Robot and Bullet. Here's the run where the stars aligned and I beat the 6th Chamber after unlocking the past. I only won cuz of the Super Hot Watch. I personally recommend playing as the Robot when possible since with each junk he gets 5% stronger and well... yea. Rainbow Mode means he's even more broken. One of the more trickier elements for me was killing the Resourceful Rat. He had such a complex route to him(since it's random for each player), and given I had only unlocked 5 of his notes (the 6th I must have gotten while being in RM which means I never got it) and that meant guessing on the maze. I eventually got it - and here are the results. That also happened to be the exact one where I got the weird egg and fought the Advanced High Dragun. All that I had left was Frifle's Challenges and while those were a bit annoying to grind (took like... 120+ extra runs in order to kill all those specific enemies on specific levels like the Lead Maiden's and Golden Skeletons) - I had achieved everything there was to achieve in Gungeon trophy-wise. Reflection Time - I think my biggest compliment to the game is this - it's really easy to just play for a few hours every day. I watched SO many movies while playing it. 15 in total. Just because it was so easy to put something on and zone into the game. The gameplay feel is so nice being invulnerable during a dodge roll but still needing to be precise with your roll since you take damage once you hit the ground again. I think you could have your complaints about not enough variety - since towards the end I 1000% had memorized a number of room layouts, but I was also playing the game a crap-ton for 2 straight weeks - I can't fault the game too harshly for that. Asides from just reflexes, being able to enter each room on a whim, quickly assess the enemies, and doing damage control on what you need to attack first (sometimes you wanna go for the big bad enemies even if they have predictable attacks since they're so deadly) and SOMETIMES you'll wanna attack the simpler bullet-kin since they're more of a wildcard than a predictable big boy attack you can easily predict where to step out of the line of fire. For example, I attacked the spiders first in every room since I ALWAYS struggled to avoid their attacks. Your style may differ. OH - and before I forget, I thought the boss fights were frigging awesome. In fact - let's do a quick rank system of those shall we. RealM722 Ranks Every Boss in Enter the Gungeon: Chamber #1: Gatling Gull, Bullet King, Trigger Twins (Gatling Gun is the hardest but most engaging fight, King is difficult cuz of that AOE random one, and Twins suck) Chamber #2: Gorgun, Beholster, Ammoconda (Gorgun is the easiest but most felt like a dance, Ammoconda is way too chaotic and I sucked at it the entire game) Chamber #3: Mine Flayer, Treadnaught, Cannonbalrog (Mine Flayer just has a super cool design, Treadnaught is tricky cuz of extra enemies, Balrog sucks cuz invulnerability) Chamber #4: Kill Pillars, Wallmonger, High Priest (Pillars is the easiest but again felt cool weaving in and out like Gorgun, Wall is super tough, Priest is just alright) I can't say much more than I already have. I loved my time with Gungeon. Is it my favorite roguelike? No - I still prefer Dead Cells since it's the one I fell in love with and Slay the Spire for a more technically thought-provoking game that didn't have me zone out, but Gungeon is absolutely in that tier of games. I strongly recommend it to anybody who's willing to dedicate time to a game and learn it's mechanics.... and if you're worried it's way too difficult and you can't be perfect for 30+ minute runs - don't worry. There's a save feature at the end of every level you can exploit via iCloud saves to keep amazing runs in-tact if you have a bad room. I sure as hell exploited it. I prolly should have mentioned that earlier but hey, that's on you if you thought I was above using loopholes like that. All in all, I earned Enter the Gungeon's ultra rare 4.39% platinum and even rarer 2.03% 100% completion in just 1 week, 6 days - making me the 42nd fastest achiever of the 100% according to PSNProfiles. Not bad at all I say! I enjoyed the journey but now it's time to get back to trying out a variety of games.. where to next? Hmm... Panda Score: 9.1 / 10 Spoiler Enter the Gungeon Thoughts: Starting on May 10th… let’s see if the game really is one of the best rogue-likes out there, I’m skeptical Hah I like how the tutorial guy is literally “Seer Manuel” WOOHOO survived the 1st bird boss with virtually no damage at least Welped died on the 2nd chamber, Ammoconda boss - oh well Welp died on the 2nd chamber again, this time to Gorgun with the Marine I avenged Manuel and killed Blockner in Chamber 3, too bad I died on the boss WOOHOO! We finally beat a 3rd chamber boss, now on to the 4th chamber WE BEAT THE FREAKING GAME LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! After an entire day of crappy runs, I had the magic run come together. Managed to master both chamber 1 and 2, enter chamber 4 with max health, get to chamber 5 with 3 1/2 hearts, and then on the final boss took down High Dragun thanks to Laser Lotus and Crestfaller, LETS GOOO MAN! Also delivered 2/4 of the materials for the gun to kill the past! AAAAAAND I got my 1st ending! Got the Marine true ending thanks to the dragunfire gun + fat bullets which made my attack range frigging gigantic, I even PERFECTED the 5th fight vs Dragun which is nuts and got the master bullet, rewind fight wasn’t that hard either so woo! i stopped updating after this since I got so comfortable in it I didn't feel the need to keep taking notes - but yea! Edited May 25, 2021 by realm722 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 27, 2021 Author Share Posted May 27, 2021 RealM722 Presents 7 Games He'd Commit a Minor Crime for to Have Ported to Playstation Consoles Playstation is a pretty awesome console. I mean - at least I think so. While debates of PC v. consoles aren't nearly at the forefront of the video gaming zeitgeist as it may have once been (I mean, you still see it but arguing with these people is pure foolishness) - there are still some points to be made with regard to the debate. I prefer console. I like turning on the game and just playing. I understand how there can be an appeal in having an over-whelming selection of games thanks to Steam and the Epic Games Store, many attained for free - and that you can tweak settings ever so slightly to make these gorgeous games even more gorgeous at a higher framerate. That's all fair and true. I'm just satisfied with what I've already got though man, and that extra ceiling to achieve 4k resolution at 120 FPS while surfboard roller-blading my custom built $4,000 computer on my Nvidia 3080 graphics card that quite literally is rarer than a white elephant - ain't the sorta life I wanna live. That doesn't mean I don't have some feelings that make me wish the Playstation 4 (or 5 - I mean, I've been trying to get a PS5 since like January man. This has been my reaction every time I've tried, and failed when refreshing Walmart/Gamestop/Target) - had a wide ranger of selection. Let's talk about some games I wish were available for us plebeians. (Hades) - Explanation: I'm very upset Hades hasn't come to consoles yet. OR it has - just for the Nintendo Switch. The amazing people over at Supergiant Games signed an exclusivity deal for the 1st year with the Epic Games Store as the game was in Early Access. I'm glad they did it, making games is risky and I understand wanting the stability of a big entity to support you. That being said - MAN I WISH I COULD FRIGGING PLAY AFTER HEARING ALL THE LOVE IT HAS RECEIVED. It's won Game of the Year from major gaming organizations as seen in it's little art piece on it's Steam page, and man - THEY DON'T DESERVE IT. I progressively loved each SG game after the next and have the reviews to prove it. First with Transistor, ranking as an exceptionally high 8. Then Pyre, which utterly blew me away as a 9.0-tier game that currently ranks as my 5th favorite game of the entire Playstation 4 generation. Finally, there's Bastion which for their first effort still scored a respectable 7.0-tier. So you're telling me - the guys and gals over at Supergiant - decided to make a ROGUE-LIKE? MY FAVORITE GENRE OF GAME? and I've just had to shield my eyes every time it's been mentioned and raved about since I know I'm going to utterly love this game... I just haven't had the fortune to play it yet. Why doesn't it rank higher up the list? Supposedly it appeared on the Korean Ratings Board in mid-May of this year. That means a release is somewhat probable for 2021, and why my long-awaited most anticipated game will finally be within reach. I'll give y'all a little spoiler - if, and when - this game comes to Playstation consoles - it WILL be in the 9.0 tier and is a HEAVY favorite to finish as Game of the Year. (Planet Zoo) - Explanation: I don't think I've ever mentioned this on here, but some of my absolute FAVORITE games to play on PC back in the day was the "Zoo Tycoon" franchise. We're talking early / mid-2000s. Planet Zoo is a spiritual successor to those games. I would adore being able to return to my roots and just chill constructing my masterclass of Zoo, completing various achievements as they come in order to pop some trophies, and yea just hanging out in something that I enjoy a bit more than a city builder (no disrespect to a game like Cities: Skylines, I enjoyed that as well - but Zoo games hit just a bit differently). My hopes aren't very high that'll it come to PS4, on one hand - the same developers, Frontier Development DID release Planet Coaster on PC in Nov. 2016 and ended up releasing it on PS4/PS5 in Nov. 2020 - so there's always hope that in a few years they may decide to do the same with this franchise but that'll likely be a lengthy wait if it were to ever come to fruition. We can certainly hope though - and it's not as totally bleak as some of the entries further down this list. (Into the Breach) - Explanation: I saw Joseph Anderson (my favorite anime YouTuber/Twitch Streamer) play a bit of Into the Breach quite awhile ago and the game stood out in memory as a very engaging strategy game that you can akin a bit to chess. It's a cube-based grid and not something that would typically draw me in, but given they're the makers of... the other game you can see in their little art clip there, I want to play whatever Subset Games creates no matter what genre it is in. The sad reality though is - I NEVER expect Into the Breach to come to consoles. Hell, they basically had to have their teeth pulled in order to release it on the Nintendo Switch. They don't seem to care whatsoever for the console-market and are purely PC-focused. :/ (Dicey Dungeons) - Explanation: Oh hey, another roguelike. You should know I have a type by this point, reader. I'd be lying if I said I knew much about it but given the fact it's #1 most recommended game if I happen to like this is Slay the Spire - I imagine that bodes pretty well for it's company. Funnily enough, what stands out in my most about it is hearing about the time "The Witness and Braid" developer Jonathan Blow, raged at the game because of rigged RNG allegedly. I too would love to have the privilege to get mad at a game because of bad luck, too bad I CAN'T since it's not available on PS4. Do I have any slight hope it can come to console? Debatable. The creator, Terry Cavanagh - does have one other game "VVVVV" available on the Playstation Vita - but that adaption was over 6 years ago and Dicey Dungeons was released in 2019. It's plausible, and not as hopeless as Into the Breach - but I wouldn't hold my breathe waiting on it either. (Ori and the Will of the Wisps) - Explanation: I mentioned the sequel simply because it's the most relevant but you could also throw Ori and the Blind Forest on here as well as a combo-package. This looks EXACTLY like my kind of game. Beautiful environments, controlling a whimsical character with wonderfully fluid movement, and just enjoying the atmosphere of a game as your ears perk up at the soothing soundtrack. Too bad it's an Xbox exclusive. The developers over at Moon Studios managed to do what the entire infrastructure of Microsoft otherwise failed to do so - make me kinda envious I don't own the most modern Xbox to play one of their games. I pretty much scoffed at their past stuff like Gears of War, cuz hey, checkout my entire gaming history bud - not exactly my lane. Even as Bethesda with it's assortment of games doesn't really tickle my fancy, but if you told me I could have a specific series come on down, make peace between both console conglomerates, and have a game from Xbox brought over to Playstation? I'd take Ori's two games over the rest of the field combined. (Persona 4 Golden) - Explanation: This is a goofy one. You're reading this, likely slouched in a poor posture (I say this to HELP YOU my friend), and are saying to yourself "this moron doesn't realize P4 Golden was on Vita FOREVER before it got ported over to Steam". I KNOW THAT. I DON'T OWN A VITA. I have 0 need to "game-on-the-go" and it's not a very appealing way to enjoy games for me. What I would like though, is a remastered version for the modern Playstation consoles. Given how Atlus has brought us Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remastered, I don't feel like this request is as far-fetched as it may have once seemed. Is it likely? Prolly not. Given the way they operate, it's more likely they milk Persona 5 far more in the form of Royal and Strikers than decide to give us a modern enhancement of the ones die-hards allege is "way better than P5". I've seen an entire play-through of it. I don't agree with those people. But I'd still like to play it myself, and have a juicy platinum to go along with it. (Faster Than Light) - Explanation: If you gave me the legitimate offer of "you can have all 6 of the previous games brought over to Playstation or JUST Faster Than Light" - I'd prolly still take the former since that's an easy 200+ hours of game-time I'd be able to dedicate to the others but dammit if I wouldn't think twice about it. Faster Than Light was my 1st rogue-lite. It is the game that made me realize "holy crap I love the ability to have slight variations of runs that can be both great and awful depending on my ability as well as a bit of luck" before I even knew the term "rogue-lite" was a thing. I own the game on Steam, 1 of only 3 games I own. I have 82 hours of games played on Steam. 81.3 of those hours belong to Faster than Light. I haven't played the game consistently in I wanna say 5-6+ years, and yet - I own 38 of the possible 51 achievements. Yes, that's right - I WAS AN ACHIEVEMENT HUNTER BEFORE I EVEN REALIZED IT. I used to give Unravel Two credit for making me fall in love with trophy hunting, and abandoning sports gaming for variety gaming - but Faster Than Light was the Demon's Souls to that Dark Souls revelation. But I have to concede - it is more likely that the Miami Dolphins will win a Super Bowl than Faster Than Light getting ported to Playstation consoles. As I mentioned in the Into the Breach explanation, the two dudes over at Subset Games just don't care for consoles. It breaks my heart but it's the truth - if by some miracle, FTL were to ever get a Playstation release, PLEASE call me an ambulance - I'll need it to pick me up off the floor after I'll have passed out from happiness. So yea! There ya go everyone... just a lil list I felt like putting together. No Nintendo-exclusive games but uhh.. I guess Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing would be nice? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briste Posted May 27, 2021 Share Posted May 27, 2021 Similar to your sentiment on a prior page, I am also not good about replying to people in my checklist that take the time to respond. I also don't take enough time to read other checklists and am just catching up on yours. I'm glad you loved FF7R as much as you did. I really feel the same way about it. I know it wasn't for everyone, but it was everything I was hoping for and more. I echo @Grotz99 with how hard it is to know a lot of the answers to the questions you had in your review and not say anything lol I played the original more hours than I care to admit (I had three of every master materia...which will mean something to those that played it lol). If you have the patience, I'd be curious for you not to play the original until FF7R is complete however I could totally understand not having that kind of patience considering SE's track record for getting games out in a timely manner. @DrBloodmoney is right on with his recommendation to play VI. It is also my favorite game of all time and is definitely worth the time investment. While the SNES version is better than the PSOne port, you get the gist in the port. I want to say you could also play the game on your phone if you just need something to kill time. Gungeon was also one of my favorite games I've played recently. It took me longer to find the Rainbow dude than you...I think I had cleared the game with each character before trying it, but like you once I went rainbow, I didn't go back. One of my favorite guns was the BSG. I liked how it would clear out a room and I found it very useful in the later levels. We've been playing a lot of the same games lately so we've both been having a pretty good run of good games! Keep up the great reviews! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 On 5/26/2021 at 10:49 PM, Briste said: Similar to your sentiment on a prior page, I am also not good about replying to people in my checklist that take the time to respond. I also don't take enough time to read other checklists and am just catching up on yours. I'm glad you loved FF7R as much as you did. I really feel the same way about it. I know it wasn't for everyone, but it was everything I was hoping for and more. I echo @Grotz99 with how hard it is to know a lot of the answers to the questions you had in your review and not say anything lol I played the original more hours than I care to admit (I had three of every master materia...which will mean something to those that played it lol). If you have the patience, I'd be curious for you not to play the original until FF7R is complete however I could totally understand not having that kind of patience considering SE's track record for getting games out in a timely manner. @DrBloodmoney is right on with his recommendation to play VI. It is also my favorite game of all time and is definitely worth the time investment. While the SNES version is better than the PSOne port, you get the gist in the port. I want to say you could also play the game on your phone if you just need something to kill time. Gungeon was also one of my favorite games I've played recently. It took me longer to find the Rainbow dude than you...I think I had cleared the game with each character before trying it, but like you once I went rainbow, I didn't go back. One of my favorite guns was the BSG. I liked how it would clear out a room and I found it very useful in the later levels. We've been playing a lot of the same games lately so we've both been having a pretty good run of good games! Keep up the great reviews! Hahahah thank you man - and yea... honestly, haven't sat on it some more - I have the potential to have a very unique perspective of experiencing the FF7R without any influence from the original, and I think I wanna stick with that. I absolutely do want to play the original one day given how much I loved the 1st in the series of remakes, but that game is so iconic I don't think I ever have to fear it one day not being available for modern generations - plus I can always try out other Final Fantasy's as you mentioned! I'll keep my eye on the horizon with 6. You know it's funny - typically when I enjoy a game I'll do a little digging of it on YouTube just to see if there's any funny videos or such with regard to the "meta". Gungeon's peak popularity was naturally 2-3 years ago when it was at the forefront of the rogue-like wave and it is hilarious how much stuff I just bypassed en route to many hours to the platinum. I barely even used BSG just because I didn't like how low ammo it had. I didn't know you could kick the explosive barrels and hit them with a bullet to make them explode while rolling onto enemies. Goes to show you what you can overlook even after playing a game for so many hours. and yesss! In fact, you got the head-start on me on another super tough game I've been wanting to platinum - Jotun! I've been quietly monitoring your progress and holy crap man... you frigging killed it, you got rid of all the hardest trophies and are 1 away from the platinum. Kinda giving me the inspiration to go for it myself since I just bought Spiritfarer($20 from the same developer) but wanna play their original title before moving onto that one. I'll get around to it by mid-June given there's a few other games I wanna play first but hope when you post the review on your checklist you can leave a few tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briste Posted May 29, 2021 Share Posted May 29, 2021 8 hours ago, realm722 said: and yesss! In fact, you got the head-start on me on another super tough game I've been wanting to platinum - Jotun! I've been quietly monitoring your progress and holy crap man... you frigging killed it, you got rid of all the hardest trophies and are 1 away from the platinum. Kinda giving me the inspiration to go for it myself since I just bought Spiritfarer($20 from the same developer) but wanna play their original title before moving onto that one. I'll get around to it by mid-June given there's a few other games I wanna play first but hope when you post the review on your checklist you can leave a few tips I'm all but done with it. I left one collectible so that I can pop the platinum on Monday....however I really like the platinum trophy and was thinking of saving it for platinum 150. I'm getting close, but it was a super fun and very challenging game so I wouldn't mind making it a milestone. With all the games I'm set to pop on Monday, that'll put me at 145, so I could hold of on the platinum for a short while....I'm looking at other games I have that might be milestone worthy before I decide. I found the trophy guide was very good for this game. They video's give you a good idea on how to tackle some of the bosses, however there is just enough randomness in the battles to where they aren't an exact science. The first three Valhalla boss battles took me about an hour or so of practice before I was familiar enough with what to do to beat them. The last three bosses battles took between two and three hours of practice to beat. I'd say Jotun is up there with Catherine as far as my most challenging games I've gotten the plat for. It's a really cool game and I really like the art style of the graphics. I hope you enjoy it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted June 1, 2021 Author Share Posted June 1, 2021 Game: The First Tree Analysis: I bought The First Tree when it was on sale for $1.99 back in mid-April 2021, and it marks my 100% completion for the month of June. The First Tree gave me exactly what I wanted out of a 100% completion. It didn't over-stay it's welcome whatsoever. It wasn't a pretentious slog like Dear Esther. It also wasn't so mind-numbingly boring like Beyond Eyes that I just wished for the experience to be over. It's prolly the 2nd best 100% of the year thus far behind Octodad - and that's just fine with me! The mechanics of the game can be summed up super easily. You play as a fox, but unlike a game such as Goat Simulator (which will be platinumed in July, heads up everybody!) or Maneater (which will be platinumed when I get PS5, aka November 2023), you don't really do many fox-like things other than... double jump? There's no eating animals. There's no raising fox babies. In fact, you could play the game as a human and it'd be exactly the same. But that's aside the point - the dialogue in this is pretty good! The two people speaking are Joseph and Rachel, with the former relating experiences he had growing up in life and scuffles he had with his father, and their overall relationship. Rachel will have a bit where she talks a bit about her own life, but she's largely playing a support role to Joseph's larger narrative of feeling like a fox and inter-acting with moments in his memory across the 6 levels. Is it winning my narrative of the year for 2021? Of course not, I'm just not one of those gamers who finds deep feeling in these sorta games - but I'm also not a jerk who's gonna make fun of it. Here's where I'll mention the coolest detail in the entire game. About 90% of your focus will be on collecting stars, which are a collectible in this game. They're missable - so use a guide (I used this one), and at the very end of the game - you can carve a message into a tree that a heavily moderated team will sort through, and if they find it appropriate enough - will show your message to other players when they reach the end of the game. The catch? Your message being how long is dependent on the # of stars you collected. That's pretty cool! Y'all will never see my message though, I put "I miss you.... Heat in 7." WHOOPS - sorry to ruin the emotional impact-fulness of the crescendo of your life-slaving work, developers. Nah but forreal - pick it up for $2 when you get the chance for the easy 100% and leisure experience. I didn't even realize it, but due to following the guide and taking 0 breaks, I ended up earning the 24.78% 100% rarity in just 1 hour and 54 minutes, making it the 2nd fastest achievement time to 100% on PSNProfiles. That's pretty damn cool considering I wasn't even aiming for that! Plus, I even got side-tracked and completely ignored two missable trophies involving catching rabbits in the 1st chapter (which reveals a pretty funny easter egg btw). But yea, aside from The First Tree, I feel like I'm in a very good place with the way my profile has been tracking this year. I've played some absolute bangers in 2021 including my #1 favorite game of the generation and have generally avoided many duds... that is until, this next game I'm going to touch on. You could say it's a steep-fall off from some of the better experiences this year... perhaps a, chasm? (heh) Panda Score: 6.3 / 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted June 2, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 2, 2021 (edited) Game: Chasm Analysis: I bought Chasm when it was on sale for $6.99 back in February 2021, and man - talk about an utter letdown for a game I was optimistic about. Chasm is a metroidvania. That's a genre of games I generally enjoy for the most part. It's not quite rogue-like tier for me, but it's one that from the outset I know what I'm getting into for, and for the most part, have had very positive experiences with. Here's my credentials on it in case you wanted a bit of a better idea of what I enjoy in one. Ranked List of Metroidvanias Played: #1. (8.50) The Messenger #2. (8.25) Guacamelee! 2 #3. (8.00) Axiom Verge #4. (7.90) Hollow Knight #5. (7.75) Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition #6. (7.50) Yoku's Island Express #7. (7.20) Batman: Arkham Asylum #8. (7.10) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night #9. (6.70) Sundered #10. (6.00) Fe But before diving into the negatives and why Chasm was such a miserable slog for far more than I would have liked - let's talk about a few positives. What did I enjoy about Chasm? The story has some nice flavoring. You play as this soldier boy tryna get knighted as part of the republic and get sent out on this town of Karthas on a solo-mission. You rescue various townsfolk scattered in the different regions under-ground and take down creatures and monsters along the way. Cool! I don't really come to these games for profound stories, but it's a decent enough premise. Another compliment is the game can be flown through very quickly once you know what you need to do, and that can make for a fun feeling of speedrunning as you're going to need to do multiple play-throughs. The soundtrack is quite alright, and the themes for each zone will quickly be drilled into your memory. It has nice art. That's about where my compliments end. So why didn't I enjoy Chasm? First of all, the gameplay isn't freaking fun man. I cannot emphasize how debilitating this is for a game in this genre. The best way I can summarize it is like this - there is no good way to avoid damage when knowing the enemy is about to attack. You have the back-dash pressing triangle straight outta SOTN, but besides that, the majority of the time the best course of action is to run forward, have the enemy attack, wait for the animation to play it's course, and then run back in close and get a few shots in. If the enemy is extra strong, rinse and repeat. You do have the ability do damage from range with the form of magic attacks, available when hitting the O button, but the problem with that is I sure as hell never knew that until reading the guide since you can only get them after saving the witch NPC, and secondly the attacks aren't all that great anyway. But worst of all - the limited combat system is most egregiously exposed when you're doing your run on "Hard Mode" - necessary to attain one of the gold trophies. MAN. I DIED... SOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY TIMES. I used 18 high potions in order to beat the final boss fight. I'm not even joking. It's not due to my own lack of skill, honestly - the gameplay is not fluid enough to allow for quick dodges to enemy attacks. It IS possible. This video is proof. But unlike games where you feel like when you finally beat a boss because you learned their attack patterns, Chasm is more of a "phew glad I was finally able to brute force that and get through with it." There is no elation in victory. Only relief - and that's just not a way I really enjoy challenging video games. While I've played games that I didn't love gameplay wise such as Forgotton Anne or Owlboy, I was able to enjoy them for maximizing other aspects of their experience. Yet inexplicably, Chasm fails at its' most core element. Do yanno how a metroidvania is KINDA known for "oh hey you got a power-up that lets you access that area earlier you didn't have access to", well Chasm must have some of the most boring, lame, uninspired "upgrades" I've seen in a game of it's ilk. There are 8 upgrades, 7 necessary to beat the story. There's spike gloves, that let you hang on certain carvings on walls to hop up. Cool I guess. Shin guards, that let you slide. Nice, fine upgrade. LANTERN? An item you use for 2-3 rooms in the entire game at best minus the one lengthy portion in the Catacombs. It's a crappy lantern too that's just un-fun to play when your vision is so lacking to see what's going on. Climbing gear - which basically makes the spike gloves from earlier obsolete since now you can hop off any wall without the carvings. Parachute? This ones alright, it lets you fall to the ground more slowly. Translation book is an awful "upgrade" and is used to read a few things in the Temple zone and that's it. Winged boots makes Climbing gear obsolete as it lets you double jump up walls. So essentially you have 3 proper upgrades, 3 that cannibalize themselves, and 2 non-essential ones that felt tacked on so they could say "we have 8 upgrades instead of only really having 4". Well done, game. But rather than continue to be a debby downer about this game talking about how much I disliked it. I would much rather offer YOU, the reader, a chance to play this game and give you the lowdown on how to swiftly earn the platinum as quickly as possible by offering you my cheat-code to victory. How so? Well, a small detail I didn't mention is that while Chasm is a metroidvania, it is a procedurally generated metroidvania. Which means there are different seeds, and theoretically you can get very differing layouts on each new play-through. That sounded like a really bad time. So I went ahead and copied the seed from my 1st play-through and took screenshots of each of the maps to help you out in case you've already purchased this game and wanna breeze through it, or hell - just want a reliable seed since I looked through a variety of guides for one and couldn't locate any. Here's all the information below - and if you don't wanna take a 1-for-1 copy of it, at least use Neoseeker's guide to aid you on your quest. RealM722's Cheat Sheet to Platinuming Chasm: Maps: Mine Catacombs Gardens Keep Temple Seed: 5B0CF9DA Play-Throughs: End of Play-Through #1, Easy Mode, 100% Completion End of Play-Through #2, Hard Mode End of Play-Through #3, Mortal Mode(Easy Mode) Random Puzzle #1 in Catacombs: 6 cups, 7 swords, 6 stars Random Puzzle #2 in Keep: Ring bell #1 once, ring bell #4 once, ring bell #3 twice, ring bell #2 once, ring bell #1 once What you should do on the 1st play-through: I recommend playing on Easy since, to be honest, I still died A LOT on easy due to the bosses and just some unusually harsh stretches of rooms at times and having trouble with the rigid movement mechanics. DISCLAIMER: If you play on Easy, you will NOT unlock Mortal Mode. Mortal Mode means if you die once, your save gets deleted and you lose all progress(unless you were to... back it up to the iCloud or a USB hehehehe). But seriously - DO NOT TRY AND GO HARD AND MORTAL MODE. PLEASE. HEEDS MY WORDS. I know, I know - whenever I looked at other guides they would "strongly recommend" doing 3 play-throughs. Why do 3, when I can do it in 2 - I wondered. Thankfully playing on Easy the first time to get all the unlockables, save all villagers, do all side quests, and explore 100% prevented me from risking that. Hard Mode means you can basically die in 2-3 ill-timed hits and get spammed to death. That frigging sucks. So don't risk that. A couple disclaimers - the game will be largely linear all the way up until a split between the Catacombs leading up to the Garden OR Keep. In order to access garden, you need an unlockable from the Keep. But you'll barely get far in the Keep until you get an unlockable from the Garden. You'll also need to return to the mines for a lantern, and use that lantern later on to get a parachute from the Catacombs in order to access a random clue to solve a bell puzzle in the keep. I just gave the answers to that puzzle above, so I recommend using the seed and using that to your advantage - only returning when going for 100% completion before the final level and boss fight. You'll probably stumble about and be confused early on, don't worry, the same thing happened to me - but the game isn't THAT big at the end of the day and you should get your bearings soon enough. Just makes sure to return to the surface and keep in the back of your head all the quests of the different NPCs you've saved. The 2nd Play-Through Experience on Hard: Having unlocked every single trophy except for "Hard Mode" and "Mortal Mode" - I now had to unlock the latter mode by beating the game on Hard. It sucked. It was an awful experience. I hated it. WHY? Well, I forgot one last bonus Chasm has - if you die, ALL OF YOUR PROGRESS IS LOST SINCE YOUR LAST SAVE. That's right - if you're nearing the end of a long gaunlet that you fought, barely skating by, yet die at the end - every unlock you earned, every side-path explored, and all XP gained, is lost. You need to do it again. I learned this the hard way. I beat the "Wendigo" boss in the 1st level of the game in the mines, perfectly. I proceeded to the Catacombs. I missed the somewhat obscure checkpoint cave in one of the hallways, and thus kept onwards. I died. All my progress was reset to right before I saved after defeating the 1st boss. On Hard Mode - the harshness of this feature is brought to the forefront. Often I'd be running into enemies, just to avoid fighting them, and hurrying as quickly as possible to see if I could get to the next save point rather than having to heal and waste resources. Bosses such as the square dude in the Gardens, Lord Trell in the Keep, Shaman in the Temple, and worst of all Ulak in the Magma Chamber (I seriously had to use 18 high potions, I'm not joking. I had 230 health, but every hit cost like 73 damage, so you're talking 2-3 shots max before needing to heal). It was not fun. I do not recommend it. The 3rd Play-Through Experience on Mortal Mode, but Easy: After having gone through the hellish experience that was this game on Hard, playing it on easy - with the small caveat that if I died all my progress would be lost was oddly... super fun. All of a sudden you could tank so many more hits and the game felt like it was in baby mode. How was this so hard the first time around? I picked a warrior for extra damage in melee combat, was doing 72 damage by the end of the game, and didn't die a single time - even as I backed up my save to the iCloud just in case, the closest I ever came to dying was getting down to 33ish health in the keep after tryna go for a dump spike hopping puzzle across water. But the bosses? Not even the last one posed much of a threat with all the potions I had on-hand. It's weird how this ended up being the play-through I most enjoyed after suffering throughout most of my time with the game. Goes to show how familiarity softens a lot of frustration I suppose. THE BOTTOM LINE: I didn't enjoy Chasm. It's not offensively terrible. It just has some harsh trophies that expose its' limited mechanics. But it made me wanna write a lot so hey - that's a small bonus it'll have historically in it's favor. Ultimately it took me 6 days and 31 minutes in order to earn its' 16.94% rarity platinum. Roughly 15 hours if you go look at my end of play-through stats combined. My final recommendation is this - if you wanna play a fun Metroidvania, go buy The Messenger for $10 when it goes on sale. Panda Score: 5.8 / 10 Edited June 2, 2021 by realm722 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted June 5, 2021 Author Share Posted June 5, 2021 Game: Desert Child Analysis: I bought Desert Child when it was on sale for $4.79 back in mid-April 2021, and wow - talk about a neat little niche title! Before talking about the game specifically - I thought I should disclose how I find titles such as these. Whereas a lotta people out here typically stick to the mainstream games (Uncharted, Resident Evil, most games published by Ubisoft or EA) - I tend to like go off the beaten path and try and find some indie gems that haven't even really been talked about much by YouTubers or Twitch Streamers. How do I do that? By having an account, and meticulously sorting through websites such as PlatPrices and PS Prices. Each time a major sale drops, I like to leisurely take my time sorting through each page to the background sound of 80's Japanese City Pop (Check out Anri's Timely!!! (1983) or Junko Yagami's COMMUNICATION (1980) when you get the chance!). I sort through and "hide" games I know I'll never have any interest (shooters, games that look unbelievably cheap OR have atrocious trophies) and dig a lil deeper on ones that catch my eye. These will largely be very cheap games with a platinum in the 15% - 30% range, OR ones with a particularly eye-catching art style that make me pause and say "damn... that actually looks pretty good." I don't always hit it out of the park, and have had duds that weren't all that enjoyable - but let's talk a lil about Desert Child since it is one of my success stories! First of all, what the hell is the gameplay of Desert Child? Good question! I had no idea going in either. Basically, you have the option between "races" on a hover-bike to do various activities around an open world. in Chapter #1, on Earth - these options are basically non-existant. You race, can either eat/sell power cells/repair bike and that's it. But when you to get Chapter #2, on Mars - you'll have a number of different locations to wonder about in. Initially this will seem intimidating - at least for me it was, But you'll quickly realize there's only 2-3 things to do in each zone, with most of them being 1-off miscellaneous trophies you pop once and then never look at again. That's the game! It at it's core has this unique racing mechanic where you're firing shots tryna make TVs explode to collect... points I guess? Listen, here's the thing. This platinum has ZERO business being as rare as it is. The game plays more like a 40% platinum than a 20% platinum. I personally mostly got C / D-ranks on all races and by the end of the game had like 180k due investing so much in the bank an committing crimes to get up to the rarest Pablo Escobar rank, that is so easy to attain when you realize you can pay X-Wray to protect you from the police. Other trophies involve buying multiple newspapers / beans to collect them all but again, none of this is challenging - and I managed to get all the trophies done in just 1 day and 1 hour to earn the 20.14% rarity platinum. But don't get it twisted - I didn't just enjoy this game just because it was short, sweet, and had a nice relatively rare platinum. Check out the frigging soundtrack man! This game was made by one man (Oscar Brittain) and damn if it isn't a cool passion project! Granted, there's a huge difference between being able to pick up the game for $5 vs. $20 as a full experience but c'mon man - I loved how different it was, just letting you cruise about the world on Mars seeing different settings, a fairly basic racing / shooting mechanic that while I never mastered was pretty fun and engaging given races only lasted around 2-3 minutes. I didn't even quite grasp all the mechanics surrounding the power cells and modifying your bike and it didn't even matter. Pick up the game when you get the chance because it's well worth it and even if it isn't your cup of tea, the platinum can be attained in 4-5 hours with the helpful guides of it found on PSNProfiles and TrueAchievements. Desert Child is just the latest example for me why you can't just trust in Metacritic to tell you if a game is good or not. Do your own research! Panda Score: 6.95 / 10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 The Messenger was definitely tops for me as well. Excellent Metroidvania, a nice blend of 8-bit style graphics and music, and some challenge to make it fun. Loved all the references to the old Nintendo games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) 5 Games Who's Sequels I Have Absolutely 0 Desire To Ever Play Sequels and remakes. Depending on your tastes, you're either that guy who loves when something is iterated upon and will gladly enjoy a 9th film in the Fast and the Furious franchise and beg Nintendo to reboot any of their many dormant IPs (Chibi-Robo would be mine), or you'll be that person who decries Hollywood's obsession with re-making something great from the past in modern times and moan about gigantic game franchises going back into their vault and try to re-create the old magic since they "lack the originality to make something new." I don't really fall in either camp. I don't hate sequels or remakes. I tend to like them most of the time. Even if I end up not caring for the new product, in no way does it diminish the original for me. The worst case scenario for a reboot/remake/sequel for me is I'll just not watch it. Fuller House? No thanks. Literally any of Disney's recreations of Mulan, The Lion King, and Aladdin? I've personally never seen them dawg. Who am I to stop a corporation from printing money? So in a different sorta twist, let's explore a game of sequels to games who's originals I've played, that somehow, failed to convince me to want to try their latter installments. Life is Strange 2 Explanation: I love the original Life is Strange. I know it's kinda weird to say that given I scored it a 6.6 / 10 on my review of it back in Oct. 2020 but it is distinctly unique in the way it completely captured my attention when it's original released different episodes over many months all the way back in 2015. I remember each episodic event being a release, quickly huddling to my laptop when my favorite YouTuber was going to upload their reactions to the latest madness and just to see the sharp twists and turns the game went through from originally being mellow-dramatic affairs amongst teenagers at a high school to huge sweeping ramifications that would impact an entire community. But... sometimes, magic cannot be recreated. I believe that's the case for the LiS franchise. If you're on a part of the internet with a lot of herbs (Reddit, Twitch) you'll find a lot of "Life is Cringe" comments. I can't exactly say they're wrong, some of the dialogue is clench-your-teeth worry, but I adore it nonetheless. Still, when I tried to watch ChristopherOdd's first few episodes of LiS2... I... kinda felt like those people ripped the original game. I was critiquing the dialogue. The floaty graphics. The over-the-topness of it all. I've moved past these times of games, but I hope those who still enjoy them bask in it, since there's not enough of them out there. Patapon 2 Remastered Explanation: My journey to platinuming the original Patapon was documented in Mar. 2021. I'll sum it up briefly - it was a nightmare, at least until I realized the correct rhythmic beat and started playing the game with headphones on. I still enjoyed my time with it, it wasn't a miserable slog, but by the time I was done with it I specifically told myself to write "never get the sequel, even if it's on sale for stupidly cheap like $2 or $3 dollars, you don't want to put yourself through that again." This is despite the fact it appears the sequel is a decent bit easier with a platinum rarity percentage of just a hash under 18% (though the game is prolly just as tough - just the sequel has far fewer owners which means mostly dedicated fans are strictly playing it). Basically - I'm glad I played the original, it's a Playstation classic, but I feel like the 2nd game is just asking for seconds if you enjoyed the first. I'm full, thank you very much. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Explanation: I am not an RPG guy. That's a strange statement given the fact the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is literally my favorite game of the Playstation 4 generation, and Persona 5 is my 2nd favorite game of the generation. Improbably, the original Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch presently sits in as my 23rd favorite game of this era(yea it released on PS3, whaddya gonna do, get the generation police after me?) I appreciate gigantic sprawling worlds with turn-based combat and lovable characters you get to hang out with over the course of 60+ hours here and there as opposed to all of the time. I mean, I'd prolly only complete 10-15 games a year if they were all RPGs. So that means that my judgement when it comes to games with some massive time investments is more critical than it is with games in the 5-20 hour range. Hence, despite the fact I love the art style - I'm gonna give my rapid fire 3 reasons why NNK2's sequel, despite the fact I loved the original, doesn't quite make the cut. 1) THEY REMOVED FAMILIARS???? I thought familiars were A STAPLE of the franchise and instead... they just dumped them in favor of small colored creatures named the higgledy? Yikes. 2) The main character looks like a buster. Evan or whatever? He has cat ears, and can't hold a candle to Ollie-boy. 3) It's just such a huge time investment man. Even the fastest 100% achievers complete the game in just under 2 weeks. I'd have to pace myself with it and at the moment I like having one game at a time gain all of my attention. Maybe if I can drip-feed it like I did with CrossCode and FF7 Remake at the start of me playing it, I could make it work. Valkyria Chronicles 4 Explanation: This is a funny one. I platinumed the original Valkyria Chronicles in August 2020. I enjoyed it! It was something completely different from what I normally played, clearly had a ton of love put into it by the developers, and initially tryna scrap by with my own wacky WW2 tactics - only for me to then enter the 2nd play-through grind and obliterate everybody with Alicia was fun if a bit deflating knowing that 1 girl scout could destroy the anime equivalent of the Third Reich. My final thoughts with the game were a much kinder version of the way I finished Patapon 1 - something along the lines of, "I'm really glad I got to play a cult classic some niche Playstation fans rave about, but if VC4 just more of the same, I'm good and satisfied bud." The game is presently on sale for $12, and that's a steal given you're talking about 50+ hours of content if you had a good time with the original, but... I'm good man. The trophy guide lets you know it's not too difficult at all with how trivial some things can become by save-scumming, but seeing again that S-ranks are solely based on how many turns you can finish the battle with, as well as full-on grind elements of collecting 100% weapons, decorations, tank parts, etc... I enjoyed the first game in the series, the fourth game is for the die-hards, and that's where I check out. Dragon Quest Heroes II Explanation: Ahahahahahahaha. I don't know what I'd have to be offered by someone in order to get me to play Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Bigger The Grind Boogaloo. I wouldn't try and plat the game for $50. You'd probably have to go as high as $5,000 to be honest. I'm not bothering with this game for less than $2,500. I'm not kidding. Do the math. THIS IS A 200 HOUR GRIND. IF YOU'RE ONLY PAYING ME $1,000 I'M MAKING $5 AN HOUR THAT WOULD MAKE YOU LIABLE TO GET INVESTIGATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. I hated the original. I remember within the first 5-10 minutes going "oh wow.... this... is the game." I got the physical copy for $5 thanks to a 4 games for $20 deal at Gamestop, I managed to get Batman: Arkham Knight, Final Fantasy XV, Uncharted 4... and needed a 4th game. The original Dragon Quest Heroes was that game. I used to hate it. I still do, but I used to too. @Cassylvania needs to be put in a mental institution and taken away in a straight jacket for embarking on this journey. I remember thinking the original was unbelievably droning with spamming the same damn bow attacks from Bianca and running around the entire map looking like a bunch of morons tryna chase down metal slimes while grinding towards level 99. Fighting those Beilal's hasn't left my mind. It's all just such an unpleasant blur from when I platinumed the original in May. 2019 that it's hard to believe I enjoyed so many great games in-between this poo sandwhich. I'll go on the record - I will NEVER play another Dynasty Warriors game with the skin of an exquisite Japanese franchise... except for Persona 5 strikers. I'll grind that to the bone just to hang out with my boy Ryuji again. Well that was fun! If I write enough articles like this, I'll eventually have written an entry on every major PS4 game without having needed to play/platinum/review them all. Edited June 10, 2021 by realm722 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 1 hour ago, realm722 said: @Cassylvania needs to be put in a mental institution and taken away in a straight jacket for embarking on this journey. The sad thing is, if they ever came out with a DQH3, I'd probably play it. I feel the same way about Ni no Kuni. I played the original on an older account and thought it was fun, but too much of a time investment. I don't think I could do NNK2 (despite buying it on sale a few months ago). Do not agree with your sentiment towards VC4. ? I don't know about LiS2. I liked the teen angst of the original. I think I could be persuaded to play the sequel (if I got it for free). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted June 13, 2021 Author Share Posted June 13, 2021 On 6/9/2021 at 9:45 PM, Cassylvania said: I feel the same way about Ni no Kuni. I played the original on an older account and thought it was fun, but too much of a time investment. I don't think I could do NNK2 (despite buying it on sale a few months ago). Do not agree with your sentiment towards VC4. I don't know about LiS2. I liked the teen angst of the original. I think I could be persuaded to play the sequel (if I got it for free). If I'm being honest with myself, if I got 4/5 of these games (except DQH2 ?) for free - I'd prolly play and platinum them all. The only things that ever stop me from tryna play something are 1) an ungodly time commitment (100+ hours) or 2) trophies so rare I don't wanna put myself through that. Think Super Meat Boy or Crypt of the Necrodancer. Speaking of hard games... starting on Page #12 - my hardest platinum since August 2020! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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