Popular Post realm722 Posted July 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 13, 2022 Game: Shadow Tactics - Blades of the Shogun Analysis: I bought Shadow Tactics for $4.99 way back in late August 2021. If you want to know why I've been virtually absent for the past week, it's because this game has kept me completely preoccupied. Thankfully, it's a good kind of preoccupied! Why ST:BotS? I cannot express with enough fervor how much I want to thank @Cassylvania for their review from nearly a year ago. They even nominated it as their Game of the Year for 2021 which further brought it to the forefront of my mind. I LOVE this forum for this very specific reason. Games pop up on my radar that I had glossed over hundreds of times. I would have never, in a million years, ever attempted this game on my own without a recommendation from a source I trusted. I had seen it pop up on sale for $5 time and time again and always skimmed past it given 1) The 50+ hour time commitment is a lot for a game I'd heard so little about and 2) It didn't even qualify for an ultra-rare plat at 6% so.... even less incentive. I'll admit that whenever I see a gigantic review on a game I've never heard of, I'll typically skip over to the end to see if it's a game that one of y'all are pounding on the table for. I don't want to get spoiled (even in non-spoiler ways) on a game I think I may love in the future. Once I saw Cassy's glowing positivity in the closing statements, Shadow Tactics entered that stratosphere. Still, I put it on the backburner for quite some time. Nearly a year. Why did I finally decide to play it now? For a completely nonsensical reason. I had played Kiai Resonance (2D Samurai fighting game) and Mark of the Ninja (it has ninja in the title ya knobhead). I thought to myself, why not keep up the theme of a full Japanese July? (even though none of these games were developed by a Japanese studio) So away I went and MAN did I not expect to have the utter blast I did. Let Me Sell You On This Game - (NON-SPOILERS) I do not have the most extensive catalog of tactical games in my arsenal. It's basically The Banner Saga trilogy + Ash of Gods and that's it. Maybe you can lob Valkyria Chronicles into that category if you'd like to be generous. I've liked or loved all of those games. I didn't quite know what I was getting involved in with Shadow Tactics but this is a game where you're essentially forced to stealth through entire elaborate labyrinth-themed levels in a sort of Hitman-style manner in order to complete your objective. Hitman was the game that kept popping into my memory as I played. Keep in mind, I've never actually played a Hitman game but I love watching playthroughs on YouTube. It's basically: "here's your toolset, get to the objective, there are some setpieces that can help aid you in your mission, good luck." and you're left to your own devices from then onwards. The game does an EXTREMELY good job of steadily adding to your arsenal. Teaching you what one character can do. Then giving you two characters. Then three. Then learning the abilities of new members while slowly increasing in complexity and difficulty and always sprinkling in new elements to each level. It is VERY common for you to take OVER 2 HOURS to complete a mission on your first attempt. Then you'll return to do some of the medals necessary for the platinum and laugh at how utterly incompetent you were completing the level in 1/4 that time now that you know what you're doing. This is immensely satisfying, and to top off the fun (and sometimes uproariously hilarious) gameplay, you also have a top-notch atmosphere and a core of characters you grow fond of with a familiar but solid storyline to boot. For $5 on sale, you CAN NOT do better than Shadow Tactics. With the salesmanship act out of the way, the remainder of the review will just be me gushing about the game with SPOILERS aplenty. You've been warned! Shadow Tactics has an outstanding variety between each of its levels. Day and nighttime, summer and winter, isolated hidden camps, and bustling cities. The level of detail to breathe life into each of them is absolutely stellar! Learning How to Play Shadow Tactics - Due to the real-time element of the game, in order to find success in Shadow Tactics, it's absolutely essential that you learn the routines and habits of enemy guards in order to discern when it's safest to either sneak through completely unnoticed or kill them without raising suspicion. There is NO option to completely freeze time and meticulously plan out your attacks to perfection. You will fail A LOT. But the game has one of the most marvelous and rapid quicksave systems I've ever seen that experimenting is greatly encouraged and you're always within seconds away from retrying a failed attempt. I personally loved it since I frequently found myself being very stubborn in insisting taking out guards in a specific pattern and would perhaps try 15-20 times before finding the perfect timing to obtain success without raising the alarms. To give an idea about some of the core gameplay elements, guards and samurai have vision cones that can see all that's in front of them. When there are lines in that cone, it means you are safe to pass by unnoticed only when crouched. Typically, you always want to attack from behind and in an isolated area where you'll have enough time to hide the boy. Torches are bad for exposing your team, so you can extinguish them and this will lure unsuspecting guards into your death trap. There are also noisy surfaces that can expose your team members if you aren't careful as well as snow tracks that can allow you to play ring-around-the-rosy with the enemy foe. Juggling all of these elements is where the fun is found and I was continually impressed by the amount of variety included to keep things fresh. How I Played Shadow Tactics - There are 13 levels in total. That may not sound like much, but when you realize that you'll be expected to play these levels multiple times the total number of runs starts to add up. While I avoided the trophy list of the game until completing the main storyline in order to avoid spoilers, I did know that "Complete Mastery" was a trophy that required you to earn all 9 badges on each level. Badges are earned by completing specific goals or tasks within a level. They can radically change your approach and due to sometimes conflicting in nature, you'll need a minimum of 2 playthroughs on each level to earn them all. On your FIRST run through the level, they will be invisible. I LOVE this decision. It prevents spoilers, lets the player approach the objective without any outside influence, and makes the game very replayable as it encourages you to think: "huh... how can I complete the level without doing that?". I personally opted for a blind play-through the first time, and then immediately replayed the level two more times to earn the remaining badges thanks to the videos included in the trophy guide. In hindsight, I'm very glad I played this way. I got to see how experts of the game handled challenges, and I was able to apply some of those in my later blind runs on new levels once I saw how effective they were yet I still felt creative since I wasn't following a step-by-step guide to the letter. It also allowed me to regroup as MAN, taking 2 hours to complete a level can be utterly exhausting, and knowing I got to bask in the level for more time as opposed to moving on to a completely new one and having to start fresh all over again allowed me to soak in and learn the nuances of each landscape. HERE'S MY RECOMMENDATION - Always play the first run through a new level blind. Then do the two replays for the medals with assistance(or not if you're feeling very creative). You'll cut down greatly on the clean-up at the end of the game and I think it helped me pace my enjoyment of the game greatly. Love/Hate of Shadow Mode - Shadow Mode is the feature in the game which allows you to plan out actions by all your different characters. You can only ever move one character at a time in Shadow Tactics unless you plan a move for a fellow team member ahead of time. Here's a video of me demonstrating a plan with all 5 characters in the game. This is... tricky to explain when it comes to the actual practicality. In "down time" moments (no imminent threat of enemies), this can be helpful for putting away bodies and speeding up the process by getting characters to complete menial tasks. But in action sequences (crouching at the perfect time to sneak past a guard, planning multiple attacks, etc..) I thought the system was a bit too clunky for my tastes. Time never freezes in shadow mode. it just slows down. On console and with a controller, it makes it extremely difficult to sync up the necessary movements compared to PC. Look at how flawlessly PC players can move your entire group with perfect precision. I had to play much more slowly and complete tasks for characters one at a time due to these limitations. Hell, I couldn't even trust the simple "just move here" mechanic as my thick-skulled companions would walk broad daylight into the vision of the enemy faction unless I precisely indicated what path they had to take. This is the reality for a game built around playing a game with a keyboard and mouse. Still, I can't dock the game too many points for this. I'd MUCH rather have the option to play and basque in the game's wonderful elements than have it limited to PC users out of fear of every feature not functioning perfectly on consoles. Favorite / Most Memorable Levels - Each level in the game has its own distinct characteristics but I think the moment where the game really blew me away was Level #5's - Lord Yabu's Estate. This was the first mission where the game truly kicked my ass and left me utterly perplexed at how to assassinate the Lord that was causing terror amongst Japanese civilians. Here are my 1st run stats for those curious. Each level of the game is beautifully detailed but that estate, in particular, stands out in my mind. The final few levels are where the game really ratchets up in complexity and gives you all you can handle. Escaping Mount Tsuru without many of your classic gadgets will entirely depend on how much you can manipulate enemies with footprints in the snow. Matsuyama City is featured in the above image and I absolutely love how colorful it is. It's undeniably memorable given you kidnap a Lord's son at the end. Myōgi Pass broke my brain and I got through thanks to a hilarious grenade by Takuma. Finally, the last level with taking down Lord Norboru took me over 2 hours and nearly 200 loads. Then I discovered afterward you can defeat the level in under 3 minutes. The developers went above and beyond in creating these environments and they deserve all the praise they've received and then some. I've purposefully avoided mentioning the names of this lovely cast and crew until this section. Gameplay is king but if you can also get me to care about your characters you've won my heart! HAYATO - Ladies and gentlemen, I have a type. That type is a gruff mercenary whose heart is slowly thawed by the kindness of those around him. It applied with Cloud in my Final Fantasy 7 Remake review and it applies here with Hayato in Shadow Tactics. He is the first character you will take control of when playing and arguably the deadliest across the board when you consider he can do damage from up close and from a distance thanks to his shiruken. Hayato seemingly stumbles into this team by agreeing to help out Mugen and the Shogun as long as he gets paid. He has banter with Yuki as you first meet her when playing as him and he agrees to help the child along as she doesn't seem like she'll take no for an answer. I found myself drawn to playing Hayato heavily due to having complete confidence in each of his tools. He has the aforementioned shiruken which makes it extremely easy to take out two guards in relatively close proximity without alerting others. He's able to carry bodies relatively quickly and hide them from view. He has a handy rock that can distract guards temporarily and allow for openings to sneak past or just enough time to assassinate the target. Some of the best moments of dialogue happen not during cutscenes before or after levels, but rather during gameplay when naturally progressing through the level. One sequence that stands out for me is his sincere conversation with Aiko following tragedy. These aren't the lengthiest exchanges but they're sprinkled in enough throughout each level that your fondness for these characters grows the more you play. MUGEN - Oh Mugen... I did warn you above that there were (SPOILERS) from here on down but here's a final warning for those who didn't get out while they could. Mugen essentially serves as the driving force behind the narrative. Here's a samurai for the Shogun. But he's different from other samurai. If I had to describe him in one word, "noble" keeps coming to the forefront of my mind. Rather than being a brute, he's deeply caring for his companions, is a fantastic leader, and shows consideration for the young Yuki, his lover Aiko, and profound respect for the elder Takuma. As a samurai, it's natural he's also huge on honor and fulfilling a man's duty. I absolutely ADORE this exchange between him and Hayato in the midsts of a war between the Shogun and rebel army. His righteousness is further aided by the fact he has a fantastic moveset. While he's slower than the spry Hayato, Yuki, & Aiko, he's able to takedown Samurai's 1 v. 1 whereas all your other companions must use their pistols in order to take one down. He's able to carry 2 bodies at once and at by far the quickest pace compared to everyone else. His sake bottle allows him to lure enemies into vulnerable shadows where they can be quickly dealt with and his assault maneuver can takeout multiple enemies all at once. It's for all these reasons that your failure at capturing Kage-sama is devastating, and leads to him betraying his samurai code in order to save his friends. This honorable vessel letdown his master and as a consequence, he commits seppuku in front of your group midway through Mission #10. His death is the catalyst and motivation your group needs to seek revenge and ensure his blood was not shed in vain. TAKUMA - Takuma is the wise elder statesman of the crew and is the ranged attacker that allows you to snipe enemies from miles away against increasingly difficult odds. While potentially game-breaking, his limitations as an older one are felt in many other forms. He cannot move bodies. He cannot attack from up close. He has a limited number of attacks given he can only takeout as many enemies in accord with how much ammunition the player has used throughout the level. He can only climb using ladders and cannot jump down from higher platforms. He also makes noise when he's not crouching due toa wooden leg which forces the player to be very careful when enemies are nearby. Still, his gun and rifle are essential for taking out enemies in towers and can also be helpful for plucking off a straggler enemy while the younger folk take care of higher priority targets. Aside from his guns, Takuma also has a pet tanuki named Kuma who is arguably the best distraction tool in the entire game. He is mobile and able to "howl" when requested which can keep unsuspecting guards occupied for what feels like an eternity allowing you to complete your schemes with ease. USE KUMA. Don't be like me and stubbornly think he's not that helpful and then discover he's essential according to many of the video guides publicly available. Just generally chipper, he also accepts a sensei role to Yuki and they have a lovely grandfather/grandaughter dynamic towards the latter half of the game. YUKI - Yuki is the youngest of the group and is frequently referred to as a child. It's never quite specified how old she is but given the harsh circumstances that feudal Japan finds itself, she was forced to fend for herself at an early age and is likely in her mid-teens. She is EXTREMELY hard on herself and does her best to become a contributing member. I personally have her line of dialogue "stick the needle, stab the neck" when assassinating a guard tattooed into my memory given how many bloody times I heard it while playing. Her gadgets are phenomenal and allow to you easily pluck off any enemies in the game that aren't straw hats or samurai. Her whistle will lure guards into isolated positions and her trap allows you to safely eliminate them in areas where they won't be seen. I love her. In such barbaric times, her innocence is appreciated and you feel how heartbroken she is at the devastation taking place during the war both from innocent peasants and even falling to her knees after Mugen's suicide. AIKO - Oh Aiko. When she first appeared, I fully expected her to be the seductress of the group and the game would overly play up her sexuality. In actuality, she knows the strengths that come with her elegance and uses them to her advantage. One of her abilities is that of using a disguise. This makes it so you can easily waltz past guards without a second thought and easily kill or distract them when needed to aid your companions. She also has a sneezing powder which can help in greatly diminishing enemy vision cones for crucial moments when dealing with lots of enemies. I thought the game was vague at first when she and Mugen met as to whether they had a prior relationship, but it's later spelled out quite clearly that they were lovers. I enjoyed her banter with Hayato in Hilda Village on who had the superior plan of attack. Her fearlessness in the face of death is also badass. I hope I've conveyed that I appreciate all of these characters individually and I don't think a single one of them is truly weak or "annoying" which can often be the case in a group of 5 or more. STORY - It may seem odd that I left the story as the last portion to cover but I've reiterated time and time again that I prefer the moment-to-moment interaction between characters rather than a heavy overarching plot the majority of the time. Still, I'd say Shadow Tactics has a good story. You're told why you're going on a specific mission before each level and afterward, there'll typically be a small resolution of why what you did would move the plot forward. You assist Mugen and the Shogun in securing power to ensure times of peace in the post-Warlord era of Japan but have to deal with the threat of a man named Kage-sama. You'll engage in intelligence missions seeking to find his whereabouts, take out those aiding him such as Lord Yabu and General Okkoto, and eventually wind up trapped due to a surprise betrayal from the Shogun's brother (Lord Norboru) leading to your capture and Mugen's suicide. The final portion of the game involves avenging his death and assisting the Shogun against improbable odds with your remaining cast and crew. I thought the story was very well delivered and the cutscenes NEVER dragged on for too long. They kept me intrigued and served as very well as transitionary stages between the mind-breaking levels you'd soon have to crack in order to progress the story forward. I should have probably mentioned it in the character dissection piece above but the voice acting in Shadow Tactics is nothing short of sublime. Love the chosen accents and tone for each of them. TROPHIES - If you're anything like me, that 50+ hour play-time according to the trophy guide may seem rather intimidating. In all reality, the game is very doable with enough trial and error. @mr2k_pdh made our lives extremely easy by creating such a masterful guide and many of the trophies will be earned simply following the badge guide videos included under "Complete Mastery". Here's another recommendation from me. MAKE PLENTY OF SAVES IN EACH LEVEL. The way this game tracks achievements/accomplishments is spectacular. One of the trophies is "Mimimi" which tasks you with finding hidden names of enemies that are actually the names of developers from the studio and killing them. The game does not ask you to beat the level after doing this. All you have to do is kill them, and even if all the guards are alerted, that kill is permanently registered. Clean-up is made 10x easier if you have a bunch of saves sprinkled throughout each level (early, mid, late) to facilitate this process. Aside from that, there are miscellaneous achievements in each one which are quick and easy once you're familiar with the level and a "hide 750 bodies" trophy which you should be diligent from the get-go in order to cut down on the grind at the end. I finished the clean-up in less than 2 hours and earned the 6.35% rarity platinum in 1 week and 1 day! The Funniest Game I've Played This Year - This may seem like a strange inclusion but I don't think a single game this year has made me laugh as much as this one has. The most difficult thing for me to discern is I'm not entirely sure whether this was intentional by the folks over at Mimimi Games or not. They're German developers so I lean towards unintentional, but they literally have a badge called "Drown Lord Norboru" on the final mission which makes me think they're aware of how goofy some elements of this game can get? I'll give a few examples. First of all, check out how I got the kill on my 50th samurai. Do you see Mugen chucking a corpse on top of the samurai causing him to collapse? Yea, chucking human bodies on top of enemies DOES NOT ALERT the enemy and this is HILARIOUS to me. Aside from that, the sheer panic whenever you're accidentally discovered by guards is so over-the-top I can't help but start laughing. It's the metal gear alert sound on rocket fuel. I am someone who also has a very childish sense of humor and simply hearing the same thing over and over again will make me giggle. (See: Jph Anderson's Doctor Lingard) Shadow Tactics is the KING of this. I do not mean this in a derogatory fashion. Hearing the guards say in a high-pitched tone cry "HIDING IN THE BUSHES?" or "CRAWLING THROUGH THE THICKET?" when I kept getting caught over and over again had me in stitches. There was one particular sequence during Hilda Village where I was stubborn and INSISTED on taking out enemies in a specific pattern that I kept hearing the drunk guard yell "HEY WHO'S TAKING SO LONG? MORE SAKE!" These quips from guards became so common that I started using them with some of my family members and they've become an inside joke of sorts. Because I'm Ambitious - I've loved the core tactical elements, atmosphere, characters, and story of Shadow Tactics. But as I played... I couldn't help but wonder to myself if there's even more that could be done with this formula. I think of Banner Saga and Ash of Gods yet again. Something I loved about those games is that there were consequential moments made during story sequences that would have an impact for hours to come. Your story was dynamic. Shadow of Tactics doesn't have that. Imagine how cool it would be if your character's personalities could change depending on if you're being very merciful vs. killing every guard? If you're more reliant on certain characters than others? What if there were some splintering story elements that could deviate from the main path? I also imagined if there could have been a secondary gameplay mode or "hangout" section between characters in-between the meaty tactical levels. This is an absurd ask of a smaller development team but ever since I've played Dragon Quest 11, I've always wondered "what if the developers wanted to be REALLY generous, what could this game do potentially?" and these elements came to mind. Would I recommend Shadow Tactics? YES ABSOLUTELY 1000%. It's one of the best games I've had the privilege of playing in 2022. I said it from the outset and I'll repeat it again here, you cannot find better games for $5 than Shadow Tactics when it goes on sale. I am someone who enjoys being given a toolset and asked to run wild with a challenge set before me. You can approach situations lethally or methodically in an effort to spare as many lives as possible. If you have a heart, you'll appreciate the characters interacting with one another. This game has placed "Mimimi Games" on the map for me a video game developer going forward. They're a German studio and recently released "Desperados III" which is also available on consoles. I have marked that game on my wishlist and will give it a run in the future once my itch for an intricate tactical game beckons me again. I can't thank Cassy enough for convincing me to play it since I love to game specifically because of games like these that just consume your life and make you think about them when you're not playing. Until next time! Panda Score: 8.8 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 5.1 / 10 Spoiler Start Date: July 3rd, 2022 Excited to finally start Shadow Tactics. It was Cassy’s GOTY. It’s in keeping with the Japanese theme this month of Kiai Resonance & Mark of the Ninja. Hope it lives up to the hype, let’s dive in! Aight Hayati just freaking murdered a dude… there’s a ton of dudes Wow there’s A LOT of mechanics here… Mugen and Hayato, just gotta get the hang of it “Damn, I need to hide now.” Is… the only dialogue they recorded for being spotted? Okay, that took A LOT of quick saves but I honestly really liked how the game felt after adding the sniper and balancing between all the interactions. The game’s quick saves are amazing. It lets you experiment a ton. I was cackling carrying out my hair-brain schemes. Game has a lot of potential, let’s see how fun the future levels are. LMAO 11 minute speed run and I did it in 37:29 yikes. Oh well. Okay just went back and did a 2nd run of the 1st level, got a number of the badges only missing 3 and that speed run loophole is gonna be AMAZING given the inability to do things as quickly as one would on PC. Alrightie wrapped up the final 3 trophies and LMAO that was hilarious. Throwing an entire army down a well just to not kill any guards. 9/9, onto the next level tomorrow! Shogun took over Japan, Mugen is given a task to take out Kage-sama, time to get the gang together! I can already feeling the bromance brewing between Mugen and Hayato Ay we met Yuki! Cool! Aight this 2nd level was nice and simple, take out 4/6 officers, took ‘em all out, I like Yuki’s quickness! Finally got all the badges in Nakasendo Road, that “no save” trophy was brutal but I figured out a root I liked (ox takes out guard, shiruken one of the circling ones, get Yuki to crush one with whistle + rock, and then rush final one with shiruken throw and rush for final slot) even got the speed run one without cheesing. I’m really enjoying the mechanics though it takes a hell of a lot of practice to figure out on to move multiple characters at once Yuki got a big crush on Hayato it feels like Okay that snow level was by far the hardest yet, took me a freaking hour and 8 minutes to complete. Only did 2/9 of the medals being north gate and hiding inside the red wagon. 43/82 enemies killed. 35:35 plays as Yuki, 32:36 played as Mugen. WOOF Aight the run to kill all the samurai… HAH! The fact you can throw bodies to take them out and they don’t hear a sound is utterly hilarious. Got all 27 medals thru first 3 levels, let’s keep it rolling! As I have not stated it previously, the voice acting (English) is VERY good. Think all the characters sound as they should and it creates a great atmosphere Basically, Mugen going to meet an old friend while Yuki/Hayato gotta go scouting, sounds good! YOOOOO ITS A LADY NAMED AIKO. Cool! Curious what her moves will be. Lord Yabu seems like a jerk HAHAHAH okay I am proud of myself. I just rescued Takuma on Mount Tsuru with Mugen/Aiko without using a disguise with some savy throws of bodies and rocks and slowly but surely clearing the path as Aiko to bring Mugen along Final Results: 55:27 completion time, 67 saves, 59 loads, 0 alarms, 30/51 enemies killed, 11/24 civilians killed, didn’t ring the bell + didn’t use a disguise, 33:39 as Aiko, 19:52 as Mugen. Very fun level man! Loved the art design too Alright a little annoyed I got cheesed out of “Kill only while disguised” so I’ll have to do another run later as I got 8/9 medals but hey - let’s move on to Lord Yabu’s Estate! Got the gang together - Hayato, Mugen, Tasuma, Aiko, and Yuki! Bruh… this official just committed seppuku my goodness I am so freaking disappointed in myself. I did HORRIBLE. I screenshot the stats from my 1st go since I am so sad. My original plan was to kill him with Takuma’s rifle. Too bad I didn’t realize you needed to save one. I then go through this awful sequence of killing every single guard/servant of his including one samurai and END UP GOING WITH THE POISON PLAN BUT HE GLITCHED. I had to do a bunch of save/dog manipulation. Then I discover at the end I should have moved the old man out, ONLY TO DISCOVER A RIFLE AMMO BOX BY THE TOWER AAAAAAGH. So much fun and hilarity but such awful planning on my behalf Okay took care of all the Lord Yabu medals. That killing every enemy in the estate one is hilarious. Time to move on to Hilda Village! I am so proud of myself of learning how to take out each of those guards one by one in the stables OKAY I AM SUPER CHUFFED WITH HOW HOW I PLAYED THAT! Done in 53 minutes, but 38 of them were played as Hayato as I pretty much got to Okkoto and did it entirely on his own. 57 saves, 65 loads. Didn’t use a disguise + didn’t enter the water. Medals seem like a pain but lets get to them! LMAO playing this Hilda village level over again to get the “extinguish all flames medal” and this dialogue bit of the guard yelling “HEY WHO’S TAKING SO LONG? MORE SAKE! DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE? WHEN WE CALL, YOU COME RUNNING. UNDERSTAND?!” Alrightie finished Hilda Village finally, that took awhile. On to Suganuma Village for the 1st time! Lil Kuma is adorable YO! 1st play through was super fun. I managed to kill all enemies + kill 4 enemies with a single grenade + completed the mission without reclaiming Mugen’s gear. 63/63 killed. 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete. Yuki had 55 of those kills, Takuma 8. Very unique mission in the rain. It was hilarious taking out all those samurai by throwing bodies on top of them. Aight those “don’t step on hard surface” and “don’t climb anything” medals would be so freaking tough without a guide Ayyyy finished the remaining medals (save farmers first, then Mugen + 3 rocks kill) before even finishing the level so now we’re on to Kanazawa City! LESSGO! Damn first level with 4 characters used? Hayato, Mugen, Yuki, & Takuma! Wow this is a bloody war zone. HERE WE GO! LMAOOOOOO I JUST KILLED OKKOTO BY SNEAKING BEHIND ALL HIS DUDES WITH ROCKS AND THROWING TWO BODIES ON OKKOTO AS NONE FO THE DUDES AROUND HIM REALIZED IT, that was HILARIOUS Damn that Samurai’s death for Okkoto… sheesh… Damn 71/74 enemies slain for me, 1 hour and 22 minutes to complete.. good distribution amongst all team members. That was a very interesting round Okay the medals on Kanazawa City are super quick to get done, we’re on to Kage-sama’s camp! KANPAI! OOOOOOOH SNAP! PERFECTLY INFILTRATED HIS CAMP AND FRIGGING NOBORU IS KAGE-SAMA NOOOOOO DAMMIT CANT BELIVE WE GOT KIDNAPPED. Shoutout to Mugen for betraying samurai code to protect us tho <3, done in 35 minutes which is prolly my fastest on a 1st play through Okay finally finished with all the medals… the “don’t select Mugen” is annoying on consoles cuz of R1 but I got it by rushing for the finish. Hiding all bodies was tedious as HELL but we’re finally done. On to Level 10, Mount Tsuru Prison! DAYUM RYUONOSUKE STABBED IN FRONT OF MUGEN’S EYES IS RUTHLESS Lord Norboru not killing Mugen is some classic villain do you even know who I am nonsense NOOOOOOOOOOO MUGEN Damn that prison level was a pain in the butt without your tools, thankfully Takuma has his rifle Lmao it wasn’t even the end of the level… that one was mad tricky man I got 3 medals (no disguise, escape with hayato, escape with Yuki) but the other ones seem mad tricky Damn they don’t let you skip the cutscene where Mugen suicides… brutal Okay I finally finished all those medals. Doing that without recollecting any of your gear requires you to be VERY savvy and astute with the shadow mode + footprints in the snow. But we’re done! On to Matsuyama City baby! Super looking forward to this level as its the one displayed on PSNProfiles when it’s the latest game you’ve played on your profile Damn our safe house was raided… I love Hayato’s voice actor HIDING IN THE BUSHES CRAWLING THROUGH THE THICKET MORE SAKE! Okay I am REALLY happy with my performance there. I managed to do it in an hour and 6 minutes, didn’t use ANY diseases, didn’t enter the water and I overheated the bath to get him isolated. Only killed 19/83 enemies and 6/81 civilians. 76% of the level played as Hayato Only got 2/9 badges tho lol Okay wrapped up the remaining medals and they weren’t that lengthy or complicated at all, time to move on to level #12, Myōgi Pass! Hope they finish off with a banger! 300k men? That’s gonna be a LOT of rock throwing The old man Takuma’s groans are HILARIOUS YO WE DID IT! We managed to never drop Maseru 1st try lmao. Took some hilarious bomb with Takuma but I managed to do it as well as getting the sleeping draught even if it didn’t work and not hiding in any wagons. 53% of the level played with Yuki, 35 kills, 29% as Aiko, 13% as Takuma, and 4% as Hayato. Super chuffed with that! Woohoo! That was some of the easiest clean-up ever! I managed to kill all enemies that carry torches super easily and did it from my 1st save, now time to do the one without killing anyone which I have to imagine is pretty damn tricky! Wow that wagon one without killing any enemies… very finicky, but we did it! On to Sunpu Castle. Gotta think this is one of the last levels, yea? Masaru… nephew please. Trashcan. YOOO that final level was super hard lmao, took me 2 hours as long as it took me with Lord Yabu. Shoutout to YUKI getting the final kill. That’s what you get for stripping us of Mugen. THATS THE END OF THE GAME! MAIN STORY! DAMN MAN! I LOVED IT! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 (edited) 5 hours ago, realm722 said: Why ST:BotS? I cannot express with enough fervor how much I want to thank @Cassylvania for their review from nearly a year ago. They even nominated it as their Game of the Year for 2021 which further brought it to the forefront of my mind. I LOVE this forum for this very specific reason. Games pop up on my radar that I had glossed over hundreds of times. I would have never, in a million years, ever attempted this game on my own without a recommendation from a source I trusted. I had seen it pop up on sale for $5 time and time again and always skimmed past it given 1) The 50+ hour time commitment is a lot for a game I'd heard so little about and 2) It didn't even qualify for an ultra-rare plat at 6% so.... even less incentive. I'll admit that whenever I see a gigantic review on a game I've never heard of, I'll typically skip over to the end to see if it's a game that one of y'all are pounding on the table for. I don't want to get spoiled (even in non-spoiler ways) on a game I think I may love in the future. Once I saw Cassy's glowing positivity in the closing statements, Shadow Tactics entered that stratosphere. Loved your review! Wasn't sure anybody was going to bite the bullet on this one. I don't think I was going to give it GOTY when I wrote that review, but I remember the game lingering in my mind a few weeks after that and I was like, "Damn, that was the most fun I had in a video game in a while." You even pointed out some things I'm sure I glossed over, such as the hilarious over-the-top voice lines from the enemies. "Stick the needle, stab the neck" is a classic. I'm also glad you went more into depth about Mugen's storyline, as I had to tiptoe around that in my review. I wasn't kidding when I said this game belongs in the same tier as Dark Souls and XCOM (which you know I never shut up about). I actually bought Desperadoes III shortly after finishing the game, but it's been sitting on my shelf. If you get around to it before me, you'll have to let me know how it is. It looks very similar and that excites me. Edited July 14, 2022 by Cassylvania 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted July 17, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2022 What Does Your Account Rarity % Say About Your Gaming Habits? Found on the "stats" page of every PSNProfiles account, you're able to view a wide range of stats that the website has courteously curated for your perusal. Some are drawn to the monthly activity chart while others prefer the trophies by time/day bar graphs. I've personally always been drawn to the bottom left-hand corner pie chart which offers a quick analysis of the average trophy rarity on your profile. It's not very in-depth but can offer an extremely quick snapshot of someone's general gaming habits. I may or may not have used it to briefly check someone's general gaming ability if I ever see them comment that a game was "REALLY HARD" and the trophy guide lied and the game should have easily been given a "8 or 9/10 difficulty" only to realize their trophy rarity % is >70%. Warning: Some trophy hunting snobbery is found in this. Forgive me. We'll do our best to keep things on track here. I'd say that the overwhelming majority of profiles can be categorized into four distinct groups. Here they are. A) The Cupcake Eater Analysis: (Note: I purposefully drew the #'s of 3/4 of these from completely random accounts. Any similarities to YOUR profile are purely coincidental) An argument as old as time on this forum is the debate regarding garbage, nothing, shovelware games that have a platinum that can be earned in a matter of minutes. These games are a plague upon my shores NOT because I care about anyone else's profile or the leaderboards but rather the fact they make the "Games" tab on PSNProfiles utterly useless. Ah yes, I love sorting through 8 different region stacks of "Gump Jump" at the time that I'm writing this in order to find new games that have recently arrived on Playstation. There's all the nonsense from the "The Jumping (insert food)" series, Rataiaika Games, and other Mayo-related content that is only released precisely because of players like this. I don't get it. I'll never get it. There's a difference between playing "easy" games all the time and spending money just to hear the platinum sound on your console. If I could have one feature added to PSNProfiles, it'd be to make it so that all >90% average completion games can be completely filtered from all search results under the "Games" tab so I could use it with some level of functionality. A bonus if I can get the same feature added to PlatPrices and PSPrices as opposed to needing to hide these games hundreds of times every time a new sale drops. I'd say any account north of 50% qualifies as a cupcake eater. If your account looks like this, you do you, boo. (B The Every Man's Challenger Analysis: There are few things as easy to root for in a film or game as the every man. He just like me fr. Fr fr. I consider any account in the 40-50% range to be the "every man" player. They're here for a challenge every now and then and will typically rise to the occasion and succeed but also enjoys kicking back and taking a couple FCS-quality "opponents" if the situation presents itself. This is a very balanced approach to trophy hunting. They're not going to kill themselves going for an ultra rare % every other week but they're also not burning time playing 10-minute platinums that they bought for $2 leading them to contemplate their purpose in life. I think these players are typically excellent tellers of an experience since they play a very wide variety of games. They'll know when a game is properly busting their gut or if an achievement is extremely doable if you put enough time into learning the mechanics. I trust them to tell it like it is. I imagine the vast majority of accounts fall into this category(based on zero scientific research) and without them, it'd be like living without the middle class. Gee, I sure hope that pool doesn't shrink and virtually evaporate in the coming years! C) Soft Games Need Not Apply Analysis: Is it a jerk move to put MY OWN account in this slot? Tell me in the comments. The essential difference between the every man and a category C player is the latter almost always avoids going for anything that can even be remotely associated with a cupcake. Hell, muffins and macarons are off the table! This is most easily displayed by the fact the "Common" trophy % goes from nearly taking 50% of the pie chart to a hash over 25%. This requires a very strict diet. While the rarity %'s for ultra rare, very rare, and rare games are quite similar between categories B and C, this single differentiator can make a player look far more impressive than it is in all reality. I say this from experience. I probably fall far more into the "every man" in terms of actual gaming ability than most players with this average rarity who play far tougher games but due to the fact only 2 of my 185 platinums are >60% average completion, my talents are inflated. I'd say anyone with an account between 30-40% falls into this group with those in the low 30s pushing dangerously close to..... D) The Try-Hard Analysis: The Try-Hard account is BY FAR the rarest account on PSNProfiles. It's like seeing a unicorn. This is because it requires both a mental fortitude of a refusal to play anything deemed slightly "baby-tier" in terms of difficulty while also having the skill necessitated to continuously produce this sort of output as your game library increases. I'll be honest, this sort of player scares me. Especially if they have over 5,000+ trophies since that means they'll have stood the test of time in both those aforementioned categories. While the impressiveness of this feat need not even be spoken, there are a few downsides that I think this player can suffer from. 1) There are super awesome games out there with higher trophy rarity %'s. Being pigeon-holed into almost exclusively hunting for ultra-rare's can dampen that willingness to branch out. 2) This player typically isn't a good gauge of difficulty when offering help to others. Due to being baptized in the waters of viciously unforgiving games, a "4 or 5 out of 10 difficulty" may as well mean a 7 of 8 for the rest of us. Still, these accounts are worthy of admiration and they'll likely gather substantial followings on these forums due to their willingness to go where no trophy hunter has gone before. Any account >30% qualifies. I salute all try-hards for their continued excellence. So that's it! It had been a while since I had done one of these. Bit of a dumb post but hey it was fun getting into it. I miss sports. See y'all next time! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted July 17, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2022 19 minutes ago, realm722 said: So that's it! It had been a while since I had done one of these. Bit of a dumb post but hey it was fun getting into it. I miss sports. See y'all next time! I think average rarity is the most meaningful stat on somebody's profile. You can get a much better feel for the type of games a person plays by looking at that than completion percentage, platinum count, or number of trophies. I guess I typically break it down into three categories: people who play games for trophies (above 60%), people who play games for fun (40-60%), and people who play games for the challenge (below 40%). Not sure those are the best dividing lines for those categories, but I think it's a good rule of thumb. I've been trying to get my own account below 40% for about a year now, but I seem to be stuck at 41%. Playing Cat Quest 2 right now probably isn't helping... I think mid-40%'s is where most players would fall. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AihaLoveleaf Posted July 17, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2022 41 minutes ago, realm722 said: Warning: Some trophy hunting snobbery is found in this. Before the replies get too spicy later on, I'll say that I enjoyed this piece. I look at a lot of profiles too, and often find the average rarity tells me what I need to know about a profile, if I'm in a hurry. A bit of silent snobbery on my part, to borrow from the spirit of the article. I've found that 50% often marks the line where most profiles go from lists that deal mostly in video games, to lists that deal mostly in trophy software. The rare exceptions are those that primarily play visual novels; they unfortunately have to share those games with those chasing the leaderboard. It is what it is. We're pretty similar in averages (also a C-Tier), and the description feels about right. Not sure exactly what makes a muffin or macaron, though I may have a vague idea. Definitely no cupcakes, though. Was pretty close to sub-30% at the end of 2021, but a few games made me realize I am not cut out for the Try-Hard life, so C-Tier it is. 1 hour ago, realm722 said: 2) This player typically isn't a good gauge of difficulty when offering help to others. Due to being baptized in the waters of viciously unforgiving games, a "4 or 5 out of 10 difficulty" may as well mean a 7 of 8 for the rest of us. This has been true to my experience as well. I've witnessed players in this category stick games like Persona 4 Arena with a 7/10 difficulty which, as you've stated, isn't going to be helpful for others, when it's coming from somebody living in a realm us mortals will never occupy. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 Excellent work as always my dude! I must confess to sheepishly checking my own rarity percentage real quick before continuing the read... though I guess the fact that I had to look makes my B tier status make all the more sense? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briste Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 It's interesting to see your thoughts on this. I have started to use this stat a bit more myself when looking at trophy lists. I don't spend a ton of time doing it, but I'll often check a handful of the names of people playing the current game I am and seeing if it is a stretch game for me or something I could probably do. If I see a bunch of your Tier D types actively playing it, I'll mentally prepare for a challenge. If I see Tier A or B types playing, then I feel like I shouldn't have too much of a problem. Of course there are always outliers, but similarly to what @Cassylvania said, I think it's the most meaningful stat on the site to gauge the type of trophy hunter someone is. Before the New Year, I had a goal of getting mine under 40% (currently at 39.38%). While I fall into Tier C by a nose, I feel like my gaming habits more align with Tier B. I don't mind playing some 'soft' games, but I also like to challenge myself at times as well. Unless a 100% is unobtainable, I'll pretty much consider any game and if you catch me in the right mood and suggest it, I'll probably start it. Sometimes, I just like being stupid (looking at you Injustice.....). Very entertaining read! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Copanele Posted July 18, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 18, 2022 Hot damn, finally the topic I've been waiting for 8 hours ago, realm722 said: Warning: Some trophy hunting snobbery is found in this. Make way please for the C) Soft Games Need Not Apply Gang! This has been one fun topic to read. I do agree with the classification and the fact that most players do fall in the 40% category (which ain't a bad thing, mind you, those people enjoy their games and don't play stuff they don't enjoy). I did want to initially say that the C point is not entirely true, but after reading this 8 hours ago, realm722 said: Analysis: Is it a jerk move to put MY OWN account in this slot? Tell me in the comments. The essential difference between the every man and a category C player is the latter almost always avoids going for anything that can even be remotely associated with a cupcake. Hell, muffins and macarons are off the table! This is most easily displayed by the fact the "Common" trophy % goes from nearly taking 50% of the pie chart to a hash over 25%. This requires a very strict diet. and checking my own account's rarity...yeah I will shut up I do pick a tasty eclaire from time to time (hell, Cat Quest easily beats most of the UR games I've played in terms of quality), but no jumping Cupcake Turbo Edition, that's true. 7 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: This has been true to my experience as well. I've witnessed players in this category stick games like Persona 4 Arena with a 7/10 difficulty which, as you've stated, isn't going to be helpful for others, when it's coming from somebody living in a realm us mortals will never occupy. Yup agreed with this too, Persona 4 Arena is a perfect example since I encountered that too with that specific game Mad, MAD respect for those in the D tier, because those are battle hardened veterans with a dash of cocaine, but maaaan they can't gauge an overall game difficulty to save their lives. They are usually the people to single vote a 10-difficulty game as a "6/10 ,eh I've played worse". Not blaming them in the end, when they go through the flames of fire and UR. Ok enough elitism from my side ?another amazing coffee read! Cheers! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 Wow. Okay then. Good luck with all your endeavours. ?☮️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted July 26, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 26, 2022 Game: Persona 5 Strikers Analysis: I got P5S for Free thanks to it joining the list of free games for PS+ Users in January 2022. Another dynasty warriors game... lemme channel my inner CJ. Why Persona 5 Strikers? For those unfamiliar with my history of the "hack 'n slash" genre as developed by Japanese game studio Omega Force, I played another one of their games back in April-May of 2019. It was called Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below. I hated it. Back then, I was still very uneducated when it came to the general gaming landscape and bought it for $5 from Gamestop as part of a 4 for $20 deal they were doing. The other 3 games I bought were Batman: Arkham Knight, Uncharted 4, and Final Fantasy XV. Unfortunately, it was the worst of the bunch by a huge margin. What most stands out to me when I think back about that game is within the first 10 minutes (a trophy had already popped) I just kept thinking: "oh god what did I just commit myself to". This was further aggravated by the fact I had NEVER PLAYED A DRAGON QUEST GAME before. These weren't familiar characters I was revisiting. This was a weird mishmash of a gang that I've been forced into hanging out with and it just wasn't a very good time. I'll never forget hunting all those metal slimes with Bianca. I love Bianca. Her flurry of arrows made the grind so much more bearable. After being stuck in the vortex for 55 hours, I finally earned the platinum. It presently sits in my bottom 5 games of the Playstation 4/5 era and one of only two proper, fully made games in the cellar pit of my rankings. (Shoutout to Trico preventing it from being labeled THE WORST). I say all this to say, this game permanently scarred any possible interest I could have with Dynasty Warriors games in the future. They were games non grata for me. Of course, they then had to go ahead and make a game in one of the only franchises possible (my then #1 rated game of All-Time on here) in the Persona franchise that began to make my head turn. "Eh, maybe I'll get it 4 years from now for $5". It came to PS+. I claimed it. This has been a month full of playing Japanese-inspired games, why not go out with a bang in playing another title from one of their most famous developers? It's The Same Cast & Crew You Always Loved But MORE! - An essential component of these spinoff titles from Omega Force such as Dragon Quest Heroes, Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, etc.. HAS to be that you love these franchises beforehand. I'm probably one of the few weirdoes on the planet who played one without having familiarity with the characters. In Persona 5 Strikers case, if you loved the Persona 5 Scooby Doo Gang, I can say with absolute certainty this is an extension of the franchise and brings back all the lovely memories you'd have from your first tango with them. I was almost shocked at how well they did recapturing all the sentiments from the original. Ryuji acts like Ryuji. The menus are exquisite. Rivers in the Desert is back and better than ever. There is a proper story with strong arcs for each of the villains as you traverse each city. The two biggest changes are that 1) The combat is no longer turn-based but hack 'n slash and 2) There are no social links or time management with your schedule. A gigantic compliment I have to give this game is the fact that the additional characters they added to the game are FANTASTIC. I was legitimately stunned by this. Zenkichi was very solid as an elder figure and even more so, Sophia was the superstar of the game for me. Her design in the jails is downright adorable, her voice acting is excellent, and given she's at the center of the game's plot it actually made me engage with the damn story which I never thought I'd care for in a Dynasty Warriors spinoff. The developers deserve a ton of praise for this since it's really rare to implement an additional character on top of an already beloved cast and somehow make them standout even more than the others. I adore her humming(spoilers). How was the grind this time around? Anyone remotely familiar with the game knows of the "Eternal Bonds" trophy which has 160+ replies on a thread trying to discern the quickest way to mash your way through the heaviest time sink in the game. I presume this is the developer's twisted way of ensuring players enter a New Game+ and ensure a 50+ hour experience but thanks to some help from the trophy guide, I opted for the Billiken Statue method for days 8/24 to 8/27. This is a repetitive, monotonous task that is best divided into portions. I went from lvl 35 to lvl 65 i one session. Went and did some of the jail. Came back and did lvl 65 to lvl 88. Finished up the jail and did a bunch of requests. Came back and did lvl 88 all the way up to lvl 97. This took several hours and the last few were particularly excruciating given how slow the XP increases the bar once you're in the 90s. Given how I needed to grind to Level 90 XP for the Persona Compendium at the end by fighting "Angel of Contract Descends" I can safely say I OVERDID IT. You probably can stop grinding levels at lvl 93 to lvl 94 there and be fine to get there by the end of the platinum journey. I actually earned Eternal Bonds far earlier than most due to this. I got it even before defeating all of the dire shadows! The level grind for the compendium isn't so bad as on the fight I linked (Angel of Contract Descends), Joker levels up every 2-3 fights and it goes so quick it only took me an hour and a half or so given I was lvl 78 by the time I beat the reaper. I honestly initially tried to go for the Merciless playthrough but I legitimately got ONE SHOT by a baby demon on the very first encounter and said: "screw that lmao". Grind Tip Advice (Off-Topic) - To pass the time as you're working that Billiken Statue for several hours (8-9 hours in my case), I have a recommendation. One of the reasons the grind wasn't that bad this time around is because I was watching and revisiting one of my favorite TV shows of All-Time. It's called "Nathan For You". I was inspired to rewatch it after seeing the first two episodes of the "The Rehearsal". A new show by the same creator, Nathan Fielder. I LOVE this show. I remember discovering it a few years ago on YouTube from this clip and being utterly enthralled by the idea. Basically, it's a cringe comedy show where he pitches absurd/unorthodox solutions to real-life business people's problems. If you have HBO Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or Paramount+ subscription, I cannot highly recommend it enough. It's not necessary to see the shows in order as they're each their own stand-a-lone episode so here's my Top 5 from the 4 seasons: (#1. S2, Ep4 / #2. S3, Ep1 / #3. S3, Ep8 / #4. S1, Ep4 / #5. S4, Ep8) Would I recommend Persona 5 Strikers? Only if you absolutely loved Persona 5. If not, this is a hard pass. I feel quite confident in that statement. The gameplay and combat itself in the game are enjoyable if a bit mindless on easier difficulties (I played on easy the whole game cuz I was not going to add any unnecessary time to this game in the form of a real challenge. My challenge from the game was from trying to kill the enemy demons as quickly as possible to move on to the next encounter.) I'll include a dirty confession here. I honestly prefer Persona 5 Strikers combat to Persona 5. I love how quickly you can fire off magic attacks. If you're a fan of P5 gang, you can enjoy a proper story all over again with them, enjoy their interactions, and experience a really damn heartfelt ending with the new superstar of the game in my opinion. Unfortunately, I must dock it a full 0.5 points due to the fact Miss Kawakami is NOT in the game. I had to settle for Haru. All in all, it took me a full 1 week and 3 days to earn the 17.02% rarity platinum. I'll be on a hiatus to close out July but hope to comeback reenergized for the start of August. Until then! Panda Score: 7.2 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 3.3 / 10 Spoiler Start Date: July 15th, 2022 Persona 5 strikers baby, let’s do it! Happy to be back with the Persona gang man… a Dynasty Warriors game. I hated Dragon Quest Heroes but a few years have passed, let’s see if my tastes have changed! Inspector Hasegawa got that Tarzan hair Aww the Mayuri portrait Oh no this Emma software is gonna be a full blown thing… We’re forever “this guy” Ryuji loves complaining about the heat Alice….. Oh she’s evil lmao DAMN ALICE DONT THREATEN ME WITH A GOOD TIME Wassup Sophia, I like her design Oh no she’s in the phone This is Her Lmao Futaba “making like a tree” comment when leaving is still gold Lmao this blow up during the TV interview with Alice Oh hey is the hallway where Morgana mentioned pancakes I ain’t gonna lie I love this Alice stepping on people OH MY GOD THERES A MENTION OF CRYPTOCURRENCY IN THIS LOL I’m impressed that Ryuji knew what “famished” meant Sophie’s cute. Her innocence is sweet. Solid addition to the cast. I LOVE Haru’s hat Sophia’s store positions are freaking adorable Okay I’m officially getting back into the groove of the Persona vibes after initially disliking my 1st day of playing. Getting cozy all over again PLAY THAT RIVERS IN A DESERT BABY!!!!! Lmao we beat Alice with virtually no health left as Ann… very fitting Lmao zenkichi flipping out over everything Only Makoto and Haru have their drivers license lol Woman in a lab coat is kinda cute Air of innocence about me? GIRL I DATED MY HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER “Prideful Young Man” gee I wonder who the next monarch is lmao Ann slapping the van over us complaining outside about sleeping on top was delightful Yusuke actually buying the book of the dude we’re going after is hilarious and in character YUSUKE JUST FLAMED NATSUME RIP BOZO Hmmm… so now that I’m just about to send in the calling card, Ann related to Alice and Yusuke is relating to Natsume. I presume this will be the theme for the rest of the way with Futaba, Ryuji, Makoto, Haru, etc… all sympathizing with future bad actors. Haru’s is prob gon be someone who lost it cuz they lost a dear relative like she lost her dad lol Haru is limping for this CEO executive… is she gonna correct his soul at the end? Is this Ichinose lady gonna betray us? MAYBE WE SHOULDNT BE SHOCKED WHEN WE’RE EXPOSED WHEN WE HANGOUT ALL THE TIME PUBLICLY TALKING ABOUT PHANTOM THIEF BUSINESS LIKE ITS A CASUAL EVERYDAY OPEN SUBJECT Bruh the freaking bathhouse scene (Droning voice) I love anime A power crazy popular mayor… nice! Oh no this is gonna be the lady who Haru connects with… former friend of her dad She used to be so kind to everyone says Haru… until her SON/DAUGHTER/HUSBAND DIED Sophia saying hee-ho Ann and Makoto are the only adults lmao LMAO “for her sake” here we freaking go Mariko “The only way we’ll change her heart is in the jail.” Bruh that’s a little… hmm… not good for the idea of being moved and changing ones opinion unless the Phantom Thieves intervene If I had to guess - her daughter died due to some kind of negligence by a resident like drunk driving or whatever and this is why she’s so strict Oh lol… that woman and son who were mourning had their daughter/sister killed cuz of Mariko’s ice sculpture crushing her. That’s insane Lmao Sophie’s “Noir can be pretty scary sometimes” after I DECIMATED this boss is hilarious Aight so Mariko’s motive was more about corruption around her, fair enough game Mariko is gonna be the elder political confidant in Persona 6 can’t wait Got to ride the Ferris wheel with Haru babyyyyy 4head for life Haru struggles with driving despite having her license, best girl Lmao Ryuji “I aint some comedian” “Do I hear a bunch of girls with you” lmao Formal Akane… you’re like 12 or something and talking like you’re 47 to Zenkichi Akane has that Haru forehead LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL SHES A DIEHARD PHANTOM THIEVES NUT THATS HILARIOUS Okay that’s extremely well done Atlus… A livestream? Is it run by Mashima? Oh she’s the streamer lmao 50k+ subs lol Kinda awkward this was a takeover convo between Makoto and Akane while we’re all just sat off to the side observing it all TSUNDERE? Lmao this freaking game Oh snap we’re on a boat Oh no another beach sequence bruh the Ann fan service Okay Sophie taking a photo underwater is adorable BRUV WHY IS A CREEPY DUDE WANDERING ABOUT OUR VAN MAN Why everybody got pitch forks? BRUH WHAT LOL this became horror-like? Makoto being super scared of ghosts and horror is hilarious, repeating the same Sojiro house scene Sophie runs like Naruto lol Wow the Okinawa jail was… quick…. Damn putting the pressure on Haru to drive without a lot of exp… hmmm… Owada looks like the most generic politician of all-Time… Kaburagi is whatever man, she couldn’t hold Sae’s jock strap Just got ASSAULTED by Makoto for no reason. I love anime. SAE’S RETURN???? LETS GOOOOO YOOOOOO SAE TO THE RESCUE FOR ZENKICHI! Holy cow Akane’s hat for her shadow is absurdly huge… Ayyyy Zenkichi waking to his persona, nice! Okay fighting and taking down the fake Phantom Thieves was a hell of a cool boss fight I just managed to grind from bond level 35 to 65 using the Biliken statue… gonna take a break for now and enjoy the Osaka dungeon, and then go up to 80-85ish have to imagine that the final portion of the game will get me those last level ups needed to reach lvl 99 Grinded from level 65 to 88, stopped for the day, went did a bunch of requests, then grinded from level 88 to 95 and now I think I’m good to move on from the zone. Hope this gets me to lvl 99 by the end of the platinum grind I decided to go with Lady Ann and the ladies to Tenboto cuz… duh man Lmao Sophia tossed us a bomb and I WOULD have answered Haru if the game LET ME Aight I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this whole Ichinose revelation as the final villain and Sophie’s persona revelation legit gave me chills, very well done game. Okay I just got the platinum. 44 hours total. Think I def overdid it on the eternal bonds given I didn’t know you needed to grind to level 90 to get the full compendium. Finished on lvl 78 with all the side content but I just did that last absurdly strong enemy in the tree of knowledge and every 2-3 fights Joker would level up so it didn’t take THAT long 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 2 hours ago, realm722 said: Game: Persona 5 Strikers Awesome work as always, my dude! 2 hours ago, realm722 said: Analysis: I got P5S for Free My dumb brain initially misread this, and for a split second I not only thought you got a free PS5, but said it in a thick Russian accent. If you have a moment where you aren't feeling very bright, just remember that at least you didn't think that? 2 hours ago, realm722 said: After being stuck in the vortex for 55 hours, I finally earned the platinum. It presently sits in my bottom 5 games of the Playstation 4/5 era and one of only two proper, fully made games in the cellar pit of my rankings. (Shoutout to Trico preventing it from being labeled THE WORST). I say all this to say, this game permanently scarred any possible interest I could have with Dynasty Warriors games in the future. Bruh... every time I try to go back to DW8 Empires I'm reminded of what a miserable slog it is. I 100% feel your pain here! 2 hours ago, realm722 said: One of the reasons the grind wasn't that bad this time around is because I was watching and revisiting one of my favorite TV shows of All-Time. It's called "Nathan For You". I was inspired to rewatch it after seeing the first two episodes of the "The Rehearsal". A new show by the same creator, Nathan Fielder. I LOVE this show. Duuuuude what a great shout, my wife and I are huge fans of this one too. Poop flavored froyo, free miniature pizzas... with foolproof ideas like these, it should be no surprise that he got really good grades. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted August 5, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 5, 2022 Game: Libble Rabble Analysis: I bought Libble Rabble for $7.99 yesterday. It's the start of another month which means a new 100% and this one is special as it's my first Arcade Archives game! Why Libble Rabble? Unsurprisingly, I did not learn of this game due to my own history or background. This is an arcade game released by Namco in Japan all the way back in 1983. It was designed by Pac-Man's creator, Toru Iwatani. I discovered this fact from none other than Tim Rogers's review of Pac-Man originally released in Nov. 2020. I've linked directly to the segment of the video where he covers it for around 20 minutes. I promise it's worth your time if you give one iota about video game design and are down to hear a soothing verbose individual mythologize a game into another stratosphere. Ever since I saw that segment, I always wanted to play Libble Rabble. It's one thing to hear Tim wax poetic about its intricacies and complexity and another thing entirely to have the controller in your hand and move about the two bizarre Chevron-shaped arrows. For whatever reason, with the recent immense sale that dropped, I searched the game on PlatPrices and was shocked to learn it had come to modern-day consoles on Nov. 22nd, 2021 - nearly an EXACT year after Rogers original review was published. I have to believe that someone who has some weight over at Hamster Corporation (the publisher behind the Arcade Archives series) saw his video and did us all a favor. I did not hesitate in purchasing it and got happily paid its full price. Brain Breaking Gameplay - For a game that's nearly 40 years old, you cannot help but be impressed by how much the player is asked to manage when managing these two little arrows. You control one arrow with each analog stick. The red (left) arrow with the left stick. The blue (right) arrow with the right stick. You have a thing rope that connects the two arrows and pegs scattered across the board. Combine the rope to close off areas of the map and "kill" the mushlins or hoblins (cloaked bastards) in order to earn points. Kill all the mushlins to complete the level. Make sure you don't run out of time. Close off eggplants to replenish time. Be wary of hoblins as coming into contact with them loses a life. Be wary of gargoryles who can randomly spawn and are wildly deadly. Find random treasure chests for chances to entrap topcups and obtain random treasure that skyrockets your high score. If this sounds completely incoherent, it's because it's kinda impossible to make much sense until you're actually playing it. I personally played north of 7 hours and was continually impressed by the amount of juggling you'll be doing just to stay afloat. I did not even mention the shears which can sabotage a large haul of kills and completely ruin a good run if you're not careful. Finding treasure requires you to scour the map beyond the first two levels while managing the responsibility of taking care of the mushlins before fiercer foes appear on the map. I described all this in detail to say that I DEEPLY enjoyed it. There's a lot going on, you're likely to get confused or flustered if you're unfamiliar, but if you stick with it and truly try to understand what the game is doing you will in time begin to play better. Oh No, This Game Is Difficult (But Not Really) - The trophy list for Libble Rabble is remarkably simple. There are only 6 trophies. Earn a high score in Original Mode, High Score Mode, and then earn the subsequent 100k, 200k, and 300k point totals. I took care of original mode and then focused on the high score trophies. I became increasingly frustrated once I realized how bad I was at the game and how seemingly out of reach that 300k point total truly was. In high score mode, you CAN NOT pause and you CAN NOT save. You must earn all your points in one fell swoop and once all your lives are up, it's game over and your score is set. I found myself struggling to break 20k playing normally. I tried to do some research online. There is VERY LITTLE help in terms of earning the 100% completion. This Strategy Wiki helped with some basic terminology. This high score YouTube video helped a bit more. I saw the emphasis placed on earning the treasure chest in the first two levels in order to spell the word "FLOWER" and get to the bonus stage with a bunch of chests scattered about the map. I managed to score 128k on my first day of playing and decided to call it a day. The morning after, I managed to score as high as 240k. Then I started spiraling. I was becoming legitimately irritated with how difficult this task was proving to be. The rarity % was just around 41%. Why was I having such a hard time with this? I know the game has less than 100 owners, but did only Libble Rabble diehards buy the game and maybe that's why the % is so high? I lost my mind multiple times over the random movement of the tiny cloaked jerks who kept sabotaging my runs during their aggresive phase. The shear that would materalize from the corner of the map and ever so precisely obliterate a perfect enclosure of mine to cost me huge points. While spiraling, I began to wonder if perhaps my talents were not up to par for the skill necessary to earn the 100%. Then it clicked. Uhh... I didn't need to earn the 300k points in high score mode. Nothing in the trophy description says that. I switched gears to try it in original mode (which conveniently allows for save points whenever you'd like, a delightfully devilish addition from the Arcade Archives brand) which completely trivializes all sense of difficulty. You get infinite retries at finding the chest, perfectly capturing the topcups, and scooping up the jewels in your conquest for the big 300,000. Here's my victory. I earned the 36.71% rarity 100% in 1 day and 9 minutes. The lesson I learned? Always read the fine print on the trophy description. Would I recommend Libble Rabble? If your curiosity is tickled by Tim Rogers segment, absolutely. If not, it's still an easy peasy 100% if you're so obliged. While I am a little miffed at myself for spending several hours bashing my head against a challenge that was entirely of my own creation, I'm almost appreciative that my ignorance allowed me to play the game as much as I did. I never would have discovered the nuances of trying to slowly progress your way to the very next chest each bonus stage round OR preemptively start creating your secondary enclosure while looping around with one of the arrows to make for a quicker recovery transition. Again, forgive the incomprehensibility of that statement. My fancy was tickled over a year and a half ago and I'm relieved I finally scratched that itch. I'm very happy to say this is my first Arcade Archives game and I have zero regrets. I'm going to gladly keep digging for more lost gems from the past and if there are any you'd like to hammer the table for, please feel free to recommend them! Panda Score: 7.08 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 4.1 / 10 (with original mode, more like 2.2 but I ain't gonna forget those 5+ hours of frustration so easily lol) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 On 7/17/2022 at 3:31 PM, realm722 said: (B The Every Man's Challenger Analysis: There are few things as easy to root for in a film or game as the every man. He just like me fr. Fr fr. I consider any account in the 40-50% range to be the "every man" player. They're here for a challenge every now and then and will typically rise to the occasion and succeed but also enjoys kicking back and taking a couple FCS-quality "opponents" if the situation presents itself. This is a very balanced approach to trophy hunting. They're not going to kill themselves going for an ultra rare % every other week but they're also not burning time playing 10-minute platinums that they bought for $2 leading them to contemplate their purpose in life. I think these players are typically excellent tellers of an experience since they play a very wide variety of games. They'll know when a game is properly busting their gut or if an achievement is extremely doable if you put enough time into learning the mechanics. I trust them to tell it like it is. I imagine the vast majority of accounts fall into this category(based on zero scientific research) and without them, it'd be like living without the middle class. Gee, I sure hope that pool doesn't shrink and virtually evaporate in the coming years! The Artifex Mundi games really tanked me to borderline under 50%, but I really do enjoy them as puzzle games. Looks like I need to try harder! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted August 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 13, 2022 Game: Paradise Killer Analysis: I bought Paradise Killer a week ago when it was on sale for $13.99. Get your juice box and strap in since this is one of the most unique games I've covered yet! Why Paradise Killer? I have to give complete credit for my discovery of this game to a YouTube video. Occasionally, I'll watch random indie suggestion videos just to see if there's anything that's slipped my radar. A channel by the name of No Cap Gaming in early June released on for 15 Underrated Indie Games he'd recommend. I was familiar with a number of the titles he mentioned from Rain World to CrossCode. The moment he said "murder mystery", my attention was hooked. The fantasy of recapturing a fresh unforgettable experience like The Forgotten City materialized within me. To NoCap's credit, he did a very good job of keeping things vague without spoiling anything audibly or visually for the game. I added it to my wishlist and mentioned the game in passing in the Fake Gamers™ chat. Only @DrBloodmoney seemed to have heard about it. To my surprise, the game was a part of the August Summer Sale collection and I snatched at the opportunity to play it. My Spoiler-Free Suggestion / Analysis - I believe that if you 1) enjoy narrative games (The Forgotten City, Oxenfree, VA-11A HA-LLA, Afterparty, Life is Strange, David Cage games) and 2) have a healthy tolerance for eccentricities in your media, Paradise Killer is absolutely a worthwhile experience. What do I mean by those two qualifiers? 1) If you're heavy on the gameplay, PK does not have much to offer. It's an open-world murder mystery solvin' visual novel. You do move about the island, have some mild parkour elements of leaping to areas in order to investigate locations off the beaten path, but there's no combat OR anything deeper than that. You should determine whether or not your tastes allow a narrative of a game to float your entire enjoyment of a piece of media or not. The second qualifier applies more specifically to PK. You may enjoy visual novels, but if you like things to be grounded in reality without a need for a lot of background lore, I would NOT recommend Paradise Killer. There's a character that's a bloody red skeleton as seen in the title image above. He wears sunglasses. Do you enjoy that sorta thing or do you wish the story took place on earth as opposed to the absolutely banana circumstances of inter-dimensional immortal beings that this story takes place in? I will make one distinction. Tolerance for eccentricity is the key. NOT anime nonsense. They're very distinct. Lady Love Dies (main character, you play as her as the investigator) isn't going around UwU'ing with everyone and there isn't random pointless sexual tension. All of the characters in the game are very mature and their behaviors fall in line with their personalities. I personally really dug the colorful vaporwave aesthetic and got used to the freakishness of the characters and environments the more time I spent in it. I'll end my thoughts there as I really do think the game is best experienced with as little known information as possible. Go in blind and DO NOT bother to look at the trophies. If you make a save before the point of no return (VERY OBVIOUS), you can do everything needed as there are no missables. I'd love to see more people review the game as it's really underplayed on PlayStation with only 71 owners on PS4 and 229 owners on PS5. Now I'd love to absolutely gush and mildly critique the game for the next few thousand words. Journey below if you dare. SPOILERS BELOW. In case you're asking, NO that is not a voluptuous woman wearing a goat/ram mask, she was blessed by the gods, and her real head was replaced with that one to switch things up. An Overwhelming First Few Hours - As you venture onto the 24th Island created by the Syndicate, it's very likely that you're going to be overwhelmed by the amount the game throws at you with very little explanation. After briefly speaking to the Judge (an independent arbiter who will facilitate the trial and seeks truth and justice. It's also a super convenient way for the game to prevent you from running rampant with wild accusations and have no one in your wake to stop you), you're pretty much left to your own devices. You can hold L2 and see how far the various members of the Syndicate are scattered across the island OR you can explore freely and naturally and see what you stumble across first. You will be aided in your investigations by a tech gizmo by the name of Starlight who carries all of your notes and allows for the hacking of certain doors to obtain entry. You'll need to upgrade it by properly exploring and talking to certain individuals when necessary. Starlight contains all the details of the case, individual profiles for each person you interrogate, as well as each file pertaining to each case you're trying to solve. I was overwhelmed. Here's something that can reassure you. 1) The game is much simpler than it lets on. There isn't missable evidence OR keys/passwords you can lose forever. Hell, the trial for the finale is arguably too simple. Rest assured that you'll be able to investigate everything at your own pace with zero consequences for playing slowly. 2) There are no horror moments/jump scares. That may sound like an odd thing to mention but in a first-person perspective, knowing your role as investigator and flashing back to my Nancy Drew PC playing days, I was always on the edge of my seat that something, at some point, would leap out at me. That never happened. Still, areas like the "Dead Zone" are especially unnerving in close quarters. Meticulous Note Taking - Whenever I play a game I'm excited about, I like to take notes to document my thoughts as candidly as possible in a separate document. They're cliff notes and can sometimes help me structure what I'm going to talk about in a review. Paradise Killer is very unique in the sense I loved taking notes since I felt like an actual detective trying to crack the case. I wasn't writing down testimony from varying parties just because I thought it was funny or noteworthy, but because it would help me in the future for the inevitable key trials and try to deduce who I thought was guilty. My final word count for JUST my notes comes in at 4.8k. That would be my 7th longest review of All-Time to give you an idea. Was all this note-taking necessary? Not entirely, but I didn't want to meander through the game consuming all sorts of information without actually taking a moment to think about how the murders were carried out. Who did I think was in the clear? Who did I think was guilty as all hell? My lengthiest notes came from after my 1st day of playing for around 4 hours. Before I continued the 2nd day, I sorted through all the intel I had gathered the day prior and listed who I thought was the most suspicious to least suspicious. Having seen how everything played out, may I say I think I did PRETTY damn good. You can click on the spoiler at the bottom of the review to find my sincere convictions. I HIGHLY recommend this game to the rare few individuals still gaming who like to have pen-and-paper nearby! Collectibles Galore - Something you won't help but be able to stumble across as you play is all the crap the developers decided to stuff into the game in order to give you an incentive to explore the open world. I'll be frank. Most of it isn't good. While I appreciate Paradise Killer for being ambitious and trying out the potential benefits of an open-world mystery solver, I think there needs to be some more experimentation done in the laboratory if they decide to trot another one of these out in the future. Why do I say this? The game REALLY doesn't do a good job of stuffing the world. The platforming is fine even if your jump is a bit stiff. Here's a pro tip - SPEND 5 CRYSTALS AT EVERY FOOT BATH YOU COME ACROSS. Don't be a stiff like I was on my blind playthrough trying to hoarde them like a dragon. They expand your moveset (double jump, air dash, meditation for collectibles) and make traversal far better. Aside from that, you have "blood crystals" which are largely spent to buy secrets from Crimson Tide and... fast travel around the island with Lydia. Yea, you gotta explore in order to earn the right to fast travel! There's an obscene amount of pointless relics. I don't understand why these were implemented. They serve zero purpose and feel like something the devs decided to toss in just to make the world feel like there's more to collect than there really is. The music soundtracks and drink nebula's found are okay at best. There are some genuine key items scattered about the open landscape but most of the relics and even blood crystals have no purpose. (I had 40+ by the game's end with zero usage for them). I did enjoy the Shinji pop-ups (he's a demon left on the island whose sole purpose is to troll and converse with you) to be solid as he'd appear on some of the most absurd areas of the map where you didn't think the devs would even bother placing something there. Alright, I think I've buried the lede well enough. Time to get into the cases, my suspicions, and thoughts on each character. This is where the REAL SPOILERS enter overdrive, you've been warned. The Cases - The reason you have been called out of exile (after Lady Love Dies was tricked by a god) is due to the fact the Council governing the Syndicate have all been murdered. There were four hexes (unique barriers or protections in place with distinct methods in order to be bypassed) that were broken in order to carry out this heinous crime. The belief is that a criminal and citizen (normal folk who are only on the island to slave away for the gods which you and your fellow Syndicate members are trying to revive) by the name of Henry Division is responsible. You must first disprove what he has been accused of, peel away at each layer of the crime such as other murders/missing members as well as who broke each seal, before finally unveiling the culprit of the assassinations and the potential mass conspiracy to cover it up. It's a REALLY damn good hook to get you roped in. I may have used some terminology that could confuse a novice but as I said from the outset, once you take a moment to learn the backstory, connecting the dots isn't so bad. Before getting to who I accused by the end, let's cover each of their profiles. Yuri (pictured 1st) - Yuri is an asshole. While he may come across as charming to others according to Lydia, he does not hide his disdain for Lady Loves Dia frequently calling her the "investigation freak" and grows increasingly annoyed each time you question him. He's essentially Lydia's boss and helps assist Carmelina (the Architect) with her various duties. Unsurprisingly, I don't like people who are jerks to me! I was really surprised by how upfront he was about it. You'd think he'd be smart enough to try to schmooze with a detective but he's immediately antagonistic. Lots of people suspect him of having motives (potentially receiving his body and physique after being tricked by a god, something that hits close to home for you) as well as wanting a seat at the Council, a motion which had been denied previously. I'd almost argue the game was making it "too obvious" who they wanted you to think the bad guy was that as I was going through my notes, I couldn't help but meta game a bit and think "he's prolly guilty of something but he can't be THE bad guy they'd be making it way too easy." Henry (pictured 2nd) - Henry is the one accused of carrying out all of the crimes that occurred that required you to be summoned out of exile. He's a citizen. He's been possessed demonically (oh yea, demonic possession is a real thing in this universe. As I said, the game is eccentric!) over 10 years ago and suffers greatly because of it. He killed his mom after being possessed. His possession led to the island needing to be destroyed (or at least, plan the process for destruction). As a citizen, this meant he would be sacrificed as is done to all citizens during the destruction sequence of every island. Given his criminal history, it makes sense why he'd hate the Syndicate and Council and want to murder them. Yet... could he really break out of prison and get through all those seals on his own? Of course not. The game knows you know this. This would be the boldest murder mystery solving game of All-Time if the person accused at the start was the one who actually did it after you carried out all of your investigations! Unsurprisingly, Henry hates you, curses the most of any character, hates the Syndicate, and is generally uncooperative with your investigation given his present circumstance. I mean... can you blame him? In the end, he's a victim in all of this. Sam / Lydia (pictured 3rd and 5th) - Sam and Lydia are the only two characters that are always associated with as together. They're a couple. A pair of ex-assassins who fell in love and are your long-time friends (before your exile, of course). Sam is a super chill bartender and the first character I interrogated during the game. I expected to dislike him due to his character design but was quickly swung by his chillness and sincerity. Lydia is very friendly and her soothing "Let's go for a drive LD" every time you offer to hang out with her is delightful. I'll admit, I thought it was odd that in Starlight's notes they were always paired together. Crimson Tide (Island gossiper) mentioned how "love is never that simple". I thought there was potentially going to be some backstabbing or affair shenanigans between them that would really shake things up. That never occurred. Rather, they're inextricably linked to one another. Despite being one of your best friends, I'll be upfront and say there's a LOT of concerning evidence you find regarding Lydia's whereabouts (tire tracks, tossed tablets, suspicious items) along with Sam slipping up during questioning along with having some very questionable items in his possession. (The man had god flesh in a box for crying out loud!) I suppose the real question is... would you, as the investigator, pursue this truth even deeper knowing their potential execution was guaranteed if it were found true they engaged in nefarious activities? OR would you scrutinize other leads with less friendly individuals more intensely? Take a guess of where I leaned and then read the final paragraph of this section. Akiko (pictured 4th) - I'll come right out with it and say that I thought Akiko was hot! She's the Grand Marshall and the one in charge of security on the island. She was the one who allegedly let Henry Division escape on her watch. She's an IMMENSE jerk to Lady Love Dies and frequently curses her out in a foreign undiscernible language yet the insult "nenorocito" is permanently engraved in my skull with how much you'll hear her repeat it. She thinks you're an idiot for investigating and that the murderer is obviously Henry. Of course, the more you between to line up her testimony with the actual events that transpired, you begin to see time and time again that Akiko is actually kind of... awful at her job. She breaks procedure multiple times. She got caught getting lazy or overly confident while committing conspiracy, and unsurprisingly, this all catches up with her when you expose her for all of her shortcomings. She's a very sympathetic character to be honest. Her reasons for doing what she did are somewhat noble when you consider how much she cares for her marshalls (who are loyal to her to the point of death) By the time the final trial ended, of all the people executed, I felt worst for having to kill her amongst everybody else. Carmelina (pictured 6th) - Oh Carmelina. I don't know what it was about her design but something from the very outset of the game made me suspicious of her. She's the architect. She designs the islands that the Syndicate depends upon and was nominated the temporary leader according to the Judge despite the fact she is not eligible to apply for the Council due to a sin her committed father that led to his execution and for all eternity banished all of his offspring from ever holding office. She's terse towards Lady Love Dies and is also convinced Henry bears the sole responsibility for the crime that took place. When I did my analysis of the facts I had gathered thus far, she was the #1 suspect at the top of my list. My suspicions were DEAD ON! I just felt that her holding resentment towards the council out of being denied a seat despite all she does for the construction of these elaborate islands was too strong. I'll admit, my first time through the trial, I did not unveil the full scale of her sins and when I discovered just how deep it went, I got chills down my spine. (Seriously, that's not me exaggerating) Crimson (pictured in above section) - Crimson is arguably the biggest loner of the entire bunch featured here. She retails in gossip and secrets. You can pay her in blood crystals for why other Syndicate members would have motives to kill the council. The most sketchy thing in her entire background is all the evidence found at K. HX's (Council member who disappeared)'s house. She admits that she started a fake relationship with him to string him along and learn key information regarding one of the seals he helped create. I think that's a pretty reprehensible thing to do. But maybe in the grand scheme not as bad as some of the other transgressions committed by this lot. You discover she had a brief flirtation with LD. You can either leave it in the past or rekindle that old flame. While I found myself disliking her for divulging all of this juicy info, I am mildly sympathetic to the fact she's been relegated as the poster child of the Syndicate (seen in all the propaganda scattered about the island) whereas she'd really like a role back in the trenches. For whatever reason, I was not all that suspicious of her in terms of the murders and ultimately she's arguably the 2nd most helpful person on the entire island when it comes to facilitating your investigations. Doom Jazz (pictured 7th) - Ah Doom Jazz. The man with prosthetic arms and a mohawk so ridiculous it almost distracts you away from his evident cum gutters. Doom Jazz is the DOCTOR of the island. You read that correctly. When you're in pain or your life is at stake, you're coming to THIS GUY to save your soul from perishing. He is one of the rare few characters actually friendly to LD. This may be because they kind of had a thing in the past. You can actually end up banging him during the investigation phase after he makes many flirtations towards you during questioning. I'm about 99% sure that breaks SOME legal protocol out there but thankfully he and the Judge aren't a snitch about it. Sadly, his love for you does not mean he's exclusive. He has a picture of Akiko on his boat and he was evidently in a relationship with her. He's also banged Crimson and done it with many citizens who've passed the islands throughout the thousands of years. He's very relaxed and doesn't get too fussed despite his surprisingly sad backstory. The problem for me is Doom is largely a nothing character. While he offers some key expertise here and there during the trial, in terms of actual relevance to the crime, Doom's arguably the most forgettable character in the entire game. It makes sense that not ALL characters had sizable amounts of evidence against them but I think there was more that could have been done with him as a character. Witness (pictured 8th) - Witness is the religious fanatic of the group. If being the gold version of Sam was any giveaway, the man is VERY devoted to the cause of reviving the old dead gods and is not a fan of some of the secular and personal goals of so many who made up the council. As a member, he oversees the safe and orderly destruction of the islands before moving on to the next. Given his zeal, it's unsurprising for me to state that I was highly suspicious of him. Particularly due to one key piece of evidence. His phone records showed that he dialed a number for a brief one second on the night of the murder before hanging up. For whatever reason, I was REALLY obsessed with the nugget of information during all of my investigating. As it turns out, when I finally made my way into the fourth chamber and found all the diseased bodies of the Council, I discovered a gigantic killer demon that had been unhatched from a box entrapment. After some savvy deducing, it was revealed that the number dialed from Witness was the one used to unhatch the containment. I was on the money AGAIN baby!!! My Accusations During the Trials - While I've revealed some of the key case information in the above profiles, as I stated earlier, there are MANY cases you must solve while eventually arriving to "The Crime to End All Crimes". I have to give the game huge props for making the climax feel significant with how weighty the consequences of these trials would be. Let's go through all of them! 1) Henry's Escape - I accused Akiko. The only other legitimate option was Witness and his 3 pieces of evidence felt lackadaisical to the overwhelming 7 pieces found against Akiko. My assumption was correct and she WAS guilty. She let him break free due to being recruited by Carmelina for her cause. She was promised that her Marshalls would attain immortality as opposed to having to be slain at the end of the destruction of each island. Sorry that you felt so desperate to go along with her plan, nenorocito. 2) Henry's Demonic Possession - I accused Yuri. Henry had stated he received the books on demonology from a mysterious figure. Library logs showed Yuri checking out classified documents from 10 years. He was GUILTY. Hilariously, Yuri had ALSO been recruited by Carmelina. I loved how quick they were to throw each other under the bus. 3) Murder of Grace Bloodlines - I accused Akiko. I actually haven't brought up Grace (or "One Last Kiss") as her fancy title would have her known. She was the island exorcist and taken out 10 years ago by Henry. Suspiciously, how exactly did a citizen kill her by surprise? Well, due to Akiko breaking protocol of course. Yet... Henry didn't complete the murder. So who was it? Well, this was the first time I actually accused the "wrong" person. While Akiko did provide the opportunity window for murder, it was in fact Carmelina (as signified by wedding ring imprints found on the strangulation of Grace) that did the killing. BOTH Y'ALL GUILTY! 4) Who Killed the Holy Seal Marshalls? - I accused Akiko. This is essentially the 1st seal of protection to the Council that was broken. While there was HELLA evidence against Lydia, I picked Akiko since I wasn't gonna throw my ferry gal pal under the bus. It ended up proving true, and the reason why it was so obvious was she swapped out these elite marshalls for prisoners as she knew when the plot of the murder for the Council would go down. Got sloppy there Akiko! 5) H. HX Is Missing - I accused Yuri. The Council member had actually been murdered at his home and thrown off a cliff. His body was found at the bottom of the sandy shore. While there was plenty of evidence against Crimson, I thought it was moreso due to their previous relationship. I accused Yuri since a literal ring of his was found in K. HX's grasps in his hand and he suspiciously ordered the boats closed early (these boats would have seen the body). He ended up admitting to it and conceded it was unintended. GOTTEM AGAIN BOY! 6) The Second Seal - I accused Yuri. While there was once again a crap ton of info against Lydia, why would I accuse her when Yuri slipped under questioning and also had a space helmet with his pink petals near the entrance? He admitted to it but did NOT divulge additional info which... would prove costly for me later. 7) Who opened the Third Seal? - I accused Henry. I'll admit, this makes me look like an idiot. I meant that Henry was manipulated by Yuri to get through or something but the game was like: "no you're stupid Yuri just admitted to it, next trial." Whoops. 8) Who breached the Fourth Seal? - I accused Witness. Okay, this is where my lackluster investigating (or missing a VERY key room in the exploration phase) proved costly. I know he had god flesh from Crying Grudge. I know I found his demon create in the room where the council was murdered. It's gotta be him, yea? But his alibi was airtight and backed up by his logs. Without breaking that, the Judge overturned my ruling and found Henry guilty. 9) The Mystery of the Dead Killer Demon - I accused Witness. After my previous botch-up, this was a slam dunk given the crate phone # as well as the secret bunker he had dedicated to demon experimentation that he outright denied when I questioned him. 10) The Crime to End All Crimes - I accused Killer Demon. The Judge was very clear he was not interested in the mastermind, just who did the killing. With the clear giant claws of the demon, it seemed obvious who had taken everybody in the room out and I had little trouble providing the necessary evidence. From here, I was able to unveil two grand conspiracies. Witness' Conspiracy and Carmelina's Conspiracy. Each of them plotted to kill the council. Witness due to them going astray from their holy mission and Carmelina out of jealousy and a desire for more power for being so integral as the architect of the island that she recruited Yuri and Akiko to her cause. By its end, I felt satisfied with the outcome and sufficiently eliminated 4 guilty Syndicate members (and sadly citizen Henry) from our ranks. I don't think I did a good enough job in the prior section of stating how much I thoroughly enjoyed the investigation/deduction phase of the case and the severeness of the trials. With that said, here are some more negatives of the game in my mind The Inhereit Flaw of An Open World Mystery Game - I am not someone who hates open worlds. I do NOT think they are a "chore" and neither am I "burnt out" on them as many of the gaming public online seem to be. I tend to enjoy them. Hell, I was enthralled by the idea of one after watching a single reviewer explain it in a bitesized format. Having played Paradise Killer, I now recognize there is a few key flaw here. Running out of things to do. This game will have your head spinning for the first few hours interrogating each person, exploring new areas, scooping up collectibles, discovering new evidence, etc... but eventually, the game runs dry of content. This KILLS the pacing. You'll have talked every last bit of dialogue out of everyone. You'll be confused what to do next after gathering the last few collectibles in a region. Yet you still have a few random leads... but don't know where to go? This happened to me on three egregious occasions. The first time was when I did NOT discover the beach obelisk revealing the code for the 2nd seal. I don't know how I didn't. I passed through there so many times yet... never did. I had done SO much up to that point that the flood of new info after crossing over and finding the 3rd and 4th seals was overwhelming. The second was when at the VERY end of the game, right was I was wrapping things up, I discovered the Ziggurats. THAT'S RIGHT! I played for 12 bloody hours and DID NOT FIND "One Last Kiss" for the 2nd until the VERY end. I only remembered her after seeing her name pop up under the potential leads. It was both hilarious and a bit upsetting that she vomitted a bunch of information at me that I ALREADY knew since she was supposed to be the "helping hand" of Lady Love Dies for the investigation and I ignored her for the vast majority of it. The third, and arguably most hilarious time was post-trial, I went back to One Last Kiss, and curiously, after being so distracted by the STUPIDY BLOODY STARLIGHT SKIN AT THE TOP OF THE ZIGGURAT THAT TOOK ME 40 JUMP ATTEMPTS TO REACH... discovered a weird, pink spot in the ground. What was that? OOOOOH THAT's what the power gloves were for. WHAT? A DEAD BODY? LADY LOVE WIMPS OUT A PATHETIC: "Sheesh I really should have investigated this before the trial" and I just started laughing. THIS WAS THE BLOOD FOUND IN THE COUNCIL ROOM UNDOUBTEDLY. I reload my save from pre-trial and discover the enitre background of Dainonigate, Carmelina's trans-dimensional coordiors, how this shatters her alibi and so forth. I burst out laughing. Just missing this little CRUCIAL room of investigation let to so much not being revealed at the trial. I still convicted all the right people but damn man... is that a good or bad thing foe the open world mystery solving genre? I guess I'll let you decide. Problems With Character Interactions - One of the biggest immersion breaking elements in Paradise Killer for me was the fact that despite the fact you can present some ridiculously inflammatory accusations directly to various Syndicate members during your investigation, none of them end up so flustered that they completely stop talking to you OR decide to throw hands for presenting evidence so up frontly. I'll be completely honest. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SOLVE THIS. I don't think it would be fun to have a character complete shutdown on you questioning them. But I also don't think it's very good when I straight up call Akiko a liar to her face and expose all her lies directly in front of her, she threatens me with death, and in the very next second I can "hang out" with her to make our relationship grow a little bit closer. I'm almost positive the develoeprs know of this issue and like myself, didn't know how to resolve it and thus opted for the lesser evil of slightly taking the player out of the experience rather than permanently punishing one and leading to inevitably save scumming amongst most of the player base. Obviously Limited Budget - Paradise Killer has voice acting. It's just... not very present for 90% of the dialogue. Characters in Paradise Killer speak more like pokemon than they do like people. They'll repeat certain phrases over and over again and ever so rarely actually say the line of dialogue that's presented on the screen. I have LD's bewildered "Paradise feels... wrong." imprinted on my skull with how much she repeated it during the trial. I understand given how much dialogue that the small development team out of the United Kingdom could only do so much but it really feels like full voice acting could have carried the game over to another level. I enjoyed the voices for the majority of characters and would have loved hearing their full performances. Apart from that, some of the menues feel a bit unpolished, the platforming isn't the greatest and while it never happened to me on my playthrough, there is a "Respawn Investigator" button on the d-pad which indicates getting stuck in the terrain due to some unfortunate movement isn't completely unexpected. I also found it glaring that the trial process was remarkably basic. Aside from choosing who you think did the crime, there's not a lot of argumentative or reasoning mechanics. It's just present the evidence you found and that's pretty much it. I'm not going to say that I expected some fully blown Ace Attorney or Danganronpa-tier depth but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting something more from the climax of the game from a mechnical standpoint. Not A Great Ending - I think you could tie this paragraph in with the previous. The ending of the game is just a bit... odd. After the trial, regardless of who you find guilty and who you find innocent, you can still "execute justice" as indicated by the Judge and outright kill the remaining surviving Syndicate members extrajudiciously in the most completely casual way possible. I'm not sure what the intended purpose of this is. I would have felt genuinely awful just straight up murdering my friends Sam & Lydia just after they survived a life or death trial all because... what? To give the player the choice anyway? That's some Undertale sh!t. The actual ending after leaving the island is purposefully left open ended and it's just Shinji going: "man I sure wish LD I hope sure did things correctly and is happy with her choices." before fading to black. What the hell were all those bar transitions to the Perfect 25th Island? Why did LD's former husband, Isiah, get brought up and left off without any further explanation? Is this leaving the potential open to a sequel? I just would have preferred a bit more on this front such as "True Ending" and I say this as someone who generally doesn't let endings bother them too much from the overall journey in order to get here. Would I recommend Paradise Killer? Yes! As stated from the beginning, if you like narratives/mysteries and don't mind a story carrying the experience over gameplay AND can handle some wackiness in your games, I think you can have a good time with this one! Upon reflection, I feel like I came off overly negative in this review for the relatively high score I'm going to give the game. It's not The Forgotten City. But it's still one of the most memorable games I've played this year and one that'll likely stick with me long-term. I played it completely blind and did not look up other playthroughs or experiences until the platinum popped and this review was completely finalized. I LOVED the sense of discovery while going through each layer of the mystery and really try to hammer out the motives of each character. I'd love to see more games from the studio and I really think Kaizen Game Works has big potential going forward. The platinum is very straightforward and aside from some extremely annoying platforming needed for one specific collectible, I earned the 46.12% rarity platinum in 3 days and 23 hours without much of a hiccup! I'd also like to throw out a few recommendations and say I'd absolutely love to devour reviews by @rjkclarke and @YaManSmevz of this game if they dare venture into these waters. That's all for now, see ya! Panda Score: 7.84 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 2.7 / 10 (entire 0.5 added due to that stupid Ziggurat jump) Spoiler Game: Paradise Killer Date: August 5th, 2022 I am SUPER excited to start this!!! Game I had on my radar from a random one off indie YouTube channel recommendation and that’s all I needed to hear. I have refused to look at the trophies and will enter it 1000% blind. If I hate it, maybe I’ll change course. This is a real shot in the dark by me and who knows if it can even scratch a teensy bit of the mystery solver elements found in The Forgotten City Booted it up, menu seems kinda cheap but hella accessibility options which is cool No auto save. Hmm. We play as Lady Loves Dies. She’s been here 3M+ days. That’s… a LONG time Shinji seems aight for a demon. Lol that 1st deciphering puzzle with Starlight was hilariously easy, should get way more complex later That proper intro dropping onto the island was cool MURDERED: Entire council at midnight I imagine each of these lil gold containers in the Judge’s room is where each member of the island will stand during the trial. 4 on each side. That means 8 islanders… is Lydia included in that? Judge just said themselves (scrubbed of ego) and us are the only ones who for sure didn’t do it. I am gonna be REALLY mad if that’s a lie lol Welp we just met “One Last Kiss”. Fell off a waterfall while trying to parkour for a crystal, now I just met “Sam Day Break” who used to be one HELL of a murderer before falling in love with Lydia. Yea there’s no way this dude is the subject tho I imagine the “did he return to his old killing ways?” Will be a semi thought explored His alibi will be confirmed by security gates - let’s remember that Okay I honestly really enjoyed talking to Sam. Cool dude man! WE JUST FOUND A SEVERED ARM ON THE BEACH WHAT Lydia suspects Yuri and Carmelina… Apparently Yuri is charming,… but it’s all a front. We’ll see about that. Think upgrading our relationship with her got us new intel on Yuri (getting buffed by a god) Ay we just finally found Crimson Acid after she called us up.. she got B O O B I E S She has no alibi just hanging out at her place… that’s a MOOD Ayyyy knew it’d take 10 blood crystals to get the Cosmos upgrade, glad I saved up! Aight we managed to raise a bridge, Marshall Guard was useless and now we’re on Desolation Island. Let’s talk to jerk Akiko Akiko is a hardass security/soldier type. She’s very critical of us. Super narrow minded to think it’s Henry and that’s it. She doesn’t recognize Starlight showing how the bars Henry saying “WHO THE F*** IS THAT?” To all the alibis is brilliant Wassup Yuri… rather than being charming with the investigator he’s antagonistic and calling us a freak. Must believe he’s above us. Yea he’s accusing Crimson and I just don’t see it. Damn we managed to strong arm his phone outta him! Damn we finally found how to get to Carmelina and she’s cute man! Okay I honestly found it pretty hard to get a read on her. She’s a bit snide, but that motive of wanting prestige for all her hard work… that’s a PRETTY damn good one man. Timeframe is impossible from Henry to the penthouse hmmmm OOOOOOH the actual Marshalls weren’t there… they’re swapped out Just got to the space section… there’s a BIRD, SNAKE, BULL, & SCHOLAR LYDIA JUST GOT HELLA SUS. Tire tracks on the roof of the council building. Her busted knife by the shore (falls in line with nicks on the murdered fake guards). Finally found Doom Jazz chilling on his boat Damn Jazz is HEAVY on his hots for Lady Love… I played along a bit and now he’s giving up info on Witness Finally found Witness! He seems like a golden version of Sam… Aight Witness is a bit… mental. Holier than thou attitude. Don’t quite know what to make of him either to be honest. Found K. HX’s home and this dude was OBSESSED with Crimson Damn he’s dead… killed off and thrown off the cliff by his home DAMN! We got the pyramids upgrade from helping the ghost up here with a collectible I found earlier, awesome! HMMMMMM got the comms tower to unlock and Yuri’s phone went dark for 10 minutes. CURIOUS, ISN’T IT? LYDIA’S TABLET???? WHY IS THIS GIRL SO DAMN SHADY????? SPACE HELMET SMELLS LIKE LYDIA????? BRUH Circled back and questioning Crimson again with a fresher perspective HMMMM… Crimson gave us intel for 1 crystal on Lydia/Sam’s final assassin job in Europe. Okay I just interrogated Lydia… she wasn’t happy about it. I don’t think she’s the killer? But it’s BIZARRE there’s SOOO much evidence pointing to her from the knife to space helmet End of Day 1 playing - earned 7/40 of trophies, pretty damn good. SUPER intrigued by the mystery even if it’s a lot of lore and information to handle all at once DAY 2 OF PLAYING ANALYZE ALL THE FACTS AND DETERMINE INCLINATIONS, WTD NEXT Okay I’m back and in order to determine what to do next - let’s SERIOUSLY analyze the facts we have up to this point and figure out what’s up GRAND MARSHAL AKIKO - She’s a jerk to Lady Love. She REFUSED to give up her phone. She took care of Henry on her own and broke procedure out of hubris. Her alibi breaker is that she phoned Witness as she left the desolation cell, yet Witness phone records indicate she was actually at Syndicate HQ. She LIED. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - Her difficulty and blindness and insistence on it being Henry is a bit… extreme. She dislikes us. But just because she’s a prick to us personally doesn’t mean she’s guilty. She kinda lacks a motive. SHOULD circle back and question her some more even if I think it’ll be unproductive) HENRY DIVISION - He has all the motives in the world. His demon possession, his testimony and being a citizen despising the syndicate. His criminal past. His alibi is despite a foggy memory, he remembers “New Night”. His amnesia is caused by demonic possession. His Albi breaker is that he does NOT appear in the Syndicate HQ logs. Of course, we did find the rappelling up the side of the building which is hella sus and implicates some help. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - It’s clear Henry was used by others as an obvious cover-up. Many syndicate members have BOUGHT IT hook, line, and sinker. But even though I’m meta-gaming, there’s simply NO WAY that the case is this straightforward. He’s guilty of some stuff undoubtedly and a victim at the same time.) CARMELINA SLICE - She’s the architect of the island sequences. Lydia gives us a possible motive as she’s the temporary leader given the murder of the council, yet she’ll be removed for her dad’s crimes. Is she perhaps jealous or envious that she won’t receive proper credit? Her alibi is that she stayed with Witness at his apartment. They watched the end of the island together. The logs confirm she entered at 20:58, and exited with Witness at 00:18. (Post-midnight murders). This all checks out. She has no alibi breakers. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - For whatever reason, I think she’s freakiing SUS as HELL man. Envy is such a great reason to murder those with more power than you. Her alibi seems pretty damn open and shut but I think there’s way more than she’s letting on). LYDIA AND SAM DAY BREAK - One, it’s kinda sus that they’re combined together like this. I know they’re a couple but damn. Kinda makes me wonder if there’ll be a plot twist where they… separate. Crimson pointed out that their final assassin job to buy their freedom was forcing a regime change in Europe. They helped topple a government. They could do it again. Kinda meh motive but hey. Their alibi as confirmed by Yuri, herself, and Sam is that Yuri instructed Lydia to take Sam off the island at 23:40. Waited for gate to warm up. Sequence stopped by judge after the murders. No alibi breakers, but it’s BIZARRE we have the tire marks, random knife (could be murder weapon with jagged edges of Marshall guards), and astronaut helmet that smells like her perfume. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - Def something sus going on here. If I had to hypothesize, if she offers trips to all around the island, it’s not unreasonable someone could have stolen her trust knife from her car while in transit and used her a possible false flag to distract from their machinations. Do I think they did? Honestly… 80% that they didn’t. But… can’t say for certain.) CRIMSON ACID - Yuri’s testimony suggests that as she’s in the business of keeping secrets, he’s kept his eye on her and thinks she’d want to hide her own. Crimson knows that her secret trading emporium would be shut down on the next island. Monserrat was tightening control. She was used as a prop but the syndicate. Good motive? Her alibi is that she in her room by herself when she was summoned by the judge, hence no alibi. She has still some hella sus stuff going on with the deceased K. HX of going to his room, staining him along, tryna get details on the 2nd seal requirements. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - She’s relatively unlikable but I don’t think she’s the killer man… she definitely has the means and the cut throatiness to carry it out and her lack of an alibi is VERY real but I just don’t see it) WITNESS - His motives included Doom Jazz’s analysis of increased paranoia and secrecy. His medical report shows he suffers from “Death Scream Trauma” and he may take this as a sign of anger from the Gods. On the other hand, his alibi is pretty damn strong. He dialed a random number and the other side picked up for under a second. Didn’t mention it in his testimony. (MY THEORY - It’s a red herring or an alert to carry out some plan of some kind). His alibi does match with the phone records and logs. His testimony is accurate with that of when Carmelina arrived. He stepped out for a call with Akiko curiously AWAY from Carmelina. His apartment logs backup his story. His alibis verified by the comms tower. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - If I had to guess the killers, I’d go with a corroboration involving Carmelina and Witness. I know their alibi seem pretty tight but this is an anime game. His “holier than thou” attitude is hella sus. That random call is DEF what’s tipping me off. It was to a phone not even registered in the books oddly enough. DOCTOR DOOM JAZZ - His testimony is that he was in his clinic all night until summoned by Akiko. The Syndicate HQ logs show he did not leave his clinic by the main door until summoned baby the judge, BUT his alibi could be broken by the fact his backdoor computer is broken and provides an exit for him not covered by logs. He kinda dismissed this as not knowing it was broken. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - There’s def more to his story aside from being flirty with Lady Love. Could he have been the one Witness dialed to carry out part of the operation of killings that took place? He very much isn’t in the clear in my book. YURI NIGHT - He has SO MANY motives. Lydia said he’s been suspicious after potentially receiving his body from Enchanted Blue. He requested to join the council. He was denied. By unanimous vote. He became violent. Had to be restrained. His alibi is that he called Lydia, his phone calls show he made the last call at 23:43, but there’s a gap of 10 minutes in the records. His alibi breaker shows that she phoned him while she was at Paradise Gates but couldn’t get through. (MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - He is by far who the game is tryna put the blame on. He has all the motive in the universe, is a complete ass, and has the most direct evidence going against him in terms of when he could have acted. But… is the game gonna be that obvious? I don’t think so. Sorry to meta game. He’s involved SOME crime undoubtedly but to think this was a solo operation by him is a stretch in my mind. In terms of suspicion rankings: Carmelina, 2) Witness, 3) Doom Jazz, 4) Yuri, 5) Lydia/Sam, 6) Crimson, 7) Akiko, 8) Henry In terms of the individual crimes: The Crime to End All Crimes - 4 pieces of evidence point to Henry. The murder weapon, demonic possession, and victim’s blood on his stomach. No one else has any evidence on them as a suspect. Again, really don’t think it’s this cute and dry. I lean Carmelina/Witness, though Lydia, Yuri, Doom Jazz, etc.. are all potential threats. K. HX is Missing - 1 piece of evidence against Akiko as her necklace was found in his workshop broken. It was found alongside an order form for a repair. I honestly think this is pretty innocuous and easy to explain away. A shocking SIX (6) pieces of evidence are present against Crimson. An unsent letter to Crimson fro K. HX accusing her of using him to find the secret of the Holy Seal and with the key missing, he was gonna tell Monserrat. K. HX’s obsession with Crimson. Crimson said she cultivated a relationship to get a secret out of him. His body being found at the bottom of a cliff with drag marks from his workshop. The tuft of goat hair found in his residence. Finally, his long obsessive rambling diary. After her, we have 3 pieces of evidence against Yuri. His body at the bottom of the cliff. Yuri shut down the boat trips that would have allowed people top see the body. Could he have plotted this? The ornate gaudy ring found gripped in his fist. We were able to confirm via Lydia that this was Yuri’s ring. No one else has any evidence against them. I DEFINITELY THINK Yuri did something nefarious here. Crimson is… manipulative and awful but, killing him? I don’t think so. Henry’s Escape - 5 pieces of evidence against Akiko. The torn apart prison bars appear to be done with military grade explosives, NOT demonic strength. The timeframe for the crime is impossible. The distance is too great. The barracks tunnel access to the desolation cell is only coded in Akiko’s blood vial. She broke procedure. Finally, she alleges that the inhibitors used to sedate Henry were tricked by the demon inside him. 4 pieces of evidence point to Henry with the murder weapon, Aikido’s knife, testimony, and victim’s blood. 1x evidence points to Witness as he previously asked if anything could overcome Henry’s inhibitors. Doom Jazz informed him he’d need a massive adrenaline spike. Finally, 1x piece of evidence points to an unknown suspect. Henry says that he was agitated before his escape, it made the demon inside him writhe. What caused this? HONESTLY - I think Witness is mad sus here. Akiko goofed but I don’t think it was on purpose. Henry’s Demonic Possession - 10 years ago ( a decade) he got possessed and killed his mom, apartment turned into “Dead Zone”. We SHOULD investigate that. 2 pieces of evidence post to Henry (previous rituals + school report). 2x evidence points to Yuri as record libraries show he accessed restricted vaults and Henry says someone gave him a book on demonology. Think this could EASILY be Yuri manipulating the citizens as he sees fit to complete his objective and ascension through the ranks. Who Killed The Holy Seal Marshalls? - 2x evidence against Akiko. The blood was mismatched and does not line up with the Marshalls on record. Who was really guarding the building? Marshalls are assigned by akin. She also denied body examination to Doom Jazz to honor their memory. Kinda… DAMN MAN IS AKIKO FREAKING TERRIBLE AT HER JOB GOOD LORD SO MUCH INCOMPETENCE. 2x evidence against Henry as they were killed by a blood, Akiko says it was Henry with her knife. Symbols in blood she demonic marks drawn. Same marks as Henry. Curiously, 3x evidence against Lydia. Her knife found outside the council building. Minor damage. Nicks on it. Lydia claims it disappeared one day. Tyre marks found on the top of the building. She claims it was from a few weeks ago to see the sunset. You could gain access to the building without going through the front door. Finally rappelling gear on top of the building… to bypass the guards? (THOUGHTS - It’s so weird how much stuff is against Lydia but… I don’t think so.) Why would she? The Second Holy Seal - 1x evidence against Henry with Shinji’s testimony suggesting demon could feel it out as they’re attuned to space. 2x evidence against Lydia with the space helmet that smells like her perfume only made by her AND the tablet found water damaged with a corrupted message from Witness with a data key to the nightmare computer that controls the obelisks on the beach. 1x evidence against Yuri as we found a discarded soap helmet with pink petals like that which he wears on his hat. I uhh… kinda have no idea with this one man. Seriously. Need more facts. At the time of writing, I have 10 key items (Blood vial, starlight, blood sample, creased employee card, severed arm, vampire report, customized space helmet, locker code, protest letter, & crane system unlock card). I have 2 upgrades (visions of cosmos and pyramids). I have 62 reclines in total which I refuse to list individually. Gong through the “Population” tab - Eyes Kiwami suicide is kinda odd. Saved Doom Jazz. Unknown why he did it. WAIT!!!! THERE’S 5 MORE CHARACTERS ON ISLAND 25??? ISIAH BULLET OUR EX-HUSBAND? NICOLINA ROSE, JAHEEM FORTUNE, MADAM COMPLEX, AND BALTHAZAR TEARS???? Possible Leads and Areas to Focus On Now: 4th holy seal is a mystery, 3rd one can only be accessed after I get past the 2nd with that random order, the starlight upgrade in the vending machine by the warehouse OOOOOH YEA ONE LAST KISS LMAO I FORGOT ABOUT HER COMPLETELY I need to confirm the paradise gate logs to see if Lydia/Sam’s alibi sreally true. Need to speak to Sam about Yuri according to Lydia. “If the Marshall were body swapped, the bodies must have come from somewhere close by.” Hmmmm I should visit the barracks to confirm Aikido’s story. New Night’s statue is also by there. I still need to search for a gem from a ghost. It’s in a park near the apartments. I need to visit the dead zone. Gotta figure out more about Doom Jazz’s back door (LMAO) Return the corruption evidence that the ghost told me about. Okie dokie I think I’m all caught up, love playing detective man, let’s keep investigating! We just went to Paradise Gates after fast traveling and found a device pointed at Henry’s cell. It’s a device that directs aural frequencies at the target. Used in riot control and wartime. Could this have been the shock that probed Henry’s adrenaline? OOOOH DOCTOR DOOM JAZZ? AN AUDIO SNIPER RIFLE? YOU GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO The logs at the gate contain multiple entries from Lydia, 23:56 shows Lydia and Sam arriving. Their blood vitals were authenticated. 00:06 is when the sequence was sealed by Judge. They’ve got a DAMN solid alibi though that sound machine being right by this gate COULD mean Lydia arrived and shot it at Henry, provoking his adrenaline rush to escape. Oh neat the fast travel point here is free and does not cost a blood crystal! Wow we needed the Pyramids on the Starlight to access the Dead Zone, fair enough HIDDEN DEMONOLOGY BUNKER IN THE DEAD ZONE? ACCESS CODES BY CARMELINA AND WITNESS, IM TELLING YOU MAN THIS WAS PLANNED BY THEM TWO Damn for the first time Lady Love mentions Isiah…. What is with all these transitions to “The Way of Blood Bar” on the 25th island? MY BOY SAMMY WHY YOU UP TO SHADY BUSINESS DOG Someone CLEARLY came into the Dead Zone to destroy evidence… hmm… It’s a hatch found in Citizen Housing… hmm.. WOW WE NEED WORSHIP SOFTWARE TO ACCESS THE COMPUTER? DAYUM The other one is do a bee without it… just pyramids needed Lump non-human flesh inside…. What the heck Sam and Lydia? YO SAM WHY YOU GOING TO THE DEAD ZONE BRUV? LETS HAVE A CHAT Alirghtie that convo didn’t unveil much except more testimony against Yuri which both him and Lydia have levied against him Found some dog treats in the supermarket, how is that a key item? We returned the protect letter to the ghost, YOOOO WE GOT THE CALL FROM DARK NEBULA! LETS GO GET THAT WAREHOUSE UPGRADE! Okay I fast traveled to the farms, let’s get this upgrade so I can get into Sam’s safe! AYYYY WE GOT IT! AWESOME! Teleported back to Sam’s and unlocked his safe which was hella east. Earned a pair of pile bunker gauntlets. HMMM ONE CHARGE LEFT IN THEM? WAS THIS WHAT WAS USED TO BREAK THE FENCE????? OOOOOH WOW WE JUST USED 5 CRYSTALS ON A FOOT BATH AND NOW MYSTERIES ARE REVEALED, THATS AWESOME WE JUST FOUND A SHIBA INU, Bear-Chan! That’s what the dog treats were for! We gave the lost stone back to the ghost after finding it. Refused to sell it for 2 blood crystals We showed Yuri the evidence of the ornate ring and he dismissed his odd early shutdown of the boats over “security worries”. He alleges the reality folding drive may have disrupted communications. Why didn’t it affect other phone records going dark? WE FINALLY MADE OUR WAY TO THE BARRACKS! Frigging impossible to get here for me lol Alright time to go back to Akiko as we were denied entry Wow we actually bonded with Akiko a little and she let us know her Marshalls have seen Lydia and Sam around the farm. Now it’s time to GRILL HER OVER HER LIES Okay she just completely dismissed the fact the blood isn’t of the Marshalls lol Akiko’s phone did NOT experience a blackout… VERY SUS YURI So Doom lied about his backdoor being out of commission… LOL Henry just told us to get bent over asking for his locker code We paid 3 blood crystals to get dirt… Captain Voth and Akiko are in a relationship. DAMN THATS SOME JUICY TESTIMONY. He wasn’t murdered though. Curious… INTERESTING WITNESS GROWING TO HATE MONSERRAT HMMMMMMM Wow… CRIMSON GOT ALL THE DEETS. Doom jazz’s father was killed basically because of Monserrat’s incompetence. Damn we also got motives by Carmelina and Akiko. The prior going into exile for 25 years and later seeing her soldiers die over and over. Crimson really is a baller with her secrets. I’m down to 9 blood crystals lol She advised us to get into the barracks to try and find Voth… GOOD CALL CRIMSON! Damn Doom got a phot of Akiko? And he don’t got nothing to say on it? Aight bud. Let’s go and investigate the pyramid now that have the necessary computer software OH WOW WE JUST MET CRYING GRUDGE! YOOOO THE HIDDEN FLESH WE FOUND. FROM SAM. HE COVERED UP FOR WITNESS AND CARMELINA POTENTIALLY? Carmelina had no response for being accused of taking flesh from Crying Grudge Damn she’s kinda giving up some dirt on Witness like his sketchy dialing… hmm…. Witness just coughed up Akiko wasn’t by the desolation cell… hah… Witness admits he carved flesh from Crying Grudge, fair enough Okay we hammered him HARD on that random phone #, he didn’t budge Lydia just opened up and confessed her and Sam wanted outta the syndicate. Damn. ALRIGHT OFFICIALLY BACK AFTER A DAY OUT FOR PLAY SESSION #3, LETS DO IT! ALRIGHT…. I just spent the last hour and a half pissing about the island collecting a bunch of random hearts. I got into the Barracks but was immediately kicked out. Kinda annoying. Got the secret code from Henry to unlock his vault, and it appears, somehow, I JUST NOW DISCOVERED THE BEACH LMAO. I found the distraction for the marshals, the 2nd Holy Seal clue - Scholar, Bull, Bird, Snake - one of the downsides of a open world is not even realizing how much there was to an entire portion of an island I completely ignored until now HOLY CRAP WE JUST DISCOVERED THE COUNCIL MEMBERS MURDERED AND THE FACT THAT WITNESS DETONATED THE CODE ON THE BOX!!!!! CARMELINA’S DNA!!!!! BRUH!!! WAS I ONE THE MONEY OR WHAT BOIIIII!!!!!!! I’m an idiot for not buying foot baths earlier. NOW I GOT A SPRINT DASH IN MID AIR WOULDA MADE EXPLORING 10X EASIER Holy crap we just got the trophy for talking to every Shinji… NATURALLY, WITH NO GUIDE I also finally reached the Ziggurat or Syndicate Graveyard lmao I bet this is one of the earlier directions you’re supposed to visit OOOOOH EYES KIWAMI WAS Henry’s father… hence the council blood needed LOOOOL ONE LAST KISS FINALLY SHOWED UP AGAIN 14 HOURS LATER BRUH Meeting a new character this late officially is WILD She points to witness and Akiko as her suspicions… ITS FINAL TRIAL TIME BABY LETS DO IT!!!! Henry’s Escape: There’s only 3 real people we have evidence on - Akkido, Henry, & Witness…. Given the 7 pieces of evidence, gotta go against Akkido no? CONFIRMED AGAINST AKKIKO YESSSSS SHE WAS GUILTY LESSGO JUDGE OOOOOH SNAP SHE JUST THREW CARMELINA UNDER THE BUS LMAOOOO SHE DID IT SK HER MARSHALLS WOUKD BE INDUCTED IN THE SYNDICATE, DAT CORRUPTION Henry’s Demonic Posession: I’ve thought every step of the way this is Yuri, I have no reason to stop now and I ain’t blaming Henry given we’re just going off a delinquent past. YOU GUILTY YURI I CHOOSE YOU! HE IS GUILTY!!! YES JUDGE 2/2 BABY!!!! Hahahahah CARMELINA also recruited Yuri THIS WOMAN The Murder of Grace Bloodlines: Aight accusing Akiko again would be crazy though the. Carved siglos, broken procedure, and blade are damning. This one is tricky cuz I think it was collusion between Akiko and CARMELINA so…. I’m gonna go with Akiko just cuz more will come out on CARMELINA later AKIKO GUILTY YEAAAA BUDDY GET REKT Oh it was actually CARMELINA my bad… Who killed the Holy Seal Marshalls? Okay this one is tough… I REALLY THINK ITS AKIKO AGAIN LOL, I know there’s ton of evidence against Lydia but I don’t think she… would? I think it’s Akiko again screw it if I’m wrong I ain’t throwing my girl under the bus SHE GUILTY THAT WAS THE BIGGEST SLAM DUNK YET!!!! K. HX Is Missing: Okay this is the hardest one yet. It’s NOT Akiko. Crimson has a TOOOOOOOON of damning evidence against her sadly. Yuri is hella suspicious though. I may be damnded for this but I really don’t think Crimson would kill like that. Manipulate? Sure. Kill? Nah. IM CHOOSING YURI YOU BOAT CANCELLING BIATCH I KNEW HE WAS GUILTY LESSSSGOOOOOO The Second Holy Seal: It’s not Henry. The evidence against Lydia is CRAZY man. Witness the evidence is too few… screw it, I think rebuilding the Syndicate is essential and while Lydia may wanna bail, I ain’t killing her in the process. ACCUSING YURI Aight he admits he went through it but that’s it… I got ya back Lydia Who opened the Third Seal?: Can’t throw Sam under the bus man…. Even though he has 6x evidence against him. If it’s a question of who OPENED the seal, I think Henry is justifiable.I really don’t think it was Doom. I’m accusing Henry even if he was manipulated Oh it was Yuri…. Lol….. Who breached the fourth seal?: IM ACCUSING WITNESS SCREW IT. Not Sam, Henry, or CARMELINA… DANG IT IT WAS HENRY UGH SORRY JUDGE The Mystery of the Dead Killer Demon: Accused Witness cuz DUH MAN THIS HAS GOTTA BE A SLAM DUNK Yup… saw it coming with that phone # dial! The Crime to end All Crimes: Ah okay judge makes clear it wants to know WHO HELD THE KNIFE not the mastermind, so don’t pick CARMELINA but the demon. That’s hella obvious Yup that one was easy. OKAY GRAND CONSPIRACY TIME: Witness; Godflesh; Sam’s Godflesh, Witness Tunnel, Demon Activation, & Imprisoned Demon NOW TIME TO DUNK ON CARMELINA I KNEW THIS WHOLE TIME GIRL YOU NEVER FOOLED ME Yuri went thru second seal, took HC key, grace bloodlines, aided Henry’s possession, CARMELINA recruited Yuri, Henry movements, Akiko helped Henry escape, CARMELINA recruited Akiko, fake sigils, ITS OVER FOR YOU GIRLLLLL Okay that was fun if hella nerve wrecking RIP Akiko RIP Carmelina CRIMSON IS FREE BABY DOOM JAZZ IS FREE!!! RIP Henry…. Not a great thing lol LYDIA IS FREE BABY!!! SAM IS FREE BABY!!!! RIP Witness RIP Yuri One Last Kiss of course innocent 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 This sounds great dude, and thanks for the shout! You were right about literally every other game I've taken you up on, soooo?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted August 24, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 24, 2022 You Should Play Games From Genres You Dislike The other day I decided to rewatch an old video from the beloved Dunkey on YouTube titled: "Game Critics". In less than 10 minutes, he manages to beautifully illustrate the usefulness of having the collective body of opinions from an individual so as to better ascertain whether their tastes align with your own. I've broached this subject in the past, but I really do feel passionately about how useful this can be when deciding whether or not to rely on someone's opinion for your own personal tastes. As mentioned in the video, you DON'T need to agree with every single opinion held by a critic or reviewer that you enjoy, hell, you can disagree flagrantly on some of them. But if they're consistent in their preferences you'll be able to discern more often than not if you'll enjoy something. Hell, it can even be helpful in an opposite sense! "Damn he hated this game cuz it was too hard? I'll probably love it!" This brings me to the inflammatory statement found as the title for this article. If I were to make this post on a subreddit like r/PatientGamers, I'd have an onslaught of redditors wash upon my shores claiming that you should never ever engage with a piece of media if you aren't having fun with it. That your play time is simply too precious to risk wasting on an unenjoyable experience. There are far too many games out there! Don't waste time on ones that "weren't for you". In case you can't tell - I hate all of these reasons. Within reason of course. If you hate MMORPGs, don't spend the next 400 hours of your life sticking to a ridiculous personal code. As this isn't the focal point of the post, I'll be brief. 1) Obviously if your playtime is super limited. Don't waste weeks on end playing a game you don't enjoy. But if it's on the shorter spectrum (15 hours or less), why not see it through man? 2) I despise the phrase "it just wasn't for me" when talking about a popular game you didn't enjoy. It conveys a complete lack of one's own ability to discern what one did or did not like from the medium. GIVE ME REASONS. EVEN IF THEY'RE BAD ONES. By partaking in this little exercise, you may just learn something about your own tastes that will help you discern superior game purchasing decisions in the future!!! 3) Momma didn't raise no quitter. With that tangent aside, why should you play games from genres you dislike? To answer this, let's respond to it in a two-prong Q&A format from the mind of former star running back of the 1990s and 5x Pro Bowler, Ricky Watters. For those unfamiliar, Watters was a former star in the NFL from a few decades ago and managed to play on the '94 Niners Super Bowl winning squad over the Chargers and continued his success with the Eagles, even leading the league in yards from scrimmage in 1996. Despite all of his on-the-field prowess, he's most remembered(in my mind at least) for a quote he had after a 21-6 loss in 1995 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After "alligator-arming" on a pass thrown over the middle of the field by Randall Cunningham so as to avoid a brutal hit from an oncoming defender, he was asked afterwards at a press conference by a reporter why he didn't go all out for the ball. Watters responded with an emphatic: "For who? For what?". I don't think I can convey in textual form how much I love that quote. The incredulity. The unabashed sincerity. It has been part of my exicon ever since and today it serves me in this dissection. For who? - For YOU! Do you know how many blind spots you must have in your day-to-day life? I'm talking about food you'd absolutely love yet have never come across due to not being native to the region in which you live OR perhaps you hated as a child and have sworn off every since. What if that jerk at your school or work completely put you off a type of music or show that you'd enjoy simply because of their behavior? Have you been influenced by the sway of the masses in a "that games trash man" only to discover, years later, when played on sale or obtained for free, that the masses were in fact... mistaken? I'm not saying you need to go out there and invest 80 hours of your life into Fallout 76 in order to find out whether or not all the outrage regarding the game was legitimate. But as a courtesy, TO YOURSELF, you'd be well off occasionally dabbling in a medium you may dislike just to see if you missed something the last time you passed through there. For what? - Open your mind man! Broaden your horizons! I say this to the person who has sworn off all anime due to thinking it's too goofy or childish and they've debated online with one too many freaks with a waifu avatar. I say this to the nerd who always disliked sports growing up and has made it a small fragment of their personality to actively hate on them whenever they're mentioned in a minor capacity. I EVEN SAY THIS to the lizard brain gameplay is king nutcases that maybe, just maybe, they could try a visual novel and could be blown away by the idea of a narrative actually carrying the burden of a game's enjoyment rather than trying to achieve an intergalactic SSS+ combo in Devil May Cry 5. Of course, I'd be nothing but a grandstanding hypocrite if I stood here on my soapbox imploring others to widen their interests while I just buried my head in the sand and went back to the latest quick-twitched roguelite or comfort sports game that landed on the market. To avoid this, as seen above I've taken a small screenshot from my meticulously detailed spreadsheet displaying the bottom 10 genres that I apparently, like the least. I pose a challenge to all those reading who enjoy these genres to offer up a recommendation in them that is not currently in my catalog. I only ask for two things in return. 1) Make sure I haven't played it. 2) Endeavor to ensure it's not grotesquely long. Anything less than 20 hours for the plat is prime to get scooped up. While some of these ratings may seem super low, in almost all of them I have at least a handful of games I found decently enjoyable. In point-and-click, it was 2064: Read Only Memories and Grim Fandango. I just played Persona 5 Strikers which dug the Hack 'n Slash genre out of the abyss Dragon Quest Heroes had dug. (If you recommend me DQ2, I'ma ask a mod to delete your comment). Libble Rabble was good! I'm almost slightly terrified what a certain Pikachu as Kratos avatar individual will recommend me for a fighting game (pls be gentle) and puzzles are generally dull for me so if you're a big fan, I'd really appreciate something that spruces up the overly done 2D format (see how I loved Katamari, Unpacking, & The Witness) This is probably my favorite article I've written this year. Hope it serves as some motivation to at least one of you, 'til next time! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Copanele Posted August 24, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, realm722 said: You Should Play Games From Genres You Dislike Oh, the dread of playing a disliked genre...this is an experience that vastly varies from player to player, so I will speak from my own point of view. For me, there's one slight difference - genres that I have no experience with (such as jRPG) and genres that I actually dislike (such as pure platformers). Genres that I have no experience with, I can't pronounce myself about. Obviously, how could I hate jRPG if I never attempted to play one from start to finish? (Just starting FF7 doesn't count, I know ) However for the genres that I dislike, I do believe them to be irredeemable in my eyes Like, no matter what I play or attempt or such, I just can't help myself, I HATE the damn games! Basically if a game makes me want to close the console when I'm playing it, then that game is doing something wrong! Now, to address that short reddit post. It's not the main idea of THIS post, but I have to underline some stuff there while adapting to this site's idea of completing every game available on your list. Quote 1) Obviously if your playtime is super limited. Don't waste weeks on end playing a game you don't enjoy. But if it's on the shorter spectrum (15 hours or less), why not see it through man? Obviously, removing the MMOs from this equation (whoever continues playing a MMO despite hating it might be abit insane honestly ?), I will give ONE game as example, everyone knows it: Catherine. Why can't I see this through? Because it's one of those games that I despise so much that it overwrites my desire to "finish my plate". It's that beautiful loathing sentiment towards a piece of media. Quote 2) I despise the phrase "it just wasn't for me" when talking about a popular game you didn't enjoy. It conveys a complete lack of one's own ability to discern what one did or did not like from the medium. GIVE ME REASONS. EVEN IF THEY'RE BAD ONES. By partaking in this little exercise, you may just learn something about your own tastes that will help you discern superior game purchasing decisions in the future!!! Giving reasons is something that I agree with. Sometimes however, you just want to avoid the arguments started by stuff like " I think Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful nothing that put me to sleep because oh god it's so boring I want to cry". Diplomacy Quote 3) Momma didn't raise no quitter. That's how I got injured every time So now, moving on to the actual point of the thread! Quote For who? - For YOU! Do you know how many blind spots you must have in your day-to-day life? I'm talking about food you'd absolutely love yet have never come across due to not being native to the region in which you live OR perhaps you hated as a child and have sworn off every since. What if that jerk at your school or work completely put you off a type of music or show that you'd enjoy simply because of their behavior? Have you been influenced by the sway of the masses in a "that games trash man" only to discover, years later, when played on sale or obtained for free, that the masses were in fact... mistaken? I'm not saying you need to go out there and invest 80 hours of your life into Fallout 76 in order to find out whether or not all the outrage regarding the game was legitimate. But as a courtesy, TO YOURSELF, you'd be well off occasionally dabbling in a medium you may dislike just to see if you missed something the last time you passed through there. Ok, this is true for genres that one has never tried. Say you never played a turn-based in your life, you can't say you dislike X-Com. I have to say however that it's up to you to find out what you like. Because the "masses" did recommend me to stay away from Duke Nukem Forever, but they also recommended me to play Shadow of the Colossus. Always follow your heart Quote For what? - Open your mind man! Broaden your horizons! I say this to the person who has sworn off all anime due to thinking it's too goofy or childish and they've debated online with one too many freaks with a waifu avatar. I say this to the nerd who always disliked sports growing up and has made it a small fragment of their personality to actively hate on them whenever they're mentioned in a minor capacity. I EVEN SAY THIS to the lizard brain gameplay is king nutcases that maybe, just maybe, they could try a visual novel and could be blown away by the idea of a narrative actually carrying the burden of a game's enjoyment rather than trying to achieve an intergalactic SSS+ combo in Devil May Cry 5. Now that is true, sometimes it's worth giving a second chance to a genre. HOWEVER, and this is the main thing when it comes to disagreeing with "you should play genres that you dislike" - if you have an extended experience in playing videogames and you still dislike a genre - maybe that one really ain't for you. Example: I tried to play Super Mario Bros when I was little, hated it with a passion. Years later I tried to play Sonic 3 and I had to follow guides just to figure out how to get past some shitty segments - game was good but I didn't want to play it anymore. Nowadays - I played Crash Bandicoot and I loathed it. This is so bad that it actually affects a game that I actually enjoy - Mirror's Edge - which I can't finish just because of how much I hate platforming in general. I like the idea, but the execution is killing me. Finished the game on Normal and Hard and the parkour is nice, but the trials? I hate them because they ask me to be efficient in jumpy mode. Suffice to say, I will never play Super Meat Boy (never make me choose between a Visual Novel and SMOKING SEXY STYLE COMBO FROM HELL! You know what I will pick ) Quote I'm almost slightly terrified what a certain Pikachu as Kratos avatar individual will recommend me for a fighting game (pls be gentle) Now, my aim as local Fighting Games Kratosichu, I don't want to drive anyone away from this wonderful yet heavily avoided game genre. What I can recommend, from a trophy point of view, are these games: Classic fighter - Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Shodown (the 2018 version) Anime fighter - Blazblue Cross Tag Battle 3D fighter - Tekken 7 They aren't the best in the genre (ok Tekken 7 is), but these are the perfect "fighting game platinum" entry. Doing these should tell you if you enjoy this genre or not Quote This is probably my favorite article I've written this year. Hope it serves as some motivation to at least one of you, 'til next time! As usual, fun to read and even more fun to reply (no coherency found from my side, just like in the previous posts). However I still will hate platformers until the end of time. SCREW YOU CRASH BANDICOOT! Edited August 24, 2022 by Copanele 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 Recommendations? Yeah I can give some recommendations. ? I’ll do it realm722-style: with colours and links!! I’ve played the green recommendations. The others are all on my own wishlist. Red are those that I think will be up your alley and orange might be up your alley. The Wolf Among Us (link) is a visual novel. All Telltale Games post-Sam & Max are visual novels. ...Yes. There. I said it. It’s great. A noir-style detective mystery where you play as Sheriff Bigby Wolf (the big bad wolf) while hunting down someone killing prostitutes. The fairy tale characters have only recently moved to New York City. Great vibes ensue. Kind of on the same frequency is Chicken Police (link) which has had a great review by @rjkclarke and is on the wishlist of many PSNP checklisters. Taking a step towards interactivity for point and click suggestions leads me into uncharted territory, however, I’m keen on getting into The Secret of Monkey Island (link), Full Throttle (link) and Leisure Suit Larry (link). I love puzzle games. As you’ve already played The Witness, let me instead recommend Return of the Obra Dinn (watch this video from one of my favourite YouTubers to see what it is. There are extremely few spoilers...just enough to explain what the game is). Also, consider Untitled Goose Game (link), The Gardens Between (link) and Donut County (link) (I think that those last two may have been designed with you specifically in mind). Multiplayer games... how about Divinity: Original Sin II (link) for a co-op RPG? Or maybe the classic Portal 2 (link) to mix in the puzzle genre? What about Team 17’s Overcooked (link) and Moving Out (link)? I preferred Moving Out but everyone else I talk to seems to prefer Overcooked. Multiplayer games with Wacky Controls makes me think of Gang Beasts (link) and Human Fall Flat (link) by the same developer. The former is a multiplayer wrestling game and the latter is a co-op experience with the same wacky control ideas. Arcade games are harder for me to pin down as I don’t play many. N++ (link) is a modern 2D platformer with gameplay choices that stem from the best of original Arcade platformers. And then while I was looking at my lists thinking of you, some of these came to mind even though they aren’t in the requested genres: The Plane Effect (link), Golf Club Wasteland (link), Hyper Light Drifter (link... and I reviewed it here), Rain World (link), Northgard (link) and Surviving Mars (link). Also: have you seen the trailer for Wreckreation? (link) Enjoy ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted August 26, 2022 Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 8/24/2022 at 2:21 AM, Copanele said: Obviously, removing the MMOs from this equation (whoever continues playing a MMO despite hating it might be abit insane honestly ), I will give ONE game as example, everyone knows it: Catherine. You might be surprised, they didn't call it World of Warcrack for no reason. I know this from personal experience. You pay the monthly dues and start to invest time in the game then eventually end up in a guild and start to get committed to getting better gear which requires scheduled times to raid the bigger dungeons, of course this is before they made it easy to get into random groups like it is now. Once you get sucked in, it gets hard to quit and leave those people even if you start to hate the game. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted August 27, 2022 Author Share Posted August 27, 2022 On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: Oh, the dread of playing a disliked genre...this is an experience that vastly varies from player to player, so I will speak from my own point of view. For me, there's one slight difference - genres that I have no experience with (such as jRPG) and genres that I actually dislike (such as pure platformers). Genres that I have no experience with, I can't pronounce myself about. Obviously, how could I hate jRPG if I never attempted to play one from start to finish? (Just starting FF7 doesn't count, I know ) Oh yes! While I dedicated the article in large part to disliking genres, I definitely think most players should at least try one of every game flavor just to see what's out there! We're in agreement on that front. On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: Catherine. Why can't I see this through? Because it's one of those games that I despise so much that it overwrites my desire to "finish my plate". It's that beautiful loathing sentiment towards a piece of media. Hahahha, oh Catherine ?. That's actually a reasonable one to just punt on ever completing. That's an ultra-rare (<1.30%) plat AND it takes over 60 hours to complete according to the trophy guide. You've undoubtedly already played it for 30+ in all likelihood. When I refer to people quitting on games, I'm talking about posts I've seen on games like Guacamelee! or Detroit: Become Human. I'm not ever gonna begrudge someone for putting in fair shake of a mammoth game (Witcher 3, Souls games, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc...) but just don't reach the end. For a lot of people's "play time window", playing that game alone may take a handful of months and I get why they'd wanna move on to something faster. On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: Giving reasons is something that I agree with. Sometimes however, you just want to avoid the arguments started by stuff like " I think Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful nothing that put me to sleep because oh god it's so boring I want to cry". Diplomacy Oh of course. If I see somebody absolutely love a game that I particularly disliked, being a jerk and pooping all over their enjoyment isn't a good approach. But I think on most cabinets on this forum and in general discourse without complete strangers I think you can present your argument in a way that doesn't get anyone riled up. I know for me personally, I will go down to my grave defending Batman: Arkham Knight's inclusion of the batmobile. The sheer prominence it was used. The only point I will concede is that they did completely fall short making the boss fights strictly batmobile-related. But in terms of all the activities and "tank mode" fights? I thought it was a fun game system. With that being said, when I see the extremely common "way too much batmobile, Arkham City better" I at least get why they view Knight the way they ultimately do. On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: On 8/24/2022 at 5:21 AM, Copanele said: HOWEVER, and this is the main thing when it comes to disagreeing with "you should play genres that you dislike" - if you have an extended experience in playing videogames and you still segments - game was good but I didn't want to play it anymore. Nowadays - I played Crash Bandicoot and I loathed it. This is so bad that it actually affects a game that I actually enjoy - Mirror's Edge - which I can't finish just because of how much I hate platforming in general. I like the idea, but the execution is killing me. Finished the game on Normal and Hard and the parkour is nice, but the trials? I hate them because they ask me to be efficient in jumpy mode. Suffice to say, I will never play Super Meat Boy ??? I love your honesty as always Copa. Honestly, I give you a ton of credit for repeatedly trying platformers as much s you have. I will say you appear to have an attraction to difficulty as I've never played the Crash games specifically because of how hard I've heard the original is - and the Mirror's Edge time trials are no joke either! Heck you played Unravel which is the game that made me fall in love with trophy hunting in the first place! I think you've done your fair share of broadening your horizons. But if I may give two recommendations(since I think they'd be more in line with an enjoyable/leisure time vs. head crushing difficult). 2D Platformer - Thomas Was Alone & 3D Platformer - Astros' Playroom. Neither are very long. They have elements benefitting them beyond the gameplay (Thomas in the narration & Astro in the trip down memory lane for Playstation). If you hate them you can swear off platformers forever ? and thank you for your recommendations! Samurai Shodown, Tekken 7, & Blazblue Cross Tag have officially been added to my PlatPrices Wishlist! It'll be fun reporting back and thank you again for such a detailed reply On 8/25/2022 at 8:14 AM, Platinum_Vice said: I’ll do it realm722-style: with colours and links!! I’ve played the green recommendations. The others are all on my own wishlist. Red are those that I think will be up your alley and orange might be up your alley. On 8/25/2022 at 8:14 AM, Platinum_Vice said: -snip- After some meticulous research on all of them, these are the ones I'm most intrigued by! The Wolf Among Us - Always heard AMAZING things about it. I see the much anticipated Season 2 is due for next year. Def gonna pick it up. Return of the Obra Dinn - I love Lucas Pope. I have never played Papers, Please(no vita ) but I LOVE watching playthroughs. Will 100% get. Untitled Goose Game - This one I'm curious about since it's def a "meme" game but I played Octodad well after the hype and found it had some merit. Donut County - I won't lie. The super easy plat held me off for a long time but I can schedule it as a cupcake. I'll give it a shot! Divinity Original Sin II - I have had TREMENDOUS things about it.. but that is damn near a "forever" game lmao at least for the plat. Maybe circa 2025 ? Portal 2 - Is there any way to play them on PS4/PS5? As far as I understand it's limited to PS3. OR else 10000% they're super beloved. Overcooked - I have both games from PS+ offers! I actually have a buddy who could help me out with 'em. May mention it and see what all the fuss is about. The Plane Effect - Added it to the wishlist! It's not typical for a game to completely slip my radar and that one most definitely did. Gold Club: Wasteland - Looks weird as hell. I love it. Trophy guide says 6 hours which is even better. Will check it out! Hyper Light Drifter - Agh.... see this article November 2020. I'm still a coward. You and Arceius speak SO glowingly about it though. Just need to buy it and let it sit in the backlog long enough to irritate me so I muster up the courage to finally start it. Rain World - Also found in that same article hahaha. It's hella weird and unintuitive. I'ma give myself a rule and say I gotta plat HLD first before even thinking of it ? Northgard - Looks solid. <1% platinum is a bit mortifying. Also seems like a hella long-term game. Maybe if I can snag it cheap. Surviving Mars - This always pops up on sale! I just haven't had a city builder itch in a while and still gotta play Tropico 6 but after that, maybe! Wreckreation - Kinda reminds me of Trackmania Turbo but let's make it with wacky obstacles! I'll keep it on radar. Thank you so much, man! I felt like my wishlist for games was starting to bleed a little bit dry and now I've gotta plenty of stuff to scour for on sales all over again. I just hope you're prepared for the trickle of @'s I'll send your way each time one of them gets completed haha. 12 hours ago, Grotz99 said: You might be surprised, they didn't call it World of Warcrack for no reason. I know this from personal experience. You pay the monthly dues and start to invest time in the game then eventually end up in a guild and start to get committed to getting better gear which requires scheduled times to raid the bigger dungeons, of course this is before they made it easy to get into random groups like it is now. Once you get sucked in, it gets hard to quit and leave those people even if you start to hate the game. I know this was in reply to Copa but that is wild and I had never considered that. Sunk cost fallacy. "I've already committed SO much. Can't stop now." The idea of PAYING a monthly subscription for one specific game blows my mind. Can't believe the games got as popular as they did with that caveat. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted August 29, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 29, 2022 (edited) Game: Foregone Analysis: I bought Foregone while it was on sale for $3.99 back in mid-May 2022. It's..... alright I guess! Why Foregone? The backstory for this one isn't so complicated. I just saw that the game had a pretty solid looking cover art while browsing PlatPrices and was intrigued enough for such a cheap price and reasonable platinum rate that I figured why not take a flyer on it. The reason why I decided to finally play it towards the end of August is also pretty simple. The month was winding down to a close and I had only beaten two games (Libble Rabble & Paradise Killer). The game that took up the entire middle of the month for me is an ultra rare roguelite by the name of Neon Abyss. We'll talk more about him in September. Given the hours needed for completion, I wouldn't have it done by the end of August and thus I needed a game on the shorter end of things to bide me over. Hence, Foregone! One of the Most Mindless Experiences I've Played This Year - Depending on the type of person you are, that statement could be a good or a bad thing. Sometimes I like to play a game where I can turn my brain off and just click the buttons to kill the bad guys. I don't have to pause whatever I'm listening to in the form of a podcast or movie in order to hear characters talk during an important cutscene. I don't have to give the game my 100% undivided attention due to it being an all-timer and me not wanting to play it "the wrong way". I don't have to worry about getting lost or losing focus from the main objective. This is as straightforward of an experience as it gets. Move through the different biomes. Kill enemies. Flip on some switches and gates here and there to keep progressing through the level, and at the end, fight a boss in order to move onto the next section. The gameplay isn't complex. It's not a total cakewalk. I died plenty on normal difficulty. But by equipping healing and barrier/bastion as two of your skills, you can honestly spam most bosses down with the occasional dodge for their obvious attacks and you'll beat most of them by your 2nd or 3rd attempt. It's servicable, if a bit button mashy but not so completely braindead that you can just hit trade your way to victory. The Trophy Road Map - While there may not be an official guide on PSNProfiles at the moment, there are some very helpful tips found in the forums such as @visighost's impromptu tips thread as well as @StraightVege's ridiculously helpful tip to cutdown on the grind for "Skill Master". The reason why that's relevant is long after you've completed the game, gotten all the necessary collectibles, found all the secrets, and pulled off all the skill specific trophies - you're gonna need to dedicate a handful of hours to simply grinding away on a specific mission as quickly as possible to rack up the experience points needed to max out all the skills. Is it annoying the devs made this a trophy instead of just asking you to complete the game on new game+? Yea. But it's not unbearably horrific either. Perhaps 2-3 hours at most. But in a game that's run time is already in the low double digits(10-15 hours), it's admitedly more than you'd like. Everything else is essentially cupcake tier. There's a brilliant collectibles playlist on YouTube which once you have all the movement upgrades is a breeze to flythrough. Bad Dead Cells + Sundered = Foregone Why do I make that equation? In all honesty, what will likely last the most for me when I think about Foregone is how much it reminded me of past games I've played. The Canadian developers over at Big Blue Bubble HAVE to have played Dead Cells in my mind. I'm not just saying that because it's a 2D side scrolling platformer beat 'em up with pixel art graphics and an emphasis on the dark, disturbing, and corrupted world you're exploring that your protagonist may or may not have had a hand in creating. I had this thought while playing, and only during this very section of the review did I google to see if anybody else had made the connection. Kotaku has an article noting its differences. So does Screenrant. The developers themselves have a review from a critic who mentions their evident inspiration on their website! In other words, ya boy ain't crazy for making this connection. But why do I call it bad Dead Cells? Cuz uh... it's not as good. The movement and platforming itself is fine, at least once you get all the upgrades. I instictinely tried to do the downward stomp attack that I argue makes up a whole 2 points of enjoyment I found in the 9/10 that is Dead Cells. The arbiter lady did not stomp. This upset me. But only made me laugh later when it's an upgrade you earn to unlock new areas. I kinda feel like they didn't give you all of them at the start so as to not make these similarities too grotesque. The game isn't a metroidvania. Foregone also pales in comparison to Dead Cells in the difficulty and polish department. Some attacks for bosses aren't all that well telegraphed OR a bit janky. If the game had made it absolutely punishing to get hit(as Dead Cells does), it would have made the game far too frustrating. Dead Cells is snappy yet ruthless. You kill all enemies in 1, 2, or 3 hits once you get good. They can kill you that quickly if you aren't careful. Foregone isn't that. Enemies can take 4, 5, up to 6 swings. This slows the pace of the experience. There's also no unique roguelite elements. All the maps are purposefully curated. There is a bit of weapon / armor / accessory variety that you can fiddle about with but it's all quite nonsensical. Just go back to the hub zone every once in awhile and upgrade your gear if you're enjoying it. I used the Falchion for a good portion of the game but found quicker weapons like daggers and a shotgun to be best suited for the final boss to hurry up your attack windows. It's all fine. It reminded me of Sundered with how much you go back to the hub zone teleporter in order to fiddle with your gear, hence why I included it in the equation. Still, I can't get past how the "Mower" looks like he's gonna get in the gym to catch up with the Pirate Captain or the "Phalanx" is gonna ask the Guardian Knight to see if he can get him a promotion into High Peak Castle. Would I recommend Foregone? Ehhhh...... maybe. This might be the most damning sentence of the entire review but this is one of the most forgettable experiences I've had in 2022. (Other nominees: Wreckfest, Ms. Pac-Man, & The Deer God) I can't even begrudge the game that harshly, I kind of wanted a mindless, straightforward as hell game to finish the month but there's very little that'll stick with me from here that won't be outta my brain by mid-September. I did not pay attention to the narrative as it's largely found in random books you'll find as you progress through the game but even I gathered by the end that protagonist mommy may have committed an oopsie or two that landed her in this predicament. The bosses fail to standout in my memory (that one hawk/bird one was kinda cool tho). The gameplay is perfectly average. The game is fine, if you wanna scoop it up for a decent platinum I'd have no misgivings about it. But I also don't think you're missing out on anything if you never play it. I earned the 26.76% rarity platinum in 6 days and 2 hours. Toodles! Panda Score: 6.6 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 3.3 / 10 Edited August 29, 2022 by realm722 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightVege Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 Glad to hear someone found that helpful! While my opinion of Foregone is likely ever so slightly higher than your own, I agree with the overall sentiment. My first impression was pretty negative (I actually referred to it as "a mediocre Dead Cells clone" following the initial 2-3 gameplay hours), but it gradually grew on me to the point where I ultimately had a fairly decent time hacking and blasting my way through the levels. In truth, I'm not that difficult to please when it concerns to 2D action games, seeing as I'm hopelessly addicted to them. "Fine" is about right; certainly not a game I would ever desire to revisit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted September 2, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 2, 2022 Game: Pacific Wings Analysis: I bought this game for $1.37 in late April 2022. It's the start of the month and that means we're due for another quick 100%! Why Pacific Wings? It was cheap, quick (according to the 100% club) and on sale. What else do you need? The game is incredibly barebones but it's serviceable for what it is. A vertical scrolling shooter where you take flight as a plane and must shoot down opposing planes while ensuring your own aircraft doesn't get hit. If you play well on the first 1-2 levels, you're virtually guaranteed to coast you way to the platinum as the way the game gives out upgrades for your plane, you'll be shooting so many bullets so quickly that it'll be impossible for opposing fleets to take all your armor down. Spam that X button, avoid enemy fire in a reasonable strafing pattern, listen to the "WATCH YOUR SIX" prompts and you'll have the 100% completion in less than half an hour. Would I recommend Pacific Wings? Sure, why not! You wouldn't be missing out on much if you opted not to but I imagine some who really enjoy classic arcade games can dig the simplicity. I did wanna mention one thing about the game that stood out to me. A little over a week ago, Smash Bros creator, Masahiro Sakurai announced that he was starting his own YouTube channel to help and educate aspiring game designers about some very fundamental core concepts. One of his first videos covers "Stop for Big Moments!" which shows why it's beneficial for a game to slow down when the player accomplishes something important (or fails in a significant manner) as it makes these moments more impactful. I thought of this while playing Pacific Wings... you pretty much don't know when you're really getting hurt other than your plane flashing (but you still don't know what angle you got hit from), and since your enemy bullets and incoming projectiles are the same color, it can make it very hard to distinguish which is which. It doesn't matter since the game is so easy, but I wanted to mention it in as it was a solid excuse to shout out his channel and it's already paying dividends for me in terms of noticing stuff in games! They're fairly basic concepts, but he has a very friendly demeanor in presenting them with a sensational editing team behind him. They're also snappy and to the point which makes them even better for casual viewing. Check it out! Aside from that, just happy to say I earned the 66.79% rarity 100% in 26 minutes and 8 seconds. Panda Score: 6.0 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 1.5 / 10 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 Game: Peaky Blinders - Mastermind Analysis: I bought this game on sale for $4.99 back in mid-June 2022 along with a handful of other titles. It's fine! Why Peaky Blinders? This game actually appeared on my radar thanks to a recommendation! Shoutout to @rjkclarke for reviewing the game back in early April 2022 (and an even bigger shoutout to his masterfully put-together front page which makes it even easier to find old reviews rather than manically scrolling through each individual page like a lunatic) He suggested it as a puzzle game that covers the "unique indie title" space I so covet and as it could be platinumed in less than 10 hours, it also fulfilled its role as a quick completion! That's all I needed to hear to mark it as one of my wishlisted games on PlatPrices and when it was discounted for 75% off I snatched it up. I'll preface this review with two very important qualifiers. 1) I have NEVER seen the show the game is based on. Peaky Blinders is a wildly successful crime drama out of the UK. It debuted in 2013 and ended in 2022. It stars Cillian Murphy and a trillion other actors and actresses according to Wikipedia. It's rated as the 74th greatest show of All-Time according to IMDB scoring in at an 8.7. Just ahead of One Piece & Ted Lasso yet behind two iterations of Dragon Ball Z. I say all this to say that I have absolutely zero emotional attachment to these characters and though the game serves as a prequel to the show, I imagine those who love the show would pick up some nuances in the story and setting that completely slipped under my radar. 2) If I had played this game back as early as June, I may have had a wildly different reaction to it than I do having played it in August. There's a very specific reason for that which I'll cover in a later paragraph. I'll be vague and say that it's mental how much your perception of a game can change so drastically simply due to playing other games in the same genre. Barebones Blinders - Something that immediately stood out to me as soon as I booted up Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is it wastes no time getting right to the meat of the gameplay. There are no fancy introductory cutscenes. You are thrust right to the level selection screen which clearly shows there's 10 levels available. I thought this was curious since most games aren't this blatant about their size and scope. I greatly enjoyed the opening song "Reveller" that blasted through my speakers. But my intrigue soon faded as I underestimated just how small the developers behind the game really were. FuturLab (indie studio out of the UK that recently has reemerged due to their a new hit in PowerWash Simulator) managed to land a massive IP in Peaky Blinders yet does not have the 100+ dev team to flesh out a full scale AAA game. This is quaint puzzle game. It has ZERO voice acting. The dialogue sequences between characters pre and post-level last for barely a minute. The game's core core is figure out how to navigate your way to the end of the level with the characters as your disposal, find the 4-6 collectibles scattered in each one, and has the very minimal replayability of going for the gold medal time. That's really it. It honestly reminds me a ton of the Bithell Games' creation "John Wick Hex". It's a small indie studio that landed a huge pop culture phenomen and they... made this weird, kinda obtuse, really stilted puzzle game that has an entire YouTube comments section offering different suggestions the game could have went in. I feel those same complaints can apply here. I was so looking forward to hearing early 1900s British prattle and instead I got.... nothing. An Awkward Gameplay Loop - The actual cycle of the game in each level is also a bit all over the place. You have a constant timer running and must complete tasks within that alloted frame in order to pass the mission. As the game progresses, you will be asked to control more and more characters from the Shelby family. But, you can of course only control one character at a time. The developers decided to implement a rewind mechanic that allows you to complete all the necessary actions for one character, rewind, complete all the necessary actions for another character, rewind, and repeat those juggling sequences time and time again all the way until you reach the desired outcome. You do get a modicum amount of satisfaction when you see things flow beautifully with all 6 characters in motion on the last mission, but I can't help but feel it never felt properly comfortable to manipulate the characters in this cumbersome manner. As you'll be aiming for gold times, you'll frequently rewind for two or three seconds just to avoid walking into the crate or wall that stopped your character's progress. You'll fiddle with the timeline a bunch until you perfectly allign one character opening up a door for another or ensuring Arthur is not left fighting a thug alone while Polly slips a bobby a tenner. It's fine. It works for a puzzle game. It just ultimately has the depth of a kiddie pool as there isn't much beyond figuring out "get X charcater to complete X action" and that's the only solution so there is no real experimentation. Living in the Shadow... Tactics - What I will most remember Peaky Blinders: Mastermind for is the fact it almost got me REALLY excited within the first level of two of playing as I legitamately thought it'd be Shadow Tactics: But Brits in Waistcoats. It's the same top down perspective. It's the same idea of juggling multiple character actions at once to complete a team objective. That's where the similarities end. There are no hilarious repetitive voice dialogues that had me in stitches. This game would have been PERFECT for it. I understand that they couldn't have gotten the real actors but even a few generic British lines of "C'MERE YA WANKER" would have added to my enjoyment as opposed to dead silence. When you "fail", there are no consequences. If you're spotted my the Chinese or an opposing guard, you just rewind. There is no fallout. This is a puzzle game. Not a tactics game. There's one solution for all problems and you're not asked to be creative, you're asked to find the solution. It's a bit dull. "Oh hey there's a guard that I need to get to look away? Let me bring Ada here and have him face away for a few seconds." while holding the X button isn't as fun as shiruken throwing a guard as Hayato as I blow my whistle with Yumi and snipe a strawhat from across the map as Takuma. This sensation plagued the entire final half of my time with Peaky Blinders. "Man... I'm playing a way cooler version of this game in my head. It'd be cool if someone made that game instead of this one." Would I recommend Peaky Blinders: Mastermind? Maybe. If you like puzzle games or the show the game is based on, I think you could have a good time with it! I did not find it particularly bad. The game is easy to fly through and the platinum is incredibly straightforward. There's a phenomenal YouTube playlist showing how to obtain all the gold times + collectibles and I managed to earn the 30.85% rarity platinum in 1 week and 3 days. If you don't really care for puzzle games though, I think there's very little for you take away from it. I'm glad @rjkclarke recommened it to me and I'd like to return the favor by recommending Shadow Tactics! Play it! and tell me afterwards if you'd prefer this current incarnation of Peaky Blinders or sympathize with me wanting a tactics-inspired one where you're bashing bobbies over the 'ead and shuffling the Shelby family all over the map! Panda Score: 6.4 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 1.8 / 10 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted September 6, 2022 Author Share Posted September 6, 2022 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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