Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, Arcesius said:

Great review  And it really sounds like you've experienced something similar to what I went through. After my first playthrough I liked the game, but I didn't love it. I actually didn't buy the DLC for a long time since I couldn't see myself playing through the game twice more for that 100%, but man am I glad that I decided to go for it in the end!  

 

Also great to see that you appreciated the historical aspects of this game. I honestly didn't know too much about this time period, but I found myself reading the in-game information whenever I could. Is this something that you are interested in anyways?

 

Also, if you don't mind me asking.. How do you calculate your scores? I currently just go by my gut, but I'm trying to find some dynamic scoring system... 

Honestly I am quite interested in history and mythology , it's a pastime of mine, when I don't write boring lines of code at work   It's also one of the reasons I played most, if not all the AC games despite half of them being recycled ; For example I did have a general idea of the Sengoku era but it wasn't until Nioh that I actually looked it up.This is why I ultimately love this game : ignoring the "grindy" feeling, this game is actually very good with mingling the history and folklore. It's a game right up my alley.

 

As for my score..it's abit rough around the edges but that's how I calculate it usually. I will take Nioh as an example : 

 

Graphics : How the game looks according to the year of release : environment, models, characters, details etc etc. I do make a round estimation.

Sound : Soundtrack, Voice acting, SFX, everything that goes into my ear  Do I like what I hear or nah?

Gameplay : This is perhaps the most hard to grade. Not only do I have mechanics, but also : Do they function properly?are there bugs?is it intuitive? Do I lose my fingers while playing? Everything that is controller - game connected goes here.

Storyline : is the story well structured? Characters well written? does it make any sense? This is also very tough to tackle because you do have games like Devil May Cry where the story is weak but that's the idea of the main game, to turn cliches over their head, whereas games like Bayonetta try to screw cliches only to trip themselves over. 

Multiplayer : if the game has multiplayer , there are only 2 factors for me - how well do the servers work and how fair is the game. I don't take into consideration nasty players, unless the game does not penalize rage quitting. In case of games like Nioh and Dark Souls I tend to not count this part into the grade since it's not really the most important aspect to me (I rarely co-op). But in games like Far Cry 3 or Last of Us, multiplayer is integrated into the grade.

Fun Factor : the pure subjective part of the grade. Do I enjoy this game? What does my heart tell about this piece of entertainment.

 

With that in mind, I calculated the score for Nioh : 

 

Graphics : 9 - game looks very good and polished, all the armors and weapons are extremely detailed (including the consideration of how many items you have), the world looks absolutely stunning, but I can't give it a 10 because at times it can get boring e.g. I swear I can't remember the levels from the 3rd world in main game.

Sound : 8 - very good voice acting ,soundtrack and SFX, I love especially Hanzo and Okatsu when they try to speak english, I bet it was a Japanese actor voicing there. However Kelley is an absolute bore to listen to and the soundtracks are repetitive and annoying at times. Can't fault the game there though.

Gameplay : 9 - no need to explain there : multiple stances, lots of weapons and arts, ki stance, Abyss and whatnot. The combat works and it's very well designed...if you find someone to explain it to you. Because I did check the Blacksmith tutorials and honestly I did not get much. That's the only gameplay fault, it's very good but the game doesn't teach you how to be effective at it. Or at least that's what I felt. Also the spike in difficulty can be jarring for most players.

Story : 9 - it felt like a Japanese epic. Sure it sounds cliche at parts, but I don't think there was a moment where I groaned or something. Everything worked perfectly, especially considering the mingle of folklore and real history (I think I said that 3 or 4 times already). The bestiary is also VERY good in describing all kinds of demons and the fact that you have to defeat them several times which ALSO unlocks bonuses for you(those Angyo and Ungyo boosts) is absolutely sweet. Buuut I have to cut one point from the story because of the DLC3. I didn't really give a damn about the queen, only about poor Sanada.

Multiplayer : -  did not take it into consideration since I do not co-op

Fun Factor : 9 - it made me love and hate the game. But ultimately enjoyed the experience and really made me work for it. As long as you get the Soul Match and how to synergize the stats on equipment (stupid me can't put damage AND back damage on a same weapon duh) this game is a delight to play.

 

So calculating that : (9+8+9+9+9)/5 = 44/5 = 8.8 . Hope I didn't mess up any number.

 

Now of course, as mentioned, this is pretty rough, but it's a system that worked for me so far. It's still subjective but I try my very best to be as fair as possible . Unless a game really REALLY pisses me off, in that case I'll just slap a crazy 1 in Fun Factor just out of spite (so far only DMC2 and AC LIberation made me do this).

[Copanele]

Since I love leaving the best for last, here's my final ranking (for now) : 

 

DEVIL MAY CRY SERIES

 

INTRODUCTION : My first interaction with this series was actually seeing a trailer of DMC3 for PC on a local tv post who was presenting videogames (among IT stuff) in 2006. I was an avid RPG/aRPG consumer back then (with titles like Gothic, Star Wars KOTOR, Diablo 2, Drakan etc.) and was having no interaction with a console. Seeing a mad white haired boy in a red coat shooting and surfing on demons all while on a sick soundtrack made me want to get that game. After finally "buying" the game from a local distributor ☠️ I installed and played the game. The aftermath - one of my favorite series of all time with one of the most memorable protagonists for me.

 

Of course, after porting to PS3/PS4, it was obvious that I had to try the 2 games that I missed from the series : DMC1/DMC2. With lots of struggles and complaints ( thanks DMC2) I managed to platinum and 100% every single version available from both PS3 and PS4. But, let's get to the ranking itself (SPOILERS AHEAD) : 

 

7. Devil May Cry 2

 

Let's get rid of the trash shall we? Devil May Cry 2 is reviled to be one of the worst games ever made, even more insulting is the fact that it's a sequel from the masterpiece that is DMC1. The problems with this game are numerous : Dante, an established badass sassy demon hunter is almost mute and uninteresting in this game, the new addition Lucia is one of the worst characters to appear in this game, the gameplay and combat revolves in only spamming square for guns (in my second platinum run on PS3, I legit mapped the turbo button on square and just let the game go wild), you have the most idiotic bosses ever - example : a zombie...helicopter. The world is a barren city with few stupid encounters, the story makes no sense and the villain is a complete moron who switches the voice actors mid-game.

 

The only good thing about this game is that Dante has one of the best outfits, the soundtrack is not really that bad and you can unlock Trish with the DMC1 playstyle. But apart from that...this game is a mistake that shouldn't have happened .Game being this bad is because Capcom in its infinite wisdom switched directors mid-production and the game was largely ignored. The new director Hideaki Itsuno did his best to salvage this game but well...he saved the franchise with the next game.

 

Score : 3/10 Don't bother playing this trash unless you wish to play the whole series.

 

6. DmC Devil May Cry

 

If DMC2 was the black sheep of the family, well the reboot is the emo kid. In a weird twist, Capcom actually decided to reboot the series and task a different team Ninja Theory with the development of this game. What resulted was probably the most divisive moment of the fanbase and one of the most "How NOT to communicate" moments between the fans and the devs.

Basically in this game Dante is an emo punk who is "killing demons and getting laid" in his spare time. The devs tried to give the most edge to this game so it has a very strong "we live in a society" vibe. Forget everything you knew about the old Dante and Vergil, these bad boys are now in town...and they ain't staying for long.

 

Honestly the game is not that bad mechanically. The combat is quite smooth, you have several demonic and angelic weapons and the story is surprisingly engaging in theory (demon lord is a corporation boss actually). Honestly it felt quite fresh when I first play it.

However...the worst dialogue ever written, Dante basically curses every single time, the female support cast is there ONLY for the boobs (and no, not like Trish, she really is there just for the show) and Vergil....oh Vergil look how they massacred my boy! Forget the calm but cold twin brother, Vergil now is a Fedora wearing manipulative ass that has some grandeur plans and resorts to so many underhanded tactics to achieve his goals (shooting a pregnant demoness' baby moment is the worst). What's bad... he wants to rule the world yet he is weak as hell! The "wtf" moment was at the end, when Dante just piledrived a fuckton of demons while Vergil couldn't even handle a mere demon, Vergil ACTUALLY CHALLENGES DANTE! At least the original Vergil was a powerhouse who was considered to be one of the most difficult bosses ever made. This one is a little crybaby whose story is demolished even worse in the DLC.

 

Also the game is terribly easy. Gone is the challenge from past games, this one can be done mashing the same combo ever and ever (even made a guide about this game and the DLC should you wish to check it, it's on my Trophy Checklist main page shameless advertisement). But...at least you can trash some demons around. If they are not color coded (can't hit an enemy with a different colored weapon, it's dumb I know).

 

Score : 6.5/10 It's not a masterpiece by any chance but it's not DMC2 thank goodness.

 

5. Devil May Cry 1

 

The game that started it all. DMC1 introduces our suave devil hunter Dante who is a badass for hire. It's a game ahead of its age, with its tight combat and mechanics. Initially designed as a new Resident Evil, this game turned into an action game due to probably one bug : you can launch the enemies and keep them airborne with your pistols. The game emphasises style, defeating the enemies have no purpose if you don't also mock them.

And that's what sold Devil May Cry in the first place : Dante is a foul mouthed guy with demonic powers that has no issues doing massive jumps while slashing with a humongous claymore, shooting the enemies airborne or even keeping HIMSELF into the air. The setting Mallet Island is an eerie place that still keeps that Resident Evil vibe of horror. The bosses are incredibly tough and it's funny to see Dante mocking a giant lava spider just to get demolished by a meteor after the cutscene.

I believe the whole idea of the game is like this : Dante looks as a badass in the cutscenes but it's up to you to match his cutscene badassery with your gameplay skills. The game is unforgiving and demands a lot from you, so better keep it up.

Unfortunately...this game has NOT aged well. The fixed camera is the worst offender, 3/4 of the time you will die from an enemy just because the camera decided to do backflips instead. Some areas are uninspired (underwater levels), the Mundus' first fight is a shooting segment which is atrocious and... best of luck on Dante Must Die. Unless you hoarded every single item on the previous playthroughs, this mode will make you cry. 

 

Score : 7.5/10 A timeless classic but be prepared for some old school jankiness. I'd recommend watching a youtube playthrough and just pick another game if you are not a DMC fan.

 

4. DmC Devil May Cry : Definitive Edition

 

In order to probably wash away their sins with the original release, Ninja Theory recreated a Definitive Edition for DmC which... improves the game tenfold! Although nothing can save the abysmal story, the devs focused instead on the gameplay : Difficulty was revamped, new mode Gods Must Die was added, color coding was removed (enemies just take reduced damage from other weapons), you can't rack up style points by spamming anymore...it actually feels like a proper DMC game. What's more, they stuffed improved graphics, the DLC, skins and Bloody Palace in one pack. Even added a cutscene that kind of fills a plot hole. So yeah... I do recommend getting this one on PS4 over the PS3 one.

 

Score : 8/10 Ignore the story, this game is actually pretty good. I did like it more than DMC1 (no nostalgia glasses for me , didn't have a PS2).

 

3. Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4 was an odd entry for many. At the time of release, everyone was surprised that Dante wasn't the main showman anymore. Instead, the new protagonist was a snotty brat, Nero, with a demonic arm and a bad attitude. Luckily, for me, he was a fine addition to the roster.

DMC4 is one beautiful game. At the time of its release(2008) it put to shame almost every game there, graphically and mechanically speaking. The new kid Nero has only one sword and one revolver but I never ever got bored of playing him. I venture myself to say that at times he's even more fun to play as Dante (yes it's blasphemy but I don't care). What he brings new to the table is his Devil Bringer, a powerful demonic arm that can grapple anything and everything. While every enemy can be Bustered(Nero grabs and slam them with unique animations) the bosses need to be weakened first. Using a buster attack on the enemies inflicts massive amounts of damage and it never gets old.

 

You do get to control Dante after the second half of the game and...he's scary  you don't have to select your style from a Divinity Statue anymore, you can switch it on the fly. That applies to the weapons and guns too, so what results is a mad demon who can combo infinitely the poor demons to oblivion. Watching youtube videos from players like Donguri or Sasaki makes you realize that actually... Dante is the boss and the demons are just poor fodder for the Devil hunter.

What's bad with this game...it's the unfinished state that it was released into. You have LOTS of backtracking (play as Nero then replay the same levels as Dante but in reverse), you have to fight the bosses 3 TIMES, while the best boss in the game can be fought only once and there are some stupid puzzle sequences that are annoying to do (the Dice game is horrendous). There is also a special edition which includes Lady, Trish and Vergil but that means only more backtracking and no particular story missions for them. Also all the shit that happens in DMC4 is because Dante is lazy. Really, Dante is so brutally OP in this game his laziness is actually the reason the world almost goes to shit. I know Capcom wanted to introduce new poster boy Nero but they could at least pose a serious threat to the cast. Owell.

 

Score : 8.5/10 It's a good game if you don't get bored of the backtracking. Oh and it is the hardest DMC to platinum on PS4, so grab it if you wish a challenge.

 

2. Devil May Cry 3

 

My first love and the game that got me into the series. DMC3 presents Dante at the beginning of his career as a devil hunter. To wash the shame from DMC2 Hideaki Itsuno put extra effort to make a great game. I believe he was overzealous because this game is a pure work of art.

 

I will start with the story : it is brilliant. It revolves around Dante's rivalry with his twin brother Vergil, but not only that, it also revolves around a different protagonist, Lady and her feud against her father Arkham. The whole game is narrated through Lady's perspective actually and the thematic of this game is family. For a silly game where you surf on monsters and chew pizza, the game is incredibly deep and touching.

 

Speaking of surfing, the gameplay is DMC1 times ten...thousand. You have so many moves and combinations it's amazing. Dante has access to 4 main styles (with 2 additional styles acquired from enemies) and lots of weapons : his trusted Claymore Rebellion, a 3 segmented nunchuck, dual elemental swords, an...electric guitar that shoots with bats and...divine gauntlets that spit holy light and pulverize everything. Yeah this game is insane alright. Also every mechanic is there for the taking, you just need to actually discover it (you will be amazed how crucial it is to know how to actually jump on an enemy and how many combo possibilities that opens to you).

 

The game is also insanely difficult for a newcomer. Initially the Japanese version had the "normal" difficulty actually be hard (they later toned it down). While the game doesn't seem much in the first levels, the first actual fight with Cerberus will actually test your skills. The game gets progressively harder from that point, culminating with Vergil fights, that are one of the best fights against a boss ever made. Vergil is the antithesis of Dante, he is calculated and precise and wastes no movements in trying to slice you. And slice you he will, for he can be the most punishing boss ever made. His third fight is known to be one of the most difficult ever made, and on Dante Must Die he will make you cry. Vergil is hands down one of the best bosses ever made.

 

This game was nr 1 DMC until recently. However there are some minor hiccups : The Spiral gun is kind of useless, after getting Beowulf you likely won't use anything else other than Rebellion and the Arkham fight is kinda meh. It is intentional but I never look forward to fighting him.

 

Score: 9.8/10 It doesn't have a perfect score due to the bosses. That's not the case with the final entry however.

 

1. Devil May Cry 5

 

A true masterpiece and a proper part of the series. This is how you DO videogames in general and this game should act as a role model for every developer out there. DMC5 alone represents the feeling that many of us first had when getting into this passion. It's a game that is done with pure love, passion and devotion to gamers, fans or otherwise. Even if you utterly hate this franchise you can't say that DMC5 is not a pure masterpiece.

 

Because this game does everything right : Spectacular graphics, wonderful soundtrack (that increases its beat compared to your style), fluid combat with each of the characters and a story that will make the fans yell and ask for more. I sure know it touched me and made me almost hate Itsuno for ruining me with such a beautiful game  .

 

In this game, the world is almost done for : New demon lord that nobody knows. The heroes are in a dire situation : Nero loses his arm and his demonic power to an unknown entity and Dante the badass demon slayer that is as legendary as his father gets demolished with one punch. Now the stakes are high and the heroes are at their all time low.

 

As if he wanted to apologize (again) for the unfinished state of DMC4, Hideaki Itsuno must have put his own life force in this game, because this is how you properly do 3 campaigns in one game. You play either as Nero, Dante or the newcomer V. Nero lost his Devil Bringer ability but now he can equip different mechanical arms with various properties and powers. The combinations are insane and fun as hell. Dante is old Dante, with even more powers, combos, weapons (you can equip them all or ironically UNEQUIP them all and just play Royal Guard style). V is a newcomer whose inclusion might scare veterans with his summoner abilities (he can control a bird, a panther or a behemoth) but his gameplay is surprisingly fluid and beautiful made, he really can keep up to Nero and Dante with his powers. All of them have a huge array of combos and movesets and you need to spend a lot of time in order to properly use them.

 

It's amazing how much content this game brings. Never played a DMC game? NO PROBLEM you have a video describing every action ever happened in the previous games, MANGA AND ANIME! (yes they canonized EVERYTHING). Want to have a laugh? You have the video from the developers doing their action scenes (YOU WILL LAUGH). Are you a nostalgic veteran? Everything in the game is just for you dearie, absolutely everything is referenced in a wonderful way (not just crapped on) and all the stories and plots are linked together. You have no idea how to play this efficiently? You have a training zone where you can select your encountered enemies and practice on them until you master fighting them. Do you feel an adrenaline rush? You have the Bloody Palace which consists of 101 levels with various enemy variation that will test your utmost skill and mastery. You can even save everywhere in the Bloody Palace and back up your save if you don't wish to lose your progress.

 

The bosses are the best they ever were. They are unique to Dante, Nero and V and only in special places they intertwine and you can fight the boss several times as different characters (except bloody palace). There is one boss however that I will cover in the SPOILER section below, so don't read there if you wish to play the game and not be spoiled : 

Spoiler

The greatest moment in all the franchise is the final Vergil boss fight. It's also the moment where the torch is passed on from Dante to Nero. Vergil is as vicious as he was in DMC3 with even more movesets and attacks borrowed from DmC and fighting him as Dante is as epic as in DMC3, but it's the moment when you fight him as Nero that the game reaches the Apex : Nero is Vergil's son and all his feelings and frustration is reflected in this fight. The fight starts with a sad violin tune but EXPLODES once you activate the recovered Devil Trigger for the first time as Nero in DMC5 : Everything changes, adrenaline rushes, you FINALLY GET THAT THE MAIN THEME OF THE GAME IS A FUCKING SPOILER TO THE WHOLE STORY and you just get overwhelmed by the epicness. Nero rightfully replaces Dante as the main character of this franchise and even remembering this moment makes me get goosebumps. It's the single most badass moment in a videogame I have ever encountered.

 

Score : 10/10. This game represents all I love in a videogame. It's my nr1 game out there and I can't get enough of it. I can't find any fault to it personally and I can't recommend it enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is it so far, these are my impressions to the series that I completed so far : Soulsborne, Prince of Persia, God of War and Devil May Cry. Awesome series that made me invested in gaming.

The next one will most likely be Assassin's Creed. Won't cover it yet until I completed AC Origins and Oddysey (and probably Ragnarok will appear until then). But when I complete those behemoths... it will be a two-parter since there are SO MANY GAMES OUT THERE. Can't wait to do that too though  .

 

Until next time!

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No.80: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim(PS4)

+100% completed

 

Platinum Name : Platinum Trophy 

Hardest Trophy : Oblivion Walker - collect all the Daedric Artefacts 

Difficulty : Ranging from 2/10 to 5/10 depending on your build.

Personal opinion :  9/10

 

Basically the same impressions as the PS3 entry which you can find here, HOWEVER this one is actually playable. Not only PS4 version works properly, doesn't risk your console to get bricked, but you also can actually activate several mods to enjoy the game(while not as good as the PC mods, they also disable your trophies). So yeah, being a huge Skyrim fan, had to complete this game twice :3 .

 

Since I won't really bother with a review on the same game, here's some exploitable shit to do if you wish to be "cash money" in this game.

 

HOW TO GET GOOD MONEY IN THIS GAME(mid to late game, you need soul gems, they are in abundance in the world so no worries):

• Find the Banish enchantment on an item (don't worry, the crypts will be filled with that crap)
• Disenchant the item at an enchantment bench
• Craft several useless crap (like Iron Daggers)
• Enchant them with Banish
• Shower yourself with that good gold once you start selling the daggers
• Be amazed how your Enchanting skill skyrockets as well while you enchant those stupid daggers

 

Oh, but the merchants are shitty because they don't have cash and your Speech skill is around 15? Well, here's another trick!

 

HOW TO FIND AN ANNOYING MERCHANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

• Complete the Thieves Guild sidequest (related to platinum of course)
• Go to any Fencer that is in a town ( My pick is Niraine from Windhelm, she has 3800-4000 gold)
• Sell her the aforementioned Iron Daggers from GOOD MONEY entry
• Quicksave
• Put an arrow/dagger/hammer/fist into her head
• wait till you get the bounty (around 3 seconds)
• Reload
• Niraine is back alive with her stock full.

Say you wish to become the greatest blacksmith the world has ever seen

 

HOW TO FOLD THE STEEL 1000 TIMES INTO THE RISING SUN:

• Assuming you have some cash on you, go to Whiterun to the Avenicii Blacksmith girl
• Buy every Misc shit from her
• Just forge whatever you desire (the bigger the price of the item the more exp you get)
• After you finish the forging, quicksave then murder the poor girl
• Reload and be amazed how the girl has her stock full

And lastly, you wish to reach level 80 to fight that shitty Legendary Dragon? Search no more !

 

HOW TO BECOME THE VERY BEST LIKE NOONE EVER WAS(Winterhold College must be unlocked):

• Get some stupid clothes with you - anything will do
• Make your very best effort to have max enchantment, then enchant "Reduce Illusion cost and Mana regen" on the items
• Go get the Muffle spell from the Orc librarian in Winterhold
• Spam that Muffle thingie until you reach 100 (grab the Apprentice spell cost is halved perk)
• Once you reach 100 , go Winterhold and talk with Drevis(an ugly elf) that will give you a quest
• Find the 4 required books (google that thing)
• Finish the quest and buy Harmony
• Legendary your skill (reset it to 15)
• Go in Whiterun at 12:00 PM and spam Harmony
• Bask in the glory of having a fuckton of exp points per cast. Don't forget to Legendary your Illusion skill!

 

These are but a few of the magically exploitable features of Skyrim. Enjoy!

Yep, there are many, many exploits in this game, these are some of the few

[Copanele]

The next entry is the Samurai Shodown collection Arcade Version. While most of them are easy to 100%(they don't have platinums), 2 of them specifically are quite frustrating to do mainly because SNK loves to throw cheapness all around. 

 

ARCADE ARCHIVES COLLECTION : SAMURAI SHODOWN 

 

Entries : Samurai Shodown I, II , III, IV, V, V Special

Hardest Trophy : Hi Score Player for Samurai Shodown V Special 

Favorite Character : Haohmaru (I, II, III, IV), Mina (V, V Special)

 

💯 No. 8 - Samurai Shodown

Difficulty : 2/10

Personal Impression : 7/10

 

This is the first Samurai Shodown ever made and it shows up. It's a fun game to play but it shows its old age. Also one of the only series where combo based gameplay is replaced by slow powerful hits. 

 

💯  No. 9 - Samurai Shodown II

 

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal impression : 7.2/10

 

Quality wise, Samurai Shodown II is way better than its predecessor. You have a bigger roster of characters and the graphics and combat is more finessed. The eternal rival of Haohmaru, Genjuro shows up in this iteration and honestly he's way more fun than the main protagonist. Also a specific character named Cham-Cham also gets introduced and she is a blast to play as.

 

💯  No. 10 - Samurai Shodown III

Difficulty : 4.5/10

Personal Impression : 7.8/10

 

In Samurai Shodown III the "SNK boss syndrome " is most accentuated. For those who don't know, SNK has the bad habit of making the CPU insanely hard regardless of difficulty by reading your inputs and adapting their strategy. It's the second hardest SamSho I had to complete so far and sadly is not as good as I or II. Luckily you have Save States to abuse, else the game would be a pure 6/10.

 

💯  No. 11 - Samurai Shodown IV

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal Impression : 8/10

 

SamSho IV is way better than all the previous entries . Combat has been revamped, two more fun characters have been introduced, the game is WAY more violent and there's different new mechanics (clash system that makes you mash the button in order to disarm your opponent). The final boss is the usual annoying Amakusa (the fucker from the poster, appears in every game entry), followed by your rival. Somehow this game just clicks. Also the new character Sogetsu is very cheap, you can spam projectiles with him for the win.

 

💯  No. 12 - Samurai Shodown V

 

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal Impression : 7.8/10

 

Not really the most outstanding SamSho out there, it does introduce a wonderful character : Mina (the girl with the bow from the cover). However there's no significant improvement from SamSho IV and the new characters Enja and Suija are plain ass cheap. If you fight against them it's best to just restart the game.

 

💯  No. 13 - Samurai Shodown V Special

 

Difficulty : 5/10

Personal Impression : 9/10

 

As the final entry, SamSho V Special is my favorite Samurai Shodown to date, but also the most frustrating one. The roster has been completely revamped together with the gameplay and this game is a delight to play (if you select the PS4 version, you even have online for it). HOWEVER in order to unlock all the game and 100% the trophy list, you need to defeat 4 bosses one after the other, the first 3 must be defeated with a special attack. If you don't do that, you get a fake ending. While using save states is possible in the normal mode, the Hi Score mode (basically a survival mode) doesn't let you restart a fight. Pulling a special move is quite easy HOWEVER the bosses have the bad habit of blocking that move. You have only one shot at the special move, after that you can't use it anymore in the same match. It was the most infuriating trophy to get but the satisfaction was real.

 

So this is my list, i shared it more because of the nice pictures. The only Samurai Shodown I have to complete is VI, but that one is non-canon and it's overall a pretty meh game, tough as nails.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No. 81 : Far Cry 4 (PS3)

+100%DLC

 

Platinum Name : Master of Kyrat 

Hardest Trophy : Changing Lanes  - perform a vehicle takedown in co-op 

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal impression : 9.3/10

 

Following the massive success that was the third installment of the series, Far Cry 4 trades the islands and blue sea for the chilly mountains and high altitudes. You control Ajay Ghale, another troubled youngster that travels to Tibet..erm Kyrat in order to return his mother's ashes. In true Far Cry style, within 5 minutes of his adventure he is "detained" at gunpoint by the local army and is introduced to the now-iconic pompous villain Pagan Min. Honestly when I first started this game 3 years ago I was like " oh wow another Ubisoft Original, here we go with the recycled ideas" and dropped the game. Now re-picking it up for a backlog completion...boy was I wrong, I've come to love this game way more than Far Cry 3.

 

Graphically and mechanically speaking the game is a more polished version of FC3. Game looks stunning, Kyrat is a beautiful place to explore, soundtrack really fits to the ambient, even the radio with its crazy DJ is fun to listen at (got killed so many times because I forgot to watch the road while listening to DJ Rabi's stupid stories). Guns feel better, stealth is more stealthy, no idea how they can do stealth better than Assassin's Creed but anyway. You have the same outposts, towers to reveal map, collectibles, sidequests, hunting quests, HURK. It really seems like the same copy/paste that Ubi is infamous of. 

 

BUT IN TERMS OF ATMOSPHERE boy does this game do things differently. It's way whackier , way more fun, the story is way better structured. For me Jason Brody wasn't really believable (how the heck could one party boy be this murder machine?) but Ajay has quite a violent background and has more normal reactions. The characters are so, SO better. Pagan Min is absolutely stunning, by far one of my favorite villains out there just by sheer pompousness (is that even a word?) and his underlings are also really well written, each more insane than the other. Sabal and Amita are also really compelling at first and it's really interesting to see how they shed their saviour and protector skin during the game. Longinus is a mad preacher, shoutout to Far Cry 2 who is both scary and interesting. Reggie and Yogi...nah fuck those they are annoying.

My personal favorite apart from Min was Mumu Chiffon, Pagan Min's former tailor. He's the one who sends you hunting for rare animals for those final pouch upgrades and man the interactions with him are so friggin hilarious. I love how Ajay always has this " what's with this madman sending me to hunt rare or extinct animals" only for Chiffon to dismiss him and actually throw some weird reason that makes sense. I loved all those missions.

Speaking of missions, the first 2 or 3 are really bland and kinda put me off. But once you get past the beginning of the game, the whole world picks up and goes full bonkers. Not to spoil too much, but there are 2 main missions : hunting for a golden Honey Badger for Chiffon (it's by far the hardest mission in the game, the fucker almost 2 shot me, even the game asks if you are insane) and capturing an opium den (if you remember the Marijuana field from Far Cry 3, this one is 5 times better, I love you DJ Punjabi ). This game didn't make me fall asleep and that's something coming from an Ubi game! Even collectible wise, you are actually not required to collect all those shits! You only need to gather 10 or 20 of each collectible and they are really accessible.

 

The only place where the game is kinda meh is the multiplayer. Battles of Kyrat is really uninteresting, I could have done without it. The co-op is atrocious mainly because Ubisoft Servers and getting the hardest trophy in the game (for me), co-op takedown, proved to be a major pain in the ass. Thankfully all the multiplayer trophies could be done in one night at most. Skill not required. Also the servers are weirdly enough still populated so that's a thing.

 

The game has also a DLC called Valley of the Yeti. To spare the confusion, this DLC happens IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME (not at the end) while escaping from Durgesh prison. At first I was kinda disappointed by this DLC but it soon captivated me. While not as fun as the main game(DJ Punjabi yooooo), it still offers a serious amount of fun, being required to protect your base from various waves of invaders and fending off the new enemies of the game, the Yeti. All I can say...better bring on the biggest and baddest weapons that you have, those Yeti are ridiculously tough. Also upgrade your base as fast as possible since the DLC can be brutally tough if you are not prepared.

 

All in all, I loved this game. Not going to play the PS4 version but I really really enjoyed this. All I wished was more Pagan Min time but I won't complain either. Next one is Primal though, I hope I won't be TOO disappointed by it.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- Kyrat is beautiful

- Solid mechanics

- Ajay Ghale is a way better character than Jason Brody

- Way more challenging enemies

- Pagan Min might be the best villain Ubisoft had to offer

- Fun and whacky missions - PUNJABI

- Almost all the side characters are fun as hell to interact with

- DLC is crazy and challenging

 

THE BAD:

 

- Too little Pagan Min time

- Yogi and Reggie should get lost

- Why do they keep adding Hurk in the game?

- Multiplayer is bland

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No. 82 : Assassin's Creed Origins

+100% DLC

 

Platinum Name : Earn them all ! 

Hardest Trophy : Old Habits - complete all locations 

Difficulty : 3/10 - not difficult at all, maybe the easiest AC game, but man is it time consuming

Personal Impression : 9/10

 

Assassin's Creed Origins is the revival of the series by Ubisoft. After the previous title Syndicate showed the series' fatigue (despite it being a very good game), Ubisoft took more time and completely redesigned the game's scope and gameplay. The results and what I experienced will be described below.

 

Origins newest setting is now Ancient Egypt and follows the trail of Bayek, a Medjay - an old order of defender of people - who is in the hunt for a cult responsible for the death of his child. Of course, in doing so he gets tangled in world-wide (ancient world at least) intrigue and conspirations. Typical Assassin stuff - or is it?

 

Now, for those who didn't figure it out the first time from the title, Origins covers the birth of the Assassin's Guild that will oppose the future Templars. The main story is largely uninteresting - Bayek running around murdering members of the Order of the Ancient (proto-templars) while his wife Aya goes diplomatic mode with Cleopatra (it is ancient Egypt after all). There are the usual historical figures - Apollodorus, Queen Cleopatra and Caesar himself but honestly they really aren't memorable at the same level as Leonardo Da Vinci was in AC2 for instance. Somehow, while Ubisoft went grandeur mode, the actual story atmosphere was lost on the way. Bayek is a really compelling character (way better than Arno if you ask me) but his actual traits you will get from the side quests actually and the DLCs. While he is a bundle of rage in the main game, only by playing the sidequests you see him for what he really  is - caring, understanding, with a love for children and lack of patience for assholes.

His wife Aya though - I could not stand her, sorry. I know many put her as one of the best characters out there (and if you played AC2, you will instantly know who she actually becomes, if not - no worries you will find out in the DLC) and in a way yes, she is strong and resourceful, but she feels ... like a robot to me. I don't know. Bayek FEELS like a man overcome by grief and desire for revenge, like an actual person, but Aya...is like a forced inclusion. She doesn't feel natural, doesn't fit into the mix, doesn't share to me any impression other than a strong sense for justice. Honestly so far the best written female character felt to be Evie Frye from Syndicate, not Aya. 

 

Where the game truly shines is in graphics department. My god whoever did the research and implemented Ancient Egypt needs a prize and a permanent doubled salary. EGYPT IS BEAUTIFUL in this game. Watching several documentaries and so on, the guys from Ubisoft documented themselves thoroughly and really reconstructed the various temples with accurate hieroglyps (mind you, there are actual texts written on the walls in the game, not some weird facebook emojis). The map is HUGE , the madmen really reconstructed the entirety of Egypt there, or at least Lower Nile region. Your options are limitless now - you can climb the Pharos of Alexandria and jump around , you can explore the Pyramids and the Sphinx (with some special goodies inside - mind the snakes!), you can swim around and wrestle with the crocodiles or - and this is my favorite by far - get a camel and trek the desert in the midday.

You get 2 things from the desert - sandstorms (you really can't see crap in them) and mirages, optical illusions. I love going with poor Bayek through the sand dunes and experience various mirages and sound hallucinations. Imagine my excitement when I first went for a body of water expecting some treasure there, only to see that I was never reaching that body of water, because it was never there in the first place. Or meeting a hermit in the middle of nowhere only for him to throw his staff which turns into a snake (that explains some of Moses tricks right there lol). Honestly in terms of graphics and such, the game is the best of its kind at the time of release.

Even sound-wise , the various egyptian themes and languages are predominant. Gone are the days of Unity where the french spoke with an impeccable english. Now while the main language is still english, they actually added the egyptian / greek way of speaking. The NPCs speak actual egyptian even, there really was a lot of care put in there.

 

Ok so now gameplay : it's a mixed bag here. Now you can climb anywhere (and I really mean anywhere , at some points I thought I was actually Spider-man). Bayek can grip any edge or ledge existent, the freedom is there. A new RPG system was implemented with a skill tree covering 3 main branches - warrior, hunter and assassin. The combat itself switched to a more traditional "dark souls- esque " style, you can now lock on an enemy, block, parry, dodge and backstab (but no, the fights are still stupid easy, on Easy and Normal difficulty at least). The eagle vision was upgraded, now you have a literal eagle Senu who can scan the area for enemies while flying (Senu herself can be upgraded if you find Synchronization points) and as a character you have a type of "scanner" who can detect every goodie to be looted in an area.

HOWEVER the thing that truly was lost is the "assassin" feel. Sure you can sneak around, take out guards, use various tools (i never did unless it was for a trophy) and bow, but...the combat is so simple and rewarding, I ended up abandoning the sneak part and just going Rambo style and murder them all, even if the enemies called reinforcements. There are some really tough enemies and bosses but really, they aren't even close to the toughness of some missions in the previous games. You are not required to sneak at all anymore, the NPC's can't die even if their health is low (never seen one die or get desyncronized if I was detected) and the assassinations themselves are so unrewarding I didn't even bother. Not to mention that now Ubisoft introduced a stupid levelling system - even if you are a master assassin, if the enemy is a higher level, you can't one shot him with your upgradeable hidden blade. This is pure stupid from their part, why would they do that? I was massively disappointed when I discovered that after sneaking around some high level enemies, the captain was barely scratched by my succesful attempt and just whacked me twice with his mallet. On this section, I feel that Ubisoft dropped the ball.

 

And honestly the gameplay is what made me feel this game has nothing to do with Assassins anymore except the name. There's only one mission where  I actually sneaked around, at the beginning in the baths where Bayek first uses his hidden blade. Apart from that...either the tactic " Nobody will notice if there's nobody to notice" or just upgrade the bow and snipe them from afar. No "you got detected", no careful planning, nothing made me feel like an assassin or WANT me to be an assassin. Apart from that, the enemies have eyes of an eagle. If they see only a shadow of you or if you just aim for a second, the whole camp sees you and are on your ass. Paired with the annoyance of Aya and the random attacks of lions and other animals while sneaking around made me drop the assassin act completely.

 

The DLCs however are a treat. There are 3 DLC's available : The Hidden Ones, Discovery Tour : Ancient Egypt and Curse of the Pharaoh, all 3 of them are stellar.

 

The Hidden Ones cover the part of Bayek after exacting his revenge and finally forming the first group of soon-to-be assassins, the Hidden Ones. While the main villains are... I honestly have no idea, they are THIS forgettable, Bayek's struggles to maintain his group and actually setting the tenents of the Creed based on experience are really well written. The new area of Sinai is nothing memorable but it gets the job done, beautiful as always.

 

Discovery Tour is a must have if you are a history nerd! You learn everything you desire about Ancient Egypt while roaming around. It is a very educative section, it really would improve the history lessons I attended in highschool  I can't help but applause Ubisoft for implementing this stuff. Well done!

 

Curse of the Pharaoh might be the best DLC I played in an AC game. Here the guys dropped the realism act and went full bonkers, with long dead Pharaohs and servants of Anubis invading the city of Thebes (of course because of a McGuffin of Eden duh). These enemies are quite challenging to face but what really matters here is that you can explore the Afterlife of each pharaoh! There, the graphics went from 10/10 to a full 300/10. Getting to Queen Nefertiti's Field of Reeds or Rameses II's war plagued Duat made my jaw drop. I spent a whole day exploring every corner of those beautiful worlds (and getting chewed by various Serqets - huge ass scorpions). The fights with each Pharaoh is really memorable also, they can really kick your ass even on Easy if you are not careful. This DLC is crazy amazing, I can't recommend it enough if you got Origins.

 

There are 2 things I didn't mention : Trials of Anubis/Sobek and the present world story. There are some "glitches in the Animus" which lets you fight a God, Anubis or Sobek (not sure if there are more). I was excited at first only to discover that all you have to do is shoot arrows at a huge orb in the chest of each god while dodging his attacks. Was fun the first 2 minutes then I got bored. The crap I received was way weaker than my own weapons.

The present story died together with Desmond. The new protagonist Layla Hassan is very uninteresting, I have no idea what happens in the present anymore, Templars, William Miles, whatever. NOT FUN! It's the most boring part of the game. At least before Desmond was compelling and had an actual story. Now...another apocalypse is coming. Yeah The Isu civilization keeps showing up but really screw them and their apples and their cryptic messages, I got fully bored of them and they should get the hell out of the game. LET ME EXPERIENCE THE ASSASSINS VS TEMPLARS IN PRESENT TIME GODDAMNIT! Where's Otso Berg? He was the last good villain and he dissapeared or something (or I didn't notice because Layla is boring as hell). 

 

Platinum run is grindy as fuck. Unlock the whole map and every single question mark in Egypt. It's tedious, do it last else you will hate this game. Apart from that the platinum is hella easy. The only mechanically difficult trophy is completing the Serqet Lairs in the DLC, every enemy is lvl 58 and you are lvl 55 maximum (nothing you can't fix with a good bow though). Honestly this game shouldn't be played with the platinum in mind though.

 

So in conclusion...if you ignore the "Assassin" part from the title, Origins is a very, very good game. While the present day story is garbage and assassinations are lackluster, Ancient Egypt is very beautiful and the game can really hold your interest to finish it, if you are a fan of history.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- best graphics in an Assassin's Creed game at the time of its release

- Ancient Egypt is very well represented

- The gameplay is more diverse than previous ttles

- Bayek is a good protagonist

- The DLCs are a must-play!

 

THE BAD:

 

- Aya is annoying

- Present day story is non-existent

- Could we please stop with the Isu McGuffins? They are tiresome

- The assassination section is unrewarding

- Might be the easiest game of the series unless you go Nightmare mode

- Stupid level locked assassinations - you can't assassinate a high level enemy

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

82% completed - Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (PS3)

(To this day, I have no idea who the dude on the cover is)

 

Unobtainable Platinum Name : Ultimate Player 

Hardest Trophy : World Player of the Year  Become World Player in Become a Legend mode - making me play a fuckton of matches is not fun

Difficulty : 2/10, probably 7/10 if the online was still active

Personal Impression : No idea, maybe a 6/10, not a football fan

 

Ok uhm...this is an odd entry on my trophy checklist. PES2015 is a game that I initially played with my roommates back in university time. Not knowing about trophies (or caring about them), I just played a couple of matches, was like " meh I would rather play FIFA 07" then just threw the CD away. Several years later, after signing up on this fine site, I reanalyzed my backlog and decided why the heck not, let's get all the trophies possible for this crap (servers being long dead). After many "how the fuck am I even going to play" curses, simmed matches and dark souls streams, I finally got the glorious 82%, which is the offline part.

 

About the game : You get a team of 11 players and try to score goals against other teams of 11 fools. It's basic football (or soccer for the oversea friends). Since Konami has almost no licences for football teams, those being owned by EA, you have some really odd team names, like London FC for Chelsea. Gameplay is abit more punishing than FIFA (not that it makes any difference to me anyway) but the commentators are usually the same : an englishman and a scotsman. Also I have no idea what an offside is or how it's given but owell.

 

This game has 3 main parts to cover : Tutorial and one win in various league cups,  Master League (being the very best manager in Europe, South America, Asia and the World) and Become a Legend (being the very best player in the aforementioned parts). All these can be achieved on easy mode and simmed 80% of the time.

Tutorial gave me abit of a headache at first, mainly because I forgot how to turn on my L3 button so I did it with the D-PAD (Note : Not a good idea). Winning matches on easy mode is...well..easy. Master League has taken the most time but it also was the easiest, I haven't played a single match, simmed all the way with all the teams maxed to 109. 

Become a Legend however forced me to play a couple of matches. It was fun at first (scoring 20 goals as Messi never gets old) but it got frustrating at times.

 

Being on PS3, the game has some issues. The interface is NOT user friendly at all, the loading times are atrocious and most of the times the commands don't even work...for some reason. No idea why. It took me an afternoon to figure out how to edit my team and how to actually play (but this is largely my own fault since I am bad with these types of games). But once I got the hang of it...it was smooth sailing from there. 

 

I will never play a Football videogame in my entire life again. I'll stick to the real thing.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- it can be fun to score 20 goals against the poor AI

- you can edit your team to be a powerforce

- funny commentators

- easy as hell trophies

- good tutorial

- online servers being down I wasn't forced to play the infernal online

 

THE BAD:

 

- online servers being down I couldn't get the platinum. Boohoo.

- Loading times are reminding me of Windows Vista with viruses.

- I have no idea what most of the teams are.

- Nobody wants to buy my CD copy now. Game is ancient.

 

[Copanele]

 No. 83 : Tekken 7

 

Platinum Name : I'll Get Everything Back! 

Hardest Trophy : It's Time For You To Meet Your End!  - lost 4 times to Devil Kazuya just because I have to beat him around 3 times and I have no idea how to use Heihachi.

Difficulty : 1.5/10

Personal Impression : 8/10

 

This is my first interaction with a Tekken game and so far it was an interesting one. I normally play most fighting games even though I am not that great at them...except Tekken.

I was expecting to just mash some buttons, play some random online and then delete the game but fortunately enough the game is far more interesting than I thought.

 

Honestly though , I have no idea what the story is. I know it's a tradition to toss people into volcanoes there but apart from that I couldn't care less. Yes I should have played the whole series first (same goes for Guilty Gear, a person who starts with XRd wouldn't give a damn on the previous games) but well I will have to deal with it. I honestly felt that the story is trash  I appreciate that every character speaks in its native tongue, it's fun to head an italian speaking with Heihachi and him replying in japanese like there would be no issue. Soundtrack is atrocious though so I preferred to just add another music in the background.

 

Skipping all that uninteresting things, let's get to the gameplay. The principles are simple : The 2 upper buttons square and triangle are for left and right punches and the 2 lower buttons x and circle ar for left and right kicks. Combining buttons result in various combos. In theory it's simple but in practice....woo boy, this might be one of the most complex fighting games out there. Considering that you have the third axis involved ( you can sidestep up or down the arena ), this game gives way to some complex strategies and combos. I felt quite confident at first, only to watch some champion matches and...yeaah not even close to what I'd expect  My main is King so far just because I like his design alot.

 

Interesting enough, there is a guest character that I love : Akuma from Street Fighter. I initially loved his inclusion (he is the SF4 Akuma, with FADC and those mad shoryuken juggles) and I used him online, but I ultimately dropped him because I am not playing Street Fighter again.

 

There are other DLC characters but I honestly did not want to spend money on them. Not being interested in the franchise, it would have been a waste of money. Although...Eliza looks sick as hell (no idea who she is though).

 

Sadly I can't tell more about Tekken 7. Platinum is way too trivial and it doesn't scratch even 5% of the game. For a better experience I will go online mode (which is very good surprisingly, had no disconnections other than rage quits). It's a strong game in itself and I believe it does satisfy the fans of the series.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- strong and intricate combat

- wide array of characters

- awesome stages and stage transitions

- good online ; it's a shocker really

- Akuma

 

THE BAD:

 

- awful story

- with one exception, the music is awful

- it is not beginner friendly ; no Tutorial

[Copanele]

💯  No.14 : Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection 

 

Hardest Trophy : (without boosting) I'm Blue - achieve Blue Belt in ranking 

                            (with boosting) World Warrior - Beat Street Fighter II World Warrior 

Difficulty : 5/10

Personal impression : 2/10 Street Fighter 1

                                   6-7/10 Street Fighter 2 games

                                   7/10 Street Fighter Alpha games

                                   7-8/10 Street Fighter III New Generation and 2nd Impact

                                   9/10 Street Fighter III 3rd Strike

 

I finally decided to give this collection a go, to experience all the former glory of Capcom's Golden Age of fighting games. 30th Anniversary contains all the emulated games, from Street Fighter 1 , a ton of Street Fighter 2 Versions, Alpha releases and Street Fighter III. What I got here is a mixed bag of experiences, I will mention only the most notable ones. 

 

Street Fighter 1 is the first one ever released. You can pick up either Ryu or Ken and go arcade mode, there's no option. The game...is absolute trash. I know it's ancient but seriously considering how good SF2 is... This game is almost unplayable. Don't bother trying to do combos or even hit the jumping enemy, just SPAM HADOKEN. Or at least...try to. The inputs don't work accurately (some Negative Edge arcade cabinet misported on PS4) so your best bet is to mash that quarter circle square until you pull it off. 

Worst part is when facing Sagat at the end ; He is a constant Tiger Shot spammer and he is one of the cheapest characters ever. You have to outspam him in order to win. Fortunately Save States help you greatly here.

I will never touch this game again for sure, I hope I can forget about it.

 

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Is the second installment in the series and the point where the series got its popularity. Compared to the atrocity that was SF1, this one is an awesome entry, playable, with a decent roster of characters (for the times). Unfortunately it did not age well at all. Even on easy, the final 4 bosses Balrog, Vega, Sagat and Bison are very cheap and just straight up read your inputs. Of course, they were programmed to eat up as many quarters as they could but still...By far, the worst I had to face was Vega the spanish assassin. In his arena he climbs on the background fence and jumps at you, his attacks have priority and he just breaks your defence like there's no tomorrow.

It was the hardest from the series for me;In SF1 at least I could outspam my opponent. But at least I somewhat enjoyed it way more.

 

I will skip the next 3 releases (they are basically faster SF2 with extra characters) and I will go to the best one.

 

Super Street Fighter II Turbo : The final version of Street Fighter 2, game is way faster, more polished and more fun. The special attacks are finally working, more characters and a secret boss in the form of Shin Akuma. This boss is infamous for being the toughest old fighting games secret boss out there and maaan they did not exagerate. Took me 1 hour to finally beat him by a small margin. I am lowkey proud of knowing how to deal with Akumas but ... this guy was too much. His damage output was insane and he was zapping across the street like no tomorrow. But with a small bit of luck and loads of skill he finally fell.

 

Street Fighter Alpha Series : finally a proper sequel to the series. New mechanics, new characters and new graphics. Unfortunately except from Cody (my fav character) and M Bison from Alpha 3, this series is not memorable enough for me, I just zapped through it with Akuma.

 

Street Fighter III : Now this is where the rules changed. I was pretty ok-ish with the previous entries, but when I got to Street Fighter III I had an absolute BLAST! I love this entry of the series, with its stupid characters, parry system and absolute unit of a final boss. Gill is one of the cheapest assholes out there, being able to throw meteors, heavenly rays and even resurrect if you beat him with a full super bar. 3rd Strike is one of the most polished versions and personally I enjoyed it way more than even Street Fighter 4 for some reason (played it separately on an emulator before). It's an awesome experience and one of Capcom's finest.

 

For the online part I have to admit I didn't even bother. Just boosted the whole thing (it is possible in Hyper SF2, nobody plays that one), the netcode is atrocious in these games.

 

All in all, it's a nice piece of history if you wish to experience the Stone Age of fighting games, but I wouldn't recommend a full priced purchase for this one. They did not age well at all.

 

THE GOOD:

- a nice piece of history.

- 3rd Strike is a timeless classic.

- have the opportunity to face the legendary assholes Shin Akuma, Alpha3 M Bison and Gill

 

THE BAD:

- Street Fighter 1

- Games did not age well

- Street Fighter 2 has cheap bosses

- Netcode is awful

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No. 84 : Dragon's Dogma : Dark Arisen (PS4)

 

Platinum Name : The True Arisen 

Hardest Trophy : Cheat Death - Defeated Death in Bitterblack Isle 

Difficulty : 5/10 - it's  a typical capcom game, expect to get lost and piledrived by the nature in the beginning

Personal impression - 9.4/10

 

Dragon's Dogma is one of the most unique RPGs out there. Developed by Capcom, director  being Hideaki Itsuno (the guy who created DMC3 , one of the best action games ever made), this game was promising from the get-go.

 

To best put  it, this is the offline version of Monster Hunter World. The main plot is quite simple : Your small village is attacked by a humongous dragon. Being the only crazy guy(or girl) to try and face it , the dragon steals your heart literally and flies off calling you the name of Arisen. Your task is to go and retrieve your heart, simple as that....if it was Skyrim. This game is not Skyrim and it won't  be an easy task.

 

The first thing that will strike you at this game ... most of the time you will be confused about what you  should do and how you should proceed. Although you have a pretty basic way of completing quests and the first location is pretty straightforward regarding mechanics, solutions are usually intricate and with several outcomes. I spent  This  game encourages exploration and a different way  of thinking, so obvious solutions might not be the best way  to go. It can be quite stressful, not going to lie here  

 

The main bread and butter in this game is the combat and class/levelling system. You start as one of the 3 main classes : Fighter, Strider(that's a rogue) or Mage and off you go! After reaching the capital, you can actually unlock and improve your skills (killing enemies  rewards you with exp and Vocation Exp - the more vocation levels you have, the more skills you can unlock).

To give an example : As a strider you have a special skill that allows you to shoot with 3 arrows. Levelling up your vocation and reaching the capital allows you to buy an upgrade that lets you fire with 5 arrows. Of course, in the capital you can unlock several vocations, either an upgrade to your class (mage upgrades to sorcerer, fighter to warrior and so on), OR you can pick a Hybrid class ( Mystick Archer - hybrid between strider and mage, Mystick Knight - hybrid between fighter and mage and so on). The best part about this game : Any vocation works with no issues as long as you have the proper items to deal enough damage. If you were an assassin the entire game and suddenly you want to become a mage, nobody can stop you. The game encourages variety!

 

Levelling system is abit more obtuse, since you don't  put points in your stats. Basically when you  level up you automatically get points in the stats attached to your class. For instance, if you are a fighter, levelling up will automatically improve your Strength, Stamina and Health. Mages benefit from major Magick Attack and Defense (you don't  have  a mana pool, all actions are draining from the stamina bar). Ironically, min-maxing in this game is discouraged. Of course, you can play as a sorcerer from level 10 to level 200, but while you will be a wrecking train of mass destruction, you might realise that you don't have enough stamina to cast your most powerful spells. So again, variety recommended.

 Although every class is viable, I can safely say that Magick Archer is absolutely busted as a class. It's an archer that shoots magic arrows and can multiply his magick damage and defence up to 4 times, INCLUDING his skills (homing arrows is a delight). It's incredibly broken and can trivialize the game even on the hardest difficulty.

 

In this adventure you are not alone! Every Arisen (that is you) benefits of a Pawn, basically a human devoid of emotions, a blank slate (ok he is a goddamn slave). You can set his/her characteristics, features, behavior and so on and even pick up his/her class. The pawn will always be besides you and annoy  you constantly.  You can also enlist 2 other pawns that will not level up and will be randomly generated (when the Online was up, you could pick other players' pawns. Now with the online dead, only the randomly generated ones are available). I like the pawn system, they are especially helpful as packing mules ,carrying my shit while I run around, but they can be very irritating when following orders, they tend to die like idiots and except the mages who can cure and heal, they are mostly useless. Also they chatter alot. This is why I prefer to throw my pawn in the sea (it's instant kill for them) and venture alone.

 

And now for the world : It is amazing. While monsters are vicious (good luck beating a chimera as a low level), it really feels rewarding to defeat the various enemies of the world. Every enemy can be either grabbed (human sized enemies, like Goblins ) or scaled (cyclops). Yes, you can climb an enemy and attack its weak points, provided it doesn't  grab you and tosses you around like a ragdoll. Every enemy has a weak spot  which must be exploited (kinda like Shadow of the Collossus). This is a fantastic mechanic that I don't see enough in other games.

A special kind of enemies are the dragons. They are by far the toughest enemies of the main game and you really need to bring out your a-game against them. They are very challenging, a terrifying enemy to your pawns (he can insta-kill them or even possess them) and can easily one shot you. Killing them however gives you a chance to permanently max out your equipment, which this is why you should definitely go for them as soon as possible.

 

Graphically the game is pretty impressive. The monsters look their part. The humans look abit zombified but nothing out of the ordinary. Weapons design are utterly badass though, especially the dragon ones and the spells.

Where the game excels is the soundtrack department. Whoever made the soundtrack is an utter genius, the songs fit so well into the game. However I believe the budget ran out when it came to voice acting, because...it's  quite awful not going to lie (THEY'RE MASTERWORKS ALL YOU CAN'T GO WRONG!!!!!!! got me insane). On PS3 version you had the option to switch to japanese but they removed that on PS4...for some reason.

 

Storywise I won't comment. It is VERY good. Any comment would be spoilery so go see for yourself. You have around 3 fake endings and a true ending and boy they are so awesome. Even side quests are absolutely amazing, mundane escort quests can raise your affinity with a character and get you rare items. Not going to expand here.

 

Dark Arisen content comes with a DLC, BitterBlack Isle. Unlike the main game, this is end game content and boy is it BRUTAL! All the monsters are vicious, you have a deadly specter of Death that can randomly appear and instakill you if you get hit, the final boss is one of the toughest bosses I ever faced in a videogame and the whole island is complete dread and horror. Also chests now can contain maneaters that can again kill you almost instantly unless you have a pawn to save you. This is by far one of the best DLC i ever had the pleasure of playing, with a great story and even better soundtrack.

 

In conclusion..a must play. If you love RPGs and challenges, do get this game! For me, it puts Skyrim to shame. THIS is how you do Dragons and Dragon fights, not...whatever the heck was that Bethesda crap.

Ah and also, for the Ox mission at the start, kick the Ox with . Took me 2 years to figure this out. Stupid Ox  It's even a meme in the community.

 

THE GOOD

- absolutely stunning world

- the best RPG customization out there

- beautiful soundtrack

- 10/10 gameplay, honestly it's Devil May Cry in Skyrim world

- monsters do not disappoint, they can be scaled

- DLC is a must play

- story is amazing

 

THE BAD

- companion AI is absolutely idiotic

- escort quests are horrible, see the point above

- voice acting and lines can get on your nerves

[Copanele]

No. 85  : Dragon's Dogma (PS3)

 

 

Platinum Name : The True Arisen 

Hardest Trophy : The Hero - Complete all pre-planned quests  - most of them are missable and it's a pain to keep track of them 

Difficulty : 4/10 - no DLC required makes it easier to complete

Personal impression - 9.5/10

 

Basically the original version of Dark Arisen from PS4. Still the same badass game, but PS3 has an extra feature - voices can be switched to Japanese. This makes the game sound so hilarious, I loved it.

Played as a sorcerer this time (after being an Assassin and Magick Archer). Conclusion : As long as you are a ranged fighter, this game is super fun. Playing as a Fighter or Warrior and you won'tbe able to reach half of the shit surrounding you.

Other than that...awesome game. Initial impressions are in the post above.

 

THE GOOD

- absolutely stunning world

- the best RPG customization out there

- beautiful soundtrack

- 10/10 gameplay, honestly it's Devil May Cry in Skyrim world

- monsters do not disappoint, they can be scaled

- DLC is a must play

- story is amazing

- option to switch to Japanese voice acting

 

THE BAD

- companion AI is absolutely idiotic

- escort quests are horrible, see the point above

- voice acting and lines can get on your nerves - you can switch to Japanese though, it gets less annoying

[Copanele]

 No. 86 : Brütal Legend

Platinum Name : Rock God 

Hardest Trophy : Metal God , all online trophies - allegedly the save file can crash if you get past 78%.

Difficulty : 4/10 with boosting for multiplayer

Personal Impression : 7.1/10 as a game, 9.6/10 as an experience.

 

Created from the weirdest corners of Tim Schafer's mind (God bless this man), Brutal Legend is a weird mash of a game where you combine Action, Driving, Real Time Strategy(?) and Metal. Lots and lots of Metal. Heavy Metal.

You control Eddie Riggs, a roadie who is sent back in time to the ages of Metal after he suffers an accident on-stage. After briefly recovering his beloved guitar Clementine and finding a very not-so-musical axe, Eddie gets involved in an adventure containing revolutions, driving, epic battles, DECAPITATIOOON and lots of good music.

 

The first thing that occured to me when I started the game was that ...it's nothing like I ever played. I do have some small pride of having played some really weird games, but this one is in a league of its own. From the intro of the game with Jack Black guiding you, the player, through a record store and accessing to the game modes involves actually flipping the Brutal Legend record, I knew I was in for a treat. The whole game is full on atmosphere and for the most part it really hits the mark really well. The whole world is pulled from a Heavy Metal fan's wettest dream: Trees have metallic spikes growing out, the landscape is covered with engines and rock instruments, even the animals have metallic parts (funniest animals were seagulls, in fact actual microphones with wings). The 4 areas of the game each have influences from their respective genre of music too, combined with specific animals and soundtracks.

 

Soundtrack...what can I say, it's the thing that makes this game legendary. A huge array of Rock and Heavy Metal tracks, carefully handpicked by professionals and connoisseurs (really, check Wikipedia, Tim Schafer and the sound director really went and researched their stuff in the most obscure record stores) so honestly this section is flawless. Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Brocas Helm (never heard of them before this game honestly), you have a song and an ambience for every situation. The only reason to not like the soundtrack in this game is if you really hate Rock as a musical genre.

 

The world of Brutal Legend is really well built in my opinion. The plot seems simple at first  : Eddie Riggs needs to create an army (and support the human resistance leader Lars, one fabulous man) in order to defeat Emperor Doviculus, a monster from the Tainted Coil faction who wants to enslave humanity of course. I was expecting some cheesy 2 bits story that is used as an excuse to mash more monsters and do more riffs, BUT! The story really surprised me in a very good way. From the many twists and turns, the interaction with Ophelia (the main support character and Eddie's love interest), the various historical collectibles that you have to find (which tell you the story of the land and can be unlocked only end-game), this game threw one twist after another. I have to admit, I did not see the ending coming  and I would also recommend playing the multiplayer last as you could get one mild spoiler for the story if you select the Drowning Doom faction. But yes, the story did not dissapoint.

The story is also helped by the caracters of this game. Apparently various rock stars were really eager to take part in this project, this is why the game is so atmospheric and developed such a cult following. While Jack Black is absolutely outstanding as Eddie Riggs' voice and Tim Curry does an exceptional job as Emperor Doviculus (like come on, it's Tim Curry, legendary man), the surprise came from none other than Ozzy Osbourne! He interprets a certain character in this game (whose name I won't share) and my god he is brilliant, he really cracked me up. The man is a treasure and really made me love this game more and more. Ozzy is simply the best. Another memorable character is Lemmy Kilmister, the Motorhead legend, but I wished he had a more prominent role in the story.

 

However not all is good in this game. The game is infamous for one reason : The gameplay. The gameplay is split into 3 main parts and can get really infuriating due to one reason.

The action part is straightforward and it's the funniest section of the game. Eddie has his upgradable axe and his guitar who can shoot lightning. He also has special abilities where ,by playing a QTE sequence, he can do various "spells", riffs, that either buffs his allies or attacks his enemies. My favourite is facemelter who actually 'Melts the faces" of every grunt around you. Pretty basic but neat, wished they stuck with it.

The driving part is super fun also . Eddie has his own customizable hot rod , The Deuce or Druid Plower, which helps him traverse the land as fast as possible. It's the perfect vehicle to just drive and listen to the unlockable soundtracks around the world. The controls are abit iffy (especially when you use the nitro) but so far I had no issues and actually enjoyed driving the car.

However the game for some godforsaken reason contains a RTS part. Exactly, this game has a strategy component. The main battles or "Stage battles" actually force you to summon various grunts and stuff in order to destroy the enemy base. While the concept itself is super interesting(each minion has its own personality and even equipment, the mines are actually fan geisers, you have to build merchandise booths for them in order to convince them to join you), in practice the whole strategy is a slog. Every time the best solution is to just spam a fuckton of disposable grunts and throw them at your enemy. Controls in the game regarding this part are straight up counterintuitive and it's the part that drives most people away. You never even expect that this game would have a RTS component. It is sad that this mode is forcefully added in this game, it really drove many players away. The game would have been way  more succesful without this shitty RTS part.

 

Multiplayer is again a deserted mess. It consists only in stage battles , you can pick one of the 3 factions (Ironheade, Tainted Coil and Drowned Doom) and duke it out with...the AI. Because nobody ever plays this game online. Why would they?Strategy in this game sucks ass.

 

Trophy wise, this game can be a headache. There is a reason why this game is an Ultra Rare. For starters, the DLC Hammer of Infinite Fate can only be obtainable from an US account (not available in Europe). Second, the multiplayer is completely deserted. Without boosting, there's absolutely no way to get those trophies legit. A special trophy, Six Degrees of Schafer, requires you to play with or against a guy who already has that trophy. So...without a public announcement,those trophies are really difficult to come by.

And then there's the 100% completion ... Metal God. Apparently the save file can crash if you get past 78% completion. I personally did not encounter this issue and I know what might cause this problem : DO NOT QUIT THE APP FROM THE PS!. The proper way is : Save and Quit from the game's menu, wait for the game to save (shown by the Ormagoden icon in the upper left corner) and only after that you can close the app. The game still saves the entire progress and quitting midway can bust your save file. But yes, while the trophies themselves aren't too hard, finding people to do them with can prove a bigger challenge.

 

But all of this being said, Brutal Legend is more than a simple game with poor RTS component. It's an entire experience, a tribute to Heavy Metal and a complete funfest. I am glad that I worked through this game and its challenges and it will be forever be one of the best weird games I ever had the pleasure to get.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- it's Heavy Metal baby

- good thematic world

- surprisingly good story

- riffing enemies with the guitar never gets old

- Ophelia during the second part of the game :>

- Ozzy Osbourne is stellar in this game

- Jack Black performance

- best collectibles in a video game ever

 

THE BAD:

 

- horrible RTS component that will forever stain this game

- multiplayer is deserted and unnecessary

- AI can be quite dumb at some times

Edited April 2, 2020 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No. 87 : One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 (PS3)

 

Platinum Name : Rise to the top!

Hardest Trophy : Unbelievable power..! - stun the enemy 1000 times - only boss type enemies can be stunned, you have no way of tracking the number of stuns, this trophy was the grindiest.

Difficulty : 4/10 - not difficult, just grindy as hell

Personal Impression : 6.6/10

 

It is very hard to share a fair impression about this game, since Musous are really not my jam. But anyway, One Piece PW2 follows the adventure of merry anime pirate Luffy and his crew. The story in this game is not following the canon story, instead it branches out by inserting mind control devices. Yeah...the story ain't so bright but honestly in all these type of games the story is just an excuse to kick 100000 enemies at once.

 

Honestly, the game doesn't look bad. All the characters look the part (especially Nami and Robin for...various reasons :> ), the voice acting is on point, can't complain much. I mean, I've seen lots of games looking worse than this. The soundtrack gets tiresome fast  however, I just ended up muting it so I won't hear the electric guitar riffs that were out of place. The screen can get clustered by all the attacks but surprisingly the game did not stutter even once! This one surprised me, because you end up at some point surrounded by 500 grunts and 3 enemy bosses and sparks fly everywhere. 

 

The best part of this game is the gameplay. Despite being a boring slog, all the heroes have unique attacks faithful to the manga/anime. You get all the heroes until the timeskip (+ Jinbe and Law), but no Fishman Island heroes or Punk Hazard heroes like Vergo  Monet and so on. Still, that's an impressive roster. My favorite were Aokiji/Kuzan the iceman and Enel the lightning god. They were by far the strongest and the most fun to play with.

 

Thus being said...I did not enjoy this game. The platinum roadmap was atrocious (that's why trophy hunting ultimately sucks if you take it too seriously), game got boring after 30 minutes and it was unnecessarily inflated. It had a convoluted and pointless coin system(kinda like powerup cards), the story was really shallow and...I don't know, this is purely subjective, but Musou games are super boring to me. I'd rather play a bad game than a boring one.

Sadly I have Pirate Warriors 3 on my list too...so the fun ain't over yet.

 

This might be my laziest review up to date  

 

THE GOOD:

 

- Nice graphics.

- Interesting gameplay

- Really well optimized

 

THE BAD:

 

- boring as hell

- soundtrack can get on your nerves

- some heroes are very weak

- the platinum grind is horrible.

[Copanele]

 No. 88 : Alice Madness Returns

+100% American McGee's Alice

 

Platinum Name : Platinum For All Other Trophies 

Hardest Trophy : That's Using Your Head - Complete Off with her head part 2 in under 6 minutes 

Difficulty : 2/10

Personal Impression : American McGee's Alice(AMA) - 8.2/10

                                    Alice  Madness Returns(AMR) - 8.8/10

 

Here is another game from my childhood that I really love and hold dear, now with a shiny platinum on PS3. American McGee's Alice and Alice Madness Returns are the imagined continuation of "Alice in Wonderland" with a twist : the main protagonist Alice is the only survivor of a fire that killed her family and burned her house. Wrecked with survivor's guilt , she goes insane. Because of that, Wonderland gets heavily twisted and corrupted in a grotesque way. Alice must traverse Wonderland and battle the Queen of Hearts in order to save this world and her own psyche.

 

The PS3 version comes with both games, the first one AMA being set as DLC. Although this game aged really poorly in terms of gameplay (it's a 2000 PC port, what do you expect), it's still as atmospheric as I remember. Wonderland is still horrific in an unique way (reminds me of Clive Barker's Undying game), each section from the book is also present in the game but twisted and monstruous. Alice herself is quite messed up, using a variety of deadly weapons like her trusty Vorpal blade, a deck of cards that act as a machine gun, an exploding Jack in the box, an ice wand and so on. The bosses although not really that difficult are really unique and they really die in the most grotesque of ways.

 

The sequel AMR has a troubled Alice trying to get treatment from the local psychiatrist Dr Bumby. While she struggles to forget all the horrible memories, a new foreign power threatens Wonderland, an infernal train that oozes corruption and tries to assimilate the world. Again, Alice must figure out what is going on and why her psyche and Wonderland is corrupted.

 

My advice for the full experience would be this : Reading "Alice in Wonderland" -> Reading "Through the Looking Glass" -> Play American McGee's Alice -> Play Alice Madness Returns.

I absolutely love how American McGee took the famous children's book Alice in Wonderland and twisted it in such a way. The game is not a traditional horror with jumpscares and such, but more like a psychological horror. There is some really disturbing shit going on, especially in AMR when you find out what causes the corruption in Alice.

 

Both games are graphically impressive given their time. For a 2000 game, AMA looks stunning, but pales in comparison with AMR. Whoever designed those levels and Alice's costumes really deserves a raise. The game is utterly BEAUTIFUL and creepy at the same time , from the steampunk setting of Hatter's Domain, to the oriental themed Caterpillar's mountain and the absolutely disturbing dollhouses, I don't think anyone would have a complaint there. Same mention goes into the sound department, although I believe the first game nailed the ambience way better. There's just some creepy feeling to those 2000 games.

 

In gameplay department however the games are different. AMA is super old and the controls just don't work well on PS3. Aiming is atrocious, the camera decides to Seppuku randomly and the platforming sections are nauseating. Fortunately you can save at any point in time so the game is not impossible, but it will be a pain for sure.

AMR however functions impeccable. The combat is tight, platforming is innovative and functional, I rarely saw bugs or glitches (apart from the final level), it's a vastly superior experience to AMA. Even the collectibles, although annoying, they unravel the story and what actually happened to Alice.

 

Won't say anything about the story because spoiling it would be a shame. I thoroughly recommend these games, they are one of PS3's finest.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- amazing story with a twist

- grotesque settings

- AMR is visually stunning

- 2 games at the price of one

 

THE BAD:

 

- AMA controls are horrendous

- the final levels in both games drag on too much.

- AMR has a severe lack of bosses unlike the first game.

 

 

 

 

 

[Copanele]

 No. 89 : Cat Quest II

 

Platinum Name : Pawlatinum 

Hardest Trophy : Fashionista Tails III - collect 101 pieces of equipment 

Difficulty : 1.5/10

Personal Impressions : 9/10

 

Cat Quest II is yet another super cute game in the same spirit as the original game Cat Quest. Here you can control either the cat or the dog on an izometric RPG adventure.

I really don't have much to say about this game that is not obvious already. Quests are super fun, the plot is surprisingly  interesting, you have some smart 4th wall breaks and of course everything is adorable in this world. You even have a teaser for Cat Quest III which I will most likely buy as well

Honestly it's a game to play for fun by yourself or with a friend/SO in a relaxing environment. Just pick your favorite animal and go and be a hero!

Trophy  wise game is easy to platinum, but it also asks you to 100% it so it's a nice touch. There is a point of no return, in which case it's  recommended to check online for info.

I am glad to have played this!

 

THE GOOD

- adorable cats and dogs!

- cute graphics with great music

- the addition of dogs doubled the fun

- hope you like 4th wall breaks

 

THE BAD

- there's  nothing bad about this game, honestly

- waiting for Cat Quest III

[Litha]

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

Just pick your favorite animal and go and be a hero!

Guess I'll wait for the Tortoise DLC. It can be a kind of hard mode. You move like a beached whale and if you get swarmed you can retreat into your shell until either your enemies get bored and bugger off or kick you about like a football. Shit I'm a genius! I should design games!

[Copanele]

5 hours ago, SpaghettiGrabsy said:

Guess I'll wait for the Tortoise DLC. It can be a kind of hard mode. You move like a beached whale and if you get swarmed you can retreat into your shell until either your enemies get bored and bugger off or kick you about like a football. Shit I'm a genius! I should design games!

That would get nerfed in a patch, you would be too OP even for that game

[Copanele]

 No. 90 : Fist of the North Star : Lost Paradise

 

Platinum Name : True Successor of Hokuto Shinken 

Hardest Trophy : Surgical Precision - Perform a perfect combo in Ken's Clinic for all Songs 

Difficulty : 6/10 - the grind and Surgical Precision can become quite painful to complete

Personal impression : 8.6/10

 

Kenshiro is one of my favorite protagonists from manga in general (alongside Guts from Berserk and Joseph Joestar from JoJo). It usually follows the '80s trope of "Manly men doing manly deeds while shedding manly  tears". For  those who don't know, Fist of the North Star is set in a post-apocaliptic world where the main protagonist Kenshiro is a martial artist. He is the successor of Hokuto Shinken, an assassination technique that involves hitting pressure points in the body, basically making it go boom (you've seen the memes). He travels the wastelands helping those in need and fighting various gangs and other martial artists. A great manga of the past, maybe abit corny by today's standards but still good nonetheless.

 

This game diverges from the regular canon and tells an alternate story : While searching for his fiancee Yuria, Kenshiro stumbles across a city called Eden, fully supplied and with electricity, in a word an oasis in the middle of the wasteland. Here Kenshiro gets in touch with the main characters, both friends and villains from the manga while battling a complete new cast of its own.

 

Truthfully, Lost  Paradise is created in the "Yakuza " games style : over the top story with over the top situations. Never have touched a Yakuza game in my life, I went in this game fully blind and...man I was blown away. JESUS THIS GAME IS NUTS!I mean, I expected Fist of the North Star to be over the top action but NOT AT THIS LEVEL.

Action-wise, it's  what you'd expect : Kenshiro pokes people to death. You have lots of combos (that can be improved by a huge skill tree). Each enemy has a stun bar, if it fills you can put them in Meridian Shock (pressing circle) then you start a short QTE where you execute the enemy as gruesome as possible. There are lots of executions and they are all straight out from the manga. It's both gory and fun at the same time to blow up the ugliest bandits the world has ever seen. Bosses are more gimmicky and require multiple QTEs but apart from some tricky ones (Looking at you Souther) they are pretty manageable, even on EXTRA HARD.

 

HOWEVER surprisingly enough, the meat of the game is the absurd amount of side-stuff that you have to do! I'd say that 15% is fighting other losers, 25% is walking from point A to point B and talking with people and the rest of 60% (maths,don't fail me now!) is SIDE QUESTS AND SIDE ACTIVITIES. Just like in a Yakuza game, Kenshiro takes part in various activities,one more ridiculous than the other. From the regular Colosseum battles, to shopping, bartending (the shake minigame is so damn funny), Casino, Managing a hostess club?.....playing Baseball where the bat is a huge metal section and the balls are the bandits, Dr Ken where you have to poke the disease out of patients and the life out of bandits on a rhythm minigame with remixed opera songs....what the hell did I just play? The game is so mind numbingly ridiculous and fun at the same time, I often forgot what the purpose of the game was while hitting one more card at Blackjack  

 

The wasteland can also be explored in a customizable buggy, Mad Max style. You find various  materials that are used in improving your buggy and Talismans (I'll get to that later) , you encounter both settlements with side quests and resources to sell but also bandits roaming the area. There is also a racing minigame but the buggy controls are so iffy, it's by far the worst minigame out there.

 

What got me in the game first and foremost was the soundtrack. It's  the manliest, adrenaline pumping soundtrack I have heard in a long time. My favorite by far is the Souther fight soundtrack, it feels like a remix from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2, namely Pillar Men Theme. The battle  itself is so over-the-top, no wonder I bought the game instantly after hearing it. Somehow the theme and songs fit perfectly in this game, even though some boss battles do repeat themselves.

 

Ironically, the only true "fault" this game has is going for the platinum. There's a reason this game is an Ultra  Rare on this site : The platinum is super grindy, involves a ton of side-quests,completing all the minigames with an S score and upgrading all the talismans to level 7. Talismans are special gadgets that give you a huge boost in a specific area for a short amount of time, upgrading them pretty much requires completing everything the game has to offer AND grind some more.

However the worst minigame for me was Dr Ken. In that minigame you have to press a sequence of buttons in a rhythm manner. You have 8 songs, each getting more and more complex. The problem with this minigame is that you have to do a full combo (not missing ANY key) perfectly for all the songs. The first 5 were pretty decent but the last 3 utterly broke me, making me take a 1 year break from this game. Only after improving myself with games like Street Fighter 5 (weird I know)  I found the courage to get back and finally do the minigame. It's not a horrible minigame, but I am utterly ass at rhythm games. So yes, going for the platinum could severely cut the enjoyment from this game.

Also the playthrough on EXTRA HARD is pretty easy ONLY if you go in at level 99. Otherwise the final 2 levels of the game can be an utter pain to complete. So extensive research beforehand is required for this game.

Other than that, a great game that I enjoyed. It convinced me to look into Yakuza series and maybe even start Yakuza 0 this year. Gotta learn that damn Mahjong.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- jam-packed action game full of gruesome but beautiful combos

- awesome music

- ridiculous minigames but in the good way

- side quests can be quite interesting

- "Go back to Kamurocho" mission really tested my skills (no spoilers there)

 

THE BAD:

 

- plot is forgettable

- some minigames can get absurdly difficult

- Dr Ken drove me insane

- Buggy controls are horrible in racing minigames

- some cutscenes are way too long and uninteresting

- platinuming this game can really burn you out - definitely not a fun experience

 

[Copanele]

 No. 91 : Lords of the Fallen

+100%DLC

 

Platinum Name : Lords and Judges 

Hardest Trophy : Respect for the dead  - plundered all 4 resting places in the DLC. Dlc is horrible and you basically have to 100% complete it here.

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal Impression : 5/10

 

You are Harkyn. A former convict murder machine with his horrendous past and sins written all over his face. Due to your heroesque prowess and murder machine face you have been enrolled by a magic monk to deal with the atrocities that plague the land :THE RHOGARS. Mindless brutes that have only one goal  - the destruction of human race. Only YOU. HARKYN. CAN STOP THE LORDS!

*end epic intro scene*

 

Ok so ... Lords of the Fallen. Due to the success that Dark Souls had, many clones appeared and apparently this game is one of them. While of course it "borrows" many parts from Dark Souls, what most people didn't see is that Lords of the Fallen borrows everything from everywhere. Or tries to.

Combat + stamina management + lots of bosses (none of these work?) - got it from Dark Souls

Naming  style(Harkyn, Adyr, Antanas, Yefka) + Magic system - Warcraft 3 (bet you didn't see that coming)

Armor styles and demonic spikes - Daedra armor from Skyrim.

 

Honestly I couldn't really find any original stuff that I haven't seen in another game. Even the soundtrack sounds terribly similar to Spellforce in some parts. But anyway let's see what does this game have to offer and what was my magical experience with it:

 

Basically you start as your protagonist Harkyn, the man on the cover, a face that could melt boulders, with the task of vanquishing the evil, whatever that would be. At the start you have to choose between 3 classes :Rogue, Warrior and Cleric. Apart from the magic that the classes offer, the classes themselves are irrelevant since the game can be optimally played in one way : Mega buffed tank. Any other playstyle spells complete defeat because hitboxes are a complete mess.

The game tries too much to be edgy and that's seen best in its graphics and environment. It is so harsh and spiky and full of death and monster-like it's actually annoying at some point. It's like they tried to one-up Dark Souls but actually forgot to make the world compelling and have sense. Which is sad, because the game had some potential had it tried to be somewhat original. Even if I went with 3 playthroughs, other than the word " Keystone" i can't remember for the life of me how the areas are called. Oh yeah and the catacombs because...you are in a catacomb. Wowsies.

 

The game is riddled with bugs. The most obvious one is the sound which has the bad habit of constantly disappearing. Talking with an NPC? Nah the voice acting suddenly stops dead in its tracks. Not to mention the regular gameplay bugs with being stuck into walls, mid-air stucking, teleporting through walls, random deaths, list goes on.

Speaking of gameplay...it's Dark Souls gameplay, if you slow it down to half. Every enemy moves like a truck and hits like two, including yourself, so mainly the game can be resumed to "whoever pokes the sloth first". I tried at first to play as a rogue just to see that I get piledrived by random hitboxes. I resigned, just added up armor over armor and blocked every attack with my face. Worked like a charm! Load up the biggest weapon that's not a greathammer and HACK AWAY!

No really, that's all you need to do. Have the biggest defense points and the biggest weapon you can wear and just blast them off. Against magic users, get the DLC armor (I will get to it soon) and again, hack away.

You also have a magic system given by the 3 classes : Rogue, Warrior and Cleric. After testing them all due to the 3 playthroughs, I can safely say that only Rogue has the useful OP magic and the rest is pretty much useless. You can breeze through the game with only the clone ( a copy of yourself that aggros enemies and glitches the final boss), stab (send a clone to stab an enemy for huge amounts of damage) and Invisibility (self-explanatory). The rest of the skills are...pretty much can be ignored, they don't offer real advantages.

Your third gimmick tool is a magical gauntlet that shoots 3 types of projectiles : Close ranged, long ranged and AoE. At the beginning I found it to be quite useless, but after you unlock the Blacksmith (he just shoves runes that you find into your weapons, he's not very useful otherwise) that weapon becomes really powerful vs bosses. Especially with the magic rune, you just lob turrets that auto shoot anything in proximity.

 

Ok but this is the Dark Souls clone! HOW ARE THE BOSSES? Well the bosses are utterly SHIT. They have names like First Warden, Champion, Judge, Infiltrator and so on. Like...couldn't you find BETTER NAMES? They are just...titles. Apart from the first boss who was somewhat interesting and the DLC boss, most of them are utterly pathetic and can't dish out a challenge to save their lives. They are just regular grunts with bigger health bars. I initially wanted to do a Boss Ranking list but...Keeper is a 6/10 , First Warden is a 5/10 (good tutorial boss), rest of the bosses are 1/10, final boss Judge is a 0./10 fuck that boss I can glitch it. No use to do a pointless list here.

 

HOWEVER there's a thing about this game : it amused me to no end and I actually enjoyed it half of the game time. I loved seeing how it will break next time. I loved getting more and more ridiculous (i still am not sure what's the plot of this game) and how Harkyn grunts more and more like he would be constipated (I believe he even changes the voice actor in one scene?). The game is such a comedic mess I couldn't help but laugh and carry on. Wasn't as fun at the second and third playthrough but well I just speedran anyway. Also I loved exploring the boring places and find more and more useless items. It was a weird game alright. At some point I was straight up beta testing it, trying to find new ways to break the game and make it cry for help.

 

This game also has a DLC, no idea what's the name. It's an atrocity fuckfest labyrinth style where you shift circular corridors and gather loot. It's full of OP skeletons that just 2 shot you for some reason and it's just NOT FUN. The final boss the Keeper however is the best boss of the entire game just because it's unlike any boss I've seen so far. Props to it (btw if you didn't find 3 /4 pieces of DLC armor you are going to be demolished. The boss shoots magic like there's no tomorrow.

 

So...there you have it. A mess of a game. Wouldn't recommend it, but I don't regret playing it either. Somehow I don't want to play The Surge after this though ,I don't trust these developers anymore  

 

THE GOOD:

 

- OP Rogue Magic

- The CLANG sound effect from axes is satisfying

- It's so bad it's funny

 

THE BAD:

 

- a crapload of bugs

- nothing original

- gameplay with arthritis

- DLC is a shitty mess

- where is the voice acting 3/4 of the time?

- still struggling to remember details about the game

 

[Arcesius]

Man, reading your status updates and this review on the game has been top-tier entertainment in the last couple of days ? Great and fun review! I had forgotten how bad the game is from a technical perspective, but I now could remember some of the glitches happening to me as well... Glad to see that you are on the same camp regarding the DLC.. what a boring pile of Dung... 

 

Now, they sure learned their lesson with this one, and while not the best soulslike-game out there, The Surge sure is a huuuuuuuge improvement over LotF... And I hear that the sequel is actually a pretty good game, too, though I haven't played it yet. 

But they still suck at adding DLC. The regular DLC is actually pretty good in The Surge. But it seems that they needed more money while developing The Surge 2, so they quickly scrapped together a shitty DLC and released "The Augmented Version" of the game. Mind you, that was after "The Complete Edition" was already out! This second DLC was for sure a spontaneous choice, and oh boy is it bad. 

 

In any case, a running-attack with a lance is still OP as fuck in The Surge, and since damage output from the enemies is still through the roof, that was my best bet ?

 

 

 

 

[Copanele]

4 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Man, reading your status updates and this review on the game has been top-tier entertainment in the last couple of days  Great and fun review! I had forgotten how bad the game is from a technical perspective, but I now could remember some of the glitches happening to me as well... Glad to see that you are on the same camp regarding the DLC.. what a boring pile of Dung... 

 

Now, they sure learned their lesson with this one, and while not the best soulslike-game out there, The Surge sure is a huuuuuuuge improvement over LotF... And I hear that the sequel is actually a pretty good game, too, though I haven't played it yet. 

But they still suck at adding DLC. The regular DLC is actually pretty good in The Surge. But it seems that they needed more money while developing The Surge 2, so they quickly scrapped together a shitty DLC and released "The Augmented Version" of the game. Mind you, that was after "The Complete Edition" was already out! This second DLC was for sure a spontaneous choice, and oh boy is it bad. 

 

In any case, a running-attack with a lance is still OP as fuck in The Surge, and since damage output from the enemies is still through the roof, that was my best bet 

 

 

 

 

Yeah this game has been a weird kind of trip from start to finish

So you recommend The Surge? After this mad game I am abit wary regarding whatever these guys develop in terms of souls. But if you say  that The Surge is way better (and well...I own the game anyway) I might be tempted to give it a go, why not. 

 

ALSO YOU MENTION RUNNING ATTACK! The hardest boss in Lords of the Fallen was by far the guard captain before The Judge fight. That asshole killed me SO MANY TIMES with his bunnyhopping running Greatsword attack (although truth be told I was a powerhouse of destruction myself after doing running R2 attacks...when I COULD sprint)

[Copanele]

Ok, since I am terribly bored in this beautiful Friday afternoon, I will do a re-check of my backlog to see what else is there to complete (not going to add games that I intend to play, just the games that I started a while ago and never finished). 

So far I have to do : 12 PS3 games,  23 PS4 games and 2 Guides to complete ( DmC Devil May Cry for PS4 and Jotun Valhalla Edition). List is down here for whoever wants to check

 

 

BACKLOG - PS3

  

Spoiler

 

1.   Bioshock Infinte (all DLC purchased)

2.   Middle-Earth : Shadow of Mordor

3.   Duke Nukem Forever (all DLC purchased)

4.   Mirror's Edge (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target, all DLC purchased)

5.   Batman Arkham Asylum

6.   Blur (MP Completed, Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

7.   Batman: Arkham City (all DLC purchased)

8.   Catherine (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

9. Mini Ninjas

10. Mortal Kombat 9 (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

11. Batman: Arkham Origins (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target, MP completed, all DLC purchased)

12. DarkStalkers 3 Resurrection (MP Completed)

 

 

BACKLOG - PS4

 

Spoiler

 

1.  Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

2.  Overwatch (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target, MP required)

3.  Far Cry Primal

4.  Crash Bandicoot

5.  Trine : Enchanted Edition

6.  Shadow of the Colossus

7.  One Piece Pirate Warriors 3

8.  Death's Gambit (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

9.Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm

10.Assassin's Creed Oddysey

11.Titan Quest

12.Slain:Back From Hell(Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

13.Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

14.Samurai Shodown VI

15.Mount & Blade : Warband (100th Platinum, Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target,MP Completed)

16.Injustice : Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target,MP Completed)

17.Yu-Gi-Oh!Legacy of the Duelist(MP Completed)

18.Broforce(Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

19.Street Fighter V (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target,MP Completed)

21.Skullgirls 2nd Encore (Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target)

22.Super Street Fighter IV(Ultra Rare Cleanup 2020 target, MP Completed)

23.The Last of Us Remastered(MP Completed)

 

 

Now all these games go into my own defined categories :

 

1. Chill games that I can complete relatively easy: 

• PS3 - Mini Ninjas , Batman Arkham Asylum
• PS4 - Trine Enchanted Edition , Berserk and Band of the Hawk, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Yu Gi Oh Legacy of the Duelist, BroForce

These games I would have no problems completing. I am currently working on Mini Ninjas, I already played Batman and Trine before on other platforms and the other games are just decent enough. I just need the mood for them.

 

2. Games that require a big amount of time to complete : 

• PS3 - Bioshock Infinite, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, Blur, Batman Arkham City, Batman Arkham Origins
• PS4 - Far Cry Primal, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Titan Quest, Diablo III Reaper of Souls,  Mount & Blade Warband, Street Fighter V, Death's Gambit

These games aren't particularly difficult either, it's just that they are massive with absurd requirements. Special mention to Street Fighter V , it was an almost impossible game before but now I only have to grind for those stupid Fight Money which will take a long time. Also Batman Arkham Origins was impossible until I completed the MP (I still wish to forget that experience).

 

3. Games that I don't feel like completing any time soon:

• PS3 - Duke Nukem Forever, Braid
• PS4 - Samurai Shodown VI, Shadow of the Colossus, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, The Last of Us Remastered

Now this is a weird list, because these are games that I really don't feel like investing time anymore into them. Here are the reasons : 

Duke Nukem Forever - trash tasteless game that I truly dislike.

Braid - one single stupid trophy , speedrunning,it ain't that bad but it simply pisses me off from some point with its dumb puzzles.

Samurai Shodown VI - crap game, the only truly bad SamSho game.

One Piece PW3 - takes a fuckton of time and it's boring as sin, hated PW2 and this one is twice as long. 

Shadow of the Colossus - i know it's a nostalgia game, I utterly hate the controls!Don't blame me for that.

Last of Us might be a surprise but (and don't throw rocks at me please) I REALLY DIDN'T FEEL MUCH EXCITEMENT TOWARDS THIS GAME! Sure it was nice but it never caught me and the Grounded + run just...bores me to NO END! That's all I have to do : Complete Grounded+ mode and do all upgrades and I am done. But somehow I don't feel like playing this game anymore

Opinion totally unrelated to the TLoU 2 fiasco that is happening now, I will not get involved into that. Moving on!

 

4. Games that will utterly kick my ass no doubt about it:

• PS3 - Mirror's Edge, Catherine, Mortal Kombat 9 , DarkStalkers 3 Resurrection
• PS4 - Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Slain Back from Hell, Injustice Gods Among Us, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Super Street Fighter IV

Of course, the best is left for last. I am not entirely sure I can even complete these games since they are way out of my league or they are out of my comfort zone (like Crash Bandicoot, I am abysmal when it comes to platformers), BUT I will try to platinum them, that's for sure. Crowning jewel is SF4 of course, the only truly 10/10 game from my list in terms of difficulty. Shouldn't enter into details why is that, most people heard legends about the atrocious trials.

 

Well that's it, hope I didn't miss any from my list. Again, this is a post to remind myself what I have left in my list and what would be my target onwards. But as usual, for whoever wishes, I am always up for discussion regarding games and tips and tricks towards their completion  

[Litha]

I don't envy you playing Shadow of Mordor on PS3. I've heard from a couple of close friends that it's prone to becoming borderline unplayable with lag after a few hours. Hey, at least you don't have to deal with the dlc.

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, SpaghettiGrabsy said:

I don't envy you playing Shadow of Mordor on PS3. I've heard from a couple of close friends that it's prone to becoming borderline unplayable with lag after a few hours. Hey, at least you don't have to deal with the dlc.

Yeah, the reason I dropped the game first time was because the lag was simply annoying at some point. Not sure how I am going to deal with that, but eh I've played worse games on PS3 (Skyrim almost blew up my console)

[Grotz99]

6 hours ago, Copanele said:

Of course, the best is left for last. I am not entirely sure I can even complete these games since they are way out of my league or they are out of my comfort zone (like Crash Bandicoot, I am abysmal when it comes to platformers), BUT I will try to platinum them, that's for sure. Crowning jewel is SF4 of course, the only truly 10/10 game from my list in terms of difficulty. Shouldn't enter into details why is that, most people heard legends about the atrocious trials.

Oh man SFIV trials are brutal. I made the mistake back in the beginning of my account's time to borrow and play a little against my roommate, who owned the game, on my ps3 then ended up buying Super Street Fighter IV. I have both games on my list, which will never get completed, and its what I'll have to live with. This was before i was worried about earning all trophies as that came more recently. Luckily I have so many other trophies to earn on my account, I stopped worrying about the Street Fighter games, but they were great fighting games for back then, very technical.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Grotz99